Tweaking the Approach

FuboTV dot com slash Calves. We are coming to you guys live the eve of the NBA Finals between the Indiana Pacers and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Joining me today to discuss the playoffs, discuss Calves changes and all that good stuff is my co host, Carter Rodriguez.

of pivots to my day and the mustache remains. It'll be gone by tomorrow.

like the Cavs assistant coaches are in demand. That's a great sign. I think if you look at the last few years the Cavs front office, you know, a lums have been running quite a few teams around the NBA. He has been running some successful teams around the NBA and now you're seeing that a little bit on the coaching staff. You'll be interesting to see with that vacancy in New York if Johnny Bryant's name ends up getting into that mix as well.

But like, it doesn't not angst me out that the Cavs two top assistants might be on another team, you know, going to the next season.

on a coaching staff. But what we do know is that Kenny Atkinson has been big when he talked in the media. He's been big on collaboration, whether it's with his assistant coaches, whether it's with the players. And it's going to be interesting to see what type of a new voice the Cavs bring in. What you know, what what's their track record, what types of locker rooms have they been involved in. I think, particularly in this situation where I don't expect massive change ups to the core

and the identity of what this roster is. I think a fresh set of eyes and a new perspective might be interesting. Now, interesting doesn't guarantee it's going to be a positive change. Interesting, like you're you're still building off the foundation that you laid next year. So it's not something that's dramatically concerning. We're not changing up, you know, the head coach. We have our coach of the year.

But I do think you know, what types of new ways of looking at things and what other perspectives are being brought into the locker room is definitely going to be one of those things that we talk about when these vacancy this vacancy is filled.

the current staff. It's always interesting when you have one of those like in house promotions where a guy goes from the back bench to the front bench and all of a sudden has that is empowered to have that voice, you know, just like players, coaches have to play their roles, you know, like and even in a you know, an open minded environment that Kenny seems to have fostered where

seems like ideas can come from anywhere. But like at the end of the day, like you know, you can't have you know, fifteen coaches opening on every rotation or every schematic decision, like you do need like a chain o command at the end of the day. So you you just you know, you lean on your culture to maintain the quality bar, and you also have to trust

in your ability to identify coaching talent. Like, yeah, when you lose a guy like ot who's clearly respected around the league, no greater endorsement of a coach than one of a bunch of players are sharing like hey, good luck, well wishes UH to to to an assistant clearly a good guy that uh that had the faith of the team. So here's hoping that whoever they do replace him with and uh is uh is an additive and you know, brings that fresh perspective.

a healthy mix from the media. Some are being like, you know what, let's just talk about basketball. These teams are awesome, Let's stop all this ratings nonsense. And then I've also seen a lot of national media members that are just flat out lazy, and it feels like they are justifying their laziness by saying, well, you know, like I don't know any of the names on these teams, but these players, but they came out of nowhere. No, if you're paying attention, there's some really damn good names.

There's a lot of really good players, and I'm excited to see what the series is. I personally believe that, you know, the Oklahoma City Thunder are going to win this pretty comfortably. I think that they are the best team this season. I think they are cut above. But we've seen the Indiana Pacers, you know, surprise teams. They surprised the hell out of us, and their ability to steal games and to maintain their identity against a historically good defense is going to be fascinating to watch.

and you know it never turns the ball over. The Indiana Pacers, you know, who plays really really good pressure defense that can get okay See out of their rhythm on night, especially on nice shade, doesn't have it going the Indiana Pacers. So I feel like it's one of those things where the matchup is really you know, I'm not sure the Pacers could ask for better answers to the things that Okay See is good at. But the talent I just don't think is there for them to

make this a long series. But I don't know, maybe there are Okay see as a way of making you on the on the on. When they're at their best, you know, they feel like one of these generationally great teams, but they are prone to some stinkers in some weird games. So I don't I don't know. I don't know quite what to make of it, but I do think I

do think this is the Thunder series to lose. And frankly, if if you're the rest of the league, that's probably a good thing because if they lose, they'll probably just go trade for like Yannis or something, or Yannis and Katie or something.

You have to get lucky to win a championship, but they're going to be learning from this experience, and you know, one of the things I think about with the Pacers. You guys might not agree with me in terms of how that series would go if we were healthy. I still believe with the current state of where we were at, we could have won that series with the injuries. But the other thing to kind of remember with that is you learn from these types of experiences and you get better.

The Cavs, I firmly believe they would have won in twenty fifteen if they were healthy. That Golden State Warriors team the next year, they didn't make any dramatic changes to their roster, but all of those guys took a step forward because of the experience that they had. And once again, maybe me not in a popular opinion, but I think if both teams were fully healthy both of those years, they flip with years they won the titles. I think the Cavs win in fifteen and the Warriors

would have won in sixteen. It's what makes that title so much fun, and you have to play who's ahead of you. But just because I believe that about how this Caz Pacers matchup would have gone this year, doesn't mean that the Indiana Pacers can't take a step forward. They have a lot of young talent. That's a team

that's well coached, well built, they have depth. Sure there's some questions about free agency with Miles Turner and other things there, but that doesn't mean that just because I feel that way about this year doesn't mean that they

can't take a step forward next year. And from a Calves standpoint, you got to constantly be workshopping what you can learn from this playoffs and how you can take those steps forward, whether it be from a rotation standpoint, whether it be in terms of how you approach the game. And I think they should be watching these finals. I'm sure they're watching these finals and these playoffs with a keen eye seeing what you can steal from Indy, what you can steal from Okay, see what you can steal

from Minnesota, from New York. Every single data point is valuable when it comes to the playoffs.

regained his form, they improved as a team. I think there's a lot of things that you can steal from them. And you speaking of stealing from them, did you happen to see Chris Finch's I know you were traveling, so maybe this missed you. Did you see Chris Finch's comments after the Western Conference finals wrapped up?

You look at how the Wolves played against the Oklahoma City Thunder actually had a worse offensive rating than the Calves had against the Indiana Pacers, and they had a worse defensive rating than the Calves had against the Indiana Pacers.

And this is a Wolves lineup that has, you know, Mike Conley, strong defender at the point guard position, Anthony Edwards, good length of the shooting guard positions, strong defender, Jada McDaniels elite wing defender, exactly what you want from that position. Julius Randall is playing some of the best defense of his career, Rudy Gobert Defensive Player of the Year candidate, nas Reed coming in off the bench, Nikuila on Alexander Walker.

They have basically, like when we talk about the archetypes that we want defensively and we want to bring into the Calves, they have those guys, and they had a worse defensive performance against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are a worse offense than the Indiana Pacers. And I just will found it really interesting because I was wondering, what does Chris Finch focus on and here is his quote in the game today. With all that switching, you see, you need two things. You need passing and you need

ball handling. That's what you need. Everybody wants shooting, but I think it's the other things that unlock shooting. And I thought that was so fascinating for a defense first team. His takeaway from that series is, we need more ball handling, we need more playmaking, We need more creation on the offense than as a floor because as we know, when your offense isn't clicking, that is going to have a negative effect on your defense.

Wade out at the same time, having guys who aren't going to make quick, assertive decisions with the ball and that aren't a threat with the ball. If the if the jumper isn't falling, you know, is is just kind of death for your offense. And you know, I do think, like I do think in general, when you taught, when you listen to coaches like Chris Finch and you listen to you know, and you listen to fans, I feel like the conversation is flying in the opposite direction. Fans

want to figure out how to get stops. Coaches are trying to figure out how to score. And like that's why I think I have continued to kind of lean in on the offensive identity of the team just because it's like, like I felt like they got enough stops to win. Really in the last two three years, it's just been that consistent rhythm offensively that like they haven't been able to find they have They've always reverted to the one or two ball handlers that are initiating everything.

And to Chris Finch's point, like that's just easier to game plan against.

offense really feats off of. And then ty Jerome just wasn't able to turn the corner. And it's kind of ironic because part.

And I find it fascinating because if you look at the last seven years, and this counts both finalists for this year, there is no consistent way any of these teams have been built you know, for all the conversations about what you need to learn from a team building standpoint, and you know what types of players you need to win with. We're going to see seven straight years where

teams built very different ways one NBA championships. But the one kind of consistent thing I think you see with all of these teams is they are able to generate offense. They are able to get playmaking from multiple positions. Boston no traditional point guard. I think that's why you see some of the volatility with them on the offensive end of the court, but they had five guys in that lineup that were able to generate offense. Indy we saw

tons of that. Oka See has that right, like Shay's able to do it obviously, Alex Caruso coming in off the bench, Jalen Williams is a good playmaker, Hernstein's a good playmaker. Wiggins and Wallace are able to do that at a solid level.

some offense. Reggie Jackson was able to run some offense. Right, how many guys did you you feel confident in that the Cavs could go to from a playmaking standpoint like? That was my big takeaway from you know, the Boston

series and it remains mine now. Obviously we've talked about how mobiley needed to be used more in those spots, but when the guards are limited, like you just didn't have anybody else you could really rely on in that spot, Max Struce, you you can you can you know, make the argument that he's kind of in that case in Wallace, Aaron Wiggins, you know, like that can provide that secondary playmaking.

But whether it is hey, we need to use our guys differently because we believe that they can provide that playmaking, or hey, we need to bring in someone that's going to be able to supplement that a little bit and provide that from the front court, it just felt like the initiation was too backcourt heavy in that series.

The Seeable Future. But I will say this stuff does roll down hill, and like if Shay and Jalen have really bad games or are hurt, then I think, And we're seeing Alex Caruso initiating more, and we're seeing Aaron Wiggins have to initiate more, and we're seeing Chet Holmgren try to run inverted pick and rolls, Like, yeah, they'll they'll, they'll get decent looks every now and again, but we will go, oh man, they probably haveing to rely on

those guys too much. So like there is a degree where like, if Darius and Donmo are playing well, are we having discussions about the team needing more playmaking outside of mobiley? I don't think. Hold on, let me get through this. I think Struce as the fourth or fifth best playmaker on the floor is a great outcome. I think DeAndre Hunter as the fourth best playmaker on the floor is a great outcome. I just don't think that the Cavs played a style that allowed those guys to look that way. Yeah.

let's swap Darius Garland for Jada McDaniels. Let's swap Darius Garland for Jalen Suggs, who is fifth on the magic in a SIS percentage, Like, if you're going that direction, honestly, you should just start a coral like because he neither player is going to give you any ball handling or playmaking or be able to run an offense. Coral is at least taller, he's a better shooter, and he's going to give you the same defense. If you're going to punt that other guard position, just go with a Coral.

But you know, like, but it's disrespectful. I know it's been disrespected. True, No, it absolutely is true. It's the macro is true. But Jalen Suggs has more juice. The macro is all I need to get the joke off. But if that's your takeaway, what the Caves need to write.

You know the ways that they would initiate, and you know there are things those guys do, even on offense, that the Calves don't exactly do. But I just don't know if you want to build the plane out of it.

eligible paid plans. We're happy with zoom Ai Companion. It's interesting, man, because from a team building standpoint, like we talked about with the Aprons, there's not a lot of options that in terms of major shakeups for the cast, right, Like if you're looking at Darius trades, the fact that guys like a Jalen Sugs or Drew Holiday are you know, in that range goes to show you, like a one for one swap, you're downgrading. Not only from a town standpoint,

you're just getting worse as a team. But if we kind of concede that, hey, we're not able to make those kind of dramatic change ups, the changes have to come with how they approach the game on both offense and defense if you're going to make changes, and it also has to come in terms of how you deplay guys from a rotation standpoint. And you know, as much as people talk about the small backcourt, that's not a

Darius Garland thing. That's a Donovan Mitchell thing because he's undersized for his position, and while we like his ability and we think he's grown as a playmaker, even by his own emission, he prefers playing with a point guard. He's not a point guard. He's not someone that you're going to ask to run your offense at all times.

So in that, you know, with that understanding, you're always going to have a bit of a small backcourt unless you're building around, you know, a Lebron James or Nikola Jokic where he can play in that Jamal Murray role, which I think you wouldn't do a much better job of because he's better than Jamal Murray. But you know what I find interesting is all right, so if we understand that, and we also understand that that starting lineup had a one oh seven defensive rating against the Pacers,

so defense of that lineup was not the issue. It's going to come down to how they use the rotation. Do they make changes in terms of, you know, who's starting at the three, who's the the sixth, seventh, eighth man. Those kinds of decisions I think are going to be the most important thing when it comes to how the Calves approach this offseason.

you know, some disappointment with the Encourt product. But it is always going to be a question in terms of choosing what lessons to learn. Was this an execution problem? Was this a talent problem? Or was this a schematic problem? And you know, I think you you know, in the unfortunately, answer is always going to be yes. It was all three of those things, Like, you know, more talent could probably paper over or you know, healthier talent could have

papered over schematic and execution problems. Better execution would solve for talent, and schematics, better schematics would solve for execution.

And so it's like this, you know, this unholy triumvirate of of of you know, basketball that you're never going to have like a cut and dry thing, you know, very you know, the Knicks series was kind of this like very special exception where all you had to do was watch and go shooting please, and you kind of know that's like the main thing, and you're not going to get better data till you have that. Like in this it's a much more gray area. So I don't know if we can assume that Kenny was like my

scheme let us down. Now, maybe I'm just showing what my assumption is. And you know, the interesting thing, like I think why you're seeing the Knicks basically have an existential crisis here is because they were in a position.

you bringing in that more talent. You're healthy in the playoffs against the Pacers, and you look completely outclassed and outmatch, which goes back to what I was saying before, which is even you know, if we disagree on what you think this year's series would have been if you're healthy, I'm saying we as in myself and the listener, if even if that's the case, I think we can both agree that it doesn't necessarily mean anything moving forward. Every

year is its own kind of ecosystem. Every team is different. You can't make assumptions on who's going to be better, who's going to be worse, And of course, like after the last couple of years, I'm going to have concerns. I'm going to have concerns on whether or not both guards are going to be able to make it to the playoffs healthy, if they're able to make it through

the playoffs healthy. But you know, those are answers that we can't really have right now, so you focus on everything else and God, go ahead, no, no, no, no, that was an end I was just going to ramble on. Anyways.

it against what they did against Indy. And you know, it's funny because on either end of the ball, I kind of feel the opposite way I feel on offense. And and you know people heard me say this on our last weeks at pod and the postgame pod after Game five, that I thought the Cavs scheme all year was fine and then they just stopped doing it. Yeah, you know, they stopped running, you know, letting mobilely initiate offense. They stopped doing all the varied stuff that made them

so interesting and in challenging the guard. You know, they stopped playing with pace blah blah blah blah blah. Like I would, I would say that, knowing what I know, which is very little, a very small window into what was going on in that locker room, that it felt like their execution failed them more than their scheme failed them, like they stopped doing the things the coaches had them doing all year on offense. On defense, I actually am

more inclined to blame the scheme. I think the switching, the soft switching, which if you are you know, someone who listens to this podcast regularly, you know, me and you had our little back and forths about this over the year, where you wanted more resistance, you wanted more physicality at the point of attack, and I was on team the shell's good enough, just don't screw up. And I think we saw the limits of my point of view on that in that series where the shell started

to break. You know, the shell was more fragile against more talented teams, and you know, and then it was gimmick town from there. You know, it was the three too that worked for you know, a quarter or two and then was solved. And I do think like there should be some hard looks on that end of the floor about how you know, not to be reductive, but it does. I do wonder if the eighty if the if the soft switching strategy moving its way into the

playoffs was an eighty two game kind of strategy. You know, that's a strat that works awesome against Charlotte in February or even a good team in March when they're not that you know, the sharpness isn't there to just beat it up over and over and over again. And I'm curious what you think about that.

in that. But these guys are a little better than they get credit for. And the thing about you know, the saw switch is I just feel like it's a passive approach to defense. I feel like we have sat back in our shell and we have trusted our personnel to do the work, and for the most part, they have. But when you look at how teams have disrupted our offense, it's by making us uncomfortable. And I think when you look at the playoffs, one of the takeaways that I

have is depth is actually mattering. In this year's playoffs, teams are running deeper rotations, and they're using those deeper rotations to play a little more aggressive. If you're going to play nine to ten guys, I want those guys playing really hard in those nine ten minutes. I want to see you pressure full court a little bit more.

If you guys are if you're giving them breaks at every you know, six minutes and you're properly using the rotation like Kenny did all season, it feels like it's low hanging fruit to be a little more aggressive when it comes to that end of the floor, to to you know, pressure, to to blitz a little bit more,

to to force guys out of their rhythm. Whereas when you're playing and you're trusting the you know, individual defense, and you're trusting the integrity of your defensive system, you're giving people the matchup that they want without making them work for it. They know what to expect from your

defense every single time up and down the court. Now, the defense may still be able to get those stops because of the defensive personnel that you have, but if they know what to expect all the time, I just feel like you are not making teams uncomfortable enough. And I think I think that's why when you saw those dramatic changes, like okay, we're going to go to a three to two zone here, because it was such a dramatic deviation, it took time to you know, adjust to that.

Where I think everything they did defensively this year they could do again next year and it would be great. But if you're you know, if you're playing shuffle on Spotify when it comes to your defensive coverages and what you're throwing at teams and changing things up and relying on your guys to be more active communicators to do that.

I think that that's something that I would like to see them work on throughout the regular season because I think you need to practice that over eighty two games in order to be able to do that at a championship level. And that's what indeed does. They press shuffle on every playoffensively and defensively, and they are ready to play that same style when it comes to the playoffs.

didn't do any of that. You know, it was just like all right, let Hallie chase whatever switch he wanted, you know, either get a blowby or a very clean step back, you know, rinse repeat, rinse repeat, rinse repeat and again. It's not like Indy absolutely murdered the Calves on the offensive side of the ball. So, like I am not, I don't want to over index on this because at the end of the day, I do think they lost this series on the offensive side of the floor.

I mean, and Andy had a one sixteen offensive rating. That's not like bananas, but worse than it was against the Knicks. Yeah, but I do think getting it you know, like that more than the sum of their parts. Thing for you is just spot on, Like I don't know if this defense that consistently makes teams feel them and

you know, I think a guy like it's interesting. Remember right after when Yannis said that he felt like the Calves were a harder defense to play than okay, see yeah, and we kind of all puffed up our chests like, yeah, we are tough, you know, and if you really like, you know, peel that back a layer or two. It's like, of course, trying to beat up Jannisnatokumpo is not a winning strategy, you know. And of course the team that tries to beat him up, he's like, I don't care

about that at all. I'm the biggest, strongest, most athletic guy in the league at that at beating that particular style. What's hard for him is having to finish over the shell, you know. But like for you know, it's like, we're the defensive scheme is almost Taylor made to beat those kinds of offenses, not you know, even the k the Denvers of the world. You know, think about how well

they guarded Denver with that style. So like, to some extent, there are This is a bit of a you know, this is the styles make fights thing, and a more physical, violent defense isn't going to work as well against the Milwaukee's or the Denvers of the world. But like, being able to do both is pretty valuable. And I just don't know, you know it, it's just funny to think about that comment. And you know how geeked I was

to hear him say that. It's like, yeah, that's great for your honest, but it doesn't work against the Pacers, you know, it doesn't always work against the Boston Celtics,

you know. So, like you have to have just as the offense needs to think about diversifying themselves and coming with all these you know, more playmaking in the front court, I think the defense really needs to put on a similar cap of like how are we going to kill teams in eight different ways as opposed to just being really really stable and solid at one.

to do that. And you know, you and I aren't lucky enough to have Synergy accounts. But Basketball Index does pull a lot of that information from Synergy, and I thought it was really interesting to dive into two very important metrics when it comes to our perimeter defenders. And those metrics are perimeter isolation defense, which is the measure of how well a defender's lower shot quality and suppresses attempts within perimeter isolation defense adjusted for the average skill

level of the offensive players guarded. So you know, if someone's guarding someone for you know, twelve minutes and they go four or five, if you're just looking at you know, how do they shoot against them, that's not telling the full story, right, So this actually uses that tracking data to see how well you not only suppress those shots, but how you do in guarding those shots. What's the

outcomes there? And then the same thing goes for ball screen navigation, which is the measure of how well defender lower shot quality and suppresses attempts on ball screens. Again, it is adjusted for matchup difficulty, So you know, if someone like Jalen Brunson, who you know, gets parked on an Isaac Ocoro and they don't score, you're going to get dinged for that. In these metrics you look at matchup difficulty, Brunson's in the fifth percentile in terms of

who he's guarding. Steph is in the eighth, Halley's in the third, even Shay is in the fourteenth because okay, see, you know, tries to save them on that end of the floor. So any questions before I dive into these number of cards, do do you like these stats? Do you do you like the data here?

isolation defense. The sixty seventh percent is the break even point, So two thirds of the league are having at least a slight negative effect on perimeter isolation defense for ball screen navigation, the break even point is the fifty nine percentile. So when you look at the calves, a lot of their guys, when they look at the tracking data and the impact, you know that they actually have graded out not only you know, above average, but positive when it

comes to both of these metrics. DeAndre Hunter is in the eighty nine percentile in isolation, seventy fifth in screen s truce, eighty second in ISO, sixty ninth in screen okoro, eighty eight percentile in ISO, ninety third in screen navigation. These guys all navigate screens incredibly well. Darius Garland eighty six percentile in perimeter isolation defense and eightieth percentile when it comes to that screen navigation. The only guys that

have some negative where they're below average. Sam Merrill of you know, slight negative fifty fifth percentile in isolation, but that's still above average. It's as a slight negative in isolation that goes to show you how well he's been playing on defense and that screen navigation, which we talked about all season. We thought he did a terrific job. Ninety third percentile in screen navigation. The only player on the roster that has a slight negative impact on both

of those is Donovan Mitchell. He's fifty sixth in isolation and fifty six in screen navigation. I don't worry about that as much because we've seen he can turn up that defense of intensity in the moments where it really counts. He saves himself a little bit, and in both of those metrics he's still above average when it comes to league average. And then Ty Jerome seventy fourth percentile in

perimeter defense, forty eighth in screen navigation. So that's the only spot out of all those guys where someone is actually a negative below league average is Ti Jerome navigating screens. But all of these guys are capable and have been effective when they're putting up resistance in those situations.

some of those numbers are, you know, really impressive. I mean, having a Hunter up there at the eighty nine, you know, Garland up at the eighty sixth, struce in the in the upper eighties or the lower eighties, I don't know what what's your takeaway from that, like, because like, on one hand, you see a lot more really strong ISO defending numbers and some more like average screen navigation by comparison, like, does that speak to they should be doing this switching

strategy a little more often and the numbers don't actually play to what we think. I don't really agree with that, but I mean, what's your takeaway?

fight through these screens and navigate it. Let's get it with Max Roofs and DeAndre Hunter. If the offense is forced to rescreen multiple times to get that match up, and then you have confidence that if they eventually do get you know, the mismatch that they want. You feel confident that someone like Darius can you know, match up with a Jason Tatum and at least, you know, can test the shot and force them to not get to

the rim. That's a positive. But because you force them to do two three screens, you're making them use up energy on the offensive end of the floor, and I think it's going to actually increase the effectiveness of these numbers. So that that would be my argument for it is just not conceding the matchup that the offensive team wants

so freely. You shouldn't be able to get, you know, Tyres Halbern onto Jared Allen that easy, and particularly when it comes to these guard you know, perimeter to perimeter screens. I want Boston to fight to get Jason Tatum onto Darius Garland. I don't want to just say, all right, Darius, you're you're guarding Tatum on every single possession. You you've guarded him more than any other player this season, Like no player has contested more Jason Tatum shots this season

than Darius Garland. That shouldn't be the case. As much as Boston wants to get that matchup.

defense two years ago. And so I do think it's kind of worth like pointing at the some of the parts question, you know, because like you add all the you add all those parts. If your scheme is killing it with all those great numbers, you would think that

you'd have a really really you know, shutdown defense. And even with even though the defense performed better this year than last year by the numbers ranked lower but a better defensive rating, I do feel like some of that soft switching and that like lack of force on that end of the floor did lead to my feeling like this defense wasn't as strong as it has been in

years past. And I agree with that. And it's hard to know because the offense was so bananas that, like you know, it was always going to feel worse by comparison. But I do think there's some meat on that.

both of those guys were playing a good amount. Like you look at the playoffs, zam Merrill played fifty five minutes where he was either playing with Darius and Tie Donovan or Tie or Darius and Donovan. So that's fifty five minutes that he played small forward. You know many minutes DeAndre Hunter played with Darius and Donovan at small forward. Six. You're talking about nine times more that you're playing a

three guard lineup with Samuel at small ford. And to his credit, those lineups were effective even in the playoffs, they were effective. But my thing is, if you're going to make yourself feel different on the defensive end of the floor, you got to change some of that stuff. You can't have a three guard lineup where you know, if Indy goes to a three guard lineup, that's a lot of guys that can create you know, there's a

lot of ball movement and stuff like that. When you had Donovan and Darius limited and Sam's not able to initiate offense, that's a three guard lineup without you know, the typical offense of characteristics that you would expect to come along with a three guard lineup.

a series like that again. I actually feel really strong that he's going to figure it out and learn from this about like what it means to be on a Rick Carlisle scout and and just you know, and play better. Like again, he kind of found his footing at the end of Game five where he finally was able to start making a bit of an impact again. So it's funny with how good he was against Indian in the regular season time now, so it's I just can't think get past the three guard thing and you know, the

sam at the three thing. Does it? Are we just being dumb jerks because the lineup data was good in both instances, and if everything else was going better, it would just be fine.

on the you know, on the roster next season. I just think that maybe that's one of those, you know, considerations you have to have going into free agency, where you know the pitch might be, hey, there's some games you're not going to play because we're trying to play a little bit bigger. We're trying to change up how we're playing at the small forward position. Because Sam Merrill he played way better than any of my expectations. I don't think that guy deserves any blame, whether it's him

playing at small ford or not. Like he played. You look at Cleaning the Glass and says seventy three percent of his minutes came at small forward this season. I think he held up incredibly well there.

have to choose between these two? Because if the decision is hey, maybe rotationally yes, well rotationally yes, but both of these guys are free agents, which is why I think this is actually a conversation because if the decision ends up being, hey, we're going to let Tye walk, We'll find you know, another veteran backup point guard. But we're bringing back Sam Merrill and he's coming in as you know, the shooting guard, and Donovan Mitchell is back

to being the backup point guard. I'm one hundred percent fine with that. If the decision is, hey, we're bringing Tie back. He gives us so much much juicy, makes us better in the regular season. We believe he can learn from it. I'm great with that. If you bring both and back and the pitches, hey, there's going to be some nights you're not playing, it's going to be a little more tenuous. And both of them buy into

that and they're willing to sacrifice for the team. That is a huge bonus because both of these guys were terrific for the Calves.

Jetty was like that. I really loved Jetty as a cavalier, but like you knew, it kind of run its course and it was time to try something else. I don't

feel that way about Sam or Tie. But if you're looking to like change the alchemy of the roster a little bit, it's pretty hard to change it that much with like your only two free agents and just bringing them back, especially with trades as challenging as they're going to be, So like that even isn't going to be a even it's going to be a consideration where it's like we're happy with both of you, we'd love both of you back, but we just don't want to be so the same for the third or fourth year in

a row.

Here's the list, Drew Holiday, Jalen Suggs, Anthony Black, and Bruce Brown.

Johannest would take a big part of that responsibility. So like when you look at this combination of usage and also like the results of how you did defensively, Darius is one of the only guys that actually fits that description. And I you know, I think part of the perception is because we can see the sauce witch. It's hey, they're hunting Darius. They're getting the matchup they want, and it doesn't matter how he holds up in those situations. Obviously the point guard is going to be involved in

you know, these types of matchups. And you know, I said how these stats factor in matchup difficulty? Right, and how you know Brunson Steph Hallie say, they're all you know down there, Darius is in the sixty nine percentile for matchup difficulty, Like they they trust him in all these situations. They don't hide him on the defensive end of the floor. You look at matchup difficulty, obviously the leader z Okoro ninety second. Then it goes Max, Wade Hunter,

all of them are fifth or above. Then it's Allan, which I'm not surprised Alan is ahead of MOBILEI because we will put Mobiley on a weaker offensive player and let him roam. You see the same thing with Draymond's matchup difficulty. Then it's Sam Merrill at the forty first percentile, Mobiley's forty seventh. I skipped him, and then Donovan is twenty fourth percentile. So Donovan's the guy that we're resting. I think that's correct because he carries such a big load.

But it's not like Darius is hiding. It's not like he's you know, it's not like we aren't tasking him with these matchups. You look at who he covered the most. I mentioned, you know, covered a lot of Tatum, it's Trey Young, it's LaMelo Ball, it's the point guards, it's these lead initiators. He's been trusted in these situations and he's held up really well.

him so much defensively. So if we make it a little bit harder, I think it's going to make life easier. And I think that this is a roster capable of doing that. I got one more stat for you, Carter, because I love this one. Shout out Seth Park now

for coming up with a stat. He has a true usage rate, So this is your normal usage possession usage rate, which for those that aren't familiar, usage rate is any possession that ends with you either turning the ball over or taking a shot, so the possession ends with you. True usage is those two stats. Also adding in any time you create an assist opportunity, so if a shot ends with you taking a shot, or if a possession ends with you taking a shot, turning the ball over

or passing to someone that's taking a shot. Darius twenty second in the league with a true usage rate of forty nine percent, so when he's on the court, almost fifty fifty of the possessions are ending with him either taking a shot, turning it over, or creating an assist opportunity. There are three players in the league with a true usage rate that high and a positive impact on the defensive end when it comes to perimeter defensive ball screen navigation.

Those players are Franz Wagner, Arrius Garland, and Devin Booker.

open to seeing what this team can do. But I just think that people are misdiagnosing what some of the issues are based on what their preconceived notions were of this roster and what the issues are. Obviously, we have concerns when it comes to health. I think if that doesn't line up next year and it recurs again, I think you got to have some really hard conversations about both of the guards if both of them are in that spot once again. But I just think that this

team is talented. It fits incredibly well together. And as Kobe said, you know in his end of season presser, if I didn't blow it up after last year, why would I do it this year?

an icy dude sometimes. But you know, I think there's a difference between keeping your mind open and thinking about ways to get better and you know, hitting a panic button. It doesn't seem like the ORG is ready to do uh, to do the latter, and so to that end, really the only thing they can look at is their performance is their scheme, because I don't think this organization thinks they have a talent problem. You know, whether they're right

or not, I guess we'll find out. I think we're both on the answer being no. That means that the scheme and the execution has to get better or or it's going to, you know, start looking like a talent problem real fast. Totally agree.

I mean they are are. I think they're going to go into this next season's playoffs with you know, dubious grains of salt poured on on whatever they do in the regular season because of these you know, these identity slips. I guess we'll call them. I think that's warranted. Honestly, That's that's the way basketball has always worked in my entire time watching it as a fan. You know, doubts, people, you know, uh, picking apart the team, coming up with

you know, crazy shake up ideas, stuff like that. That just comes with the territory. And I'm with you, like, it's impossible to not look at that occurring again and not have that be a concern. But to me, the counterbalance to that is the biggest question that we had, and I think the most important thing was is Evan mobily capable of taking the leap and the fact that he's already made, you know, the what I think is

the biggest leap that he needed to make. That gives me a lot of confidence that that was so such an important piece that if there wasn't that, I'd be a little.

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