Mind the Game - LeBron James on His Favorite LEAP Players of the Season

Episode Date: January 6, 2026

Happy New Year from LeBron James, Steve Nash and all of us at Mind the Game! We are so psyched to kick off 2026 with an episode highlighting the players who have made major improvements this year. Guys like Tyrese Maxey and Stephon Castle to Deni Avdija and Jalen Johnson. We highlight just how those players took a leap and what LeBron and Steve look into when evaluating player development. Steve and LeBron also debate the ‘Fouling Up-3’ strategy and how to deploy it. And finally, the guys get to a fan question about defending drop coverage. It’s going to be a great year and thankful for each and every one of year. Cheers to 2026!See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Coming up on this episode of Mind the Game. A lot of fans don't love the fouling up three. Listen, our league is a three-point shooting league. So why not? If you have an opportunity to win or close the percentage of you winning the game, possibly, take it away. Let's talk about guys who have made a leap this year. The first guy I'm going to talk about because he's been taking a leap after leap after leap over the last few years is Tyree's Maxie.

Another guy that's really kind of caught my eyes, Stefan Castle. I just think this guy is a two-way, full-core player, explosive downhill driver, playmaker, gritty, combative physical defender. Someone who I also have been working out with the last two summers is Jalen Johnson and Atlanta. Danny Avdia. I mean, this is a quality, quality player. He's a big-time player. He's good.

He's really good. Player development has to be in concert with the style of play your team as in your role on that team. You just triggered me right there. Like, I've, I've done skill training my whole career, of course, obviously, but I've also done things that I felt like we're, what we were going to run. How do you feel about fouling up three fighting games? Oh, yeah. If I'm coaching, we're filing up three fighting games. Same. Same. Now, what would your rules be? Like, how much time, how under what, what amount of time would you say is your time? Would you do, are you a guy that's like, I'll do it early in the last minute? Or are you like, I want to wait until we get under a certain amount?

No, I will wait to a certain extent. Obviously, you got to see how many timeouts that you personally have, where if you do follow up three, you can advance the ball. The last thing you want to do is not have any timeouts. You followed up three and you have to take the ball underneath your basket. If they get a strip or they get to trap you and get a steal, they're closer to the rim. So you have to see how many timeouts you have.

How many timeouts they have as well? How long can they extend the game, you know, as well? So, you know, I'm more of like. like an under, you know, 30 seconds, under, you know, 24 second type foul up three guy, you know. And like I said, those other variables matter on, you know, timeout situation, who has the ball, whatever case, maybe all those things. Yeah, I think the other two other variables, I mean, for sure, timeouts is a big one, is how good a free throw shooting team are you?

Mm-hmm. How many good free throw shooters do you have you? And one that I think is underrated is how good of an inbound passer you have on your team. Yeah, yeah, yeah. You can get caught sometimes where, you know, teams are going to pressure, foul. They got to try to go for a steal, but while fouling, you know, they're going to go run through people. If you have a great passer, it makes all your actions, your get-in plays way much easier. I mean, we saw that in the playoffs.

Was it last year, the year before in the Indiana Boston series where, you know, they had an opportunity, Indiana had opportunities to file up three late game. I think Jalen Brunson hit a three, I mean, Jalen Brown hit a three, sending into overtime or, and then Indiana had a chance to win the game still, but could not inbound the ball. Boston gets a, gets a steal, win the game. Like, you know, these are moments in times where you have to have like a great inbound. Like you said, trust on your inbounder. You have to actually work on these plays too. You have to work.

You have to take five minutes at the end of practice. Let's walk through this. Everybody on the baseline. what is our up three knee play to get in? What is our up two knee play to get the ball in? What is it if a team is fouling us, you know? What is who takes the ball out? Who is in the back court?

Who is in the front court? You know, is it on the side? Is it behind our basket? Is it behind it? Like, you know, all those type of things. So, you know, you have to work on that. But those are good things. That's a great point for like the common fan to know that like NBA teams have to take time.

And in the picture of all these things, defensive schemes, matchups, switching, icing, hitting, peeling, you know, fronting, flooding, all the different schemes, all the different offensive sets, need plays, down three, down two, all that stuff. You have to go over a package of get in under your basket, get in on the sideline, get in, advanced. And also, like, it's nice if only five guys have to know it. But the reality is guys are injured, guys are in foul trouble. Yeah.

Everyone's got to know. And sometimes the most valuable part is if your team knows it on the fly, when you don't have a timeout and you can be like touchdown. And you get into whatever it is. Whatever it is. Not to mention plays in the, you advance it where you can still go in the back court. Yep. And so then there's full court plays where maybe you put two people in the parking lot and ask them,

what are you going to do? You can put two guys back there with them or one and bring two up here where you're better feelings. So there's a lot of thought and process that goes in, but it's hard. You know, like you never know who's in the game. Have they had any reps at this? Because it's not the type of thing. You get a ton of reps at. So it is. That's a great point. How much, how important is the preparation with your personnel to play these things? What about technique of fouling? Technique of fouling up three. What are your thoughts on that? There's multiple ways that you can file up three. Obviously, if it's full court, you want to do a way

before a guy gets to half court. You want to do it on the downward dribble. A guy's dribbling the ball. Once you see that ball go down, foul. You don't want to do it while the ball is coming up because a guy can, and he can raise. And guys are making threes from half court these days. Listen, you can't say, you know, it's not a three-point shot.

If it's in the half court and the guy and teams are running plays and they're crisscrossing whatever the case may be, and the guy catches the ball in the paint, foul, you know, run through it. the three, yeah, inside the three. You can run through that foul, call it a pass interference. You know, if a guy catches the ball above the three-point line, but it's back towards the basket, bear hug him. You can bear hug him, you know.

Or running away, catching running away. Yeah, running away. Absolutely. Grab them, you know. So there's so many different, you know, different ways where you can file guys. And obviously, the one way that you do not want to file a guy is before the ball is entered. right because that's one shot plus the ball on the side so you got to be cautious about you know if that ball hasn't been released from the guy that's out of bounds you know you're already filing or you're grabbing whatever the case may be now it's not a three-point game it's a two-point game and now you have to you know play straight up defense so there's ways of a foulness smartly but you also got to be careful versus guys that you know certain teams certain guys who are used to guys trying to file them you know so So they kind of get into the shot, you know, a little bit sooner than others.

But there are ways to make sure that it doesn't happen for sure. It is an uncomfortable thing, though. Right? Yeah, yeah. If you're not comfortable with doing it, I wouldn't do it. Because you're going to have the coaches on your, you have the coaches and your teammates on your head. Right. You have to do it with confidence.

You have to be declarative. You have to be intentional. And you can't go out there, should I, shouldn't I? You got to be ready to run through. When you have the chance, run through, get a piece, knock him over, he's back to the basket, like you said, dribbling down. Because I think once you start to get doubt in your mind, that's when you get played.

Yep, that's when you get played. Yep, that's when you get played. A lot of fans don't love the fouling up three, but I think it's pretty universal now from a coaching standpoint. Like, depending on time, score, team, all that stuff, when you started and how, but it feels like it's pretty universal. Most teams are going to foul. Listen, our league is a thing.

three-point shooting league. So why not? If you have an opportunity to win or close the percentage of you winning the game, possibly, take it away. Yeah, yeah, take the way. And that's the best way to take it away is the foul. Obviously, you're not doing that throughout the course of the game, putting your team in the penalty early

and, you know, early in the quarter. But listen, late game, you know, under a minute, under 30 seconds, you up three, you know, it's been a hard-fought game. Team made it may have made 12-3, 13 threes in the game, you don't want 14 to happen. 14 to happen, you lose, you can lose an overtime that way. So, you know, I just seen the game now that, uh, I didn't, wasn't watching the game,

but I saw the clip of, um, Charlotte in Cleveland, you know, uh, Brandon Miller, you know, uh, had it, they down three, Cleveland up three and Brandon Miller gets a little, gets a little room off Darius Garland, Darius Garland falls to the ground. Brandon Miller makes it three overtime and they, beat Cleveland and Cleveland. I don't want to go through that. No, no. For me, personally, I'm about to be 41 years old.

First of all, another five minutes to me right now. Another five minutes to me messes up my whole day the next day. Yeah, like my sleep, I got to get to my sleep. This ain't game time. This is sleep time. Sleep time. It's my heart rate variability. I'm telling you.

So, yes. In the game. End it. Let's get out of here. And when you have the chance, right? Yeah. Too many good players in our league. Too many things can happen.

Too much variable variance with the talent, size, ability of guys. You've got to try to take the bat out of their hands when you can. Yeah, absolutely. Playing 18 seasons in the NBA, I've lived in and out of hotels for what seems like my entire life. I can't tell you how many times I've gotten in the same generic elevator, walk down the same generic hallway, and set my bags down on the same generic chair. So anytime I travel now, I'm looking for a more unique experience, which is why I check out Airbnb first when I'm planning a trip. I've done everything from cabins for trips in the mountains

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Their crew treats every passenger like an MVP. Look, I've flown countless of airlines. But Emirates economy class, it's like having home court advantage 40,000 feet in the air. Go to emirates.com to learn more. All right, Braun, let's talk about guys who have made a leap this year. Let's do it. I'm bigger than others, but it's always impressive and inspiring to see a guy improve his game because you know that comes from hard work and discipline.

So sometimes it's a little bit of opportunity, but even with opportunity, largely, if you haven't done the work and prepared, you're not going to see guys take a leap. So I think it's important to, like, kind of show a little light on these guys. I always like to inspire the youth. So let's shine some of these guys who have taken a step. Yeah. Now, I think that's the best thing about our league when you see guys take like that next you know, you know, from one year to the next, you know, next year and two guys in particular

for me, like obviously we've seen, you know, the first guy I'm going to talk about because he's been taking a leap after leap after leap over the last few years is Tyrese. I've worked out and trained with him over the last few summers every, every morning, 5 a.m., we're in the gym, 5.30, whatever, in the gym. And you just see, like, his dedication shows up on time, on target every single day. a guy who just loves the game and is taking full advantage of the opportunity in Philly, you know, and, you know, I love the kid. He's such a, I talked about it when we played Philly, you know, not too long ago, about how not only incredible a basketball player he is, but how much better he is as a person, which is saying a lot because he's a unbelievable basketball player. The second guy is someone who I also have been working out with the last two summers is Jalen Johnson in Atlanta. You know, and a lot of it is situational, too. I think, you know, the injury to Trey Young has sprouted even more of what Jalen is capable of doing.

They've put him at this Scotty Pippen role where he's playing like this point forward. And not only is he scoring, he's rebounding at a high rate and he's dishing the ball. We've seen over like the last month where he might have three, four, five triple doubles. playing the game at a high level and just, you know, I just love the improvement. I love seeing that. I love seeing that in this league where guys take advantage of situation or, you know, come in from their work what they did in the summertime and able to apply it, you know, to the season and take full advantage of it.

So those are two of the guys that come, you know, come to mind right away to that. And I love it because I've, I'm in the gym with those guys. I've seen it over the last few summers and I love, you know, what has happened. for sure. You know, I think, I mean, let's start with Maxi, but I want to dive in a little bit on both of them. You know, I think great players in our league, an element that makes people great consistently is rim pressure. Like, if you can constantly put paint pressure, rim pressure on a demon, it doesn't mean you're always getting to the rim, but the threat that you can get there, whether it's speed, strength. You know, Yolkich does it because skill,

but also size. He can bully his way to the rim every time. Everyone's got to come because, Once he gets in there, he's too big for everyone. Maxi does it with speed. Johnson does it with athleticism. But that pressure allows you to get more opportunities from three, allows you to get playmaking opportunities. I mean, we've seen Jaylon Johnson take a big job. A lot of 13, 14, 15 assists games this season

for a guy that's essentially been a small forward or even a power forward his whole life. So I think when you look at these two guys, there are two guys that constantly are a threat to get to the pain and get to the rim, which allows them to show this wide skill set. So with Maxi, incredible speed and athleticism, the pace, right? Like, it's just, it's overwhelming at times.

You can see, like, guys just can't keep them in front. No, they just can't, you know, and that's God-given right there. That's God-given speed and talent. And he's just, he said, you know what? I know what I was possessed with, and I'm going to take full advantage of it and not only use that to my advantage, but also it creates so much, like you said, that downhill pressure at the rim. But also a lot of guys know his speed,

so they try to, like, cut him off and his ability to have a tight handle and snatch back and hit those step-back threes, you know, and get to the free throw line and make his mid-range, like, and make his floater. The kid has, he has everything. And, you know, he's one of the best, you know, point guards, obviously not only in the Eastern Conference,

but, you know, in the NBA. And not a small guard. How tall do you think Tyrese is? I want to classify him as a small guard. I don't know how tall Tyrese is. I think at least 6-3. Yeah, I would say. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

It's kind of sneaky athletic too. He gets that right leg down. He kind of sneaky athletic too. For sure. And it kind of feels like you've got good length. Yeah, good length. He could stretch out. He had a big game winner and then the block

at the other end recently where he made the fade away against the Warriors and chased down. I can remember a Melton maybe on a breakaway, got an incredible block. block. So there is definitely sneaky athleticism. Yeah, he's big time. He's big time. But he's also gone up in his three-point usage, like he's shooting more threes, playing off the ball a lot more than he was. So I like that there's a balance there. He obviously has the transition. He has pick and roll, I so. But getting off the ball, running off actions, making people chase, turn the corner

or shoot from three has added a kind of a new element and balance to his game. Yeah, I mean, I mean, it's hard to guard guys that have the ball, obviously, with speed and quickness. But I think it's even harder to guard guys when they're off the ball and they're actually running towards the ball because you can't get a hand on guys. You're not allowed to hold guys. You know, you got guys that's coming out of the corners full speed, you know, and do you chase him over this? Do you try to gap it?

You know, if you gap, he can either stop behind it and shoot the three or now they just turn around and re-screen it and now you're playing from behind and he's you know he's very dynamic in that too so you know if you have the ability there's a lot there's not that many guys that can be just as dynamic with the ball as off the ball and uh I remember we we mentioned this a lot in a lot of our episodes with Steph Curry like his he's most dangerous when he gives up the ball you know the number one reason why that is is that most defense and personnel When they're guarding a guy that's dynamic and that guy gets and gets off the ball,

for one split second, they think it's, man, he gave up the ball. Nope. And that's what makes Steph the most dynamic on-board, off-ball basketball player in NBA history. You know, I also think the way the game's going. Now, first of all, there's so many good players in our league, if a great player is off the ball and movement,

the first job is to stop the ball. So everyone has to have their attention on the ball while also doing two jobs at once and being aware of whether you're on the ball or off the ball movement, the cut the screen. But I do think the way the game's going, the pace we're playing out, the sophistication of the defense,

teams getting in the gaps and flying out and rotating, so it's harder and harder to get in the paint. The days of the better players getting the ball, stopping, holding it, sizing everyone up like it's not efficient anymore i think there's a lot of players that you know it goes both ways but there's a lot of players that could get a lot better if they don't need to catch it hold let their guy get neutral again if they can play on the move whether it's on the cut whether it's coming off a screen whether it's curling whether it's

catching and ripping do you not think the game is going where that's more valuable or more i do i do i think so important one there's so many different We didn't have this many defenses and nuances of how to play defenses versus ISO-isolated players back. I mean, I would say, you know, five to seven years ago. Sure. You know, now, you know, there's so many different ways to get the ball out of a guy's hands if he's just sitting there, ISO and on the wing.

You can flood the whole side and bring another guy to the elbow. You know, you could literally, you know, run a guy and just go trap them, you know, And now you've got three defenders. You got the guy that's guarding the ball, the guy that came over to trap him, and you have the sideline. You know, so there's so many different ways. And in our game of pace and space and rhythm, you know, it throws you out of rhythm. You kind of want the ball, you know, popping, you know, or you want the trigger to happen, either by the pass or by a pick and roll. You know, you have a dynamic pick and roll player that can attract, you know, two on the ball.

now you're playing the four on three game. You're playing the numbers game. That's the game right now. It's the numbers game. How can you start the blender? Is the blender being started by the past? Is it pass and cut? Is it what the Miami Heat are doing?

Or is it what the Lakers are doing? We start a lot of our, you know, plays with pick and roll because we have such a dynamic, you know, pick and roll player in Lucas. So the trigger, how do you create the blender? How do you create the trigger? And creating the trigger of a used to be in where guys catch the ball at the elbow or, you know, in the Carl Malone area and catch it and

face up and jab and jab and that, that, you need it a little bit, but it's definitely on the lower side of that pie chart now. It is not a big piece of a demographic of winning basketball in my case. I don't, I don't see it. You're right. It's just so much harder to catch survey and play. It's so much harder to just back your guy down from outside the three point line. You know, on the elbow, that has to be dynamic movement off the ball. But the big thing for me, a lot of players I think have to understand is there's a habit. You play in the summertime. You've been the focal point. You're playing one-on-one. You're used to playing one-on-one. You want to get good at playing one-on-one. Defenses are too sophisticated. Like you said,

they're two in the gaps. They're drawing attention. You have to take whatever advantage. So playing on the move. It's so funny. You just say that, Steve, about like guys get to the summertime. Every year, at the end of the season, there's an exit meter. with your coach, with your GM, whatever. They usually, you know, tell you, hey, you know, great year, whatever case may be, we'll be a touch, whatever case may be, whatever. I wonder how many players take the initiative to say, hey, coach, hypothetical, hey, Coach Reddick, like,

where do you see me in our scheme of things for next year so I can work on it throughout the summer? Right. Skill development, of course. I'm going to, you know, work on my skill development. But what, where do you see me fitting in with how you and the coaching staff are going to play? Because it's so funny, you just say that, a lot of guys, you see it all through the summer. Guys are posting videos and clips of them working out and, you know, doing, you know, five or six, you know, combo moves and pull-ups and things of that nature and, you know, backing down and think.

And you get into the season and you realize this is not going to be the style of play that that coaching staff, had envisioned not only not it's not no knack on you it's the how they envision on how the team is going to play so now you i feel like a lot of guys waste a lot of time in the offseason by not getting an understanding from their coach from their coaching staff on how are we going to play in the fall so not only during my skill do okay i do skill development twice a week and then i do okay what are we going to run in the summer so now i can break that down to okay we're going to run a lot of drags okay 77 i'll be the second roller or you know a lot of follows i could get to that pitch it to my picture to my summer you know my summer developer

you know and hip tap and roll and play the four on three game like it's a great i mean it's i don't think many trainers are going to tell their guys to work on hip tap and roll and get behind the defense anyways because that takes them out of working too so but that's you just triggered me right there like I've done skill training my whole career of course obviously but I've also done things that I felt like we're what we were going to run you know how how we're going to play you know and you develop that because you waste you're wasting too much time if you're just doing just all skill development that you're not going to be able to use that skill the coaches that may not even they're like you're not using any in that fashion yeah so how can you you know how can you how can you

take that. I think that's the next step for a lot of players as well too. That's trying to get better the next year too. I think that's a really smart comment for a lot of players out there in the league, in college, or in high school. Player development has to be in concert with the style of play your team as and your role on that team. That doesn't mean that 10% of it isn't where I want to be in a year, two years, three years, five years. But how am I going to play? Because else you don't get on the floor, you're not as efficient, you play less minutes. You know, I get calls, you know, fairly frequently from NBA guys want to work with me, get in the gym or do some work. And I always say, like, yeah, I'm happy to work with you, but I want to know, I want

to talk to your coaches first. Because I want to know, like, what do you see for this player? Where do you see him fitting into your team? What role do you want him to have? Before I start saying, hey, man, let's get to it. Let's do this. Let's do that. That's a waste of time. And then it's also now he's getting two messages. It's not going to help the kid get better. God comes back to the season start and he's doing all. He's doing, he's doing hang dribble, skip out, shooting threes and shit. Hey, where the hell kid did you learn that? Hey, man, Steve.

Steve told me to, hey, listen. 100%. That doesn't need to be on my name. I think it's important to like, let's get in like lockstep here with your player development coach, your assistant coaches, your head coach, like what is the ask of you in this system to make an improvement? And sometimes it's simple. Like, it doesn't have to be complicated.

It doesn't have to be, like, some crazy isolation. It's like, like you said, like a tap and go footwork. Yeah, yeah. Do it a thousand times this summer. So you're always on balance, always on rhythm, always on timing. What's the counter? All that stuff. So it doesn't sound sexy.

It's not great for the gram. Right. You know, the tap and slip. Yeah. You know, whatever. It doesn't get you likes, but that's what's going to get you minutes. It's going to make you more efficient. So I think it's a great point you bring up.

Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. What about Jalen Johnson? Like, what's the ceiling for this guy? I mean, he can score at three levels, incredible athlete. Like I mentioned, I mentioned Scotty Pippen, man. And obviously he has a long way to, you know, a long way to go. But as far as the talent, you look at a guy with long arms, six nine, six, ten, runs like a deer, super athletic. He's improved his outside touch.

But like you said, putting pressure on the rim, his ability to rebound, he can guard, he can guard one through five, you know, for the majority of, you know, ones and five, there's some fives that would be a little bit challenging. But that's what, you know, you're talking about Inde, you're talking about Joker. Obviously, they're mismatches for anybody, you know, and his playmaking, like, you know, I see that he's going to continue to improve. And, you know, one thing about our league is just like, it's all about confidence and opportunity. And once you take advantage of that opportunity and your confidence continue to, you're like, I know I can do this on, I can do this every night. You know, it's not going to be, you know, the triple double every night. It's not going to always be, you know, 15 assists every night. But you know, you're starting to know the nuances of the game on making the right play, you know, and things of that nature.

So I just, I love his ceiling. I don't know what his ceiling is, but I know it's not low. I think it continues to, I think it's very high, and I'm looking forward to seeing what happens. I think he's on pace to be an all-star in the East this year, for sure. You know, there's no doubt about it. No, for sure. I think he's playing an all-star level, and I think he's, you know, with some health, you know, I think he's a perennial all-star just the way he's starting.

Because this is the first year he's really had this much responsibility. Exactly. And he's been healthy for the month. You know, he's been healthy so far, you know. And like you just said, health is wealth. Health is wealth and life, obviously. But it is, you know, being available to your teammates and being available every night, you know, that means a lot. Yeah, for sure.

Another guy that's really kind of caught my eye is Stefan Castle. You know, averaging 18 points. That's four more. than last year. Seven assists. That's three more than last year. True shooting at 60%. That's up 8%. You know, he's, I just think this guy is a two-way full court player, explosive downhill driver playmaker, gritty, combative physical defender. Like to me, you know, the last thing to come here and he's made some threes is the three-point shooting, but he can make them. Yeah, he made a few against us too. So yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And if that's the last thing to come, then,

And the shot is not broken. Right, right. Beautiful shot. Yeah. That's just all about reps. It's just all about reps. Super, super. I love that kid.

Love the kid. Loved him, you know. I see watching him a lot of high school on the circuit. Love this one year at Yukon. And obviously last year, you know, you know, love his demeanor. He's very stoer. Like his demeanor never changes throughout the game. You could tell he's like super locked in on whatever the job is at hand.

I just love his upside. And I like you said, the demeanor, but the demeanor is combative. Like he's going to be physical. You're going to feel him. You're going to feel him at both ends. You're going to feel him on drives. You're going to feel him defensively. You know how important that is in our league today.

And what an element that brings to someone's game, but also a team game. So I really like the leap. He's taken. Let me go for one last guy that's taken a leap here. It's been kind of fun to watch is Denny Avdiya in Portland. you know yeah 25 points for game that's plus eight from last year

six assists that's two up from last year true shooting 62% that's up 2% from last year I mean here's maybe the biggest one is he's top four at time of recording in foul rate nine and a half free throws a game up there with Shea Luca and AR

so I mean this is a guy that gets downhill is a problem no he is a He's a physical driver, he's a physical, physical driver to the rim. And if you don't have a body in front of them, if you're on the side of him, then he's going to get that foul call. You know, he's super physical, especially going downhill to his right hand. And like you said, he's worked out, he's worked a lot on this outside shooting too. You know, when he was in Washington, that's the one thing he did have.

He's always had this speed with the ball, very fast with the ball, downhill to his right hand, big body, big wing. but this year in particular I've seen him expand his range and make some shots from the perimeter at a more consistent rate and it's resulted in him having a breakout career year so far

yeah for sure I feel like he's in a little bit more I feel like he's in a little better shape he just feels a little sharper getting to the cracks like you said he's shooting so that makes him faster too good playmaker makes plays for others

he's a guy I think Washington probably is kicking themselves. Yeah, ruined their decision there because, I mean, this is a quality,

quality player. He's a quality player. He's a big time player. He's good. He's really good. And a smart player can read defense as well too. That's fun.

This is always fun to talk about guys that have taken a leap and those are some of many that have taken a leap and it's fun to highlight. Absolutely. Yeah, absolutely. There's nothing like going from a relaxing airport lounge to an even more relaxing

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really starts to find its rhythm. The holiday games are behind us. Teams are really starting to figure out their identity. And every night, you're seeing guys make their case for all-star spots or pushing their teams into playoff position. The season gets real right about now. There's no better way to stay locked in than with our partners at Draft King's Sportsbook. And right now, all new customers who sign up using promo code mind and bet $5 get three $300 in bonus bets if your first bet hits. Minimum odds of minus 500 required. And never forget, Draft King's same game parlays let you stack multiple plays from a single matchup. Love the thrill of live betting. Draft Kings has got you covered. Bet live on star player

props and in-progress games as they happen. Player props, in-game momentum swings, all of it. Whether you're watching to see how a playoff race shakes out, Draft Kings gives you a way to stay locked in on all the details you might have otherwise missed. It changes how you watch the game. Download the Draft King Sportsbook app now using code mind to bet just $5 to get $300 in bonus bets if your first bet hits. Draft Kings, the crown is yours. Help my game fan questions of the week. Okay. From a real T-I-L-L-Neil, real till Neal from X, what are the best sets to use against teams in drop? or teams that switch pick and roll?

What you have a thought on that first? The best sets to run versus teams in drop. Or concepts. Or switch. Well, obviously, you know, when you got teams in a drop pick and roll, you know, if you have a dynamic point guard that's able to make those reads or whatever the case, maybe it helps out a lot. So if you're a pick and roll team and you're coming off and that five men is in a deep drop,

if you have a point guard, it has the ability to shoot the ball, you know, and that big, you're big, big can get a good clean screen on who's ever guarding the ball handler, it's going to then extend the defense at some point. The coaches are going to make an adjustment. They don't want you to keep coming off and just keep raising up, raising up and raising up. There's no help. The opposing player that's guarding the ball is going to get frustrated. He's going to be calling for the big. Come up. I need to hear you. I need to see you. So I think that helps too. But also, you know, against switching teams, getting that ball movement. Create, create, you you know, you know, confusion with hip taps, you know, quick hip taps, a ghost screens, you know, if you, you know, you chase the ball and then, you know, he thinks he's going to set, you think he's going to set a picker wrong, you just slip out of it, you know, that creates, you know, confusion, you get behind the defense and you create the numbers game. So, you know, a lot of teams that switch a lot, they point switch.

So, you know, you've got some, some opportunities to be able to run some flares. You got an opportunity to run some. rip screens and rips and slips to the rim. So you have to see how they're switching, who they're switching with, you know, and I think that would help out a lot. Yeah, I think in switching defense, I think those are great calls. And then I think the other part is you have to mix it up. You have to mix it up, play with pace. You have to flip screens. You know, we talked about slipping, but like flipping screens, catching the defender on the wrong side. Play get game, whatever it may be. Get the sets where your pace and your

variance is different. So they're not looking at the same thing. If you play slow, you walk into screens every time they get into you and they're physical. They get under. There's nowhere to slip. They receive you. They can push you back if they want to. So it's really important, I think, to play with pace, be really intentional of what you do. And then to mix it up. Like LeBron said, you want to be able to slip, you want to be able to go screen, but you want to be able to flip screens, play get game, all that variance, I think, makes it difficult against switching defenses. And then for my thoughts on a drop is when you have a three-level score, it's a tough defense to go to drop because that guy can come off on a good screen.

He's got the three-ball. He's got the mid-range. He can attack the big to score or to playmate. So I think of what a lot of coaches do if they feel like they have a center that's not capable of being up to touch to take space away from that three-level score is then they bring the wings in and shrink the floor and play in the gaps. So then you just have to be willing to make early passes and trust your teammates, It's make them pay for being in too tight, get off it early, let that next guy play two on one, shoot it, play two on one, drive and kick with the corner.

But again, the way the game's going, the one thing that's in common of this is being decisive and playing on the move, be willing to get rid of it early and play as a team because defenses are getting too sophisticated to just be so deliberate with all your actions. I agree, agree. Great call there, Steve. Mom, I'm shooting the podcast. I'll call you back. Mama. What's up, Mom? Love you. I love you.

My love. Look. You're going to be our guest soon. Steve said you got to be our guest soon. Okay. All right. Love you. All right.

Stay warm out there. I'll call you later. Okay. All right. Bye. That's amazing. That's amazing. Thanks for me.

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