Mind the Game - The Space, The Icons and The Block

Episode Date: April 10, 2024

Welcome to Episode 4 of the Mind the Game podcast hosted by JJ Redick and LeBron James. We first want to thank everyone who has watched, listened, commented, shared and provided feedback on the show. We are so grateful that people like it. Now let's get into Episode 4. First the guys take some time to discuss the growth of women's basketball, particularly in college with the rise of names like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. Then the guys talk about spacing, particularly one of the most unstoppable moves LeBron loves to utilize on the Los Angeles Lakers.... the Gortat screen (made famous by Marcin Gortat). Next, the guys talk about why the "screen assist" should a box score stat rather to help gather us appreciate players like Draymond Green and Rudy Gobert. Then the guys talk about the term "court mapping" and why Nikola Jokic is elite at this skill. Finally, JJ asks LeBron to break down one of the greatest defensive players ever... The Block on Andre Iguodala, which took place in the 2016 NBA Finals between the Cleveland Cavaliers and the Golden State Warriors . LeBron discusses the variables that went into the iconic play including the importance of J. R. Smith on that play. And as a bonus - JJ decides to show LeBron an old play of JJ on the Orlando Magic crossing over LeBron James while he was on the Cavs. This is a good one. Let's go. Subscribe to Mind the Game with LeBron James and JJ Redick today for more NBA insight, analysis, highlights and more.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Follow the best idea yet on the Wondry app or wherever you get your podcasts. One of my favorite players in the NBA right now is T. J. McKin. All right, just do it one other one other one. T.J. McConnell is like. Like Draymond, he's like Draymond as a point guard. Yeah, he is. I'm talking about T.J. McConnell, one of my favorite players. Yeah.

TJ, he's like a, there's certain guys. They check into the game, and it changes the flow of the game. Payton Pritchard's like that. Payton Pritchard's. H. Smith was like that. Yeah, for sure. Yeah, for sure. Welcome to episode four of Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James and me, J.J. Reddick, presented by Uninterrupted and 3-4-2 productions. This discussion is centered around space in the NBA and how to exploit that space, icons in women's college basketball.

and, of course, one of the most famous defensive plays in NBA history, told through the mind, the eyes, and the words of LeBron James. Just a few things that we cover conceptually in this episode. I want to go through these right now just to give you guys a little precursor to the concepts that we talk about. One of the things I talk about in this episode is the screen assist. Assists are tracked and have been tracked for decades in the NBA. An assist is when a player passes the ball to another player and that player scores. A screen assist is simply acknowledging and documenting that a player has set a screen for another player who then scores.

So it's Kevin Garnett with a wide pinned down screen for Ray Allen who comes off that screen and hits a jumper. It's Derek Lively, setting a high pick and roll screen for Luca Donchich, who then makes a three-pointer. A screen assist is just an opportunity to get your teammate open, who then scores. One of the best screen assisters in the entire NBA is Rudy Gobert, and he has been for a number of years. He actually leads the NBA in screen assist. This is a stat that is tracked through advanced stats. However, I think this should be a box score stat, and I explain why in this episode. The other type of assists we talk about in this episode is the hockey assist.

So in hockey, if a player passes the puck to another player who then passes the puck to a goal score and the score scores the goal, he gets an assist. A hockey assist is simply the pass that leads to a pass that leads to a score. For example, in high pick and roll, if the ball handler comes off and makes a pass to the big man on the short roll, which we covered in episode three, and the short roller passes to the wing, and the wing guy swings to the corner for an open three, then the big man in the short roll who made the first pass, that's a hockey assist. So the Gortat screen. This is named after one of my former teammates, Martian Gortat, who popularized this type of screen and this concept in the modern NBA. So if we talk about a spread pick and roll right here, and you have five offensive players and five defensive players, in today's NBA, the X-5, the five guarding the five men on the offense, He's oftentimes in drop coverage.

Drop coverage is simply the big man in a pick and roll dropping into the paint. He's not at the level. The level of the strain is at the level of the offensive player setting the strain. Drop coverage is simply your back off of the level. So a Gortat strain is when the offensive player comes around the pick and roll. The defensive player goes over the top of the pick and roll. And at this point, the offensive player has an advantage. And as LeBron calls it, a hostage dribble or putting a player in jail, he keeps the defender on his back.

Instead of rolling to the rim, this screener rolls into another screen on the drop coverage big, which allows the ball handler to get all the way to the basket. That is something that Martian Gortat ran a ton with John Wall, something I first really noticed when I went to Philadelphia, and I played against the Boston Celtics a bunch, Daniel Tice, Al Horford, excellent Gortot screeners. That is the Gortot screen. Another concept we talk about, specifically as it relates to Nicola Yokic, is court mapping. Court mapping is simply knowing where everyone is on the court and the tendency of those players based upon NBA concepts. So here's an example.

Let's say this is Nicola Yokic with the basketball. And this is two Nuggets players going into a high split. Again, a split is just when two offball players go to screen for each other. Let's say that this is Reggie Jackson. And Reggie Jackson sets a screen on Christian Brown, and Christian Brown cuts to the basket. Nicola Yokich has mapped the court. He knows this help defender is not really involved in the play. He's reading what these two defenders are doing. He also knows that as this cutter

cuts to the basket, chances are this help defender, because he's been taught this way, is going to help on this cut. Whether it is a scoring cut or not, he's going to help. He has awareness of this cut. So court mapping is simply, I know this guy's going to be open. I'm going to make this skip pass for three, Peyton Watson three. That's court mapping. It's simply knowing where everyone is on the court. Another example of that from Nicola Yokic. Nicola Yokic in a post up right here against the New York Knicks, Josh Hart right here as a help defender, Aaron Gordon in the dunker spot in this area. Josh Hart coming from the baseline side on a double. Nicole Iokic knows that Aaron Gordon is in the dunker spot, assuming he can get inside position,

he just makes an over-the-head pass right to Aaron Gordon for a layup. That's court mapping. Spatial awareness. So a flood typically happens on a wing isolation. So let's say this is Jason Tatum. He's got a clear side. He's the offensive player. He's the O.

He's got a clear side on offense. and let's say the other Boston players are all either at the top of the key or on the weak side, which we explained in a prior episode. Flooding simply means that the low man, the man closest to the rim, floods the lane and comes across the lane. That is flooding right here. So now Jason Tatum, instead of being isolated alone against one defender, has a second defender. all the other defenders on the weak side, then get in help position. But this is the guy right here who comes across the lane and floods.

Boxes and elbows, again, sometimes the meaning of the concept is simply in the word. If you look at a court, typically the lowest hash mark is a box. This part of the court on the lane is these are called the elbows right here. So boxes and elbows simply means that the help defense is stationed at the boxes and elbows. So think about an isolation at the top of the key. Let's say it again, it's Jason Tatum. He's isolating at the top of the key against the defender. Boston is spread out, five out.

These defenders are at boxes and elbows. I want to thank you guys again for watching and listening to Mind the Game podcast with LeBron James and J.J. Reddick. If you haven't already, please hit that subscribe button. We just recorded episodes five and six. I'm biased, of course, but I think they're some of our best work yet. four tickets, the women's final four. The men's final four. I saw that. I was thinking about earlier this year,

Ryan Rucco, who I work with, of course, who's calling South Carolina LSU, had better ratings on a Thursday night versus a Miami Heat, Boston Celtics T&T game. It feels like there's a surge in popularity right now even more so for the men's, than the men's game. The women's basketball.

basketball, whether there's WMBA, but particularly women's college. Why do you think that is? I think there's obviously, there's a lot of factors that goes into everything. We're theorizing here, by the way. We're theorizing. But I personally think that there's two things. Obviously, the obvious one to me is the transfer portal. I think there's too many guys that are leaving colleges, leaving programs, and it's just hard to keep up with a lot of guys. You know, so if I'm a kid that goes to the, you know, if I'm a fan and I, my team is Connecticut or Baylor or, you know, Duke or North Carolina and kids are now, you know, they're leaving one year in or two years in intertransfer portal, you know, you're like, you're pop, you know, you're, you know, your fandom of that particular player on your favorite program, it automatically dwindle so it goes down. So I think that that has something to do with as far as the popularity. and the excitement of why you may want to watch the women's college game more than the men's.

But I also think the number one thing is, in women's sports, compared to the men, we have the ability to go to the NBA right after our freshman year. In the women's game, you have the ability to build your legacy and build your rapport and brand with that fan base, with that community. Caitlin Clark I mean back in the day when it was like Diana Tarazi and Sue Berg Samika Hosecloth

you know Candace Parker you're watching these girls they're doing it Kelsey Plum at Washington you're watching these girls year after year after year continue to grow you watch any girl

I mean there's not much going on in Connecticut besides the Huskies so when you You get a popular basketball player, which is the most popular sport in the world. I'm a stick by it. I know football fans will rebuke my comment, but I believe that. But you get a woman to stay on campus three, four years. I think that has a lot to do with the popularity of their sport.

It gets to something Rich Paul said to me. He was talking about NBA players. and the scrutiny that the great ones face now in the social media era. But he said to me, there are no more icons. And when I think about men's college basketball, there are no more icons. And I think two reasons you mentioned,

One and Done, Transfer Portal, are a big part of that. We'll go down the list. Since the one and done era, listen to this shit. This is some of the names of women's college basketball players. And a lot of these players have won the Wooden Award. Candice Parker, and some of them have won it more than once. Maya Moore, Brittany Griner, Brianna Stewart, Asia Wilson,

Alia Boston, Sabrina UNESCO, Kelsey Plum, Caitlin Clark, Andrew Reese, Juju Watkins, who's at USC. That's just to name a few. And I feel like that, as much as I love the team aspect of basketball period, I think the women's game right now, particularly in college, has more icons. Yeah, I mean, when I was growing up watching college basketball on Big Monday, you had Allen Iverson at Georgetown, you had Carrie Kittles at Villanova, you had Ray Allen at Connecticut, you had John Wallace at Syracuse.

These are all on Big Mondays, you know, there's no more, you spent four years at Duke. There's no more JJ Reddicks or Shane Battier came back. He came back when he was already, he's going to be a lottery. he came back for a senior year. It's like, I'm coming back. Like, those are the icons that we're talking about. Those are the college icons that you watched. Yeah, you watched because you had a love for, you know, that program.

But you also watched because they had certain icons or certain uniforms. Like, you know, I used to watch North Carolina back in the day. Ed Coda, he didn't sniff the NBA. But the money, he was so, I fucking loved Ed Coda in college. I love Ed Cota, Shaman Williams, that team that they had. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I love Cincinnati, you know, what, uh, Logan and Ruben Patterson, you know, and Kenyon,

and all those guys, and then when Kenny Satterfield stepped in, DeMarre Johnson, it was like, I don't know, it's kind of like, I remember as a kid watching that.

Like, I wanted to, when I was grown up, I wanted to go to Cincinnati because of the uniforms and because of how, because of hugs. And then I got a little older

and I wanted to go to North Carolina because of the uniforms and because, you know, Ed Coda and his ability to pass the ball, like, I was like, oh, that's insane. Like, you never want to go to Duke? Fuck, no, man. Fuck, no, I never wanted to grow up and go to Duke. I already told you this.

Now, yes, now, now, now, yes. Now that you know Kay is my fucking guy, yes. My sophomore year, they started recruiting me right at the end of this, the high school season. And so they, my season ends. and they say you can come to senior night. It was Chris Carrowell's senior night. It was against Carolina.

I go, I mean, I'm the Duke fan. I'm a dream come true. So I go and had a great time. Duke wins. I meet Kay for the first time. Spent some time with Wojo. Wojo takes me around campus or whatever. Like a month and a half later,

I met the first big Nike-A-U tournament, which was Boo Williams. We hosted the first tournament in Virginia. And we get to the championship game, and I'm sitting with my teammates. And you know how you used to wear shorts underneath your shorts? Of course. Of course.

That particular day, I had decided to wear some Carolina shorts. So all I want to do in life is go to Duke, but I like the Carolina blue color. So I'm rocking these Carolina blue shorts and who fucking walks up and sits next to me. No Wojo does. He's like, what the fuck are you doing, dude? I was like, there goes my chance.

There goes my chance. Uh, real quick, I didn't want to wrap this up, but like Cameron Brink, who, uh, star player for Stanford, she said a, she had a quote, she said, I keep seeing videos of people saying, I can name five women's basketball players in college, but not men. That's so funny and such a crazy shift. I want to say overall, the women's game, we have legends still playing and a bunch of future stars. The game is in such a good place. I want to make one last point because I always think about time and progress, right? First time there was men's basketball in the Olympics was 1936. First time there was women's basketball was 1976. The NBA started in 1951. It was the NBL before that in 1946. WNBA was founded in 1996. The first women's nationally televised game was 1979.

Think about that. It was the AIAW. They were going against Larry. Bird and Magic, right? NCAA tournament for women didn't start until 1982. Think about the NBA, right? Still on tape delay in the 1980s. Finals games, playoff games.

It's just time and progress. It's inevitable. It's inevitable. These players are so talented. It's only going to get better. It's only going to get better. So this surge we're seeing, it's the trend. It is the trend.

And I'm all for it because I love a sport, men or women. I love it. I want to be clear on this No, I do, I want to be clear on this. That is our show. Our show is very clear. I want to be clear on this, because I feel like there are parts of basketball

to casual fans. Yeah. And actually, you know what, fuck that. We're all guilty at this. Yeah. We are guilty of this. Where we can watch a game and say,

Oh, that guy was awesome. And, you know, chances are he was awesome. If we all think he was awesome, he was awesome. And there's this other part of us that's like, that guy was a bum. And there's the box score watchers there, that box score watchers. Oh, yeah, we know the box score watchers. And I made the point the other night on your game with the Warriors. I said, I think screen assist should be in the box score.

I'm well aware that we can track screen assists. that is an official tracking staff. I want it to be a box score staff. Because it's like it goes back to roll. Basketball for some reason, we all have these like interchangeable roles at times. Other sports, we don't. I agree.

So if Jason Kelsey doesn't allow a sack and has a couple pancake blocks, then he was awesome. Nobody's saying, fuck Jason, why didn't you catch a pass today? Right. Why didn't you score a touchdown, Jason? Yeah, for sure.

We need screen assist. For sure. Like, can we capture how good Rudy Gobert is if we had screen assist in a box score? If Steph goes off for 42 and Draymond has seven assists, seven rebounds, seven points. And seven screen assists. And seven screen assists. Does that better capture how good Draymond Green is? Yes.

Because his impact don't always show up in a box score. you're saying. Hockey assists. Guys that pass open decent shots for great shots. Right. Or understand what the pass,

what the next pass is going to do. I'll give you a prime example right now. Let's hear. Back to blitz and picking rolls. There's certain teams in our league that we know will blitz of pick and roll, try to get the ball out of Delo's hands,

try to get the ball out of Austin's hands because they're pretty damn good if you let them get a little you know, get some spades, get them, give them where they can see vision, whatever. A lot of teams have been trying to blitz us like. The best play for them to make when you know that's happening with 80s set in the screen is the throwahead pass. To the corner. Or to the wing.

Or to the wing. Depending on which way they're going. Yeah. As soon as you come off and you have two guys on the ball, 80s diving, that means there's a two-sided on the same side that's going to tag 80, which you just drew up. Yeah. I can draw it up. Yeah, throw up again. You want the throw-ahead pass to the slot.

The throw-ahead pass to the slot. Come in middle, yeah. Come in middle. It is the easiest play to recognize, and now you put the onus on the guy in the slot to make the proper read. Nine times out of ten is going to be the guy that's sitting right in front of him, right in the corner. You know, it's interesting, too, because you talk about the hockey. You talk about the hockey assist in this play. And so as AD rolls here, these two guys have now committed to the ball, right?

And the pass goes here. Yes. Sometimes it's not AD that's going to score either, right? It's like he can catch and then he get here, or maybe it's a skip pass all the way over. Yeah. I think basketball in some ways, I don't want to simplify it because As Devin Booker said, a couple weeks ago to me, there's certain people that are them ones.

I was not one of them ones, right? But there are certain people that have the ability, like Kevin Durant, or like Devin Booker, or like Jalen Brown, to Kyrie Irving, Luca, whoever. You know who I'm talking about. The guys that can score efficiently one-on-one. And as we've gotten into this, like, super analytical phase of the NBA, there are coaches who are reading time and score.

They're reading the shot chart, the turnovers, and they're saying, I'm going to manage this game. And as long as I'm up seven to ten points in this situation, I'm not going to blitz. I'm not going to put two on the ball. and I'm going to live with whoever going 12 for 24 for 29 to 32 points but you know what I'm not going to get in rotation I'm not going to put two on the ball I'm not going to give up offensive rebounding and I think that's really interesting it is

how far did I get to Hawks what's wild about that is they they blitzed more than anybody in the league and then they decided not to blitz and Luca had six I know. Anyways, my point is, my point is there are certain guys that can do it and you live with it and there are certain plays and actions that cause a reaction and you get two on the ball. The whole thing with defense, at least to me right now,

is can we stay out of rotation? Can you stay out of rotation? And what are you willing to give up? It's not what you're willing to stop. You can't stop. The players and certain teams and the coaching now is very,

it's super, super diversified and super tricky and they're always trying to, they're just reading to see what you do. Okay, that's how they played it. Okay, we got a counter for that. There's a counter for that. So it's not what you're willing to stop,

it's what you're willing to give up. If we're going to a game and say, hey, this team, they fucking shoot the three out of high clip. They shoot 45 threes a game, 503s a game. So let's take away, to take away the threes and let's live with the mid-range.

Don't file and put them on a free throw line, because we know that's the easiest bucket you can get, and let's try to take away the threes. But that's not switching when it comes to a great player. Because you know what happens when you switch and you play against a great player? You're going to end up in fucking rotations anyways. Yeah, 100%. It's not switching. It's building a defense that keeps everyone at home, keeps the big on the big,

The guard has to either navigate, am I going under? Am I going over depending on who the point guard or the two guard is? And he has to work his ass off for that game in his minutes that he's guarding that player. And everyone has to just be ready on the backside. Obviously, case of emergency, you know, guy fucking falls or, you know, something breaks down, the big is up too high and he let the roller get behind him. Shit changes, obviously. By the way, I want to just show you that real quick.

that's your second shot I don't see something else holy shit isn't that wild there's nine guys inside there's nine guys within 12 feet of each other yeah it's wild

we'll make sure this ends up on the video that's crazy you mentioned you mentioned the Luca game against Atlanta we actually had him right after

and we talked about what I think we're going to do a play breakdown here. What I think is like the most unstoppable and ridiculous cheat code in the NBA if you can time it right.

This is you against the Milwaukee Bucks in 2020. In March of 2020. I already know what it is without even watching it. What happens on this play? The fucking Gortas screen. The Gortas screen. The fucking Gortas

screen is the most unstoppable it's wild play like you said if you can time it right it can't be stopped i scored a few times in that game one i got an one in the first half verse brook and the second one i just i hostage you call it a hostage you said put them in jail you said put them in jail but some people call it a hostage dribble you know you come over they chase over the screen you put them on your back and then you just kind of hostage dribble and now i'm waiting in that clip yeah as soon as i saw javel yeah Gortot it, that's what I took on. Luca does it.

They teach it. Yes. Jay Kid and his staff, they teach that. Yeah. They teach it. My favorite part about that clip, by the way, so Marshing Gortat was a teammate of mine in Orlando. When he was in Washington with John Wall, he started doing this. I actually asked him about this today.

On the flight here. I was like, hey, bro, I'm going to talk about the Gortat screen. I was like, where did you? you get it from? And he's like, I just reading angles. You know, Stan really helped me in understanding the game, and I came up with it myself. And then he said he has three other screening angles that he hasn't shared with anybody. So I'm like, I got to see this shit. But anyways, Martian Gortat would run this with John Wall. If you remember, a lot of teams would go under John. Exactly. Right? So if, as they would set the pick lower and lower,

they would keep switching the pick lower and lower or flipping the pick lower and lower. John would eventually get over the top. And the big, right, John was treated as a non-shooting threat. We've got to protect the rim against John Wall. The big would be so far back that Martian, instead of rolling to the basket, would just go run right into the bag.

And just run. And then, you know, he would either run straight into him with his back towards his office player or act like he's on a fake post-up and then just turn around. It's so amazing. And Martian has a... He has a...

Like, Martian Gorset has... Yeah, you know, you have like... Tire concept... Yeah, you have, like, the Carl Malone area. Yeah, yeah. You know, you have, like, certain things that we have in our day... Iverson cut.

The Iverson cut. The Iverson cut. The Iverson cut, is one more. It's a couple more. My favorite, though, part about that particular clip, if you really slow down and watch it, you had to have just said, Javel, Gortat's screen.

He doesn't even look at you or the ball. At all. He sets the pick. He kind of out of the corner of his eyes sees that you have him in jail. And he runs directly to Brooke. Yeah. Right to brook.

I see it now on drives, too. It's not just the pick and roll. Yeah. Dremont does it all the time. Yeah, Draymond did it on me the other night, but he actually grabbed my fucking arm. He wouldn't fucking let my arm go. He had me in jail and put the handcuffs on me. It's great.

No, it's great. It's great. So anyways, look for that. Yeah, look for that. Look for that. And again it goes back to You dunk the ball You dunk the ball

But Jevill McGee is going to get no credit on that That should be the assist You're absolutely right 100%. You're absolutely right But that's sacrifice Going back to spacing I love just weaving in out of this shit

Going back to spacing I feel like a 9-11 TurboS right now Just weave it out of traffic Not all spacing is created equal and by that I mean you can play five out right

you can play five out you can keep the paint clear but not every player as you said earlier by the way which is important not everybody has to be a 40% shooter

you have to be a threat from the real you have to be a threat Draymond plays in spacing Sean Marion played in spacing you know there's certain guys that plays in spacing and but it's your IQ

that creates the space. Draymond's biggest asset offensively is being able to know that guys are going to sag off them because they're daring them to shoot. And Draymond's smart enough to say, you idiots, I'm not going to shoot the ball. Y'all are playing so far off me

to when I catch it in space, I'm going to find one of my deadly two guys, Clay or Steph, and I'm going to DHO to those guys and get a clean hit, and because you're so far off me, you're not going to be able to contest. And then when you run up,

Out of control, I know that my greatest asset is my pocket pass game four on three. Yeah. That's playing in space. Right. The over, this is like, this is the Duncan Robinson, this is the Kyle Corver. Oh, my gosh. Ray Allen, you get to that dribble handoff. You're the big.

Yeah. You've sagged off DeAndre Jordan with me. You've sagged off of him. I've created the separation. DeAndre's coming to a dribble hand off from me. Oh, shit. There's the overreaction. And with Steph and Clay.

there's probably not a greater overreaction, Draymond gets behind. I mean, and when you have a guy like you saying, you have those guys that can play in the pocket and understand it, bam out of bayou, you know, we played them in the finals. When you have Tyler Hero and Duncan Robinson and those guys flying off,

there has to be some chain of reaction. Yeah. There has to be. There's this concept. That's not a concept, really, but my friend who coaches for the tip, member wolves put up these lists of attributes for basketball athleticism. And look, I'm not going to go through all the physical ones.

You can guess them, you know, vertical playing, balance, coordination, agility, all that stuff. But the cognitive side of it, which I think we touched on quite a bit in episode one, but there's one in particular I want to talk about today. So the cognitive side of it is pattern recognition, spatial awareness, which is court mapping, Yeah. Anticipation, cognitive load, mental bandwidth, essentially your processing speed, right? So the court mapping part, I think, is really interesting.

So there's a bunch of guys that do it, I think, at a higher level than anyone else. And the analogy I would use is if you were to get a new car, and let's say this new car, it was like 19, we'll say 2009. before Apple CarPlay, before Android Google Play. You remember, you used to get a car, and the map would have to download. Okay, so there's some guys, the map only gets 30% downloaded. There's some guys maybe it gets 60% downloaded. There's a lot of guys that I think are at like 80 or 90%. The map has been downloaded so that you can actually start the car and get most places you want to go.

And then there's like a handful of guys. The map has 100% downloaded. And they've mapped the whole court. Their pattern recognition is a 10 out of 10. Their anticipation is a 10 out of 10. And that, to me, is a game changer. We're talking about the not all spacing is creating. Well, you remember in your game the other night against the Warriors,

Steph's over in the corner. Gary Payton is in the left wing, and Steph is pointing at him, right? Balls all the way on the right side, all the way in the right corner. Steph is pointing at him, pointing at Gary Payton. Because his man is all the way in the middle of the paint. So he knows if you swing it to Gary Payton, the DHO happens. And he came off, fake the three, resurfaced, shot it, and won, Rui Hachamor, talks to the deal home. Yeah.

It's part of the reason I don't. Again, it's personnel-based. I talk to my teammates today about that. That? About that. About that. About Steph Curry. In the film session, we have film today, and we watch clips of Golden State. We watched clips of the Hawks game that we just had our last two games. There was a clip where we gave up way too much space to Clay. We got caught looking at the ball in the air. The ball finds the ball in the post to one of the Golden State Warriors. And for a split second, we had one of our guys looking at the ball. And as soon as that happened, Steph set a rip on Clay and he gets a three. The next clip we show, we showed I had Steph in transition and Steph cuts back door

and I'm body on body. I didn't fucking look at the ball the whole time and I know that goes against every coach. Ball, you basket, see the ball. See the ball is the problem. The ball is not the problem with Steph Curry. He's the fucking problem. Steph is most dangerous

when he doesn't have the ball, which is not many guys all time in our league that's most dangerous without the ball. I'm telling them, listen, guys, I've been in more than enough wars with those guys. More than enough. I understand it, so I get it. I come up from a different point of view, POV.

But when Steph decides to cut inside the lane, don't relax. He's coming back up. right yeah he's coming back up but you have to have that's reps and reps and reps and reps of actually guarding something that's uncomfortable guarding step is uncomfortable and the problem with our guys in our league they're not comfortable we're being uncomfortable and that's why step and golden state will always be relevant because they play an uncomfortable style of play do you hate that i hate it when you don't

have the personnel to match. I'm just, you know, the word hate. I hate it. Going back to that Gary Payton play, though. I know exactly the play. No, I know. But this is, so there's an anomaly to this, of course. I really hate the dunker spot.

I'm not going to make the same mistake as episode one. It's all good. No, no. I really hate the dunker spot. I do. I think there's a time and place. for it. I think there's a time in place for it. Fuss with the spacing?

Yeah. Obviously. Obviously. I like when I'm watching games or I'm watching film and I see no one in the paint. So think about it this way. If Aaron Gordon was always in the dunker spot and they go to their five out splits. They throw it to

Yokic, they start running the back screen to a slip. He's going to be in the way. He's going to be in the way, right? There's a time in place. There's a time in place for the dunker spot. Time and place. 7030, 80, 20? I would say 70.30. 70.30.

But on that team... 75. On that team, it's a different thing because of Yokic and the court mapping. Yeah, court mapping. Yeah, for sure. There's a play from March 2nd that I love. End game, you know what they're running, two-man.

Yep, two-man. Yokic crosses the court on the right side. All Murray's got the ball on the left side. They're going to go to that high-pick and roll of Murray to his right hand. Correct. And Yokic, I think it was Peyton Watson. He's like, stay on that. No, no, no, he said, go to the right corner.

So Payton Watson was in life, left wing goes the right corner. They get to their two-man. It eventually ends up with Yokic. Gordon's doing cat and mouse on the baseline. Yep. And he spins, and it literally looked like a shot. He's by the shot. And he does like this.

Yeah. And lob dunk, right? Lob dunk. Yeah. That is court mapping. It is. Because he knew getting that guy over there. Yep.

He knew getting that guy over there. would make you have to make the tough decision. Do I help on his spin? Do I let him score? Do I stay home on Eric Gordon? And then it's the anticipation, the cognitive load, all that stuff. Yeah, I mean, I saw a stat on Yolke's last year, and I don't know the exact number,

but in the finals versus Miami, he shot like 70% from the free throw line in. Like catching the ball at the free throw line either, This or floaters when he catches in the pocket, like 74%. That's insane. So when he turns and he's going to this, you're thinking, okay, let me try to get a contest. Meanwhile, he has Aaron Superman Gordon flying in from the corner. By the way, give credit to Aaron Gordon.

Absolutely. Because he's figured that out, that part of it out. The reason I don't normally like the dunker spot, though, is because I think what Gary Peyton did and what Ben Simmons did. And to an extent, in LA, when we ran five out, we called it delay. When we ran delay, we would have Blake at the top and DJ in one of the slots. And then he's screening for off the ball, for Jamal, for me, for CP, whatever. It's just harder to guard to me.

I mean, Aaron Gordon unlocked, he unlocked everything for... 100%. Yeah, for them. This is, again, terrible. I like your courts. As... The more... The more...

The more I've had, the worst these courts have got. All right. I'm going to put a dunker spot guy. That is the dunker spot guy. Okay. All right. So you're an ISO on the left wing. Yep.

I'm very curious about this. Yep. And if you don't want to give away secrets, that's fine. Obviously, if you look at a, fucking old troll. If you look at 1980s, 1990s, right, and you had an ISO on the left wing, this is what you're looking at, right? There's no 2.9. No, no, no. It can't move.

You can't move. Literally right there. Can't move. in today's NBA, this guy can 2-9. All the way over, 2-9s, all the way strong. But let's say he just floods all the way. Yep. Let's say he floods all the way.

This guy moves inside. Yeah. Okay, so now you're looking at essentially defense, defense, defense, defense, plus the guy in the ball. Boxes and elbows. Yeah. On the left wing. Yep.

I hate it. I don't like it. I don't. What is your sort of checklist here on this? Depends on what the cost. clock, I guess. Okay. Obviously, if I don't, if I have more time in a shot clock, then I'm going to rearrange that lineup. Meaning, I'm sorry, not alignment. Alignment. Yeah, yeah. I'm going to rearrange the alignment to make it better for not only me but for the team. I don't like catching on the

wing and sitting on the wing and allowing a defender X5 to come over and tilt, strong side, cleanse itself, and just stay there, X4, X3 or X2, get the sitting side to big on the other side, and now you've got the box and the elbows covered. If I have enough time, I'm going to send one of my best shooter on the floor to the strong corner. Strong corner. So now, if they want to tilt strong side,

I create the three on two. I want to create the three on two. It would be very difficult. So just to be clear on that, you want to create the three on two. So by sending the top guy, essentially, to the strong side, your side, you want to now get middle.

create a two on the ball, now you've got a threat to it. And if that big wants to stay on the strong side that I was ice on you, I got too much room to work with on that side for my teammates. And it's not about for me, it's about creating the advantage on the other side.

There's not much advantage when I'm sitting on the wing and I have four guys staring at me. Yeah. If it's short clock, obviously my job is to tell the big that's being in the pain and the dunker. You got a ducking.

and get to the middle of the rim to make him guard you. So when I do swing, we do have an advantage on the other side. But I don't like that alignment. I'm more of a three-one guy. When I have the ball, I like my best shooter in the strong corner, if I'm on the left wing or the right wing. And I like a three-line assembled on the other side. You want to get the flood guy the fuck out of there, basically.

Yeah, fuck out of there. And I like a guy down in the – I know you don't like the dunker, but I like him down. And then a guy in the corner guy on the slot. No, no, no. Hold on. I will say this. on a left wing or right wing ISO or post-up,

I got no problem with the dunker. It's good. Because if no one's at the basket in that spot, if you're the only guy on the side of the court and everybody's around the three-point line, then everybody can help. Yeah, everybody can't. There's no space in.

You have to put some pressure on the rim with the dunker in that situation. I'm talking about balls up top, either in the right high quadrant, left-high quadrant or top of the key. It's pretty bad space in there. Yeah, that's all I agree. It's pretty bad space and I agree.

All right. we did the Gortop play I want to go through two more plays and we're gonna we're gonna we'll add these to whatever episode we decide we want to add them to it

um all right so the one specific play I want to go through with you is the block in game seven okay of 2016 okay take me through

what proceeded on the offensive end to your mindset in that chase down? If my mind is serving me right, both teams can score. Three, four minutes, three, four minutes of actually game time. So when you're in the game, it actually feels like it's fucking 25, 30 minutes.

I think it was 89, 89 at the time, if I'm not mistaken. And at that point in time, I felt like Kyrie could get us to be. best shot. And if I'm not mistaken, I believe Kyrie drove, got a great look, shot up a floater. And I'm sitting in the corner by their bench. I'm opposite of Kyrie. I'm sitting in the corner by their bench in my head. I said, if I'm correct with the trajectory of the ball, what I'm seeing, I got to get my ass back because Iggy's going to be on a sprint. Step's going to be on a sprint and we're outnumbered because I'm below the free throw line

Tristan's below the free throw line. Kyrie's shooting the ball. He's below the free throw line. And all I can see is, all I see is Swish, J.R. I said, I got to get back. For soon as the ball, when the ball is missed, I didn't, I didn't, if I was to follow my my coach's orders or coaches orders, you're supposed to get back on the race. On the release.

Yeah, yeah, yeah. On the release. Get back on the release. I did not get back on a release. I didn't start to actually get back until I actually saw it was a miss. But in my mind, I could see the ball feeling like it was going to be a little long.

I just hard ass, man. I just hard ass. And when I'm running, I think if I'm not mistaken, I don't know who it was that I kind of like kind of run around. I don't know who it was. I don't know if it was a Golden State player or one of our guys.

I kind of had to run around. around or move around because I was in the left corner and Iggy side are on the right side. But when I run it, all I'm telling myself, I'm like, swish, do not follow him. So you guys, any of my teammates throughout the course of my career or throughout the course of that season, anytime that you see me trailing the play, all I need is a little adjustment from the office of player and I promise you I'll track it down. Do not fucking file. Do not fucking file.

I told the guys all year, if you see me hauling ass, just make him, instead of just going in for a layup, make him change it a little bit, just a little bit. And Switch gets a lot of shit today. Right.

Because of the blunder he had the following year, or two years later, or whatever the fuck it was. I'm not understanding the time and score, whatever the case may be. He executed dashed, shit to perfection.

He made Iggy change his shot just a little bit, and that's all I asked. It's interesting because... I went up with both hands, too, by the way. I was ready... You hit the rim with your left hand. I was ready for the reverse

or the strong side, and I was like, if these fucking refs call goal 10, I might get kicked out of this most important game of my life because it was still over two minutes and you couldn't review back then. unless it was under two minutes

because I knew I had got it clean that's all I was saying myself so I'm getting this shit so many of your chase downs by the way is you do your little run I'm just saying bro I'm not an impressionist

you do your little run and then it's like the quick burst you know what I mean that was different though that was like once you said okay I got to go get this I was like yeah I've got I don't have time.

A little window to get there. Yeah. It was different. Like the last leg of the fucking four by one relay were like

fucking the same boat. I was like, I got to fucking go. All right. I got one more play for you. Let me pull it up real quick. We could literally do this shit all day, bro.

You not on the Wi-Fi here? They didn't give you a Wi-Fi? I just hit play on that. I already know what the fuck he's played if, you fuck. By the way, you fuck me up. What happened here? What happened here?

What happened here is I didn't know that your ass could go and stop and go like this. What the fuck? I didn't know that you had that in your arsenal. The little. Yeah, the little waxy rap. Yeah, the hussy rap. You fucking turned me all the way around. I'm serious when I say this.

I love the fact that you missed it. Thank you. I appreciate you. If I had made that shot. If I had made that shot. I would have that highlight pinned on every social media account at the very top of my account.

In overtime. In overtime. I know. How did you miss that? I think we won like 104, 98. We won that game. Y'all won that game? Yeah.

Yeah. I turned all the way around. That was a, I think that was a lockout year. Yeah, shame was on the team. Yeah, shame was on the team. Because he guarded me that game. He actually switched. He was on the line.

Yeah, he switched right before that. Yeah, we got a fucking final after that. Yeah. God, I've made that shot, man. It's not a highlight. It's not a highlight. It's not a highlight. It should not be on YouTube.

It should not be on YouTube. You know why it's on YouTube. Because it was against fucking me. Everything is on YouTube. If it's done against me, no matter if it's a highlight or not, everything. I'll take half of it. I'll take like a half credit. You do know how that I create super teams, though, right?

That's up. Cheers, man. This is good. I'm glad I didn't dive in that. It's so good. That was great. All right. We're good.

You say, okay, I get it. This motherfucker? Oh, this motherfucker, nice. He points at me. This motherfucker, he gonna get his. We can't stop him. This motherfucker, okay, he had his 15 foot shots and shit. Okay, all right, cool.

But this motherfucker! This motherfucker ain't shit I have 18 points Oh my God That shit is so funny Hey guys Thanks for listening Thanks for watching

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