The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - BEST OF: Luka’s Debut With Lakers, Durant Reaches 30k Points, Tatum The Best “Swiss Army Knife” In The League

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

Jason Timpf’s top takes of the week! He starts with the biggest news of the week, Luka Doncic making his debut with the Lakers after the blockbuster trade. He also breaks down why Jimmy Butler has restored the “belief” in the Warriors, congratulates Kevin Durant on reaching 30k career points and why Jayson Tatum has become the best “swiss army knife” in the league.  Timeline: 4:15 - Luka’s Lakers debut 16:00 -  Jimmy Butler restores belief to Warriors 30:45 - Kevin Durant reaches 30k points 33:30 - Jayson Tatum is the best “swiss army knife” in the NBA #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas.

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Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo, and every episode, we're cutting through the noise, breaking down the biggest moments in sports and giving you the real story behind the headline. And we're going straight to the source, the athletes themselves, their locker room stories, their reactions, the moment and the stuff nobody gets to hear. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Sliced Life 12 in the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

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21 plus age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see dkng.c.c.com slash B ball. Welcome to the best of hoops tonight, featuring my top takes from recent shows. Lucas debut at the Lakers. A really weird game because the jazz are just really bad. And the jazz are also a legit, like, switch everything one through.

five no matter what type of team. And so all your ball screen actions are kind of shut down. And the only way you're really going to get advantages is by like slipping out of switches, sealing switches, or attacking one-on-one and drawing help, right? And the biggest thing that stood out to me in this game was their ability to consistently get dribble penetration. There was good action too. JJ talked about in the postgame presser how they ran a three-man horn set with Luca LeBron and Austin one time in the game and got a wide open shot for Rui Hachamur. And it was. They made a, so Austin was at the top.

LeBron and Luca were at the elbows. Luca's on the left elbow. Austin makes a post entry to Luca and then cuts off of LeBron. And when he cuts off LeBron, LeBron sets a good screen. That obviously triggers the switch. But Jordan Clarkson was guarding Austin. LeBron just sealed him and created that over the top passing angle. Luca threw it to him.

Now all of a sudden, Jordan Clarkson's trapped on LeBron's backside. so there's nobody in front of him. If you don't step up, LeBron's going to go to the rim. Rui Hachamura's man who was in the corner steps over to help on LeBron. LeBron makes the kickout pass to Rui wide open three. That's the type of action that they'll have to run more frequently against some of the better teams in the league when it's just a little bit harder to break down individual defenders.

But they did get good stuff out of action. There were some other examples like Rui's first dunk in the game along the baseline. Luca set a screen for Rui along the baseline. Callier was guarding Luca and was really hesitant to switch off of Luca. And so he did it. John Collins got caught on the screen. Rui Hachamura got a dunk. Even the lob dunk that Jackson Hayes got to start the second half, same sort of concept. A little widescreen between Luca and Jackson Hayes.

Isaiah Collier did not want to switch off of Luca. He was kind of hesitant on that, but they did switch off of Jackson Hayes. So Luca just threw the lob right up to Jackson and he got a dunk. There were examples of them getting good stuff out of action, and especially against more traditional coverages, they're going to get a lot of stuff out of action. But again, by far the biggest thing that stood out to me was their ability to get dribble penetration.

Luca has this remarkable ability to turn any small gap or small angle into a full-blown drive to the rip. And part of it is his incredible ability to use fakes. He just says he's really good at like, I talk about this all the time when he was in Dallas, but he will sell every part of every part of every move with every part of his body.

So like, I talk about this all the time. Instead of like doing a big sweeping crossover, it makes more sense just to face this way and then completely change direction. If you sell it with your eyes and you sell it with your shoulders and you sell it with your hips, the defender is going to react. Most good defenders don't watch the ball. They watch like your center of gravity to see where your body's going. And you sell that direction change and then you pull the ball back across, right?

Like it's more about those little head fakes and body fakes to get players out of position. He's great with pump fakes. He's great with pass fakes. He can do all these things to get guys out of position. And once he gets that tiny little angle, that's where his strength takes over. He's just so big and so strong that he can turn a small gap into like a lumbering drive to the rim because he gets you caught on his shoulder or caught on his backside.

And his drives have a tendency to bring in a ton of help because they are slow. He like rumbles downhill and everybody reacts to it. And because he's such a threat to throw the lob pass, everyone kind of overreacts to stuff in the paint. And that's what opens up those kickout reads. Did you notice how much LeBron was pressuring the rim last night? A big part of that is because he doesn't have to create every single shot. He doesn't have to worry about burning himself out. He's also clearly very excited right now that plays a role in it.

But did you notice that he was like on those switches being aggressive downhill, pressuring the rim? He kind of gets choppy with his feet and tries to get ahead of steam so that he, gets his body weight going downhill and guys just don't want to get in the way of him. Like there's a certain amount of energy that LeBron can afford to expend on each individual ISO, on each individual post-up, on each individual ball screen, simply because he has less to do on the offensive end of the floor. I thought LeBron was fantastic in this game.

He's been great for a while. JJ Reddick talked after the game about how ever since the Miami game, they had a talk. If you guys remember, the Miami game was when I had my meltdown and I was like, what the hell is wrong with these guys, you know? And JJ sat down with LeBron. And ever since then, he's been fantastic. I dug into the numbers since that Miami game. He's averaging 26.4 points per game, eight rebounds per game, nine assists per game, 54% from the field, 43% from three, eight 30 point games, four triple doubles. He's playing at a top five level right now, which is what's so excited about partnering him with LeBron James with the other talent on this roster.

Austin was fantastic again. He had to lead a unit in the early second quarter with LeBron, or excuse me, in the late first quarter with LeBron and Luca both off the floor because Luca was on a minute's restriction. Now, I would expect that it'll be like all three of them to start games. Then LeBron will come out and it'll be Luca and Austin, right, in that like mid-first quarter stretch. And then one of those guys will come out probably Luca.

And it'll be Austin and LeBron to end the first quarter. and then they'll probably start the second quarter with LeBron and Luca. Then LeBron will come out in the middle of the second quarter. It'll be Luca and Austin, and then it'll be all three of them at the end, right? That's probably going to be the normal progression. You're probably always going to have to deal with two of those guys, right? And that's the exciting part about this in the big picture. And I was literally thinking about it last night.

Like there's been a lot of time over the course of the last couple of weeks where the Lakers have been playing really good basketball. But over the course of games, teams will ball pressure Austin and ball pressure LeBron and wear them down and LeBron is 40 and Austin is a little bit susceptible to strengthen athleticism from time and from time to time and they will wear down and they've been playing so great that they've still been winning and Austin still made enough plays in the Pacers game to get the job done and they do what they need to do to get the win but there's clearly like a little bit of like a okay we're running out of gas offensively here where adding

Luca just immediately doesn't just address that but turns you into the most resilient shot creation team in the league to just be dealing with waves of all three of them and then Luca and Austin and then Luca and then Luca and then all three of them again and it's just going to be LeBron and Austin here and all these just these groups that have so much shot creation on the floor they're just going to have such a resilient offense but again because of Luca's minutes restriction Austin had to lead a unit by himself and guess what he's been doing that a lot this year and he did it amazingly well again last night in that first quarter stretch. One of the biggest things, though, that I was excited about after this trade was

the play finishing that is on this roster. Okay, like, Luca's an indomitable force. There are a handful of guys in the league that can make him work harder than usual. I think of like Lou Dort. I think of like Andrew Wiggins, who's not even in the conference anymore, but even some of the best perimeter defenders in the league, guys like Jada McDaniels, right, in the Western Conference Finals, those guys can't keep him from getting to his spots. As a matter of fact, he kind of gets where he wants to easily against them. That is the superpower that will help this offense when things get really tough. But the other guys do have some limitations, right? LeBron's 40.

There's a couple times last night where he tried to like turn the corner on Lori Markinen and just couldn't get there. Lori was like blocking him off the glass or forcing him into bad misses. Five years ago, he's dunking on his head, but he's 40, right? And he can wear down a little bit physically over the course of games. Although to LeBron's credit, he's been fantastic out of late, as of late, and that's the optimism with this group. But LeBron is 40 years old.

Austin Reeves, for example, not a great athlete. He can struggle under ball pressure sometimes. Rui, if it's not a dunk under the rim, like he's shooting under 50% on layups, right? And his jumper under contests can get a little finicky sometimes. Point being, they're awesome offensive players, but they have some limitations when they're in the lead roles. For all three of those guys, right? But once you give them an advantage, if you let LeBron have someone sprinting at him and now he's playing driving kick basketball, If you let LeBron slip out of screens to where he can lead a four on three,

if you put Austin on the perimeter with a guy sprinting at him where he could show the ball and drive left or right, if you put Rui wide open where he's shooting 53% on unguarded catch-and-shoot jump shots this year, field goal percentage, meaning he's making more than half of them. With what he can do driving closeouts, Gabe has been playing super well again. He was a big part of that Austin solo unit that did so well. Doreen Phine Smith can knock down an open three.

Jackson Hayes, like I talked a lot after the Mark Williams trade went through or fell through about how not having Mark as like a role man threat could be a significant hit to this offense. After watching last night, like, I thought Jackson did just fine capitalizing on all the vertical spacing opportunities. I believe he was six for six from the field, if I remember correctly. Like, I think he's not as good as Mark Williams, but I think he's going to do just fine,

unlocking that vertical spacing. The point is, is there's just a ton of play finishing on this roster. So if you have Luca, who against the very best defenses in the league and against the very best defenders in the league, can still create advantages, and LeBron, who kind of looks like he's still doing it for whatever reason. And let's say, let's even pretend for a second that LeBron eventually kind of wears down over the course of a playoff run and doesn't look like top five LeBron, but looks like top 10 LeBron. Even if that happens, Luca is there to create the initial advantage. Once he creates that initial advantage, LeBron and Austin and Gabe and Dorian Finney Smith and Rui, those guys are incredible at this driving kick thing. And they're just going to take those advantages and either

score out of them or drive them and draw another defender and create an even better shot. There were so many sequences last night where the Lakers continued to break down the defense and would get like a really good look with like two or three seconds on the shot clock. It's like, oh, LeBron's driving on like the fourth driving kick of the possession and whipping a pass back across the court to Gabe Vincent who knocks it down. Or all of the possession is great defense from the jazz and everything's covered. But Walker Kessler is on Austin and a switch on the left wing and Austin just pump fakes. On a closeout, the end of the possession is you get a short closeout for Austin on the left wing against Walker Kessler. Austin shows the ball. Walker over pursues that pump fake.

Austin drives and hits a little bank shot with like two on the shot clock. That is play finishing. I talk about this all the time. When you go into lower levels, it's dramatic the difference. At the high school level, if I let the guys play king of the court with a set defender versus a king of the court with a guy closing out at them, their ability to score like quadruples when you give them that advantage. Now again, at the NBA level, it's a smaller advantage. It's more like maybe 20 to 30% more efficient per possession.

But that's a substantial increase that you can benefit from because now you have the best set of advantage creators that are in the NBA. So on the Warriors front, I'm talking a lot with respect to LeBron about the concept of belief, right? like playing championship level basketball is really hard and takes a pretty desperate commitment to work that's not even necessarily fun. It's fun in the context of winning, but playing championship basketball includes a lot of really difficult things to do on the court, a certain level of exertion that is difficult. And so if you don't actually think you're going to get rewarded for it by actually believing there's an opportunity to accomplish something, it's going to be difficult. Even for the best players,

in the world to really get invested in that context. About four games ago, early last week, it became abundantly clear that the warriors were going to trade for somebody. I don't know if it was just the humiliation of missing out on Kevin Durant or what the deal was, but it became clear that they were going to get somebody. In the four games since then, since that intel came down, Steph is averaging 35 points, five rebounds, and five assists per game. In the two games, since Jimmy Butler actually started to be able to be able to, since Jimmy Butler actually

started playing and making life easier for Steph, he just logged back-to-back games with at least 30 points on at least 50% shooting for the first time since the Dallas and Oklahoma City wins way back in early November. I talked about how the thing I was most excited about this deal. I do think that this Warriors team has a small window to maybe capitalize on an opportunity to win a championship here, but more than anything, it went from a team that was most likely not going to play any meaningful basketball. Without a trade, that team is probably going to lose in the play in, just like last year.

But with Jimmy Butler in the mix, they're almost certainly going to get out of that mess and get into a first round series. Which means we're going to get another opportunity to watch Steph Curry play meaningful basketball. That's what I'm excited about. Steph said after the game, we've got an opportunity to do something pretty special,

considering where we've been this season. And he's right. There are lineups that they're can put together now that have Steph, that have Jimmy, that have Draymond, they have Jonathan Camingo when he comes back and it looks like he's probably going to be coming back after the All-Star break, where they have enough talent now to actually present some problems to some of these teams. And that's like when it comes to the playoffs, so much of it comes down to like, what do we do that the other team sucks at? What do they do that we suck at? What can they capitalize on in terms of weaknesses and vice versa? And just bringing in a weapon like Jimmy Butler,

just puts them in a situation where they're going to be a more precarious type of matchup to deal with. And like, God, if we can get, if the Warriors end up matching up with somebody like the two-seat, if they end up getting a Memphis, that's a matchup that they're capable of winning. And how great would it be if we got to see another month of high-level playoff basketball out of Steph Curry, even with an opportunity to potentially do more? Like I said, it's not guaranteed. There could be injuries. There could be things that go wrong.

They could miss the playoffs, right? But by virtue of making this deal, I find it far more likely than not that they're going to make it out of the playing tournament and get into a legitimate playoff series. And give me Steph, Jimmy, and Dremont in a playoff series. And I think that that's going to be a fascinating couple of weeks. And if they win, we could get to see another extended playoff run from one of the greatest players in the history of the game. That's why I'm excited. It's about belief. Like, Steph looks engaged.

He doesn't say that after the game unless he believes. that this team can do something. Jimmy Butler, I think, has been an amazing fit right away. I wasn't worried about it. I know there were some Warriors fans that were. I just think Jimmy's too smart of a basketball player that brings too many complimentary traits to what Steph Curry does. I want to talk a little bit about middle of the floor processing.

This is something that I've talked a lot about on this show with respect to, like, mediocre playmakers. In the sense that when you're in the middle of the floor, there's just, you can only see, you know, maybe one-fourth of what's happening around you. There's always like a lot of moving parts that can get confusing in the middle of the floor. It's a spot where a lot of players struggle. And it's why, like, when it comes to the mediocre playmakers, you kind of want to clear the side and then have them operate so the whole floors in front of them just so that they have an easier time making reeds.

But when you have a player who knows what to do there, when you have a player that doesn't panic, It's like that famous basketball ism, whatever you want to call it, be quick, but don't hurry, right? If you can get a player that can quickly process without rushing and making mistakes in the middle of the floor, all sorts of good things can happen to your offense. An example from late first half last night against the Bucks. Steph Jimmy two-man game, top of the key. Kuzma goes out with Steph. There's two guys on Steph.

Jimmy catches in the middle of the floor. When he catches in the middle of the floor, Draymond's man steps up closer to Jimmy. And now there's a two-on-one that's formed with Draymond underneath the basket, Buddy healed on the wing, with Damian Lillard kind of splitting the difference between the two. Jimmy just calmly turns and pivots and looks at Buddy healed.

When he turns and pivots and looks at Buddy healed, there goes Dame running out to go to Buddy because he's biting on that head fake or past fake, whatever, just Jimmy acknowledging Buddy's presence, gets Dame to jump out. Then he just pivots again and looks, and there's Draymond, boop, bounce, pass, easy lay up right underneath the basket. He just looks so calm and comfortable operating there. Here's why that's important. Last night, you actually saw it in some zone looks. Got to get the ball to the middle of the zone, and the Warriors consistently got it to Jimmy there.

They scored eight points on four zone possessions in that game, and the Bucks just stopped trying it. You can't run a zone if they're getting two points per possession. So that's part of it. But the biggest part, the most meaningful part within the playoff context, is the Steph Jimmy two-man game. When you run the Steph Jimmy two-man game, it's going to create advantages in three different ways. One is like that sequence I just told you about. Jimmy sets a screen. Both guys run with Steph. Now Jimmy's the role man, and it's a four-on-three where Draymond is absolutely an offensive threat in the dunker spot. Jimmy is a threat to score in the middle of the floor and to play make out of it.

and you've got guys like Moses Moody in the corner who has just been fantastic since the Andrew Wiggins injury. It just, or injury, excuse me, trade, since the Andrew Wiggins trade. It's given Moses Moody opportunity and he's just been capitalizing on it as a big, rangy wing on the perimeter that can knock down threes, drive, close outs, and play defense and rebound. And it's just, he's taking advantage of his opportunity and he's crushing. But like, you get into those four on threes if they put two on the ball with Steph.

That's where Jimmy can operate in the middle of the floor. The second thing that will happen with the Steph Jimmy two-man game is inside position sealing on switches. So imagine the guy's guarding Steph one-on-one faced up with him. And Jimmy, this is the defender, Jimmy comes up and screens on the backside. And it triggers a switch. Okay, if they switch, Jimmy can then seal and create that over-the-top passing angle. We talked, I believe, on the Sunday show, about just how dynamic Jimmy is in those inside seals

at creating a passing angle. and high pointing the basketball and catching it. That accomplishes the same goal, the same four on three. So like if you screen for Steph and your defender runs out onto Steph, but now you've got Steph's defender sealed on your top side and you get a catch over the top, it is an identical four on three. Because when you catch, all of a sudden, your defender's behind you, so you can just go right to the rim, which is going to force somebody to step up,

there's your four on three. Now you have a three on two on the backside once that guy steps up to you after you catch on that inside seal. So you can get four on threes out of getting two onto Steph and just slipping out of it. You can get four on threes out of inside seals on switches. Now, what about when they well execute a switch? So they switch, but the guy who's guarding Steph just quickly dives around with some good swim move or something and gets behind Jimmy. Well, who's the guard that's quick enough to guard Steph? Now he's got to guard Jimmy in the post.

Wait until Jonathan Caming is back out there. And again, it looks like he's going to be coming back sometime shortly after the All-Star break. Jonathan Caminga comes back. Where are the athletes at? Where are you putting your athletes? Well, if you put your best forward athlete on Jimmy, that means your second best forward athlete is now guarding Jonathan Caminga, who's going to just be a massive athletic mismatch.

that you can attack. If you have the best forward athlete on Jonathan Cabinga, now you got your third best perimeter defender overall guarding Jimmy Butler. Like, that's going to put you in a bind in terms of matchups. That's going to make that Steph Jimmy two-man game even harder to account for. But again, what unlocks all of it is anytime they put two on the ball,

anytime they botch a switch or they get sealed topside on Jimmy, he's going to be able to operate out of the middle of the floor better than any other player on this roster could. Dremont could do all the playmaking out of that position, but he couldn't bring the scoring out of that position. There are going to be times where Jimmy catches on the roll and everyone stays home, and he's going to have to attack the rim and maybe finish in a little bit of traffic or hit something there in the middle of the floor. He can do that. He can do that at a really high rate. But I just think the early returns from this have been beautiful in terms of just, demonstrating the simple fact that Jimmy is not only a very complimentary athlete to Steph,

but he also represents a gaping hole in the roster that was there before the deal, which is just having a really high level dribble, a guy who can dribble shoot and pass on the floor that just greases the wheels for everything that you try to do on offense. Hey, it's us to Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new news? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it.

We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band.

Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down. Yes. I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys.

Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends. me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Last night, a blown call changed a game. This morning, the internet lost its mind.

Highlights are trending, opinions are flying, and nobody's telling you exactly what happened. That's where Sports Slice comes in. I'm Timbo. Every episode, we're cutting through the noise. Breaking down the plays, the controversies, and the stories behind the headlines. We go straight to the source, the athletes themselves. Their locker room stories, their reactions, the stuff nobody gets to hear. The laughs, the drama, the triumphs, the moments that never make the highlight real.

From viral moments to historic games, from buzzer beaters to controversial calls, we break it down, give you contrast. and ask the questions everybody wants answered. Sports Slice brings you closer to the action with stories told by the people who live them. Listen to Sports Slice on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more, follow Timbo Slices Life 12 and the TikTok podcast network on TikTok.

Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's superhuman. documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth.

Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I was amazed watching Kevin Doreen at last night. The Suns were an absolute mess. They had several guys playing that probably shouldn't be in the rotation for a serious NBA team. They looked incredibly sloppy and undisciplined. one of the worst transition defense performances I've seen. They gave up 20 offensive rebounds. But like a shining light in that darkness was Kevin Duran.

34 points on 18 shots, only one turnover, five blocks, battling with Jaron Jackson trying to box him out on the glass all night long. And to top it off in the process, he enters into rare territory. Kevin Duran is only the eighth player in NBA history to score 30,000 points in an NBA career. rarefied air there, a group of guys that it's an honor to be associated with. But to me, the most impressive part of all of this is the circumstances he overcame to get here. Kevin Durant suffered the most terrifying injury that a basketball player can suffer. An Achilles rupture.

Right at the peak of his powers. He was playing so incredibly well when he took that little baseline jumper that he knocked down where he originally suffered the calf injury. And then he played amazing in his first few minutes in the NBA finals before he went down. You can't imagine a more discouraging set of circumstances for a basketball player. And instead of letting that injury be a signal of the end, he came back every bit as good as ever on the other side of the injury. 7,068 of those 30,0008 points that he's scored so far

came after the Achilles tear. And he's done it on higher volume and efficiency than he was doing before the injury. In the five seasons before Kevin Durant's injury, he averaged 26 points per game on just under 64% true shooting. In the five seasons since, he's averaging 28 points per game on over 64% true shooting. Any drop in his athleticism he's more than made up for with a mastery of the modern game as a playmaker and as a floor general, I was really amazed by this in the Brooklyn Nets days.

As the league kind of shifted to like really good spacing in the spread pick and roll attack, he was so incredibly good at picking teams apart as a pick and roll ball handler with the nets. And we've seen that extend throughout this late phase of his career. Like, he's just the product of a consistent pursuit of excellence. It's got a legendary work ethic. His shooting workouts are the example set for all pros around the world. Still, when I'm talking to the kids that I train in high school, I talk about doing every single rep at game speed,

something that Kevin Durant has been preaching. he's just, KD is one of the best ambassadors to the game of basketball that has ever come into this league. And I'm thankful for him. And I just wanted to take a second before we talked about that game last night to congratulate him on overcoming the adversity of his injury and to enter into rarefied air and NBA history.

I thought Jason Tatum just completely dominated the first quarter of that Spurs game, set the tone, built that initial advantage, and it was something that the Spurs just couldn't overcome. On the defensive end of the floor, Boston had a switching group out there that was just doing a really nice job. Just staying attached, shutting down screening actions. Switching puts an emphasis on running action, good action that confuses switching, like three-man action, lots of ball and player movement to try to get guys to make mistakes.

And then when teams successfully switch, you've got to be aggressive against those switches, is getting to the basket to get super high value shots or to draw multiple defenders. You can run into a trap where you start settling. And that was what happened in that first quarter. There was a few examples of good action. There was like a little Chicago action, like a downscreen into a dribble handoff

where they pitched it back to Julianne Champany on the right wing and knocked down a three. There were a couple examples like that, but it was a lot of like Deer and Fox contested pull-up jump shots. Victor Wimbunyama contested pull-up jump shots. shots. They weren't doing a very good job of attacking the switching. And then on the other end of the floor, in the first quarter, Jason Tatum goes for 14 points, six rebounds and three assists with zero turnovers. Did a ton of scoring in that short to mid-range attacking the Spurs smaller players

when they'd get switched onto and mismatches. There was a stretch in the late first quarter where they started spamming a stack pick and roll action with Luke Cornett and Peyton Pritcher. Just a ball screen with Tatum and Cornett with Pritchard back screening generated a wide open three. for Pritchard at the top of the key that he happened to miss. He ended up hitting a pull-up three on the right wing when they botched a switch. Again, three-man-action is a great way to get teams to botch switches. And Victor Wambignamo was basically just sticking with the screen, the guy who was back-screening him in the action,

instead of dealing with Tatum coming off of that screen. He just stepped into it, knocked down a three. He finished the corner off with a beautiful driving kick, like sweeping hook pass over to the left wing to Al Horford. Tatum just immediately looked like by far the best player on the floor. In a game that had two players that are considered top 25 players in the league, in my opinion, and D.R. Fox and Victor Wenbanyama, and Tatum was just completely outclassing them to start the game.

And this is just the groove that Jason Tatum's in right now. During this three-game winning streak, he's averaging 35 points per game on 61% true shooting. Jason Tatum has just been consistently great. I've seen a lot of talk about, I've seen a lot of talk of late about like a Celtics fans calling Jason Tatum the best forward since LeBron. And when I, when I first heard that, I had this like kind of reflex that came up in me that was like, well, what about Kauai? And like, what about Kevin Durant? And I think Kevin Durant would be the guy that I'd probably still put over Tatum in the sense that like in that like 2018 to 2021 stretch. He was just that, like, and that's like spanning with an Achilles injury in the middle.

But in that, like, I should say like 2017 to 2021 stretch, he was just so incredibly good on both ends of the floor. I'm not quite there. But I do think he's been better than Kauai. If you, like, piece everything together. Because like, Tatum, what Tatum is to me is he's a Swiss Army knife type of forward in the same vein as a, as a LeBron James. So, for instance, like, Kevin Durant has a lot of impact. I think Kevin Durant has arguably just as good of an impact on the defensive end in terms of his ability to protect the rim, defensive rebound, switch out onto the perimeter.

But Kevin Durant has a little bit of a susceptibility to size and strength. We saw that in the Memphis game two nights ago when Jared Jackson was able to just kind of toss Katie around at certain times and you got two easy buckets on him in the post late in the game or an easy bucket and a foul late in the game where I think Tatum's a little bit sturdier for that type of matchup. but I think Katie also is a little bit longer, a little bit better rim protector. So like the two of them are more or less even on the defensive end of the floor.

But I do think that Tatum has a certain Swiss Army knife quality in terms of just his ability to keep the ball moving, his playmaking ability. Jason Tatum has become a really, really gifted playmaker in this league. And so we can debate whether or not Tatum has reached a level that's higher than Kauai or higher than Katie. I'm hesitant to go that far.

But what I will say is that Tatum is becoming the Swiss Army knife of this generation, which is what LeBron was in his generation. It's a type of player that I'm drawn to because I think it demonstrates a, first of all, a versatility, but also just a commitment to winning. There's a lot of stuff in there that guys aren't willing to do. A simple examples, like as good as Kevin Durant has been defensively, I think he's kind of underachieved on that end over the course of his career, whereas Tatum, you can tell, is maximizing his potential on that end of the floor. I think it's just a testament to the type of leader he is, the type of competitor that he is. Again, a lot of times we see guys like that that are a little bit more mellow

and not as like loud and and boisterous with their personality and we or even guys that are boisterous that are, but that are positive. We think of them as like not competitors because they're not Kobe Bryant type assholes. And the truth of the matter is is like the work that Jason Tatum does is a pretty clear demonstration of the type of competitor that he is. And he stepped up big time over the course of this recent stretch. The volume. What's up, guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight.

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