The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Giannis & Bucks shut down Nuggets, Wolves blast Clippers, Warriors & Celtics mailbag

Episode Date: February 14, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and the Milwaukee Bucks' 112-95 win over Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. Is Doc Rivers' squad beginning to turn a corner? (18:30) Jason also shares his thoughts on Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves' dominant 121-100 win over Kawhi Leonard and the Los Angeles Clippers (3:30) before hitting mailbag questions on the Boston Celtics, Golden State Warriors, and much more from the NBA (30:00). (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)  #Volume #Herd  See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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We had two major showdowns last night, the Minnesota Timberwolves and the Los Angeles Clippers, as well as the Milwaukee Bucks and the Denver Nuggets, and a couple of really impressive wins for the Bucks and the Timberwolves. We're going to be breaking down those two games from the perspective of both teams. And then I have about a half dozen mailbag questions, including some follow-up stuff that I got from you guys involving the Celtics and their kind of matchup attacking.

And then the Golden State Warriors, and whether or not they have real championship potential this season. Should be a fun one today. You guys know the joke before we started, subscribe to a brand of YouTube channel. It would mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feed.

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And the YouTube comments will probably do at least one more mailbag this week before we get out of here. All right, let's talk some basketball. So, you know, I thought the story of Timberwolves Clippers was Rudy Gobert, not just in his help defense responsibilities, but also in when they shifted him on to Russell Westbrook, some of the damage that he did to the Clippers offense overall. This is the eighth time this season that Rudy Gobert had at least 15 points in four blocks in a game. had some really impressive offensive plays in the second half at a pick and roll possession where he caught on the roll and Euro stepped around Zubach on his way to the basket.

He had a cut underneath the front of the rim on a baseline Anthony Edwards drive where he caught and Kauai Leonard stepped up into help and he just buried Kauai underneath the basket and dunked on his head, was cleaning up the offensive glass too. It was a really good two-way effort from Rudy Gobert. But I want to focus in on the defensive end of the floor. He spent a good amount of time on Russell Westbrook. just completely shut down the Clippers offense. And one of the things that you'd see is Kauai, like, drive into the lane and see

Rudy Gobert. And instead of taking a layup, have to take, like, some incredibly difficult left shoulder fade. He actually made one that, like, was a straight up line drive that barely got over the front of the rim. But you'd see hesitation there. There was a play where Paul George drove into Gobert. Gobert was right there waiting for him.

He shoveled it off to Kauai. Rudy just turns around. He's right there waiting for him. And there's, they're pump baking at ghosts. they're refusing to take shots around the rim. He just completely and utterly dominated this game. There was even one of the most impressive plays that you'll see from a shot blocker, a block of a hookshot.

Zubach in the middle of the lane kind of went over to his, over his left shoulder for a hook shot in the lane, and Rudy just swatted it out of there. It was an incredible two-way performance from Rudy Gobert. Jaden McDaniels did great work on Kauai, Anthony Edwards, a great work on Paul George. I thought Kyle Anderson had a key shift in the early fourth quarter because one of the pathways of this game was as the matchups kind of shook out,

James Hardin was playing pretty well in that early third quarter stretch, just like hit a step back three, made some good place to get the Clipper, or get to get the Wolves in rotation where the Clippers were able to get some easier shots because he had Mike Conley on him. And then when he stepped out of the game and Russ came on, there wasn't really a good entry point anymore for the Clippers and their offense completely stalled. and then when James Hardin came back into the game in the fourth quarter, they put Kyle Anderson on him,

and he had a really good shift on in there to help them continue to grow the lead. And then from there, just really solid, weak side rotations. I thought Nikiel Alexander Walker had a couple of plays where he took away threes. That would for sure be decent catch and shoot opportunities for guys like Amir coffee or Norman Powell. He's chasing him off the line. They held the clippers to 0.95 points per spot up possession. They average 1.13 for the season. So almost a 20% increase. They're the second best spot-up team in the league behind the Boston Celtics.

And they just completely shut, didn't shut down, but did a significant amount of damage to that significant chunk of what the clippers like to do on offense. And on the other end of the floor, Anthony Edwards had one of the best, one for 11 from three games you'll ever see.

He was seven for seven on twos, all right at the rim. Analytics guys would have loved his shot chart. It was just a bunch of threes in a bunch of layups. And Anthony Edwards, as we know, will take mid-range shots, just didn't take any of them in this game. Had some unbelievable drives to the rim. His physical in position on the game makes it so that even against excellent perimeter defense teams like the clippers, he can just get to his spots. He had this like pure wedding spin move off of one leg where he

got into the lane. And Terrence Manners, a big physical guard was being physical with him and walling him up and taking the contact in the chest. And he just powered through all. of that and got all the way to the rim and scooped it in with his right hand. I've talked a lot about this with the young players that I coach, but like getting in the weight room and specifically leg strength is so incredibly important to get to your spots because when you're fighting through contact, every one of those bumps is like a battle. And if you are the bigger, stronger player, you're going to be able to, it's just simple physics. You'll be able to absorb that contact better than if you are the smaller player in those altercations. And

And don't mistake the weight room and the role that plays in Anthony Edwards' ability to get to the rim. He had eight assists and one turnover. Good job driving and kick into shooters. One thing with him, I've harped a lot on Jason Tatum for this, so I want to be fair. He does have a tendency to settle for really difficult pull-up three-point shots, and he's not particularly good at them. And, you know, in general, I pulled this out for that Tatum discussion. But when you look at all the guys in the league that attempt over have attempted over 400,

pull-up threes this year, or pull-up jump shots this year. All of them are guys that don't have great physical tools and are great at that shot. So they shoot incredible, you know, you know, 52, 53 percent effective field goal percentage. So they're getting over a point per shot on it. Jason Tatum and Anthony Edwards, they take, they both take almost half their shots in the form of pull-up jump shots in both of them are really inefficient. As a matter of fact, Ant is worse with it even than Jason Tatum is. And so both of them, you got to remember, they're kind of cutting the defense a break when they settle those kinds of shots because of how dominant they are elsewhere on the floor. Again, seven for seven when he went to the rim and one for

11 when he pulled from the perimeter. So I'm being nitpicky here, but I would like to see a little better balance there from Anthony Edwards. Again, for both of those guys, just cut it from half of your shot diet to like a little bit under a third of your shot diet, like 30% of your shot diet. Now you're doing what all of the great efficient scores of all time do from the same point of not letting the defense off the hook. Really balanced scoring game from Caddy at 24 points. A little bit of everything was scoring out of a spot up, scoring on cut, scoring on offensive rebound, put back, scoring out of the pose, scoring.

And Iso had a really impressive hockey assist in the second half where he was driving along the left wing. I think he was driving on Terrence Mann, if I remember correctly. But James Hardin turns to double team. And he, uh, Quiet Leonard made a perfect textbook windshield wiper rotation. Remember, windshield wiper rotation is like when the double. comes, the other guy rotates with him to take away the first pass because the majority of players, when they get double-teamed, panic and try to just make the quick outlet pass rather than

making the kill pass, the pass that beats the defense. And Kat just didn't panic, pivoted back over his left shoulder, red that Hardin was kind of playing that passing lane and that Kyle Leonard had jumped up to Mike Conley, whipped it across the court to Anthony Edwards on the right wing, extra pass. I think Paul George rotated up, extra pass to the corner to Jaden McDaniels and he knocked down the three, really, really high-level playmaking from Carl Towns. And then as a team, they just completely dominated the Clippers and the paint, outscored them 64 to 42. The Clippers, as I've talked about a lot this year, they rely on pull-up shooting. They take them the second most in the league behind the Dallas Mavericks, and they're 18th and points in the paint scored per game.

So they went one for 11 on pull-up threes, kind of mimicking Anthony Everidge's number. the Clippers as a team went one for 11 on pull-up threes and 10 for 32 overall on pull-up jump shots. They had 21 points on 32 pull-up jump shots. What's your next punch? And that's not working. What's the next thing that you can do? And as you saw in that second half, when James Hardin came out and they had that long stretch with Russ, and then when Hardin came back in and he had a better perimeter defender on him,

it just they weren't able to generate that driving kick offense that they can go to as an alternative to their pull-up jump shooting attack. And like the wolves, to their credit, like, they only, they're a great three-point shooting team. They only shot 32% from three. They're a bad spot-up team when you chase them off the line. But like, that's an important part of their game is the ability to knock down, catch and shoot three is they weren't shooting well, right? Anthony Edwards went one for 11.

And they're just good at doing other stuff. They're a great transition team. They're a great post-up team. They're one of the best teams in the league at scoring on offensive rebound putbacks. A lot of stuff like what you saw from Rudy Gobert in that game. So they can win ugly. they can win when it goes one for 11 from three and win big because as we know the timber well's biggest weakness is their late game scoring the stuff that they do offensively when it's

you know a three point game with five minutes left that's usually their biggest issue and they can win ugly and win big and not even have to put their offense in that sort of predicament really really impressive dominant defensive performance from Minnesota Timberwolves again and like I've been I've talked about this with the Timberwolves I've been a little bit critical from the same point of their late game offense. I want to be clear, aside from the nuggets, all of these teams have big red flags. So whether it's Boston and their offensive execution, Minnesota and their offensive execution, Milwaukee and their point of attack defense, like the Lakers and their complete

and utter lack of a point of attack defender, the warriors, and their lack of like a good veteran second option behind Steph Curry. Like all these teams, the thunder are super young and super small, right? Like all of these teams have big red flags. And so don't mistake me being critical of the wolves late game offense as me saying they can't win. That's just if they lose, that'll be what gets them beat. But there's all these other teams that have similar flaws that could just get beat for their own reasons, if that makes sense. On the clippers front.

I talked about the entry points earlier, James Hardin on Mike Conley. That matchup piece is a big part of it. I thought they stayed with Russell Westbrook way too long in the middle to late third and then into the fourth quarter. and he had some disastrous mistakes. There's a play where he smoked a transition layup off the back of the rim, which led to a wide open Anthony Edwards three, which he missed, but Rudy Gober got an offensive rebound,

put back and won as a result of them being only five on four on the other end of the floor. Because remember, I talked about this yesterday, Spencer Dinwiddie, smoking a layup, especially in transition, you're going to have a guard who's typically responsible for being the first line of transition defense. You're going to have a guard behind the back of the backboard, And that's always just going to put your defense in a compromised position. But that's a five-point swing. Smoked layup, run out for Rudy Gobert and won.

And for the record, Russell Westbrook's shooting 51-something percent from on layups this year. He's one of the worst lay-up shooters in the league this year. And so when he takes uncontested layups in a spaced-out environment, he typically makes him. But when he goes into traffic, he misses him almost every time at this point. And there was a wide open Kauai Leonard on the left wing on this transition play that led to the five points. swing. There was a play where he caught in the right corner, whipped by Rudy Gobert, beat him on a closeout, and then tried to dunk it off of like straight vert, which like 32 year old Russ would have done just fine. But at this point in his career, he can't do anymore. And it ended up being

another runout that led to a foul. It was a four point swing. And then lastly, there was about, it was somewhat late shot clock. It was like six or seven seconds on the shot clock. But instead of swinging it to a better offensive player, he tried to attack Rudy Gobert on an ISO who was clearly backpedaling and taking the rim away, smoke to lay up over the top, and it went, ran out the other way in Minnesota hit a three. That's a five-point swing, a four-point swing, and a five-point swing off of three mistakes from Russell Westberg. It was a 14-point swing all in that third quarter. But even beyond just those three plays, with Rudy Gobert on him, the ball just kept ending up in his hands. Because again, a lot of these offensive players, they're making instinctual plays.

It's like they're used to driving and kicking a certain way when they're programmed when they see a guy open wearing their jersey to throw that ball, especially as a guard, especially a player of Russell Westbrook's reputation. But when the ball kept ending up in his hands, that was usually where the offensive possession would fall apart. And I thought Ty Lou just stuck with him way too long in this game. He had 29 minutes. The wolves were plus 21 when Russ was on the floor and it was an even game when he was off the floor. And I saw a lot of Clippers fans talking about like, oh, they tried to go small, not just Clipper fans, but Clipper, people watching the game. Like, the Clippers tried to go small and they still couldn't score. And it's like, yeah, they went small, but they went small with Russ. When you go small with Russ, it's effectively like having a center on the floor offensively, a center that's going to struggle to finish around the rim.

So they're small, but they're limited on offense when they go with that group. And if you, as we've talked about so much on this show, when you go small, you better be damn good at being small or the big team is just going to demolish you because the big team has all of these advantages as well. You need to pick them apart on offense if you're going to be small and that's not what they did. And then lastly on the Clippers front, can they hold up against interior power teams? After last night, O and two versus the Wolves, one and two versus Denver, one and two versus the Lakers. That's two and six against the big front lines of the Western Conference. And this has been a consistent thing I've talked about. Like they're a bad defensive rebounding team. They rely on

pull-up jump shooting, they don't score in the paint. Those are significant concerns against traditional playoff powerhouses. I still have the clippers up at fourth in my contenders list. I'm not taking them off that list, but like I talked about earlier with Minnesota, if the clippers lose, this is how it will look. It will look like them going cold from the perimeter in a physical kind of playoff-like environment and getting dominated inside of the paint. All right, moving on to Nuggets Bucks. This was a textbook buzzsaw game. I thought I thought it was Milwaukee's best defensive effort of the season. They had an 88 defensive rating against Denver in the first half when they won up by 20 plus.

I thought it was Brooke Lopez's best defensive game of the season. You know, I've talked a lot about in drop coverage, drop coverage is like a bracket, right? Like if you think of it as weak back pressure and weak rim protection, the bracket is weak, right? it's spread out. Like if the big is too passive and he's sitting back too far to the basket and he's not contesting those mid-range shots, and then the on-ball defender is not getting over the top of the screen in applying back pressure. If they're not doing their jobs to kind of pinch that opening, there's an opening there for a guard to feel really comfortable and to make plays. But one of the most important parts of that bracket is Brooke being aggressive up in his cover. And I'm not talking about

coming out of his drop. I'm talking about when the opportunity comes to contest. There's a difference between like taking a soft step up and raising your hand versus like making the read, oh, he's shooting now. I'm going to close this gap and get up in his face. He disrupted several Nicole Yokic little pop shots in the lane with stuff like that, disrupted Jamal Murray floaters and mid-range shots with stuff like that. I thought it was his best defensive game of the season.

He had three blocks. Also really set the tone offensively in this one early. He hit a couple of big threes that kind of like just made it feel like more of an open type of game. And then Janus was just a complete wrecking ball. They put him on Aaron Gordon, a lot of timely doubles, aggressive doubles, attacking the basketball. He had three steals and got out and transition off of that like Janus always does. He had 13 of his 36 points on runouts going the other way in transition. As a matter of fact, Milwaukee had 19 points on 13 Denver turnovers and had a 24 to 11 transatlantic.

position points scored advantage according to Synergy. They completely outclassed them in every single phase of the game. Contavius Caldopo Pope left early with like hamstring tightness, a good smart move from Denver to kind of take it slow there. Jamal Murray left early with shin splints. Once again, the game was kind of over at that point. It was smart for them to kind of take it easy. Just a rough night from the nuggets.

They were sloppy from the jump. Contavius Caldwell Pope and Michael Porter Jr. Both missed wide open, completely unguarded corner threes to start the game. that felt like kind of like a missed opportunity. Jamal Murray and Nicole Yokic both missed kind of like easy floaters. There were a lot of turnovers. Like it was just just kind of a funky night for Denver. Back to back funky nights, blowouts at the hands of the Kings and the bucks.

Now, one of the things that I'm sure some people will ask is like, why do you keep giving Denver slack in situations like this where you don't give other team slack? And the answer is really simple. They're the defending champs, not just the defending champs, but the dominant defending champs that never really truly felt. threatened by the Sons or the Lakers or the wolves or the Miami Heat. And so for me, when it comes to looking, zooming in at Denver, they deserve a certain margin for error.

Winning the championship buys you margin for error. That's just what it does. And in spite of all of that, defending champions typically experience a little bit of a dip in effort. Defending champions typically get the best shot from everybody every single night as they come out with crazy effort to try to beat the defending champs. And they still are within striking distance of the number one seed in the Western conference and they still have had a bunch of these marquee major national television wins.

And so I do just give them a lot of slack. And I think that's slack that they deserve, quite frankly. On the bucks front, one of the things I talked about a lot when Doc Rivers took over the coaching job was the simple fact that, like, I thought he could get better commitment out of the older veteran players on this roster. Specifically with Milwaukee, they're slow. When Janus is not in the equation, and even when he is in the equation, their five-man groupings tend to lack some speed. Brooke Lopez, not a particularly fast center. Jay Crowder, who's playing with Chris Middleton out of the lineup,

not a particularly fast wing. Malik Beasley and Damien Lillard are both very fast as guards, but they are both very small. And so even when they are moving around, they don't bring as much length to the table. They are not a fast team. That is not their strength. And so it is abundantly important for them to always be in the right spots.

execution is going to make or break the Milwaukee Buck season. I've talked about this with you guys on the show before, but like, if you look at the scale between a good defense and a bad defense, a good chunk of it is personnel, but the rest of it is commitment to those details, constantly being engaged in the scheme, communicating, sprinting back in transition, having the habits down. I talk about habits all the time on the show for a very specific reason, because when shit hits the fan, it is your habits. that you fall back on. We all have a tendency when stress rises to kind of go back to whatever

our core, you know, human characteristics are. That's like classic human nature. And so when you have baked in habits, when like it's, when it's, it's just almost a natural, like, automatic thing for you to make a defensive rotation, to sprint back into transition, to call out angles on ball screens, to call out coverages. When all of that is just baked into your habits, then when the shit hits the fan, you can depend on those things. And that's why I harp on those things, specifically with teams like Milwaukee that have some personnel limitations in terms of the defensive end of the floor. They have excellent interior defensive personnel. Janice and Brooke Lopez are still about as good as you'll find in the league as a four or five combo protecting the rim and in help

and recover situations. But they're slow outside of that. So it's vitally important for them to be very attuned to the details. And even through the rough start, I think they were what, two and five in their first seven games with Doc under the hood. One of the things I kept harping on is even though they were playing poorly, I saw a lot of that defensive commitment starting to rise to the surface. And here they are in a couple of back-to-back wins, a super impressive defensive effort against Denver. And they have a defensive rating in eight games since Doc Rivers took over of 112.6.

Before Adrian Griffin got fired, to that point in the season, they were up over 116. There's something like eighth in the league, I believe, over the course of this eight game span and defensive rating. So they're getting a significantly higher level of defensive commitment from this group. Now, again, it's about connecting those pieces because the offense hasn't been nearly as good, which has been a big part of why they've dropped so many games. And there's going to be some transition there because your body becomes attuned to a certain timing and a kind of rhythm offensively. And that is connected to every single other area of the game, including the defensive end of the floor.

I do believe that a big part of why Milwaukee was so good offensively to start the season was that they were saving their legs by not really competing on the defensive end of the floor. And so there's a phase here where when you really raise your level of commitment to transition defense and half court defense, where the fatigue element, the physicality element kind of throws off some of the rhythm and timing stuff on the offensive end of the floor. and it will take some time for them to connect on that end. But when they do, when they connect those pieces together, I think they have a chance to be a damn good team. They can get down into that 13, 14, 15 rank defensive rating and be a top five offense.

That's a team that has a real chance to win the title. I think that's where the Doc Rivers hire was smart. It just has these guys actually playing hard and committed to the details. 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying.

Yep, that's me. Clipper Taylor the 4. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health. purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app,

Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts,

or wherever you get your podcasts. Have you guys ever had a bad ticket buying experience. Maybe you go to checkout and ends up being way more expensive than it was when you clicked on it. Or maybe you go to your seat and ends up being not what you expected when you bought it it to begin with. Or maybe it's just an overly convoluted and complicated process. Well, this is where I want to talk to you guys about game time, the fastest growing ticketing app in the United States. They have all in pricing. So you know exactly what your total is going to be up front. And you know you're getting a great deal before you check out. Also, you get to see the view from your seat in the

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see a game. Go to see one in person. The NBA is in a really great place right now with talent. You've got to get into the arena to really get the full experience. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets with game time. Download the game time app, create an account, and use code hoops for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. Again, create. an account and redeem code hoops that's hoops for $20 off download game time today last minute tickets lowest price guarantee all right let's do our mailbag and then we'll get out of here first question and uh there's actually three questions i kind of hit this follow up i'm going to hit the first two first and then we'll do the second one so first what can the celtics do to improve from

the middle of the floor or is it about the personnel they use in the middle for example using KP's length and vision over the top versus defense. And then the second mailback question I got was, isn't it easier for a defense to double team if a player is running a cleared side action because the shooters on the other side are so close together that three players can guard four shooters. So for those of you guys who aren't aware of the context here, yesterday we did a deep dive on the Boston Celtics and their spacing principles. They had 30 plays where they ran isolations or post-ups against Miami switches. And in those 30 possessions, 16 of them they ran in the middle of the floor, and 14 of them they ran with a cleared side. And on the cleared side ones,

it just was consistently a better result. They had like something like 1.4 points per possession. And that included Jalen Brown drawn to foul and Duncan Robinson on a cleared side post up and missing both free throws. So they should have been like 22 points on 14 postups and ISOs. And then on the middle of the floor ones, they were like 13 points on 16 postups and ISOs, which was, you know, 0.8 points per possession or something like that. And one of the things that, and one of the things I've been talking about is the idea that in the middle of the floor, it's harder to guard, but it's harder to read. And so only the highest level playmakers in the league are guys that can see over the defense really well operate really well in the middle of the floor.

Whereas operating with a cleared side, it's easier to guard, but it's easier to make the reads. And so, like, it's just a more achievable job for the offensive player by making it so that they only have to look, just think of it, think of it really, in a real basic sense. if I catch the ball in a triple threat in the middle of the floor or on a cleared side, I'm protecting the basketball with my back turned to the basket, right? Or I'm protecting the basketball by tucking it on my side and creating space with a jab step, right?

Like I'm using it if I'm facing up, if that's the case, right? Both cases, I'm trying to protect the basketball while surveying the floor. But if I'm at the elbow, it's just a lot harder to read everything happening on all sides of me than it is if I'm on a cleared side and I'm cutting that field of vision in half. Now the baseline is cutting all of this out of my field of vision

and I'm just worrying about this. I can kind of turn myself and I can back down and I can do a bunch of different things offensively without having to worry about what's happening behind me. It is again just easier for the offensive player to manage. And so I didn't do a good enough job explaining this yesterday and that's on me. But to put it simple,

the way I agree that on the, the cleared side post-ups and ISOs, it is easier to guard on the weak side because you have more time to rotate out of it. Put it simply, if you imagine this is the entire width of the floor. If I am in the middle, every pass is like 10 to 15 feet away. Whereas if I am all the way on this cleared side and I need to hit a shooter over here, I might need to make a 25, 30 foot pass. And that pass, if it gets deflected or has to be looping in some way, shape, or form, it's easier to rotate out of it, right? That is where that principle is true. But it doesn't matter if Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum do either one of two things, either in the middle of the floor,

turn the basketball over, or constantly settle for pull-up jump shots because they see all these bodies and they're intimidated in terms of making those reads. And it's just easier to take a difficult step-back jump shot. And so in my opinion, and I saw this in the tape yesterday, They settled less on cleared sides. And so when you clear the side, you simplify their reads, you make it more likely for them to be physically aggressive. When teams double team, they have to cross the lane entirely, which makes it easier to sneak along the baseline, like that cut from Jalen Brown that we saw towards the end of the game, right? To me, it's just the best opportunity to bring the best out of Jason Tatum and Jailon Brown.

Here's the next follow-up. Interesting breakdown of the Celtics matchup attacking. I agree clearing the side creates simpler reads. Joe Maz clearly believes that the Jays are capable of making those more complicated reads. He's trying to give them reps in case they face a team in the playoffs with personnel that makes those cross-court passes that come from the clearing the side. Even more difficult than they are. So what he's saying is basically in the event that a really long athletic team is disrupting those skip passes, what if it becomes an issue there. Surprise you didn't talk about this, but all the zone the Celtics played in the game is another clear indication that they are experimenting, essentially practicing for what might come in the playoffs.

They ran zone versus Miami, or the zone they ran versus Miami is different than the one they've executed well versus Indiana, et cetera. Sees gave up easy looks in that zone as well as a ton of second chance points. I think Miami had 16 offensive rebounds. That's the only reason Miami was even in this game. Seas caught lacking in last year's playoffs without a curve ball and Joe is doing everything you can to prevent that this year. So first of all, on the cleared side versus middle of the floor stuff, in theory, yes. It is great to continue to get reps and kind of make opportunities there in the middle of the floor. But in my opinion, the dead giveaway that that's not necessarily the best way to go is if you look around the league, there's really only a few guys that really thrive in the middle of the floor.

And it's always like Nicola Yokic, LeBron James. Like it's the best passers in the league that operate well out of the middle of the floor. I think that's a pretty clear. It's just difficult. It's really difficult to do against really good NBA defenses to read the floor that quickly in those types of situations. Now, I'm not saying you don't lean into it as a repetition. in the regular season, but something to keep an eye on in the postseason. We tracked it, right?

14 of the 30 possessions on a cleared side. If we get to the postseason and they're not operating well out of the middle of the floor, we want to see that closer to like 25 out of the 30 possessions on a cleared side. That's what I kept saying, talking about with the Celtics as it pertains to like being diligent about getting the ball to the right spots. It's one thing in the regular season to experiment, but when you get to the post season, you got to know what your best punch is and you got to go to it as much as possible. zone front, thousand percent agree.

Find time during the regular season to practice it, especially in matchups where you feel like you've got a good chance to win and you're not going to hurt yourself in the standings. Hell, the Celtics are going to run away with the number one overall seed like I talked about before the season anyway. That gap's going to continue to grow now with the easier schedule. But like, I agree. I think it's important to be able to have that punch, if anything, just as a rhythm

disruptor. If you got a team going on a run in the third quarter and you can go zone for four possessions and just kind of throw a wrenching things for a little bit, that can win you a playoff game. And so I totally agree on that front. Next question. Hey Jason, thanks a lot for answering my mailback question. I'm going to try my luck with another one.

In your opinion, how should contact to jump shooters be officiated? Can contact to the arm at the end of the release, which goes on called a lot, impact the follow through as well as the result of the shot? Should shooters be called for an offensive foul? If they contact the defender as a result of landing unnaturally in order to avoid injury when he is clearly about to land in their landing area. What should even be considered the landing area? If we want to avoid injury to shooters who jump forward,

but they shouldn't get an advantage over shooters that go up and down by forcing defenders to close out shorter in order to not foul. How should refs differentiate natural and precautionary motions from flops and unnatural foul grifting? Should defensive players be called for a foul if kicking the leg on a fatal with shot? Contacts them when they close out under control and can't create any additional contact. So I'm pretty down the middle on this.

I think contact on the forearm on a follow through should be called every single time. It's just when you look at the finesse element of jump shooting, especially difficult jump shooting, like you should not, like the slightest tap on the forearm can cause the shot to miss by three feet. Like it just, it matters too much. And for the most part, I feel like refs at least have their eye on that sort of thing. But the landing area thing, I 100% agree with you. Like I do understand that there are certain players that do have a natural kind of like move forward on their jump shot. And it's one thing, and this is where I think discretion plays a role.

It's one thing when you see a player jump up and land like one foot in front of where he took off. And the dude comes up underneath him. Yeah, that should be a foul. But when it's a comical one, like some of these James Harden stepbacks when he was with the rockets, he would literally jump and then in midair be like at a 45 degree angles. He landed forward and then fell. And you're like, that's just bullshit. It's not basketball.

It's not nobody would ever shoot like that unless they were trying to grip their way to the foul. right and so that to me is the delineation like the landing area they need to tighten that up a little bit and give the refs the discretion to not call it if the players doing janky stuff same goes for even like on that foul that really bad one at the end of the game against the nicks yesterday like one of the things that happens is like if that if erin holiday's shooting that play in a shot in a pickup game there's no contact there he's when he sees the close out coming he's kind of like leaning into it a bit and like kind of like taking that contact it shouldn't have been a foul and then also if you look at it, it's a prayer.

Like he's throwing up a prayer, and the ref is jumping on it as an opportunity to end the game at the foul line. And so in general, just the discretion has gone the wrong way too often this season. And I'd like to see them clear that up. Also, while I'm bishing about refs, there was a Kenyon Martin Jr. Dunk in the Sixers game where he got called for attack, and that was ridiculous. And the refs just simply have to be stopped. Next question.

Genuine question for you, Jason. What's your opinion of LeBron launching the ball straight into Jamal Murray's face from point blank? I know you saw it. Now let's address it. And I'm excited to see how you hear how you would spin it. Because if that's the other way around, you would have condemned it like you always do. One rule for LeBron and Dremont and another for Dylan Brooks. This is the most ridiculous mailback question I think I've ever gotten.

If you actually think LeBron threw the ball into Jamal Murray's face on purpose, I don't know what to tell you, man. I literally don't even know how to respond to that. Next question. When talking about Oklahoma City, can you ever just give a small shout out to Jalen Williams? like it comes back last night and balls out yes giddy and daughter slumping sneaking in a jdub shout out sometimes sheesh uh so here's the thing jdub's one of my favorite young players in the league i was actually talking with sam vasini uh on the phone the other day and everyone keeps like talking about

including myself jalen brown that can pass jaylon brown that can pass and sam vassini threw out the the name jimmy butler as a comp for him and i love that comp because he's just an insane competitor and he has that like big kind of playmaking forward type of vibe who can also be a really, really good defensive player. Huge fan of J-dub. Talked about them a lot this season, those of you guys who have followed the show. That said,

one of the things that happens is, I'm trying to give you eight to ten minutes on a game so that I can hit three, four games in a day, right? Whereas, like, when I was covering the Lakers solely, I could go 40 minutes on every single game. I did go 40 minutes on every single game immediately after the final buzzer because I was just covering the Lakers.

So, like, a lot of times, like, I choose to highlight specific, things. That was a power rankings video. I was trying to get 30 seconds on the thunder. They're going to be longer form. There's going to be a lot of longer formed thunder content down the season, and Janlon Williams will get plenty of, a plenty large portion of of the show, if that makes sense. All right, two more. Then we're going to get out of here. Hey, Jason, loving the content analysis. The Warriors clearly aren't championship contenders, and the lack of a trade deadline move confirms that this season is a wash. Although the

athletic lineup of Wiggins, Kaminga, and Green has dramatically improved their playoff chances. What's the next move for the Warriors in the offseason so that they do not waste another year of prime Steph? Is it making a big splash trade or making multiple moves for better role players? So good question. I disagree with the first thing about them not being championship contenders. Like here's the thing. Do they have a legitimate bona fide superstar? Yes. Is the defense good enough? It has been as of late. We'll see in a larger sample size. but it has been. Jonathan Camingo has scored 20 plus points in, what,

10 of the last 14 games, if I remember correctly, so they're getting some pretty good secondary production. They have a really deep core of perimeter defenders now that Gary Payton is back. They have a versatile defensive front line that can both switch and run traditional pick and roll coverages. They check a lot of boxes. Now, do they check as many boxes as some of the teams that are above them in the standings? No, of course not.

But I think it'd be foolish to count them out because I think beyond Denver, there's a bunch of red flags. Like, Boston can be out executed down the stretch of games. Minnesota can be out executed down the stretch of games. Milwaukee might really struggle to contend on the perimeter. Like the Clippers can't defensive rebound and they rely on pull up jump shots and can be bullied, bullied by bigger front lines. The Lakers have no point of attack defenders.

The Phoenix Suns can struggle in physical environments, although they sign Daddy's Young today. So they're starting to add some physicality to their lineup. But every team has giant red flags. So to me, like, if Denver had an, do I think Golden State would beat Denver? Probably not. But like if a significant injury happens to one of the Denver starters, then it's wide open. And I think at that point, Golden State has a good a chance as anybody else.

And so, again, it's a small chance, but I think riding them off is silly. Now, building from this into the future, I think the biggest thing that they're going to have to look at, I would love to see them get another movement shooter, specifically with the way that they run their five out offense, you've got a lot of Steph running off of these actions and drawing multiple defenders in causing these openings for the athletes to succeed on the backside. But Clay Thompson, who's been playing better as of late,

but like as Clay Thompson ages out, Brandon Pizamsky is a guy who can shoot, but he's not a guy who comes aggressively off screens looking to shoot. It would just be interesting to see them add another option on that front. I think it's all depth at this point. Really, whether or not they can win a title will come down to Jonathan Kaminga's development. Give him another year, maybe another playoff run this year to get reps in a playoff setting for him to identify what his weaknesses are at a better level, get better at

jump shooting, get better at reading double teams. To me, it's going to be on the margins at this point, and then Jonathan Kaminga's big picture improvement. But yeah, like if I had to, if I had to pick like a specific archetype to look at just in terms of their shot creation, with how athletic their front line is getting another movement shooter, another higher level offensive guard into that mix. I think would go a long way to help in them. Like even just like, what if they made a move on the margins this summer for somebody like a Gary Trent Jr.,

for instance, would be a pickup that I think would be really helpful for them. All right, last question, and then we're out here. How can you all say that the Celtics have the most talented roster while they have no bench, and they're starting five,

isn't better than the clippers? You said Kauai is better than Tatum and PG is better than Brown and Hardering is better than white. Man is kind of even with Drew who hasn't found a role in Boston. Only Porzingis is better than Zubok. So I 100% disagree with that.

I do think the top three guys. like Hardin, Kauai, PG are better than Tatum, Brown, whoever is your third guy there. But to also have Derek White, to also have Drew Holiday, to also have Chris Topps Porzingis, to also have Al Horford. Like, they just, that top six,

nobody touches that top six. And that's why I think that they have the most talented roster in the league. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll have a quick show tomorrow morning, breaking down some games from tonight's slate.

Then we're going live tomorrow night. I think it's Clippers Warriors, if I remember correctly, but there's a major national TV game on Wednesday night that will be hitting. So we'll have that one as well. As always, I appreciate you guys. I will see you tomorrow. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy,

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