The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - How Kevin Durant & Suns picked apart Cavaliers, Phoenix biggest threat to Nuggets

Episode Date: April 5, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and the Phoenix Suns' 122-101 win over Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers. Jason breaks down film to show how the Phoenix offense has evolved this season to the point where he now views them as the biggest threat to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets in the Western Conference. Later, Jason discusses how the San Antonio Spurs should build around Victor Wembanyama and the news that New York Knicks' forward Julius Randle will miss the rest of the NBA season. Does this completely eliminate New York from contention? #volume #herd Timeline: 04:00 - Introduction 05:30 - How Suns have improved 12:16 - Film Study: Suns offense vs. Cavaliers 27:15 - Film Study: Suns defense vs. Cavaliers 40:35 - How should Spurs build around Wemby? 46:00 - Julius Randle out for seasonSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Phoenix Suns continue doing really well against the toughest part of their schedule here at the end of the season. We're going to break down their big win over the Cleveland Cavaliers last night with some more film breakdowns. We got like, I think, 10 clips that were going through today. I had a blast with the film breakdown yesterday. I was so thrilled with how it turned out.

It seemed like you guys liked it, too. I'm sorry it took so long for us to get to this point, but I'm really, really excited about the future of the show and where we can take it from there with that. After that opening segment, we had a mailback question yesterday from a Spurs fan asking what the Spurs should do moving forward. And so I wanted to do a little bit of a deep dive into the Spurs offseason plans and the realities of the time crunch that Victor Wemigni Nymanian

Thomas rise puts them in. And then last but not least, we got a report this morning from Adrian Wojernowski that Julius Randall is not going to return this season, is going to have season-ending shoulder surgery. So we're going to talk a little bit about what that means for the New York Knicks. All right, before we get started, you guys know the drill. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. It 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, wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Don't forget about my Twitter feed, I underscore Jason LT, so you guys don't miss show announcements as well as the occasional

film threads that I do from time to time. And then last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the suns were going into a really, really difficult part of their schedule here to end the season. They had a couple of easier games about a week and a half ago. And this last four game stretch to start this end of the season, they went through at Denver, at Oklahoma City, at New Orleans. then here at home, first game at home after a long road trip, which is tough against the Cleveland Cavaliers. And they're three and one so far. One into Denver and one had a tough one in Oklahoma City

that they lost. Then they won dominant fashion in New Orleans and then one in dominant, dominant fashion at home against the Cleveland Cavaliers. Now, what's particularly interesting to me about this is all four of these teams are top ten defenses. And so these are great examples of the stuff I've been talking about with Phoenix's offense throughout this season and their ability to get defenses into rotation and play advantage basketball. So I have some numbers that I want to use to kind of demonstrate this concept, but to start in kind of like the bigger picture, 30,000 feet way of looking at it, when you look at like kind of like the ball don't stop bag culture type of ideology as it pertains to like tough shot making and high level hooperisms or whatever you want to call it,

where guys are hitting multiple dribble combinations into really tough shots. That's fun, and that's a big part of the art of basketball. And it's always been a part of the art of basketball that I've been drawn to. I personally, my archetype as a player was a score, and I was obsessed with footwork and dribble combinations and all those different kinds of things. So I'm not trying to pretend like that stuff doesn't matter. It does, but it's only half the battle. The other half of battle is the art of basketball in the form of the art of finding high-quality shots, right?

Ideally, the tough shot making is a ceiling razor. It's a thing you use to rescue possessions when things don't work out. It's a thing you use against top tier defenses when they do an outstanding job of shutting down your advantage creation situations. It is a ceiling razor, ideally. You want your meat and potatoes to be easy shots, wide open catch and shoot threes, easy closeout attacks where you get some tougher shot making like pull-up jumpers and floaters, but they're uncontested in the mid-range because that was the opening you found in

driving kick, obviously getting all the way to the rim, hitting vertical spacers under the rim for dunks, when you find as much of that stuff as possible, no matter how good you aren't making tough shots, you will never be as good at making tough shots as you will be at making the easy shots as long as you know how to generate them. But they can be generated in many different ways, and one of the core ways has to do with your total offensive skill. And there is a gigantic chasm this year. between the Sons and their offensive skill and what they had last year, even though they had Devin Booker and Kevin Durant and Dianne, they did not have nearly the firepower from top to bottom on the roster that they have this year,

and that's made them so much tougher to guard. So again, all four of those defenses, the Pels, Thunder, the Nuggets, and the Cavs, were all top 10 defenses so far this year. Yet the Sons averaged a blistering, 119 points per 100 possessions in the four games. Now, again, as I've been talking about, a key factor that will kind of demonstrate the difference in the shot quality between what the suns get now and what they got last year in the postseason, you can see that in assist percentage and the number of pull-up jump shots they take. So last year in the postseason, only 57% of the Phoenix Sun's made field goals or assisted. That means 43% of them were individual shot creation on an island, right? then in this last four-game stretch,

70.3% of Phoenix's shots that they've made have been assisted. So again, like they've gone from being a team last year in the postseason that was primarily like a solo on an island shot creation type of thing, whether it was an ISO or shot making in pick and roll, to this year much more of a drive-and-kick finding open looks type of offense. Another stat there you'll see is in the pull-up jump shooting. They took 35 pull-up jump shots per game last year in the postseason. During this four-game stretch, they're taking just 27 pull-up jump shots per game.

That's a sizable difference. That's eight possessions a game that instead of taking pull-up jump shots, they're getting much higher-quality shots elsewhere on the floor. That's, again, the difference between playing on an island isolation slash pick-and-roll shot-making basketball versus playing advantage basketball, meaning you're taking not on an island defenders that you're facing, but rather guys closing out at you. You're playing with an advantage versus not playing with an advantage. Basic example of this is King of the Court.

If you ever played King of the Court with your buddies and you line up and it's one-on-one and the dudes up in your personal space and you're having to use a jab step to clear and to create space for you to go play one-on-one versus if you've ever played close-out King of the Court, which is, in my opinion, the most useful form of King of the Court for young players and it's what we work on a lot when I work with my high school guys. the point there being, I want them to practice playing the one-on-one that they're going to play in real basketball games, which is for the most part, at the high school level, you're not gifted enough in terms of your best players to just play one-on-one all night. You need to generate advantages and then have guys be able to capitalize on those advantages by playing one-on-one with the defender closing out at them, right?

And that's a big reason why I believe in that. And it's just so much easier. It's crazy when I watch those kids play king of the court. and when they play with an advantage versus without an advantage, the gigantic difference in how frequently they score. No matter how good you are at the tough stuff, advantage basketball will always be easier. The second thing that I wanted to highlight really quick

before we get into the film was Phoenix's pick and roll defense. It's been really good during this stretch. They were outstanding last night in the last two games against Cleveland and New Orleans. And I want to say like 68 possessions, they're allowing just 0.84 points per possession in pick and roll, including passes, which is an outstanding number. And it really comes down to communication and effort on the back line of their defense. And so in our film session today, we're going to be looking at a bunch

of examples of these two particular things, just advantage creation basketball for the sons on the offensive end of the floor, and then also the defensive effort that the sons have been having in pick and roll. Now, for those of you guys who are listening on the podcast, feed, I'm going to try to be as descriptive as possible. But if you're having trouble picking up what I'm putting down, make sure you head over to YouTube to check this out in our final two segments, the Julius Randall and the Victor Weim and Yama Spurs segment. Those are both going to be without film.

So the podcast feed will be fine for those. All right, let's head over to our film session. So this is the first possession of the game for Phoenix against Cleveland. We are, we're going to get what's called Hammer Action. This is actually named after Darvin Ham. So what we have here is we have Kevin Durant on the right side of the floor. Devin Booker's pointing for Kevin Durant to go the other way because they're getting ready to set up this action. We have Royce O'Neill and Yusuf Nurkich here are going to set basically a double flare screen for Devin Booker to run to the corner.

While Kevin Durant and Bradley Beale are essentially running a decoy action here on the right side of the floor. So again, a hammer action is basically a flare screen for the shooter in the weak side corner with a decoy action on the strong side. So this is the strong side where the ball is. They're going to run a decoy action. Here on the weak side, we're going to get our double flare. So as we get going, the way they're going to do this, Kevin Durant's going down like he's going to set a ball screen for Bradley Beale. He's throwing the ball to him running like he's going to set a screen. Bradley Beale is basically going to reject that and rip through to the baseline.

So he rips through to the baseline. Royce O'Neill sets the first pick. Yusuf Nurchitch sets the second pick. And as you can see, Devin Booker's breaking open here in that weak side corner. So that's our hammer action. But we get a really nice defensive play here from Donovan Mitchell, chasing over the top, and he's going to actually take away this shot as an opportunity for Devin Booker. Okay. He goes up.

We get a pump fake. Now he has another open three, but we get another layer of defensive effort here for Max Struce, he sells out off of Bradley Beal to close out, and he forces Devin Booker to pass off to Bradley Beal wide open here under the basket. Bradley Beal catches, Jared Allen steps up, and now we have Kevin Durant wide open on the wing. Darius Garland, if we go back a little bit here, Darius Garland is guarding Royce O'Neill up top, right? But once Bradley Beale makes this kickout pass to Kevin Durant, Darius Garland has to rotate to Kevin Durant on the wing, and now we get Royce O'Neill wide open.

at the top of the key for three. And again, an important element there, that's normally Grayson Allen, too. That's like, this was mostly a full strength matchup between the two teams. All five Cavs starters are playing, but we didn't have Grace and Allen in this game. Grayson Allen is literally one of the very best spot-up players in the league this year. I haven't checked the numbers in the last week or so, but he's been basically the best spot-up guy in the league this year, just absolutely deadly on catch-and-shoot threes. And so that's the predicament.

And the theme here that we're going to get into is we get further into these clips. It's running an action to get an advantage, star players operating with an advantage, and then role players that are actually deadly spot-up players that can make you pay when you help on those stars. And so we ran an action. They got an advantage for Devin Booker that he ended up bringing two defenders in, a close out from Donovan Mitchell and a close out from Max Trues, which got Bradley Biel a catch under the rim, which forced a rotation to Kevin Durant in a wide open look for Royce Neil. That is advantage basketball. All right, here's our next clip. This is a great example of the value of

use of Nurkich as a size advantage when they're running these types of actions. So Devin Booker brings the ball up the floor. And basically what we're going to get is a dribble handoff between Yusuf Nurkich right here and Devin Booker with Max Drews on the ball and Jared Allen on Nurkich. Now, they don't want to switch this. Max Truce wants to run over the top here. But Nurkich sets an outstanding screen. Just absolutely drills Max Drus with the shoulder there. And again, you can get away with a little bit of contact here. This is technically by the book and illegal screen.

But basically, Yusuf Nerkis is just making sure to extend that contact long enough to allow Devin Booker to get separation. Now, one of the things that Devin Booker does here that's really smart is he's trying to get the switch. So he snakes the pick and roll. What snaking the pick and roll means is you work over to the other side. So he snakes the pick and roll across. Now Jared Allen has to follow him.

and this ends up turning into a switch. So now Max Struce is switched onto Yusuf Nerkich. So again, a really good screen from Nerkich, and then a snake of the pick and roll by Devin Booker forces the switch. Now we make the post entry to Yusuf Nerkich. Now Evan Mowbly has no choice because of the size advantage, but to come over and offer help on that baseline side. That's the guy that's guarding Kevin Duran.

Kevin Duran identifies this immediately and just makes a flash cut to the high, post. He's now wide open. He's now wide open because Nurkich drew that second defender and you get a wide open catch and shoot three for one of the best jump shooters in the history of the game. So again, simple action with a really smart screen, a really solid screen from Yusuf Nurkich, a smart action from Devin Booker to snake to pick and roll. Nurkich's size in the post drawing that double team and Kevin Durant operating with an advantage. You're giving one of the best players in the world a wide open catch and shoot jump shot at the foul line because of your ability to create advantages.

That's not ISO ball. That is advantage creation basketball. Clip number three. All right. So this is a textbook example of a ghost screen to attack a hedge and recover. So here we're going to get Kevin Durant up at the top of the key with Jared Allen on him.

Royce O'Neill right here is going to set what's called a ghost screen. He's going to run over like he's going to set a screen and then he's going to quick flare to this opposite wing right here. Donovan Mitchell does not want to switch. switch onto Kevin Durant. And so what do we do? And we've talked about this concept a lot on the show. What do we do in a ghost screen situation when we don't want to switch? We hedge and recover, right? So as Royce O'Neill kind of sets the brush screen and runs through, Donovan Mitchell steps up in hedges. But because Royce O'Neill slips it, he doesn't actually set the screen, he just sprints out.

That's why they call it a ghost screen. They call it a ghost screen because you're not actually setting a screen. You're faking like you're setting a screen and you're sprinting out to the wing. So now Donovan Mitchell has hedged. And Royce O'Neill has. is open. Because Royce O'Neill's open, Darius Garland has no choice but to rotate over to Royce O'Neill. And now we're getting a wide open catch and shoot three for Bradley Beale, who's been outstanding this season in wide open catch and shoot situation. So again, a star level player operating with an advantage because of a basic action set at the top where you don't want to switch one of your smaller defenders onto Kevin freaking Durant.

So again, that's using KD not to play bag basketball, but rather to generate an advantage that a star player can take advantage of on the backside. All righty, clip number four. This is a really fun example. Those of you guys who remember the Cavs' Son's game earlier in the season, the Cavs were dealing with some injuries, and George's Neang was in the starting lineup in this particular game. And he drew the Kevin Durant assignment for most of the night.

And Kevin Durant just absolutely flambated. him all over the floor. You know who remembers that? Use of Nurkich. So we dribble up the floor. Nying is checked into the game. Nurkich immediately is pointing over and he's like, look, look, look, look at him. He looks. He sees Kevin Durand in Nying. You can see a Nurkish identifying it. And he's like, just give him the damn ball. Just give him the ball. So Devin Booker's going to make an absurd post-entry pass here across the court. And KD does a nice job of sealing. Now, once again, we're going to play Advantage Creation basketball. So KD is looking to post on Neing, rip through, and we're going to get a hard double team from Evan Mobley on the

baseline side. Okay. Now, this is where the calves have basically set up. Struis is supposed to be guarding Gordon, but Struz is now sliding in because Mobley doubled to keep Yusuf Nurkich unavailable. So the open read here is Eric Gordon. Carus Lavert and Darius Garland are still kind of matched up and they're in position to close out. So Katie makes the right read. You can see him see it, but he has to make a whip around pass. This is just an example of Katie's physical tools. He can whip the ball around there. Now, Darius Garland had to rotate off of Royce O'Neill to get to Eric Gordon. So the obvious next step in the Tick-Tack toe is Royce O'Neill right here at the top of the key. We get the kickout pass. Now, Max Struz is closing out. But again, now this would

typically be Grayson Allen, who's actually one of the better close-out attackers in the league. Royce O'Neill's not as good as him, but he does a good job here. Pumpakes gets Struce to take a hard step towards his right shoulder so he can beat him off the dribble. Now, as he beats him off the dribble, Levert is looking at the help situation here. He knows Mowgli is going to have to step up on Roy's O'Neill. So Levert's trying to read the situation. It looks like Nying is going to help on Nerkich. So now Levert is basically guarding two-on-one here against Devin-Booker and Kevin Duran. You can actually see Levert guessing. He's like, which way is he going to go? Which way is he going to go? Neing tags Nerkich. Which way is he going to go? He guesses Duran.

So he runs to Durant side. So now Roy Soneal is able to make this kickout past to Devin Booker. And now Caris Levert is now closing out. Again, look at this. Balls in the air. Devin Booker, one of the best offensive players in the world, is now catching on the perimeter wide open with the defender closing out at him. An advantage created for the star.

He catches and quick makes the extra swing past Kevin Durant in the corner. He actually misses this three. But this is a great example of a super high quality shot that they generate, again, through advantage creation basketball for one of the best shooters in the league. All right, here we go. Heading to clip number five. By the way, that blast play ended with Nurkich getting an offensive rebound in the chaos, throwing it back out to Devin Booker, and he ended up making a jab step three at the top of the key.

All right, so here we're going to get the first sighting of Bull Bull, who was an absolute monster in this game. We're going to be talking about him quite a bit here. But we're going to get multiple screening actions. That's going to end with Beal and Eubanks on the right side of the floor. So we get this screening action here. It's going to be swung across the floor here to UBanks. This play was actually designed, I believe, for Beal on the strong side the whole time, to run a screening action for KD. So my guess is the original design of this play was UBanks

was supposed to screen for Kevin Durant coming out. Cleveland just defends it really well. So you can see Beal's looking. He's looking for KD. Struis just does a really nice job navigating this and shutting that action off. So the next step in this flow here, is this screening action didn't work. KD is going to go space to the corner, and UBanks is going to step up and set a ball screen. So you can actually see UBanks point, like, all right, I'm going to go set it.

You slide down. He's literally pointing, like, go down. So then he comes up and he sets the screen. Evan Mowgli is now up at the level of the screen. Now, as we know, when you get the screen defender up to the level, that's going to have to pull one of these guys in to tag the roller, almost usually Karris Levert in this particular situation. So we have Mowgli at the level. Beal comes over the top. U-Banks is rolling into the lane.

Mitchell is going to kind of sort of stunt at him. But Beal at this point has already identified that Lavert is coming in to step in and guard Eubanks. And Beal makes a very nice skip pass to the weak side corner to Boa-Bull, who, by the way, is shooting 48% field goal percentage on catch-and-shoot jump shots this season. And he knocks down the corner three. All righty. This is our last offensive play. before we get into our pick and roll coverages. This one actually starts with Bull Bull on a switch against Donovan Mitchell, picking him clean, doing more work on the defensive end. That's not the last we're going to hear of Bull Bull on the defensive end.

We'll get back there in a minute. We run down to the other end of the floor. We're going to get what's called a RAM screen for Yusuf Nurkich. So I'm so excited about this because I've talked about so many of these concepts on the show and I haven't been able to actually give you guys visual examples, and now we can. So a RAM screen, as I've talked about so many times over the years, The purpose of the RAM screen is to get a gap between these two guys. Because if Jared Allen, who's an excellent pick and roll defender,

is able to just walk into his defensive coverage, it's a lot easier for him to do his job. But if you can create a separation between these two guys, Yusuf Durkich can sprint up into the screen, and there's going to be a minute there or a second there, where it's a two-on-one, where the screen defender's trailing the play, and you can create an advantage.

And this one doesn't actually amount to anything, but I wanted to actually just kind of demonstrate to you guys the concept. This does turn into a bucket for Phoenix, but in a counter. So here's our RAM screen. Eric Gordon is setting the pin down on Jared Allen to try, and Yusuf Nurkich is running up to set the screen, right? So Eric Gordon does a good job. He makes contact.

Now we get our separation. There's our separation, right? Lavert counters this by icing the ball screen. So Nurkich is coming up to that right-hand side. If Devin Booker could get to his right hand here, Alan would be compromised because he's fighting up around this way. Devin Booker in all likelihood would turn the corner and get all the way to the basket. So Lavert counters this by icing the screen,

which means denying the use of the screen. So look, he's sitting on the high side in begging Devin Booker to drive back to this left-hand side. So again, there's another hop to the high side. is Nirkich tried to create even more angle for Devin Booker to go right. Lavert is completely denying the use of the screen and the move to the right. But obviously, that bakes in a driving lane to the left, which is Jared Allen's job to catch, right? In any sort of ice coverage, this big guy is typically going to drop back and catch that drive away from the screen. So Devin Booker drives. He engages Allen.

And Devin Booker knows he's not just going to drive by him or shoot over the top. He is now waiting for Nurkich to break open as he slips out of the screen, patiently waiting, patiently waiting, makes the pass. puts it in a perfect spot where Levert can't get to it. Nerkich does a good job of a low gather there. You can see him actually take a low gather to prevent, to prevent Darius Garland from reaching down. And because he's behind the role man, because the role man is behind the screen defender, that forces Struce to step over from Bull, bowl out of the corner, which creates a wide open three for, bowl in the corner who again is shooting 48% on catch and shoot three.

So that's it for the offensive end of the floor. And again, I hope that that provides you guys a good example. Again, we're talking about a difference here of 13% in the percentage of their field goals that are assisted during this four-game stretch compared to what it was like last year in the postseason. They are not playing hero ball. They are not playing. We have to take tough shots every time down the floor.

They are playing advantage creation basketball. And they're giving really high-level offensive players, high-quality opportunities to convert into points. And that's how you light up a bunch of top-10 defenses consecutively. All right, let's get back to the film and talk about the defensive end of the floor. 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, Cliver Taylor the 4th. 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 Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to? do a little kill. Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam Jay. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. But just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really?

Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. So our first pick and roll defensive clip. Now, on this first action, we're going to get a ball screen here with Evan Mowgli. on Darius Garland. As he sets the screen, Devin Booker identifies it immediately.

If you look at Booker, he's chilling here in the corner, but he identifies the ball screen immediately and steps up into the driving lane. So see, he steps up into this driving lane. He's put himself in a position where if Darius Garland turns the corner, he can offer help, but he also feels comfortable closing out to the high side of Keros Lavert

and chasing him on that baseline side where Kevin Durant can help. And in that case, if he were to chase Lavert off, Kevin Durant would help. And knee-A-ink's coming out. Booker could honestly just switch after he gets beat. So this is really smart help from Devin Booker. Typically, you don't help out of the strong side corner,

but he just knows that he has the ability to chase Lavert off there. So this forces a reversal. The ball gets reversed around to the other end of the floor. And we're going to get Max Trues in a ball screen with Evan Mobley. We have Royce O'Neill chasing over the top. Does a good job staying physical and staying attached. But Max Trues, nice little extra crossover dribble to beat Royce and get into the lane. Watch Devin Booker here, though. Devin Booker, this whole time this action's

happening over here, look, he's pointing. He's telling KD, hey, they're running a ball screen. They might get beat. You're going to have to be the low man here, which means if Mobley sneaks behind or if anybody gets downhill, Kevin Durant's cleaning that up. That means the next step in the windshield wiper rotation is Devin Booker has to rotate down here to Neyang in the corner, and Eric Gordon has to rotate here to Caras Levert on the wing. Devin Booker's ahead. of the play. This is that communication piece. The action hasn't even, the action is just now happening. Booker's been calling out the coverage here for a few seconds, and that allows them to be ahead of it. So when he gets beat,

KD steps up. As KD steps up, look at Booker. Booker immediately takes a slide step as soon as KD goes. KD goes, Booker slide step. And he forces the turnover. And you can actually see if you watch Eric Gordon, Eric Gordon is already ready right here to make the rotation to Lavert. See, he's not worried about Garland anymore. He's rotating to Lavert. So again, the communication on the backline and the effort to get to the right place in time and you force a turnover. Another interesting example here is Devin Booker is one of the best pick and roll players in the league. He understands these reads better than everybody. And so he, as a defender, can actually channel that offensive IQ to understand the reads

and actually get ahead of them as the defensive player. All right, on to clip number eight. This is a textbook example of what's called a peel-off switch. of a transition opportunity here for the Sons. Lavert sees an opportunity. He's like, I've got Bull Bull, Bull on me. Bole is a forward. He's not going to be particularly good at navigating screens.

We talk about this all the time. So what a great time to run a ball screen because Bo Boe probably doesn't know how to guard it. Well, it turns out Bo Bo Bo does know how to guard it. So as the ball screen comes, Mobley comes to set it. As he sets it, you can see Bobo tried to fight over the top. He tries to fight over the top of the screen. but then he sees right here he identifies that Bradley Beale has effectively switched.

So this is what's called a peel off switch. When you're in a ball screen and you're trying to fight over the top and you end up getting caught a little bit and your screen defender switches, your read as the on ball defender is to peel off of your man and to take the roll man and to, in many cases, if the guard is looking to shoot, in many cases your job is just to keep him off the glass. But in this case, Carislevert's going to try to throw an over-the-top pass to Evan Mowbly. because Bull Bull peeled off so quickly and because he has such outstanding physical tools, he's able to knock that away. So he blows up the play guarding on the ball in the ball screen by knowing what to do, which is an example of him being an extremely versatile defensive player.

But again, Karris Levert thought he saw food there. He thought he saw an opportunity to take advantage of a defensive weakness in that situation. And it turned out to be a defensive strength. All righty, here we go. This one is really high level. pick and roll defense against a complicated action. So what these calves are doing here is they're running an action that feeds into a ball screen. So Mowgli is going to try to screen Gordon first, and then Mitchell's going to set the first pick, and they're setting a staggered ball screen. Typically in a staggered ball screen, one of the guys is going to roll hard to the rim,

and the other guy is going to pop. In this case, obviously, that's going to be Mitchell as the popper and Evan Mowley as the roller. The idea here is to try to confuse this coverage because it's a three-man action instead of a two-man action. You can actually see Donovan Mitchell. Watch Donovan Mitchell try to reach out and tap, just tap Devin Booker on the hip. Watch this. See that little tap? There's a very specific reason why he does that.

A lot of teams will switch the guard-guard version of this screen. So a lot of teams would be like, oh, Eric Gordon's going to jump off on Darius Garland here, and Devin Booker is going to now switch on to Donovan Mitchell. Donovan Mitchell is trying to trigger that because he sees Eric Gordon with his back turned to Garland and he knows if he can force a switch. Garland will be able to come over the top here easily into his spot. But instead, Mitchell's trying to tap Devin Booker to fool him into thinking that's a screen, trying to get Devin Booker to trigger a switch so that he switches on to Mitchell. Booker does not fall for it. Eric Gordon stays attached.

Booker fights over the top. Now, this is a textbook example of no roller behind drop coverage. So watch Nerkich. He's staying in a position where he can help on Mowgli and help on Garland. He's playing. He's playing the low man here. Royce O'Neill is trying to read Nerkich. And he's in there just in case he does need to help.

But he quickly identifies, watch O'Neill right there. He identifies, Nurkich has this. He's like, I'm in there, I'm in there. Right now he's like, Nurkich has this. this, he hops back. Now Garland makes the skip pass because of that hop, he's in position to close out. If he doesn't make that hop and he's in the lane, this is a wide open three for Karras Levert. We get a really good close out from Royce O'Neill, traps him on that baseline side, and he ends up ripping him from behind on the dribble move and forcing the turnover. So that's really

good pick and roll defense because the guys out top at the initial action, we're communicating and not falling for the disguise of that specific action. And then Royce O'Neill in his pick and coverage, identifying as the low man that Nurkich was in good position and staying in a position where he could close out on the weak side. That's an example of not overhelping. All right, here's our last clip of our film session. This one actually ends in a basket, but I thought it was an interesting example of pre-switching to beat a RAM screen. So let's go over how this works out here. So Cleveland is setting up in the same type of situation that we saw Phoenix set up in earlier. Darius Garland wants to create a gap between Jared Allen and Drew Eubanks.

And so they're going to use Donovan Mitchell to set a RAM screen down on UBanks to try to get Allen a gap. Devin Booker, super smart offensive player, runs this same action himself. He identifies it. Him and Eubanks are looking at each other right now and they're communicating and they know here comes a RAM screen. So they're going to talk, hey, let's pre-switch it. See, they both signal to each other. We're going to pre-switch this action. So what they're doing is Devin Booker is switching on to Jared Allen. So now that RAM screen is completely neutralized. And now you can switch this ball screen out top.

Now, here's where they make a mistake, though. Bradley Beale, as soon as he identifies that Devin Booker is up here and that Alan is actually trying to screen on his outside side, Bradley Beale should just be jumping up to this high side immediately because he knows if he gets beat to the right hand side, Devin Booker's there. So this is an example of them botching this part of the coverage, but I did think that the pre-switch was a really interesting example of a way to counter the ram screen. So because they don't do that, Darius Garland's able to turn the corner going left, which pulls Beal up high enough that they can get the ball to Allen,

and he just catches too deep, and that's just too easy of a shot. But again, I thought that that was an interesting example, as you can tell, even though they gave up a basket in that specific case, the effort on the back line of those guys. Like again, as the action is developing, Devin Booker and Drew Eubanks are talking to each other. They're pointing, they're communicating, they're letting each other know where they need to go.

I thought that was a consistent theme throughout this particular set of clips, just seeing that level of communication and effort on the backline defensively to guard and pick and roll. And again, they were excellent in pick and roll throughout that particular game. Final note on the Sons. Like, you know, it's interesting. I don't necessarily think Phoenix has a lot of physical strength after Nerkich. That's definitely the weakness of their particular roster.

As you look around the league, every team has weaknesses. That's not a shot. But after Nerkich, they have a ton of speed, a ton of skill, and a ton of basketball IQ. And then Nerkich brings the unique element of strength for that very specific Denver matchup in Nicole Yokic. And so because they're playing a better brand of basketball now, because they're not playing hero ball, they're playing advantage creation basketball.

Again, like I mentioned earlier, assisting on 70% of their made field goals in this four-game span versus 57% in the playoffs last year. That's allowing them to reach a higher level offensive ceiling. And then they're competing defensively and communicating and defending pick and roll really well. I personally think that Phoenix is probably at this point, if I had to pick a team out west, that I think is the second best team in the West behind Denver right now, I lean towards Phoenix. I think they have the best combination of personnel, a playoff scalability,

and the ability to compete on both ends of the floor, not to mention the big white whale in the West, meaning that's an unfortunate, accidental metaphor for Yokic. But I meant just like Denver as a unit, as an entity, they are the terrifying, you know, world destroyer in the Western Conference. Phoenix is the team that I think is most well equipped to beat them.

So as of right now, I think they're the team that I view is the second best team in the Western Conference. All right, let's move on to our next segment in our mailbag. Hey, Jason, Wemby question. I've been watching your show for a few years now. Top 0.1% of Spotify listeners, by the way, huge fan. Thanks for supporting the show.

I really appreciate it. And I've heard that you say the primary goal of rebuilding a franchise is to go get a superstar. By all metrics, it looks like Wemby is that guy. If you were the GM of the Spurs, what would you do next? Who are you keeping? Who are you letting go? What kinds of player archetypes are you looking to bring in through trades slash drafts?

And then thank you so much for your work. It has helped me understand and enjoy basketball so much more than before. Again, I sincerely appreciate the kind of words and for supporting. So the initial structure is what I want to look at here. So if we agree that Victor Wemnon Yama is our superstar to kind of anchor everything with San Antonio, now we look at like the ideal kind of five-man lineup, right? Now, for me, right next to Victor Wembe Njama at that forward spot, I'm looking for a big strong forward that can help in defensive rebounding situations and in low man situations.

Kind of like we were talking about in the suns earlier, that guy that steps over in ball screen situations when Victor Wimbunyama has to come up to the level of the screen. At the three spot, we're looking for a guy who could defend on the perimeter, knock down threes, and attack closeouts really well. At the two spot, I'm primarily looking for in the two one, depending on who you end up building around. If it ends up being Devin Vassell, Devin Vassell at the two ends up being your skill guard. right? He's the guy that is going to have the ball in his hands a lot, be running a lot of pick and roll. I really need the point guard in that case to be an outstanding perimeter defender, a guy who can navigate screens well, guard the other team's best guard, so on and so forth. Now, with Devin Vassell being a skill guard, I do think that from the forward position, one of those two forwards,

whether it's the three or the four, needs to be a really high-level offensive player. I do think that's something that they'll need in the long run. What makes this complicated is, you look at the payroll. Devin Vassell is locked up on a pretty affordable deal, especially when you factor in how the salary cap could change over the next TV deal. Keldon Johnson and Zach Collins are your main larger contracts. They're in the high teens. But most of the young guys are on rookie deals. So like with those guys, you're not going to be dumping them for salary. You might include them in a star trade if you're looking to bring somebody back. But there's no reason that like they don't really make up much of a factor in your payroll situation. Right. But we also have to acknowledge the

reality of Wemby's development arc. He is so good, so fast, there's like a better than 50% chance in my opinion that he's going to be a top 10 player in the league next year. And it's on the table that he could be a top five player in the league next year. That's how freaking good Victor Wembeyanma is. And we're talking about another six, seven months or longer of development before we get to that point. So like that, that you can't be Oklahoma City and do a five-year slow burn of a rebuild. You can't take this slow. There's a certain urgency element here based on the reality of Victor Wembenyama's development. So from there, I would look at as far as the young guys go, none of them would be safe

for me except for Devin Vassell and Victor Wembenyama. And I would trade Devin Vassell if it brought back a superstar shot creator. But like the other guys, like, I like Jeremy Sochan, Sohan, not enough to view him as untouchable. Like Trey Jones, not enough to view him as untouchable. I've never been a big Kelden Johnson fan. I think he's a little tunnel vision and not a good enough shooter. So like from there, it really is about who becomes available in the off season. I really do think they need to make some type of all-in move for an all-star in their prime

sooner than later, sometime in the next two years. Trey Young is an interesting option, but he's a very risky option. He's a guy that I think unlocks a lot offensively right away, but he's going to be expensive to get. And then two, there's a question, there's a, there's a case to be made that it's, that it's cashing in too early and for not a good enough player. And so the Trey Young thing, I'm kind of more leaning towards I would hold back if I was San Antonio, but that is an interesting option. And I do like the offensive fit with Victor Wemanniam. From there, I'd be looking for a forward, someone that can work in that three, four spot, who is a much

higher level offensive player than what you've had over the course of this season. A guy like Glory Markening, is a guy I'd look at, a guy like Brandon Ingram, like, what did the Pell's flame out? And they decide that, you know, Zion is the guy they want to build around. And the guy that they need to cash in is someone like a Brandon Ingram. That's a guy that I'd be looking at. McHale Bridges, I know Brooklyn loves him and views him as a foundational piece, but that's completely irrational given where they're at in terms of talent on that roster. And Michael Bridges' age and where he's at in his development and the fact that he's kind of

close to his ceiling, Mikhail Bridges is a guy that I'd be looking at. But again, in terms of the actual structure of the roster, two forwards there. One of them needs to be a score of some kind, a high-level offensive player. The three needs to be able to navigate on the perimeter defensively. The four needs to be bigger and stronger, especially since Victor's a little bit on the skinny side. And then at those guards, one of your guards needs to be a high-level skill guard. And then the other one needs to be some kind of bulldog, like point-of-attack defender that can navigate screens. That would be the structure that I go with from there.

But I do think that they need to make some sort of all-in moves sooner than later just because of Victor Wemannia's development. Before we get out of here, the Julius Randall injury. So it turns out that he tried to rehab the shoulder and it just isn't going to come around. And so he's getting surgery and he's going to be out for the rest of the season. What does that mean for the Knicks? Here's the thing. theoretically, if O.G. and Ninobe can come back and get the elbow inflammation under control, I do think he can slide into that four spot.

And Isaiah Hardinstein is playing so incredibly well. and Mitchell Robinson is back into the equation in a way that he wasn't earlier in the season, right? So like the Knicks are still formidable. But the reality is they need a consistent shot creator beyond Jalen Brunson. We saw it last year when Julius Randall was available and he just wasn't quite good enough because he was out of rhythm and playing on a bum ankle. We saw that that wasn't enough. And so it's a lot of pressure on OG and Nobie to kind of be that matchup attacking forward to create shots.

And so I had really high aspirations for the Knicks, and I still do in the long run. And I'm really curious to see what they do this summer to kind of bring in that legitimate secondary shot creator next to Jalen Brunson, whether that's just Julius Raynall getting healthy or some sort of trade or free agent acquisition. But I'm interested to see what they do in the long run. But I just don't know that they can get through that gauntlet at the top of the Eastern Conference without having a bona fide secondary shot creator. And so I kind of view that Julius Randall injury as a bit of a death. sentence. That said, again, I think the way you kind of structure this in the short term is when OG and OBI comes back, you play him at the four and essentially ask him to do a lot of what Julius Randall does, targeting smaller guards and screening actions to get switches and to do that

bully ball post-up attack just to have an option to spell Jalen Brunson as much as you can. New York is still going to be a pain in the ass. Again, Julius Randall wasn't even very good last year and they were, you know, a few shots away from being in a good position to make it to the conference finals. So I still believe in the Knicks as a kind of a pain in the ass type of threat. But Firepower is just going to eventually be an issue for them. There's just too many teams around the league that have more shot creation than the Knicks do. And so the Julius Randall injury is more or less a death sentence at this point, unfortunately. It's been a fun next season. They've competed through it all. And they've such a bright future. And they have so much talent on the

roster, but it's just, their only hope relied on Julius Randall coming back this year and being a reliable secondary shot creator. All right, guys, that is all we have for this morning. As of right now, we're planning on going live tonight on YouTube after the final buzzer of Nuggets Clippers, unless a bunch of superstars end up not playing. So we'll see how the injury report comes out. But I hope you guys have been enjoying these film sessions. I'm excited to keep building them out in the long run. I appreciate you guys to support, and I will see you next time. The volume. podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite.

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