The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Lakers Need Consistency, Zaccharie Risacher Making The Leap, Suns Cooked

Episode Date: April 1, 2025

Jason reacts to a rollercoaster weekend for the Los Angeles Lakers including losing to the Chicago Bulls on Josh Giddey's buzzer beater and why LA needs more consistency from LeBron James and Luka Doncic. He also discusses Zaccharie Risacher making the leap for the Atlanta Hawks and it being over for the Phoenix Suns after their beatdown from the Houston Rockets and Kevin Durant's ankle sprain. 4:30 - Lakers rollercoaster19:15 - Zaccharie Risacher28:15 - Over for the Suns #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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Boyd in Ontario. New customers only, bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, say dkng.c.co slash audio. Hi, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. It is good to be back. I had a very fun weekend at the sphere with my wife.

We went to three dead shows and just an incredible experience. I've seen them, I think I was talking through this with my brother last night. I think I've seen nine dead shows now, so I think I officially qualify as a deadhead. I've really grown to appreciate that as like one of the final opportunities we have to see an old school jam band in their prime. And it's been a lot of fun. That said, it's time to get serious about the NBA. We are three, I was thinking about this when I was recording with Colin last night. By the way, if you haven't seen that yet, go to the Colin Coward podcast.

YouTube channel. We talked last night. We talked a bunch of Celtics. We talked a bunch of Thunder. We talked some Lakers. We talked some Cooper Flag. We got to do a bunch of stuff. So make sure you guys check that out. But while we were talking, we were thinking about the next time we're going to record. And it's going to be in two Sundays. Two Sundays from now, we're going to know four of the eight first round series. And that following Sunday, we're going to know all eight of them. And we're going to have series previews and we have the playing tournament. There's just so much exciting basketball ahead. It feels very much like the calm before the storm. But that said, I'm glad I got to take a little bit of a break and do some traveling,

but I'm excited to get back to it. Today we're going to be talking a little bit of Lakers after their uneven road trip, which has shown a lot of extended stretches of dominance, but also some execution lapses, including a catastrophic loss in Chicago to the Bulls. We'll talk a little bit about that. I want to shout out Zachary Riss Ache, who had a career high 36 points last night,

and there was some stuff with him that was popping in a film session. I did with him surrounding a Hawks Rockets game about a week ago, So I want to kind of talk a little bit about Zachary Ressachet's rookie season. And then at the tail end of the show, I think we finally saw the nail, the final nail go in the coffin of the Phoenix Suns last night as they just got demolished by the Houston Rockets. So I want to talk a little bit about the sons at the tail end of the show. And then we are going live tonight after the TNT slate.

So we're going to be hitting Celtics Grizzlies as well as Lakers in tonight's show. You guys know the joke before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. So you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about a podcast feed. Wherever you get your podcast on our hoops tonight, it's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front.

We also have brand new social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. Where Jackson's doing some incredible work this year. Make sure you guys follow us there. And then, last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions and YouTube comments. We can keep getting to them throughout the remainder of the season. We're doing a mailbag. I think I'm recording one tomorrow. So make sure you get a bunch of mailbag questions in the comments of this video

for what we're recording tomorrow, which I believe is going to air. on Wednesday. All right, let's talk some basketball. So after the Pacers game, I talked a lot about the idea of the Lakers having these brief catastrophic lapses in execution that are costing them games or costing them opportunities to close games out more comfortably. Since the Pacers game, they lost an absolutely insane game against the Bulls. The Bulls made 11-3s in the fourth quarter, including a half-court shot from Josh Giddy to win it, and a win in Memphis against the grizzlies. Similarly, where they led by 20 and then ended up trailing in the fourth quarter. And the grizzlies have been spiraling a little bit and they just fired their

coach. But they have a ton of talent. John Morant was back. They were the five seat, I believe, at the time, or the four or five seed. They had the same record as the Lakers. A couple of quality opponents on the road that the Lakers dominated for stretches, yet still had a managed to almost lose. I talked about those issues after the Pacers game and a couple of great examples in the two following games. Again, they've played three good teams on the road in this three game span. The Pacers had won seven out of eight. The Bulls had won eight out of ten. And the Grizzlies were in a cold spell like we said, but they're a five seed and they've been great at home all year. The Lakers led by at least 17 points in all three of those games.

They led by 20 against Memphis. They led by 18 in the fourth quarter of the Bulls game. and yet they trailed in the fourth quarter of every single one of those three games actually managed to lose one of them, and if it wasn't for a LeBron tapping at the buzzer against Indiana, they would have gotten one and two in those three games. Long extended stretches of dominance, undone with these brief catastrophic lapses in execution. The Grizzlies game, I was watching it yesterday in the morning before we went to the airport.

They were up 50 to 30 on a Lebrosephold. Braun James shot, put them up 20. The Grizzlies cut that 20 point lead to six in four minutes. Imagine dominating a team for a quarter and a half and losing 90% of that progress in a four minute span where you let go of the road. It ends up being the same issues every single time. On offense, they walk the ball up the floor slowly. They usually succumb to ball pressure and either get too deep into the shot clock and have to take bad shots, or they end up having to face a trap or something like that, and LeBron, Luca, or Austin will be sloppy with the way they handle that ball pressure and they'll turn the ball over, and they'll end up going the other

way in transition. On defense, and this is one of the most interesting things about this Laker defense, their defense is predicated on keeping the ball in front of a defender, always keeping someone between them and the rim, so they have to make something over the top. You'll see with their dribble penetration the way they handle it. The guy on the ball has a job to slide his feet and contain the ball. Great example I thought from the Grizzlies game was Austin Reeves. I thought Austin just did an excellent job for most of the game in reps against John Morant and against Desmond Bain sliding his feet, absorbing contact, flattening out drives.

That's what you want to do. But inevitably, you're going to give up dribble penetration. This Lakers team is going to give up dribble penetration. They have too many of those slower-footed guys on the floor. footspeed is not necessarily the strength of this Laker team outside of a handful of guys, right? So from there, they have a plan. They're always funneling towards the sideline, and they're offering help from the baseline. And generally speaking, if a guy gets beat off the dribble, that guy who's guarding the ball will just bail and run to the next rotation,

and there will be somebody almost to like, it kind of feels almost like catching. Like the guy is, the helper is catching the drive, sitting in a stance, arms out wide, right? around like that first block, second block, waiting for the guy on the drive in help as the team rotates around him. And that's how the Lakers deal with dribble penetration. They basically switch on the drive, if that makes sense. That type of scheme requires a lot of hard work. The on-ball guy has to rotate out of it. The helper has to be there in time. There are these brief openings where guys have to rotate to shooters. It's a lot of running. A lot of running. A a lot of reading the play, a lot of communication.

And when the Lakers do those things this year, they've been great defensively. They did it consistently for a few months there from mid-January to early March, right? And we've seen flashes of it in the last week. They hold Chicago to 17 points in that third quarter when they go on their big run to take the lead. They shut Indy down in that second quarter when they first took their big lead in that game. but since LeBron's injury, it's been a, we'll do it when we feel like it kind of thing. And again, like, when in the two main ways that I see them let go with a rope in these, like, kind of catch help type of rotation situations, it are, like at the end of the indie game,

Lucas starts getting beat off the dribble, Ruy starts getting beat off the dribble. The catches were not there. The Lakers were just hugging up off the ball, leaving dudes on an island, and they were giving up easy, like, concession driving lamps. Again, that's a fundamental part of what makes their defense good is they're loaded up, they have their help ready, they rotate out of it, and they literally almost blew a game in Indiana

by completely stopping that at the tail end of the game. The second way that you'll end up seeing it is an overhelp situation. This we saw in the Bulls game. It's okay to acknowledge that the Bulls shot 11 for 14 from 3 in the quarter, That's insane under any circumstances, a lot of impressive shot making, right? But you have to find a way as a defense to make guys uncomfortable, to make them miss. And there were several execution errors in that quarter which are going to breed a red-hot shooting stretch. They helped off of the strong side corner twice in that fourth quarter against the Bulls.

You guys have probably heard this before, this concept of don't help off the strong-side corner. There's a very specific reason why you don't want to. want to help off of the strong side corner. It is the easiest pass in the world for a basketball player to make. You're funneling guys towards the sideline. Guys on the left wing. He rips to the left. The guy's sliding with him.

He's got dribble penetration. What's the easiest pass in the world for that guy to make? Is if the guy in the left corner steps over and it's like, okay, little 10-foot chest pass to a wide open guy. standing in the corner literally 10 feet away, right in clear view. It's an easy pass to make, right? What you're supposed to do in that situation,

that guy, if he wants to gap to where he feels comfortable closing out, that's one thing where he just reaches and recovers, but that's not the guy you ever want to concede the pass to. You have help coming from the baseline. When the help comes from the baseline, there's a way to beat that help, but it is a substantially tougher pass. Now imagine a different scenario.

Left wing, rip left, dribble penetration. We have LeBron on Kevin Herder in the left corner. In the fourth quarter of the Bulls game, LeBron helped off. Kevin Herder got a wide open three and he nailed it. Let's say LeBron's gaping but stays in control of Herder. Now the help comes from Jackson Hayes along the baseline. Who's open? The skip.

For a left-handed dribbler trying to go across his body and a crossed helpers covering 25 feet in the air, 30 feet in the air to get to the open man. That's why you don't help off the strong side corner. It's simply about knowing where the help is coming from and making the pass or make a more difficult pass. A more difficult pass over a longer stretch of space that's looping or deflected or not on target is much easier for your defense to rotate out of. That is basketball 101. There were two. Strongside corner helps. That gave wide open threes to Kobe White and Kevin Horder in that fourth quarter.

Those are execution errors. Jackson Hayes overhelped on a drive left Nicole Ousevich wide open at the top of the key. Again, we talked about this. When a guy has a drive flattened out and under control, he now has to take a contested off-balance layup, substantially lower percentage shot on a two, like if he goes 45% on that layup, that's 0.9 points per shot. Your defense can live with that.

It's the straight line drives where it's like he's going to make a layup every time. That's when you need to be there and ready to help. You overhelp, give up a wide open three to Vucevich. Luca had a very similar one where a driver was contained, left Patrick Williams wide open at the top of the key.

LeBron, two awful reps in the, the final minute. Go screen from Kevin Hutter that the Lakers were switching all night. It was a clear switch. LeBron looked like he was on the bus because they're up, you know, five or six with less than a minute left. He thinks the game is over. It's not over. He's lazy. He's standing upright out of his stance. Kevin Hurter slips out of the screen and hits a wide open three. The possession before the Kobe White three that gave him the lead. LeBron overhelps on a Vucevich upper like kind of left wing area catch, ends up leaving Patrick, Patrick, Williams wide open in the left corner right before he threw the ball away, throwing the ball

to Kobe White. These are execution errors. I saw a lot of Laker fans saying, like, oh, I cannot believe the Bulls shot 11 for 14 from 3. We have got to get out of this mindset of thinking that shooting is all just luck. It is not. You can play teams into misses and makes to a certain extent. I would argue that process has a much bigger role in shot result than luck, even though we can acknowledge that luck does play a role. And again, like, the Lakers, they have an opportunity to win the title this year. But there are certain non-negotiables, things that they absolutely must have tightened up if they're going to get to where they want to go. And one of them is, they have to be the best defensive version of themselves, which is going to require a wire-to-wire

level of execution. I know they can do it. They held what, six or seven straight teams to 102 points or fewer. They are capable of doing that. They have not been doing that since LeBron James came back from injury. I just think it's at least worth acknowledging as a trend and something to keep an eye on. The bottom line is, the Lakers just played three good teams on the road, went in, methodically dominated them to large leads, and yet they were one LeBron tip in from going one and two. I'm not trying to be all gloom and doom. I'm still super high on the Lakers. I was listening while I was on the airplane yesterday to Pete and Darius from Laker Film Room, and Darius Oriano does great work. He also writes for Lakers.com. He was talking about how he viewed these two games,

these two kind of ugly games to Indiana and Chicago, as part of the Lakers returning to form before the LeBron injury. I totally agree. I do think that these last three games are a sign, especially after they looked bad against Orlando and what was the of the first Chicago. game, they are progressing towards being what they were before the LeBron injury. I am still super high on this team. I'm still very tempted to pick them to win the West when we do our playoff predictions in the coming weeks. But I wanted to harp on these execution lapses because I do view them as a non-negotiable thing. How many champions do you know of an NBA history that had a reputation for extended or like consistent three or four minutes'

stretches in every game where they just don't play hard and they don't execute and they hemorrhage leads. It burns you. It does. Don't tell me it doesn't. It's happened so many times in NBA history that the Bucks Raptors series when they had that big lead in game four before they blew it. The, the Lakers, or excuse me, the Miami Heat blowing that game to the Dallas Mavericks in game two back in 2011. There are so many examples in NBA history where series. Who the trophy goes to swings on a team blowing a lead, a team not finishing the job. Jobs not

finished until the buzzer sounds. And that is a very important hallmark trait for NBA champions. And I just would like to see, before we get to mid-April, I would like to see a week or two stretch where the Lakers show that consistent level of execution from buzzer to buzzer. Again, we are going to be covering the Lakers Rockets game tonight on YouTube, including the Celtics Grizzlies game live on YouTube after the final buzzer of that last game. Hey, it's us, the Jonas brothers, and guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news, Nick? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts.

Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts throughout there. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a, potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with

Robert Smygel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to my new podcast, Learn the Hard Way with me, your host, and your favorite therapist, Kear Games.

And in recognition of mental health awareness month, I'm bringing over a decade of my own experience in the mental health field and conversations with so many incredible guests. I'm talking, Tripp Fontaine, Ryan Clark. Sometimes when we're in the pursuit of the thing, we get so wrapped up in the chase that we don't realize that we are in possession of the thing. And we're still chasing it. And we don't know when we've done enough. Because people scoreboard watch. Life becomes about wins and losses. Steve Burns, Dustin Ross, because you find it important to be a good person while you hear on Earth.

Are you a good person because you're afraid? Because that's two different intentions, bro. Absolutely. And that's two different levels of trust. I want you to just really be a good person. Join me, Keir Gaines, as we have real conversations about healing, growth, fatherhood, pressure, and purpose

on my new podcast, Learn the Hardway. Open your free iHeartRadio app. Search Learn the Hardway and listen now. Jacob Kingston grew up in an isolated polygamous sect. We were God's chosen, kingdom on earth. He felt destined for greatness. So when a swaggering Armenian businessman, catapults Jacob into an extraordinary world.

He doesn't look back. Ferraris and Lamborghinis, private jets, meeting the president of Turkey. I'm Michelle McPhee, and this is one of the most shocking criminal conspiracies I've ever come across. When Jacob met Levant this plant to a billion dollar fraud. But with two kings from entirely different worlds,

just how long can their empire survive? The largest tax investigation in American history. You need to tell me what you know. Is somebody coming after me? Jacob told Levan, you're ruining my life. Listen to Kingdom of Fraud on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's move on to Zachary Rissach. So he drops a career high 36 in a dominant victory over the bucks.

So the third game this year, he scored over 30 points. Zex played 27 consecutive games. those games, he's averaging 15.2 points per game. He's shooting 52% from the field, 43% from three on over five attempts per game. He's showcasing a little bit more of a quick release against the bucks hit a couple of no-dip jumpers. Those are where the ball is already caught in the pocket and you flow immediately into the shot instead of having to catch somewhere else and then dip down into your release and like kind of restart your chain of energy from the floor up to the top of the shot.

He's showing a lot of really high-level scoring. I want to talk about this concept for a minute because I think it's a really important part of team-building moving forward in the NBA. Scoring is the ultimate complement to playmaking. I've been thinking a lot about this concept this season. When you have elite playmaking on your team, guys like Trey Young, guys like LeBron, Luca, Nicola Yokic, these really, really high-level passers, you need elite play finishing to pay those sequences off.

whether it's a vertical spacer like Aaron Gordon alongside Yokic or Derek lively alongside Luca or Jackson Hayes alongside Luca or a deadly spot-up guy, someone like Kyle Corver back with LeBron when he was with the Cavs or Malik Beasley playing with Kate Cunningham, guys that can pay off these sequences from your playmakers. But one of the manifestations of that type of player that I've been talking a lot about this year, I've been referring to it as the weak side scoring forward. This is why I went into detail about the strong side corner help thing that we talked about earlier. This same concept is built into pick and roll cover coverages too.

There's a reason why they don't offer low man help out of the strong side corner. They offer low man help out of the weak side corner. Why do they do that? So that for the same reason on an ISO drive, if a guy's getting downhill in a ball screen, the opening for him as a playmaker is across the court and across his body. That's the goal. You want to make it across the court and across the body, across as many help defenders as possible, to make that pass difficult, right?

But that is ultimately the opening. And all of the best playmakers in the league consistently capitalize on those openings. We've talked about this concept a ton, making reads in pick and roll. What are my reads? Big man steps up. I'm making a read based on the roll man

or the weak side corner based on what the low man does. If the low man steps over, I'm skipping it. If the low man stays home, excuse me, I'm throwing the lob. If the big man drops back and the guard is chasing, my read is to shoot in the mid-range. My read is to get as close to the basket for as high percentage of a shot as possible. Those are the pick-and-roll reads. And so when these teams, the majority of teams, are bringing their big up to the level and bringing the low man over, that skip pass is open. And those skip passes are going to be made, especially by Trey Young.

In these sorts of situations, there's a bunch of different ways that you can look to scorer. It's not just hitting spot-up threes. It's running your lane in transition as an athlete. It's driving closeouts. It's, oh, they switched to screen, or we ran in transition and got a cross-match, and now there's a guard on this forward. You need that forward to do a lot more of this high-level scoring. These are professional scores, but primarily in an off-ball context.

Examples are like Michael Porter Jr., O'GNan Inobie, Rui Hachamura, DeAndre Hunter, Lori Markinen is kind of a high-end version of that for the jazz. Dennyovdia, even though he's been doing more on-ball stuff as of late. Kyle Kuzma, PJ Washington. This is becoming an extremely important archetype in the NBA. Zachary Rissachet has been doing some of the best weakside scoring work you'll see out of a rookie forward. Starts in transition.

I was watching the Rockets' Hocks game from about a week ago. You can find them on my Twitter feed. I shared some clips. but Zachary Rissachet was amazing in transition in that game, just literally outrunning everybody up the floor. Didn't matter if the rebound was captured and he was on the baseline. He was sprinting and it was so visually jarring that I clipped these examples and I put them on my Twitter feed for you guys to see.

Watch these three clips. Watch the way Zachary Rissachay runs. Watch when he gets his head of steam how it literally looks like he's moving a different speed than everyone else on the floor. He's a gazelle. It's crazy. And he'll get two or three wide open attempts at the rim every game just by running the floor.

And that pairs perfectly with Trey Young, who's one of the best hit-ahead passers in the league. I had to coach my last year in college at Arizona Christian University. Shout out to Jeff Rudder. They just won their conference tournament on a buzzer-beater, crazy buzzer-beater, and then they made it to the final four before losing in the NAA-I-A-I-T tournament. But he used to say to all of us that you can manufacture 12 points a game just by getting a transition layup running the floor, crashing the offensive glass,

and getting to the foul line once per half. Such a simple way to produce in a basketball game. And even if you take the foul line part out, because obviously there's some out of your control stuff there with the whistle, if you just crash the offensive glass and you just run your lane in transition and you get one bucket a half each, that's eight points right there. You're one bucket away from double figures.

It is such a simple way to produce in a basketball game, run every time, crash every time. And he presents such a massive passing target for Trey because he's so athletic, so rangy and long. He caught a behind-the-back lob from Trey in the Bucks game where he dunked it behind his head because it's just a massive passing target. Then in the half court, as we talked about, when they load up the strong side, in those skips, it's just a massive passing target. strong side. In those skips, it's just like king of the court when you're playing with your buddies. On short closeouts, you need to knock down threes. He's starting to do that at a really high level. In this 27 game span, he's at 43% on over five attempts per game. Now, what's going to start happening, if he can maintain that level of shooting for a substantial amount of time,

he's going to start getting chased off the line. And that's where I think he has a ton of potential as a score. He has downhill burst attacking closeouts. He had a dunk against chance. Shangoon in the Rockets game where he drove a closeout off the left wing and just hammered it with his left hand on Shangoon's face. A wildly athletic play. He has good footwork on like spins and euros. He had a bucket against the nets driving a close out against Nick Claxton in the left corner. He jabbed, got back to it deep in the corner with a hesitation dribble, crossed back over, got into the lane, pump faked, pivoted over his right shoulder on his step through for a left-handed finish. That's a really high-level scoring move.

He had one on Hardin, off the left wing, jabbed left, drove right, snatched back to the left, drove high-gather-through Zubach and finish at the basket. These are really high-level scoring moves attacking with an advantage in those King of the Court situations. He had a left-to-right euro against Zubach a couple weeks ago where he drove out of the corner. Like left-to-right euro is one of the most complex footwork pieces

you'll see for a right-handed player. Most guys don't know how to do it. And he still has a ton of growth in front of it. Shooting hot for a couple of months is not the same as being an elite shooter. We've all seen it. This guy's shooting 43% from three over his last whatever games. You got to do it for a long stretch of time before teams game plan for you in that way. That will take a few years probably.

But that will be what truly unlocks his off the dribble game. Because I don't think, like as good as he is in the open court as an athlete, His start-stop quickness isn't quite as impressive as his athleticism in the open court, which is going to make it so it's a little harder for him to beat people off the dribble unless his jumper comes around, which, again, will take some time, but that's part of his development. He still needs a lot of improvement on the defensive end too. His athleticism has not translated yet as like a really high-level off-ball defender. He's often a bit behind the play on his help rotations, which prevents him from having an impact.

That's about processing speed. That's about learning the actions so well that you know what's going to happen as it's developing so that you can be there a step earlier. And again, as we talked about, it starts, stop quickness isn't as good. That's why that processing speed is going to be so important for him because he's going to need to be there sooner in terms of the way he's reading these plays. But the bottom line is he's a rookie that projects to be one of the best people at his particular job in the NBA, which is being that weak side scoring forward, which is very exciting for hockey. fans. I think it might officially be over for the Suns.

They got absolutely smacked by the Rockets last night. Shangoon was cooking all their bigs again. Jalen Green poured in another 33 points. Ema Udoka in the second quarter brought out that zone defense that he's been using a bunch for the last month or so, and they immediately sparked a massive run in that second quarter and they never looked back. It was a complete and total physical domination by Houston. They out-rebounded them by six.

They forced 19 turnovers. They scored 34 points off of those turnovers. They won the fast break points battle 32 to 8. Houston scored 40 points in transition in total in this game. But I want to focus on Phoenix here for a second because we're going to hit Houston in tonight's show as they play the Lakers. Again, we're going live on YouTube tonight after the T&T slate.

What did I say about Phoenix a month ago? I said they struck me as the stereotypical older veteran team that knows deep down that they don't really have a chance to win anything this year. And the way that that's going to manifest is in these short, weak or two long bursts where they compete and they look decent. They defend, they rebound, they do their jobs, but that they inevitably let go of the rope because they can't sustain it because they don't believe. And that's exactly what just happened.

They won five out of six. Some quality wins versus the calves and the bucks. They were defending and rebounding, top 10 in both. I think they might have been top five in both over that span. But the NBA schedule does not let up. Boston came to town without Tatum and kicked their ass. Then it was Minnesota. Then it was Houston.

A couple of these big, strong athletic teams that were going to truly test Phoenix's commitment to the work. And instead of hanging on to the rope, they just completely let go of it. 137.4 defensive rating in the last three games. they gave up an offensive rebound on 35% of opponent's misses. That's damagingly bad. And now KD has an ankle sprain. Anthony Davis is back and the Mavs are climbing in the standings.

We talked before the year that there was going to be a team that had dead serious championship aspirations, but that would miss the playoffs entirely. And no matter who that would be, it would be a catastrophe, and it looks like it's going to be the Suns. I keep watching them and thinking that it's not a Kevin Durant and Devin Booker problem, but at the same time, I do think it's worth mentioning that neither of those two guys can really leverage their physical gifts on the game. Katie has length and he has mobility that helps him on defense, but he carries a massive offensive load so he can't devote too many resources to that end.

And he's not very strong. He can be pushed around, which is very, very dangerous quality for a, front court player defensively. On the glass, duckins, things along those lines. It's tough to do that job outside of like rangey rotating and rim contests. There's just a limitation when you can't win the ground battle. And again, it's just one of those things where you watch these other teams. It's like watching Houston. Jalen Green can leverage his athleticism to get to spots.

Shangoon is bullying these dudes. When you watch these teams that have these players where it's like, I can inflict myself physically on the game to assist my team in these key areas that they need help, Devin Booker and KD are not necessarily as capable. This is why, like, I still believe it's worth exploring the idea of keeping those two. They still give you such a high offensive floor in terms of shot quality. I would still just look to find every discount bruiser I can. find at every position group and try to breed that culture around them. Because regardless of

what direction you go this summer, even if you do choose to get rid of Kevin Durant or Devin Booker or both, you still need an organizational identity. I talked about this concept after the Celtics win against the Suns last week. I talked about it with Colin Coward last night on his show. You need an organizational identity that is separate from your stars. And so regardless of what direction you go, you need to begin the process of establishing that. New owner, new coach, you need to start establishing a basketball culture. This season was a massive step back. And so that's the thing.

Like, unless you think there's some magical trade that's going to just solve all your problems, which I don't think there is, you need to begin the process of changing that culture anyway. And so from that standpoint, if you tweak things enough around those two, that's where Kevin Durant and Devin Booker's upside can actually start to lift you to where you want to go. But this is the team that is completely let go of the rope. And I think I would be stunned at this point if we got to see them play meaningful basketball here at a couple of weeks.

All right, guys, that is all I have for today, or I should say for this morning. We'll be back tonight live on TN, or live on YouTube after the TNT games. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show. And I will see you later tonight. What's up, guys?

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.

The Volume. Hey, guys, it's us. The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called,

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tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. Another podcast from some SNL, late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app,

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