The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - LeBron & AD shine, Russ "disengaged," Simmons impresses, Nets-Bucks & Wolves-Lakers

Episode Date: October 13, 2022

First, (3:30)Jason Timpf reacts to the Nets-Bucks and Timberwolves-Lakers preseason matchups. Why is Ben Simmons' recent play encouraging to Jason, and how has Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving's on-court chemistry caught his attention? Later (19:00), Jason discusses LeBron James and Anthony Davis' impressive preseasons, the biggest problem facing the Lakers, and how Russell Westbrook still looks disengaged. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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You've almost made it to the weekend. I'm going to keep things really simple in terms of the schedule for the next week or so. Today we're going to talk about bucks nets from last night as well as Lakers Wolves from last night. Then tomorrow, a video I'm actually recording today, but tomorrow we're releasing about 20-something minutes on the Redeemed Team documentary, which I thought was super interesting. And there were a bunch of topics kind of surrounding that whole era of USA basketball that I think are super interesting that we'll dive into. And then as we go into next week on Monday, we're going to do our. season preview, just get some picks, some final picks put down for the season on the record.

And then Tuesday night is our first live show of the season immediately after the final buzzer of Lakers Warriors. That is how close we are to things getting started. And I'm very, very excited for that. So you guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter. So you don't miss any show announcements as well as the footage breakdowns that I do. That's where they go. And then last but not least, whatever reason you miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. And on that note, let's talk some basketball. So, Nets Bucks, I want to start with Ben Simmons because I thought this was

his best game of the preseason so far, and the game that kind of best indicated his ability to impact winning for this particular team. So I kind of start to see two very unique roles shaping for Ben Simmons, kind of like a first unit role and then like a second unit role. Now, it remains to be seen how often he kind of ends up in this type of role because I would imagine they'll stagger Kyrie and KD a lot this season. But when he's playing alongside Kyrie and KD, he's kind of in that Bruce Brown role, right? Like he's part of the actions that they're running. It's a lot of dribble handoffs. It's a lot of screening and slipping to the short roll. He's, you know, out of the short role, he's making reeds kick into shooters or trying to finish at the rim.

A lot of screening, a lot of cutting, that kind of stuff. That's to be expected. That's kind of what Bruce Brown did, minus the shooting, actually, obviously. But I don't think we're going to get any of that out of Ben Simmons this year. I don't think we're going to get any of that out of Ben Simmons ever at this point. But then you saw him in the second unit there and started to attack and high pick and roll. And they were just setting really high ball screens. and the thing that was encouraging is as he was going to his strong hand to the left,

he started looking to score a little bit. He actually went three for five in this game. He made a really nice little right-handed floater along like about the third lane line on the left side. And then a couple possessions later, he tried the exact same thing and missed it. But again, went back to it, which is good. Got an offensive rebound and actually turned and made a really nice little like six or seven-foot hook shot with his right hand. Again, him looking to score is going to be the thing that causes teams to actually try to guard him. Later on in that specific stint, he was on the right block in a post-up,

and because he had just made a right-handed hook shot, a couple possessions earlier, Utah wantonabi's man helped dug in to try to stop Ben Simmons in the post, kicked it out to Utah and he knocked down a three. Again, like, there's a careful balance, doesn't need to be a gunner, doesn't need to take 10 shots a game, but just a willingness to try to score the basketball when he is left on an island or when he's attacking downhill and pick and roll or in the short roll, somewhere in that 10-foot area.

That's all he needs in order to impact this team at the highest level. He needs to show a willingness to score when he's within 10 feet of the rim. He's so gifted going downhill to the rim that that's enough to cause teams to actually collapse around him as long as he's willing to score. Doesn't need to knock down threes. That's not his job on this team. Just needs to show a willingness to score there. he also did a nice job in the first unit attacking the offensive glass and getting

the getting the net started into their driving kick in that way then on the defensive end of the floor look look like from the opening tip of this game you could and yonis and ben simmons have always had like a little bit of a thing you know and i think yonis has obviously won that battle resoundingly but yonis always takes it personally whenever he plays against ben simmons he tries to humiliate him. And to Ben Simmons' credit, like in this game, it was more of the same. Janus was going at him every time down the floor, and he held up pretty well. There was a couple of breakdowns. There was a baseline out of balance play where Janus kind of hit him with the swim move and dunked a lob. There was another play where in transition, Ben Simmons was backpedaling too much,

so he didn't really have his ground to stand and Yannis just plowed through his chest. He actually missed a layup, but you know how Janus is he just immediately got the offensive rebound and put it back up and in. But when they were actually in the half court setting and Janus was trying to attack Ben Simmons chest to chest, I thought he held up pretty well, as well as you'll see a wing do in this league. You know, I've talked a lot about the best perimeter defenders in this league, and we've talked about Jason Tatum and Andrew Wiggins and Mikhail Bridges, and Ben Simmons is in that grouping for me as well. And what sets Ben Simmons apart from his peers in that regard is he's bigger and stronger. And the Janus matchup in particular, he rips through guys like Andrew Wiggins

and Mikhail Bridges and Jason Tatum in that matchup because they're just too skinny. And he just, he just manhandles those guys. Ben Simmons is a little bigger, little stronger, a little more stout, a little more willing to hold his ground. And you saw that actually amount to a pretty decent matchup for the Nets. Now, why does that matter? That matters because when we get into a playoff series. If you're looking at a matchup between the nets and the bucks, aside from Ben Simmons, there's not really anybody on that roster that you feel comfortable leaving on Janus for long stretches and doing well, right? I think they'd end up going with someone like Nick Clackson and he'd get buried underneath the rim in most cases. So, you know, having that as a weapon,

someone to throw at Janus in a playoff series, not going to stop him. We learned that with the Boston Celtics last year. You're not stopping Janus on Tenacumpo. But if you can drop his efficiency and he was 6 of 21 in this game. If you could drop his efficiency, you give your team a chance to win. Now, again, holding Janus to 6th of 21, that is a team effort. They were crowding him every time down the floor. There's not a player in the world that can guard Janus on an island. But Ben does a pretty good job.

I was impressed by him last night. It was a good for their dress rehearsal before the season starts. That's about as encouraging a performance from Ben Simmons as you could see. There was one last little play in their second quarter, where Drew Holiday got a switch on Ben Simmons, and Ben Simmons smothered him on the isolation possession, forced him into a really tough stepback that barely grazed the rim. They immediately ran down the other end and got an Aleut dunk,

and I was just like, man, this guy is so ridiculously versatile. He's guarding a little guard and locking him up a couple possessions after he's holding his own against one of the most dominant power forwards that we have in the history of basketball. So kudos to Ben Simmons, a really, really impressive game. Katie and Kyrie. They were plus 13 and plus 12 respectively in this game. Their continuity is really starting to show.

They have such a natural feel for how to play off of each other. And Kevin Durant in particular, are so good at hunting Kyrie in his spots. You know, I talked a lot about if you guys remember it with Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, how we kind of look at their scoring totals and we just think, oh, like this is your stereotypical 28 point per game guy. and this guy is 26 point per game guy, so they're both just scores. No, no, no. Like, Jason Tatum is more of a do-everything forward that can pass the basketball, and Jalen Brown is more of a tunnel vision score.

Not that there's anything wrong with either archetype. They actually complement each other really well. One of the ways that things go off the rails for the Celtics is when Jason Tatum starts to look for a shot too much, rather than embracing that playmaking role. And that kind of like dynamic, that's split there that's taking place in Boston, where Jalen Brown's becoming more of the dynamic go-to score and Jason Tatum is becoming more of the advantage creator,

that dynamic is going to make Boston a better team. And you are starting to see that same type of dynamic happen with Kevin Durant. And Kevin Durant's actually a better passer than Jason Tatum. He's a better passer than a lot of the small forwards around the league right now. One of the things that I've been most impressed by in this preseason is Kevin Durant's passing. You guys remember that from some of the other games that we covered. but it's a similar dynamic for him and Kyrie. You need Kyrie to start to kind of become that gunning score,

and you need Kevin Durant to kind of become more of the advantage creator, the guy that kind of makes the offense work. And I'm seeing that in this preseason, and I like what I'm seeing as a result. This is a very similar dynamic to the LeBron Kyrie thing. Do you remember, I remember it was almost like two-thirds of the game. LeBron was controlling things, scoring, passing, the usual LeBron ball. And then, like, a third of the game, this other chunk of possessions,

Kyrie, a lot of times are just dribble the basketball up the floor and shoot. Like, they're like 25 dribbles on a possession with no passes. And, you know, at the time, I remember like thinking, man, this is crazy. I don't understand why they do this. This was early in like 2015, 2016. But then it kind of dawned on me that what was beautiful about it was LeBron got to rest on those possessions because Kyrie is so good at creating shots in congested environments that it's almost like LeBron can take half of the,

for a third of the game, he could take the offensive end of the floor off and focus his energy onto the defensive end of the floor, essentially biding his energy for the larger portions of the game when he has to be aggressive. That's kind of the dynamic you're seeing forming with this Kyrie Irving and Kevin Durant thing. If Kyrie guns and creates a bunch of this offense, it alleviates pressure on Kevin Durant so that he can focus on being a playmaker for larger portions of the game, focus on the defensive end of the game, and then when the team needs him to create shots, obviously he's the best at it because he's taller, he's got one of the, the highest release points that we've ever seen, and the Duke can knock down shots from everywhere on the

floor. So that dynamic, that split that we're seeing there, that's a product of continuity from them playing together for a long time. Kevin Durant's development as a passer, and them just kind of realizing what their natural roles are on this team. Overall, kind of looking back at the nets over the preseason and in this particular game, they're just competing a lot better on the defensive end of the floor. And the athleticism, the influx of athleticism on the wing really helps. having Royce O'Neill there, having Ben Simmons there, that's just better basketball players, better athletes, guys that can thrive in the physicality, that uptick and talent on that specific area of their roster is helping them a lot on the defensive end of the floor.

And then on the offensive end, they're just, you know, I got to give them some credit. I criticize them, not criticize, but I characterize the Nets in our season previews as a team that doesn't run a lot of offense. And they'll run it on dead ball situations. They'll run it sometimes after free throws for the other team. but they don't run a lot of sets. Well, in this preseason, they've been running a lot more actions when they get down the floor. Again, I trust brute force offense.

I think it translates to the playoffs better than most forms of offense because it's kind of like immune to scheming, so to speak. But it's nice when you can supplement your incredibly difficult shot making from guys like Kevin Durant and Kyrie with easy stuff by running sets. And so seeing them run a little bit more offensive organization, I think, is encouraging to say the least. Looking over the bucks, Janus didn't shoot well, like I said, but he got a lot of really good looks around the basket that he usually makes. Spacing is a legitimate concern with this team.

Now, remember, Chris Middleton's out, and he's going to help with that a lot. We've talked about that a lot in the season preview. We'll talk about it more here in a couple minutes. But they ended up going huge with Brooke Lopez and Bobby Portis in the starting lineup, and the nets are just swarming Janus everywhere, which is a huge part of why he went six for 21. They might need to consider balancing those lineups with some more shooting. Portis and Lopez both can shoot, and if you leave them open, they'll make you pay from time to time.

But neither of them are guarded as shooters. This is a concept I talk about all the time on the show. If a guy shoots 38% on six attempts per game and he's getting panic chased off the line everywhere, that's different than a guy that goes 38% on three attempts per game and he's wide open every time. First of all, 38% on a wide open shot is not the same percentage as 38% on tougher movement shots or contested shots and things along those lines. And then secondly, all of those possessions, the option two is not being guarded. And option one is getting panic chased all over the floor. So there's a huge difference between just looking at three point percentages and looking at the context of the way teams actually guard those shooters when they're on the floor. So playing a Portis, playing a Brooke Lopez alongside Yanis,

yeah, they're going to take and make some threes, but their men are ignoring them and digging down on Janus all game long. So it's just something that they're going to have to figure out in terms of balance. That's why I'm so excited to see Chris Middleton come back, because he's one of the best spot-up players in the league, not just knocking down threes, but also attacking closeouts. You start to look at the way these lineups are structured. And if you have Janus out there, you have Drew Holliday who gets guarded like a shooter. You have Chris Middleton who gets guarded like a shooter. Now I've got two guys in the offball roles that are guarded like shooters. Now I can afford to have one of those guys potentially be a little bit more of an iffy shooter. Maybe that's a Lopez if you go big, right?

Maybe it's a Bobby Portis. But then if I can go with, you know, someone like a Grayson Allen or Joe Ingalls or somebody that's a more dynamic shooter, now I have three off ball players next to Janus that I'm actually treating with respect when they're off the ball. So, but you take Middleton out of that equation and you replace him with somebody that's not being guarded, that just that one player kind of swings the pendulum too far towards congestion around you. Yannis and then his efficiency tank. So it's just something that having Chris Middleton back's going to be huge. And then just general with lineup structure, then he might need to have a little bit more balance with shooting. Last note on the Nucks, excuse me, the Bucks, uh, Javon Carter had a really nice

night, specifically with pull-up shooting. I'm going to keep hammering this kind of stuff home because I think these are specific concepts that are really important in modern basketball. Tons of dribble handoffs and ball screen actions with Yannis and guys are going underneath the screens are dying on the screen because Janus is so damn big and such a good screener, there's just openings there for people that can knock down pull-up jump shots. It is the thing that beats most coverages. Javon had a really nice night pull-up shooting. It was a big part of some of the Bucks offensive success.

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 you're 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 J. 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 yeah, yeah, literally.

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. Tip off the NBA season with Fan Duel, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers can tip off the season with a no sweat first bet, up to $1,000 back in free bets if you don't win. Just sign up with promo code Jason T. Here's a couple of futures that I would keep an eye on if I were you guys.

Among the favorites to win the title, I really like the Warriors. Among the long-shot bets to win the title, I really like the 76ers and the Dallas Mavericks. And then on the MVP front, I think Yonis is going to get it this year. I really don't understand why Luka is the favorite. I don't think they're going to win nearly enough regular season games. Janus is just a safe bet to put up monster numbers to win a ton of games, and it's been long enough since he won his last one that I think he's going to have some pull with the voters. Fandual is my favorite sports betting app.

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I'm not going to talk too much about the wolves because we just talked about them yesterday, but I do want to touch on a couple of quick things. First of all, this is the first team to outplay the Lakers' core lineups so far in this preseason. Got to give them some credit there. Little context, they were plus 10 with LeBron, so they really just struggled with the non-Lebron lineups. Also, the Lakers shot like shit, although the Lakers are not a good shooting team. We'll get to that in a minute. But kudos to the wolves, first team to outplay the Lakers' core lineups in the preseason.

That means something. Kyle Anderson. Now, we always knew he was a good wing defender, but, you know, I was really disappointed with Minnesota's perimeter defense in general yesterday when I was watching them. And, you know, they certainly held up better today, but that's still a big weakness on this particular roster. They're going to rely on Rudy Gobert to do a lot around the basket. But I do think Kyle Anderson counter balances that a little bit because his length is a legit. legitimate problem. He probably had a half dozen deflections in this game, causing problems for basic things like post entries. LeBron trying to hit cutters or like Anthony Davis trying to pass

out of post-ups, things along those lines. He just shrinks passing lanes and makes things really difficult just in the basic flow of offense. I thought that was a really nice pickup this summer, and he definitely alleviates some of their perimeter defense problems. A couple other wolves that wanted to shout out, Jalen Newell. dude, some shot making from him in that 5 to 10 foot range in this game was ridiculous, short fadeaways, push shots, things along those lines. Plays where Lakers were draped all over him playing excellent defense and he's just knocking down shots over the top.

He wasn't making his perimeter shot in this game, but he was showing some really nice shot making in that short range area, which I think is one of the most underrated scoring areas in the league. He also defended really well, just an interesting young guard. I think Jordan McLaughlin I don't like that much, and I don't think he's going to be able to fulfill kind of what Patrick Beverly did, but Jalen Noel, I do think, kind of makes up for some of their losses from the Rudy Gobert trade. And then Nas Reid, his perimeter shooting really made Anthony Davis pay for roaming off the ball. They're playing Anthony Davis at the five.

He's sagging back off of everything. Nasreed only made three-threes out of six tries, but if you think about it, I mean, that's nine points. That if that's not a stretch big, Anthony Davis is now shutting everything down around the basket. all three of those possessions are probably stops. Hey, this was an eight-point game at halftime. That's the difference between you being down one or up by eight, right? Is a Nazri coming out and knocking down shots?

Looking forward to the Lakers. So shooting obviously was the big reason why they lost this particular game. I think they missed at 1.16 consecutive threes. There might even have been more than that. Some of it's just bad luck. Like three of their very best shooters, which is Patrick Beverly, who's a good catch-and-shoot three-point shooter, Kendrick Nunn, who's a good catch-and-shoe three-point shooter,

and Matt Ryan is a good shooter. Those three guys went one for 14 from three on pretty good looks. There were a couple tough ones in there, particularly from Pat Beverly that were more contested than usual. But most of the shots that they got were pretty good looks, and they went one for 14. So some of that's just bad shooting. But a lot of it is the fact that this is a Lakers team

that's one of the worst shooting teams in the league. Like Russ won O for two from three. I expect Russ to go over two from three, and I expect that to happen a lot. Lonnie Walker went one for three from three. I expect that to happen a lot. He's kind of right around that range as a shooter. AD went 0 for 2. That's going to happen a lot of nights. Dennis Schroeder went 0 for 1. That's going to happen a lot of nights. It's a legitimate weakness on the roster, and there are going to be nights where the Lakers generate a lot of quality three-point shots, and they just don't knock them down because they're not a good shooting team. That is the biggest need on this roster,

and it needs to be addressed. That and probably wing size, but more than any, that shooting has to be addressed, which brings me to Russ. And again, I'm going to try to be quick because I always try to be quick with Russ. He didn't really look mentally present in this game. He was disengaged from the beginning. There's a weird moment where he skipped the pregame huddle. God knows what that was about. Patrick Beverly at one point tried to start a defensive huddle. He completely ignored him there. He made several defensive mistakes. He had several silly turnovers. He straight up just stepped out of bounds in front of the Lakers bench twice. He took a couple of quick above the break threes,

which above the break threes are literally his lowest percentage shot right now. He's actually a decent corner three-point shooter, but he can't make anything above the break. But he just can't get out of that like that character trait, his basketball character trait, of wanting to be aggressive as a pull-up jump shooter, even though he can't make them. So there's just a really rough game from Russ.

And so then I just want to ask why? Like, why are you subjecting your team to this? I already recorded the redeem team show that's going to air tomorrow. In it, I'm going to talk a lot about the concept of redundancy. Essentially, like, you can't just quantify a basketball lineup by total talent. You have to look at the roles that a lineup has to fill on both ends of the floor and whether or not the players you have can cross those boxes. And right now, like, I, Russ is just a redundancy on this roster.

They don't need the things that he does well. and he really struggles with the things that they actually need from him. And so with that redundancy, you've got this player that's tying up a spot in your rotation, tying up a bunch of minutes, and he's just not helping you win. And that's going to be a problem as we get into this season. I think Russ would be happier elsewhere. I think the Lakers would be better. And if you combined him with picks, he can actually fetch you a couple of pieces

that fix your flaws, specifically shooting in wing size. And again, even if you're waiting for a better deal because you think Victor Wemignyama is going to lead to tanking and there's going to be something out there, then you've got to find something. It's not either find a small role for him or something where at least he won't do much to damage you in the meantime. To me, that's bring him off the bench, let him play two, three shifts a game, you know, let him just focus his energy on the dirty work in those possessions. But just like keeping him on the floor for 32 minutes a night with all of the things that he does that can hurt a basketball team, I think it's problematic. The Lakers defense was pretty solid in the half court.

they mainly got torched in transition, just not running back on defense, which is fixable. I'm sure Darvin Ham is screaming at them about that today. And then again, Nasreed is like the type of guy that's going to punish this Lakers defensive scheme. Like we're going to talk about it in a minute, but this Lakers scheme is really geared towards devoting attention to ball handlers and packing to paint, lots of strong side help. So if Anthony Davis is going to camp by the rim and you're playing against a stretch big, he's going to kill you.

Nasrude killed them in this game. So this is the last time we're going to talk about the Lakers before the regular season. starts on Tuesday. So I just wanted to kind of like encapsulate what I've seen from them so far. I think Darvin Ham has done a really nice job getting the stars to buy back into the defensive end, particularly LeBron. I thought he was rough in the first preseason game, but that he's been better since. He's also established a scheme that's worked for them. This is not going to be a great perimeter defense team that can do some switching and guard isolation. This is a team that's going to need to devote extra attention to the ball handler and extra attention to the paint.

and that's what they've done at the expense of giving away wide-open three-point shots. But what they can do in that case is they can take away the easy shots at the rim that get guys going, and by pressuring ball handlers and offering lots of help at ball handlers, they have a good chance to get the other team's stars to have bad nights and just make them feel less than confident, less than comfortable on the basketball court. That will go a long way towards helping you even if role players are sticking threes on the weak side. Again, in order for them to be a top five defense, it's going to take a lot from LeBron James and Anthony Davis on the backline and a lot of health and a lot of Patrick Beverly, a lot of Dennis Schroeder, maybe even a trade in there for them to get to that point. It is on the table, though, with how well they'll defend the three point, or excuse me, how well they'll defend the ball handler and the paint. LeBron and Anthony Davis both look completely outstanding. I think this is the best they've both looked since the bubble. LeBron, more or less looks like LeBron. Anthony Davis hasn't been himself at all in 2020.

or the year before or 2022. So this is the best I've seen him look since the bubble. So that's a lot to get exciting about. But the problem is, is this team is two solid role players away from being a legitimate title contender. So it's so much of the Lakers season comes down to can they find a legitimate rush trade, get it done, and get it done in time for them to build some continuity and figure out how to win with that particular group. But overall, if you're a Lakers fan, if you had a range of potential outcomes this preseason, this is about as good as you could have expected to this point.

All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate your support. Remember, tomorrow we have the Redeemed Team episode coming out, and then I'll see you guys on Monday for our final season preview. Volume. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

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