The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Luka Doncic, Kyrie & Mavericks scorching, LeBron's title window + NBA Power Rankings

Episode Date: April 2, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to Luka Doncic, Kyrie Irving, and the Dallas Mavericks’ 7-game winning streak, and discusses how the Mavs are a legitimate threat in the West. Jason then explains how much time LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers have left to win another NBA championship before he retires, and drops his weekly NBA Power Rankings. Timeline (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 04:00 - Introduction 06:00 - Mavericks on fire 26:30 - Thunder stun Knicks 37:52 - Will LeBron James play in NBA Finals again? 45:06 - NBA Power Rankings #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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get back into our groove this week. We got a jam-packed show. The Dallas Mavericks. We had an unstoppable force versus an unmovable object last night. The Dallas Mavericks on a six-game winning streak have been red-hot for a while against a Houston Rockets team at home that was on an 11-game winning streak and the Mavericks got a big win. We're going to break that game down from the perspective of both teams. After that, the Oklahoma City Thunder won a incredibly entertaining back-and-forth game late against the New York Knicks. Jalen Brunson looked like you won the game and then Shay stole it back and then Jailen Brunson got a similar look on the other end and missed it. Super entertaining. We're going to break that game down.

Later on in the show, we have an interesting quote from LeBron James. He went nine for 10 from three last night against the Brooklyn Nets, was just toying with them late. He had a quote after the game about how much longer he's going to be playing. There's some discussion about how much longer LeBron's window is in terms of his ability to compete for championships. So I want to address that under the frame of the question, will LeBron ever play in the NBA finals again?

We'll talk about that. And then last but not least, as we always do on Mondays, but it didn't last week while I was skiing up in Lake Tahoe. We're going to do an addition of power rankings, obviously with two weeks' worth of new games to get into. So Jampack Show, you guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel. It means a lot to me.

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run that Dallas used to go up by 21 on the Houston Rockets. You can find that again on my Twitter feed at underscore Jason LT. And last but not least, keep dropping mailbag questions and the YouTube comments. We're going to have several mailbags during the week this week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the story of this Rockets Mavs game was all about Luca Dantzich. The Houston Rockets have gone small after Alperin Shagoon got hurt. And they're basically moving Amend Thompson into the starting lineup, and he's basically playing center for them. It's just this athletic wrecking ball that's doing as much as they can. And obviously, like, they don't really have a great option to throw in there.

Jack Landale in his minutes was a huge problem in this game, which we'll be getting into. So as a result, you've got lots of great perimeter defenders in that group, right? Like Dylan Brooks, outstanding perimeter defender. Amand Thompson, outstanding perimeter defender. Fred Van Vleet, outstanding perimeter defender, Jalen, excuse me, Jabari Smith, Jr., outstanding perimeter defender. Honestly, Jalen Green is really the only weekly link in that group, but they're really good at sliding their feet on the perimeter and bothering guards. But Luca Donchich is not like other guards in the NBA. He's way bigger than all of those guys. And

honestly, one of the biggest advantages too is like Luca, he, one of the things that I think often goes overlooked when we talk about Lucas skill set is obviously he has all this incredible shot making ability and he does have great size. But he uses his brain, not just as a passer, but he also uses his brain to get defenders out of position. I talk about this a lot on the show as it pertains to the way he sells his moves. Like, for instance, he's not going to do some big sweeping crossover right to left. He's going to do a push cross. He's going to turn his body entirely to the right, entirely frame his body language like he's

going one way, and then he's going to just come across his body. He's selling it with his body, not with the basketball necessarily. But in addition to that, something that we've never talked, haven't talked enough about over the years, is how we can get defenders out of position with fakes and with footwork and about body positioning, right? And this becomes a much bigger deal when you're going against smaller defenders, because especially smaller athletes with long arms and high motor athletes that are constantly playing super hard, you want to use that aggressiveness against them. And he started this game just killing them with pump fakes and footwork and getting to spots and then just rising up with a little shoulder headfake

and one of Houston's perimeter defenders would just be too overzealous and jump and get off the ground and he'd either just pivot around and get to a different spot to take a shot or he'd go right back up into them and draw a foul. And again, like those two elements, footwork and pump fix. I want to talk about them for just a second. Footwork is an incredibly important part of the game of basketball that doesn't get discussed enough because it's something that's not as, you know, exciting as ball handling or shot making or athleticism or things along those lines. and footwork. I was actually talking about this this morning with my young players that I coach on Mondays and Fridays when we do skills training.

I was so impressed because we have a new group coming in, right? So seniors are out. The juniors that are coming up, they're going to be the seniors next year. And then we have some new kids that are joining the program or that have been in the program, but are joining the varsity elements of the program that were freshmen and sophomore last year. And we're working on some basic footwork concepts, both for like movement shooting, also just like off the dribble stuff, just basic footwork concepts.

A lot of it's attacking closeouts too, which I think is a super important part of the high school game. But I was talking to them about how impressed I was that the juniors coming up are so sharp with their footwork now. And they used to be terrible with it. And all of the younger players right now are really struggling with it. And I kind of use it as an example to talk to the kids like, look, this is what happens. Like in time, these movements do become more natural for you. They become the like second nature. They become a natural part of what you do as an athlete.

The footwork coming off of a screening action for a three off the catch is the exact mirror image going on either end of the floor, right? And looks a little different for a righty than it does for a lefty. And, you know, the easiest way for me to put it is footwork is how you get two spots, right? So once you get to the spot, your physicality, your lift, your shot making takes over, right? but to get to the spot, you need a certain footwork. Imagine you're coming off of a ball screen, to your right hand side, guys chasing over the top, big man sitting a little far back, but you see a little opening maybe five feet in front of you

and five feet off to the right. You need to have the ability to do a single push dribble in that direction, but to take off with a left-right take-off and get great lift to take advantage of that spot. Because if you stutter step to that spot or you go right-left to that spot, it's going to be janky, it's going to be awkward, you're going to have to pick up your dribble and you're going to end up passing it out from there. The ability to actually get two spots on the floor where you can do work depends on footwork.

For instance, there was a post up from Luca on Jabari Smith, if I remember correctly, on the right block. I clipped this possession. You can see it in my Twitter feed on the thread that I did for this particular game. But the ability to, as Luca is backing Jabari Smith down on that right block using his right shoulder to kind of create a little bit of separation. There is a step-through footwork element he goes to where he pivots over his right shoulder and pump fakes, but he has a really wide base and he plants that left foot in a way where he can go straight up if he wants, but he also can just plant it and pivot back the other

way or step through. And in this case, he actually held his ground and pump faked. And when Jabari Smith left his feet, he was already set in his footwork to be able to go right back up into Jabari and draw the foul. There is a balance element when you get to those spots that is about having your base constantly underneath you. And the only way to have your base constantly underneath you is to have the appropriate footwork to get to your spots with balance and with a good, strong, wide base. And then the second element of it is the pump fix. So obviously, the easiest way to take advantage of overzealous defense off the ball is your back cut, right?

Like if you're on the wing and the guy's up in deny and he's playing the passing lane, all you have to do is make it look like you're ready to catch and then cut back door. And you could take advantage of overzealous defense on the perimeter with body movement. But on the basketball, it's all about fakes, pump fakes, footwork fakes, things along those lines. And again, like, Luca, when he's dealing with these guys, he can shoot over the top, right? Like, he can take difficult shots over the top. But he doesn't need to if he can take advantage of their overreact. zealous approach to defense by using fakes to get them out of position.

Luca's first three buckets in this game were right at the rim, and all three of them were like 100% shots. Not like, oh, I took a tough little hook shot over the top and it may or may not go in. No, no, no. He was getting easy layups right under the basket by using fakes to get smaller defenders out of position. And once they leave their feet, I just might as well be a miking drill at that point. Right? Like he's just taking an easy layup right underneath the basket. So he was killing him in switches. Again, because Houston was switching everything with that lineup, significant size advantages all over the floor, using those footworks, that footwork and those pump fakes to get easy shots around the rim. So then Houston brings in Jock land him. And Lucas starts picking on him in switches. And Jock is giving him space and offering a token contest at the end. But Luca just doesn't even see that contest, especially with his size. And he just started killing him with pull up. jump shots over the top. Luca took 22 pull-up jump shots in this game and made 12 of them. He took 15 pull-up threes and made eight of them.

He had 32 total points on 22 pull-up jump-shot attempts. That's 1.45 points per pull-up jumper. That's completely absurd. And that doesn't even count all the times that he got to the foul line by pump-faking on one of those shots. It's arguably the biggest difference between this year and last year with Luca. is he's just so much more effective with this pull-up jump-shot game, which has just made him that much harder to guard.

He's actually shooting 37% on the season on pull-up threes. Honestly, it was just comical, how much better Luca was than everybody else on the floor in this game. It kind of reminded me of some of the games when LeBron James was at his peak and when he was better than everybody in the league where he would just kind of mess around. Like you'd be in this like dead serious NBA game between like two teams that were really good. And LeBron would just be like trying shit. And those of you guys who were watching the league during that phase when LeBron was in his prime, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

And like, Luca like purposely banked in a three-point shot in this game, just for fun. Like imagine how unbothered and unthreatened you'd have to feel on the road against a team on an 11-game winning streak to just be like, I'm going to try to bank in this three. In the first half, the game was still in question at that point. You banked in another jumper in the first half. And then in the second half, he had this step through move where you're like pump faked at the three point line, step through with his left foot.

Again, a footwork element there. When he's on his base, he always knows he can take an additional step to get to his spot as long as he landed on that jumpstop, right? So he steps through with his left foot, then scoops up underneath and just throws up a scoop shot from like 20 feet away from the basket and puts it in. Just trying that is absurd, let alone making that shot. The level of confidence it requires to do that in the NBA at all,

let alone in this important of a game. It completely crazy. Because again, you've got to remember, all these games are must-win games for the Houston Rockets as they try to get into that 10-seat. It was just unbelievable. Other Mavs pitching in. Kyrie Irving at 24 points and 7 assists

with only one turnover. PJ Washington hit a couple of huge above-the-break threes during that second quarter run when the Mavs went up by 21. Honestly, PJ Washington's three-point shooting is going to be a huge swing factor for the Mavs when they get into the postseason this year. Dante XM, 5 for 5 from the 5 from the 15.

field. He's shooting over 60% on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots this year. Not effective field goal percentage, not weighted for threes, just field goal percentage. Shooting 60%. 91% when you wait it for threes in effective field goal percentage. He's getting 1.81 points per unguarded catch and shoot jump shot. And like, again, if you look back at what he did overseas the previous two years, this has been a trend that has continued. He's fixed his jumper while he was overseas and he's brought it back to the NBA and it's made him a very impactful player. And honestly, it gives the Mavs all these different options that they can go to. Because like, you know, I like Derek Jones Jr. He started the game guarding Jalen Green did a

really nice job. Had a rough offensive game, but a really good perimeter defense game. You can go with the guy like Josh Green. You can go with the guy like PJ Washington. You can go with the guy like Dante X and they have all these different options that they can go to. And that like honestly will allow, as long as Jason Kidd plays the right buttons based on the matchups and based on how guys are playing. it honestly can make them better. So the Mavs dominate to get a big win. They're seventh straight.

I want to talk about defense for a second. I always talk about defensive personnel and just the job that teams do chasing over the top of screens or defending and drop coverage or rotating on the weak side or helping recover situations, closeouts, all that kind of stuff. And that's all important. But most of that has to do with defensive talent and execution, right? Another half of the defensive equation, honestly, one that we talk about way more when we get to the postseason and not so much in the regular season is game plan.

And you could argue it's every bit as important as the stuff with the defensive talent. And I thought Jason Kidd had just a really, really smart game plan for Houston in this game. He put Daniel Gafford on Amend Thompson to start the game and just had him completely ignore him. So when Thompson was set in ball screens, he'd be sitting back in a drop. Thompson is not involved in the play, just sitting right, basically right under the basket. And that just really gumbed up Houston's offense. And then when Derek Lively came in and Jock Landale came in, they were worried about or not worried about Jock Landale's ability to score in the short role.

And so with Derek Lively, they had him blitz. And they were blitzing ball screens, basically staying home off the ball. And Jock Landale's catching in the middle of the floor. He got a couple of buckets in there, but there were based on a per possession basis. I think he had like maybe four points in the short roll, at least during that first half run. And it probably had like six or seven catches down there. So like it was working out to Dallas's advantage, just to basically when Gafford's on the floor,

park his ass underneath the basket. When Derek lively's out there, be aggressive and dare Jock Landale to beat you on the roll. And it worked really, really well. Like Houston's offense was, Houston's offense has been really, really good over the course of this recent win streak that they've been on. They've been like up over 120 points per 100 possessions,

is flying up and down the floor, using their athleticism, down shots and they just completely stalled out Newston's offense with a really smart game plan. And that's a huge part of it. Like identifying your opponent's weakness and building your defensive strategy around that, that is, again, every bit as important as defensive personnel.

And being smart with those strategic elements when you get to the postseason could be the difference between a long playoff run and an early exit. Since February 5th, the Mavs are 19 and 6. That is the second best record in the league over that span behind the Boston Celtics. They are eighth in defense, 11th in defensive rebounding over that span. So again, this is a significant sample size, 25 games, more than 30% of the season by percentage. And they're 11th in defensive rebounding and eighth in defense. That's real two-way basketball

that the Mavericks are playing. You can even make a case if they move high enough in the standings that Luca Donchid should be more seriously taken into consideration for the MVP award. that's the type of run that Dallas has been on. I think they need to win a few more games here down the stretch, but there's every pace to make that he belongs in that conversation. Now, here's the question. Where would I place Dallas in light of their recent run among the West hierarchy? And, you know, I looked at this for a while this morning to try to kind of come up with

the concrete opinion. Here's where I'm at. Obviously, Denver's still at the top. I still have them in their own tier, at least as it pertains to the West. I view Boston in their tier, but they're out east, right? the teams at the bottom of the West that I don't take seriously. Golden State, I don't think they have a real title threat in them. Sacramento, especially in light of their injuries,

I didn't view them as a serious threat before their injuries. New Orleans Pelicans, I don't think they're good enough on either end of the floor, especially defensively on the front line to win enough games in the postseason. And then Houston, if you're going to include them as the 11th seed, as a threat to the 10th seed. Those are teams that I view as the bottom tier in the West that I don't think have a real chance to go on a run. Everybody else, though, they're all really freaking good.

Minnesota, they've been one of the best teams in the league all year long. They're the best defense in the league. No one can guard aunt. Like Dallas, Minnesota, it's tough. You could make the case for either, right? The Clippers, they dominated most of the season, and they're completely loaded with talent and two-way players during the middle third of the season.

They were the best team in the league, basically. Clippers Mavs, you could make the case for I. Right. Phoenix, they're probably the best matchup with the Denver Nuggets. I think they are the team most capable of beating Denver in a seven game series. They are completely loaded with talent and playing much better basketball here down the stretch of the season. Phoenix, Dallas, you could make the case for either one of them, right? Oklahoma City, they're literally the number one seat in the West. And any pessimism surrounding them has to do with size and youth, right?

And then the Los Angeles Lakers, since January 7th, a 39 game sample size, they have the fifth best record in the league. Everyone thinks the Lakers suck because they're lower in the standings because they had a rough stretch right after the in season tournament where they let their foot off the gas and made a bunch of bad lineup decisions where they benched three of their top five players for a while. That threw off everyone's calculus with the Lakers for half of the season recently. They have been the fifth best team in the league. So like you had to throw them in there too. Now, I'd say the Lakers belong on the bottom of that tier, but they're in that tier. All of those teams, though, you could make a case for anyone. Like, there isn't, like, when it comes to trying to slide Dallas in there,

they're somewhere in there, but it's hard to make a case that they're just over all of them. And so I kind of land right where I've been for most of the last few months. I think all of those teams have a chance to make a long playoff run and get out of the West. and I think all of those teams have a chance to lose in the first round. Hell, the Lakers have a chance to lose in the play in tournament. So, like, so does Phoenix, by the way. So, like, really, I think it's going to come down to matchups. It's going to come down to who plays who.

But here is the most important part. Given all these factors, the most important element is going to be who's playing the best at the right time. Dallas is playing their best basketball right now. that's a huge factor there. They can ride that momentum into the postseason that could be the difference maker with that tier. But yeah, as I look at the West,

Denver at the top, Golden State, Sacramento, New Orleans, at the bottom. And then I've Minnesota, the Clippers, Phoenix, OKC, the Lakers, and Dallas, all in there jumbled up. They're all, any one of them could be the one that comes out of the West.

Any one of them could lose in the first round. As good as Dallas has been, you can't make a case for them, to be definitively above OKC, definitively above the clippers, definitively above Minnesota. There's not a definitive case there to make, even in light of their recent run.

But I do think that them getting hot at the right time bodes really well for them. 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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun,

thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Bo Your Mind on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The story I've told myself about love or relationships can then shape my behavior, and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection.

This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown and explore the journey of healing, self-discovery, and returning to yourself. We explore higher consciousness, emotional well-being, and the practices that help you find clarity, peace, and self-mastery in a world that can feel overwhelming. The world is becoming lonelier. We're not becoming more social and connected. We're becoming more individualized. but we actually meet people in connection.

If you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole, this podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. All right, moving on to the Oklahoma City Thunder

versus the New York Knicks. This is a really fun back-and-forth game. The Knicks went up by 12 points in the third quarter at one point they made their first five threes in the third quarter as they went on a run the thunder bench brought them back jalen williams just was ridiculous had everything going he was scoring at the rim he was making these like push shots in the lane he had probably the best dunk of his career so far this like transition push where he dunked on dante de vincenzo and miles mcbride like in like a sandwich contest and he just went up over both it was one of the most impressive athletic plays of his career to this point he made seven pull-up jump shots in this game all of them from two-point range. Now, James Harden has recently just barely snuck past him in this list, but he's still the second-best pull-up jump shooter in the league this year at a minimum of 300 attempts, getting 1.11 points per pull-up jumper. Crazy thing is most of them are pull-up twos. He takes 5.1 pull-up jumpers a game. Only 1.4 of them are threes. So the vast majority of them

are from two-point range. He shoots 42% on those pull-up threes, shoots well over 50% on pull-up two. And that's a really high value shot, especially when you get to the postseason, because I'm a big believer that there's more resiliency in pull up close range shooting than there is in pull up long range shooting when you get to the later rounds of the postseason. So Jalen Williams starts the run, shot making, Duncan on people. Josh Hart does a really nice job, just kind of bring in some intense full court ball pressure on Jalen Williams, which kind of slowed him down just a little bit. And then Oklahoma City just went to Josh Giddy. And Josh Giddy was just, again, kind of a similar thing to what we were talking about with Houston versus Dallas.

New York just plays a lot of smaller guards. And Josh Giddy was just taking advantage of the small guards by just barreling down the lane and spinning over his left shoulder and making little push shots close to the basket. He had 16 points, 13 rebounds and 12 assists in this game. He also had a couple of huge threes late in the game during their second half run when New York was leaving him open. Really, really impressive night from Josh Giddy. Late game was a complete shit show. both teams were missing a bunch of free throws.

As a matter of fact, the two teams combined to go 13 for 25 from the foul line in this game. And so we have this chaotic finish at the end of the game. Jalen Brunson misses the free throw. And there's this crazy rebound situation. The ball goes out of bounds, stays with the Knicks. The Knicks run this really smart action, like a staggered ball screen where they get Chet Holmgren

switch down to Jalen Brunson and then set another brush screen with Josh Hart that just allows Brunson to get a little bit of an angle on Chet, and he just gets into Chet's body and extends out and makes this really nice left-handed hook shot, or left-handed scoop shot, excuse me, off the glass. That puts the Knicks up one, only four seconds left. On the other end of the floor, Mark Dajonald draws up this super interesting

kind of like decoy action with Jalen Williams and Shea. So everyone else is out at the three-point line. Jailen Williams and Shea are basically right at the left elbow, if you're facing the basket. inbounds is on the left side of the floor. And essentially what they did is they had Jalen Williams fake like he was going to set a pin down for Shea. But then Shea turned around and set a back screen for Jalen. Jalen rolls to the rim.

The Knicks actually defend it really well chasing over the top. And Shea actually breaks to the right block and ends up with Miles McBride on him with plenty of time, plenty of space on the floor. And he just pivots right over his right shoulder and takes a right shoulder fade. She didn't even really have much going in this game because Jalen Williams is playing so well. And obviously he's coming back from an injury. He's a little rusty. But he just gets his lift on that right shoulder fade and knocks the shot down and puts the thunder back up one. They go to the other end.

It was off of a different action, but they more or less get the exact same mirror image look for Jalen Brunson. So this time it's on the right kind of block extended. But Jalen Brunson is a left-handed shooter. So he pivots over his left shoulder takes the same type of fadeaway shot over the same kind of like dominant shoulder on the baseline and it's dead on straight, but he leaves it short and the Knicks end up losing. So I want to go back to Jalen Williams for a second. I want to use three plays to demonstrate just how crazy Jalen Williams is going to be in this league, just how crazy good he's going to be. First, the transition done. So on this play, precious Chua is in the

front court. He's trying to knock around an offensive rebound. I can't remember who it was, but somebody on the Knicks misses a three. On the tap out, Jalen Williams is dribbling the ball up the right side of the floor, and you can see him, look to his left, and identify that Precious is trailing the play. He looks up the floor and he sees Miles McBride is right in front of him, has stopped the ball. The other three guys, the other three Knicks are all kind of flaring out to shooters. No Nick actually just runs to the rim, which is always like it's basketball, it's rim basketball shooters. It's like an order of operations when it comes to, uh, to transition defense. And a lot of coaches teach stopping the basketball first, because if you stop the

basketball first, that buys time for other guys to get back. If you can make him turn or change direction or something like that. But either way, basketball always comes before wing shooters. But he identifies, he looks up the floor, sees precious to chew a trail in the play, looks up the floor, sees Miles McBride in front of him, but sees everyone else kind of spaying out to the three point line and behind the half court line like 10 feet behind the back court line jaylon williams goes fuck it i'm going for it and he just like hits the jets bodies miles mcbride shoves him off rises up it just and just throws it down there's a token contest on the side for dante de vincenzo but he has absolutely no chance just a ridiculous athletic play and again

it's the recognition of what's happening on the floor it's the size advantage just as the ball handler with his size strength and athletic tools and then the incredible straight line force in athleticism that he brings to the table. Second play, a fourth quarter hesitation pull-up jump shot on Alec Berks. This actually might have been in the third quarter. I can't remember exactly what it was. But he gets Alex Berks in isolation at the top of the key. And he's kind of working, mixing off the dribble.

And he hits him with a hard between the legs dribble step back. And when he makes the move, Alec Burks like stutter steps back and like lands with his heel all the way back on the foul line. And so Jalen Williams has realized like, oh, like he can't guard me without being way back on his heels. So he knows he's going to have an easy pull-up jumper. So he gets the ball back into his left hand and takes a hesitation dribble, just a high hesitation dribble just to kind of reset his rhythm. And then he rises straight up and down and knocks down the jump shot. What this demonstrates to me, in order to guard Jalen Williams, because of his crazy downhill force, which is what we talked about earlier, you have to be on your heels.

You have to be constantly looking to give ground back into the right or back into the left. If you play up on him, he's just going to go right around you. And so he gets these really high quality pull-up jump shots. And that's a big part of why the shooting stats look the way that they do. Obviously, he's a great shooter. But he's also just getting awesome looks because of his incredible athletic tools that he brings to the table. He is literally, as a second-year player, the second best pull-up jump shooter in the entire league, minimum of 300 attempts.

And James Hardin is like right there, and he's been above him at various points during the season. The last play, it's 102 to 96, just under five minutes left, and the Thunder run a Spain pick and roll, which is basically you just have a shooter underneath the basket that relocates to the top of the key as you're running your ball screen. And the shooter in this case is Shaygilds Alexander. The ball handler in this case is Jalen Williams.

The screen setter in this case is Aaron Wiggins. Josh Hart is on on Jalen Williams. Jalen Brunson is guarding Aaron Wiggins, right? And then I want to say Miles McBride was on, was on Shea Gilles, Alexander. So as Wiggins goes up and sets a screen, Jalen Williams comes off hard to his right-hand side and brings two to the ball.

He brings Josh Hart trailing the play, and Jalen Brunson comes over. Basically, it amounts to a trap. Okay? So in this case, Aaron Wiggins is rolling into the basket. And this is the beautiful part of the play design, with Shea Gildes Alexander, Miles McBride is in position to help. He's underneath the basket. He's there to help in case that role man comes down unguarded like Aaron Wiggins was coming down.

But the play design has Shea Gilders Alexander flashing to the top of the key. But you can see Miles McBride identify it and he kind of stays back to help on Aaron Wiggins. And if you watch Jalen Williams, he gives a head fake. He looks with his entire body at Shea. And when he does that, Miles McBride lunges towards Shea, Aaron Wiggins slips behind him. Jalen Williams hits him with the pass right in stride so that you can slip inside and make the right-handed layup on the glass. And the most important part there is, again, the floor recognition, but also that high-level pick and roll playmaking to be able to manipulate the defense

with your eyes. And again, like, you had, I think, seven or eight assists in this game with just one turnover. Like, this has been a consistent theme with Jalen Williams. is like he's way advanced as a playmaker for a guy his age. I legitimately think this kid is not just really good, not just star potential. I think Jalen Williams has legitimate potential to become a top 10 player in this league. There just aren't that many prospects that come through the NBA

that have this combination of real downhill athletic force, outstanding to deadly pull-up jump shooting and high-level playmaking. How many guys, how many guys can you like genuinely say that about in the league? There's just not that many. It's hard to even find a comp. You talk about a guy like Jalen Brown,

and Jalen Brown, obviously, this phase of his career is a much better player than Jalen Williams, but like Jalen Brown, if you're talking about his strengths and weaknesses, like outstanding downhill athletic force, good pull-up shooter, mediocre to bad playmaker, right? Talk about Jimmy Butler.

It's like outstanding downhill force, and it's like good pull-up shooter, you know, great playmaker, right? We haven't really seen a prospect that can bring all three at an extremely high level to the table. Now, Jalen Williams has a long way to go to get to that point, but I really do think he has that potential.

I think he can be like a better version of Jimmy Butler, a Jimmy Butler that's a more consistent jump shooter. And by the way, that's not something that I believe to be hyperbole. He has the character for it. He has the work ethic for it. He has the athletic gifts for it. The touch is clearly there. The playmaking is clearly there.

He's doing it in a smaller role too, playing alongside all this talent. You can make a case if he's playing and if you've swapped him for Jalen Green right now and he's playing in Houston, he's probably averaging 25 points a game right now. Like a lot of it in the box score stuff has a lot to do with just what his circumstance. is. But I just, I continue to be completely and utterly blown away by how good this kid is right now and how good he's capable of being excited to watch him in the postseason. He's going to be a kid I'm excited to watch develop over the coming years. All right. LeBron's post game quotes. So Lakers get a big win against the Brooklyn. That's bouncing back from a tough loss on the road against Indiana Pacers.

And he hits nine threes in the game. A couple of really tough off the dribble ones. A drifting kind of like fade away in the left corner and then a step back on the right wing to get his eighth and ninth. threes of the game. He had 40 something in the in the game. He's averaging something crazy like 25 points per game on 63% true shooting, which is just completely outrageous for a 39 year old guy. But he had a quote after the game. He was asked about how much longer he feels like playing. He says, not very long. I'm not going to play another 21 years. That's for damn sure, but not very long. I don't know when that door will close as far as when I'll retire, but I don't have much time left. And so the question that we posed today is will LeBron ever play in an NBA finals again?

Now, here's the thing. Of course it's a possibility. I saw Stephen A. Smith say either this morning, I saw it on Twitter this morning. But he said that he thought that this was LeBron's last chance this year with the Lakers. I disagree with that. Like, I mean, he might fall off a cliff next year, but I mean, here's the thing. You can try to get ahead of the LeBron decline thing. I'm not going to be that guy.

I feel like the people have been trying to get ahead of that, just keep getting proven wrong every single year. Maybe it happens next year, maybe it doesn't. But here's the deal. The Lakers have access to three first round draft picks when they get to the draft this year. As long as they improve the roster with whatever they do this offseason more than LeBron declines,

it's a net improvement for the Lakers. So of course they're still going to be in the hunt. I think they need a coaching change. They need to be as healthy next year as they are. this year. LeBron needs to avoid any sort of severe injury. But whatever decline LeBron experiences, as long as they improve the roster around that, he's very much going to be in the mix still. So I don't think this is his last chance per se. That said, do I think LeBron will ever play in the NBA finals again as a likelihood?

Like if I had to apply a percentage chance to it, it's going to be below 50% for me. And the main reason why is I don't think this team is good enough defensively to win the play in tournament, and to win three rounds, all without home court advantage, all against really good teams. I wouldn't count them out. For the record, I'd put below 50% chance to make the finals for literally every team in the West except for the Denver Nuggets. But it is somewhat unlikely that they get through it this year.

And as for the off season, I don't trust the Lakers front office or ownership group to make the necessary tweaks to the roster to push them over the top. So to me, it's more likely than not that we don't get to see another finals appearance from LeBron, which is kind of a bummer. Because, like, honestly, I thought they should have been more aggressive at the deadline this year. Here they've been the fifth best team in the league over the last 39 games since January 27. And they've been like, we're going to go over some numbers when we get to the power rankings, but like they've been the second best three-point shooting team over that span.

They've been the second by percentage. They've been the second best point in the paint team. over that span, like they have a lot of really good things that they bring to the table. As a matter of fact, to put it simply, I don't think the Lakers are that far off. I think it's about specific weaknesses with them, not talent deficiencies. I don't think the Lakers have a talent issue. They have a roster balance issue. They have a shit ton of offensive skill in every single position group,

and they don't have anybody who can guard on the perimeter. They have like zero top tier athlete types that play at the one or the two. And that's been their, or at the three for that matter. matter because of the Jared Vanderbilt injury. So like, I really don't think they need that much to really enter into those conversations, but I just don't trust this particular franchise to do it. Again, I've talked about this on the show before, but like, to me, incompetence trickles from the top down.

This is the same owner that let Alex Cruso walk. Like, there's, there's not a GM in the league that wouldn't have gotten on hands and and begged for Jeannie Bus to keep Alex Crusoe because he's so obviously such a monumentally important piece to winning basketball games and Jeannie Bus just let him walk right and I don't need to get into it but if you go down if you go down from the top of the organization you see the incompetence come through whether it's the medical staff and their incapability to keep people and fans updated on just what's happening with the players on the roster whether it's like typos on a damn statute

whether it's hiring someone like Magic Johnson who clearly was not interested in doing the job. Regardless of what we want to point the flashlight at, from the top down, there's been incompetence. And so, like, to me, when you weigh the realities of their predicament this season against what they need to achieve this offseason with whether or not the leadership is capable of executing that, I don't have great optimistic feelings about their ability to get there.

So, again, I'm not right in LeBronoff. No, I don't think this is their last. chance. But I personally would be surprised if I got to watch LeBron James playing the NBA finals again. 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tontons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the rule of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. If you're watching the latest season of the Real Housewives of Atlanta, you already know there's a lot to break down. Orsha accusing Kelly of sleeping with a merry man. They hold and Kay Michelle back from fighting

Drew. Pinky has financial issues. I like the bougie style of Housewives show. I think it looks like it's going to be interesting. On the podcast, Reality with the King, I I, Carlos King, recap the biggest moments from your favorite reality shows, including the Real House Wise franchise, the drama, the alliances, and the T everybody's talking about. As an executive producer in reality television, I'm not just watching it, I understand the game. As somebody who creates shows, I'll even say this. At the end of the day, when people are at home, they want entertainment. To hear this and more, listen to Reality with the King on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcast. or wherever you get your podcast.

All right, moving on to our power rankings. The one drop-off from our two weeks ago list are the Cleveland Cavaliers. They are three and five since our last rankings on March 18th. They lost to Miami twice. They lost to Minnesota. They lost to Denver. And they have a really bad loss to Charlotte. Bottom 10 in both offense and defense over that span.

So we're dropping the calves for now. Number 10, gasp. The Los Angeles Lakers are cracking. into our power rankings for the first time in forever. Six and one since our last rankings, including yet another win over the Milwaukee Bucks in Milwaukee without LeBron. Since January 7th, a 39 game sample size, the Lakers are 25 and 14.

That is the fifth best record in all of basketball during that span. Again, over a sample size of almost half the season. They are fifth in offensive rating over that span. Second in three point percentage over that span. They're shooting over 40% from three. as a team since January 7th. They are second in points in the paint for 100 possession over that span. So a really nice combination of accurate perimeter shooting and interior dominance.

But here's the most encouraging stat in the justification for why I have the Lakers at 10th in the power rankings. According to cleaning the glass, against the top 10 teams in the NBA in point differential, they have 17 wins, which is the most in the league. They have a 55% win percentage, which is the fifth best in the league. and they have a plus 1.5 point differential per 100 possessions, which is the fifth best mark in the league. The Lakers have been one of the very best teams in the league this year at beating the good teams. In addition to playing really, really good basketball outside of a brief stretch, they were 15 and 9, including the in-season tournament win.

They are 25 and 14 since January 7th, which is the fifth best record in the league over that span. There's a 3-10 stretch there in the middle, which was right when everyone relaxed after winning the tournament. and obviously when Darvinham was tweaking with the lineup and taking their three of their top five players out. I'm, again, do I think the Lakers are a legitimate championship contender like the teams of the top of the league? No, but we're going to give them a shout out here for how good they've been playing over the course the last couple of months. At nine, the New Orleans Pelicans. They're losing to the Orlando Magic, Oklahoma City Thunder, and the Boston Celtics since our last ranking. So they're dropping a bit.

Obviously, Brandon Ingram got hurt. And that plays a role here. the offense has really fallen off. They're 21st in offense over their last six games, and their defense hasn't been as good either. They're down to ninth in that span. Here's the thing. I really wanted to drop the Pels too,

but when you look through the rest of the league, the league is so good, and everyone's kicking the shit out of everyone. There is not a team that I could reasonably put above New Orleans for now, even though I know that relative to most people, I'm lower on New Orleans, there's not even a team that I could reasonably put above them because everyone's kind of hovering around 500,

because everyone's really good, and everyone can beat everyone. And it's making for some funky results. At number eight, the New York Knicks. So mixed results since our last rankings, they're four and three. Had a nice road win over the Golden State Warriors, but they lost a few of the Denver Nuggets

and the San Antonio Spurs. Obviously lost a complete heartbreak to the Oklahoma City Thunder yesterday. Concerning stat with the Knicks, they're just five and 17 this year. In that same list, the top 10 point differential teams on cleaning the glass.

They're just 5 and 17 against those teams. Obviously injuries have played a role. I think like when it comes to the upper level teams, execution and effort and coaching and all those things can only carry you so far when you run into superior talent. And here's the thing. Jalen Brunson has had to do a ton. A lot of guys are being asked to do more than usual

and just getting back your best players will go a long way to helping that. And here's the silver lining. They are 39 and 13 against everyone else, which means they're building the habits and the consistency in the basketball culture to where if they add in the talent, they should be able to push over the top. Number seven, the Milwaukee Bucks, also mixed results. Three and three since our last rankings, one and three against the quality opponents they faced, though. They had a nice win against Oklahoma City, but then they lost to the Celtics,

loss to the Lakers, lost to the Pelicans. We can zoom out now and take a look at the Doc experience. Doc Rivers has been the coach of the Milwaukee Bucks for 28 games. In those 28 games, the Bucks are 15 and 13. That is the 16th best record in the league over that span. If you guys remember, I talked a lot about goals for the Bucks under Doc Rivers. I wanted to see an offensive rating at 120 because I thought they needed to be a truly elite offense to win. And I wanted to see a defensive rating at 115, which I thought was a good mark to demonstrate a good enough defense to get the job done in the postseason, provided that their offense was elite.

Here's where they're at. Since Doc went to join the team, 115.1 offensive rating. That's 16th in the league over that span, so they've been very mediocre on offense. But here's a silver lining. 112.6 defensive rating. Over a 28 game sample size, 11th best in the league.

So for, what's that, roughly 30, 35% of the season, they've been a top 11 defense. That's real. That's not something to completely ignore. overall, they've struggled against some specific matchups, particularly guard heavy offenses. It's why they've struggled with the Lakers, for instance, right? But overall, they've been really good on that end of the floor. And again, the offense just hasn't come around, but if the offense comes around,

that's where it could really take off. And I think, honestly, it's been a little bit of break rhythm with Janus's hamstring injury. And I think, like, and obviously with Chris Middleton being in and out of the lineup all year, so there's some factors there. They're really good offensively to start the season. I do believe that that offense is still in there, but they've got to get to to that point in order to capitalize and how good they've been defensively. Number six, the Los Angeles

Clippers. They're going against an easier part of their schedule and they're getting back on track as a result. They're five and two in their last seven since our last rankings. They got the Blazers twice and the Hornets once. Some easy ones in there. They split a home and home with the Philadelphia 76ers. They did lose an ugly one at home to the Indiana Pacers in that span. But on Friday night, they had one of their most impressive wins in recent months. They went to Orlando and got in this rock fight, this really fun rock fight of a basketball game. And just through really high level defense and really high level shot making, the

Clippers got to win 197 on the road. And they looked more or less like the Clippers. And I thought that was a really encouraging game for them. It's still in there. They just need to recapture it before they get to April. We've seen teams like Denver last year kind of run into similar stretches where they dominate and then they let their foot out the gas at the end. And somehow they get it going in time for the postseason.

That's got to be the mold for the Clippers. Number five, the Dallas Mavericks. Not going to talk too much about them because we just did a whole deep dive on them. Again, Mavericks fans, earlier on the feed, we did a deep dive on Dallas-Ferston and just how Luke has been dominating and how good they've been defensively, all that kind of stuff. You can find that on our YouTube feed. But brief synopsis, Dallas has been the second best team in the league since February 5th, and they're doing it on both ends of the floor.

Some really encouraging stuff there. They've been good defensive rebounding. and defensive rating over that span. Number four, Minnesota Timberwolves. They are five and two in their last seven games since our last rankings, including some really impressive wins. They went into Denver and manhandled the nuggets the other night, albeit without Jamal Murray.

Since Carl Towns went down, they started playing way better after they put Nas Reid in the starting lineup. They're now eight and four in those games. 16th in offense, sixth in defense. Anthony Edwards, averaging 26.7 rebounds and six assists. I advocated for starting Nasreed because I thought it was the best option for Minnesota under the circumstances. I like to kill Alexander Walker for particular matchups, but I just figured, especially in the regular season, it makes sense to lean into Nasreed. Really interesting comments from Anthony Edwards about how Nasreed and his ball reversal has helped him with his shot selection.

So this is a similar thing I've seen with the Lakers, for instance, with Jackson Hayes. the dude catches on the wing and he just, or above the break, and he just naturally is part of his basketball kind of character, he just kind of flows into a dribble handoff on the other end of the floor. It helps get the action going from side to side. And Anthony Edwards talked about how Noghry,

doing that for the, for the Timberwolves has helped him kind of like feel more about, feel more aware of the offensive flow and less dribbling the ball up the floor and shooting and more running some action and then maybe shooting if the ball makes its way back to him. And I thought that that was really interesting

and a good indicator of the fit with Nasreid in the starting lineup. Number three, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They're five and two since our last rankings. They beat the Sons, the Nicks, and the New Orleans Pelicans in that span. Held up pretty well without Shay Gilbert Alexander, all things considered. Now he's back in the lineup. Really just shine the light on how great Jalen Williams is going to be. Again, we did a deep dive on the thunder in an earlier segment.

Today you can find that on our YouTube feed. Number two, the Denver Nuggets, five and two since the last rankings on March 18th, 2-0 with Jamal Murray in the lineup, but in the five games without him, they went three and two. Reggie Jackson just wasn't playing well in the first four games in that set, and that was really leading to some mixed offensive results, but Reggie Jackson broke out in a big way against the Cleveland Cavaliers, and they looked awesome again, big-time win at home over a really good team. Number one, the Boston Celtics, five and two since our last rankings. A couple of impressive wins in there against the Milwaukee Bucks and the New Orleans Pelicans.

did have a couple of really ugly losses in Atlanta. The first game, the guards sat out, and they went really cold, less than one point per jump shot, lost a game that blew a big lead in that game. And then the other, I think it was two nights later, they played full strength against, or it might have been a back-to-back,

I can't remember exactly, but they went into Atlanta full strength, minus Al-Horford. And they lost an overtime dogfight to Dejante Murray, who had 44, including, the game winner in that game. Jump shooting was more or less the issue in both games. They took 101 jump shots in both games and only got 107 points. And again, that's more or less the thing with if there's one rub on Boston. It's like if they go cold with their jump shooting, you can beat them.

And that's been a consistent theme throughout the season. That's not a hot take. That's just a statistical fact at this point. This season, they've taken 6,667 field goal attempts. 3,744 of them have been jump shots. That's 56% of their field goal attempts, most in the league. have a certain amount of, you know, they have a certain amount of like their fate just kind of tied up and jump shot result, just kind of the reality of the Celtics. But again, I don't want to highlight the Atlanta wins or losses without making sure we highlight that they got big wins over the Bucks and the Pelicans in that span, although the Bucks sat out some guys. One last note on that front, I watched both of the Atlanta games. And the one thing that bothers

me still is like at the end of these games, they don't really have a bully ball. option that they can go to to get a really good look close to the basket. And so that's the thing. Is Boston a better basketball team in Atlanta? Yeah. But if they get into a mid-range jump shooting contest with Dejante Murray over a small sample size, Dejante can get hot and make them and beat them, right? And so like as long as the Celtics more or less have been a good clutch team for most of the season.

I'm not trying to like pretend like that success hasn't been there. but we have seen from time to time they can go cold, and when they go cold, they struggle to find alternative methods of offense. But still at this point, five and two in their last seven games, number one in our power rankings. All right, guys,

that is all we have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow. It should be a fun one. We got a big game tonight between the Pelicans and the Suns, and then I plan on doing a little breakdown

of Iowa versus LSU. That should be fun. Obviously, I don't, profess to be as well connected with women's hoops as I am with the NBA. That's obvious and goes without saying. But I'm a huge basketball fan. I view tonight as must-see television and whatever basketball thoughts I have from the game, I'll share it with you guys in tomorrow's show.

Also plan on doing a mailbag tomorrow. So make sure you guys get those into the YouTube comments. All right, guys. See you tomorrow. 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, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, 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.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me. Clifford Taylor the Fourth. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and basketball, college football journey or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfilled conversations with athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. So let's get to it. Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeard 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. On the Look Back at a podcast. From 1979, that was a big moment for me.

was big to me. I'm Sam Jay and I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it with our friends,

fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people.

Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human. Thank you.