The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight -NBA Power Rankings: How Giannis, Damian Lillard & Bucks return to CHAMPIONSHIP FORM

Episode Date: September 28, 2024

Jason Timpf continues his NBA power rankings with Giannis Antetokounmpo, Damian Lillard, and the Milwaukee Bucks. Jason discusses the impact of Milwaukee's offseason acquisitions, how Giannis and Dame can rebound to top form, and whether he expects the Bucks to return to championship form and compete with the Celtics, Knicks, and 76ers in the Eastern Conference! Later, Jason answers listener questions during an NBA mailbag segment. Who should be the starting five for Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors? Is this LeBron James' last elite season with the Los Angeles Lakers alongside Anthony Davis? Timeline: 7:00 - #9 Milwaukee Bucks 37:45 - Bucks film breakdown 57:15 - Mailbag (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.) #Volume #Herd Follow Jason Timpf on social: https://twitter.com/_JasonLT https://www.instagram.com/jtimpf15/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Additional NFL plus premium terms at NFL.com slash terms. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Friday, everybody. Hope all of you guys had a great week on a jam-pack show for you. Today we are covering the Milwaukee Bucks at number nine in our power rankings. Going to do a deep dive. I also have 14 clips of video to show you guys. from the Milwaukee Bucks.

If you are excited about the new additions in the perimeter defense core, I've got lots of clips to kind of demonstrate to you guys the strengths of Dilan Wright and Gary Tran Jr. We're going to talk a little bit about the pick and roll attack of the Bucks and where there can be potentially even an improvement there on an already

great part of a already great Milwaukee Bucks offense. Lots of Milwaukee Bucks to get into today. And then at the tail end of the show, I've got a mailbag that's going to be bouncing all around the league. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel. So you don't miss any more of our videos.

Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed, wherever you get your podcast on our hoops tonight. Then keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments. You disagree with the ranking. Think I'm an idiot. Whatever it is, got more questions, want to hit a specific part of a season preview for a team that we didn't get into enough depth on. Whatever it is that you want to hit, drop it in the mailbag. And we will get to it at the tail end of the shows when we cover other teams.

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Terms apply. Again, create an account, redeem code hoops. That's H-O-O-P-S for $20 off. Download game time today. What time is it game time? All right. Let's talk some basketball. So off-season recap on the Milwaukee Bucks, a little bit of roster turnover. They lost Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverly, a couple of guards from last year, as well as Jay Crowder, and replace them all with a couple of guards and a bench wing, right? So you replaced Jay Crowder with Torian Prince. We'll get into him in more detail in a minute. You replaced Malik Beasley and Patrick Beverly with Gary Trent Jr.

into Law and Wright. They also picked up A.J. Johnson, a late first round pick, a guard, kind of a dribble drive guard out of Australia. Let's talk a little bit about those individual players, though. So Torian Prince, I covered him very closely with the Lakers last year. I actually really liked Torian Prince. I complained a lot about him last year, but it wasn't about Torian. It was about the way he was being used.

His entire career, this phase of his career, he had been used as a bench wing everywhere else. And then Darvin Ham just decided to make him like a huge minute starting small forward for the Lakers. And he's just, he has a lot of like key weaknesses that make him kind of like not up to the task of being a starting wing in this league. He's not a good rebounder, which is something you really need from that position in your starting group.

He's a good shooter, but not like an otherworldly shooter. He's a good closeout attacker, but not another worldly closeout attacker. He can run action, but he's not particularly great at it. He can defend, but typically against a starting caliber, like upper tier shot creator, he's completely overmatched. But when you slot him on that bench unit, all of those little things are actually really useful, especially against lower level NBA players that are coming off the bench. He's a solid backup wing.

He shot 40% on catch and shoot jump shots last year, has like some of those like higher level closeout attacking moves. like if he needs to like unleash some scoring chops like a little step back in the mid range or something that's a little more crafty around the basket, he's got a little bit of that like natural scoring ability. Always does his job on defense. The defensive issues are more about limitations. He's just he's thin.

It's not particularly vertically athletic, not particularly quick footed. But he will do his job. If the game plan asks for him to do certain things with side pick and rolls and certain thing with top pick and rolls or certain things with this star, but different things. things with this star. You can count on him to do his job. He just has some athletic limitations that are going to prevent him from being a really imposing type of wing. The Lakers just started him, put him in a bunch of matchups that were kind of beyond his capability, and it was issues. So as long as he has the right role in Milwaukee, I love the fit. Gary Trench

Jr., one of the best discount signings of the summer. I think he's a much better version of Malik Beasley. Not a good defender overall, but he is good at pressuring the battle. He's a basketball. It gets really aggressive with his hands, does a lot of reaching in, gets a lot of deflections and a lot of steals. I actually think playing alongside Brooke and Janus is a great fit for him, because if you're not going to be a good defender in the aggregate, in all of the different elements of defense, it helps if you're good at one particular thing. And the one particular thing Gary Trent is good at is ball pressure and attacking the basketball. So if you do that at the point attack, you will funnel because the way you counter ball pressure, the way you counter a guy who's

recklessly reaching in all the time is to make aggressive downhill moves to just get past the guy. Because usually when you're reaching and gambling, you're getting out of position, you're messing up your feet and you will give up dribble drives, right? So like, I kind of like the idea of Gary Trent just pressuring the shit out of the basketball, reaching in a lot, in forcing that guy to drive because he's going to be driving into the strength of your defense, which is your front line. So it will be. weird way, like even though I don't think Gary Trent is a good defender, he doesn't have the, uh, the, the pedigree to get that type of respect, but he has a useful defensive skill that I

think can be plugged into this particular system. And again, like that's, you're just, the bar is low here. You just need to do better than Malik Beasley did, right? Um, he shot over 50% on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots last year. It was just a deadly standstill shooter. He gets to the rim more than Malik Beasley as well. So I think he's a. substantially better offensive player than Malik Beasley and a slightly better defensive player. So anytime you can upgrade a starting spot with a guy who's better on both ends of the floor on a veteran minimum contract, that's like a slam dunk home run, whatever you will call it. That's just the best that you can do in that particular situation.

Dilan Wright, really enjoyed watching Dilan Wright tape today. He shot the ball really well for Miami last year. I'll be in a small sample. He shot 39% on catch and shoot threes. He's 32 years old now, not quite as quick as he, used to be, but he is a professional defender. He's got long arms. He has four consecutive seasons of at least two steals per 36 minutes. He had 2.6 steals per 36 minutes last year. That was second best in the entire NBA among players who played at least 700 minutes. And the main thing you guys will see, especially when we start to look at the tape here later on in the show, is he just does a really nice job navigating screens and he's got long arms so he can get good rearview contests.

He's especially good at getting recovered back into position where he can, excuse me, bother the ball handler somewhere in that mid-range area where they're often looking to score. I'll show you guys some clips. I'm not going to go too much further on DeLon because we can get into it in the film session portion of the show. But I just think he's going to be a way, way, way better guard defender than anybody that was on Milwaukee last year, even than Patrick Beverly, in my opinion, because Pat just didn't quite have the link. So that's really the big change in this year's team in terms of the differences in role players, right? So they've improved their point of attack defense. That was easily the biggest weakness for them last year. Malik Beasley got a little better as the year went along,

but he never got good at it. And Dame was legitimately terrible all year. I never even realized how bad Dame was defensively until I watched him on this Milwaukee team. It was abysmal. And they allowed pick and roll as a team. They allowed pick and roll ball handlers to get 0.96 points per their own shot attempts,

which was the third worst mark in the entire NBA. Only the Utah Jazz and the Indiana Pacers were worse. They just have so many more options to go to this year. Gary Trent Jr. at least has an elite defensive skill in terms of his activity with his hands that you can try to weaponize. DeLon Wright is still just a really good guard defender. And then Tori and Prince is a nice wing defender option to have as a bench guy. And like, again, especially with the issues with Chris Middleton and his health over the last couple of years,

I think that Tori and Prince signing was especially important. The main thing I'm looking for there is I just want to see the bucks recapture the identity that made them a Titan in the Eastern Conference. It was defense and rebounding and Janus barreling down the floor in transition. They were, that was what made them great. They were a defense to transition type of offense. Yes, they had these half court weaknesses, right? And that was fatal most of the time. outside of the 2021 season,

that pretty much was the reason they lost in every other playoff series. Teams just eventually grind them into the mud and they can have some half-court issues, but everything else they were great at. They're just a physical ass-kicking type of team. Now, the dame trade helped massively with your half-court offense stuff.

You substantially improved overall in your half-court offense. I have the stat later on in the show, but I think they went up from 16th to 15th to fifth in half court offensive efficiency, according to synergy, just by bringing Damien Lillard into the equation. So definitely helped on that front, but you lost some of that ass-kicking identity with the loss of Drew Holiday, right? Like, I think bringing in Gary Trent, Delon Wright, Torium Prince is about the best

that you can possibly do under the circumstances. Again, like, obviously those guys aren't massive needle movers for you on the defensive end of the floor, but considering the constraints you were operating under with your cap situation to be operating basically on the veteran minimum exception and to add those caliber of players, I think that's about the best you can do. And again, all you can do is the best you can do with what you've got in your hand of cards that you've been dealt.

And I thought Milwaukee did about as good as you possibly can do. One last note on the defense, last year they were 29th in points off of turnovers per game. Because Gary Trent's more of an active on-ball defender in terms of reaching and trying to get steals and because Delon Wright is one of the best steals guards in the league, I would like to see them get more aggressive at the point of attack and try to drive more of that transition attack off of turnovers.

I think it's one of those things too where like, if you're going to be a mediocre defense because you're old and there's like there's just not a lot of foot speed on this team, right? Like I pulled the stat for a different part of the show, but they have 51 years of combined NBA seasons of well. wear and tear on Chris, Dame, Janice, and Brooke. 51 seasons. It's a lot of wear and tear.

There's some foot speed issues there, right? Beyond Janus, it's not a fast, like, cover ground type of team. So, like, there's a certain limitation to what they can get to defensively. But if you can, if you can counter that by forcing more turnovers and getting out in transition more, it undoes some of the damage that a mediocre defense could do to your chances in the large sample. Now, the Bucks were a good offense last year. They were sixth in offensive rating. They were fifth and three-pointers made per game. Dame, as I mentioned earlier, really helped the half-court offense. They went from fifth and half-court offensive rating, or from

16th the previous year to fifth last year. But I think there's even room for improvement there. Like, Dame did not have a great year shooting the basketball. Dame got just 1.00 points per jump shot. Last year, the year before in Portland, he got 1.09 points per jump shot. So a 9% decrease. year over year in points per shot. That's something that if Dame can make up some of that ground, that goes a long way. I thought they left some meat on the bone and pick and roll. There was a bunch of benefits there. They were a very good pick and roll team overall.

There was a substantial increase in Janus's usage as a roll man. He had 45 field goals made on rolls to the rim the previous season. He had 75 last year. So that's an example of the Dame effect. But it hasn't become like the unstoppable action that we all knew it was capable. of becoming, right? So I want to talk about some of the specific things that I think the Bucks can do better this year to be more impactful in pick and roll. Number one, Janus was kind of inconsistent with his screening and his rolling. A couple of things specifically, like when he would go to set

screen, sometimes he'd slip out of the screen too early before getting that initial bit of separation or he might not even make contact at all whatsoever. Some of it's to be expected. Like, Janus was never really a high volume screener and roller up until this. Dame partnership. He did it, but not to this extent. And so it takes reps to become a guy who's like this is now a massive and substantial part of the Bucks offense in a way that it didn't used to be. So it's going to take some time for him to kind of figure out some of those intricacies. Another thing I noticed is occupied corners. So like the one of the things I noticed that happened with Yannis a lot is I talked about with his rolling to the basket being inconsistent.

a lot of times Janice would set the screen and then slip out of it, but he'd slip and then pop to the top of the key. And he would especially do this when there was somebody in the corner in the side that he couldn't see. So like when he'd be rolling, when he would be looking back at Dame, if there was somebody in this corner, he'd be hesitant to roll because he'd think he'd run into a bunch of bodies.

So a lot of times he'd pop. And then that would defeat the purpose because Janus is not a pick and pop threat and he's not getting ahead of steam, where he needs to be able to catch on the roll with a head of steam so that he's going into a paint that's a little more spread because dame's pulling his defender out and the screen defender is being pulled out. You have more space to operate and fewer bodies that you're rolling into, right?

Like that's the advantage, but you need to have a head of steam. And a lot of times, Janus was just a little hesitant to really hit the jets on those rolls because he couldn't see what was happening behind him. And so not setting great screens and not rolling, as often as he needs to, those were a couple things Janus could get better at. How do we make sure that Janus is rolling more?

Well, some of it is about understanding the spacing and understanding that Janus, like I said, is worried about people being behind him. So what if you try to do more work without that corner being occupied? Now, some of it is that they run five out. And in five out offense, your corners are occupied. Like a cleared side ball screens

where the other three guys just go stand on the opposite end of the floor and you just play two-man game, that's like very much a brute force, kind of like four-out concept. It's not a thing that you see a lot of five-out teams do. So I understand why in the flow of the game, you don't see that a ton from the bucks. But maybe it's something they could look to do in crunch time more, where it's like, okay, now we're not trying to have all the flow of just establishing rhythm for our offense over the 48. It's three minutes left in the game. We're tied.

We need to just spam an action that we know can get us great shots. Let's go have the other three guys stand on the opposite end of the floor and let's clear the side. Because Janus just is so much more aggressive on his rolls to the rim when the side is cleared. Because just imagine it very simply like this. When Janus sets the pick, let's imagine Dame is on the left wing. Dame is on the left wing. We have our three guys along the right wing. Dame's on the left wing.

Janus comes up and sets the screen. And then he pivots into a roll that's along the left side of the floor. As he pivots, he has his back. turn to that corner, but he doesn't have to worry at all because there's nobody over there. So then Yonis can just catch and go right to the rim without any fear of running into a defender he can't see. And when he catches and turns to look, all five defensive players are at least three defensive players because the other two are now on dame. Three defensive players are in his line of sight. And from there, he can either have a quick one-on-one where he's got a downhill

burst of speed going. And there's one single defender in his way that he can swallow him around and get all the way to the basket. Or if all three guys coalesce around him, he's got easy kickout reads because his face is turned in the direction where all the defenders are. There are also little things you could do in terms of spacing concepts to make sure that Janus is going against the right type of defensive player there, right? So you clear the side. If you put Brooke in the corner, then Brooks Man is going to be the one that rotates. If Brooks Man is the one that rotates, now Janus is barreling downhill against a big bodied center, which might be a tougher finish.

Put Brooke on the wing, like extended, and you have two different shooters in the corner and then a little bit further up the wing. So if Brooke is the third guy furthest away from the corner, then his man is probably not going to be the guy that Janus runs into when he's rolling into the basket. If it's somebody from the corner, it's probably going to be a guard. And now Janus could be rolling downhill into a guard

or maybe even Chris Middleton's defender, a smaller forward, now Janus is barreling downhill with a smaller defender in front of him that he can get around or just go through and go to the basket. Or again, as we mentioned earlier, if the bodies all coalesce around him, he has easy kickout reads. So at the end of games in particular, I want to see them run more cleared side concepts. By the way, I have video clips that are going to help break this specific concept down in more detail here in a minute.

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, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro. 1021. And I'm Kunky, his best friend, and business manager. And we've got a new show called The 1021 podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most

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Just a little bit bigger hips. Wider. This is a podcast. We're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey. With all the snacks and drinks. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of being? Oh, they had a bogo.

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Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Within five hours, when you're doing it with an occupied corner, the couple things that I saw that looked to work better was one, make sure that the guy that's in the corner, Janice's role. into the side of the floor that Janus is rolling into, make sure that's your best shooter. So for instance, like that needs to be Gary Trent Jr. In that corner as Janus is rolling that way. So at the very least, it's, for one, if that defender stays glued to the shooter,

it's effectively more or less like a empty side ball screen because he has that space to work with there. And then two, if he helps over, it's somebody that's going to consistently burn them when Janice does make the read. and even if he has an occasional turnover, as we talked about, Gary Trench shot over 50% on unguarded catch and shoot jump shots last year. So even if Yannis does turn it over occasionally,

he's just going to burn you so much on that shot that I think it'll still be a big net positive for the offense. The other thing that I noticed, and I have another video clip to demonstrate this, is when they do the occupied corner thing, just slide the action further up to the top of the key, so that when Yannis rolls, he's rolling with an extra few feet

before he runs into any congestion from that corner. But these are just like little details in terms of spacing concepts and like how to handle different portions of the game that I think will go a long way. And then if you combine that with Janice just setting better screens and rolling harder more consistently, I think that's where you could get to the true unstoppable element of that ball screen attack.

There were some games here and there where it looked unstoppable. There was a Laker game. One of the games that the Lakers won. I think it was the overtime one, if I remember correctly. But there was a stretch in the fourth quarter where they spammed. And it was just like I talked about it was where they kind of shifted closer to the top of the key instead of on the wing. And just kind of shoved everybody a little bit further over to that side with the occupied corner. And they were spamming that and getting a bunch of stuff for Janus going downhill to the rim.

So like they had stretches where it looked really good last year. But it'd be great if they could get it to the point where it's like, oh, we're in a close game. Well, let's just go to this specific action that they literally cannot stop and we're going to get a great shot every single time. Now we're going to out-execute you. That's what Denver has done for the last several years in a way that has made them really dominant. So again, these are all just little details to help squeeze more out of the sponge for them offensively. They're good. Again, sixth in offense, seventh in clutch offense last year.

But this is a team that's not going to be a good defensive. team or great defensive team. They can get to good, but they can't get to great on defense. And so you need to get to amazing on offense. You need to try to get well into that top five for offensive rating and for half court offense and for clutch offense and all those different metrics in order to compensate for a defense that has some issues. And that's where those little intricacies in ball screen setup can go a long way towards squeezing more out of the sponge. So what does Milwaukee need to do to rejoin the ranks of the top tier contenders? I have, let's see, five items here. Number one, recapture your defensive identity, like we talked about earlier.

Pressure the ball, funnel into your size. We talked a little bit about forcing turnovers to try to juice up your offense a little bit. Two, Dame has to return to superstar form. Obviously, he had a lot of distractions last year, but obviously it's a different basketball team with a different fit too, but he scored eight points per game fewer on six percent worse true shooting than the previous year. It's just a massive dropout. So like, needs to get back to form. The encouraging thing is he looked really good in the playoffs. He shot the seams off the basketball. He got 1.1.1 points per jump shot. That's like real Damien Lillard jump shooting. He ran 80 ball screens, including passes for 94 points. That's

1.18 points per possession. That's awesome. So like that looked more like real Dame in that first round series against Indiana. Dame comes with real defensive shortcoming. So he needs to be a transcendently great offensive player to justify the move. And I think he still has that in there. He just needs to bring it back this season. Three, help from your older players. He got a great year out of Brooke last year. He played 79 games.

I think he played 78 the year before. So he's had a good stretch of availability since that rough year in 2021. But it might have been, I think it was 2021. Yeah, the year where he missed most of the season. But Chris Middleton missed a good chunk of the year for the second consecutive year. And this team needs Chris, not just on offense either. Like they need him to be a good athletic wing defender. And he's just had a lot of lower body injuries.

He had two ankle surgeries this offseason. So they need some luck on the health front with their older players this year. As I mentioned earlier, Janus, Brooke, Dame, and Chris have a combined 51 seasons of wear and tear on their bodies that kind of make it a little bit scary on the health front. number four you got to optimize your scheme on both ends of the floor on defense this is a really slow-footed team so you need to stay out of foot races as much as possible that means you know prioritize getting back in transition over attacking the offensive glass which they basically already do they're their bottom five offensive rebounding team in a top 10 transition defense and then uh two you need to stay out of rotation in the half court you got to guard actions two on two as much as

possible that means your guards have to do a good job chasing over the top as soon as you start needing to bring help over from the weak side and the ball gets skipped, this team is dead because they don't have the foot speed to really cover ground in rotation when teams start driving and kicking them. So a lot of pressure on those guards. One of those two guards in particular, Gary Trent Jr. or Delon Wright really needs to pop in a big way on the defensive end of the floor in a sizable role in order for this to kind of come together. Then on offense, it's like what we talked about earlier, everything about your ball screen spacing. We won't get any further into it. Then lastly, number five, Yonis needs to remind the world what he's capable of up.

He's declined a little bit as a shot maker. He was just 152 for 424 on shots that were not layups or dunks. That's just 0.8. It's actually less than 0.8 points per shot. So like that, I think that combined with him missing some playoff games, like Janus has played in just two and a half playoff games total in the last two seasons. Luca and Nicole Yokic are on the rise. And so I think Yonis is flying under the radar a little bit here. I still firmly have Janus on the same tier as those guys. I think he's absolutely capable of going on a wrecking ball tour and reasserting himself as one of, if not the best player in the league. But in order for this team to win a championship,

that's a non-negotiable. Janice has to assert himself as the best player in the world. They're not talented enough and well-rounded enough to win with Janus not playing at that level. So what is this team capable of? I think they'll win plenty of regular season games. The East is really weak. Like the Bulls, the Nets, the Raptors, the Hornets,

the Wizards and the Pistons are all basically trying to lose. The Hawks will be bad even though they're trying to win, and they may end up trading Trey Young and going into full tank before the end of the year. So that's seven bad teams in the Eastern Conference. I looked up their schedule of their 82 games. 25 of those 82 games are against the Bulls, the Nets, the Raptors, the Hornets, the Wizards, the Pistons, and the Hawks. So like they're going, like, something to keep in mind when we're doing our power rankings list,

like regular season wins don't transfer. translate much from conference to conference. Like the Eastern Conference is just a much, much easier schedule. To give you an idea, the Bucks went 34 and 18 against the East, but they went 15 and 15 against the West. So that's a team that if you pick them up and drop them in the Western Conference, they're a playing team in all likelihood, right?

Like it's very different from conference to conference. And that's why when we're doing these power rankings, you can't be like, oh, like, they're going to win more games or they're going to get a higher seed. It's like, well, they're in a different conference that makes absolutely no sense. It's very possible that the bucks end up with a better record than the Mavericks

or a better record than the Minnesota Timberwolves but aren't as good at basketball. You know what I mean? So, like, that's why we have to be careful with kind of comparing side to side with conferences. But I do think the bucks are going to win plenty of regular season games. As for their potential as a playoff team, I think they're just like every other team in this tier.

I think they're a little bit vulnerable to certain matchups. but if they get favorable matchups, they could win the whole thing, right? Like teams like Boston, Indiana, and New York that have lots of perimeter skill and speed, I think will be tough for them. They did go two and two against Boston last year, but it was kind of weird.

Like the two games they beat Boston, Boston folded in the first half of both games, like just kind of let go of the rope. So that was kind of weird. I feel like Boston in a playoff series could really spread Milwaukee out and expose their lack of foot speed. We'll see.

That's just kind of my read on the situation. I think they match up really well with some of the bigger teams, though. I think they match up really well with Philly. I think they match up really well with Orlando. Cleveland has really good guard play, but I think Milwaukee can get away with helping and packing the paint because of their two big systems. So like see how that kind of works out.

I see Boston, Indiana, and New York is kind of tough matchups for them. But then I think they match up really well with Philly, Orlando and Cleveland. So I think as long as they end up on the opposite end of the bracket, then Boston and if Boston can get eliminated by one of these teams, I think they have a really solid chance to get out of the conference and make the finals where anything can happen. And obviously they have a puncher's chance against Boston, but Boston would be heavily favored for good reason

with some of that matchup stuff that they talk about. So again, more or less, all the teams that I have in this 5-211 range are teams that can win the title, but need some luck, need some things to go their way. And I think Milwaukee falls into that group as well. All right, let's get into some of this footage before we get to our mailbag. So here's our first clip. This is an example of Dillon Wright

offering some really good ball pressure on C.J. McCollum. So watch a C.J. McCollum catches here on the wing. Dallon's going to get right up into his jersey and start attacking the ball. Watch his active hands. Swiping at Alachunis. The screen is loaded up, gets over the top of the screen,

reaches in. He's got these long arms, knocks the ball free. If you watch again, you can see, as soon as he steps over the screen, he lunges and swipes at the ball and watch how he disrupts that dribble. And that's where his long arms become a huge advantage. Gets down on the floor, gets the steel.

Big time play from Delondrite. Here's a great example of good back pressure against Jose Alvarado in a ball screen. So again, remember, in ball screen defense, you're probably going to give up a downhill drive. That's just kind of natural as part of the way these coverages work, right? Like he's supposed to chase over the top.

His job in this ball screen, Like here comes his ball screen. If he wanted to notice how he has to open up to chase over the top of the screen, there's a little push by the screener. He ends up on that high left shoulder for Jose Alvarado. This entire action is kind of designed to get him into trail position. He's not going to be able to cut off the drive entirely. But his job at this point is to funnel him into your help.

Funnel into your help. And if he tries to take something in the mid-range, then you can swipe at the basketball. See how he stays attached on that backside? Funnel, funnel, funnel, force him into a tough shot. Now he's shooting a really tough contested shot because you did your job in the ball screen. You stayed attached.

You funneled. Back pressure, back pressure, back pressure, and he's got the length to be really bothersome with that back pressure. Actually forces an air ball on that one from Jose Alvarado. Here's an example of game plan discipline. Now he's guarding campaign. Campaign is a player that most scouting reports are going to tell you

duck underneath the screen. Why? Because he's kind of got a slow, drawn out, pull-up jump shot, and he's really fast when he gets going downhill, and he can really pick you apart that way. So watch the way this play sets up. Ball's going to work its way over to campaign. So here we go. Campaign's coming off the dribble handoff. DeLon's going to duck underneath the pick, like the game plan asks. Notice he doesn't, he kind of like his natural inclination was to go over, and then he goes, oh, my game plan is to get underneath.

He gets back underneath the pick to cut off the drive, forces Cam to come back that way. Look at the screen navigation. He's racing back around the screen. He gets a great contest and forces him into a tough pull-up three. And I think Cam actually makes this one, if I remember correctly. Yeah, so, again, don't worry so much about the result there. This is really good process.

I'm going to run it in full speed. Again, watch. He's in help, in help. Ball gets reversed. Cam shoots up. We're ducking under the pick. navigating back around gets a really good contest. That is solid ball screen defense from Dilan Wright. Here's another example of really good back pressure on Tyrese Maxie. So Tyrese is coming down the floor.

I think Tyrese hits this shot too, but this is again like just really good defense within this game. These are these are incredibly talented guards we have in the NBA. You're not going to stop them. What you have to do is force them into the toughest shots in their shot profile. A tough contested step back long two is the best you can do in a ball screen against Tyrese. So again, here comes the ball screen. Look at the attachment. Stays attached over the top. Back pressure, back pressure.

Notice the hands in the passing lane, too. If Tyrese tries to come off of this and throw the pocket pass, watch DeLon get his hand into the pocket pass zone. See, he's reaching in there to take away that pocket pass. Stay's attached, attached. On that side, if Tyrese has no option now but to drive headlong into a bam or to take this tough contested too. of forcing him gets a good contest on that shot.

Again, knocks it down, but you're doing your job there defensively. You're turning an action that can be really efficient, a ball screen, into the least efficient shot that they can take, a tough contested fade away two-point jump shot. Here's another really good one against Kate Cunningham. So we're on Cade here. Jalen Duren is setting the pick, chasing over the top, funnel, funnel, notice stays attached, stays attached, gets back in front, forces him into a tough, gets great contest this time forces and miss.

That's a really, really good ball screen defense. And then I think this is our last one. Okay, so he's, this is a defensive rebound that Cade's coming back to get the ball, but we get some back court ball pressure from Dilan. He kind of stunts at Cade, which forces them to not go to Cade. So then Cade doesn't take the basketball and runs up the floor instead. But then Dilan points because he knows Cade's going through. He wants to guard the ball.

he points through to Haywood Highsmith, stays up on Fornier, jumps up on Fornier, ducks underneath the first pick because it's too far away from the basket. Second pick is closer to the basket, so he chases over the top, stays attached, gets a great rearview contests

and forces him into a miss. Just really good defense. The ball pressure, their best player into not even getting the ball. And then, or ball deny, I should say, because he never actually had the ball. But ball deny on Kate Cunningham

that gets him to not even get the ball, and then you end up switching onto the main ball handler and getting a stop. All right, we're going to talk a little bit about Gary Trent Jr. here. Let's look at some examples of him just kind of being really aggressive at the point of attack. So here's Gary Trent. Just watch how aggressive he is with his hands.

He's just always reaching, always going after the basketball, just reckless. Just reach, reach, reach, reach, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe. Here's another one, swipe. See how he's just kind of like constantly reaching at the basketball? He gambles a lot, makes a lot of mistakes, but he's best. playing with teams that don't have elite defensive front lines that can really cover him in that department. Milwaukee will give him that opportunity. Here's another example on a play with Kyle Kuzma of just reckless ball pursuit from Gary Trent. Notice the ball comes up. Swipes,

misses it, gets out of position, but look at how he's just running back, swipes back at the ball. Gary Trent is just a ball hawk. Like he's not a good defensive player, but he's a ball hawk. And so if you can plug that specifically into a scheme, I think he's a you can get some positive outcomes there. Here's another example against Franz Wagner. Picks up the ball. Watch how aggressive he is on the ball. We got a little bit of a reach, swipe, swipe, swipe, swipe,

knocks it away. Really, really aggressive on the ball. Now let's talk some pick and roll stuff. So here's an example of a cleared side ball screen in the game against the Lakers. So we're going to run over to this side. It ends up functioning as a ball screen with the cleared side with Middleton.

So Beasley clears out. we have a cleared side now. Fast forward a little bit here. All right, so here's our setup. Now, this is why I was talking about it's basically a four-out kind of brute force concept. These three guys are basically just standing around off the ball, right? Now you're running your ball screen.

Yonis is going to set the pick and roll, but when he rolls, look at where he rolls now. Boom, right here, from the minute he gets into this spot, he has no need to even look or consider this out of the floor. He is seeing everything. And so it's just a much easier read for him on the catch to not have to worry about this side. And this is what I was talking about in the pick and roll sequence about one-on-ones with Janus going downhill. When you get Janus on the pocket with a head of steam, he's going to in all likelihood get a one-on-one with him going full speed against someone that is not a big.

Notice, too, that they have Brooke Lopez out of the corner. he's going to barrel downhill and Rui just has no chance here. But a lot of those times in situations where this is an occupied corner, Janus just won't roll hard or he'll pop or when he does catch, he catches here and he hesitates because he's a little bit worried about the traffic that's taking place behind him. Running one more time so you can see. So again, I really like the idea of spamming that more at the end of games

when it's less about rhythm and flow and more about we need a bucket right now. Here's another one against Philly. Connington cuts through. Here's our ball screen. Mobamba's up at the level. Now when he catches, it's the exact same setup we talked about with Rui. There's no extra defender over here. There's just the one. Here's our one-on-one, but it's a one-on-one with Janus having a head of steam. And he just goes right around him to the basket. We can generate more of these one-on-ones for Janus with a cleared side than we can with an occupied corner. That's the main point

that I'm trying to make here. But again, there's a time in place for it. One of the things I like about a cleared side ball screen too is it's very easy for Janus to flow into a post-up out of that action.

So here's an example of that. We're fast forward a little bit. Side is cleared. Now, it's functioning as a cleared side ball screen, but it's actually a double it's a double screen, right? So like in this case, it's actually part of the setup of the play.

But as we come off here, Yana sets the first screen, and then Brooke, pops, right? But notice when Janus rolls, they end up switching. Watch Schroeder. Schroeder's on Dame. Schroeder ends up taking Janus on that pre-switch as Cam Johnson runs out on Dane. So there are going to be teams that do this and switch a small on to Janus. How easy is it that Janus has rolled exactly to where he would need to be for a postup? Swing. Post entry. Now Janus goes to work, draws an easy double team, hits Jay Crowder on the cut for the layup.

But again, like that's kind of the natural flow of that cleared side too. Oh, it didn't work, but we got to switch. Janus is already where he needs to be for a post-up. It's easy and quick. Here's an example of how an occupied corner can cause Janus to hesitate. Notice as he sets this pick and slips on the catch, because Mikhail Bridges, any decent defensive player, and because Jay's not that crazy good of a shooter,

it's easy for Mikhail Bridges to stunt and recover. Now, by the time Mikhail stunts and recovers, boom, advantage is gone now. See that? So look at how easy it is for Mikhail Bridges with an occupied corner to stunt and recover at Janus and cause that play to fall apart. Now, Janus ends up making a play anyway

just because he's Janus and he just kind of barrels his way into the lane and then draws an extra defender and kicks to dame. But that's an example of how the occupied corner can cause an issue. Now, before we go to the next play, I want to talk about a couple of things. So if you are going to occupy the corner, the corner that Janus is rolling into, which again, if it's an ice,

so like if they're icing the ball screen, meaning they're forcing the offensive player to go away from the screen, then Janus would be rolling this way, right? Because he's not actually going to set the pick. He's just going to create kind of a passing angle. But in a case like this where they're chasing over the top, he's going to be rolling the direction he's facing.

So you just want to make sure, in this case, if I knew Janice was going to be rolling this way, I'd want Crowder over here and I'd want Beasley over there. Because then I've got Cam Thomas as the guy that's digging down who's not nearly as good or as long of a defensive player as McHale Bridges, and I've got a better shooter to make them pay. So that's like a little detail of spacing. Just swap these two shooters, a little detail in spacing that could make something work versus not. work, right? Those are like, those are the kinds of little things that Boston got so damn good at last year that were difference makers for them in their driving kick attack. The other thing I like about this

too is instead of going with another another offensive player on this wing, you could take the other big and drop him down into the dunker spot. It creates a little bit more traffic, but at least there's more space up here for Janus to roll into without as many guys digging down. But it's an imperfect setup. But if you're going to do it this way, I like more space up top for them to work with. Let's go to our last clip here. All right. So here's an example of having your best shooter in the strong side corner and how that can help.

Once again, notice how they've shifted the action closer to the top of the key instead of at this wing. That makes it that there's just more area over here for Janus to work with. and now we have Malik Beasley the best shooter in that space. So now when Janice catches, Yonis catches, and there's a commitment from Spencer Dinwiddie, but it's the best shooter on the team that can make them pay for it here in that corner.

So those are some examples of that one is an example of much better spacing in general to generate a higher quality shot out of it. All right, that's all I got on the bucks for today, guys. 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 IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as

Castro 1021. And I'm Kunky, his best friend and business manager. And we've got a new show called the 1021 podcast. I'm taking you behind the scenes on how I became one of Twitch's most popular streamers. We also love sports. And with the World Cup right around the corner, we'll be breaking down the biggest storylines ahead of the big tournament here in the USA. Listen to the 1021 podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defining the odds.

Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what. He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers while he got the ball. Like, you go through a training camp with that, Isaiah, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball.

So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, I'm Deanna Maria Riva, actress, mother, lover, and a Gen X woman walking through life one hot flash and hormonal crying jag at a time. You ladies know what I mean. I'll bet you a perimenapausal chin here you do. So let's talk about it. Join me on my new podcast. How hard can it be with Deanna Maria Riva, where I call on my GenX squads from Ohio to Hollywood as we navigate midlife's most fantastic BS.

All of a sudden, I'd had hanginess happening. my own. I was like, what the hell is that? I was married when I had her, so I didn't even consider how empty that nest was going to be. Mood swings, night sweats, fupas, sex drive. Wait, what sex? Dating at 45. How high can it be getting naked at 50 with the new guy? That one's kind of hard. Well, that's lighting. They say we can't polish a turd, but we're sure going to try. So let's get blunt with laughs, tears or tears of laughter, and dive into it unfiltered and unbothered and ask, how How hard can it be? I cannot believe I'm about to say this out loud in public.

Listen to How Hard Can It Be with Diana Maria Riva as part of my Cultura podcast network available on the IHart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Will Ferrell's Big Money Players and IHart Podcasts presents Soccer Moms. So I'm Leanne. Yeah. This is my best friend, Janet. Hey. And we have been joined at the hips since high school.

Absolutely. Now a redacted amount of years later, we're still joined at the hip, just a little bit bigger hips, wider. This is a podcast we're recording it as we tailgate our youth soccer games in the back of my Honda Odyssey with all the snacks and drink. Sidebar. Why did you get hard seltzer instead of beer? Well, they had a

bogo. Well, then you got it. Do you want a white collar or something here? Just a What are y'all doing? Microphones? Are you making a rap album? Oh, I would. I would buy it. Cuts through the defense like a hot knife through

sponge cake. That sounds delicious. Oh, you're lucky. I'm not a drug addict. You're lucky I'm not an alcoholic. You are. You're lucky I'm not a killer. I love this team and I'm really trying to be a figure in their lives that they can rely on. Oh.

Listen to soccer moms on the IHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Let's get into our mailbag. Okay, first question. Hi, Jason. I was wondering what your thoughts were on the Warriors potential starting five. If it were up to me, I'd start Steph, Pods, Camingo, Wiggins, Kaminga, or Wiggins, Draymond at the power forward, and then Trace Jackson, Davis, or

Looney at center. This, however, leaves much to be desired. Steph would have to have a top five season this year. Pods would have to have one hell of a breakout season proportionate to the responsibility we're putting on him, and Camingo would have to take a defensive lead, and Wiggins would have to have a bounce back season. Dramon can't regress defensively, and Trace Jackson, Davis, and Kavon Luni would have to be able to defend other Don bigs while putting pressure on the rim. All in all, I'm not too high on us this year, but that could just be doom and gloom talk because of the last two years. I wasn't too upset. We missed out on Lori, but I don't know what this team does moving forward to content,

keep up the great work. So as far as the starting lineup goes, I think it's an obvious answer. I would take a page out of JJ Reddick's book, which is, yeah, it's an imperfect lineup, but go with the lineup that was your best lineup last year. The Lakers line up with, with Rui Hachamaret, the three is an imperfect lineup, but it's their best. lineup. So it's their best way to go for now until they decide whether or not they want to invest more in this season and make some sort of personnel trade, right? Well, what was the best lineup for the Warriors last year? It was obvious. It was the, it was Draymond at center next to Kaminga and Wiggins. So instead of choosing between one of Kaminga and Wiggins and going to two bigs, I would just

go Wiggins at three, Kaming at the four, Dremont at the five. That was your best lineup by far. It was their most used lineup by far. They had 232 minutes with pods at the two. they were plus 12 per 100 possessions, which is great. They were great on both ends of the floor and they rebounded well. They had 157 minutes with Clay at the two instead. They were plus 18 net rating. Great on both ends of the floor. They weren't great on rebounding with that unit,

but they weren't terrible either. So like, that was your best? You were really, really good with the Camingo Wiggins Dram on front court. So like, is it a perfect lineup? No, it's got some tricky spacing. Camingo is a little bit of a ball stock. There are issues with that lineup. Not a ton of offensive firepower.

But when in doubt, when you have a flawed roster and flawed options, when in doubt, just play your five best players. That will carry you through the regular season until you can decide whether or not this team is worth investing in and you make some move to try to balance out a more complete starting lineup. Hey, Jason, love the show. If you were the coach of the Bucks, would you tell Janus to stop shooting threes?

With a 27% three-point percentage, he's obviously hurting the offense when he does it, and he's not keeping the defense honest because they leave him wide open. Do you think there is any value in those shots whatsoever? Even the announcers call him out for it and say the defense should be sending him thank you cards every time he does it. He took 171 threes in 2023 and had the worst three-point percentage out of all players who had his many attempts.

Love to hear your thoughts. Thanks. So ironically, the threes are his most efficient jump shot. He shot 33% on mid-range jump. shots last year, that's just 0.66 points per shot. He shot 27% on threes, that's 0.8 points per shot. So, like, he was kind of efficient on long twos. He shot like 39% on long twos that were outside at 17 feet, according to Synergy. But even that is just 0.79 points per shot, which is less than the 0.8 points per shot he was getting on threes. He was really, really bad on short range, mid-range jump shots that are like inside of 17 feet last year.

Now, here's the thing. I understand why he's trying to build out that shot in the long run. It's about saving energy. It would be great if Yonis could take three or four threes a game and hit him 33% of the time. So he gets one point per shot. Because he could rest, right? So, like, my guess is like, I would take it out entirely in the postseason. There's never a reason for him to take a three in the postseason unless it's like late clock

and he just has to get something up on the rim, which unfortunately he's done the opposite of that in his career. He's actually taking more threes in his career. He's taken barely over two a game in his regular season career. He's taken three a game in his regular season career or his postseason career. So he needs to cut those out. But when he's in the 82 game season and you're in the Eastern Conference, like the Bucks aren't going to fall into the play.

And there's not enough good teams in the Eastern Conference, right? Like if they were in the West, totally different issue. But in the East, they're not going to have to worry about that. So who cares if you lose a game or two off of some inefficient shots from Janice if he's trying to build that out in the long run. If he wants to take two or three threes a game as part of his big picture goals, who cares? Because it could eventually help you. But yeah, I do think he needs to stop taking them in the playoffs. I love how Jason,

I love how the Lakers ranking is perpetually lifted by this pending trade that Jason has been fantasizing about for the last two seasons. So a couple things. First of all, the Lakers are next in my power rankings. I have them at eight. Uh, pretty much in line. Vegas has them at ninth in championship odds. The only team that Vegas had above the Lakers that I didn't is the Milwaukee Bucks. And it's very different to make a trade when you've got two top 10 players on your team. Like the Lakers have a strong foundation. So a small tweak can go a long way.

When you've got two top 10 players, you craft really small and achievable roles. When you put good basketball players into small achievable roles that fit their skill set, you get enhanced returns as opposed to diminishing returns, right? And so here's the thing. I had another mailback question. Someone said, okay, so the Lakers are getting in the fringe tier because they can hit on a trade and have two first round picks. Do you know how many teams below the Lakers have first round picks and have plenty more to offer?

Yeah, you're right. There are a lot of teams that have more to trade than the Lakers. But they're not trading and adding players to a team that already has two top 10 players. that's the difference. The Lakers can make a small tweak and get more in return out of it because they have such a strong foundation. As far as the Bucks go, because I had a specific comment that was complaining about the Bucks being below the Lakers. The Lakers were better than the Bucks last year even without a trade being made. They had just two fewer wins in a much tougher conference. They beat the Bucks head to head both times, no LeBron James didn't play in either game.

They had more wins against teams that were in the top 10 and point differential. The Lakers were just, they just had a more impressive and more successful season last year than the Bucks in my opinion. So like, again, like you can argue one way or another. I have them divided by hairs in this tier, like the fifth team and the 11th team. You could jockey them all around as much as you want. I have the Lakers that eight. I'm sure all the people that hate the Lakers have them lower.

I'm going to save most of my Lakers positivity talk. until Monday because on Monday we are covering the Lakers as number eight in our power rankings. I'll make my case there. If you guys disagree and you want to make a basketball case for why you think I'm wrong about the Lakers, throw them in the mailback question on Monday's show and we'll get to those later on in this series. If you were coaching a contender level team, maybe in the six to ten range, how would you approach the in-season tournament?

I loved watching it as a fan, but I'm uncertain how a coach would feel about this new institution after year one. I love this question. And I think the answer is very simple. You try to win it. No question. You win it. You go and you try to win the damn thing.

It's about establishing a culture in your franchise that is entirely focused on winning. NBA fans like to pretend that the regular season doesn't matter. But NBA history tells us that the team that wins the title almost always attacks the regular season from start to finish. The whole like flip a switch late in the year thing. That doesn't happen. It's even rare for a team like Dallas to flip the switch at the tail end of the year and go on a finals run. And by the way, they got their ass kicked when they got there.

The team that wins the title is great from start to finish. Winning is part of their character. Real competitors see the in-season tournament as another opportunity to prove themselves. I actually expect the in-season tournament trophy will become more and more prestigious as the years go by. because I do think we will see the great teams in the league consistently win it, consistently go after it. Because that's just what winners do. And I think we'll even see the seeding games take on another layer of intensity this year

because we had some teams that didn't qualify for the tournament last year because you have to take those games very seriously. So I'm a huge fan of the in-season tournament. I think it's going to become a bigger part of the NBA with each passing season. Hey, Jason, when you get to the Mavs, I remember you suggesting earlier that the offense would be a lot better and resilient if they played five out with more movement, especially with the Clay Edition in the offseason. I definitely agree with that. However, in some other recent videos, you made it seem like you were skeptical the Mavs would even do so, given how they

empower Luca ball and that Luca has a very narrow play style. I don't think that's correct. The Mavs do play five out a bunch. The 22, the 2002 Western Conference Finals run was built on it. The reason they hadn't done much this year is because Maxi Klebo was hurt and he was the center that made that possible. I also don't think the Mark Cuban interview is really that relevant because he isn't the coach and he doesn't even have control of basketball operations anymore. The part about Mark Cuban's fair. I am keeping

an open mind about Dallas. I'm going to make up my mind about how they play when I watch them play. I want to see what they do. But this is the biggest misconception that I see in the YouTube comments around here. Five out does not

mean five shooters. Five out does not mean a center that can shoot threes. Those are elements that can be utilized in five out. And you're right, in a very literal sense, when they would play with Max Klieba at the center, Maxi Kleeb at the center, and they had him screen and pop to the top of the key.

That is technically five out because everyone's operating on the perimeter. However, five out is a very complicated play style that encapsulates a bunch of different elements. In one of the key elements that the vast majority of real five teams use is ball and player movement. Again, the Golden State Warriors ran one of the best and most devastating five-out attacks in the league with two non-shooters on the floor at all times. They'd have Andre Guadala and Draymond Green, or Draymond Green and Kavana

Loonie, or Draymond Green and Andrew Bogot. They consistently had non-shooters on the floor. But it was five-out because those bigs, those non-shooters, were screening and passing fulcrums that operated from the outside. Dribble handoff, roll into the paint, not available, catch, go into the next action. Right? Swing pass, go to the next action. That's the whole point. It's like, like five out is about ball and player movement.

And the paint is not occupied except for temporarily on cuts, flashes, rolls, and drives. So again, like, I'm not asking for Dallas to employ a stretch five and to run their exact same offense just with a center that can shoot. I want them to flow from side to side with multiple guys running action because that is what makes you truly hard to guard. I am skeptical that they'll do that, but I'm keeping an open mind to see if they will once we get into the season. Hi Jason, do you think this upcoming season might be LeBron's last season as a top player? Or when do you think we'll see a significant decline in his game? Thanks. I think this is it. I think this is the last real chance LeBron has to make some noise. I think it depends, like I mentioned on a trade.

But like I don't think, I think after this season we're going to start seeing some pretty substantial decline from LeBron. I feel like this is the last good one. I feel like you're setting yourself up to rank the wolves lower than they should be by referring to them as a bad offense. Can you elaborate on how as a middle of the pack offense during the regular season, they were a bad offense, especially when you noted that Ants elevation in the playoffs was a step. You expect them to carry over to the season. Regardless of that, the wolves were not a bad offense in the playoffs. They weren't a top offense, but they were far from bad.

Bad is all relative. It's relative to the other playoff caliber team. So, yeah, they were 17th in defensive rating, but, like, this league has 10 really bad teams at the bottom that are outliers, right? So, like, that's the important thing to consider. We're discussing this relative to the other championship teams. They also played 146 minutes of clutch basketball last year. So important late game minutes, less than five minutes left inside of five points. They had a 104 offensive rating in the regular season in 146 minutes of clutch basketball.

That is abysmal. All three of their clutch losses against Dallas, they lost three games. I went to crunch time against Dallas. they had an offensive rating of 80 in those three games in those three situations. They turned the ball over on 24% of their possessions in those three clutch performances. So again, are they really bad offense relative to the rest of the NBA? No, they're below average. But are they bad relative to the real competitive teams at the top of the league?

You bet your ass they are. I do agree that Ants elevation in the playoffs was a step in the right direction. and I think the wolves will be a better offense this year. I think they'll go up from 17 to something probably closer to 12 or 13. But if they still have those issues scoring in the half court, because teams don't really have to guard Jada McDaniels, because teams don't really have to guard Rudy Gober because teams don't really have to guard and kill Alexander Walker,

whoever it is that's out there in those moments, then that's still going to be an issue. But we'll get into that in more detail when we get to the wolves. And they are considerably higher on this list, if I remember correctly. Can you touch more on the Miami here? and how BAM's three-point development can help transform their offense. Personally, I think it's going to take them to another level when it comes to handoffs and playing at the top of the key.

It just adds another element. Specifically, when Jimmy posts up and BAM spaces to the corner, I think it'll be a great look. I'd love to hear what you think. It'll help, but in order for a shooter to actually create space for an offense, he has to be guarded like a shooter. That's a huge difference, right? It's like we were talking about earlier with the honest. It's not keeping the defense honest if they're never actually guard.

in you out there. There's only a real multi-possession benefit for shooting if you make enough of them to where they actually start accounting for you with their base defensive scheme. So, like, he needs to hit enough of them at a high enough rate to where he's actually being shadowed by his defender. If his defender can dig down and just offer a late contest and you're not burning them enough, it just doesn't matter enough. But yeah, if he does unlock that part of his game, if he does become a shooter that people have to guard, that's great. Even more than just the spacing stuff with Jimmy posting up or anything like that, it'll unlock two big looks for them.

And not too big looks with like Kevin Love or I heard some talk about the heat potentially looking at like Vucevich. That sort of thing. You don't get the benefits of two bigs if it's a finesse big that doesn't bring much physicality to the table. Like if you have a big defensive center that you can play next to BAM because now he's a good shooter, that it unleashes a whole other element. to your offense, or to your defense, I should say.

Bradley Beale coming off the bench is what Phoenix needs. As you say, they need a professional defender in the starting lineup, and that can be Royce O'Neill. Beal, Book, and Durant is already starting to give you diminishing returns. Another ball handler added to the mix is not it. Here's the thing. This is not going to happen because they just fired their coach, and one of the many reasons was Bradley Beale was unhappy with his role.

Bradley Beale wants the ball more. He, and it's crazy. I went back and watched a good chunk of the Wool of Sun series for our son's preview. Bradley Beeble was so bad. He was so bad. And it's tough because, like, it's a different role than anything he's done in his career. He's off the ball the majority of the time. It's so much more about knocking down open shots, moving without the basketball,

driving closeouts, and they desperately need him because he's probably the best athlete in the starting lineup. They desperately need him to guard the ball. and to do it well. But he did a poor job guarding the ball in the Minnesota series, and he did a poor job functioning as a cog in the offense in the series. So, like, it's a tough role, and he's struggling with it. The truth about what Bradley Beale needs to do is it actually does make more sense on this team for him to function as a sixth man,

so that you can have a better athlete that's committed to the work in the starting lineup that can guard the other team's best player, be more of a connective piece on offense. then when Brad checks into the game, he can come in guns blazing on offense and have the ball in his hands the whole time. Then you close the game with him, right? Bradley Beal makes too much money to be traded

and is not good enough for you to just put the ball in his hands and put Devin Bucer and Kevin Durant off the ball. That's a misallocation of resources. So in order for Bradley Beal to maximize his potential on this particular team, he's got to become a souped up overqualified role play. And I just don't think he's willing to do that. And so I'm not sure that there's really a good answer,

and I expect it to look a lot like it looked last year. Hey, bro, another great episode. No one breaks it down the way you do. Keep up what you're doing. Thank you for the kind words. Can you talk about the potential impact of Matas, Matas Bezellas, can have on the rebuilding Chicago Bulls team.

That young man is so dynamic. I think he's the steel of the draft. We had a question a few weeks back, a mailback question talking about like what the Bulls should do as part of the rebuild process. And I talked a lot about how you got to find out what you got. You got to find out what Josh Kitty has. And Matas Buzellis is another example of that.

Like give him lots of opportunity and find out if you have something there. Once you identify what your foundation is, then you can start to look at their strengths and weaknesses and how to build around them. But you got to find out what your foundation is first. And there was not really much to get excited about in terms of young players in that organization, Matas Buzellis is the first guy in a while where it's like, hey, let's see what this guy's got.

and I'm excited to watch him too. We'll be covered him very closely this year. Last question. Jason, if you were the Magic General Manager, what would you do in the next calendar year to take the team from Tier 2 to Tier 1? So the key here is you don't want to jump the gun. If I had to improve the magic in the short term,

I would bring in a skill guard. Let's just say like DeAngelo Russell, for instance, and I'd have him handle the rock, and I'd have Palo and Franz operate more off the ball, because those guys are really struggling right now to be decision makers and half-course shot creators, right? They're struggling, especially in like slow-down physical environments, right?

A skill guard that you can compensate for by doing all the dirty work and creating an opportunity for him to just set guys up with quality opportunities would go a long way towards elevating the magic in the short term. But the short term doesn't matter if it's not good enough to win the championship,

which the magic are not there yet. So the goal here is you want to not change too much. You want to continue to force feed Franz and Paulo the basketball as much as possible over a longer period of time so you can get a really firm grasp on what they're good at and what they suck at. Then when Palo is a fourth or fifth year player and Franz has even more experience than that, at that point you can sit down as a front office, you can be like, okay. Palo's played 350 NBA games now, you know, or 300, 250, however many it is. He's played a few hundred NBA games now.

We have a good grasp of what he's getting much better at and what his true weaknesses are. Now we can look to really be more precise and deliberate with tweaks around those guys. But it's just like I was talking about the Bulls. You have to find out what you have first. what we know about Franz and Paolo is that they have a world of potential but we have no idea how much of that potential they're going to reach

and what specific areas they're going to get better at and what specific areas they're going to struggle with like what if we don't know is Palo going to become better and better as a playmaker over time or better and better as a score over time is Palo going to be a guy that becomes a really good jump shooter or is the jump shot never going to come around because if the jump shot's never going to come around

that alters his ceiling a little. bit. Same goes for France, right? So in the short term, you don't want to jump the gun. You want to give these guys opportunities you can learn about them in real detail about what they're going to be when they're in their prime so that you can then build around them at that point. Patience is key with young players. That's all I have for today. I have one last point. If you guys are into rings of power, my buddy Luke and I this morning just recorded like 45 minutes breaking down that crazy episode of the penultimate episode of Rings of Power. So you can find that on my YouTube channel,

which is Two Suns podcast, or wherever you get your podcast under Two Suns Podcasts. Don't forget to hop over there and support that. We're done for the weekend. I'll be back on Monday to cover the Lakers and read everybody complain about it in the comments. I'll see you guys then. What's up, guys?

As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy,

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