The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - NBA Power Rankings, Luka Doncic's MVP case, what's wrong with Kevin Durant & Suns?

Episode Date: December 27, 2023

Jason Timpf discusses the biggest stories from around the NBA where he breaks down Luka Doncic and the Dallas Mavericks embarrassing Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and the Phoenix Suns on Christmas night where Luka dropped 50 in what has been an MVP season for the superstar guard (5:00). Jason talks about how the Suns have to make it work with the players on their roster as they have exhausted all of their trade assets in the trade to acquire Bradley Beal (18:00). Jason then drops his weekly NBA Power Rankings. Will we see a change at the top? (26:30). #Volume #Herd (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. We've got a fun show today from Christmas evening, the Dallas Mavericks on the strength of a 50-point game from Luca Donchich, kind of humiliated the Phoenix Suns in Phoenix. And so I want to talk a lot about both teams from that particular game. We're going to be doing a deep dive there. And then because of Christmas Day in the Yovon video yesterday, we haven't had a chance to do our power rankings yet for this week.

So we're going to be doing an update on our power rankings. You guys know the drill before we get started? Subscribe to a brand new YouTube channel. It mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button. Don't forget about our podcast feeds wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT. so you guys don't miss any show announcements or the film threads I do from time to time. And keep dropping mailbag questions.

This weekend, I'm taking Friday through Monday off, but I want to have some content coming out over the weekend. So on Thursday, I'm going to be recording a long mailbag episode that will kind of release over the course of the New Year holiday. So drop a bunch of basketball-related questions about whatever you guys want, and then let's get weird too. Any non-basketball stuff, drop it in the mailbag in this YouTube video's comments. put together the list out from this video, and we will record that on Thursday so that we have

some content over the weekend. Before we head into the stretch before the trade deadline, and then the stretch before the playoffs, things are going to be heating up here over the course of the next couple of months. All right, let's talk some basketball. So this game, it was interesting because last night I turned it on after a long day, you know, Christmas after I finished recording those two episodes. And, you know, it's funny. Obviously, so many people work on Christmas Day. It's not just me, so I'm not complaining by any stretch. But obviously it was a weird day for me because I'm like at one Christmas event, then I'm driving back to go record and then I'm going over to my parents' house to see my family in town and we're trying to find time to celebrate, but that

I like have to run back to record after Lakers Celtics, and then I finally go back to my parents and we finish celebrating. And then finally I get home last night and my wife passed out in the bed and it's like 1030 and I'm just like, oh look, the sons are playing. And I turn it on and it was pretty bad. Specifically, when I turned it on, it was 116 to 110, if I remember correctly. And the wheels came out, or 116 to 112, I think. And Devin Booker has like a driving right-handed layup, and then the wheels just come off. They give up a bucket on almost every trip down the floor, having trouble blitzing and rotating

off of Luca. And then just like a bunch of really careless turnovers on the other end, they looked somewhat disinterested. And so I was like, oh, man, like Luca putting up 50 sons are. in some trouble, this is the game that I need to do a deep dive on today. And so sat down today and I just watched the entire game. And the truth of the matter is, is Luke just broke Phoenix's defense. And, you know, for all the struggles Phoenix has had, it's primarily on the offensive end of the four. They've actually been one of the best rebounding teams in the league

over this recent span. And they've been a slightly above average defense for most of the year. In that, you know, in that middle of the pack range, I think before last night's game, they were 14th, even during the stretch that they were struggling. They've been a decent defense. Not good, but they've been a decent defense. And they were in shambles in that second half against Dallas. And, you know, one of the things I thought was super interesting that Luca was doing is he was taking advantage because they were loading up on him in the half court, blitzing pick and rolls.

They had KD zoning up on ISOs. Remember, zoning up means ignoring his man entirely but going on the opposite side of the painted area so that he doesn't get a defense of three seconds. So he's basically like, it's like a soft double team, essentially. allowing the primary on-ball defender to press up on the jump shot, knowing that KD is waiting behind him in help. And so in the half court, Luca wasn't really getting opportunities to look to be aggressive, at least as a score, not as frequently, right?

But he was having a lot of success in semi-transition. Now, we talk about this concept a lot, but semi-transition is like whatever is not a run-out layup, meaning like a one-on-oh, two-on-one, you know, past-pass, the stuff you do in high school for drills when you're working on layups and transition, right? Something that is not that, but also not a half-court possession. It's like between the two. It's like usually off of a miss.

Usually it starts as like a four-on-three with the other three guys kind of lingering back into the play. And usually what it is is it's a gap where you don't have an opportunity to like just necessarily drive unimpeded to the basket. But at the same time, the defense isn't in their configured. half court set, right? We just talked about all the things that Frank Vogel was doing to Luca in the half court, but if before they even get set up to do those things, he was finding some opportunities, mainly just to attack an ISO.

There was a play in the fourth quarter where he just was dribbling down the floor, and his on-ball defender was Grayson Allen, and he's kind of opened up with his left shoulder open, and there's no helpside defense because guys aren't matched up, and Luca just hits him with like a basic hesitation move, gets all the way to the basket and lays it in. That's step back three that he's been taking a lot. He was hunting that in that semi-transition phase. These were not like, oh, get a switch, pull the big out, take a step back three with five on the shot clock. He was taking quick fire step-back threes in semi-transition.

And those have like a whole debilitating, discouraging element to them because your defense just feels hopeless. when you're getting him to take one of the tougher shots that he takes, the step back three early in the possession, and he just keeps making it. And then one of the things I've talked about with Luca's is a lot of his pull-up shooting is the same angle. Like his post-up fadeaways always fades over his right shoulder. If he's going to take a turnaround jumper, it's over his right shoulder.

Step back, he's always going to step back going to his left. But then in that stretch, he had a ball screen that they set in semi-transition where the Mavs just weren't, or the sons just weren't even matched up. Shemezi Metsu was guarding nobody. And so they were able to go up and set a quick screen on Luca. And it was basically like a two-on-one offensive possession. And he actually went into like a, like one of those pull-up threes. You see the hyper-athletic guards take where he like comes off the screen to his right,

plants left-right elevates pretty high off the ground for a Luca jump shot. And he sticks that too. And it just got to the point where I think when I turned it on at 114 or 116, 112, the damage was already done. Like, the Sons didn't really have any belief in their ability to win the game at that point. And so it was interesting to go back and look and be like, oh, yeah, that's why. It's because you couldn't do anything with the guy.

Like, as soon as the Sons went on their little run in the late third quarter, which was primarily fueled by Grayson Allen, who just got super hot shooting the basketball, and KD was making some good passing reads as well, they get hot, they take a brief, like, five-point lead. And every single time Phoenix got the lead to five, Luca would just go down and hit another step back three and it's two again. Oh, they got it back up to four. Luca hits another shot.

It's one again. It was just this onslaught that just sapped the sons of any sort of belief, which I think directly led to their discouraged effort there down the stretch. It was just a really, really impressive psychological domination by Luca Donchitz. And again, the theme of the game was the sons had to blitz and pick and roll. And when they blitzed and pick and roll, they were just getting a lot of really key contributions. Derek Jones Jr. was doing a great job. in that short roll position of attacking the rim athletically

and finishing over Kevin Durant at the rim. Derek Lively had some possessions in the role. He also had some possessions where he wasn't the roller. He was in the dunker spot, and as guys got up and missed shots, he was cleaning things up on the offensive glass. Derr Jones had a couple of big corner threes. Grant Williams had a turnaround jumper in the lane.

Tim Hardaway Jr. had one of those semi-transition driving layups that he got. I can't remember who was guarding him on that particular play. but gets an easy bucket there. They were getting lots of contributions down the line. And that there is the key. Because this, to me, feels like a real MVP type of campaign from Luca Donchus. Now, whether or not he wins it is dependent on so many other things,

mainly because the league is so damn stacked with talent that it's just really difficult to separate yourself these days. But Luca looks like an MVP, and we're going to talk about all these specific basketball things. But most importantly, the biggest element of the case, in my opinion, is he has instilled his teammates with a sense of belief and confidence that what they're doing will lead to victories in basketball games. And this is a team, by the way, that was limited in talent when they were fully healthy.

But Kyrie's missed significant time. Josh Green's missed significant time. Maxi Klieba dislocated his toes, been out forever. That's three of their most important rotation players and their secondary creator, arguably, easily their second most important player. And he's kept them afloat. They're 18 and 12. They're right in the mix of things.

And a huge part of it is just every single guy on that team has a belief that what they're doing is going to work. And as a result, they're incredibly bought in. They're incredibly focused. It's interesting to see the juxtaposition of the kinds of extra efforts that you're seeing guys on the Mavericks make. and then you're seeing Devin Booker yelling at his teammates for not getting back after turning the basketball over,

which by the way, Devin's correct to be upset about. But the point is, you're seeing similar types of supporting casts. These are all castaways. The Sun's got all these veteran minimum guys, and the Mavericks got all these veteran minimum guys. Really Grant Williams is the one guy we can point to is like, okay, they got him through a sign and trade

and got him at a decent salary number. But the difference is, the guys on the Mavs, they're locked into their roles. And the guys on the Sons, it's just not coming together the same way. And that, that to me is the strongest part of Luca's MVP case. That said, by the way, before we get to the Lucas stuff, they're 13th in defense over the last 15 games.

And, like, Luca has been making solid defensive rotations. He's closing out with an intensity that you're not accustomed to seeing from Luca. He's been found himself in a lot of low-man situations, in weakside situations where he's like guarding two guys and having to kind of like split the difference and try to bait a guy into making a pass and then closing out and he's doing a really nice job of it. It's it's from the top down, it's trickling down,

it's outstanding leadership in my opinion, very, very different from the Luca that we saw that was so disengaged towards the tail end of last year. And I think it's a direct, you know, it's a direct driving force between a lot of the success for a lot of the success they've had this season. On the Luca Donchage front, Everything starts with pull-up shooting.

He has made 44 more pull-up jumper, or taken, excuse me. He's taken 44 more pull-up jumpers than anyone else in the league. He's the only player in the NBA who's taken over 300 pull-up jump shots, and he's getting 1.09 points per shot on them. A couple of things. He's taking these pull-up jump shots as threes instead of twos, which is driving up the efficiency, right? And that step-back three, one of the things I like,

he's quickened his release a little bit too. He's making it more of like an athletic move as opposed to kind of like a user size and lean back move. His release looks a little bit quicker, but he's just dialed in, and he's locked in with that pull-up jump shot. And again, we talk about making the shot at a phase that's untenable. If you're taking a lot of long twos,

for instance, like Kevin Durant does, and even if you're shooting a higher percentage than Luca, they're worth fewer points, it can be something where the defense is like, ah, we can live with that shot, right? but when it's 1.09 points per shot, it can get to the point, especially on a night like last night where he's so locked in, it can get to a point where it's like it's untenable.

We have to zone up on this guy and I, so blitz him in pick and rolls, just find a way to get the ball out of his hands. That's the primary driving force with him from the perimeter. And then he handles pressure extremely well, so the smaller at quick defenders that are handsy, they don't bother him. A lot of that is just he's really good at protecting the basketball, and he's big as hell.

And then he can beat anyone off the dribble right now. We talked about this when they beat the Lakers a while back, but it doesn't matter if he's starting from a triple threat from the elbow or off the dribble from 30 feet if he uses ball screen isolation. It just doesn't matter because of his size in his command of the basketball. He's going to get an angle and he's going to shoot that gap and he's going to get dribble penetration. And then from there, he's got every shot in the book.

I was pulling up the Synergy sheet today. Synergy has this page called Shot Types. And when you pull it up, is where I get a lot of, there's play types and there's shot types. So those are the two primary screens that I use on Synergy. And, you know, play types are going to sort it through to like spot up possessions, pick and roll, ball handler, transition, cutting, offensive rebound putbacks, ISO, post up, all these different play types, right?

And then even then you can sort them out to different sides of the floor, different driving angles, all these different things. Synergy's great tool. But on the shot types element, like there's, they have jump shot, and then it's split down, and it's like there's catch and shoots, and there's unguarded catching shots, There's guarded catch and shoots. There's off the dribble jump shots.

There's what they call early jumpers, which is basically like when you isolate and you shoot it quick in the possession. There's floaters. There's hook shots. There's layups. There's dunks that's sorted all out there. And what was crazy is every single shot of type, shot type on that list, including contested, uncontested catch and shoot off the dribble, floater, hook. everything. He's up over a point per possession. Every single shot type.

Luca's shooting 59% on floaters this year. Seventy-eight percent at the rim. And so it's just an incredibly efficient set of shot making that makes it untenable to leave him in any sort of basic traditional coverage or single coverage. As a result, career high in points per game, career high and true shooting percentage. This is just the best we've ever seen from Luca. And like I said, when you combine that with the league, leadership and the way it's held this team together through some pretty tough circumstances. I mean, we'll see. We've got to do our MVP rankings later on this week or next week, and he's going to be higher than where he was. And we'll see. Again, a lot of things have to

break right for him in terms of competition, like other people that are up for the award. But this looks like an MVP type of season from Luca Donchitz to this point. For Phoenix. There are some personnel limitations there, but I do see a lot of improvement, a lot of room for improvement, I should say, all over the floor. The defense can be better. One of the big issues in this particular game is Kevin Durant, who's been a very good low man throughout his career, especially after he went to Golden State. He had a really bad game. The two things that stood out to me, he was slow in that low man rotation, so he was getting there too late in a lot of cases. And then when he got there, he wasn't using his verticality to make guys make shots over the top. A lot of

times he's like trying to get him down low or he'd have his hands down and guys were just going over the top and finishing and it's like Kevin Durant when vertical is is a pretty damn big obstacle to try to go through and so by virtue of Katie just being a little more focused getting there a little bit earlier and then using his verticality to make guys make tough shots over the top of him I think that could help a lot in their help side defense grace and Allen and devon booker in particular were really sloppy and their off ball rotations which is like absolutely crucial to uh running a successful blitz in pick and roll because you end up with these four on threes in the backside. And like, Kevin Durant can protect the rim for you, but in order to take away the three-point

shots elsewhere, you need to get more solid rotations out of those guys. So I think the defense can be a lot better. On offense, Devin Booker's just not playing very well. He doesn't look comfortable getting to his spots, which leads me to think he doesn't have his legs underneath them all the way. He's not shooting well. He's 43% from the field and 21% from three in his last five games. Kevin Durant all season has been kind of inefficient in ISO, which is tough because that's one of their most frequent play types. Kevin Durant's getting only 0.88 points per possession in the ISO this year, which is down from what we expect from Kevin Durant, right? And then as a team, the Sons are not converting spot-up possessions. They're getting just 1.03 points per possession in spot-up situations, which ranks 20th in the NBA.

Brad Beale returning should help in a ton of these areas because a big part of what makes a, A big part of what makes Kevin Durant a little bit less quick in his rotations on the back side as a low man is he still is being leaned on for the majority of the offensive creation. I know there's been a lot of talk about Kevin Durant being more featured in the offense and there's no doubt that Devin Booker seems like he has the ball a lot. But Kevin Durant is still very, very much involved last night notwithstanding. And he's actually leading the Sons in usage percentage over the course of this recent stretch when they've been struggling. So, like, that to me, when Bradley Beal can come back and actually remain on the floor, it just makes so many things easier because, one, you're adding a ton of aggregate ball handling and shooting to the lineup, which is going to help you in every single play type.

It's going to make Katie's ISOs easier. It's going to make Kevin Booker's pick and rolls easier. It's going to make the team spot up efficiency skyrocket. It's going to allow for more resources to be devoted to the defensive end of the floor for guys like Kevin Durant and Devin Booker who haven't been as good as they need. And so here's the thing. Like I've seen a lot of people talking about like, oh, you know, because Kevin Durant, there was that report that came out that the sons are monitoring Kevin Durant's mood. And here's the thing. I don't think Kevin Durant's going to be on a different team before the end of this year, not unless it turns

into an absolute catastrophe. And I think Kevin Durant knows that he kind of has to make it work with what he's got in this situation. And I expect him to. They have the tools. The problem is, and this is important context, like, it's easy right now to be like, oh, they're too weak. off of Katie and Devin Booker because they leaned too much into these stars, but it's like that was never the design of the team. The design of the team was Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, and Bradley Beale. That was the way this was supposed to work.

And so, again, like, I think it's a little unfair to be like, oh, this whole thing is a failure when it was never intended to work like this. It was intended to work with Bradley Beale in the picture. Now, once Bradley Beal's in the picture, are they suddenly going to become a great team? We'll see. We've barely seen it. so I have my skepticism, but I'm not going to jump to that conclusion until I see them play.

And, you know, it does, like, as long as they can continue to linger around that play in and kind of, and just remain within striking distance of the playoffs, if Bradley Beale can come back in a few weeks and they can go on a run, everything's going to be fine. So at least within the context of what this team was capable of throughout the regular season. So I think it's a little too early to completely consider this a failure. That said, there is a harsh reality here. Yes, the Sons have a lot of room for improvement within the locker room, but there is not anything really else that they can do with the roster.

They might be able to make ancillary trade for somebody like a PJ Tucker or maybe they can go get an athlete from somewhere else in the league, turn one of their bench skill guys into an athlete. They might be able to get a buyout guy here or a buyout guy there. But there's no high-level reinforcements coming here. That's the harsh reality. So it's up to the guys in that locker room, specifically Kevin Durant, Devin Booker and Bradley Beal to be like,

what are we got to do to make this work, man? Because, like, you can get mad at Shemezi Metu. You can get mad at, you know, Josh Okie for doing something. You can get mad at Jordan Goodwin for doing something. But at the end of the day, those are your teammates for this season, for the most part. Like, you might be able to make slight tweaks, but even the guys you bring in are going to be castaways from elsewhere, which means they're going to come with flaws.

And so it's on the stars in that locker room to try to figure out a way to make it work. 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clivert Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show.

This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music. The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast. It's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need. to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that

George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here. unpack what went down and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack.

So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Then you're finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, moving on to our power rankings. So we have one team drop out this week, the Orlando Magic.

Both Palabankero and Franz Wagner have cooled off considerably, which has caused their offense to crater. And as a result, they've lost six of their last nine games. So the magic are out of the rankings for this week. But at number 10, we have a new team, a team that hasn't made the list yet this year. They may have made it once earlier in the year. But the Miami Heat, they are six and two in their last eight games, and their offense is cooking. They're scoring 120 points per 100 possessions. Tyler Harrell's been on fire since returning from his injury, 26.6 rebounds and four assists per game. 48 points, or excuse me, 48% from the field, 46% from three, 85% from the line.

So really, really high-level efficient scoring from Tyler Harrow. a bio is back and has looked great. Two other guys I want to shout out, Duncan Robinson. Every time I watch the heat, I'm blown away by how him fixing a simple flaw has made his greatest strength even better. Always was an outstanding shooter and a guy that could shoot on the move. But the ability to chase him off the line and some of his limitations defensively causes impact a crater, struggled in the rotation for a while.

Learned how to dribble and make plays. And by the way, before we go any further, that's not like a, oh, I always. went to, I called up Hakeem Alangewan and learned how to be a post player in one weekend. No, that's not what this kind of stuff is. When it comes to ball handling and shooting, footwork as well, for whatever that's worth, which is what makes the Hakeem camp always so funny. But that kind of stuff does not get developed in a month. Doesn't get developed in two months.

Like, you can go do ball handling drills every single day, 100 straight days, and you're only going to see a marginal improvement. Same goes for every sort of shooting drill. Same goes for footwork stuff. Like, I know because I've done this myself. Like, you know what I mean? Like, it's, it's very incremental progress. And like, so when I see stuff like Duncan Robinson going from a guy who couldn't

dribble to two years later being a guy who like does a pretty decent job of it, it's just a testament to the relentless amount of work that Duncan Robinson has put in to turn himself into a viable off the dribble threat. When you combine that with people having to panic chase him on the perimeter to chase him behind dribble handoffs and screens, and to basically put them in a trail position constantly. Now you've got Duncan Robinson going downhill and making decisions, which is putting the defense in rotation and getting Miami good shots.

And then he's also just made a lot of leaps as an off-ball defender. He's got good size and length. And so just by being a player with good instincts that can read plays out on the weak side, which a lot of times those plays on the weekside, like we talked about earlier with Kevin Durant, with it's a lot, or Luca Donchage, I should say, a lot of it has to do with like splitting the difference and like making it feel like you're guarding both guys when you're not closing out to passing lanes like stunting and recovering all of these things are important elements of help side defense that duncan's gotten considerably better at and then hi me hawk has junior he's just he's bigger and stronger than a lot of NBA perimeter uh defenders and he's weaponizing that to get quality shots despite you know not being the type of prospect that we're accustomed to seeing in the lottery and it's he can bully his way to the rim in transition when he's slashing. He's been an excellent post-up player this year. And so getting, essentially, when you put it all together, their core guys have been playing well,

and they're getting key contributions from role players, and as a result, they're winning games, 6 and 2 in their last 8, Miami Heat at number 10. Number 9, Dallas Mavericks, utterly decimated by injuries, but a bona fide MVP season from Lukadans just kept them afloat in the standings. Help is on the way. We talked a lot about the Mavs earlier today. So if you're just watching this Power Rankings video, hit the first clip that we released from this particular episode. We did a deep dive in the Mavs and on Luca's MVP case. Number eight, the Oklahoma City Thunder.

They beat the Grizzlies without Jha and the Clippers without Kauai. Then they got manhandled by the Lakers. And that continues to be their biggest weakness. They're small. And that's a death sentence in the Western Conference, in my opinion. I don't think they're capable of beating the Nuggets, the Wolves, or the Lakers four times out of seven as currently constructed. And so I'd like to see them get aggressive at the deadline to try to get someone like a Pascal Seaccomer or Jeremy Grant. Lori Markan is a guy that I think actually fits them best because of how good their perimeter defenders are,

a guy that could really help them and help side defense and rebounding in as an outstanding play finisher. That'll just push their offense up another level. I'd like to see them get aggressive because this is a really good team with a fatal flaw. And you want to give yourself as many opportunities to try to push over the top as you can. Number seven, Sacramento Kings. They beat the Washington Wizards and Phoenix. sons this week, but then they got crushed at home by the Celtics and the wolves. And this is a theme that we've been talking about all year.

What have I been saying about the Kings? Specifically against teams that have outstanding perimeter defenders that can contain the easy dribble penetration that Deeran Fox and Malik Monk bring to the table, it causes their offense to stagnate, and then they're not good enough defensively to make up for it. Once again, Boston and Minnesota are two of the very best perimeter defense teams in the league. They're not really in a troublesome position in terms of Sacramento's foot speed. It's an interesting example.

And that's another team that I think should be looking to upgrade the four for that reason. They need to find another way to break defenses down when their dribble penetration gets contained. Number six, the Los Angeles Clippers. Their winning streak ended with back-to-back losses to the Thunder and Celtics, but Kauai Leonard has been out for both of those. and his MVP play has been a huge driving force for this team. So I wouldn't read too much into it. Other than it's just a bummer that we didn't get to see the Clippers.

It would have been great to see them play OKC in Boston at full strength with how well the Clippers were playing because it would have helped us learn more about them. But that's just kind of the nature of the NBA regular season at this point. Number five, the Philadelphia 76ers, same thing. And Bede's ankle injury kind of stopped us from getting to see another measuring stick game against the heat on Christmas. But I thought the Minnesota win was super impressive. That was the best defense in the league, still is the best defense in the league, and they had no answer for Joel Embed. And like, we can talk about officiating all we want, but as I've said, that has nothing to do with Joel.

That is a take I have about the league. I've had Sixers fans ripping me new ones and mentions and YouTube comments for like a week and a half now. And it's funny because it's literally an opinion that has nothing to do with Joel or the Sixers. It's 100% focused on the NBA and the officiating. I don't think Joe Al-Mibed is the only foul grifter in the league. I've been calling it out league-wide for everybody. So Sixers fans, it's not an anti-Sixers take. He's my front-runner for MVP right now.

The Sixers are fifth in my power rankings. Just, you know, what he did to Minnesota, obliterating the best defense in the league was super impressive. It was probably the single most impressive game I've seen from a superstar player this season. Number four, the Denver Nuggets. How about a five-and-o week? They're up to seventh in defensive rating for the season now.

I happen to catch three of those five wins, and late game execution just continues to be their biggest advantage over other teams. When they get into a close game late, I just feel like they're going to win the vast majority of the time because of their ability to consistently generate quality shots. Number three, the Milwaukee Bucks. Lots of things are falling into place for them. Their overall defensive effort is improving in terms of just execution within what their personnel is capable of. The Dame Yannis Pick and Roll is getting used more often and more effectively. they're running it on an empty side more frequently. Dame's making higher-level reads out of it.

Chris Middleton, after going for 20-plus points zero times in his first 17 games this year, he's done so four times in the last eight games. So that's super encouraging. But in a weekend split against the New York Knicks, they got absolutely cut to pieces by Jalen Brunson, who averaged 37 points per game against them and had three total turnovers in two games. That continues to be their biggest flaw. They are not capable of making opposing ball handlers

uncomfortable. We saw this in the Pacers game as well. And in my opinion, especially with a team like Boston waiting for them at the top of the Eastern Conference, I don't think they're capable of beating Boston. I shouldn't say capable. They're just a significant underdog, in my opinion, against Boston, unless they can upgrade at the two at this point, which we'll see what they can do at the deadline. Number two, the Minnesota Timberwolves. They beat the Miami Heat, the Lakers, and the Sacramento Kings. Then they lost to the Philadelphia 76ers in the Embed game that we talked about. I want to shout out Rudy Gobert here for a second. I think he's having the best defensive season that he's had since 2019. He's been incredibly active on a night-in-night-out basis and

has anchored that defense that has created a lot of more achievable roles for the other players on that team. He also has 36 offensive rebound putbacks this year, which is tied for Nicole Yokic with the third most in the NBA. Combined that with his active screening and him rolling hard to the rim and his vertical spacing, he's been a really, really impactful player and has been one of the primary driving forces between Minnesota or behind Minnesota in their breakout season this year. Number one, the Boston Celtics. Obviously, a disappointing loss on Tuesday night

against the Golden State Warriors, but then they kicked the shit out of the Kings on the road, kicked the shit out of the clippers on the road, then go into Los Angeles against the Lakers team that really wanted to win that game and won comfortably. They are clearly the best team in basketball right now, at least within the context of the regular season. Chrisops Porzingis fundamentally changes the geometry of that team,

and I think could end up buying them the margin for error to overcome some of their late game offensive execution issues. Right now I have them at number one in the power rankings. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. Remember to drop mailback questions for the episodes this weekend. We have the nerdsesh guys coming on on Thursday to talk some league-wide stuff. I will see you guys then. Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy.

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