The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors DEMOLISH Clippers, Giannis looks like an MVP in Bucks-Knicks | Hoops Tonight

Episode Date: October 29, 2025

Jason reacts to the featured Tuesday Night NBA games as Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and the Golden State Warriors defeated Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, and the Los Angeles Clippers, and Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks stifled Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks. All lines presented by Hard Rock Bet.  #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Wednesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. Got a quick show for you guys today. We're going to be hitting the two NBC games from last night as the Golden State Warriors dominated the Los Angeles Clippers pretty much from start to finish, aside from a little second quarter run from the clippers. And then in the tail end of the show,

the Milwaukee Bucks begin or continue, I should say, their impressive start to the season with a win versus the New York Knicks. Janus with an incredible second half, an impressive showing from their guards. Again, lots to get into. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel

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And then last but not least, we'll be recording another mailbag on Friday. Make sure you guys get your questions into the YouTube comments so that we can get to them in our Friday mailbags throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Warriors jumped right on the Clippers to start this game. They went of 27 to 12. Jonathan Camingo was special in this first run of the game. He was punishing mismatches for layups on drives and in the post.

He hits a pull-up three in an action with quitting post. He hit Steph on a back cut for a layup, had multiple great defensive sequences. He had a nice help and recover contest on Bogdan McDonovic on the left wing where he got into the lane to force a pass, but then also got out and got a great contest. He was battling Zubots on peel switches on the glass. Just a monster during that run, looking like a cog, a special cog in the Golden State system, which is something that was rare in the past, but appears to be the norm more often than not to start this season as Kaminga has really turned around the narrative that has surrounded him since he

first came into this league. I also want to shout out Quentin Post to hit two big threes in that run. He had a pick-and-pop three in an action with Zubots with Steph, and then he had another transition trailer, transition trailing three off of Steph. And I want to focus on that action for just a minute, because that pick and pop, Steph steady throughout this game was attacking Zubots in pick and roll. And like these, that was like the action that Golden State was primarily using to break the clippers defense. Just anything was Steph running off of like a dribble handoff or a ball screen with the bigger, slower footed center in space was just breaking the clipper defense and then the warriors were quickly moving the ball through that to get great shots.

And it's something that I've noticed in the early going against several matchups. Like we saw a similar issue with Yokic guarding the Warriors, even like a faster, more athletic center like Aiton, who was in a drop coverage often was having some issues. And so it's one of the things that I've noticed. Like these bigger slow-footed centers especially are utterly hopeless guarding Steph. But most of the traditional drop coverage running teams in the NBA are going to have issues with Steph now that they have more aggregate offensive talent off of him. And like, I'll be curious.

So like teams like the Nuggets, the Clippers, again, I'd include the Lakers in here. I'll be curious to see how they look for Houston, but Houston plays a lot of slow-footed bigs and slow-footed players in general as well. So I'll be interested to see that matchup. The only teams that really have the speed through all their position groups to keep out of Golden State's blender are Minnesota and Oklahoma City. And as we've seen with Minnesota over the years, they have several guys who struggle with offball attentiveness. So even if they do better against Steph on the ball, they end up succumbing to Golden State's offense in different ways,

like losing Steph in offball situations. It's one of the big things that has me kind of eyeing Golden State as more of a dangerous championship threat than I originally thought they were. They match up really well with many of the teams in the West, specifically because of Steph Curry's ability to break those traditional drop coverages. And again, when I say drop coverage, it's not the old-fashioned. We're sitting back and letting Steph pull. I mean, like, high drop coverage. Like, he's either beating the big because he happens to be too far back by hitting shots

or the big is coming up. And then he's easily getting the defense in rotation by starting four on threes by hitting the pocket. The point is, is teams that are not switching pick and roll with athletes or teams that don't have really athletic centers, like a Gobert or a Chet, that are going to consistently get up to the level and be able to rotate out of it quickly. Those are the teams that are giving them problems, right? And the main thing that they needed is they just needed an infusion of talent

to actually capitalize on this problem that Steph presents to most of the teams in the West. And if Jimmy Butler is going to continue to look this good, Jonathan Kaminga is going to continue to look this good, Moses Moody and Brandon Pajamsky are 20 for 43 from three-point range here in the early going. if all of these things continue to break Golden State's way over the course of the season, and if they stay healthy, you can actually see a tactical pathway versus all of these teams

against basically everybody but Oklahoma City. The Oklahoma City matchup is fundamentally different. I look at it more as like a challenge for Golden State's defense to break Oklahoma City's offense. But we're not going to talk about that today. We're going to get some film on that matchup in a little less than two weeks. It was two weeks from last night. They're going to be playing in Oklahoma City in early, November. I think it's November 11th. And we'll obviously cover that game when it happens and it'll give us a better look at this Golden State offense versus a faster defense, something that I'm looking at as like kind of the next checkpoint. But it's impossible to not look at what we've seen in the early going here and see how some of these tougher Western Conference teams that play a lot of bigger, slower players just get picked apart by Steph Curry running action on them. And now they have the requisite talent off of Steph to be able to quickly count.

capitalize on those sequences and score the basketball. Clippers going a second quarter run. So as we mentioned, Warriors jump up 27 to 12. Clippers kind of take control in the second quarter. Combination factors, like the Clipper stars got going. Kauai finally hit a few shots. He got a little left shoulder hook over Jimmy Butler on a deep post catch. They ran a little cross screen with Brooke Lopez.

It's kind of a fun possession to watch in terms of like the future of the Warriors defense over time. Because like Draymond's guarding the corner and Al Horford's guarding Brooke. and Brooke sets a cross screen for Jimmy. And you can literally see like Jimmy and Dremont and Al all just kind of communicating through the switches. And Dremon's guarding the corner and basically bringing that third defender over into the action. Now, Kauai ends up getting a deep post catch and hitting a tough little shot over Jimmy. But it was just kind of fun to watch Jimmy and Dremont and Al just kind of communicate and switch with physicality along that backline. It's a big part of why I'm really bullish on their defense here earlier.

early on in the season, but we're going to talk more about that in a minute. But Kauai gets going, hits a little hook shot, gets a driving and one, he gets a pull-up three. The role players finally start making shots. Like, this has been an issue with the clippers in the early going that we'll talk about in a little bit. But Zubots did some damage around the rim on Horford. Derek Jones Jr. hits a corner three. Those are some sequences that the clippers weren't paying off early in the game.

And then James Hardin kind of just had a classic James Hardin run to end the quarter. Getting to the rim for layups and free throws, he hits a transition point. up three. That was a big shot in that sequence. And then on the other end of the floor, I thought the Warriors just got a little stagnant. They took some early clock threes. Will Richard took one with like 21 on the shot clock. Buddy Heel took an early one. Before they really got into their movement, Kaminga missed a couple driving layups, some of the shots that he was making earlier in the game. It just was like a brief stretch where the Warriors looked like they got out of whack with their

offensive process. And suddenly we were going into halftime with the Clippers up 49 to 46. It was kind of a wild turnaround to that point in the game. But the third quarter just was classic third quarter Warriors. They really got back into their defense to transition sequences. A lot of big defensive plays during that stretch. Steph got a couple of one-on-one stops against Hardin, one where he smothered him on a drive and forced him to airball a layup. Another one where he picked him clean off top with a little bit of ball pressure.

Draymond got a big stop against Kauai where he got a great contest. Quinn Post did a nice job blitzing James Hardin and then rotating to the pass on the wing where he ended up getting a steel, and they were just running the other way. Dunk for Jimmy Butler. Nasty feed from Steph to Jonathan Caminga for a left-handed layup in transition. Steph gets a pick six on a Zubot's short roll pass where he sinks down and gets the short roll. He tries to drop it off to Chris Dunn. Steph gets it. Goes the other way for a driving layup. Moses Moody digs down on Chris Dunn and gets a steal. Jimmy Butler hits a three on the other end of the floor. Al Horford gets a group. Al Horford did a number on Chris Paul.

just switching ball screens in this stretch. And like Chris just had no interest in attacking Al. Al was defending him well. And so Horford gets a great contest switching onto CB3 and pick and roll. Pods ends up getting a transition drive the other way for a layup. Drives the other way. Drives a bunch of defenders. Then Moses Moody hits a trailing three on the left wing.

The Warriors had five buckets in transition just in the third quarter. They got into the fourth quarter up by 15 and then they closed it out from there with a bunch of contributions from a bunch of guys in the fourth. But I've been pleasantly surprised by Golden State's, like, when I'm looking at the two units for Golden State, we know what to expect with their defense. The question was what we were going to see from their offense. And I've been pleasantly surprised with their offense. They've been getting some contributions at higher levels than I expected.

But in terms of like their championship punch, the thing that they just do better than most teams, the thing that's got me really excited about them is their defense. and I know it's not super impressive statistically. Like they're only 11th in defensive rating here in the early going, but that's a little misleading. Like they had one single game against the Blazers on the tail end of a back-to-back where they gave up 139 points. And it wasn't nothing.

Like they showed some issues containing the ball in the perimeter against bigger athletes in that game. I'm not going to like completely write that off. But in the context of their other performances, it was a little bit of an outlier. And they played three of the best offenses in the Western Conference. So a defensive rating over a massive sample is, going to be a better read of what this defense is capable of.

But like in a five game or four game sample size, whatever, I think it's five games. In the five game sample size, when you have to play Denver, who I think is the best offense in the league, the Lakers who have literally been frying everybody until Luca and Austin leave the floor where they've fallen apart because they don't have ball handling. But Luca and Austin led units have just been frying everybody. The Clippers obviously have a ton of talent. These are like really difficult offenses that Golden State is right. run into. And in each one of those games, their defense has kind of been the thing that has

broken the opponent. Like, aside from guarding Luca personally in the Lakers game, they largely held, largely held the Lakers offense in check. They swarmed DeAndre Aiton on his catches in the middle floor and forced a bunch of turnovers and missed shots. They chased the Laker shooters off the three-point line and made them feel uncomfortable. There was not any offense coming from anybody but Luka in that game, if you guys remember. And then aside from the beginning of the Dendom, game from the late second quarter through to the end of the game, they were awesome against Denver. As a matter of fact, in the second half of that game, including overtime, they had a 104 defensive rating, which is awesome versus that elite Denver offense. And then they straight up

broke the clippers. Like, they just destroyed that offense. They annihilated their bench groups. Chris Paul looked like he had no interest in looking to shoot or score against Al Horford and switches. So those teams just didn't have the ball handling to score after Chris kind of was neutralized and then James Hardin and Kauai they held them to 38 points on 32 shots and just two assists with four turnovers and it was a team effort too like so many different guys defended well either on ball or an off ball situations and like above and beyond the on ball stuff I've always thought of the Warriors is one of the best close-out teams in the league and what I mean by that is just like they're really good at shrinking the floor and making things feel congested but then still getting out to

shooters and rushing them. but it's on overdrive this season. Like they are so damn scrappy, digging down into help and like constantly getting deflections and constantly getting strips. They're top 10 enforcing turnovers here early on in the season. And they're holding opponents below a point per shot on catch and shoot jump shots at just 0.99 points per opponent catch and shoot. That ranks eighth in the NBA so far, by the way.

And I know there are a lot of analytic-minded folks who cover the league that just view that as shooting luck. I've never seen the game that way. I think there are several factors that come into play before we get to pure variance. And I think the Warriors are excellent in those controllables. Ball pressure, intensity in their closeouts, overall physicality, breaking rhythm, gearing shots towards the right types of shooters. I think the Warriors are a very smart defense that's very good at that.

And again, I mentioned a specific example on that little Kauai left shoulder hook earlier. But it's been incredibly fun for me to watch Jimmy Butler. Draymond Green and Al Horford worked that backline in concert with each other, with each other, just communicating, switching with physicality, shrinking the floor because Jimmy and Draymond are so good at throwing closeouts. I thought Steph was really good defensively in this Clippers game. Jonathan Cominga is doing a good job guarding opposing stars every night, just eating up a lot of innings that way.

And again, it's not just a four-and-one start for the Warriors. It's a four-and-one start with wins versus the Lakers, the Nuggets, and the Clippers, all teams that are either first or second-tier contenders in the Western Conference, I'm just super impressed by them. And this is the last thing I'll say. I've been really fascinated for a long time about the idea of all-time greats and what happens when they see an opportunity to win the title. I've been talking about this all summer with Steph

and why I expected him to get off to such a hot start this year. Like just give me a group of guys that's won it before that knows what it takes and then give them a real opportunity and watch the level of professionalism that they will. go about that process with. And like, I've just been so impressed by the Warriors from the top down with how locked in they look to start the season. And like it started, you know, I was, I was intrigued when I heard Steve Kerr talk about how he just like felt really good about this group, especially with the way that he talked about previous iterations of the team. And I was like, if Steve Kerr is looking

at the situation too and going like, we got the guys, like this year we got the guys, like it just goes to show you again, from the top down, they are locked in organizationally. And this is kind of, there's, it's against the grain in a lot of ways, because there's this new age idea we've seen in the NBA, this like, it's a marathon, not a sprint idea. And I just think it's incredibly lame. Like this idea though, oh, we need to ease our way through this thing. Literally nobody has won a championship doing that.

The only exceptions have been super talented repeat champions, like the KD. Steff Warriors in 2018 kind of chilled through the season or like the 2002 Lakers with Kobe and Shaq. Literally every single other champion, other than those like super talented repeat champions, every single other champion has attacked the season from start to finish. They come into camp super locked in. They approach their regular season with a level of seriousness and intensity.

And it's just been super cool to see this from this group in Golden State that has some older players and older coach, four dudes who are over 37. It's just a testament to the organizational greatness from the top down. Again, like you don't have, I was listening to the Bob Costas intro for the NBC broadcast, which obviously is amazing. And he's talking about how like the Warriors have won the most titles in the NBA after the Celtics and Lakers. And it's like you don't get there with just a top tier superstar like Steph or a top 10 player in NBA history like Steph like I was talking about over the summer.

You don't get there with just an elite coach. You don't get there with just a smart front office. You don't get there with just an all-time great defensive player like Draymond Green. You get there with all of those things. You need it all. And there is a top-down organizational greatness that just has persisted for the warriors from the early 2010s, now here pushing into the late 2020s. And it's just not an accident that they've had the success that they've had.

And it's just been frustrating for me as someone who roots for the Lakers to see them juxtaposed with this. And like, the Lakers have had half the roster out already to start the season. And like over bumps and bruises, not like, oh, Anthony Edwards strained his hamstring, he's got to be out for a couple weeks. Like bumps and bruises, guys are missing time already here in the first week of the season. The Lakers want the regular season to be easy. They want to coast to April and go win the title by just getting their group together right

before the home stretch. And like, good luck with that. No one's ever managed to pull it off. Winning a championship is an eight-month grind. There's never been shortcuts there. And it's just been interesting to see the juxtaposition of those two things. And it's a big part of why I'm so concerned about the Lakers in the long term after LeBron is gone. Because, you know, LeBron was always like a let's play through bumps and bruises.

Let's try to, you know, build this thing over the course of the season type of guy. And just like, I think I just really worried about their ability to sustain any success after he's gone. But that's a conversation for another day. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. The NBA season is heating up, and every night is a shot to score a major bucket on Hard Rock Bet. Your home for Hoops Action all season long. Needle of help with your first bet?

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In Indiana, if you or someone you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call 1-800-9 with it. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what? We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a... We're the first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember.

I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Oh, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, Hey Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast.

But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. What's up fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano and our podcast Point Game is about defying 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 rules, 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, after 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.

Agency, the ability to know that we're the experts in our own body. On the podcast, cultivating her space, Dr. Dom and Terry Lomax create a space where black women can show up fully and be heard. I wholeheartedly think, you know, you hit 30, you shouldn't have to share one with anybody. Mm-hmm. From navigating friendships and healing to setting boundaries and prioritizing your mental health. These are real honest conversations. We don't always get to have out loud. Totally unreasonable with different parts of life, right?

Like, oh, have all three meals and make sure you're mindful during all of them? Absolutely not. During one meal, I'm standing. I'm standing and handing my children food. Because healing, empowerment, and resilience aren't just ideas. They're practices. And this Mental Health Awareness Month, there's no better time to pour back into yourself. Listen to cultivating her space on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

This week on Crimless, we're joined by our first ever guest. Sorry, our first ever human guest. I don't think I could be in the same room with Shamrock the pair. I'd be too nervous. That's right. The very funny, Will Farrell joins Rory Scovel and me, Josh Dean, for an episode dedicated to the many crimes committed by people also named. Will Ferrell. They called to his fellow officer for the nippers.

What are the nippers? Very good question. No, I was thinking, would that be a good name for like a salad dressing? Simple assault? And it's a play on word, salt? Maybe not. I say we invest and we see. There's only one way to know.

This did not amuse the cops. By the way, normally the cops are amused. But this did not abuse the cops. Will even comes clean about some of his own crimes. I didn't get caught. You know why? If you don't want to be suspected of anything, you whistle as you walk. Listen to crime lists on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

What would you eat if you had to start over? Real simple, poor man's, poor woman's food. Black beans, chicken, rice, plantains. Yeah. That's all. That's poor people's food. Man, but being Nigerian, that's, come on, a go-to. On the podcast, eating while broke, I sit down with celebrities, entrepreneurs, and creators.

as they revisit the meals they once relied on and the moments that shaped their journey. Named Best Food Podcasts at the 2006 IHeart Podcast Awards, this show is all about real conversations on money, growth, and what it really takes to make it. It was times where me and Lex were, like, definitely getting into it. Because we're not making any money. Like, I need to start making money.

Like, why are we doing this? But I don't know. I think we just always knew that we had something really good. And eventually people were going to catch on. and so we just thugged it out. The full season is available to binge. Right now, listen to Eating Wall Broke from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast.

On the Clippers front, I've been super underwhelmed with them to start the season. Now, they're going to get better. This is not a doom and gloom thing. It just more kind of falls in line with what I was just talking about in terms of just that level of expectation I have for true champions, that start to finish excellence. Like, they're going to get better. As a team, they have not shot jump shots very well,

and that will normalize. They have a good jump shooting team. So I don't mean by variance, by the way. I just mean, like, they have several guys, including their stars, who have come into camp that are not exactly in the best shape of their lives. And those guys will steadily get into shape,

and as they get into the shape that they need to be in, their legs will be underneath them on their jump shots, and then they'll start shooting the ball better. A perfect stat to demonstrate this is their pull-up shooting. They're getting just 0.77 points per pull-up jumper to start the season. That's about 18 points fewer per 100 jump shots than they were last year in the regular season. And that's largely because of Kauai and their bench cards. Kauai hasn't been good on his pull-ups.

Chris Paul hasn't been good on his pull-ups. Bogdan-McDonnovich hasn't been good on his pull-ups. Chris Paul in particular has been awful to start the year. The units with Chris Paul on the floor and with Kauai and James Harden off have been outscored at a rate of 29 points per 100 possessions. Small sample, I know, but just brutal so far. They just need Chris to be better. Their defensive rebounding has been terrible.

They're giving up an offensive rebound on 34% of their opponent's misses. They give up 10 more offensive rebounds last night. And again, that's against a team that's considerably smaller than them. They've been turning the ball over a ton. They have 19 turnovers per game. That's the third most in the entire NBA. Big part of that is Zubots and Hardin. Those two just by themselves are averaging almost six and a half turnovers per game.

They're giving up 22 points per game in transatlons. directly off of those turnovers. And for all the talk about transition defense and training camp, they're a bottom 10 transition defense by efficiency team, according to Synergy, giving up 1.18 points per transition push. They're also allowing opponents to get out in transition on 18.4% of their possessions, which ranks 20th in the NBA. So they've been a bad transition defense after preaching it all through camp,

which is obviously not a good sign. So if you're wondering why the clippers have gotten crushed twice, It basically comes down to their stars have not been very good. Their bench leader and Chris Paul has been legit awful. And they're getting smashed on some key margins like the offensive glass as well as turnovers to transition and just their overall transition defense. So something to keep an eye on. One other thought I had on the Clippers after watching that Warriors game in that third quarter run, Zubots had several turnovers versus blitzes of the hard and short roll. He had that one where he threw to the left wing and quit and post jumped it.

and then he had one where he tried to drop it off to Chris Dunn, and Seth Curry stole it. And this was something that stood out to me in the Nugget series. It's kind of a vulnerability that the Clippers have on offense. Teams can get away with aggressive coverages versus the Clippers. Like they can double Kauai and they can blitz James Hardin with a good amount of effect relative to some other teams in the league. Because as a team collectively, they're always just a step slow at processing those advantages. And so instead of getting wide open threes and wide open layups,

things tend to be a little bit more contested, and then a lot of those sequences end up in turnovers. Again, Zubots and Hardin are combining for 6.3 turnovers per game here in the early going, and even better versions of these Clippers teams have had that issue in the past. And so I say better version, not by talent, but better in terms of the quality of play, because this Clippers team right now is just not close to firing on all cylinders yet. So they're going to get better. The aggressive coverages thing is more of a big picture issue, but I expect them to shoot the ball better. I expect them to defensive rebound better. I expect them to take care of the ball better.

The Clippers will play better basketball at some point this season. All right, Knicks' Bucks. It looked like the Knicks were in complete control. At halftime of this one, they had this beautiful stretch of basketball in the mid-second quarter, a bench group led by Tyler Kolic. And I've really enjoyed these Tyler Kolic-led bench groups for the Knicks this year. Like, they have been the groups that have most embodied the ball movement that Mike Brown has been trying to instill in this team. Just Kolek early in the possession, just make a really quick decision out of an action, and then they just play read and react basketball out of it, and they tend to get really great shots out of it. And the Knicks ended up going up

by 14 in that second quarter stretch. But then the Bucks defense just completely dominated the second half. The Bucks logged an 85 defensive rating in the second half as they held the Knicks to 2 20 point quarters, and they went on to win by double digits. And there are several guys that I want to shout out here. First of all, in the second half bench unit stretch, when Jalen Brunson was off the floor and the Knicks started playing through Catmore. I thought Kyle Kuzama defended Carl Anthony Towns incredibly well in that stretch. Just met his physicality, kept him in front, didn't foul, kept his arms up and forced him to shoot over the top. And I want to shout out the whole team here too, because I thought they did a good job shrinking the floor on Cat and kind of

swiping at the basketball and disrupting his rhythm. I thought Ryan Rollins did an unbelievable job on Jalen Brunson in the fourth quarter. He smothered him on a pull-up three where he forced an airball. he stripped him from behind while back pressuring on a drive. Once again, I also want to shout out the whole team here with all the swarming and switching they did on Brunson in that group. Like, Yannis had a rep where he got switched on Brunson. That was reminiscent. Do you guys remember the preseason rep where Janus was guarding Shea on the left block

and he just kind of like attacked him with ball pressure and Shay just kind of fell over and lost the basketball? Very similar play to that against Jalen Brunson off the left wing late in the game where like he just got up on Brunson and instead of like being passive and offering a contest, he, like, got up and pressured him, and he's just so damn big and so athletic that Brunson kind of, like, soiled himself and just fell over and lost the basketball, and then next thing you know, Janus is going the other way and dunking it. And then to stay on Janus, I just thought he was unbelievable in the second half of that game. 23 points, six rebounds,

and six assists with a steel and two blocks in just 17 minutes of action in the second quarter. he's just become so incredibly versatile on offense. All the usual wrecking ball stuff that we know of Janus always being as a driver, like transition dunks, offensive rebound, putbacks. He had this play against Ariel Huck Pordy on the right wing that looked like MVP, Yonis from the old days. Like Ariel's given him a little bit of space. There's two Knicks digging down into the driving lanes on both sides.

You look at it and you're just like, how in the world is he going to get a layup here? But he just takes a really hard left-handed dribble at Area Hookporti and then spins out of it. And when he spins out of it, he just rips through the digdown from Brunson and gets an and one layup. It looked like, again, like Janus from the old MVP days. And the jumper was a bit off last night, but he ended up hitting a big one late and crunch time. He hit like a one-legged fade away around the foul line. That was a big shot in the game shot. A nice softball that hit the front rim and rolled in.

And then he just, he's shown some brilliant shot creation. as a passer to start this season. Out of every conceivable action, like he created a wide open three in the right corner out of the short roll, where he just caught the ball in the pocket, quick process, boom, out to the right corner. He created a three for AJ Green out of a ghost screen, which was their first time connecting on that play this season.

That was a big one for them last year, if you guys remember. Just AJ runs over, top of the key. Screens for Yonis slips out. Yonis pitches it over the top, easy wide open three for AJ. He did a ton of posting up on the left block in this game. that was a big play type for Milwaukee in this game. And he created a bunch of easy threes out of double teams out of the post.

The Bucks have done a really nice job spacing the floor for Yannis off of those postups. He even had a lob feed to Turner, just kind of a grown-up feed. He was on the left block. He was in crunch time late. And the man who was guarding in the corner, I can't remember who it was that was in the corner. It might have been A.J. Green. But one of their shooters was in the opposite corner. And Miles Turner was in the dunker spot.

And when Yonis drew the double team, the guy who was guarding the guy in the corner came in and kind of sunk in and got up underneath Miles. And Janice could have kicked it to the corner. And the corner was open and that would have been a decent look for three. But Miles had such a big size advantage against the guard that he had pinned underneath the basket that what Janus was looking at there is like, no, no, no, this is late game. I actually want single possession efficiency over large sample efficiency. And he ended up dumping it into Miles and Miles drew a foul.

And it's like, yeah, if the three goes in, it's worth more points. but on that singular possession in a late game situation, any points are more valuable. I thought it was just like an example of that, like, higher level playmaking. You could see Janus, see the corner read and go, no, you know what, I'm just going to throw it up in the air and let Miles grab this. He's going to get a layup or a foul, and that's exactly what he got. And Janice has just become a super high level processor

and a really gifted passer in this league. And when you combine that with his rim pressure, it's just a problem for defenses. He's averaging a career high seven assists per game. here in the early going. And overall, Janice has just clearly ramped up his intensity to start the season. He's averaging 36, 14, and 7. That's fucking crazy.

All four of those, or all three of those, excuse me, would be career highs for him, albeit in a small sample size. His most blocks per game since 2022. He had two massive blocks in the second half, a classic drop coverage rep where he was kind of a little too high, and then he recovered and swatted Mikhail Bridges off the glass after he beat A.J. Green off the dribble. ran the floor the other way and got a dunk.

Had a big one on an OG and an OB&OB post up where he came over and helped side and blocked it. He's shooting 70% from the field to start the season, 57% from 3. I was talking about this on Twitter last night. It's kind of insane because all summer long I dealt with lots of debate surrounding player rankings. Like I put Luke at number two. A lot of people disagreed with me. Lots of people felt like Shea had passed Yokic. I didn't agree, but that was a take I saw a lot.

Lots of Bucks fans think Janus is the best player in the league and no lower than number two, right? And then Yokic to most people is still the best player in the world. And so there's a lot of debate surrounding those four guys. And literally all four of those dudes have been insane to start the year. We just talked about Janus. How about 36, 14, and 7 with defensive player of the year level contributions on the other end of the floor. Shea is averaging 35, 6, and 5, while straight up carrying the offense for his team while a bunch of their key guys,

their key ball handlers have missed time at various points. J. Dubbs's been out. Kason Wallace has missed a game. Like they've been down to some guys and Shay has just leveraged his offense and they're undefeated. Luca only played two games, but in his two games averaged 46, 12, and 9 on 73% true shooting. Against the Warriors and the Wolves, two elite defenses,

and he looked completely unguardable in both of the games. And I'd argue Yokic is off to the worst start in that group. And yet he just damn near had a 20-20-10. Minnesota, and is averaging 20, 15, and 12 to start the year. And again, all those numbers are normalized because of Yokic, but those are insane numbers. It's abundantly clear that all four of these dudes want the crown. They all feel as though they're the best players in the world, and they're all going for it. And as a result, we're getting some truly special basketball as a result from that group. And I'm, I'm like leaving Wembe out here, which I probably shouldn't.

like Wemby's averaging 31 and 14 on 68% true shooting with 6.3 stocks per game. And by the way, Tyrese Maxine, Austin Reeves and Lori Markinen, all three of those dudes are averaging 35 or more per game on insane efficiency. It's just, it's an amazing era in NBA history that we're all witnessing. Some really special basketball is being played. And what's crazy is I actually give the early edge to Janus here in the early going. Like Luke is already out with an injury, although there's some debate as to whether or not that's him or the team that's guiding that.

I still, to me, it's the player ultimately has got to look at the team and go like, hey, I want to play in these games, like put me out on the floor. So I got to cut a lot of shit from Lakers fans and Luka fans for saying that the other day in the show. But like, I just, it's how I feel. Like, I, if I'm Luca, I'm looking at the team and saying the team needs me to play. So I'm going to go out there and play. The other guys just haven't been quite as good.

like Yokich hasn't been quite as good. Shea hasn't been quite as good. Wembe is the one guy that's like playing at a level near that Yannis is at right now, but even then I give the slight edge to Yonis. And the thing that has amazed me the most with Yonis is his ability to establish such a high floor on both ends of the floor for this team. We talked about this a little bit in the show on Monday. But like Yonis, he checks so many boxes. Like he's such a gifted rim pressureer, such a gifted offensive rebounder.

he's averaging like four offensive rebounds a game to start the season, such a gifted passer, that on offense, he's like single-handedly anchoring a quality offense because all of the rolls off of him, because he pressures the rim so well, because he creates so many advantages, because he can also be a screen and roll threat,

because he's such a good offensive rebounder, he's making it so that all of the other offensive players on his team have these small, achievable roles. And the same thing goes on defense, especially anchored by a guy like Miles Turner, you get those two guys down there, all of a sudden the defensive job is just a lot more manageable for the athletes that they have out on the floor. And because they've replaced Dame with more minutes for guys like Ryan Rollins and Cole Anthony better athletes,

because of that, they're more athletic on the perimeter. And Janus is establishing such a high floor on defense that even with a roster that on paper looks extremely limited, all of those limited players are being asked to do this much as. opposed to this much, right? They're being asked to do less. And because they're being asked to do less, they're excelling in those roles rather than failing. If Janus wasn't performing the way that he's performing on each end of the floor, all of a sudden, each one of those dudes gets a little bit more responsibility put on their plate, and all of a sudden their limitations would come to the surface. It's just a casual reminder that when you have one of these truly special stars, one of those

top four guys, five guys, you just always have a chance to win when they're playing at this special level. And it takes an enormous amount of exertion from him. He hasn't played this hard to start the season in years. And I really do hope his body can handle it. And that's the downside of being so limited on paper. You need Janus to be absolutely insane. But he has been, and it's led to them winning and beating some quality opponents.

I've just been really impressed. Some other Bucks notes, I continue to be super impressed by Ryan Rollins and Cole Anthony. Cole didn't shoot the ball well last night, but he continues to just consistently get into the teeth of the defense and spray out to the open man. He had nine more assists last night. This is a crazy stat. Remember, I always evaluate bench players on a per 36 minute basis

to capture what their output would be if their role increased. Obviously, it's harder to do it in an increased role, more just what their production looks like on a per minute basis, right? So Cole Anthony is averaging 12 assists per 36 minutes at just 1.7 turnovers per 36 minutes. How about a 6 to 1 over a 6 to 1 assist the turnover ratio? Just ridiculous driving and kicking over and over again. And then Ryan Rollins, I talked about him a little bit earlier this week.

He's been the guy that I've been most impressed with, and that was his best game in the season last night. He's been pressure in the rim like crazy all season, but then he finally started hitting his 3 last night, just a monster game from him 25 points on just 11 shots. He's averaging 15, 4, and 4 on 63% true shooting here in the early going. I think he's got to be the starting point guard. He's just played too well to not be for the time being.

He's been their second most reliable shot creator off of Janus. He's run 53 pick and rolls this year so far. And he's generated 60 points on those pick and rolls, including passes. That's 1.13 points per possession. There are 19 players in the NBA that have run at least 50 pick and rolls. his 113 offensive rating on those possessions ranks fifth on that list out of 19 players. And it's just because he attacks the rim at such an insane level, and he's been hitting his pull-up three. So, like, he's three for six on pull-up threes in pick and roll.

And then he's just consistently getting to the pain. He's shooting 75% at the rim to start the year. He has six driving layups just in pick-and-roll to start this year. And he can make all the kick-out reads too. And that's what you need. If you can hit the pull-up three against an under or when the guy gets hit on the screen, if you can get all the way to the basket and score from two-point range and you can make the kickout reads, you're going to run a successful pick and roll. And that's what Ryan Rollins is done to start the year.

My only gripe with him has been that he struggled missing catch-and-shoot jump shots. But then last night, two big ones in the left corner off of Janus doubles in the second half. That's the one piece that he needed to kind of be contributing both on and off the ball. And now he's doing that as well. And again, I mentioned this earlier, but I thought his defense on Jalen Brunson to start to end that game in the fourth quarter was super. super, super important. Last two guys I want to shout out here before we end the show today are A.J. Green and Miles Turner.

I thought AJ was a little bit underutilized by Doc Rivers last year, but Doc has rectified that. He's now starting, and he's getting 27 minutes per game. And he's just playing some really solid 3-and-D basketball. He's shooting 59% from three on six attempts per game. And it's not just spot-ups. It's in action, too. Like when he slips out of the Yannis screen or when he comes off of a dribble handoff on the move,

he's four for five from three so far this year in those types of actions. So it's not just shooting, it's dynamic movement shooting. And with Miles, I'd be thrilled if I was a Bucks fan because he's not making shit right now. He's 5 for 22 from 3. He's 2 for 7 on layups. And yet his ability to anchor the defense as a much more mobile rim protector than Brooke Lopez was in concert with Janus, while also on the other end of the floor,

despite missing shots like consistently making high IQ plays in the middle of the floor. It's made him indispensable to the team already. As a matter of fact, according to cleaning the glass, they're 21 points better per 100 possessions with Miles on the floor versus off to start the season. And he will eventually start making shots too. This Bucks team is really fun to watch. I put them, if you guys remember in my contender rankings. I put them as the best team in the third tier because of my faith in Janus and what he can do on both ends of the floor when he's surrounded by shooting and anchored by a mobile rim protector. And I thought I was following my head over my heart,

or my heart over my head with that when I made that list. And I got a lot of flack for it because a lot of teams are like, oh, no, it should be Orlando. It should be this other team instead. And it's because the Bucks didn't look very good on paper. But Janus has been so damn good. And the roster looks so complimentary. And Doc Rivers has played all the right notes so far.

And they actually look more like a second tier contender to me than a third tier contender. So as much as I thought I might have overrated him to start the season, it looks like I might have even underrated him at this point. Very briefly on the Knicks, this new Knicks offense has been awful to start the year. And I just want to take a second to tell everybody, let's relax. Let's give them a lot of grace over these first 20 games. They're trying something very new.

And when you do that, it's going to take some time to find some rhythm. Here's some basic stats to kind of demonstrate what I'm talking about. Last year, the Knicks ranked 18th in the NBA and total passes made per game. They are fifth in the NBA this year in total passes made per game. They're passing the ball 314 times per game. So it's a lot more ball movement. And they're pushing the ball in transition more. They were 23rd in transition frequency last year.

They're 16th this year, according to cleaning the glass. They're also not shooting the three very well at all to start the year, and they're turning the ball over a lot, which is typical when you're moving the ball more, especially in a new system. So in the big picture, these are the kinds of things that have the potential to make them a far more dynamic offense

than they were last year. It's just going to be about patience. In this phase of the season, there's a lot of reps where other guys are bringing the ball up the floor, a lot of guys making mistakes, give them a chance to kind of work through these kinks. It's a very different looking offense

than it was last year. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. we will be back tomorrow with the breakdown of the Wednesday night slate. I will see you guys. Hey guys, it's us.

The Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe. I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast?

Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it. We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it. But, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app. podcast or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

The story I've told myself can then shape my behavior and that can lead me to sabotage the possibility of connection. This Mental Health Awareness Month, tune into the podcast deeply well with Debbie Brown if you've been searching for a soft place to land while doing the work to become whole. This podcast is for you to hear more. Listen to deeply well with Debbie Brown from the Black Effect Podcast Network on the Iheart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, it's Edwin Castro, also known as Castro 1021.

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