The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Steph Curry & Warriors kryptonite exposed vs. Jalen Brunson & Knicks + Heat-76ers

Episode Date: March 20, 2024

Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Draymond Green, Klay Thompson, and the Golden State Warriors' 119-112 loss to Jalen Brunson and the New York Knicks. Jason breaks down the impact of New York's physical presence and problems it can present a team like Golden State. Later, Jason reacts to the Philadelphia 76ers' 98-91 win over the Miami Heat before answering listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. Timeline (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements): 04:00 - Knicks jump Warriors from start 11:20 - Knicks physically overwhelming 12:25 - Why physicality can destroy Golden State 20:25 - Heat-76ers 31:34 - NBA Mailbag #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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or eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms, and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Tuesday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week. We just have a quick show for you today. We're going to be hitting the two ESPN games from last night. The New York Knicks went into Golden State and beat the Warriors.

And then after that, the Sixers got a big win. They've been kind of sneaky okay for the last 16-17 games after Embed went down. So we're going to break down heat sixers, and then I have a short mailbag for the end of the show as well. You guys know the drill for we get started. Subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel.

I 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 feed, wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT for film threads

and show announcements. And then last but least, keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We're going to have a couple more mailbags later on this week. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the Knicks jump the Warriors earlier. They went up 18 to 4.

They're flying around on defense. Main story that really stood out at the beginning of this game was the same kind of thing that we've seen a lot from teams guarding the Warriors over the last couple of years. And that's just basically completely ignoring their front court players to chase Steph around and to help on all of his screening action

so that Steph can't find openings and to dare guys that are capable of making shots, but not great at making shots to make shots. And they were basically conceding jumpers to Draymond and Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Kaminga early in the game. And Wiggins and Kaminga in particular were really missing to start. And Deuce McBride was doing a great job on Steph chasing around. And so Steph didn't have a

field goal in the first quarter. A lot of miss jumpers from some of the Warriors forwards. Next thing you know, you're down 18 to 4. On the other end of the floor, the three main guys were carrying the Knicks offense early. Deuce McBride hit a couple of threes that were open off of coverage situations and he rode that into confidence to start making the tougher off the dribble jump shots. This is the concept I talk about all the time on the show. Like, we'll see a guy hit a shot and we'll be like, oh my gosh, he never makes that shot. This is so fake or whatever. He's having the night of his life. This is ridiculous. And it really isn't all that complicated to figure out. Like, these guys are pros playing a role. So Deuce McBride is a bench guard typically. And he's a guy that like,

large really well at the point of attack and can run some ball screens, can spot up, do this kind of stuff, but he's a low usage guy in terms of what his role is on this team. That does not mean that's all he practices, or that all he has in his bag. Almost every player in the NBA has a far more advanced bag of tricks than they show in games. Like for instance, if I just took like an off ball player, take a guy like Casey Pete and I dropped him in your pickup basketball run today and he cared enough to try. That dude could go into crazy off the dribble stuff better than anybody in that gym, even though in the NBA right now,

he's primarily a movement shooter and a guy who comes off of dribble handoffs and stuff like that. Like he's a 3-and-D off-ball kind of role player guard, right? But he's capable of so much more. And so if you let a guy like that get into a rhythm and he starts to have the confidence and the freedom from the coach, like, okay, you've hit a couple shots, feel free to push the envelope a little bit. they can dip into that deeper bag of their tricks to find some stuff. And Deuce McBride was hitting like step back threes.

And he had multiple like between the legs dribble kind of into a side step type of three point shot off the dribble. Like that's the kind of stuff that Deuce can do. But maybe he doesn't show every single game. And so a lot of times we focus on, you know, shot variance in these regards when it's like, okay, he got in a rhythm from being wide open. And then he started to make shots that he does practice. Just, you know, what do you think Deuce McBride talks about behind the scenes? Right now he's a bench guard. But of course he's got ambitions. Of course he'd like to one day be a starting guard in this league.

Of course he'd one day like to be a guy who has the usage to take two or three pull up threes off the dribble in ball screens more frequently, right? Like so of course behind the scenes, he's working on that stuff. Isaiah Hartenstein was the second big guy that was carrying things offensively for the Knicks earlier. Two main ways, burning Draymond for help, but in short range. shot making and also on the offensive glass. And so again, when we talk about the short roll, the idea behind the short roll is instead of rolling hard all the way to the rim and jumping and making yourself available at the rim, when there's a drop coverage big that is hanging all the way back underneath the basket, sometimes you're making yourself easier to guard there. So you want to stop short and try to find an opening in the middle of the floor. And that looks

differently, different depending on the coverage. So a short roll on a blitz, for instance, that both defenders are out and you're short rolling into the open space you can catch and turn and run a four on three. A short roll in a drop coverage is finding the soft spot before the rim protector. So imagine in a blitz, Draymond's up at the level of the screen. Dremont's away from the play. So you get the ball over the top to a Hartenstein. He's mainly going against smaller players and he's making a four on three type of read. If Dremont's in a drop coverage and he's underneath the basket, Hartnstein's short rolling so that he doesn't go all the way into

Dremont and so that he can catch in that little short range and either hit his little push shot or maybe quick a drop step into a little hook shot over his left shoulder or whatever it is. He's looking for an opening to be available as a score. He did some damage there. Then he had five offensive rebounds in this game and that's just textbook

like Dremon gets engaged in help or Dremon is dropping in some sort of ball screen coverage and Hartnstein has an opening on the weak side either with nobody on him or with a smaller player on him to do some damage on the offensive glass. And then finally, Jalen Brunson, he's become one of my favorite players to watch in the league. Really, just watching the leap that he's taken in New York. But I thought last year in the playoff run was where he really won me over, just showing that this guy's legitimately a star guard in this league. This is not a, you know, a short, small sample size.

Oh, he played above his pay grade. No, this dude's just really freaking good at basketball. And specifically in these super physical and stagnant games, he can be really effective. He had 34 points. I thought he outplayed Steph Curry in this game. Steve Kerr talked after the game about how it felt like they got jumped early and they just couldn't regain control of the game. And that's exactly what it felt like watching. They went down 18 to 4. There'd be these Warriors runs, right?

Like we'd get Chris Paul. He had his pull-up jumper going in this game. So he did a couple jumpers in pick and roll or like Clay Thompson and Trace Jackson Davis had a really nice two-man game going in this game, which by the way, on a side note, Trace Jackson Davis having such role man chemistry with everybody already just goes to show you how gifted naturally he is at some of the stuff in that role game. And I think he's picking up some of the details too.

Trace is just, Trace is just going to be such a useful player in this league for such a long time. But like Clay and Trace Jackson Davis would get going and hit a couple, make a couple plays together or Steph would make a couple of plays and they get it down to like, you know, four, five, six, seven, eight points. And then the, and then the Knicks would just respond. every single time. Deuce McRide would hit another rescue shot at the end of the shot clock or the Warriors would have turnover, get kicked ahead and Dante DiVincenzo would hit a transition

three or, you know, Jaylen Brunson would get to the foul line or something like that. They were just able to stymie all of those runs and the Warriors could never make a real push. Really, to me, this game was just another great example of how overwhelming physically New York can be, even when they're down guys. O.G and and O.D., and Obey, down with elbow maintenance and I don't know what's going on there because I thought he had a procedure done to try to kind of address that situation but it appears to be kind of flaring up on him again. That's concerning because like he already has gone through a process and it's still as a problem. So hopefully they can figure that out sooner than later.

Still no Julius Randall or Mitchell Robinson. So you're down your entire front court, but they're still, it's just, it's every other guy on the roster is still just a really physically imposing player. like Josh Hart is a bowling ball of a wing in this league. Isaiah Hartinstein is a monster. Deuce McBride is a pain in the ass perimeter defender. Dante Devencenzel has been one of the best three-indy guards in the league this year. Precious Situah had five offensive rebounds in this game.

And then Jalen Brunson, I think he's one of the most physically imposing small stars that we have in this league. And so I just really hope we get to see them at full strength when we get to the postseason because I really think this next team can do some damage in that environment. on the Warriors front. I've had this six-game stretch circled as a potential problem stretch for the Warriors for a little while now just because there,

let me just, before we actually get into the details, let's just look at the games. The Knicks, obviously last night, then they play the Grizzlies, then they play the Pacers, then they play the Timberwolves,

then they play the heat, then they play the magic. So why does that stretch concern me? Well, let's look at some specific guys. Like with the Knicks, you're getting Dante DiVincenzo and Deuce McBride and all of the Knicks

physicality. I saw a tweet that was going around yesterday from January 27th from a Knicks fan. And this was, by the way, January 27th before the refs stopped calling fouls the way that they did recently. The tweet said, everyone in the NBA is scoring like 150 points a night. Then they come to Madison Square Garden and the Knicks beat them with metal bats for two hours. That's literally what it was like. That's what it was like before the changes are made. And now that's of that stuff is being legalized in a lot of ways and it's getting more like that. So that's what the Knicks bring to the table. Obviously the Grizzlies are a bad team. The Warriors should win that game. That's an outwire. But the Pacers, Aaron Neesmith and Andrew M. Hart, the Timberwolves, Anthony Edwards, Nikiel Alexander

Walker, Jaden McDaniels, the heat. They've been a top five defense since January 1st, since the turn of the new year. It's going to be Terry Rojier and Caleb Martin and bam out of bio on the backline and weird zones and aggressive coverages and things like that. And then the magic have Jalen Suggs, who's arguably the best guard defender in the NBA. So why does that concern me? Because like we saw last night, the Warriors can really struggle offensively unless Steph goes supernova. And obviously, Steph still can go supernova.

He's still absolutely capable of that. Even one of those matchups I had circled, the Pacers, they had a game against the Pacers a few weeks ago where Steph just lit them on fire at the start of the game and they blew them out. So I'm not going to sit here and pretend like that. Can't happen. But it's, here's the thing, no superstar,

not even the best player in the world, Nicole Yokich. Not even LeBron James at the height of his powers or Michael Jordan at the height of his powers. No Superstar can go supernova every single night, especially when they get into their late 30s and Steph's 36 years old now. So like what we see happen is as long as you can as a team bring physical layers of perimeter defense and aggressive coverages and make it hard for Steph. meaning like, kind of like last night, he gets 27, but it's kind of a pain in the ass 27. And you're preventing him from going nuclear more often than not, which by the way, is not a Steph problem.

That's literally just every team is throwing the kitchen sink at them. And as long as they have the personnel to hang. I'm not talking about the Lakers. I'm not talking about Austin Reeves and Jackson Hayes for most of the night. This is a completely different challenge. When you run into real perimeter talent defensively and teams that can bring that kind of physicality, they can at least make Steph work hard

and help avoid the supernova performances. From there, when that happens, the Warriors desperately need consistent offensive production off of Steph, and none of those guys are consistent. Clay Thompson at this age, just some nights he doesn't have it. Andrew Wiggins, like, we're going to talk about him in the mailbag, so I won't get into it right now, but like he had a night where his jumper wasn't going, right?

Jonathan Cominga had a little bit of like, he had a reasonably efficient night. I think he had like 16 points, but he had a bunch of those young guy mistakes, like stupid kick ahead passes or dribbling into traffic and turning it over. Those are normal stuff you see from a young guy and an inconsistency that you can expect in that situation. And so that's a thing.

It's like when you can kind of make things difficult for Steph, which a lot of teams in the league don't have the personnel to, but we're running into a stretch here where some of these games, they have that type of personnel, it shines a light on the inconsistencies of the role players. I don't think they're going to lose all those games because there will be games in there where they do get a good Andrew Wiggins scoring night. They do get a good Jonathan Kaminka scoring night where Steph does go supernova.

But this is a stretch I have my eye on here, these six games, and I wouldn't be surprised if they went three and three over this stretch because of the fact that like some of these specific matchups can shine a light on some of the warrior's specific weaknesses. is that something I'm going to be keeping an eye on as we head into the next couple of weeks. 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-Hart Radio. 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, Clifford 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 Podcast, 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 is big to me not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all day, but just so you all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now.

Thank you for finishing that sentence. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah. For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, moving on to Heat Sixers. Another super physical game.

By the way, I am loving this from the NBA. These games are just so much more entertaining and have so much better flow. And I feel like there's so much more realistic in terms of what these teams could potentially accomplish in the postseason. Spolstra went really heavy on Zone in this game. He had 38 possessions of Zone overall. including 12 in the fourth quarter, something he really leaned on. Philly only managed to score on 14 of those 38 possessions of zone. But we were tied at 85 with about seven minutes left.

Buddy Heald broke the tie on a zone possession where they just threw a swing past to Buddy Heald on the left wing, and there was a contest, and it was pretty far out. It was like 26 feet, but he knocked it down. So that put him up 88, 85. Then at 8887, there was this kind of interesting sequence. This is a rock fight game, so every single basket means so much, right? So it's 88, 88, 87, and the Sixers have the ball. Maxi's dribbling on the left wing.

They're in, the heater in man to man on this possession. You can see Spolstra, he's on the sideline. He's signaling, he wants them to bring on a double team, right? So, Hakeez, Jaime Hakez, is guarding Tyrese maxi on the left wing with a live dribble, right? So Spolster calls for a double team and a windshield wiper rotation. What that means is, as the double team is going, the next guy in line rotates and you leave the opening on the weak side of the floor.

So Hakez is guarding Maxi. Patty Mills is guarding Kyle Lowry on the right wing extended, right? Patty Mills comes over and double teams. They run a really good windshield wiper rotation. Caleb Martin slides up from the wing. That forces Kyle Lowry to take steps away from the basket to make a passing angle,

and Tyree's Maxie makes the pass. Kyle Lowry catches like 35 feet from the rim, throws it right back to Maxi. Okay? So now the windshield wiper is set again. Jaime Hakez is on the ball. Now it's Caleb Martin that is on the wing. Everyone's kind of rotated around one.

So now Patty Mills is down on that left side. And then BAM at a bio has now been matched up on the right corner instead of underneath the basket. So basically what happens is Spolster calls for the exact same double team. Caleb Martin comes over and doubles with Jaime Hakez, except for this time, Bam does not slide up.

And I think it had to do with the hesitance to leave because he was still in position to kind of help. Because even though he's in the right corner, the ball's on the left wing, so he's kind of in position to help around the rim anyway. Bam is hesitant to go out. Kyle Lowry identifies it, just steps in and makes himself available.

And Tyreys Max, he just throws a basic swing pass to a wide open Kyle Lowry on the right wing who knocks down the three to puts him up 91-87. So like kind of an unusual execution mistake from Miami. Spolster is basically calling for a basic double in rotation. they execute it well once. The Sixers just reset, run it again.

The heat do the exact same action, but they fail to make that windshield wiper rotation to the top and they give up the wide open three. So 9187, we get a man possession. I'm focusing on Philly on offense here. We'll get to Miami on defense here in a minute. So at 9187, we get a man-to-man possession and Tyrus Maxey has the ball in the right wing this time.

And we have Jaime Hocquez really digging down into the right-hand driving lane with Kelly. Ubre in the corner. And then we have Caleb Martin digging way down into left-hand driving lane. So Tyrese Maxie is facing an ISO, but basically like where my lights are right here are defenders. So there's no real driving lane. Now, one of the things I talk about when I talk about digging down is there's a baked in close-out opportunity, right? All I need to do is throw the ball to Kelly Ubrey, and he's got a close-out opportunity. And that might be a catch and automatically rip through to the right. That might be a catch-and-shoot-three if it's too light of a close-out. or in this case, Jaime Hakez

through a super aggressive closeout towards the baseline side, expecting Kelly Ubre to kind of rip through to the right towards the baseline. Ubrae throws a pump fake. Hake, Hakez flies by him, Ubre rips through to the middle, and he's got a full head of steam.

And he's one of the rare athletes in the league that can go against a vertical bam underneath the basket and get the lifted separation it needs to finish. He just jumps and goes right through Bama at a rime and it finishes. Now the Sixers are up 93-87. Then we have an offensive rebound sequence where Kyle Lowry hits basically the dagger.

So it's 93-89 at this point. And there's a zone possession where we end up getting a three-point shot out of the right corner, I believe, for Tyrese Maxi. Okay. Now, this is, have you ever heard the expression that it's hard to rebound in zones? One of the specific reasons why is that the matchups get funky.

So in this zone, it's a two three concept of a zone, right? So Bamaida-Bio is underneath the basket. But when the ball gets swung to the right corner, Bamaida-a-Bio slides over. The entire zone kind of like shifts towards that right side of the floor, right? So now Jaime Hakez, who's in the left corner in the zone, is now down on the left block.

And Bama-Metabio is typically underneath the rim is now on the right block, and then obviously the right-corner man is extended out to the shooter. So as a result, when the shot goes up, Paul Reed is on the left block engaged with Jaime Hockes. If it's man to man, BAM is engaged with Paul Reed. He can box him out. Much better a chance for him to win that battle, right? On this possession, Jaime Hakez is boxing out.

Paul Reed and Caleb Martin comes over the top to try to crack down. But he's just had a complete physical disadvantage. Paul Reed goes up and grabs the basketball, kicks it back out, and then that's when we have Kyle Lerre, which is just an old school move, drives left, spins off at Terry Rozier, hump fakes, bam jumps out of his shoes, and he sneaks underneath and makes that little right-handed scoop shot off the glass, 95-89, that basically was the dagger. But I thought it was a good example of just some of the downsides of zone.

Because, again, Bam is going, if the ball gets to the high post, he's showing high, right? The ball goes to the right side, he's showing right. Got ball goes the left side, he's showing left. he's in all these different spots. Paul Reed is just going to find himself an opening there. He sees Bam because the ball goes to the right. He sees Bam go to the right. He knows he's got position on that left block.

He just battles for position. He gets an easy rebound. That's a baked in advantage against his own defense as people just aren't matched up. And so you have a better opportunity to find mismatches in rebounding situations. On the other end of the floor, really was this simple. Philly was running drop coverage with Mo Bamba and Paul Reed, The main on ball guys down the stretch were Nick Batum, Kelly Ubre, and, oh, Kelly, Kyle Lowry had a possession on Terry Rozier as well.

But the heat were primarily running. There were a couple random ones in there. There was like two random uh, uh, Jaime Hawkes postups and he missed a really tough left shoulder fade over Kyle Lowry. And then he had a post up of Kelly Ubre where he may or may not have gotten fouled, but it didn't get called. And there was like a, you know, a couple of missed jump shots in there as well. Uh, Patty Mills missed one in the right corner. Caleb Martin missed one in the left wing that were pretty decent looks. But most of the offense for the heat down the stretch was typical two-man game between Thomas Bryant and Terry Rozier and Bamette Abio and Terry Rozier.

And they just did a really good job. Both Mo Obama and Paul Reed had really good contests in that sequence on Rozier at the rim and in the mid-range. Rozier missed three of his last four shots, three of which were in pick and roll. And then again, this is one of the downsides with Tyler Harrow and Jimmy Butler, both being out. those are guys that are your best guys on the team at busting drop coverage. And so because of the being down your two best drop coverage busters, and you're in a situation against Philly where their coverage is going to have some success

against you. The heat scored just six points in the final seven minutes as the Sixers got to win. Tyrus Maxi, 30 points, eight rebounds in tennis is unbelievable. Kelly Ubre poured in 22 points. This is the sixth time in the last nine games. He's had 20 plus. Obviously, he's spacing with the shot. shoots 40% on unguarded catch and shoot threes. But I thought this game was a great example of the

spacing that he brings both as a slasher and as a cutter. He's really good at identifying when the low man steps over again. That's his man who's stepping over to help tag a roller, right? That means ball screen guy, the screener is rolling downhill. Kelly Ubra's man steps up to guard. Instead of just waiting in the corner for a three-point shot, he'll cut along the baseline and get dunks that way. And when you're that type of athlete, that's just a more efficient spot-up situation. situation than shooting a three, not just for a shooter, not just for Kelly Ubrae, but for anybody. Steph Curry is not going to convert corner threes as well as Kelly Ubre is going to convert open dunks along the baseline.

Like that, again, it's a read because if it's not there, if it's more traffic, you want to be spaced out. But if you see the opportunity there and you make the read, that is a 100% play for an athlete like Kelly Ubre. And then in addition to that, the slashing, like again, this is why I look at Spotup efficiency so much. Kelly Ubre hasn't had that great of a spot-up season overall, and that's because he hasn't shot very well on contested jumpers, although he made some contested jumpers in this game. But a big part of it is like if you can catch and rip like Kelly Ubre did on that final sequence,

one of those final sequences out of the right corner, that's another way to provide spacing without having to knock down jump shots. And he had some good defensive possessions on Terry Rozier as well, as well. I thought Kelly Ubre played a great game. And then Kyle Lowry with the old man ball. Again, this is a rock fight of a game. Everyone's struggling to score, but he made two of the biggest shots in the game. First, recognizing that botched double windshield wiper rotation I was talking about where he stepped into the right wing and made that three. That was a great read. And then just that old school spin move on Terry Rozier. Terry Rozier, better athlete, beat him to the spot, but just had the counter move loaded up, went to that spin move, pump fake to take advantage of the eager athleticism of the Miami Heat frontline and ends up sneaking in a layup. The Sixers, they've lost, they lost. They lost. to six of their first seven when Joe L. Embedde went down. But they've really managed to steady things from there. They're eight and nine since February 10th. That's hanging around 500.

And hanging around 500 without Embedd is a massive win. Like had they gone six and 11 instead, so two of those games end up being losses instead, right? At six and 11, they're sitting at the eight seat and they're facing a road playing game. So like if they can somehow linger around this 500-ish area, and if they can get out of the plane and stay at number six, that gives you a much better chance with a full first round series

against a three-seed, which won't be Boston, for Embed to kind of get his legs back underneath him and potentially make a playoff run. Last note, in this eight and nine span, Tyrese, so in these last 17 games, 28 points, five rebounds and six assists. I'm 45% from the field, 39% from 3 and 91% from the line.

I've been really impressed by Tyrese this year. I think he's done an admirable job with a limited supporting cast. All right, guys. Let's get to our mailbag. Hey, Jason, big fan of the show from Belgium. You mentioned how Dame has been playing better in games where he has the ball in his hands and can get in a rhythm. Often when Janus is not on the floor,

if Dame needs the ball, but with Janus on the floor, their offense is primarily run through him. Can the two of them reach their individual offensive ceilings playing together? And if so, what would that look like? Also in a playoff setting. So I really want the bucks to get more into spamming the two-man game. So again, like, how do you maintain rhythm for both guys? but keep the ball in Dame's hands by spaming two-man game.

And this is where it can get a little convoluted in terms of roles. So for instance, like, if you're the Denver Nuggets, you've got guys that can score in KCP, Aaron Gordon, and Michael Porter Jr., but they have a really good hierarchy in that system to where the vast majority of touches for all three of those guys are going to take place off the ball. And so because of that, they don't take up usage. And since they don't take up usage,

it allows Murray and Yokic to spam their assets. action and keep the two of them in rhythm the majority of the time that they're on the floor. Whereas with the bucks, it's like Dame will just run Dame Lopez ball screens a bunch as well. And then it's like, well, we got to keep Chris Middleton involved, right? Or it's like Janus wants to play his one-on-one stuff that he does. Whereas like I'm a big believer like let Janus push in transition. But if you get into the half court, go run a ball screen and try to get Dame with the ball in his hands as well. And like some of that's on Dame too, because when Dame's spamming two-man game,

I think you can get a little bit ball hoggy sometimes. I thought that was a big problem down the stretch of the Lakers game in particular. But just it's one of those things where I would have, I would have Lopez and Middleton play with green lights, but within the context of the Dame Yannis two-man game. In addition to spamming it to keep the two of them in rhythm, it just gives you a lot more reps with those guys before you get to the postseason. It gives you a better chance of reaching their ceiling there.

Hey Jason, love the show. I'm not sure if you've ever done a video on this, but what is your top, who is your top 10 players of all time? I would love to hear your take on that never ending debate. So I did a video this summer series this summer on the top 25 players in the last 25 years. And that video series is on our YouTube feed if you go back to like, I want to say August. But so I did a bunch of stuff on that so you can find that there. Off the top of my head, though, I sort them into perimeter players and bigs. up until now, because now the bigs actually play more of an offensive fulcrum type of role. But I view like centers free 2000 is like fundamentally a different sport than what the centers do today and what all perimeter players have done ever.

So I keep them in separate lists. As far as perimeter players, for me, it's MJ by a hair over LeBron. And I think LeBron has a legitimate case. Like he's going to make, he's going to probably be, I think he's been a top 10 player this year. fringe like in that 8, 9, 10 range. So like we're looking at 20 consecutive seasons of him being a top 10 player in the league. And like at a certain point, like if you put that in a vacuum and you get a slot machine GM and a slot machine owner and a slot machine coach and a slot machine supporting cast,

meaning like completely random and you had to pick a player to anchor that for their career, you might pick LeBron just because 20 seasons of a top 10 players is just going to give you so many opportunities to win. That said, I think Michael Jordan's dominance in the 90s is at another level above anything LeBron did in his era. And I do think a big part of why he didn't play as much was because he kicked everyone's ass so bad that he wasn't feeling challenged. He retired after winning three titles in a row, right? And then he retired again after winning three titles in a row. So like, if MJ wasn't as dominant, he probably stays around longer and plays more years, right? So like, It gets complicated there when we go into a vacuum because MJ's career didn't happen in a vacuum either, right?

And so I leaned slightly towards MJ over, over LeBron. I have Kobe at three, Magic at four, Steph at five, and Bird at six for my top six players, perimeter players of all time. So that gives you a little teaser, but it's in my, you can find that in our feed from earlier this summer. Following up on your Kyrie rant, do you agree with the narrative that the 2017, 2018 Celtics were better without Kyrie. Where on earth did that idea come from? This is something we've all seen.

But there's this tendency. And Twitter gets like this a lot where like, or it's like anytime we've decided somebody's done something wrong, we are just going to assassinate everything about their character forever. It's very much like a bullying type of culture that we see online. It's literally one of the worst things about that platform. And one of the things that happened with Kyrie, he did some questionable stuff off the court, right?

And like, once that kind of thing happened, everyone jumped on the Kyrie's a piece of shit, you know, bandwagon, which by the way is fundamentally false. Like by all indications, Kyrie is an excellent human being. So like there's no reason for people to have felt that way. But like, look, do I agree with everything Kyrie did off the floor over the course the last few years? Obviously not.

But it a distress. There's a way to have a fair conversation about that, which is like, here are the things Kyrie's great at and all the positives he brings to the table. Here are the risks that are involved in a business partnership or a team partnership with Kyrie Irving. Let's make a, you know, educated decision about this. But instead, that's not how Twitter acts. Instead, Twitter's like, fuck all of this. Like, none of that matters. This guy sucks. You know, and we just focus on that. And like, honestly, I thought Kyrie caught

a lot of strays over those years. And like, like, he brought it on himself in a lot of ways. as is always the case, it ends up going off the rails into so much hyperbole and slander. And honestly, I think Kyrie's become one of the most underrated players in the league as a result of that media backlash from some of his behavior. Last question. Jason, can you address how Andrew Wiggins is absolutely completely and utterly garbage? It's so frustrating as a fan to see a guy get paid that much money and barely even try. He doesn't even look like he cares anymore. Kurt needs to take him out of the rotation for Moody to get more playing time. So here's the thing. I

Look, I watched last night's game and I thought Andrew Wiggins came out playing hard. And I thought he cut off several drives from Jalen Brunson in the opening minutes. He was engaged physically. For the most part, over the last month, I really think Andrew Wiggins, a defensive focus and energy has been really good. Really, Andrew Wiggins' down to two basic things. This year, he's getting 0.95 points per jump shot. In the 2022 year, they won the title.

he got 1.04 points per jump shot. So he's 10% worse as a jump shooter. Then this year he's shooting 57% at the rim. In the 2022 season they won the title, he was 64% at the rim. So he's substantially worse. He's gone from being a good rim finisher to a bad rim finisher for his position

in athletic profile in those two years. And so what's happened is the ugly offensive moments for Wiggins have been really bad. Like last night his jumper was off and you're like, oh, man. And like now it is one of those things where it makes more sense sometimes depending on the matchup to go to Moody.

But at the end of the day, like I do think Wiggins is trying. I just think maybe, I'm not sure what's caused the slide. That could be something off the court. Maybe he's not as diligent about his skill development as he needs to be. But when I watch Andrew Wiggins,

I don't feel like he's not trying. That said, when he misses some shots, when he smokes a layup around the rim or he misses a couple jumpers in a row, you can see that affected body language a little bit, but that happens to everybody. That's completely normal. normal. But again, just kind of put a bow on the, on the, the Wiggins thing. I don't think he's

completely and utterly garbage. I think he's a player that has, is dealing with some decline. And I think that specifically the pressure from the young players coming up behind him that may or may not deserve some of his rotation minutes are exacerbating that by adding more pressure. And he's just not as good of a jump shooter as a rim finisher as he used to be in that has diminished his impact by particularly by making him a lesser offensive player. All right, guys. That is all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. We have a double show tomorrow.

We have an instant reaction. We'll hit one or two games in the morning. And then tomorrow evening, we are going, I think it's Buck Celtics. So we got a live show on YouTube after the final buzzer of Buck Celtics. I will see you guys then. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smygel and friends.

Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, S&L's Mikey Day and headwriter, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform? We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to humor me with Robert Smigel and friends on the I-Heart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

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 Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars. related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of taun tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the Iheart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.