The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Top 10 NBA Contenders: Why Nuggets & Celtics will meet in NBA Finals

Episode Date: April 12, 2024

Jason Timpf reveals his TOP 3 NBA championship contenders in Luka Doncic’s Dallas Mavericks, Jayson Tatum’s Boston Celtics, and Nikola Jokic’s Denver Nuggets as we approach the NBA playoffs. Jason then dives into the film of the Denver Nuggets' win over the Minnesota Timberwolves as well as the Dallas Mavericks’ win over the Miami Heat. Jason then answers fan mailbag questions about the hottest topics from around the NBA. Timeline (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements) 04:00 - Introduction 06:00 - #3 Dallas Mavericks 16:40 - #2 Boston Celtics  23:00 - #1 Denver Nuggets 33:00 - Nuggets Wolves film session 67:30 - Mavericks Heat film session 79:00 - Mailbag #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, 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 IHeart 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's superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year.

Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast. For 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a year, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it.

With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the 80s. 84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume. The thrill and excitement of Marchmania is here in Drafking Sportsbook.

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See dkng.com slash B-Ball or eligibility and deposit restrictions, terms and responsible gaming resources. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at The Volume. Happy Thursday, everybody. Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week. Got a jam-pack show for you guys today. We are going to finish up our contender rankings

with 3-2 and 1 to start the show. And then after that, for the YouTube audience, we're going to do deep film sessions on the two ESPN games last night, which were both highly entertaining. We had our showdown in the Western Conference top of the conference between Minnesota and Denver. Is Denver just classic Denver style out executed Minnesota down the stretch and pulled out a win to give themselves sole possession of the number one seat in the Western Conference? And then after that, the Dallas Mavericks went into Miami and kicked their ass in a highly entertaining two-way performance from them in the first half.

So we're going to do a film session on the entire game from the Minnesota Denver game and then just the first half. of that Miami Dallas game. And then at the end of the show, I've got four mailbag questions from you guys that we're going to hit talking a little bit of Celtics, a little bit of Lakers, some other stuff, some thunder and some other stuff around the league.

You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT, so you guys don't miss show announcements, as well as the film threads that I do from time to time. Don't forget about our podcast feed, wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight.

It's also helpful for leave your rating in a review on that podcast feed. And last for not least, keep dropping mailbag questions in those YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the rest of the season. We also have a fun surprise for you guys. The nerdsesh guys are coming on the show. We're going to do a preview of the Clippers Mavs first round series as well as some other topics from around the league. That should be fun before we head into our final weekend. All right.

Let's talk some basketball. So my number three, contender. And, you know, this was a spot that I've been arguing with myself about for weeks at this point. I've probably had five or six different teams in this spot at different points in the season. I thought about the bucks in this spot in the early portion of the season. I thought a lot about the clippers in this spot in the middle portion of the season. In the recent stretch of games a couple of weeks ago, I was really high on the suns just because of how well they match up with Denver, which I view is basically a prerequisite

to get out of the Western Conference, not a big shock, obviously. But the team that I ended up landing on here, and they won me over, ironically, with their defense because it's a team that I've already believed in what Luca Donchich and Kyrie Irving can do. But the unbelievable backline athleticism and the way they can impact the game with guys like PJ Washington and Maxi Kleba. And then Derek Jones Jr. has been a very good perimeter defender for them during this stretch. This defense and rebounding run that they've been on has got me all bought in on the Dallas Mavericks. And so the team that I landed on is my team that leads the second tier of championship contenders because I view Denver and Boston on their own

tier. The team that leads that second tier of contenders for me is the Dallas Maverick. So they are 50 and 30 right now. They are locked into the five seed in the Western Conference. For the season, they are seventh in offense and 17th in defense, 22nd in defensive rebounding. But since the trade deadlines, since bringing in PJ Washington and Daniel Gaffer, they are 21 and 7. That is the second best record in the league behind Boston over that span. They are third in offense in that span, defense and sixth in defensive rebounding. Since March 7th, 16 and 2, best record in the league over that span, fourth in offense, number one defense in the league, a pretty sizable margin, about two points per 100 possessions

over that span. So basically the last fourth of the season, they've been the very best defense in basketball. Rebounding has slipped a little bit in that span. Their 11th in defensive rebounding, but playing some unbelievably good basketball right now. They also are tied for the best clutch record in the league with the Lakers at 23 and 9, an excellent late game execution team. Their strengths. Luca Donchich is the second best offensive engine in the league behind Nicole Yokic.

I would also personally have him second in my MVP rankings behind Nicole Yokic. I know Mavs fans are convinced that he should be the MVP, and I do think he has a very good case, but to me, this is literally the difference. There are six games back in the standings. And yeah, I know Dallas has had injury issues, but Jamal Murray has missed 22. three games as well for the Nuggets. And to me, like, if you're going to make up a gap for six games, Luca needs to be, like, clearly and discernibly better than Nicola Yokic, and he's just not.

So with them both playing at a similar level in the regular season and Denver just being that far ahead in the standings, I think you've got to give the nod to Yokic. But a very, very good MVP type of campaign from Luca Donchich, and I expect him to get, if not one, multiple over the course of the next. few seasons. He's averaging a career high, 34 points per game on a career high 62% true shooting, a career high 9.8 assists per game, a career high 41% on pull-up jumpers, a career high 38% on pull-up threes. So just an unbelievable season from him. The best part is, too, is we know that Lucas game translates extremely well to the postseason. We've seen him in multiple playoff runs with his size

and his strength and the versatile way that he attacks continue to cause massive problems for playoff defenses. If anything, he goes up a level when he gets to that point instead of many of his peers around the league that tend to actually struggle when they get to that point. They have a perfectly complimentary secondary shot creator in Kyrie Irving. He struggled in the postseason since leaving Cleveland, but I still think he has that level in him. And this is a better team and some of the other teams that he's been on.

So I don't think that'll be as big of an issue. They have solid perimeter defense personnel. Derek Jones Jr. is a really good option for guards, really quick, really long, really athletic. PJ Washington, forward. And that again is going to be a big deal in the Western Conference when you have to go through the likes of LeBron and Kevin Durant and Kauai Leonard and so on and so forth. And he's probably going to get that Kauai Leonard matchup to start the L.A. Clippers series. But they also

have excellent backline personnel. PJ Washington and Maxi Klebo. I got a bunch of examples today that I'll be showing you guys about the level of impact they can have as defensive rebounders and help side defenders on the backline of Dallas's defense. They actually remind me of the KCP, the Derek Jones Jr. PJ Washington dynamic actually reminds me a lot of what Denver has with KCP and Aaron Gordon in the sense that like they can construct a quality defense with some limited personnel. Like as Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr. are average to slightly below average defensive players, right? And then you go to Nicole Yokic and he's a guy that's in that average to slightly above average type of level. But they construct a top 10 defense because

they have excellent defensive personnel, and then the other three guys just do their job within the scheme. They have excellent scheme discipline. And Dallas, you know, to their credit, to Kyrie and Luca Donchitz's credit, they've had great scheme discipline all season doing their jobs on the majority of the nights. And then when you add that, again, when you add that perimeter defense dynamic of Derek Jones, Jr. and PJ, Washington with options off the bench, too, guys like Josh Green that can guard on the perimeter, with backline guys like Maxie Kleba and Daniel Gafford and Derek Lively. Gafford and Lively, it's been a mixed bag with them this season, but for the most part, I think they've been fine.

I just think that all of those athletes, that is what actually moved Dallas ahead of Phoenix for me, is their just ability to hold up in rock fights. I've watched Phoenix a couple of times in the last couple of weeks get punched in the mouth by really physically aggressive teams and then kind of failed to meet that challenge. That was the big one for me that ended up pushing Dallas over the top. They're also a much better transition offense than they were last year.

They were 27th in transition frequency last year. They're eighth in transition frequency this year. And there's two factors that play into that. Much better athletes like we talked about earlier, but also better defense. You've got to get stops to get out in transition. That was a huge part of Dallas's second quarter run against the Miami Heat. We're going to get to that when we get to our film session at the end of the show. And then lastly, on their strengths, late game execution.

They've been tied with the Lakers for the best clutch team in the league. just a combination of that defensive personnel we talked about and just having two incredibly high-level shot creators that excel in that part of the game. Their weaknesses. Again, Kyrie Irving and Lukadansich have been solid within the scheme defensively this year, but they do represent entry points for opposing offenses. And teams will target them. That is going to be a situation that could get them into rotation a little bit.

But again, it's going to be about game plan discipline. As long as they stick to their, like let's say they need to hedge and recover, or front the post or whatever it is, as long as they do that, job, there's good enough personnel around them that it shouldn't be a problem. Their backside offensive personnel has some guys that you're okay with shooting three. So guys like Maxi Kleba, PJ Washington, Derek Jones Jr. Derek Jones Jr. shot well when he's completely unguarded this year, but he's got a little bit of a slower release.

You can chase him off the line a little bit. And then some of their short role guys, guys like Daniel Gafford, Maxi Kleba, like if you challenge them to make reads in that short roll in four on three, they're good, not great at it. Right. So like this, it's interesting with teams like Phoenix, I think teams are going to try to guard actions one on one and two on two, try to force their scores to make shots because they have such unbelievable shooting talent off the ball. Dallas, I think teams are going to be more willing to double and trap against them and just try to bait their lower level offensive players to try to make plays. And again, like, I think it's worth it. Like I would rather have Dallas's configuration. I'd rather have the athletes and I'd rather have the. defensive ceiling that they have than to have the offensive ceiling that Phoenix has.

And so I think it's a tradeoff that is more than worth it for Dallas. But that to me is like their one offensive weakness is like if you get the ball out of Kyrie and Luca Donchage's hands, you can get the right guys to take shots in the right spots for your defense. What does the path look like? All about defense and rebounding. I trust Kyrie and Luca Donchich to win that shot quality battle over the course of a seven game series.

but the West has some really high-powered and high IQ offenses at the top. They're going to need to figure out a way to slow them down for their offense, push them over the top. That's going to be the challenge. Will Dallas's defense hold up when they get to the later rounds of the postseason? Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque.

Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care which I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver 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 what you need to be.

Listen to The Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped 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 a little kill. Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast.

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We also have age. 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.

Number two in my list of contenders, the Boston Celtics, 62 and 17. Best record in the league with a six and a half game lead over the rest of the field. first in offense, second in defense, ninth in defensive rebounding. Their strengths, they are the most talented roster in the league by a mile. Each of their top six players is a high level two-way player. Jason Tatum is a top 10 player in the league and one of the best perimeter defenders in the league. Jalen Brown came into the year as a top 20 player, but he's been playing at a top 10 level for the last couple of months, a big development as he's built out a really successful

post-up game and playing some of the best defense of his career. Derek White is one of the best three and D guards in the league and also a solid second side creator. Drew Holiday, one of the best defensive guards in the league with the versatility to guard bigger players. And he's shooting 46% on catch and shoot threes this year. Then Christops Porzingis, 39% on catch and shoot threes. And he's been the best volume post-up player in the league this year. There are 25 players in the league that have run at least 200 post-ups. Chris-Opsporzinger is number one at 1.31 points per possession.

Yokic is at number two with 1.15. although he's run 812 possessions. So he's preposterously high volume. Porzingis is at only 231. But the point is, in his mismatch attacking post-up situations, especially against switching defenses, Khrastafingis has been deadly. And then Al Holford, the sixth best guy on the team,

still an excellent positional defender at the center position and a plus offensive player at 37 years old. They constantly have mismatches on the offensive end of the floor. And outside of like the very best guys in the league, the, you know, Yokic-Luka types. Outside of those guys, they really match up well defensively with everybody in the league. And there's not really many guys in the league that can match up with Yokic or Luka anyway. So that's not a problem that's unique to the Boston Celtics.

They are one of the best on-paper basketball teams I can remember seeing in the NBA. But they have one weakness. They're extremely reliant on jump shooting and they have a tendency to go cold, especially in big games. Their last nine losses this year. Six of them were to the Nuggets, the Clippers, the Bucks, and the Lakers, all in major national TV showdowns. And in each one of them, they went cold shooting jumpers, especially down the stretch of the game and could not find another way to consistently score. There was kind of a brief stretch there post All Star Break where they were scoring better in the paint and being a little bit more versatile. But that didn't last.

They're now 18th and points in the paint per game post All Star Break. in 29th in points in the paint scored per game in the NBA for the season. It's really this simple for Boston. This is their path. If they can keep the cold stretches of jump shooting few and far between, they're just going to win the title. They're that good. They're too good for everybody if they're hitting their shots.

I think they have a higher ceiling than Denver by a pretty significant margin. I just trust Denver to be at their ceiling more consistently, which is why I have them higher on this list. they have more resiliency in their ability to maintain their production offensively on a possession by possession basis regardless of matchup, regardless of circumstance. That's why I have them higher. However, there's one other factor that works very heavily in Boston's favor. That is something I want to keep an eye on in this postseason run.

If Yannis can't play in the first round of the postseason, and obviously we know Julius Randall can't go, they're going to annihilate everyone in the Eastern Conference. like if Janice can't go, I think Milwaukee's going to lose in the first round in all likelihood. And then you look at the Knicks without Julius Randall,

I think they'll be really good, but I don't think they can beat Boston without them. Miami always has the talent and the ability to kind of throw Boston out of whack, but with the development of Christopps, or addition of Christop's Porzengis and the development of Jalen Brown as post-up threats,

they're more equipped to handle some of the switching stuff that Miami does. This is just a better team. team than the Boston team last year that lost to the Miami Heat in seven games. And so I just think I think that there's a pretty solid chance that Boston just annihilates everyone in the Eastern Conference. And if they do, on the other end of that, Denver's almost certainly going to have to go through three great teams before they get there.

So, for instance, I have a feeling by the odds that the Lakers are in all likelihood can end up with the 10 seed. they could very well get eliminated. I'd say it's like about a coin flip chance. But I do think the Lakers are the best team in the play-in bracket when they're healthy. So they should be capable of going and winning that road game and then winning the next one. If they do, they're the eight seat. So Denver would have to face the eight-seat, which is my sixth best contender,

which is the Los Angeles Lakers in the first round. If they won that series, they'd play the winner of Clippers Mavs. And that is literally my fifth and third best contenders on the list. When that, on the other end of the bracket, they're going to be facing someone like a Phoenix, someone like an Oklahoma City, Minnesota. And then if they happen to get through all those series, they're going to be looking at Boston waiting for them on the other end. So they could have to deal with LeBron James and Anthony Davis for seven games.

And then turn around and deal with Kwai Leonard and Paul George or Luca Donchich and Kyrie Irvin for seven games. And then at the end of that, Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal and Devin, or Anthony Edwards, Rudy Gobert, and Carl Towns. It's just an entirely different level of competition in that Western conference. And so there's a chance that when Denver gets to June, they could just be worn out compared to where Boston is in the level of difficulty they're going to face in that Eastern Conference. There's a chance that Boston could literally sweep and just go 12-0 through the east. That's on the table.

That's not happening for Denver. Denver's not going 12-0 through the West. They're going to drop five or six games. their way out if they even get out of the Western Conference with how good it is. And so I think that's an advantage that works really heavily in Boston's favor. I think it's easily their best chance to win the title since they had Kevin Garnett on the squad in the late 2000s. Number one, though, the Denver Nuggets, 56 and 24, sole possession of the number one seat in the Western Conference, seventh in offense, eighth in defense for the season.

So that's what's crazy. They continued to ride that wave of defense that they kind of built in the postseason run last year and just brought it into this season. Their strengths, They have by far the best basketball player on earth, in my opinion. Literally, nobody in the league can stop him from getting to a shot that he will make more than half the time. I'm not talking about points per possession. I'm not talking about shot value based on the addition of that extra point that you get from a three-point shot. I'm talking about straight field goal percentage. He's the most reliably great offensive player for a small handful of possessions that I've seen in my time watching the league.

Not even Steph or LeBron had the ability to get to a go-to move with a field goal percentage, not a shot value, but a field goal percentage over 60%. Yokic is shooting 61% on hooks this year. He's shooting 62% on floaters. He's shooting 70% at the rim. Every other star in NBA history has had a certain shot variance element that plays a role in their game. Sometimes MJ got a good look and he just missed. Sometimes Steph got a great look and he just missed.

LeBron, even with LeBron, as great as he is, and I think LeBron at his peak is a better player than Yokic at his peak when you factor in his abilities on the defensive end of the fore and in transition. But even LeBron didn't have a short turnaround jumper or a hook shot that he could get to and finish at over 50% from the field. There is an inevitability, excuse me, with Nicole Yokic that you literally feel helpless. Rudy Gobert is, I don't think he's the best player, defensive player in the world, but he's clearly. a top five defensive player in the world. And Yokic just dogwalked him under the basket every single time you wanted to last night. It was it was absolutely insane. I couldn't believe what I was watching.

I have all the clips in the film session. We're going to be going over it here in just a few minutes. But like here's the thing. You can beat Yokic when your shot is falling, like Phoenix, when they went in and beat Denver in overtime in that game. If you make your shots, you have a chance to beat them, right? Because, yeah, in shot value situations, when they go in, sometimes those threes are worth more, sometimes you're going to beat them.

But over a seven-game series, Yokic's shot is far more likely to go in more often than yours. And that's what makes him so difficult to deal with in those situations. And he's surrounded by a perfectly complimentary set of role players. Jamal Murray as the two-man game kind of shot maker or matchup hunter, he shoots 46% on pull-up jump shots. That's not effective field goal percentage. That's field goal percentage. So even Jamal Murray, his shot-making,

piece goes in damn near half the time, and that adds to the inevitability of that offense. Both KCP and Michael Porter Jr. are up over 1.17 points per spot-up possession, so they're both top-tier spot-up guys in the league, so you just can't leave them open, and they both can run second-side action with Nicole Yokic. Aaron Gordon, as the vertical spacer and matchup attacker, we've seen Denver. You put a small guy on Gordon. They'll just abandon their offense and just throw the ball to Gordon down low and bully ball until you find a way to counter it.

Like then working along the baseline, any sort of help against Yokich, whether it's a pass to Gordon under the rim or even Yokic can just throw up a hook and God forbid, Yokic misses the one out of three times he takes that hook over his left shoulder. Gordon's going to probably clean up the mess on the backline. They have a good backup guard and Reggie Jackson

that can help in the very small spurts that they'll need him to in this postseason. And then athletes off the bench, Christian Brown and Peyton Watson, who really anchor that switch. defense that they used in the minutes that Yokic is off the floor. And they had an excellent night last night against the Timberwolves. There was a few minutes there to start the fourth quarter where they extended the lead by

one without Yokic and without Murray on the floor, mainly on the strength of their defense. And Christian Brown and Peyton Watson were just wrecking balls last night. So you got to see that up close and personal. And then execution, everybody knows their role. Nobody steps outside of it. Everyone has good scheme, discipline, and does what the coach asks them to do. They have counters on top of counters for any defensive coverage they run into. They are also a very good defensive team.

They have multiple coverages that we're going to actually go over a bunch of them, all of them, in today's film session. They have a good high drop with tag. They have a good deep drop. And then they can switch when Yokic is off the floor. Their weakness, they really only have one, just like Boston. But Denver's weakness is different. Their bench units struggle.

They are minus 11.2 per 100 possessions without Yokich on the front. floor, they go to this lineup with Jamal Murray out there and they just switch everything. And Jamal really just looks to hunt his own shot and they kind of get killed in those minutes. But here's the thing. They were minus 12 without Yokich on the floor last year. And the way they addressed it is they ramped up the minutes for everybody. So they only had 310 possessions last year in the postseason with Yokic off the floor. And then they just ratchet up the defensive intensity in those really short bursts.

and they were actually plus four net per 100 possessions in those 310 possessions with Yokic off the floor last year in the postseason run. So scale the minutes up. Yokic actually played 42 minutes per night in the Western Conference Finals and finals last year. So you're only talking about a six minute window, basically three minutes per half, the start of the second quarter, start of the fourth quarter every night. And they just ratchet up the defense in those minutes.

They get enough stops. They keep the game close. Yokich comes back in. and does all the damage to end the night there. So even their biggest weakness doesn't necessarily concern me. Again, I think Boston does have a higher ceiling when they are healthy, or excuse me, when they're hitting their three-point shots, misspoke there.

When they're hitting their shots, they have a higher ceiling than Denver. But I think that Denver is more consistently at their ceiling, more reliable at their ceiling. That makes them my number one championship favorite. The NBA season is in full swing. And when I can't get enough of the action on the court, I spice things up betting on Draft King Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA. Right now, new customers bet five bucks and get $150 instantly in bonus bets.

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The crown is yours. On that note, let's dig into the film from last night's Minnesota-Denver game. And so just to give you guys a heads up, this is going to be, this is going to look a lot more like what the format's going to be when we get to the postseason. So when we get to the postseason, we're going to go live on YouTube after the final buzzer of these games. when we go, we'll just mostly be doing just monologues, right?

We might occasionally like a major sequence at the end of a game, we might grab the footage and go over it for the sake of just adding a little production quality in those shows, but for the most part, those are going to be audio only. I should say without film. The next morning, though, I'm going to wake up and watch film. And I'm just going to drop clips into a folder. and then basically we'll do this. We'll do like film sessions.

It won't be every morning. It'll probably only be a few times a week. But I'm just going to drop clips and then kind of just share with you guys my findings in film. It's not going to be as structured as the shows at night. It's more going to just be for you guys to follow along with me as we're doing our postseason coverage. And so this is a good example of that. I have something crazy like 40 clips from this particular game that we're going to go through. And it's just going to just demonstrate a bunch of specific concepts that I have my eye on.

It's going to bounce around. We're not going to stay in specific topics. It's going to go in a linear fashion through the game. It's just a way for me to kind of share with you guys what my film sessions look like when I'm watching through these games. All right, let's get to the film. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal but encouraged. It's the enhanced games.

Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win.

A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clipper 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.

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Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeard radio app, Apple Podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tap Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking.

What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J. And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick it 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's big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know. I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. 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. So this is the opening possession against Minnesota, and it's going to give you guys an example of the base coverage that Denver is going to use most likely against most teams. One of the big topics that we're going to be going through today in this film session is the pros and cons of going with the high drop with the tag versus the low drop where everyone stays home. And you're going to see some examples of both of them in this film session. So here, this first possession, this is what high drop with the tag looks like. So we got a little screen there.

It's going to be a dribble handoff with Gobert and Conley, Jamal Murray on the ball, Nicole Yokic. The slipper in this case is going to be Gobert. The difference between a low drop and a high drop in the deep drop or low drop, Yokic is going to keep Gobert in front of him. And because he keeps Gober in front of him, you don't need to tag the roller from the weak side. But when Yokich comes up into a high drop, Gobert is going to get behind him. And so when Gobert gets behind him, and in this case, Minnesota is actually trying to run stack pick and roll. They're trying to screen Yokchch, but it doesn't serve a purpose because Yokch is so high.

In this case, the tag is coming from Michael Porter Jr. Okay? So as you can see, Gobert slips behind. Nicole Yokic is up at the level. MPJ is going to tag Gobert. As soon as the pass goes to anywhere else, or by the time Yokic recovers, Michael Porter Jr. will then close out on the weak side.

Here's a good close out. He's able to contain Jaden McDaniels. The ball gets rotated around to Nas Reid. He ends up missing a shot at the basket. So that's basically the base concept of the high drop. Essentially, Yokic comes up to the level to dissuade the pull-up jump shot and to cut off the driving lane. Somebody on the weak side, depending on who's most well positioned for it,

is going to tag the roller and then rotate back out. Here's an example of the read and react offense from Denver. So on this side of the floor, Gordon has the ball, and Yokic is going to run down and Jamal Murray is going to run a little screening action with him. But Jaden McDaniels is going to cheat the action and come over onto this, strong side of the screen. So again, you can see Jamal Murray getting set up to screen Yokic, they're kind of just getting in here and mucking things up. But when Jada McDaniels jumps way out to the high side, you can actually see Jamal Murray make a read. He goes, you can see Jamal Murray's

looking. He sees Jade McDaniels all the way in the high side. So he just slips back out to the three point line. And that's one of the cool things that makes Denver's defense so hard to guard. Like they have these set actions, but everyone has the freedom to make reads out of it. And if you see a guy overplaying, you just slip, and all of their guys are good enough passers to be able to capitalize on those slips. Here's another example of the tag with a high drop with a tag. So we're going back to Conley with Aaron Gordon on the ball this time. Yokic is going to come high.

Gobert is going to slip behind. Michael Porter Jr. is going to come tag off of Jaden McDaniels. And then here, again, this is one of those ones where Gobert should never have put the ball on the floor. He should have read that Michael Porter Jr. was there and thrown the pass. Instead, when he puts the ball on the floor, Michael Porter Jr. is able to kind of disrupt him enough for him to throw a bad pass and to turn it over. And so again, one of the things that's an advantage of running the high drop is it puts the onus on the short role to be able to make reads. And that's not a strength of Go bears. And that allowed them to force a turnover on that specific play. And again, I went back and forth about this because I was thinking at first I was like, well, deep drop is like what Minnesota did to, or, excuse me, what Milwaukee did to Minnesota that one time, and Conley and Ant weren't able to make enough shots. And so, like, there's, that's like the upside to that style.

But the, the upside of the high drop is it puts the onus on their playmaking, which can be a weakness on this particular team. And so we'll see some more examples of that. And I kind of came around over the course of this film session, I kind of came around to the high drop being the best option. And I'm curious to hear your guys the thoughts as well. If you disagree, drop them in the comments. This is an example of Minnesota's base coverage,

against Denver. And so what we got here, it'll be Carl Towns instead of Nas Reid when they're healthy, but it's the power forward on Yokic with Gobert on Gordon and sitting in help. And the idea here is you're forcing Yokic to make over the top shots instead of pivot through shots that are at the rim. Because again, Yokch is going to shoot 60% on a hook. He's going to shoot 70% when he gets underneath the basket. And so you're basically buying that extra 10% by leaving Gobert and help. But here's the problem. Yokich is going to make that shot 60%. That's just an example of how there's not really a good option for guarding Nicole Yokish. This is another high drop against Anthony Edwards.

And I really liked it against Ant. Our first two examples were against Conley. I really liked it against Ant surprisingly because it baited him into his biggest weakness, which is playmaking. And so it's gotten better. It's gotten a lot better at playmaking this season. We've talked about it. But he's 22 years old and he's got to score first mentality.

And so this is going to be a journey over the next few years for him to kind of figure this stuff out. Now, when we get a high drop, high drop with tag. You see Michael Porter Jr. coming over, right? pointing, they're communicating, we're in the drop, right? The read here to actually beat this coverage is the skip pass. And I think in the entire game, if I remember correctly, I think Ant only made the skip pass twice with the, you know,

probably dozen or so times he saw this coverage, which I think goes to show you how it challenges the playmaking there. Ant has a tendency when he gets these high drops or blitzes to just get rid of the basketball. So in this case, he comes off, he sees the high drop, so he knows there's not really an opportunity for him to score. He just throws a swing pass to Conlon. So essentially the advantage is taken away from that. Here is an example of KCP's incredible defensive ability,

holding up on Nas Reid in the post, stripping him clean as he tries to. Again, he's absorbing the contact, absorbing the contact. And then as soon as Nasreed exposes the basketball and his step through to get to that hook shot, he just reaches in and grabs it. Watch.

Expose the ball, grab it. Again, when you're guarding a bigger player, it's all about attacking the pocket rather than trying to contest up top. If you contest up top, you're not going to have much success because they're just taller than you. Attack the pocket, you can capitalize on their weakness, the weakness of most larger basketball players,

which is ball handling. Here's an example of deep drop against Ant. Okay? So they run the first action with high drop. No, so this is deep drop. So again, notice Ant's, Yokic is not at the level of the screen. And so because he's not at the level of the screen, he can keep Gobert in front.

As a result, Michael Porter Jr. doesn't need to tag. Jamal Murray doesn't need to tag. So because everyone's home, that leaves Ant on an island with Gobert. And Michael Porter Jr. throws kind of a token tag there, but he doesn't really need to. So this puts Ant on the island as a score, but Ant's just an unbelievable player and he's going to make shots there sometimes. This is an example of excellent back pressure from Jaden McDaniels on Jamal Murray and pick and roll. So again, as Jamal comes around here, Gordon's going to step in because Gobert is going to end up offering some help. Gordon is going to step in for like a little baseline cut.

But Jamal Murray throws a bad pass because he's pressured by McDaniels. McDaniels is all over him. He's knocking him off balance and he ends up throwing a pass way too low, which turns into a turnover. Jane McDaniels, again, in my opinion, is the best perimeter defender in the league. Here's an example of beating the high drop. Again, I only saw this twice in the game, but this is what it looks like when it's done right. So here we go. We're going to get it with the ball screen.

Gobert is going to set. AG is going to tag Gobert on the slip. So we have, it actually rejects the screen, but Yoko is still up at the level. Gordon tags Gobert, and it makes the skip past to Conley. So again, this ball screen, he could come this way and Yoko should be in drop over there, but Yokic comes in high drop on the rejection of the ball screen. Gobert slips, Gordon tags, skip past to Conley. That's the read that you have to make to actually beat this coverage.

But he didn't make that read often enough. This was kind of a funny little action. I thought this was interesting. And I don't know if they did this on purpose, but you could talk me into it if you were a Denver fan. They just kind of lazily walk up the floor, which bates all these Minnesota players into lazily walking up the floor, which puts Yokic on an island against Nas Reid underneath the basket.

Notice none of the Denver players are running up because if they did, these Minnesota players will be running with him. It clears all this space for Yokic to quick go to work against Reed underneath the basket. Again, that might just be an impromptu accidental thing, but you could also talk me into that being on purpose. Here's one of the downsides of the high drop. And that is that if Yokic is further back, so let's wait until it comes. off the screen first. So if Yokic is back here and it hits the jets, he has a better chance of anticipating the drive direction and beating him to his spot. But when he's up this high, it can use his quickness to just go around him. And so in this case, he just goes around him and gets

all the way to the rim. And it just puts more, it puts more, you know, responsibility on that backline help. All right. This is an example of how in ball screens with Yokic, your job as the guard is just to occupy the rim protector and get a shot up on the rim. So Reggie Jackson with Kyle Anderson on him, we're going to get a Yokich ball screen here. As Reggie Jackson moves down, all he has to do is Occup Gobert to buy Yokich an opportunity to crash the offensive glass. So he gets in, this is a layup that he's missing. It's a really difficult layup, but now you have Monty Morris and Kyle Anderson trying to contend with Yokich underneath the basket, which is just too much of a challenge. Here is the first of Peyton Watson's six blocks, and I think I have all of them in this feed,

but just unbelievable stuff here. The ball gets worked around to Naz, or excuse me, this is Nikiel Alexander Walker. So Nikiel Alexander Walker is rejecting the screen, and he needs to do a better job of setting up Peyton Watson for the screen. So he's trying to cross away from the screen just like that. What he needs to do is actually work his way closer to Kyle Anderson, because if he does, Peyton Watson will have to prep to fight over the screen. If he has to prep to fight over the screen, he's going to have to take this left foot

and put it way on Kyle Anderson. 's high side. And as soon as he does that, if McHale Alexander Walker crosses over, he's going to toast Peyton Watson because he's just way out of position to contain that drive back to that side. Instead, he rejects the screen way too early, and Peyton Watson just slides with him and meets him at the rim. There are some absolutely preposterous defensive plays from Peyton Watson in this game. Here's another one where he helps on a double team. Gobert is going to get a switch here on to Christian Brown, if I remember correctly. Yep, gets a switch. He, runs down to the post and gets the touch,

makes an aggressive move into the lane, and Peyton Watson offers help, literally leaves his feet, leaves his feet and help. So he's literally off the ground here. Gobert's made the feed, and somehow Peyton Watson literally meets him back at the rim and blocks him. Just a ridiculous defensive play.

He's like in two places at once. It's like having a sixth defender on the floor. Here's another just completely absurd defensive recovery from Peyton Watson. This one didn't even count as a block because they called him for a foul. So Peyton Watson is completely dealing with Conley here. There's a bounce pass to Kyle Anderson. Just watch the speed with which he recovers back to Kyle Anderson. That's completely ridiculous.

That is an absurd defensive play. Like Peyton Watson is going to be so good as soon as he figures out how to be a plus offensive player in Denver scheme. This is an example of something that Minnesota desperately needs, and that's Jaden McDaniel's scoring. So in this kind of broken offensive rebound sequence, Jaden McDaniels catches and just goes straight to work on a switch against Aaron Gordon.

So we get a switch, Aaron Gordon. Remember, these Denver units without Yokich are going to go to a switching attack. This is one of the best forward defenders in the league, and Jaden McDaniels just gets into his body and leans back and makes a little floater over the top. Jaden's got great length, and the way that he kind of scores is by leaning back to shoot over the top. He always has done a good job of that.

Here's another Peyton Watson block of Nas Reid on a curl on a pin down. So there's a simple basic basketball action that you see at every level. Jordan McLaughlin's going to set a pin down. Nazareed is going to curl around it. Peyton Watson is chasing. And just meets him at the rim. These plays are so ridiculous. This is an example of both coverages.

So we're going to get a high drop on Ant that doesn't amount to anything. and then we're going to get a low drop that Ant actually gets a bucket. So again, here we go. Here's the high drop. We have Peyton Watson on the ball. Yokic comes up high. As he comes off, Gobert slips behind Yokic. We have a tag for Michael Porter Jr.

And Ant doesn't make the skip pass. Instead, he just turns around and throws an exit pass here at Amani Morris. Advantage is gone. So again, that's another high drop that you're able to shut down the action by basically taking advantage of Anthony Edwards and some of, of his limited playmaking. Then we're going to go right back to Ant. This time, Yokic doesn't bother and stays in a low drop.

Because he's in a low drop, there's a kind of a token tag from KCP, but he stays home. Yokic is here. Everyone's, everyone's home. Yokic is on Gobert. KCP is on Nas Reid. Michael Porter Jr. is on Jaden McDaniels. Jamal Murray is on Moni Morris.

But Anthony Edwards just gets a bucket. Now, there's a case to be made that the two buckets that he got in the deep drop coverage were both really tough shots. And so that's the upside is you're going to turn it into a tough shot maker. By the way, I mean, this is one of the reasons why I'm lower on Minnesota than most is like, I don't trust their ability to consistently beat any coverage when it comes to the postseason. And that's a big part of why I'm not as high on them as other teams. Here's an example of relentless pursuit by Jaden McDaniels on Jamal Murray to force a turnover.

So he's chasing, chasing, chasing, gets caught a little bit, chase, chase, chase. No let up here. He's still going, still going. And then as soon as Jamal Murray slows down, Jaden McDaniels shoots in there and forces a turnover. I can't even imagine how much of a pain in the ass would be going against him for 48 minutes. All right, this is the first.

Rudy Gobert was just on the menu tonight for Nicola. Or last night for Nicola Yolke. It's just barbecue them all over the place. And this is the first example of that. In transition, just this is again, top five defensive player in the world. He just doesn't even see him there. He just goes right through him. That's an easy basket.

That's just easy. Here's another nice bucket from Jaden McDaniels scoring on an island. So we have the high drop. The high drop gets swung back to Jaden McDaniels, and Jaden McDaniels just hits Jamal Murray with the series of moves and gets to the basket. Again, they're really going to need that from him.

Here is a really, really good high drop possession from Denver. All right. So we have Conley coming out there. Gober sets the screen. Yokic comes in. to high drop. Gobert slips behind. We have the tag from KCP. Conley makes the swing pass to Anderson. Anderson is going to make the extra pass to Anthony Edwards. Look at that rotation for Michael Porter Jr. Michael Porter Jr. identifies the rotation. He starts making his rotation as soon as

the swing pass is made. Boom. So Anderson doesn't even have the ball yet, but MPJ knows that Edwards is the next rotation and he's already out there. So here we are. They ran ball screen and we're at 2.6 seconds on the shot clock and there's no advantage. That's just a really good defensive possession from Denver. Here's an example of one of the ways that you can beat. This is the second time that Ant made the skip pass in the high drop, but this time they don't actually beat it with a shot. They beat it on the offensive glass.

So high drop, Gobert slips, MPJ tags, Aunt finally makes the skip pass that I've been calling for. Skip pass gets made. Kyle Anderson, not a good shooter. He misses it. But watch Yokic. Yokich is here. Gober is here.

So Gobert has a massive offensive rebounding advantage here, and he's able to get that position on Yokic and finish easily at the rim. Here's an example of the classic Denver tick-tac-toe that we see on offense so often. So again, in the high drop coverage, your job is to stop them from turning the corner just as much as it is to stop them from taking the pull-up jump shot. And so when Jamal Murray really drags the ball screen around, he's watched Jamal Murray here.

He's going to drag this all the way around, which forces go bare to go pretty far in that direction to contain that drive. Because he has to, because Jaden McDaniels gets caught a little bit. And so he drags it out. And because he drags it out, Yokic gets a really good clean catch here. And on this clean catch, Nas Reid has to tag when he tags Aaron Gordon is going to easily slip along the baseline for the reverse dunk. That's a very, very important part of dealing with the high drop coverage,

that dragging the defenders far over as you can. that was the big, if you guys remember correctly, that was the big counter that Steph Curry used in game four of the Western Conference semis last year against the Lakers. After they got dominated in game three, Steph started really dragging that ball screen action out further to make AD go further away from the play. This time, Denver is going to beat a high drop coverage by using Aaron Gordon flashing to the high post. So here's our ball screen. Here's our high drop. Jaden McDaniels is trying to recover. Gobert is tagging off of Gordon onto Yokic.

Gordon just kind of sits in that soft spot right there in the middle of the floor. And then on the catch, he takes an advanced dribble to draw Anthony Edwards in and make the swing pass to Michael Porter Jr. Jr. on the weak side. Again, like Denver, you're on the high drop. They're finding a way to get it to the soft spot every single time. Minnesota against the high drop, they're struggling to get the ball to the right spots. Ant had some good success going through Yokic at the rim in this game, and I thought this was another example.

Just sticking his arms out, he drew some fouls this way too. just didn't really, wasn't really bothered by Yokic at the rim. That was an advantage for Minnesota in this matchup. Here's another example of Yokic just powering right through Rudy Gobert like he's not even there. Again, like I said, it was almost like he was trying to make a point in this game. Here's another advantage that I thought, this is another matchup advantage for Minnesota. KCP is the primary defender on Aaron Gordon to start the game, but really he struggled when it just tried to power through him. So again, KCP's doing everything right. He's absorbing contact. He's meeting him at spots. He's in the right spot, but Ant can just power through him to get where he wants to go.

When I saw this play, it reminded me of one earlier in the game. And so I went back and pulled that one too. This is in the first quarter, if I remember correctly. Yeah, so end of the first quarter, Ant catches here on the weak side. He just hits KCP with a jab step and then powers right through him. So, like, that's the thing. I would imagine over the course of a series, like that could be a matchup where Denver might have to get a little more creative and have to use, you know, someone like a Christian Brown a little bit more, someone like a Payton Watson a little bit more, maybe even have to put erin, Aaron Gordon, excuse me, on Anthony I words for stretches. Or just like I said, capitalize on his limited playmaking ability by just kind of

throwing the kitchen sink at him and not leaving him on an island as much as often as you can. Here's another Yokic possession powering right through Gobert, this time on a pick and roll situation. So actually it was a broken play. So he kind of runs over Gobert. That should have probably been an offensive foul. But he just goes like point here is that Yokich sees Gobert at the rim and he just has no problem going right through him. Here's another example of Gobert or Gobert struggling to handle a Yokic. This is, here's the setup for this play. Yokic is six for seven on threes in the last three games.

So we get a double team, a kickout, and we're going to get a ball screen. So, or, excuse, yeah, we get an off ball screen. On the off ball screen, though, watch Gobert close out. Because Yokitch has literally been dead eye from third. three as of late. He has to leave his feet on the closeout. That gets him completely out of position. As soon as watch, Yokic, he understands his size advantages. The strength is his advantage. So you can see him kind of dropping that shoulder and getting low. Now watch, he just wants to get leverage, inside leverage on Gobert. So you see right there, as soon as he gets this angle,

he leans into him and creates that advantage. Here we have yet another example of Anthony Edwards failing to beat the high drop coverage. Okay. So again, Yokish high drop. Go Bear slip, Justin Holiday tag, and we're just going to get a straight swing pass around to Monty Morris no advantage. Look here, though. Count the nuggets. We have

Nikiel Alexander Walker completely unguarded this whole possession. You can't even see him. He's just standing over here unguarded, but that read isn't getting made. Now, I want to give the nuggets a little bit of credit here. This is not an easy pass, and

when you apply good ball pressure, like this, it's even harder to make that pass. That's what makes those big playmaking forwards that I talk about such an advantage when you get to the postseason. These guys are staying in 6-8, 6-9, and they can just throw those over-the-top passes that much easier. Another high drop, another contested shot. And then here we're going to get another example of Yokic just powering through Gobert, going in transition the other way. A nice little feed here from Peyton Watson. And just again, Yokic just doesn't even see Go-Beer underneath the back. basket. Here's an example of the high drop when it gets botched, primarily from being laid on the tag.

So this actually is a switch because we're in the early fourth quarter period here. And Yokic is off the floor. So this Denver lineup is going to be switching everything. But on the switch, Reggie chased a little too far over the top. And so Nas Reid got an easy slip. But MPJ is late. I want to cut MPJ some slack here. So it's not a traditional pick and roll coverage. It's a botched slip, but he does need to be paying a little bit better attention. All right. This is an example of the one of the most important stretches of the game, in my opinion. So, Jamal Murray was on a minutes restriction.

So usually this stretch of the game, you're getting Jamal Murray out there with Yokic off, switching everything and Jok, and Jamal Murray trying to create all the offense, right? But because of the minutes restriction, Jamal Murray is not out there. So it's the same bench unit that's struggled all year with Jamal Murray, except for this time it's Reggie Jackson. And like I talked about in our contender rankings, the way that this group managed to kind of float the boat last year without Yokich in the postseason, because remember, they were plus four per 100 per 100 without Yokich in the regular season. They ratcheted up their defensive intensity. And so the defense was everything for the Denver Nuggets in this run.

They went in to start the fourth quarter at 8380, the two points for the Michael Porter Jr. late tag. but they're going to go this stretch, and Yokic and Murray are going to check back into the game with about seven minutes left, and the lead is going to increase from three to four. So they actually won this shift, mostly because of their work on the defensive end and some great chemistry between Aaron Gorda,

I keep calling him Eric Gordon. Some great chemistry between Aaron Gordon and Peyton Watson operating on the low block on the other end. So again, switching everything, right? Gordon switches on to Conley, and then we're going to get Nasreed setting a screen on Gordon. That's going to get switched

Watson on to Conley. Watch Watson, absorb the contact and force the turnover. Again, the same kind of thing that happened to Jamal Murray earlier in the game with Jaden McDaniels. Physicality, ball pressure, going to make a guy more likely to make a mistake. Here we have Peyton Watson

blocking Naserid again, this time in a straight post up on a spin move. So he gets beat on this move. gets beat to the baseline side, and he's just so athletic, he just meets him at the rim. Every time I see these highlights, it's just unbelievable. Christian Brown gets a block as well in the broken part of the play. We go the other way in transition. This is an example of the wave after wave of athleticism you face with Michael Porter, Jr.

and Aaron Gordon. So Aaron Gordon's going to make a move here against Nikiel Alexander Walker, and he's going to miss. Watch Michael Porter Jr. just sneak in there and get the offensive rebound. And again, a big part of that, there is Gordon's, Gordon misses this shot, but he has drawn, he's on Jordan McLaughlin, has drawn to keel Alexander Walker and help, and Rudy Gobert comes and makes a late attempt to try to block the shot. That is what clears this space for Michael Porter Jr. to get in there and work. This is a beautiful spinning feed from Peyton Watson to get a dunk for Aaron Gordon.

So catch us here on the wing, rip through, McLaughlin comes over, spins around, drop off pass to Gordon for a dunk. really good chemistry there between the two. Here's a really nice possession of switching defense from the Nuggets. Brown switches on to McLaughlin. Gordon switches on to McLaughlin. But as a result, we end up with Nas Reid on Christian Brown. Got to hold up guards on switches against the bigs.

And again, this will probably be Carl Towns in a real series, but still same kind of principle. And Christian Brown just stymies, Nas Reid, forces him to take a shot over the top and he misses. Great work there from Christian Brown. underrated kind of like strong low center of gravity athlete Christian is. This time Eric did it again. I don't know why I'm doing that. Aaron Gordon returns the favor to Peyton Watson. Makes a move, draws the help, drop off, draws the foul.

So now Yokic is going to come back into the game. Peyton Watson goes one for two. So Yokic is back in the game and the lead is gone from 8380 to 91-87 in a literally a five-minute stretch without your two best players on the floor. Really, really impressive stretch there from the Denver bench. Here's an example of the unstoppable Yokic Murray 2-man game. As he comes off here, he's going to pull it back out and they're going to run it again. And this time, he draws Gobert in.

And Yokic, instead of rolling into the tag, he just kind of finds that soft spot around the foul line and knocks down a jumper. This is, so Anthony Edwards has just checked back into the game. It's a six-point game, largest lead for Denver in a while. Six minutes left. You desperately need a good shot. He's 22 years old, and he's got to score first mentality, and he's got to learn that this is not a good shot. Comes off of like a little screen here from Mike Conley, and Joel Murray's right there, and he just takes a contested pull up three as soon as he steps in.

Just don't like the shot selection there from Ann. You remember earlier when we were talking about that Nikiel Alexander Walker play on Peyton Watson, where he did a bad job of setting up his man for the screen. Here's an example of a much better job setting up your man for the screen. So again, watch. Jamal Murray wants to get Jaden McDaniels to the point where he's starting his footwork to fight over the top before he crosses over. So notice that. See that little hop?

Jadden McDaniels took? That hop is because he worked over to the screen. Right there, hop. He's hopping that left, just like I told you earlier, you got to take your screen side foot and you have to get it over the top of the screen. top foot. That's the footwork for fighting over the top of the screen. You've got to make him engage that footwork before you cross back over. The Nikiel Alexander Walker did not do that. Jamal Murray did, and as a result, he's able to beat Jada McDaniels cleanly off the dribble. Then from there, Yokic is rolling hard, which keeps Gobert backpedaling, which opens up the floater.

And Jamal Murray is just so good at all those coverage beaters shot, like the shot making pieces to beat coverages. Yokic torches go bare again here with a spin move towards the baseline. Now our leads up to nine. And then here's an example of how hard it is to guard Denver because of their three-man actions and their ability to slip. So as we're getting ready to run our two-man game here, but they're setting it up with a quick pin down, right?

So essentially, Christian Brown is setting a screen on Jada McDaniels to try to generate a little bit of separation so that when Jamal Murray comes off this dribble handoff, he's just in a better position with Jaden trailing more, right? So in this case, Mike Conley is trying to help guard that action. He's pointing. You could see immediately he identifies it. Mike Conley right away knows this is going to be Jamal Murray coming down and a pin down

setting into the dribble handoff. Conley points. Hold up. Here it comes. Here comes. Here comes. Everyone's keyed up this way. Everyone is.

And because everyone's keyed up this way, Mike Conley is getting ready to hedge. And because Mike Conley's up like that, and Jada McDaniels is still chasing, Christian Brown has inside position on everybody to slip to the basket, and this is the one guy on the planet that'll never miss that pass. And there are a few guys, a few other guys in the league, but Yokic is in the short list of guys that are never going to miss this read. Christian Brown slips it, dunks on Gobert for the first of two times in this game.

There's a little full court pressure from Minnesota. Late in the game, game is already basically over, but a little full court pressure. And on this action, they're going to make a kickhead pass to Christian. Brown. Christian Brown jumps right into Gobert's chest and then finishes over him with his left hand. Just fucking disgusting. Part of my language. Then we get a brown lob in transition this time from Michael Porter Jr. game's out of reach here, but these are just highlights. We're showing you some highlights for fun. And then lastly, this was a really fun one is they run a little screening action for

Nas Reid. Peyton Watson recovers, blocks it, gets the kick ahead pass, throws down the dunk. All right, we're moving on to Mavs Heat now. A quick little follow up on that Minnesota, Denver one. So again, I think the takeaways from that film session are the high drop is probably their best option against limited playmakers. Against guys that are, but then against that same type of archetype, baiting them into taking tough shots is also a good option. They have good individual defenders that can defend there. I talk about scheme versatility as an advantage all the time.

scheme versatility to me is the ability to adjust your coverage based on the matchup. And there are a lot of teams out there that can only defend in one or two different coverages. The Nuggets have a bunch of different ways that can defend. Even in those bench groups with Yokic off the floor, really good switching individual defense. That is the anchor of that type of defensive group. And again, they won those minutes last year after being terrible in the regular season. They're going to need to do it again this year. Just ratchet up the minutes for your best players so that you have these brief small windows

where you need those guys to lock in, and they're capable of doing so. But yeah, I thought it also just kind of shine the light on some of the offensive limitations of Minnesota as it pertains to just kind of baiting them into their worst tendencies, settling for bad jump shots, not having the high enough level playmaking to beat coverages. But great example of why I think Denver is the best team in the league and a game where they anchored down that one spot heading into the postseason. All right, let's head over to Mavs heat. So Luca hits two threes in a row to start the game.

I don't have those in here, but this was just a funny one. The third three-point attempt he takes. He takes it against Jimmy Butler just to step back in ISO. This is just funny to me because the guy who always identifies where the miss is coming first is the shooter. He knows because he knows what it felt like coming off of his hands. So he misses the shot, but he knows he left it short. And so as soon as he shoots it, you can see, he's like, oh, shoot. Ball's still near.

He's like, ah, I left that way short. So he just runs right after it and ends up getting the offensive rebound put back. Here's an example of Derek Jones Jr. And his high level close at attacking. So Derek Jones Jr. actually is a 40% unguarded catch-and-shoot three-point shooter, although you can chase him off the line. Luca Donchitz draws a straight double from the top. It goes down to a Gafford.

Gafford draws three, kicks out to Derek Jones, Jr. He gets chased off the line, but he rips through and hits a little, tough little right-shoulder fade in the lane. Derek Jones Jr. is a very good spot-up player. He's really good at ripping through, finishing at the rim, he's got those little in-between shots. He's getting 1.07 points per possession in spot-up situations, which is well above average.

That is what's made him their best kind of option as that perimeter defender slash guy that can function as a spot-up player in their offense. This is an example of Luca playing advantage basketball, which I think is something we haven't seen a ton from him in his career, but he's going to pass this off. And this is what it looks like when Luca attacks a close-out. So he's going to flash back over here, pump-fake,

get the defender out of position, And again, you can kind of see this whole possession, because he's closing out, he's out of position. His first thought is Luca's going to drive. So you see him kind of like lean back, right? Boom, he takes that big retreat step. Then Luca leans back in pump fakes. Now he leaves his feet. And then he just beats him off the dribble.

Then we get the pass fake, right? We get the little pass fake, the look away pass fake to Kleba, which gets him the angle to get a round bam and finish at the basket. And he's just playing a lot more. he's already like, I think, 15 to 20 more spot-up possessions this season than he did last year. So obviously, he's just getting more of those opportunities with a more talented roster. Here's an example of Maxi-Kleba making a help side play down on the block. So Bam's going to work against Luca. He's going to go take a shot, and then Kleba's going to come over and block him at the rim.

And again, like the big thing for me that pushed Dallas to that third spot in my contender list was Maxi Kleba and PJ Washington and just the wrecking ball defensive players that they're capable of being. Here's PJ Washington blowing up an inbound pass. Pass over the top. Bam's trying to create a seal there for that little, or not Bam, Jimmy's trying to create the angle for that over the top pass. PJ breaks it up.

Then Luca gets the loose ball, and then we get a dunk from PJ Washington. Again, defensive playmaking. Here's an example. This is a bucket for Miami, but this is an example of PJ Washington's defensive potential. He leaves his feet on a pump face. from Caleb Martin. Boom, off the ground. Caleb Martin is one of the faster kind of wing players that we have in the league, especially in straight line speed. P.J. Washington is in the air and somehow manages to get back in front of Caleb Martin. Look at that. Again, those guys are helping because they're thinking he's going to get beat and like he just somehow doesn't get beat, which just goes to show you the level of defensive potential that PJ Washington has. Here's an excellent Mavs ball movement possession that begins with a Kyrie Irving back cut. So again, they're clearing the side here, and they're basically setting this up for Kyrie to fake like he's running out. And then he's setting his man up and then he's going to bang, back cut right there.

Draws the help. Kick out past the Dante Exum. Exum pump fakes. This is that advantage basketball I'm talking about. You can actually see Luca pointing, hey, Kleba's the next read. But he has to throwing it to Luca anyway. Luca drives it. Luca makes the kick out to Kyrie, back to PJ Washington on the wing for three.

Nice little ball movement possession there from Dallas. Here's Luca beating a coverage with a pull-up three. This time, Haywood-Hismith ducks underneath the pick and Bam is too far back. This also might have just been a switch. Yeah, it's a switch. So it's a switch and Bam is too far back on the switch and Luca just beats it with a pull-up. Again, this is like an example of a soft switch instead of a more aggressive switch, leaving Luca two open.

This is, it's so funny. As I watched Mavs film, it's so much less about like sets. and, you know, nifty actions and slips and things like that. And it's so much more about, like, individual greatness. And this is just a great example of a little detail in ball handling that goes a long way with Kyrie Irving. So he's going to do a behind-the-bag dribble here on Haywood Highsmith. And then I want you guys to watch how quickly he pivots his body to catch the behind-the-back

dribble. I want to shout out my first Juco assistant coach, Chris Kloss, and he taught me this kind of, like, principle, but we used to do a cone dribbling drill. It's actually still to this day my first warm-up drill that I do. And on it, there's the actual dribble combination you do to start the drill, but there's always an advanced dribble. What he taught was like you'd hit like an in and out behind the back, but then you'd follow that up with an immediate advanced dribble with your left hand, right? And then in and out behind the back and then an immediate advanced dribble with your right hand. And then the purpose behind it is like, it doesn't matter if you do the behind the back dribble

and you've shed the defender if you can't immediately capitalize on the driving angle that it creates. And so there are these little details, especially on the higher level dribble combinations that you need to have down in order to be able to actually take the advanced dribble after you make the move. So Kyrie's going to make a behind the back move here. Watch how he turns his body. Boom. Okay. Look at this. Look at how fast it is.

So he makes the behind the back dribble. But because he pivots so quickly, now the ball is. his left hand and his body is positioned to drive. And so he's able to take advantage of that little angle he creates. The vast majority of offensive players in this league will make that behind the back dribble and then Haywood Highsmith would just be able to recover and cut him off. But that little pivot there is just a little detail in ball handling that I don't think people realize is a big part of what makes Kyrie so hard to guard.

Here's another little piece of ISO fundamental work here. Kyrie Irving's going to start on the right wing out of a triple threat. Josh Green drives. We're going to get a kickback here. Now, Kyrie, Haywood Highsmith, he wants to make a rip-through move. The idea behind a rip-through move is you have to be lower than the defensive player to actually get that advantage. Watch how low Kyrie Irving gets. We'll slow it down here.

Watch how low Kyrie Irvin gets on this rip-through. That allows him to get the angle. And then from there, he's going to go to a Euro step on Kevin Love to find the little gap on the other side of the rim for the reverse layout. just ridiculous stuff from Kyrie Irving. Here's an example of scheme discipline from Dallas and just some really good individual defense from Kyrie Irving. So in a transition cross match, we get Jimmy Butler on Kyrie Irving, right?

And it's clear that they want him to try to deny that catch if he gets that switch. So as he comes over here, Kyrie's going to go to a three-quarter front and he's in a three-quarter front to not allow that pass, gets worked back around. Now, Kyrie, again, squatting down low, fronting the post. This force isn't over the top pass. Kyrie Irving does not try to catch the pass. Instead, he turns around and immediately tries to find a spot where Jimmy's going to expose the

basketball. So again, he's not going for the ball. He's staying down, waiting for Jimmy to catch, waiting for him to expose it, and he swipes it clean. Really, really good individual defense there from Kyrie Irving. And then he actually turns it the other way into a transition pull-up three, which this has been one of Kyrie's big go-to moves over the second half of the season here. All right, I've got five more clips from this game, and then we're going to go into our mailback. So this time we have Derek Jones Jr. in help coming off of the Strongside Quarter and blocking Caleb Martin. Strongside Corner help is really difficult because it's sketchy to leave a guy this open. But if a guy's got his back completely turned, it's a high risk play, but he's able to turn it into a positive result here.

Mavs run out in transition, and we get a dunk from Tim Hardaway Jr. Again, theme of this part of the video is Dallas using their defense to get out in transition. And again, if you guys remember, I mentioned this in the contender rankings. They were 27th in transition frequency last year, eighth this year. A big part of that is their defense allowing them to get out and transition more. Here's a horn set for Kyrie. We don't really see Dallas run this too many like set actions like this, but this is an example of something good that they get out of it. We get a back screen for Tim Hardaway flowing into a pin down.

that flows into a dribble handoff. And that baits Jimmy Butler into offering tag help. So again, Jimmy Butler is coming over to deal with Gafford on the tag, and that just gives Kyrie Irving a wide open catch and shoot three on the week side. Here we get another stop here. Dante Exum does a good job absorbing the contact from Bam. Gafford offers a last minute contest. Here's an example of the athleticism on the back line that I talk about here.

So if Gafford offers help, uh-oh, you're screwed on the glass, right? No, because PJ Washington is there to clean it up. PJ Washington gets it, kick a head pass. Gafford runs his lane, gets a dunk. Once again, just really good defense and rebounding leading to transition opportunities. Miami went zone in the middle of the second quarter, and Daniel Gafford here actually scores out of the middle of zone. I thought this was impressive. When he catches here, he didn't bring any of the corner guys in. And so as a result, he has to kind of go to work, and he just manages to,

hit a little left shoulder hook. And then here's our last play of the set. Tyler Harrow misses a wide open three from the top of the key. We have a transition possession the other way, and Tim Hardaway, Jr. is not going to miss his pull-up transition three. Now the Dallas Mavericks are up by 20 points, and this game is over. So I thought that was just, I thought that game in particular

was just a really good example of how Dallas's defense has allowed them to get out in transition a lot more. And again, like, I want to be clear. Like, I've always believed in Kyrie Irving. I've always believed in Luca Donchich. I was a fan of the Kyrie Irving trade. And if you guys remember what I said at the time, I was like, don't judge this this year.

They need a summer to add, summer in a deadline to add all the pieces they need. But you need a best player. You need a number two. And then you need role players that accentuate what they bring to the table. They've done a beautiful job putting that together since the Kyrie Irving trade. This defensive personnel is what's giving them, in my opinion, the best chance to win the title outside of the top tier of contenders.

All right, let's get to our mailback. Then we'll get out of here. It's going to be relatively quick. I get that the Thunder are young and match up poorly against the Lakers, nuggets, and wolves. The nuggets can be, that can be said for every team in the West, really. But really, but they're literally a better and deeper version of the Sons and Clippers. They've shown throughout the season in the head-to-head games against both these teams that they deserve to be higher in these rankings, including stomping the healthy sons with no shake-ilches Alexander, plus they have less health concerns than both of those teams.

So first of all, I, again, my concerns with the Thunder are youth in size. The clippers have a vichuzubach. The sons have Yusuf Nerkich. That gives them an infinitely better chance of hanging physically with some of the bigger front lines in the Western Conference, especially Denver. That's really it, guys. Like, there is a level of fist fight, rock fight, you know, just kind of degenerated basketball down into an ugly mess of a game. And in those situations, your offensive skill and speed tend to matter less than your size, physicality, and experience.

And that's why I lean to those teams in those specific situations. I agree. You're right. Like if the Clippers played the Sons in a series, it'd be close. I'd still pick Phoenix, but the Thunder have some advantages in those series. My contender rankings are a reflection of their best chance to get out of the conference. And I think that Phoenix and the Clippers, because of their frontline size, have a better opportunity to hang in those situations than the Thunder.

to potentially win three rounds to get out of the Western Conference. What's up, Jason? Big fan of the show, was having an argument with a buddy at work. He thinks Lonzo Ball from his first season with the Bulls when they had decent success and loss to the bucks in the first round would be a top 10 point guard in the league this season. I disagree. He also says that he would be a better playmaker than most of the point guards. I use as a rebuttal. I explained to him that in the NBA, the most important form of playmaking, depending on the role, of course, is out of the pick and roll. And while Lonzo is a good passer, I don't view him as a pick and roll creator on the level of guys like Brunson and Halliburton.

And then, of course, the most elite guys. We'd love to hear your take on this, even if it doesn't make the show, keep up the great work. So, first of all, thank you for the support. Here's the thing. I think Glonso ball is a really good basketball player. But I view him as an off ball guard for the most part. Like, he can defend really well. He can, he's a good transition playmaker.

What I mean by that is like making those kick-ahead passes. He's a good play connector. He can run ball screens and set guys. up with some advantage situations, but he just never was gifted enough on the ball as a score to enter into those best point guard conversations. Really turned into a good off ball shooter over the years and was able to hit a three if someone ducked under a pick from time to time. But as an on-ball shot creator, he never had that like scoring threat that the Jalen Brunson and Tyreys Halliburton guys had, right? Like Tyrese Halliburton has a lot of the same

kick-ahead pass playmaking stuff that Lonzo had. But like, like, Tyrese is just a guy that can beat switches consistently and we'll hit pull up threes at an insanely high rate. So that is really the fundamental difference between those two guys. With DeLo playing this way, how big of a deal is the outcome of his performances in the playoffs for his future as a Laker? Do you think there's a chance to Lakers keep this backcourt duo next season? This has been a tough one for me this season because Delos won me over in a lot of ways. I genuinely think he's gotten better. He got humiliated by Bruce Brown.

He got in the gym. He got his legs a bit stronger, which I think has helped with his rim finishing and his ability to get to his spots a little bit. Definitely has become a better shooter, has become one of the better shooters in the league this year. But his weaknesses are still the same. When the physical intensity ratchets up and you put a long athletic defender on him, he can't get to his spots as well as he used to. And then everything comes down to is he hitting his catch and shoot threes. And if he's not, his impact tanks. and what really concerned me is they desperately needed that Minnesota game

and they desperately needed that Golden State game, obviously with some issues with Anthony Davis, but in both games, Dilo was bad on both ends of the floor. He struggled to get to his spots and create shots against the longer athletic defenders that Minnesota and Golden State had, and he wasn't able to knock down his catch-and-shoots in a more physical environment when his legs were more tired. And that's more or less the same thing that happened last year.

And so even though I admire DeLo and that he's won me over in all these different ways, and I've come to an appreciation of him, I still don't think he's a guy that you can have in your starting lineup if you're a serious NBA championship contender. And so unless he manages to reverse that trend when we get to the postseason, I still think he's the guy that they need to eventually move and put an athletic, you know, kind of like bulldog of a two guard next to Austin Reeves to give them a more balanced dynamic in that backcourt. Last question.

How many more years do Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown have together if they can't win a championship this year, i.e. they losing the finals or losing the Eastern Conference finals. Do you trade one of them? Love the show. I wouldn't trade Jason Tatum or Jalen Brown under any circumstances, not unless like, you know, obviously there was some sort of big, you know, mental, emotional falling out and it became like a chemistry issue. That'd be another thing.

But as long as everyone's happy, you stick with it. Because, again, you stand to gain more by these guys entering their prime in their late 20s and just getting better than you do by rebuilding. Because, like, Jalen Brown, like it or not, is a top 15 player in this league. He's playing at an insane level in the last couple of years. And so you have a better chance of that, of Jalen Brown just kind of fixing some of his flaws or Jason Tatum developing into a higher level superstar than you do of going out into the trade market and trying to get something better. Right. So like I won't break up the Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, uh, duo unless, unless there were some sort of real crisis involved that pushed you in that direction. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We'll be back tomorrow with the nerd

sash guys for a preview of Clippers Mavs as well as some other topics from around the league. I'll see you guys then. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite on humor me with Robert Smigel and friends. Me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel,

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