The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Why Luka Doncic & Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are my #2 & #3 players in NBA | Lakers x Thunder

Episode Date: September 12, 2025

Jason has reached the last few players on his NBA player rankings list and he dives into why he has Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Doncic at No. 2 and Oklahoma City Thunder MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander at No. 3. He breaks down each player's strengths and weaknesses, why they're ahead of Milwaukee Bucks big Giannis Antetokounmpo, and what separates Doncic from SGA. All lines provided by Hard Rock Bet.  #Volume See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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

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This week on Crimless, Rory and I welcome a very special guest. When I did a podcast, I wear my sleep masks. I like where this is going. So if you guys will indulge me. That's right, the incredibly talented and hilarious Will Ferrell on an episode dedicated to crimes committed by people named Will Ferrell. You're good for 300 crimes? Yeah.

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Hope all of you guys are having a great week. We are hitting two players today. I had originally thought about going three and then two and one, but since two and three are going to be by far the biggest debate out of that trio, I figured what we do, and I also want to get to some of our mailbag questions. So what I'm going to do is I'm going to do three and two today, and we'll specifically dive into the debate between those two off the top. And then in our number one video with Nicola Yokic on Friday,

we'll hit some of your guys' mailback questions at the tail end there. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast fee wherever we get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok.

Make sure you guys follow us there. And last but not least, keep dropping those mailbag questions in the YouTube comments. We will get to them in our Friday mailbags throughout the remainder of the summer. All right, let's talk some basketball. So I have Shay Gilges Alexander at number three and Luca Donchich at number two. This is, I'm certain. the player ranking that I will catch the most shit for in this year's list just because of what

happened last season. But it's very important that we remember the parameters for this list. Three years ago, this list used to be more of a reflection of what happened in the previous season. But for the last two years, the criteria of this list has simply been who do I think will be the best player to lead your team from this coming October all the way through this coming June. And under those criteria, under that criteria, I should say, I have look at two and SGA at three. Before we even get started, I'm sure there will be plenty of people who will say, Jason Roots for the Lakers. That's why he has look at number two, but I had Luke at number two last year, long before any of us had any idea that he would

be a Laker. So let's get into the Luca SGA debate right off the top. And then we'll divide into the specifics of where each guy is as a basketball player right now. Again, two things are true. One, SGA definitely had a way better season than Luca did last year. I would even take it so far as to say Luca was more like a second tier superstar last year with his injury issues and the substantial declines he experienced in some key areas because he was a particularly fat version of himself, right? And that coincided with SGA winning MVP and finals MVP. So like if that's what you're arguing that Shea was a better player than Luca last year, I would just simply agree with you. There would be no more reason for us to argue. But the second truth here is the set of

parameters I set up at the very beginning of this list. I've been very clear that this list is designed to reflect who I will believe, who I believe will be the best player in this coming season. And irrespective of surrounding circumstances, Shea did an admirable super bar, an admirable superstar job leading that Oklahoma City team last year, right? And he hoisted two trophies for his efforts. I'll be very clear right off the top here. I believe that if you took Luca Donchitz right now, the Luca that we're watching play in Eurobasket, and you picked him up and you dropped him on last year's Oklahoma City team, I think he wins MVP and I think he wins finals MVP. So for the purposes of this debate, I want to focus on each basketball player completely in a vacuum.

That is the purpose of this list. It is not who is playing on the best team right now. It's not who accomplished the most in a team context last season. I'm looking at Shegelder's Alexander in a vacuum as a basketball player versus Luca Donchich in a vacuum as a basketball player looking forward, not looking backwards. The specific argument I am making is that if we set up those circumstances, if we put Luca Donchich on the best roster in the league, the thunder, I think they would have won more easily. I think they would have avoided the massive offensive loles that they dealt

with in their playoff run. I think they would have gotten rid of Denver and Indiana more quickly than they did under Shea because I believe that Luca is a better basketball player than Shea. The question is why. Now, the first basketball argument in favor of SGA and the argument that many folks will make is that, well, SGA is the best score in the league right now, right? And he very much was last season. He averaged 33 points per game, 64% true shooting. he had 49, 30-point games.

He had 13-40-point games, and he had 3-50-point games. The problem with making this case is that Luca Donchitz, just one season prior, had an even more impressive scoring season. He played in 70 games in 2024. He averaged 34 points per game on 62% true shooting. He had 50-30-point games. He had 13-40-point games. He had two 50 point games and he had a 73 point game.

Even when we get down into the nitty gritty, like we talk about reliable short range scoring. It's a piece of scoring that I always talk about. That's the most important part of crunch time scoring. Like being able to score at the end of games, being able to get close to the basket for a shot, you can make more than half the time. In that 2024 season,

Luca made 189 floaters and short jump shots inside of 17 feet at 51.4%. He is every bit the short-range score that SGA is. And the reason why Luca was actually able to hit higher scoring totals, like the 73-point game that he did, is Luca is a guy that brings more high-volume three-point shooting to the table. So in short, yes, Shea had a fantastic scoring season last year. And within the confines of just that season,

he was way better than Luca, especially as a score. But I view Luca Donchich heading into this coming season as every bit the scoring talent that Cheyieldess Alexander is, if not a little bit better, as he demonstrated just one year prior. Now, one final note here, that does not mean that he'll put up higher points per game in an average this year than SGA. That is something that depends on the role that you're in.

And these guys are both in very different roles. SGA is playing on a team that doesn't have a ton of ball handling and really only has one other player that's going to take high volume usage in the form of J-dub, right? Luka Donchich is now going to play with LeBron James and Austin Reeves for an entire season. Similar to Shea, he's got a guy who's going to put up pretty good-sized scoring numbers at the center position in DeAndre Aiton as well.

Obviously, there's a chance that the points per game average might be slightly lower than Luca, or excuse me, for Luca, than SGA this season because of their team circumstances. But going into this season, healthy in shape, Luca, I view him as much closer to the 2024 version, if not better, because he'll be older and more skilled as time and his experience continues to add up. I don't look at there as being a scoring gap between Shea and Luca coming into this season. I am saying that if Luca and SGA each played, in the same role in this upcoming season, I think their production would be about the same.

I think they'd both average somewhere between 32 and 34 points per game on somewhere between 62 and 64% true shooting. So no, I don't view scoring as an advantage for Shea in this debate at all. I view it as a dead heat. And that takes us to the playmaking and advantage creation piece. Something that I view is a massive advantage towards Luca in this debate. And it's the thing that I think makes Luca, a much better offensive player overall.

And it's the main reason why I say a healthy Luca is a better player than SGA and would have done better in that role that She had with Oklahoma City last year. I'm going to start with a very basic stat. SGA has 21 games in his entire career, including the playoffs, where he logged at least 10 assists in a single game.

Luca's done it 168 times. 168. It's pretty clean math, actually. That's eight times as many. So for every one time that Shea has put up 10 assists in an NBA game, including the playoffs, Luke has done it eight times. He's in an entirely different class as a playmaker and advantage creator than SGA. Thunder fans actually experienced this directly in 2024. Still to this day, I hear Thunder fans complain about PJ Washington. knocking down shots. Thunder players have even vented in press conferences about PJ Washington killing them in that series.

It actually kind of reminds me of the Andre Aguadala situation in 2015. Everyone was so confused by what was happening that Andre Guadala literally won a finals MVP he had no business winning. The reality was Steph's advantage creation was spoon-feeding Andre Guadala fantastic opportunities. That's what happened with PJ Washington

against the Thunder in 2024. You Thunder fans will clearly remember and probably have some PTSD about PJ Washington hitting 23 threes in that six game series, almost four per game. I went back and watched every single one of them this morning. Of those 23 made threes by PJ,

14 of them were either directly assisted by Luca Donchich or came off of an extra pass after Luca generated some crazy advantage for someone else that got PJ Washington a good look. It was the same thing over and over again. Luca driving at ISO or post-ups and drawing double teams and kicking to PJ. Luca beating low man help and pick and roll by hitting the corner hitting PJ wide open, you know, hitting that first advantage and that extra pass to PJ, just routinely setting up PJ with fantastic looks. that went in because Luca is the sort of relentless playmaker that will make you pay every single time

when you leave someone open. And by the way, Thunder fans, guess who the guy was that was guarding PJ Washington for most of that series? The guy that Luca kept burning every time he turned his head or lost focus or through an aimless double team. It was Shea Gilder's Alexander.

Luca literally fried Shea and help over and over and over again. This is the foundational case for why I have Luca above SGA going into this season. I think Luca is every bit as good as Shea as a score, and I think he's just miles and miles ahead of him as a playmaker and offensive engine. Flatly, I just think Luca's a better offensive player than Shea. So the natural continuation of this line of thinking would be well, Jason, if Luca is clearly better on offense, why is this even a debate and why isn't Luca on a separate tier? And this is where we have to talk about defense. I don't think Shea is some elite defensive player. We just talked about Luca torching his lack of off ball focus in 2024. Luca has some similar issues with off ball focus at time. I actually view both of them. as guys who are smart enough and big enough or long enough to lock in and play useful defense off the ball and to be a functioning part of a great defense. I mean, we literally saw that.

Dallas was a great defense. Oklahoma City was a great defense. They were able to fill roles there. They're both actually really good defensive playmakers. They're great at playing passing lanes, using their IQ to kind of suss out what the offense is doing and get in front of it and blow plays up. Luca averaged 1.8 steals per game last year. That's a super. super high number. Shea averaged 1.7 steals per game last year. That's a super high number. Shea also gets a lot of blocks around the rim compared to most guards because of his length and his ability to kind of read plays and make plays there. Where SGA makes up a lot of ground here and where he closes the gap with Luca and makes this more of a debate is more situational defensively.

I find Luca to be much more susceptible to switch attacking than Shea is. Both players are susceptible. Like, She can get targeted by bigger players on, like, duckins or post-ups on the offensive glass. She can have some issues there too because he's just not particularly big. But Luca is incredibly susceptible to quick athletes on the perimeter that can beat him off the dribble. And it played a major role in each of his last two playoff series exits. against Boston and Minnesota.

I think that makes SGA clearly a better defensive player than Luca is. And that closes the gap to a certain extent. And we'll talk about this in the Luca specific segment, but I'm curious as to how much his improved conditioning in his new body that he's building will help him be better on the ball. But we'll talk about that when we get to Luca later. But in short, I put Luca at number two for the same reason I put him at number two last year. I think him and Yokic are the two best offensive.

engines in the sport. They are the only two guys that can bring transcendently great scoring and transcendently great playmaking and advantage creation to the table. They're the only two in the entire league that can say that. Again, Luca's situational defensive limitations keep guys like Shea and Janus close and in the same tier as him. But I'm a huge believer in Luca as one of the very best offensive players in the game today. And it was pretty easy. as a decision for me to put him ahead of SGA in that number two spot. All right, let's look at each of these two players individually for a few minutes before we get out of here today. We are extremely excited to announce our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet.

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What's the news, huge news? We created our own podcast called, Hey, Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to. First people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend.

But this one's extra special. So how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. Well, we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band. Before Jonas Brothers was... This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes.

I have a very different memory of this. We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast. People could call in and say, hey Jonas. And then I wrote down in my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it.

Another podcast from some SNL late night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor 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 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. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs. And on the Renee Stubbs' tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris.

Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on Clay. Jen she went. I mean, she went down in three to Rabakina, but I'm delighted. She's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lena Rubakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck.

Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm CJ Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. Like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid. He has to guard Julius Randall.

And then he has to give us everything he gives us on the night-to-night bases on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nass would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers, why he got the ball like,

After you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Number three, Chey Gildes Alexander. His last season in review, he played in 76 games, 33 points, five rebounds, and six assists per game, 52% from the field, 38% from 3 and 90% from the line. that amounted to 64% in true shooting. 2.7 stocks per game.

We talked about this in the last segment, but Shea is a very good defensive playmaker. He's got high IQ, he's got long arms. He can do a lot of damage in passing lanes and it helpside situations at the rim as a defensive player. This was an award-heavy season for him. It was the rare regular season MVP and finals MVP for Shea. First-team all-MBA selection and made the All-Star team.

It's play type day to Shay was extremely. extremely productive last year, fueled by his incredible scoring ability. His numbers passing out of pick and roll in ISO and post-up situations were fine, but that's not really his game. He didn't put up elite playmaking numbers out of action. His shooting numbers out of those situations

were transcendently great. He was the only player in the league last year to shoot out of pick and roll at least 500 times and to make more than half of those shots. he was at 51% and he in the second place guy in that list Darius Garland again minimum 500 reps 47%. So 4% better than the rest of the pack

in high volume pick and roll shooting. He was 35% on pull-up threes which is good enough. That's 1.05 points per shot but he shot 56% on twos out of pick and roll fueled by deadly mid-range shooting and a floater that he hits about 49% of the time. He shot the best percentage on twos out of ball screens in the league by a wide margin. He was 2.5% better than the second place guy on that list, Damien Lillard.

The data in his one-on-ones was every bit as impressive. You got 1.1 points per possession shooting out of ISO. That was second place behind Kevin Durant out of the 22 players who logged at least 200 shot attempts out of ISO. He got 1.08 points per possession out of the post as a shooter, hitting 54% of his shots there on 88 reps. That was seventh out of the 37 players to log at least 75 shot attempts out of the post. He's just deadly as a score.

I find Shea's success as a score to be incredibly fascinating from like a basketball technique and skill development perspective. It all starts with the threat of the drive. Shea doesn't have an insanely quick first step, but he does have a quick first step, and he's got really long strides.

so once he actually gets an angle and hits the gas, he can get past you quick. And he's a master of change of pace. He lulls you to sleep with relaxed dribbles before exploding forward. And you can't like play one side of him because he's got really good balance driving right and left. As a matter of fact, according to Synergy, he drove left just 21 more times all season than he did going right. And then lastly, he's one of the very best players in the league at chaining together, counter moves. This is something we've talked about a lot on the show. He can dribble through contact really well.

If you manage to beat him to the spot once or twice, he'll just smoothly transition into another forward attacking move, whether it's on a scissor dribble or behind the back dribble. He's just going to keep going at you, even if you beat him to the spot once or twice. This allowed Shea to generate a crazy amount of dribble penetration. According to NBA.com, Shea logged 1,567 drives last season. That was by far the most in the league.

second place on the list was Trey Young with 13002, so 165 more drives than anyone else in the entire NBA. And then he finishes extremely well at the rim in traffic. On insane volume, and on pretty high difficulty, considering some of the spacing issues the Thunder had at times, Shea shot 60% on layups, not dunks, layups. Which again, for a guard, and at that volume and degree of difficulty, that's a super impressive number. that's the foundational piece, his ability to get to the basket. From there, Shea had two very useful counters to his dribble penetration. Deadly short-range shot making and the ability to grift his way to the line. Let's start with the short-range shot making.

Shea shot 54% on twos inside of 17 feet, jump shots inside of 17 feet last year. Meade 216 of them, which was the most in the league, by a pretty wide margin. And only Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal had a higher percentage on those short twos on a minimum of 100 attempts. And again, as I always talk about, there's a ton of value in short range scoring because of the way it translates in physicality to the playoffs and in clutch situations. A lot of times those deeper jump shots, they're less likely to go in when everyone's tired, the whistles being swallowed, things are super physical. you need something closer to the basket to be reliable in those situations, right? And what's interesting is if you look at Shea's efficiency numbers last year in the postseason, he experienced some substantial drop-offs in key areas.

Like his rim finishing dropped by 6% overall, according to Synergy. His three-point shooting dropped by 9%. His overall true shooting percentage dropped by 7% relative to the regular season. but he was able to avoid the precipitous drop-offs that guys like James Harden have experienced in the past, especially in like big late series moments, because Shea had a part of his game that he was able to stabilize and he was that short-range scoring piece. He hit 51.4% of his two-point jump shots inside his 17 feet. This is a big part of how he was able to maintain his status as a reliable playoff score.

night to night as he went through those four rounds, even if he wasn't quite as good as he was in the regular season. And it showed up in clutch in particular. Shea was the only player in the playoff field last year to make at least 10 clutch shots on at least 50% shooting. He's 14 for 28 to be exact. But what's really fascinating to me is if you actually look back at every pivotal shot, you can say what you want about the Thunder.

I'd argue they made it like it was more difficult. than it should have been for them through that postseason run. It was the stuff that I talked about all season, their youth, their inexperience, their inconsistencies on offense fueled by their youth. It manifested in those longer series against Denver in Indiana. But to Shea's credit, what iced those series? His short-range shot making.

Obviously in the Memphis series in game four, it was a deeper two, but he hits a two that ices that series. Look at Denver, game five. late in the game, tied, gets Jamal Murray on a switch, hits a little 15-footer for an and one over the top, who's a lead-changing shot in that game. Game four are the NBA finals. Literally one of the most pivotal shots in the entire playoff run. Indiana has a one-point lead. He hits a short step-back jump shot along the left baseline after pushing off Aaron Neesmith. All of the most pivotal moments for Oklahoma City offensively in this playoff run swore.

swung on Shea's ability to get to close range jump shots and to hit them at a high percentage. And then the final counter to Shea's driving ability is the ability to get to the foul line. He just has every foul-grifting trick in the book. The low gather, the arm grab,

the pump fakes, the weird release angles, the flopping, the yelling. He's got it all. And by the way, the same exact thing is true about Luca. And Luca's every bit is bad. And again, as I always say, I don't blame the players for this stuff.

I blame the league. If he didn't get rewarded with free throws, the other guys wouldn't do it. She got 8.8 free throw attempts per game last year. That was the second most in the NBA behind Yanos Santana Kumpo. All of that amounted to Shea being the best score in the league last year by a good margin.

The playmaking piece with Shea is all about his frame of mind. She is wired as his score. And at many points during this playoff, running he hurt his team on offense by just coming out guns, as a shooter, kind of overdoing it and taking the rest of his team out of rhythm. But to his credit, and I talked about this in the playoff run, every single time the Thunder ended up in a do-or-die type of game. With exception to game four of the finals, game for the

finals was the one night where like, like obviously even a couple of bit plays late, but I thought he, that was the zero assist game. I thought he did a really poor job managing it, like his floor game was poor in that game. But in every other pivotal game in that playoff run, he came out and played a really good floor game, properly balancing his attacks and advantage creation, taking easy kickout reads when they were available, setting the table for his team to have a successful night on offense. Again, he is not a top tier playmaker in this league. He's never going to be that type of guy. But he was able to figure out the proper balance in the big spots the way he needed to. Now, it's just for him in the future about fighting his natural

I do expect him to get better at that each passing year. We talked about this after they won the title. That was why I viewed Oklahoma City as vulnerable and they proved to be vulnerable as they were pushed to seven twice. They're young. They struggle to replicate successes and minimize failures. But Shea, with each passing year, I expect him to get better at understanding the importance of his floor game on a night-to-night basis. That will be a bigger deal as they head into the future of this franchise, right? Like in the coming years, three, four years from now, and Shea's on his max,

J-dubs on his max, Chet's on his max, Oklahoma City won't be able to surround him with as much talent as they can right now. They're not going to be able to make off-season moves for Alex Crusoe and Isaiah Hartnstein the way that they did last summer. The margin for error will be much smaller, and that's where Shea's development

as a game manager will become a bigger deal than it was last year. I should also mention that Chet and J-Dub, development will play a role there as well. But there was a massive difference between Oklahoma City's half court offense performance and wins and losses in the playoffs this year. They locked an 89.3 offensive rating in the half court in their losses and a 100.2 in their wins. That often was tied to the job that Shea was doing kind of managing the flow of these games. Bottom line, She's the top tier superstar because he's an absolute S tier score with reliable short range

shot making that makes him super dependable night to night and in clutch situations, more so than any other star in the NBA last year. And he's a good enough defensive playmaker, as well as switch defender to be an above average defender at his position in the NBA. He has his inconsistencies as a game manager and playmaker, but they're just what separates him from the two guys that have above him. And to his credit, he was able to come through in those areas in big moments in this year's playoff run. For right now, I have Shay at number three. Hey, it's us, the Jonas Brothers, and guess what?

We have some big news. What's the news, new? Huge news. We created our own podcast called, Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to a first people to do podcasts. Pretty, yeah, pretty wide range of podcasts. We're starting a trend. But this one's

extra special. So how do we, how do we actually come up with a name, Hey Jonas, Jonas, guys? I honestly don't remember. I think it was on a call about what we should call it. And we were thinking I'm originally calling it one of the early names of our band before Jonas Brothers. This is how you guys remember it going down? Yes. I have a very different memory of this.

We were talking about a thing, a bit for the podcast, where people could call in and say, hey, Jonas. And then I wrote down on my little notepad, Hey Jonas, and offered it up as a potential title for the podcast. But thanks for remembering that, guys. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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 I-Heart Reader. Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The French Open is one of the toughest tests in tennis. And I know firsthand because I competed there myself. I'm Renee Stubbs, and on the Renee Stubbs Tennis podcast, I'm breaking down everything happening at Roland Garris.

Every match, every upset, and what it really takes to win on clay. Genschen win. I mean, she went down in three to Roebuckina, but I'm delighted. Yeah, she's an outsider to win the French for me. And she likes Clay. Listen, Lennarabakina is arguably the best player in the world right now. And I actually can win on any surface. Because if she's serving, well, good luck.

Consider this your court side seat to the French Open. Listen to the Renee Stubbs tennis podcast on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Presented by Capital One, founding partner of IHeart Women's Sports. What's up, fam? It's Isaiah Thomas. And I'm C.J. Toledano, and our podcast Point Game is about defying the odds. like LeBron heading into the playoffs without Luca and Austin Reed. And finding ways to win no matter what.

He's the smartest player to ever play the game. His IQ is at a level that we've never seen before. And he knows without Luca and Austin Reeves, I got to manipulate the game. We get a player's perspective on the challenges of the playoffs. I think Joker's going to be exhausted this series because when they don't have Rudy in the lineup, he has to really guard guys like Nas Reid.

He has to guard Julius Randall. And then he has to give us every. everything he gives us on the night-to-night basis on offense. And when IT's friends stop by, like Quentin Richardson, we dive into some playoff history too. Steve Nash would get that thing. That man, hell get the flying. He running up the court, licking his fingers why he got the ball.

Like, after you go through a training camp with that, I said, you figure it out real quick. Get your ass up and down the court, and you're going to get the ball. So listen to Point Game on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. All right, number two, Luca Donche. Let's start by going over his last season, and then we'll talk about what Luca is as a basketball player at this point

and what I expect from him this coming season. Luca followed up his unbelievable breakout season in 2024 with the most embarrassing season of his career. There's no way to describe it other than to use the word embarrassing. Now, we can all agree that Nico Harrison trading Luca Donchich was the dumbest trade in the history of sports, but even in that context, it's worth, mentioning that Nico had a reason. It wasn't nearly enough of a reason to justify the trade,

but the reason was there. Luca came into camp fat. He got hurt. He came back fatter, got hurt again, then he got traded, came back to the Lakers, the fattest I've ever seen him, and then he got flatly outplayed by Anthony Edwards in the first round as he continually came on strong in fourth quarters while Luca looked exhausted at the end of every game because he wasn't in nearly as good as shape. And he put together the worst defensive series of his career, somehow eclipsing a pretty rough defensive series in the 2024 finals.

I'm being very blunt here on purpose. I obviously hold Luca in very high esteem as a basketball player. He's number two on my list for the second year in a row. That means I hold him to a very high standard. And his last season was an embarrassing step backwards for a player that had had one of the most impressive starts to a career in the history of the NBA. It was embarrassing.

There's no way around it. But let's go through the numbers from last year first, and then we'll start looking forward. Luca played in 50 total games, spanning his time with the Mavs and the Lakers. 28 points, 8 rebounds and 8 assists, 45% from the field, 37% from the line, or excuse me, from 3, 78% from the line

that amounted to 54% in effective field goal percentage, 59% in true shooting. 2.2 stocks per game fueled by a career high, 1.8 steals per game. As we talked about in the first segment today, Luca's a good defensive playmaker off the ball. And he can play passing lanes and sniff out actions there and blow him up. So obviously a testament to how amazing Luca is,

that 28, 8, and 8 on 59% true shooting is an embarrassing step backwards for him. But literally, just one year prior, he played in 20 more games, averaged 34, 9, and 10 on 62% true shooting. That's what Luca is capable of. that's the standard. That's closer to what I expect from Luca moving forward. Again, like we talked about earlier,

maybe not the same points for game alongside LeBron James and Austin Reeves, but that's the standard. Lucas play type data last year, good, not great by his standards. In Dallas, 1.11 points per possession and pick and roll, including passes. That's obviously very good.

0.89 points per possession, including passes in one-on-ones, which is obviously not great. And Los Angeles was a little more, balanced 1.08 points per possession and pick and roll. Not quite as good as he was in Dallas, but still above average. 1.04 points per possession in his one-on-ones, which was better than Dallas, but still not great. So across the board last year, as a shot creator, just not a great year for him by his standards. The strangest thing for Luca last year was his dip in short range scoring,

which again has been one of his biggest strengths as an NBA player. And it happened like right when he went to LA. In Dallas last year, he shot 54% on jumpers inside of 17 feet and 46% on floaters, more in line with what his recent career performance is. But in Los Angeles, he dropped to just 37% on jump shots inside his 17 feet and just 36% on floaters. It's been a little better with Slovenia this summer, 7 for 16 on 2's inside of 17 feet. That's 44%. I think he's only taken like two floaters, but this is the big category I have my eye on heading into this coming season. I really want to see Luca get back to being that high volume, high efficiency short range score that he was before joining the Lakers. Well, let's look forward and let's talk

about what I expect from Luca this coming season. predictably, the immense criticism that Luca has received over the last year has motivated him into getting into the best shape he's been in at this phase in his career. I've seen two very important things from Luca so far in Eurobasket. one, he's far more explosive athletically. His first step is quicker. He's changing directions more smoothly. I'm seeing explosiveness in transition. I was watching a clip of him in a coast-to-coast drive against Israel the other day

where he just took the ball, exploded forward in the open court, powered through a dude with his left shoulder and finished with his right hand at the basket. That's not anything I saw out of him last year. He's got side-to-side pop on like his spins and his euros that wasn't there last year. He's simply far more athletic than he was last year. But the second piece of it is that he's retained most of his strength. I was worried about this when I heard about him losing weight. Strength is such a huge part of Lucas game,

which we're about to talk about more in a little bit here in just a second. You can tell that through this process, he has stayed dedicated in the weight room. And I'm seeing a lot of power on his drives and on his post-ups, on his bumps when he's handling ball pressure and boxouts. I just think Luca looks great physically. And I think we're going to get the best season of his career from him this year on both ends of the floor. So what does that look like?

Luca's approach to offense is very different than Shays, in that it relies heavily on his ability to generate dribble penetration through strength rather than speed and finesse. To be clear, Luca has excellent fundamentals, as we've discussed often on the show. He sells us fakes well. I think he's a great ball handler for young players to watch, it's all eyes and like selling every part of his move with every part of his body before he

changes direction. He's very good at getting that first tiny bit of an angle on even the elite defenders in the NBA. From there, though, that's where the difference is. It's about strength. He gets you on that shoulder. He gets you on his back. And he uses his size and strength to rumble downhill to whatever spot he wants on the floor. That's what gives him the ability. to be so effective in pick and roll and in his one-on-ones. In pick and roll, he sets his man up for screen, gets him trapped on his backside, and slowly works his way downhill.

It's a big part of why I'm not as worried about the screening and the Aiton partnership remains to be seen, but Luca's really gifted at getting dribble penetration even without necessarily needing a screen because of his strength. But once he gets you downhill, he's just waiting for the defense to react, right? Big man steps up, low man doesn't. He's hitting the big, either with a bounce pass or he's got unbelievable touch on lobs.

He's probably the best lob thrower in the NBA right now, right? Low man steps over. He can whip cross-court passes left-hand, right-hand to either corner easily, right? He beats low-man help extremely well. You stay back. He's got the short-range shot making, the little short jumpers off the bump or little floaters, things along those lines. You die on the screen.

He can hit the pull-up three. He is, in my opinion, the best pick-and-roll passer in the NBA. I think Yokic is a better overall passer, but strictly within on-ball pick and roll play, I think Lucas passing ability is transcended. I think he's the best at it. In post-up situations, he's also good. He can eat up double teams. I saw a lot of examples of that generating those threes for PJ Washington in the Oklahoma City series last year. He can look defenders off with his eyes. He is a profoundly good playmaker and advantage creator on the offensive end out of every single type of action. The key is going to be regaining his shot making. The playmaking is S tier. I talked about the

foul grifting earlier with Shay Lucas the exact same. He's got all the low gathers and pump fakes, weird shot angles, weird driving angles, the flops, the yelling, he's got it all, right? But the piece in the middle that he's got to get back is that shot making piece. If he can regain that shot making, in 2024, he was 37% on pull-up threes. That's a good number. We talked about the short range scoring. He was well over 50% on floaters and jumpers inside of 17 feet. If he can get all that back, that's what ties everything together and puts Luca in that position.

And that is a big part of as of why I am projecting him to be the second best player in the league this coming season. This is not going to be the fat Luca out of shape, Luca that we got last year. This is an in shape, strong and motivated Luca that should look like a better version of what we saw in 2024, the guy who dragged the Dallas Mavericks all the way to the NBA finals. To put it very simply, even though his point per game averages won't look like they did in Dallas because of how different the Lakers roster is, I expect this will be the best offensive season of Lucas' career. I expect a resurgence in mobility. I expect a resurgence in shot making.

I expect him to be one of the top tier shot creators in the league. Another kind of like specific area where I expect Luca to improve this year is at the end of games. Luca had some issues fatiguing last year. In the playoffs this last year, he was just six for 20 in fourth quarters and was pretty badly outplayed by Anthony Edwards in those spots. I think we'll see Luca do a better job of maintaining his level of impact later into games this season. But lastly, we have to talk about the defense event.

The conversation around Luca as a defender has been fascinating over the last couple of years, because it's complicated. For starters, he's an excellent defensive rebounder. Closing out defensive possessions is a key part of defense. He's also a good defensive playmaker off the ball, as we discussed earlier. Those are useful traits that help a defense. But he just has this gaping situational weakness with handling dribble penetration.

He gets picked on by quicker perimeter players, and he can give up super easy straight line drives. And when you get compromised that badly at the point of attack, it puts you in these really tough rotation situations that they can be really hard to recover from. It played a big role in their losses to Boston and Minnesota. The question is, what does Luca have to get to? What does he have to become in order to rectify that issue?

He doesn't need to become prime Patrick Beverly or Davion Mitchell. He doesn't need, like, dribble penetration is a part of basketball. Every player is capable of giving up drives from time to time. even the best defenders in the league. Luca just has to find a way to make it way harder than it has been.

More cutoffs, more flattened drives, fewer straight line drives. We talk about it all the time. If you flatten out a drive, meaning like, okay, you got past me, but you had to make multiple counter moves, and instead of going directly towards the rim,

it's kind of frayed off to the side a little bit. You do that, it makes it much easier for the defense around you to rotate and help and recover. He doesn't need to become an all-world defensive player. He just simply needs to be able to slide his feet and anticipate better to the point where he can flatten out more of those drives. Improved quickness and improved conditioning should help him in that department. This is the weakness that Luca has to address.

and I do believe that this season we will get his best performance in that particular facet of defense. So to wrap everything up, I have look at number two because despite his embarrassing previous season, I expect him to return to the level he was at the season before, which was the only player in the league other than Yokic to be both a transcendently great score and a transcendently great playmaker. It makes him the second best offensive engine currently on the planet playing basketball. I also think his improved conditioning will manifest with the best defensive season of his career

and better performance at the end of games where he has struggled with fatigue in the past. And that's why I have at Luca at number two this season. All right, guys, it's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We will be back on Friday with number one, Nicole Yokic as well as our mailbag. I will see you guys. Hey guys, it's us and the Jonas Brothers. I'm Joe.

I'm Kevin. And I'm Nick. And guess what? We created our own podcast. called Hey Jonas. We invented a podcast? Well, we didn't invent it. We just contributed to it.

We're the first people to do podcasts. We get to ask other people questions because we're sick and tired of being asked questions. Well, sick and tired is a strong way to put it, but, you know, tired and sick. Listen to Hey Jonas on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. Just listen. We don't care where you hear it. 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. This week on Crimless, Rory and I welcome a very special guest. When I did a podcast, I wear my sleep mask. I like where this is going. So if you guys will indulge me. That's right. The incredibly talented and hilarious Will Ferrell on an episode dedicated to crimes committed by people named Will Ferrell. You're good for 300 crimes?

Yeah. We've got two. I'm ready to go right up to present day. Listen to Crimless on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. What would you eat if you had to start over? Real simple, poor man's, poor woman's food. Black beans, chicken, rice, plantains. On the podcast Eating While Broke, I sit down with celebrities, entrepreneurs, and creators

as they revisit the meals they once relied on in the moments that shaped their journey. Named Best Food Podcasts at the 2006 I Heart Podcast Awards, the full season is available to binge. Right now. Listen to Eating While Broke from the Black Effect Podcast. network on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.