The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Why Steph Curry & Warriors are struggling, Kyrie & Nets drama, Lakers finally win

Episode Date: November 1, 2022

First (3:00) Jason Timpf reacts to Steph Curry, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors' two-game losing streak. What's been the main cause of the defending champs' poor play? Later (21:00), Jason discusses Donovan Mitchell and the Cleveland Cavaliers' hot start to the season, LeBron James and the Los Angeles Lakers finally winning a game, and the drama already surrounding Kyrie Irving, Kevin Durant, and the Brooklyn Nets two weeks into the NBA season. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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visit www. www.1.1800 gambler.net in West Virginia. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented by Fanduel here at the volume. Happy Halloween, everybody. I hope you guys had some fun over the weekend and or tonight, depending on how your schedule, all worked out. We have a ton of basketball to get to today. The Golden State Warriors lost back-to-back games in Charlotte and Detroit over the weekend. We're going to get into, specifically Detroit.

I'm going to dive into some of their young players as well because I had so much fun watching them this morning. They have some of my favorite young players in the league. The Cleveland Cavaliers have been one of the most impressive teams to start this season. They beat the Knicks yesterday to get up to 5 and 1, but they also had a super impressive road win in Boston that we're going to cover. We'll also be covering them again this Wednesday live on AMP after they have their rematch with the Celtics. The Los Angeles Lakers finally won. a basketball game at home against the Denver Nuggets, a lot to get into there.

And then last but at least, the Brooklyn Nets are experiencing more drama than I think they could have hoped for at this point in the season with Kyrie Irving, I don't know, renewing his yearly shenanigans, which are always a lot harder to handle when you're losing basketball games than when you're winning. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes 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 any show announcements. That's also where I put footage breakdowns because of some of the limitations we have on

YouTube. And then last but not least, if for whatever reason you miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish, you can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. So Golden State, dropping games in Charlotte and Detroit. Obviously not a good thing. Detroit and Charlotte are two pretty bad basketball teams. Some of its poor shooting, obviously I'm sure Warriors fans have been thinking about that a lot. Steph was 7 for 27 from 3 over the weekend. That's an anomaly. Andrew Wiggins was another guy who had a nightmare shooting weekend.

He was 8 for 28 from the field. But don't let that distract from the reality, which is that the Warriors' problems are on the defensive end. And primarily with their bench. So I wanted to kind of dive into those two concepts a little bit. So first of all, these are two average offenses in Detroit. and Charlotte, and in the two games, the Golden State Warriors had a defensive rating of almost 120, meaning they were giving up almost 120 points per 100 possessions, regardless of what you

think factors might be working against you in any sort of road trip or a guy being out of the lineup like Clay Thompson missing, you know, or Dante Devenzo being out of the game. Regardless of how you feel about any of those things, you should be able to go into Detroit and get stops as the Golden State Warriors. and you should be able to go into Charlotte, especially Charlotte, because they don't have the level of offensive talent that Detroit has, and you should be able to get stops. You know, I was listening to the Warriors broadcast of that Pistons game this morning,

and, you know, you keep hearing, they're just flummoxed, and I can't believe that he made that shot. Like, these guys are playing, they've lost five straight games. How is it that they're having the night of their life? And it's so easy as a fan, and I get that. I know I too am a fan. We're all fans in one way or another, whether it's of specific players or specific teams. And when you're a fan, you jump to rationalizations.

Like this explains why this happened or that explains why it happened. And a lot of times we do that ignoring obvious evidence that something more serious is taking place. You're right. Detroit's not very good. They're not a very good basketball team, but they are super talented. Charlotte is not a very good basketball team, but they have some talent. And it's not about being good in a vacuum, because of course the Warriors are good in a vacuum. You have to be good against the basketball players you're playing that night.

And if you don't bring it on that night, you'll get beat. This is what I meant when I was saying Unforgiving League. I had somebody in the comments say, Jason, Unforgiving League, Timp, because I've dropped it like three times in the last week. But I've been saying that for a reason. It's something I've been preaching all summer. The league is deeper with talent than it's ever been. but that still means that there's going to be good teams, mediocre teams, and bad teams, because your team isn't about the talent.

It's relative to the other teams around the league. A bad team now might have been a good team 10 years ago based on the talent, but that doesn't matter. It only matters within this season. The truth of the matter is that if Steph slides his feet and gets a stop on the final possession against Dennis Smith Jr., you get a win in Charlotte. but Dennis Smith Jr. is a pretty damn athletic, quick guard. A guard that in this league kind of seems like a bad guard, right?

But he's a freak athlete that can dribble. He's been knocking down more pull-up jump shots this year than he has in years past. He's a guy that if you don't slide your feet, he's going to beat you to the basket and make a lay-up. And that sent the game to overtime where they lost. You know, if you leave your feet jumping out of Sadiq Bay pump fake the way that Jordan Poole did, you know, in the second half against Detroit, like he's, gonna go to the basket and get a layup because Sadiq Bay is a big, strong, athletic wing, and a damn good basketball player. He doesn't care that it says Detroit Pistons on the front of

his jersey or that his team lost five straight games. He's a good basketball player. And if you don't bring effort, you're going to lose. And in this particular game, there was just a whole lot of sloppiness from the Warriors. There was a play where Jaden Ivy, with a live dribble just brought the ball at the floor in transition and nobody picked him up. So guess what he did? He elevated above the rim and dunked it. I watched Jaden Ivy in Summer League. He's my second favorite player in this entire class. He's damn good. He's a damn good basketball player. And if you don't play him with respectable effort, you're going to lose games. And then Kate, you know, Kate Cunningham, and he's becoming one of my favorite young players in the league, too. He was getting downhill

too easily in pick and roll. And he's a big strong wing that has a very high-level passing feel. He's got these big hands. He can palm the basketball and throw these cross-court passes and swing-shot passes and things along those lines. And if you let him get downhill and force your help to come in, he's going to hit open shooters on the other side of the court all day long. And if you don't box out, you'll get beat on the offensive glass by two really athletic teams, like the Detroit Pistons and the Charlotte Hornets, and the Warriors gave up 27 offensive rebounds in these two games.

The Warriors now are down to 27th in the NBA in rebounding percentage. So they're 23rd in defense and 27th in rebounding percentage. They're how, in terms of a title defense, that's not a good start. If you can't defend and you can't get rebounds, even against bad teams, then you're not good enough to be able to win at the highest levels. Now, let's zoom out a little bit because it's not like Steph and Clay and Dremont and Andrew Wiggins all forgot how to play basketball. That's not what happened.

the problem is with their bench. According to cleaning the glass, when Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, Andrew Wiggins, Draymond Green, and Kivan Lune are on the floor, this is their starting lineup. They are whooping everyone's ass. They have 127 offensive rating,

which is outstanding, and a 100 defensive rating, which is outstanding. So the silver lining for Warriors fans to cling to is like, our core five guys are excellent. The problem is, is they're getting destroyed almost everywhere else.

Six of their top eight lineups in terms of total minutes played without Steph and Dremont on the floor are getting outscored. And most of them are getting badly outscored. They just fall apart when those guys go to the bench. And there's, you know, some of it is weak perimeter defense and we'll talk more about this in a minute. But the big glaring one that's been standing out to me in the last few games is James Wiseman.

He's getting absolutely destroyed in his minutes, or at least the team is. And yeah, some of it is like, yeah, he's playing with Moses Moody guarding really good perimeter players, and Moses is not quite ready for that yet. Jordan Poole is having a really bad defensive season to start the year. Jonathan Cominga, who is a better defensive player than Moses Moody, I thought, and he hasn't been defending well to start this season.

But the reality is, is in 102 minutes with James Wiseman on the floor, they're minus 48. That's destructive. That's really, really bad. the most frequently used James Wiseman lineup right now is Jordan Poole with Dante DiVincenzo, Jonathan Caminga, Michael Green, and James Wiseman. That's the most used, like the most minutes, most possessions lineup with James Wiseman on the floor. They have an offensive rating of 59 points per 100 possessions and a defensive rating of 111.

They're getting outscored by 52 points per 100 possessions in the most frequently used James Wiseman lineup. And again, like it's, I want to blame the way. weak perimeter defense, but it's not just that. You know, even with Steph, Clay, Andrew Wiggins, and Dremont on the floor with James Wiseman, they have a minus 82 net rating in 11 possessions. Again, small sample size, but they got absolutely destroyed in that particular lineup. The reality is, is that it's kind of a clunky fit. First of all, he's a big guy who's learning how to play the game.

And he, as we've said throughout the season, he's really good at some things already. Like, he's got, he's a legit vertical spacer, although he can fumble the basketball sometimes. He had a pretty bad, uh, missed lob in the second half against Detroit. That was kind of a big momentum play because they ran out the other way and got, Cidique Bay hit a three on the left wing, and it was like a five point swing. Um, but he's pretty good vertical spacer, right? And like he, uh, if he catches, uh, with an advantage around the rim, he'll finish. I think he's, I think he's shooting like 65% in the restricted area this year, which is fine, you know.

defensively, when he's around the rim and guys are coming at him, his length can be a problem, which is good. When he's in drop coverage, you know, he makes some good reads from time to time, and his length can be a problem, but he's really struggling with physicality. And it hurts the Warriors in particular on two spots on the floor. On offense, it's so important to be a really good screener as a big in Golden State's offense. And Draymond Green and Kavanaugh are excellent screeners. but James Wiseman is the biggest weakness that he has right now is physicality.

He struggles in the physical battles of the game. And if you don't set big physical screens, then you're not getting as much separation for the Golden State Guards coming off those actions. And then it's like a missing cog in the engine, and then everything stops working, right? And then on the defensive end, it's like Isaiah Stewart was just bullying James Wiseman, especially on the offensive glass, and that's a problem.

And so when I really look at it, like, what James Wiseman does as a big in this league is less valuable to Golden State than it is to other teams. His vertical spacing, even though it's a unique touch on this roster, is less valuable for Golden State because vertical spacing matters more when the paint is clogged and you need an escape route to throw the ball up towards the rim. Golden State's spacing is inverted. Their spacing around the rim is always good because they have all these guys,

and Steph Clay and Jordan Poole, flying off of these screens, and Andrew Wiggins shoots the ball so well that for the most part, their spacing is inverted. The congestion for the Warriors is on the perimeter. And so vertical spacing brings less value. What they actually need out of that position is a guy who can screen really, really well,

and that is a really smart decision maker. That's hitting guys cutting up. out of the weakside corner, things along those lines. They want you to succeed in four-on-three settings. And so part of me feels bad for Wiseman because he's a young player that's learning how to play the game. He's played something crazy, like 55 NBA games or something like that. Don't quote me on that, but he's played less than 100 NBA games.

Before that, he didn't really play much at Memphis. Like, the dude hasn't had much of an opportunity to learn how to play the game. And he's learning to play in a system where his specific archetype is kind of less valuable. You have to almost play a different style. They just basically run a lot of high pick and roll with Jordan Poole when he's out there. And so at the end of the day, like, it'll be a really interesting decision for the Warriors' brass to make. Because, you know, when we're looking, like, yes, Clay Thompson's going to come back. He didn't play on Sunday.

He's going to come back. That's going to alleviate some of your bench concerns. Andrea Godala eventually, especially as we get deeper in the season, we'll start being used a little bit more frequently. He's a better perimeter defender than a Moses Moody or someone along those lines. there will be some reinforcements, there'll be a candidate for buyout players as we get past the deadline. All that's true. But one of two things needs to happen.

They either need these young guys to get better to the point where they're dependable playoff rotation players, or they need to consider flipping them for players who will be. And that's going to be a tough decision. Because right now, Moses Moody is making progress and might be that guy. Jonathan Cominga is definitely not ready. Like he's just not ready and he will not be ready this year. And James Wiseman is very, very far away from becoming a positive player on this team. So the question is, is it, do you bank on that on the fact that Wiseman will eventually figure that stuff out during this season?

Or do you do something like take Wiseman and Cominga or maybe Wiseman, Kaminga and Moody, and combine them and try to get something back that can actually contribute within this season. And again, it's early. There's a lot of basketball left. And it's possible that these guys do make monumental improvements. That's just the risk. Right now, you're a dominant starting lineup and everyone else is killing you. And you lost Otto Porter Jr. and Gary Payton the second,

two players that were very productive. for you in these roles. Gary Payton the second in particular, the Warriors were positive with him on the court in the playoffs and negative without him. And so it's very important as the Warriors go to their bench to have an additional really good perimeter defender that can operate in the short role and that can knock down the occasional corner three. And that does smart, is a smart basketball player that doesn't make mistakes that can hurt your team. It's going to be an interesting conundrum for them. I did want to shout out Jordan Poole. Holy cow, did he have an explosive second half in that Pistons game? He had like a transition three on the right wing and then a steel that led to another transition three on the right wing.

And then he hit another transition three on the left wing on a pass from step. And then he started barbecuing Boyin Bogdanovich in isolation at the top of the key. He had a disgusting stepback move there. He's got a mile to go defensively, obviously. but while everyone else was struggling offensively this weekend, Jordan Poole was really, really impressive. And that's, he's been a huge bright spot here early in the season, in my opinion. Well, tough one tomorrow in Miami for the Warriors to get back on track.

And we'll be covering that game on AMP right after the final buzzer. So Detroit, I was really impressed just in general by how good they were getting downhill towards the rim with all of their young players that they have. Cedique Bay is kind of like your classic mismatch attacking forward, not quite as skilled as some of the other ones around the league, but he is huge. And there were a lot of plays where he just ripped through to the basket and guys were just shedding off of him as he was getting to the rim.

Kate Cunningham is really good at leveraging his body to get the defender on his backside as he's coming through on pick and roll. We talked about earlier how good he is at making those cross-court passes and things along those lines, those high-level reads. He had another transition pass to Killian Hayes, like cutting out of the backside corner that I didn't even see as I was watching. I didn't even see Killian there. That's always to me, like one of the indicators of a high-level passer is if us, the fans, as we're watching, we can see the basic reads. We can see strong side help and an easy kickout.

We can see, you know, a drop-off pass to the dunker spot when the big guy steps up. Those are normal things. But, like, it's hard unless you're on a rewatch when you're watching all the things moving to see. the higher level reads like skips to the weak side corner and things that you might not see and Cades all over that stuff. Jaden Ivy is still, in my opinion, one of the hardest guards in the league to keep in front, which is insane for how young he is. You could see that attacking closeouts and in transition. And then both Isaiah Stewart and Jalen Duren are just monsters on the offensive glass. The two combined for eight offensive rebounds against Golden State.

this is one of the most exciting young cores in basketball. And they just extended Boyan-Begovitch for two additional years. So you've got a veteran presence that can shoot the basketball, defend bigger wings, although he's not quick enough to defend quicker players. But I like that move for them. There's no reason to, you know, as long as you can afford him for the next couple of years. It's not like you're going to be big players in the free agent market. So I like the move.

Detroit's going to be fun to watch. I enjoyed watching that game. and again, it's just the story of the NBA these days. What you anticipate to be an easy game just isn't an easy game anymore. So let's move on to the Cavs. So the Cavs beat the Knicks yesterday to get to 5 and 1. So the game I actually watched, I did not watch the Knicks game. I watched the Celtics game from a couple nights prior, epic back and forth game in OT.

Celtics should have won that game, but the kind of classic Celtics did at the end with some poor decision making down the stretch in crunch time and an OT. Also, you just got to hand it to the Cavs, like Donovan Mitchell and Karas Levert, just time and time again made gigantic shots, like tough off the dribble, pull-up jump shots in that game. But the two of them have been making them all season long. They are fit in offense to start the year. Third in defense, second in net rating.

What's really interesting about them being third in defense is if I asked you what the Cavs would be great at defensively, you would say, oh, well, they got Jared Allen and Evan Mowbly. They're going to shut down the paint. But that could not be further from the truth. They are 18th in opponent paint points allowed per 100 possessions. And opponents are shooting 67% against them in the paint, which is bottom 10, excuse me, in the restricted area, which is bottom 10 in the league. The reason why their defense is so good is they are not allowing teams to get off three-point shots. They are allowing the fewest three-point attempts in the league at just 28.3 per 100 possessions.

Teams are shooting right around just under 36% on those shots, which is pretty normal. You can also see it on tape. They pressure the ball, which is what you expect from a team that has great backline help. They're chasing guys off the line. They're not over-helping. They're willing to allow a guy to challenge a player

that's on his hip at the rim rather than sending help that you don't need to send. And then this is a huge part of it. Both Jared Allen and Evan Mobley are good at defending on the perimeter. But the biggest driving force, without a doubt of their early season success, because Dary Scarlane went down in the first game against Toronto with like a scratch to the eye or something, and we haven't seen him since. But Donovan Mitchell has just been otherworldly good. He's playing the best basketball of his career, and it's not particularly close.

I was listening to the Celtics broadcast for this particular game, and they were, one of the announcers said that they noticed a pep in Donovan Mitchell's step since he came to Cleveland. And I'm not surprised. I mean, there was kind of like a negative energy lingering around that Utah team for a while and just getting that change of scenery. Um, you know, I think, I think Rudy Gobert can grate on people a little bit. He's with younger, probably more energetic people. It's just, he just looks happy. And, and obviously with Darius Garland being out, the whole your turn, my turn thing has just been almost thrown out of the window. And he kind of has like a really natural give and take with Caris Lavert already. And

dude, you could just see it in the way he plays. He's still one of the most athletic guards in the league. He had a disgusting blowby on Marcus Smart in the fourth quarter of that game where he kind of like, the announcers called it an overhand crossover. And I thought it was interesting that he called that because I've always thought of that as just like more of a body crossover. You're not actually doing anything to sway the defender with the ball. What it is is your body is pointed to the right and then you're literally turning your body to the left. And it's one of the biggest things that I teach young players when I coach skills from my high school team is it's not about what you do with the basketball with a move. It's what you do with your body. If you can sell with

your body that you're going one direction and then change direction while protecting the basketball from getting swiped at, you will get by the defender. It's not about doing some big sweeping crossover. You can just push the ball out to your left as long as you sell that you're going right and you'll beat someone off the dribble. And on this play, Donovan Mitchell did that to Marcus Smart. He buckled and he went all the way to the rim and dunked it. He had another one in overtime where he hit Malcolm Brogden with a hard right to left move. I think he went through his legs on this one. But Malcolm Brogden literally got just utterly toasted, didn't even get a hand on him as he went all the way to the rim for the layup. He's just, he's just, he's a really unique combination of freaky downhill

athleticism to get to the rim and one of the best pull-up jump shooters in the league. I talked to you guys about this over the summer. One of the biggest reasons why I was excited for Cleveland is he has the offensive skill set that translates to the postseason. And he is one of the most successful postseason scorers of the last few years. He's just been so bad defensively and the Utah Jazz were so bad and so disappointing that we kind of just look at him is out of sight or out of mind. But I want to say he was like 41% on like 11 pull-up three-point attempts per game or something crazy like that over the last few post-season.

He's just a knock-down pull-up shooter that can get to the rim. And that combination just makes him incredibly difficult to guard. He's averaging 32, 5, and 7 this season so far on 64% true shooting, career highs in points and efficiency at this point, obviously early. Career high and assists as well at seven per game. He's shooting 46% on 11 pull-up jumpers per game, including 53% on pull-up threes. Just absolutely insane shot making. And he's been better defensively than he was in Utah.

I haven't seen enough to just be like, oh, he's seen the light because I've only seen like three or four of the Cavs games this year. But in the games that I've watched, he's been impressive. he's been one of the most impressive players in the league to start the season. So you have to tip the cap to Kobe Altman and the Cavs for a really smart move over the summer. Keros Lavert has also been a lot better than I expected. I called him the odd man out to start the season. And who knows, maybe he still will be the odd man out when Darius Garland comes back.

But I could not have been more wrong about how he fits, at least with this iteration of the calves. His shot making has been all over the place. He's basically hitting everything from deep and nothing. else. He's shooting 50% on pull-up threes so far this season. He had a massive step-back three. I think it was over Jaylon Brown. And overtime, that basically amounted to be the game winner. The Celtics went down and tied, and they had kind of a bad possession where it was a little stagnant, and Karas Lever just hit like a pound dribble between his legs into his stepback, and he knocked it down. But the most impressive thing to me from Karas Leverd has been his playmaking out of high pick and

roll. It's kind of similar to what we were talking about, Kate Cunningham. You know, he's not a the downhill, you know, speedy threat that Donovan Mitchell is. It's kind of a really interesting, different type of attack to the Donovan Mitchell attack because Caris LaVerd is moving in slow motion a lot of the time. He's trying to get you pinned on his backside. He's a lot more willing to shoot in the mid-range. And even though both guys are averaging seven assists per game, it's uncharacteristics for Donovan Mitchell. You know, Caris LaVerd has always had a little bit of that, you know, pick you apart type of game in high pick and roll. And he's getting high usage because of Darius Garland being out and he's producing in that specific role at a career high seven assists per game right now

this early in the season. And then I think he's been, again, I need to see more, but I think he's been pretty damn solid defensively. And I thought he was really impressive defensively in the games that I watched. The rim defense for the Cavs should improve, like I said, even though they defended the three point line really well. Just having Mobley and Allen out there, I do think that'll kind of trend back in their direction. Dary Scarlane will bring a different dynamic to the offense, but it'll also take something away

defensively, so that'll be an interesting kind of dynamic when he comes back. Obviously, that kind of throws off the give and take between Lavert and Mitchell and kind of shifts some roles around. So they've got some stuff that they'll have to figure out, but overall they've been one of the most impressive teams to start the season. And we're going to be

covering them again on Wednesday when they host the Cavs live on AMP after the final buzzer of that game. But I definitely wanted to spend some time shouting out the Cavs this morning. 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, 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 where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan,

so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of ton-tons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to bowl your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

So the Lakers finally notched a win at home against Denver. I did a TikTok for Carson. He's the guy here at the volume that helps with our TikTok, and he also helps on this show. You guys know him. And he was like, hey, can you send me a video? three things that you think would fix the Los Angeles Lakers. And I said, you know, obviously I targeted management,

like they need to do something with Russ. But then the other two things I said were they needed to actually have LeBron James and Anthony Davis play to their capability, meaning LeBron like a top five player, AD like a top 10 player. And then I said they needed to knock down some perimeter jump shots because if you're shooting below 20%, you're just not going to be able to be competitive in the NBA. And yeah, I never expected the Lakers to be a good three-point shooting team this year.

They just don't have the roster for that. But they certainly are better than what they were. And so two of those three were rectified, essentially, in that Denver Nuggets game, and what do you know, they won a basketball game. They shot 43% from three. Big part of that was shot quality. They only had 30 attempts, but only one, according to NBA.com, was tracked as either tightly contested or very tightly contested.

So they just took smarter three. And then also some of that's just positive regression. Again, they're not a good shooting team, but they were nowhere near as bad as they looked. And so it was inevitable that they were going to have some good shooting games, and they happened to have one going 13 for 30 against the Nuggets. And then Anthony Davis, like, okay, Anthony Davis got soundly outplayed by Nicola Yokic up in Denver. I did a whole video talking about how his transition defense in particular destroyed the Lakers in that particular game.

And I was very critical of Anthony Davis. And, you know, again, like, when it comes to the criticism of players, everything is, like, relative to what your talent level is. And, you know, it's kind of like an expectations versus results type of thing. Like, you know, what frustrates me about Anthony Davis is he should be one of the top five basketball players in the world. That's how talented he is. He's, you know, obviously constructed like Rudy Gobert defensively, but he's got the shooting touch. He's demonstrated over the course of his career stretches of outstanding shooting touch. He can dribble the basketball.

The dude is an unbelievable freak talent. And I've seen what it looks like when he's dialed in on both ends of the floor. I saw it in 2020. He was so damn impressive. I was joking about this in a group chat the other day. He was so damn impressive in the 2020 season that when he would have a bad first half, I would tweet out like, oh, big second half in. coming because AD was like that was his rough game like a rough AD game would be he'd have a bad

first half and then he'd come out in the second half and destroy everybody the dude was a night in night out monster that killed everybody that was in his path he became one of my favorite players he I ranked him as the fourth best player in the world after that season he was a monster and then he just lost it some of it was injuries a lot of it is him coming into the season out of shape. A lot of it is he put on too much muscle and he's too heavy now. I mean, look, this back spasm thing that's been acting up for a while, the reality is, is like, that's just part of the Anthony Davis experience now. You can't just blame bad luck. He's stiff as a board because he's incredibly overweight in terms of just too much muscle mass for what he needs for the position.

And guess what happens a lot when you get stiff and lack mobility because you overbuild, your back gets tight. And that's what he's dealing with now. And like, it's, I have a, that there's just a lot of reasons for all Laker fans or Anthony Davis fans to be frustrated with the way that he's played over the years, the last couple of years. And you know what? He went out with his bad back, with the same lack of mobility that he's had over the last couple years, and he soundly outplayed Yokic last night, soundly outplayed him. Completely erase that transition stuff, sprinting back, instead of having 35 fast break

points like they did in the game in Denver, they only had nine. Did a great job in isolation defense. Even the shots that Yokic made in that game were immensely difficult because Anthony Davis was draped all over him. Anthony Davis was making his jump shot, particularly his two-point jump shot, and then on the other end of the floor, Yokic can't shoot anymore, which we're going to get to. That's a whole other thing. But AD was ignoring Yokic and dropping back into the paint to contain things and shut

down a lot of Denver stuff. He was the better player in that game. Now, Yokic is a better player overall. Do I expect Anthony Davis to outplay Yokic every single night? No, not until he gets back to form. But if he can play like a top 10 player and outplay Nikoliyokic in a random game like this, when he plays up to that level where he's an all-world defensive player that also has the ability to make big-time offensive plays,

he hit back-to-back isolation jumpers over Nikolokic in crunch time of this game, a nasty fade away over his left shoulder into the lane, and then one of those easy, breezy jab step, pull-up jump shots on the left wing, and then he had a huge offensive rebound put back on a missed LeBron jump shot in crunch time. When he's making superstar offensive plays, and then he's the all-world defender that he is, he's a top-10 player. When he plays like a top-10 player, the Lakers are a better team. Big shock.

You know, that's why I've been trying to hold him to that standard. I know that's what he's capable of. he is capable of being a top 10 player in this league. He hasn't been for this entire season up to last night and for the most part over the course of the previous two years. If he plays to that standard, a lot of the Lakers' problems go from being big problems to being smaller problems. That's why it was so important for him to get up to that level.

And then, you know, LeBron, he had a rough night, particularly in the first half, really struggled to finish around the rim, had some sloppy turnovers. But he came out and was excellent in the second half. and he had a bunch of tough isolation jumpers. He made some huge plays at the end of the game. There was a play where Yokic had Anthony Davis kind of pinned under the rim

and got an offensive rebound and was holding it in his right hand. And LeBron just came flying in and snatched it out of his hand, dribbled the ball up the floor and hit a transition three. It was a five-point swing, because Yokic probably gets fouled there or makes a layup. It was a five-point swing. That was a huge impact play in this game. And then there was another play where he got switched on to Yokch,

and he denied Yokch the post-entry, the entire play. possession just by fronting him. And when he did, the nuggets kind of passed it around the perimeter for a while, didn't know what to do. And Michael Porter Jr. ended up jacking up a bad three at the top of the key. It was a huge stop in the game. And what's funny is like, like LeBron, that's all you're asking for from LeBron. Top five players are going to have bad games. They're going to have bad haves. That happens. But more often than not, they bring their A game. And when they do have a rough half, they usually come out in the second half and they make big plays. And in this particular game, when LeBron was a little bit uneven, they happened to get a great

Russell Westper performance that helped kind of bolster that. But it was funny, there was a moment in the first half where LeBron, I want to say it was either a turnover. I think it was a turnover. He turned the ball over in transition, I believe. And they went down the other way and there was a foul. I think Aaron Gordon got fouled or something. And he was sitting and he kind of had his head down and the camera was right on his face and he just kind of like shook his head and then he went back to the game and it was right before, I think it was right before the end of the first half. And I remember sitting there thinking like, he's the one guy that I don't worry about figuring it out.

Like Anthony Davis, who knows? Last night it might be an anomaly or he might play like that the rest of the season. I literally have no idea. I have no idea what to make of what that performance was last night, if that's the usual thing for him moving forward or if it was an anomaly. But with LeBron, he will figure out a way to be one of the five best players in the world this year. His body is still moving well enough. It's mainly like sloppiness that's been undercutting him to this point. And most importantly, he's wired that way. He is the psychotic competitor that does not get complacent. He sees what's happening around him

on the team and he knows he hasn't been good enough. I expect him to get, I expect over the the next few weeks for LeBron to steadily improve and to eventually look like a surefire top five player in the league. So we got to shout out Russ. Russ had one of his very good games, not just a good game, a very good game from Russ. And like I said, it helped kind of balance out some of LeBron's uneven performance. A couple of things. He had good games last year. This is not incredibly unheard of. In the way these good games for Russ look are a lot, like, what you saw last night, which is bad rust plays just with more good rust plays. Like he missed four more layups in that game.

He's now shooting under 50% in the restricted area for the season, which is insane. He had three more turnovers. He had a bad missed box out in the second half on Bruce Brown that led to a three-point shot. Bruce Brown went up and grabbed the rebound. He kicked a 10. I think Contavius Caldwell Pope in the right corner, and he made a three. Bad rust plays are every night. But the differences in this particular game, he had all of his great Russ plays working.

And as a result, the balance skipped heavily in the favor of him impacting winning. He was punishing the smaller Denver guards, particularly Jamal Murray, just had no chance against him. In the, I believe it was in the first half, hitting nasty, really low between the legs crossover to his right. Again, when you're trying to beat a person off the dribble, one of the best ways to do that is to get lower. than them because there's inevitably going to be some contact as you're trying to go around their shoulder. And then from there, it's just a challenge of leverage. And you're going to have better leverage if you're lower to the ground and your legs are bent and you can power up through that contact than if you're up higher and the defender is lower than you, he can push you off of your

line. And he got super low and got past Jamal Murray's shoulder and finished with the right-hand layup, kind of talk some shit to Jamal in his face. And then the game ceiling one, same thing. just put his head down and went right around Jamal Murray to the right. And he's going to be having nightmares about that because you could tell it bothered Jamal when Russ was talking shit at his expense. I don't blame him. Russ has been one of the worst players in the league over the last couple of years. So if he talks trash to you, I assume that would be kind of frustrating.

But yeah, like that's always going to be one of Russ's strengths as him being a huge, strong guard that has the ability to overpower smaller guards around the league. He had four offensive rebounds in this game. including a massive offensive rebound in the fourth quarter where Matt Ryan kind of drove to the baseline and airballed a short jump shot. And Russ came flying in from the other side and grabbed the rebound and like pitched it back out to Matt Ryan in the corner and he knocked down a three. He had the high-level Russ playmaking that we've grown accustomed to over the years.

Specifically, there was one where he drove along the left wing to the baseline and made a ridiculous cross-court pass to Austin Reeves in the right corner at the last second. like he was in the air for like a second before he did this. Denver completely collapsed, kicked out to Austin. Austin pumped fake and went to the rim and got an and won. This was during a 17-0 run from the Lakers, which I'm pretty sure for the most part was just Russ and Anthony Davis. Massive winning effort from Russ in this game. And then he was good defensively, held up well in closeouts. He had a big block on Michael Porter Jr. under the rim late in the game.

Overall, he's just been in this particular game, he was just a force of positive energy. And that's what a good Russ game is going to look like. And again, like, do I like Russ on this team? No. Do I dislike him as a person? No. Have I been frustrated rooting for him over the last couple years? Yes, because he's a very frustrating basketball player to root for. But there is no personal beef here, and I will always point out when he plays well.

Off the bench is definitely the best way to use him because he gets to be more aggressive when he has the basketball. But the reality is his good nights. like the one last night are way too inconsistent to bank on. So as Laker fans, I hope you don't get your hopes up that that's what it's going to look like every night because it's just not going to. And at the end of the day, they're better off flipping Russ for players that have more night-to-night impact on winning.

Zooming out a little bit from the Lakers, they're second in defense in the entire league right now, and AD just played his best game. And LeBron, like I said earlier, is the last guy worried about figuring things out. So if AD can kind of translate this into more consistent success, if LeBron continues to improve offensively over the course the next couple weeks and their defense holds up the way it has through a very tough schedule, this team's going to start ripping off some wins. I just think the biggest thing that I'd watch out for is health

because if Anthony Davis's back has to require him to miss one or two games every week, they'll lose those games because without him they just don't have enough talent and then obviously in terms of continuity, just not having enough the continuity and lineups from night to night. A couple of quick notes on the nuggets. They're down to 24th in defense now. The influx of Michael Porter Jr. and Jamal Murray was always going to limit them defensively.

We talked about this a lot this summer, but I said that they would be the number one offense in the league, and they just simply haven't been. They've been 15th in offense. And there's a couple big reasons for that. Jamal Murray in particular has a ways to go to get back to what he was, although he was hitting some wild shots against the Lakers in this game. He had a late shot clock one against Anthony Davis on the left wing

where, like, pump-faked and Anthony Davis was draped all over him, and he, like, leaned into the right and made it a couple nasty stepbacks, too. So those are good signs, but his scoring, he's averaging right around, like, I think, 14 points per game, and you'd like to see him over 20. Aaron Gordon hasn't shot the ball well. That's not helping. And then their bench is just really, really bad. DeAndre Jordan is, in my opinion, like, probably the worst NBA player that gets

rotation minutes in the NBA. I thought that when he was on the Lakers, thought that when he was on the Sixers. Think that now. um this particular game because bones highland was out they were running like it was funny there was a late game i want to say it was either late third or early fourth i want to i think it was late third where uh the nets or the nuggets had a uh a half court possession where the lakers were on to run and bruce brown like came off of a high ball screen from dandre jordan and just pulled up and shot a pull up off the dribble three early in the shot clock that he missed and i remember thinking like why in the

world is Bruce Brown taking that shot? And then I looked around at the lineup and it was like DeAndre Jordan, Devonre, Jeff Green, Christian Braun and Bruce Brown. I'm like, oh, that's why. It's because they literally don't have anybody in that lineup that can create their own shot. But Bones Highland was out in that particular game. But a big part of why their bench scoring hasn't been good all season is Bones Highland. His efficiency has fallen off of a cliff this year, despite him shooting 44% from three. I had the nuggets down. eight in my power rankings because even though there was there's a ton of optimism surrounding the nuggets they killed everybody when they made the erin gordon trade two years ago before

jemal murray came back so there was a lot like oh they'll just come back and just start killing everybody again um but the truth is is there a team that has great strengths and great flaws which is true for a lot of the teams around the league right now but for denver in particular they're they got worse defensively and their offense hasn't been good enough to make up for it and they've got to figure that out and then the last part here and this is something on over the course of last year. So if you guys remember, I talked about how Yokic's perimeter shooting was concerning to me. And over the course of the last chunk of the season and into the postseason, his inability to knock down a pick and pop three point shot was causing some

problems for Denver's offense because the big man could sit back into the lane in those situations. And I thought it was like a legitimate regression. I was like, this is a huge sample size spanning over months and months and this dude's just not making any shots, some things up. I talked to somebody who covers the nuggets, and he told me that he had a wrist issue. And a lot of you Laker fans probably are immediately like, ah, I remember this excuse, because Anthony Davis said something similar over the course of the summer. Well, whatever wrist issue was there last season is gone, and Yokic has missed one of his last 13, or excuse me, he's made one of his last 13 three-point attempts.

And Anthony Davis just completely ignored him when he was that far away from the rim and sagged back and he was unable to make him pay. And it was a big part of why Denver had some stretches of ugly offense in this game. So Denver's got a lot to work out too. As we're zooming out here, I mean, like the clippers have been really bad to start the season, the nets have been really bad to start the season, the Sixers have been really bad to start the season. And the Warriors have been really bad to start the season relative to their expectations. Those are four of my top six teams in the power rankings. The only, and the Celtics, I think they have, I'm going off the top of my head here, but I think they might have three losses.

at this point. So when I'm zooming out here, like, really the bucks are the only one of the top tier teams that is really excelling right now. And their offense isn't, their offense isn't as good as it needs to be because they're missing all their spot-up shooters. So like, there is no perfect team right now. And so I'm really curious to see if there is a team out there that decides to go all in or make some sort of more aggressive trade because the truth is, is there's just a whole lot of, a whole lot of mid-level basketball going on around the league right now.

All right, we've been going for a while, so I'm going to get out of here pretty quick. The couple notes on the Nets. I was stunned when they decided to bring everyone back, if you remember. There was literally two videos, one day apart. One was on a Monday, one was on a Tuesday.

One was, on Monday, I was like, Katie's going to get traded. There's no way they decide to move forward with this group. and it was after everything that happened with like a Joe sigh and you know and talking about wanting Steve Nash out and then like Tuesday morning the Kevin Durant report came that he's going to be returning to the team like and is recommitted and I came out that day and I was stunned I was stunned and I had a lot of people in the comments like why you were so confident that that was going to happen you were wrong but I'm going to be wrong all the time anytime you make

predictions you're going to be wrong but I was really stunned and there was a lot a reason why I came out so strong with that take on that Monday. I could not figure out. Because like, I believe in Kevin Durant as a foundational piece for a franchise. I believe in Kyrie Irving's capability. I believe in the fit that they have naturally with Ben Simmons. They, you know, obviously Seth Curry's been out. T.J. Warren has been out. They have more talent that's not available yet. But I had them as a if things go right contender. But I did not have them as a is a top-tier contender. And there was a big gap between those. And specifically, I just was looking at that situation and I'm thinking, Katie doesn't like the GM or the coach. Kyrie Irving is literally

a disaster for a basketball team to deal with every single season with all the drama that he brings. And they're not talented enough to be a top-tier contender. So like, what's the point? Like, you need everything to go right in order for you to win a title, and chances are things won't go right. And so I came out strongly thinking there's no way. And then they decided to bring everybody back. And if you guys remember, what did I say at that point? I said, they are very talented. And so if they win games, this will all be fine.

But if you remember, I said if they start losing games, the wounds from this summer will come back to the surface. And that's literally what's happened. They're sitting at one in five. And all of a sudden, when a team that's not playing hard, like not grabbing rebounds and not defending, you start to think, oh, they're not bought into their coach. Well, the best player said he didn't want that coach. That's something that you're going to start thinking about. Kyrie Irving, I said, oh, well, he's going to buy back in and try to earn that

contract extension this summer. And he has, on the court, been available, which is a lot more than you could say over the last two seasons. But now we have all this drama with all the anti-Semitic stuff that he's been promoting and, and him having back and forth with Nick Ferdell and Nick Fidel in the post-game presser. That stuff's a lot easier to deal with when you're five and one than it is when you're one in five. And as these losses start to pile up and that last one against the Pacers was really, really, really embarrassing, the reality is, is all of these things are going to start to bubble to the surface? Are they bought into the coach? You know, Ben Simmons and his mental health, is that going to be an issue? Kyrie Irving and his shenanic.

you know, all of that stuff starts to bubble to the surface. And I honestly don't know what ends up happening here. I really thought they'd want to move on from this group over the summer and they did not. They wanted to continue to push forward. I see KD as a foundational MVP piece, but nothing else around this to me is worth this, everything else. And you don't have the means with which to turn the surrounding pieces into players that complement KD well enough. to win a title, and he's getting older. So, like, at the end of the day, like, you really only have two options. You can cross your fingers and just hope this all works out, and they suddenly start playing defense, and they suddenly start grabbing rebounds, and Seth Curry and T.J. Warren

come in and just kind of give them an influx of talent, and everything is fine, or you can sell the farm. And I'm really curious to see which direction they end up going. My guess is they stick it out for a little while longer until Seth Curry and T.J. Warren get into the offense. But right now, like, man, this could not have gone worse to start the season. They've lost some winnable games in this chunk. All right. So that's all I have for today. Here's the plan for the rest of this week. Tomorrow night, we're going live after the final buzzer of, I believe, Golden State, Miami. That's going to be on AMP. So you're going to want to go to my Twitter feed and find the AMP link so you can download that amp at that app and listen to the show.

there. If you miss that for whatever reason, it will be redistributed on YouTube later in the evening. Then Wednesday, Amp after the early morning, or the early evening game, Cavs Celtics, and then live on YouTube after the Lakers game on Wednesday night, which I believe is against the Pelicans. Thursday night, we're live on AMP after Warriors Magic, and then Friday, we're just doing a normal YouTube film breakdown sometime during the day. So that's our schedule for this week. As always, I appreciate your guys' support, and I will see you. tomorrow. The volume.

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