What is krack a lacing fellow Thermo nuclear a Effers. I am Dan fa
Valley coming at you with my certified fantabulous co host, mister Grant Hughes.
We are on to our fourth and final installment of one goal or thing to
watch for that we want to see or that we are monitoring for every NBA
team to close out the regular season. If you have missed the first three
podcasts, go check them out right now. You want redownload them, like
them, comment on YouTube, even if you've already done that, share them.
They are up, they are live. This is the second part of
the Western Conference. Definitely listen to the first part of the Western Conference.
At least we did the Dallas Mavericks through the Memphis Grizzlies because we go alphabetically
since Grant and I are fucking geniuses around this part from know the alphabet.
Now, we are going to begin today with the Minnesota Timberwolves. But first
the question that you should all want to know the answer to, Grant,
how the f are you? This is a family podcast. I actually think
I already said fucking yeah, you definitely did last Let's see. I'm excited
and also kind of concerned because last time we agreed a lot and we did
not discuss what our goals for each team were going to be beforehand. And
I'm a little concerned that maybe our brains have become one and that makes me
uncomfortable. But like, hey, maybe maybe we'll be completely different this time.
We'll see. It's look, we're about to disagree for the first time.
The idea of just our brains melding together gives me such joy, does
it? I don't know if you want what's going on up here? That's
your concerned about the way you can handle trolls in the comments and just let
it flip right off. You'll take it, okay? And look, if
I could grow a beard, you could. Is that? Is that part
of the mind? You know? The brain's a complicated thing. Maybe if
we had two brains worth of brain power, we could answer questions like that,
but so far we don't. But we'll see people. Rando's on YouTube
comedy of this intro saying, what is Frankie Mundez and Lionel Messi talking about
right now? Uh? Well, I don't know. Both those guys have
done pretty well, by the way, I think. A podcast hosted by
Frankie Munez and Lionel mess would probably do pretty well. Did you know that
Frankie Munaz is really into like car racing he like professionally. No, but
I did see him driving a tricked out car in that movie Agent Cody Banks
that he was in with Hillary Duff, So he does that count? How
do you think he got into it like this? That clearly was the genesis
of it. Uh, we are starting with the Minnesota Timberwolves. Do you
want to go first? Because we're gonna in addition, like last time,
to the alphabet, we're gonna juggle who gives their goal for the team first?
Will alternate it? Yes, you went? I believe you went first
last time, so I should go first now. So for the Minnesota Timberwolves,
I actually have two, but they're one of them is so basic that
it's just kind of like what it's all all start there. Continue to get
Jane McDaniels to take more three pointers. He has been up not he's shooting
them a little bit better over the past couple games, but he's been able
to get them up at over five attempts per game over the past like seven
or whatever it is. He's only at three point five for the season,
So that's a big difference. You need him to open up the floor,
help out with the turnover issues on your offense, the driving lanes. That
Anthony Edwards, who's freaking spectacular, but like so he doesn't need to work
as hard. He's been uneven all year on the offensive end. I talked
a couple weeks ago with Kyle Tigee from the Day More NBA Show and Flagrant
how about this, and it's he's not all the way back yet, But
I liked that the three point volume is there almost by force. You need
that because they'll maybe they'll start to go in at a higher clip or just
help. Like defenses will treat you differently if you're taking them. You know,
teams will be less inclined to throw their big on Jane McDaniels. You
know what, even if he's shooting thirty one percent, that's a victory.
The other thing, and this is kind of a continuation thing as well,
but not so much. We don't know when kat is coming back from the
meniscus. His basic his reevaluation period is basically the last day of the regular
season. I believe. I know fans were like oh, we're gonna have
a week off before the playoffs. This means he could return okay, maybe,
but also maybe not because he had this prepared normally, there's a everyone's
different. I'm not a doctor, I'll make that clear, but the reparations
of the meniscus long usually take longer to return from than if you had just
got it completely removed. He had it repaired. So I'm just saying Channel,
you're inner small ball for certain stretches, and by what I mean with
that is no Kyle Anderson at the four with a big moving forward. That's
it. I don't want to see it. I am done. You want
to go into a lineup, and I think that my lineup of choice for
this would be more of Conley Edwards your favorite guy to kill, Alexander Walker,
Jane McDaniels at the four or if you want to call gnaw that whatever,
and then go Baar or nas Reed. And I think this lineup the
nas Reid is the lone. Big minutes have not been great this year.
I think if you're gonna play those players with him for most of that,
it could improve. I'm just thinking you need to kind of be better prepared
for life. Without Cat and look, they've navigated it fine for the most
part, but find out more of that information. And I also think,
as someone who is for any Timberwolves fans listening, and I hope there are
many of you out there, their defense is going to hold up. I'm
actually not worried about the dual big setup, but just in case you get
into matchups where even if Towns was healthy, it makes more sense to go
with one big plus four wings slash guards. Get more information on that,
and so the lineup that I was just outlining, like when you're playing those
four Anthey Edwards, Mike Conley, Nikhil, Alexander Walker and Jade McDaniels with
one big, there's not a ton of sample size with that, and so
let's continue because yo, but not that you kind of have to like extrapolate
the sample size while it's a borderline necessity without Cats, you have a better
idea of how to deploy it in the postseason with or without Karl Anthony Towns
involved. Yeah, I'm into it. So I went a little bit of
a different direction. And you already Dan, if you had to guess on
the Timberwls roster, which player I would like make it a point to try
to talk about in my goal. You did say you did say his name.
I already know who it is. And I said on this on the
podcast recorded solo, I hope Grant never hears this because I hate the idea
of him listening to me talk. But I talked about Nikile Alexander Walker,
and I picked him as Minnesota's most improved player. One because it was correct,
but two I said it was because I knew that it would make you
happy, because he's just my guy. So what I think the Minnesota Timberwolves
should make a goal so broad strokes great off the Edwards rebuild around Nikkeiel is
this, Yeah, no, you see what you can get for him,
because I'm just not comfortable building around the face of the league offenses. The
problem obviously, like if you pulled I don't know, you know, anybody
that's been paying attention at all this year, you might get some different niche
version of like, oh the turnovers are an issue, or oh it's the
offense. The defense, I totally agree, is going to hold up like
I don't I had I don't know that I'd even heard any skepticism about it.
But if there is any of it out there. It's calling nas read
a defensive liability, and it's just like, like in what context where if
he's the only big you're playing for forty eight minutes a game, then maybe
otherwise no. Yeah, And also, somebody's got to be your fifth best
defender. And it's just because the Wolves are almost always going to have like
four other good ones, so they have they have three all defense candidates.
I like the Nikhil Alexander Walker minute stuff, like they basically use him to
guard four positions. So what I would like to in an effort to juice
the offense, Now, this isn't something I think that they necessarily want to,
Like, it's too it's too brazen to be like we're going to go
to this in the playoffs like as our default. Like that's not going to
happen. But let me just say, Mike Conley on the floor, the
Wolves offense is better than with him off. It's one. They have like
a one to fourteen offensive rating when Conley plays one twelve with them off.
But capital B capitally U, capital T exclamation point. The when Conley is
off the floor and the backcourt is Anthony Edwards and Alexander Walker the offensive ratings
one twenty point one, small samples, but if you have those two guys
as your backcourt, just you know, not all the time, but if
you're really looking for huge athleticism, size, just dynamic players, way more
switchability. Like if you have you're switching one through four, no problem if
you if you have Alexander Walker, Edwards McDaniels, like, I don't know,
kat whatever, like he can get you. I was gonna ask,
off Rip, do you happen to know what the most ed lineup is with
those two? Is the back court? I don't. I don't. I'm
gonna look at it. I'm just kidding, I'm genuinely curious. No,
So it's it to me, like I understand that Mike Conley as steward angle
and like pick and roll operator, if you're gonna have Gobert, you know,
present some offensive value. I think Conley is definitely someone that helps facilitate
that. But ultimately, like the clearest way this team is going to fail
in the in the postseason, if it fails, will be just its inability
to score consistently. And so like, yeah, Conley's got to play,
He's a he's a net positive for them offensively. But you got to explore
Alexander Walker and Edwards together just to see, like, can we just overwhelm
teams physically? Can we be so disruptive with them defensively that we create a
bunch of transition opportunities too, and we just get out and run, Like
there's so many different ways to manufacture points, and just putting a second athletic,
rangey two way guy who also, by the way, is shooting like
forty five percent from three in march in Alexander Walker, Like, there's there's
worse options if you're trying to, like, you know, find some kind
of magic formula for I don't know, fifteen minutes a night, you know,
just maybe maybe fifteen crazy chaotic minutes where they get up and down and
Walker, you know, hits Alexander Walker hits some threes, Like I don't
know, maybe that gets your offensive raiding up to like league average, and
that's gonna hold up if your defense is by far the best in the league.
So I want to see some experimentation with no Conley and this new like
monster backcourt. Yeah, what they've done a lot of is not have Jade
McDaniels in some of those lineups, I assume because you want to stagger,
like have two of your best defenders on the court at all times. But
the most used lineup is with Reed Towns and Kyle Anderson. That's only a
plus one point one per one hundred posessions. The defense has been shaky during
those minutes. The second most used is basically just subbing in. It's the
starting five, but with Nikil Alexander Walker in for Conley, that's only a
plus three point three the money maker and I never would have guessed this,
Gobaar Nasriy Kyle Anderson with those two in the backcourt ones. What are the
offensive ratings though? One thirty one point one for that lineup? All right,
do that. Let's let's try that. That or one fifty six point
eight for Reid Towns and then Nikkeile Alexander Walker andthey Edwards Jane McDaniels. That
is so, I think. So if we go read McDaniels, Alexander Walker
and Edwards, that's just flat out your four best perimeter defenders on the court.
With Karl Anthony Towns, I could understand why that would be an incredible
like it has some appeal to me, and like, you know, we're
trying to fix the offense, but like maybe that's just that's just so much
better defensively. You replace calmly who you know is going to be picked on
size wise more often than not. Like with Alexander Walker, who's just going
to guard like you said one through four if you need him to. I
don't know, maybe that works. Let's if you're ready to move on,
let's go to the New Orleans Pelicans. And I have them first here,
so I feel like this is it's kind of obvious, and they've kind of
done it to some extent, but the brandon Ingram injury is just something that
I think only reinforces the idea that the goal for the Pelicans needs to be
just lean all the way into Point Zion and just start tailoring everything to like
that's how we're going to play. And and like if you want to get
really you know, over the line about it, like maybe that means you
start looking at no centers and you've got to have Trey Murphy out there with
Herb and McCollum and like I don't know, Naji Marshall or whatever else,
like to fully space the floor to fully unleash him and you kind of figure
out the rest. Not saying that that particular look is something that the Pelicans
need to do, but like it seems clear to me that point Zion is
just what needs to happen. He needs to be even higher usage than he's
been. So just this is a ridiculous number to me, So in terms
of points created by players driving, isolating or posting up and when they touch
the paint. Now this is talking their own buckets and assisted baskets resulting from
those situations. Shake Gil, just Alexander and Luca are one and two.
Zion's number three, and that's not in total points created in those situations.
So like and that's and he had. I mean, those two other guys,
their primacy to their offenses are so far and away, like greater than
Zion's has been all year that like if you I don't I didn't, I
don't have it broken down in like per minute or per possession. But like,
Zion is just clearly someone that you've got to just give him the ball
and like figure out how to build the rest of the lineup in rotation around
him. That's always kind of been true, but it seems more obvious to
me, especially like this is over the last month where he's been kind of
ramping up. This sixty seven point five percent true shooting in March, that's
the best of any month. He's actually rebounding, which is cool too.
Seven point two boards this past month, which is still like seems low for
someone with his athletic ability, but what it has been time next to Jonas
Allentunis though that's true, that's like the rebound vacuum is on the floor with
him a lot. But I just I feel like Zion has kind of gotten
back to and look card carrying. Zion can stay healthy for a full season
and really matter skeptic, I'll, I'll admit to it, but he's starting
to look more to me like someone who in a playoff series might just be
like you might put a team in a position where it's like we don't have
an answer, and specifically like the Suns don't have anything for him, the
Kings don't have anything for him, the Thunder don't have anything for him,
as a like the Thunder, you know, beat him, But Zion had
ten assists and ten free throw attempts in that game, And like I just
think there's a scenario where he just wins you a playoff series against the right
matchup, because there's no solution and you got to lean into like building yourself
around that. Now, the Pelicans are super deep, that's their true strength,
but if you're really trying to win, I think you got to just
start embracing what this is and like this could create fit issues long term,
like does Ingram really like what's he do here? If this is how you're
gonna build your team, because like someone like Trey Murphy would make more sense
in the same role because he's going to space the floor way deeper, is
gonna slash harder, is not going to slow things down? Do we go
with no center? Like I said a lot of like follow up questions,
but the goal I think should just be to fully embrace that, Like we're
built around Zion. He has the ball all the time. Mine kind of
steps on the toes of this, although one is completely different because I have
two, but the it's they need to sustain this identity and what you're talking
about, the Zion stuff. They seem to get away from what works offensively
too often. A lot of that is because of injuries, but let's look
at that thunder game that they lose. Why is Zion barely touching the ball
in the fourth quarter when he's on the floor, and it's like when your
points, like you just give him the ball, like that should just be
the default, and they get away and again sometimes it's when you've gotten away
from point Zion. A lot of the time it's he got injured. We
had to get away from it. He comes back, we can't just go
right back to it. However, they've done a good job now optimizing the
personnel that's there. Maybe it's not ideal to point Zion because you get into
some functional awkwardness with brandon Ingram z Ion. They did such a good job
those two a balancing it out. I want to see when brandon Ingram comes
back, assuming he comes back. Let's hope he comes back. That version
of brandon Ingram made so much sense next to Zion Williamson. It's it's like,
it's not even funny. There was so before January thirty first, forty
four point three percent of brandon Ingram's buckets were coming off assists. After January
thirty first, up until his injury, as at like fifty six percent that's
a massive uptick he was. That's the right direction for him, I think
for the best version of this team. I think that is the right direction
for his like is shot to his bucket distribution to be moving. Sorry,
go ahead, no, I just think he's been so much more plug and
play, and it's been on both ends. And I don't think I would
have to dig into the data or even just go back and watch specific possessions.
There's not like a two man game or I would say a super prevalent
one between Zion and Ingram. I at least don't get that sense when when
I watched them when they were healthy. But like Brandon Ingram is instead.
You know, he's finding Zion just with the ball, and then he'll go
in space to the corner or just attack faster his catches from Zion Wiamson,
and then it's spilling over to the defensive end where you mentioned do they go
with no center? You know what, he's for the most part like kind
of striking this invaluable balance when it comes to his closeouts or is he gonna
go and defend a lot of big man like you know, he's handling big
man responsibilities. I would call it, so they need to keep that.
I'm using Brandon Ingram sort as just like a barometer for it, because that's
where the thorniness really comes in when you're looking at the surrounding personnel. Now,
because Ingram's injured, I also have this one. Their defense relative to
their personnel is overachieved. We both agree, even though we got destroyed in
the comment section. We both agree their defense is surreal. But they seem
to do like the really hard stuff right where it's, yeah, good luck
screening them, or they'll close out from like eighty feet away, but it's
you can force the ball out of a star's or a primary ball handler's hands,
and then it's too easy for them to get it back where you almost
feel like your your your primal job is done right there. And you've seen
it against the Thunder. I feel like we've seen it at points against the
what was the other team I was gonna use. I feel like we've seen
it against the Clippers, but they can. It's not like the Clippers don't
worry about as much, but it feels like they can. They can relax,
or it's just like once you force the ball out of Star's hands,
or if you're not fighting over screens. You're just not as engaged with it.
You're playing a little bit too soft, You're a little bit too far
off some of these guys. It was really, I want to make it
clear, it was like that was preposterous what they did against Shake Gilders Alexander.
Where they were just antonio'daniel said on the Pelicans broadcast, they were in
a constant state of retreat. And that's what it feels like after they do
the hard stuff, right when it comes to sometimes getting these primary scores the
ball back, that's something I'd like to see them work on. But it's
really just the it was a different way of rephrasing what you were talking about,
but there's a real thing to where it's they've grappled with identity consistency on
the offensive end, and I know part of it is injuries, but as
you can see, when it comes to point Zion, if Zion is healthy
injuries like like, he supersedes all of that. If he's the one who
is healthy, it doesn't matter who's on the court, point Bryan as possible,
and to deviate from that in any way, shape or form just doesn't
make any sense to me, I agree. Yeah, all right, we
kind of disagreed, we kind of didn't say the same thing, So that's
progress. We are on to the Oklahoma City Thunder. Who so I initially
had I want to ask you this question before I get into mind, who
is among the three teams contending for first place in the West, who is
first place most valuable or should be viewed as most important too? Hmmm,
well, I mean, you could make the home court advantage case for Denver,
but there I feel like they're gonna beat anybody anywhere. So I guess
maybe because they're so young, I think the Thunder might benefit most from just
playing more games at home, So I guess i'd say Thunder. That was
basically my argument was get the one seed. Kind of how I started off
to approach this because I'm I don't want to say that I think experience is
overrated, but there's so many variables here, because like Mark Degnolt just plays
like twelve plus guys whenever he wants. Does that almost do you a disadvantage
in the playoffs where you don't know what a super narrow down rotation looks like
and some of your players aren't used to logging a ton of minutes in the
first place, How does that impact you? So remove one of the variables
from the equation by getting first place. I didn't want to be the thing
by saying my goal is for them to get the number one seed, just
because that's so basic. The other thing is, let's make sure shake de
Douxander is healthy. He had to sit that game against the against the Rockets
that they lost on Wednesday night. The other thing is can we get like,
is the Gordon Hayward thing happening? He's been kind of valuable as a
ball mover, but can you get him to actually be more aggressive as a
scorer, as a shooter, as a driver. Does he have anything left
there? And then the other thing it's and this is a sustain version grant
since the All Star. By the way, the other thing is give Isaiah
Joe a longer leash to find himself. I'm tired of seeing these I don't
care that he's on the smaller nd. I don't want to see these these
games where he's only getting like fourteen minutes or whatever it is. Run more
stuff for him when he's on the court, get him going. But really
they are sixth in defensive rebounding percentage since the All Star Break, which is
a big deal for them because people's biggest qualm has been they're too small and
they're too slight, even when you're looking at their size. So I went
back when I was watching a lot of defensive rebounding possessions because that's just so
much fun to do. You can look at like a lot of the bigs
have seen their defensive rebounding rate skyrocket since the All Star Break, Jalen Williams,
chet Holmgrin, even, And you've seen some stuff from the wings and
the guards go up a little bit, but the wings in the guards shake
Gill, Alexander, Josh Giddy, even Jadab. They've done such a good
job of boxing out where it always feels like there's two of them within the
vicinity of a chet Holme, Grin or Jalen Williams. To make sure that
no, these rebounds aren't uncontested, but they're easier to get to against bigger,
burlier front courts. That needs to continue to be a focus because make
sure you're going to end to possessions that way, and it might allow you
to stick with either one, not shortening your rotation or two, just kind
of obliviating this whole argument that the Thunder are too small and slight to contend
for a title right now. And this is they're among the teams where I
just have so few notes for because I do believe in them just so genuinely
and authentically, but you can kind of poke and prod and quibble with smaller
areas of what they're doing. And so I look to that where it's can
you get to a point where you're comfortable shortening your rotation and not playing matchups
as much, or just you know, not emptying the bench but going to
to ten plus guys, or can you get to a point where you know
Chet Holmgren can play thirty eight minutes per game? Like? Those are real
questions to have, and I've been very impressed on what we've seen on the
defensive glass, just the collective effort they've shown. Can you maintain that?
So I am gonna hit on a little bit. Well, I'll leave the
rebounding stuff a little bit alone, because my goal for them is really it's
still to me, is to figure out how to contend with size, and
it's particularly like dynamic size, because I don't know if you saw much of
the Milwaukee game. They got nothing for your honest, like they don't.
I mean, and who does really right, But it's like he he better
than some stuff up his sleeve. I think, yeah, right, you
need a saboteur to but like he's a nightmare for them. They won't see
him unless they make the finals. But it's just as illustrative of and Zion,
I think is another guy that it's just like they don't you know,
you're asking Lou Dort or Jalen Williams to guard fours a lot, and it's
just like they're competing. And Dort is as like is as hard to move
as any guy his size is in the league. It's just the rebounding is
still initiate, you know, I think you touched on it, like their
twenty eighth in offensive rebound rate, twenty ninth and and defensive rebound rate,
they're twenty ninth and second chance points opponents rebounding since the All Star breaking,
right right, So it's been in proved. But it's like, so I
wasn't gonna harp, but just on the rebounding as but it is indicative of
like they got to figure they've had to figure out what to do to compensate
for just a lack of side and really bulk like the trade off it,
I understand it, like they just have never you know, they didn't go
get the big that everybody didn't go get Andre Drummond or whatever. Oh mac
Bombo is there? This Mac Biyombo was was there? Uh? But so
like what was the other stat that was really telling? Uh? Oh,
they allow the third most second chance points in the league. So that's just
that's more rebounding stuff. But like, I don't know if it means you
sort of steer further into this kid. You you highlighted some interesting stuff I
wasn't aware of about how like they're doing better boxing out gang rebounding like that
kind of thing. Are you about to suggest ludored at the five? Because
I'm all for it. I know you are. There's no such thing as
a lineup too small. Uh, But I think, well, I think
you could obviously like chet is, Chet's a center, but also not because
I still just think he thinks and moves like a guard, especially on offense,
with a center's shop blocking prowess but much better mobility. I wonder if
you just like their transition numbers are good, but particularly off live rebounds,
they don't really push it. I wonder if like the workaround for we're always
gonna be smaller and slighter then well not always, but there are gonna be
teams where we just like cannot compete size wise. Maybe you just like really
lean into let's run every time. Let's Indiana pacers this so like more hit
ahead passes, higher transition frequency in general, particularly off live boards. Just
see like if if there are points to be had there that will offset the
second chance points you give up or the times that like you just have no
way to keep a Yiannis or whoever from getting two and three, you know,
cracks at it inside because like you know, they're probably gonna have to
play you know, a Timberwolves front line that's gonna be really big, and
Anthony Edwards is a really forceful driver among guards, and maybe you're gonna see
some guy named Yokic who is more than happy to just like set up shop
and put you in the basket if that's what the defense is designed to like
make him realize is the correct play. So I think you know, the
if the goal is to like figure out how to contend with size, Like
the real solution would be like, I don't know, have bigger players.
You can't do that. Now it's too late. You had that chance,
you didn't take it. Maybe that was the right decision, but that's that
to me still is the clear issue. Unless you're gonna, say an experience
or whatever they got to here out how to contend with teams that are gonna
be bigger than them, because that's gonna be like pretty much everybody. The
running stuff is fascinating because I think that's probably counterintuitive to having shake Gilgess Alexander
as the driver of your offense. Now that being said, I think even
when you look at a lot of the lineups they use without him, they
could still stand to run more. And so it's how do you build the
perfect Let's say SGA's off the court, You're still going up against some size.
We've seen a lot of chet with SGA off the court, and so
I'm like, if you were to build the lineup that I think would run
and not be overly small, I'd probably go with Cason Wallace J Dubb of
course, because of course Aaron Wiggins shot of adrenaline, and then I would
go with can you play Kenrich Williams and Chet Holmgren together and does that allow
you to get out and run without giving up too much size Where it's always
Josh Gittty at the four in that scenario and then you're you're playing five out.
All those guys can shoot and Josh Gitty's been hitting threes for the moment.
That would be That's a really interesting thing that you bring up, because
I don't you probably could do it a little bit more with Shay on the
court, but I would look to what you're saying, that's probably something you
need to focus on during the SGA on the bench minute. Yeah, I
would say too, Like we haven't really talked about this, but I think
SGA. I don't have the numbers in front of me, but I know
more than once in stuff I've written recently, I have reference, Like,
you know, the way that officiating has changed since the points of emphasis were
handed down from on high. His free throw attempts per hundre posessions are significantly
down from their peak. Like he is definitely someone that benefited a lot from
the way offense was officiated early and like, you know, if the reason
he's so effective is like he can just from a standstill put you in a
compromise position and draw fouls or score. And if that's a little bit harder
to do now, and you combine like the new officiating with the playoffs,
the whistles kind of just tend to go away a little bit more too.
Maybe maybe running solved like helps address that too, because like you know,
if if SGA creating something from nothing was okay, okay, see's superpower because
he's just like he's even now, he's just there's still nobody harder to stay
in front of. But if that's going to be a little less effective and
you're trying to solve the lack of size issue, maybe running is like now
doubly important because the half court like fallback you had of SGA will get fouled,
like the worst case scenario. If that's not going to happen. If
that's happening ten times, if he's getting ten free throw attempts of game instead
of like twelve or fourteen in a play like I don't know that, that's
another reason to think about picking it up. Also, like who doesn't want
to play faster? That's like every team that comes into the season, like
We're gonna play faster, so let's just do it. We are onto your
Phoenix Suns, all right. I would be surprised if you don't at least
touch on this somehow. You gotta figure out the fourth quarter, Fellas,
Like the numbers have been out there forever. I will just list some of
them. We can talk about the why I would love I would love it
if you had some some whys I was trying to find out, you know,
looking deeper into the like play type data, and you know, just
how is this happening? I have little wise, so oh good, I'll
better better than anything, because those are better points of discussion than numbers,
which I'm about to give you some of. In the fourth quarter, the
Suns are thirtieth in net rating minus fourteen point one points per hundred possessions in
the fourth quarter. That's hard. That's hard to do. They're thirtieth in
turnover rate. They are thirtieth in defensive rebound rate. They're twenty seventh hallelujah,
in offensive rebound rate, twenty sixth than true shooting percentage. Only the
Portland Trailblazers have a worse assist to turnover ratio in the fourth quarter. I
wonder, I guess I do have a sort of like solution instead of just
pointing out problems. This is the information I couldn't find. I wonder what
would happen if you just spammed Devin Booker Kevin Durant ballscreen actions like I don't
care which direction they go, Maybe those just get switched, but just and
space the floor with Brad Buhl and Grayson Allen and guys can't come off of
them. So like, I don't know, it doesn't obviously like Frank Vogel
has probably thought of this, I hope, but he definitely has been criticized
for running some like you know, twenty fourteen ass offenses. So I just
like, if you're of the mind that which I kind of am, that
you know, fourth quarters of the regular season are at out in close games
are about as close as you get to approximating what the playoffs look and feel
like and the kind of adjustments you have to make and the intensity and blah
blah blah. Like if you suck at fourth quarters to this extent for this
long, it's just like, I don't know, man, that's a huge
issue. So I don't know, figure it out. Just use your two
best players in two man action and don't do anything else for the rest of
the year and see if that works. It can't be worse, so you
might as well try that. Yeah, mine was streamline the fourth quarter offense.
And what I meant by that is so I'm a outside a few things.
So it's basically what you said. I wrote extensively. One Bradley Beal
said this, they overpass in the fourth quarters, and like we've seen some
games where they won't. But sometimes it might be just as simple as this
team is shot so poorly. They shoot so well in wide open jumpers for
the first three quarters and then they just shoot terribly on wide open jumpers during
the fourth quarters. Now, so he talked about overpassing. You mentioned the
turnover stuff, and I had written about this, and then Gerald Borgay of
Phoenix I think it's Phoenix dot com or Phoenix Sports wrote a better one,
which one I want to make clear I never would be able to replicate that.
But two, boy do I miss being able to spend that much time
writing or talking about one team. He went, he looked at every single
turnover the Sun's had, So go go check that out. I retweeted on
my Twitter profile. But they are. This is one of the numbers that
I had beforehand, and it's still held true. I think maybe they're dead
last, and oh, you already mentioned this one, but they have the
third most bad pass turnovers overall. And I think a big portion of that.
Gerald dug deeper into what Kevin Durant was doing, and you mentioned kind
of spamming two man actions with Kevin Durant and Devin Book or even maybe even
Kevin Durant and Bradley Beal. Zach Lowe is kind of harped on that as
well. The other thing is just like create any sort of advantage situation for
KD. Where it's what zach Lowe was bemoaned, which was different from yours.
You did, like you kind of want a different direction. Was if
he's not on the ball, he's not doing anything enough. And then if
he's on the ball, you're asking him to just create too much from scratch,
where it's like send him a ball screen to break up these traps or
don't have him do something away from the ball so he's not suffering from these
blitzer or these double teams. They're not doing that enough. And I think
as we've seen Kevin Durant get older even kind of like definitely post Achilles not
gonna get to the rim as much. And it's just like when he's in
ISOs, when he's in even if he's running picking rolls like he's gonna turn
the ball over more off of pressure and you need to figure out a way
to get him out of that. And do you know what the answer is,
I'm not saying take the ball out of his hands, don't have him
start with it as much then, and so like, can you is there
a way to do something like that where it's Kevin Durant needs to be used
as more of the screener, or can you get let's have Devin Booker Bradley
Beal's screen for the other and then can you we actually get into more kickouts
for Kevin Durant maybe he's not standing in the corner, maybe he's lifting out
from the corner more often. So anc totally just of the crunch time games
and possessions I've seen from the Suns, that is what I would like to
see more, and it's not there's the element of there's probably still lack familiarity
because I believe the Big Three is still played in fewer than thirty fourth quarters
together this season. That's problematic, Like, I'm not and you're not asking
them to reinvent the wheel. This is just stuff that I feel like could
be pretty basically or easily implemented, because we're not. First of all,
we're not smart enough to suggest stuff that would take time to implement like this
is feels like on a lot of on the fly. And the other thing
that bugs me is we've seen it for very just small flickers and flashes that
it can work when you do that. And my final number here that supports
the anecdote Kevin Durant in the clutch this season, Grant thirty eight percent on
two's thirty two percent on threes. So that's insane. Can we just talk
about how because like some of the numbers, it's not just the shooting,
it's not just the defense, it's not just the rebounding, it's not just
the bad path, it's it's all of it. Is there? Probably,
like are we just overlooking the fact that, like I don't know, if
you having to rely on for a lo the year two of or even one
of the three stars to do so much early in games. It's just a
fatigue thing, Like what if that what if you know you all this,
remember the splits how we would trot him out every year about how luka Doncic
is like quarter by quarter it would just get worse and worse and worse because
he's getting tired, like because he's been asked to do everything. I think
maybe it's like I'm sure there's more to it, but I think we're kind
of overlooking the simplest explanation of like the way this team is built demands so
much of and if you had all three of those guys for the whole year,
maybe this is different. But I think like Durant for a minute was
like leading the league in minutes, and and like Booker was playing a ton,
and like Beal just kept missing time. But like I wonder if that's
as simple as it is, Like they just like can't sustain the workload and
the responsibility they have, and like all these other guys, these minimum guys
that everyone was over the moon about, Like guess what, they're not gonna
be reliable to like carry you in a fourth quarter of a colost this yeah,
right, that might be with durance specifically because of the injuries that were
dealt with Bradley Beal on that also Devin Booker, particularly earlier in the season.
That would be I feel like a legitimate factor in that is just if
you're digging into it. But I do think despite everyone, yeah, probably
not having a more conventional for general has hurt them. I just refuse to
believe when you have Devin Booker and even Bradley Beal on your team, who's
done a better job I'll call it point guarding lately, I just refuse to
believe that that is the I'm not gonna say that the way that roster's built
is a feature and that this isn't a bug, but like, it's not
if you had I've seen people like man, I'm that just dumping camp like
no campaign wasn't gonna make a difference here. Had you gotten TJ McConnell,
eventho, who's apparently the best isolation score in the history of basketball. But
like he would, I don't know that he would have materially changed this team's
issues. Maybe he would, don't get me wrong. But then so you're
removing Grayson Allen shooting from the court, that's it because you're not because now
you have McConnell, Booker, Beale, Durant and then Nurkicch or I guess
of like one of the U banks, or if you want to go bull
ball in that, or you can play grace now with Durant at the five.
I don't know if Durant at the five is really going to be something
that's a certain matchup, sure, but that's not something you want to talk
about. Putting too much on his shoulders, he said, too much on
his shoulders defensively for a lot of this season too. Have I given you
my theory on why TJ McConnell's so effective as an isolation scorer, Let me
hear it. Every shot he takes, his defender is split second thinking it's
twenty twenty four. He's not taking that fucking shot. That's a terrible shot.
And then and then he takes it because it'll be like a dead sprint
into like a pull up, like like on the way up eight foot jumper,
Like no one should be sious about the structural stability of his ankles when
he does stuff like that. It just didn't speed get your hurt. He
he wants the shots that every defense has been told. Now like, oh
yeah, we can see that, like put force him into the eight foot
leaning like barely getting it over your fingertips jumper. So he just he's mastered
the element of surprise. So that's what very quick aside before we get to
my Portland Trailblazers. So I was while you were talking, before my phone
notification started going off. Someone's spamming our YouTube comments with just negative stuff.
What is it about us that elicits? Because I've seen bigger podcasts and accounts,
and maybe it's I'm not journeying deep enough into the comments. It's all
this positivity or jokes or being like dude, what is it about us that
makes people feel like harp on the negative of what we say more than it
like a lot of these other bigger podcasts. I'm just I'm at like a
loss. I don't really it's probably we're not giving enough TJ McConnell shot analysis.
I think that's our niche moving forward to that and with that though,
we will move on to my Portland Trailblazers. So this is kind of like
in the vein of the Memphis Grizzlies, where they're not as banged up,
but you're kind of just in shit mode. So I have a handful of
things I would like for them to try. Are you ready? I've got
a few myself. So that's seis. I'm gonna start with the most throwaway
and probably not productive, and then work my way up to what I think
could be productive. Okay, just take more threes. There's no reason for
this team to be in the bottom ten of three point frequency the entire year.
You want to split it up before the All Star break. Post All
Star break, it's very similar. You need to open up Deandrayton has had
like a better closing kick because I guess he has a mattress now. That
was just my god. Anyway, the snow stuff actually wasn't funny. I
totally understand how that. Like, I didn't understand people making jokes about that.
The mattress thing. Dude, you're under the contract. The mattress thing
makes the snow thing like it validated. Everybody was like really with the snow
thing because then the mattress thing follows and it's like, well, it's kind
of you, isn't it. It's not going to talk about the snow thing.
It was, but I just that mattress thing was I thought absolutely absurd.
But it open the floor more for him. And then Scoot Henderson,
who has shown flashes a flashes. Excuse me, you know what, I've
seen the most flashes from him when there's an open floor for him to navigate
through. Let's just chuck more threes. I recognize you don't have the personnel
to do that and be efficient. I'm gonna tell you one thing. I
don't fucking care. Just take more threes. Well, I have two more.
They're a little bit more nitty gritty here. I know they're playing Ryan
Rupeer more. It's not enough. Let's see if the three point shooting is
real, if the defensive length can be this disruptive that we've seen, and
then test the limits the boundaries of what he can do defensively. Is this,
oh he kind of needs to defend slider players wings at the point of
attack, or oh no, he can scale up because there's been some nice
possessions with him there. The other thing I would like to see them try,
and they're still not trying it, and it kind of I unders well,
no, I don't understand why. But like Tamani Kamaro at the five
just seems like, why aren't we trying that? Is it? Because we
don't want to infringe upon the reps for like Dwop Wreath and DeAndre eight And
you're at the point in the season where it's like infringe away, my dudes,
And they've played fifty seven possessions with Kamara at the five, and it's
I understand that changes schematically what he can do defensively, but like, if
you're gonna play him, like just neutralize his non shooting factor. He is
such a non factor when it comes to being on the perimeter where what happens
if you can if you don't want to play him at the five, can
we get the lineups then where you feel comfortable using him to set some screens,
because like he can really finish and maybe do some stuff inside the arc,
and just he's such a monster defensively, it wouldn't shock me if you
put him at the five and it's like, oh no, look at Like
we've seen him cover some bigs to begin with, in the sense, although
they have him covering a lot of just kind of the star what you would
call them wings or you know, even guards. So I understand the reticence
there, but like we are at the kind of just try shit portion of
the season, and so I would like to see I think of all the
things that I've listed, I really well, I'm obsessed with repair, so
I want to see him play more. But like, let's try and get
Kamara at the five and you have enough perimeter flyers or players where it's like,
oh, Jabari Walker's on the bench, like we don't we don't really
care at this point, so you can you know what, you put Kamara
at the five that opens more minutes up for repair on the perimeter. Yeah,
Portland is like a lot of teams, but really for the Blazers are
in the like no bad ideas in a brainstorm portion of their season. It's
it's what you're saying, just like, I don't know see if this is
going to work. There is speaking of that by the way, very quick,
I have zero idea. I shouldn't. No, I'll say zero,
I zero grasp on Chauncey Bill up the head coach still and year three yeah
right, no, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, no. I
agree. Well, it's like, how could you really like because every year
ends kind of the same. Well, either you're shutting guys down or you're
in this situation anyway, I kind of similar thing. But I just to
me, I don't know, it's oversimplified a little bit. I think you
just need to get as much information on what it is that Scoot Henderson needs
to like be the best version of the player you need him to be,
and so that that goes to lineups, that goes to like trying different play
styles, like different player combinations all that stuff, you know. So the
problem is like you kind of get some conflicting information. So it's like the
lineups with him and Malcolm Brogden are like mostly positive, So okay, maybe
maybe what he needs for at least now is like a real secondary facilitator next
to him, right, like someone like Simon's. Isn't really that Brogden is
just like the quintessential like combo guy like has some point guard instincts, but
like isn't really a true just someone like that. Those lineups are okay,
okay, but then what about like, well maybe Wreath's spacing at the five,
like maybe that works, and maybe that unlocks your ability to play like
really like nasty wing defenders and so to with with Scoots. So like you
shield him defensively, you get him spacing to go to work on offense.
Wreath can help him. But then if you play Wreath Scoot and Tyble and
Kamara together, the offense just like falls off a cliff. And so those
numbers are all terrible. We aren't going to find out very much anything about
Roggin what is he dealing with the elbow thing? And yeah, we don't
know when he's coming back, right, and and also Shade and Sharp probably
not coming back. He hasn't played since January, so you're not gonna get
he coming back. I don't know. I just looked why, Like I
mean, I guess for this purpose it would be great to know what a
larger sample of him, Simons and Scoot together would look like. But what
I do think is most interesting and kind of blew me away. Lineups with
eight and Scoot and Simons together are actually only minus point three per hundred possessions,
So like for a which is great for a team as bad as the
Blazers have been. So it kind of circles all the way back to like,
well, you had no shit a a pick and roll center that Scoot
can like use to you know, get his own looks or feed somebody near
the basket with an incredible movement, high volume three point shooter and Simon's next
to him, Like that works pretty well for a point guard. Like okay,
I just like like that's where I came all the way back around to.
I don't know. We need just we need to figure out as the
Blazers because Scoot Henderson has a wild has had a wildly disappointing rookie season.
Some of that's been injuries, some of that's the situation, some of that's
just him underperforming expectations. He's the most important figure in the franchise by a
factor of like a million. You need to figure out what's gonna help him
be most successful, what types of players he needs around him. So if
you only learn one thing the rest of the year, like, that's kind
of got to be it. I think so. But unfortunately it seems like
the obvious answer is is right there, we're onto your Sacramento Kings Anger,
your best friends. No. Well, I mean you could just make the
defense the issue, but I like, I don't know what the goal is,
because the goal should have been to solve it by getting better defensive players.
At some point over the last couple of years. So I focused on
and this was my issue. I don't know, a couple of weeks ago
when we were doing the East with them, and this is before Kevin Herder
went down. How are you juggling the like Malik Monk, Keon Ellis,
Davion Mitchell shooting guard slash, third guard slash whatever minutes to like maximize what
all those guys can do. Because Mitchell still has real value. He's been
overtaken by Ellis because Ellis actually is bigger, longer, really dynamic defensively,
and I think it's shooting like thirty nine percent from three. It's low volume.
He's getting up about forty four percent for March alone. Yeah, he's
getting up like six per thirty six, which is which is good. But
if he could get up more then it's like there's I don't know why you
need Davion Mitchell other than the fact that like your guard depth is just is
he finished yet? And Damien is definitely stronger than for sure, but he's
so small, like he's truly a one position defender, and like I just
think, again, we've seen it already. I feel like I've talked,
brought this up a million times, but like, if Mitchell is in the
corner, no one guards him, and so like his his contributions as a
disruptive on ball defender against point guards have to be so massive to offset just
the Kings having to either hope he makes a couple threes or just play four
on five on the other end. So Mitchell, I feel like, is
kind of lowest in the pecking order there. And do you want to mess
around with monks minutes because he's been so good all year in the like closing
role and you can use him to be the primary facilitator when Daron Fox is
off the floor, Like, I don't know how you want to tweak that.
Maybe you just leave it alone and say ellis like, guess what you're
playing like thirty minutes a night now, which he's been pretty close to lately.
So I think that's just kind of a dynamic they need to get sorted
out, because even if like Herder is kind of like out of favor,
I think for sure, like you can the game I went to the other
day was like every time he missed, there were audible groans and there was
a lot of like heckling from Kings fans toward Kevin Herder. So there's some
frustration there his like two man game with the bonus and all the give backs
and handoffs and stuff that still matters, Like that's still a real part of
what makes the King's offense good when it's at its best. But if he's
gonna be hurt or diminished or can you eue to play this poorly, then
like I don't know, you just got to figure out what you're gonna do
with that rotation at the guard spots. Yeah, that's a good one.
I also the stuff, I don't really have anything to add to that other
than I think that's my touch, Like step on a little bit of the
toes what you were saying. I really think they need to now more than
ever with Kevin Herder out streamline life for Keegan Murray at both ends of the
floor. And so let's start on the and I think he's been great this
year, and I'm gonna repeat his stat I had on the other podcast defense,
but offensively, he's shooting thirty two point four percent from three since the
start of February. He cannot hit from the corners, and that's been like
kind of the tale of his story. All year, he's at like thirty
nine percent above the break or over thirty eight percent, and then he's like
in the low thirties from both corners. I mean even like it's from the
right of the left corner. I can't remember, like sub twenty nine percent.
A lot of his stuff he's still doing mostly zero dribble threes. A
lot of his looks are classified as open or wide open, but they're also
in the same vein as Kevin Herder. They all feel like they're off balance
or it's like after coming after a lot of work, and then when I
look at what Kegan Murray is doing defensively. So now let's go to the
defensive end of the floor. Last year, Grant, there were like twenty
eight percent of his possessions came guarding one of the two highest uses players on
the other team. That number is shot above fifty percent this year. Yeah,
it had to. And he's by the way, he's held up really
well, and so it's does he have the lift to get off what are
they might be wide open threes, I would still say they're not the eat.
Now the stuff he's missing from the corners, yeah, a lot of
the times they're not off balance, they're these standstills. But can you simplify
any of that? And so the way to do that on offense for me
would be, can you get to even more minutes where it's Monk No Sabonis
and Keegan Murray's on the court. I understand what Murray does with the bonus,
that's important, but like Malik Munk is more of a driving kick player
rather than we need the off ball guy to work a lot to get to
the handoffs for sa bonus. The other thing, though, when you mentioned
with Keon Ellis is well, how can you best fit the Keon Ellis Keegan
Murray lineup so that, Okay, ke On Ellis is gonna handle a lot
of these defensive assignments that will make life easier for Keegan Murray to where he
might be dealing. Yeah, he'll still have a hard cover, but he'll
be dealing with more lowman stuff, which, by the way, another Statle
regurgitates is because I found it fascinating he ranks in the top thirtieth, Kegan
in the top thirty of shots contested at the RIM this year. Not wild
again, it's it's he has to like somebody. Somebody has to do it,
So can you figure out a way to streamline life for him? And
it's that gets harder now without Kevin hurd her out, and so my focus
is it's and I think the way to do I don't know how they're going
to simplify life for him offensively is like the stuff I mentioned with Monk.
Okay, that's fine, but you don't want to detach him from Sibonis too
much. And so I come back to the defensive end, and it's okay,
Well, then how did you best build your key on Ellis Keegan Murray
lineups? And then it gets even harder because the most used one with them
is Fox Ellis Murray, Barnes and Sobonis naturally, and that's been outscored by
four point two points per one hundred posessions with a one oh six offensive rating.
And so to have two of your three most valuable offensive players on the
court in Sibonis and Fox monks not in this lineup naturally to be that poor
on offense. And when you start to dig into kind of the the shooting
numbers for that group, it's all right, they're shooting thirty percent from three
that feels a little anomalous, But when you look at the struggles that Keegan
Murray's had in some of those situations, you kind of get it. Yeah,
I don't know what the answer is, is my point here, but
you probably need to get especially now without hurt Er, more creative with your
lineups, and even the Trey Lyles injury probably looms pretty large here, and
so like maybe it's you know, like do we try more of Sabonus,
Murray, Kean Ellis and Monk And then it's, uh, do you have
fox out in that regard or do you go with Davion Mitchell there to try
and cater to the defense a little bit more. I just you need to
find a way, to me to do a better job of making life simpler
on at least one end of the floor for Keegan Murray moving forward to ensure
that he doesn't get I don't want to say worse come playoff time, but
doesn't deal with a lot of the same struggles we saw from him last year
in the playoffs. Do you think it? You know, I, if
everybody's available, what is the kings? What is your preferred what five do
you want to see out there? It's obviously Fox, it's obviously Sabonis,
it's obviously Murray. Is it Barnes and Ellis? Are there your fourth and
fifth guys? Are? I guess you have small? You gotta have Monk,
right, I'm just looking at It's like, how do you not have
Monk with the year that he's having and just how valuable he is as like
that passer out of his drives and so so, then is it Ellis or
Barnes? I feel, in fury for defense, I'd probably rather have Ellis,
But that lineup you're so basically the starters plus Monk instead, because Ellis
is a start now instead of Barnes. They've only played this is such a
small sample, sixty seven possessions, but they're minus nineteen point four with an
eighty four offensive rating. I mean that's that's a better offensive team than eighty
five. I mean that that's I think that's the lineup I want to see
more from. But I understand why. It's what we just want Monk with
Barnes and Murray and Sibonas and Fox, and that's the one that we just
need to But I'm trying to figure out a way because I think that Ellis
is important to simplifying Murray's life defensively, that's where that's my start point.
It's okay, it's Ellis and Murray. Build your way out from there.
You're restricted, dope because you know it needs to be some bonus and fox
and so it's the best fifth. It's simultaneously awesome that Ellis is is this
good and terrifying that he's now this important to me? Right right? That's
that was not one you could see coming earlier this year. Uh oh man,
the Spurs. We got the Spurs next. I don't know what to
do with this. There's there's two ways to go. Am I leading off
or you leading off? I can't remember now? Oh wait, I think
I'm supposed to be leading off. I poliz Okay, I'm gonna have very
little to add, but you'll probably just say what I was gonna say too,
So go ahead. So can we see Can we just see Dominic Barlow
play with Victor Wibanyama to see what happens? Is that what you had?
No, well, one of the ways was gonna be the two things I
had. We could just kick this back and forth because everything everything goes back
to Wemby and like what does what does he need? It's kind of like
the scoot thing, but like more p So the two ways to go are
like who should play next to him in the front court because it ain't Zach
Collins. That's pretty clear now, although that seemed like a good idea at
the time, and Barlow is one of the guys it's like, well,
he's energetic and he's gonna run, and he's physical and all this other stuff.
So the front court combo or partner or whatever is one. And then
like the answer is not there probably, but it's like what facilitator slash point
guard makes the most sense, if any sense on the current roster, like
the Blake Wesley's and the Branhams and then Champagnees and like, I don't know,
let's go back to point sohan, I guess like those are those are
the two bookends of like what guards should be with him and what big guy
should be with him? And I don't have the answer and the spurs zone
either, but you should mess around as much as possible late here to try
to figure it out. Yeah, And That's where I'm kind of at now.
I think the issue with Dominic Barlow is he's averaging point eight three pointers
per thirty six minutes three point times. That's not, you know, great,
but he has ranged. She was poor. Explore that. Excuse me.
But then also because of the way Victor Wembenyam has been shooting the three,
it's probably you can get away from the stack. Well, he needs
to play with a stretch big and it's like he's and and also Domino brol
is not really a big. He's kind of like maybe he's a peer four.
But he moves it, slides his feet really well. On the defensive
end, you already mentioned to run the floor, has some good feel as
a passer or knowing when to attack in space. I just want to see
more of him. Do you know how many possessions though the Spurs have played
with Trey Jones, Dominic Barlow, victorm Webenyama and no other like no other
big Oh god, I mean, Barlow is in the G League for a
lot of the years, so it can't be that high. Also, by
the way, before I answer, he did shoot more threes in the G
League. I think he last I looked he was in like the low thirties,
which is like four percent in the G League and then eighty eight point
nine percent from the charity stripe. So those are good. Barbie's way better
than I remembered. I'm gonna say those three have played together without another big
for like less than fewer than ten possessions. Eighteen possessions. Okay, I
was close. That's not enough. And you know what the problem is is
like it's been at that number for like now, that Dominic ever since Dominic
Barlo has been converted. So like I initially looked at that number once he
got converted, and it was fourteen. I think, right, that lends
itself to the what you were I mean, we've mentioned a couple of times
with other teams on the podcast, is just just try this stuff. I
mean. The other thing that I think they could stand to try is like,
well, let's dispatch with this notion that long term anyway, that one
of Kelden Johnson or Jeremy Sohan needs to start. And so, like we've
seen, Jeremy Sohan has been Kellen Johnson been moved to the bench, Jeremy
Sohan has stayed in the starting five. What kind of happens if you just
have Kelden Johnson and jeremysonan coming off the bench. I mean, if well
one, it would mean you had starter quality players ahead of them, which
is like Kelton Johnson. I thought, don't is the point, but tried
anyway to see what does that do for bench units? Sure? Yeah,
that's fine. I think. Oh I was gonna ask you, uh,
you know, I think of you as the preeminent Deva vessell supporter. You've
pulled me over to your side more than once, and I think I mostly
agree. How do you feel about Devin Vessel's progress this season or or lack
of it? What do you mean why? All right? We're not not
worried about it. I feel like he was a breakup and what is it?
What is it that's actually concerning the fact that he's developed into more of
a three level score. Don't you feel like the sentiment is that Devin Vesselle
has been a little disappointing this year. Maybe I'm just mischieving looking for his
leap as sort of a playmaker. Can he be the Devin Booker Chris Middleton
level reader? Sure? But I would also point to the lineups they've put
him in have not been conducive for the most part to exploring that, at
least from the games that I have seen. I'm not trying to make that
the end all be because all the Spurs players are bad. It's not that
they're all, but it's also just like the ecosystem needs to be set up
in some way to where you're gonna get to those lineups, or there needs
to be enough spacing around to maximize what he's gonna do as an on ball
playmaker. So yeah, I still think that's probably where he needs to improve
the most. I might even argue I get more frustrated. I don't feel
him on defense as much as I think that you should when you look at
what he is capable of. But he is more of a plug and play
every level score. I firmly believe this, and there's gonna be some numbers
that don't support this. I firmly believe he is more of a plug and
play every level score than he has ever been in his career. That's fucking
fantastic for the Spurs because even if you say, well, we still need
Wenby to get a second best player, you know what, your third best
player on a really good team is already in place, and there's a huge
value in that. Okay, I think that's fair. I I feel like
there's a lot of like when Devin Mizel signed that contract, I think we
were like, that's the going rate for what he's gonna be, like,
no problem with it. And then I feel like more recently people have kind
of been you know, it's such a straw man thing, but I felt
like the sentiment was kind of like, oh, I don't know if that
was a good idea. Keldon Johnson's even too. It's kind of wild to
think about that. The best criticism you can make of Devin Fasel this year,
and the only valid one to me, is that he didn't have like
a massive breakthrough, because he's gotten better. But I was just curious where
you were on because I know yourself. If you just tried to get me
to be pessimistic about that, I I just know that's he's one of your
guys, and and he didn't turn into like a an all NBA level player,
Not that you thought that, but that's probably enough. On the Spurs,
do I leave the jazz? I think I did? You were on
you take us through the jazz, all right? So, uh, this
is going to go against some of the logic we've used for other teams that
are kind of have packed it in this year where it's like just try weird
stuff and like, you know, let the chips fall. So we both
love Keyanta George kind of been in I feel like we deserve credit. Maybe
you got me there. I can't remember, but I'm nervous is to where
this discussion is. No, we were in on him. I'm still in
on him, and that's that's the reason I'm gonna say this. I think
the Jazz need to kind of walk walk the line a little carefully here because
he's really struggled lately. Uh and he's under forty percent from the field in
his last four games. He's had some ugly like oh for six's and oh
for sevens from three turnovers are going up. It's it's like, I don't
really worry about this too much with players who's potential I believe in as much
as his, But like you're in an environment where losing is kind of the
point right now, bad habits could form. You could get kind of I
don't know, disillusioned, like down the stretch here, I think he's gonna
be so good that I'm concerned with just like throw him out there and like
experiment around him. Like I think you still need to do like a little
more nurturing, Like maybe that means a little bit, you know, fewer
minutes. Maybe that means having him reel it in. Maybe that means supporting
him more with other point guards. Like I just I don't want this like
crazy statistical like downturn at the end of the year to kind of like be
the lasting image of his rookie season. So what you can do is just
put him on the floor as much as possible with Lori Markin and Walker Kessler
because those never those team those units actually win the minutes they play, which
is not easy to do with the way Utah has been operating in general.
And they've been especially good on d and maybe this is one of those like
let's not give up on Walker Kesler, transformative defensive center potentially. Uh,
that's beside the point. I just I know, I feel like we need
to zag a little bit because with all these other young cornerstone pieces, we've
been like try weird stuff, sink or swim, like there are no stakes,
these games don't matter. But with George it's like some of the numbers
have been so ugly of late that I want the Jazz to like take better
care of him down the stretch. Here, I think I I get what
you're saying. I can for myself to be concerned about him, though,
because I'm trying to figure out the best way to frame it. Let's do
it this way. Who is the fourth most played player on the Jazz during
the month of March. I have no earthly idea. It's Bryce Sensiba And
that's why actually liked coming out of the draft. My point is they have
you know, Larry Markin was back in the lineup. What was the last
game I saw from them? I think it was as we're recording this last
one they're lost to the Mavericks. So he had played in that one.
But like you're getting to the point of a lot of Taylor Hendrix, you're
not seeing it, like Jordan Clarkson is not in the lineup right now.
So if you're saying take better care of him, by saying, well,
let's stop, let's dispense with trying to keep this pick or worrying about the
win lost standings, and we want to make sure Larry Markin is playing a
bunch more sure or Jordan Clarkson is going to be healthy enough to play a
bunch more. I totally get that. I just I don't view it as
a lasting impression, in large part because it's like we all know the deal
of what they're doing. We saw it last year, we know what's happening
here. But I think that's fair. I will say though, even when
he looks bad, I think what he's done a lot better job of is
just getting to his spots at the top two levels, like the mid ranger
from three point range. So that gives me hope. I will say that.
And I don't know how realistic this goal is, but like we're seeing
more of Taylor Hendrix, which is what I want to see. And by
the way, Taylor Hendrix, I know you know this. He's really good,
super malleable on the defensive end. It's like astounding. He will guard
Victor Wembinyama. He will also guard Anthony Edwards. That is like some of
the highest praise that I could give him. The rim protection instincts are real.
He's an alert defender away from the ball, does get caught up a
little bit navigating screams. From what I've seen, but he's quick to course
correct. Can you guess Grant, knowing what I told you he can do
on defense? Can you guess we're gonna play this possession game again? How
many possessions has Taylor Hendrix played with both Walker and Larry Marketen? Oh,
he'd like going to give you an over under? Yeah? I was gonna
say, like, almost never, but give me the over under. I'll
give you an over under of seventy eight under. Yeah, seventy two.
I don't really know where I was going with that. That's that's more than
I would have thought. Though the results have not been good. I want
to see more of it because I think what it does is it definitely puts
the burden on Hendricks offensively to see what can you stretch the floor? What
can you do is maybe with the ball in your hands in space? But
you really are going to find out more about him defensively by saying, well,
you are just our wing defender in this instance, and if it pans
out you much easier, that makes Larry Marketin's life defensively. So I just
want to see more of that. We're already seeing more of Taylor Hendrix.
I just don't know how realistic it is to expect, like how many more
games is lotry market and actually going to play in for this team? Stretch
Hendricks, Like you know, the numbers in general have not been great,
but he is kind of an eye test passer in certainly in flashes. From
what I've seen, he is more likely. I won't say, I won't
say it's a little too spicy. I won't say he's more likely to develop
into a perennial All Star than Keyonte George. I'm you're still that high,
Okay, all right? I to that, by the way, and I
know Jared Walker is coming on in Indiana. I still think the Pacers are
going to live to loathe that draft day decision. Hendrix is averaging over a
steal on a block and getting up six threes per thirty six minutes. You'll
take that all day from a guy that is going to move around like he
does and defense, Like you know, the percentages are not good, but
just like to your point, like the the you can see the outlines of
like, oh, this guy could really mark to the great benefit of marketing,
specifically being awesome, like just an objectively really impactful player on both ends,
but also like for this team, Like, if you're concerned with the
Jazz, we're getting like way into the weeds. But this is the last
team, so whatever. If you're concerned with the Jazz is like I don't
know, Laura, market is your first option? Like is that really enough?
Because it might be if Hendrix becomes the type of player that some of
the numbers suggest and some of the eye test stuff says, and your evaluation
of him undoubtedly sets in stone that he might be. Yeah, I mean.
And also, by the way, if we're gonna talk about the lineups,
if you really want to try and get a real glimpse into the future,
you're gonna want to see I mentioned Marketing, Kessler and Hendrix, You're
gonna want to see Keante George as part of those units. And like,
now it's okay, is there enough shooting there? Then is that pushing the
boundaries? But we've only seen forty six possessions of those four together, so
it's just like I want to see more of what When I look at this
team, you could talk me into Collin sext and needing to stay long term
because he's been that good. But I view unless I'm missing somebody like those
are the four like just core players, then maybe whoever they draft, assuming
they keep their pick in this year. But what can we see like the
future for like if so, I just want to see more of that.
I don't know how realistic it is, but that's what I want to see.
Yeah, I'm into it. That's all we've got. We've wrapped it
up the four parts. Every team goals things to monitor, stuff we want
to see or might be concerned about. Grant you want to take us out
of here, I would love to Dan. Thanks everybody for listening again,
thank you for bearing with us, or actually you don't have to bear with
us through anything. This is a very short set of podcasts for us,
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