Speaker 1: What is up, Fellasikos. I am Dana Valley coming at
you with my certified fantabulus co host mister Brant Hughes, who, yes,
you can tell from him he's in pain.
Speaker 2: Because he works out.
Speaker 1: Had a really tough workout today, so he's podcasting through
it because fuck load management. He does not care.
Speaker 2: He's here.
Speaker 1: He's not racking up any DMP's rest. We are going
to talk about which players this season have improved the
most to us. You can use that as kind of
a guideline for what most Improved Player will look like,
but our awards, because no podcast is doing awards check
ins at the quarterpole, so we have valiantly decided to
release that episode this Saturday, so stay tuned for that.
But we're gonna just get into it. We have a
bunch of players that we think have improved, a bunch
that we wanted to highlight, and that'll set the stage
for Most Improved Player, which is kind of its own
debate where it's more about philosophy and matter of interpretation
or preference. I guess, as with all awards, but use
how the heck are you doing? That's the question we
need to ask first.
Speaker 2: I'm doing well. I am. I am playing through it
because I believe availability is the best ability. Isn't that
like whenever you hear that, isn't it just like that,
that's one of those things that's like, yeah, it sounds cute,
but it's like not actually that like smart of a
thing to say, but you hear.
Speaker 1: I mean, watch Josh Giddy this season.
Speaker 2: Like numbers, that's not a good ability in some cases, Uh,
the players will talk about sorry, sorry, follow up, follow up?
How are you doing?
Speaker 1: I am doing fantastic. I'm definitely in less pain than
you are.
Speaker 2: So there is that.
Speaker 1: It's nice to have sort of a positive like there's
no way, I guess there's way to be negative about this,
but there's no We're not buying or selling or dumping
on a certain team or player these We might at.
Speaker 2: Some point there might be a question about the sustainability
of some of these improvements slash leaps, but you know,
you're I want to You're right, this is essentially a
positive celebration, ignowl bludgement of it. So you said, guys
that improve have improved the most. We probably should because
I think we kind of have a more specific definition
of what that like, this isn't necessarily the guys we
think this isn't necessarily a most Improved, you know, award
ranking or anything like that. So the way I looked
at this was like new skills that weren't there before
that that carries a lot of weight in this discussion
for me. And also if there's not a new skill,
like a singular thing that's happening, a lot of it
for me. I would are guys that I singled out
are those that their roles have changed, like whether that's
or like the their status, like career status even has changed,
Like this guy was basically out of the league and
now he's doing this and so he's a rotation guy
or he was barely a rotation guy. Now he's doing
this and he's like a like a legit starter and
then you know starter to star start a superstar to
all NBA like that kind of thing. So it's two
different things for me, And hopefully that's not like too
inconsistent for this to make sense.
Speaker 1: Yeah, And I followed that same logic because you texted
me about the logic you were using and for uniform resake,
and I also cribbed it because I thought it was
smart and in doing so, with that we'll mention like
overarching improvements, but like I tried to zero in on
why do I think this player improved the most, Like
what's the one area of it and isolated it from there?
Speaker 2: Yeah, do you have?
Speaker 1: I thought it was really bad breaking news at first
while we were recording the intro to this, But Kevin
Durant is going to miss another week for Phoenix per
Sham's grant, due to a left ankle sprain following his
left calf sprain. He has been their best player on
both sides of the ball, so that is a that
is a very big deal. But I was, I like,
my job, I saw it. I was like, oh no,
because we were talking about where would belong in the
MVP discussion that he not missed a game, so.
Speaker 2: Well, now we may not have to think about him
too much if he keeps piling up these these not
like critical absences, but like just long enough to where
what's what's the cap on his game's play going to
be like fifty? Probably?
Speaker 1: Oh he man, he's been so good this year, But
that's not what this podcast is about. Mister Hughes, do
you have anything else to add? About the criteria we're following.
Speaker 2: I don't think so. I think it's fairly straightforward, and
we'll kind of brush up, you know, brush up against
it as we discuss each player.
Speaker 1: We begin with mister A. Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons,
who's spoiler alert, not the only Detroit Pistons that's gonna
make an appearance here. He was my selection, and I think, look,
you can just go look at the numbers. There's an
improvement there, Like just the raw numbers. He's shooting more threes,
hitting them at a good clip. There's still some issues
that he has at the rim, but this is someone
who just on the season, Grant is averaging over thirty points,
twelve assists, and one block per one hundred possessions. Now,
if this holds, here's every other player who has done
the same for an entire season, Nicole j Okic, James Harden,
Lebron James, and Derek Rose. I was surprised that I'm
not gonna lie to s Price see that name, but
that is it. Now. I'm using that as my preamble
into I think We're kid has really improved the most
is as a defender, slash, rebound or whatever you want
to call it. He the Pistons. Their defense has slipped
overall in the past couple weeks, but like they're still
hovering around lee G average. That's a really big deal, Cad.
What I think they've done a really good job of
under head coach JB. Bickerstaff is they're just not like
he and I know to some extent he needed to
at points, but he's just not someone who needs to
defend primary ball handlers anymore. He's gonna be on stationary
shooters or motion shooters, and then he's gonna be used
a lot as the helper, which is something he's always done,
but it's way more tenable for him to do it now.
He is saving Grant like one point five points at
the rim per seventy five possessions, which is just absurd
for someone who is in his positional archetype. The other
thing that is standing out here is opponents are shooting
like sixteen point four percentage points worse inside of six
feet when they're being contested by Caid Cunningham. That is
like an absolutely absurd number, and it is actually fifteen
point six points worse. The only players of everyone there
are fifty six players in the league who contested as
many shots at the rim as Caid Cunningham this season.
The only ones affecting shots more are Victor Wabanyama, Walker Kessler,
and chet Holmgren. Right now, again those are primary rim protectors,
so there's a difference, but for Kay to be looped
in there, and I think even when you look at
some of the individual stuff, you know, he's allowing sub
thirty six percent shooting when he's guarding the ball handlers
and pick and rolls, these are all really positive indicators.
And I think what's impressed me about it the most
is I feel like Detroit people, I'm sure talking writing
about it, but no one seems to be mentioning it.
I've kind of felt I feel like I've seen more
complaints about, like, well, why isn't he like more explosive
on the offensive ended points than I have of acknowledging
that this is already a really good player who has
visibly to me level up on the defensive end. And
I know that part of that is probably owed to
just the Pistons. I think they've done a better job
optimizing his role. But the stuff he's doing as just
someone who is helping as a shot contester. It's been
a really big deal. And finally to the Pistons overall,
they just have like between Jayal and darn and Isaiah
Stewart and Kay Cunningham, when you look at just like
the degree to which they're impacting opponent percentages at the rim,
they have some of the biggest differentials in the league
right now.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Duran have really has had some moments. I think
Cunningham his his again, like really complete player. We've said
that before. The marginal improvements defensively and as a rebounder too,
are like if you're not convinced that he can be
if you think he's like this isn't a great comparison,
but he's more Chris Middleton than Jason Tatum or whatever.
Or if you if you just don't ever see him
as someone that is going to be elite, as like
your first option creator, then then that's why all this
other that he's sort of gradually honing matters more because
it just like gives him more ways to be helpful
if he just can't. You know, the true shooting is
not where it needs to be. You mentioned the finishing
at the rim just isn't where it needs to be
either if that's never gonna get you know, beyond like
a B or like a B plus or something down
the line, then having all this other utility just makes
him you know, we always talk about scalability and portability.
It just makes it easier to build around all that.
Not that he was ever really like a hard guy
to build around, but you know what I mean, Like
it just gives him more ways to be part of
a good team. Eventually, I picked another Piston. I think
that's who you have next. But I'll wait for you
to put the uh put the graphic up. And your
first question might be, if we're starting off with two Pistons,
why aren't the Pistons better? Well, they are. They're not
gonna set the league record for consecutive losses.
Speaker 1: So they've won. They won nine games basically three months
earlier than they did last year. That I know that
sounds stupid, but they were. They played in a this
is again, they played in the NBA Cup game that
had implications for them. That counts as progress.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, got house, but that's because the Bucks made
every three possible. But that game will be a couple
days old by the time you're listening to this, So
I got j and Ivy. He ironically kind of jumped
onto my radar for this exercise doing stuff I'm not
really going to praise because the genesis of this was him.
You know that buzzer beater, that game winner he hit
against Toronto. I guess it'll be over a week ago now,
and a game that Cunningham wasn't available for and he
had a great game, was you know, led the team
to win. However you want to value that over Toronto,
it's your decision. But just looked like, oh okay, like
all the athletic bursts were there, had some good passes,
obviously won the game on a tough runner. I don't
think the improvements he's made are in the realm of
being like, oh, maybe this guy is like a one B,
like a first option, like a on ball creator guy.
What I wanted to focus on was just some of
the stuff he's done better that makes him a fit
next to Cunningham or as like a maybe like a
primary guy against second units. But it's really just like
his off ball shooting is the big difference when I
put the stats together. Originally he's kind of at a
cold spell here, but he was hitting forty nine percent
of his ketch and shoot threes. It's down to like
forty four last I checked, Uh, but that's still world's
better than the thirty seven percent he shot last year.
And it has been making some good cuts and just generally
doing more stuff that allows him to be in a
role next to Cunningham that like makes sense as opposed to,
you know, had his gains been as you know Alwa's
you know, just a monster pick and roll ball handler
this year, or like his isolation. He's a terrible isolation player,
for example, Like those things just haven't come yet, and
maybe they won't but for the Pistons purposes and for
Ivy's purposes, like fitting if this isn't the team for
him down the road, Like what role can he play
if he's gonna make ketch and shoot threes and he's
gonna like pump fake and too dribble attack, Like he's
better at that stuff now, And I think that just
makes him a more viable piece kind of the along
the Cunningham lines, like makes him a more viable piece
of a good team, because I don't think a good
team is going to have Ivy in like a ball dominant,
high usage offensive role. So now he's just doing stuff
that he wasn't before that makes him fit next to
other good players, and that's like, that's something a lot
of players like with his athleticism and you know, draft pedigree,
don't accomplish. So seeing those signs I think is a
really positive thing for him.
Speaker 1: I think it's huge because what did we talk about
leading into the season, how we just didn't think that
this was going to be someone who would work alongside
k coming.
Speaker 2: That's been the thing all along, right, how does this
make sense?
Speaker 1: And now I'm looking at it more so as the
way you that feels like his optimal role, whether that's
optimal for the Pistons to where it's he can fit
along side k cunning him and maybe he's able to
carve up some second units because they still just have
a ton of questions about him as a primary or
secondary offensive engine. As someone who's going to play off
someone else, there's less questions there. But when he doesn't
give you the same value to offensively as other complimentary
like this isn't Derek White in the making deal?
Speaker 2: Yeah?
Speaker 1: No, And so I think some of his primary stuff
needs to come along more. I will say the data
has yet to align with this, and I haven't checked it,
he feel, and it's probably skewed because of the time
he will spend without Kid Cunningham. He's actually using more
dribbles than seconds per touch this year. But if you
isolate that to like when Kid cunning him is on
the floor, that had to have been slashed. Like he's
cutting a little bit more than he was last season.
And so you mentioned it, the quicker decision making from
him while being efficient in but not just a role,
but like in an area. What was the question about
him coming into the draft Out of the draft? Excuse me,
it was a shooting.
Speaker 2: Is he gonna make open shots?
Speaker 1: Right? And like he's hitting his open threes right now,
which is and defenses will like they're not guarding him
like a five alarm fire, but like he's getting guarded
more closely than he would have been this time last
year certainly were by the end of last season. I
think that's a that's a good pick and it it does.
It makes the Pistons future all the more fascinating because
of just there are other guys on the team where
it's okay, Well, is it an intuitive fit with him
and Caid and Ron Holland NSR. Thompson next up, mister Hughes,
this is my guy. It's also your guy.
Speaker 2: I was gonna say, was so weird that.
Speaker 1: You didn't pick him. I just feel like he's no
longer your guy as a result. Is that how this
will work or no? So, Nikkilexander Walker. The defense is
the defense, like there's just that is still intact. I
think he's been huge from Minnesota on the offensive end
this year. I haven't loved and they've gotten away from
it a little bit where they've tried to make him
do some point guardy things. But in the face of
Mike Conley being up and down and injured, having Rob Dillingham,
he's been used sporadically being used a little bit more now,
the Julius Randall dynamic of it all, having Aunt need
to shoot more threes, the spacing not being great, Jade
McDaniel's potentially being on one of the worst contracts in
the NBA. Just I'm just kidding her, am I that's
the question. He's done so much more offensively, more of
his shots are going on assisted, a semi big deal,
like you want to have that you don't want to
call him a creator, but to have just that extra
layer of someone who can get downhill on their own,
something he's always done, but never to like the degree
of this consistency. And then the bigger thing is Grant
is he has his effective field goal rate on catch
and shoot opportunities right now is like seventy seventy. That
is just absolutely huge for a Wolve's team that desperately,
I cannot stress this enough, desperately needs to carve out space.
They're only like five players who are taking at least
three catch and shoot jumpers per game with a higher
effective field goal percentage than Nikile Alexander Walker right now.
And I think this is maybe more of a niche improvement,
but if that's something he's able to do, it opens
up the floor desperately for a team that still needs it.
When you're looking at the personnel and so like to
have the actual EFFECTI field Green, he's at seventy three now,
so he must have dropped since I last checked it.
Of the players who there are one hundred and thirty
four of them, they are actually at least three catch
and shoot jumpers per game. The only players with a
better effective field go rt Are Garrison, Matthews, Karnthy Towns,
Buddy Heald, ojaiak Baji aj Green, Nicolokagentorian Prints and so
to have Ni Kil Alexander Walker there. He has been.
He's always going to be big for Minnesota's defense, but
this year he's been more integral and I would say
more well rounded on the offensive end as well.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I got no notes. I just I love him
as a role player. I think the shooting's real. I
guess he's I would say, like he's one of those
guys eye test wise where when it goes up, you're like,
I don't know, like I don't always love the look
of it, just the form and how the ball comes off.
But like thirty eight percent two years ago, thirty nine
percent last year, he's at forty five percent this year.
So it's just like I think that's enough. Like we
I don't really care about the mechanics so much anymore.
And just like overall, I know, every almost every time
we talk about him, I harp on the career trajectory
thing where it's just like he was a just a chucker,
like that didn't really help in many other ways. Early
in his career, and then he changes teams twice and
that's never a good sign within your first like two
three years when you're just bouncing around, and like, good
for him to just find like figure out what it
is he needs to do to be effective. Not everybody
has the physical tools to just decide they're going to
be an awesome defender and like change their shot profile
and all that stuff. But yeah, I love Naw. I
think I want him on any team I'm putting together,
and I want him in a rotation role, and more
so now than ever.
Speaker 1: We also do have to shout out. You can say
this won't hold, but like he's shooting twenty of twenty
four at the rim this year too, that's eighty three percent,
and to do that in Minnesota's spacing, that's just super impressive.
Who do you have next, mister Hughes.
Speaker 2: We got Alprin Shangoun a late ad for me, and
it just it's really, you know, he actually hasn't been
quite as good offensively in a lot of ways as
as he had as he was last year when he
was like a fringe All star consideration. I think he
was one of the guys that we had as a
most improved candidate as well for most of the year.
For him, it's just the defensive growth. And it's not
as simple as saying, well, look how good Houston defense is,
because if you're making that argument and you're attributing it
just to him, it's like, well, let's be pretending that
Aman Thompson and Tari Easton and Dylan Brooks and on
down the list, like those guys don't exist. It's not that,
it's really more that I'm convinced. I mean, I wouldn't
say I wouldn't bet my life on it, but I'm
way more convinced than ever that Shingun can now be
a significant part of a very good defense. He won't
be the driver of it, but his ability to defend
the rim has jumped in ways that I just didn't
think it was possible. And jumped is the maybe the
right word to use, because he's not like a he's
not getting off the floor. He's really physically strong. He's
gotten better at positioning himself, and now his defensive field
goal percentage allowed inside six feet is right around fifty
three percent, which is like, that's almost nine percent below
the average, as you'd expect he's defending more field goals
inside six feet than all but a couple guys in
the league. So like the volumes there, the deterrent effect
is there. He is his block rate is at a
career high somehow, even though then that's more positioning than anything,
because he's not, you know, a vertical He's not going
to you know, go up to the top of the
square to get shots, you know, like some of these
other guys do. But I think you pair the offense,
which I believe will get better, is finishing will improve
with the passing and all this other stuff, and then
like the Sabonis comps kind of fall off a little
bit because Sabonis has never really been a reason that
his team's defenses have been good. The times that you know,
the defenses around him have been good have had less
to do with him. I think Shangun is doing enough
as a room protector and just a piece of a
like a high functioning defensive machine to suggest it like
now you can start thinking about, you know what what
else in Houston's obviously really good and has been on
both ends so far, but like you don't have to
sort of view him as a maybe like long term
piece and the contract they signed him to I thought
maybe had some of that priced in. I feel like
that question has been answered a little bit so far
to where if he's gonna defend the rim like passibly,
which he's definitely done better than that to this point,
then like what else, what other than like, oh, he
needs to shoot threes? What else do you need the
guy to do?
Speaker 1: I don't. I honestly don't know, And I would even
argue there's been a lot of talk and breakdowns which
are accurate about how they've used him in ways similar
to that Ima Udoka did with Robert Williams the Third
in Boston. I do think eye test wise, it's even
more than that where his improvement is coming from. It's
like being in the right spot independent of those plays.
I think he's done a better job of like staying
in front of guys or figuring out what like and there.
Houston's defense is hell fire and that probably helps him
out a bunch, But a big part of it is
positioning independent of like just being a helper. So I
think he's done. He's probably always been a little bit
better at that then people gave him credit for. But
it's real and I do your macro point of this
just kind of solidifies that, hey, he can. Maybe they
don't view him as their their number one guy moving forward.
Maybe they even viewed as like, our best player isn't
even on the roster yet. I don't know if that's
they might think it's on me and Thompson. It could be, reed, Shepherd,
Houston is just talking about sitting pretty. They're sitting pretty,
but he opens up all sorts of options for them. Now,
if he's gonna be like this on defense, my next guy,
can you guess you don't have to? It's Ty Jerome.
Just like you mentioned guys who could have technically been
out of the league or just didn't have these big roles,
he ends up playing just what do he played two
games last year and just never always been to someone
with Okay, he's got good size, but he's never really
played a ton. He's been in the league since twenty nineteen,
twenty twenty, and he's he racked up before this season, Grant, Like,
do you know any games he played before this year?
Speaker 2: I just remember looking he'd never played fifty in a season,
and like last year was basically a fully lost season.
Speaker 1: Right, so he played one hundred and sixty games across
five seasons in the NBA. That is absolutely that's like,
that's nothing. So for him to come out now, and
it's not like he's playing a ton of minutes. He's averaging.
And if you were to get into a most improved
player debate, I wonder if someone averaging under nineteen minutes
a game could get there. It's tough, it's not tough,
but I think you can make a case that he's
improved in a bunch of different areas. But as an
on ball score as we always knew he had that
upside or thought he had that upside to kind of
not just validate it, but to certify it on a
team that might just win the championship this year as
one of like the two or three most serious contenders
at the moment, he's upped his drives per thirty six minutes.
He's at five point six drives per thirty six minutes,
up from four. Too. This is two years ago. I'm
using and I'm absolutely excuse me, I'm actually using the
wrong numbers. He's at sixteen drives per thirty six, up
from ten point eight two years ago when he last
played in a good amount of games the pull up jumper.
It's just fallen. He's taken five point five pull up
jumpers per thirty six minutes compared to three point five
during his last season. He's shooting sixty four percent on
pull up twos sixty five point eight percent on floaters.
There's no one in the league right now who's been
more efficient twos threes. However, you want to frame it
on pull up jumpers overall, and that needs to be
couched with. Okay, he really hasn't. He's taken a total
fifty six field goal attempts. But if everyone who's taken
at least fifty pull up jumpers this year, his effective
field goal right Grant is seventy six point eight and
that leave the league. I'm not gonna name the players
that's in second because actually Grant four of the top
five players on this list we're going to talk about,
so I'm not gonna name anyone on to come, but
he's a He's thirteen point eight percentage points higher than
second place. Right now. That is Bonker's efficiency. It won't hold.
He's not gonna shoot fifty eight point one percent on
pull up threes forever. But as just an on ball
scoring option. Who doesn't I think even with Tarris Lavert,
there's more waxing and waning, and there can be spatial concerns.
I think he's been better defensively the past season and
then in the quarter however long we're through this one,
But like if he's gonna give you kind of more
of a steadying force as just oh, he's a more
reliable guy who can hit those jumpers and be a
little bit more disruptive on the defensive end, especially relative
to his position. That's a big deal for Cleveland. I'm
gonna be fascinating to see what type of money he
gets in his next contract now, because there's a bunch
of different factors that go into this. It's the past
track record, it's missing having missed so much time. It's oh,
he was in kind of a small role. How do
we scale that forward? But he is going to get
most Improved Player votes, and again we're not getting into
that here at this moment. But it'd be tough for
me to rebuke those claims because he is just he's
so much more well rounded than I think we even thought.
But as an on ball scorer specifically, I think he's
made strides while kind of validating the best case scenarios
that people laid out for him in seasons past.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and I think he really stands out through the
frame of you know, talking about levels of NBA players,
these tiers we make up like he was, I mean,
he wasn't out of the league, but he was like,
you know, as close to that as you can be
without really being out of the league. Is just bouncing
around Phoenix, the Thunder, the Warriors, the Calves. Doesn't play
almost at all for the Calves last year. That's that's injury,
but still like that's looking like a journeyman guy that
is gonna be thirty in the G League and if
you you know that that kind of thing, and he's
jumped not just to like always gonna stick and then
always a you know, he's gonna play a little bit
too rotation to like all that on a on one
of the best teams in the league so far, and
like he's not the reason. Obviously the Calves collectively have
shot the shit out of the ball, and like everybody
that matters has gotten better. And and I think maybe
what I was gonna go into is like, well, he
hasn't missed a floater all year, And is he really
gonna make fifty percent of his threes? Like, yeah, the
shooting's gonna regress. But I think to your point, like
and and maybe this is what we should focus on more,
is like he's done those things to this point in
the season, and like that's a significant improvement or a
leap or growth, so like it still counts. It's a
little bit you know, it's unfair because I think probably
most of these guys, as we get further into the
season will regress to like what they've done to this
point in their careers. So he's just such an extreme
case that you almost want us like find ways to
tear it down. But like he's done what he's done,
and it's not just offense. Three and a half percent
steel rate is like way beyond anything he's ever even
touched in his career. The highest he ever had was
two point two percent as a rookie in thirty one games.
Like he I don't know that i'd say he's a
good defender, but he's making an impact. It's kind of
like he's active. He's active, like does he Like it's
a little bit like the argument about SGA's defense last
year is like our steels defense and it's like, well,
not exactly, but they still matter and they make a
huge impact. So like that for him, it's that's sort
of the same argument. Yeah, he's been is he the
most surprising? Like to me, he's the most surprising leap
of anybody that we're going to talk about. I think I.
Speaker 1: Would agree with you. And also just the context of
it too, because think of the team that he's on.
They have Darius Garland, Karris Lovert, Donovan Mitchell. That's not
you could say like we have high hopes for Tydrobe,
but it was like, well, where was all of this?
Speaker 2: Like like grek Orter Junior was a story last year too,
and in the back.
Speaker 1: And Isaacakorro just even maybe more of a wing, but
like that's another that's someone else who would play guard.
So it's it it's the player just because of the
track record and how much he's actually played, But then
it's also the roster. It's oh did you expect him
to And even I think you're even kind of seeing
it come to bear because if you're a guest right now,
like this is someone who should be in the running
for Most Improved Player and six Men of the Year. Like,
regardless of criteria, you're averaging under twenty minutes per game.
He's not gonna win either of those awards.
Speaker 2: Probably not, certainly less likely to win six Man with
because you know you all, I have a six man
as a guy that starts forty nine percent of his
games and has a bunch of reason and.
Speaker 1: Your closing lineup right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, but most improved I think it's, you know, depending
on how you wanted to find improved, Like this guy
saved his career and it's like a good NBA player
right now, and.
Speaker 1: He's a he's a free agent too. This I mentioned
that before. I'm going to be very curious to see
what he gets. I've kind of I don't even want
to throw numb exap because I tend to be too
optimistic on the breakout guys. He's probably gonna get like
some Mony Fontecio money, like seven million dollars a year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that'd be a bargain.
Speaker 1: I think your turn, and we are on too.
Speaker 2: This is toast our guy. I'll grant you partial ownership.
So this is another one. I like IVY, where the
numbers looked a hell of a lot better before just
this brutal cold streak that not just as affecting the
whole Wizards scene but also bilall COOLBALI. So the number
is still though I think under the hood point two
he's made real strides and if anything, like, let's give
the guy credit for doing anything positive on a team
that's just like the Wizards are so brutal on both
ends and the environment is so just count one word
to describe.
Speaker 1: The Wizards, grant, what would it be? Right now?
Speaker 2: I'll let you. I'll let you do it because you
texted me last night like excited about it.
Speaker 1: It's bobcatting offense and defense.
Speaker 2: They are bobcatting so and part of it. And that's
like tied to why it's impressive that he has made
some strides because he just watching, you know, before the
game got out of him last night. It's just hard
for him to get the ball. And my argument is
like he needs to start possessions with the ball a
little more often, even though Jordan Poole's shot it better,
Like I don't think Malcolm Brogden is like a real
helpful NBA player anymore. Maybe that changes if he gets
on a serious team. But between those guys in between Kuzma,
who's who's out, But and like the rookies, they're playing, man,
it's hard for kol Bali to get the ball in
a position where he's set up to succeed and doesn't
have to do something really hard to make a positive play.
Despite that, he has basically doubled his drives per game,
he's much more efficient on them. He's drawing shooting fouls
on drives more frequently and more effectively than really anybody
else's driving a lot on the team, I know, like
low bar. But in addition to that, he's their most
efficient isolation player among guys. Again, any kind of isolation
sets And we've sort of discussed in general when we
bring him up, like the fact that he quite quickly
showed signs as a rookie of having like some kind
of on ball like utility was was a surprise and
like really kind of ups his profile. And we're probably
too high on him, but just because we've kind of
like planted a flag and we're team ballall but all
that stuff has really continued to improve this year, and
he's just someone that I think has the ability to
be Maybe you know number one option is crazy, but
like something much closer to that than I think his
pre draft profile suggested. It's like always a project. Who
knows he's going to he's long, he's going to defend,
and all that other stuff. There's enough on ball things happening,
you know, specifically pick and roll specific just and again,
these improvements are from like low levels, like pick and
roll ball handling. He was terrible last year. He's like
in the middle of the pack in terms of points
per play this year. The isolation stuff is pretty legit though,
so it's it's something that's like not going to get
noticed because nobody's watching Washington, and like the baseline numbers
are not He's not the best in the league in anything,
but the strides he's made in a really shitty environment,
I think all augur really well for like what might
happen if and when the Wizards become like a functioning team.
Speaker 1: I think he's been He's probably improved literally every aspect
of his game this year. And that's I know, he's
coming off a rookie, like he's going from rookie to sophomore,
so that's kind of expected. That's nevertheless impressive, but I
think you highlighted the right stuff too. And the only
thing I would add is we are not two in
the bag for Kolbi. We are we are appropriately in
the bag for him. I think it's my Oh, it's
my turn now because you just went so RJ Barrett,
mister Hughes, did you ever envision him being one of
the five best passers in basketball?
Speaker 2: But I just I mean, I feel like, was there
like a month ago when I asked you, like, what
what about? What he's doing now is most and least surprising,
And it's just like the passing is unbelievable. It's so real, right,
It's like he's a legitimate facilitator at the wing.
Speaker 1: Yes, he is averaging about eleven potential assists per thirty
six minutes. That's up from six point five last year.
He has increased his assists rate on drives Grant he
ranks thirteenth in the league and assists at the rim
this year. That's Oh, Scotty Barnes hasn't played. I Q
was barely, but shut up. That's impressive. And I think
what's impressed me the most is he can do a
lot of his damage on the move, like in transition,
semi transition, the slowed down, more deliberate. Okay, there was
a ball screen, or I'm attacking a set defense. There's
playmaking out of that too. He's become just decidedly more
efficient out of picking roles as a score And I
think that part of that is he's less predictable as
to what he's trying to do, where he's trying to go,
even the passes that he's throwing, and you can see it,
feel it in the way that the Raptors are running
their offense and kind of through this all this like
it does expand into different parts of his game, but
I think it's worth highlighting. I don't know that you
could say he's gotten better with moving without the ball
or when he gets ahead start so much as the
Raptors have done a better job of putting him in
a position to do that. But I think you also
look at the way he's playing, and what's most interesting
to me is that fits alongside Scotty Barnes. It can
fit when IQ is healthy, when Grady Dick is healthy,
Like this is someone who feels even though he's doing
more playmaking than ever and a lot of it is
just it's on ball stuff. It's not just like all
these swings. He somehow feels more plug and play than ever.
And now what you really need to trust is, Okay,
can the three point percentage stay here? Because it's dip.
He's down to like thirty five and a half percent,
But he's not like six attempts per game, which I
think for him, that's going to be fine at this rate.
And if you're going to continue to have the element
of making quicker decisions or smarter decisions by table setting
for everybody else when you're slowing down, that's huge. And
so it's it's this weird improvement of I think RJ.
Barrett can be a part of a larger ecosystem more
than I ever have before. And yet if you need
him to kind of drive things, and no, I don't
think you're gonna have a top tier offense if you're
running everything through RJ.
Speaker 2: Barrett.
Speaker 1: But is your second or your third whatever option he
ends up being in Toronto, that's a huge that's a
huge deal. And this is just maybe he always you
could say he's always had this in him, but like
Toronto's spacing, it's probably better than a percentage wise no,
forget about it. But it's the way they run their offense.
It's probably a little bit more innovative than what he
was seeing under Tibbs. But even when he was I
don't even want to say running captaining these second units
in New York, you didn't see this level of playmaking
from him. And this is to wrap it up. What
I find most cool about this is it feels like
it's an improvement that's born from just both the player
getting better smarter, but then the team putting him in
the optimal situations for him to get better and smarter.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and it's like, when is it ever? I agree, Like,
I don't it wouldn't it be. It'd be a lot
more interesting if you were if we were able to say,
like I kind of think you could just use him
as your primary ball handler or something like that. Like no,
but when is it a bad thing when like the
third guy that the ball swings to on a possession
is a massive threat to like facilitate against a scrambled defense.
You know, like he he he's like a lot of
the guys we're talking about, where this thing he's doing
now just makes him make way more sense on a
good offense or a good team, right, like he just
oh no, it's not gonna, it's not gonna like fundamentally
he's not gonna be like a ten time All Star now.
But it's just like, oh, he's got this skill that
will play anywhere that you can scale up or down
as you need it and at the moment like the
Raptors need it. Like that's and he's really like come
through in a role that like how many other guys
could you put in that position and expect this kind
of passing growth out of like count on one hand?
Maybe if that And.
Speaker 1: I'm very curious to see if he gets even better
because I do feel like one of the things he's
gonna struggle with is like if he's going to draw
two to the ball, it feels like there's a thirty
three percent chance that's gonna end in a turn over. But
now missuming Hill, he'll see less of that at like
now that's Scotty Barnes's back. And then as if i
Q gets healthy and then so is that gonna or
can he just get better at what happens in traffic
in those situations? Because I think if you're going to
wonder if any of this is smoking mirrors. It's well,
what does the slow down version, fully slowed down, methodical
version of R. J. Barrett look like as a playmaker?
And there might still be some questions there. We have
another Toronto Raptor. He's your Toronto Raptor though Brant and
his name.
Speaker 2: Oh Chaiagbaji. This is probably a deep cut if you're
not a Raptors fan. But you know, as I was
looking through options here, again, this may kind of a
tie Jerome case maybe to some extent where it's like
anytime this didn't necessarily happen to Jerome. But Abaji was
traded in the second year of his rookie contract and
he was the first round pick that was I don't know,
like fairly highly regarded, came with some questions, but like
he goes to Toronto in a deal that brings back
a twenty four first so it's almost like the Jazz
are like, let's try, let's do it, let's get a
do over, because we don't believe, and I mean honestly
like to like just he didn't seem like an like
an NBA caliber offensive player, Like there was a lot
of defensive activity, super athletic if if maybe a little
smaller than you want in like a true three and
D wing. But I think what he's shown this year,
in addition to just like his defensive activity levels, good
steel rate, like really does compete, can guard multiple positions
as long as you don't put somebody too big in
front of him. The shooting like just he's making over
fifty percent of his catch and shoot threes. He's not
a pull up guy. I don't know. I don't know
that that's ever gonna happen necessarily, which is fine, Yeah,
which is fine, right for what we're talking about, because
this is another guy that I think was very much
in danger of being out of the league or just
you know, somebody's the thirteenth guy on a team, you know,
a new team every year or whatever every two years,
depending on how you know, what kind of commitments he
could get. And now it's just he is now again
not gonna shoot fifty percent from three all year. But like,
if he's making fifty four percent from the corners, and
if that's all he does is just be lights out
from the corners. If he shoots forty four percent from
the corners and defends like he does, that's a rotation
player like can run in transition, can do all the
role player stuff you need. And so just the shooting,
just the offensive viability, the sense that like here's what
he can do, Like now there's a thing, there's a
thing he can do on offense that keeps him in
the game and keeps his defense on the floor and
his activity and energy and all that stuff. And that
just wasn't the case before. It was just you'd ignore
him as an opposing defense. You'd say, like, okay, cool,
he's a really you know, high ceiling defender that only
plays against backups, So like who gives a shit, Like
he's going to shut down our ninth guy, big deal.
So he's just another guy like Jerome that the growth
he's made solidifies a career and maybe even like a
starting job going forward to where this time a year ago,
I was like, man, this, I don't know how much
longer this is going to go. Which maybe that's not
what you're looking for, and like leap or a big improvement,
but like maybe that's that's as hard of a leap
to make as as almost anything of just going from
being you may not be an NBA player to your
starting and that looks like what your role may be
for quite a while.
Speaker 1: I think you can also just argue like him hitting
those corner threes just opens up the floor for Scotty
and r.
Speaker 2: J and yeah on that specific team, super valuable right.
Speaker 1: And also, by the way, only one players hit more
corner threes than him this year. Mckel bridges. I like
our boggy splits though, because they're basically down the middle.
He's made I think sixteen from the right and fifteen
from the left. There's a lot of times you see
guys like there are certain lop sided towards one of
the four. So I like that there's a balance there.
So this is like he might this is someone who
could be a legit three in D guy. It looks
like right now, maybe we're overstating it. That's why we're
not declaring him a MIP candidate necessarily. But there's been
measurable improvement here. There's also been measurable improvement for someone
else who is also on the Toronto Raptors Grant. He
has been missing some time of late. I think it's
with a caffe injury, and his percentages have declined. But
I don't think we need to spend a lot of
time on Grady Dick because we did a deeper dive
into him just a couple of weeks ago. The shot
making versatility is just way broader than it was ever
supposed to be. Like, this is someone who could put
the ball on the deck and attack defenses. He's at
five point six drives per thirty six this year. That's
up from four last year. He has taken more pull
up jumpers, his shooting foul rate is up. And I
don't know if this we saw some hints of him
doing all this last year, but now they've broken it out,
like not only in higher volume, but again defenses that
are now reacting to him in ways they weren't last year.
When you look at it, this season, twenty percent of
his jump shots Grant are guarded. That's up from twelve
percent last year. That's one of the largest shares in
the league this season. I want to make clear it's
not shooting well in those situations. I think he's had
like thirty percent or something, but having the defense react
because we're talking about jumpers, that's one value. But two.
Now we know that someone can put the ball on
the floor, get to some in between spots, maybe get
all the way to the basket, have some tough finishes.
I think that's another area feels like he's improved or
at least proven himself, is being able to handle contact
with certain instances. So everything from just where he's taking
his shots, from how he's getting them, the defensive attention
that he's sucking in. I am very anxious, isn't the
word excited to see what he looks like when all
of the ret Like when IQ, Jakub, Barrett and Scotty
are all available and it's like, well, Grady isn't the
number two option in any of the lineups that he's
playing inside, because that might make him more dangerous than
he has right now.
Speaker 2: I think with him too. There was a lot of
chatter about this. I guess it was probably summer League
in maybe preseason, where everyone affiliated with the Raptors that
was watching those games was talking about he's not just
a shooter, Like it was like a PSA like Grady Dick,
you know, white dude coming out of college, Like, oh,
he's just to catch and shoot guy, that's wrong and
that's just born out, I think to the foul drawing craft,
like he's you know, I think he's right around seven
per hundred possessions, which is like not nuts, but it's
way above last year. And he's a ninety percent free
throw shooter, so like that's there's real value there, and
that just speaks to the broader point of he really
can just do stuff with the ball that not only
you know, wasn't expected of him, but that's like a
lot of wings can't really do. So I think he's
a great pick. And we've got three Raptors now, so
maybe the rap does that mean the Raptors are in
for massive regression or they're going to get really good
once everyone's healthy.
Speaker 1: And I make no apologies for saying this unless there's
some just toxic undertone that I don't know to it.
I skeeded the other night that the Raptors are the
most entertaining team in the league under five hundred, and
it's not even close for me, Like have you gotten
and maybe part of expectations are taked in here, So
I haven't gotten a lot of joy out of watching
the Kings or the Pacers. They've stressed me out more
than anything this year. So it's just like, who is
the team that's below five hundred. You're choppering in to watch,
you're just thoroughly enjoying basically every game. It's either over
dramatic and they'll still lose, or maybe they pull out
a win like they did on the NBA Cup Tuesday.
So I haven't. The Raptors have been one of my
favorite watches this season, which is funny because they've won
what six games? Seven games?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean it just let's it's we like guys
that seem to be playing over their heads, like that's
and I'm not saying they are, but like that's a
huge bonus to watching a team that's not winning. Is like, look,
look we can you believe a Baji can shoot it now,
and look at Barrett Passing and Grady Dick can do
all kinds of stuff just mix for a good watch.
We have Franz Wagner next, which is what I have.
This is kind of like we can't really do this
if we're not going to talk about him as much
as anything, because he's just his.
Speaker 1: I don't think he's improved even a little bit.
Speaker 2: No, you don't think, uh, I mean, so that's that
is the argument you might make, is like he's just
tasked with doing more because Paula Bankaro is hurt, and
like that's not really improvement. The counter to that is
just like the weight that he's carrying is way heavier,
and if you're our is well he's just kind of
doing more of the same. Then like that's incredible because
the job he has is so fundamentally different and like
not a secret. The Magic's offense is not very good.
There's not a lot of shooting there. And for him
to basically take on, you know, twenty five percent more
touch time just on the ball, you know, over last year.
I don't know what happens to that when Ben Caro's back,
but to do that and and just set career highs
and all your per game stuff while playing the same
number of minutes is just like that's insanely hard. And
what it really points to is he might be well
he is, he's he can be a number one, you know,
primary ball handler, shot creator, playmaker, whatever shorthand you want
to use on a good team, provided there's good defense there,
and that just wasn't the case last year. Some of
that is the shooting growth and we're again we're coming
from a low point twenty eight percent last year. I
think last I looked, he is thirty four percent thirty
three like thirty three eight I think is what I
saw when I looked last night. So like a dead eye,
knockdown guy, but paired with his driving, his improved passing,
and just looking at that all through the fact that
he's getting I don't know, one and a half or
twice is twice two x defensive attention every night because
Paolo is not playing. That's just that's a hard jump
to make that I have another guy I'm going to
talk about that is also probably pretty predictable, but I
think we underrate, Like, yeah, the overall statistical profile is
not super different, but when the job changes, I think
that can really point to growth in ways that aren't
as obvious as like a Bajie shooting fifty percent from
three versus being a non shooter before. Like the circumstances
I think can can have as much to do with
what we view as growth as anything else.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean, look, I know you say concerned about
the Magic offense, but they're in the sixty first percentile
of offensive efficiency when Franz is playing without Palo this season,
which kind of continues a trend where they were. I
think last year they were in the ninety fourth or
ninety fifth percentile of offensive efficiency in those same minutes. But like,
given the personnel, that's a like because when you're playing
without Polo last year, you're going up against a lot
of inferior lineups. Now it's no, you're going up against
the main lineups. And I think what's interesting, and I
think also a little bit exciting, is so he's averaging
about thirty six points per one hundred possessions this year
when Ben Carroll's off the floor, he's averaging about thirty
six points per one hundred possesions when Palo Bank Carroll's
on the floor as well. And the change has been
you mentioned in the shot profile. He has to take
more unassisted threes, the twos get harder, his efficiency drops off,
but he has a fifty five plus true shooting without
Polllow on the floor. Again, is the engine of your
offense on a team that's not really built to generate
a ton of offense that's really good. The thing that
I think stands out to me the most has been
the passing. And so without Palo this year, Grant he's
generating twenty three point nine points per one hundred possessions
as a passer just off of assists. And now for context,
like if you're looking where that would ranked if you
scaled it, just like if that was his default, that's
about top twenty, top twenty one in the league. It's
what Luka Doncic is generating per one hundred posessions as
an assist guy this year. And now that's an extreme
because the mass have him playing off the ball more,
which I actually think is going to be a huge
benefit to him in them long term. But we're talking
about I'm not saying he's one of the ten best
passes in the league. I also probably have more questions about, well,
can he be the primary driver of an efficient offense.
I think I'm just so like clumpy pilled from watching
Orlando's offense still after all these years where they did
try to make certain changes to it with the addition
of KCP, and it hasn't necessarily worked out that way.
I've could you imagine if the Magic were like, let's
say a top ten shooting team, what would him and
Paolo look like?
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's the thing. So to your point, this
kind of maybe brings it home so his assist rate
is up over thirty percent and it was under nineteen
percent last year. His turnover rates down at a career low.
So like that touches the passing, that touches on Like
it's insane that he's doing more positive facilitating without making
while making fewer mistakes amid significantly greater defensive attention in
an environment that has not built for him to succeed
in because of the lack of shooting. So like it's
I don't know, does that make sense? Like it really is,
just you have to consider the circumstances when you're looking
at him, because if you just look at the raw
counting status, it's like those are good. Is he really different?
It's like no, he's very, very different, and you have
to understand like what's going on around him to really
appreciate that.
Speaker 1: I do find it funny that you just made the
Palo bang Caro over Jalen Williams Rookie of the Year
case that you railed against a couple of years ago.
Speaker 2: I'd like to distance myself from that, although maybe not
because oh it's not my turn next, but we'll get there.
Speaker 1: Norman Powell, I think another guy where you just wonder, okay,
is he just because they're the offensive packing order in
Los Angeles has fallen off a cliff. There's James Harden
and then who else is going to be here? Number
two option without Paul George there, without Kawhi Leonard being healthy.
This is what Norman Palla averaged last year, grant thirteen
point nine points. He's averaging twenty three point nine as
we record this, So just a ten point jump. I
don't I don't care. Oh he's starting now, like I
just he's playing more minutes. He's averaging ten additional points
while playing like five six extra minutes per game. He
has been otherworldly efficient relative to volume, istining fifty point
seven percent on threes while taking almost eight of them
per game. That's efficiency that you would expect to come down,
but it's also just mind melting to have. We're a
quarter away through the season and he's maintained that efficiency
when you're looking at actual changes, because I do think
when you're looking at the three point shooting and even
the rim pressure, that's something he's always done. I'll call it.
The self sustaining scoring is just at an all time high.
He's averaging eleven point four drives per thirty six minutes.
That's up from six point nine last year. And I
think notably, and I want to make clear it's not
a huge part of his game, but like they have
him running pick and rolls at this point, he's at
three point nine pick and roll possessions as the ball
handler per game. That is more than double the volume
that he had last season. And he also is scoring
efficiency in those situations. So you're giving him a ball
screen against the set defense, he's averaging one point one
to one points per possession. That is incredibly efficient for
that circumstance. It ranks tenth among the seventy nine players
who have run more than fifty pick and rolls, and
by the way, I even find that number staggering. He's
just among the players a quarterway through the season that
have run more than fifty pick and rolls. Now, I
still think there's a lot to be desired as just
he's not passing a ton more in those situations. I
think he's making an effort at least if you're going
to give him a ball screen. But like he has
a one track mindset when he's getting downhill, and that's fine.
I think that he's just he's gotten more efficient or
remained comparably efficient while dealing with more complicated volume. It's
not just more volume, it's more complicated volume. There's extra
defensive attention, there's extra responsibility. I'm very curious to see again,
not the discussion we're having, but in the actual most
improved player convo. I'm curious how people are going to
view him. But this is this is a massive leap,
and it's coming from someone who is in his age
thirty one season. So we just have like ten plus
years of knowing who this player is or what we
think he is. We have our priors, and he's flipped
a few of them. Now is this the Clippers don't
have a great offense, but like him is your number three,
Like if Kawhier comes back or you make it even
him is like your number what like two point five?
It's he's done a great job for LA this season.
Speaker 2: I was just thinking before you said it, like I,
this isn't the most improved like ranking or anything. But
of the guys we've discussed so far, there might be
one may two that I would I would suspect voters
would pick over Powell just because the the spike is
so glaring, and it's been like such a story that
like him and Harden are just kind of like I
guess Zubats too, but like that's more of a defensive thing,
like that offense is not good and those two are
like the only guys that are doing a lot consistently,
And it's just the efficiency and the volume and all
that stuff. It's so it's so conspicuous and it so
fits into like the type of stuff that we tend
to reward with most improved player. But yeah, and to
do it at this age, I know you mentioned it,
but it's like he's by far the oldest guy we're
going to talk about.
Speaker 1: It's just like it's not cooln even think about that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's so I mean, maybe that makes you more skeptical,
but all I would argue it also makes it more
impressive because usually, like you said, you're sort of set
what you're going to be forget ten years, like five,
like we kind of have a sense of what kind
of player you are, and this he's just the best
version of that.
Speaker 1: Now Clippers have been Are they the biggest surprise this year?
You could probably throw the ruck. I don't I'm not
technically surprised by the magic without Polo for sure. I thought,
remember I was just yet they need to make a trade,
like this isn't going to work. So they've been surprising
in that aspect. But if you told me they were
top four in the East according like that wouldn't shock me.
It's probably between the Rockets or the am I forgetting somebody.
I guess the calves at this level.
Speaker 2: For sure, we were pretty in on the caves. I mean,
if you're going the other way. The Pacers have been
surprisingly bad.
Speaker 1: But like I think I disappointed. There's like, what, what's
the biggest pleasant surprise?
Speaker 2: It's for me it's the Clippers because we buried them.
I think. I don't know if we picked like the
most likely under but I know they were in the
conversation for us, just like I was hopeless. There's nothing
James Harden can't do this anymore, which you know, I
mean he's been fine, uh and great in a couple
recent spurts. But like the defense, I guess there were
people though now in hindsight, like some people were saying
the defense was going to be really good. I just
never bought it.
Speaker 1: We we said the defense was going to be really good,
and we continued to rip winds away from them. Anyway,
while we were going through that exercise, I think I
had them under thirty wins or something. I have to
go back and look, uh, but yeah, I think they're
relative to our expectations, they're clearly the biggest. Yeah, wow, soccer.
Speaker 2: My guy. You know, we just couldn't do Do you
think I was gonna do this without getting Jayalen Williams
in here? Dan? Come on, So all the numbers are up,
you can do some fun basketball reference sorting messing with
his like twenty two five five, two and one, and
you get one other season in NBA history and it's
Michael Jordan in nineteen ninety ninety one. So it's just
like you're throw in his efficiency. His true shooting is down,
although I think it's probably back over sixty percent because
he was lights out last night, but had him at fifty.
He was at fifty nine percent prior to that, So
like you're you'd say, like, wow, what's different. He played
center for like a month and he so I would
argue maybe sixty five seven to two wingspan kind of
comparable physically to Draymond Green. Was he a decent defender?
I guess, like I don't know. It's it's a couple
of things with Jim Well, it's three things. One, I
have to talk about him because I love him. Two,
I think he's made the rise to like all NBA level.
If you a lot of the catch alls him in
the top ten, like he's way up there in EPM,
and it's it's early and all that stuff is real,
you know, noisy at this point. But I do think
just in terms of across the board volume, across the
board efficiency, he's elite just flat out statistically. And now
if we're going to introduce into that essentially like five
position stuff, I guess the knock against him still would
be you take Sja off the floor, you put Jalen
Williams on the ball, surround him with the best the
Thunder have. Offensively, it's still maybe not great, right, Like,
it's not elite. I still think he some of that
has to do with the player, the limited players the
Thunder put around him in some of those lineups. I
do believe that he can. He's close or closer maybe
to being someone that can just run the offense without SGA.
He's not as good as SGA. Sorry, there's like three
guys that are in the world whoa So yeah, you
know he like he doesn't he walks on water, SJ
runs but like you introduce into that you really can
credibly play center on a team that's really good defensively,
and like, I'm sorry, that's that's growth, Like that's a leap,
or at least if he could always do that, he
wasn't trusted to do it, and now you know he
has been. Don't know how much you're gonna see of
that once now that Hartenstein's back and Chet will get
back whenever he does. But having that like club in
the bag is insane for a guy that's just one
of the best wings in the league full stop, he
can also play center, Like what are we doing? Like
that's that's incredible?
Speaker 1: Do you so? I'm honestly just asking, because I do
find myself on this podcast I end up I think
being so we had the conversation Jale and Williams or
Scottie Barnes the other day. You swayed me on it
by the end, But I just feel like I have
to play Devil's advocate whenever we talk about J Dubb.
Otherwise this would just turn it into.
Speaker 2: I'm I'm irrational about I am biased.
Speaker 1: Here's the thing. I don't know that I think you are,
but I am having a tougher time scoring away where
I watch him and I humans just like, oh, like
this could be do you view him? I guess in
the same vein of and I would saying, well, he
can draw an offense by himself, but we have all
this evidence when he plays without Shay that the numbers
do not back it up, particularly without Chet Holmgren on
the floor. Yeah, how do you like? What do you
make of that?
Speaker 2: I think that's the that's a fair knock because the
numbers say what they say.
Speaker 1: I what do you have him at your proprietary data?
Speaker 2: That's my proprietary metrics. Uh, my proprietary metrics have him
at very good and underrated as a primary he's underrated
point oh point oh sorry, point oh one. As I'm
checking the numbers here, you know that that's like, that's
a fair assessment. You can't really argue I. I just
sort of try to contextualize it with like, all right,
so if you're out there with I don't have the
lineup data in front of me. But it's if you
put him out there with like literally no one else
that can do something with the ball, like Isaiah Joe
can shoot it, Aaron Wiggins can drive it. If he's
out there with other Jalen Williams, he's gonna make hustle plays.
If it's Kendrick Williams, same thing might make spot up threes.
Like it's asking a lot of him to run on
an offense effectively when he's the only guy that's gonna
make a play like even you know, I it's just
if SGA is off, obviously you're at a dearth of playmaking.
You're driving. He's the only guy that gets to the
line SGA is so like, yeah, it's just tough. I
wonder what would happen if you gave Jalen Williams, like
somebody else that could pass droubleshoot like fairly consistently. What
that would look like? Maybe that's chet honestly down the
down the road like once he's back. But yeah, if
you're gonna make the knock, that's it. I just think, Uh,
that's something he's getting better at, and I'm I wonder
what some of that uh Jalen Williams primary ball handler
stuff would look like if the lineups around him were
a little different.
Speaker 1: Can I ask you a question, you may you put
Jalen Williams into Franz Wagner situation with Orlando right now,
Are the magic better or worse?
Speaker 2: Hmm, that's a great question. I think I think they'd
be pretty loose. I imagine Williams would be more efficient
as a scorer than Franz is. I wonder about the
I wonder if he can handle that much volume though,
because we just we just haven't. We haven't seen that,
So fair question, I think, and that does illustrate, like
maybe Jadab is not someone that can right now be
like the high volume rep after rep after rep primary
initiator on offense, and Franz has done that. But I
would bet you that that at least Williams would be
like shooting it better, would be more efficient. I don't
know if that that dodges your question. I think maybe
they'd be comparable, but like in different ways. And maybe
maybe the volume is what matters, right because that's what
Franz has proven, is that he can just take on
this enormous playmaking load and Willams has never really had
to do that and hasn't done it as successfully in
smaller doses.
Speaker 1: Someone needs to run a two case him on that.
We'd probably be the only idiots that are wondering what
would happen, So we won't do that.
Speaker 2: That's a good question.
Speaker 1: Next up, and it's our final one before we go
into a lightning round. Peyton Prichard, I think, what do
you think people are probably expecting him to show up here.
He's definitely showing up in six Man of the Year discussions.
I haven't seen him. When it comes to improvements, I
don't maybe I shouldn't say that they're subtle improvements. But
what he's done best is be less of a point guard.
And what I really mean by that is by the
way he's still like he's killing people in pick and
roll situations. He leads the league rant. You don't need
to filter it by possessions anything, just in points per
possession out of the pick and roll. Peyton Pritchard Branks
first right now, which okay, going up coming off the bench,
but like we're a quarter of the way through the seasons,
that's something that you probably need to take a little
bit seriously. When you're looking at it, he's just to me,
when I watch him, it feels like he's making quicker
decisions and then just absolutely eviscerating defenses with those quicker decisions.
He is, like, we all know what he's probably shooting
on like three point ers. I think it's like a
eighty percent or something, But sixty two point three percent
of his shots come while using one or fewer dribbles.
That number was only at fifty two percent last year.
Sixty percent of his shots are also coming with after
fewer than two seconds of touch time. That's up from
fifty two percent last year as well. To play that
much quicker and then still just be super efficient like whatever,
almost in whatever kind of shot type you want to
filter for him when you look at Yes, we know
the three point percent is, but Peyton Pritchard on drives
this year is up to seventy seven point percent shooting grant,
He's shooting twenty four or thirty one out of drives.
He's shooting off the catch. I don't even know what
the exact number is for him on spot up threes
this season, but if it's under fifty percent, I think
I'd probably be a little bit shocked. So he's at
forty five point six percent, so color me a little
bit shocked he's shooting thirty eight point eight percent on
pull up threes. I think he can still do a
lot of the point guard stuff, and like he's definitely talented.
Like if you're talking about like you want to see
kind of the circus handles sometimes he is someone who
could do that and maybe go after defense is in
that regard. The Boston's not built to need him to
do that or want to do that, And I am
just basking in this is someone who did not have
the cachet to request a trade, but did so what
two or three times, and now he's become an integral
part of the team and he's probably good enough to
if he wanted a trade, he could actually force one
now because he reads that profile. So he's been I'm
curious to see if anyone can catch him for six
Man of the Year right now, Like he seems like
the runaway favorite and not just well, let's just consign
to you know, convention there, but like, oh no, he's
the rightful runaway favorite, pull up jumper, effective field. Great,
he was number three, so by the way, those rankings
before ninety one players have taken at least fifty pull
up jumpers. Ta Jerome is the most efficient, Norman Powell
is number two. Peyton Pritchard's number three. So this is
just he seems to kind of be fitting the mold
to more than ever, just what a lot of people
want a sixth man to be. And just the number
I referenced earlier, one point four possessions as the pick
points per possession is the pick and roll ball handler
that leads the league, and he's running almost two pick
and rolls of games. So this isn't you know, Michael
Porter Junior is at one point three to nine but
barely runs a pick and roll. Taylen Horton Tucker's three.
There's that is I don't buy that at all. So
but like Peyton Pritchard, I don't know if he's gonna
end up playing enough, or if people are gonna do
what they do to Tatum in the MVP discussion, what
maybe we've done to Tatum in the MVP discussion. But
he's not gonna receive most improved credentials even though he's
playing almost thirty minutes a game, because oh he's on
the Celtics, Like his job is so easy.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, like yeah, a lot of I think
it's really interesting that I didn't know the numbers who
were going to cite, and a lot of those are
kind of on ball stuff, the pick and roll efficiency
to pull up thing, Like I think what I like
about the three point volume is just a thing on
its own. Like he's getting over up over fifteen per
hunter possessions. His career high before that was twelve, like that,
which is high. Well, like that's an insane number and
to shoot it as well as he has forty three percent,
that's like just the It's kind of like the math
game that the Celtics as a team are playing is
like we're just gonna shoot so many more than you're
comfortable with and make them at high rates that you
just can't win. I think like the off ball value
is really high too, because he's one of those guys
and I always jump to like Eric Gordon that he
will spot up way beyond the line, like so he
just forces a defense to cover a lot more space
if he's off the ball. So I don't know that
that's a new skill, but his his average shot distance
is twenty two and a half feet this year, and
that's with ten percent of his attempts coming inside three feet.
So like I should have just parsed out the NBA
dot Com data because I think they do have the
like the extra long threes or they they split it
up into beyond twenty three nine. But like the on
ball stuff's amazing. That's probably where the growth I think, rightful,
you're citing the right stuff first, but like as an area.
Speaker 1: More with what you're saying where it's okay, it's the
on ball stuff, but he's getting rid of it quicker,
and so that fits into the whole off ball things.
And so he's always had a little bit of a
plug and play element. I guess his improvement is he's
just become infinitely scalable.
Speaker 2: Yeah, right, well, man, like against in that self the
game when Boston played Cleveland. He also just like put
Darius Garland in the basket on one play, like he
caught it in a low catch and just like bodied
him underneath the rim and just scored right over him
like he was I don't know, like a like a
power forward in nineteen ninety one. Just like, oh he
can do that too, because he's super competitive and super
physical and strong, and so if you don't have size
on him, then he's also just gonna like, you know,
leave you dusted behind screens or like pin you on
his back. He's just yeah, he's It's almost like he's
made two gains in like too many areas to really
like focus on one.
Speaker 1: Where where do you think he would rank this season
in shots made twenty five feet or further out?
Speaker 2: I mean I just said all that, So he's got
to be top three.
Speaker 1: He's not per per stat head Peyton Pritchard ranks, He's
not even in the top fifty. Is that right?
Speaker 2: That can't be right.
Speaker 1: I never would. Maybe it's like, so if I if
I changed it to like maybe it's a twenty three
feet situation, what is his average shot distance is over
twenty two, So let's just say twenty three. Does he
pop up there like he's just taking it from a
very specific reign.
Speaker 2: Maybe am I imagining that? Maybe maybe what I'm doing
is conflating all of his like end of quarter heaves
that he made in the playoffs last year, or like
that he's so good at in general.
Speaker 1: I'm wondering if I sorted it wrong because to me,
I definitely sort it wrong. So he is seventh in
shots made outside of twenty three.
Speaker 2: Feet, Okay, that's pretty good. Feel better about that.
Speaker 1: Yeah. The players in front of him, Derek White, Donovan,
Mitchell Tyler, Hero, LaMelo Ball, Jason Tatum, to Anthy Edwards.
This fact that three Celtics are just in the top
seven is perfect.
Speaker 2: And the Celtics are totally fine with the introduction of
the four point line, is what you're telling me.
Speaker 1: Ready for the lightning round, mister Hughes, Sure, less lightning,
but the real lightning round comes after. Christian Brown. I
do think he deserves a mention. The numbers for him
just kind of pop when you look at relative to
last season. So last year he averages what was he
at last season? He averaged seven point three points per game.
He's more than double his scoring output. He's at fifteen
point nine. I think where his real improvement has come,
and there's probably two areas, is they've given him more
ball handling responsibility in certain moments, and I think he's
done a pretty good job of that. I still wish
that I could see more of that from Peyton Watson,
since I view him as kind of the more fluid
on ballplayer, even though he's definitely not as consistent as
Christian Brown. He's done some more handoffs. But I think
I think what the big thing is for Christian Brown
is he's more effective and better at kind of understanding
how to move when Nikola Jokic is off the floor.
He has a sixty point two effective field goal percentage
without nikol Jokic on the court this year. That's up
from fifty one point four last year. He's shooting sixty
seven percent on twos without Yolkic on the floor compared
to forty eight percent last year. And it's that might
feel like a small thing because we know that he's
gonna play a bunch of minutes next to Nikoliokic, but
he is more independent on that end of the floor
even when he's away from the ball than he's ever been,
And I do think that deserves just a little bit
of a shout out. I still I understand that that's
never going to be the crux of his offense, but
I look at him and I'm like, are you really
shooting feweror threes per one hundred persessions than you were
last year?
Speaker 2: I was a team I was just gonna say, like, so, yeah, what,
I have it right in front of me. Three point
six attempts per hundred. He was at four point nine
last year. And yet I think it's a testament to like,
because all we wanted him to do is just be
KCP basically right, like you just shoot as often as
he does and as accurately as he does, and then
keep doing all your other stuff. I think it's a
credit to him to and maybe the Nuggets too, of
just like, yeah, he's shooting forty percent from three, that's
all the more reason to shoot more. But I think
they kind of looked at like, Okay, what's he good at,
Let's just do more of that, Like, let's let's help,
Let's have him improve in ways that like are like him,
as opposed to trying to turn him into like the
type of player that we need because maybe he just
maybe that's just never gonna happen. But it's it's fascinating
to me that his scoring growth and stuff has really
stemmed from stuff he was already good at, as opposed
to like, let's turn him into some totally different version
of of what he's been, which is like that's I
don't know a lot of ways. I think that's a
hard decision to make, right, to just double down on
what a guy's good at, as opposed to try and
to change him.
Speaker 1: He does feel like someone who's gonna finish higher on
the ballout of most improved player, because it feels like
he kind of checks the boxes that people are comfortable
for sure Jackie, where it's oh, he's not a second
year player and his role has gotten bigger, and there's
like just this very material increase in his counting stats.
I don't know if he deserves it. Again, we need
to dig into it, but he does feel like a
candidate that'll a lot of people might gravitate towards.
Speaker 2: I totally agree.
Speaker 1: Next name, what have you noticed from mister Hughes Diyson Daniels.
We've talked at length about him already.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean, I don't know. So this is a
volume situation, I guess, because defensively, he's just in the
conversation now of like, is he the best perimeter defender
in the league, and that's tied directly to the insane
steel rates, insane deflection rates. Like you know, we spent
a good portion of the first month of the year
talking about like, is he gonna just set the steels
per game record or at least be the first guy
in whatever thirty forty years to be up you know,
over three a game, Like is that plausible? He just
like the defense has been unbelievable. It's sort of easier
to see coming. But he's also like now not efficient
as an offensive player, but has just shown more of
like an in between game has. He was getting a
lot of praise early in the year for just being
willing to shoot threes, whereas like Pelicans fans would know
there would just be long stretches whole quarters of games
where he's just like not gonna look at the basket,
like to the detriment of the offense. So some credit
is deserved for just being willing to shoot it. But
like the floater stuff, the kind of you know, six
to ten foot stuff, even the three to ten foot stuff,
there's a little more there this year. I think really
it's just the level of defensive impact he's been able
to make that stands out the most.
Speaker 1: Right, Yeah, I guess you're right. I still think it's
him showing more dynamics where he's always been good, like
from the float ranger like when he's getting to the basket.
I just think he's been smarter and more comfortable even
dealing with contact. But for me, it's tough because of
all the things you mentioned. He was never like Atlanta's
just gonna have a better half courts basing environment than
he had in New Orleans. And his role was just
also bigger. So it was this kind of again, the
stuff he's doing well, we always saw flashes of most
of it in New Orleans for sure, another Atlanta Hawk.
I would say, what I've noticed the most about Jalen Johnson,
who not that I wrote him off at the beginning
of the year, grant, but he had like a rough
start after signing a contract extension. I wonder if that
was he didn't want to he didn't go so hard
until the extension was so he had a worker his
way back into shape because hen' want to get injured
before signing it. But I think the biggest thing with
him is I've always viewed him as like this connective passer.
He's just making. He's playmaking more from dead stops, just cut,
not capslock running the offense. But he has the ability
to go against that defense is attack off the dribble
and make place for others out of that. That's been
a huge deal, and Lanta's getting healthier now, so having
Modanovic back, getting a little bit more run from Kobe Buffett,
even though he's more of a defensive option at this point.
They kind of need that though, when you look at
just Okay Bogey gets injured a lot, and then you
have Trey Young and then it's who, like, who's your
second best? Probably Dyson Daniels after that, So you've Bogdanovic
and Dyson Daniels and Jalen Johnson. I've been very impressed
with that aspect of Jalen's game.
Speaker 2: I think, like I made the case the other day
something I was writing for just more Trey Young off
the ball, and a lot of it has to do
with Jalen Johnson can just be someone that makes the
right decision much more than he used to be.
Speaker 1: I'm very curious to know what you say about LaMelo
Ball because he's injured again. Casstrain right, I think he's
dealing with I mean, the Hornets are just pick a name.
Until he was not injured at this point, Bretton Miller,
who is playing enough minutes to make Tom Thibodeau blush
at the moment, But LaMelo counting stats are fascinating, but
a lot of the improvements that we saw at the
beginning of the season, they're like not the same. So
I'm just kidding, where do you land on this?
Speaker 2: He's a so have we not talked about him yet,
like the kind of the give and take of his
free injury part of the year.
Speaker 1: Right, So the question you posted to me, you said,
people are wondering if LaMelo ball has become basically the
most overrated player in.
Speaker 2: The Yeah, And that struck me because I was just
looking at like the three point volume was insane, and
he was He's he tailed off a little bit before injury,
but to get up thirteen threes a game is like that.
And if you're hitting him a league average clip, which
is fairly close to that's that's such a huge value
add and the passing and the offensive orchestration. The usage
rate was on pace at one point to be like
the third highest in the like modern era, So like ye,
but then but then so the pushback was always kind
of two pronged. One is just like he is an
unseerious defender and team player, which is easy to say
about him because he does play with like such a
care free like his like his step backs are unlike
anyone else's because they almost just feel like, I fuck
it like every time. You know, they're just like little
flicks and and like shoot it off one and a half.
Speaker 1: The same, Like I'm not putting on the same level
of these players. But I don't like when we try
to use demeanor as a metric for commitment. You can
tell he's like you could say the same thing about
Luca or Jokic.
Speaker 2: Maybe so maybe so I think, well, yeah, I think
that's true. Maybe less for Jokic than Luca.
Speaker 1: Well bleeding and has scratches on him, but he makes
things look so like he's not fired up after these
plays where he gets like he can get off those
ridiculous like sweeping two point shots. Yeah, and Luca with
the step back two those looks James Harden even like
they feel like they take more effort now that he's older.
But like Pete James Harden, it just kind of felt
like it looked easy. And is that do we penalize
that now?
Speaker 2: I would say, I'm not making this argument. I think, well,
here's what I'd say, if the reason you think he's
unseerious is like maybe some of the like stupid driving
stuff with a couple of years ago, and the fact
that like this is where you're wrong. You would be
wrong if you're making this criticism that he like smiles
a lot and like seems to be really having a
good time, so like therefore he's not he doesn't care.
Like that's not a great argument. What I would say,
you do have a leg to stand on if you
cite defensively, for example, he's just never in a stance
like he's just standing up and he just if a
guy goes by him, he reaches, he'd fouled out. I
think Chris Herring for ESPN had this, like he fouled
out what like three out of six games at one
stretch and was fouling out early and just and it
was dumb reaches. It was like lazy plays. It was
just unseerious defensive play like that I think is real.
And and if you're if that bothers you, and if
you also cite the stuff that says like, yeah, he
makes the Hornets offense way better, but when he's on
the floor, that offense is still like a jectively not good.
It's you know, like it doesn't rank high enough to
make the argument that, like, oh, he's this incredible driver
of offense. It's really just relative to like how much
better things are when than compared to when he's not
on the floor. I'm receptive to that stuff, like the
defensive just like not giving a shit and the like,
does he raise the offense to a level that's high
enough to like anoint him as you know, worthy of
this crazy high usage rate. Those are good arguments, I think,
or at least compelling. I still think you have to
weigh that against the sheer volume of the stuff he's
doing as a scorer and the load that he has
to carry with a bad team around him. And that's
what's not that's what makes him tricky, right, I don't.
I think I'm more impressed than not. But I am
receptive to the stuff that suggests like this actually isn't
as meaningful as some of the numbers individually for him
make it look like very quickly.
Speaker 1: What do you make of the notion that he hasn't
actually gotten better, that this is more of a volume
and approach.
Speaker 2: I think I don't think it has to be one
or the other. I think the ability to do stuff
at a higher volume level means in a lot of
cases that you have gotten better, right, like like you
know what I mean? Like that maybe that's a cop
out answer, but not everybody gets to play that high
usage of a role. And he's done it with good
enough efficiency that you put him in a category of
like I don't know how many other guys even could
do that, like have the ability to do that.
Speaker 1: The Hornet's offense fifty third percent tile with him on
the court, The half court offense is in a thirty
fifth percentile, which can be a red flag. I just
wonder what's the if If that's the returns, little mellow,
what is the player you put on this Hornet's team
with the availability, the injury concerns and all exactly is
a lot better? And I think you're getting into the
Jokic Luka Doncic, of course, but like who if you
put I'm just I'm asking if you put Anthony Edwards
on this Hornets team, are they a better offensive team?
Speaker 2: Yeah? How different? Or is of Trey Young or something
someone that we have seen drive a really good offense,
Like is it? Is it meaningfully different. We can't answer that,
but no, that I think that's the right counter, at
least in turn, if you're gonna impune him offensively, I
don't think that's necessarily the way to go. I think
it's the defense as much as anything.
Speaker 1: I want to shout out Jaron Jackson Junior as well.
I know we're seeing an extension of kind of what
happened last year with more self creation. But he leads
the Grizzlies in scoring and they're top five offense right now.
They can still be, and we saw it in their
loss to the Mavericks. That half court machine is very rickety,
including Jaron Jackson Junior, whose release remains it's tough to
watch themout. Yeah, but he's shooting sixty percent on floaters
versus forty four percent last season, and so I think
the floor opening up a little bit when John Rant's there.
But John Morants miss time this season, and the Grizzlies
are not this billboard for Pristine's basing. I think Jaron
Jackson Junior has kind of continued to build upon what
he did last year. I think it's exciting for Grizzlies
fans in that team in general to see him be
this player in I guess I would say closer to
what the normal team is supposed to be when you
look at who was played this year.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's I think I made a wild prediction early,
like before the season, that he would finish higher in
MVP rankings than jaw, which was mostly because I thought
Joe would miss time. Feel pretty good about that one.
Speaker 1: I think I predicted the Hornets with Bobcat. That was
my one of my bold predictions. So right on schedule.
Speaker 2: Evan Mobley. Okay, so this is interesting because I think
in passing I mentioned and I want to pull the
numbers up now that like there again I keep making
like straw man cases. But there was like some pushback
on oh, has he made the leap because after like
a pretty impressive start, statistically, the numbers you know, points, rebounds,
assists per game had kind of like dropped down, like
the three point volume hadn't like spiked. He's at two
attempts per game, which is good if you average one
point two last year, but you know a couple more
points per game. His assists are down, his rebounds are
down per game despite more minutes, and and like I
guess if that's where you wanted to stop. You'd say,
like how different is he? And then you'd just be
wrong because the way Evan Mobley is playing, you just
have to be watching him, I guess, right, which is
like sometimes a sort of shitty thing to say, But
like the physicality that he plays with, especially on offense,
and the level of aggression is just like that wasn't
there before. I think part of it is he looks
physically much stronger, and his ability to just move guys
is just something that he didn't have, you know, last season,
Like he you go back to that Knick series in
the postseason where he just couldn't finish through contact, right,
Like he would be the guy on the roll that
would either have to make the pass or finish oversize
and he just couldn't do it. And that's, you know,
one of the main reasons the calves like, oh well,
I don't know about this team now. So his finishing
through contact, I know, you have a stat ninetieth percentile
right now, he's averaging about three more drives per game,
and the drive the nature of the drives are different.
They're just like aggressive is like not it's like predatory,
like he's hunting contact, and I caught I caught the
last game I saw of the Calves. I caught myself
thinking like because he did look bigger in the upper body,
and he would just get a shoulder into guys and
put him, you know, too low to contest, and he
just dunks now off the dribble all the time. And
I started thinking, like, is this going to be a
thing where he becomes like Giannis? And he has like
three plays a game where he just like doesn't make
a move but just catches the ball close enough to
the basket to where he just can go through people
to dunk, And like, wow, that's new. Like now Yannis
is an insane physical comp Like there's sort of never
been anybody like that. But the things that Moblei is
doing now call that to mind, I think, which is like,
go back a year and a half, you'd never in
a million years have thought like the main improvement he
would make is just the use of physicalit. But that
but that I think to me has been the biggest
standout for him this year.
Speaker 1: I had to hit b Ball Index for having those stats,
But ninety eight percentile in finishing through contact when he's
never ranked higher than the sixty fourth percentile on his
career and wouldn't.
Speaker 2: Try it, Like that's the other thing he wouldn't like
the his comfort and like his almost like desire to
like find contact is just that makes you a different player.
Speaker 1: We have Darius Carlin next up, another calv We've covered
him in detail too here as well. Just some of
the efficiency has fallen off, but the down hill and
the finishing around the rams back to being okay, eh,
But like the stuff from the in between, like him
being aggressive going downhill, putting defenses in rotation, drawing two
to the ball, just creating an absolute havoc running the offense.
He's just gotten better, more composed, and we're kind of
seeing what happens when he's healthy for an extended period
of time. And I think that, you know, you still
want to see the finishing be a little bit better.
I think when you do dig into the numbers that
it does get better when there's only one big on
the court. But like this is someone who I think
has also made I'll call it like a miniature leap.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think if there were a comeback Player of
the Year awards still it would just be him, Like
oh oh, there he is like Darius Carland's back to
what we thought he was going to be. Nauji Marshall
the next real quick hasn't necessarily like done the stuff
that you would have ideally hoped for coming over to
the MAVs, like under thirty percent from three. You know, well,
so therefore he's useless as a role player. But in fact, right,
like if you're on the MAVs, then you can't make
spot up threes and you're not on the ball, Like
what do you do here on offense? Basically he's just
making floaters all the time now, which is a cool thing.
It's the highest true shooting percentage of his career. He's
over sixty two percent, which, like, I don't care about
the volume. If you have a sixty plus two shooting percentage,
you're just a helpful offensive player. So he like I
don't know, I think there's a pretty strong case that
just he needs to play over Klay Thompson. Maybe you'd say,
I like, that's just if Thompson is going to be
as one dimensional as he's been, Like, I don't know
what the argument is.
Speaker 1: He's an interesting sixth Man of the Year candidate too,
And I know he had some of the floater and
transition stuff in New Orleans, but it's just ratcheting it
up since he's gotten to Dallas. Next up we have
I think Tyler Herro is the one that I have
next up here. Oh No, ped mc mather who I
debated whether or not to include. I will say I
think he's been more consistent this year. He's gotten better
at rebounding. The defense is neither here nor there. They're
the numbers are there. I want to make this clear,
but I do feel like he's a little bit culpable,
and like when the Pacers offense slows down, and it
really shouldn't. But again, just being more consistent and rebounding better,
that is super helpful. And they they needed, or I
think you could argue they probably still need, Like if
Halliburton is going to continue to be one of the
NBA's wildest roller coasters, and I know he settled down
over the past few games. Like Benne mcmatherin, becomes more important,
doesn't address your biggest issues, but becomes an important safety valve.
And so I do think that we've seen some strides
from him, but I thought after kind of making strides
as someone who is more of a quicker decision maker.
I feel like the Pacers have now leaned more into
him than vice versa. And maybe I'm wrong there, but
that's just kind of where I'm at with him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I don't have a lot to add. I think
he's probably marginally better. I don't know if it's changed
my opinion of like what kind of player he ultimately
is going to be. Yeah, Tyler hero shot profile question
basically right, Like this was I forget who was on
it initially, but this was this was a discussion like
pretty early in the year because the types of shots
he was taking were so starkly different than than in
the past, and like as as a result of basically
guess what, like cut out the tough twos, essentially replacing
them with shots at the rim and threes. I don't
have the pull up versus catch and shoot data in
front of you, but to illustrate the point, So last year,
this wasn't a career high, but he was taken about
ten percent of his shots from sixteen to twenty three feet.
Everybody hates those shots. He was taken about seventeen percent
from ten to sixteen feet, arguably slightly better. Still, not
good shots combined from those distances, He's at about seven
percent this year. So he's just like and he's just
reapportioned all of those to three point range. Essentially, has
never shot more than half of his attempts from beyond
the arc. He's at fifty six percent this year. So
it just like has simply swapped out the bad twos
that no one likes for threes and close close range
looks and like low, what's his true shooting percentage this year?
I guarantee it's yeah, he's at sixty one point four percent.
He's never been above fifty seven percent. Sixty percent like
the gold standard for true shooting, Like, that's just where
you want to be as an offensive player.
Speaker 1: I think what I've also liked and so to your
point about that, like the pull ups versus catch and shoot.
So this year, when you look at his catch and
shoot frequency, thirty one point two percent of all his
shots are coming and catching shoot situations. That number was
like twenty three percent last year, so there's a was
twenty six percent last year, so there's a big shift there.
Pull Ups accounted for forty six percent of his shots
last year. That number is dipped a lot to thirty
five point seven and as that numbers dipped, You've already
kind of mentioned this, like he's even taken more shots
inside ten feet this year. What I think this is
weird that this has impressed me the most, but now
is his percentages have kind of slipped a little bit.
We haven't seen him backslide to his normal tendencies, Like
he is still going through this process of like, no,
this is what my offense looks like now, and I
think that like doing that in the face of not
playing as well as you were, I think is super
critical and so hats off to him for being able to,
you know, kind of just rework his his entire just
like functionality to this degree this year. Do you have
anything else to add or you're ready to take this
out here? Oh?
Speaker 2: I was gonna ask, was it you that posted the
beyond Barbecue Chicken meme about Tyler Hero? Was that him?
Somebody was sat?
Speaker 1: I did?
Speaker 2: I did see that. I pop in, I pop in
on Blue Sky every so often.
Speaker 1: Look at you? Yeah? Yeah, that was the Celtics or
the Elk business going after him. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know, we just got to show both sides
of the coin here. Tyler Hero still sucks on defense,
but that's not the one.
Speaker 1: Let us know if you think we missed anyone, We
didn't do it intentionally, if this wasn't our ranking, like
we said, we did some of the players that we
thought just improved the most. I'm curious as to who
would be the Is there anyone that springs to mind
that you think we probably I thought about Ojannis is
shooting the lights out for mid range, but that's just
we've kind of been there, done that before, right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he's had he's had spikes and I don't know,
peaks and valleys in that.
Speaker 1: For some people will advocate for Ogan Andobi and I
think the numbers are better, but that's just to me,
it's like a volume he's not shooting well on drives
or like ye, yeah, one on one situations.
Speaker 2: Well, And it's probably like as far back as what
like four or five years ago we were just talking,
he would just get mentioned as like, this guy is
the best defensive player in the league because he can
you know, like he's just doing og In and Obi stuff. Basically,
I will.
Speaker 1: Say this player if he was doing more of it
in higher volume. I just think it's kind of he's
more efficient with the same level of broadening his horizons.
Leture to Manti Kamara has been Yeah, it's a delight.
Speaker 2: I mean we could have just said wimby because the
three point volume is insane and it's been.
Speaker 1: Really people uncomfortable that though uncomfortable about that, you get
better or worse because he's taking that many threes? Is
the question.
Speaker 2: I just I want. I just want to know what
he's going to try next year.
Speaker 1: It's like, what, like could have tried dunking from the
three point line.
Speaker 2: Seems seems easy, right? Why shoot it? Why shoot it
when you don't have to let go the ball to score? Yeah? No,
I think that's good. Yeah, let us know who we missed,
which I probably did twenty five players here. But yeah,
thanks again everybody, as always for for watching, for listening.
Remember if you haven't subscribed on YouTube, great review, five stars,
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Speaker 1: Let it.
Speaker 2: That's a good place to let us know who we
did or shouldn't have included, or what we overlooked.
Speaker 1: Let us know what what should be the next edition
of I call it reaction inception. Let us know when
someone reacts to something that Grant or I have written,
who can react to them reacting to us?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean miss me with that. I don't I'm
going to.
Speaker 1: Make you do that at some point.
Speaker 2: Okay, that's fine, I'll commit to doing one. I just want.
What I hope is that we react to a reaction
and then the original reactor reacts back and we can
just like have content forever. I guess that's just a
conversation if you really think about it.
Speaker 1: Yeah, but it's happening independently. Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a series of traded of monologues. I guess.
Join our discord and link for that YouTube podcast description
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shout out Franklin lakeinan and apologize to Jared