← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - Are Spurs & Nuggets new NBA title favorites? + 5 best breakout seasons | NBA Reaction
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Guaranteed Human this CBS Sunday it's three incredible heroes on one unmissable night. First it's the series premiere of Marshalls. KC Dutton is back in a new era of Yellowstone. Then Justin hartley returns in TV's number one show tracker. When your loved one goes missing, he's the man for the job. Followed by Morris Chestnut in an all new Watson. The series premiere of Marshals, followed by a new Tracker and a new Watson. CBS Sunday starting at 87 Central and streaming on Paramount.
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This is Lavar Harrington from Up on Game. This message is brought to you by Apple Card It's a great time to apply for an Apple Card. You'll love earning unlimited daily cash on every Purchase. That includes 3% daily cash when you buy the latest iPhone, AirPods and Apple. Watch at Apple through this special referral offer. When you get a new Apple Card, you can earn bonus daily cash. To qualify, you must apply at Apple co getdailycash Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City Branch offer may not be available elsewhere. Terms and limitations apply.
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Daniel Cormier
Hello, Malcolm Gl here. We're here in New York City with
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T Mobile for business recording another episode
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of Revisionist history about how 5G network
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slicing strengthens trust and connections across worldwide industries. Slicing can be used for so many different things. We're here with our friends from cnn. From Siemens Energy. The ways that it can be used frankly are limitless and are really, really built to think through. How can T Mobile understand the pain points that our customers have? Smash those pain points and help you deliver very specific outcomes. The Volume Foreign. Welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Thursday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great week. Got a Jpack show for you guys today. We're gonna hit two games from last night as the San Antonio spurs came back from down 15 on the road in Toronto held the Raptors to just two points over a six minute span. Got to win with their defense. I want to dive into that. The Denver Nuggets, a team that desperately needed to demonstrate that they had a defensive ceiling that they could reach, had an awesome performance, holding the Boston Celtics, the second best offense in the NBA, to just 84 points. We're going to dive into that game that the tail end of the show When I went on with Colin Coward on Monday, we had a fun segment where he asked me about five new players that had become household names around the NBA. Didn't really get a chance to dive into it with Colin because it was such a surprise topic, so I wanted to dive into that. So at the tail end of the show, I'm gonna go through five names that I think have become household names this season. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Don't forget to like this video as well as sign up for post notifications. That helps us a lot. And then last but not least, if you wanna get mailbag questions into our mailbags, drop them in the YouTube comments and we'll get to them on Fridays throughout the remainder of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. So the spurs found themselves down 15 in Toronto last night. Toronto's feisty team, a decent middle tier Eastern Conference team, a team that I actually like. Several individual players, they just little devoid of shooting. That's been the main thing that's really caused problems for them and they've had some health issues at some key position groups throughout the season, mainly RJ Barrett and Yaka Pertle. But they were fully healthy last night. They were giving the spurs some issues. They were up 15 and spurs ended up coming back to win and everybody contributed. Steph Castle didn't close this game. Mitch Johnson talked after the game about how Dylan Harper deserved to go close with the way that he was playing. Dylan was having a great game, very feisty on defense, had a insane highlight pass that we'll talk about here in a minute during the run. But Steph did get the comeback started by hitting a couple of big catch and shoot threes. He's been kind of a weird shooter this year because he's shooting poorly by percentage, but he's been streaky and he has hit a lot of big shots over the course of the season. Hit a couple big ones to start the run. Devin V got involved, he hit a really tough movement three coming off of the right wing, had a really nice reverse dunk off of a cut. It was off of this back screen from Wemby and this is something that's really been standing out to me over the last couple of weeks in spurs games. We talked about this. If you guys remember when we talked about the Pistons game, how there were some layups that Steph Castle was getting in pick and roll, literally, because Victor Wembanyama as he's rolling to the basket off of screens, no one wants to leave him so he can screen to get Steph Castle open. But then as he's rolling, the man who's supposed to be there to help on the screen is just hugged up to Wemby. And same sort of thing happened on that back door. On that back screen for the dunk, Wemby screens for Devin Vassell. No one wants to leave Wemby. Vesel easily comes off of the screen, goes up for a nice little reverse dunk. And so Devin Vassell got involved. Dylan Harper again played really well all night, but made some huge plays down the stretch. At a big steal, strip away steal on defense. He had this ridiculous spinning pass. He was getting pressured pretty heavy by RJ Barrett up top and handled the pressure well. Made a really tough move towards the middle, snatch back dribble, then got into a spin, forced Jacob Pertle to step up. Saw the whole thing developing the whole time. Beautiful little wraparound drop off pass to Luke Cornett for a dunk. Just a beautiful highlight from Dylan Harper. Sky for a ridiculous offensive rebound. Like he's just a deeply impactful athlete that I think as he continues to develop is going to bring a ton of positive impact in various parts of the game for the Spurs. Julian Champeni and Harrison Barnes both hit huge open corner threes out of the left corner during that run. Champeni missed some of his tougher ones, but he took his time and he knocked down that wide open one in the left corner. And dear and Fox was cooking. He hit a big three in the left corner. He was hitting spinning jump shots in the lane. He had this like kind of late clock situation where the play broke down, where he just kind of worked along the baseline and from behind the backboard, sunk a floater, just shot it super high in the air over the top of the backboard and went down. Just was a ridiculous shot. He was in full rhythm down the tail end of that game. And then Wemby, who had kind of had a miserable shooting night, he just found a way to make a play on offense. A drifting little corner, three out of the right corner and Brandon Ingram's face that basically amounted to the dagger we talked A lot after the Pistons game, about just his vertical value and he had a big lob dunk during that stretch. And then he made one of the most insane highlight blocks of the season that I've seen to this point. It was a four point game. I think it was 1:08,104. And Darren Fox, who was in a great rhythm, was driving downhill, caught Scotty Barnes in a switch and Scotty Barnes ripped the ball away from him and it sparked this 4 on 3, fast break going the other way. And again it was about like just under a minute left. So like had they gone down and got a layup, that cuts the lead to two. You go get a stop, you have a chance to go win the game, right? So big fast break. It's four on three. Brandon Ingrams leading the break down the middle. He engages Wemby on the drive. Wemby steps out almost to the fast foul line to pick up Brandon Ingram. Brandon throws a perfect little bounce pass to Yaka Pertle. Wemby's going to recover obviously. So Yaka Purdle goes smartly to the other side of the basket to try to go reverse. That's something they teach you when you're dealing with rim protection. Like whenever you've got somebody that's pursuing you from behind to go for a block, go to the other side of the basket. You can use the basket as an extra kind of like screener, so to speak, to keep the rim protector away. Nope. Wemby just meets him on the other side of the basket and swats it. And like it was the kind of play and it felt a lot like this during the comeback. It was the kind of play that just makes you feel hopeless if you're a Raptors fan. Because you do everything right. You play great defense, you spark an advantage, you run the fast break well, you engage the rim protector out like damn near 13, 14ft away from the rim. Beautiful drop off pass to another big huge athletic dude in Yaka Pertle. No shot. Finishing against Victor Wenyama at the rim. And again just probably one of the the best highlight blocks I've seen this season. When you factor in the situation and just the difficulty of the block when he's stepping up on Ingram and dealing with the player going reverse at the center position on the other side of the room. Just really impressive play from Victor Women Yama. I want to zoom in on the defense for a minute though. Like the spurs won that game because in a six minute span over the end of the third quarter in the start of the fourth quarter, they held the Raptors to just two points as they went from being down 90 to 75 to going up 93 to 92. Two points in six minutes of basketball. Two points and a half a quarter. Can you imagine if you were just watching a game from the opening tip and at the first TV timeout, one of the teams had only two points. That is an extremely rare stretch of dominant defense. And I know that this Raptors team is capable of going cold, but they have a lot of talent and a lot of playmaking talent in particular. And they should have been able to generate more than they did. Wy was at the heart of it all. The Raptors straight up decomposed against him down the stretch. There are all these like funny highlights or low lights, I should say, for the Raptors as they were just kind of throwing up bullshit because they didn't know what to do. Jamal Shed had this hilarious floater going down the right lane line against Wemby and drop coverage where it literally looked like he just flicked it up and prayed because he didn't look like it. Didn't even look like his usual floater form because he was panicking. Cause Wemby's up there in the drop coverage and he doesn't know if he can even get the shot off. So he just like flicks up some bullshit that has no chance of going in. At one point, Scotty Barnes shot a face up jumper right into Wemby's hand like it was. You were seeing them literally decompose. Colin Murray. Murray Boyles in a pick and roll. There was one where it was on the left side of the floor. Wemby stunted towards the ball handler, so Murray Boyles got behind him and actually got like a clean look off the right side when Wimy just recovered and swatted the shit out of him. You could literally feel it in the crowd. It was crazy. There was like this, this, like. It was like a buzz, but in the worst way, Like a negative buzz in the arena. As you could tell, the Raptors were like, oh, shit, we can't score on these guys. And the spurs just methodically worked their way down and completely erased that lead. It buys all sorts of leeway for the guards to get aggressive on the perimeter too. They got a couple of steals in that run. One from Fox, one from Harper. Again, really good ball pressure out on the perimeter. You get that leeway because of the rim protection behind him. I'm buying more and more of the spurs stock every time I watch them. I'M having a really hard time. I saw a Spurs writer earlier this morning. Actually, when I woke up. I was reading it before I even watched the game, who was talking about how he was. He was basically making the case that the spurs should be the championship favorite, like, even over Oklahoma City. I'm having a hard time talking myself out of that. I'm not ready to take that leap just yet, but I am strongly considering it, and I'm starting to think about it more from the standpoint of matchups. And they just match up really well with everybody out in the west because of all their defensive versatility and the ability of their guards to generate dribble penetration. And this Wemby defense is just going to be a really difficult puzzle for any of the other teams in the west to solve. And as we know, they match up so well with Oklahoma City. Now we're gonna. We're gonna have a couple more sessions of contender rankings before the end of the season. We're gonna do one right around mid March and one right around mid April, right before the start of the postseason. I'm working on getting Nick Wright for one of those. I think that would be a ton of fun. I. I think we're gonna most likely be able to pull that off. I'm not sure if it'll be March or April. I'll let you guys know. But we're gonna get into contender rankings a couple more times and we'll see where San Antonio lands. Right now, I'm first firmly viewing them in the top tier of contenders. I haven't had them there at all this season, but I'm ready to move them there whether or not I put them number one. We'll see when we get there. The next nine games will be super revealing. They play at Brooklyn tonight, Taylor back to back. But then they go to New York to play the Knicks, to Philly to play the Sixers. And then on a home stand, they play Detroit, the Los Angeles Clippers, Houston, Boston, Denver and Charlotte. A lot of teams that will challenge them in different ways. Charlotte by spacing the floor. Denver with the Nicole Jokic problem. Boston has been a team that has spaced teams out a lot this year, although they showed some vulnerability to drop coverage last night that would freak me out for that matchup if I was Boston. Houston obviously provides a very different type of look. Kawhi Leonard's arguably been the best player in the league over the last few months, right. So in Detroit, rematch of what happened the other night, and I think that Detroit will throw a Better punch in that game. So a lot of like, interesting challenges in the next couple of weeks for San Antonio, which will set up nicely because that'll all end right around the time that we get into those contender rankings and so we'll have a, a much better feel of where they stand at that point. One last thing. I've had all sorts of spurs fans in my mentions and in my comments the last few weeks talking shit because of how high I am I am on them relative to where I was to start the season. For the record, I know most of you guys aren't like that. I know most of you spurs fans are just happy the spurs are playing well and understanding of, of the way this whole, this job works, right? Like, I make dozens and dozens and dozens of predictions every single summer. It's just what you do. And sometimes I'm proven right on things, sometimes I'm proven wrong on things. And I was really wrong about the Spurs. I had them as like a middle tier team in the west that would be kind of flirting with the play in this season. I was wrong. But at the same time, they've exceeded expectations by any measure. I don't know many spurs fans that I talked to or people who cover the team that had them as like a legitimate contender. Like, like legitimate top tier contender either. So they've exceeded expectations by any measure. And most importantly, like, I come from that Colin Cowherd school of thinking. I don't think of it in terms of me trying to be right all the time. I want to get it right. And in this case, I was wrong to start the season. I'm not going to sit there and be in denial and just pretend as though I'm forced to be married to some stupid take that I had before the season. No, I'm going to admit that I was stupid, admit that I was wrong, and I'm going to get on board because I'm always going to try to call it like I see it as I'm covering the league and I, I am. It's becoming undeniable what San Antonio is doing. And I'm going to continue to buy stock. And I understand that's going to upset some of you guys because of how I felt before the season. But at the end of the day, like, all I can do is take in new information and try to come up with the most accurate representation of the league that I can. And I am buying a ton of stock with this spurs team. Today's show is brought to you by presenting sponsor Hard Rock Bet the official sportsbook partner of the Miami Heat in the Orlando Magic. 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This CBS Sunday. It's three incredible heroes on one unmissable night. First, it's the series premiere of of Marshalls. Casey Dutton is back in a new era of Yellowstone. Then Justin hartley returns in TV's number one show tracker. When your loved one goes missing, he's the man for the job, followed by Morris Chestnut in an all new Watson. The series premiere of Marshalls, followed by a new tracker and a new Watson. CBS Sunday starting at 87 Central and streaming on Paramount plus, this is LaVar
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Arrington from Up On Game. This message is brought to you by Apple Card. It's a great time to apply for an Apple Card you'll love earning unlimited daily cash on every Purchase. That includes 3% daily cash when you buy the latest iPhone, AirPods and Apple. Watch at Apple through this special referral offer. When you get a new Apple card, you can Earn Bonus Daily cash. To qualify, you must apply at Apple Co getdaily Cash Apple Card issued by Goldman Sachs Bank USA Salt Lake City. Branch offer may not be available elsewhere. Terms and limitations apply.
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Daniel Cormier
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All right, moving on to Denver against Boston. A much needed win for a Denver Nuggets team that had been reeling under a brutal schedule and some injuries over the last few weeks. And they did it with their defense. And I think this is important for Denver on a few levels. The Nuggets have had a brutally bad defensive season relative to the talent that they have. They've been in the bottom 10 in defensive rating for the majority of the season. That performance last night moved them just outside of the bottom 10 to 20th in the NBA. But notice I said relative to the defensive talent they have because this is not the Los Angeles Lakers, a Western Conference playoff team that's devoid of defensive talent that isn't even really capable of a performance like this. Denver has, even without Aaron Gordon, a lot of capable defenders in their rotation and they have a stronger defensive culture overall. They're that is capable of ramping it up in a way that can be a very good defense and they've done that several times over the CLA course of the last few years, sometimes with lesser rosters. But they did need to demonstrate to themselves and to Coach Adelman that they're capable within this season of playing championship level defense. Boston came into the game as the second best offense in the NBA and one of only two offenses in the NBA that had an offensive rating over 120 and the Nuggets held them to just 84 points. Last night they held him to just a 79 offensive rating in the half court. They kept him out of transition for most of the night. They kept him off the offensive glass, which is something that Boston's been killing teams with just a dominant defensive performance against one of the best offenses in the league. And ironically the Nuggets actually slowed down that Celtics offense with a taste of their own medicine. We talked after the Celtics Lakers game about how the Celtics really did a number on the Lakers with the their drop coverage look. Basically just sitting your bigs way back at the rim, staying home off the ball on shooters and then chasing over ball screens and daring Luca daring Austin to beat the Celtics from the mid range and they just couldn't. I love that David Adelman just unleashed that exact same game plan on Boston. You know if you bring Jokic up to the level, it's going to unlock a lot of these rotation situations that Boston's really good at. Driving and kicking and spacing out of and getting Great looks from 3. Sitting Jokic back into a drop turned the Celtics ball handlers into mid range players and they did not have a good mid range game. As a team. The Celtics were just 8 for 27 on twos that were outside of the restricted area. Now some of that was in ISO as well. It wasn't just the the ball screen stuff like and this is where I want to credit all of the Nuggets role players. K.J. simpson had a strong shift there in the late third quarter. Spencer Jones, Christian Brown, Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway, all those guys at various points in the game slid their feet, held their ground and forced the Celtics into tough pull up jump shots. During the third quarter in particular, the Nuggets basically shut off the Celtics catch and shoot looks. They got just two open catch and shoot looks in the entire third quarter. It was also sparking some of those turnovers that was getting Denver out in transition. Just a really strong defensive performance. Boston ran 35 pick and rolls against the deep drop. Conceded just. Denver conceded just 0.8 points per possession including passes. That's amazing. They hunted one on one 16 times either through post ups or isos. Got just 10 points on those 16 isos including passes. So many guys deserve credit for holding up on an island and again it sparked a lot of that transition stuff. Eleven of Denver's 21 transition points came in that third quarter run and they had just enough on offensive contributions during that stretch to put the game away. Jokic was manufacturing points all night. I thought it was one of those games was kind of ugly and in the mud, so the efficiency wasn't there. But I thought Jokic, it felt like every bucket that he had was super, super important. Those two threes that he hit in the late third quarter, those felt like backbreakers. Especially that one where he kind of lost control of the ball against Vousevich and then just like dribbled back or like ran and dribbled back to the three point line and threw up a shot. That one felt like an absolute backbreaking shot from Jokic. Tim Hardaway was amazing again with his shot making. He deserves a ton of credit for his screening. This screams at me off film every time I watch the the Nuggets. He sets some of the nastiest guard screens you'll see. And like, he like will lean in and almost looks like he's pushing a football sled, which again, when you're in really physical games like that, that's how Boston's going to start, that physicality, right? They're going to pick up full court. We literally talked about this in that Lakers game. Like, Boston sets a tone with their ball pressure to start games that allows a lot of physicality in the game. It sets a tone that the refs get behind where it's like, oh, we're playing, we're playing prison ball today. You know what I mean? Like, that's usually how it goes. And so when you, we talked about it with the Lakers, you can either complain about it and get beat, or you can meet that physicality with physicality. I loved the screens that Tim Hardaway was setting during this game. And he has a brilliant understanding of the positioning and angles of those screens against switches. Like, he'll set an asy screen, get the switch, but realize he has inside position and then just shove that guy off and cut down the middle of the lane. He got a dunk like that during that second half run. I just can't say enough about how well Tim Hardaway fits in this offense and how especially in a game like this where Jamal Murray ends up leaving early with that illness, how important he was to greasing the wheels for them offensively down the stretch. And then lastly, Jonas Valentunas, I thought he kicked Nemi K's ass to start that fourth quarter and really helped get that final bit of separation. Just some work as a roll man, some quick isos. He had this like, little Power ISO in the middle of the floor, where he just dribbled at him and then spun over his right shoulder for an easy little fade away. When you're dealing with some of these, like, modern rim protecting vertical bigs, they tend to be a little lightweight, you know, and Valentuna is just, just too big for him, and he gave him all sorts of problems during that shift. I'd really like to see Denver continue to build defensive momentum as we start heading into this postseason, like with Oklahoma City's guards banged up. And they're going to have some question marks surrounding rhythm with those guys when they get to the postseason. Like Jalen Williams in particular is a guy who's always been a rhythm player. The other great teams at the top of the league are pretty young teams like Detroit, teams like San Antonio. This thing is wide open. So the Nuggets just need to get healthy and they need to rebuild their defensive identity. I'd like to see a good Runway here towards the end of the, of the regular season where they put together some strong defensive performances. And if they do, I, I think they have a great shot to get this thing done. I have not moved off them as my second ranked contender this season. All right, lastly, before we get out of here today, again, I was on with Colin and he just kind of surprised me with this question. He goes like, hey, like, he's like, give me like five guys that you've been watching this year that have, that were not really household names that have really, really impressed you. And I had a couple guys off the top of my head, but it was just tough because I, I, I didn't see the question coming. And I was like, man, this is like a really fun segment. Like, you know, all these guys that I listed in this segment here are guys that we've talked about on the show before this season. All of them are guys that, you know, I would not consider this show to be the kind of show that a lot of casual basketball fans watch. Like, if you come here and you're listening to me break down pick and roll coverages and, you know, ranking players and doing all this kind of stuff. You guys are big basketball fans, right? Like, this is a, we have a culture around this show that's really for the hoop heads, right? And so, yeah, we've talked a lot of Keonte George and we've talked a lot of Steph Castle in previous seasons. But what are the guys this year? Who are the guys this year that have become household names, that have become guys that more casual Fans recognize because of the performances they've had this year as they've come onto the scene. And so I, I wanted to, now that we've had more time to prep, actually take some time to break down the five guys that I think have become household names this season. Number one, Keonte George. I remember I had a question before the season, a mailbag question from a Jazz fan that was like, what do you need to see from Keonte George for him to become like a real foundational piece for the Jazz? And I had a very simple answer. Consistency and efficiency. That's more or less the case with all scoring guards. There are a lot of scoring guards in the league that can go off for big nights, right? I mean I, I'd argue there's 30 of them in the NBA on any given night, a guard that can go for 25 points on, you know, 12 for 18 shooting and or you know, 8 for 14 shooting with some threes and free throws or whatever it is like there are a lot of guys that can go for efficient scoring nights on any given night. And Keonte George in his first couple of seasons had some nights like that where it all came together. The pull up jumper was there, the playmaking was there, the rim finishing was there. And it all just comes together into this game where it looks like the potential that Keonte George had. But ultimately in a league that's got a glut of this type of player, if you're going to become a guy that can be a foundational guy, there's got to be a consistency and an efficiency that, that allows you to take this, that to stake that claim as a primary on ball guard for a serious team in the NBA. Keante George became that this season. He averaged 24 points, four rebounds and seven assists on 61% true shooting. Some ankle injuries and issues have pulled those numbers down a little bit in of of late and I, I, I'm not sure how much we're going to see him the rest of the season with the Jazz's approach to all this kind of stuff. But what we saw from Keonte was an ability to get to the rim and finish efficiently, which is something that I think when you're talking about smaller guards is usually a negative with most of those guys. Keante got to the rim plenty and finished well there. Showed legit three level scoring, the ability to score from the mid range and from the three point line, the ability to do it out of one on ones as well as out of ball screens, the ability to make all of the reads in those situations and the efficiency to boot. When you're in the mid-20s in points per game and you're over 60% true shooting, that's a level of scoring inefficiency that puts you in a pretty rare class in the NBA. And by the way, you want to know why Danny Ainge decided to make that move for Jaren Jackson? Like there was two different directions this whole thing could have gone. It could have been we're trading Laurie Markkanen, we're trading Walker Kessler to the Pacers for two first round picks. We're, you know, selling this guy, selling that guy, accumulating draft picks and restarting this whole process and just giving the ball to Ace Bailey and letting him take 20 shots a game. That was a direction they could have gone. But instead you go all in behind Jaren Jackson and you plan on keeping Walker Kessler. And I think they'll match just about any offer that Walker gets in in restricted free agency this year. And the reason why is because Keante George has popped into a legitimate potential star guard in this league, Lori Markin. In incredible season. The team itself had several nights where they just beat, you know, good team, serious teams, because they're just really, really hard to guard. And I talked about it like the main kind of driving force behind my optimism with Utah is the with Keonte and Lori on the floor have scored at an extremely high rate this season. There's some really strong offensive metrics there. And so Keonte is has put the Jazz into a situation where now they make this move. If Jaren Jackson and Walker Kessler are healthy to start next season and Lori Markin is healthy to start next season, I expect them to be a legitimate middle tier playoff team in the West. I expect them to be on the same level as the teams we've seen this year like the Lakers and the Rockets and the Minnesota Timberwolves. Number two, Jalen Duran, with the rise of the Detroit Pistons this season up until this week, being the most impressive regular season team in the league this year, averaging 18 points and 11 rebounds on 67% true shooting. Been on an absolute tear as of late. His last three games 27 and 14 on 68% from the field. He kind of is this interesting modern center in the sense that he's not as like tall in your traditional vertical rim protector like you see in a lot of these younger centers, but what he is is very athletic and big and strong on the ground. He dominates the game on the ground by throwing guys around and Controlling that space, that kind of radius around him which has made him a dominant offensive rebounder. It's made him a dominant finisher on roles he's flashed a lot of viable offensive game face up game this year. That's where he gets the Amari Stoudemire comps. Like if he can become a little bit more reliable with that face up mid range pull up jump shot and a little more just at higher volume while maintaining efficiency. He's actually shot pretty well on it this year. But if he can continue to piece that together, he becomes this like evolutionary like mix between Dwight Howard and and Amari Stoudemire. Like a real strength based power game under the basket with a face up game to match an excellent two man game partner with Cade. He's come onto the scene as one of the more dominant young players in the league this season. Number three, Denny Abdia. This was one of those predictions from before the season that I was correct about. Like I dove a lot into the film before the season between him and Shaden Sharp because those were two guys that had incredible ends to the season last year. And when I watched all the film with Denny I'm like this works like he's getting to the basket a ton. He has the ability to really change pace. Like he can slash but then he can also slow down and play Luca style like big body ball handler in the middle of the floor that puts the defender in jail and can grift his way to the foul line and can make all the passing reads there. He just kind of had it all really. The only thing that was a red flag for me was his jump shot because he's a little hitchy. So like if he gets his flow disrupted at all, he's going to leave it short. And I think that's the next step for him. If he can add the jump shot to a more fluid level, I think that will make him a more well rounded primary ball handler. But this season, 24.7 rebounds and seven assists on 61% true shooting. He's been the most prolific driver of the basketball in the league. Little bit of a tail off there, but most of that stems from that gnarly back injury that he suffered. I think when Denny kind of gets back to 100% we'll see that again. But a lot of people talk about the grifting and he grifts just like anybody else does. But one of the primary drivers of his free throw attempts has just been his relentless driving to the basket. And there's also some Pretty strong indicators of his value offensively because the Blazers offense falls apart when he's off the floor. Number four, Steph Castle, One of my favorite young players in the league. Really feels like he's become a household name this season. Feels like a modern kind of like evolutionary hybrid between a Jimmy Butler esque forward who plays always off of 2ft and can really get to wherever he wants on the floor and is gifted at drawing fouls and getting defenders out of position. But also mixed with more of like a on ball guard type of archetype. He's averaging 17 points, five rebounds and seven assists per game this season. 57% true shooting, a little bit streaky as a jump shooter, can go cold from the perimeter. He's a little turnover prone at times, but he continues to flash insane upside as a shot creator because again he controls his radius around him. Always playing off two feet. Has the physical strength to keep people from knocking him off of his base. Has all the footage footwork that you need to get to spots. He's an excellent passer. Again he's turnover prone but he's an excellent passer. He's got a great feel on lobs to both Cornett and Boimanyama. He's got a great feel for reading the low man and making skip passes. Just a really really high level shot creator. A guy that I believe strongly in as one of the next great young players in this league. Still a lot to piece together and that's what makes him so exciting because he's already so damn good. He's a very good on ball defender as well. And I mean you want to talk about a household name. As long as he's attached to Victor Women Yama and playing well he's going to continue to gain, not gain notoriety around the league. And then lastly Jalen Johnson, 23 points, 11 rebounds and 8 assists per game this year on 58% true shooting. One of the best open floor players in the league. Just a really difficult player to deal with in a straight line because of his athleticism. Excellent feel for the game. Passing out of those situations has improved as a jump shooter. I would like to see some improvement as an on ball creator in the half court from him. That's the next step. It's one of the reasons why I haven't been as high on him as some of my peers who cover the league. But overall a lot to to too much to deny I should say the rise from him this season. He has three 30 point triple doubles this season, nine games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds. Clearly a foundational piece for Atlanta and if he can improve as a half court shot creator, there's a lot to like there. Another thing, not to be too nitpicky, but the off ball defense with Jalen Johnson, I think there has to be an improvement his overall focus and attention to details and off ball defender to reach where he wants to get. But those are the five guys that I think that we've talked about in years past. But for casual basketball fans that will that have become household names this season. Keonte, George, Jalen Duran, Denny Abdia, Steph Castle in Jalen Johnson. All right guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. Tomorrow's mailbag day. I've got some good questions for you guys. I will see you guys then.
- [35:33]
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