← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - LIVE: Thunder Go Up 3-1 On Timberwolves With Clutch Game 4 Win
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Host 1
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The NBA Finals are almost here and every play could be the one that changes everything. This is the NBA playoffs where heroes rise, legacies are built and the action never lets up. And with DraftKings Sportsbook, an official sports betting partner of the NBA, you don't just watch the madness, you live it back. Your favorite team ride with your clutch time killer bet on the buzzer beaters, the breakout performances, the game winning threes. From player props to same game parlays, this is how you take your fandom to the next level. The New York Knicks after beating the Celtics are up to plus360 as the second best odds to win the title. Surprisingly, the pacers back at plus 600 because my initial thought on that series is I want to pick the Pacers but some interesting championship odds right now. New to the game. No Sweat. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook app. Bet just $5 and if your bet wins, you'll score $300 in bonus bets. It's that easy. Download the DraftKings Sportsbook App and use code HOOPS. That's code HOOPS H O O P S for new customers to get $300 in bonus bets. If your bet wins and when you bet just five bucks only on DraftKings, the crown is yours. Gambling problem. Call 1-800-GAMBLER in New York, call 8778 Hopeny or text Hopeny to 467-369 in Connecticut. Help is available for problem gambling. Call 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org Please play responsibly on behalf of Boothill Casino and Resort in Kansas. 21 plus. Age and eligibility varies by jurisdiction. Void in Ontario. Bet must win to receive reward. Bonus bets expire 168 hours after issuance. For additional terms and responsible gaming resources, see DKNG co Audio. All right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having a great start to your week. Well, as expected, game four ended up being the long awaited, very close game in this series between these two teams. This ser this series has been pretty rough to watch at times as the teams have just beat the out of each other in different ways. But we finally kind of settled down into the appropriate game plans for both teams and obviously both of these teams are very familiar with each other and the way they want to play and tonight they both threw their best punches and I thought Oklahoma City just looked like a better basketball team as they demonstrated a kind of not a wire to wire win, but a game that they felt pretty much in control of throughout as they responded to every single Minnesota Timberwolves run and never let them overtake them with that momentum. And now they're headed back to Oklahoma City, up 3:1 and very likely going to send this thing to the NBA Finals on Wednesday night. Very interesting game. We're going to get into it from a bunch of different angles and then when we wrap up here tonight, we're going to be heading over to playback again. That's Playback TV Slash Hoops Tonight where we're going to be taking callers and just it's more informal. We just kind of shoot the talk hoops and have fun for an extra hour after the show. So make sure you guys come over there and hang out with us. You guys know the drill before we get started, subscribe to the Hoops Tonight YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at_jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front. Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds, Twitter, Instagram and Facebook. Make sure you guys follow us there. And then last but not least, keeping keep getting questions into our chat. We're going to take a solid 10:15 minutes of questions at the tail end of tonight's YouTube stream. So all you have to do is subscribe to the channel, drop your questions questions into the chat, and then we'll be taking questions with Jackson. All right, let's talk some basketball. So obviously we there were a couple things we knew Oklahoma City was going to do better tonight no matter what. Like regardless of any other factors involving some of their young role players and conquering the specific demons that this team has dealt with over the years, which we'll talk about in a little bit. But there were a couple of things we knew they would do better no matter what we knew they would up their defensive intensity. This is an elite defensive team and defense is one of the most reliably reliable traits in a basketball team in these environments. You want to know why it's kind of unusual to see some of the offensive success we've seen in recent NBA seasons? Teams like Denver winning a title or teams like Indiana and New York making it to the conference finals when they were mediocre defenses all year. Indy played better defense towards. Towards the tail end of the year, but the Knicks played shitty defense the majority of the season. And then they somehow played the best defense of their life against the Celtics and got them out of there, Right? It's unusual to see that sort of thing. There's a reason why, when you go back through decade after decade after decade, it's the defensive teams that were that end up making deep playoff runs. It's because it's the reliable trait. We all knew that Oklahoma City would bring a great defensive punch tonight. They kept Ant relatively in check as a score because again, that's their game plan. By constantly swarming him and getting good closeouts on shooters, obviously their scheme concedes a bunch of corner threes. We've talked about that a ton in this series. And Minnesota hit a ton of those corner threes tonight, but they generally made things difficult. And then they basically got Julius Randle to quit in this game. And so that. That's another thing that we'll get to later. But we also knew that they would take much better care of the basketball, right? Those are the two things that we knew that they would bring and we did. They had that weird stretch in the first half of game three, if you guys remember, where they just gifted Minnesota a bunch of easy opportunities in transition and they cleaned that up, right? They took better care of the basketball tonight. And they came out and, you know, were tough in their game plan. Again, their game plan concedes shots that. That Minnesota hit tonight at a very high clip, but they came out and did a better job because if you remember, in game three, it was. Everyone was going, including Ant and Julius. And in this game, you had a little bit of a burst from Ant in the second half, but they kept Ant and Julius under control. Right? But we also knew that Minnesota changed their game plan, right? Less ball pressure on Shea, more shrinking the floor, more loading up the pl, the paint. And so that was obviously going to put a heavy emphasis on different things for Oklahoma City than we saw in the beginning of the series. In the beginning of the series, there's a lot of just like, can Shea and J Dub go one on one downhill and get to the rim? Very different in. In this setting where all of a sudden they're packing the paint, the rim opportunities are fewer, fewer and further between. All of a sudden it's going to be about Shay's processing in his ability to make the right types of aggressive moves on the floor. A lot of over the top shot making. Right. A lot of processing out of double teams. Right. For J Dub, it was going to be a test of his secondary scoring and his ability to obviously be an off ball threat to score right spot up shooting across the board for the entire Thunder roster. That's been one of the demons they've dealt with from time to time throughout this entire season and throughout last year as well. Right. But those were, those were the things that were going to come to the surface and then you can always give yourself a better chance to win a game if you can win the possession battle. Tonight. They forced the Timberwolves into 23 turnovers and they grabbed 19 offensive rebounds. That's 42 extra possessions, guys. They attempted 11 more shots than Minnesota tonight in a game they won by two. And that's what it comes down to. We talked about this at the beginning of, after, after Indiana went up 2 oh. Against the Knicks, this concept of like grabbing the low hanging fruit in basketball, these are things that they can do consistently by pursuing the ball when it comes off of the rim, by picking up full court, by digging into passing lanes, by trusting their game plan, by doing those things, they can just increase their margin for error by generating 42 extra possessions that, that obviously gave them all that margin for error. But again, the test needed to be solved and I was just really impressed. Down the roster with Oklahoma City tonight, it felt like they were in a lot of ways, like leveling up from some of the mistakes that we've seen them make in series past, within this postseason, in years past. Right. We saw Shay, a guy that I've seen many times in his career, just fly into the lane when teams are really selling out on him and just force up bad shots. He was super methodical, picking on specific mismatches that he liked. Really liked Rudy Gobert, right. Really liked Nas Reed, really liked Dante DiVincenzo when he'd get the switch, cycling out guys from that top of the key spot. Like, if he wanted to ISO in the top of the key, he didn't want a shooter super close to him. He was trying to cycle him down and have them work along the baseline because he wanted to have space around the elbows to work. He knew he wasn't going to be able to drive, but he knew he'd be able to get to his right shoulder fade, his left shoulder fade, his right shoulder step back, his left shoulder step back. And so he wanted to create space around the elbows for him to work. And he just repeatedly over and over Again got to his spots and hit those shots. Hit threes against soft ball pressure, which again was part of Minnesota's game plan. It changed Shay's job from get downhill and score at the rim to become a surgical processor and over the top shot maker. And he knocked it out of the park. In addition to that, making the kick out reads that he needed to make that big three that J Dub hit on the left wing hard nail help. I think it was Jaden because of a switch came over at the elbow and it's like, yeah, you can try to force it or you can just throw the ball to J Dub and see if you can make a shot. You can throw the ball to Chet as he's slipping out of a pick and pop or as he's spacing on the wing and trust him to knock the shot down. 10 more assists tonight for Shay Gilders Alexander. He was surgical tonight. I think the job has been very different for Ant and I think that Ant has actually shown a lot of growth in this series in terms of his relentless making those corner kickout reads as the game plan has been geared towards stopping him. But even with the growth from man, I think there's a lot of encouraging stuff from Ant in this series. Shay's been better than him, Shay's been better than it. Now. Will Ant in the long run, as he gets older and he gets more experience, will he be able to close that gap? We'll see. But in this series through four games, there's a very similar game plan tonight that Shea faced to what Ants face. A lot of, a lot of bodies waiting for him at the basket. The difference is Shea has built out an ultra reliable shot making game in the mid range. Shea wasn't getting the grift calls in that second half. He got a nasty one against Gobert in the first half. Kind of a textbook example of the kind of thing that I think needs to be taken out of the league. But in the second half he tried it twice. He tried the classic bump shot along the left lane line. He actually made it. And then he tried another grift one on to kill Alexander Walker on the right elbow, which he actually made as well. But he wasn't getting the calls. And so he adjusted his approach and he stopped trying to grift in that fourth quarter and he just went straight up. I'm going to get separation and I'm going to knock down shots. And he just did it again and again and again and made the necessary reads when they were there. Huge one late when he kind of lost control. And then Jaden McDaniels throws a double team off of J Dub and he throws that beautiful pass just right through J.D. mcDaniels his legs to J Dub on the perimeter. It's like if there's a lesson for Ant to learn because there's. I was kind of getting frustrated as I was listening to Richard Jefferson talk about how Ant just needs to find ways to to just force his way through all that traffic. Or Stephen A. Smith in the half the halftime show saying similar stuff. Ant needs to the the answer wasn't to force his way through and try to shoot through four people every single time. The lesson for Ant to learn from the series is that having a back to the basket or kind of like comfortable dribble ISO game around the elbows is a very reliable thing that you can go back to. When teams pack the paint. This is what Kobe Bryant made a living out of. Like when you have the ability, this is what Michael Jordan made a living out of. When you have inevitably a defensive scheme that keeps you away from the rim, it will either make you a deep pull up three point shooter or a passer or if you can build out that high post back to the basket game, you can have another card that you can go to that's impervious to the packing the paint method. And in this series, facing a very similar game plan tonight, Shea was able to get to his spots and repeatedly score without having to over penetrate. He took a few bad ones tonight, but it wasn't, it was, it wasn't like what we saw it sometimes in the Denver series and that's the lesson that Ant needs to learn. There is a version of his game that could have a punch for this type of game. We talk all the time about how different series present different issues. Shea's the best driver of the basketball in the league. The first two games with the way Minnesota was guarding, they needed him to drive. He used that skill, let's say in game five, oh go. Or Minnesota just starts hard double teaming. Then it's going to be about handling pressure and making quick decisions. Tonight, sagging, packing the paint. All of a sudden it's about being deliberate with your spacing and over the top shot making. You've got to have a punch for every single setting. And Ant had a punch for the game plan tonight. It was his corner kicks and I thought he was great with them. But if he could have put a few more buckets up it could have been the difference in this game and he was able to get to his pull up three. Plenty of but that's a much higher variance shot. It's 27ft instead of 15ft. At 15ft he might be able to hit it 48, 52% of the time. A contested pull up 28 footer, 27 footer on his best day is a 30 33ish percent shot. That, that that's where he needs to bring in that part of his game that's reliable. What has made Luka a reliable offensive player round to round short range shot making. What has made Jokic a reliable player round to round short range shot making. If you're you he that is the thing that he's got to add and I just thought Shay was super super impressive tonight with that J Dub. Obviously with this game plan it was going to put a heavy emphasis on J Dub needing to be able to score the basketball and his be his ability to space the floor. How many times tonight did Minnesota get a stop and then someone would get an offensive rebound and the ball would get sprayed out to J Dub and he did a back breaking three or nail help off to try to deal with shake elders Alexander swing pass, back breaker three. Those were so important in this game. And then in his on ball reps perpetually getting into the lane, getting that dribble penetration, bringing in multiple defenders. Again even when we're talking about the offensive rebounding piece, there's a lot of it that's super frustrating with Minnesota where it's like Rudy Gobert is. I find Rudy Gobert to just be an incredibly frustrating player to watch and I just do not understand his stands and all of the belief in, in in his talent level because like to me he's a, he's a defensive player that gets himself out of position in no man's land constantly. He's a, a defensive rebounder that will legitimately just get his butt kicked by by mediocre kind of like replacement level starting centers in this league. I I don't see it. But there are also offensive rebounds that were happening tonight by a product of the rotations by a product of the fact that there are people stepping over in the lane. There was an offensive rebound that Ant gave up because he came over to strong side zone against Shay. Gilgeous Alexander on an ISO and Kayson Wallace just ended up crashing in behind. There's a lot of like stuff that comes from the way that defense is getting broken down by Shay by getting broken down by J Dub. But I thought J Dub that's arguably the best Game of his career Tonight. Goes for 34 points on 24 shots, five assists, just two turnovers. He had three steals in this game as well. Unbelievable game. Spot up shooting down the board again. We've talked about this time and time again. How are the Thunder going to be able to win in the postseason? They need their young guys to confidently step into tough contested catch and shoot threes and knock them down. Chat two more threes tonight. A huge one off of a pick and pop where Ant came peeling off of his man and got a great contest and he just confidently stepped in there and ripped the cord. We talked about J Dub hitting catcher, shoot threes. Lou Dort hits one. Ken Rich Williams hits one. Alex Crusoe hits two, Isaiah Joe hits one. K's on Wallace hits one. They hit the shots they needed to hit 43% from three tonight. 16 for 37. Chet Holmgren like that defensive play on that spin move from JD McDaniels, swatting it off the glass. His aggressive ISO attacks against Nas Reed where he's spinning off of him and dunking the spot up shooting like we talked about. Case on Wallace, he had three or four tough contested mid range pull up jump shots tonight. Those are found money in the playoffs. Alex Caruso obviously the destructive defender that we know he can be, but all those sneaky cuts along the baseline, just finding those openings when his defender turns his head. He was amazing at that back in his days with the Lakers. They're just this looks like a team that has learned from previous failures and that has turned into a championship level basketball team. One of my things that I love about the game of basketball is it forces you to overcome adversity. It forces you to overcome checkpoints and tests to get to where you want to go. They had to be pushed by Denver tonight, even pushed by Minnesota. Their weaknesses emphasized. I didn't like the game plan at the beginning of the series that Minnesota was accentuating their strengths. Here in Minnesota they played the game plan that accentuated OKC's weaknesses and they got out of here with the split. Series isn't over obviously, but I feel pretty strongly that Oklahoma City is going to close the deal. I think they've demonstrated themselves to be the better team in the series. I think their star is a better processor and a better, more versatile score than Anthony Edwards is. I thought Jalen Williams one hard to do tonight with the low bar that Julius Randall set, but I thought he was far and away the best secondary star tonight. Chad Holmgren outplayed any Minnesota role player except for Nikhil Alexander Walker. Just a, Just a down the roster outclassing in this series by the Oklahoma City Thunder against the Minnesota Timberwolves. And I think they're going to go to the finals and I think they're going to win. I think they match up extremely well with Indiana, I think they match up extremely well with New York. And we could be heading into our. We could be heading into our first situation where we have a roster young enough and cheap enough because of the situation with all their young talent to where we could have some sustained, sustained success in the NBA. This was the chance I had Oklahoma City as my second leading championship contender coming into tonight or coming into this playoff run. But I viewed them as vulnerable. I viewed them as vulnerable this season, but I. The. With each passing year, the talent increase for Chet as he continues to develop, the talent increase for Jalen, the talent increase for every one of these young guys off the bench like Case on Wallace. They're going to get better and better every year from here in a way that's going to be probably more impactful than whatever mid level exception you can sign or mediocre trade you can make on the margins. This, this was the year to get Oklahoma City and I think tonight was the last chance that anybody had and I think Minnesota blew it. And so with that being the case, this is the, this is the, this is the year that's supposed to be too early. And it looks like to me that Oklahoma City is going to get it done. Super, super exciting for Timberwolves fans, or, excuse me, for Thunder fans. I am. I have to talk about Julius Randall for a second because Julius Randle. Let me just tell a little story of the last three games. Julius Randle has a nightmarishly bad game too. Like embarrassingly bad. Bad games happen in the postseason. He comes out in game three and things go his way. It's hitting shots, the crowd is in it, it's up and down, fast break type of game. Oklahoma City lets go of the rope a little bit. They're up by 40. Julius is making plays and at one point he looks in the camera and he goes like, we're home now, we're home now. My bad game was because we were on the road. We're at home now. And then he comes out tonight and a couple of things don't go his way in the opening minutes and then he just floats through the rest of the game, stands around the three point line. Every time the ball makes its way to him, he's just rifling it down the line in the next skip pass or swing pass. Just taking these mediocre to bad catch and shoot threes, not impacting the game in any substantial way as a rebounder or as a defender. Just, just. He was like, game's not going my way. I'm done. I, like, I don't care who you are as a basketball player. If you're in a situation where you have the talent level that Julius Randle has a game like tonight, five points with five turnovers, completely unacceptable. Like, completely unacceptable. He let his team down. Yeah, you're getting swarmed. You know who else was getting swarmed? Anthony Edwards. And I saw Anthony Edwards try like hell to solve that puzzle tonight, like, legitimately in that second half, just pouring his heart and soul into the game to try to fucking get a win. And the dude who's his partner in crime is pouting and floating around and not doing his job. You lost by two. You could have gone back to Oklahoma City in a two, two series. I. I talk about this all the time. I don't care what kind of game you're having. I don't care if you come out and you have four nasty turnovers and two or three bad shots and a couple of defensive mistakes and your coach is chewing your ass, whatever it is, you have time to make a play in. One play could be the difference. One play where you get a defensive rebound and you see an opportunity to just hit the jets in transition and just force the issue because you're one of the biggest, most powerful athletes on the floor, and an opportunity to go draw a foul, bulldoze your way to the rim for an offensive rebound. Put back, do something, Fight. Show some fight. Julius succumbs to his bad games. Ah, fuck it. I just don't have it tonight. And it's just so frustrating to watch because, like, again, like, one play could have been the difference. One play. Minnesota had possession down, three in the final minute of this game. One more play could have been the difference. That's why you have to stay engaged. That's why you have to fight. You fight because you might have another chance. You just might have an opportunity fall into your lap to turn a bad night into a good night if you just stay engaged and you just fight. And I just was. I was just so disappointed. I can only imagine how Anthony Edwards is feeling tonight as he's looking at the box score and feeling like his teammate, like, straight up, was, like, not my night. You guys got this. I was so annoyed by that.
- [27:37]
Host 2
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- [28:07]
Host 1
This podcast is sponsored by Talkspace. May is Mental Health Awareness Month and Talkspace, the leading virtual therapy provider, is telling everyone let's face it in therapy, by talking or texting with a supportive licensed therapist at Talkspace, you can face whatever is holding you back, whether it's mental health symptoms, relationship, past trauma, bad habits or another challenge that you need support to work through. It's easy to sign up. Just go to talkspace.com and you'll be paired with a provider, typically within 48 hours. And because you'll meet your therapist online, you don't have to take time off work or arrange childcare. You'll meet on your schedule. Plus, Talkspace is in network with most major insurers and most insured members have a zero dollar copay. Make your mental health a priority and start today. If you're not covered by insurance, get $80 off your first month with Talkspace when you go to talkspace.com and enter promo code SPACE80. That's S P A CE80. To match with a licensed therapist today, go to talkspace.com and Enter promo code SPACE80.
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Host 3
Anyway, let's get Jackson up here. Any other angles that you guys want to get to in this series? Just pop those questions in the chat. We're going to take about 10, 15 minutes worth of questions here.
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Host 5
Let's do it. Most of the questions we're getting are Timberwolves questions like so let's start with the first one. It feels like Anthony Edwards has shrunk in some big moments. He didn't, he didn't always. He didn't have a big scoring night tonight and he, you know, they lost in five last year in the Western Conference finals. Not trying to hate, but what does he have to do to take the next step in his game again?
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Host 3
So like we talked about it earlier, I, I think again, there's, there's multiple ways to attack a coverage right and S like the right way to attack the specific coverage that Ant was seeing tonight in that, that Ann has seen in this entire series is to drive the ball into the paint and make a corner kick. And he just did it over and over again tonight. I thought, I thought he did his job in terms of attacking the coverage. Here's the thing though. There is a certain element of scoring that is impervious to coverage that Shay has that Ant doesn't have right now. Ant has it in the form of the pull up three or the, you know, four or five drives a game where he'll just knife through like three dudes and like Euro step and somehow find his way at the front of the rim. But again, you're going to be limited to being a 16 point a game playmaker in the, in a slow down half court game where the team is loading up on you unless you build some sort of reliable over the top game. And for the record, guys like you want to know why James Harden never had success as like a sustainable, reliable offensive threat in the postseason. It was because his half court, I need a bucket shot. When teams would load up the paint and help on him and do all that stuff was step back three. And look, the step back three is a useful shot to have in your bag. I don't want to sit here and denigrate the step back three, but if it's all you got, then you are absolutely handcuffing yourself. And I think there's a certain reliability to having that. Okay, you've got three dudes waiting for me in the paint. I've got a defender in front of me that I know I can shoot over, but I need to get to a spot where I can make half of these and that is around the elbows, that is in the short corner. And Shea has that in his game. Ant, like we talked about it throughout this postseason run, Ant took like more than twice as many mid range jump shots just last year in the postseason. And he just needs to build that part out of his game. And if anything, getting into the offseason and watching the tape from this series, he just needs to look at not, not the fouls that Shea has drawn. But look at the shots that Shea has made in this series and look at where they've come from. Because, because they're. He's getting his opportunities right there at the elbows, regardless of what the coverage is.
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Host 5
Yeah, absolutely. Another question about Ant. We talk a lot about conditioning for some stars, most often ones that are a little bit less athletic. But if it seems, it seems like Ant has been, might have been gassed at the end of the game tonight. It seems like he's been gassed at the end of games before. Do you feel like he needs to work in his conditioning?
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Host 3
I think that there is a certain downhill verve that Ant plays with that would exhaust any player in terms of like this, like, let me just put it this way. This is, this is another reason why he needs to have that slow down game. Like, what does Shea look like when he's walking down a team? He looks like almost too relaxed, but like he just kind of has like this kind of slouchy look and he just has slinky arms as he's dribbling the ball around. His ability to work with his back to the basket around the elbows is a, a way to conserve energy throughout a game. And like right now, you know what, you know what are, I would argue the two toughest shots you can take as a basketball player is a contested rim attempt and a contested step back. 3. In terms of like difficulty on the body, beating one defender to slalom through a second defender to elevate over a third defender is exhausting. And to get separation from an elite on ball defender to then lift from 27ft from the basket and get enough lift for you to be able to flip the wrist and get the ball there, that's going to take a lot of energy. And so I think that's part of it, the conditioning. Like, I, I didn't see a moment tonight where it felt like Ant was just too tired to score. I just thought he took threes and wasn't making them because those are high variance shots and he was consistently getting into the paint and making the kickouts. He just, he doesn't have the indomitable scoring trait that Shai has yet. And he can, he's got all the tools for it. He's just got to build it out.
- [33:38]
Host 5
Yeah, I think Richard Jefferson is kind of up and down as a commentator, but I did like at the very end of the game when he was like, look at Shai. He's literally walking, he's literally walking to get to his spot right now. It's like, that is such a crazy thing to say about an NBA basketball player. In crunch time. He's actually walking to his, to his.
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Host 3
Spot and it works for him. Like that's, that's just his. He doesn't let the game speed him up.
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Host 5
Right. Okay, another Timberwolves question and then we'll do a Thunder question. What? Assuming the Timberwolves don't come back from 3:1. What do you think the Timberwolves need to do this offseason to sort of get to the net, get to the place beyond where they've gotten the last two seasons?
- [34:17]
Host 3
I mean, there's like, nitpicky stuff. Like, I don't know if I was, if I was a, a Timberwolves fan, I, I would be so sick to my stomach after watching that Julius Randall performance, and I would be really, really concerned about the, the realities that come in line with the thing with what Julius did tonight that drives me especially crazy is adversity is just like, non negotiable in the postseason. Like, it's, it's just a non negotiable. Like, you're just. Unless you're on the 2017 warriors, which is the most talented roster ever assembled, like, or you're like, like that Celtics team last year in the East. Like, there are a handful of examples where a team can ride a supreme talent advantage all the way through to the finish line, but it's exceptionally rare. And generally speaking, you're going to face adversity. Like, J Dub was so bad in the Denver series, like, so bad in the Denver series last, last round. But like, he didn't quit on his team. He went one for 15 or whatever the hell it was that he went, or 4 for 17. And then like, he kept trying to make something happen and he conquered those demons and has been fantastic in this series. Inevitably, I would be terrified with the Julius Randle thing, if I, like, signed up long term for that, that he's gonna just in a big spot, bow out on his team because things didn't go his way as far as the rest of the roster. Like, I'm over the Rudy Gobert experience. I think if you're paying 30 plus million dollars to a player that can't get a defensive rebound, that, that is. His defensive value is substantially lower than his pedigree would lead you to believe. And who legitimately can't catch and finish anything in traffic. Like, you want to know why we all freaked out on that Duncan Hartenstein? We're like, oh shit, I can't believe he did that. Because it's just so unusual for him to like, make a play in traffic in a situation like that. And so I think there's certain conversations you need to have about resource allocation. Like, I love Nas Reed, love Nikhil Alexander Walker. I think Dante DiVincenzo is a playoff player. Mike Conley battles. You know, Ant is the foundational piece of your franchise. But I'd Be looking strongly at the Randall Gobert pairing and just be looking in the big picture what gives me the best chance. But don't let that take away from the fact that I do think that if Ant was better, they could have won this series. Ant's 23 years old. He, in the next two to three seasons needs to build out a reliable part of his game. I'm looking at synergy right now. Shay Gilgis Alexander is shooting 54% on jump shots inside of 17ft. That is so reliable to be able to go to a shot that he can make more than half the time. That's the like. I think if Ant builds that out, that is what will get him to the point where he can elevate some of these rosters to far above what they're capable of.
- [37:07]
Host 5
Yeah, I think the Gobert offensive struggles are one thing because he's not an offensive player, but it's kind of crazy to see him let up so many offensive rebounds. It's like this is your second most important thing behind being, you know, a rim protector. And case on Wallace is just out rebounding. You like, what, what is happening?
- [37:26]
Host 3
The case on Wallace one was like, I, I was, I was floored watching it. I literally, I was you competing so hard to get a stop against this office. And, and he stood there, he stood there and watched. Like rebounding is about going and getting the fucking basketball. There is definitely a ground battle part of it, especially when you're dealing with really big bodies that you need to keep ground bound. But it is a roster wide five man pursuit of the basketball. And Oklahoma City was faster to the ball tonight.
- [38:00]
Host 5
Yeah. And it's like, it's one thing I know I've seen a lot of NBA players talk about this, how when you're, when you do have to play that ground game, we have to box out. Like in the warriors against the Rockets, when you're Draymond Green, you're boxing up Steven Adams, you're not going to get the basketball, but everyone else is going to get the basketball. Rudy Gobert is not boxing at anybody. And he's like, I'm like, what are you doing, man? Crazy, crazy performance from Rudy Gobert. One more question and then we'll go over to playback. Is the amount of threes that OKC is giving up to the Timberwolves, you know, as you've talked extensively about as part of their scheme, is that a potential problem against teams that are better at generating threes and or have better converting players? Three point shooters, like the pacers are really good at generating threes, and the Knicks have a, you know, quite a few shooters.
- [38:42]
Host 3
I thought Minnesota made him pay for it. Over and over again Tonight, Minnesota got two. This is crazy. 2.08 points. Points per catch and shoot. Per unguarded catch and shoot. Three. They generated 13 of them. And I'll look up the makes later because I don't want to inundate the show right here. But, like, they've made them pay for it. But, like, there's. Here's the thing. Like, Chris Finch, I thought went with his base defensive scheme to start the series, and I thought that was a mistake. I think that Mark Dagnalt going with his base defensive scheme against Indiana would be a mistake. I do. Okay, So I. I think Indiana is in the same way that, like, for Ant, making him a playmaker forces him to confront his weaknesses. And by the way, he's making some signs of growth, but there's still a lot of potential there. To me, the weakness for Tyrese Halliburton is like, let's see. Let's see you go get a bucket against Chet over and over again. Let's see you go get a bucket against Hartenstein over and over again. Or you're on ball, defender, a guard that you like against a switch. So I. I think if you just let Tyrese Halliburton. Because here's the thing. Tyrus Halliburton never turns the ball over. That's like his superpower. So if you let him dribble the ball at the floor and you load up the strong side and you let him just pitch it to Siakam in the weak side corner or N. Smith in the weak side corner all series long, then you're going to make what should be an unwinnable series into a winnable series for Indiana. So let's keep an eye on the game plan. Here's my thing. In this series, Oklahoma City's base game plan happened to line up with what is the most appropriate way to guard the Timberwolves. It doesn't in the next series, so they need to make that adjustment accordingly. And I think we'll see. And by the way, if he does in one game, sure, whatever. But like, if by game two, they're still doing it and the games are more competitive than they should be, that'd be something that I would look at. All right, guys, that's all we have for the YouTube stream tonight. As always, we appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We're heading over to playback again. That's Playback TV Hoops Tonight we're gonna be hanging out, taking callers and just shooting the shit and having fun talking hoops for a little while. We'll see you guys over there in just a few minutes. What's up guys? As always, I appreciate you for listening to and supporting Hoops tonight. It would actually be really helpful for us if you guys would take a second and leave a rating and a review. As always, I appreciate you guys supporting us, but if you could take a minute to do that, I'd really appreciate it.
- [41:07]
Host 2
The Volume.
- [41:11]
Host 3
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- [41:39]
Host 4
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- [41:40]
Host 6
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- [42:11]
Host 1
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