← The Herd with Colin Cowherd
The Herd with Colin Cowherd
Hoops Tonight - Reaction to Austin Reaves 51-point game for Lakers + the 5 most IMPRESSIVE teams to start NBA season
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Jason
This is an iHeart podcast.
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Jason
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Game day and realize the cheese is missing?
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Jason
Or the chips?
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- [02:47]
Jason
The Volume all right, welcome to Hoops Tonight here at the Volume. Happy Monday everybody. Hope all of you guys had an incredible weekend. We have a jam packed show for you today. We are hitting on eight teams. We're going to lead off with the Houston Rockets. I'm a little bit more bullish on them than most. After their 02 start, I want to talk about their game against Detroit, some of the things we learned and some of the things that I expect them to be able to improve upon over time after that. Austin Reeves 51 point near triple double on the road in Sacramento, but comes attached to some bad news as the Lakers find out they're going to be out without Luka Doncic for this week. I have some opinions there. We're going to briefly touch on the Milwaukee Bucks and some of the early returns from them. I I caught their game against Toronto the the game where Scotty Barnes tried to show up Giannis and Giannis very much did not allow that to happen. They ended up dropping a game against Cleveland earlier on Sunday. I caught the crunch time of that game as well. We'll have some brief thoughts on the Bucks after that. We're going to be covering the top five most impressive teams from week one of the NBA season. So jam packed show, lots of teams to get into. 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_jason lt so you guys don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about 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 incredible work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook and Tik Tok. Make sure you guys follow us there for content throughout the rest of the season. And last but not least, keep dropping questions in our YouTube comments for our weekly mailbag so we can get to them throughout the rest of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball starting with the Houston Rockets. Again off to an O and two start. They followed up their heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma City with an equally frustrating loss to Detroit, but I remain bullish on them to start the year. The Pistons. First of all, it was interesting and revealing on several levels, but let's credit the Pistons. They're a really good young team. They're particularly good at playing in physicality. Like one of the things that Stood out to me in that game was like Alperin Shangoon really struggled. Like it was one of the worst games I've seen him play in a very long time. And part of the reason is he's not bullying that Detroit Pistons front court. He struggled with Jalen Duran, he struggled Isaiah Stewart, he struggled with Paul Reed. He struggled even with Tobias Harris who was meeting his physicality and attacking. When he would expose the basketball like those guys just met his force with force and they disrupted his rhythm and they forced him into a ton of misses right around the rim. That was a huge factor in Houston's offense in this game. And then Cade, to Cade's credit, he was absolutely fantastic in the second half. He had gotten off to a little bit of a rough start this season, but he beat several different Rockets coverages in the second half of that game. He'd be dropped single coverage down the stretch. The Rockets were consistently blitzing him. It kind of turned into this weird blitz off where the Rockets were blitzing Cade and the Pistons were blitzing KD and shout out to Detroit. They just kind of won that battle and made a few more plays. Cage showed some impressive shot making down the stretch. He has a a strength and size advantage over Amend Thompson. And I thought he did a really nice job using his body to get free of him. He had a really interesting play late in the game where he calls for a ball screen on the right side. Amend Thompson is there and he goes like he's about to use the screen and does a good job showing the body in the ball like he's about to use the screen. Gets a man Thompson to take that step into the screen. Then he rejects it. And then Thompson, ridiculous athlete, obviously going to recover, recovers. But Cade just fends him off. Cause now he's got just that tiny bit of a step right and he fends him off and just gets to that little short 12 footer along the lane line on the left side and knocked it down. Just a big time shot against one of the apex perimeter defenders in this league. Shout out to the Detroit Pistons. They're a good team. They've been playing together for a while. The Rockets are a work in progress and they got beat. But there's still a ton of good. As I talked about before the season, Katie is such a gifted scorer coming off of screens that he can command a lot of aggressive coverages for himself. He can command blitzes and at the level coverages and things along those lines. And he did that against Detroit. He had 37 points literally forced Detroit to repeatedly blitz him down the stretch after he hit a pullback three that tied the game in crunch time. And honestly, that was where I thought the absence of Dorian Finney Smith was really felt. The Reed shepherd thing has been kind of a disaster. We'll dig into that in a little bit. On one level, it's kind of, to me just a testament to how good this team can be when they eventually trade for a guard. We'll talk about him in a minute then. You know, when you kind of take him out of the equation, it comes down to Tari Eason or Steven Adams that he's looking at for that fifth starter or fifth closer, I should say. And so IME Udoka goes with Atari Eason down the stretch and Tar Eason has been a big issue for them offensively with their spacing and it just was difficult for them to get good shots off of those blitzes down the stretch of the game. And like, all I could think about when I saw that is, first of all, you know, who's going to really help Dorian Finney Smith, a guy who like, is the perfect connective player on both ends of the floor for them is a guy that is going to knock down that corner three point shot at a high rate, who's going to communicate for them defensively, which I think will be important. Their defense hasn't been as good as it's capable of being. We'll talk more about that in a few minutes. But like that fifth, that fifth closer, it's going to be a Dorian Finney Smith or it's going to be a guard that they trade for at some point down the line. That's going to be something that is, is going to make it easier for them to make teams pay for blitzing Kevin Durant. Like this is a thing that. Because even above and beyond the fifth player in those lineups, they're going to find ways, sequences, quick passing and cutting sequences to get good shots off of those blitzes. This is a problem. It's not even a problem. It's a, this is an upside that they have not experienced in this iteration of the team. They haven't had a player that is going to consistently draw two defenders 30ft from the rip. That is a, that is a massive boost to your offense once you figure out how to make teams pay for it. I looked at that and I was like, Katie's getting blitzed for torching a team and we're not even two games into the season. Like, this is an upside. They just Got to figure it out. By the way, that starting lineup Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Albert and Shangun and Stephen Adams is plus 18 net so far to start the season in 40 possessions according to Cleaning the Glass. And again, I still think they're capable of playing way better defensively than they have to this point. They have frequently put Alper and Changun in a roaming role off of non shooters and he's been a bit inattentive in some situations. Against Oklahoma City had several situations where he was kind of the the culprit of their poor semi transition defense because it's like he's roaming. He's supposed to be protecting the rim, but he's just a little slow to get back into position because he's relaxing. That happened several times down the stretch against Detroit and like that's something that I think they'll be able to clean up. I think that's a role where Shangoon's going to be able to have some success. And like they've strangely been bad on the defensive glass, which doesn't even make sense with how big they are. One of the things I'm seeing on film is they can be a bit slow footed at times and that can get them a little bit into, you know, the blender of just quicker guards going past them for long rebounds off of misses like long jump shots and things along those lines. So like there's a lot they can clean up. As I mentioned, Reed shepherd has not been good. The Rockets are this crazy stat. They're plus 8 net so far through the two games with him off the floor and minus 18 net with him on the floor. He doesn't make anything off the dribble, he doesn't make anything at the rim and he turns the ball over. And so to me, honestly that was just a sign of how much better this team will be when they inevitably make a trade for a veteran guard at some point down the line this season. It's like such an obvious position of need where they've been getting poor play. But even with everything that happened, even with Reed shepherd struggles, even with Tar Eason struggles, even with the rebounding struggles, even with Alper and Shangun having just an absolute nightmare game. Even with all of that, even with them being mostly a new team trying to figure out how to play a new style, they got handed to like tough teams to start the season and they were this close to winning both games. Jabari Smith got a wide open three on the left side down two that would have given Houston the lead down the stretch of that game. And then as we know they're you know, they were up 6 late in regulation against Oklahoma City. They had a couple of mistakes that led Oklahoma City back in the game and you know, Shay misses a tough contested step back over Amend Thompson. You're two and oh like so I all all I can think as I've watched them through the first two games is they have a million things they can clean up and be much better. I just think they're going to be a really good team in the long run. Not too worked up about their own two Start the Los Angeles Lakers Huge win last night in Sacramento. Today's show is brought to you by our new presenting sponsor, Hard Rock Bet. The the NBA season is heating up and every night is a shot to score a major bucket on Hard Rock Bet your home for hoops action all season long. Needle to help with your first bet, check out the streaks heating up inside the Hard Rock Bet Stats hub. You can find live odds to bet on all the streaks right in the Hard Rock Bet app. If you haven't tried your first bet on Hard Rock Bet, there's still time for you to get $150 in bonus bets. If you win, just place a five dollar bet and if it hits you, not only get your winnings, but $150 in extra bonus bets. Plus, all week on Hard Rock Bet, you can get an NBA parlay boost for the games. There's new promos every day. Boost your same game parlay or SGP Max so your bet pays extra winnings. 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Jason
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- [16:03]
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- [17:42]
Jason
Austin Reeves just casually reminded everyone that he's one of the very best players in the NBA. He was just one assist shy of a 51 point triple double. Sacramento is a really good matchup for Austin because their bigs are incapable of switching. Austin can struggle against really athletic teams that can switch from time to time. But in this particular matchup where he's able to essentially get downhill via ball screens is Austin's very, very good at getting his man caught on the screen by setting him up for the screen. And one of the things that he's best at is he attacks with like a ton of speed coming downhill in ball screens. A lot of players are more methodical. Austin is not methodical. Austin is like attack, attack, attack. And when he gets into the teeth of the defense, he can draw fouls, he can finish at the rim at a high clip, he can stop and pop short of the rim for those little short jump shots and and he's gotten way better over the course of these last few years of his career at making the kickout reads, the skip and the lob and all those sorts of reads that he can get to in those situations. And like one of the things that I've had my eye on with him is his three point shot. What I thought was really interesting is when Austin leaves the game late fourth quarter or late third quarter, Lakers are up 5 if I remember correctly and Austin subs out to start the fourth quarter and the wheels just completely fall off. Predictably, that Laker team down all three of their top shot creators is just not super talented on offense. On offense, right shout out to Marcus Smart. He makes a little jump shot that griffs his way to the Marcus. Marcus has been a total grift show to start the season, but he's found ways to generate some points. Austin comes back in the game and like this is a guy who'd been attacking all game and you could tell his legs were tired and he went to his pull up three in the fourth quarter and he was able to generate a bunch of points on these shots over the top of the defense from distance when he got tired. And at that point the Kings had no choice but to blitz him on ball screens. And he hit the short roller every single time without turning the ball over. And the Lakers role players made them pay. We'll talk more about the Lakers role players in a minute. And then late in the game, after the Kings stopped blitzing, they stopped blitzing because they were getting beat. They went back to chasing over the top. Austin missed a couple of threes and it kind of felt like when you're watching the game, like he needs to get one last bucket going towards the basket. And he did. He summoned the strength for one last drive and hit like an insane floater with defenders draped all over him. And then he closed the deal out the line. Just two turnovers despite insane usage in a damn near 50 point triple double. Just a truly remarkable performance from the Lakers third best player. That's the crazy thing. And so many other Lakers stepped up. Like deandre Ayton got a lot of shit for what happened on opening night. I thought he was excellent against Minnesota and I thought he was excellent. Sacramento at 22 and 15 tonight. He got beat to the offensive glass a few times by Sabonis, but other than that I thought he won his matchup. Like he just badly dominated Demonis Sabonis tonight. His length at the rim was a legit factor all night. He got picked up a couple of fouls where he's. He's still just a little slow getting his feet set with his hands up without committing fouls. He'll like bump the dude with his chest and pick up a foul. But like he was getting deflections and causing problems at the rim. I thought he ran the floor and transitioned super well all night, getting up and down and made several plays in that context. And then he consistently torched the Kings on the roll and on the offensive glass. Just rolling to the lane and cleaning up Mrs. 22 and 15. And again I thought he was excellent against the Wolves as well as he set good screens for Luca and ended up finishing a lot of those blitz sequences when Luca started. We saw a very similar sequence in both games. Luka drops 49, Austin drops 51 Luca, same thing, just torching the traditional coverage. All of a sudden now you got a blitz and now we're getting dunks and wide open threes out of the blitz. Now the blitz doesn't work. We got to go back to playing one on one like Austin and Luca just straight up broke Minnesota and sacrifice Sacramento's defenses over the last couple days. Rui Hachimura last night had several little ISO jumpers in the middle of the floor that felt like in super important shots. Obviously down their shot creators. He scored a few times off of the roles when Austin was getting blitzed. Marcus smart, like I mentioned, manufactured offense and he was scrapping all night. Jared Vanderbilt guarded Zach Lavine and just made him work hard for everything and it was his usual wrecking ball self and shout out to Jake Laravey. I thought he had his first little moment as a Laker. He hit a huge three relocating to the top of the key off of Rui Hachimura. Post up. They hit an and one layup off of a seal. Jared Vanderbilt really nice pass from the top of the key. Jake Aravia set a back screen, got the defender sealed on his top side, led kind of created a passing window over the top and he got an and one on Keon Ellis and I thought he made several defensive plays as well. It was just a really impressive win for an undermanned Lakers team. I thought they looked terrible in their season opener and I they certainly don't have the best roster in the NBA. I think their roster got a little bit maligned over the last few days as if they didn't win 50 games last year. And again, I don't think they're a perfect basketball team. They're certainly light on defensive talent, but I mean they, they hung a 128 offensive rating in their last two games without any games from LeBron and just two games from Luca. Through their first three games of the season they have the third best offensive rating in the league and it still feels like they have so many things that they can figure out. And again, two of the teams they played were great defenses. So like this is going to be a great offense all year and has the potential to be like really, really special when LeBron comes back. And again, I know Sacramento is not that impressive of a win but down Luka and LeBron, I thought it was impressive. And secondly, that Wolves game, I'm not sure how many of you guys caught that Wolves game on Friday night, but like the Wolves tried to punk them early in that game. They Were mauling them on the glass. They were hitting all sorts of shots. Ant was torching them all night and getting to the rim whenever he wanted. And the Lakers just punched back. Luca was transcendently great. They finally got some stops in the second half by like scrapping and supporting their mismatches, like swarming the ball. More gang rebounding to keep them off the glass. And they, they blew out a very good Wolves team. And so, like, you know, as far as it goes, they still have a lot they can get better at. Obviously the defensive end is still a work in progress. Obviously they need to find a way to incorporate LeBron. That was. These are kind of my last two thoughts. I saw a lot of talk from people after even just the Wolves game that was like, oh, why does this Laker team need LeBron? Here's a thought. He's a second team all NBA player when he's healthy. He's an excellent defensive rebounder. They've sucked at rebounding. They need help on the glass. LeBron can help with that. LeBron is a mid-40s catch and shoot player. That's something they could really use. LeBron last year was literally the best switch defender in the entire NBA. You don't think they could use a guy like that on this team. And there are a lot of lineups, including tonight when Luca was out and Austin was on, took breaks where they looked like they did need just that little extra bit of offensive pop. Like, this is the ideal situation for LeBron. You can literally use him to plug in all of the little holes that they have at various points on the roster. And anything you get from him as a shocker is found money. When you've got two guys that are playing the way Austin and Luka are, like, I get it that it's not the most, like, cooperative top three in terms of like all their talent slotting together absolutely perfectly. But I know that LeBron James would massively help this basketball team. And I've been like legitimately appalled by how many people I've seen say that they'd be better off without him. Like, I'm sorry, If you trade LeBron for a couple of role players, this team becomes worse. They don't become better. I think that that's asinine. I just couldn't believe I saw a few people say that over the course of the weekend. And then lastly, I understand that I'm gonna come off like a little bit of a man screaming on the porch or an old man yelling on the porch kind of thing. Here, But I just don't understand why Luke is taking a full week off here. And like, maybe there's more information about the injury than what we have, but what it looked like to me was Luka jammed his finger and got a little banged up in the Wolves game. But that happened early and he absolutely fried those dudes the entire game. He made Jaden McD like, it was amazing. Cause, like, a lot of what I anticipated surrounding the Wolves matchup involved things like Jaden can't guard Luca, which was abundantly clear in 2024. But it turns out Jaden could guard fat Luca. And then guess what? Skinny Luca was back and Jaden looked completely helpless. Like absolutely completely helpless as Luca just fried him all over the floor. And then secondly, the importance of that four out spacing in the roll, man, from the center position, which was how Luca beat the blitzes down the stretch when Minnesota went to the blitzes, which was not an option when it was Jackson Hayes. And so, like, in a lot of ways, some of the, like, kind of conceptual things that I, I felt about Luca versus the Wolves in the first round last year were like, on display in this game in a way that they weren't because Luka's a lot thinner now and the Lakers actually can play a center now. As we know, the Wolves are a huge problem in the postseason in terms of their physicality. I'm not saying that that would flip the dynamic of the series. I'm just saying those are the basketball dynamics that I was thinking about when I was making my pick last year. Like, whenever I've seen Skinny Luca go against Jaden, Jaden looks absolutely helpless, right? But, like, he looked great all game. And so what you're telling me is that in a stretch where the Lakers have six games in nine nights, five games this week in a Western Conference where if you drop a game or two, it could literally be like, detrimental to you in, in, in the next phase of your. Of your season. Like, you could legitimately have to be digging out of the plan when you get to March that you would sit out with a jammed finger and a leg bruise. It just. All I could think of was like, this is a guy that I've defended to a great extent over the course of the summer. I ranked him second in my player rankings. And part of the reason why I'm like, juxtaposing him with Shay and I'm juxtaposing him with Giannis, and I'm juxtaposing him with Luka with Nicola Jokic, and, And All I could think is, is like if he's going to sit out with bumps and bruises and miss like chunks of five games with a, a jammed finger and a leg bruise, I. How does that not act as a demerit for him in the conversation with Shea or in the conversation with Giannis or in the conversation with Nicole Jokic? Now I was texting some Lakers people and there's some, there's some pontification that the Lakers medical staff is behind this, that they're just being overly cautious. But all I could think is, is like why isn't Luca going up to these dudes and being like, we can't afford to be 2 and 5 next week. I need to play. I'm fine. Yeah, I'm a little banged up, but let's go get, let's go out there and compete and see if we can beat Portland. Let's see if we can go beat Sacramento. So like, all I'm saying is like I was a little disappointed to find out that Luka was going to sit out for a week with a leg bruise and a jam finger. It just didn't seem, it was kind of like unbecoming of a 26 year old superstar at the peak of his powers that I believe is the second best player in the league for a team that frankly desperately needs him. Like nice win against Sacramento tonight, but it's going to get tough this week. Portland is a pain in the ass. Ask anybody who's played them yet this year. They just beat that Golden State warriors team that started 2:0 on a tail end of a back to back and they are athletic and they pressure the rim and they have rim protection and they like they're, they're pain. This is, these are not going to be easy games to win and it just, it just felt like a overly cautious approach and like I said, unbecoming for a player in that top tier superstars. All right, quick thoughts on the Bucks and then we're going to get to my five most impressive teams to start the season. So I caught their entire game against Toronto and I caught the end of their game against Cleveland and they did drop that game against Cleveland. It was a tough game. Like they, Donovan Mitchell showed some really impressive shot making in the middle of their zone defense, hit a couple of like super tough like mid range jump shots against great contests and then Lonzo Ball hit a big three off the left wing. He had a big offensive rebound too down the stretch and, and they botched a coverage late and they left Sam Merrill wide open and he hit a shot and it was just like kind of one of those things where the Bucks had to use a ton of energy to come back from a large deficit and they made some mistakes down the stretch and Cleveland ended up getting a win. But generally I've been very impressed by Milwaukee. I thought they looked really good, especially in the Toronto game. They beat Washington in the first game. Washington obviously one of the bottom feeders of the NBA, but they beat Toronto and like a Toronto was like a legit physical monster of a team that is very good on defense, that has a lot of athletes that can pack the paint, that can run the floor in transition. They kick the shit out of Atlanta in their first game, if you guys remember. And like Scotty Barnes, it was fun to watch. Scotty Barnes, like had a play where he drove through Giannis's chest and like knocked him over and got a layup and straight up, like got down in his face and like tried to show him up for the world to see. And Giannis just like played it off and just whooped his ass. Giannis was just absolutely phenomenal in that game. I think he went for 30 and 20 against Toronto. But like the Mainly what I noticed from my first kind of impressions of Milwaukee is they just make sense on both ends of the floor.
- [31:47]
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- [33:17]
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- [33:50]
Jason
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- [34:02]
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- [35:42]
Jason
Now I've talked a lot before about how when you're constructing lineups, you're you're trying to Check all these responsibilities on the floor, right? Like there's a certain amount on offense. You need a guy that can create advantages, right? You need an on ball advantage creator, preferably one that can pressure the rim. And then off of that you like to have a screening partner, preferably multiple. And then guys who can finish plays, finish sequences. So guys that can knock down shots that are open, guys that can drive closeouts and make reads, guys that can be vertical spacers. And one of the things that you kind of see that is a treat when you have Giannis. One of the top tier superstars in this league is Giannis checks so many boxes on both ends of the floor. Obviously he's this devastating on ball weapon, but he's obviously he's also a great screener. He's also a guy that can finish plays extremely well around the basket, who can clean up stuff on the offensive glass, who can catch and finish as a cutter. I mean, hell, he hit two threes against Toronto, a couple big ones above the break. Like he can do all these things on offense, but then you go to the defensive end of the floor and it's the exact same thing, right? Like he is like kind of in and of himself a great defensive rebounding foundation. He is in and of himself a great like rim protection foundation. And then you look at the other pieces they have and they kind of layer on each other, right? Like, like when you, you see Miles Turner and, and Giannis playing together and it just looks like a lot for an offense to deal with. Like one of the things I noticed, Miles had this play where he forced Brandon Ingram into a huge miss in crunch time. Brandon turned over his right shoulder and I can't remember who he was going against, but it wasn't Miles. Miles was in help and Miles like made an impromptu, like lunge forward to try to contest Brandon and covered a lot of ground and got a great contest. Brandon has an awful miss in Miles, like recovers back into the lane and gets the rebound. And all I could think of is like Brook Lopez towards the end wasn't moving like that. He didn't have the, he had the verticality element. He still was a decent rim protector when you could put him by the rim. But he didn't have that like forward back stop start mobility that Miles Turner has now. And so like Miles Turner, like next to Giannis is a really strong Defensive Foundation. They're 10th in defense to start the year. And despite having a bunch of like smaller guards on the perimeter, they've been a decent rebounding. Team to start the year. And so again, you kind of look at it and it's like subbing in Ryan Rollins as like this athletic, rim pressuring playmaker that competes and does a lot more defensively than Damian Lillard did. All of a sudden like the team kind of makes sense in a lot of ways. You've got your legitimate pick and roll defender in Miles Turner that can come up to the level, but they can also run drop coverage that could do a little bit of switching. Giannis is this devastating low man on the back line in that constant give and take with him and Miles or when Miles is up, Giannis is over. When Miles is back, Giannis is on the perimeter. They've got this like natural kind of low man dynamic. AJ Green is like a legitimately good defender and Ryan Rollins is like a good athlete that competes defensively. Like Gary Trent is now your weakest defender in your starting group, as opposed to being the second weakest defender off of Damian Lillard. It just kind of like has more coherence on the defensive end of the floor and then on the offensive end of the four. Same sort of thing. They've surrounded Giannis with shooting. They've been kind of trying to find this pick and roll a player that they can fit alongside Giannis and they've tried all these different guys. And Damon a lot of ways wasn't a great fit because he was just so one speed and so pull up, jump shot oriented that he struggled to get the ball to Giannis in the pocket. Right. But like they. We saw Kevin Porter Jr have some success by being more of like a, a kind of slow, methodical pick and roll ball handler with Giannis last year a little bit. But early in the season, like, I, I've really liked Ryan Rollins alongside Giannis. I think his give and take with him feels really natural. He's aggressive without stepping on Giannis's toes. He's been one of their best like assisted turnover guys because he just keeps getting into the lane and like finishing in traffic. But making really high level kickout reads like he's starting the offense for Milwaukee. Often that if the ball ends up in Gary Trent's hands, it feels like it's got a good chance to go in. The ball ends up in AJ Green's hands, it feels like it's got a good chance to go in. Miles Turner obviously spacing five, it just makes sense. You've got a bunch of guys that can screen for Giannis and score out of screens for Giannis. You got a Bunch of guys that can score and spot up. You've got this guard in, Ryan Rollins that can attack when he's got the basketball dude. Like even Cole Anthony has brought like this dynamic rim pressure kickout element that has been, that has been really impressive. And Cole had a ridiculous driving layup down the stretch against Toronto. Cole was just ridiculous against Toronto. He was awesome in that game. But like, they've just done a really nice job of finding complimentary discounted talent to surround Giannis with. And credit to Doc Rivers, I think he's done a really nice job of kind of like finding the right way to put the lineups together. And it all just makes sense to me. And it's not going to be perfect and they're going to lose games. They dropped a game on the road in Cleveland today or yesterday. It's not going to be perfect. But like this, when I envisioned Milwaukee as my 10th best team in the league is the team that I had that was at the top of the third tier. My case was Giannis is one of the very best players in the league. You know, he's coming out for blood this year. And this team, this team is in an Eastern Conference where most of these teams are pretty heavily flawed. And I've just been. It's only a snap judgment here from three games, but to me, Milwaukee looks like the kind of team that's going to out kick their coverage, so to speak, and play above their, their on paper talent because everybody just slots together really well here in the early part of the season. All right, before we get out of here today, the five most impressive teams from the first week of the NBA season, starting with San Antonio Spurs, 30 Start wins against Brooklyn, New Orleans and Dallas. Dallas was obviously the dominant performance we saw on Wednesday night that we covered. If you guys remember, we just absolutely humiliated Anthony Davis. We talked about that the night of the game. New Orleans is a really impressive come from behind victory. They were down 8 in the third quarter on the road and Dylan Harper had like a super nice burst in that third quarter to get them back. Got to the rim a few times, ended up hitting a three. Got them back in the game. They went on to win in overtime and then Brooklyn kind of looked like it was going to be a very professional victory for a serious team against a bad team. But then Brooklyn punched back and they actually took a fourth quarter lead. They ended up getting 40 from Cam Thomas in that game. And I thought the spurs played some excellent late game offense. They were posting up Wemby and Drawing double teams and getting buckets out of that. There was a really impressive sequence where they posted up Wemby on the left block and Keldon Johnson like faked like he was going to run through to the opposite side and then just quick turn and made himself available. Wemby hit him and he got right in the lane and finished. They ran a bunch of two man game with both Steph Castle and Wemby as well as Devin Vassell and Wemby. And those guys were getting to the basket or excuse me, Dylan Harper and Wemby, those guys were getting to the basketball. That like dynamic, big athletic guard like Steph Castle or Dylan Harper with Wemby rolling alongside of him. It's causing problems for teams like they're, they're getting to the basket and getting really good looks out of those actions. And like it's just unusual to see a young team to run really good late game offense, but they just ran really good late game off offense against Brooklyn and got awesome looks. Layups for Steph Castle, layups for Dylan Harper, layup for Keldon Johnson off of a Wemby post up. Just really nice stuff to start the season from a, a younger group that you wouldn't expect to see like that. Wemby in his first three games has averaged 33 points and 13 rebounds with 6.7 stocks per game on 64% true shooting. Just completely outrageous. He's cut down on his three point volume and as a result he's somehow become more efficient, which is very rare because three point volume is the way to achieve like large sample efficiency for a lot of these players. And it's because he's shooting 80% at the rim and he's shooting 60% on short twos inside of 17ft. That's a big part of that like more reliable scoring that we've been talking about with him. And then all three of the young guards have been fantastic. Harper has shown a remarkable ability to get to the rim as a driver, cutter and crasher. Dylan Harper early on has the fourth most total made field goals at the rim in the entire league. Tied for fourth. He has 15 layups already. He's just going to be so awesome. He's big, he's athletic, he's physical, he's scrappy. I just think he projects to be an awesome two way player in the league. Super impressive debut for Dylan Harper. Devin Vassell is shooting the damn seams off the basketball and it's been up and down for Steph Castle. He's had Some turnover issues and he's still not shooting the ball super well from three. But he's been very dynamic and he's been a big crunch time option for them. He had a big pull up three to force overtime against New Orleans and then he had a huge driving layup to help close the deal against Brooklyn. Looking at their team wide metrics, they have a 120 offensive rating. That's awesome. 105 defensive rating. That's awesome. They're grabbing 56% of available rebounds. That's awesome. Although they did have a little bit of an issue on the defensive glass late in the game against Brooklyn. They got lucky that Cam Thomas missed a couple of wide open threes that came off of those sequences. 38 points in the paint allowed per game. That's incredible. Really. The only thing that I can point to as a significant negative here in the early part is they're turning the ball over a lot and they're giving up a lot of transition points off of those turnovers. But other than that, just a super impressive start for the San Antonio Spurs. Secondly, the Oklahoma City Thunder also 3, 0 here in the early going wins over Houston, Indiana and Atlanta. Super impressive when you consider the injuries. No, Jalen Williams, that's our second best ball handler and second best player overall. Especially important for a team that's light on ball handling even when they're healthy. SGA has been just completely incredible. He's averaging 40 points, six rebounds and five assists in the early going. There's been a lot of conversation about his sky high free throw attempts. I think he had what, 40 free throws throws in his first two games, if I remember correctly. And I actually haven't had a problem with it. Like there's been a handful of plays in there that were a little grifty, that were a little over the top. But like, like for the most part it feels like he's getting to the line with drives and pump fakes. And again, like I've complained about Shay's free throws in the past. Mostly juxtaposed with the way the team is allowed to defend on the other end of the floor. But I've really only had one gripe and it's non basketball plays. That's where I have an issue is non basketball plays. You know what basketball play. You know what is a basketball play? Driving to the basket and getting hacked. You know what is a basketball play? Turning like you're going to shoot and pump, faking and the guy leaving his feet and then you shooting. That's a basketball Play. Those are normal basketball moves. And again, there have been a handful of Griffs mixed in there, but for the most part, to me, Shay's just ethically barbecuing dudes to get to the foul line. I haven't had a problem with it and essentially as far as I'm concerned, the team has desperately needed him to scale up his offense because of how limited they've been with the injuries and all he's done is do so average 40 against very good teams and he's three and oh, MVP level stuff from Shay. Chad had a rough shooting night against Indiana. He was missing his three point shot, but he had six threes against Atlanta. He's now at 42% from three on six attempts per game. Through his three games, Lou do has been downright destructive on defense once again as a team. They're leading the league in points off of turnovers with 26 per game while only allowing 16 the other way. It's like they're starting every game with a 100 lead just in points off turnovers. AJ Mitchell. AJ Mitchell and Aaron Wiggins have both had big moments on offense to help carry the load at various points. They were amazing in Indiana. Really the only statistical gripe I have with them here in the early going is their defensive rebounding, but that's been an issue forever and they keep winning in spite of it. They look poised to make a run at a 70 win season. I think it's like a legitimate possibility for them. Number three, kind of a shocker here. The Philadelphia 76ers two and oh with a couple wins against Charlotte and Boston. Really impressive performances across the board. Obviously VJ Edgecomb has this brilliant game one, but I thought he was pretty good against Charlotte as well. Like he didn't quite have the offensive game, but he had this insane closeout attack off of the right corner in crunch time. He rips the the closeouts to his right shoulder. He rips middle and just elevates in traffic and goes up and under and finishes a huge play in crunch time of that game. He had four stocks in that game as well. Quinn Grimes had 24 versus Charlotte, hit the biggest shot of the game, beating nail help with the three off of the right wing. And then Tyrus Maxi's been one of the best guards in the league here in the early part of the season. He's just shooting the shit out of the basketball, getting wherever he wants to go with his speed. And I've been really impressed with his floor game, just taking easy reads all over the floor. Like the kick to Grimes that I'm talking about. Like, Grimes is on the right wing. His man is sinking all the way down into the lane. And instead of forcing it or trying to do too much, Tyrese just throws a swing pass to Quentin Grimes. And Quentin grimes makes him pay. And I thought it was really interesting juxtaposed with the way that game was going because, you know, I'm sure a lot of people saw the. The debate surrounding the late shot that lamella ball took. Tie game, I can't remember. It was like a minute left and he took a just really difficult, like, step back 30 footer off the left wing. And it always looks a little bit more corny with Lamelo because he shoots it kind of like off of one foot. And Lamello's, by the way, having a ridiculous start to the season. He had like 37, 13 and 13 tonight against Washington, just or last night. It's just a ridiculous game. But like that game down the stretch against Philly, all of the Charlotte guards were just taking difficult shots. Like, it wasn't just Lamelo. Lamelo missed that step back, but like Trey, trey, Trey mann missed like a couple of easy or like, like kind of like easy reads where he just was taking tough shots in the middle of the floor. Colin Sexton had an identical play to the Quentin grimes play. Con caniple's on the right wing. Colin Sexton's isoing off of the left wing. Conipel's man is dug way down into the lane and help. And instead of just, I think it was Tyrese maxi. And instead of throwing the kickout pass to wide open con Canipple for the three, Colin just jacked up a contested 20 footer and missed it. It's the exact same read that on the other side of the floor, Tyrese had and made the read and Quinn grimes knocked down the wide open shot. And so in the early going of the season here, Tyrese is taking really good care of the basketball. He's racking up assists. It's just really high quality floor game from him coupled with elite shot making and his speed just getting him wherever he wants to get to on the floor. Andre Drummond had an absolutely brilliant second half against Charlotte. Just completely dominated the glass on both ends and had a huge tip dunk late that like, blew the lid off the arena. Kelly oubre was great again. He did some great work off the bounce. He created his own shot for buckets like three times in that game. And I know it hasn't looked perfect With Embiid. And his complete inability to protect the rim is a big part of why they can't guard when he's on the floor. Like he's just straight up not protecting the rim. But it was kind of cool as a fan to see him score 20 points in 20 minutes against Charlotte and make it look super easy just with all of the same high end shot making that was a staple of his when he was at his peak. It's just a really fun Sixers team that is loaded with dynamic playmakers on the perimeter and I think they have a decent shot to compete night to night in the east with all those guards. And like that's what I'm getting nothing from Paul George and Joel Embiid. It can only go up from there with those two guys. So like again, like there's, there's a question to be had. Like when you've got Jabari Walker, you've got these forwards that are like flying around and grabbing rebounds and just doing work as hustle guys. Paul George is going to be a very different counter to that style. But like, I think it can only go up from there, right? Like if you get anything from those guys, it's a bonus at this point. Next, Golden State Warriors. They dropped a tough game on the road in Portland and the tail end of a back to back. Steph looked great, but the rest of the group looked flat. Portland has had a lot of guys that can get to the basket here early in the season and that Golden State defense was just getting shredded by drives and in transition. Something to keep an eye on when the warriors play some more athletic teams down the line. But I'm not going to overreact to a tail end of a back to back kind of game like that. I thought they looked super impressive in their wins versus the Lakers and Nuggets. They looked way better on both ends of the floor than I expected them to. They didn't look slow and old. They looked at and smart. They didn't look as Steph dependent on offense as I expected them to, although they were certainly happy to take 16 straight from him at the end of the Denver game. But Jimmy's been able to provide scoring. Kaminga has looked like a guy that's becoming more comfortable in Golden State system. Draymond is also shooting the ball extremely well to start the year. The Portland game showed some issues that we were aware of before the season. If you guys remember, we talked about how they were a little light on overall talent. They're especially light on scoring talent. But I don't know how you could possibly be a Warriors fan and not be more excited about the team now than you were a month ago when Kaminga wasn't signed and they looked like one of the teams in that mediocre middle tier of the Western Conference playoff hunt. Lastly, the Miami Heat, two and one to start the year, it'd be three. And oh, they didn't blow a late lead against Orlando. And I was watching their game against New York today, yesterday I should say, and I found them to be really fun to watch. Not having Tyler Harrow has caused them to not be as predictable with like their two man game as they were last year. They're not spamming a lot of the same thing, they're just relentlessly attacking. They're playing at one of the most hellacious paces in the league. All they're doing is every single time they have an opportunity, they're throwing a kick ahead pass and they're hitting gaps like they bludgeoned New York in the second half of this game with just attacks from Jaime Hawkes and Simone Fatechio and Nicola Jovic. Just like push the ball up the floor while the defense is still in semi transition and they're not set, just attack the gap and play basketball off of it. They're spacing the floor well and they're making good reads there. And then when things slowed down in that game against New York, like shout out to Jaime Hawkez, he was cooking them, he was doing work in the post and doing work and pick and roll, attacking the basket. Just a really nice piece of shot creation in that second half from Jaime Haquez. But like they're just pushing the ball with up the floor with pace, attacking gaps and playing basketball off of it. I found it really fascinating because like we learned last year from Indiana with the Pacers that if you move the ball and you play fast and you make good reads and you have guys who can finish plays off of those advantages, you're going to win a lot of games. That's what Indiana taught us. Play on the margins, live in transition when you can push, push, push, push, push. Because we're going to be more efficient there. And so like I'm not the least bit surprised that one of the smartest organizations in the league and the guy that I think is the best coach in the NBA and Eric Spoelstra has adopted a lot of that over the course of the summer. The Miami heat are averaging 39 transition points per game per synergy. So far, it's the second most in the entire NBA behind Portland. Just a crazy stat. Their third in net rating to start the year because they're third in defense and they're getting out in transition off of those stops. And they're getting enough offense because they're getting 39 points in transition per game. One other shot for them too. Even the best jump shooting team in the league here in the early part of the season, they're getting 1.17 points per shot, which is number one in the NBA through the first week of games. Really, really like of all the teams that I've watched to start the season, the Heat have been playing one of the more fun brands of basketball that I've seen. I really enjoyed watching them today. Kind of exposed a New York team that looked really sloppy in transition to it's another story for another day. We'll talk some Knicks later on this week. All right guys, that's all I have for today. As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with more game reaction and we'll see you guys then.
- [57:02]
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- [58:33]
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- [59:03]
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- [59:06]
Jason
Or the chips? Or both?
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- [59:35]
Jason
This is an iHeart podcast.