Nuggets beat Heat in NBA Finals rematch, Nikola Jokic ultimate closer + NBA Mailbag | Hoops Tonight

Nuggets beat Heat in NBA Finals rematch, Nikola Jokic ultimate closer + NBA Mailbag | Hoops Tonight

All right welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume happy Friday everybody hope all of you guys are having an incredible week got a fun show for you guys today we’re breaking down heat nuggets from last night NBA Finals rematch then we have a mailbag at the

End of the show you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to our brand new YouTube channel mean a lot to me if you guys would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under

Hoops tonight it would also be really helpful if you guys would leave a rating and a review on that front follow me on Twitter _ Jason so you guys don’t miss show announcements as well as the film threads that I do from time to time in

The morning and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the YouTube comments so we can keep hitting them throughout the next few weeks all right let’s talk some basketball so this ironically as an NBA Finals rematch kind of took on a similar feel to what the

Beginning of game one of last year’s NBA Finals did which was a heavy dose of Aaron Gordon dominating the game out of the post as a matter of fact each of the first seven points that Denver scored basically came from Aaron Gordon as a post threat he scored the first four

Himself and then there was an off ball screening action on the right side of the floor where they were trying to get a a smaller player switched on to Aaron Gordon they botched the coverage and that’s actually how Jamal Murray broke open for that three on the right wing it

Was all as part of a reaction to the threat of Aaron Gordon out of the post so 70 lead early from that very similar if you guys remember to the beginning of game one of last year’s NBA Finals I thought kavus Kwa Pope was also incredible in that early run nuggets

Completely dominated the first quarter of this game and kcp is just so good at running his Lane getting to those wing and Corner threes in transition that pump fake rip through one dribble pull up going to his right that he’s so good at as a team the Nuggets converted spot

Up possessions in this game at 1.33 points per possession which is just completely outrageous they also bullied them on the glass there was this funny possession in the first half where Michael Porter Jr and Aaron Gordon were under the rim just completely surrounded by Miami Heat players and they were just

Playing volleyball on the glass until Michael Porter Jr ended up putting it in Miami fought back because they’re just a gigantic pain in the ass they’re specifically probably the best team in the league at preventing and fighting joic from getting the ball at his usual spots

Bam is super good at fronting the post he’s just big and strong enough while at the same time like agile enough to get around the front of jic and then he squats down low and then what they’ll do is they’ll run what’s called what I call a bracket coverage basically where you

Front the post and then you offer backside help so imagine a situation where a player fronts the post you’ve now put yourself in a in a in a predicament where if the post entry comes through clean he’s at the rim already for a layup right but it’s a

Somewhat difficult pass to kind of float it over the top to where it’s high enough to get over so that bam can’t reach up and deflect it but low enough that joic can grab it and then when you Brack it meaning when you bring another Defender around the backside it actually

Shrinks that window even tighter cuz now if you throw the pass too far you can run into an issue where that pass gets deflected this was an issue in the Lakers Clippers game last night where the uh Miami Heat or excuse me the the Clippers were switching a lot of the

Ball screen actions that the Lakers were running and putting smaller players onto Anthony Davis but he would slip down and as he’s slipping the defender that’s guarding him is actually on his top side and they were offering backside help from the corners cuz the Lakers kept playing with occupied corners and so

Yeah that like a passing angle’s there but like we’re talking a really really tight passing angle and so that’s an easy way or I shouldn’t say it’s an easy way it’s a difficult way it takes an enormous amount of hard work which is why so many teams don’t do it but if you

Do it right it is a way that you can use to fight joic out of his usual spots and make it tougher for him to catch the basketball there was a play at actually resulting in a foul where they bracketed and jokic got made the catch they got

The ball to him nice up nice and up high because of course jokic is just a preposterously large Target that you can throw to compared to most post players right and Aaron Gordon was the guy that they were bracketing off of he flashed to the high pose and Duncan Robinson and

Hae hawz immediately when Aaron Gordon caught it they were on him and swiping down at the basketball this is a big thing that I talk about on the show like when you put yourself in a predicament defensively where you put two guys on the ball the best way for you to prevent

The open three is not actually another rotation it’s disrupting the basketball if you disrupt the basketball you make it so it’s really difficult for that pass to even be made which then makes that rotation that much easier and of course on that that specific possession they ended up committing a foul but this

Is I actually clipped this play for you guys to see I wanted you guys to have an example so you can kind of visually see what I’m talking about go to my Twitter feed _ jlt you’ll see a textbook example of bam Froning the post I think it’s

Nico yo yic that’s throwing the bracket coverage and then as yic makes the read to Yi’s man there in the middle of the floor uh which was Aaron Gordon Inc comes haime hakz and Duncan into to just quickly trap and they end up committing a foul but that’s an example of like not

Just the the hard work that Bam’s willing to do to front the post but also windshield wiper rotations which I talk about all the time on the show which means a rotation is useless if you don’t get there in time and so when one guy’s rotating if you rotate in order meaning

Like rotate rotate rotate there can be a gap there but if everybody rotates simultaneously you can close those gaps and you can make things that much harder and my he just did a really good job of that just kind of making joic you know just a little bit frustrated by his

Particular standards although I thought when push came to shove when he needed to get to his spots he was good he was when they got it to two there in the in the mid third quarter joic started the run by you know bullying bam to the

Basket when they got it close late he went right to his you know left shoulder over the left shoulder right-handed hook over bam at a bio and he got a bucket so again like you know efficiency is all relative when joic is just going to be

Able to get a basket at the end of the game when it matters but they actually did make joic work hard and obviously the Jamal Murray injury ended up playing a significant role as well he sprained his ankle looked like landing on air I don’t I never go back and rewatch

Injuries because it’s just a personal preference of mine it always freaks me out uh uh just because I I play basketball too and I I don’t like to see injuries because it just makes me queasy uh but it looked like on the live watch that he stepped on Aaron Gordon as he

Was going out of bounds Aaron Gordon was cutting along the Baseline and it was ball screen action he threw a pass back to Nicole yic at the top of the key who made the jumper I think it put him up like seven or eight points at that point

But then he ended up landing on on somebody and and sprained his ankles hopefully he’s okay but I mean between the the the fronting and the bracketing and the rotating and then Jamaal Murray being out to just remove that like other angle of that offensive threat it just

Allowed Miami to kind of linger around right and so Miami kept it close until the mid third quarter I think it was 65 63 at that point and then joic goes right to work on bam and ISO gets all the way to the basket and scores and

Then Michael Porter Jr get just was red hot in this particular game we’re going to talk about him in a second but uh he made a couple of big shots they end up going up uh by as much as 16 there in the early portion of the fourth quarter

And like this is where this is an example of you know I talk a lot about Denver’s starting lineup as like the perfect fitting group there’s a concept I talk a lot about on this show uh involving diminishing returns which basically involves when you take a play

Player that is capable of doing a lot and you put him into a smaller role there can be some diminishing returns I talked about this a lot with like Bradley Beal on the Suns right like who would you rather have as a third man in a lineup alongside Devin Booker and and

And KD would you rather have kcp or Bradley Beal right like Bradley Beal is a better player than kcp but as a tertiary option and a guy that has to primarily focus on on ball defense and a lot of like dirty work responsibilities that Gap closes like I’d probably still

Have rather have Bradley Beal but that Gap is closer right whereas if I threw them both on the Washington Wizards like and they had to do a lot more on on the ball like that Gap grows and Bradley Beal becomes more valuable right like that’s that’s kind of an example of the

Diminishing returns that I talk about and so what kind of makes the starting lineup for the Nuggets work so well is the fact that specifically guys like Aaron Gordon and kcp are focused into a role where everything that they’re great at is exactly what the Nuggets need out

Of of that role well the one guy who’s like a little overqualified or I should say probably a little bit more than that overqualified for his role is Michael Porter Jr he’s a guy that primarily operates off the ball offensively as a spot up threat one of the best spot up

Players in the league and then also does a ton of Dirty Work excellent rebounder excellent help Defender he did a nice job reading the backline tonight just like you know anytime Denver has to throw three on two or two on one that backline responsibility you’re usually guarding two players and you’re kind of

Splitting the Gap and he’s got the length and the instincts to make plays back there Michael Porter Jr is done an amazing job playing his role for the Nuggets but he’s the one guy in that lineup other than joic because joic can scale up as a score but he’s the one guy

In that Lo lineup that can scale up if he needs to like if Jamal Murray goes out of the lineup and you need someone to step up as a scorer Michael Porter Jr is your guy he can do that and so I thought tonight was a great example of

Him being able to scale up his offense as the team needs him to because that’s something that he can do he’s that one guy that’s actually slotted into a role with the Nuggets where he’s actually a little better uh than what they’re asking him to do and I I thought tonight

Was a good example of that also righty Jackson you know he had a bit of a rough night tonight but he’s not a terrible option to step into that role temporarily for the regular season that said hopefully Jamal Murray is not out too much longer um uh they got a tough

Stretch of games here coming up too between the Lakers Suns and Celtics and you’d like to have Jamal Murray for those games I know I personally would really like to see Jamal healthy for that Boston Celtics game so hopefully he’s not out for too much longer so

Miami makes a late run in the game Terry Rosier really started to get going in screening actions and they actually got it down to four I thought that was super encouraging on the Miami Heat front because Terry’s really struggled so far uh with the heat and like they

Desperately need him to do that they need him to do exactly what he did down the stretch of that fourth quarter just be a guy who can be a legitimate halfcourt shot creation option to kind of alleviate some of the workload that’s on Jimmy Butler went on a nice little

Run hit a couple of jumpers uh kind of Snak in the pick and roll gets it down to four and then they just immediately go to joic in the post against bam and he gets to his spot and he gets to his over his left shoulder for that righty

Hook and he makes it and and that’s just the predicament that Denver puts you in okay you competed really hard and you kept it close but you know you need another stop and you couldn’t get it thanks to what joic brings to the table as a postup player by the way Nicole

Joic is shooting 61% by himself as a shooter out of the post so when he actually takes a shot out of the post 61% think about how crazy efficient that is like you throw the ball to to joic Game On the Line you know big possession

Late kind of like what we saw you’re as an opposing fan like oh like there’s a two out of three chance this is going in like and that’s just a really helpless feeling and as crazy as it sounds they’re actually more efficient on a points per possession

Basis when jic passes out of the post than when he shoots so I’m I’m not really sure what you can do with him so and they got it you know there were a couple buckets for Miami late that um that got it somewhat closer but they never actually had the ball with a

Chance to tie the game uh so you know it was uh all for not on that end of things that I thought that hook shot from yic effectively iced the game solid win hopefully Jamal Murray’s okay and again tough schedule coming up really really bad timing on that front especially

Since like it looked like Denver was kind of trending up towards getting potentially into that one seed conversation but I mean if they could somehow rip through these games even without Jamal Murray that would be that would be about as sound a a demonstration of their ceiling as we’d

Find at this point in the regular season one of thing I wanted to say on the Miami Heat side of things eventually bam metab bio is going to have to develop better touch around the rim in this game he missed six Shots by my count that were right around the rim short jumpers

Little push shots layups like it’s a different game if he makes two or three more of those as we were talking about as it pertains to the scoreboard he’s shooting just 47% on layups this year just 38% on hook shots those of you guys who remember in the NBA finals last

Year that was a significant issue for Miami as they were trying to keep that series close just every time bam caught around the rim it just wasn’t nearly as much of a sure thing as it was for a guy like Nicole yic it’s been the one thing in his development that’s been most

Concerning because you know the jumpers especially further away from the rim are kind of like just gravy you know it’s great when they go in but that’s not what you paid Bay a bio for and obviously we all know he’s in the top tier of of defensive anchors in the

League but that specific weakness that inability to finish around the basket is something that just prevents him from getting into the tier of players that he’s capable of getting to get in on the action with draftking Sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the NBA new customers who deposit $5 or more

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To $1,000 if your first bet loses only on draftking Sportsbook with code Hoops that’s h o o PS the crown is yours let’s move on to our mailbag we got about a dozen questions or so so to hit tonight uh I say tonight because I’m recording this late on Thursday night uh

But this will obviously be up on the feeds on Friday so first question I was wondering what you think about how much playing around players like Steph Curry influences your career after the fact thinking about Dante dvan chenzo here he’s been having an awesome season from

Three which I would attribute to his own hard work but I wonder if being on the Warriors had any influence over what he had decided to work on over the summer much love from New Zealand Jason keep up the great work thank you so much for the

Kind words and for supporting the show um so this is something that I’ve always had it’s it’s a little bit complicated cuz I I I dislike the idea of like giving too much credit to a star for a young player’s development because I want to give the young player credit for

You know accomplishing what he’s accomplished in the league I think I think we can get a little over the top with that when like fans are like oh you know LeBron made this guy or Steph made this guy or Kobe made Pal Gasol or whatever it is you know all the takes

That you see and I’m I I want to be clear like we’re going to get into it I do think that that sort of thing does matter to a certain extent but I do think it gets a little tricky when we take all of the credit away uh from what

A young basketball player is able to accomplish here’s the thing like everything in basketball in my opinion is contagious it’s a big part of like and that goes both ways right positivity can be contagious negativity can be contagious like when you’re in a locker room where you know some areas of the

Locker room are are starting to kind of you know uh uh revolt against the coach or revolt against you know a specific thing that’s taking place like that that misery loves company guys will kind of congeal together and they’ll start to kind of cause problems right and that

Goes both ways but I do think that leading by example having a guy that leads by example in your locker room can go a long way to shaping a young basketball player I Dante dvan chenzo obviously like just watching him tonight against the Warriors the movement

Shooting the the the the just the whole style that he plays with now you can tell that he picked up a lot from Stephen Clay very likely worked out with him but I’d extend it even to some of the other guys guys like Jonathan kaminga and Moses Moody like I mean

Brian psky too I I had a a a comment in the earlier show today the live show about the Warriors Knicks about how I couldn’t remember the ages someone confirmed it for me in the comments all three of those guys are 21 years old think about that like I we have a

Question later on in the mailbag talking about asking about me when I played in college I remember the player I was when I was 21 and I just can’t even fathom doing some of the things and I’m not even talking about talent I just mean intellectually as a basketball player I

Can’t even fathom doing some of the things that these kids are doing at age 21 and I and I do think that that plays a like a big part of that is like growing up in the NBA alongside the likes of Steph and and clay and Draymond

And and even Andre guadala and how he helped early on with Moses Moody and Jonathan kaminga like like we are talking about we are talking about the ideal environment for you to learn how to play NBA basketball and I do think it’s manifested on a in a big positive

Way for guys like Jonathan kaminga for guys like Moses Moody and for obviously Dante Devan chenzo as well I I again I think it goes too far when we give the star all the credit but there’s no doubt that like if you were if you were trying

To plot a course for your basketball career you can’t do better as a role model as a as a as a leader than Steph Curry to learn how to play the game from to learn how to be an NBA player from to learn how to be a professional from hey

Jason there’s been a lot of earned discussion about pal banero and jayd dub J Jaylen Williams this season but two pretty impressive sophomores who have gotten sort of Lost in the shuffle this year are Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray what have you thought about of those two

Seasons so far and how good do you think they can be in about 5 years or so love the show keep up the great work uh thanks again for supporting the show and for the kind words uh Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray are are kind of different players in my opinion I’ve been

Impressed with Keegan Murray mainly just because the uh he kind of manifests in a lot of specific ways that help in the modern basketball world like for instance like let’s take the Kings uh the kings are are are a team that that rebounds the ball really well and a big

Part of that is not just Keegan Murray but also Kevin herder in the way that they crash from the perimeter like there’s a lot more long rebounds in the modern NBA Keegan Murray is a guy that you know he was a guy played in college

For a long time right and he just does a lot of these like little things that help a basketball team win obviously he can come off of screens and he can shoot obviously he’s a high level spot it player I think he’s at like 1.11 points per spot at possession this

Year which is obviously really really really good um both guys right now Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray struggle a little bit with self-creation uh Jabar Smith is a level above Keegan Murray specifically in the post but both of them can struggle a little bit I do think that Jabari Smith has a

Significantly higher ceiling than Keegan Murray for two reasons one he’s a much much better defensive project Keegan Murray is a good straight line athlete but he struggles with lateral quickness and he’s not a guy that that has the level of defensive potential that a guy like Jabari Smith does Jabari Smith has

The potential to be like a legitimate you know top tier PR defender in this league that’s the the potential that he has it’s just a question of whether or not he can get there um one other thing with Jabari Smith I think he just has a

Little bit more of like what I would call like natural scoring chops like it’s almost like a combination of audacity and creativity mixed with your skill set and obviously Jabari Jabari has the work ethic I mean just go look back at last year with the rockets and

How poor he was putting the ball on the floor and how much he struggled you know with just kind of like basic shot creation stuff and like this year you’re just seeing more of his ability to make quick plays out of the post against mismatches and get to Quick spots for

Short mid-range jump shots that he can knock down like he’s just taking significant leaps on that end of the floor right so like I uh they’re two really really good young wings I to me they’re very different like I’ll to give you guys just an example and these are

Not perfect comps but like in the same way that like you have male Bridges and cam Johnson as like two versions of you know 67 68 wings that to me is what Jabari Smith and Keegan Murray are kind kind of represent Jabari Smith is more on a male Bridges AR like trajectory

Where I really do think he could add some legitimate off the- dribble game a guy that could potentially average 20 points a game in the league one day uh efficiently and and also be an excellent perimeter Defender whereas like you know cam Johnson is more of like an

Offensive-minded Wing you know there’s a like like it just kind of fits more into that mold for me for like a Keegan Murray type again not perfect comps but those are just some some examples but I love both of those guys I was super super impressed by Jabari Smith at

Summer League this year when I went to go see him in Vegas just I can’t believe how much he’s improved in such such a short period of time and honestly specifically with Jabari like he’s made improvements in ball handling and like that stuff just is super incremental like it takes

Thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of reps to become a good ball handler when you didn’t used to be and so all that says to to me is that he’s a gym rat and that he’s competitive enough to want to develop that part of

His game and to get better and so that just tells me within 5 years or so that he does have the potential to reach the level of like a guy like male Bridges which by the way Jabari has better measurables and so he could even be a

Better version of that next question how good of a Hooper are you and what’s your player comp you said you played in college and that’s very impressive honestly plus how many threes have you made in a row so uh I won’t go into too much detail here because it’s more of a

Conversation for the offseason if if I wanted to spend some time kind of breaking it down for you guys but the gist of it is I was a late bloomer didn’t grow up playing basketball I was the worst player on my high school team uh literally on senior night there were

Six seniors on the roster and all five of the other seniors started the game and I didn’t play a single minute and by the way the coach was correct to do so I was not uh I would have severely hampered their ability to compete in that game um I really really really dove

Into basketball in my late teens and my third year in college I finally walked into an open gym at a jco and played well enough to get a scholarship that was kind of how my career started I uh ended up playing three seasons because of the way that the NCAA clocks uh Clock

Works I had a an allconference selection my second season in junior college and then I played like a a three and D role basically for a Nia team as my third year I was a pretty mediocre uh College basketball player I had my moments but I also had my flaws specifically at the

Niia level they really exposed some of my offensive limitations I stayed on the floor in niia because I could guard I’m a good athlete and I’m like 66 with like a 610 wingspan so I could guard I just would guard the other team’s best player that was basically my role on that

Particular team I didn’t really develop into a a like what I consider to be a better version of or the best version of myself as a basketball player to my late 20s uh just because like I fell in love with the game but I didn’t grow up

Playing it so like you know the feeling that I would imagine most Young basketball players feel when they’re 12 13 years old when they’re starting to kind of figure it out and love the game like I was hitting that in my mid 20s because like I didn’t play when I was

Young and so I had some success in college and that was like my first experience with the game and so I just Dove headlong into it after that and and made significant improvements like I in NAIA I was really exposed is a guy who couldn’t dribble who is an inconsistent

Streaky shooter and a guy that couldn’t read the floor and so that those were the three things that I massively improved on as I got later on in life and now when I play I’m I’m I’m like a a playmaking wing like I’m a guy that you know that initiates offense and can

Score and pass and do all those things it definitely did not used to be the case uh my how many threes have I made in a row in a college game my record for threes made in a row is six and I did it in a game uh when I was in junior

College and it was during the game that I had my career high in points which was 31 um uh but yeah that was I also I I said I was streaky and inconsistent I had a stretch when I was playing Nia where I missed 22 threes in a row over

The course of a week like actually it my coach once again made the right decision had to sit down with me and be like hey like we need you to kind of tone back your shot selection a little bit which by the way it was right to do because I

Came in as a junior college scorer who got exposed in niia as a guy who like couldn’t score at that specific level niia like older guys much better coaching you know ju Joo the athleticism was insane I played in an insane conference when I was in Joo the talent

Level was unbelievable but everything was so much more loose and spread out it was just easier to play and then when I went to niia and like help defense is always loaded up and every team just like shell drills you know 16 times a week and just there every you’re just if

You happen to beat your guy off the dribble there’s just another guy right away rotations are super sharp like it was just niia was a really really tough level of basketball and honestly it was good for me because it exposed all of the things that I sucked at and helped

Me understand what I needed to get better at in order to be a better basketball player next question what do you think goes into a down shooting season curious about the process it takes to maintain your shooting percentage during a season and career for example LeBron being 36 37% from

Three the last few years then having a 30% season and follow it up with a 41% season uh thanks love the show congrats on the success again thank you for the kind words and for the support um I I think it’s a combination of a couple different factors because I personally

Experienced this the year that I made the allconference team the I shot uh like 48 49% from three in conference play like I was just I was just like super confident and like I always felt like I I had it going every single game I just was so laser focused and locked

In and then it was literally in non-conference play the next season that I missed 22 in a row so that kind of gives you some perspective on like how Wild those swings can be now for me the big thing was a role change on the Joo

Team I was the second leading scorer on the team the offense was built around me and this other guard named Miles Gatewood a really good player really good guard him and I basically everything in the offense was set up for us when I went to ACU my the niia that I

Played at I played alongside two All American guards and both of them were just unbelievable tobuk the the point guard on that team is the best basketball player that I’ve ever personally played with and like all of a sudden my role was different early in the season I I

Had a a like a big scoring burst in my very first game we played a a game against na na so a division one school in NC a division one school we actually beat them and I had a big scoring burst in that game and so in the early P

Portion of the season I was really aggressive as a scorer but my efficiency like just immediately tanked and pretty quickly like I mentioned in the last question my coach was sitting down with me about like not looking basically told me like don’t don’t shoot unless you’re

Taking a wide open three or running your lane in transition you know what a good coach would do for a flawed player like me to to that coach’s credit he funneled me into what I was good at which which was like defense and rebounding and and

You know playing a small role on offense at that specific level well as I shifted into that small role like shooting became a real challenge for me because instead of hunting my shot and getting six seven three-point attempts per game I was getting maybe one or two

Three-point attempts per game and so and they would come like I wouldn’t touch the ball for a while and then all of a sudden I’d have a catch and shoot three opportunity and that was a real struggle for me and so I think it’s a combination

Of a bunch of different factors a guy like LeBron the role has been the same all the time and so his swings a lot of it is really just like happen stance like shooting is a is a is a like for lack of a better term it’s a mind

Like you you it’s kind of like it’s kind of like baseball in the sense that like even if you’re really really good at it you’re going to miss more than you make and so you can do everything right and the result can still be a miss and so it

Can spiral on you right like I honestly felt that way watching LeBron where like you could just tell last year like it was like they just weren’t going in and you could just tell it gets mentally discouraging and it’s like it doesn’t matter if you took and made 400 threes

In practice the previous day if you go into the game and you get you know two or three looks and you happen to miss two of them and then on the third one you’re not confident right like it can really pile up on you now how to handle

It like I remember in that that the Nia season that I’m talking about I mean I was obsessive about it I was in the gym every single day shooting on the shooting machine uh my buddy Harel who was my roommate That season him and I

Were going up to the gym at night and doing the shoot like these shooting drills like we just we’ being there at 11:30 p.m. with a with a speaker blasting just shooting and shooting and shooting and shooting and like I was obsessive about it and what’s crazy is

Even with that I barely got up to I think I shot in the low3s from three in conference Play That season because again the role was so funky I was just I was barely getting uh touches which was the right decision with the level of player I was at that point but again

Like a couple different things it’s a combination of roll shifts like I really do think like for instance a Malik Beasley uh like he’s just getting different and better shots for Milwaukee this year than he did for the Lakers last year the Lakers were constantly running him off of off ball actions and

Asking him to shoot those are tougher shots Milwaukee was just like you’re a spot up guy but just if you’re open or if you even have an inch of space you let that thing fly and so you can see a roll shift from Malik Beasley got him

Back on track right so it’s a combination of the role and then honest to God it really is just a really mentally challenging thing you know like Steph Curry just went through a shooting slump there for like a week or so right like you don’t think that dude wasn’t

Doing all his drills and doing everything behind the scenes right and yet still the results were off like there is a certain amount of just you know I I don’t even think it’s variance I think it’s it’s mostly just the the the mental aspect of it and the way that

It can p misses can pile up on you but the same thing happens in reverse the makes pile up on you you make a couple in a row you feel really good about yourself you feel really confident all of a sudden like you can kind of ride

That wave for a little bit right and so but I but I don’t I don’t want to underestimate or undersell the work element of it so like lastly on that LeBron front shoots 30% or whatever last year and then shoots 41% this year you bet your ass LeBron was in the gym all

Damn summer like I got to get my jumper fixed right and so he was able to ride that out for a long stretch of time in the summer and then he went into training camp and saw the results now he’s confident and now just just just watch LeBron shoot this year doesn’t it

Just look different than last year he’s Rising into shots confidently in a way that he didn’t used to even tonight I was watching him uh it was so funny they the Lakers ended up in a dog fight with the Washington Wizards because they’re just because they’re just the Lakers and

And uh uh Lebron ended up basically saving the game with a chase down block at Jordan pool and then he hit a step back three over I want to say over Kyle kozma on the right wing and like it was a it was a tough shot it might have been

Over Marvin Bagley but like like he stepped into it confidently and he just wasn’t doing that last year and so again to to kind of tie it all together it’s a combination of just like the the really challenging mental aspects of shooting and then your role and then the way you

Fight it is all you can do is work I’m a big believer in like I want to be thinking when I’m shooting about how I worked hard like I want to derive confidence when I’m shooting from the fact that I’ve made this shot a hundred times already today you know it’s a big

Part of why like to this day and and I tell to the young basketball players in town that I work with including the high school kids I coach like if I go play pickup like I will show up to the gym 30 to 45 minutes before the pickup start

Starts and I will do my full shooting workout why so that when I step onto the floor to actually play I just feel confident in those shots and like again I haven’t uh like I’m I’m an older guy now I’m 32 years old I’m just playing

For fun but it’s just I I’m incapable of approaching basketball any other way it’s just it’s just the way that I’m wired next question hey Jason love the show I was wondering do you think we will see all kinds of Shenanigans in the fifth and sixth spot and even teams

Intentionally losing and going into the playin from the seventh or eighth spot just to avoid the Nuggets I believe that a seventh or eighth spot if not crossed with the Nuggets can go all the way to the conference final but does it is it worth the risk of a single elimination

Game so first from the playin spots no doubt at all you got to try to get out of the playin spots there’s just too much variance there like like for instance Lakers Warriors like you’ve got to try to get out of that spot because go like let’s say for instance

You’re the Lakers and you end up at the 10 seed you got to go to Golden State to win and then go to like a phoenix or a New Orleans or a Dallas or Sacramento like that’s just a lot to ask to even get into a first round series even if

You like the match up when you get there also you got to go through the good teams no matter what and in the Western Conference they’re all good teams I even think those playing teams are good teams I think the Lakers and Warriors are good teams they’re not great teams they’re

Not as good as the teams that are above them but they’re good basketball teams so like it’s not like the Eastern Conference where you know I I think we could see some teams in the seven and eight spot that are are a little bit more flawed as for the stuff around

Theth and six spot and and stuff like that it’s really hard to say because like I thought the Nuggets were about to Skyrock in take the one seed but then Jamal Murray turns his ankle and who knows what’s going to happen but at the

End of the day I am a big believer and like don’t mess with the basketball Gods like you’re better off playing basketball the best you possibly can to build out the identity and the habits and everything you need to win playoff series regardless of who your opponent

Is then you are like trying to mess with that a little bit to try to Jerry rig the matchups next question the the revisionist history concerning the state of the Lakers team and pointing and painting LeBron as some victim is ridiculous LeBron is just as much responsible for the state of the Lakers

As the front office if not more so throughout his career LeBron plays a huge role in players acquired or traded every star player does but it’s clearly on another level with LeBron when it works he’s a genius legm but when it doesn’t the front office is sabotaging

Him he wanted Westbrook that’s a fact okay so a couple things first of all um LeBron’s two major impacts on the uh the Lakers from a l GM standpoint were the Russell Westbrook trade yes that’s that’s a fact and the Anthony Davis trade so the idea that he’s just

As much responsible for the state of the Lakers as the front office is something I vehemently disagree with because LeBron also facilitated the anth Anthony Davis trade which led to an NBA championship so whatever you say about the Russell Westbrook trade that’s kind of canceled out uh the rest of the stuff

That the front office did between letting Brook Lope LZ walk for nothing how good would Brook Lopez be alongside Anthony Davis just watch him next to to Giannis right to letting Julius Randall walk for absolutely nothing to the way they constructed that first roster with all this playmaking around LeBron with

No shooting to like the immediate after they win the NBA championship immediate lack of understanding or appreciation of what the role players did and and and immediately starting to get off of all of them the as far as the Russell Westbrook trade St uh goes here’s where

Here’s where I would give push back I agree LeBron James I shouldn’t even say agree it’s a fact that LeBron James pushed strongly for the Russell Westbrook trade I personally was completely stunned that he did so here’s the thing the general manager of the Los Angeles Lakers is responsible for making

Personnel decisions and if you are the general manager just put yourself in the GM shoes and LeBron comes up to you and goes I want Russell Westbrook you look him back in the face and you go that’s a terrible idea because of XYZ because you are the basketball expert your job is

Personnel and the problem is LeBron wanted Russ but he had support from the front office and they put the deal through when there was a there were like it was never the direction that they should have gone the Russell Westbrook trade was clearly a bad idea in the moment when it happened

And we all knew it I said it right after the trade I was like casy P and Kyle kosma are both more valuable to the Lakers team than what Russell Westbrook could bring to this team and you had to give up both of them and a first round

Draft pick to get him it was a complete disaster and I absolutely think no that LeBron pushed for it and that obviously it was a bad idea but at the end of the day that is yet another element to what makes that front office so frustrating is that they couldn’t they couldn’t even

Like your job as the front office is to filter suggestions from everybody that works in your front office and from your star players and from your coach you filter through all of that and from your owner right you filter through all of that the fact that Russell Westbrook

Didn’t get caught in the Lakers filter that that’s the discouraging part and so here’s the thing criticize LeBron for pushing the Russell Westbrook trade all you want that that does not alleviate the complete and total other you know dozen other show things that that front office did that helped

Them lead to where they’re at even like after the Denver Nugget series a clear need for a two-way Athlete on the perimeter and you let Lonnie Walker and Dennis Schroeder go and do nothing to replace those guys which by the way I was okay with over the summer because I

Was like fine do it at the deadline and then they didn’t do it at the deadline so like it it’s been it’s been a consistent issue with this front office a fundamental misunderstanding of what LeBron James and Anthony Davis need around them to win basketball games and it has been

Frustrating because that’s the thing like like that’s the general manager’s job literally by definition is to understand player Personnel understand their Stars understand what they need to succeed filter suggestions a a and build the roster accordingly and and they just haven’t done a good job of that I mean

Even and then I I include the ownership group because it’s like the ownership group is the one that disrespected tyo when they had a a deal in place because they didn’t want to pay him like a championship coach because they were being cheap let Alex cruso walk for absolutely nothing because they didn’t

Want to be him pay him because they were being cheap like from the top down with the Lakers it has been incompetence and it’s only through LeBron’s play on the court that he’s been able and with Anthony Davis as well that they’ve been able to overcome it the way that they

Have over the years to literally a championship in a Western Conference Finals birth which by the way I would argue is an underachievement given the like if you told me you were going to get five years of LeBron James and Anthony Davis together like you’re thinking two titles

Right like that’s what you’re thinking and and they should have and like there’s a case to be made that if you had you know a top tier NBA GM in control of that position that they probably do have multiple championships next question seeing the guitars in your

Background for a while now and for a while now and just wondered how much experience you have playing also wondered what are a couple of your favorite bands and albums old and recent love your content as always thanks again for supporting the show um I play guitar very recreationally like maybe 3 four

Hours a week I’m not particularly good at it I’ve been doing it for like 10 15 years so like I can play a little bit but like not in any sort of meaningful way one day my body will fail me and I won’t be able to play basketball as much

As I do and on that day that’s when I will devote all of that energy towards guitar and I will try to get significantly better at it just as just because that again like I talked about earlier it’s just kind of how I’m wired

So that will be when I try to get better at it but right now it’s strictly just a hobby I grew up on the Almond Brothers band that was what my dad kind of exposed me to and then in my later life I’ve I’ve gotten more into uh The

Grateful Dead and dead in company and and a lot of that kind of stuff Blues in particular has always been my favorite kind of like brand of or genre of music I should say ston was a big one for me Jimmy Hendricks was a big one for me

Eric Clapton was a big one for me uh Derek truck is one of my all-time favorites too those are a lot of the guys that have uh kind of shaped my kind of uh taste in music don’t you think it’s odd how everyone was saying before the season

That Milwaukee would have a bumpy regular season and now everyone is panicking because of some ups and downs don’t you think that as a veteran team they should be judged in the playoffs so agreed I I was was one of the people before the season that said I thought

The the the Bucks would have a a bumpy regular season and that Boston would kind of beat them by a lot in the standings I will say that we have learned from the X’s and O’s that I mean up until recently up until this recent stretch that the point of attack defense

Stuff was a concern but uh I think between Doc Rivers just getting them to engage better the Improvement that Malik Beasley has made over the course of the Season as a point of attack Defender Jay Crowder kind of weirdly having some life in his legs it’s it’s kind of erased

Some of those concerns and now I’m more or less back to where I was before the season with Milwaukee but I do agree that they’re a veteran team that should be judged in the playoffs I’m more concerned about whether or not Dame can get back to his peak level

Offensively next question or this is more of a comment Jason tripping saying that joic over Curry and LeBron all time already I never said that I don’t even know where you’re getting that from I never said joic is over Curry and LeBron all time he has a long way and more than

One more Championship he needs to win and and probably another MVP or two along the way like joic has ground to cover there the conversation surrounding joic and Curry and LeBron is just simply about their peaks which is completely different it’s like LeBron MJ like

LeBron might be the goat one day but his case is going to be the resume and Longevity like LeBron’s not touching the dominance that MJ had in the90s he literally won six titles in eight years he was unquestionably considered the best player in the league for a long time LeBron was unquestionably

Considered the best player league for like 3 4 years right there in the early 2010s and then he was still the best player in my in my opinion in the late 2010s but it was much closer between him and KD and Steph right MJ was just lapping the entire field for basically

The entire 90s and so again that that’s the difference between those two conversations right and like even when it comes to ranking goats or whoever your goat is everyone’s criteria is different so like that gets complicated but for me personally my like alltime rankings yic is still he’s still got a

Lot of ways to to go to get to where LeBron and Steph are I’m just saying that his ceiling his absolute Peak that he’s achieved right now is more on the echelon with the MJS and the Kobes and the LeBron and stuff than uh where Stephen KD are to put it simply because

I had a bunch of Warriors fans go like oh well it’s unfair why are you comparing Steph and KD when they were underneath LeBron here’s the simple counter there Steph couldn’t even separate himself from KD KD couldn’t even separate separate himself from Steph that’s kind of the point like I

Personally think Steph was better than KD for the majority of his prime but that is very much Up For Debate and if you ask 100 people it’s probably going to come out near 50/50 that like that’s the difference th those two guys were competing against each other they’re

Kind of in a different tier than where LeBron was and where joic is now where MJ was in the 90s where Kobe’s Kobe was in the late 2000s um last question how can you say jokic’s Peak is higher when he’s really just getting into it during Stephen K’s Peak they were either winning

Championships or having deep playoff runs joic literally just won his first championship last season and before that it’s very limited playoff success at least give him some time before you make claims like this uh let’s just kind of recap here in the regular season he’s

About to win his third MVP in four tries and he was the front runner most of last year before he basically punted it at the end of the season also 2020 he upset the championship favorite in the Los Angeles Clippers and went to the Western Conference Finals

2021 down his two uh two very very important uh uh uh uh other starters in the starting lineup they literally beat the Portland Trailblazers in the first round like they won a playoff series down Jamal Murray and down Michael Porter Jr and then in 2022 they lost to the eventual NBA

Champions and then in 2023 they won the NBA title as soon as Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr reentered the equation so Western Conference Finals birth where he beat the Clippers and lost to the eventual champion and then injured team loses to the suns in the second round injured team loses to the

Eventual NBA champion and then wins the NBA Championship so over a fouryear span we’re going to have we’re going to have he’s about to win his third MVP and four tries and in his last four playoff runs either lost to the the eventual Champion twice once a long time ago the other one

When he was ific hampered and then he won a title so like again the the results in the regular season and the postseason with with joic are significantly above I think where the public perception is all right guys that is all I have for today I am going to

Most likely cover nuggets Lakers on Saturday night but I don’t know if that’ll be on the feed until Saturday night or Sunday morning and then we’re going live on Sunday after the final buzzer of Celtics Warriors I will see you guys then he

Jason Timpf reacts to Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets’ 103-97 win over Jimmy Butler and the Miami Heat in a rematch of last year’s NBA Finals. Jason breaks down the biggest highlights from the game and shares why Nikola Jokic is the NBA’s ultimate closer. How much will Jamal Murray’s ankle injury impact Denver down the home stretch of the NBA season? Later, Jason answers listener questions during an NBA Mailbag segment. Is LeBron James responsible for the current state of the Lakers?

Timeline:
00:00 – Introduction
00:43 – Nuggets take down Heat
07:45 – Why Nuggets starting 5 works
09:08 – Michael Porter Jr. steps up
10:41 – Nuggets hold off Miami run
12:55 – Bam Adebayo weakness
14:53 – NBA Mailbag
15:05 – How stars impact teammate development
18:40 – Jabari Smith & Keegan Murray ceilings
22:43 – How good was Jason Timpf?
26:45 – What goes into a down shooting season?
34:12 – Playoff seeding drama
35:53 – Is LeBron responsible for state of Lakers?
41:25 – Jason’s guitar skills / favorite bands
42:40 – Don’t panic on Bucks
43:36 – Jason does not have Jokic over LeBron all-time
45:50 – Yes, Jokic peak is higher than Steph & KD

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