Cade Cunningham OUT w/ lung + Luka, LeBron & Lakers ON FIRE vs. Rockets, Jared McCain huge for OKC

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The volume.

All right, welcome to hipster night here at the volume heavy Thursday, everybody.

Hope all of you guys are having a great end to your week.

I got a J-Pack show for you guys today.

Kate Cunningham has a collapsed lung.

I want to talk a little bit about that.

What it means for the pistons and the standings, what we can expect over the course of the next month.

Some of my concerns as it pertains to them in their pending postseason run here.

Kind of a weird thing happening towards the tail end of the Eastern conference standings.

That's going to make the first round series potentially for the one and two seats pretty complicated.

So I want to dive into that a little bit.

Then after that, we're going to talk about that epic showdown between the Lakers and the rockets last night.

They got Alper and Shane Goon back through a much better punch.

But Luca Donchitch is ascending before our eyes to a new founder and a new founder.

I'm going to talk a little bit about that.

I'm going to talk about that epic showdown between the Lakers and the rockets last night.

They got Alper and Shane Goon back through a much better punch.

So before our eyes to a newfound ceiling and I want to dive into what that means for the rest of the league.

And then at the tail end of the show briefly, I want to talk about Jared McCain who goes off for 26 against the Brooklyn that's last last night.

I want to talk about his versatility, all the different ways beyond his shooting that he's impacting winning.

What it means for the Thunder moving forward.

You guys know the drill before we get started.

Subscribe to the Hoops and I YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

Make sure you like this video and sign up for post notifications.

That helps us a lot.

Last but not least, if you guys want to get mailbag questions, probably going to do a couple of mailbag questions at the tail end of tomorrow's show.

So drop those in the YouTube comments underneath our full episodes and we'll get to them in our Friday shows throughout the rest of the season.

All right, let's talk some basketball.

K County M. Clapps long.

I haven't seen any reporting as to whether or not it's associated at all with that weird kind of injury suffered against Washington where you kind of got up underneath Tray Johnson.

And then I looked like he took like maybe a knee to his ribcage or something like that.

I have no idea whether or not those two incidents are connected at all, but bottom line is he's got this collapse long injury.

There are some examples in recent NBA history of guys suffering this sort of things.

CJ McCollum said a couple of them Terrence Jones had one.

There's roughly, it seems like just under a month timeline like a three to four week kind of thing.

So what that means is it seems like cable most likely be back for the postseason.

Now I think they'll be fine in the standings.

They're remaining schedule at Washington home for Golden State, the Lakers, the Hawks, the Pelicans who have been playing really well.

Now that they're healthy and Zion Williamson has been kind of showing some of that upside again at Minnesota at Oklahoma City home for Toronto and Minnesota at Philly and Orlando home for Milwaukee at Charlotte at Indiana.

I'm going to say the same thing I said when we were talking about the Lakers and the nuggets and the Monday show where if you really look at the the standings.

Because of that substantial lead, they really only have to go a few games over 500 in order to stay far in Boston and get out of there.

Now they're at risk of dropping to two. I don't want to pretend like that can't happen.

But I still think the pistons have a decent shot, especially with their defense to transition attack to keep that one seat.

Now I do have two concerns.

One, Kate has started to finally find his three point shot over the last month or so three point shooting, especially for heavy ball handling players is very much a rhythm kind of thing.

And it can be one of those things where you build a lot of momentum to get it.

And then you get out of the game for a little while and it's hard to get it back.

I mean, we're watching it with Nicole Yoke.

She has been really struggling to shoot the three since coming back from his knee injury.

So I'm a little worried about that rhythm piece because, you know, the difference between the pistons going for, you know, a legitimate finals run slash competitive conference finals run versus a disappointing loss in the second round.

Could very well be is Kate shooting 40% from three, you know, that could that could be a huge ceiling razor for the team, especially since he has such a heavy ball handling responsibility.

So I'm a little concerned about how this could potentially disrupt his three point shot.

There's a potential upside there too in the sense that he's just going to have such an insane work insane workload that getting his legs a little bit of a break could potentially be helpful.

But I am at least a little bit concerned as it pertains to his rhythm to there's something interesting happening at the tail end of the eastern conference Charlotte for basically the entire second half of the season has been playing like one of those upper tier eastern.

Conference teams in terms of just how good they are offensively in the collective kind of level they've been able to reach on the defensive end of the floor and Atlanta is one 11 games in a row now against a weaker stretch of schedule.

But they had a really impressive win against Orlando a couple of games ago.

They're defending at an extremely high level.

They're getting up the floor running a ton of action in a short period of time that's chewing up and spitting out defenses and land is playing really well.

I think there's a pretty solid chance obviously I don't want to write off teams like Miami, but I think there's a pretty solid chance that Charlotte and Atlanta end up getting your seven and your eight seats, which is like.

I mean, I can't believe we're saying this for an eastern conference.

It's been so weak for so long, but those are some pretty tough first round series potentially for a one seed or a two seed, especially when you imagine.

Kade potentially getting plugged in right before a series like that and the pistons having to kind of recapture a new identity in such a short span so like.

It's one of those things where like you think the pistons will not necessarily have to have their a plus game, but they're going to have to be pretty close to their a game in order to win their first round series.

And so there's a little bit of concern there, but overall I do think that the strength of Detroit physically and with their defense and their ability to get out and transition.

Should be able to give them enough margin for error to survive a first round series and get Kade back to form we talked about this with Charlotte in particular, but one of my fears with Charlotte, especially in this early phase of their development.

Is that if you really get up into the basketball and on some of their thinner slider perimeter players and you apply a ton of ball pressure, they can struggle with that a little bit and Detroit's really well set up with their depth of perimeter defense talent to cause some problems for a team like Charlotte.

Big thing we'll be watching over the course of the next month is just Detroit getting a very large sample of figuring out how to generate offense without Kade cutting him now Jackson and I were lamenting before the show like it would have been nice to have a guy like jade and ivy for a long stretch like this because if you really dig into it, there's not a whole lot beyond a guy like.

Dennis Jenkins to initiate offense in a stretch like this i'm sure we'll see some Jalen during on ball stuff as a face up high post player i'm sure we'll see a lot of defense to transition attack generating offense i'm sure we'll see Tobias Harris getting to that little right shoulder fade out of the post quite a bit but ultimately this team is going to be trying to figure out how to score with a dearth of ball handling relative to a lot of the teams that they'll be playing so that'll be what we'll have our eye on over the course of the next.

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All right, let's get into this Lakers rockets game probably the first like truly super important game of this NBA season in terms of what it means for the standings and how the matchups will go in the Western conference has the Lakers lost last night all the tie breakers get really complicated it could be jumbled who the hell knows who ends up at three four five and six in the Western conference, but if the Lakers win they have by far

they would have the tie breaker over Houston the tie breaker over Denver and the tie breaker over Minnesota effectively a three game lead over the entirety of that tier of the Western conference with only 13 games to go so we talked about it yesterday so the Lakers went even just eight and five over their final 13 games teams like Denver for example would have to go 12 and one in order to surpass them in the standings so like it's one of those things where this game in particular was just incredibly important

in the standings in the Western conference and so predictably it had very much a playoff feel predictably the rockets came with a much better punch than they did in the Monday night game they had Alperin Shanggun back which added a new element to the rocket's offense they up to the intensity of their perimeter defense after turning over the Lakers on Monday just 12 times for 14 points and transition they turn the Lakers over 14 times for 26 points last night so a massive uptick in their perimeter defense remember

this team for all the criticism we can offer to Houston they have a death of perimeter defense talent that can cause some real problems for teams and they finally made an adjustment so the way they were attacking on offense we talked after the Monday night game about how it's just so dumb to have Katie repeatedly walk across half court into double teams turn the basketball over and then repeatedly botched these four on three sequences I wanted to see if we talked about this on Monday and on Tuesday I wanted to see them play through someone else

so that Katie could get more catches and scoring position get more catches in the flow of the offense while the return of Shanggun gave them an easy fulcrum to facilitate that in the second half especially they started spamming a simple horn set

they would have Jabari Smith and then eventually recheckered when he checked into the game essentially be the top guy in the horn set he'd make a high post entry to Alperin Shanggun at the right elbow

they'd have Kevin Durant at the left elbow Kevin Durant would back screen for Jabari or read as they come off of that action and then they would just play read and react out of that we had a male bad question if you guys remember on Monday that was talking about the difference in play scripting between the NFL and the NBA

so in the NFL you might have a 15 play scripts to start a game where each play kind of builds on itself maybe you establish the run which sets up a play action maybe you establish a short passing game which establishes the run

whatever it might be you have a set of plays that are all different plays but they sequence off of each other in a way that tries to set the defense up in the NBA one of the things we talked about is like yeah you'll have scripted plays that come out of stoppages so like to start quarters or at a time out things along those lines maybe sometimes off of a free throw where you have plenty of time to get a play in and get guys into the right spots to run action

but one of the things you'll see in the NBA is the spamming of actions you're not going to see that a lot in the NFL maybe at the end of a game if an offensive line is just malling a defense they might just run a variety of basic you know isolation run plays up the middle right but like for the most part in in the NFL you're going to see different place in the NBA you might see a team run the same damn play over and over and over and over again until the defense shows the ability

to stop that particular play why because in any particular play there's lots of different reads that can take place even though it's the exact same play right post entry high post entry to Alper and shangoon back screen to KD if it gets defended well enough KD comes off of a dribble handoff from shangoon at the right elbow like it's the exact same sequence but any variation of that can lead to a different read based on what the defense is doing right and Houston got lots of really good stuff out of the set.

They got a few slips to the rim off of bot switches where like you know KD would go to set the screen and then maybe KD would just slip out instead of coming off of the screen and jibari Smith did the same thing they got a couple of easy slips against LeBron KD dunked all over LeBron on one of them LeBron made a really nice kind of like dream on green ask low man rotation on another where he blocked jibari Smith they got some clean three point looks off of those back screens off of the left wing shangoon you know when you run off ball action.

Those defenders get occupied when those defenders are occupied a clear space shangoon was able to go right at the Andreate and one on one situations with plenty of space out of that then if nothing was open they would go into their KD shangoon dribble handoff they were able to get shangoon some switches to attack out of the high post they were able to get shangoon a couple of short rolls there Kevin Durant got de Andreate on a switch was able to barbecue him for a little quick one dribble pull up they got a ton of stuff out of this action especially.

In the third quarter I mean quite literally guys the rockets ran this exact same play i'm like 90% of their half court possessions in the second half like little variations like sometimes KD or reach effort would just not actually engage in their screening action and they just sprint to shangoon or they would do something different like we said sometimes KD instead of back screening and coming to the ball he would just slip out of it towards the basket like there were little variations here there but it was basically the exact same play over and over again they were just playing.

Read and react out of it and it worked they locked an offensive rating of one twenty seven.

In that third quarter in the half court that's an incredible number for a Houston offense that has been brutally bad in the half court as of late they end up taking control the game completely flip the script on a lakers team that I controlled the game to that point and they went into the fourth quarter with a three point lead it was out for and shangoon's best game in a long time because it unlocked some of his best traits as a face up score.

And as a passer with his when he's kind of watching and surveying the floor out of a triple threat position Kevin Durant was able to play more as a score than as a playmaker which again with it's been exposed repeatedly over the years the Kevin Durant hasn't really been able to do that the one time that I can remember an extended stretch of KD being really good as a pick and roll playmaker was in Brooklyn where just with the way that they had their ability to convert four on threes and Kevin Durant was just doing a good job of passing over the traps without turning it over and you know that combination

of Bruce Brown and Nick Claxton being able to kind of run those high low actions and four on three it was all working then but outside of that we haven't really seen an extended stretch of KD being a good playmaker he's best as a tip of the spear operating as a score and as a play finisher in the offense he was in that role in the second half it was the best the rockets have looked against a good team in a long time and they threw a great punch and they had the lakers on the rope there in the early fourth quarter problem is the lakers are a better team and they're playing with the

lakers. They're playing some awesome basketball right now and they were ultimately able to solve that puzzle in the fourth quarter they figured out how to guard that action. They just kind of figured out the timing and the angles of the switches and they did an incredible job of helping and rotating when Houston would get some sort of advantage against them in that action. This is where I get a little frustrated with email you doca spamming makes a lot of sense spamming is part of NBA basketball but if you quite literally run the same

thing every damn time down the floor the defense will eventually figure it out. They'll eventually figure out the sequencing of the switches they'll eventually figure out the sequencing of the rotations especially against a rocket's lineup that is pretty light on ball handling and shooting like you're not spamming Jamal Murray Nicole Yokich two man game where the skill level is so high that they can't they actually can get away with running the same thing over and over and over and over again but even Denver with all of their skill runs a lot of

variety in their actions and the half court. So next step for email you doca who I think is proven to be a pretty limited offensive coach at this point. He needs to put together four or five different versions of those kinds of pet actions that replicate this dynamic where shankoons operating as a passing

Kevin Durant is involved in screening action like it doesn't have to be just a two man off ball screening action it could be a three man off ball screening action there's so many different ways that they can mix things up to try to make it so that the defense can't gain an edge through just repetition guarding the same action but the lakers were able to get the stops that they needed in the fourth quarter they held the rockets in the half court to less than 0.9 points per possession in that fourth quarter Lebron and Austin had a brilliant early fourth quarter run Lebron had just a ridiculous game.

We'll talk about that in a little bit, but they got several good looks in transition off of their defense Jake LaRavie had a really nice steal on a post up switch from Alper and Shane Goon Lebron got a transition layup Austin and Lebron were both able to turn the corner at a ball screens a couple times Lebron got a little left handed finish against your barry Smith curling off of an action at an elbow Austin got all the way to the rim and had a nice layup he connected with Lebron on a beautiful like kind of two main game on the left wing where Lebron got inside position

on a men Thompson and Austin just led him perfectly towards the rim a really high difficulty pass Lebron was able to rise up and finish it over the top of a men Thompson and as you guys know those little passes against a men Thompson are just so complicated because his recovery athleticism is so ridiculous DeAndre Aiton continued his stellar play he had a big right shoulder fade on a quick post up of Shane Goon during that run the lakers end up going up six and retaking control the situation now when Luke of first came back in the rockets

he went on a little bit of a run Luke had a couple of turnovers that led to run outs the lakers did botch a couple of switches this time off of the left elbow that gave up some easy ones to a men Thompson and then killed the lakers as a cutter and as a driver last night but then Luke have found an insane groove down the stretch we've talked about this with the rockets a couple times over the last couple of weeks but they have a bit of a conundrum with Shane Goon because as we talked about having him back is what allows the rockets to have so much more dimension to their offense if you don't have

Shane Goon as a passing fulcrum it becomes a lot harder to run your off ball action with Kevin Durant because what makes it work is having a guy that can score out of that triple threat and can pass out of that triple

triple threat but it comes with the added downside of Shane Goon being a terrible pick and roll defender that's why I've been saying over the last couple of weeks this whole thing with the rockets is fundamentally flawed in the Monday night game the rockets without

Shane Goon were able to have these small bursts of clink of hell but they played a lot of small ball especially down the stretch of the game and they switched everything this more or less neutralized LeBron and Austin in some of their attacks that were coming

mostly out of action and it basically made it so that those Luka isos where they're only offense down the stretch of the game now Luka made enough plays attacking isos down the stretch and the

Laker defense that had overwhelming success double in K.D. was able to make enough plays the Lakers got out of there with the wind but honestly it was probably the best stretch of defense that anyone's played against this red hot

Lakers offense over the last couple of weeks was Shane Goon on the floor the Lakers were able to just get into their pick and roll attack. One of the things I've noticed over the course of the last few weeks is that the Lakers have really started to dial in their pick and roll sequencing right so any sort of traditional

two on two sequence in a drop coverage. Luka knows what he's going to do right. He's got his pull up free going he's able to get to the RAM and score in the mid range really effectively right now.

So if you got a two on two Lucas look into score he's built you know a certain amount of lob chemistry especially with the Andreate and as of late that's made that really difficult to guard.

And then as soon as you load up on him in any way whether it's your tagging the roller on de Andreate you're coming up to the level whatever it is you defend it three on to.

Lucas got all the reads down the lobs the skip passes on the skips like you know the work that they've done as a team to improve their jump shooting between.

Just Austin getting back and getting healthy and able to knock down shots like that big corner three that he hit in the second half last night.

Getting Luke Connard into this situation where he wasn't as much of a factor last night but Luke Connard's ability to knock down open catching shoot threes.

Marcus smart was one for five from three last night but he's been shooting three really well in the last few months.

Rui Hachimura obviously knocked down corner three point shooter hit a big one out of the left corner in the fourth quarter last night got a favorable bounce but a big one out of that left corner.

They've been the third best three point shooting team I'm not counting last night's game I haven't checked the numbers but they've been the third best three point shooting team by percentage in the league since the all start break so between the ability to have the baseline cutters like Rui Hachimura and LeBron James all of the connective playmaking because

Marcus smart and LeBron James and Austin Reeves are such great passers everyone's in a position where they can finish off of those advantages that Luca creates they have nailed their pick and roll sequencing over the last couple of weeks and it's made them a very, very difficult offense to guard.

Add in the fact that Luca is ascending to maybe the highest level we've ever seen from him maybe on both ends of the floor and the rockets were basically doomed to fail.

Luke has been so red hot from three as of late that the rockets basically had no choice but to bring shangoon way out to the level in trap.

They had to tool around a little bit with like just bringing him up to the level and then recovering but shangoon is just so clumsy like there was a three he gave up in the third quarter in particular where

Luca was coming off of a ball screen towards the left wing and shangoon showed but then as he was backing out he literally screened his own man like he just ran into his own man which then left Luca wide open on the left wing for three so like he's just.

It just is really difficult for him to find a pick and roll cover just that are working for him I think he's got the potential to be a way better defender he just has not come close to figuring it out so down the stretch of the game.

They were just having shangoon the hard trap and Luca had to ridiculous splits of shangoon one on a behind the back triple another one on a spin move on the behind the back triple on both of them he ends up just penetrating the defense down the middle easily because he splits the double team right and so the low man has no choice but to hard help in the middle of the floor.

He hits Rui Hachimura on a no look pass on a lob dunk he hits LeBron James off of the spin move on a lob dunk along the baseline again like that badly compromises the defense when you.

Can split a double team because now you're looking at basically what amounts to a five on three right.

He adds into preposterous iso step back threes one over a men Thompson off of a spin move on the right wing and then he is the game with a step back kind of like a double step back like a step back into a scissor dribble step back over Jabari Smith on the left wing.

And we got our peak lucodonchich moment of the season in the lakers got the win secure the inside track on the three seats not locked up necessarily but they're in very strong position to get that three seed and lucodonchich is making his case as the best player in the world right now.

Nicole Yokech has been in a slump by his standards since returning from his knee injury the counting stats are good is averaging 26 13 and 10 but just like I was telling Luca fans earlier in the season counting stats come relatively easily to the top tier superstars there are little details that really separate the best player in the world level from that level right below that best player in the world level for example Yokech has been extremely turnover prone since coming back.

He's averaging 4.5 turnovers per game since coming back from his knee injury his 10 turnovers in that loss a disaster lost a Memphis last night that was his sixth time since returning from the knee injury where he's had at least six turnovers in a game.

His shot making has gone down in terms of the level of efficiencies not shooting the ball as well from three he started to kind of get a little bit better in some of his short range shot making but he hasn't been as efficient as he was before his knee injury and then outside of a few stretches.

He's been pretty bad on defense. I try really hard to be consistent about this stuff I got a lot of crap from Luca fans earlier in the season I don't hold Luca to a different standard I hold all of the guys in that tier to the best player in the world standard which is an extremely high standard.

The best player in the world mantle feels very much up in the air right now I do think she has the inside track he's just been the most consistent in productive player in the league this season.

But Luca is making his case and he's been every bit as good as Shay if not even a little bit better over the last couple of weeks which is saying something because she's been insane.

For all of the reasons that I talked about this summer when I ranked Luca over Shay in this 10 and one stretch he's averaging 34 points per game nine rebounds and eight assists only 3.8 turnovers which is not great but it's well below a season average.

63% true shooting thanks to him hit 40% on 12 and a half threes per game.

We've talked about it a bunch over the course of the season but when Luca is at his best.

He's every bit as good at scoring the basketball as Shay while being nearly as gifted a playmaker is Nicole Yochich with the added nuclear upside of Steph Curry thanks to his super high volume from three.

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The Tacoma and Tundra are engineered to endure season after season mile after mile so drive on home today visit Toyota dot com or stop by your local Toyota dealer to find out more Toyota let's go places.

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And he's playing the best defense of his career in the stretch.

I've said this a few times this year, but I really mean it when Luca Donchitch is at his best he's the best basketball player in the world.

He hasn't been able to sustain it the way that yo kitchen she have over the last few years and that's definitely the next step for Luca in his development he can be his own worst enemy sometimes.

But with the best player in the world mantle very much up in the air right now Lucas making his case and it's a damn good one.

Ultimately the playoffs will be where this is decided as it always is but it's been really fun seeing Luca rediscover this incredible ceiling that he has.

One of my favorite parts about last night's game and this has been really prevalent over the last couple of weeks.

Lucas talking shit like crazy now talking shit to fans talking shit to the players that are guarding him it's the biggest difference like.

When Luca Donchitch is really in his groove he's not talking to the refs he's talking shit that's the big difference between where Luca was a couple months ago versus where he was where he is now.

Luke is not engaging with the refs nearly as much as used to part of that is because if he gets another tech he gets suspended so like he kind of has to be on his best behavior.

But that has caused him to focus in a way or now he's recapturing some of that mean basketball asshole personality that has made him one of the most exciting young players in the league over the course of the last half decade.

He's must see television right now.

There have been times the season where he's been a little bit of a chore to watch that is distant memory now.

The level of aggression the level of intensity the two way play the hustle there was a stretch in the in the late second quarter when the Lakers went on a little run like Houston and cut it down to single digits and.

The Lakers going a little run right before halftime there were multiple plays that sparked run outs one for Austin one for LeBron where Luca's scrapping for loose balls wrenching loose ball away from Jabari Smith diving on the floor to get a kick ahead past Austin like there's a level of intensity right now with Luca now we haven't seen yet this season outside of these last couple of weeks.

It is making him incredibly fun to root for I was texting some buddies of mine who are Laker fans this morning like I actually think this Lakers team is playing the most fun basketball right now.

That could not have been further from the case earlier in the season Luca's must see television right now if you guys those of you guys who are listening I know there's a lot of guys who people don't like the Lakers.

If you haven't had a chance to watch the Lakers in the last couple you got to check them out this is this has been really fun to watch over the last couple of weeks and it's all it's starting from the top with the level that Luca don't just reached.

How about LeBron last night.

If it wasn't for him getting egregiously fouled on a play where that somehow didn't get called that led to his one missed field goal last night because the line it makes to free throws there he would add a 32 point perfect game.

But he ends up with 30 on 13 for 14 from the field almost all in the flow of the offense is a handful of aggressive on ball plays in the area like we said that little curl around the elbow for the left hand to finish off the glass in the fourth quarter but most of it is just off ball scoring in the flow.

Catch and shoot threes attacking off of cuts attacking in transition attacking slipping out of screens like that play we talked about with Austin versus a men Thompson.

The unbelievable level of effort on the defensive end and as a rebounder he's making low man rotations and little extra efforts defensively that he wasn't making earlier in the season he is scrapping for rebounds I actually think and this is crazy.

I think LeBron this is the most I've seen LeBron actually believe in a team in a very long time.

A multiple years.

Not to say that he hasn't been locked in at previous points like I do think LeBron is locked in at the tail end of last season but I think you knew deep down like that version of Luca didn't quite have the juice I think you knew that team didn't quite have the talent that they needed there is like a laser focus with LeBron now because I think he believes.

Now is it a rational will see I mean there I don't think there is good is Oklahoma City certainly not yet will see over the larger sample if they can prove that to us but like there's a level of like belief with him that is bringing out a level of possession to possession competitiveness that this team it has been a massive ceiling razor for this team.

Since the all star break the Lakers with LeBron Austin and Luca on the floor are outscoring opponents by 15 points per 100 possessions and they've been elite on both ends of the floor.

That I mean I was on this at the time but that whole the Lakers are better without LeBron media cycle that week might have been the dumbest media cycle that I can remember.

And there were obvious signs before like the fact that Austin and miss this huge chunk of the season the fact that most of their data set came from early in the season when.

When LeBron was coming back from sciatica and literally skipped training camp and the Lakers weren't competing on defense on defense and it wasn't the same version of Luca that we have now like.

There was obvious reasons for us to look at that and be like oh this is what's happening even this recent stretch where it's like Austin is coming back from an injury but is clearly a shell of himself so LeBron's having to absorb more usage as Austin gets into rhythm and then.

All of a sudden LeBron steps out for a couple games in Austin does find his rhythm and everyone starts talking reckless and not paying attention to what's happening right there in front of their eyes i'm so glad that LeBron this quickly stepped in and shut everybody up because that was completely ridiculous.

This is got this guy is at worst the second best basketball player of all time this guy was the sixth finished sixth and MVP voting last year is a 40 year old.

And the amount of like just like blind doubt that was pointed to him as if he couldn't figure out how to make a winning basketball plays alongside the likes of Luca and Austin it was a gorgeous coverage that we saw over that stretch literally one of the dumbest media cycles that I can remember.

Big shock LeBron James can help the Lakers and he's done so since he returned from that little break that he took from that injury a couple weeks ago.

All right before we get out of here tonight today I should say I wanted to talk about Jared McCain for a little bit so he goes for 26 points yesterday in a destructive blowout of the Brooklyn nets and we've talked a lot about his jump shooting as of late specifically just.

The kind of release valve that he gives a guy like shake you'll just Alexander we did see an example that last night she driving off of the right wing and Jared McCain's man hard helps on nail help off of the right elbow and she ends up throwing kind of like a bad pass of way too low pass.

Jared McCain but he's just so wide open and he has plenty of time to gather it and to find his footing and to knock down a three and that's going to be a really useful playoff thing for this particular season just having Jared McCain on the opposite wing from she.

So that when he's working in his isos you can't just sink down to the nail anymore because you've got a guy there on the left left wing that's just going to knock that shot down and I do think that Jared's going to play at least some role.

In this year's playoff team in this year's playoff run, especially during the stretches where Oklahoma City is going through extensive offensive droughts and they're not knocking down shots.

I think we talked about this yesterday in our contender rankings, but Jared McCain and J will just bring a this new recent stretch of shooting from J will and Jared McCain bring a new layer of a shooting dynamic that Mark Degnol can go to at various points that I think is going to be useful.

But I want to talk about his versatility for a minute because this is going to be an important big picture thing for the Thunder.

As we look at the future of this Thunder team, whether it's from just everybody getting super expensive and then having to let guys go like they might have to lose Isaiah Heartenstein this summer, for example, they might have to trade one of their really good perimeter defenders.

Well, I don't know what the timeline is for this whole expansion thing, but there's a version of this where they lose a couple of players to the expansion draft.

So like guys are going to get out of this lineup and they're going to need people that can step in and play larger roles.

And I'm really starting to look at Jared McCain as a guy that I think has a lot of potential to be not quite a foundational piece, but a very, very important piece for this Thunder team in their extended run that they could go on over the course of the next few years.

First of all, the off ball movement. This is one of the biggest things that separates good shooters from great shooters, the willingness to constantly run.

There is a level of perpetual motion with Jared that I think is very valuable in this offense. He's kind of an underrated athlete.

I was thinking about this when I was watching him get to those little step backs yesterday against Brooklyn where like he's getting downhill curling off of an action and he's running low.

And then he just plants that right foot and just on a dime stops and gets back and he's very good at stopping his momentum and making that step back move, but not in a way that causes him to lose balance.

But in a way that causes him to look very balanced as he's rising up in that mid range there.

I think that's a testament to just the level of strength that he has in his core and in his lower body.

Again, like a lot of times when we talk about basketball, people get focused on things like your first step quickness, which is obviously vitally important.

It's a big addition to this lineup in the form of AJ Mitchell, for example, right.

But a lot of it has to do with stopping your momentum or winning battles after you make that first move.

We talk about the shoulder leverage battle, right.

You got to blow through the shoulder or the defenders got to hold his shoulder, right.

Or when you have a defender that's in a retreating posture as he's trying to beat you to a spot.

If you can stop on a dime, that often has a lot more to do with separation, even than your first step quickness.

Even with a guy like Jay Dup, for example, like who doesn't necessarily have the quickest first step, he's very good at that like secondary move, that counter move.

Winning the leverage battle with his shoulder when he drops his shoulder or getting into spins, Euros, different things that allow him to stop his momentum to get to a shot that he can knock down.

Jared McCain is an underrated athlete. He's built like a bowling ball.

He's got very good lateral quickness and just overall speed on the floor, but he also has a very strong base, a low center of gravity and an ability to stop on a dime.

Those shots he hit against Brooklyn. I think we're really fascinating because like he's been torching teams with his mid-range shooting since joining the thunder.

This is a crazy stat. He's shooting 72% on twos jump shots inside of 17 feet since joining the thunder 18 for 25s. He's deadly from that range.

That athleticism is also manifesting in utility on the defensive end of the floor. He moves his feet well. His low center of gravity and that bowling ball kind of aura that he has allows him to get the screens reasonably well.

He's got active hands on strips. He had a couple of really impressive strips last night against the nets. I think the thunder might have done it again.

I think they might have found a player who was undervalued elsewhere.

I mean that that Darryl Morric quote that like we're pretty confident we're selling high on Jared McCain. That might be one that gets brought up several times over the course of the next five years because I think Jared McCain not only brings a level of we talked a lot about this over the course of the season like athleticism and shooting are two of the most valuable traits in the entire NBA.

There's a level of utility that he brings to this team, but above and beyond that he's a very different type of player than anybody on this team.

And it brings a different element, a different variation to this team that will just give Mark Dagnall more options as you counters different types of problems and different playoff runs for the thunder in the coming years.

Alright guys, that's all I have for today is always sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.

We were thinking about doing a mail back tomorrow, but I think I think we're going to get a couple of really good games tonight.

I think we have Orlando Charlotte and then we also have Lakers heat as the LeBron said after the game last night that he's planning on playing tomorrow.

So we're going to have a couple of game reactions in the morning and we'll probably do some mail back questions in the tail end of the show.

As always, I appreciate you guys for supporting us and we will see you tomorrow morning.

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