Early Jayson Tatum returns, Shai's statement win & rookie award check-in

Hi, hello. We have a jam packed episode of the Dunker Spot coming your way first.

We talk about the early returns of Jason Tatum and the Boston Celtic as a whole,

how Tatum is slotted in. After that, we talk about an awesome game between the Oklahoma City

Thunder and the Denver Nuggets, MVP caliber performances from the Kola Yokech and Shake

Yelges Alexander. We talk about some interesting things in that game as well as the MVP conversation.

And then we check in on the Easter Conference once again. The pistons are on the losing streak,

the sixers in a tough slot right now. Should we be concerned or is just just a blip in the radar

and finally we close with Rookie Talk. Steve dropped another excellent Rookie ranking so we go

through his top 10 and reveal where we're at with the all Rookie and Rookie of the Gear awards.

Please tap in. We're going to have some fun today. Hey Matt Harman here from the As we fantasy

forecast. I know I'm all about football. I'm a football guy but yeah more than fantasy football

here at Yahoo fantasy. We have fantasy baseball. Okay. Fantasy baseball season is almost here.

It is right around the corner. So draft with your buddies today or join a public league right now

on Yahoo fantasy. You can sign up in the Yahoo fantasy app or at Yahoo fantasy.com slash

baseball football. We'll be here to wait for you when you get back in the meantime. Go join a

Yahoo fantasy baseball league today. Hi hello. Nakai is Duncan here of the Dunker Spot. Here to tell

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Hi hello and welcome to another episode of the Dunker Spot. We're part of the Yahoo Sports

Network. I am your host, Nikis Duncan and joining me as always is my co-host, the always excellent

Steve Jones. Joey Steve. How are you doing sir? Feeling good, feeling great, happy to be here,

excited to be here. Thank you, Dunkers for once again embracing your bounce and I'm ready to

talk some basketball guys. We're gonna have some fun, we're gonna talk some basketball, we got some

returns, we got some debuts. I just want to quickly say to peel the curtain back. The long-term

Dunkers know the new folks is going to fill you in. One of my like annoyances in the podcast world

is when you know we hop on here, we have awesome conversations, it's great and then 10 minutes

after we finish recording, we get news and I'm just like darn. That kind of things would

love to talk about that. I bring this up because it is March 10, which is like the unofficial but

maybe official WNBA CBA deadline, they want to have a deal done so the season isn't delayed,

et cetera. I hope one that we get news today, so we can just get the W3A to see officially rolling.

You know the off-season officially rolling. But two, I would like for that news to break during

the recording of the podcast. I will be very sad if this gets done at like 330 Eastern or something,

well after we finish recording the podcast. I just want to get that off my chest before we get

rolling. I would like for that to have that quick order. Look at you being greedy man.

That's being greedy. I'd say listen, I want the league back and it'll be very convenient if

it happens within the next hour and a half. But anyway, to the more serious basketball

conversation, let's shift back to the NBA side. Steve, on Friday, we talked about the impending

return of Jason Tatum. We talked about things that we were excited to see, what we were going to be

looking for, rotationally or on the court. We talked about how annoying the discourse around

Jason Tatum was. We finally got two games under the belt of Jason Tatum. Across those two games,

17 and a half points, 7 and a half rebounds, 4 and a half assists in about 27 minutes for

game. The Celtics have won his minutes by 17 total points, two wins for the Boston Celtics,

which is the most important thing. So just kind of brought in the scopes, Steve.

What did you enjoy about the Jason Tatum experience? What did you like about the Jason Tatum return?

The fact that he's on the basketball court. I mean, that's the most important thing.

For that one, I would you enjoy what did you like? That's the question. And yeah,

he's back playing basketball. He's doing what he loves to do. And doing it at a high level.

I mean, I think the biggest thing for me, when you look at Jason Tatum, it's just a reminder of

A, the type of talent that he is. And he's in a stronger fit, I think, within this specific

Boston Celtics team. Not that, you know, we've seen this team play at a championship level, but

the way this team plays, certain people need to create offense and create shots. Certain people

necessarily aren't going to be out there to play defense and kind of play hard and keep things

moving. Jason Tatum kind of has the ability to play off ball on ball, but it doesn't have

the responsibility that you would assume Jason Tatum would have. I think that's a good spot for him

to be in as he returns to where, okay, you know, you kind of felt, you know, even in the first

return against Dallas, the wave element of Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown were, okay, one of them has

the ball. We don't have anything. We go to the other side and get to the other person where they

can attack and get downhill. But I mean, he's a playmaker. So he's going to he's going to engage

defences. He's going to be able to get in the paint. If you're in a drop, he's going to be able

to get to his pull up or find a roller and that just adds a different element for Boston. So the

biggest thing was just kind of watching him and seeing, okay, there's Rust here, but he still looks

like Jason Tatum, you know, he still has the same animation package. He's still getting to the same

pull ups. You know, he might be a little bit more tired than we've seen before, but overall,

he's been himself and then defensively was, I don't want to say it was my concern, but it was more,

okay, what's this going to look like? Obviously, he's not going to take the prime matchups early,

but, okay, can you kind of nail the rotation in Boston plays a specific style of defense where,

okay, if you drive, we're going to show help, we're going to recover, we're going to rotate.

How many of those reps can you hit? So that's where I'm like, okay, they're going to put them in action.

Is he sliding his feet? Is he able to recover? Can he make multiple efforts defensively?

That's probably going to take a little bit more time, but because Boston's Boston, they're going

to have people around him to insulate him to a degree. And so you just want to kind of see if

there's a consistency there, producing to them on that end of the floor, where he's able to just

kind of make multiple efforts, be in the right spots, help recover, close back out, keep the ball

in front. That's going to be kind of the build up, I think going into playoffs. I got you, I got you.

I think for me to kind of start at the beginning, we got the early report before the Dallas game

that not only was he back, he's starting and there's a little minutes restriction. I was like,

wait a minute, hold on, because I did this whole bit on the pod, like he's probably going to be like

15 to 20 minutes and then we're going to ramp this thing up. What do you mean? He's just

immediately in the starting line up and there's going to be no restriction here. So off rip,

I'm just like, okay, what is this usage going to look like? He must be really ready to go. Again,

it's not going to be 36 minutes peak playoff usage or anything like that, but the expectation for

me is now, okay, this may be a little bit more than I was anticipating already. And so to get to

that Dallas game, okay, we're encouraged by hand real quick. It's very funny that everyone did

the no-minute restriction thing, because Joe Masu was said that out loud. He played 27 minutes

in both games. Both games, he sure did. We love this on this side. But no, but to that one,

I was like, okay, so we may get more tape of the nine participating, like barring foul trouble

injury, that kind of thing. And so to get to the Dallas game and the playmaking pops immediately,

like it's seven assists for him. It was 14 potential assists in that first game, Steve. And in

that first quarter, in particular, like there were multiple lobs to Nemius Keta, like one was this

rough that he was fouled on another one. So like, oh, there's two there. He's making kickouts

to the opposite corner, sometimes to the strong side corner. And it's like, okay, he is not only making

the reeds, but even to your rust points, Steve, like the rust was more so with just the legs.

And like just kind of the energy transfer and just kind of the general explosion there. That's where

you saw a lot of the early jump shots for him. We're short. We got the misdump that we saw in the

highlight package a little bit earlier. It's like, okay, he's still trying to get that part. But in

terms of how quickly he was processing things on the floor, I was very impressed that that was not

like a beat late. And then like the past placement wasn't a little bit off or something like that. He

just had it off real as a playmaker. And I feel like that bodes well in terms of the overall

integration to where to your early point, we can kind of go side to side here. We can use Jason

Tatum as a guy that can initiate our offense early on. If you don't have it, Jayla Brown can end it

for you or vice versa. This defense has already tilted. Jason Tatum is incredibly good at hitting

the open man and doing so in a timely fashion. We really can just keep your defense and a blender now.

So like I really enjoyed the playmaking portion of the program. The fact that he was willing to get

downhill, you saw it in spurts in the Dallas game and you really saw it early in that Cleveland game.

I thought that was encouraging. And so for me, it's just how long is it going to take for him to

consistently have his legs? Because him deciding I am going and the first step when he decides to attack,

like that seems to be there. The actual vertical pop is not yet. And so I am curious to see, does

that come in game five? Is that game eight? Is that coming in game three? You know, next time we see

Jayla Tatum, we'll see. But like that's something I'm keeping an eye on. But like the processing speed

popped from me very early on. And it was very funny to me that he missed the dunk. Then he gets the

put backslam in the Dallas game and it just felt like he was never going to miss again. It's just like

a real life. Oh, I can still do this. So that's how that works. And he just reels off four straight

makes after the put backslam's like, oh boy, it is officially Jason Tatum time. So I'm with you.

Glad he was out there. Surprise. He was out there as much as he was off rip. But then just kind

of watching him out the floor was a pleasure for me. Oh, I mean, I think the biggest thing that

has been said in this is when Jason Tatum is ready to come back, he's going to be back. And so

two bosses credit, hey, he's back. He's all the way back. We're playing him. He's in what we do. I

understand that. I'm a little surprised that you're so surprised by the playmaking because that's

been a big growth point for Jason Tatum in the last few years. Being able to kind of make the right

reads, make the right plays, the responsibility to see how defenses are guarding him and make the

right, you know, the right reads for Boston. And I think again, it speaks to how he fits into

this specific team, right? Like I think in prior years, they kind of had some star power. And it

was, okay, I need to get to my shot. I make enough shots. I can make the right reads. And you can

kind of see a little bit of a pressure relief from Jason Tatum with the way that he was being used,

especially in the first game where, okay, I have my pockets to attack. I'm being used in certain

ways. It's not all on me to create everything. So I can now come off this down screen, see the

space and make the right play. I can get a pick and roll, see the space, make the right play. I get

a hand off, see the space, make the right play. And I think the biggest thing if you're a self-explaned

is nothing really felt forced. You know, you have Jalen Brown, you have Jason Tatum, you have two

talents. But now, you know, we can kind of go out about time out and use Jason Tatum as a screener

and say, you know what? Yeah, you attack Sam Merrill. Let's see what that looks like. We don't

necessarily need you to do that to operate offensively, right? Like, we don't need you to open the

bottle for us. So I think that's something you gotta keep track of. The difference in how he plays

and how Boston plays because of that fact. Yeah, I think that's fair. Like I think for me, like,

it was never, is Jason Tatum able to make passes? It's just more, the selfies have played 60 plus

games. How quickly he's going to fit into, like, the cadence of making these reads. And so the fact

that he was already kind of like B plus A level off ribs, where I was like, oh, okay, this is,

this is nice. This is going to be already news, going to be added up. This is even more added

to more quickly than I anticipated. I guess it's my general point there. I guess to your way,

portions, Steve, because you mentioned like being able to start a position with Tatum,

float a Brown and vice versa. Were you surprised at all by the actual rotation? Because it felt like

Joe Mazzula killed Jason Tatum, Jaylen Brown, pretty pair. There was a lot of those two are on

the bitch together while Derek White and Patrick get to do their thing with the second unit.

Were you surprised it was less, we're going to have the Brown offense and then we're going to have

the Tatum offense and we're just kind of keeping those two together. Why would you have the Brown

offense and the Tatum offense when you just play them together? I think you keep the pressure

off Jason Tatum by playing in with Jaylen Brown and allowing him to get into the flow of basketball

and see what he can do without necessarily feeling like, hey, I have to do things, especially early on

coming back from that injury, playing with Jaylen Brown, see what happens. I think there's a lot of

times when people go with rotations and it's very easy to kind of map things out and put bars on

a screen and kind of say, oh, well, these players are playing with each other. It's a very sensitive

deal in the sense that you don't want to waste minutes to a degree and have someone play

X amount, but we're playing a certain type of basketball, right? So my mind goes to Denver,

right? Everyone gets mad at the non-yokitch minutes, right? But okay, you play Jamal Murray with

the second unit and it's a separate point. We may get into it, but you play with the second unit

at the start of a quarter. Is this all Jamal Murray picking role? Are you not using Jamal Murray

all the way? Have you gotten anything out of these three minutes with Jamal Murray on the court?

And now you've lost three potential minutes of Jamal Murray playing with Nicole Yokitch.

There's a balance you have to have when he comes to your rotation, you have to kind of play

certain guys together, try and maximize it. The hope is we can kind of do things without these guys

on the court. I think the one thing you have to remember is if you're coaching, if you're thinking

basketball wise, I want multiple things to be working at the same time. I want to be able to do

multiple things. I don't want my whole success to be tied to one thing working. So I'm not surprised

that Tayden was out there just exclusively with Brown just because it takes the pressure off

him and allows him to play in a flow and play in a way that it's going to let him be in a rhythm

that he needs to be in on the court. So that didn't really shock me. I don't think you have to

necessarily go with, oh, it's the Tayden offense and the Brown offense. No, we're the Celtics.

This is how we play it. We have our best two players on the court together and when they're off the

court, hey, Peyton Richard, would you like two shoot shots and would everyone else like to play

hard? That's the Celtics. Yeah. That makes sense. This is why I want to have this conversation with you

who has the actual coaching experience because I'm always intrigued by who's matching up with who

what the rotations look like. And it was interesting to me to kind of compare how the Celtics

will bring adjacent Tatum along in these two games compared to the early returns of Darius Garland

where Tyleu is actually DJ. You're coming out the bench right now. We want you to be comfortable

making plays, making reads without having to defer to quiet. By obviously,

Jason Tatum, Darius Garland, different players, different positions. But like the concept of we

are integrating this star into the system, we want to give you room to kind of explore and get

used to things. And then we're going to pair our top two guys together that felt like more

about with the Clippers. And so I guess since I was kind of expecting a little bit of that with

Jason Tatum, it's like not that you can't play with Jayla Brown because as we talked about on

Friday, they have won championships together. They've won many games like obviously they fit

together. But I was just kind of anticipating what they would Joe Masuda split those two up

early on. Just the kind of speed track, some of the rhythm that Jason Tatum is going to have

to establish. So like that's why I was curious about it. And I think your response makes a ton

of sense. And this is why I wanted to ask you. Now you're good. You know, you're not the

defendant. It's fantastic. I mean, I think the Clippers, the Clippers portion was also mostly,

hey, Darius Garland, really respect you. Once you have a great run, the quiet leader is cooking right

now. And he's not going to stop cooking for a little bit. So we want you to do all those things,

but do it over here for a little bit. And then we'll bring you in. I mean, that's a whole different

story as far as the impact you can see. Like that makes for starting a trap quiet line. And it's like,

oh, Darius Garland is just to play. It's until the defense. That's pretty fun. Not to go too deep

in Clippers talk. But I mean, so it's kind of fun. It's like, hey, Darius Garland, do all the

offensive stuff. Hey, Benedict Matherin, you also do offensive stuff. That's fine. Don't worry about

it. We'll figure the rest out. Hey, quiet lunatic. Keep doing what you do it. And you know,

we have enough guys to run around. It's fine. Just get them up.

Everyone else defend. Please defend. We need you to defend. But okay, um, back to the Celtics. I

actually want to zoom out a little bit on Boston. This is a new conversation. So I don't anticipate

this being like 20 minutes or anything. But I'm just so impressed with what Boston has done

this season and what they have been in this calendar year. And obviously, there was more of a

spotlight on them over this past weekend because of Jason Taylor returned. But it just further

reinforced just how well coached and just how much of a rhythm they've been in on both ends of

the floor. Like, you bring Jason Taylor back and you don't really miss a beat with what you're

attempting to do. Like, it didn't feel like the ball move. It was worse. It didn't feel like the

defense structurally was worse or anything like that. And you zoom out with this group.

They are second in the league in that rating per clean the glass. The best point differential

in the Easter conference right now per clean the glass. They're second in offense. They're sixth in

defense. This is just a well oiled machine right now. So I really just want to give a quick salute

to the Celtics as a whole for what they've been able to build this year and having this kind of

thing established so that making the integration of Jason Taylor a little bit easier. Like, they've been

structurally sound all year long. I mean, I think to add to that, the best teams in today's

NBA have a have an identity. They have a way that they play every single night. And you could argue,

Boston's probably been one of the most, if not the most consistent teams stylistically.

You know exactly what you're going to get when you put the Boston Southern tone. We're going to

defend. Are you driving into the paint? There will be bodies and they do it in different ways.

They swarm. Sometimes they were super active. We know we're taking the way. They're hovering around

and hey, we'll help and then get back out. But you're going to end up with bodies in the paint

if you get in there. And then offensively, we're going to shoot. That's not everything that we do.

But if it's there, we'll take it. We'll create it. And then if you defend us, we'll try and move

and get us to get ourselves the best shot possible. We're going to free flow and play.

They just know who they are. It's why you have like a Baylor Charmin playing with high

confidence level and need me to skate a plane with high confidence level because they know their

role. They execute every single night. And that's what's put Boston's position where you keep waiting

for the other shoe to drop. And there's not another shoe to drop. Joe Mozilla refuses to allow you

to see the other shoe that's allowed to drop because they just do what they do every single night.

And so that's been one of the joys of just watching Boston all year long is even when they fall

short, right? They're undefeated. They're going to take the losses. They're not the

unlike, they're not the best team in the world in the sense that we're just going to overwhelm

you. But you have to deal with this, right? But Detroit, you have to deal with us. I'm sure you

have piss and thoughts because I'm apparently it's time to do piston's discourse because

three. Boss a couple games because that's what we have to do, right? Legally, legally required to do

that. But you look at those type of teams. Like when do you see the Boston Celtics get sped up?

When do you see the Boston Celtics? Not sure what they're supposed to do defensively. When do you

see the Boston Celtics have a lineup where guys are trying to figure out who they are or what

they're trying to do? You don't see that. So that's that I think is a credit to Joe Mozilla,

staff players flying in and players holding each other accountable every single night. Look at the

way they spaced the four when they've written the ball up. Everyone knows exactly where it's supposed

to go. They float into the next action. They keep pressure on defenses. They're just understood

the assignment to an absurd degree and they've earned the right to kind of put themselves in that

top tier in the East. Yeah, I think it's about us all for that Steve. And I tweeted about this while

I was watching the cabs game watched it the day after. And I was just like they are so they're

well coached. They're structurally sound and like there is something for everyone. Like if you are

someone that enjoys all the three's getting up being put up because you like shooting. Well,

the Boston Celtics have the third highest three point rate in the league. If you are someone that's

kind of tired of the three is just like, Hey, the mid range game is still important. The Boston

Celtics are seventh in mid range rate. Jalen Brown has taken a bunch. Jason Taylor is going to take a

bunch, et cetera. You have that going for you if you want that. Hey, I sure wish when teams play

defense in the NBA, which is a dumb take. But that's another rant for another day. The Boston Celtics

been farting round with a top five defense pretty much all your long to your point Steve. They swarm

as a team structurally when it comes to their help. Like you do not get to the room against the

Boston Celtics. And you don't have much success when you do attempt shots at the room against the

Boston Celtics. Guess who has the lowest opponent rim rate in the NBA Steve? The Boston Celtics.

They don't let you, they don't let you get the easy stuff. They end possessions. They don't

file. They don't turn the ball over. They generate a bunch of extra possessions on the offensive

glass. So if you like the dirty work, you get that too. They're just very good, very sound and

pretty versatile. And like that kind of leads to my broader question as we're going to flow into

pistols a little bit later. But like the Celtics have kind of earned the right to get into this

conversation though, we are the best team in the Eastern Conference. Like in a literal sense,

they have the best point differential in the East right now. They're still second in the standings.

But like how close are you to Boston being there? Are you still holding firm on Detroit right now?

I'm still on Detroit. Like this feels like one of the few times they've had a losing streak

this year. You go look at their losses. So they have lost four and a row. And versus it

always going to stop on your door at some point in the NBA regular season. And Detroit has the

finally kind of deal with their version. Even though they've had some, they've had injuries,

they have people out. They've had suspensions. Like they've had to deal with some things. But okay,

teams are kind of taking a shot at your success. Both those teams, the key for them is they both

travel well. Like what they do does good on the road. I don't necessarily think that I would hand over

the Celtics being the top team. But they've earned the right to be in that conversation. And I think

the East, the thing you have to realize about the Eastern Conference, these playoffs are going to be,

it's going to be a fight. It's going to be a back-and-forth. It's going to be really tough to

deal with because you can look at these standings and we can see the good in a whole lot of these

teams. Now for some of you, you may stop at a certain point, right? Like Detroit, we know what they do.

Boston, we know what they do. The mix, we know when they play at a high level, it's really tough to

deal with Cleveland. Change Hard, we know what their ceiling is. Toronto, you might start to raise

an iron brow, but they are annoying defensively and can find a way to win. And now you have the

Arlandoes of the world where Arlando very secretly is one seven of their last 10 games.

And okay, do you actually want to deal with Palo Bancaro and Franz Rotter any playoff

series with that defense, what they play off-game plan? The Miami Heat have won eight of their

last 10 games. Do you actually want to deal with this team that believes in themselves offensively

at a hundred and fifty percent, even if you don't think they can score? We're going to score points

just so you know, and we might throw a zone at you. The Sixers have been the metronome for most

of the year at six, right? And now you look in and they're in the playing now. And we'll talk about

them a little bit, but it's like, okay, we've seen the highs, we're now seeing the lows, the Hawks,

the Hornets, they're going to score points, the Hornets, both ends of the floor. Like, so this is where

you're going to get teams that believe we can beat each other in a competitive environment.

And that's what I think people are missing out on with you. Like, you should enjoy the Eastern

Conference, especially that first round, that second round is going to be a mess because it's

just going to be a brawl. But the competitive nature of these teams that have success, have some

weaknesses, but there's not a team you can point to in the Eastern Conference doesn't think they

can beat each other. Yeah, man, having a ton of fun with Eastern Conference right now, and I told

you the Southeast division was going to be fun, but we'll leave that there. We're going to take

a quick break. One, I want to talk about how awesome the Nuggets Thunder game last night was,

Shay versus Yokech was a knockout brawl. And then we're going to circle back to the Eastern

Conference. We want to check the concern levels of the Detroit Pistons and the Philadelphia 76ers,

as they deal with their recent slides. Stay tuned. We'll be right back.

And we are back with this episode of The Dunker Spy and Steve. Before we circle back to the Eastern

Conference, oh my goodness, Thunder Nuggets. What a basketball game that was. Two of the best

teams in the Western Conference, two of the best teams in the NBA, especially when they are healthy.

This was, as we talked about, two games adjacent to them. This is also the second game in the return

of Aaron Gordon. And buddy did he make his presence felt very early on in that basketball game.

But Nuggets still not completely healthy in the Thunder. We're missing chat. And I say,

a heart stand and Jay LaLiams and Al Scruso. And it ends up being a 129-126-3 for the Oklahoma City

Thunder in this one. Shay ties the Wilt record for most consecutive regular season games with at

least 20 points. And hits the game, winning three with 2.7 left. Nicole Yokech would yet

another triple double. And he was absolutely nuts in the second half of that basketball game.

And so broadly speaking, Steve, I'll start with this question. Did you feel like we learned

anything about this game or was it just a great game? I mean, I think it was a great game. I

think there's always an opportunity to learn things. And I think when you look at Denver and OKC

for Denver, the lesson has to be we don't have a large margin for error in this matchup.

But we can do some things against this team. If you're OKC, we're a machine on both ends of the

floor. And you have to deal with us. And so I think OKC being able to have the knowledge of,

yes, we have our two bigs that are very good. But we also can play small against this team.

And we can do different things defensively. But it was such a back and forth battle in a way that

I just don't know if it's being appreciated as much. Because I think sometimes if you're a

fan of a team, you can kind of really get in that bubble mode, right? Where it's like, OK,

I have this feeling about my team. I'm going to talk about my team in a certain way. I'm not

going to appreciate necessarily the things they did because they lost. I understand that portion.

Denver did a lot of good things defensively as far as being able to work to give multiple efforts

to have rotations, to keep Yokeichelo to switch and help on drives. They had a lot of good reps and

a lot of good possessions. OK, so he's just so good that they're not going to stop. You know,

I think that's kind of the thing that we've seen with our Thunder this season is an understanding

and a confidence what they do offensively to continue to attack. And shake of Salisander very

quickly. Shake of Salisander was outstanding in that game. He's been great all year. But if you're

going to sit here and say the Oklahoma City Thunder win because of their defense or it's win

because of anything. You were you were under rating what shake of Salisander has to do on every

single night and the ability and skill that he has to get to whatever spot he wants to get to on

the court and make a shot. If you want to talk about push offs, you want to talk about foul drawing,

talk about the other half as well because what he does is not easy. And Denver was working to try

and show how show doubles and say having just kind of the moments where he said, actually,

I'm just going to drive straight line drive finish. I can get to my step back to whenever I want

the step back three counter, especially you saw late in the game. What do you do with that? Because

okay, we're not doubling. I'm not going all the way to the rim. I'm going to get whatever I want.

That puts pressure on you. On the flip side, it's always interesting with Denver. The moments where

a team decides, hey, Nicole, okay, we're going to ask you to score the basketball and he decides

to deliver on that and says, actually, I would like to score the basketball. I'm going to several

times a row. And that third quarter where they just said, you know what? Nicole, you'll get to

bring the ball of the court, wing pick and roll. Let's see what they do and let's play out of it.

And we'll get a roll every now and then if we get a switch, you get a catch, you drive,

you put pressure on this team. If you're going to stay at home, cool. If you any scores in a way

that makes you feel uncomfortable about it, right? It's unconventional. You feel bad about it,

and it's like, okay, I need to show help. In the minute you show help, the ball is gone. So you

just don't feel good about any of your decisions that you've made. And I think that's the beauty of

that back and forth. And also, it was a very good bit from David Alman to start the fourth quarter

with Nicole Yokic, but only for a minute. I don't worry about the non-Yokic minutes, man,

you're just going to stay on the court and then they played well and he took him out and then

gave him a little bit of rest. So there's a balancing act. I think Denver is trying to figure out

their rotation to a degree with Aaron Gordon back and trying to figure out the best line-ups and,

okay, when we play JV, who we play together, how do we get the most out of Christian Brown?

I think that you learned a lot about where they need to go if you're Denver, right? If you're

Oklahoma City, you'll learn that you need to keep trusting in what you do on both ends of four.

So it was a really, really fun game. Oh, man. Okay, I want to hang on Denver for a minute,

because as you were talking about what they did in the third quarter to get Yokic just touches,

very quickly on that front. Because I was watching that game like, oh my goodness, okay,

he just does not have an answer for this. He's in the cold of Yokic, so you don't really have

answers for him anyway. But when you're fat during the game, you don't have the shot blocking

and the overall lift of the chat. You don't have just the literal bulk of Isaiah Harneson.

Jalen Williams is doing his best and he had himself one heck of a game, think career high,

seven, eight, three. So I don't want to diminish him. He is just smaller than Yokic.

And so it's just like, well, we don't want to give up cuts or we don't give up catches,

shoot threes. We're just going to battle and maybe show some late health in the cold of Yokic in

that like five to ten foot range. Just sprinkle again, shot after shot after shot after shot after

shot. Maybe you look it up after the game once things up. They don't take a spectrum Steve.

So the league average on shots between five and 10 feet, talk about like literal like floater rage.

The league average is 44%.

Nikola Yokic converts 59% of those shots on some of the highest volume in the league.

What in blazes do you do with a guy that is bigger than you can make any pass in the book and

because he's bigger than you, he can shoot over you and is over 15 percentage points above league

average in that range. A shot that you quote unquote want to give up because you don't want to go

through each and don't give up shots at the rim. What do you do with that? The answer in that third

quarter was largely nothing. The other thing I want to point on with Denver, going to the first quarter,

I was so annoyed and it's funny that we have a picture of Yokic and Lou Dordon. This is just

basketball brain so excuse me. The nuggets ran Chicago action. What felt like 30 times in that

first quarter and Lou Dordon got clipped on every single one of them and I'm just like how is this

not being defended better than it is. Before you even get into like how good Yokic is, how good

Jamal Murray is etc. I'm just like how are y'all getting blasted on this every time now? It is

Yokic and the middle of the floor. We are going to have Christian Brown set an all boss meeting for

Jamal Murray to come off a hand up and it felt like Lou Dordon was just not ready for it any time

they ran it. You have seen this team 40 times over the last 12 months. I just didn't get that part.

But anyway, fantastic back and forth to your point is being and circling back to Shay for a moment.

35 points, 15 assists, you don't see those games very often. You don't see 35 very often. You don't

see 15 assists very often. You don't see that in the same game very often. To do that with zero

turnovers at the same time is insane. And to do that with zero turnovers with how often to your

earlier points, the nuggets were like nope we're putting two on the ball. Oh you have cross half

court. We are sending a second defender towards you. Oh you're trying to get into the straight line

drive without a screen. Nope. We are showing bodies. I posted a screenshot at the end of the first

quarter. You're a screenshot. You're a screenshot poster now. Come on man.

Now when we do a little bit of both you got to be versatile these day in HD.

That's why you always post it. You also post the video. But I laughed at how Denver was loading up

before Shay wanted to attack at the end of the first quarter. I think it's Christian Brown to

hat the assignment. It's like Yokech above the three point line from a strong side corner.

Somebody else kind of lurking ready to double. It's just like you're showing this while he is

standing at half court before the drive and then the drive actually happens and there's like

trying to flood them. Of course, there's another kick for him at the end of the first. It's just like

you're seeing this amount of defensive attention and you put together that game and cap off that game

with that shot or those shots rather. It was it was one of my favorite games of the season overall

but if you're talking about individual performances, what Yokech and Shay did in that game

was incredible. But Shay slammed the door. It was unbelievable. Can I ask you a question?

Can I say something before you ask me a question? Yes you can.

Because I have a Denver thought and I think that they you know it's not been a fun two weeks

if you're a Denver nugget fan right. There's been some losses that have stepped up probably not

feeling the best about it. You fall into the sixth seed after having a metronome of the year.

You're in a weird place where you're just not winning at home anymore like you're 17 and 13

at the same home record as the Los Angeles Clippers like that's probably an outing anticipated.

The one thing I will say if you look at who they've played in what they've faced right they've had

the face you know Cleveland the Clippers, Golden State, Oklahoma City, twice Minnesota, New York,

the Lakers. You have tested your defense and tried different things as far as doubling and showing

Yokech on the baseline and doing one double there working to keep Yokech alone switching.

You've had to implement different things defensively and so have the reps gone as well as you want

consistently probably not I wouldn't argue that but you have had the reps and so this could be a

moment where this adversity pays off down the line because okay we've workshoped different things.

We've workshoped different lines. We've workshoped different schemes. We've workshop trapping and

picking them all. We've workshopping the drop. We've workshoped Yokech on a non shooter keeping him low.

We've workshoped switching and rotating and does that help them long term even if it's hurting

them right now is where it gets interesting for me. Okay well Steve we have been doing this podcast

for way too long because my question for you was going to be hey how did you feel about

Nicole Yokech on Lou Dore and some of the different looks that they tossed out with him in that game

and so as you go into that I don't feel like I actually need to ask you that question because

you kind of already have so saluting so saluting you on that front. I guess okay oh no just

gonna say I think to answer your question that you're not asking I think it's about

timber being able to do multiple things and having different things in their back pocket and I

think there were a couple of possessions where they really did a good job of switching and rotating

and recovering and helping each other it's just the amount of times you have to do that and

getting consistently any of the multiple efforts and so that was probably my bigger thing like okay

they're gonna have to be this and that matchup against Houston gets real fascinating real quick

but go ahead in the cast. Okay well I guess just a quickly pivot I'll circle back to Aaron Gordon

who finished with 23 and 10 in his game. He had 19 points in the first quarter and it was a very

loud example of one just how good an important Aaron Gordon is and two how problematic he is in

this particular matchup because I think the one thing at least that I've consistently said on this

podcast as I have been very high on the okay see experience has been hey they don't really have if

there's one thing they don't have they don't really have like the six seven six eight bulky forward

power defender type gosh darn it they don't really have that mold up there at least not consistently

in their rotation and so Aaron Gordon comes back and okay see starts the game with Lew

Dort on Jamal Murray the Chicago action reps notwithstanding and they had case and wall is on Aaron Gordon

and immediately I was like oh we are gonna get some duck ends from Aaron Gordon

and that may be problematic for the okay see defense especially since they have Jalen Williams

on Yokech and he's also smaller than Yokech. I did not anticipate this being the Aaron Gordon

shop making plus Aaron Gordon cuts plus the Aaron Gordon ducking like the back-to-back

threes from Aaron Gordon to kind of cap or run the first quarter I was like oh he's just doing this

but Aaron Gordon is just a good shooter now it's just kind of wild and so it's cool to kind of see

that example of this is how this is what he provides this is why he is so important to what Denver

does on both ends of the floor but that matter like he was part of the help being shown for Denver's

defense some of the switching they were able to tap into as well but like it's very loud hey welcome

back Aaron Gordon you are dominating this match up but then the other three quarters happen and so

very quickly 19 points three or four on twos two or two on threes six seven from the line in the

first quarter rest of the game four points one of six inside the art with some very interesting pull-up

attempts coming early in the clock there did not make a three still perfect from the line but

just wasn't saying bit so they do need a level of consistency for him and so just kind of balancing

be aggressive because you can take advantage of matchups and also hey we still want to be us

holistically um but again that's more of a single game thing to like i'm worried Aaron going to

hijack the offense or something ridiculous like that but we want to salute Aaron Gordon um on

there front and also welcome back AJ Mitchell just having another guy that can get down hill

and attack tilted defenses or do the tilting of defense i think he was very important off the bench

in his return had not played and i think 20 games 24 out of the bench i think you take that

every old home city thunder especially if she is going to see the amount of health and the amount

of doubles that he got in that game just having another pressure relief guy was very important for

them so i want to salute him um can i ask you a narrative the question speed sure did this game swing

the MVP discussion for you in any real way no okay i mean i saw my list like i it's depending on

i mean i had she i had she from the Jordan year so it didn't really there's nothing really to swing

to a degree um yeah sorry it's not really and i think like we've had conversations across

years on the pod where like i don't really care that much about head to head matchups when it comes

an MVP discussion like that is very low on my list and i feel like i'm in the minority

on that front i'm just like we have sure sure are yeah but i played this one game i took it to you

my trophy yeah like i just i'm just like this was nice this is like one of 82 or if like

depending on the candidate like one of 78 or whatever the number ends up being i this very it's

way less important to me than it is to the majority of folks and i own that that's fine

and so to answer your question like no it didn't swing it for me but i did see a lot of the

she hits that game winner like oh no this is just hits if you had any questions about yoke is

taking it over for him whatever this is it and i always look at things like okay what if she has

like 17 in this game and yoke has another 34 triple double like does that then mean like it's

you know i mean like i don't like i don't like to see it's a different game they're not playing

each other i have a question for you how many games uh can she can she miss

to say oh no not too many i think like seven or something like that i can get that quick you know

but he is still eligible he is on pace for eligibility so like i don't you know it does

get funny if he becomes uneneligible yoke i think still not on pace yet as you know i

tracked the heavyweight 79% of your team games yet so you're like yoke is still not in right now

she is she is so quiet

they do torsion and oh hey you've been real sound about that huh

son if you want to buy that rule no i don't well i want to buy the easter car you're real quiet

as people you've been jumping you low key uh you know i ain't saying to finish this is a five game

rule this year the real quiet from the car is dungan i think it's fine i understand why

people are angry about it a lot of people just didn't like it to begin with and so now that

yoke edge win be like lukega gets hazy and it's like hey why are we doing this i'm just like well this

is just kind of what happens when you don't play game so like i haven't felt the need to say a

whole bunch of stuff but like that that's where we're at anyway move to these to conference though

that's fine so Steve let's talk about these Detroit pistons shall we so overall this year 45

and 18 they still have the best record in the eastern conference though they're lead over the

boss of Celtic's issuing which brief aside if we're going to post quotes can we use the full

quote and not try to make controversy out of things that are not controversial jv bicker staff

saying bossin is good i'm not worried about them i am worried more about us in us taking care of

business does not mean that he is disrespecting the boss of Celtics don't cut off the it anyway

that's fine anyway Detroit pistol is best record in the eastern conference 11th and offense

defense 4th and it ready what's up did you get to know it on the internet again do i need to bring

the hashtag big married back we need to bring this back out we got to do a full vote i just don't

i don't like disingenuous stuff man i just i don't like that i like people misunderstand

things sometimes and that's what conversation and insight is for i don't like here are three sentences

if i take off the third sentence the feeling of this thought is way different and more scandalous

so let's use the first two sentences instead i don't like stuff like that that body don't do that

but back to the actual basketball of the Detroit distance

they are on as you alluded to it's not let they haven't lost all that often and they certainly

haven't strung together losses all that often they have lost four straight games lost at Cleveland

at San Antonio they lost to Brooklyn at home in which they had a big leave and lost it

and down the second leg of that back to back they lost at Miami no k and orsar in the Brooklyn

game no a star in the Miami game we're waiting on the star Thompson come back he is very important

to what the Detroit business do defensively he has had an all defense caliber year and even as he

has some offensive questions that we talked about with cucko hill on a recent episode of the

Dome Spot like the offensive rebounding still important the cutting still important the transition

attacks are still important so it's it missing a star is a big deal for him to sprinkle that in

but they lost four straight they are five and five since the all star break where they have

been pretty much middle of the pack and everything since then so over those 10 games 17th and offense

15th of defense 15th and net rating permeate.com and so Steve the question I'll pose to you is

is this just a blip for the Detroit pistons late in the season they face adversity they're also

gonna be fine or has there been anything during this stretch of games where you're like

ooh they may need to solve this or this could be a bigger deal.

You know what I'm gonna say it's it's it's the adversity of the season you know I don't want to tell

the full story but I was in Brooklyn about 10 years ago good lord long time ago and the Brooklyn

that's we're not having a good year on my way out and we play the Cleveland Cavaliers in March

with the brawn James and we beat them in the Barclays Center and I sat in the back and I was like

who says this team is a contender well they went and made history and made a story come back

and four is one championship so yeah things happen in March you got to deal with it this is the

adversity of the season I think the biggest thing when it comes to Detroit right the defense

hasn't been at the same level you could say they're five and five post all star break they beat

New York they beat Cleveland they beat Orlando so they've had some good positive performances

post all star break they also have had to deal with the victory woman yama twice that's not

exactly fun specifically for that team sure as they revenge back on them Brooklyn

guys were out but they were end up you know they end up putting themselves in position to win they

ended up losing that one in Miami is scorching hot the defense that's just a reminder I think

their defense has to play at a certain level for them to have a certain amount of success like

that's a non-negotiable I think for the pistons you have to be able to finish the guard you can't

give up 120 and I and you can't let up on that end you just don't have the wiggle room so I think

for me that's the biggest reminder I mean offensively you just gotta maintain your sharpness

maintain your attack it the ball in the paint move and attack defenses that's the biggest thing

there are certain things like I think we get so caught up in what a team doesn't do like oh this

team is uncreative you don't understand the amount of creativity you have to have when you are

lacking things offensively when you don't have natural spacers when you don't have a guy multiple

people who can just get a bucket like you have to generate and create so many different things

to open the possibility for you to run and execute and put pressure on defenses because you don't

have the oh you just face the floor and run a pick and roll no we don't have that like so many

things work for certain teams we can't just copy and paste that to our team we don't have the

person out for that if you defend the first part of this play we're gonna be cooked so I think

you gotta like we kind of copy like like stop copying paste in the creativity portion you have a

real creative of trying to figure out how to score when you can't score sometimes that's that's

my biggest thing and even when you can like the thunder have been a top five offense this year they

were a top five offense last year and we had similar hey man if she ain't on the floor what does this

look like if you take away some of this picking roll or you just trap she ain't what does this look

like and that's with just our top five offense you know what I mean so like to your general point

it's just kind of hard scoring NBA which kind of goes against the there's no defense being

played thing but again we'll save that rant for another day I think to answer my own questions

Steve with Detroit I think this is like I'd say it's like 65% just adversity and they're fine as

they get healthier at least to close out the regular season and it's 35% this is kind of what I've

been concerned about with Detroit isn't what does I've enjoyed them like the one thing that I've

been able to point at is less the creativity bit and more to you know what you said like the spaces

how we have to kind of work around that and it's when you face good teams slash good

defenses slash good coaching staffs are you going to be able to generate enough offense in the

half court and I think honestly this is kind of where the assault portion comes back in because I

think with Detroit they have been hovering around the top 10 offense all year long but it reminds me

of kind of the peak Memphis teams with y'all which sounds wild to say like peak Memphis at this

point since Bains not there and Jairn not there anymore etc but you look at some of the Memphis

teams like oh this is a top 10 offense and then you look at their splits and it's oh they get out

and transition more than just about anyone the half court offense is kind of mid but because they run

as much as they do it over it equals and overall top 10 offense Detroit has a similar bit they

they're 18th and half court offense but third highest transition rate in the league and they're

about league average there but that's still a lot of points for possession this is where their

offense is hung around the top 10 you remove a star tops and out of the mix and thus the guy that

really helps you with the weak side blocks the weak side steals the on ball steals they get you into

transition oh we don't get as many of those baskets as we're accustomed to we're in the half court

more the other quiet thing about Detroit they're half court offense rating is what it is in terms of

the percentage of possessions that are spent in the half court they got the lowest mark in the

league this year so again further in further emphasizes like we get out we force turnovers we

force misses we get out and run if the defense slips at all you lose part of that and now if you're

in the half court more this is where teams you look at the spurs game okay let's put wind be on

a non shooter let's just muck stuff up and even if just kind of broaden out the scope post all start

break with Cade and Jalen during all right during action we know how good Cade is you know how good

Jalen during his okay let's switch this to show a whole bunch of help behind it let's just put two

on Cade all the time and then pre-rotate Jalen during and dare somebody else to shoot like they're

mixing up the types of help and the type of aggression against those two and now there's even more

of a spotlight on the others around those two whereas lay hey y'all kind of have to make shots you

kind of have to make plays in order for this to work like even circling back to the Cleveland

wind that they had during the stretch the one like Cleveland had them in a box for a majority of

that game and then the fourth quarter and overtime happens a shout out Dennis Jenkins a shout out

Jalen like they got plays they ultimately won that game they just are credit for that even in that

game you kind of saw we can just kind of muck things up we can take the pain away from you kind

of have to solve that and so that's where I'm like I don't think Detroit is fraudulent or anything

like that this is where again I am more so this is adversity and I think they're also gonna be fine

but it is starting to get a little bit louder about okay when they are in the half court they do

need more answers to this even if it isn't more creativity some of y'all just have to knock down

the open shots that you're getting to kind of grease the wheels a little bit so we can get back to

leading with our defense forcing those misses forcing those turnovers and then being the best

version of ourselves you fell into my trap the guy is dunking his hair oh my but the concern

that you have with Detroit if I was to be concerned is if they could not create shots the fact that

they can still create the looks they want to and they're missing them tells me okay we just need

to make shots when a team becomes in peril to me it's when we are no longer able to create the

kind of looks we want to and I have not felt that with Detroit I know they've not made the kind of

shot you want to make I know they haven't felt the way they felt offensively before but at no

point has it felt like boy they can't do anything we're we're unable to create offense

till they get to that point I'm not concerned so there we go oh I think that's fair and like not

me falling into the trap card that's crazy but I think that's fair I guess for me it's more like

if you're taking away the paint from Cade and from Durham like it puts a lot of

emphasis on Cade till like okay you have to make all these middies you have to be more willing to

take pull up threes and knock those down like not that he's not capable but again it just kind of

shifts a little bit of responsibility and the role players just have to knock down shots degrees

will so we will see again we'll see if they're able to snap this losing streak relatively soon

last thing for me Steve that's what to quickly touch on the Sixers not gonna do full deep dive

you got so much stuff to get to but the Sixers are one and four in March right now and as you mentioned

earlier they've kind of been a formally in the four to six range pretty much all year long

until we got to this stretch and now they have followed to eight clean the glass they are

16th and offense 18th and defense 19th and that rating negative point difference right now

despite being four games over 500 and in those games to give the little bit of grace to them

offer it which kind of flows into my overall question for you joellen bead has not played in mark

and he's missed eight of their last ten games tirey's maxi currently out with a sprained

pinking finger which quick shout to a Derek botner of philly sports phli sports who recently noted

like hey tirey's dealt with this finger injury last year and then the four games that he played

trying to work through the sprained pinky shot 28% from the field I think when 214 they ultimately

shut them down and ultimately the field he was just shutting people down anyway they end up with

VJ edge comb I think they won that one but if maxi's gonna play through this one we do have that

bit of recent history there kill it you bray missed the San Antonio you tie back the back

Paul Georgia still suspended so like they're missing folks right now they are 20th and offense 20th

and defense 21st and that rating since the all star break and my broader thing I want to pose to

you Steve is like I don't know how to analyze this portion of the six or season not that I can't

like turn on the game and see what they're doing on offense of defense because like you can see

that stuff but more so bigger picture I entered the season saying to you my only guarantee about

the six or season is that I'm going to be wrong about the six or season I'm either going to trust

in the talent and think they're gonna be like a top 4c and they're gonna finish like 12th or I'm

not going to trust the health and then they're gonna and lo and behold they're now ace so like

that's lovely and so it's just like I don't know how to soak in the fact that we have seen the high

end of the sixers with Joe on the beat flowing in in the December in the January and looking like a

world ender tirey's maxi's played in all NBA level and fringe MVP candidate pretty much all year long

BJ edge com has firmly been he's going to beat make the all looking first team we're going to get

there a little bit later but like he's been good Paul George was starting to find his way it's kind

of like a gap killer on both ends of the floor for his suspension and you were getting enough

from like second unit guys and Kelly you were able to have a good year is like okay this is what it

can look like and then we get here where guys are missing teams are throwing different looks

at tirey's maxi's like okay this feels interesting I just don't know which part to believe in I

guess because the health stuff was always in peril so like the question I'd want to ask you on a

general note is just like how have you soaked in the sixers season and then to narrow down how

have you felt about the sixers stretch because like I don't know how much to weigh because of how

perilous the health situation is with them all right I mean I think for me this portion of the

sixers season is we cannot afford this we we've ran out of we've run out of things to be able to

handle the adversity that we're being handed I think for me overall Philadelphia did a very good

job of building a type of offense that would highlight tirey's maxi highlight BJ edge com as they

were trying to get Paul George and Joelle and be back so okay we're not going to do elbow action

we're not going to be post heavy we're going to get to drive and kick we're going to flow

away at the cuts we're going to have this so we have something on top of what Joelle and be brings

to the table and we saw Joelle and be come back and stabilize so we have the drive and kick but

also we can play through Joelle and be at the elbow we can play through at the post you can do

picking roll he can do handoffs we can keep pressure on you that way so you have kind of a

game in the yang to a degree of okay we built something when we're trying to manage him

he comes in and elevates that Paul George find his rhythm in that and then

everyone starts to disappear Joelle and be is now gone again and I mean gone gone Paul George is out

BJ edge com is out and now you're left with a talent deficit to a degree

that can't overcome you know because it's cool to do driving kick and do cuts and flow but

if you're a team face of Philadelphia 76ers why am I not just switching everything

we must care about this so I become easier to guard to a degree so it's less about

hey what can Philadelphia do it's more can they get their people on the court

now because they put themselves in position at six to okay we can compete you don't want to see

this in the playoffs at eight that's a different story and even with eight they're what a game

and a half ahead of like they're closer to nine than they are to six at this point it's like if this

kid continues that these guys continue to miss like what happens if the six is continue to slot

like the next five games they're playing Memphis later tonight on Thursday to go to Detroit Saturday

against Brooklyn was they should win but like Brooklyn plays a style to where if they

if it doesn't have like in beat back in particular like the sixers get up I mean the nets get up

and down and they can force turnovers and so like that could get kind of hazy like stylistically

that's an interesting match up Portland similar deal especially if they are any semblance of healthy

like the Portland slide we talk about the West play and like that's kind of gone under discussed

for that's okay um but yeah that's why I'm just kind of like I agree with you but it also feels

to me like I don't want to sell the sixers short you know what I mean like I don't want to reduce them

to if healthy good if not healthy bad and that's just kind of it you know what I mean so that's

why I'm just kind of like how are you soaking this part in because like I'm watching these sixers

games like to your point it was Cleveland the second half of back to back they had no maxi they had

no nb they had no pg they had no vj and so Cleveland very large who's like yeah we're just switching

all of this stuff actually and like unless you force a miss or turn over it you can actually get into

some of this early drag stuff and be able to get downhill that way you don't really you don't have

anything I was like okay and then the defense itself is they're missing their best guys I guess

the less thing I'll note before we get out here like I would like to see more consistency from

Quentin Grimes like that would certainly help this iteration of the team and once everyone comes

back you get a more consistent scoring punch for him it felt like it feels like the productivity

and the way that you're using him that's kind of fluctuated throughout the year and so I want to

see more on that he just had I think 26 the other night and that was his first 20 point games since

December 5th I don't know if that's the kind of note you want with Quentin Grimes but it's just

odd I hope they're able to get it together but it's just been kind of odd watching the sixers and

watching the bodies kind of drop on that one that's all ahead all right well we're going to take a

break there when we return Steve has another edition of his rookie ranking so we're going to sort

few those and then we're going to check back in on the rookie awards who's the rookie of the year

who's going to be in that top three and what do our all rookie teams look like as of March 10th we

still have another month or so to go we want to check in real quick so please stay tuned continue

and we are back with this episode of the Dunker Spot and Steve while we're I guess loosely related

to the Philadelphia 76ers let's talk some rookies let's talk VJ edge comb in the rest of the top of

this class you recently wrote another rookie ranking which is very well done check it out on

Yahoo Sports if you haven't already Steve's been dropping these monthly been cool to kind of see him

why just be right so just a brief aside like I have enjoyed reading your content all your

loss so please keep it going friend let's say let's dig into these rookies let's get into your top five

as of today Steve so who do you have in your top five right now well I think the most interesting

before we even get to the top five is just at this point of the year you know a lot about these

rookies like you've seen a lot of their success in the highs and lows seen consistency be shown

you've seen reps pay off you've seen like rolls grow everything's kind of established to a point

so you have probably more answers than questions but you don't have the complete story still

and it gets really interesting to me as I was putting this together it's like okay how do we balance

this rookie the year race where Cooper flag and Conniple have had incredible seasons and they've

just kind of passed things back and forth probably there some people that probably have had con

number one the whole time there's some people that have maybe switched to Cooper flag for people

that have gone on back and forth and I think it gets interesting you look at the two players

particular like Conniple has just been a metronome as far as his consistency for the Charlotte Hornets

you know exactly what you're going to get for him he has a base that helps them offensively

he's scoring and shooting has been outstanding and it's been just like hard to deny how great he's

been every single night for this team but then you kind of balance that out with Cooper flag

and his incredible growth over the course of the season where we go from the start of the season

we're talking about hey is he is he making the right reads he finding the his way offensively

and now you see a command and a control offensively a consistency a confidence where

I'm gonna get to a spot I want we're gonna run pick and roll I'm gonna get down hill I'm gonna left

hand he and drive and whoever's here you got to deal with me how do you balance that out you know

Conniple is helping to impact Charlotte's winning Cooper flag is handling a super large responsibility

in workload for a Dallas offense that needs him to make these plays and make these reads so how do

we get that done and then as we go further down especially you know going to top five in most

of 10 how do we deal with injuries right how do we digest a rookie's full season versus how they're

playing towards the end like how do we handle deer Queen and Jeremiah fears and the shifts for them how

do we handle a Maxine Renara Ace Bailey having more of a opportunity to produce but what's

happening with that opportunity and so I think it's just a lot of good players in different situations

having impactful moments and it gets interesting for me so that's where I would start guys are

okay no I think that's fair and I think to the actual five names you had like I think it's kind

of like six players for five spots for like that top five in my opinion we're going to get

as we get to the rookie discussion but Conniple Cooper flag VJ edge comb I feel like that's kind

of been our top three in some order for pretty much the entire season to your point some may have

had Cooper flag shifted the con or had con shifted the Cooper some may have had either one of those

just number one overall for however you whatever your format is VJ has just kind of been three

where you come out the gate like yes sure I'll log 38 minutes of game and defend the opposing

players best perimeter guy because you need us to do that especially while Paul George is working

to self back in the flow and here are the drives and transition attacks and here's the three point

shootings but oh well he's helping go winner that's cool honestly to that portions the like

role versus impacting a good team or impacting winning overall it's kind of been interesting to

watch like the VJ and Con cases because like when VJ was really at the peak of I am scoring I'm

driving I'm shooting I'm defending the sixers are surprised like they're the top four top five

the hornets weren't this yet you know what I mean like Con was still helping because of the shooting

and the screening and the drives were hitting but like you didn't have that element you flip the 2026

and now the hornets have just been one of the best teams in basketball and Con keeps doing this

is like oh well this feels even louder we're watching you know collectively as the NBA community

we're watching Charlotte more because they how are they doing this there's no way they keep doing this

oh they keep doing this and within that Con and Knapple has just kept doing this and to your point

about Cooper flag it's like okay point guard experiment there's a lot of on ball reps the space

rate he's trying to figure out the mid range game but like you still felt an element of he seems

comfortable getting to spots defensively he can do a little bit of everything on and off the ball

there are growth areas defensively but like overall there's a baseline level of he is not going to

hurt us and at the best in the best version of selfies he is flying around and so now like before

you get to this Cooper flag injury and thank goodness he just came back on Thursday it was like oh

now Cooper might actually overtake this like he's been insane but then he got hurt and so whatever

I think that's why I think a rookie of the year like I've kind of been on the con train

but now you factor in oh Cooper just missed so much time there's even more ground for him to cover

as we close out this season so I like I am curious to see how that part plays out like it is a

12 game gap between the two right now I mean here's the thing though like I had Cooper flag

one the last time I did these and he you know he had the injury con was consistent that like con

just kind of snuck up a little bit but you look and you got to remember how good Cooper flag was

playing before the injury like I scored 27 or more and five of his last six games before he got

hurt and he was starting to make threes he was starting to get to the free throw line and it was like

okay he's found a different level and then he got hurt and while he got hurt con the nipples

is like hey I'm just gonna keep doing what I do which is make a whole bunch of threes set screen

slip roll finish and be a metronome BJ edge come I think it's easy to call him just like a

a distant third but he's been a consistent third in my opinion and that's a bar we just talked

about the six we just talked about the sixers but they're not necessarily like this version of

this team without his efforts and his consistency and his ability to get downhill and understand the

assignment and mix in the threes and the makes statistically are there a ton of numbers that you

can just point to be like hey this is great maybe not but he's asked to do something that's not easy

hey can you make a bunch of shots for us and can you make a bunch of plays for us and can you defend

at a high level and you see what they look like without him and so I salute BJ edge can

for just having an understanding of what the assignment is and being able to do this consistently

as a rookie like that's not easy to do you know I mean yeah I think if you want one number Steve

just kind of looking at dunks and threes EPM among the rookie class of BJ edge come he is fourth

hot conknifle who's one calling Murray Boyles said your coward BJ edge come I'm on plays that

played at least 45 games want to have like some kind of baseline there but he's fourth there

and he's second overall the estimated wins cons one BJ's two cool flags three so like that's some

that's more and that's not the point to but to your point like his importance on both ends has

just kind of been there you see that within the in the literal minute count I don't think he would be

playing as much if the six didn't need him and Nick nurse in particular would not be playing him

this much if he didn't need him that's an extra level there um but I think once you get into

four five six and again that goes into the all rookie second team we're gonna get there I would

assume that your top five is your all rookie first that that feels like a safe assumption well

okay well yeah well yeah that's that's that's how these things should work in my opinion the

top five three top five and so I think it's interesting because usually you don't always insert

an impact on winning into an all rookie case right because usually typically it's I think

that's not always easy for a rookie to help a team immediately and impact their winnings so I

was a you know team struggling Dylan Harper I think his case has just been the consistency and

the strength as far as bouncing back from some tough months and continuing to kind of impact

the spurs like the spurs right there best when they have their guards playing at a high level and

when he's able to get downhill and he's able to get these paint touches when he finishes he forces

help to create offense for San Antonio San Antonio it's so important I think what he's done of late

it was really key because you kind of got to a point with Dylan Harper it was like oh our defense

is just saying make a play man if your space go ahead we're gonna we're gonna help off you if you're

and not finishing we're gonna contest and his response just to kind of be like you know what I'm

gonna keep my boys I'm gonna keep my pace I'm gonna keep getting down home to keep changing speeds

I'm gonna keep attacking in transition being a threat for a really good spurs team I think is

really key and so I think that's why I put him for after four it got real interesting for me

because what do you do with a Derek Queen how do you process the shift for Derek Queen as far as

what we saw early in the season the potential the passing the playmaking the smooth footwork

and then you look up in the minutes are different the assists are slashed in half and the defense

doesn't feel as good as you would want it to at the stage in the season so how do you bounce that

out how do you appreciate the entire season that he's had because he still has a craft on his drives

he still is a really good playmaker and a passer they're not necessarily playing through him

in the same level and not playing him as any minute so how do we kind of

respect and tip the cap to the efforts that he's done for the entirety of the season yeah I think

that's a fascinating question Steve because I think to your point about rookies impacting winning

or having like possible on office stuff like that I think that's me or I think historically had

has been more of a oh if you do this you get extra credit versus you have to impact winning at

X amount of level otherwise you're just not considered at all because as you said it's kind of

baked in the top players in the draft are generally going to the worst teams in the league or at

least the year prior they were there are obviously this injury exceptions things like that but generally

speaking you're going to a bad team you're supposed to lose your minutes so when rookies are able to

impact winning in a positive way and do so consistently it's like oh well this is special so to your

Dylan Harper point him being different off the bench and him being part of like this three guard

or three and a half guard however you want to donate them but being part of this wave I think

is pretty impressive especially in this western conference and so for Dylan Harper two bouts back

not just from team saying yeah we're sitting on these dry speak jumpers we there you also dealt with

injury like I think his injury stuff made this portion thing the center coward injury made things

interesting as you think about it you already talked about um Derek Queen his role kind of

shit thing going to the bench like the under Jordan's logging starts Zion isn't missing games which

is a positive like that also complicates who how much do we want to play Zion and Derek Queen

together offensively this is intriguing defensively it's just not at least not right now so like

that's an interesting stuff plot happening in New Orleans right now but yeah it's it's interesting

so what I did Steve is I went back to my notes it's like okay what did I have when we did the last

rookie check-in on date January 23rd and so my first team at that point was Cooper Flack

Conconniple V.J. Edgecomb said your coward and Derek Queen Dylan Harper who was like a first

team guy for me earlier in the year because of the slide in the injuries he slides to the second team

for me as of today let Dylan Harper's probably back on my first team said your coward is kind of

like the last guy in right now as he like missed time came back and then he just he didn't play

Monday nights we'll see if that it was listed as knee management or knee injury management so

hopefully that's just precautionary versus something else being an issue um but like said the

coward's in but like him versus Derek Queen or just Harper versus coward versus Queen it's kind

of where I get to some friction uh with things like the how do I want these teams to go but first

thing for me Connflack V.J. Harper a coward right now as again to the second team Steve uh so you

had Derek Queen on your first team kept that off who would you have on your second team right now

well I had uh said your coward was leading that off and it's interesting because he's also someone

who's very impactful on the Memphis but he's missed a lot of time and so that's another person

where how do we balance out what he's done throughout the season started out shooting the ball very

well struggled with the shot afterwards but was able to continue to cut and drive and have an

impact from it this and then just missing a lot of time like okay I think you've been very impactful

but at some point like everyone else is still kind of playing or what does that do struggle

bus there uh I have Maxine Reno right and so he's had an extended opportunity with Sacramento and

and just being able to kind of be consistent and be a rim runner and transition and and be a

really good screener like be solid stay um in the vision of you know whoever's handling the ball

until you can get a pocket pass and so how much of this is just him being able to play minutes

or do we just kind of tip the cap because he's consistently producing uh I had Jeremiah fears

next as well which is it's been an interesting deal for Jeremiah fears as far as you probably didn't

anticipate him to be consistent he showed a consistency early in the season and then it just kind

of went backwards a little bit and so can he kind of find different ways to have impact but I think it's

you know the bug getting is one thing but building on top of that is huge for him like so having

rejects and pick a rope into driving kick like being ready all fall I think he's kind of been a

little bit cleaner as the season has gone on so it's been a solution to Jeremiah fears there

it's hard to deny what Colin Murray boils has done all season for the Raptors um but again he's

also someone who he's been chasing time so it's this is very interesting but I mean

when he's at the five we know the impact he can have but just the defensive importance I think

that he's played with all season long and you know there's not a ton of people you wouldn't trust

him to guard and so having that kind of energy and impact a consistency for a good team that

has value and then for me I have a Bayley less I mean I think he's found his comfort zone with

within what you chose wanted to do offensively and I think the movement has opened things up for him

to get downhill and he's found a way to be more consistent with that offensively and so I think

the willingness to kind of let thing let it fly has been huge but being able to do it on

nightly basis when teams are a little bit more paired or a little bit more understanding of what

you want to do offensively I think that's important so I think that would probably my second team

you know uh coward Raynell fears Colin Murray boils and ace Bayley okay all right well I think

we're cycling through like the same groupings of names at the very least so my second team

as of today uh would be Derek Queen I would have Maxine Reynoan Colin Murray was still in but I'm

keeping an eye on the games a guy that was on my second team when we did the worry and I guess

what I will give my final shout out today since he's officially done for the season that was

an hour's couple days ago uh Yegor Jolman of Brooklyn he will be on my second team as of today

when we do this I guess before the regular season ends like he's not going to be on because he's

just done uh but shout out to him for the shooting and as the season went on the officially wasn't

always there but the biggest question mark around it was like hey can you deal with ball pressure

can you get downhill at all and like seeing that aggression on drives perk up I think that

helped unlock some of the playmaking which which was really the selling point for him coming in

that plus the three point shootings but okay I like I like what I'm seeing here um so he's in for

now won't be in for long as Bailey is in for me as well and it's funny when I brought Ace up

back in January and that flowed into like use of Nercut's praise you were not at all prepared for

as use of Nercut was just in the middle of a triple double streak and like now he's since been

ruled out for the season et cetera but Ace just uh man I love the way that he's used in Utah

his size pops on the screen every time I see him he just feels like he's coming off of a flare or

some kind of a handoff and then it's just someone smaller defending him and whenever he sees someone

smaller it's like yep you're coming with me it's not always the most explosive drive and that's

where someone to finish you get the rhythm get low hazy but it's just like the cons like the the

process for me just like I have an advantage I'm attacking you you're tilted I can win here I'm

learning how to get it to some of these shoulder nudges I'm changing the pacing on like my gatherers

to make sure I can create a little bit more space for myself I'm trying to finish around folks

again officially isn't all the way there but like I like what I'm seeing on that front

in addition to some of the passive he can make he's been up for the challenge defensively at

the very least on ball off ball it can be and a real adventure for him but that is just rocky stuff

but Ace is in for me which means uh Tray Johnson who was on my second team he's an honorable

mention for me that when we did this in January Jeremiah Fears was also on my second team so he's

an honorable mention for me right now either of those guys can cycle back in especially if

Collin Murray boys continues to miss time again Yegor is out so like I would imagine one of those two

were going to slide in anyway but then I kind of got into thinking about the rookies that are on

play in slash playoff teams that are doing good things but like the roll or the minutes they had

them a little bit behind so like Ryan Caulkbrenner was someone I was super high on at start the season

super deep drop gonna contest everything gonna block a bunch of shots the screening could be

a little bit better but like the screening was pretty little solid at the very least just room

for upside on that front very simple roll he was finishing everything I think at the time we

talked about him the first time he was on the stretch where he converted like 80% of the shots over

like a five or six games fans like a holy crap well he's gonna be this I think you take that

but then he got hurt and as he got hurt the hornets hit their roll because like it was always

Ryan Caulkbrenner kind of sets the tone deep drop test shots whatever and then Moosa Diabata

comes in he's gonna be activity based he's gonna switch crushed off into glass etc

Ryan Caulkbrenner goes down

Moosa Diabata just has to start and like that starting lineup in general just took off and the

hornets as a whole just took off and so like it's felt kind of quieter since Caulkbrenner's been

back since he's coming out the bench but like he is still very much doing screening contest shot

block shot finish at the rim things and so I don't think he's far he was never far off from me

anyway but like he's in that discussion for me who will guns all this in Boston I really enjoy

watching him play basketball I love watching him defend the screening on and off the ball the

cutting the offense a rebound I go back to the Milwaukee game I think last week it was the

Yannis returns what is it gonna look like Boston sitting folks what is this really gonna look like

and who goes like yeah 18 and 16 five offense a rebound five stocks take eight threes make three of

them like it's like oh well I'm not expecting him to average that of course but it's just like oh

well this is just a culmination of I will fill gaps I would not be given if you are late to a ball

I will get there whether that's a loose ball offense a rebound deflection whatever the case may be

and like whenever he's been called upon like you mentioned Baylor Shimon a little bit earlier

but whenever he goes been called upon I will defend whoever you ask me to I am going to be

annoying and we're likely going to win my minutes but to the minutes point he's averaging 15 and a half

this year so it's just like I don't know how to place him versus some of these other guys to have

more responsibility that's kind of tough will Richard was a guy that I enjoyed watching and going

to stay early on his year still do his shooting his cutting some of the passes that he's put on film

against hill to defense is in front he's taking all some tough defensive assignments as well

and it's just like okay well your minutes aren't all the way up there either like it's got felt

like the roles kind of fluctuate as the years gone on the trades have been made etc so I'm curious

to see how he closes that season and so I'm just kind of thinking about these guys like what do I

what do I do as we get closer to the end because to your earlier point it is not easy

to impact winning and to do so on good teams and to earn the trust to have the opportunity to do so

so like I want to salute those guys but they don't have the same responsibility so those are some other

guys that I'm thinking about it so yeah then just empty the notes on the rookies look can I

get some quick shout outs real quick while we're here I wouldn't put the emphasis on a quick brother

I will do that just as I was doing some filtering since the last time we did this so since January

23rd no no triorian Brooklyn 12 and five average of a silver game really enjoyed his drives

neat Clifford in Sacramento since we talked about Maxine right now getting more responsibility as

all of the high money guys have kind of they've opted for surgery and have been ruled out

12 5 and 3 for him and still in a half like I've enjoyed him all both ends and we'll rally in Washington

for talking about the bucket getting uh Tray Johnson I'll obviously knock it down a bunch of shots

a lot of threes we'll rally checks in just like yeah I got this you may not know how I get to my

spots when I'm getting there I am taking all these shots he's been one of the hot rookie scores

over the past month and a half or so so just wanted to get some quick shout outs there but those are

my rookie thoughts Steve I have done them have you emptied all your notes out can we hit the horns now

yeah we can hit the horns in the interest of time and no cv agreed to yet so I guess we'll

get that news later hashtag darn hashtag please get it done though and with that thank you for listening

to and or watching this episode of the darker spot please subscribe if you haven't already

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