SGA vs. Wemby for MVP, Cade Cunningham & 65-game rule, Jokic & Nuggets stay hot | NBA Reaction

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All right, welcome to Hoops tonight here at the volume.

Happy Wednesday, everybody.

Hope all of you guys are having an incredible week.

Got a jam pack show for you guys today.

We're going to hit three game reactions off the top of the show.

We're going to hit nugget sons as they look poised to end the season.

Very strong.

The Cleveland Cavaliers went about outscoring the Orlando Magic yesterday.

And the New York Knicks got a win over a very feisty New Orleans Pelicans team.

We're going to break those three games down.

And then after that, we're going to get into some stories from around the league,

like Wendy's MVP case is a little underrated right now.

What about the 65 game rule and all the conversations surrounding that

in this weird fiasco with Yannis?

So you guys know the drill.

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All right, let's talk some basketball.

So nugget sons first.

That was a really fun game.

These have been two of my favorite teams to watch all season.

Obviously over the last several years, the nuggets.

I just think they play some of the most beautiful offense in the league,

which kind of naturally makes them a really easy watch

when I'm going through my film sessions.

And I'm obsessed with this son's team.

They're just one of my favorite kind of like

middleing playoff teams of the last few years.

They have three dudes who strike real fear into the defense

just with the threat of their shooting in Devon Booker,

Grayson Allen and Colin Colispie.

It's amazing how often those two guys,

or those three guys, excuse me, just flying off of some type of screen

will cause defenders to panic chase them.

And then you'll end up with two on the ball,

even if they don't have the ball.

And they'll end up leaving somebody open.

And then Jordan not just constantly has those guys in motion in a way

that can really kind of weaponize that threat to a greater extent.

Then they have several of my favorite role players in the league.

I'm a huge Jordan Goodwin fan.

Obviously, I rooted for him on the Lakers last year.

Also, Gidaro has blossomed really into a talented kind of like

versatile, undersized center in this league.

And obviously Dylan Brooks, he's injured right now,

but he's given us like a dozen super entertaining moments this year.

And when he's not trying to injure people,

he's actually one of my favorite players.

Jalen Green is very up and down.

Maybe one of the most up and down ball handlers in the history of the league.

But when he's hitting shots,

his impact is actually closer to that of a star,

because he can really pressure the rim.

And when he gets that pullup jumper going,

you can't really stop him from getting to it.

And then Jordan, again, it's just on a really good job

getting them to play a really fun brain of basketball and both ends of the floor,

especially on the defensive end of the floor.

I've said this before, I think they do some of the best job rotating

that I've seen in the league this season.

And those two teams put on a show last night.

The nuggets ended up taking control in the middle portion of the game.

The David Adelman tried Julian Strother with the starters in the late second quarter.

Basically the same starters, but without Cam Johnson put in Julian Strother.

They went on a big late second quarter run and got a great shift out of Julian

and that stretch. The nuggets ended up pushing it up to double digits.

And then the sons had a great third quarter.

They forced a bunch of turnovers from Denver and that stretch.

They went on a late 9-0 run in a common Mollowatch group there at the end of the quarter.

It just turned into an absolute slugfest there in the fourth quarter.

For a minute there, it looked like Denver might pull away late.

Aaron Gordon hit a couple of shots.

Bruce Brown had a couple really nice drives.

He ended up beating Grayson Allen on the baseline for a verse.

And then he had this nasty left-handed driving finish in traffic.

The nuggets ended up going up by eight, but then the sons,

like they always do, they never give up.

They keep ratcheting up their defense and they ended up working it back to a tie.

And then late in the game, it turned into basically Devon Booker

versus the Yokech Murray two-man game.

And I've talked about this concept all season.

But having Aaron Gordon back unlocks a very specific spacing concept

for the Yokech Murray two-man game that didn't exist for most of this season.

And that's the idea of being able to go three flat on the baseline.

When they would do this in the past over the course of the season,

it would be like Spencer Jones in the Dunker Spot.

And Spencer Jones is a good player.

He does little things in the Dunker Spot to try to be impactful.

Like he'll get offensive rebounds.

He said a really nice pin-in flair, which is where like you,

when you're, when they're sinking in off of you in the Dunker Spot,

you screen for the shooter in the corner.

And that can create an open look.

He created one for Cam Johnson in the second half off of a look like that.

Like Spencer Jones can do some stuff down there.

But what he doesn't bring is that natural lob chemistry,

that like legitimate vertical spacing window.

And so when Aaron Gordon is there,

it actually allows the nuggets to go three flat on the baseline.

Meaning Aaron Gordon, real threat.

But at the same time, your corners are occupied,

especially in that final possession,

where they put Tim Hardaway Jr. in for Christian Brown,

those guys got to stay home.

And so that puts the defense into a three flat situation,

as opposed to occupying those spots,

but the defense kind of pushing up.

You know, like if it's Christian Brown in one of the corners

and Spencer Jones in the Dunker Spot,

it's just not quite the same as, you know, that final play,

where it's Tim Hardaway Jr. and Aaron Gordon.

And those guys kind of have to stay flat.

What that does is it clears the entire middle of the floor

for that Yochitch Murray two main game.

When they don't have that much space,

it just becomes easier to guard.

You're effectively defending it three on two, right?

But when you can run that three flat on the baseline

and the defenders are all occupied,

it creates a true two on two dynamic

with the wide open ton of space there

in the entire middle of the floor.

And you're guarding an action that's arguably been

the best two main game action in the entire league

over the course of the last, you know, half decade plus, right?

And so they run it twice.

They're down in the tail end of the game.

And Jamal Murray ends up snaking the first one

and ends up getting to like a little pull up jumper

at the right elbow that he hits.

And so then the next time they run it,

also a Gidaro is very attentive to the fact

that Jamal Murray's going to that pull up.

This is the kind of like the pick your poison type

of situation that the two main game puts you in.

And so also, excuse me.

Also ends up lingering kind of around the elbow

to get ready for another Jamal Murray jump shot

at which point Murray promptly hits Yokehitch

right around that left elbow area.

He's got also separated from him and he's able

to just kind of go into that little leaning jump shot

that effectively ends up being the game winner.

On the other end of the floor, Devon Booker

was able to get to a couple of decent looks for himself.

He hit like a little pull up jumper in the middle of the floor.

We got the friendly roll off the front of the rim.

And then on the final possession,

the Duggets tried to double team him

and he actually shook free and used a pump fake

to get a pretty good look there along the right wing.

But he just left it short and the Nuggets got out of there

with the win.

I've been saying this for a while,

but I think the Nuggets are a lot better than their record.

Because of how brutal their schedule has been

and the injuries.

Once again last night,

they landed in Denver and got to bed around 5 a.m.

for yet another game tonight against a Dallas Maverick's team

that's been surprisingly feisty.

Although Denver will be a substantial favorite again tonight.

But they're healthy now.

And if they can survive this final stretch of schedule,

they still present the deepest team in the Yokech Murray era.

The ability to plug different types of players into their lineups,

whether it's, again, Tim Hardaway Jr.

being able to be plugged in on that final possession.

Or we continue to see the dividends of getting Bruce Brown back into this group.

Again, I thought those two drives that he had in the fourth quarter

were absolutely massive.

And then they have the flexibility with their bench groups

because of the depth that can piece together different versions of the bench group.

They'll have Jonas Valentinus as a scheme versatility thing

against certain types of teams where he's not a problem.

Now David Allen has been going away from Valentinus more as of late

and playing a lot more small ball groups.

I think that's smart simply because he needs to build out

the chemistry of his small ball groups so that he can

ultimately have a decision, an option between

a Valentinus group or a small ball group when he gets into the postseason.

It's been fun to watch Spencer Jones effectively operate as the big

in those small ball groups.

He's been running two-man game with Jamal Murray and he's had the ability to

pick and pop on threes and slip into the middle of four and hit floaters

and make four on three reads.

They've built out a look with that small ball group that they can go to.

This is a deeper and more versatile team than any

team in the Yokech Murray era.

Again, Aaron Gordon because of his ability to shoot the three

and work out of the post as a much better offensive player.

Then he's been in any previous time in this Denver Nuggets era.

Jamal Murray is the best version of himself that he's ever been.

Yokech obviously still working his way back from his knee injury

and refining some of those details.

But ultimately, that trio is just an absolute pain in the ass to handle.

When Gordon has the ability to shoot and vertical space the way that he does,

he can create more space for the Yokech Murray two-man game than ever.

And when those three guys on the floor, they're just huge pain in the ass

and they're surrounded by more depth than ever.

In 811 possessions this year with Murray, Yokech, and Gordon on the floor together.

They have a one-thirty-two offensive rating

and they're outscoring teams by 20 points per 100 possessions.

And I'll say as a lightker's fan, I'm officially worried about them snatching the three seed back.

They got a really tough game against San Antonio coming up and we'll see

how it goes with Wembee trying to pursue MVP.

He has to play in eight of his last 10 games.

So it's very possible that he ends up playing in both of the San Antonio games.

We'll see what ends up happening.

They got a tough game with San Antonio coming up.

But their toughest games, technically, are in the final week of the season.

And there's a chance that Wembee ends up just punting on MVP.

He's a very big long shot at this point.

And if he does and they end up resting guys and Oklahoma City ends up resting guys,

the Lakers have a much tougher schedule between now and then.

I actually think it's legitimately on the table that Denver wins out,

goes 54 and 28 gets the three seed because the Lakers have again a much tougher schedule

here down the stretch and they could end up going into their first round series

on a 12 game winning streak.

So for all the things that have happened, all the injuries, all the brutal schedule,

again, they had a six week stretch where they didn't play a single two game set in the same city.

That's really difficult for anybody to handle, let alone when you're talking about brutal

NBA travel, right?

So like, I'm pretty high on this Denver team still.

I still think they're the third best team in the West.

I think it's on the table that they win out and make it into that three seed.

That would be pretty damn good place to end this story,

given how this season went with all the details along the way.

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All right, moving on to Pelican's nicks.

This Pelican's team has been feisty for a while now.

I remember when I was watching the Lakers play them over three weeks ago.

It wasn't a game I covered here, obviously under the circumstances,

but they had all their dudes and they had the Lakers on the ropes in L.A.

Up eight with about seven minutes to go.

And that was right around the time when the Lakers were starting to figure things out.

And so they ended up making a massive late game come back.

Marcus Martin Jackson Hayes were amazing down the stretch in that game.

And I they ended up winning.

But I remember thinking at the time like this Pelican's team is a lot better than their record.

Because I didn't think the Lakers were mailing it in or anything.

The Pels were just giving them real problems.

And the turnaround is really centered around them just finally getting healthy.

They got to jump a Murray back from his Achilles rupture.

And that's kind of filled that ball handling void that they've had.

And it has slotted their off ball, you know,

but specifically Zion and Trey Murphy just slotted them more into natural off ball scoring roles.

He's had a little over 200 picker rolls and ISOs since he came back.

And he's been generating about 1.09 points per possession,

including passes in both categories, which is really impressive,

especially given how long he's been away from the game.

So Dejante is filled a very needed void.

Zion Williamson has actually been able to stay on the court for a few months,

consecutively now, which has led to a level of conditioning and rhythm

that we haven't seen from him in a while.

He's not, you know, getting to the rim 15 times the game like he did back in 2021,

but he's been really good this year.

Trey Murphy and C. Deak Bay have both had really impressive seasons throughout.

Herb Jones has finally started to hit some threes

after having a really brutal shooting season up to this point.

And then Jeremiah Fears has actually kind of blossomed into a pretty solid backup guard in this

league. And he was fantastic last night in Madison Square Garden.

So they look more like the Pelicans team that has generally been feisty when they've been healthy

over the last few years.

Since February 21st, about a five week span,

they're 10 and six, even after the loss in the last couple of games.

They're eighth in offense, 11th in defense, ninth in rebounding, fifth in fast break points,

and fourth in points in the paint.

Some strong metrics coming out of New Orleans.

And they threw a great punch last night in Madison Square Garden.

Zion did his thing.

Desired to hit in shoot well, but I thought he ran good offense.

He had a good floor game.

Jeremiah Fears had a really fun Madison Square Garden moment.

He did a lot of damage to the Knicks as a score, especially there in the second half.

They ended up holding a late third quarter lead in this one.

But I thought the Knicks throughout the game did a really good job of poking at the weak points

in the Pelicans defense.

I thought Herb Jones, again, on ball did a great job on Jalen Brunson.

Until the end of the game, Brunson got him a few times they're late,

but Herb is still one of the very best at what he does.

But there are some entry points in that Pelicans defense, specifically in their front court.

Between, you know, first of all, they don't play a starter.

They don't play a center and they're starting lineup.

They basically play Zion at center.

They do a lot of switching, but they also run like some pretty weak hedge and recover stuff with Zion

that can get them into rotation quite a bit.

And the Knicks, because of Mikhail Bridges and OG and OB and Josh Hart has gotten so much better

offensively this year, they're really tough to hide people on when you're playing against the

Knicks. They just have so many different guys that can make you pay for that sort of thing.

And so between like Zion, Williamson and I think Derek Queen falls into this category.

I'd even throw Carla Macavitch in this where like they just have these three bigger slower,

but not big enough to be a problem type of defenders that if you put them into action,

you can get pretty good stuff out of it.

And those guys, again, the Knicks just repeatedly put them into action over and over and over again

and would get them lost in one way or another and generate a lot of really good stuff.

OG and OB usually ended up being the guy that the pells would tuck Zion or Derek Queen on.

He would repeatedly beat them with like pick and pop threes, slipping out of ball screens into

the middle of the floor, even just spot up situations where Zion or Derek would either just like

not pay attention to him in a trailing transition situation or sink too far off the corner,

a corner and they would throw a bag close out and OG would hit a shot. OG is kind of like a cheat

code with this particular role because he's a guy that gets guarded like he's a role player.

But his offensive skill set is actually closer to that of a star in the sense that he can

legitimately score from all three levels. He can pass from the middle of the floor really well

and he can do everything off the move and off the dribble. So like even if you have to bring him

into screening action, like he can slip out and get his feet set quickly and hit a jump shot or

he could slip into the middle floor and he can attack the rim or make a four on three read.

Like he's just a really tough match up for teams that try or have to in this case with the pelicans

that have to actually stash weak defenders on him and OG just torched the pelicans last night.

Derek Queen ended up on carl anthem. He towns a lot last night similar kind of thing. We're just

he just struggled with the basic fundamentals of how you have to guard cat. Like when he's trailing

the play in transition, you know he wants that trailing three at the top of the key. You've got to be

there. You've got to be close and at the same time you got to be disciplined in your closeouts or he'll

just rip and drive past you. You almost have to be there on the catch with cat because if you're

closing out, even if you get there in time for the three, he's just so good at driving closeouts.

Cat did a bunch of damage to Derek Queen last night. And then Jalen runs and was just consistently

making that first pass and any sort of screening action with those guys, whether it be like a week

hedge from Zion or week head from Derek Queen. And they would get these quick little four on threes

or Jalen would just make a simple pass out to a guy slipping out of his screen. And again,

the nicks just have so many weapons that can make you pay for that sort of thing. Even with the

Eve's missy groups, like I was surprised by this. They were running like kind of a weak

high drop coverage where he was coming up to the level, but he wouldn't really bothering the ball

much. So once again, it was creating a lot of these four on threes. And again, the nicks are just

so good at bang, bang, making the quick passing reads out of that to get to open shots.

The long short of it is that pretty much any action involving Missy,

Mockovich, Zion or Derek Queen just got a great look for the nicks. And the nicks just wore that out

every time down the floor, very smart attack from New York. And then Brunson got super hot down

the stretch, like sometimes even against weaker defensive personnel, sometimes the team executes

their defensive coverage is really well. And, you know, herb Jones will just be like, I'm not

going to get screened on this possession, you know, something like that. And you end up in a late

clock situation where you sometimes you just have to go at your primary defender and you have to get

a bucket. And Brunson gave herb Jones a couple of really tough buckets there in that late fourth

quarter. A couple of really tough pull up jumpers there on the right side that helped ice this

game. Brunson has recovered nicely from that cold spell that he had a few weeks ago. And then

other nicks defense got going with a couple of defense transition sequences there down the stretch

right after those Brunson jumpers. And they were able to close it out and get a win. And we haven't

talked a ton of nicks lately because they've been in such an easy stretch of schedule. But they've

swept that schedule. They've now won seven in a row. And that Pell's team again, I think is a lot

better than their record would would lead you to believe they've had a 125 offensive rating

in that seven game span. The last Nick I wanted to talk about is Jordan Clarkson. After being out

of the rotation there for a little bit, he's played his way back into it. And he was a monster,

especially in that late fourth late first quarter run when the nicks kind of went on their first

little run to get some separation. The two things that really have stood out to me is one he's

building a lot of really good lob chemistry with Mitchell Robinson. He's found him to be a good

release valve when he gets on his drives. And then, you know, the other thing too with Mitch,

I think that's important is like you have to attack with speed in order to allow a big to slip out

of a screen. So like if you're attacking slow motion, suddenly that screen becomes super important

to get separation. But when you have a guard that can come fast off of the screen, it allows the

big to slip out of the screen quicker, which makes it easier for him to get behind the ball screen

guy. And again, you know, the pelicans were also kind of lingering at the level a little bit last

night. So Clarkson actually is a really natural fit with Robinson as a lob threat because he can

slip out of screens. He presented vertical spacing window. But Jordan Clarkson also brings the speed.

So Mitchell doesn't have to kind of linger in his screens for too long. And then he had some really

impressive connected playmaking sequences last night where he would catch the ball on like a back cut

or slipping out of his screen. He ended up in the middle of the floor in the short corner and

you just make the next read in that chain, which would generate like a high quality spot up

opportunity. And we've talked a lot about this with the next this year. They're generating a lot

more spot up opportunities than last year. Last year they were generating about 25 this year,

they're generating about 33. That's a massive increase. And that number has actually been getting

stronger over the second half of the season as they get more and more familiar with the playstyle

that Mike Brown wants to wants to use on that into the floor. And Jordan Clarkson may have a

reputation as a shop chocker, but he started to buy into that concept more the concept of what

Mike wants. And in this stretch, he's really helped the next to generate more of those spot up

opportunities. I thought it was an impressive win versus a really good Pelicans team again,

seven in a row tough schedule coming up. They got a three game road trip here. That's pretty tough

at Charlotte at OKC at Houston for the next three games. That's going to be a really nice

challenge for them. Little break there against Memphis in Chicago, although both of those teams

have been a little bit feisty here down the stretch of the season. Then a brutal end of the season.

Atlanta, Boston, Toronto, and Charlotte. So really nice little tune up for the postseason coming

for the next. All right, Orlando Cleveland. I was a little worried about this one for Cleveland.

I've been talking a lot lately about how without Jared Allen, the calves are really physically

slight and they can get pushed around a bit. And they've obviously been a train wreck defensively

since Jared Allen went out of the lineup. Orlando presents a very interesting counter to that,

right? Because they're just much bigger and stronger down the line. And Orlando was coming off of

a really bad loss last night or two nights ago against the Pacers where they fell apart in the

third quarter. So I thought they'd come out and throw a great punch in Cleveland. And they did.

And they did a lot of damage using their advantages. They were hopeless guarding Palo is just

too big and strong for them. Palo's generally just been really good as of late two. They predictably

mauled the calves on the glass. They had a 23 to 7 second chance points in advantage in this one.

And they got to the foul line a million times. I really like this Jamal Cain kid. He was a little

bit out of his depth because of the guard injuries. So Anthony Black and Jalen Suggs were out. So he

ended up having a guard Donovan Mitchell all night. And that's just a really tough matchup for him. But

I really like Jamal Cain. They just converted him off of a two way to a two year standard contract.

The latest in a long line of players that have come through Orlando that have great size and

athleticism high motor and a good amount of versatility on both ends of the floor. But Cleveland in

this case. So again, like Orlando had this massive advantage in the form of their size and their

physicality, which they were able to use to stay connected for the most part in this game and

actually lead at several points. But Cleveland had an advantage in the form of their speed. And

Cleveland was able to win this game on the strength of their offense. And again, if you're a calves

fan, that's the bright spot you're cleaning to right now. You're thinking if we can add Jalen

to like stabilize the defense and stabilize the rebounding while sustaining this ridiculous

offensive production, we're cooking with gas. Kenny Atkinson informed us yesterday that

Jared Allen is essentially in the final phase of his ramp up. So I'd expect him back at any point

in the next week. So we should get to see that concept and see if there's any validity there

in the next week or two. But Cleveland one last night because they were able to hang a preposterous

139 offensive rating in the half court against a very good Orlando defense. And again, Orlando

was without their guard defender. So that obviously put them at a speed disadvantage. But

Orlando does a lot of switching and they still have a lot of size and athleticism. So like

there was still, you know, a challenge that they presented Cleveland, but Cleveland used their

speed advantage throughout this one and did a ton of damage. So Orlando does a ton of switching

with their starting group. Harden and Mitchell were routinely just picking on their bigger slower

players. So particularly Palo, like Palo is fried chicken all night against both Mitchell and Harden.

Mitchell was going at Wendell Carter Jr. A lot, especially there down the stretch. They were

just picking on those slower players in space using their speed. Donovan Mitchell was amazing.

Last night, he went for 42. He had every part of his game going poor Jamal Kane. Again, like with

the guards being out, like one of the things with Jamal and with a lot of these defenders,

I've talked about this concept before. Like think like Jay to make Daniels versus Shay Gilder

Salisander, for example, like a lot of times we think of the 3 and D guys as big six eight

linky, you know, kind of guy. But the truth of the matter is those types of dudes,

they're a little upright. Their center's a gravity are higher and it's harder for them to

shift side to side and they make up for it with length, right? But like really, really quick guards

can do a good job of getting those guys to shift their weight one way or another and then attack

quickly the other direction. And Donovan just did a great job getting past Jamal Kane really

whenever he wanted to. And even on the possessions where Jamal did a good job and he slid his feet

and stayed in front of Don and got a good contest. Mitchell just had his pull up jumper really

dialed in last night. He had several really tough contested pull ups last night. I thought the

cabs also did a great job generating a ton of easy stuff. Like when you get into a switching team,

it wasn't all switching like they were running drop with Goga Patadze, which is to be expected.

Sometimes we'll end up with switch with Goga, especially against bigger, slower ball handlers.

But like the Lakers the other night, for example, you'll see a little bit more of the Goga switching.

But like they'll they can't ask Goga to defend those quick guards in space. And so they were

running drop and they absolutely fried the Goga groups. They had a 153 offensive rating when

Goga Patadze was on the floor last night. But when you're planning against a switching defense,

it's really easy to just fall into the trap of playing one-on-one basketball. And for the record,

that's certainly a part of how you attack a switching defense. You find favorable matchups,

you attack the favorable matchups, you either score effectively against them or you draw multiple

defenders out of attacking those matchups, which then opens up the defensive rotation situations

where you can get open threes, right? And again, that's certainly going to be part of your attack.

But if you fall into that trap and you do that every single time down the floor,

you're probably going to lose. That's really the idea of switching is to try to get you to stagnate

and lean too much on ice snowball, right? So like one of the things that I think they did really

well last night that helped kind of supplement that is just playing fast, especially in the half

court. They did have some defense to transition last night. They had 22 transition points last night.

But one of the best parts of the Kenny Atkinson experience over the last couple of years is just

how they run really fast three-man action. They'll get like Evan Mobley and a guard, one of the guards,

like Max Truce or Sam Merrill, involved in some way with Mitchell and Hardin. And they sprint

in and out of their screens. And what that does is it causes that like really quick decision-making

problem for like switches, right? And like we've seen like look at the end of the Lakers game

with the two openings they gave up when you run multiple quick interchange is it's actually really

hard to switch to communicate through those and to not have somebody make a mistake and have two

guys run with one guy or a guy fall asleep for a second and leave somebody open. And they got a lot

of easy opportunities, especially for Max Truce and Sam Merrill last night, even Evan Mobley just

kind of slipping out of screens towards the rim by running that kind of fast action at the top of the

court. And so again, like that's how you supplement against the switching defense. You're hunting

matchups, you're playing a lot of one-on-one, but you're also going to have supplementation in the

form of the the fast action, the defense, the transition stuff. That's how you give yourself

more resilience against that type of defensive look. I think Max Truce has looked great since coming

back. Obviously the shooting's been up and down. He's red hot in the first game played really

well last night. Got ice cold there in the middle. That's to be expected with how long he's been

away from the game as he kind of rebuilds his rhythm. But the main thing is I think he looks

fast and I think he looks athletic. And that's the important part because this shooting will stabilize

at some point. The most important thing was how's his foot doing? Is he able to plant really hard

and change direction and sprint in and out of cuts? In that part, I think I think he looks just

like Max Truce when he's sprinting in and out of screens. There was a particular play too last

night. We know Max Truce is actually pretty athletic when he gets a running start, but he had a

tip-dunk last night where he was relocating out to the right corner and he didn't get all the way

out to the right corner. He was backpedaling and then he stopped on a dime and then cut forward

and got a tip-dunk, which is an example of a non-momentum type of dunk. It was a really,

really impressive show of athleticism, especially for a guy coming back from such a bad foot injury.

They were able to just outscore the magic last night. Magic hung around, they kept it closed,

down in the middle, ended up icing the game late with that big floater in the lane where he probably

got fouled. But for the most part, all night, they were able to generate consistent offense.

And that's the exciting part because again, if they can connect this high-octane offense

to higher level of physicality, more resilience on defense and on the glass with Jared Allen,

that's where they suddenly become a very dangerous team out in the Eastern Conference.

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What's up, I'm Miles Turnne. And I'm Brianna Stewart. And our podcast, Game Recognized Game,

has never been done before. Two active players giving a real look at our lives and what we actually

think on and off the board. Nothing's off lift. We talk trade requests.

What's the vibe of that when it's like your star players like well I want to leave and then

actually now I'm going to stick. We talk tanking. I mean honestly like I might get in trouble for

this answer, but I think it's like definitely happening in the WBA. And yeah we talked about our

mistakes too. They pulled me to the side and was like hey man we got a call last night and you

can't be rolling around the city like this tonight for games. No, you know, doing this, doing whatever.

And of course family stories. It'll be like mommy. Why did you miss that?

I'm, do you play basketball? Check out Game Recognized Game with Stuy and Miles on the iHeart

Radio app Apple Podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

All right, let's move in. We're going to hit three kind of like quick league wide news topics before

we get out of here for the day. So first of all, the Shavers is MVP. Shavers is Wembee for MVP

to make. So Wembee went into his post game press or the other night and he gave just basically his

case for why he thinks he's the MVP. And like it was a compelling case. Sometimes like sometimes

like having information just shoved in your face can be a wake up call in a lot of ways. And like

as I was listening to Wembee's case get laid out, I was like this makes a lot of sense to me. So

there's some really strong stuff there. He talked about how offense is a lot more than just scoring.

I totally agree. We actually talked about that yesterday as it pertains to Wembee's vertical

spacing window and the the job he does with his role gravity of creating literally the most

corner three isn't a history of the NBA, right? Like I agree with with Wembee in the sense that

like yes, he's averaging 24 points and three assists, but that's not an accurate representation

of how gifted he is on the offensive end of the floor and the impact that he has on offense.

His team, which is mostly made up of flawed guards, right? Like young guards are all I've

big believers in all the guards and the big picture, but they're young and they're inconsistent.

And like if you look at that roster, there's not a single player out there that you're like, oh,

this dude's a top 20 player in the NBA and yet there are top four offense and I think Wembee

deserves a lot of credit for that. He's literally the greatest defensive player in the history of the

league already. And when he's on the floor, that spurs defense is frighteningly good. This is a big

part of why the on off numbers are so crazy. Shays on off numbers are excellent. He's plus nine

per 100 possessions when he's on versus off the floor. When Wembee's on the floor, there's 17

points better per 100 possessions when he's on versus when he's off. So there's a lot of value

there. He talked about how he's dominated the head to head matchup against Shay. And I agree

with him, the simple problem that he presents defensively caused the spurs to kick the shit out

of the thunder over and over and over again this year. He laid out essentially his case for why

he's an MVP and it's a compelling case. And like, here's the thing. I still lean towards Shay,

but I just think it's a lot closer than it appears on the surface. Hard rock that has Wembee

third and MVP odds at plus 1300 and they have Shay as a runaway favorite at minus 800.

I don't necessarily agree with that. I think it should be Shay in a more mild kind of favorite

type of sense. And by the way, I didn't feel like this in the past. I changed my mind sometimes.

I thought Wembee laid out his case really well and it caused me to reevaluate the way I look

at the MVP case. To me, like if Wembee wins some of these high profile matchups, he has down

the stretch of the season and there are several, including a couple matchups with the Denver Nuggets,

like if the spurs rip through the end of the season and Wembee plays and he has to play in

a minimum eight of the 10 games just to qualify. But let's say he plays in all 10 games or nine

of the 10 games and he kicks ass and wins some of the high profile matchups. I think he should have

a shot, especially if Shay, you know, there's some big matchups for OK, see down the stretch of

the season. Like if Shay ends up losing to like Shay's going to have his chances, he's going to have

a couple matchups against Luca. Like there's big games down the stretch for Oklahoma City too. And

if Shay plays really well in those and I think he should get it. But like if Shay cools off a little

bit down the season and loses some of these head to heads and Wembee plays really well and the

spurs almost win out and they come this close to getting the one seat or God forbid they get the

one seat. Like I think Wembee should be on the table as MVP and I certainly think Wembee has a

better case than Luca at this point. I think Luca is a clear third. I'd have Wembee second and I'd

have Shay first. And so when I looked at those odds and I'm seeing Shay at minus 800 and Wembee

at plus 1300, which again is a reflection of media sentiment. That's not hard rock bet choosing

who's MVP. That's a reflection of media sentiment. And so when I saw that and I heard Wembee break

it down, I agree with him. I think he has a very compelling case. The on-off numbers by themselves

are unbelievably impressive. He's the best defensive player in the league. He's a vastly underrated

offensive player. The spurs have been right there with a thunder all season in the standings

and have dominated them head to head. Wembee absolutely should have a shot here down the final

weeks of the season to win MVP. And I'm really, really surprised at how the odds have been reflected

there. This Yannis fiasco. So basically to make a long story short, the bucks want to shut Yannis

down and Yannis wants to keep playing. And this is this concept that I've been talking about non-stop

over the course of the season of the conflicting interests between Yannis, a top tier superstar who's

in the tail end of his prime, but still in his prime. I think he's slipped below the top guys. I'd

have him below Luca. I'd have him below Wembee. I'd have him below Shay. I'd have him below Yokits.

He's at the bottom of that top tier as like the fifth best player in the world right now.

And he's very much like on the same level as those guys. And he's in his early 30s and he wants

to go compete for a championship. That directly competes with the Milwaukee bucks who not only are

trying to tank this year essentially to end the season, but their current situation is that of a

team trying to rebuild. And those two concepts will constantly conflict with each other in the lack

of self-awareness on both fronts. Yannis for not actually forcing a trade at this deadline.

Milwaukee for not actually just acknowledging reality and making it happen at this deadline.

Those two things have continued to lead to these very cringey bits of messaging coming out of

all these camps throughout the season. And now we have the NBA players association coming out

and essentially chastising the bucks for not allowing Yannis to play. Like the whole thing is

just a joke. And it continues to be a joke because the two parties won't just acknowledge

reality and move on. And it's driving me crazy. And I just hope to God that we finally can end this

saga soon because I'm sick and tired of hearing about it. Last but not least the 65 game rule.

So there's been a lot of talk, you know, the 65 game rule. I supported it when it first came out.

And essentially the thought process was, hey, we need to incentivize these guys to play more.

And there's been this like pushback now where it's like, oh, the 65 game rule is stupid.

And I don't look at it that way. I just think it needs to be tweaked.

I heard a, I saw a tweet from my friend Andy Kemenensky who covers the Lakers and he said,

this whole thing has just been a misidentification of what the problem was. And the point he was trying

to make is like, guys weren't playing more so because of how the game is and how it wears bodies

out than just simple load management. And he's right. Guys are going to miss potentially the 65 game

threshold. That's on the table for a lot of these guys simply because of the fact that the game

is too fast. The pace is insane. The ground coverage is insane. There's more cutting and running

that ever before. And it's wearing everyone's bodies down. And with that being the case,

people are unable to reach the threshold not because they're sitting out with soreness,

but because they're legitimately getting hurt. And so I do think though there is a part of it

that's like, hey, we need to try to incentivize guys to play when they're sore,

not necessarily play when they're injured. And so to me, like, if the NBA is never going to shorten

the season, you guys know the drill. I think they should shorten it to 66 games, get rid of 20%

of the season, get rid of back-to-back, make the travel schedule lighter. I think it would be

beneficial for the league in a hundred different ways, but they're not going to do that. So really,

it comes down to how do we tweak this rule to make it work? And to me, it's very simple. Just

drop it from 65 to 60. I still think there should be some sort of threshold. I still think there

should be some sort of incentive for a player to play when he's a little banged up versus when he's

legitimately injured. But it's clear that the 65 game threshold is a little too high to account

for the nagging injuries that pop up throughout the rest of the season. Sixty games to me would be

a tweak of the rule that kind of splits the difference between those two ideas. It allows

teams to weather or players to weather a two, three-week injury that happens at some point in the

season or multiple week-long injuries. But at the same time, it incentivizes them to play when

they're a little banged up. So there's all this pushback. It's like, oh, the 65 game rules great.

Actually, it's terrible. That's great rid of it. I'm like, no, no, no. Often in life, you try

something and it works. Sometimes you try something and it doesn't work. You got to dump it.

Sometimes you try something and you just need to tweak it. And to me, this is an example of something

that just needs to be tweaked. Drop it from 65 to 60. It kind of accomplishes the original intended

goal while more appropriately accounting for some of the realities of the way the NBA regular season

works at this point. All right, guys, that's all I have for today. As always, it's sincerely

appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show. We'll be back tomorrow with more

game reaction. I will see you guys then.

It's the new me and it's the old them. This woman's history month, the podcast, if you knew better

with Amber Grimes, spotlights women who turn missteps into momentum and lessons into power.

My like tunnel vision of like, I gotta achieve this was off the strings of like, I want to make

a better life for us. If you knew better, brings real talk from women who've lived it, unpacking

career pivots, relationship lessons, and the mindset shifts that changed everything.

Listen to if you knew better with Amber Grimes on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

you get your podcasts. On the scene of show podcast, each episode invites you into a raw,

unfiltered conversations about recovery, resilience and redemption. On a recent episode, I sit

down with actor, cultural icon, Danny Trail, talk about addiction, transformation and the power of

second chances. The entire season two is now available to bench, featuring powerful conversation

with the guests like Tiffany Addis, Johnny Knoxville, and more. I'm an alcohol, and without this

proof, I'm a die. Listen to the Sino Show on the iHeartRadio app, Apple podcast, or wherever

you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Bob Pittman, Chairman and CEO of iHeart Media, and I'm kicking

off a brand new season of my podcast, Math and Magic, Stories from the Frontiers of Marketing.

Math and Magic takes you behind the scenes of the biggest businesses and industries while

sharing insights from the smartest minds in marketing. Coming up this seasonal Math and Magic,

CEO of liquid death, Mike Cesario. People think that creative ideas are like these light bulb

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you're constantly just chipping away and refining. Take two interactive CEO, Strauss Selnik,

and our own chief business officer, Lisa Coffee. Listen to Math and Magic on the iHeartRadio

app, Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. Hey, I'm Wilmer of Alderama,

and this is Freddie Rodriguez. And we're back. Those are me go season two babies.

Last time we went deep on our careers, our lives, our art, and everything in between. Our big breaks,

our auditions, the near misses, the epiphanies, the moments to change our lives forever.

This season we're deep in in our relationships, creating collaborations, and the door always

stays open for a third of me go to pull up a chair. Listen to those amigos on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple podcast, or wherever you get your podcast. This is an iHeart podcast.

Guaranteed Human.