Heat Check

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Have you ever seen this? A double screen literally at half court. And since he’s Dame freaking Lillard, these 2 guys are all the way out here to not allow a 3 point look. The paint has never been more empty, and one of the fastest guys in the league has a runway to choose either this or this side. And once he gets a running start, the backpedaling defender has absolutely no chance of keeping up. And if you try to stay a bit lower and not get smoked on the drive like Embiid here, now this happens. You give up all this room to a sniper to just fire away and of course this goes down. This is unstoppable so the Bucks ran it a bunch more. Right here the Sixers do a better job of staying in front and Embiid bumps Dame but he just goes to a nice spot for him, raises up and knocks it down. And at the end of the game in the clutch, Giannis doesn’t really connect with Oubre here on the pick, but still, Dame is able to outrun Kelly and finishes with a layup. And mind you, despite the late game heroics and this insane stepback three, he didn’t even have a crazy shooting night, and actually missed a few easy ones. Watch how when Giannis takes off, the Sixers scramble to build a wall here with 3 guys in front, leaving Lillard completely open. A bit of a bad pass and this pretty easy shot ends up missing. Then there were a couple misses where Embiid was in drop, literally hoping that Dame’s defender will be able to fight over the screen. Which didn’t happen and he ended up with some wide open looks but didn’t go in. My point is, Milwaukee now constantly gets easy and open looks which is scary for the league. That is, as long as they don’t beat themselves. For example, when you have a cleared out side right here, you shouldn’t be taking this 3 if you’re Giannis. He settled for jumpers quite a lot in the fourth quarter and almost cost them the game. Antetokounmpo went 4 of 11 in the final period. Now I’m not against the Greek freak ever shooting a jump shot but when you see him just dominating inside you kinda think- maybe leave the shooting to Lillard. I mean look at this. Giannis is triple teamed right here, but there’s absolutely no stopping him with this nasty spin into a dunk. On the pick and roll with Dame, he just walks his way through the paint and all the way to the rim and Philly couldn’t do anything about it. This shouldn’t have even been a close game in my opinion, despite the fact that the Sixers fought extremely hard and hit a bunch of shots- I gotta give them credit. But if you’re Milwaukee, you have all the control, and just run the plays that are unstoppable. Ok Dame, I get it, you can’t just run the same 1 play over and over, but you can always go to your strengths. For you it’s shooting and for Giannis is dominating inside. Anyways, do you think that anyone can stop what these 2 are doing? Let me know. Subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Watch Porzingis on this possession. First, he follows the mismatch up top and is ready to help on the drive. His length makes this lob challenging so Brunson passes out. Meanwhile you see Kristaps fighting under the basket. This shot was so bad that it actually went over his head to Robinson, but still, Porzingis keeps fighting and comes up with a huge block. The Celtics had him down low like a defensive anchor which was possible because of New York’s non shooting big men. He doesn’t bite on the pump fake, stays patient and gets another block. And similar thing right here with the positioning, but watch what he does on the drive. This is very subtle but just stretching out his arm and feeling where Robinson is, Kristaps is guarding against the lob, and follows Randle at the same time in a perfect defensive position for yet another block. Porzingis had 4 blocks against the Knicks, with this probably being the best one against Barrett on the fast break. But just as valuable as those blocks are possessions like these where he forced a ton of misses by New York right at the rim. He was quick defensively and with his length he can really contest these shots as he was the main reason why the Knicks shot just 33.3% at the rim in the first half, while league average for last season was 64.2%. That’s an astonishingly big impact. All of that is amazing of course but this was a revenge game against his old team because of the offense. 30 points and 8 rebounds on 53.3% from the field and 5-9 from downtown. Watch the quickness here from the high pick to the roll, Brown with the nice pass, and there’s no stopping this. Same thing on this play, noticing that Robinson is caught up in the action outside, so he cuts like a guard along the baseline, we got the lob and the jam. And because Kristaps is so fast for a big man when he slips the pick, if he can stay around the 38.5% that he shot last year from downtown, this is going to be a deadly combination for Boston. You see that most of these looks are generated by the attention that the main guys attract on them. That includes situations when he sets a pick for them and pops free for a shot. Meaning that Porzingis doesn’t have to do too much for Boston. Just simple actions, read and react to the opposing defense. This is a great opportunity for him, but also a phenomenal piece for the Celtics. You get a guy who is a career 20 point per game scorer and a big presence in the paint defensively. You get all that to be your third or even 4th best player on some nights. The Celtics are absolutely stacked and for Porzingis he’ll finally have a chance to make a deeper playoff run after getting bounced in the first round in his only 2 appearances in 2020 and 2021, both times by the Clippers. Let me know in the comments what do you think about this pairing. And subscribe for more breakdown videos. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Keep your eye on Booker here as he’s going to curl all the way out, get 1 screen from KD right here, and with the defender already trailing, Nurkic is also going to act as a screener on the handoff and just like that Devin is wide open for this three and swishes it. He absolutely tortured the Golden State defense off of high picks, like almost at the logo, getting the defender behind him, and providing a lot of room for Booker to operate. So whether it was a monster finish chest to chest against a bigger guy like on this play, or keeping the defender on his back into a midrange fadeaway- Devin was phenomenal, but what's interesting is that he won the game for the Suns with his genius passing at the end. The very first offensive possession for Phoenix exposes a lot for how the ending played out in the clutch. Follow Nurkic here as he’s going to set a high screen for Booker, and with Curry trailing behind- Looney has to show here to stop the drive. But you stay focused on Nurk as he’s immediately going for another screen for KD and you already see that this is a 2 on 1 and if Wiggins helps, there’s a knockdown shooter in the corner. So as we let it roll, the help was hesitant and didn’t get there on time and we got an easy layup. Watch him again in transition. How quickly he rolls right here on the trap by Golden State. This allows them to have an open shooter and a cutter to the rim which Nurk is going to find. The quick roll and great decision making when he gets the ball, is what created an extra layer of danger for the defense, which is how we get to crunch time. End of the game with Kuminga playing great defense here, Jusuf kind of slips this one and takes off to the paint in a great position for the lob pass. So because of what I previously showed you, Chris Paul makes the proper rotation and goes over there to prevent the potential easy finish. And with all of this happening in a split second, Booker makes a phenomenal read while in the air and rifles a pass to the wide open Okoge in the corner. Before moving on just look at how quickly he needs to see all of this developing and to find the open guy. Amazing play by Book. Then the very next play, Kunminga is again all over him, and on the screen Devin tries to hunt Steph, which would create all kinds of mismatches here and here as you can see. The Warriors want to scramble and recover which leaves Eric Gordon open for a split second and Devin immediately recognizes that. The pass, the shot and another three. And finally, third straight possession, with the pick up top, and Booker raises up for the shot. Looney is going to contest while Nurkic dives inside. Almost the same situation as the first one, but this time the pass goes to the big man and he finishes. Phenomenal reads by Book in the clutch but I need to emphasize that these wouldn’t be possible without the great reactions by Nurkic. Right as the trade happened I said in my video that both him and Eubanks are great at this and you could see that in this game. All in all a monster game for Booker dissecting the Golden State defense both with his scoring and his passing. Subscribe for more of these breakdowns. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Watch the games LIVE with me: https://www.playback.tv/heatcheck This video of Wemby barreling through Chet kinda went viral, and Holmgren responded on twitter, meaning that there is a little rivalry brewing here. Still both guys played great and we need to break it down. Where do you see a 7-1 giant handling the ball like a guard and initiating the offense? And not only that but watch what he does right here. Did you catch it? Let me explain. Chet is going to slip this pick, and his incredible quickness for such a big guy puts him right at the basket in no time so there’s the threat of the alley oop. So Collins has to back pedal to stay with him which you can see how it just opens up the lane for Williams to casually go all the way inside and finish without a rim protector contesting him. This is pretty much the same play here, we got the re-screen on the other side and at this moment the lane is open for the roll, while Collins is just a step further out to stop what I showed you on the first play. So again, another lightning quick roll, this time they go for the lob and the monster dunk by Holmgren, as there is no way the defender could get this high up to deflect this pass. And here’s my reaction to it live on the stream: VIDEO BTW guys if you have an NBA league pass, you can connect with this platform playback tv and you can watch the games live with me. I’m streaming almost every night, it’s super fun to talk to you in the chat, so tune in and watch with me, the link is in the description, or just download the app on mobile. This is not sponsored, I just love streaming the games with you. OK moving on. Right here, Josh Giddey is an extremely crafty guy who knows how to take advantage of a smaller defender. Zach Collins already knows it so he follows that. But what you need to know is that this guy who’s wide open in the corner was a 39% shooter from downtown in Gonzaga. So Giddy throws one of his sick crosscourt passes to him, Chet fires away and knocks it down. Look at this early offense setup for your center. The pass in transition and we already got the screen over here, and Holmgren is again wide open and splashes this shot. Just imagine how much the floor would open for OKC if he continues to shoot it well like he did in this game. And watch this. He is asking for a screen up top, this is an inverted pick and roll where the small guy screens for the big. And when you can handle the ball with that speed, there’s not much for the defense to do. Look at that strong finish through contact with the bucket plus the foul and he flexes his muscles. This is a great segue because you already know that the flex was a response to this. Same thing as Chet, the ability to handle the ball and be this agile at 7-4 is absolutely insane. Everybody talks about this play, but Wemby had other great plays in this game. To me the wildest play was this steal right here. Just watch him glance back, and then go for the ball extending in a way that I haven’t seen before. Swipes for the ball and immediately sprints on the fast break, again this is a 7-4 guy doing these acrobatics on defense and the speed, maaan what a time to be an NBA fan. We got some aliens playing ball out here. Victor’s length allowed him to recover after he gets crossed right here, but then look at the comeback, meeting Williams right at the rim and rejecting his shot. The length is obviously there but the agility to re-group and get back into the picture for the block, that’s impressive. Speaking of agility, I gotta show you this angle because this is poetry in motion here with the spin, goes up and adjusts mid air when the help comes, and finishes with the lefty scoop. This is just beautiful. And watch how all of that looked in full speed without much time to think and the defense coming at you. Wow. Wemby also showed his outside range hitting 2 threes and you can see that this is a designed play for him to get the ball up top. A sniper at that size is just unfathomable. All in all a great duel between the 2, and the media hyped it up so much that it became a rivalry. Flexing muscles on one another, showing their moves, and even chirping on twitter after the game. If both guys stay healthy, we’re going to enjoy some crazy head to head battles. That’s it for now, but make sure to join me on Playback and watch the games live with me. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

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Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ This is a frightening combination of Damian Lillard with the ball, and Giannis Antetokounmpo setting the high screen. As Dame goes through, you gotta stop the drive or the pull up. Which opens up this bounce pass, and Giannis on a roll like this is a death penalty for the opponents. If you don’t wanna give him that, and you try to defend the pick and roll straight up, it’s either going to be a three point bomb like this, or another scenario would be the guard trailing behind Dame and in this 2 on 1 we got the lob, and another dunk by the greek freak. Let me show you how the Bucks will look with Lillard and why the NBA is in trouble. Last season Damian led the NBA in generating 12.5 points per game as the pick and roll ball handler. So points that came from his shots or assists in that action. And this was with guys like Jusuf Nurkic or Drew Eubanks as his partners. No disrespect to them, but they are light years away from Giannis. Speaking of him, Antetokounmpo will love the attention that Dame will draw from the opposing defense. The Greek Freak led the NBA last season in total points in the paint, and with Lillard opening up even more space for him to operate inside, Giannis will become virtually unstoppable. On this possession, watch how far the help comes from. Put Lillard up top and nobody is moving from the three point line. So Giannis can do his thing. Or this type of zone defense. There is 0% chance you leave a wide open shot from downtown to a sniper like Dame. This defense would be unusable against Milwaukee next season. Ok we know he’s a deadly shooter but you need to see 1 underrated aspect of Lillard’s game. For a guy that needs the ball, he’s terrific at moving without it and will make the offense much more dynamic. Dame’s great at recognizing when the defense is overplaying him and he just cuts to the basket for an easy one. Right here we got the screen for him to curl into a handoff by Nurkic. And the defense is anticipating that, so the defender is fully behind him ready to chase him down. But Damian just notices how the inside is completely empty so instead he cuts, gets the pass and lays it in. This is a similar play only this time he is the screener. Again, sees the lane, cuts and finishes. The combination of the defense being afraid of his three point shooting, combined with the lightning quick acceleration that Dame has, opens up a ton of easy layups for him as you can see in these highlights. But he’s also not lazy to work for his shot and around the court coming off of screens in order to get open for a shot. Right here we got him down low setting a pick for Grant before sprinting back out to get one himself, and this is a wide open look which of course he knocks it down. Again, this works not only for Lillard, but for Giannis as well, since the focus will be on Dame running around, and Antetokounmpo can have single coverage on him. As we’ve seen time and time again- nobody can stop Giannis 1 on 1. And that’s especially the case in transition. If Antetokounmpo gets a head of steam, he comes at you like a hurricane. The Greek freak is the undisputed leader in transition points for each of the last 5 seasons. With that, the Bucks have been top 3 in 5 of the last 6 seasons. It was only last year that they dipped slightly to the 9th spot. But with Lillard spraying out to the three point line, it’s either going to be a knockdown shot by him, or a clear lane for Giannis to take off. So I fully expect Milwaukee to not only get back to the top 3, but be the best transition team in the league this season. But all that aside. We know that the most obvious downgrade of this trade is not on offense but on the other end. Defensively Lillard has always been below average, and the tracking data from Bball Index confirms that. A lot of D’s and F’s here. It looks even worse when compared head to head to the guy that Milwaukee just lost in Jrue Holiday. But anyone that watches the Bucks already knows that. And they also know that they play team defense. It wasn’t only Jrue, but also guys like Bobby Portis, Giannis and especially Brook Lopez play a vital role defensively. I even made an entire video about Brook last season. And he finished second in the defensive player of the year voting. That’s how great of a defender he is. What I’m trying to say is that the upside that the Bucks get from Dame on offense in terms of playmaking and shotmaking, definitely makes up for what he gives up defensively. Plus this is a perfect match stylistically and the 2 guys seem to like to play with each other. This is what Dame said in a GQ sports video last year. At the same time, out of all the superstars at the All Star game last season, Antetokounmpo picked Lillard with his very first pick in the draft. And for all this time, we haven’t even mentioned Khris Middleton. This gives a lot of breathing room for him as well.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ In 2003 Tracy Mcgrady infamously said: "It feels good to get into the second round." with the series still not over. T-Mac prematurely thought that a 3-1 lead over the Pistons was pretty much a done deal. And this completely backfired on him as he played poorly, the Magic lost the next 3 games and got eliminated in the first round for the third straight year. And while many blamed Mcgrady for his cockiness, I need to give you a different angle, and show you the real reason for this debacle. You see, those Orlando Magic teams were supposed to be scary, with a 1-2 punch of T-Mac and Grant Hill, but we all know that Hill was constantly injured, which left Tracy all by himself. I mean, he had teammates but check out these names. The 34 year old high flier Darrel Armstrong. To this day the only guy who attempted a layup in the dunk contest. A 33 year old Shawn Kemp, looking nothing like the Sonics reignman. After all the battles with drugs and alcohol, this would be the last season of his career. And you tell me how much you know about Gordan Giricek, Pat Garity and Andrew DeClercq. These were important rotation players and even started a ton of games. Rounding things off are Jacque Vaugn and a rookie Drew Gooden, who was actually the second best player in the Pistons series. But we’ll get to that in a bit. That entire season Mcgrady posted monster numbers and finished as the leading scorer with 32 points per game, but the team didn’t really win. Orlando snuck into the playoffs as the 8th seed and faced off against the 1 seeded Detroit Pistons. A year before they became the champions, the Pistons were establishing themselves as contenders. But they were still some pieces away. Detroit had Chauncey, Rip and Ben in the starting five, but then Corlis Williamson was the power forward before they got Rasheed, and since Tayshaun Prince was just a rookie this season, a guy named Michael Curry started at small forward. Just a 3 point per game scorer, the stats suggest that Curry was a defensive player, but right out of the gates in game 1, it became clear that he can not hang with Mcgrady. Just look at how easy everything is for T-Mac. Blowing right past Curry time after time. Or getting to his spot and raising up without even looking at the contest by his defender. He did the same against Williamson and Cliff Robinson, who the Pistons also tried on him. For that whole time, the rookie Prince was mostly watching from the bench, witnessing a 43 point explosion from Mcgrady. Little did he know that his time would come in this series. BTW speaking of witnesses, this high schooler right here was in the first row eating chips and watching the game a few months before getting drafted. Anyway, the Magic steal game 1 in Detroit and look at the contributions from the team. You got guys in the starting lineup with 4 and 2 points in this game. In fact Orlando won despite having only 2 guys score in double digits. That’s insane. If you thought that was bad, let me tell you that in game 2 which the Magic lost and scored only 77 points, T-Mac outscored the rest of his own teammates 46-31. Yeah he got 46 points and the other 11 guys who got in the game all scored 31 points total. And none of them got to double digits. This is the supporting cast that Tracy had. They did play a lot better at home however, providing a terrific balance of scoring, with a lot of guys helping Mcgrady carry the offensive load. Armstrong had 20 in game 3 and 18 in game 4, while Gooden had 15 and 7 in game 3, and a monster 20 and 13 in the 4th game. As for T-Mac, with Curry, Williamson, and Jon Barry on him in the first 4 games he had an average of 36.2 points per game on 51.6% from the field and 40% from downtown which is absolutely unstoppable. This is exactly how the Magic got to a 3-1 lead, and things at least for Tracy seemed to be over. As he was on the podium celebrating already, Rick Carlisle was changing his game plan and adding an unexpected player into the mix. The rookie Tayshaun Prince who played a total of 11 minutes in Orlando’s 3 wins, now was tasked with saving the Pistons season and guarding Mcgrady man to man. And albeit a desperate move, it worked. Prince made T-Mac work for every one of his points, so in game 5, Tracy shot just 8 for 20. A game that Orlando lost by 31. Tayshaun also dropped 15 and 7 and was a game high +27 on the plus minus. Prince went from not even playing in 2 of the first 4 games, to 24 minutes per game, a key piece on defense. And he did his job. It was a similar story in game 6 as well, where Mcgrady did drop a lot of points, but needed a ton of shots to get there. 39% from the field weren’t going to cut it for the Magic, especially when he couldn’t get support from his teammates. I mean seriously, what type of shot is this?! Giricek was the second scorer behind T-Mac and had just 12 points. The 15 point loss was more than understandable.

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Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Kobe Bryant saw his fair share of cheap shots, with this being the most famous by Jalen Rose in the finals. But nothing compares to the sneakiest and dirtiest defender in NBA history. Bruce Bowen. Bowen blatantly tried to injure Kobe every single time that he had a chance during their 2002 playoff matchup. He even went as far trying to crush Bryant’s hand. You see, with his dirty play Bruce injured countless NBA stars throughout his career. He went after Vince Carter multiple times. This is even before his San Antonio days in 2000, leaving Carter injured on the floor. Then, the exact same thing, a few years later. This is almost like a replay. Same spot, same move, Vince is injured again. And when he tried one more time the next season, Carter finally had enough and stormed at him. But that was always the case with Bowen. He was so sneaky with it, and the rules didn’t protect the shooter back then so the refs didn’t see it. In this game he first goes under Michael Finley on the jumper, but then on the replay we see that right after, he also gives him a nasty shot to the chest. And since this was a no call, Finley is understandably furious and retaliates. But he does it right in front of the refs, and gets an immediate ejection. Don Nelson cannot believe what just happened to his guy, and is irate. He as well gets promptly ejected. And Bowen… he stayed on the floor and calmly knocked down the technical foul shots. Similar thing happened when the Spurs played New York in 2006. Steve Francis goes up for a jumper and Bruce undercuts him, injuring yet another star player. Then, just a few days later he attempted the same with Jamal Crawford, and although he was fortunately unsuccessful, Isaiah Thomas wanted to stand up for his players getting into it with Bowen and the Spurs. After the game he said: When I was playing, I would’ve beat the [bleep] out of someone if they did that… It’s [bleeping] murder. All of these are horrible but nowhere near his greatest hits. Watch what he does to Stoudemire coming from the side with the sole intention of stepping on Amare’s foot and potentially injuring him. This display of malicious intent is insane. And, despite having replays and multiple angles of this, absolutely nobody notices it, and the game just moves on. That series Bowen went deep into his bag, and also hurt Steve Nash by straight up kicking him in the groin. Although this was clearly unnecessary and definitely not a basketball move, it was only called an offensive foul. And watch how sneaky but how dangerous this is. Amare goes up for the dunk and Bruce extends his leg to step on his Achilles. We’re talking about going for the most dangerous type of injury for a basketball player being the achilles tendon. This could have easily been catastrophic for Stoudemire and the Suns. But I guess that was the plan all along. If you ask him however, this couldn’t be further from the truth. In the 2002 playoffs against the Lakers, Bowen really went after Kobe, trying to injure him almost on every single contest. On jumpshots, Bowen was constantly putting his foot under Bryant’s hoping to get him on the landing. I’m still shocked how the refs wouldn’t call it. Some of these are extremely obvious, and definitely not a basketball play that’s within the defensive movement. Look at this, putting the leg this far out is completely ridiculous. But somehow he got away with it throughout the entire series, doing it in every single of those five games. And watch what happens here as Kobe goes in transition but gets tripped and falls. Watch what Bowen does after the whistle. Goes over there for now reason, jumps over Bryant and stomps on his hand. The intent, and the way he makes this seem incidental is absolutely disgusting. Bruce even managed to hurt Kobe in one game. With this nasty leg kick right in the knee, which stung him. Bryant hobbled and grimaced for a bit before having to leave the game. He was probably the most high profile victim, but as you saw, countless other players suffered from these sneaky and dirty plays by arguably the dirtiest guy in NBA history. Bruce Bowen. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ When talking about the most absurd NBA All-Star selections, in 2015 Kyle Korver with his 12.1 PPG was voted in by the coaches joining 3 other Hawks players for this game. This came as a shock to everyone in the NBA, especially to guys like Demar Derozan from the Raptors and young Victor Oladipo representing the Orlando Magic who both had way stronger cases to make the team. A big reason for some wild all star selections was the old rule where voters had to pick players by position, 2 guards, 2 forwards and 1 center. The Eastern Conference especially had a lack of quality centers throughout the 2000’s so players like Indiana’s Dale Davis, Antonio Davis from the Raptors the following year and Jamaal Magloire from the 2004 Hornets are the usual suspects, who would get in despite having mediocre numbers. Just compare the bigs from the East with the ones from the West from those years. You see that on average the difference is about 10 points. It’s not even close. Roy Hibbert was the last lucky center to benefit from the old way of voting in 2012 when he posted 12.8 PPG / 8.8 RPG and played in his first All-Star game. What’s shocking is that despite not having to choose a classic center from then on, Tyson Chandler somehow got himself a place in the star-studded contest in 2013 while putting up 10.4 PPG and 10.7 RPG for New York. Yes the Knicks were decent that season, but I don’t know if you deserve an all-star spot with that kind of statline. And as if that one selection in 2012 wasn’t enough, Roy Hibbert became a two time all-star in 2014 when the voters picked his 10.8 PPG & 6.6 RPG over Al Jefferson’s 21.8 PPG & 10.8 RPG, making this one of the biggest snubs in league’s history. Not to mention that players like Josh Smith, Greg Monroe and Thaddeus Young all had better seasons with their respective teams. Luol Deng, similarly to Hibbert, is a two time All-Star who didn’t quite deserve his All-Star selections. Chicago was a force to be reckoned with in the East at the time, but with numbers of 15.3 PPG in 2012 and 16.5 PPG in 2013 you simply can’t say that Deng should’ve been an All-Star when players like Danny Granger, Antawn Jamison, Demar Derozan, David West and even J.R.Smith were all left behind with better numbers. Another scandalous big man selection came in 2017 when DeAndre Jordan was voted in the Western frontcourt reserves in front of Karl Anthony Towns. Just look at that disproportion in numbers, ridiculous. And while we’re on the topic of big men, we gotta mention Paul Milsap who got 4 all star appearances and his teammate from those famous Hawks days - Al Horford, who even has one more than Milsap. I’m not saying that they were not good players, and Atlanta was one of the best Eastern teams for two years under Mike Budenhoulzer, but heck, guys like Kawhi Leonard and Klay Thompson have 5 stars each as well. And if we talk about players who have more all-stars than the average NBA fan would’ve expected, wait till you see the next few guys on the list. Shawn Marion is a Phoenix Suns legend who averaged a double double of 18.4 PPG and 10.0 RPG throughout his 9 seasons with the team. The Matrix alongside Steve Nash and Amare Stoudemire were extremely fun to watch during the 2000’s, and he later won the championship with Dallas in 2011, but he never was the main guy on any of these teams. However, he did find his way to 4 all-star trips in the period from 2003 to 2007. Next, Kemba Walker couldn’t repeat his college story in the NBA, as he wasted his entire prime on a Charlotte Hornets team that never had much success. Still, he managed to get 4 all-star selections during his 12 years in the league. When you think about Kyle Lowry, you think about longevity and stability at the point guard position. He even has a ring from that one year sensation team, the 2019 Toronto Raptors. But, nothing flashy, or exciting can be connected to his last name right? It’s not like he’s a superstar caliber player. Well, he’s a 6 time NBA All-Star as he made the team with averages of 14.2 PPG & 8.7 APG in 2019, and 16.2 PPG & 6.9 APG in 2018. His teammate Jimmy Buckets is also a 6 time All-Star. And do you know who has one more appearance than Kyle in the All-Star games? Joe Johnson. Iso Joe was a 7 time all star in this league before he called it a career. We're gonna put aside the Hawks years, even though his last two selections for the Eastern Conference All-Stars are quite arguable. But the one that stands out is in 2014 when he was chosen after averaging a sub-standard 15.8 PPG / 3.4 RPG and 2.7 APG for that high profile but in reality underachieving Brooklyn Nets team. Just for comparison, Dame Dolla is a 7 time All-Star too. I’m not saying they are overrated, but there are a couple of guys for whom you can make the case that they are more deserving but have a lot less stars in their resume.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Giannis publicly gave an ultimatum to the Bucks franchise. And he was direct. Either we win another championship before my contract expires, or I’m gone. And Milwaukee should actually be happy that he said this. Let me explain why. In an interview for the New York Times, Antetokounmpo talked about life, family and his basketball future. And listen to some of his comments when it comes to re-signing with the Bucks. He said: I would not be the best version of myself if I don’t know that everybody’s on the same page, going for a championship, and sacrificing time away from their family like I do. And if I don’t feel that, I’m not signing. He then commented on the roster situation and the recent coaching change. You’ve got to see the dynamics. How the coach is going to be, how we’re going to be together. All my teammates know and the organization knows that I want to win a championship. As long as we’re on the same page with that and you show me and we go together to win a championship, I’m all for it. The moment I feel like, oh, yeah, we’re trying to rebuild… And he stopped right there. You know what that means. I’m gone. But hold on Bucks fans, don’t be afraid. This is the best thing that you could hope for. This is your franchise player saying that he’s committed to winning, to staying with this team, as long as the franchise itself shows that they have the same goal. Sure the Bucks are a contender and they won the championship, but at the same time they’ve gone out in the first round of the playoffs 2 of the last 4 years. For a top 3 player in the league, you need the team to be more consistent. Also, they didn’t really upgrade the roster in a big way. Of course the re-signing of Brook Lopez and Middleton was a big win, but at the same time they could have used some more firepower. And I don’t think that Malik Beasley is that guy. Plus they lost Joe Ingles. When you have a once in a generation type player on your team like Giannis, you need to go all out in this short window and not just be in the conversation but be the clear team to beat at least in the Eastern Conference. Antetokounmpo is serious about the fact that he might leave. Listen to this. There will never be hard feelings with the Milwaukee Bucks, I believe that we’ve had 10 unbelievable years, and there’s no doubt I gave everything for the city of Milwaukee. Everything. But winning a championship comes first. I don’t want to be 20 years on the same team and don’t win another championship. Again, this sounds scary, but this is perfect for the front office. They have 2 years to make moves and prove to Antetokounmpo that they are winners. All you want from your franchise player is clear and concise communication. This is 100 times better than the mess that’s going on in Portland. For 3 summers it’s been the same story with Damian Lillard sending cryptic messages about potentially asking for a trade, the whole loyalty thing and what not. Finally things escalated this offseason and all of a sudden the Blazers are in a tough spot right now of having to trade him to 1 specific team while not getting enough for Dame. I love what Giannis is doing here, and the organization as well as the fans should respect it. Heck, if they can win another one it will prove that this team is worthy of a superstar talent like him. If not, they can think about trading him, rebuilding, and giving him a chance to win- even if it is with another team. Antetokounmpo deserved that by bringing a championship to the city for the first time in 50 years. But since he’s going to be here for at least 2 years, you may as well get this nice T-shirt from my merch line. Look at all the detail. Or you also cop some great designs with Kyrie in his element, Lebron of course, Steph Curry with his mouthguard or KD the slim reaper. The link is in the description. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ As much as I love Klay Thompson’s lightning quick release, he was not the first to do this. In fact it was another teammate of Steph Curry from the past that pioneered this. Let me show you. When talking about quick release Thompson is of course one of the first guys that comes to mind and Steph Curry is right there with him in the conversation with some ridiculous flings that sometimes are even off the dribble. 2 guys that are a bit forgotten are Shaun Marion with his incredibly short follow through, allowing him to get the ball up super fast and the Matrix rarely got blocked because of it. And I have to mention Eddie House as well who always hopped on the catch and sprung back up into his shot. He was the quickest that I’ve seen a player do this motion consistently. But when discussing the no-dip, which is this right here- the ball doesn’t go down or doesn’t dip below the shoulders. Anthony Morrow was actually the pioneer and wasn’t like a once in a while thing. In 2015 he started shooting like this almost every time off the catch. I mean look at this shot. The ball is above his head the entire time. I have never seen a player keep the ball that high up on the shot, let alone swish it. Shots like that earned him the nickname (FASTEST GUN IN THE WEST COMMENTATOR) which I thought was pretty cool. Even before the major shot transformation, Morrow always had a pretty quick jumper. And a deadly one. In 2008 as a rookie for Golden State, he led the league in 3 point percentage, finishing the season with 46.7%. The next season the Warriors drafted Steph Curry and the 2 shooters looked scary at times. But of course the team was far from successful in those early Steph years. So Anthony was traded and bounced around the league for a few years before landing on a contender in the Russ and KD Thunder in 2014. And the following off-season he warned the reporters in a press conference that he’s working on speeding up his shot even more. But nobody expected this quick of a catch and shoot mechanics. Kevin Durant admitted that after watching his teammate do it, he started practicing it himself, but Morrow was better. That’s quite the compliment coming from a sniper like KD. And in recent years we’ve seen players adopt and use this technique on some of their shots. Klay of course is the most famous nowadays, but also Duncan Robinson has quite a few no-dip shots from downtown. Combined with his constant running all over the court, this makes him a tough cover. And Sam Hausser is not as high profile of a shooter as these 2, but he’s another guy that does it from time to time. But nobody is as frequent with it, as Anthony Morrow. So I wanted to set the record straight on that. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Vince Carter had a few stops with different teams towards the end of his career, but if you start naming them, Phoenix is most likely to escape your memory. Following a finals loss in 09, the Orlando Magic were eager to repeat their trip and after acquiring Carter that summer, their expectations rose even more. Carter averaged a career worst 16.6 PPG in Orlando However, Vince didn’t quite fit alongside Howard and the rest of the Magic system as he averaged a career worst 16.6 PPG throughout the regular season and dropped to 15.5 PPG in the playoffs where they lost to the Celtics in 6 games in the ECF. So, after the disappointing outcome, with just 22 games into the next season, Carter was traded to the Phoenix Suns. Carter in Phoenix: 13.5 PPG / Started in 41 out of 51 games He started in 41 out of his 51 games for the Suns in which he declined even more to 13.5 PPG. A team full of vets like himself, a 36 year old Steve Nash, and an even older Grant Hill at 38, failed to make the playoffs, making Carter’s stint with Phoenix easily forgettable. He did have a couple of 30 point games, and every once in a while he turned back the clock looking like Air Canada again, but mostly operated as a catch and shoot guy. Nevertheless, in the 2011 off-season his contract was bought out from Phoenix and he signed with the Dallas Mavericks. Tracy McGrady - New York Knicks By the time the 2009-2010 season came, Tracy Mcgrady had a lot of surgeries done and his body was starting to break down. He was still recovering at the start of the season and despite trying to play, he was limited to just 7 minutes per game in a few games for the Rockets. Houston decided to shut him down and focused on trading him away. 2 months later, the Knicks pulled the trigger on a T-Mac trade. The Knicks hoped to see Mcgrady come back to his old self, but even if he couldn’t he was still on an expiring contract, and New York was scrambling to clean up the roster and create as much salary cap as possible for that off-season when Lebron James would become a free agent. This is how we got half a season of Tracy in the big apple. The Madison Square Garden crowd was hyped to see him in a Knicks uniform but unfortunately, the injuries took a toll on Mcgrady by that time and he would never look like his old self. Mcgrady in New York: 24 GMS / 9.4 PPG In 24 games for the Knicks, T-Mac averaged a measly 9.4 points per game and it was more than obvious that this is the beginning of the end for him. Richard Jefferson - Milwaukee Bucks You know RJ from his hilarious takes on ESPN, but he was a mean man back in the days. Especially during his time in New Jersey. However, after losing 2 NBA Finals, and 1 ECF in the early 2000’s the Nets didn’t even make the playoffs in 2008. So, it was time for Jefferson to move on. Milwaukee Bucks came up as a suitor for him, as they were looking for a solid wing to play alongside Michael Redd and Andrew Bogut. Richard continued to do his usual work, which included a lot of running, defending and his signature one handed dunks off course. Jefferson in Milwaukee: 19.6 PPG / 4.6 RPG / 2.4 APG (7 times over 30 PTS) He scored above the 30 point mark 7 times, and finished the 2008-09 season strong with averages of: 19.6 PPG / 4.6 RPG / 2.4 APG but the Bucks never came close to making the playoffs, as Bogut missed a big chunk of the season due to injuries. In the summer of 2009 Jefferson was traded again, this time to the Spurs, the first out of six stops for him in the next 9 years in which he was mainly considered as a role player. Peja Stojakovic - Indiana Pacers The Kings had their glory days in the beginning of the 2000s, but when it became clear that this team won’t win the championship, the front office started to dismantle it. First they sent Chris Webber to Philadelphia, and then they traded away their second most valuable piece. The expiring contract of Peja Stojakovic was sent to Indiana for Ron Arterst. And if you’re not a fan of Peja or the Pacers, chances are, you don’t remember him getting buckets in Indiana. Stojakovic in Indiana: 19.5 PPG / 40.4% 3PT / 90.3% FT But he was just as nice as in Sacramento. 19.5 points, on 40.4% from downtown and 90.3% from the foul line. This Pacers team however didn’t see much success as they lost in the first round to New Jersey. The following off-season, Stojakovic signed a 5 year 64 million dollar deal with the New Orleans Hornets.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Watch what happens here. The Pistons are celebrating their blowout win against the Nets, but New Jersey is still pressing with 15 seconds to go trying to foul and stop the clock. The reason is extremely bizarre. This would have been Detroit’s 6th consecutive game of holding their opponent to under 70 points. So in an act of desperation the Nets wanted another shot, and they made it at the buzzer, prompting this hilarious celebration of a 17 point loss. This team was a force in the league for almost a decade, but the 2004 Pistons squad may have been the best defensive team in NBA history. This is the 5 game streak that New Jersey snapped, with this second game being particularly interesting. Detroit faced off against the Nuggets and a rookie Carmelo Anthony. The game was pretty even up until the middle of the second quarter when the Pistons decided that they weren’t going to allow any field goals for a while. A whole 22 possessions to be exact. Denver could not score against this defense, so the lead went from 35-34 all the way to 64-39 with those 5 points for Denver coming from the free throw line. And sure, back then the pace was slower so you could see teams scoring under 70 points. But if we take into account that in the 04 season this happened in 47 out of 1230 games in total, and Detroit’s defense was responsible for 11 of those games, you understand how tough they were. This was especially the case once they traded for Rasheed Wallace. From the moment he stepped in the Pistons locker room, Sheed was a perfect fit. A boost both on offense as well as defense, but also giving the team that extra bit of edge that he always played with. For the remaining 26 games of the regular season since they acquired Wallace, the Pistons only allowed 78.9 points which would blow out any record for a full season. And on that topic, overall, they did finish with the number 1 defense overall that year. So then came the playoffs. And right from the jump in game 1 of the first round against Milwaukee, their defense was dominant. Block after block, the Bucks were suffocated and virtually couldn’t see the rim. Most of those stops opened up a transition opportunity for the Pistons and they capitalized on it. And not only that but the guards hounded the ball, often pressing full court so Milwaukee couldn’t even get past half court. Detroit forced 24 turnovers in that game and it looked like the big brother playing against the little brother. It was that dramatic. The Pistons advanced in 5 games, and went head to head against the finalists of the previous 2 seasons, the New Jersey Nets. And once again in the series opening Detroit would offer a defensive spectacle. In a blowout win, they held the Nets to a miserable 56 points. 56 for the entire game. And not only that but the Pistons allowed a laughable 27.1% shooting from the field for their opponents. They became 1 of 2 teams to allow under 60 points in a playoff game. Only MJ and the Bulls share the same defensive achievement. This was a tough series however. It included chipiness, close games and even a triple overtime showdown that the Nets won, despite this unbelievable buzzer beater by Chauncey Billups. The Nets even took a 3-2 lead. But the defensive mindset of this team prevailed once again and they were able to escape with a close win in New Jersey, setting up the deciding game 7 in which the Pistons absolutely destroyed their opponents with a 90-69 blowout win. An interesting note here is that Ben Wallace had one of the best offensive nights in his career scoring 18 points, and even looked like a knockdown shooter in a few situations. In the conference finals Detroit faced off against the Indiana Pacers, the number 1 seed in the east. And despite having the lead late in game 1, Reggie Miller delivered yet another one of his iconic daggers in the clutch, for a heartbreak defeat for the Pistons. Knowing that they can’t fall in a 2-0 hole, Rasheed Wallace guaranteed a win in game 2. This statement sparked a war on the court. A defensive slugfest that wasn’t the prettiest to watch with 26 blocks in total. Detroit had 19 of those. And once again they would find themselves clinging to a 2 point lead in the closing seconds. Which set the stage for one of the most legendary defensive stops in NBA history. This was another game where the Pistons held their opponents to less than 30% from the field similarly to the game against New Jersey. Only this team and the 99 Knicks were able to do such a thing 2 times in a single playoff run. They survived game 2 with a win, and also won the next 3 out of the 4 to ultimately defeat the Pacers and head to the NBA finals as a massive underdog against the Lakers superteam. The one thing that Detroit had going for them was their perfect team chemistry, compared to the ego filled roster of the Lakers led by the beef between Kobe and Shaq.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ On the drive, Kuminga fakes Mcgee but then gets slapped in the face inadvertently. I don’t know why this reminded me of Mortal Kombat’s famous line “Finish him”. Ja Morant takes off for one of his signature flights but gets facepalmed by the villain Marcus Morris. I gotta give it to Ja, even his falls look spectacular. Y'all remember this brutal foul from Dillon Brooks last year that resulted with a fractured elbow for GP who missed the next 10 games of the playoffs. Tony Allen was one of the best defenders back in the day. He wouldn’t let a man get past him at any cost, even if that means using MMA moves. Man, that gotta hurt. While we are at the topic of using legs, Draymond Green knows a little something.. But, it’s nothing compared to when Joel squashed Grant’s head off the hardwood. Elfrid Payton got so mad at Crowder for not respecting the basketball code that he shoved him into the chairs and almost started a brawl. And speaking of codes, Desmond Bane clearly doesn't respect the man code as he punched Kevin directly into his private parts. And at this point I guess there’s something in the water in Memphis that forces people to mess with other men's genitalia. And just in case you needed to see another cheap shot in the groin, here it is. Pat Bev and CP3 have a rich history of dirty plays between them, this right here is called the chicken wing. Here’s a look at the dirty foul that sparked the fight between the Knicks and the Nuggets in 06. Raja Bell was ready to fight Kobe everytime they faced during those days, but Bryant was all smiles this time and just rubbed the dirt off his shoulders. Ben Simmons assaulted Collins on the fastbreak and just as fast he apologized to him to prevent any smoke. Devin Harris did a similar thing to Jamario Moon who luckily had LeBron and Shaq as teammates who were ready to lock Harris up and send him to prison. They were so into their roles that they forgot to check on Moon if he’s okay. Kawhi thought he had an open dunk when Draymond sent him crashing down to the floor, and then explained to him properly what happened mid-air. On the fastbreak Trevor Ariza literally hugged Antetokounmpo around the waist for this takedown, and then pushed himself off of Giannis’ male region in order to stand up. Dennis Schroeder made a hard foul to stop Anunoby from scoring but then OG casually picked him up by the leg and flipped him over which got Dennis pretty angry. I’m curious to know how many of you thought of this classic wrestling maneuver by P.J.Brown when you saw this. While trying to block the shot, Zach Collins accidentally hits and cuts Westbrook’s forehead with his elbow. Russ stood up immediately all fired up ready to fight Collins. However, he made sure to get his little revenge the next time they played. Pascal Siakam got so mad at Embiid for blocking his shot that he tripped him like a little kid. Imagine a 265 pound guy striking an elbow right behind your ear, that’s a headache for sure. After stealing the rebound from him, Giannis got tossed to the ground by Drummond who had a sudden change of heart and tried to help him afterwards. Watch the time and the score as James Johnson puts Andre on a poster, but on the next possession, as soon as he gets the ball BOOM, Drummond sends him flying on the court. Dennis the Menace makes his second but not his last appearance in this video, however it’s not like he’s the one menacing other people, as we see Shelvin Mack slamming him down. And we’re going to wrap it up with another one of Schroeder, bouncing around defenders like a volleyball. If you can’t get enough of these, click here to watch the first part that got almost 3 million views. Peace out.

Shoes: https://www.wayofwade.com/products/wade-all-city-11-ice-blood?variant=43744582009047 Clothing: https://www.wayofwade.com/collections/clothing Mike James was a solid NBA player with a career average of 9.9 points per game. But in 05-06 in his contract year he had the most random jump to 20 points for the season. And instead of going up, he never came close to those numbers again in his career. Let me explain. As an NBA journeyman, James was often traded from team to team, but despite that he improved steadily ever since his rookie year and increased his scoring average. With the Raptors however, he got the perfect opportunity on a team that tried to figure things out after Vince Carter left. So Mike could pretty much shoot whenever he wanted, and to everyone’s surprise, he made a lot of those shots. 47% from the field and a blistering hot 44% from downtown, made him a top 20 scorer in the league with more points per game than guys like Tim Duncan, Dwight Howard and Chauncey Billups. What’s interesting however is that despite the huge jump from 12 to 20 points, he was only 7th in the race for most improved player. With Boris Diaw winning it that year. After balling out for the Raptors, Minnesota signed him to a 4 year 24 million dollar contract. But he fell all the way back down to 10 points per game. In fact, that following season with the Wolves was the last time that he even got to double digits. That’s how random this 1 year jump was. Similar thing happened to Aaron Brooks as well. It all started in the 2009 playoffs that the Rockets entered without their main weapon Tracy Mcgrady. And when Yao Ming also got injured, that freed up a ton of shot opportunities for the role players who went against the eventual champions Lakers in the second round. Playing without any kind of pressure, a starting 5 of Battier, Scola, Artest, Chuck Hayes and Brooks took the heavy favorites to 7 games. And Aaron Brooks was a big reason for that. So when both Yao and Tracy couldn’t return for the next season, Brooks continued to cook, jumping from 11 points the previous year all the way to 19 and a half per game in 2010. And with that he was voted as the most improved player. This was a lone magical season for him however since he also fell down to 10 and a half points the next year and pretty much stayed in that range or lower for the rest of his career. Bobby Simmons is another guy who won most improved player, and he was able to really cash in his unsustainable jump in production. In his 4th season in the league which just so happened to be his contract year, Simmons went from almost 8 points per game, to 16 and a half, more than doubling his average from the previous year. And he added 6 rebounds to that. This earned him the award and made him a hot commodity, with teams throwing offers at him. The biggest one came from the Milwaukee Bucks. A 4 year, 47 million dollar contract, which Bobby immediately signed. And while he was somewhat ok in his first season with the Bucks, dropping only 3 points per game, from that point on, it’s a steep decline back to his baseline of 7 points, never coming back to the production from his contract year. Moving on, next up are 2 players that peaked as rookies. Michael Carter Williams had the debut of his dreams dropping 22 points, 7 rebounds, 12 assists and 9 steals on the Miami Heat superteam. And Philly won the game. He continued the season strong, and despite the Sixers being dead last that year, he had a good season with averages of 16 and a half points 6 rebounds and 6 assists per game winning the rookie of the year award. However his inefficient shooting especially from downtown, and the turnover issue bothered Philadelphia, so midway through his sophomore year he got traded. Thing is, he continued to be a way below average shooter, and never took the next step. Instead, his averages steadily declined all the way to single digits and he got traded a few more times ultimately ending up on the Orlando Magic. Tyreke Evans had a similar decline from 20 points per game as a rookie of the year to 9.5 a few years later. But funny enough in 2017 he had a random bounce back season with the Grizzlies averaging 19 and a half points per game along with 5 rebounds and 5 assists. This was his second best season of his career and was a whole 10 years apart from his rookie season which of course was his best. Davis Bertans tricked the Wizards into giving him a monster 80 million dollar contract with 1 good season. Bertans went from 8 to 15 and a half points per game in 2019-2020 and along with his lights out shooting, that got the Wizards fired up to make this offer to him. But that was the absolute best that we saw from Davis, as he quickly fell to 11 points the next season and ever since then, he’s been well into single digits with 5 points per game for the last 2 years.

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Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ What if I told you that you’ve been lied to all these years, and that actually Kobe Bryant is the originator of this iconic dunk. He did this first, 3 years before Vince. Best of all, I got the proof. This is the ending of a charity event similar to the all star game hosted by Magic Johnson in 1997. As the game ended, some of the young superstars like T-Mac, Stephon Marbury, Kobe and others had an impromptu dunk contest. But watch what happens right here. Bryant throws it down and just hangs on the rim with his elbow inside. If you ask me, this is an even better execution of Carter’s version, that again- came 3 years later in that 2000 slam dunk contest. When I found this out, I was in shock, probably like some of you watching this video. In the year 2000 Reggie Miller set the record for the fastest points ever scored in an NBA game. Right from the tip Smits finds him on the wing and Reggie fires away immediately and buries it in only 4 seconds. A whole 22 years later, a fellow Pacer Buddy Hield broke his record. And look at how lightning quick this is. Steals the tip, turns, fires and hits with 11:57 on the clock. Buddy took exactly 3 seconds to score the triple. Unbelievable. Speaking of unbelievable, the Dallas Mavericks hosted a wedding during half time. All with the white dress, rings, everything. The ceremony started with a hilarious intro of the couple. And then came the ceremony itself, where the Mavericks announcer acted as the priest. They swore their love to each other, exchanged rings, and of course… The entire thing is hilarious and at the end, it even included the first dance. If you’re a Mavs fanatic, this is the wedding of your dreams I guess. Taking a sharp turn from a dream wedding to a nightmare quarter for the Mavs. In 1997, Dallas set an infamous record for fewest points in a quarter with only 2. The Mavericks shot an astonishing 0 of 15 from the field for the quarter. They missed every single shot they took. And also had 9 turnovers during those bizarre 12 minutes. The combination of some bad shots, but also straight up missing bunnies, and some unfriendly rolls added up for them ending in the worst quarter in NBA history. The only points for Dallas came from the free throw line with just 1:50 to go. And while we’re on the topic of free throws, I need to show you a college guy backing out and taking a jump shot from the line. In 2013, Ryan Evans tried everything to improve his poor free throw percentage, and that included taking jump shots. Usually free throws are not the most entertaining aspect during a game, but fans made sure they were paying attention whenever Evans was fouled. However despite looking interesting, it didn’t really prove to be effective as he still ended the season with a miserable 42%. Older NBA fans remember how Nick Van Exel famously took a step back on his free throws back in the day, but he wouldn’t jump tho. And similar to Evans, this wouldn’t make a difference in Van Exel’s percentages as you see that he shot them a tad bit worse after making the change. Still, this would become his signature and it’s as recognizable as MJ’s fadeaway. And if you needed some more proof of his greatness, here is another wild one to put in perspective just how superb Michael Jordan was over his competition. MJ has more 40+ point games in his career (211 games) than games in which he scored 20 or less points. (178 games) Imagine how insane this is. Coming into a game as an opponent you were more likely to get a 40 piece from Michael, than to hold him under 20 points. I wouldn’t feel great about that matchup. Moving on, this is Marquis Daniels, a guy from that famous 03 draft class that included Lebron, Melo and D. Wade. Thing is, Daniels went undrafted but he still had a bigger contract than these rookie superstars. Wait what? How is that possible? Well, at the time, the most that Lebron could get as the number 1 pick was a 4 year (18.788) 19 million dollar contract. Meanwhile, Daniels got picked up by the Mavs and signed a 1 year minimum. However he proved to be a solid piece for this team, and next season Dallas rewarded him with a 5 year 29 (.418) million dollar deal. And since this was his second contract, rookie limits didn’t apply to him. So from that sophomore year, until Lebron’s contract ended in 07, Daniels had earned the most money from that entire draft class, without even being drafted. Malcolm Brogdon is possibly the worst and most forgettable Rookie of the year. With 10.2 PPG & 4.2 APG Brogdon came out as the winner in the race with Joel Embiid and Dario Saric.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ After being the 2nd highest paid NBA player last season, Russell Westbrook resigned with the Clippers on a pitiful 2 year contract worth just 8 mil $. And worst of all, it seems like this was the only offer for him on the market so he was actually forced to sign it, just to stay in the league. These are the last days in the NBA for Westbrook, and I would say certainly the last NBA contract. And the guys over on the Gilbert Arenas podcast seem to agree with me. Imagine if he didn’t resign with the Clippers, where would he go? Who wants an aging ‘once upon a time’ superstar that still thinks he’s the alpha dog. You know his tendency of running with his head through walls, bricking low percentage shots, and and worst of all settling for the hero shots with the game on the line. Despite him being far from a good shooter. On the flip side, his passion, energy and dedication to the game is undoubtable. And Stephen Jackson went on to social media to let everyone know that what’s happening to Russ is totally unfair. And I agree with all of this. But, look at the splits from his time with the Lakers and the Clippers. Pay close attention at the numbers. Almost the same amount of makes, points, rebounds, and assists. And somehow, he was awful on the Lakers, and a nice fit with the Clippers. It’s all in the better shot selection. Meaning, that he didn’t force it as much and played within the team offense more. And the truth is, that nobody wants to take on the risk of trying to see which Russ they’re going to get. Will he comply with the coach and the team’s philosophy or will he do his own thing. That’s why there wasn’t a single offer for him from other teams even after having a nice playoff outing. 23.6 PPG / 7.6 RPG / 7.4 APG for the series, leading the team in the absence of Paul George and Kawhi Leonard. He fed off of the rivalry that he has against KD blocking him savagely on a couple of occasions, Even Ty Lue praised him after game 1 where he shot just 3 for 19 but ended up being the hero for the Clippers, grabbing some monster offensive rebounds late, and especially for his defensive masterclass against Durant and Booker. In a vacuum, these numbers in the playoffs can get you a lot better contract than a 2 year 8 million. But they won’t play the Suns every other day so Russ can’t feed off the rivalry he has with KD. This is another thing with Westbrook. When he really wants to play and puts his mind to it, he can be the best player on the floor. He can still put his head down and blow by the majority of NBA players for his patented one handed jams. He can still put up triple doubles across the board. But playing with him is extremely tricky. Especially if there’s another superstar on the team. Ever since the OKC days with KD, we saw when PG & Melo came to town, that wasn’t a good fit. Then the Houston episode with Harden, that wasn’t a good fit either and the most egregious example of them all was the Lakers circus with LeBron and AD. That one year, when he was the lone wolf in OKC in 2016-17, he seemed unstoppable. He broke records after records, dominated the box scores and averaged a 30 point triple double for the entire season, winning the MVP award. But in the playoffs, the Thunder were dismantled by Harden and the Rockets in 5 games. In fact, ever since splitting up with KD, Russell has pretty much lost in the first round. His only trip to the 2nd round of the playoffs without KD was with Houston in the bubble in 2020. Everything else was an early exit for Brodie. And I hate to say it, but it seems like my assumption back from 2018 will be fulfilled. That Russell Westbrook will never win a title. Not with his style of play. Rushing the offense when there is absolutely no need for that and taking tough shots in the clutch over way better shooters than him. The only good sign is that Russell did improve his percentages a lot in 21 games with the Clippers compared to his atrocious shooting splits wearing the purple and gold uniform. Also he took the least shots per game in his entire career. So maybe coach Lue is getting to him and will help Russ to have a decent ending of his career. And to do that it’s up to Russ to acknowledge the fact that adapting to the team’s needs means prolonging his NBA journey. First video in this condensed and smaller studio, and I got another set with the good old mini hoop for the old school viewers that remember it. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ The prophecy is fulfilled. This is 5 year old Nikola Jokic in a Denver Nuggets sweatshirt. At the time he had no idea who they were, nor that he would one day lead them to a championship. In fact he did it in a spectacular fashion, becoming the first player in NBA history to lead all players in points (600), rebounds (269) and assists (190) in a single postseason. In other words, the absolute best in every possible way. And to deliver the final blow, Jokic was phenomenal once again against the Heat zone. Watch how comfortable he is in the middle of the floor, as he even decides to drop this down low to Brown and on the return he flips it up and in. Then again, we see the 2-3 zone from Miami, he gives it up to Murray and quickly gets it back in the middle, another casual flip shot and another bucket. And watch him make split second decisions in heavy traffic here with the entire defense around him. He quickly locates KCP in the corner and as we let it go, rifles a pass to him, the nice pump fake, into an open jumper and 2 more points. Even with a heavy contest like in this situation we’ve seen him make these ridiculous 1 legged fadeaway shots. And, in the clutch again Miami stays with the zone but Jokic goes to a 1 legged runner off the dribble like he’s Steve Nash. Miami tried their best with the zone defense but Nikola just broke it down in a bunch of different ways. Not to mention his phenomenal outside shooting. I love this set having him screen for Porter Jr on the curl, and immediately receiving a screen himself from Jamal up top and the miscommunication on defense makes this a completely wide open shot which of course Jokic is going to punish. At the end he was extremely emotional as you can see. And the celebration was even more spectacular. It’s the first time in NBA history that I see this little effort being put into the champagne shower. As if he doesn’t care that they won. That’s hilarious. All of this is because there is still one thing on his mind. And check out his pure shock when they told him that the parade is actually going to be on Thursday. This is hysterical, you can never convince me that this guy cares about awards, let alone pads his stats like some clowns were trying to say. Denver won this championship the best possible way. Organic, with some home grown guys, without a big three, or a blockbuster trade. Just a great system, with no ego, and all teamwork. Oh yeah, and a kid from Sombor. Speaking of that, you gotta check out this mini documentary I did about his childhood when he drank 3 litters of coke per day while his coaches were begging him to cut back on it. Click right here and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ This is the system that makes Denver almost unbeatable. Watch what happens here as the Heat trap the pick and roll forcing Murray to give it up. And look at the quick reactions of Jokic first of all, who goes middle to engage Butler essentially leaving Gordon alone who will also cut to the basket. All of that is well but as we let it roll, you still need a perfect lob pass which KCP absolutely delivers for the jam. This is a small thing but watch this transition developing. Jokic calls for Jamal to get the ball as he sets a screen for him to hit the gas pedal and attack. As that happens Bam helps and this could be just a flip back to Nikola who pops out. But on the opposite side look at the activity by Gordon who doesn’t just stare at that pick and roll by instead dives inside occupying the middle of the paint. And with everyone corralled in the paint, Gordon finds Bruce Brown all alone at the three point line for a wide open look that he knocks down. You see how the Nuggets are in a constant motion and every player knows that their teammates will find them. And this is just a ridiculous example. Follow Jokic on the pick and roll as he gets the switch with the much smaller Vincent. And on the turn, he sees 3 bodies right in front of him. So how in the world did he process all of that in a split second while seeing Gordon cutting and throwing him an alley oop pass for the dunk. This is unbelievable and I need to show you this in full speed to see just how quick this reaction is by Jokic. This is just beautiful basketball and now you see why they never stop moving. The pass will be there no matter the situation. You notice that Gordon is involved in some way in all of these. He had a phenomenal game with 27 points on an incredible efficiency. Making plays all around, whether it was punishing the mismatch- continuing to do it in this game as well, or this amazing pass to find Murray cutting inside. Speaking of amazing, Bruce Brown right here takes it upon himself to drive through the entire defense and finish with this stunning up and under against one of the best defenders and shot blockers in the league. He was in attack mode to help his team win a crucial game. Watch him make plays with the ball in his hands going strong for this layup. Or at the end of the game hitting this shot plus the foul to put the game away for Denver. He actually led all Nuggets in the second half with 16 points when it mattered the most. Who would have thought that Jokic and Murray would combine for 38 points while Brown and Gordon will have 46 in this game. You see right here how big of an advantage the Nuggets have when the role players can give them a game like this and that’s on the road. On the flip side, Gabe Vincent and Max Struss were a complete no show for the second straight game, and with those points lacking for Miami, the loss was inevitable. The Nuggets are just 1 win away from winning the title, and I don’t know what makes me say this, but I see Porter Jr finally exploding at home with a great game after a horrific finals series so far, to eventually help his team seal the deal. Let me know if you see them closing it out or the Heat fight back to make it interesting. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Video Sponsored by Ridge. Check them out here: https://ridge.com/heatcheck Use my link to get up to 40% off through June 15th! This is how you break down zone defense. As you can see the Heat are in a 1-3-1 and Jokic goes to the right block to get the ball and make things happen for Denver. Now as he does that, follow the weak side where Jeff Green screens for Braun who doesn’t wait for a shot, but instead cuts along the baseline behind every heat defender. With 2 guys on him Jokic does a phenomenal job of holding onto the ball and delivering a perfect pass in traffic for the dunk. This is the exact same 1-3-1 zone here in the third quarter, and Denver goes for the same setup bringing Jokic on the right side to get it. As soon as he even touches it, both Braun and Green fly in towards the basket and as we let it go, Jokic lobs a beautiful pass for Braun on the move and he makes a great athletic catch and finish. Christian played a terrific game 3 benefiting a lot off of the attention that Jokic and Murray were attracting. You can see that just by being aggressive and moving towards the basket he got himself some easy buckets on his way to 15 points and 4 rebounds on a fantastic efficiency. Just what the Nuggets needed for a huge win on the road. But let me show you what else happened. Miami also tried trapping Murray in the pick and roll a lot. And they had some success with it. Right here, they chase him down, Jamal gets rid of it, and the ball still finds Jokic inside but in this scramble the Heat are able to bring another body down low to bother Nikola’s view just enough to force the miss. But a lot of these ended with a bucket as well. In the first, Jimmy chases him down and Bam steps in as well for this trap. But Murray stays patient and keeps his dribble up to the point where he sees Jokic alone and finds him so Nikola just steps in and floats this one in. Again with both Butler and Adebayo on him Jamal stops on a dime, turns and finds the big man all alone. So because Bam is trailing, he tries extra hard to contest which Jokic uses against him and just pump fakes, drives inside and lays it in. And let me show you a funny example where Murray completely faked out Bam. Watch where the ball is and where he’s looking. Nice recovery but he was already confused here and the Joker used it as he finishes inside yet again. This was a great response to game 2 by Denver with a much improved offensive execution. You see that a lot of these connections are between Jokic and Murray. An assist from one of them to the other. Well, check out this stat. Nikola and Jamal have 27 assists between them in just 3 games, while Tatum to Brown or Brown to Tatum only assisted 6 times in 7 games against Miami. This speaks a lot about the great dynamic that the 2 Nuggets leaders have between them, but it does also say a lot about the Tatum and Brown duo, and not in a good way. But let’s get back to this game and show you what happened when the Heat flat out switched the pick and roll. On the hand off Jimmy is lackadaisical here so I guess he communicated that this is a switch. But this is just too much space for a knockdown shooter like Murray and this is a splash from downtown. But if you thought that was easy, check out the barbeque chicken here for Jokic who catches Vincent here on the switch. Of course it’s bully ball but as we stop it here you see that Butler is hesitant to leave KCP alone in the corner, and for Love it would mean leaving an open Gordon for the lob and the jam. So as crazy as it sounds they just let Jokic do his thing and destroy Vincent under the basket. Credit to Miami who’ve tried a bunch of different looks defensively but this was a pure offensive masterclass by Denver in game 3 to take back home court. Hey if you liked this video, you’ll love this mini documentary about Jokic’s childhood. A lot of research went into this so check it out. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Who would have thought that this chubby kid with the laziest walk imaginable will one day be one of the biggest NBA superstars? Apparently not even Jokic himself, since he actually quit at 13 years old, just to be in the stable with his horses more. Jokic would post ludicrous numbers like 34 points 19 rebounds and 5 blocks in the serbian youth league on a diet strictly consisting of junk food. Cookies and cakes, a lot of Burek- a traditional pie in Serbia, and about 3 liters of Coka Cola per day. When he got signed to a professional team at 17 years old, coaches were shocked by how bad Nikola’s conditioning was. He couldn’t do a single push up. Not even the modified ones known as girl push ups. Jokic actually suffered a minor injury on the first practice with the pros as he couldn’t keep up with the pace. Just to be able to survive practice, the team assigned a conditioning coach and wouldn’t even let him train with his teammates but instead have him do specific exercises on the side for an entire month, just to get him in proper physical condition. They also assigned a nutritionist to help Nikola with his diet but as he says it himself this was unsuccessful. Coaches were annoyed that Jokic would eat 2 healthy meals that the nutritionist recommended but he would then also eat an entire pie of Burek and 2 liters of coke, completely destroying the diet plan. Perhaps the most obvious and hilarious story that describes Nikola’s lack of stamina back then, is the time when he complained of a sore hand and had to miss a game because of it. Coaches were confused and were trying to figure out if this was because of a fall during practice, or a new exercise that put a strain on his body. They asked him about all of this but couldn’t find what caused it. After excluding everything possible, someone remembered that the day before, the team sent Jokic and a few of his teammates to a local school to sign autographs. He signed cards one by one for more than an hour and this is the actual reason for the soreness. Despite these almost comical examples of bad conditioning, he was unstoppable on the court and was voted the MVP of the adriatic league- a competition of the best teams from the Balkans. So Jokic had the full support of the coaching staff and the owner of the team who also happened to be his agent. To understand this dynamic, as well as get a better view of how Jokic got drafted in the NBA, along with other top players from the region, we need to include Misko Raznatovic in this story. Raznatovic is a basketball agent who also owns a team called Mega in the Serbian league. The roster is almost entirely comprised of young players represented by his agency. So it’s basically like a farm for breeding young talent. And the best of them get the right exposure in terms of playing time and shots per game to be able to shine and get noticed by the big teams. Jokic and Boban Marjanovic actually played together in Mega. Ivica Zubac, Nikola Jovic and Vlatko Cancar are some other familiar names who got drafted with the help of Raznatovic and playing in Mega. But Nikola’s arrival in Denver almost didn’t happen. Just a few months prior, he was supposed to be traded to Barcelona. In fact everything was arranged. All the paperwork, the contract, finances everything. Raznatovic had a great relationship with Barcelona’s front office members so they came to Serbia and before signing they wanted to sit together in the stands to watch Jokic play for Mega. This was a pure formality before the official signing. But nobody could have predicted or even imagined what would happen right there and then. Inexplicably, Nikola was horrible in that game. With one of the biggest teams in Europe watching, and an agreement in place, he didn’t want to look at the basket. Not only that, but according to Misko, Jokic seemed as if he didn’t want to even move a finger out there on the court. He finished the game with only 6 points going 1 for 8 from the field. His head coach at the time recalls that Nikola’s girlfriend Natalija, who’s now his wife went to the United States for studies, so he was emotionally drained during that period, and one time even said that he wanted to quit basketball. Coach said that he needed a lot of time to bring him back mentally. So what happened with Barcelona? Well of course they know what type of player Jokic was at the time. They scouted him a lot, and one bad game wouldn’t mess up all the brilliant performances that he’d shown up to that point. But since his agent Misko Raznatovic was such good friends with Barcelona’s people, he told them that he understands there’s a slight hesitancy after the disaster that everyone witnessed.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ This is the moment where Denver lost control of the game. On the screen and the curl here, this is a simple defensive decision. You either switch it, or Bruce Brown should just show here, allowing Christian Braun to recover. But this is an inexcusable mistake to have them both here with Robinson and leave Vincent completely wide open and he punishes them. Thing is, it happened again the very next possession. Same exact play, and once again the 2 defenders don’t communicate this time allowing Duncan to go all the way to the basket and extend the lead. Denver had a bunch of these mental lapses that cost them the game. Let me show you. Even at the start of the game the Nuggets seemed confused and made silly mistakes. Follow Struss here as he goes to set the screen but actually slips and goes to the corner. This was not the quickest slip but still KCP and Porter kept standing up top, leaving Max alone in the corner and he punishes them. Again, with Gordon on Butler, Struss comes over and slips again. And look at how slow Murray is to say that this is a switch. By thes time he signals this, Max is already right here. So Jimmy finds him, he’s got enough time to fire away and knock it down. Struss even got a third open look off a mistake by the defense. Gordon has been successful in guarding Butler 1 on 1, so why is KCP leaving a dangerous shooter to try to help over there when there’s no need for it. Jimmy again makes the right play, Struss fires away and this is another punishment for Denver’s mistakes. KCP had some more mental lapses throughout the game as he reaches in on a fling shot from way out as the shot clock expired and got Struss 3 free throws. And he did it yet again in the clutch, costing his team a lot as Lowry converted all three free throws and the lead ballooned to 8 points. And we gotta talk about Michael Porter Jr who after a bad shooting night in game 1, was a complete no show in the second game going 2 for 8 for 5 points. He hasn’t done anything besides shooting contested three pointers. And if they don’t go in there’s no alternative. He doesn’t attack the rim, there’s no movement without the ball, no cutting, nothing. MPJ is getting 33 million per year and I expect him to start playing like he deserves that especially now when it matters the most. Jamal Murray also got burned a few times on defense. Right here he bites on this pump fake that’s almost from the logo and allows for an open look and the three. Then Robinson just blows by him as if he’s one of the best drivers in the league. Shoutout to Duncan for the increased confidence balling out at the end of the season but Murray needs to be better in this situation. Miami did play some good defense and credit to them for getting back in the game after that huge Denver run in the second quarter but this is solely the Nuggets fault. They are clearly the better team but got outplayed and lost because of bad defensive mistakes that cannot happen in the finals. The Heat got the split and are headed back home and we still haven’t seen a typical Jimmy Butler game and you know that’s coming as well. Things just got very spicy and we’re in for a great finals series. Talk to you in the next one. Peace out.

Support by buying my NBA T-Shirts: https://heatcheck.info/ Watch the trickery that Jokic pulls off on the first possession of the game. Bam is fronting him trying to deny this pass. So Nikola at one point just stops asking for the ball and instead sets an impromptu screen. You see that while Murray can fly all the way to the rim, Vincent now must go around 2 big bodies and there’s no stopping this as Jamal lays it in. The 2 man game for Denver was deadly in game 1, but as tough as that was to stop for Miami, they have another huge issue that doesn’t seem like they’ll be able to solve. Let me explain. First let me show you the pick and roll clinic that they ran. Jokic sets a great screen up top and Jamal has a lot of room here. You see that Bam is trying to split the difference between the 2, of course watching for the roll by the big man. He can’t commit to a full switch and leave Vincent with Nikola. So Murray realizes that he can just raise up for the shot and knocks it down. This one was even easier as Adebayo is in a full drop right here. So you see all the space that Jamal has and this is easy money for a great mid range scorer like him. This time it’s finally Nikola’s time in the pick and roll as he gets the pass down low and look at the beautiful spin into a hook shot- this is unstoppable. Jokic is just too big for either Adebayo or Zeller and we saw that when he’s able to get it inside it’s either a bucket or a foul, as Nikola ended up shooting 12 free throws which is double than what he usually does. This is how we get to Miami’s biggest issue that is matchups. Watch Aaron Gordon looking like Lebron against the smaller guys that the Heat had on him. He bulldozed through Gabe Vincent and Max Struss on multiple possessions. Then with Caleb Martin on him you see that Denver clears out the left side for him and with shooters all around- and yeah that includes Jokic who’s firing threes at 47.5% this postseason. So Miami can’t help here and this is easy work again for AG. Again, same thing just on the opposite side. I understand the fear of the open 3 for the Heat but this is a 100% type of shot so you gotta help out here. Gordon finished the game with 16 points on 70% from the field and you can see why that percentage was so high. So with 2 of the 5 positions being a real mismatch that’s a huge problem for Miami. I expect Hayward Highsmith to get much more playing time in game 2 as a terrific defender who had some great moments as one of the key pieces in that fourth quarter run. And even with his limited offensive assignments he still dropped 18 points. Speaking of the 4th quarter run- it was the zone that got Miami back from 21 points within single digits in just a few minutes in the fourth, but when Denver found Jokic in the middle, he broke them down either with a flip shot like in this situation, or some incredible interior passing finding guys right under the rim to put the nail in the coffin for this game 1. If Miami even hopes to make this series interesting then Jimmy Butler must be much more active and it’s inexcusable to pass away good looks like this one right here, or end up with just 2 free throws as a team. 2 free throws they actually set an NBA record for fewest free throw attempts in a playoff game. One thing that they can hope will go their way is shot making because, look at all of these open looks that Miami couldn’t convert. Max Struss went 0-9 from downtown and he better get back on track for the Heat to even have a chance in the finals. A convincing win in the opening for Denver and they made it look like they are an unsolvable problem for their opponent. Let’s see if that will be the case moving forward. Let me know what you think. That’s it for now, subscribe and talk to you in the next one. Peace out.