Jovan Buha

speaker

326 appearances 10 recordings 3 series first heard Nov 2024 last heard 26 Jun

Jovan Buha’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.

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recordings per month · last 12 months

Recordings per month over the last 12 months — 2 in all, peaking in Jun 2026 with 1.

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The Athletic NBA Daily · LeBron & Lakers “embarrassed” | Pacers struggles continue · 5 Dec 2024 podcast

Yeah.

Yeah, I mean, their biggest problem offensively is their loss of transition frequency and what their efficiency has been there. The half court offense is still decent and they're reincorporating Benedict Matherin and they've added Juris Walker into that rotation. And this is not to say that any of the players are bad or that their one style is better than the other.

But when you're looking at Tyrese and he's also facing exaggerated coverages, he's looked limited in games to me. Pascal is a guy, you know from covering him in Toronto, that he's very good at using the high seal in transition. And then that creates a very big catch area. But if you don't get that high seal and then you're in the half court, it can be a slower process.

And that could be for both reasons, good and bad, because Pascal generally, not so much necessarily in this game, but could be very good at dragging out a double team, creating space for other people. He's a good playmaker. But now... They played fast with Benedict Mather as a starter at the beginning of last season.

They continued to play fast with Pascal as a starter at the back end of last season. But those people were never all playing at the same time. So, like, tonight when you're watching the third quarter and they start to make a run, it's Tyrese, it's TJ, it's Johnny Furphy, it's Obi Top, and it's them looking for guys where Tyrese is being face-guarded.

94 feet it's good when their numbers are much better when Tyrese is playing with either Andrew Nembhard or playing with TJ McConnell so somebody else can quickly get into offense they have people who are probably filling the spacing lanes and then they have the rim runner you can tell a lot of times in these games that the spacing template just isn't right and on for what their two-side fast break should be there's been some breakdowns there and that was in part why the second quarter I made a joke that it was like watching a team throw a beach ball around at a concert but some of that was because of the spacing

It was because like they sometimes they'll have a three side or a four side fast break and nobody rectifies it. Or sometimes Miles Turner, after being pretty effective as a rim runner and a trailer last year so they can get into secondary offense, will be like they'll just be running into the to the penetration angle of the ball handler. It's like right in front instead of staying behind a trail.

So they've had some issues there, and that's something that they've had to tinker with. It's not the same team like it is in terms of the roster is the same team, but not really.

And I think that's kind of been the biggest struggle. And opening night against the Pistons, they didn't play particularly fast, but they did find a way. And I was like, well, if nothing else, this wasn't a particularly well-played game, but they showed that they could win ugly. That hasn't been the case very much in these other ones.

And, like, even just to point out, too, like, you know, people criticized it at the time, but... Buddy healed is a loss here. Like it didn't show up as much in the playoffs. They still were able to maintain their identity. And that was like, oh, okay.

Like if they, if they can still score to this degree against the Boston Celtics and Boston is saying that was our toughest competitor in the playoffs. And like, look at the decent difference in effort from game four. That Eastern Conference final series when Tyrese wasn't even playing to what it looked like in this game tonight when they're having to lean on, you know, deeper into the rotation.

And again, some of that's because people who are capable of playing that play style were sitting on the bench and street clothes tonight. But you see the point there and what the contrast is.

Andrew is their best perimeter defender, and not only because of what he does at the point of attack, but because he's their highest field off-ball defender as well. Aaron gives them a wing defender, and then obviously Ben Shepard is very good at staying skinny and getting over the top of screens as well. You saw that tonight, right?

Like Benedict Mather and trying to guard against Dennis Schroeder. There's a reason why before halftime, Johnny Furphy was guarding at the point of attack against... Dennis Schroeder, like sometimes when he has to veer, he'll start to do it and then he kind of meanders or he'll just hug the screener and point for the next person to do it.

Like there's games where he's better and we'll push up and then there's other ones where it can kind of wax and wane for him at that end of the floor. But overall, I mean, they have their pick and roll defense, surprisingly, actually is quite a bit better from last year.

They show a little bit more help, but the problem is when they're showing that help, sometimes their court awareness isn't good enough to then contain the cuts. And the big one, which you kind of touched on, is the transition defense. They don't give up a ton in transition, but they get beat in transition a lot. And sometimes it can be for really inexplicable reasons. I'm sure I saw it last night.

There's one last night where Miles is the first big back. Tyrese is buddied up next to Jakob Pertl in a trail. And instead of Miles being like, oh, I'm the first big back, I receive Jakob Pertl, you go close out to Scottie Barnes. Tyrese keeps running with Jakob Pertl, and then Miles is like, oh, I have to close out, clear to the three-point line. There's little breakdowns like that.

That's not a schematic thing from the coaching staff. That's just feel and reads. You have to stay connected on defense, and there's just a lot of times where that's not happening, and then they're coming out and talking about it. They get down big to the Miami Heat. They come out and talk about it afterwards. This was an effort thing. We need to clean this up.

Then they do clean it up in the next game against the Miami Heat. Very clear improvements. Then two nights later, it's jacked again.

I think somewhat of the difference there is, and I thought it was important that he had two of the drives that he had against Jakob Pertl, not because Jakob Pertl is like a shutdown isolation defender, but because Tyrese typically does not drive switches. And there was two times in that game where he was able to drive, get past Jakob Pertl, and actually go... and finish at the rim.

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