Les Claypool
speaker
184 appearances
1 recordings
1 series
first heard Mar 2025
last heard Mar 2025
Les Claypool’s voice in public audio — every appearance, attributed to the second.
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kind of one-on-one basketball, but not really driving and settling for some of these mid-range, getting into threes a little bit too early? Was that not exposed because they weren't really tested? And maybe Dallas wasn't even the best team from the West, and that's who they faced in the finals. It's a terrible matchup for the Mavs.
I can understand some of that stuff, but I almost think the standard that And I'll just say for me, my standard is probably just too high for them because of how special I think they are. It almost feels like when the SEC loses a national championship or in this case, last couple years, doesn't play in one. It's like, hey, what's wrong with those guys? So that's where I'm at with Boston.
All right. The Knicks. Probably guess where I'm going with this. The Knicks defensively. That's really what this conversation is about. They're one of my favorite teams to watch, by the way. If the Knicks are on, it's a lot of fun. They win a ton of close games. You know their starting five is going to be. That's pretty clear because you've seen him throughout.
So defensively or offensively, start there first. Number four in the NBA, 18th on defense. Last 15, 22nd in defense. Last year, they were seventh in offense, ninth in defense. So defensively, I can't believe the defensive numbers are actually this bad with OG, McHale, Hart.
But it's a bit like a baseball team having a bad defensive shortstop and catcher because when your point guard is Brunson and can be attacked, and Cat is going to be brought up into every single switch and get used to it.
If this team closes with Cat in playoff games because they have the Mitchell-Robinson scenario, which is now back, which I'll get to here in a second, I don't know if Tibbs is going to be able to play Mitchell-Robinson and Cat together. Maybe he's just going to have to to try to bring up some sort of rim protection. I don't know what he's going to do.
Let's see how Mitchell looks coming back to this, but in the times where Cat's going to be out there by himself, he's just going to be brought up. every single time at every single switch. Uh, the other biggest issue, which we've covered their own seven against OKC Cleveland and Boston, the point differential in those games is like 20 points. Um,
Mitchell in 24, this wasn't a great number for him saving this team or at least getting them competitively in this range of defensive numbers that you would need from them.
There were 15 players that I sorted by minutes last year, so the top 15 guys in minutes, and Mitchell actually had the worst defensive rating of any of those guys, which doesn't seem to make a ton of sense, but I think he's being looked at as somebody who's going to I don't know if it's save it, but change course here where we can start to take them a little bit seriously.
I just don't see anything where this team gets through both Boston and Cleveland in the East with this kind of defense on paper last year. They're sixth worst in points in the paint allowed. They have five of the top 23 players in minutes per game. They allow the fewest opposing rebounds per game, so that's pretty good. They've got the second-best winning percentage.
They're number one in pick-and-roll ball handler as far as the ball handler. Keeping the ball, that's the sprints and possessions. They're number one in points per possession in the NBA and that kind of stuff. But like I said, I'm just... The defensive profile is some of the stuff that we've been talking about here.
That does not tell me that they're actually a championship contender or even going to get out of the East. Let's go to the Milwaukee Bucks, your fourth seed. So on offense, 13th. Defense, 10th. Last 15th. Offense kind of tanking here a bit. They're 8-7 in their last 15. They're 22nd in offense there. Last year, they were 6th on offense, 19th on defense.
So they've improved the defense that felt like just a disaster for them last year. But You're looking at the offense here that's taking a dip down. There are two guys that played a good amount, considering Giannis and Dame's history here. Giannis has played 47-59. Dame's played 49-59. 49-59, right, like I said. This is going to be Giannis' seventh straight season with a top-four MVP finish.
He was fourth last year. I voted him second. People thought I was crazy. I did not think I was crazy. Um, they actually, if you look at the expanded standings of the East of the top six teams, they have a worse record against teams 500 or better New York's 12 and 14. As of this note, uh, Milwaukee is 10 and 14. I can double check that. Yep. It is still 10 and 14.
This morning, there was an old guy stat in there because sometimes they do look a bit older. I think there's some stuff with Dame where you're not going to get like some of those in-between plays that I always talk about at times. I think Brooke has been kind of up and down from a movement standpoint. I think he looks better now, but they are last in the NBA in loose balls recovered during a game.
Does that mean anything? Uh, they started one at six. Then they went 11 and three. Then they were at 25 and 17. Then they went three and seven. Then they went eight and three. So in that eight and three stretch over 11 games, they had wins against Minnesota, the Clippers. I thought the Denver win was really impressive. Uh, the, the game against Dallas. So, uh,
they've been an incredibly streaky team, but like I said, they're the only, there's another part here too. They're the only top 16 in the East that has a losing record on the road. The Pacers are 15 and 15. Um, They're huge right now with the four guys they're using in the starting lineup around Dame with Kuzma, who I think provides a little bit more juice than Middleton does.
Prince has been playing, might be out of position at two guard, but they said they're basically experimenting with this on the top of Lopez and Giannis all around Dame. Will that be something that they go with as a closing lineup just to stride? Like, let's be huge out here. Or they try to balance out the Prince part of it with the A.J. Green shooting.
because it looks like the Andre Jackson experiment is over as far as where he is rotationally. They keep trying this Kevin Porter Jr. thing. He was abysmal in the start of the first five minutes. If you want to go back, you will not because it'd be pointless. But just trust me on this.
Having him run offensive possessions in a tight game against Houston the first five minutes of that fourth quarter, it was a disaster. He was better, though, against Denver. So maybe they're just going to keep rolling with it, wondering if they have somebody with the second unit during the playoffs. That would surprise me. Okay, let's go Pacers. So Pacers, we know the offense is good.
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