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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Appearances
It's number eight. Defense, number 19. Last year, their offense was the second best in the NBA, and their defense was even worse than it was this season. So it was 24th. They feel a bit like the Midwest Knicks. So I like them. We have not talked about them a lot. because I think it's met with kind of a collective shrug. Like, yeah, you know, like I like their depth.
There's a bunch of players I like. The problem is, is when the Pacers play in a playoff series, how often are they ever going to have the best player in a series? My guess is never. In the 4-5 matchup against Milwaukee, no. Say they beat them against Cleveland, no. So Halliburton, I don't think, will ever be the best player on the floor in a playoff series. And it's tough to survive.
It's tough to be a team that goes deep in the playoffs. Now, I know what you're saying, Pacers fans. Oh, really? Russillo? They made it to the Eastern Conference Finals last year. Well, I think there's some conference finals doubt. I would put them in that group of teams that makes a conference finals, but that's not really who you are.
I don't look at you as a Final Four team, one of the four or five best teams in the NBA. Because if you look at the path last year against Milwaukee, Giannis played zero games in the six-game series. Dane played four of the six. Against the Knicks, OG played three of the seven games. Mitchell played 12 total minutes. Brunson was pretty banged up. The overall number's pretty good there.
So, you know, defensively, it's been pretty bad throughout. And if we go through this in February, they were 20th. January, they were second. And then December, they were 21st. November, they were 24th. So they had a January number in there that was really good defensively, but it's really probably not who they are. I like the eight with Neesmith back.
Halliburton post-All-Star has been reminiscent of pre-All-Star Halliburton in 23-24, where he was, what, a 22-12 on assists per game, 49-40% shooting splits. Then 26 games after the All-Star break, he was 17-10. That's the assist number there, not rebounds, and the shooting splits were terrible for him, 45-30.
So I think at least that part of it, because he was so good at the beginning of last year, you're like, oh, my God, look at this guy. Dudes are just getting on some bonuses case. He's like, I'm over here boxing dudes out. How is this my fault? But, you know, the OB TJ McConnell minutes with Thomas Bryant playing center because of the injuries this year, they're all net negatives.
You're asking a lot of Turner. You're asking a lot of Thomas in the playoff series to come in and spell them. Maybe they'll go small. I think there's a Mather and Neesmith decision here where if you look at the Neesmith minutes, it probably feels like it's going to be advantage Neesmith here. And, you know, Neesmith... 26 minutes a game in February.
Matherin's three-point shooting, it's been bad two of the last three months after kind of a nice start there. So it might be a Neesmith closing group here. It's just hard to take them seriously with this defense. All right, let's talk about everybody's favorite team from the Midwest right now, and that's your Detroit Pistons. So the Pistons are 12th on offenses. Ninth on defense. Okay.
Last year, they were 27th on offense, 25th on defense. They won 10 of 11 games this year when they won 10 of 11 after the win against Utah. That's the first time they've won 10 and 11 since 2007, 2008 series. A season, I should say. Sorry. The last 15, they're the number three offense, the number three defense, number three in net rating behind Cleveland and OKC.
And it's not really about the passing and the touches because there's been talks of like, and again, I still would love to know how many Pistons games Monte Williams has watched this season. Because I wonder if he ever just watches like, hey, they've got some good players on this team.
The passing, touching, movement, all that kind of tracking data, you wonder, oh, is it they're getting... No, because a Cade is a bit like the Luka Harden model of like, I'm going to kind of figure it out until I figure out how to best use this possession, and it has worked for them.
But playing defense at a higher level and having your true shooting percentage improve from 26th in the NBA to 14th in the NBA, even just being average, means you're going to be in a lot more of these games. So shooting and defense has helped a lot of this stuff.
And I think Cade also is a bit of the Luca Tatum mold of when you're that big and you have that big of a frame and you have that big of a handle. I think SJ is a little different because I think he floats a little bit more than these guys, even though he has all the tricks and the angles down.
There is something to be said about the way the game is officiated right now, that if you're playing to contact, but your body is almost a shield against the defender, once you can figure those things out, and around the rim where Cade had struggled so much earlier in his career. He's figured that out.
On top of everything else with Cunningham, where he's just got this terrific vision to keep the possession going later or keeping his teammates engaged later because then he knows he might find them. That's an incredibly great place to start. They also play a million dudes. This is like a hockey team with what they're doing with the rotations in February.
I don't know what that's going to mean, but the Pistons right now are a half a game back from hosting a playoff round at home. They're only a half a game behind Milwaukee and the Pacers that are in front of them in the four and five seed. All right, we go to Miami. Number 19 on offense, number 12 on defense last year, 21st on offense, fifth on defense. So they're playing better defense last year.
This team is an absolute snooze fest. They're 29 and 31. If you look at their schedule and the records throughout, they're basically always like two to three games around 500. Bam's terrific. I love him. Hero, I actually have more respect for just because of his creativity and difficult shot making. after watching him try to defend the Celtics' wings in the playoffs last year.
Jovic has been shooting really well the last few months. Davion Mitchell is terrorizing people, but he is your starting point guard because the Rozier thing, as bad as it was last year, has been even worse this year. But Davion should really be a third or fourth guard on a basketball team. Jaquez, who I remember coming out of the draft, he lights it up. Miami, they tricked it.
Not tricked, but Miami did it again. What's wrong with everybody? Well, the reason why our kids lasted as long as he did is because he wasn't a great athlete. He didn't shoot it all that well. Um, He's had months this year where he's shot 90% from three, 17% from three, 20% from three. So the draft questions actually kind of became true a little bit more later on.
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