I'll do my last one. I'm not going to spend a lot of time on this one, but I do

think it's fascinating.

Pascal Siakam. This is using sport radar. Pascal Siakam is fifth in the NBA in total post-ups so far this year, 101 total. And he is third among high volume players and first among high, really high volume players. So guys who have more than, more than 40 attempt, more than 40 post-ups in points per possession, Pascal Siakam, 1.257 points per possession on post-ups and using the same definition of a post-up last year, the best of the high volume guys was Joel Embiid at 1.2. So he's a half a point per possession or sorry, uh, uh, five tenths of a point per 100 or yeah. Anyway, you got it. You got it right. Per better than Embiid was last year. And so two things about this are interesting. One of them is Siakam would be so he's at 4.3 post up so far this year was at three last year. So his post up rate has gone higher and yet a more normal but still good points per possession. So one part of this is like yeah that's almost definitely gonna regress but it's like oh god dude the pacers need something more to go wrong on this team yeah

i think at least a lot of these are you know quick seals in transition tyrese halliburton struggles but he's still a really good entry passer so they look for those sorts of plays for him against a mismatch they're not doing it as much and siakam

plays super hard so he can generate those more than the average guy yeah

so that's i think that it'll still continue to be pretty good but yeah that that number is uh obviously uh not sustainable at all uh okay here's my last one this is another one we can do pretty quickly here milwaukee bucks opponents shoot 11.4 percentage points better at the rim when Yantas Adonokupo is on the floor versus off. Hmm. And

that's probably a big part of the story data-wise for why the Bucks defense has been so bad when Brooke Lopez has been off the floor.

Has been off the floor. Yes. so now the raw numbers are not that crazy with just yannis on the floor and no brooke lopez there's opponents are shooting 66 percent of the room that's kind of a that's an average number uh so that's actually it's really more about what happens in the lopez on yannis off minutes that makes that number and also like those guys basically get hurt. At least, at least Brooke Lopez apparently somehow does. And he missed an entire season with a back injury at age 34. And then he turned into a total Ironman. And so it's the Lopez on Giannis off minutes. Do you

want to know the clean the glass split on that? I have.

Yes. Yes. I have it too, but please. Opponents

are making 54.1% of their shots inside four feet when Brooke Lopez is on the floor and Giannis Antetokounmpo is off.

Yeah. And that is, again, a crazy low number. You know, your average number is going to be basically in the mid 60s. So they're not they're actually about average when Giannis is on the floor without Lopez. But they're crazy good. That number is going to be unsustainable though, throughout the course of the season with just Lopez on and no Giannis. 54% is, I mean, I've seen only a couple of times that a full season number has gotten to that point with those Rudy Gobert jazz teams in terms of when he was on the floor, they'd shoot around 54%. I don't think that this Bucs team is gonna be able to sustain that necessarily so i i janice has disappointed to me as a rim protector these last couple of years but that number is really more about how good the bucks are when he's off the floor at least have been rather than that it's just so terrible like you can live with 65 for this team if their offense can start to look good when brook lope is off the floor if you're allowing league average shooting at the rim with yannis and bobby portas i think you can still feel okay about that and

and the honest contest numbers are particularly compelling because one of the other things that the bucks have done terribly in the lopez off yannis on minutes is transition defense their bottom towards the bottom of the league in both opponent transition frequency and opponent transition success, like points per possession. And so some of that is they're getting a lot of shots around the basket. They're getting all this stuff in transition when Giannis isn't there. But if the contest numbers are there, generally speaking, those are not going to be as high quality works.

All right, let's clean up. Are any other comments we got to hit on? Last

I checked, we were pretty good.

OK, what is Zion's's trade value i mean probably zero at this point zero nada but whatever this is it's really low i mean it doesn't exist i

agree with the reporting i think shams had this that the pelicans are not expected at this point to waive zion whose contract may be either fully non-guaranteed or lightly guaranteed for next year because it's probably unless they know something this is probably too early for it but in as you've said before like if you cut zion then you're just going in a fundamentally different direction

yeah they're on the hook i believe for even if they cut them right now they still would be on the hook for 40 next year of of that well so they

might actually i'd have to be interested in numbers on this they might actually want to wait in that circumstance because I think I would depend on the legalese on some of the triggers. Because if you cut him when the season isn't completed, like I'd be very interested.

Will Brooke Lopez make the Hall of Fame? No, I don't think he's ever had an all-star appearance. I don't think. Has he? Well,

and he hasn't done enough international. Like that's the other, sometimes you see surprising.

Yeah, or if he'd like won a college championship or something then maybe you could see it uh certainly he will go down i would guess as one of the most underrated players

and one of the most fascinating player development journeys in modern nba history

yeah but even with my having the conception of him that i have and just the incredible value that that archetype provides of shooting on one end and rim protection on the other and you know he in some ways he has kind of made Giannis Adedokounmpo to be like the incredible player that he's been not that Giannis can't be good without him but you need a shooting big next to him and if it's going to be Bobby Portis then you're not going to stop anybody so uh but yeah I mean even know, you could argue maybe that Brooke Lopez has been, you know, a top 30 or 40 player in basketball in some of these best seasons. Uh, you know, he's been around since 2008, unbelievably. Um, but yeah, I mean, that's that for my standard of the hall of fame, I think it's too low. And then even with the low standard, I think, you know, it's going to be some points per game guy from the nineties over him. people talk about al horford making it uh two

college rings

yeah well yeah two college rings he wanted to won a championship uh which lopez has two obviously but uh like al horford made some all-star teams and it was also really good for a lot longer than

and of course al horford, I was a little sad. Dan did mention this in his Paul Millsap write-up was that he was also importantly one fifth of the Eastern Conference players of the month one time.

Yeah. So the Zion trade value, I think it's like, I don't think anybody really like they wouldn't get something positive for it unless they get sent back something even worse. And there's just no reason for new orleans to to do that uh would we trade both either of both lakers picks for a non-all i think like brandon ingram or zach levine no because lebron just hasn't looked good enough this year like not

only that but the guy those kind of guys aren't exactly what they need for the for the right fit for like a perfect kind of guy, maybe. But Ingram, he doesn't take the defense. He's sort of like, he's a better version of what they kind of want from Rui Hachimura, but he's not better enough.

Yeah. To trade it, trade one of those picks for like a PJ Washington type, at least what Washington has been in Dallas. I didn't think he was that Dallas gets a lot of credit for identifying him as someone that they could go get who had more defensibility than i anticipated but like that's the type of guy i think they need and then you just but lebron has to show more before i think i would throw anything at this team honestly um yeah okay i think that's uh and

just to briefly clarify for tyson brady it wasn't just that the hawks won player of the week the five of them won player of the month in um i gotta what month was that i said it was it was it was january of 2015 god uh

wild

time yeah

yeah they won 60 games that team uh miles we'll close on this one miles says uh 11 of the 11 best records in the league eight of a top defense is that a sign of shift to the importance of offense in the modern game i wouldn't say so at the championship level but i would say so maybe during the regular season as a continuation of this trend we talked about of just having more depth more athleticism a certain floor to your effort level and your defense every night if you think of the formula of like orlando or houston or okc obviously has the offensive players too but they do it on the defensive end uh golden state looked like they might be following that formula with the without d'anthony melton and some of the struggles with the young guys they haven't quite been able to get there yet uh still relying on steph curry so much offensively i want

to