Durant & Suns trade rumors, Grizzlies moving Ja? + Bane to Magic, Giannis & Bucks | Hoops Tonight

Durant & Suns trade rumors, Grizzlies moving Ja? + Bane to Magic, Giannis & Bucks | Hoops Tonight

what’s up guys thanks as always for supporting the show it would mean a lot to me if you would take a second to scroll down and hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss any more of our videos also make sure you follow us all over social media so you don’t miss any of our content or show announcements all right welcome to hoops and i here at the volume happy wednesday everybody hope all of you guys are having a great week well we’re going to take a break from our nba finals coverage today there are several stories going on around the league poised to have an insanely busy summer and we already got our first big trade of the summer this weekend as desmond bane was moved to the orlando magic i talked briefly about it with colin coward on t on monday night but what i want to do today is i want to give more of like a detailed breakdown of my take on the desmond bane trade what it means for john morant and the memphis grizzlies moving forward after that we’re going to talk a little bit about the big picture of the of the summer on late on monday night sam amik and john krosinski of the athletic reported that kevin durant’s preferred trade destination is the san antonio spurs we’re going to briefly talk about that and then after that it’s been widely reported that there’s no trade market for giannis because giannis has not requested a trade so i wanted to take an honest look at the milwaukee situation and really just talk about what in the world makes sense for both of these parties for giannis and for milwaukee moving forward you guys know the drill before we get started subscribe to the hoops tonight youtube channel so you don’t miss any more of our videos follow me on twitter at_jasonlt so you guys don’t miss show announcements don’t forget about our podcast feed wherever you get your podcast under hoops tonight it’s also super helpful if you leave a rating and a review on that front we also have social media feeds on twitter instagram facebook and tik tok where jackson’s doing great work make sure you guys follow us there and then last but not least keep dropping mailbag questions in the youtube comments we’ll be doing our next mailbag on thursday night after the final buzzer of game six of the nba finals all you got to do is show up to that stream drop your questions in the chat and then we’ll get to our questions there and then once we get out of the finals we’ll go back to taking our mailbag questions out of the youtube comments all right let’s talk some basketball so obviously the highlight of the desmond bane to the orlando magic trade was the draft compensation that was the story and it’s really complicated i the thing with draft compensation is it’s always a little bit more complicated than meets the eye it’s very easy to just throw it out throw out a number of draft picks like oh three first four firsts you know two first two first in a swap whatever it is but protections matter it makes a huge difference the difference between a top 10 protected first round pick in value compared to an unprotected first round pick is pretty massive those are substantial swings in value right and so to give up four unprotected first round picks feels steep but before we even go any further into that the value only matters in the context of what a team is trying to accomplish like how much does desmond bane fit specifically with orlando that makes a big difference in what the price tag should be right was memphis even considering trading desmond bane for all we know memphis didn’t want to and this is literally what it took to pry him away desmond bane has a very unique skill set it’s i’ve seen a lot of people hung up on like what level of player desmond bane is how does he relate to a male bridges like well is kevin durant going to go for four unprotected first round picks like these kinds of things and take that away for a second and focus on the fact that what desmond bane does is a very rare skill set in the nba there were only five players in the entire nba last year to attempt at least 50 shots coming off of offball screens and to make at least half of them five in the entire nba ultra efficient movement shooting it’s an extremely rare trait overall he’s one of the best jump shooters in the nba among 58 players to attempt at least 500 jump shots last year he ranked 12th in efficiency so he’s an upper tier high volume jump shooter he shot 60% on field goal attempts coming off of offball screens that’s field goal percentage guys in effective field goal percentage he was over 70% his 60% field goal percentage was number one in the nba among the 56 players who attempted at least 50 shots coming off of screens he shot 52% on threes coming off of offball screens 38% on off the dribble threes coming off of high ball screens he brings a mid-range element he’s a great short-range jump shooter he shot 50% last year on jump shots inside the three-point line this is a very unique skill set in that he brings movement shooting off the dribble shooting going both directions right and left and at both the three-point line and inside the three-point line it’s a very rare skill set and over the course of the last couple years this has been an advantage of john morant’s you know off-c court shenanigans in his injuries bane has had to do so much work on ball that he’s figured out how to weaponize that attention for easy opportunities over the top he became a substantially better playmaker out of these screening actions in the last couple years compared to the player that he was in the past these shots are so difficult these offscreen shots that most teams guard them with what is effectively an offball version of a drop coverage so let’s just take a wide pin down for example if desmond bane comes off of the left corner off of a wide screen from a big most players if it’s not desmond bane if it’s like just a regular kind of like uh shooter in the nba like say dalton connect from the lakers for instance what they’re going to do is they’re going to put a lock and trail defender on that player on daltton connect and then they’re going to have the big man basically sag back in the paint in case dalton curls the screen so you could take away layups and they’re going to be like “let’s see if you can hit this shot with a side view contest with a rear view contest with this guy chasing over the top of the screen and knocking it down.” desmond bane because he shoots 60 damn percent on those shots coming off of ball offball screens and because he shoots such a high percentage on threes coming off of those screens because he shoots such a high percentage on pull-up threes and ball screens he consistently brings the big out to the level this is why it’s such a valuable skill set a guy who can effectively knock down shots coming off of screening actions can consistently pull two defenders out 25 20 ft from the basket that opens up the fouron-ree spacing that opens up all the opportunities for playmaking on the interior and desmond bane over the last couple of years figured out how to pass out of those actions pocket passes over-the-top passes to beat blitzes to beat shows he had a lot of success playmaking out of those actions so i think if it’s like there are so many easy ways to see how desmond bank can help the magic like right away so let’s take offball action for example offball action occupies help defenders if you’re going to run a let’s say you’re running a twoman game with uh paulo bonero and jaylen suggs off of the top of the key like a ghost screen action with suggs coming out of the uh you know off the right wing screening for paulo and then slipping off to the left wing you can run you know bane coming off from underneath the basket as like a pin flare towards the corner or some sort of wide pin down out towards the wing and you’re going to have defenders help defenders occupied guarding that action to clear out space for paulo to drive this has been a magic team that has really really struggled to generate space the nba finals are here this is your last chance to bet on the nba until next season and draftkings sportsbook an official sports betting partner of the nba is pulling out all the stops to make this a finals to remember one team will be crowned champ and the other will be lost to history who you got winning all put your hoops expertise to the test all season long draftkings has been the go-to spot for nba player props and that doesn’t stop now who’s going to carry their team to the chip try placing a bet on your personal mvp to drop 30 40 or maybe even over 50 ready to place your own bet download the draftkings sportsbook app lock in your bets and finish the season as a winner here’s something special for first- timers new draftkings customers bet $5 to get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins don’t miss your last chance to bet on the nba this season download the draftkings sportsbook app and use code hoops that’s h o ps that’s code hoops for new customers to get $300 in bonus bets if your bet wins when you bet five bucks only on draftkings the crown is yours even in just static standstill situations having suggs and uh bane out there is going to create substantially more space but if you can utilize them in offball action that is where you can open up space for more of those postups for more of those isos to be towards the basket rather than some of those tougher 15t 17t fadeaways that paulo runs and again we’ve talked about it on the show before paulo’s efficiency skyrockets when he gets inside of 17 ft when he’s further away from the rim that’s where his jump shot becomes super unreliable you’ve got to create space for him you can create space through offball action the second piece of it is twoman game there’s been guard screens in terms of running twoman game as a big part of this orlando offense for a long time it was a big part of their playoffense two years ago against the cavs they will run inverted screens or paulo or fron or stand at the top of the key and they’ll have you know kcp this year or uh you know jaylen suggs last year come up and screen the ball and then slip out of it and basically that’s ending in a hedge and recover in many cases or they’re hoping to get some kind of switch so paulo can attack a small right but you can get away with hedging and recovering when the shooter isn’t that good that you can get away with gapping out of that action or lingering in that action when the shooter is not that good what what comes into the equation with desmond bane is you actually have to account for his jump shooting in a real way or he’s going to burn you to the tune of 52% on threes coming off of offball screens 60% overall hitting damn near 40% of pull-up threes and ball screens so what makes a twoman game work and function is two guys need to be guarded by very different types of defenders right so paulo and fron they require big strong forwards to match up with them that is what they demand in terms of the physical matchup right what kind of player does desmond bane require he requires a good lock and trail defender with a jaylen suggs with a kcp you could get away with hiding a weak defender you could get away with hiding a weak defender and be like “hedge and recover all you got to do is throw a hedge and get back into the action.” you won’t be able to do that with desmond bane you’re going to have to have a quality guard defender that can guard in a lock and trail context that can chase him around screens and stay attached so i have a smaller lower center of gravity lock and trail defender and then i have a big strong forward matched up with paulo and fron now i’m going to pretty consistently put the defense into a predicament where if they hedge bane is slipping out and he’s going to hit that three damn near 50% of the time you can’t it ain’t going to work so your only option is to either have that guy chase in which case if your man sets a screen paulo’s getting downhill if you stay home on bane when bane’s running inverted screens and bane sets a good screen on paulo’s man and bane’s man stays attached to him paulo’s turning the corner and he’s going downhill so you have to switch you have to and so now you’re going to be able to consistently get the favorable matchup with a smaller guard defender guarding paulo paulo is go or bane is going to be able to pull that big forward away from the paint above the break to space the floor better you will be able to run effective twoman game with those inverted guard screens with bane at a completely different level than what you were able to run in the past bane in ball screens bane was a super high volume ball screen player this year i think he ran like 800 something pick and rolls this year for memphis desmond bane is very capable of weaponizing paulo and fron’s role men same exact concept he’s being guarded by a big uh by a strong uh physical guard that can get through screens right that’s the type of defender he’s going to draw impalo and fron are going to be guarded by these big forwards they’re going to be able to screen for bane and same thing bane’s going to come off the screen and you better be up there at the level if you’re not up there at the level he hits almost 40% of his pull-up threes you show at the level boom pocket pass to paulo rolling downhill to the rim in a fouron three right there’s going to be a lot of opportunities for them to unlock openings in traditional coverages when teams are unwilling to switch and when they are willing to switch you’re going to be regularly able to get favorable matchups for both guys because they get guarded by such different types of defenders and in both cases like if paulo or fron gets a matchup that he wants off of an inverted ball screen or off of a a a bane ball screen bane will be able to to pull that bigger forward away from the basket and create more space it is such a natural basketball fit so here’s the thing was it expensive yeah expensive as hell but we don’t know the details about whether desmond bane was even available we don’t understand what the negotiation looked like and it is a very natural fit and i admire the aggression would i would i have liked the deal more if it was two unprotected firsts instead of four or if it was four protected first yeah sure i would have liked the deal more but all i can think about now is jaylen suggs and desmond bane and palibono and fron vagner and wendell carter jr and that is a pretty damn good five in an eastern conference that is wide open so i like it all i can think about now is man bane’s going to make their life way easier i think he fits in the defense well like jaylen suggs can guard the other team’s best guard desmond bane i think is actually a pretty underrated defender i think he’s a better defender than he gets credit for but he’s going to be in more achievable matchups the only real like swing for me as i look forward for this team is jaylen suggs’s health and his jump shooting he declined as a jump shooter last year obviously wasn’t able to finish the season with that injury jaylen’s got to get healthy jaylen’s got to knock down shots but like i i keep thinking about desmond bane in the context of this new look for the orlando magic and i think it makes a ton of basketball sense and i’m really really excited to watch that group and my initial instinct is they’re right there in that top tier with indiana with cleveland with new york in that eastern conference and i think they absolutely will contend with that group the other side of this deal is the john piece i talked about this a little bit last night with colin but john morant’s going to be 26 before the start of next season 26 is typically the age when stars figure it out that’s typically the stage when the insane talent of their athleticism meets the growing experience in basketball iq piece from that point forward in your career it’s more sore knees more sore feet your athleticism slowly declines but your experience and skill improves and so you can plateau from 26 27 to 33 34 maybe sometimes 35 36 with how these guys are aging so well in the league these days but like this is the age where teams start where players start to figure it out and jaw is just not the same player he was back in that 2022 season took his team to within two wins of the conference finals was this dominant high volume scorer and playmaker his scoring volume has dropped every season since that year he’s on two consecutive seasons of his scoring efficiency going down he just posted his two lowest games played totals of his career in the last two seasons it doesn’t look good and so i think memphis just looked at the situation and was like “okay we just got four unprotected firsts for bane i think it’s time to start looking at what you could get for jaw it’s time to start looking at what you could get for jiren jackson this group is flawed the western conference has a lot of teams that are substantially better i talk all the time about self-awareness being the key you got to be willing to look in the mirror and be like “we are not close we need a real change.” and to me memphis appears to be making that sort of decision as we speak i am a believer in jaw i’ve seen a lot of talk about where he ranks in the league and i don’t particularly agree with some of the stuff that i’ve seen i think when john morant is healthy he is still somewhere in that like 13 to 17 range for best players in the nba i still think he brings this athletic trait that nobody can mess with with the consistent ability to beat people off the dribble i think for all the talk about his jump shot and i think it’s fair and we’re going to talk about that in a second i think he’s an underrated shotmaker because of his ability to get to the short range and to pop up off the ground and make easy little floaters and short jump shots i believe in john morant and i think that there is a chance for him to turn this story around but he’s got to start taking care of his body he’s got to start improving on the margins his peers are passing him and it’s very possible that his franchise bails on him this summer somebody’s going to take a chance i don’t know who it is like i talked about with colin last night like i i keep like if houston misses out on kd they’d be an interesting team as a guy that could just be their supreme offensive talent surrounded by physical defense and a ball screen partner in shangon that makes a lot of sense i don’t know who it’s going to be but someone’s going to take a chance on jaw and it’s on jaw to turn that script around and he’s capable of doing it but i mean we’re trending in the wrong direction and that’s why we’re in this situation let’s talk about kevin durant to san antonio sam and john krinski of the athletic reported last night that kevin or excuse me i should say on monday night that kevin durant’s preferred destination is the san antonio spurs first thing that stuck out over the last week is judging by the locations of most of these teams state taxes are clearly a big factor for kd and i don’t blame him it obviously makes a massive difference to his bottom line with how much like we’re talking millions of dollars with what he makes every single year what i thought when i heard the report about san antonio was i think kd views the spurs as a really fun place to end his career i’ve been thinking a lot about this concept with kd ever since he went to golden state and straight up told us that he did it because he wanted to play a fun brand of basketball i’ve been thinking a lot since last night about my desire for him to go to a place like houston potentially or minnesota those were my two favorite destinations and juxtaposing it with like oklahoma city in 2016 oklahoma city in 2016 would be the closest thing to what going to houston would look like right oklahoma city in 2016 surrounded kevin durant with overwhelming size and physicality and they wore teams down with their defense but life was really hard for kd on the offensive end of the floor he had a couple of really inefficient scoring games in that playoff run before they ended up losing he was brutally bad down the stretch of the golden state series in terms of his ability to knock down shots but it was just a really ugly brand of basketball now the flip side of that is they were one win away from beating a 73- win team and probably being the favorite to win the finals if they would have made it to the finals so like you could argue that thunder team is the best team he’s been on outside of the golden state warriors with steph and that’s the thing where it gets complicated like i could argue if he went to houston that’d probably be his best chance to win because they could sur surround him with all that physicality and defense but once again in houston it would be ugly offense it would be a lot of like 27 28 field goal attempt nights where he makes 11 12 shots and has four five turnovers because it’s ugly because it’s difficult because they’re depending on him to carry them over the top with his offense based on a defense and physicality model i think kd wants to play fun basketball i think kd wants to play free flowing basketball and so i think that’s why he looks at these teams like houston and goes “eh maybe not my jam.” and i think that that’s fascinating even just looking at like why he might have been so interested in miami i kept thinking like man like miami doesn’t seem close i i like i don’t understand what he’d be looking for there but then you look at it and it’s like eric spoler one of the best you know offensive organization coaches in the nba bameio one of the best five out like passing screening fulcrums in the nba tyler harrow a really good screen shooter that kind of unlocks a lot of those five out concept duncan robinson that unlocks a lot of those five five out concepts i think kevin durant looked at miami as like a place to play some really fun basketball and i i can understand it like i’m starting to like kind of feel what he’s looking for in this journey i think he wants to go play a fun brand of basketball for the rest of his career there are a lot of ways kd can help the spurs just because this wasn’t my favorite kd fit doesn’t mean it won’t still be a huge upgrade for this team and that it won’t still be a good fit he’ll be a excellent low man behind victor wemanyama meaning when victor wemanyama goes up to the level of ball screens kd can fill in from behind as another rim protection pre presence i talked with uh uh colin uh on monday night about how victor wimbeyama’s skill development should take a massive upgrade with kevin durant kevin durant to me is like like the jj reic of the current nba in terms of shooting workout uh legend like the guy that will put wby into situations in the gym by themselves where he’s gonna make substantial improvements i think if darren fox’s dribble penetration like kd at this phase in his career post achilles if there’s one weakness he doesn’t pressure the rim a ton compared to the way he used to that’s dear fox’s superpower i talk about the idea of the weak side scoring forward but if dear fox and victor wemanyama are running ball screens and you want to defend them threeon two that’s going to be kevin freaking durant on the backside hitting catch and shoot threes driving closeouts like the mother of all weak side scoring forwards he was the best iso player in the league last year albeit at a lower volume he was the best jump shooter in the league last year he’s still so so good at basketball and i do think that he would be able to help the spurs it’s not a guarantee he’d go there obviously a phoenix has a certain obligation to try to drive the market for high asset return especially considering their situation kd i don’t think has accomplished so much in phoenix to where they owe him a certain outcome but spur the san antonio spurs would be a fun basketball destination for kd i don’t think they’d immediately become a top tier contender they’d have shortcomings in terms of role player support i think they’d be pretty thin and lacking physicality on the front line jeremy sohan would become so vitally important for that team defensively if you bring in a kevin durant is just a more trunky physical forward that they would need there there are flaws i don’t think they’re going to go win the championship if kd goes to san antonio but it would be fun basketball and i think that kd just wants to play fun basketball and i think that that makes sense at least within that context lastly before we get out of here today i wanted to talk about giannis potentially staying in milwaukee it has been widely reported that there’s no trade market for giannis because giannis hasn’t requested a trade i was looking at their payroll this morning the bucks trying to give it like an honest like is there a real pathway here to pivot and try to contend around giannis again you have damen lillard on the books for 54 million next year they can try to apply for a disabled player exception but from what i can tell it looks like it probably wouldn’t get approved kyle kosma makes 22 million he’s been pretty disappointing i will say this i think cuz kuzz has been a winning player before i’m like 15% open to the idea that he could work his ass off this summer and come into camp as a more useful player i’m not ready to write off kyle kosma in the context of the bucks but kyle kosma is your next biggest salary after dame bobby portoris has a player option i would imagine he’ll opt out and resign he’s pretty strongly indicated in uh interviews that he wants a raise so i like bobby portoris but i’m not sure i like him in the $20 million territory pat coneton is on the books for 9.4 million it’s a player option but i would imagine he’ll pick it up because he’s a veteran minimum guy in the open market kevin porter jr is on a player option i think they’ll opt out but i think he has a good chance to resign with the bucks on a minimum i like his fit with giannis so i think he’s worth keeping under those circumstances aj green is locked up next year on a uh non-g guaranteed $2.3 million deal that’s one of the best value deals in the league so that’s good for a very good 3 and d player andre jackson jr similarly on a non-g guaranteed rookie deal then you have your deep bench guys guys like chris livingston and tyler smith but that’s it so as you zoom out you have zero reliable secondary ball handling off of giannis your best secondary ball handlers kevin porter jr that’s not going to do much damage in the eastern conference you have no front court players who can defend other than giannis he’s the one guy and you likely have to overpay to keep guys like portoris say you want to resign gary trent jr i wouldn’t be surprised if he goes over the minimum after some of his shooting percentages in the postseason if if his agent can drum up some market for him as a shooter and they have very little in the way of draft compensation to make changes the point being even if we acknowledge that the eastern conference is wide open the roster is going to be operating at a substantial talent disadvantage in almost every major eastern conference matchup i admire the loyalty i really do i’ll always remember the giannis era in milwaukee fondly even after the chip even in those disappointing years it’s been so fun watching giannis develop and improve and carry some of these limited rosters his 2022 playoff series against the boston celtics is one of my favorite playoff series i’ve watched a star play he backpacked those guys to a game seven but the bottom line is this team isn’t close to contending giannis deserves to go play meaningful basketball and his value as an asset is still the best vehicle to help milwaukee pivot and bring in the asset return they need to start fresh it’s still just the best and most sensical outcome for both sides of this deal again i get it i understand the sentimentality i understand the optics of requesting a trade i was talking with shane uh before we got on the show like there’s been this trend where it kind of feels like some of these international guys are really hesitant to do some of the more aggressive behind the scene manipulating of their contract in terms of demanding trades we haven’t really seen an example of it and we’ve seen guys like giannis and even joic throughout uh the past few years although obviously it it paid off in 2023 we’ve seen joic you know stick around through some injured rosters through some limited rosters without any sign of complaining or wavering and like giannis has made some comments in the press about like maybe he would look elsewhere but here he is and he still hasn’t requested a trade and again i admire it i admire the loyalty but all i know is the basketball fan in me really wants to see giannis play in late may and june and the bucks to me need assets and they don’t have many at this point and so i think giannis is the best vehicle to make that happen and so i’m hopeful as much as i understand this sucks for bucks fans i get it i get i understand as a bucks fan there’s a part of you that want that that would love to just have giannis forever and just be even if you’re mediocre in the east you’d have more fun watching that team i get it i do but i just think it’s in the best interest for both sides for them to part ways this summer and i hope that that ends up happening all right guys that’s all i have for today as always i sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting me and supporting the show we will be back on thursday night after the final buzzer of game six of the nba finals barring a kd trade obviously if kd gets traded we’ll move quicker than that but i’ll see you guys after the final buzzer of game six on thursday

Jason takes a break from NBA Finals coverage between the Indiana Pacers and Oklahoma City Thunder to react to trade speculation around the NBA. Jason starts off by going into depth about the Memphis Grizzlies trading Desmond Bane to the Orlando Magic and why he believes it is a great basketball fit. Jason discusses what’s next for the Grizzlies, which should include gauging the market for their star point guard Ja Morant. He then dives into Phoenix Suns star Kevin Durant’s preferred trade destinations, mainly the San Antonio Spurs and his fit with stars Victor Wembanyama and De’Aaron Fox. Jason wraps up with discussing Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo reported desire to remain with the franchise he’s always known.

00:00 // Start
01:58 // Desmond Bane trade
16:05 // Ja Morant
19:25 // Kevin Durant to Spurs?
25:43 // Giannis Antetoukoumnpo

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