Welcome back to Numbers on the Board.

Numbers on the board.

The first show of 2026, man.

I haven't seen y'all since last year.

You know I had to be the first one to get that joke.

I love that joke. A lot of y'all still standing like last year. It's a shame, man. We need to start progressing and getting better. That one got no giggles over there. Welcome back to the show, y'all. We appreciate all support through 2025. You should have tuned in to enjoy basketball hour every single day, 12 o'clock Easter on Pe. Mike, let's just get right in tune. You got dropped the mic. I do. I want to ask y'all what teams cause opposing teams to adjust to them the most? I think the team that comes to mind immediately is the Houston Rockets. Immediately. Even yesterday, a game where the Brooklyn Nets was missing a lot of players, don't get me wrong. They ran a lineup that basically had three powerful, its last centers to try to match that rebound. They still got killed. But it's just like that's what teams are trying to do. I think the teams that have the most definite identity are the ones you have to adjust to the most. Because they are so, I don't know, good about the things that they do well and the Rockets rebound and so on. It's just too hard to cover up if you're not adjusting to them. I think Miami is creeping into that. They had a hell of a game last year. The pace that they play with, you just got to kind of be mentally prepared for that. And if you're not built like them, you'll get into the trap of trying to play fast with them too. And I think that's when they kind of get you because they are. It's kind of like last year's Pacers kind of. Almost. Yep. Yeah. Very similar to that. But Miami also, what I like about them is they got different looks within that look. They keep the identity, but they can go too big as well. Or they can take one of the bigs off the floor. It can go smaller. But that speed and that ramped up play, I think a lot of times it's still, still even to this day, we end a new year catching some teams off guard, especially when they making shots. Like last night, Norman Powell, they were just too much last much last night but yeah I think they're creeping up into that that uh one of those teams I mean I think I think Nicola Yokic as a player forces you to have to adjust to him just because he is so big and so dominant that where like even when teams want to play small you can't really play small because like you have to have a big out there to be able to guard him because playing small you kind of just playing he's just going to take advantage of that or even like joel and b like you can't play small with these two bigs just because they're so dominant there's nothing that a small player is going to be able to do to hold though yeahicks in general. I can't even remember a team playing small against Yolk.

You know, I was just kind of just thinking when you were saying that,

I think we kind of evolved away from small ball in a way. I mean, the Warriors are the last team trying to do it, and you can see that. That's because they have Drake mine. And they just don't have any other option if you really think about it. Yeah.

But no, teams are opting to go more big more than any time than ever.

So many teams got double big lineups.

Even the Bulls are running double big lineups all of a sudden.

Yeah, with Jaylin Smith. But no, teams are opting to go more big more than any time than ever. So many teams got double big lineups. Even the Bulls are running double big lineups all of a sudden. And it's working. So, yeah, you can't go small because I don't think nobody even wants to anymore. It's kind of crazy to see that the Warriors did evolve the game in a way. Like they started a new trend. Now they're the last ones to keep up. Now they're the last ones to be able to switch it. And like the whole league has shifted back to the original way of playing basketball. But they did put us in a very fun phase of basketball for the like to. I prefer this one. I'm not going to lie. You do? Yeah. Just because I grew up on it. I'm a little biased. That's why I think that may be a year or two ago. I came up here saying the power forward is back because we got more traditional lineups. But that's not to take away anything because I was enjoying what the Warriors was doing and everybody was trying to, you know, James Harden and I was small, the PJ Tucker, but it did kind of get a little water down.

We had so many twos and threes trying to play four.

Yeah, teams would try to aim for some type of death lineup, a small ball lineup that could run

just small, whether it be the fourth quarter or just small spurts of the game.

Another team that I had that makes you adjust is the San Antonio Spurs.

Most importantly, with Vic on the anchor, not many teams just have that in general.

But with the perimeter defenders they also have, they've kind of developed a scheme where

Vic kind of just sits on non-shooters where they're going to make you try to beat,

basically just beat the spurs off tough shots shots like tub middies and everything like that.

How much would you commit to that, Mike?

What?

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