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The Five Most Intriguing Players This Season · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beach.
0:03
SPEAKER_02: And we are still counting down the days into the start of the NBA regular season.
0:07
SPEAKER_02: But I'm recording this Thursday, October 2nd.
0:09
SPEAKER_02: And preseason is here.
0:12
SPEAKER_02: Preseason is here.
0:13
SPEAKER_02: Now I can't act like I care too much about the preseason, but it is going to be so fun to get home and then watch the second half or whatever teams are playing overseas right now.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm hype.
0:22
SPEAKER_02: I'm excited.
0:23
SPEAKER_02: And in today's episode, I took a page out of Professor Zach Lowe's book.
0:29
SPEAKER_02: See, Zach Lowe, when he was a part of ESPN, used to write this article every single year.
0:32
SPEAKER_02: One of the most anticipated articles, at least for me, where he gave his most intriguing players going into the next season.
0:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if he's still going to write that column now that he's with the ringer, but I'm like, hey, if somebody needs to do it, I'll be here.
0:44
SPEAKER_02: I'll do it.
0:45
SPEAKER_02: But an audio podcasting for him.
0:47
SPEAKER_02: So I got five, the five most intriguing players going to next season, from my personal opinion.
0:52
SPEAKER_02: And I got some ones that didn't make the cut that I kind of want to hit on a little bit.
0:55
SPEAKER_02: And depending on time, we'll talk about some of the contract extension stuff, Jonathan Kaminga and what the Warriors just did over the last week or so, and why I still don't see it and why, even though he got his contract, I'm still confused on what the hell the plan is for them and for him.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: Get into all of that.
1:11
SPEAKER_02: Before we get into it, I want to let you know that uh the season is almost here, which means that we are back going weekly.
1:15
SPEAKER_02: We may shift, shift, uh change the schedule just a little bit.
1:19
SPEAKER_02: Just a little bit, right?
1:20
SPEAKER_02: You're probably used to seeing Smallball in your podcast, the feed and your YouTube feed on Fridays.
1:25
SPEAKER_02: It might have to shift two weeks from now.
1:29
SPEAKER_02: I will not say anything more.
1:32
SPEAKER_02: Uh just I'll keep you updated.
1:36
SPEAKER_02: But if you see it, hit the box on a on a Monday or something.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: Just knows because things are happening within the company.
1:41
SPEAKER_02: Um, excited for today's episode, though.
1:43
SPEAKER_02: Excited for today's episode.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: Be sure to leave a like and subscribe.
1:45
SPEAKER_02: Tell a friend to tell a friend that if they are looking for basketball content, I am here.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: Uh teed up is here under the network, and of course, numbers on the board is here.
1:54
SPEAKER_02: Are we ready for the five most intriguing players for my personal opinion going into next season?
2:00
SPEAKER_02: The first one is Anthony Black.
2:04
SPEAKER_02: See, some of y'all thought I was probably coming here talking about, you know, uh LeBron James and his year 40, 41 season or some of these super amazing elite players.
2:13
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no.
2:14
SPEAKER_02: This is usually a tier below.
2:16
SPEAKER_02: Um, and Anthony Black is the number one guy on my list.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh, when he was drafted, he was drafted behind Victor Wimbanyama, Brandon Miller, Scoot Henderson, the Thompson twins, and he was sitting there at number six.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: Now, traditionally, if you're going to be a top six pick, you're drafted to a really bad team, allowing you to have an opportunity to go out on that bad team and get a bunch of reps.
2:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, but he was drafted to the Orlando Magic, who in his rookie season were the surprise team of the NBA, meaning that the ball was not put in his hands as much as traditionally you would see from somebody that was drafted as high as them.
2:47
SPEAKER_02: And he had to basically come into the NBA on a good team and find a role.
2:50
SPEAKER_02: And I always want to give people a lot of grace when that happens because it is extremely hard to go from the guy in high school, the guy in college to come into the NBA and being drafted fairly high and being told, nah, you're not the guy.
3:03
SPEAKER_02: Actually, you're not even going to be close to the guy because we have this dude and this dude, and we got this dude.
3:07
SPEAKER_02: And you got you gotta come off the bench.
3:11
SPEAKER_02: See, a lot of these guys get to play through their mistakes, they get to play through the ups and downs of being an NBA player, but Anthony Black did not have that luxury.
3:18
SPEAKER_02: So I'm giving him a little bit of grace, but I do want to talk about how he has not fulfilled the role or the things that the Orlando Magic has needed in going into this next season after they spent all of the draft cachet and all of the stuff that they did to go get Desmond Bain and the Easter conference being wide open.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Why they kind of need Anthony Black to arrive.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: His rookie season, when they were a team that was in the postseason, he was 10th in minutes per game.
3:42
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of that is because they didn't really have great guard play.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: I mean, that kind of has been the thing for the Orlando Magic for the last couple seasons.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: Hell is one of the reasons why he got drafted.
3:51
SPEAKER_02: You know, Markel Foltz was a cool swing when he was traded from the Philadelphia 76ers, but never really materialized to be a long-term guy.
3:57
SPEAKER_02: Cole Anthony had a really good first year and second year in the league, but obviously then materialize to be a starter level guy.
4:03
SPEAKER_02: And now he's out the door as well.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: Anthony Black is one of those guys that the Orlando Magic traditionally drafted.
4:08
SPEAKER_02: He's a tall guy, great wingspan, great defensive instincts, and Orlando Magic.
4:14
SPEAKER_02: That's what their whole identity is.
4:17
SPEAKER_02: Year two was better than year one, obviously.
4:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh a lot of his numbers went up.
4:20
SPEAKER_02: I think he doubled his points per game.
4:22
SPEAKER_02: He almost doubled his minutes per game.
4:23
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of that is, well, Jalen Suggs went down and they were looking for more people to kind of fill these roles.
4:29
SPEAKER_02: And this is a second off, or this was going to the second offseason where they let go of a lead ball handler, right?
4:36
SPEAKER_02: Markel Folts two years ago.
4:37
SPEAKER_02: And this year, they let go of Cole Anthony, but they did also sign Ty's Jones.
4:40
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna talk about Tyes Jones signing a little bit later because I think that could be a sign of a couple different things.
4:46
SPEAKER_02: But Anthony Black going into his uh last year was not very good.
4:51
SPEAKER_02: Again, better than his rookie season, so we give him credit there, but it's not cutting it.
4:56
SPEAKER_02: Because Anthony Black is one of those guys that you know you draft him as a guard, and he is used as a guard, right?
5:01
SPEAKER_02: He is one of the 58 people in the NBA that ran 250 plus picking roles as the ball handler.
5:07
SPEAKER_02: And I'm about to read you some stats about his 250 pick and rolls that he ran as a ball handler.
5:13
SPEAKER_02: He was dead last of the 58 when it comes to synergy shot making.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: Um I'm not very good with numbers, but that doesn't seem to be amazing.
5:24
SPEAKER_02: Second, he was dead last in points per shot directly out of that pick and roll.
5:29
SPEAKER_02: Also, not that great because you when you look at it, the the people that ran the 250 pick and rolls, you know, some of those guys are also not very good.
5:38
SPEAKER_02: So to be dead last is is really trash.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: He was 56 of the 58th when it comes to turnover percentage, only in front of Denny Abdia and Russell Westbrook.
5:46
SPEAKER_02: And the last that I got, he was second to last in points per possession, only behind, or only in front of, sorry, Russell Westbrook.
5:54
SPEAKER_02: Damn, Brody.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: Cannot believe we just went through a whole media day and didn't see you.
5:59
SPEAKER_02: So the Anthony Black as a lead ball handler has not worked out in his defense, also um, again, with all these injuries, some of the lineups that he was playing alongside was really tough, you know.
6:11
SPEAKER_02: Um, but it has not been good.
6:14
SPEAKER_02: And this is a season where I wouldn't be surprised if things kind of shift for him as a player, right?
6:20
SPEAKER_02: Year three is always a pretty decent year when it comes to these younger guys.
6:25
SPEAKER_02: But I would assume, if okay, let's let's take a step back.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: Tyus Jones signs with your Lendo Magic, right?
6:32
SPEAKER_02: Cool.
6:33
SPEAKER_02: There's a couple different ways you can kind of interpret this, right?
6:35
SPEAKER_02: Number one, you can interpret is that, hey, this is the team that has dealt with so many injuries, specifically to that guard position.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: It will not hurt to just go get another guy that can facilitate for the team.
6:46
SPEAKER_02: That is one way to say, hey, Tyus Jones may not play a ton, but he is in the back pocket just in case Suggs goes out or Black goes out or so on and so forth.
6:54
SPEAKER_02: But the other way you can look at it is that there may be shifting away from Anthony Black as a backup point guard.
6:59
SPEAKER_02: Not saying that Anthony Black is at the follow-up rotation, not saying that Anthony Black won't be an impactful player, but I think one of the most interesting arcs that Anthony Black can go on this season is like a Kiel Alexander arc.
7:12
SPEAKER_02: His first year of his NBA career, he shot it fairly well from three, and that was surprising, right?
7:16
SPEAKER_02: He didn't shoot it great in college, and his jump shot is very slow.
7:20
SPEAKER_02: It's kind of segmented, it's not the most beautiful thing, but if you knock it down, you knock it down.
7:23
SPEAKER_02: In year two, a lot of those numbers went down.
7:26
SPEAKER_02: And if you look at the first couple years of Nikhil Alexander Walker's career versus the first couple years of Anthony Blackson, obviously they were drafted in different spots and everything, the way they were utilized in those first couple years is eerily similar.
7:38
SPEAKER_02: The amount of pick and rolls they were they were running as a backup point guard or backup lead guard is almost identical.
7:45
SPEAKER_02: And something clicked for Nikhia Alexander Walker, and that thing that clicked probably is just to change the scenery, where he went away from trying to be a lead ball handler where he changed his game to be a 3 and D wing.
7:55
SPEAKER_02: We already know Anthony Black is a great defender already as a year two player.
7:58
SPEAKER_02: Like that is not even up for debate.
8:00
SPEAKER_02: He is a really good defender with great instincts, great um anticipation and passing lanes, long arms, and you know, he had the responsibility of guarding best players in some of those lineups that you saw him run last season.
8:12
SPEAKER_02: So he's got that.
8:13
SPEAKER_02: He's already got the D part of the three and D.
8:16
SPEAKER_02: Keynes and the Walker evolved away from the basketball and became a spot up shooter, also with a funky jump shot.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: I think that is like the best case scenario for this, for specifically this Orlando Magic team.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: Now, it is probably going to be really difficult for Anthony Black to do that in one singular season, but him becoming a 3nd D guy off the ball would just help the Orlando Magic.
8:42
SPEAKER_02: Because one thing, if you go back and watch the film, there's a few things that stood out to me is that he when he wasn't the lead ball handler and he was playing with lineups, pre-injury subs, or he was playing the lineups where Franz Wagner was the initiator or Paolo Bencaro was the initiator, he looked and felt kind of lost off the ball.
8:57
SPEAKER_02: One thing that Orlando Magic fans will tell you is like his wavering um trust in himself or confidence with the basketball without the basketball is one of the reasons why you know you got a pool of Magic fans that are trying to be really patient with him, and another pool of Magic fans is like, hey, if things don't go right this season, then we have to really talk about making them making a trade or so.
9:15
SPEAKER_02: A lot of that kind of goes away if you turn him into this, again, a Nikhil Angel Walker type of guy, which is just a way of saying a three and D wing.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: Because the defense is there.
9:25
SPEAKER_02: It's just about the jump shooting, it's just about the jump shooting.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: Also, when I went back to watch a lot of this uh film, I forgot how much zone the Orlando Magic saw last season.
9:37
SPEAKER_02: Like every single team they went against just ran a zone at them.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: And it makes sense.
9:42
SPEAKER_02: They got no shooters, they want to get to the basket.
9:44
SPEAKER_02: Let's just stop them like that.
9:45
SPEAKER_02: But I'm watching all these Anthony Blacks, uh, Anthony Black film as him as a ball handler and him off the ball.
9:50
SPEAKER_02: And I'm like, golly, a lot of his open jump shots are strictly coming because the defense is running the zone against his unit.
9:56
SPEAKER_02: It's like, what are you supposed to do?
9:57
SPEAKER_02: What are you supposed to do of you, Anthony Black?
9:59
SPEAKER_02: I don't really know.
10:01
SPEAKER_02: Um But I hate that this is the way it goes for we when we evaluate talent in basketball.
10:08
SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna say the thing that everybody is going to say about an Anthony Black type of guy.
10:14
SPEAKER_02: He will not be able to play in a playoff series unless he develops an adequate jump shot.
10:21
SPEAKER_02: I hate that every time we're talking about players, it boils down to the jump shooting, it boils down to the three-point shooting.
10:28
SPEAKER_02: But did you watch that Boston Celtics series?
10:31
SPEAKER_02: Because again, I rewatched it over the last couple days as I was preparing for this video or for this episode.
10:36
SPEAKER_02: It was awful how they guarded Anthony Black.
10:40
SPEAKER_02: I mean, going over under every single pick and roll, like not even not even trying to switch it up to scare him.
10:46
SPEAKER_02: Shoot the ball.
10:47
SPEAKER_02: We want you to.
10:48
SPEAKER_02: He shot 16% from three in the postseason.
10:51
SPEAKER_02: Wide open looks.
10:53
SPEAKER_02: And as a team that is, again, in this Eastern Conference, where we look at the top two teams, we say it's Cleveland and it's New York, and then after that, it might be y'all, Orlando.
11:01
SPEAKER_02: If you want to take the jump that you need, you need players that can't shoot the ball, right?
11:06
SPEAKER_02: And if Anthony Black is on a unit that has other non-shooters, he just won't be guarded.
11:14
SPEAKER_02: Again, I hate that that's what it boils down to.
11:16
SPEAKER_02: There's only a few players in the league right now that can make it from the guard position without having a decent jump shot.
11:22
SPEAKER_02: And those guys are in a lot of times in half court sets, aren't even used as guards.
11:27
SPEAKER_02: You know, when we're talking about like an Amin Thompson who's sitting on the goddamn block or sneaking down the baseline for, you know, uh a dunking spot, a dunker spot touch or him playing offensive rebound and guru.
11:39
SPEAKER_02: Like there's there's some guys that could just make it work without the jumper, and there's other guys that whether it be the system or whether it be their own abilities outside of the non-jump shot, that just cannot work without it.
11:50
SPEAKER_02: And Anthony Black has kind of turned into that dude because he's, as I mentioned, with the pick and roll numbers, he's not good with the ball enough to make you feel like you need to put the ball in his hands, and he's also not good without the ball.
12:02
SPEAKER_02: So it is a um conundrum.
12:06
SPEAKER_02: And that draft class for the Orlando Magic has not really reaped the reward that you really wanted it to.
12:12
SPEAKER_02: You want to have the sixth overall pick, or you want to have what other pick was it?
12:16
SPEAKER_02: What was the Jed Howard pick?
12:17
SPEAKER_02: That was the former Bulls pick.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: Let me double check this real quick.
12:19
SPEAKER_02: I want to say Jed Howard's like 12th or 13th.
12:21
SPEAKER_02: He was 11th.
12:22
SPEAKER_02: When you have Jed Howard at 11th and you have Anthony Black at sixth, and you might go into a postseason series this year where neither of those guys are playable, it's some scary things.
12:30
SPEAKER_02: I did a video on my Kenny 2 channel where on Crafted NBA, they were ranking all general managers strictly based on how well they draft.
12:38
SPEAKER_02: And one of the worst, one of the worst people was the current general manager regime for the Orlando Magic, one of the worst in the last 20 years.
12:46
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you go back and watch that video, I gave them grace because the Franz Wagner pick is really great.
12:51
SPEAKER_02: Like it's it's really, really good.
12:54
SPEAKER_02: Um, but the palo pick, obviously first overall pick, and he's projected to be that.
12:59
SPEAKER_02: I know we had the swinging of the odds the night of the draft, but also don't know what to really think about that.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: So they got they got palow, and again, they got Franz.
13:07
SPEAKER_02: So I got to give them credit there, but some of the other ones, even Jalen Suggs at five is materialized.
13:11
SPEAKER_02: If you look at that one season where he shot very well from three, but the things around that just hasn't really worked out, and you kind of need it to.
13:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, I I talked about this in a video that has not been released yet.
13:23
SPEAKER_02: That one of the ways that these really good current GMs are running it is making it so that especially in the second apron era, rookie scale contracts have to be valuable.
13:36
SPEAKER_02: Rookie scale players have to be good enough to play in the postseason.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: Think about who the OKC Thunder just ran out last season.
13:42
SPEAKER_02: A lot of those guys ended up being on rookie scale deals or deals very small, like Isaiah Joe or you know, uh um Aaron Wiggins and so on and so forth.
13:52
SPEAKER_02: Kasen Wallace being a rookie scale contract allows them to be able to keep the big three guys that they have that are all gonna be on max contracts.
14:01
SPEAKER_02: And with them having so many draft picks for the next couple years, they're gonna keep rotating these rookie scale guys, that guys that can play.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: AJ Mitchell played in the NBA fucking finals, right?
14:10
SPEAKER_02: Like that's something that we just wouldn't have seen 10 years ago.
14:14
SPEAKER_02: So for the Orlando Magic, who have Paolo Benquero on the max, Franz Wagger on the max, and Desmond Bain on whatever his max extension ended up being a couple years ago, they also need some of these rookie scale contract people to be not just looked at as rookies, but looked at as quality, quality players.
14:32
SPEAKER_02: We saw it for the Indiana Pacers as well, right?
14:34
SPEAKER_02: A lot of those guys are rookie scale guys or guys that made, you know, a minimum amount of money on their second contract compared.
14:42
SPEAKER_02: It's really important.
14:44
SPEAKER_02: So Anthony Black is one of my most intriguing guys because they kind of need him to be good.
14:51
SPEAKER_02: Because they don't really have a lot of options on that second unit, right?
14:55
SPEAKER_02: And it's got to be Anthony Black, in my opinion.
14:57
SPEAKER_02: Going to the next guy, this guy was also uh ranked very high.
15:00
SPEAKER_02: I actually mentioned him when I was talking about the draft class of Anthony Black.
15:03
SPEAKER_02: It was the number two overall pick in that year's draft.
15:04
SPEAKER_02: Brandon Miller, man.
15:06
SPEAKER_02: I have to admit, Brandon Miller was a guy that I was um high on coming out of college.
15:10
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, I don't watch a tolerant uh a ton of college basketball.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: I've mentioned that before, but I do rent myself up when it comes to the NBA draft.
15:18
SPEAKER_02: And now that I got synergy and now that I got a lot of these different platforms, I'm having so much fun just watching film, uh gearing myself up for this NBA season.
15:26
SPEAKER_02: And Brandon Miller himself had a really interesting second season.
15:29
SPEAKER_02: He obviously dealt the wrist injury that I guess is still nagging him at least a little bit.
15:33
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna play with some tape, at least to start the NBA season according to his media day stuff.
15:36
SPEAKER_02: But in that, he only played 27 games.
15:38
SPEAKER_02: Cool.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: All right, let's look at this 27 game sample size.
15:41
SPEAKER_02: His efficiency dropped a little bit.
15:43
SPEAKER_02: But overall, every other stat got higher.
15:46
SPEAKER_02: His points per game, his assists per game, his rebounds per game.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: I'm talking about all of the counting stats.
15:50
SPEAKER_02: Just was a better season if you look past the dip in efficiency.
15:54
SPEAKER_02: One thing I thought was pretty interesting was the change in his shot diet.
15:57
SPEAKER_02: His rookie season, he was a guy that got to his spots in the mid-range area and took 14% of his shots as a long two-point shooter, which at that moment in time, 14% may not seem like a lot, but again, in 2024, 2025, that is a lot of mid-range jumpers.
16:10
SPEAKER_02: Then things shifted in the sophomore season.
16:12
SPEAKER_02: A lot of those long twos turned into three-pointers.
16:15
SPEAKER_02: That 14% at long two ended up being just 7% in year number two.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: He cut him in half.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: And all of those shots, every single one of them, just turned into a three-pointer.
16:24
SPEAKER_02: And I'm trying to figure out is that a him thing or is that Charles Lee?
16:28
SPEAKER_02: Again, Charles Lee coming away from the Boston Celtics, a team that legitimately only shot three pointers and got to the basket.
16:33
SPEAKER_02: That was it, there was no mid-range jumpers.
16:34
SPEAKER_02: Um, so I don't know if that's a Charles Lee philosophy, or was that Brandon Miller just shifting his shot diet based on what 2024, 2025 really looks like as an NBA guy?
16:44
SPEAKER_02: Um, and there's pros and cons to this, right?
16:46
SPEAKER_02: There's there's definitely pros and cons to getting to the point where you're shooting 10.3 three pointers a game and kind of cutting out the middle ground, which the middle ground is one of the things that people love the most about his game coming out of college.
16:57
SPEAKER_02: Um, the pro is three is better than two.
17:01
SPEAKER_02: And Brandon Miller should be a good three-point shooter, all things considered.
17:04
SPEAKER_02: I know again, he shot 35% on 10 attempts last season.
17:07
SPEAKER_02: A lot of those um are tough pull-ups and so on.
17:09
SPEAKER_02: When he was a catch and shoot guy, it was 42%.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: So he's really good there.
17:12
SPEAKER_02: But he turned a lot of those mid-range to three-pointers, and I can see the pro there.
17:17
SPEAKER_02: It's like three is greater than two analytical world.
17:19
SPEAKER_02: But the con is that it felt like we got a weight of some of the essence that is Brandon Miller.
17:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, even when he was asked about it in Media Day, when he was asked about his shot diet in his second season, he kind of paused and thought to himself about it for a little bit, and people are like reading into it, saying, like, hey, is that him trying to pull a Shador Sanders and not answer the question at all?
17:39
SPEAKER_02: Um, which is fucking wild, first of all, that everybody has an opinion about the kid just not answering a question.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: But whatever.
17:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a big NFL guy.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: But I saw that video and the the fucking write-ups that everybody had about the third string quarterback.
17:54
SPEAKER_02: Think about that.
17:55
SPEAKER_02: About the third string quarterback.
17:57
SPEAKER_02: I can't name a single other third string quarterback in the league.
17:59
SPEAKER_02: I can't name the third string quarterback on my favorite fucking team.
18:03
SPEAKER_02: Why is the microphone like anyway?
18:05
SPEAKER_02: Um, but he didn't answer the question for a second, he took a step back and then he answered it.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: So um the con is kind of taking him away from the things that I thought he was that was pretty interesting.
18:17
SPEAKER_02: When they did run some high picking roles in his rookie season and he did get to that mid-range spot, it felt like it was butter.
18:22
SPEAKER_02: And now those um the high pick and roll for Brandon Miller is stopping at the three-point line and taking a three.
18:29
SPEAKER_02: And again, it goes in sometimes and misses sometimes, but the middle ground, I feel like we have to, you know, it don't have to be 14%, but it also don't have to be seven percent.
18:37
SPEAKER_02: Can we meet in the middle?
18:38
SPEAKER_02: Can we get another like a 10% of a shot diet?
18:41
SPEAKER_02: It also sucks.
18:43
SPEAKER_02: It doesn't get to the basket.
18:44
SPEAKER_02: Why are you refraining?
18:45
SPEAKER_02: And I was hoping that he came into training camp with a bulked up, he was drafted, he was listed at 200 pounds.
18:51
SPEAKER_02: Going into this year, he is 205 pounds.
18:54
SPEAKER_02: And Brandon, look at me.
18:56
SPEAKER_02: I'm I also under I understand how tough it can be to put on that weight, but damn it, I was hoping he was 210, 215 going into the season.
19:03
SPEAKER_02: If it's like everybody else put on hella weight, whether they wanted to or not, Anthony Davis is the heaviest he's ever been.
19:10
SPEAKER_02: So it's like I was hoping that he put on like 10, 15 pounds, but he he didn't.
19:15
SPEAKER_02: Back to the shot dice though.
19:17
SPEAKER_02: Brendan Miller, I want him to be able to again take more of those two pointers because in my mind, when I think about the analytics that is three greater than two, where the league has kind of been going a little bit, again, that yes, that's true.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: That is 100%.
19:30
SPEAKER_02: I could be behind that.
19:31
SPEAKER_02: But it will not hurt if a guy that that excels at a mid-range jump shot takes mid-range jump shot, if he is the only guy on the team that's doing it.
19:38
SPEAKER_02: You don't see Lamelo Ball doing that, you don't see Miles Bridges doing that, you don't see other Grant Williams doing that.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: If it's only Brandon Miller taking his sues, it I feel like we should be okay with it, especially if he's gonna hit him at the clip that we think he could hit him at.
19:48
SPEAKER_02: But nope, took him out.
19:52
SPEAKER_02: He also, again, is not getting to the basket the way you want him to.
19:55
SPEAKER_02: And if you watch numbers on the board about a month or so ago, um, at the start of or two months ago, at the start of the offseason, I mentioned to them how I watched every single pick and roll opportunity for Brandon Miller, these are ones that he was the ball handler, whether it be letting to leading to a pass or leading to a basket attempt or whatever, whatever.
20:11
SPEAKER_02: I watched every single one of them.
20:12
SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I mentioned is I think it's going to be super important for him to continue to improve as a playmaker.
20:18
SPEAKER_02: His assist numbers did go up, but again, watching all those sits, it was better than his rookie season, but it's still far away from where I would like it to be for a guy like Brandon Miller.
20:26
SPEAKER_02: And on the panel, the guys are like, yeah, cool, but like we don't really, we don't really look at Brandon Miller as that type of guy anyway, so it's not that important.
20:32
SPEAKER_02: And my kickback to that is it is always going to be important to be a plus playmaker.
20:38
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to be Luca, you don't have to be LaMelo.
20:41
SPEAKER_02: You have LaMelo.
20:41
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to be LaMelo, you don't have to be Trey Young.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: But you you go down the all-star rosters over the last couple of years.
20:47
SPEAKER_02: How many guards or wings can you name that are not plus playmakers?
20:51
SPEAKER_02: How many can you name?
20:53
SPEAKER_02: Maybe one?
20:54
SPEAKER_02: Two?
20:55
SPEAKER_02: So Brandon Miller's gonna hit the ceiling that we need him to.
20:57
SPEAKER_02: He has to be a threat out of those pick rolls, even if he's not a guy that's running 10 pick and rolls a game.
21:03
SPEAKER_02: Even if he's a guy that's one more swing and into Miles Bridges in the corner, he needs to get to the point where he's developed as a player to be better as a playmaker.
21:12
SPEAKER_02: Jalen Brown's a great example of this.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: The first couple years of Jalen Brown's career, we saw him as a guy that is pretty, pretty good, but man, you know, his passing ain't really all there.
21:21
SPEAKER_02: And again, he is very far away from being a Trey Young.
21:24
SPEAKER_02: He's very far away from being Tyrese Halliburton.
21:27
SPEAKER_02: But he's a good playmaker now.
21:30
SPEAKER_02: At the bare minimum, he's an average to above average playmaker.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: And that is all you really kind of need to be a threat.
21:37
SPEAKER_02: Because if you're guarding a Brandon Miller pick and roll right now, you kind of don't really care about anybody other than Brandon Miller.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: Because he has not been amazing in getting into the big fella.
21:46
SPEAKER_02: And in his defense, it's not like he's played with a ton of great big fellas.
21:49
SPEAKER_02: It ain't like him and Mark Williams played a ton of minutes together before both of them got injured.
21:53
SPEAKER_02: But you don't really care about the road man, you don't care about the guy in the corner.
21:57
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna tag that road man from the corner because Brandon Miller's.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: Not making that pass a lot of the times.
22:02
SPEAKER_02: So just adding that makes him more dynamic as a ball player.
22:06
SPEAKER_02: I think I want to see that.
22:09
SPEAKER_02: I think that Brandon Miller ceiling is extremely high.
22:12
SPEAKER_02: I truly do believe that he could be an all-star in his league.
22:14
SPEAKER_02: And if there was a season to make people kind of shift their ideas about the Charlotte Hornets, it's going to be this season, right?
22:22
SPEAKER_02: Really good offseason, if you ask me.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: They're going into camp.
22:25
SPEAKER_02: Everybody's healthy.
22:26
SPEAKER_02: And when I when I decide an episode, I kind of really deep dive into randomness that is the Charlotte Hornets.
22:32
SPEAKER_02: I did see their first unit practice.
22:35
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, I'm I'm here.
22:37
SPEAKER_02: I'm you know, I'm watching these practice films.
22:41
SPEAKER_02: And Ryan Kalkbrenner was playing with the first unit.
22:46
unknown: Okay.
22:47
SPEAKER_02: Is he gonna be a starter in his first game of his NBA career?
22:50
SPEAKER_02: That now that will be something.
22:52
SPEAKER_02: But he was playing with that first unit on both of the scrimmages I saw.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: Pretty interesting stuff.
22:57
SPEAKER_02: Sorry, Musa Diabate.
22:58
SPEAKER_02: It ain't like he got a ton of competition, let's be real.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: But I thought that was Diabate's spot to lose, and maybe he just lost it day two of training camp.
23:05
SPEAKER_02: So Anthony Black, Brendan Miller is number two.
23:08
SPEAKER_02: My number three guy is Emmanuel Quickly.
23:12
SPEAKER_02: We did an episode two weeks ago where we talked a lot about the Toronto Raptors.
23:18
SPEAKER_02: You know, we were answering or buying or selling the opinions going into next season, and one that S put together was about the Raptors being good next season.
23:27
SPEAKER_02: We we dissected it, we agreed, we disagreed, yada, yada, yada.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: But in that episode, I talked about RJ Baird and the amount of times his role has shifted in just the last what three seasons or so when he was a Nick and then his first time with the Toronto Raptors, then this season, where everybody was injured and now he's been used as a ball handler.
23:44
SPEAKER_02: As I'm doing this episode and writing up, you know, my run of show for this one, I was thinking about Emmanuel quickly and how he also fits that mode of guys whose role continues to shifts, right?
23:55
SPEAKER_02: I think what makes him the most intriguing, or one of my most intriguing guys, is I think his role may shift back to what it was when he was a Knicks.
24:06
SPEAKER_02: Now, I want to pause because I can already see the angry tweets.
24:08
SPEAKER_02: I don't mean in the sense that he will be coming off the bench like he did with the Knicks, but I mean how he's being utilized on the offensive side of the ball.
24:15
SPEAKER_02: Because I don't know.
24:17
SPEAKER_02: Emmanuel Quickley may not be a true lead guard for an NBA team.
24:22
SPEAKER_02: And I'm here to tell you that would be okay.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Everybody doesn't need to be the lead guard.
24:29
SPEAKER_02: But with them adding, again, Brandon Ingram, Scotty Barnes being completely healthy, his role just shifts.
24:37
SPEAKER_02: You know, when they traded for him, he was kind of looked at as like, hey, between you and RJ, one of y'all are like our second option type of guys, most likely you because we you have the ball and we gave you your extension immediately.
24:48
SPEAKER_02: But now that Brandon Ingram is there, it kind of shifts some things because we've seen Scotty B point Scotty, right?
24:53
SPEAKER_02: We've seen Scotty be the lead ball handler.
24:54
SPEAKER_02: We've seen Brandon Ingram facilitate offense over the last couple years of his career.
24:58
SPEAKER_02: And I believe that if Emmanuel Quickly can go back to the role that he played with the Knicks, it will just do so much better for the New York Knicks.
25:06
SPEAKER_02: When he played with the Knicks, he played a ton off the ball.
25:10
SPEAKER_02: One of the coolest things about Emmanuel Quickley, one of the most deadly off-the-bench moves that we had during that era, is just Emmanuel Quickly using his first step off the catch.
25:20
SPEAKER_02: Off the bounce, just getting in and boom, rocketing through a defender and get into the basket or get into floater range and doing his best D'Angelo Russell impersonation when D'Angelo Russell shot 60% off floaters.
25:33
SPEAKER_02: Emmanuel Quickly was doing that.
25:35
SPEAKER_02: But then he got to the Raptors and it changed, where he went from a guy that was playing off the ball and being able to use that off-the-bounce step to a guy that was the lead ball handler running a ton more pick and rolls, you know, with the starting unit.
25:47
SPEAKER_02: And not that that was bad or anything.
25:49
SPEAKER_02: But me personally, thinking about who Emmanuel Quickly is as a player, I think he excels so much more on that off-the-ball guy.
25:57
SPEAKER_02: Because he's so much of a threat as a catch-and-shoot player.
26:00
SPEAKER_02: I don't think he shot it very well from catch-a-shoot since he's been in Toronto.
26:03
SPEAKER_02: But thinking about who he was with the Knicks, he's that's not that far long ago.
26:06
SPEAKER_02: Um, he was a deadly catch-a-shoot player as well.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: So it got people thinking if I got the ball, if I'm manual quickly off a swing pass, am I catching and shooting?
26:15
SPEAKER_02: You think I am?
26:16
SPEAKER_02: Boom, blow by, float a range, bucket.
26:18
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you think I'm gonna float past you?
26:20
SPEAKER_02: Boom, jump shot.
26:22
SPEAKER_02: And it just, I think it opens the game up so much more for him if he's playing off the ball, but also for this offense, an offense that's going to desperately need jump, jump shooting.
26:30
SPEAKER_02: Fuck.
26:31
SPEAKER_02: I was so tired of talking about jump shooting.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: But a team that's going to need jump shooting, they're gonna need catch-and-shoot opportunities, they're gonna need guys that can create off the bounce and hit a three.
26:39
SPEAKER_02: And he managed quickly is that guy.
26:43
SPEAKER_02: So I'm curious that now that they are completely healthy and they've added these new faces to this team.
26:50
SPEAKER_02: Could we see quickly?
26:51
SPEAKER_02: He may not have his best statistical season, but maybe we look at quickly and be like, yes, all right, we understand it.
26:57
SPEAKER_02: You know, the$32 million that he's being guaranteed makes sense, even if he's not the number two guy on the team.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: I think a lot of people could kind of fit into the most intriguing list from the Toronto Raptors.
27:07
SPEAKER_02: As we talked about before, there's just a lot of stuff going on going on over there.
27:12
SPEAKER_02: And I can see the people that are really optimistic, but I also understand the people that are pessimistic as well.
27:17
SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Emmanuel quickly.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: The next two I'm I'm gonna do relatively fast.
27:22
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I'm gonna get to the guys that didn't make the top five that I think are interesting as well.
27:26
SPEAKER_02: Next guy on the list is John Collins.
27:28
SPEAKER_02: John Collins is on a new team with the LA Clippers, and you know, during media day, Tyron Lou was asked about his potential starting lineup.
27:35
SPEAKER_02: He said that Bradley Beale is gonna be starting at the two guard, and they need Bradley Beale to go back to his all-defensive days.
27:41
SPEAKER_02: And I have to go look and like, nah, that brother's never got an all-defensive vote.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know what the hell you're talking about, Tyleo.
27:46
SPEAKER_02: He's always he's at times he's a decent defender, a good decent's a good defender.
27:50
SPEAKER_02: But I don't know if you can ask a guy at the age of 30 something to be like, yo, you're gonna be the all-defense, you need to replace Chris Dunn defensively in this lineup.
27:56
SPEAKER_02: You know how hard that is?
27:58
SPEAKER_02: Because KD, Chris Dunn is one of them guys defensively.
28:00
SPEAKER_02: Anyway, but he's also asked about John Collins.
28:03
SPEAKER_02: Is John I like Tyran Lew a lot.
28:06
SPEAKER_02: Is John Collins gonna be starting at the four?
28:09
SPEAKER_02: And the answer is gonna be surprised to you.
28:11
SPEAKER_02: Um Tyron Lou said, I don't know, I forgot.
28:15
SPEAKER_02: That was the that that is verbatim the quote from Tyron Lew.
28:18
SPEAKER_02: I don't know, I forgot.
28:22
SPEAKER_02: So we don't know if if John Collins if John Collins is gonna be starting this season.
28:26
SPEAKER_02: Um, but let's talk about it both of the ways.
28:28
SPEAKER_02: If he's starting or he's coming off the bench.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: Um, question number one for John Collins.
28:32
SPEAKER_02: Is he a shooter or is he not?
28:33
SPEAKER_02: Remember at the end of his Hawks tenure, he had that finger injury and he posted a picture up on Instagram where I don't remember if his ring finger or his middle finger was balloomed like double the size.
28:44
SPEAKER_02: And then the year after that, he shot um, let me see what this number is.
28:48
SPEAKER_02: He shot 29% from three after having that hand injury.
28:51
SPEAKER_02: You remember that?
28:52
SPEAKER_02: The years before that, he shot six uh 36%, he shot uh 39%, 40%.
28:57
SPEAKER_02: So he had become a decent shooter from three on three and a half attempts, and then he had the finger injury and it tanked down to 29% from three.
29:05
SPEAKER_02: He got to Utah, 37%, and then last year, 40% from three on Jock Collins on almost four attempts under the radar.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: I can't act like I was out there watching Utah Jazz games.
29:16
SPEAKER_02: Are you fucking kidding me?
29:17
SPEAKER_02: You have to be a die hard for that.
29:19
SPEAKER_02: But the numbers was just surprising to me.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: I didn't realize that he had turned himself into or back into this plus three-point shooter.
29:27
SPEAKER_02: So hypothetically, if he's playing alongside Zoo, I think that the defense, I defensive identity that they had curated over the last season is dead, by the way.
29:34
SPEAKER_02: I think that that goes away if a starting unit is going to be um James Harden, Bradley Beal, Kawhi Leonard, John Collins, and Zoo.
29:43
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, there's something there, but like they were like a top three defense last year.
29:47
SPEAKER_02: I don't think they can do that if that's your starting unit, but whatever.
29:49
SPEAKER_02: Maybe they just flipped that identity on his head.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: Now they're a high-powered offense team.
29:53
SPEAKER_02: And I could see that.
29:54
SPEAKER_02: If John Collins is gonna hit his three-point shot at this clip for next season, Bradley Beal is still an effective offensive player.
30:01
SPEAKER_02: James Harden is the best floor riser, and then Kawhi Leonard is he's good.
30:06
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, so I could see that offense being, you know, humming and playing well, but I think that defensive identity kind of goes away a little bit.
30:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, so the idea of him starting kind of makes some sense.
30:15
SPEAKER_02: But also the idea of him coming off the bench makes some sense too for him because I could see his role as an offensive player shifting the times that he's playing alongside Brick Lopez.
30:24
SPEAKER_02: Brooke Lopez is a stretch in this in this thing.
30:26
SPEAKER_02: He's setting a high picker role and he's flaring and stuff.
30:28
SPEAKER_02: And John Collins can kind of go back to that uh rim-rocking four-man, and we saw him be in Atlanta.
30:34
SPEAKER_02: So I'm I'm very intrigued because again, they traded away Norman Powell.
30:37
SPEAKER_02: And this is another thing I'm gonna mention second apron, I'm gonna mention CBA, I'm gonna mention the new way of team building quite a bit over this next season because it's something I've been thinking about a ton.
30:46
SPEAKER_02: Um, but they traded away a near all-star caliber player in Norman Powell for John Collins because they didn't believe in the type of money that Norman Powell would probably want.
30:57
SPEAKER_02: And that tier of score is obviously important in the NBA, but how important is it when it comes to the financial aspect?
31:04
SPEAKER_02: You don't really have to worry about that for John Collins because his role as a four-man, as a backup five-man is not going to be as expensive as a guy that's putting up 21 to 23 points per game on a good team.
31:15
SPEAKER_02: And that's what Norman Powell had become last season.
31:17
SPEAKER_02: So I'm excited to see what John Collins can do for this team.
31:20
SPEAKER_02: I also wonder if there's a world where he can turn back the clocks.
31:24
SPEAKER_02: And I'm always skeptical to say these type of things, or when I hear people say these type of things, because a lot of times we're talking about so long ago.
31:32
SPEAKER_02: But in that run, the 2020, 2021 run where they went to the conference finals, the reason why John Collins got paid all of that fucking money that he got paid is because he just locked in defensively.
31:43
SPEAKER_02: And you're like, oh snap, this guy can he's switching, he's playing drop, he's doing everything.
31:49
SPEAKER_02: And again, that was four years ago.
31:51
SPEAKER_02: So I wonder, can he get back to that?
31:52
SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, I don't know.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: Four years ago, a lot of things were different.
31:55
SPEAKER_02: Four years ago, a lot of things are different.
31:57
SPEAKER_02: Mindsets shift, people shift, abilities shift.
31:59
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if he can do it, but if he can, oh boy, Clippers may have got them one.
32:05
SPEAKER_02: My last guy in my top five most intriguing players is my boy Donovan Klingan.
32:12
SPEAKER_02: I can't get enough of talking about Donovan Klingan right now.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: He said in his media day that he dropped some weight.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: He's in the best shape of his life, and he believes that he can play double the amount of minutes per game that he did last season, which is dope.
32:26
SPEAKER_02: Donovan Klingon's stats on off defensively reminds me of a young Rudy Gobert.
32:31
SPEAKER_02: I will say it again.
32:32
SPEAKER_02: He is a great, just in his rookie season, a great drop coverage big that protects the paint.
32:37
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, he gets into some foul trouble.
32:39
SPEAKER_02: That's always going to happen with a center at his age and you know, with his defensive responsibility.
32:46
SPEAKER_02: So I'm really excited about his season.
32:48
SPEAKER_02: But also in that same media day, something scared me.
32:52
SPEAKER_02: Chauncey Billups said that last year their whole goal was to set their defensive identity.
33:00
SPEAKER_02: In the second half of the season, they were one of the best defensive teams in ball.
33:03
SPEAKER_02: They really were good on that end.
33:06
SPEAKER_02: So that was real.
33:07
SPEAKER_02: He did set the defensive identity.
33:08
SPEAKER_02: You look at Tumani Kamara or Denny as a competitor, you know, Donovan Kling, and we go on and on.
33:13
SPEAKER_02: Shaden Sharp, a guy who can average 20 points per game, literally got benched because even though he was averaging 20, he couldn't defend.
33:19
SPEAKER_02: And he they and Chauncey didn't like his effort defensively.
33:22
SPEAKER_02: So they set that identity.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: But he said going to this season, now they're trying to set their offensive identity.
33:28
SPEAKER_02: And I mentioned this on numbers on the board, and you know, I think we kind of went past it pretty fast, but I want to kind of talk about it here a little bit in more in depth.
33:36
SPEAKER_02: As I listened to all of the head coaches and all of the players' media days, the one word that continued to pop up was the word pace, the word faster.
33:44
SPEAKER_02: And Chauncey Bills was also a guy that talked about playing faster.
33:49
SPEAKER_02: He didn't mean just forcing turnovers.
33:51
SPEAKER_02: This is his words.
33:52
SPEAKER_02: He didn't mean it just forcing turnovers again on the break.
33:55
SPEAKER_02: He said in the half court as well, they're not going to be a team that's just going to result in a high pick and roll.
34:00
SPEAKER_02: They're going to be playing off cuts, they're going to be playing off instinct.
34:04
SPEAKER_02: And I think that is so interesting, specifically for the big fella Donovan Klingon.
34:11
SPEAKER_02: You trying to tell me this man was conditioned enough to play last year where they were a slow-paced team, and just in one offseason, you think you're going to convince me that they're going to be able to play fast with Donovan Klingan, big ass back there?
34:21
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if I can trust that like that.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: I just don't, I just don't know if I can trust it.
34:28
SPEAKER_02: So, how does playing with pace look for Donovan Klingan?
34:33
SPEAKER_02: I don't, I don't know.
34:34
SPEAKER_02: That's that's my big question.
34:36
SPEAKER_02: That's why he is one of the most intriguing players to me.
34:38
SPEAKER_02: Because obviously, you know, he got so much, so many years of his NBA career.
34:40
SPEAKER_02: Things can look off of this season, that doesn't mean that it's over for Donovan Klingon.
34:43
SPEAKER_02: And some of these other guys, like, you know, maybe the opposite of that.
34:49
SPEAKER_02: But when you talk about schematic fit, I I'm I was just trying to like look at like again his comparisons.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: Um Rudy Gobert, and I didn't do this beforehand, but now it's on the top of my I'm gonna look it up really, really quick.
35:03
SPEAKER_02: If his comparison is like a Rudy Gobert type of guy, I do want to remind you that Rudy Gobert finished top five in DPOY his second season in the ZBA career, where he only he only started in 37th games.
35:15
SPEAKER_02: So shout out to Rudy Gobert.
35:18
SPEAKER_02: Um that season they were 30th in pace.
35:21
SPEAKER_02: The season after that, they were 30th the pace.
35:22
SPEAKER_02: The season after that, they were 30th the pace, season after that, they were 25th in pace.
35:25
SPEAKER_02: Season after that, we do get into top 15, they were number 13.
35:28
SPEAKER_02: Season after that, they were 24th, and then we got 18th, and then he was off the team.
35:34
SPEAKER_02: 22nd his last year.
35:36
SPEAKER_02: It's hard to be a fast-paced team if you're gonna have this type of dude play a ton of minutes.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: It's just hard.
35:43
SPEAKER_02: And let's go to his Minnesota days.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: Ooh, here we go.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: Minnesota 24, 24th.
35:50
unknown: Damn it.
35:50
SPEAKER_02: I thought that was something there.
35:52
SPEAKER_02: And last year, 24th as well.
35:53
SPEAKER_02: Damn it.
35:54
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
35:55
SPEAKER_02: I thought it was something there.
35:56
SPEAKER_02: I thought for a second, I thought that we we shifted to switch, but I was one year ahead.
36:01
SPEAKER_02: And and these type of players, we just don't have a ton of them anymore.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: I feel like every single um center in basketball is more switchable.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: You don't have almost exclusive drop coverage bigs.
36:09
SPEAKER_02: Oh, another guy, Zoo, Zubas.
36:10
SPEAKER_02: Let me let me look up Zoo.
36:12
SPEAKER_02: Another guy.
36:13
SPEAKER_02: And I'm only gonna look at the years where he's was a starter, right?
36:16
SPEAKER_02: I don't want to look at you know his LA years because he wasn't really playing.
36:20
SPEAKER_02: 18th in pace, 24th in pace, 20th in pace, last year, 22nd in pace.
36:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, who knows what's gonna happen this year, but they're older now, so that 22nd might be 25th.
36:29
SPEAKER_02: Who the hell knows?
36:30
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's just interesting to me.
36:34
SPEAKER_02: That's all.
36:35
SPEAKER_02: How do we play fast with a big, like a true, true throwback big?
36:41
SPEAKER_02: And I don't mean throwback in the sense that post such is because he wasn't very good in the post last season.
36:45
SPEAKER_02: He actually shot um more threes than I ever anticipated.
36:48
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of those happened at the end of the season when they were kind of just dicking around.
36:52
SPEAKER_02: Just trying to, like, what can can he can he shoot a little bit?
36:55
SPEAKER_02: And he shot about one a game, if I'm I'm wrong, it's 0.7.
36:59
SPEAKER_02: And he shot 28% on those, but again, a lot of those happened at the end of the season, so who knows?
37:04
SPEAKER_02: Um, it was so weird when we saw Walker Kessler at the end of last season just letting them fly.
37:10
SPEAKER_02: It's like, what am I have to lose?
37:11
SPEAKER_02: They don't want to pay me anyway.
37:12
SPEAKER_02: I could just go out there and shoot them all.
37:14
SPEAKER_02: Let me see what Walker Kessler ended up doing three-point-wise.
37:17
SPEAKER_02: Because I remember it was one game.
37:19
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, look, there's a stretch in here.
37:20
SPEAKER_02: Walker Kessler, for the first, let me see, let me see.
37:24
SPEAKER_02: Let me make sure I do this right.
37:26
SPEAKER_02: For the first 66 games of the season, or 50 games for him, because you know he's always gonna miss time.
37:33
SPEAKER_02: He attempted a total of six three-pointers in the first 50 games of the season.
37:40
SPEAKER_02: Six.
37:41
SPEAKER_02: Then the next games after that, he shot six in a game, five in a game, six in a game, and eight in a game.
37:48
SPEAKER_02: What the hell happened in that locker room?
37:51
SPEAKER_02: Did Will Hardy just say here, y'all, y'all do what y'all want?
37:56
SPEAKER_02: He was he took eight threes in a game.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: And if you ask, Kenny, how many did he hit?
38:00
SPEAKER_02: Um, one, two, three.
38:04
SPEAKER_02: He hit three.
38:05
SPEAKER_02: One of six, one of six, one of eight, oh for five.
38:10
SPEAKER_02: What the hell was happening?
38:13
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
38:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then the last two games in the season, he didn't take any.
38:16
SPEAKER_02: So we'll hardy put the plug real quick.
38:19
SPEAKER_02: You got your little run, and then nah, it's gone, brother.
38:21
SPEAKER_02: It's gone.
38:22
SPEAKER_02: So those are the five most intriguing players going into next season.
38:24
SPEAKER_02: Here are the people that I truly thought about, but didn't have enough to write about um or write up in my run or show, but I'll quickly talk about them.
38:31
SPEAKER_02: Another big Burley center from the same draft class, Zach Eady.
38:34
SPEAKER_02: The reason I didn't add Zach Eady is because him and every other front court player of the Memphis Grizzies are going into next season injured.
38:41
SPEAKER_02: Just all of all of them are just injured right now.
38:44
SPEAKER_02: Um but I wasn't um interested in what happened after they fired Taylor Jenkins and then Isalo took over and how much they used him in a high pick and role with John Morant, which is what John Morant's game really is, and how impactful they were defensively when it was Jaron and Zach Eady.
39:02
SPEAKER_02: And I think going into number two, he could be a lot better.
39:04
SPEAKER_02: But again, he's starting off injured.
39:06
SPEAKER_02: The next name that didn't make the list, but was really close was Jaden McDaniels.
39:10
SPEAKER_02: Um we mentioned last episode how Anthony Edwards is under a ton of pressure going to next season.
39:16
SPEAKER_02: And again, to reiterate, not pressure to perform, but uh but pressure on court.
39:20
SPEAKER_02: And Jaden McDaniel showed us a lot in the second half of the season from like Jan 1 to the end of the year about him being a ball handler and um oh I'm sorry, creating for himself off the dribble when the first half of the season he was kind of just strictly spotting up, but he he got twist mid-range areas and so on.
39:37
SPEAKER_02: And I wonder how much of that transfers into this next season.
39:41
SPEAKER_02: Another name that was on the list, the best name on the list by Y Margin was bam out of bio.
39:47
SPEAKER_02: Um, coach Coach Spoostra said that there's a lot of unknown with this team and he's embracing the unknown.
39:53
SPEAKER_02: And I I don't really know if I like my coach talking about the unknown, man.
39:57
SPEAKER_02: And if anybody's gonna figure it out, it's gonna be Spoestra, like the best coach in the NBA right now.
40:03
SPEAKER_02: But without Tyler Hero, um, at least to start the season, it ain't like Tyler Hero's out for the year, but to start the season, the first 15 or so games that Tyler Hero might miss, um, Belmont of Bayo's usage should be interesting.
40:14
SPEAKER_02: You know, last year he got to the point where he was attempting more threes, something that I really, really was hoping for for years.
40:20
SPEAKER_02: And then I watched it in action and I was like, actually, bro, you ain't gotta do that.
40:26
SPEAKER_02: You don't have to do that.
40:27
SPEAKER_02: Because he just didn't get to the basket.
40:29
SPEAKER_02: And and I've talked about Clean the Glass is one of my favorite NBA sites.
40:34
SPEAKER_02: Um it has been, I've had a subscription for like what feels like a decade.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: And one of the things I really like looking at, and you heard this when I was talking about the Brandon Miller thing, is the frequency that players take their shots in different areas.
40:46
SPEAKER_02: And Bamma Nabayo is one of the few people, especially at his size, that he's now listed as 6'10.
40:51
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if he's always been 6'10.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I feel like I've seen 6'9 before.
40:55
SPEAKER_02: That the amount of attempts that he's had at the rim has dropped every single year of his career.
41:01
SPEAKER_02: His rookie season 73.
41:02
SPEAKER_02: Then we get 69, then 59%, then 45%, then 40%, then 35%.
41:08
SPEAKER_02: The last year, just 27% of his shots ended up at the rim.
41:12
SPEAKER_02: He ends up a lot in um floater range, which is fine, especially if he's making it.
41:16
SPEAKER_02: But the long twos continue to get um be a part of his game as well.
41:21
SPEAKER_02: Just overall mid-range jumpers are 55%, and that's in the 99%ile for his position.
41:26
SPEAKER_02: There's not a lot of four fives and ball that's taking that many mid-rangers.
41:29
SPEAKER_02: And for what it's worth, he shot 45% on those mid-rangers, but it just was it's just an intriguing player because I know there's a lot left on the bone for Bayama de Bayo as an offensive player.
41:41
SPEAKER_02: And I again, I I like the idea of him being a three-point shooter or attempting more threes, but I didn't want it to be at the detriment of him getting to the basket.
41:50
SPEAKER_02: I was hoping that some of the shots to get cut out was those long mid-rangers, and they'll those turn into more threes while getting to the basket stayed there, but it's not really the case.
42:00
SPEAKER_02: Um, I do think that next year to start the season, their defensive lineups can be kind of nuts when you think about it.
42:04
SPEAKER_02: Between Davion, Norm Powell, Wiggins, Bam, and Kaleo Ware.
42:09
SPEAKER_02: I know Kaleo Ware is still trying to figure it out like in his mind when it comes to defensive side, but damn, that unit could really uh cause some havoc.
42:18
SPEAKER_02: Next, I had Jabbar Smith Jr.
42:21
SPEAKER_02: for obvious reasons.
42:21
SPEAKER_02: And then I'll say Tar Eason.
42:23
SPEAKER_02: It would have felt weird to have two players on the same team.
42:25
SPEAKER_02: Both of y'all are the most intriguing players?
42:27
SPEAKER_02: Kind of.
42:27
SPEAKER_02: I just want to see what type of money Tarie Eason's gonna make.
42:30
SPEAKER_02: 20 million, 25 million, 16 million.
42:33
SPEAKER_02: I literally couldn't tell you, I couldn't tell you.
42:34
SPEAKER_02: And I I think he's asked for a number, and they're not willing to give them to him, so give him to Chicago.
42:40
SPEAKER_02: All right, y'all, those are the most intriguing players.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: When we come back, we're gonna have Ask KB.
42:46
SPEAKER_02: All you gotta do is hit us up on Instagram, on Twitter with the hashtag AskKB, and I'll try to answer some questions.
42:57
SPEAKER_02: Producer Greg is out.
42:59
SPEAKER_02: So in his in his seat, we have Christian, who, if you're a fan of the Enjoy Basketball Network, you've seen it before on teed up, but he is here with a bunch of college stuff behind him to fill in with the Ask KB.
43:11
SPEAKER_02: What we got today?
43:13
SPEAKER_03: Good to be here, Kenny.
43:14
SPEAKER_03: Also, that's Ken.
43:15
SPEAKER_03: We got Kemba, we got Dame, and then of course, Zach Norvell Jr.
43:19
SPEAKER_03: in the middle.
43:20
SPEAKER_02: Oh, of course.
43:21
SPEAKER_02: Of course, Zach Norvell Jr.
43:22
SPEAKER_02: I met Zach Norvell Jr.
43:24
SPEAKER_02: at a family barbecue like three years ago.
43:26
SPEAKER_02: Because he's from Chicago, right?
43:28
SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
43:29
SPEAKER_02: He's not related to me, but he was related to somebody that was at the family barbecue.
43:33
SPEAKER_02: Very cool.
43:33
SPEAKER_02: Cool guy.
43:34
SPEAKER_03: Do you know where he's hooping at these days?
43:36
unknown: No.
43:38
SPEAKER_03: I don't either.
43:39
SPEAKER_03: All right.
43:40
SPEAKER_03: So our first Ask K B is from our friend Officer Buckets.
43:49
SPEAKER_03: And I'm gonna play the sound.
43:52
SPEAKER_00: Hey Kenny, been trying to get on for a minute.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: My question is what player have you not seen live that you need to go watch?
43:58
SPEAKER_00: For example, I'm gonna go watch.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Braun this year for the first time.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Appreciate it.
44:03
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man.
44:04
SPEAKER_02: It's an experience watching Braun live.
44:06
SPEAKER_02: I wish I'd have been able to watch him live, you know, in his prime.
44:09
SPEAKER_02: I didn't really get to see him in a regular season game until he was with the Lakers.
44:15
SPEAKER_02: That's a great question.
44:17
SPEAKER_02: As I look at the team to kind of refresh my memory, I'm I'm lucky enough to have been a season ticket holder for the Bulls for a few seasons.
44:24
SPEAKER_02: So I got to see a lot of great players.
44:26
SPEAKER_02: Also, we get to go to like all-star weekends and stuff.
44:28
SPEAKER_02: So I've I've seen pretty much every single superstar player.
44:34
SPEAKER_02: So trying to look at it, I ain't gonna lie to you, brother.
44:39
SPEAKER_02: I kind of seen them all, man.
44:41
SPEAKER_02: It's a blessing.
44:41
SPEAKER_02: It truly is a blessing.
44:43
SPEAKER_02: But if you're asking me, this year, who am I?
44:45
SPEAKER_02: So let's shift the question just a little bit.
44:47
SPEAKER_02: Officer buckets, who would I'm most excited to see?
44:50
SPEAKER_02: Um last time I got to see Jokic, he he got ejected.
44:56
SPEAKER_02: No, that's not true.
44:57
SPEAKER_02: Because I saw him again a year after.
44:59
SPEAKER_02: Damn.
44:59
SPEAKER_02: Okay, wait, wait, wait.
45:02
SPEAKER_02: In January, the Clippers are coming to Chicago.
45:06
SPEAKER_02: I gotta see Chris Paul.
45:08
SPEAKER_02: I gotta see Chris Paul.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: You know?
45:10
SPEAKER_02: It's one of the few times where I'm like, as long as I am in town, I will buy tickets to that game.
45:15
SPEAKER_02: And we don't know if he's gonna be injured, God forbid.
45:16
SPEAKER_02: We don't know if he'll even be really in the rotation at the old age that he's at.
45:20
SPEAKER_02: But if this is his last hurrah, I gotta be there.
45:22
SPEAKER_02: Um and it's rare that you'll see me in a crowd of a Bulls game without a Bulls gear on.
45:27
SPEAKER_02: I might have a Chris Paul shirt on.
45:29
SPEAKER_02: Not a Clipper shirt, but a Chris Paul shirt.
45:31
SPEAKER_02: And make that because I'm not rooting for them, I'm rooting for him.
45:34
SPEAKER_02: So I gotta see Chris Paul.
45:35
SPEAKER_02: But like Luca, I've seen Braun, I've seen Jokic, I've seen Shay, I've seen.
45:40
SPEAKER_02: So I've like I've seen every team in the NBA, which is crazy.
45:45
SPEAKER_03: Have you been to key playoff games?
45:48
SPEAKER_03: Is there any could I reframe the question if there's a player to see in like a playoff setting live?
45:53
SPEAKER_02: You think I have seen key playoff games here in Chicago?
45:56
SPEAKER_02: Well, I don't know if you've traveled.
45:59
SPEAKER_02: No, no, no, no.
46:00
SPEAKER_02: I I've only been to a few playoff games.
46:02
SPEAKER_02: I've gone to um game one of Brooklyn Nets versus 76 a few years back when D'Angelo Russell was on the team.
46:08
SPEAKER_02: D'Angelo Russell literally fell in my lap.
46:10
SPEAKER_02: So that was a fun experience.
46:11
SPEAKER_02: I got to touch the basketball because I was courtside.
46:14
SPEAKER_02: So I got to touch the basketball that they were playing with.
46:17
SPEAKER_02: That was cool.
46:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then I was there when Kawhi Leonard tore his ACL against the Utah Jazz a few years back, the year after the bubble.
46:25
SPEAKER_02: Those are like the only playoff moments I've been there for.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: So I would love to be in attendance for like a playoff pacer game.
46:32
SPEAKER_02: Like when the guys took that road trip to Indiana and I couldn't go, I was so pissed because that crowd looked so electric and it ended up being an amazing game.
46:39
SPEAKER_02: This year, I don't know if they're gonna get many playoff games without Halliburton.
46:42
SPEAKER_02: But that would be like a that would be one of them ones that I will want to see for sure.
46:48
SPEAKER_03: Next up from Sean at I Don't Sing One.
46:52
SPEAKER_03: If you had to choose one rule to change in the NBA, what would it be and why?
46:57
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, the one that me and Greg have talked about over the last couple of years was the half court Heaves stat, and they changed that.
47:04
SPEAKER_02: So we we we win.
47:06
SPEAKER_02: Kinda.
47:07
SPEAKER_02: Um, if there was one rule that I would change in the NBA, um, I think I would make it so that I do think that the coaches challenge is a valuable part of basketball.
47:20
SPEAKER_02: I would, I don't want to take that away, but I do want to give a time frame for the referees to determine whether something should be overturned.
47:29
SPEAKER_02: If I don't know what the amount of time should be, if we can't figure it out, let's say in two minutes, then whatever we call is just stands.
47:35
SPEAKER_02: We we give a shot clock for the referees.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: If they can't figure it out, our initial call is just the way it's gonna be.
47:40
SPEAKER_02: Because when we have those times where it's a seven-minute, eight-minute, nine-minute delay in a playoff game or an important game in the fourth quarter, it just sucks all the energy out of the arena.
47:48
SPEAKER_02: It sucks all the energy from the fan base that are really happy about watching this game.
47:52
SPEAKER_02: So if we say two minutes on the clock, the Celtics have challenged the out-of-bounds play.
47:57
SPEAKER_02: And then boom, two minutes later, they say, hey, we don't, we didn't have enough information to overturn it in this amount of time, or now it's the calves ball.
48:05
SPEAKER_02: You know, that was the I think that's the best solution we can have to the amount of stoppages of play with the coaching challenge without taking the coaching challenge away.
48:13
SPEAKER_03: Couldn't agree more.
48:14
SPEAKER_03: It's awful in college basketball, too.
48:16
SPEAKER_03: The rule wasn't created for perfection, in my opinion.
48:20
SPEAKER_03: It it should be to fix mistakes.
48:22
SPEAKER_03: So if you can't fix the mistake in two minutes, then it was a tough call, stick with it, and let's play basketball.
48:28
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of times the the referees' eyes are the right, like the ones to go with anyway.
48:33
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that it's you know, a tough job, and they're not great at it at times, but I I usually steer on like the referees made the right decision a lot of the times.
48:42
SPEAKER_03: Next up from Paul Slaughter79.
48:45
SPEAKER_03: If you could cast this season's players for starting five, who would you pick?
48:49
SPEAKER_03: You saw that trailer yesterday that they dropped was was pretty cool.
48:52
SPEAKER_02: Um, and I do want to say, last year they announced the starting five cast, and I tweeted like this is a great cast.
49:00
SPEAKER_02: And the amount of replies to that was like, no, it's not.
49:03
SPEAKER_02: Why is so-and-so here?
49:04
SPEAKER_02: Yada yada yada.
49:05
SPEAKER_02: Bro, they kind of hit it out of the park.
49:07
SPEAKER_02: Now, season one of um starting five, the idea of it was a lot better than the execution.
49:15
SPEAKER_02: I feel like I didn't learn anything.
49:16
SPEAKER_02: There wasn't a lot of great moments.
49:18
SPEAKER_02: If if this editing, this the edit that we get in a couple weeks here isn't good, then fucking can the entire show.
49:25
SPEAKER_02: Tyres Halliburg went to the game seven of the NBA Finals with Taurus Achilles.
49:29
SPEAKER_02: He was on part, or he was a part of starting.
49:31
SPEAKER_02: So it better be emotional, it better put us into the framework or the mindset of these players going into it.
49:38
SPEAKER_02: But if I was going to do it, Braun's scaring me, making me think that this might be last year.
49:44
SPEAKER_02: And if this is last year, I know that Braun probably won't want, I think it's the Omaha team to do it.
49:50
SPEAKER_02: He probably wouldn't do it with his own people.
49:52
SPEAKER_02: But if this is last year, Braun, you gotta get Braun up there.
49:55
SPEAKER_02: You have to get Braun up there.
49:57
SPEAKER_02: I think we should have is it crazy to say I'm just gonna name the best players in the league.
50:03
SPEAKER_02: Giannis, with all the uncertainty about what's next for him, I think it would be great to see the peek behind the scenes of like, because people are like, man, Milwaukee sucks.
50:12
SPEAKER_02: He should request a trade.
50:13
SPEAKER_02: But I think if you go behind the curtain and see what the everyday life is for Giannis and Milwaukee with his family, it may change the idea of like he just should automatically request a trade because the team is not very good.
50:23
SPEAKER_02: So I would go him.
50:24
SPEAKER_02: You also got to go like some young stars.
50:27
SPEAKER_02: The Pistons already took their jump, but I wouldn't be mad to see Kay Cunningham in the starting five because I think that he has the potential to be like another one of the faces of the league one day.
50:37
SPEAKER_02: I know we're probably talking years and years down the line, but also we don't I don't know a ton about Kay Cunningham the person, right?
50:43
SPEAKER_02: So, you know, I think it'll help the NBA marketing if we learn that Kay Cunningham is a really cool guy.
50:48
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's three.
50:50
SPEAKER_02: Um hmm.
50:54
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
50:56
SPEAKER_02: Zion probably pretty we probably had to start it like three months ago during his transformation phase, but like Zion would be dope to see.
51:04
SPEAKER_02: He already is a character, and now hopefully he's gonna have a pretty healthy season.
51:08
SPEAKER_02: And lastly, I would go Cooper Flag, you know, you know, coming in as a first overall pick and an organization with some expectations and so on, and that that will that will be my five, I guess.
51:19
SPEAKER_03: Great choices.
51:20
SPEAKER_03: I was definitely thinking Zion would be would be interesting.
51:23
SPEAKER_03: Also, in terms of the execution of the show, I got tired of seeing Sabonis play with his kid, you know what I'm saying?
51:30
SPEAKER_03: Like after the second episode, I'm like, I get it.
51:32
SPEAKER_03: They have a nice little family.
51:34
SPEAKER_03: Like, I want to fast forward to any.
51:36
SPEAKER_02: I can see because he is just maybe not that interesting of a guy that you kind of just you play the family guy, he's the family guy card.
51:44
SPEAKER_02: He's he's great with his kids.
51:45
SPEAKER_02: He's great with his kids.
51:46
SPEAKER_02: He just cares about basketball and family, but he wasn't given much, man.
51:51
SPEAKER_02: It's trash.
51:52
SPEAKER_03: All right.
51:53
SPEAKER_03: Our final ask KB is another audio, which I will play right now.
51:58
SPEAKER_03: This is from S Graham underscore 28.
52:04
SPEAKER_01: Hey, what's up, Kenny?
52:05
SPEAKER_01: Love the videos and both podcasts.
52:07
SPEAKER_01: Just wanted to ask you if you were to create a starting five with Pokemon, who would your starting five be?
52:16
SPEAKER_02: Damn.
52:18
SPEAKER_02: Hey, you put me on the spot here a little bit, but I'm gonna try my very best to give you a night.
52:22
SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay, okay.
52:23
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
52:24
SPEAKER_02: This is this is this is really cool.
52:25
SPEAKER_02: Um, because I did this before.
52:27
SPEAKER_02: Let me see if I can find my old script where I did it with um um one piece characters.
52:34
SPEAKER_02: And people's like, Kenny, you too invested in one piece.
52:37
SPEAKER_02: Um let me see, let me see.
52:40
SPEAKER_02: Um that is so interesting.
52:43
SPEAKER_02: All right.
52:45
SPEAKER_02: I think can I give me a can I get a coach?
52:48
SPEAKER_02: Absolutely.
52:49
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna get a coach, and it's gotta be Alakazam.
52:53
SPEAKER_02: By all accounts, Alakazam is the most smart um Pokemon there is, especially in the early generation.
52:58
SPEAKER_02: So put him out there.
52:59
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna be making us run the best offense, the best defense.
53:02
SPEAKER_02: He's gonna be three levels ahead of every single team.
53:05
SPEAKER_02: My five man, even though he's kind of aloof and he's you know, we he he may be not as motivated, but Snorlax is legitimately seven feet tall and like 300, 3,000 pounds.
53:19
SPEAKER_02: You know?
53:20
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this is the NBA, though.
53:21
SPEAKER_02: I was gonna say if this is college basketball, sit his ass down low defensively and let him just hog up the paint.
53:25
SPEAKER_02: But in the NBA, he can't really do that.
53:27
SPEAKER_02: Um I feel like I need some type of flying character, you know, somebody that could get to the who's my favorite flying type.
53:37
SPEAKER_02: Um, forget that.
53:41
SPEAKER_02: This is the greatest basketball player ever created, Christian.
53:43
SPEAKER_02: Are you ready?
53:44
SPEAKER_02: Yes.
53:45
SPEAKER_02: I'm taking Ditto as my three.
53:48
SPEAKER_02: Ditto goes against LeBron on Monday.
53:50
SPEAKER_02: Guess what?
53:51
SPEAKER_02: He's LeBron.
53:52
SPEAKER_02: He goes against Kevin Durant on Tuesday.
53:53
SPEAKER_02: Guess what?
53:53
SPEAKER_02: He's Kevin Durant.
53:55
SPEAKER_02: That is the easiest character to have in a basketball started five.
53:59
SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
54:00
SPEAKER_02: So, okay, I'm taking Alex Am as a coach.
54:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm I'm gonna stick with the Snorlaxes for time.
54:04
SPEAKER_02: I can't think about all 1,000 Pokemon trying to figure out the five.
54:08
SPEAKER_02: I'm putting Ditto at my three.
54:12
SPEAKER_02: There literally is a Pokemon named Durant.
54:15
SPEAKER_02: He's a big ass ant, but his name is Durant.
54:19
SPEAKER_02: You know?
54:19
SPEAKER_02: And he's made out of metal.
54:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh man, this is too tough.
54:26
SPEAKER_02: This is too tough.
54:27
SPEAKER_02: Can we can we I want to keep this all in, but put a pen in it.
54:30
SPEAKER_02: Next week, I'm gonna have you the best 10-man unit of Pokemon uh characters and and and we're gonna run we're gonna win the ship.
54:39
SPEAKER_02: Can we get Geodude in there or no?
54:42
SPEAKER_02: I feel like Geodude would just dunk.
54:44
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, Geodu can hoop, man.
54:46
SPEAKER_02: You might confuse him with the ball occasionally, but other than that, he can't he can be on the team.
54:52
SPEAKER_02: Man, I feel like one of the somebody that's like, I mean, Mewtwo has to be on the team.
55:00
SPEAKER_02: He's literally a combination of every single Pokemon.
55:03
SPEAKER_02: And then like Arceus can go invisible.
55:08
SPEAKER_02: So imagine guarding that guy.
55:09
SPEAKER_02: All right, this is I'm taking too much time.
55:11
SPEAKER_02: I'll give you, I'll give you a full 10-man unit next week.
55:13
SPEAKER_02: I promise.
55:13
SPEAKER_02: I promise, I promise.
55:14
SPEAKER_02: But what hell of a question, man?
55:16
SPEAKER_02: I love when we turn non-basketball into basketball.
55:19
SPEAKER_02: Thank you to Christian for producing this episode.
55:22
SPEAKER_02: That's the end of Small Ball for this week.
55:24
SPEAKER_02: Again, just be on the lookout, whether it be on Twitter or Instagram, or just click the bell below on YouTube or on Spotify because we might shift the schedule a little bit to a different day um in the next coming weeks.
55:36
SPEAKER_02: And um, I'm so bad at keeping secrets.
55:39
SPEAKER_02: God damn.
55:40
SPEAKER_02: Big things happening.
55:42
SPEAKER_02: Big things happening.
55:44
SPEAKER_02: Uh, thank y'all so much for watching.
55:45
SPEAKER_02: I will see y'all next week.