Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Things I’m Looking Forward to the Rest of this NBA Season

Transcript

Things I’m Looking Forward to the Rest of this NBA Season · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beachum.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: We are right out of All-Star Weekend and honestly, kind of a win, kind of a dub.
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: We'll talk about that in today's episode.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also going to give you the things that I'm looking forward to the most for the second half of the season.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta address the elephant in the room.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: This is not the normal setup you're used to when it comes to small ball, man.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tell you how this went.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_00: I planned on getting off my plane Sunday, going home, drop my bags off, and going straight to the Enjoy basketball studio.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_00: The entire flight, I'm writing my notes for this episode.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so, so excited to give y'all an episode because I was just at All-Star Weekend.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_00: I hit my ear to the ground.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking to players, I was talking to people.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_00: I want to bring that out to you.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: And I get to the studio, use my key card, and the key card don't work.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: I forget what the name of the player is.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: The player that was on the Jets, Jamal Jamal, something.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: He he was trying to scan in, he couldn't scan in.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's how I felt.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_00: So we were this close to this episode not being a thing, but shout out to Kat on the back end, shout out to Jake, the editor, for making this happen.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it will look a little bit weird this week.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: My apologies.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: We are uh green screening things.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: So uh next week we'll be back in and let's just hope we paid our bills, man.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because why wouldn't that why wouldn't that car work?
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: That's not your problem, that's my problem.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about All-Star Weekend because it was a pleasant surprise.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not through and through.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you had your duds in there, but it was different.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot of skepticism coming into this all-star weekend for multiple reasons, right?
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: The dunk contest has been pretty mediocre for about a decade or so.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Mac McClung.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_00: Mac McClung has been giving us heaters over the last couple seasons, but as a whole, the dunk contests had been pretty trash.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: And All-Star Weekend Sundays festivities, which is the big game, had been bad for I don't know how long.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: So bad that Adam Silver has changed up the way we're gonna play the game every single season.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: And he might have cooked with this one.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start off with Saturday, because Lord knows I could not care less about the celebrity all-star game.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: I I didn't see one highlight from it.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: I saw a screenshot of Shams on his phone during the game or something.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I I couldn't tell you what happened in the Rise of Stars game either.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not a single highlight crossed my timeline.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: But Saturday is when I decide to lock in because I am a fanboy for the three-point shootout.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: You know, the NBA or professional sports in general is something that I have so much admiration for, the cream of the crop, the best people that can do the specific things.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: But it's something about jump shooter for me that always gets me really excited, right?
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, we get no Steph Curry this year, but we do surprisingly get Damian Lillard to be in it after you know Trans Achilles almost a year ago.
• 2:36
  SPEAKER_00: And not only was he in it, the man won.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, I don't know.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: They asked him what does this look like, like a book in your chat or a chapter in your book, and he gave a very great answer because obviously coming back from Achilles is no easy thing, and for him to go out against honestly the best three-point shooters that we have outside of Steph Curry and the Con Kanipples, the Donovan Mitchell, the Jamal Murrays, and so on and so forth, the fact that he was able to go out there and give us like legitimately a legendary performance is amazing.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of understand my boy D.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: Mills be really riding for Damian Lillard, man.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And though I love Damian Lillard, I don't love him as much as Derek, but maybe I'm maybe I'm starting to turn that leaf because it was such an inspirational story for him to come out there and perform to that capability.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he was pretty candid in that interview where he talked about, you know, hitting the league office and saying, hey, even though I haven't played this season, if you need me, I'm here.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I love NBA Saturday, and he he kind of wanted to be one of the few people to get that three uh three championships from three-point shootout.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he came out and did that.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Damian Lillard.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he had Devin Booker and Con Kipple as the final three, which is a great matchup.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_00: Khan Kanippo came out guns blazing the first dude in the first round.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_00: He had like 20-something points, and he was like, oh my god, this is the greatest rookie shooter since I don't know who.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And he genuinely is having one of the greatest rookie shooting seasons.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: No, I'm sorry, not one of the greatest rookie shooting season ever.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: When you think about the volume and the efficiency and the difficulties on some of these shots, undoubtedly the best three-point shooting season for a rookie.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man, not even just take away that rookie thing.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: He gets into that three-point shooter.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_00: Like, oh, is he should he be the favorite all of a sudden?
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: Second round wasn't as great as the first one, but it was pretty cool to see a rookie on that stage against, again, legendary three-point shooters, and for him to hold his own.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Devin Booker became a top of conversation because you know Devin Booker, you look at the percentages of D-Book throughout his career.
• 4:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's been a 35% three-point shooter, 31% three-point shooter, 32% three-point shooter.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: And then he gets to the three-point shootout, and every single season that he's in it, he's he's competing to win.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: He actually has a title under his belt from the three-point shooting.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: And it just made reminded me of how difficult the shots that Devin Booker has uh had to create from three-point for his entirety of his career, except for the Chris Paul years, where he really hasn't had a true point guard to really set him up.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: And so, yeah, that 31% is just fake.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_00: We know Devin Booker is a good shooter, it's a great shooter, and he showcases that on Saturday night.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: And if they go back and look at it, so far this season, he's not shooting catch-a-shoot shots as much, obviously, or as efficiently as previous seasons.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_00: But if you go back and look at those Chris Paul led years, and yeah, we're gonna talk about Chris Paul later.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: Um I can't say Chris Paul led years, let's say Chris Paul years with him as a point guard because the leader of that team was Devin Booker.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_00: His three-point catch-a-shoot numbers were great, and it's just like that's just one of the things that Devin Booker could really do.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: But sometimes he's he's uh asked to, not sometimes all the times he's asked to do so much more than that.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So he gets to this three-point shootout, he gets to that final rack.
• 5:27
  SPEAKER_00: He needs two of his final three shots to go in to win.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: He needs one to tie Damian Lillard, and he misses both.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh man, Damian Lillard gives us an all-time quotable moment.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was praying for his downfall.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_00: Thank you.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: After that, we get uh shooting stars back.
• 5:43
  SPEAKER_00: Honestly speaking, it just was it.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_00: I don't even have any notes other than having the celebrities all of a sudden come in to be the passers of the ball was something nobody expected, and it seemed like that was something they just put together.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't love it, I didn't hate it.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: It just was blah.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: I was really skeptical and excited skepticism when it comes to the Don Contest.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: We have four people in it that honestly speaking, beforehand, you're like, man, this is not the greatest crop of guys.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_00: We always say we want Ant Man, we want John Moran, we want Giannis, who told us last year that they would do it, but I ain't gonna say nothing else.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I wasn't very, you know, I didn't think too highly of the crop that we got.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: It was supposed to be five, I guess.
• 6:20
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Duran, I don't know what the hell happens.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then my boy Pierre said something that was pretty eye-opening to me, it kind of changed my perspective.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I went into it a little bit more open-minded, where I kind of had the point that, like, man, the four guys that we have, none of them have really shown us anything for us to be excited about them being in the dunk contest.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: And Pierre said, What if this is the start?
• 6:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: Mac McClung had to start before he was the greatest dunker in G League and NBA history, if you want to call him that.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: He had to have his first one.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to think about it.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: When Mac McClung jumped into the scene in the dunk contest, I don't know how many people is like, yep, he's about to save it.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: So he's like, give these guys a chance.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I gave it a chance.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: It still was very good.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: But it was better than I anticipated.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you got the funny moments where they're talking to Vince Carter and it costs you a championship.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Keyshaw Johnson came in and he was a showman, which is pretty cool.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: It gives us a legendary meme moment of um Jackson Hayes on his first dunk just dunking the ball.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Not a bit windmill, not a between the legs, no, nothing.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: Literally a dunk.
• 7:22
  SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say that I could do, but let me let me not front my move.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: But so it gave us a couple good moments, and even if the final itself wasn't too great because we had the shot clock or the missed dunks or whatever, I think overall it was fine.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get to Sunday.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the better conversation before we even get to Sunday is about how little fans was in the arenas for these things for Rise of Stars, for celebrities, from NBA Saturday, and and of course Sunday.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: Seen a bunch of pictures from media people that's like, hey, where is everyone?
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_00: And as somebody that was there in the city, I kind of understand it.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I saw people of the recent smaller markets, the Utah's of the world, the Indiana's of the world said, hey, this is what ours looked like when we were doing Rise of Stars.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm, Adam Silver, maybe we shouldn't cut out on the small market.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of feel that because when we when I was in Los Angeles, again, I didn't go to any of the festivities.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_00: We we were credentialed up, but we decided to do other things and kind of watch it together versus being in the arena, which I don't regret whatsoever.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: LA is such a live, uh, larger than life city that it did not feel like all-star weekend was there.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about when I was in Indiana.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: The moment you crossed the border from Indiana from Illinois, there was a big ass billboard that says All-Star Weekend.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_00: This was like Christmas and more for Indiana.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: This was Christmas and more for Utah.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: And for Los Angeles, it's just a weekend.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: Man, we was in an Uber on Rodeo drive, and I'm like, it's a thousand people right here that could not care less that on my phone, I'm watching a three-point shootout.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: They could not care less about All-Star Weekend being here.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: Also, if you had to look at the prices, you would understand that.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because even if you were interested,$600 to get into the door is kind of absurd.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_00: And that was like 300 level, up in the tops.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it wasn't great.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I made that tweet and uh talking about how little fans there were in the crowd.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: And a few Clippers fans hit me, like Kenny, what you boo-boo-boo, like feeling offended by the fact that the Clipper into a Dome didn't sell out for All-Star Weekend.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a diss on the Clippers fans.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's a diss on the NBA for making the game something that the average NBA fan can't be a part of.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_00: The wall was great for the All-Star game.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about the All-Star game after we take a break in a second.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_00: The wall was great for the All-Star game, but so many empty seats.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the fact that Adam Silver and company said that, hey, we're gonna talk, we're gonna have a bunch of influencers in there make me think that all of the seats that were filled were those influencers.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know, Adam Silver.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: You may have cooked for the game, which we don't talk about, but we gotta make it more accessible for the average NBA fan.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: Alright, so now let's talk about the actual all-star game.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_00: Three teams, you got Team Stripes versus Team Stars versus Team World.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: And the games actually ended up being good.
• 10:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the final finale between the two American teams was pretty bad, right?
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the old team, I'm already forgetting who was on what team, the older team, the one with all the vets on it, ran out of gas very quickly.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: But the games leading up to it, the three games that got us to the final were peak.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: They were absolutely peak.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I gotta tip my cap a little bit to to Adam Silver.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure if the actual format was the reason for it.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: The only thing I think was the reason for was the fact that these games were 12-minute games, right?
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because we did get three to four minutes at the end of every single one of these games with teams really locked in because it was a couple possession game.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think stripes versus uh stars versus world was necessarily the reason, but the smaller games ended up being that.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: After the first game where Anthony Edwards hit a big shot and then Scotty Barnes hit the open three, um, Anthony Edwards was interviewed about like why they're trying so hard in comparison to these previous All-Star games.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: He said Wimby set the tone.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't wait.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: When because I was there for All-Star Weekend, I didn't get a chance to really dive into all the media day answers and all the appearances for the players, but that's always one of my favorite parts when I get to listen to what these players are thinking in real time.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_00: And again, later on, I'm gonna talk about some things I talk to players about.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: But one clip I did see was Wimbenyama talking about being the face of the league, right?
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And he basically saying that um supply and demand, and I'm here to supply the exact answer you would want from a guy that the NBA wants to be the face of the league.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: So he wants to be that, he want they want him to be that, and for him to come into the All-Star game and set the tone from the very first game.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't help but to give him the flowers because if Wimby doesn't come out there and play so hard in this first game, we might have had another laxadaisical game, but everybody bought in because Wimbenyama bought in.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_00: He really changed the game, man.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_00: Even though they did lose both of them, they lost both of them games, and he was trying his hardest.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta give the flowers to Kawhi Leonard.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: When it came out that the All-Star Reserves were announced, and Kawhi Leonard wasn't on the initial ballot, it was the biggest snub like ever.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_00: The dude was averaging 27 points per game, and though the Clippers themselves weren't looking amazing for the entirety of the season, they are one of the hottest teams in hoops, and a lot of that was based on Kawhi Leonard.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_00: You can make a genuine argument that the last two months of the NBA season, the best player in the world had been Kawhi, and he wasn't a part of the initial roster.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: Then we get injuries and stuff, and my goodness, there had to be like five or six injury replacements, at least that's what it feels like.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: He came out and said, Hey, this is my city, this is my arena, even as though it's only 12 people in it, and I'm gonna put on the show.
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_00: And he got to the line that they yelled out MVP.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: He had a stretch where he scored 15 consecutive points for his team.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just cool.
• 12:47
  SPEAKER_00: We got blocked shots, we got pretty much defensive possession.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_00: There was early in the game where I want to say it was Tyrese Maxie versus Kay Cunningham, and I don't remember which game this was, where Maxie thought he was just gonna get an easy layup, and Kay Cunningham came out and swiped it to kind of set the toes.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, I know it is the all-star game.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: We normally just walking past each other, but no, no, no.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, shout out to the team, shout out to Anthony Elwitz, who ends up being the MVP.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Overall, I'm trying not to be hyperbolic here, which is something that we do a lot here.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: We we are definitely a hyperbolic channel.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of the best all-star games in recent history.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: It's in comparison for me, or in competition with 2020, which is one of my favorite ones, and I think that one had the Elim ending in Chicago, if y'all don't remember.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons why it was so good is the emotions were very high, right?
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: This is a month after Kobe passed away, so you know, all of the players are playing hard with their mama mentality.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, since then, I think this is by far the best one we got, even if the actual final game itself was a blowout.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I wonder what type of things we might be able to tweak for next year's All-Star Weekend, which is in Phoenix.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_00: But overall, if you discount the fact that nobody was actually in the arena, if you go through the Twitters and you go through the Reddits of people giving their opinions, most people are looking at this All-Star Weekend as like not the worst thing ever.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a win, if you ask me.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you gotta you gotta c you gotta crawl before you walk.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then right now the NBA might be crawling just just a little bit.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um over this weekend, my go Chris Paul officially announced his retirement.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I can't say I was super, super surprised, right?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Because he had been on the team for a few months now.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: He got traded to the Raptors, but the Raptors organization basically told us right off rip that they plan on waiving him and allowing him to do what he had to do.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it's over.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, shout out to the Enjoy team, shout out to Maddie who who is the host of Wag Talk.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_00: She actually got um, and my apologies for not knowing her her name off rip, but Chris Paul's wife on Wag Talk, like a few hours after Chris Paul announced his retirement, and she basically gave us a really open answer about him, Chris Paul, deciding that if he did not have a new team by All-Star Weekend, then he was going to call it a career.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he didn't have a team, so he called it a career.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And, you know, one thing I I do appreciate, and though the internet is not real, I appreciate that let's say 85 to 90 percent of the things that I saw on my timeline were pro Chris Paul congratulating him on a legendary career.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Because Chris Paul is not the most well-loved person in NBA history, actually, he's probably towards the bottom, especially if we consider how great of a player he is.
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, a lot of people don't really appreciate that or recognize that because, you know, no rings, and he turned the ball over that one time in that OKC series back in like 2011 or something.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: So people don't look at him as a great player or a winner, and you know, a lot of the times I'm I'm having to throw fists with people because they're talking about Rondo over Chris Paul, which there's a zero, zero argument for.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: But on his retirement day, for the most part, I saw a lot of positivity and people walking down memory lane.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: So if there's any positive about my favorite player of all time calling it a career, is that I did have a couple hours.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: Well no, let me not, it wasn't a couple hours, and maybe an hour while I was sitting in my hotel room between shoots at All-Star Weekend, where I was able to kind of just stroll through Twitter and Instagram and see people putting up their cra their favorite Chris Paul moments, which is cool.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is something I haven't experienced before, by the way, because pretty much the entirety of me being an NBA fan, Chris Paul has been my favorite player.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: We do have like Derek Rose who retired, but like I haven't had my favorite player retire before, right?
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of this is so crazy because it feels like I'm going through like it's it's such a traumatic moment that I'm I'm giving y'all this little therapy thing.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_00: But I I asked my boys, how did you react to your favorite player retiring, right?
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Mike's favorite players, Kobe, Pierre's favorite players, like T Mac, Penny, and Kobe.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: So all of those guys have been retired.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I still don't know what to really do.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Chris Powell was in the league for over 20 years, right?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I knew that the end was coming soon.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_00: But I somewhat, after he announced his retirement, I'm going down this memory lane and stuff.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: I somewhat had like a a crisis in my hotel room, not to be dramatic or anything, where I'm like, I don't know who my favorite player in the league is anymore.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: Chris Paul is it's over, it's raps.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_00: So who is that guy?
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: You like Kenny, just move up the second guy.
• 17:06
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know who the second guy was.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Like Kobe White was my boy, but Kobe White didn't even play for the Bulls no more.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: You know, everybody, everybody in the Bulls get a slight bump.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: Well, a big bump.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know who my favorite player in the league is anymore.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I feel like the rest of the season, I'm gonna be trying to figure out who that guy is.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, every season before it starts, I put together top 10 lists, and like I did have Kobe number one.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm sorry, I had Chris Paul number one, Kobe number two, and like Halliburton number three.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: But Halliburton is actually not playing, as you know, and he's like my friend at this point in my life.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: So it feels weird to be like my favorite player in the league is somebody that I talk to on a regular basis.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't I don't know who my favorite player is gonna turn into, so I'm open to suggestions for a split second.
• 17:44
  SPEAKER_00: For a split second, I thought Jalen Brown was gonna be that.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I took that back.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_00: I do think Jalen Brown is in my top 10, uh, but I don't think he's number one.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_00: I it would be really tough for a Celtic to be my favorite player in the league.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't even really have ill will to the Celtics.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like I have any beef with the Celtics.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe maybe I have beef with legendary organizations more than anything.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because Super Bowl came around, I was so anti-Patriots.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: Nothing against Drake Mae.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: I don't actually like Drake May.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: I actually like the defense, but I'm like, I can't see the Patriots one another.
• 18:15
  SPEAKER_00: And I kind of feel that way with like the Celtics.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_00: I feel that way with the Lakers.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't imagine being like, yeah, Lucas my favorite player in the league, even though he is so great, but he plays for the Lakers.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_00: They don't need my fandom.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not gonna I'm just not gonna pick him.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_00: So y'all even know I'm open to suggesting Sushi's my favorite player in the league.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Who would you put an application for?
• 18:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'll I'll try my best to do that.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_00: Um, last thing I'll talk about before we get to our next break is that when I was at All-Star Weekend, I had the opportunity to talk to a ton of NBA players, some of them one-on-one, some of them through texts from getting numbers from other people.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: And my number one question for all of them, and and some of them were not even in the mood to talk basketball because their whole weekend was basketball, was about tanking.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: One of the biggest conversations in the NBA right now is what will Adam Silver and the um what is it called?
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_00: Competition committee committee decide to do about the rampant tanking that is in our league.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right before All-Star Weekend, they find the Indiana Pacers and the Utah Jazz for not playing people or missing misguided injury reports, yada yada yada.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And the amount of times, and I am not joking here, the amount of times I heard NBA players say that like the tanking team should be penalized is actually surprising to me.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because not every player that I talked to was on a contending team or even a playoff team.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, some of the players I talked to legitimately are on the teams that are tanking, and they said no.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: We uh as long as you don't tell who we are, we shouldn't be incentivized for sitting all of our guys.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_00: And I just feel that's so interesting from the players' perspective.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they are the most competitive people in the world, athletes in general, so I can see that, but I just didn't expect to hear it.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll tell you a little bit more after we come back from this break.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, I want to say thank you to our sponsor over at DraftKings.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings pick six by now.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: You pick more or less some different players' stats for the upcoming games, but two or more different players into your pick set.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_00: Look at some stats aside, more or less, sit back, relax, and see if you made the right decision.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_00: Now, as you know, because we are coming off All-Star Weekend, we don't have any NBA games until Thursday, February 19th.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I'm gonna do with these next.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm gonna do?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was just away from my family for five days, right?
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_00: So let's just, I think every night me and the kids are gonna watch a movie.
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna take my wife out to a much-needed dinner because for the seventh year in a row, it feels like I missed Valentine's Day because of work.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, you know what?
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: That's what I'm gonna use these extra days for.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, shout out to the fam.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: But when Thursday comes around, no, let me stop.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let me stop.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_00: Damn, people are gonna think I'm a bad dad.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to put together a little pick set for Thursday because Thursday gets us really back into the nitty-gritty, where we have a ton, and I mean a ton of games.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_00: My favorite game of the day is the Houston Rockets versus the Charlotte Hornets.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, the Houston or the Charlotte Hornets went into the all-star break as one of the hottest teams in the league, beating good teams and looking genuinely like one of the best teams in the league.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: They're going against the Rockets, who are a good team, but there's a this is a lot going on in Rocketland.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: I'll leave it at that.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: So for this, I'm gonna go with the shooter that we mentioned earlier.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: And yes, he's more than a shooter, but we're gonna refer to him as that right now.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: Khan Knipple more on points in that matchup.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Even though the Rockets are one of the better three uh defensive teams, I do think that Khan Knipple is gonna get some open looks and generate some looks himself.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: The next game we want to not get to, but I want to mention that the Pacers and the Wizards go against each other, two tanking teams.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_00: And again, we're gonna get back to tanking, but I'm seriously excited to see who ends up suiting up in that game.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Next game, though, we got Nyx.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_00: We got pistons of battle of the one seed versus the Two seed.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: The Knicks, since their game against the Dallas Mavericks, have been the best team in the league, advanced analytics-wise, and they're going against the Pistons, who have been the best team in the conference by every single metric, net rating, and all.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: So in this one, I'm going, I'm I'm double dipping.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_00: Usually I don't double dip in the same game, but when you have a situation like this, I'm going to.
• 22:35
  SPEAKER_00: The last one of our pick set, we do have the Boston Celtics going against the Golden State Warriors.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_00: And though the Warriors are in a spot right now, I kind of want to get away from them completely, but I do want to look at that Boston Celtics team and look at Derek White, who has had an up and down three-point shooting season, more down than up.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I do think that he's just one of the best glue connector high-level winners in all of the NBA.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm going more on his point.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: So that is my pick set for today.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't recognize that a lot of these games were such a banger.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_00: Clippers versus Nuggets is a it sets up to be a banger, if you ask me.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Clippers have been still looking pretty okay, even post-James Harden trade.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe we'll talk about that a little bit later.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_00: And the Nuggets are dealing with a bunch of injuries.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: We got Suns versus Spurs?
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sons versus Spurs?
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_00: Lil Wimby versus D book action after seeing each other in the All-Star game?
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: Bulls versus Raptors.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_00: I might be the only person in the world that's signed for a Bulls Raptors matchup, but they don't really have a center.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: We don't really have a center.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying.
• 23:35
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last game that looks pretty intriguing, at least, is the Atlanta Hawks versus the 76ers.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan Bede is going to miss a little bit of time with some, I think they said knee soreness or something.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: It's something knee related.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I do think that Tyrese Maxie, VJ Edgecomb could be enough to still win that game versus the Hawks.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_00: But the Hawks can surprise you every once in a while.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: So that is my pick set.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_00: Khan Kanipple more on points.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Duren more on rebounds.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um Mikhail Bridges more on points.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, Derek White more on points.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, I'll get back to what I was hearing while I was in All-Star Weekend.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Back to this tanking issue.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: Talk to a handful of players.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to oversell it and make it seem like I had 30 NBA players at my disposal.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, I did not.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: It was less than 10, but more than five.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: Somewhere in there.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm asking them about tanking.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, like I mentioned earlier, a lot of the players were just saying they were completely anti-tank as being the competitive freaks that they are.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_00: But I also asked the question, how do we fix it?
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: And the majority of the people didn't have an answer because nobody really does.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, even Adam Silver in the committee are still trying to figure that out.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody really has the answer.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: And every single thing that I've seen from other people, none of them have looked good, right?
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: The one thing that came up multiple times, literally two, was the proposal of a wheel.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um in a wheel where even before every single season, we know exactly where teams are going to pick, where there is no lottery, there is no competitive advantage by being bad, none of that.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: Where there's a wheel and it'll tell you every single year for the next however many years where your pick will lie.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: So if you are a team, you don't have to have the anticipation of having the letdown in the lottery.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, it's it's more in-depth than that, right?
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: It is, you know, every single team will eventually have a chance to have the top overall pick over the next 30 years.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just a matter of when will your year be.
• 25:37
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you might have the seventh pick, some years you might have the 22nd pick.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: And it doesn't matter if you're a good team or a bad team.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: You might get lucky and be coming off a championship and still get the first overall pick.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: So there are their pros and cons to every single thing.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: But this is the one that Jalen Brown mentioned to me, which I was just surprised that Jalen Brown would have that.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: And I um I don't remember who the second player was off the top of mind.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe they were one of the people that didn't want to be on record, but Jalen Brown said it on camera to me.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm assuming that means it's it's fair game.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was just it's just an interesting concept.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that one of the reasons why the NBA may not do that is because it completely eliminates the hope factor for a lot of different organizations, right?
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_00: If you are a team like the Washington Wizards, um, no, not the Washington Wizards because they made some deals this offseason where hope is in like inherently in acquiring Anthony Davis and Trey Young.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: But if you are a part of a team, let's say the Chicago Bulls, a team that is directionless or or like you just don't really have a great gas grasp of having multiple players that you feel like you could build around and so on and so forth.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Bulls fans, even though we know that the percentage is 4.5% chance, we still look at that and say, hey, there's hope that we could jump up into the lottery.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have this wheel where everything is predetermined for the next 30 seasons, then those bad teams they don't have hope for this season because the Bulls, in this hypothetical, could still end up with a 30th pick, even though they won 24 games or so.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I think there's just pros and cons to both of these different things, and it was just interesting to kind of hear Jalen Brown break that down because I had had not heard of that um as a solution, and and I don't think that was an original idea for Jalen Brown because obviously multiple people said that to me.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just some interesting things on tanking.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I also threw out the idea, and this is on Cam too, so I feel okay to be able to talk about this.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um half jokingly, I asked someone in in somewhat NBA power, is there could there be a world where the NBA I for I forget where there was there was some league across the world, a soccer league, where if the the club is not good or doesn't meet some criteria for a five-year span, then the owner of that club has to sell the team, right?
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: So my ask was, hey man, if a team has been in a lottery for X amount of years and don't really have much of a future, could we ever see a world where the NBA would step in and force that team to sell or that owner to sell, obviously trying to get the Rhine Store to sell the goddamn bulls?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_00: And they said, Kenny, don't hold your breath.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: So, Bulls fans, I'm sorry.
• 28:03
  SPEAKER_00: It would have to be the Rhinestor family themselves just saying, nope, I don't want to do this anymore.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't ever expect that to happen, you know.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I had a lot of fun at All-Star Weekend.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'll wrap it up there.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to y'all because uh all the opportunities that I got were because you guys watch the shows, listen to the podcast, whatever.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: None of that happens if you know you guys aren't supporting.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: So thank you so very much.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_00: Can we talk about the second half of the season?
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Because this is where my dad gets into basketball.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is where the casual NBA fan really dives in.
• 28:32
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because we just getting off football, you know, baseball is not here just yet.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's kind of just all NBA until March or March Madness, but that's only a week.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, this is where the season starts, if you will, for a lot of different people.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: So I have a couple different things here that I cannot wait to see for the second half of the season or the things I'm just anticipating the most.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And number one thing, the rest of it is not in order, but this for sure is my number one most uh anticipated thing is whether or not Jason Tatum returns from his injury this season.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_00: I felt pretty good about it for a long time, right?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: If Jalen Brown, oh I'm sorry, Jason Tatum just felt like a guy and has spoken like a guy that wants to get back on the court as fast as possible.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: He he he even you know referenced Kobe Bryant tearing his Achilles and how much time it took him to come back and what he looked like after that, and him being a Kobe Stan and everything, he wanted to try to match that or do something very similar.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: So all season long until pretty recently, I thought that for sure Jason Tatum is coming back from this injury.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: And then a few weeks ago, they said, hold on, no promises.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_00: Which he deserves the right to say that, right?
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's his body, if he doesn't feel good, or if he if the medical staff don't feel good, or hell, if the team is just a little bit too good for him to come back, if if that's the case, then if he wants to wait the entire season, though, it would suck because I love watching Jason Tatum play.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: Completely, completely understand it.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: But right before All-Star Weekend, he got sent to the G League to just go go get some runs in and do all of this.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: So it makes me feel like it's gonna happen.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: And if Jason Tatum is coming back, then that changes the dynamic of the Eastern Conference completely.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: I won't be one of these people that would have the expectations of Jason Tatum looking like an All NBA first team player like he has been over the last five seasons.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: But I do have a level of expectation that because he is so talented and so plug and play, that even if he doesn't look like 100% of himself or it's 60% or 70% of himself, that is still a player that can help this Boston Celtics team that is surprising the hell out of the league every single game, right?
• 30:24
  SPEAKER_00: They may not need all NBA first team Tatum to truly, truly compete in the Eastern Conference.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if they do make it there and they go against the West team, that might be a different problem.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_00: They may need a fully healthy Jason Tatum, but him coming back just changes things because in my mind, in no particular order, our Eastern Conference contenders, if you will, are the Pistons, are the the Cavs, are I guess the next thing I'll talk about a little bit.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe the I'm sorry, the Pistons, the Knicks, and the Calves.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then if Jason Tatum's gonna come back, I kind of had half a finger up for the Celtics without Tatum.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_00: But if he's gonna be back, even at 50 to 6%, you have to put a full finger up.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: So we might have true four four true Eastern Conference contenders, which is good.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_00: Because if they work out the right way, the two of those teams see each other in the second round, and so on and so forth.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: So Jason Tatum comes back, can completely change this team.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm excited to see if he does or not.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I won't judge, you know, if he says, ah, I'm not gonna do it, I won't judge because one of my favorite players in his prime was Isaiah Thomas.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: Isaiah Thomas had one season where he was the man.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, like, my maybe I should do an episode like this.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_00: It's definitely one of my five favorite individual seasons by a player, right?
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: It has to be him being that small, him averaging that many points, him being all NBA and so on, and then he has a hip injury and he forces his way to come back early, and it kind of ruins his career.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I never want to see a player come back too early if they can help it, get your rest in.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_00: But if you do get the green light and you feel confident, go on that table, go ahead and do your thing.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: The next thing I'm looking forward to for the second half of the season is trying to figure out the legitimacy of the Cavs.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_00: When I just gave you the Eastern Comms contenders, I did give them that, but we only have seen a handful of games.
• 32:08
  SPEAKER_00: And honestly, it ain't been all sunshine and roses the entirety of these games.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: The first game they played to together, James Harden and Donovan Mitchell, was against the Sacramento Kings team, and it took them the last two minutes to put that game away.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_00: The next game they played together was against the Different Nuggets, and those different Nuggets are a really great team.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: It took them the last five minutes of that game to put the team away.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: So it has not been the most perfect so far, but we are talking about a three-game sample size.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_00: But even within that, in those three-game sample size, they they've had multiple six-minute stretches where it was James, it was Donovan, and it was Jared Allen.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Evan Mobley hasn't played with James just yet.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: Where those three guys were on the court and they looked just unbeatable, unbeatable, and just just the stretches, right?
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta do it for a 48-minute uh game, obviously.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: But for those stretches, I'm like, man.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: And James has done this to me before when he played for the Brooklyn Nets.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: They had what 10 games, so I felt like they did not lose and and they were making every shot and it was all a blowout.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So this is not the first time a new James team has looked this good.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm trying to figure out the legitimacy of them as a true contender.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because what I said is if I took a three-game sample size for any team this season, they would probably look great.
• 33:18
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: If I just took a three-game win streak from the Raptors, I probably would say, hey, the Raptors are contenders.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Three games is what I'm saying is it's such a small sample size to really say, hey, that team's contender.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, that team's not a contender.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: So I just need just a little bit more time.
• 33:31
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know when Evan Mobley's supposed to come back, but hopefully it is somewhat soon because I would love to see what he looks like, how Kenny Atkinson divis up this lineup.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now they're basically running like three and a half guards and Jared and Jared Allen.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: And Jared Allen has been feasting with James, and I can't wait to see what that looks like with Evan Mobley.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_00: So they are a team that is so high up on my second half watchability list.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: I might watch every single one of their last games in the season.
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because A, it was it's been fun, and B, we I have to try to figure out in a seven-game series, not only could they beat the Knicks or the Pistons, because I think they could, but would I pick them to beat is maybe the better question.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that these teams, the gap between these teams are not so far enough for me to be like, no, they can't do that.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_00: No, they can.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of do I think they will.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: The next thing I'm looking forward to is not the second half of the season, but it's a postseason thing.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Women Yama in the playoffs is something I can't wait for, man.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: I just cannot wait to see how teams guard him in a full seven-game series.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like throughout the course of his career, some teams have found ways to not eliminate him but make it just a little bit tougher.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's also counter thieves throughout the course of this season alone, where you know you had the game, which was against OKC, where it was a lot of Alex Caruso getting under him, just like Alex Caruso did with Jokic last year in the postseason, game seven.
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, get underneath him, put them small defenders on him.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_00: And there has been times where that has really hindered him from getting to the basket and he settled for more jump shots.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: But it also has been times where teams have elected with that coverage and he's just blew them up completely.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_00: So a full seven-game series against a team, and all of these Western Conference playoff teams are like real playoff teams.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know, like in the East, you can't say that.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_00: You can't say that all eight teams are real playoff teams.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, all eight teams in the West aren't contenders, don't get me wrong, but I don't think it's a single Western Conference playoff team that's like, oh yeah, this team doesn't stand a chance to win a game in their series.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: While in the other conference, I got that vibe.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: So so as of right now, if the play-in went the way that is aligned, they have the Suns in that first round.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_00: And the Suns are a team that is defensive-oriented, that will crash the offensive glass, that will try to get extremely physical with you.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with the Warriors, was a team they they could potentially get matched up with, depending on how their standings go.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So some of these teams that are beneath them as far as like their potential first-round matchup might have different schemes that Wendy might see.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna have to see if you are a legendary player, though I won't make a yes or no answer off one playoff series, but I I he's such a uh alien, right?
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is his nigga.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: He's such an alien that it's it's just something to be it's just something different about the posse than the regular seas.
• 36:15
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody knows that, and I just want to see this alien go out and just straight up dominate, or maybe not, and we gotta get to have that conversation.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the next one is Darius Garland's first game in the rest of the season for the Clippers because James Harn got traded from Clippers, and the Clippers have still looked pretty good, right?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_00: They got a couple wins and a couple of losses.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_00: Outside of that, the difference between them as a 10th seed and the 11th seed Memphis Grizzlies as of today is five and a half games.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: So the Clippers are guaranteed to at least be a play-in team.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: They're tied in the lost column with the Portland Trailblazers, so maybe they're host that 10-minute 10-night matchup, maybe they don't.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: And the way they're playing, I can't say it's out of the realm of possibility that they get higher on the Sanix.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: And they've been doing that off the backs of Kawhi.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_00: Brooke Lopez has actually not looked that bad in his super old age.
• 37:03
  SPEAKER_00: The young guys have come in and played.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've I've loved what I've seen from Yannick, Conan, Niederhauser so far as a true backup.
• 37:10
  SPEAKER_00: And they still don't have guard play right now, straight point guard play.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_00: And Darius Garland should eventually come into that lineup.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: I looked it up.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Clippers for the rest of the season have the 28th ranked strength of schedule left.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: Some interesting stuff.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: They've been taking care of business, and now they have one of the easiest schedules left in ball.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm just monitoring that just a little bit.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because I said it over the last couple weeks since the trade that line that one of my biggest winners, if not the biggest winner for me, is the Clippers because they were able to trade away James and get 10 years younger and still get a competent slash all all-star caliber player at his peak.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: They ended up getting lots of draft picks for Zubots and the Pacers have been winning games, right?
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think the Pacers right now, if I had to look it up really, really quick, I think the Pacers have a top four in the fourth pick in odds-wise.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they have the fourth pick and odds-wise because they've won five of their last ten and won their last two, which means that right now the Pacers have a higher chance of giving that pick up to the Clippers than retaining that pick that is top four protected.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_00: So they have been one of my winners.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And if they can stay a playing team, which is almost guaranteed, but maybe jump up more with Darius Garland being there and just having true point guard play, then we might look at this team and be like, oh, next season they have whatever pick pick five to pick nine.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: They have some interesting things to do with um with Ben of the Masterfinger now.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_00: If he's a part of the future, and Kawhi Leonard, like I said earlier, when we were talking about the All-Star game, has looked like one of the best players in the world for months right now.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: It kind of does suck that he's I mean, you were wasting, but having this type of season on the roster where they truly just don't have enough.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like, if Kawhi was having this season four years ago, is that unfair?
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think four years ago he got injured in that Jazz series.
• 38:48
  SPEAKER_00: So, right after that injury, three years ago, if he was having this type of season, then I think that Clippers team is still together, man.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: I truly think that Clippers team is still together if he's having this type of season.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: That is how dominant he has been, um, even on the biggest stage, which is the all-star game right now.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: The next one.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some crazy stats.
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_00: Since they had their really bad stretch, remember when the Knicks at the start of the calendar year was just awful?
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_00: They had a national televised game here on Peacock where they played against the Dallas Mavericks, and the Mavericks didn't play anybody other than Cooper Flag, Najee Marshall.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: And they ran, they got ran off their own court by that team.
• 39:24
  SPEAKER_00: That let me look at this really, really quick.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, since that game, that team has won oh, zero games.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: They've lost nine in a row since that game.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_00: You get they got smoked by that team.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_00: But since that bad loss to the Mavericks, the Knicks have the number one offense in the league and the number one defense.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Knicks fans, as you've been watching, before you get super crazy about it, remember some of the wins that you had.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Let me let me read some of these wins that you recently had because some of them are like you beat the 76ers by 40.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_00: That'll that'll help you.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm and that's not even that skews your stats a little bit.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: You get credit for the win, don't get me wrong.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: But one super, super bad game could kind of shift some stats.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm I'm picking them because they also um in the stretch beat the Wizards by 30.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: They beat the Blazers by 30.
• 40:15
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, yeah.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm picking this out because though I don't think they are the best offense and the best defense in the league, I think that it's really interesting that after that game, the first game after that, where they lost to the Mavericks, and let me make sure I'm getting my facts right.
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_00: Mikhail Bridges had a really great performance, right?
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: So great of a performance that he got the post-game interview.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: It was like, oh yeah, it's Mikel Bridges.
• 40:37
  SPEAKER_00: He don't really get post-game interviews like that.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, let me see, which game was this?
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: Oh no, this is a game three games later.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_00: He played against the Toronto Raps.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: He had his first 30-ball of the season, right?
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: First 30 ball of the season, second 30 ball of the season.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: And in this one, in the post-game interview, he gave a very candid, um, honest opinion about the team and about how he was not being coached or being coachable.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_00: And he also talked about the change in defensive schemes, right?
• 41:01
  SPEAKER_00: How instead of funneling to the baseline, they were funneling to the middle.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_00: And though I don't think that simple change is the re is the reason why they have the number one defense since January 19th, I do think it's interesting that something that minuscule, something that small, could potentially shift the defensive identity of a team.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: Also in the stretch, they beat the Brooklyn Nets by 60.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: So advanced stats are gonna look kind of wonky with that.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm excited to see because I've I've gone through ebbs and flows with this Knicks team.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: Before the season started, I said that is my team, I believe, that will take the Eastern Conference.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that Mike Brown could coach.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_00: The roster was already pretty good.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: They brought in guys at that time in Yabu Sally, who I really liked, and so on and so forth.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: That I'm like, yeah, this team is the team to beat.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Detroit Pistons got on the scene, and then the conversation shifts in my mind.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, who do I trust more?
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: And then when they were having this tough stretch, they lost against Phoenix, they lost against the Wars, they lost to Sacramento, which I completely forgot about, and then they lost against Dallas, where at one point they were down by like 30 or so.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_00: I kind of shifted, like, man, I don't know if this team really will have it.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: You know, not many people are coming to play.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: Crunch they towns is having a down season.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like Mikhail and Ojan and Obi kind of get lost offensively.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I will shift to saying that the team that I believe is gonna come out of the East is the Detroit Pistons.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I verbally said that.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: I think it might be the Pistons.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: With the second half of the season, I'm trying to figure out if I'm flipping back to the Knicks.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there's obviously no rooting or fandom in this.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying that which team do I think is the more well equipped to win three playoff series to be the representative of the Eastern Conference in the final, and I think it could be either those teams or the other two teams that we kind of wrapped in.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: So, second half of the season for the Knicks will determine a lot there.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_00: The last one I have as far as things I'm looking forward to in the second half of the season is the different nuggets getting healthy.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't even know if this is realistic, right?
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Aaron Gordon is out, and we did an episode of numbers on the board, and we were talking about the biggest X factors on the season.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I said my number one X factor personally is Aaron Gordon's injuries, right?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_00: Because I I don't know, I don't think that if Aaron Gordon is not healthy, that they could beat OKC in the series.
• 43:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think if Aaron Gordon is healthy, absolutely they could beat them.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: But without him, it's really tough.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even when you have guys like Peyton Watson uh showing up, or like, even though they don't play the same position, Julian Strothter looking pretty good as of recent.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think they can win that series without Aaron Gordon.
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: So them getting healthy is gonna be really important.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, Peyton Watson's out for three or four weeks at this point, you know, happening at the right time, if that ever is a thing, because he gets a week off with the all-star break.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_00: But they've just been able to be good and maybe not so great since Jokic has been back.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of that is them just putting together random lineups on a nightly basis.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_00: It's a testament to their coaching that they're still able to be a three seed in a loaded Western Conference, even though Jokic missed so much time.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Eric Gordon has barely played, Cam Thomas.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, Cam Johnson missed so many times, and Al Payton Watson, who was one of the saving graces of the team so far, he is also missing time.
• 43:59
  SPEAKER_00: So this.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Getting healthy determines a lot because my hierarchy in the Western Conference is OKC and Denver as my top two teams out west.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: And if they're not healthy, I can't, I don't know if I can put them on the same tier as OKC.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still struggling with the Spurs, by the way.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to figure out where they fit in the landscape for me.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: I think that they are a team that can win a championship, but I just have so much more trust in those other two teams.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_00: So even though there's squished between those two two teams as far as record goes, and they went into the break on a six-game win streak, I'm still personally struggling to have them in that upper echelon.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, I'll tell you some more cool things that happen over All-Star Weekend.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: All Star Weekend for me is always one of my favorite trips, right?
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_00: No matter the city, I'm always looking forward to it because not only, at least in most cases, um, does the city breathe basketball while the All-Star Weekend is there, but I get to just be with my guys, man.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: And you know, now that I'm creeping up to the age of 30, um, my my adults in the room will know that it's just harder to hang out with your friends, right?
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: Even though my friends are all we're also building a business together and all, it's hard to hang out.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, it's like we go to work, we shoot the podcast, and everybody dips.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_00: Kids are are here, uh, people have responsibilities, and just adults.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when we were we were younger, even in doing this podcast stuff, the one thing we commonly have was like, oh, we'll hop on the Xbox, we'll hop on PlayStation, we'll hop on Discord and just kind of chat through the day.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: That is kind of dead at this point because I have two, I have two kids, man.
• 45:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard for me to game casually anymore.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Derek has a kid, Pierre has two dogs, which you kind of equate to one kid.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: Kind I don't know how how that works.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and then Mike, Mike's still be on the game, so we just don't really have a ton of time to hang out until we have these big team events where we go into All-Star Weekend and do a live show.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: The preparation for the live show is just so great to have, you know, we always put our brain together to talk basketball.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what our job is, but to get more creative, to film skits and do cool things together like that, and to provide that level of content to a room of 300 people, 300 paying customers for the show and hear them laugh and feel have a good time.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: That is why I love All-Star Weekend, you know?
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get to celebrate.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, the team put together a great show.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think most people that was there had a good time.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, what do we do?
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: We we go have dinner together, you know, and just really sit back and relax after a really uh hectic but great time.
• 46:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I say that all to say on the four and a half hour flight home, I did not pay for the Wi-Fi on my phone, by the way.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then I did open my phone and I saw all of the Kevin Durant stuff, and I'm like, oh my god, well, I missed the legendary day on eBay Twitter.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I was on my flight, I'm writing my script for today's episode, and right to my right of me is Pierre, one seat behind me to my right is is Derek.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: Mike never changed his seat.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: He could have been in 57 foot uh F for all I know.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't see him.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I'm just like, damn man, this is really cool.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just grateful.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just grateful to have great friends that are open to you know stepping out of their comfort zone because that's what the inception of all of our content has been, if you think about it.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: I was the only person when the show started who had had any on on camera talent or experience, definitely wasn't talent like that, but at least experience.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: And now we get to the point where you know we do a live show in front of 300 people, and there's there's nerves because you know it's always a little different, but it it doesn't feel like there's nerves.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: We get into the swing of the show, so I'm just forever grateful for my boys.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, love them to death.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just like, we now have between now and Thursday, nobody has to come to work, and I'm dreading that because I want to see my boys again.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Man, shout out to my guys, man.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: I I love them, I love them, I love them.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they've always put an amazing amount of trust in me, and I feel like I've reciprocated on that anytime somebody has an idea, even if the idea in my mind is a bad one, we run with it because you never really know the amount, the amount of pieces of content that y'all have seen from Enjoy Basketball that I thought in real time was bad that y'all love.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers so crazy, you know.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so shout out to my guys, shout out to everybody that came out to the live show.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: So fun.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_00: The meet and greet section took like two hours, didn't matter.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody, nobody was tired after, nobody felt like it dragged on to meet, tip of faces to names.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_00: We saw many, many people that were like, hey, I've been to your last two live shows, which blows my mind because our last two live shows are in different cities.
• 48:41
  SPEAKER_00: Again, just forever, forever grateful.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: And and if you ever, as a viewer or a fan of anything that I've been a part of, you ever feel like I'm not grateful, please call me out.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: Because I am, and I will always, always be grateful.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um, hopefully that's another great episode of Smallball.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all next week.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.