Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Pistons Takeover, Nico Fired Soon, and More

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Pistons Takeover, Nico Fired Soon, and More · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to Small Ball with Kenny Beachum.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_02: On today's episode, we gotta get love to the Detroit Pistons.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: I always say this as a meme because it's been quite some time since it's been true, but it might be true nowadays.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: The NBA runs through the central division.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_02: The Bulls are not awful.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they may not be great, but they're not awful.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_02: The Pistons are one of the top seeds.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_02: The Bucs still look pretty good.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: The Cavs.
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_02: The Cavs are like the favorite to win the conference.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: The NBA runs through the Central.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: Don't think about the Pacers.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_02: This ain't their year.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Last year was their year.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: The NBA runs through the Central.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_02: I want to go through the Pistons because we are not that far removed away from them losing 26, 27 straight games in a row.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: For them to be this good this fast since then without any like super major changes, is a recipe for from good coaching to star power to people buying into roles.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_02: We want to talk about all of that.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_02: I know we have talked about it since the start of the season, but I still have so much to say about the Dallas Mavericks.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_02: It's not really about the encore product right now, it's more about front office stuff.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_02: And then after that, we're going to jump around the league.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: And then lastly, we will do your favorite segment, my favorite segment, Ask KB, where I answer your question.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_02: Should be a banger.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: All right, let's start off with this Detroit Pistons team because honestly speaking, I was a little bit uh fearful for them going into the season.
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_02: This offseason wasn't the perfect one for them, right?
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Malik Beasley being gone, then a shooter being gone.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_02: They lost some key pieces.
• 1:26
  SPEAKER_02: Now, you can say that they replaced it with Duncan Robinson.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: They replaced it with Jay Nivey, who is also injured right now.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I was a little bit of a skeptic when it came to the Detroit Pistons going to the season.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be the first one to say it.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_02: You know, this the year after the jump is always harder than the jump year because now people recognize, like, hey, Kay Cunningham is the All-NBA player.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_02: If they weren't recognizing that before, they late like they're late to the party, but it's it's cool.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_02: Uh we recognize this team as a playoff team, so we need to get up for these games opposed to last year when the Pistons came to town.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: You just kind of felt like you was gonna win by third and be like, oh no, this team is better than we expected.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_02: There is no surprise in the opponent.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_02: So I thought that this year, not that it was gonna be a bad year.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't think they were gonna be outside of the playoffs, but I definitely didn't look at them and say, hey, they could be one of the top two seeds in the conference.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Now we're talking about 10 games in.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_02: We're also talking about them not having a super difficult schedule.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_02: I recognize all of that, but I do want to give them their flowers where it's due.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um, starting off with Jalen Duren, because Jalen Duran was one of those guys that, you know, the front office decided to elect to see him go into restrict the free agency, which tells you a lot and a little at the same time.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_02: Um, his market would have just been weird based on his last couple seasons because sometimes he looks amazing, and then sometimes he feels like he doesn't really know what he's doing as far as the defensive side of the ball, but he has all the tools to be a really good defensive player.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_02: So it was a lot of this, a lot of that.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_02: And last year, the question was like, who was the second best player on his team?
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: And people had arguments, whether it be on uh Pistons Twitter or outsiders like me looking in, and some people say, hey, our second best player was Malik Beasley last year.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: You asked that exact same question, 10 games to the season.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: There is no question who is the second best player on the Detroit Pistons because Jalen Duran is in the midst of a peak.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: One of the stats I think is one of the more telling ways to show that a center player is hitting the next spot.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: He has holding opponents to a career best 47% at the rim.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_02: With last year, he allowed teams to shoot 63% at the rim.
• 3:16
  SPEAKER_02: So that is a huge change between last year's and this year.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_02: Him and Isaiah Stewart, who we're gonna talk about in a little second, them playing together has been really good.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, um, they've been together on the same team for a few different years now.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: When uh Tobias Harris comes in, boom, beef, you're gonna go to the bench, you're gonna be our backup center.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: But with Tobias Harris being injured the parts of this season, you got to see this double big lineup, and we've talked about double big a lot on this channel, and it's just working wonders right now.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_02: Those minutes, the 80 minutes they play together, they have a net rating of plus 15.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_02: They are holding the other opposing teams' offense to basic, basically nothing.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't get back to the Jalen Durant things.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_02: One thing, just looking at the eye test, I don't have any numbers to prove this.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_02: I know I try to get a little balance of analytics and eye tests.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_02: I love what the the K and Duran pick and roll is like the number one pick and roll in basketball last season, so it's no surprise that it's still good this year.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: But one thing, at least the eye test is telling me that he's getting the ball on the pick roll a lot higher than before.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: It felt as though, you know, K cunning and put him in a situation a lot last year where you didn't have to make a ton of decisions.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_02: You're four feet away from the basket.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_02: Go up, big fella, make that decision to score the ball.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_02: Now I feel like he's getting it a lot higher.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: I watched a game um again this morning just to kind of refresh myself, and it was against the Brooklyn Nets, but I don't care.
• 4:27
  SPEAKER_02: Brooklyn Nets have at least two basketball players in the team.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_02: So you, you know, we can we can look at it that way.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: And they were sending, uh they were hedging Kay Cunningham on his screens, and it was a little pocket pass to Jalen Duran, and he's getting them at the free throw line, free throw line extended.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_02: Now, this year he's not having a great passing year, if you want to just look at the raw numbers of it all, but I trust him a lot more in that short row than previous seasons.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: Him getting that ball early kind of is allowing us to see him get it to his offensive bag a little bit.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: And listen, this dude had the shoulders of David Robinson.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of times these dudes don't have an offensive bag, you know?
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_02: One of the times um he got it and had a little lefty hook.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_02: That was early in the first quarter.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_02: The very next possession, same thing.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_02: They hedge the pick and roll.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: You get it to Jalen Duran at about the free throw line.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what he did?
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: He took two dribbles and just yammed on.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: I think it was Noah Clowney.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: So we're getting to see him getting to that bag, face-up opportunities, back down opportunities, pick and roll, and then the passing out of it.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: Again, it's not equating to like three to four assists per game.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel really good about this Jalen Duran thing.
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_02: And Pissis fans could probably relate to this.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_02: When you have a player that you've been hoping and hoping and hoping takes a jump, when they're in the middle of that jump, or what you think might be that jump, it's hard to really buy in completely.
• 5:39
  SPEAKER_02: I got like I experienced that with Josh Giddy for a year last year.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_02: I was hoping that he was going to hit a jump and he didn't really hit a jump to the last 18 games, but you're hesitant to say that it is a jump.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_02: I'm telling you, Pisces fans has now started looking in.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at Jalen Duran and said, this is the leap that you wanted.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_02: This is the leap that you need.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_02: And the Beef Stew and Jalen Duran thing, I already talked about the numbers, but just the best part about it all is Beef Stew legitimately, like he doesn't get the amount of credit that I think he deserves defensively because the last year uh he came off the bench and the year before that, they lost 20 plus games in a row.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like hard to really say, like, hey, Isaiah Stewart, this Isaiah Stewart is real life one of the best defensive players in in the league at using, how do I want to describe this?
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_02: Using his body as a stopgap on drives, using his body as a stopgap when people are trying to go up.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: And it's hard to really do that, but he's got the he's got the frame to do it.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_02: Where, you know, some of the things I have really loved about the double big lineup is that he has been late to get out on shooters, but some of these teams they're going against don't really have that many shooters.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_02: I think Noah Clowney hit four threes in the first quarter, and a lot of that is like Beef Stew being like this, but I don't know if that's a beef stew thing versus a JB Bickerstaff thing, saying that's that guy's Noah Clowney.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_02: That's not JJ Reddick, that's not Duncan Robinson.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: So we we're good, we'll let him shoot those.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_02: But if you are trying to create from the perimeter or create from the nail or create from the elbow, whatever you're trying to do, and Isaiah Stewart is the guy on your backside, guarding you, you're gonna have a really tough time.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: So you add that, Jalen Duran defensive leap, and then Asar Thompson.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_02: Y'all know I'm a Thompson twin lover.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_02: Those are my guys.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_02: I I have nothing but belief in them as ball players, and they continue to get better and better.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just watching Asar Thompson just blow up plays defensively.
• 7:23
  SPEAKER_02: And it is so cool to watch because, you know, I think his brother, uh, he deserves all the hype that he's getting for sure.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: But in my mind, in my mind, I think that Asar Thompson is the better defensive player.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_02: I think that Amin Thompson is the better overall player at this point in the career, but you have to remember that Asar Thompson missed a year basically with the blood clotting issues.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: So he's basically six months to a year behind in his development.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that Asar Thompson's probably the better twin on the defensive side of the ball.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: He's like two passes ahead in a lot of cases, and it's so crazy to watch him defend a guy that's like not supposed to be dribbling.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's amazing.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_02: We had this conversation on numbers on the board, and I still don't know the answer to it, but I did want to bring it to y'all.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_02: Pierre asked, with this team looking as good as they have right now, when, if, if at all, do you put the chips on the table?
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_02: They have draft capital, they got younger players that are interested.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, hell, Jay Nivey ain't played just yet, but I'm sure the teams would be very interested in him as a ball player if somebody became available.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_02: When is the perfect time to put some of those or all of those chips on the table?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like the Cavaliers who are the favorite or the Knicks who are one of the favorites in these.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_02: It's not like they're blowing the doors off the barn of the Eastern Conference.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: So why can't it be us?
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_02: As currently constructed, I don't think it can be them, right?
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think they couldn't can get to a couple rounds in the postseason, but as currently constructed, I don't think they're there just yet.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_02: But if the right guy became available, should you do it?
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't have the answer to that, but I think it's a really good conversation.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, at the end of the day, we don't know who is going to be available as of right now.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_02: But I've always said I would love to see Larry Market and uh end up in there.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: But also see Larry Market on that team as not the last piece to get them over the hunt, but just a complimentary piece.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: I don't really know.
• 9:05
  SPEAKER_02: But I've been loving Detroit Piston basketball.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: I haven't even mentioned the name Kay Cunningham much, who has just been great this season.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_02: Like he's one of those guys that I feel like the um the analytics guys may not love the true shooting percentages, the yo-yo-yos.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: But I truly do trust him with the ball more than a lot of people, most people in the league.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_02: And that's even with his high turnover rate that people are always talking about.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I've always said it, and I'll say it again.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think those turnovers go down.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think he becomes more efficient of a ball player the more ball handlers they have on the team.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: They used to have a ton right now with Jay Nivey being out.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: Last thing before we take our first break, the minutes of Asar Thompson and Ron Holland are killing teams.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_02: And don't you dare add Kay Cunningham to that mix.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_02: When those three dudes are on the court, it does not make sense for them to have a good offense.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_02: And hey, I don't even know if they really do.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: I know they're killing when it comes to the point differential, and that shows a lot about their future.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: All right, when we come back, we gotta talk about Nico Harrison and the Dallas Mavericks.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna read you a quote.
• 10:07
  SPEAKER_02: You'll see next year when our team comes back, and we're going to be competing for a championship.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the words of Nico Harrison at the exit interview at the end of last season.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: The start this year through the first 10 games, the Dallas Mavericks team that he's referring to, the one that he's in charge of, are three and seven to start the year with wins over the Washington Wizards who only have one win on the season.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_02: A win over the Indiana Pacers who only have one win on the season.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_02: And the Washington Wizards win was against them.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: So they they already played their home and home and they they split with the Washington Wizards of all teams.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_02: The NFers who only have one win.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then Toronto Raptors, who who the hell knows if they're a good team or not?
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_02: I still don't know.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the three wins.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_02: And as of today, as I'm recording this episode, they have the worst relative offense in the history of this sport.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: Not the worst offense statistics, relative to the Pierce.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_02: That's how bad it is over there for Dallas.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_02: And you say, Kenny, that's unfair to Nico Harrison because he didn't expect all of the injuries.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_02: Guess who did expect all the injuries?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Literally everybody else that looked at the trade.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_02: We are we are what 10 months removed from the trade?
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I still, on a daily basis, see Luca Dontis in the Lakers jerseys and be like, I can't believe this happened.
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_02: I still watch the Dallas Mavs say, man, they're missing something.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, the thing they're missing is number 77.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: He said that quote, fully knowing that Kyrie Irving may be out for the entirety of next season, and knowing that he traded for a guy, Lord knows we love Anthony Davis, Chicago's very own, but knowing that his history is his history.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_02: And it also is like a real slap in the face for Nico Harrison to win the lottery when he had a 1.8% chance to win.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_02: 1.8% chance to win.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_02: And he told the fan base, well, maybe, maybe they see my vision now.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_02: As if, as if he was guaranteeing that that 1.8% was going to convey and end up being Cooper Flag.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: It is mind-blowing to me.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_02: That we're even in this place at all.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I remember when Cooper Flag was drafted.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I was, I was, let's say this again, I was relatively optimistic about this Dallas Maverick team headed into this season.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to act like at the start of the year I thought they were going to be one of the three worst teams in the Western Conference.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely didn't think that.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_02: I definitely didn't think that they were going to be a sleepy contender, was what some people were saying.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: But when Cooper Flag gets drafted there, they'd be like, okay, hold on.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: There's some stuff going on.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: Cooper Flag's about to go to a team that's already at least decent as a first overall pick.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_02: Think about the other first overall picks we've had in history.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_02: Um, whether it be a Women Yama or Anthony Edwards or so on and so forth, a lot of the first overall picks go to dog, they go to trash teams.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_02: Cooper Flag, in our mind, before the season started, was going to a team that was different than that.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: The expectations are a little bit different, but it's Cooper Flagg.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: He's the best competitive guy ever.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_02: Cooper Flag's rookie experience is very similar to a lot of those teams of the former first overall picks where he is thrown into the fire on a really, really bad team.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: The difference between him right now and some of those other dudes is that the other coaching staff of the front office were putting their first overall picks into position to be successful.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_02: And that's not the case for Cooper Flag.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: They ran a lineup the other day that was legitimately four power forwards in Cooper Flag.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_02: And you may argue that Cooper Flag's the power forward himself.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: So potentially five power forwards and say, go hoop.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_02: Not a playmaker on the court, not a play finisher on the court, not a not a decision maker on the court.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: It's just Cooper Flag.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't know Cooper Flagg's mentality.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I've seen some interviews from him, but I don't know who he is as a person.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_02: So this could be perfect for him, right?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_02: Some people could be like, yeah, I'm okay.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_02: I'm okay with being thrown into the fire and not in the best position because all of this is going to help me grow overall.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: But sometimes the exact opposite happens.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the NBA is, of course, a lot different than the NFL, but I kind of like the idea of like a quarterback coming in and sitting behind a veteran for a year if you draft him high, whether it be a Mahomes, whether it be a Rogers or Love to Rogers.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_02: Like having a guy just sit down, learn the system, learn the league is beneficial.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes teams are lucky and unlucky at the same time, where that happens to them accidentally and through injury.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_02: Like Chet Holmgren missing this entire first season, I think was beneficial to his progression as a ball player.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_02: Joel LeBee missing the first, I don't know, how long?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_02: Two years?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: Three years?
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_02: It felt like an eternity.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe beneficial to his overall progression as a ball player because you got an idea of what it's like to be a pro without being on the court, having all the facilities, having these coaches, having a dietitian, having all of this, and then boom.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it's again, don't fly understand it.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_02: Back to the Nico Harrison of it all.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: Again, we've we've we've belabored the point of how bad and stupid of a trade it is.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: But I I question how long, if this continues, this winning three in every 10 games, let's say that's that's where they're on the roll to.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think the human nature of it all is going to, it's gonna make it a long time before he's able to do this, right?
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_02: You made the craziest trade in history of not just this sport.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_02: I saw I saw people outside of this sport.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I love the NFL, I love my Bears, but I can't tell you what the craziest football trade is of all time.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_02: I know for damn sure we had one for Bryce Young.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to the shout out to the Bears.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I can't, I can't I can't speak to that, but I've seen people who are covering both of those sports say, no, this is the craziest trade I've ever seen.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: So when you have a title on a decision like that, you kind of need it to be successful.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_02: So much so that you may be willing to turn those edges and and and drive the car until the the tires are bare, until Anthony Davis literally can't hoop anymore.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: Because in his mind, I would I would suspect to see as the ultimate believer in his overall vision and his overall goal.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_02: When AD come back and the Kyrie come back next season, then we cool.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And and maybe that's true.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: But what a crazy thing to try to convince the fans.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_02: When you had a 26-year-old generational guy, and generational, I don't throw around lightly.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like Luka Doncic obviously is a generational guy.
• 16:40
  SPEAKER_02: Luckily for them and for Nico, they have their own first-round pick again this season.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: But exchanging, closing the current window that you had with Luka Doncic in order to maybe open up another window three years, four years down the line, when there was no tension in between that.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Like some teams have to trade their best player just because they have to.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: So-and-so players unhappy, unhappy.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: We can't build a team around him.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: We got to trade away our best player right now.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_02: Luka Doncic was under the assumption that he would spend his entire career in Dallas.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: So to close that window on a team that not just was good, was literally in the title games just a little bit before that.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_02: To close that window to maybe open up a Cooper Flag AJ DeBonzo window is crazy.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_02: And again, that he might try to, even if they win, let's say they win the lottery again, which I saw a lot of people tweeting to me, like Kenny, the NBA should incorporate it, so they you can't win a lottery back-to-back years, the Nico Harrison rule.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_02: Hypothetically, they win it, do win back-to-back lotteries.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: If he goes to that podium and talk about seeing the vision again, I'm gonna lose my mind and not I'm not even a fan of this team.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_02: I do feel for my people that are fans of this team.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_02: Because how can you really be excited?
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_02: Like Cooper Flag has been okay.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: He's been he's not been as good as people expect him to be right at the gate, but again, rookie player.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: How could you possibly be excited about something when you just spent five, six, six years, six years, seven years um building up this guy to be this the next savior of your organization to see that all taken away from you with no uh I don't know, no warning signs?
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: I would imagine that's really tough to really be bought into Dallas Mavericks hoops again.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_02: And even the fans that I know that denounced their fandom and then came back, it was like, damn, should I even come back?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: Is it even is it even worth it?
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_02: And the answer is probably not.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_02: It is forever going to be the most crazy decision that an NBA general manager has done, especially in the current era.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like a lot of crazy trades happened in the 80s, in the 90s, obviously not to this caliber, but like nobody knew what the hell A was doing.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_02: And with time and reps and analytics and all of this stuff, you just become smarter as the way you run your team.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: And Eagle Harrison also said at the end of the season last year that defense wins championships, which everybody believes except for Kevin Durant.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: And right now, the Dallas Mavericks are the fifth best defense, so he's got that.
• 19:17
  SPEAKER_02: He he can say that we are our defense is NBA championship caliber.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_02: It just so happens that our offense is the worst ever.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like like again, relative.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's just it's mind-blowing.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_02: Light at the end of the tunnel, maybe highly doubt it.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it's so bad, y'all.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: Y'all know me.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'm a I'm a I'm a basketball enjoyer.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's the whole brand that we've been able to build.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_02: The other night on NBA.com, if you're not a viewer, you can quad box.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_02: You pick four games and put them on your screen, and then boom.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_02: I had three games that I cared about and then an empty spot.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: The only other game on was the Dallas Mavericks versus Pelicans game, and I legitimately opted to not even pull it up.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_02: I was okay with three boxing instead of four because I hate watching the Dallas Mavericks this season that much.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's crazy.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say thank you to our sponsor over at DraftKings.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_02: I know you probably know everything about DraftKings Pick Six, but for the new guys around here, let me tell you exactly what it is.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: DraftKings Pick Six was where you can pick more or less on different player stats for upcoming games.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: Just pick two or more different players into your pick set and decide more or less than sit back and watch to see if you made the right decisions.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_02: We've been playing all season long here over at the Enjoy basketball team.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: We got a nice little leaderboard throughout the course of the season.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_02: I've had my cold streaks already.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_02: I've also had my hot streaks, so I'll put together a little pick set tonight and we'll see what we do.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_02: So we just did a segment about the Detroit Pistons, and I was looking at their game and I say, hey man, I like this matchup.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: I like this matchup for Jalen Durin.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_02: He's going against Alex Sarr, who's having a really good season.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but keeping that boy off the glass is not easy.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: Earlier in the season, I picked a Jalen Duran more on rebounds.
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what?
• 21:06
  SPEAKER_02: I'm doing I'm doing it again.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_02: Him on the glass has been unstoppable.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_02: He's had 20, 20 games this season, and he really is a man amongst boys in a lot of cases.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, I got a lot of love for Alex Sarr, but I've seen, you know, throughout his progression, sometimes the more physical players can overpower him a little bit.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that Jalen Durin could potentially do that tonight.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_02: So that's my first thing in my pick set.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_02: My second thing is, hey, stay in with the show.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um talking about the Dallas Mavericks.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_02: We mentioned Cooper Flag experience not being perfect, but tonight they got the Milwaukee Bucks on the second night of a back-to-back for the Bucs.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm looking at Cooper Flag and say, hey man, it's an opportunity for you to go out there and hoop.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_02: I went more on his points.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the Bucs have been pretty decent all around this season.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, just lost a game against the Houston Rockets, but it's it's cool.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think Cooper Flag has an opportunity because of the wings over there in Milwaukee to.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: Have a really good game.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think he's been doing a pretty solid job when he puts his head down to get into the basket.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_02: He's still got a rookie whistle right now, and I think some of that can potentially change because as long as Jans is playing, which I don't know if he is because it's second back-to-back.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_02: If Jans is playing that, the referees are gonna have their whistles all warmed up and maybe they throw a couple extra Cooper Flags away.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_02: Next, I'm gonna go with my boy, Jalen Johnson.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: Jalen Johnson without Trey Young in the lineup.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, it's it's been good.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: The overall count of stats on the season is about 20, I'm gonna round up for you, Jalen.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: About 21 points per game, five assists and eight rebounds.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: He's been really good.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: They got the late night game against the Clippers.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: And the Clippers, who I will talk about a little bit in the next segment, haven't been defending a thing.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: They have not been able to get back in transition.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_02: And guess what Jalen Johnson loves?
• 22:50
  SPEAKER_02: Two run.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: I'm picking him more on his PRA, points, rebounds, assists, because he will get on that glass.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_02: He will be one of the uh primary facilitators for the Atlanta Hawks tonight.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And then again, if they get any, any fast break, I'm trusting Jalen Johnson over most people in the NBA.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_02: He's gotta be, I ain't looking, I ain't looking at the points per possession on the transition now, but I'm just looking at the eye test, he's gotta be top seven in transition in the NBA.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_02: My last one, my last one, my last one, my last one, this one right here is like you ever see somebody so much into a slump that you try to predict when they get out of that slump, that's what I'm kind of doing today as the Orlando Magic play against the Portland Trailblazers.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the last game that they played, um, I'm gonna talk about the the Orlando Magic.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_02: We got we did get the more on Desmond Bain, right?
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm hoping that, you know, this is a nice little thing.
• 23:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be a second night of a back-to-back for him.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_02: And I think he's gonna get his juices flowing a little bit.
• 23:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm going more on his points in that matchup.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because they went against the Celtics, and you know, um things be happening in those matchups.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I really do like my pick set this season.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, not this season, tonight.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Jalen Duran more on rebounds to reiterate, to reiterate.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: Cooper Flag more on points, Jalen Johnson more on PRA, and then Desmond Bang more on total points.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: Talk to me.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_02: I will say this during our leaderboard thing on numbers on the board, there's been twice I went less on something instead of more, which again, it's not my brand to go less.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: The two times I have went less, they both have hit.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe it's maybe I said sprinking in a couple lesses here or there.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I went less on Chris Paul points on six and a half.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_02: He had two.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: I went less on Con Kenobles threes at two and a half.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think he hit one.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_02: So the less method kinda's been working, but I'm gonna run with the one I got tonight.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_02: Uh when we come back, I'm just gonna jump around the league.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_02: Some new things I've been seeing, some things I like, some things I don't.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_02: For those who haven't checked out DraftKings PickSticks yet, there's an exclusive offer waiting for you.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, new DraftKings customers can play$5 and get$50 in Pick Six credits.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_02: All you have to do is download the PickSticks app and use promo code Enjoy when you sign up.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_02: Pick six is available in most states, including Texas, California, Missouri.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: So don't be afraid to get in on the action.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_01: Right the upside with Pick Six.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_01: There is a lot of basketball going on.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_02: It is impossible for me to watch every single possession of every single game, but I try my very darnest to get a feel for every team without the course of the season.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: So again, I'm just gonna jump around the association a little bit here and talk about some things I've seen over the last week that were pretty intriguing or not so much.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: And like I just mentioned, the Clippers are the number one thing on the list.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_02: The Clippers have completely lost all the identity they had formulated over last season.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_02: Let me read you some of the stats about this LA Clippers team that will probably blow your mind if you haven't watched the game this season, but you remember them from last year.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_02: They are 26th in rebounder.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_02: That ain't Clippers like they are 29th in defense.
• 25:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna let that marinate with you a little bit.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_02: This Clippers team that just last season was top three, not top five.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I guess if you're top three, you have to be top five.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: But they were they were top three in defense last season.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_02: They are 29th on the year and also 29th in transition.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: This is not the team that we saw last season.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_02: And I think what's sad about it, again, there's so one thing about Tyron Lou slash the Clippers, there they're gonna be times where they're just gonna come out of the gate and not be good, right?
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_02: That's just kind of their MO.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: They by end of December, they're on a six-game win streak.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: Like, oh, the Clippers good again.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_02: I, I'm sorry, right hand to you, I will not fall for the Clippers' late push.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_02: Are they a contender?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: Are they not?
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not falling for it again this season if it happens.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not doing it.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_02: One of the things I was so excited about when it came to the Clippers, I took the, I took the over when we did our over-under episode.
• 26:49
  SPEAKER_02: I was really excited about the fact that yes, they were old, like that other team in California, in San Francisco.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_02: Yes, they were old, but they were able to sprinkle in that age with youth, if you will.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_02: I'm counting Chris Dunn, who's 31 years old as youth, by the way.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, from Zoo being 28, Chris Dunn being 31, 31 on this team is low-key like a rookie.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_02: Deere Jones Jr., John Collins.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, yeah, they're the oldest team in the league.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_02: But like, you don't need to rely on those old dudes too much because we got some young cats here.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_02: And John Collins has been phenomenal.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: He's been everything in a bag of chip for them.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Zuba started off really bad, and then the last couple games, he started a little like the zoo that we saw last season.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: But all these other dudes, the older guys, the Bradley Beals, the Brooke Lopezes, my GOAT Chris Paul, who can't even play more than 11 minutes per game at this point in his career, the Bogdanoviches of the world, the like oh, the Nick Batum.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_02: Nick Batum has been so inefficient.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_02: Do you remember that song?
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: Fourth quarter, why the hell but I feel that now.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's been bad.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_02: I thought that that depth was going to be impactful, and so far it has not.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_02: I would love to see John Collins start a basketball game just to see what it's about because he right now John Collins is like the second basketball on the team through the first eight to nine games or so.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: It's been bad.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_02: It's been really bad.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_02: And the last thing they could they could hope for is this they don't have their own pick, still pan for the Paul George stuff.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: Fine, whatever.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_02: They got to the conference finals once in that era.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_02: If they are bad, if this if this 10-game, nine-game sample size tells us that they're bad, they're a bad basketball team all of a sudden because they're old and they can't get back and they lost their identity, it's the worst time to be bad.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: The first round pick that they don't have is going to OKC.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: So if they are bad and OKC ends up with a top five pick, I'm gonna lose my mind because the rich just continue to get richer.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_02: All right, next.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I want to talk about Joel Lead.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Joel Bean's back, kind of.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and it's been fun to watch over the last couple games.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_02: I've been watching them pretty heavily because obviously they're a fun watch between VJ and Tyrese Baxy being unguardable.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, like we were mentioning pre uh pre-show in the production room, the jerseys that they're winning the throwback jerseys are the best jerseys of all time.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm all in.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_02: Trent Waffert triple double just last night or two nights ago against the Toronto Raptors has been great.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: And but one thing I've really been looking at for Joel and Bede is like not about the counting stats.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_02: I want to see how you are moving as the season progresses.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I can honestly say, over the last every single game that he's played, I feel like he's moving better and better and better.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_02: There was a defensive possession last uh night or two nights ago, whenever it was, when they played against the Raptors, where the Raptors were on the break.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was one guy to beat, and his name was Joel Embiid.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of assume, based again, through the injuries as he's working through things, that that was just going to be a free basket for the Toronto Raptors.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: The guy doesn't jump much, he doesn't run much, but damn, he's still a great ball player because nobody can still guard him.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: Even in his minutes restrictions, he's averaging 25 and 25, 20 points, five rebounds, and three assists.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want you to think he was averaging 25 points.
• 29:52
  SPEAKER_02: But in this one possession that I'm referring to to kind of tell you of uh how much he's moving, he not only contested the shot, he got the stop by himself on what, uh, if I remember correctly, was a one-on-two, a two-on-one fast break.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_02: That's pretty good for them.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because one thing I've been I've been looking at these opposing teams, and the Bulls kind of did this a little bit.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I want Pete if I'm the opposing team's coach and I'm going against Joel Lambi right now as he's coming back from all of these injuries, I'm just gonna put him in as many actions as possible and say, let me see if you can hold up right now.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_02: And teams have been trying to do that as of recently, and he's been able to hold up defensively.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I even coming off this minute or with this ministry diction, I will never worry about Joel Embiid as an offensive player.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_02: It's about the backhand stuff because there was a time in Joel Lambi's career where he genuinely was one of the top two to three defensive centers in ball.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: And all of these surgeries and all of these, he's kind of fallen off from that a little bit over the last couple seasons.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_02: And now that he's moving a little bit more, I can't assume that he's gonna be all defensive caliber that he like he was in 2021.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel better about the overall outcome that could be the 76ers if Joel Lembede continues to work through this business restriction and can move a little bit.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: Again, it's not perfect.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: He still is laboring out there, he's still not moving fast, but I guess you don't really need that if he can still contest shots at the basket.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_02: So it's been all right.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: Trent Waffle triple double, man.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: And actually, Joel Lambi gave a little quote about the Trent Waffle triple double, said, like, it reminded him of Vin Simmons, which is like, that's kind of fun.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_02: That's it, that's just kind of fun as an outs from an outsider's perspective.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_02: All right, next.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, both of these things happen in the same game or the conversations, so I'll stick here.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: Uh DeR Fox had his first game of the season the other day against the Pelicans, and he looked great.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_02: Even he came to the podium and he was asked a question.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_02: He said, Yeah, I'm good at basketball.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'm good at hooping.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_02: I don't remember what the exact quote was, but yes, he is.
• 31:39
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like it is so easy to forget how good a player he is if they haven't played in a little bit of time.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_02: We were so hyped about Dylan Harper getting well soon.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: We were so hyped about Stefan Castle, who's still been playing well, that you kind of forget that De'Aaron Fox was just sitting there and he went on his own personal 10-0 run that kind of showcased some of the things you can be expecting from De'Aaron Fox this season.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_02: I am so happy to see him and Wimby back on the court because I think before his injury, they only played like five games together.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_02: It was a really small sample size.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_02: I remember watching all of the pick and rolls they played together, and it wasn't amazing, but it's like it was a five game.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: It was five games.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: Wimediama had never played with an offensive threat like that.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: And then De'Aaron Fox had never played with an alien before.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_02: And now they get a couple more reps over this next couple, whatever.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: And it was a really good game, man.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_02: I was really proud as a De'Aaron Fox fan to see him out there and have his own personal 10-0 run against this Pelicans team and then also have some big plays down the stretch as the Pelicans made it an interesting game.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_02: So welcome back.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it is cool to see that, like, I mean, I guess I didn't really question this too much, but how good Stefan Castle and De'Aaron Fox played off of each other is really intriguing as a outsider looking in because it will be so easy to just hand over the keys or hand over the offense to De'Aaron as he's coming back, and De'Aaron was still able to get his 24, but also Stefan Castle was a supreme playmaker yesterday, and I'm still looking after that.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: And only he only had two turnovers.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Lastly, in that same game, Derrick Queen has been looking really good.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_02: Derek Queen in his limited amount of minutes has already one of the coolest mixtapes ever.
• 33:09
  SPEAKER_02: And it's not even dunks, it's not highlight players necessarily.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: He just does cool stuff on the court, and I admired that.
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_02: I'm at the point now where obviously, I will say it again, Joe Dumar's, that was a dumbass trade you did to trade up to get uh Derrick Queen.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_02: But it's not, it has never been about Derrick Queen, the player, it was about the asset you gave up, and mostly not protecting that asset.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Because if you asked me, I believe that you added some type of protection on that pick.
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_02: I think Atlanta still says yes, because from what I've read, Atlanta had always loved Ace Newell, who looked good in the game a couple nights ago.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, so if you add to some level of protection there, then yeah, okay.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I want to talk about Derrick Queen, the player, not Derek Queen that was traded for a first-round pick.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_02: He's good.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, who knew?
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: We all knew that he was a good ball player.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_02: We saw it at Maryland, but the question was, how would that translate?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: I've I've absolutely loved that since uh he got benched, which was like three games ago, where it felt like Willie Green was doing a protest against the front office.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: They've been able to just give him the ball at the elbows and just say, we're gonna run all of our offense through you, especially in the games that like Zion has been out that he's played, and it's been pretty to watch.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um, slow footwork, the passing, the passing is something we knew he had, but it continues to shine so bright.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really excited about Derrick Queen.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_02: The question was about the defense, and the defense still has a lot, it's a lot to be desired.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking about a guy who's played eight games in his NBA career so far, but some of the things that I mentioned about Isaiah Stewart were using his body to cut off lanes.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_02: I saw a couple possessions of that in this Spurs game from Derrick Queen that makes me intrigued.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know where he fits as a player.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: Is he a five-man?
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_02: Because the drop coverage stuff is just not good, but he's also not fast enough to get to the point of attack.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if he's a four or a five, and I think that's probably a lot of the hesitancies about Derrick Queen, the ball player.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_02: The Pelicans are probably gonna give up a top five pick this year to Atlanta, right?
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_02: But if you feel like Derek Queen is your guy, no, I'm not I'm not justifying the Joe Dumar stuff.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but Derrick Queen has been really good, and I I I want to talk about Jeremiah Fears, but we're gonna hold off on that because we gotta get into our favorite segment, Ask KB.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: Ask KB is a segment where I open up the show to you.
• 35:22
  SPEAKER_02: You hit us up at Enjoy Basketball, hit me up on Twitter, yada yada yada.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: You can use the hashtag AskKB if you'd like, and I try my best to answer some of your questions.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_02: The first one comes from Blonda Dynasty that says, Are players like Will Richard and Ryan Rollins future stars in the making, or are they just proof that any player in the league can shine with the right opportunity?
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_02: You, my good sir, have a Wardell Stephen Curry Jr.
• 35:46
  SPEAKER_02: profile pitcher.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so I know you feel really good about the 30-point Will Richard game, even if it came in a loss when everybody was sitting.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_02: What I will say is I'm not a, I don't, as of today, I don't believe that Will Richard is a future star.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um, or even Ryan Rollins.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: I think Ryan Rollins has a higher chance than Will Richard, if you ask me.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's okay.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think we need to look at every young player that comes to the league and looks good and say, hey, that guy could be an all-star because most of them won't end up being that.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: I think it is cool to see those dudes that can go undrafted or go late in the second round and still blossom into being starters in the league.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_02: And uh Will Richard is still too early to know.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, hell, we don't know if he'll be a starter eventually, but like I've really intrigued with his game.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_02: I think he plays with a little, a little bit of fearlessness that you kind of need from that spot.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing with Ryan Rollins.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Ryan Rollins was like a warrior prospect for a little bit too.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I can't say they're stars in the making, but I do appreciate the fact that they're able to make the most out of the opportunities that they're given, right?
• 36:42
  SPEAKER_02: As an undrafted rookie going into a team like the Golden State Warriors who have championship aspiration, it's objectively going to be hard to find PT.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that he's been able to find that, whether it was somewhat accidental because the Anthony Melton still isn't back from his injury, regardless, when the Anthony Melton is completely healthy and playing through full games, I have no doubt in my mind that Will Richard will still be in the rotation because he's earned those minutes.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Ryan Rollins is like a guy that um from going back into it, talking to the guys that are the college basketball guys on the show, he's like, Yeah, Ryan Rollins was always a good ball player.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, obviously he dealt with some stuff where he got kicked off the team for a certain reason, but the guy's always been good.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_02: He just had to find his exact niche.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: And they kind of looked at him as a score in college, but obviously at the NBA level, he's a playmaker for Giannis and others.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: He is a defensive monster.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: So you got to find your role.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's cool that a guy like Real Richard has found his role so early while other guys don't.
• 37:35
  SPEAKER_02: They just don't.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: It takes a long time, but they never are able to because even in the case like Will Richard, who went undrafted, for the majority, if not all, of Will Richard's life, he's been the best player or one of the two best players on the scene.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna say, because he played for a really good college save.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if he was the best player, but one of the best players on the team.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_02: So in order to come into the league and be successful, he had to shift every piece of mind that he had about the shots that he was being able to take in high school and college to get the ball to Steph Curry.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh thank you for the question, Blanda.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, next one comes from Zay Henry, who says, What's your approach to analyzing basketball games?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_02: What aspects do you focus on?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: What are tips uh do you have for watching and understanding multiple games each week?
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: Love what you stand for in the basketball community.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much for the kind words.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_02: Zay, um, the thing, so there's a couple different ways I watch basketball games.
• 38:25
  SPEAKER_02: There's the casual watching of games, and there is the intensive watching with intention watching.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_02: And the way I always do it, if I'm doing an intense watch, because every night that I watch hoops, I'm not watching as a basketball analyst.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_02: I love the game of basketball, and sometimes I don't want to have my brain on.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_02: I just kind of be like, ooh, Giannis dunk ball.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: You know, like that's sometimes I watch the game that way.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: But if it is a game I'm really looking forward to, um, let me let me pull up one of the games from tonight and give you an example of how I would approach the game.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: Because in my opinion, doing some of the stuff that I do is about the approach to the game, not just to watching the game.
• 39:01
  SPEAKER_02: So if I say um Miami Heat versus Cleveland Cavaliers, maybe that's not the best.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, you know what?
• 39:07
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go Chicago Bulls versus Spurs, because if I'm not mistaken, everybody should be relatively healthy in that one.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_02: I will lay out a list of things that are intriguing to me before the game starts.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_02: These are the things I'm looking forward to.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: Will the Bulls do this?
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_02: Will the Spurs do this, right?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_02: For an example, over the last couple games we saw from the Spurs that started off with Jordan I in Phoenix.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: They changed the way people were guarding Victor Wimanyama, right?
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_02: Putting a small on him, kicking him out of the paint through the low leverage, and bringing an extra body as soon as he touched the ball.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes bringing two extra bodies and say, hey, Champinny, Harrison Barnes, Stephon Castle, y'all better make a play.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_02: And then we saw that same defense play in the next game.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: And then the next game.
• 39:43
  SPEAKER_02: And my question would be: who could that be for the Chicago Bulls?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: And could they do it as effectively as the Suns did it?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: Or if this team did it?
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_02: That would be one of the questions on my list.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_02: The next one is about, if I'm staying with the Bulls, the jump shooting of the opposing team.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, the Spurs hit a ton of three-point shots in their last game against um against the Pelicans.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: The Bulls give up open looks.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: Do I think that Billy Dime is going to change his coverage on a pick and roll to get rid of some of the corner three-point shots the Spurs have been generating?
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_02: These are the questions I would write into my book, and as I'm watching the game, hoping that I get an answer.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_02: Sometimes I write a question that is terrible.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: And I don't get an answer to it, but that's just part of part of it.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_02: And if I am going to be an attentive watcher, I'm doing my very best to rewind in certain places and so on.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_02: And with me being one-fourth of a podcast and with numbers on the board, there are certain games that I won't watch live that, like Pierre hit the group chat, be on the lookout for so-and-so.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then even if I'm not watching a game live, when I watch it the next morning, Pierre gave me the little heads up that so-and-so play is going to do this or so-and-so coach is going to do this.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_02: So I think it's all about preparation.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_02: It's all about being um intentional and attentive.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_02: It is so easy to, while you're watching a sports event, to pick up your phone and try to like doom scroll, go through Twitter or so on and so forth.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: I try my very best while I'm in season to have my phone present because you never know, family call or whatever.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but have my phone present, but not be paying attention to it too much, but try to lock in on these games and take notes.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_02: Hopefully I answered your question.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um today, try to have fun.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: It ain't always supposed to be about note-taking and all of that stuff.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: Have fun while you're doing it.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um if it's not the approach that you like, completely, completely okay.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, all right.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_02: Not only do we get rid of questions, we also get audio questions.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: So let's see what we got today.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, what's up, Kenny?
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: Big fan of the show, big fan of the channels.
• 41:37
  SPEAKER_00: I've been watching since the through the wire days, since the basement days.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: So big fan.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_00: My question is as following What is the thing you look for most when assessing if a young team is legit or is just getting lucky?
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_00: And thank you.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: Continue the good work, my friend.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate the kind words.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_02: Y'all are so nice in this community, man.
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there are a few different things I would look to.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I look at the level of competition.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because we've seen teams start off high or have a five-game stretch where they look really good and like, oh, they went against five lottery teams.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_02: And at the end of the day, you can only beat the teams that's in front of you.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't use that as a negative, but it's more of like, should I put this team on the next level?
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna hold off on that, even though they're on the five-game streak, because they beat this team and this team and this team, and that guy was out with a with an ankle sprain, and that guy was out.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I usually look at that schedule, and I also always think that when it comes to that conversation about who what wins championship defense or offense, Kevin Durant versus Draymond thing over the last couple of weeks, I'm always a guy that's gonna steal more defensive-oriented than offensive-oriented.
• 42:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, that's just the way I've I've been raised, and that's the way I kind of see the game of basketball.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: So if I'm trying to figure out if a team is legitimate, I'm looking, again, watching the games, but I'm also looking at the numbers of their defense.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: What shots are they giving up?
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_02: Where are they giving them up?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: Are they open?
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: Are they getting some level of um luck through the openness rating and teams just not hitting shots?
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_02: Because that happens a lot, where a team for a month will be like, oh, that was the number four team in defense.
• 43:07
  SPEAKER_02: You'd be like, oh, snap.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: They gave up a ton of open three-pointers, the easiest three-pointer in the game, but the opposing team happened to shoot 7% below league average, and that was enough.
• 43:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't think that that's the perfect way to kind of evaluate these things because you kind of can get lost in the numbers.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: You can get lost, and some of these things is I we have seen teams that have relative, the opposing team has been relatively unlucky shooting for the entirety of the season, not like all 82 games, but if you look at the the overall stats for the year, teams sometimes just have opposing teams shoot bad from certain places, right?
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_02: So the question is is that really schematic?
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's the same question we had about the Bulls, ain't it?
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh my God.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, is that really schematic, or are you just getting lucky?
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I mean, it's hard to really tell at the end of the day.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: Some things are just so glaringly obvious when a superstar player, a young superstar player, is taking a jump, like when Shea was doing it, or like Like uh um, I don't know, um, Anthony Edwards or a Kay Cunningham's of the world, you kind of see that, and that is usually the first step to answer your question of like teams taking the next jump, having a guy that looks like he's going to be not just an all-star, but be a superstar level player, to be an all-NBA level player.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_02: Once you have that, that's the first stop.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_02: And then after that, it's about who's that number two?
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_02: What is the defense?
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Is this coach the right one?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: Because we've seen teams be pretty good as a young team, and we recognize that ah, that coach is never going to be able to get them over the hump.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then a new guy comes in and he's able to get them over the hump.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a lot that really goes into it.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_02: But at the end of the day, none of us really will know until we see those teams in the postseason.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: Last year, the the team that ended up winning the championship won 60 plus games, and there were people leading into the playoffs that said, I just don't believe it just yet.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I couldn't even tell them that they were wrong because you've only really seen it in the 82 game sample size of the regular season, and they happen to be, it will ended up being the youngest championship team of all time.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_02: So the people that were OKC skeptics, I don't think they were that crazy.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, even the team that went on to win all those games and went on to win a championship did go to two game sevens to get there, right?
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_02: So we never really know.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: And that is the beauty of this sport.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_02: When we come back, I don't know.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: We're just gonna talk a little bit more hoops for a couple of minutes.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: I ain't got nothing else to say.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: Unfortunately, we only do this show once a week.
• 45:26
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_02: I be I be feeling like we don't get to talk as much.
• 45:30
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna tell you the things I'm looking forward to for this upcoming week, and then we'll come back next week and see what we found out.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I mentioned, we got some good games tonight.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: The one I'm looking forward to the most is that Blazer magic game.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_02: The Blazer kind of the team defensively that we thought the Magic were gonna be this year.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to see those two teams collide a little bit.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: I wish Bayamada Bayo was healthy because I would love to see him play against that Cavaliers team.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_02: I've said it once, I'll say it again.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_02: I've been loving the Bayamatabayo season, even if his efficiency has dropped off a little bit, or maybe a lot of bit, I feel like he's more aggressive.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_02: And that's at the end of the day, that's all I've really been looking for for my boy Bayamatabaio.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_02: Tuesday night, this is where things get real interesting.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_02: The Thunder, who are still the best team in basketball, got the Warriors potential playoff matchup.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's a 1-8 seed because the Warriors fell off a little bit since the last time we talked.
• 46:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but no, it's always great to see when you see your top players in the league go against each other, Steph Curry and Shake Giuseppe Alexander.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_02: Um, great matchup.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um can I just say OKC somehow is we talked about the worst relative offense in the league with the Dallas Mavericks, the best relative defense in the league of all time.
• 46:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, not just in the league right now, of all time is this current Thunder team.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: And they were missing Chet for a long time.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: They've missed J Dub.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_02: Caruso hasn't played every game, Luke Dort has missed games.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_02: The fact that they have been able to just piece together win after win after win and grind it out wins.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: It's just, oh, it's it's amazing.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's gonna do nothing but benefit them in the long run.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, next game that I would say I'm really interested in.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_02: Ooh, a little back-to-back action for the Warriors.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_02: They got the Spurs.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_02: Dang, dude, there's a world where we look at the Warriors and they're two games under by Thursday or by Wednesday.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_02: That's a tough one.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that's an old team over there, man.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_02: I don't even know if they're gonna play all the guys on the back-to-back.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_02: Word may not play.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_02: Jimmy, I know Al Horford definitely don't play back-to-backs.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_02: So that's interesting.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_02: Even though I'm not, again, I don't really like watching Mavericks games, I am so very intrigued by the Phoenix Suns.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think that when we come back next week and we talk, if things go the way I think they might go for the Suns, we might have to do an entire Suns segment because they are playing what's the saying go?
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_02: The saying goes greater than the sum of their parts right now.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_02: And Jalen Green has come back and he looks pretty rejuvenated.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: And I made this point after the first game of the season, and I don't know if it's really stuck because this guy has missed a ton of time and he's just coming back himself.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think when it comes to role players, Dylan Brooks is like one of the best floor raisers from a role player that we've had in the NBA right now.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like in the few games that he's played, I feel like just the defense is so much better when him there.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it's hard to not get that defensive bug if the dude around you is doing this and it is that contagious.
• 48:16
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Thursday night, we got Raptors versus Cavs is an interesting game.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Brandon Ingram just went viral for throwing that bottle down on the floor and hitting the ball boy and hitting Scotty Barnes.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_02: I hated every single second of that video, by the way.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_02: I've had times, and I'm now I'm not bretting no goddamn Brandon Ingram now.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: I played sophomore high school basketball.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: It's the first I ever got.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: Where I got a tech and I got benched for it.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I was so in my own head and so in my own bubble that I let my team down.
• 48:48
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not even saying that's what Brandon Ingram did in that moment in time, but I looked out of that, and I was 14, by the way.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_02: I looked out of that and thought to myself, what the hell was I thinking?
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_02: And to see Brandon Ingram throw that on the floor, it explode everywhere, and them sit there for four minutes and get it up, and he didn't say a word.
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't, he didn't grab a towel.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, bro, that's just a bad look.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a bad look.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_02: But in this one, uh, the Cavaliers are a good basketball team.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_02: The Raptors, in theory, could be a good basketball team.
• 49:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm interested to see what that defense of the cast could look like and how the Raptors regard the bigs.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if Jacob Purdy will be back by then, but the way they attempted to guard Jordan Bede in their last matchup was pretty interesting to me.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to see how much that could carry over to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um and that is a three-game slate on Thursday.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: I kind of like them little small slates because you can really lock in.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_02: And then lastly, getting to next Friday, the NBA Cup continues.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_02: And we do have, hold on, which game is it?
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: Which game is it?
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_02: Warrior Spurs again.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_02: Oh man.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe we're doing an anti-Warriors episode next, bruh.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_02: Because this that is as like um producer Greg was telling me that the Warriors have a tough stretch coming up.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't think it was gonna be this bad, man.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think it was gonna be this bad.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: And as of today, they've had the seventh uh seventh hardest schedule already, and it continues to get crazier and crazier.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, um, hopefully that's been another great episode of Small Ball with Katie Beacham.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: I am an open book, so hit me up on Twitter on Instagram with thoughts um about the things I talked about.
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I will see y'all next time.