Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / I Tried To Summarize Every NBA Team In 45 Minutes

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I Tried To Summarize Every NBA Team In 45 Minutes · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: This season alone, Joan L has the most 50-point games, and I want to say to you, he's played 35 games.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: The people he's fighting against, the people he's fighting against have played double the amount of games as him.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: And he still has the most 50-point games in the association.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, Walker, welcome back to the Kenny Beach and podcast.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, we gotta talk about the return of Joel Embiid and what that could potentially mean for our playoffs, which is right around the corner.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the Doc Rivers era because what are we, 28 games in, and he has a 500 record with this roster?
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Is that good?
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Is that bad?
0:41
SPEAKER_00: We want to talk about it.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: We got our favorite, and I mean absolute favorite segment, hashtag AskKB.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, today it's one question.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: But that one question made me think a lot.
0:51
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about all 30 teams when we reference that question.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: I want to end the show talking about some college hoops.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: You want to guess if it's men's or women?
1:00
SPEAKER_00: You gotta wait and see later in the episode.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: All I need from you is to leave a like, subscribe, go over to audio, uh, Apple, Spotify, give us five stars.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of y'all have definitely noticed that over the last couple weeks, the Candy Beach and podcast has not been uh bi-weekly.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we kind of shifted the schedule a little bit because I I think I mentioned this on the last episode that or a couple episodes ago, that I'm at the point now where I'm not learning many new things about these teams, right?
1:24
SPEAKER_00: We're watching for the enjoyment factor and I'm waiting for the playoffs to really start.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And with that, I'm trying to figure out is it worth it to put together two episodes a week if I don't really love the content that that we bring, or should I spend all of my time and effort for that one episode?
1:39
SPEAKER_00: So, right now, yes, we are going one episode, but there will be times where it's back to two, all you need to do is hit the nadi button and you'll never miss an episode.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: You gotta think about the schedule because it's just gonna be dropping.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: When the playoffs come around, we probably are probably gonna go back to two times a week because of one week.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Hell, the whole series could be over in one week when you really think about it.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to let y'all know that the schedule has shifted just a little bit in the sake of quality over quantity.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: All right, so Joel Embiid made his return, y'all.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: He made his return against the OKC Thunder in a way that is gonna get the 76s investigated again.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: This is the second time this season, according to reports that they've neglected to tell us what's going on with Joel Embiid.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, we they they said that he might come back for OKC.
2:24
SPEAKER_00: That was Shams and Wold's reporting.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And then that morning's like, oh, he didn't participate in the shoot around.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: We're like, oh, dang, okay, we'll get him next time.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: And then an hour before tip-off, they said Joel and Bede is in that lineup, not giving OKC any time to prep for this random regular season game.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, OKC had already been telling us that they were sitting Shea Gilders Alexander, who had just hit a game winner versus the Knicks a few nights before that, and sitting Jalen Williams, who did everything until the game winner against the New York Knicks a few nights before.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: So we also didn't have any Tyree Smacky.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: So this game was so very exciting going into it, and the one glimmer of excitement was, of course, Jordan B being back, but no Shea, no uh J Dub, and so on and so forth made it a little bit um iffy, at least when it started, and then the game came on and yada yada.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: The game ended up being good.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm not here to talk about officiating because I know that's all y'all care about.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: It's not really where I'm at.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: When I was watching this game, which was not live, I had to go back and watch it.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: I was just looking at how Jordan B was moving.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And the obvious thing is that he was gassed.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he hadn't played basketball in what, eight weeks, eight real NBA basketball in eight weeks.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: And anybody that's played high-level basketball, I'm not saying this is me, will tell you that there's no way to get into game shape other than to play in the game.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: So he can hit the bike uh three hours a day.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: He can play scrimmages all day, all day long, but nothing is gonna be like that real intensity of a game.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: And those three-minute increments, four-minute increments, you could tell by the end of it, he was completely, completely gassed.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: But other than that, I was okay with the movement, man.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: I was okay with the movement.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: There was one play where he went coast to coast, and again, we're talking about a guy that had a lower extremity injury for the last eight weeks.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know if we were gonna see that version of him.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: You know, he even got the big steal on Josh Gideon.
4:01
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
4:02
SPEAKER_00: So I thought the way he moved was uh promising.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, with them having what, seven, eight games left for the season, they said that they're trying to play him as much as possible to help with that conditioning.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: So I wanna say, I wanna say that we might get 80 to 90 percent.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's let's dim it back a little bit.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: 70% of Joel and B come playoff time.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: And that is all I really needed to hear.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, when Joel and B were down with his injury, I don't know.
4:27
SPEAKER_00: I came into the show and I was like, I don't know if it's even really possible for this man to come back from that level of injury in time for the playoffs.
4:34
SPEAKER_00: And here he is, which is another testament to Joel and B because the conversation around Joel Embiid has evolved throughout the course of his career.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: But obviously, very early on, it was about him not being in shape one and not being healthy ever.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: And he's changed that narrative, right?
4:49
SPEAKER_00: And Jordan B, how do I want to say this?
4:52
SPEAKER_00: Jordan B does not have a lot to win with this playoff run.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: I think a lot of us are gonna say that the 76ers are not a team that we expect to raise a Larry O'Brien trophy once we get to the middle of the summer, right?
5:06
SPEAKER_00: He is already a guy that has been um less than what we expect from him in the playoffs to have his career, right?
5:12
SPEAKER_00: So the easy route for all of this is to say, hell, I had, what was it, a Tormeniscus?
5:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't think I'll be ready for the playoffs and say, hey, this offseason, we got a hell of a lot of money.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: There's some rumors about some Paul George.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Next year is the year that I'm gonna come out there and give him my all and change the narrative around me in the playoffs.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: He don't got a lot to win unless he actually does the ultimate thing.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: And I think once you become an NBA player or become a top level athlete, that competitive nature is always gonna get the better of you, right?
5:40
SPEAKER_00: No matter what the situation is, because he believes that he slash the 76ers will have enough to win a championship.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: But he don't got a lot to gain because I could see it going a lot of different ways, and a lot of those ways ain't pretty for Joel Embiid.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: The the worst part about it is that he will not be given the benefit of the doubt, even though I believe that he she he should get it.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean, again, eight weeks without real basketball, and he's ushered back into the team a week and a half before the playoffs.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's a ton of pressure.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: So if they go out there and lose in the first round, they go out there lose in the second round.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not looking at Joel Embiid like, yep, I told y'all that he don't perform in the playoffs.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: This is just a different level of, I don't know, adversity, if you will.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: But the thing that makes it so excited for me as a guy who's um, I guess going into a relatively neutral, because my favorite team, though they have a chance, they don't have a chance, is that Joel Embiid and the 76ers as of today are sitting at the eighth seed, a game and a half behind the Miami Heat, who also won a game the other night um against the New York Knicks was a big, big win for them, and they're half a game behind the Pacers, and Pacers gotta uh figure some stuff out, even though they've been playing okay.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, more likely than not, let me let me go to this.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: It's not my notes right here, but hell, this is this is what we do on the Kenny Beats and podcast.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: There's a website that Professor Zach Lowe always talks about.
6:53
SPEAKER_00: It is called the playoffstatus.com.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: And according to playoffstatus.com, the 76ers basically only have an 8% chance of moving up to the 6C.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: So more likely than not, they're sitting at seven or eight.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: Right?
7:06
SPEAKER_00: They're sitting at seven or eight.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: So that would mean that they would either play against the Miami Heat or the Pacers.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: And I guess here saying that the Knicks have a chance of falling out of the top six.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: It's a small chance, about a 10% chance, but a chance nonetheless.
7:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, that they're gonna be playing one of those teams.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's just say it's let's say it is the Miami Heat, because that is the way it is at this moment in time.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, first of all, amazing playing game to start off with.
7:27
SPEAKER_00: And I would assume that if they win that, of course they advance, if they lose that, that I would feel comfortable with them playing against the Atlanta Hawks or Chicago Bulls for that final spot.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: This means that the 76ers and the Miami Heat have a possibility to be going against the Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's been a very long time, ladies and gentlemen.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And it's been a very long time that Eastern Conference first-round matchups have been good.
7:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't want you to misinterpret because last year we saw an AC beat the one seed in five-game series.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: That is a great series.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying we've been void of good slash great series, but we've been, we we haven't had an upset other than again the Miami Heat deal what they did last season.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: Or we haven't had like these long, oh, who's gonna win a series in the Eastern Conference in a very long time.
8:13
SPEAKER_00: You want to know how long it has been?
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Other than, of course, the Miami Heat beating this the Bucks 4-1 last year, and the last 20 matchups in the Eastern Conference, first rounders, 18 of them ended in five games.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: 18 of them.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: And all of them, other than again, the Miami Heat one, was the higher seed advancing.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean 4-5 is a toss-up, so I didn't count that, but I mean like the one-seed advancing, the two-seed advancing, the three-seed advancing.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: So we haven't had a series outside of top five much since 2018.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: 2018, we saw two seven-game series in the first round.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: That is the Celtics against the Bucs, and boy, do I remember the conversations about the Bucs then?
8:53
SPEAKER_00: And again, we're talking about 2018.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: They eventually won their championship or three years later, but it was about Giannis.
8:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh man, can Giannis be the number one player on a championship until you shut all of that up?
9:01
SPEAKER_00: It took a few years, but he shut all of that up, and that's why I don't really go into those type of conversations on this type of show.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Also, in that same playoff, um, we saw Pacers versus Cavs, four or five matchup.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: And that was one of my favorites.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: I remember almost everything about that series where I was when I was watching most of these games.
9:17
SPEAKER_00: And I remember that game seven where Braun came out and draw 45.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Game seven, Braun, no Carrie Irving.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: It was Kevin Love and J.R.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Smith is in this one.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: So this is when they pretty much took their roster, gutted it in the middle of the season, said, Okay, Braun, go win.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: And Braun did everything in his power to win that uh that series and the series after that.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: And it's when I I want to do another deep dive once we get to the offseason about some of the most legendary playoff runs that failed.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Like when you think about legendary playoff runs, obviously you start to think about the teams that won it.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: You think about the um, I mean, the Bucks from from a few years back.
9:47
SPEAKER_00: Even I know you try to look at, oh, the the average record of this team, but I still believe that the Nuggets run was legendary considering all the talent they had to go through to get there.
9:57
SPEAKER_00: But you never really think about the the teams that went on a legendary run but failed.
10:01
SPEAKER_00: And LeBron and them obviously got swept in the finals because it was goddamn Kevin Oran, Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Green.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: But leading up to that point, Braun was on a whole nother level.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: And and I just remember, I remember one thing, and this is a whole tangent, but hell, this is what the Kenny Beach podcast is.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: I remember watching game one or game two, game three.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: It was one of the first, it was either one or two.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: I because I remember where we were at.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: It was either one or two.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: And I remember it might have been Kevin Harlan on the call saying, LeBron James is having a career year and assists per game.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: It was nine something.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: And I think he's in year number 15.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: Bro, it's been five years since then, and Braun is still amazing.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Like it's it's crazy to think about.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: I know we've given Braun a lot of flowers over the past couple years, but again, I gotta continue to do that because I don't know how much longer we're gonna have Braun at this level.
10:51
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um back to the original point.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: These teams, the um Boston Celtics and the Milwaukee Bucks, have grinded their way to being the one and two seed.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Bucs are only up by half a game and a half against the Cavs.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about the Bucs in a second.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, but again, I feel okay with saying that they're probably gonna finish in those one or two spots.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: And to say that your first round matchup is the Miami Heat or your first round matchup is the Philadelphia 76s.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, neither of these two teams, the Boston Celtics or the Milwaukee Bucks, are gonna go in there uh teeth chattering.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: They're not going in there thinking that we're about to lose the series.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: They're not afraid of these teams, but hell, throughout the course of the Jason Tatum era, throughout the course of the Giannis era, when we've been a one or two seed, the first round, again, other than last season, has been basically a buy.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we actually have to play, but we don't actually have to play.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: This is about to be one of those series where these boys actually have to go out there and take care of business.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: Because I understand that the Miami Heat are 42 and 33, and and catching lightning in the bottle two times and back-to-back years is almost impossible, but it's still the Miami Heat.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: They're starting to put some stuff together.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: Terra Rozgier just had 34 points the other night against the uh New York Knicks.
11:56
SPEAKER_00: It's been a minute since we've seen Terry Rozier do something like that, and he's starting to really find himself over the last week and a half, two weeks.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: And they this is uh really good timing for that.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: Jordan Bean ain't played in eight weeks.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: But guess what I saw in that first game?
12:09
SPEAKER_00: A really good two-man game with Buddy Healed in just the first game they ever played together.
12:13
SPEAKER_00: Kyle Larry played off him pretty well.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: And one thing about this is like I talked about this on my other podcast numbers on the board with the guys, that since um Buddy Hill had been traded to the Philadelphia 76ers, I feel like he was being misused.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: I that was just a jackass comment of me, because of course he was missing the the best player on the team.
12:30
SPEAKER_00: Joe B came in.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is a career high and assists per game.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: His playmakers at an all-time high.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Of course, we weren't gonna see Buddy Hill be used the exact same way or have a super um uh lethal Buddy Hill because he's missing the big fella.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: And the first game back with the big fella, Buddy Hill and him in that two-man game was nice.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Okay, Lee Bray hit a couple big shots early in the fourth quarter.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: It was nice.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: So the big fella comes in and he has to go against the Celtics or the Bucs.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just saying that we're in for at least one or two really, really good first-round matchups in the Eastern Conference, and I am completely, completely here for that.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: It's just been it's just been way too long.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, I I will say right now, again, anything could change, but I would probably more likely to not take the Celtics in that series versus the Heat or the 76ers, or more likely to not take the Bucs in their series versus the Heat or the 76ers, but it ain't as easy as I thought last year.
13:17
SPEAKER_00: Granted, last year I had the Bucs going to the finals, and look how that got me.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: So my my predictions don't mean a goddamn thing.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: But Jordan B back being back is great for hoops.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I want to remind people that before he went down with his injury, he was averaging the most points per minute, over one point per minute in the history of basketball.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: He also had a 70-point game.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: He has the he still actively has the most 50-point games in the season.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: And y'all, he has missed the last.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: Hold on, hold on, hold on.
13:46
SPEAKER_00: This season alone, Joel Leb has the most 50-point games.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say to you, he's played 35 games.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: His the people he's fighting against, the people he's fighting against have played double the amount of games as him.
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And he still has the most 50-point games in the association.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: Just a reminder how how tough and how great Joel Labid um has been and probably will be.
14:08
SPEAKER_00: The one question I had about Jojo coming back was like, hey, the the game is being called a little bit differently since the last time you played.
14:15
SPEAKER_00: How will you adjust?
14:15
SPEAKER_00: So how will the refs adjust?
14:17
SPEAKER_00: And he shot, what, 12 free throws?
14:18
SPEAKER_00: He got in and got his double digit free throws either way.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: I just don't know if that's gonna stay the way.
14:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Will he adjust?
14:24
SPEAKER_00: When they adjust, I'm not completely sure, but welcome back, Joel Embiid.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh, just want to see you back with Tyrese Maxie and the rest of the guys.
14:29
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15:33
SPEAKER_00: Okay, transitioning away from them to talk about the Bucs.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on the Bucs because I feel like I've talked about them a lot.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, and it makes sense because they are a team that have been completely confusing this season.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: They're a team that just traded for Damian Lillard before the season started.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: Like, of course, they're gonna get a lot of coverage because Giannis is one of the two best players in basketball and he's playing like it every single night.
15:56
SPEAKER_00: And they added a guy that was pretty much consensus top 10 going into the season.
16:00
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of us believe that this team was gonna be super supernova team.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: And right now, 47 to 28.
16:07
SPEAKER_00: And in the Doc Rivers era, they are 14-14, which is uh, let's say less than ideal.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: Let's say less than ideal.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, the first bit of that um was they started off really poorly, and this is what you're gonna see in changing of coaches and stuff like that.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: We actually seen it a few different times, not even just a coach thing, but like when James Harden got ushered into the Clippers, they lost five straight games.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Like it's pretty normal when you're gonna see a shift in philosophy, a shift in schemes, a shift in a lot of different stuff.
16:34
SPEAKER_00: The team is gonna take some time to get used to.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: And then eventually they went on a nice little run.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: I think at the max, it was like an eight to nine game run.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, that's that's pretty dope.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: This last game grinded my gear so goddamn much.
16:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, we were on playback.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Playback.com.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: No, not.com, playback.tv backslash enjoy b-ball.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: We've been streaming over there a couple different times.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, the Bucks went into this game.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: There was no Damian Lillard, and their record without Damian Lillard is less than what we would want.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: Again, you still have Giannis and company.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: You would expect to still be able to win a bunch of games.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I was even at one of the games where they didn't have um Damian Lillard and they got destroyed.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: I was at that game.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: But this one, they had no Damian Lillard, but that's fine.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: It's the goddamn Wizards.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And shout out to the Wizards because they have won a lot of basketball for their standard recently.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: They are now 15 and 61.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: They in their last 10, they won four games.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: That's better than the Nets.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: That's better than the Bulls in that stretch.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, that's better than the Jazz.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: I did not realize the Jazz were on a 10-game losing streak.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: That lets you know when we get to those bottoms, it's a little bit rough.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: But okay, the Bucs do not have, they do not have uh Damian Lillard.
17:37
SPEAKER_00: But again, that shouldn't be a problem.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Because the Wizards, here's the 10-man rotation of the Wizards in this game.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Jordan Poole, 16 points, 13 assists.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: His best.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Is that his career high in assist?
17:46
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Then they had Corey Kispert, who Corey is having such a phenomenal season.
17:51
SPEAKER_00: I cannot wait to see what his next season looks like.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Because again, we got like six more games of this year for him, but he was so phenomenal all year long.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Corey Kispert then Yabdia, also been phenomenal, ups and downs uh throughout the season, but more likely than not, been a phenomenal.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: There was no Kyle Koolsman this one.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Instead, they had Anthony Gill, and it was one play in this game that really grinded my gears.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: It's late in the game.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: The Bucks are trying to fight their way back, and they're putting on this little press.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: And in this press, somehow, Anthony Gill ended up wide open under the basket with nobody within 10 feet, and he just dunked the ball.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what is happening?
18:19
SPEAKER_00: And then they closed out their center position was Marvin Bagley, who only played nine minutes.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: Marvin Bagley played nine minutes.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: So who's Marvin Bagley's backup?
18:27
SPEAKER_00: Tristan Vusevich.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, not Nikola, but Tristan spelled differently.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: But Tristan Vusevich, Johnny Davis, who um I still every time you shoot a jump shot, I'm like cringing a little bit.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: They had Jared Butler, who had a career high 17 points in this game, and Eugene Amarayi.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: I never know if I'm pronounced your name right, but I remember you talking trash to Nikola Vusevich, and Nikola Vusevich gave you a baby.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: That's their lineup, their bench unit.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: It's Trishan Vusevich, Johnny Davis, Eugene.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Oh, and Jared Butler.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: No Tys Jones, no Kal Kuzma.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: And you lost this game.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: I feel like the Doc era has a few of these, man.
19:08
SPEAKER_00: I feel like the Doc era has a few of these.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: And the main thing, like when Doc Rivers came over, the most exciting thing about Doc Rivers coming in is that immediately the defense changed.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: They were one of the worst transition defenses in basketball, and you're just not gonna win a championship that way.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: I feel the same way about the about the Clippers right now.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers are a terrible defensive transition team.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Now I know the game slows down on the playoffs, but golly, you you're gonna be bottom five and try to win a ring.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: Well, the the Bucs were bottom five.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: And then Doc came in and said, hey, well, this is not exactly how the conversation with, but I'm gonna assume he he looked at the team and said, when the shot go up, get back.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: And it changed everything.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: Their defensive numbers, they start to creep up.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: They start to oh my my uh my notes just crashed.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: They start to creep up defensively.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that, again, is just them getting back on defense.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: A lot of that is them ushering a scheme that they played two years ago when they won the goddamn championship.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: In this Doc Rivers era, let me let me double check with when these last ones happen.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: Um they lost uh oh, the two Lakers games.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Again, it's not the same as losing to the goddamn Wizards, but the Lakers were missing again, Braun and stuff.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: They they lost uh right before the all-star break to the Memphis Grizzlies.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Like they they have a few of these.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: They lost to the Portland Trailblades, the Utah Jazz.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I think the Jazz one um is right before Doc Rives got here.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, and that is I don't know.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: They lost by 35 to the Warriors.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Um it's just a lot.
20:33
SPEAKER_00: And it's a team that I've been even I've been trying to waver my expectations and I've been up and down on it.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Right?
20:42
SPEAKER_00: Going into the season, I said, hey, the Celtics are still my favorite to win a championship.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: When they got Drew Holiday in, I know Damian Lillard was over here, but goddamn, Drew Holiday and Porzingis look would look pretty good next to those guys.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: So far, the Celtics have been the better team.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: But even then, I was hesitant.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: Even early in the season when things ain't look too great.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, they have Giannis Atheda Kumpa, one of the most um unfuckwittable forces in basketball.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: They have Damian Lillard that if the clutch player of the year award existed for a decade, he would have like four of them thanks.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Minimum.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: The rest shouldn't have two.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: Must have been hell.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: The rest was Brooke Lopez, who finished top three DPOY a few years ago.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: The rest is Chris Middleton, who was an all-star a few years ago.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: Looks pretty good.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: And then they start to slow down, like, uh, but then again, the things are the things.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: And and then I got to the point I was like, Giannis is Giannis.
21:31
SPEAKER_00: I trust him.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm back down, bro.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm back down.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: And things get really interesting.
21:38
SPEAKER_00: I talked to y'all um earlier about the fact that they are a game and a half above the Cavaliers, right?
21:43
SPEAKER_00: A game and a half above the Cavaliers.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Here's how the end of the season ends for the Bucks.
21:48
SPEAKER_00: They have the Knicks, which is a tough matchup.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: They have the Celtics, they have the Magic, they have OKC, and they have the Magic again.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Their last five games are above are about um against really, really.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Good playoff teams.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: And with them being a game and a half over the Cavs, I don't know.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: The Cavs ain't been the most amazing team.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: We're going to talk about them later in the episode.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: But a game and a half is a game and a half.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: And this is a stretch that you want to have a lot of momentum.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Even though I think there was an article written years and years ago about momentum going to the playoffs, it's not a real thing.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: That you can, um, teams have gone in with high momentum, six, seven game winning streaks, and then it don't matter because it's really about matchups.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: And teams going into the playoffs have struggled and then got to the playoffs and won a goddamn championship.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: Even though I said I'm down, I'm trying to be as lenient as possible, right?
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Because they have the tools of a team that should be able to get the job done.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Right?
22:46
SPEAKER_00: That's all I can really say.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: And if you go to FanDuel's sports book, they are tied for the third highest odds still.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: They're tied for the third highest odds, only behind to win the championship, by the way.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: Not to get to the conference finals, not to just get to the finals to win the whole damn thing.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: They have the Celtics first at plus 170, they have the uh Nuggets second at plus 350, and then tied the Clippers and the Bucs are plus 750.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: So FanDuel still believes that they are one of these top elite teams.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: And again, though I'm down, I understand it.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: But you let me know what you think.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: So we actually have two Ask KB questions today.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: The first one comes from James, 30545.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: Can you do a one-sentence summary of every team this season?
23:23
SPEAKER_00: This ain't really a deep basketball question, but I think it's fun.
23:26
SPEAKER_00: And James, you're absolutely right.
23:28
SPEAKER_00: This is a lot of fun to do.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, I have one to sometimes two, just a little bit, give me a little bit of wiggle room, okay?
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, sentences, sometimes it's two words, sometimes sentences about every team without any context.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: This is my sometimes I'm in the third person as if I'm a fan of this team, yada, yada yada.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It's just one sentence about all 30 NBA teams.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: The Celtics, third best net rate in the history of basketball, but you don't care.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Nuggets, back to back feels inevitable.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Bucks, at least we have Giannis.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: Is that bad?
23:59
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
24:00
SPEAKER_00: No more context, no more context.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Wolves, we told y'all.
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Cavs, remember January and February?
24:06
SPEAKER_00: I remember that.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: See, that's that's two sentences.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Um Thunder, this is just the beginning.
24:12
SPEAKER_00: The Magic, the offense will accompany will come eventually.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers, it's now or never.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks, Jalen Brunson is the best point guard in the Eastern Conference.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: The Mavs.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: What does he need to do to get the MVP award?
24:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say it again.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: What does he need to do to get the MVP award?
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Okay, um, Pacers, you can't outrun us.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: The Pelicans, Zion is still Zion.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: The Heat.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Remember what we did last season?
24:42
SPEAKER_00: You gotta smirk with it too.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: Remember we did last season?
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Just kind of reminded people that you think that you could do it again, whether I think that so or not, it's irrelevant.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, the Kings, we're still good, but y'all not paying attention.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: We're still good, but y'all not paying attention.
24:57
SPEAKER_00: Big pause.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: I know that I said I wasn't gonna do anything.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: Last year, the Kings were like the darlings of the NBA, and though they they're down to standings now, but they virtually have the same record that they did last year.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: Now that the league has evolved, where the third the same record is no longer the three seed, instead, it's the goddamn ninth seed.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: But it's like they're still good.
25:15
SPEAKER_00: Nobody really cares.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: The 76ers, um, and beat maxi in a max spot coming soon.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: The Suns.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: Maybe maybe we shouldn't have made that trade.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: The Bulls.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what we're doing.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Let me let me repeat.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: We don't know what we're doing.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: Three tradable first round picks come off season.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: That's all Robert League is talking about.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: That's two sentences.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, the Hawks.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: At least we know we can't coexist.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Warriors, is this the beginning of the end?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: The Nets, we have no idea what we're doing.
25:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's a few teams with that quote.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Because these teams don't know what the hell they're doing.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: The Rockets, look what a good coach and building a culture can really do.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: The Raptors, best believe we pick an we keep an R pick.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: Best believe we keep an R pick.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: Them boys ain't won a basketball game in a very long time.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Um The Jazz.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: No, nobody's paying attention, including the person writing this sentence.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: The Hornets, Lamelo, please.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: Please, bro.
26:21
SPEAKER_00: Just Lamello, Lamelo, please, bro.
26:24
SPEAKER_00: You see that um LeVar was blaming Puma for his son having all these injuries?
26:32
SPEAKER_00: Story for another day.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: The Grizzlies is just a gap year.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry, we'll be back.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: The Wizards, this is the first year of the rebuild.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Can we please relax?
26:42
SPEAKER_00: Did I get that right?
26:43
SPEAKER_00: I said Grizzies was the last one.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I said Grizzlies.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Grizzies was the gap year, and the Wizards was this is just the first year, please relax.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: The Blazers, a minus 58 ain't that bad.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Pistons, yeah, we lost 28 straight, but we promised to be better next season.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, the Spurs.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: How could how did we get so lucky?
27:04
SPEAKER_00: Again.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: It was a third goddamn time they got this lucky.
27:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, that's that's all 30 NBA teams, one sentence or more.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: You let me know what you uh think about those.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some of those were pretty wholesome, some of those things were maybe a little bit harsh.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: Either way, the very last question we have of the hashtag askkb second comes from Thomas.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: What made your family choose the White Sox over the Cubs?
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh, yeah.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Do you not remember that on the description of the Kenny Beach and podcast, it says sports, basketball, baseball?
27:33
SPEAKER_00: Remember that?
27:34
SPEAKER_00: I was saying we're gonna talk a little bit of baseball.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I mean a little bit of baseball, really.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: It's very simple.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: My dad was a base um a White Sox fan.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: So I'm a White Sox fan.
27:43
SPEAKER_00: Like, how did he become a White Sox fan?
27:45
SPEAKER_00: I don't know because I think he told me a story of his grandfather being a diehard Cubs fan because of um Ernie Ernie Banks, um, one of the few, maybe the first.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm not too great on my baseball history, one of the first black baseball players here in Chicago.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: So his granddad was a huge fan of the Cubs, and maybe it was just a rebellious spirit of being a young kid saying that, oh, I don't want to like the same thing my parents like, so I'm gonna like something else.
28:09
SPEAKER_00: Uh, and that's maybe the story behind it.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, I know for sure that my dad used to work not for the White Sox, but in the White Sox Kaminsky Park a little bit.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that was part of it.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: But I also think he did the same thing at Wrigley.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: But I basically carried all of my fandom from my pops.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: Bulls fandom, white sox fandom, blackhawks fandom, bears fand.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: He's a Chicago through and through multiple, multiple pieces of tattoos that let you know that he's from Chicago, whether it be the Chicago theater sign, which I also have to be with my dad, um, a bear hat.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: He's got the White Sox logo, but not the traditional White Sox logo with the SOX.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: He's got the he's got the one with the dude batting.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: I don't believe he has a Bulls logo, which would be interesting because they're the most successful team of his lifetime at all of the all of the Chicago sports team.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: So maybe he doesn't.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: I just overlooked it.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: But um, yeah, I'm just I really admired my dad.
29:02
SPEAKER_00: He was my hero growing up.
29:04
SPEAKER_00: So whatever he liked, I liked almost every front.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: And that ended up in sports as well.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: So it was just that simple.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, it probably would have been better for me to be a Cubs fan, but you know what I want to say?
29:15
SPEAKER_00: Because the White Sox are the little brother of Chicago when it comes to baseball, and I can say that because again, I'm a White Sox fan, they don't have as many celebrity fans as like the Cubs.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: Now, the White Sox logo is killing the Cubs logo.
29:29
SPEAKER_00: Ice Cube.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, you can go on and on of celebrities that you will see rocking at White Sox hat.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: They are not goddamn White Sox fans.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: It's just a black and white hat that looks fire, right?
29:38
SPEAKER_00: So, because of that, the Cubs always have an A tier, no, I'm sorry, a C tier to S tier celebrity that they are ushering in.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: The White Sox don't have that level of celebrity fandom.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: So little me, F list, F minus list celebrity, gets embraced by the by the franchise.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: Get to throw a first pitch, get to do jumbotron stuff like that's the cool part.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: And I think if I was a Cubs fan, I would just not have those opportunities.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: So um shout out to my people at the White Sox.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Now it's also part of it that the people that run the White Sox also run the Bulls, and I do a lot of work with the Bulls, so it kind of ushers in together.
30:15
SPEAKER_00: But either way, I feel like if I was a Cubs fan, um, I might be more happy.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, especially this season.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: God damn, this White Sox suck.
30:22
SPEAKER_00: But hey, we gotta win, and we're not we're not the last winless team in bat baseball.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: That's Tim Anderson and Jake Berger and them in Miami, unless they won tonight, which I don't I don't know.
30:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna assume they didn't because they look back.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, but you know what?
30:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm right here.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Let me see if they won that game.
30:37
SPEAKER_00: Did the Marlins win their game?
30:39
SPEAKER_00: No, they're 0-7.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: Hell, the A's gotta win before the Marlins.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: That lets you know a lot.
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32:37
SPEAKER_00: All right, let's get to the next thing.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: And these are going to be quick hitters, but these are some things I've been talking about or thinking about over the last couple weeks or so.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: Um we talked about the Cavs, right?
32:46
SPEAKER_00: My quote for them was remember January, February, where they were the hottest team in basketball.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: And part of that was so interesting to me because this was right on the heels of the missing Darius Garland and Evan Mobley.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: And I remember exactly where I was when those reports came in because they came in like almost back to back, if I remember correctly.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: I was at the mall getting my beautiful wife a gift, and I got the notification.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: And I think I went on my burner account and said, Hell, do you think about trading Donovan Mitchell now?
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Because in my mind, there was no world they would be able to sustain a level of success without Darius Garland and Evelyn Moby.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Oh Mobley.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I was completely wrong.
33:19
SPEAKER_00: Evan Mobley hit a corner three-point shot at the IC game the other day.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Almost fell on my chair, baby.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: I love that, Evan.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: But um, I was wrong.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: And they were one of the hottest teams of basketball for a two-month stretch.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: But since we've come back from the break, they are 10 and 13.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: They're the 22nd ranked defense if you get rid of all garbage time and 20th ranked offense.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: This is not the identity of the Cavaliers that we've grown accustomed to.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: This is the Cavaliers doing this recent stretch of them being a good basketball team.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: It's like, hell, we are the one or the two best defensive teams of basketball.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: We won a two.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: And before that stretch, when they were um uh 34 and 19, but going into the all-star break, they were the number two defense.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: So something has happened in the last 23 games that they've dropped from the number two defense to the 22nd.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And if you're watching the game, it's apparent.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: You can see it happening.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: The offense, 20th and 0.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: And again, if you're 20th and 0 but the number two defense, you're a good team.
34:11
SPEAKER_00: That's basically the makeup of the Orlando Magic right now.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: So you could still be a successful team, but this is not a team that's trying to be the Orlando Magic.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: The Orlando Magic are having their first playoff berth in a while.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: This Cavs team traded for Donovan Mitchell.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: This Cavs team is trying to compete for rinks, they're not here to be like, hey, we're a young team, making some noise.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: No.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: And this all is happening.
34:30
SPEAKER_00: Well, Dan Gilbert is saying, we think we'll extend Donovan Mitchell.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: And when Donovan Mitchell's asked about it, he said we'll handle it when the time comes.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, I don't I don't know Donovan Mitchell personally, even though we've DM'd once.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: A quick aside.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Um The day I went on first take was the day I got the most DMs in my life.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm just saying the power of television.
34:57
SPEAKER_00: And I did this is how I kind of imagined it, right?
35:02
SPEAKER_00: The Cavs, the Cavs, right?
35:05
SPEAKER_00: This is right before the playoffs.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: The Cavs are in their practice facility working out.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: Donovan Mitchell was on the treadmill, he pushed a weight, and they got ESPN up, and little old me, and maybe this exact hat, maybe this exact hoodie, I don't even know.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: Is on TV smiling my ass off because I was happy to be there.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: And he was like, Man, I kind of like this kid.
35:23
SPEAKER_00: And he DM'd me, and a couple other people did too.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I don't know him other than just a couple DMs.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think this is the right way you approach it, no matter what, right?
35:33
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to fall into the part where Kyrie did, and I'm not saying anything about Kyrie, but Kyrie has said, like, I'll be back if y'all have me.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: And then he was out a couple years later.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: It just sets you up for failure.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: So I think the best way you can handle a question like this when you're asked about extensions to say, I'm not thinking about that right now.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: We're in the middle of a season.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the best way you can do it.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: But it got a lot of people thinking that maybe that was the exact, not that, but just him saying, like, I'm not heavily committed to this place.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: And that had been a rumor since the day he touched down in Cleveland.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: The rumors are like, oh, he wants to play in New York, he wants to go to the Knicks, oh, the Knicks got Jalen Brunson now.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh, maybe he wants to go to Brooklyn.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: He just wants to be at home in New York.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: And with them playing as bad as they are in this recent stretch, and with him going into the last year of his contract, I'm not here to say anything that they should be looking to trade him or DG or make adjustments.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: But if they go into this playoffs and they shit the bear and it's another first-round exit, you have to start thinking about this core deeper than what you have.
36:33
SPEAKER_00: And I'll leave it at that.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: I'm watching them very heavily over the last couple, uh, the last week or so because I don't remember what their schedule looks like.
36:39
SPEAKER_00: They got Phoenix tonight on ESPN.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: So y'all will know what happened in that game before I do.
36:43
SPEAKER_00: But um it's a huge, it's a huge game, if you ask me.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: It's a huge game.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, not they are again game and a half behind the number two seed.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: It's a huge game for the Phoenix Suns, too, who will just have a bloodbath of different games to end the season.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: But again, just monitor it.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know exactly what's gonna happen.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: Next thing.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Um Jalen Brunson.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: Best point guard in Eastern Conference, right?
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Right?
37:06
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm thinking, this season I'm not again, I'm talking about this season.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: You don't talk to me about two years ago reputation, what somebody did in the playoff series in 2022, 2023.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: That shit is irrelevant to me in this particular conversation.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: Best point guard in the East, right?
37:21
SPEAKER_00: Of course, if you're looking at the Eastern Conference, the people that you're comparing them up against is like Damian Lillard, who I think we can all agree Damian Lillard has not hit the season that we anticipated.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Drew Holiday, uh, not on the same level, even though he's great at what he does.
37:31
SPEAKER_00: Darius Garland, uh, not the same level.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, Tyrese Halliburton, Tyrese Maxie, one of those two guys, maybe.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: I guess you can make an argument, but since the injury, I don't think that Tyrese Halliburton has been as consistent as what Jalen Brunson has done.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: I was just looking, you know, I watch a ton of basketball, but I don't be looking at stat leaders.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: If I'm looking at stats, a lot of times it's advanced statistics.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brunson is averaging 28 points per game.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: I'll round up a little bit.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: It's 27.8, but 28 points per game, that is fourth in basketball.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: Fourth.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: Remember?
38:04
SPEAKER_00: I remember my opinion about Jalen Brunson when he signed with the Knicks.
38:08
SPEAKER_00: And my opinion was this guy is really good, and he's gonna be the best point guard signer that the Knicks could get in the moment, but I don't know if he changes your franchise.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Actually, and I I didn't I didn't say I don't know if he does.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: I said he will not change your franchise.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: And again, I always talk about you have to be willing to accept that you were wrong and be able to laugh at some of the takes that you had.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: That offseason, we did an episode of our of the other podcast, which has been renamed to get numbers on the board.
38:34
SPEAKER_00: Go check us out.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: We're close to 100,000 subscribers.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we were grading the offseasons.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: And a reminder in this offseason, the Knicks brought in Jalen Bronson and Isaiah Hartenstein.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: Those are the two big signings, if you ask me.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: I gave it a B minus.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: Like a good grade.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, if I could go back and regrate that, it is an A plus plus plus plus plus plus extra credit.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Because not only is Jalen Brunson, again, arguably the best point guard in the Eastern Conference, Isaiah Hardenstein.
39:01
SPEAKER_00: He you know what's crazy?
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Go back and watch that episode if it still exists.
39:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: We don't own that channel anymore, so it might be gone.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, I was more excited about Isaiah Hartenstein being signed by the Knicks to Jalen Brunson.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: And again, IHart has been a phenomenal.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to him.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I could I never expected Jalen Bronson.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: And even people that were optimistic about the Jalen Bronson signing, they could not expect him to end up being as good as he is.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: We talked about him being an all-NBA player.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: It is a lock.
39:30
SPEAKER_00: You you probably have an argument for being a number uh all-NBA second team, considering OG's been out for two months.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'm sorry, Jalen uh Julius Rand has been out for two months, and then OG's been out for what, three and a half weeks or so.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: They've been consistent now.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: They lost a few games, a few heartbreakers for sure.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: But Jalen Brunson has been phenomenal.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: He just almost beat Melo's record of 60 plus points, and Wimby and them had to uh rant on that parade a little bit.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: But again, I I met Jalen Brunson over All-Star Weekend.
40:00
SPEAKER_00: And I don't remind you, I am a 5'7 man, 5'8, if I'm being generous.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: And yes, Jalen Brunson was taller than me objectively, but he wants so much taller than me that he, if he walks around New York, nobody's thinking he's an NBA player.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: He don't got the same advantages as these other dudes.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: Look, listen to the people that are surrounding him in points per game.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: Luka Doncic, 6'7, dude who's 6'7.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: Giannis is a seven-foot freak of nature.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: Shea is 6'6.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: You got Jalen Brunson.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: Kevin O'Reilly is a seven-foot demigod.
40:29
SPEAKER_00: Devin Booker, 6'5, 6'6.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brunson is in that conversation with some of the most elite scorers in basketball right now, and he is slightly above six foot, if that.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: And New York has not seen a talent like him in a very long time.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, like Melo.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Melo, Melo, that's it.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: There was a pretty dark side after Melo left.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: And now you got Jalen Brunson.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: And we don't know what the hell is going on with the rest of the two guys we mentioned, OG Ananobi and Julius Randle.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: But though, just having Jalen Brunson, I feel good in a lot of playoff series.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, you want to see one of those two guys come back.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: At least one of those two guys come back.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Both of them, you're super excited about.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: One of them, you're you're happy about.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: But I just wanted to say, man, him being the best point guard in the Easter Conference to me this season, it's just something I didn't expect.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, the last thing I want to do before we end off the show, yeah, we're getting up there in runtime.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: I think it's time.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, I kind of want to talk about, and it might be a minute max, about women's college hoops.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I had never, before two years ago, I had never sat down to watch a women's college basketball game.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: I think about two years ago, three years ago, let's say, I was starting to uh dabble in the W a little bit.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: The the Chicago Sky were great.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: Candace Parker had just signed to Chicago, and I'm like, she's from Naperville.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: I've I've been to a Raisin Cains restaurant in Naperville that got her high school jersey framed up.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know what I'm saying?
41:55
SPEAKER_00: Like she's somewhat of a local legend.
41:58
SPEAKER_00: And um they brought in Candace Parker and eventually went on to win the championship, which is crazy.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, I basically jumped in that season.
42:06
SPEAKER_00: Let me see, what year was that?
42:07
SPEAKER_00: Chicago Sky.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, Chicago, Chicago Skyline is what pops up.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Which, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: Championship.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, their championship was 2021, right?
42:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, so yeah, that's three about three years ago is when I started to pay attention to the W more than any time before, because again, we had uh Vandersleuth, we had you know, we have some heavy hitters over there, okay?
42:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then I met Coach.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: I had met Coach, who's now no longer coach, but I had met him in the elevator in Texas at DreamCon at all places.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: Another tangent of a story.
42:35
SPEAKER_00: Um but I never sat down to watch an anti-AA women's basketball game.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: But I heard about a few people.
42:43
SPEAKER_00: One of those people I heard about was Paige Beckers.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: Paige was a viral sensation.
42:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, and she's lived up to the hype 100%.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: And then later, a little while, maybe a year after that, I heard about a woman at Iowa named Caitlin Clark.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: Again, with me having my heavily focused mind on the NBA mostly, I heard about these names.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: I had seen some maybe highlights about Paige on House of Highlights or these other places, but never did it catch my attention enough to tune in.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: All of that shifted last season, like with many other people in America.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: Caitlin Clark took the world by storm.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: She's doing things that we have never seen before, breaking records.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: This year she broke pistol Pete Meravage's all-time leading scorer in college hoops history.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Not the women's side, not just the men's side, the history of college hoops scoring.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm pretty sure she has a record of most three-pointers made in college hoops.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: She beat out who?
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh Kelsey Plum, I want to say.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: I could be mistaken there, but I remember watching the game when she broke it.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: I think it was Kelsey Plum.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: And I again, knowing who I was four years ago, never in my mind did I think that tuning into the women's tournament would be like the thing that I was excited for the most.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Paige Beckers gets injured.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, shit.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, Gino Ariama, I had one conversation with him, and he sent me a frame picture.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: That said to Kenny, um, unrelated, I actually have it over there.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: Unrelated situations, but um, I know Gino, I had known all the history about UConn and their success.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: I had known about Don, who I've also interviewed.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Shout out, shout out to Coach.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, but never again, even with all of that, never really cared to pay attention.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: I was dumb.
44:20
SPEAKER_00: These girls are so talented.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: In the night that we got the rematch of LSU versus Iowa.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: I'd say this a lot because again, I'm a hoop head.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: I could not have been more excited for a matchup.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: It was I s I hey listen, I'm I swear to you, I'm not pandering.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: I'm not this is my genuine.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: I was more excited for this than I was for the Super Bowl.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a football guy yet.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: This is the year, though.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: This is the year.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: I just I did just see Stefan Dis get traded to the Texas now.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: They they building something.
44:56
SPEAKER_00: But the Super Bowl, I wouldn't even care about the game.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't like all the family coming over.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: Pops is on the grill.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: We got some ribs coming in.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: This was like, I told my wife that at 6 o'clock, uh, Miss Rachel has to go.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: Because we are watching Angel Reese and Flo Jay uh uh uh go uh um go against Caitlin Clark and company.
45:22
SPEAKER_00: And it was as good of a matchup as I could have expected.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: It lived up to the hype 100%.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: I ain't have no dog in that fight.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: I ain't care who won or who lost.
45:30
SPEAKER_00: I just wanted a good game.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: And in that first quarter, first quarter, Angel Reese looked like I don't want to compare it to an NBA player, but again, I don't know the history of the W or college uh women's college.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: She was looking like goddamn Kareem on both sides of the floor, bro.
45:46
SPEAKER_00: And then um a lot of drop coverage got Caitlin Clark hitting nine threes.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: Drop coverage, pull up three, pull up three, pull up three, pull up three.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: And it was just so very fun.
45:56
SPEAKER_00: And then what happened after that?
45:57
SPEAKER_00: It was Paige versus Juju.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: It's just women's sports in general.
46:05
SPEAKER_00: It's of course growing on all aspects, whether it be the W, whether it be women's soccer, shout out to Team USA have doing been doing this for a decade now.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: The women's sport is just growing and growing and growing, and it's just so good for hoops in general.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: It's so good for sports in general.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: Like my daughter, my daughter's about to be two next week, right?
46:26
SPEAKER_00: She's she's in the living room while we're watching this game.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: She don't know what the hell is going on.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: She knows what a basketball is, but she don't she don't know what job drop coverage is.
46:32
SPEAKER_00: She don't know the name Caitlin Clark.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: She don't know Paige Becker's.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: But to think that eventually I am gonna be confident enough to be able to show her these people to say, like, hey, I can't, I'm not gonna control what sports my daughter plays, but best believe I'm trying, I'm gonna try my hardest to get her to love basketball.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: But I I know, like so many people with references, I can say, hey, I well, I I guess I don't want my potential five-year-old daughter trying to shoot like Caitlin Clark, but you get what I'm saying.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: It's just in such good hands.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: And I always think about again, my daughter's a lot younger than this.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: But there are some seven-year-olds, eight-year-olds that are that watch that for the first time and might have fallen in love with basketball.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: So this generation of Angel Reese and Paige Becker's and and and so on, Cameron Brick and Brink and so on and so forth, that's just now current generation.
47:24
SPEAKER_00: They had people like Sue Bird to look up to.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: They had people like Diana Tarasi, Candace Parker, so on and so forth.
47:30
SPEAKER_00: But these young kids now are gonna have this generation to look up to.
47:33
SPEAKER_00: And it's just gonna keep getting better and better.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: And the same thing that we saw in the NBA hopefully transitions over to the W and transitions over, continues to transition to the W or NCAA, W, NCAA, is what I meant.
47:49
SPEAKER_00: Where all it takes is for a few great players to influence a whole generation.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: Magic and Bird, oh here come MJ.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: MJ influences Braun.
48:00
SPEAKER_00: He influences Kobe, Kobe influences David Booker, he influences Sheikh Yugius Alexander, Steph Curry.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: We don't even know the players that Steph Curry has influenced just yet.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: They on their way.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: And we're seeing that same evolution in the women's sport, and it's phenomenal.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's just why I want the end of the episode.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, we still got the uh the final four.
48:20
SPEAKER_00: I ain't even talk about a South Carolina who's an unbeatable force every single season.
48:24
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Coach Don.
48:25
SPEAKER_00: Um they're going against NC uh North Carolina.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: No, no, North Carolina State.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: Is that what NC State?
48:32
SPEAKER_00: NC State, yeah, because the boys are on the other side too.
48:34
SPEAKER_00: So um, good stuff going on.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: Hey, if you enjoyed today's episode, leave it a like, subscribe.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: Let me know what you agree or disagree with.
48:41
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to everybody that submitted a question on hashtag ask kb.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: I I feel great.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: What a good episode we just put together.