Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Biggest Surprises of the NBA Season So Far

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Biggest Surprises of the NBA Season So Far · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:05
  SPEAKER_04: Welcome back to Small Ball with Kenny Beechum.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_04: Today I brought in a very, very special guest, my boy Cone.
• 0:10
  SPEAKER_04: You might know him as one of the biggest OKC Thunder fans in the in the world, is what he was telling me.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if he's gonna live up to that, but we do get to talk about a lot of OKC and the biggest surprises to start at this year.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, hey, we can't predict it all.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna be wrong.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_04: We're gonna be right.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely gonna be some surprises along the way.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_04: All I need from you at home is to leave a like on the episode if you're here on YouTube, subscribe to the channel, tell a friend to tell a friend if they need their NBA fix, this is the place to be.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_04: And if you're listening on Spotify, on Apple, or wherever you get your podcast, give us five stars as we continue to try to climb up the ranking to be the number one basketball podcast in a.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_04: I need that.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_04: I want to give a very special welcome to OKC's biggest fan, like Twitter fan, I guess we could say.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_06: I call myself the number one Thunder fan, but every time I say that in a video, there's always like three or four people that are like, you're not a bigger Thunder fan than me.
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_06: You don't know what I've been through.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_06: And I do, I 100% get it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, man, appreciate it.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_06: I'm glad we finally got the chance to sit down and do a video together.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_06: I know last time we were gonna do one, I got my wisdom teeth out, not at the best timing.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm glad I don't have to get teeth ripped out of my head before this one.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm I'm on the track for that too, man.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_04: These two back here, they say gotta go.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_04: I guess the ones on my right side are fully in and not causing any problem.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_04: So I think I might have to get that done in like a month or so.
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so if you ever need me to be on your show or on your channel, I'm gonna have to use that as an excuse as well.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that's okay.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_06: I already use it as an excuse.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_06: You know, I I dodged once, I couldn't dodge again.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_06: So you you've got that still in your back pocket.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_06: That's fine.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_04: No, this is a perfect time to have you all know because as of right now, your favorite team, your OKC Thunder, are still undefeated.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, even we saw the Boston Celtics lose a game.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_04: You guys are left with the Cleveland Cavaliers, man.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_04: So you've gone through again the ups and downs of an OKC fan.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_04: How is it feeling now being one of the favorites to do the thing?
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's weird because last time they were legitimately like a contender was, I mean, last year you can talk about it, but there was like, oh, is the experience still there?
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_06: Last time they're like one of the favorites was back in 2016.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm 24, so I was 16 years old.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_06: So I don't like, I mean, obviously I remember it, but I'm way more into basketball now than I was then because now you know I do it for a living.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_06: Like, this is I live and breathe hoops at this point.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_06: And so to be able to watch my favorite team and know like they have a real shot of raising the Larry O'Brien trophy, and I've already told everybody this like if they win the finals, it will be the greatest day in my life.
• 2:49
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know if anything will ever top it.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_06: Um, so it's a super surreal feeling, and it's crazy how quickly they got here because I know there was all that, you know, when they tanked, there were some moments where I was like, you know, they had uh those games at the end of the season where they're playing like Georgios Kalazykis and Josh Hall, and you know, Poku is going crazy for some double doubles.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_06: Rest in peace, my agenda that Poke might become an all-NBA player someday.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_06: There's a TikTok edit of me saying that, and then it transitions into Poku Highlights, it's now playing overseas, it's fine.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_06: But going from like that just a couple of years ago to now it's Shea is an MVP level guy.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_06: And I mean, Chet right now is taking the leap like before our eyes.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_06: He's going crazy and the stuff that Dub's doing out there, and then the defense of Crusa, which thank you again, man.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_06: I appreciate it.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_06: Although Giddy might be in the three-point contest this season, so maybe we both won.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_06: Um, you know, Caseon Wallace out there is one of the league's best defenders now, it feels like, too.
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, watching like Lou go from guarding James Harden and having that whole game seven with all the threes, where he was like considered one of the worst offensive players in the league, to now being a really solid three-point shooter, had his own three-point contest on ESPN last night.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know if you saw it.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_06: It's just crazy.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_06: And Isaiah Hartenstein hasn't even played yet.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_06: They've kind of slept walked to these first four wins where they look like pretty solid for the first half, and then third quarter, fourth quarter, they're like, Oh yeah, we're the thunder, and then they just end up winning by 12 plus points.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_06: They haven't like won a game by less than 12.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_06: The Spurs win yesterday was the smallest margin of victory so far.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_06: And it's it is a surreal feeling, man.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_06: I can't believe that they're here right now.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, small sample size is like the epit the name of this episode.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_04: But based on the game so far, you guys have the second best defense in the history of basketball.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I feel really good.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_06: You know, small sample size, I like to say it's you know, a deep compared to you know, five or four or five games played amongst teams, I would say that is a very average sample size for all the teams that have played so far.
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_06: Um, but I mean, I was saying before the season it could be a really good defense, but I mean, so far it's even surprised me because again, iHeart hasn't even played yet, and they've still just been destroying people on that end.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yesterday we had the matchup, uh, Chet versus Wimby, this rivalry that we I want it to be a rivalry, but so far it hasn't been because the Spurs kind of are stinky.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and even yesterday, you guys held Wimby to like the least amount of points of his NBA career so far.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I thought it was very interesting that like the way Mark Dayton has you guys, I never pronounced his name right, by the way, um, has you guys defending where like originally in your mind it's Chet versus Wimby, these dudes will be guarding each other for 30 plus minutes.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_04: This is what it really is.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_04: But a lot of times you guys opted to do like it felt like a tandem type of zone where it was Alice Caruso as like the primary defender on Wimby and allowed Chet to be like the super roamer.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_04: And anytime Wimby got close to the basket, they were sitting two to three bodies.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_04: And you guys have just done a phenomenal job.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_04: And I got to see it firsthand when y'all played against the Bulls a couple nights ago of just not allowing the star players to have a star type performance.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like, if it's not Wimby, it's gonna be Chris Paul who hit a couple threes, and we love that for Chris Paul.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: We do love that.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_04: But if it's not Wimby, or it's it's Harrison Barnes who put the ball on the floor for a heavily contested late.
• 5:58
  SPEAKER_04: I was like, we're gonna eliminate your star, and we have all the tools to do it.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_04: It's I I've said this before on this podcast.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if you've you've been locked in, but like I think that the 2023-2024 Boston Celtics are gonna go down as one of the most influential teams of all time.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, for sure.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_04: And we're starting to see like Coach Mark is what um Joe Kim Noah was calling them yesterday because he can't pronounce the last name either.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Coach Mark kind of adopting some of the stuff Drew Holiday has done defensively with Alice Caruso.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_04: And I find that very, very interesting because they have similar modes of like the way they're built, and of course, the motor and being such a great defender, where we did see Drew Holiday being able to guard true fives and let Chris Stabsporzingis or whoever it may be play the roamer.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_04: And that's Chet right now, and he's been phenomenal.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_04: The the opening day when you guys played against the Boston Celtics, that was all the sample size I needed to say Chet is the favorite to win DPOI this season.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_04: Like that is the thing.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_04: You mentioned the leap, it's happening before our eyes.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_04: Me and my boy DeMills got$100 on this season for you guys.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_04: And the question was who would average more points?
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_04: We know Shea is going to be first, even though he started off slow for the MVP candidate.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, would it be Jay Dub of Chet?
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I put my money on J Dub, and he's also started slow.
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_04: And right now, it's through four games.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_04: Chet has been by far the more impactful player.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, if you would ask me, I would have said dub as well, because last season, whenever Shay wasn't on the court, if if it wasn't Giddy, it was more likely J Dub handling the ball.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_06: And we would always go into, you know, he would play the first full 12 minutes, and they've changed the rotation a little bit now.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_06: He's checking out towards the end of the first quarter.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_06: But he would play the first full 12 minutes, then uh second quarter would start, J Dub would come and do all the ball handling, do a bunch of scoring.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_06: But specifically, that same rotation going to the fourth quarter is when he would turn up.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_06: It would be like, oh, Shea's off the court.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_06: Here's the chance for the other team to make the run, and then Dub would do his thing in the fourth quarter.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_06: But now, like, I mean, he's still doing all that stuff.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_06: Just some of the shots that he's hit the past couple of seasons aren't quite falling yet.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_06: But like Chet, the way that they've allowed him to handle the ball, and I figured they were gonna do a lot more ball handling with him now that the usage from Giddy is gone, but it's been even more than I was expecting, and he's just taking full advantage of.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, last night, that play where he tried to throw it off the backboard and dunk on Wemby, I might I might have gotten banned off Twitter X, whatever you want to call it if that happened.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_06: Because that I would have tweeted that like 15 times in a row.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_06: That would have been the only thing I tweeted for the next week.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_06: He the fact that he's just trying stuff like that, he's knocking down a lot of those like little turnaround mid-run jumpers, the touch around the basket is amazing.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_06: He's fighting in the contact more, getting to the line more, which to be a great score in the league, you've got to be able to get to the line.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_06: A lot of people would hate to hear that, but it's true.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, unless you're, you know, like Steph Curry, who just doesn't get respect with the whistle.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_04: He's an anomaly, yeah.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_06: He's just he's Steph, it's what he does.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_06: So yeah, man, I I'm I always believed in Chet.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_06: He was my favorite player going into the draft class.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_06: Even if the Thunder didn't get him, he's the player that I wanted.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_06: And when we were able to grab him at two, I was like, this is amazing.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_06: This is the exact guy we need.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_06: But like, I mean, this is I guess now technically his third year after being drafted, but it's his real second year.
• 9:01
  SPEAKER_06: He's just doing stuff that is ridiculous.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_06: I believe he's already right there in top five big conversations.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_06: It's you know, I can't be I can't be mad at it right now.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, I wasn't sure if I was gonna get pushback there.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_06: I appreciate it.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I because I mean I'm thinking, do we count Joel and Bede who hasn't played a single second?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_04: You know, I'm counting him.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_04: I'm counting.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, so let's go yoke and bead, AD in some order, because AD's been phenomenal as well.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_04: For sure.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_04: After that, the conversation was like Sabonis, it was BAM, it was Wimby.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_04: And you would I could argue very easily that Chet has been the most impactful of all three of those dudes so far to start the season.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's no shot shot at DeMontasabonis, who's been phenomenal as well.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_04: But like again, we're talking about DPOY type of defensive production and also averaging 20 plus points per game.
• 9:47
  SPEAKER_04: Like I think he's there, I think he's there right now.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_04: And the question is, will he be?
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, producer Greg is in the comments saying Zoobots.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_06: Hey, big big zoo, he's been going crazy.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_06: I can't even lie.
• 9:58
  SPEAKER_06: Zoo Alcindor has been going nuts over there in Los Angeles.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_04: Something about DeAndre Aiden, though.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_04: Jokic said that was his toughest guard, and now we just saw Zoo, who's averaging 22, have a game against Aiden where he put up six.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, DeAndre Aiden might be in DPOI conversation.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I'll just make sure to throw him in there with Zoo for sure.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah.
• 10:16
  unknown: Yeah.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_04: All right, maybe that's enough.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, we'll have you back on the show in the playoffs.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_04: You guys are going in the finals against the Boston Celtics.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_04: I want to talk about the biggest surprises to start the year.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_04: I've said it once, I'll say it again.
• 10:29
  SPEAKER_04: Overreacting to the first week or month of the season is so very fun for me to have this as like one of the main reasons I make content on sports is to have like this book of all of my takes, all of my great ones, all of my bad ones, all of my overreactions.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I think part of surprises to start the year might be a little bit overreactionary.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_04: So I'm so excited to talk to you about what you've been seeing um across who I'll give my first one.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_04: This was higher on my list um before last night.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_04: The Clippers are not as bad or boring as I thought they were gonna be.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_04: They were a team that when I was predicting NBA standings, which is always a tough video to do every single season, I had them like like 12th to 13th in the standings.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_04: And the main reason behind that is I was so damn tired of the Kawhi Leonard stuff.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_04: How long will he be out?
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_04: So on and so forth.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_04: You just missed out on Paul George, he's gone over to Philly.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_04: So it was really like James Harden, Zubach, and some cool role players, right?
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_04: And when I saw the preseason thing where James Harden felt vindicated because Luka Doncic made it to the finals.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that type of system can work.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I I was just completely turned off with a mid-30s James Harden being this focal point.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_04: He's second in the NBA right now in Usich, only behind Giannis.
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_04: And hell, they're two and two to start the year.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_04: And the two losses that they had is because James Harden um turned the ball over late in the game.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_04: Even last night on the out-of-bounds play, he threw a terrible pass to zoo.
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_04: But they're two and two, they're 24th and no.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_04: So the offense has been bad with James.
• 11:59
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_04: But the defense, it's the defense that makes it fun.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I'm my KD, my KD is Chris Dunn, has been phenomenal coming off the bench, two plus steals per game.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_04: Deere Jones Jr., formable legend as well, also coming um doing his great thing.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_04: He had a uh double-digit point game, 20-point game the other night.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_04: But the most surprising thing is Norman Powell, who has been this notorious six-man shot chucker type of guy.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_04: Sometimes he's hot, sometimes he's cold.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_04: So far this season, he has been scorching.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't know if that's gonna last forever, but to see him come off screens and take 30 point uh 30 foot three pointers has been crazy.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_04: And the second unit has been amazing as well.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, uh, as a Thunder fan, if the Clippers suck, that's huge for me because Cooper Fog and OKC would be kind of fun.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_06: I also had them, I believe, 12th or 13th in the standings, especially when we had that Kawhi Leonard news that he was gonna be out indefinitely to start the year.
• 12:51
  SPEAKER_06: It just felt like the vibes were so bad.
• 12:53
  SPEAKER_06: You know, it's that it felt like a moment where they're just holding on, doing whatever they can to try and remain relevant because they gave up so much to make this era happen, but I didn't think it was going to happen.
• 13:03
  SPEAKER_06: And they've been nice, I can't lie.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, every game they've been in, like you said, even the two that they lost, one was to Phoenix in overtime, and then the other one to the Blazers, who have started the season surprisingly decent as well.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_06: And that was only because of a bad imbounds pass.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_06: There's a couple of plays that go their way, and they're 4-0 right now.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_06: And James Harden's been great, you know, orchestrating the offense the best that he can because it isn't a very talented offensive roster.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, if you like defensive basketball, this is a team that's gonna go ahead and just completely muck things up.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_06: I think against the Warriors, they forced like 21, 20, something like that turnovers.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_06: It was a lot.
• 13:36
  SPEAKER_06: The Warriors were just completely flustered going up against the Clippers.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_06: And I would love for them to be worse, but I can't lie, I've been having fun watching Clippers basketball, you know, seeing James Hart do what he does, you know, shout to Greg.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_06: Zubots going crazy, just you know, completely taking over games.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_06: It almost feels like like a 2000s basketball type of team where you've got the point guard just dishing out a bunch of dimes, you've got a shooting guard that's gonna chuck up a million shots and score a billion points, a big who's just down low in the post, hitting like hooks and stuff like that, uh, you know, playing this kind of gross, like defensive type of basketball of the offense is not super fun to watch, but defensively they're gonna really make some highlights.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_06: I I've enjoyed it.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_06: As much as I should be rooting for their downfall, and it ultimately does help my favorite team.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, man, they've been for sure better than I thought they would be, especially without Kawhi.
• 14:25
  SPEAKER_06: Even with Kawhi, I wasn't expecting the biggest things from this team, but with him not out there starting off two and two is pretty impressive.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, I watched uh yesterday, and that was the Trailblazer game.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_04: And the entire time I'm thinking, like, okay, so we saw the Nasty Televised game.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_04: That was the first real home game they've had in the Into a Dome.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_04: The wall looks phenomenal.
• 14:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Kevin Durant is missing multiple free throws, Devin Booker missed free throws, and so on and so forth.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_04: I watched it yesterday, and maybe it's the lighting of the arena.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_04: It looked pr pretty pretty damn empty.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, this is a brand new arena.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_04: I cannot wait to get there.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I was so surprised that it wasn't that many bodies.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_04: But one of my favorite things about basketball specifically is watching on League Pass and not having commercials, but instead, I get to experience the arena from home.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_04: So you get to see what's going on in the jumbotron.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_04: The Intuit Dome is ridiculous, man.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_04: They have like remotes on every single um chair where you can vote.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_04: They were playing siblings or dating on the screen, and you can vote um green or blue.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, yo, that's crazy.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_04: And they're incentivized to participate.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_04: So Steve Bomber is a crazy man, is willing to spend billions of dollars, it looks like, to create a team and make his fans happy, which is pretty cool.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_04: But I do think with them starting off this way, um, it got clippers fans in my mentions with like trade ideas.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_04: And early season, it was a lot of Zach Levine Clippers thing.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_04: But in order to make that happen, it I think it guts the team a little bit too much.
• 15:56
  SPEAKER_04: Um, it's Trey Mann, it's PJ Tucker who's not on the roster anymore, and it's Norman Powell.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_04: And then one of the guys that tweeted at me that originally um he replied back to his tweet like four days later after Norman Powell had the 30-point game and was like, actually, I don't think it's that much of a difference between Zach Levine and Norman Powell.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm like, hold on, hold on, hold on.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_04: One of them can do it consistently consistently as long as he's healthy, and the other one is a little bit up and down.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_04: So um it puts them in a very weird spot because because they don't own their own draft picks and it's going to OKC, they're not really incentivized to do the whole blow-up thing that some people expect.
• 16:31
  SPEAKER_04: So they might continue to be maybe a little bit above 500 all season long, maybe make a play and push and lose in the first round, potentially, but still, that's better than giving Cooper Flag to OKC.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_06: I completely disagree, and I'm honestly upset that you would even say such a thing.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_06: But yeah, no, man.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, they're they do feel like a team that if someone becomes available and there isn't that big of an asking price, they could take a little bit of a swing.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_06: Again, like you said, the salary has to not be too crazy for them to not completely gut the roster.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_06: But I mean, if someone becomes available, even if it's not like a superstar, like an ulcer caliber player, like maybe a fringe guy, just someone they're willing to take a flyer on.
• 17:09
  SPEAKER_06: I wouldn't be surprised.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, Steve Ballmer, like you said, is willing to spend billions of dollars to make like a basketball playground with a billion bathrooms.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_06: So I'm sure he's willing to shell out for whatever to make this team kind of hang around for a little bit longer because yeah, at this point they don't really have any assets to do the whole blow-up thing.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, there are some teams that have started off better than expected.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_04: I guess we'll probably get to some of these later, but I'm looking at different candidates.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_04: It's like, do they care about spending$26 million a year to get Kal Kuzma?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, that feels like not a perfect fit.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Brooklyn has a bunch of good role players like Cam uh John Cam Johnson has started off pretty okay start this year, but the Brooklyn Nets are surprisingly okay also this season.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_04: So um I do believe that if they stay similarly around 500, that they will try to take somewhat of an upgrade.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, maybe that's Brandon Ingram, who's less than Zach Levine in contract AAV, but you're gonna have to pay him this offseason.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um anyway, give me another one of yours.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, so I mean, I think I'm gonna, you know, talk about a team that I wasn't sure how they're gonna perform this season.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_06: I think everybody was down on them a little bit, but it's been bad.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_06: Uh the Nuggets have looked really bad to start this season.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_06: Now they did just get a couple of wins, but it was overtime wins against the Raptors, with it's an injured team.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_06: And honestly, if Scotty doesn't end up getting hurt and with that eye injury, I think the Raptors win that game.
• 18:30
  SPEAKER_06: And then the Nets, who I mean, Dennis Schroeder, Thunder Legend, might just be the most improved player.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_06: He's scoring like 30 a game out there, so maybe they're good.
• 18:38
  SPEAKER_06: But those are two teams, if you're the Nuggets, you really don't want to be going overtime against.
• 18:42
  SPEAKER_06: And it's taken just absolutely heroic efforts from the best player in the world, Nicole Jokic.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_06: If he wasn't Wilt Chamberlain with a three-point shot, they are probably 0-4 right now.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_06: He's been dominant in the way that he usually is, but it almost like right now looks to me, and the supporting cast is more talented than this, but it's almost given me like 2016 Russ vibes, where Russ was like, I'm gonna do everything I can just turn to an absolute hero to save this team.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_06: Now, that supporting cast, you know, didn't have a Jamal Murray and Michael Porter Jr.
• 19:11
  SPEAKER_06: and Aaron Gordon, it had uh Samar Christian, it had a Joffrey Laverne, you know, guys like stretch forward DeMontis Abonis.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_06: Stretch forward DeMontus Abonis.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_06: What a dark era of OKC basketball.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_06: I was telling you about the ups and downs.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_06: Stretch forward DeMontis Abonis trying to turn him into that might be the worst thing Billy Donovan's ever done.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_06: Um he kind of had to, but yeah, like the fact that it's taken these absurd like performances from Jokic to even get to overtime and win against these teams.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_06: Against the Raptors, he had 40, 10, 4, 1, 2 on 18 of 27 shooting, and they had to go to overtime to beat that Raptors team.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_06: 29, 18, and 16 last night against the Nets to win in overtime.
• 19:50
  SPEAKER_06: Jamal Murray still doesn't look like the guy that we're used to.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_06: MPJ, I know against the Thunder, threw up, I think, 10 threes and hit three of them.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_06: And there was that one three where he started pull up with it and kind of hesitated and like threw it over to Aaron Gordon in the corner, which I don't know if I've ever seen MPJ pass up a three.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_06: Even contested, wide open.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_06: It doesn't matter.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_06: You could have three dudes guarding him and he's still gonna shoot.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_06: With that one, the fact that he's passing it up, like Christian Brown sometimes looks confident, sometimes he doesn't.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_06: Russ, shout out to my guy, had a great game against the Nets, but other than that, it's been pretty rough to start the season.
• 20:21
  SPEAKER_06: Maybe they're just figuring it out.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_06: But I thought I still projected the Nuggets to be a two-seed because I was like, I don't think they're gonna go as far in the playoffs.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_06: I didn't have them as one of my top two teams to win it in the West.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_06: But whenever they've had Jokic, even that season where MPJ is out and Jamal Murray is out, they still got to, I believe, 48 wins as the sixth seed.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_06: So now that he has those guys, even if you know you don't have KCP and you worry about the bench, that should still be enough to get them to like 50 mid-50s wins.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_06: I don't feel nearly as confident in that anymore because they just really can't shoot, and the defense has been abysmal against some of these teams that they really should not be struggling like this against.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I mean, having a guy like Jokic, and and Jokic is in the top 1% in history when it comes to making your teammates better.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_04: Like there's only a few people ever to be as good at that one specific thing.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_04: It's a blessing and a curse, man.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_04: The blessing is obviously we can get away with not having the super duper star talent alongside him.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_04: The curse is well, now because Jamal Murray technically is our second best player, he warrants a max contract.
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_04: Because Michael Porter Jr.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_04: gets all of these open looks generated because Jokic is so damn dominant, he now warrants a max contract.
• 21:34
  SPEAKER_04: And because of that, they've pigeonholed theirself with their core four, and they don't have wiggle room to make the other roster spots better.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_04: I think my prediction for them was five C.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I see I had them towards the bottom of my contenders.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_04: Like I had seven contenders going into the season, they were six or seven, mostly based on respect, right?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_04: Respecting that they have Nikola Jokic, who's the best in the world, and respecting the infrastructure.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_04: But a lot of that has really changed.
• 21:57
  SPEAKER_04: Like they've never been a high frequency 3.10.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_04: Throughout the entire era, hell, they were one of the worst um three-point shooting teams of the modern era when it comes to like comparing it to what the league average was.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_04: But this year, they're dead ass last in three-point attempts per game.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_04: That is absurd.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_04: The only teams around them is uh the Toronto Raptors, who we don't expect to take many threes.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_04: They're not a very good basketball team.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_04: The LA Lakers, which is also looking like it's starting to become a problem after the last two games that they lost, and like the Pelicans, who we don't expect to get up threes either way.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_04: And it's hard to say that we're going to be a team that could win every single night if we're not shooting threes.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_04: And the one thing that saved them previous years was that they weren't allowing other teams to shoot threes.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_04: Well, nowadays they're middle of the pack when it comes to the opponent three-point uh frequency.
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_04: They were able to get by by saying we don't shoot threes and you don't shoot threes.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_04: And now they're kind of letting other people fly.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_04: And like you mentioned, that Michael Porter Jr.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_04: moment, I'm it's ingrained in my head because I have never seen him do that before.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_04: You are a career 40% three-point shooter on great volume, and you passed up to Aaron Gordon, who his best type of years is league average.
• 23:05
  SPEAKER_04: That blew my mind.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's just the lack of confidence that you're seeing on the roster right now.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_04: And again, they're able to squeak out a few wins just because they have the best player in the world.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_04: Like the game versus the Brooklyn Nets was insane that they were still letting Dorian Finney Smith guard Jokic in single coverage late in the game.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_04: Like they missed the free throw.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's a two-point game.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_04: There was no ifs, ands, or buts about it that Jokic was going to get to his bread and butter, uh little post hook on Dorian Finney Smith, and they go to overtime.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_04: And that's where the experience definitely picked up compared to a young and um not so great Brooklyn Nets team.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_04: But the fact that on back-to-back nights it goes to OT against teams that we project to be pretty bad this season, um, it's not it's not very promising.
• 23:47
  SPEAKER_04: But I do believe that they could still be a team that wins a bunch of regular season games.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_04: I just don't know how far I can project them to win this season based on the way they currently construct it.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, I know the Thunder were just we were just like anybody shoot, like Jokic gets the ball, you know, Chet's guarding him, but if he gets too down low, we send another guy.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_06: And if anybody shoots, it's a win.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_06: Like if MPJ shoots, you don't love it, but you kind of live with it.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_06: We left him open for like one, three, he hit it, and then we kind of played him a little bit more, weren't really rotating off of him, just sending the double off someone else.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_06: But there's not a lot of lineups they can throw out there where there are five competent shooters, and not every team can do that, like kind of OKC can do and Boston can do.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_06: But the fact that there's a lot of combinations where it just doesn't work, and with the Nuggets, they did something that feels very wise to the new CBA, where they brought in all these young players to try and develop in the background while you're doing that.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, the Thunder are doing it right now, like AJ Mitchell just went off against the Spurs on national TV.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_06: So he's one of those guys.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_06: Kasen Wallace made a big impact as a rookie last year, and he's developing.
• 24:48
  SPEAKER_06: The Thunder have really tried to do this, and we have so many draft picks still in the future.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_06: And I believe with the new CBA, that's kind of what you have to do if you want to maintain a long-term heavyweight contender, is you bring in a lot of these draft picks so that you can keep getting young, cheap talent in because you know, with the new aprons, your draft pick moves to the end of the first round, and suddenly you can't bring in any more contracts than you're sending out.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_06: The Nuggets have kind of tried to do that, they just haven't really hit or developed anybody yet.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_06: Like Peyton Watson, I love the defense, but that one air ball three he had against us where it just sailed like 12 feet past the rim, it's not great.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_06: Like that, you need him to hit shots, and Christian Brown's been pretty good, but yet, you know, he's not ready to be a KCP replacement quite yet.
• 25:27
  SPEAKER_06: Uh Julian Strother's had some moments and a few of the other guys, but it's just like Zeke Najee.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_06: I know you were big on him.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_04: God, that was one of my worst ones, man.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_06: I saw someone tweet out a Nuggets fan be like, you know, ah, like J Huff, like Jeff J Huff go, which I'm a UVA guy, so it's cool to see him balling for the Grizzlies.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_06: But they're like, oh, they let him go and Isaiah Hartenstein.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_06: What if Zeke Najee's the next guy?
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, I promise you, he's not the next guy in that in that line, which the Isaiah Hartenstein, J.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_06: Huff, the Zeke Najee pipeline is a crazy one to even go down if you're a Nuggets fan.
• 25:57
  SPEAKER_06: But just they haven't found a lot of hits.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_06: And honestly, that's kind of the same thing with the Milwaukee Bucks, I'm sure we might talk about as well.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_06: It feels like they've also kind of done this thing where they've brought in some young talent, just none of it has really hit so far.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_06: You're seeing the effects of that.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_04: Definitely.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I'll give you another one of mine.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it's not a team or a player, but it's like uh free throws or back, man.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_04: I remember watching the first couple days of the season, and I was like, this feels weird again.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_04: I know we all remember that post-all-star, they um let the boys play a little bit tougher.
• 26:28
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we saw less whistles, we saw less fouls, the games are going by faster.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_04: And I thought that was a really fun part of the NBA year.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm just watching some of these games, like, man, we're getting a lot of free throws.
• 26:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I was like, maybe that's just because I haven't seen basketball, like NBA level basketball since the summertime.
• 26:44
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe I'm tripping.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_04: If you go look at the numbers, the whistle's back, man.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, 25.7 free throws per game is the most we've seen since 2007.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_04: The free throw rate is at an all-time high in the 2020 or the 2020 era.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I feel it every single night when I'm watching these games.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_04: I'm like, okay, that call wasn't being thrown out there uh once we got to March of last season.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't know what changed.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like Adam Silva is very adamant to say that he didn't change anything.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_04: We didn't tell them to call less fouls, but obviously something happened after the all-star break.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_04: And it seems like it has reverted back to, you know, what it used to be.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_04: And we still don't have some of the biggest foul drawers in basketball playing to that level just yet.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, the random role players are getting to the line more than I expected.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_04: So that was just different.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_04: And I don't know if you know, again, small sample size, we're talking about like a hundred games played so far this season, but it was interesting to me to see the whistle not be um swallowed as much as previous years.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I figured they were going to come into the year with kind of that same format like we saw after the All-Star break last year, because it seemed like everybody really liked it.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, you know, all over Twitter and NBA media spaces, everyone's like, oh, this is cool.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_06: It's you know, they're letting them play more physical, and this is a really fun brand of basketball.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_06: Uh I hadn't looked at the numbers specifically yet, but I feel that too.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_06: I remember uh a few days ago sitting down to watch a Sixers Raptors game.
• 28:08
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, I'll see what this is about.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_06: And then they shot 99 combined free throws in a single night.
• 28:13
  SPEAKER_06: And I don't think I stopped hearing whistles for the next three days after that game.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_06: Like every five seconds, it sounded like one was coming from somewhere behind me.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_06: I like how does it even happen?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_06: Joel and beat's not even playing, so you can't even blame him for this.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, if he was playing, that game might have lasted six hours and there's 400 free throws, the way where they were calling whistles with that.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_06: Um, I mean, I know like the Thunder playing the Hawks the other night, and Trae Young was getting a lot of that foul call where he like dribbles into the lane and a guy is behind him and he suddenly stops and pulls up and he gets bumped from behind, and that's free throws.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_06: I remember for a little while they took that away.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_06: They're like, that's an offensive foul, you can't do that anymore.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_06: It feels like they're kind of just letting the old stuff that they got rid of happen again.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_06: I know Dame the other night, there were a lot of people, you know, mad on my timeline because Dame was playing unethical hoops, getting like 18 free throws out there, and people are like, what happened to Dame?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_06: He used to be the savior of non-free throw basketball.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I don't know.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know why they would change it completely back and why they keep doing this flip-flop.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_06: I feel like call it one way.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_06: People liked it.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_06: I liked it.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_06: It was cool at the end of last season, not hearing as many whistles.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_06: And sure, it was you know tough to see some moments where I'm like, that was a foul because earlier in the season it was, and adjusting my mindset to that to not be so mad at the refs, but it did feel like a better, more organic brand of basketball where we weren't being bogged down by a million free throws per game.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I feel that.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I wouldn't even call this a complaint for me personally.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_04: Like, either way, like I'm there, I'm gonna watch the hoops regardless.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_04: It was just a real contrast to what we saw last year, and that was just something that surprised me.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, maybe these numbers, even out, because yeah, like you mentioned that one game, they set a literal literally set a record.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_04: So, again, small sample size, maybe that outlier is making it so that it's that.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_04: But again, we have a pretty big sample size as far as total games.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_04: I think I said 100.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_04: It's been seven uh 67 games, 67 games sample size so far this year.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and it's not even close to the most free throws per game in a season because in 1957, do you want to remember this?
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, right.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_04: 1957, they were attempting 38 free throws a game.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_06: How were they doing anything else?
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_06: Was that the whole night?
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_04: That had to be it, man.
• 30:19
  SPEAKER_04: That had to be it.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_04: I don't I don't even know how we get here.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_04: How do you get to 38 free throws a night?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_06: I'd asked for a refund.
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_06: Like, I'm I'm not paying for the ticket if I'm watching 38 free throws.
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_04: But you know, back then they knew no better.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_04: They thought that's all who was George Yardley, you know, was leading the league and scoring all from the free throw line.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, man.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, they were shooting on still like the peach baskets from James Naismith's like gym still, like they were doing that just non-stop at the free throw line.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_06: So I get it.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_06: People didn't people didn't know better, they weren't ready for uh the mid-range hoops that would come soon.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, give me another one of your big surprises.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_06: Another big surprise.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, is Buddy Heel just the new Klay Thompson?
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_06: Like it's crazy because I wasn't a believer in the Warriors.
• 31:03
  SPEAKER_06: I remember watching some of your stuff that you became more of a believer in the Warriors after like the preseason and in your standings predictions and stuff like that.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_06: I didn't really buy into it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, kind of similar with the Clippers, I was like, they're just holding on to relevancy here, and maybe they fall off because last season they started, I think, like five and one with CB3.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, oh, bet my guy Chris Paul, because I know you actually have a Chris Paul guy here on the podcast, but I'm like, Thunder legend Chris Paul, he's playing really well, and Steph's looking good, and they're gonna be really good this season.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_06: And then they ended up missing the playoffs.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_06: But I mean, right now they're what four and one right now with Steph Curry not playing the past two games, and maybe that's more of an indictment of the Pelicans who have looked bad so far to start the season.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_06: It's either Zion has the best touch of all time or has the worst touch of all time, game to game.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_06: But Buddy Healed right now, 21.2 points, 50% shooting from three, and it's on a lot of attempts.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_06: He had 12 attempts last game, 11 the game before, nine the games prior, five of seven against the Blazers.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, he just can't miss.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_06: And it's been fun to watch him in that offense.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_06: They're using him in kind of clay times and ways.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_06: And Buddy Healed is one of those players where I know there's like the Buddy Healed cycle meme where it's like he comes in and it's like, oh, this is the best player ever.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_06: He's awesome.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_06: Why don't more people want Buddy Healed on their team?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_06: And then he slows down a little bit.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_06: You're like, okay, he'll be back.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_06: And then he's just not playing well.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_06: Like for the Sixers, he started off great, ended up falling out of the rotation, then had that insane game in game six against the Knicks that I was actually at with my brother, who's a Sixers fan.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_06: And every time we've gone to a playoff game together, it's been a disaster.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_06: It was that one, and we were at game seven of Hawk Sixers when Ben Simmons did not shoot the basketball.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_06: So yeah, the Sixers need to ban him from all future playoff games.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_06: But it just feels like you know, Buddy Heel goes through these cycles, but the way he's shooting right now, I mean, he might just be Klay Thompson again.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_06: And I've said before on like live streams and my channel that Buddy Heel is one of the greatest shooters ever.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_06: And I've gotten pushback, but if you just take a look at the numbers, like pure volume and amount of threes that he said, he is in that conversation.
• 32:56
  SPEAKER_06: But even I could not have expected him starting the season this good.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, he looks better than Klay did so far last season, and I don't know if that'll hold, but it's been crazy.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_04: So they're fourth, as today, they are fourth in three-point frequency, um, which is crazy because this is the team that kind of evolutionized the game to tell the world that you should shoot threes, and they've again evolved to the point where they're towards the top of the league in three-point shooting.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um, uh it's it's been amazing to watch.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_04: Now they have had a cupcake schedule to start the year.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_04: It has been as easy as can be when you go against the Blazers and the Jazz and the Pelicans twice.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's it has been pretty easy.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I think all of that is pretty good to get the reps up.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_04: I one of the reasons I picked the OKC Thunder.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_04: I mean OKC Thunder, oh my god.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_04: Um the uh Golden State Warriors was had nothing to do with Buddy Hilled himself because I didn't I didn't know.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_04: Like he got DMPs in the playoffs until the one magnificent half, and then he basically didn't play in the second half at all.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I didn't really think about that.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_04: I was more buying into AirPods, who started off slow.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_04: I was buying into Kamingo, who has been bad, other than when Steph Curry hasn't been on the floor.
• 34:05
  SPEAKER_04: So all of the things that made me excited about the Warriors, that's not even what's making them pop right now, which I think is pretty funny.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I also had a Warriors thing on mine, and I went the opposite side of the ball.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_04: It's the defense, man.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, uh, you guys have the best defense in basketball, the OKC Thunder, and then the Golden State Warriors are second.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_04: And again, cupcake schedule, what's uh whatever.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_04: But last night, on the second night of the what do they call it, the baseball series against the Pelicans, Zion shooting five for 20 on layups is disgusting.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of that is Draymond Green slash the Warriors in general, because even Kavanaugh got in there and had some great defensive possessions.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_04: But this is a team that's gonna shoot a lot of threes and they're defending like there's no tomorrow.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_04: And that's beautiful basketball.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_04: I want to see what it looks like when they play against one of the Juggernaut offensive teams because they are still really, really small.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, but when you're going against a guy like Zion, who at least in height is pretty small.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_04: Producer Greg said, after the next two games, they have the Celtics, the Cavs, the Thunder all in the world.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_04: Gonna learn a lot.
• 35:04
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, we will learn a lot about that defense and that offense.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and unfortunately, Steph Curry is gonna be missing for at least part of that.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the best thing about the Steph Curry injury is the timing.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I think they only had these two games this week back to back against the Pel.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_04: So um just in general, the Warriors have looked better than even I expected as one of the people that were pretty high on them.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I gotta give a shout to Draymond.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_06: I know a lot of Thunder fans hate him, and I still don't love that he kicked Steven Adams and you know, blow the belt.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_06: But Draymond is just one of those players that you know the jumper looks like he's wearing a backpack, and there's gonna be a lot of triple singles, but just defensively, as long as he's out there and healthy and not punching people in the face, he is just one of the most impactful defenders to ever play the game of basketball.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_06: And it's cool to still watch him.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, how old is he at this point?
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_06: Like he's uh 34.6.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, he's it's like when a little kid's like, Yeah, this is my 34 and a half birthday.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know why a little kid say 34 and a half, whatever.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_06: Anyways, Dre Mod has been really good.
• 36:05
  SPEAKER_06: And I know he had a uh post-game interview moment where he said all summer everybody was talking about Wemby and Chet, but don't forget about Dre.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_06: And I'm like, Okay, let's so in a little bit, but he's been great.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_06: I have to give him his flowers here and the Warriors as a whole because I didn't think they would be very good.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_06: And with the defense and Buddy Heel being the best player to ever play the game of basketball, they've put it together, and even with an easy schedule, I mean they've been blowing these teams out so far.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_06: So I got I gotta give him credit.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Draymond himself is shooting it pretty well to start the year on top of that, too.
• 36:36
  SPEAKER_04: And it's not like you know, we talk about some insane amount of volume, but um the shot is fallen, and Draymond plays his best when he's also activated offensively, so it is pretty cool.
• 36:46
  SPEAKER_04: The actual percentage, let me see, uh foul 50% from three.
• 36:50
  SPEAKER_04: Six six for twelve.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_04: You take six for twelve from Draymond.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, for sure.
• 36:53
  SPEAKER_04: Last year he was 39%, so maybe in his uh mid-30s, he's starting to turn around because when he was 25, that one season, that that magnificent 15-16 season, he was a 39% three-point shooter.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_04: Then after that, it was 20% um range.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_04: All right, I'll give you another one.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_04: Anthony Edwards' three-point volume is so surprising to me because he was in the class of that boy nice.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_04: And a lot of the that boy nice dudes are heavy mid-range jump shooters, get to the basket, throw it down, yada yada yada.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_04: So far this season, I'm sorry, last year, 38% of his shots were in the mid-range.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_04: This year it is down to 27%.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_04: This year, or last year, 30% of his shots are from three.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_04: 53% of his shots so far this year are beyond the arc.
• 37:37
  SPEAKER_04: And that is an absurd number.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_04: And one of the reasons why it's so surprising is it it kind of eliminates his penetration.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_04: Like he's not getting to the rim nearly as much.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_04: But if you've watched like the game versus the Dallas Mavericks, it was almost impossible for him to get to the rim because when he has the ball creating or as a facilitate facilitator in the offense, Julius Randle typically is sitting on the wing or in the corner, and teams are not guarding Julius Randle there whatsoever.
• 38:02
  SPEAKER_04: So it's like we're just gonna clog the paint to prevent Anthony Elrits from even getting down there.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, the good thing about it is that he's hitting a bunch of these threes as of right now, so it hasn't hurt too much.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_04: But I don't know if he spent his whole offseason shooting three pointers and that the percentage that he's shooting now is just gonna be him.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, it's crazy because so far he shot through four games.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_06: It's what 25, 40, 53 threes.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_06: If you told me that Anthony Edwards can shoot 53 threes through the first four games, even with the new spacing concerns now at Catscotten, I would have said you were insane.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_06: Like there's no way he's taking that many, but he's just chucking them.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_06: They are flying.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_06: And I know that first quarter against the Mavericks, he had what, like four or five threes in that first quarter.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_06: He was going crazy.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_06: And he's hit, I mean, they're falling.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_06: So that's you know, you can't really complain about that, but it would still be nice to kind of see him get his head down a little bit more because I don't know if this volume and this efficiency is going to sustain itself.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_06: Maybe it is, and I'm wrong.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_06: But it feels like if he comes back down to earth a little bit, that's where the worry about the Pelicans, not the Pelicans, the Timberwolves, and the spacing there with Randall being in town alongside Rudy Gobert really starts to come to fruition.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_06: You know, Jay McDaniels, too, it's it's up and down with him.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_06: Some nights he looks great, some nights he's really off from the outside.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_06: That was a concern that I know a lot of us had.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_06: So maybe he's just like, I'm just gonna try and eliminate that.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_06: I'm just gonna become the best three-point shooter ever, and then that'll really open up the spacing.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_06: But I would prefer if the spacing was just opened up for Ant himself to attack downhill.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_06: He can be that great three-point shooter and be that you know mid-range assassin at times, but like getting downhill and being at the rim as a top like 0.0001% athlete is kind of where I would love to see him be because you know, I want to see him dunk on people too, just from a pure entertainment standpoint.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_06: Threes are cool and all, but I would also love to see Anthony Elwards dunk on somebody.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_06: And this goes a little bit to I know there's been that super prevalent conversation on Twitter and stuff, like, oh, they need to make changes to the NBA.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_06: Like, I know there was one, I can't remember where it came from.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_06: There's like a comment or something like that that said that they should add like a three in the key, but for the corner to try and eliminate that type of spacing.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_06: I'm like, I don't know.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_04: Where did I hear that?
• 40:05
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god, that was um oh man.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: Okay, I it'll come to me.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: It'll come to me.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, Greg says Simmons, so it might have been Bill Simmons who said it.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_06: Okay, okay, there we go.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, that that sounds about right.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_06: But I just I don't know.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_06: I feel like I've been having fun watching the hoops.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_06: I know there's been a little bit with the free throws and stuff, but outside of that, I mean, I feel like it's been a great brand of basketball to start the season.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_06: It's just kind of the evolution of the game.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_06: I don't think we need to add three in the corners, or I saw some people say completely eliminate the corner three, and I've never been really a big fan of that.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_06: I just don't think there's really much you need to change right now.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_06: The game is evolving and teams things shift back and forth.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_06: Like the three-point revolution, you know, it continues to come along, but there's gonna be some type of counter to everything.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_06: It's just kind of the way the sport works.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_04: So, yeah, I'm I've remember those conversations, and um, I understand the people that may not like the way it's going.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_04: Again, that's not me necessarily, um, because the way the shots are generated continues to evolve, right?
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_04: So the way the Boston Celtics get their three-pointers up are is completely different than every other team in basketball, and it's so on and so forth.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: And if you don't like three-point hoops, then go watch the Denver Nuggets, who we talked about being dead last, or the LA Lakers who go with their big man being their best player, like whatever brand of ball you really want, I think it is out there.
• 41:21
  SPEAKER_04: Like, yes, we're gonna shoot more threes in 2024, 2025 than we did in 2008, which is like the prime time for a lot of old heads, but I still think the hoops is amazing.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_04: Like, as of right now, as a league, we're attempting 37 three-pointers per game, uh, which is the most for uh a very, very, let's just say a very long time.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um uh, yeah, that's a lot of three-pointers.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_04: That's the most ever.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_04: How about that?
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_04: Yep.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_04: That's a long time.
• 41:45
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_04: Well, who knows?
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_04: You know, back in 1978, they didn't have a three-point line.
• 41:51
  SPEAKER_04: They might have been taking the longest twos in history.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_04: You know, we don't know.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_06: There's a chance.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_06: We don't know.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, the first year that the three the three-point line was incorporated, they attempted two per game.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody loved it, nobody liked it.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_04: It was just like this thing is here, we don't trust it, foot on the line, two-pointer.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, man, that must have been disappointing.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_06: They're like, oh, we're gonna put this new three-point line in.
• 42:10
  SPEAKER_06: Like, you can get more points, you shoot like a little bit further back.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_06: They're like, nah, long two, long two, turnaround midi.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_04: Right.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_06: There's no time for that.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_04: I wonder how many of those are just like end of the quarter heaves or something like that.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_04: Like, they're not even true in the offense.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_06: Probably a bit of them.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_04: Man, who is the greatest three-point shooter of 1981?
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_04: What a what a conversation.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_06: There's a video if you're looking for one.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_04: No, somebody has it.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_04: Somebody has it.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, do you have any more of uh funny things or surprise things so far this year?
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, I got a couple like in the same division I can run through real quick.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, I mean, for the your bowls, they're looking solid.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_06: Like, I had to I had to put them in there.
• 42:49
  SPEAKER_06: I mentioned earlier Giddy in the three-point contest.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, he's been hitting threes, like he's been knocking them down.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_06: I love the way y'all are playing.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_06: I saw you tweet about like all you want was them to play fast and shoot threes, and they're doing both those things so far.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's been kind of a fun brand of basketball to watch.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know how long it's going to sustain itself.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_06: I'm sure you've got a better thought on that than I do.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_06: But I so far, as an outside viewer, have enjoyed bulls basketball to this point.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, me too.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I talked to Joe Kim Noah yesterday, and Joe Kim Noah, of course, is still ingrained in Bulls basketball.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_04: He played at Florida when Billy Donovan was there.
• 43:21
  SPEAKER_04: So him and Billy, he said Billy Donovan is like his second father.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so I asked him about the new brand of basketball because historically, even when we were winning championships in the 90s, they were always a slow team.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_04: Even when Derrick Rose, we had the fastest player in the league, but we had a slow pace.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and I asked him about the new brand, and he said Billy for the entire offseason, he had the guys do conditioning.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_04: That was all they did all offseason.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_04: And you can kind of see that where the few wins that we have, uh the two 20 point comebacks that we have back to back games, it felt like the Orlando Magic ran out of gas.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_04: And the Bulls still had a lot in the tank.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_04: And uh it's been, again, just a fun brand.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_04: Of basketball, is it sustainable?
• 44:01
  SPEAKER_04: Probably not.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_04: We do have somewhat of a cupcake schedule coming up.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_04: I think it's the Brooklyn Nets, the Toronto Raptors, and the Jazz.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_04: So we could be looking at like five and two if things go perfectly.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_06: They might be hosting that playoff series that AK talked about.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_04: Can you imagine?
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_04: I would I would have to publicly apologize to him.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_04: Because when he said that, I thought that was one of the craziest things to ever come out of a person's mouth.
• 44:23
  SPEAKER_04: Looking at that roster, you want to host a play-in series?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_04: A play, not play in play-off series?
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, not even being one.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_04: Host one.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_04: Host it is crazy.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_04: But like everybody's completely bought into the fast style.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_04: Even Vucevic, who's a slow-footed center, is bought in completely.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_04: And he's playing his best basketball as a bull, which is great.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_04: Because I do believe their goal is still to move off of Vooch and Zach Levine.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_04: So for both of them to be having good seasons to start off makes it easier to eventually convince a team to take four years of 40 plus million dollars of Zach Levine.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_04: But um yeah, Josh Getty, 17 three-point attempts, 10 of them going in.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody's guarding them at all.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_04: So uh he hit one day.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_04: They're so open.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_04: Oh my god.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_04: He hit a he hit one yesterday and he like showed emotion.
• 45:07
  SPEAKER_04: And I've watched Josh Getty a good amount with him in OKC.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but for him to be that emotional for like you know, foot on the line, oh his foot slightly behind the line, three-point shot.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_04: I I don't know if he had he ever hit three threes in a row before.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_04: That maybe that was what it was.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 45:25
  SPEAKER_06: It might have been like one moment, but I think the other stuff that happened this past season probably raised it from my head.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_04: So yeah, yeah, 100%.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but yeah, I mean, it's it's a weird dilemma, I think, when I talk to Bulls fans with the Josh Giddy stuff.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_04: Um, because obviously he's on our favorite team, so we want to root for him.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_04: We want him to be great.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_04: Hell, we we traded the heart and soul of Chicago to get him.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but everybody is still a bit iffy because of the the stuff he was involved with over the offseason to be like, I want to root for Josh Giddy.
• 45:57
  SPEAKER_04: I don't and I don't know if that'll ever really change because we as the public don't know everything.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and the bits and pieces that we do know just don't look necessarily great.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_04: So um and it's just a weird dilemma because I I've had to deal with this a few different times as a Bulls fan, um, even with Derek, right?
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_04: Derek was in the case um for what you know he allegedly did, and it was easier for me because when that happened, I was 13.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_04: And when you're 13, you don't think about morality, you don't think about being, you know, the moral police or anything.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_04: Um so this it's just a weird dilemma.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_04: But he has, if you eliminate, and this is gonna sound crazy because we've only played what five games, if you eliminate the first two games of the first two games of the year for Josh Giddy, he's been the perfect player for the Bulls, man.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_04: Like his on-off numbers look disgusting because those first two games were a struggle.
• 46:45
  SPEAKER_04: But since then, um, it's been pretty cool.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_04: And um, I was afraid for Kobe White and his production, now having Zach and having Josh Giddy, but he's still super productive.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and he has learned his own superpower of relocating.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the great shooters in basketball all have the ability to relocate to open space to get that shot off.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_04: That's that's where we're at with Kobe White right now.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_04: That's his individual development.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_04: And it's been, I'm glad you brought it up because I felt like if I would have brought it up, they'd have like, hit cut, hit go kidney again.
• 47:13
  SPEAKER_04: Nah, I got propaganda.
• 47:14
  SPEAKER_06: You you let me talk about the Thunder, I'd let you get your takes off about the Bulls.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I'm happy specifically about the Kobe White thing because that was one of my big worries was Giddy's now gonna have the ball, and last season Kobe went off because he got to finally have the ball in his hands.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_06: I was worried about that, but yeah, he's still been great, had that crazy game against the Bucs, who are the other team like quickly is one of my other surprises.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, it's been a struggle for them.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_06: I no Chris, no Chris Middleton, but I don't think he's saving that defense that has looked just slow-footed and terrible.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_06: They're dropping on everything and leading to a billion wide open pull-up threes or mid-range jumpers.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_06: The rotations are slow on open shooters because they're just not a very they're not a young athletic team.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_06: And like I talked about the Nuggets, I mean, we just got news right before this that they're not picking up the fourth-year option on Marjahon Beauchamps, who's gonna be an unrestricted free agent.
• 47:58
  SPEAKER_06: The guys that they've drafted to try and build up this talent hasn't really worked.
• 48:03
  SPEAKER_06: You know, Gary Trent Jr.'s looked like fine, and Torrey Prince has had some good moments.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, he's playing the most minutes, some of these games out of anybody.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_06: That's the Darwin Hamm effect, I guess.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_06: The two of them are best friends forever.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_06: It's just like I thought they would be a top three, four seed.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, Dame's gonna bounce back, and Giannis is still a top two player in the world.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_06: But I don't know, man.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_06: Since they brought in Doc Rivers, they're like several games under 500 as a basketball team.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_06: I just don't know if it's not gonna work.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_06: And then today we got the report that there are people around the league that are keeping an eye on Giannis.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_06: Like, could he request a trade at some point soon?
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_06: Before the season, he had that quote where he was like, if we don't win a championship, I might be traded, which feels like a very weird quote for Giannis, like coming into the season.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_06: But he's been always one of those guys that makes those hints when he's unhappy.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_06: Like before they traded for Drew, he's like, you know, I want to be here, but you know, we got to make things happen.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_06: And then before they traded for Dame, same thing.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_06: He was, I know he talked about the Bulls at one point.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_06: He's like, I'd love to play in Chicago at one point, and maybe maybe Giannis he would have all the spacing in the world if he comes here.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_06: I was saying maybe Giannis, Josh Giddy, and Kobe are gonna be running Chicago in a couple of years, or maybe even next season.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_06: Just I don't know, man.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_06: I thought this was gonna be a bounce back for the Bucs, and they have looked rough so far.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_06: And every time they play someone, somebody's going off for at least 30, maybe even 40.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_06: It's I mean, I know Kobe went crazy, Cam Thomas did, Dennis Schroeder in 2024, cooked them.
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_04: It's it's rough because uh they feel like they're stuck in 2019 defensively.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_04: Um, as the league continues to evolve, like we mentioned, the most three-pointers ever per game.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_04: They continuously, again, I understand wanting to take away the layup.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_04: It's the easiest shot in basketball.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_04: But there are other teams in hoops that eliminate both of those things.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and they're just not one of those teams where like drop coverage is super effective at what it does, but it also allows the smaller guards, which is their biggest problem right now, to have the games of their career.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_04: Dennis Schroeder, but okay, maybe it wasn't Dennis Schroeder just might be him.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, honestly.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_04: He might just be that guy.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but Dennis Schroeder having that type of performance.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_04: Again, Kobe White being able to do what he does.
• 50:06
  SPEAKER_04: It's so many open looks for their opponent.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_04: And I, again, don't know how to fix it.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_04: They're another one of those teams that I had as a contender out of respect of them having a top player and winning one recently.
• 50:16
  SPEAKER_04: But boy, is it it's it's grim over there, man.
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like I have Bucks fans in my life, and they're just like, we have two top whatever players in the world, and I'm not excited to watch us play basketball, and that's crazy.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_04: But I understand it because it's it's an ugly brand of hoops right now, where it feels like there's like two different teams offensively.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_04: It's when it's Dame's time, and then it's time for Giannis.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_04: And very rarely does it feel like it coincides together.
• 50:40
  SPEAKER_04: And um, another one of those things like the Denver Nuggets said, I do expect to be able to still win a bunch of regular season games, but once we get to seven-game series, it's hard for me to say this team over some of the other teams out east.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_04: And Doc Rivers, oh my god, we talk about a dude to wear one accolade forever.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_04: Shout out to Kevin Garnett because if it wasn't for KG and Ray Ray and the truth and a young Rondo, Doc would still be broadcasting, man.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_04: Like, what does he like?
• 51:13
  SPEAKER_04: He's he's coached some really good regular season teams.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, some of those teams happen to have one of the greatest point guards of all time in Chris Paul.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_04: Another one of those teams have one of the best original big threes in history, like he's always had something, and now he's got one of the biggest uh forces in all the hoops and in the history of hoops, if we're being real.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_04: And having a sub 500 record when the guy that you replaced was 13 games over is crazy to me.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_06: And that was a guy 13 games over who literally lost the locker room.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yes, and I know they were a little bit healthier under Adrian Griffin, and the schedule was a little bit easier, but that big of a difference to a guy who lost the locker room and they had to fire midseason as the two seed is completely wild.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_06: And I remember the second they fired him, it was like, oh, could it be Doc Rivers?
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_06: But it's like, nah, there's no way team makes that mistake again.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_06: And now a four-year deal later, or one year into a four-year deal later, they made the mistake again.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_06: I just don't know how like front offices don't see it.
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_06: I don't know, man.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_06: It's it's tough with Milwaukee.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_06: I made a video before the year basically saying like this might be the end for them.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_06: It feels like this is like their last chance.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_06: And Bucks fans were mad at me saying, you know, you're overlooking it, they're gonna be better this season.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_06: And I believed it.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_06: I was like, they will be better, but I just don't know if they're quite a championship contender and through the first few games.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_06: Playing some easy teams hasn't looked like it.
• 52:31
  SPEAKER_04: I got a few fast ones before we we uh get out of here.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, everybody told us his rookie class was gonna be bad.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't think it was gonna be this bad, man.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_04: I'm wrong.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't think it was gonna be this bad.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_04: Right now, Bub Carrington just last night became the first rookie to put up a 15-point game.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_04: That is the longest we've it's taken for a rookie to put up 15 in the history of hoops.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_04: Like that's a crazy statistic.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, he himself is leading rookies in points per game at 10 and a half.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_04: If he so happened to average that all year long and he was to win the award, that would be the lowest point per game for any rookie of the year winner ever.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_04: Wow.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_04: Insane.
• 53:09
  SPEAKER_04: And I still think he has competition.
• 53:10
  SPEAKER_04: Like even his own teammate, even though Alex Sarr can't hit a goddamn shot right now, he's averaging eight, six, and two and a half blocks.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I think Alex Sarr could still win this award.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_04: But they said this class was going to be bad and it has been.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_04: Like it has had uh its surprises, right?
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Jonathan Mobile or uh Jamal Sheed or um Eves Messi, like some dudes later in the draft have been productive in their small amount of minutes.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_04: But to have a class based on the previous years, we've had a wimby, we've had a wimby in chat, technically.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_04: Then we had a palo, like we've always had a guy.
• 53:41
  SPEAKER_04: So far, we do not have that at all.
• 53:43
  SPEAKER_04: And it's kind of just a weird time for rookies.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, and then you've got uh Zachary Sachet having that quote where he's like, Back in France, I was a good athlete, now I'm just normal, which you don't want to hear from your network overall pick.
• 53:55
  SPEAKER_06: Uh, one of my friends is like, nah, I would have gotten that quote erased from the internet.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_06: I'm not having that one get out there.
• 53:59
  SPEAKER_06: So, not exactly what you want to hear, but I mean it's fine.
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_06: AJ Mitchell's gonna save the rookie class.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_06: Don't worry, it'll be fine.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_06: He has the opportunity too.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um, and the last one I got, um, it's in my notes, it just says Dennis Schroeder.
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_04: And we've said his name a few different times in this episode, but like he's picking up point guards full 94 feet and also dropping 20 plus a night.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_04: Like, that's just a hard thing to do.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, this is a team that I had their over-under was 17 and a half or 18 and a half.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_04: I said smash the under.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_04: They already have two wins on the year, and then a few other games where they lost based on the last two minutes of hoops.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_04: Like, they've looked like a competent team.
• 54:33
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so that's that's cool.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_04: And then um, the Pistons did get their first win last night, so that was cool.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, they they started off as awful as can be as well, being the worst fourth quarter team in hoops.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_04: But those are like my biggest, biggest surprises on the year.
• 54:45
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, shout out to Dennis 25 and 8 right now.
• 54:48
  SPEAKER_06: Should have won sixth May of the year in 2020, but I won't get into that.
• 54:50
  SPEAKER_06: We'll be here for another thing.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_04: We had my vote.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_04: But also, like, people before I get you out of here, people accuse me of being a secret OKC fan.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_04: And here are the reasons for it.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Shay's rookie season, he was my favorite rookie in the entire class.
• 55:04
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I don't watch college ball until this year.
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_04: This year I will watch, but like I went to uh I watched his first summer league game and I fell in love with him as a player.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and there's a video that exists on House of Highlights' YouTube channel.
• 55:16
  SPEAKER_04: His rookie season is when they gave me my first 10-day contract at House of Highlights.
• 55:20
  SPEAKER_04: So I was creating content for them and I was recapping um Summer League games, and I was like, this guy with a really long name, he's nice.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_04: And I didn't think he was gonna be an MVP candidate, um, but he was my favorite rookie, and then he gets traded to OKC.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_04: He's traded to OKC, and he also teams up with my favorite point guard in the history of the game and Chris Paul.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_04: So now my one of my favorite players is teaming up with my favorite young guy.
• 55:45
  SPEAKER_04: That's pretty dope.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_04: My favorite rookie in his draft class was Kasen Wallace.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_04: Didn't know he was gonna end up in OKC, but he was my absolute favorite rookie.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_04: Um, so like, and then we have all the connections between Billy Donovan um being a coach of our teams, respectively, and the Taj Gibson trade.
• 56:03
  SPEAKER_04: Like, the Taj Gibson trade is one of the craziest.
• 56:05
  SPEAKER_04: No, it's not that big of a deal, but it's huge.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_06: It's of course, yeah.
• 56:09
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, Joffrey Laverne.
• 56:10
  SPEAKER_04: Like, come on, man, that that changed history.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_04: It did.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_04: Uh so and I also am just a guy that enjoys gahoops, and you guys have played gahoops over the last year.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_04: So it's hard for me not to like blush when talking OKC because things have been great.
• 56:22
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, I mean, you're also just a ball knower, so you get it.
• 56:25
  SPEAKER_06: So that makes sense too.
• 56:26
  SPEAKER_06: Exactly, exactly.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_06: I mean, yeah.
• 56:29
  SPEAKER_04: Appreciate you coming on, Cole, man.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_04: Um, we gotta have you do this again.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_04: Again, once OKC continues their run, maybe it's one game before they end up 82-0's when we come and talk to each other again.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, um, or it's the playoffs or whatever, but I appreciate you stopping by.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_06: Yeah, of course, man.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_06: Appreciate you having me.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_04: Of course.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_04: So we talked about DPOI early in the season.
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_04: It's a fair race, man.
• 56:56
  SPEAKER_04: Going into it, Victor Wibinyama was the very, very heavy favorite.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_04: Hell, he told the world, Rudy Gobert, this is your last one because I'm winning a bunch.
• 57:04
  SPEAKER_04: If you go to FanDuel Sportsbook, Wimby is not the heavy favorite anymore.
• 57:08
  SPEAKER_04: Now, granted, he is the favorite, but he's tied with Chet Holmgren of the OKC Thunder both plus 220.
• 57:15
  SPEAKER_04: We got guys like Bamma Tabao who's off to a very rough start.
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_04: The team is off to a rough start.
• 57:20
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know if I would bet on that at plus 1,000, but you got Anthony Davis also plus 1,000.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_04: He's also been a monster.
• 57:26
  SPEAKER_04: We got great defensive players in ball.
• 57:28
  SPEAKER_04: Evan Mobley also anchoring one of the top defenses, and Jaron Jackson Jr.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_04: got the respect being a former DPOY winner at plus 2600.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_04: It's gonna be one hell of a race.
• 57:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I do believe one of these guys on this list will end up winning it.
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• 58:56
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• 59:01
  SPEAKER_04: I'm going to introduce producer Greg to the show.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_04: We're going to do our favorite thing, the 5 out.
• 59:07
  SPEAKER_04: How are we feeling today, Greg?
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: I'm great.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_00: Before we hit we hit start on this five out, uh I loved the praise you guys gave Draymond, you and Cohn, and his defense.
• 59:16
  SPEAKER_00: Have you checked out his his new podcast with Baron Davis?
• 59:19
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't know he had a new podcast with Baron Davis, no?
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's a rebrand, but Barron Davis is the co-host.
• 59:24
  SPEAKER_00: But it was so funny.
• 59:25
  SPEAKER_00: Last episode they were talking about Steph being out and Baron Davis was trying to hype up Draymond as an offensive player.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, dude, like you got post moves.
• 59:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like they should throw you the ball in the post.
• 59:34
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Baron Davis, have you ever watched the Warriors play?
• 59:37
  SPEAKER_00: Have you ever seen Draymond have a post move?
• 59:39
  SPEAKER_04: Um what was what was Draymond's response to that?
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_00: Draymond was kind of like, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm I'll I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna start being more aggressive, but I think it was kind of like trying to play it off.
• 59:50
  SPEAKER_00: And because Draymond is a very self-aware player.
• 59:52
  SPEAKER_00: He is he he knows very much who he is, and he knows that uh creative offensive moves is not his strength.
• 59:58
  SPEAKER_04: No, I'm gonna have to check it out.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_04: As someone that knows a thing or two about a rebrand, um, I know it can be tough because it got lost.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_04: I thought Draymond Green podcast was still a thing.
• 1:00:06
  SPEAKER_04: It's got a new name and everything, huh?
• 1:00:08
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's the Draymond Green show with Baron Davis.
• 1:00:11
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_04: I like that.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_04: I like that.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_04: Okay.
• 1:00:13
  SPEAKER_04: I'm gonna check it out.
• 1:00:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, all right, let's hit hit start on the five out go.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um, this is a weird one, but uh Jeff Van Gundy is now a Clippers assistant.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_00: Does that matter at all to you?
• 1:00:25
  SPEAKER_04: Not really.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_04: I actually saw him the last night game versus the Trailblazers.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_04: He was off the bench like pseudo contesting a shot from Anthony Simons, and I was like, what the hell is that about?
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, does it does it matter?
• 1:00:37
  SPEAKER_04: I'm sure in the grand scheme it might matter a bit.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_04: Like, I think coaching is just one of those things it's hard to really determine who's doing what other than it being the head coach, and Tyron Lewis has been a great head coach in his career.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_04: It might matter.
• 1:00:51
  SPEAKER_04: It probably doesn't.
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 1:00:53
  SPEAKER_04: I have no idea.
• 1:00:54
  SPEAKER_00: All right, next one.
• 1:00:55
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think Maxie can ever be a 1A on a playoff team?
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_04: Ever?
• 1:01:02
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I think it could be in the cards for him.
• 1:01:05
  SPEAKER_04: He is overtasked right now, though.
• 1:01:08
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's it's rough for him to have to attempt 30 shots a game and get to the free throw line this amount of times for them to have an opportunity to be in a game with the Detroit Pistons.
• 1:01:18
  SPEAKER_04: Like, that's a problem.
• 1:01:19
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I think he'll probably spend the majority of his career as a uh a 1B or a two.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_04: It's not out of the realm of possibility.
• 1:01:28
  SPEAKER_04: I always am a bit hesitant with smaller guards in general when it comes to leading a team, but he is the perfect uh 1B or two.
• 1:01:35
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I never want to put a ceiling on a player, so yeah, I don't know.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right, and last one here there's a limit on on team challenges, coaches, you know, challenges.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think there should be a limit on the amount of times a player can indicate that he wants a challenge if he gets a certain amount wrong.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_00: So Draymond was three for three until last night and he got one wrong, but you know, he's kind of earned the trust from from Kerr to continue challenging.
• 1:02:03
  SPEAKER_00: But my my view is that if a player, you know, say he does it you know twice, then he gets wrong and the coach gets it wrong, the player should no longer be allowed to signal for a challenge.
• 1:02:12
  SPEAKER_00: Or to be like a technical foul or something, yeah, something like that, or a fine or something.
• 1:02:17
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm cool with that.
• 1:02:18
  SPEAKER_04: I this whole motion bothers the hell out of me, whether it be the first time someone does it or the hundredth time, um, even in the Olympics, it kind of shifted.
• 1:02:27
  SPEAKER_04: Like it's not even just an NBA-centric thing, like the form of the colour.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_04: Oh, that was so annoying.
• 1:02:31
  SPEAKER_04: They were telling them to go to the monitors.
• 1:02:33
  SPEAKER_04: Like, oh my god.
• 1:02:34
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, I'm not against that whatsoever, man.
• 1:02:36
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and you know, the Golden State Warriors were dead last in percentage of um uh reviews that were right because I think it really is just Steve Kerr saying, okay, I trust my guy enough to say, let's challenge that.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_04: I didn't realize that he was that successful to start the year.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_04: I would be completely cool with it.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_04: There are a few things that bother the hell out of me as a viewer of the game.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_04: That's towards the top of the list.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_04: And the second one, um, it's just a jump pass.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_04: God, I despise to watch these players jump to pass the ball.
• 1:03:05
  SPEAKER_04: Because a lot of the times they get lost, and LaMelo's averaging seven damn turnovers a game.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_00: You sound like my high school coach.
• 1:03:13
  SPEAKER_04: And maybe that's where I'm getting it from.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_04: Because coach Dick Lavic, who was my coach in high school, you would get benched if you threw a jump pass, even if it was successful.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_04: So maybe that's just ingrained in my mind.
• 1:03:24
  SPEAKER_04: I was a zero jump pass type of dude because I like playing basketball.
• 1:03:28
  SPEAKER_04: But I hate watching it now because even at the highest level, the success level is still really, really low.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_00: My coach used to say, All right, jump in the air and don't come down until I tell you.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_04: That's good.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_00: But Halliburton, I've seen it do it a lot.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't turn it over that much on it, but you have to be so sure of yourself to jump in the air and pass.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, I'm gonna give her a shout-out again.
• 1:03:51
  SPEAKER_04: Uh Caitlin Cooper, who's a writer, um, she does a lot of pasture stuff last year, or maybe that was two years ago, she wrote an article about the jump passes passes specifically about Tyrese.
• 1:04:00
  SPEAKER_04: And I remember he had his um tunnel fit was a shirt that said jump passes are cool.
• 1:04:05
  SPEAKER_04: And maybe Lamello saw that shirt and was like, you know what, they are cool.
• 1:04:09
  SPEAKER_04: Well, they're just not on the same level as jump passers.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_04: So um yeah, he he might be one of one in that very unique skill.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_04: This is always my favorite part of the episode.
• 1:04:24
  SPEAKER_04: When we get to hear from you guys at home, hashtag askKB, you can hit us up on Instagram at enjoy smallball.
• 1:04:29
  SPEAKER_04: All you gotta do is send us an original message, which could be in one letter, and then you can send an audio message.
• 1:04:34
  SPEAKER_04: Let's see what we got.
• 1:04:36
  SPEAKER_01: Hey Kenny.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, hope you're having a great day.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_01: Love the new podcast, man.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_01: I just wanted to say um and ask about do you think with the Thunder having 10 first round picks through the 2028 draft, do you think this year they should trade and go all in for a veteran superstar?
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think they should move their picks back into later drafts?
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_01: Or what do you think the best thing for them to do right now is?
• 1:04:58
  SPEAKER_01: Thank you, man.
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_01: Hope you're having a great day.
• 1:05:01
  SPEAKER_04: Thank you.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_04: What a great question.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I was one I wish we had called on for because I wonder what his perspective is as an actual fan of the team.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_04: I I think that they've done a pretty magnificent job at hitting um at least one draft pick a year.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_04: Like the Pokushevsky, not so great of a pick, but he was drafted with also some pretty good guys.
• 1:05:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, that is an absurd amount of pick, which is also one of the reasons why I was so pissed off that we didn't get one for Josh Giddy.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_04: Um, I don't know what the real solution is because when I look at that team, they are as complete as you can imagine for a team being that young.
• 1:05:34
  SPEAKER_04: And even their best players are still developing, right?
• 1:05:37
  SPEAKER_04: J Dub, Chad, I mean, Shay just hit 26 years old, and Caseon Wallace was a real rotational player.
• 1:05:42
  SPEAKER_04: Aaron Way, like all of these dudes are still under 26 years old.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_04: So in my mind, you introduce more lottery picks, it just becomes more of a problem.
• 1:05:52
  SPEAKER_04: I think Mark Dana has done a phenomenal job um introducing the young dudes and having them buy into the system and the culture where, like, yeah, I I was a top 10 pick.
• 1:06:01
  SPEAKER_04: I should be getting 25-30 minutes a game, but I'm okay that I'm not because you're winning basketball games.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_04: I like the idea of them moving back in the draft, and they did that a few different times in this last draft class where it's like we understand that we got a pick right here.
• 1:06:14
  SPEAKER_04: Nobody here we really love.
• 1:06:15
  SPEAKER_04: So we'll trade this first round pick for a future first round pick for somebody else that is in love with this draft.
• 1:06:21
  SPEAKER_04: Um I don't like the idea necessarily of them going in to go get that superstar player.
• 1:06:28
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, this is in my mind the first year of real, real contention, right?
• 1:06:33
  SPEAKER_04: So we'll, I guess we'll kind of learn more about this team.
• 1:06:35
  SPEAKER_04: So if they flame out in the second round of the playoffs and we have a real idea of the reason why, because even last year, we have an idea of why they flamed out um what Luka Doncic is one of them.
• 1:06:46
  SPEAKER_04: But they were playing a guy in Josh Kiddy who was not being guarded and just couldn't play rotational real minutes, and they got outboarded like crazy.
• 1:06:53
  SPEAKER_04: Set Holmgren is rebounding the best of his career.
• 1:06:55
  SPEAKER_04: They brought in Isaiah Hartenstein, who's a rebounder as well.
• 1:06:58
  SPEAKER_04: So they've kind of shared up some of the question marks from last year.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_04: And I would ex-I would expect if they didn't win it this year, they try to replicate that, shuring up all of the question marks from this playoff run.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_03: Is it time for the Spurs to move on from Greg Popovich?
• 1:07:12
  SPEAKER_03: We know their roster isn't, you know, contention worthy or their offense isn't great, but their offense has been absolutely terrible through the first four games, and Wimby getting five shots is inexcusable.
• 1:07:23
  SPEAKER_04: I can never, ever, ever, ever advocate for Greg Popovich not to be the coach of the Spurs.
• 1:07:28
  SPEAKER_04: But what I will say, what you said, is completely, completely true.
• 1:07:31
  SPEAKER_04: I think that a lot of the offenses in basketball have become um more unpredictable.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_04: Maybe unpredictable is the way, is the word I'm thinking of, while the Spurs one is very, very predictable.
• 1:07:44
  SPEAKER_04: And that's with them having one of, I mean, he's well, well, well past his prime, but having one of the highest IQ players of all time, and Chris Paul is the point guard.
• 1:07:52
  SPEAKER_04: Like when I watched that game versus the OKC Thunder, they couldn't generate a shot for their best player.
• 1:07:57
  SPEAKER_04: And part of it's like Wimby, one of my biggest uh dislikes about Wimby is he's a floater where he can kind of just exist on the basketball court.
• 1:08:05
  SPEAKER_04: And I feel like when you're that damn good, you can't do that.
• 1:08:09
  SPEAKER_04: I mean, the best players in basketball, of course, we get possessions where a guy like Brian is off ball and he's kind of existing.
• 1:08:14
  SPEAKER_04: But Wimby does it way more than a lot of dudes.
• 1:08:17
  SPEAKER_04: And part of this is hey, this is year two of his NBA career.
• 1:08:20
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but I do believe they need some shot in the arm.
• 1:08:23
  SPEAKER_04: I'm a guy that did not think they were gonna be very good this season, even with their additions of the older dudes.
• 1:08:28
  SPEAKER_04: But I also am gonna pause on saying that their offense is gonna stay bottom five because their best individual creator and Devin Vassell hasn't played a second yet.
• 1:08:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I do believe he'll alleviate some of that pressure.
• 1:08:41
  SPEAKER_04: We're like, shout out to Julian Champani, shout out to Jeremy Sohan, who's been holding it down.
• 1:08:46
  SPEAKER_04: But Devin Vassell as an individual creator kind of opens up the game a little bit more.
• 1:08:50
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm curious to see if the offense shifts a little bit once he comes back.
• 1:08:54
  SPEAKER_04: But they are really, really missing real weapons.
• 1:08:57
  SPEAKER_04: Um, and that's like the Chet versus Wimby thing is going to be there forever, right?
• 1:09:01
  SPEAKER_04: I think with them not technically being in the same draft class, but being in the same rookie class, if you will.
• 1:09:07
  SPEAKER_04: Um, Chet, and this is not taking anything away from him, has a luxury of having the amount of spacing that he does with him having Shea and him having J Dub.
• 1:09:16
  SPEAKER_04: Wemby doesn't have that luxury where you can throw two to three bodies at Wemby if you want to, and nobody else on the court is going to make you pay for it.
• 1:09:24
  SPEAKER_04: And I think in time that won't be the case because you would hope that Stefan Castle hits as a draft pick, or you hope that Devin Vassell continues to progress in whatever lottery pick you get this year, um, would that be Ace Bailey or Cooper Flag?
• 1:09:37
  SPEAKER_04: I don't know.
• 1:09:38
  SPEAKER_04: Um just alleviates some of that pressure.
• 1:09:41
  SPEAKER_04: And uh they could get more creative, but I will never say get rid of pop because the NBA dies a little bit if pop is not there.
• 1:09:49
  SPEAKER_04: I'll say that.
• 1:09:50
  SPEAKER_02: Is Coach Spoe causing problems in Miami, such as Bam and Jimmy getting limited touches, not playing Kale Ware, etc.?
• 1:09:58
  SPEAKER_04: The Khalil Ware's interesting uh thing is an interesting thing because Thomas Bryan is playing over him, and I think TB hit two back-to-back threes when I was watching him this morning, and I was like, okay, TB, um Khalil Ware just might not be ready, right?
• 1:10:09
  SPEAKER_04: I know we see the summer league stuff of him putting up a 20-point game, even the preseason he had a 20-point game.
• 1:10:15
  SPEAKER_04: Spooster is one of those guys that has earned the trust for me personally that if he doesn't believe a guy's ready to be in the real rotation, he just won't do it.
• 1:10:23
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm gonna trust that.
• 1:10:24
  SPEAKER_04: I don't like their new offense, though.
• 1:10:27
  SPEAKER_04: Uh it was very intriguing going into the year.
• 1:10:29
  SPEAKER_04: I know you remember me saying that um we were asked about their pace.
• 1:10:33
  SPEAKER_04: I told you that their pace weren't gonna be as fast as it was in preseason.
• 1:10:36
  SPEAKER_04: They're still one of the worst or the lowest pace teams of basketball, but the whole five out idea, it was again a better idea than in um than it is in actuality.
• 1:10:47
  SPEAKER_04: Where bam, it's still yet to hit a three, if I'm not mistaken, 0 for 2 in pretty much every single game.
• 1:10:53
  SPEAKER_04: And I think the main problem, um, the thing that they held their hat on, the defensive side of the ball, has been awful.
• 1:11:00
  SPEAKER_04: If you would have told me that their starting lineup would be the second worst starting lineup unit in basketball, only behind the Spurs, I would have called you crazy because I knew that the defense was gonna be the thing they can hang their hat on.
• 1:11:12
  SPEAKER_04: But little did we know, playing two small guards, bad for your defense.
• 1:11:17
  SPEAKER_04: Did we know that?
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_04: Yeah, we knew that.
• 1:11:18
  SPEAKER_04: But we I expected Bama de Bayo to be able to cover everything up.
• 1:11:21
  SPEAKER_04: He hasn't been able to do that this year.
• 1:11:22
  SPEAKER_04: It's been a rough, rough start for him.
• 1:11:24
  SPEAKER_04: Um I trust Spo defensively more than anything.
• 1:11:30
  SPEAKER_04: The offense for the Miami Heat just hasn't been good in the Spo era or the post-Lebron Spo era.
• 1:11:34
  SPEAKER_04: Um, but the defense is the one thing I thought was going to be there.
• 1:11:37
  SPEAKER_04: And this year, their guards are getting picked on like crazy.
• 1:11:41
  SPEAKER_04: Franz Wagner, um, Carnival Towns, Jalen Brunson.
• 1:11:44
  SPEAKER_04: Pretty much every game they've played, Cade Cunningham, every game they've played, I'm watching Tyler Hero fight for his goddamn life on a screen.
• 1:11:52
  SPEAKER_04: And it's like, this is not a brand of basketball that I'm used to for the Miami Heat.
• 1:11:56
  SPEAKER_04: So I am, I mean, hey, if you're a Heat fan, you want to get rid of Eric Sposter, I promise you there will be a lot of teams in basketball that would take them off your hands.
• 1:12:04
  SPEAKER_04: So you don't know what you got into what's going, is what I will say.
• 1:12:07
  SPEAKER_04: He is still one of the best coaches in basketball, even with a slow start.
• 1:12:16
  SPEAKER_04: I appreciate you watching or listening to this episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beach.
• 1:12:20
  SPEAKER_04: Shout out to our good friend Cone again for stopping by to talk some hoop with us.
• 1:12:24
  SPEAKER_04: If you are a YouTube viewer, I'll put his link in the description so you can see his channel.
• 1:12:28
  SPEAKER_04: He's uploading pretty much daily NBA takes and opinions and stuff.
• 1:12:31
  SPEAKER_04: And I thought he he killed it on this one.
• 1:12:33
  SPEAKER_04: So you should check out his channel, leave us a like, subscribe.
• 1:12:36
  SPEAKER_04: I'll see y'all next week.