Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / EARLY NBA All Star Selections

Transcript

EARLY NBA All Star Selections · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beachum.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so excited to be here.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_02: On today's episode, we got my good old friend Matt, aka Six Rings of Steel, and we're going to try to put together all-star rosters based on the first month of the NBA season.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_02: It may sound easy, but I promise you it was way more difficult than I anticipated.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: All right.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: But before we even do that, I'm going to remind you to like on the episode.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_02: See, you thought I was about to get into a segment, didn't you?
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_02: I want to remind you to leave a like on the episode.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: Subscribe to the channel.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_02: Tell a friend to tell a friend that small ball with Kenny Beachum is the place you need to be getting your NBA fix.
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, news.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_02: The 76ers still ain't good.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_02: Not only are they not good, right now they're tied for the worst record in basketball as I'm recording this 2 and 11.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_02: And we see teams start off slow and be able to figure it out throughout the course of the season.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not saying that's something that the 76ers can't do.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_02: But you could not have convinced me, even when Joy Lam B came out that he's going to be managing his injury, or when Paul George hyperextended his knee in the preseason game, you would not be able to convince me that that team would start off tied with the Washington Wizards for the worst record in basketball.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_02: It's a little scary.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know who also thought it was scary?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_02: The goddamn team.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_02: Because they put together a meeting.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't a players-only meeting, but they did put together a meeting with the players and the coaches where after the game ended, it took them about two hours to come out to the podium, and Joel and Bede said that there was no meeting.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then somebody leaked it.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_02: Somebody somebody told the world what the hell happened in that meeting.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the thing that a lot of people are talking about is Tarryce Maxie being the guy to call out Joel and B, feeling like he has earned that level of respect, him and Joel Embiid being um teammates and brothers, to be able to hold Joel Embiid accountable.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_02: And the main thing from that is him asking Joel Embiid to be on time.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, which listen, I've seen it swung a couple different ways.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_02: This report came out maybe 24 hours ago.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I've had my fair share of tweets that I've seen.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, people on one side saying this is not nothing.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's cool to see a superstar player being held accountable for not living up to the superstar name.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: But also people saying, Hey, JoJo, you were the MVP of the league just a few years ago.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_02: Going into what you talked about, how you only care about championships, and and that's the only thing that matters.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_02: You being a star player of this team, you should not need to be reminded or held accountable for being on time.
• 2:28
  SPEAKER_02: So I've seen it both ways.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_02: And where I personally say is towards the former, where it's it's one thing to not be punctual.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, listen, some of my other co-hosts on the other show, them boy, if we got a 10 o'clock shoot, I'm telling them it started at 9:30 because I know who they are as people.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_02: But when you are the guy on the championship level team, or at least that's what you want it to be, being there and being present is like maybe the most important things, especially if you're not going to be playing.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like just letting your teammates know, hey, I'm not here today, but but I'm here.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_02: And um, it is also a bit weird what Joel and Bede said that there are times offensively where they don't necessarily know what is going on, and he hasn't necessarily been in those meetings from the report.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: He hasn't been completely locked in and being on time.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, it's it's hard for you to know what is going on when you're not locked in.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm hoping that this is the turning point, right, for them as a team.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_02: I still, believe it or not, cannot write them off as a team that can contend.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe I'm the last person on this island.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_02: I damn sure don't got him as a favorite or one of the two favorites in the conference.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_02: But I like I think there is a world where things can work out.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_02: The question is, how good would Jojo look?
• 3:43
  SPEAKER_02: I've said it last episode where I personally need to see a five-game sample size before I start to ring the panic alarm and we're three games in, and it's not we're not on the last DEF CON, but damn sure we we are very, very close to that.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm curious to see how this meeting um is gonna help or hurt the team.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: Where they didn't set the record for the fastest meeting, because I don't know if y'all remember when the Bulls had a team, a player-only meeting after the first game of the season last year, after OKC spanked that ass.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, so you know, not the record for the fastest, but maybe the record for the most important when you consider what's at stake for Philadelphia sports with this team.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, we could talk about the bright spot, though.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_02: We could talk about the bright spot.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: Jeremy Kane, our TikTok legend, our superstar, is still hooping, man.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he did foul out of that game a few nights back, and I was like, man, you know, it's six fouls and X amount of minutes, it's still weird no matter the circumstances.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_02: But as of today, if you go to FanDuel Sportsbook, he is the favorite to win rookie of the year.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_02: At one point, he was in a league of his own, but not so fast because Don Connect just had a what 37-point game the other night.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: So we got Jeremy Cain at plus 160 and Dawn Connect at plus 250.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_02: But it's so early in the season that we also got Zachary Richasset at plus 1,000, Bub Carrington, who at one point was leading all rookies and scoring.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it's not too late to get in on that at plus 1100.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: So there are a lot of rookies having good stretches later.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: Not as early as some of us anticipated, but later in the season.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: So uh maybe you should get in on that.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: You let me know.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_02: So let's get into it, man.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: Six rings of steel, aka Matt came in and we talked NBA All-Stars.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_02: Let's see it.
• 5:22
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• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: Now I want to give a huge welcome to a good old friend.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_02: Our careers have paralleled quite a bit from rebuilding YouTuber to trying to make a name in sports media.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_02: Matt, welcome to the show, man.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_05: Hey, thank you, Kenny.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_05: I'm glad to be here.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_05: I'm excited to do this.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_05: And when you said we're going to be doing all-stars, I was like, this might not be that bad.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_05: I'm going through it, and then it gets tough because you realize how many, how many steps we might have.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_02: Very, very tough, man, because there are spots that are immediately open, right?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's no case for Paul George, who was an all-star last year, or Kawhi Leonard, who hasn't played a single second, and some other guys like Scotty Barnes, you know, out with this injury, or even Maxie out with his injury.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_02: So we do have openings, but they are so many players right now playing ridiculous basketball that even though we're doing first month all-stars, I feel bad about some snubs, man.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_02: I can't lie.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_05: Right.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's definitely gonna be like that.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_05: And then you got to figure out with like the injuries, but then you won't have the big names in it that maybe aren't performing as they they've been in the past.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_05: So it's gonna be interesting to see what we got.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_02: How do you feel about the new format now that there's gonna be four teams in a little mini tourney?
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_02: Uh three NBA All-Star teams and one Rising Stars team that won the previous night.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_02: Does you think that changes the feel of Sunday night all-star?
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_05: I hope so.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_05: I I think it will a little bit um from years past, but I wonder if it's gonna be as competitive as we'd like it to be.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_05: I think we have like the nostalgia of when we were younger in the different contests and the games itself.
• 8:04
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm hoping it does.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_05: I think adding the rising stars could be really cool, and we could see guys that we wouldn't really see on Sunday in this.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm just hoping for the best this year.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, last year was ridiculous, man.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I've been able to go to All-Star pretty much every year since 2019.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_02: Uh a post from or opposite of um 2021.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_02: That was the the year that they did in Atlanta that was close to the public.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: Every public one I've been to, except for this year.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_02: Like I was in the city, we were in Indianapolis, and then Sunday morning we woke up.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_02: We were like, do we really care about the All-Star game?
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Free, we have free tickets.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's been so bad that we were like, let's just drive home.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_02: And and it was a good decision because that all-star game stuck, man.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: It was bad.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, Adam Silver has said he'd been talking to Steph Curry because it is in San Francisco this year, and this is what they cooked up.
• 8:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think it doesn't matter the format if the players won't buy in.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I love the Elim ending in Chicago.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: That was a big one, and I feel like the players bought in on that.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: Kyle Lowry drew like three charges.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_02: Kimba played every minute and then basically wasn't an NBA player after that.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_02: So uh, you know, if the players are bought in, it should be great.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, yeah.
• 9:08
  SPEAKER_05: I wonder why they got rid of the Elam ending.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_05: Do you remember why?
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_05: Because that I felt like it was a great idea.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: It felt cool, man.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you you know, you do a lot of 2K.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: So like you can add the Elim ending to like um, I guess it is the end of overtimes in 2K.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like if you want to do the rule change.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I I've never done it.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think it has something to do with the stats, man.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_02: Players love their stats, that's why people won't shorten the season or anything like that.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_02: The stats matter above all.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, maybe it prevents us from having a ridiculous fourth quarter from Braun because now the max they can score in a quarter is 21, opposed to a limited.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, true.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_02: But it it did get players to defend at least a little bit, and that was pretty fun.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_05: I know.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_05: Defense is the big thing here if they want to buy in on that end.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_02: So let's let's get into this all-star stuff because, like we mentioned earlier, it is a lot more difficult than you realize if you were playing at home with us.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think the first thing I did at least was to figure out who the locks were.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like these are the guys that 100% have been playing to the peak of their powers, and there's no if, ands, or buts about it.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_02: So here are the guys I have in the Eastern Conference.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_02: You tell me if you agree with these being complete, complete locks.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: Jason Tatum, who's having a ridiculous season.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you, Steve Kerr.
• 10:21
  SPEAKER_02: We got Giannis, who, even though his team is struggling, he's still, I think he's leading the league in scoring as of today.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_02: And then the last lock feels weird to make it a lock, but I have it bolded.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm pretty sure you're a Knicks fan, right?
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_02: I have Kat as a lock right now.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_05: Me, me too.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_05: That's my exact three forwards, frontcourt guys in the East.
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_05: And it was so much easier doing that than the guards in the East.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm I'm uh agreed on that because I actually think Kat has been the best Knicks this year, too.
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and it's it's kind of insane because I know we everybody's talking about the defensive aspect of it all, which makes sense.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_02: He has not been very good defensively, but it's so cool to kind of see Carl Anthony Towns in this place where he has other options around him outside of one.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_02: Like last year was like, here's Anthony Edwards, here's Carl Anthony Towns.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: That's our offense.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I think it ended up being like 17th in the league.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_02: It never really was very great with Kat there.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: But now with having the spacing of OG and Mikhail, who can be up and down, but Jalen Brunson, who's one of the better players in the league, Carl Anthony Towns has the full floor to kind of create for himself.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: And it's been it's been very fun to see.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like they were in that dogfight versus the Bulls of maybe a week or so ago, and I'm watching and I'm amazed, but I'm rooting against them, obviously, because it's my Bulls.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and nobody's really been able to stop him.
• 11:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's been his most efficient season so far.
• 11:36
  SPEAKER_02: So it may feel weird on surface level to say Kat is an absolute lock, but I don't I don't if you've been watching, man, he's been on a whole nother level.
• 11:43
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, and I think it helps too for his case.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_05: Um, like he's been the best offensive player on the third-ranked offense in the league.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_05: So I think that'll kind of go to show how great him and Brunson as a pick and roll partner have been this year.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_05: But I think you also look at some of the guys that are usually here, like maybe Bam at a Bayo, not having the season he's had in the past, or Joel Embiid, because of the injuries, it's kind of opened up for Kat to be, I think, a lock when we didn't really think it would be like that in this start of the season.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, man, because the Easter conference got a lot of players that won't be there.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like Bam, he's starting to turn it up at least a little bit, but I'm not letting this one week put him in the all-star game for me.
• 12:15
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we got Paolo Benquero, who's only played, what, six games, who was an all-star last year.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: And if he was healthy, he might be this last lock.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_02: He was averaging 29 before his injury.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: Scotty Barnes, Harris Maxie, and then one of the guards that at one point was looked at to be the one of the best guards in the Eastern Conference, and Terry's Halliburton is just not playing at an all-star level.
• 12:35
  SPEAKER_02: So he's like a tough omission for me because that's my boy, man.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_02: I love him.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_05: I know it's tough just looking at his shooting splits, and it's so night and day from his start last year, where you mentioned how he's looked at as like the best guard in the Eastern Conference, at least the best point guard.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_05: So him not even making like my honorable mentions, it's just wild to throw to like not even have Halburton's name down.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_05: When I have guys like I have Nikola Vucevic in an honorable mention, but not Tyrus Halbert.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_05: Like, what year are we living in right now?
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's kind of crazy, man.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_02: Because I mean, yeah, he was in those conversations.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: The in-season tournament now NBA Cup was such a legendary run for him.
• 13:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and we have, and again, that's my boy, like my my real life boy.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_02: We have more games slash sample size of him being a 16 and 10 guy versus him being a 25 and 12 guy.
• 13:19
  SPEAKER_02: And um, he's not moving the same, so it's it's it's not completely one-to-one, but he might just be a guy that averages mid-teens and then a bunch of assists and things like that.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm watching him, and obviously it's a full different team when you think about how they change after Pascal Siakam got there, but them not being one of them fast-paced teams, top five offenses is really like pigeonholed him in a way where he's never really been a guy that's gonna break a defender down to the to the likes of Kyrie Irvin or Darius Garland, but he definitely was getting to the lane way more over the last couple seasons and were struggling, or he's struggling to do that this year.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: Of course, there's rumors about his back, there's rumors about the hammy still bothering him or whatever, whatever.
• 14:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, it's it's been disappointing because I was a really big believer in the pacers because going into the year, I felt like you had to pick between Pacers and Orlando Magic to take the jump.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: I pick Pacers, and that seems to be the wrong decision.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, um, honestly.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_05: And he had that uh game against the Knicks on that Sunday where he had 35 points, and I was like, all right, is this the Halbert we're getting back to?
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_05: And then the following game against the Magic, he kind of goes back to what he's looked like somewhat this year in that way.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_05: And I think that could also be a test of like how kind of bad the Knicks defense has been at times and how good the defense for the Magic has been at times.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_05: But it's just, yeah, it's weird to see him with this start, and I still think he's gonna turn it around because we what we saw at Iowa State, early Kings days, early Pacers days, there's too big of a sample size of him as a good player and someone that's not gonna shoot some 40% from the field and some 30% from three.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_05: That's just not who he was.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's pretty much been a 40% three-point shooter at every level of his basketball plan career.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_02: So the jump shot, as ugly as it is, I'm not really worried about it.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: It's the other stuff that I'm I'm worried about.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: Um but that that's enough, Halliburn.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about these Eastern Conference guards because there's a lot of guys that could be in this conversation.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_02: Who did you go with starting for the East?
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_05: All right, so I think one that I don't know if we're gonna say it's a lock, but since they're 15 and one right now, I had Donovan Mitchell here because he is the best player on the best team record-wise this year.
• 15:19
  SPEAKER_05: So that one was easy, and then it got challenging with the other one.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if I'm being biased, but I put Jalen Brunson as my number two.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_05: And I think there's three to four other guards you can have in this conversation as well.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_05: But with Brunson not even looking like maybe what he did offensively last year, is still um super efficient this year.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_05: The three-point shot still looks really good.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_05: He's shooting, I believe still 40 plus percent from three, but I really like what he's doing as a passer this year.
• 15:42
  SPEAKER_05: He's averaging over seven assists, and I think he's also one, he's the one beat of cats one A this year for the Knicks offense, which is third in the week.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_05: So I have Brunson, but I think I'm open to like changing that spot because I do think there's multiple guards that are there.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_05: Did you have something similar with at least Donovan Mitchell?
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have both, honestly.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, both.
• 15:59
  SPEAKER_02: So Donovan Mitchell was in bold as a lock to start.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_02: Um, there was a tweet from maybe a week ago that uh someone was asking, maybe was that your tweet?
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: It might have been your tweet.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_02: Who's been the most disappointed player on your favorite team?
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_05: I was gonna get a video about it.
• 16:12
  SPEAKER_05: I want to see what people said.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_02: And someone said Donovan Donovan Mitchell, I guess.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_02: And that just lets you know how great the Cavs have been this season.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_02: Where Donovan Mitchell having the ridiculous year that he has is still like it's not disappointing whatsoever, but everybody else is playing like career best, so it has to be Donovan Mitchell in a way.
• 16:29
  SPEAKER_02: But even with that said, even when you saw him last night in the game against the Celtics, like he can legitimately take over a quarter.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and he's done that what twice against my Bulls.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_02: And if you count last two years, I mean I think he's averaging like 50 points per game.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_02: That's at least what it feels like.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_02: So he's been killing the game.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I I'm I'm happy to see this because you know, small markets get it so tough, right?
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: You know, your star player is always in trade rumors.
• 16:54
  SPEAKER_02: At least that's what people wanted to be.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the Bucs are dealing with this right now with the with Giannis.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and when he got to Cleveland, they were what, what, 51 team that first season?
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_02: Then things kind of took a step back a little bit, and everybody was like, they gotta trade him, they gotta trade him.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, there's no way he re-signs to Cleveland.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: He's always wanted to be a Knicks, and then the Knicks did their own thing, so maybe that shut the door for him.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm so happy that not only is he there, but he was willing to like be okay with everyone saying that they should trade Darius Garland.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: Or even before the season started, there was the report that Darius Garland's representation were like, if you're gonna extend Donovan Mitchell, maybe you should trade me.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: And they decided not to do that, and both players are having ridiculous seasons, and now the Cavs are in contention.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, it was a close game last night, even if it didn't feel like it for three and a half quarters.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I got those two guys.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_02: And Brunson, you gave all the great points.
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: I I still got enough respect for him over some of the other great guards in the Eastern Conference, and that's enough for me to put him as a starter.
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um, okay, cool.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm glad we're aligned on that because sometimes I got to keep my next bias in check.
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_05: If I already had cat, I didn't want to put two in there.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_05: But for Cleveland, too, it's because you I I could totally see the Garland appeal because Garland, although he didn't play well against Boston either way, every other game this year, he's been super efficient.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_05: He looks healthy, calm, cool, collective again.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_05: And I feel like he's been an all-star caliber guard, and we may get to him again in the bench uh spots.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_05: But I would be totally fine if we had a backcourt for um the Cavs and the All-Star game just because of how good they've been so far.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it feels very reminiscent of some of the other great teams throughout history where like not saying that a certain player doesn't deserve it, but the team is so damn good that somebody else other than the star player has to get mentioned.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_03: Right.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I kind of feel that way about defense a lot of the times, where like you have top end defenses and you're trying to pinpoint who's the guy.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, there's certain teams that just do it so well that you can't pinpoint the certain like the the Houston Rockets.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, you can pinpoint two guys off the bench, but like that starting unit is still a great defensive team.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: Is it Alprin Shangun is Jabari or is it collectively just having that chemistry to be on the string?
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of the way I feel about the all-star game as well.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: So I think we will get to Garland a little bit later.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 18:58
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, uh, totally agree there.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_05: And then, all right, so basically we we kind of figured out our starters in the Eastern Conference with no issue.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_05: Do you want to go to the bench in the east or do you want to go to the starters in the west?
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's stay with the Eastern Conference because this is where things get really, really tough, man.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: Um okay, let's let's go, let's round off.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_02: Who's the first guard for you in the Eastern Conference bench?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_05: All right, so it wasn't Garland for me.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_05: I actually went with Lamella Ball.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_05: I think because Lamello is averaging uh 20 and a half points, and I feel like like no disrespect to Trey Man because he's been good in his own way this year, but this team has been either banked up in the front court or Brandon Miller and Miles Burgess have been kind of underperforming to their expectations going into this year.
• 19:38
  SPEAKER_05: And I feel like Lamelo Ball has just been keeping them competitive in most of their games.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_05: Um and his three-point shot has been off the charts, his playmaking is still there, and I think just he's an exciting player to watch in this league and in the Eastern Conference where there's only four teams above 500, I'm okay with like the Hornet 2 or 5-9 right now, getting an all-star guy.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_05: And I think Lamella Ball, with the popularity he can have in this league, deserves to be in the all-star game.
• 20:02
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I think it's a tough spot um for some of these guards because you could have a bunch of these guys that could be in this conversation.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm in the same uh boat as you.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_02: Like, because the East is so weird right now that being sub 500 didn't really matter too much for me, unless you were like the 76ers who are 21.
• 20:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, every other team, I feel like we're in considerations to have an all-star, in my personal opinion.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: And Lamelo, he wasn't my first guard, but he definitely is on my list as one of my guards.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: He's been phenomenal.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: As long as you don't look at last night him getting benched.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he's been he's been amazing.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_02: And like you mentioned, they've dealt with people underperforming, right?
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_02: B.
• 20:37
  SPEAKER_02: Mills in the second year, having moments, having a game winner against the Detroit Pistons, but not necessarily having the season that a lot of us anticipated going into year number two, or Miles Bridges, who had a good bounce back after being out of the league a little bit, still not looking as bouncy or as great as previous seasons.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_02: And man, there's they're starting Taj Gibson some days, man.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like that, that's how rough it can be.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_02: And yet, I think him, a Lamelo Ball and Charles Lee has done a pretty good job to make this team at least watchable.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_02: I I think that's like the bare minimum, but having a watchable team goes a very long way, and Lamelo helps that a lot.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I don't know if you um have the same kind of format for your all-stars, but for the guards, I had like basically six-ish guards that could have been the bench or the wild cards.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_05: Like both my wild card spots went to guards.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_05: The forwards, um, I or the front court guys, I should say, I didn't have anybody really too much in consideration.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_05: So, like, I end up going with Lamelo and Garland as my backups, but um, I'm okay with like Lamelo being a wild card or anything like that.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_05: So those are the two I went as my backups.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_05: Who do you have?
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I have the same thing.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_02: And those are my two backups.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_02: We're we're right now, we are perfect seven for seven, and I lost our game.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Garland, it sucks that last night he had such a stinker of a game because they don't get a ton of nasty televised games and being 15 0, going into that situation and having that type of night where it was genuinely bad.
• 21:56
  SPEAKER_02: Um, one thing about DG, even Cavs fans will tell you when you put a bigger defender.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: On him.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: That's the times that he usually struggles.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: And he's a smaller guy.
• 22:03
  SPEAKER_02: So when I say bigger, I mean most guys in basketball, it was 6'3 or above.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_02: So let's say when he is matched up with a really aggressive bigger defender like a Drew or like a Derek White, he will struggle.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: And Al Horford made some ridiculous plays last night.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_02: How is he doing it?
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_02: He's like 38 years old.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: No idea, man.
• 22:20
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not thinking about last night three of 21, whatever the number was.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_02: Before that, he was one of the clutchest players in basketball by every statistic.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_02: And he also put a few games away.
• 22:29
  SPEAKER_02: So in my mind, again, 15 and 1.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_02: They deserve at least two.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: And Darius Garland is one of the other guys.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: I'll just say that.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_02: There we go.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'll say that.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_02: I'll say that.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: All right, front court.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_02: Front court.
• 22:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh honestly has not a ton of candidates for front court this year, at least out east.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_02: So my I'll go first.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_02: I went Jalen Brown.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_02: I know he missed like five or six games up until this point, but he's still having 26 point per game season and still can, you know, turn the crowd up when they need it, like just like last night.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_02: The big run goes on with the Cavs.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_02: And Jalen Brown's one of the people to kind of silence those things.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_02: And, you know, coming off the finals MVP, still putting up a ridiculous number, even if the three-point shot is not falling like the previous years.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_02: I still think he's done enough to get it.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: And especially again, we're talking about the best team in basketball, maybe not by record-wise, but having one all-star would be weird.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_05: I had Jalen Brown as one of mine as well.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_05: And even though, yeah, like the shot like mentions downs a little bit this year, but I think the playmaking has tipped up uh ticked up a little bit.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_05: I kind of like what he's doing in the half court.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_05: I feel like not trying to do too much offensively.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_05: And I think the three-point shot with him, like decent sample size enough.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_05: It's gonna fall.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_05: He's still a really good defender.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and I think since like I wanted to have two Celtics in here as well because they've been the best team in the league for the last, you could say, like year and a half now.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but it was gonna be tough to get Derek White in just because of how stacked the guard class is.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if you ended up getting Derek White in here.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_05: I tried.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know if there's a way to make him a forward, because if there was, I probably would have had him over Jalen Brown, but just because of the front court thing, I had Brown here, but I did have him making it.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_02: Cool.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh let's go to another front court guy.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_02: And this was not a dude that I expected the season to be a year where I'm talking about first time all-star, first month in.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: Franz Wagner.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_02: Franz Wagner has taken over.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_02: You know, Paolo Bencaro went down, and what felt like the worst time, he was averaging 29 points per game.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I watched his very last game before his injury, and that was against the Bulls.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: And in that fourth quarter, you know, me and my boys, we watched games together in Discord.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm watching this game with them, and Paolo airballed like two shots in the fourth, and I was like, that's that's strange.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_02: Little did we know he was trying to play through this injury.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_02: So when he went down, I'm like, this is awful for the Orlando Magic because they were hitting their stride and missing their best player for a month plus on a team that's already a deficient offensive team.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Should be a struggle, but here they are, six-game win streak currently.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: And Franz Wagner has put up 33, 32, 29, 31.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like he's been incredible.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_02: So he I think he deserves a spot right now.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he's been killing it.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_05: The shot looks back, and I think it would have been an interesting discussion because if Paolo never gets hurt, we're probably arguing maybe Paulo and Kat for that last front court spot um as a starter.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_05: And then maybe Franz were arguing for a backup.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_05: And with how weak the front court is in the East this year with backups, I think he could have made it even if Paolo didn't get hurt, because he was playing well as the number two, and uh he definitely belongs here, yeah.
• 25:15
  SPEAKER_05: With the way he's been playing with Paulo out.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_05: I think this was a fairly easy one.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_05: I had basically three guys for my last spot, so I'm intrigued to see who you had here.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I went with, and maybe this is my bias he's coming into play here.
• 25:28
  SPEAKER_02: Not a bulls bias, not a bull's bias, but I went Evan Mobley.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_02: I I absolutely love the season that we're getting for Evan Mobley.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_02: Again, you can push back on that because maybe he's not at the same level as some of the other guys that I have as my snubs, but I do think he's one of the five best defensive players in the league so far this season.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_02: And when you account that with him averaging, I think, 19 to 10 at this point, where even yesterday he was one of the better players for the Cavaliers.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, it feels like the one year where it was Jeff Teague, it was Kyle Korver, Damari Carroll, it was Al Horvin and Paul Milsap all making player of the month.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_02: That's kind of how my all-star ballot feels like for the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 26:07
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but maybe again, it might be my biases because I've been waiting for this version of Evan Mobley for like two years now.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_02: I never became super impatient with it, but the numbers are 18.5, nine rebounds, two and a half assists, 57% from the field, 37% from three, and he's actually attempting about two a game, get two about one and a half blocks.
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_02: He's everywhere defensively.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_02: Again, the front court is so thin that I feel pretty comfortable putting this 18 point per game score in the all-star game.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_05: Oh man, this is so the way I thought you were going with, I thought I was gonna hear like Vucevic or Levine coming out of your mouth, but the bias part, and Levine was one of my finalists here because Levine has been great um offensively this year, and it's nice to see him healthy again.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_05: I had Siakam also down because I think he's still done all right for Indiana, but they've been a little bit disappointing as a collective this year, and you could even talk about Mather and being their top guy.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_05: I also had Mobley.
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_05: I ended up going with Mobley as like my top guy because I'm cool with right now when we're doing this, they're 15 and one.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_05: I think they are good enough to have three all-stars and what Mobley's doing defensively this year, and we're trying to see that version of him become what we thought he could be after year two, and we're seeing it.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_05: And this team is a lot of fun to watch.
• 27:12
  SPEAKER_05: And if you're 15 and one, like I'm I'm fine giving you three all-stars.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, I don't care who you are because they've been playing like that.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_05: And Jared Allen deserves probably some love in the conversation.
• 27:20
  SPEAKER_05: But in the East, like Levine, Mobley, or Shiakam, I think it was easy to go with the guy anchoring or part of the defense on the 15-1 team.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and again, we're talking about a front court that is really, really thin without some of the the big hitting guys like a Joel and B not being here.
• 27:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, you know, them having three all-stars makes a lot of sense.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_02: Now, the wow card, there are so many directions we can go.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: I might get just a little bit crazy.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: I might get a little bit, I might get a little bit crazy in one of these spots, man.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_02: So you tell me your first wild card, and we'll see if we're on the same uh level.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_05: Okay.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_05: Um, yeah, both liner guards.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_05: The first guy I had is Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, the Pistons have just been fun to watch again this year.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_05: And you can credit that to JB Bickerstaff, and you can credit that to the veterans they brought in.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_05: But Cade this year, I think, has taken another step as trying to be the leader of this team.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_05: His slash line is 23, 7, and 8.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I know, I mean, like for the All-Star game, you're looking at slash lines.
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_05: That's an all-star caliber slash line this year.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I know the turnovers maybe you would like to be down where they are right now, and him overall as a playmaker, but the three-point shot is there.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_05: He's been the best player on right now.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_05: They are the what, the seventh seed of the Eastern Conference.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_05: Not saying a lot, they're seven and nine, but we're talking about Eastern Conference All-Stars.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_05: I'm cool with like K, the number one overall pick, the pedigree, him, I think, developing as one of the top young guards in this league.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, he, yeah, was my first wild card spot.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_02: Not mad at it.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_02: He was my preseason prediction for first time all-star this year.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_02: It just made too much sense.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, have a coach that know what the hell he's doing.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_02: Finally, got some veterans in that.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: And like, we're seeing guys like Malik Beasley just have four-game stretches where he's putting up 20.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Tobias Harris, for what it's worth, has been living up to whatever expectations were were put on him.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_02: And uh, it's it's been fun.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_02: I also have Kay Cunningham as one of my wild card spots.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_05: And I feel like we're gonna have the same other one.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: You think so?
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_05: I if you're saying weird, I don't know if it is weird, uh, but I'll let you go with it.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_05: I'll let you know if it's my guy.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_02: Last thing on K before we move on.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: Like you mentioned, the turnover stuff can be something.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, the game against the Miami Heat a few nights back, where it was a dogfight of a game, and that is the one where Eric Sposter pulled a Chris Weber.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Cade had like a two-minute stretch where he was an absolute hell.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm watching again, talking to the guys on Discord, and I'm like, man, my Kay Cunningham propaganda is gonna go out the window if they lose this game, man.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_02: And luckily, Sposter did his part, and nobody cared about the turnovers because they won.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, nobody cared.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_02: And then uh they just played against the Bulls yesterday, and nobody cared about them losing that one either.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: So it's kind of cool.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: It's kind of cool to see Kay Cunningham do this thing because you know, he's not a very great advanced stats guy, he's not a very efficient guy compared to his peers that are in the level of all-stars, and he turns the ball over a ton.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I he's he's more of an eye test guy, and I always try to balance the eye test and analytics and stuff.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: Cade is almost strictly an eye test guy.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_02: Where like the guy can he can flat out hoop, he can flat out hoop, he can take over games, a tough shot taker and maker.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and his team is still not great, like it's better than last year, but it's still not great.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_02: So to see him and Jay Nivey kind of mesh after a year of them basically not playing together is pretty cool.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_02: All right, last wild card spot.
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_02: It's it's it's my it's my show, right?
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: So I could do something a little crazy, get that trade value up and put in Nicole Vucevic as an NBA All-Star.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_05: I like it.
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_05: He's been amazing.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: Vusevich has been amazing, man.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's been basically back to the version of him that we traded for.
• 30:39
  SPEAKER_02: 21 points per game, 10 rebounds, three assists, 60% from the field, 48% from three, and he's shooting how many threes a game?
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_02: Four threes a game.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_02: Don't don't ask me about the defensive side of the ball.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_02: We're not talking about the all-the-screen.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's the all-star game.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_02: Boy, maybe we're the problem, though.
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_03: Yeah, maybe we're not basically.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I just I wanted to give some love to Vooch.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: It was tough between him and Zach Levine.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_02: I went Vooch.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, just because I figured that the guards are so very stacked that having a wild cart that was a forward or front court player made sense to me.
• 31:10
  SPEAKER_02: But you can talk me out of it completely because maybe I'm just I'm drinking a Kool-Aid and trying to get other teams to drink the Kool-Aid to trade for him.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_05: Nah, I like it.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_05: He was my first honorable mention.
• 31:18
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, the way he's shooting this year has been unreal.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_05: He shooted 48% from three.
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_05: It's crazy because he shot what, 29% from three last year.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_05: So this has to be so nice to see as a Bulls fan.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_05: Just hopefully he does get that trade value up for you guys.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_05: My last spot, though, was different.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm going with Tower Hero of the Miami Heat.
• 31:34
  SPEAKER_05: Uh Tower Hero Yeah, 24, 5, and 5 this year.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_05: He has been mites out as a shooter for this team and honestly has kept this team somewhat respectable in games where Jimmy has been out or not playing to Jimmy's standards with Bam's uh slow start offensively.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_05: Just shooting 45 from three, 88 from the line.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_05: He's got just the quickest trigger in the league from three.
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_05: And I think he's done well as a playmaker this year overall.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe the defense isn't where you want it to be either, but um I think he should be in the conversations.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_05: I was trying to get him in as like a forward spot as well, but primarily he's played shooting guard this year.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I love it.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: He was one of my tough omissions.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_02: And again, my biases came into play, so maybe he deserves to be in here with Vucevic.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_02: But regardless, uh, love the what the season that he's having.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: My major criticism of Tyler Harrow was that his his shot diet was just too old for what the modern era is.
• 32:22
  SPEAKER_02: And last time I checked, his long uh two-pointers are down like 20%, and he's replaced those with three-pointers.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: We always knew that he was a good to great three-point shooter.
• 32:30
  SPEAKER_02: It was just a matter of getting him locked in, and um, he's been their best player.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I know Jimmy had the good game against the 76ers, but other than that, it's really been Tyler Harrow carrying the offensive low were in that game that I referred to earlier with the Detroit Pistons.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: He went on his personal what 9-0 run when it felt like the game was over and you know, helped them claw back into that one.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_02: He's been so good.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: I'm so happy he got some mention today because he definitely deserves it.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, big honorable mentions, right?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_02: I I have to go Damian Lillard, obviously.
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think he's like 12th in the league in scoring or something along those lines, and he had the game when it layup against the Houston Rockets a few nights back.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_02: He's been great this season.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: It did feel weird to give them two all-stars when we can all agree that they're underperforming.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_02: So that's one of the main reasons why he didn't make it.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe that shouldn't matter in the all-star game, but you know, sometimes you gotta you gotta um what's the pick Harris?
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_05: Is that the is that the Yeah, 20 Harris, I think, at this point.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah, yes, yes, exactly.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and then other honorable mention, and it he's not having the greatest of seasons, but he's still a great offensive end engine.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Trey Young.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's not having the greatest year.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: I know, but I still trust Trey Young enough as my engine, even if Dyson Daniels is taking over all the fandom in Atlanta now.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, for sure.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_05: I think for what he's doing, um just trying to carry that offense with with no longer having DeJounte Murray there, um, and a lot of young guys in that room.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_05: I had those guys as honorable mentions.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I had Cam Thomas as an honorable mention as well.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, he's been putting up buckets this year.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, he's keeping this Nets team competitive.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, a lot of those role players have him this year as well.
• 33:58
  SPEAKER_05: But Cam has been a phenomenal scorer, um, especially from three.
• 34:02
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, I also I mentioned him before, but Derek White, I wanted to get give some love to as well.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_05: I think it was tough to get three Celtics in.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, you would probably have to get him in the wild card with how deep the guards are in the east.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_05: And another Knicks bias here, but I threw OJ and Nobi just in the honorable mentions.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_05: Wanted to give him some love for what he's doing defensively, and he's been great offensively for the Knicks at times, better than Mikhail Bridges.
• 34:22
  SPEAKER_05: So wasn't gonna put him in by any means, but just thought he deserved some love.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_02: Do you think the east or the west was more difficult to do this for?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_05: I man, it was tough.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_05: So for the East, it I think it might have been the East with honorable mentions, because I have a lot less honorable mentions in the West, but just trying to give the last wildcard spot or the last like guard spot, I was just like, I spending like 10 minutes trying to figure out who I want to give it to.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, let's get to the locks out west then.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I think we can both agree that Jokic is a lock for the season that he's having.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they won their first game without him the other night, though.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Jamal Murray, head of the game.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_02: Russell Westbrook with a triple-double is 200th of his career.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to him.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, Anthony Davis has been an MVP candidate this season.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_02: I think he deserves to be a lock.
• 35:08
  SPEAKER_02: And then my last absolute lock, like of course, there are a lot of players that deserve to be here.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_02: Absolute lock is probably Shay, even if he's not having the same season as last year, um, and they lost to the Spurs without their top three players.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I still put Shay as an absolute lock at the all-star starters.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I had those guys pretty easy putting them in as well as locks.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_05: So, do you want to start in the backcourt specifically?
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's go backcourt.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_05: Dude, the last guard in the because like what we've seen in the past, two guys that I'm sure we're gonna mention throughout this, but there's been two guys that have always kind of dominated the backcourt for the guards, at least over the last five years.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_05: And I went with somebody a little bit different.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe it's because of the hype what he's done over the last week.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I'm going with Darren Fox as my last spot.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_05: I love that.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_05: And the lesson comments.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_05: Like 29 points.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_05: He had 109 points through two games, the 60-point performance.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I thought he's looked good defensively.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_05: The three-point shot has been better over the last couple of weeks, and he's been great for the Kings, especially with DeMar missing some time.
• 36:03
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and he's just been so much fun to watch out there.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_05: And I know he's playing for, I think, some super max eligibility at the end of the year.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_05: So it's just been a joy to watch him.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_05: And it's cool to have a Kings player in a loaded guard like uh group in the Western Conference be a starter.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I mean, he dropped 60, and unfortunately, Anthony Everest hit the shot to take the game away from him.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_02: And also, unfortunately, Jake Paul and Mike Tyson were winning around the same time.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so nobody was paying attention unless you're a really, really big diehard NBA fan.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: But he's been incredible.
• 36:33
  SPEAKER_02: Game after that, like you mentioned, he scored so many points and they clawed and got that win as well.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_02: He uh, you watch the Kings broadcast, they're still calling him Mr.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_02: Clutch, even though it's been a few years since he won Clutch Player of the Year.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_02: I love it.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_02: Now, my he's on my team for sure, but I went very traditional with my start.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_02: I did go Steph Curry here.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, they're the number one team out west right now at 10-3.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_02: And though his overall stats are down compared to you know his previous seasons, or you compare it to his best of the years, he's still averaging 23, 5, and 6, 42% from three, which is still incredible at this age.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he's been or they've been one of the best stories in basketball.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_02: Some people had them outside the playing completely, some people had them as a playing team.
• 37:12
  SPEAKER_02: And here they are through the first 15 games or so of the season.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: They're the number one seed, and Curry deserves a lot of credit for that one because even in his bad shooting nights, he still has the magnet on him where other teams are gonna guard him like he's got 50 already.
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_02: So um, and and he's always been a at least okay defender.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like this season he's buying in even more to the defensive side of the ball.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: We talked about it last episode with Jerry Stackhouse being there, um, kind of changing the defensive identity a little bit.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: But their last game, I don't know if you caught it, they um they're going against the Clippers, and the Clippers don't want to win for whatever reason.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_02: And the Warriors get back into it, and then the last play was just like I don't even know the name of the song, but you know the the song that when people are just running around, yeah, do do do.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, is it this play where they're just throwing the ball around, or am I thinking about it?
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, oh my god.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_02: Draymond Green saves it to the opposing team, but it's tapped out.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: And regardless of all of that, Steph Curry is still seeing two bodies.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_02: He throws the ball across the court to what he thought is going to be Lindy Waters, but it ends up in the hands of Gary Payton the second brick game over.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_02: Uh but Curry's again, it's just been incredible.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_02: I love De'Aaron Fox as a starter.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: I just went a little bit more traditional.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, for sure.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_05: And Curry's one of the more popular players in the NBA.
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_05: So and it's the All-Star game.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm perfectly fine if Curry was a starter.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like you said, they're exceeding expectations this year, and his numbers haven't been like to Curry's standards, but he's letting other people get involved because the defense is so much focused on him.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_05: So you ended up going with SGA and Curry, yeah.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_05: So Fox and SGA had a little bit of a Kentucky backcourt there, but uh Steph was my first backup guard.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_05: So I had him in that conversation, which the backup guards also got kind of interesting because some guy, I don't know if he's in there for you as well, but always a starter.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_05: And this year, off to a little bit of a slow start, at least with his shot.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_05: So he ended up being a wild card for me, who I'm sure we're gonna see.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're on the same page there.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_02: Let's let's lastly talk about the last front court spot since we already have Anthony Davis and Jokic.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: Do you got the near 40-year-old man, LeBron James, as a starter?
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_05: I do.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_05: I think it was gonna be maybe Kevin Durant.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_05: Um, now that he's missing some time, um, I was like, I'm gonna give it a LeBron.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_05: The the triple double streak that he just had recently, uh it's a 39.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_05: It's like insane.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_05: It's also LeBron James.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_05: So as long as he's putting up like good numbers in this league, um, which is crazy that he's still doing it, he's gotta be starting in the all-star game.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_05: It's LeBron James.
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm glad that if he is, and probably when he is a starter, I'm glad that it's deserving of a starter and not because it's LeBron.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_05: So he's been unreal this year.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_05: I don't know how he does it.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_05: It's he's thirty he's gonna be 40 next month.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, he's still an all-star again.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_02: It makes no sense that he's able to, in his late 30s to now nearly 40, turn into such a good three-point shooter after years and years of 30%, 31%, 33% to now have back-to-back seasons.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_02: Again, we're talking about a 14-game sample size, so maybe it doesn't stick.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_02: But last year he's a 41% three-point shooter on five attempts, and the year before that, um the year after that, this year, he's a 41% three-point shooter on five and a half attempts.
• 39:57
  SPEAKER_02: So it's just the guy is just so malleable.
• 40:00
  SPEAKER_02: He just he can change his game to do whatever you really need him to do.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_02: And um that's coming off a year his the before the 41% where he shot 32%.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, he's changing shot completely.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_02: Fixed it, man.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_05: Dude, here seeing 21 straight all-star appearances when that shows up is just gonna be a mind-like boggling number that we may never see again.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: Are you this is this is usually not what this show is about, but I'm just curious.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_02: Are you a Jordan or are you a LeBron guy?
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so I I I think growing up, like just you hear about Michael Jordan and what he is and and everything like that.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_05: And I'm I'm 25, so I never really got to see Jordan play whatsoever.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I'm gonna go with LeBron just because I mean, I got to see his dominance, I got to see his Eastern Conference going to the final streak.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_05: I got to see him do this at age gonna be 40 years old, good enough where his son's now in the league, and he's been this good.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm more of LeBron um for my, I guess, like sake, but I guess I can't have the full view just because I never got to be alive in the 90s, or I never got to be uh like I'm sure you know people or like been around it, like Jordan, what he meant to to Chicago and how much I wonder what your debate or your thing is, because you are the Chicago guy.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it depends on who I'm talking to.
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I feel that.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_02: If it's an old head, I'll go MJ just so I don't get chewed out.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but usually if it's somebody around our age, I usually I usually say um it has to be Braun for me because just like you mentioned, that is a guy I got to see.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_02: I I can watch as many documentaries or any Hartwood classics as possible to see MJ and understand that, but I'll never get the full grasp of what the city of Chicago was like during the 90s when he was dominating.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_02: So um I think LeBron is probably the not probably LeBron is the best basketball player of all time.
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_02: I usually just cop out and say Jordan was the greatest basketball player of all time, just based on accolades and consistent dominance.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, year 22 all-star, like 21 all-star appearances, it's hard to have an argument against that if I'm being honest.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, we like scoring title, um, all-time like yeah, scoring record, like it's gonna be unreal.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_05: Like his accolades at the end of the day.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe he could have had a couple more MVPs, but at least four along the way.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_05: It's it's unreal, his resume.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: And it's just I bet if you ask him that uh non-DPOY is probably the thing that shows at him the most.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_05: That was the year that I I think I saw the video of him talking about it was like Marcus Saul or somebody was on second team but won it over him.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, funny how that works.
• 42:14
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the first team um it just does it didn't make any sense.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: It didn't make sense to anybody at the time, it doesn't make sense 15 years later or however many years it was.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_02: So the first team all defensive that year, for whatever reason I'm looking at it, has six names here.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_02: So there was a tie.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Tony Allen, LeBron James, Sergi Bacca, Chris Paul, and then lastly, the tie was between Tyson Chandler, Joe Kim Noah.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_02: And then the second team saw Paul George, Avery Bradley, Tim Duncan, Mike Conley, and Marcus Saul was on the second team, but he had the least amount of votes on the second team.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, still when there's two centers in first team.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_05: So yeah, would he even be on it?
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_02: And so weird.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_02: But I mean, that would have just added to his resume.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, enough LeBron talk.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get to the bench.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_02: So my first guard off the bench is your starter, De'Aaron Fox, for all the reasons that you mentioned.
• 43:02
  SPEAKER_02: He's been one of my favorite players in the league since early in his career, where I interviewed him once on a show I used to do called The Real.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_02: And I was so hyped when my producer told me De'Arn Fox is coming onto the show.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_02: She was like, You got 24 hours to prep for this.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, say less.
• 43:15
  SPEAKER_02: Then I went to um uh my local Foot Locker because this was like the reason he was doing this, because he was doing um, he had just dropped a shoe with Nike.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't a hoop shoe, it was uh just uh any day wear shoe, it was an Air Max one.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and I knew that that had dropped.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: I went to the store and I bought a pair of De'Aaron Fox to put in the background to see if he would notice.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_02: He didn't notice, so I had to point it out towards the end of the show.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: But uh, that's been my boy.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: So to see him having another great season, it's been so great.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_02: Um, last year him and Sabonis got snubbed.
• 43:44
  SPEAKER_02: There's no arguments against De'Aaron Fox being here.
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_02: Like he is a staple, he is a as good of a lock as you can be without it being a lock to be a starter.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and the also getting this year, it's in San Francisco, right?
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_05: Sure is, yeah.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, so it's cool.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_05: Like, obviously, like Sacramento, not like super close, but it's cool to have like just him there.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_05: Representing the Kings and could be a starter, could not be, but like for his yeah, current trajectory, like after his rookie year, where people I think use him as a good example of like, you're not gonna be super lead in your rookie year.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_05: You're not gonna be a Luka Doncic or Trey Young in your rookie year.
• 44:13
  SPEAKER_05: That's just not everybody in this league.
• 44:16
  SPEAKER_05: So I tried pointing out maybe some comparisons where like where people talk about Scoot Henderson and how he struggled to start off his career.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_05: And it's cool to see Fox really develop every year of his career so far.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: Who's your first guard?
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_02: Is it just Steph Curry?
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_05: Um, yeah, it's Steph Curry um as well.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_05: Um just them exceeding expectations.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_05: It's Steph.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_05: Um perfectly fine if he's a starter over to Aaron Fox or Shea.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_05: Um my other spot went to Anthony Edwards, uh, which and this year just turning into an absolute elite three-point shooter.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, he's averaging 28 points.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_05: He's been super clutch.
• 44:43
  SPEAKER_05: And at times we're this year where it feels like this team is trying to figure out its identity after the Carl Anthony Towns trade, and he's just been a consistent staple offensively for them.
• 44:52
  SPEAKER_05: I like the energy he just brings overall to this team in general.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_05: And this was one I was going back and forth for for a while because I don't know if he's your second guard spot or do you have Ant in the wild cards, but just like not having Luca here for me was just like, whoa, like Lucas always here and he's been here for the last five years, but his start has been not to Luca's standards, it feels like.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's it's such a weird one because I mean the stats are still ridiculous.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe because I agree with you, Luca is spoiler, a wild card of mine.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_02: Um he's averaging 28, 7, and 7.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_02: Like in the wild cards, it feels weird to be like Anthony Edwards is the is the first guard over 28, 7, and 7.
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_02: But so yeah, maybe we're being um maybe not as true to what it really is if we're taking it at face value, because 28, 7, and 7, hypothetically, if if um it was Anthony Edwards averaging these exact numbers, then we'd probably have him as a starter, right?
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: But because we're only comparing Luca to Luca, we talked about last year, where he was 34 points per game, nine assists, and nine rebounds on better efficiency.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: That um I did also give the nod to Anthony Edwards, who turned into tall Steph Curry, um athletic Steph Curry.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_02: And he's such I cannot wait.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_02: I know we got starting five, and shout out to the people at Omaha.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like starting five didn't really do a full justice to Anthony Edwards as far as who he is as a person, and I pray that he's got his own production team following him throughout the course of his career.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_02: But the stuff that he says, like he came onto the scene with some craziness.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I play every sport and I'm the best at every sport.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: That's his rookie season before he was drafted, and um he he looks like a person that can just sound like glazing, it's crazy, do whatever he wants, right?
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_02: He said that his change of his jump shot, he watched every shooter shoot and try their release point.
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_02: He tried to release like Steph Curry, didn't work.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_02: He tried to release like Kevin Durant, didn't work.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_02: Damian Lillard worked.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_02: One offseason of him switching his release point to Damian Lillard has him shooting 40% from three, 40 plus from three on 11 attempts.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_02: That's like some video game progression.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_02: And so I I gotta give my love, man.
• 46:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, you you just have to.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_05: And for what, like just the excitement factor to him, just the way he could change direction on the floor in the half court, um, and just like yeah, the competitive competitiveness that you mentioned, it was just it was just tough because yeah, we hold Luka to such a high standard, and maybe he just has a couple games where he goes six of ten for three, three straight times, and his three-point shot looks a little bit better than it does right now.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but it's funny because like and Seth, like these would be starters in the Eastern Conference, probably.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_05: Like these guys would probably start over Brunson in the East.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_05: So it's funny just how the conferences work.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, agreed, agreed.
• 47:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, even Mavs fans in my life, of course, they got so much love for Luca.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not trying to act like they don't, but they've been very disappointed in his start.
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_02: And again, we're talking about 28-7, it's or it's 28, 8, 8, whether whatever the numbers were.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_02: So um he's there.
• 47:39
  SPEAKER_02: Don't worry, Mavs fans.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_02: He's just not, you know, a starter or the first guards, but he's a wild card spot.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh front court was a bit weird out west, man.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_02: Can't lie.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: It was.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: It was it was tough trying to figure out some names.
• 47:52
  SPEAKER_02: Who's your first guy?
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm not gonna hold the injury too much to him, but I still had Kevin Durant here.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_05: Just because Kev uh KD, I think, was playing like an MVP in the small sample size before he ended up getting hurt.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_05: We're in year 17, and I think LeBron obviously isn't a tier of his own with longevity, but we got to appreciate what Kevin Durant is doing in year 17.
• 48:09
  SPEAKER_05: Um, being able to just be as efficient as the score, someone that's gonna score 27-20, 29 points every single night, be an elite three-point shooter, be an elite post-score.
• 48:18
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and no matter who you are, it's gonna be impossible to block a Kevin Durant shot, maybe unless you're Webby.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_05: But I have KD making it.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_05: It's Kevin Durant.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_05: I think if he plays a decent amount of games, whatever people's view is a threshold, he should make it.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_05: Um and I think it was gonna be like Hameron LeBron for the last starter spot, so I end up going with KD as my first bench bot.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_02: Not mad at that.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_02: So in his nine game, just 27 points per game, six rebounds, three and a half assists.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_02: And not only that, I think he probably was the front runner for clutch player of the year.
• 48:44
  SPEAKER_02: They they just didn't lose in the clutch to start this season.
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and Kevin, we talked, you talked about longevity, which I love.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_02: People forget that Kevin Durant basically missed two and a half seasons of his career.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_02: And the fact that he is 36 years old and still able to do the things that he's doing is just a testament to like one of the basketball gods.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_02: Like, there's no other way to really put it.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_02: He's just one of them guys.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not mad at it whatsoever.
• 49:07
  SPEAKER_02: I did take the injury against him a little bit, so he's not in at all.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: But everybody knows that if Kevin was healthy, he would, like you mentioned, probably be a starter.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_02: But I I went a different direction.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_02: Um and it feels weird because maybe he shouldn't be my first one.
• 49:20
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I guess the order doesn't matter, they're still coming off the bench.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, Jaron Jackson Jr., man.
• 49:25
  SPEAKER_02: Thoughts?
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_02: Was Jaron an honorable mention, or did he make it for you?
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_05: No, so he made it for me.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_05: He was one of my three spots, and it would have been easier because if I took Katie off, I could have made this a little bit easier on myself.
• 49:35
  SPEAKER_05: Because I was debating between him and somebody else.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_05: But if you watch the Grizzlies this year, I mean, as a whole, he's been kind of the best grizzly.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_05: He's been better than Ja Morant.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_05: I think at times when they play together, obviously Ja and Bane have been dealing with their injuries, but he's been great offensively, and I think it's more the three-point shot coming around.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_05: His shot selection looking a little bit better um than it did last year when he was like always the number one option with all the injuries and um stuff they had last year.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_05: So I had Drible J, and I think he deserves to definitely be um an all-star this year.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's been great.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, last year his efficiency was way down, and uh, it makes sense, right, when you think about who they were playing and who they weren't playing on those teams, and he was just overtasked to do certain things.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: But I just went into the season and I wish I would have written down these stats for this episode, talking about how often Jaron Jackson Jr.
• 50:19
  SPEAKER_02: was the ball handler on a pick and roll last year versus the year before that, and it was like, let's say, times 20.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm just thinking to myself, those type of things of him being the number one guy, they're gonna benefit him in the long run, where those guys, John Moran, Desmond Bain, so on and so forth, eventually do come back.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_02: That he's not gonna be tasked to do that every possession, but he's gonna have enough reps to make it a viable play.
• 50:41
  SPEAKER_02: And he's been doing a great job of that, even now with them dealing with all the injuries that they're having.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: It's 23 points per game, 52% from three.
• 50:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, from the field, not from three.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's a career high in efficiency.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I love everything.
• 50:53
  SPEAKER_02: He's probably not gonna be the three blocks per game player that he was in his DPOS season, and I think that's fine.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_02: He's still one of the better defenders in all of basketball if you look at his stats and everything.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_02: So if it felt weird when I was going through it just because he did have such an off-season, if you will, last year, but no doubt in my mind that Jaron deserves to be here right now.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_05: Definitely.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um, yeah, I think deserves the the uh consideration for this as well.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, who drivers your your second spot?
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 51:19
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe I'm just again drinking the Kool-Aid.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_02: I got Victor Wimbenyama.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: And I know that his stats looked so much worse before his 50-point explosion and his 36-point the game before that.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_02: But the most impactful defensive player in basketball, I'm I'm a two-way guy.
• 51:35
  SPEAKER_02: And again, we want to preach defense.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_02: Put Wimben Yama in that paint and see what happens.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_02: How many people are gonna test him then?
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, but Wimbyama, best defensive player in the league, in my personal opinion.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: And now his jump shot is fallen after everybody was worried about his three-point shot.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: I again, I don't know if I necessarily love eight, three point eight and a half, three pointers a game for my 7-4 guy, but I understand it.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: And his averages are 22, 3.7 blocks, which is ridiculous, and 10 rebounds.
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_05: Like, that's just looking normal to him now, just three and a half blocks per game or 3.7.
• 52:06
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and I think his field goal percentage like a week ago was like 42, 43%.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_05: And now it's up to 47% because of these explosion like offensive games he's had.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_05: And I think it's I think it's time for him to make an all-star game.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_05: And the Spurs have actually been competitive.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_05: Like, I know the Thunder are banked up, but they beat the Thunder last night um with no Wemby.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_05: So, like the Spurs, I think, as a whole this year have been at least somewhat more enjoyable to watch than last year with Wemby.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so I I had him as a spot as well.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_05: So I wonder the one guy I had that like if you take out KD, I would have had here.
• 52:35
  SPEAKER_05: I wonder if he's the guy that you have as your last spot.
• 52:36
  SPEAKER_05: Because I did have KD, Wemby, and Triple J, but I would have this guy as my KD replacement.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_05: I wonder if he's your guy.
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_02: Uh I got DeMont Sabonis.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_02: Is that was that the guy you were thinking?
• 52:46
  SPEAKER_05: It was not.
• 52:47
  SPEAKER_05: Um, but I had he was my first honorable mention.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_05: But I think he deserves to be in this conversation for what he does as a playmaker and as an offensive hub for that team.
• 52:53
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, so he's 20 points per game, 12 and a half rebounds, 6.6 assists.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_02: And the revelation is that he's shooting two threes a game and he's shooting 45 or 40% from there, which is amazing for him.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I always wondered if he was going to buy in completely to shooting.
• 53:06
  SPEAKER_02: And again, we don't want him shooting Wimby numbers at eight attempts, but uh, all those shots are completely open.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_02: And most of the time it's not the first action.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_02: Like they run the first action, nothing comes of it, and then a couple seconds left because the other things didn't work.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'll shoot the three.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_02: And I love those type of three-point shooters for a big.
• 53:23
  SPEAKER_02: I don't love when it's Jonas Valentino's taking the three six seconds into the shot clock.
• 53:27
  SPEAKER_02: That just feels like a bad shot to me.
• 53:29
  SPEAKER_02: So Sabonis has found his way.
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, last year I thought he was the biggest snub, so maybe I'm just giving him his his justice here, but he's still 64% from the field.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: And believe it or not, he's he's honing down on one of the top 12 defenses in basketball, which is something a lot of people didn't expect.
• 53:46
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I know that he's got his deficiencies and space and all of that stuff.
• 53:49
  SPEAKER_02: Uh trust me, you ain't got to give me the whole spiel about you know him as a defender, but he's he makes the team better on both sides of the floor.
• 53:57
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, uh, for sure.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I honestly haven't checked his like percentages on the level, like 64% from the field is unreal for his shot selection as well this year.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_05: I mean, such a good playmaker, rebounder.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_05: I had him as my first honorable.
• 54:09
  SPEAKER_05: So, like, I'll say, like, he would have made it over KD.
• 54:11
  SPEAKER_05: I won't, I guess, spoil my other guy that I would have had because he could end up being a wild card for you.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_05: Um, okay.
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_05: But so, yeah, your first wild card.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_05: Well, I guess we talked about it.
• 54:20
  SPEAKER_05: It was Luca.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yep.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_02: Yep, Luka Doncic.
• 54:22
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we already gave the the reasoning behind it.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to Luka Doncic.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: And we know that once February comes around, he will be in conversations to start.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: We know who Luca is.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_02: We don't expect him to be shooting his bad all season long for the people that be in them comment sections.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be watching.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'll be reading.
• 54:36
  SPEAKER_02: All right, so who's your second wild card spot?
• 54:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because this one is completely open.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_02: I got so many names it could be.
• 54:40
  SPEAKER_05: So tough.
• 54:41
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so I feel bad leaving Sabonis off.
• 54:43
  SPEAKER_05: So it could have been one guy, but I'm actually gonna go.
• 54:46
  SPEAKER_05: I'm gonna sucker for first-time all-stars.
• 54:47
  SPEAKER_05: Um, so I'm gonna go with Jalen Williams of the OKC Thunder making it, which is a little bit of a shocker, I think.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_05: They're 11 and 4 right now, but he's been their starting center with no Chad Hardenstein and Jay Will.
• 54:58
  SPEAKER_05: I think he's been great defensively this year.
• 55:00
  SPEAKER_05: He's been great offensively as well.
• 55:02
  SPEAKER_05: I think as one of the smoothest like dribble to a pull at mid-range in the game, especially for somebody of his age.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_05: And I think he's been such a good like Robin to Shay's Batman, at least with Chet out.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and he's averaging career highs in points, rebounds, assists this year.
• 55:15
  SPEAKER_05: Uh, three-point shots that looks really good with an increase in volume by about a three and a half attempt tonight.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_05: So I went with Jay Dub just because I kind of want to see a first-time All-Star.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_05: But there's one other guy that I think also deserves it as well that I feel bad weaving off.
• 55:27
  SPEAKER_02: Is he a guard?
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 55:28
  SPEAKER_02: Is it Kyrie?
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_05: It's Kyrie.
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_05: Kyrie is my last wild card.
• 55:32
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, I fully agree with that as well.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's 24, 4, and 5, 54% from the field, 54% from three.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a ridiculous masterclass in efficiency.
• 55:42
  SPEAKER_02: It doesn't make sense.
• 55:43
  SPEAKER_02: Another one of them true basketball gods where him being the side, they got him listed as 6'2.
• 55:48
  SPEAKER_02: I I've been I haven't met Kyrie, but I've been right next to Kyrie.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think he's actually 6'2.
• 55:53
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so just for him to be able to be this efficient, this good, this late in his career um at 32 and some change, it just is so great, man.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_02: And he didn't make it last year, um, or the year before that.
• 56:04
  SPEAKER_02: Oh no, I'm sorry, the year before that he did make it, but he didn't make it last year.
• 56:07
  SPEAKER_02: And it maybe does feel a bit weird to have a team that's one game above 500 have two all-stars.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_02: And that's why I'm not mad at the Jalen Williams pick, um, because J J Dub has been great, and they're one of the better teams in basketball.
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_02: So I hate that we didn't get to a rocket, but I just don't know what I don't know either.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_05: Like, because uh I think Shangun and Green had their struggles at least to start off the year.
• 56:28
  SPEAKER_05: I think it was a little bit more reverse for for Green, but uh yeah, I don't know either.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_05: Like they've been preaching defense so much, and like if there was a way to give like Tari Easton and like Amen Thompson and Dylan Brooks their love for their defense this year, I would love to do that in the all-star game.
• 56:40
  SPEAKER_05: Um, I think Shangun will have somewhat more all-star caliber numbers when we get to it.
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_05: He's been a little bit better as of late.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_05: But yeah, the West is just so loaded.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_05: Like, there's a better chance he makes it in the east.
• 56:49
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I 100% agree.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it's always cool when I do stuff like this and talk all-stars because in the Eastern Conference, I think we had a player represent almost every team.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: Even I don't think we had Pascal Siakam, he at least got a mention.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, um, every single at least okay team has got something because we want to talk about Jordan Poole, even though he's been okay to see him.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_02: And then out west, the only team was the Rockets.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_02: Every other playoff team, other than Norman Powell and his clippers.
• 57:16
  SPEAKER_05: I guess you gotta give him an honorable mention, right?
• 57:18
  SPEAKER_05: Like Norman Powell's been great this year, and it's cool to see somebody take a jump in age 31 with the volume going up but the efficiency going up as well.
• 57:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I feel like it would be a better story if uh people cared more about the Clippers.
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_02: We haven't had a person win six men of the year in his 30s since I think 98, which it was Daryl Armstrong, and we don't even get conversations of people being 30 plus being in MVP, you know, MIP talk.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_02: So um Norm's been great.
• 57:42
  SPEAKER_02: He did have that little stretch, it was like a two to three game stretch.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_02: It was like, no, here it's here's the fall off, here's happening.
• 57:47
  SPEAKER_02: But then he had another like 24 or something, uh, 23 versus the Warriors.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_02: Like, okay, cool.
• 57:52
  SPEAKER_02: He's he's he's good.
• 57:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're fine, we're fine, Norm.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_05: Did you have um?
• 57:56
  SPEAKER_05: So I mentioned um, I guess yeah, like Pal, like we could talk about.
• 58:00
  SPEAKER_05: Did you have like any other top honorable mentions?
• 58:02
  SPEAKER_05: I I guess we gotta give like maybe Brandon Ingram some love for trying to keep this team alive for the Pelicans that have all their injuries now.
• 58:08
  SPEAKER_05: He's banged up, but I think I don't think a Pelicans can end up making it.
• 58:11
  SPEAKER_05: Um, just small market, they're pretty bad this year, obviously, because of injuries, but I don't think they're gonna end up having somebody make it, sadly.
• 58:19
  SPEAKER_02: No, no, I shout out to B.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: I've got a lot of love for him.
• 58:22
  SPEAKER_02: The only guy that was like kind of it's like Devin Booker, I guess.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_02: You know, he's been a staple guy for the most of his career or last couple years of his career.
• 58:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's 23 points per game.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_02: His efficiency is a little down compared to his career averages and stuff, but he's played more like the Olympic version of him.
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_02: Um, unfortunately, you got Kevin down, and then Brad is down, and Nurkic missed some time as well.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_02: So now he has to go back to being, you know, the Devin Booker we know.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_02: And he did give us 44 in that Minnesota game.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: But after that, I've watched the Orlando Magic.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_02: He might have had the worst-looking game of his career, in my personal opinion, against the Magic.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_02: They had Anthony Black, Jalen Suggs.
• 58:57
  SPEAKER_02: He's switching and getting some big defenders.
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_02: It was it was a rough night for Devin.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but he deserved at least an honorable mention.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_05: For sure.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, it just feels like for him, it's not maybe been his his like typical seasons.
• 59:08
  SPEAKER_05: I do think tonight he could get bounced back or he could bounce back against the Knicks, because this is the type of game where the Knicks let somebody that's not been living up to expectations kind of torque him defensively.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_02: Producer Greg is throwing out the name Draymond Green.
• 59:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm actually disappointed in myself for not having him as a as a honorable mention.
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: Lord knows he wasn't gonna make it, but nine points, six rebounds, five and a half assists.
• 59:31
  SPEAKER_02: The big thing is a three-point shooting, three and a half attempts per game, which is the most he's attempted in the game since his age 26 season.
• 59:38
  SPEAKER_02: So eight years ago, he's shooting 46% from three Raymond Green.
• 59:43
  SPEAKER_02: So there's the honorable mention, Greg.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: He deserves it, he definitely deserves it.
• 59:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't know if you can get uh a nine point per game player in the all-star game without them being 17 and one or something like that.
• 59:54
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_05: Um, if we had a defensive all-star game too, he would be joining it with like Dylan Brooks in the game.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_05: 100%.
• 59:59
  SPEAKER_02: 100%.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: Uh appreciate you coming on, Matt.
• 1:00:02
  SPEAKER_02: What you got going on?
• 1:00:03
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, uh, thanks for having me.
• 1:00:04
  SPEAKER_05: Just kind of sticking with um some 2K stuff this year, just also NBA commentary stuff, um, similar stuff to I think what you're doing.
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_05: Um, and have been enjoying the season so far.
• 1:00:12
  SPEAKER_05: I think we've seen a lot of unexpected players ball out.
• 1:00:15
  SPEAKER_05: Maybe some expected players not ball out as much.
• 1:00:17
  SPEAKER_05: So I just enjoy the parody in the league, and we have so much talent and um keeping up with the draft, it should be a good draft this year, um, hype-wise.
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_05: So I'm looking forward to it.
• 1:00:26
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, appreciate you stopping by.
• 1:00:28
  SPEAKER_02: People at home, I'll put Matt's links in the description, his Twitter, his gaming channel, his NBA channel, all of that.
• 1:00:33
  SPEAKER_02: Be sure to check him out, man.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_02: This was a ton of fun.
• 1:00:35
  SPEAKER_05: Yeah, thanks for having me, Kenny.
• 1:00:39
  SPEAKER_02: Greg, welcome back, my brother.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: It is time for five out.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_04: Let's do it.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_04: Uh, so all of the new coaching hires from the offseason seem to be working out pretty well.
• 1:00:49
  SPEAKER_04: Which of the hires do you think will look the best at the end of this season?
• 1:00:52
  SPEAKER_04: And which of the which of the hires do you think will look the best at the end of next season?
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think that the best this season, of course, it's the easy answer.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be the Cleveland Cavaliers, right?
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_02: They're 15-1 right now.
• 1:01:03
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and I think the reason it's gonna look the best is because there were so many rumors and people asking for people, uh the front office to break up that team, break up the front court, break up the backcourt, and they decided to just have this level of patience to see what a new coach can do.
• 1:01:16
  SPEAKER_02: And a new coach has somehow empowered all four of them to have great seasons, which doesn't make sense to me.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: So I think they're easy to answer for this year.
• 1:01:24
  SPEAKER_02: Next year, believe it or not, I think the best coach and hire could be JB Bickerstaff with the Detroit Pistons.
• 1:01:31
  SPEAKER_02: Now, as so far in his career, it seemed like we know what a ceiling of a JB Bickerstaff team can be.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: But this team in Detroit that was struggling with an identity for five plus years to kind of have a coach there that can instill instal some of the defensive culture.
• 1:01:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think that again, this year they're competing to be a play-in team.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_02: The next year we'll probably see the full impact of that.
• 1:01:52
  SPEAKER_04: Where does JJ fit into uh top coaching hires?
• 1:01:55
  SPEAKER_02: It's hard to say.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: They're they're such a weird team, and I'm not just saying that because it's the Lakers and everybody has to watch them all the time, but they don't make any sense, even though they're winning a bunch of games right now, where like they're not a great defensive team whatsoever.
• 1:02:09
  SPEAKER_02: Their offense is still one of the top in the league, but they're not conforming to some of the other strategies across basketball.
• 1:02:15
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that he might be one of them ones that it looks the best five years down the line because he's supposed to be their Pat Riley, I guess.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:02:24
  SPEAKER_04: I like that.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_04: Um, last one here.
• 1:02:26
  SPEAKER_04: I want you to react to this hot take.
• 1:02:28
  SPEAKER_04: At the end of this season, we will consider SGA and Jalen Williams as a better duo than Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.
• 1:02:39
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that's you know, people people use hot take very loosely, I think, in sports, right?
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: That's a hot take.
• 1:02:47
  SPEAKER_02: That's hot, that's spicy.
• 1:02:48
  SPEAKER_02: That's because the Jays, I want to remind you, Jason Tatum's like third and scoring.
• 1:02:52
  SPEAKER_02: Jalen Brown's average like 25.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: And they're still one of the best teams in the league.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_02: Coming off a championship, that's that's a little bit too hot for me.
• 1:02:58
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and Jay Dub is is one of them dudes that I've I've loved since my first summer league game of watching them.
• 1:03:03
  SPEAKER_02: So um, well, I'm sorry, not summer league, first regular season, because I don't remember much in summer league, but um that would be insane.
• 1:03:10
  SPEAKER_02: The likelihood of it happen one through ten is probably a 1.5.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_02: So there's a world in it.
• 1:03:15
  SPEAKER_02: That's why it's a good hot take.
• 1:03:16
  SPEAKER_02: But the Jays have just been doing it so consistently, and I mean, if they go back to back, it don't matter what SGA or J Dub do, like that's gonna be the number one duo.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_04: I guess this would be the assumption that the Thunder do knock them out in the finals.
• 1:03:29
  SPEAKER_02: And if that's the case, you know, we all live in the moment, right?
• 1:03:32
  SPEAKER_02: Jokic got eliminated from the playoffs, and people are saying Luka was the best player in the world.
• 1:03:36
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, and now look at that.
• 1:03:38
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, you know, I love a hot take and a reactionary take.
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_02: But honestly, I mean, yeah, if they if they win the finals, they can have that.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_02: They can wear that crown.
• 1:03:48
  SPEAKER_02: Wasn't it Giannis that said Jalen Brown is the best player in the world because he won finals MVP?
• 1:03:52
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, yeah, I I can see that, but I still do got the Celtic as my favorite, so maybe that's why it's a little bit too far-fetched.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_02: It is time for Ask KB.
• 1:04:06
  SPEAKER_02: You can hit us up on Instagram at enjoy smallball.
• 1:04:08
  SPEAKER_02: Send us a message and send us a memo, and I'll try my best to answer as many as possible.
• 1:04:13
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get in.
• 1:04:14
  SPEAKER_01: With how weak the Eastern Conference has looked so far, would you rather buy stock in the Chicago Bulls or the Detroit Pistons to potentially sneak into a play-in, potentially playoff spot?
• 1:04:25
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not buying stock in the Bulls if it was the last stock on the market.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: I can't lie.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: And I know you said play-in, and that's where the Bulls love to live.
• 1:04:35
  SPEAKER_02: I can't invest in that damn team.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm hoping that with Bucevic playing so great to start this season and Levine playing so great to start the season that there will be some sort of a fire sale.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: But knowing our front office, they're gonna use that to say, hey, we can keep it together.
• 1:04:52
  SPEAKER_02: I think the Pistons have a higher ceiling.
• 1:04:55
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's a conversation we had on the first episode of Small Ball, kind of talking about the ceilings and floors.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_02: I think that the Pistons have a higher ceiling for sure, so I'll buy the Pistons.
• 1:05:05
  SPEAKER_00: Who are some guys in the NBA who have surprised you this season that you don't see the media people talking about?
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_00: Norman Powell and Dennis Schroeder are guys who are doing that.
• 1:05:14
  SPEAKER_00: Uh we all have seen that talked about in the media, but uh who are some guys that are kind of falling under the radar and uh aren't being as noticed you would like to bring to light.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_02: Love that.
• 1:05:24
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go.
• 1:05:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I can name a ton.
• 1:05:26
  SPEAKER_02: I just pulled up the NBA standards.
• 1:05:28
  SPEAKER_02: This is not planned, so I'm just going off the top of my head.
• 1:05:30
  SPEAKER_02: Ty Jerome, you might have saw that last night in the game versus the Celtics two nights ago, whatever.
• 1:05:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, he's been one of the best backup point guards in all of basketball, maybe only behind Peyton Pritchard.
• 1:05:38
  SPEAKER_02: He's a slow, methodical point guard, and he's 27 years old and finally getting this opportunity to do his part.
• 1:05:44
  SPEAKER_02: Anthony Black has been great.
• 1:05:46
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, he's been one of the best perimeter defenders in all of basketball, and I think he scored 20 points per uh 20 points the other night, and his offensive game is not one we look at really often.
• 1:05:55
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Miami Heat, I'm always gonna say, regardless if he's shooting the ball well or not, Hayward Highsmith is still one of the best defensive wings in all of basketball.
• 1:06:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um Malik Beasley is on a nice little streak here.
• 1:06:06
  SPEAKER_02: It hasn't been great the full season, but currently looking pretty okay.
• 1:06:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I mean, I could I could keep going.
• 1:06:12
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Cam Thomas, uh Cam Johnson is one of those trade potential pieces.
• 1:06:16
  SPEAKER_02: He just had one of his best games, if not his career high the other night when it was no Cam Thomas.
• 1:06:20
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Iodesumu in transition is something I always got to bring up.
• 1:06:24
  SPEAKER_02: He's one of the best transition players in all of basketball.
• 1:06:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just looking at the Eastern Conference standards and flying off.
• 1:06:29
  SPEAKER_02: Out West, who are some guys?
• 1:06:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um West means a little bit tougher because we I feel like we've seen the Warriors, right?
• 1:06:37
  SPEAKER_02: So we all are aware who's there.
• 1:06:38
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe that's not necessarily under the radar.
• 1:06:41
  SPEAKER_02: Um I'm should I end it there?
• 1:06:44
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, I'm in Thompson Atari Easton's people that we talked about in the previous episode.
• 1:06:48
  SPEAKER_02: Christian Brown is having such a phenomenal season, even if he's not the shooter that some people wanted him to be at this point of his career.
• 1:06:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm gonna keep saying Ryan Dunn, even if he's not shooting it as well as he was at the beginning of the season.
• 1:07:01
  SPEAKER_02: And Nikil Alexander Walker is still good.
• 1:07:03
  SPEAKER_02: Like, can we should we keep going?
• 1:07:05
  SPEAKER_02: Chris Dunn?
• 1:07:06
  SPEAKER_02: We can keep going.
• 1:07:07
  SPEAKER_02: But I guess I'll end it there.
• 1:07:08
  SPEAKER_02: Jalen Wells, shout out to him.
• 1:07:14
  SPEAKER_02: And again, I want to thank you at home for watching or listening to this episode of Small Ball with Candy Beecham.
• 1:07:20
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to my boy Matt for stopping by.
• 1:07:21
  SPEAKER_02: I'll put all of his links in the description so you can give him a follow or subscribe to his channels.
• 1:07:26
  SPEAKER_02: You let me know who did we snub.
• 1:07:30
  SPEAKER_02: Am I crazy for my Kyrie Irvin pick?
• 1:07:32
  SPEAKER_02: Are we crazy for having Luka Dante?
• 1:07:33
  SPEAKER_02: This is a wild card.
• 1:07:34
  SPEAKER_02: I am all ears, and you can convince me.
• 1:07:37
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate y'all.
• 1:07:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'll see you next week.