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NBA Awards Are Impossible · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beachum.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm so excited to be here today because we're bringing back a good old friend.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: It's been a few episodes, maybe even a few months since last time we did Ask KB.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: I say, hey, what if we did an entire episode where I answer your question?
0:18
SPEAKER_00: So that's what we're doing today.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: We got NBA.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: We got a football question, I think.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, non-MBA.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: People asked me about comics, and I was like, I can't, I can't have the whole show be about comics, but damn it, I could pull one question to kind of get into my comic bag just a little bit.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: So it should be a nice, fun one.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Uh, made me think on a lot of these questions, which I truly, truly do appreciate.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Uh, let's just jump right into it, right?
0:38
SPEAKER_00: Let's get to the first question that comes from Valentino that says, Do you think Luca is a first team All-NBA player?
0:45
SPEAKER_00: Because he he gets, well, now I'm gonna I'm gonna fix, I'm gonna fix your verbiage here.
0:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna fix your words in this question.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: He gets so much hate from ESPN, etc.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, they're saying Brown, Cunningham are better than him.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Now, I will say right here publicly, anybody that doesn't have Luca Dante's first team All-NBA is ridiculous.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: Just straight up ridiculous.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: We've got to the point now where guys like Luca, where guys like Shay, hell, even guys like Jokic, they have been doing what they've been doing for so long that we kind of get bored.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: No, no, I'm sorry, not we.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: Not we, because they own my first team.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: But people start to get bored, right?
1:20
SPEAKER_00: We do got a cool story of Kay Cunningham and the Detroit Pissers being the one C.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: We do got a cool story of Jalen Brown not having Jason Tatum for the majority of the season and them still being one of the top teams in the league.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: I can understand the narrative base of all of that.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: The stats are the stats.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: So I'm like, okay, Kenny, put your money where your mouth is.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: What does your all-NBA teams look like?
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say, but I'm gonna preface this by saying this is a rough draft.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: I won't have my official, unofficial ballot for another month until these seasons end.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: But it really made me think about All NBA, which again again, Valentino, I appreciate.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: So here's my three All-NBA teams as of today, March 16th, 2026.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: Again, a full month, and things can't be revised and things might be changed the next time we talk about awards.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: The first team, the first four spots are so simple.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: As long as Wembinama plays the necessary amount of games, I think he can only miss two or three more games.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: So we'll be keeping that in the back of our mind.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: All NBA first team in no specific order should be Shay.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: It should be Luca.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: It should be Wemby.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: It should be Jokic.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: Those four are absolute locks.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: I can understand having Brown on your first team or Cunningham on your first team, but not at the expense of those four guys.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: It's really about this fifth spot.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: I spent a long time trying to figure out who I wanted on All-NBA first team.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: Between, again, Cade, between Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brown, Donovan Mitchell, Kawhi Leonard.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: These are all guys that were in running for the first team, and I ultimately gave it to Kawhi.
2:43
SPEAKER_00: Now, his case is a lot different than the cases of these other dudes because, as we know, the Clippers, as of today, as I record this episode, are sitting at the eighth seed.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Yo, they're only one game above 500.
2:53
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Kenny, you giving an All-NBA first team spot to a guy that is on a team that is one game above 500?
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: I truly just feel like he's been one of the five best players in the league for, I don't know, the last five months of the season.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: That first month, he was still good, but these last five months or whatever, he has been one of the top five players.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I'm I'm giving him the straight up nod.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: It is maybe on my first teams.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about the history of who I am as a person, as an unofficial voter.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: It might be the lowest seed, the worst record of a player that I've ever had on my first team.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: But that's how good Kawhi Leonard has been.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, it does not help that they just lost to the Kings the other night.
3:36
SPEAKER_00: It definitely uh does a negative to his value as an All-LBA first team player, but that is a guy I ultimately went with the first team, which makes the second team kind of easy, right?
3:45
SPEAKER_00: All the guys that were just in contention for first team, that last first team spot, slice to the second team.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, Cade, but damn it, this is such an amazing season for you, but you do have to be on the second team along with Anthony Edwards, Jalen Brown, Diamond Mitchell.
3:56
SPEAKER_00: And then this is where another point, where the list gets kind of interesting.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Because of all of the injuries we've had for the Steph Curries of the world, who undoubtedly, if he just played a full 65 games, he'll be on one of these teams.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: And some of the other guys that have missed time, the end of this second team and the entirety of the third team to me is where it gets really interesting.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Some of the guys that are on this list, I'm like, man, that guy's all NBA this season.
4:18
SPEAKER_00: I guess, you know.
4:21
SPEAKER_00: So on my second team, the last spot after Cade, Mitchell, Edwards, and Brown, I did go with Kevin Durant.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: It was between him, Tyrese Maxi, and Jalen Brunson for the last fight on my second team.
4:33
SPEAKER_00: But I went with Kevin Durant because he has still been an ultra efficient.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's one thing you can always say about Kevin Durant, right?
4:38
SPEAKER_00: He's always going to be efficient, an ultra-efficient guy on a team that we have a question about them later down the line, so I'll save it.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: But a team that has been at least steady.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: They may not be in the same contention pool as some of the teams around them, but still steady enough to be one of the top seeds in the Western Conference.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: So we went with him.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: On the third team, I do have Maxie.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: I do have Brunson.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: I went Chad Holmgren.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Chad Holmgren has an interesting case as a defensive anchor, um, one of the best in the world.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like every single season there's a guy of his caliber in there.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: His points per game are 17, nine, and two assists, but he is one of the best defensive players in the entirety of the world.
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, of the entirety of the world.
5:15
SPEAKER_00: It's very similar to like Evan Mobley's case last season.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: He was the DPOY after Wimbanyama went down with that blood clot.
5:22
SPEAKER_00: And Chet Holmgren, if it was up to me, if Wimbenyama were to miss these next couple games and miss two to three games to become ineligible, I think that Chet Homgren is one of the top names that come up next to be the winner of the DPOY.
5:34
SPEAKER_00: So with him being, you know, one of the best defensive players in the world and him being one of the most important players on the best team in the league record-wise, and him still having, you know, decent enough Calvin stats, he is an all-NBA player for me this season on the third team.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Then we get to Jalen Johnson is all NBA this season, y'all.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Shout out Jalen Johnson.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: He might be most improved player.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how you you do.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: I haven't thought about most people playing completely, but he might be most improved player, but also he might be all NBA for me.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, this last spot was so interesting because I was going down the list of guys that should be in the running for this one.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, like James Harden.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: I think James Harden deserves to be in the running.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, he didn't make it.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: Scotty Barnes should be in the running, even if his counter stats are not what they are.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: But the defensive is enough for me to put him in in this uh place.
6:23
SPEAKER_00: And then, like, obviously, Giannis is out with his injury, so he doesn't compete.
6:27
SPEAKER_00: De'Aaron Fox is a guy I considered for a little bit Alperin Shangoon, even though I told y'all just last week that he was one of my most disappointed players.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: That's how how thin the barrel is when it comes to the end of this All-NBA.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, but ultimately I did end up going with Jamal Murray.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Murray is my last All-NBA guy.
6:47
SPEAKER_00: As of today, with a month left to potentially revise it.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: He has been, you know, I'm looking at his stats right now, 25 points per game, as steady as can be.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: And I have to think about that week and a half, two week stretch or have a long ended up being, where Nicole Jokic was out and me, I came onto this show or either the other show and said, hey man, this is a rough spot because when Jokic comes back, they might be a playing team.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: Jokic eventually came back, and I think they were one game above 500 in the time that he missed.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, since then, it ain't been the greatest, but they were about one game, one game above 500 when he left, and Jamal Murray deserves a lot of credit for that.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: So that's the third team.
7:20
SPEAKER_00: It is Maxie, it is Brunson, it is Homegren, it is Johnson, and it is Murray.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: That was a tough experiment, man.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: And again, with a month left, I've got Kawai in his first team.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Maybe by the end of the season, it is a Cade, it is a Mitchell, it is an Edwards, it is a Brown.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: All of those guys are truly in contention steel for me.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: The next question I have is from Seaballs, who says, um, would you rather be a fan with a one to two-year legit championship window like the Knicks, or an exciting up-and-coming team with real talent like the Charlotte Hornets?
7:50
SPEAKER_00: I think this is a fascinating question.
7:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, there is a lot of the teams that we look across basketball that had a little bit of both.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: Before OKC was a team with a legit window and an NBA championship, they were the team that a lot of people saw as the next up-and-coming team.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: But the Knicks are a very interesting case because they didn't really have it.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: They weren't young and up and coming.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: They made some big trades, right?
8:09
SPEAKER_00: They traded for OJ Onanobi.
8:11
SPEAKER_00: They traded for Carnegie Towns.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, they signed Jalen Bronson.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: So they didn't have the same thing that Charlotte has as having three exciting young players and then a big fellow who plays balls to the wall every single possession.
8:23
SPEAKER_00: But ultimately, I gotta go with that contender team, man.
8:27
SPEAKER_00: You have to go with that contender team because there are so many different cases in history of that young, excited, up-and-coming team that doesn't end up eventually having a true window for a championship.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: The examples that immediately came to mind when I read this question is like the Grizzlies that had Jaron Jackson Jr., John Moran Desmane, Dylan Brooks.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: That team obviously was a two C from all school seasons, but I had to go back through the archives.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: Not a single person believed them to be a contender other than people that was in Memphis.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: So they never got that window.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: If we want to go back, the Wizards, my last year of high school, the Wizards team of Bradley Beal, John Wall, and I'm gonna put Auto Porter Jr., they had a couple playoff series, a couple really good playoff series, but ultimately never got to the point where they were contenders.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: The Atlanta Hawks that made it to the conference finals, you're like, Kenny, they were a contender.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: They were in a conference.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: No, they weren't.
9:12
SPEAKER_00: Trey Young, Kevin Hurd, or John Collins, I'm gonna count Cam Raddish.
9:15
SPEAKER_00: Cam Redish never ended up doing anything after that.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And then eventually all of those guys are off the team.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: And the last example I got, Sixer fans close your ears because man, the Joel Embiid, Ben Simmons, Dario Sarge, and I'm gonna count Markel Foltz, the first year of Markel Foltz, that team was so exciting and so fun.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, you know, they didn't end up coming close to a championship.
9:37
SPEAKER_00: I guess that was Kawhi Leonard's doing.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: But but I guess Fultz was off the team at that at that time.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: But either way, those teams had this young, exciting come up, but never got to the point where they were true contenders.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: So, hell, skip that part.
9:52
SPEAKER_00: I want the team that can win a championship this season or next season.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: It is a little bit difficult, and we're gonna talk about that when we come back from this break.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: What is difficult about being a team with a championship window like that?
10:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, it is just tough.
10:12
SPEAKER_00: I guess I'm not really saying this from experience because my team ain't been a contender for a long time.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: But every single game, there's like a thousand down things you can say about your favorite team when they are a contender.
10:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm seeing OKC fans being worried.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: They just came off a championship because so-and-so has performed to their capabilities, or this random game on a Thursday, they didn't look like a championship team.
10:31
SPEAKER_00: And when you're a team like Charlotte, the up-and-coming team, it's just Sunshine and Roses.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: Because even the games that you lose, you're like, yeah, well, I mean, we're a young team.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: But boy, them Knicks teams, they lose two games in a row.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: The sky is falling.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: So this may be a little bit more stressful when you are a team of that contender versus being a team of the Charlotte Hornets.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: So again, I'm gonna take that contender team because at the end of the day, our goal as fans is to see our favorite team raise at Larry OB, and the Knicks have a legitimate chance.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: And the Charlotte Hornets might have a legitimate chance one day, but that is no guarantee.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Because they got the first part, which is the young, exciting core.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: But what comes next?
11:05
SPEAKER_00: The people that have to make the decisions have to make some big decisions.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Do they go out there and acquire more players?
11:10
SPEAKER_00: Do they keep with the core that they have right now as far as like the bridges of the world and the bench that they've uh curated?
11:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: That's the spot I don't like being here.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: Thank you for the question.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: The next one comes from CM Highlights One.
11:22
SPEAKER_00: Thoughts on Jalen Brown's take on wanting the NBA to add a flopping technical.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: Where if the ref is unsure of a call, they could call for a flop review and coaches can do it as well, and it will be a tech if the player is found guilty.
11:34
SPEAKER_00: Do you think the concept like this works?
11:36
SPEAKER_00: Any thought of flopping discourse across the league?
11:38
SPEAKER_00: He said on his live yesterday, specifically talking about the OKC game.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So I did see that clip of Jalen Brown, um, my favorite Twitch streamer, uh, talking about the game after Shea Gills Alexander ended up, I think he had a first quarter where he had a couple different plays that you might deem as flopping.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately they um they, when I say they, the Celtics ended up losing that game.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: I hate the idea of a flopping technical in this, in this aspect of it.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: We do not need more stoppages to play.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: The the way, because I don't like flopping either, by the way.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not a guy that's saying that it is okay.
12:12
SPEAKER_00: The way you get rid of the flopping is you just swallow the whistle.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: Something they told us for five seasons they were gonna do.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, if you don't give these stars, or sometimes not even the star players, if you don't give these players the whistle after the third game of not giving the whistle, guess what?
12:29
SPEAKER_00: They will adjust.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: So just stop calling 90%.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: A lot of times a bang bang play.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it is a flop, sometimes it's not a flop.
12:36
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you do need to see it in slow mode to see if it's a flop.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: But if we start stop giving the jump into uh free throws or because I don't think I don't want to take away the cookie jar free throws because I think that is a legitimate basketball move, something that James Harden did for a decade.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: If you get your hand in that cookie jar, I'm rising up and I'm gonna shoot and I'm gonna get those fouls.
12:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even counting that as a floppy foul, but we do see, you know, people exaggerating the contact.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: Just swallow the whistle, dog.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: Man, if they added something where we get um Billy Kennedy, if we get we get all these guys going to the monitor four more times a game, I'm gonna lose my mind.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: We already get it on any any uh challenge play.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: We already get it at the end of games anytime any whistle happened.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: If you add it more, I'm just I can't do it.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: The easy solution is just not to call it.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, just don't call it.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: The next one comes from Adam.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: Adam says, We always talk about being offensive systems, but who are some defensive systems in the league?
13:33
SPEAKER_00: My picks are Wimbanyama.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: This is um, this is Adam, by the way.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: My picks are Wimbanyama, Scotty, and Rudy.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: And I think this is such a great question, specifically for me, a guy whose entire upbringing here on the YouTubes or the internet is talking about how much I love a great defensive player.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: You already got some of the guys.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Rudy Gobert, did I pick this question to specifically talk about Rudy Gobert?
13:54
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely I did.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Because somebody on numbers on the board the other day just said that they don't know if Rudy Gobert's gonna be all defensive first team.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: And I have to remind them that Rudy Gobert's team is 12 and a half points better defensively when he was on the court.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: Now, they're seven and a half points better offensively when he's off the court.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: So the swing difference is about five points.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: But but we don't care about the offensive side of the ball, we talk about defensive systems.
14:19
SPEAKER_00: Rudy Gobert is there.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: And I think about Rudy Gobert's career.
14:24
SPEAKER_00: There's only been two times in his career where he hasn't been in the 90th percentile or higher an on-off defensive swing.
14:33
SPEAKER_00: And those two years, he was in the 80th percentile, so not too far away.
14:37
SPEAKER_00: And then the one year in Utah, I don't know what the hell was happening in Utah this year.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: He was uh two two points better when they were when he was on the court defensively, which is still great.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Like it's 70th percentile, but it ain't like this year, Rudy Gobert has the highest point differential swing defensively of his entire career.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, he won't win DPOY because Wimbenyama also has a very similar number and he does more, but he's not too far away from DPOY.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: He just won't get it.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, I did I do, like I said earlier, I do think Chad is number two.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: But if you have Wimbeny or you have Rudy Gobert number three, I think that's that's right.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: I truly think that's right.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: And he is a defensive system in his in his own.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: And he has been for uh let me count these years, 10, 12 years of his career?
15:26
SPEAKER_00: So nuts.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: So nuts.
15:28
SPEAKER_00: I mean, teams shoot 5%.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: That's just Rudy Gobert propaganda.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh, if you don't have my y'all defensive tape, you need to watch some film and look at these analytics because he he's really like that.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: He's still like that.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: Um his first year in Minnesota was also very bad, but he still was great defensively, which is nuts.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: So he undoubtedly a defensive system.
15:45
SPEAKER_00: Wimbadyama, undoubtedly a defensive system.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: So in a different way from Rudy Gobert, Rudy Gobert always does have good deterrent stats.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Like that has always been his thing, even though players will say that they're not afraid of Rudy Gobert.
15:57
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we watch the games, we see the numbers.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: Your team shoots less at the rim when he's down there.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Is that that's not a coincidence, I don't think.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: Uh Wimbanyama has that to like a whole different level, where teams will be on a two-on-one fast break when Wimanyama is that guy down there, and they don't even attempt a shot.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: That's how crazy Wimanyama is defensively.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: So undoubtedly a defensive system.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: His defensive on-off swing is 11 and a half, which is slightly, I'm sorry, slightly worse than Ridigo Bear.
16:21
SPEAKER_00: So maybe Ridigober should be in a conversation for.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: No.
16:23
SPEAKER_00: Um and then you mentioned Scotty Barnes, which is a guy that I haven't thought about being a defensive system.
16:29
SPEAKER_00: And and I don't, I don't know if he deserves to be in that category just yet, but damn, it's close.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: I thought about this for a long time, Adam.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: I thought about this for a long time since I saw your question.
16:43
SPEAKER_00: And I think he's he's close to doing it.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: And I think maybe what makes it a little bit difficult is because these guys, the women yamas, the roudies of the world, they take away the easiest shot in the game, which is the layup slash shot from five feet closer.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: They are like just more valuable on that side of the ball that makes it so like Scotty Barnes does everything everywhere, but not to the point where he's preventing layups and dunks from going in.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
17:06
SPEAKER_00: Other than the Jalen Green play from a couple nights ago.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: That is ridiculous.
17:10
SPEAKER_00: So he is very close to being that.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Maybe just a couple more years at this level.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: I think he's undoubtedly an all-defensive first team guy.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to come off as disrespectful.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: I just don't know if he is a system in itself just just yet, but he's close.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, the other guy you got to give credit to, and even if it's not the case so far this season, because I mean he's 36 years old, I have to type uh talk about Draymond Green in that category because I mean, some of the stuff that Draymond Green has been able to do over the last couple seasons, again, not counting this year.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's why you didn't put him, because this year has not been the case, but not counting this year.
17:39
SPEAKER_00: He has been one of the best defensive systems in the league.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: He is the best center, uh the best defensive player of our generation, if you ask me.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Draymond this year, not even close to even what last year was, where he almost stole DPOI, or two years ago, or three years ago, or in his prime, the 2015-2016 season, where like, what the hell was he doing that season?
17:59
SPEAKER_00: Everything.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: The answer is everything.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: But I love the idea of talking about defensive systems.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: And I thought about some other guys that like have potential to be that.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: And I think they're just super far away.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Not even, not even to like this is a conversation that maybe we happen in five years with some of these dudes.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: But like Zach, Zach ED just being 12 foot 12, just makes him closer to that.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think Donovan Klingon has a potential to do it.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: We is it's not the greatest with Donovan Klingan um because he does have some holes in his defensive game as a big fella.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: And I think that if you are going to be a defensive system, um, you have to shrink those those different things you're vulnerable at.
18:35
SPEAKER_00: And I think he's still vulnerable on a lot of different things on the side of the ball.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I think one day he could be that because he is one of them ultra big shot blocking.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: And one thing that I admire about these guys, and one thing you'll notice about them, is that they don't allow offensive rebounds.
18:47
SPEAKER_00: Closing the possession is like a super important part of defense.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: Rudigo Bear, Victor Wimanyama, eventually Donovan McKlingen, these guys get the stop and they close the possession, which is infinitely more valuable than anybody really gives credit for.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: The next question comes from Zay that says, What does Shay need to do to be considered him for him to be considered best in the world?
19:07
SPEAKER_00: If you had Shay Gibbs Alexander as of today, March 16th, 2026, as the best player in the world, I'm not even arguing with you.
19:16
SPEAKER_00: Personally, he is not the best player in the world to me, but I think this season he's got very close to having that be a conversation.
19:23
SPEAKER_00: You think about all the clutch shot he's hit this season, of all of the injuries between Dub and Chad and IHart, the list goes on and on for them to still be the top team in the entire association.
19:32
SPEAKER_00: I think that he deserves some of that credit for being the best player in the world.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that prevents him from being the best player in the world for me specifically, and why Jokic is still that guy for me, is that Jokic's playmaking at his size adds a whole different development to the offense.
19:47
SPEAKER_00: And Shea has continued to get better as a playmaker, even in the game that they played against the Nuggets last week.
19:52
SPEAKER_00: That was one of his best playmaking games of his entire career.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: But I know they lost this game, but the pass that Jokic made in that Lakers game a couple nights ago from the right wing to the left corner to end up in a big three.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: That is a play that because of his size of being seven foot and his vision in it, that is a play that only a few people in the world can can do.
20:11
SPEAKER_00: And he touches all levels of the offensive side of the ball.
20:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think I think Shay is number two.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: I've said that publicly, I think he's number two.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: But if you had him number one, I don't I don't think you're too crazy.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't think you're too crazy.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we'll answer more of your questions.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Before we move on to talk about more of your questions, I want to say thank you to our sponsor over at DraftKings.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Pick six by now.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Pick more or less a different player stats the upcoming games.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: Just put two or more different players into your pick set.
20:41
SPEAKER_00: Sit back, relax, and see if you made the right decision after you go more or less on some stats.
20:47
SPEAKER_00: Now, we got lucky.
20:48
SPEAKER_00: The last couple of weeks, you know, we came into this episode and we say, man, we only got two games, three games in the night.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: The NBA gave us a lot to really, really talk about.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: So let me let me put together a little pick set for y'all.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: Starting off with the first game of the night, the Peacock game, which is seven o'clock Eastern time here.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: You be sure to tune in because these are two teams that are competing for a playoff seeding in the Orlando Magic and the Atlanta Hawks.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: Now, the Magic and the Hawks have been playing some of their best basketball of the season right now, so this is the perfect time to see them go against each other.
21:15
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, yeah, the Peacock game for one, and it is a really important game for the season.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: I gotta pick something for this game.
21:21
SPEAKER_00: So ultimately, what I went with was Desmond Bain more on points.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: If you've been watching Desmond Bain for the last 25 games, you know that he has not missed a shot.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: He's shooting 48% from three, which is insane.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: It's just unfortunate that the first month of the season for him, he wasn't as good.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: So I've always said that, you know, the memory of a player is usually what happened in the beginning of the season because everybody's so ramped up and everybody's tuning in on a nightly basis.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: So what you do with the first month of the season, good or for for better or for worse, is what a lot of people are going to remember your season for.
21:50
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think people are remembering what Desmond Bain is doing right now.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: They're not they're not gonna remember because his first month was crazy.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: And I'm riding that high.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Desmond Bain, more on points.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Next.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Next game we got also here on Peacock.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: This one is a 9 30 tip Eastern Time.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: Lakers versus Rockets.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: Come on, y'all.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know, y'all know that that's a game, considering as of right now, the difference between them in the standings is a half a game.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: So it's a big game.
22:19
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, obviously, we got Kevin, we got Shangun, we got Brian, we got Luca.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: And I ain't mad at any of those picks, but I'm gonna go with Austin Reeves, Mr.
22:29
SPEAKER_00: AR himself, more on points.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: What a phenomenal miss free throw the other night that he got his own rebound, put up the shot, and ultimately ended up winning the game, which is great for the Lakers again, um, against one of their biggest foes in the Denver Nuggets.
22:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but Austin Reeves is just a cold-blooded killer.
22:44
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes, because of the other talent on the team, the Lucas and the Bronze of the World, he could get kind of lost on the court.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: And you look up like, oh, Austin Reeves got 18 points.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: Austin Reeves got 22 points.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't even feel like that.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: That's the type of player Austin Reeves can't be.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: And then God forbid, Luca and LeBron are on the bench and it's just Austin rock out show.
22:59
SPEAKER_00: That boy, that boy, he can do two things very well.
23:02
SPEAKER_00: He can hoop very well.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: And out of the T-Box, Austin Reeves is ridiculous.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: One day, man, Austin Reeves are gonna play at least a nine-hole game.
23:11
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna win, don't get me wrong.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, but but it's gonna happen one day.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Next game that we got for our pick set.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, we do we do got a little Devin Booker versus the Celtics.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Now, I do remember once upon a time, Devin Booker dropped 70 on the Celtics.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: It might have been a decade ago, and they might have still lost that game.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: But damn it, he did he did drop 70.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: And and I don't think you're gonna do that tonight, but I did go more on his points.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he has actually been playing ridiculously well as uh also um because he's he's Devin Booker, but like his last couple games, he had 31 last game and the loss to Toronto.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the Toronto Raptors, big win for them.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: They he had 43 against Indiana game before that, 27, the game before that, 30, the game before that uh 32.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm riding the wave of the Devin Booker.
23:58
SPEAKER_00: Also a guy that I somewhat considered for the All-NBA, but he is, if he's not ineligible already, he is dangerously close to that.
24:06
SPEAKER_00: Um no, he's only missed one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
24:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh no, no, he's dangerously close.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: Okay, so so I ain't mad for him not making it right now because he may not make it at the end of the day and not be eligible.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: As of today, that boy's playing some ridiculous basketball.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: So we're going more on his points as well.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And then last one we have for our pick set.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: The Bulls play against the Grizzlies.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: Two teams that are not playing for much.
24:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, two teams that are, you know, got their eye on some lottery odds.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: They probably gonna be watching the tourney a lot this week to figure out who they potentially will want to draft.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: I was very close to going Modest Buzelles, who's been playing some really good basketball.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: As of late, he's been aggressive.
24:39
SPEAKER_00: We got a question about Modus that we'll talk about in a minute here.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: But I went with Josh Gidde more on assists.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, one thing about Josh Giddy, as of late, he's been able to create for us his teammates.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: He had 10 assists last game, 15 assists a game before that, 17 assists before that, 10 and then 9.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: So his last five games, he's averaging uh 12 and a half assists.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: Man, my math is probably really wrong there.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Um so it doesn't matter if it's a blowout, it doesn't matter if they win or lose.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: Josh Giddy is getting a ton of assists.
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25:36
SPEAKER_00: Next question comes from Airbender who says, What do you think modest needs to work on to take his game to the next level?
25:42
SPEAKER_00: You know, you had to know.
25:44
SPEAKER_00: If I was going to do a complete mailback episode, there had to be one bulls-related question.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: And here it is.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: I think Modis's second season, after a roughish start, start, has looked so much better as of late.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, he has games or he's dropping, he had his career night in that win versus the Warriors.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: We have 41.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to my boy, but 20 points, 20 points, 18 points.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: He's been looking really good as of late.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, he's jumped his points per game up almost double.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: His efficiency has been good.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: His actually, after a really tough start shooting the three-point ball, his efficiency from three is now back up to 36%, which is what it was his rookie season, which we'll take.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: I think what's next for Modis is that I think he just needs to get stronger and get better with his handle.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, some of the times he plays against a really rough defender.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: So, like in the game the other night where um Kawhi Leonard got switched onto him.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: And it is Kawhi Leonard, but understand what I'm saying here.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: These guys that have tree trunk for legs and don't aren't moved very easily, he really struggles.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: And there's a few times throughout the season we've had a guy that is similar size to him at like the 6'8, but maybe just 20 pounds heavier, where he just doesn't know how to get to the basket or he doesn't know how to generate shots.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's just next.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh tighter handle, and then just putting on more muscle, putting on more strength.
26:53
SPEAKER_00: He did that from his rookie season to a sophomore season.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm hoping from his sophomore season to his eventual uh junior year that it could teach you get better.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: But I'm as high as anybody on Modest um after watching pretty much every game of his NBA career, if I'm not mistaken, or close to it, he shows you on a nightly basis that A, he cares defensively, which is a big thing when you have a young player on a bad team.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Why should they care?
27:15
SPEAKER_00: He cares defensively.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: He just cares, actually.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: They had they did a little piece about it in the Clippers game.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: That if you didn't know, in the month of February, the Bulls didn't win a game.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: They were 0-11, which lottery odds.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: So I take it.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, that it hurt him so bad that he had to go to a sports psychologist to try to figure out how to deal with losing that much.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know what I'm saying?
27:37
SPEAKER_00: I want a guy that cares enough about winning and cares enough about the game where like losing that many games in a row caused him to have potentially a mental breakdown.
27:45
SPEAKER_00: And I will always say, I will always advocate for mental health.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: So if you can go out there and get your help, get it.
27:51
SPEAKER_00: No matter how big or how small.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: And for him, it was a big thing.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: It's his job to win ball games.
27:55
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't do it in for 11 games.
27:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, so modest says, put on some more weight, get tighter on his handle.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, is play like you're playing right now next season completely.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Because it did feel like earlier in his career, which makes sense because Billy Donovan doesn't play young guys often, that he played and he was walking on eggshells.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: Miss rotation, get yanked.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: We just saw that for Leonard Miller the other night.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: Get yanked.
28:18
SPEAKER_00: One miss rotation at the end of the end of the, or the beginning of the second half.
28:21
SPEAKER_00: One miss rotation, subbed them out for basically what felt like the rest of the game.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's walking on the eggshells because of that.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't as aggressive and he just took the shots that got open for him.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: I like that as a reset, and he's trying to create, and I appreciate that.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: And I want him to just go into next season trying that because guess what?
28:38
SPEAKER_00: Nobody is gonna be on this team next season, other than you, at least in my mind, is you and Darren Peterson, damn it.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: Go create.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Um moving away from basketball just for a little second here.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: Oh, it's still basketball, but a different type of question.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: It's come from the Ronan Josh.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Did you ever go through doubt in the early days of your content slash podcast?
28:57
SPEAKER_00: If so, how did you learn to overcome it and keep turning up when maybe the views were low or whatnot, um, lower than what you vote?
29:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm in a I was in a very weird position, y'all, where when I started content creation, the podcast, it was very low risk, right?
29:14
SPEAKER_00: It what I didn't as of today in 2025, 2026, I know people that jump into content with the idea of it becoming their career.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't the case until it became my career.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: You know, I was still in school, I still went to do other things, and then the YouTube and the content stuff took off where I didn't need to go back to school.
29:30
SPEAKER_00: So there wasn't a ton of stakes for me personally.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: And I Lord knows if it was, then I probably may not be here today.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: But because I kept my my windows open for like understanding that it is the internet, hell, even to this day in 2026, where it literally is my job, I still think about it, it is the internet.
29:47
SPEAKER_00: And any given day, your whole viewer base could be like, ah, we don't really like this guy anymore, and just stop watching.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: So, what do you do then?
29:53
SPEAKER_00: I think I I think I've had more doubt about myself now that I'm in this position than before I got in this position.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
30:00
SPEAKER_00: And I think it's mostly because of the evolution of what I've been doing.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: I went from a content creator to a content creator slash podcaster to a content creator slash podcaster part of a big company to leaving a big company to be a podcaster and the content creator and the owner of a company.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: Where it's not just my livelihood that matters.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: It's all my guys, it's everybody on the staff.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: We're keeping these doors open and that revenue coming in is super important so that 40 people aren't out of a job, or how many people we have on the staff.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: So I think that's where the doubt and the worry and the anxiety comes from today, opposed to the other time.
30:34
SPEAKER_00: And remember, I started content creation before I had kids, before I had a fiance or wife.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: So it really everything I did was just for me.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: It was it was selfish.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: And now and sometimes selfishness doesn't have to be in the negative.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: Everything I did was selfish, right?
30:47
SPEAKER_00: I can afford to spend 12 hours on the video because uh I had no other obligations.
30:52
SPEAKER_00: Now that's a little bit tougher to do when you got two kids and a wife that you got to continue to make sure they're happy, right?
30:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, and you can't be selfish when you're a business owner.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Because again, there's 40 other lives that work for the company, and that doesn't mean that, and out of those 40, some of those people have kids.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: So now instead of it being 40 lives, it's 60 lives, you know.
31:10
SPEAKER_00: So uh how do I keep going through it?
31:13
SPEAKER_00: Is I put my hand down and I go to work, damn it.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: I do these episodes because I know that's what needs to happen to keep the door open.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: Um I try to make some fun out of it when I can.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: And I think hopefully I'm doing that right now by doing these videos where I answer your questions.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: These are what you you got, Kenny Beachum here, and you like these are the things we want to ask Kenny, and I'm here answering them.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: Um Cole says, You obviously love basketball.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: My question is, why don't you get into college basketball more?
31:40
SPEAKER_00: A very great question, one that I've been asked before.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: This is what it boils down to for me.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: I think personally that the NBA is more consumable than college basketball.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: But it being 17,000 teams, it's just easier for me to say, here are our 30, and you watch these 30.
32:00
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
32:02
SPEAKER_00: I also am not a fan of the turnaround of college basketball.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean the NIL transfer portal.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: I can understand why people don't love that.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm not one of those people, I don't really care about that.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: It's about like, think about what the NBA was three years ago.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: For the most part, it's kind of the same.
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, people are on different teams, but like LeBron, Steph Curry, Kevin Durant, all of these guys are still in the league.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: Three years ago in college, 90% of those people weren't even there.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: So imagine if I got into college sports and I fell in love with a team, and I can only really root for that team for like two years before everybody on that team is gone and I gotta now root for this dude.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: He's trash.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's where the disconnect comes for me.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh I completely understand why people enjoy it, right?
32:42
SPEAKER_00: The times I do watch college basketball, I do enjoy it.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: But also, my job is this.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: My job is the NBA.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate and admire the people that can balance watching multiple leagues and being great at those things.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm just not one of those people.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: I found that out before.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: I used to do a baseball thing.
32:58
SPEAKER_00: It's almost time, maybe opening, open a day.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: We're not gonna win a lot of games, damn it, but go White Sox.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: I tried that, and it's really, really hard for me.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: I I've always been a hyper fixation type of guy, and I've just been hyper-fixated on the NBA for about 25 years now.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that could ever go away.
33:16
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think anybody, anything could could get into that where it's even close.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Even though I will say publicly, the part of me, there's a there's a part of me that really is intrigued by doing some version of an NFL, not a podcast, but an NFL something.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just I'm putting it out in the world as the perspective of a guy that's only really cared about football for three years.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: I feel like there has to be a market.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: And damn it, I know how to be good on camera, I think.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just putting it out in the universe.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: So just don't be surprised if if all of a sudden there's a new channel called um um um ah I I can't I don't got it.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't got it.
33:58
SPEAKER_00: Uh screen, nah.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: See, that's too much.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: Uh I'll come up with a name if it becomes a thing.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: Next question we got is uh from where you are here, uh Elias, who says his profile picture is that Drewski picture where he was a football player.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: Um Do you believe Project Hell Mary will live up to your expectations?
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Or do you think the book was too good that it's impossible to live up to?
34:23
SPEAKER_00: I used to hate the people that would say, like, I don't really compare it to the book.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm truly prepared to say that about Project Hill Mary.
34:32
SPEAKER_00: And I hope it does live up to the book.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: But the expectations are so high.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Like you said, Elias, it's so high.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: That is the greatest book I've ever read, and then undoubtedly the greatest audiobook I've I've read it first and then listen to the audiobook.
34:44
SPEAKER_00: And I was actually pissed that I read it first because the audiobook is a one-of-one experience.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: So please go listen to Project Hail Mary, not an ad.
34:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I remember back in the day, I went to go see Hunger Games, and we went as a group, and one of the people in our group was like, that was cool, but the book is so much better.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: And I remember looking at her like, shut up, nerd.
35:01
SPEAKER_00: And now I'm that nerd.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be that nerd.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, the trailer, I feel like the trailer gave up too much, man.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: They shouldn't show, bro.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna spoil it.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: If you ain't seen the trailer, you ain't seen, you ain't read the book, they shouldn't have showed, bro.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: They showed, bro.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
35:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I cannot wait.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: I have not been to the movie theaters since Wolverine.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: That poor Wolverine.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: How many years ago was that?
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Two years ago?
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh I had an anxiety attack in there.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: That's probably why I ain't been back.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to the movie theater to watch Project Hail Mary.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: And I might wear my shirt because I have a custom shirt with it.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we got a few more questions from y'all.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: Y'all ready for me to get into my comic bag?
35:44
SPEAKER_00: Whoo.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: I did a lot of NBA questions up at the top, man.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, let me talk about my books and my comics and my journey as a creator.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: Yada yada.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: This is this is two questions from two different people, but I'm gonna combine them together.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: The first one comes from, I'm just gonna call you D-Boy because your name is not, I'm not saying that on Peacock's uh waves.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: Like, why is why is that your name?
36:03
SPEAKER_00: What got you back into comics?
36:06
SPEAKER_00: Is there a creative that you've drawn to, you've been drawn to?
36:09
SPEAKER_00: For me, it's Daniel Warren Johnson.
36:11
SPEAKER_00: He changed the game.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: So we'll start off with that question.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: I can't say I got back into comics because I just this is my first go-round.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm so happy I dove into it.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: I want to give credit to two creators on the internet.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: I think I found them originally on TikTok, but they also do YouTube and stuff.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's gonna be Cosmic Collector and the Speed Soaking.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: These guys are our roommates and just stroll, Doom strolled on TikTok one day.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: I saw a video from Nate, um, and that's the Speed Soaking, and he did a video where he was talking about his favorite comics of all time.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: And one thing I love, whether it be something I want to jump into or not, is I love hearing people talk about their special interests.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's my special interest to hear you talk about your special interests and the amount of passion he had about the things that he was telling me about.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: I was like, I'm sold.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna go pick up this comic that he recommended.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: And D-Boy, you mentioned Daniel Warren Johnson.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Twin, we like this.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: Daniel Warren Johnson is the reason why I'm into comics.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: Slash the two guys that I mentioned.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: But in Nate's video, he is a super Daniel Warren Johnson guy.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: So I think he was going through his top 10 comics ever or something along those lines.
37:20
SPEAKER_00: And Daniel Warren Johnson's books were like two of the top three.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, he can't be that good.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: He's that good.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: Dual powerbomb, elite.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: Extremity, elite.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: The transform transformer run that he's no longer with right now, the the whole Innertron universe, elite.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
37:37
SPEAKER_00: So we really are like this.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: And when I found out that Daniel Warren Johnson was an Illinois boy, oh, even more.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: My local shop, because support your local businesses, by the way, my local shop has an entire, I want to use the word shrine because that makes him seem like a god, but he has his entire section because he is a local boy.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: These are all the projects he's either wrote for or had a cover for, varying cover for.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: I got them all.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: The only thing from Daniel Warren Johnson I have not read yet is his Wonder Woman run, his limited Wonder Woman run, and his um Beta Ray Bill.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: I think that's the name of it.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Those are the two things I haven't read, but between that and uh Murder Falcon, I read, um, the dream one.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: I can't think of the dream one off the top of my head the name of, but Daniel Warren Johnson is really that guy.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: The next one, again, like I said, is a two-parter.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's from Alex.
38:24
SPEAKER_00: He says, No, you've been into comics lately.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: What is your number one recommendation?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: And asking me my number one recommendations, it's like asking me which one of my kids is my favorite.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: Are you kidding me?
38:33
SPEAKER_00: I can't break up all of them to pick a top one.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: So here are the things that I've really enjoyed reading over the last, I think I've been into comics for like eight months now.
38:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, I've been using the app, the Comic Book Geek, I think it's the name of it, where you can track all the things that you own and all the things you've read.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: In those eight months, I've read 632 comics, which is nothing compared to the run I had when I read One Piece or 1,100, whatever it was.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think back get to D-Boy's comments, like what made me get back into it.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: I've been adjacent, obviously, because I've read manga.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, it's American manga.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
39:05
SPEAKER_00: Like it's just an American comic.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, it's it's easy to kind of get into it when you also have read, again, a thousand chapters slash books of One Piece and read all of Chainsaw Man and all of the other grade A stuff.
39:17
SPEAKER_00: So that um here are my top recommendations.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: I will say that Daredevil is my favorite comic book character.
39:25
SPEAKER_00: I actually just started watching the show.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm 10 years late, I understand.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: But I just started watching the show two days ago, and golly, they really be boxer.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: I love a TV show that the choreography feels right.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: The long shots of him just in those hallways fighting, elite.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: Why did it take me 10 years to watch the show?
39:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but I'm watching Peak right now.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: So Daredevil is my all-time favorite, uh, at least as today.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: It might shift.
39:45
SPEAKER_00: All-time favorite character.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, and Mark Wade's Daredevil run is probably my favorite that I've read so far.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: He's got two different editions where one of them he is in Hell City or Hell's Kitchen, New York.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: And then the other one, he moved over to San Francisco, and that one is shorter than the original, but it's just a good way.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, my favorite character has been, you know, show to me.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: You know, great stories, in and out, great villains, good, good human aspect of it.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: If you know, I won't no spoiler, no spoil.
40:13
SPEAKER_00: But his best friend, it's in it, and he has his own arc and so on.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: So like I just really love, I think Mark Wade kind of is one of the my goats.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: Because I only I only read semi-modern slash semi-modern.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: So I won't, I won't go back to read from the 90s or the 80s until I get bored with modern.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've I've read a lot of Mark Wade, and he has a way of telling stories, I'll tell you that.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm I'm also reading the current um Derek Double Run, who I can't remember who it's by right now off the top of my head.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it came out a few years ago.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: And then there's a new Derek Double Run that's dropping, I think in like two weeks, April 1st.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: And I can't wait to see that one because the writer on that one I follow on TikTok, and I'm super excited because I haven't had a chance to read any of her writing as of uh so far.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited to see what her and her team of artists get to put together with my favorite character.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, but also get sick into the modern, Ryan North's Fantastic Four for me was a great entry point because it's so silly.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: It reminds me of just TV, like like superhero TV from when I grew up, where on a it is there is some like storyline that goes through, but you could pick up um number seven and just read it from there, and that will be its own little story.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: There's one that may be my favorite comic of all time because it's so silly.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: And again, it reminds it makes me feel like a kid again.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: We're the Fantastic Four team, they're living on this ranch, they're waiting for their kids to come back.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: Long story, I won't get into that.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, and all of a sudden, uh dramatically, or not dramatically, drastically?
41:42
SPEAKER_00: No.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, and either way, the people of the Fantastic Four forget letters.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: We're like they couldn't say a word that started with an F because they don't remember the letter F.
41:52
SPEAKER_00: And so eventually by the end of the story, they can they can only say a few different letters.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: Those letters end up being M, O, D, and R.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: M?
42:06
SPEAKER_00: O, D, and R.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: And it was Dr.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: Doom, it was Doctor Doom.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: He was like, You will remember my name because I'm gonna get rid of every single letter.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: And it's just so chaotic and kiddie that I just I just loved it.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: This super villain, he spent an entire week making sure that the Fantastic Four don't remember letters so they can remember his name.
42:27
SPEAKER_00: And he's just such a great villain.
42:28
SPEAKER_00: He's maybe my favorite villain of all pieces of media.
42:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, even with that said, I think I'm more of a DC reader, even though I just told y'all two Marvel pieces.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, last one is one that I just read, so maybe I'm giving it a little boost because of recency bias.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, Plastic Man is such an interesting character to me.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: And he had a limited run just a couple years ago called Plastic Man No More.
42:51
SPEAKER_00: I love limited runs more than I think the the ongoings, because again, they're easily consumable because it's like usually four to six different um different books.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: Um and they're usually, and this is just for my small experience of eight months or whatever, they're usually more heartfelt.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: And Plastic Man No More is not about Plastic Man being a superhero, it's about him being a father.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, and as someone that happens to be a father of two, I just relate to those type of stories a lot.
43:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, The Visions is another one about um Vision himself and his family.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I just relate to those stories a ton in some way or another.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: So thank you for indulging me in my whole comic book world, uh D-Boy and Alex.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: I I really do appreciate that.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: Uh, a couple more.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: This one comes from JSN Lover.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: As much as you love the Chicago Bulls, do you think the city of Chicago will be more excited or responsive to a Bulls championship or Bears Super Bowl?
43:46
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't have to think about this question much at all.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: The city of Chicago will be way more excited for a Super Bowl versus an NBA championship.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to know why?
43:57
SPEAKER_00: Do you want to?
43:57
SPEAKER_00: I think that, I think that the Bears.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Bring everything together.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to explain it.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: Even people that aren't football fans, when your favorite football team, even if you're not a weekly watcher, your favorite football team is good.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: It's just a symbol of like community, if that makes sense.
44:14
SPEAKER_00: And the Bulls don't really have much hope, if that makes any sense.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: So the fact that the Bears, you know, were an interesting team, made the postseason, but I think we have our QB won for the next 37 years.
44:26
SPEAKER_00: That's how long Caleb Bush is going to play.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, some interesting cast of guys around them, I think it will be more important for the city to get a Super Bowl.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: Last time we got an NBA championship was in the 90s.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: The last time we got a Super Bowl was what, 85 Bears or something like that.
44:39
SPEAKER_00: So we've been without it for a long time.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: You think about the traumas associated with it.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: The Bears, even the times that they were good, like the Jay Cutler year or even the year we made it to the goddamn Super Bowl with sexy Rexy Grossman.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
44:51
SPEAKER_00: It was just, it's just different because we didn't really have a QB1.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: Jay Cutler gave us, what, two years of maybe being that?
44:58
SPEAKER_00: Sexy Rexy was a game manager, but he wasn't a QB1.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: I think we legit have a QB1.
45:02
SPEAKER_00: And it's just been so long.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: They used to say that Chicago is a place quarterbacks come to die.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: So much so there's rumors about Caleb Williams not even wanting to come to Chicago because of that alone.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: So that the fact that we may have that, and I think we do, damn it.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: I think he is uh CW, I think he is that that man.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: The fact that we have that, I think it's um it'll mean more for the city.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh especially if we can keep the Bears in Chicago.
45:26
SPEAKER_00: That's a whole nother story, though.
45:33
SPEAKER_00: All right, y'all.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: It is that time of the season or that time of the year where it's it's March.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I know you probably was expecting, because this is the day after selection Sunday, that I would come out here and I will say, here are my top picks for this this side of the bracket, this side of the bracket, this side of the bracket.
45:49
SPEAKER_00: That ain't me.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: I I will make a video on YouTube of making my bracket.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: I always do.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: I never shoot more than 30% because I don't watch college basketball, but it is always fun.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: I think Selection Sunday is one of my favorite pieces of one-day sports media.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: Um obviously it doesn't beat out the actual tourney, but I love when they get those shots of the kids celebrating the fact that they make the tourney if they were a bubble team.
46:11
SPEAKER_00: Or the opposite of that, where they do make it, and then their coach may have told them don't celebrate.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: So they kind of just gotta sit there.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: He's got to sit there and act nonchalant, knowing damn well it's the biggest accomplishment of their careers.
46:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, I even like the college tour, the the, I'm sorry, the conference tourney, even if I didn't get a chance to watch a ton of it, where like I saw some team is gonna be making the tourney for the first time in in program history.
46:36
SPEAKER_00: And that's that's great.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, that's really great.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: I think this is gonna be a true experience, and this is me talking as a non-college basketball fan, a true experience in the sense that I read a stat in a newsletter the other day that upsets in the regular season were down 40% in comparison to previous years.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that is probably contributed or attributed to um those smaller teams or smaller programs having their star players being poached to go to the Kentuckys of the world.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder because of that, will we see as many upsets as we normally do?
47:08
SPEAKER_00: Right?
47:08
SPEAKER_00: Some of those teams that are from the smaller conferences that are making it, they just may not be.
47:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you don't need the talent to win in one game elimination, but they may not just be talented enough to take out some of those bigger teams because damn it, Joe Joey Bob that averaged 25 at um, I don't even know a small program.
47:25
SPEAKER_00: Utah State, I don't even know if they're in the turn.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: I think they lost and they may not make the tournament.
47:29
SPEAKER_00: Um he was at Utah State averaging 25.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: He goes over to Arkansas, he's averaging seven, but they just took away their star player last season.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just I'm just so interested to see what really happens in that aspect.
47:42
SPEAKER_00: And I'm really interested to tune into certain NBA prospects.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm like, this is where I really start my dive in.
47:49
SPEAKER_00: So like um I can't wait to really see Cam Booz.
47:53
SPEAKER_00: I think I've watched one Cam Boozer game start to finish so far this season.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh Keaton Wagler, shout out to my guy.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: Can't wait to see them in a tournament.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: Darius A Cove, Nathan Mint, who I just saw had a game where he shot one for 12 from the field with 12 of 13 from the free throw line.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: So like I'm just all in to like, I forget who it is.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: Every year somebody puts together, here are the players to watch for during the tourney.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: And I consume now, I eat that up and I make sure I make a list.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Boom, boom, boom.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: This team plays at this time, and this guy's projected on number five.
48:22
SPEAKER_00: So damn it, I gotta watch this too because he might be on my team one day.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: Um I've been reading a lot of mocks about so-and-so players ending up where.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: And the one I keep seeing is uh Braden Burries being number nine to Chicago.
48:36
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see.
48:37
SPEAKER_00: I'll be tuning in to him to see what he's got going on.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: I think he's one of the older freshmen in the class.
48:42
SPEAKER_00: I think he's 21 years old already as a freshman.
48:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the hell that's about.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just I just can't wait.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: I truly just cannot wait for March Madness because it always is a fun time.
48:50
SPEAKER_00: Um I mean, I guess I have to root for Illinois just based off proximity.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
48:56
SPEAKER_00: Now I am rooting for Illinois because I was there when D Brown, Luther Hair, Darren Williams, and them was in that tournament.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, I wanted Corn Rose to be like D.
49:04
SPEAKER_00: Brown when I was a kid.
49:05
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I'm rooting for Illinois still.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: They got my boy uh Ostojic, uh, uh, uh, Ostojic.
49:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
49:10
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to if you know, you know, that's one of my homies from he was my point guard back in the day.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say Stoyakovich.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh still they got my boy Stoyakovic on the team.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'll be rooting for them.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: And again, Keaton is there as well.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited for this.
49:23
SPEAKER_00: I do, it does suck to like Caleb Wilson is out for the tourney.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: I was excited to see what he would do in that type of scenario.
49:29
SPEAKER_00: I'm even excited to see the older guy, the um Yaksu Lindenborg, if I'm pronouncing that right.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the oldest dudes, but by all accounts, this dude is a stud player.
49:38
SPEAKER_00: He just happens to be old.
49:39
SPEAKER_00: And right now, according to Tankethai, he's projected to go number 14, which is where the um OKC Thunder will be.
49:49
SPEAKER_00: So I know.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: I just got I just got a lot of things going on, and hopefully the tournament ends up being exactly where we need it to be, and we get some huge upsets.
49:57
SPEAKER_00: We do see a Cinderella story or two.
50:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I I can never call it.
50:02
SPEAKER_00: Other than the one year I did call it.
50:04
SPEAKER_00: The other one year I did call it.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, and this is gonna be another one of those years.
50:07
SPEAKER_00: So hopefully you did enjoy this episode.
50:09
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to everybody that asked questions.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: We got over 200 questions, and obviously, because of the time constraint, I picked some of my favorites.
50:14
SPEAKER_00: You let me know what you think about my all NBA teams and everything.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: Um take a comic recommendations, damn it.
50:19
SPEAKER_00: Let me know.
50:20
SPEAKER_00: See y'all next time.