Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Does The NBA Have A Scoring Problem?

Transcript

Does The NBA Have A Scoring Problem? · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: Think about that.
• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: These two people, these two guys have been again rivals, even though you saw a postgame, they have no ill will towards each other anymore.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because I remember the Halloween party.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: I remember it.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they can they can still go at each other every single time they match up and be like, man, this is about to be about to be a banger.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: And it was.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beach and Podcast on the Enjoy Basketball Podcast Network.
• 0:29
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to keep reminding y'all that this is a network.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_01: We have two shows.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_01: It is this one, and it is numbers on the board, formerly known as Through the Wire.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: I would advise you to listen to both shows because it's different perspectives on the thing that we we love the best.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_01: Be sure to leave a like, subscribe, go over to the Spotify, go over to Apple, Stitcher, Podbean, wherever you get your podcast, go over, give us five stars so we can continue to climb up those charts of NBA slash basketball podcast.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: We had a really eventful week in the association.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_01: We saw a 73-point game, another 72 in one week.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Is is there too much scoring in the association?
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_01: That is the main question of today's episode.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_01: I also want to talk about maybe the game of the year, Lakers versus Warriors from a few nights ago, because boy, did they give us everything we could have imagined in a single basketball game.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_01: I want to talk about a lot of that.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to talk about the Miami Heat because they continue to struggle.
• 1:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm trying to figure out, I'm trying to figure out why.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_01: All of that, plus my favorite segment, Ask KB.
• 1:27
  SPEAKER_01: And producer Greg's gonna come onto the show to tell us a legendary story.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_01: At least I think it might be a legendary story, but he hooped with one of the most famous slash best people of all time.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I need to hear that story.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let's start off with Luka Donce's 73-point game versus the Atlanta Hawks.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: For y'all that don't know, the NBA went through this rivals week in the association, where every single day they put up multiple games of teams or players that we consider to be rivals.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: We saw like Chet versus Wimby.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: In this case, it was Luka and Trey Young.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: Later on, we're gonna talk about the Lakers versus Warriors.
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_01: And in my humble opinion, I actually like these rivalry week things because it kind of helps build rivalries, even if they don't really exist.
• 2:09
  SPEAKER_01: Like Trey Young and Luca Dons are actually really, really close.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: They like each other.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: I remember the the time where they were in the Rise of Stars challenge and Luca hit the half-court shot, and him and Trey Young just watched it at half-court.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like they're they're actually really good friends, but the NBA is like, you know what?
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_01: These two star players got traded for each other.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_01: So let's let's immediately make them rivals.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_01: And this one was a uh NBA TV game, and Luca got everything that he could have possibly wanted in a game.
• 2:37
  SPEAKER_01: Also, in the same night, Devin Booker ended up with 62 points in an eventual L versus the Indiana Pacers.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: And Devin Booker's been on the run right now.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: I really hate the fact, the same thing with Carnthony Towns from the week before.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_01: I really hate the fact that both of those players lost those games.
• 2:50
  SPEAKER_01: But regardless, Luka Dontage was unstoppable.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_01: Watch this game, um, not in its entirety.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: I got really in tune in the second half because I looked at the box score and it said Luka Donce had 41 points.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_01: I was watching a Devin Booker masterclass where he ended up with 30 points in the first quarter, didn't even think about Luka Doncic's ability to go crazy for an entire half.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_01: So I tuned in second half, and one thing we see, or we saw at least in the uh Car Anthony Towns game, or sometimes we have these legendary performances, that halftime can really stunt like the all of the progression, all of the streak that this player was on.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: But that wasn't really the case for Luka Doncic.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_01: Where in the second half, he was just as dominant, just as productive, and again, he ended up with 73 points.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: It got to the point in the fourth quarter.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: Because when I when I jumped in, I was watching from the Mavs broadcast because I want to hear what their home commentators are saying.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know, how electric can they be on the microphone, experiencing the what one of the three foremost points we ever seen in this entire sport?
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: And they were cool, they were really hyped, but then eventually I was like, you know what?
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: I want to see what the Atlanta Hawks are talking about.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've mentioned on this show before that personally, just my personal opinion, I don't really enjoy the Atlanta Hawks broadcast too much.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_01: I think there is a balance between bias towards your own your own viewer base and your own team and going a little bit overboard.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I feel like the Atlanta Hawks go a little bit overboard on the broadcast.
• 4:08
  SPEAKER_01: There was a clip that I tweeted out that went somewhat viral on Twitter from a few months ago when they were having a matinee game versus the Miami Heat.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_01: And I swear to you, the Atlanta Hawks broadcast was at the throat of Duncan Robinson for 48 minutes.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Anytime he played a licker defense, he was like, wait, Duncan, you don't play defense.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_01: That's not a shot that you normally take.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, man, they really hate Duncan Robinson.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: And that made me go back like the Duncan give them like eight threes in a game once upon a time.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: The answer?
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe whatever.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: I uh I went over to their side of the broadcast, and Luka was on such a hot streak, and he was doing pretty much anything he could have wanted.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_01: No matter what they decide to do defensively, he was getting his own.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_01: But with 10 minutes left in this game, when Luka Donjich already has 60 plus points, the sideline reporter told Dominique Wilkins, and and I forget the play-by-play guy that Quentin Snyder's gonna start sending two bodies to Luka Doncic.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, no way, this man has 60, and now we're thinking about throwing two bodies.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they did, and it slowed down a little bit, but ultimately he got his team the win.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_01: I was super excited to see this.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: As excited as I was to see Joelin B drop 70 the week before, we don't.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I guess you can we've had four of these in the last year and some change, but in the grand scheme of things, these type performances do not happen every single night.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So anytime I see somebody doing something legendary, again, this is one of the four most points we've ever seen scored in the individual game.
• 5:34
  SPEAKER_01: I'm at it and I'm in awe of the type of production a singular person can really have.
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because not only did Luca Donta just drop 73, he had what eight assists and like critical assists when he could have been gunning for 80.
• 5:48
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, No, I'm gonna trust my teammates.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: There's one specific play where there was an offensive rebound for the Dallas Mavericks.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: He was on the left wing.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: He had Trey Young fly past where he could have just taken a three, and this three would have given him, again, an additional three points when he's on the road to 80.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_01: And instead, he kicked it out to Dante XM one more, and Dante hit a huge, huge shot.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like one of the narratives around Luca Dante's that I've never really understood is that he is a selfish player only out there to get the statistics.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think I think part of that maybe comes from the fact that he's a heliocentric player, but those two things are not synonymous in my mind.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: I think you can be a heliocentric player while also not being selfish.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I feel like Luca Dante is one of those people.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, he obviously recognized that he was on a burner, and it was times late in this game where he did say, like, oh my God, I'm I'm actually hot.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take a contest to win, but I don't I don't mind those type of things.
• 6:34
  SPEAKER_01: So he drops his 73 points.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And and I just don't like where the conversation went to after this performance and after Joel Embiid's performance.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: Because it wasn't about how ridiculous of a performance this was to look for Luka Doncic, it was, whoa, the NBA need to do something because because we're going too far in the offensive side of the ball.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I just hated it.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Having that conversation uh in a general sense, I'm okay with.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_01: But it's instead, it kind of minimized this legendary night that Luka Doncic just had.
• 7:08
  SPEAKER_01: Where if you turn on TV or you listen to your favorite podcast, or maybe not your favorite, because your favorite is this one, right?
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_01: You listen to some podcasts, it wasn't about how ridiculous and how great Luca Doncic has been all season, but specifically in this game, it was like, man, the defense where's defense in basketball nowadays?
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_01: He was walking to the basket, so on and so forth.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: The game is the league is broken.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_01: And then a couple days later, um PJ Watson dropped 40, and that that like broke all of Twitter.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: PJ's dropping 40.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_01: No, we must we must change the rules or whatsoever.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I just personally don't understand it.
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_01: This is a this is a league that, by many people's opinions, is too damn long.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: 82 games, a lot of basketball for every single team.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_01: And as a league, we have struggled to keep the casual fan interested for 82 games.
• 7:56
  SPEAKER_01: Luca dropping 70 or Joel Embiid dropping 70 can kind of help us get through this long regular season where we don't really care too much.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: This is so weird to me because okay, Luca dropped his 70 points against the 26th ranked defense in basketball in January.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: That team is seven games under 500.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: Do you think that's indicative of the entire league at whole?
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because he dropped 73 on the 26th ranked defense, or because Jordan B.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_01: dropped 70 on the 25th ranked defense, or Damian Lillard dropped 71 on the 28th ranked defense.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: Do you see a pattern here?
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_01: Do you see a pattern?
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: The really good players can have these type performances against bad teams.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_01: You're not seeing 70s against the top defense.
• 8:39
  SPEAKER_01: You ain't seeing nobody drop 70 against the Minnesota Timberwolves.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: You don't see them drop 70 against the Boston Celtics.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: But when they're going against bottom feeders, we can see these legendary knights.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: This is not an entire league problem.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Donovan Mitchell's 71 was against the top five defense in the Chicago Bulls at the time.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_01: But again, the Bulls weren't very good, and he went to overtime to get that 71.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it's not like this is a nightly thing where we're seeing top-and talent drop 60s and 70s.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Like, yes, uh, like I cannot say that we haven't had an offensive boom over the last 10 years.
• 9:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's that is objectively true, but I don't think it's to the detriment of the game.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_01: There's a couple of reasons for this, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, in the history of the association, league wide, we are tied with the highest three-point percentage we've had in the history of this game.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: That is 36.7%.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: And we're attempting the second most in the history of the game at 35%.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_01: We also are hitting an all-time high of the percentage of our free throws.
• 9:33
  SPEAKER_01: The efficiency of this league, the talent level of this league has just too much.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't say that in a negative way.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just saying that we have people coming into the league that can come in unguardable at 19, 20 years old.
• 9:46
  SPEAKER_01: Like we've seen that happen before in previous eras, but it's just a it's a little bit differently.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: Teams, players have become way smarter in manipulating the game.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I don't I don't mean in manipulation and a bad connotation.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_01: These guys, the Luka Doncic 73-point game, as much as it was a physical thing, it was equally great mentally to see.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Oh no, okay, it's Jalen Johnson here.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, Clink Capella's in the drop.
• 10:11
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what I can do here.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, okay, now they switch, and now is Sadiq Bey, and now they're playing me a little bit differently.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_01: This is what I can do.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, they throw in a second body.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: I can't really see it, but I'm assuming that Tim Hardaway Jr.'s cross court in the corner.
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Like it is a cerebral, cerebral game.
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_01: These are very smart players, and they've maybe just become too smart for defense.
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that is completely okay.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: We're in January.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: Two 70 points in January does not mean that the league is broken.
• 10:38
  SPEAKER_01: Damian Lillard's 70 point in the middle of February, I think it was the end of February.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, it's just cool.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_01: Because once we get to the nitty-gritty in the playoffs, the all of the defensive stuff that you you're crying about not existing exists.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_01: The Miami Heat just went from the play-in to the NBA finals.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_01: Now, part of that was they went on a crazy, crazy hot streak shooting.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: They were one of the worst shooting teams in regular season.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: Then in the playoffs, they were one of the hottest.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: But also on that grinded out defense that you may have enjoyed in the early 2000s.
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Like there is a world for both things to really exist, and I think we're getting that.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: So I just I hated the fact that it was like Luca dropped 70, cool.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_01: But what's going on with defenses across basketball instead of really thinking about how ridiculous of a performance it really was, because the 73 is itself just a crazy, crazy number.
• 11:33
  SPEAKER_01: The efficiency that he did it was also just ridiculous.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: And I appreciate that from Luca.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: The the thing with Luka Donci's season, because he's having his best season as an NBA, individual season as an NBA player.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: But when me and the guys on numbers on the board, we just did our mid-season awards, and and quickly I'll tell you my top three in MVP did not have Luka Doncic.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't mean that he's unworthy.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_01: That if you do have him top three, I'm thinking that you're you're mad because he is that good.
• 12:03
  SPEAKER_01: But it's just there's so like Joel and Bede is having a career year after having an MVP.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Giannis is having a career year.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: Giannis is one of the most slept-on seasons so far this year.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I think a lot of people's top three is in any order, it's gonna be Jokic, it's gonna be Joel, it's gonna be Shay.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_01: But like Luca and Giannis's seasons kind of get buried in that.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_01: And I can't say it's wrong because the top three dudes that I just mentioned are having such ridiculous seasons as well.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_01: There's just too many really good players, and because of that, a guy like Luka Dontis having this type of thing gets kind of lost.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of last episode, I told you what I think about Luka Dontis' MVP case.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: I think next year is this year, and I know I've said that two years ago if you listen to some of my other shows, but I believe Luka Dante is such too good of a player to never have an MVP award.
• 12:52
  SPEAKER_01: Part of it is like, okay, his team is teetering around playing right now.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_01: All the other people we just mentioned, Joel Embiid, slash Jokic, slash Giannis, slash Shay, these are guys at the top of their conferences.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: And obviously that's not all of Luca's fault that his team has been relatively unhealthy this season and and all of that stuff.
• 13:09
  SPEAKER_01: But it it matters when you're when you're trying to trying to figure out the differentiator between two very legendary seasons, what's going to be the determinant factor?
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_01: And part of the determinant factor might be, oh, his team is not winning as much as some of the other teams.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to give my flowers to Luka Dante's 70.
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he he had a set a night after that where Keegan Murray got in that seat.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_01: If you watch that game, Keegan Murray got in that seat, and that 73-point game turned into what 25, which is a bad game for Luka Dontis on 35% shooting.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so he can't do it every night, but man, he's he's on a streak right now.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with Devin Booker.
• 13:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now, as I'm recording this, they're going against the Orlando Magic.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_01: So my eyes appearing off to my left here because I'm trying to keep track of the Suns in their fourth quarter offense.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_01: A couple episodes ago, we talked about how legendarily bad the fourth quarter is for them when it comes to net rating that at that point in time, and it must, it might have adjusted since then, it was the worst net rating in the fourth quarter in the history of basketball.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Worse than the worst team of all time in the fourth quarter.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: And when I came down to the set to record this, they were tied in the fourth quarter.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: And now with four minutes left, they're down by eight to the Orlando Magic, who also are a bad offensive team for four quarters.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I have to rewatch the entire fourth quarter and I can really dive in, but Jon Daniels just hit a three to put them up 10.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: So um I I wanted to come here and talk about the Phoenix Suns because before their loss to the Indiana Pacers and before tonight, they were on a seven-game win streak and everything was looking like crazy.
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Like they they looked like an unguardable team, obviously.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_01: They struggled a little bit in these last couple days.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: So we'll keep the Suns talk to maybe next episode or episode after.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: We also might have experienced the game of the year when we saw Lakers versus Warriors again on Rivalry Week.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was a double overtime game on national TV.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I always try to figure out every year what my game of the years are.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think there are a couple different factors.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, some overtime games help some big time shots.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, the Wardale hit a couple big shots, and then Braun hit the two final free throws at the end to win the game.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: Big shot making, tough shot making.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_01: There was one possession, this had to be in one of the maybe the first or the second overtime, where there were two possessions in a row with D'Angelo Russell either turned the ball over or just ended up not doing something great offensively.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then on a fast break, he pulled up for three.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: And I was like, oh no, oh my god, it went in.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: The the the the cojones, you need to take that shot from D'Angelo Russell, who's been on really good for these last couple weeks.
• 15:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it had everything good shot making, good defense.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: But Draymond Green's finding Steph Curry was immaculate.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, it always is, you know, it's Draymond Green.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: Steph Curry is a two-man game.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: But in this game, there were so many times where Steph Curry was finding himself open, and Draymond, without even really thinking about it, his antennas just lit up.
• 15:52
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, boom, there's Steph Curry there.
• 15:53
  SPEAKER_01: Boom, there's Steph Curry there.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a perfect game, if you ask me.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: Everything you could have imagined, unless you were a Warriors fan.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: Because I was talking to the homies.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_01: We were all watching this in Discord together, which is one of my favorite pastimes is watching basketball live with all of the homies on Discord.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect, you know?
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_01: We're synced the games up because some people are on sites that we won't talk about.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are on uh NBA TV, some some people, I'm not even a TV, but on YouTube TV.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: Some people are watching other places, but we sync it all together.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: We like, we gonna see this at the sex time.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: So um we were watching this together, and I said to them, losing a double overtime game has to hurt like hell from the player's perspective.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like we saw Steph Curry like rip his jersey.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's how hard of a you just play for almost 50 minutes individually, and what do you have for it?
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_01: Just to say I dropped 46?
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: It's tough.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's tough.
• 16:45
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I I walked away from there just admiring the the great ball that we get from Steph Curry and LeBron James on a night in, night out basis.
• 16:55
  SPEAKER_01: Remember, these guys are uh 39 and what, 35 respectively.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: And traditionally, we don't see this type of talent this late in NBA careers.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_01: But these two dudes have done such a great job taking care of their body over the last couple of years or the entirety of their planned career that we can have a night like this where the 39-year-old and the 35, 36-year-old can go head to head and it looked like it was 2016 again.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like that, think about that.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: These two people, these two guys have been, again, rivals, even though you saw a postgame, they have no ill will towards each other anymore.
• 17:26
  SPEAKER_01: Because I remember the Halloween party.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_01: I remember it.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but they can they can still go at each other every single time they match up and be like, man, this is about to be about to be a banger.
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: And it was, it was everything you could have imagined.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Clay Thompson came on in that second half after a struggle of a game in the first half and hit big shot after big shot eventually fouled out of this one.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And Anthony Davis even went down in this one, right?
• 17:50
  SPEAKER_01: Anthony Davis went down early, and then I'm like, oh, okay, we're about to lose another game because a couple hours before we found out that Jordan B wasn't gonna suit up for a game like six minutes before tip-off on Rivals Week National TV, and this saved all of that, even though that game ended up being pretty well.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_01: But Anthony Davis goes down, I'm like, oh man, we about to lose a D for this game, or maybe extend the time.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, I don't really know.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_01: And he came running back down the tunnel like he was Willis Reed or something.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: I see you.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: Now, after this game, there's a lot of conversations.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_01: As always, you see a nationally televised game, everybody's really watching.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there's conversations, and some of the conversation came from Warriors Coach Steve Kerr, where he said, I'm not gonna comment on the 43 free throws to R16.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I'm not gonna comment on Seth Curry shooting three free throws in 43 minutes.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but Steve Kerr, you did comment on it.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_01: Uh you not commenting is commenting on it.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I do want to say always look at these things and try to be objective as possible.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_01: Again, these neither of these two teams I care about.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care who wins.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a I'm a I'm a neutral fan in these types of things.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_01: I just want good ball and we got that.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I was like, okay, always try to take things and try to see it from the perspective of the person that's talking.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: So let me re-watch this whole game.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: I ain't mad at it because I enjoyed the game.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: You know, let me rewatch this whole game.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_01: Let me specifically re-watch Steph Curry.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: How many times in this game, in this 43 minutes, is Steph Curry not get a whistle?
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_01: I do want to say, going back on it in my math, um, 10 of those free throws that we're talking about were intentional fouls.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: So the real disput, like free throw disparity is 33 to 16 when you think about getting rid of intentional fouls because the Warriors intentionally fouled at the end of every the fourth quarter, the overtime, first one and the second overtime.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_01: So that's 10 different free throws, you know?
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_01: So it's really 33 to 16, which is again is still a pretty wide wide margin, right?
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I went back into it, I watched this entire game over.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: Again, it was a fun time.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_01: And there was only two different instances where I saw it where Steph Curry did not get a whistle when he probably should have, right?
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_01: There was one with four minutes and 11 seconds left in the first quarter where he finished through tough contact uh contact over um Austin Reeves, and there was one on the fourth quarter, six minutes left, six seconds left.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: We did the Okie doke on Anthony Davis.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Had him on an island for every every time.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_01: Anthony Davis, one of the best defensive players in our league.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: And Steph Curry had him on an island looking foolish.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: And that's not saying that Anthony Davis was doing his part, but Steph Curry's just so ridiculous.
• 20:11
  SPEAKER_01: But when he did the I'm gonna go out of the paint, then I'm gonna switch it, go back to the paint.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: You could have got a foul there.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I was waiting for the last two-minute report to come out.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't come out by the time I'm filming this.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it tells me that there was no foul there.
• 20:23
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe that was a bad miss call.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_01: Either way, there's only two times in their 43 minutes.
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_01: But also, it's like Steve Curry.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_01: Historically, your teams, these Golden State Warrior teams that have won championship after championship after championship, has always been in the bottom half in free throw attempts per game.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all shot 58 three-pointers.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like you're, you know what I'm saying?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_01: You're it's hard to draw fouls when the shots you shoot in are 30 footers.
• 20:50
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I'm sure there are moments that they deserve whistles.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I again, I just really watch for Steph Curry because that was the one he mentioned.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe Klay Thomas and Draymond or somebody else, Kaminga, somebody else did not get a fair whistle throughout the course of this game.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: But this is the way y'all play basketball for a decade at this point.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_01: 58 threes is a lot of three-pointers.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: And again, this isn't a double overtime game.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: It's a double overtime game, so you got to get extra shots up.
• 21:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I just it this is this is a Lakers team that, again, throughout the LeBron James era, there has been a I'm a punch you in the mouth team.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_01: And that's how we get that crazy stat uh stat from last year where their free throw differentiator was a lot, it was just a lot compared to their their competition.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_01: That's the team that they are.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: They're a bad three-point shooting team.
• 21:33
  SPEAKER_01: They're gonna run to the rim, they're gonna draw some contact, they're gonna sell some contact.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's the way the league is at this point.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_01: And the Lakers are one of those teams.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and yes, the the Lakers did have a couple possessions when I rewatched that was like, oh, that's that's a superstar call.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's a favorable whistle the Lakers waive.
• 21:48
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't think it was that lopsided on my first or second viewing, you know.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: But I I did watch these games, these games, and um, there are times where I watched the Warriors.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: In the Lakers.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, see, that's the that's the team that I predicted was not going to miss the playoffs by any circumstance.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Do you remember that?
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: One of our first episodes on the podcast was me saying, like, these teams right here, if they miss the playoffs, basically aliens had to come down to earth and abduct Steph Curry.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_01: They're missing the playoffs.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: They're missing the playoffs right now.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: But sometimes I watch this team play and I'm like, that is the version of this team I thought I was gonna get for 82 games.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the Warriors, of course, lost Draymond Gray for a significant time.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_01: They've had uh uh Chris Paul out for significant time.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_01: Wiggins is not the player that I thought he was gonna be.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_01: So there are a lot of different factors for them to get there.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: But both of these teams had stretches throughout this game.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, that's the team I thought I was gonna get.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_01: That's the team I thought I was gonna get.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: And if they just put it together for a 10-game stretch, then boom, we back talking about them in contention.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_01: But no, like there's there's a lot to be said about these teams about what's holding them back.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I always just boil it down to like, okay, what is your real timeline?
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_01: If you're Steph Curry or on the Warriors, if you're the Warriors, what is your real timeline, Mike Dunvy?
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: I believe it should be all Steph Curry.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: I would be willing to sacrifice everything in my power for Steph Curry to get another championship because how many times throughout history do you get a chance to have a top 10 to 15, I don't care how you rank him, player of all time on your roster.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_01: And though this is not his best season in recent history, he's still damn good.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with LeBron James and the Lakers.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: The timeline is right now.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: So as much as you might want to keep Max Christie or as much as you want to keep Blink and Blink, how many more successful years are we gonna get this man at this power?
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta do everything that we can to put them into contention and not look back.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Because if you go out and get another Larry O'Brien trophy this season and I'm talking to the Warriors, nobody's gonna really care if you traded away X player and he turns into a stud because you got the last ring for Steph Curry.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_01: You got the last ring for your organization.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: You can go 20 years dormant, no rings, no play, well, no playoff for Pearson's wild, but no rings in the next 20.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: You could say that from 2015, 2015, from 2015 to 2020, we was on top of the world.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Except for the one year when you won 50 games.
• 24:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's worth it, in my opinion.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: But like, on the same token, that boy John Tikamenka been looking, that brother been looking real good, but like so good that like I know the market is the market, and maybe there's no superstar players even available, but like he looking so good that he might be the center package on a grander deal if that world existed.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I don't think it does.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: But it was really, in my opinion, the game of the year right now.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like there have been games that maybe have been somewhat more entertaining, but part of game of the year to me is that everybody is experiencing it.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: If you got a league pass game at 6 o'clock Eastern that went overtime and stuff, it's like, yeah, great game and all, but it's only me and 17 other fans that watched this game.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_01: So make like this is a game that everybody was tuned in.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_01: There was no football.
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_01: Only thing that was going on was the Royal Rumble, which I'll talk about in a minute, which is crazy to say hello.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that was it.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_01: This was the thing.
• 25:08
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody was talking about it.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to give my props to the Warriors and the Lakers for giving us a show.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: Steph Curry, LeBron, admire their greatness wise here because once it's gone, I experienced this with Tim Duncan.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_01: I experienced this with Kobe Bryant, where when they were in their primes, I was kind of like, they're here, I'm excited for it, but I it is what it is.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_01: And now that they're gone, they're no longer in the league, I'm like, damn, I should have admired Tim Duncan more.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: I should have watched more of Kobe.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm telling you, we don't have a lot more years of LeBron and Kirby doing these things.
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_01: So admire it while you can't.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: All right, Kenny.
• 25:40
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I agree completely with your with your Warriors' takes.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: I have one question about the end of that game.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: I had an argument with a friend about that shot that Brandon Pajemski took in, I think, double overtime, wide open three.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: Good or bad shot?
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I didn't mind the shot.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_01: The way the game was playing out, and and he was basically fresh legs, right?
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: Coming off when Clay Thompson got got um fouled out.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_01: I don't mind the shot.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I can't tell you right now how Brandon Pajimski is shooting from that specific spot.
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is it a good shot for him versus just a good shot in the grand scheme of things?
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't mind it too much because it it's similar to the D'Angelo Russell shot from a couple possessions before that.
• 26:19
  SPEAKER_01: That if it goes in, he's a savior.
• 26:21
  SPEAKER_01: If it misses, then he misses it.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, how how did you land on that one?
• 26:26
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they were up to, I'm not exactly sure how much time was left.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: I think about a minute.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_00: And they were struggling to get stops.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: They finally got one.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: Again, up to, I think Projenski is a great shooter.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think in that moment his percentages probably go down given the pressure and the stakes and the time of the game.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: And whether or not Steph ends up shooting the shot if they don't, if he doesn't shoot it, I still think the ball needs to be in Steph's hands to run some clock and uh just work for something a little better.
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: And also, there was one warrior under the basket and three Lakers.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_00: So no one really in rebounding position.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: So you're basically betting on a 39% three-point shooter at that part of the game to hit an open shot.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: And in my mind, you want something a little higher percentage, especially with no rebounders.
• 27:11
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't I didn't recognize that they were up to.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: In my mind, they were down to.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Up to.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: But now that you say that they were up to, then I guess it changed the perspective a little bit.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, in my mind, he was, they were y'all had the lead at that point and he was trying to extend it.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I I understand everything you're saying.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's very valid.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but again, it's one of those like shots that make it, savor, miss it.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: It is what it is, you know.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but a hundred percent the way Steph Curry was performing that game, the amount of shots he hit, the difficulty of those shots, I understand you're like get the ball to our best player for sure.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna get to my favorite segment, hashtag askb.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: All you gotta do is hit me up on X or in the comment section with the hashtag ASKKB, and I try to do my best to answer some of y'all's questions.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, while we were just waiting around here, I did get to see the end of this game or the box score at the end of this game versus the Orlando Magic and the Phoenix Suns.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: And then fourth quarter woes continue to be a thing.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: They lost the fourth quarter 31 to 13.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_01: I cannot wait to re-watch that because you have a guys in Devin Booker, Kevin Durant, and Bradley Beal who's playing with a mask right now because he broke his nose.
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_01: When you have guys of that caliber, in my mind, it doesn't make sense to be the worst fourth quarter team in the association.
• 28:24
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't make sense.
• 28:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and even in the game that they lost it, Devin Booker put up his 62.
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_01: The fourth quarter offense was trash.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_01: I just, I don't understand that.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_01: I can't not wait to re-watch that.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's get to the very first question.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it comes from Michael.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: What is your favorite NBA meme or running joke?
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: By far, my favorite thing about the association, social media memes, whatever, whatever, is the graphics that get made when somebody has a quote.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, like the Tyrese Halliburton.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm tired of losing.
• 28:56
  SPEAKER_01: Use that in real, real world situations.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: Doc Rivers has had one this week.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: I wouldn't wish this on anybody.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_01: Real world situation.
• 29:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's got to the point now where bleach reports sometimes don't even be making the ones, and people at home make a bleach report like one when a quote comes out.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's it's perfect.
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_01: It's perfect.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I got a bunch of them saved.
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_01: And part of me wants to go and create a whole folder in my phone for these reaction things because they are perfect.
• 29:25
  SPEAKER_01: They can be used on so many different levels.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: I love it, I love it, I love it.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: So that that is my number one.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, there are so many different memes.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if these counts as memes, but I love a good post-game interview between the OKC Thunder.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't know if that counts as a meme, but they usually do a little bit of trolling in those.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: Reminds me of Memphis Grizzlies from like two years ago.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love those.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I love when players become uh like aware.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_01: It's like when when Jordan Poole is aware of all of the memes revolving around him.
• 29:56
  SPEAKER_01: A prime example of this, he did an ad with, I forget, maybe it was a headphone company where he did 24 seconds shot clock of him answering questions.
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_01: And one of the questions was along the lines of what get what gets you going the beginning of the game.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: He said, if there's baddies, courtside.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_01: That that's the that is the Jordan Poole meme.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_01: And he's playing into it a little bit.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now, Washington needs to get some more baddies in the crowd, I guess, because the way he's been performing this year, it ain't been perfect.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_01: But he he's aware of what the social media chatter is around his performances.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_01: And I enjoy the fact that he's kind of having fun with it.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like he probably recognized this ain't his best season.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: He also did get paid.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe he don't maybe he don't even care that it's not his best season, but he's aware of the Twitter memes revolving around him.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: The next question comes from another Michael, but this is one of my homies, co-hosts of one of my podcasts.
• 30:46
  SPEAKER_01: Lunch with D.
• 30:47
  SPEAKER_01: Mills or$500,000 cash.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_01: Only reason I put this here is because it got so many different likes that I'm like, okay, let's let's address this.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, it's the age-old question dinner with Jay-Z or X amount of dollars.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: And for a while, people was telling, telling them sales that they would take the lunch with Jay-Z because oh, all the knowledge that he can drop.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_01: You remember that he could have bought a house in Dumbo for two million and then he did it.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: You remember that words of wisdom that J.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: Cole dropped?
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_01: J Cole, Jay-Z dropped us on 444.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: Well, you're gonna give me an hour-long dinner of those type of nuggets.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm taking, I'm not taking the money.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_01: No, you're crazy.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_01: D Mills, though.
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: I've had dinner with D Mills quite quite a good amount of times in my life.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's the homie we travel together all the time.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_01: I've we've gone to team dinners, so on and so forth.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_01: We recently had a team dinner, and this is the only reason I've, another reason why I picked this because I wanted to tell this story to the world, because I don't know if we've told it yet.
• 31:41
  SPEAKER_01: We went to this dinner, and this was the last dinner before we were leaving our old company in Bleacherport, and we were going to our new company, ESPN.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_01: And um, our people over at Bleach Report flew out to Chicago for like a farewell dinner.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to the people at House of Highlights, and we did a group dinner, everybody's ordering, everybody started with like a soup, right?
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: Soup starts to come out.
• 32:03
  SPEAKER_01: The waiter puts the soup in front of Mike.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_01: Derek looks across this long table and says, Is that my soup?
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_01: We like, bro, relax.
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_01: We promise you that the waiter's gonna get you your soup, my boy.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: We promise you.
• 32:21
  SPEAKER_01: It was like, it's one of those moments.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: If you now have you watched the podcast, you know that there's some moments that happen that don't feel real, or we you will tell a story or something, you're like, nobody's gonna believe that.
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: Nobody's gonna believe that that's real.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: But it was so I'm gonna say, give me the money.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_01: Because then dinner with D.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_01: Mills is not as great as you think it is.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_01: He's not dropping you no nuggets in the literal sense or in the figure figuratively.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: He's not giving you no nuggets, it's all his.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: The next one comes from Old Sports Ball.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I'm laughing because obviously I struggle with the reading and stuff, and I saw a word that I knew but I couldn't get out.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_01: Has the addition of global talent to the NBA necessitated?
• 33:00
  SPEAKER_01: That was the word.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's an easy word, but like in my mind it wasn't.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_01: Necessitated league expansion and even all-star game roster expansion, 12 guys per conference doesn't feel like enough anymore.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: This, yes, yes, and and the answer is yes.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: And I don't even know if it's just like because the game is more global, but just in general, talent, like we mentioned at the top of the show, is just at an all-time high.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_01: It is an all-time, all-time high.
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_01: Back in 1985, there were 23 teams in the association.
• 33:27
  SPEAKER_01: Obviously, we've grabbed seven more across across everywhere, seven more teams.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_01: Back in 1985, do you want to guess how many all-star spots there were?
• 33:36
  SPEAKER_01: You yes, 12.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_01: So we've added seven more teams to this association, and we ain't added any more roster spots?
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not saying that the all-star roster got to be 20, because again, this is a game of basketball.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: There's not enough minutes for 20 different players.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking all-star performances, and I guess it's your argument to keep it at 12.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_01: That, like, if we go to, let's say 15, do we get 15 players to actually play?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: I understand that argument, but it has not changed.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_01: And how many years is that?
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_01: 40 years?
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_01: Damn, 85 is about 40 years ago.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_01: I'm in favor of adding a spot or two.
• 34:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because yes, the talent has just become too much.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Let's be real.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_01: Some of the people just wanted on the accolade list.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_01: They don't even want to hoop.
• 34:20
  SPEAKER_01: Jimmy Butler has two all-star appearances where he did not play or played 10 seconds.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, I'm good.
• 34:25
  SPEAKER_01: Add that to my accolades.
• 34:26
  SPEAKER_01: Now I might be a Hall of Famer.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 34:29
  SPEAKER_01: So let's get let's give a commemorary.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_01: How do you say that?
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Let's give one to two guys all-star appearances that don't want to hoop.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_01: No, no, don't do that.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Don't do that.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: Because I know there are people that fly in for all-star for their favorite players.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_01: Imagine somebody flying in to see Jimmy that night and he didn't play.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_01: I know it happened.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_01: I know it did.
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_01: But I think expanding it would would help.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: I think league expansion, it's the worst kept secret in all of NBA.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, even uh Adam Silver, who just got his extension, Commissioner Adam Silver extended to 2030.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Silv.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he's all also just talked about expansion.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_01: We all know that when we get some expansion, it's gonna be Vegas and it's gonna be Seattle more likely than not.
• 35:13
  SPEAKER_01: And now we gotta change and realign the association.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: Now Memphis is an Eastern Conference team or something.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, because I just feel like when they go and hoop against people in their conference, they got like a long bit of travel.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing with like the Pelicans.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_01: These they gotta travel all the way to LA from Louisiana.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's tough.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but league expansion is necessary is a necessity.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: We have a lot of rosters that have just talent that cannot play, do not have them the minutes for for Trey Man, do not have the minutes anymore for like Dice, Dyson Daniels is in and out of the rotation.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: That is a real NBA player and an impactful one.
• 35:53
  SPEAKER_01: Well, because his team has so much talent, he don't even really get the hoop like that.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I would say absolutely to expansion.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_01: Give me two more spots in the all-star game, or or say that the captains don't count as real roster spots.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we like we like a player coach type thing.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: Give me, give me that, I guess.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't think this was gonna be something I was gonna talk about on the podcast.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, it might take me two minutes to get through all of this, but I've watched a good amount of Miami Heat games over the last couple days.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: Now, some of that was because they had a National TV game, um, where they ended up losing.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then they had uh, this is right after Terra Rose Year trade.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm like, okay, I want to see what Scary Terry looks like in Miami.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: The first week, not very good, but that's first week.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that's the end of this trade already, but um, it has not been good.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_01: In their last eight games, they are two and six, and they have the 30th ranked offense in that time by three full points.
• 36:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um, three full points in the last two weeks.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_01: The difference in that is is large.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_01: I'm just gonna say, I'm just gonna say large.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_01: Three points when you're talking about points per 100 possession.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's the difference between being the best offensive team in the league and being the 10th best offensive team in the league.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: That's how bad they've been on the offensive side of the ball.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_01: They have 11 games this season with less than 100 points.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: 11 games?
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_01: 11 games is unheard of for a team that's good.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like the Hornets have 12, the Blaze have 12.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_01: Those teams are fighting for lottery odds.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: This is a team that has championship aspirations.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_01: There are no championship aspiration team that has 11 games where they scored less than 100 points this season.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm trying to figure things out because they also have the most games lost to injury this season amongst a real rotation, right?
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: So, like the Brooklyn Knets are up there too, but that's counting Ben Simmons missing all his time.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: The Bulls are up there too.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: That's counting Lonzo Ball missing the whole season.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_01: No, I mean like a your real rotational pieces that you expected to have this season.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: They've missed 106 games.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_01: That is a ton.
• 37:54
  SPEAKER_01: Tyler Hero has missed 19, Jimmy Baller has missed 13, Bamma DeBayo has missed 10.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's just a lot.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_01: And it's it's just looking like last, it's looking like last season again.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: Because last season they had this same exact problem.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: And you throw on top of that that they couldn't shoot.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: That's how we get like, okay, we're healthy now and come playoff time.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: At least not really because Tyler Hero missed all of the playoffs, basically.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_01: We're relatively healthy and now we can shoot again.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_01: It just looks so much similar.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_01: But one of the things I um didn't, I guess, didn't really notice until I was on I was on Twitter this morning.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Heat fans, I again I try to follow a couple different fans in every single fan base because as much as I watch basketball, I can't be in a know about everything, and I try to find people that can kind of keep me attached to the things I might not be able to.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, they were talking about Bamatabayo's production.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_01: And and and they were talking about how around this time, every single season, his production falls off a little bit.
• 38:47
  SPEAKER_01: Now, if you look at the counter stats early in the season, he was averaging 22 points per game.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, in this month of January, he's averaging a little above 19, like 19.2.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's not like he fell off too crazily, but when you're watching, when you watch the Bamataballo performance early season versus now, there's a difference.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_01: So, what is the reason for this?
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_01: And that got me thinking about what could be the reason for Bay Mata Bayo's production again, falling around this time historically.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like I went through it around January.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: If we have a normal season, of course, we've had a few seasons where we didn't have the normal schedule.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_01: We see January around this time be some of his worst stretches.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: Now, part of that could be hell, it's a long season.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: These are the dog days of the NBA season.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_01: I just I just don't got it.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't got it.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_01: I think that could be it.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: I also think that this man has to shoulder a load, at least over these last two years, that are more than most people really recognize.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: Between Jimmy Butler again missing his 13 and Tyler Hero missing his 19, and Jimmy Butler, other than that last nasty televised game, Jimmy Butler refusal to be as aggressive as we can have him be offensively.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: There's a lot on Belmont of Bayo's shoulders offensively and defensively.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: This is a good defensive team.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of that is Belmotta Bayo's carrying or covering a lot of people's ass.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_01: So we see the production go down because it's a long season.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's trying to do a lot of everything.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_01: And sometimes I look at the star of the team.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_01: Again, Jimmy got I got so much love for Jimmy as a Chicago guy here.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_01: But I look at the star of their team and see that he, not saying he doesn't take the regular season seriously, but I was his own production drops come regular season.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, how excited can I be as number two if my number one is not going out there and going crazy every single night or trying to be as productive as can be every single night?
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I try to give Bam the benefit of the doubt that he is doing a lot.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: And now, because of all of this, like if Bam's advanced stats are bad this year, his points per shot attempts are down.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: His on-off numbers, I mean, he's like a plus one on.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's not normal for Bam.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm trying, I give him the benefit of the doubt.
• 40:56
  SPEAKER_01: Again, he was on my all-star ballot because he has been the one consistent thing in Miami, or relatively consistent thing in Miami.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_01: I just I give him the benefit of the doubt.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_01: I give them the benefit of the doubt because this is not a team that I would normally take seriously.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_01: But I failed for that last year.
• 41:11
  SPEAKER_01: I failed for that last year.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I won't fall into that again.
• 41:14
  SPEAKER_01: But I I I kind of pose the question to the other Heat fans that might be in the comment section or hit me up on Twitter.
• 41:19
  SPEAKER_01: What are you seeing as somebody that's watching them every single night?
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, is it valid to say that the offense is just the worst it's been in the Jimmy Butler Bam era?
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because I did see that conversation a little bit.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um or are we is it overblown and come April, everything will be okay?
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_01: Because right now, they're back as a playing team.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I know they got through the play-in before.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, they were down to the last three minutes and they were down to the Bulls in that second play-in game.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: They lost the first play-in game.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_01: Um I just I don't know really what to really think about it.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_01: I just don't know what to really think about.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: That's all.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm I'm posing the question to all y'all at home, Heat fans, not Heat fans, what are you seeing from the Heat?
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: Are you taking them seriously given the track history or track record, or you think that was they caught lightning in the bottle that year?
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_01: So a couple nights ago, I was sitting at the table eating dinner, and I get a text from Greg, producer Greg, and it's a picture of him and Adam Sandler playing basketball.
• 42:23
  SPEAKER_01: Greg, I need to know every single detail that is to be known about your hoop session with Adam Sandler.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_00: First of all, I'm not special because I think he's at this court a lot, and I think a lot of people have very similar stories.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: I don't want to blow up the spot, so I'll just say it's a basketball court in Santa Monica.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: Um apparently he's there all the time.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: I've been there probably 50 times and have never seen him.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I got there early to get in the first run of the day.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: You know, probably 30 guys on average show up to this court on weekday afternoons.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I happened the first game, and Adam walks on to the other court.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: And uh fortunately, the team I had in that first game was awful, and we got run out run off the court.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: So me and my friend Chris go over to the other court where Adam's playing.
• 43:05
  SPEAKER_00: We call next, and uh, you know, long story short, I had met Adam before because I produced another podcast that he was a guest on.
• 43:14
  SPEAKER_00: And uh I I reintroduced myself, he remembered who I was, and uh we were on opposing teams, and we won that first game, and every other game after that, the other team kept picking him up, and uh he took four L's.
• 43:30
  SPEAKER_01: Oh, you were you were giving him the work?
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_01: Wait, did you ever guard him?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like, were y'all match up?
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: No, but you know what's funny is I didn't realize that watching his clips on Instagram would serve as a good scouting report.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: But because I knew that he was very, very, very pass first, I I know he likes to deal a little behind the backs, the fakes, the looks.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: I probably had about 10 or 12 interception steals just because I knew he wasn't looking to score.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he was teasing me about it and uh and At the end of the run, he looks at me and goes, You know, you're good, you big strong bastard.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll have that to remember.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was definitely a fun day.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: And he's got some game.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_00: He's 57, by far the oldest guy on the court.
• 44:11
  SPEAKER_00: And I'll say this: he he is a very, very strong passer.
• 44:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'd say his player comp is probably uh Compazo.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um a little fancy with it, and uh always looking to set his teammates up.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think the best part about the whole story is that he remembered you.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like that that's so fun to me because I mean, especially if you think about it, that's an A-list celebrity.
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_01: Like, that's Adam Sandler.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I'm sure that he's meeting people every single day.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_01: And to I don't know if you made a lasting impression or whatever, but for for him to be like, oh yeah, okay, I remember that.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_01: That's that goes a very long way for me personally.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
• 44:44
  SPEAKER_00: It meant a lot.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, he's the coolest guy.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_00: When I did produce, it was a live podcast that I produced at a big theater in LA, and um, we were basically kicking it backstage.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think it was during the Grizzlies Timberwolves playoff series two years ago.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so we were watching that game backstage, and he was super nice to me.
• 45:04
  SPEAKER_00: I introduced him to my girlfriend, he was super nice to her.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: So he he is genuinely an awesome guy.
• 45:09
  SPEAKER_00: Probably the top, if not maybe top three celebrities that I've met in LA.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's the coolest.
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: That's dope.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's good to hear.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so I always get a little bit afraid to meet famous people because you never know.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: You never really know.
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: Um, luckily enough, I've haven't had many bad experiences from the people I've met.
• 45:27
  SPEAKER_01: So to know that Adam Sandler is a good, cool dude, I think that's dope.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I will say it's wild to play basketball in a Hawaiian shirt.
• 45:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was thinking that too.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_01: I I know we've always seen clips of just his attire in general, and it's always like what's going on here, but hooping in it, and it's like maybe a size too big from my what I remember.
• 45:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the shorts below the knees, yep.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, very old school, very old school.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_01: Adam Sandler hoops us.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I didn't realize he was that old.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: You said 57.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: I I think he's that age, I think he's maybe close close to 60, yeah.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 46:01
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_01: Well, he was great in hustle.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: I obviously we all know he can hoop, or he's a hooper, or cares about hoops.
• 46:08
  SPEAKER_01: Um man, I cannot believe you gave Adam Sandler to work four straight games.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's crazy.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: Well, so his comp is Campazo.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: What would you say your comp is?
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, I've spent a lot of time thinking about this actually.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_00: I am basically regular season Jimmy Butler.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, so the player I was just talking about, like, I'm just like, ah, okay.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's not that I don't give a fuck.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's just I I can't compare myself to postseason Jimmy.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_00: It just wouldn't be a fair comparison.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_00: But I grew up in high school, I was more of a point guard, but I guess in pickup where I'm I'm 6'2, so I'm generally one of the taller guys.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_00: I'm more of a shot creator that can bring the that brings the ball up the court.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_00: I have decent vision and um I take some tough shots but make tough shots.
• 46:53
  SPEAKER_00: Um and I and I'm and I'm relatively strong, but I'm not as skilled as like uh a Tatum or a Luca.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I have some of that, some of that dog like Jimmy.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: Where?
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, me and the numbers on the boards, guy, we we've been a minute since we hooped, but we always just run with four.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_01: We just usually gotta pick somebody up on the side.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: So if we have an LA, we gotta run it at the at that park and maybe we run it to Adam or something.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I got a pickup question in my eye test takes.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_01: You want to get to those right now?
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, let's do it.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start with that one.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_00: I feel strongly about this.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_00: Pickup, it never is, but it should always be twos and threes and not ones and twos.
• 47:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's so crazy to have threes worth double.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: I s oh, you know what?
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't even think about it being the so okay.
• 47:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you're running twos and threes, what what number are we ending at?
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: Are we still in and do y'all play 11s?
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it would have to change.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: I it would probably have to be 16, 21, 23, maybe.
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_01: Okay.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: I I guess I never really internalized the fact that they are worth double.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's just like it's always been ones and twos when we've ran.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: Um, other other than if we're playing like a full, full game where everybody's for themselves.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: We play a 32.
• 48:01
  SPEAKER_01: That's twos and threes.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um should be twos and three.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 48:06
  SPEAKER_01: Tradition, like I'm not a traditionalist at all, but that's just such a thing that's engraved in basketball culture.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: That I mean, I've I've played pickup where there were no, like we had a three-point line, but there were no twos at all.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: It's like we're we're running the ones to seven, no matter what.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_01: You get seven baskets.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_00: I prefer that to ones and twos.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, okay.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at that.
• 48:24
  SPEAKER_01: Uh ones, twos and threes, again, depending on what we end up at.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I'll just I'll stay at ones and twos, man.
• 48:31
  SPEAKER_01: I'll stay in ones and twos.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_01: Are you saying that because you're Jimmy Butler and Jimmy Butler's not known as that much of a shooter?
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really not.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_00: Uh that's a good point.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: I yeah, just again, like imagine if if in the NBA it was twos and fours.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 48:45
  SPEAKER_01: Now when we've run, me and the guys, I'm kind of relegated to the KCP role, a five-seven KCP, where all of my shot attempts are three-point shots, basically.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: I do I hit a lot of them?
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: No.
• 49:01
  SPEAKER_01: But when I do, that that's important, that's an important shot in our game.
• 49:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 49:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so I don't know, man.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: So you're 5'7 KCP?
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_00: You're like 3 and D?
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard to be 3nd when you're 5'7, you know?
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_01: And in a traditional just an open gym, yes, because most people are not 6'2.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: But if we go play, there's one gym around here where it's like all of the retired college hoopers go to.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_01: I can't be 3nd there because I can't guard a 6'2 guy.
• 49:30
  SPEAKER_01: I can't guard, but like I would say that in my prime, not anymore.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_01: I've I've had the the shoulder surgeries, I'm I'm out of it.
• 49:37
  SPEAKER_01: But traditionally, I've I've been like a KCP.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_01: Some some people in the Hey Hey day, I was like a Prime Patrick Beverly, which Prime Patrick Beverly is like without the yap, though, I didn't talk much.
• 49:50
  SPEAKER_01: But get it get like 94 feet Javon Carter West Side defense.
• 49:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's what it was.
• 49:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's the pickup guy no one wants to see.
• 49:58
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, but eventually the motor fell down.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_01: So now I'm like, how how valuable am I to the team?
• 50:05
  SPEAKER_01: You know, if I'm not picking up people 94 feet.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but no, it's it's always fun to hoop.
• 50:10
  SPEAKER_01: We just haven't done it in such a long time that I my current comp has to be the worst of all.
• 50:14
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I can't even tell you what the current comp is because I haven't shot a basketball in six months, maybe.
• 50:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ben Simmons, maybe.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah, because he doesn't hoop.
• 50:23
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, all right.
• 50:24
  SPEAKER_00: Next one.
• 50:25
  SPEAKER_00: Um I'd rather have De'Aaron Fox than Donovan Mitchell on my team.
• 50:30
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I don't mind it.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: I I think I would personally still go Donovan Mitchell.
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and maybe I'm just holding on to the rookie playoff series versus the OKC Thunder, where he took over against Paul George as an MVP candidate, or just like the the the years that came after.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_01: But though though Dear Fox has won playoff series against the Warriors where he was phenomenal in, the sample of Donovan Mitchell is just a little bit more for me.
• 50:58
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen him take and make those really, really tough shots more times than not.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I think that might be the determinant factor.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think there is a wrong answer here because again, De'Aaron was just clutch player of the year last year.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm gonna go with the guy that I feel most confident in and Donovan Mitchell.
• 51:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I think the upside of De'Aaron Fox defense is probably a like something that you can look forward to.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_01: Donovan can sit in that chair when he wants to, but how much did he want to?
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna still go Donovan.
• 51:26
  SPEAKER_01: I'll go Donovan.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: All right, last one, because I know this has been a lot of producer Greg on this episode.
• 51:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's all good.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_00: 99%, in my opinion, of NBA fans are completely results-based when it comes to discussing and analyzing coaches.
• 51:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think that most people probably couldn't tell you a coach's style, their philosophy, their process, especially their X's and O's.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's a fair assessment where most people are gonna look at wins and losses and say, that is a very good coach.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_01: And it's not necessarily about anything else.
• 52:01
  SPEAKER_01: Because I think coaching is, of course, about X's and O's, but a lot of it is the stuff that we don't really get to see.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: How do you manage 15 grown men who were the best player in their state in their year?
• 52:11
  SPEAKER_01: How do we get them to all buy into one goal?
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: And that's the part we don't really get to see too much.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes we do see it.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_01: We see a coach lose a locker room and then Adrian Griffin gets fired halfway through the season.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_01: But for the most part, we don't really get to see the realness of these coaches because, again, the talent level is so damn high.
• 52:28
  SPEAKER_01: Coaches are not sitting on the sideline calling plays every single possession anyway.
• 52:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's like we have a way we run, we we trust in our star players to do those things.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I do enjoy the fan that is critical of a coach based on those type of things, right?
• 52:42
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of people say that Chris Finch is top three in coach of the year this season, but Minnesota Timbels fans right now are feeling the exact opposite.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_01: Where there is a there is a game against the Spurs and they end up losing to the Spurs.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: First win streak of the season for the Spurs at two.
• 52:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um in the beginning of that fourth quarter, this is the lineup that Chris Finch threw out there.
• 53:01
  SPEAKER_01: It was Sheikh Milton, J Mac.
• 53:05
  SPEAKER_01: It was Sheikh Milton, J Mack, Cal Anderson, Carl Anthony Towns, and Rudy Gobert.
• 53:12
  SPEAKER_01: That team, that five, gave up an eight-point lead.
• 53:15
  SPEAKER_01: And fans are like, hey, as good as you could be to the general public, because we're a good team, we're having this type of thing happen way too often than not.
• 53:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but again, us fans that are not really into the weeds, we see Chris Fincher say, Oh my god, the Timberwolves are one of the top two teams in the league.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_01: He must be great.
• 53:34
  SPEAKER_01: And the people that are really into it maybe think otherwise.
• 53:36
  SPEAKER_01: So I think that's a very, very fair assessment.
• 53:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and the I test is right.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_01: And also I want to say there's a decent amount of comments that was like more Greg on the last episode.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: So we're good here.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_00: I I don't know if it's a super fan or a troll.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe I don't know.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_01: I guess we'll see on this one.
• 53:54
  SPEAKER_01: I guess we'll see.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: As always, this is an open conversation from me to you.
• 54:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you let me know in the comment section.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_01: Is the league scoring at an all-time high too much?
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_01: What do you think about the Miami Heat?
• 54:10
  SPEAKER_01: Was it the game of the year Lakers versus Warriors, or what is your opinion on any of Greg's eye test takes?
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_01: As always, I'll see y'all in a few days