Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Which NBA Contenders Should You Trust?

Transcript

Which NBA Contenders Should You Trust? · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: And this victory is good, do not get me wrong.
0:01
SPEAKER_00: The net rating with them on the court together is a little over eight, which is which is good.
0:05
SPEAKER_00: You'll take that.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: But then again, maybe you shouldn't take that.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: This team, with those three players on the court, they must they have to be bashing teams over the head.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: Because one of them sits and two of them sits.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: Not the same team.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beachum podcast, y'all.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Today we're taking a look across the association and rating one through 10.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: How much I trust these contenders?
0:41
SPEAKER_00: Put in quotation marks, give it a shrug.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: Contenders going into, I guess, the rest of the season and into the postseason.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: And the reason we struggle and the reason we put quotation marks on it, because, well, I don't know who really is a contender, who's not.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: That's the reason we do this, right?
0:56
SPEAKER_00: We can we can take these assumptions, we can make these assumptions based on the 65 games we've seen so far this season or whatever the number is, but we don't really know at the end of the day.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: So there are going to be teams that are not mentioned today.
1:06
SPEAKER_00: And that wasn't because I don't think they're contenders, because I went off to the audience.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: Give a vote to teams that you believe are a real contender without saying your favorite team.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And I hate to be the bearer of bad news.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: I did not get a handful of Warriors votes.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: I did not get a handful of Lakers votes.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: Those are a nine and ten seed out in the Western Conference.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: According to the viewer base of this podcast, of my other channels, those teams are not really for real.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: And I can't say you're wrong because we don't really know.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: You got to win two games to get in.
1:36
SPEAKER_00: They got to go against each other.
1:38
SPEAKER_00: You are automatically deleted one of them with that first playing game.
1:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't really know.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So we've talked about the Lakers and the Warriors so much throughout the course of the season.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: I think it's okay that we don't mention them today.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: Leave a like, subscribe.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I can I talk about something that happened uh earlier this week.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: So uh um, thanks to our friends, our presenting sponsor of the Kenny Beach and podcast, FanDuel, I got an opportunity to go to the Anina Center to watch Lakers versus Clippers.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: Now, anytime I get invited to the United Center, it don't matter how good or how bad the team is, I'm gonna say yes because especially if it's free.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: You're telling me I get in for the free, I'm gonna do it.
2:13
SPEAKER_00: I love my Bulls, even though they make me extremely, extremely upset.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: And with this, there was like a fan meetup portion of the night, and then they gave me quartzide tickets.
2:22
SPEAKER_00: They said, Kenny, during the third quarter, second timeout, we're gonna bring a cameraman over there.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be on the jumbo tron.
2:28
SPEAKER_00: I don't get nervous very often.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: That that broke me, y'all.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm sitting here watching the first half of the game, it's me and my boy D.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Mills on this side of courtside, and on the other side is Mike and Mike and Derek.
2:40
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sitting with D Mills, and I can't, I'm just struggling to really enjoy the game because I have a crazy amount of anxiety and nervousness about being on the jumbotron.
2:50
SPEAKER_00: I have done so many things with the Bulls.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the Bulls for always uh giving me a crazy amount of hospitality.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: I've done so many shoots with the Bulls.
2:58
SPEAKER_00: I've given out the game ball where I was literally on the court while the players are warming up and I had to walk to center court and smile for a picture.
3:05
SPEAKER_00: But for some reason, being on the jumbotron was the most nervous I've been for anything work-related in my life.
3:11
SPEAKER_00: I've interviewed Shaq, I've interviewed Steph Curry, I've interviewed Charles Brock.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: The list go on and on.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: And in those times, I went, I wasn't nearly as nervous as just being on the jumbotron.
3:24
SPEAKER_00: When the person comes over with the camera, it's a cameraman, and then uh two producers.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: So I don't really know their actual titles, but two people behind the camera, they're like, Kenny, nice to meet you.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: Boom, boom, boom.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: My first question is, how long is it?
3:35
SPEAKER_00: How long will I be on the jumbotron?
3:37
SPEAKER_00: And they say like 10, 15 seconds.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, Bet, that's no, that's that's that's cake, right?
3:42
SPEAKER_00: It comes around.
3:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh Tim Sinclair, who does uh play-by-play for the Chicago Bulls, says, in the house tonight and enjoy your basketball, Chicagoland YouTuber, Kenny Beachum.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: And then I'm on the Jumbotron and I like froze.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that crazy?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: I've never had a freezing thing happen in my life.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: But behind the camera, there's these producers, and they're like this.
4:08
SPEAKER_00: They're telling me to like wave.
4:10
SPEAKER_00: And when I get nervous, one thing I do is mimic, right?
4:14
SPEAKER_00: If you can tell if I'm nervous talking to somebody because the last couple words they say in a sentence, I'm gonna repeat it.
4:20
SPEAKER_00: But in this case, it was like bodily, bodily function nerves mimicking.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: So they're behind the cameras with double hand waves.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: The whole time I'm like this.
4:29
SPEAKER_00: Now look at the camera, I see them like this, so I do this.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: And Twitter went crazy about my double wave.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: They went crazy about the double wave, man.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: And it was, I was awkward, okay?
4:40
SPEAKER_00: If you met me in person, I don't know if you would say I'm awkward in person.
4:44
SPEAKER_00: Like, I like to believe that I'm not awkward when I meet people.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: But that was one time where I watched the video and I was like, damn, I really, really give off awkward vibes.
4:56
SPEAKER_00: So Twitter had a field day with the double wave.
4:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I was I was in on it, it was completely cool.
5:01
SPEAKER_00: Clown me all you want.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: Because I had I had fun.
5:03
SPEAKER_00: I thought it was funny.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, but man, I if I get that opportunity again, I had to go back and watch some Knicks games.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: Madison Square Guard, and they always got a hundred celebrities, and look how cool they end up looking on the jumbotron.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: I was the exact opposite of that.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: I also don't have the prestige or the I don't even know the word, to be on the level of Spike Lee's like unbotheredness, right?
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh Bad Bunnies at a Lakers game, they show him he's just chilling.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: I ain't done nothing like Bad Bunny.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: I don't I'm not at that level of success where I can blow off the camera on national TV.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: So next time, if the opportunity does come, it won't be a double wave.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: I might just do one of these peace signs, look away.
5:51
SPEAKER_00: Like it's not, it's not even a big deal to me no more.
5:53
SPEAKER_00: I've done this before.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe I'll do bring out the double waves again.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I just make that the staple.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: The double waves, bring it back, man.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: Bring it back.
6:07
SPEAKER_00: All right, so uh I'm gonna jump across East-West.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: It doesn't really matter.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is on a one through ten scale.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about these teams, and these are all fluid, right?
6:15
SPEAKER_00: There's some teams here that I have a really low score on, but two months ago I might have had a higher score, or a team Nava, you know, vice versa.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: It's all very fluid, and maybe do something similar to this as the playoffs are starting.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: The first team I want to talk about is the Phoenix Suns because this morning they had a game.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And in this game, they played against the Milwaukee Bucks.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: And boy, I have there, there are sometimes I wake up in the morning and I think, I cannot wait for this game.
6:40
SPEAKER_00: This was one of those days.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: We had got a notification the day before that Chris Middleton was back.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: So we finally get to see like a full version of Dame, Chris Middleton, and Giannis, after a while of not being able to say, I think what they said, five and a half weeks on the broadcast since they've played together.
6:54
SPEAKER_00: And then maybe 30 minutes before the game tip off, we found out Giannis not there.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, this shifts everything.
7:00
SPEAKER_00: My perception of what happens in this game is gonna be skewed because well, Giannis is not here.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: The second best player in the world, according to me, is not playing in this game.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: So it's gonna be hard for me to gauge the Bucs and hard for me to gauge the Suns.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't because the Suns came out with little to no energy and got absolutely dogged by a team that was missing one of the top three MVP candidates in the world.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: How is that possible?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: In this first half, they gave up 18 May 3s in the first half.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Bobby Portis because he was as electric as can be.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: My boy D.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: Mills is at the game.
7:38
SPEAKER_00: He said in the group chat, like, man, this place loves Bobby.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: And they they do, man.
7:41
SPEAKER_00: They chanted his name, and he went on an electric run in that second quarter.
7:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh or maybe it was late for a first quarter.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Either way, they gave up 18 May 3s.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes you think to yourself when you see something like this, and this is the first half, by the way.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, you see something like this, you think to yourself, okay, is this like an anomaly type situation?
7:59
SPEAKER_00: What is really happening for a team to hit 18 threes?
8:03
SPEAKER_00: Are they hitting uh contested jumpers?
8:05
SPEAKER_00: Are they getting lucky when it ended the shot clock?
8:08
SPEAKER_00: No, wide open.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: 86% of the shots that they made, the three-pointers they made this this first half, were considered open to wide open, according to NBA tracking data.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: 86%.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: And then a couple nights before, they played against the Boston Celtics.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: Another game I was super excited for.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: The Boston Celtics are one of the best teams of basketball.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: The Suns have their big three together.
8:30
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's get it.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: This should be fun.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: In that game, the Celtics shot 25 of 50 from three.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: And in that, it was over 70% of those who were wide.
8:41
SPEAKER_00: Now, Al Horford looked like, I don't know, Dirk for a little bit from behind the arc.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: He was doing some crazy stuff, but still, these last two games against real competition, against real competition, they are getting destroyed from behind the arc.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: And it made me go into the weeds of things.
8:56
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, because this is something that I've watched a lot of Phoenix Sun's basketball this season.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: This was not something that I thought about too much.
9:03
SPEAKER_00: Now, now they've always been a team that's been like teetering around 20-ish and three-point attempt, uh, giving up the frequency that they're giving up.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Like they're a team that I guess is just okay with giving up three-point jumpers.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Since the all-star break, 40% of shots that their opponents have taken have been threes.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: 40%.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: That puts them 27th in that timeframe behind like the Charlotte Hornets, the Chicago Bulls, and the Pelicans.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: The Pelicans winning some basketball games.
9:26
SPEAKER_00: They don't, their math doesn't make sense to me.
9:28
SPEAKER_00: And shout out to the Pelicans.
9:29
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, Pelicans fans, you also didn't get many votes.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: But I do want to say right off rip, shout out to Zion Williamson.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: He's heard all the criticism about his lack of rebounding and put up eight rebounds, nine rebounds, ten rebounds, ten rebounds.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: He was unstoppable a couple nights ago as well.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: So I want to give my flowers to Zion and the Pelicans because they continue to do the thing.
9:46
SPEAKER_00: And I mentioned here before that there's not many people that I that I am higher on in the association than Trey Murphy the third.
9:53
SPEAKER_00: And he continuously shows me why I've bet a lot, not bet a lot, like in a literal sense, but I've thought a lot about him being a potential all-star in this league one day.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: Either way, shout out to the Pelicans.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: It's just not your episode today.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they've they're they're 27th.
10:07
SPEAKER_00: It's Bulls, it's Hornets, it's Pelicans.
10:10
SPEAKER_00: Those teams give up a ton of threes or haven't given up a ton of threes since the break.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: And that's just not necessarily a recipe that you want to have going into the last stretch of the season when you are a playing team at the moment.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: This is not the type of defense you want to be playing when you get into the playoffs.
10:29
SPEAKER_00: So the number that I have for the Phoenix Suns is a five.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: I thought about very uh hard about some games that I've watched of the Suns where they look really good against really good competition.
10:39
SPEAKER_00: And they got some quality wins under the belt for sure.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: None better than that um that Denver Nuggets game from a few weeks ago.
10:45
SPEAKER_00: And I think with they were out without Devin Booker in that one.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: That was when he missed some time.
10:49
SPEAKER_00: So they they have had a few, but it feels like they're few and far in between.
10:54
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of those rosters, and me and my guy Jamerson, Jamerson Green, who I do the uh Nike airtime with shout out to the guy Jam.
11:02
SPEAKER_00: Um we were talking about this, about the death of the super team.
11:05
SPEAKER_00: And that's been a conversation that people have had for the last couple seasons.
11:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the Phoenix Suns were one of the last teams to say, like, hell, we're okay with having a big three, and then some role players that we trust, and just a bunch of other dudes.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: And right now, in the last couple games, you count the Hornets game, which they won because it's the goddamn Hornets, and then tonight, you need all three of your big three to have good to really good games on a nightly basis for you to win against good teams.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: Kevin Arant in this one played 40 minutes, 40 something minutes cardio.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: Like, I've I watched Kevin sit in the corner for a good chunk of this game.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, bro, do they not know they have maybe the greatest score of all time on their team right now?
11:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know if they do, because he's just relegated to not doing much.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: And in a game like this, when you see the Giannis is out for the game, you and it's on national TV.
12:05
SPEAKER_00: And again, I've talked to some NBA players, they say they don't give a damn about national TV.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Some of them say that that they care a lot more, but like I don't know where Kevin Durant, Devin Booker, or Bradley Beal really stand on a national TV thing.
12:15
SPEAKER_00: But but me personally, if I was in their shoes, which I'm not, because I can't hit a goddamn 12 for jump shot to save my life.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: When I have a nationally televised game, and you're trying to tell me that the opposing team's best player is out, I want to come out and step on the necks of my opponent.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And they didn't do that.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: I'll hustle, out shot.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: And in the first quarter, they were hanging.
12:37
SPEAKER_00: The uh Milwaukee Bucks defense was just as bad in the first quarter.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: And in that second quarter, things shifted dramatically.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: So Kevin is standing.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Bradley Beal had a good game.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Bradley Beal.
12:47
SPEAKER_00: He's starting to string it together, looking more and more like Bradley Beal every time I watch him, which is great.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: But even in this game, he had a moment where he was like grimacing and holding his hand late in this game.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: I hope that there's nothing.
12:58
SPEAKER_00: I pray that there's nothing because Lord knows they cannot afford to see Bradley Beal miss even more time.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: But Book, KD, I mean, Grayson Allen had his own little run in that third quarter to make it somewhat respectable.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: But I mean, you're down by 25 points against that team, against Bobby Portis and Derry Bird.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the best Dame games of the season.
13:18
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Dame.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna, I guess we can shift to them in a second.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: But when I say my confidence level on this Suns team has dropped dramatically throughout the course of this season.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: Because when you have a team like this, right, when you're so top heavy, like I mentioned, you need your top three guys to be incredible night in and night out.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: When you sacrifice as much as they have sacrificed, and I remind you, they are over the second apron or below the second apron is hit.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: They don't have any draft capital, no, no draft assets.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: Grayson Allen has to get paid this offseason.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: He's been so damn good.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: You you can't afford to let him go.
13:52
SPEAKER_00: They don't have a lot of wiggle room to make.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: If they flame out in the playoffs, you can't go into the offseason and say, hmm, how can I change it because you've dedicated so much to making this big three happen, right?
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And this big three is good.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: Do not get me wrong, the net rating with them on the court together is a little over eight, which is which is good.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: You'll take that.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: But then again, maybe you shouldn't take that.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: This team, with those three players on the court, they must, they have to be bashing teams over their head.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: Because when one of them sits and two of them sits, it's not the same team.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: So when they're all on the court, we gotta, we gotta jump out strong.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Because when we when we divvy up our minutes and we're splitting, and Kevin's here, and then he's not here, then Devin's here, and he's not there, it's just not as good.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: And I compare their big three to other big threes across the association.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: And I there's a lot of teams in the league that are not necessarily a big three, right?
14:42
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Murray, Nicole Jokic, that's a dynamic duo, but we're adding big three by putting Aaron Gordon in there because, again, for the experiment, big three.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: There, the eight net rating is not nearly as good as of the other big threes that you contender you consider contenders.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: So when us three are on the court together, don't get me wrong, we are really, really good.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: We're not the best.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: Our big three is not even the top five in big threes across the association.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: After all, we get we invested in them.
15:12
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is they haven't had a ton of time to jail.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: And I can't look at these last 10 to 15 games and say that's gonna be enough for them to really, really feel comfortable together.
15:22
SPEAKER_00: Again, there are games like tonight and games like against the Charlotte Hornets, but again, in Charlotte, where one of the guys is just kind of relegated to not do anything.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: In that case, it was it was KD.
15:33
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's Bradley.
15:34
SPEAKER_00: Very rarely is it booked.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: Books say he's gonna get his.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: And Kevin's having a phenomenal season.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that Kevin, these last two games, is any indication of what Kevin has done for the entirety of the season because he's been ridiculous.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: Like real conversations about all NBA first team this year.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: But they need all three.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: And one bad game from them is gonna change some things, right?
15:55
SPEAKER_00: I also pardon me in saying, like Kenny, I mean, they go into their first round series, they say they do get out of the play-in.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Do we expect their opponents to hit 25 threes like the Celtics did?
16:05
SPEAKER_00: Do we expect their opponents to hit 18 threes in the first half like the Milwaukee Bucks did?
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Probably not, but they're also losing across the edges on some of the other stuff, too.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: So I'm giving it a five for the Phoenix Suns right now.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm watching them so very closely for these this last month of the season because I need to really, really figure out what the hell is going on.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: While we're here, let's talk about the Milwaukee Bucks, who I rated at a nine.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
16:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh I'm sorry, I've looked at the wrong team.
16:33
SPEAKER_00: I looked at they're not a nine.
16:35
SPEAKER_00: Um at 8.2.
16:36
SPEAKER_00: Very specific rating.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: This game was really good for them.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Um if only they can get this version of Dame on a regular basis with Giannis.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: As you can tell from this game and then the Clippers game from a few weeks ago, Damian Lillard is a lot more comfortable when it's not another star on the court, right?
16:54
SPEAKER_00: He looks more and more like the Portland Trailblazer Dame when it is.
16:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say I don't want to say just him because again, they have other really great players over there, but when it really is him orchestrating things, this is one of the best playmaker games I've seen for Dame.
17:06
SPEAKER_00: He was composed the entire way through.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: And whenever the Phoenix Suns went on a little run, Damian Lillard was really there to kind of shut it all down.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: So I want to give a lot of love.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: The most interesting part about all of this, and that 8.2 to a half of the Bucs have the potential to go even higher.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: Chris Middleton is back.
17:23
SPEAKER_00: And again, five and a half weeks of not hooping, five and a half weeks of not playing real basketball, at least.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he wasn't hooping, but real NBA basketball, he looked damn good.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: And he said that this was the worst ankle injury he's ever endured, which sucks, right?
17:37
SPEAKER_00: A sprain can be something that you don't worry about, or something that can really change the course of your season.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: Season, he looked really, really good.
17:44
SPEAKER_00: And now I cannot wait to see them on the court together.
17:47
SPEAKER_00: Because before we talk about big threes like we did with the Suns, let me get the exact number.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: In the 653 minutes they've played together, 653 minutes they played together.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: They have a net rating of 17.9.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I just said the Phoenix Suns had an 8.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: 17.9 net rating.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: They have a 129 offensive rating and a 111 defensive rating when they're all in the court together.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: That is the reason why my 8.2 could go higher if I just give more reps, I get more games where I see them all in the court together because the the version of Chris Middleton that they need needs to, I mean, I just I didn't know it was that high.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: God damn.
18:27
SPEAKER_00: And that 11, what is it?
18:28
SPEAKER_00: That 11 point, um, that 1111 defensive rate with all of them on the court together, that 11-11 defensive rate don't put them um tied for the second best defense in basketball with the uh Cleveland Cavaliers and the Boston Celtics.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: That's all I'm saying.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: And we're talking about again uh 653 minutes, and as we know they now have an adjusted defense under Doc Rivers, a majority of these minutes came before Doc Rivers was their coach, right?
18:57
SPEAKER_00: So now we have an adjusted defensive scheme, a better defensive team together with that new scheme.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: I just I'm really optimistic about them.
19:06
SPEAKER_00: Um even though I'm looking at these stats.
19:09
SPEAKER_00: Hold on.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: Has it been that bad?
19:12
SPEAKER_00: In the last two weeks, the Milwaukee Bucks are four and three 29th ranked defense in that time frame.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: Tied with the Chicago Bulls.
19:24
SPEAKER_00: Always the Bulls, always the Bulls at the bottom.
19:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, okay.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: Either, either, either way, my point still stands that um Chris Middleton being added to that lineup just changes things because now you're not relying on some of the people you're relying on.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Chris Middleton said in that game, um, in his sideline interview, that the best thing about him coming back is that people can slide back to their the positions that they're feel they feel the most comfortable with, right?
19:49
SPEAKER_00: And you kind of see you kind of saw that just in their first game.
19:51
SPEAKER_00: And that's even without Giannis.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: So Giannis comes back.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm a lot more confident in what the buck can be.
19:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe I know Celtics fans are gonna look at that a little bit.
20:00
SPEAKER_00: We're like, damn, we've been as dominant as anybody this whole season.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, and maybe that is partially me hoping that there is a team that that can compete with the Celtics just out the sake of me winning good playoff series.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: But again, I've been impressed with Giannis this season, having an all-time season.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, uh Jokic and Shay are also having an all-time season.
20:20
SPEAKER_00: So Giannis is like number three on the MVP ballot ballot for a lot of people.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I'm feeling more and more comfortable.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: The only bad side is that yeah, we're still not seeing Dame feel as comfortable with Giannis in the lineup.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: And if you would have told me we'd be 60 games to the season and we'll still be having because Dame was coming off two of his worst games of the last 10 years.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: Like he had had some really bad stinkers for Damian Lillard standards, right?
20:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that's with me, I guess, uh projecting that he'll feel a little bit more comfortable, but I don't know.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
20:56
SPEAKER_00: I just feel I feel more comfortable with them than pretty much any team out east, except for the Boston Celtics, who let's not spend a lot of time on the Celtics.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: You know who the Celtics are.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: I have them at a 9.4, and the only maybe I should just do a nines or whole numbers and half numbers.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: Um 9.4, and the only reason it's not a 10.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I do watch them in a clutch and I feel a little bit iffy about the shot selection, but that's pretty much it.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: Because even with the shot selection the month, they might be going here sometimes.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: You know, even you look back on the Denver Niggas game, Drew Holiday took some made three really tough baskets in that clutch.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: They weren't shots that I would love to take, but hell, they wouldn't, you know.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I have said this before, I'll say it again here.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: If the Celtics don't make it to the finals, they have fumbled their season because they should be head and shoulders above everybody.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: But for some reason, there's something missing about the Celtics for us to come to a general consensus about them, right?
21:50
SPEAKER_00: Like the Denver Nuggets, you you you talk to or you um you listen to anybody that has a platform about the association.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: 90% of those people are saying that.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Denver Nuggets are the heavy favorite out west, right?
22:03
SPEAKER_00: If you ask the same thing about out east, I don't think 90% of those people in the know are putting Boston Celtics up top.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: There's it's going to be split.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Now the Celtics will have the majority of the votes, but it will probably be like 80% of the votes.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: And then 20% is scattered across like the Bucks or the Heat, who got some votes in my tally thing.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: So I'm shout to the Celtics again.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: 9.4, really high.
22:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, oh, I wanted to shine my light on uh Jalen, Jalen Brown, by the way.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm so happy I'm still here.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, they're playing right now as I'm recording this video against these uh the Wizards, and they're up by 30.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: Exactly what you should do to a Wizards team.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: And this is without Jalen Brown, or Shea Brissett is started.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Either way, Jalen Brown has been so very phenomenal over the last, let's say, month or so.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: I think since the all-star break, he's averaging 30 points per game, and it's like fifth in the association amongst that time.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: The three-point shot get into the basket.
22:52
SPEAKER_00: There were a few times in the last couple games where it was his time to take over in the fourth quarter, and he absolutely did that.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: He was already known, widely known as a good defender.
23:01
SPEAKER_00: A lot of it was like on-ball stuff, though.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: He was one of those dudes that you when he was in a one-on-one situation, you felt really confident about him.
23:09
SPEAKER_00: But when he he's got beat back door, kind of laziness, slew footed behind the scenes.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: No, not anymore.
23:15
SPEAKER_00: Like we talked about um all defensive teams last episode.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think Jalen Brown will be on my all-defensive ballot, but he's so damn close to being there.
23:23
SPEAKER_00: This is his best season as an NBA pro.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: And that should be scary to other teams across the association because he is making it seem like a more like a two-headed monster with a crazy amount of debt behind them.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Like Jason Tate has been good too.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: Since the break, it's been a lot of Jalen Brown that we've I feel the most comfortable with.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: And that's just scary.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: That should be scary for the rest of the association.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: It should be.
23:45
SPEAKER_00: That's all I'm saying.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brown, get your flowers.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, biggest contract in NBA history.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: You better who no.
23:52
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Jalen Brown.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, let me let me take a quick break, get some water.
23:56
SPEAKER_00: Some of these teams we're gonna we're gonna uh flat through.
24:04
SPEAKER_00: Just got a notification that Sam Hauser has scored his 30th point, 10 May 3s tonight.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: And and counting, I guess?
24:11
SPEAKER_00: It's only the third quarter, and Sam Hauser is one of those players that might play um later in this game.
24:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, also, Jordan Poole has 30, and that's half of his team points.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Jordan Poole as well.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: Okay, the next team I'm gonna go through is the Miami Heat.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Bam Atabayo just hit a three tonight, and it was for the win.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, so shout out to Bam.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: He hit a three a couple nights ago, too.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: What's going on, Bam?
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Are we actually doing it?
24:32
SPEAKER_00: It's been three years.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: We've been asking.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: Jimmy's been asking.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but it happened.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, I am not really confident in the Miami Heat this season.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: Anytime um I talk about the Heat, I get a couple messages from Heat fans that assume that I'm a hater?
24:47
SPEAKER_00: I just I don't understand why.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: I try to give my subjective opinion about these type of things, and I've watched this Miami Heat team a lot this season.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: And last year, we know what they did, right?
24:57
SPEAKER_00: It from going in the play in, defeating the first seed, like Jimmy Butler averaged 38 points per game in that series against the Markey Bucks.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: And they took out every team as the underdog.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the all-time runs in NBA history.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, they did not win.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, for the fans, they did not win, but it was one of the most, most unprobable runs in the history of basketball.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: And I can't do nothing but tip my hat to that thing.
25:19
SPEAKER_00: But this year, I don't, I it's it's just hard for me to believe that they can capture lightning in the bottle two years in a row.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: Like there are a lot of different factors that came into play to last year.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: And some of those factors have stood over this year, right?
25:33
SPEAKER_00: One of the factors last year are they were the most beat-up team of basketball.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: They missed the most amount of games amongst their top eight rotational players.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: And then we got to the playoffs, a lot of those people came back, and eventually Tyler Hero was gone too.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: But eventually, a lot of those players came back.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: The season before last, they were the best three-point shooting team in basketball.
25:49
SPEAKER_00: And then next season, when they ended up the eighth seed, they were really bad.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: What do you think is more likely?
25:54
SPEAKER_00: That they are the best shooting team in the in the league or the worst shooting team in the league?
25:57
SPEAKER_00: Or are they something in the middle?
25:59
SPEAKER_00: Postseason run, they showed that they were closer to number one than the dead last that they were.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: Right?
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Jimmy Butler, listen, there are maybe five people, maybe four people in the association that I trust more than Jimmy Butler in the playoff series.
26:14
SPEAKER_00: I trust Eric Spostra more than every single coach in basketball.
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Every one of them.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: I trust him the most.
26:22
SPEAKER_00: I trust Bam.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not on a level of like top five, let's be real.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: But I trust Bam.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: But it's something about this team that doesn't get me as confident that they can do it again.
26:33
SPEAKER_00: Now, if they do, I always get my flowers.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: I always get my flowers.
26:38
SPEAKER_00: I have them at a four right now.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: I have them at a four.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Who knows what's gonna happen?
26:42
SPEAKER_00: If you look at my episode from maybe two to three weeks ago, we were talking about teams in the second half of the season that should be taking a huge jump.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I had them on the on the list.
26:50
SPEAKER_00: They had an easy schedule.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: They were starting to get healthy after the break, uh, Terry Rogier injury and then Josh Richardson injury, so on and so forth.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: They still aren't in, they still aren't healthy.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: And maybe they get healthy at the right time again, and boom, they take off again.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just I'm struggling to convince myself that they can do it again.
27:05
SPEAKER_00: Again, they maybe they can.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: As of right now, if the playoffs started today, they'd be sitting as the seventh seed, so they'd have to win a game to get in.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: They win that game, they end up going against the Bucs in the first round, which is those teams go against each other every single year.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: And I love those series.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it's a sweep, sometimes it's not.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Some, you know, I love those series.
27:23
SPEAKER_00: So who knows?
27:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh, can we get some revenge from the Bucs?
27:26
SPEAKER_00: Can we see the Miami Heat do it again?
27:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: But I do believe that they're gonna finish the season above the play in.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: I could be wrong because they went through three games of being terrible.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: They lost to the Washington Wizards last week.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Like, I can't I can't look at them losing to the beat up Washington Wizards and be like, that's a team that's gonna go on another championship run.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: It's just hard for my brain to put it together.
27:47
SPEAKER_00: So put it at four.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, the easiest one to do is the Nuggets.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: This is the team I trust the most out of anybody.
27:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, tonight, they though today they end up losing to the Mavericks.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: And I wanna, who can we we're just gonna do these two teams together because I want to talk about this game.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, I cannot try put it to words how much I enjoy watching Kyrie Irving.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm not alone.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: Listen, we're 99% of NBA fans are probably saying the same goddamn thing.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: This man got the ball and shot a left-handed hook as a right-handed dominant player above Nikola Jokic for the game.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Hello?
28:20
SPEAKER_00: That's what we that's what we doing?
28:22
SPEAKER_00: This is a huge win for them.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, they made the different Ugs look really small.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: They out hustled the hell out of them.
28:28
SPEAKER_00: Like Coach Michael Malone was was beat red because he was yelling at his boys because they weren't playing the basketball that they know that they can play.
28:34
SPEAKER_00: Dear Jones Jr., Derek Lively, Daniel Geffer, all of these guys are crashing the glass over and over and over.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Second chance points, second opportunities, and and those types of things are demoralizing.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: But even with that said, when it was a couple minutes left, I think the Nuggets ended the game on a 20-4 run before the Kyrie Irving shot.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Like the Nuggets had found their way back in the game.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: That was KCP, I think he had seven in the fourth quarter.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: That was um Jamal Murray, who had been somewhat quiet for the first three quarters, and the fourth quarter came around.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: So even though the the the Mavericks won this game, I look at this Nugget to be like whenever they want to turn it on, they can.
29:11
SPEAKER_00: Now they can't stop Kyrie Irving from hitting a ridiculously difficult shot.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: Like, you don't play defense better than that.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: KCP is denying the ball up top on uh Luca.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: The ball wants to get in Luca's hand.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: He has almost 40 points tonight, and he jested the shot before that to tie the game, right?
29:24
SPEAKER_00: It wants to go to Luca.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: They cut that off.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: It goes to option two.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: And luckily for the Dallas Mavericks, their option two is also a guy that's really damn clutch.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: So it's a it's a it's a really good win for the Mavericks, right?
29:37
SPEAKER_00: But I also didn't walk away thinking anything differently about the Nuggets because they ended the game on a 20-6 run if we count the Carrie Irvin shot.
29:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, the bad thing about it, again, I've mentioned this before that I do believe that home court advantage is extremely important to the Denver Nuggets.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: That loss from Carrie Irvin's shot puts them back at the two C behind the OKC Thunder.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: Either way, all that said, um, I do feel really confident about the Nuggets.
29:59
SPEAKER_00: They are a 10 out of 10.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: That's how confident I am in it.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, that they are my favorite to win the championship.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: They're my favorite to win the Western Conference.
30:06
SPEAKER_00: So there it goes.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: And then with the Mavericks, it's such a hard team to gauge.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: There's some nights where they look unstoppable.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: And there's other nights I'm watching who's playing and who's playing with who.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, Jason Kia, what are we doing?
30:20
SPEAKER_00: Maxie Kleba ain't hit a three-point shot in like three weeks.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: What are we doing?
30:26
SPEAKER_00: But they got Luca, proven playoff player.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: They got Kyrie Irving, proven playoff player.
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Now it has been eight years for Kyrie.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Really, when you think about it, it's been a while for Kyrie Irvin.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: But we know he can.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: We saw him hit the biggest shot in maybe NBA history before.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: Uh, so that's the reason why I have them at a 5.5.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: I believe in them more than I believe in the Suns.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: But I also there's sometimes I'm watching this team, I'm looking at the defense, and I'm like, this is not the defense that I think you need to win a championship, is all.
30:56
SPEAKER_00: But because they have Luka Doncic at 5.5, maybe I'll give it more like a six now that I'm thinking about it.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Because Luka Doncic is as as unguardable as almost anybody in the association.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, and Jokic is two.
31:06
SPEAKER_00: But tonight I thought that the Different Nuggets did a damn good job on Jokic offensively, preventing him from making a lot of those easy, easy jumpers.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: And I think Jokic already had a relatively bad whistle.
31:18
SPEAKER_00: But now that we have it, so that uh they're swallowing the whistle more, which again I'm I'm in favor of.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm in favor of.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: We talked about this.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm in favor of them swallowing the whistle.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: Actually, the games that I've been to recently, that Bulls game, um, you can it seems like referees are taking an extra second after contact to really think about is that worth blowing the whistle?
31:36
SPEAKER_00: And I'm okay with that.
31:37
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
31:38
SPEAKER_00: But Jokic, who notoriously, in my opinion, has had a bad whistle, is sometimes even worse.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: It's even worse now.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, damn, yoke, we gotta, we gotta somehow do something a little different then.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I feel confident in both of those teams, at least a decent amount.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: The next team, they got a vote.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Is Jokic C Thunder?
31:52
SPEAKER_00: How can they not get a vote?
31:53
SPEAKER_00: They're the number one seed across the association, y'all.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: This was the toughest number to come up with, right?
31:59
SPEAKER_00: Because they have every single recipe you can you can need to win a championship.
32:04
SPEAKER_00: They are top 10 in offense, top 10 in defense.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: They have all of that.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: Like traditionally, if you want to win a championship, there's a bunch of different things you need to do, and being top five-ish and top 10 in those categories are extremely, extremely important.
32:16
SPEAKER_00: There's only a few teams throughout history, at least in the modern era, that were outside of those parameters to win a championship.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: OKC has that.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: They have an MVP caliber player in Shea Gius Alexander.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Right now, they're third in offense, sixth in defense, but over the last two weeks, they're in their average in both.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: Um, don't know what that's really about.
32:32
SPEAKER_00: Either way, they have an MVP caliber player in Shea Gius Alexander.
32:36
SPEAKER_00: They have shooting, they have defense.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, the only thing that they don't have is experience.
32:40
SPEAKER_00: The only other thing that they don't have is big bodies and rebounding ability.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: And that's what makes it a struggle for me, right?
32:48
SPEAKER_00: If I could if I could somehow look past the fact that their average age is four years younger than I am, if I could somehow look past that and just look at the product, look at the numbers, look at what I'm seeing with my eyes, I would undoubtedly put them at like an eight or a nine.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: But I that's not my reality.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: That's not our real reality.
33:07
SPEAKER_00: We just don't normally see teams go from zero playoff wins to champions.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: It's usually a period in between.
33:17
SPEAKER_00: It's a it's a first round loss, uh, maybe a second round loss.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Hell, some teams can jump onto the scene and get to the conference finals.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Winning it, I'm not there.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: And I'm only basing it off the history of this league.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: I got it at a seven in my my um my meter when it comes to how much I trust the team.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: I got it at a seven, which is that good, is that bad?
33:41
SPEAKER_00: I uh I don't really know.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: I do want to shine my light on Jalen Williams again, though.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: A couple episodes ago, I would be I was being hyperbolic.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: We were talking about Jalen Williams, the the eye tests, the Greg's eye tests, which we don't have today, uh, unfortunately.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Um he was talking about how Jalen Williams, he believes that Jalen Williams could have a career similar to James, where James is six man um and eventually he gets his own team, and then boom, he blossoms to like an MVP.
34:04
SPEAKER_00: And I said I can't get that far because MVP is a damn hard award to win.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Look at Shea Gibbs Alexander, his teammate.
34:09
SPEAKER_00: He's averaging 30 plus points per game on the best team out west, and he's probably not gonna win a championship or not gonna win the MVP.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: It's just so hard to win that award.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: But in that, I said that I think that Jalen Williams is like a top 30 player in basketball.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: And I was being hyperbolic.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: The number's probably closer to 40 or 50, but even that is still extremely high.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, I just want to give my flowers, man.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: He does everything you could potentially want.
34:31
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the best fourth quarter scorers in all the basketball.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: He's as solid as a defender as you can ask for because some nights you ask him to guard somebody that's his size.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes he's he's guarding up like going uh guarding uh Car Anthony Towns for an entire game and just you're not gonna stop Cat.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: He's the 50, 40, 90 all-star, but doing a damn good job.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: And and Chet has been phenomenal too, especially the defensive side of the ball.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: So I'm still trying to figure that out.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: I need to see a little bit more before we give them the higher tier numbers, okay?
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh Minnesota Timbows, without knowing what's with the prognosis of the Carnegie Townself, I can't give them a number.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: It's an incomplete.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: It's an incomplete.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: Because with Carnegie Towns, I feel pretty confident in them.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Not as confident as the Denver Nuggets, not as confident as some of the other teams, the uh the Clippers, which we'll get to in a second.
35:16
SPEAKER_00: But I feel pretty confident in them with Kat, without Kat, it's just uh a bridge too far.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards can put the team on his back.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: We've seen him put the team on his back over the last couple of weeks without Kat, but you could tell they need Car Anthony Towns.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: It's not breaking any news.
35:31
SPEAKER_00: He's an all-star, but they really, really need him.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: So I got it as an incomplete without knowing where he could potentially be when the playoffs come around.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: Now I know they're optimistic.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: Same thing with like the 76ers who got no votes.
35:43
SPEAKER_00: They're optimistic about Jordan Bede, um, but who knows?
35:46
SPEAKER_00: Next team is the Clippers.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: I saw them here in Chicago again.
35:50
SPEAKER_00: I was impressed with like Bones Highlands.
35:52
SPEAKER_00: It might have been Bones Highlands' best game of his NBA career.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: Paul George went a couple weeks where he was really, really cold from shooting.
35:58
SPEAKER_00: Now he cannot miss.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: And in that game, I think he missed one shot and he had five assists, five rebounds, five make threes.
36:03
SPEAKER_00: It was a historic night.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Kawhi Leonard is Kawhi Leonard, so on and so forth.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: I have them at an eight right now.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we don't know about Brody, but I think that's completely okay.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: I like that they're kind of letting James heal right now because they're not really in the running for the top three seeds anymore.
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Like it's possible with a lot of season left, but let me see exactly how many games they're behind.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, right now they are three and a half games behind the Minnesota Timberwolves.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: So I think that they are pretty comfortable in that fourth spot and they'd have to go against the Pelicans right now.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: Again, Pelicans didn't get a vote, um, but shout out to the pals.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I feel I feel pretty good about them.
36:37
SPEAKER_00: I think they have enough diversity in their offense in different ways that they play ball.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, I feel good, right?
36:41
SPEAKER_00: James has been the biggest question mark on playoff times.
36:44
SPEAKER_00: They don't need James Harden to drop 30 points.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: They don't even need James Harden to drop 20 points in the playoff series for them to feel really confident.
36:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, sometimes they do feel pretty thin up front, and they're gonna be going against people like Jokic, Carnthony Towns, Rudy Gobert, like some teams that have real bigs, some bonus potentially, like some teams that have real, real bigs.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: So I question that.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: Even in the series versus the Pelicans, I think they're gonna struggle to guard Zion Williamson.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: They just had a game a couple nights ago, and this was a second night of a back-to-back for the Clippers, and it was again no James Harden in this one.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it was an eye-opening experience for me as a as a consumer to see that there was no option, there was no answer for Zion.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: They got so desperate that PJ Tucker, who spent most of his time on the bench pouting, like literally, I wish I would have taken a picture.
37:28
SPEAKER_00: We were sitting next to the Clippers' bench and PJ Tucker was like this the whole game until the timeouts came around.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, they put PJ Tucker in because he's a wide body that can maybe stand up to Zion, he couldn't.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: Right?
37:41
SPEAKER_00: So it's not perfect over there, but they do have like Norman Powell when he's going, he's going and one of the MIP can't, I'm sorry, the six-man idea candidates.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: I like it enough to put it at at least an eight.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, these last three teams are all around the same range.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks, I have a five or a six.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what's going on with Julius Randle.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Is he opting for surgery?
38:00
SPEAKER_00: Is he not?
38:00
SPEAKER_00: But I did get a good amount of New York Knicks here, which is pretty interesting.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, the Knicks have looked like a good team.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I think they're 14 and 2 in the OG Ananobi era when he's suiting up, when him and Jalen Brunson are suiting up, and that's hard to beat, man.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: That's hard to beat.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: But without knowing what Jay or what uh Julius Randle is, it's hard for me.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: I might as well put them at an incomplete, just like the Timberwolves.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: They're missing an all-star forward as well.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: I'll put them at an incomplete, but originally I had five or six without knowing what's going on.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: When Randall, Randall comes back and looks okay.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Maybe they go higher.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because I think they're a really complete team, even though Tom Thibodeau can look at Bowyan Bogdanovich and say, hey, we traded kind of nothing.
38:37
SPEAKER_00: They didn't really give up a lot.
38:38
SPEAKER_00: But Boyan were playing 14 minutes against the Blazers, or only 24 minutes against the Kings, or 22 minutes against the 76ers.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: Like, they didn't give up much.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: And these two guys will probably be out the door, come playoff time.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, they really just gave up Quentin Grimes, who can I look at Quentin Grimes' numbers?
38:54
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I don't want to.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: Last time I checked, it was awful.
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Quentin Grimes, since he's got traded, has played six games.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: He's shooting 20, 20 from the field with the Pistons.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: Ah.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: Uh the next team.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: Already talked about the Dallas Mavericks.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: So it's only one team left that got votes.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: Camps fans, talk to me.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: You got a handful of votes, yo.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Always.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Oh, second year in a row.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Where they're the most confusing team of basketball to me.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: Some nights, especially during that run, they look electric.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: Was it 20 and 2, 20 and 3 during that stretch?
39:23
SPEAKER_00: The big scary thing, and I got him at a five.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: My actual rating is a five.
39:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, the big scary thing about them, Donovan Mitchell does not look the same.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: Since the all-star break, he's averaging 18 points per game, four rebounds, four assists, three turnovers, four to three turnover ratio, 40% from the from the field.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: And um, they said he's gonna miss the next two games because of that knee injury.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: And honestly, he shouldn't have suited up the other night against the Rockets.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think he's just trying to get his way back for his team, but they have been beat up as any team.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: And without Donovan Mitchell playing at All-Star, All-NBA slash VP caliber, it's hard for me to look at them and say that this team is really, really about that.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: But let me know in the comment section.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: That is, uh, I think that's 11 different teams.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: 11 of the 20 playoff teams got mentioned today, at least for a little bit.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, Magic fans, but you kind of recognize that it's not y'all year.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: We just getting our foot wet so we can figure out what we need to do in the offseason.
40:18
SPEAKER_00: That's the way I kind of look at the Orlando Magic postseason run.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: How can they look in the playoffs?
40:22
SPEAKER_00: What could they do this offseason to approve the things that they struggled on in that first round?
40:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then the Indiana Pacers.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, starting to look better.
40:28
SPEAKER_00: Tyrese Halliburton is strung together a few good games again since the since the injury, the hammy injury.
40:33
SPEAKER_00: He just hasn't looked like himself, but it's starting to come around.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to my guy.
40:36
SPEAKER_00: The Kings, unfortunately, you did not get votes.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't know what else to say.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, Kings fans.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, I'm sorry.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: And then again, the Warriors and the Lakers, nothing, the Bulls, nothing, 76ers, nothing, Hawks nothing.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, this let's before we get out of here, we're gonna do our my favorite segment, hashtag AskKB.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's not many today, it's actually just two.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: So, y'all say step up, y'all get.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: No, I'm joking, I'm joking, I'm joking.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: Matt says, What do you do if you really don't feel like watching basketball?
41:05
SPEAKER_00: Does it ever feel like an obligation to watch?
41:07
SPEAKER_00: Hashtag Ask KB.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: And it got a couple likes, so people were interested in this one.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: Um watching basketball has never really felt like an obligation.
41:14
SPEAKER_00: And the reason I say that is there are people that will go to extreme lengths to get the job, it be in the position that I'm in.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: So I try my very hardest to show and to live in uh a state of gratefulness, right?
41:29
SPEAKER_00: My job today on St.
41:31
SPEAKER_00: Patrick's Day was when noon hit, go to my office and watch Sons versus Bucks.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, technically, I didn't get paid for that, but the content that I'm producing about that game is my paycheck.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: That's my literal job, right?
41:46
SPEAKER_00: So it's never, it's not felt like an obligation to me because it's A, I love doing it, and B, I never want to take any of this for granted.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: As somebody that has lived the internet and it's been my job for as long as it has been, I know how quick things change in this industry.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: One month you pop it, and next month you not.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: So I try my very hardest to not get complacent.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I do.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I get complacent for sure, but I try my very hardest not to.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: I try my very hardest to stay grateful that I can wake up in the morning, record a YouTube video, record a YouTube video, and feel okay, that like my daughter doesn't have to worry about anything.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: Like my parents didn't have that luxury, right?
42:32
SPEAKER_00: Moms and dad, they had to like really put in real hours and still struggle to make it happen.
42:40
SPEAKER_00: So I'm extremely grateful.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I never let it feel like obligation because it never is.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, there are moments where I don't feel like watching, and guess what I do?
42:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't because I feel like if I'm not in the right mind frame to like really be locked in, I mean, well, so there are sometimes I watch games without the locked in mindset.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: It's just like it's basketball, it's a kid's game, let's just watch it.
43:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, but there are some times we're like, yeah, I maybe don't feel like watching it today, right?
43:05
SPEAKER_00: So I don't.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: Tomorrow morning, I watch it.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: You know, the the the thing about our sport or sports in general is that a lot of times it's this topical, right?
43:16
SPEAKER_00: This episode of the Kenny Beach podcast, you're watching right now, nobody's gonna care about this in two weeks.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: That's just the reality of our league.
43:22
SPEAKER_00: It's ever evolving.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: But if I I feel like if I can stay within a 24-hour time frame on anything basketball related, then I'm okay.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: So that game that ended at 11 p.m.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: tonight, if I wake up at 9 a.m.
43:34
SPEAKER_00: to watch that, and then I start to film a video about it by noon, I feel like I'm still within that threshold of it being relevant, right?
43:43
SPEAKER_00: Um so, you know, stuff be happening.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm a married man, right?
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I do have to take my wife.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying it like it's a chore.
43:50
SPEAKER_00: I take my wife out to dinner and dinner is during basketball time.
43:53
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not watching basketball then.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: So it's never a chore, it's never an obligation, but again, there are times where I would prefer a break.
43:59
SPEAKER_00: And I Take those breaks.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: Because if I didn't, I'd be I turned into a crazy person.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: And the last one comes from Aaron.
44:09
SPEAKER_00: On last episode, I mentioned y'all that my goal is to get more into hoops, right?
44:13
SPEAKER_00: So let's do it.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm sorry, get it more into football.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: How do you feel about the Bears trading Justin Fields?
44:20
SPEAKER_00: Now, I want to say this for the newer viewer.
44:24
SPEAKER_00: If somehow you got 45 minutes in and you didn't know who I was beforehand, welcome.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: I am a basketball guy.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: I'm a golf player too.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: You need to check out that swing.
44:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I I follow other sports.
44:36
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm a I'm a baseball fan, but I I don't trust my opinion enough to call myself a super fan.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: I would never go as far as say I would ever be in an analyst for that sport, but this is my year of trying to stay as locked in on football as possible.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: And I am a Bears fan.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: I've always been a Bears fan.
44:53
SPEAKER_00: Always been.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, through the double doink's, um, through the Jay Cutler Super, not J.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: Cutler Super Bowl, through the J.
45:01
SPEAKER_00: Cutler era with era with um with Brandon Marshall, through Matt Forte, through sexy Rexy, through my new, my now boss, Peyton Manning, taking us to the Super Bowl and spanking us around.
45:13
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Devin Hester for the kickoff.
45:14
SPEAKER_00: Like I've been there.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
45:17
SPEAKER_00: I ain't been watching the other teams across the association.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: So I my opinion about Justin Fields as a casual Chicago Bears fan is I feel bad for him.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I think that he did not get a fair shot.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: Where um he he he's always had to learn new offenses.
45:35
SPEAKER_00: Like that's been, I think, two different times throughout his career.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: He had to come in and learn new offensive.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: The offensive line hasn't been great for him.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: I know there are probably some advanced stats that say that the Bears' offensive line wasn't as bad as most people think last year.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: But he, I don't think he was ever really in a position to uh to thrive.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: Like we go out and get we get DJ Moore as a real target, but the rest of the receiver core was always pretty, pretty mediocre.
46:00
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm happy that they did what was right by him, right?
46:04
SPEAKER_00: According to our reports, they had a better offer on the table instead of that that conditional fourth-round pick.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: But they said they said that Justin Fields wanted to be in Pittsburgh, so they sent them to Pittsburgh, which I appreciate because I do believe that he's got some left in the tank.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't think he's about to be a career backup, y'all.
46:18
SPEAKER_00: I think that Justin Fields is a real NFL player.
46:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, is he gonna turn into the player that I thought he could be when we drafted him?
46:25
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: But I have nothing but love and respect for him.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually talked to my pops about it, who was a a hundred times bigger NFL fan than I am.
46:34
SPEAKER_00: Like he's a real life Bears fan, like beared out Bear fan.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: Like when that double doink happened, I have a video on my phone of all hell broke loose.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: It was the end of the world for Bears fans.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't there, you know what I'm saying, as far as that level of fandom.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: And he said that he's okay with uh, well, he he was he feels sad because he really liked Justin Fields, but he's okay with adding the Pittsburgh Steelers as like a secondary team.
46:58
SPEAKER_00: Which I was like, I don't hate that, I don't hate that idea.
47:02
SPEAKER_00: Are they in the same conference?
47:03
SPEAKER_00: Don't ask me.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: God, oh goddamn, I don't know.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's find out.
47:06
SPEAKER_00: Are they in the same conference?
47:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, no, they're not.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: Bears are in the NFC, then AFC for the Steelers.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: So he's got a team.
47:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, he's not gonna be rooting for them as much as he root for the Bears, but because he likes Justin Fields so much, that's gonna be his AFC team.
47:22
SPEAKER_00: He also likes Mike Tomlin, which I do too.
47:24
SPEAKER_00: So uh gives him another team to really root for.
47:26
SPEAKER_00: And I'm rooting that Justin Fields takes that year under Russell Wilson, or maybe it's not doesn't end up being a year.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: I again, I think Justin Fields has the potential to take that spot.
47:36
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I said it.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: Maybe eight weeks down the line, I think he got the chance to.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: Um so maybe just being in that quarterback role with a real, real quarterback, somebody that's been there and done that at the highest level.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: I mean, hell, Russell Wilson, Gas Sierra, like that man's winning.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I don't know much about Caleb Williams.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: I pray that he is a savior of Chicago.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: Because Lord knows we ain't had a quarterback ever.
48:03
SPEAKER_00: Has it been ever?
48:04
SPEAKER_00: You tell me.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: You tell me.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, if you enjoyed this episode of the Kenny Beach Podcast, all I can ask for you is to leave a like on the episode.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: Let me know what you agree or disagree with.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: Always want to say that these are fluid conversations, right?
48:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, we're talking basketball, a little bit of football at the end.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I need to change my descriptions now.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: Because right now it says this is a basketball and a baseball show.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to talk baseball.
48:30
SPEAKER_00: Maybe add football because I I need to clap up them charts.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: Leave a like, subscribe, Apple, Spotify, five stars there, and I'll see y'all in a couple days.