Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / 3 NBA Teams That Will Jump Up The NBA Standings

Transcript

3 NBA Teams That Will Jump Up The NBA Standings · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Him and Monty Williams did the same damn thing.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: Monty said, I'm done coaching, give me a euro.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: And then the piston said, hey, we got X amount of dollars.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Sammy.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think Doc Rivers is-I don't think Doc Rivers wants to coach! I don't think he wants to coach! All of these conversations make me think he doesn't want to coach.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: And he said, hey, things don't go perfectly.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's hard to take over a team during a road trip.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: I told them they shouldn't even hire me.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beachum podcast.
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: We are in the normal studio, man.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: The last episode you saw we were in Indianapolis in front of a live audience of, I don't know, anywhere between 80 to 100 executives and social media personalities.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was a weird episode, but we did get to interview Jason Tatum.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: If you missed that episode, go back and watch it.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, um, it was a cool, cool experience.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: I know that the audio is not up to par.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, that's that's my thing as a guy that's been doing this YouTube thing for a decade.
• 1:04
  SPEAKER_00: Audio crispiness is like something that I really, really need.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: But it was the here were the two options.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: You throw a Jason Tatum interview away, or you publish it and hope that the viewers are okay with it.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_00: And uh were y'all okay with it?
• 1:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, not really, but but it is what it is.
• 1:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think we put together a really solid event.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, I want to talk about All-Star Weekend and whole because I've been home for a few days now, and I don't want to talk about the fact that All-Star Weekend isn't very fun for a 27, almost 28-year-old NBA fan, but I want to talk about the experiences of being at All-Star this year because this was a year different than any other.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: All the other times I've been there to cover All-Star Weekend.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm putting out a quotation marks because I always get the media pass.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't doing no damn coverage.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm there for fun.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm there to create content, but not really coverage.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I was under a brand.
• 1:55
  SPEAKER_00: I was under a big market team or a big market company like House of Highlights.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: And this was the one time I've been able to do it as an independent.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_00: And boy, was it different.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned, we got the Jason Tatum interview, which I don't really know if that would have been something that we were able to do if I was still with a big company.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I got a chance to do the Stephen A.
• 2:17
  SPEAKER_00: Smith show or podcast.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: Which one is it?
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: Live.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: I did a lot.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: I did a shoot with Nike.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: I interviewed Kendrick Perkins.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: I was here, I was there, I was as busy as can be, and I absolutely loved it.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, a lot of the times I've been doing, I've been doing this uh this NBA slash content creation stuff.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: The best years of this has basically been during the pandemic.
• 2:42
  SPEAKER_00: And this is one of the one of the first times I've been able to kind of step out because though COVID is still around, it's not as prevalent as some of the previous years.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: So we're in Indianapolis and things are materializing in real time, which is just different.
• 2:56
  SPEAKER_00: Like I went into All-Star Weekend thinking that, okay, I'm gonna have this Nike shoot, numbers on the Board is gonna do a show.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna have one other shoot that I can't really talk about right now, but that's gonna be it.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_00: Other than that, I'm gonna go to the festivities, I'm gonna go to Media Day.
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: And then my management hit me up and said, hey, Stephen A.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_00: Smith is at this hotel.
• 3:13
  SPEAKER_00: You wanna pull through?
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yeah, that's not like me.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I'm not I'm not a spur of the moment guy.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: I usually like to prepare for these type of opportunities.
• 3:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see what the talking points are.
• 3:24
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, because what was I gonna say?
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_00: No, I had to go on the show.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I did, and it was dope because Stephen A.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: Smith has been pretty, pretty cool with me.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the first time I ended up being on his show was virtual, and it was the first time we ever really met again virtually, and I was as nervous as it can be.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Stephen A.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: Smith is one of the titans in this industry.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So for him and his management or his production team, whoever it was, to hit me up, say, hey, we want you on one of the early episodes of the Stephen A.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_00: Smith show, I was, I don't know, not really prepared.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: At least I didn't think I was prepared.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: He enjoyed it enough to say, hey, I'm gonna have Kenny on first take.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that was, I think that's where if I look back on my career in 20 years and I hit my the place I want to be, that's gonna be the moment that I think opened up everything for me.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Because that was the moment I was like, oh, I can, I can really do this on a different level.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Like I have the viewers on YouTube, uh, thank you so much for that, and things like that, but I never really know when we get down to the executives of these big time companies and we get to get in the respect of the different players and stuff, if I really had that.
• 4:25
  SPEAKER_00: This All-Star Weekend, and I guess being appearing on the uh first take.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Show me that I could do this stuff, man.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: So I go in to do the interview with Stephen A.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: Smith, no talking points.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: I won't lie.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was still nervous in the Uber, trying to figure out, okay, what could he be talking about?
• 4:43
  SPEAKER_00: Trying to go through different notes of NBA media or different notes of NBA news to figure out what we could be doing.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I got there and it went smooth, I think.
• 4:53
  SPEAKER_00: He told me I'll be back on first take.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_00: So I had to do something right.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just a really cool weekend.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_00: Also, I look at that.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: I look at the fact that I'm doing shoots with like my favorite sneaker company of all time, Nike.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like who, like if you would have told 14-year-old me that one day I'll be hosting a show with Nike or doing pop-up shops with Nike, I told myself I'm crazy.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I did that.
• 5:17
  SPEAKER_00: And at the Nike shoot, and we're gonna get to the basketball for sure.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong, we're gonna get there, but I kind of want to talk about some of the cool stuff that happened.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're at this shop for Nike, and it's this big old convention center, right?
• 5:29
  SPEAKER_00: Every single brand that you could think of that's adjacent to the NBA is there.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So Wilson Basketball, uh, Starry Drinks, Canada Goose was there, the the hoop bus, every brand you could think of is in this big old convention center, and Nike had his own booth.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: And me, Alexis Morgan, and and Jamerson, whose last name I literally do not know, but shout out to my boy Jamerson.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_00: Our job is to stand there and try to get people to come over to our booth.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And the amount of viewers that I met that day was crazy.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I meet people all the time, right?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: Especially if I go to a sporting event.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_00: If I go to a Bulls game, I can't leave my seat because I'm pictures everywhere.
• 6:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate that.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_00: But this was different.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: I I can't really explain the energy that Indianapolis gave me during that shoe.
• 6:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I do want to say if you're one of the people I met, thank you very much.
• 6:15
  SPEAKER_00: Also, they told us that NBA players are gonna be rolling through.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: W NBA players are gonna be rolling through for a quick time so y'all can chop it up, maybe shoot some content.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_00: I say say less.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: First person that comes to is Aja Wilson.
• 6:25
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, again, I I like to say I don't get starstruck, but I think that's that's capped because I just talked about the Stephen A.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Smith thing.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Aja Wilson popped up.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, that's one of the GOATs.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the GOATs.
• 6:37
  SPEAKER_00: I was so shook, I ain't even introduced myself, bro.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to I had to go back to the drama.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_00: I went back to the green room.
• 6:43
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, let's compose myself.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know who's coming next, but I can't have the deer in the headlights look at the next player that comes through.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_00: Next player that comes through, it's my guy Tyrese Halliburton.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: Cool, cool.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_00: That's my guy.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: That's my guy.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: We chatted up for a couple seconds.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's his city, so he's doing everything in this.
• 6:58
  SPEAKER_00: He says, hey, hit me up later today.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_00: We got something to do.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: I say, say less.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_00: Next person that comes through is Larry Marketer.
• 7:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, my relationship with Larry Marketing is a bit weird.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: When Larry Marketer was a part of the Chicago Bulls, when I was a young guy on the YouTube scene trying to grow my name in sports media, I DM'd almost every NBA player you could think of.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Hi, my name is Kenny Beacham.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: I have 300,000 subscribers on YouTube.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I am now hosting this show called The Real, which is not my show anymore, where House of Highlights would love to have you on the show.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: I DMed every player.
• 7:30
  SPEAKER_00: Not a single person got back to me, but I did it, right?
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then last year, when I was in Utah for All-Star Weekend, I get off, um, I get off our sprinter van and I get sworn by by fans, right?
• 7:41
  SPEAKER_00: This is right outside the players' uh the players' hotel.
• 7:45
  SPEAKER_00: So every little kid is there with a basketball trying to get LeBron's autograph, trying to get Steph Curry's autograph, and they see me, and then I get swarmed.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_00: And out the out the corner of my eye, I see Larry Marketing.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: He sees me, I see him, but in my mind, he don't know I exist.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ten minutes later, I check Instagram, I get a DM, and he says, You're more popular than I am.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, bro, so he know.
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_00: I had to unsend that previous message because it was kind of cringe about me trying to get him on the reel.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: So we've been kind of cool since then, but this is my first time actually meeting him when we were in Indianapolis.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_00: Was pretty dope experience.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: And he even posted a picture of us together on Instagram, which is just different.
• 8:22
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't expect that, Larry.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_00: And the comment section of that Instagram picture was like Larry at Kenny, what could have been?
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because now he's an all-star caliber player, he's no longer on my favorite team.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_00: The next player that came through was Jalen Brunson.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: And um, I know what the listing height is for Jalen Brunson.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: For the people at home, I am 5'7, 5'8 at max.
• 8:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, the listing height of Jalen Brunson is like 6'1, sometimes 6'2, depending on what site.
• 8:45
  SPEAKER_00: Me and him was looking out of that.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now he is taller than me.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Do not get me wrong.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: He is 100% taller than me.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: But I was looking at him and thinking, this man is averaging 27 points per game, a couple inches taller than me.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say four inches taller than me.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: Makes no sense to me, bro.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: So it was just, again, overall all-star weekend was dope.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: The festivities might not have been crazy, but I really, really enjoyed myself.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_00: But boy, was I burnt out.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Sunday morning came around.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: Sunday is, of course, the day of the big game.
• 9:14
  SPEAKER_00: It's the all-star game.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: I hit the group chat and told them, I'm not going to the game tonight.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: I just told them, I'm not going to the game.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_00: I'm tired.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm done with work.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: I got no more shoes to do.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not going to the game tonight.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: And we collectively decided, should we just miss the game completely?
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And we did.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: We got in our van and drove all the way back to Chicago.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: And it was the best decision we could have made because that game was trash.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna talk about it much, other than saying that that game is trash.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_00: Also, what I want to talk about on today's episode are three teams that I believe can take a jump on the second part of the season, the post-all-star part of the season.
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: And this should be pretty fun.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then we're bringing back Ask KB.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: I got a bunch of questions from y'all that are absolutely amazing.
• 9:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into it.
• 10:02
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• 10:43
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• 11:11
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• 11:29
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• 11:36
  SPEAKER_00: Starting off with the team.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: I tried to balance this.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you can't balance it when it's three teams, but I don't want it to be three West teams because that doesn't make sense, right?
• 11:46
  SPEAKER_00: Are all three West teams going to jump up?
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's just an unlikelihood.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: So I decided to pick one East Team, two West teams.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm going through the previous years in the NBA, and I was trying to think, how often do we see a team that maybe wasn't as good the first half of the season go outside of the deadline or past the deadline, past all-star break and really take a jump?
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, obviously, we saw the LA Lakers who were a 13th seed at the All-Star Break and jumped all the way up to the seventh seed and of course made a conference finals push.
• 12:13
  SPEAKER_00: Then a few years before that, the Atlanta Hawks would be 11th seed at the All-Star break and it jumped all the way up to five.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: The seasons in between that, maybe not so much, but these are some teams that I think could maybe pull off maybe not a Lakers, because none of the teams that I'm mentioning right now are on the outside looking in.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like we're really fighting for positioning amongst the standings and so on and so forth.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: The reason this is so tough is because if you look at the NBA standings right here, right now, no team is able to make up any ground because in the in the last 10 games, the Minnesota Timberwolves have won seven, the OKC has won uh six, the Clippers have won seven, Suns seven, Pelicans seven, Mavericks seven, Lakers seven, Warriors eight.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Warriors have won eight of their last ten and still are sitting at the tenth seed, like because everybody is so good.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: My Eastern Conference team that I think has the chance to really take off currently sits as the seventh seed, and they are three games back from the fourth seed, and that is the Miami Heat.
• 13:13
  SPEAKER_00: It is time, y'all.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: It is time, it is time, it is time for these guys to really do what they gotta do.
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they're going into the they went onto the all-star break on a somewhat high.
• 13:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like last time we talked about the Miami Heat, we were talking about the fact that they cannot score.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: They were like, I think, third in the league when it comes to games that they score less than 100 points, which again is just crazy to think about for a team that was in the championship not too long ago.
• 13:37
  SPEAKER_00: They were struggling to score 100 points per night.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this might not be the best timing because Josh Richardson is still out with his injury, Terry Rogier is out with his injury, but this weak time with no games, hopefully we get some timetables about these guys relatively soon.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_00: But they went into the break on some some decent wins.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: They beat the Boston Celtics, they beat the depleted 76ers.
• 13:55
  SPEAKER_00: The offense is looking good, but that defense was looking even better.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: And we just saw a video, Jimmy Butler.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Yep.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at Instagram videos, and that's how I'm really uh dissecting what teams I think are gonna be good or gonna be bad.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: Jimmy Butler will be back.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm hoping a lot of these teams are gonna have a thing in common.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: At least two of these things have a thing in common.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the fact that they have dealt with a lot of injuries up to this point.
• 14:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Miami Heat have missed the most games amongst their rotational players in all the basketball.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Tyler Heroes missed this many games, so on and so forth.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: You get it.
• 14:27
  SPEAKER_00: And also, I look at how easy their schedule is for the rest of the way.
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_00: They still have to play the Pistons three different times.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_00: If that ain't three guaranteed wins, Miami, you are in trouble.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: They got to go against the Wizards twice, the Blazers twice, and the Raptors twice.
• 14:40
  SPEAKER_00: And again, basketball is basketball.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Any team can win on any given night.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Those are games that they should completely, completely sweep.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I doubt they will, because it's basketball, but they should completely sweep these in.
• 14:52
  SPEAKER_00: They got a buyout player.
• 14:53
  SPEAKER_00: The Line Wright.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: The Line Wright is a player that I I could tell you I've watched maybe 10 minutes of this season because of the team he was playing for.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a team I was watching heavily.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I tried my hardest to come on this show and be honest with you.
• 15:03
  SPEAKER_00: If I ain't been watching, I ain't been watching.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't been watching, but I went through the numbers.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_00: The numbers say, okay, it hasn't been a good season for him offensively.
• 15:12
  SPEAKER_00: But he has been knocking down his three-point shot on a very low volume.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm kind of looking at some of his previous years about the way he attacked the paint and finished at the paint.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: It just feels weird, unless this is just one of the most steep declines in recent NBA history.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: If I think that what we saw in the first half of the season for DeLon Wright's finishing ability is not real.
• 15:32
  SPEAKER_00: I think if we're going to get back to the previous version of him, and one thing we know about DeLon Wright, he's gonna cause the Fletches.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna get in those pass lanes, he's gonna reach around and cause a few turnovers here or there, and I think he's gonna come into this team and really matter.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: I look at what Balmonaballo did for the last two weeks before we got to the break, and I was, again, really impressed.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: We talk about how Balmonaballo have these peaks and waves throughout the entirety of the NBA season.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_00: Well, this break should do him very, very well.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm kind of looking at the Miami Heat, looking at the schedule that they have going for the rest of the season, and looking at where they are.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Pacers are a really good team.
• 16:11
  SPEAKER_00: I still don't know what to think of them just yet because I feel like I haven't seen enough minutes of Tyrese Halliburton and Pascal Siakam just yet.
• 16:17
  SPEAKER_00: The 76ers are almost free falling.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_00: We have no idea.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: They're still optimistic about Jolan B, which is great.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: They're kind of free falling right now.
• 16:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Knicks also just went into the all-star break at a low because in January they were unmess-wittable.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: And in February, they lost a bunch of games because OJ Nobi elbowed, Julius Randle, shoulder.
• 16:36
  SPEAKER_00: And I just read a report before I hit record here that they hope he'll be back for the rest uh at some point this regular season.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yikes! You hope?
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: I thought we were pretty optimistic about that dislocated shoulder not holding them out for pretty long, but you never really know.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: As somebody that has dealt with dislocated shoulders on both of these, I know how crazy it can really be.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: And they said he might even opt for surgery.
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just kind of playing the numbers game.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_00: The Miami Heat, as as we can hope, are gonna get the injury luck because right now they've been unlucky.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Two of the last three years, the Heat have been the unluckiest team when it comes to injuries, which is crazy.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_00: They've been extremely unlucky, and I'm hoping that it turns on itself and they can jump up these standings.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_00: That is my very first team.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_00: The second team, the most excited team, the team that I wanted to make this video or this episode about, the Dallas Mavericks.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: Because boy, oh boy.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_00: So they went into the break with a six-game win streak.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Kenny, you're picking a team that is actively the hottest team in basketball going into the break.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's not a bold prediction to say that they're gonna be better.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't say it had to be bolt.
• 17:39
  SPEAKER_00: I did not say it had to be bolt.
• 17:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Dallas Mavericks right now are the seventh seed, seven games behind the one seed, but one game behind the fifth seed.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously, all of these teams between the Suns, the Pelicans, the Mavericks, and Kings, two of those teams are gonna be a play-in team, which is crazy to think about.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_00: But they are so closely like together that anything can happen.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: You have one good week, you're like, oh my God, we're the five seed.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: You have a bad week, you're like, oh my God, we're gonna go against the Lakers in that second play-in game.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it's it could be interesting.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: But the way they ended things makes me extremely optimistic.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they had to trade that line, and I was lukewarm about their trade that line.
• 18:18
  SPEAKER_00: I talked about how I believe that the trades make them better 100% on paper.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_00: There was no if, ands, or buts about it, just because they have more real rotational NBA players.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Daniel Gaffer, PJ Washington these are real players opposed to some of the people that were playing early in the season.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: I was a little bit skeptical because they gave up a lot to make it happen.
• 18:35
  SPEAKER_00: None of that even matters if they look as good.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: The rest of the season they did going into the deadline.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is the one crazy, crazy thing, right?
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Luca and Kyrie Irvin at this point of the season have played 674 minutes together.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: Does it sound like a lot?
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's not.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_00: Because I went through, and it took some time, and it was a little bit difficult.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie.
• 18:56
  SPEAKER_00: Went through and looked at the minutes played between the two best players on every single team.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: How does that compare?
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_00: Luca and Kyrie being the two best players on Dallas Mavericks, have they played more minutes than uh Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown?
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously not, because those dudes have been healthy all season long.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and the reason I say it was difficult, because there are some teams that are like, who do we who do we classify the two best players on the Brooklyn Nets?
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: We we know Mikhail is probably one.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: Who's two?
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: Um but that ranks them 27th.
• 19:25
  SPEAKER_00: 27th when it comes to your two best players playing at the same time.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_00: And one of those teams that's beneath them is the Charlotte Hornets.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_00: Lamelo's been injured for most most of the season.
• 19:34
  SPEAKER_00: So obviously.
• 19:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Pacers, their two best players are Pascal Siakam and Tyrese Halliburn.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: They just they haven't even played a full month together, really.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other team is the Miami Heat, the aforementioned Miami Heat, right there.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_00: So they are a team that have not had their two best players play.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, they ain't even had their seventh best players play.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes their eighth best player is injured.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just super optimistic about them because after the trade deadline, here are some stats that I don't think are sustainable, but are telling me that things are going in a very interesting direction.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: Before the trade deadline, they were 22nd in fast break frequency.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_00: Makes sense.
• 20:08
  SPEAKER_00: Think about who their start player is.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Luka Dodge is a very methodical NBA player.
• 20:12
  SPEAKER_00: He takes his time.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: He gets the best shot available in a lot of cases.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not, this is not a run and gun up and down team.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Well, um, uh they they're second since the deadline.
• 20:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the deadline is a few weeks ago, right?
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like we have a 50, we don't even have a 10-game sample size of what this team looks like post-deadline.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_00: But to see it jump from that low at 22 all the way up to number two is pretty interesting.
• 20:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the points per possession on fast break is about league average, but the fact that they're getting the frequency up makes me super excited.
• 20:40
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that is kind of just Kyrie Irvin being completely healthy again, and Kyrie um just running out on the break.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of things.
• 20:47
  SPEAKER_00: I rewatched one of their recent games because hell, we haven't had real basketball in the last week or so, so I'm trying to get my fix.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that was re-watching some games.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: One thing that I saw them do a few different times that I'm in love with.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's the two-man game, right?
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: Every team that has two best players, you're gonna run a two-man game with those players.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: At least most teams will.
• 21:07
  SPEAKER_00: Some teams probably should do it more.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: You know what team I'm addressing, and actually I'm gonna address that team later in this episode.
• 21:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, two-man game between Luca and Carrie Irvin.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: It starts off with Luca setting the screen for Carrie Irvin, hoping to get a switch, and they do get a switch on these particular possessions that I saw.
• 21:23
  SPEAKER_00: With the switch, Luka Doncic goes to the right elbow and it's empty side.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: There's no there's no teammate on his whole side, and he posts.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: So now he's got whoever Carrie Irvin's defender was, and traditionally it was a guard.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's a smaller, smaller guard.
• 21:38
  SPEAKER_00: Luca is a big body guard who plays the post, who can do a little bit of everything.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_00: He's just a strong, burly guard.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: So he gets the switch on the smaller guard.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: He posts up.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: Carrie Irvin gives a nice entry.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a few different ways you can play this if you look at Dantes.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: You can wait to see if help comes, and if it does, you kick it out to Carrie Irvin for an open three.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: Or you can just abuse the advantage that you have and your size.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And then a little bit of both.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man, that right there is going to be super hard to cover.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because even on one possession, um, this is against the Wizards, one possession against the Wizards, the help never came.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: And and I don't remember who who was guarding him, but they was kind of holding their own against big old Luke.
• 22:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, he faced up for a second, saw a cutter, boom, lay.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's just beauty.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: The offense is beautiful.
• 22:25
  SPEAKER_00: And the defense has been better.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Jason Kidd, think about the conference finals run that this team went on.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_00: The Dallas Maverick was one of the top five defenses in basketball.
• 22:34
  SPEAKER_00: Jason Kidd is notoriously a defensive-minded coach.
• 22:37
  SPEAKER_00: So the last couple years it's just been interesting to see that, well, they haven't been playing very great defense.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Part of that, as we can see, was personnel driven because, again, since the deadline, the defense has been a lot better.
• 22:47
  SPEAKER_00: Now, granted, they've played against some teams that aren't so very good, but they did have the really good game against the OKC Thunder, which I think I opened the eyes to a lot of different people because the Thunder are one of the best teams of basketball.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Underrated superstars in their role.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_00: Dante Eksum should be back soon.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: And then I've mentioned this before, and these numbers have not changed because he has not played.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: The lineup, so you have Luca, Kyrie, and Dante Eksum have dominated in their limited amount of minutes.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's not, we're not talking about 200 minutes played.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's not even that, but they have dominated in their limited amount of minutes.
• 23:19
  SPEAKER_00: Dante Eksum has a weird nature about his game.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_00: A very weird nature about his game.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: There's no fluidity in it.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: And that's an advantage.
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: That is an advantage.
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_00: I saw this man shoot a floater, and nobody, not even his teammates, knew that that floater was coming because he didn't look like he was in a position to shoot a floater.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Dante has turned himself into a hell of a well, he's always been a decent defender, but now that he's hitting some three-point shots, pretty cool.
• 23:45
  SPEAKER_00: I was even watching games where Kyrie Irv was out and Luca Dodges was on the bench.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: Who's running that second unit?
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: It was Dante because he was drafted as a guard.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: And he was getting downhill, in and out dribble, getting downhill, creating for himself and creating for others.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: Unsung Hero over the last two weeks.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: Maxi Kleba, that toe injury is no longer hurting him.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: And he's been phenomenal.
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, you look at the stats, you're like, Kitty, phenomenal.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_00: That's a stretch.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 24:10
  SPEAKER_00: Watch him play.
• 24:11
  SPEAKER_00: Watch the last two weeks of basketball with him being healthy, toe injury, not being uh a hindrance to him.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: He's been phenomenal, man.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: He's not a guy that's gonna jump off the stat sheet.
• 24:21
  SPEAKER_00: He's not gonna put up a 2020 game.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, sometimes he don't even give you double-digit points.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_00: But he is one of the more impactful role players in basketball.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_00: And now you have so many different looks if you're Jason Kidd.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: If Luke and Carrie are healthy, and again, I'm hoping that health, all of this is contingent on health.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_00: If Luke and Carrie are healthy, there should never be a minute with neither of them on the court, right?
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: One of them should always be on the court.
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that just opened things up because the big man position, could it be Gafford?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: It could be Lively, it could be Kleba.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's 20, I think it's 27 minutes played.
• 24:54
  SPEAKER_00: Maxi Kleba, PJ Washington, dominant two-man lineup.
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now, some of that is luck because I rewatched those 27 minutes.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: Some of that is luck because you got some open three-point shooters that are normally knocking down, not knocking them down.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a different look that teams are gonna struggle to scheme against.
• 25:11
  SPEAKER_00: Because when if Luca has two live threats that you got to scheme for, and then also a center that can pick and pop, pick your poison.
• 25:20
  SPEAKER_00: Pick your poison, man.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: Pick your poison.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm super excited about this team.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Their schedule is not easy, but it's not tough either.
• 25:26
  SPEAKER_00: It's middle of the pack for the rest of the way, which is good.
• 25:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Luca's up in Cabo right now with Jason Kidd.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I think who else is in there?
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think uh I saw Devin Booker was there, and I don't think they're together, but they just happen to go on their break at the same location.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna come back and it's gonna be kind of nice.
• 25:41
  SPEAKER_00: My last team.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I had to decide between two of the play in Western Conference teams.
• 25:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I mean bottom of the play at Western Conference Teams.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Lakers or Warriors?
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_00: Again, both of these teams are right now hitting a stride.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Which of the two teams I feel the most confident in for the second half of the season?
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at my notes right here.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: I ain't made my decision.
• 26:01
  SPEAKER_00: I haven't made the decision just yet.
• 26:03
  SPEAKER_00: So let's talk through it.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: I look at what the Lakers have done over the last uh couple weeks and they really start to put together wins, and I try to figure out is it sustainable, right?
• 26:10
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing people like Jared Vanderbilt hit 66% of his threes in this time.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: We're seeing Austin Reed shoot 50% from three and so on and so forth.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: And though obviously those are not sustainable numbers, I'm looking at how they're getting their shots now.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_00: The three-point frequency has been up in this time.
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the major things about the Lakers, if you think about the last time we talked about them, is every single night it felt like they were going into the game down by nine to 12 points because that was the three-point disparity between them and their opponent.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_00: You're not gonna win many games if you're down by nine to twelve points every single night.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_00: Winners reach a streak.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Not only are they hitting the threes, they're attempting a crazy amount.
• 26:47
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm looking at it like, okay, is this the version of them that we should attach ourselves to?
• 26:53
  SPEAKER_00: They're actually playing their five best players a lot of the time instead of trying to figure out, oh my God, this player probably doesn't figure.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: They're running out the ball and say, hey, here's here's our most talented group.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_00: Go hoop.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 27:06
  SPEAKER_00: I still don't know.
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_00: I still don't know if it's sustainable or not, but they've been playing better basketball.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: The Warriors one is maybe the one I feel a little bit more optimistic about because their recent streak of eight in the last 10 feels more real.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in the last two games, they had the one game against the Clippers, they let the rope go.
• 27:22
  SPEAKER_00: That was a ridiculous game.
• 27:23
  SPEAKER_00: They should not have lost, but Norman Powell turned into Jesus, and then Tyron Lou got, um, Tyron Lou got ejected.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: And every time a coach gets ejected, one of the two things is gonna happen.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: It's either your team is gonna be super depleted and they're gonna lose by 30, or everybody's gonna get grand badge and they're not gonna miss shots.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: And the latter happened for the for the Warriors.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: And the game right before the deadline or for the break also didn't make me feel great.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_00: But they were dominating the Utah Jazz and then they went cold for five minutes in the fourth quarter, but luckily it's the Utah Jazz and they just don't have as much talent as they did two three weeks ago.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe I shouldn't pick either of the team.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Now I just convinced myself that I'm not I'm not super excited by either of the two.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: Um I think that because we talked about the Kaminga, Wiggins, and Dream on Green lineup for more than a few weeks at this point, and it's been still pretty good.
• 28:16
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't feel like it's fake, then maybe I feel more optimistic about the Warriors.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: The Warriors do have an easier schedule.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I I know I've mentioned schedule a few different times this episode, but I honestly do think it's gonna matter at the end of the day, right?
• 28:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna matter at the end of the day.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Lakers have a tougher schedule, and though they're equipped to win almost any game, it's when you're going against easier teams, it's easier to win basketball games.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm just, we just found out that LeBron James is gonna at least miss the first game out of the break with that ankle injury, and that happens to be against the Warriors tomorrow, or I guess tonight as you're watching it.
• 28:45
  SPEAKER_00: So I guess the team I'm more optimistic about is probably the Warriors.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_00: I think they got some of their mojo back.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_00: Some of that is Steph Curry having the greatest shooting stretch of his career.
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's a reason not to be optimistic.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: He made the most shots, most three-point shots in a four-game span as we've ever seen in the history of basketball.
• 29:07
  SPEAKER_00: That's against him against himself, that's him against Reggie Miller, that's him against Ray Allen, him against Klay Thompson.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_00: He did that.
• 29:13
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's a reason for me not to be optimistic about it because do we expect him to do that for the rest of the season?
• 29:18
  SPEAKER_00: Yes, Steph Curry, but damn.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_00: One of these two teams, if not both of these teams, is are 100% gonna take a jump.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just not sure which one it is.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like a lot of people are trying to figure out the difference between the Lakers and the Warriors who they should trust more.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_00: If you load up FanDuel Sportsbook, you can see that both of their lines are exactly the same.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_00: 44 and a half.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: 44 and a half.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Before the season started, the Warriors line was 48.5, the Lakers were 47.5.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, it has now uh adjusted itself because of the poor starts.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: Poor starts.
• 29:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm looking at the Lakers, right?
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: They are 30 and 26 right now.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: In order to hit their over at 44 and a half, they just have to finish the season 15 and 11.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_00: Play slightly above 500 basketball the rest of the rest of the way.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: That feels pretty decent.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, anything could happen, a sprained ankle, Braun has already got an ankle injury.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_00: But it feels pretty pretty decent.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: The Warriors, of course, at 27 and 26 have more games to make up, but you could argue that the Warriors have just been playing better basketball.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe that's the safer bet.
• 30:20
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm leaning a little bit more towards the Warriors to take that big jump for the second half of the season.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_00: But you let me know which of these two lines of 44 and a half do you trust more?
• 30:30
  SPEAKER_00: FanDuel is putting the ball in your court for the rest of the NBA season.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because right now, new customers get$150 in bonus bets with any$5 winning bet.
• 30:38
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• 30:40
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• 30:47
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• 30:51
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• 31:24
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• 32:02
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• 32:06
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• 32:17
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• 32:22
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm going to get into my favorite, favorite segment, the Ask KB segment.
• 32:26
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said earlier, y'all really brought it today.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of great questions, starting off the one from Jake Anderson.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_00: What's your take on the recent JJ stuff?
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_00: Now, before we get to JJ, because it all ties together, I want to talk about Doc Rivers.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because Doc Rivers was the coach of the All-Star Game Eastern Conference, uh, because I just found this out because I'm stupid.
• 32:45
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I guess the same coach can't coach all-star back-to-back year.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: So that's why Joe Mazzula didn't do it because last year Joe Mazzula did.
• 32:51
  SPEAKER_00: So Doc Rivers obviously took over Adrian Griffin not too long ago.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: He even said himself, it feels weird to coach this game because I didn't do anything to get here.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Facts.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when you're doing this media run, when you're an all-star, there's gonna be a lot of microphones in front of you.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: And Doc Rivers said a lot.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I saw a lot of people on Twitter say, take the microphone away from no, I can't I want to continue to hear him talk.
• 33:11
  SPEAKER_00: Personally, some of the things that he mentioned, it's super hard to take over a team um halfway through the season, especially a team that has championship aspirations.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody's gonna fault you on that because yes, I would assume it is extremely, extremely hard.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Not impossible.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: Tyron Lou did it with the Cavs.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they are LeBron, but it's not impossible, but we we understand that.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: He talked about how um when they were bringing in Kawhi Leonard, he was trying to convince Kawhi Leonard that Shea Gills Alexander is gonna be a star in one or two years, but but Kawhi Leonard and ownership still wanted to do the Paul George stuff.
• 33:41
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he he talked about how Philly ended and so on and so forth.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: And I I can't believe some of the stuff he's saying, honestly.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I want to keep hearing it.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_00: I want to keep hearing it because it's nothing but entertainment at the end of the day.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: The NBA and the peers, other coaches, voted Doc Rivers as one of the 15 best coaches in the history of our sport.
• 34:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, of our league, because it didn't account for college.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: The history of our league, the 76, 77 years of this league, he's one of the top 15 according to his peers.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: You wouldn't be able to tell by the way he's talking.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_00: I am very neutral on Doc Rivers.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have a strong opinion one way or another.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: I've never played for the man, I've never met the man, I've watched a lot of his teams, I've watched him uh go into a 3-1 series lead and lose those.
• 34:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: I said when they hired him that I thought he was a floor raiser, and I still think that, even though they've struggled out the gate.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_00: But man, you will not think that this is a guy that has won a championship.
• 34:42
  SPEAKER_00: You the way he's talking makes it seem like he's not even confident in himself.
• 34:48
  SPEAKER_00: And part of that is like, hell, you can't blame me if things don't go well.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: He said that they they called, because you remember there were rumors about the Bucks wanting Doc Rivers.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody reported that they did have him, but it wasn't official.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: In that time frame, I guess it's Doc Rivers on the phone with the management or the ownership of the Bucs, and he's telling them, I don't know why you fired Adrian.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know why you fired him.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: You said$40 million?
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Him and Monty Williams did the same damn thing.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: Monty said, I'm I'm done coaching, give me a year off.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: And then the piss is saying, hey, we got X amount of dollars.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: He said, sign me up.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_00: I think Doc Rivers did this.
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Doc Rivers wants to coach.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think he wants to coach.
• 35:31
  SPEAKER_00: All of these conversations make me think he doesn't want to coach.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: And he's saying, hey, if things don't go perfectly, it's hard to take over a team during a road trip.
• 35:42
  SPEAKER_00: I told them they shouldn't even hire me.
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_00: And now it's got everybody going out and picking up old clips and JJ.
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're gonna get to JJ stuff.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, somebody that's played under Doc Rivers was saying that there's no accountability.
• 35:56
  SPEAKER_00: And again, I can't I can't have that stance, I can't have that opinion because I don't know Doc.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: All I know is the interviews revolving around him, but that's not him as a player.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but he did go to that post-game interview after they lost that series against the Atlanta Hawks a few years back when Ben Simmons did pass the ball.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, Ben Simmons passing the ball was a moment in NBA history that will never be forgotten, and it ruined Ben Simmons' career and also maybe ended the chances of that team winning the championship.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: And he went to that podium.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Hell, if Ben just takes the shot, we win.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, in so many words.
• 36:26
  SPEAKER_00: Instead of saying, like, man, uh, we're a significantly better team than this Atlanta Hawks team, at least on paper, we should still win this game, even though Ben passed that ball with however many minutes left.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's not like Ben passed it with one second left in a game.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: He has done it a few times.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: Um But JJ came out and said there's no accountability.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, there was some banter between him and uh Pat Beverly, two of the podcasting giants going at it, which is so funny, so funny to think of podcast in former NBA player podcast beef.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: Beefing on YouTube has been a thing for as long as I've been around.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been in the beef personally.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_00: I never plan on being in the beef, but it's weird to see it happen from like, all right, I'm gonna get some tweets off, but if you want to hear the rest, tune into my podcast.
• 37:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's what Draymond Green did against uh Yusuf Nurkits a couple weeks ago.
• 37:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you want to hear more, man, tune into the podcast.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'll talk about it there.
• 37:20
  SPEAKER_00: At Pad BearPod.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I do want to say, Pat, and you know I got love for you, Pat.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_00: JJ kind of cooks you there.
• 37:27
  SPEAKER_00: He did cook you.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because before he ended up signing with the 76ers, JJ told me, and he this is public information, it's not like it's a confidentiality, he had that same exact deal with the Chicago Bulls on the table, but he went with the Clippers.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_00: He also had another deal with uh, I think two or the three other teams.
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not like Pat was making it seem like JJ's career was saved by signing with Doc Rivers.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: That's just not really the case.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's not really what you're asking, Jake.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: You're really asking about the rant that he went on on first take.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: And let me set that, let me set the scene for you.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_00: On first take, they were talking about Kevin Durant and his leadership style.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, because he's such this passive guy, not passive guy, I'm sorry, this introverted guy.
• 38:04
  SPEAKER_00: He doesn't talk a lot.
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: Does that mean that he's not a great leader opposed to some of the more vocal leaders out in the association?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: And JJ Raddock was kind of fed up, saying, like, hell, what are we what are we doing right here?
• 38:14
  SPEAKER_00: Which is interesting because you know what first take is.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: I've been on first take.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_00: You've been on first take a hundred times, JJ.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_00: You kind of understand what the vibe is of that show.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you love it or not, you understand what the vibe is.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know that it's it's a narrative-driven show.
• 38:24
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna argue about some narratives, and that's the show people are gonna enjoy it, or they're not.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_00: JJ says, hey, I don't really care about this.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because we he's he questioned what NBA fans want.
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: Because he dropped a video about the Pelicans and how Zion is playing point Zion for the last couple weeks, and they looked amazing.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_00: And that video got 54 million views.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: But then he talks about very passionately about Doc Rivers, and they get millions and millions of pressures.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: So, what do NBA fans want?
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: Do they want to be educated?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Do they want the drama?
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the reality is, JJ, um, the people want the drama.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's the reality.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_00: I would say 90% of NBA fans is not going out looking for ex and those.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, there's a market for that, and it's a it's a nice market.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_00: It is a very nice market.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it's a market that I again tip my hat off to the darker spot and the Kai's Duncan and Steve Smith.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_00: They have that.
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_00: That's one of the that's why I listen to their show.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: But just like I listen to their show, I listen to other shows that's mostly debates, mostly narrative-driven, and I enjoy those too.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: And I think most NBA fans are in that pool.
• 39:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I think part of that is something that we collectively have done over the last 15 to 20 years when it comes to our media coverage, where that is the thing that we found out people care about.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_00: Look at my YouTube channels, all of them.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: I've done two videos in the last two years that was X's and no's.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm I'm not gonna act like I'm this guy that is a coach, a guy that could be a coach or understands floppy to the highest extent.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_00: I've done two of those videos, both of them bombed.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_00: But when I talk about some of the rumors across the association, that's what people want.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: Just the reality of the situation.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: That 54,000 views you got on that Pelicans video, you see that that tech that's a market.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are plenty of creators in the NBA space that would love a 54,000 view video.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, JJ has a million subscribers, so his expectations are just a little bit higher, obviously, but that that's a market there.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: But majority of NBA fans are casual fans that want to hear people debate or talk about the stuff, not necessarily watching um uh what Zion is doing in a dunker spot when he doesn't have the ball.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: Again, there's a market for that.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_00: I also think that's okay though, JJ.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_00: I think I think it's all I think it's okay that NBA fans kind of want the drama.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: Something wrong with it.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_00: Something wrong with it.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but that's I guess that's my take.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Is it a take?
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_00: Next question comes from Gavin.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: What is one team you think you'll be watching more for the rest of the season uh that you that you did pre-All-Star break and one team that you'll be watching less?
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Let's start off with the less.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: There is a category of teams that I am not watching.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_00: I will watch you if we're in the fourth quarter and your game is close.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as sitting down and preparing myself to watch this team, won't do it.
• 41:12
  SPEAKER_00: I will watch possessions from players that are having really good seasons or players that I've invested in.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_00: But as far as sitting down to watch the Blazers, I'm sorry.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_00: Sitting down to watch the Grizzies for the rest of the season, I'm sorry.
• 41:22
  SPEAKER_00: And Gigi, you know you're my boy and Vince Williams Jr., I've been enjoying your season.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: Not doing it.
• 41:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, uh Utah Jazz, rest of the way.
• 41:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Lari.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Again, you're my boy.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_00: Can't do it.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_00: The Spurs have a little bit of viability because Victor Webanyama, but honestly, they're very close to that.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_00: The Pistons, the Wizards, the Hornets are exciting right now.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna keep the Hornets for another week.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Raptors, I'm sorry, man, I can't do it.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_00: And the Nets wouldn't be on this list, but they just fired Jacques Vaughn.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious to see what Kevin Ollie's gonna do, but they're close.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: All of those teams are gonna get me fourth quarter, highlights, certain possessions from certain players.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: That's where my head is at.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of the other teams, a team that was my league pass darling for the last two years, I feel like I haven't watched enough of this season.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: That is the Sacramento Kings.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: The Kings are 31 and 23.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: They're um sitting at the eighth seed right now.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_00: It hasn't been a very pretty season, especially compared to the previous year.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: But I also feel like I haven't been tuned in as much as I probably should.
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: I was just looking at some of the numbers earlier and DeMontra Bonus and De'Arra Fox net rating is like a 2.1.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see what's happening for one of the best duos in basketball last year to not be as great 50 games to the season.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_00: So that's one out west.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: And then out east, it's the Miami Heat.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned earlier.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're gonna go on a second season run.
• 42:37
  SPEAKER_00: And it's hard for me to get super excited to watch a team if two of their starting five players are missing.
• 42:43
  SPEAKER_00: Three of their top seven players are missing.
• 42:45
  SPEAKER_00: That's why I feel like the heat have gone.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: So those are the two teams I'm gonna be tuned in a little bit more.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_00: The next one comes from Cameron.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: And this is outside of sports, which is good.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, why are video games getting worse?
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: 2K hasn't been the same.
• 42:58
  SPEAKER_00: FIFA is terrible and money hungry.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm getting older.
• 43:01
  SPEAKER_00: Or am I getting older, or are games actually becoming terrible?
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, I think it's a little bit of both, Cameron.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um thing I figured out a few years back, maybe five years back, is that the the yearly AAA games, they don't have the best interest in mind as far as creating a great product or creating something that you would want at the end of the day.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: Their mind is like, how can we maximize our money?
• 43:22
  SPEAKER_00: Which I guess that is the thing for every single business, but it's more prominent in gaming, especially when we talk about the 2Ks of the world, the EAs of the world, with the microtransactions kind of taking over the game and so on and so forth.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: But what I will say is that there are a lot of great games out there.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: So that's find them.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_00: You you have to find them.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_00: You like I until maybe a year or so ago, and I won't spend too long in the game because I know everybody here is not a gamer, and that's okay.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_00: Until maybe a year or so ago, I considered myself a yearly game gamer.
• 43:54
  SPEAKER_00: I would play 2K, I'd play Call of Duty, I'd play a new season of Apex Legends.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it might be, just the the the top T the top uh games out there.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, what am I messing out on?
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_00: And the answer was a lot of stuff.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: A lot, a lot of stuff.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: I think microtransactions and the need to have this online player versus player thing has changed the way people develop games.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_00: The games that I have enjoyed the most over the last couple years are not PvP.
• 44:25
  SPEAKER_00: Some of them don't even have online modes at all.
• 44:28
  SPEAKER_00: But it's like, what did I get into gaming for back when I was a kid?
• 44:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because I enjoyed stories.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now it eventually changed, right?
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_00: To like, oh my God, me and the homie can play against each other in 2K.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_00: Let's go against each other.
• 44:38
  SPEAKER_00: But when I first started gaming, I wanted cool stories.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: So I wanted party games.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_00: I was playing monkey ball with my sister on the the uh GameCube and so on and so forth.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_00: So some of the games that are out there, you just gotta get a get a chance.
• 44:51
  SPEAKER_00: Boulders Gate 3 had no idea this game existed until they won Game of the Year.
• 44:55
  SPEAKER_00: And everybody was upset.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Boulders Gate 3 beat out uh um uh Spider Man.
• 45:00
  SPEAKER_00: I played Spider-Man 2, it was a great game.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_00: But I was like, okay, why did this game win?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let me tune in.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_00: It was a Dungeons and Dragons game.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: Ask me what I know about Dungeons and Dragons.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_00: I know a little bit now, but then before I started the game, I knew nothing.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: I went in completely blind.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_00: It was a turn-based decision-making game.
• 45:16
  SPEAKER_00: I had never played a game of that caliber in my life.
• 45:20
  SPEAKER_00: I no-lifed it for like four days.
• 45:22
  SPEAKER_00: And then eventually life started to take over.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: So I mean, I still haven't beat it completely because it's a crazy long story and a lot of different things you could do.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I played, I've played so many hours of Boulder's Gate 3, but it's different.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's not gonna be for everybody.
• 45:36
  SPEAKER_00: But one of my favorite games for the last year.
• 45:38
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the remakes of recent history have been great.
• 45:41
  SPEAKER_00: Dead Space remake.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: Dead Space came out in 2008.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_00: I remember when it first came out, it's been over a decade since I played it.
• 45:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I played it again, and it still hit, and it was even better now because I'm an adult.
• 45:53
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with the Resident Evil 4 remake.
• 45:56
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a very long time since I've played that game.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: And I know this is maybe some people didn't love the remake.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_00: I enjoyed it, you know.
• 46:03
  SPEAKER_00: So you just have to find them.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: You have to find them.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I kind of like the idea of going onto Twitch and scouring through what games are going off.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, sorry, not we're going off because the games are going off is just chatting.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be CSGO, it's gonna be Valorant, it's gonna be Rainbow.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_00: Go to like the deep parts of the Twitch and see what games fit you.
• 46:24
  SPEAKER_00: But um there there are still very passionate game designers out there.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: You just gotta find them.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we're custom David.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_00: Do you think that the Wolves will or won't run into the problem that the Jazz did with Gobert?
• 46:37
  SPEAKER_00: Now, David is a very good question.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_00: I think this is one of the questions a lot of people are asking.
• 46:42
  SPEAKER_00: I am pretty damn confident that if the the Wolves flame out and they don't make it to the, I don't know if they're, I don't even know what their personal goals are.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_00: Is it championship?
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: If they flame out, I don't think the Gobert thing from the Jazz is gonna be the reason why.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: I don't.
• 46:59
  SPEAKER_00: If they flame out, I think it's gonna be the fact that their offense could get very stagnant down the stretch.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: And historically, a team this bad offensively, and they're not bad, don't get me wrong.
• 47:08
  SPEAKER_00: They're league average-ish.
• 47:10
  SPEAKER_00: A team that is this low on the offensive rating, traditionally don't have uh NBA finals appearances or championship appearances.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_00: But hey, you look at the Miami Heat of last year, they were a 20-something ranked offense and made a good push, so it's possible.
• 47:24
  SPEAKER_00: But I think the offense would be the reason why, because I feel pretty damn good about the defense.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because you think about what had prevented Rudy Gobert from being an impactful playoff player with the Utah Jazz, um, it was the fact that teams went small and they forced uh Quentin Snyder to make a decision in the series versus the Clippers.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's like Rudy Gobert is the best rim protector of this decade.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: We want to keep him around the rim.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: So Terrence Mann, who is a 34% three-point shooter, if he pops off and we lose because of that, so be it.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I want Rudy Gobert to be at the at the paint.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_00: Because, hell, Lord knows that Joe Engels is not defending the way he used to, and people are flying right by him.
• 48:02
  SPEAKER_00: So we need that second and protection because if we don't have that, then it's a layup after layup after layup and there's no stops.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Terrence Mann, tip your cap to him.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_00: He won them that game and won them that series.
• 48:14
  SPEAKER_00: You think about the other time he flamed out of the playoffs, it was against James Harden in his goddamn prime.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: The best pick and roll player of our generation.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_00: Almost ever.
• 48:23
  SPEAKER_00: He might be the best pick and roll player ever.
• 48:25
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at the teams that are in the Western Conference right now.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Who could do that?
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Clippers could replicate that again.
• 48:34
  SPEAKER_00: They could.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a chance.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_00: The Suns have an i uh uh uh, I guess a chance to replicate that.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: But the the way you're gonna defend if you are the Minnesota Timbulls, and the way they have defended pretty much all season long, is to put Rudy Gobert on one of the non-shooters and say roam, roam, roam, protect, protect, protect.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_00: If they go against the OKC Thunder, it's Lud, who's been having a phenomenal shooting season.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_00: But I feel like when you get to the playoffs, team's still not gonna trust them.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_00: If Lou Dore beat you, Lou Dor beats you.
• 48:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then Josh Giddy, Josh Giddy on the floor, Rudy Gobert, that is your assignment.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_00: And let Josh Giddey just do whatever he wants and let Rudy roam, roam, roam.
• 49:08
  SPEAKER_00: The Suns could do that, but like, I think I'm okay with putting Rudy Gobert on like a Josh Akogi, Eric Gordon, because Eric Gordon can pop off.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: But do you trust him to take 12 threes in a game and be effective there?
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_00: Or is that a lot of pressure when you're wide open?
• 49:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because that's the thing, too.
• 49:26
  SPEAKER_00: There are a few teams that could make it happen.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not a lot.
• 49:29
  SPEAKER_00: The Mavericks, maybe, because we talked about Maxi Kleba being the five.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
• 49:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a lot of teams.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_00: The teams that they're gonna be going against have a player that you can hide go bear on.
• 49:38
  SPEAKER_00: And I say hide just mean that he can roam.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_00: Like even the defending champion.
• 49:41
  SPEAKER_00: Like you think about last year's playoffs, they defended the Nuggets pretty well.
• 49:44
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Nuggets were the superior team, obviously, but they defended them pretty well.
• 49:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think one of the least talked about things about the Nuggets this season, and I guess that'll transition us a little bit into our next question, is how bad of a shooting season this has been for Aaron Gordon.
• 49:59
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 50:00
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm if I'm Chris Finch, Aaron Gordon's been guarded by Rudy Gobert, and we're gonna say, you're gonna win this game based on your cuts because we don't trust you shooting at three ball.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_00: And Aaron Gordon's one of the best cutters of basketball.
• 50:11
  SPEAKER_00: He's got one of the best two-man games with with Jokic.
• 50:13
  SPEAKER_00: He always finds him, but we'll live with that right now, you know?
• 50:17
  SPEAKER_00: So if the Jazz were to flame, I'm sorry, if the Wolves were to flame out, I don't think it'll be because of Gobert's defense.
• 50:21
  SPEAKER_00: And and the the good thing about it is I I just I don't know.
• 50:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 50:27
  SPEAKER_00: They have other options.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_00: I know they're saying that's kind of crazy because they were talking about the DPOI, they have other options, just in case.
• 50:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um but that'll transition us from a question from Ethan.
• 50:35
  SPEAKER_00: It's our last ask AB question.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_00: Being serious though, is touching Denver, uh is anyone touching Denver clips in Boston?
• 50:42
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so he's talking about people on the outside, right?
• 50:44
  SPEAKER_00: So not because everybody can, I think, agree that Boston is the heavy, heavy favorite to come out the Eastern Conference.
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_00: There's not a team that should be competing with the Boston.
• 50:52
  SPEAKER_00: If the Boston Celtics don't win the Eastern Conference, whew.
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_00: Um and that's it, because the Bucs, again, could do something because they had two of the best players in the league.
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_00: The Cavs have been playing some huge great basketball.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_00: The Knicks went healthy, we're looking great.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I still believe all that considered, the Celtics are the team.
• 51:10
  SPEAKER_00: Out West, I think most people say Denver Nuggets and the Clippers are the teams.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_00: Your question is is anybody touching those three teams?
• 51:20
  SPEAKER_00: Ah, that's a tough one, man.
• 51:21
  SPEAKER_00: That's a tough one.
• 51:22
  SPEAKER_00: In my notes, I say yes, but it's gonna be extremely difficult.
• 51:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, if you ask me, and I think I did something like this of maybe a month or so ago, if you ask me the three teams I feel the most confident in winning the championship, these are those are the three teams that I will put I will put my money on.
• 51:37
  SPEAKER_00: I think.
• 51:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I just don't love what I'm seeing from the Bucs, even though the defense is looking better.
• 51:42
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, you know.
• 51:43
  SPEAKER_00: Um the Cavs have been phenomenal, but they they're a prove it team to me after last year's playoffs.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's fair.
• 51:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's fair to say the Cavs got to prove it a little bit to me.
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then same thing with the Minnesota Timberwolves, as good as they have been.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_00: I feel like I need to see them do it in the playoffs.
• 51:57
  SPEAKER_00: OKC's so damn young.
• 51:59
  SPEAKER_00: So it's really just those teams.
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I guess you're like, Kenny, what about the Suns?
• 52:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Suns have had a phenomenal, well, not a phenomenal season, but a better month or so.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um, 33 and 22, our Dallas Mavs that we talked about earlier.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna actually say no.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_00: One of those three teams will win the championship.
• 52:16
  SPEAKER_00: Clip it.
• 52:17
  SPEAKER_00: Send it to me if one of them teams don't.
• 52:18
  SPEAKER_00: But I think one of those teams is winning the championship.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_00: All right, before we get out of here, we got to bring on your favorite segment, because my favorite segment is Ask KB, but your favorite segment is Greg's eye test takes.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get it.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Kenny.
• 52:30
  SPEAKER_01: First one, I don't know if this is a hot take or not, but in my opinion, Charles Barkley is the most irreplaceable member of the TNT inside the NBA show.
• 52:39
  SPEAKER_00: I thought about this for a long time, Greg.
• 52:41
  SPEAKER_00: I thought about it for a long time.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_00: I think the most replaceable guy, and this is not maybe not the best way to tackle this, is Kenny the Jess Smith.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um agreed.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_00: Ernie, I Ernie is one of those, one of those guys that I like when he's not there and somebody's substituting for him, he he has a way to keep everything grounded.
• 53:03
  SPEAKER_00: When you have three MBAs, I'm saying Ernie is the irreplaceable guy, by the way.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_00: When you have three former players, two of them being former MVPs, and the other two, and then Kenny just Smith got championships and stuff, having the respect of all of those three people where they wait, where they would say, Hey, you lead our show.
• 53:19
  SPEAKER_00: You are the lead talent on this show.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's special.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_00: I've been around a bunch of NBA players, and I mentioned it earlier.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_00: One of my biggest things is trying to figure out will I be respected amongst the players?
• 53:30
  SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't do the things that they did.
• 53:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ernie didn't do the things they did either.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_00: But he's legendary, he's a hall of famer.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_00: He's the best, he's the best in the game, and I don't think it's anybody even close.
• 53:40
  SPEAKER_00: So if he wasn't there, I don't think the show is as good.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_00: And and I love Chuck as a second because Chuck has a um a very realness to it where he's okay with being the butt of the joke and giving out the jokes, and I think that's very important for what their show is, but I'm saying Ernie is the most important.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: How do you rate Shaq and Chuck?
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_00: I would probably go Chuck second, Shaq third.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, yeah, I think I think that's the way I would I would tackle it.
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um the big personality of Shaq is is amazing, but Charles got one liner after one liner.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know, he he's okay telling a story about how he almost lost the soap in a hotel.
• 54:24
  SPEAKER_00: Like, like Shaq is not telling that story.
• 54:26
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I would put Ernie, Chuck, Shaq.
• 54:31
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Kenny, you got somebody got to be last.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: All right, next one.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if this is gonna be confusing or not, but to me, understanding basketball and using your natural instincts as a referee should outweigh the letter of the law or the rule book when it comes to making calls.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_00: So you say, like, um, instead of thinking about in your mind of uh uh Article 4, Section 3, uh palming is here, and this is how we define palm and just letting it go based on where basketball is, right?
• 55:03
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, you know, we see a lot of guys leaning into contact and you know, clearly looking for the foul over getting the bucket.
• 55:10
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, you know, maybe if you look at, like you said, article four, you'll see like, well, if the player leans in and the defensive player's chest is slightly, you know, curved this way, that's a foul.
• 55:18
  SPEAKER_01: But just watch the game.
• 55:19
  SPEAKER_01: Like, is that a foul in the game of basketball?
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the answer would be no.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the next evolution of the of the thing.
• 55:25
  SPEAKER_00: And and it was something that um not this particularly, but Silver was asked about the the refereeing over the weekend.
• 55:31
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's uh media day two.
• 55:33
  SPEAKER_00: Um and he said there will be some adjustments.
• 55:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now he has said this previous years.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_00: I I I 100% agree with this one, um, because I think one of the biggest downsides to our sport in our league is the the foul baiting, the foul grifting stuff.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the times, it's like that's not a natural basketball motion, but because of the way we we have it in the rule book, it technically is a foul.
• 55:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the moment we kind of get rid of some of that stuff and we look at like um everybody referenced like FIBA ball when you we when you go over and you look at the Olympics and how it's officiated differently, I think that's the next evolution of our game, and I think it'll just be a better viewing experience and it'll cause more basketball at the end of the day.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_00: So I 100% agree.
• 56:12
  SPEAKER_01: And a lot of people would probably say this isn't on the refs, it's on the rules, the rules committee, which is probably true, but at the end of the day, no one's gonna really get on refs for not making those foul grifting calls for sure.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the people that would get on the refs for it, actually, nobody.
• 56:27
  SPEAKER_00: I was I was gonna say maybe it is the owners of the league or it's Adam Silver saying, oh, you missed that call.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Adam Silver's not gonna care because the product is gonna be it's gonna be better.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be better.
• 56:38
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I don't we just gotta find some way to get in the rule book and get rid of some of those very specific things.
• 56:45
  SPEAKER_01: Speaking of Adam Silver, I don't know when you started watching the NBA, but you you have you know some NBA history.
• 56:50
  SPEAKER_01: For sure.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_01: Who who do you prefer?
• 56:52
  SPEAKER_01: Adam Silver or David Stern as the commissioner of the league?
• 56:55
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I I definitely prefer Adam Silver.
• 56:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think that his approach to trying different things is something that Adam uh that David Stern didn't do a lot of.
• 57:06
  SPEAKER_00: Like I couldn't imagine David Stern green lighting the playing tournament.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are, the playing tournament is one of the most fun things about the NBA season.
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_00: I feel I think it's it evolutionized the game in a sense that like right now, if we were six years ago and the pre and in-season tournament didn't exist, or how many years ago, teams that are the ninth seed, 10th seed, now I know things are close right now, but historically, this is where they decide like, you know what, we're not gonna really try to compete anymore.
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_00: But because of the play-in, and because we've seen people like the Lakers or seen people like the Miami Heat go on these deep runs, the play in is a viable option for better or for worse.
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_00: For worse for my goddamn Chicago Bulls, but they look at the play-in and say, hey, we're gonna be competitive.
• 57:44
  SPEAKER_00: So Stern gets a lot of credit for making the game a global game, right?
• 57:50
  SPEAKER_00: Stern helped it get to Serbia so we can have Nikola Jokic end up playing basketball full time, you know, with the with the um the way he marketed Michael Jordan and so on and so forth.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_00: But I think Adam Silver took what Stern started and just continued to build on it.
• 58:07
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Silver's not perfect, very far away from perfect.
• 58:10
  SPEAKER_00: Same thing with David Stern, but I do like the fun factor that Adam Silver has added to the league since his his uh his tenure started as commission.
• 58:25
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know what you think.
• 58:26
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's a good one.
• 58:27
  SPEAKER_00: Adam's Adam Silver versus David Stern.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: I can see it both ways.
• 58:30
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going Adam Silver.
• 58:32
  SPEAKER_00: Let us know about the rest of the show.
• 58:33
  SPEAKER_00: Who are some teams you think are primed for a big time push the second half of the season?
• 58:38
  SPEAKER_00: Was I right?
• 58:39
  SPEAKER_00: Was I wrong about Doc Rivers?
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_00: What about the gaming industry?
• 58:42
  SPEAKER_00: You let me know.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_00: The comments are always over.
• 58:44
  SPEAKER_00: You can hit me up on Twitter or on X at KLT for Q.
• 58:47
  SPEAKER_00: And leave a like and subscribe.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_00: I was looking at the analytics earlier today, and about half of the people that are watching these episodes are not subscribed.
• 58:53
  SPEAKER_00: I don't like that number.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_00: So if you watched the entire episode, 40 plus minutes, you have to enjoy it.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_00: Subscribe, leave a like, and I'll see y'all soon.