Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Which NBA Teams Have Been The Most Surprising?

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Which NBA Teams Have Been The Most Surprising? · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: It feels so much more free-flowing because I don't feel as though he's going into situations thinking about drawing a foul.
• 0:06
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's trying to get buckets and he's unguardable, so he is getting a foul.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_00: There's a difference there.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back, welcome back, welcome back to the Kenny Beechum podcast.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: We got so much to talk about today.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: Starting off with the Lakers not looking as good as we anticipated.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_00: We gotta revisit the James Harden trade because the 76ers are rolling and the Clippers are struggling to get their first win.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: We want to talk about why injury luck is the most important thing in the league right now.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: And also, the NBA might be changing the way they do NBA drafts.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: And so much more is coming up on this episode of the Candy Beach and Podcast.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: What I need from you, the listener, the viewer, is to leave us five stars.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to leave a like on the episode if you're a YouTube watcher because all of that really helps the channel grow.
• 0:56
  SPEAKER_00: We are number seven in sports podcasts and on Spotify, which is crazy to think about.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all because of y'all, but that's not where we want to stop.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: We want to get six, five, four, three, two, one.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we want.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know if we're gonna get there, but that's what we want.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: That's what we're shooting for.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_00: So we need all of y'all help.
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: So all the support is really appreciated.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: The Lakers right now are fighting three different demons.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're fighting the officiating in their games.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're fighting their opponent, and they're fighting themselves.
• 1:25
  SPEAKER_00: And because of that, they are three and five.
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: Before the season started, I talked about which teams I saw as the real contenders, the teams that can go out and potentially win the championship.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_00: There's one team above all that is the Denver Nuggets.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're still looking like a team that is going to be hard to beat come playoff time.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they're going to be missing Jamal Murray for the next couple weeks.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: And so far, that hasn't mattered too much, which is crazy to really think about.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: Out east, I predicted that the Boston Celtics were going to be the team to beat.
• 1:52
  SPEAKER_00: And now I might be rethinking that because they've played against two really good teams and they've lost both.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: We might talk about that in the future.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_00: But the Lakers were one of those teams that I was like, they might not be my favorite, but I see them as a team that could win a championship.
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now, it's going to take a lot, right?
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: They went into the Western Conference Finals last year and got completely swept by the team that I think is going to win it all.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_00: But I thought they had a really good offseason, and I thought that an extra year of continuity and health was going to go a long way.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: And here we are, eight games to the season.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: They are sitting at three and five.
• 2:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they're one of those teams that have had uh a bad flip of the coin when it comes to the injury history or the injury luck.
• 2:29
  SPEAKER_00: Jared Vanderbilt has been out.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Davis missed the second half of last game, and then the complete game against the Houston Rockets, who I must want to say congratulates to the Houston Rockets.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_00: They are above 500.
• 2:39
  SPEAKER_00: They're above 500 last year.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: I was watching this game, Houston Rockets versus Lakers, because Dylan Brooks and LeBron James is like, it's not a rivalry that should exist because one of them is arguably the greatest of all time.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then the other one is Dylan Brooks.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: But I was really anticipating this game.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_00: It was a 14-game slate, and I was like, I can't wait to watch these Lakers versus Rockets.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_00: And we found out that Anthony Dave is going to be out, but that didn't matter.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_00: This man, Dylan Brooks, was completely locked in from Tippo before Tippo.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: So like, I gotta watch this game.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: I want to give congratulations to the Houston Rockets because they got something to really cheer for right now after years of them being really bad.
• 3:14
  SPEAKER_00: They showed this one statistic on the screen that it talked about fast break points giving up.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_00: And over the last three years, the Houston Rockets were dead last and fast breaks given up.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And now they're first as far as they're not letting teams go out on a break.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: We saw that again for the Lakers.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: They could not get transition play.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the Rockets have a genuine NBA team right now.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, three of their wins may be a bit questionable, but those are not games that they were winning last year, right?
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: Beating the Sacramento Kings twice without Deion Fox is there's not that's not games that they win last year.
• 3:46
  SPEAKER_00: Beating the Lakers without Anthony Davis, not just beating those teams, dominating those teams, was not what was happening last year.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to the Rockets.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna give it a bigger sample size before we really dive into them, but Dylan Brooks looks pretty good.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Fred Ven V League combination we talked about on the last episode, and today Jalen Green had his best game of the season.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I read right after this that Ime Udoka was looking at Jalen Green and said, that guy right there on the LA Lakers, Austin Reeves, they picked him on Team USA over you, and he had what, 28 points of good efficiency.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to the Houston Rockets, but that's not that's not what this is about.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: The Lakers have really been struggling.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Jared Vanderbilt has been out.
• 4:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um they've also been missing Anthony Davis, who you know the history of Anthony Davis and his injuries, his knickknack injury here, kick knack injury there.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_00: And that's not even all of it.
• 4:33
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Torian Prince missed a couple games.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, Gabe Vincent missed a game.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_00: Like, it hasn't been pretty on court or off court.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the other game against the Miami Heat, they lost a game that was like 105 to 106, a real dogfight.
• 4:46
  SPEAKER_00: And in this game, the LA Lakers decided uh things ain't going the way we really anticipated.
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: They put together this complaint to send to the league office, which is basically the second time in two years that they've had to put a complaint in about officiating.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: The main focus of their complaint was about how LeBron James has been officiated.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_00: Here's some stats about LeBron James driving to the basket.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's drawn a foul on just 6% of his drives this season, according to Second Spectrum data, which is the eighth lowest rate amongst all 34 players that have 70 or more drives to the basket this season.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we're talking about LeBron James, who's a freight train, even though he's almost 40 years old.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I've always had the conversation about when talking about LeBron and the way he has officiated or the flopping and so on and so forth, is that LeBron is in this rare group of NBA players throughout history that is close to impossible to really officiate.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: With Shaquille O'Neal, with LeBron James, with the players of this caliber that are such physical forces with Yonsa DeCumpo the last couple seasons, referees have to figure out what type of contact is good enough for a foul because when these guys are going to the basket, undoubtedly they're getting hit every single play.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: But it's the is the contact enough to draw a foul or not?
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one of the reasons why we saw LeBron James throughout the course of his career result to flopping as much as he does, because he's like, man, I'm actually getting hit a bunch, but if I don't sell the contact, then I'm not going to get the call.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: Now, of course, that's led to a bunch of funny moments in LeBron James' career where he's flopping crazily, like when Nazi Mohammed pushed him.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_00: And Nazi did push him, but you would have thought the man gave him a real UFC move or something like that.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: So we get the flopping from Braun because he's trying to sell these calls when he's genuinely getting hit.
• 6:30
  SPEAKER_00: So they put together this complaint to the league office.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_00: And the last year when they did this, it was it was pretty effective.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: The last time the LA Lakers went out to tell the officiating crew that y'all are missing this and missing that was last year, after the game against the Boston Celtics, the famous game against the Boston Celtics, where Patrick Beverly picks up the camera to show the officiate, the officiant that he missed a foul with Jason Tatum or LeBron.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_00: LeBron James stole this huge temper tantrum.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best games of the year last season.
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: But after that, they also put out a complaint.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: Then after that, well, that whistle was nice.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm not here to say that they didn't deserve these fouls or anything like that, but um uh last year there was the largest differential and free throw attempts.
• 7:13
  SPEAKER_00: They attempted a ton, they did not foul a ton.
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_00: It was so much of a gap that it went viral on Twitter about how they were being officiated in things.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: And now this year, that gap doesn't exist.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: Last year it was like a 300 free throw gap from the start of the season to mid-February, and now it's plus 38, which is cool.
• 7:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's like fifth in the league, but it's not the traditional thing.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: So they put out this league thing, and then the NBA came out and said, hey, we just looked over the last two minute report.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_00: It won, it won nothing to really overturn.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then LeBron goes to Twitter to say, hey, it's not about the last two minutes, it's the the first uh 46 or so.
• 7:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he has a good point here, but it's just interesting to see that this type of thing has not happened a ton with the other 29 teams across basketball.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't hear about, I don't know, the OKC Thunder calling the league office about Shea Gibbs Alexander's lack of free throws or so on and so forth.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: So they're fighting the officiators.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, this is the first game post-complaint.
• 8:12
  SPEAKER_00: How is the officiator gonna be?
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: And in this game, the Lakers shot five more free throws than the Houston Rockets.
• 8:17
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, part of this is because the Rockets blew them out so much that LeBron James didn't play as much as you would assume.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, he played under his 28-minute minute restriction.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: Remember that after game number one?
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_00: He played under that.
• 8:29
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and they just haven't been good.
• 8:31
  SPEAKER_00: They're fighting the officiating crew, they're fighting themselves.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, when they went on this big old run post-trade deadline, the thing that they held their hat on, the reason why they were so effective as an NBA team was because the defense was in a league of its own.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: It was really, really good, like marginally better than the second best defense in that same time frame.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: This year, that defense is falling off a cliff.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_00: The number one defense that held them afloat post-trade deadline and helped them advance all the way to the conference finals is gone.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're sitting around league average, which for a lot of teams is cool, but for this team that's trying to win a championship, not very cool.
• 9:10
  SPEAKER_00: Not for this team that doesn't have the offensive umph as some of the other teams, right?
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these teams that that straddle around the middle of the pack defensively, but can have a high volume offense.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: It's like we're cool right now, don't worry about it.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: The Lakers have one of the worst offenses in basketball, and their defense is mid.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, how do you expect to win these games?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_00: And it boils down to a couple different things.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: Without LeBron James on the floor, they have a net rating of minus 36.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_00: The Anthony Davis by himself minutes have been dreadful.
• 9:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that is one of the things that this team needs to be successful because you saw the first game of the season against the different Nuggets.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_00: They don't want to play LeBron 40 minutes a night.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_00: But since that first game, LeBron has been averaging 38 minutes per game.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_00: That is 10 more minutes per game than what Darw told us after the first game of the season.
• 10:04
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the reasons they're doing that is out of necessity.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: You pull LeBron James off the court, it's a G-League team offensively and defensively.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_00: This man is close to 40 years old, and they cannot afford to burn him out just to make the playoffs.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: The idea of giving the crown to Anthony Davis, uh it's lost now.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: He's 30 and he hasn't been able, again, just this season, to maintain the greatness without LeBron James on the floor.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: And don't even get me started.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Don't even get me started on a three-point shooting.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Because boy, oh boy, is this still bad.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: I like their offseason.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: Torian Prince, good three-point shooter, Gabe Vincent in Theory, good three-point shooter, Rui Haichi Moore in the playoffs was Klay Thompson.
• 10:48
  SPEAKER_00: None of that has really translated where they're a low volume, low percentage three-point shooting team.
• 10:54
  SPEAKER_00: And the game in 2023 is get up threes and hit a bunch of them.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: And if you're not doing that, and simultaneously you're not stopping the other teams from doing that, you're just not gonna win games.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: So what's the solution for the LA Lakers?
• 11:06
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 11:07
  SPEAKER_00: Ramona Shelburne said that they they're not saying that the Lakers, but Lakers fandom is like, hey, who's that third star?
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_00: And I didn't anticipate it happening this fast.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I do want to say to start off last season, they were off as well, and then they got it together, but they got it together post a big trade.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the wiggle room really is for the Lakers.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Bill Simmons has famously said that if you pair the D'Angelo Russell and Rui Hachimura contract, it is exactly the salary of Kyrie Irving.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Kyrie Irvin is gonna be available.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: I could be wrong, but somebody might be.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_00: A couple Chicago boys, a couple current Chicago Bulls might be available for an LA return because both of them guys are, you know, Cali boys.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: But as currently constructed, the same optimism that I had about the Lakers, it's not completely gone because I do need to see this team get healthy, but I'm not as optimistic about them because the one thing that I thought was going to stay great, the defense, it's no longer that.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: Their third most impactful player on the season so far is a guy that they signed for a minimum.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Christian Wood.
• 12:10
  SPEAKER_00: And congratulations to Christian Wood for completely buying in to not being the guy that needs to score 20 to be effective.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to him.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_00: But Austin Reeves, the guy that a lot of us anticipated to have this big jump, has started out pretty slow.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: They did have back-to-back 20-point games and almost a 20-point triple-double a couple nights ago.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_00: So the the first week and a half where he was really, really struggling, is not that anymore.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: But we we expect that some of us expected him to take a jump.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean like all-star jump, but just be better than what he was last year, and we haven't really seen that just yet.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_00: And they're looking for someone to alleviate the pressure from LeBron James, and it hasn't happened.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: One of the other most anticipated games for tonight for me was the Boston Celtics versus the Philadelphia 76s.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I love when my most anticipated game is the first game of the day because I don't have to worry about nothing.
• 12:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't have to wait as long as some of the other ones.
• 12:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I was excited for this game because the Boston Celtics have looked like the best team out east, but the 76ers have looked damn good too.
• 13:04
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, okay, let's figure out what is real and what is not.
• 13:08
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, I'll react into the first two weeks of the season, but that's that's what we're here for.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_00: And the 76ers went out.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: I would say for the most part, they dominated this game.
• 13:17
  SPEAKER_00: And then at the end of the fourth quarter, poor Ziggins and Jalen Brown went on like a 19-4 run to make it close and everything.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, the 76ers were coasting for majority of this game.
• 13:27
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, boy, oh boy.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_00: You remember the conversation we had last episode when my boy Mike asked us, who are the players that are systems in the NBA?
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: We mentioned people like Nikola Jokic, Luka Doncic, to just name a few, Steph Curry.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: One name that we left off of the list was Joel Embiid.
• 13:43
  SPEAKER_00: That was by design.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't like I forgot about him or anything, but in that moment in time, I did not see him as a system because under uh what Doc Rivers was doing, he wasn't.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: But Nick Nurse has some running as this hub of offense that, like, again, talking about the first two weeks of the season, he is starting to make his way to be known as the system.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: He went from the process to the system.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_00: Like, that's it's real.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_00: The playmaking that we see from him over the past couple weeks is leagues above what we've really seen over the last couple years.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: And I think he has got progressively better every year, but now that they're really using him in this way, you're really, you're really seeing it.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: So today, when they go against the Boston Celtics, this was a highly anticipated game because not only are the Celtics a really good team, and you're talking about their top six, they have the tools, you would think, to guard a Joel and beat.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Remember when Al Hofford was known known as the Joel and B stopper in this game that was what ended up being a three-point game.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_00: Al Horford was like a minus 29.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, there was one play in the game.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_00: I even tweeted it.
• 14:43
  SPEAKER_00: Late in the third quarter, and Joel Embiid for the second game in a row has had a dominant dominant third quarter.
• 14:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think it's real, I think he's a third quarter player specifically.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_00: He gets the ball on the right wing and he does a simple Joel and bead pump fake jab step, and Al Horford almost came out of his shoes.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: Like, not like jumping, but I mean like his ankles crossed up on a simple jab step, and it ended up with Joel and B getting the mid-range jump shot.
• 15:06
  SPEAKER_00: Joel Embiid had been one of those players over the last couple of seasons that I appreciated as a talent because he was a seven-foot dude that can pretty much do everything on the offensive side of the ball.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: And he's such a good defensive player.
• 15:16
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I'd recognize the greatness that was Joel Embiid, but he also ended up being in this group of like players where when I talk about players like Prime James Harden and so on and so forth with the I need to get my free throws thing that made him a harder watch than the other superstars across basketball.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't gravitate to becoming a Joel Embiid fan, even though I respected and appreciated his game.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_00: It just wasn't for me optically.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_00: Now he's dropped his field free throw percentage, well, not percentage, but attempts typically he's like a 12 a game, 11 a game.
• 15:46
  SPEAKER_00: It's down to like nine, which it's not that crazy.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's like one less attempt per game, but it's still it feels so much more free-flowing because I don't feel as though he's going into situations thinking about drawing a foul.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: I think he's trying to get buckets and he's unguardable.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: So he is getting fouled.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: There's a difference there.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: There was times in John Lambi's career and prime James Harden's career where I felt like the possession was I want to get a foul versus I want to get a bucket and I happen to get fouled, right?
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan B is doing that right now.
• 16:15
  SPEAKER_00: So they beat the Boston Celtics pretty easily.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_00: Again, well, the the fourth go to run.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: They were coasting for the majority of this game.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, am I buying into the 76er hype?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know you like Kenny.
• 16:28
  SPEAKER_00: Whoa, whoa, whoa.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_00: These boys have not got past a second round and forever.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_00: No way you're gonna be buying stock in this team two weeks into the season.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_00: I shouldn't.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_00: You you absolutely right in thinking that I shouldn't be buying the stock.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_00: But but I like the team a lot, man.
• 16:46
  SPEAKER_00: They have a genuine bench.
• 16:48
  SPEAKER_00: And the moment that that Mick Nurse decides to continue to put Kelly Ubre on the bench, that unit is going to be really, really good.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: They defend.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of second units in basketball can't really say that we got a defensive second.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like it doesn't happen often.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: So you have Jordan Bede as this hub of offense where him and Tyrese Max are playing off each other so very well, and Tobias Harris is having one of his better seasons.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: This offense is humming.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're second in the NBA behind only who's number one right now.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_00: They're second in the NBA.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: Is it still the Boston Celtics?
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_00: I just looked at it.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: It might still be the Boston Celtics, but they're the second offensive team in all of basketball right now.
• 17:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when you look at their personnel, it shouldn't make sense.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: But that is the Joel and beating fact right now.
• 17:35
  SPEAKER_00: What team loses a player that was a couple votes away from making an all-NBA team?
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: What team loses a player that was one of the highest Utah's players in all of basketball last season, lose him on the fly and say, we're actually better.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: It doesn't happen.
• 17:53
  SPEAKER_00: And they are a couple possessions away, again, we're living in this fictional world, from being an undefeated team right now.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_00: And they have good wins under their belt already.
• 18:03
  SPEAKER_00: So long NBA season.
• 18:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not saying they're gonna finish as the one seed or even a two-seed or even a three-seed.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_00: But this team post-James Harden has been a lot better than what I anticipated.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_00: To see Robert Coverton back, it's just cool.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Nicholas Baton was questioning whether or not he still wanted to play basketball anymore because he's a West Coast guy and you want him to go all the way East Coast.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_00: He said, I'm gonna suit up with the number 40 and I'm gonna hit some shots.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna play some defense.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do my thing.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_00: And I really enjoy watching this team play.
• 18:31
  SPEAKER_00: They part of that is, of course, Tyrese Maxie, right?
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_00: Being him being one of the more uh intriguing or entertaining guys where, as of right now, is the lead point guard.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: He does not turn the ball over often in the pick and roll or pick and pop or all of the actions, dribble handoffs, whatever you want to call them, with Joel Lambi are just looking better and better and better.
• 18:50
  SPEAKER_00: It's a fun watch, man.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't say the same thing about the team that they made the trade with the Clippers, man.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's two games, right?
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_00: It's two games.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Now I will say for the Philadelphia 76ers, it might, it's it's easier to eliminate a guy versus add a guy of James Harden's caliber, right?
• 19:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm not gonna sit here and act like this is doomsday for the LA Clippers post the trade.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: But through the two games, it's a bad, it's been really, really, really bad.
• 19:20
  SPEAKER_00: And I wish I had the the up-to-date numbers, but as I'm recording this, the numbers have not been updated on NBA.com or on PB uh PB stats on cleaning the glass, all of my resources, they have not updated based on the game against the Brooklyn Nets.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: But I will tell you, you don't need stats.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: The team can't score.
• 19:37
  SPEAKER_00: And this team has an offense of James Harden, Paul George, and Kawhi Leonard.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now, give it time to jail, but I'm only reacting to what we have seen so far, right?
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: They cannot score.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: And they went against the Brooklyn Nets, and that's remissing Ben Simmons, uh, Cam Johnson, Cam Thomas got injured halfway through this game, only ended up playing like 18 to 20 minutes.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: And no, Nicholas Claxton.
• 20:00
  SPEAKER_00: This this is a game you win by 10.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_00: But they lost.
• 20:05
  SPEAKER_00: And somehow they played and they felt very small.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_00: And this is a team, again, we're talking about a team that's missing Ben Simmons who's 6'10, and plays point guard slash power force slash center.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_00: They're missing Nicholas Claxton, they're missing their two bigs in their lineup.
• 20:20
  SPEAKER_00: They were starting Durham Finney Smith at the five, and somehow the Lakers still, I'm sorry, the Clippers still felt small in this game.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_00: It makes no sense.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't know how long we'll see the experiment.
• 20:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Tyron Lou is one of the smartest coaches in basketball.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: If there's uh there's only a few people I think that have the potential to make this work, I think he's one of those guys that will be able to do it.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: It might just take a lot longer than some people anticipated, man.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're going to probably run out the same starting lineup for a couple more games before they make adjustments.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm going to assume those adjustments are coming.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: One of those guys is going to the bench.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not because they're the wink link or they're the problem, but strictly based on fit.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: And I think the odd man out is going to be Russ.
• 21:03
  SPEAKER_00: And Russ is having a good season so far.
• 21:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't want to act like him going to the bench is like this the motion, because it's not.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_00: But for the feel and the fit of the team, you might have to bring bring them off the bench and when Terrence Mann is back, have him start or somebody else.
• 21:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because it's not, it's not rocking and rolling, man.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_00: They cannot score.
• 21:20
  SPEAKER_00: The minutes of their big four is what Fantastic Four, the LA, the LA Quadro.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: What's the what's the nickname?
• 21:26
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_00: Do they deserve a nickname yet?
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not yet.
• 21:28
  SPEAKER_00: Not yet.
• 21:29
  SPEAKER_00: Give us some give us some more reps and some wins, and then maybe get they can get a nickname.
• 21:32
  SPEAKER_00: That lineup has been awful.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_00: Just completely.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: James Harden has looked his best when he's running with the second unit.
• 21:40
  SPEAKER_00: But when he's playing with Paul George or Kawhi Leonard or Russell Westbrook, it doesn't look great.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_00: And part of it is like they don't have in that unit the guys that feel super comfortable with strictly catching and shooting outside of Paul George.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_00: And even his fit through the first two games feels kind of weird, where sometimes he would catch the ball off of James Harden or Russell Westbrook pass.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of doing the thing that we know he could do, which is just shoot the damn ball, he still is in his mindset that I gotta get mine, and he might make a dribble pull-up, take a dribble.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_00: There was a possession in their first game against the Knicks, where James Harden found Kawhi Leonard open in the corner and he was open by three, four feet with his closest defender.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_00: But instead of taking the shot, him being Kawhi Leonard and just knowing what he does, he takes a one dribble pull-up.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_00: And it's just those little things that I think they need to iron out because if you have a guy like James Harden, and one of the things that James Harden's very great at is getting you the ball where you need in your shooting pocket, they just have to be willing to take the shots.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: One guy I know is willing to take him is Russell Westbrook.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_00: I gotta commit Russell Westbrook.
• 22:42
  SPEAKER_00: Today I watched this man take multiple shots, and I'm like, there's no reason he should be taking that.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: But based on what was going on, it kind of made sense.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Russell Westbrook, good corner, three-point shooter.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_00: He shot like two of them tonight.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_00: He or one.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: But but that's the shot that they need.
• 22:56
  SPEAKER_00: They can't have their offense be everybody's got to get there.
• 22:59
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody has to just play the role.
• 23:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the that's the tough part when you have so many talented players that you're not gonna get the best of the players all the time.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Because somebody has to play a role.
• 23:10
  SPEAKER_00: I said this after watching game one, and I still think it to this day.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: Zubach's hands are a lot worse than I anticipated.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: And now when you have Mason Plumley injured, it's their big rotation is just not as good as what it could be.
• 23:23
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll see what ends up happening.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_00: James Harden tried to throw a lob to Zubach in game one versus the the Knicks, which was an experience.
• 23:32
  SPEAKER_00: Um, it just hasn't looked good.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: And the defense hasn't either.
• 23:36
  SPEAKER_00: Again, I'm gonna remind you, the team that they went against was missing Ben Simmons, Cam Johnson, Nicholas Claxon, and Miss Cam Thomas for the majority of this game.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: And they couldn't get stops.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I want to give a lot of love to the Brooklyn Nets because them boys fight.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: Them boys fight.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_00: It was heavy only on the Lonnie Walker the fourth.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um Dennis Smith Jr.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: had two really good defensive possessions down the stretch.
• 23:59
  SPEAKER_00: We got to commend them on.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_00: But this team, they compete.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: And that's all you can really ask for for a team like the Brooklyn Nets, who are kind of like in this middle ground when it comes to the NBA.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: Uh so uh it has not looked good for the Clippers, and it has looked amazing for the 76ers so far.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get into my favorite segment of the Kenny Beach and podcast.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: It is the AskKB, where you can hit me up on Twitter or in the comment section of this episode with the hashtag ASKKB.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: I read a report today that Elon Musk might get rid of the hashtags on x slash Twitter.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't know what we do after that.
• 24:35
  SPEAKER_00: But just just tweet at me.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: I just tweet at me.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_00: The first one comes from Coop for MVP23.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't, I don't know.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, well, no, no.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Is that Cup?
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Like Cooper Cup?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: Ask KB.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: Which five teams have the bleakest future?
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_00: And I screenshot this.
• 24:51
  SPEAKER_00: I was like, that's an interesting thought experiment.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: Which teams have the bleakest future?
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what, y'all?
• 24:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a lot.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a lot of teams with bleak futures.
• 25:00
  SPEAKER_00: The teams that are bad or just not performing to expectations still have some positive things to hang their hat on.
• 25:07
  SPEAKER_00: For example, the Washington Wizards look like the worst team of basketball right now.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: They look awful.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_00: But I can't say that their future is bleak because with them looking awful, that means higher draft lottery odds and potentially first overall picks slash whatever.
• 25:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the draft is where a lot of the rebuilding teams can make up their ground.
• 25:25
  SPEAKER_00: Like it looks bleak now, but if they end up drafting a stud in this draft, then it's not that bad.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: So when I think about the bleakest future, I'm like, okay, what team doesn't have like crazy draft capital slash a bad team or no young players?
• 25:38
  SPEAKER_00: Because even some of the other bad teams across the association have like a star young player that could potentially be great.
• 25:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, or anything like that.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_00: So when I did my experiment, he said name the top five.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: I couldn't get to five.
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: I got one.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know exactly who it is.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_00: It is my Chicago Bulls.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_00: And I think I did good last episode.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I referenced the Bulls at all.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think I referenced them at all last episode.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: That's like, you feel me?
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: They have the bleakest future in all of basketball, undoubtedly.
• 26:12
  SPEAKER_00: At the moment, now things can change with the trade or two or seven.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_00: But it's it's it's hard.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I know a lot of people are like, well, you have to add the wizards, you have to add this team because you're thinking about their future and them being able to draft well, and you're right, but even the possibility of drafting right means that your future is not as bleak.
• 26:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_00: The Bulls have bad draft history.
• 26:34
  SPEAKER_00: They owe a first-round pick to the Spurs, and this front office doesn't seem like they're willing to blow it up anytime soon.
• 26:40
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like, man, if there's any team that's looking at their roster and looking at their future and being like, man, this sucks, it's us.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_00: We don't even have young players to be excited about anymore.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: That was the one thing that was like, all right, well, at least suck, at least Patrick Williams is Patrick Williams is not, you know?
• 26:56
  SPEAKER_00: So we have the bleakest future.
• 26:58
  SPEAKER_00: I can see you making an argument for the LA Clippers, right?
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: Considering that Kawhi, Paul George, James Harden, even Russell Westbrook, these are players that are uh free agents this offseason who knows what their priorities lie or anything like that.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_00: And when you when you think about all of the draft capital they gave up, you can have that argument.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say you're wrong because now I just talked myself into it.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Clippers are number two.
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh I didn't have them on the list, but I guess they have to make it now because yeah, um, but this is all in the world of hypothetical, you know, this fictional world of what if this player doesn't resign?
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: What if they get fed up about this or about that?
• 27:31
  SPEAKER_00: Like the Toronto Raptors were a team uh two months ago, if you asked about their bleak, the bleakest futures, because they didn't really have a direction.
• 27:38
  SPEAKER_00: And you could argue they still don't have a direction, but they have a Scotty Barnes.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_00: Scotty Barnes is great.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_00: Now he had a stinker today, but guess what?
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't matter, they won.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: You know, so it's it's hard to figure out bleak futures, which is great.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_00: This this is, I guess, the most optimistic NBA fans can be about their team.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: Because even the teams like the Grizzlies, who are struggling super heavily, like, bro, we still got John Morant, Desmond Bain, and Jerry Jackson Jr.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be fine in a couple couple months and years, you know.
• 28:06
  SPEAKER_00: A lot of teams don't have that.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: The second one comes from oh man, what is what are y'all be doing?
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_00: What do y'all be doing?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_00: ZGFX says, ask KB.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: Do you see this draft class going down as one of, if not the greatest of all time?
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_00: I want you to pump the brakes.
• 28:26
  SPEAKER_00: Pump the brakes.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_00: No, I don't.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: Could it be?
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: Sure.
• 28:31
  SPEAKER_00: The likelihood of it is very low, though.
• 28:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Victor Ibinyama might be great, you know.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_00: So can I say the same thing about the Thompson Twins or School Henderson or Brandon Miller, and there's always a sneaky guy towards the middle of the draft that turns out to be an all-star.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: For sure.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_00: This draft class has been impressive.
• 28:47
  SPEAKER_00: But you talk about the greatest of all time, or the one of the greatest of all time, there are so many elite-level draft classes.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to remind you or fill you in of 1984, 1984?
• 28:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, Michael Jordan, John Stock, uh uh, Hakeem Elijah won it, Charles Barkley.
• 29:01
  SPEAKER_00: That is seven MVP awards and three defensive players of the years.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_00: I do you see this draft class doing something like that?
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_00: Even even the recent draft class, Luca Donja, Trey Young, so on, that draft class is stacked.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 29:16
  SPEAKER_00: That draft class has a high, really, really high potential.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_00: Really, really high potential on that one.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Don't need to remind you of 1996.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: You ask me, 1996 is the greatest year of the history of man.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_00: Because October 4th of that year, I was born.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
• 29:32
  SPEAKER_00: Also, the Bulls won the championship, which is great for everybody.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, 10 all-stars in the 1996 draft, including Allen Iverson, Kobe Bean Bryant, Steve Nash, and Ray Allen.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_00: That's four MVPs.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_00: And again, 10 all-stars.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not even counting some guys that end up making it.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: And then even 2003, you forget about 2003.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_00: You know, 2003 has Braun, Mello, Wade, and Bosch.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: The thing that these three draft class have in common is they have well, all of these players I just mentioned are NBA 75 players, right?
• 30:04
  SPEAKER_00: So that's that's one thing.
• 30:06
  SPEAKER_00: But they have people that you can argue are in GOAT conversations.
• 30:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan in '84, Bronn in 2003.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_00: And though I don't have Cobe as top three or anything, like Cobe is top top 10, or if not top 10, top 12 at the latest, you know?
• 30:23
  SPEAKER_00: So you have to ask yourself, who's that guy for this draft class?
• 30:26
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure you'd probably say Wimby.
• 30:28
  SPEAKER_00: Will Wimby end up being a top 10 to 15 player of all time?
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: Time will tell, I guess.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: But not only do you need that, you need his contemporaries.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: You need one of the Thompson twins to go win a DPOY.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: You need um, you need School Henderson to make seven all NBA teams and Brandon Miller to make some all-defensive teams and win some awards.
• 30:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, there's a lot to be considered to be one of the greatest of all time.
• 30:52
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you're asking me this two weeks into their NBA career.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_00: Two weeks to their NBA careers.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: One of the other questions I got asked, and I it was eerily similar to this one, was like, of this draft class, who can you see win certain awards, right?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: And I was like, Yeah, I could see Wemby winning an MVP down the line, or um, I'm adding Chat, even though he's technically 2022.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_00: Um, Shat can win a DPOY, or I want to say like a Sartre Thompson can win a DPOY, which I guess he could, but just historically the guards don't really give get that much.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: But I think this these guys have a lot of potential to be all-stars for sure, you know.
• 31:26
  SPEAKER_00: But can they hit the next level when we consider widely consider them to be one of the greatest 75 to 100 players of all time?
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: Because yeah, oh, that's pretty good.
• 31:35
  SPEAKER_00: Because when the NBA 100 is coming out, these players that are drafted now will be uh at the end of their careers or done completely.
• 31:43
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we're talking about 23 years from now.
• 31:45
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, I mean maybe somebody plays for 23 years, but for the most part, those guys will be retired.
• 31:50
  SPEAKER_00: So, do you how many people in the 2023 draft class can you see being in the NBA 100?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: That's I guess that's the question.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_00: So this morning, I was looking at the the NBA standings, trying, trying to figure out what we were gonna talk about today.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be real.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's be real.
• 32:12
  SPEAKER_00: Just put together, run a show with things I think will be interesting.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: And I was looking at that towards the bottom of the Western Conference.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I saw as a consistent of a lot of the teams that are towards the bottom is they're not having good luck with the injuries, right?
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_00: Grizzlies, bottom of the list, not injury related, but John Morant 25 games, Steven Adams out, Luke Anaro missed time, and Salty Aldama's finally back, but he missed time.
• 32:36
  SPEAKER_00: It's like they're missing so many players.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, if you're missing four to five of your top nine players, you're gonna lose basketball games.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_00: The Kings lost De Aaron Fox for a couple games.
• 32:46
  SPEAKER_00: They're struggling to get wins.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Lakers lost Anthony Davis for a game and a half.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_00: Don't have Jared Vanderbilt, don't have this guy, don't have that guy.
• 32:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Suns are without Devin Booker currently.
• 32:54
  SPEAKER_00: Bradley Beal just played his first official game here in Chicago.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't another game that wasn't pretty, but a win is a win is a win, right?
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: Um, shout out to Alice Caruso, man.
• 33:03
  SPEAKER_00: Man, man, man.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be so good for somebody in February.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: Once he gets traded, bro, teams, people are people, I guess people do recognize how good of a defensive player he is.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_00: He made an all-defensive same last year.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: What am I talking about?
• 33:17
  SPEAKER_00: But once he's playing for a team that matters, oh man, that for seven minutes, seven minutes of this game with the Suns versus the Bulls, the Suns did not score basket.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: And Kevin Durant was on the court for all seven of those minutes.
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_00: Alice Caruso.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: So the Suns are towards the bottom with their injuries, and then the Pelicans cannot catch a break, man.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_00: Uh CJ McCullum collapsed long, Jose Alvarado injury, Trey Murphy the third injury.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Zion had personal reasons, and people are speculating what that's about.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: I won't be adding to that list of things to speculate about.
• 33:53
  SPEAKER_00: Brandon Ingram missed time.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: So the teams that are at the bottom, so really just the injuries.
• 34:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, man, we could see the top 10 teams that make the playoffs just be the teams that had the best luck.
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Or let me let me rephrase that, not the top.
• 34:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because, like, even let's say like the Denver Nuggets are a good example, right?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: Jabal Murray's gonna be out for two to three weeks, maybe even more.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure they'll be fine.
• 34:18
  SPEAKER_00: They could have bad injury history and they're going to win games because they have arguably the greatest player in the league.
• 34:23
  SPEAKER_00: But when we talk about those teams that we don't see as contenders or those middle out of pack teams, they need that injury luck.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: So we can see, let's say, the the seven through ten seed boil down to what teams ended up being the healthiest.
• 34:39
  SPEAKER_00: And that's a scary thought.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: Depth is one of the most important things when building the team, y'all.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of teams sacrifice some of that depth for star power, you know?
• 34:49
  SPEAKER_00: Uh and if one of those stars go out, you are you are in for.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: So out of these teams, right?
• 34:55
  SPEAKER_00: Out of the grizzlies, the kings, the Lakers, the Pelicans, the Suns, who's gonna get healthiest, the fastest, healthier, the fastiest, fastest.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't think it's gonna be the Grizzlies, right?
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: Uh they still got what 20, 20 games, 18, 19 games of no job around.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it's gonna be rough.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: De'Aaron Fox is already questioned to come back soon, so they should be back on track.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Davis said his injury is not anything that we should be worried about, but he is also Anthony Davis, and though this injury might not be it, he's he's gonna, it's Anthony Davis.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: The Suns, uh, Devin Booker has been out for this and for that.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_00: Luckily, Bradley Beal is back because they were saying that for Bradley Beal was his back.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime I see somebody out with a back injury, I'm like, yo, I don't know what to say about that.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'd heard some horror stories from from athletes about procedures on backs and and how much it hinders your style of play, uh, which makes sense.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_00: If my back is aching, I sit in a chair and podcast all day.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, man, I don't know if I could get my best effort.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_00: So imagine if you're on the court for 40 minutes a game.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_00: Uh the Pelicans have the worst luck in the history of basketball with injuries.
• 36:00
  SPEAKER_00: It's just always the case.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just a matter of who could get healthy.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because building that depth in the middle of the season is just hard.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: Objectively, it's just hard.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like who can get healthy or who could keep their best players healthy?
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, we're talking about John Morant, we're talking about Anthony Davis, we're talking about De'Aaron Fox, Devin Booker, and Zion slash Brandon Ingram.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_00: So these aren't like the fifth man in the rotation type thing.
• 36:24
  SPEAKER_00: These are the star star players.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_00: Stay healthy, make the playoffs.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: Might be the recipe.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know where Shams dropped this bomb.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's not a bomb, but for people like me, it kind of is the NBA sickles.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, as a part of a meeting today with general managers, the NBA discussed a possibility of extending the draft format to two days beginning as soon as 2024.
• 36:47
  SPEAKER_00: The concept has been increasingly discussed in recent meetings as team executives believe they could better utilize more time for both first and second rounds.
• 36:56
  SPEAKER_00: Wow.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: The NBA draft is uh it's the shortest of the major uh sports, right?
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_00: NFL has multiple days, the MLB has multiple days, but also the NBA one has the least amount of picks, you know, 60 picks on the best year, 58 picks if somebody gets caught for tampering.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: Um, you know what I'm saying?
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: But there are so so many people that get drafted in the second round that don't get their their love.
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, of the 60 people drafted, obviously not all of them will make the NBA or become uh players that live in the league for more than a couple years or so.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: But when you think about these young athletes and how much time and how much work they put in to even hear their name called, it's special.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: And there are a lot of players, specifically in the second round, that don't get to experience that, even though they're drafted.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Well, well, Kenny, maybe they should just play better and get drafted in the first round.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's not always the way it works.
• 37:51
  SPEAKER_00: The guy we're talking about being the best player in the NBA, Nikola Jokic, was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_00: The guy that we widely consider the third best player in the NBA, Ayudasumu, was drafted during a Pizza Hut commercial, right?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_00: I think they deserve their due diligence.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: And though you do get, who is it, Mark Tatum?
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Tatum will still say the name.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Man, some dudes begin fly.
• 38:15
  SPEAKER_00: Give me a check-in of them if they don't get invited to the green room.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: I want to see a check-in of what they party looking like.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
• 38:21
  SPEAKER_00: Having a two-day thing.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_00: It's gonna be super interesting because I wonder what the viewership drop-off is.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_00: Because I know people who are diehard, diehard NBA fans, working NBA media.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna snitch.
• 38:35
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 38:36
  SPEAKER_00: They get through the lottery of the NBA draft and say, I'll catch up on the rest another day.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: I will do research on those players another day.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_00: So they don't even live throughout the lottery when it comes to the live reactions to things.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: So, how is the drop-off on viewership if we break it up into two days?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: Like, how do we get hype as NBA fans or a casual NBA?
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna be hype regardless.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_00: How does a casual NBA fan care about the 31st overall pick?
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_00: Because though we're talking about people like Nicole Jokic, Ayodesumu, uh Draymond Green, Paul Milsab, legendary second-round pick players, typically they're not that, right?
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_00: So how do how do we convince fans to care?
• 39:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's the real question for the NBA.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_00: Because doing it make sense for the play, for the players alone, doing it make sense?
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_00: And for them for the revenue.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_00: NBA revenue, you know, that's what they care about.
• 39:31
  SPEAKER_00: But for the players, it makes sense just for them to have that experience of them getting their their moments of glory for the hard work that they put in.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: But how do you get, I don't know, uh a Knicks fan that doesn't watch games but reads the newspaper to see the box score?
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: How do we get him to watch a second round?
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_00: Because across the other sports, let's specifically look at the NFL, there's still a ton of hype in day number two because the NFL draft is not the same as the NBA draft in the sense that in the NBA draft, typically the best players are getting drafted early on.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_00: In the NFL draft, man, a second round pick could turn out to be amazing.
• 40:07
  SPEAKER_00: A six-round pick can turn out to be the GOAT of the history of the league, you know?
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_00: And with it being so many roster spots, you see your favorite team draft a uh wide receiver in the first round, like, okay, that's done.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need no more receiver play.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_00: But well, let me see what they do about this O-line.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_00: In the NBA, it's not, it's only five positions, it's only 15 roster spots.
• 40:27
  SPEAKER_00: So it's not that much love to really go around from the casual fan.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm just, I'm just interested in it.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: And I wonder what type of coverage they can do to make it worth it for the casual fan.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_00: As always, let me reintroduce producer Greg to the show.
• 40:47
  SPEAKER_00: What we got today, Greg?
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_01: All right, Kenny.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna list some players, and you're gonna let me know whether you think they're gonna be traded by the deadline this year.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Okay.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: All right, first one, Pascal Siakam.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's a that's an interesting one, man.
• 41:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it's it's the best thing for their organization.
• 41:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mentioned before that the the Toronto Raptors have turned themselves to a good team after the a week's start.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but when you think about the future of this organization, you think about Pascal Siaka being an unrestricted free agent this year, it's probably best interest for your team to trade him, but not to trade him to rebuild or anything like that, but to retool the roster around Scotty Barnes.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_00: So the likelihood that he gets traded on a one through five, I would probably put it at a four.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say he's a four.
• 41:33
  SPEAKER_01: What about your very own Zach Levine?
• 41:36
  SPEAKER_00: I think the likelihood of it happening is maybe like a two and a half.
• 41:41
  SPEAKER_00: How much would I welcome it?
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Complete five.
• 41:43
  SPEAKER_00: And anytime I say something like that, then the people think that that means I don't like Zach Levine or anything like that.
• 41:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like, I really, really do like Zach Levine.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Like, he's one of the main consistent players over these last six years of struggling.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: And of course, you grow attachment to these players.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_00: But when I think about the overall landscape of our organization, it's probably best for us to trade him away, and probably better for his career to go somewhere else.
• 42:09
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't think it's super likely, but I would welcome it 100%.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_01: What about the Lakers, D'Angelo Russell?
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_00: Hey man, based based on this start, based on this start, I would say the likelihood of D'Angelo Russell getting traded is pretty high.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_00: They have a couple tradable first-round picks that you can attach to it.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_00: His contract is not overly, it's not big like his previous contract when he got the max or anything.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna say the likelihood D'Angelo Russell gets traded is like a three and a half, man.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_00: Three and a half.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_01: Last one, Boyan Bogdanovich.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_00: Ooh, curveball.
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_00: We haven't seen Bowyan this year.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_00: I think that he fits perfectly for what Kay Cunningham and the Detroit Pistons want to do.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he's a lot older than the rest of the core.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_00: If I'm not mistaken, he's entering his last year of his contract.
• 42:57
  SPEAKER_00: But I also thought he was gonna get traded last deadline.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't.
• 43:00
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna say the likelihood that Troy Weaver pulls something off is maybe like a two and a half.
• 43:04
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I could I could definitely see it happening.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_00: So let me know what you think about the Lakers, the 76ers, the Clippers, the injury history, luck, or whatever you want to call it, in the NBA draft being changed.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: The comments are always open.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_00: Hit me up on Twitter.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_00: Remember to download on Spotify, on Apple, give us five stars.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_00: We continue our climb to take over NBA media.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Draymond Green got the hashtag new media.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I fit into that, but maybe I fit into that.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_00: I appreciate y'all.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: See y'all in a couple days.