Latest / Kenny For Real / My First Impression For Every NBA Team

Transcript

My First Impression For Every NBA Team · Kenny For Real

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: All 30 NBA teams have played a game because I've
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: watched all 30 teams play a game. And I'm really
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: excited to do the first impressions or things I'm monitoring
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: or whatever for all 30 teams.
• 0:09
  Speaker 2: Now, a couple things you got to say right off
• 0:11
  Speaker 2: the rip.
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I got to say this because while 99% of y'all
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: understand that we're doing first impressions and there might be
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: some overreactions in there, it's always that 1% that will
• 0:20
  Speaker 1: come back to me six months later when it's game
• 0:23
  Speaker 1: 74 and be like, see Kenny, remember what you said
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: on opening night? We look so much different. Yeah, you should.
• 0:28
  Speaker 1: You should look so much different. So these are just
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: how I feel and what I've been seeing after one game.
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: But we recognize that the league, the players, the coaching,
• 0:36
  Speaker 1: the schemes are ever evolving. What I say today is
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: not in stone that it's going to happen or going
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: to be the case for all 32, 82 NBA games
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: and then the postseason. So just take it for what
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: it is.
• 0:47
  Speaker 2: All right. That's the first thing we got to say.
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: The second thing is.
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: While I've seen all 30 teams play, I'm not spending
• 0:53
  Speaker 1: seven minutes on all 30 teams. You see the runtime
• 0:55
  Speaker 1: in this video. Some of the teams might get a
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: sentence or two. That's just the reality of it. We
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: got so much season. So if your favorite team is
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: not talking about enough today, don't worry.
• 1:04
  Speaker 2: We're going to get to them.
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: That's why you also should be listening and following Small
• 1:07
  Speaker 1: Ball with Kenny Beecham because we're doing an extra hour
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: over there every single week. And you should be watching
• 1:11
  Speaker 1: and listening to Numbers on the Board as we do, like,
• 1:13
  Speaker 1: basically three-hour episodes twice a week.
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: Just talking.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: I can't say just talking hoops, but talking hoops. So, like,
• 1:19
  Speaker 1: if this ain't enough, go watch and listen to the
• 1:21
  Speaker 1: other shows. All right, let's start off with the Philadelphia 76ers.
• 1:24
  Speaker 2: Now, they look good, y'all.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: I know the first half last night versus the Cavs
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: didn't look so good. But when you go against the Cavs,
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: you're never truly out of the game. And we're going
• 1:31
  Speaker 1: to talk about the Cavs later, much later in this video.
• 1:33
  Speaker 1: But they ramped up that pressure. They got in transition
• 1:37
  Speaker 1: of turnovers, and that led to them having, what, a
• 1:39
  Speaker 1: 29-point comeback. The takeaway is, like, a lot of the
• 1:42
  Speaker 1: questions going into it was, okay, one ball, how would
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: that look? The defense, how would that look? But also,
• 1:47
  Speaker 1: when it came down to clutch time, who gets these opportunities?
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: And I thought last night they had a nice little
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: balance of going to their number one guy, who in
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: this case, can we agree that it's Tyrese Maxey?
• 1:55
  Speaker 2: I think we can agree that it's Tyrese Maxey.
• 1:57
  Speaker 1: But also there was a lot of Jalen Brown saying, oh, yeah,
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: I'm still the guy that was just all NBA. I
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: think he made second team last year. And I still
• 2:04
  Speaker 1: can can close out a game where he called his
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: own number. And I love that those two guys kind
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: of played off each other enough. We're like early in
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: the first half. It felt like the ball was sticking.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: It was counter counter to what happened in the first
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: game versus the New York Knicks. So I felt like
• 2:17
  Speaker 1: things were a little bit more free flowing. You had
• 2:18
  Speaker 1: many possessions where everybody was touching the ball in the
• 2:21
  Speaker 1: first half of that game.
• 2:22
  Speaker 2: They look dead.
• 2:23
  Speaker 1: And the second half, based off them forcing the turnovers
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: and getting out moving, you did see some more cohesion.
• 2:28
  Speaker 1: So I'm liking what I'm seeing from these guys. It
• 2:30
  Speaker 1: ain't completely fitting like a glove just yet. But the
• 2:32
  Speaker 1: fact that they've gone against two Eastern Conference contenders in
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: the New York Knicks and the Cleveland Cavaliers and walked
• 2:37
  Speaker 1: out victorious in both makes me feel pretty optimistic about
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: the future of this team. Next, you got the OKC Thunder,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: who did very similar things. Where the first night of
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: the season, they go against the San Antonio Spurs and
• 2:47
  Speaker 1: win that game. And the second game of the season,
• 2:49
  Speaker 1: they go against the Denver Nuggets, two contenders out west.
• 2:51
  Speaker 1: The takeaway is that the OKC Thunder are just the
• 2:53
  Speaker 1: deepest team in basketball. And I don't even know how
• 2:55
  Speaker 1: close it really is. Last night, you had Shea really,
• 2:57
  Speaker 1: really struggle.
• 2:58
  Speaker 2: From the field.
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: I think he was like one of like 12 at
• 3:01
  Speaker 1: one point, similar to what Wimmy Yama did in that
• 3:03
  Speaker 1: first game. And it just didn't matter because they have
• 3:06
  Speaker 1: so much infrastructure on the team. They have so many
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: defensive options. Where, like, it's kind of crazy that the
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: league allowed them to get Adai Mara. Not acting like
• 3:14
  Speaker 1: Adai is going to go out there and play 30
• 3:15
  Speaker 1: minutes a night. But, like, you know the top other
• 3:18
  Speaker 1: teams that you're going to worry about out west are, like,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: the Spurs, who have Victor Wimeryama, the different Nuggets, who
• 3:24
  Speaker 1: have Nikola Jokic. And now they basically have a four-man
• 3:26
  Speaker 1: center rotation between Iheart, Chet, Mara, and Williams. That, like,
• 3:32
  Speaker 1: those other big fellas they got to go through will
• 3:34
  Speaker 1: always see a plus defensive player, a super physical defensive player.
• 3:37
  Speaker 1: And when you add on the defensive case and on
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: the wing, J-Dub being back and healthy and looking spectacular.
• 3:42
  Speaker 1: Like this team is just so damn deep that they
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: don't even really need wings on the team. It's like
• 3:46
  Speaker 1: we got a bunch of bigs. We got a bunch
• 3:47
  Speaker 1: of guards, but some of those guards play bigger defensively.
• 3:49
  Speaker 2: So we fine. Again, they were my preseason pick to
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: win the NBA finals.
• 3:53
  Speaker 1: And I still feel pretty good about that because they
• 3:55
  Speaker 1: look elite even when Shea is having a bad offensive game.
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Take away for the Atlanta Hawks. Like this was a
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: polarizing team in the offseason, right? One of my big
• 4:02
  Speaker 1: questions for them was how much of what they did
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: in the second half of the year where they was like, well,
• 4:06
  Speaker 1: it felt like 22-0.
• 4:07
  Speaker 2: I know that wasn't the number. Well, they felt like 22-0.
• 4:09
  Speaker 2: How much of that was real?
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: You go through the game log and be like, oh, snap,
• 4:12
  Speaker 1: out of all of these games they played against two
• 4:14
  Speaker 1: playoff teams that beat up on bad teams, how much
• 4:16
  Speaker 1: of that is real? And I don't know the answer
• 4:18
  Speaker 1: to that based on them beating the Orlando Magic, but
• 4:20
  Speaker 1: I am more optimistic about it now because the Nikhil
• 4:23
  Speaker 1: Alexander-Walker jump that we saw last season is not over.
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Like, he's still getting better.
• 4:28
  Speaker 1: And I keep thinking about, like, once he won most
• 4:31
  Speaker 1: approved player, they were all together, the Alexander-Walker family or
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: Shea's people, And Shea's dad said, hey, you got to
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: go get the next one.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: They're like, we like the next one. What, MVP? It's
• 4:39
  Speaker 2: just crazy how they set expectations for each other that
• 4:42
  Speaker 2: are nuts. And it's like, oh, wait, he's going to
• 4:43
  Speaker 2: do that. No, he's not going to win MVP.
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: But, like, is it crazy to think that Nikhil Jadavalkar
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: could be an all-star? That the Atlanta Hawks could have
• 4:49
  Speaker 1: two all-stars between him and Jalen Johnson? And the other
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: people around him, like Dyson Daniels, look really good. Again,
• 4:53
  Speaker 1: I'm a Kingston Fleming super fan at this point. We're like, yeah,
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: Nikhil is the real deal. And he is one of
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: the best success stories ever. Like in recent NBA history,
• 5:02
  Speaker 1: if you think about it, I ain't going to go
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: through it too much, but like drafted well as like
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: a primary secondary ball handler.
• 5:08
  Speaker 2: That didn't work out. He goes to the next team.
• 5:10
  Speaker 2: That don't work out.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: And then he finds his legs in Minnesota where he's
• 5:13
  Speaker 1: looked at to be a 3 and D guy.
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: That looks perfect.
• 5:15
  Speaker 1: Atlanta signs him thinking they're going to get a 3
• 5:17
  Speaker 1: and D guy. They said publicly they thought he was
• 5:20
  Speaker 1: going to be like a really good guy off the bench.
• 5:21
  Speaker 1: And he blossomed to like a lead ball handler that
• 5:23
  Speaker 1: can average 20 plus points per game or in this season,
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: maybe 22, 23.
• 5:28
  Speaker 2: They had Lou Doerr coming off the bench.
• 5:29
  Speaker 1: It didn't look terrible because he had five fouls a
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: semester when he had to think about it because even
• 5:33
  Speaker 1: if he fouled out the dice a day.
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: I don't know. I like what I saw from the
• 5:36
  Speaker 2: Atlanta Hawks. I'll say that. Clevers are an.
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: Interesting team because they went against the Kings who, again,
• 5:41
  Speaker 1: we're going to get to later in the episode. But
• 5:44
  Speaker 1: I predicted that Darius Garland was going to go out
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: there and just spaz in that first game.
• 5:47
  Speaker 2: That's exactly what he did.
• 5:48
  Speaker 1: And if his three-point shot is followed, which is what
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: happened in that first quarter, it opens up the game
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: so much more. I was really impressed with what I've
• 5:54
  Speaker 1: seen from Ajax. I was really impressed also what I
• 5:57
  Speaker 1: saw from Brook Lopez, which like it always feels like
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: Brook Lopez is dead as far as his NBA career goes.
• 6:01
  Speaker 1: And he's like, oh, here's a resurgence. And then deeper
• 6:03
  Speaker 1: than that, Keaton Wagler looked really good as well. So
• 6:06
  Speaker 1: like all of those things being involved. Again, it was
• 6:09
  Speaker 1: against the Kings. So I can't say that I'm really
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: excited to watch more Clippers hoops. I think we got
• 6:15
  Speaker 1: to see them against like a competent team. But like
• 6:17
  Speaker 1: it was more, let's say it was more entertaining than
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: I originally thought it would be.
• 6:20
  Speaker 2: And I think that's a win. The Detroit Pistons.
• 6:23
  Speaker 1: Another team that was really polarizing from this offseason where
• 6:25
  Speaker 1: people saw that they won 60 last year and said, no,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: that's probably not what they're going to do, which is fair.
• 6:28
  Speaker 2: 60 wins a lot.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: But some people had them on the outside looking in
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: as far as them being a seventh seed or an
• 6:33
  Speaker 1: eighth seed.
• 6:34
  Speaker 2: And I think one thing that.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: Is super valuable and underappreciated when it comes to these
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: preseason predictions is teams that truly have an identity. And
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: the Detroit Pistons have an identity like no other that
• 6:43
  Speaker 1: is going to help them win a bunch of regular
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: season games. I said in that first day recap, And
• 6:48
  Speaker 1: to start Thompson is my favorite defensive wing to watch
• 6:51
  Speaker 1: since Kawhi Leonard.
• 6:52
  Speaker 2: Like, that's how fun it is.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: And we start adding in Kay Cunningham being able to
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: close out possessions with, you know, doing the things that
• 6:57
  Speaker 1: he do and Jalen Duren looking good.
• 6:59
  Speaker 2: And then, of course, they got my boy Wu coming
• 7:01
  Speaker 2: off the bench.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: It's just still a fun team and a team that
• 7:04
  Speaker 1: I think is still going to win a bunch of
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: regular season games because they know who they are.
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: They know who they are. So, like, that's a win.
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: The Houston Rockets, the thing that stood out to me
• 7:11
  Speaker 1: in their game versus the Dallas Mavericks is the space
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: that they play with and the pace that they play with. Now,
• 7:17
  Speaker 1: the Mavericks may not project to be a really good team,
• 7:21
  Speaker 1: but it was the first game we really got to
• 7:22
  Speaker 1: see Fraven Vliet being back in the lineup while he
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: didn't shoot it well. You could see his orchestration matters.
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: You could see him just adding more space because he
• 7:28
  Speaker 1: is a threat from beyond the arc mattering. And I
• 7:30
  Speaker 1: understand that last year also we saw Alfred Shingun hit
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: a bunch of threes in the season opener, so I
• 7:34
  Speaker 1: don't want to act like him going, what, two for
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: two from three Against the Dallas Mavericks, this is the
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: awakening for his three-point shot. We have to wait and see.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: But it is some encouraging things going on, right? Even
• 7:43
  Speaker 1: Jabari Smith Jr., who like, it felt like a plateau
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: was happening, which is not a bad thing because he's
• 7:49
  Speaker 1: still a really impactful NBA player. But I don't know,
• 7:51
  Speaker 1: maybe with this added space and this better offensive system,
• 7:55
  Speaker 1: because there was just times where They were just running
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: stuff that I don't know. He may don't get the
• 7:59
  Speaker 1: reputation as a really good offensive coach. He's a defensive mind.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: He's going to get these guys locked in mentally. But
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: the offense can be a lot to be desired. We're
• 8:06
  Speaker 1: going to rebound our own shot 43% of the time.
• 8:08
  Speaker 1: And that's how we're going to win games. I thought
• 8:10
  Speaker 1: their offense looked pretty fluid in the first game. Kevin
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: Wright makes everything look easy. But I think that the
• 8:15
  Speaker 1: people around him and the spacing and the movement made
• 8:18
  Speaker 1: it even easier for Kevin Wright to get off his
• 8:20
  Speaker 1: 30 ball.
• 8:21
  Speaker 2: So I don't know.
• 8:21
  Speaker 1: I love what I saw from the Houston Rockets. Moving
• 8:23
  Speaker 1: on to the Toronto Raptors, a team that absolutely decimated
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: my favorite team. The defense stands out, and that is
• 8:28
  Speaker 1: the one thing that they can hang their hat on
• 8:30
  Speaker 1: all season long. I mean, they held the Bulls to
• 8:33
  Speaker 1: 92 points, and it truly didn't feel like 92.
• 8:34
  Speaker 2: It felt like 12.
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: And so there's just too many orchestrations of their team
• 8:39
  Speaker 1: that you look at and you say, God damn, how
• 8:41
  Speaker 1: are we as the opposing team supposed to score on that?
• 8:44
  Speaker 1: They're always going to have an all-defensive caliber player on
• 8:46
  Speaker 1: the court at all times. And sometimes, most of the time,
• 8:48
  Speaker 1: it's going to be two of them on the court
• 8:50
  Speaker 1: at the same time. What are you supposed to do?
• 8:52
  Speaker 1: And they're all so rangy, and they're all so switchable that, like,
• 8:56
  Speaker 1: It don't matter if you're coming in with a top
• 8:57
  Speaker 1: lead guard or you're coming in with a top big
• 8:59
  Speaker 1: fella or you're coming in with a top wing.
• 9:01
  Speaker 2: They got they got the answers for it.
• 9:02
  Speaker 1: So it's just a scary team with an amazingly high
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: ceiling because now they also got some off the bounce
• 9:08
  Speaker 1: stuff because we missed Emmanuel quickly in the postseason.
• 9:10
  Speaker 2: He looked really good in that first game. So he's
• 9:12
  Speaker 2: got a lot.
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: The Portland Trailblazers, another team with the one ball thing,
• 9:16
  Speaker 1: came up a lot between them, adding John Morant, who
• 9:18
  Speaker 1: had been has been a primary ball handler his entire career.
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: where they add in Damian Lillard coming off the injury,
• 9:23
  Speaker 1: primary ball handler all of his career, and Denny just
• 9:25
  Speaker 1: had one of the highest usage rates that we've seen
• 9:28
  Speaker 1: in Portland Trailblazers history.
• 9:29
  Speaker 2: It's like, how will it work? And the answer is
• 9:32
  Speaker 2: really good.
• 9:32
  Speaker 1: I thought Denny looked phenomenal playing off the ball when
• 9:34
  Speaker 1: he had just so many cuts. And because there's now
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: so much space with Damian Lillard out there, There's just
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: open avenues and open lanes. I thought Donovan Kling has
• 9:41
  Speaker 1: set really hard screens. And then when he was stretching
• 9:44
  Speaker 1: the floor, he looked pretty competent to do it. I
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: think he hit the first shot of the game. That
• 9:47
  Speaker 1: was a three pointer. And then John Morant was everywhere.
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: And he said, this is the, you only get one
• 9:53
  Speaker 1: time to have a first impression. I think the first
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: impression with him in a Portland Trailblazers uniform as far
• 9:57
  Speaker 1: as regular season goes was really impressive.
• 9:59
  Speaker 2: He was all over the place.
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: The place diving on the floor for loose balls I
• 10:02
  Speaker 1: don't think he's going to shoot 66 percent from three
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: but like the three was falling he looked confident doing
• 10:06
  Speaker 1: that and while his first step or his first jump
• 10:08
  Speaker 1: may not look as explosive as previous years I still
• 10:10
  Speaker 1: think there is a real competent and really good NBA
• 10:13
  Speaker 1: player left in there And then they got some interesting
• 10:14
  Speaker 1: stuff coming off the bench. Drew Holiday may not have
• 10:16
  Speaker 1: had a great scoring game, but you know what his
• 10:18
  Speaker 1: impact is. School Henderson is a guy that got so
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: much stock here. So everything looked really damn good. And
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: I'm trying to figure out how much of that is Portland,
• 10:26
  Speaker 1: how much of that was the Phoenix Suns.
• 10:27
  Speaker 2: I don't know. Again, it's only one game. Washington Wizards.
• 10:31
  Speaker 1: It's just so great to see Anthony Davis back on
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: his bully. Now, he was going against a team and
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks who have, what, Turner and Kaleo Ware
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: and Kaleo Ware fouled out in, what, 12 minutes, which
• 10:43
  Speaker 1: is crazy. So it's not like he went against a
• 10:45
  Speaker 1: team with a crazy defensive backcourt, but it's just so
• 10:48
  Speaker 1: great to see him. I think I mentioned in our
• 10:50
  Speaker 1: first video where they had a bunch of high-low actions
• 10:53
  Speaker 1: between him and Alex Sarr that they tried that weren't
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: really working. But I'm intrigued with the idea of them
• 10:58
  Speaker 1: playing together and them finding some level of chemistry there.
• 11:01
  Speaker 1: While Trae Young struggled to score from the field, his
• 11:03
  Speaker 1: passing is a complete necessity. And between Carrington, Johnson, I'm
• 11:08
  Speaker 1: trying to think, Carrington, Johnson, Aiden, and Champagny, a pretty
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: decent bench You know, some of those guys are younger,
• 11:15
  Speaker 1: so we're going to have some ups and downs with them.
• 11:17
  Speaker 1: And then Bilal is going to be on that bench
• 11:19
  Speaker 1: eventually when AJ comes back from his ankle. So, like, young,
• 11:21
  Speaker 1: interesting bench where I feel like Brian Keith can mess
• 11:24
  Speaker 1: with some rotations a little bit where it always feels
• 11:26
  Speaker 1: like they're going to have a competent lineup. And it's
• 11:28
  Speaker 1: been a while since we've been able to say that
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: for the Washington Wizards.
• 11:31
  Speaker 2: Next, we're going to get to the LA Lakers. I
• 11:32
  Speaker 2: will say this did not feel like a Lakers team.
• 11:35
  Speaker 2: At times, it didn't feel like a Lakers team.
• 11:37
  Speaker 1: Like, the high motor that they played with between the
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: wings getting out and running with, you know, Theibel or
• 11:42
  Speaker 1: Zaire Williams, which is like We watch you, Zaire. We
• 11:46
  Speaker 1: really watch you trying to figure out what the hell
• 11:48
  Speaker 1: is going on. But like even Jake LaRavia running the
• 11:50
  Speaker 1: floor or Walker Kessler just doing the easy part. It
• 11:54
  Speaker 1: didn't feel like the Lakers teams that we've seen in
• 11:56
  Speaker 1: the past. I think that's a good thing. They have
• 11:58
  Speaker 1: a decent amount of like single line drive drivers like
• 12:00
  Speaker 1: Quinn Grimes who got it off the bounce a couple
• 12:02
  Speaker 1: different times.
• 12:03
  Speaker 2: And I don't know.
• 12:04
  Speaker 1: It just felt great. I mean, they were going against
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: a team significantly smaller than them. So like Walker Kessler.
• 12:09
  Speaker 1: having the perfect game may not happen every single night
• 12:11
  Speaker 1: because his opponent won't be 6'6, 6'5, Draymond Green. But
• 12:15
  Speaker 1: there are so many great things that we saw in
• 12:17
  Speaker 1: there where you want Luka Doncic to be Luka, to
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: be averaging 30 because he is the greatest engine in
• 12:23
  Speaker 1: the sport other than maybe Jokic or wherever you have him.
• 12:25
  Speaker 2: One and two.
• 12:26
  Speaker 1: But it is great when you don't need that to
• 12:28
  Speaker 1: be your entire identity, where Austin Reeves can come in
• 12:32
  Speaker 1: and be phenomenal. And then you have, I think that
• 12:34
  Speaker 1: Colin Sexton is going to be an added player to
• 12:36
  Speaker 1: this bench that's going to be really good.
• 12:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: I just really love what I saw And Walker Kessler
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: has a lot of pressure on his shoulders because they don't, like,
• 12:44
  Speaker 1: them Kevon Looney minutes was rough.
• 12:45
  Speaker 2: I ain't going to lie.
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: And I guess I like the idea of Mamu playing
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: more back of five. But, like, Kessler's going to have
• 12:50
  Speaker 1: to really hold it down on both sides of the floor.
• 12:53
  Speaker 1: And he cannot get injured. And we're not hoping that
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: for him. So, yeah, it just didn't feel like a
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: normal Lakers team. And at times, it didn't feel like
• 12:58
  Speaker 1: a Luka team. It just felt like a really good
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: basketball team, which I feel like can be a plus.
• 13:03
  Speaker 1: These Charlotte Hornets, they traded them that little ball. And
• 13:06
  Speaker 1: the main question becomes like, okay, how does that play
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: make it? What did the passing look like?
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: Yada, yada, yada. And they were also without Kobe White.
• 13:12
  Speaker 2: They were also without Conk and Nipple.
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: So it's like, ooh, they even feels worse than before.
• 13:16
  Speaker 1: Now they were going against a team in Brooklyn who
• 13:18
  Speaker 1: don't project to be super great. But I love that
• 13:21
  Speaker 1: Nas Reed was kind of being used as like a
• 13:23
  Speaker 1: lead guard. It's like, oh shit, yeah, Nas Reed does
• 13:25
  Speaker 1: have passing chops. and he can shoot, and he can dribble,
• 13:27
  Speaker 1: he's just got one of the best handles, not just
• 13:29
  Speaker 1: of big fellas, but just one of the best handles
• 13:30
  Speaker 1: in the league, so they used him as if he
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: was like a little baby yolk, and I'm like, oh, okay,
• 13:34
  Speaker 1: that's a nice way to look at it, nice way
• 13:35
  Speaker 1: to do things, I'm just monitoring Brandon Miller, again, I
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: said before that I am a Brandon Miller believer, but
• 13:41
  Speaker 1: it is interesting to like, I don't use the word
• 13:44
  Speaker 1: give the keys, because between him and Khan, and some
• 13:46
  Speaker 1: of the, they just have, they have a deep roster,
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: full stop, because even Grayson Allen and Royce O'Neal were
• 13:51
  Speaker 1: really missed by Phoenix the other night, because of their
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: jump shooting, and their ability to play off the ball,
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: but I'm just monitoring Brandon Miller because it's just rare
• 14:00
  Speaker 1: that we see a guy be.
• 14:02
  Speaker 2: A true number one.
• 14:03
  Speaker 1: He doesn't get to the foul line and is not
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: a good passer. Sometimes it can be one or the other,
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: but very rarely is it both of those things together.
• 14:11
  Speaker 1: So we're just monitoring it. He had a really good
• 14:13
  Speaker 1: first quarter. Then after that, he was nonexistent. And then
• 14:15
  Speaker 1: the rest of the guys had to pick it up.
• 14:18
  Speaker 2: Memphis Grizzlies. Hey, listen.
• 14:21
  Speaker 1: If you have not been listening and you're not on
• 14:22
  Speaker 1: the Memphis Grizzlies bandwagon already, it ain't too late. I've
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: been telling y'all this team is going to be good.
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: And I ain't think Todd Jerome is going to put
• 14:29
  Speaker 1: up a little 45, seven and six in his debut,
• 14:32
  Speaker 1: but that's exactly what he did. Campbell's did not shoot
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: the ball well, but my God is he's, he's just
• 14:36
  Speaker 1: a great ball player. I don't have any other way
• 14:38
  Speaker 1: to put it. He can have a game where he's
• 14:40
  Speaker 1: two for 15. And I watched and say, he is
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: still the second to third, most impactful player on the
• 14:45
  Speaker 1: court where he's grabbing his rebounds and he's doing the
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: perfect outlet passes. He's playing great defense on guys like
• 14:50
  Speaker 1: Jaron Jackson, junior, former all-star kind of guys. And so
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: I just, the scoring will come around is one game.
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: But the rest of the stuff, all of the other
• 14:58
  Speaker 1: things that go unnoticed on the box score stands out
• 15:00
  Speaker 1: to me. And if you got him setting amazing screens
• 15:02
  Speaker 1: for Ty Jerome or outletting it to some of these
• 15:05
  Speaker 1: other guys, I don't know. It's a solid team. I'm
• 15:07
  Speaker 1: not realizing I'm saying I don't know a lot, but
• 15:09
  Speaker 1: like that's just the reality of it. Indiana Pacers, welcome
• 15:12
  Speaker 1: back Tyrese Halliburton. Boy, did they really miss Neesmith and
• 15:15
  Speaker 1: TJ McConnell, but they walked out of there with a win.
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: There were some lineup orchestrations that I felt like we
• 15:19
  Speaker 1: would have never seen if Neesmith was healthy. But it
• 15:22
  Speaker 1: is what it is. It took a while for Halle
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: to really get it going. And then we got to
• 15:25
  Speaker 1: that fourth quarter. He was four for four from the
• 15:27
  Speaker 1: field with two assists, 13 points. Got to the foul
• 15:29
  Speaker 1: line five times. It's like a traditional Halliburton thing. And
• 15:33
  Speaker 1: like a question always comes up of like, do you
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: believe in clutch gene? Like a guy like Tyrese Halliburton.
• 15:41
  Speaker 1: gives you the belief that Clutch Gene is real. When
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: you think about his two runs to the conference finals
• 15:46
  Speaker 1: and the NBA finals, all the tough shots he's made,
• 15:48
  Speaker 1: and then in this game, for him to never use
• 15:50
  Speaker 1: his left hand at the rim for a floater, for
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: him to break it out and ice the game with it,
• 15:55
  Speaker 1: that's just a Clutch player. And I love that he
• 15:58
  Speaker 1: playing with a bit of fire. He just went however
• 16:00
  Speaker 1: many months without basketball. So yeah, he might get into
• 16:03
  Speaker 1: a little bit more scuffles than previously. I love, let's
• 16:05
  Speaker 1: get negative. Let's both die.
• 16:07
  Speaker 2: You know what I mean? Like, I love that energy
• 16:09
  Speaker 2: that Hallie is playing with right now. So that's a win.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: And the Pelicans look impressive, but we're going to mention
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: them a little bit later. Minnesota Timberwolves, we did our episode.
• 16:17
  Speaker 1: We did our live show in Chicago. We did our
• 16:20
  Speaker 1: season preview awards. And I said, man, I got Anthony
• 16:22
  Speaker 1: Edwards as number three in MVP because I just feel
• 16:25
  Speaker 1: like with the added player in LaMelo Ball, it's just
• 16:29
  Speaker 1: going to open the game up so much more. And
• 16:31
  Speaker 1: against the Miami Heat, that's exactly what happened. And he's
• 16:33
  Speaker 1: just one of the best players in the world when
• 16:35
  Speaker 1: it comes to him being on the heater, when he
• 16:36
  Speaker 1: starts talking to the crowd or talking to the opposing team.
• 16:39
  Speaker 2: There's not many people that are more fun to watch.
• 16:41
  Speaker 1: And you add on top that he is still explosive
• 16:43
  Speaker 1: at the rim, where if you run him off the line,
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: he still can hit that mid-range jump shot.
• 16:47
  Speaker 2: He is amazing.
• 16:49
  Speaker 1: The defense should be really good as long as Rudy
• 16:51
  Speaker 1: Gobert is not in foul trouble. Jada McDaniels looks amazing.
• 16:53
  Speaker 1: There's a lot of things that happened on NBA Twitter
• 16:55
  Speaker 1: the first week of the NBA season. One of them
• 16:59
  Speaker 1: is fans asking the question like, just jokingly saying, like,
• 17:02
  Speaker 1: if somebody has.
• 17:03
  Speaker 2: A bad game, they say like, man, what did he
• 17:04
  Speaker 2: work on in the offseason? Just trolling, right?
• 17:06
  Speaker 1: There's no question that Jada McDaniels is working his ass
• 17:09
  Speaker 1: off in the offseason because his offensive game is more
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: polished every single year that we see him. And he's
• 17:14
  Speaker 1: going to benefit so much of opposing teams putting the
• 17:16
  Speaker 1: Klay Thompsons of the world on him because Klay has
• 17:19
  Speaker 1: missed a step. And oh, I'm Jada McDaniels and I
• 17:21
  Speaker 1: can dribble now. I can two dribble pull up. I
• 17:23
  Speaker 1: can play in the screen and roll. I can do
• 17:25
  Speaker 1: all of these things. But also, I can't spot up
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: while a mellow Anthony Harris is running the show. He's like,
• 17:30
  Speaker 1: the perfect player to have alongside those guys because he
• 17:33
  Speaker 1: is evolving as a player. And then when you add
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: on Ayuda Sumo and Shannon and all these other guys
• 17:39
  Speaker 1: off the bench, it's a pretty solid team and a
• 17:41
  Speaker 1: pretty deep team.
• 17:41
  Speaker 2: So I'm loving it.
• 17:42
  Speaker 1: New York Knicks, don't think too much about them losing
• 17:45
  Speaker 1: their first game of the season. That championship banner thing
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: after 53 years, I don't know, bro. I wouldn't be
• 17:50
  Speaker 1: able to play well either. And Jalen Brunson missed a
• 17:53
  Speaker 1: lot of shots that you would normally see Jalen Brunson hit.
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: So I'm not worried about it whatsoever. Shout out to
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: New York Knicks, our defending champions. The Denver Nuggets lost
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: the game and they scored, how many points did they score? 17?
• 18:02
  Speaker 2: 84. Oh yeah, 84.
• 18:04
  Speaker 1: Is it crazy to say, while the offense didn't look
• 18:06
  Speaker 1: good again, they were going against the greatest defensive team
• 18:08
  Speaker 1: in the league in the OKC Thunder.
• 18:10
  Speaker 2: I walked out feeling okay.
• 18:13
  Speaker 1: And I think the reason I was feeling okay is
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: because I just don't know how many times you're going
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: to see 5 for 19 from Jokic.
• 18:18
  Speaker 2: Shout out to OKC.
• 18:19
  Speaker 1: They bottled him up, which is something that does not
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: happen often. Jamal Murray gets bottled up by OKC more
• 18:24
  Speaker 1: times than not. But the other stuff I was pretty
• 18:26
  Speaker 1: intrigued with, they were trying different things in the one
• 18:30
  Speaker 1: preseason game I watched of them versus the Lakers and
• 18:32
  Speaker 1: how they were blitzing screens on Luka every single time down.
• 18:35
  Speaker 1: They're trying to get more creative defensively. And I thought
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: they played a really great defensive game on Shea Gills Alexander.
• 18:40
  Speaker 1: I thought they played just a really great defensive game combined. And,
• 18:44
  Speaker 1: you know, we always talk about them being over-reliant on
• 18:47
  Speaker 1: an Aaron Gordon. That's what they are, for sure. But, like,
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: as long as Aaron Gordon is there, it's still going
• 18:51
  Speaker 1: to be a good team. Obviously, they lost Cam Johnson
• 18:54
  Speaker 1: halfway through the game to an ankle, so maybe that
• 18:56
  Speaker 1: changes the tides a little bit. But, like, between Trevon
• 18:59
  Speaker 1: Brazil and then Alpha Diallo coming off the bench, they
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: have some interesting defensive versatility they can really throw out there.
• 19:07
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 19:07
  Speaker 1: I think their defense should be better than 21st in
• 19:10
  Speaker 1: the league like it was last year. Maybe they're not
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the best offensive team in the league anymore, but if
• 19:15
  Speaker 1: you can balance that out a little bit more, it becomes,
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: I don't know. I walked out feeling okay, even though
• 19:19
  Speaker 1: they only put up 8,400 points.
• 19:22
  Speaker 2: The Brooklyn Nets. We talked about this on Numbers on
• 19:24
  Speaker 2: the Board.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: It's not many people in the league that we like
• 19:27
  Speaker 1: watching on not-so-great teams like we like watching Julius Randle.
• 19:30
  Speaker 1: But Julius Randle, when he don't have a lot of
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: pieces around him, is pretty damn good. He's really good
• 19:34
  Speaker 1: at raising the floor, and he can help your team
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: be more fun. I thought him and MPJ looked like
• 19:38
  Speaker 1: vets on the team with a bunch of young guys.
• 19:40
  Speaker 1: I did hate the fact that– hold on, let me–
• 19:41
  Speaker 1: I didn't write it in my notes, but when I
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: was watching it this morning, I did hate the fact
• 19:45
  Speaker 1: that a lot of the young guys that they had
• 19:47
  Speaker 1: drafted a– Drake Powell, Ben Serif, and then Danny Wolfe
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: got DNP coach's decisions.
• 19:54
  Speaker 2: That's not great.
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: You know, those are three guys that you basically drafted
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: in the first round. I think they were all first
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: round picks. And you really bought into Yeager Yeoman, which
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: is great. I think he's going to be really good.
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: And Nolan Triore and Mike Hill Brown were the only
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: three guys in that young core to really get a
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: bunch of burns. Um, so that's not really great. That
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: first game of the season, they couldn't run, but like,
• 20:13
  Speaker 1: you know, it's a long season. They'll find their way
• 20:15
  Speaker 1: into the rotation, but Julius Randle can be really good
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: at times, man. And he can have stretches like, oh yeah,
• 20:20
  Speaker 1: I forgot that he was an all NBA player once
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: upon a time. The San Antonio Spurs love that they
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: were trying to three guard lineup. I'm not sure if
• 20:28
  Speaker 1: it's going to make sense for 82 game season, you know?
• 20:31
  Speaker 1: It feels better when you have one of those guys
• 20:32
  Speaker 1: coming off the bench. And I don't know if it's
• 20:34
  Speaker 1: ego or politics and them trying to figure out which
• 20:36
  Speaker 1: guy it should be.
• 20:37
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: I don't think it was awful, by the way. I
• 20:39
  Speaker 1: don't think it was awful what we saw with the
• 20:40
  Speaker 1: three-guard lineup versus OKC.
• 20:42
  Speaker 2: But I don't know.
• 20:43
  Speaker 1: I like the fact that you have an opportunity to
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: bring one of those guys first off the bench. And
• 20:47
  Speaker 1: then that second unit can look really good regardless. I
• 20:49
  Speaker 1: think when Miami even said himself, he's in his own
• 20:51
  Speaker 1: head a little bit after that first game. I also
• 20:53
  Speaker 1: really like Champagny in the starting lineup. I think that's more...
• 20:55
  Speaker 1: It's not against the three guards. It's more about Champagny's
• 20:58
  Speaker 1: spacing and his shooting makes... women yama more deadly it
• 21:01
  Speaker 1: makes fox more deadly it makes everybody else more deadly
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: and i think champagne should probably be starting but again
• 21:06
  Speaker 1: that's one of our contenders in this league i'm not
• 21:08
  Speaker 1: overthinking the fact that they lost to okc because okc
• 21:10
  Speaker 1: in my mind is the best team in the league
• 21:12
  Speaker 1: the orlando magic showed us a lot of new offensive
• 21:15
  Speaker 1: things where it was a lot more point fronds it
• 21:17
  Speaker 1: was a lot more of paulo ben caro being the
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: finisher versus the initiator there's a lot more emphasis on
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: getting three pointers up on the rim but they also
• 21:25
  Speaker 1: did revert back to the team that they have been
• 21:27
  Speaker 1: over the last couple years which is like No matter
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: how much you change the scheme or how much you
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: try to make people play in a different position, the
• 21:34
  Speaker 1: team is not well orchestrated enough. I think they're well
• 21:38
  Speaker 1: orchestrated enough to be a playoff team, but for them
• 21:40
  Speaker 1: to hit their maximum ceiling, they're going to have to
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: shift some pieces around.
• 21:43
  Speaker 2: There's too much overlapping skill set.
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: And while I hate it when people said that about
• 21:47
  Speaker 1: Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown, I feel pretty good about
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: that being the case for the Orlando Magic. The Dallas
• 21:52
  Speaker 1: Mavericks saw... You know, a really good Houston Rockets team.
• 21:55
  Speaker 1: And other than Cooper Flagg and moments of Kyrie Irving,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: welcome back, Kyrie. I think they said 19 months on
• 21:59
  Speaker 1: the broadcast, 19 months without hooping for a guy like
• 22:02
  Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving must have been torture. But Cooper Flagg, Kyrie
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: Irving and Najee Marshall all look like themselves. Not a
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: single other person came to play. I was really sad
• 22:10
  Speaker 1: about the Zachary Reese. I say, man, it's not.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 22:13
  Speaker 1: I just have like crazy amount of hope for him.
• 22:16
  Speaker 1: Without him doing anything for me to have the hope.
• 22:18
  Speaker 1: I don't know how to explain it. I don't know
• 22:19
  Speaker 1: how to explain it. But some of the times he's
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: putting the ball on the floor. He just had nowhere
• 22:22
  Speaker 1: to go with it. And he just turned it over.
• 22:24
  Speaker 1: And it's like, oh, my God, bro. He's going to
• 22:26
  Speaker 1: make me pull out my hair. And I'm not even
• 22:28
  Speaker 1: a fan of this team. But Cooper Flagg is poised
• 22:31
  Speaker 1: to have, like, an all-star jump if the team is
• 22:33
  Speaker 1: good enough to warrant an all-star. And I feel like
• 22:35
  Speaker 1: that's something we should feel good about. I'm also monitoring P.J.,
• 22:39
  Speaker 1: Daniel Gafford, Kyrie Irving, off one game. Yeah, all of
• 22:41
  Speaker 1: those guys might be on the move, so off one game.
• 22:44
  Speaker 1: I love to see that Sergio got some burn, even
• 22:47
  Speaker 1: if it was only seven minutes, and they lost those
• 22:49
  Speaker 1: minutes by 14 points. The Boston Celtics, they give it
• 22:53
  Speaker 1: and they take it away. You saw the good, you
• 22:54
  Speaker 1: saw the bad. You also saw them only take 17%
• 22:57
  Speaker 1: of their shots at the rim. Uh-oh, that's not going
• 22:59
  Speaker 1: to cut it. So somebody got to get into that
• 23:01
  Speaker 1: damn paint and get some shots up at the rim.
• 23:04
  Speaker 1: Because it can't just all be three-pointers and Jason Tatum
• 23:06
  Speaker 1: long mid-range jump shots.
• 23:07
  Speaker 2: Somebody got to get downhill.
• 23:08
  Speaker 1: And that was one of the biggest questions, and they
• 23:10
  Speaker 1: did not answer it in that first game. Utah Jazz,
• 23:13
  Speaker 1: maybe my most disappointed I felt about a team that
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: was not my Chicago Bulls.
• 23:17
  Speaker 2: Because In theory, the Jazz should be better than the
• 23:19
  Speaker 2: Grizz again. Grizzly stock holder number one here.
• 23:22
  Speaker 1: They didn't look like a real NBA team, which is sad.
• 23:25
  Speaker 1: I expected way more from their offense. I expected to
• 23:28
  Speaker 1: see Darren Peterson and Keontae George play off of each
• 23:32
  Speaker 1: other in the sense that one of them was on
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: the bench and the other's commanding the unit. They didn't
• 23:35
  Speaker 1: exclusively play their minutes together, but most of their minutes
• 23:38
  Speaker 1: were together, and I was hoping that they divvied it
• 23:39
  Speaker 1: up a little bit, like this is my unit, this
• 23:41
  Speaker 1: is your unit. Didn't really happen that way. Again, 82-game season,
• 23:44
  Speaker 1: Will Hardy's going to figure it out. I thought that
• 23:46
  Speaker 1: their offense didn't flow the same way it did in
• 23:48
  Speaker 1: the preseason. I thought there was some balls stopping over there.
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: But if there's any silver lining, Ace Bailey is a stud.
• 23:53
  Speaker 1: I think his buy-in defensively is going to matter on
• 23:55
  Speaker 1: a team like this because they could use more wings
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: on defense. And I'm really curious to see how their
• 24:00
  Speaker 1: starting unit of Keontae, Darren, Lowry, Jaron, and Hayes stays
• 24:04
  Speaker 1: if one of those guys have to go to the
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: bench in order to have Ace Bailey in that starting unit.
• 24:08
  Speaker 1: Because while when he put the ball on the floor
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: and he tries to pass it, the greatest things don't happen.
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: He is a pretty solid play finisher at this point
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: in his career, and he is one of their better
• 24:15
  Speaker 1: defensive players. So I feel like that's a guy that
• 24:17
  Speaker 1: has to play, or at least has to start or close,
• 24:20
  Speaker 1: if that matters more to you.
• 24:22
  Speaker 2: The Cleveland Cavaliers are going to be the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 24:24
  Speaker 2: It's unfortunate that we have to say that.
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: You saw them blow a bunch of leads in the
• 24:27
  Speaker 1: postseason last year, then their first game of the season.
• 24:29
  Speaker 2: It's a 29-point-blown game.
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: It's just like when you ramp up the pressure and
• 24:33
  Speaker 1: the crowd starts to get loud, they just– it's frustrating
• 24:37
  Speaker 1: because Donovan– and James Harden are such great players, but
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: somehow they don't know how to compose themselves down the stretch.
• 24:44
  Speaker 1: Donovan was stuck at 30 points for a long time,
• 24:47
  Speaker 1: and I look at the box score, we're seven minutes
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: into the fourth quarter, he had only taken one shot.
• 24:51
  Speaker 1: I'm like, this is the same formula that I just
• 24:53
  Speaker 1: watched in the postseason last year. Evan Mobley has a
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: phenomenal first half. It's like, oh my God, is it happening?
• 24:58
  Speaker 1: And then the second half is like two points. I
• 25:00
  Speaker 1: don't know if Jared Allen scored in the second half
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: after he was going at Joel Embiid and going at.
• 25:05
  Speaker 2: Some of the other guys. Like, oh my God, he
• 25:06
  Speaker 2: looks phenomenal.
• 25:07
  Speaker 1: This team is just the same. Peyton Watson didn't have
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: a great debut. There's any silver line tomorrow. He's only
• 25:12
  Speaker 1: hit two shots high off the glass. That's fun. But
• 25:16
  Speaker 1: it's just the same team. We're like, No matter how
• 25:19
  Speaker 1: many regular season games this team puts together, I am
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: going to struggle with believing in them once we get
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: to the mid-April part of the season. Because stuff like
• 25:28
  Speaker 1: this happens way too often for them. And I feel
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: like it only happened on national TV, dog. The Golden
• 25:33
  Speaker 1: State Warriors, I just, I never believed in them from
• 25:35
  Speaker 1: the start. And then this first game of the season,
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: of course, Porzingis is dealing with what he's dealing with,
• 25:39
  Speaker 1: so he's not available. And then Al Horford's 72 years old.
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: I just don't know how good of a team they're
• 25:46
  Speaker 1: going to be. I made a joke before the season started, like, hey, man,
• 25:50
  Speaker 1: they drafted Yaxu, and he's going to be their second
• 25:51
  Speaker 1: best player immediately. Yeah, he kind of is. Draymond was
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: still solid defensively. He's just overmatched by 7-2 Walker Kessler.
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: I thought his passing was still pretty good. He had
• 26:00
  Speaker 1: some short corner pass or short roll passes. I'm like,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: they're going to prime Draymond. But Yaxu deadass might be
• 26:05
  Speaker 1: their second best player already, and that's not good for
• 26:08
  Speaker 1: the team. And if Steph Curry has a struggling second
• 26:11
  Speaker 1: half like he did against the Lake Show, they don't
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: stand a chance. You feel like you need a supernova player.
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: superstar game from Steph Curry every time in order for
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: him to be in the game.
• 26:20
  Speaker 2: That's not going to cut it. The Milwaukee Bucks, Hame
• 26:24
  Speaker 2: looked phenomenal.
• 26:25
  Speaker 1: And I'm really happy for him because I think that
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: he was trying to get a contract extension.
• 26:29
  Speaker 2: And they said, hold on, we got to see what
• 26:30
  Speaker 2: we got here. And they may just have somebody that's
• 26:32
  Speaker 2: really solid. He ended up with 22-7-2.
• 26:33
  Speaker 1: Really love what I've seen from Brayden Burries. Tyler Hero
• 26:37
  Speaker 1: is going to have a great scoring year. Was less
• 26:41
  Speaker 1: than happy about the Kaleo Ware minutes, like I said.
• 26:43
  Speaker 1: He fouled out in 13 minutes. And I just I
• 26:46
  Speaker 1: think that the way the Bucs are going to run this,
• 26:47
  Speaker 1: they're going to start Miles Turner and hope to have
• 26:49
  Speaker 1: him do like some type of showcase. And then some
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: team call and they can trade him away. And then
• 26:52
  Speaker 1: Kal-El wears a full-time starter. I don't know if Kal-El
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: going to foul out this fast. Like what is supposed
• 26:58
  Speaker 1: to know?
• 26:59
  Speaker 2: Sacramento Kings.
• 27:00
  Speaker 1: Listen, I won't say I believe in the Kings this season,
• 27:04
  Speaker 1: but we did our over under pod. And I think
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: their number was 19 and a half, right? And I'm like, bro,
• 27:09
  Speaker 1: they just won 22 last season. 19 and a half.
• 27:11
  Speaker 1: They can be a 21 team. 20 wins is still
• 27:13
  Speaker 1: the worst team in the league. And then I watched
• 27:15
  Speaker 1: this first game versus the Clippers. I said, bro, what
• 27:17
  Speaker 1: the fuck was I thinking? Why did I take the
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: over on the Kings? That defense was so awful. It
• 27:23
  Speaker 1: was so, so nasty that I'm mad at myself for
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: even thinking that they can win 20 games. Darius Acuff
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: didn't score well. I mean, actually, he had one of
• 27:35
  Speaker 1: the least efficient debuts that you ever see.
• 27:38
  Speaker 2: He didn't look that bad. Is that crazy to say?
• 27:41
  Speaker 2: I don't feel like he looked that bad. But my God,
• 27:43
  Speaker 2: they're not going to win any games. And you already
• 27:45
  Speaker 2: got the clip. Hold on.
• 27:45
  Speaker 1: I think I archived it or I bookmarked it on Twitter.
• 27:49
  Speaker 1: And I'm just going to read it to you because
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: I don't think I can play this. Demantis Sabonis says
• 27:55
  Speaker 1: that the Kings are best when he reads the defense
• 27:58
  Speaker 1: as an offensive hub.
• 27:59
  Speaker 2: Move the ball.
• 27:59
  Speaker 1: Get the ball out more so I can swing it
• 28:01
  Speaker 1: and get guys open. You know, we took a lot
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: of one-pass shots. Uh-oh.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Pick and roll shots without passing the ball.
• 28:06
  Speaker 1: Uh-oh. You know, those numbers are really high. And I
• 28:09
  Speaker 1: feel like we're best when we mix things up. The
• 28:12
  Speaker 1: point guard shoots. The point guard hits the corner. The
• 28:14
  Speaker 1: point guard hits me. Then I can make the read.
• 28:17
  Speaker 2: That's when I'm best. It's been one game. It's been
• 28:21
  Speaker 2: one game. Sabonis is like eight cups past the fucking ball.
• 28:25
  Speaker 2: It's been one game. The Chicago Bulls stink. Which is
• 28:30
  Speaker 2: like not surprising. This is the ground floor of a rebuild.
• 28:32
  Speaker 2: I made the tweet. Me talking about... Me showing, like,
• 28:36
  Speaker 2: thank you, fans.
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: You know that tweet that the social teams always put
• 28:39
  Speaker 1: out after their team gets eliminated from playoff contention or
• 28:43
  Speaker 1: the season is over. I made that tweet. And some
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: people was like, Kenny, what you expect? I don't expect anything.
• 28:48
  Speaker 1: I just thought it was a funny tweet. This team
• 28:50
  Speaker 1: is the second youngest team in all of basketball. That's
• 28:52
  Speaker 1: just the reality of it. And we don't have creators
• 28:55
  Speaker 1: in the half court. Like, literally zero. So, like, I'm
• 28:59
  Speaker 1: not expecting this to be a season where I'm super happy.
• 29:02
  Speaker 1: I'm looking for the progression for Caleb, and God knows
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: he can only look better.
• 29:06
  Speaker 2: So I'm not tripping. I'm not tripping.
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: I think we got to figure out what we have
• 29:10
  Speaker 1: in Giddy. We got to figure out what we have
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: in Modest and some of these other guys that have
• 29:12
  Speaker 1: been on the roster for a few years. But it's
• 29:13
  Speaker 1: really about Caleb and watching Caleb progress. In game number one,
• 29:16
  Speaker 1: he went against one of the best defensive teams in
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: the league, and his crazy confidence made him feel like
• 29:21
  Speaker 1: he could dribble with Kawhi Leonard in front of him.
• 29:23
  Speaker 2: You can't do that, gang. Not yet, at least. Not yet,
• 29:26
  Speaker 2: at least. Because Handel's already shaky as is.
• 29:29
  Speaker 1: I mean, he's fucking 19 years old. I don't expect
• 29:31
  Speaker 1: anybody to come in with Kyrie Irving handles at 19
• 29:32
  Speaker 1: other than Kyrie Irving. But he's also going to be
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: one of the greatest give me that ball defenders in
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: the history of this sport. So like, you know, it's
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: going to.
• 29:40
  Speaker 2: Take some time. Phoenix Suns.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: I still don't know what percentage of what I watched
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: was the Suns just not getting up for the game
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: or what percentage that Mike Inouye got them trailblazers looking
• 29:49
  Speaker 1: a little bit different. Either way, they really miss Royce
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: O'Neal and Grayson Allen's ability to shoot. I hated the
• 29:56
  Speaker 1: Miles Bridges trade in real time. I hate it even
• 29:58
  Speaker 1: more now. I mean, I'm talking about the basketball part
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: of it because he didn't do anything on either.
• 30:03
  Speaker 2: Side of the floor.
• 30:04
  Speaker 1: And I think we're counting down the days until Jalen
• 30:07
  Speaker 1: Green is going to go to the bench. Not that
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: Jalen Green is a bad player by any means, but
• 30:10
  Speaker 1: it just feel like they could use Kyle Gillespie.
• 30:11
  Speaker 2: More in that lineup.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: They also had also go down with an injury and
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: they already were without Mark Williams. So it's like, what
• 30:17
  Speaker 1: the hell does those center men look like? I think
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: I saw Micah Potter on their bench. Is Micah Potter
• 30:22
  Speaker 1: about to be the backup center now behind a 20-year-old Malewatch?
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: It's already not the greatest of starts.
• 30:27
  Speaker 2: And I just want I don't know. I watched him,
• 30:31
  Speaker 2: and listen, Devin Booker is my boy. You know, like this.
• 30:34
  Speaker 2: He posted me on Instagram once. That means we're friends, basically.
• 30:37
  Speaker 2: That's how the internet works.
• 30:38
  Speaker 1: I watched Devin Booker, and I be thinking sometimes, man,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: you be too cool, bro. I feel the same way
• 30:42
  Speaker 1: about Donovan Mitchell. Actually, the only one that's not too
• 30:44
  Speaker 1: cool is Anthony Edwards. I don't know. I be watching
• 30:46
  Speaker 1: Devin Booker be like, bro, we know you can do this.
• 30:49
  Speaker 1: Stop being so cool, bro. Take 30 shots. I don't
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: need you. He led the league in shot attempts, and
• 30:54
  Speaker 1: he also got to the foul line nine times, so
• 30:56
  Speaker 1: add those to shot attempts as well. But there was
• 30:58
  Speaker 1: a time I was watching this game and I looked
• 30:59
  Speaker 1: at the box going ahead. Devin Booker had nine shots.
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: Jalen Green had more shots. Miles Bridges and Dylan Brooks
• 31:03
  Speaker 1: all had more shots than him at that point.
• 31:06
  Speaker 2: I just want you to be the dog. And he
• 31:07
  Speaker 2: is a dog.
• 31:08
  Speaker 1: He ended with 23. And on great efficiency. But I
• 31:11
  Speaker 1: want you to be even more of a dog. Stop
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: letting that Team USA stuff get in the cabeza. Go
• 31:16
  Speaker 1: out there and act like young... Year two, Devin Booker said,
• 31:20
  Speaker 1: fuck it, I'm taking 30 shots tonight. I want that
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: version of Devin Booker because you're better as a player now.
• 31:24
  Speaker 2: I don't know.
• 31:26
  Speaker 1: Also.
• 31:27
  Speaker 2: Take a three every once in a while. Every once
• 31:29
  Speaker 2: in a while. I just wanted to.
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: The Miami Heat, I'm not overreacting to their game versus
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: the Miami Heat. I mentioned how I didn't love the
• 31:35
  Speaker 1: drop coverage. People were very adamant in the comment section, like,
• 31:37
  Speaker 1: this is what Sposter's going to do. He's going to experiment,
• 31:40
  Speaker 1: and he experiments it on national TV where everybody's watching.
• 31:43
  Speaker 2: Cool. Whatever. You know what I mean?
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: But, like, I'm still encouraged about the Miami Heat. I
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: didn't love the way it looked offensively with Bam and
• 31:51
  Speaker 1: Giannis on the court. But, again, this is one of
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: those teams that's going to take some time.
• 31:54
  Speaker 2: It's going to take some time.
• 31:55
  Speaker 1: I wish they did have more creation outside of Giannis,
• 31:58
  Speaker 1: but it's going to take some time for everybody to
• 31:59
  Speaker 1: find out who they are as players and within the system.
• 32:02
  Speaker 1: We saw more ball screens for the Miami Heat compared
• 32:04
  Speaker 1: to all of last season, so that makes some sense
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: given that Giannis is now on the squad. But yeah,
• 32:11
  Speaker 1: I think I need like a 7-8 game sample size
• 32:15
  Speaker 1: about this Heat team before I start to really get
• 32:16
  Speaker 1: into it. They got Detroit today. That's another really good team,
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: so we'll see what it looks like. And last, but
• 32:22
  Speaker 1: certainly not least, the New Orleans Pelicans. My apologies, Pelicans fans.
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: I just went in standings, and y'all are dead last
• 32:27
  Speaker 1: in the West, even though you're 0-1, just like many
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: other teams. I was pretty encouraged about the Pelicans. The
• 32:32
  Speaker 1: one thing I monitored is that we basically didn't see
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: any minutes of Zion and Derrick Queen.
• 32:36
  Speaker 2: Interesting.
• 32:37
  Speaker 1: I mean, they played last year, and it wasn't pretty,
• 32:39
  Speaker 1: so it kind of does make a little bit of
• 32:40
  Speaker 1: sense that Colts is like, ah, we're not going to
• 32:43
  Speaker 1: run out of time. But if you believe in D. Queen,
• 32:45
  Speaker 1: you believe that Zion's a part of your core, I
• 32:46
  Speaker 1: feel like you've got to run those minutes. But on
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: the other side, Yves Missy was pretty fucking good versus
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: the Pelicans. So I understand riding out with Yves Missy.
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: Herb Jones feels like a prime trade candidate. If he's
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: only going to play, you know, 16 minutes per game,
• 32:59
  Speaker 1: there's still going to be teams that are buying in
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: on the defensive impact. And while Jeremiah Fields finished 2
• 33:03
  Speaker 1: of 10 and he had, what, three fouls in the
• 33:06
  Speaker 1: first four minutes of the game. He finished with three,
• 33:07
  Speaker 1: by the way. I enjoyed what I was watching from him. Again,
• 33:11
  Speaker 1: it's similar to Darius Acuff where, like, The overall count
• 33:14
  Speaker 1: of stats and efficiency don't tell the full story. I
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: was pretty impressed with what I was seeing from Jeremiah Fear.
• 33:18
  Speaker 1: So I'm just putting that in the back of y'all
• 33:20
  Speaker 1: head that, like, don't count out Fear just because he
• 33:22
  Speaker 1: shot 2 of 10 in the season opener. I think
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: there's a real NBA player, like a really real NBA
• 33:26
  Speaker 1: player in there, and he just needs to be unlocked
• 33:28
  Speaker 1: a little bit.
• 33:29
  Speaker 2: That's all 30. In 34 minutes, too. Efficient king, man.
• 33:33
  Speaker 2: Efficient king.
• 33:34
  Speaker 1: All 30 NBA teams, first impressions, things I'm thinking about.
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: Let me know what you think about your favorite team.
• 33:38
  Speaker 1: I also cut this very close. I'm going to be
• 33:40
  Speaker 1: late to therapy. love y'all I will see y'all soon
• 33:45
  Speaker 1: bye