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Every NBA Team's Biggest Problem Right Now · Kenny For Real

0:00
Speaker 1: What is every NBA team's biggest problem right now? Where
0:03
Speaker 1: the people over at Bleach Report put together an article
0:05
Speaker 1: and we gonna react to see if we agree. Now
0:07
Speaker 1: this article is about three days old and you know,
0:09
Speaker 1: we still so early into the NBA season that three
0:11
Speaker 1: days is kind of an eternity. So I wonder how
0:14
Speaker 1: many of these things have actually shifted in just that
0:16
Speaker 1: amount of time. I can imagine a player being the
0:18
Speaker 1: biggest problem last week and then they have a good
0:20
Speaker 1: week and they're no longer the biggest problem. Nobody is
0:23
Speaker 1: perfect in the NBA. No team is undefeated anymore. So
0:26
Speaker 1: like everybody got problems, you know? We're gonna see what
0:29
Speaker 1: they are. Grand Theft Auto 6 and Rockstar Games is
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0:51
Speaker 1: Starting off with the Atlanta Hawks. Ooh, the half-court offense.
0:54
Speaker 1: I've been having a lot of fun watching the Atlanta
0:56
Speaker 1: Hawks as of recent. I'll say it a hundred times
0:59
Speaker 1: for the hundred times. Kingston Fleming is one of my
1:00
Speaker 1: favorite players in the league already. Now that he's starting,
1:02
Speaker 1: I want to say shout out to CJ McCollum, by
1:04
Speaker 1: the way, because CJ been in the league for what,
1:06
Speaker 1: 15 years. And he was like, Hey, I'm not having
1:08
Speaker 1: the best start to the season. Let the young guys start.
1:10
Speaker 1: And so far, so, so good. And they won a
1:12
Speaker 1: few games without Jalen Johnson being there, but they're saying
1:14
Speaker 1: that they're scoring 0.9 points per play per cleaning the
1:18
Speaker 1: glass when it comes to the half court. And now
1:21
Speaker 1: this is what we're going to say. This article came
1:22
Speaker 1: out four days ago. Let me see if it shifted
1:24
Speaker 1: a little bit. It has gone up from.
1:26
Speaker 2: A, 0.91 to a 0.94 and 0.94 has them at
1:30
Speaker 2: 17th in the league so it's about league average when
1:32
Speaker 2: it comes to and again that's what two extra games
1:35
Speaker 2: of play so like yeah a lot of these things
1:36
Speaker 2: might be a little bit overreaction because there's so much
1:38
Speaker 2: basketball left um but the atlanta hawks i guess did
1:40
Speaker 2: struggle in the half court if you think about postseason
1:43
Speaker 2: as well next we got the boston celtics questionable ceiling if.
1:46
Speaker 1: That's your biggest problem then you're doing things pretty good
1:48
Speaker 1: because um i i'm one of those people that looked
1:51
Speaker 1: at the boston celtics even though they made the jaylen
1:53
Speaker 1: brown trade and said hey This team still does have enough.
1:55
Speaker 1: They still have an identity to be a really, really
1:58
Speaker 1: good regular season team. So far, that has been the case.
2:00
Speaker 1: Jason Tatum looks phenomenal, one of the best players in
2:03
Speaker 1: the world. Questionable ceiling means that maybe you see them
2:05
Speaker 1: as a first-round exit. Some people have them as contenders.
2:08
Speaker 1: I guess it's just a matter of the bracket. What
2:10
Speaker 1: will they finish when it comes to seeding and who
2:12
Speaker 1: will they seed in the first round, second round, and
2:13
Speaker 1: so on and so forth. But really good team, really
2:15
Speaker 1: good team. The Brooklyn Nets, competing priorities. Yeah, I mean,
2:20
Speaker 1: I don't have to read this, but I'm assuming that
2:22
Speaker 1: they're trying to say that they're trying to maximize Julius
2:25
Speaker 1: Randle and MPJ for a plethora of reasons. One, you
2:27
Speaker 1: don't want to be in the relegation zone. Even though
2:29
Speaker 1: I don't think it matters for Brooklyn because they don't
2:30
Speaker 1: own their first-row pick. I think that's a swap with Houston,
2:33
Speaker 1: if I'm not mistaken. But also, they're trying to showcase
2:37
Speaker 1: how good MPJ is or how good Julius Randle is
2:39
Speaker 1: so they can flip them towards the deadline. But they
2:41
Speaker 1: also do want to develop some of the younger guys.
2:43
Speaker 1: I think probably their biggest problem is that of the
2:46
Speaker 1: younger guys that they drafted over the last couple of seasons,
2:48
Speaker 1: The only ones really getting to play is Michael Brown,
2:50
Speaker 1: who's dealing in and out with injury, Jaeger German, and
2:54
Speaker 1: then Nolan Triore, like Danny Wolfe and Drake Powell. And
2:59
Speaker 1: I'm forgetting. They had another third. Who was it? Ben Serif?
3:03
Speaker 1: Ben Serif. Those guys don't even get an opportunity to play.
3:07
Speaker 1: I think that's the biggest problem. They drafted so many people.
3:09
Speaker 1: And unfortunately, just a year into their career, they're not
3:12
Speaker 1: doing well. But then again, it's like, okay, if you
3:15
Speaker 1: have five first-round picks– And four of them are in
3:17
Speaker 1: the 20s. I guess you kind of want to hit
3:20
Speaker 1: on more than just one of them. But it's hard, bro.
3:22
Speaker 1: It's hard to draft. And by all accounts, they were
3:24
Speaker 1: trying to trade out of those picks, too, and nobody
3:26
Speaker 1: wanted them. So it was like, okay, we're just going
3:27
Speaker 1: to draft the guy we think is the best and
3:29
Speaker 1: aim in the greatest. But then you look at the
3:31
Speaker 1: teams and people around them. You say, okay, whatever. Charlotte
3:34
Speaker 1: Hornets got a lot of bad things going on. Shot making,
3:37
Speaker 1: play making. I mean, they're averaging 96 points per game
3:39
Speaker 1: as a team. And the last time a team finished
3:42
Speaker 1: a season where they were 96 or below points per
3:44
Speaker 1: game was like in 2015. I don't think their offense
3:47
Speaker 1: is going to be this bad for that long, but
3:48
Speaker 1: that just showcases how tough it really is. They've scored
3:51
Speaker 1: less than 100 points like six times this season. They've
3:53
Speaker 1: only played like nine games. Like, it's bad, bro. It's
3:56
Speaker 1: really bad. I'm going to say it aloud because I
4:00
Speaker 1: said it in real time. The LaMelo Ball thing felt weird.
4:03
Speaker 1: The numbers in the eye test told you that the
4:05
Speaker 1: team could not score when he wasn't on the floor,
4:07
Speaker 1: and now he's not on the floor. And granted, in
4:09
Speaker 1: their defense, Conk and Nipples only played, what, five minutes
4:12
Speaker 1: before he got re-injured. Kobe White just coming back, but
4:14
Speaker 1: he's on the men's restriction. But still, they were just
4:17
Speaker 1: not a good offensive team without LaMelo. Brandon Miller and
4:20
Speaker 1: Conk and Nipple, no LaMelo ball was a negative net rating.
4:22
Speaker 1: It's just like the writing was on the wall for
4:24
Speaker 1: them to be a struggling offensive team. But even then,
4:26
Speaker 1: I don't know if I expected them to be the
4:29
Speaker 1: worst offensive team in the last decade. The Bulls, ooh,
4:33
Speaker 1: rebuilding timeline. You think that's the worst thing? I mean...
4:40
Speaker 1: There's a lot of teams that are going through a
4:41
Speaker 1: rebuild or have gone through a rebuild that ain't lost
4:43
Speaker 1: by 30-plus points 100 times. You know? And they also
4:49
Speaker 1: put together a roster that they thought was going to
4:51
Speaker 1: be not competing for a championship or even for a
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Speaker 1: playing spot, but competing enough on a nightly basis. You
4:56
Speaker 1: bring in Norman Powell, who's an all-star. You bring in Claxton,
4:57
Speaker 1: who ain't played just yet, but he's going to play soon,
4:59
Speaker 1: it seems. And you still kept some of the vets
5:01
Speaker 1: like a Trey Jones or a Jalen Smith or Zach Hollins,
5:05
Speaker 1: who's on a ministry stricken as well. You say, hey,
5:08
Speaker 1: We don't think we're going to be a good team,
5:09
Speaker 1: but we're not going to be the worst team in
5:10
Speaker 1: the league, damn it. Right now, we're basically the worst
5:13
Speaker 1: team in the league. And their defense, because I always
5:15
Speaker 1: got to play devil's advocate. This is the toughest 10-game
5:18
Speaker 1: stretch to start a season in the history of the sport. Next,
5:23
Speaker 1: we got the Cleveland Cavaliers, Peyton Watson. He don't got
5:26
Speaker 1: no O's in his name. And yeah, Peyton Watson acquisition
5:28
Speaker 1: has not been the greatest. He, I think, I don't
5:30
Speaker 1: know if it's changed after last night's win against the 76ers,
5:34
Speaker 1: but he was shooting sub 20% from three. and obviously
5:36
Speaker 1: that shot making is very important. He did have the
5:38
Speaker 1: game against Minnesota where he closed out the game defensively,
5:40
Speaker 1: so he still has some of that, but so far
5:42
Speaker 1: the fit has not been as seamless as a lot
5:44
Speaker 1: of people expected it to be, and I think the
5:46
Speaker 1: Cavs are struggling with finding their identity, but a big
5:47
Speaker 1: win last night against a really good 76er team. Dallas Mavericks,
5:51
Speaker 1: the disconnected timeline. See, that's not bad. Some of the things,
5:54
Speaker 1: if this is the worst thing about your team, you
5:55
Speaker 1: got some interesting stuff going. Cooper Flagg's one of the
5:58
Speaker 1: best players in the world already, and he's in year
5:59
Speaker 1: number two, but yeah, the question is, will Kyrie Irving
6:01
Speaker 1: be sticking around post-February? or they try to trade him
6:05
Speaker 1: or all of these older vets they have that are
6:07
Speaker 1: really interesting pieces from a PJ Washington, Najee Marshalls, Daniel Gafford.
6:11
Speaker 1: These are guys that like in the hypothetical world where
6:13
Speaker 1: they did become available, there's 20 other teams calling for
6:16
Speaker 1: PJ Washington, especially because he's just had another really good
6:19
Speaker 1: game or like Daniel Gafford's maybe having the best year
6:21
Speaker 1: of his career. Teams will pick up the phone to
6:23
Speaker 1: call for that. The question is, do you want to
6:26
Speaker 1: pick up those phones and have those conversations about these
6:28
Speaker 1: guys or Kyrie Irving? Because while it's not, perfect over
6:32
Speaker 1: there in Dallas. At least they're a fun, competent team.
6:34
Speaker 1: And that timeline is not hindering some of the young
6:37
Speaker 1: guys from playing well. Sometimes you have a two-timeline thing
6:40
Speaker 1: where you have some super young guys and super vets.
6:42
Speaker 1: And sometimes those vets get in the way of the
6:43
Speaker 1: development of the younger guys. Cooper Flagg's developed like no other.
6:46
Speaker 1: I think Zachary Chassé is turning into a player that
6:49
Speaker 1: you can trust. And he's starting, even though we do
6:52
Speaker 1: have all these veterans. And then even like Merez Johnson's
6:56
Speaker 1: playing back a five. So they're still allowing their their
6:58
Speaker 1: young timeline to be a young timeline while still having
7:01
Speaker 1: these older guys who can help contribute to winning ballgames. Next,
7:04
Speaker 1: we got the Denver Nuggets, a non-elite offense. And if
7:07
Speaker 1: the Denver Nuggets offense is not elite, then they cannot
7:10
Speaker 1: be contenders. That is just the reality of it. They
7:13
Speaker 1: hang their hat on having the best offensive team in
7:15
Speaker 1: the league last year. The year before that, top three.
7:17
Speaker 1: The year before that, top three. We know the defense
7:19
Speaker 1: is not going to be incredible, so we have to
7:21
Speaker 1: outscore you. We have to get enough stops that once
7:24
Speaker 1: we get to a clutch situation, we got Jokic, we
7:26
Speaker 1: got Jamal, they're going to take us home. So far
7:28
Speaker 1: this season, that has not been the case. But it
7:29
Speaker 1: could be just a really rough start. Because I still
7:32
Speaker 1: look at them and say, that team should be a
7:33
Speaker 1: top five offensive team. Has not been the case to
7:35
Speaker 1: start off with. Detroit. Supporting score. Hey, listen. Duncan Robinson's
7:41
Speaker 1: been phenomenal. Like, Duncan Robinson's nearly out in 20 points
7:44
Speaker 1: per game to start the season. Maybe I'm rounding up
7:46
Speaker 1: quite a bit. But last time I tell you, he
7:47
Speaker 1: was like 18 and some change. You know? And I
7:49
Speaker 1: love the way Cade's able to operate just a little
7:53
Speaker 1: bit differently than he has over the last couple seasons.
7:55
Speaker 1: Because They are allowing some of these other guys to
7:58
Speaker 1: be the initial facilitator of a lot of these actions
8:01
Speaker 1: where Kay Cunningham is in the secondary part of an
8:03
Speaker 1: action or Kay Cunningham is getting spot-up opportunities out of nowhere.
8:06
Speaker 1: So while support scoring probably becomes more of a problem
8:10
Speaker 1: down the line, right now I feel like it's fine
8:13
Speaker 1: enough where they can still be one of the best
8:14
Speaker 1: teams in the league. The Warriors struggle with getting stops.
8:18
Speaker 1: A lot of that has to do with them not
8:19
Speaker 1: having a back-end defender. Charles Bass, he's doing what he can.
8:22
Speaker 1: Draymond Green is doing what he can, but they are
8:24
Speaker 1: not doing that. A five-game win streak. So now I
8:26
Speaker 1: think they're on a six-game win streak after their win
8:28
Speaker 1: versus the Miami Heat a couple nights ago. I'm really
8:31
Speaker 1: liking watching the Warriors. Before the season started, I was
8:34
Speaker 1: not a believer in this roster. Of course, I believed
8:36
Speaker 1: in Curry, but the rest was questionable. I made the
8:39
Speaker 1: take before the season started that Yax was going to
8:40
Speaker 1: come in to be their second best player. I think
8:42
Speaker 1: that's kind of true. But everybody else is bought in
8:44
Speaker 1: and the offense is still humming. And you got to
8:47
Speaker 1: give a lot of credit to Steph Curry, obviously, but
8:49
Speaker 1: you got to give credit to Pods who's like moving
8:51
Speaker 1: around like crazy as if he has been under Steph
8:53
Speaker 1: Curry for all these years. Yaks who comes in and
8:55
Speaker 1: fits like a glove and feels many holes offensively and defensively.
8:59
Speaker 1: And while Draymond Green may get ejected or Draymond Green
9:02
Speaker 1: may not be able to score again anymore, he's still
9:05
Speaker 1: such a great passer and such a cerebral mind that
9:08
Speaker 1: like you just trust him to be able to make
9:10
Speaker 1: the right decisions on both sides of the floor. So like,
9:13
Speaker 1: I'm liking watching the Warriors again, and I feel like
9:15
Speaker 1: it's been a little minute since I've been able to
9:17
Speaker 1: say that, bro. Next, we got the Houston Rockets, the
9:20
Speaker 1: backcourt shooting. I mean, these guys, them, okay. Obviously, you
9:25
Speaker 1: want the shots to go in, right? You want shots
9:27
Speaker 1: to go in versus not. But the threat of them
9:30
Speaker 1: shooting has been enough, even with them not making shots yet.
9:33
Speaker 1: So you assume that because of who we project Reed
9:37
Speaker 1: to be, and you assume, based on what we've seen
9:40
Speaker 1: from Mr. Steady himself, Fred VanVleet, that eventually some of
9:43
Speaker 1: those shots will go in and they become infinitely more dangerous.
9:45
Speaker 1: But the idea of them being able to shoot has
9:48
Speaker 1: been enough. So imagine when a shooting does come around.
9:51
Speaker 1: Come on, man. Next we got, ooh, the Pacers, the hamstring. Yeah,
9:55
Speaker 1: I don't want to talk about it too much. It sucks.
9:57
Speaker 1: I mean... You think about how good he was playing Like,
10:00
Speaker 1: all of the guys that we missed completely of last
10:02
Speaker 1: season between him, Kyrie, Dang, Ja. I guess Ja played
10:06
Speaker 1: a little bit. But you get what I'm saying. These
10:07
Speaker 1: guards that dealt with major injuries last year, all of
10:09
Speaker 1: them came into the season like, hey, I never missed
10:11
Speaker 1: a step. And I was in love with that. And then, boom,
10:13
Speaker 1: out of nowhere, Halliburton hurts his hammy. So, get well soon, Hallie. Next,
10:16
Speaker 1: we got the Clippers. Turnover troubles. Yeah, I think Right now,
10:20
Speaker 1: Darius Garland averages like 21 points and six and a
10:22
Speaker 1: half assists. But like when I watch him play, he
10:25
Speaker 1: just feels a little bit out of sorts as of
10:26
Speaker 1: right now where I think he's averaging five and a
10:28
Speaker 1: half turnovers. He averages more turnovers than like Luka. Y'all
10:30
Speaker 1: know Luka's going to turn the ball over. He's the
10:32
Speaker 1: highest usage player, almost like the number one guy ever.
10:36
Speaker 1: And they just don't have a lot of the ball
10:37
Speaker 1: handling outside of DG to PG. Some of these other
10:39
Speaker 1: guys are attempting to step up, but it's just not
10:41
Speaker 1: enough as of right now. So yeah, they will turn
10:43
Speaker 1: the ball over quite a bit. This is 19.9%. My goodness.
10:48
Speaker 1: Lakers scoring support. Hey, listen. Does scoring support matter when
10:52
Speaker 1: 77 is going to average 40? The man is playing
10:55
Speaker 1: my career on rookie difficulty right now. Well, even in
10:58
Speaker 1: the game last night where he struggled out the gate,
10:59
Speaker 1: I'm going to give a lot of credit to Tumani
11:01
Speaker 1: and Drew Holiday because they are still elite, elite level defenders.
11:05
Speaker 1: He just decided, nah, not going to be enough. Here's 53.
11:08
Speaker 1: Here's 53. He's hitting his threes. He's taking the most
11:13
Speaker 1: threes of his career. He's hitting his threes. And then
11:15
Speaker 1: the free throws. Like, I saw a TikTok, and I
11:17
Speaker 1: wish I remember who it was from, kind of talking
11:19
Speaker 1: about how, like, Luka Doncic historically is like a 70-something
11:21
Speaker 1: percent free throw shooter, and to start the season, that's
11:23
Speaker 1: up to, like, 90%. That's an extra however many points
11:26
Speaker 1: of gain just by him becoming an elite free throw shooter.
11:28
Speaker 1: He missed a couple last night, so maybe it's not
11:30
Speaker 1: at 90 anymore. But, like, I mean, obviously, you won't
11:33
Speaker 1: support score. I just want to give flowers to Luka.
11:34
Speaker 1: But like Grimes, you brought in as one of your
11:36
Speaker 1: more expensive acquisitions, and you saw flashes of him being
11:38
Speaker 1: able to do that in Philly a couple seasons back.
11:40
Speaker 1: He won't even shoot the damn ball. Some of these
11:42
Speaker 1: other guys, I mean, I don't expect Matisse Stiebel to
11:45
Speaker 1: do more than what he's doing. What Matisse Stiebel's doing
11:46
Speaker 1: right now is perfect. I don't expect Larivia or some
11:48
Speaker 1: of these Zaire Williams to be able to go out
11:50
Speaker 1: there and be support scoring. But a guy like Grimes
11:53
Speaker 1: or a guy like Colin Sexton, who's averaged 20 points
11:56
Speaker 1: per game at one part in his career, You want
11:58
Speaker 1: them to be able to score a little bit more
11:59
Speaker 1: efficiently and a little bit more so it doesn't have
12:01
Speaker 1: to be. Like, it's fun to watch them drop 40
12:03
Speaker 1: a night, but I don't think you want to need
12:05
Speaker 1: to do that for 82 games plus a postseason run. So,
12:08
Speaker 1: support scoring is important. Next, we got due for regression
12:11
Speaker 1: for the Grizzlies. I think we're probably seeing that right now.
12:13
Speaker 1: They lost, what, three of their last four, if I'm
12:14
Speaker 1: not mistaken. Just got blown out by OKC last night.
12:17
Speaker 1: We're like, I was a big believer in the Grizzlies.
12:19
Speaker 1: I still am a big believer of the Grizzlies. I'd
12:21
Speaker 1: look at 6-0 and say, oh, this team went to 50.
12:23
Speaker 2: No, no, no, no, no, no.
12:24
Speaker 1: I still think they're a playing-worthy team at the bare minimum,
12:27
Speaker 1: and I hope that is the case. Regression is for
12:29
Speaker 1: sure due. I mean, their start of the season was
12:32
Speaker 1: maybe not so great teams, and now you're starting to
12:34
Speaker 1: run into some better teams. And, like, you know, they're
12:37
Speaker 1: still a really young team between Edie, between Boozer, between Cedric, between,
12:40
Speaker 1: you know, the list goes on and on, between Jalen Wells,
12:42
Speaker 1: who's been great so far this year. It's a young
12:45
Speaker 1: team that's performing above their belt a little bit, so
12:48
Speaker 1: regression for sure is due. The Miami Heat is defense. Listen.
12:52
Speaker 1: We talked about the Heat's defense a lot to start
12:54
Speaker 1: this season. I watched them and I just watched Sposter
12:57
Speaker 1: trying things. And I'm not mad at him because you
12:59
Speaker 1: have to try to figure out what's going to be
13:01
Speaker 1: able to work for us on a night-to-night basis. I
13:03
Speaker 1: watched their game versus the Warriors. I didn't watch it live,
13:05
Speaker 1: but I just got back from a trip to California.
13:07
Speaker 1: And on my flight home, my number one thing was like,
13:09
Speaker 1: what the hell did the Warriors do against this Miami
13:11
Speaker 1: Heat defense? They tore it apart. And Sposter decided to run.
13:15
Speaker 1: I don't know the percentage, but what felt like when
13:17
Speaker 1: I was watching a lot of zone, And the Warriors
13:19
Speaker 1: are just such, again, smart, cerebral teams, knowing when to cut,
13:22
Speaker 1: when to hit this backdoor, yada, yada, yada, that the Heat,
13:25
Speaker 1: there are many times where they're looking at each other
13:27
Speaker 1: like this. I specifically remember one where Nikola Jovic is
13:29
Speaker 1: under the basket, like, what the hell did we do?
13:31
Speaker 1: And I noticed that one viral clip of Giannis kind
13:34
Speaker 1: of running around, trying to close out, but missing the closeout,
13:36
Speaker 1: then trying to do this, rotate, rotate, rotate, and that
13:39
Speaker 1: is a really bad clip. But it kind of like
13:42
Speaker 1: that all over the place at times. So the defense,
13:45
Speaker 1: for sure, is the number one thing, because, like, I mean,
13:48
Speaker 1: that was the thing I thought they were going to
13:49
Speaker 1: be the most competent at to start the season. And
13:51
Speaker 1: that has not been the case. They had 27th. Is
13:53
Speaker 1: that still true? It's not true. They had 26 now. Hey,
13:56
Speaker 1: getting better. Every day you want to get 1%, 10% better. Oh,
14:00
Speaker 1: my God. The incumbents? I don't even know what that
14:02
Speaker 1: word means. Is Google? I don't know. As painful as
14:05
Speaker 1: it was to trade away Jan instead of Kumpo, the
14:07
Speaker 1: best player in franchise history, the Bucs have been thrilled
14:09
Speaker 1: of what they've got back. Tyler Hero is near star stats.
14:13
Speaker 1: Nearly all newcomers have found an Easter problem. Is the
14:15
Speaker 1: returning Bucs. Okay, so it's the people that were there pre. Okay,
14:18
Speaker 1: so Ron Rollins has started off really slow. I think
14:21
Speaker 1: he's going to the bench now, right, for Braden. Miles
14:25
Speaker 1: Turner's averaging like five, like seven points and five rebounds.
14:27
Speaker 1: You know, like, so I can see that. Yeah, the
14:29
Speaker 1: guys that were left over from the Giannis era are
14:31
Speaker 1: not playing well. Cool. Minnesota. Anthony Harris is neat. Everything
14:35
Speaker 1: else is kind of working over there. I guess Rudy
14:36
Speaker 1: Gobert don't finish like he used to. But, like, Ayo,
14:40
Speaker 1: Leonard Miller, Rob Dylan Hammond, some second-round picks. Phenomenal fleecing.
14:44
Speaker 1: from the Minnesota Timberwolves. Nas Reed and the future pick
14:47
Speaker 1: for LaMelo Ball, phenomenal fleece. The list goes on and on.
14:50
Speaker 1: Everything is working very well over there. It just so
14:52
Speaker 1: happens that Anthony Edwards is injured, but right now they're
14:53
Speaker 1: holding their own. I don't know what the record is.
14:55
Speaker 1: Is it 4-2? It's something like that, where they're above water.
15:02
Speaker 1: The first two games, you're like, ooh, is LaMelo going
15:04
Speaker 1: to be able to do this? And since then, he's
15:05
Speaker 1: turned it up himself, and the shots they're generating are
15:07
Speaker 1: beautiful shots. I'm trying to think. Has LaMelo ever had
15:11
Speaker 1: a screen setter like Rudy Gobert? No, right? Anyway, I'm
15:14
Speaker 1: trying to get Rudy to go bear some flowers in
15:15
Speaker 1: the season where he's shooting less than 50% as a center. Pelicans,
15:19
Speaker 1: clutch situations. They've been in a thousand clutch games so far.
15:22
Speaker 1: You can see they have a minus 17 net rating
15:26
Speaker 1: in 24 clutch minutes. They just don't know who and
15:28
Speaker 1: when to go. Like, their game versus the Jazz, we
15:32
Speaker 1: saw a lot of Derrick Queen. I think they ended
15:33
Speaker 1: up having like 20. Then he got benched because they
15:35
Speaker 1: went in another direction. Their overtime came around. Then they
15:37
Speaker 1: went back to Derrick Queen. Then they took him out
15:38
Speaker 1: the game to go to Zion. And it's just like,
15:40
Speaker 1: When do you ride the high hand? When do you
15:42
Speaker 1: go with the guys that you trust? Who do you trust?
15:44
Speaker 1: And so on. For a team that's not very good,
15:48
Speaker 1: somehow they find their way in a position like, who
15:50
Speaker 1: should we play? Usually the answer is play the good guys,
15:52
Speaker 1: but how do you know who the good guys is? Next.
15:55
Speaker 1: The Knicks are the offense. Yeah, McHale's not playing well.
15:58
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson just came off a hand surgery this offseason
16:01
Speaker 1: after the championship. But, like, I can't be critical of
16:03
Speaker 1: the Knicks right now. I think I'm still riding the
16:05
Speaker 1: championship high. Post-trade deadline, then we're going to talk about
16:09
Speaker 1: how bad it is, if it is bad. But the
16:10
Speaker 1: defense is great. Injuries for the Thunder. Yeah, one more.
16:14
Speaker 1: Can you say about that? I'm going to move past it.
16:15
Speaker 1: The Possessing Differential. Okay, now we get to some analytics, bud.
16:19
Speaker 1: The Challenge is in boop, boop, boop, boop. But it
16:21
Speaker 1: might be where it earns the word there. Oh, they're
16:24
Speaker 1: 26 in turnover rate and 28th in rebounding. That's not
16:28
Speaker 1: a recipe for success. They also don't shoot it very well.
16:31
Speaker 1: They're trying. Trisha De Silva's getting all the shots up.
16:35
Speaker 1: Franz Wagner's trying. But, yeah, it's tough out there. Next,
16:39
Speaker 1: we got the 76ers still developing chemistry. Yeah, I think that,
16:43
Speaker 1: you know, the fact that the 76ers have the record
16:44
Speaker 1: that they have now is surprising. Not because of the talent,
16:47
Speaker 1: but because of, like, the underlying advanced analytics of them
16:50
Speaker 1: struggling offensively and then the defense being the reason why
16:52
Speaker 1: they're winning games. I don't think anybody expected it that way.
16:54
Speaker 1: I actually asked on the pod a few weeks before
16:57
Speaker 1: the season started. Like, do we see a world where
16:59
Speaker 1: the 76ers defense is top 10? And I think all
17:01
Speaker 1: of us say, like, no, not really. Right now, I
17:03
Speaker 1: think they're number three. So it is going a little
17:06
Speaker 1: bit different than we expected. But I think the fact
17:08
Speaker 1: that they are still able to win these amount of
17:11
Speaker 1: games with the chemistry still developing shows you that if
17:13
Speaker 1: it ever does completely come together, it's going to be
17:15
Speaker 1: a really tough team to take out. And Joel Embiid
17:17
Speaker 1: hasn't shot it well. He has times where he's moving
17:20
Speaker 1: really well and then there's games where he's not. But
17:22
Speaker 1: they've also had games where LeBron closed out like against
17:25
Speaker 1: the Knicks or like Jalen Brown closed out a game
17:27
Speaker 1: and Tyrese Max is closing out games. So like they're
17:29
Speaker 1: figuring it out even with the chemistry thing being interesting.
17:33
Speaker 1: Defensive generosity. What were you saying? They aren't helping themselves.
17:36
Speaker 1: They get sleep with the ball. Their closeouts are off
17:40
Speaker 1: the two late six fewest and shot attempts. Oh, you're
17:42
Speaker 1: going deep into your bag, Mr. Buckley. The ball pressures
17:44
Speaker 1: lacks to fifth and deflections 30th and defensive rebound. It's
17:49
Speaker 1: all bad. It is all bad. I dread the moments
17:52
Speaker 1: where I have to load up an NBA game and
17:53
Speaker 1: it is the Phoenix Suns. I'm doing what I have
17:54
Speaker 1: to do. I watch basketball. That is my job. But, like,
17:56
Speaker 1: I don't enjoy watching Phoenix Suns basketball at all. Shout
17:58
Speaker 1: out to Book, though. Book has been doing his thing
18:00
Speaker 1: since that one game where he had, like, three points.
18:02
Speaker 1: Portland Trailblazers, atypical shooting woes. Yeah, the Portland Trailblazers are
18:05
Speaker 1: a good team. They lost last night against the Lakers.
18:07
Speaker 1: The Lakers got their revenge after losing to them a
18:10
Speaker 1: few games back. Super fun team to watch. Still, right now,
18:13
Speaker 1: the best offensive team in the league, and that's even
18:14
Speaker 1: with these shooting woes. I'm curious to see what they
18:16
Speaker 1: end up doing with a guy like Scoop. Because they're
18:19
Speaker 1: giving him an opportunity to start. And I would say
18:22
Speaker 1: there's more misses than hits when it comes to the
18:23
Speaker 1: Scoot Henderson minutes, which is, I guess, fine because they're
18:26
Speaker 1: still winning ballgames. But they're trying to figure out where
18:28
Speaker 1: he fits in this whole ecosystem. But I got a
18:30
Speaker 1: feeling that if they are good enough, and I don't
18:33
Speaker 1: know if right now what they're doing is realistic to
18:35
Speaker 1: be this good, but if they are good enough, there's
18:37
Speaker 1: going to be teams that's like, hey, I'll take Scoot
18:39
Speaker 1: Henderson and we'll be the guy to pay him and
18:40
Speaker 1: restrict the free agency. Next, we got the Kings, 8-cuff,
18:44
Speaker 1: neon green light. That's the worst thing about them? In
18:46
Speaker 1: my mind, that's the best thing about them. What other
18:48
Speaker 1: reason do you have to watch the Kings other than
18:49
Speaker 1: watch 8-cuff take 40 shots a night? That shit is fun. Spurs, spacing, yeah.
18:55
Speaker 1: I think right now, like, the on-off numbers of their
18:58
Speaker 1: three-guard lineup is disgustingly great. They're not shooting it well, but, like,
19:03
Speaker 1: they have Wimby on the back end, so, like, the
19:05
Speaker 1: fan stats is going to be interesting. I don't know
19:07
Speaker 1: many people that watch the Spurs and say this lineup
19:09
Speaker 1: of Fox is Harper and Casu should be the way
19:12
Speaker 1: it goes the entirety of the season. Maybe it changes
19:15
Speaker 1: by game 30 where they get a little more chemistry
19:17
Speaker 1: all three of them. But like, I don't, I think
19:19
Speaker 1: it just makes more sense for like Champagny does not
19:21
Speaker 1: miss jump shots y'all. And he's just like, I'm gonna
19:23
Speaker 1: come off the bench. And you know, Vassell is struggling
19:26
Speaker 1: to shoot the ball to start the season. So if
19:28
Speaker 1: he's struggling to shoot, De'Aaron Fox and Harper and Casu,
19:31
Speaker 1: I think they're all shooting about 35% to 30 to
19:33
Speaker 1: 35% from three. We're like a Vassell who's supposed to
19:36
Speaker 1: be the alleviator of the jump shooting is not hitting
19:38
Speaker 1: the shots. The guy that will be able to do that,
19:40
Speaker 1: in my mind, is Champagne. So you have to, in
19:43
Speaker 1: my mind, move one of those guards to the bench
19:45
Speaker 1: so Champagny can get back into that lineup. And I
19:47
Speaker 1: think the offense becomes even better. But this politics and
19:50
Speaker 1: all this other stuff, it is no surprise because they
19:53
Speaker 1: are the three best players on the team outside of Wimby.
19:56
Speaker 1: So you want to be able to play your best
19:57
Speaker 1: players together. But it ain't looking the greatest. Raptors. Kawhi's
20:02
Speaker 1: rocky start. So yeah, Kawhi only played a handful of games.
20:06
Speaker 1: And What did they say? Two characters with inefficient outings
20:08
Speaker 1: to start the season, 39 points on 37 shots, and
20:10
Speaker 1: then he got injured or he had to swell in
20:12
Speaker 1: his knee. I'm not looking too much into it because
20:13
Speaker 1: I refuse to look too much into it because I
20:15
Speaker 1: want Kawhi to be healthy. Damn. He's got everything for
20:18
Speaker 1: the Jazz? Everything? Yeah. Yeah. I said this before because
20:28
Speaker 1: a Jazz fan asked me. I'm going to go full
20:29
Speaker 1: cam on the 2019, by the way. A Jazz fan
20:32
Speaker 1: asked me this on Twitter, and I didn't have the
20:34
Speaker 1: characters to say this completely He asked me how much
20:37
Speaker 1: of what the Jazz are doing offensively is like deserves.
20:42
Speaker 1: We should talk about Will Hardy with it. Right now,
20:43
Speaker 1: the Jazz are 29th in offense. And the only team
20:46
Speaker 1: that's worse than them is that Charlotte team that I
20:48
Speaker 1: mentioned can't score 100 points in the game. I think
20:51
Speaker 1: Will Hardy deserves some penalty to it. Like he deserves
20:54
Speaker 1: some responsibility for the team being this bad offensively. But
20:57
Speaker 1: if you go back and watch the Utah Jazz over
20:59
Speaker 1: the last couple of seasons. A guy like Nurkic, not
21:01
Speaker 1: specifically Nurkic, but those big body screener and hub guys
21:05
Speaker 1: were really important to what the Jazz were doing because
21:08
Speaker 1: they don't have a ton of really great passers. So
21:10
Speaker 1: you kind of have to do something where the screening
21:13
Speaker 1: and that has to be the offensive And then they
21:15
Speaker 1: lose Nurkic right before the season starts. Trash. And then
21:17
Speaker 1: you get into it and you say, okay, we got
21:18
Speaker 1: some other biggish bodies. Jaron Jackson Jr. tears his knee up.
21:22
Speaker 1: And that's like, oh my God, we got no big bodies.
21:24
Speaker 1: The big bodies we got is Mo Bamba, who's a
21:26
Speaker 1: tall body, not a big body. So it is, it's
21:29
Speaker 1: a lot. It's a lot. Like, Real Hardy is not
21:30
Speaker 1: without blame because even I think some of his rotations
21:33
Speaker 1: are a struggle to get through. behind but also he's
21:35
Speaker 1: dealing with all the injuries and also he's trying to
21:37
Speaker 1: figure out which guard parents should be this it should
21:40
Speaker 1: be that everything is trash right now utah and i
21:42
Speaker 1: believe that they was gonna be one of the big
21:44
Speaker 1: jump teams they back at the bottom lastly we got
21:47
Speaker 1: the washington wizards the role changes i think so many
21:50
Speaker 1: people are adjusting there was a time earlier in the
21:52
Speaker 1: season where i'm like oh is keishon george gonna get
21:54
Speaker 1: lost in the shuffle no head shoulders we understand where
21:56
Speaker 1: keishon is another 30 point game just last night it
21:58
Speaker 1: was a loss but another 30 point game Trey Johnson
22:00
Speaker 1: has started off the season struggling from three. I think
22:03
Speaker 1: he had a really good game last night against Atlanta,
22:05
Speaker 1: so maybe he's about to figure it out. Bilal Koulibaly,
22:07
Speaker 1: no longer a starter when A.J. DeBonta comes back. What
22:09
Speaker 1: is his role going to be? They just have so
22:11
Speaker 1: many younger guys. Alex Saar is, what, attempting eight shots
22:15
Speaker 1: a game, if that, averaging 11 points per. So this
22:18
Speaker 1: is what happens when you bring in a guy like
22:20
Speaker 1: Trey Young, who's going to be super ball-dominant, but I
22:22
Speaker 1: think impactful positively for the Wizards. And then Anthony Davis,
22:25
Speaker 1: another guy that's going to have the ball a lot,
22:26
Speaker 1: but also impactful positively as well. where like some of
22:29
Speaker 1: these younger guys who only know us, us, us, because
22:31
Speaker 1: I've been on a shitty team for the last three years,
22:33
Speaker 1: they have to figure out, okay, how can I pick
22:35
Speaker 1: my spots? How can Brian Keefe put me in a
22:37
Speaker 1: position where I'm still developing but also trying to help
22:39
Speaker 1: this team out? I think if I'm not mistaken, let
22:41
Speaker 1: me see if I can quickly look this up. I
22:43
Speaker 1: think Trey Johnson had a game earlier this season where
22:45
Speaker 1: he's just got like a DNP coach's decision. I'm like, whoa.
22:50
Speaker 1: Let me see. Let me see. He ended up. Yeah,
22:54
Speaker 1: the game versus Cleveland. He got a DNP, and I
22:56
Speaker 1: remember watching his game like, where's Trey? Then the game
22:57
Speaker 1: after that, he only played 12 minutes. In my mind,
22:59
Speaker 1: I'm like, oh, my God, what is happening? And now
23:01
Speaker 1: he's back fully in rotation. Last night he had 23
23:04
Speaker 1: on great shooting. So I'm thinking that's going to stay
23:06
Speaker 1: the way it is. But, yeah, it's going to be
23:08
Speaker 1: a struggle for a team like this with this many
23:09
Speaker 1: young players to find themselves. But it ain't the worst
23:12
Speaker 1: thing in the world because they are still competent enough.
23:15
Speaker 1: They're 5-4 on the season. This is a Wizards team
23:19
Speaker 1: that has been a 19-win team for like 100 years
23:21
Speaker 1: in a row, it feels like. So a 500 team
23:23
Speaker 1: right now is a win. And at the end of
23:25
Speaker 1: the day, they're also fun to watch too. Maybe I'm
23:28
Speaker 1: talking too much for Wizards fans. All right, that's all 30, man.
23:30
Speaker 1: That's all 30 teams. Not a bad article, Mr. Zachary.
23:34
Speaker 1: Appreciate y'all for watching. If you enjoyed it, leave a like, subscribe.
23:37
Speaker 1: Ain't it crazy I got a GTA sponsorship? What the hell?