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Does The James Harden Benefit Everyone? Wemby vs. Bol Bol · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the mixtape era, the highlight era, bo, and and I don't, I don't, this feels terrible because I'm not trying to badge Bo Bo as a person or as a player, but these are not the same.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_01: Watch Women Yama.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beachum podcast.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_01: Ladies and gentlemen, we got a very special episode.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: I personally didn't think that we'd be a couple days into the NBA season talking about an all-NBA 75 player, one of the greatest ever played, the guy that led the league in assists last year.
• 0:35
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't expect him to get traded this fast.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: We knew that the James Harden trade was gonna happen, but on Halloween, it happened.
• 0:41
  SPEAKER_01: So today you're gonna get my take, my opinions, my grades of this blockbuster trade.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_01: But after we talk about the goals of the Kenny Beech and podcast.
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I've mentioned it every single episode since the inception.
• 0:52
  SPEAKER_01: Our goal is to become the number one basketball podcast in America.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I just checked it before starting up this recording.
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: Guess what?
• 1:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're number five, and we appreciate that.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's hard to contextualize how cool it is to be the number five American basketball podcast.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not what we want to be at.
• 1:10
  SPEAKER_01: We want to take that number one spot.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I need your help.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_01: If you're here on YouTube, leave a like on the episode.
• 1:15
  SPEAKER_01: Subscribe to the channel if you're new around here.
• 1:18
  SPEAKER_01: Go over to Spotify, to Apple, download the episodes and give us five stars because we just want to go higher and higher and higher until me and Shannon Sharp are looking each other eye to chess, probably.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how tall he is, but I'm assuming he's taller than I am.
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And we we can say that we took down that powerhouse.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: Need your help.
• 1:36
  SPEAKER_01: All right, let's talk about the trade.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_01: Let's finally get it to it because that's that's what you're here for, right?
• 1:40
  SPEAKER_01: It is the morning going into Halloween.
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_01: I personally work late hours.
• 1:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's pretty normal for me to be up at 1:30 a.m.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: You know, and that's when this trade was breaking.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: But for some reason, this day, I was like, you know what, let me get to bed early.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Halloween is the next day.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_01: We gotta take the kids, trick-or-treating and stuff.
• 1:58
  SPEAKER_01: So let me get in bed early.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_01: So I did.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: And then I'm laying in bed, turn the phone off to the side, and I see a buzz or I hear a buzz one time, no big deal.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_01: Then a second time, then a third time, then a fourth time, and I'm like, you know what?
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta look at this.
• 2:11
  SPEAKER_01: And it was the James Harden trait out of nowhere.
• 2:13
  SPEAKER_01: So I kissed my wife goodnight, and I said, I gotta go to work.
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_01: I went down to the office and I started to record, and then I realized we don't know the details of the trade.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_01: Wolds dropped this bomb and kind of disappeared, and we had to sit there waiting for what, 30 minutes to figure out what the deal was.
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a lot of moments throughout NBA history that is fun for Twitter.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's not many that match up to the 1:30 a.m.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: NBA fans speculating about James Harden.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_01: So I do want to say shout out to Wodes for keeping us on the edge of our toes.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we've we've become spoiled as NBA fans of that instant gratification of knowing exactly what every single trade was.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_01: When I was younger, we didn't even know trades happened until the next morning we loaded up Sports Center.
• 2:55
  SPEAKER_01: You know, so this was this was kind of that.
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_01: So we find out that he gets created, and if you've been living under a rock, I got the exact details.
• 3:02
  SPEAKER_01: The 76ers receive a 2026 first-round pick, protected the worst of the Thunder or Clippers pick.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_01: You don't really need to understand that because it's not extremely important in the moment, okay?
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_01: They also get a 2028 Clippers pick unprotected, two second-round picks, a 2029 pick swap, Robert Coverton, Nicholas Batun, Marcus Moores Sr., don't forget the senior, and Kenya Martin Jr.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_01: On the other side, the Clippers received James Harden, who waived his$5.1 million trade bonus.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_01: So shout out to him for that.
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_01: You know, he's a generous guy, I guess.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_01: And PJ Tucker and Phillip, last name, and Phillip got flipped to the Sacramento Kings this morning.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then the OKC Thunder received a 2027 pick swap.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_01: This is a massive trade as far as how many pieces are moved, but there are a lot of different opinions about who won, who lost.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_01: This GM got fleeced.
• 3:50
  SPEAKER_01: This team went all in for no reason, and we gotta tackle it a couple different ways.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_01: The lore of this James Harden part is interesting.
• 3:59
  SPEAKER_01: James Harden is now entering his fourth team in 22 months.
• 4:04
  SPEAKER_01: Those are Ish Smith numbers, y'all.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_01: And we're talking about one of the greatest players of all time.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_01: People like to look at what James Harden did in the postseason and I understand why and kind of use that to encapsulate him as a player as of right now.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I understand it, right?
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_01: And the playoff run last year, he had two 40-point games and everything else after that was really, really bad.
• 4:24
  SPEAKER_01: But I do want to remind you, this guy was very, very close to making an all-NBA team in the regular season last year.
• 4:29
  SPEAKER_01: He led the league in assists, and he was one of the catalysts as to uh Joel and B winning MVP.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_01: He is an impactful NBA player, a really good NBA player in this time.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_01: June 30th, he opted into his contract and then immediately found out that the 76 is going to be looking for a trade for him.
• 4:45
  SPEAKER_01: And that I was taken aback by that.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_01: He goes out on his tour where he's dropping wine overseas and stuff, and he says, Daryl Morey is a liar, which I think for the majority of NBA fans is really, really into the NBA.
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_01: It was a surprise because Daryl Morey and James Harder have been like this.
• 5:03
  SPEAKER_01: They've been best friends, they've been homies.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_01: When he was traded from Brooklyn to the Philadelphia 76ers, everybody's seen the video of him getting off the private jet and him and Daryl Morey embracing each other with like brothers.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_01: And just a year and a half later, he's a liar and he said he'll never talk to that man again.
• 5:21
  SPEAKER_01: We can all speculate of what he believes that Daryl Morey lied about.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: We may never really know whatever.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: So he tells the world, I will never play for another team that Daryl Morey is a part of.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_01: But obviously, not that simple.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_01: The NBA has become privy to all of this type of stuff because we've seen it in Philadelphia before, where a player wanted out so much that he's like, I won't even report to training camp.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not gonna hoop, I'm not gonna do that.
• 5:45
  SPEAKER_01: So the new CBA has a bunch of different rules that basically prevent players from holding out when they're under contract.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_01: So James Harden had to report to training camp.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_01: And he did.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_01: And we got bamboozled, y'all.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_01: There was all these these reports.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_01: Tobias Harris is talking about how good of a teammate uh James Harden was in that one day of training camp.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: Tyrese Maxi went on to Old Man and the Three to talk about the professionalism and all that, just to find out James wasn't even there the full time.
• 6:10
  SPEAKER_01: James only scrimmaged one time, but they kept it under the rug.
• 6:14
  SPEAKER_01: They ain't want to say nothing terrible about their guy, which is understandable.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_01: Then the season starts.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: Another new part of the new NBA CBA is this anti-rest rule.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And James Harden, because he has made an all-star game or an all-NBA appearance over the last three years, he's in this crop of guys that basically can't set out for rest very, very often.
• 6:32
  SPEAKER_01: And then here we are a couple games into the season, and they said, you know what?
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna do it.
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_01: Dear Mori had gone on many, many talk radio shows to say, hey, we're not trading him for anything less than what we want.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_01: Right now, we want multiple first-round picks or Terrence Mann.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_01: And he walked out getting that.
• 6:50
  SPEAKER_01: Now, some of these first round picks may not be as valuable as the name.
• 6:53
  SPEAKER_01: Anytime somebody hears first-round picks, it's especially unprotected.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_01: You like licking your lips, you're licking your fingers, like, oh, that's gonna be juicy because Jalen Brown was once upon a time an unprotected first-round pick of the Kevin Garnett trade.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_01: We just need to do that again, you know?
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and some of these picks, probably majority's picks, won't turn out to be anything super crazy, but that's not just what this is about.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_01: All right, this is not new in the NBA.
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, actually, I thought we were turning a new leaf a little bit when it came to these types of things into this offseason where we've seen players get traded.
• 7:26
  SPEAKER_01: And not necessarily, I feel like player empowerment is something that we've all dealt with over the last decade or so, but it felt like it had leveled itself out recently.
• 7:34
  SPEAKER_01: But the way uh Damian Lillard and James Harden situations ended up having, we're still at the peak.
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_01: We're still at the peak of player empowerment.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to tackle this from both different angles, the two teams involved.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to OKC Thunder.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: You don't get a grade.
• 7:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, you don't get a grade because you have 17 first-round picks in the next four years, you're fine.
• 7:53
  SPEAKER_01: The uh Sacramento Kings, you don't get a grade because I don't know anything about Phillip Pro Troskip.
• 7:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know how to pronounce his name.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_01: Good luck, but but you don't get a grade.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_01: So starting off with the 76ers, I personally am gonna grade this trade for them a good old-fashioned B.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: I think they did good work.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: And this is the this is the reason I'm saying this.
• 8:15
  SPEAKER_01: You had little to no leverage whatsoever in these trade talks.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_01: There's 28 other teams that could have been interested in James Harden outside of the Clippers, and of course the team that he's playing for, the 76ers.
• 8:28
  SPEAKER_01: And from our understanding, there was nobody else even involved in these trade talks.
• 8:33
  SPEAKER_01: Even the teams that, oh, they might be listening, they might be trying to call, that got debunked immediately.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_01: So James Harden's avenue was either you got a report to the Philadelphia 76ers, slace them up and go hoop, or you're going to be traded to the Clippers.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_01: And with them having zero, zero leverage, I think walking out with two first-round picks is a duh.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, like I like they said earlier, they would have wanted Terrence Man too.
• 8:57
  SPEAKER_01: But I see this as a win, not just because of the right now, because even the right now is kind of murky, if you ask me, but what it could potentially set you up for.
• 9:06
  SPEAKER_01: Because when you think about the players that are involved in this trade, Robert Coverton, Nicholas Patoon, Marcus Moore Sr., and Kenya Martin Jr., none of those players are on guaranteed contracts going into next season.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And also, since they traded away PJ Tucker, they have up to$100 million in Cap Space this offseason.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_01: Now, I'm not gonna act like this offseason, this free agency class has a ton of heavy hitters.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_01: It's like Pascal Siakam, OG Ananobi, DeMarta Rosen, Clay Thompson.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_01: These are not super duper star players.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_01: But cap space is not just for free agents.
• 9:39
  SPEAKER_01: It's not just for free agents.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like a lot of people are looking at it like, okay, maybe they go get OG Ananobi.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_01: No, they could use these picks, these players, to go get something else.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: But but I digress.
• 9:51
  SPEAKER_01: Let's just let's just talk about why another reason why this trade ended up happening right now, and that is a lot to do with Tyrese Maxie.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_01: We mentioned on the last episode how good he's been.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_01: He's averaging 30 points, six rebounds, six assists.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_01: He hasn't really turned the ball over.
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: He had he has a perfect combination of speed, athleticism, and three-point shooting.
• 10:08
  SPEAKER_01: Where if you want to contest a three-point shot or you're you're trying to outplay him in that aspect, he'll just blow past you.
• 10:13
  SPEAKER_01: You try to play off, he will shoot over you.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_01: And now they're playing basketball dramatically different than last year.
• 10:19
  SPEAKER_01: And this is something that I always like to look into when we talk about teams with new coaches, all right?
• 10:24
  SPEAKER_01: Last year, the 76ers finished 29th and how often they ran offensive possessions off cuts, according to synergy.
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_01: This season, they're tied for seventh.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_01: It's a big jump.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: Last season, the team also finished 29th in dribble handoff frequency.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_01: This season, they are number one.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_01: Their offense has changed.
• 10:45
  SPEAKER_01: Tarys Maxie is now one of the guys getting the most amount of touches.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_01: And the former MVP, the reigning MVP, is playing some of his best basketball, especially as a playmaker.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, okay, do we want to start accepting fines to have James Harden sit out?
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_01: Probably not.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_01: Are we okay with just accepting some role players that might come in and hoop a little bit or we can flip a little bit later?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yes.
• 11:12
  SPEAKER_01: Because right now, I'm gonna guess their potential started lineup looks like this.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_01: Maxie, Milton, Harris, Robert Covington is back, ladies and gentlemen.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: He was one of the first people a part of the process, and he's back.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then Jordan B.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: And now their bench actually is kind of decent.
• 11:27
  SPEAKER_01: Patrick Beverly, Kelly Ubre, Marcus Moore Sr., who hasn't played yet this season.
• 11:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't, we don't know what version of him we're gonna get, but let's just pencil him in right now as far as the as far as the top 10 players.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_01: Kmart Jr.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: and B Bob Paul.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: Paul Reed.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: That's not too bad.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_01: Now, is it as good as the Bucs?
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_01: Probably not, even though the Bucs have not looked good so far.
• 11:47
  SPEAKER_01: We might talk about that a little bit later.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_01: We might save it.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not overreactive, but uh they're looking kind of rough through the first week and a half.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: It's probably not good enough to compete with the Boston Celtics, but it's good enough right now to maintain good regular season fortune, right?
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, good enough to be the third team in the East.
• 12:05
  SPEAKER_01: Will they end up being third team in the East?
• 12:06
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really know.
• 12:08
  SPEAKER_01: But one thing we gotta we can't look past also when it comes to the timing of this, is that this sets them up that if we get to the trade deadline, every single player that is involved in this trade will be eligible to be retraded.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_01: And again, this is these combinations of salaries adds up to a max spot.
• 12:25
  SPEAKER_01: So the question is do they try to convince Joel and B to waste a year of his prime by saying, hey, we're just gonna open up$100 million in free agency next season and the next year is the one we're gonna build?
• 12:40
  SPEAKER_01: Or do they feel the pressure to go out and try to help him now because player empowerment?
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_01: I find it hard to believe that they're gonna waste a year of Joel Embiid's prime considering the history of Joel L, considering the history of seven-foot players and how long their window is to being elite elite.
• 12:56
  SPEAKER_01: So I doubt they're gonna wait into the offseason to make things happen.
• 12:59
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why it's super fun to me.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because now I look around the league and try to figure out okay, if they are trying to flip this exact package of three tradable first-round picks and salary filler, who are some people that could be interested in that?
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_01: What teams might be sellers around February that they're just looking for draft capital and expiring contracts?
• 13:20
  SPEAKER_01: Here's my crop of guys, the potential 76ers trade piece packages, right?
• 13:26
  SPEAKER_01: Number one on the list is probably the guy that I like the most as far as fit goes.
• 13:30
  SPEAKER_01: It is Oji Ananobi.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Now, prying O Giannanobi away from Masayujiri is like pulling teeth.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: The man won 17 first-round picks.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: He wants to be the new Sam Presti.
• 13:39
  SPEAKER_01: That has been the case over the last couple years.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: But if the Toronto Raptors continue to be not great, let's just say that they had a very good win against the Milwaukee Bucks recently.
• 13:48
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe things might be turning around.
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: But if somehow we get to February and they come to the realization that this core is not yet not it, OJ Adanobi is a guy that slides in perfectly as a dude that will not take the ball out of the hands of Tyrese Maxie, because that is one of my biggest fears when we talk about getting a third star.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: Great defensive player and has showed that he can put the ball on the floor and create if he's given the opportunity.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_01: What is the price gonna be?
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: But that will be one of the first teams I'm calling if I am in the business of getting that third star right now.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_01: And the good thing about this, well, double-A sword.
• 14:26
  SPEAKER_01: One of the potential good things about this is that OG Ananobi, if you trade for him, he's not gonna soak up a hundred million dollars in cap.
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe he's a Joel.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get him now.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_01: He might help us do it now, but we're gonna extend him in the offseason and we still got X amount of money to throw around.
• 14:42
  SPEAKER_01: But the other side of that is, hey, he's a free agent.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: Why throw draft capital to get him right now when we can maybe convince him to just come early?
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: Or I'm sorry, later.
• 14:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's the good old-fashioned Carmelo Anthony Differenugget's uh New York Knicks.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_01: Well, we knew Melo wanted to go to the Knicks.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_01: He was gonna be a free agent, but they was like, we're just gonna trade for him now.
• 15:00
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna trade all the capital, we're gonna trade Gallinari Wilson Chandler, all of the other stuff.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_01: And they jumped the gun.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_01: And you know how that story ends.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: The second guy is the teammate of O'Jean Anobi, Pascal Siakam, another expiring contract, all NBA player who has seen his touches go down quite significantly through the first week and a half of the season.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_01: But again, maybe they're they're gearing up because they just had a really good game against the Bucs, where he hit multiple three-point shots.
• 15:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
• 15:24
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, Pascal Siakam stretching the floor, hitting threes.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_01: The next guy is the one that has been rumored the most, where if you look at the betting odds, a lot of bet people are putting money on Zach Levine being the guy.
• 15:36
  SPEAKER_01: Here's why I don't like it.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: And I promise you, this is not my bias fandom as a Bulls fan coming into play.
• 15:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't love the fit with the backcourt of Tyrese Maxie and Zach Levine.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_01: I think Zach Levine's Zach Levine is an improved defender compared to, let's say, three years ago, but he's definitely not the piece I would like to see alongside Tyrese Maxie.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_01: When it comes to scoring, hey man, he's one of the best in the game.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_01: But for the Philadelphia 76ers, it's a they need a little bit more than just a guy that can put up 25 on any given night.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I just don't like the defensive fit of that backcourt together because I think that they might get bullied quite a bit.
• 16:14
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen Tyrese Maxie get targeted in the playoffs.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_01: And listen, Tyrese Maxie is a fighter.
• 16:18
  SPEAKER_01: He's just undersized.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_01: I've seen Zach Levine get targeted in the playoffs.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: He's a fighter.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_01: He just doesn't do a great job.
• 16:25
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't love the fit, but as a Bulls fan, thinking about blowing it up does intrigue me just a little bit.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: The next guy is an expensive player.
• 16:35
  SPEAKER_01: This man signed a$200 million contract this offseason.
• 16:38
  SPEAKER_01: Um, former Damian Lillard teammate, Jeremy Grant.
• 16:42
  SPEAKER_01: I think the fit of Jeremy Grant is pretty interesting.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_01: Now, he he's a guy that has been over taxed a few times in his career as a dude that has looked to put the ball on the floor quite often and create for himself or his teammates.
• 16:53
  SPEAKER_01: And I think he showcased the year in in Detroit that he could do that, but to an extent.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_01: And I think he plays his best basketball when he's not the number one or number two option.
• 17:01
  SPEAKER_01: And here he kind of fits in perfectly as a number three.
• 17:03
  SPEAKER_01: I think defensively he has the versatility to be kind of rangy and can help the team out quite a bit.
• 17:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then the last one is one that I personally don't like, but a lot of people do.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_01: And it's Car Anthony Towns.
• 17:15
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like it.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know how anybody can watch the Car Anthony Towns Rudy Gobert experiment where Caranthony Towns is the four and say that they want to run that back, but instead of it being uh Rudy Gobert, it's Jordan B.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: A little side part.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um a couple nights ago, they blew a 21-point lead to the Atlanta Hawks.
• 17:36
  SPEAKER_01: It's not anything new for them, you know, but they have blown 18 different double-digit leads since acquiring Rudy Gobert.
• 17:46
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not saying that's a Rudy Gobert problem because it's a team game, but that is an insane amount of blown games, ladies and gentlemen.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, or actually, you know what?
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna take a step back.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: There's another name on my list that it's probably the most unlikely of it because I can see a world where OG, Pascal, Zach Levine, Jeremy Grant, or Carr and Car Anthony Talents are available come February.
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: This guy may be less so, but I think he is the perfect, and I mean absolutely perfect fit.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: It's just maybe unlikely.
• 18:14
  SPEAKER_01: It's Mikhail Bridges.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_01: Bring him home.
• 18:17
  SPEAKER_01: You traded him away for Zaire Smith on trade on draft night.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: His mom works in the organization, or at least used to.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't I don't know if she still does.
• 18:25
  SPEAKER_01: But at the time he was being drafted, his mom worked in the organization.
• 18:28
  SPEAKER_01: Y'all shipped him away for Zaire Smith, and he is Zaire Smith is out of the league.
• 18:32
  SPEAKER_01: So that would be my group of guys that I'm potentially looking looking into.
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I'm just curious about Joel Embiid and his patience.
• 18:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because again, he is a 30-year-old big man.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_01: And based on what he said this offseason about him wanting to win a championship, even if it's not in Philadelphia, he might come out on Twitter and say that he was trolling.
• 18:51
  SPEAKER_01: I wholeheartedly believe that was true, that he honestly feels that way, as he should, you know.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: He's definitely not been a Joel Embiid.
• 18:59
  SPEAKER_01: We know he can be in the playoffs, but championships are championships, and I think he's a player that wants to compete.
• 19:05
  SPEAKER_01: Um, at most right now, they can offer expiring contracts, three first-round picks, and a bunch of second-round swaps, which is pretty decent to some team, I would assume.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: When you trade away a star play, I think a lot of people want the draft capital and one young talented player.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: Doesn't always work out that way.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Time will tell.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_01: Let's shift it to talk about the Clippers because they got the all-star.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_01: Well, former all-star.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't make it last year, but uh, they got the former All-NBA player, and now they have a new big three of Paul George, Kuwai Leonard.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was gonna change the big four because of Russell.
• 19:41
  SPEAKER_01: Russell Russell's playing great basketball, but James Harden makes it a big three.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: My initial grade for this is a B minus.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: It's a B minus.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_01: I I don't necessarily love it.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now there are a few things about it that I really do love.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_01: The first one is I admire the fact that Steve Bomber does not give a damn, you know, for good or bad.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_01: I just admire the fact that this team has spent 40 plus years of their existence being either really bad, cursed, or the little brother to the LA Lakers.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_01: And now, once you think about the trade that they did on Summer League, another trade, by the way, that happened at 1.30 in the morning when they traded for um Kawhi Landon and Paul George, because I'm just gonna pair that together.
• 20:26
  SPEAKER_01: That was an important part of their history.
• 20:30
  SPEAKER_01: Even if this never ends in a championship, the Clippers have never been as relevant as they were then and as they are right now.
• 20:39
  SPEAKER_01: Even in the live city Clippers days, they weren't as irrelevant as they are right now.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: So, Steve Bomber, congratulations.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_01: You got you, you went all in at the expense of like, you got no first round picks to 2030.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's kind of when you think about that, 2030, you know, 2030.
• 20:57
  SPEAKER_01: I but I I admire it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_01: They went in two times in four years.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_01: Because Shea gives Alexander all of the draft capital, all the swaps is still kind of whew, especially when you watch what Shea could do now.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_01: But given what was going on, the landscape of the NBA then, that was so, I'm gonna say that's so much worth it.
• 21:15
  SPEAKER_01: Now, revisionist history is gonna say, well, Shea is a dog, and in 2023, you can argue that Shea is a better player than than both of those guys at the moment.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: But still, I there's been the Clippers have been a team that over the last four seasons, I have picked twice to make the NBA finals.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_01: I have been a believer in the Clippers, mostly because I believe in Kawhi Leonard come playoff time.
• 21:37
  SPEAKER_01: And in this era, they have one conference finals appearance, which is dope.
• 21:41
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of teams don't have that, but that's it.
• 21:45
  SPEAKER_01: And these are two players that, as we know throughout history, they struggle to stay healthy, especially when it matters the most.
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_01: The one year they made it to the conference finals, Kawhi Leonard tours ACL on a Joe Ingalls play.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_01: And even to this day, Joe Ingalls checked it to the game the other night Orlando Magic versus LA Clay.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: He got booed as if I don't know that he did them dirty.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I mean, I guess you can argue that he did.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but that was the closest they ever been.
• 22:08
  SPEAKER_01: And to have another opportunity, so I guess double down, I admire.
• 22:13
  SPEAKER_01: The question is, is this the double down that makes the most sense?
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: Right.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I'm giving it a B minus because the fit of it is kind of clunk, kind of clunky.
• 22:24
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the one thing about this Clippers era or the Clippers in general, they've always been linked to point guards.
• 22:31
  SPEAKER_01: The final thing that they've needed for this team is a guy that can set other people up.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: Just this offseason alone, they were linked to Drew Holiday after he was traded to the Portland Trailblazers.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_01: They made a trade for Malcolm Brockdown.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: And though he doesn't fit the archetype as a guy that sets people up, he's still a quality point guard.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_01: They made that trade, they accepted that trade and then fell out of it because of his back.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: And they were also linked to Chris Paul again.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: Like they have been looking for a point guard that they can trust outside of having Russell Westbrook, who looks really good again.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Russell Westbrook.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: And they kind of get that.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to break down the things that I like about it versus the reasons why I'm why I'm skeptical, right?
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_01: In general, I like the increase in talent level.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_01: Like I mentioned earlier, James Harden is a really, really talented ball player.
• 23:22
  SPEAKER_01: And as we know, throughout the history of the Paul Georgia Kawhi Leonard era, we can't really write them in for 60 games every season, right?
• 23:29
  SPEAKER_01: James Harden plays.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: And when he does play, he typically is good enough to carry an offensive load enough to win you a ton of regular season games.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_01: And I kind of had the same idea about the Lakers when they got Russell Westbrook.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: Remember that?
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: When the Lakers got Russell Westbrook, everybody was so high about the Lakers because Russ can just carry a group of four random players to win a game.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then obviously that didn't work out that way.
• 23:51
  SPEAKER_01: But James does the exact same thing right now.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: So that is another reason why I like it, just because he's a dude that could come in and help you win games.
• 24:00
  SPEAKER_01: Last year, when Joel and B did not play, a small sample size of when Jordan B did not play and James Harden did, they were five and two.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty good.
• 24:08
  SPEAKER_01: It's pretty good to not have the MVP of the league playing and you still win five out of seven games.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: Like I admire that.
• 24:14
  SPEAKER_01: The playmaking aspect is also good.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_01: You know, the playmaking aspect is something they've been missing.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Clippers are ISO-heavy team.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: They just are.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_01: Over the entire Kawhi Leonard, Paul George era, they finish in the top five majority of the years when it comes to total isolation or isolation frequency.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: They're ISO-heavy team because they have Paul George and Kawhi Leonard who can break down the defenders and do what they can do.
• 24:36
  SPEAKER_01: But now having a guy that can set up other people is just a plus.
• 24:40
  SPEAKER_01: What else?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: What else?
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_01: In theory, in theory, this raises the floor of the Clippers, right?
• 24:45
  SPEAKER_01: Can we agree on that?
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_01: It raises the floor.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, I think they can formulate some really, really cool lineups now.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_01: Some really, really cool small ball lineups specifically.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_01: One of the reasons they made that conference finals pus a few years ago was when they went to the small ball lineup, and Terrence Mann was practically the stretch five and had to pull Rudy Gobert out of the paint, but Rudy Gobert didn't want to leave the pay, and then Terrence Mann has a career night.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: They have the arsenal right now to run a bunch of different lineups that they can play small, whether it's PJ Tucker at the five, which we've seen him do a lot, maybe not as good now as he was in 2021, but still can run some five.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: Kawhi Leonard can run some five.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_01: And like one of the lineups I'm really, really excited about has in no specific order, but the five on the court I want to see at least a handful of possessions.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be James, Paul George, Kawhi, the penciled in three, Terrence Man, Russell Westbrook.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_01: That has the pot that has the potential to break barriers.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen James Harden and Russell Westbrook play together before.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_01: It didn't end great, obviously.
• 25:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was it was so obscure that Daryl Mori traded away every person that was over 6'6 to make it work.
• 25:58
  SPEAKER_01: And it obviously didn't work.
• 26:00
  SPEAKER_01: They got, I think they made it to the second round in the playoffs.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: They beat the OKC Thunder, if I'm not mistaken, on the Lou Dort block shot from James Harden.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, yeah, yeah.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the things I did like about that was watching Russell Westbrook play, I'm gonna say the Bruce Brown role, where he's cutting, he's setting screens as a guard and get into the basket.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's where Russell Westbrook can hold his most value here with those type of lineups.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so that those are the reasons why I like it.
• 26:25
  SPEAKER_01: Here's what I'm skeptical.
• 26:27
  SPEAKER_01: James Harden is a player that his play style has followed him every single place.
• 26:35
  SPEAKER_01: And now this is not like some small sample size.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: Like I said, this is his fourth team in 22 months.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen it, of course, with Houston, where he was one of the highest uses players of all time.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: And guess what?
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_01: It resulted in an NBA um MVP award.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not discrediting that whatsoever.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: We saw it in Brooklyn, we saw it in Philly, specifically after the all-star break last season.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it just, I don't know if he would be able to adapt.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: This is one of those moments, this is one of those trades where you don't want to adapt your team to fit around him, but it should be vice versa.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we've seen pockets of time where James has changed his play type to fit the people around him, specifically in the first couple months of Brooklyn.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually, due to stuff, due to Kyrie not playing this amount of games, that half of games, it backwards, it revolted back to I'm James Harden.
• 27:27
  SPEAKER_01: I'm one of the top, I don't know, three to five ISO players ever.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna just get into my bag.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_01: And with the Clippers, I don't think they should be changing the way they hoop in order to fit him.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_01: I mentioned this is an ISO-heavy team already, but now we're gonna add three, three ISO-heavy players?
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_01: That just feels like one too many.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_01: What is James doing when it's not his turn?
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_01: Can they during the season change it up where it's not his turn, my turn, my turn?
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 28:00
  SPEAKER_01: James last season was a 38% catch-and-shoot uh player on like 1.8 attempts.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's not a crazy value, but James is a great three-point shooter.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: So can we make him more of a threat when he doesn't have the ball?
• 28:10
  SPEAKER_01: What happens with Paul George, who's playing at an all NBA level right now?
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: When you have this many talented creators, uh ISO creators, somebody's gonna get the short end of the stick.
• 28:22
  SPEAKER_01: I don't want it to be Paul George because Paul is playing great ball right now.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: Somebody's gonna have to take a theoretical back seat, and I just don't want it to be one of the two guys that are there already.
• 28:35
  SPEAKER_01: If anything, James should be like this this hired gun playmaker, set people up type dude, full time.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we've seen him do before.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_01: This man, Jordan B.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: just won an MVP award, partially on that where James in his pick and roll was elite.
• 28:50
  SPEAKER_01: He got Jordan Beat the ball exactly the where he won the way he wanted to every single possession.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_01: And it it really helped Jordan B grow as a player.
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_01: But then it changed.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_01: Doc Rivers, since he's been fired, has been doing a podcast to him.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_01: He's been talking about it, being candid about it, talking about how once we got past the all-star break last season, something switched in James because he wasn't officially announcing all-star.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_01: He's like, hey, I'ma do me.
• 29:17
  SPEAKER_01: And and the exact quote um had to do with them playing a certain type of ball that Doc Rivers said, this is the way we think we can win.
• 29:28
  SPEAKER_01: And James is like, nah, nah, nah.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: I gotta do me because this can help us win now.
• 29:33
  SPEAKER_01: And again, to James's credit, it helped them win a bunch of regular season games.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Right?
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: Here it is.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is from Doc Rivers.
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_01: It was challenging.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: More because we were fighting two things, and not like visually fighting.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_01: It was James is so good at playing one way, and the way I believe you have to play to win in some ways is different.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: That is directly from Doc Rivers' mouth, who coached James last season.
• 29:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's just very, very interesting.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I I do question their winged depth just a little bit.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_01: Another reason why I'm skeptical, um, just because right now it is basically Norman Powell, Terrence Man, who's like this hybrid play every single position is set for the five, probably, and then PJ Tucker.
• 30:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, so they maybe are missing just a little bit.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um also when I look at them and look at their the teams that they have to go through to win the NBA championship, do I believe that this trade that they mortgaged every single first round pick to 2030?
• 30:32
  SPEAKER_01: Do I believe that this trade makes them better than those teams?
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_01: I don't.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think if we got to a seven-game series between them and Denver, that they're beating Denver.
• 30:44
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly don't can't say conf comfortably that they'd be beating the Lakers in a seven.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_01: I can't say comfortably that they'd be beating the Suns in seven.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: I can't say comfortably they'd beat the Warriors in seven.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: So if I don't have the confidence, again, this is based on not seeing a single second of the game.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_01: If I don't have the confidence in them beating those teams, then I just can't say that they're going to win a championship.
• 31:09
  SPEAKER_01: This is my initial reactions without seeing a single second.
• 31:12
  SPEAKER_01: And because this podcast is two times a week, Thursdays and Mondays, we're gonna be talking about them a lot over the course of the season once we finally get to see James in his role, and once we finally get to see all of the things on the court.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_01: Because what I'm saying right now could be false, right?
• 31:28
  SPEAKER_01: He could fit like a glove in this world.
• 31:31
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 31:32
  SPEAKER_01: But based on his history and the history of the Clippers and the rest of their roster, I just don't look at them and say, that's the team that I'm picking to win the West.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: And when you trade all of the first round picks for the next almost decade, that's typically something that you want.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_01: And I wonder if I asked a hundred NBA fans post-James Hardy being traded, who do you think is gonna win the West?
• 31:53
  SPEAKER_01: How many of them do you think is gonna say the Clippers?
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_01: Is it 20%?
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: Is it 10%?
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_01: Is it 50%?
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think it's that high.
• 32:01
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if 20, 20 might be a stretch.
• 32:04
  SPEAKER_01: So if you go all in for 17% of the votes of people believing in you, was it worth it?
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know, and that's why I gave it the grade that I did.
• 32:13
  SPEAKER_01: This is an open dialogue, though.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_01: You know the comment section is always there.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: You can hit us up on Twitter as well.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_01: You could use hashtag ask KB if you want to be featured in the next episode, ladies and gentlemen.
• 32:23
  SPEAKER_01: We got questions from the audience.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: The first one comes from Johnny Game and Watch.
• 32:28
  SPEAKER_01: What players and teams have the most pressure this season?
• 32:32
  SPEAKER_01: I think the Clippers are under the most pressure in all the basketball.
• 32:34
  SPEAKER_01: I thought they were under the most pressure before the James Harden trade.
• 32:37
  SPEAKER_01: And so you can imagine how much pressure I believe that they're under now.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_01: Because A, we have player options, Oka Wilder and Paul George.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_01: And from our understanding, there has not been a lot of conversations about them being extended.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_01: And again, all the first round picks, all the capital um being thrown at them.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like if you don't win that championship, uh, I don't I don't really know.
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_01: Another, I don't even want to say team, but another organization under the pressure is the team that made the trade with the Clippers.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: I can't, we can't look past the fact that we have Jolan B, the MVP of the league, and uh the team around him is not good enough to win a championship at the moment.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_01: How long will he wait in this current era?
• 33:15
  SPEAKER_01: And for the rest of the league, I don't know if there's a ton of pressure.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, you can argue that the Suns, of course, have a lot of pressure because of also how much they gave up to make this core happen.
• 33:25
  SPEAKER_01: But these players are in the contract for the next couple seasons.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I guess it's just like, what is Kevin Lorentz timeline of still looking like an elite level player?
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: I guess that's their pressure.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: But if they don't win a championship this year, I don't think it's a complete failure because they're gonna run back the exact same core and maybe switch some things up around the edges.
• 33:44
  SPEAKER_01: I kind of look at it as far as as far as pressure goes.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_01: I look at it and think, which team, if they weren't successful now, will be in trouble, right?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: I think that's the way you could kind of look at it.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and it's not, I don't think there's a ton of teams currently under a ton of pressure.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think the Lakers are under a decent amount of pressure too, when you have an aging guy in LeBron James, where even though he's basically been a cyborg for the last 21 years, we know that Father Time has not lost the battle completely.
• 34:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, right now he's against the ropes against LeBron, but I believe that it's just gonna happen.
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the the beats commercial that they dropped with Savannah when she was commentating, uh, tell them that you won't retire until you play with your son, and then tell him again, hard.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_01: Hard quote, Savannah.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like, imagine if he did end up playing with Brawny and Bryce Maximus.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because you Bryce is one of those names that you gotta say to Bryce Maximus.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_01: You can't just say Bryce.
• 34:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but also he is you you can start, you're starting to see things.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen it over the last couple seasons.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: Even this year, he's just not the same player, and it doesn't mean he's bad, but he's just not the Braun that we've seen just three years ago when they won the championship.
• 34:52
  SPEAKER_01: So I think they're under a good amount of pressure.
• 34:54
  SPEAKER_01: The Atlanta Hawks are under pressure to a lesser scale, not to win an NBA championship like some of the other teams we're talking about, but to convince themselves that this combination of DeJounte Murray and Trey Young is worth it.
• 35:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, just because you extended DeJounte Murray, you gave a lot of money to Trey Young, you gave up three first-round picks to make this core happen.
• 35:09
  SPEAKER_01: And through their existence, it hasn't been great.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: Luckily, they're on a three-game streak right now, so they're starting to work a little bit, even though Trey Young has yet to give us like a real, really good Trey Young game.
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_01: But like the other teams across the association, I don't see a ton of pressure on the Boston Celtics currently.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I mean, I can ar I can understand why you would, but it also feels like their core, because this is their first year working together and majority of them, if not all of them, are under contract for the long term, that it's not immense amount of pressure to win this year.
• 35:37
  SPEAKER_01: They are still my favorite to win the Eastern Conference.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: They've looked crazy.
• 35:40
  SPEAKER_01: They won a game by 50 points today.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like, what are you supposed to do about that?
• 35:45
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that might be it as far as pressure goes.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe, maybe on a lesser scale, the Cleveland Cavaliers, because of all the noise about Donovan Mitchell in New York, and he just played at Madison Square Garden and he was smiling the entire time after I think he had what, 25 points in the first half, and they didn't score again until the fourth quarter.
• 36:02
  SPEAKER_01: So he just loves Madison Square Garden.
• 36:04
  SPEAKER_01: He loves New York, so maybe there's a little bit of pressure on them to kind of maintain him.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_01: But that's kind of it.
• 36:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think everybody else is just here for the vibes, man.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think everybody else is here for the vibes.
• 36:13
  SPEAKER_01: All right.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: Next question comes from exaggerated history.
• 36:17
  SPEAKER_01: Ask KB, remember to use hashtag ASKKB.
• 36:21
  SPEAKER_01: Um, am I crazy to think that the Suns will regret the Kevin Durant trade if they don't win the chip this year?
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_01: So he's actually going into pressure, like our last uh comment.
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: They gave up a lot for him and he isn't getting any younger.
• 36:35
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, yeah, you're you're going into basically the point that I made um about the only pressure I could see about them is Kevin Durant's youth or lack thereof.
• 36:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but this is why I disagree with a lot of people when it comes to something like this, because I think majority of people, again, going back to the Clippers trade with Shakears Alexander and all of the picks, like when you look at it now, that pick, I mean, that trade is crazy considering so far the Clippers have not won a championship and Shay Giurs Alexander is an absolute stud, and then you gave up all the draft capital and stuff.
• 37:05
  SPEAKER_01: But even then, when we look at it years and years later, I can't say that there's probably regret from the front office, right?
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_01: Because in the moment, in the moment of time, it just made so much sense.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that let's let's get let's get deep on each on each other.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Oh um regret is just not a good thing.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think that if you just think about regret, especially in a profession of building teams and stuff, you will never, ever, ever do it to win.
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: You would never take the chance.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 37:43
  SPEAKER_01: If you just start, if you just start about regret, start about regret.
• 37:48
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, we're gonna be trading Eric Bledsoe plus three first-round picks for Drew Holiday.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_01: Drew Holiday ain't been an all-star in six years.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, we might regret that in a few years.
• 37:58
  SPEAKER_01: Champion.
• 37:59
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, uh, should we should we give$140 million to Michael Porter Jr.?
• 38:05
  SPEAKER_01: He's got all this back injury history.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, do we just let him go?
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_01: Champion.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: Like, there's just so many decisions, these cross worlds in NBA history that fear can prevent you from doing the thing that you want to do the most.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I think even if the Suns don't win a championship in the Kevin, Devin Booker Bradley Bill era, they're not gonna look back and say, man, we shouldn't have made that trade.
• 38:28
  SPEAKER_01: Because the alternative of keeping Cam and keeping Mikhail and keeping the first round picks and stuff, I think the alternative doesn't ultimately win the championship either.
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_01: Unless you're saying that you're using that exact same trade package to go get someone else.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_01: And now we just live it live in a fairy tale world at that point.
• 38:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I just don't look at it as far as regret goes.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_01: Some trades I feel like in the moment, they're just bad trades, and I look at those different.
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: We'll reference it again.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_01: The Kevin Garden, Kevin Gardenette, Paul Pierce, Brooklyn.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's go go read up on that trade.
• 39:02
  SPEAKER_01: I uh in the moment.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: And I was a shorty in the moment, and this is before draft capital was even a huge thing, a crazy trade.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_01: And there's a few of those throughout NBA history, you know?
• 39:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and I don't think the Kevin Durant trade is one because he's he's Kevin, he's Kevin Durant.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_01: So the other day, the San Antonio Spurs had a huge comeback win against the Phoenix Suns.
• 39:32
  SPEAKER_01: And in this game, Kelda Johnson had a crazy play, took the ball away from Kevin Durant, laid it in the bucket.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_01: Of course, we're talking about Wimby versus Kevin Durant, which is an anticipated matchup for me because we're talking about two super skinny archetype players going head to head, one the future, one the current, slash the past.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_01: I was just happy about it.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: I was excited about it.
• 39:50
  SPEAKER_01: I know they play different positions, but I was I was hype.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_01: And after this game, a Nash televised game, Shaquille O'Neal, one of the greatest to ever do it, said this.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_04: He's never seen a guy like uh Wimbiana.
• 40:01
  SPEAKER_04: Yes, you have.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_04: His name is Bobo.
• 40:03
  SPEAKER_04: You think Wimby's gonna be a big thing?
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_04: Let me finish my point.
• 40:08
  SPEAKER_04: No, let me finish my point.
• 40:09
  SPEAKER_04: Wimbiana is just way more consistent than Bobo, but Bobo is the first time.
• 40:12
  SPEAKER_04: I think that's what we see with the biggest.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_03: First of all, that's no.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_03: This is not.
• 40:18
  SPEAKER_04: Wimbiana is way, way, way, way, way, way more consistent than Bobo.
• 40:22
  SPEAKER_04: He's only played three games.
• 40:24
  SPEAKER_04: No, he's talking about over his his French league and.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_04: Are you comparing Wimba Yumma to Bobo?
• 40:29
  SPEAKER_04: Bobo is the first seven foot-four guy that we've seen come out with the hands or shoot the threes.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_04: Yes.
• 40:34
  SPEAKER_04: You're making like you ain't never seen a guy like that before.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_04: Bobo's the first guy.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_04: That's what I'm saying.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_04: And I'm standing on what I say.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_04: You can yell, bro.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_04: You can yell all you want.
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_04: I can yell it to you.
• 40:44
  SPEAKER_04: I'm standing on what I'm saying.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_04: Well, you standing.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_04: And Kenny and Ernie agrees with me.
• 40:50
  SPEAKER_04: Bobo just don't play hard.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_04: That's all.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, but I'm just noticing everything.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: I just realized that what Shaq's cup says, but first of all, look at his cup.
• 41:02
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be talking.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_02: What is all these things that I never seen before?
• 41:06
  SPEAKER_03: Like hey, I hit four rings with a big thing.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_04: Bobo is the first big guy with that 7-4 with handles that can shoot the three passing billy.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_04: Y'all acting like y'all ain't never shooting.
• 41:17
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't say it's not gonna see the first time.
• 41:20
  SPEAKER_02: 7-4.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_02: 7-4.
• 41:24
  SPEAKER_02: Simpson didn't dribble like this.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: If he was playing in this era, he would dribble.
• 41:28
  SPEAKER_02: You don't know that.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_02: In our era, he was doing regular crossovers.
• 41:32
  SPEAKER_02: And that was the first guy.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_02: Let me just say something.
• 41:34
  SPEAKER_03: I will say, Shaq, I did like his pitch because there's two problems I had with him in the first half.
• 41:39
  SPEAKER_03: Number one, he's really lackadaisical.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_03: You see those little passes, they might work over in the French League.
• 41:44
  SPEAKER_03: They're not gonna work in the United States because the guys are too good.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_03: You gotta quit, you gotta be aggressive when you make passes out of the double team.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_03: And Shaq had a great point.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_03: I mean, another point, the other point about Bob.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't agree with that at all.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_01: And I want to praise Shaq to start off with.
• 41:58
  SPEAKER_01: He invited me on his podcast a few months ago.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: Great time.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: Every time I've seen Shaquille O'Neal, I've expressed to him that he's one of my five favorite players to ever play the game.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_01: He's the most dominant player I've ever seen with my own eyes.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_01: But Shaquille, you're bugging.
• 42:15
  SPEAKER_01: You're bugging.
• 42:16
  SPEAKER_01: This is a take from from someone that I believe have not watched enough Bobo or Victor Womenyama.
• 42:28
  SPEAKER_01: This is also a take that I've seen outside of Shaquille Lunyo.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_01: Tim Hardaway Sr.
• 42:33
  SPEAKER_01: said a very similar thing.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_01: And we're talking about NBA, NBA Hall of Famers, NBA legends having his take.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_01: And then Twitter went rapping.
• 42:40
  SPEAKER_01: Twitter went crazy with everybody giving their opinions about Bobo versus Wimby.
• 42:44
  SPEAKER_01: This is not a conversation, ladies and gentlemen.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen a four-year sample size of Bobo's professional career.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_01: I won't mention Oregon.
• 42:54
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't watch him at Oregon.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: I know he deal with injury stuff, but looking at the four-year sample size of Bobo, these players, the only similarities they have is that they're tall and have put the ball on the floor once or twice.
• 43:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's it.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: That is completely it.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_01: And I saw a lot of conversation about well, well, Bobo just haven't been given the opportunity.
• 43:18
  SPEAKER_01: Where have you been?
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: It's been four seasons, three teams.
• 43:25
  SPEAKER_01: And this is something my grandpa used to say all the time.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_01: If it smells everywhere you go, you might want to check the bottom of your shoes, man.
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_01: If you play for three different teams, three different organizations, and you struggled to get PT on every single one of them, that doesn't seem like politics.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_01: And I know there's politics in basketball, but do they carry?
• 43:47
  SPEAKER_01: You gotta be the most unlucky player in history.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_01: People fall in love with the highlights of Bobo, but never really sit down to watch multiple games of them.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_01: On July 4th, this year.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_01: Bobo was waived by the Orlando Magic.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_01: And Twitter went crazy.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: But you know who didn't go crazy?
• 44:06
  SPEAKER_01: Orlando Magic fans.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because they watched that man play every single game last season and they recognize the many small moments of greatness.
• 44:18
  SPEAKER_01: But for every moment, there is multiple of miss rotations, bonehead turnovers, and so on and so forth.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_01: So I just I just could just understand the people that believe this just haven't watched enough Wimby and haven't watched enough Bobo.
• 44:34
  SPEAKER_01: We're talking about the the mixtape era, the highlight era, Bo, and and I don't, I don't, this feels terrible because I'm not trying to badge Bobo as a person or as a player, but these are not the same.
• 44:46
  SPEAKER_01: Watch Wimbenyama, the way he moves on the court, the way he impacts defense, outside of looking at block numbers, because Bobo can get you a block.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_01: Best believe he can get you a block.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: Look how he impacts defense.
• 44:58
  SPEAKER_01: The Spurs this season in the what four game sample size, when he is off the court, they are one of the worst offensive teams ever.
• 45:06
  SPEAKER_01: When he's on the court, they have a top 10 defense.
• 45:11
  SPEAKER_01: One player.
• 45:12
  SPEAKER_01: That impact.
• 45:14
  SPEAKER_01: Watch him get the ball in the post.
• 45:17
  SPEAKER_01: Watch the way he moves.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_01: This is not the same.
• 45:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I promise you, if the Spurs decided to start Trey Jones or go out to get a guy that can set Victor Weminyama up, this conversation would die immediately.
• 45:33
  SPEAKER_01: Because I've watched every single game of Victor Weminyama's NBA career so far.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: He's not getting the touches he should because he's not being found.
• 45:40
  SPEAKER_01: The man is running like a gazeo, streaking up the court, and he's not getting the touches.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: So I just can't look at the sample size I have of Bobo and me watching him and the smaller sample size of Wimby and even think it's even closer the same.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: A couple years ago, when he played for the Denver Nuggets, they were desperate.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: No Michael Porta Jr., no Jamal Murray.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: They needed bodies.
• 46:06
  SPEAKER_01: Bobo was getting DMP coach's decisions.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_01: Last year he played for the Orlando Magic, who were bad.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: The people in front of him were Mo Bamba and Mo Wagner.
• 46:18
  SPEAKER_01: He struggled to keep his spot, man.
• 46:21
  SPEAKER_01: Like this is this is real.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_01: And I know he's had he's had weeks.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_01: He's had weeks where he was brilliant.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, I had him in fantasy for one week.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_01: He won me an entire week in fantasy last year.
• 46:34
  SPEAKER_01: But I can't look at that week.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_01: That small sample side of four games and say, yeah, him and Wimby are the same.
• 46:41
  SPEAKER_01: We've seen them before.
• 46:43
  SPEAKER_01: So Shaq, you know I got nothing but love for you if somehow you find this clip.
• 46:46
  SPEAKER_01: Nothing but love for you.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: But this one ain't it.
• 46:49
  SPEAKER_01: This one's just not it.
• 46:56
  SPEAKER_01: Let me reintroduce producer Greg to the show for a segment we like to call Will It Happen.
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_01: Greg, how you doing?
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good, Kenny.
• 47:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm good.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_00: Ready to do this.
• 47:05
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get it.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: Will someone score 70 plus points in a game this season?
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_01: Ah, 70 plus points.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_01: We saw it twice last year at Donovan Mitchell and Damian Lillard in that order.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_01: I can't say it, but we have seen a 50 piece through the first three days and a 49 piece.
• 47:21
  SPEAKER_01: I guess it's the way basketball is going.
• 47:23
  SPEAKER_01: But if I had to bet yes or no, I'm gonna say no.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: Will a team win 60 plus games this season?
• 47:31
  SPEAKER_01: It feels easy just to immediately smash the absolutely.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: We've always had a team to win 60.
• 47:37
  SPEAKER_01: Dating all the way back to 1979, we've had at least one team win 60 games every single year.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: This year, the parody just feels real, man.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_01: If there was one team, I think it's for sure it might be the Celtics.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: They're just dominating everybody.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: So you know what?
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say, I'm gonna change my answer on the fly.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna say yes, and it will be the Celtics.
• 47:55
  SPEAKER_00: Will a team with a bottom eight record last season make the playoffs this season?
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: So the the teams that we're picking from are the Detroit Pistons, the San Antonio Spurs, the Houston Rockets, the the Charlotte Hornets, the Port La Troble's Orlando Magic, Wizards, and Pacers.
• 48:11
  SPEAKER_01: That's our bottom eight last year.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_01: I think the team that has the highest upside to make a playoff appearance is the Indiana Pacers.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying that the day after they lost by 50.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: And they were missing their all-star.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry about it.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: I think they might have the highest ceiling of those teams, but there are a few here.
• 48:26
  SPEAKER_01: Like I want to say Detroit, but I just don't think they're ready.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say San Antonio because of Wimby, but I just don't think they're ready.
• 48:33
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna say yes, and it will be the Indiana Pacers.
• 48:40
  SPEAKER_00: And lastly, will someone get 22 assists in a game this season?
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_00: But before you answer, I'm curious, why the number 22?
• 48:47
  SPEAKER_01: The number 22 is because we've seen multiple players over the last couple of years get up to 20, but it seems like 22 is the most we can get to in recent NBA history.
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: So we're looking for somebody to break the current record, not the current record of Scott Scow's 30, but the most recent record of the last couple years.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_01: And because it's been so hard for somebody to achieve this, I'm just gonna strictly say no.
• 49:09
  SPEAKER_01: You it has to be the perfect scenario to even get to 20, in my opinion.
• 49:13
  SPEAKER_01: And now we're adding a couple more.
• 49:14
  SPEAKER_01: Your teammates have to be firing on all cylinders, or you have to have the greatest pick and roll duo in the history of ball.
• 49:19
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to say no.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_01: I still don't even understand how Scott Scows got up to 30 that one game.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_01: If you got to this point, I gotta say, you must have enjoyed something.
• 49:39
  SPEAKER_01: Whether you agree with the take or you disagree with the take, you watched and listened to the whole thing.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_01: So I would love for you to leave a like, subscribe, give us five stars, and by next time, hopefully, we're at least at number four.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'll see y'all in a few days.