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These NBA Teams Look Dangerous Already · Kenny For Real

0:00
Speaker 1: We had 11 games tonight. Last night we had three,
0:04
Speaker 1: and I felt like all three games were bangers. Banger, banger, banger. Today,
0:07
Speaker 1: some of y'all favorite team got blitzed, man. Completely ran
0:10
Speaker 1: off the court. Okay, some of our favorites. Bro, the
0:15
Speaker 1: Bulls got destroyed so bad today that people are tweeting
0:19
Speaker 1: me like, look at your boy, as if it wasn't
0:22
Speaker 1: his first game ever in the NBA. Bro, if y'all
0:24
Speaker 1: don't relax, if y'all don't relax... 11 games we saw
0:29
Speaker 1: a lot of blowouts they do call it the NBA
0:30
Speaker 1: for a reason the National Blowout Association but whatever man
0:33
Speaker 1: sometimes I be looking at the first couple days of
0:35
Speaker 1: the NBA season as like an extension of the preseason
0:37
Speaker 1: and some teams definitely came out and looked like they
0:40
Speaker 1: were still in preseason mode whatever We're going to try
0:42
Speaker 1: our very best not to overreact to one game sample size.
0:45
Speaker 1: We got 81 more games for all of these teams
0:47
Speaker 1: in the postseason. So we're going to bounce around with
0:49
Speaker 1: an 11-game slate. Obviously, I can't watch every single game.
0:52
Speaker 1: Some games I was really excited to watch, and then
0:54
Speaker 1: the game opens up 23-0, and I decide to kind
0:57
Speaker 1: of zone out and watch a different game. So Blazers fans,
1:00
Speaker 1: this is not one for you, but I'm promising in
1:02
Speaker 1: the morning I'm going to watch that film and say,
1:03
Speaker 1: how the hell did y'all end up doing what y'all
1:05
Speaker 1: did to that Phoenix Suns team? I don't know. But
1:08
Speaker 1: let's get into it. The first and most important game
1:10
Speaker 1: for me, at least personally, before the game started was
1:12
Speaker 1: Minnesota versus Miami. The start of the LaMelo Anthony Edwards
1:16
Speaker 1: era in Minnesota as far as regular season goes. Jan
1:19
Speaker 1: is playing his first regular season game in Miami. And
1:22
Speaker 1: my goodness, the Minnesota Timberwolves look exactly like, like if
1:25
Speaker 1: you are really hot on the Minnesota Timberwolves before the
1:27
Speaker 1: season started, this is the reason why. Because of the
1:29
Speaker 1: shot making from LaMelo Ball, the three-point frequency of LaMelo Ball,
1:32
Speaker 1: the way he can get the team orchestrated offensively was
1:36
Speaker 1: perfect today. And I think a lot has to be
1:39
Speaker 1: said about a guy like Anthony Edwards, who throughout the
1:41
Speaker 1: course of his career continues to get better as a playmaker.
1:43
Speaker 1: But at the end of the day, he's a shooting guard.
1:46
Speaker 1: He's a wing. They had so many different ways between
1:49
Speaker 1: Dante DiVincenzo or Odomai Conley where they put the ball
1:52
Speaker 1: in Anthony Edwards' hands and say, hey, though you are
1:55
Speaker 1: a shooting guard, we want you to be on the
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Speaker 1: ball all the time because you are our best player.
1:59
Speaker 1: It is so refreshing to see a team say, we're
2:02
Speaker 1: going to get you an all-star level point guard. We're
2:03
Speaker 1: going to run you on pin downs. We're going to
2:05
Speaker 1: have you do curl screens. We're going to play off
2:07
Speaker 1: the ball. And you can still get the same amount
2:08
Speaker 1: of shots. Hell, you're going to get even better looks
2:11
Speaker 1: because we got somebody else's dynamic on the ball. And
2:13
Speaker 1: I'm looking at the goddamn Phoenix Suns, who also have
2:16
Speaker 1: one of the top student guards in the league and
2:17
Speaker 1: have had him for a decade. And they really only
2:20
Speaker 1: gave him a couple years with a true, true point
2:22
Speaker 1: guard and a guy like Chris Paul. And how did
2:24
Speaker 1: those years go? The goddamn NBA Finals was reached. So, like,
2:28
Speaker 1: I'm happy that Anthony Edwards was able to get a
2:31
Speaker 1: guy like LaMelo. I was really, really impressed with how
2:35
Speaker 1: quick things have kind of meshed over there in Minnesota
2:38
Speaker 1: just between, you know, preseason and them hanging out a ton.
2:41
Speaker 1: I thought J.D. McDaniels was amazing. And he's going to
2:43
Speaker 1: be the benefiter of all of this because teams are
2:45
Speaker 1: going to opt to put their worst defender on him.
2:48
Speaker 1: And he's going to take advantage. Today was 17 points,
2:50
Speaker 1: eight rebounds, great defense. Kaminga took some times where they
2:53
Speaker 1: had the smaller defenders on him and he did a
2:55
Speaker 1: lot of the dirty work stuff, which is like, it's
2:57
Speaker 1: game winning season. So you don't want to overreact because
2:59
Speaker 1: I remember like, when he first got to, oh no,
3:02
Speaker 1: I think it was his first game in Golden State
3:05
Speaker 1: last year. We had the same conversation, like, Kaminga's bought in,
3:08
Speaker 1: he's defending, he's diving for loose balls, and if he
3:11
Speaker 1: can just do this for a whole season, my goodness.
3:13
Speaker 1: So I don't want to overreact to what I saw
3:14
Speaker 1: today from him, but he was really looking glue guy-ish,
3:17
Speaker 1: which is like, really good. They got to keep him
3:19
Speaker 1: motivated to stick this way, because usually 10 shots for
3:22
Speaker 1: a guy like Kaminga is not going to be enough,
3:23
Speaker 1: but maybe a win, a blowout win, With him doing
3:26
Speaker 1: all the stuff can be the thing. I mean, he
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Speaker 1: did tell us before the season started, or his manager did,
3:30
Speaker 1: or his agent did, tell us that he's ready to
3:33
Speaker 1: compete by any means possible. So, like, we'll see if
3:35
Speaker 1: this is the version of him that we get. LaMelo
3:38
Speaker 1: and Anthony Edwards attempted 33s together today. 33s. They attempted
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Speaker 1: 50 as a squad. 33s, and they hit 14 of them,
3:45
Speaker 1: which is, you can do some math. That's a really
3:47
Speaker 1: good percentage. I was just really surprised from the Miami
3:50
Speaker 1: Heat perspective. Now, there was some really tough shot making
3:52
Speaker 1: in this one. LaMelo ball, one-legged, three-pointers, it's just normal.
3:55
Speaker 1: Anthony Edwards can test the three-pointers. It's just normal. But
3:58
Speaker 1: when they were running these pick-and-roll things with Rudy Gobert,
4:01
Speaker 1: I was just surprised. And listen, Eric Spoelstra knows a
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Speaker 1: thousand times more basketball than I ever will know, right?
4:07
Speaker 1: He's one of the greatest coaches ever. But I was
4:08
Speaker 1: just really surprised to see them continue to play drop coverage.
4:11
Speaker 1: And it's not like– shout-out to Rudy Gobert. He's such
4:13
Speaker 1: a great screen setter. He's not the most dynamic roller
4:17
Speaker 1: where I feel like drop coverage was necessary there. One
4:20
Speaker 1: of the reasons why I still am really excited about
4:22
Speaker 1: Miami is how diverse their defenses could look, how versatile
4:26
Speaker 1: their defenses could look. When you have Bam Adebayo, one
4:28
Speaker 1: of the most switchable bigs in the league, when you
4:30
Speaker 1: have Yancey Dedekumpo, another switchable big, I just kind of
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Speaker 1: expected to see those guys get... into that pick-and-roll situation
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Speaker 1: and just switch. And instead, they played drop coverage for,
4:39
Speaker 1: I want to say, 90% of this game, it felt like.
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Speaker 1: And that led to a bunch of LaMelo Ball open three-pointers.
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Speaker 1: That led to a bunch of Anthony Edwards open three-pointers. And, well,
4:47
Speaker 1: they took advantage of those things. If you are a
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Speaker 1: Miami Heat skeptic, you look at game one and say, see,
4:52
Speaker 1: I told y'all. That's if you remind me he's skeptic,
4:55
Speaker 1: because what were the biggest question marks about the Heat?
4:57
Speaker 1: How would their three-point shooting look? Today, they shot 24%
5:00
Speaker 1: from three on 33 attempts. Davion Mitchell only got up two.
5:03
Speaker 1: Bam Adebayo shot five and only hit one. Giannis shot
5:06
Speaker 1: two and only hit, or didn't hit any. I thought
5:09
Speaker 1: Wiggins early in the preseason was letting them fly. He
5:12
Speaker 1: only shot four today. Klay Thompson was three of six,
5:14
Speaker 1: which you would take. Nikoliowicz, I'd rather buy Nikoliowicz's stock
5:17
Speaker 1: in the preseason. He looked Awful today. I'm going to
5:20
Speaker 1: lie to you. Payley Larson is afraid of the three-point
5:22
Speaker 1: line at this point in his career. So, like, if
5:25
Speaker 1: you were one of the teams or people to question
5:27
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat, you look at this and say, see,
5:28
Speaker 1: that's shooting. Not going to hold up. Another reason you
5:30
Speaker 1: might want to be a skeptic of the Miami Heat
5:33
Speaker 1: is they don't have dynamic on-ball creation outside of Giannis.
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Speaker 1: That showed his head today, too. Now, such a long
5:39
Speaker 1: season ahead of us. I don't want to overreact to
5:42
Speaker 1: this singular game, but it wasn't really pretty. Giannis gave
5:45
Speaker 1: you a normal Giannis performance of 35 yards. points cool
5:48
Speaker 1: that's that's what yannis is gonna give you 28 to
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Speaker 1: 35 on every given any given night but it's the
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Speaker 1: things around that didn't look great man i'm gonna buy
5:55
Speaker 1: it i feel like in the whole first half he's
5:57
Speaker 1: just not aggressive enough and i just feel like this
5:59
Speaker 1: is what we've been seeing about forever but um a
6:02
Speaker 1: lot of not a lot needs to be done um
6:06
Speaker 1: in miami you could probably just say hey man Tim
6:09
Speaker 1: Hardaway Jr. was one of seven for three. He was
6:11
Speaker 1: one of the best three-point shooters in the league last season.
6:12
Speaker 1: So if he just has a normal three-point shooter night,
6:15
Speaker 1: we probably don't win this game. But maybe we look
6:16
Speaker 1: at this and say, okay, the pieces are here. Yeah,
6:19
Speaker 1: I was just really surprised at the defensive coverages that
6:22
Speaker 1: the Miami Heat threw out there considering how dynamic they
6:24
Speaker 1: can be. Davion Mitchell ended up with 11 assists. I
6:27
Speaker 1: didn't look at this game and see like a great
6:30
Speaker 1: Davion Mitchell game. But whatever, whatever. It's just the first
6:34
Speaker 1: game of the season. I want to look at this
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Speaker 1: from the Minnesota Timbers perspective and say they looked exactly
6:37
Speaker 1: the way If you're really high on Minnesota, they look
6:40
Speaker 1: exactly the way you expect it. And if you are
6:42
Speaker 1: really low on Miami, kind of low. Oh, I want
6:44
Speaker 1: to give some shout-outs to Terrence Shannon and Ayo DeSumo
6:47
Speaker 1: off the bench. Ayo, for a lot of this off-season,
6:50
Speaker 1: is probably going into this. He got paid, and he's
6:52
Speaker 1: probably going to this thinking that this is going to
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Speaker 1: be a season where I was going to be a starter.
6:55
Speaker 1: And then Jonathan Kaminga comes into the team. And it's like, okay,
6:57
Speaker 1: now I'm going back to a bench role, something I
6:59
Speaker 1: did a lot in Chicago. I'm not going to complain.
7:01
Speaker 1: I'm going to do all of the little things. I'm
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Speaker 1: going to hit my shots. I'm going to do all
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Speaker 1: of this. And I admire that. The one thing, if
7:06
Speaker 1: there's any small thing about the Minnesota Timberwolves that I'm monitoring,
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Speaker 1: is Yohan Berger didn't look like he was ready to
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Speaker 1: play NBA minutes yet. And if he's not ready to
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Speaker 1: play NBA minutes in the world where Rudy Gobert is
7:17
Speaker 1: in foul trouble, or in a world where Rudy Gobert,
7:19
Speaker 1: knock on wood, is unhealthy, then they're going to struggle
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Speaker 1: in that frontcourt if Rudy Gobert holds it the fuck
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Speaker 1: down defensively. And they just don't have any alternative for
7:28
Speaker 1: that just yet because Yohan Berger just didn't seem ready today.
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Speaker 1: Maybe he seems ready tomorrow, but he didn't seem ready today.
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Speaker 1: All right, moving on to the next game. The Atlanta
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Speaker 1: Hawks with a 132-125 win over the Orlando Magic. The
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Speaker 1: first quarter of the Orlando Magic, I was like, oh
7:42
Speaker 1: my God, this is like a brand new team. They
7:44
Speaker 1: went out there, they shot nine threes, which feels like
7:46
Speaker 1: a really high number for the Orlando Magic team that
7:48
Speaker 1: we saw before. I felt like they were using Paolo
7:51
Speaker 1: Mancaro more as a play finisher than a play initiator,
7:55
Speaker 1: which I think goes a very long way. I was
7:57
Speaker 1: really impressed with some of the things I saw were like,
7:59
Speaker 1: even though Dezen Bain didn't hit a three in the
8:00
Speaker 1: first quarter, some of the shots that he took felt
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Speaker 1: great because it's a team that's that had been lacking
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Speaker 1: three-point volume, and it feels like under Sweetney, it was
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Speaker 1: one of the points of emphasis to get the shots up.
8:09
Speaker 1: I talk about this in the preseason a little bit,
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Speaker 1: that Tristan Da Silva in the preseason, his whole objective
8:14
Speaker 1: was to get up 10 threes a game, and he
8:15
Speaker 1: did that. And in his first quarter, at least, Tristan
8:18
Speaker 1: Da Silva hit two of three threes. And then the
8:20
Speaker 1: second quarter comes around, and this team is just so
8:22
Speaker 1: Jekyll and Hyde, where a lot of things that I
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Speaker 1: loved about them in the first quarter completely went away
8:27
Speaker 1: in the second quarter as the Atlanta Hawks take their
8:29
Speaker 1: run where they're crashing the glass. Orlando's not boxing out.
8:32
Speaker 1: They're crashing the glass. I really love Kingston Flemons, by
8:35
Speaker 1: the way. I know he was 0 for 5 today,
8:36
Speaker 1: didn't score his first official NBA basket, but the way
8:38
Speaker 1: he kind of, he's just a very high IQ basketball player,
8:41
Speaker 1: and I like those type of guys. He's super small
8:43
Speaker 1: on the court. Even when he was being guarded by, uh-oh,
8:46
Speaker 1: who was that? Jake LaRavia just went out on an injury.
8:48
Speaker 1: They were about 30, so I started the film before him.
8:50
Speaker 1: Jake LaRavia. Anyway, even when he was being guarded by
8:53
Speaker 1: Jace Richardson, who was another smaller guard, he looked like
8:55
Speaker 1: he was just super small in comparison to even him.
8:58
Speaker 1: I don't know how that's going to translate, but I
8:59
Speaker 1: really love what I was seeing from him Dyson Daniels
9:02
Speaker 1: earlier in this game was really aggressive. And, of course,
9:04
Speaker 1: he was going to do the thing, the Great Barrier
9:05
Speaker 1: Thief thing. Everything looked really good once the second quarter
9:09
Speaker 1: came around. And then the third quarter came around, it
9:10
Speaker 1: was back to the Orlando Magic. A game of runs.
9:13
Speaker 1: Fourth quarter, though, Nakiel is in the walker. Cesar McCollum said,
9:16
Speaker 1: I got us, right? Nakiel hits two big, big threes
9:19
Speaker 1: down the stretch, and they walk out of there with
9:21
Speaker 1: that win. Cesar McCollum hit a couple big shots down
9:23
Speaker 1: the stretch, walk out of there with a win. Aaron Wiggins,
9:25
Speaker 1: my boy Mike, had Aaron Wiggins as a dark horse
9:27
Speaker 1: six-man of the year. He was phenomenal today off the bench.
9:30
Speaker 1: which is really cool. But I mean, the Orlando Magic,
9:34
Speaker 1: I think Paolo played a really good game. I mean,
9:37
Speaker 1: I didn't realize he only missed two shots. But he, again,
9:40
Speaker 1: played as a play finisher more than a play initiator.
9:42
Speaker 1: I thought we saw a lot more of point fronts
9:44
Speaker 1: than we normally would see under like a Jamal Mosley.
9:47
Speaker 1: And maybe that's just Sweetney not having the confidence in
9:49
Speaker 1: a guy like Jalen Suggs, who looked not good today.
9:53
Speaker 1: I got a lot of love for Jalen Suggs. This
9:55
Speaker 1: was not one of his better performances. So it's a
9:57
Speaker 1: lot to be desired for the Atlanta Magic. I just
9:59
Speaker 1: feel like I've seen this game from them before, where
10:02
Speaker 1: they look good for two quarters, but those other two quarters,
10:04
Speaker 1: they look awful. So they lose the game. Vucevic was
10:08
Speaker 1: the third big off the bench, and it made me
10:09
Speaker 1: feel a little sad. I ain't going to lie. And
10:11
Speaker 1: then when he did get into the game, the Atlanta
10:13
Speaker 1: Hawks immediately went on like a 9-0 run. And it
10:15
Speaker 1: was like, uh-oh. He can't play anymore. He can't play anymore. Now,
10:20
Speaker 1: they were also without Anthony Black and some of Noah
10:22
Speaker 1: Pender was out. And I don't know how much Noah
10:24
Speaker 1: Pender would matter in a game like this. But, like,
10:26
Speaker 1: great win for the Atlanta Hawks. They're going to keep
10:29
Speaker 1: climbing on my league pass rankings because Kingston Flennings. I'm
10:32
Speaker 1: ready for him to have just like a really, really,
10:34
Speaker 1: really good offensive scoring game. I don't know if it's
10:36
Speaker 1: going to come early in his NBA career, but I'm
10:38
Speaker 1: just I'm waiting for it. Next, we got. the Washington
10:41
Speaker 1: Wizards yeah man when the Wizards have the first game
10:43
Speaker 1: of the day guess what I'm gonna do I'm gonna
10:44
Speaker 1: tune in to watch the Wizards they went against the
10:46
Speaker 1: Milwaukee Bucks and for a lot of this I'm like
10:48
Speaker 1: oh my god the Bucks are sticking into this game
10:50
Speaker 1: so shout out to Jaime shout out to Brayden Burrys
10:52
Speaker 1: who's like truly truly a building block in my opinion
10:55
Speaker 1: based on what I've seen from him between summer league
10:57
Speaker 1: preseason this first game and of his NBA career he's
11:00
Speaker 1: just a low mistakes type of guy and I think
11:02
Speaker 1: those guys go a long way especially if he can
11:04
Speaker 1: hit the shots which is something they did but This
11:06
Speaker 1: is mostly about the Washington Wizards. Obviously, A.J. 's out
11:09
Speaker 1: with an ankle injury, so Bilal Koulibaly is his starting lineup.
11:12
Speaker 1: I thought Bilal looked great today. I thought Bilal looked great.
11:15
Speaker 1: I don't know. I don't know. They got so many
11:17
Speaker 1: young guys in Washington that you kind of have to
11:20
Speaker 1: figure out which of these guys are part of the
11:21
Speaker 1: true core. It's like Bilal, Alex Saar, George, Johnson, Bub Carrington, A.J.,
11:29
Speaker 1: Will Riley, who got DNP codes, they got seven guys
11:31
Speaker 1: under the age of, let's say, like 23. So you
11:33
Speaker 1: have to kind of pick and choose which one of
11:35
Speaker 1: these guys you feel like will be part of the core.
11:36
Speaker 1: And based on what I've seen from Balaam to this point,
11:39
Speaker 1: he obviously is good enough to be on the team.
11:41
Speaker 1: But like if there is a world where he was
11:44
Speaker 1: on a different team next season or two years from now,
11:45
Speaker 1: I wouldn't have been surprised. Today, the defense was great.
11:48
Speaker 1: He had a late three dagger, which was dope. And
11:50
Speaker 1: he shot it with a bunch of confidence and popped
11:52
Speaker 1: his chest a little bit. I'm like, okay, but loud.
11:54
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis turned back the clock. He told the world
11:56
Speaker 1: that he was out here to play it as long
11:58
Speaker 1: as I have a five next to me. which was
11:59
Speaker 1: Alex Saar and then DeAndre Ayton in some minutes, then
12:02
Speaker 1: I'm going to do my thing. He ended up with 34-12-4,
12:04
Speaker 1: got to the foul line, shot 14 free throws. Trae
12:06
Speaker 1: Young didn't look amazing in this one, especially in that
12:08
Speaker 1: first half, but I do think his playmaking is a
12:11
Speaker 1: super valuable asset to this team. I still hate that
12:13
Speaker 1: when he doesn't have the ball, he just sits at
12:15
Speaker 1: the goddamn logo and waits for it again, but it's
12:18
Speaker 1: valuable on a team like this that hadn't had any
12:20
Speaker 1: individual creation in the last couple years when they were
12:23
Speaker 1: on their tanking era. Bub Carrington told us when we
12:26
Speaker 1: went to Washington, His role has changed every year that
12:29
Speaker 1: he's played basketball. But this year, he's on that dirty
12:32
Speaker 1: work stuff, and I felt that. He's diving on the
12:33
Speaker 1: floor for those balls. He had one late in the
12:35
Speaker 1: shot clock three from Trey Young that was really great,
12:38
Speaker 1: really impressive. So they just had a lot of different
12:40
Speaker 1: players step up and look good. Keyshawn George undoubtedly is
12:43
Speaker 1: just like a 10- to 15-year NBA pro. He just
12:46
Speaker 1: does a lot of the stuff the right way. And
12:48
Speaker 1: then they got to that fourth quarter. They turned it up.
12:50
Speaker 1: They got a win, and Anthony Davis is back hooping,
12:52
Speaker 1: and he's healthy. And I can't help but to be really,
12:55
Speaker 1: really excited about that after basically not seeing a ton–
12:57
Speaker 1: of Anthony Davis for a little bit of time. So
12:59
Speaker 1: shout out to the Washington Wizards on their win to
13:02
Speaker 1: start the season. I think DeAndre Ayton was really good today, too,
13:04
Speaker 1: by the way. I also was watching Lakers and watching
13:09
Speaker 1: Walker Kessler have 10 dunks and thinking to myself, like,
13:13
Speaker 1: DeAndre Ayton has had, like, the easiest job in his career.
13:15
Speaker 1: He played alongside Chris Paul to start his career. Then
13:18
Speaker 1: eventually he gets to the point where he's playing alongside
13:20
Speaker 1: Luka and LeBron, and he couldn't make those, I don't know,
13:23
Speaker 1: But now he's playing with Trey Young. So he's like
13:24
Speaker 1: he's always hit like a ridiculous pick and roll ball
13:26
Speaker 1: handler other than I guess when he was in Portland.
13:30
Speaker 1: I guess it depends on how you see some of
13:31
Speaker 1: the guards over there as far as pick and roll goes.
13:33
Speaker 1: But like today he was good. And as a backup,
13:35
Speaker 1: he's impressive. You know, when you're not relying on him
13:37
Speaker 1: to play 25 to 30 minutes a game, you can
13:40
Speaker 1: look at DeAndre to say, yeah, that's one of the boys.
13:42
Speaker 1: And today he was one of the boys. Moving on
13:44
Speaker 1: to the next game, Tyrese Halliburton's first regular season game back.
13:49
Speaker 1: Really cool to see him get emotional after that game.
13:51
Speaker 1: A win in a game where he hit a big-time
13:54
Speaker 1: shot down the stretch. It might have been a left-hand
13:57
Speaker 1: floater and one, which is something that he don't do.
14:00
Speaker 1: He don't use that left hand on the floater often.
14:02
Speaker 1: That might have been the one that iced it. But
14:04
Speaker 1: it was just so great to see him on the
14:05
Speaker 1: court again. Y'all know he's one of my favorite players.
14:07
Speaker 1: I'm biased. He's my homie as well. But I just
14:09
Speaker 1: love the pace that they play with. Pacers, yeah. And
14:13
Speaker 1: his connection with Zubat. Zubat was great today. They don't
14:15
Speaker 1: win this game without Zubat doing the things that he
14:17
Speaker 1: did 15 and 16. Pascal Siakam at one point scored
14:21
Speaker 1: 10 straight points. And I think that was when they
14:22
Speaker 1: were running the lineup. I was like, ew. They had
14:24
Speaker 1: minutes in this game where it was like Siakam, Jarris,
14:26
Speaker 1: and Obi Toppin on the court with Halliburton and I
14:28
Speaker 1: want to say Q Jackson. And I'm like, ew, it's
14:31
Speaker 1: such a nasty lineup. But they were without TJ McConnell.
14:36
Speaker 1: They were without Aaron E. Smith. And I'm looking at
14:38
Speaker 1: the box score right now. This is weird. They got
14:42
Speaker 1: us saying that Larry Nance did not play. But in
14:46
Speaker 1: my notes, I have them playing. I don't know. BoxCorp
14:50
Speaker 1: says DNP codes his decision on Larry Nance. I'm almost positive.
14:53
Speaker 1: I literally wrote in my notes that Larry Nance was
14:55
Speaker 1: the first big off the bench. Am I high? Maybe NBA.com
15:00
Speaker 1: is just tripping. Obi Toppin had a stretch in his
15:02
Speaker 1: game where he kept him into it, bro. Without Obi
15:04
Speaker 1: Toppin dropping his 20 where he had a couple straight baskets,
15:08
Speaker 1: the Pelicans win this one. But yeah, having Halliburton back
15:11
Speaker 1: on that court was so great. Pascal Siakam hasn't missed
15:13
Speaker 1: a beat. Zubats fits like a glove. Even though there
15:15
Speaker 1: was times in here where like, He was missing. He
15:17
Speaker 1: was out there hooping, bro. I'm like, oh, snap. The
15:19
Speaker 1: Pelicans are going to be kind of interesting. I didn't
15:22
Speaker 1: like the last shot they had, which was a Jeremiah
15:25
Speaker 1: Fears three-pointer that they got an offense rebound. And then
15:29
Speaker 1: Zion took a three. He had hit two today, by
15:31
Speaker 1: the way. He was two for three at this point.
15:32
Speaker 1: And then the air ball at the game winner, which
15:34
Speaker 1: is bad. Derek Queen, double-double game. But, like, I just
15:37
Speaker 1: wanted to give the love to the Indiana Pacers for
15:39
Speaker 1: what they did. Grizzlies Jazz was a highly anticipated game
15:42
Speaker 1: for me because I got a lot of jazz stock.
15:44
Speaker 1: I'm sorry, I got a lot of Grizzlies stock. And
15:46
Speaker 1: I'm curious to see what the Jazz offense is going
15:47
Speaker 1: to look like. That Grizzlies stock cashed in. Ty Jerome
15:50
Speaker 1: had 45 points. Ty Jerome had 45 points. I saw
15:58
Speaker 1: that directly out of a pick and roll. Ty Jerome
16:02
Speaker 1: is averaging average 1.54 points per possession, which is on
16:06
Speaker 1: the same level as like prime James Harden. And he
16:10
Speaker 1: has been this level of a pick and roll creator
16:13
Speaker 1: for like three years now. But last year he didn't
16:15
Speaker 1: play a ton. The guy is like a really special,
16:21
Speaker 1: tough shot maker. Like, they kept running the pick and roll.
16:25
Speaker 1: Because again, it was scoring almost every possession down. But
16:28
Speaker 1: even some of the shots that he made off the
16:30
Speaker 1: pick and roll, you're like, oh my God, how did
16:31
Speaker 1: that go in? He had 45 shots. I'm sorry, 45
16:36
Speaker 1: points in this one. Six assists, one turnover. He was phenomenal.
16:41
Speaker 1: In a game where I was really excited to watch
16:43
Speaker 1: Cam Boozer and see what he looks like in his
16:44
Speaker 1: first real NBA game, Ty Jerome took everything away and said, hey,
16:48
Speaker 1: this is for me. I got us. And that's special, bro.
16:52
Speaker 1: The defense was good today as well, which is something
16:55
Speaker 1: I anticipated. Not that they were going to have, I
16:58
Speaker 1: don't think they're going to have a top eight defense
17:00
Speaker 1: or anything. But because I just know Zach Eadie is
17:03
Speaker 1: that good of a defensive anchor, as long as Zach
17:06
Speaker 1: Eadie is going to play minutes and play a lot
17:07
Speaker 1: of minutes, they're going to be a good defensive team.
17:09
Speaker 1: And today he didn't need to play a ton. It
17:11
Speaker 1: was only 21 minutes, and that kind of is perfect.
17:13
Speaker 1: For a guy like Zach Eady coming off an injury,
17:15
Speaker 1: I guess I don't want him to play 30 minutes
17:17
Speaker 1: in his first game of the season. They didn't need it.
17:19
Speaker 1: Ty Jerome was disgusting today. He was disgusting. The only
17:23
Speaker 1: note that I have about the Utah Jazz is Ace
17:26
Speaker 1: Bailey's probably going to be too good to have coming
17:28
Speaker 1: off the bench. You know? Oh, and the offense wasn't
17:31
Speaker 1: as fluid and as fun as I anticipated, bro. Will
17:34
Speaker 1: Hardy is a really smart offensive coach, and I think
17:36
Speaker 1: it will come around. But, like, the ball stopped a
17:39
Speaker 1: lot in this game. And I'm pointing no fingers, but, like,
17:43
Speaker 1: I remember it stopping in Jaren Jackson Jr. 's hands
17:45
Speaker 1: more times than I wanted it to. But Ace Bayless
17:48
Speaker 1: is too good, bro. I don't know where he fits
17:50
Speaker 1: into this lineup because you need a guy like Jackson
17:53
Speaker 1: Hayes to start if you have Jaren and Larry Markkinen
17:56
Speaker 1: because Jackson Hayes is going to help close out possessions.
17:59
Speaker 1: So I don't know if you can just switch those
18:01
Speaker 1: guys because you're not going to expect an 8-10 rebound
18:04
Speaker 1: game from Jaren. And that's probably going to leave the
18:07
Speaker 1: door open for a lot of offensive boards. Hell, they
18:08
Speaker 1: gave up a lot of offensive boards today anyway. but
18:11
Speaker 1: ace Bailey's just too good. I thought his process was
18:13
Speaker 1: better than I expected. You know, a couple of good passes. Uh,
18:16
Speaker 1: defense was really good as well. I don't know. Ace
18:18
Speaker 1: Bailey's like, you know, he was one of the top
18:20
Speaker 1: recruiting guys, right? It's not a surprise for me to
18:22
Speaker 1: say that he should be starting, but I didn't think
18:25
Speaker 1: it was going to happen. The first game of the season,
18:28
Speaker 1: the bulls lost about a million points. Um, final score
18:33
Speaker 1: is one 35 to 92. The biggest lead of the game, um,
18:37
Speaker 1: was this, um, I thought I had it in my
18:39
Speaker 1: notes somewhere right here. We have 48 points, yeah. At
18:43
Speaker 1: one point, the Bulls are down by 48 points. You
18:44
Speaker 1: want to know the scary part about this? The Raptors
18:49
Speaker 1: didn't even play like a super amazing game. Like, I'm
18:52
Speaker 1: not saying that they played bad. Don't get me wrong.
18:55
Speaker 1: But this didn't feel like, oh, my God, the Raptors.
18:57
Speaker 1: You know sometimes you watch a game and you say,
19:00
Speaker 1: the opposing team just can't miss. We're going to chalk
19:02
Speaker 1: this up as an A or whatever. No, that wasn't
19:04
Speaker 1: the case. The Raptors just played a very normal game
19:07
Speaker 1: and the Bulls had no answer for anything. I think,
19:10
Speaker 1: let's see, they shot 45% from the field. They shot
19:13
Speaker 1: 32% from three. That's not all we give it to
19:17
Speaker 1: them because they hit 15, 18 threes in a game. No,
19:21
Speaker 1: that wasn't the case. And the Bulls still got blown out.
19:24
Speaker 1: Before this game, I talked to one of my managers
19:27
Speaker 1: and they're from Toronto. And he was like, you want
19:29
Speaker 1: to put a little friendly wager on the game? I'm like,
19:31
Speaker 1: not a chance. And he was like, what if we
19:33
Speaker 1: just use the spread? The spread was 10 and a half.
19:35
Speaker 1: I said, not a chance. The Bulls are not going
19:37
Speaker 1: to come close. And I didn't think it was going
19:39
Speaker 1: to be a 50 point blowout. But damn, I'm so
19:41
Speaker 1: happy I didn't take that bet. The Bulls won't be
19:48
Speaker 1: able to score in the half court. much this season,
19:50
Speaker 1: which is fine. The Toronto Raptors are, on paper, one
19:54
Speaker 1: of the best defensive teams in the league. Between Kawhi,
19:56
Speaker 1: Colin Murray Boyle, Scottie Barnes, and this goes on and on.
19:58
Speaker 1: Jamal Shedd, these guys are really good to great defensive players.
20:01
Speaker 1: So it's not a surprise the Bulls can't score on
20:03
Speaker 1: a team with this many great defensive players. But if
20:06
Speaker 1: you're not a Bulls fan, I want you to go
20:07
Speaker 1: look at the first 10 games of the season for
20:08
Speaker 1: the Bulls. It's literally all playoff teams, all great defensive teams.
20:12
Speaker 1: And I'm like, oh, snap, how's the season going to
20:13
Speaker 1: go for us? The Bulls can't score in the half court,
20:17
Speaker 1: or they weren't able to score in the half court today.
20:21
Speaker 1: And all of the points, not all the points, but
20:24
Speaker 1: a lot of the stuff that we were able to
20:25
Speaker 1: generate was off misses and off offensive rebounds. And it's like,
20:30
Speaker 1: it's just going to be tough when you go against
20:32
Speaker 1: a team like the Toronto Raptors. If that's the identity
20:35
Speaker 1: that you have, we don't have good shooting. We literally
20:37
Speaker 1: shot 11% from three to nine. 4 of 36. 11%.
20:42
Speaker 1: And I made the joke on the podcast during the preseason, like,
20:45
Speaker 1: are y'all ready for the Chicago Bulls to be the
20:48
Speaker 1: worst three-point shooting team in the league this season? I
20:51
Speaker 1: was half joking. I'm not even half joking no more.
20:54
Speaker 1: I think they just have a chance to be the
20:56
Speaker 1: worst three-point shooting team in the league. But I will
20:59
Speaker 1: be tuned in to the next 81 games because that's
21:01
Speaker 1: what we do around here. Yes, Caleb Wilson had the
21:04
Speaker 1: worst net rate of plus minus of any rookie debut
21:07
Speaker 1: in the history of the sport. So, So, like, what
21:12
Speaker 1: am I, you know? Ahmed Thompson had that record before.
21:15
Speaker 1: Now he's an all-defensive player. Now he's one of the
21:17
Speaker 1: best up-and-coming players in the league. That don't mean anything.
21:20
Speaker 1: We got blitz tonight. Cool. Modest got to the foul line.
21:24
Speaker 1: Small wins. Small wins. Last thing we got. This game
21:29
Speaker 1: is still going on as I film this. The Lakers.
21:32
Speaker 1: The Lakers look really good today. Going back to the
21:35
Speaker 1: DeAndre A.D. thing. You know, me and the guys, we
21:38
Speaker 1: talk in the group chat with the entire team. They're
21:40
Speaker 1: just texting because we're all watching the same games and stuff.
21:42
Speaker 1: And my boy Mike, who's a Lakers fan, was like,
21:44
Speaker 1: I can't believe how DeAndre Ayton couldn't figure this out.
21:48
Speaker 1: Because the job to be, and now granted, they're going
21:50
Speaker 1: against the Golden State Warriors who have no centers on
21:52
Speaker 1: their roster. Get well soon, Chris Dasporzingas. The job is
21:56
Speaker 1: so very simple. Now, it's a lot of scrutiny involved
21:58
Speaker 1: with this. You're playing for the Lakers. You're also playing
22:00
Speaker 1: with Luka Doncic. But set hard screens and roll, big fella.
22:04
Speaker 1: Roll all the way to the basket. And if you're
22:07
Speaker 1: not setting the screen, sit in the dunker spot and
22:10
Speaker 1: wait for Luka to break down his defender. And if
22:12
Speaker 1: it is in the full court, just run the break.
22:14
Speaker 1: It's a simple game if you're a Walker Kessler, and
22:17
Speaker 1: he maximized all of that. 12 from 12 from the
22:20
Speaker 1: field right now, and they got Chris Mannion in the
22:23
Speaker 1: game right now, so obviously Walker Kessler's not going to
22:27
Speaker 1: play anymore. But the game can be so simple, and
22:30
Speaker 1: this is one of the reasons why Luka Doncic was
22:32
Speaker 1: so adamant about adding a guy like Walker Kessler, because
22:34
Speaker 1: he has the ability to do these type of things.
22:36
Speaker 1: I thought in their first preseason game together, that was against,
22:40
Speaker 1: oh my God, who was that against? That was just
22:42
Speaker 1: like a week or so ago. I didn't think it
22:43
Speaker 1: looked great on either side of the ball. Today it did.
22:45
Speaker 1: And I don't know if that's more about the Lakers
22:47
Speaker 1: being locked in to start the season, or that's more
22:49
Speaker 1: about the Warriors being very far away from they want
22:52
Speaker 1: to be. The Warriors are not a good basketball team. Spoiler,
22:54
Speaker 1: I don't think they have much of a chance to
22:56
Speaker 1: be a really good basketball team this season. But yeah,
23:00
Speaker 1: it was a great game for Marco Kessler. I cannot
23:02
Speaker 1: believe that Yaxu's really starting his career by going at
23:05
Speaker 1: Luka Doncic and losing the mental battle and the on-court battle.
23:10
Speaker 1: Lucas is not a guy you talk to. Only a
23:12
Speaker 1: few people have been able to talk trash to Luka
23:14
Speaker 1: Doncic and walk out of there and feel victorious. It
23:16
Speaker 1: don't happen often, and Yaxu kind of learned that today.
23:20
Speaker 1: But it's just cool to see Luka Doncic back on
23:22
Speaker 1: the court. He is all in, bro, between him writing
23:25
Speaker 1: that stuff for the newspaper about this is our road
23:27
Speaker 1: to the championship start now. He's loving L.A., and I'm
23:30
Speaker 1: loving it he's loving L.A., So, yeah, man, I think
23:33
Speaker 1: that's it. I want to say apologies to the Clippers,
23:35
Speaker 1: who look like they're about to close out a big win.
23:36
Speaker 1: De'Aries Garland has 28 as I record this right now.
23:39
Speaker 1: Apologies to the Hornets. I did see, though, I didn't
23:43
Speaker 1: watch a single second in this game for what it's worth.
23:45
Speaker 1: I did see Brandon Miller finish the game with 18
23:49
Speaker 1: points on 21 shots. He attempted zero free throws in
23:53
Speaker 1: real time. There's free throws in the attempt that was, like,
23:56
Speaker 1: intensely foul. And he only had one assist. And I'm
23:59
Speaker 1: just like, That type of satellite is really, really hard
24:02
Speaker 1: to do. And I like Brandon Miller. I'm a Brandon
24:04
Speaker 1: Miller optimist. And they got the win. But if there's
24:09
Speaker 1: any reason to think about that contract extension, it is
24:12
Speaker 1: the fact that he does not get to the foul line.
24:14
Speaker 1: And it is the fact that he's not a plus passer.
24:17
Speaker 1: And I was kind of thinking about this with the...
24:18
Speaker 1: This is a podcast episode again. Goddamn. I was thinking
24:21
Speaker 1: about this with the Chris Dasparzingas thing, where if you
24:23
Speaker 1: didn't know, Chris Dasparzingas has been dealing with this unknown illness.
24:26
Speaker 1: I guess they technically said it's POTS, which... I don't
24:29
Speaker 1: know much about pots other than like the people that
24:31
Speaker 1: I know that have it know that they just get dizzy. That's,
24:34
Speaker 1: that's the extent of it. I know it's probably way
24:36
Speaker 1: more than that. Um, but it's so debilitating that he
24:38
Speaker 1: hasn't been able to play as you know. And because
24:41
Speaker 1: of that, he's questioning his NBA future, which is just
24:43
Speaker 1: really sad for a guy that's already dealt with a
24:45
Speaker 1: bunch of injuries. If there's any silver lining to his career,
24:47
Speaker 1: he was able to get that ring with Boston. And
24:49
Speaker 1: was that the first game of the finals where he
24:51
Speaker 1: came off the bench and he had that big quarter.
24:53
Speaker 1: So like, it's not all terrible. Um, But it does
24:57
Speaker 1: suck that his NBA career might be ending because of
24:59
Speaker 1: something he can't control. And they said that the Warriors
25:04
Speaker 1: are trying to potentially trade him away. And it's like,
25:07
Speaker 1: you know, what could that look like? He's basically on
25:10
Speaker 1: an expiring contract because his next year is non-guaranteed. And
25:13
Speaker 1: if they were going to use him in a trade,
25:15
Speaker 1: obviously they had to give him some future assets. And
25:16
Speaker 1: I'm looking around the league like, who could those guys be?
25:19
Speaker 1: And I'm like thinking to myself... There's not a ton
25:21
Speaker 1: of just bad contracts in basketball like there used to be.
25:24
Speaker 1: Remember Timothy Mozgov, Luol Deng, Nicholas Batum, Terry Rozier. There
25:29
Speaker 1: used to be, at any given time, like 10 awful
25:33
Speaker 1: contracts in basketball. Nowadays, the awful contracts are contracts that
25:37
Speaker 1: may not age well after a rookie extension. I don't
25:41
Speaker 1: think Brandon Miller is going to fall into that camp,
25:43
Speaker 1: but a good example of that is like Jalen Suggs,
25:45
Speaker 1: who we mentioned earlier in this video. where Jalen Suggs
25:48
Speaker 1: got $ 30- something million a year, and he doesn't play like
25:51
Speaker 1: a $ 30- million- something- a- year type of player. And then you obviously got
25:54
Speaker 1: like Patrick Williams. So that's a bad contract. The Warriors
25:59
Speaker 1: don't want that shit, do they? So it's kind of
26:01
Speaker 1: hard to say, like, we're going to buy a loan,
26:02
Speaker 1: a really bad contract for you to go out and
26:04
Speaker 1: say words, because they don't really exist too much unless
26:06
Speaker 1: it is a younger player in year two of a
26:09
Speaker 1: big extension, which that team that gave them the big
26:12
Speaker 1: extension traditionally is not trying to move off that player
26:14
Speaker 1: because they still believe that that extension is going to
26:15
Speaker 1: be worthy. Give us some Chris Esposangas, man. I think
26:19
Speaker 1: that's all I got. Yeah, the way I'm going to
26:22
Speaker 1: do it is tomorrow morning, I'm going to wake up
26:23
Speaker 1: and watch these games that I missed. So I can't
26:25
Speaker 1: wait to see DG to PG be the PG of
26:27
Speaker 1: the DGs. I can't wait to see Michael Brown's debut.
26:31
Speaker 1: I know he didn't have a great statistical game, but
26:33
Speaker 1: I want to see what he looked like on the court.
26:34
Speaker 1: I didn't watch a single second of the Rockets. I
26:36
Speaker 1: see KD had 30. I saw Cooper flag at 30.
26:38
Speaker 1: I can't wait to watch that. And then I think
26:40
Speaker 1: I'm starting off with Blazers sons to start tomorrow morning.
26:43
Speaker 1: Dame had a little 25 piece. John Morant with 14,
26:47
Speaker 1: 8-5 in just 22 minutes. Scoot Henderson, y'all know I
26:50
Speaker 1: got a ton of Scoot Henderson. Stoglow, 15-piece. Okay. Okay, yeah.
26:55
Speaker 1: Yann Hansen got to play an entire quarter? All right,
26:58
Speaker 1: I've talked too much.