Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Biggest Winners and Losers Of The NBA In 2024 So Far

Transcript

Biggest Winners and Losers Of The NBA In 2024 So Far · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: If everybody's healthy, this is a dangerous, dangerous team.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: If you ask me today, I'm still going Denver Nuggets.
0:04
SPEAKER_00: It's my favorite out west, but the Clippers are a dangerous, dangerous team.
0:14
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beach and podcast, y'all.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: Today we're gonna jump across the association.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the Clippers and how good they've been so far.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: We got to talk about Draymond Green because he's back in our lives in a podcast episode where he it was as candid as I've ever really seen him.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: There was memes, there was conversations, but I want to give my take on the Draymond Green podcast.
0:34
SPEAKER_00: I also want to talk about a team that's not looking so hot, even though they have a plethora of talent up top with the Phoenix Suns, injuries, MVP, so many things on today's episode.
0:44
SPEAKER_00: But first, I want to remind you to leave a like on the episode, subscribe to the channel if you're new around here, go to Spotify, go to Apple, leave us five stars.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: It does nothing but help us grow as a show.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into all of that, uh it was a it was a crazy day yesterday, man.
0:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, it became officially announced to the world that my other podcast numbers on the board has signed to Omaha slash ESPN.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we put that video out of us, you know, uh shooting a skit with Peyton Manning, which was a surreal moment.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: It's just been everything is happening so fast.
1:15
SPEAKER_00: I mean, these last couple months were just kind of interesting because officially we decided to switch companies back at the end of September.
1:22
SPEAKER_00: So through October, November, December, because we were under contract still to the end of 2023, we couldn't say a thing to the public.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And that's just not normal for me.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: I like to try to be as open as possible, especially when it comes to the work stuff and my ideas to the community, but we couldn't.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: And it was rough to just kind of sit on our hands as we doing all of these things behind the scenes, and it has finally happened.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: The world knows, and it's it's kind of crazy, man.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: When that video dropped, um, I we dropped at 11:15 Central Time, and it was coming from my hands, my Twitter account, my phone.
1:53
SPEAKER_00: I got really emotional, as you can imagine.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, because even though we hadn't seen the response just yet, I knew that the community was gonna go crazy over the announcement.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: Some of y'all kind of put the pieces together where we were going and everything.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: But I just again, I know I open up a lot of episodes by saying thank you.
2:09
SPEAKER_00: I can't say it enough.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: I think um Saturday is the first official episode of numbers on the board that'll be on the YouTube channel that I'll link in the description.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: But you know, um I've always expressed that I kind of wanted to be uh a pioneer, a foot in the door to a lot of different people out there.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: There's so many great creators that deserve chances to make a linear appearance if that's what they want to do, to build an audience in the basketball/slash sports world.
2:34
SPEAKER_00: And traditionally, the way you did that was you go to school, you get a journalism degree, you intern, you become a film guy or a guy behind the scenes for X amount of years before you really get a chance.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: And I just wanted to open the door as much as possible for an alternative route.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing against going to school, getting that journalism degree, getting that broadcasting degree because it goes a very long way, but it's not the only option.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't have degrees, I don't have 20 years of experience behind the scenes, and we made it happen.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, who would have thought over 10 years ago when I started my YouTube channel that one day I would be a part of the ESPN family, technically.
3:10
SPEAKER_00: So it is uh it's just interesting.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: It's just interesting, and again, I'm 100% appreciative to everybody that's been supporting us.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to say this is only beginning, but it's only the beginning.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: Y'all think this is the end.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
3:22
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, we've been working for a decade to get here, but now we got to make an impression on the other people.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: We got to make an impression on the people outside of the community, and that's what I'm most excited for.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: So I just want to say there's gonna there's so many projects, so many things that we've been working on behind the scenes that y'all will be uh uh knowledgeable about sooner rather than later.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: Now that we're in 2024, I told you in 2023 that 2024 is a year of elevation, and this is just the first step.
3:45
SPEAKER_00: So, shout out to uh my new boss man, Payton Man.
3:48
SPEAKER_00: What?
3:49
SPEAKER_00: I got paid manning's number.
3:51
SPEAKER_00: Like that's that's just so crazy.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: Shoot him a text message every once in a while.
3:54
SPEAKER_00: He did leave me on on Red last time I texted him, but he's Payton Man, and what can I what can I really say?
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, and as a lot of people are asking about the process, and this is not something we want to spend too much time on this podcast on, but I do want to mention it um because this is our my first time becoming a free agent in the sports media world.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, for the last six years, I've been under contract with House of Highlights, and it wasn't six years straight, it was two-year contract here, two-year contract here, two years, two-year contract here.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: But the last time our contract was able to be renewed, we didn't really have any suitors.
4:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we were just pretty content and pretty happy with our relationship at House of Highlights at that point that we didn't even think about going out and seeing other things.
4:32
SPEAKER_00: And this year round, it's not that our uh relationship with House of Highlights is bad or anything.
4:35
SPEAKER_00: I got not many bad things to say about them as a company.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: The team over there is amazing.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna miss so many people on that team.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: I think uh that I share that sentiment with everybody on my team, Mike D.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: Mills, Pierre.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, but this is the first chance we got to look at other options.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And there were other people.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't just Omaha and it wasn't just House of Highlights that was competing.
4:55
SPEAKER_00: There was other companies, other brands that was interested in our services.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: So um, when when you see players go out and they hit free agency and they go to these different cities and go to these five-star course meals, and and you see when Gordon Hayward was a free agent, the Miami Heat put up banners of Gordon Hayward Photoshop to Miami.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: You're like, what are they doing?
5:13
SPEAKER_00: Gordon Hayward probably had the time of his life on that visit.
5:17
SPEAKER_00: And that's kind of how I felt with every single visit that I had.
5:19
SPEAKER_00: And ultimately, I think it just lined up perfectly with me, the guys in Omaha.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: So it's happening.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, that doesn't affect this podcast at all, but I just wanted to talk about a little bit because at the end of the day, my my content is fluid.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: My content is this podcast, is my other podcast, the YouTube channel.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: And I, even though I feel like they have their own communities, at the end of the day, it's all coming coming from the heart.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
5:41
SPEAKER_00: Of my this heart right here.
5:42
SPEAKER_00: So just want to talk about that a little bit.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all so much.
5:44
SPEAKER_00: First episode is on Saturday, but now let's talk about the Clippers because they have been on a roll.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, I was going to talk about the Clippers regardless, but earlier today, um, Kawhi Leonard had an announcement of his of his own.
5:56
SPEAKER_00: He signed a three-year extension with the Clippers,$153 million.
6:00
SPEAKER_00: And Paul George is currently in conversations.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that deal gets done by the time this episode is out.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
6:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, but that's huge because one of the main things in the offseason where people were looking at was like, oh my god, Kawhi Leonard and Paul George have not signed extensions just yet, and it's finally happening.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's no player option in the last year.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: So Kawhi Leonard is locked down in LA.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: That part is not super surprising to me, honestly, because Kawhi Leonard had been a guy that expressed that he loves LA.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he he grew up in California, he went to the West Coast because that's what he knows and love.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: And I didn't really see a world where Kawhi Leonard was like, no, deuces, I want to go to this other team because we aren't being competitive enough or whatever.
6:36
SPEAKER_00: So that's done.
6:37
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure that now Kawhi's done that the Paul George one will be happening soon.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Kawhi Leonard, the Clippers for inking him up.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh, because there was a little bit of question marks, right?
6:46
SPEAKER_00: Before the James Harden trade, they were like, okay, if the Clippers don't work out, even after the James Harden trade, if you look at um everybody's opinions about it, if it did not work out, what now?
6:56
SPEAKER_00: James Harden is a free agent, Kawhi and Paul George.
6:59
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna get this new arena and we may not have our big three in there.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: And now it's like cemented that at least Kawhi is gonna be there.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: And I would believe that everybody else is gonna fall suit.
7:09
SPEAKER_00: But the Clippers have been looking like one of the best teams in basketball.
7:12
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about it briefly over the last couple episodes, but it had been hard for me to kind of put a finger on what about this Clippers has shifted so much.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Because if you remember, the James Harden Clippers era started off 0-6, and some of those losses were really bad, like losing to the Grizzlies without Ja Morant.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: And we're gonna talk about Ja later, but golly, that's so unfortunate.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, some really bad losses in there.
7:34
SPEAKER_00: But after that, they have been on an absolute tear.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: In the month of December, they were 9-0 with Kawhi Linda played.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: And in that span, he averaged 29.3 points per game, 61% from the field, 50% from three, and 96% from the free throw line.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: He had been on the tear.
7:48
SPEAKER_00: And since then, they've only lost one game, and that was that that rock fight against the Lakers a couple nights ago where nobody was doing anything of significance.
7:57
SPEAKER_00: So they have just been amazing.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: And I was asked a couple episodes ago to kind of poke holes in every single contender.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: What does this team need?
8:05
SPEAKER_00: Why is there what is their downside?
8:07
SPEAKER_00: And we got to the Clippers, and if you remember the episode, I said, I just don't know.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: They've looked so very good over the last month or so.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what the hole in their roster is.
8:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know once we get to a seven-game series, what can teams pick out and say this is how we're gonna beat them.
8:22
SPEAKER_00: And the one thing that did come to mind is like maybe they're just a little bit too small, right?
8:25
SPEAKER_00: Um it's zuboc, it's Daniel Tice, Mason Plumley's back officially, but they feel like a team that's a little bit too small.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And then we go to the next game after I was saying that Zubach had 22 and 19 against the Lakers, which is one of the better paint defenses in all of basketball.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: And then Zubach has just been on a really good tear.
8:42
SPEAKER_00: And I remember the first six games of the Clippers era with James Harden.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: We came into this podcast and I was saying that that that Zubach doesn't look amazing.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: His hands look don't look great.
8:55
SPEAKER_00: He's not finishing at the rim at the quality that James Harden's used to.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: That pick and roll just didn't look good.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: But since then, James Harden has been in the lab with Daniel Tice and Zubotch over hours or over practice hours, just doing where do you want the ball?
9:09
SPEAKER_00: How can I get you there?
9:10
SPEAKER_00: And now, I don't know if the numbers uh prove this, but over the last month or so, at least my eye test are saying that that's one of the better pick and roll duos in basketball right now.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: And James Harden, he was traded to the Clippers.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: He had this quote that went extremely, extremely viral.
9:23
SPEAKER_00: Every single person in NBA media was talking about the quote that says, I am not a system player, I am a system.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: And I came onto this pod and said, hell, look at the course of James Hardy's career.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: He has the the resume to say that that's a fact, that he is a system.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, that system obviously hasn't resulted in championships, which is what people are going to talk about mostly, but him as the primary ball handler with some shooters and a dive big man has been a recipe for a top offense every single year of James Hardy being a star.
9:55
SPEAKER_00: And now we're seeing it again.
9:58
SPEAKER_00: For the beginning of the Clippers era with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George, the main thing we always talked about was like, man, if this team had a playmaker, if this team had a playmaker, if this team had a playmaker, they made a decision and brought in Russell Westbrook and he looked damn good as a Clipper.
10:11
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm still super um, I guess, impressed with the way Russell Westbrook has accepted his role.
10:17
SPEAKER_00: He's been phenomenal.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And I don't even know if the stats say that, but just the eye test of saying that that bench role for Russell Westbrook has been great.
10:24
SPEAKER_00: But if they add another playmaker, that this team could go a long way.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they added one of the greatest playmakers of this generation.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: And he doesn't look like he's lost much of a step from last year.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: He was very close to making an All NBA team.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And he looks like that player again.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: Now, I wanted to get into some numbers a little bit because okay, the I test is saying that the Clippers are really good offensively and defensively, but but can we can we dive a little bit deeper into it?
10:47
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you watch the Clippers play, you're gonna notice that this is a heavily isolation team.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: When you have a guy like James Harden, who's one of the greatest ISO players of all time, not even just of this generation, just of all time, you have Kawhi Leonard and you have Paul George, you're going to have a ton of ISO possessions.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: And right now, they lead the league in isolations per game, and they're third in points per possession or isolation at 1.08.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: So they have the highest volume and they have one of the best points per possession.
11:15
SPEAKER_00: It's one of the most unguardable offenses in all of basketball right now.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: And this is the most locked in I've seen of the Clippers in the Kawhi era.
11:24
SPEAKER_00: And part of that is just I'm enjoying the fact that we're getting back to backs from Kawhi and Paul George.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: So we're not thinking about low management for the playoffs.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: We're really seeing these guys play every single night or close to it.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: And it's just been a joy just because we haven't got that in this era.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: I feel like we saw Kawhi Leonard hit the shot against the 76ers, then win a championship, and then we get bits and pieces of Kawhi Leonard in game.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: We see him go crazy for a playoff series or a couple games in a playoff series versus the Suns, and then we don't hear from him again.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: We see him go crazy in a playoff series versus the Jazz.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: He tears his ACL.
11:54
SPEAKER_00: We don't hear from him again.
11:55
SPEAKER_00: But now every night that they've played, he's been there more than not.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: And that's just different.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: And I think that the continuity of having all of the players be healthy all this time is just paying dividends.
12:07
SPEAKER_00: This is the crazy part about all this, right?
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Right now, um, the the uh Clippers are second in the league in SARS three-point percentage at 39.7.
12:16
SPEAKER_00: This is before their game tonight.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how that game is gonna go.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: We're just going based on what I see right now.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: And now you have James Harden, who again is a system, and he has Zubachu again, has looked way better on the road now that we're getting deeper and deeper into the season, season that they're relatively unstoppable there.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: And you surround them with these players.
12:34
SPEAKER_00: On catch and shoot so far this season, Norman Powell is shooting 49%.
12:38
SPEAKER_00: On catch and shoot this season, Kawhi Leonard is shooting 45.6%.
12:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is three-point percentage, by the way.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Catch and shoot three pointers.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: So far, Paul George on catch and shoot three pointers is 44%.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: And then now when James doesn't have the ball, when it's Kawhi isolating or Paul George isolating, James Harden has always been a phenomenal catch-and-shoot player.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: He's at 43% right now.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: So think about it.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: You got James and Zoo in a pick and roll.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Pick your poison.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: If you don't guard Zoo, James Harden puts it on the money almost every single time.
13:12
SPEAKER_00: And now if you overplay it, well, I can hit a step back.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: I can kick it out to one of the three other shooters that I have on the courtroom me right now that are knocked down at 40 plus percent.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: You have to pick your poison.
13:24
SPEAKER_00: And everybody's been picking wrong.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: This team has been virtually unstoppable offensive.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: Again, if you look past that Lakers game where they didn't hit no damn shots.
13:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm loving the way that Paul George is being used.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: Now, Paul George is being used off a pin-down off screens.
13:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, uh, I didn't get to compare it to his previous seasons with the Clippers, but again, I'm just gonna go eye test on this one more than previous years.
13:45
SPEAKER_00: And I think a lot of that has to do with the fact that they do have a superior playmaker in James Harden.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: They were seeing Paul George get a lot more opportunities on flare screens, on things like that.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: And it's just been working perfectly.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Paul George has just been a guy that notoriously plays his role and plays it to the greatest.
14:01
SPEAKER_00: A couple years ago, he was mocked in NBA media when he said, I recognize I'm not a number one, and I'm okay with that.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: I think self-awareness is great in the association.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he's as self-aware as possible at this point.
14:11
SPEAKER_00: So it's just cool to see.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Now there's a tweet from Keith Smith, and I thought this was very interesting.
14:16
SPEAKER_00: I screenshotted it.
14:17
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers can still trade for a$20 million player fairly easily, too, without moving rotational players.
14:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they got one more first-round pick to trade.
14:28
SPEAKER_00: Oh, but in my mind, I had thought that the way the Clippers had built their roster, you think about all the things they've given up over the past couple of years to build this team.
14:36
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know they had another tradable first-round pick.
14:38
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know that they can get up to$20 million in salary, but apparently they can.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: And one thing we know about the Clippers, they're willing to make those trades.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Steve Bomber is a madman, he's a mad scientist in many ways.
14:48
SPEAKER_00: Well, it don't matter what the cost is, he's there for.
14:50
SPEAKER_00: And the way you get there, for the people that are wondering, like, do we have to trade?
14:53
SPEAKER_00: He said nobody in your rotation.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: It's really like a mere coffee of PJ Tucker, who hasn't really played much anyway.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: And you add a first-round pick, I don't know exactly what they get you, but it could get you a player up to$20 million.
15:03
SPEAKER_00: So the Clippers might be buyers again.
15:07
SPEAKER_00: It's just been kind of cool to see.
15:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, because I I mean, I I don't know if this is a controversial take, but I enjoy watching the best players of basketball play night in, night out.
15:16
SPEAKER_00: So to see Kawhi Linda doing this and him signing this extension, so we know that it's gonna be like this for the next couple years, no low management, they're climbing up to standings.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: That's a team as of right now that most teams do not want to see in the playoffs.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: Because even before the James Harden era, when you saw them be healthy, and again, it's a very small sample size in the postseason, they were tough.
15:39
SPEAKER_00: And now you had James.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: I know James has an awful track record in the postseason over the last couple years.
15:47
SPEAKER_00: But now you got Kawhi Leonard, who's one of the best post-players, uh postseason players we've seen in a very long time.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, this is just so much talent where I guess you you don't necessarily have to rely on James to be a super efficient postseason scorer.
16:03
SPEAKER_00: If we can get his playmaking at this level with this Clippers team, if everybody's healthy, this is a dangerous, dangerous team.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: If you ask me today, I'm still going Denver Nuggets as my favorite out west.
16:13
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers are a dangerous, dangerous team.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the MVP race now because for the majority of the season, Jordan Bede has been my 1A.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: He has been the best player in the association when he has been healthy.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: And the win he's been healthy is the big thing at the moment.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: If you look at fan duel sports books and you look at the MVP odds, Jordan Bede had gone from a guy that was the favorite for a lot of the season to falling down to fourth at plus 400.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Kenny, why is that the case?
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Well, Joel Lebede has only played 27 of the 36 games so far this season.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna miss the next one, too, from what I just read.
16:47
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the NBA has now incorporated this role where in order to really classify for an NBA award, you have to play 65 games.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: Now, if we're doing some mathematics, Jordan B misses eight more games.
16:59
SPEAKER_00: He is ineligible for the MVP.
17:01
SPEAKER_00: It don't matter if he has the greatest season of all time.
17:04
SPEAKER_00: If he plays 64 games, he's not the MVP.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: So now that shifted the odds, well, now he's behind Jokic, who's the favorite at the moment.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: Shea Gibbs Alexander's two.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh Doncic is three.
17:15
SPEAKER_00: And then we got Joe at four.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: It's still possible.
17:18
SPEAKER_00: It's still possible.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: But Joe Ellen Bede has dealt with a few injuries early in the season.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: So we just don't know exactly what it'll look like at the end of the year.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: But I'm I'm definitely keeping my eye on these odds.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: Jokic is taking over because now that Jamal Murray is fully healthy, the team has been unstoppable as well.
17:34
SPEAKER_00: He's got a crazy game winning this season.
17:35
SPEAKER_00: All the advanced stats are still saying that that man is the man.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Um and the eye test says that too.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: So maybe it is another Jokic year.
17:42
SPEAKER_00: Only time will tell.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: But it's just interesting to see Joel and B fall from number one all the way down to number four.
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19:40
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about Draymond because uh technically he's eligible to come back to play basketball again.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: Now he's going through some condition and stuff.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: Um the Warriors have him on the sideline.
19:49
SPEAKER_00: He's back in the facilities and stuff, but um he dropped the podcast episode.
19:53
SPEAKER_00: First of all, he re-signed the volume, so shout out to the volume, I guess, and shout out to Draymond Green for getting that podcast and bag, you know.
20:01
SPEAKER_00: And um it dropped.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: The podcast dropped.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: And and I saw so many clips that made the podcast look awful.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: One of the clips is him talking about uh him telling Adam Silver that it became too much for him and that he was gonna retire.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: And then Adam Silver told him no.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Without the context, without all that stuff, that just is a bad, bad clip.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, okay, that's interesting.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: I will I'll listen slash watch it eventually.
20:26
SPEAKER_00: Then another clip comes out that talks about how Steve Kerr came over to his house after everything and they just sat in the front room or in the yard.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't really remember what he said.
20:35
SPEAKER_00: He said they just both cried.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: It's bad clips after bad clip is bad clip.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, no way, no way, this is the full context of this episode.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: So I went into it and I listened to it twice.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Actually, I listened to it once and I watched it as well to try to figure out exactly what the message from Draymond Green is.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: And the main thing I took away from it, and you can take it with a grain of salt, everybody's gonna have their opinions on Draymond Green, but I tried to go into this as objective as possible.
20:58
SPEAKER_00: I have an episode um of my Kenny for Real channel where after he had use of Nurkis the next day, I have a video that's called I'm Tired of Draymond Green.
21:06
SPEAKER_00: It it went it went on the trending page.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, it has hella use, right?
21:12
SPEAKER_00: So I went into this as objective as possible.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: Forget about Draymond and all his antics.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: What is he saying in this episode?
21:18
SPEAKER_00: Do I believe it as as true coming from the heart?
21:20
SPEAKER_00: And this is what I kind of took away from it.
21:22
SPEAKER_00: The main thing was about the accountability, right?
21:24
SPEAKER_00: And that was one thing I I took, and I believe him.
21:29
SPEAKER_00: I believe that he recognizes that he needs help and that he needed help.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: And he talked about in his episode that where he comes from, and I and I can I can live to this too, I I can I can um attest to this too, that traditionally in the inner cities, when somebody tells you you need help, and which that's what Kevin Orange said to the media after the Nurkish thing, that that man needs help, that immediately comes off as a negative connotation.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: Where I'm from, if somebody told me I needed help in my younger years, before I've become more accepting of therapy.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Things like that, I would have taken it really awfully.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: And Jeremiah Green did that.
22:05
SPEAKER_00: And he said he had to take a step back.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: He had to take a step back and kind of internalized what that really means.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: And now in his adulthood, he recognized that him needing help isn't necessarily a bad thing, that most people in life need help.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And I can relate to that.
22:18
SPEAKER_00: Because I've I've been going through therapy for the last year and a half, and it has dramatically changed my life.
22:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, so I am a guy that needed help on different things to drain my grain.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm not causing trouble in my work work life or hitting people in my work life, but therapy nonetheless.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: So he took accountability, not just for the Nurkic thing, he took accountability for the Rudy Gobert thing.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that I don't think I listened to twice, remember, remember, one thing I do not remember him addressing at all is the Jordan Poole thing.
22:46
SPEAKER_00: I was hoping that he would, but again, we're talking about something that happened so long ago that maybe that was the reason he didn't.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: But he took accountability for some of those things.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: Now, we're gonna recognize very, very early on how much of that episode is true versus not, right?
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, one of the things that I also made me feel like this was genuine is that he was very candid about, hell, it's only been three weeks.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: I have not changed, but I'm working to get better, right?
23:14
SPEAKER_00: The easy thing for him to do is like, oh, I went through my therapy.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm good now, y'all.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: Don't worry about me.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: But he was like, hell, I am, it's gonna be a process for me.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: And I recognize that, and I I kind of respect that.
23:25
SPEAKER_00: Now, he also said that he he said something along the lines is that you don't you don't take a cheetah spots away or something when talking about the edge that he plays with, but he mentioned that he's gonna do it without any antics.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see exactly what that means.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, me and the guys are having a conversation.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: Do we believe that he'll get ejected again this season and or get suspended again this season?
23:46
SPEAKER_00: And I, if it was at 0.5, hard over, hard over.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: I think he's like one or two techs away from serving an expension, expension suspension anyway.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: But I I believed Draymond Green.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: And maybe I'll look back on this in three months and say, Kenny, you wild for believing in that man.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: But right now, I'm giving him the benefit of the doubt that he will go into the rest of the season and not cause bodily harm to either his opponents or his teammates.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: Because I believe that he can he can still play with the fire that made Draymond Green Draymond Green without going above and beyond.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And an interview, uh Steve Kerr mentioned that they, as an organization, have made it a mission for Draymond to not talk to the referees.
24:27
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: That's interesting because Draymond Green is a notorious yapper, especially to the referees.
24:34
SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious to see exactly what that looks like for Dre.
24:37
SPEAKER_00: Um his team could use him because they've been awful defensively since he's been out.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Um the offense has been solid, but the defense, you know, Draymond Green is a perennial DPOWAC candidate when he's healthy.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: They could definitely, definitely use him right now.
24:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I think that this next month for him, for Clay, for Wiggs, for Kamenga, for the entire team, not named Steph Curry, this next month is like a big old experiment to figure out what the hell we do at the deadline.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm giving Draymond Green a halfway thumbs up, I guess.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: A halfway thumbs up to Draymond Green on this podcast episode, and we'll see if we see the growth on the court.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: Now, before we move on to our next subject, it is time for my favorite segment, the AskKB.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: Only thing you have to do is go to x slash Twitter, use the hashtag A-S-K-K-B or go into the comment section of these episodes, and I will try to pick out my favorite questions to answer on the podcast.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, the first one comes from Christopher Johnson.
25:33
SPEAKER_00: Was there ever a moment where you realized that you had to?
25:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I can't.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Is there ever a moment where you realize you had what it takes to be a successful content creator, or have you always just had the innate confidence in yourself that you'd be successful in what you're doing?
25:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, I am lucky enough that there was no pressure.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: When I started content creation, there was no bags, no, not many people were doing it as jobs, and I mean in the entire world, there was like the smosh guys that was getting a little, they was making some money.
26:06
SPEAKER_00: There was no pressure for me to become a successful content creator until I was a successful content creator, if that makes sense.
26:12
SPEAKER_00: Where by the time, and I mentioned this before, by the time there was any pressure, I had already saved up enough money where, like, if things fall from beneath me, I will be fine.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: As far as like after I moved out and stuff.
26:26
SPEAKER_00: I still every day kind of question exactly what I'm doing.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's just a part of going into a world relatively blind, like there's not a lot of people trying to make bridge the gap between online content creatorslash mainstream content creator, it's in sports at least.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm going into it relatively blind.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: And the moment I really realized that, like, okay, this is like a full, full career, is um when I started to get hit up very regularly by management companies.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know a lot of people are signed to management groups and they may not, it may not turn into a career or whatever, whatever.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: But the fact that I went through, I think, five different interviews with different different companies, like, okay, these people, now, some of them I can tell right off rip were not being genuine with me that they saw me as a dollar sign because with management companies, they're gonna get a percentage of the dollars they bring in.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: I understand that.
27:16
SPEAKER_00: But to see how many people, I guess, believed in what I was doing, it just gave me a bunch of confidence, I would say.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I want to I want to say a lot of my confidence that I exert through these videos, a lot of it is just in these videos.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: There's something about it, and and going back to the Draymond Green thing.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: I've talked to my therapist about this quite a bit, that there's something about me being in front of the camera that like Kenny Beacham on a normal day-to-day life as like a four on like the energy slash outgoingness.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: I I am a I would say I'm an introvert at heart.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: Put a camera on, it jumps up to eight, to a nine, to a 10.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know the reason behind that, but I found my dream, my dream job.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to take advantage of it as much as possible.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: I do not take any day for granted.
28:02
SPEAKER_00: There are some days I wake up and I don't want to do it.
28:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, bro, you got the easiest and best job in the world.
28:06
SPEAKER_00: Get to work, you know.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: So um, I also got a lot of confidence from my dad um growing up.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: And I think that goes a long way to have people in your corner that believe in you regardless.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: One Christmas, I asked my dad for a dazzle.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: And some of y'all that's been in the content creation game for the last 10 or 15 years know what a dazzle is.
28:26
SPEAKER_00: He ain't asked no questions.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: I said, I need a dazzle and a laptop.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: I got a$200 laptop and a dazzle, and it was like it was on 2K12.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: We here, you know?
28:34
SPEAKER_00: And then one day, one Christmas, I asked for an HD P VR.
28:37
SPEAKER_00: He ain't asking no questions.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: All right, son, your grades okay?
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they okay.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: They okay.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Back, no questions.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: And I'm bringing a paycheck, you're like, oh, this is kind of real, ain't it?
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Go follow your dream, son.
28:50
SPEAKER_00: And that was yeah.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Next question comes from uh famir.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Sorry if I'm pronounced your name wrong.
28:58
SPEAKER_00: Um what is a skill you wish you had more time to learn?
29:03
SPEAKER_00: I am somewhat obsessed with people that that know more than one language.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: I took four years of Spanish in high school, and that I graduated high school in 2015.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember a lick of it other than donde esta, lo biblioteca, and that's from the that's from community.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: That's not even from the four years of Spanish I took.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: So there's been there's been times in my life I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna try to get back into language.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: I try to get back into Spanish, I try to get into Japanese because I'm an anime fan.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: I can't do it.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: There's like a disconnect.
29:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, part of that might be, I don't know if there's science behind this.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: I I have dyslexia for the people at home.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: So words in general, reading words, it's tough for me.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if that's one of the reasons that I was never able to really completely grasp on to a second language, but I also wanted to get into coding.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: And I still do.
29:50
SPEAKER_00: I I I bought two different coding courses on this computer, downloaded, never opened, never opened.
29:57
SPEAKER_00: I think, I think um, I guess coding in general is just one of the coolest things you can do, but I also just don't have the time to take the courses yet or to learn the other language.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: I I mean, if I could, I would.
30:08
SPEAKER_00: Just don't got the time.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: Last question comes from Christian Rodriguez.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: Says, is there something you have seen from other sports or leagues that you wish the NBA would incorporate into their broadcast?
30:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, um, some of y'all may notice, know that um, since the World Cup a year or so ago, I have watched soccer, football, you know, and I'm not I'm not deep into the weeds.
30:29
SPEAKER_00: I couldn't tell you every single club and every single league, but I'm definitely a big highlight watcher.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And one thing when I watch live games, the thing I admire is the lack of stoppage of play.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: It's beautiful.
30:42
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know if that translates well to basketball.
30:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't think there's a single basketball league in the world that has that kind of back and forth, back and forth for 45 minutes, I guess, in soccer's case.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: So it will be for 12 straight minutes in the NBA because we have fouls, we have this, we have that.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: But I admire the lack of commercials.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: I admire the the crowds of soccer slash football or um European basketball that the NBA doesn't have.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: It's definitely more um uh performative in the NBA as far as the in-arena experience.
31:14
SPEAKER_00: It's like, here go to top 100 songs across America right now playing during the game.
31:19
SPEAKER_00: Here's some dude during the timeout that has a little bit of a little bitty dog that can do a backflip.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm cool with that type of stuff, but it doesn't allow fandom to be at its highest.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: That even in an NBA finals game, and I've been to one finals game, I guess, technically, um, the energy is great, but sometimes that that average, that average regular season soccer match killing the NBA on an NBA final scale when it comes to the N-arena ambiance, the N- Arena atmosphere.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: And the NBA needs that.
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know how you do that because NBA fans are relatively laid back, where it takes a game winner for people to go crazy in most cases.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it could it could use that.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Like I see the clips of the Euro League or leagues across the world where they got fireworks and there's flags in the in the crowd.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, where's Tammy NBA?
32:12
SPEAKER_00: We ain't gonna we'll never get it.
32:13
SPEAKER_00: But those are the type of things I admire.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Let's get back on track with some some quick ones.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the Phoenix Suns because they have not looked uh have not looked good.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: And there's gonna be some quick hitters to end off the episode.
32:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, they have not looked good.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: And there's a a string of tweets by a guy named Ryb underscore 311.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: And he is a Suns fan, from my understanding, and he went through the weeds of the advanced stats to kind of talk about how bad the Suns have been.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: And there's one specific part of the Suns game that if you've been watching, you kind of take notice of, and that is the fourth quarter.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna read you these tweets.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: The Suns have a minus 16.1 net rating in the fourth quarter, by far the worst in the NBA.
32:51
SPEAKER_00: I've watched a good amount of Pistons games.
32:55
SPEAKER_00: They feel like the worst fourth quarter team in basketball, but apparently it is the Suns.
33:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Suns season, this the Suns this season have the uh worst fourth quarter net rating since the NBA began to track it back in 1996.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: That's tough.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, they are quite literally the worst fourth quarter team in recorded NBA history.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: The 2012 Bobcats are the worst team in in NBA history with the lowest win percentage ever.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: They had a uh net rating of a minus 15 that season, while the Suns have a minus 16.1 in the fourth quarter.
33:28
SPEAKER_00: Uh, that minus 16.1 will put them on the pace for a seven-win team.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: 7 and 75.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: The worst team in NBA history by a whole two games.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to RB for putting that together.
33:38
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate that.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, because that kind of that puts into words what a lot of the things we've kind of experienced been experiencing as the casual NBA fan.
33:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, things have not looked pretty.
33:48
SPEAKER_00: Now, the silver lining of all of this, because I like to stay on the side of optimism, is that the combination of Bradley Beale, Devin Booker, and Kevin Durant have only played 108 minutes together and they have a net rating of a 7.6.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: So it's been relatively successful so far.
34:01
SPEAKER_00: And part of that, obviously, is that we've saw Bradley Beale miss a bunch of time, and then KD went out, and KD said he's in love with what do you say with the grind that went viral because people are bringing up the fact that he joined the Warriors and stuff.
34:14
SPEAKER_00: But um the Sun the Suns team is different than like a Clippers.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: And and I I don't want to put them on the same.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Well, we can compare them, right?
34:24
SPEAKER_00: They just played against each other.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers smack they ass in the fourth quarter specifically, where they're both teams that have three, let's say, star to just say star players, three star players, because your opinion about Bradley B.O.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: can be is he a star?
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Is he a three-star players?
34:38
SPEAKER_00: And then the rest.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers rest consists of Norman Powell, it consists of Zubach, it consists of Terrence Mann.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: Those are three really real NBA players that get real NBA minutes across the association.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: The Suns have Nurkits who's been hit or miss, but mostly hit for what they want.
34:59
SPEAKER_00: Now it can get bad, and I mean really bad at times.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, Grayson Allen has been relatively hit, you know.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the better three-point shooters in the association so far.
35:09
SPEAKER_00: And and then it's Eric Gordon, hit or miss as well.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Then it's Chemezzi Metsu.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Mezi, but like they just they just don't have this surrounding pieces around a three.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: And and this is a a conversation in team building.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: And it's still early, right?
35:25
SPEAKER_00: We're still only 30 some games in the season.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of those, again, 108 minutes between their big three.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: It's not a huge sample size for us to talk about was the right idea to trade for Brad, was the right idea to trade for Kevin, but it is uh an experiment and getting three max, and I don't mean I mean super max players and minimums practically around them, and thinking that that's a recipe for success.
35:48
SPEAKER_00: My main complaint about their team, and again, it's early, so this can change, was there is a lot of overlapping talent, overlapping skill sets, where obviously they do it to different degrees, but a lot of stuff Kevin does, Devin does, and Brad does.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I was excited to see Bradley Bill put pressure on a rim, and we're seeing that so far this season in the games that he's played, but it has not been pretty.
36:07
SPEAKER_00: Do I expect them to stay the worst fourth quarter team in the history of basketball?
36:11
SPEAKER_00: No.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: But they do have to figure it out earlier rather than later because the NBA uh Western Conference is ridiculous.
36:18
SPEAKER_00: Right now, again, this is before the finals of tonight's game.
36:21
SPEAKER_00: They're sitting at the ninth seed.
36:23
SPEAKER_00: And their team that I would assume that most people do not want to see in the play in game or even a seven-game series, is because of the top-end talent, is the top-end talent.
36:31
SPEAKER_00: Nobody should be wanting to be in this that eighth through 10th seed.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: It's just, it's, I'm sorry, seven through ten seed.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: It's just too much, I don't know, uh, volatility when it comes to that.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: And right now, the teams that are towards the top, the Timberwolves, the Thunder, the Nuggets, the Clippers, uh, the Kings, and the Pells, majority of them feel really safe.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: They feel really safe as a top 60.
36:57
SPEAKER_00: I feel good about Minnesota not falling off, barring injury to all these people.
37:00
SPEAKER_00: I feel really good about the Thunder, really good about the Nuggets, really good about the Clippers so far.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: Those four spots feel pretty good.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, after that, we'll see what the Kings do at the deadline.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of conversation about them.
37:10
SPEAKER_00: So we don't we don't know, but they have not looked amazing, but they've turned around a little bit after that game against the Pistons, where they gave up almost 50 points to the Pistons and put it all together in the second half or second quarter ongoing.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: The Pelicans have been uh phenomenal when they've been healthy.
37:25
SPEAKER_00: So that's a team I feel confident in.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: But like the Mavs are still in the hunt for one of those top six seeds.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: So this is just you don't have a lot of time.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one of the main problems.
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Another quick hitter, John Morant is going to be missing the rest of the season.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: Hit like a tank.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: It hit like a tank, man.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: I mean, we just seen what nine games of John Morant.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: In those nine games, the the Grizzies look good.
37:45
SPEAKER_00: They look really good.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: And now he's done with a labrum tear.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm sure again, I try to look on the side of optimism.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: It's it's hard to be optimistic when your star, your superstar for your organization is going to be missing the remainder of the season, especially when you consider how bad it started for them.
38:02
SPEAKER_00: The the side of like optimism is like, hell, there's nothing wrong with a gap year.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Now, the problem is that they were relatively aggressive in the uh the uh offseason by bringing in Marcus Smart and bringing in this player and that player.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: They were just waiting for that John Morant moment and it came and it went very, very fast.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: But it could be a gap year, right?
38:21
SPEAKER_00: The the lowest odds that they could probably get this season is fifth or sixth because they're not gonna catch up with the Pistons, the Wizards, the Hornets, or the Spurs when it comes to their really bad records.
38:31
SPEAKER_00: But this is obviously not a highly touted draft class, according to a lot of people.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious to see what they would do with that lottery pick because I think we can agree that without Ja Moret there, they're already sitting at the 13th seed, even though they just won a game against the Mavericks without um Ja and Jaron Jackson Jr., I would just assume that they're not gonna find their way in the playoffs.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: So Silver Lining is a gap year.
38:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's not a crazy injury that we need to worry about his knees or something like that.
38:59
SPEAKER_00: It's an injury that I've gone through twice.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: I've had two different shoulder surgeries, labor and repairs, um, and and ja.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: Just get well, just get well soon.
39:08
SPEAKER_00: Don't rush the recovery.
39:09
SPEAKER_00: That was the thing I did, and that's why I had to have the second, I have to have the second surgery because I rushed the recovery.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, sophomore year basketball trial train three weeks.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: I need to get back in the gym.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: And then I tore it again.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: So get well soon, Ja.
39:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm curious to see what happens at the deadline for them now.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: Because you obviously are not trading off pieces like Desmond Bain or Jaron Jackson Jr., but Marcus Smart, I think, could potentially get removed as they try to not bottom out, obviously, but try to retain some more assets for this upcoming season.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: And with them having another lottery pick, we'll we'll see what they decide to do with it.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna draft with it?
39:42
SPEAKER_00: Are they gonna try to move it to kind of accelerate the timeline?
39:44
SPEAKER_00: Because now the Ja Jaron and Bain um trio has been together for a few years now and they're really looking for that deep dick playoff push.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it happens next year.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: The last thing I want to talk about is Eric Sposter.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Eric Sposter signed an eight-year,$120 million contract extension.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: And there's nobody in basketball that I believe deserves it more as far as coaching goes, because in my eyes, he has been the best coach in basketball for quite some time.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: The man has been, he is the best coach ever to never win a coach of the year.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: I think NBA coaching is a thing that people don't people don't stay with the same team for as long as him.
40:20
SPEAKER_00: And I guess Greg Popovich is number one in the league, it's been there for 67 years.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, people don't get that long of a leash.
40:27
SPEAKER_00: We've gone through so many eras under Grit on under Eric Sposter.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: There's the pre-Lebron era, which was like two years before LeBron ended up there.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: Then you get the Heatles area era, then you get the post-Braun era, which was just Bosch, Wade, and Drogic.
40:41
SPEAKER_00: And then we get the post-Wade era.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: Remember when Wade left?
40:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: Nope, it didn't happen.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: And then Wade comes back, and now we're in the Jimmy Butler era.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: And the one thing that has been consistent throughout all of this is Eric Spostra.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: Eric Spostra um was a guy that LeBron tried to get fired.
40:58
SPEAKER_00: The hero, like, no, that's not how we do things in Miami.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: We believe in this kid because at that point, he wasn't a kid, but he's one of the younger coaches across the association.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: So to see Spoestra get this bag, eight years,$120 million, a ton of money for an NBA coach.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: There's one thing that has been consistent as far as he's been there, and that's the culture of Miami.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: It's become a meme, meme.
41:18
SPEAKER_00: He culture, he cultured.
41:19
SPEAKER_00: He even got it on jerseys.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: It's ugly.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: But like it's it's a real, it's a real thing, and Eric Spostra is at the front of it.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: Where even recently, Bam Manabayo was talking about how it doesn't matter what 15 players we have on the roster, Eric Spostra is never going to blame the players because as long as we have 15 players, Spo believes we can win.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: He is the best coach in basketball, in my personal opinion.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: And I've never seen somebody do so much with so little in his career.
41:42
SPEAKER_00: Like even on a night-to-night basis.
41:43
SPEAKER_00: Nikola Jovich is starting now.
41:46
SPEAKER_00: This guy's starting.
41:47
SPEAKER_00: One of the things that people were saying over the last week is do not sign Miami Heat players in free agency because they lose, they lose their ability to play ball.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: And it's something about Eric's posture/slash heat culture that get those players in the right spots.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: They got an amazing uh talent development group over there for sure.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: But Eric's posture deserves the extension.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Eric's posture.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: I thought that was the last thing, but I got one more.
42:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, this was something I knew about, but I couldn't talk about.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh, from Shamsharania, Netflix is creating a new NBA documentary series modeled after the NFL's quarterback show.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: The five players chosen from the project is LeBron, bro, Jason Tatum, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Elwitts, and DeMontra Sabonis.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: And I saw so many conversations about Sabonis not deserving to be on this list.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: Let that let that man go.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: He's an All NBA player.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: He's an OLIBA player.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Let him, let him, let him, you know.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I've known about this project for some time because it's produced by my new partnered company, Omaha Productions.
42:49
SPEAKER_00: So I knew about it.
42:50
SPEAKER_00: I knew about it, and I've been I've been in those meetings like, hey, you need a guy?
42:56
SPEAKER_00: Whatever you need me to do.
42:57
SPEAKER_00: I I appear on screen for six seconds.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: I'll fly anywhere for it.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: You need somebody to talk to Braun?
43:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm on the way.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, I only thing that I knew beforehand was that Braun was in it.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: I didn't know these other guys until today.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't know JT had agreed or Jimmy.
43:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, because in the NFL world, I don't know if y'all noticed, but and in season number two, it became way harder to find quarterbacks.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: Season one was in Mahomes.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: I watched it too.
43:20
SPEAKER_00: Um Mary Ota, it was Kirk Cousins.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: Was it just those three?
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Maybe.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then Mahomes won that won the Super Bowl.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: So it's like perfect.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: But year number two, they gave out invitations to Lamar Jackson.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: They gave out invitations to with Justin Fields, and all these people turned it down.
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Where um in the NBA, I was wondering, will they be able to get top end talent?
43:39
SPEAKER_00: And I think that having LeBron James, and you say, hey, Jason Tatum, we already got Braun.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Anthony Everett, we already got Braun.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, and yeah, so we're getting this, and I'm super excited.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna push, I'm saying this to y'all, I'm gonna push my very hardest to find my way into one frame of this series.
43:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I'm gonna be successful, but I'm telling you this now.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: So if it happens, clip it and send it to me.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: We got Greg coming back, by the way.
44:02
SPEAKER_00: Greg is coming back for us.
44:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, eye tests, hot takes.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Y'all been loving it.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what he got going on now.
44:08
SPEAKER_01: Wemby will win Defensive Player of the Year next season.
44:12
SPEAKER_00: You're early on the Wimby DPOY, huh?
44:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I this is one I cannot agree with.
44:17
SPEAKER_00: Not that he's not one of he's one of the most impactful defensive players in basketball.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: As long as you're watching, you can recognize that.
44:23
SPEAKER_00: But with DPOY specifically, um, it usually takes a few years for the voters to really get to it.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, maybe Wimby is the exception because he's the next generational talent, but it feels like there's like, all right, the general public recognize you as a good defender, and then you get voted to an all-defensive team, probably the second team, and then you end up top three in DPOY.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: It happened with Jaron Jackson Jr., it happened with Rudy Gobert.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: That's just the way it has been.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: So for him to jump onto the scene, because I don't believe he's gonna make an all-defensive team this year, for him to go from zero all-defensive teams to DPOY is too much of a stretch for me.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: What do you think Wemby has to improve upon the most defensively?
45:03
SPEAKER_00: It's it's hard to really say because I think that the talent around him is just not good enough for us to really know.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: Where like they're asking him to do so many different things defensively where it is protect the paint.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, he's playing a lot of, he's playing a lot of drop in his rookie season against some really fast players.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, you know, we're talking about guarding guards across the association.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: There's so many great players there that some of the things that he could improve on probably aren't likely with him being a seven foot four player.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: But it's I don't see a ton of big holes in his defensive game.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: Or like when he is guarding those smaller players, obviously he's gonna struggle, but it's not to the sense of like he's fooled on a on a switch in most cases.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: So I think the talent around him has to be better because that's another thing with DPOY.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: You have to end up being on one of the top defensive teams.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: No matter how good you are individually defensively, if your team is 20th through 30th, nobody's gonna bat an eye on you as a DPOY candidate.
45:58
SPEAKER_00: So the pieces around him have to get better for him to elevate to.
46:02
SPEAKER_01: Last one, not a take, but a question.
46:04
SPEAKER_01: Or uh let's see what you do with this.
46:07
SPEAKER_01: I want you to rank the top five former or current NBA content creators.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
46:14
SPEAKER_00: Uh, new onto the scene, Ray Hibbert.
46:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if y'all seen Ray Hibbert.
46:17
SPEAKER_00: He's making reaction content on YouTube now.
46:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's pretty decent.
46:21
SPEAKER_00: You can tell that he's still trying to figure out, and he's been ear to the ground amongst the other content creators trying to get his videos quality, which I appreciate.
46:28
SPEAKER_00: But here's here's my top five.
46:30
SPEAKER_00: At number five, and this is like selfishly, um, it's all the smoke.
46:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh I I had another show called Called Game a few years ago, and I shot Called Game in the exact same studio as All the Smoke.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: And one day I was wrapping up an episode.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Matt Barnes pulled up to the back of the um the building, and he asked me if I wanted to smoke with him.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: I said no.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: I wasn't smoking at the time, but he was such a cool dude.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: Eventually, he ended up coming onto the show, and he was he was so cool in person and stuff.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: So um I think they do a pretty decent job with interviewing.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, I like their in-person stuff more than the virtual, but I think that's the case for most shows.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: But I'm gonna put them in number five.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: Number four is a guy that I don't really know if he even has his own podcast, but anytime you put a mic in front of him, he's one of the best storytellers in basketball.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: It's Iman Shumper.
47:20
SPEAKER_00: The man is amazing with telling the story.
47:23
SPEAKER_00: Ask him anything about Braun.
47:24
SPEAKER_00: He's got a million stories, and every single one of them are different, and they're all amazing.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: Number three is probably the rookie of the year to the podcast game, is Jeff Teague, another guy that is elite when it comes to storytelling.
47:35
SPEAKER_00: And he's candid about.
47:37
SPEAKER_00: I saw a story the other day about him saying that his rookie year, he won't even come into games with insoles in his shoes because he knew he wasn't playing.
47:43
SPEAKER_00: And like, that's just not stuff you get on a day-to-day basis from podcasts.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: Number two is Paul George.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: Love his show.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: There are not a ton of NBA player-led shows that I go out of my way to find.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: Paul George's show is one of those.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: No matter who is guessing, from is from Gordon Hayward to Alfred Shangun to whoever I'm tuning in.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: And number one, he's he's 1A, he's S-tiered.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: And he's there's nobody even close to him, in my opinion.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: It's JJ Reddick.
48:12
SPEAKER_00: JJ's been able to build an entire podcast um like network with the Dunker spot.
48:17
SPEAKER_00: And I like it because he's not just like bringing people on to say, like, hey, how's your career been?
48:22
SPEAKER_00: But they're talking about the ins and out of the actual games and stuff.
48:26
SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate that as somebody that would never be able to see it on his level since he is a former player.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: And um, obviously he's headed me on the show a few times.
48:33
SPEAKER_00: So I got a lot of love for uh JJ.
48:36
SPEAKER_01: I think that's a great list.
48:37
SPEAKER_01: I just want to give a shout out.
48:39
SPEAKER_01: My guy John Fontanelli produces Iman Amongst Men, which is Iman Shepherd's podcast.
48:43
SPEAKER_00: So he does have his own show, okay.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Yes, so I got I gotta tap in.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: I gotta tap in there.
48:52
SPEAKER_00: As always, this is a fluid conversation.
48:55
SPEAKER_00: So you let me know about anything we talked about today.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: Dream I Green, the Clippers, the Suns, Greg's eye test takes.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: It's all open.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: Hit me up on X at KOT for Q or leave them in the comment section below.
49:07
SPEAKER_00: Again, I want to appreciate I want to say my appreciation to you for watching this episode.
49:10
SPEAKER_00: Five stars.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: Leave a like, and I will see y'all in a couple days.