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Reacting to NBA BOLD Predictions · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beatson.
0:03
SPEAKER_01: Today is an amazing day for a few different reasons.
0:05
SPEAKER_01: We are closer to training camp, y'all.
0:08
SPEAKER_01: Basketball, NBA basketball is right around the corner.
0:10
SPEAKER_01: I don't want to disrespect the W because they just gave us a couple really good playoff games over the last couple nights.
0:14
SPEAKER_01: But the NBA is coming up very soon.
0:16
SPEAKER_01: And with that, it means that Small Ball is back to a weekly cadence, ladies and gentlemen.
0:20
SPEAKER_01: One thing I will say is that the day of the drop of small ball might get shifted around over the next couple months, but just know one time a week we are back.
0:28
SPEAKER_01: And I cannot be more excited.
0:30
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, I spent every single offseason trying to make this show and my other shows better for y'all, and I feel like I figured it out.
0:36
SPEAKER_01: So today, we are reacting to your hot takes or bold predictions for this upcoming season.
0:43
SPEAKER_01: Really interesting one.
0:44
SPEAKER_01: I hit y'all up on Twitter and just said, what is the boldest prediction you got?
0:47
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
0:48
SPEAKER_01: What I will say is I admire some of y'all, man.
0:52
SPEAKER_01: I truly do admire some of y'all.
0:54
SPEAKER_01: Some of the bold predictions that I saw were so insane that it was either A, just playing a role, but B, there's no stakes involved in the bold prediction.
1:04
SPEAKER_01: If I go on this platform and give some of the predictions that y'all gave me on that tweet, boy, I will get fried.
1:10
SPEAKER_01: Because I know, and you probably know, that the likelihood of that happening is 0%.
1:14
SPEAKER_01: So I picked ones that had some type of possibility, right?
1:19
SPEAKER_01: I didn't pick the one that said uh Alice Caruso is winning finals MVP this year.
1:23
SPEAKER_01: You know, I didn't do that one.
1:25
SPEAKER_01: I didn't pick the one from the Cooper Flag fan page that's saying that he's gonna win DPOY his rookie season, but I did pick ones.
1:32
SPEAKER_01: I was like, okay, I can understand why you make that prediction and I'm gonna buy or sell that prediction.
1:38
SPEAKER_01: Before we get into that, I want to remind you to leave a like on the episode, subscribe to the channel, go over to the numbers on the board YouTube channel, subscribe, go over to the Enjoy Basketball YouTube channel, subscribe.
1:48
SPEAKER_01: I started back up a small ball, Pierre started back up, teed up both weekly cadences.
1:52
SPEAKER_01: If you want NBA takes, you want NBA opinions and me and Pierre's styles of podcasting is completely different.
1:59
SPEAKER_01: I was listening to his episode on the way here today, completely different topics.
2:02
SPEAKER_01: I also got when I got done listening to Pierre's episode, I noticed that Pablo Torre dropped another episode about the Kawhi Leonard stuff.
2:10
SPEAKER_01: And I would love to get to that right now for y'all, but I didn't listen to the whole episode.
2:13
SPEAKER_01: I only got about 15 minutes in on my commute to the office.
2:16
SPEAKER_01: So maybe next week, maybe not.
2:17
SPEAKER_01: I mean, it feels like he's dropping hit after hit after hit.
2:20
SPEAKER_01: So next week we probably got something as damning as well.
2:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, are we ready for this?
2:24
SPEAKER_01: You know, I I you know, a couple weeks ago I was like, I'm gonna try to get some some NFL conversations happening on the channel on the episodes.
2:33
SPEAKER_01: And then I started 0-2 and fantasy in both of my leagues.
2:37
SPEAKER_01: I don't really want to talk about football no more.
2:40
SPEAKER_01: But what I will say is I did put together a Blackbuster trade.
2:43
SPEAKER_01: I still don't know if it was a trade I like.
2:45
SPEAKER_01: I guess we're gonna find out this week because the person I made the trade with is the person that I'm going against this week.
2:51
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to my boy Mason.
2:53
SPEAKER_01: So one of us is gonna really dread the decision that we made, and the other one's gonna feel great.
2:57
SPEAKER_01: And I hope that I'm the one that feels great.
2:59
SPEAKER_01: I traded my first overall or my first round pick.
3:01
SPEAKER_01: I traded Jameer Gibbs, which is like I didn't want Jameer Gibbs to start off with.
3:06
SPEAKER_01: Let's let me be completely transparent.
3:08
SPEAKER_01: He was the best player available, but I hate every team in the division with my Chicago Bears.
3:12
SPEAKER_01: It was hard for me to root for Jameer Gibbs while the Lions was putting down a smack down on the on the Bears last week.
3:18
SPEAKER_01: So now I gotta do it, I ain't gotta think about that.
3:20
SPEAKER_01: I traded for Jay Asan.
3:21
SPEAKER_01: I took a flyer on Aston Genty, who sometimes is looked like the worst running back in the league.
3:30
SPEAKER_01: And I also got Devonta Smith.
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Devontae Smith?
3:32
SPEAKER_01: Is it Devonta?
3:33
SPEAKER_01: Devontae?
3:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
3:35
SPEAKER_01: For Gibbs.
3:36
SPEAKER_01: Little value pick.
3:37
SPEAKER_01: We'll talk about that later.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: No, we won't.
3:38
SPEAKER_01: All right, let's get into these bold predictions.
3:42
SPEAKER_01: The first one comes from S.
3:44
SPEAKER_01: Um at Jess S.
3:45
SPEAKER_01: Barron Haney.
3:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry if I mispronounce your name, my friend.
3:48
SPEAKER_01: But uh, of course, he's been around for a very long time.
3:50
SPEAKER_01: He does work with a bunch of different places, but I most know him from um being on the NBA Daily show on The Athletic.
3:56
SPEAKER_01: He gave us three predictions, but we're only going to focus on one of them.
3:59
SPEAKER_01: His first bold prediction is that the Celtics end up with the first overall pick causing chaos everywhere.
4:04
SPEAKER_01: This is something that I've talked about a couple different times on this channel, so I don't want to go too in deep with it, but between them and the Pacers, I think it would kind of make sense if they weren't very good considering they have their own first-round pick and then a superstar player coming back from injury going into next season.
4:17
SPEAKER_01: And if the Pacers or the Celtics end up winning the lottery, it's Gigi's.
4:21
SPEAKER_01: I just gotta say that it's Gigi's.
4:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't know which one of these top end prospects is gonna eventually go.
4:25
SPEAKER_01: Number one, who's gonna shine in college, but like it's GG's.
4:29
SPEAKER_01: So I'm not talking about that one.
4:31
SPEAKER_01: The second one is the Raptors will be a good basketball team.
4:34
SPEAKER_01: And he put a parentheses, somehow controversial.
4:36
SPEAKER_01: That is the one we're really gonna focus on.
4:38
SPEAKER_01: But his third prediction is that the Blazers make the play in or make the playoffs to the play-in.
4:42
SPEAKER_01: We're actually gonna talk Blazers a little bit later in the episode, but I really do want to focus on the Toronto Raptors' take.
4:47
SPEAKER_01: From my understanding, S is also a fan of the Toronto Raptors and someone that covers the team.
4:52
SPEAKER_01: And that was something I also saw a lot throughout these bold predictions is that people made bold predictions about their favorite team, which makes sense.
4:58
SPEAKER_01: Everybody, not everybody, a lot of teams are pretty optimistic about their favorite team going into this season.
5:03
SPEAKER_01: And I don't think what S is saying here is based on his own personal biases towards the Toronto Raptors.
5:08
SPEAKER_01: There are there is evidence, maybe not evidence, but belief that the Toronto Raptors should be somewhat good this season.
5:14
SPEAKER_01: The parentheses, somehow controversial.
5:17
SPEAKER_01: I have to admit, I have contributed to that controversy controversy.
5:21
SPEAKER_01: I have publicly said that I just don't think that Raptors' roster is gonna work.
5:25
SPEAKER_01: But over the last couple weeks, I really have dove into the film with the Toronto Raptors a lot more than I thought I would.
5:32
SPEAKER_01: There are a lot of question marks about some of the players in the roster that I feel like I didn't really get answered last year.
5:37
SPEAKER_01: And that makes sense, right?
5:38
SPEAKER_01: A lot of their star player, their best players, missed a ton of the season.
5:42
SPEAKER_01: The lineup of quickly, Barrett, Barnes, and Purdue, and whatever fifth star do you want to add only played 140 minutes last season.
5:49
SPEAKER_01: That is nothing.
5:50
SPEAKER_01: It was a minus uh nine point something.
5:51
SPEAKER_01: But it was that's not not a big enough sample size for us to even know if the players that are on the team are are gonna be able to play together.
5:58
SPEAKER_01: And of course, they brought in Brandon Ingram, who has not played at all.
6:02
SPEAKER_01: But I did go through a lot of this film from this last season, and it felt like it was productive and counterproductive at the same time.
6:09
SPEAKER_01: Productive in a sense that, again, I have a little bit better understanding of Darko Ryakovic as a coach and counterproductive because, yeah, like I mentioned, a lot of the lineups and a lot of the footage and a lot of the games that I watched, we didn't really get to see these players play with the team that they are going to play with this season.
6:26
SPEAKER_01: But I want to talk to you about why it is controversial to say that the Toronto Raptors might be a good team.
6:33
SPEAKER_01: And good is subjective.
6:34
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what his true meaning of good is.
6:37
SPEAKER_01: Is good a play-in team?
6:38
SPEAKER_01: Because if that is the case, I think they could also be good.
6:41
SPEAKER_01: Is good is that they're a top four seed?
6:43
SPEAKER_01: Is good that they're right outside of the play-in as a top six seed.
6:46
SPEAKER_01: I don't really know what his definition of good is.
6:48
SPEAKER_01: But again, I want to talk to y'all about why it is controversial, why some people are turned off by the Toronto Raptors.
6:55
SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of it has to do that pretty much everybody in their starting five has something to prove or big questions around them other than like Jakob Purdle.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: And that is the case for a lot of different teams.
7:07
SPEAKER_01: But I feel like a lot of these teams that we trust and we believe that will be playoff teams like uh like um Atlanta Hawks or Orlando Magic.
7:14
SPEAKER_01: And again, I'm not talking about the Knicks or the Cavs, who are seem to be like the top-end teams in the conference.
7:19
SPEAKER_01: They have less question marks because of the identity that they've been able to put together.
7:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, or the players that they have have had these minutes together, Jalen Johnson and Trey Young.
7:29
SPEAKER_01: We know what that pairing looks like because they had, you know, all of last season and then what 30-something games before Jalen Johnson got injured last season to show, like, okay, this is how these guys fit.
7:38
SPEAKER_01: So I want to tackle these players one by one.
7:40
SPEAKER_01: Starting off with the head of the snake, Scotty Barnes.
7:44
SPEAKER_01: Some of the things that need to be proven or questions around Scotty Barnes is the three-point shooter.
7:49
SPEAKER_01: There's stretches like the December of his all-star season where you see that Scotty Barnes could be a competent shooter.
7:54
SPEAKER_01: I don't ever want to look at Scotty Barnes to think that he's about to shoot 40% from three, but like based on last season, he is not a shooter.
8:01
SPEAKER_01: But the year before that, he showed us that like there is some shooting chops in there somewhere.
8:04
SPEAKER_01: That December of his all-star season, he had games where he was making multiple threes.
8:08
SPEAKER_01: Hell, he had a game in there where he hit seven threes.
8:11
SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's unreal, that's unrealistic to expect him to do often, but it just shows the level of confidence that he had in his jump shooting.
8:18
SPEAKER_01: And once we got to towards the end of last season for Scotty Barnes, the last couple months of the year, he wasn't looking to shoot a three-pointer at all.
8:26
SPEAKER_01: And obviously, the three-point shot is going to be one of the major questions when it comes to the Toronto Raptors because a lot of the players on their team, I mean, actually, we'll get to that.
8:33
SPEAKER_01: The shooting for Scotty Barnes, the first one.
8:36
SPEAKER_01: The second one is can he become the elite transition finisher that we project him to be?
8:40
SPEAKER_01: He's got every single tool in the basket, every single tool in the toolkit to be one of the best transition players in all of basketball.
8:47
SPEAKER_01: Last year, he was actually one of the worst compared to his peers.
8:51
SPEAKER_01: That don't even make sense to me considering how freakishly athletic Scotty Barnes is and how well he sees the floor, honestly.
8:58
SPEAKER_01: Like he's a very good, quick decision maker, but he, as a transition finisher, was really bad.
9:03
SPEAKER_01: Well, Brandon Ingram, take the pressure off of him offensively and allow him to be more efficient.
9:08
SPEAKER_01: And when I'm talking about efficiency, I'm not necessarily talking about, oh, his two-point percentages, three point percentage.
9:12
SPEAKER_01: I'm talking about efficiency in his movements, efficiency in his decision making.
9:16
SPEAKER_01: Brandon Ingram obviously helped some of that, but how much of that will be alleviated by having another, you know, all-star caliber offensive player.
9:23
SPEAKER_01: And lastly, last thing I have about Scottie Barnes, will everyone be healthy?
9:27
SPEAKER_01: Being healthy, allow him to stop settling for those long mid-rangers.
9:32
SPEAKER_01: As I was watching the film last season, there was just too many of those.
9:35
SPEAKER_01: And granted, he did shoot it pretty effectively, like he was better at it than he was the previous season.
9:40
SPEAKER_01: But when you watch it, it's not, he's not taking these shots out of comfort.
9:44
SPEAKER_01: A lot of the times he's taking these shots out of necessity.
9:47
SPEAKER_01: And with everybody being healthy, maybe with RJ being able to shoot the ball at least, at least a little bit, or Emmanuel Quickly being a threat off the bounce as a one more pass type of guy, maybe that would allow Scotty Barnes to not take as many of those mid-range jumpers.
10:02
SPEAKER_01: And maybe that's who he wants to be as a player.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: We just don't know.
10:04
SPEAKER_01: There are also players on that roster that want to be that player.
10:07
SPEAKER_01: Speaking of that, let's just go to Brandon Ingram.
10:10
SPEAKER_01: Here are the questions I have about Brandon Ingram.
10:12
SPEAKER_01: Will he fit into what Darko Reyakovic's system really is?
10:15
SPEAKER_01: The Raptors sucked last season.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: They were bad.
10:18
SPEAKER_01: They won 30 games and, you know, with the 11 team.
10:21
SPEAKER_01: A lot of the wins that they got were towards the tail end of the season where not only were they trying to lose, the teams they were going against were trying to lose as well.
10:26
SPEAKER_01: But even with all that said, they still ended up in sixth in passes per game and seventh in assists per game, second in potential assists.
10:34
SPEAKER_01: This is a team that gets off the ball very, very fast.
10:37
SPEAKER_01: Brandon Ingram, historically, is not one of those guys.
10:40
SPEAKER_01: He is a plus playmaker.
10:41
SPEAKER_01: That is for sure.
10:42
SPEAKER_01: I am not saying he's not a plus playmaker, but he is a guy that wants to make the decisions, and sometimes those decisions are just slower than others.
10:49
SPEAKER_01: His average time possession when he has the ball is closer to five seconds, and that's pretty high for him.
10:54
SPEAKER_01: So can he shift his game to make those quick one-hit passes?
10:58
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
10:59
SPEAKER_01: Hopefully.
11:01
SPEAKER_01: Can you get the normally great catch-a-shoot player, Brandon Ingram, to take more catch-a-shoot opportunities?
11:07
SPEAKER_01: He is a guy that since he became an all-star, which is what, 2019, 2020, he's attempted like a thousand catch-a-shoot shots in those last five seasons or so, which equates to like three and four per game.
11:18
SPEAKER_01: And he shoot 40% of those.
11:20
SPEAKER_01: That's elite.
11:21
SPEAKER_01: That's really great, Brandon Ingram.
11:23
SPEAKER_01: Can we get you to shoot more than three to four a game?
11:26
SPEAKER_01: Because I think the team will ask you to do more.
11:27
SPEAKER_01: Like we don't want to pigeonhole you to be like you're a catch-shoot player, but the team just gets better if he is catching and shooting more.
11:35
SPEAKER_01: If they're going to play into Brandon Ingram's strengths, does that mean we get more pick and roll from Brandon Ingram?
11:40
SPEAKER_01: Like I said, he is a positive playmaker for sure.
11:42
SPEAKER_01: He actually was a pretty good decision maker in the pick and roll when he played with the Pelicans.
11:46
SPEAKER_01: But will he be allowed to run that type of offense more often?
11:51
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
11:52
SPEAKER_01: RJ Barrett.
11:54
SPEAKER_01: Can RJ Barrett adjust his game for the fourth time in three seasons?
11:57
SPEAKER_01: Like these are the real questions I have about the Toronto Raptors that make me a little bit skeptical about them being good.
12:04
SPEAKER_01: Because he was a third option in New York.
12:07
SPEAKER_01: Then he got to the Toronto Raptors and he created at a high level as a cutter and as a finisher.
12:14
SPEAKER_01: And then last season, due to injury, he was more of a ball handler.
12:18
SPEAKER_01: And I think all of these different versions of RJ Barrett has been beneficial to him, right?
12:22
SPEAKER_01: I think that last year his playmaking jump was actually real.
12:26
SPEAKER_01: And I wonder, with him reverting back to a role where he's, I don't know, the third to fourth option, will we be able to see some of those playmaking leaps?
12:35
SPEAKER_01: Has he got to the point where he believes that that's who he should be as a player?
12:38
SPEAKER_01: Right?
12:39
SPEAKER_01: There are some good things about RJ Barrett, but as we know, there are some negative things as well.
12:44
SPEAKER_01: So will we be able to see his passing leap continue to get better with so many other creators on the team?
12:50
SPEAKER_01: Lastly, Emmanuel Quickly.
12:52
SPEAKER_01: I just got one real question for Emmanuel Quickly.
12:53
SPEAKER_01: I like Emmanuel Quickly's game a lot, but is he a real starting point guard in this league?
12:57
SPEAKER_01: In a literal sense, yes.
12:58
SPEAKER_01: But I mean, like a high-level starting point guard.
13:00
SPEAKER_01: You don't have to be uh Steph Curry or Jalen Brunson.
13:03
SPEAKER_01: But will he be a high-level starting point guard on this team?
13:06
SPEAKER_01: Now, of course, with Scotty Barnes or Brandon Ingram, they have other creators and play initiators.
13:10
SPEAKER_01: So, you know, uh the Emmanuel Quickly role is not gonna pound the ball and run picking roles while the others sit around.
13:15
SPEAKER_01: That's not gonna be his role, but I question whether or not he as a player is best suited to be um a six-man on a really good team or the starting point guard.
13:24
SPEAKER_01: We just haven't seen enough from it.
13:25
SPEAKER_01: And then lastly, with Dr.
13:27
SPEAKER_01: Rayakovic, I still don't think we know whether or not he's a good coach or not.
13:30
SPEAKER_01: You know, again, I mentioned those um those numbers, the assist number, the pass numbers, those are really, really good.
13:38
SPEAKER_01: Even the defense for the second half of the season for the Toronto Raptors, really, really good.
13:41
SPEAKER_01: Again, the the level of competition may not be great, but it's always, it's not just about where you finish defensively, it's like how you got there and them picking up full quarter.
13:49
SPEAKER_01: They got a bunch of dogs on that team, especially coming on that second unit.
13:53
SPEAKER_01: But this is the first time we're really gonna see, at least in theory, what Darko Rayakovic wants and what Darko Rayakovic can do as a head coach.
14:01
SPEAKER_01: That's a lot of questions about just four players on the roster.
14:05
SPEAKER_01: Not to mention the younger players, uh Jacoby Walter, who I really like his game, or Ote Abaji, or Grady Dick, or all of the younger guys, or you know, Mog uh Mobo and what will Kyle Murray Boyles look like this season, or what type of role does he get as a rookie?
14:20
SPEAKER_01: There's just too many questions.
14:23
SPEAKER_01: With that said, I understand it.
14:26
SPEAKER_01: Again, with with good being subjective and it being semantics at the end of the day, what does good mean?
14:32
SPEAKER_01: If you're saying that they're a playing team, I have no doubt in my mind that if the Toronto Raptors are a healthy team this season, they are undoubtedly a playing team.
14:39
SPEAKER_01: At the bare minimum, they're playing team.
14:41
SPEAKER_01: Because we know that they're gonna be better than the Nets, the Hornets, the Wizards, and the Bulls.
14:45
SPEAKER_01: That immediately makes them 11th.
14:48
SPEAKER_01: Immediately makes them 11th.
14:49
SPEAKER_01: And can you see a world where they're better than a 76er team or a Heat team or a Bucks team or a Pacer team or a Celtic team, who we just mentioned earlier, it might be more beneficial that they don't try to win McGames this season?
15:00
SPEAKER_01: Absolutely.
15:01
SPEAKER_01: So I say all of this to say even with all of the question marks revolving around the Toronto Raptors S.
15:08
SPEAKER_01: I'm buying.
15:10
SPEAKER_01: As long as you think that the you don't think that good means they're gonna be a top three seed now, top four seed now, I can say that I'm buying that the Toronto Raptors will be good.
15:22
SPEAKER_01: I will say I'm a shed head, man.
15:24
SPEAKER_01: I'm a shed head.
15:25
SPEAKER_01: Jamal Shed is a dope ass player, bro.
15:27
SPEAKER_01: He's a dope ass player, seems like a dope ass human.
15:29
SPEAKER_01: So I'm a shared head, so I want to see him be successful as well.
15:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, it does scare me though that that that 140-minute sample size that we got with RJ Scotty quickly and Purdue has a negative 9.31 net rating, and it's somebody that spent the two hours of change watching all 140 of those minutes.
15:46
SPEAKER_01: The offense stunk.
15:48
SPEAKER_01: The offense actually just was really, really bad.
15:52
SPEAKER_01: There was not a lot of penetration to the basket because not a lot of people were trusted to shoot on that team.
15:57
SPEAKER_01: And I do question stuff like that.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: I do.
16:00
SPEAKER_01: Like a few of the teams that we're pretty optimistic about taking the next jump, the shooting aspect of the team prevents me from completely, completely buying in.
16:08
SPEAKER_01: And that's again where I'm at with the Raptors.
16:10
SPEAKER_01: I will buy that.
16:11
SPEAKER_01: They should be good, but I can't buy in completely because I just don't know.
16:15
SPEAKER_01: Like they are good three-point shooters on this team.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: Do not get me wrong.
16:18
SPEAKER_01: I think RJ Barrett is a fine three-point shooter.
16:20
SPEAKER_01: Emmanuel Quickly, good three-point shooter.
16:22
SPEAKER_01: Brandon Ingram, good catch-a-shoot, three-point shooter.
16:25
SPEAKER_01: But it's not just about it's how the shots are generated.
16:28
SPEAKER_01: I guess the the three-pointers are generated that I'm questioning a lot with what the Toronto Raptors could be.
16:33
SPEAKER_01: But that's a 180.
16:34
SPEAKER_01: That's a 180 for me.
16:35
SPEAKER_01: I'm buying the good because earlier in the offseason, I was like, ah, ah, it's an expensive ass team.
16:41
SPEAKER_01: And I just don't see it.
16:42
SPEAKER_01: And I still don't see it in the sense that like they're gonna be competing or how they get to the point where they are competing, right?
16:48
SPEAKER_01: But if you're talking about being good for this season, sure, why not?
16:58
SPEAKER_01: The next one comes from Jason, who says the Blazers are a playoff team.
17:02
SPEAKER_01: Yes, I'm biased as a Blazer fan, but people always underestimate young rising teams that have started turning the corner.
17:09
SPEAKER_01: Portland isn't as good as Houston or OKC, but people were way too low on both of those teams the last two seasons.
17:16
SPEAKER_01: Alrighty, let's talk about the Portland Trailblazers, who, if I'm not mistaken, early in the offseason, when they were asking me what Western Conference team do I trust the most to maybe take a jump.
17:26
SPEAKER_01: I think I mentioned the Portland Trailblazers as my number one team.
17:29
SPEAKER_01: And there's reasons for that.
17:31
SPEAKER_01: From game 42 to game 82, the Portland Trailblazers were 23 and 17.
17:38
SPEAKER_01: You put that across a full season, that's a 45-win team, ladies and gentlemen.
17:43
SPEAKER_01: But then I look at it a little bit uh closer.
17:47
SPEAKER_01: The question is: was that a stroke of luck?
17:49
SPEAKER_01: Was it easy scheduling?
17:51
SPEAKER_01: Because I want to read you some of these wins that they got in that time frame from game 42 to game 82.
17:57
SPEAKER_01: They got wins over the Chicago Bulls, dog shit team.
18:01
SPEAKER_01: They had a win over the Charlotte Hornets twice.
18:04
SPEAKER_01: They beat the Utah Jazz, the Wizards twice, the Brooklyn Nets, the Philadelphia 76ers who were not starting anybody.
18:10
SPEAKER_01: The Toronto Raptors twice, Denver Nuggets in a game that no Jokic, the Spurs without Wimby, in the last game of the season, they beat Brianny James, Markeith Morris, and the Lakers.
18:20
SPEAKER_01: Was it good scheduling?
18:22
SPEAKER_01: A stroke of luck.
18:24
SPEAKER_01: Now, I don't want to talk negatively about it, right?
18:28
SPEAKER_01: Because they did have a win against the Orlando Magic, which is a good win, right?
18:31
SPEAKER_01: That was a 500 team.
18:32
SPEAKER_01: And at the at that point in time, that's a good win for a young team like the Portland Trailblazers.
18:36
SPEAKER_01: They did have a win against the Indiana Pacers, who obviously went on to be in game seven in the NBA Finals.
18:41
SPEAKER_01: That is, those are really good wins.
18:42
SPEAKER_01: But when they got to the toughest part of their schedule in that 40-game span, they had a four-game streak where they played against Minnesota, Denver twice with Jokics and a healthy Lakers team, which I think they finished.
18:54
SPEAKER_01: It was 0-4.
18:56
SPEAKER_01: They had a five-game streak where they played against Boston, OKC, Detroit, Warrior, the Warriors, and the Knicks.
19:01
SPEAKER_01: They were 0-5.
19:02
SPEAKER_01: Then another streak.
19:03
SPEAKER_01: These are back-to-back-to-back games, by the way.
19:05
SPEAKER_01: They had another streak where they went 0-4 versus the Celtics, the Cavs, the Kings and the Knicks again.
19:13
SPEAKER_01: I think there is benefit, obviously, in a young team beating bad teams, right?
19:18
SPEAKER_01: That is how, like, um, I mean, hell, it wasn't necessarily a young team, but that Chicago Bulls team that was the number one seed or number two seed going into the um all-star break, they didn't beat a single team over 500, but they dominated the bad teams.
19:30
SPEAKER_01: I think beating the bad teams is step one to be in that in that next level of team, right?
19:35
SPEAKER_01: From a bottom feeder team to like, no, we're better than those bottom feeder teams.
19:38
SPEAKER_01: That is, that is a positive, right?
19:40
SPEAKER_01: But when I think about who the wet what the Western Conference is, I think about the level of competition that's gonna be coming at you night after night when you're when you're on those road trips or you're you're playing at home.
19:50
SPEAKER_01: And it's like, oh shit, we got the Clippers today and the Lakers tomorrow, it just gets a little bit tougher.
19:54
SPEAKER_01: So there's a few things that I want to see happen for the Portland Trailblazers to make me feel more comfortable and confident in them being the next team taking that jump.
20:02
SPEAKER_01: One thing I will say about those next teams that you mentioned, and and you were very honest, you know, you said Portland isn't as good as a Houston or OKC.
20:09
SPEAKER_01: And yeah, we can agree there.
20:11
SPEAKER_01: OKC did have a guy that we looked at and said, oh, that guy's gonna be a superstar, right?
20:15
SPEAKER_01: It wasn't early on.
20:16
SPEAKER_01: We didn't see that his first year in OKC, but by year two, year three, we're like, oh no, that guy's gonna be a superstar.
20:20
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if he's like, that guy's gonna win MVP and win a finance VP one day.
20:23
SPEAKER_01: But we looked at Shea and said, no, he's the real deal.
20:27
SPEAKER_01: In Houston, Houston had the infrastructure of a great defensive young team.
20:32
SPEAKER_01: And maybe you're saying, like, that's that's more of y'all's path than OKC.
20:37
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's possible because the Portland Trail Blazers were a good defensive team last season.
20:41
SPEAKER_01: But let's talk about some of the things I want to see change for the Portland Trail Blazers to make um this prediction by our good friend Jason to be to be real.
20:50
SPEAKER_01: The first thing, I think that they have to capitalize more on the turnovers that they generate.
20:56
SPEAKER_01: There are times last season where I watched the Portland Trailblazers, because by the way, I really love their broadcast booth.
21:01
SPEAKER_01: I think they do a really good job on the um the graphics on the broadcast.
21:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, Habastro coming in and giving us some statistics.
21:10
SPEAKER_01: It's one of my favorite broadcast booths in all of basketball, if not number one.
21:13
SPEAKER_01: So I really liked the Trailblazers, and because they usually have the last game of the day, it's easy for me to pop into a Trailblazer game and watch it in its entirety.
21:21
SPEAKER_01: So I watched a lot of Blazers, and then obviously, since I made this tweet and saw this one, I did go back and watch a bunch of more film.
21:27
SPEAKER_01: But there are moments in time, especially we're talking about just the second half of the season, where I watched the Portland Trailblazes and they reminded me of the Orlando Magic on the defensive side of the ball.
21:36
SPEAKER_01: Teams that are gonna beat the hell out of you, and I mean that as a positive thing, foul you a hundred different times and not really care that they're fouling you because they want to be a physical defensive team.
21:45
SPEAKER_01: They want to generate these turnovers, but the difference between what the Magic did last season, I guess over the last couple of seasons, and what the Trailblazes have yet to be able to do with that great defense is turn the turnovers that they create into points.
21:56
SPEAKER_01: They haven't been able to do that.
21:57
SPEAKER_01: As a team that finished top 10, I'm sorry.
22:00
SPEAKER_01: Number six, when it comes to turnovers generated and towards the bottom of the league and fast break points or points off those turnovers, there has to be more there.
22:06
SPEAKER_01: And you watch the film, you watch how these turnovers are generated.
22:09
SPEAKER_01: I just don't think they ran fast breaks very well.
22:12
SPEAKER_01: I also think there were times where they would generate these turnovers, and instead of getting out on a run, they kind of just slowed it down and got back into their offense.
22:18
SPEAKER_01: And it's not like their half-core offense was one of their strong suits.
22:21
SPEAKER_01: And when you have a team of School Henderson, of Denny Abdia, of Shaden Sharp, some of some really solid transition players.
22:28
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what the stats say, but I'm just going off the eye test on that one.
22:31
SPEAKER_01: I want to see them just run more, even if it is off a missed shot instead of a turnover.
22:37
SPEAKER_01: Watched a ton of School Henderson film just last season because he's one or last night, because he's one of those players that the Portland Trailblazers are relying on taking a big jump, right?
22:46
SPEAKER_01: We had the conversational numbers on the board.
22:48
SPEAKER_01: Is his progression more important to the Portland Trailblazers than the Shaden Sharp?
22:53
SPEAKER_01: And my answer is I think so, right?
22:55
SPEAKER_01: You you allocate a top three pick to this guy, and you know, you trade one of the two best players of your franchise history to open a door for Scoot Henderson to go out there and cook.
23:04
SPEAKER_01: And then they brought that top player back.
23:05
SPEAKER_01: Of course, he won't play next season, and they went out to trade for another guard that has a different identity.
23:11
SPEAKER_01: I think that Scoot Henderson blossoming into a good ball player is extremely important for this team.
23:17
SPEAKER_01: As I watch all the Scoot Henderson film, there's a couple things that really stand out to me.
23:23
SPEAKER_01: Um, he doesn't make things easy on himself.
23:27
SPEAKER_01: The first step, the the the hezzy that he was pulling out works.
23:34
SPEAKER_01: It just works.
23:35
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
23:36
SPEAKER_01: Not only does he not make things easy on himself, his teammates still make things easy on him as well.
23:40
SPEAKER_01: And I think that's the lack of shooting gravity that these guys have.
23:43
SPEAKER_01: Where one of the games I watched in his entirety was them going against the Boston Celtics in Portland, um, if that helps anybody that want to go back and look at that work.
23:54
SPEAKER_01: Where there were times where he had Peyton Pritchard on him and he used his body, his size to body up Peyton Pritchard.
24:00
SPEAKER_01: Now, Peyton Pritchett was holding his own.
24:02
SPEAKER_01: Like they there was one play where he got it like not on the block, but a little bit above the block and like faced up then backed them down a little bit and went over his body.
24:09
SPEAKER_01: That's that's a that's a good shot.
24:11
SPEAKER_01: But there's other times where they gave him an empty side to cook, and instead of using the empty side, like on the right wing and getting baseline, he went back towards the center of the court where all the defenders were because, well, Donovan Klingon is sitting at the three, and now Horford knows, even though Donovan Klingon hit a couple, I think he had two threes in this game specifically, that that's still not a threat that we should care about.
24:29
SPEAKER_01: So he didn't make it easy on himself by by taking, or maybe Peyton Pritchard did a good job of not allowing him to take baseline.
24:35
SPEAKER_01: Either way, not getting baseline and going towards the defense, and with the defense not having the gravity of shooters, nobody gave a damn that um Delano Benton, I don't think it was Delano Benton, but whoever it might have been in that corner, they didn't give a damn that he was sitting there because that shot, even if it goes in, is not necessarily a shot that we care about.
24:53
SPEAKER_01: So let's beat the hell out of Scoot Henderson, who in times did a really good job of passing out of those dribbles.
24:59
SPEAKER_01: And I think that led to a lot of his turnovers this season.
25:01
SPEAKER_01: But when he's got his head straight to that basket, he will contort his body a hundred different times and not get the content or not get the foul, and it wasn't easy on him.
25:10
SPEAKER_01: So I would love to see Scoot get a lot of his things going in the full court, not necessarily in the half court.
25:16
SPEAKER_01: I think this opens the game up more if they just became a team that ran, ran, ran.
25:20
SPEAKER_01: And it's hard to do that when they have the coaching that they do right now.
25:24
SPEAKER_01: Like that man Chauncey, that man Chauncey cares about one thing and one thing only, and that is the defensive side of the ball.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: That's it.
25:32
SPEAKER_01: He will run, he will run a lineup of five or four wings in a center if that means that they get stops.
25:38
SPEAKER_01: And it's admirable, but it's also like sometimes you got to sacrifice some of that.
25:44
SPEAKER_01: And they don't really have, and that's my next point, they don't really have that true half-court offensive threat yet.
25:51
SPEAKER_01: Could it be Denny this season?
25:53
SPEAKER_01: Sure, it could be.
25:54
SPEAKER_01: Second half of the year, he was really good.
25:55
SPEAKER_01: He was getting to the basket at a great rate.
25:57
SPEAKER_01: He was drawing fouls like a damn superstar.
25:59
SPEAKER_01: So it could be Denny this season.
26:01
SPEAKER_01: It could be Shane Sharp.
26:03
SPEAKER_01: I would love to see Shane Sharp turn into the three-point shooter we thought he was going to be, but it just hasn't happened.
26:07
SPEAKER_01: They don't have a true individual offensive threat, high-level offensive threat.
26:12
SPEAKER_01: Hell, I mean, like, even when you compare him to the Houston Rockets, Alpran Shangun is not in the same conversation of a Shea.
26:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, uh yeah, Shea, who we also talk about with OKC in Houston, but he is so much better than anybody offensively on this Portland Trailblazer team as a system or a guy the ball goes to and all these other things.
26:31
SPEAKER_01: And when they also don't have the adequate shooting, it's tough for me to see an avenue where they are okay.
26:38
SPEAKER_01: Well, no, they could be an okay offensive team, a good offensive team.
26:41
SPEAKER_01: So if we're getting back to your original thing, Jason, do I buy a sale that this is the year for the Portland Trailblazers?
26:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna have a tentative sale because I understand that the defensive identity could be enough for them to win a bunch of regular season games, specifically against the really bad teams.
26:54
SPEAKER_01: But I also think it's less bad teams right now.
26:57
SPEAKER_01: And maybe like some of the teams I even mentioned didn't go into the season.
27:01
SPEAKER_01: Like Toronto didn't go into last season thinking they were gonna be a really bad team, right?
27:04
SPEAKER_01: It just happened to be that way.
27:05
SPEAKER_01: And I'm sure there will be teams that fall into that as well.
27:07
SPEAKER_01: I'm a tentative sale.
27:10
SPEAKER_01: That Western Conference is deep.
27:12
SPEAKER_01: And I have been falling more in love with the San Antonio Spurs as of recent.
27:17
SPEAKER_01: And if there was a team that I think is gonna go from missing it completely to being in the postseason, I think it is the Spurs, considering they will have the top-in talent.
27:25
SPEAKER_01: The defense, my nose is killing me.
27:27
SPEAKER_01: Um will have the top-in talent.
27:29
SPEAKER_01: They will have the defensive infrastructure as well, just because Wimby is him and they have another, a couple other creators, but be it they're they are young creators, but they have a couple other creators.
27:39
SPEAKER_01: Last thing before we move on to Nolan's um bowl prediction, I'm a huge Donovan Klingen guy, man.
27:46
SPEAKER_01: I'm a huge Donovan Klingen guy.
27:47
SPEAKER_01: So if they make the postseason, I'm really excited for Donovan.
27:49
SPEAKER_01: I was hoping that he ended up our pick here in Chicago.
27:52
SPEAKER_01: Now I'm very happy with Modus Buzelis.
27:54
SPEAKER_01: Don't miss misinterpret.
27:55
SPEAKER_01: But Don McKlin was my number one guy.
27:58
SPEAKER_01: Him and his college teammate, Stephon Castle, but I knew we weren't gonna get Stefan Castle.
28:02
SPEAKER_01: But there was a world where Donovan wasn't a top-ish pick because that pick six through 12 was kind of up to interpretation.
28:10
SPEAKER_01: Everybody had their own flavor of what player they wanted, and I was hoping that Don McLingen fail.
28:14
SPEAKER_01: So I'm a huge Don McKlinka guy.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: I think he will be able to anchor a really good defense really, really soon.
28:20
SPEAKER_01: Next up custom Nolan.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: Nolan, I'm gonna say your username.
28:26
SPEAKER_01: Nolan 7862827401.
28:34
SPEAKER_01: I'm always really interested when people have usernames with all of those numbers.
28:38
SPEAKER_01: Because I question, like, is that what are the what do these numbers mean to you?
28:42
SPEAKER_01: You know what I mean?
28:43
SPEAKER_01: If you if you get logged out of Twitter, how did you remember these numbers?
28:47
SPEAKER_01: Is it like my birthday and birth year, my mom's birthday, birth year?
28:51
SPEAKER_01: That makes sense.
28:52
SPEAKER_01: But there is just too many numbers to really compute.
28:54
SPEAKER_01: He says the Atlanta Hawks will be worse than people are expecting.
28:58
SPEAKER_01: For Zingas Health will not hold up for an 82 game season, and Akil Oz and a Walker will have very little impact on them winning games this year.
29:05
SPEAKER_01: The Hawks once again will be stuck in the play-in rather than the playoffs.
29:09
SPEAKER_01: That was his bold prediction.
29:11
SPEAKER_01: And it got 11 likes at the time that I screenshotted it, and that was 13 hours ago, so I'm assuming it has more than that.
29:18
SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about it.
29:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm gonna sell this.
29:20
SPEAKER_01: I'll say right up top, I will sell this.
29:22
SPEAKER_01: Um, the expectations are the highest they've ever been in the Trey Young era.
29:26
SPEAKER_01: Trey Young is dropping podcast hit pieces on Patrick Beverly is something I saw last night, which anybody that says the NBA is not peak, I don't know what to tell you.
29:36
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what to tell you.
29:38
SPEAKER_01: We're a current all-star, like, you know, if you watch the video, you know what it reminded me of.
29:43
SPEAKER_01: It reminded me of when like a YouTuber has to make an apology video.
29:48
SPEAKER_01: Like the theatrics before you start talking, like you put the microphone down and then you sit in a chair, you do the I didn't think I was ever gonna have to make this video.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: Like, that's that's what it felt like from Trey Young, dog.
29:58
SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, bro, you're an NBA Young star.
30:01
SPEAKER_01: You shouldn't even care what the hell Patrick Beverly has to say.
30:03
SPEAKER_01: But obviously, the NBA Brotherhood part hit both of them, and they had to go back and forth.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: So it is insane that Trey Young dropped an 11 and a half minute hit piece on Patrick Beverly, and it is insane that I watched every single second of it.
30:16
SPEAKER_01: And I was like, ooh, ah, ooh.
30:18
SPEAKER_01: And you know what?
30:20
SPEAKER_01: Before we even talk about the Hawks, I'm kind of disappointed in it, Trey.
30:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm kind of disappointed in it.
30:25
SPEAKER_01: You didn't go hard enough.
30:27
SPEAKER_01: I'll say it.
30:28
SPEAKER_01: You didn't go hard enough, brother.
30:29
SPEAKER_01: You kept it too respectable for me.
30:32
SPEAKER_01: You kept it way too respectable for me.
30:35
SPEAKER_01: If you are not in the know, this is not what this episode is supposed to be about, but if you're not in the know, Patrick Beverly had a tweet or a clip from his podcast go viral.
30:43
SPEAKER_01: And I will say, as a podcaster myself, having a tweet go viral for whatever reason, good for business.
30:49
SPEAKER_01: Anyway.
30:51
SPEAKER_01: Basically, they were talking about the all-star um game.
30:55
SPEAKER_01: And he he said all-stars don't appreciate the game of basketball.
30:58
SPEAKER_01: Right?
30:59
SPEAKER_01: That was the that was the thing that got it all going.
31:01
SPEAKER_01: And then Trey Young responded to it and said, let us speak for ourselves, which is all I think you could have just left it there personally.
31:09
SPEAKER_01: Because what the fuck is Patrick Beverly talking about the all-star players for?
31:12
SPEAKER_01: You know?
31:13
SPEAKER_01: But then Patrick Beverly went on his own rant about how he's a winner because he's a nine-time NBA playoff player.
31:20
SPEAKER_01: He made the playoffs for the first seven years of his career.
31:23
SPEAKER_01: Trey Young only been there three times.
31:26
SPEAKER_01: It was a bunch of bullshit.
31:28
SPEAKER_01: And it was also like, I know people that play for the Hawks that hated playing alongside you.
31:33
SPEAKER_01: I also hate that as well.
31:35
SPEAKER_01: And Trey Young in this piece basically was just like, hey man, respect the fact that you made two all-defensive teams.
31:43
SPEAKER_01: Your resume is the resume, and it's really impressive.
31:46
SPEAKER_01: But we've got the furthest.
31:48
SPEAKER_01: We we both have only been to the conference finals once, and one of us did it as the guy, and one of us did it as the ninth guy or something along those lines.
31:58
SPEAKER_01: He showed his own stats in the matchups against Patrick Beverly, which I thought was interesting.
32:05
SPEAKER_01: Um it was another one that really hit me.
32:08
SPEAKER_01: Anyway, Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Hawks, Atlanta Hawks.
32:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm going to sell it, by the way.
32:12
SPEAKER_01: No, I'm gonna I'm gonna sell your opinion and I'll give you reasons why.
32:15
SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, the expectations are the highest that's ever been in the Troy Young ever.
32:19
SPEAKER_01: Almost everybody, this is what scares me a little bit though.
32:22
SPEAKER_01: Almost everybody sees the Atlanta Hawks as a tier two Eastern Conference team.
32:28
SPEAKER_01: Like tier one will be Knicks Calves, and then like the Atlanta Hawks are the next team or one of the next teams, whether it be with them and you know, Orlando or them and whatever, but the Atlanta Hawks have now jumped up from a team that's like, oh, that's gonna be a five version team to being like, there's a war where they're the third best team in the Eastern Conference, right?
32:44
SPEAKER_01: That is a huge amount of expectation.
32:46
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes with so many people are seeing it one way, it makes me question whether or not that's the way it should be seen.
32:51
SPEAKER_01: So, no, I understand your skepticism.
32:54
SPEAKER_01: I completely understand it.
32:56
SPEAKER_01: With that said, um, I still believe that the Atlanta Hawks will be better than the play-hand team.
33:02
SPEAKER_01: If we just look at the landscape of the Eastern Conference, relative health, again, I would never expect Porzingis to play even 70 games again.
33:08
SPEAKER_01: I think he only done it once in his career.
33:09
SPEAKER_01: But relative health, this team should be good enough.
33:12
SPEAKER_01: It just should be.
33:12
SPEAKER_01: When you talk about Nikia Alexander Walker's impact, I think his impact, like we've got what, three seasons now of Nikil Alexander Walker being a plus three-point shooter, which is great.
33:22
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if that helped holds up.
33:23
SPEAKER_01: We just don't know.
33:24
SPEAKER_01: I mean, like even Catavius Carward Pope, who is a low volume, high efficiency three-point shooter, just went to a different team and his three-point shooter fell off a cliff.
33:32
SPEAKER_01: You never really know.
33:32
SPEAKER_01: But I think where the value will be held from Nikhil Alexander Walker, even if his jump shooting isn't real, is the fact that he is a better defensive player on and off the ball than pretty much any other guard or wing that was on the team last season outside of like Dyson Daniels.
33:46
SPEAKER_01: Right?
33:47
SPEAKER_01: There's a couple different full lineups they can run where four out of the five players on the court for the Atlanta Hawks are positive defensive players, again, on and off the ball.
33:57
SPEAKER_01: That alone is enough for me to feel really high on the Atlanta Hawks.
34:02
SPEAKER_01: When we think about the Atlanta Hawks' recent history, the time that they have been making the playoffs, they were the number two offensive team and the number eight offensive team.
34:09
SPEAKER_01: While the other side of the ball, they were 22 and 18.
34:11
SPEAKER_01: So these are not teams that were really good defensively.
34:14
SPEAKER_01: This is the first time I truly believe that the Atlanta Hawks should be a good defensive team.
34:19
SPEAKER_01: The offense, I don't expect to be top two.
34:22
SPEAKER_01: Number eight, maybe, is more realistic like they did a couple seasons ago, but even then, I'm kind of thinking about it a little bit differently.
34:28
SPEAKER_01: But if the defense holds up, is let's say, let's just say a league average defense, with the offense being decent, that is enough in the Easter Conference to be better than the playing team, in my personal opinion.
34:39
SPEAKER_01: There are some things that, yeah, I question outside of the Porzingas health thing.
34:42
SPEAKER_01: I think they do lack some of the on-ball creation and rim pressure that some of the other teams in the league has, right?
34:48
SPEAKER_01: Um, like Jalen Johnson is great.
34:51
SPEAKER_01: Like if you think about two years ago when we were doing uh, before it was named Smallball, we were doing uh the was it the Kenny Beach and podcast?
34:58
SPEAKER_01: I forgot what the name of it was.
34:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm sorry, when I was in the basement doing those episodes, we did my the players that I'm buying stake in, and guess what?
35:04
SPEAKER_01: We're doing an episode again, maybe next week.
35:06
SPEAKER_01: And Jalen Johnson two years ago was the number one guy, and then he blossomed to have a year where he averaged 15 points per game.
35:12
SPEAKER_01: So I am really high on Jalen Johnson.
35:14
SPEAKER_01: But there are real glaring holes in his game where he he struggles to create for himself in the half court.
35:21
SPEAKER_01: He's not very good with putting the ball on the floor just yet, right?
35:25
SPEAKER_01: If you think about who he was two years ago versus now, there's no world, I mean, there's nothing in my mind that makes me think that he can't get better at that or developing that.
35:32
SPEAKER_01: But again, based on what I seen last season and the footage I watched this last week, there are still glaring holes in this offensive game.
35:38
SPEAKER_01: We know that in transition, come on now.
35:40
SPEAKER_01: We know with him as a cutter and an um uh roller, he's pretty damn good.
35:45
SPEAKER_01: He's gonna challenge every single big fellow they see in front of him, gonna try to dunk on you.
35:48
SPEAKER_01: He even got more improved as a pick and roll ball handler compared to the last couple seasons.
35:53
SPEAKER_01: But he doesn't put the create of how do I frame this?
35:57
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, he put pressure on the rim because, again, he's a rim rocking, rolling type of guy, cutting type of guy.
36:02
SPEAKER_01: But as far as off the bounce creation towards the basket, there's not a lot of that in Atlanta right now.
36:08
SPEAKER_01: And that scares me just a little bit.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: Just a little bit.
36:11
SPEAKER_01: I'm also a little bit afraid of the non-Troy Young minutes because they've always been a struggle, right?
36:16
SPEAKER_01: Trey Young always has been the system.
36:19
SPEAKER_01: Um, I there were there were some interesting signs last season when Trey Young playing a little bit more off the ball, but I wonder under Coach Quinn Snyder, will we see more of that?
36:28
SPEAKER_01: Um, will we see Zachary Rizas say take a jump?
36:32
SPEAKER_01: And I don't even mean to make it seem like he's about to be an all-star or anything, but just get better as an offensive player.
36:40
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
36:41
SPEAKER_01: I don't know what answers to these questions.
36:42
SPEAKER_01: But I'm selling the fact that they're gonna be a playing team this year and buying that they're gonna be better than that.
36:48
SPEAKER_01: A couple quick ones before we wrap up and go to ask KB.
36:51
SPEAKER_01: The next one comes from Max.
36:53
SPEAKER_01: The Sacramento Kings push for a top five offense if they don't blow up the team.
36:58
SPEAKER_01: Defense is another story, and I think that's a picture of Boris Dow as your profile picture.
37:03
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Boris D'Al, one of my favorite role players of all time.
37:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, Sale.
37:11
SPEAKER_01: It's so insane to see like the difference in that, right?
37:15
SPEAKER_01: They're gonna be a top five offense or they're gonna blow the team up.
37:18
SPEAKER_01: No in between.
37:19
SPEAKER_01: The reason I'm selling the fact that they could be a top five offense, and I can understand where you're coming from, right?
37:23
SPEAKER_01: Zach Levine is an efficient monster.
37:25
SPEAKER_01: DeMontisabonis has showed that he could be one of the two most impactful players on a really good offense.
37:30
SPEAKER_01: You think about the 2022, 2023 Sacramento Kings.
37:32
SPEAKER_01: DeMar DeRozan, though he plays ball like it's 2003, still really good at what he does.
37:37
SPEAKER_01: But the reason I'm selling them, being top five is fucking hard.
37:41
SPEAKER_01: Being top five in any side of the ball is really difficult.
37:44
SPEAKER_01: And they don't get to the rim good enough and they don't shoot enough threes to be a top five.
37:50
SPEAKER_01: Kind of has to be one or the other.
37:51
SPEAKER_01: Like if you're gonna be a low volume three-point shooting team, you have to be a team that's living at the basket.
37:55
SPEAKER_01: That's what the different nuggets were.
37:56
SPEAKER_01: They have a guy in Jokic who does not miss shots when he's within six or seven feet.
38:01
SPEAKER_01: They also have great cutters like uh Christian Brown that plays well off the ball, and somebody Aaron Gordon, who would sit in a dunker and find his way into the basket.
38:11
SPEAKER_01: So them not taking a lot of threes was okay.
38:14
SPEAKER_01: They also are really efficient when they did shoot him.
38:16
SPEAKER_01: And the Sacramento Kings on the other side, they just don't get to the basket nearly as much as a team that need that's trying to be top five offensively.
38:24
SPEAKER_01: They don't get to the basket like a team like the Diver Nuggets.
38:26
SPEAKER_01: And they also just don't shoot the threes like a, I don't know, like a Boston Celtics team or another team that was really good offensively, or uh Cleveland Cavaliers team who saw their three-point volume go up every single month of last season.
38:38
SPEAKER_01: So I'm hard selling this one.
38:40
SPEAKER_01: I think that they're gonna be trying to do the second part of your sentence, but uh as far as selling goes, but they do have MVP um Dennis Shooter on their roster.
38:48
SPEAKER_01: Who knows what Dennis Shooter could do for the team?
38:51
SPEAKER_01: Next one I got is from Christian.
38:53
SPEAKER_01: Hornets make the playoffs.
38:56
SPEAKER_01: He kept it simple.
38:57
SPEAKER_01: He kept it sweet.
38:59
SPEAKER_01: I'm selling it again, y'all.
39:01
SPEAKER_01: I will not be bamboozled.
39:03
SPEAKER_01: I will not be bamboozled for a second year in a row.
39:07
SPEAKER_01: I was looking.
39:08
SPEAKER_01: Every year I do this, by the way.
39:10
SPEAKER_01: Because there's always gonna be three.
39:12
SPEAKER_01: I think the number is three.
39:13
SPEAKER_01: Oh, actually, did I do this on a previous episode?
39:15
SPEAKER_01: Let me see if I can pull up my docs from like two episodes ago.
39:18
SPEAKER_01: Um, talking about new playoff teams.
39:21
SPEAKER_01: There's always gonna be, I think the number is three on average, three new playoff teams.
39:26
SPEAKER_01: I can't find the numbers because I don't I don't title my documents, and now it's coming back to bite me.
39:31
SPEAKER_01: Um, I don't know if that was either here or was that on my YouTube channel.
39:34
SPEAKER_01: Either way, let's say three.
39:36
SPEAKER_01: Let's say there's always three new playoff teams every single year.
39:38
SPEAKER_01: And when I say new playoff teams, I'm talking about a team that missed it the previous season.
39:42
SPEAKER_01: It could be a team that made it seven years ago before last season, but boom, they're back into it.
39:46
SPEAKER_01: There's always like three to four new playoff teams every single year.
39:49
SPEAKER_01: And I always try to take my, shoot my darts, throw my darts, boom, that's gonna be the team.
39:53
SPEAKER_01: That's gonna be the team.
39:54
SPEAKER_01: Last year, I threw the dart at the Charlotte Hornets.
39:58
SPEAKER_01: It's their year, ladies and gentlemen.
40:00
SPEAKER_01: It's their year to finally in the drought and make the postseason.
40:04
SPEAKER_01: And they were worse than ever.
40:07
SPEAKER_01: I missed the Detroit Piston one, right?
40:10
SPEAKER_01: I don't know if many people did see the Detroit Piston one, but that I always try to predict the next Detroit Piston jump.
40:15
SPEAKER_01: And you're thinking that it will be the Charlotte Hornets this year.
40:18
SPEAKER_01: I can't get there because it hurt me so bad last season.
40:22
SPEAKER_01: I do think that they had a great offseason, all things considered.
40:26
SPEAKER_01: Love their draft.
40:27
SPEAKER_01: Sion James, I don't know why I mentioned him first.
40:30
SPEAKER_01: Him, Con Knipple, and then the young Liam McNeely.
40:33
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that's who it is.
40:34
SPEAKER_01: Good draft, in my personal opinion.
40:36
SPEAKER_01: Good trades around the edges with Colin Sexton coming to the team for use of Nurkic and some stuff.
40:41
SPEAKER_01: With um Grant Williams getting back healthy one day, with there one more trade.
40:47
SPEAKER_01: Oh, uh the Trey Mann contract, which is pennies, compared to what his production could be at the level as a six-man.
40:54
SPEAKER_01: I really did like their offense, but there's still a lot of question marks I have about the team.
40:59
SPEAKER_01: I still don't know based on that first year with the Charlotte Hornets, what Coach Charles Lee is trying to implement as their identity.
41:07
SPEAKER_01: Just don't know.
41:09
SPEAKER_01: And it could just happen like that, right?
41:10
SPEAKER_01: I feel like it did just happen like that for the Detroit Pistons, where we didn't know what their identity was going to be.
41:16
SPEAKER_01: You know, new coach comes in and boom, they're just like that.
41:18
SPEAKER_01: One of the most intriguing young teams in ball.
41:23
SPEAKER_01: I'm selling it.
41:25
SPEAKER_01: Lamello has a lot to prove to me.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: Not that he's trying to, he needs to prove something to me, I guess.
41:30
SPEAKER_01: But like there, there's a lot for my personal opinion about LaMelo Ball that needs to be answered this season.
41:36
SPEAKER_01: His health obviously is number one thing, but some of the things on the court as well.
41:41
SPEAKER_01: Brandon Miller, really excited about his next season, but I've still got some questions.
41:46
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna sell this one.
41:47
SPEAKER_01: It's not a bad bet, though, if you're asking which of the teams that missed it last year is gonna make it this year.
41:52
SPEAKER_01: Obviously, you know, we talked about the Raptors.
41:54
SPEAKER_01: The 76ers will be another contention team because who the hell knows?
41:58
SPEAKER_01: But like if we get a relative healthy season for Joel Embiid, I don't even know what that even means at this point.
42:05
SPEAKER_01: Uh, then that's enough to be a playoff team in the Eastern Conference.
42:08
SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
42:09
SPEAKER_01: Two more.
42:10
SPEAKER_01: This comes from Robbie, who has three underscores Robbie and then four underscores.
42:14
SPEAKER_01: That's easier to remember than what Nolan did with 12 numbers.
42:18
SPEAKER_01: He says Franz finally pushes the narrative that he's the best player in Orlando, or at least on the level of Palo in front of the NBA media media more than the spreadsheet fan club.
42:31
SPEAKER_01: If you have not been on NBA Twitter this offseason, Palo versus Franz has been one of the most lasting debates.
42:40
SPEAKER_01: It's like every everybody is having the their not everybody, a lot of people are having their opinion about being Team Franz or being team Palo.
42:49
SPEAKER_01: And it's so crazy to me, because personally, me, I I don't believe you need to be on either of the teams.
42:56
SPEAKER_01: I don't know why you have to pick a side.
42:59
SPEAKER_01: You know?
43:00
SPEAKER_01: Last time I saw this happen was let me see what year this was.
43:04
SPEAKER_01: Hold on, let me let me let me because I should have brought the receipts.
43:07
SPEAKER_01: Last time I saw this happen would have been in 2019.
43:13
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
43:14
SPEAKER_01: In tw uh 2018, 2018, 2019.
43:19
SPEAKER_01: Well, it was are you team Jason Tatum or you team Jalen Brown?
43:27
SPEAKER_01: I just don't think you need to be on either of the two teams.
43:30
SPEAKER_01: Like if you're trying to say who's the better player, right?
43:32
SPEAKER_01: Sure.
43:33
SPEAKER_01: But like the conversation has devolved from who do you think is a better player to ooh, they should they should build around this other guy and trade the I am not on either of the teams.
43:47
SPEAKER_01: I will say I am a huge France fan, though.
43:49
SPEAKER_01: And had even before he got to um Orlando.
43:52
SPEAKER_01: Oh no, no, no, that's not true.
43:54
SPEAKER_01: I think I think it was Summer League.
43:57
SPEAKER_01: I think it was Summer League.
43:57
SPEAKER_01: So he was already with the Orlando Magic.
43:59
SPEAKER_01: But either way.
44:00
SPEAKER_01: And not Summer League, because I don't think it was a summer league in this year.
44:04
SPEAKER_01: Either way, fuck it.
44:05
SPEAKER_01: Early in his career, I liked Franz Wagner, okay?
44:08
SPEAKER_01: Um, but that don't mean that I'm not team Palo Banquero or that I'm Team Franz of a Palo Banquero.
44:12
SPEAKER_01: They should not, you shouldn't have to pick a side.
44:14
SPEAKER_01: But to get back to your original thing, Robbie, I'm gonna sell this.
44:16
SPEAKER_01: And the reason I'm gonna sell this is that in order for Franz to overtake the idea of Palo Benquero, he would have to fucking dominate this season.
44:26
SPEAKER_01: Like I'm talking about 25, 8, and 6 type domination.
44:31
SPEAKER_01: Because Palo, volume-wise, is always gonna be higher than that.
44:35
SPEAKER_01: Palo, as a former first overall pick, is always gonna be seen in this different lens.
44:39
SPEAKER_01: Palo, because of his playstyle and how cool it can be at times, will always be higher than Franz and that.
44:44
SPEAKER_01: So in order for Franz, again, you're talking about the national media or media people outside of spreadsheets, he Franz would just have to go out there and kill it.
44:52
SPEAKER_01: Which, if that happens, come on now.
44:55
SPEAKER_01: Orlando Magic fans, y'all be feeling good.
44:58
SPEAKER_01: But I just I just don't see it.
44:59
SPEAKER_01: I just don't see it.
45:00
SPEAKER_01: I don't, again, I don't think you should have to be in one of the two camps, but I don't see it that it's one or the other.
45:05
SPEAKER_01: And I don't see Franz overtaking the national perception of being 1A.
45:10
SPEAKER_01: Last one I have is from Jar Rye, who also has a gazillion numbers.
45:14
SPEAKER_01: Uh 4-3-8-8-6-2-8-8.
45:17
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to you.
45:18
SPEAKER_01: Um Pelicans trading the hawks with the Hawks, the pick swap will age very well with both the Bucs and the Pelicans being playoff teams.
45:26
SPEAKER_01: If you're out of the loop on this one, well, draft day, Joe Dumas was calling around and he ended up trading a pick that is the most favorable between the Bucks and the Pelicans to the Atlanta Hawks in exchange for the pick that turned out to be Derek Queen.
45:42
SPEAKER_01: Um, at the moment in time, as we were doing this live stream, I didn't really recognize what that pick was.
45:47
SPEAKER_01: And then I got back to the hotel room and I'm like, oh shit, because the Pelicans, when you think about how deep the Eastern Con or Western conference is, there's a war where the Pelicans are not just not in the postseason, but like bad, right?
45:58
SPEAKER_01: Just bad.
45:59
SPEAKER_01: And that could be a lottery pick at the end of the day.
46:03
SPEAKER_01: Similar trades have happened and we've had similar opinions, and sometimes that has not materialized to be a top 10 pick.
46:10
SPEAKER_01: But based on right now, of all of the trade or all of the draft capital that was traded this offseason, that is without a doubt, in my opinion, the one with the most value, the highest upside pick, if you will.
46:20
SPEAKER_01: Hypothetically, knock on wood.
46:21
SPEAKER_01: If Giannis misses some time, the bucks are going to be bad.
46:24
SPEAKER_01: And knock on wood, because Giannis, we need we like this, man.
46:28
SPEAKER_01: A package showed up on my front step and it said, the the from the Anto the Coupon bros.
46:32
SPEAKER_01: I know I'm just on a PR list.
46:34
SPEAKER_01: It ain't like they was like, let me send this from the Kenny Beachum.
46:36
SPEAKER_01: I'm just one of the a thousand names that got this package, probably.
46:39
SPEAKER_01: But damn it, I felt special.
46:40
SPEAKER_01: So shout out to Anto the Coupon brothers.
46:42
SPEAKER_01: So we like this.
46:43
SPEAKER_01: God forbid an injury happens to him.
46:45
SPEAKER_01: There's no world where that team wins games.
46:48
SPEAKER_01: Sorry, Bobby Portis.
46:50
SPEAKER_01: I don't think you got enough to coast the Bucs to a postseason matchup if Giannis gets injured.
46:56
SPEAKER_01: So there's there.
46:57
SPEAKER_01: And then the Pelicans, just in themselves, relatively healthy season, just still might not be good enough.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: I just don't know.
47:02
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna sell this one.
47:04
SPEAKER_01: Um, I think there's a world where they're both playoff teams, sure, but I just don't the likelihood of the Pelicans being in there and the Bucs being in there, it's just tough.
47:12
SPEAKER_01: And y'all know I'm a Zion guy.
47:14
SPEAKER_01: I need a Zion healthy season to change the narrative about him as a ball player.
47:19
SPEAKER_01: But it's hard for me to cross that bridge.
47:28
SPEAKER_01: Thank y'all to everybody that threw in a bold prediction.
47:31
SPEAKER_01: Again, I didn't pick the wildest of the wild predictions because it will be so easy for me to just say, sale, sell, sell, sell, sale, Kobe Whitefinals MVP, bye.
47:42
SPEAKER_01: We got Ask KB, ladies and gentlemen.
47:44
SPEAKER_01: All you got to do is hit us up on Twitter or Instagram.
47:46
SPEAKER_01: It could be a um a video or audio message, it could be a straight up tweet.
47:51
SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna try my best, or we're gonna try our best with the team to pick some of the best ones to answer for you.
47:56
SPEAKER_01: The first one comes from Melo, who's been around for a very long time.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: Shout out to him.
47:59
SPEAKER_01: I think he actually works contractual as a contractor with enjoy here or there on some edits.
48:05
SPEAKER_01: So shout out to my guy.
48:06
SPEAKER_01: Who on this list will win MVP first?
48:08
SPEAKER_01: He's got Luca, he's got Tatum, he's got Ant, he's got Wimby.
48:12
SPEAKER_01: Who's gonna win MVP first?
48:16
SPEAKER_01: I I still find it crazy that considering the dominance of Luka Doncic regular season and postseason dominance, that he has not been able to put together a full MVP season.
48:29
SPEAKER_01: Um at this point in time, he's made the all-NBA team.
48:33
SPEAKER_01: One, two, three, four, five straight years before this year where he got traded and dealt with a bunch of injuries.
48:38
SPEAKER_01: Five straight all-NBA first teams.
48:40
SPEAKER_01: Finished top three in MVP once, uh, top four.
48:42
SPEAKER_01: He was the fourth in MVP in his second season.
48:45
SPEAKER_01: I actually don't remember him being that high.
48:47
SPEAKER_01: Fourth in MVP his second season.
48:50
SPEAKER_01: I think I think it's him.
48:53
SPEAKER_01: Now, the counter against him is that the Lakers team may not be good enough in the next couple years to be a like realistically, let's say, top three seed to make an MVP case.
49:04
SPEAKER_01: While some of these other guys have the upside where their team could be there, right?
49:09
SPEAKER_01: Where like a Tatum, he's already set back because of the the year that he's gonna miss.
49:14
SPEAKER_01: But like, I mean, Tatum just had all NBA first team seasons where his team was to one seed and he wasn't even sniffing MVP.
49:20
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna go out on the limb and say Tatum doesn't get it.
49:23
SPEAKER_01: Anthony Edwards has a really high possibility because the volume is gonna be there, the efficiency is gonna be there.
49:29
SPEAKER_01: The team success is another one.
49:31
SPEAKER_01: We're like, what were they, the sixth seed last season, like a half a game away from being like the three to fourth seed?
49:36
SPEAKER_01: That might have been enough, but still it wasn't enough at the same time.
49:39
SPEAKER_01: Wembleyama has the opportunity, just as a freak of nature, to have that super duper star season and his team jump up and we're like, oh yeah, that's the MVP.
49:48
SPEAKER_01: But if I had to rank him, I'm gonna say Luca first, Wimby second, and third, Tatum fourth.
49:56
SPEAKER_01: Does that feel that don't feel right?
49:57
SPEAKER_01: Let me do that again.
49:59
SPEAKER_01: Luca first, uh Ant second, Wimby third, Tatum fourth.
50:04
SPEAKER_01: That's how we put it.
50:06
SPEAKER_01: Because I I think I think that ant could finish like the way it works for me is he kind of needed to finish top three or top four once before you blossom into NBA MVP.
50:18
SPEAKER_01: And I think he could do that, right?
50:19
SPEAKER_01: What I think he was fifth last season.
50:21
SPEAKER_01: Let me double check that.
50:22
SPEAKER_01: I think he might have been fifth last season in the MVP voting.
50:25
SPEAKER_01: Um he was seventh.
50:26
SPEAKER_01: He hit up seventh.
50:27
SPEAKER_01: Oh, I'm thinking about Don Mitchell was fifth.
50:29
SPEAKER_01: Okay, Donovan Mitchell was fifth.
50:30
SPEAKER_01: Tatum was seventh, which is like uh Edwards was seventh.
50:34
SPEAKER_01: It was kind of like a fake seventh because he really only got a couple votes, you know.
50:37
SPEAKER_01: But still, okay.
50:38
SPEAKER_01: Um, let's see what we got on the audio one.
50:42
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Kenny, a big fan of the pod.
50:44
SPEAKER_00: Uh for this week, my question was who are some of the best teams in NBA history, not to make it past the first or second round in the playoffs.
50:51
SPEAKER_00: Uh, yeah, appreciate it.
50:52
SPEAKER_00: Thunder up.
50:55
SPEAKER_01: Good question.
50:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm trying to think of my mind, just going back, going back, going back.
51:00
SPEAKER_01: That's a tough on-the-spot one.
51:02
SPEAKER_01: Um, the first one that comes to mind is the team that lost to the We Believe Warriors.
51:06
SPEAKER_01: That was obviously the first seed.
51:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, any team that lose as a first seed to an eighth seed is obviously gonna be on this list, or my Chicago Bulls the year that their girls tours ACL for the first time.
51:16
SPEAKER_01: Um that was one of the few times in my life where I truly thought that the Bulls had a chance to win a championship.
51:21
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna put them towards the top of the list.
51:23
SPEAKER_01: And again, that might be my own inherent biases.
51:25
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the 2011 Bulls.
51:27
SPEAKER_01: Let me make sure that I'm getting my years right.
51:29
SPEAKER_01: I think that's the 2011 um Bulls where he went down against the Philadelphia 76ers.
51:36
SPEAKER_01: Um yeah, it hurt.
51:38
SPEAKER_01: That hurt.
51:39
SPEAKER_01: Uh uh 2011-2012 Bulls.
51:42
SPEAKER_01: Because yeah, they come, they're coming off a conference finals appearance where they lost to the Miami Heat at five.
51:48
SPEAKER_01: This year, they win 50 games, 50 and 16.
51:52
SPEAKER_01: This is a lockout season, uh, 50 and 16, number two defense, number five offense, number one in the league in that rating.
51:59
SPEAKER_01: That team, in my mind, was a championship team.
52:02
SPEAKER_01: Preseason odds, they were just number uh three behind the Lakers in the Heat.
52:06
SPEAKER_01: I thought that that team truly did have a chance, and obviously we lose in the first round when Derek Rose goes down with his injury.
52:11
SPEAKER_01: So I'm gonna I'm just leaving at those two.
52:15
SPEAKER_01: But more specifically, I mean, Derek Rose got injured in what game game two?
52:20
SPEAKER_01: Was it game two?
52:21
SPEAKER_01: It was the first game.
52:23
SPEAKER_01: Oh man, why'd you ask me this question, bro?
52:26
SPEAKER_01: Now you're bringing back up old memories and stuff.
52:31
SPEAKER_01: Yep.
52:33
SPEAKER_01: 2011, 2012 Chicago Bulls.
52:35
SPEAKER_01: Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beatsman.
52:40
SPEAKER_01: If you did enjoy it, I would really appreciate a like on the episode of five stars.
52:44
SPEAKER_01: If you're on audio platforms, hey, or leave a comment on Spotify, which is a thing that I've noticed over the last couple months.
52:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, I'm trying my very best to take all the feedback as we get closer and closer to the NBA season, trying to get better and better for y'all.
52:56
SPEAKER_01: Um, like I said, the schedule might shift just a little bit, but Smallball will be here every single week.
53:01
SPEAKER_01: Thank you again to the production team, which is basically just Greg on the back end.
53:05
SPEAKER_01: Um, and our boy Junior here as well.
53:07
SPEAKER_01: Thank y'all so much.
53:08
SPEAKER_01: Uh, appreciate y'all, and I will see y'all next week.