Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / The Case For and Against Each NBA Contender

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The Case For and Against Each NBA Contender · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beacham.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_02: I am filming this uh September 4th, 2025, which means like it's opening, open a day.
• 0:11
  SPEAKER_02: Is NFL called open today?
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_02: Is the first week of the NFL is officially started tonight, and I cannot be more excited.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_02: Not only just because we like, I can't say love just yet, but we like football because that means we are less than three weeks away from training camp for the NBA season.
• 0:26
  SPEAKER_02: A lot of dominoes are still falling, which sounds crazy.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_02: This morning, we just found out that Cam Thomas is signing a qualifying offer.
• 0:32
  SPEAKER_02: We still got a couple restrictive free agents that are just in the ether, just trying to figure out what the hell is going on.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_02: We got like Russell Westbrook, Al Hofford, D'Anthony Melton, a bunch of decent NBA players still out there, but less than three weeks away.
• 0:44
  SPEAKER_02: And I want to remind you that last season, around this same time, we saw one of the biggest trades of the year that was Carl Anthony Towns for Julius Randle and some stuff.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_02: So it's the offseason, but it's not really the offseason.
• 0:54
  SPEAKER_02: And I kind of want to talk about on today's episode the case for and the case against all NBA contenders when it comes to raising that Larry O'Brien trophy.
• 1:05
  SPEAKER_02: Because as good as the league is, there is no guarantee.
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_02: Okay just came off a championship, and a lot of us believe that they can't repeat, but hell, I felt the same way about last year's team that won and they lost in the second round.
• 1:16
  SPEAKER_02: I felt the same way about the team that won the year before that, and they didn't make it.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_02: And the year before that, and they didn't make it.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_02: You know, so this is like a recurrent theme that you have so much uh respect for the team that just came off the Larry OB, but we are in the parody era.
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_02: So I believe that one of the teams that I'm gonna mention today will end up raising the Larry O'Brien trophy, but they won't be without their flaws.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_02: I want to remind you, or at least announce to you, that these hats, the N-Ball We Trust hats, and we also have hoodies, um, enjoy basketball hoodies are dropping on Tuesday.
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't have an episode between now and then.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_02: So I want to let you know now that you need to go cop.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_02: Follow us on Instagram and Twitter for more details about timing and pricing and things like that.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_02: But I feel like, and maybe I don't want to toot my own horn, but I feel like the team is getting better and better with the drops.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I feel like we're getting better and better.
• 2:04
  SPEAKER_02: So if you are interested, uh be sure to check that out.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_02: Also check out the other shows on the network.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_02: Numbers on the board is still going strong for the most part, two times a week.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, we got small ball that you're listening to right now.
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_02: Teed up is on a little hiatus as Pierre has a procedure that he's getting done in a couple days here.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_02: But with the NBA season being around the corner, uh the content will not stop.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_02: Can I quickly just talk a little bit, just a just a little bit of football?
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_02: Not football, I'm sorry, a football right now.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_02: Because again, I'm I'm a I'm a sports optimist.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_02: Hell, my favorite team, the Chicago Bulls, are probably gonna win like 32 games this season, but I'm fake thinking to myself, ooh, I'm interested in this team.
• 2:45
  SPEAKER_02: And the same can be said about pretty much every one of my favorite teams across the leagues.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_02: So I was so very excited for my Chicago Bears this season.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_02: You know, for the most part, we are in what the one of the two most difficult divisions in all of football.
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_02: And then a couple days ago, just just a couple just a couple days ago, I was I was mad at my own business.
• 3:06
  SPEAKER_02: I was having a great jolly day.
• 3:08
  SPEAKER_02: And we got a tweet that that announced that Michael Parsons was traded to our division.
• 3:15
  SPEAKER_02: Just just straight.
• 3:17
  SPEAKER_02: Not even just to the division, because understandably, like, you know, the the Vikings are rivals or the Lions are rivals, but nothing is more precious to me than that river against those cheese head Packers.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_02: So for them to get Micah Parsons, who I just found out after this trade, Micah Parsons is only 26 years old.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_02: In my mind, somebody that's dominant is in his late 20s, you know, 29, 30.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_02: He's gonna be in the division for the next like four seasons, terrorizing the offensive lines.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_02: Uh Caleb Williams was already just like the most sacked player ever last season.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_02: And now he's got to go against Micah Parsons two times a season for the next four years.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not feeling great about it.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_02: In a year where I'm really optimistic, I can't help but to say like the Packers look pretty good.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_02: The Lions look pretty good, even though Ben Johnson is over here now.
• 4:05
  SPEAKER_02: The Vikings, you gotta respect them, even if they got a quarterback that ain't really played much, you got to respect them.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_02: I put a lot of bets in for the Chicago Bears to make some noise, though.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna say that.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just gonna say that I'm really excited, and we'll find out Monday when we go against those Vikings if you're really up for the season.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_02: And I did ask last week if y'all wanted to hear some NFL talk.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_02: I've been in some conversations with some NFL creators and some people in the space.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_02: So hopefully, throughout the course of this NFL season, maybe a couple times a month, we have somebody on to kind of talk about the NFL.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_02: As I'm basically going into year number three of me like really being back with the NFL.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_02: We just had our fantasy football drafts over the last week or so.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_02: We have one with the homies, and we have one with a bunch of podcasters between like Nerd Sesh, Pick a Side, the Deep Three.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like I'm forgetting some people.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_02: My apologies.
• 4:50
  SPEAKER_02: And we did, I did those two drafts, and I cannot be more disappointed in one of them.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_02: The homies draft, I don't know what the hell I was doing.
• 4:56
  SPEAKER_02: I left the draft feeling really good.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_02: And I felt really good about that draft until I did the secondary draft where my team is so much better.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_02: I had the same exact pick in both drafts.
• 5:05
  SPEAKER_02: And for some reason, draft two is killing draft one.
• 5:09
  SPEAKER_02: And draft one is the one I hold more precious because that's the money league, baby.
• 5:12
  SPEAKER_02: That's the that's the bragging rights league with the guys.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_02: So I gotta make some moves happen.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_02: I am known as one of the best GMs in all of fantasy, being in my fourth year of playing fantasy, and three of those years I've made it to the championship.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_02: How many rings do I have?
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_02: Zero.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_02: But this is the year, hopefully.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, y'all want to get into some NBA talk?
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_02: The big topic in the NBA space right now has to do with this Kawhi Leonard thing, um, where Pablo Torre spent a couple months trying to figure out if Steve Bomber slash the Clippers circumvented the salary cap in order to pay Kawhi Leonard or his team an extra 20-something million dollars.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_02: And I listened to, or I'm slash, I uh I'm uh watched the entire episode of Pablo Torrey Finds Out and what a story it is.
• 5:59
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to go too deep into it.
• 6:01
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like we're gonna have months of investigations before we find out anything.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_02: And by that time, nobody's really gonna care.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_02: But the Clippers have denied it and the NBA has decided or put out a statement that they're aware and they're gonna start an investigation.
• 6:13
  SPEAKER_02: But I really do admire really good journalism, um, especially about stories that like this is a huge a way bigger story than than some of the other ones that Pablo has done.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_02: But like Pablo has done some stories recently that's like you have to be a really niche sports fan to care about this.
• 6:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm typically the niche sports fan, so I got a lot of love and respect for Pablo Torre.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_02: And I can't wait to hear, I guess, um, Mark Cuban is gonna go on the show because Mark Cuban was defending Steve Bomber.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_02: So I this is about to just turn into something, and I cannot wait.
• 6:42
  SPEAKER_02: But I don't really have a huge opinion about it um just just yet.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think we have to see what other dominoes fall before, at least for me personally, I speak too publicly about it.
• 6:52
  SPEAKER_02: But it is a ridiculous, ridiculous story to let's let's assume.
• 6:56
  SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe we shouldn't assume this, but in the case that all of this is true, that the entire report is true and there's no missing facts of it all, there has to be some type of big penalty for the Clippers.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_02: You know, you talk about how little room some of these teams have for error when it comes to team building, a team like the Toronto Raptors that are always already behind, you know, the some of the America teams just because they they are in a different country.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_02: And like you hear these conversations for people that used to play for the Raptors about how tough it is playing in Toronto, not because of the city, not because of the fans, but because of goddamn customs.
• 7:32
  SPEAKER_02: They're like, it's just this the travel between just Detroit and Toronto, which could be a car drive in a lot of cases, becomes so much longer because they got to go through customs every single time and so on and so forth.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_02: And and you know, from our reports, Kawhi Leonard never planned on staying with the Toronto Raptors, even before all of this clipper nonsense even happened.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_02: But they were already behind the eight-ball given their circumstances and for Kawhi to potentially go to another team, not just because you know it's close to home and everything, but they had an extra$28 million under the table they could give him.
• 8:01
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows how many other teams have circumvented the salary cap in order to sign some of these people?
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_02: People have already pointed fingers at some of the other star players around ball.
• 8:09
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like it would be irresponsible for me to say some of those names that people are pointing at because we have somewhat of a platform here.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_02: But like some of the deals that have been signed over the last four or five seasons, you're like, damn, that team got him.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_02: Or that guy re-signed, but he re-signed for so much less than what he I don't know now.
• 8:24
  SPEAKER_02: So only time will tell.
• 8:26
  SPEAKER_02: All right, let's get into the bulk of today's episode, which is talking about these teams that we deem to be contenders in the case for and against them.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_02: Right now, if I count them, we have one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight.
• 8:37
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm really on seven and a half, seven and a half teams that like the way I'm gauging it again on September 4th, 2025, before training, it can't be four major trades, is that if I could see a world where you are the champion at the end of the season without making any major adjustments, we know that big trades will happen throughout the course of the season.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_02: We just don't know what they are just yet.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_02: But based on today, if I if I close my eyes and I'm dreaming about the Lario B and I can see your team potentially being the team that won, then I counted you in today's episode.
• 9:07
  SPEAKER_02: There's some teams that have too many question marks that haven't even been solved this offseason for me to put them in that conversation.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_02: I'm looking at you, Golden State Warriors.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_02: We don't even know what Kaminga's gonna do.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_02: We don't know if Al Horford is gonna be on the roster, even though a lot of people believe that.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_02: D'Anthony Melton, another guy that we mentioned, people believe that he will be a part of the Warriors.
• 9:23
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm not gonna look at the rumors of them getting those guys and say, yep, that team.
• 9:27
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe in the future we can add them to the list, but we don't know what the hell is going on.
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_02: Will Kaminga be on the roster?
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_02: At what valuation will he be signed to trade?
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_02: It's too much going on.
• 9:37
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into it though.
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_02: I'm super excited for this one.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm super excited.
• 9:40
  SPEAKER_02: I was telling Greg, producer Greg, uh, before we fire things up here, that this was something I thought about right after we finished last week's episode or two weeks ago's episode.
• 9:49
  SPEAKER_02: And I do want to say, with the NBA season coming back very soon, our normal schedule will be back relatively soon.
• 9:54
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but I've been thinking about it for like 13 days, trying to put together this episode.
• 9:59
  SPEAKER_02: And y'all know, again, we are the basketball enjoyers on the internet.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_02: We are guys that are, or me, I'm usually pretty optimistic about so many different teams and so many different things, that it is really tough for me to look at the dark side, the half, the glass half-empty side of sports.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_02: So it's easy for me to say, hey, this team is contender because it's so much more tough for me to say, yeah, this team ain't got it because.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I really had to push myself to do this episode, and I feel like that's what it's all about for this offseason.
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_02: Before we get into it, I want to say this not just to you watching this episode, but for my team at it and enjoy that be clipping these out because I hate I would hate to get aggregated.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_02: Because again, half of this episode, we have to be negative.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_02: So if we're gonna talk about this episode, we have to give full context that I am playing devil's advocate to myself today, okay?
• 10:49
  SPEAKER_02: So I may say something and I only believe 25%, but it's something about the team.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_02: So please don't aggregate it.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_02: And if we are gonna clip things up, make sure we do add the context that I am playing devil's advocate to myself on some of these contending teams.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_02: Like the OKC Thunder, how negative can you get about the OKC Thunder after dominating the regular season and winning the championship?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_02: But in today's episode, I have to do that.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_02: Let's start off there then.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_02: There's no real order to how I got these other than OKC be at first because they deserve it.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_02: Here's my case for OKC repeating.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_02: They are the reigning champion, and they did just have a historical defense with pretty much every single one of the pieces that played real minutes in the regular season are just back.
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_02: Between Shea, between Dort, between Caruso, the Hartensteins, and the Homerins, the Dub, like the entire team is back.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_02: And there's a lot to be said there because, again, this defense, you know, there was there were some question marks that we got deeper into the offseason, like, okay, yeah, they had a historic defense, but can they follow that up with a championship?
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_02: And the answer was yes.
• 11:49
  SPEAKER_02: The defense that was dominant in the regular season had portions throughout their postseason where they were even more dominant than that regular season.
• 11:57
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about the Timberwolves later today, but the way they balled up, the way they balled up in places of like an Anthony Edwards on a pick and roll, we we cannot ignore.
• 12:07
  SPEAKER_02: And in my mind, they could be even better this season.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_02: Remember Chad Homer like broke his hip and missed 40 games or whatever the number was?
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, that guy has had a full offseason and getting better and maybe getting stronger.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 12:19
  SPEAKER_02: I saw that video of him, you know.
• 12:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but but he should be better this season.
• 12:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think that this entire next, I don't know, 10 years or so, we're gonna look at the DPOY award and say it's whimby's to lose.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_02: I just don't know if we'll see a prospect that is as ridiculous on the defensive side of the ball as Victor Wibanyama.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_02: And yes, voters fatigue will kick in.
• 12:39
  SPEAKER_02: It's not, I'm not saying that Victor Wibinyama will win all 10 of the next 10.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_02: We don't even know if he's gonna be healthy for the next 10 of the next 10.
• 12:45
  SPEAKER_02: But I think that a guy that's gonna finish runner-up multiple times in his in his career and maybe even get one again, given the voters' fatigue or finish all defensive first team multiple times is Chen Holmground.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_02: You saw it in just the game seven of the NBA finals last season.
• 13:01
  SPEAKER_02: If you want to look at one specific game to showcase how impactful he hit is as a defender, go rewatch that one.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, or rewatch game six as well on the defensive side of the ball.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the offense wasn't there for Chet in the postseason.
• 13:12
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not really worried about that too much because I know at the bare minimum he's gonna be a top 10 big in basketball just based on the defense.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_02: And we know based on the way he started last season before his hip injury that the offense is probably gonna be fine.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_02: J Dub is one of the youngest players to finish with an all-NBA and an all-defensive in the single season, in the single season.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_02: And he just came off a championship where he was playing with a what, a torn tendon in his hand.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_02: Like there's so many things about this team to be in love with.
• 13:41
  SPEAKER_02: And did I mention that they have a top three to four best player in all of basketball who, over the last two seasons, these last two playoff runs, you don't have to worry about a potential drop-off from him in the postseason.
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_02: He has been, what'd he say?
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_02: My whole life is consistent.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_02: That is who he is, and it showed his head in the regular or in the postseason as well.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_02: And he also has room to grow.
• 14:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like if there's anybody that I trust to grow, it will be a guy like Shay.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_02: So the case for them is pretty uniform.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_02: They are the defender champion, bringing the entire roster back with room to grow because they are what the youngest team to win a championship in the modern era.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_02: I think it's them in like, I don't even know if we call the 70, whatever um Trailblazer team the modern era, but those are the youngest teams to ever win a championship.
• 14:33
  SPEAKER_02: And they brought everybody back and they will be back for the next couple seasons.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying the case for them is as strong as some of those previous champions that we mentioned, right?
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_02: We we felt really good about the Boston Celtics going to next season.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_02: But as the season went on, like if you remember or if you watch numbers on the board, I did question whether or not we were respecting them based on the fact that they just did do it last season.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_02: Did they have enough?
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_02: Like, did they have enough?
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_02: And the answer was not really.
• 14:57
  SPEAKER_02: And yeah, give Will Jason Tatum.
• 14:59
  SPEAKER_02: That does suck to have him go out in what game was that game five of the of the playoff series?
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_02: But they were in the midst of potentially losing this series either way.
• 15:08
  SPEAKER_02: I think this team has everything that a defender champion needs.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_02: But they aren't flawless.
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_02: We got to talk about that because even with them having this historic defensive team and them being in the NBA finals and winning it, it did take them to Game 7 series.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_02: They were a super heavy favorite against the Indiana Pacers, and I love the Pacers team.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_02: That was one of my favorite runs maybe ever.
• 15:33
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe it is number one for a team that was not a Chicago team.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_02: But the OKC Thunderway, a heavy favorite.
• 15:40
  SPEAKER_02: Go look at ESPN, go look at the Yahoos, go look at the numbers on the boards, go look at anybody that was given predictions for this NBA championship series.
• 15:48
  SPEAKER_02: Majority of people had OKC in five.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_02: I think there's only one guy in ESPN's entire panel that even looked at the Pacers as a champion.
• 15:57
  SPEAKER_02: And they almost lost.
• 16:00
  SPEAKER_02: So they have a great case for a repeat, but it wasn't as dominant in the regular season or in the postseason because they went to two game sevens.
• 16:08
  SPEAKER_02: Also, as we saw, the Western Conference is an absolute bloodbath.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_02: You're gonna have to go through the the Nuggets, the Rockets, the I'm sure my hands here of some of the teams I'm considering to be contenders.
• 16:19
  SPEAKER_02: The Clippers, the Wolves, the Lakers, the Warriors.
• 16:21
  SPEAKER_02: Like these are all of these teams have enough to beat you on any given night.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_02: And if they have enough to beat you on any given night, they probably have enough to stretch a series.
• 16:30
  SPEAKER_02: And even if you defeat that team in the series, you still got two more series after that.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_02: So it is truly, truly a bloodbath of a conference.
• 16:39
  SPEAKER_02: They are the worst three-point shooting championship team of all time.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_02: And if you continue to get further and further into the 2020s, you notice that the three-point ball is still king.
• 16:50
  SPEAKER_02: And they're a team that doesn't really hit them like that.
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_02: Some of the games that they lost in the finals, because you look at that box score, you say, damn, they hit four threes tonight.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_02: Four?
• 16:58
  SPEAKER_02: Dude on the other team, Mr.
• 17:00
  SPEAKER_02: Neesn't have hit four by himself.
• 17:02
  SPEAKER_02: So they are, again, no team is flawless.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_02: And even this OKC Thunder team, who just was as dominant, still do have these things that you have to question.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_02: Right.
• 17:11
  SPEAKER_02: They also had the luxury of being one of the most healthy teams in the postseason.
• 17:17
  SPEAKER_02: Again, Dub did have his hand thing, and the fact that he dropped the 40 ball with his hand being his shooting hand being messed up is nuts.
• 17:23
  SPEAKER_02: And we got so much respect for Deb for that.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_02: But of the teams that they went against, they were the healthiest team.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, the Denver Nuggets took him to seven where Aaron Gordon couldn't jump in a game seven.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_02: Michael Porter Jr.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_02: is playing in fucking football pads.
• 17:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like he likes this is a team that took you to seven.
• 17:38
  SPEAKER_02: The Pacers had Halliburton go out in seven.
• 17:40
  SPEAKER_02: So they were the team.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_02: What is it, a war of attrition?
• 17:43
  SPEAKER_02: They were the team that was the most healthy.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_02: And again, as good as they were, not without their flaws.
• 17:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know how hard that was for me to do that to OKC?
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_02: To talk about the negative aspect of things?
• 17:54
  SPEAKER_02: All right, move on to the next team.
• 17:55
  SPEAKER_02: Again, this is in no particular order.
• 17:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think that OKC's won than this team's two.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just going based on my notes.
• 18:00
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna go to the Eastern Conference and go to the Cleveland Cavaliers.
• 18:04
  SPEAKER_02: The Cleveland Cavaliers, the case for them is that a lot of the things that they did in the regular season last year feels like they should be able to translate in the postseason.
• 18:11
  SPEAKER_02: Now, again, this is another season where they flamed out in the second round, but I do believe in Evan Mobley's progression as a play initiator and a play finisher.
• 18:19
  SPEAKER_02: This is a really, really good season for Evan Mobley.
• 18:21
  SPEAKER_02: He made an Olympia.
• 18:22
  SPEAKER_02: He won DPOY.
• 18:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that Kenny Atkinson put him in the best position to be the best version of himself in that regular season.
• 18:29
  SPEAKER_02: I feel like a lot of that should be able to translate come postseason.
• 18:33
  SPEAKER_02: The next thing is that they found the perfect split, right?
• 18:36
  SPEAKER_02: The Garland Allen duo and then the Mobley Mitchell duo is as perfect of a split between two bigs and two guards as you can really get.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_02: And both of those combinations were really effective.
• 18:48
  SPEAKER_02: I noted then we got to the postseason that a lot of those numbers went down.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about that when we get to the case against.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_02: But I truly do like the way they've divvied up these minutes.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_02: I do think that they have a good supporting cast.
• 19:02
  SPEAKER_02: Now, some of that supporting cast is out to start the season, the Max Struce, and maybe it is a little bit worse now.
• 19:06
  SPEAKER_02: Not a little bit, but a lot worse now because of um Ty Jerome being gone.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um but he wasn't really giving you much in the postseason anyway.
• 19:13
  SPEAKER_02: And I also think that the Indiana Pacers, again, just gonna go down history as one of the greatest, I don't know, disruptors in modern NBA, they were an absolute matchup nightmare for many teams in the Eastern Conference.
• 19:29
  SPEAKER_02: And I think the Cavaliers are one of those teams.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_02: Well, I look at the Cavaliers being matched up against some of the other teams they will face in the Eastern Conference this year now that the Indiana Pacers are out of the running, now that the Boston Celts are out of the running, and it's like there's no way for me to not look at them as the favorite right now.
• 19:45
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like a the margin between them and team number two, who we'll get to later, is not that huge.
• 19:49
  SPEAKER_02: If anything, it might even I might shift it throughout the course of the next season.
• 19:53
  SPEAKER_02: But the Indiana Pacers were really a matchup nightmare for them.
• 19:57
  SPEAKER_02: And that team you don't have to worry about anymore.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_02: So you know how we talk about the path of the OKC Thunder?
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_02: This path for the Cavs seems should be so much easier.
• 20:07
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get to the case again.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_02: Over the last two seasons, they have really, really struggled in the postseason with the Donovan Mitchell and Darius Garland minutes.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I want to take part of that with a grain of salt because our guy, our guy Darius Garland, got injured in the last couple games of the season.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_02: And as you saw, throughout the course of the postseason, he was missing games, right?
• 20:27
  SPEAKER_02: That toe injury was really, really bad.
• 20:28
  SPEAKER_02: And then we got to the postseason and he had to, oh I'm sorry, the offseason and he had to have um a procedure done.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_02: So like he was really trying to play through something somewhat major, right?
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_02: So I do want to give him a little bit of wiggle room when it comes to that.
• 20:43
  SPEAKER_02: But when the Miami Heat, who was it?
• 20:45
  SPEAKER_02: Was it Kyle Anderson that came out and said after Darius Garland was talking about them going at Tyler Hero in this series, Ky Anderson came out and said that we were gonna do something similar with you talking about Darius Garland.
• 20:56
  SPEAKER_02: And I truly do see that happening in like a full seven-game series against a really competent team.
• 21:02
  SPEAKER_02: That double small backcourt, I just don't know if I trust their lack of size in that backcourt against, again, whoever they may see in the potential NBA finals matchup.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_02: If it is a Shea, if it is a Harden, if it is a KD, if it like those, these like good guys that can pick on the weakest defender on the opposing team.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm just a little bit afraid about the way they match up at some of those things.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mentioned earlier, Ty Jerome, though he didn't give them much in the play in the postseason, they're going to miss another initiator coming off that bench, another guy that gets to the basket.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_02: Like I look at Lonzo Ball as a play initiator, but he gives you zero rim pressure whatsoever.
• 21:42
  SPEAKER_02: While Ty Jerome, that flow that Ty Jerome gave him last season was money.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_02: And they don't have anything on the roster that can really replicate some of that.
• 21:49
  SPEAKER_02: Again, Ty Jerome didn't give them much in the postseason, so maybe it's not that big of a loss, but I do look at something like that.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_02: I do look at that when we got to the postseason, they weren't able to utilize our guy, Evan Mobley.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_02: In the way that he had been utilized throughout the entire regular season.
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_02: Evan Mobley, I'm going to look at this game log just to make sure I don't misspeak here.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_02: Evan Mobley in the postseason played four.
• 22:09
  SPEAKER_02: He played eight games because he missed game two versus Indiana.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_02: He did not take more than 13 shots in any game in the postseason.
• 22:18
  SPEAKER_02: He did not take more than 13 shots in any game in this postseason, which is inexcusable.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I would pray, I would pray that they fixed that because in the regular season, 25 of his games, 25 of his, how many games did he play?
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_02: 71 games.
• 22:33
  SPEAKER_02: So just a quick man, I don't want to do the math.
• 22:36
  SPEAKER_02: A third, about a third of the games that he played this season, he attempted more than 13 shots.
• 22:44
  SPEAKER_02: I felt like there were just times where in the postseason, they didn't really give him involved as much as you wanted him to.
• 22:51
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_02: Jared Allen hasn't been a playoff performer, hasn't been the guy that's been able to translate his regular season success to the postseason.
• 23:00
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm a little bit afraid for them for those reasons.
• 23:03
  SPEAKER_02: Donovan Mitchell is in the class of guys, and they're the maybe the greatest of all time in this category we're gonna talk about.
• 23:12
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe next.
• 23:13
  SPEAKER_02: He's in the class of guys of when you have Donovan Mitchell on your team, your floor, he's an all-time floor raiser.
• 23:21
  SPEAKER_02: All-time floor raiser.
• 23:24
  SPEAKER_02: But the ceiling of those things.
• 23:25
  SPEAKER_02: And I feel like, again, I'm not giving him enough credit, or I'm I'm kind of losing some of the variables along the way.
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_02: Again, Darius Garland being out and not being healthy really hurt this team.
• 23:38
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing with Jared Allen in the previous.
• 23:39
  SPEAKER_02: Like it really hurts that they have not had in their era of these two young guards, or I can't even call it down for him too young anymore.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_02: These two small guards in the two front court, they haven't really had a really healthy postseason other than the first year, where the lights are too bright and every first year is always a struggle.
• 23:55
  SPEAKER_02: But he's been such a good floor raiser that I want to see him break that ceiling.
• 24:04
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_02: And he's been able to raise his individual play in the postseason.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, one of those games before, let me see which game it was versus Indiana.
• 24:12
  SPEAKER_02: When you talk about getting to the basket at will and drawing fouls and doing all this, which game was that?
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_02: Let me look at this game log real quick.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_02: This was game two versus Indy.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_02: He did have that turnover late.
• 24:23
  SPEAKER_02: He shot 21 free throws in this one.
• 24:25
  SPEAKER_02: And in the closeout game, he shot 21 free throws.
• 24:27
  SPEAKER_02: So he, you know how we talk about, you know, certain players in basketball.
• 24:31
  SPEAKER_02: Man, I wish he got to the basket more often.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_02: In this postseason run versus Indiana, he tried his best to really do that.
• 24:38
  SPEAKER_02: And I gotta give him respect there.
• 24:41
  SPEAKER_02: But he's just like in the back of my head, just a little bit.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_02: Love me some Donovan Mitchell's one of my 15 favorite players in all of basketball.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_02: But it's in the back of my head just a little bit.
• 24:49
  SPEAKER_02: And it hates me, it hurts me to do that.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_02: Again, but we're being, I don't know if I'm gonna make it through this entire episode.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about the Clippers.
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_02: The case for the Clippers is pretty simple.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_02: They have one of the more complete rosters in all of basketball.
• 25:10
  SPEAKER_02: They have one of the most complete rosters in all of basketball.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_02: You think about their their guys, their guards, B and Beal, Bogdanovich, Hard and Paul, and Chris Dunn.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_02: That's one of the great guard cores in all of basketball.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_02: Their forwards have Batum.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna call John Collins a four for this exercise, even though he plays kind of more of a five nowadays, at least over the last two seasons.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_02: Utah, maybe they can get him back to playing a five if it, or it's four if his jump shot can really come around.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_02: Kawhi Leonard, Deere Jones Jr., and then the center core of Zubots and Lopez, that is as complete of a core as you can really get.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's really the case.
• 25:43
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I'm saying?
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't know if there's a better case than that.
• 25:46
  SPEAKER_02: That like one of the biggest downsides, um, which we're gonna talk about in a second here, kind of is you push it down the way because they are such a team.
• 25:56
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I can name you 11 players in the roster that are real NBA players, and not a lot of teams can say that.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_02: And of those 11, you trust at least 10 of them in a postseason series.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_02: The only guy I'm gonna get out of there is like Chris Dunn, because you did see sometimes last season in the postseason where Tyra Lu went away from Chris Dunn, even if even though he was such a good defender, nobody guarded him.
• 26:17
  SPEAKER_02: So at least 10 of those guys I just mentioned, you trust in the playoff series, offensively, defensively, and as a cohesive unit.
• 26:23
  SPEAKER_02: Zubats had gone from one of the more underrated players in ball to one of the best bigs in all of basketball.
• 26:30
  SPEAKER_02: As an anchor, as a play finisher.
• 26:32
  SPEAKER_02: Harden, one of the ultimate, no, no, no, not one of the.
• 26:36
  SPEAKER_02: Dare I say, the greatest floor raiser in all of basketball?
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_02: Is that crazy to say?
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_02: So they have all of these things going for them.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_02: They have a Kawhi Leonard who's under controversy right now.
• 26:48
  SPEAKER_02: But the case against is the age, right?
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_02: Again, we can circumvent that just because you know they have the depth.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, yeah, you don't really rely on a 40-year-old Chris Paul to play 30 minutes.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_02: You don't need to rely on Bogdanovich if he's not having a great game because you have a done, because you have a BLS, so on and so forth.
• 27:02
  SPEAKER_02: But the age is real.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is the oldest depth chart in all of basketball, right?
• 27:07
  SPEAKER_02: And then with him having that age, you you question could they survive in four series?
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_02: You know, the youngest champion in all in all time just struggled to get out of two of those series.
• 27:21
  SPEAKER_02: You're trying to tell me these old heads can do it.
• 27:24
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, maybe maybe I'm gonna read you the same exact depth chart I just read you a couple seconds ago.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_02: But now I'm gonna add the ages of these players on tour.
• 27:34
  SPEAKER_02: Riley Beale, 32, Bogdanovich is 33, Harden, 36, Chris Paul, 40.
• 27:41
  SPEAKER_02: Chris Dunn, 31.
• 27:44
  SPEAKER_02: Batum, 36.
• 27:46
  SPEAKER_02: John Collins is in his prime at 27 years old.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_02: Kawhi Leonard, 34, 34, Derek Jones Jr.
• 27:52
  SPEAKER_02: in his prime at 28.
• 27:53
  SPEAKER_02: Zubots in his prime at 28.
• 27:55
  SPEAKER_02: And then Brooke Lopez, 37 years old.
• 27:59
  SPEAKER_02: That is old, man.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_02: That is old.
• 28:02
  SPEAKER_02: And experience is really important in most cases.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_02: Too much experience, it's like, golly.
• 28:09
  SPEAKER_02: My next case against is like with the age, does Kawhi have an extra gear anymore?
• 28:18
  SPEAKER_02: In the series that they gave us last season, he had the one game where he was unstoppable and it had everybody talking, not just about the Clippers, but Kawhi Leonard as a playoff performer.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_02: But after that, he just gave us Kawhi average.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_02: I can't say average because Kawhi's average is still great, but a Kawhi average games.
• 28:36
  SPEAKER_02: And over the last couple of years, we've seen him take his play to a whole nother level.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_02: You think about 2019, he's one of the greatest runs of all time.
• 28:42
  SPEAKER_02: Does he still, at the age of 34, coming off a season where he played with 37 games or so on and so forth, does he does he still have that extra gear for 16 wins to be boardman, get paid, get the claw, so on and so forth?
• 28:59
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 29:00
  SPEAKER_02: I truly don't know.
• 29:02
  SPEAKER_02: Because Father Time don't be losing these battles in a lot of cases, man.
• 29:05
  SPEAKER_02: Even our GOATs, you see them slowly get worse.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_02: LeBron is 40, but he ain't playing like he was when he was 35.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_02: We still respect, he's still great, he's still one of the best wings in all the basketball, he's still a top 10 player in a lot of cases, but you can tell he's a little bit slower now.
• 29:19
  SPEAKER_02: Athleticism ain't what it used to be.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_02: And Kawhi Leonard, you see that as well.
• 29:22
  SPEAKER_02: So it's like, does he still have that extra gear?
• 29:26
  SPEAKER_02: James Harden, as you mentioned, is an all-time floor raising, maybe the greatest of all time.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_02: And that if you weren't completely convinced of his floor raising ability, I want to remind you that before last season, the Clippers over-under was 35 and a half.
• 29:38
  SPEAKER_02: They won 50 games in a year where Kawhi Leonard played, what, 20?
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_02: I think I got my notes 27.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_02: I thought it was 37.
• 29:43
  SPEAKER_02: Let me double check this.
• 29:44
  SPEAKER_02: My notes, I got 27.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_02: He played 37.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, so I mistyped.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_02: He played 37 games last season, and they won 50 in a season where the sports books had him at 35 and a half.
• 29:54
  SPEAKER_02: So that is showing you his all-time floor raising.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_02: But the ceiling raiser thing has been a question.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_02: We're gonna give you two games in the six-game series where it's like, oh shit, here's a little 40 ball for James.
• 30:08
  SPEAKER_02: He's yelling at the crowd.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_02: He's looking amazing.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_02: And some of those other games, it's okay, James Hardy games, but not again at that next level.
• 30:15
  SPEAKER_02: And a lot of teams and a lot of players need to hit that next level to win, you know, as many games as they need to go on to win a championship.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_02: And then his closeout games have just been a problem.
• 30:25
  SPEAKER_02: You know, last year's closeout game, I think he gave us double-digit assists, but I vividly remember him struggling to get to the basket, struggling to put the ball in the hoop.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_02: And it's like, damn, not again.
• 30:36
  SPEAKER_02: So I really do like this Clippers team.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_02: But there's a case for and a case against.
• 30:42
  SPEAKER_02: Let's go back to the Eastern Conference to talk about the New York Knicks.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_02: I think that the Cavs and the Knicks are the two teams in the Easter Conference that like I would not be surprised if they are in the NBA finals.
• 30:51
  SPEAKER_02: I have a team kind of here, but they're just so inexperienced that it feels kind of crazy for me to have in the same conversations as the Knicks and the Cavs.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_02: But anything can really happen in the NBA.
• 31:02
  SPEAKER_02: Here's the case for the um the Knicks.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_02: One, same case we gave the Cavs, the Easter Conference is completely open for the taking.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_02: Number two is that this is year two for the core.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_02: And the first year of having a core that had two big acquisitions between Carnthony Towns and Mikhail Bridges, it's kind of a blessing that they even got to the conference finals.
• 31:20
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, the talent was there, but it usually takes so much time to really jail if there's one side pushing against us, and now they have a new coach and they have to learn some new things.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_02: But year two of the core has to be looked at as a positive.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_02: They've now played together for whatever regular season games, and then an entire postseason, they should be a well-oiled machine and play just better together.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_02: They have one of the most trusted postseason players, performers in all of all than Jalen Bronson.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_02: Those are the cases for the New York Knicks.
• 31:49
  SPEAKER_02: You know, if Mikhail Bridges can get back to, I don't even want him to be top three in defense, but if he could get back to one of the best screen navigators in all the ball, Ojan and Obi's had a really healthy season, believe it or not.
• 31:59
  SPEAKER_02: Like if they just have some of these things happen again or and so on, this should be a team that, like, if they were in the finals, nobody's like, oh, there's the Knicks.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_02: They I can't believe it.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_02: No, you should believe it because that team is that damn good.
• 32:10
  SPEAKER_02: I don't really trust a lot of their offseason acquisitions, but I don't really need to.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 32:15
  SPEAKER_02: I wonder what Mike Brown is gonna do as a coach.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_02: And that's one of the negatives.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_02: The first year under a new coach, and we've seen first year and a new coach win a championship and like a Steve Kerr or Nick Nurse and so on and so forth.
• 32:27
  SPEAKER_02: But I'm really curious to see how much really changes under Mike Brown.
• 32:31
  SPEAKER_02: Will Carnthony Towns be used differently as more of a hub, even though he's not the same type of creator and as a passer as DeMontas Opponis?
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I felt like Carnegie Towns, as good as he was, that season.
• 32:42
  SPEAKER_02: Damn it, he was one of the best players in hoops.
• 32:43
  SPEAKER_02: He was an all-NBA player.
• 32:44
  SPEAKER_02: I did believe that we got to the point, specifically in the postseason, where he was being misused a little bit on the offensive side of the ball.
• 32:50
  SPEAKER_02: And I wonder if Mike Brown kind of empowers him a little bit more as a decision maker, and maybe Carnett Towns has stopped throwing them goddamn no-look passes to nobody.
• 32:57
  SPEAKER_02: But it has to be looked at as a negative, is that you you kind of coming in with a new coach with some new systems and new ideas for the team.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_02: I can also see you using that as a positive, though.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_02: You also question that if a team with having a one, uh point guard or guard that is that negative on the defensive side of the ball, and having a five-man that is that detrimental to your team on the defensive side of the ball, could you have two guys in the lineup at any time in the postseason and that that can be picked on and can be run actions against?
• 33:32
  SPEAKER_02: Could a team like that win?
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm trying to look through recent NBA champions and I'm struggling to find a team that has been able to do that.
• 33:40
  SPEAKER_02: Because I know Corn Daniel Towns gets a lot of hate for his defense, and a lot of it's warranted.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_02: But I think as good as Jalen Brunson is on the offensive side, he's one of the best in the league.
• 33:52
  SPEAKER_02: He is sometimes, not sometimes, he is just as negative on the defensive side of the ball as well.
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_02: He's small, he, you know, he's a competitor, and I think both of these guys compete, but like it can be bad when the opposing team has two different options to really pick on.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_02: And God forbid they get both of them guys in the action together.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_02: What the hell?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_02: So, can you build a championship contender with those two guys being your best players?
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_02: And they made it to the conference finals last season.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_02: They walked out of the conference finals, a team that was in the conference finals two games away from being in the championship, and they had a net rating of an even zero.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_02: I can't even comprehend that.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_02: So I wonder if we get some Mitchell more Mitchell Robinson and Carlton Towns together.
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_02: Mitchell Robinson dealt with so many injuries, I mean, throughout the course of his career.
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe he's not a guy that you need to be trusting on.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_02: But like, I don't know what the numbers say.
• 34:44
  SPEAKER_02: But I do like Clinton Towns playing up a little bit more as far as like him playing at a four, because you have a Mitchell Robinson on the backside.
• 34:50
  SPEAKER_02: Same thing when he was in Minnesota that last season with him and Rudy Gobert anchored the best defense in the league.
• 34:56
  SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if that's a ceiling that they have considering some of the other players in the roster.
• 35:01
  SPEAKER_02: But I wonder if Mike Brown does play the double big lineup way more this season compared to what um Tibbs was able to do last season, given Mitchell Robinson's injury.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_02: So I love this Knicks team though.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_02: Um I have a feeling that they're gonna be one of my most watched teams.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_02: Jalen Brunson is so fucking special.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_02: Moving on to the, where do we go?
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_02: Where do we go?
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_02: The Denver Nuggets.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_02: Case for the Denver Nuggets.
• 35:27
  SPEAKER_02: Hey, they have the best player in the world on their team.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_02: A player that is not only just the best player in the world, but a proven playoff riser.
• 35:32
  SPEAKER_02: That is huge.
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_02: They're finally able to give him the things that he slash Mike Malone was asking for before he got canned and added more depth to this lineup.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_02: This is the first time where I've gone into a season for this version of the Denver Nuggets and thought to myself, oh my God, competence center as a backup.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_02: Like Val has his flaws, not get me wrong, but the flaws between him and DeAndre Jordan, I'm taking Val 100 times out of 100.
• 35:57
  SPEAKER_02: Val versus Zeknagi, I'm taking Val 100% of the time.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_02: So it's it's so fun to say or to think about us going to the postseason.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_02: And listen, I'm not expecting Val to play more than 15 minutes a game in the postseason.
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_02: If he does, it's a fucking miracle.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_02: But that 15 minutes, if they could just hold, if they could just hold.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_02: Now it might hurt Nicole Yogi Zvan's stats if his backup is actually okay, but just them having a guy that you trust matters so much.
• 36:27
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, they made the trade to go get Cam Cam Johnson.
• 36:30
  SPEAKER_02: Tim Hardawick Jr.'s there.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_02: Brucey Brown is back, baby.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_02: So this is a team that feels like a complete roster for the first time since they won their championship.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_02: And that can be scary for the rest of the Eastern Conference because, again, they were just in a series versus the champion with an incomplete roster, dealing with so many injuries and took them to seven, was one game away.
• 36:49
  SPEAKER_02: Hell, the year before that, with an incomplete roster, was one game away as well to being in the conference finals when they lost to the lead to the Minnesota Timberwolves.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_02: So this team should be one of the more dangerous teams outside of the OKC Thunder because, again, the proven playoff riser that is Nikole Jokic and Jamal Murray, even if these last couple seasons have been kind of wishy-washy in the postseason because of injury and stuff, still do have a lot of trust in Jamal Murray as a playoff player.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_02: The case against their defense in a regular season was ranked 21st in basketball.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_02: Was looking back on 21st is higher than I thought it was, honestly.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_02: They had a defensive rate of a 116.5.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_02: Well, Kenny, things got so much better in the postseason.
• 37:28
  SPEAKER_02: Adam came in and fixed some things.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, in the postseason, they had a defensive rate of a 116.
• 37:33
  SPEAKER_02: So half a point better.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_02: And that's just not like you can't just say Kenny, well, yeah, they lost that one series.
• 37:39
  SPEAKER_02: So yeah, no, they had the same exact defensive rating in every single series that they had.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_02: And again, the small sample size, right?
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_02: We're talking about five game or six-game series versus seven-game series versus this.
• 37:49
  SPEAKER_02: The defense is still a lot to be desired.
• 37:53
  SPEAKER_02: And Cam Johnson is at right now in his career.
• 37:56
  SPEAKER_02: I based on what I've watched from him, just not just this offseason, but in the regular season as well with the Brooklyn Nets, he is an average defensive player.
• 38:03
  SPEAKER_02: He is helped out by the fact that he is 6'8 and that he is so fucking smart on the basketball court and he gives effort.
• 38:09
  SPEAKER_02: But for the most part, he's an average defensive player.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, he I feel like laterally he's not quick enough to keep up with a lot of the other good wings in basketball.
• 38:17
  SPEAKER_02: And he's also not strong enough to keep up with like a lot of the fours if they wanted to get kind of bullied with them.
• 38:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I think I'm looking at him as an average defensive player.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_02: So they do still have some question marks on that side of the ball.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe a four-year of Adleman can can really patch some things up.
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that this team will be so good offensively that they don't need to have a top five defense to be a real contender, but they gotta be better than 21st, I tell you.
• 38:40
  SPEAKER_02: They gotta be more trusted in the postseason.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's the case against.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_02: Next team we're gonna get to is the Houston Rockets.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_02: A case four is they just went to a dogfight of a series versus the Golden State Warriors and almost won that with them having zero offense in the half court.
• 38:57
  SPEAKER_02: Zero offense in the half court.
• 38:59
  SPEAKER_02: Their offense was missed shot so we can get rebounds and go back up with layups.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_02: We were in the NBA playoffs, and that was the best thing they could do.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_02: And damn it, it worked for the most part.
• 39:08
  SPEAKER_02: They didn't work long enough.
• 39:11
  SPEAKER_02: They added Kevin Durant.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_02: One of the greatest half-court scores to ever pick up a basketball.
• 39:17
  SPEAKER_02: Maybe the greatest half-court scorer to ever pick up a basketball.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_02: You add Kevin to the team that was last season, they get out of that round.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_02: I'll tell you that much.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_02: I think they push Minnesota too.
• 39:29
  SPEAKER_02: Again, I don't know exactly what happens, but I think they push Minnesota too.
• 39:33
  SPEAKER_02: Just adding Kevin to this team puts them in a whole different tier.
• 39:37
  SPEAKER_02: This is a team that was a two-seed by whatever half a game, whatever it may be.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_02: They should be just better strictly based off that.
• 39:45
  SPEAKER_02: We're doing a lot of projecting with this team because obviously we haven't seen a single second together, but I'm in Thompson coming off the season that he had, we project that he should be better next season.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_02: I just watched Sengong play against Joker.
• 39:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, international ball is so much different than when it comes to the NBA.
• 39:59
  SPEAKER_02: But boy, he's he's he's really good, if you didn't know.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_02: So he should be better this season.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_02: I'm really interested to see how he's used now that Kevin Arant is there on the roster and uh Freddy has been as steady as can be.
• 40:10
  SPEAKER_02: So they have like we talk about the depth that was it, the Clippers.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_02: The Rockets traded for Kevin O'Reilly without giving up a lot of depth to their team.
• 40:19
  SPEAKER_02: Jabbar we signed his extension.
• 40:20
  SPEAKER_02: Tari Easton is on the team.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_02: Steven Adams, who played a huge part in their late season push, still on the team.
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_02: Um you do have some questions about Aries Shepard.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_02: Will he be ready to play real minutes come postseason?
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_02: But damn it, this team is as full as you could have it.
• 40:33
  SPEAKER_02: And now they have a top, whatever player in all of basketball at the top of it on the offensive side.
• 40:38
  SPEAKER_02: The case against it is that this is a new constructed team.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_02: Right?
• 40:42
  SPEAKER_02: It's rare to see a team.
• 40:43
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, Anthony Davis and the Lakers did it, you know, in his first season with the with them, but it's rare to see a team be able to acquire a talent that is a top 10 talent or whatever it may be, and immediately go on to win a championship.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_02: So it is somewhat of a struggle there.
• 40:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, so that's one of my negatives.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_02: The other negative is that even though Kevin Orange has put together two, I'm I'm crossing my fingers here, two back-to-back, relatively healthy seasons the years before they played 35 game, 55 game, and then 47 games.
• 41:09
  SPEAKER_02: So he hasn't been this beaker of great health recently in his career, and he is in his mid-30s.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm keeping my fingers crossed because we we need a healthy Kevin Orange season, but it's not out of the realm of possibility that his old age could catch up to him and he misses some time.
• 41:26
  SPEAKER_02: And one of the things that I admired about Jalen Green, even though I'm definitely not the biggest Jalen Green fan, is that he was available on a nightly basis, and not just available, but like a 20-point per game score on a nightly basis.
• 41:38
  SPEAKER_02: If Kevin O'Rant misses a few months in the season, I the offense will go back to being a drag, I would believe.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_02: With not a lot of cases for people getting him out of that.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_02: So not very strong cases against the Houston Rockets, but there are the cases there.
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_02: Would Reese Shepard be ready for postseason hoops?
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_02: Will they need him to be ready?
• 41:57
  SPEAKER_02: I guess is even another question.
• 42:00
  SPEAKER_02: Because you could run, you know, Freddy and Ammin, bring Freddy off with the six-minute mark, let Amon play the entire first quarter, and then now Freddie's running the show.
• 42:12
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, there's a world where you don't even need Reese Shepard to play any minutes, you just have both of these guards just divvy up their minutes.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_02: So now Ammin is elite guard, and then Freddy's elite guard.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_02: You close out with both of them.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_02: We've seen teams do rotations like that before with like a CJ McCullum and Damian Lillard.
• 42:25
  SPEAKER_02: So maybe you don't even need Reed Shepard to be important to this roster.
• 42:29
  SPEAKER_02: But it would, it would help.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_02: It would help if Reed Shepard was a player.
• 42:34
  SPEAKER_02: Next team we should get to is spend some time in the Wolves.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_02: Because even though I don't, I have to, I put them there out of sheer respect to them for being in the conference finals back-to-back seasons, right?
• 42:46
  SPEAKER_02: Were they on the right side of the bracket?
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_02: None of that shit matters to me.
• 42:48
  SPEAKER_02: They were in the conference finals back-to-back season, so they have the utmost amount of respect for me.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_02: My case for them is that Anthony Edwards has gone through the the last couple, or every year of his career and just got better and better and better.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_02: And then he told us after he lost last series that, like, I'm gonna be in the I'm gonna be in the lab, but I'm not telling y'all what I'm working on.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_02: When he came into the league, he shot 32% for three on seven seven attempts.
• 43:13
  SPEAKER_02: In my mind, there was no world where he was going to lead the league in total three-pointers made.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_02: He went from downhill Dwayne Wade to having Curry range in one offseason.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_02: That's that's nuts.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm not putting nothing past him when it comes to this offseason workouts.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_02: Who knows the type of player he will be next season?
• 43:35
  SPEAKER_02: What did he really work on to get better?
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, but I trust it.
• 43:38
  SPEAKER_02: I truly, truly do trust it.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_02: And he has been, again, a playoff riser.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_02: And that's something that you need when you are a team out there winning a champion trying to win a championship.
• 43:48
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, 27 points per game series, 26 points per game, 24 points per game.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_02: This guy has been um proven to do that time and time again.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, he had the one series.
• 43:57
  SPEAKER_02: I don't want to go back too far back, but that Phoenix.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: Series.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_02: I'm like, damn, that motherfucker might be he might be weighed, you know?
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_02: So it was just that that incredible.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_02: Um, they got everybody back except for Nikyal Junior Walker.
• 44:08
  SPEAKER_02: They bring back Nas Reed, which I didn't really think was that high of a possibility, if I'm being honest with you.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't think Nas Reed was going to be on his roster this season.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_02: I thought some other team's gonna plunk him away because they had more money.
• 44:17
  SPEAKER_02: Nope, he re-signed Julas Randall resigned, and I guess the conversation now that Julas Randall stopped smoking weed right after he left the Knicks.
• 44:24
  SPEAKER_02: The Knicks fans are kind of upset about that.
• 44:26
  SPEAKER_02: But he's been um, he got rid of like the playoff narrative that was around his name.
• 44:32
  SPEAKER_02: It just takes one postseason for people to stop caring about what you did the previous two.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_02: And he was pretty solid in the postseason until we got to like the one series.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_02: And again, they were going against a historic defense.
• 44:42
  SPEAKER_02: And that's with the opposite side, the case against him.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_02: We watched the OKC Thunder ball up, like even to Tyrese Halliburne, who was not a turnover guy at all.
• 44:54
  SPEAKER_02: Actually, he's one of the best assistant turnover players that we've ever had in this league.
• 44:57
  SPEAKER_02: We saw him have a series where it felt like he was being balled up.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_02: They did that to Anthony Edwards, right?
• 45:05
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that I'm not gonna use the word replacement level because that's super disrespectful.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_02: In my mind, replacement level is like 10th man on the roster barely getting minutes.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_02: But them not having a high tier, let's say high tier point guard on the roster scares me because I do believe that when it was Anthony Edwards and an old Mike Conley, who wasn't even that good when they were on the court together, that's when they saw the most success because they had somebody to get them into their sets.
• 45:28
  SPEAKER_02: And if he isn't going to be very good this season, and I can't assume that, but I'm just going off the age and everything, that he's not healthy or he's not ready to be that player.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_02: And maybe Anthony Edwards isn't ready to be that player to be the full-time lead guard.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_02: That does scare me a little bit.
• 45:44
  SPEAKER_02: Because they don't really have a lot of players on the roster that can take that pressure off.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, if Ki Alexander Walker was running some like some real guard play and he's gone.
• 45:51
  SPEAKER_02: You're really, really trusting in a few young players, man.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_02: Like, you know, I said, oh, Reese Shepard is important, but uh, then again, they can no, no, no, no, no, no.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_02: You can't do that with Rob Dillingham.
• 46:02
  SPEAKER_02: I think Rob is one of the most important young players on a championship contender.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_02: And I'm not even talking about him being an all-star.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not talking about him being even a starter in the league.
• 46:12
  SPEAKER_02: But he has to be able to give them something.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_02: He just has to be able to, especially considering all you gave up to give him, uh get him on the roster.
• 46:20
  SPEAKER_02: You also trusting in Terrence Shannon Jr.
• 46:23
  SPEAKER_02: And I have I have more trust in Terrence Shannon Jr.
• 46:27
  SPEAKER_02: than Rob Dillingham, not because of the talent, but because of the role associated with his talent.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_02: You're telling me Terrence Shannon Jr.'s got to come in and be energy and hit some shots and play defense.
• 46:36
  SPEAKER_02: That's so much less of a load than Rob Dillingham, who has to already be at a disadvantage because of his size defensively, but has to guard, be in a shit ton of accent in the postseason and be a play initiator.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_02: It's just a bigger load for Rob Diddenham than with Terrence Shannon Jr.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_02: So that was what scares me.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_02: And like Rudigo Ban offensively, after he got that one game against the Lakers, bro, I mean, he's always been a bad catcher of the ball.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_02: Um, if it ain't a dunk, I don't trust him with it.
• 47:07
  SPEAKER_02: And he did show a little bit of short roll passing, and I was like, okay, and it didn't materialize in the postseason.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_02: Some of them games last season, he he was unplayable on the offensive side of the ball.
• 47:18
  SPEAKER_02: And part of that is again is his own doing because he's never really developed his game throughout his whatever year career.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_02: But also, that goes back into my point guard play thing.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_02: It is not a surprise that when Rudy Gobert is having his best performances, Mike Conley's getting a lot of burn and getting him that ball.
• 47:36
  SPEAKER_02: So if Mike Conley is not gonna play to that level, and they don't have a replacement for that, I just don't think Rudy Gobert is gonna be good enough on the offensive side of the ball.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_02: You understand?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_02: Anyway, uh how many more teams we got?
• 47:49
  SPEAKER_02: We went through the Nuggets, the Rockets, the Thunder, the Oh my god, we're almost at the finish line, y'all.
• 47:53
  SPEAKER_02: The last team I have in the Western Conference is the Lakers.
• 47:59
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know how I have gone to be an optimistic Lakers guy based on my history.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_02: The case for is that they have Luka Doncic.
• 48:12
  SPEAKER_02: We've watched Luka Doncic multiple times in his years with Dallas.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_02: Put the backpack on and talk about playoff riser.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not gonna let last year's playoff against Minnesota be like, oh, you know, I'm not gonna let that negate all of the greatness that was Luka the year before that when they were in the goddamn finals and the years before that when they were in the conference finals or the year before that when he was going against Kawhi Land and Paul George.
• 48:37
  SPEAKER_02: Hell, yes, that was four years ago.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_02: I don't care.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_02: He's been the guy offensively.
• 48:42
  SPEAKER_02: And I give I'm giving him slash them a pass because we talk about the acquisition of talent.
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_02: There's not many times where throughout the course of a single season that you acquire a top five player in the sport in the middle of the season, and not even just a top five player, a top system.
• 49:03
  SPEAKER_02: This is different than acquiring obviously Paul George, not top five, but acquiring a Paul George who you plug and play.
• 49:10
  SPEAKER_02: Luca is the system.
• 49:12
  SPEAKER_02: And JJ slash the coaching staff have to get him into this team.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_02: Now they have a full offseason.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_02: Luca's looking good.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_02: He's on the cover of Men's Health Magazine, which is fucking amazing.
• 49:22
  SPEAKER_02: He's on billboards about Overwatch's new season, which is fucking amazing as well.
• 49:27
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_02: I think I just have too much respect for Luca Dante to not put them in this tier.
• 49:32
  SPEAKER_02: They could also be a team that's a plant.
• 49:34
  SPEAKER_02: Like, this is one of the biggest ranges for a team.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_02: But I truly respect him and a 40-year-old LeBron James.
• 49:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm sorry, I haven't mentioned your name just yet, Bra Brian.
• 49:42
  SPEAKER_02: Enough to say, like, would it be that crazy?
• 49:46
  SPEAKER_02: Based on the teams we've seen Luca take to the finals or the team we've seen him take to the conference finals, would it be that crazy to see this team do that?
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_02: DeAndre Aiden is an upgrade from Jackson Hayes.
• 49:57
  SPEAKER_02: Marcus Smart may not have anything left in the tank, but maybe he does.
• 50:01
  SPEAKER_02: The case against it is what I just said.
• 50:03
  SPEAKER_02: There's a huge range.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_02: If you you could also tell me that this team's a playing team, and I'll be like, oh, that makes sense too.
• 50:08
  SPEAKER_02: They had two months where they were one of the best defensive teams in ball.
• 50:12
  SPEAKER_02: I just don't think that's realistic that they will be able to do that.
• 50:15
  SPEAKER_02: So the case against them is that will that defense be able to hold?
• 50:18
  SPEAKER_02: We watched Anthony Edwards tear them apart as a playmaker, and I just talked about for five minutes that his playmaking has been the boundside to the team right now.
• 50:28
  SPEAKER_02: But in that series, the motherfucker.
• 50:34
  SPEAKER_02: How am I putting him in this tier?
• 50:36
  SPEAKER_02: Um, the offense wasn't very good.
• 50:37
  SPEAKER_02: But again, I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt on that because they had to add him into the lineup in the middle of the season.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_02: Should they be here?
• 50:47
  SPEAKER_02: You let me know.
• 50:49
  SPEAKER_02: I think that's all my teams, other than I was looking at it, how can it only be two Eastern Conference teams?
• 50:56
  SPEAKER_02: How?
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_02: So I was thinking to myself, if we were to add a third Eastern Conference team, who would that be?
• 51:01
  SPEAKER_02: It's Orlando Magic.
• 51:03
  SPEAKER_02: I don't feel great about it.
• 51:05
  SPEAKER_02: But I think they would be the third Eastern Conference team.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_02: And here's the case for it.
• 51:09
  SPEAKER_02: Um, somebody got to be number three.
• 51:12
  SPEAKER_02: And if an injury happens to this team and that team, somebody has to fill in the part.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_02: They are so good as a defensive team.
• 51:18
  SPEAKER_02: Even last year when they were against the Boston Celtics in the series, the Celtics didn't walk away from that series like, oh, we took care of business.
• 51:24
  SPEAKER_02: Like this was a team that was giving them fights, and that was without like a Jalen Suggs, who's one of the most impactful defensive players they have on their team.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_02: So even with them acquiring Desmond Bain, who the defense, the opinion of his defense has wavered depending on who you ask, they still do have the infrastructure to be one of the best defensive teams in ball.
• 51:44
  SPEAKER_02: That's what I got.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_02: Um and they have more talent.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_02: Desmond Bain is super talented.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_02: Franz Wagner is super talented, Palo Bacero is super talented.
• 51:52
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I got.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_02: Case against is where there's many.
• 51:56
  SPEAKER_02: It's unproven and unseen.
• 51:58
  SPEAKER_02: They still will probably have spacing issues, right?
• 52:00
  SPEAKER_02: Desmond Bain helps a ton when it comes to three-point shooting, but he's not a he's not a fix-all.
• 52:05
  SPEAKER_02: He's a he can bandit some stuff, but the other people, Jalen Sur's got to hit his threes.
• 52:08
  SPEAKER_02: Franz Wagner got to hit his threes.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_02: Palo Baccaro's got his threes.
• 52:12
  SPEAKER_02: Okay.
• 52:13
  SPEAKER_02: That's all I got.
• 52:21
  SPEAKER_02: Oh, I didn't like doing it.
• 52:22
  SPEAKER_02: But I I hope you enjoyed it.
• 52:24
  SPEAKER_02: Let's get into Ask KB.
• 52:26
  SPEAKER_02: All you got to do is hit us up on Instagram and on Twitter.
• 52:29
  SPEAKER_02: Use the hashtag AskKB if you will, and we will try our very best to find some of the best ones.
• 52:34
  SPEAKER_02: The first one comes from Nikki that says, out of all of the sophomore players, which do you think will have the biggest sophomore leap?
• 52:40
  SPEAKER_02: You can answer with more than one single if you want.
• 52:43
  SPEAKER_02: Nikki, I'm so happy you told me what I could do on my show.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_02: Because guess what, Nikki?
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_02: I was going to give you more anyway.
• 52:51
  SPEAKER_02: If you would have told me to give you one, I would have given you seven out of spite.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_02: Now, um, the 2024 draft class obviously wasn't the greatest of all of them, but if you ask me who do I believe the most in taking the biggest jumps, the guys that come to mind immediately is I truly believe that Donovan Clinken is a guy that can anchor a really good defensive team.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know if that happens in your number two, but I really do trust him.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, he was one of my favorite prospects in this year's draft for that alone.
• 53:14
  SPEAKER_02: And if you look at his numbers from just the minutes that he played last season, which was 19 minutes a game, or I'll round up a little bit, 20 minutes a game, he was already one of the more impactful five minutes in all of basketball in just 20 minutes per game.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I know they drafted a center in the spot, but I just don't know how ready um Hansen Yang or Jan Hansen or Hansen Yang, I still don't know how ready he will be at the NBA level just yet.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_02: So I really do believe that Don McLean can be a play finisher on the offensive side of the ball and anchor really good defense.
• 53:44
  SPEAKER_02: Another guy that I have some trust in is Zach Edy, who last season we saw his production go up after um they ended up getting rid of coach.
• 53:53
  SPEAKER_02: I really did love Taylor Jenkins, but once they started running more high picking role with John Morant and Zach Edy, Zach Eady's production went up so much because I mean he is a brick wall that sets great screens.
• 54:05
  SPEAKER_02: Are you telling me that we put him in a position to be great?
• 54:07
  SPEAKER_02: He can be great.
• 54:08
  SPEAKER_02: I truly do believe another year under Thomas Isalo, he has an opportunity to, what was his average this last season?
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_02: Nine points per game, eight rebounds.
• 54:16
  SPEAKER_02: I wouldn't be surprised if that goes up dramatically.
• 54:18
  SPEAKER_02: Also in here, he got to go modus Buzales, who once it became a starter, was averaging about 14 points per game in the regular season stats, just says eight.
• 54:25
  SPEAKER_02: But once he became a starter, he looked pretty good.
• 54:27
  SPEAKER_02: I need to see his playmaking leap.
• 54:29
  SPEAKER_02: I need to see him crash the class a little bit more for a guy that's 6'9, 6'10.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_02: Those are some of the guys that come to mind immediately.
• 54:35
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Tristan DaSilva, I think that when you drafted him, you thought he was going to be a better shooter than what he gave you in his rookie season, which is 35%.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_02: If he can be a 36% three-point shooter, I don't expect him to be a starter on this team because they already have their wings figured out.
• 54:49
  SPEAKER_02: But I think he can be an impactful role player for an Orlando Magic team that's really going for Jacoby Walter.
• 54:54
  SPEAKER_02: I did enjoy his season here with the the Toronto Raptors.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: And I thought that if we're gonna look at Summer League at all and have it be a little, you know, have a little crumbs about who's gonna be good and who's not.
• 55:07
  SPEAKER_02: I think Jacoby Walter is one of those guys that can be a real rotational player.
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: Keyshawn George.
• 55:12
  SPEAKER_02: Can I can uh you fin you figured it out?
• 55:14
  SPEAKER_02: I like a lot of people in this draft class, even if I don't think a lot of them are gonna be, you know, the superstar players that some of the previous draft classes have provided us with.
• 55:22
  SPEAKER_02: Next one comes from Binjo that says, in your time watching the Bulls, who do you think is the most underrated player from any season?
• 55:29
  SPEAKER_02: A player that might not have played a bunch of minutes, but when they were out there, they made an impact but never really got much recognition for it.
• 55:37
  SPEAKER_02: What a great question! Shout out to Nikki as well.
• 55:39
  SPEAKER_02: You also gave me a great question.
• 55:41
  SPEAKER_02: The guy that comes to mind immediately when I saw this was Javante Green, man.
• 55:46
  SPEAKER_02: I will forever be a woo supporter because Javante Green was one of those guys that I truly thought that when we traded for him from the Boston Celtics, when he eventually started to get a real minutes the year after that, that he was going to be a guy that's like a part of the Bull score.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_02: And he only averaged 20 minutes per game at the height of his Chicago playing.
• 56:06
  SPEAKER_02: But like in that season, he shot 36% from three.
• 56:08
  SPEAKER_02: And the year after that, he shot 37% from three.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_02: So he was a guy that, and then the year before after that, he shot 37% again.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_02: So he was a guy that was able to knock down shots.
• 56:18
  SPEAKER_02: He was ultra, ultra energy on the defensive side of the ball, and he was a high flyer at 6'4.
• 56:23
  SPEAKER_02: He's like a 6'4 power forward for the Bulls in a lot of cases, but he was so good in those limited minutes, man.
• 56:31
  SPEAKER_02: You couldn't convince me that he wouldn't find a way to be like a real rotational player on a good team.
• 56:35
  SPEAKER_02: Unfortunately, that wasn't necessarily the case.
• 56:37
  SPEAKER_02: And he's jumped around to the Pelicans and then Cleveland, and I think he's in Detroit this season.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_02: I I don't I don't even know.
• 56:43
  SPEAKER_02: But I do want to say, I do want to say.
• 56:47
  SPEAKER_02: I was a season takeaholder his first year in Chicago.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_02: And he dunked the ball so hard, and the players on the bench said, woo, like they that's his nickname, right?
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_02: But nobody was calling him Woo until that point.
• 57:02
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody was.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_02: Nobody in the like the media and the fan aspect of it.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_02: So um I went on to Twitter, I said, hey man, hey Bulls fans, Javante's name is Wu.
• 57:11
  SPEAKER_02: Can we just address him as such?
• 57:14
  SPEAKER_02: And then it became his nickname or basketball reference.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_02: I'm not giving myself full credit for that, but like it wasn't his nickname or basketball reference before that.
• 57:21
  SPEAKER_02: So actually, I'm giving myself credit for it.
• 57:24
  SPEAKER_02: The man's name on Instagram was Savage Woo, and all his friends call him Wu.
• 57:27
  SPEAKER_02: Why are we as NBA fans not calling him Wu?
• 57:29
  SPEAKER_02: It's such a good nickname.
• 57:30
  SPEAKER_02: And then people start calling him Wu, and now he's known as Wu.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_02: Um, but yeah, I think we had an audio question too, so let me get prepped for this one.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, what's poppin', Kenny?
• 57:38
  SPEAKER_00: I want to know how you feel about the value versus skill of a player.
• 57:41
  SPEAKER_00: Some guys are objectively more talented, while others provide more of a team value.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_00: For instance, Jalen Green is a more talented player, but I would rather have Herb Jones on my team.
• 57:51
  SPEAKER_00: Just wanted to know how you go about ranking players when you run into conundrums like this.
• 57:55
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, it's a very great question.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: Thank you so much.
• 57:57
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I am in the similar boat where I value your value to my organization.
• 58:03
  SPEAKER_02: The example that you gave is actually perfect because immediately when you said value, I thought about a guy or skill, I thought about a guy like Jalen Green, who is undoubtedly a really skilled scorer in the NBA at the NBA level.
• 58:14
  SPEAKER_02: A guy like Cam Thomas, who just signed his qualifying offer, is a really skilled player.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_02: But there are so many players that are not as good at the game of basketball that I'd rather have on my team because the skills that they provide, these guys provide, I feel like I can patch together that production.
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 58:35
  SPEAKER_02: So, like, okay, using your example, Herb Jones will not average 20 points per game.
• 58:40
  SPEAKER_02: I mean, maybe he does.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
• 58:49
  SPEAKER_02: But I could argue that based on the points he's taken away on the other side of the ball, that maybe he is provided 20 points worth of production.
• 58:58
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 58:59
  SPEAKER_02: With his 10 points per game, I don't even know.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_02: What the hell was Herb Jones?
• 59:02
  SPEAKER_02: I know Herb Jones had a down year, so I don't want to.
• 59:04
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, his 10.3 points per game that he provided in a regular season.
• 59:09
  SPEAKER_02: Is there a world where he's stopping five possessions from going in?
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_02: Probably.
• 59:15
  SPEAKER_02: So he holds more value.
• 59:17
  SPEAKER_02: And I think that you have to, as a general manager, your number one job, your first job as a general manager, in my personal opinion, is to acquire the guy, right?
• 59:26
  SPEAKER_02: Because you cannot win a championship without the guy.
• 59:28
  SPEAKER_02: Now, there's different levels of acquiring the guy that can be via trade, that can be via drafting.
• 59:33
  SPEAKER_02: Um, and sometimes acquiring the guy via trade can be detrimental.
• 59:36
  SPEAKER_02: But for the most part, if your goal is to win a championship, you need the guy.
• 59:41
  SPEAKER_02: But you also need those value players across the league as well.
• 59:45
  SPEAKER_02: Aaron Gordon averaged, I forgot, I looked at Aaron Gordon's numbers recently, and I was really surprised with the production.
• 59:51
  SPEAKER_02: He averaged 14 and five rebounds last year.
• 59:53
  SPEAKER_02: Five rebounds.
• 59:55
  SPEAKER_02: I'm taking him over a lot of players in his position that average more points than him.
• 1:00:00
  SPEAKER_02: The Denver Niggas found the guy, Nicole Jokic, then found the value guys around him, the guys that provide value to the day-to-day winning of games.
• 1:00:09
  SPEAKER_02: You know?
• 1:00:10
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm always gonna be team value, especially if we're talking about players that, you know, sometimes you're so fucking skilled, right?
• 1:00:19
  SPEAKER_02: And and I mean, like, you gotta be like top five percent.
• 1:00:22
  SPEAKER_02: None of that matters.
• 1:00:23
  SPEAKER_02: You know what I mean?
• 1:00:24
  SPEAKER_02: If you're a top five skilled player, I don't think top five percent skilled player, I'm trying to think of an example.
• 1:00:29
  SPEAKER_02: Uh, I can't think of an example.
• 1:00:31
  SPEAKER_02: Um yeah, I can't think of an example off the top of my mind.
• 1:00:34
  SPEAKER_02: But like, I don't really care about the value at that point because if you're a top five percentile at this skill, then I'm gonna take that.
• 1:00:40
  SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna take that.
• 1:00:41
  SPEAKER_02: But a lot of the guys aren't in that.
• 1:00:43
  SPEAKER_02: Like, I don't think Cam is in that.
• 1:00:44
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think Jalen Green is in that.
• 1:00:45
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think a Jordan Poole is in that.
• 1:00:47
  SPEAKER_02: All unquestionably really skilled guys in the NBA, but they just don't add the same value to winning as what a Herb Jones can do in a lesser role.
• 1:00:57
  SPEAKER_02: I think we we got another.
• 1:00:59
  SPEAKER_01: We got another.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hi, Kenny.
• 1:01:00
  SPEAKER_01: Hope all is well.
• 1:01:01
  SPEAKER_01: I saw this on the NFL post, but I love to hear it from your basketball perspective.
• 1:01:06
  SPEAKER_01: The question is: who are some of the youngest players that could retire today and still make the Hall of Fame?
• 1:01:12
  SPEAKER_01: That's a really good question.
• 1:01:14
  SPEAKER_02: Okay, okay, let's let's do it this way.
• 1:01:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, let me pull up a list of players.
• 1:01:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, because I don't I don't I don't want to forget about some guys off the top of my mind.
• 1:01:26
  SPEAKER_02: So you're saying today we get a post that's from Shams Sharania.
• 1:01:29
  SPEAKER_02: Surprisingly, so-and-so player has retired from the NBA.
• 1:01:34
  SPEAKER_02: Here are the guys that will be able to make the hall.
• 1:01:37
  SPEAKER_02: Jokic is 30.
• 1:01:38
  SPEAKER_02: We know he's gonna make the hall.
• 1:01:40
  SPEAKER_02: Shea is 26 years old with uh NBA Finals and NBA Finals MVP, three all NBA appearances, if I'm not mistaken.
• 1:01:49
  SPEAKER_02: That resume by itself at the age of 26 is significantly better than some of the people that are in the hall.
• 1:01:54
  SPEAKER_02: Now, I don't know how the NFL hall is.
• 1:01:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know, is it the football hall, the NFL?
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:01:58
  SPEAKER_02: The basketball hall is a lot easier to get into compared to I know the baseball hall is like, you gotta be, you gotta be him, which I respect.
• 1:02:06
  SPEAKER_02: But put Barry in the the basketball hall is not that strict.
• 1:02:11
  SPEAKER_02: So a 26-year-old with an MVP and a finals MVP to to back that up, plus a few years of greatness pre-that, I think you have to say he would be a hall of famer today.
• 1:02:23
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Giannis, undoubtedly.
• 1:02:25
  SPEAKER_02: Luka Doncic, though he doesn't have an MVP, though he doesn't have a championship.
• 1:02:30
  SPEAKER_02: If we're basing it off the basketball hall of fame, you think about his international career, we already won an MVP over there, and then he also ended up having five All NBA first team appearances in the NBA, that's a Hall of Famer at the age of 26.
• 1:02:44
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think Anthony Everett is there just yet.
• 1:02:46
  SPEAKER_02: I think he's only got what, two All-NBA appearances and two conference finals appearances.
• 1:02:49
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think the resume is good enough.
• 1:02:50
  SPEAKER_02: Halliburn, not good enough.
• 1:02:51
  SPEAKER_02: Um, Donovan Mitchell at 28.
• 1:02:54
  SPEAKER_02: Hmm.
• 1:02:56
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think it is.
• 1:02:57
  SPEAKER_02: No, I don't think if Donovan Mitchell retired today, I don't think he's gonna be a Hall of Famer.
• 1:03:01
  SPEAKER_02: If I'm looking at his basketball reference really quick, I think he's only made a couple All-NBA teams.
• 1:03:06
  SPEAKER_02: Um, two of them to be exact is six-time All-Star.
• 1:03:08
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think that's enough.
• 1:03:09
  SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna pass on Donovan Mitchell.
• 1:03:11
  SPEAKER_02: Brunson, no.
• 1:03:12
  SPEAKER_02: Um, too small of a prime so far.
• 1:03:14
  SPEAKER_02: Tatum, undoubtedly Jason Tatum is an NBA.
• 1:03:17
  SPEAKER_02: Um, oh, I'm sorry, I keep saying NBA, basketball Hall of Famer, six-time All-Star, five-time All-NBA.
• 1:03:22
  SPEAKER_02: And I think four of them are all NBA first team, number one.
• 1:03:25
  SPEAKER_02: He was the top five player in the league.
• 1:03:26
  SPEAKER_02: And I'll remind you, these are all NBA appearances when they got rid of positions, right?
• 1:03:31
  SPEAKER_02: It wasn't like, oh, we needed an extra four to put Tatum in.
• 1:03:34
  SPEAKER_02: No, this is positionless.
• 1:03:35
  SPEAKER_02: He's been first team four times.
• 1:03:37
  SPEAKER_02: He's got the championship, he's got that's it.
• 1:03:40
  SPEAKER_02: All-star game MP.
• 1:03:41
  SPEAKER_02: This got to mean something.
• 1:03:43
  SPEAKER_02: Don't he got a gold?
• 1:03:44
  SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he at least got one goal when Steve Kerr didn't play him.
• 1:03:47
  SPEAKER_02: So he's got some international play as well.
• 1:03:49
  SPEAKER_02: So Tatum, undoubtedly at the age of 27, is a Hall of Famer.
• 1:03:53
  SPEAKER_02: And then all these other guys are like the older guys.
• 1:03:55
  SPEAKER_02: Wendyama, obviously not.
• 1:03:57
  SPEAKER_02: LeBron, Anthony Davis, yeah, but these are guys are older.
• 1:03:59
  SPEAKER_02: K Conn and him, obviously not, Evan Mobley, obviously not, Carnthony Towns.
• 1:04:02
  SPEAKER_02: I don't think so.
• 1:04:03
  SPEAKER_02: Devin Booker, I don't think so.
• 1:04:04
  SPEAKER_02: So I think that's the I think those are the group of guys that if they, the younger guys that if they retire today, would make the hall.
• 1:04:10
  SPEAKER_02: Um, a lot of these guys will be close, though.
• 1:04:12
  SPEAKER_02: You know, I think some of these guys are close, but not just there yet.
• 1:04:15
  SPEAKER_02: Another great batch of ask KB questions, man.
• 1:04:17
  SPEAKER_02: I appreciate everybody that watched or listened to this episode.
• 1:04:21
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I didn't expect this to be an hour-long show, but damn it, we hear I will not be back next week.
• 1:04:26
  SPEAKER_02: This is gonna be the week after that.
• 1:04:27
  SPEAKER_02: And then hopefully after that, we could get back to our regular cadence.
• 1:04:30
  SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm trying my very hardest for the season to have more guests on the show compared to last season, where we started off hot with Keandre.
• 1:04:37
  SPEAKER_02: Shout out to my boy Keandre, by the way.
• 1:04:38
  SPEAKER_02: He got a job with the NF NBA teams.
• 1:04:40
  SPEAKER_02: Are you kidding me?
• 1:04:41
  SPEAKER_02: And then we had Matt on the show, but I think we didn't have anybody else after that.
• 1:04:44
  SPEAKER_02: So uh I'm gonna try my very best to get more talent onto the show.
• 1:04:48
  SPEAKER_02: So if you have a favorite creator or a favorite writer or a favorite person in sports media, hit me up.
• 1:04:53
  SPEAKER_02: Don't hit them up, hit me up, and I can add them to the list, and maybe I can hit them up and say, hey, you want to do the show?
• 1:04:59
  SPEAKER_02: Appreciate y'all as always.
• 1:05:00
  SPEAKER_02: Um, check out the M Baldi Trust.
• 1:05:02
  SPEAKER_02: I didn't even show you this little detail.
• 1:05:03
  SPEAKER_02: You may have noticed this detail here, and then on the inside, we got the the stitching.
• 1:05:08
  SPEAKER_02: Enjoy stitching.
• 1:05:09
  SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_02: Check it out.
• 1:05:10
  SPEAKER_02: Uh love y'all, see y'all soon.
• 1:05:12
  SPEAKER_02: Peace.