Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / I Ranked the Top Teams in the NBA After 1 Game

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I Ranked the Top Teams in the NBA After 1 Game · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to Small Ball with Kenny Beecham.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_01: We are finally here.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_01: There's no more predictions, no more what-ifs, no more.
• 0:12
  SPEAKER_01: Ooh, I think this team could look good because basketball is finally here.
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_01: Every single team has played at least one game.
• 0:18
  SPEAKER_01: And I watched, I can't say I watched every single game throughout the first three days, but boy, did I watch a lot of them.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_01: And today I'm giving my observations.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_01: Some of them might be overreactions, but that's what the first week of basketball is about.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_01: If your favorite team won by 30, you should act like you just won the Larry O'Brien trophy, man.
• 0:34
  SPEAKER_01: We've been waiting a long time for this.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm going to talk about the Nashville televised game that I'm filming this right after the Denver Nuggets losing to the OKC Thunder.
• 0:43
  SPEAKER_01: Then I want to give y'all seven observations I had based on the first couple days of the NBA season.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_01: Again, some of these might be overreactions, but boy, some teams I'm really, really excited about.
• 0:55
  SPEAKER_01: Some teams I am really, some random role players I'm extremely excited about.
• 0:59
  SPEAKER_01: That's how you know we are stupidly locked into the season.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_01: If if Anyeka Okongu and Dyson Daniels get their own segment on the podcast.
• 1:06
  SPEAKER_01: Yes, it's happening today.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_01: And at the end of the show, I'm going to give y'all my power rankings three days into the NBA season.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_01: Is it too early?
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_01: Probably, but that's that doesn't matter to me.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: We're here.
• 1:17
  SPEAKER_01: Let's talk about this Denver Nuggets game, or I guess the OKC Thunder game.
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_01: This was um very interesting one.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_01: Um, we I made a video a little while ago talking about the Denver Nuggets, and one of the main questions of the entire video was Did I believe the Denver Nuggets championship window had closed?
• 1:32
  SPEAKER_01: And I gave it unequivocally.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: No, it has not.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_01: It has not.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_01: But it's not, it's not closed, but it's slowly closing.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_01: This team looks so much different than the team that was the champion a couple years back.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_01: And in this game, it's game number one, and we're gonna overreact a little bit.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_01: Boy, did they get exposed.
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_01: There were so many lineups, so many moments in time where the Denver Nuggets had no shooters.
• 1:54
  SPEAKER_01: This lineup that I'm about to read you played 11 minutes tonight.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_01: 11 minutes, and we're a net rating of boy, minus 105.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know the exact number, but but I was watching this game like, oh yeah, I can't wait to see their advanced analytics because I know this is about to be bad.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_01: It was Jamal Murray, Russell Westbrook, Julian Strother, Peyton Watson, and Dario Scharz.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now, on paper, it don't sound too bad, right?
• 2:14
  SPEAKER_01: Jamal Murray, for what is worth, good basketball player, even though we got to talk about him in a second because this is another stinker.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Julian Strother is supposed to be one of the high volume three-point shooters on the team.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_01: Dario Scharz, throughout the course of his career, has been given the name of a stretch forward, then eventually stretch five when he became too slow to guard fours.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_01: So on paper, this doesn't sound too bad, but when you were watching, it it it really was that.
• 2:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I should have known something like this was coming after the first preseason game of the year.
• 2:43
  SPEAKER_01: Michael Porter Jr.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_01: went to the stands and he was he was asked about the three-point shooting of the team, and he talked about him and Julian Strother being the guys that have to get the three-point rating or three-point volume up.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I didn't think too much about it in real time, but now I look at him like, man, those are the only two people with tasks to do that.
• 2:59
  SPEAKER_01: Like, it shouldn't be Jamal Murray, it shouldn't be this guy, it shouldn't be that guy.
• 3:03
  SPEAKER_01: If you have two guys with their whole responsibility is to shoot more threes, and in this case, they didn't even get up a lot of them.
• 3:10
  SPEAKER_01: Again, just playing from behind.
• 3:12
  SPEAKER_01: Christian Brown continues to be a guy that gets so many open three-pointers and pass him up.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_01: Now, for what it's worth, I thought he had a good game.
• 3:20
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, get him getting to the basket head down.
• 3:21
  SPEAKER_01: Oh my God, he was going through four defenders at a time sometimes, and it was it was pretty cool.
• 3:26
  SPEAKER_01: But there are a lot of times where he got in the corner and instead of taking that shot, he swung it to the left.
• 3:31
  SPEAKER_01: And swinging it to the left a few different times was Russell Westbrook.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I know Christian Brown, you are not confident in your three-point shot right now.
• 3:38
  SPEAKER_01: I want you taking every single three.
• 3:40
  SPEAKER_01: If the other option is passing to Russell Westbrook for a three, I want you to take every single one.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_01: And he did it.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_01: And I think the main thing when I watch this game, at least from the different nuggets side of things, is that Jamal Murray just is not a threat, at least as of today, without Jokic on the court.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_01: He's a Jokic merchant, is what people say on Twitter.
• 4:02
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not going that far.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_01: But you would think that, okay, usually when a team's best player is on the bench, it is time for that secondary player to step up.
• 4:10
  SPEAKER_01: We saw it in his game, even though he didn't have a super efficient night, Jay Dub.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_01: When it was no Shea Gives Alexander, it's like, okay, Jay Dub, I'm gonna run the show, I'm gonna get things going, even though today not the second best player on the court, the best player on the court was Chet Homer.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: We're gonna get to that.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, usually the second best player, this is their opportunity to drive the ship and create offense and do so and so.
• 4:28
  SPEAKER_01: Jamal Murray has zero burst right now.
• 4:31
  SPEAKER_01: He can't get past the defender.
• 4:32
  SPEAKER_01: And he was never a vertical threat either.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_01: So it's when he's it's just it was bad, man.
• 4:37
  SPEAKER_01: It was really, really bad.
• 4:38
  SPEAKER_01: This team that had this high-powered offense and has been one of the more beautiful offenses for the last, what, four to five season, came into the season open and gave us less than 90 points.
• 4:48
  SPEAKER_01: That's a tough, that's a tough job for Nicole Jokic, man.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_01: Because the OKC Thunder made it an extreme point to throw two at him every time he touched the ball.
• 4:55
  SPEAKER_01: And Chad Homegrim was, again, the perfect basketball player today.
• 4:58
  SPEAKER_01: If it wasn't for him airballing two threes, I would I would have gave him player of the week.
• 5:02
  SPEAKER_01: Now, that's how great of a performance it really was.
• 5:04
  SPEAKER_01: But they loaded up on Jokic every single time he touched the ball.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_01: And why wouldn't they?
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_01: Because we don't trust Aaron Gordon on the kick out.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_01: Only person that we trust is Michael Porter Jr.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_01: And they doubled down off of Michael Porter Jr.
• 5:15
  SPEAKER_01: one time in his game and he made them pay, then they never did it again.
• 5:18
  SPEAKER_01: Then the double came from someone else every single time.
• 5:20
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, okay, Julian Strather again, a good three-point shooter, but we'll live with that.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_01: At this point, teams are living with a Jamal Murray open jumper.
• 5:28
  SPEAKER_01: That wasn't the case a few years back.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_01: And every time I watch the Denver Nuggets and their offense doesn't look great, or it's not as fun or as fluid as previous years.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_01: I always go back to an interview, recipes of the Zach Low podcast from um uh last year, where I for man, I forget who it was, but it was one of the reporters slash um writers at DNVR.
• 5:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, my apologies for not remember his name.
• 5:51
  SPEAKER_01: He was talking about how the Nicola Jokic and Jamal Murray pick and roll slash two-man game was so effective because it was something that they used uh sporadically.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_01: It was in the back of the pocket.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_01: You know, we need a bucket.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, now let's bring it out.
• 6:06
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't the focal point of their offense.
• 6:08
  SPEAKER_01: And now, as their team continues to get worse as far as them losing talent here or there, people that fit the system, that two-man game is not in the back pocket.
• 6:18
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh, we need to do this or we die.
• 6:21
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that's what the difference is.
• 6:22
  SPEAKER_01: And that's why I think that the two-man game isn't as uh as great as it used to be, is because it's used over and over again, and these teams have become used to it.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_01: And yeah, this is not great.
• 6:33
  SPEAKER_01: The best part about it is this game one of 82.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_01: And when you have Nikola Jokic on the team, I'll say it again for the people that that didn't hear me the first time.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_01: When you have Nikola Jokic on the team, you're always going to have a chance.
• 6:45
  SPEAKER_01: But boy, those chances seem to get slimmer and slimmer.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_01: But let's talk about the win in this game.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_01: And it's such a a great contrast between the Denver Nuggets, who I mentioned don't have many shooters anymore, versus the OKC Thunder, who have everybody's a shooter on the team.
• 6:59
  SPEAKER_01: Now, today I think they shot 25% from three, right?
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_01: They shot 25%.
• 7:02
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe they want to shoot a steak, but all of those guys are threat.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_01: Even Shay in the preseason, we were asked if we were buying or selling his uh pull-up jump shooting from three, and he took what, five threes in his game?
• 7:15
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, a few years back, he was averaging five, but last year he averaged three.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_01: So that was higher than what he usually takes.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_01: Every single guy that checked into the game, whether it be whether it be Wiggins, whether it be Caruso, whether it be Uzman Zhang, who I was so happy to see him get early first quarter minutes, and he had a couple threes in this one.
• 7:31
  SPEAKER_01: All of those guys are shooters or a threat to shoot, and it opens up the game so much more for their MVP Shea, who had a couple plays in this one where it's like Aaron Gordon, you're a phenomenal defender.
• 7:42
  SPEAKER_01: I said it before.
• 7:43
  SPEAKER_01: I thought that you, out of all the people throughout the playoffs, did the best job.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_01: Um, other than, ooh, that's kind of tough now that I say that aloud.
• 7:51
  SPEAKER_01: One of the best jobs on Anthony Edwards in the postseason in this one, Shea had him spinning around a few different times.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, hey, it's not much you can really do because there's no, you can send help if you want to, but everybody, not only are they good three-point shooters, they're plus playmakers too.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like, what are you supposed to do about this team?
• 8:07
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought coach coach Mark Dayton played an amazing game plan.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_01: They didn't have any centers today, other than Chet Holmgren.
• 8:13
  SPEAKER_01: So they mirrored Jokic's minutes with Chet.
• 8:16
  SPEAKER_01: And Chet was phenomenal today.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, when it was him one-on-one with Jokic, there were a few times, because again, Jokic is the best player in the world, but he didn't stand a chance.
• 8:25
  SPEAKER_01: They were talking about on the broadcast or Jokic is listed at 280, and then uh Chet Homer's is listed at what, 220, less than 220 or something like that.
• 8:32
  SPEAKER_01: So, yes, on the block by himself, it's not much he can really do.
• 8:36
  SPEAKER_01: But there were a few times where he did get beat by Jokic and he still ended up recovering enough to contest a shot or get the block completely.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_01: This was one of the best Chet Homer games I've ever watched.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_01: And I watched that game against the Golden State Warriors uh from last year.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_01: So it was a fun, fun game if you're an OKC fan, less fun of a game if you're a Denver fan, because I know some Denver fans that are um, I don't know, on their heels when it comes to this organization right now about them not paying whatever amount of money it is to make the team better.
• 9:04
  SPEAKER_01: Now they're paying money to keep the talent there as far as the core four, after you saw Aaron Gordon get his money last week, but they haven't done enough to make the outside adjustments to continue to add to the core, um, other than bringing in Russell Westbrook.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_01: And uh I became a Russell Westbrook fan pretty late, right?
• 9:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I think it was like two years ago.
• 9:21
  SPEAKER_01: I did a video on YouTube and you can still find it where it was called Russell Westbrook Ranked.
• 9:25
  SPEAKER_01: I took a page out of Anthony Fantano's book, and Anthony Fantano would go through the whole, is it called discography when it comes to music?
• 9:31
  SPEAKER_01: The whole discography of an artist and ranked their albums.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I thought that series was so damn dope that I was like, what if I did the same thing for NBA players?
• 9:38
  SPEAKER_01: So I took every single year of Russell Westbrook's career and ranked them.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_01: And then doing research for that, for that video, I became a fan because it made me deep dive into Russell Westbrook as a player and as a person.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_01: So I've been rooting for Russ since then.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_01: And and I had always enjoyed his game, but there's a different level for me.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_01: It's hard for me to really explain it other than saying that sometimes I enjoy players' games, but I'm not a fan of that player.
• 10:01
  SPEAKER_01: But I became a Russell Westbrook fan, right?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm saying all of that to say today was awful.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_01: I had to get that whole one and a half minute spiel about me being a fan.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_01: So I so y'all won't criticize me for criticizing Brody.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: You feel me?
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_01: Today was awful.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, there were a few times where he made some cool defensive plays, whether it be a block or him hustling on defense to save a loose ball.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_01: Like that's the Russell Westbrook thing.
• 10:22
  SPEAKER_01: Offensively, it was dreadful.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_01: Um everybody knows that he is the lowest percentage, high volume shooter in the history of basketball.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_01: And he still has the green light to take three pointers, apparently.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_01: No coach has ever told him he can he has to turn that part of his game off, and he continues to shoot him.
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just bad, man.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_01: And when I mentioned him playing alone side some other players that are non-shooters, it just nullifies who Russell Westbrook could be, and it nullifies everybody else on the court.
• 10:52
  SPEAKER_01: I'm excited to see what Coach Mike Malone does about that.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_01: Again, we're talking one game, but it was it was ugly, man.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_01: It was an ugly, ugly experience.
• 11:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did I did see he hit one of them.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_01: So that's great.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_01: The one thing about Brody is you're not gonna make him stop shooting, but man, um also in my notes, I say I want to give credit to Chad's defense for not getting into foul trouble either.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_01: Because if he gets into the foul trouble, they don't win this game.
• 11:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think it's that simple.
• 11:14
  SPEAKER_01: If he gets into foul trouble, there's no way to guard Jokic in this one, and Jokic might drop 100 points and just like that, they end up losing.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_01: So Chad is the MVP of this game.
• 11:22
  SPEAKER_01: Excited to see what Denver does next.
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_01: I I'm not extremely, extremely worried.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_01: If I'm doing a panic meter on Jamal Murray after the playoffs, where he hit the two-game winners versus the Lakers, but other than that, he was awful.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_01: After the Olympics, where he went into Team Canada, he wasn't starting.
• 11:38
  SPEAKER_01: I was like, that's peculiar.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_01: It wasn't peculiar.
• 11:40
  SPEAKER_01: He was ass.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_01: And then now after seeing him in the pre in the few games of the preseason and now seeing him one game in a regular season, my panic meter for Jamal Murray is slowly creeping up.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_01: I was closer to a three.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_01: I'm maybe closer to a five now, man.
• 11:54
  SPEAKER_01: They need him to not just be him, be the best version of him.
• 11:58
  SPEAKER_01: If this chance, this team has any chance to not win a bunch of regular season games.
• 12:01
  SPEAKER_01: I think they're going to do that irregardless.
• 12:02
  SPEAKER_01: But if they want to win a championship, win the four series that they need to raise the Larry O'Brien trophy again, Jamal Murray has to be the best version of himself.
• 12:11
  SPEAKER_01: As good as Aaron Gordon is, and damn, he's a very good player.
• 12:14
  SPEAKER_01: He can't shoulder that low.
• 12:16
  SPEAKER_01: And they were look, look, look, okay, last thing.
• 12:17
  SPEAKER_01: Last thing about this game before we move on to some of the cooler stuff of the NBA season so far.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of the times, um coaches steer away from playing full bench lineups, as they should.
• 12:29
  SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, the bench players are bench players for a reason in most cases.
• 12:33
  SPEAKER_01: And when teams steer away from that, they usually, again, have a creator slash ball handler as the the random starter that stays in with the bench players.
• 12:43
  SPEAKER_01: There are a few times in this one where it was a Brody, a Strother, a Peyton Watson, a Sarch, and an Aaron Gordon.
• 12:50
  SPEAKER_01: And I just don't know how much value Aaron value Aaron Gordon is providing in lineups like that.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_01: So Mike Malone's got a lot of work to do.
• 13:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um the Denver Nuggets got a lot of work to do.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_01: OKC should be feeling very, very good about their first game of the season.
• 13:06
  SPEAKER_01: And everybody pretty much has them as like the top contender out west, I believe.
• 13:11
  SPEAKER_01: But a game like this kind of opens the eyes because they they still don't have Isaiah Hartenstein and Camrich Williams, who I don't know if he would get real rotational minutes on this better team, but he is just their Nick Collison.
• 13:22
  SPEAKER_01: So I want to see him play.
• 13:28
  SPEAKER_01: I have seven observations about the season.
• 13:31
  SPEAKER_01: Some of these I'm gonna talk about a lot more than others, but I just I just want to talk things through.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_01: I tried my very best to watch as many games as possible.
• 13:38
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I'm I'm covering it a little bit differently.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_01: Like the other night, we had a 10-game slate.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_01: I picked four games that I wanted to watch live.
• 13:44
  SPEAKER_01: And then the other games I either watched um later that day or I decided I'm not watching that.
• 13:49
  SPEAKER_01: Or you know what?
• 13:50
  SPEAKER_01: No, I can't watch that.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_01: Can I rant for a second?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_01: So there was a nasty salad's game, the first one.
• 13:56
  SPEAKER_01: It was 76ers versus Milwaukee Bucks.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_01: I opted to not watch that live.
• 13:59
  SPEAKER_01: No Paul George, no uh Joel and B, no Kenny Beecher.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_01: Simple as simple as that.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_01: I knew that the Bucs were gonna win that game.
• 14:06
  SPEAKER_01: There was no world where they did it.
• 14:07
  SPEAKER_01: Well, I guess that's not true.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's disingenuous.
• 14:10
  SPEAKER_01: But there was a low percentage chance that there was anything that was gonna happen in that game that was gonna be extremely interesting for me.
• 14:15
  SPEAKER_01: So I opted to watch the team or the game that I'm gonna talk about first here, Orlando matches versus the Miami Heat, and that ended up being a blowout, too.
• 14:23
  SPEAKER_01: But I told myself, tomorrow morning, I'll wake up and I'll see what happened in the game.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_01: Why can I not watch the game the second day?
• 14:31
  SPEAKER_01: Is it because it was nasty televised?
• 14:34
  SPEAKER_01: Partially.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_01: Is it because I'm close to Milwaukee?
• 14:37
  SPEAKER_01: Partially.
• 14:38
  SPEAKER_01: I'm double blacked out to that game.
• 14:39
  SPEAKER_01: So I can watch, I watch highlights of it, but I can't give you my opinion about a damn basketball game on 12 minutes of highlights.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_01: That doesn't tell you the story.
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_01: So I have zero opinions about what the hell the 76ers did.
• 14:50
  SPEAKER_01: I have zero opinions about the Milwaukee Bucks, other than you can't play drop coverage against the third best shooter of all time.
• 14:56
  SPEAKER_01: That's the only thing I got.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_01: Anyway, um, let's talk about the Orlando Magic.
• 15:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, I did a prediction video trying to predict the NBA standings.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_01: And a casualty to that prediction video was the Orlando Magic.
• 15:10
  SPEAKER_01: When I say a casualty, they still made the playoffs, don't get me wrong.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_01: But last year they were a five seed in my fictional world where I was building these standings, they fail.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, do I feel really bad about that today.
• 15:25
  SPEAKER_01: Out of all of the predictions I made this offseason, that's the one I'm wanting back on day one.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_01: Because boy, did they dominate.
• 15:31
  SPEAKER_01: And I think a lot of that has to do with the 1A guy, Palo Banquero.
• 15:37
  SPEAKER_01: To the people that be watching these basketball games, Palo Banquero is a stud.
• 15:41
  SPEAKER_01: He's got the talent, the physicality, the tough shot making.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_01: Everything about Palo Bancaro stood out to the people that's watching these games.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_01: But for the people that's the box score watches, there are a few things that don't stand out or stand out the other way.
• 15:55
  SPEAKER_01: He's pretty inefficient so far in his studio NBA career.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_01: His own off numbers say that the Orlando Magic are a better basketball team when he is not on the court and he is a turnover magnet.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_01: In my personal opinion, all of that is BS.
• 16:07
  SPEAKER_01: All of that is BS.
• 16:09
  SPEAKER_01: When you watch Paulo Vancaro and his inefficiencies, you you you have to realize that there's a chunk of those shots that are that are saying, Paolo, please save us.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_01: And as good as Paolo is, he's not Superman.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_01: So sometimes those please save us moments and misses.
• 16:27
  SPEAKER_01: And you want the ball in your best player's hands if you have two seconds on the shot clock.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_01: There are times, of course, where he takes bad shots.
• 16:34
  SPEAKER_01: Again, he's a tough shot taker and a tough shot maker, right?
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_01: So occasionally those tough shots that he made one game, he's just not gonna make in game number two.
• 16:43
  SPEAKER_01: So in my mind, when you're talking about efficiency for a second-year player with this amount of talent, I think you're so far lost, right?
• 16:49
  SPEAKER_01: In my personal opinion, you talk about a two-year player, right?
• 16:52
  SPEAKER_01: When you talk about the on-off numbers, anyway, it was all BS to me.
• 16:59
  SPEAKER_01: In this game, the season opener against the Miami Heat, um, a top seven defense last year, mind you.
• 17:05
  SPEAKER_01: He had 33, 11, and three and zero turnovers.
• 17:10
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he was a plus 42 on the night.
• 17:16
  SPEAKER_01: Hold on, listen to me now.
• 17:18
  SPEAKER_01: They talk about the inefficiency.
• 17:19
  SPEAKER_01: Go look at that box score.
• 17:20
  SPEAKER_01: Tell me that ain't that inefficiency.
• 17:21
  SPEAKER_01: He shot four for four for eight from three.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_01: They talk about the all-and off numbers.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_01: What he was a plus 42.
• 17:27
  SPEAKER_01: They talk about the turnover rate.
• 17:29
  SPEAKER_01: He has zero on them things.
• 17:31
  SPEAKER_01: So now what?
• 17:33
  SPEAKER_01: What could you what could you possibly say negatively about Palo Bancaro based on this first game?
• 17:37
  SPEAKER_01: The best thing about it is he was relentless.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_01: Coming into the season, um he was asked about the expectations.
• 17:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the expectations, when you think about a year three player on a team that made the plaza the first time in X amount of years, you would think of something very generic, like we just want to continue to build.
• 17:57
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like that's a great answer.
• 17:59
  SPEAKER_01: Hey, we just made the plaza the first time, we want to be better this season.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_01: Palo Ben Caro with his whole chess said, if you're not playing for a championship, what are you playing for?
• 18:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, personally, it is very hard for me to get to that place for the Orlando Magic.
• 18:13
  SPEAKER_01: But Palo Ben Caro, based on game number one, is playing as though that is truly his goal.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_01: Because you think about the settling, the tough shot taking, and stuff like that, a lot of that was dead in game number one.
• 18:27
  SPEAKER_01: Where if it wasn't Bam out of bio guarding him or Jimmy Butler, he put his hand down, put his shoulder into your chest, and said you were too little.
• 18:37
  SPEAKER_01: That was one of the things that wasn't missing from Palo Bancaro's game.
• 18:41
  SPEAKER_01: It was just something that he didn't use as often as he probably should.
• 18:44
  SPEAKER_01: When you're as gifted as he is, when it comes to, I mean, not gifted, um, physically gifted, as far as him being 6'8, 6'9, and some sometimes the man is 6'10.
• 18:53
  SPEAKER_01: You see him standing alongside uh Jason Tatum, he's got like two to three inches taller than him.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_01: If you look at that picture when they went uh team Jordan went to China.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_01: Either way, he's physically gifted, and sometimes I wanted to see him use those physical gifts a bit more.
• 19:08
  SPEAKER_01: Harold Hyssmith is listed at 6'7, 220 pounds.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_01: Palo Bancaro put him in the rim time and time and time again.
• 19:21
  SPEAKER_01: There were some times where he was trying to get a switch.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, it's Tyler Harrow and Terry Rose here on the quarter.
• 19:26
  SPEAKER_01: By the way, by the way, Franz Wagner dominated those switches all game long.
• 19:32
  SPEAKER_01: There was times when Palo Bancaro tried to get a switch and it didn't happen.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_01: And he said, Oh well, this 6'7, 220-pound dude will do.
• 19:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't need this the 6'3 guy anymore.
• 19:44
  SPEAKER_01: Give me the it was incredible.
• 19:46
  SPEAKER_01: And that third quarter was all him.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_01: That third quarter was all Orlando magic.
• 19:51
  SPEAKER_01: And me and the guys were talking about it because we watched this game on playback.
• 19:54
  SPEAKER_01: I went back to watch it again a second time this morning.
• 19:56
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and we were talking about how during halftime they did this full thing for Pat Riley.
• 20:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and basically halftime was like 34 minutes.
• 20:04
  SPEAKER_01: Halftime is 34 minutes.
• 20:06
  SPEAKER_01: And when we got to the second half, the Miami Heat were absolutely dead.
• 20:10
  SPEAKER_01: They scored like 16 points in the third quarter while the Orlando Magic scored close to 40.
• 20:14
  SPEAKER_01: They were dead in the water.
• 20:16
  SPEAKER_01: And we were making a joke that what well, the Orlando Magic got the young legs, so they can afford to sit for 34 minutes and not do nothing while the uh Miami Heat have mid-30s Jimmy Butler, 30-year-old Terry Rozier, and so on and so forth.
• 20:29
  SPEAKER_01: And those dudes just was not ready for that 34-minute break.
• 20:34
  SPEAKER_01: And I I kind of feel bad for the Heat because they have this big moment where every every single Miami Heat legend was in attendance.
• 20:41
  SPEAKER_01: And they got dog walked.
• 20:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and while, again, I'm giving a lot of credit to Palo Ben Caro, I gotta give credit to Anthony Black, Gary Harris, KCP, even though I don't think he hit a three-point in this game.
• 20:53
  SPEAKER_01: Wendell Carter, there was one play.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man, I should I should tweet it out tomorrow morning.
• 20:58
  SPEAKER_01: Well, Wendell Carter got the ball at the elbow while you got a rolling Palo Bancaro, and it was a two-foot pass.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_01: It was a two-foot pass perfectly in Palo Bancaro's pocket, and he threw it down and he hung on the rim.
• 21:09
  SPEAKER_01: It was perfect.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm gonna shift gears to talk about the Miami Heat.
• 21:13
  SPEAKER_01: Because as excited as I am was about the Orlando Magic, I'm equally disappointed in the Miami Heat.
• 21:19
  SPEAKER_01: Because they were a team that I had over the Orlando Magic.
• 21:24
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes giving a bow prediction is stupid.
• 21:27
  SPEAKER_01: In this game, they stunk.
• 21:30
  SPEAKER_01: And I talked about their new system where they are trying to get good with the times.
• 21:35
  SPEAKER_01: Everybody and their mom is running five out offenses, so on and so forth.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_01: We, the Miami Heat, are last of the party, but we're gonna get there.
• 21:44
  SPEAKER_01: I have never, ever, ever in my years of watching basketball at this point, um, over about 20 years of watching basketball, some of them professionally, some of them not.
• 21:54
  SPEAKER_01: I have never seen two all star teammates be least involved in in the offense.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_01: Ever.
• 22:01
  SPEAKER_01: You want to know how bad it was?
• 22:02
  SPEAKER_01: This is from uh John LaBlanca.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_01: He is a writer.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_01: Go check him out.
• 22:06
  SPEAKER_01: He's got a really good substack.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_01: Jimmy Butler was seventh in the entire team on the entire team in touches.
• 22:12
  SPEAKER_01: He was seventh.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_01: Jimmy Butler.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_01: Contract year Jimmy Butler.
• 22:17
  SPEAKER_01: Got my hair done for Media Day, Jimmy Butler.
• 22:21
  SPEAKER_01: Pat Riley saying, we need you to play Jimmy Butler.
• 22:23
  SPEAKER_01: Was seventh in touches.
• 22:26
  SPEAKER_01: Harold Highsmith had more touches and more time of possession with the ball than Jimmy Butler.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_01: I just let I had to let you digest that for a second.
• 22:40
  SPEAKER_01: If you're listening to it, you probably look at your phone and be like, wait, did it pause no?
• 22:43
  SPEAKER_01: I let you digest that for a second.
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_01: That's how bad it was.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_01: And with this five out offense, everybody wants to replicate the Celtics.
• 22:53
  SPEAKER_01: This team is basically unbeatable.
• 22:55
  SPEAKER_01: Unbeatable.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_01: But the reason the Celtics are so good, and one of the reasons why their three-point shots matter and go in more than others is the way they're generated.
• 23:06
  SPEAKER_01: They have people that put pressure on the rim.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_01: They have four people at all times that can get past their defender, put pressure on the rim, sink in the defense, and kick it out.
• 23:16
  SPEAKER_01: And if you don't sink in the defense, then I'm just gonna lay the ball up or get fouled.
• 23:20
  SPEAKER_01: The Miami Heat tried to run a five out offense with no dribble penetration.
• 23:26
  SPEAKER_01: So what did that leave them with?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_01: Multiple possessions where they didn't even get a shot up.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_01: Bam Abayo, one of the better players in all of basketball, was a corner sitter in the first game of the season.
• 23:40
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like that.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like that at all.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um the good thing is they have one of the best coaches in the entire world, so I don't expect that to stay the case.
• 23:50
  SPEAKER_01: But if the man, the heat offense just looked bad.
• 23:53
  SPEAKER_01: It just really did.
• 23:54
  SPEAKER_01: And their defense again didn't look good either.
• 23:57
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm a little worried.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_01: Panic meter, Miami Heat, six?
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Six.
• 24:03
  SPEAKER_01: Let's say six.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_01: Observation number two, because that that was all one observation.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_01: Again, some of these are gonna be longer than others.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_01: Um the the Clippers wall is fun.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_01: It ain't all it ain't all gonna be analytical and super deep.
• 24:16
  SPEAKER_01: Sometimes you gotta take it at face value.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_01: That Clipper wall is pretty cool.
• 24:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um, if you didn't know, they created a wall in the Intuit Dome and it just opened up first NBA game there or first regular season NBA game there is pretty fun.
• 24:26
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, overtime game between the Clippers and the Suns.
• 24:30
  SPEAKER_01: And the uh the second half of every game, the opposing team in the Intuit Dome is gonna have to stare at what they call the wall.
• 24:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if I'm not mistaken, it is 42 levels of continuous seats.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_01: And in the first 15 of those levels are where the diehard Clippers fans are that are going crazy with the signs and the streamers and so on and so forth.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Kevin Arat missed multiple free throws in the fourth quarter.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_01: Devin Booker missed free throws in the fourth quarter.
• 24:58
  SPEAKER_01: That was kind of it's kind of fun.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_01: You just don't get that atmosphere in the NBA very often.
• 25:02
  SPEAKER_01: Um, it's more of a college thing, you know what I'm saying?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_01: But it was kind of cool.
• 25:05
  SPEAKER_01: It's more like a, I don't know, football thing, field goal kicking thing.
• 25:09
  SPEAKER_01: You're gonna have the guys, it's gonna have the uh kick it here signs and all of that.
• 25:13
  SPEAKER_01: It was kind of cool to see in basketball.
• 25:14
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the game itself, in my notes, it says uh live by harden, die by harden.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_01: It was cool to see Harden turn back the clock for possessions at a time, man.
• 25:22
  SPEAKER_01: And I mentioned it before that that two-man game between him and Zubac will be one of the best in basketball because that's how good of a pick and roll player James Harden is, even in the year of 122 years old.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_01: He's just that good of a player.
• 25:34
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but you live by him, you die by him.
• 25:36
  SPEAKER_01: And there were a couple crucial turnovers down a stretch and a couple, or I'm sorry, one miss free throw that would have put them into second overtime.
• 25:44
  SPEAKER_01: But it was it was an impressive showing, if you will, for the Clippers.
• 25:48
  SPEAKER_01: I thought their defense was pretty good this entire game.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_01: They turned the Suns over 22 times, and a lot of that was like there was like a four-possession stretch where Kevin Durant stepped on the sideline, um, a bad pass from Kevin Durant, a backcourt, like it was continuously.
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, damn, what the the Intwa Dome is lit.
• 26:05
  SPEAKER_01: Like they got these boys really tripping out there.
• 26:08
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually things started to go where Kevin Durant started to take over.
• 26:11
  SPEAKER_01: He hit the big shot to send to overtime.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_01: And then that was all she wrote, basically.
• 26:15
  SPEAKER_01: But the Clippers played a better game than I anticipated.
• 26:18
  SPEAKER_01: There were a few different things where I saw where there was one play where Darren Jones Jr.
• 26:22
  SPEAKER_01: was sitting there with his hands like in his jersey on the on the corner, and he's letting the offense flow on the on the left side, left side wing.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_01: He's in the right side corner, and then boom, he burst it off to the rim, and it was it was a designated play for him to catch a lob, but it caught his defender off guard because he's corner sitting with his hands in the spot.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_01: It was just like a decoy, and I was like, oh, that that's pretty cool.
• 26:41
  SPEAKER_01: And again, Hardin is one of the best um elopdors of all time, too.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like it was just perfectly put on the money, even though he did try to kill Dear Jones Jr.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: like twice in this one.
• 26:50
  SPEAKER_01: Like we know his name is airplane mode, but he can't jump 40 feet in the air, James.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_01: And there was a few times he threw that ball too crazily.
• 26:57
  SPEAKER_01: But the Suns did go out there and get their win.
• 27:00
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and that was a good win for what it's worth.
• 27:03
  SPEAKER_01: When you turn the ball over that many times, Devin Booker doesn't have a good game.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, Kevin Arant doesn't have a good game into the third quarter, and you're still able to walk out there with a win.
• 27:09
  SPEAKER_01: I think there was some optimist optimism coming out of it, coming out of that.
• 27:13
  SPEAKER_01: Um, Atlanta Hawks.
• 27:15
  SPEAKER_01: Here's the Dyson Daniels and Yekakama.
• 27:17
  SPEAKER_01: I won't spend too much time on these two dudes, okay?
• 27:18
  SPEAKER_01: I promise.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_01: Um it was just kind of cool to see the archetype of Dyson Daniels thrive.
• 27:25
  SPEAKER_01: Game one.
• 27:26
  SPEAKER_01: He's a 60% free throw shooter.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if his three-point shot.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_01: He shot 50% from three in this game, but I don't know if that three-point shot will ever come around.
• 27:33
  SPEAKER_01: But if it does, he is the perfect type of guard or off guard slash wing to put alongside Trey Young.
• 27:40
  SPEAKER_01: I firmly do believe that.
• 27:42
  SPEAKER_01: He was everywhere defensively.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_01: He had four, five steals, and four of those were back tap steals.
• 27:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm calling it the Dyson dip specifically when Dyson does it.
• 27:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um kind of perfect for what they want to do over there.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_01: And it made me pretty intrigued about what could happen next.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: The Hawks.
• 27:58
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the bad thing about it is it took them to the last couple minutes to get rid of the fucking uh Brooklyn Nets who are a bad basketball team.
• 28:04
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Cam Thomas for that.
• 28:05
  SPEAKER_01: He scored 20 points in the fourth quarter.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe I shouldn't be too optimistic about the win because it was a dirty and a nasty win, but a win is a win nonetheless.
• 28:12
  SPEAKER_01: Dyson Daniels was everywhere.
• 28:14
  SPEAKER_01: He had he he's he's definitely one of those players that's like right place, right time.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_01: There are a few of those in basketball.
• 28:19
  SPEAKER_01: I think Aaron Gordon is a perfect example of this.
• 28:21
  SPEAKER_01: Dyson Daniels is a small version of that where the ball just falls into his lap on offensive rebound sometimes.
• 28:27
  SPEAKER_01: The loose ball is right in front of him.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: He just picks it up.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_01: It's like Domino from the Deadpool series where they just her superpower is good luck.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_01: I feel like Dyson Daniels is kind of that uh on the basketball court.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_01: The ball just ends up in his hands.
• 28:39
  SPEAKER_01: Like, oh, okay, I guess I could take this.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_01: Niggas clax tried to kill him.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he was unsuccessful.
• 28:44
  SPEAKER_01: Next guy's in Yucca Kangu.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_01: Um, speaking of superpowers, a yekka kongu superpower, it's it's slipping screens.
• 28:52
  SPEAKER_01: Don't need to get a body on a screen.
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_01: Why would I do that?
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a yucca kongu.
• 28:54
  SPEAKER_01: I'm gonna slip the screen and I'm just faster than the opposing center in most cases.
• 28:58
  SPEAKER_01: That is like I'm telling you, if you watch the Atlanta Hawks and you're looking for very minute details about random role players, watch a Yekka Kongu slip a screen.
• 29:08
  SPEAKER_01: Now, he doesn't do it every time.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: That's a superpower.
• 29:09
  SPEAKER_01: You can't do it every time.
• 29:10
  SPEAKER_01: Then people start to catch on.
• 29:12
  SPEAKER_01: But when he does it, he does it perfectly.
• 29:15
  SPEAKER_01: Like of I can't say every time he slipped, but if I go back and watch their game, I can almost guarantee that 90% of the time they slip the screen instead of getting the body on it.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_01: It ended in the lob or ended in the possession where he scored or someone else scored.
• 29:27
  SPEAKER_01: It's a dangerous, dangerous game.
• 29:29
  SPEAKER_01: So shout out to the Atlanta Hawks.
• 29:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's might not get talked about a lot on this show.
• 29:34
  SPEAKER_01: So there you go.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_01: Episode one of the real, real regular season.
• 29:37
  SPEAKER_01: We get some Dyson Daniels and Yekka Kango talk.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_01: The next one, maybe the most exciting one for me, or second most exciting one for me, Lamelo balls return.
• 29:45
  SPEAKER_01: Lamelo had uh 34, 11, and 8.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, and he helped this team come back when they were down by 18 against the Houston Rockets.
• 29:51
  SPEAKER_01: And Houston Rockets, good basketball team.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_01: Lamelo's in this new age of star, where and and I understand where some of this comes from, so I'm not acting like this is a bad opinion.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_01: I honestly, in comes to basketball, it's not many bad opinions, I guess.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_01: Lamelo's in that group of guys of um people typically say prove it to.
• 30:09
  SPEAKER_01: And again, I understand it.
• 30:10
  SPEAKER_01: The man, him and Ben Simmons, I think I read the stat, him and Ben Simmons have almost played the exact same amount of games over the last three seasons.
• 30:16
  SPEAKER_01: That's not a that's not a group you want to be in, Lamelo.
• 30:18
  SPEAKER_01: So I understand when you say prove it to Lamelo.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: Prove it.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_01: In my mind, as long as Lamelo's on the court, he has been a floor raiser and a ceiling raiser for his team.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_01: He kind of has already got the whole empty stats attached to his name.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_01: And I just don't see that.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_01: I don't really subscribe to empty stats in most cases, but Lamelo's like the furthest thing.
• 30:40
  SPEAKER_01: I think that what Lamelo ball does on the court contributes to winning games.
• 30:45
  SPEAKER_01: But the problem is, other than one year of his NBA career, he's never had a competent roster.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_01: Go win games with the team he played with last year or the year before that.
• 30:53
  SPEAKER_01: Who's doing that?
• 30:54
  SPEAKER_01: LeBron?
• 30:55
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe.
• 30:56
  SPEAKER_01: Like, I'm not even saying that this is even a competent team, even though I did buy stocking it before the season started.
• 31:01
  SPEAKER_01: But when he has competent players around him, I'm a firm believer that he can help you win basketball games.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_01: It's just hard to find a guy that is listed as he's listed as 6'7.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_01: They said he even grew.
• 31:14
  SPEAKER_01: I don't even know if he's still 6'7 that is 6'7.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_01: He's a jumbo, jumbo guard that is an A plus playmaker and can create his own three-pointer and shoot 37% from three there.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_01: That's a tough player to match.
• 31:30
  SPEAKER_01: And now in the preseason, in a game number one of the season, he's taking more pride in the defensive side of the ball.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Charles Lee.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_01: That's a Charles Lee thing.
• 31:38
  SPEAKER_01: He's taking more pride in the defensive side of the ball.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_01: He is a player that I would want to try to build around.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_01: And you saw that on full display in the first game of the season.
• 31:47
  SPEAKER_01: And the thing that stands out the most, it's not the 34 points and being down 18 and winning.
• 31:52
  SPEAKER_01: It is the 10 free throws.
• 31:54
  SPEAKER_01: Oh man.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_01: I'm a shot diet police.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_01: I am a free throw police too.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm not one of those people that's like, when people hear free throw police, it's like, oh man, he flopped to get that foul.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_01: No, that's not what I mean.
• 32:11
  SPEAKER_01: In order to be a 1A in this league, in 90% of cases, you have Steph Curry.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_01: Steph Curry's one of the few exceptions to this rule.
• 32:19
  SPEAKER_01: When you have a 1A in this league, if you want to be a 1A in this league, you have to get to the free throw line.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_01: Well, it's a tough thing to do in practice, but like it's a simple concept.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_01: The guys that are 1A's, they get to the line.
• 32:33
  SPEAKER_01: Luca, Shay, Joelle, Jalen Brunson, these guys get to the free throw line.
• 32:41
  SPEAKER_01: Him getting 10 free throw attempts, and he he did it in game number two of last year as well, then didn't get to the free throw line at all for the rest of the season.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_01: Felt like that.
• 32:49
  SPEAKER_01: So I don't want to overreact to saying, oh, we're about to get him averaging seven to eight free throws a game.
• 32:53
  SPEAKER_01: But 10 is such a great number for him.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_01: Now, the last two were intentional foul free throws, so we don't really count those.
• 32:59
  SPEAKER_01: But it's something about the ball family.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_01: Those dudes do not like to put their head down to get to the rim.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_01: He did that a lot in this game.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm like, yes, there we go.
• 33:07
  SPEAKER_01: Lamello, we know you can throw a good flashy.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_01: We know you can create a three-point shot and not jump and hit a three-pointer.
• 33:14
  SPEAKER_01: We want you to get downhill, put pressure on that rim.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_01: And he did that.
• 33:20
  SPEAKER_01: And he did that a lot when he had a smaller defender or B, a young defender.
• 33:26
  SPEAKER_01: Reese Shepard, love you, my guy.
• 33:28
  SPEAKER_01: Lamello is giving you that work.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_01: Iman Thompson, one of the better perimeter defenders of basketball as a sophomore year player.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_01: He was just a little bit too small.
• 33:35
  SPEAKER_01: And because of that, Lamelo took advantage and got to the rim.
• 33:38
  SPEAKER_01: And I mentioned earlier, this is one of the teams that I bought a lot of stock in before the season started.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_01: A lot of stock in this team before the season started.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_01: So it got me thinking, we're 1-0.
• 33:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I said we.
• 33:49
  SPEAKER_01: We're one and oh.
• 33:51
  SPEAKER_01: Why can't we be the Brandon Ingram destination?
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_01: You know what I'm saying?
• 33:56
  SPEAKER_01: Brandon Ingram's gotta get moved, or maybe not anymore because DeJounte Murray broke his hand.
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_01: So maybe they just need the talent.
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_01: And Zion, oh, he's playing Friday, but Zion didn't play in the season opener.
• 34:07
  SPEAKER_01: How does a team that is an A in a small market and B not necessarily free agent destination, even though they did get Gordon Hay right now?
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_01: How do they build teams?
• 34:17
  SPEAKER_01: A, you have to draft them well.
• 34:19
  SPEAKER_01: And B, you have to trade for talent.
• 34:21
  SPEAKER_01: You have to get talent in the door because you're not gonna get them if they have 29 other teams calling their phone.
• 34:28
  SPEAKER_01: So if you get Brandon Ingram in the door now, be the team to pay him$200 million.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_01: What do you have to lose?
• 34:35
  SPEAKER_01: Seriously, what do they have to lose?
• 34:38
  SPEAKER_01: Go get no money.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Trade from.
• 34:40
  SPEAKER_01: Now it would have to be a three-team.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_01: I was I was messing around with the trade machine earlier today.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_01: It doesn't make sense financially.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I'm sorry, um, when it comes to asset-wise for the Pelicans to trade Brandon Ingram there, unless the third team is involved and that third team is getting the Pelicans something they need.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know if they need it more because Eves Messi is the greatest rookie center of all time.
• 34:57
  SPEAKER_01: At least that's what the Bulls made him look like.
• 34:59
  SPEAKER_01: But I'm just saying, if you want to get off Brandon Ingram, I'm kind of liking the idea of a LaMelo ball, Brandon Miller, Brandon Ingram, Miles Bridges, who didn't do a damn thing in this game.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_01: And then eventually, and eventually you would think Mark Williams lineup.
• 35:16
  SPEAKER_01: You just gotta keep adding talent now.
• 35:18
  SPEAKER_01: A few Hornets fans were like, Kenny, pump your brakes on trying to, you know, make us better this season.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_01: We don't necessarily want to do that.
• 35:25
  SPEAKER_01: Our pick is whatever protected, and it's the best draft class in so many years.
• 35:29
  SPEAKER_01: We kind of want to be bad.
• 35:30
  SPEAKER_01: I think you just have a lot of talent over there.
• 35:33
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, in in comparison, in comparison to maybe the bottom seven teams of basketball.
• 35:38
  SPEAKER_01: And if you're talking about the Easter Conference, you're gonna have more talent than the bottom five.
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_01: You're almost automatically a playing team if Lamella Ball is healthy.
• 35:47
  SPEAKER_01: So just go out there, hoop.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_01: You feel me?
• 35:49
  SPEAKER_01: Just go out there, hoop, dog.
• 35:50
  SPEAKER_01: Go, go, go, go, go get some players.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_01: Go get some players.
• 35:52
  SPEAKER_01: These last couple observations are pretty small, but I do want to get to them.
• 35:55
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Tyrese Halliburton was six of 18, and I got tweets asking if we should be worried about Tyrese Halliburton.
• 36:01
  SPEAKER_01: And when I watched the game, I would say 90, 95% of those shots were good looks, in my personal opinion.
• 36:06
  SPEAKER_01: There are a few deep shots, 34-foot three-pointers.
• 36:10
  SPEAKER_01: What are we doing early in the shot clock?
• 36:11
  SPEAKER_01: But other than that, I'm not too worried about it.
• 36:14
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, the one thing I would keep my eye on, and this is not even something that Tyrese has been amazing at throughout the course of his career.
• 36:20
  SPEAKER_01: He struggles with creating separation in space.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_01: Put him on an island versus defender.
• 36:25
  SPEAKER_01: It's it's a it's a tough matchup for him in a lot of cases, and you saw that.
• 36:29
  SPEAKER_01: But that's not inherently a bad thing, right?
• 36:31
  SPEAKER_01: We've had great players throughout NBA history be able to be generals to a team or the engine to a team without them being a superior athlete, without them having a super quick first step, without them being able to break down the defender like they're Carrie Irving.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_01: But it is something that if we talk about the evolution of a player, that is like next, the next thing for him.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_01: Now, part of that, again, is just, I don't know, athletic ability, and he's not the most athletic guy, but he can he do surprise me once in a while and catch a catch a dunk or two.
• 36:59
  SPEAKER_01: But he does, he's never really had a super fast first step.
• 37:02
  SPEAKER_01: But again, it's not inherently a bad thing.
• 37:04
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not tripping too much about a six of 18.
• 37:06
  SPEAKER_01: He hit the shot to win the game, and he's going against the Knicks.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_01: And we'll talk about that a little bit later in the episode.
• 37:11
  SPEAKER_01: And I'm trusting that you know he'll be back on his Grizzly in the next game.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_01: The next one, Detroit Pistons, the team that they win against in this one.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_01: K Cunningham started off the game 0-5, right?
• 37:21
  SPEAKER_01: 0-5.
• 37:22
  SPEAKER_01: And this was a pretty good showing for Kay Cunningham.
• 37:25
  SPEAKER_01: Grand scheme, 28 points, this many rebounds, this many assists, stayed in the game.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_01: But this game was eerily similar to a lot of the games I watched of the Pistons last year, where they fight, fight, fight into the last three minutes.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_01: And damn it, we lost again.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, it had a different level of fight, right?
• 37:40
  SPEAKER_01: Some people came out and hit some shots.
• 37:41
  SPEAKER_01: Tim Hardaway Jr.
• 37:42
  SPEAKER_01: had some shots early into the game, yada yada yada.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_01: Um Kay Cunningham starting off all five and then finishing what he did is pretty cool.
• 37:50
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he got a lot of good looks in the second half, but he is in also in another group with Palo Bencaro that is just a tough shot taker.
• 38:01
  SPEAKER_01: There were not many of his shot attempts that he didn't work hard for.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_01: And that's uh, I don't love that.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_01: He didn't get a lot of easy ones, you know.
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_01: Like I mentioned, Paolo.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, maybe Palo putting his shoulder into Hayward Heismith shouldn't be considered an easy one, but hell, he got to the basket.
• 38:19
  SPEAKER_01: Kay Cunningham took a lot of tough shots.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_01: Um again, he in my notes it says he got zero clean looks until the third quarter.
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: Zero?
• 38:29
  SPEAKER_01: I watched this game back twice.
• 38:31
  SPEAKER_01: Or I watched it live and watched it again.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_01: He got zero clean looks in my notes.
• 38:34
  SPEAKER_01: And then third quarter, again, ended up getting getting better.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_01: And some of those looks that weren't clean ended up falling, mid-range jumper, heavily contested, turnaround, jump shot, downhill, dunking on somebody.
• 38:43
  SPEAKER_01: Like eventually he put the game together.
• 38:46
  SPEAKER_01: But I don't know how we get um Chad uh Chad, uh Cade to get an easy look off.
• 38:55
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know.
• 38:56
  SPEAKER_01: Because even though they got shooters there, they're still not trusting Tobias Harris.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_01: This game went in the teaser, they're still not trusting Tobias Harris to get open looks and hit open looks.
• 39:04
  SPEAKER_01: So something to monitor.
• 39:05
  SPEAKER_01: And the very, very last thing, I'll I'll spend one minute talking about Evan Mobley.
• 39:09
  SPEAKER_01: Before the season started, Kenny Access said that Evan Mobley's gonna be a focal point in the offense.
• 39:13
  SPEAKER_01: And boy, do we see that.
• 39:14
  SPEAKER_01: And part of that focal point is him catching a rebound or getting the rebound, just going.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_01: He had like six points in this game from coast to coast.
• 39:21
  SPEAKER_01: I get the rebound and I'm just gonna go.
• 39:23
  SPEAKER_01: And it was against the Raptors, who Lord knows what's going on with the Raptors nowadays.
• 39:27
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they don't have great defense or great offense.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, so I don't know how much of that will work when they get into playing against those higher tier teams.
• 39:34
  SPEAKER_01: But it was just cool to see Evan Mobley take what he did in that game in the preseason versus the Bulls and say, hey, I can do that regularly.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_01: And he did that and uh yeah, had a very good game.
• 39:44
  SPEAKER_01: It's excited to see him more involved in the action in the half court as well.
• 39:47
  SPEAKER_01: And I think that was an uptick there.
• 39:49
  SPEAKER_01: I think his usage rate in game number one was a 25%, where historically it's been about 18%.
• 39:53
  SPEAKER_01: So it's like that's that's a pretty good uptick in that first game of the season.
• 39:56
  SPEAKER_01: So something that we definitely gotta monitor.
• 39:58
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, that is seven observations from the first three days of the NBA season.
• 40:04
  SPEAKER_01: All right, you let me know what I'm bugging about or some observations you've had about your favorite team or another team.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_01: What I want to do now is bring on producer Greg to do our favorite segment, five out.
• 40:23
  SPEAKER_01: Greg, how are we feeling, man?
• 40:25
  SPEAKER_01: Welcome back to the show.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_03: I'm great, pumpy with the league's back.
• 40:28
  SPEAKER_03: Great couple nights of basketball.
• 40:30
  SPEAKER_03: Not a ton of close, close games, but the Wolves Kings tonight gave us something.
• 40:35
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, that was a that was a fun one to the end.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, Julius Randle uh having his best game as a wolf.
• 40:40
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it's only number two, but he he's just a such a ridiculous player.
• 40:45
  SPEAKER_01: Like game number one, body language is off, everything was bad.
• 40:49
  SPEAKER_01: And then this game's like, oh, they're gonna play through me, and I'm gonna be really, really successful with it.
• 40:55
  SPEAKER_01: And then down the stretch ended up being Anthony Edwards to close the game.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_01: So it was pretty cool because I was about to say, like, it's gonna take some time for them to really, really gel and everything.
• 41:03
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but the minutes when Ant and Julius Randle in the court just felt weird throughout the first two games because they are not really involved in anything.
• 41:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, hey, your turn to work and my turn to work.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_01: And again, they got the win, so I got no complaints.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_01: Shout out to Julius Randle.
• 41:16
  SPEAKER_03: Well, before I start the five out segment, you know, with that game to the to the Kings for a second, the announcers at the end of the game were saying how DeRozan and Fox were two of the the most clutch players over the last couple years.
• 41:29
  SPEAKER_03: I was thinking, I don't know if that's a great thing to have on the same team because the reason those guys were so successful in the clutch was because their teams needed them to be, specifically them.
• 41:40
  SPEAKER_03: So when you have two of those guys and you have to decide between who takes that last you know game-winning shot, that can cause some problems.
• 41:46
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, and I'm I'm curious to see exactly how it's gonna go.
• 41:49
  SPEAKER_01: Um, De'Aaron Fox ended up taking the most important shot in this one, um, mid-range pull-up jump shot.
• 41:54
  SPEAKER_01: I didn't love the look, but whatever.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, it adds more problems than it solves in a lot of cases.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, they they they'll figure it out.
• 42:01
  SPEAKER_01: I hope.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: I hope.
• 42:02
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, it was a fun watch, man.
• 42:03
  SPEAKER_01: That before they blew the lead, they were rolling.
• 42:06
  SPEAKER_01: Sabonis felt unstoppable as a screensetter and roller, and then it kind of the wheels fell off.
• 42:13
  SPEAKER_03: All right, we're gonna hit five minutes starting now.
• 42:18
  SPEAKER_03: So I'm gonna run through a couple notes that I took over the first couple days of the season.
• 42:22
  SPEAKER_03: Just let me know which ones kind of catch your attention.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_03: They're not cool, they're not groundbreaking or revolutionary.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_03: Um, first, I love the way these games were officiated.
• 42:30
  SPEAKER_03: I love how the refs was really letting him play.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_03: Honestly, it was borderline too physical at times without fouls, but I'd prefer that to Tiki Tack.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, second, with the Warriors, uh, a 12-man rotation is sustainable until you lose, and then uh problems arise.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, now I'll let's I'm gonna stop you on that one.
• 42:50
  SPEAKER_01: I'll stop you on that one.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_01: Um, yeah, it's it's cool to have a 12-man rotation when it is the trailblazers.
• 42:55
  SPEAKER_01: That's for sure.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_01: Everything is is great, it's kumbaya.
• 42:59
  SPEAKER_01: And then uh, you guys don't have a super difficult schedule off top, if I'm not mistaken.
• 43:03
  SPEAKER_01: So you may not run into that wall for some time.
• 43:06
  SPEAKER_01: But 12-man rotations don't work usually.
• 43:10
  SPEAKER_01: It's just the reality of it.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_01: That means my best player is sitting more than he's playing um compared to the other stars across the ball.
• 43:17
  SPEAKER_01: But if it's working as of right now, that's cool.
• 43:20
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe it's just a showcase for when blank and blank becomes available.
• 43:24
  SPEAKER_01: And we saw how aggressive they almost were this offseason trying to bring in Paul George, Larry Marketing.
• 43:29
  SPEAKER_01: So I guess it's fine.
• 43:31
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, they won.
• 43:32
  SPEAKER_03: They've got a lot of pretty good players, yes, which in the regular season can be can be good.
• 43:37
  SPEAKER_03: And that's you know, the second unit is gonna destroy a lot of other second units.
• 43:40
  SPEAKER_03: So we'll see.
• 43:41
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, third thing, uh, way too early, but the Celtics kind of have a 2016 Warriors energy to them coming off a championship, looking more motivated than the season before.
• 43:52
  SPEAKER_03: Uh, still have some doubters, but I I don't mean you know, I'm a huge Warriors guy.
• 43:56
  SPEAKER_03: That team is my favorite team of all time, even though they lost in the finals.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_03: The Celtics have some of that energy.
• 44:02
  SPEAKER_03: Let me know if you want to put to pause.
• 44:04
  SPEAKER_01: I no, yeah, yeah, we can pause there.
• 44:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, a lot of that has to do.
• 44:07
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, opening night, Jason Tatum just the jump shot looked completely different than what it did over the summer with in of the playoffs, which is dope.
• 44:15
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and when you shoot 71 threes and 29 of them go in, it's hard not to be on cloud nine.
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_01: And then today they played against the Wizards.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_01: And now that Jalen Brown said, when we go against bad teams, we let our like bench players go crazy.
• 44:29
  SPEAKER_01: I can't stop thinking about it.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_01: Like Peyton Pritchard checked in so early for his first shift.
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_01: I'm like, oh, that's because they're playing against the damn Wizards and they don't really care about this game.
• 44:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and then eventually they pulled away.
• 44:39
  SPEAKER_01: I'm not mad at it.
• 44:40
  SPEAKER_01: I just uh I bet they're over.
• 44:45
  SPEAKER_01: I put money on their over, and I think their over is almost a lot.
• 44:47
  SPEAKER_01: It was at 57 and a half.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, that's pretty low.
• 44:50
  SPEAKER_01: They won 64 last year, so it's just like, yeah, 2016 Warriors.
• 44:56
  SPEAKER_01: Uh I mean, that's the greatest regular season team of all time.
• 44:59
  SPEAKER_01: So that's why I'm just like, ah, you know.
• 45:02
  SPEAKER_03: Uh next one.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_03: Uh Westbrook was not the biggest problem tonight, but I think it's pretty clear that it's probably not going to work.
• 45:10
  SPEAKER_03: How long do you think this experiment with him lasts before he's completely out of the rotation?
• 45:15
  SPEAKER_01: I think Mike Malone will let it go for quite some bit, quite some time, because the alternative is what at the end of the day, right?
• 45:23
  SPEAKER_01: So if we we bank on a Russell Westbrook performance that's not detrimental to the team once every two games, once every three games, that's better than um Jaden Jaden Pickett, who's sitting on the bench as a third string point guard.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um and Mike Malone has always been a guy that plays his vets over his young guys.
• 45:43
  SPEAKER_01: And you saw today it was a lot of Russell Westbrook.
• 45:45
  SPEAKER_01: It was a lot of Daryl Shards, and I don't think that he's going away with that anytime soon.
• 45:49
  SPEAKER_01: And he also seems like, and this was reported a while ago, and some people refuted it, that there was like some friction between him and the front office.
• 45:55
  SPEAKER_01: Maybe this is could be just a complete fu to the front office.
• 45:59
  SPEAKER_01: This is the help you gave us.
• 46:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now you're gonna sit here and watch him tear the team apart or something.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_01: Because it was bad.
• 46:05
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, again, I like Brody, but it was really bad tonight.
• 46:07
  SPEAKER_01: You saw it, I saw it, everybody saw it.
• 46:09
  SPEAKER_03: Last we have five seconds, okay, but the West is gonna be an absolute bloodbath.
• 46:14
  SPEAKER_01: 100%.
• 46:15
  SPEAKER_01: 100% every single time.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_01: And I made a video predicting the Western conference, and I got killed for it because there's no right answers.
• 46:22
  SPEAKER_01: You put a team in a play-in, and that team could potentially be like a 50-win team this year.
• 46:28
  SPEAKER_01: Like it's gonna be impossible.
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_01: But that's why we love it, man.
• 46:30
  SPEAKER_01: That's exactly why we love it.
• 46:32
  SPEAKER_01: And like even the game we just watched, like the Kings are a team that have the potential to win a ton of games, or they could be a play-in team.
• 46:39
  SPEAKER_01: There's gonna be one team that I think has playoff talent that will miss the play-in completely.
• 46:44
  SPEAKER_01: There are 11 teams like that in the league because I don't count the Spurs.
• 46:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think the Spurs are good.
• 46:48
  SPEAKER_01: I don't know where it came from.
• 46:50
  SPEAKER_01: They're just not ready to compete.
• 46:51
  SPEAKER_01: But it's like the Rockets, the Kings, the Lakers.
• 46:54
  SPEAKER_01: There's so many, and I didn't even count the Clippers who might still be a playoff caliber team if everything goes right.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_01: But I guess every single day we get a new report about the Clippers.
• 47:04
  SPEAKER_01: It's gonna be a bloodbath, and I'm gonna watch every single battle.
• 47:12
  SPEAKER_01: So I mentioned earlier that I want to talk about the Knicks versus Pacers.
• 47:15
  SPEAKER_01: We get a good old-fashioned rematch.
• 47:17
  SPEAKER_01: Even though like the Knicks feel like a whole different team, uh, I still want to lay down the groundwork on a same game parlay.
• 47:25
  SPEAKER_01: If you open up fan duel, this is what I cooked up for y'all.
• 47:28
  SPEAKER_01: First game of Car Anthony Towns' career as a New York Knicks did not go as planned.
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_01: The Boston Celtics hit 29 threes.
• 47:35
  SPEAKER_01: He got hunted on both sides of the ball.
• 47:38
  SPEAKER_01: I think it is his time to get his revenge.
• 47:42
  SPEAKER_01: And hey, listen, I ain't go crazy.
• 47:43
  SPEAKER_01: I don't think he's dropping 30.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_01: I ain't even got him dropping 20 today.
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_01: Just a double double.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_01: 10 rebounds, 10 points.
• 47:50
  SPEAKER_01: Hell, if he wanted to get a 10 assist or 10 blocks or 10 steals, he could do that.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_01: So leg number one, a Carl Anthony Towns double double.
• 47:57
  SPEAKER_01: Leg number two, Tyrese Halliburton double double as well.
• 48:00
  SPEAKER_01: Again, last season he averaged 10.4 assists per game.
• 48:04
  SPEAKER_01: He had a game against the Knicks last season where he had over 20 assists.
• 48:08
  SPEAKER_01: And last game, even though he ended with four assists, he had 13 potential assists.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_01: I think he could get his double double after a slow start to the season again, number one versus the Pistons.
• 48:17
  SPEAKER_01: And while we're speaking with Tyrese Halliburton, I got him for 15 points.
• 48:20
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty modest for him.
• 48:21
  SPEAKER_01: I think he can give us 15.
• 48:22
  SPEAKER_01: And then last leg of this is a Miles Turner, or two Miles Turner threes is at 1.5.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_01: So two miles turner threes to hit the over.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_01: Um, he hit this of the times they played against the New York Knicks.
• 48:32
  SPEAKER_01: He hit this 67% of the time, kind of like those odds.
• 48:36
  SPEAKER_01: And just like that, we can we can be in a green.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_01: We could be in a green.
• 48:39
  SPEAKER_01: I will say right now, I have been almost okay.
• 48:43
  SPEAKER_01: I have won a lot so far to start this season.
• 48:46
  SPEAKER_01: You know, Jason Tatum over on his assists versus the Wizards.
• 48:50
  SPEAKER_01: I sweated it out.
• 48:51
  SPEAKER_01: Got that one.
• 48:52
  SPEAKER_01: De'Aaron Fox, four and a half assists.
• 48:54
  SPEAKER_01: Who do you think De'Aaron Fox is?
• 48:55
  SPEAKER_01: He had 10 in this game.
• 48:56
  SPEAKER_01: Hit that one.
• 48:57
  SPEAKER_01: Done.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_01: And I've been um I've been doing a pretty good job.
• 49:00
  SPEAKER_01: So I'm hoping to hit this one as well.
• 49:02
  SPEAKER_01: Again, that is FanDuel Sportsbook.
• 49:03
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• 49:05
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• 49:10
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• 49:17
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• 49:26
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• 49:35
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• 49:43
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• 49:52
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• 50:23
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• 50:27
  SPEAKER_01: All right, now I want to give you all these power rankings.
• 50:29
  SPEAKER_01: I want to say this right now.
• 50:31
  SPEAKER_01: Because please listen.
• 50:32
  SPEAKER_01: This is very, very important for my name, for my brand, for my show.
• 50:38
  SPEAKER_01: Please listen.
• 50:39
  SPEAKER_01: And if if somebody sees this that did not listen, please set them straight.
• 50:45
  SPEAKER_01: This power ranking is not to be aggregated, okay?
• 50:50
  SPEAKER_01: I watch read power rankings all the time for sports that I don't even watch.
• 50:55
  SPEAKER_01: NHL power rankings, I'm there.
• 50:57
  SPEAKER_01: I like to see things get ranked.
• 50:59
  SPEAKER_01: I don't like ranking things myself pretty often, but I like to watch other things get ranked.
• 51:02
  SPEAKER_01: I don't give a damn about the NHL.
• 51:04
  SPEAKER_01: But if I get a notification, this is power rankings, I'm there.
• 51:07
  SPEAKER_01: I want to do my power rankings different than power rankings I've seen.
• 51:11
  SPEAKER_01: NFL power rankings pissed me off a little while ago.
• 51:14
  SPEAKER_01: This is seven weeks ago at this point.
• 51:16
  SPEAKER_01: The NFL power rankings can have a team be 0-2 on the year and be like, yeah, they're the seventh best team in football.
• 51:23
  SPEAKER_01: I don't I understand it.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: I understand it.
• 51:25
  SPEAKER_01: If this team was a playoff team last season, maybe they lost by field goal in every single game.
• 51:30
  SPEAKER_01: I I can slightly understand it.
• 51:32
  SPEAKER_01: But in my power rankings, a small ball with Kenny Beach and Power Rankings, I don't care about your history.
• 51:36
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care about anything.
• 51:38
  SPEAKER_01: This is a complete blank slate to the NBA.
• 51:41
  SPEAKER_01: Strictly based on the first three days of the season, this is the power rankings.
• 51:45
  SPEAKER_01: Again, I don't care about your history.
• 51:47
  SPEAKER_01: I don't care about your team.
• 51:49
  SPEAKER_01: This, okay.
• 51:50
  SPEAKER_01: Is that enough?
• 51:51
  SPEAKER_01: Okay, we locked in.
• 51:53
  SPEAKER_01: The number 10 team.
• 51:54
  SPEAKER_01: And the reason I'm doing this because I think it'll be very fun to do this every week, every two weeks or so, and see how the season progresses, okay?
• 52:02
  SPEAKER_01: The 10th team in my power rankings right now is the Charlotte Hornets.
• 52:07
  SPEAKER_01: Down by 18 points against the Houston Rockets.
• 52:09
  SPEAKER_01: No problem.
• 52:10
  SPEAKER_01: Trey Mann, big ass shorts, big ass buckets.
• 52:14
  SPEAKER_01: Number nine, the Phoenix Suns went to the into a dome and got a win in overtime.
• 52:19
  SPEAKER_01: I wish it went to over double double overtime just because I like hoops, but regardless, a win.
• 52:23
  SPEAKER_01: Number eight, Cleveland Cavaliers also went into an opposing team stadium and got a win, a big win against the Toronto Raptors, who had Vince Carter on the call and they had the throwback Raptors jerseys on and they laid an egg.
• 52:37
  SPEAKER_01: Number seven, based on the highlights that I watch of the Bucks, they are number seven.
• 52:44
  SPEAKER_01: Number six, the Los Angeles Lakers.
• 52:48
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, man.
• 52:49
  SPEAKER_01: Surprised I didn't talk about them at all in this episode, but regardless, they get their limited here.
• 52:54
  SPEAKER_01: It was cool to see Bronny and Braun play together for the two minutes that it was.
• 52:58
  SPEAKER_01: Number five, the Dallas Mavericks versus the Spurs.
• 53:02
  SPEAKER_01: Klay Thompson's debut, six threes, the most threes by uh Maverick in the debut ever.
• 53:07
  SPEAKER_01: Pretty cool stuff there.
• 53:08
  SPEAKER_01: Number four, the Golden State Warriors.
• 53:11
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, they went against a potential G League team whose coach doesn't know what the hell he's doing, but they still walked out of there.
• 53:17
  SPEAKER_01: At one point, they were about what, 37, I think the number was.
• 53:20
  SPEAKER_01: Big win.
• 53:21
  SPEAKER_01: Big win.
• 53:22
  SPEAKER_01: And it was just it's just cool to watch Steph Curry direct traffic.
• 53:26
  SPEAKER_01: There are a few plays where he's pointing to the ball to be swung to Draymond, then watch him clear out and watch him attract two defenders on a clear out, and then Wiggins is sitting in a corner for an open three.
• 53:35
  SPEAKER_01: That's that's fun stuff for me.
• 53:37
  SPEAKER_01: Number three, the Orlando Magic.
• 53:39
  SPEAKER_01: Again, um, the Miami Heat, very good defensive team in theory, dominate it for an entire half.
• 53:45
  SPEAKER_01: Number two is the OKC Thunder.
• 53:47
  SPEAKER_01: We just talked about them earlier.
• 53:48
  SPEAKER_01: Then number one is the best team in basketball, the Boston Celtics.
• 53:52
  SPEAKER_01: The reason I like this power ranking is because a team like the Charlotte Hornets probably will never be ranked again on this power ranking.
• 53:58
  SPEAKER_01: So they get they get their love.
• 54:00
  SPEAKER_01: Now, these other teams all have potential to stay here, right?
• 54:02
  SPEAKER_01: The Suns could be good for the entire season.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: Same thing.
• 54:04
  SPEAKER_01: The Cavs, the Bucs, the Lakers are another iffy one, but like the Mavericks, the Magic, like that is the Power ranking for the first three games of the NBA season.
• 54:13
  SPEAKER_01: You let me know who I snub.
• 54:14
  SPEAKER_01: Did I snub the Pelicans because they dominated my favorite team?
• 54:17
  SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I yeah, I did.
• 54:19
  SPEAKER_01: Uh Josh Giddy.
• 54:21
  SPEAKER_01: Golly, Josh Giddy, Josh Giddy.
• 54:23
  SPEAKER_01: The team net rating without him on a court was like a plus 26.
• 54:28
  SPEAKER_01: I just want to put that out there.
• 54:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, but that's my power ranking for the first three games of the NBA season.
• 54:34
  SPEAKER_01: Before we get out of here, we're gonna do Ask KB.
• 54:37
  SPEAKER_01: Hit us up and enjoy smallball on Instagram.
• 54:39
  SPEAKER_01: It is a very simple thing, but a lot of people don't know.
• 54:42
  SPEAKER_01: First thing you have to do is send a message.
• 54:44
  SPEAKER_01: It can be a single letter, it can be high, and then you can send a voice message or a video message just clearing some things up.
• 54:51
  SPEAKER_01: See what y'all got.
• 54:52
  SPEAKER_02: It's been one game, and I'm already bummed about the Raptors losing by near 30 to the Cavs.
• 54:59
  SPEAKER_02: For all the fans who are cheering for bad teams this year, what do you think we should look out for?
• 55:06
  SPEAKER_02: Is there anything schematic-wise, player-wise, narrative-wise?
• 55:11
  SPEAKER_02: Obviously, Scotty Barnes hopefully turning out to be an all-star All-NBA player is something a lot of Raptors fans want, but I know that that's not necessarily in the cards if they win 20 games.
• 55:23
  SPEAKER_02: So I guess just for all of the bad teams out there, is there one kind of point for each team that you would maybe address?
• 55:30
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, I want to say his voice scared the hell out of me when it first came on.
• 55:34
  SPEAKER_01: I was not ready for that.
• 55:36
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but yeah, I mean, I think that the only thing, uh, one uniform thing for these bad teams, you want to see gradual possess uh progression.
• 55:44
  SPEAKER_01: So in the Raptors case, what I saw in that game was Grady Dick creating and hitting a bunch of shots.
• 55:49
  SPEAKER_01: The shot taking and shot making was pretty good for him.
• 55:52
  SPEAKER_01: I mean, he had a stretch at the end of last season, like a one and a half, two months stretch.
• 55:56
  SPEAKER_01: We're averaging like 14, 15 points per game.
• 55:58
  SPEAKER_01: And you wonder, like, could that carry over?
• 56:00
  SPEAKER_01: And in this first game, it kind of did.
• 56:01
  SPEAKER_01: There were a few times on the baseline, and this feels disingenuous because one of my least favorite things is when um people compare like European players to European players, white players, white players.
• 56:11
  SPEAKER_01: There are a few times in the baseline where he looked like Tyler Hero.
• 56:14
  SPEAKER_01: That's all I want to say when it comes to the leaner.
• 56:15
  SPEAKER_01: So for the Raptors, that's what I would say, or even like um, what's his name?
• 56:19
  SPEAKER_01: Jamal Sheed, um, who y'all picked up this offseason as well.
• 56:24
  SPEAKER_01: I think he might even take the secondary's point guard spot away from Davion Mitchell after what I saw yesterday.
• 56:30
  SPEAKER_01: Those are the things that you really worry about.
• 56:32
  SPEAKER_01: The good thing is the team didn't set you up when Masayu Jiri and Yaka Purdue tell you that they rebuild, and you kind of have an idea what the season's gonna look like.
• 56:41
  SPEAKER_01: But I think that every single team should have a different thing, right?
• 56:44
  SPEAKER_01: And and most of it will be we want to see the players that we've already invested in continue to get better, simply put.
• 56:51
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I feel about the Bulls.
• 56:53
  SPEAKER_01: It's like, oh my God, Kobe White, can you do this?
• 56:54
  SPEAKER_01: Josh Giddy, we just invested in you by trading for Alice Caruso and we might have to pay you$30 million.
• 56:59
  SPEAKER_01: I want to see you do this.
• 57:00
  SPEAKER_01: Or Patrick Williams.
• 57:01
  SPEAKER_01: You you're no longer safe, brother.
• 57:03
  SPEAKER_01: You're no longer safe.
• 57:05
  SPEAKER_01: When you're on your rookie deal, you're like the you're like the kid that makes a mistake.
• 57:09
  SPEAKER_01: Don't worry, baby, everything is okay.
• 57:10
  SPEAKER_01: You spilled the juice, we'll get it up.
• 57:12
  SPEAKER_01: Now that you're making big boy money, you get criticized like a big boy.
• 57:17
  SPEAKER_01: That's how I feel.
• 57:19
  SPEAKER_00: Yo, first time caller, long time listener.
• 57:22
  SPEAKER_00: Anyways, you think we'll see other teams start doing stuff like Intuit Domes Wall, just to kind of squeeze out some type of advantage, kind of like how baseball does with the different ballpark sizes?
• 57:31
  SPEAKER_01: That would be really cool.
• 57:32
  SPEAKER_01: Um, the problem is people don't build new arenas very often.
• 57:37
  SPEAKER_01: Um, unless you're saying, like, let's just do it and the the United Center right now, we're gonna take this end of the court, we're gonna do that.
• 57:43
  SPEAKER_01: I I would hope we get it done a little bit more often.
• 57:46
  SPEAKER_01: Uh, Steve Bomber is just like a madman, like he funded the entire thing by himself and a lot of these other arenas that are are out there or funded by the public.
• 57:54
  SPEAKER_01: And I it's just hard to convince the public to pay a lot of money for the main change to be we have a wall.
• 58:01
  SPEAKER_01: Um, but I would love to have some type of basketball advantage.
• 58:04
  SPEAKER_01: The problem is it just does like it like individually, like you mentioned ballparks.
• 58:09
  SPEAKER_01: You have the short, what is it, the short wall in right field and Yankee Stadium, or you have, you know, um Camden Yards and Baltimore has their left field pushed back 100 yards, it feels like.
• 58:20
  SPEAKER_01: So you have these advantages and disadvantages, this uniqueness to the ballparks.
• 58:24
  SPEAKER_01: The NBA doesn't really have it because at the end of the day, it's played between those those lines, man.
• 58:31
  SPEAKER_01: Um, and a lot of times you can't see it on the broadcast either way, right?
• 58:34
  SPEAKER_01: Like even an Intuit Dome, they had to like tell us and specifically give us seven different camera angles for us to even know what was going on.
• 58:41
  SPEAKER_01: Where in baseball it's just a whole different story.
• 58:43
  SPEAKER_01: I would say no, more people don't do it, but they should.
• 58:51
  SPEAKER_01: I appreciate you watching or listening to this episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beach.
• 58:55
  SPEAKER_01: And be sure to hit us up on socials again at enjoy small ball on Instagram.
• 59:00
  SPEAKER_01: Let us know how we're doing.
• 59:01
  SPEAKER_01: We're always trying to get the show uh and make it be better and better and better.
• 59:05
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• 59:10
  SPEAKER_01: This could be the place for them.
• 59:12
  SPEAKER_01: We appreciate you as always.
• 59:14
  SPEAKER_01: Peace.