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7 NBA Storylines I've LOVED This Season · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:04
SPEAKER_03: Welcome in and welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecham.
0:09
SPEAKER_03: Today we have a have a trade in the NBA.
0:12
SPEAKER_03: I didn't even know that was possible anymore.
0:14
SPEAKER_03: It's just so many rumors and no action.
0:16
SPEAKER_03: But we do have a trade that we're going to talk about.
0:18
SPEAKER_03: I want to talk about the Boston Celtics and their recent stress because boy, it has not been good.
0:23
SPEAKER_03: And then I want to stick on a positive note.
0:25
SPEAKER_03: You know, we're about halfway through the NBA season.
0:27
SPEAKER_03: I picked out seven things that have made me really excited about the first 40 or so games.
0:33
SPEAKER_03: Before we get into it, I'm going to remind you to leave a like on the episode, subscribe to the channel, tell a friend to tell a friend that small ball with Candy Beacham is where you need to be at.
0:41
SPEAKER_03: Maybe I shouldn't even be talking about this on this podcast, but I we are doing a live show in San Francisco if you're going to be there for All-Star Weekend.
0:48
SPEAKER_03: Not small ball, but numbers on the board, which I'm a part of.
0:51
SPEAKER_03: So if you if you want to meet, if you want to uh come out, just know that more details I'll maybe have for next week.
0:57
SPEAKER_03: But just we're doing a live show, man.
0:58
SPEAKER_03: Special guests, cool stuff.
1:00
SPEAKER_03: We always try to do some really cool stuff for the live shows, make it more interactive.
1:04
SPEAKER_03: You know, you got a live audience, you got to keep them entertained.
1:06
SPEAKER_03: So it always is a blast.
1:08
SPEAKER_03: So I'm just saying if you're in the San Francisco area around All-Star, lock in.
1:12
SPEAKER_03: More details coming soon.
1:13
SPEAKER_03: All right, let's start off with the trade.
1:16
SPEAKER_03: You know, you get you get rumors about Jimmy Butler, you get rumors about the Houston Rockets being really interested in Devin Booker in case he became available and the trade that we get is Nick Richards.
1:28
unknown: Damn.
1:29
SPEAKER_03: Can I say real quick, I am over the Jimmy Butler, Pat Riley, he says, she said thing.
1:34
SPEAKER_03: It's it's going way too far.
1:36
SPEAKER_03: Hey, Jimmy Butler has been taking private jets to stay away from the team, paying some extra money for whatever reason.
1:42
SPEAKER_03: Then Jimmy Butler's team is saying, no, no, no, no, no.
1:45
SPEAKER_03: I only did that when my father was sick the four times.
1:48
SPEAKER_03: That was it.
1:48
SPEAKER_03: So it's like, I don't know what to believe.
1:51
SPEAKER_03: I don't know who's been telling the truth, but it's got real ugly really, really fast.
1:56
SPEAKER_03: And I guess it's kind of the Jimmy Butler way, right?
1:58
SPEAKER_03: He's gonna make you feel uncomfortable.
1:59
SPEAKER_03: And Pat Riley being 80 years old, how do you make an 80-year-old feel uncomfortable?
2:03
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if you can.
2:04
SPEAKER_03: The man's lived like four lives.
2:06
SPEAKER_03: If you think about him as a ball player, you think about him as a coach and him as a GM, he's seen it all.
2:12
SPEAKER_03: So it's like just two stubborn, big-headed people trying to win this battle.
2:16
SPEAKER_03: And I'm just over it.
2:17
SPEAKER_03: Hopefully, we see a trade because even the idea, and this is not even supposed to be um what this is about.
2:24
SPEAKER_03: I just don't get the idea of Jimmy Butler reporting back to the team.
2:28
SPEAKER_03: And that's about to happen, right?
2:29
SPEAKER_03: His suspension is over after tomorrow's game.
2:31
SPEAKER_03: So will he report back?
2:33
SPEAKER_03: Will it make sense for the team to have a disgruntled star in the locker room?
2:37
SPEAKER_03: Especially if it was reported that his old teammates in Kal Lari was no longer there felt some type of way about Jimmy Butler not being on the this is not what this first uh part of the episode is supposed to be about, but I'm just I'm just tired of it.
2:49
SPEAKER_03: You know, I hope that we can come to an agreement that Jimmy Butler moves to his next team and then Tyler Hero, who we will talk about later, um, can continue to blossom.
2:57
SPEAKER_03: All right, let's talk about this trade where backup center got moved and everybody uh cares about it.
3:01
SPEAKER_03: The Charlotte Hornets trade a center, Nick Richards, in a second round pick to the Phoenix Suns for four Josh Okogi in three second round picks.
3:08
SPEAKER_03: This is where I get real interesting if you're a real NBA nerd.
3:10
SPEAKER_03: The Hornets sent out a 2025 Denver second round pick to Phoenix.
3:15
SPEAKER_03: Not really a super valuable pick.
3:16
SPEAKER_03: The Denver Nuggets are playing great basketball as of right now.
3:19
SPEAKER_03: They traded a 2026 Denver Nuggets second-round pick, another pick that's probably not gonna be that valuable because they have Nicole Jokic.
3:26
SPEAKER_03: But they do have two picks down the line.
3:28
SPEAKER_03: These second rounders, a 2031 from Denver.
3:31
SPEAKER_03: Who knows where Jokic is going to be?
3:32
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna assume he's there.
3:33
SPEAKER_03: But it's a 2031 from Phoenix.
3:35
SPEAKER_03: That's the one that's real interesting, y'all, because the Phoenix Suns have now pretty much exhausted all of their draft capital.
3:41
SPEAKER_03: And we talk about how bad they look right now in 2025.
3:44
SPEAKER_03: Who knows who's gonna be on the team in 2030?
3:46
SPEAKER_03: So that second round pick could be the 33rd overall pick in the draft, the 38th overall pick in the draft.
3:51
SPEAKER_03: So uh it could get kind of interesting here, but I think we got to talk about it from the Phoenix Suns perspective because I've mentioned maybe an episode or two ago how it's just it's a hard watch when they have Devin Booker and Kevin Durant.
4:02
SPEAKER_03: It doesn't even make sense.
4:03
SPEAKER_03: These last couple games, I've been watching very, very closely for them because I have to figure out exactly what it was.
4:09
SPEAKER_03: I talked about how they had the worst center core, center rotation all of basketball.
4:13
SPEAKER_03: Maybe Nick Richard's mates makes it slightly, slightly better.
4:18
SPEAKER_03: But either way, they played against the Atlanta Hawks today before this trade.
4:20
SPEAKER_03: And I watched this entire game um live, which is rare for me now.
4:23
SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm really watching basketball the next day.
4:25
SPEAKER_03: I can't lie.
4:26
SPEAKER_03: Um watch this whole game live, and I'm watching Anyeca Okongu out hustle everybody.
4:32
SPEAKER_03: And it's not even just a nyeka kongwal.
4:34
SPEAKER_03: It was times where Trey Young went in with the trees and came out with a rebound.
4:37
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he didn't get credit for the rebound, but came up with a loose ball.
4:40
SPEAKER_03: And I'm watching this team that just looks defeated.
4:43
SPEAKER_03: It looks like they just don't have anybody that cares about doing the dirty work stuff, other than like Ryan Dunn, who's coming in as a true rookie.
4:51
SPEAKER_03: It's a lot of responsibility to put on this young fella.
4:54
SPEAKER_03: And they got killed on the glass, they got out-hustled.
4:56
SPEAKER_03: And I'm listening to it or watching this game with the Phoenix Suns broadcast, and they are hot about the lack of intensity from the team.
5:03
SPEAKER_03: It's not even this is one of the quotes they had that I wrote down here.
5:06
SPEAKER_03: It's not it's not about making or missing shots, it's not going out there and hustling.
5:11
SPEAKER_03: And that's what it felt like, and that's what they said on the broadcast.
5:14
SPEAKER_03: So the very next day, um, they went out and got a center.
5:17
SPEAKER_03: And I gotta give credit where it's due with Nick Richards.
5:20
SPEAKER_03: He is a really good rebounding center, he is a really good hustle center.
5:24
SPEAKER_03: But I don't look at Nick Richards coming to this team like, yep, that's the one.
5:27
SPEAKER_03: They've been looking for this center play.
5:28
SPEAKER_03: It's not Nurkits who won't report to the team anymore.
5:31
SPEAKER_03: It's not Plumley, it's not Igadoro, it's gonna be Nick Richards.
5:34
SPEAKER_03: No, I just don't see that.
5:35
SPEAKER_03: Now he will make them marginally better in that aspect, right?
5:38
SPEAKER_03: Where you won't get a game where Niekka Kong will has 20-20, or you won't get a game, and Nick Richards just did this against him the uh the other night.
5:44
SPEAKER_03: I think we talked about that.
5:46
SPEAKER_03: That Nick Richards put up like an 18-16 game against them, and he looked like the most dominant center of basketball.
5:52
SPEAKER_03: You won't get that ass often now for the Phoenix Sun, so I guess that's a a thumbs up.
5:57
SPEAKER_03: But Nick Richards is one of those players that, like, if you're not watching Charlotte Hornets basketball on a night-to-night basis, you look at him and say, Yeah, Nick Richards, pretty, pretty good backup.
6:08
SPEAKER_03: He's great.
6:08
SPEAKER_03: Um now they're gonna be looking at him to be a starter.
6:11
SPEAKER_03: And there are some very glaring holes in his game.
6:14
SPEAKER_03: And one of the reasons why he's not looked at Wiley across the league as a guy that can start.
6:18
SPEAKER_03: Like, there are some guys like I remember when Daniel Gaffer was in Washington and he was a part-time starter, and then he got traded to the Dallas Mavericks.
6:25
SPEAKER_03: There were things that you saw in Daniel Gaffer's game when he was in Washington and late when he was in Chicago that make you think that guy can be a real starting center in the NBA one day.
6:35
SPEAKER_03: I don't get a lot of that from Nick Richards, and maybe that is the situation, right?
6:38
SPEAKER_03: He has been in Charlotte for the entirety of his career, for God's sake.
6:41
SPEAKER_03: Who the hell knows how they run things over there?
6:44
SPEAKER_03: But one thing that you notice if you watch Phoenix Sun's basketball, and it's kind of been cut down quite a bit now that Yusuf Nurkic is no longer in a rotation.
6:50
SPEAKER_03: They really, really did rely on their big man to be this somewhat of a hub.
6:54
SPEAKER_03: And part of that is because one of the saving graces for Yusuf Nurkic as an NBA player is that he is at least a plus passer.
7:00
SPEAKER_03: Um he thinks he maybe he's better than what he is, but we're gonna give him a plus.
7:04
SPEAKER_03: He might think he's Jokic, right?
7:06
SPEAKER_03: Some of the passes he tried to fit between these small windows.
7:09
SPEAKER_03: So they did run a lot of actions where Nurkic is at the elbow, or Nurkic has the top of the key and doing some dribble handoff action and so on and so forth.
7:18
SPEAKER_03: Nick Richards at least has not showed us that he can do that type of thing.
7:22
SPEAKER_03: Where Nick Richards is one of those players that is really good at getting to one feet away from the basket and going up and finishing.
7:30
SPEAKER_03: He's one of the highest percentage finishers in all of basketball.
7:33
SPEAKER_03: But if you give him an extra second or two, that is where things fall apart.
7:37
SPEAKER_03: And I wonder if Coach Bud is going to recognize that very early on, or they try to go with a system where Nick Richards has the ball more than he probably should.
7:46
SPEAKER_03: Only time will tell.
7:47
SPEAKER_03: Right.
7:47
SPEAKER_03: And also think about the defensive aspect of the salt.
7:50
SPEAKER_03: Josh Ok is one of the two good defensive wing wing defenders on the Phoenix Suns.
7:55
SPEAKER_03: He's he's gone bye-bye.
7:56
SPEAKER_03: It's really really like Ryan Dunn and occasionally watching a book or Bradley Beal lock in on possessions.
8:03
SPEAKER_03: But like Josh Okie's gone.
8:04
SPEAKER_03: And if if only Josh Okogi could hit a jump shot, he would have like a real successful NBA career because he's a competitive guy who real dive on the floor, but he can't close games because he's not a threat whatsoever.
8:16
SPEAKER_03: And you think about the other guy, the rookie Ryan Dunn, shout out to him.
8:20
SPEAKER_03: Other teams are not are not respecting him as well.
8:22
SPEAKER_03: So there's like almost no case where both of these guys could be on the court together, even if they have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker on the court as well.
8:29
SPEAKER_03: So they really are putting a lot of strain on the few wing defenders that they have.
8:33
SPEAKER_03: And Nick Richards has not been a guy that can really defend very well.
8:36
SPEAKER_03: Even if you watch this footage from this year, which I I have have done since um he's been traded, they pretty much exclusively run him in drop coverage, which is basically the only thing he's really successful at defensively.
8:48
SPEAKER_03: Like I did read an article that said that when he was a Charlotte last year, before they did have the new coaching staff and everything, they brought him to the point of attack quite a bit, and it went so poorly that they switched it in like a three-game sample.
9:00
SPEAKER_03: Like they had a three-game sample size and said, no, no, no.
9:03
SPEAKER_03: Nick has to be in a heavy drop.
9:04
SPEAKER_03: So I wonder if there's anything in Coach Bud's system or this staff that will get him to maybe be able to do a little bit more, a little bit more versatile defensively.
9:12
SPEAKER_03: But look at me spending 10 minutes talking about a backup center being promoted to a starting center.
9:18
SPEAKER_03: It's a bit weird.
9:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, and now you question what's going on next for the Phoenix Suns, right?
9:23
SPEAKER_03: Nurkic is not reporting and they're trying to find a home for him.
9:26
SPEAKER_03: But if you look at him having another year on top of his contract and him not being good, I mean, we talk about one of the worst finishing centers in all of basketball, right?
9:35
SPEAKER_03: You look at him not being good and him having an extra year and them not having any future capital except for, I guess, the second round pick they got in this trade.
9:43
SPEAKER_03: It's like how do you get a team?
9:45
SPEAKER_03: Can you convince a team to take on that money?
9:47
SPEAKER_03: Is Grayson Allen a guy that teams look at and say, hey, once upon a time he was the best three-point shooter percentage-wise in basketball?
9:53
SPEAKER_03: That was just last year.
9:54
SPEAKER_03: Maybe we can buy him and give them something along his lines.
9:56
SPEAKER_03: There is like some cap flexibility that did happen with this trade for the Suns that I'm not too into the CBA to let you know if this is a big W or big L on that aspect.
10:06
SPEAKER_03: But strictly on the basketball, this is a slight increase to their center play.
10:11
SPEAKER_03: But Lord knows this is very far from the trade that's about to turn it around for the Phoenix Suns.
10:17
SPEAKER_03: And what's going on with the Charlotte Hornets?
10:19
SPEAKER_03: I mean, they've done a pretty good job since new management has come through.
10:21
SPEAKER_03: And I think it's been going under the radar quite a bit.
10:23
SPEAKER_03: They've added two second-round picks and a bunch of second of two first-round picks and a bunch of second round picks since the new management has come through.
10:30
SPEAKER_03: Who the hell knows who else is available on this roster?
10:32
SPEAKER_03: I have no idea.
10:33
SPEAKER_03: Like people are speculating, Lamello.
10:35
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if that's going to be true, but they've done a pretty good job of buying that future capital.
10:41
SPEAKER_03: And it feels like the Charlotte Hornets have been in the rebuild for quite some time, but you have to kind of get rid of previous regime stuff.
10:48
SPEAKER_03: You got to take it at face value with the new guys coming in.
10:50
SPEAKER_03: So I would say this is a win for them because they didn't have a future with Nick Richards.
10:54
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
10:54
SPEAKER_03: And they get some two second round, three second round picks, and one of them could be good in 2031.
11:00
SPEAKER_03: Um, that that's that's it on that trade.
11:02
SPEAKER_03: Before we get into all the positive stuff, I do want to talk about the Boston Celtics.
11:07
SPEAKER_03: Because it ain't, it ain't, it ain't been looking great for the Celtics, man.
11:10
SPEAKER_03: And I'm having a really tough time trying to figure out what is championship fatigue, what is midseason fatigue, and what is something we should be concerned about.
11:19
SPEAKER_03: On a few episodes ago, when we were talking about the biggest contenders in basketball, I had the Celtics number one.
11:24
SPEAKER_03: And when I talked about that, I broke down how much respect we have for championship teams the year after they win the championship.
11:32
SPEAKER_03: I went all the way back to 2020.
11:34
SPEAKER_03: If you missed that episode, we're coming off a championship.
11:36
SPEAKER_03: We usually give other teams the benefit of the doubt.
11:40
SPEAKER_03: If they go through a stretch, a month stretch, a two-week stretch where it look bad, you say, hey, they just came off a championship.
11:45
SPEAKER_03: I have Michael Porter Jr.
11:47
SPEAKER_03: on this podcast.
11:49
SPEAKER_03: I mean, it was called Kenny, the Kenny Beachon podcast.
11:51
SPEAKER_03: Is it the same universe?
11:52
SPEAKER_03: He was on this show and he talked about the championship fatigue, right?
11:56
SPEAKER_03: And they went on to not win it a second time.
11:58
SPEAKER_03: So, I mean, that fatigue carried over to the postseason as well.
12:01
SPEAKER_03: And maybe they maybe it was just them losing a bunch of players.
12:03
SPEAKER_03: Regardless, championship fatigue is real.
12:06
SPEAKER_03: But when you watch the Celtics team, and I'm not saying they can't do it because damn it, just last week I had them number one.
12:11
SPEAKER_03: But for a while going into the season and early into it, even though we did have the Cavs doing their thing or the Thunder doing their thing, I thought there was levels to it.
12:21
SPEAKER_03: We have the team, the Boston Celtics, and these other two teams are contenders for sure, but I still look at the Celtics in the tier by themselves.
12:28
SPEAKER_03: I don't know, man.
12:29
SPEAKER_03: I don't know if that's the case anymore.
12:31
SPEAKER_03: I think they all might be on the same tier.
12:32
SPEAKER_03: And maybe I'm not doing them um right by looking at this month and some change sample size and saying things have shifted.
12:41
SPEAKER_03: But they are 12 and 9 since December 1st.
12:43
SPEAKER_03: And in the last 14 games are 7-7.
12:45
SPEAKER_03: And just the other day, when they played against the Toronto Raptors, this is a game that I was, I'll be honest with you, I would normally not watch.
12:51
SPEAKER_03: But we were doing a live stream, and this is the game that we got assigned to.
12:54
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, okay, cool.
12:55
SPEAKER_03: You know, the Raptors just did just win a game against the Warriors the other night.
12:59
SPEAKER_03: So maybe they got some stuff going on.
13:01
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to the Raptors.
13:02
SPEAKER_03: I've said it once, I'll say it again.
13:03
SPEAKER_03: I hope that Darko Rayakovic gets an opportunity to coach the team when they become at least somewhat decent.
13:12
SPEAKER_03: Because I do believe some of the actions that he runs offensively are beautiful and it leads to open shots and good shots.
13:18
SPEAKER_03: I do believe they're lacking some higher level decision makers.
13:22
SPEAKER_03: I do believe they're lacking some three-point shooting where a lot of open looks don't go down because they just don't have that.
13:27
SPEAKER_03: Either way, I hope that Darko is not one of them coaches that gets a two-year window to show his value and then he gets shipped before the team is good.
13:33
SPEAKER_03: Um, but in this game, again, a game I wouldn't normally watch, there are a few things that were very glaring to me.
13:38
SPEAKER_03: And I also watched the previous two games.
13:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, and we can we can even go back to the game against OKC, which was what, a week and a half ago at this point.
13:46
SPEAKER_03: The the uh Celtics had a five-minute stretch where they could not hit a field goal.
13:51
SPEAKER_03: They did not get a field goal, even this game against Toronto Raptors late in this one they had a four-minute stretch where they could not make a field goal.
13:56
SPEAKER_03: And one thing that I'm just noticing as I watch this team, and that's it's just slightly different than last year, is that they're passing up.
14:03
SPEAKER_03: I mean, they're they're not they're settling for good shots, not great shots.
14:06
SPEAKER_03: There were times last year where you would have a Derek White three-point shot, be like, oh, if I swing it just one more time, it's a higher percentage look.
14:14
SPEAKER_03: There's times in this game where it felt like, and this is not calling out one specific person, where players, Jalen Brown, felt like he can get all of them points back in one possession, where he put his head down and drove into three defensive players.
14:27
SPEAKER_03: And it's like, oh, that's just not necessarily the way things were going last year.
14:31
SPEAKER_03: And the crazy thing about them being seven to seven in this 14-game stretch, if you look at all the data, there's they're still um top seven offensively during the stretch.
14:39
SPEAKER_03: They're still top 10 defensively in the stretch.
14:42
SPEAKER_03: So maybe it just is a championship for team.
14:45
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it just is this little um this little stretch where they do have a five-minute or seven-minute or a three-minute stretch where their offense just looks horrible, but the rest of the game is cool.
14:55
SPEAKER_03: And if they can just get rid of those couple stretches, then bada boom, bada bam, they're back to being that team.
15:00
SPEAKER_03: But there are some things that just won't be represented when you look at the data.
15:06
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
15:07
SPEAKER_03: And that's how I felt for this game.
15:09
SPEAKER_03: And I felt about that OKC game, which was awful.
15:11
SPEAKER_03: Maybe that's just the worst version of the Celtics.
15:13
SPEAKER_03: They scored like, what, 24 points in the second half?
15:16
SPEAKER_03: Where I'm watching the Toronto Raptors get paint touch after paint touch after paint touch after paint touch.
15:22
SPEAKER_03: And they have some aggressive drivers on their team, do not get me wrong.
15:25
SPEAKER_03: But it also is the Celtics kind of, I don't know, maybe teams have figured out exactly where the holes in their offense really is.
15:32
SPEAKER_03: One thing that the Toronto Raptors do a ton, wow, and now that I'm thinking about it, their last law, or one of their last loss against the Sacramento Kings, these two teams do one thing more than other teams of basketball, and that is play um from the elbows dribble handoffs.
15:50
SPEAKER_03: Is there is there am I seeing something here?
15:52
SPEAKER_03: Am I thinking about it a little bit too much?
15:54
SPEAKER_03: Yakka Purdle was on the elbows creating like he was goddamn Nikola Jokic.
15:59
SPEAKER_03: Sabonis, that's what he does.
16:00
SPEAKER_03: He's a creator in the dribble handoffs, and maybe that is one of the the bad parts about the defensive scheme for the Boston Celtics, something they have not been able to really stop.
16:09
SPEAKER_03: Again, I'm thinking about two games.
16:10
SPEAKER_03: Just rant, it's not even in my notes, just two games that just stepped uh step uh stood out a little bit.
16:16
SPEAKER_03: So it's just some some things to think about.
16:18
SPEAKER_03: Also in this calendar year, they can't hit a three.
16:20
SPEAKER_03: They're 27th and three-point makes as far as percentage-wise.
16:23
SPEAKER_03: Because you know they go get them up.
16:24
SPEAKER_03: So by volume, they're always gonna look good there, but they're 27th in percentage.
16:28
SPEAKER_03: So maybe it's a combination of fatigue, three-point shooting, dropping off.
16:35
SPEAKER_03: Or maybe it is a cause for concern.
16:38
SPEAKER_03: Because we're getting to the point now.
16:40
SPEAKER_03: Let me let me see if I can pull this up because it's not in my notes.
16:42
SPEAKER_03: We're getting to the point now where one of the teams in the Eastern Conference, the other great team in the Eastern Conference, um, the Cleveland Cavaliers, I talked about how their three-point frequency has jumped up higher and higher and higher every single month of this season, right?
16:56
SPEAKER_03: We're now getting to the point where maybe the frequency between the Boston Celtics and the Cleveland Cavaliers are pretty close.
17:02
SPEAKER_03: And the numbers say um it's about a 4% difference.
17:06
SPEAKER_03: It's a difference between first place and sixth place.
17:08
SPEAKER_03: So it's not completely the same.
17:10
SPEAKER_03: And I'm thinking about the last month sample size.
17:12
SPEAKER_03: So, and I'm thinking about if the Boston Celtics are gonna shoot poorly, and I don't expect them to be the 27th ranked three-point shooting team come playoff time.
17:20
SPEAKER_03: There, they have too many great shooters around there.
17:22
SPEAKER_03: But let's see, they let's say they do have some three-point um variance, just a little just a little bit in comparison to their last season.
17:31
SPEAKER_03: They are just more vulnerable.
17:32
SPEAKER_03: And I'll remind you, last year, they took care of business for show.
17:37
SPEAKER_03: But the Eastern Conference is just objectively better this time around.
17:41
SPEAKER_03: So you probably can't afford to have that variance.
17:44
SPEAKER_03: It's much like as of today, if the season were to end and the play-in stays the same, they got Detroit in the first round.
17:49
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to Detroit basketball.
17:50
SPEAKER_03: They've been doing some great stuff, uh, 8-2 in their last 10 winning ballgames.
17:54
SPEAKER_03: Not an easy series, but again, we take the Celtics in that one.
17:57
SPEAKER_03: And the second round, they would either see the Bucs or the Orlando Magic.
18:00
SPEAKER_03: And again, I feel comfortable with the Boston Celtics winning either of against either of those teams, but I do think it's something I would think about more this year than I did last year.
18:08
SPEAKER_03: Last year, I was saying, hey, it's the Celtics.
18:11
SPEAKER_03: I don't care, I don't care how things are looking over at West, I don't care how interesting the 76ers versus Knicks series is, they don't have a chance against the Celtics.
18:20
SPEAKER_03: And I'm saying nowadays, today in 2025, those same teams or some of those teams out west really do have a real chance.
18:28
SPEAKER_03: So it's just something to monitor.
18:30
SPEAKER_03: It's just something to monitor.
18:36
SPEAKER_03: Let's talk about all the cool stuff, though.
18:39
SPEAKER_03: All the cool stuff.
18:40
SPEAKER_03: You know, this the season as a whole, and it's actually one of the questions we're gonna get to later when we do ask KB.
18:45
SPEAKER_03: The season as a whole has been fun for me.
18:48
SPEAKER_03: But the way I kind of look at these things is like sometimes there's specific storylines or specific leaps that make me really, really excited.
18:56
SPEAKER_03: So here are the top seven things for me so far this season.
18:59
SPEAKER_03: Number one, Brody, Russell Westbrook's fit on the Denver Nuggets.
19:04
SPEAKER_03: Now, I'm not gonna spend too much time on this one because I think we've talked about it quite a bit.
19:08
SPEAKER_03: But I was not a Russell Westbrook fan until like three years ago.
19:13
SPEAKER_03: Now, I wasn't a hater.
19:14
SPEAKER_03: I was I enjoyed watching him, hoop.
19:16
SPEAKER_03: Do not get me wrong, that MVP season is one of the greatest, most fun seasons I've ever got to watch my own two eyes.
19:21
SPEAKER_03: But I just feel like for me personally, there's levels to being a fan, right?
19:24
SPEAKER_03: I wasn't a Russell Westbrook fan, respected this game.
19:28
SPEAKER_03: But a couple years ago, I dropped uh dropped the video where I ranked every single season of Russell Westbrook's career.
19:33
SPEAKER_03: And with that, it took hours and hours and hours of research and watching footage, and I became a fan.
19:37
SPEAKER_03: And then after that, things fell apart, right?
19:41
SPEAKER_03: And I actually made that video um and his tenure with the Lakers.
19:45
SPEAKER_03: So things were already falling apart, I guess.
19:46
SPEAKER_03: But he went to a couple different spots between the Lakers and the Clippers, where if you're a Brody fan, it was just pretty tough.
19:53
SPEAKER_03: Now, last year the Clippers, I would say a successful season, it just didn't end the way you wanted it to.
19:57
SPEAKER_03: But for the most part, these last couple years have not been great.
19:59
SPEAKER_03: And we we question will he ever be able to evolve his game now that he is not a 1A caliber guy to be successful as the fifth best player, the sixth best player.
20:10
SPEAKER_03: And I think that that has really happened with the Denver Nuggets.
20:12
SPEAKER_03: And I don't know if that's more of a testament to Mike Malone, to Brody, to um to Jokic.
20:18
SPEAKER_03: I don't know who gets the credit here, but it's collectively been a super fun watch.
20:22
SPEAKER_03: And earlier in the season, when we talked about it, that might have been the season opener game when they played against OKC.
20:28
SPEAKER_03: Maybe I'm wrong there.
20:29
SPEAKER_03: Um, that was one of the first episodes of the small ball, Kenny Beach.
20:32
SPEAKER_03: And I was saying, like, that it looked really rough.
20:35
SPEAKER_03: It looked bad.
20:36
SPEAKER_03: I mean, not rough.
20:37
SPEAKER_03: It looked legitimately bad.
20:38
SPEAKER_03: And then my last memory of Russell Westbrook was him getting played out of the playoffs in that series.
20:43
SPEAKER_03: And I just like, I don't know if this fit is gonna be great.
20:47
SPEAKER_03: And I think that earlier in the Russell Westbrook tenure with the Denver Nuggets, they were thinking Brody's gonna be our spark plug off the bench.
20:55
SPEAKER_03: He's going to be our offensive system when Jokic is not there because we just need somebody to play through.
21:00
SPEAKER_03: And that was a nightmare.
21:02
SPEAKER_03: It just was straight up a nightmare.
21:04
SPEAKER_03: Nowadays, they found out that you really kind of need Russell Westbrook playing alongside Jokic for him to really unpack those superpowers that he has right now.
21:13
SPEAKER_03: The cutting, the passing, just the high basketball IQ.
21:18
SPEAKER_03: A lot of those moments are with uh Jokic on the floor.
21:21
SPEAKER_03: When it is Westbrook without Jokic, it's bad.
21:23
SPEAKER_03: But every lineup without Jokic and Denver Nuggets history is bad.
21:26
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
21:27
SPEAKER_03: If Jokic is not on the floor, they're they're ass.
21:29
SPEAKER_03: Um, but to have him have this resurgence where I feel like every single night there's a clip that goes semi-viral, Russell Westbrook, whether he's talking to Jalen Green the other night about Jalen Green being on his AAU team.
21:42
SPEAKER_03: Slow down.
21:43
SPEAKER_03: Like, I why are you talking to me like I'm your peer?
21:45
SPEAKER_03: You used to play for me type thing.
21:46
SPEAKER_03: Him telling um Zubots, you gotta box out because I'm going to get that board.
21:51
SPEAKER_03: Like you had these moments last year, but they were few and far between.
21:54
SPEAKER_03: I feel like you're getting it every single night from Body.
21:57
SPEAKER_03: And now that you do see Jamal Murray having.
22:00
SPEAKER_03: An increase in his offensive production, you look at the Denver Nuggs again and say, hey, this team can do it.
22:05
SPEAKER_03: Last time we did our contenders, they were on the bubble.
22:08
SPEAKER_03: I think they're closer to being a contender than not.
22:10
SPEAKER_03: The one thing that does still scare me, it's not necessarily about it's not Russell Westbrook's production in the playoffs last year because the product, let me see if I can pull up these numbers real quick.
22:21
SPEAKER_03: The production was awful.
22:22
SPEAKER_03: Like it was at the end of the day, it was his worst playoff series of his entire, entire career.
22:26
SPEAKER_03: He played 19 minutes per game against Dallas in this playoff series.
22:30
SPEAKER_03: Six points, four rebounds, one and a half assists, 26% from the field.
22:36
SPEAKER_03: It's it's it's it was bad.
22:39
SPEAKER_03: It was really bad.
22:40
SPEAKER_03: Um, but it's it wasn't about the production, it was about how Dallas guarded him, which was not doing it at all.
22:49
SPEAKER_03: And I do believe that in order for me to get really, really balled into the Russell Westburg Denver Nuggets experience in the postseason, I have to see how he remedies that when teams have a seven-game series when it's going against him.
23:03
SPEAKER_03: Because right now it's perfect.
23:05
SPEAKER_03: Because on a night-to-night basis, you you have your film sessions and all of that, but you're not really game planning for game 36 of the season versus the Denver Nuggets.
23:14
SPEAKER_03: But when it's a seven-game series, it's a little bit different.
23:17
SPEAKER_03: So Brody made me a fan a few years back.
23:19
SPEAKER_03: So to see him be here and play as great as he has has been incredible.
23:23
SPEAKER_03: I don't even know what the numbers say.
23:25
SPEAKER_03: It's not even a numbers type of thing with Brody.
23:27
SPEAKER_03: It's 13 points per game, six and a half rebounds, or six and a half assists, five rebounds.
23:31
SPEAKER_03: It's been fun.
23:32
SPEAKER_03: At the end of the day, it's been really, really fun.
23:34
SPEAKER_03: I still get weirded out by him wearing the number four.
23:37
SPEAKER_03: I know he did it when he was with the Wizards and everything, but it's taken me some time to not see him at zero.
23:43
SPEAKER_03: My number two thing that I've absolutely loved so far this season is Amin Thomsa.
23:48
SPEAKER_03: Um, he's this new generation of Hooper that I'm gonna pat myself on the back just a little bit.
23:54
SPEAKER_03: The new generation of Hooper that grew up watching my content.
23:58
SPEAKER_03: And before he made it to the league, he was in OTE and he followed me on him and his brother followed me on Instagram.
24:04
SPEAKER_03: I was like, Oh, that's that's interesting.
24:05
SPEAKER_03: Who are these cats?
24:06
SPEAKER_03: And then I watched some OTE.
24:07
SPEAKER_03: I'm like, oh, they're cool, they good.
24:08
SPEAKER_03: I didn't expect them.
24:09
SPEAKER_03: Again, I don't watch college, I don't watch OTE, I don't watch overseas young basketball.
24:13
SPEAKER_03: So I didn't know that these dudes were gonna make it to the league.
24:15
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
24:16
SPEAKER_03: There was some cool highlights, the brothers, the twins doing some cool stuff.
24:19
SPEAKER_03: I didn't know they was making it to the league.
24:21
SPEAKER_03: And then we finally met um during his pre their pre-draft workout, and we chopped it up and it was cool.
24:28
SPEAKER_03: These guys, him and his brother, are NBA nerds.
24:32
SPEAKER_03: Like, again, if you watch my content, you know, we do trivia, we do quizzes, what college he went to, all of this stuff.
24:39
SPEAKER_03: Amin Thompson and Asar Thompson fit into this so perfectly.
24:43
SPEAKER_03: So it's it's easy to root for these dudes because they were part of the community.
24:48
SPEAKER_03: But the fact that they're really good, and I'm I'm specifically talking about Amin right now, no disrespect to Asar.
24:53
SPEAKER_03: I think he's still coming back from, you know, he missed half of last season with the blood clots, he's finally getting back in the rotation, and he's been good as well.
24:59
SPEAKER_03: But it's something the the benefit of the doubt that these guys get, or Amin Thompson gets, is the stuff that he's doing is on a winning team, right?
25:08
SPEAKER_03: I think his brother could be doing the exact same thing, but if he wasn't on a winning team, no, nobody really cares.
25:14
SPEAKER_03: Nobody really cares about the year two, year three player that's doing the dirty work, specifically the dirty work, the non-box score stuff is as if it's not equated to wins.
25:23
SPEAKER_03: And the fact that the Houston Rockets are 27 and 12 right now is just beautiful because it gives the rest of the NBA an idea of what this archetype of player can really bring to a winning team.
25:35
SPEAKER_03: So I'm in going out there and playing so hard, catching a body here there, stocks master.
25:42
SPEAKER_03: As of right now, he's averaging a little round up for you, about four stocks per game, 12 points per game.
25:48
SPEAKER_03: And since he's been a starter, these numbers have been incredible.
25:52
SPEAKER_03: And he's just one of my favorite watches in basketball.
25:56
SPEAKER_03: He is objectively my favorite watch in basketball that's not a star player, right?
26:00
SPEAKER_03: You have your Jokic's, you have your Wimbies, your Steph Curry's, all of that.
26:04
SPEAKER_03: No, no.
26:05
SPEAKER_03: Amin Thompson as a role player that one day could be a star player, he is my favorite, favorite watch.
26:13
SPEAKER_03: Because if you're a nerd and you love screen navigation, if you're a nerd, you love help defense, if you're a nerd and you just love hustle, it does not get much better than Amin Thompson.
26:23
SPEAKER_03: And while we're here talking about the Houston Rockets, can I give a huge shout out to Jalen Green for his production since the turn of the calendar year?
26:30
SPEAKER_03: Because he has been ridiculous.
26:33
SPEAKER_03: And the best thing about Jalen Green's game so far is that if you just look at, let's just say you look at the shot chart, he's putting so much pressure.
26:40
SPEAKER_03: I mean, you can just watch the games too.
26:42
SPEAKER_03: That's my recommendation.
26:43
SPEAKER_03: He's putting so much pressure on the rim.
26:47
SPEAKER_03: We knew he was a freak athlete.
26:48
SPEAKER_03: The only thing is he's a scrawny kid.
26:50
SPEAKER_03: Sometimes he's these stronger defenders push him off of his spot when he's trying to drive and it prevents him from getting to the basket.
26:57
SPEAKER_03: He's still super scrawny, don't get me wrong, but he has found a way to be electric and get to the basket.
27:02
SPEAKER_03: The in-between game is is not really there, but I'm okay.
27:06
SPEAKER_03: I'm okay with that.
27:07
SPEAKER_03: If it's threes and dunks and threes and layups, is drawing fouls.
27:10
SPEAKER_03: I mean, here are the stats since the turn of the calendar year.
27:13
SPEAKER_03: He's 30.6 points per game, four rebounds, two and a half assists.
27:17
SPEAKER_03: I don't care about the assist number because he's there to get buckets.
27:20
SPEAKER_03: 52% from the field, 48% from three, five free throw attempts per game, man.
27:26
SPEAKER_03: And he did something similar in March and April of last year.
27:29
SPEAKER_03: So who knows if this will carry over to the rest of the season.
27:34
SPEAKER_03: But man, he's him being this good makes it so much easier for them to win basketball games.
27:40
SPEAKER_03: And in the calendar year, what they're looking at one, two, three, four, five, six, and one.
27:44
SPEAKER_03: And he's averaging 30, it's great.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: That's all I'm saying.
27:47
SPEAKER_03: It's great.
27:48
SPEAKER_03: Will it carry on?
27:48
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
27:49
SPEAKER_03: I'm just appreciating it for what it is.
27:50
SPEAKER_03: So, story number two that I love is I'm in Thompson.
27:53
SPEAKER_03: And Asar Thompson in Detroit, I'll quickly talk about Detroit.
27:56
SPEAKER_03: They're not on my seven lists, but I'll talk about them really quickly, even though we got to it a little bit last episode.
28:00
SPEAKER_03: Um, for them to have Asar Thompson and then Ron Holland when they're both healthy, come off that bench and be able to add that much um energy, that much defensive chaos, it's just a beautiful thing.
28:12
SPEAKER_03: It's not on the same level as I'm in and Tari Eason in Houston, but it is pretty cool.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: I'll just say that.
28:18
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to Detroit basketball.
28:20
SPEAKER_03: Story number three that I've loved, and I've seen conflicted things about it, but damn it, I love that Anthony Elwartz is the highest volume three-point shooter in basketball.
28:29
SPEAKER_03: I love that the man has attempted 10, 10 three-pointers per game and shooting 43%.
28:33
SPEAKER_03: Last year, he was a good three-point shooter, about league average and percentage-wise, got about seven up the year before that same thing.
28:38
SPEAKER_03: So for him to jump up three extra threes per game, and for his percentages to jump up seven percent is absolutely incredible.
28:47
SPEAKER_03: And the reason why I don't trip about it too much, the same way some people might do it on the internet or on TV, is we know his burst in an explosive list is still there.
28:59
SPEAKER_03: It's not like it has to be one or the other.
29:02
SPEAKER_03: It's not like that is something about his now that he shoots three pointers more, he forgot how to dunk.
29:08
SPEAKER_03: He forgot how to get to the basket.
29:10
SPEAKER_03: Now, I do believe that team construction has prevented him from getting to the basket as much as he did last year.
29:15
SPEAKER_03: Now, that's a fair criticism.
29:17
SPEAKER_03: But you know he's still there, you know he can still put his hand down, right?
29:22
SPEAKER_03: You know it's in-between game and going nowhere, he's just opted to change some of those long twos into threes.
29:28
SPEAKER_03: And his pull-up jump shooting is the best in basketball from three-point range.
29:33
SPEAKER_03: So why do we have a problem with it?
29:36
SPEAKER_03: I don't understand it.
29:37
SPEAKER_03: The team made a decision, and I hate the decision, but Anthony Everett adapting his game to fit the new offense or the new team better is a more of an indication of him being a phenomenal basketball player.
29:51
SPEAKER_03: Because guess what?
29:52
SPEAKER_03: If Julas Randall's on the team next year and they got another guy that can shoot the floor, shoot the ball, not the same level as Carnegie Towns, guess what Anthony Everett's gonna do?
29:59
SPEAKER_03: He's gonna catch more bodies, he's gonna get to the basket more.
30:02
SPEAKER_03: He's just taking what the team other teams have given him, and he's been excelling at that.
30:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, some of his late game performances ain't been great this season, but we don't care about that.
30:11
SPEAKER_03: We're talking about three-point volume and three-point effectiveness.
30:14
SPEAKER_03: He's been the guy, number one in the entire league.
30:17
SPEAKER_03: In the entire league.
30:19
SPEAKER_03: So it has been fun.
30:20
SPEAKER_03: Um, really fun.
30:22
SPEAKER_03: Same points per game per season, same shot attempts.
30:25
SPEAKER_03: The only thing that has shifted is some of those long twos are now three-pointers.
30:30
SPEAKER_03: Simply put.
30:31
SPEAKER_03: Uh, before we get into my next one, I want to tell you that we've got another 50% same game parlay boost with FanDuel.
30:41
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30:48
SPEAKER_03: Let me tell you what I'm looking at for this one specifically.
30:50
SPEAKER_03: We got a rematch of the Memphis Grizzlies and the San Antonio Spurs.
30:54
SPEAKER_03: They just played it each other the other night.
30:55
SPEAKER_03: And Wimby was great defensively.
30:57
SPEAKER_03: He had, what, eight blocks and two steals in the first half?
31:00
SPEAKER_03: Beautiful, beautiful game from Wimby.
31:02
SPEAKER_03: Offensively, it wasn't really that crazy of a night for him.
31:05
SPEAKER_03: He seems like the type that will look at that from two days ago and say, Bet.
31:10
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna give y'all my all offensively.
31:12
SPEAKER_03: So I'm looking at Wimby's offensive, uh, his offensive numbers and say, like, hey, that would be something I'm interested in for my same game parlay.
31:19
SPEAKER_03: Also, think about John Morant.
31:21
SPEAKER_03: John Morant's assists, his passing ability against this youngish Spurs team.
31:26
SPEAKER_03: It's been pretty good.
31:27
SPEAKER_03: Last game, it was 12 assists, and it could have been more, but he was he was kind of chilling.
31:31
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
31:32
SPEAKER_03: So I'm looking at I'm looking at Wimby's points.
31:35
SPEAKER_03: You know, look at his stocks too.
31:36
SPEAKER_03: He found a way to get every steal and block in the history of basketball.
31:40
SPEAKER_03: And I'm looking at John Morant.
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32:54
SPEAKER_03: And while we're here talking about Wimby, that is my next thing.
32:58
SPEAKER_03: Wimbin Yama being really generational.
33:02
SPEAKER_03: It's great.
33:02
SPEAKER_03: Now, again, we we we knew it last year, right?
33:05
SPEAKER_03: He came into the scene.
33:06
SPEAKER_03: He had a couple somewhat not so great games, and after that it was over with.
33:10
SPEAKER_03: Same thing happened this year, where there's an anonymous scout that's saying that he doesn't impact the game offensively whatsoever.
33:17
SPEAKER_03: Since that report came out, he's been ridiculous.
33:20
SPEAKER_03: His points per game is 25 points per game, 11 rebounds per four blocks and a steal.
33:26
SPEAKER_03: Four blocks.
33:28
SPEAKER_03: And I think about that last night game or the other night game against the um Memphis Grizzlies.
33:33
SPEAKER_03: And they just kept testing.
33:34
SPEAKER_03: I can't believe how many people still test him.
33:36
SPEAKER_03: Like sometimes I'm just like, okay, weak side block.
33:38
SPEAKER_03: Women Yama's gonna be able to do that.
33:40
SPEAKER_03: The amount of times Jaron just looked at Wimby in his face and said, I'm gonna get me a bucket on you is crazy.
33:45
SPEAKER_03: Now, we did get the Zach Edy posters.
33:47
SPEAKER_03: That was cool.
33:47
SPEAKER_03: But then later in the game, Zach Edy tried to do the same thing and he got stuffed.
33:50
SPEAKER_03: So it's like, I know you're not supposed to be afraid of any individual NBA player, but damn, that's a guy that I ain't trying to test.
33:56
SPEAKER_03: John Morant went him a few different times, even caught the body that didn't count.
33:59
SPEAKER_03: So shout out to them.
34:00
SPEAKER_03: I think it might be the Memphis Grizzlies might be one of those teams that would look at it in um their warm-ups or look at the bulletin board and say, we we want to highlight on Wimby.
34:11
SPEAKER_03: It seems like everybody was going for it.
34:12
SPEAKER_03: They won the game, so I guess it don't matter.
34:13
SPEAKER_03: But Women Yama living up to generational is pretty cool because it's really been what he is.
34:19
SPEAKER_03: And, you know, they talk about the game plan for him growing as a player, how right now they're trying to focus on him becoming a better three-point shooter.
34:27
SPEAKER_03: He's shooting 35% on nine attempts.
34:29
SPEAKER_03: And I understand it because if he becomes a real, real, real knockdown shooter, how do you guard a man that's seven foot four and can dunk from the free throw line and can also shoot from 33 feet out?
34:39
SPEAKER_03: I don't understand it.
34:40
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
34:41
SPEAKER_03: But him being a defensive system by himself at 21 years old, the heavy, heavy favorite to win DPOY at 21 years old, a newly turned 21 years old is incredible, incredible stuff.
34:52
SPEAKER_03: The word generational gets thrown out so, so very often.
34:56
SPEAKER_03: This is one of them times that it makes sense.
34:58
SPEAKER_03: And Wimbigyama has lived up to that 100%.
35:02
SPEAKER_03: My next one, we only got a few more.
35:03
SPEAKER_03: We only got a few more.
35:04
SPEAKER_03: My next team that absolutely loves is Evan Mobley's offensive jump.
35:07
SPEAKER_03: Evan Mobley has been one of my favorite players since I first met him.
35:09
SPEAKER_03: Um, and he's living up to all the hype.
35:11
SPEAKER_03: He has had 19 points per game, nine rebounds, three assists.
35:14
SPEAKER_03: He's shooting 43% from three on three attempts, man.
35:17
SPEAKER_03: I just listen, every single year of his career, so far, and we're talking about he's in year four right now.
35:23
SPEAKER_03: It's not like he's a year eight veteran.
35:26
SPEAKER_03: Um, the question has been his three-point shooting.
35:28
SPEAKER_03: The question was, will he be able to or will he be willing to stretch the floor when necessary?
35:33
SPEAKER_03: So for him to have these games, or some of these games, he's knocking down four.
35:36
SPEAKER_03: Some of these games, he's knocked down five.
35:38
SPEAKER_03: For him to be able to do that after last season, attempting one per game, for him to get that up to three and shoot 43% from three right now, opens up the game so much more for everybody.
35:50
SPEAKER_03: I don't think it's any coincidence that so many people are having like career type of years over there because the floor is open up.
35:57
SPEAKER_03: You know how hard it is to run two seven-footers, but how much more easy it is now that Evan Mobley can stretch the floor.
36:04
SPEAKER_03: And that's not, I like that it ain't the only part of his game, right?
36:08
SPEAKER_03: He's still he's giving you 13 shot attempts, only three of them are three-pointers.
36:12
SPEAKER_03: So he's still hitting the paint.
36:14
SPEAKER_03: He is still pulling up for mid-ranges occasionally.
36:16
SPEAKER_03: The defense is maybe the second in basketball outside of Victor Women Yama.
36:20
SPEAKER_03: So it's just been so fun to watch.
36:22
SPEAKER_03: Where unfortunately for him, he might be just in the Women Yama DPOY era.
36:27
SPEAKER_03: So we don't know if he'll ever get one.
36:28
SPEAKER_03: I mean, he almost got one a few years back in 2023.
36:32
SPEAKER_03: Um, but he's just been incredible.
36:34
SPEAKER_03: He's just been, he's just been so very great.
36:38
SPEAKER_03: And I I respect the hell out of that because there were times last year I remember um I got a lot of questions from Cavs fans asking, will he ever have an offensive jump?
36:49
SPEAKER_03: Because he went from 15 points per game to 16 back to 15.
36:52
SPEAKER_03: His shot profile was pretty much the same for the first three years of his career.
36:56
SPEAKER_03: His efficiency did his efficiency went up from his rookie season, but like for the most part, offensively, he was about the same kind of player, and now he hit that jump.
37:05
SPEAKER_03: And now it's like, oh my god, how much more could he jump up?
37:08
SPEAKER_03: Who knows?
37:08
SPEAKER_03: All right, just two more, and they're smaller ones.
37:11
SPEAKER_03: I mentioned at the top of the show, Tyler Hero.
37:14
SPEAKER_03: I've had I've been critical of Tyler Hero.
37:16
SPEAKER_03: I've also defended Tyler Hero quite a bit.
37:18
SPEAKER_03: I remember when he got that big ass contract, there was like so many people like this is bad for the league.
37:23
SPEAKER_03: And um, hmm, it said 29 million a year this year, 31 million next year, 33 million dollars the year after that.
37:30
SPEAKER_03: That's not a bad contract whatsoever.
37:32
SPEAKER_03: And what I said when he got that was I do believe that that contract will age pretty damn good.
37:37
SPEAKER_03: Um, and right now he's 24 points per game, five assists, six rebounds, 47% from the field, 41% from three on 10 attempts.
37:47
SPEAKER_03: My criticism for Tyler Hero was how many long twos he was taking.
37:51
SPEAKER_03: Just can you get your feet behind the line, brother?
37:54
SPEAKER_03: And it feels like, I mean, he even said it in a recent interview that he took Pat Riley's criticism and got in the gym to get better because Tyler Hero has not really been able to play in many playoff series outside of last year, right?
38:06
SPEAKER_03: Where the two championship runs, if I'm not mistaken, when they got to the finals, Tyler Hero was in the party, either of those two.
38:12
SPEAKER_03: So he took it away to get into the gym and maybe careful his body a little bit more.
38:16
SPEAKER_03: And so far, he's been phenomenal.
38:17
SPEAKER_03: You want to know how crazy it is?
38:19
SPEAKER_03: Last so that these are Tyler Hero's long two percentages, the frequency in which he took long two pointers, okay?
38:27
SPEAKER_03: His rookie season, 22% of his shots were long two-pointers.
38:31
SPEAKER_03: Year after that, 19%, 16%, 12%, 15% this year and 40 games, which is basically the same amount of games he played all of last year.
38:41
SPEAKER_03: His long mid-range, long two-pointer percent frequency is six percent.
38:48
SPEAKER_03: Six?
38:50
SPEAKER_03: He dropped almost a full 10% below last season.
38:53
SPEAKER_03: And I am just a firm believer that with him being as good of a shooter as he is, right?
39:00
SPEAKER_03: Because he's historically just been a great three-point shooter.
39:03
SPEAKER_03: He just opted to not do it.
39:05
SPEAKER_03: So with him being one of the better shooters in basketball, I just wanted him to take more threes.
39:11
SPEAKER_03: I mean, he's a 39%, 37%, 40%, 48, 41.
39:16
SPEAKER_03: That that's where he was his entire career from three.
39:18
SPEAKER_03: It's like, man, if you just get that frequency up, he's he's attempted more threes this season than he did last year.
39:22
SPEAKER_03: Again, about the same sample size, but it's like 60 more.
39:25
SPEAKER_03: 60 in the same amount of games?
39:28
SPEAKER_03: Insane stuff from Tyler Harrow.
39:30
SPEAKER_03: And the fact that the shot is falling and he's he's you know finishing at the rim at a near a career height.
39:36
SPEAKER_03: Just love his game so far.
39:37
SPEAKER_03: And I find it hard to not have him as an all-star this season.
39:41
SPEAKER_03: My very, very last thing, and this is more new, so that's why it's last, and then we're gonna get to five-hour producer Greg.
39:47
SPEAKER_03: Um, it feels like as of recently, we're seeing the smaller markets go crazy, man.
39:53
SPEAKER_03: You know what I'm saying?
39:54
SPEAKER_03: I just I just love when the NBA has good small market teams.
39:58
SPEAKER_03: And as of right now, the Cavs are the number one team in the Eastern Conference.
40:01
SPEAKER_03: OKC is the number one team in the Western Conference.
40:05
SPEAKER_03: You do still have like the Memphis Grizzlies, which is one of the smaller markets in basketball.
40:09
SPEAKER_03: They're number three.
40:10
SPEAKER_03: I can't count.
40:10
SPEAKER_03: The User Rockets are like what the sixth biggest market in all of basketball, but like they kind of get treated like a smaller market, if that makes sense.
40:17
SPEAKER_03: So some of those teams that may not get a ton of coverage or getting that, and I think part of that might have shifted when ESPN saw the game between OKC and the Cavs and said, oh shit, the these teams are actually good, huh?
40:31
SPEAKER_03: Maybe we should try to push these younger teams, these smaller market teams.
40:36
SPEAKER_03: Hey, while we hear, oh my god, NBC.
40:39
SPEAKER_03: NBC dropped a uh commercial.
40:43
SPEAKER_03: All I want to say is I cannot wait for more people to have NBA rights next season, bro.
40:49
SPEAKER_03: I don't know what the coverage is gonna look like.
40:50
SPEAKER_03: I think my boy Jamal Crawford just signed over there.
40:52
SPEAKER_03: Shout out to to one of my like real life, one of my GOATs.
40:56
SPEAKER_03: Um I'm just so excited.
40:58
SPEAKER_03: So the smaller markets having this increase in success and this increase in coverage, I think at the end of the day, it's just gonna be super, super beneficial to the league at whole.
41:08
SPEAKER_03: Um, let me know in the comment section.
41:10
SPEAKER_03: Hit me up on Twitter.
41:11
SPEAKER_03: I think you can comment on Spotify as well.
41:13
SPEAKER_03: What has been your favorite story or favorite things about this season?
41:16
SPEAKER_03: And now let me bring in producer Greg for five out.
41:24
SPEAKER_03: All right, Greg, how are we doing today?
41:26
SPEAKER_01: I'm good, Kenny.
41:27
SPEAKER_01: How you doing?
41:27
SPEAKER_03: Can't complain.
41:28
SPEAKER_01: All right, so there are some teams in the league that are a bit older, have some Hall of Famers.
41:34
SPEAKER_01: Um, which of these teams do you think has the best chance of making a deep playoff run?
41:40
SPEAKER_01: You know, given the legends on the team, despite some of the lack of success this season.
41:45
SPEAKER_01: The Lakers, the Suns, the Sixers, the Warriors, and the Clippers?
41:52
SPEAKER_03: Um the 76s are the most interesting team.
41:55
SPEAKER_03: I mean, I'm seeing not real reports, but I'm seeing people talk about them going the other way and just saying, hey, we this is one of the few years we own the rights or own first round picks.
42:03
SPEAKER_03: Strap class is crazy.
42:05
SPEAKER_03: Let's recoup next season.
42:06
SPEAKER_03: I hate that idea personally.
42:07
SPEAKER_03: Um, but I do believe that like they're 7-3 when all three players play.
42:11
SPEAKER_03: The question is, will you ever get them to play?
42:13
SPEAKER_03: I think of the teams that you mentioned, the Clippers are the most intriguing team.
42:17
SPEAKER_03: Last night they beat the Brooklyn Nets by 60.
42:20
SPEAKER_03: And Kawhi Leonard has looked not 100%, but he's still looking Kawhi-ish.
42:26
SPEAKER_03: And if you can get 65 to 70% of what Kawhi Leonard was just like two years ago, even last regular season, that is a scary team to see in the postseason.
42:36
SPEAKER_03: Now, I probably have taken a lot of teams over them, but I'm just more intrigued by them with their defensive system, them having James, and them having a go-to 1A type of player.
42:47
SPEAKER_03: Like that is a recipe for a deep, deep playoff run.
42:50
SPEAKER_03: And I do believe they could be a sleeping, untalked-about giant at the end of it all.
42:53
SPEAKER_03: So I'll pick Clippers.
42:54
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, out of those teams, and maybe the Sixers, but it feels like the Clippers, their upside is the least known, which makes them the scariest, you know.
43:04
SPEAKER_03: 100%, 100%.
43:05
SPEAKER_03: I mean, they're relying on a lot of role players over there, right?
43:08
SPEAKER_03: And you kind of need Derrick Jones Jr.
43:11
SPEAKER_03: to look the same way he did in that Dallas Mavericks run, or you need James Harden to pick up his efficiency.
43:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, but because we only seen what four to five games of them complete, if you want to call it that, they definitely are the mystery team with the most amount of upside as of right now.
43:27
SPEAKER_01: And especially against some of those younger teams.
43:29
SPEAKER_01: But if you had the pit all those teams that are just listed against each other, only against each other, which of those teams comes out on top?
43:36
SPEAKER_03: So you had the Clippers, the Lakers, the Warriors, the Suns, and there was one in the 76ers.
43:43
SPEAKER_03: Maybe the Lakers.
43:45
SPEAKER_03: I don't know.
43:46
SPEAKER_03: It might be the Lakers.
43:47
SPEAKER_03: And I yeah, they they got the size, they got the defensive mastermind and and and um Anthony Davis.
43:53
SPEAKER_03: I haven't loved what I've seen for them as of recently for sure, but uh they just feel like a How do I want to say this?
44:03
SPEAKER_03: Their floor is maybe higher than some of these seams, just given the fact that they have AD and Braun in like a playoff type of scenario.
44:12
SPEAKER_03: But not none of them.
44:13
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, if you put them against each other, that might go Lakers.
44:15
SPEAKER_03: Yeah.
44:20
SPEAKER_03: Now it's time for Ask KB.
44:23
SPEAKER_03: The first one comes from Ethan.
44:25
SPEAKER_03: Hi, Kenny.
44:26
SPEAKER_03: What is your overall thoughts in the season so far?
44:28
SPEAKER_03: If you had to rank it one through ten, where would it be?
44:31
SPEAKER_03: I think so far, and I just gave you all of my favorite things for the season, so I'm I'm definitely on like a really good stretch right now.
44:38
SPEAKER_03: I would probably put it like six and a half, right?
44:42
SPEAKER_03: Six and a half feels fair.
44:44
SPEAKER_03: And I think that maybe this is just me being a content creator overall.
44:48
SPEAKER_03: Once you start getting bigger trades happening, that's when the season starts to kick in.
44:53
SPEAKER_03: Like if we got a report that said Jimmy Butler just got traded, then boom.
44:56
SPEAKER_03: Uh-oh, high gear.
44:58
SPEAKER_03: But the basketball in itself has been really fun.
45:01
SPEAKER_03: Um, I can think of many moments as of right now, but then again, I compare it to like last year, or maybe that was two years ago, which I think it was like one of the best regular seasons of all time.
45:10
SPEAKER_03: It's not at that level, but I'm still having so much fun watching again the Cleveland Cavaliers be great or the OKC Thunder be great.
45:17
SPEAKER_03: Um, but it does have the opportunity to get higher and higher and higher as it goes on.
45:24
SPEAKER_03: All right.
45:24
SPEAKER_03: Uh, next one comes from Hoops Intel.
45:27
SPEAKER_03: What's a team that can come out of nowhere and win a ring similar to the 2015 Warriors?
45:32
SPEAKER_03: Oh, snap.
45:33
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
45:34
SPEAKER_03: Now the 2015 World Warriors, for the people that don't know, um, in the betting era of the NBA, had the lowest odds to win a championship to actually do it, like preseason-wise.
45:44
SPEAKER_03: So that's what he means by come out of nowhere.
45:45
SPEAKER_03: I may it may not seem like a come out of nowhere thing because I think they won 65 games that year, 67 games.
45:52
SPEAKER_03: Uh, let me double check that.
45:53
SPEAKER_03: 60, they won 67 games that year.
45:55
SPEAKER_03: So maybe it doesn't seem like a come out of nowhere because they were regular season dominant.
45:59
SPEAKER_03: Um, but going into the season, nobody really expected that young Warriors team to be able to take that big jump.
46:06
SPEAKER_03: So it's hard for me to say that halfway through the season, but if I'm going back in my mind to like where the season started, it would 100% be the Cavs, right?
46:14
SPEAKER_03: The Cavs were a team that won 48 games last season before they did nothing but bring in a new coach.
46:19
SPEAKER_03: That doesn't seem like a team that can jump into a championship contention.
46:22
SPEAKER_03: You know, they did.
46:24
SPEAKER_03: Um, so that would probably be my answer in that question.
46:27
SPEAKER_03: But if you mean like as of today, I think the league is so good, and there are so many individually great teams that having a oh my god, out of nowhere championship run are just not gonna happen often.
46:40
SPEAKER_03: And I say that, what, two years since the Miami Heat just did it?
46:44
SPEAKER_03: But I think it's more rare now than than previously.
46:47
SPEAKER_03: So I would say preseason-wise, it would have been the Calves.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: Hey Kenny, love listening to your work.
46:54
SPEAKER_00: Have been following you for a very long time now, since high school, I think seven years ago.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: Uh, what should be the grace period for Scoot and to determine when he's a bust or not?
47:03
SPEAKER_00: I've been a Blazer fan for a while now and I've seen how Lilith has been through his rookie times and how he's gone through.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: And see, and seeing him be on and off for a while, for a while, it's a bit frustrating.
47:18
SPEAKER_03: Um, that's a very good question.
47:19
SPEAKER_03: I mean, Scoot Henderson just had his career night the other night, so I'm kind of high on that one because I've watched that game as well.
47:25
SPEAKER_03: How much, how much time does he get?
47:28
SPEAKER_03: I'm I'm pro hmm when you have a team like the Trailblazers who again are fighting for lottery odds.
47:38
SPEAKER_03: You of course you want to see your former number three overall pick, the successor, if that's the right word, to Damian Lillard, Mr.
47:47
SPEAKER_03: Sterling Henderson be great.
47:50
SPEAKER_03: I would give him a lot more wiggle room than I would give.
47:53
SPEAKER_03: Well, I guess I give all rookies the same amount of wiggle room, which is like, let's say, end of rookie deal.
47:58
SPEAKER_03: So he's he's 20 years old at the moment.
48:00
SPEAKER_03: Maybe he's he's about to turn 25, uh 21.
48:03
SPEAKER_03: No, we oh yeah, in about a month or so.
48:05
SPEAKER_03: So he's not even 21 years old.
48:07
SPEAKER_03: And there are two positions of basketball that I always say are the hardest to adjust from college or from whatever.
48:12
SPEAKER_03: I mean, damn it, he didn't even go to college.
48:14
SPEAKER_03: He played a, I would, I'm gonna say a damn it, a lesser competition, even though one of the major things about the G-League Ignite was supposed to be um, hey, he's they're going against adults.
48:25
SPEAKER_03: They're going against no, no, no, no, no, no.
48:26
SPEAKER_03: There's something about the structure of college, there's something about the intensity of a conference game that's completely different than the G-League Ignite.
48:33
SPEAKER_03: Either way, he's adjusting to actually playing with the real guys.
48:37
SPEAKER_03: Those two positions are point guard and center, man.
48:40
SPEAKER_03: It's hard to keep up with these players in basketball when you're a center, and it's hard to be the focal point or the initiator of O when you're a point guard.
48:49
SPEAKER_03: There are a couple things that when I've watched School Henderson that makes me pretty interested.
48:52
SPEAKER_03: Now, I don't know if his ceiling is as high as most people expected it to be when he was um coming into the draft and everything, but his his passing, if you get rid of the errant turnovers here or there, his passing, I think, is pretty damn developed for a 20-year-old.
49:08
SPEAKER_03: Now, again, there are some times where he expects, he anticipates something that's not there, and it leads to a lot of turnovers.
49:13
SPEAKER_03: His assist to turnover ratio isn't not that great.
49:16
SPEAKER_03: But if you look at the the great things about his passing, how I mean there there was a possession against the Brooklyn Nets early in that first quarter where he penetrated to the basket and like did a no-look around the defender pass to the corner that led to a miss from Tumani Kamara.
49:32
SPEAKER_03: Like those type of things you can't really teach.
49:35
SPEAKER_03: It's more like a development aspect.
49:36
SPEAKER_03: And when you talk about a 20-year-old, the turnover rate and things like that is not something I question too much because some some of the game has to come to you, and some of the games you have to adjust to yourself.
49:47
SPEAKER_03: So I would say end of rookie contract is when I would be like, man, school Henderson ain't like that.
49:52
SPEAKER_03: But when you have a game like the Brooklyn Nets game where he gives you 13 for 18, 8 made threes, 6 assists, 39 points, that's you look at and say, hey, magnificent.
50:01
SPEAKER_03: You don't expect him to do that nightly.
50:03
SPEAKER_03: But if he can give us 50% of this production every single night, man, we feel good.
50:07
SPEAKER_03: And I noticed the accent there.
50:09
SPEAKER_03: So I'm uh shout out to my global, global listeners.
50:13
SPEAKER_02: Yo, Kenny got a question for you.
50:15
SPEAKER_02: Um when looking at at this year's Houston Rockets team and using your elite bottle knowledge from the past, um, who do you think a previous Rockets player that goes into this lineup today would turn them into a true contender?
50:33
SPEAKER_02: Appreciate you.
50:38
SPEAKER_03: Okay.
50:39
SPEAKER_03: Um, hey, listen, we just gave a lot of love to Jalen Green.
50:42
SPEAKER_03: But if we could say we could get rid of Jalen Green and go get, I don't want to put James on the team because I feel like the fluidity of the O just shifts when it's James.
50:51
SPEAKER_03: I mean, if you want the the real obvious, like James Harden is one of the best shooting guards of all time.
50:55
SPEAKER_03: You put him on the state and it's a contender.
50:56
SPEAKER_03: But like, even even when T Mac was there, just to have that offensive punch, uh a guy that can close out a game for you and you feel good about him doing it on a nightly basis, that's the type of guy I'm thinking about.
51:07
SPEAKER_03: But I think those are obvious, right?
51:08
SPEAKER_03: You think about that.
51:09
SPEAKER_03: I'm trying to go deep into the archives a little bit that maybe a lesser-known player and not a superstar.
51:15
SPEAKER_03: Like, you can go at any superstar from NBA history and say, hey, you're now on a current day basketball team and now they're contender.
51:21
SPEAKER_03: So who could it, who could it be?
51:25
SPEAKER_03: Who could it be?
51:27
SPEAKER_03: Um I didn't, I'm maybe I'm in a minority here.
51:30
SPEAKER_03: I wasn't a huge fan of Stevie Franchises game growing up.
51:32
SPEAKER_03: Maybe if I look back on it now, it would be better.
51:34
SPEAKER_03: But when I was a kid, I didn't really love Stevie Franchises game.
51:37
SPEAKER_03: Maybe it is that season and a half of Ron or Tess.
51:44
SPEAKER_03: You know, y'all, you already you already got a bunch of players that are hard-nosed defenders, get you in some trouble.
51:53
SPEAKER_03: Um, because some bad stuff happened when he played against the Houston Rockets a few years back.
52:03
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna stick to it.
52:04
SPEAKER_03: I'm gonna say if you want a superstar, you gotta go Harden.
52:07
SPEAKER_03: You got you gotta go T-Mac.
52:09
SPEAKER_03: Producer Gray in the chat says Hakeem.
52:12
SPEAKER_03: I mean, yes, but like Shingoon, man.
52:15
SPEAKER_03: I'm not obviously listening there's levels to this.
52:17
SPEAKER_03: Let me let me clarify before I get clipped out of context, there's levels to this.
52:21
SPEAKER_03: Hakeem is was one of my four favorite centers of all time.
52:26
SPEAKER_03: But like, I'm I'm just thinking about where the roster construction is already at.
52:30
SPEAKER_03: You add Kareem to any team, you're like, yes, that's the one.
52:32
SPEAKER_03: But I'm thinking about Alpha Shingoon technically being their best player, and I just don't want to shift him to a bench role, you know.
52:38
SPEAKER_03: And though Jalen Green has been phenomenal, I feel more comfortable replacing him with an offensive juggernaut guard versus replacing Shingoon with a top three center in history.
52:50
SPEAKER_03: Is that stupid?
52:51
SPEAKER_03: Yeah, it's stupid.
52:52
SPEAKER_03: Either way, thank you for the question.
52:53
SPEAKER_03: Uh, I think that's where we wrap today, man.
52:56
SPEAKER_03: If you enjoyed today's episode, be sure to leave it a like.
52:58
SPEAKER_03: One thing that's in my notes that I forgot to bring up the Celtics have lost more home games this season already than they did all the last year.
53:04
SPEAKER_03: Do with the information as you want.
53:06
SPEAKER_03: I love y'all.
53:06
SPEAKER_03: I'll see y'all next week.