Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / I Ranked NBA Teams By Expectations

Transcript

I Ranked NBA Teams By Expectations · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

• 0:04
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beacham.
• 0:07
  SPEAKER_00: On today's episode, we're going to talk about all 30 teams with the lens of did this team meet expectations coming into the season?
• 0:15
  SPEAKER_00: But y'all know over here we don't just have yes or no answers.
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: We don't have normal type of tiers.
• 0:21
  SPEAKER_00: So we're tier ranking them in a different way.
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited for this one.
• 0:24
  SPEAKER_00: Next time we talk to each other, next time you have an episode, we'll be gearing up for the NBA play-in.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: So like this is it.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: This is this is all.
• 0:31
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm so happy for that because the other day, Friday night, I had like a, I don't know, existential crisis, I guess you could call it, where I order out some food Friday night.
• 0:42
  SPEAKER_00: You you you know, you indulge a little bit, a little a little bit more than usual.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: My family was gone.
• 0:46
  SPEAKER_00: My girls had a play date with a family friend, so my wife and my daughters are gone.
• 0:50
  SPEAKER_00: So I got the whole crib to myself on this Friday night.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: I get some food delivered and I sit down in my office to watch Bulls versus Knicks.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And about three minutes into this game, I had to stand up and leave.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And I had to like really think to myself, what the hell am I what am I doing?
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: It's a nice weathered Friday night.
• 1:09
  SPEAKER_00: And instead of doing something productive or doing something fun, I am torturing myself with watching a good team go against a really bad team.
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm so excited and so happy for the play-in to be right around the corner because these, in theory, at least after the play-in, we should get nothing but good teams going against good teams.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: We should get the most intense level of basketball we've ever seen started in a week or so.
• 1:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm really excited for it, man.
• 1:35
  SPEAKER_00: The bulls, that game really broke me.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: And I've seen a lot of bad Bulls games in my life, but that game is one, it's one of the ones that you like.
• 1:44
  SPEAKER_00: The next day I looked at the schedule and I said, not tonight.
• 1:47
  SPEAKER_00: Just not tonight for me.
• 1:49
  SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm excited to talk about these expectations for all 30 NBA teams.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Candidly speaking, there's two teams where I have no idea where to put them on my tiers.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: Those two teams are the Toronto Raptors and Dallas Mavericks.
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: So, like I said, these are about the expectations, right?
• 2:05
  SPEAKER_00: So, what I did in preparation for this one is I went back to listen to our episodes before the season started.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about small ball, I'm talking about numbers on the board.
• 2:12
  SPEAKER_00: I went to go listen to episodes of some of the bigger podcasters in the basketball space to see what everybody's idea of what this team could be.
• 2:19
  SPEAKER_00: So it was kind of a really fun experimental thing.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: We're listening to what people thought was gonna happen and be like, oh, that was completely right.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Or no, that was way off.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so the Raptors and the Mavericks were interesting ones because it was all over the place.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: Some people believed that the Raptors were just not gonna be good.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Some people thought that they could compete for a three-seed, which I guess they did for a little bit, and some people thought they'd be a fine team.
• 2:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's kind of like in this middle ground because I think they are a fine team.
• 2:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, hopefully, in their for their sake, they're a playoff team in next week when we get to that play-in stuff or a playoff team once we get to the play-in stuff.
• 2:51
  SPEAKER_00: But overall, I just don't know what to really, really put them.
• 2:54
  SPEAKER_00: And then the Dallas Mavericks, I saw something on Twitter that I think it might have been um, well, somebody at ESPN, I don't want to give the wrong credit because it's not like positive credit, where before the season started, they're they asked all of the ESPN reporters and journalists what is your NBA finals prediction.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: And somebody in that panel said Dallas Mavericks go to the finals, and they I think they lost to the Cavs in this hypothetical world, in this mind.
• 3:19
  SPEAKER_00: And as we know, the Mavericks are nowhere near that.
• 3:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, that guy was on his own, nobody else in the world, I don't think, thought that the Mavericks were gonna be a goddamn championship team.
• 3:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it just showed that it was one of those teams that was all over the place.
• 3:32
  SPEAKER_00: Anthony Davis, Cooper Flagg.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: We we had a feeling that Carrie Irvin was gonna play the season, but regardless, that team that had been to the finals just two years ago was almost completely attacking.
• 3:41
  SPEAKER_00: As you know, I had to say almost because the head of the snake was gone.
• 3:44
  SPEAKER_00: So I saw people thinking that they could have a legitimate chance to be a playoff team.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: And the other people like, uh, not really.
• 3:49
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe throughout the course of this episode, I'll find a way to somewhere to put them.
• 3:54
  SPEAKER_00: But as of right now, they don't have spots.
• 3:56
  SPEAKER_00: But shout out to those two organizations.
• 3:57
  SPEAKER_00: All right, let's start off with they knew what they were doing and they succeeded.
• 4:03
  SPEAKER_00: These are the Brooklyn Nets, the Washington Wizards, the Indiana Pacers, and the Utah Jazz before the season started.
• 4:11
  SPEAKER_00: These are four teams that we all believed were going to be towards the bottom of the standings, and we were right.
• 4:16
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that the Pacers over-under was, I think about 40.
• 4:19
  SPEAKER_00: Like, so there were people that believed that the Pacers team, even without Miles Turner, who went on to the Milwaukee Bucks, or without Tyrese Halliburton, who went on to rehab, uh, rehabbing that Achilles injury.
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: Some people did believe that they would be able to still sustain at least a decent enough team.
• 4:34
  SPEAKER_00: I was not one of them people.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: I was right about that.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: I thought that them and the Boston Celtics were going to take this as a gap year, as you'll see later in the episode.
• 4:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Boston Celtics are in a whole different tier, almost by themselves.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I didn't see this Pacer team as a team that was gonna go out there and be hyper-competitive without, you know, their star player.
• 4:51
  SPEAKER_00: And it just made sense in my mind for those two teams to take a step back.
• 4:54
  SPEAKER_00: But as we know, you know, Tatum comes back from his injury, Jalen Brown plays as an all-NBA first team caliber, so there's no incentive for them.
• 5:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um but in that in that time, it was like, hey, this is the only year, one of the only years they have their own first-round pick, so let's go for it a little bit.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: AJ DeBons is in the draft, and I'm pretty sure he's a diehard Celtics fan, so maybe they could do it.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: They said one timeline, baby, we're still competing for championships.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: But the Pacers didn't have that in mind.
• 5:16
  SPEAKER_00: The Pacers are a team that very rarely picks in the lottery.
• 5:19
  SPEAKER_00: So if we're gonna have our star player be out and take this whole year to rehab, we're gonna lose a center and we're gonna replace him with a replacement level center, which I've said before, not having a center, a competent center, or like a good center is a sneaky way, a very sneaky way to tank.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Like any team that doesn't have a center that you see as a starter caliber, expect the team to lose a bunch of games because the center position is such an important position, specifically on the defensive side of the ball.
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: So the Pacers bring in, you know, Jay Huff, who had a pretty solid season in Memphis before that, but not enough for us to think that he was an NBA starter caliber player, and that was kind of it.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: So they were just gonna make shift the center position.
• 5:52
  SPEAKER_00: And obviously, they started off the season with other injuries to other guys, so it made sense for them to take a step back.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually they traded parts of the 2026 pick, so we'll see where they land in that lottery and on.
• 6:02
  SPEAKER_00: But then the Wizards had their idea of what to do this season.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, halfway through the season, they saw some really by-low case and they went out to go get Trey Young and Anthony Davis, and Trey Young's played a handful of games while AD is still going through his stuff.
• 6:16
  SPEAKER_00: But there was um there was something that made me want to go back to watch a bunch of Washington Wizards over the past week.
• 6:23
  SPEAKER_00: Will Riley just the other day had another like a 30-point game, and I'm like, okay, I gotta, I gotta really dive in.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: And they got a very intriguing team, man.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: The only one of the big caveats with this team is like overall health between, you know, Trey Young.
• 6:36
  SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, when he comes back next season, he can play 82, but who knows?
• 6:38
  SPEAKER_00: And then Anthony Davis just always had this attached to his name.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: So it's like them staying healthy is really important, but they just have some really good, young, intriguing players.
• 6:46
  SPEAKER_00: I watched Will Riley a lot last year at Illinois.
• 6:49
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and he was the high highest, I don't know, highest Canadian recruit.
• 6:54
  SPEAKER_00: I think that's what he was.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Came to Illinois, looked way, looked decent, but he's thin framed, super young.
• 7:00
  SPEAKER_00: And the last month or so, Will Riley has showed you a lot that makes you feel like he is like a real troop.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: Because they had a lot of young players.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: You have to figure out which one of these players is a core piece versus like they cool for now, but maybe not something we care about.
• 7:12
  SPEAKER_00: Will Riley has easily jumped into like, oh yeah, this guy's a part of that young core.
• 7:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, because he's he's pretty good off the bounce.
• 7:19
  SPEAKER_00: His catch-a-shoot numbers are pretty solid.
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: I think you got you're gonna have to need that when you have Trey Young as your initiator.
• 7:24
  SPEAKER_00: I'm just I'm excited to see what Will Riley can turn into, basically is what I'm saying.
• 7:27
  SPEAKER_00: So between him, Trey Johnson, who we know is just gonna be an elite level shooter for the majority of his career, Alex Sarr, who had a great breakout year two.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: It goes on and on.
• 7:37
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for them.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for them.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, it's too still too early for me to say this is a 45 to 50 win team.
• 7:44
  SPEAKER_00: Ask me again in a couple months when I really think about it.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, next, we got the Brooklyn Nets who Josai came into the season, the owner.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Hey man, this is the only year we have our own pick.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: So any season ticket holders, this is not him, this is me.
• 7:57
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, any season ticket holders from Brooklyn Nets, you might want to just put them up on uh StubHub or Seat Geek, because this is not a year you want to watch because we're not gonna be in there looking real good.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Now, they're not incentivized next year to lose because they have a pick swap with the Houston Rockets.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm excited to see what their offseason looks like, but they wanted to have a top pick, and they were undoubtedly are gonna have one of the top, what, six picks, I think is the lowest they can drop.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty fun.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then the last team, the Utah Jazz, another team like the Washington Wizards that went on to, you know, buy Jaron Jackson Jr.'s on a team.
• 8:27
  SPEAKER_00: And a lot of these younger guys, I don't know, maybe maybe that is the silver lining between watching a really good team go against a really bad team, is that a lot of time that really bad team is playing younger guys.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So like you watch the Utah Jazz, you say, oh, Cody Williams is kind of popping off the screen a little bit.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh a lot of mid-range jump shots, a lot of them, but like he's popping off the screen a little bit.
• 8:47
  SPEAKER_00: He's getting downhill, he's finishing at the basket, which I think is pretty interesting stuff.
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: Bryce Centaball, one of my favorite guys coming into this year for the last month, he's averaging 20.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: And I don't, I don't know, I don't probably not.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: It's probably not likely that Bryce Centaball is a starter player for this Utah Jazz team next year.
• 9:03
  SPEAKER_00: But like for him to be able to score like that as a sixth to seventh man next year, and Cody Williams, if he continues to go the path that he is going down, they have a pretty intriguing team.
• 9:12
  SPEAKER_00: Keontae, like I've mentioned before, there's a ton of pressure on Keontae to be a good initiator and passer because there's not a lot of playmaking in this potential starting unit.
• 9:20
  SPEAKER_00: But Keontae, Ace, Lowry, Jaron, and Walker Kessler, when he eventually comes back, that's that's sneaky interesting.
• 9:28
  SPEAKER_00: And then off the bench, you still got Philipowski who's good like straight up just a good ball player, but just won't play fourth quarters because they're trying to lose basketball games.
• 9:35
  SPEAKER_00: Philipowski, Bryce Sensobaugh, Isaiah Koyer, who's a like a kind of a throwback point guard in the way, where his passing ability.
• 9:43
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know, man.
• 9:44
  SPEAKER_00: Are we buying a little bit of the Utah Jazz?
• 9:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm really excited because them and the Wizards have told us, based on their actions, that this is their last year tanking, which is smart because tanking may not be a thing anymore in the next year or two.
• 9:57
  SPEAKER_00: So uh when we come back, we'll get to some of the other tiers.
• 10:06
  SPEAKER_00: The next tier I'm calling delete the whole season.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: These are the teams that if they could redo it all, they would, whether it be because of injury, because of scandal, because of whatever.
• 10:17
  SPEAKER_00: There is five teams here that I think that they would want to delete the season.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: The first one being the Sacramento Kings.
• 10:23
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, I'm not gonna spend a lot of time on y'all Kings fans because every time I do, somebody clips it, and there's people in the comment section talking about how can he talk because he's a Bulls fan.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: As if, as if your team needs to be good in order to criticize some other teams.
• 10:35
  SPEAKER_00: Hell, I don't make the decisions for the Chicago Bulls.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: Them being bad is not my fault.
• 10:39
  SPEAKER_00: Both of our teams are trash and poorly ranked, okay?
• 10:42
  SPEAKER_00: We're in the same boat.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: But they would throw away the season.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Uh for them to have one of the top payrolls in all the basketball and for them to look this damn bad, whoo.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the only people that really thought that they had a chance to be good was the people in that locker room, the people that put the team together.
• 10:55
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody else looked at the Sacramento Kings team and said, Yeah, this is a 50-win.
• 10:59
  SPEAKER_00: No, it wasn't happening, Captain.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: But they believed it did.
• 11:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, eventually they pivoted their season where somebody is getting rhinoplasty.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, is that the Utah Jazz?
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Well, they're they're sending their players home for season into injuries on some stuff that you got, you need laser eye surgery.
• 11:16
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you could do that in the offseason.
• 11:18
  SPEAKER_00: But let's do it right now in January, damn it.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: You've been a little bit too good for the team.
• 11:21
  SPEAKER_00: So they would throw the season away.
• 11:23
  SPEAKER_00: Now, at the end of the day, it could be beneficial, as you know.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: They do have their own first-round pick, and they could get really lucky and get one of the top guys, which will definitely help their organization, but they would throw this season away.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: The New Orleans Pelicans would throw this season away, even if they've been near 500 for the last month or so.
• 11:37
  SPEAKER_00: The start of that season was so bad that they're still going to be giving up a top 10 pick to the Atlanta Hawks this season.
• 11:42
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of them ones where there's so much individual talent on this team between DeJounte, Zion, Trey, Herb, um, even Sadiq Bey, who's having a resurgence of a year.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: It goes on and on.
• 11:53
  SPEAKER_00: But for whatever reason, those pieces were not able to work together.
• 11:56
  SPEAKER_00: Part of that's maybe because they just haven't played a ton before this little run.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: But we should have known the season was going to be a season of hell before the season started when Joe Dumas is asked about expectations being the playoffs, and he said, no, my expectations are not the playoffs.
• 12:09
  SPEAKER_00: My expectations getting better one day at a time, which I can understand why he would say that, but when you trade your first round pick this season, damn it, you better make the postseason.
• 12:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're not making a postseason, ladies and gentlemen.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: So they would throw this season away.
• 12:22
  SPEAKER_00: Even though Jeremia Fears is like, again, watching good team, bad team.
• 12:27
  SPEAKER_00: I've been truly impressed with Jeremiah Fears over the last couple weeks.
• 12:30
  SPEAKER_00: Something to monitor a little bit.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: That guy looks good.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: He looks really good at times.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: If only he could finish.
• 12:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna stop making that finishing at the rim joke on his behalf.
• 12:38
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, the next team is the Milwaukee Bucks.
• 12:42
  SPEAKER_00: I thought the Milwaukee Bucks are gonna be sneaky, okay.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: Giannis shooting cool.
• 12:46
  SPEAKER_00: Giannis is a for sure 30-point per game score in my mind.
• 12:49
  SPEAKER_00: And though the talent level between him being the best player and the second best player on the team was a large, large drop-off.
• 12:55
  SPEAKER_00: In my mind, with this depleted Eastern Conference before the season started, thinking that the Celtics were gonna be falling off a little bit, and then with the Pacers falling off, this team could win 40-ish games, 42 games.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that feels that feels right.
• 13:10
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, uh, Giannis has dealt with a lot of injuries this season.
• 13:14
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we got a lot of rumors about his future with the team.
• 13:18
  SPEAKER_00: And I said on the show like around January that I'm done talking about the Giannis saga.
• 13:23
  SPEAKER_00: So even though there's stuff still breaking about him wanting to play and them not letting the play, I don't have any more opinions about it.
• 13:29
  SPEAKER_00: But it has been a really bad season all the way through.
• 13:32
  SPEAKER_00: Ryan Rollins is one of the cool spots of it, him having a true breakout year and being a candidate for most improved player and all.
• 13:40
  SPEAKER_00: But this was a for this will be a forgotten season, or maybe it will be remembered as the season before Giannis eventually got traded or whatever.
• 13:47
  SPEAKER_00: But it's a lot going on, and I don't I don't care to talk about it, man.
• 13:51
  SPEAKER_00: Is it free, Giannis?
• 13:53
  SPEAKER_00: Well, that's what he's trying to do, in my opinion.
• 13:54
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we got the Orlando Magic.
• 13:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh man, man, I maybe should have started off with this team.
• 14:00
  SPEAKER_00: 50, a 49 and a half over-under.
• 14:03
  SPEAKER_00: And though I'm not looking at over-unders as a way to determine if you succeeded or or failed or anything, 49, I locked that before the season started.
• 14:09
  SPEAKER_00: 49 and a half, give me that over.
• 14:11
  SPEAKER_00: Lock, lock, lock, lock, lock.
• 14:12
  SPEAKER_00: This team just added as a bane.
• 14:13
  SPEAKER_00: We know that regardless of what's going on in there, they're gonna have the defensive identity.
• 14:17
  SPEAKER_00: They're will coach.
• 14:18
  SPEAKER_00: This is what I was thinking before the season started.
• 14:20
  SPEAKER_00: Nah, nah.
• 14:21
  SPEAKER_00: Defensive identity, dead.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: Will coach, no.
• 14:24
  SPEAKER_00: Though they have had Anthony Black miss so much time, Jalen Suggs plays every other game.
• 14:28
  SPEAKER_00: Franz Wagner miss so much time.
• 14:29
  SPEAKER_00: This is one of them seeds they they would love to delete.
• 14:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like I said last week, I would buy stocking them next year.
• 14:36
  SPEAKER_00: If if like before this started, with the contingency that Jamal Mosey's not coaching his team.
• 14:41
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, but yeah, even like it got so bad that people flipped on Paolo.
• 14:45
  SPEAKER_00: Paolo a year what, four?
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Year three year four?
• 14:47
  SPEAKER_00: And they like, nah, he ain't really like that.
• 14:49
  SPEAKER_00: And it has it had been a disappointing season for the most part, but man, I saw I okay.
• 14:55
  SPEAKER_00: Next, we got the Golden State Warriors.
• 14:58
  SPEAKER_00: You buy in on Jimmy Butler last season.
• 15:01
  SPEAKER_00: You know, Jimmy Butler comes to the team and y'all basically don't lose games.
• 15:04
  SPEAKER_00: Boom.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: We good.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: We ain't gotta do nothing dramatic in this offseason.
• 15:07
  SPEAKER_00: We add to Jimmy, we look good, and we got to the postseason and we had injuries, so we we might have been able to make a little run of where to get injured.
• 15:13
  SPEAKER_00: That's what they're telling themselves.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: So we ain't gotta do nothing huge in the offseason.
• 15:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna bring back the Anthony Melton.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna bring back Amiga Huh.
• 15:20
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, even though we probably shouldn't have.
• 15:22
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna bring in Al Hoffer who left Boston under some circumstances that he won't talk about right now.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 15:27
  SPEAKER_00: And we're just gonna run it back, and we should be good enough to win games.
• 15:30
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember ESPN had their projection model that was all about the stats and everything, and it projected that the Warriors are gonna be the number one seed.
• 15:38
  SPEAKER_00: They're playing a team right now, and Steph Curry's gonna come back, or maybe as y'all are watching this episode, Steph Curry has debuted already back from his injury versus the Houston Rockets.
• 15:47
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, that's not.
• 15:49
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: It's one of those seeds that you would love to throw away.
• 15:54
  SPEAKER_00: Um shout out to to Santos, who's been hooping over the last couple weeks, and if there's any silver lining, because y'all know me, Mr.
• 16:01
  SPEAKER_00: Kenny Beach and Mr.
• 16:02
  SPEAKER_00: Enjoy basketball.
• 16:03
  SPEAKER_00: We always looking for the bright side of these situations.
• 16:05
  SPEAKER_00: Santos has looked really good as of recent, but they would delete this season if they could.
• 16:10
  SPEAKER_00: Warriors, Magic, Bucks, Kings, Pelicans, delete the season.
• 16:13
  SPEAKER_00: The next tier is slightly disappointing.
• 16:16
  SPEAKER_00: Not enough to wave the red flag or be in DEF CON 1, but these teams have disappointed to this point.
• 16:22
  SPEAKER_00: And some of this can be alleviated because these are all four playoff teams.
• 16:26
  SPEAKER_00: If they get into the postseason and they make a run, who cares about a regular season disappointment if you can go into the postseason and you can win games?
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is the New York Knicks.
• 16:33
  SPEAKER_00: Before the season started, it was well documented by many people that the top two teams out east should be the Cleveland Cavaliers and the New York Knicks.
• 16:41
  SPEAKER_00: The Cleveland Cavaliers won 60 games last season.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the New York Knicks just was in the conference finals, brought everybody back, and in theory upgraded their coach, depending on your opinion, on Tom Thibodeau and Mike Brown.
• 16:51
  SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, it's been fine, but maybe just not as good as they would have expected.
• 16:56
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, this is a 50-win team, and it's not easy to win 50 games, so it's not bad by any means, but regular season-wise, maybe slightly disappointed.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Because there's just too many comments within the players about what their role should be.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's too much of like looking at their units, their their five-man units, to be like, this, your five best players can't play together.
• 17:14
  SPEAKER_00: Not that they can't play together, but like they are only a plus two, plus two net rating with the five best players on your teams.
• 17:22
  SPEAKER_00: You've had stretches where Jalen Brunson has not looked nearly as good as he did last season.
• 17:25
  SPEAKER_00: You've had stretches where Carnegie Towns does not look nearly as good as he did in previous seasons.
• 17:30
  SPEAKER_00: Um, there is a time in their game versus the uh Houston Rockets on here on Peacock where Reggie, our boy Reggie was just going crazy at Carthony Towns for his lack of aggression, the lack of everything.
• 17:42
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, man, this ain't really what they expected.
• 17:45
  SPEAKER_00: They're three seed and they're teetering between that and the two.
• 17:48
  SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming that the Celts are gonna keep the two, but it's not a bad season by any means.
• 17:52
  SPEAKER_00: But them being unable to beat good teams again is just something you got to think about.
• 17:58
  SPEAKER_00: But they also didn't beat good teams in the regular season last year either, and they made it to the conference finals.
• 18:02
  SPEAKER_00: So again, all regular seasons, slightly disappointed so far for the New York Knicks.
• 18:06
  SPEAKER_00: The next same is that Cleveland Cavaliers team that we mentioned a couple seconds ago.
• 18:09
  SPEAKER_00: They won 60 last year.
• 18:10
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, they're gonna be a 4C.
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know?
• 18:12
  SPEAKER_00: Darius Garland missed a ton of time, Evan Mobley missed time, um, Jared Allen missed time.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: They made a big in-season trade, two big in-season trades, if you ask me, between Acquire and James Harden and trading DeAndre Hunter for uh Keatt Ellis and Dennis Schroeder.
• 18:26
  SPEAKER_00: Both of these seams that we're mentioning right now do have the potential to go on runs, but with them winning 60 games, 60 plus games, not just 60, 60 plus games last season, to maybe be at the end of this year and being at like 41, 42, I mean a 12 win drop, I think we can say is a disappointing season, at least slightly, even if we do believe that they can go on a run.
• 18:45
  SPEAKER_00: Next one is the Houston Rockets.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: The Rockets won 52 games last season.
• 18:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's still in the realm possibility they can end the season with about 52 as well.
• 18:52
  SPEAKER_00: There are 48 wins as I record this episode.
• 18:55
  SPEAKER_00: But, you know, maybe the expectations tempered a little bit once we found out that Frey Van Vliet was going to miss this year, which is unfortunate because he is a get everything in order type of guy.
• 19:04
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, they have been lacking that all season long.
• 19:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I think a lot of us expecting them to maybe look better on the day-to-day basis.
• 19:10
  SPEAKER_00: They are just like these other two teams.
• 19:12
  SPEAKER_00: There are stretches where you're like, okay, this team looks amazing.
• 19:15
  SPEAKER_00: And there's other stretches where they're so disjointed that they don't look like a playoff team at all.
• 19:18
  SPEAKER_00: Right.
• 19:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that's saying a lot because this team should be more talented than what they do on a daily basis.
• 19:23
  SPEAKER_00: And the last team, and a slightly disappointing thing, is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, 46 and 31.
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 19:31
  SPEAKER_00: This there's just something missing between this team.
• 19:33
  SPEAKER_00: And I can't really pinpoint exactly what it is.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is Julius Randle hasn't looked as good start to finish as he did last season.
• 19:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe it is, as of recently, at least Jaden McDaniels is out with injury.
• 19:43
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it is that some of the guys that they were going to rely on haven't lived up to that one season expectation.
• 19:48
  SPEAKER_00: All of these teams I think could go on a run, but based on their regular season, I would say these teams are slightly disappointing.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Knicks, Cavs, Rockets, and Wolves.
• 19:58
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we'll get into our next one that we're called calling weird turns.
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: What could that mean?
• 20:03
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 20:09
  SPEAKER_00: Before we go any further, we want to say thank you to our sponsor over at DraftKings.
• 20:13
  SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings pick six by now, where you can pick more or less the different player stats for the upcoming games.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: Just look for your favorite players, look at their stats, go more or less, put them into your pick set, sit back, relax, and see if you made the right decision.
• 20:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, if you watch the numbers on the board, you know that we've been doing this leaderboard thing where we've been going against each other to see who could make the best picks on a daily basis.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: With basically one week left of the regular season.
• 20:36
  SPEAKER_00: Right now I'm in the league.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not by a lot, but I need a good, good week from my picks.
• 20:42
  SPEAKER_00: So I did put together something for y'all today as I always do.
• 20:46
  SPEAKER_00: Not the biggest of slates here on this Monday.
• 20:49
  SPEAKER_00: We do have our only Peacock game.
• 20:51
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and it is the Knicks versus Hawks, two good playoff teams going against each other.
• 20:54
  SPEAKER_00: Hmm.
• 20:55
  SPEAKER_00: What I decided to pick from this game is Nikhil Alexander Walker more on points.
• 21:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know for sure just yet.
• 21:01
  SPEAKER_00: I'm still trying to tinker between him and basically Jalen Duran for who I want to pick from our most improved player this season.
• 21:08
  SPEAKER_00: Both of those guys are definitely worthy, and there's other people as well.
• 21:11
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just bringing it up to say that Nikil Alexander Walker season from start to finish has been better than anybody could have ever expected.
• 21:18
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, the fact that he went onto the market and got this little amount of money compared to his production shows you that not a lot of people believe that he had this in his tank.
• 21:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it is so funny because he's had a weird career arc where he came in as like the score and he got to the Pelicans, it didn't really happen.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: He ended up in the Utah Jazz for a little bit, and then he had to warrant or change his game to become more defensive-oriented guy to basically stay a full-time player in the league.
• 21:39
  SPEAKER_00: Get to Minnesota, is huge for a couple years for Minnesota off that bench.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: In Atlanta, they're thinking they're getting a great defensive guy that can score at least a little bit.
• 21:47
  SPEAKER_00: They ain't know they was getting a 20 point per game score and is still a good defensive player.
• 21:50
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 21:51
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Nikon to the Walker.
• 21:52
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going more on his points versus the Knicks.
• 21:55
  SPEAKER_00: Next game we got is Magic versus Pistons.
• 21:58
  SPEAKER_00: We're getting to that part of the season where.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Where like the Pistons have wrapped up the one C shout out to Detroit basketball.
• 22:04
  SPEAKER_00: Didn't see that coming before this even started.
• 22:05
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm curious to see, you know, as a guy like Jalen Duran, if I'm not mistaken, let me quickly check this.
• 22:11
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Durin has already cracked the 65-game thing.
• 22:14
  SPEAKER_00: Let me double check.
• 22:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's at 67 games, so he'd have to worry about eligibility for awards and everything.
• 22:19
  SPEAKER_00: If they're going to ramp some of these guys down as you secure the spot, so I'm going off the assumption that Jalen Durham will be playing in this game on Monday, and I'm going more on his points.
• 22:27
  SPEAKER_00: He has been on a tear even without Kay Cunningham.
• 22:30
  SPEAKER_00: And that's one of the reasons why I got him in his contention.
• 22:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because I'm just going to say it's in theory, at least, it's easier to be this productive when you're playing alongside an all-NBA point guard.
• 22:38
  SPEAKER_00: But when you don't have him, and instead it's Daniel Jenkins, who's good in his own right, and you still can put up 23 at night, is pretty impressive stuff.
• 22:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going more on his points versus the Orlando Magic.
• 22:48
  SPEAKER_00: One of the next games we got is the Cleveland Cavaliers versus the Memphis Grizzlies.
• 22:52
  SPEAKER_00: James Harden, get out there and cook something.
• 22:54
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going more on his assist versus Memphis.
• 22:57
  SPEAKER_00: Memphis has been in that news a little bit too much for my personal opinion over the last week or so.
• 23:02
  SPEAKER_00: I've never been to Memphis.
• 23:04
  SPEAKER_00: But part of me wants to do a piece of content, and I'm going to say it to the war.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe somebody steals it.
• 23:07
  SPEAKER_00: I don't really care.
• 23:08
  SPEAKER_00: Where I go to Memphis and I test these hotels that seven NBA players say that they hate.
• 23:14
  SPEAKER_00: And we rate them.
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: Like a good old Ron Trahan video.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Ron Trahan.
• 23:18
  SPEAKER_00: Where I just I just go to Memphis, these two hotels that everybody talks about, between Draymond, LeBron, everybody else, and be like, how bad are these hotels?
• 23:28
  SPEAKER_00: The way they be talking, they the worst ever.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: But I've been in some bad hotels.
• 23:31
  SPEAKER_00: You know, I ain't been in many five-star hotels like Brabra.
• 23:34
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe it will live up to my standard, maybe it's just not theirs.
• 23:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lastly, we got the Denver Nuggets versus the Minnesota.
• 23:42
  SPEAKER_00: Nope, versus the Trailblazers, not the Minnesota Timbows.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Sorry about that.
• 23:44
  SPEAKER_00: Versus the Trailblazers.
• 23:46
  SPEAKER_00: I went more on points for Cam Johnson.
• 23:49
  SPEAKER_00: I have, if you go watch numbers on the board, I have put Cam Johnson in my pick set five times this season.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: Five times.
• 23:58
  SPEAKER_00: I'm five for five there.
• 24:01
  SPEAKER_00: I think I just get lucky because you're not, he's not always getting the more.
• 24:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 24:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's not always getting the more.
• 24:07
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm getting lucky and picking the right games.
• 24:09
  SPEAKER_00: And there's something in the back of my there's no science in this, as y'all know.
• 24:13
  SPEAKER_00: There's something in the back of my mind that's like this is a cam game where he can get that more on the point.
• 24:17
  SPEAKER_00: So we'll we'll see.
• 24:18
  SPEAKER_00: As always, be sure to play responsibly.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we'll get into some more tiers for NBA teams.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: For those of you who haven't checked out DraftKings Pick Six yet, there's an exclusive offer waiting for you.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, new DraftKings customers can play$5 to get$50 and bonus picks.
• 24:33
  SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is download the Pick Six app and use promo code Enjoy when you sign up.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: Pick six is available in most states, including Florida, Texas, and California.
• 24:42
  SPEAKER_00: So don't be afraid to get in on the action.
• 24:44
  SPEAKER_00: Right at the upside with Pick Six.
• 24:52
  SPEAKER_00: This next one we're calling Weird Turns.
• 24:55
  SPEAKER_00: It's not necessarily a good or bad thing because some of these weird turns are actually good.
• 24:59
  SPEAKER_00: But this is another spot where I struggle to figure out where to put these teams, you know?
• 25:04
  SPEAKER_00: So weird turns is what we're gonna call it.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is the Portland Trailblazers, a team that was interesting to me at least before the season started.
• 25:12
  SPEAKER_00: I think if you watch Numbers on the Board or Over Under Podcast, I locked their over.
• 25:16
  SPEAKER_00: Uh-oh.
• 25:17
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see where that was at, actually.
• 25:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let me see where that was at.
• 25:19
  SPEAKER_00: NBA preseason over-unders basketball reference.
• 25:23
  SPEAKER_00: Before the season started, the Trailblazers over-under was 35 and a half, and I locked the over and they got 40 wins today.
• 25:30
  SPEAKER_00: Oh my God, that's great.
• 25:31
  SPEAKER_00: Because again, I missed on that Magic's lock.
• 25:33
  SPEAKER_00: So I'm happy I got one locked to work.
• 25:35
  SPEAKER_00: But a weird turn when we're just a little bit into the season, with their head coach, their head coach Chauncey Bills, um, you know, gets investigated for a lot of different things.
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: And he's just full on out of the Portland Trailblazers as a coach.
• 25:53
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Tiago Splitter, I asked some Trailblazer fans this in my personal life, so I'm gonna ask the people on the interwebs, how do you feel about Tiago Splitter as a coach?
• 26:02
  SPEAKER_00: Is an open conversation for you know Trailblazer fans because I could see it going anyway, anyway.
• 26:06
  SPEAKER_00: I could see them opening up that position and interviewing a bunch of people, but I could also see them giving him the opportunity to be the full-time coach come next season.
• 26:13
  SPEAKER_00: The expectation does shift next season when Dane comes back and so on.
• 26:16
  SPEAKER_00: But weird turns is when you you're prepared to have one guy as your coach and he has to go to court for stuff, you know?
• 26:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's a weird turn, but ultimately, I guess you could just say successful season because they've had a ton of injuries as well, and they've been able to just say be a 500-ish team.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: That's a successful season, even if sometimes you watch and be like, ew.
• 26:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but success, I guess.
• 26:38
  SPEAKER_00: Next weird turn is the LA Clippers, who ultimately has had a disappointing season.
• 26:42
  SPEAKER_00: Let's not let me not bury that.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: It's been a disappointing year considering they're over-under.
• 26:46
  SPEAKER_00: Again, not trying to look at over-unders as the end-all be all, was 49 and a half.
• 26:51
  SPEAKER_00: They might get 41, 42, you know, so it has been disappointing.
• 26:55
  SPEAKER_00: But the weird turn is starting off four and whatever, and then blaming Chris Paul, and then that being right.
• 27:05
  SPEAKER_00: You know, we get we get the scapegoat thing all the time across sports.
• 27:10
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, so-and-so coach is a scapegoat, so-and-so player is a scapegoat.
• 27:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then when a person gets fired and it works, you're like, oh.
• 27:19
  SPEAKER_00: Now it could be all circumstantial, it could be all coincidence, but they were pretty damn good immediately right after Chris Paul got waived.
• 27:28
  SPEAKER_00: Shots my goal.
• 27:29
  SPEAKER_00: But a weird turn because before the season started, this was his farewell tour, and he got, I don't even know how many games my boy got.
• 27:37
  SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a lot of them, no.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: So they did them dirty, but it might have worked out because they're at least a playing team at this moment of time.
• 27:43
  SPEAKER_00: They've had to play catch up, crazy catch-up in the NBA.
• 27:45
  SPEAKER_00: And that's the one fun thing about it all to be down that much.
• 27:48
  SPEAKER_00: It feels like a KOT for Q YouTube video.
• 27:51
  SPEAKER_00: I started off the season 0-41 and made the playoffs.
• 27:54
  SPEAKER_00: The clippers were close, man.
• 27:56
  SPEAKER_00: They were close to doing that.
• 27:57
  SPEAKER_00: Next weird turn is the Atlanta Hawks, man.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: The Atlanta Hawks are such a weird turn because I think me and a lot of other people looked at the Atlanta Hawks before the season started and said, hey, this team is very interesting.
• 28:11
  SPEAKER_00: They had a really good offseason between Nikio, the trait that got them to pick from Derrick Queen, um uh um Chris Absporzingis, Luke Kennard.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: This team should be ready and be a good offensive team and be good enough defensively to win, I don't know, 48 games, maybe or something like that.
• 28:29
  SPEAKER_00: And it didn't work out that way.
• 28:30
  SPEAKER_00: For the majority of the season, they look like the same old Atlanta Hawks team in a sense of wins and losses.
• 28:34
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna win a game, lose a game, win a game, lose a game.
• 28:37
  SPEAKER_00: Lose two, win two.
• 28:38
  SPEAKER_00: Win three, lose three.
• 28:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's just what their season was.
• 28:41
  SPEAKER_00: And then they traded away Trey Young.
• 28:43
  SPEAKER_00: You're like, oh, right after they traded Trey Young, I remember seeing Hawks fans on the timeline, like, yeah, I guess it's just gonna be another one of them seasons.
• 28:49
  SPEAKER_00: And then boom, 11-game win streak, and boom, we're the five seed now?
• 28:53
  SPEAKER_00: All of a sudden, we just turned into the five seed.
• 28:55
  SPEAKER_00: So this season has had so many turns, so many ups and downs for the Atlanta Hawks that it is just one of the more interesting teams.
• 29:03
  SPEAKER_00: They're two games away from their over-under over-hitting, which would be great for all us fans that picked the over, but we didn't think it was gonna look like this.
• 29:11
  SPEAKER_00: We didn't think they were gonna hit the over without a Chris Dasperz Dingis, without a Trey Young.
• 29:14
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Jalen Johnson, shout out to Nikhil, shout out to Double O and Dyson Daniels, everybody else, uh, Coach Quinn.
• 29:21
  SPEAKER_00: Um, weird turn.
• 29:23
  SPEAKER_00: Last weird turn team is the Memphis Grizzlies, where I before this he started, he they were one of the more tough teams to project.
• 29:31
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they had already just traded Desmond Bang, but there were some of you that may, some of yourself that made you feel like they'd still be decent, right?
• 29:39
  SPEAKER_00: They'd still be an okay playoff team.
• 29:40
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe not the 2C like they were last time.
• 29:42
  SPEAKER_00: All three of those guys, Jaron, Ja, and Bane, were healthy.
• 29:46
  SPEAKER_00: But you know, they still have some pieces around.
• 29:48
  SPEAKER_00: We like Sedge Coward as a young guy.
• 29:50
  SPEAKER_00: Ty Jerome, though I didn't know he was gonna miss the majority of the season.
• 29:53
  SPEAKER_00: Ty Jerome is such a good signing and all.
• 29:55
  SPEAKER_00: John Morant should, in theory, be healthy.
• 29:57
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, this should be interesting.
• 29:58
  SPEAKER_00: And then boom, things ain't going well.
• 30:00
  SPEAKER_00: John Morant's going down with injuries.
• 30:02
  SPEAKER_00: He's in some stuff.
• 30:03
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, then they trade Jaron Jackson Jr.
• 30:05
  SPEAKER_00: away, and they took a weird turn.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: And now turn that we like, oh, they're about to go into a full-on rebuild depending on what they decide to do with John Morant.
• 30:12
  SPEAKER_00: It's a weird term.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: Plazers, Clippers, Hawks, Grizzies, weird turn teams.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: We got a tier that's called exactly what we expected.
• 30:21
  SPEAKER_00: It's not a bad thing to be exactly what you expected, because some of these scenes we expected to be great, and that's exactly what they are.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these scenes we expected to be mediocre, and that's exactly what they are.
• 30:29
  SPEAKER_00: Starting off with the Thunder.
• 30:31
  SPEAKER_00: This Thunder team is exactly what we thought they were gonna be.
• 30:33
  SPEAKER_00: The best team in basketball.
• 30:34
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, 61 wins.
• 30:35
  SPEAKER_00: I think they're over under also with 62, 62 and a half.
• 30:38
  SPEAKER_00: So they're two games away from making that a reality.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: This team is exactly what we thought, even given the injuries of Duff a season, majority of the season, the injuries of IHAR and so on and so forth.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: We don't need to talk about the Thunder.
• 30:50
  SPEAKER_00: If I had to suspect in a week's time when the playoffs start, we'll get to talking about the Thunder a lot.
• 30:57
  SPEAKER_00: So I don't got to spend a lot of time now.
• 30:59
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly what we expected.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: These Chicago Bulls, hey, we expected them to be late on trading everybody.
• 31:04
  SPEAKER_00: And guess what they were?
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: Late on trading everybody.
• 31:06
  SPEAKER_00: We expected them.
• 31:07
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, maybe they're not exactly what we expected because they did trade everybody.
• 31:10
  unknown: Huh.
• 31:11
  SPEAKER_00: No, they're a bad team.
• 31:13
  SPEAKER_00: We expected them to be a bad team.
• 31:15
  SPEAKER_00: Next, the Miami Heat.
• 31:17
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, man, they do, they did win more games than maybe some people expected, but what did you expect them to be?
• 31:22
  SPEAKER_00: A play in team.
• 31:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're exactly that.
• 31:25
  SPEAKER_00: Bam, Jame, Hero.
• 31:27
  SPEAKER_00: All of these guys have publicly said we're so tired of the play-in, but that's exactly where we end up being every single season.
• 31:33
  SPEAKER_00: They won more games than maybe anticipated, but so did the rest of the Easter Conference.
• 31:37
  SPEAKER_00: So a good season is still, you gotta win to get in.
• 31:40
  SPEAKER_00: That's the Miami Heat Way.
• 31:42
  SPEAKER_00: Next one is the 76ers.
• 31:44
  SPEAKER_00: And the reason I'm saying the 76ers are exactly what we expect.
• 31:46
  SPEAKER_00: I think we expect them to be a good team.
• 31:48
  SPEAKER_00: Right now, they're a play-in team with 43 wins, but we also expected them to deal with um injury, controversy.
• 31:55
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, controversy.
• 31:56
  SPEAKER_00: That's just the 76ers away.
• 31:57
  SPEAKER_00: Paul George gets suspended.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: He's been great since coming back.
• 32:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jordan B's go miss some games because of injury.
• 32:02
  SPEAKER_00: This is exactly the type of season we expected the 76ers to have, we're being honest with each other.
• 32:07
  SPEAKER_00: Um they're good.
• 32:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're like they're like a scary first round team for one of these top seeds if they can win and get in and all.
• 32:14
  SPEAKER_00: But this is the type of season we expected.
• 32:16
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, hell, they may not even need to win and get in.
• 32:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now I'm looking at the schedule.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: Let me go to our favorite website around this time of the year, playoffstatus.com.
• 32:25
  SPEAKER_00: Playoffstatus.com got the Sixers with a 36, a 34% chance to end up as a six seed, and about a 50%, I'm rounding up a little bit, about a 50% chance of ending up as a seventh seed.
• 32:38
  SPEAKER_00: So there's still there's still a world.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: There's still a world.
• 32:40
  SPEAKER_00: It's like basically between them and the Raptors for that six seed spot, uh, because the Hornets, the Magic, and the Heat are not really in play for that at all.
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm not sure.
• 32:48
  SPEAKER_00: I can go quickly to NBA strength of schedule um to see who has a tougher five-game stretch here.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: And the 76ers stretch, they have the Spurs once, the Rockets once, then they got the Pacers and the Bucks.
• 33:02
  SPEAKER_00: So they could go 2-2.
• 33:04
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they could go 4-4-0.
• 33:05
  SPEAKER_00: They could go 3-0 3-1, depending on how that looks.
• 33:08
  SPEAKER_00: And then Toronto, ooh.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: Toronto still got they still got the Celtics once.
• 33:16
  SPEAKER_00: They got the Knicks once, they got the Heat twice, and then they have the Nets.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: Again, we're not, I don't know when those games are, right?
• 33:23
  SPEAKER_00: Some of these teams might be resting the last game of the season if it ends up being that, but it's still it is still up in the air.
• 33:29
  SPEAKER_00: Exactly what we expect the team, the last one, is the Nuggets.
• 33:33
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this is a weird spot for the Nuggets because they have had a ton of ups and downs this season, but them being a 51 team feels about right for what we expected.
• 33:42
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, they're over-under right now.
• 33:43
  SPEAKER_00: What going into the season was 52 and a half, so like they're right around there.
• 33:47
  SPEAKER_00: Though they've also dealt with a ton of injuries, they are still a contender by many people's opinions, mine included.
• 33:54
  SPEAKER_00: So I would I would say this is what we expected, right?
• 33:57
  SPEAKER_00: Or should they be in the slightly disappointed here?
• 33:59
  SPEAKER_00: Because even though they're winning these games, a lot of them don't feel very convincing.
• 34:03
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the Spurs win is a huge win from a night ago.
• 34:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jokic versus Wimby, give me seven of those, please.
• 34:09
  SPEAKER_00: So maybe they could slide down to like a slightly disappointed, but like for the most part, I feel like we expected them to be good and they're they're that.
• 34:16
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, the defense, we thought maybe because David Adleman figured something out because he had three regular season games and then the postseason, they looked pretty good defensively then, but all season long they've been struggling on the defensive side of the ball.
• 34:27
  SPEAKER_00: Regardless, what we expected.
• 34:30
  SPEAKER_00: Thunder, we expected them to be great.
• 34:32
  SPEAKER_00: 76ers, we expect them to be good, but deal with injury.
• 34:34
  SPEAKER_00: We expected the Bulls to be bad.
• 34:36
  SPEAKER_00: We expected the Heat to be in the play-in, and we expected the the Denver Nuggets to stay a contender, and that's exactly what they did.
• 34:41
  SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we got two more tiers called Greatly Exceeded and Best Success Stories of the Season.
• 34:53
  SPEAKER_00: Greatly succeeded tier has three teams.
• 34:58
  SPEAKER_00: And one of these teams, I feel like we can move over to best success story, but it don't matter.
• 35:02
  SPEAKER_00: Both of these tiers are about teams that have been great in comparison to preseason expectations.
• 35:07
  SPEAKER_00: The first one we'll talk about is the Phoenix Suns.
• 35:11
  SPEAKER_00: The Phoenix Suns right now are a play-in team, but before the season started, nobody thought this team had the identity that they were gonna have.
• 35:20
  SPEAKER_00: They are one of the hardest playing teams in all of basketball.
• 35:23
  SPEAKER_00: They're so well coached.
• 35:24
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody plays balls to the wall, every single possession.
• 35:26
  SPEAKER_00: That is super, super valuable in the NBA, where especially if you're in a Western conference, one game can be the difference between you making the postseason versus not.
• 35:35
  SPEAKER_00: So them having that level of enthusiasm on a nightly basis has helped them get to the point where they have 42 wins on the year.
• 35:41
  SPEAKER_00: You know, they traded away Kevin Durant for Dylan Brooks and and um and Jalen Green.
• 35:48
  SPEAKER_00: And Jalen Green missed a ton of this season, and they were still able to be one of the better teams in basketball.
• 35:54
  SPEAKER_00: Dylan Brooks was averaging 20, a 20-ball pre-injury, and shout out to Dylan Brooks.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: He was averaging a little 20 ball, and nobody, nobody would have expected, based on his NBA standings, that he would be able to do that.
• 36:07
  SPEAKER_00: I'm so happy that he is officially back, even if you know it hasn't looked as pretty.
• 36:12
  SPEAKER_00: But he had missed, I don't know, a month and a half, two months of basketball.
• 36:16
  SPEAKER_00: So I didn't expect him to come in and be Michael Jordan or anything.
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: But Devin Booker continues to just be electric, you know.
• 36:22
  SPEAKER_00: Colin Gillespie's another most improved player candidate that I guess I didn't mention earlier, but they have exceeded expectations greatly, so they deserve to be in this tier.
• 36:32
  SPEAKER_00: The next one is the LA Lakers.
• 36:34
  SPEAKER_00: It's a somber time in Lakerland.
• 36:37
  SPEAKER_00: Over the last 48 hours, we found out that Luca Dante is going to miss the rest of the regular season and is out indefinitely with the hammy.
• 36:44
  SPEAKER_00: And then I don't want to say out of nowhere, but out of nowhere, we found out that Austin Reeves is going to be out for the rest of the regular season.
• 36:51
  SPEAKER_00: Needs four to six weeks to come back.
• 36:52
  SPEAKER_00: Four to six weeks, they may not be playing basketball anymore.
• 36:57
  SPEAKER_00: So this team that had greatly exceeded expectations as a second-year 51 team under JJ Reddick may be going into the postseason as if you're a Western Conference team, you want to look at that Lakers team.
• 37:09
  SPEAKER_00: You're hoping maybe you get the Lakers that may have a Luca with a bad hammy and no Austin Reeves at all.
• 37:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's so sad, man.
• 37:16
  SPEAKER_00: I feel for Lakers fans, which is something maybe I shouldn't do because y'all got a gazillion championships compared to my six.
• 37:23
  SPEAKER_00: Um, and I wasn't even alive of those six.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: Well, I was alive for a few of them, but wasn't really conscious for most of those championships.
• 37:29
  SPEAKER_00: But to watch 70, 77 games of a season.
• 37:34
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, shout out to Luca.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: Get well soon.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: To watch 77 games of a season and for contention to be taken away from you in just one day.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: I feel for you, dog.
• 37:45
  SPEAKER_00: I truly, truly do.
• 37:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there is a world where Luca comes back from the hammy and he's still the playoff dominant player that we know him to be.
• 37:52
  SPEAKER_00: But I'm just fearful of hamstring injuries now.
• 37:55
  SPEAKER_00: I think we just saw too many of them this season.
• 37:57
  SPEAKER_00: We saw too many of them turn into bigger injuries just last season.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: I'm scared for Luca to come back, but I know him as a competitor, them as wanting to be a competitive team.
• 38:06
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna try to do it.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: And let's hope knock on wood.
• 38:08
  SPEAKER_00: Everything goes exactly as planned.
• 38:10
  SPEAKER_00: But going back to the regular season part of it, exceeded expectations.
• 38:13
  SPEAKER_00: They had a decent offseason, right, on paper.
• 38:16
  SPEAKER_00: DeAndre Aiden for basically nothing, Marcus Smart for basically nothing, Jake Laven basically nothing.
• 38:20
  SPEAKER_00: And it felt like a gap year.
• 38:22
  SPEAKER_00: I think something I've used a lot when talking about this Lakers team.
• 38:26
  SPEAKER_00: They're gonna have a hundred million dollars to capsulate this season, but really it's like a lot of opportunity in 2027 where you could potentially have bigger names in the market.
• 38:33
  SPEAKER_00: So this felt like a year that Braun, we love you, maybe this is the last with Rod with us.
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: We're gonna try to be competitive, but if we're not, don't worry.
• 38:39
  SPEAKER_00: The next two offseasons are really, really important for the Luca Doncic era.
• 38:42
  SPEAKER_00: And then they were able to flip a switch post-all-star for the second year in a row to have a ton of momentum going into the postseason again before the injuries of Luca and Reeves.
• 38:52
  SPEAKER_00: A crazy great story, right?
• 38:54
  SPEAKER_00: I don't remember what their over-under was, but I'm assuming they hit the over on this one.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: They truly, truly greatly exceeded expectations.
• 39:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because before the season started, there were people that didn't even have the Lakers in the postseason.
• 39:03
  SPEAKER_00: And one thing I will pat myself in the back on, I've always said, as long as Luca Dante is on the team, I'm giving them an extra five wins than what people expect.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: That's how good of a player Luca Dontis is.
• 39:12
  SPEAKER_00: And he's proven that every year, it feels like of his career that he's been healthy.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: So greatly exceeded him.
• 39:18
  SPEAKER_00: Lastly, and the greatly exceeded, and this team is teetering between greatly exceeded and best success story of the NBA, is the Detroit Pistons.
• 39:26
  SPEAKER_00: Last year, they were one, they were the best success story in the NBA.
• 39:30
  SPEAKER_00: 28 straight losses the season before, new coach, same core, boom, sixth seed in the NBA playoffs versus a veteran team, and we take them to six, if I'm not mistaken.
• 39:40
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back next season.
• 39:41
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't think many people expect them to be back next season to be the best team in the Eastern Conference.
• 39:46
  SPEAKER_00: So many people are playing elite-level basketball.
• 39:48
  SPEAKER_00: Kate Cunningham had an all-NBA first team case before he went down with his injury.
• 39:52
  SPEAKER_00: Danais Jenkins played 23 minutes all of last season, and now he's played almost 1,400 minutes, and now he's starting because Kay Cunningham is out, and the team has not missed a beat.
• 40:02
  SPEAKER_00: That's how goodly or greatly coached they are and how much they are bought in.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Before this he's started, you question what type of money would Jalen Duran end up getting.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: Hey, it's all of it.
• 40:13
  SPEAKER_00: The entire thing.
• 40:14
  SPEAKER_00: He's gonna make all NBA this season, I think.
• 40:16
  SPEAKER_00: It's the entire thing.
• 40:17
  SPEAKER_00: And I remember watching a ton of Jalen Duran last season, and he was good, but you question like how good he would be in the pick and roll for his future.
• 40:26
  SPEAKER_00: He just had a lot of brain farts, I guess the best way to describe when you watched him last season defensively.
• 40:31
  SPEAKER_00: And this season a lot of that is gone.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Like he's really locked in, he's taking mid-range jump shots, he's bullying opposing teams, like not just their center, they're sending two, and he's bullying them.
• 40:41
  SPEAKER_00: It's just been a great season from start to finish from JBK, Jalen, Jane, uh, Danis, and so on.
• 40:48
  SPEAKER_00: Like they lost some pretty important people to last year's success.
• 40:51
  SPEAKER_00: Dennis Schroeder got to the team last year and he looked great.
• 40:54
  SPEAKER_00: Malik Beasley hit the most threes maybe ever for their team.
• 40:58
  SPEAKER_00: And he's gone, they're gone, and they replaced him with Karis Avert, who's had a ton of ups and downs, more downs and ups, and then Duncan Robinson.
• 41:05
  SPEAKER_00: And they were still able to be great.
• 41:07
  SPEAKER_00: So, like, maybe maybe I move them to best stories because I'm talking myself into them being way better than anybody could have ever anticipated.
• 41:15
  SPEAKER_00: Because some people thought they'd take a step back based on their offseason, because that's how important Malik Beasley was and so on, but they have exceeded all expectations.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: Next, best success stories.
• 41:25
  SPEAKER_00: You gotta start off with the Boston Celtics, who again, I was a guy that believed that this was a gap year for them and for them to not just be the two C, but be looked at.
• 41:35
  SPEAKER_00: I won't use the word consensus, but almost as a consensus, as the favorite to win the Eastern Conference, is ridiculous.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Lost Drew, lost Chris Stabbs, lost Luke Crunette, lost Al Horford, lost Tatum for almost the entire season.
• 41:52
  SPEAKER_00: And they were still able to just be one of the most elite teams in basketball.
• 41:56
  SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brown, ton of credit, obviously.
• 41:59
  SPEAKER_00: But Joe Mazzula, man, I know he don't care about Coach of the Year, but damn, he deserves coach of the year right now.
• 42:05
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry to JB, who also should be a consideration.
• 42:08
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Mitch Johnson, who should also be a consideration.
• 42:11
  SPEAKER_00: Mark Day Nall feels like he's gonna go down the Eric Sposter route of always being a consideration, but never winning the damn award.
• 42:17
  SPEAKER_00: Um or at least wait, does Mark Day now have one?
• 42:19
  SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at it.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: I think he might have had one.
• 42:21
  SPEAKER_00: So that's even more than um than Sposter.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: I don't think Sposter has a single one.
• 42:26
  SPEAKER_00: That's kind of crazy.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Mark Day Nall does have Coach Year 22-2, 22-3.
• 42:31
  SPEAKER_00: Okay, so he won't be like Eric Sposter because Eric Sposter got zero, if I'm not mistaken.
• 42:35
  SPEAKER_00: Um, anyway, um, I forget what I was talking about.
• 42:38
  SPEAKER_00: I was talking about the Celtics.
• 42:39
  SPEAKER_00: So yeah, Coach Mazzo to have the system, to have to empower everybody from the Baylor Shiremans to the Peyton Pritchards to the Hugo Gonzalez's to the Namaz Cada, who's another most improved player candidate.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Shout out to you, Nemi.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: Um, just everybody being on a string defensively and understanding who they are.
• 42:56
  SPEAKER_00: Derek White, which I don't even know where his shooting splits are at right now, he had a few months where he shot it so poorly, but he still ended up being the second player on the court in many games, sometimes the best player on the court in games, with him shooting 32% from three this season.
• 43:11
  SPEAKER_00: 32%.
• 43:12
  SPEAKER_00: So it's just like everybody, this is such a good story because they have no business being as good as they have been this season.
• 43:19
  SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Joe and all the others.
• 43:23
  SPEAKER_00: Next, um, ooh, oh, this is coach of the month.
• 43:27
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, maybe Spoe didn't know.
• 43:28
  SPEAKER_00: Spo does not have a coach of the year, even though he's been named one of the 15 greatest coaches in the NBA history.
• 43:33
  SPEAKER_00: Y'all remember that?
• 43:34
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, they they still don't care.
• 43:36
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, next one, the Charlotte Hornets, another one of the greatest stories in the NBA.
• 43:39
  SPEAKER_00: I know that it's not even a guarantee that they're gonna make the postseason or playoffs.
• 43:42
  SPEAKER_00: Right now they're AC.
• 43:43
  SPEAKER_00: They'd have to go against the 76ers to get in.
• 43:45
  SPEAKER_00: But for this team to start off 4 14 and then hit a switch, they got all healthy at the right time.
• 43:50
  SPEAKER_00: Coach Charles Lee empowered these guys to play freely, which is something I think Lamelo has always needed.
• 43:55
  SPEAKER_00: Of course, he needs some level of structure, but also to be able to, the team has taken the like a lamello.
• 44:00
  SPEAKER_00: Melo identity, and I think his identity is also shifting a little bit.
• 44:03
  SPEAKER_00: One of the best stories, because as far as I've been here, the Hornets ain't had a lot of success stories.
• 44:09
  SPEAKER_00: They ain't hit on many draft picks.
• 44:10
  SPEAKER_00: They ain't had good coaching.
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 44:12
  SPEAKER_00: So for them to be able to snap it and put it together and to be everybody's favorite team outside of their favorite team.
• 44:19
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
• 44:20
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody loves watching Charlotte Hornets.
• 44:22
  SPEAKER_00: For them to be able to snap things into play, it's setting them up for maybe hopefully a nice postseason this year, but also you look at them like, oh, that's one of the best young cores in basketball.
• 44:30
  SPEAKER_00: When's the last time you could say that about a Charlotte Hornets team?
• 44:33
  SPEAKER_00: You never was able to beforehand, damn it.
• 44:35
  SPEAKER_00: And now you can say that.
• 44:36
  SPEAKER_00: Last great success story is the San Antonio Spurs.
• 44:41
  SPEAKER_00: I understand the criticism about them just being in the lottery and getting top picks, but regardless, Wimby is generational, full stop.
• 44:48
  SPEAKER_00: Mitch Johnson, for Mitch Johnson to be able, for the Spurs to be able to lose Greg Popovich because of you know health and everything, to just have this guy on the bench and Mitch Johnson that can immediately come in.
• 45:03
  SPEAKER_00: In my mind, when you lose a guy like Pop, you might go to two to three coaches be found your next forever coach.
• 45:08
  SPEAKER_00: They might have found the next forever coach and Mitch Johnson, just like he was just sitting on the bench, and that's just the pop treat.
• 45:13
  SPEAKER_00: This has just been such a great story because they are one of the youngest teams in basketball as far as their core goes.
• 45:18
  SPEAKER_00: And they just rarely lose.
• 45:19
  SPEAKER_00: I know the different Nuggets that did to me any other night, but they just rarely lose as one of the youngest teams in ball.
• 45:24
  SPEAKER_00: They have so much good chemistry, so much so that it feels like they asked each other, Are you gonna wear your hairband tonight?
• 45:29
  SPEAKER_00: No, I bet I'm not wearing man either.
• 45:31
  SPEAKER_00: It's just one of those type of teams that everything is cohesive.
• 45:35
  SPEAKER_00: And I knew that they were gonna be a playoff team.
• 45:37
  SPEAKER_00: Um I thought that maybe they were like a 6C before the season started, maybe a 7C fighting to get in.
• 45:42
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't expect them to have like one of the top three records in the entire league, you know, but that's how good.
• 45:47
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, number two record, not top three, literally number two.
• 45:50
  SPEAKER_00: Um, so shout out to them.
• 45:52
  SPEAKER_00: The Dear Fox trade was beautiful, and so on.
• 45:54
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, when we come back, we got more small ball with Kenny Beecham.
• 45:58
  SPEAKER_00: Stay tuned.
• 46:04
  SPEAKER_00: I remember before the season started, I did a little thing where I was asking people for this upcoming season, how how can I make the show better?
• 46:11
  SPEAKER_00: Obviously, this show is what it is at the end of the day.
• 46:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's a solo show, me talking to a camera about the NBA.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: Cool.
• 46:17
  SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I got a few different times that I wanted to try to do more of the season, I feel like I failed at, was just being a little bit more of Kenny Beachum and not just about the NBA.
• 46:26
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna say for some people that's not what you want, right?
• 46:29
  SPEAKER_00: You come here for NBA and that's what you what you do.
• 46:31
  SPEAKER_00: But I just wanted to get a little bit more of Kenny Beacham, and what we're gonna do for Kenny Beacham is talk a little bit of baseball.
• 46:35
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm taking my baseball fandom, and I'm I'm I'm slowly shifting it to the way that I shifted my NFL fandom over the last two years, where previously, before two years ago, I was a Bears fan, but I didn't really watch the other 31 teams across the league.
• 46:52
  SPEAKER_00: I, you know, had red zone, but at the end of the day, I was mostly a Bears guy.
• 46:55
  SPEAKER_00: I didn't know who the coach was for the Jacksonville Jaguars.
• 46:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now I know it's Liam Cohen.
• 47:00
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, I guess he's a new coach.
• 47:01
  SPEAKER_00: But you know what I'm saying?
• 47:02
  SPEAKER_00: Like, but but I've turned more into an NFL fan outside of just being a Bears fan.
• 47:06
  SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to do that this season for baseball.
• 47:09
  SPEAKER_00: It's so hard to keep up with baseball at the end of the day.
• 47:11
  SPEAKER_00: At least with football, you got what, three games, three days a week, maybe some sometimes two.
• 47:16
  SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm gonna give Thursday the benefit of that, even though Thursday games never end up being very good.
• 47:20
  SPEAKER_00: Where you you can watch them.
• 47:22
  SPEAKER_00: Sometimes I'll be sitting there like, all right, let me catch up to see what the Astros are up to.
• 47:26
  SPEAKER_00: And I try to watch last night's highlights, and I check today.
• 47:29
  SPEAKER_00: They already planned today.
• 47:30
  SPEAKER_00: So why should I watch last night's highlights?
• 47:32
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 47:34
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but I will say to I say that to say, hey man, maybe it's just some some early season stuff.
• 47:41
  SPEAKER_00: We did lose a game 10-0 this year.
• 47:44
  SPEAKER_00: We lost another game 9-2.
• 47:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe tomorrow's is just a good baseball team.
• 47:46
  SPEAKER_00: Who knows?
• 47:47
  SPEAKER_00: It's still very early.
• 47:48
  SPEAKER_00: I've been having a lot of fun watching the White Sox.
• 47:51
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, knock on wood, because I know this probably not gonna last.
• 47:54
  SPEAKER_00: We might lose the next 12 games.
• 47:56
  SPEAKER_00: But for us to have um more commie playing the way he is, to have like some grit, I guess is the best way to describe our team.
• 48:05
  SPEAKER_00: We win a game the other night or other day against the Blue Jays off like some Looney Tunes base running, and it just worked out.
• 48:13
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited.
• 48:15
  SPEAKER_00: And and you should never get excited for a Jerry Reinsdorf owned team.
• 48:19
  SPEAKER_00: I understand that, but also been keeping up with the prospects, and I see Hagen Smith throw five shutout, and I see uh the next Randy Johnson.
• 48:27
  SPEAKER_00: Let me stop, let me stop.
• 48:28
  SPEAKER_00: That's too much excitation.
• 48:29
  SPEAKER_00: Noah Schultz.
• 48:30
  SPEAKER_00: Only reason I say that because he's sixth hand and he throws very similarly as far as where his arm slot is.
• 48:35
  SPEAKER_00: I see these guys in the minors, and I just know they're gonna get called up eventually.
• 48:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, yo, we we we are the youngest team in baseball as far as like service time amongst our traditional, you know, lineup, but it's gotta be something like the end of the tunnel, right?
• 48:49
  SPEAKER_00: It's fun now, and then these guys gonna get called up and it's gonna be even more fun.
• 48:53
  SPEAKER_00: We got, you know, uh our first baseman hitting a bomb every single game, it feels like.
• 48:58
  SPEAKER_00: I just bought a jersey, and as I'm lit literally listening to the game at the mall, like that's how locked in I am.
• 49:04
  SPEAKER_00: I'm listening to the game walking around the mall, and I walk into a sport, a place named Pro Jersey, and I buy me a Murakami jersey.
• 49:11
  SPEAKER_00: And as I get to my car, uh I start my car up, and he hits a home run.
• 49:16
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
• 49:17
  SPEAKER_00: That's what he does.
• 49:18
  SPEAKER_00: So I, you know, I'm I'm just excited for what the future was.
• 49:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now I have been here before with the White Sox.
• 49:23
  SPEAKER_00: We had a previously super young core with a mankata, a Luis Robert, and so on and so forth.
• 49:28
  SPEAKER_00: We had a little run um where people believe that we were gonna be a World Series team and we lost and we didn't come close to the World Series.
• 49:36
  SPEAKER_00: So I want to temporarily expectation a little bit because baseball is one of them sports where you think you have a good young core and then it falls apart one year later.
• 49:43
  SPEAKER_00: But I am excited.
• 49:45
  SPEAKER_00: I'm excited for the future of the White Sox.
• 49:47
  SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm excited for the future of the White Sox, man.
• 49:49
  SPEAKER_00: That's that's all I really got.
• 49:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed this episode of Small Ball, be sure to leave a like.
• 49:54
  SPEAKER_00: Be sure to tell a friend and tell a friend that with the postseason being right here, if they need their NBA fix, small ball is the place to be, along with numbers on the board, along with teat up.
• 50:02
  SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all next week.
• 50:04
  SPEAKER_00: Peace.