Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / Tiers of Teams for the Upcoming NBA Season

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Tiers of Teams for the Upcoming NBA Season · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beatsum.
0:02
SPEAKER_00: On today's show, we're going to be tier ranking all 30 NBA teams.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know me.
0:07
SPEAKER_00: It ain't as cut and dry as these are the contenders, and these guys are not the contenders, and these guys are bad.
0:13
SPEAKER_00: Some of the um tiers that we have, the name of these tiers is just maybe it's a little bit different.
0:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, so this is what small ball with Kenny Beatsum is really about.
0:20
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into it, remind you to leave a like on the episode and subscribe.
0:23
SPEAKER_00: We are, let me double check this.
0:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
0:26
SPEAKER_00: A few days away from the start of the NBA season.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: I ain't gonna lie to you, I'm locked.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: So, like I've been watching preseason games.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Like, like, like real life studying preseason games.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about a guy that stood out in his two preseason games later in the episode, but just really, really locked.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, we spent a lot of the offseason.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: I think I've mentioned this before, kind of reflecting on the previous year, what could we be better at, and so on.
0:52
SPEAKER_00: And I cannot wait to continue to produce high-level content for y'all.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: Um, we'll leave it at that.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: We'll leave it at that.
0:58
SPEAKER_00: Twitter's going wild right now with with stuff that's going on, but no comment, damn it.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: Okay, let's get into tier ranking NBA teams.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: I think we start off at the top of the top, right?
1:09
SPEAKER_00: These are the teams that I see to be title favorites, my real life contenders.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And as I was prepping for this episode, kind of going through things, what who do I believe in?
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Who do I not believe in?
1:21
SPEAKER_00: This might be the shortest list of A-tier contenders I've ever really had.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: I'll look back on my notes last year going into this season, and I had seven teams.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: I have four.
1:33
SPEAKER_00: I have four right now, and I'll get to those.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: I do want to say all of this is, of course, without the knowledge of what potential trades are gonna go down, or injuries that's gonna go down, or the super hot team that turns into a title contender out of nowhere.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: Again, this is going into this season.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: This is always very fluid, and maybe halfway through it we do another version of this and see what we were right about, what we were wrong about.
1:51
SPEAKER_00: There's only four.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Now, that's not to say that I think only four teams can win.
1:56
SPEAKER_00: But if I had a hundred chips to bet on who will win the championship, I think 90% of my chips, which I guess is 90 chips because I gave myself a nice round 100, would go on these four teams.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And I'll put in the back pocket those last 10 chips to sprinkle on some of these other teams just in case.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: But this just feels like a year.
2:15
SPEAKER_00: The one of these four teams will walk out victorious, of course, number one on this list is the Oklahoma City Thunder.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: After doing what they did last year, um, people are speculating they could go get 70.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: And we talked about a little bit on numbers on the board a few weeks back, and I kind of pushed back on it because 70 is such a tough number.
2:31
SPEAKER_00: 70 puts you in an elite class of what three different teams to ever win 70 NBA games in a regular season.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: But the counterargument to that is like, hey, we won 60, what, 68 last year, and Chet missed half of the season.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: Isaiah Hartenstein missed half of the season.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: We had J-Dub running full-time five-man for a month stretch.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: So, knock on wood, if we have relative health, it's not out of the realm of possibility.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: You know, I guess I kind of look at like championship fatigue, but you listen to any interview that these guys have had, the people that just won a championship, them being so youthful already.
2:59
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if championship fatigue is gonna be real for them.
3:02
SPEAKER_00: I remember when we uh two years ago when we had Michael Porter Jr.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: on the podcast.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
3:07
SPEAKER_00: I will say, I wish that Michael Porter Jr.
3:09
SPEAKER_00: said some crazy shit on my podcast.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: The 2025 offseason, he was on every show doing and saying whatever.
3:16
SPEAKER_00: He was more media trained, I guess, two years ago when he was on this show.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: But if you remember that episode, he kind of talked about how tough it is to get back into the mindset of trying to win basketball games after winning the championship.
3:27
SPEAKER_00: And guess what I did?
3:28
SPEAKER_00: I still said I'm betting on you to win.
3:30
SPEAKER_00: I should have listened to what he was saying because there was no way they was gonna go back to back.
3:33
SPEAKER_00: If he was saying to me before the season starts, I don't know if I'm locked in.
3:37
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um, this team, this OKC team, may not have that problem.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna be in elite offense, they're gonna be in the elite defense.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: They got all the role players.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: And in case they do hit some injury, um, uh, what's the opposite of luck?
3:50
SPEAKER_00: If they end up having a bunch of injuries, they still have the talent and the depth to replace it.
3:55
SPEAKER_00: They got so much talent and depth that I'm like looking at it like, man, is Nikola Topic going to be able to play?
3:59
SPEAKER_00: Because they have a full 11-man or 10-man rotation that you really trust before Nicola Topic's name even pops up.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: You want to develop him too.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: So it's a weird one, but overall, they should be the favorite going to next season, if I had to bet.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: After that, we're gonna go to a team that took them to seven, and that is the Denver Nuggets.
4:15
SPEAKER_00: The Denver Nuggets had a really good season last year.
4:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, bunch of ups and downs, or I guess say, can't say really good, but a bunch of ups and downs were earlier in the season, I came on the show and I said, hey man, based on the way this team is defended right now, I do not see a world where they can win a championship.
4:30
SPEAKER_00: Though they obviously did not win the championship, they took the team that did eventually win a championship to a seven-game series, and they were one Alice Caruso masterclass from being in the conference finals, right?
4:40
SPEAKER_00: So with them being that team and then also getting better, where you could look at the team on paper and say this is the deepest team Nikola uh Jokic has had in his MVP caliber play between Brucey Brown being back, between Tim Hardaway Jr., the Cam Johnson trade.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: This team should be better.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: And right now, they were at 54 and a half.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: I was just looking at some over-unders while I was sitting here waiting to start the show.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be surprised they went over on that, you know, because this team is really deep in comparison to some of the other teams that we've had.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: Nicola Jokic has been an advanced analytics darling, and he he should be that.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: But part of that is that when he went to the bench, there was nobody there to really hold the fort down.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: There was nobody really there to back him up and just keep the boat steady.
5:27
SPEAKER_00: And Jonas Valentinounis is as good of a backup center as you could really ask for.
5:31
SPEAKER_00: I mean, David Adams was talking about running both of the big fellas together in some lineups and the double big.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: I like the double big revolution that we're having in the NBA right now.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: So I can't wait to see that happen in a um NBA regular season capacity.
5:43
SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if you can't look at this team and say that they they're not one of the A-tier type contenders.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Those are my two Western conference teams.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: Now we go to the East.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Number one on the list has to be the Cleveland Cavaliers.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: I was in a meeting this week um with a bunch of bunch of really smart, way higher-level basketball thinkers than me.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: And one thing that kept popping up in this meeting was the idea of toughness and the toughness that needs to be played in order to win the championship.
6:11
SPEAKER_00: Even if you're just looking just to last season, not even the years before that, between OKC and how physical they are on the defensive side of the ball and the Pacers being able to match that physicality on both sides, the Cleveland Cavaliers are in a weird spot where I look at their roster and look at their previous years, and I question whether or not they have that toughness, if you will, to match some of those things to win 16 games in the postseason.
6:33
SPEAKER_00: Where it feels like a few of the times that they flamed out in the postseason, it's because the other team was just more physical.
6:38
SPEAKER_00: Mitchell Robinson, even though this was like three years ago, looked like a king amongst boys when he played against them.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: We went against, they went against the Pacers, and obviously they dealt dealing with their own injuries between Garland and so on and so forth.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: But that Pacer team just played with more physicality, picking up 94 feet, being not of being afraid to draw charges and not being afraid to pick up fouls if that changes the tempo or the setting of the series.
7:02
SPEAKER_00: That is the biggest hurdle, if you ask me, about the Cleveland Cavaliers.
7:06
SPEAKER_00: But with the Eastern Conference being as open as it is, with nobody that you look at and say, boom, this is theirs to lose, the Cavs have to be one of the top teams there because the talent is the talent.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: And I've already expressed how invested I am in Evan Mobley as a player.
7:19
SPEAKER_00: And I watched that first preseason game, and again, I feel really good about them.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: And that was without, you know, DG and some other guys.
7:25
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, um, they're already starting the season with a few injuries, which is just the way it works in the NBA, I guess.
7:32
SPEAKER_00: But I truly do trust them to be one of the top end contenders throughout the course of the season.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: And the last one has to be the Knicks, right?
7:39
SPEAKER_00: If you told me the Knicks and the Cavs played a seven-game series, I can't uh definitely say that the Cavaliers are going to win that series.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: The Knicks have one of those things that I just mentioned, that toughness aspect, where those series that they went into last year, the last two years, they were the more tough team.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: I know I such a, I don't know, such a weird word to use.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: But yeah, hopefully you understand the level of physicality that really we saw in the last year's postseason.
8:03
SPEAKER_00: And they have the overall talent.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: They have some of the best talent in all the NBA.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: It's really a matter of like what Mike Brown wants to do as a head coach.
8:12
SPEAKER_00: I am a real believer in the front court of Carnthony Towns and Mitchell Robinson together.
8:16
SPEAKER_00: Like we really question like if Carnthony Towns could be the back the starting five on the championship level team, given his defensive, um defensive woes, especially if you have Jalen Brunson up front.
8:26
SPEAKER_00: But the small sample size we got in the postseason of Mitchell Robinson and Carnthony Towns together, I'm a believer.
8:31
SPEAKER_00: And by all accounts, it seems like the Knicks are gonna go that route with Coach Mike Brown, and that team has a real legitimate chance to win it all.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: Those are my four.
8:40
SPEAKER_00: Those are my four championship favorites going to the season.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: But again, I still got like 10 chips to play with.
8:48
SPEAKER_00: So to get to tier number two, which is there's a chance, but these teams also could win a championship this season, but it might be one thing or two things that's holding me back from putting them into that top tier.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: The first one is the Minnesota Timberwolves.
9:04
SPEAKER_00: It feels very um, I don't know, disrespectful in a way when I look at this team, and I really like a lot of these players.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards is a dog.
9:11
SPEAKER_00: Rudy Gobert, y'all know my love for Rudy, even though it feels like, you know, he's on the opposite side of his prime.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, Julius Randle surprised me a ton last season.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Nas Reed is Nas Reed, Jaden McDaniel.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: Like there, I could go on and on about the players that I really like on his roster.
9:24
SPEAKER_00: Terrence Shannon Jr., who I watched a lot at Illinois when I was an Illinois fan a few years back.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: I like a lot on their roster, but there's something still holding me back from putting them in that top tier.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: They were just in the conference finals back-to-back seasons.
9:41
SPEAKER_00: And if you told me they made it to the conference finals again, I wouldn't even call you crazy because that team is that talented and they have a guy at the top that could carry you in multiple playoff series.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: But I also can see them, I know they beat this team two years ago, but seeing them match up against the Denver Nuggets, and I lean pretty heavily to the Denver Nuggets, at least today, October 9th, as I'm recording this episode before the season starts.
10:02
SPEAKER_00: I see them matching up against the OKC Thunder, and we saw that last season, and OKC took care of them.
10:06
SPEAKER_00: And in order to be one of the top end teams, I kind of have to have like a 50-50 feeling about you versus the other top teams.
10:13
SPEAKER_00: Like OKC versus Denver.
10:14
SPEAKER_00: I lean a little bit OKC, but it ain't like a 80-20.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: It's like a 65-45 when I think about it and leaning towards OKC because that's how close it was last season, right?
10:26
SPEAKER_00: And I think I take those other two Western Conference teams over the Minnesota Timberwolves.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: So there's a chance, but they might have to get, I won't use the word lucky, but you know, some people have to show me something this season.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: The next one, I just realized these are all Western Conference teams.
10:43
SPEAKER_00: Unless you know how depleted is the word I'll use.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: The Eastern Conference is.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: The next scene is the Houston Rockets.
10:50
SPEAKER_00: I was all in on the Houston Rockets, potentially being one of the top-end contenders.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: And then Fred Van Lee went down.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: And without Freddie, again, this is currently constructed.
10:57
SPEAKER_00: Who knows if they'll go out there and make a trade?
10:59
SPEAKER_00: They keep talking about it as a blessing in disguise.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: Anybody that's dealing with the Raptors or the Rockets, they're talking about it being blessed in the disguise about, you know, we're figuring out Amin Thompson, we're figuring out, you know, Reed Shepard and so on.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: But as far as this season, I just, it's it's hard for me to believe in without Fred Van Vliet.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think a lot of that has to do with the jump shooting on the scene, the three-point shooting specifically between Jalen Green being gone, Dylan Brooks being gone, and now Freddie being gone.
11:28
SPEAKER_00: There's a lot of three-point shots that need to be taken.
11:32
SPEAKER_00: And those are like, if I'm not mistaken, those are their three highest volume three-point shooters.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: They're all out the door.
11:37
SPEAKER_00: And now Reese Shepard is a guy that will come off a screen and fire up a three.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: I watched that last night in their game versus the Utah Jazz.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: Tays Bailey.
11:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking about him a little bit later.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: I was really impressed.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, but they're missing a lot there.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Kevin Durant is an offensive engine by himself.
11:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, maybe not in the same way of a Shea or Luca or Bronson as far as like the playmaking goes, but give them the ball and watch out, like there's not many people ever to exist that are better than him, but there's still something missing there.
12:02
SPEAKER_00: I do want to say though, I went from them saying, went from going after the Frevin Vly injury happened.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: Remember, we came on the show and I was like, I just don't see it at all.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: Like there's no chance, right?
12:11
SPEAKER_00: It's close to 0% chance.
12:14
SPEAKER_00: The reason it's not a 0%, and they're in this tier where I'm divvying up my last 10 chips.
12:19
SPEAKER_00: Al Prince Shengun is he was here last season.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: Don't get me wrong.
12:22
SPEAKER_00: That was an all-star, 19 points per game, have many rebounds and assists.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: I think that if we're gonna be talking about a guy going from, let's be real, a lower tier all-star, and I also said an all-star, don't get me wrong, but he's like a lower tier all-star, last guy, voted and type of all-star to like know this guy is really here.
12:39
SPEAKER_00: It's this season between what he did in Euro this year and then what we've seen from him the start of this preseason.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, here's a guy.
12:48
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I'm all in.
12:50
SPEAKER_00: I'm completely all in on us looking back at the end of the season and being like, damn, Alperce Shangoon is top what in his position.
12:56
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't go one.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: I probably wouldn't, I wouldn't go two.
13:00
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't go three.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: But I think there's a world where we end the season is like, damn, Alper Shangoon is a bona fide, not even like unarguable top 10 or top five center in the league.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: Like I'm watching him and I'm just again amazed at his progression as a player on hear me when I say this, both ends of the floor.
13:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm just, I'm in.
13:21
SPEAKER_00: I'm in.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: So that that that 0% chance goes up a little bit more because I truly do believe in Alprin Shangoon's ability to hit the next level.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: I know a lot of people will look at that team and see Ivan Thompson is that next jump guy, and trust me, you know how my feelings on them Thompson twins.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: But I like that Alper Shangoon thing is real, man.
13:38
SPEAKER_00: I I really do believe in him wholeheartedly to take another big time jump.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: So they go from a team that in my mind, after the Freddie injury, had a 0% chance to having some type of piece of the pie because Al P is that nice.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, in this, they have a chance butt tier is the Lakers.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: The only reason they're in this tier is because Luka Doncic and LeBron James are on the same team.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: I have not, you want to see some overreactions to preseason.
14:06
SPEAKER_00: I have not been a fan of the two preseason games I've seen of DeAndre Aiden.
14:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm not one of the people that thought that DeAndre Aiden's gonna come in and be an all-star, don't get me wrong.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I thought that there's a tier or two below that that he could have provided for the team and be a huge upgrade from Jackson Hayes.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the deficiencies or the things that we don't like about DeAndre Aiden showed his head in just the first two preseason games.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: And with them or Luca not having opportunity to play alongside DeAndre Aiden because he played, you know, Euro and all, so he's not playing preseason, LeBron James not playing preseason, I think we might have a little gelling period early on to figure out the DeAndre Aiden stuff.
14:43
SPEAKER_00: But because they have again Luka Dontich, who you just have to give him a chance when you can, and then 40-year-old Braun is still elite at what he does, there's a chance, but the rest of the roster, I just you know, shout out to Austin Reeves.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: So he's in that group as well.
14:58
SPEAKER_00: Austin Reeves, Luca, LeBron.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: Not in that order.
15:01
SPEAKER_00: Um but between Aiden, between Marcus, between, you know, all these other guys, there's so many question marks.
15:08
SPEAKER_00: Could they uphold an average to good defense?
15:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
15:13
SPEAKER_00: But I have to give them at least one percent of that pie because Luca Dantes exists.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: That's tier two.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: The next tier that we have is Unk still might have it.
15:30
SPEAKER_00: These are the two teams that like they're old as hell, but there's some interesting stuff going on.
15:37
SPEAKER_00: The first team you have to imagine is the Golden State Warriors.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Uh and I do want to say, if you're in the same tier, there's no if you're in the same tier, you're on the same tier.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't put a team higher on the tier because you're on the same tier.
15:49
SPEAKER_00: There's a conversation I had with my boy D.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Milley.
15:51
SPEAKER_00: If you're on the same tier, I look at you equal.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: Not because I mentioned you first, that means you're higher on the tier.
15:55
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Golden State Warriors had their offseason is completely done now.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: They bring back Melton, they bring in Al Horford, but I'm looking at their starting lineup.
16:02
SPEAKER_00: Like everybody is being like, damn, that dude's 36.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Damn, that dude's 37.
16:05
SPEAKER_00: Damn, that dude's 36.
16:06
SPEAKER_00: Damn, that dude's 36.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: And now who's that next guy?
16:09
SPEAKER_00: Is it gonna be Moses Moody?
16:10
SPEAKER_00: Is it gonna be uh Pods?
16:12
SPEAKER_00: Is it gonna be whoever?
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Is it a question mark on the back end about what Kaminga is gonna bring to the team and if he's gonna be there come January 15th?
16:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, but it's obviously something that could work.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: These older teams, again, going back to the physicality and how much work I've talked to two three guys that were part of that 2025 NBA finals, and all of them, without we weren't like in the same room or anything, all of them talked about how physically difficult that entire run was for both of these teams.
16:46
SPEAKER_00: Two guys on one team, one of the other guys on the other.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: So y'all can probably put it together who is who.
16:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I look at these old ass teams, the Warriors and the other guy, the other team that's on his list, the Clippers, and I'm like, the talent is undoubtedly there, but could I imagine these old ass dudes being able to play at that level and win four games out of seven, four different times against a gauntlet of a Western conference and then whoever the hell come out of the east?
17:14
SPEAKER_00: I can't get there.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: I can't get there.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Undoubtedly got so much respect for the players on these teams between a Curry, between a Jimmy, between a Horford and a Green, that's a fun ass team.
17:27
SPEAKER_00: What should happen five years ago?
17:30
SPEAKER_00: With the clips.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Kawhi Leonard, James Harden, Christopher Emmanuel Paul, Bradley Beal has to be all defensive all of a sudden.
17:38
SPEAKER_00: Brick Lopez, I love the Brick Lopez acquisition.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: I love both of these teams.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: I look at their offseason be like, I understand what's going on, but I also have to imagine that with the NBA continuing to get younger and the teams that are competing for championships continue to get younger, could these old-ass teams still do it?
17:52
SPEAKER_00: Add the same question about one of the last Spurs teams that we saw win, and they won, right?
17:56
SPEAKER_00: You could you can in this league be old and win, but I feel like it's kind of catching lightning in the bottle.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's getting the right injury luck.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: I feel like it's maybe a regular season injury and your team is able to sustain it, then you're back the last week of the season, and now we're completely healthy.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: But that that two months that I took off, boy, was that good for me.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Unc Mike still got it though.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: These teams are gonna be fun.
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Steph Curry exists.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Kawhi Leonard, James Arden, these guys exist, and they're always gonna be fun to watch.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: But next one is why not us, but maybe a tad bit too early.
18:31
SPEAKER_00: You can imagine somebody's seams are on the list.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: I'll start off with the Atlanta Hawks, who had a phenomenal offseason.
18:36
SPEAKER_00: Um recorded a video earlier this morning about the GM survey.
18:40
SPEAKER_00: And the GM survey, the the GMs of Carlos Basketball gave the Atlanta Hawks a team that had the best offseason.
18:46
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
18:46
SPEAKER_00: I would I would agree between the uh Porzingis acquisition, between the K Alexander Walker, between the drafting, draft day trade.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: Like that was an amazing offseason.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: Um but it also still might be too early for them to do anything, right?
19:01
SPEAKER_00: I mean, as far as like contending.
19:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think there's a uh bona fide playoff team.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: I know we talked about these bold predictions from the audience, and someone was like the Hawks will still be a playing team.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: I've I would be really disappointed if that was the case.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: I think most of us will be because there's so much fun that could happen on the scene between Trey Young, Dyson Daniels, who was also voted the best perimeter defender according to the GMs, Jalen Johnson being back in full effect, and he had a play the other night that was elite.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: And then the center rotation, I'm still a believer in my boy Double O and in Porzingis, who struggled in his first preseason game, but it might still be a little bit too early for them to hit that next step.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: But I think this could be a second-round playoff team.
19:39
SPEAKER_00: If everything goes perfectly, they could potentially be a conference finalist, right?
19:43
SPEAKER_00: I feel the same way about the next team on my list, the Orlando Magic.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: The one thing about the Orlando Magic, some of these teams that made these big acquisitions, you question like, does this shift their identity a little bit?
19:52
SPEAKER_00: Nothing that the Orlando Magic did makes me think that they're going to shift their identity.
19:55
SPEAKER_00: I think this is still going to be one of the five best defensive teams in basketball.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, could they have a top 20 offense, something that they haven't done in 20 years, it feels like.
20:04
SPEAKER_00: But it might be too early.
20:05
unknown: Right?
20:06
SPEAKER_00: They still got some things.
20:06
SPEAKER_00: We talked about Anthony Black last episode.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we still have to figure out if Franz Wagner's jump shoot will ever come back around.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: You know, you still have younger players on the roster that are still trying to figure out who they are in the NBA.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: But I do believe this is a team that will be in the postseason, obviously, and turn some heads there because we're gonna bring it up again.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: The theme of today's episode, they went against Boston last season, and it was not an easy series for Boston by any means.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Yes, Boston may, I think they won 4-1, right?
20:32
SPEAKER_00: So, like five-game series, kidney, that was easy.
20:34
SPEAKER_00: Man, they beat the shit out of Boston, bro.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: They they really did hound them.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: And one thing I admire about a team like this, or the second half of the season for the Trailblazers, um, OKC is a prime example of this teams that are okay with fouling you because they recognize that that physicality is necessary.
20:50
SPEAKER_00: Like legitimately, oh, I got three fouls.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: That's cool.
20:53
SPEAKER_00: They can't call every single one, so let's just go beat him up.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: The the Boston Celtics left that series with um uh eye patch, a neck brace, uh, crunches.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: They they got they ass beat, even though they won.
21:04
SPEAKER_00: And some of that probably showed his hair once they got to the next series and they went against another pretty physical team.
21:09
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, we just can't hold up.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: The Orlando Magic are a team that I can, I think that if I'm comparing them to every Eastern Conference team, that is an advantage they will have against most of them.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: We are completely okay with beating you up and letting the chips fall where they may.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: The last team I have in this tier is the Detroit Pistons, who, you know, surprised the world last season from a 27, 28 straight game, losing straight to being a not a play-in team, but like a true playoff team.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, the team has had some shifts where Malik Beasley, who's the greatest shooter in franchise history for that one season, he is gone.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: They brought in Duncan Robinson, but I'm a firm believer in Jay Nivey, um, even if it is using him as an asset to go get somebody else.
21:49
SPEAKER_00: Because the Larry marketing rumors keep popping up.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: And I'm a if it's smoke, there's fire type of guy.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: I mean there's a lot of smoke right now with that Larry.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Marketing stuff.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: So Jay Nivey, you might not end up being here at the end of the season.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, but between him, Asar Thompson, Ron Holland, like I when it comes to these dudes that are highly touted coming out of high school, I usually want to give them three to four seasons before I figure out if they are really, you know, good or bad.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: And Ron Holland was like bona fide number one player in his class.
22:20
SPEAKER_00: So I do want to give him a little bit more chance to be like, no, he's just gonna he's gonna profile in the NBA as a defensive-minded guy that you know never really has a good enough offense to be elite.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: It's still too early.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's one season, one season under his belt.
22:34
SPEAKER_00: So it might be too early, though.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: But this is the thing I was talking about on um numbers on the board.
22:41
SPEAKER_00: I feel like every NBA fan right now should be excited about the season because whether it's your team competed for a championship or competed for lottery odds, there's always some level of intrigue with your favorite team.
22:53
SPEAKER_00: Um and there's only a few teams I feel like that's not the case for.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: And the Pistons at one point was that team.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: It's like last year, it's like, okay, maybe I'm slightly excited because Monty Williams is gone, but we don't really have many expectations.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: And then we get to what the 30-game mark and we're 15 to 15.
23:10
SPEAKER_00: Oh shit, you know, there's something that could be going on here.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: And then you have a month where you're pretty elite, and now we're hosting the, or not hosting the playoff series, but we're in a 3-6 matchup, you know.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: So I really like this Pistons progression.
23:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we move on to the next tier, which we're titling Gap year?
23:27
SPEAKER_00: Question mark.
23:29
SPEAKER_00: You gotta say it with the right, like so people can recognize it's a question without you saying question mark.
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Gap year?
23:34
SPEAKER_00: That's the yeah.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Gap year?
23:36
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: That's good.
23:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh, can you tell I did some voice acting a little bit?
23:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm kidding.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: They didn't pick me for this for the anyway.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: Um, first one, Boston Celtics.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: What more can I say?
23:47
SPEAKER_00: One preseason game with Jalen Brown, the motherfucker A button didn't work.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: He was in there uh uh between tweening.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna get mine off.
23:54
SPEAKER_00: And I I respect it.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: I I truly do respect it because why not at this point?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: Why why not at this point?
24:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, so maybe a gap year, maybe not.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Jason Tatum won't close the door on him coming back this season.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I feel like the roster could be good enough to be in the hunt if Jalen, oh I'm sorry, if Jason Tatum decides that he does want to come back in the end of March or the beginning of April, and then boom, I can't say they're gonna be a contender because that center rotation is still a lot to be desired, but maybe a gap year.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: Again, we talked about a blessed in disguise if it ends up being one.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: Next team, Indiana Pacers, you could have imagined.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: Um no notes.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: We've talked about them a ton.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: And no Tyres Halliburn, Miles Turner been going center rotation, not being the greatest.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: I did watch um Isaiah Jackson do a between the legs pull up mid-range a couple nights ago.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: It hit the front of the rim, it wasn't close.
24:43
SPEAKER_00: I was like, oh, okay.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: And Rick Carlisle did that interview with um Caitlin Cooper, and he talked about how everybody has been in love with Isaiah Jackson's offseason, even though he's coming off the big injury and all.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: So I think there might be something there.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: Jay Huff, backwards dunker.
24:55
SPEAKER_00: You know, there might be something there.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: Nim Hart, though.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't like the idea.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even saying this is what's gonna happen, but again, I'm I'm really basing some of this stuff on a singular preseason game, by the way.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: I do not like the idea of him being the primary ball handler, the initiator of this O, while also being a 94-foot pick-you-up guy.
25:18
SPEAKER_00: There's no way that's sustainable for an 82-game season.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: There's no way.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: Somebody else got to step their ass up on one of these two fronts so Nim Harr could get into his bag.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't know who that is, and I don't know which word.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: I would rather him be the playmaker, so somebody pick up 94 feet, please.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: Or maybe we just don't do that this season.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Wait, wait until wait until Captain's back, and then I could go back to picking up 80 uh 94 feet or whatever.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: I got two more teams in this tier, though.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: You thought that maybe was it because yeah, they're start player, the all NBA players are out with injuries for the foreseeable future.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: These other teams, Dallas Mavericks.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: Whoa.
25:52
SPEAKER_00: I am really, really, really, really this is one of the most intriguing teams this upcoming season for me.
25:59
SPEAKER_00: For multiple reasons.
26:01
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Davis is back.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: He's healthy.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: I wear, but he's healthy.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: And there is a report not too long ago.
26:07
SPEAKER_00: Let me make sure I get my sources.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: So I will pick up my phone here.
26:10
SPEAKER_00: Sorry for the lack of professionalism, but I did have a screenshot and forgot to port it over to my runner show.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, here it is.
26:18
SPEAKER_00: The Dallas Mavericks plan to use Anthony Davis in a DeMontis Abonis-like role on offense.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: And that was from Dallas Hoops Journal.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the comments on this is like, why not use Anthony Davis in an Anthony Davis role?
26:29
SPEAKER_00: It's not like he's not a top 10 player or NBA Hall of Famer and anything.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: But I kind of understand what they mean by this, right?
26:36
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna run him as like a focal point of the offense, yeah, but because Anthony Davis is a plus playmaker.
26:41
SPEAKER_00: Um is a team that lacks a bunch of uh people that can create for themselves to get to the basket.
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Sure, let Anthony Davis do that.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: And then I watched their first preseason game and I wanted to see how that was going to materialize.
26:51
SPEAKER_00: And it was some really fun stuff, like some inverted pick and rolls between him and D'Angelo Russell, him running the floor and catching some lobs from Cooper Flag and D'Angelo Russell.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: So there was some cool stuff there.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: The one thing that I did not like is that we didn't get to see, again, one preseason game, by the way, any minutes where Anthony Davis was on the floor without lively.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: I know AD wants to be a four-man.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: This is something that he said to us for almost 15 years at this point.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: I understand it.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: But I do believe that this team in this game of wanting to be a Sabonis type of hub makes a lot more sense if you have multiple construction of lineups where Anthony Davis is the five.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, for what it's worth, the lineups they're running, there are five players on the court that can make the extra pass.
27:35
SPEAKER_00: I think that's really fun.
27:36
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Davis was able to uh dip it down to uh Derek Lively a few different times in this one preseason game.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Davis, bringing some attention, was able to get somebody else over to dip it down to Lively.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: So I'm not saying that running AD at the four is a complete miss, but I do want to see over the next couple preseason games, how could it look differently if it is Anthony Davis truly at the five by himself, if we want to play him in this Sabonis hub?
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Because there were many possessions last um preseason game where in order to get the other stuff off, in order to run double staggers for Cooper Flag, or in order to run this and that, Anthony Davis was relegated to just sitting in the corner.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: And guess what the backup unit of OKC did?
28:15
SPEAKER_00: They just didn't guard Anthony Davis in the corner because he took a total of 10 of them last season.
28:19
SPEAKER_00: Corner threes, 10 whole season.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: It's not really his shot.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: He hit one of them in the in this um, no, no, no, he hit him above the break three.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: So it's just not something that he's done in the last 15 years of his career.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: So we spread him out to the corner, and granted, he did do a a solid amount of this with the Lakers while Austin Reeves was cooking up.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, but pulling him out to the corner on a smart defensive team, that's not gonna be much of a threat for these other teams.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: That's all.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: But gap year, back to what I was saying.
28:48
SPEAKER_00: Gap year, without Carrie Irvin as a initiator, I do again question if anybody's gonna be able to pick up that load offensively.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it might be a gap year, which, you know, you got uh some somewhat of an older star core between Anthony Davis and Kyrie Irvin, maybe not the greatest idea, but this team is gonna be in a lot of games.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: They're gonna win.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: I think they're gonna win a good amount of games strictly off the defense because some of those defensive lineups they put together the other night, and that was without everybody being healthy.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, shit.
29:13
SPEAKER_00: And Cooper Flag is so ready to be the greatest help defender in the league.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, like he is so ready to take that in like two to three years.
29:19
SPEAKER_00: I really do feel that.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, lastly, in this, is the Bucs.
29:26
SPEAKER_00: You hope that Giannis can look at it as a gap year and not I'm deuces, I'm out of here year.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: A lot of these quotes coming out scare me if I'm a Bucs fan, but I'm not even gonna think about that and talk about that for y'all.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: Let's talk the actual basketball that's on the court.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's not enough talent.
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Straight up, there's not enough talent.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: And if you can convince Giannis to stick around for a couple more years until we get our books straight and be like, yeah, this was a gap year for us as we try to figure out, you know, is there anything here or Ryan Rollins or KPJ for whatever reason or some of these other younger guys on the roster, we will be able to acquire more talent for you, Giannis.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: You was we just can't do it right now.
30:04
SPEAKER_00: I think that the uh Bucks social team kind of set Kuzma up the other night.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: I won't, I won't say anything else, but um you have to you have to keep your ear to the ground when it comes to this NBA media stuff.
30:17
SPEAKER_00: You have to recognize that Kuzma had a game in the playoffs.
30:20
SPEAKER_00: We had 0.0, we've gone zero assist, zero everything in a game in the postseason where you play like 20 plus minutes.
30:27
SPEAKER_00: So the fans are not necessarily happy with him.
30:30
SPEAKER_00: So when you give him the Twitter account and say, hey, it's Kuz, what's up?
30:35
SPEAKER_00: You had to recognize that they was gonna clown him.
30:39
SPEAKER_00: And boy, did they clown him.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: Next year that we have his injuries can't kill our season again, right?
30:47
SPEAKER_00: First team on the list is New World Pelicans.
30:49
SPEAKER_00: We already talked about Big Z being small Z, more fit, you know, look looking looking good.
30:55
SPEAKER_00: We already got DeJounte Murray out, but he'll be back.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: I don't know when, but he'll be back.
30:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, you also already have Dear Queen being out.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, you it's not starting off great for this team, but they just over the last couple seasons, you know, you can get excited about a Pelicans team and they're like, boop, oh, Zion's out, boop, oh Brandon Nick comes out, oop, boop, this guy's out.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: And I just want to see one year of health for Z and for his surrounding pieces.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: That's all.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Next one is the Grizzlies, who are already, already dealing with.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: John Morant tweaked his ankle like a couple nights ago.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: Jared Jackson Jr.
31:25
SPEAKER_00: gone, um, Edie gone, Brandon Clark gone.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: I feel like I'm forgetting some people.
31:29
SPEAKER_00: Like their entire front court is already gone to start the season.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: Uh, some of those injuries are, of course, a lot shorter than others, but the fact that they're already starting off for what seems like the third offseason in a row going into the regular season with big players being out, not the greatest, because losing Desmond Bain or trading Desmbain, I can't act like he walked the free agency or anything.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, there's a lot less room for error if one of the top two guys, Ajahn Morant or Jaron Jackson Jr., goes down.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Right?
31:54
SPEAKER_00: Design Bain was able to hold it down.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not the greatest when he was without one of those two guys, but he was able to hold it down enough for the team to be okay when they were in their absence.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: But like if both of them or one of them goes down at this point, you could kind of, you know, do this.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: Cedric Coward's there, though.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: What's the guy named?
32:12
SPEAKER_00: Lawson Lovering?
32:14
SPEAKER_00: Is that the guy I was watching last night?
32:15
SPEAKER_00: Lawson Lovering, yeah.
32:18
SPEAKER_00: Who is that?
32:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: He he started in the preseason the other night.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: And it's a preseason game, but like, who?
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Hope you I'm wishing you best, man.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: I hope, I hope you can go out there and have a really successful NBA career.
32:30
SPEAKER_00: But as of today, I don't know who that brother is.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Him and Jamal, or Javon Small.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: I knew Jamal, Javon Small, but those two dudes running, they pick and roll the first play of the game for the preseason for them.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: What the hell?
32:42
SPEAKER_00: Next one.
32:44
SPEAKER_00: The Miami Heat, another team already dealing with injuries in Tyler Hero.
32:47
SPEAKER_00: But um, they're not in the same class as these other two teams that like notoriously just have a gazillion injuries.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: But I do think that this is one of those teams that don't also have a ton of room for error.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: And Tyler Hero being healthy in the next, I think he's gonna miss like 15-ish games if the timetable is perfectly the way they they expect it to be.
33:04
SPEAKER_00: Um they kind of need him to be healthy for an entire season in order to do anything that they could imagine, right?
33:10
SPEAKER_00: I kind of like that Spostra is being ultra hard on Kaleo Ware.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: You saw he had the comments after the first game of the preseason, then the game number two, boom, he had like a 30-point game against the Wimbenyama Spurs, right?
33:23
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I think it's easy for us at home to see and hear a quote like that from a coach on a young guy and be like, that's not the right approach.
33:31
SPEAKER_00: But in leadership, you recognize that there are different ways to coach or to, you know, be a leader for different people.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, if you're a 2K player, you know there's like the pat my back badge.
33:42
SPEAKER_00: Some people you have to, not the word baby, right?
33:45
SPEAKER_00: But for everything that you talk about them doing incorrectly, you have to throw in two positive things, right?
33:50
SPEAKER_00: Some people just kind of need to hear it the way it is.
33:53
SPEAKER_00: Hey, this guy got lazy, and because of that, I didn't play him, right?
33:57
SPEAKER_00: Maybe Kaleo Ware is one of those guys that need you to be on his neck in order for him to be great because it just didn't work out for Eric Spoter in the second preseason game.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: So you never really know.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: That's why I never question, well, I can't say the word never.
34:08
SPEAKER_00: I rarely question the comments that these head coaches, especially a legendary coach like Spo, like that.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: This motherfucker, he knows what he's doing.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, when a legendary coach comes out and has specific quotes about specific players, it's like, oh, he's he's hit on 90% of the times he's done this.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna let him be him.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: And it could work for Khalil Ware.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Because I truly think that from this is the way I like to be coached, or like when somebody was above me in leadership, it meant a lot to me if that personal leadership was hard on me.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: Because in my mind, that makes me think that this person sees something in me that maybe other people don't.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Right?
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Rest in peace to my favorite coach of all time, Coach Lavik.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: There was no doubt in my mind I was the best goddamn point guard on that freshman B team, damn it.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: But I didn't start to start the season.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: And I was so frustrated and I was so mad.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: And then Coach Lavik explained to me why I wasn't starting, and I corrected that stuff, and guess who was Captain?
35:06
SPEAKER_00: It was me.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: So yeah.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, rest in peace, Coach Lavik.
35:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, and the last team in this injuries can't kill our season again.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: You had to know that the 76 is going to end up here.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Jordan B, Paul George, Jared McCain is already injured.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: The list can go on and on about the guys that are dealing with injuries on this team.
35:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, it can't kill their season again, can it?
35:23
SPEAKER_00: Uh-huh.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: The next tier, I got three teams in the just mid-tier.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: These teams, in a lot of cases, aren't playing for anything this year.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: And then some of the other cases don't even have their own draft picks to play for anything for next season.
35:34
SPEAKER_00: The first team on the list is the Sacramento Kings, who I think there's a world where the Kings can be a 500 team.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't, I don't want to.
35:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh, a 500 team is kind of the definition of mid, ain't it?
35:44
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: So nope, there we go.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, they have talent on this roster, right?
35:48
SPEAKER_00: Between Levine, between DeMar, between Sabonis.
35:51
SPEAKER_00: Keegan Murray looked pretty good defensively in that first preseason game.
35:54
SPEAKER_00: Um, basketball Hall of Famer, didn't the shooters on the roster.
35:57
SPEAKER_00: Like there's there's real talent on this roster, but none of the pieces fit together.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: It's just like they they just went to Dollar Tree and got five,$5 puzzles and just put all of it on the table and said, here's your team.
36:10
SPEAKER_00: And you have to figure out what goes where.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: And nobody's gonna be able to figure out what goes where with the Sacramento Kings team.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they have their own first round pick, but I know this next team is struggling with future draft capital, and that is the Phoenix Suns or their own future draft capital.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm excited to watch them play just because it's gonna be different, but like we have to recognize there's not a lot going on there.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, it's my Chicago Bulls.
36:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, we all we do have all of our own future picks, but we know what the front office likes to do, and that is to compete for 39 win, 38-39 win.
36:38
SPEAKER_00: So they have to go in the just mid-tier.
36:41
SPEAKER_00: Next, I got the sneaky playoff contenders.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: These are teams that missed it last season.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: That if you told me uh April 15th of next year, this team was in the postseason, I would not be surprised.
36:54
SPEAKER_00: You know, some teams have to take a jump.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: The first team on his list is the Portland Trailblazers, who we've talked about over the last couple weeks, about their defense.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: And yesterday, I couldn't tell if Chauncey Bills was like just messing with us.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: He started a lineup.
37:09
SPEAKER_00: He started a lineup that was Drew Holiday, Shaden Sharp, Tumani Kamara, Jeremy Grant, and Donovan Klingon.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: As you could probably recognize, he's a pretty good ball player that wasn't starting, and his name is Denny Obdium.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't like Denny was missing, you know, this is preseason.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: A lot of people miss time.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: Denny was the first guy off the bench.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: And I'm trying to figure out if that's what he's thinking.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: This is the like the rotation or the lineup.
37:38
SPEAKER_00: Is Denny about to be a super six man?
37:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: Or was this more like, hey, Denny just played this offseason in Eurobasket?
37:44
SPEAKER_00: Let's just let's just chill on him a little bit.
37:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: I was hoping and I forgot to do this.
37:49
SPEAKER_00: Let me see if I can see if Chauncey had any quotes about it um after the game because I did fall asleep while watching this game, so I don't even know who ended up winning it.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: Um it don't seem like he had oh, he did say it's not worth reading into.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
38:04
SPEAKER_00: All right, so done.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: All right, don't read into it, Kenny.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: I won't.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: But it was interesting.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: It was very interesting.
38:11
SPEAKER_00: He said, Don't read too much into it.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Okay, I got it.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: I won't.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Psych.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: I am.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: Because there is something like one of these two guys, and we Jeremy Grant has to come off the bench.
38:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm not pulling Tumani Kamara, all defensive player.
38:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm not pulling Denny Abdi, who in the second half of the season had the highest draw foul rate of anybody in basketball.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, like if there's anybody that feels expendable on this team in that wing spot, it has to be Jeremy Grant.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: But then Jeremy Grant talks about it like, yeah, I don't think I'm coming off the bench.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Somebody got to, and it better not be Denny on that first game of the season.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: Damn it.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: Jeremy Grant starter.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: That brother knows he can put on a fifth, though.
38:47
SPEAKER_00: I'll give him that.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Um sneaky playoff team number two, Toronto Raptors.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: Team we talked about over the last couple weeks as well.
38:52
SPEAKER_00: Talent is undoubtedly there.
38:53
SPEAKER_00: I didn't get to watch their last preseason game, unfortunately, so I don't have any notes on that.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, but sneaky playoff team.
39:00
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know if it's really that sneaky because again, the Easter conference is really trash.
39:04
SPEAKER_00: But a team that missed it last season with a possibility of making it into two with this year.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, in this one, is the Spurs.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: The Spurs, sneaky playoff team, man.
39:12
SPEAKER_00: Victor Wimbayama's here.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: De'Aaron Fox eventually will be here.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: Um, Denver Sale.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: That's kind of uh no, no, the Lou Cournette, or I'm sorry, the Victor Wimbyama Lou Courtnette pick and roll went semi-viral in NBA Twitter from that first game of the preseason.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: And I'm intrigued.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: I like like the double being lineup stuff is so fun to me.
39:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm so happy that we're getting back to some of that stuff because you know, in your mind, you make it makes it feel like it wouldn't be able to work.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: It's 2025.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: We don't have two dudes that can't screw.
39:42
SPEAKER_00: Well, I guess Wimby can, but like in some cases, two dudes that can't really stretch the floor and let them cook.
39:48
SPEAKER_00: Like it makes no sense that Shane Goon and Steven Adams was able to work in the postseason to an extent.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: Because also they got like Amin Thompson on the floor, too.
39:57
SPEAKER_00: Double BA baby is back.
39:59
SPEAKER_00: Um, so those are my sneaky playoff teams.
40:01
SPEAKER_00: We have four teams left.
40:02
SPEAKER_00: This team literally doesn't fit into a tier.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: It's the Charlotte Hornets.
40:08
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they're a sneaky playoff team because I can't imagine a world where they have a competent defense.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: They had a game against OKC's bench players, and OKC's bench players look like some all-star demigods.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: Look like the goddamn monsters against the nearly full starting lineup of the Charlotte Hornets.
40:34
SPEAKER_00: Lamello is such a poor help defender, such a poor off-ball defender.
40:39
SPEAKER_00: And they got a few guys on that team that's similar to that.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: And though I really love their offseason, I like the talent that's there, I just don't know if they're ever going to be able to be the 20th, the 18th ranked defense in basketball.
40:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if they have that ceiling with this current core.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: So, because of that, they don't fit in my sneaky playoff team tier, but they also don't fit into the bad to the bone tier, which is the one right beneath them.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: So they're kind of just existing in no man's land for the time being.
41:05
SPEAKER_00: The bad to the bone teams, it's the Brooklyn Nets.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: Had to imagine that.
41:09
SPEAKER_00: It's the Utah Jazz, and it's the Washington Wizards.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: All of these three teams are, you know, young teams, bunch of rookie sophomore year players trying to figure out who's their stars, if any of them are on the roster already.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: Some of these teams have their own first-round pick for the next couple seasons, so they're really playing for lottery odds.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: But they should be, and I mean they will be bad to the bone.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Ace Bailey looked pretty damn good, though.
41:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, there's a lot to be said.
41:32
SPEAKER_00: Here we go, overreacting the preseason again.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: About Ace Bailey as a playmaker coming into the NBA.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple really, really nice passes last night.
41:40
SPEAKER_00: Not enough for me to think that he's gonna be Luca, but some pretty nice passes.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: And that's all 30 NBA teams in a tier.
41:49
SPEAKER_00: You let me know what tiers you would change, who's too high on a tier, who's too low on a tier, and if you agree with my 90 chips here, 10 chips here um ideas.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm I'm very curious.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm always curious, whether that be on Spotify, you know, there's a comment section there, or you hit us up in the YouTube comment section.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: Before we get out of here, of course, we got to do your favorite segment, my favorite segment, Ask B.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: The first one comes from Sinzi Ai I.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: We're writing this.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm currently at the hospital with my wife, getting ready to have our first baby.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: With what's one piece of advice you could give me for the first time dad of a daughter?
42:33
SPEAKER_00: Girl, dad, girl dad.
42:34
SPEAKER_00: I love that.
42:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, love the show, keep it up.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: First of all, congratulations.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: You're about to go through the most difficult but also the most rewarding journey of your entire, entire life.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: So there's a couple things.
42:46
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple things.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: The first thing I would say as a parent, first-time parent, is to give yourself some grace.
42:52
SPEAKER_00: You could read a thousand, a thousand blogs, a thousand books on parenting, and have an idea, this is how I'm going to treat this situation if it ever comes into our household.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: And out of those a thousand books, not a single one of them is gonna fit what's going on in your household.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Every child is different.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: So give yourself some grace.
43:14
SPEAKER_00: That if you look, you like, okay, this is what I would do if my kid throws a tantrum and it's not working.
43:19
SPEAKER_00: Don't feel like you failed or anything like that.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: Give yourself some grace.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: Next thing you said your wife, congratulations.
43:25
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully, she has a speedy recovery and everything, and the baby is 100% healthy.
43:29
SPEAKER_00: Love that.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: Be okay with waiting, uh, what's the word?
43:35
SPEAKER_00: Hand and feet for your wife.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: They grow humans in them for nine months.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: And then the human comes out and they have the pressure to keep that human alive.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Right?
43:48
SPEAKER_00: There's no bigger bond than a mother and the kid, right?
43:51
SPEAKER_00: Whether it be um, I don't know how y'all are gonna feed, whether it be breastfeeding or this or that.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: So be willing to be your partner's partner.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: Right.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: The the greatest, the greatest gift I've ever been given in my life is a gift that my wife gave me of my two kids.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: So I am forever in debt to her.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: And I remember when I was a kid, it was kind of, it was like I would hear adults talk about the mother of their kids or their wives.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: And it always blew my mind.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: I have so much appreciation to the moms out there, dog.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: So even now, our dog, my youngest daughter is two months old.
44:29
SPEAKER_00: So my wife is fully recovered.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: You know, she's she's out of the bed.
44:32
SPEAKER_00: I mean, she could do anything right now.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: She could run a marathon if she really wanted to, but I still treat her as if she's bedridden with the with the kid.
44:42
SPEAKER_00: Because I am at, I am at that her.
44:45
SPEAKER_00: I look at these kids' eyes and I cry, dog.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: I like on a random Tuesday.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: That's how much I love my kids.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: And because my wife and your your wife is going to bring that kid into the world for you, you should appreciate her for real because it is not easy.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, it's not something we will ever be able to do as men, but I would imagine how tough it is.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: You know, I know whether it be the sicknesses, the pains that that just, I don't know.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: Um, I feel like there's there's another.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: Oh, the last thing I wanted to say.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: This is not something for you right now because we're talking about a newborn, and at the end of the day, a newborn eats, sits, and sleeps.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: That's it.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes they don't do that last one, and you got to be prepared for that, no sleep and stuff.
45:24
SPEAKER_00: But I read something when my wife was pregnant with the first kid that changed my perspective on everything.
45:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then it made me think about when I was a kid too.
45:36
SPEAKER_00: This Tuesday is just a Tuesday for you, but it is your kid's childhood.
45:41
SPEAKER_00: So, as tough as it is to go to work and work whatever job you work and come home and be active and be happy and play with the kids, trust me, I've been there.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: You have to remember that this is their childhood.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: These are the we're we're building memories, right?
45:55
SPEAKER_00: And I remember my dad, he was over the road for 13 hours, never missed a basketball game, never missed a baseball game, never missed a few football games I played.
46:02
SPEAKER_00: And and when I came home for when he came, he left for work at three in the morning and he would come home from work after I'd come home from school, after basketball practice.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: And he was always there and active.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: And I admire him for that because now that I'm a parent and I don't work the same type of job that he does, um, I recognize how difficult it is.
46:21
SPEAKER_00: So treat these days as your kid's childhood and not just day-to-day to you.
46:26
SPEAKER_00: And everything is gonna be good, brother.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm wishing you the best.
46:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's such a blessing.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: Uh, next one we have is from PQ.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: What is your prediction for the top four defenses and the top four offenses going into next season?
46:40
SPEAKER_00: Oh, okay.
46:41
SPEAKER_00: Let's let's take this through.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: Let's take this through.
46:43
SPEAKER_00: I think when it comes to offenses, it's pretty easy for us to say, hey, OKC was one of the two best offenses last season.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: They should probably be there again.
46:51
SPEAKER_00: Cleveland was the number one offense last season.
46:53
SPEAKER_00: I wouldn't be surprised if that ended up happening again.
46:56
SPEAKER_00: The New York Knicks, Jalen Bronson is a system.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: They got talent around them.
47:01
SPEAKER_00: I could see them being top four.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: Oh, lastly, Denver.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how I got this right without thinking Denver.
47:07
SPEAKER_00: Denver has to be top four, right?
47:08
SPEAKER_00: They have to be top four.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: So that's pretty easy.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: Defense is where it becomes a little bit more difficult because the first team I thought about, not to be number one, um, but like the Warriors.
47:18
SPEAKER_00: Get Jimmy Butler, they were top defense in the league, but couldn't they sustain that for 82-game season given the age that we talked about earlier?
47:24
SPEAKER_00: Even though the Houston Rockets are missing three starters from their last year team, which is one of the best defenses in basketball, could they replicate that and be top four again?
47:32
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
47:32
SPEAKER_00: I think OKC is gonna be there.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: I think Orlando's gonna be there.
47:37
SPEAKER_00: I sneaky think Minnesota's gonna get back to it.
47:40
SPEAKER_00: I think they were like number six last season.
47:41
SPEAKER_00: So getting to number four, it's gonna be difficult, but it ain't you know, out of the realm of possibility.
47:45
SPEAKER_00: And maybe Cleveland?
47:46
SPEAKER_00: Is Cleveland gonna be top four in both?
47:48
SPEAKER_00: Again, we're talking about kind of like contenders in a way.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that's the way I'm gonna go.
47:54
SPEAKER_00: On defense, I'll go OKC, Orlando, Cleveland, Minnesota.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: And on offense, I'll go Denver, New York, OKC, and Cleveland.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: Y'all let me know in the comment section what y'all agree or disagree with.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: Um, I love talking about parenting, man.
48:08
SPEAKER_00: Should I do a separate podcast specifically for the dads out there?
48:12
SPEAKER_00: Talk about our struggles.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
48:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: Do we have audio once?
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Hey, Kenny.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: Can you name the top five stadium atmospheres you've experienced in person across all sports?
48:25
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yes, I can.
48:27
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Now, I'm gonna preface this by saying a lot of the out of city experience I've had in NBA arenas has been ring ceremony night, which is only rivaled by like an NBA Finals game, I would imagine.
48:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, unfortunately, I won't be there for OKC.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: I wish I was there OKC.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, I'm not gonna be there.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna put an honorable mention on a random Saturday that we went to Wrigley, not even a postseason game, but Wrigley is unmatched.
48:59
SPEAKER_00: Um and this wasn't even a year they were really good.
49:02
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't even a postseason team, but Wrigley, I hate that the atmosphere in there is so great because I'm a White Sox fan, but damn, it is amazing.
49:09
SPEAKER_00: And the people there are beautiful.
49:12
SPEAKER_00: I'll say that.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, so Wrigley's got to be an honorable mention.
49:15
SPEAKER_00: But again, I haven't experienced a postseason game, so we'll I'll never know.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: Um, and then we get to like the ring ceremony night for the Denver Nuggets was the number one thing I've ever been a part of, dog.
49:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm in there in awe between the announcers on the on the um on the intercoms, the jumbotron, just the fans standing up for as long as they did.
49:37
SPEAKER_00: That's gots to be number one.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: Number two, we went to see the Knicks play in 2018.
49:44
SPEAKER_00: Let me see, let me make sure I get my years right.
49:46
SPEAKER_00: 2018 Knicks.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: I think we it was 2018, we went to the Madison Square Garden, and this is this Taj Gibson.
49:55
SPEAKER_00: It was the year Taj Gibson played for them.
49:56
SPEAKER_00: Let me see, let me just double check.
49:57
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's off the cup as always.
50:00
SPEAKER_00: So he played for them in 2020, 2019-2020 season.
50:05
SPEAKER_00: This Knicks team won 21 games on everything that was the most fun outside of that Denver game that I've been to.
50:14
SPEAKER_00: This team, they stunk.
50:17
SPEAKER_00: Dog, um, what do I remember about this?
50:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh, Alonzo Trier.
50:22
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
50:23
SPEAKER_00: Taj Gibson hit two corner threes in the game I was at.
50:26
SPEAKER_00: Kevin Knox was starting.
50:29
SPEAKER_00: So I have not been back to Master Square Gardens since the team has been good.
50:34
SPEAKER_00: This one random game versus the Wizards, it was against the Wizards.
50:37
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
50:37
SPEAKER_00: Let me see if I can look up the stats of this random Wizards game this season.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: Um it was amazing, bro.
50:44
SPEAKER_00: It was truly amazing.
50:44
SPEAKER_00: It was so amazing.
50:45
SPEAKER_00: Then we went back the next night.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: Um, but no, no, no.
50:48
SPEAKER_00: The Wizards was a second game.
50:50
SPEAKER_00: First, we saw Bucks versus Knicks, and this was the game that Giannis got dunked on by Mario Hizonia.
51:01
SPEAKER_00: Does that sound right?
51:02
SPEAKER_00: Okay, wait, now I'm mixing up a timeline.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: Regardless, there was a play with Mario Hizonia involved that we were at.
51:10
SPEAKER_00: And then we were still in New York for the next day, and we said, Y'all want to go to the next game?
51:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, I found it.
51:15
SPEAKER_00: December 21st and December 23rd at Madison Skirt Garden.
51:19
SPEAKER_00: And it was so elite.
51:21
SPEAKER_00: Bradley Beal was there.
51:23
SPEAKER_00: Dude, I watched a game.
51:24
SPEAKER_00: Can I read y'all these starting lineups, by the way?
51:27
SPEAKER_00: Oh no.
51:29
SPEAKER_00: Can I read y'all these starting lineups?
51:31
SPEAKER_00: The Wizards was playing Bradley Beal, Jan Mahimi, Ish Smith, Admiral Schofield, and Isaac Bonga.
51:40
SPEAKER_00: I I sat down in Madison Skirt Garden and was like, let's go! Like, that's crazy.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: The next lineup ain't that bad actually.
51:48
SPEAKER_00: Julius Randle, RJ Barrett, Alfred Payton, Kevin Knox, and then Mitchell Robson, Taj Gibson, Damian Dotson, Alonzo Treyer, these guys coming off the bench.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: But I was hyped for that game, dog.
51:58
SPEAKER_00: I was real.
51:58
SPEAKER_00: And then we went back to watch, you know, anyway.
52:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, yeah, dude, what a what a crazy, crazy time.
52:06
SPEAKER_00: And then um what else?
52:09
SPEAKER_00: What else?
52:10
SPEAKER_00: Who else have we been at?
52:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, the Warriors Ring ceremony.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: Yes.
52:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, what other ring ceremonies have I been at?
52:20
SPEAKER_00: The Warriors Ring ceremony was pretty elite.
52:22
SPEAKER_00: I get I gotta give it that.
52:24
SPEAKER_00: Um the Bulls, I watched them play a play-in game, so that was cool.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: And I've been to a preseason Bears game.
52:35
SPEAKER_00: Does that count for anything?
52:36
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
52:37
SPEAKER_00: That's that's that's all though.
52:38
SPEAKER_00: That's all.
52:38
SPEAKER_00: Those are my oh now, okay.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: Now I'm I'm scared because I feel like I just gave y'all the wrong information.
52:48
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
52:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, guys.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: It was the previous season.
52:52
SPEAKER_00: This was actually the Knicksstar lineup.
52:54
SPEAKER_00: This makes so much more sense.
52:56
SPEAKER_00: Tim Hardaway Jr., Emmanuel Moudie, Noah Vonleigh, Ennis Cantor, Mario Hizonio.
53:05
SPEAKER_00: I watched that team.
53:08
SPEAKER_00: This makes so much more sense.
53:10
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
53:10
SPEAKER_00: Yes, because this game went to OT.
53:12
SPEAKER_00: Yes, yes, yes.
53:14
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
53:14
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, okay, okay.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: That's the real lineup.
53:16
SPEAKER_00: Not the not the Mitchell Robinson, Julius Rand, dude, RJ Barrett went.
53:20
SPEAKER_00: Hell no.
53:21
SPEAKER_00: It was Noah Vonleigh and Todd Gibson hitting corner threes.
53:26
SPEAKER_00: What a time.
53:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, I said there's a ton of arenas I have not been to that I'm I need to get to.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, I went to a Pacer playoff game too.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: I forgot about that.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: That was before Halliburton was there, though.
53:37
SPEAKER_00: That was Sabonis and stuff.
53:39
SPEAKER_00: Good times.
53:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm blessed.
53:41
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for watching or listening to this episode of Numbers on the Board.
53:43
SPEAKER_00: I do want to tell you next Thursday, we will not have an episode because, like I mentioned last week, we are shifting the schedule.
53:49
SPEAKER_00: More information on that on Twitter and Instagram coming up.
53:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, but we will still be doing episodes, don't get me wrong.
53:56
SPEAKER_00: But I can't really speak too much about what's going on behind the scenes.
53:58
SPEAKER_00: But Smallball King Beach and will not be here next Friday.
54:01
SPEAKER_00: I'm sorry, it won't be here next Friday, but it will be there a few days after.
54:05
SPEAKER_00: I appreciate y'all as always.
54:06
SPEAKER_00: Nothing that I've been able to do in this career is possible without y'all watching and enjoying the content.
54:11
SPEAKER_00: So again, I appreciate you.
54:13
SPEAKER_00: I will see you next time.