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TABLE TALK: A Look At This Early NBA Season · The Philadelphia Sports Table | Philly Sports News & Views

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Hey, everybody, it's Jeff. We wanted to let you know we're recording
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this podcast episode on Monday, November sixth, twenty twenty three. By the
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time you hear this, some things may have changed, but we hope you
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enjoy the show. All right, everybody, you're listening to Table Talk here
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at the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast show, the longest running weekly Philly sports podcast
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show in the world, that's right over ten and a half years strong.
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We got a great discussion coming your way this week on Table Talk. The
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NBA season is in full swing. We're seeing some new things here within this
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league. There are some interesting storylines that we have been following here at the
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PST podcast show and in the NBA world in general. Again, we got
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a great discussion coming your way, So why don't we just get to it
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right now? And it is great to have on the podcast for the very
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first time. I was on his recently and it was a fantastic time talking
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NBA, talking about the Sixers, talking about the Knicks, talking about the
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Nets, the Eastern Conference. We've got with us from the Dime podcast with
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Josh and Quab. We've got Quab here, man, buddy. It is
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really really nice to see you. It's great to have you on for the
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first time to talk you know, some NBA storylines here, buddy, Thanks
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for jumping on. Thanks for inviting me. Man, I'm very excited to
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be here. Thanks for hopping on our show. It was a great show
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previewing the Sixers, so thanks for having me on. That was back when
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James Harden and the drama was at the height. Man, and now he's
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a system. He is a system himself. Quad, I'm not a system
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player. I'm a system system. Oh. Man and Josh we're discussing.
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And when the trade happened and we're like, I said, it had to
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happen just because the Sixers needed to get rid of the distraction. That it
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was just absolutely yeah, like you guys are you guys are having the well
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we'll touch on that, you guys are having the start of the season.
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And it felt like after every game it was like, oh, so,
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what's James Harden doing? Exact? Is he playing? Yeah? See you
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see working out? So hey man, it had to happen. Hey look,
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the first game of the season, the Sixers lost by one point to
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the Bucks. I mean, I think really showed what type of team they
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could potentially be in the East. So let's let's get into, you know,
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some of these NBA storylines and specifically with regard to the East. And
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yeah, let's start with the uh let's start with the seventy six Ers.
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Since we are a Philly based podcast here, I'd love to get your thoughts
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on what we've been seeing from this team so far this season. Quab,
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I mean, frankly, I've been surprised if anybody listen to this podcast and
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this platform, you know that we were kind of like down on our luck
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with the Sixers as we were entering into this season. But the fact,
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the fact of the matter is they are the first team in NBA history with
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four players to average twenty plus points per game during the team's first five games
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the season. Knowing that, it's pretty cool as a fan, to be
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honest with you, to see the potential of what this team could be.
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How do you see this Sixers team coming right out of the gate here?
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I think the stat you just mentioned is like very impressive and looking down at
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the players like you expected from Joelle, you kind of expected it from Tyreez
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because everybody's been saying, like, put the ball on Tyree's hands to see
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what he can do, and he's shown he was a Player of the Week
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to start to start off the season. And Tobias has always been consistent.
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Yep. The Kelly Oubray sign and has been huge, huge, well so
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well for you, better than I think what any of us thought it was
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gonna happen. So yeah, I'm sorry to interrupt, go ahead, No,
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no, no, you're right. I mean I think everybody just had
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the average twenty points the previous season on the Hornets, and I feel like
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a lot of people saw that as just empty stats because the Hornets weren't that
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good. But he's just been so effective for the team and watching you the
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games I've been able to catch you guys look so impressive in terms of a
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defensive activity, moving the ball, running, and when all when it all
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all else fails, is like you still have one of the best players in
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the league and Joel Embiid to throw the ball down to and tell him and
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go to work. The Big Fellers still is still averaging. I think he's
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close to thirty points. Close to thirty points, yep, yes, so
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which is and granted, because everything that's been happening with James Harden and everything
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else, like nobody's really talking about it. Yeah, it's not like it's
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not it's not been in the news cycle. But like you guys are looking
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very very impressive as a team. So to me, the Sixers are still
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like one of the top teams in the East, like maybe a tier below
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what Boston is right now. And I guess the potential of Milwaukee even though
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your record doesn't show it, but the Sixers are one of the top teams
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in the East right now moving forward. And I think under the radar based
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team too, And that sounds so weird to say, given that they have
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Joel Embiid as you were mentioned, and the defending reigning MVP of this entire
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NBA, and the fact that this is such an under the radar team and
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even the system that Nick Nurse is implemented. Thus far, we're seeing some
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new stuff. As Sixers fans, it's really great to see. But again,
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under the radar. It's kind of nice to fly under the radar,
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have success, fly under the radar. The pressure isn't necessarily there. Yes,
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yeah, that's that's very true. Quick question to you, is there
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like so far early on do you have any concerns watching the team. The
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only concerns that I have is that they fall back into they fall back into
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a mindset on the court where they're turning the ball over, because I think
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we saw that time and time again last year. In fact, I mean
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season after season. And I don't know, I don't want to say it's
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a Doc thing necessarily, because I mean players are turning the ball over.
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Doc wasn't turning the ball over. But the offensive, the offensive scheme that
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Doc had I don't necessarily think was the greatest in terms of being able to,
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you know, keep keep the ball in their hands at times, you
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know. And I mean it may sound simplistic, but I think the turnover
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aspect of things, we've seen a bit of a difference there. And I
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think if they're not turning the ball over as much, we're going to see
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success with this team in the offense. Yeah, I agree with that.
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I definitely agree with that. I think mile of him has been I because
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I know Nick Nurse loves to play his like his main players, he loves
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to play them heavy minutes. I just want moving forward, just try to
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I don't know how, but try to find a way to just cut down
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on the big fellows minutes just a little bit moving forward, Yeah, just
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a tiny bit, because he's to me, Joelle is going to be effective
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if he plays fifteen minutes, twenty minutes, thirty minute like he's he's just
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that good. Yeah. So if they're able to find more I guess more
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playing time for b ball Paul to get more more rotation minutes. And now
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with the trade coming in, you're going to have I think Batoom is supposed
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to be playing this upcoming game, so I want to see how he looks
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in the offense. Also, so if he because when he was on the
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Clippers, I think he played sometimes he played like a big stretch five in
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some moments. To see that if Nick Nurse is going to implement that,
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it will help the team moving forward. Yeah. Last thing with regard to
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the Sixers is that this is a team that now actually does have some assets
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after the James Harden trade. We were talking about it on our regular podcast
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this past week, and I think actually having some assets right now means that
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we may be seeing some movement at the trade denline with the seventy six ers
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team. I mean I would think that you know, as competitive and under
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the radars they have been in the East. I think we may see something,
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Klob, is there is there a move that you like? What is
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the because when we on our show, we were trying to figure out is
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there a move that like the Sixers can make that can kind of not necessarily
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put them over the top, but like that's viable to help them right now?
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Is there a move you envision right now? Honestly and not right now
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at this point, I think the season is so I think we're still so
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early. I want to see more consistency with certain guys that I know can
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be effective within this system here, and I kind of want to see that
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play out a little bit more. I don't want to like rush to judgment,
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to be honest with you, and I know, I know it's stinks.
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I'm not giving like an answer right now, but it's just I want
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to see more consistency with regard to certain players in this league. Of course,
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injuries are gonna happen as well as we know, and just in every
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sport, so I kind of want to just take a look and see,
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you know, where that consistency is going to be as we head, you
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know, into December, and January. Yeah, so all right, well,
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hey dude, let's move on here some other storylines here in the NBA.
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I gotta get your thoughts here, quab on something new that the NBA
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is doing. There, they're trying to keep things fresh here within the league,
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and now the league is embarked on an NBA in season tournament. That
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seems to me. It seems to be a bit intriguing. It's something new.
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I like how the NBA tries to keep things fresh here and there.
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I'm wondering, what are your overall thoughts on the first ever NBA in season
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tournament, what it's gonna look like, and how it might shape up.
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What are your thoughts on it? Oh? I like it. I feel
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like when they first mentioned it, I thought it was I didn't really necessarily
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like the idea of it, but seemed a little strenged. Right, Yeah,
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it seemed confused, But as I got more clarity about it and I
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realized it was closer to what the WNBA does with the Commissioner Cup yep.
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So basically, the games are just baked it into the season. It's not
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you're not playing extra games. It's not more than eighty two games. The
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only team that teams that end up playing maybe a extra games, the team
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that I end up playing in the finals of the of the tournament, I
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guess the championship year of the tournament. So I've I enjoyed the first like
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the first night of it. Apart from some of the court colors, like
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the nets were playing the bulls and the like it was the court was like
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bright red. It was hurting my eyes to watch. Apart from that,
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I think it's been It's been good because you get you get really competitive,
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like playoff type basketball early on in the season. So I've enjoyed it so
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far. I think it's cool. I think it's fun too. Again,
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I think it's keeping things a little fresh, new ideas, and it's the
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one thing the NBA actually does pretty well, you know, I mean other
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sports organizations I think, especially like MLB. I mean, they have a
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tough time with their fans. They finally did some good stuff this past season,
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making the bases a little bigger, We got more stolen bases. You
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know, they have a pitch clock, games aren't five hours long anymore.
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It was nice to actually watch baseball this year on occasions. So I think
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it's great when sports organizations actually do something new and innovative. You know,
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it might not be the greatest thing in the world, but I think this
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tournament really is something that could potentially be cool and something they could grow upon
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in the future, for sure. But I also wanted to talk about the
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Brooklyn Nets because I know you you're a Nets fan. Correct, Yes,
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yes, you are a Nets. Yes, for some time you've been a
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Nets fan. And this is an organization, my gosh, that has gone
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through so many ups and downs, tons of ups and downs over the past
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few seasons. I wondering, like, how do you see this season not
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only playing out for the Nets, but you know, in a way like
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setting any sort of foundation, and what that foundation may look like for the
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future for this team to actually be competitive in the East Quad. What are
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your thoughts with regard to your team and how you see their future. It's
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been a it's been a weird couple of years. Yeah, watching watching this
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season so far has been has been actually kind of fun because they've they've established
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the way they want to play because, as you know, former six or
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Ben Simmons is on the team now, so they want to play fast,
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they want to push the tempo. I think before before we uh the team
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played Boston, they were leading the NBA in fast breaks, leading the NBA
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and a corner three pointers. So they want to push the ball and then
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drive and kick out for threes. And to me, the games they're apart
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from the Boston game, even though that was closed, apart from the Boston
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game, every game has been close. So it feels like a team that
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can win any game, but also lose any game because they don't have the
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they don't have the one, they don't have the guy, you know what
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I mean, Like Sixers have the Dowell and b where like everything all everything
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fails, you could throw it to them. The nets are still trying to
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establish that is that going to be Mical Bridges? Is that going to be
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camp Thomas And he's still trying to figure that out. So but it's it
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feels like it feels like the team is more fun to watch in a sense
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that there's less outside drama and distractions and there's craziness because yes, the past
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couple of years it was like the team had the potential to win a championship,
12:20
but it just came with so much stuff. Yeah, a lot of
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baggage. Ye, a lot of a lot of baggage. And just we
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spoke earlier like that the Sixers had to just trade James Harden because he just
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felt like it was just so many questions being asked that that that wearing,
12:37
what's on the court basketball related and the Nets went through that for a couple
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of years. So now it's kind of fun just to watch the team and
12:43
just focus on like playing playing playing basketball. I'm wondering, how do you
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see it? And really I'm being serious when I asked this with regard to
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Ben Simmons, because we had to go through the Ben Simmons experiment in Philadelphia,
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But I mean, how do you see Ben Simmons continuing to fit into
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the organization, the team, on the court, the complimentary piece that he
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may need at some point, you know, to really highlight what type of
13:05
player he is. How do you see Ben Simmons role playing out in the
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future on the Nets. I think he is. He is shown some flashes
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in a lot of spots where like he's still he's still imposing big guard,
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where like he can play defense, grab or rebound, make great passes.
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It's just with Ben right now, if the issue is always gonna be.
13:30
He has to look at the rim. He has to be aggressive. He
13:31
has to be not scared of shooting free throws. Like I'm big on the
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whole, Like I get it, maybe you're not a good free throw shooter,
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but I'm big on just attack. Don't be scared to go to the
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line, because you go into the line puts the other team without trouble and
13:46
it also benefits your team in a long run. Yeah, he plays like
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most of the games, the first three quarters, he plays with aggressiveness,
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and it comes to the fourth quarter you can kind of see like him like
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slowing down, push back, kind of fade in a way. Even the
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last game against the Bulls, there was there, there were shooting free throws
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and he instead of just grabbing a rebound, he was scared to get fout.
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He kind of smacked it out and it went to Zach Levine and gladly
14:13
they missed a shot. So yeah, I can see him progressing, hopefully
14:18
in the right direction. But again it's just he has to the physical aspect.
14:24
He looks great now, is just a mental aspect. He still needs
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to get over that little, that little hurdle that's been plaguing him so far.
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Oh yeah, he's been plaguing him for many years, many years,
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many years. As you well know ask you well know, well, I
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wanted to get onto another talent, another talented individual here in this NBA Victor
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Wembinyama Abby really just taking the league by storm. And for basketball fans,
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I mean, it's quab It's such a fun story to follow, you know,
14:52
especially when you know Kevin Durant's trying to guard him and it doesn't even
14:56
matter. It's interesting to watch. I mean, he's certainly making history I
15:01
think in a lot of ways with regard to professional basketball. What what are
15:03
your thoughts on what Wenby really brings to the NBA early in his career here
15:09
and what what what does he do for the game of basketball overall? Do
15:13
you think? I think the one one simplest thing he does is he puts
15:16
eyes on the league. I know I didn't watch many Spurs games the past
15:22
couple of seasons. I've watched every single Spurs game just to see what God
15:24
going to do, Like you have to, he's he's must watch the TV
15:28
n because of that, Like I've realized, like the Spurs have a lot
15:31
of young talent. Also that's not spoken about. Uh, what's been crazy
15:37
to me with watching Victor besides the fact that he does one or two,
15:41
like two or three things every game where I'm just like what what? What
15:45
was that? Exactly? Is that it's so it's crazy, like to just
15:48
to from you've watched basketball, you've watched sports your whole life, and then
15:52
you see this seven foot four kid do some just it doesn't make it doesn't
15:58
make sense. I don't even have to right words to say, like,
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it just doesn't make sense. But then you put it together, You're like,
16:03
wait, he's only nineteen, so he's gonna get better. And there
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are times when I watch this first there are times where in his teammates also
16:11
like they miss him when he's open, which still confuses the heck out of
16:14
me because he's so he's such a big kid, right, I just think,
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like, again, it just puts it puts more eyes on the league.
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It brings the there's gonna be a younger generation of players that again will
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get influenced by that because they see, Hey, I'm a I'm necessarily a
16:30
big guy. I don't have to play this way, so now you have
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And I think it's it's kind of started with play mentioned KD. You have
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these long, rangy, tall players that know, like, I'm not going
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to be a traditional center. I'm going to be skilled in all aspects of
16:45
the game, yep. And it's just gonna help improve the game of basketball
16:48
and improve the NBA moving forward. Yeah. Absolutely. You look at him
16:52
and he is he is an athlete and we've seen it in other leagues with
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it, with their athleticism that defy humanity. Yes, yes, thank you.
17:03
Yes, when you defy humanity, you have something special there and it's
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special for the league too. It's great to watch, great to watch for
17:11
sure. But as we're moving along here, Quab, I want to get
17:15
into the Denver Nuggets too, because Denver really does seem to be the team
17:18
that'll be at the top of the rankings. You know, for most of
17:21
the season. Here they you know, they they basically slept through the first
17:25
week of the season in just one games anyway, I mean they killed Okay,
17:27
see last week made it look easy. At the end of the day,
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who do you think can really really compete with the Denver Nuggets and why?
17:37
I mean maybe a part maybe the Celtics, but maybe the Bucks.
17:42
I don't. I'm not really sure right now. I think some teams would
17:45
get better as the season progresses, because it's just an early season, just
17:48
so early in the year. But just watching the Nuggets, like you said,
17:51
it felt like they were sleepwalking. But they're still being very dominant,
17:53
like they know who they are. They your best player can get a bucket
17:59
whenever he wants, but all well, he's a great facilitator. They all
18:02
your pieces fit, dear offense, like it just it feels seamless watching them.
18:07
So it's just to me right now, it's kind of hard to see
18:11
who can necessarily beat them. I think the watching watching the Celtics early on,
18:15
they feel like that the team that could maybe give them some trouble.
18:18
But I, like, I still don't know, just because like Yokich is
18:25
amazing, very like all the words, very talented, very talented, big
18:29
man. So like I'm not I'm not quite sure. I feel like to
18:32
me, I have them coming out the West, I've had it coming out
18:34
the West and before the season started, So I'm not quite sure. Do
18:37
you have anybody in mind? Do you think? Not? Really, to
18:40
be honest with you, I mean, like you said, perhaps the Celtics,
18:42
but I'm not sure you can trust the Celtics. We've seen the Celtics
18:45
team. We've seen certain aspects of this team be dominating, even with certain
18:51
dominant aspects within the playoffs over the years, but the never able to just
18:55
like finish. They're not able to actually complete the task. And I think
19:00
it's gonna be so hard against this Denver Nuggets team. I just I don't
19:03
know. I think it's gonna be Denver's just to take again, and it
19:07
really pisses me off. Actually, yeah, it feels it feels like it
19:11
feels like they might they might go back to back. Man, It's crazy,
19:15
it does all right again, folks, we're talking to Quab from the
19:18
Dime podcast with Josh and Quab Quap. Where can folks find you on Twitter?
19:22
Social media sites out there? If they want to follow you, you
19:26
can follow me on Twitter or I guess X right, I'm that soon probably,
19:33
I still I still I hate it. I hate it? Yes,
19:37
I all do. Yes, anyway, what's your handle over there on on
19:41
Twitter or it's a quab a K Yes, it is k W A b
19:45
A k A y e s. And also you can follow the Dime n
19:48
B A at the Dime NBA. So that's the two handles you can usually
19:52
find me at. Awesome, Yeah, they do great work. Folks over
19:56
at the Dime with Josh and Quab, great great podcast. And to close
20:02
us out here, Quab, you know something I'd like to give a lot
20:03
of thought to is, you know, the future of sports, you know,
20:06
in a lot of different ways. And you know, whether we're when
20:08
we look at this NBA, we look at talent like Steph Curry, kd
20:12
Lebron James, you know these older quote older guys you know who are going
20:17
to start coming to the end at some point. And you know, guys
20:22
like Wenby like we were talking about earlier, even like guys like Tyres Maxie
20:25
in a way and how he develops, you know, they're going to become
20:27
the new guys and the new faces of the NBA to really kind of take
20:32
things to the next level. And that's what us fans are going to be
20:34
looking at. So I'm wondering, you know what younger guys, you know,
20:38
younger core players in this league, do you see continuing to make the
20:42
league interesting in the future. What are your thoughts I think you have a
20:47
lot of a lot of really good young players that are in the league on
20:51
a lot of teams, like for example, Anthony Edwards on Minnesota. Yeah,
20:56
this summer he was basically the I felt like he was the best player
20:59
on the USA team. Uh. You have Tyrese Haliburton on the Pacers.
21:04
Uh, even it was a LaMelo ball. I think he had a forty
21:08
point triple double last game against the MAVs. And even the team you mentioned
21:14
before, Okay, see the OKC core, they're all they're all young,
21:18
all talented, with Shay with with Check coming up and he's also another tall
21:22
seven too, like just like kind of like Wemby and even, like you
21:29
said, even Maxie. I feel like a lot of these a lot of
21:30
these younger players, they're they're coming up, they they're they are very talented,
21:36
but they also have the work ethic. That's the one reason that I
21:38
feel like everybody was drawn to like Maxie and tell him saying that, hey,
21:41
put the ball in Maxi's hands because you see how hard he works on
21:45
his game, how well he improves every year. And a lot of these
21:48
young players are doing the same. So the the NBA is in good hands
21:52
moving forward. Like you, a lot of a lot of these kids are
21:53
coming up, but they're also put in the time and effort and the work
21:56
to get better. So the NBA is a great hands. Absolutely is again
22:00
folks, talking to Quab here from the Dime podcast with Josh and Quab.
22:04
Buddy, thank you so much for jumping on here. It was a great,
22:07
great conversation, great discussion. Come back and join us down the road.
22:11
I'd love to have you, my friend. Oh, thank you for
22:12
having me again. We're gonna have you on again on our podcast to discuss
22:17
the Sixers moving forward. Please everybody listen. This is a great show again.
22:21
I'm very grateful for you having me on. There is always something new
22:25
with the NBA, always new storylines to follow, and we're gonna continue talking
22:29
about them here on the Philadelphia Sports Table podcast. Show was great talking to
22:33
Quab and I gotta say, Philadelphia seventy six ers. I'm liking what we're
22:37
seeing so far this season. Of course Quab and I talked about that earlier
22:41
in our discussion, but the Eastern Conference, it's gonna be really interesting to
22:45
see how it all plays out in the end. And quite frankly, you
22:49
know, I do like the NBA in season tournament thus far, I think
22:53
it's a bit intriguing. It's something new to keep our focus and our attention
22:57
before the Christmas Day games. Basically, so again, really interesting storylines in
23:03
the NBA for us to follow, and we're gonna be talking about the sixers
23:07
and more here on the PSD Podcast Show in the future. So it's gonna
23:11
do it for us here on table Talk. Make sure you're following us on
23:14
social media platforms out there, just search us out I'm not gonna go through
23:18
everything, but if anything does happen to your podcast feed, you can always
23:22
head on over to Philadelphia sportstable dot com. We've got all of our shows
23:25
over there, and we hope you enjoy the content that we've been putting up
23:30
thus far over these ten and a half years. And we got great,
23:33
great discussions coming your way this week and in the weeks to come here at
23:38
PSD Podcast Show. So make sure you're subscribed on whatever podcast platform you are
23:42
on, and that's gonna do it for us. Folks. Take care,
23:45
we'll catch you next time.