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My MOST INTRIGUING Players In The NBA Heading Into This Season · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:05
SPEAKER_00: Welcome to season four of Small Ball with Kenny Beach.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: Now we haven't always been named that, but damn it, this is the fourth year we've done this solo.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: So we got a lot of things to get into today.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: If you see in me, that means the NBA season is here, y'all.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: It's here.
0:19
SPEAKER_00: I've been locked into preseason.
0:21
SPEAKER_00: Maybe a little bit too locked in because I'm forming opinions about players and teams based on preseason, which I never really want to recommend to anybody, but that's what I'm doing right now.
0:29
SPEAKER_00: I need basketball like I need water.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: And we're just a couple days away for the games actually mattering.
0:35
SPEAKER_00: This season will look different than the previous three seasons, and I'm excited to talk to y'all about that.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: But y'all here for the basketball talk first.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: If you want the housekeeper stuff, you gotta say till later in the episode.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: So I was trying to figure out what should the first episode of season four look like.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: And I have been teasing this video slash this episode for like three weeks, maybe even a month now, of the most intriguing players to me going into this season.
1:00
SPEAKER_00: All different reasons.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: And you know, I was trying to make it all cool.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: He goes to top 10 most intriguing.
1:04
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, uh, you know, I had this conversation a few years back when uh I first made an appearance on Stephen A.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Smith's pod.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: And, you know, I, you know, me, I'm I'm I'm a critical guy.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm critical of NBA players, I'm critical of people in the media.
1:17
SPEAKER_00: And I was critical of Stephen A.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Smith for he he had a segment where he was saying the five players with the most pressure on them.
1:25
SPEAKER_00: And then he came out to me and said, Well, the segment ended up being five, so I needed five.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, No, no, no.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: In my universe, you don't need round numbers.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: You don't need cool numbers like five and ten and fifteen and twenty.
1:35
SPEAKER_00: You can do six players that you care about or 14 players.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: So I actually got actually I don't want to spoil the number.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to spoil the number.
1:43
SPEAKER_00: I but I don't got no cool round number because this is a small ball with Kenny Beats and damn it.
1:48
SPEAKER_00: And this season I can do what I want.
1:50
SPEAKER_00: No side, no side, no side.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: No one particular, no particular order.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Let's start off with Denny.
1:57
SPEAKER_00: Gotta start with Denny Abnia because well, he just had a breakout season.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: You know, he was a player that had the ball in his hands.
2:03
SPEAKER_00: 33% of the time, his own ball numbers, 33%, which puts him in the 98th, 99th percentile.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: The team ran through him offensively, and he did a phenomenal job of finding exactly his identity when it comes to the NBA, getting downhill, drawing fouls, getting to the foul line, and he had an all-star caliber season.
2:20
SPEAKER_00: But as you know, the 2026-2027 Portland Trailblaze is gonna look dramatically different than the team that he just played with.
2:26
SPEAKER_00: For one, brand new head coach, Tiago Splitter, he's home here in Chicago.
2:29
SPEAKER_00: Can't wait to talk to you, coach.
2:30
SPEAKER_00: You should go ahead and get tickets to the uh numbers on the board live show if you're in Chicago, by the way.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Have I promoted that here?
2:36
SPEAKER_00: No, because this is episode one.
2:37
SPEAKER_00: Link should be in the description.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: Uh Tiago Splitter is our special guest, and I'm gonna grill him about the future of the Bulls.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: But Tiago Splitter is out in Portland, and instead, Michael Nori is in, right?
2:46
SPEAKER_00: So that's that's the first change for Denny.
2:48
SPEAKER_00: The second change is Damian Lillard was on the roster last season, but he didn't play.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: He was just back home.
2:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, the grass is not always greener, so on and so forth.
2:55
SPEAKER_00: But now he's playing.
2:56
SPEAKER_00: And not only that, out of nowhere, the people up top said, hmm, what would be the weirdest thing we can do this offseason?
3:04
SPEAKER_00: What if we traded for John Morant?
3:06
SPEAKER_00: You know, a move that cost them nothing.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: What Chris Murray and Jeremy Grant, a move that cost them nothing, a low risk, potentially high reward kind of move.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: But the two guys that they just added, those guys are heavy on ball players.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: Dame, I could see in this situation, of course, you want the ball in Dame Sanders because he's that great, but because he is such an elite three-point shooter, one of the greatest three-point shooters of all time, you can see a world where he's playing a little bit more off the ball, but like John Morant, maybe not so much.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: So the reason why Denny is one of the most intriguing players for me this season, because I don't completely know how it's going to look for Denny.
3:39
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to say, Denny, we're taking you off the ball because, well, he was one of the better forwards in the league when it came to his own ball reps.
3:47
SPEAKER_00: He averaged 24-7-7 last year.
3:49
SPEAKER_00: The one thing, the one silver lining for Denny, and um I don't have the exact number, but last time, if I can remember correctly, he shot like 37% from three on catch and shoot threes for the season.
3:59
SPEAKER_00: He shot 32%, obviously adding on those off-the-bounce threes and everything.
4:03
SPEAKER_00: But what would his role look like?
4:05
SPEAKER_00: And then the other day on Numbers on the Board, I posed a question.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: We did something called the take purge, which I stole completely from the ringer.
4:11
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the ringer fantasy football guys, because that's one of my favorite episodes of media ever, where you give takes or opinions that you may not completely believe in, but in the back of your mind, you're like, oh, maybe five percent of me.
4:23
SPEAKER_00: And part of me is like, is there a world where Danny's just straight up is the best player on the team, even with John Moran and Damian Lillard being out there?
4:30
SPEAKER_00: And if he is, should we still just empower him to be that hub offensively where he is a guy that is still on the ball whatever percent of the time?
4:36
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the answer to that, but that is not a question for me.
4:39
SPEAKER_00: That is a question for Michael Nori and his coaching staff.
4:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, they they do have a little bit less you know, mouths to feed now that Shaden Sharp presenter, unfortunately, get well soon, Shaden Sharp, but you know, it was a little log jam over there when that guard position with School Henderson, who, based on the comments from the coaches' staff, he had been a standout in training camp.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, uh oh, he's he's maybe the fourth most important guard on the team.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm kind of interested in School Henderson, not for this, the sake of 2026-2027 conversation.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: He's not one of my most intriguing players, but while we're here, I don't I don't know exactly if Portland prioritizes him.
5:14
SPEAKER_00: He feels like a prime, a super prime second team guy.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't know.
5:18
SPEAKER_00: I I just kind of enjoyed what we saw in a couple games in the playoffs last year versus the San Antonio Spurs.
5:24
SPEAKER_00: I love what we saw second half of the season once he started to get his legs under him, where he was playing not as a point guard, but playing off the ball a little bit.
5:30
SPEAKER_00: And yeah, he's undersized and all.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: But like I kind of was enjoying what we were getting from School Henderson.
5:35
SPEAKER_00: And something tells me that he could be a pretty solid second team guy.
5:39
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna hit restrictive free agency, and there's a there's a lot of interesting younger teams with some money this offseason.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, hey, could School Henderson hit that second team and then turn into maybe the guy you drafted third overall.
5:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, I've been I've been locked into you know preseason.
5:55
SPEAKER_00: And what I will say is that Denny got a lot of three-point opportunities in their game.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: I I don't remember who was against, but a lot of three-point opportunities in their game.
6:02
SPEAKER_00: So it's like, okay, maybe this is the way it's gonna go.
6:04
SPEAKER_00: He was still on the ball a little bit, but that was with them not playing with the entirety of their team.
6:09
SPEAKER_00: So Denny could still could still be the guy over there, but you also got Damian Lillard and Dame coming off the Achilles.
6:16
SPEAKER_00: Like, we're in 2026, man.
6:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't I don't look at major injuries saying that's the end anymore.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: I don't care if you are 35, 36 years old.
6:22
SPEAKER_00: You got to show me on the court that it's the end, or you're close to being the end.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: And I don't feel that way for Damian Lillard, damn it.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: So Denny is one of my most intriguing players for this upcoming season.
6:35
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6:38
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7:07
SPEAKER_00: This is uh Smallball with Kenny Beechum.
7:10
SPEAKER_00: And as the host, I have to find a way to sprinkle in the Chicago Bulls as much as I can.
7:15
SPEAKER_00: This is not going to be a phenomenal season for us, but it is the first season of a teardown and rebuild, and I'm really excited for.
7:21
SPEAKER_00: Two preseason games, a lot of things, a lot of things to be excited about.
7:24
SPEAKER_00: Some things you like, ooh, are we going to be the worst three-point shooting team of the league this year?
7:28
SPEAKER_00: The amount of times I saw Caleb Wilson, Modus Buzelis, um, uh Leonard Miller, uh Noah and Sengate airball, three pointers in two games.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: My God.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: I think I needed two hands to count the amount of air balls.
7:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's it's it ain't been the greatest things, but you also get like, oh my God, Caleb did have a quarter where he had three threes, four threes.
7:46
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, Midas Buzales did get downhill the way we've been asking him to do for two seasons.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's some bright, some bright spots, some not so bright spots.
7:53
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but I want to say one of my most intriguing players for this season on the Chicago Bulls is Josh Giddy, man.
8:00
SPEAKER_00: Josh Giddy is such an interesting and polarizing player.
8:04
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about the basketball player, you know what I mean?
8:08
SPEAKER_00: The basketball player.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: There's a portion of NBA fandom that can look at a guy that can average 17, 9, and 8.5 and say, that is a good NBA player.
8:18
SPEAKER_00: Regardless of maybe how lackluster his defense is, regardless of his jump shooting not being trusted across his social station, even if he is a solid, I'm putting in quotation marks for our audio listeners, solid three-point shooter at 36% from three on the volume uh five a game.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: Like that's not bad numbers, but he's not a trusted three-point shooter.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: There's a portion of fandom that says this is a good NBA player with a super bright future, considering he is newly 24 years old.
8:44
SPEAKER_00: Happy belated birthday.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: It was two days ago.
8:46
SPEAKER_00: And there's a portion of NBA fandom that say, mmm, he's just not good enough for the amount of time we give him the ball.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know exactly where I sit as a guy that is watching now Josh Giddy on his team for two seasons going into year number three.
9:00
SPEAKER_00: There's moments of brilliance where you're like, oh my God, this guy is he's not a supercomputer like a Luka Donces, LeBron James, and Nikola Jokic.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: But if there's a level beneath those guys like Kay Cunningham, like he's he's a level beneath that when it comes to processing the game.
9:14
SPEAKER_00: And I admire something like that.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: But again, I also do recognize for a guy that's gonna have the ball as much as he does, he just doesn't have a ton of on-ball creation juice for himself.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: And him being a not trusted shooter also brings down his overall value.
9:30
SPEAKER_00: Where if you're running a lot of screens with Josh Gideon, let's say center to be named, is Nicholas Claxon or Jalen Smith, you will see a lot of teams completely opt to go under those screens.
9:38
SPEAKER_00: And if he wants to take the three-pointer, sure, we'll allow him to.
9:42
SPEAKER_00: And he has to make them pay.
9:44
SPEAKER_00: He's not the greatest at getting downhill because he's not super athletic.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: He has his size and his strength that you can see.
9:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh, he hit a lot of floaters last season that were like closer to the rim compared to the previous season.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: I think his average shot distance when it came to within the arc was closer to the basket than the previous year, so that's a good thing.
10:00
SPEAKER_00: But the reason he's one of my most intriguing players is because we do have this new front office here.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: We do have this new coaching staff here.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: And I question which of the remaining players from the Artoonis, Carney Shovers, Mark Eversley era are really a part of the future for Bryson Graham and Tiago Splitter.
10:16
SPEAKER_00: And we don't know the answer to that.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: We saw this offseason, they looked at Rob Dillingham and say, Rob, man, we just don't think you're a good enough player to be on this team.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: And because we have Josh Giddy, Norman Powell, we have Trey Jones, we have uh Dalen Swain, who's now gonna be playing point guard or lead ball handler in some units, we just don't have the minutes to truly develop you.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: So we're gonna send you to this team for Buddy Hilled, and it is what it is.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: I'm thinking about when the uh Tunis Carney Sovers and Mark Eversley took over for you know guard packs in them in 2019 or whatever the year was.
10:47
SPEAKER_00: And I just remember how a lot of the guys who we had on the team over the last couple seasons were now at the door.
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Wendell Carter, Larry Marketing, like the list goes on and on.
10:55
SPEAKER_00: The only guy that really stayed for the entirety of it, at least almost the entirety of it, was Kobe White.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: But every other person that the Bulls had drafted from the previous regime or acquired through the previous regime was done for like two years later.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's pretty normal in the NBA.
11:11
SPEAKER_00: You want to build your team.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: And if you are a Bulls fan, you know you've heard the word slap from Bryson Graham, and Josh Giddy fits a few of those letters in the slap acronym, but maybe not all of them.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: So I question how important or how much is he a part of the future of the Chicago Bulls?
11:31
SPEAKER_00: I think he's going to be extremely valuable for the Bulls this season.
11:36
SPEAKER_00: The Bulls don't have a lot of people that can dribble.
11:38
SPEAKER_00: It's really just Trey Jones and Josh Giddy, if we're being honest with each other.
11:40
SPEAKER_00: But his passing is going to elevate the game of Caleb Wilson if the Bulls can get stops, because we're going to be a full court team in theory, if they can get stops.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: But do you trust that Josh Giddy can be your lead ball handler once the calendar turns to us being a good basketball team?
11:56
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know the answer to that.
11:58
SPEAKER_00: He again is such a polarizing player.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Because he can't he can give you 17 a game and hit a half-court shot against the Lakers that I always remember forever.
12:10
SPEAKER_00: But I'm not completely sure if he's really that that good.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
12:18
SPEAKER_00: Also, I'm looking at his basketball reference right now.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: I didn't realize this.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: His rookie season they got him listed as a small forward, his sophomore season, they got a list as a power forward.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: I don't remember those minutes.
12:26
SPEAKER_00: Um and then shooting guard, point guard, point guard.
12:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm happy to have Josh Giddy on the team because again, I think he is super valuable for the development of a modest or development of a Caleb or even a development of a Leonard Miller, who in my mind is climbing up the priority list as a Bulls fan, as guys that I want to see play minutes this upcoming season.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: A lot of those guys' jobs are 10 times harder if there is no Josh Giddy type on the team.
12:49
SPEAKER_00: So I'm I'm team keep him around, but I'm also I don't think he should be as important that if we ended up getting the right pick in this draft, you're like, hmm, we already got a point guard.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: We should, if you think the guy that you you were thinking about drafting is gonna be better, damn it, do what you gotta do.
13:02
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Josh Getty.
13:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm wishing nothing but the best for this upcoming season.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Please don't get injured because that tanks the progression of everybody on our team.
13:09
SPEAKER_00: The next player, I'm actually gonna group these two together because they play for the same team.
13:13
SPEAKER_00: Most intriguing, Frevin Vliet and Reed Shepard.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: I'm just kind of looking at the Houston Rockets and saying that they they just had last season where it was a good season.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they they found the identity as a defensive-oriented team, an offensive rebounded team, a team that got back on defense somehow, even though they were the best offensive rebounded team, makes no sense to me.
13:30
SPEAKER_00: Um Emay coaches one hell of a one head of a locker room, but the offense was always and always a struggle.
13:36
SPEAKER_00: And like the the bear numbers itself is what, like 14th in offense, which is not bad if you're gonna be a top whatever defense.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: But then you saw at Weir's ugly head in the postseason.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: Granted, Kevin Durant only played a game, and again, Frevin Vleed and some of these organizers were not on the court whatsoever.
13:49
SPEAKER_00: But Houston's offense last season was 45% isolation.
13:53
SPEAKER_00: That was second in the league.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: 45%.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: You're like, yeah, we got Shangoon, we got Kevin Durant, but like, man, could could they just use some easier buckets?
14:02
SPEAKER_00: And I look at Freddy and I look at hopefully the development of Reese Shepard and say, these guys collectively can be the two to get to the point where we don't need to isolate 45% of the time to generate some offense.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: We don't need to just throw the ball at the rim and hope Steven Adams or Clink Capella or Alpern Shangoon is close enough to get us a second opportunity and we get a kick out for an open shot.
14:23
SPEAKER_00: Freddy is coming off a major injury for sure.
14:26
SPEAKER_00: But Steady Freddy is his nickname, not just because it rhymes, but because he is an organizer of basketball teams.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: So I'm really intrigued to see what he can do.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: They were also near dead last in turnover rate if you only account for half-court offense.
14:39
SPEAKER_00: The half court O had been ugly all season long.
14:42
SPEAKER_00: And I think Steady Freddy can kind of lower those numbers.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Do I think they're about to be the most precious team with the ball in the half court all of a sudden because of Fred Van Vliet?
14:50
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely not.
14:51
SPEAKER_00: But near dead last, which it was 28th, by the way, being 28th in that is just not good enough for a team that is trying to win a championship.
14:57
SPEAKER_00: So they desperately need stability.
14:59
SPEAKER_00: And outside of that, they need the spacing that Fred Van Vliet and Reed Shepard can provide.
15:04
SPEAKER_00: Now, Reed got a lot of things said about him this offseason after coming off a postseason where, you know, a guy that was a really good shooter in the regular season got to the postseason and he can't hit he didn't hit his shots.
15:15
SPEAKER_00: Happens to the best of them, right?
15:16
SPEAKER_00: Especially a guy this young.
15:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm not I'm not drilling him too much when it comes to that.
15:20
SPEAKER_00: But they're going to need him to be that three-point shooter that we know he can be.
15:23
SPEAKER_00: Fred Van Vliet, his historically is a 37% three-point shooter.
15:27
SPEAKER_00: They're going to need that on seven attempts.
15:29
SPEAKER_00: Let me re-Shepherd shot what 41% last season?
15:31
SPEAKER_00: 30, 39.4% on seven attempts per game.
15:35
SPEAKER_00: They're going to need that next season.
15:36
SPEAKER_00: And if I remember correctly, his postseason numbers were something.
15:40
SPEAKER_00: Let me see.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: Um that playoff series last year, he shot 29% from three in that six-game series.
15:48
SPEAKER_00: So just wasn't it.
15:50
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he had the turnover that led to the Lakers comeback.
15:53
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't, you know, but those two guys are going to be looked at to be organizers of the team and be looked at to provide some spacing on the team that desperately needs it.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: Because obviously, Iman Thompson and Alprent Shangoon are not spacers.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: I remember at the beginning of last season, the very first game versus OKC, Shen Goon hit like four threes, and we were like, yup, all right, it's time.
16:11
SPEAKER_00: And I had, I was one that was like, this is about to be the breakout for Alprent Shangoon.
16:15
SPEAKER_00: It's about to happen.
16:16
SPEAKER_00: And the the year ended up being average to his own standards.
16:22
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he had a good season, but like it wasn't the breakout that we really needed.
16:26
SPEAKER_00: And I think part of that was situational where he really was going into opportunities with no point guard play.
16:32
SPEAKER_00: And now they add Marcus Smart, um, who can can play pseudo point guard when you need him to.
16:38
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he played point guard for years in his career.
16:40
SPEAKER_00: Again, they got Reed and they got Freddie.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: And I think this could be a season where Al Preshang shows the original hype that we had about Al P at the beginning of the last season, that comes back and it rears his head because he now has some more organization and now he has some picket roll partners that can really put him in the best position.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: So I was talking about on Smallball, again, do our our purge take episode where like one of the major questions people are asking in the podcast sphere, in the Twitter sphere, is like, if not OKC or San Antonio out west, then who?
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Because I mean, let's be honest with each other.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: One of those two teams is coming out of the Western Conference.
17:14
SPEAKER_00: But that's kind of that's not fun.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: That's not fun.
17:17
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I was I was here in the podcast in days where we knew it was gonna be Cavs versus Warriors.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And damn it, we was just making stuff up just for the content's sake.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: So this is that.
17:25
SPEAKER_00: We know it's gonna be OKCO the Spurs.
17:28
SPEAKER_00: But if it wasn't them, then who?
17:30
SPEAKER_00: And originally in my mind I said Minnesota.
17:32
SPEAKER_00: Minnesota is gonna have one of the best defense in the league as long as Rudy Gobert plays minutes.
17:36
SPEAKER_00: And if he, if for whatever reason, Iron Man Rudy Gobert missed some times, uh oh.
17:40
SPEAKER_00: But let's just assume he doesn't.
17:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, take it, talk about earlier in the episode where I was saying taking stock in preseason.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Lamelo has a thousand hockey assists on the season already.
17:48
SPEAKER_00: This team is playing fast as hell.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh we saw some guard guard picking role already, so I'm excited.
17:54
SPEAKER_00: So they have the the the highest ceiling, I think.
17:56
SPEAKER_00: But I keep thinking about Houston, and maybe I'm tripping.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Kenny, you shouldn't trust a Kevin Durant team.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: And you might be right.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: But I can't help but to look at it and say, hmm, there's still a lot to be excited about with this team.
18:12
SPEAKER_00: And if it's not OKC, and if it's not San Antonio, why why couldn't it be the Houston Rockets?
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Shooting?
18:19
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, shooting, probably.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: Shooting is probably gonna be the death of them.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, either way, shout out to those two guys.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: The next guy on my list is Chet Holmgren.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Chet Holmgren had um he had a time.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: The last time we saw him play basketball, boy, was it ugly.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: At the viral tweak, this is about to be the longest offseason of Chet Holmgren's career.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: Because not only, or at least at this point, this is what it felt like.
18:43
SPEAKER_00: Not only did he just get um babied by Victor Womenyama, he was probably gonna watch Victor Wemanyama go and raise the Larry Obi.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Now, obviously the Knicks came in and said, uh, not so fast, Kenny.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: But in my mind, after they won that game seven versus OKC, I thought the Spurs were gonna win the championship.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was bad.
18:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, we had games where he didn't touch the ball in the second half.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: We had games where he looked scared, and when he did touch the ball, he dripped off his own foot and failed.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: We had times where he didn't even look at the basket.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: It was really, really bad.
19:07
SPEAKER_00: But even with all of that, I still believe that he was really good defensively in that series.
19:11
SPEAKER_00: The reason why he is one of my most intriguing players, because I question like in the regular season, Chet Holmgren playing hybrid 4-5 is not the worst thing.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: Like I see, it's it's actually really good.
19:22
SPEAKER_00: Then having Isaiah Hartenstein to hold him down when he plays against maybe some more of the physical bigs across basketball, and then when they run the closeout lineups with no Isaiah Hartenstein, Chet Holmgren is good enough, one of the best defensive players in the world, he can hold it down.
19:35
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes you say, hmm, we're going to see the San Antonio Spurs.
19:41
SPEAKER_00: At least you hope.
19:43
SPEAKER_00: Actually, maybe you hope not.
19:44
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna see the San Antonio Spurs again.
19:46
SPEAKER_00: And this is not me saying Chet Holmgren is afraid of Victor Wimbenyama, even though I kind of want to say he's afraid of Victor Wimbenyama.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm saying that the lineups of Isaiah Hardenstein and Chet Holmgren may aren't aren't as good or not as impactful against a team like the San Antonio Spurs.
20:03
SPEAKER_00: Those are the moments where you want Chet Holmgren to say, hey, I am the center today.
20:07
SPEAKER_00: And I'm gonna hold my own against Wimbenyama.
20:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna hold my own when it's Luke Courtnett.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna hold my own when it's, I guess Terrace Reid plays for them or something.
20:15
SPEAKER_00: Jaden Coin, it's technically plays for them.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: But we need, we need these lineups where Chet can be fully comfortable playing five against the top end talents in basketball.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: Again, across the regular season, I don't worry about whether or not Chet can play the five.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: He definitely can.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: But in the high-leverage seven-game series against another one of the best centers in the league, we need Chet to be able to.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Now you're always going to have Chet and IHeart minutes, but you probably don't want to close out this way.
20:40
SPEAKER_00: I remember there was games in the series versus uh versus San Antonio where Mark Dayton had the opt to have Jay Wheel on the court because Jay Will obviously had some extra spacing out there, but because it was just another another physical body to throw at the San Antonio Spurs.
20:54
SPEAKER_00: And I be thinking like the lineup construction for OKC against a Spurs team to close out of Shay, AJ Mitchell.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: Have you been seeing AJ Mitchell lately?
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Oh my God.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: Let's say Caruso or Kaysen.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: I guess it could be either those two guys.
21:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what Caruso is going to look like in 2026, 2027.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: J Dub and Chet, that's their very own death lineup.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: That lineup has zero minutes played last season because Dub didn't only play a handful of games.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: But I look at that potential lineup and say, my God, they have everything you could imagine.
21:28
SPEAKER_00: They have, you know, rangy wings, maybe not the big wings, because J Dub is literally like 6'5, but he's a bigger guy.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Alex Caruso's 6'4, 6'5.
21:36
SPEAKER_00: But they don't have like a 6'8 type of wing out there.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: But these guys are all defensive level guys.
21:41
SPEAKER_00: And then the back end they got a DPOY candidate.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: And they got the MVP of the league right there.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: And then they got an extra set of ball handling in AJ Mitchell and catch a shoe spot up shooting in AJ Mitchell, too.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: That lineup feels invincible if Chad Holgren can run the five against Wimbanyama and those other type of guys.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: They made a meme about Mr.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Chet Homegrim and him putting on those two extra pounds and that being his offseason.
22:06
SPEAKER_00: And I know it's NBA Twitter.
22:08
SPEAKER_00: You know, everything is a meme.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Everything is funny.
22:11
SPEAKER_00: I took offense to it, damn it.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: As a guy that has had stretches in his life where putting on weight was really tough.
22:17
SPEAKER_00: I took offense to it because you know what?
22:20
SPEAKER_00: Chess probably feels pretty good about adding two ways to two pounds this offseason.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: I sometimes, when I was at my lowest, and my lowest was really low, y'all.
22:28
SPEAKER_00: Right now, right now I'm saying I'm saying like I'm saying like fat, fast, fast seven.
22:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm not, I'm not gonna act like I'm five eight, fat, five, seven, uh, uh, one, one, one forty eight.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: You're like, Kenny, that's still a baby.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Sure.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Who gives a fuck?
22:40
SPEAKER_00: You know?
22:40
SPEAKER_00: But at my lowest, I was like 122, bro.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: I have like, y'all, you got my chart?
22:48
SPEAKER_00: Go to the go get your annual, go get your annual checkup.
22:50
SPEAKER_00: On my chart, I can go back and see in 2022, I was 122 pounds, y'all.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: So when I did go on that progression level, those extra two pounds, even if it took a month to get that, damn it, it felt amazing.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: And it's not from lack of effort for Chet.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: This man, Chet, got the best the best team in the league, the best people to put him in place to gain weight.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: He's got the best chefs in the world on this team.
23:14
SPEAKER_00: It can just be hard, and he's also seven foot whatever.
23:18
SPEAKER_00: It was hard for me, and I'm five foot whatever.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: So damn it, stop making fun of Chet and his weight.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Even though you would want him to be able to put on living weight.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: It is what it is.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: He's an all-NBA caliber player at 215 pounds.
23:31
SPEAKER_00: You know?
23:33
SPEAKER_00: Next guy on our list is Zach Edy.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: This one thing I dislike.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: It's nobody's fault.
23:40
SPEAKER_00: It's nobody's fault.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: It's literally nobody's fault.
23:43
SPEAKER_00: I went a time where I didn't listen to NBA podcasts because I didn't want to be influenced by the people I was listening to.
23:50
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty easy to listen to something and pick up on it, right?
23:53
SPEAKER_00: And pick up on like being honest with each other.
23:57
SPEAKER_00: I watch The Bears, and god damn it, what a terrible day to say that sentence.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: I got red zone on the on the on the iPad, but I listen to a lot of football pods.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: So when you hear me talk football, it ain't because I just watch the footage of whatever the hell Jaden Daniels did.
24:15
SPEAKER_00: It's not because I watched the whole game, it's because I was influenced by the podcast I was listening to.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: And again, I'm I'm I'm open enough to tell you that.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: I I would never go into a room and act like I was the smartest NFL man because I'm maybe the the bottom of that list.
24:28
SPEAKER_00: But I'm saying that to say it is pretty easy to be influenced.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: Some of my favorite comments that I see is like, oh, Kenny just dropped a new video, my NBA opinion just arrived.
24:38
SPEAKER_00: Because that's how real it can be sometimes.
24:40
SPEAKER_00: You know, you listen to somebody that you you feel like it's saying the right thing, it's like, I got it.
24:44
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, I say that to say.
24:46
SPEAKER_00: There was a time I was not listening to Pod because I didn't want them to influence my takes.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: And I think it, I think I did a solid job there.
24:53
SPEAKER_00: But I just I needed something.
24:56
SPEAKER_00: So I went back to watching it and listening to NBA Pods.
24:58
SPEAKER_00: And one of my favorite podcasters in the NBA space is Zach Lowe.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Zach Lowe.
25:03
SPEAKER_00: Zach Lowe has been really in on the Memphis Grizzies all offseason, and I have to.
25:10
SPEAKER_00: And I was kind of hoping that I would be one of the only few looking at that Grizzies team and saying, hold on now, this team is a lot more interesting than a lot of people are giving credit credit for.
25:20
SPEAKER_00: But Mr.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Zach Lowe also said this.
25:22
SPEAKER_00: And actually, Zach Lowe just had somebody else in the show.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: I apologize because I don't remember exactly who it was.
25:27
SPEAKER_00: Uh maybe, oh, I think it might have been Nikaias Duncan.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: I think it was Nakaius.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Nikaias also said he's in on the Grizzlies.
25:32
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, so is every NBA fan in on the Grizzlies?
25:35
SPEAKER_00: Make me feel like I shouldn't be in on the Grizzlies.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, Zach Edy is one of my most intriguing players because when Zach E plays basketball games, the Grizzlies are a good team.
25:43
SPEAKER_00: Just straight up.
25:45
SPEAKER_00: They funnel.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the best rent protectors in the league.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: If he could, if he could be a guy that can play 65 games, I have no doubt in my mind.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: He'd be in conversations for all defensive teams.
25:54
SPEAKER_00: He is an absolute juggernaut on the offensive side of the ball because you just throw the ball to him.
25:58
SPEAKER_00: Like he is a really good player.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: And y'all know Kenny Beach.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: I love a drop coverage big.
26:05
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the Bams of the world and all of these guys that are switchable at the top and everything.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: But I Rudy Gobert is my my my guy, you know?
26:12
SPEAKER_00: And Zach Edy and drop coverage is nasty.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: So I'm just, I don't know.
26:17
SPEAKER_00: I think that if Zach Eady can play 60 games, then the Grizzies are going to surprise everybody not named Zach Lowe, Nikaias Duncan, and Kenny Beechum.
26:25
SPEAKER_00: That's how good of a player he is.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: And that's how good the defense can be.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: I just watched um, well, I was there in summer league, they won Caleb Wilson's first game, and that was against Cam Boozie.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, they got to do the three versus four little matchup there.
26:37
SPEAKER_00: And the identity that the Grizzlies are creating for their team from summer league to preseason to what I'm assuming is going to carry off to the regular season is that we're going to hound you 94 feet.
26:47
SPEAKER_00: We feel good about the big fella on the other side on the backside in case we get beat, and then we're just going to be dogs.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: And I just feel like they got a lot of dogs on the team.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And Zach ED is one of them dogs.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: The only reason I'm like the only hesitancy I have about them being like a really solid, solid, solid team is that like they just don't have a ton of I guess offensive firepower, I guess.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: Tiger Rome's a stud.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: Tiger's gonna average 23 points per game this season.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Um Sedg Coward, I got a lot of love for, and I hope that he has a great, great season, but he is only a year two.
27:18
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna I'm gonna pump the brakes a little bit about you know him having a breakout.
27:22
SPEAKER_00: Year two is tough for a breakout.
27:24
SPEAKER_00: But like Cam Boozer, I did this on the take purge again.
27:27
SPEAKER_00: Go watch the take purge.
27:28
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a chance that Cam Boozer, by the end of the season, we look at him as like a top 30 player in the league.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: I think he is that consistent, I think he is that smart, and I think he is that good of a ball player already.
27:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, again, overreacted to preseason and all, but like he is just a man amongst boys in a league that is full of men, but he makes them look like boys already.
27:46
SPEAKER_00: And he's got two preseason games of NBA experience under his belt.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: I think there's a world he can be an offensive hub for a team that again may be missing some offensive firepower.
27:56
SPEAKER_00: And then when Isaiah Stewart comes back from his ankle turn, I forget exactly what ended up happening in that first preseason game, they're going to just have some more of those defensive guys on the back end that you just trust.
28:07
SPEAKER_00: Zach Edy, Isaiah Stewart, uh obviously Cedric Coward.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Like this list goes on and on and on.
28:14
SPEAKER_00: It can be infectious.
28:16
SPEAKER_00: Where maybe it's been a little bit of time since Jeremy Grant has really been locked in defensively.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: But it can be infectious if you got three other players, at least three other players on the court that is locked in on this.
28:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
28:25
SPEAKER_00: Zach Edy's gotta be one of those guys.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: Defensive rebounding rate, offensive rebounding rate, defensive rating was like a 107 when he played last season, which is fucking ridiculous.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: Offensive rating was really high when he played last season.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: The problem is he just is seven foot a gazillion, so you can't really count on him being able to play 65-70 games, you know.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: But maybe you can.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Maybe this is a year.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: I hope it is because I like watching him play.
28:47
SPEAKER_00: Couple more names we got here.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: And some of these maybe rapid fire more than like the long soliloquies I've been giving about these other guys.
28:54
SPEAKER_00: Peyton Watson.
28:55
SPEAKER_00: How can he not be on this list?
28:57
SPEAKER_00: The Cleveland Cavaliers paid a lot for Peyton Watson.
29:00
SPEAKER_00: And it I made this comparison.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not the it's not apples to apples, but I remember I won't use the word growing up.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: Well, when I was in high school, y'all know Christopher Emmanuel Paul, uh, shout out to CP3, is my favorite player of all time.
29:12
SPEAKER_00: Which means by by nature, I rooted for the Clippers.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh uh Bulls fan, but like you root for your favorite player, and for your favorite player to have good games and stuff, that means they're winning ball games.
29:22
SPEAKER_00: And I just remember the revolving door when it came to that small four position for those Clippers teams.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: You knew it was gonna be Blake, you knew it was gonna be JJ Reddick, you knew it was gonna be DeAndre Jordan and Chris Paul.
29:33
SPEAKER_00: That was their four, but like that that five, man.
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Um that that that fifth place, which was that small four position, it could be anybody.
29:40
SPEAKER_00: Uh, they had times where it was Matt Barnes, they had Karan Butler, they had Paul Pierce, they had Wesley Johnson, they was just a revolving door of maybe this guy can be it, because we're not asking a ton for this small four.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: We just need him to be good.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: Jared Duty.
29:54
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, I'm looking at the basketball reference.
29:56
SPEAKER_00: I forgot Jared Dutley had a season where he was a starting small four for this team.
30:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, either way, it just felt like a revolving door.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like the Cavaliers are not, they haven't been together long enough, like that Chris Paul team, but like that small four position has always been a thing.
30:10
SPEAKER_00: And uh, shout out to Max Struess and shout out to Dean Wade and shout out to Sam Merrill who's played some minutes, shout out to Jalen Titan.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Like they've they've had guys that you you like and you trust to an extent, but they didn't have a guy that felt like he can raise the ceiling at that position.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: And I think Peyton Watson could be that guy.
30:25
SPEAKER_00: It is a risky move because we got more, we got more uh evidence of Peyton Watson being a eh three-point shooter than being a good three-point shooter.
30:35
SPEAKER_00: And the question is, is it just progression, right?
30:37
SPEAKER_00: He shot 41% on three attempts last season, which is phenomenal.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: If he can replicate that this season, no if, ands, or buts, this is a great signing and a great opportunity for him and the Cleveland Cavaliers.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: But the year before that, 35%, the year before that, 29%.
30:50
SPEAKER_00: So it's just a matter of how real was that jump shooting.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: How real was it January of last season when it was no Jokic?
30:56
SPEAKER_00: And he was one of the primary ball handlers and he had some of his breakout games.
31:00
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, it was December, no, not January.
31:03
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, dude.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: Dude, January, hold on, let me give you the exact stats of what Peyton Watson did in January, dog.
31:09
SPEAKER_00: It was ridiculous.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, he averaged 22, five and a half rebounds, three assists.
31:16
SPEAKER_00: He shot 46% from three in that span, those 15 games, and uh 49% from the field.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: He was disgusting, and that's even with him having one game where he was bad, like he had an 11-point game, but 33s in the 25s, 30, 30.
31:31
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, he was crazy.
31:32
SPEAKER_00: But like, how real is that?
31:34
SPEAKER_00: And they were also winning games too.
31:35
SPEAKER_00: I thought they were gonna be uh shit, 15 games.
31:38
SPEAKER_00: I would have guessed they would have been 4 and 11 without Jokic, but that wasn't the case.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to Peyton Watson, the company.
31:43
SPEAKER_00: And then he had some little bit more momentum, and then he got injured and basically didn't play much for the rest of the season.
31:50
SPEAKER_00: But Peyton Watson is the mode, the idea of the type of player you want to have alongside James Harden and Donovan Mitchell.
31:57
SPEAKER_00: Um, but he just has to actualize the vision that we have for him.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: That's all.
32:03
SPEAKER_00: Next name is Walker Kessler.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: My God, the Lakers gave up a lot for Walker Kessler.
32:07
SPEAKER_00: Draft capital, money, so on and so forth.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: But he was Luca's guy.
32:10
SPEAKER_00: And at the end of the day, you want to give Luca his guy because he's Luca fucking Doncic and he's one of the best players in the world.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: How am I getting notificated?
32:16
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the best players in the world, and you give the best players in the world the players that they want.
32:22
SPEAKER_00: Walker Kessler isn't is an injury risk, as we as we all know.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: I mean, that's that's not breaking any news.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Just last season, he played five games here before that, 58.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: But the first two years of his career, we will give him healthy, finished top three in rookie of the year and his rookie season with nine and eight, then 64 the year after that.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: But last year, a total of five games.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: I feel like without having an all-NBA appearance or an all-defensive appearance or all-star conversations, the amount of money he got and the amount of capital the Lakers gave up to get him all five games, it's unprecedented.
32:50
SPEAKER_00: But it could work out.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why he is one of the most intriguing players because so far in the the Lakers Luka Doncic era, they haven't had a rolling center, a hard screening center just yet, which is something that Luka Doncic definitely wants.
33:03
SPEAKER_00: And they haven't had a guy with the defensive upside and ability as a drop coverage big for Luka yet.
33:10
SPEAKER_00: And he can be all of that.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: But also, there's so much weight on Walker, Walker Ross's middle name Ross, Kessler's shoulders, that if he has an injury-riddled season, I don't know what happens with the Lake Show.
33:25
SPEAKER_00: Kevin Looney is that backup center, y'all.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Lone Dog, but there's a big gap between what Walker Kessler can do for Luka Dontis versus what Kevin Looney can do for Luka Dontis.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: One thing I give Looney credit for, hell of a screenser.
33:39
SPEAKER_00: That's gonna be a plus for the team.
33:41
SPEAKER_00: But if there's a war where Walker Kessler is injury-riddled, I don't know what happens to the Lakers defense.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to give credit to JJ because JJ has done a phenomenal job in his his short tenure so far as a Lakers head coach of having somehow competent defenses with teams that didn't feel like they should have competent defenses.
33:57
SPEAKER_00: So shout outs again to JJ Reddick for that.
33:59
SPEAKER_00: But I just feel like it's gonna be extremely hard to do that if there's no Walker Kestler on that back end.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: So they need that.
34:06
SPEAKER_00: I mean, they got Mamu who like I like Mamu more as a four than him playing up to the five.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: He obviously can, but ugh.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: These other ones, these are these are my honorable mentions because those are the ones I want to talk about the most.
34:18
SPEAKER_00: Zion Williamson, I have no idea what's gonna happen next with Zion.
34:21
SPEAKER_00: Zion had his healthiest season of his career.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: Nobody cared.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: Nobody cared.
34:25
SPEAKER_00: Uh he had a good year.
34:26
SPEAKER_00: 21, 5, and 3.
34:28
SPEAKER_00: He was off the ball the most of his his young career so far, but he played 62 games, which is a really good number for Zion.
34:34
SPEAKER_00: But nobody cared.
34:36
SPEAKER_00: Joe Dumas probably didn't even care.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: You know, like I just wanted, I don't know what happens next with Zion.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: The next one is De'Ar Fox.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's out on De'Aaron Fox.
34:43
SPEAKER_00: Damn it, I'm in on De'Aaron Fox.
34:46
SPEAKER_00: I do think this is where Dylan Harper's immediately better than him, though.
34:49
SPEAKER_00: And he is making$200 million.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: So I can't, I guess I can understand why y'all out on De'Aaron Fox.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: But remember, remember, he he he he was thrusting into the postseason off an injury, y'all.
35:00
SPEAKER_00: That wasn't swipe, but that was De'Aaron.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: I feel like there's still some swipe in there, right?
35:04
SPEAKER_00: This is me.
35:06
SPEAKER_00: Jaron Jackson Jr.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: What would the season look like with this Utah Jazz team?
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, unfortunately, they already are down Youssef Nurkic, so that hurts.
35:14
SPEAKER_00: I think that hurts Jaron Jackson Jr.'s value on the court, honestly, with no Youssef Nurkic.
35:18
SPEAKER_00: I know that may seem crazy, but I feel like the best version of Jaron is when he has some bruiser behind him, and that don't seem like that's gonna be the case, at least to start the season.
35:25
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I'm curious to see what type of is there a world where Jaron Jackson Jr.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: is back in all defensive conversations?
35:30
SPEAKER_00: This is not gonna be a great defensive team.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: So if they were to be good defensively, I think a lot of that has to be Jaron.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: Um so I'm curious about that.
35:36
SPEAKER_00: And he had a lot of on-ball juice over the last couple seasons.
35:39
SPEAKER_00: Will Hardy is such a great basketball mind on the offensive side of the ball.
35:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm just curious to see in a full season how Jaron is being used.
35:47
SPEAKER_00: Uh next name we got is oh, last name we got is Colin Murray Boyles.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: Again, thinking about preseason.
35:55
SPEAKER_00: Some of the passes that brothers made already in preseason, I'm like, oh.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: And he obviously shows you the defense of rookie season.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: And I guess I'm just kind of thinking about what closing lineups could be for the Raptors as they are, you know, as they acquired Kawhi Leonard.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: What is a center rotation look like with Jakob Purdo, who's not coming off the greatest of seasons?
36:19
SPEAKER_00: Maybe not, maybe not as bad as I was giving it credit for, maybe three months ago, but not the best season, obviously injuries and all.
36:25
SPEAKER_00: I'm just looking at Kyler Murray Boy and say, man, actually, I'm asking myself, am I too early on the hype with Murray Boyles?
36:34
SPEAKER_00: He still has to figure out a way to keep teams honest because they don't care whether or not he shoots a ball or not, and that makes sense.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: He attempted basically one, three a game and he didn't hit it, you know?
36:44
SPEAKER_00: But his defensive versatility, his passing, his IQ all pops when you watch him play, whether it be preseason or postseason last year, or even regular season last year.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: So I'm asking myself, how how many different uh lineups can Darko put together to close out games?
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Could it be, you know, Scotty, Kawhi, and Murray Boyles, and that not mess up the spacing for some of the other guys?
37:06
SPEAKER_00: What does the two guards look like?
37:07
SPEAKER_00: Is that RJ Barrett who's taking all the threes?
37:10
SPEAKER_00: Or is that Emmanuel Quick?
37:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
37:12
SPEAKER_00: But those are is that 11?
37:14
SPEAKER_00: Those are 11.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: So I didn't give you a round number.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: I gave you a straight number.
37:18
SPEAKER_00: Um, 11 of the most intriguing players for next season.
37:22
SPEAKER_00: Uh let me know what you think.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Who is your most intriguing players?
37:25
SPEAKER_00: Give me a give me a full list.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: Don't give me one.
37:27
SPEAKER_00: And you know, don't give me just somebody from your favorite team.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: You see, I gave you somebody from my favorite team, but I gave you 10 others that wasn't.
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Because you know who's also intriguing?
37:34
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Smith.
37:35
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Smith, dead ass is like the second best player on the Bulls.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: And nobody cares.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: Super intriguing player.
37:42
SPEAKER_00: Expiring contract, right?
37:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't think we extended him.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: Expiring contract, could he be valuable on the market or do we want to keep him around considering he's not super, he's not super old?
37:48
SPEAKER_00: And he provides spacing for a team that cannot shoot.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna do a lot of Bulls talk this season.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: Caleb.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: Caleb Williams, please come back.
37:57
SPEAKER_00: I'll say that.
37:58
SPEAKER_00: It's a weird time, Chicago sports fan, I would say.
38:01
SPEAKER_00: White Sox blew a 2-0 lead.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: Ah, struck out a million times in those last three games.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: Ah.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: J.
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Ram, who I have so much respect for, but also one of my least favorite people in the world because what he did to my boy Tim Anderson.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Dogging us.
38:13
SPEAKER_00: Ah.
38:15
SPEAKER_00: But it's okay.
38:16
SPEAKER_00: Bears, Packers this weekend.
38:17
SPEAKER_00: Inactive Caleb Williams, cool.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: And the Packers, Jess.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: Deep ball after deep ball after deep ball after deep ball.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: We got you.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna each all back.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna get y'all back.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: Y'all ain't see y'all.
38:30
SPEAKER_00: Man, y'all be y'all be Tyson Bazer and Case Keenum.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: But wait till y'all better.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: Y'all better go.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: Man, Iceman gonna come back.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna come back.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: And you know he does better in the cold.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: We don't see y'all again.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: Before we get out of here, I do want to talk about what this upcoming season looks like here on Small Ball.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, I do want to say thank you to everybody that's still around.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: When you have it so that here's a little peek behind the curtain when it comes to being a YouTuber.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: You never want a YouTube channel to sit, you know, and I think our social team tried their very best to put together some videos for y'all uh during the offseason.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm being honest with you, the last deal we were in, and I'm not complaining about the deal because I got so much love for the team over there.
39:10
SPEAKER_00: But the last deal that we did where we were on numbers on the board five times a week, and technically six times a week, and then I was doing this one time a week, and I was also doing the radio one time a week.
39:19
SPEAKER_00: I was so burnt out that once the season was over, I said, don't call me about small ball, don't call me about the fucking radio.
39:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to hear anything.
39:29
SPEAKER_00: So the team, they were asking, like, Kenny, can you just give us if you can you give us one episode of small ball per month in this offseason?
39:35
SPEAKER_00: I was like, bro, I can't, bro.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: I'm burnt.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm burnt.
39:38
SPEAKER_00: And now we're no longer in that deal.
39:40
SPEAKER_00: Again, shout out to those guys over there.
39:41
SPEAKER_00: They they did nothing but hold us down for that season.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: So we I honestly truly appreciate the team over at NBC.
39:46
SPEAKER_00: But we are independent completely, which is so interesting to say.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: Um, and so I'm I'm so happy about the opportunity.
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Because when you when you when you're assigned to one of those bigger companies where the money is guaranteed and the opportunities are guaranteed for whatever amount of time at the length of the contract, I think it can be easy to to go through the motions.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
40:10
SPEAKER_00: I know this check is gonna clear.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: I know this check is gonna clear.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: When you're independent and you're in my seat, which is this seat in the company, that changes.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: You know, it just changes when you're independent.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: There is no I know that check is gonna clear.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: We we are the ones writing the check, and that's just a whole different dynamic that we've never really had.
40:31
SPEAKER_00: And I'm I'm so locked into small ball, I'm so locked into numbers, I'm so locked in on Enjoy Basketball YouTube channels and all these other projects that we've putting together.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: And I just I again I need I need the NBA like I need water right now.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: There's too much shit going on.
40:46
SPEAKER_00: The NBA is the one place I can just cut my brain off, you know.
40:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, no, keep my brain on, but be it be focused.
40:51
SPEAKER_00: Be focused.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: Um, so this season here on Small Ball, the cadence is gonna be exactly the same as last season.
40:57
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna be dropping at least one time a week.
40:59
SPEAKER_00: There will be weeks where you're like, oh my god, emergency episodes.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: So be on the lookout for those.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: Just make sure you got post notities on if you want to make sure you don't miss one of the surprise episodes, no.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm just switching it up.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: I'm just switching it up.
41:10
SPEAKER_00: Where the first three years it was a solo show.
41:13
SPEAKER_00: I may have had three total guests.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: I think we had Sue Bird on the show.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: How the fuck did we book Sue Bird?
41:19
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the GOAT, but we booked one of my goats.
41:21
SPEAKER_00: Uh, we booked Su Bird.
41:23
SPEAKER_00: We have our boy Matt on once, and we had Keandre, um, Hoop Intellect, who's no longer doing content because he got a bigger job.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Keandre.
41:29
SPEAKER_00: We I think those are our only three guests for three years of no, no, no, other than NBA players.
41:33
SPEAKER_00: We had like Nas Reed on the show, we had Grant Williams on the show.
41:36
SPEAKER_00: I ain't trying to disrespect those guys.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: But this upcoming season, I'm gonna do my best to have somebody to bounce ideas off of.
41:44
SPEAKER_00: So I'm gonna open the open the doors to my fellow creators out there for whatever reason you listen to small ball and you're like, hey, I would love to be on an episode to chop things NBA with Kenny.
41:53
SPEAKER_00: Hit me up, man.
41:54
SPEAKER_00: Or if you are not a creator, but you you know of a creator, you're like, oh, I think him and Kenny will hit it off talking hoops.
42:00
SPEAKER_00: Let me know in the comment section so I can reach out to them.
42:02
SPEAKER_00: Because I want it to be, yeah, this this revolving door of guests.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: And if y'all really like a guest, that person come back and we just talk hoops.
42:09
SPEAKER_00: Because the best part of talking sports is talking to somebody else.
42:13
SPEAKER_00: Because I don't get no feedback.
42:15
SPEAKER_00: You you somebody watch this video is like, Kenny, you had him as your most intriguing player?
42:19
SPEAKER_00: Having a co-host, or I'm sorry, a guest, they can do that for me in real time and make me re-evaluate and rethink some of the things I'm talking about.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: But when it's just you and a camera, there is no there is no MEA feedback.
42:30
SPEAKER_00: I gotta wait till the video get uploaded.
42:31
SPEAKER_00: Look at the comment section.
42:32
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, no, I want to have these conversations with everybody.
42:35
SPEAKER_00: So that is the first major change here to Smallball, and I'm really excited.
42:39
SPEAKER_00: Me and uh Christian is now our producer here on Smallball.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: I put together a list of potential guys that I would love to send an invite to, and I'm really excited about.
42:47
SPEAKER_00: You know, some of those guys I got no, I got no uh no doubt in my mind, they'd be down to do an episode or two.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: But I'm just I'm just curious of who's who want to be on smallball, bro.
42:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, a couple more things.
42:59
SPEAKER_00: A couple more things.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: This is this is your least favorite part of this episode, okay?
43:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm I'm bracing you for that part.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: With us being independent, the bills do have to get paid.
43:13
SPEAKER_00: So for the 2026-2027 season, there will be ads, there will be inserts, there will be reads, there will be tweets, and you know exactly what I'm talking about.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: If you don't, don't don't worry about it.
43:26
SPEAKER_00: But it had to be done.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes you gotta play the game.
43:30
SPEAKER_00: And and as the owner of the company, you have to pick and choose your spots.
43:36
SPEAKER_00: Somehow, somehow, the lesser of two evils.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: And I'll leave it at that.
43:42
SPEAKER_00: But bills do need to get paid.
43:45
SPEAKER_00: You know, not my bills.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: My bills are cool, but the bills are the studio.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: These lights that you see, this camera you see, we have the we I'm still paying off this fucking camera.
43:54
SPEAKER_00: And the salaries of our great team.
43:56
SPEAKER_00: So bills will need to be paid.
43:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, and if you can look past that, I appreciate you.
44:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, if not, completely understand.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: Completely, completely understand.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: Uh, I'm hyped though.
44:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm really, really hyped for this season.
44:08
SPEAKER_00: Uh nothing can take me away from this thing that we love called basketball.
44:13
SPEAKER_00: And uh I've been missing it.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: We've been on I've been on the road a ton this offseason, and I'm not complaining about it because every time I'm on the road, that means there are new opportunities popping up.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: And again, as an independent, I'm not in a position to say no to nothing right now.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: So I was on the road like crazy this offseason.
44:28
SPEAKER_00: But I know that once the season starts, some of that most of that travel goes away because NBA teams are not inviting me out because they got a fucking game tomorrow.
44:35
unknown: You know what I mean?
44:36
SPEAKER_00: So uh I'm excited to kind of be locked into my office and just watching hoops, taking notes.
44:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm trying my very best to look at the game differently this season um and just expand the different perspectives I can have about the game.
44:50
SPEAKER_00: Uh, read more about the game.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: Because as y'all know, I always tell you I'm I'm very rarely the smartest in the room when it comes to talking basketball.
44:58
SPEAKER_00: So I want to pick the brains of the people I do see as the smartest people in the room and the smartest writers and the you know the analytical people and just kind of put it all together in a fun little condensed episode for y'all at home.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: I think that might be it.
45:10
SPEAKER_00: I think there's all of my notes.
45:12
SPEAKER_00: Uh come back again next week for another episode of Small Ball and get ready for the season, y'all.
45:17
SPEAKER_00: This this is gonna be a classic one.
45:18
SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all then.