Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / NBA Awards One Month Into The Season

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NBA Awards One Month Into The Season · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: He's already had a couple not game winners but game sealing shots, some daggers here, there.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: And again, just like we talked about Giannis in the first segment with MVP, Damian Lillard is starting to really put it together as well.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: And I think that he deserves through the first month our clutch player of the year.
0:24
SPEAKER_00: Welcome, welcome, welcome back to the Kenny Beachum podcast.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into talking about all things sports, today we're doing my awards for the first month.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: It should be a lot of fun.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Before we do all of that, I want to say right off rip, I apologize.
0:37
SPEAKER_00: Because we went a full week without a Kenny Beachum podcast.
0:41
SPEAKER_00: I told y'all, Mondays and Thursdays, those are gonna be the days where you can you can hit his voice and all things hoops and all things this or that.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: But a couple things happen.
0:49
SPEAKER_00: You know, that was it, the fourth Thursday of every November, Thanksgiving happens.
0:53
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to drop an episode on Thanksgiving.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
0:56
SPEAKER_00: I was with my family.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: Everybody should have been with family and friends if they were they were able to here in the States.
1:01
SPEAKER_00: So I was like, you know what?
1:02
SPEAKER_00: Everybody get that day off.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all in a couple days.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: And boy, over that break, I got sick.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: I got every year, it's either Thanksgiving or Christmas.
1:10
SPEAKER_00: Then I'm gonna get sick.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: You just you meet with a lot of people.
1:12
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to my family, to my wife's family's house.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: It's just so many people you're gonna get sick.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: And I was sick.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: So sick that I could not talk for two days.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Two days?
1:20
SPEAKER_00: Man, my whole career is using this voice.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: And two days setback is kind of crazy.
1:24
SPEAKER_00: So again, I want to apologize, but we're back and we're here.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And things should be better.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: Things should be better.
1:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, the last 24 hours for me has been a crazy one, right?
1:34
SPEAKER_00: I was in New York for a shoot, and the moment I touched down this morning, my phone was going crazy.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: Notification after notification after notification.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Hell, I thought I was in some trouble.
1:44
SPEAKER_00: My phone don't vibrate like that too often.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: And I open up x slash Twitter and I see it's just y'all so in love because Spotify rap dropped.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: The amount of people I saw having the Kenny Beach and podcast in their top five on podcasting is kind of crazy because we haven't even been around for that long.
2:00
SPEAKER_00: What are we in?
2:01
SPEAKER_00: Month number four?
2:02
SPEAKER_00: And y'all already got me in the top five.
2:04
SPEAKER_00: Again, I just want to say I appreciate y'all for all of the support early on.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: And for 2024, I need my phone to blow up even even more.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
2:13
SPEAKER_00: My Spotify rap was let's not let's not do that.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: Um I mentioned I was in New York, right?
2:18
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned I was in New York.
2:18
SPEAKER_00: I was doing this ridiculous shoot between the NBA and Nike.
2:21
SPEAKER_00: They asked me to be a host of this simulcast, right?
2:24
SPEAKER_00: It's very similar to what you see on ESPN with the Manning Cast and Stephen A.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: Smith's world, where they watch a game and they bring in guests and so on and so forth.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: I was there.
2:32
SPEAKER_00: And the moment they asked me to do it, I accepted it, right?
2:36
SPEAKER_00: But I was very skeptical because the game that we decided to do was Celtics versus Bulls.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: And I don't I don't know.
2:44
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm just a pessimistic person, but I knew immediately that game was gonna be a blowout.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: It was an in-season tournament game.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: The Boston Celtics needed to win by 23 plus points, plus they needed something else to happen for them to advance to the elimination round.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: I knew that they were gonna lay the smack down, and they did.
3:00
SPEAKER_00: Uh the Bulls at one point were down by 40 plus points.
3:03
SPEAKER_00: So I'm on set, trying to be happy, talk to people.
3:06
SPEAKER_00: I interviewed Vince Carter.
3:07
SPEAKER_00: That was crazy.
3:08
SPEAKER_00: And the whole time, deep in my heart, I am screaming.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: I am upset about the Bulls' play.
3:14
SPEAKER_00: I'm upset about Zach Levine's what one for nine.
3:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm upset about this and that, but I had to keep the smile.
3:20
SPEAKER_00: So shout out to everybody that ended up tuning in to that.
3:23
SPEAKER_00: But the only reason I'm saying that, because one thing I noticed over this trip, right?
3:27
SPEAKER_00: Because the day before the trip was a travel day for me.
3:29
SPEAKER_00: And then obviously I was on set.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: And when I'm on set, I can only watch one game at a time.
3:35
SPEAKER_00: I did not really recognize how hard it is to follow the NBA with just missing two days.
3:42
SPEAKER_00: I missed two days of basketball.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And I landed back here in Chicago, like I lost a complete plot of the association.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: Things change just like that.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: So I always think about like from the perspective of the people that don't do the things I do, that don't try to sit down and watch three games a night, four games a night.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: How are y'all keeping up?
4:01
SPEAKER_00: And and I asked my dad, he said they watch the video.
4:05
SPEAKER_00: They watch my videos, which is like kind of crazy, but I'm tuning back in.
4:09
SPEAKER_00: I just watched today a game for 48 hours ago.
4:12
SPEAKER_00: Does that make sense to anybody other than the sickos in the world?
4:15
SPEAKER_00: Probably not, but I need to see the things I missed.
4:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, today, I want to do something where I give awards through the first month of the NBA season.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Actually, this is something I've done every single year for the past three years.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't in podcast form, but I do this every single year.
4:31
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say right off rep, this is not a prediction, right?
4:34
SPEAKER_00: I'm not predicting who's gonna win these trophies at the end of April.
4:37
SPEAKER_00: But if the season were to end today, because today is what?
4:40
SPEAKER_00: A month and five days, a month and five days since the NBA season started, here is my MVP, and so on and so forth.
4:47
SPEAKER_00: I'm only using the sample size that we have right now.
4:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm not projecting at all.
4:50
SPEAKER_00: And I want to say, uh, I I am I am just a human.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: I can't watch all 30 teams equally, so I might miss some names here that just be just bear with me.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: I did my research, I did my this, I did my that, the eye test and all, but bear with me.
5:02
SPEAKER_00: If your boy does not get mentioned today, that's just it.
5:06
SPEAKER_00: That's just it.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: My apologies, okay?
5:08
SPEAKER_00: I think we have to start off with the thing that matters the most.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: When you think about players retiring from the association, we're not looking at accolades and say, man, well, I guess rookie of the year does get added, but like that's not something that matters too much.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: Six men in the year don't matter too much unless you monitor Ginobili.
5:26
SPEAKER_00: DPO wise matter, but the number one thing is like, was he the best player in the league for an entire season?
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Right?
5:32
SPEAKER_00: That's that's really what MVP is in in some cases.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: Uh, sometimes it's the most valuable player on the on the best team.
5:38
SPEAKER_00: Sometimes it literally is.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: This guy is the most valuable player to his association, where if this guy was injured, this team is a 21 team, but win him, they're winning 55.
5:47
SPEAKER_00: It goes a lot of different ways.
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Of course, there are a lot of things that go into it.
5:50
SPEAKER_00: It's stats, it's narrative based, it's so many variables.
5:54
SPEAKER_00: And I tried to combine all of them to come up with my official ballot.
5:58
SPEAKER_00: I want to say I don't have an I don't really have an official ballot, and I'm not a guy that subscribes to voters fatigue.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: If the same person was the best player in the league for a decade straight, hell, he should have 10 MVPs, in my personal opinion.
6:14
SPEAKER_00: So you you might realize some of that as we get through some of the awards.
6:17
SPEAKER_00: You're like, man, Kenny, aren't you tired of giving the award to them?
6:20
SPEAKER_00: Nope.
6:21
SPEAKER_00: Because if you are the guy, you are the guy.
6:24
SPEAKER_00: So let's talk about the MVP award because, in my opinion, um, up top, it was pretty easy.
6:28
SPEAKER_00: It was either you're going with Jokic as your MVP or Jordan Bede as your MVP.
6:32
SPEAKER_00: And both guys have a legitimate case.
6:34
SPEAKER_00: So far, Jokic is averaging 28.8 points per game, 13 rebounds, and about nine assists.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: He's almost averaging a triple double.
6:41
SPEAKER_00: At this point in time, averaging a triple double or averaging a near triple double is just kind of like another day at the office.
6:46
SPEAKER_00: But I don't want you to get lost in that.
6:48
SPEAKER_00: You know, bro.
6:49
SPEAKER_00: Brody messed it up for everybody on.
6:51
SPEAKER_00: Brody averaging a genuine triple double makes everything less than that.
6:55
SPEAKER_00: Feel like that ain't that big of a deal.
6:56
SPEAKER_00: Oh, he won assist away.
6:58
SPEAKER_00: I feel like if Jokic did get to averaging a triple double, we might mention it, but it's not like an oh my god thing.
7:04
SPEAKER_00: When it should be like it should be something that we praise because it is extremely difficult to put these statistics together.
7:11
SPEAKER_00: Jordan Bede is having a year that is better than his MVP year last year, which is saying something.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: He's 32 points per game, 11.3 rebounds per game, and 6.6 assists, if I'm not mistaken.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: Last time I checked, he was leading the league in um points per game.
7:26
SPEAKER_00: Again, I think this might be year number three for Jojo.
7:28
SPEAKER_00: He is an absolute bucket.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: We all know this, we all know this.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: But Kenny, who do you have as your number one through the first month?
7:34
SPEAKER_00: Hey, I had to flip a coin on this, man.
7:36
SPEAKER_00: Because here's the argument for both of them.
7:39
SPEAKER_00: Jokic is just just look at a broad scope, is the best player in the NBA.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: And he shows that every single night.
7:47
SPEAKER_00: Earlier in the season, Jamal Murray without in an injury.
7:50
SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, how will they be able to sustain themselves?
7:52
SPEAKER_00: We've seen Jokic do it in one of his MVP seasons where uh Jamal Murray was not there completely.
7:56
SPEAKER_00: And he's like, okay, I'm gonna help us be a playoff team still.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: This time around, they were six and five in its 11-game absence, which is not amazing, obviously, but again, it's pretty solid, right?
8:06
SPEAKER_00: It's it's pretty solid.
8:07
SPEAKER_00: He's the best player in the league.
8:09
SPEAKER_00: And when he has his healthy piece around him, I think most people agree that they are the best team in the league with the best player.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: Joel Embiid's case is like, hey, I'm leading the league and scoring again.
8:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm averaging a bunch of rebounds.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: I'm still one of the best defensive, uh defensive anchors in all of basketball.
8:24
SPEAKER_00: And now I am playmaking like a guy we ain't seen before.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: I am I am playmaking at a level that we have never seen from Joel and B, right?
8:32
SPEAKER_00: That that is his argument.
8:34
SPEAKER_00: And if we want to talk narrative based, he has the narrative over Jokic.
8:39
SPEAKER_00: The narrative that is in favor of Nicole Jokic is like, hey, I just won an NBA MVP or NBA championship, and I'm still a y'all next.
8:45
SPEAKER_00: The narrative for Joel and B is like, hey, we just traded away James Harden.
8:50
SPEAKER_00: We're actually better.
8:51
SPEAKER_00: We're better now.
8:52
SPEAKER_00: Now it's of course partially me, it's partially coaching, partially Tyrese Maxie, but we're better right now than we were with a Hall of Famer on our team.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: So give me the award.
9:02
SPEAKER_00: At the end of the day, after my multiple coin flips, I went with Nikola Jokic as my one, Jordan Bede as my two.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Things get really fun after that.
9:10
SPEAKER_00: Because I went top three with pretty much every single award, and I say pretty much because there's one award where I gave one just one player.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: Here's your award, my guy.
9:18
SPEAKER_00: The third one gets interesting.
9:20
SPEAKER_00: Because the guys that are on my list, and I'm gonna talk through this because I haven't made a decision just yet.
9:25
SPEAKER_00: The guys that are on my list is Shea Gilgis Alexander.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: He is a 30 point per game score, six rebounds, six assists.
9:31
SPEAKER_00: My next guy on my list is Luka Doncic, who's averaging 31 points per game, eight rebounds, eight assists.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly on my list, I got the Suns Boys question mark.
9:40
SPEAKER_00: Because I think both of them haven't played at the MVP caliber level.
9:43
SPEAKER_00: It's just unfortunate that Kevin Durant was playing at this MP caliber level when Devin wasn't there, and then Devin started to play some really good basketball where Kevin was gone, and then they had their first game back together and they lose to the Toronto Raptors.
9:54
SPEAKER_00: So um, I'm gonna say they're not involved at the moment, but if we're talking futures, maybe.
9:59
SPEAKER_00: So this is this is an interesting one because Shaggyus Alexander again is averaging another 30 points per game, but he's doing it differently, where he's not getting to the line as much as he was the previous year.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: I think I mentioned on the podcast before that I've liked this progression where I guess it hasn't always been like, hey, I'm the guy and I'm gonna get us a bucket, but he's pretty much been able to take a back seat when needed and let the other guys cook.
10:20
SPEAKER_00: And he's doing that and still averaging 30.
10:23
SPEAKER_00: He's still he's still averaging 30.
10:25
SPEAKER_00: His team has hit the leap.
10:27
SPEAKER_00: But Luca, Luka as a heliocentric like option, a heliocentric offense.
10:33
SPEAKER_00: It's not a lot of people in basketball that are better, right?
10:36
SPEAKER_00: This year he's shooting it efficiently.
10:38
SPEAKER_00: I this is just an eye test.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: There's no statistics that prove this.
10:42
SPEAKER_00: I feel as though he's complaining to the referees less, which is like that's like a big thing for Luka Doncic.
10:48
SPEAKER_00: The amount of times I've watched him over the course of his NBA career where he didn't get back on defense because he was arguing about a foul that was not called, is it was astronomical.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: They gave up so many points of transition just based on that.
10:58
SPEAKER_00: And I'm not saying it's going completely, but it feels like it's not happening as often as the last.
11:03
SPEAKER_00: So it's really trying to figure out between those two who's gonna take my number three.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: And you know what?
11:09
SPEAKER_00: Luca, Luca has been a guy that when you ask me for the last couple seasons, who's your top three in predictions of the MVP?
11:17
SPEAKER_00: Luca's always a guy towards the top of the list.
11:19
SPEAKER_00: He feels like a guy that throughout the course of his career, he's gonna win multiple MVPs, just strictly based on the fact that he as a talent is so good.
11:27
SPEAKER_00: But like, one thing that's always hindered him is the team's success, the overall team success.
11:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, they started off the year really, really hot.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: They've cooled down a little bit, but just the other day in the last in-season tournament game, what do you have?
11:36
SPEAKER_00: A 40-point near triple double with zero turnovers.
11:39
SPEAKER_00: Carrie Irvin also at 30 plus points with no turnovers.
11:42
SPEAKER_00: So they're starting to look better and better.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: But the MVP is typically given to one of the best players on the best teams.
11:48
SPEAKER_00: And with them not having seasons where they were a top two to three seed, it just hinders him quite a bit.
11:53
SPEAKER_00: And Shay right now, Shay and the OKC Thunder look like a team that had that has the potential to achieve that.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go with Shay as my third spot and Luca as a very, very close fourth, right?
12:07
SPEAKER_00: But I also want to talk about the I want to talk about the future.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: If you go to FanDuel Sports Books and look at the odds, right now Nicole Jokic has a plus 170, which is the best in basketball.
12:17
SPEAKER_00: But I'm always looking for the value pick.
12:20
SPEAKER_00: And one guy that I did not mention in my top three or my top four is Giannis.
12:25
SPEAKER_00: First two weeks of the season, Giannis was struggling trying to figure out exactly what the dynamic was between him and Damian Lillard.
12:32
SPEAKER_00: Right now, he's at a plus 1100 to win MVP.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: But if you look at his stats for the last two to three weeks, we're talking 35 points per game.
12:41
SPEAKER_00: We're talking wins for the Milwaukee Bucks.
12:44
SPEAKER_00: Like if there's a value pick here on FanDuel's uh sports betting, it is the it's the Giannis one.
12:51
SPEAKER_00: Because I look at Tatum and Tatum's a good option, but I also feel like even though the team has been so successful, they won't attribute that to him being the MVP of the league.
12:59
SPEAKER_00: Because we're not thinking about our own balance at this point.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: We're thinking about the ballots of the actual people that putting the real ones in.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Shea is there right under Giannis at plus 1300.
13:08
SPEAKER_00: And we talk talk about the long shots.
13:10
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned the Valley Boys, one of the Suns guys, Devin Booker at plus 3,000.
13:15
SPEAKER_00: 3,000?
13:16
SPEAKER_00: He's only played, what, 10 games so far this season?
13:18
SPEAKER_00: So he's a little late to the party.
13:20
SPEAKER_00: But if it's if he continues to play like he is now for the rest of the season, he's going to be in conversations.
13:26
SPEAKER_00: He just is.
13:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to go with the value pick and say Giannis at 1,100, but I also still do like even Jordan Bede at plus 700.
13:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how the voters are going to take Jordan Bede having back-to-back EVPs when you consider the way he was uh eliminated from the playoffs last year.
13:40
SPEAKER_00: Those are the type of things I think voters think about.
13:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't think they should.
13:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think about the the time frame of the award, right?
13:48
SPEAKER_00: From the first day of the season, what was that?
13:50
SPEAKER_00: October 23rd until uh February, not February, what is it?
13:54
SPEAKER_00: April 14th, whatever it may be.
13:56
SPEAKER_00: Who was the best player in the league?
13:58
SPEAKER_00: And Jordan B has an argument there.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: I just don't think he might get it.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: So uh go go go check out those odds.
14:02
SPEAKER_00: Go check out those odds because there's some sneaky picks up here.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards is higher on the list than Devin Booker.
14:07
SPEAKER_00: You know, Steph Curry is tied with Devin Booker here.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: Tyrese Halliburns at the list at plus 4,000.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to the guy Reese.
14:14
SPEAKER_00: I don't think, I don't, I don't think uh he's really got that much of a chance, but it's cool to see a guy like that on the list.
14:20
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14:38
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16:39
SPEAKER_00: Or call 1877-8 Hope New York or text Hope New York in New York.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: The next award I want to transition to is the rookie of the year.
16:49
SPEAKER_00: This class right here, I've enjoyed so many people.
16:52
SPEAKER_00: On my list, I have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 6.
16:55
SPEAKER_00: I have seven rookies.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: Like we know the top two.
16:58
SPEAKER_00: I'm not burying the lead.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: You know it's Chad and Wimby as one and two.
17:02
SPEAKER_00: But after that, I think you have a genuine conversation, right?
17:04
SPEAKER_00: But number one is going to be Chad, and I don't want to just breeze past it because that's the right pick at the moment.
17:08
SPEAKER_00: But he's averaging about 18 points per game, eight rebounds, two and a half assists, two blocks.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: Those are ridiculous numbers on great efficiency for Chad.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: We also know in the game against the Golden State Warriors where he had the turnaround three-point shot.
17:20
SPEAKER_00: He had 30 plus points and so on and so forth.
17:22
SPEAKER_00: He had another 30-plus point game night against one of the best centers in the league.
17:26
SPEAKER_00: Like he has consistently been very good offensively.
17:29
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that 2.2 blocks that he's getting really showcases his defensive value.
17:33
SPEAKER_00: If you look at the M E PM rating, it's one of the ratings that, like, I guess it's been around for a little bit of time, but NBA stat nerds really thinks that this is one of the better statistics that show you the value of a player.
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, I'm a guy that likes to balance the I test plus statistics.
17:50
SPEAKER_00: Chet Holmgrim, remember, he is a rookie.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: A rookie, right?
17:54
SPEAKER_00: And I I know Donovan Mitchell don't like me to me saying that, but he is a rookie, right?
18:00
SPEAKER_00: Sixth in the entire league.
18:03
SPEAKER_00: In EPM.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Sixth.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Only behind Shea Gyogis Alexander, Joel Embiid, Nicola Jokic, Harris Halliburton, and Devin Booker.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: Hell, those are five players.
18:18
SPEAKER_00: We just talked about having odds for MVP.
18:21
SPEAKER_00: And that is where Chet is sitting at this moment.
18:23
SPEAKER_00: A lot of that's the offense, but a lot of that is also his value as a rim protector, his value on the defensive side of the ball.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Now, his last game, he struggled.
18:33
SPEAKER_00: You know, he struggled against the I'm not gonna spoil it, but a DPOI candidate in Rudy Gobert.
18:39
SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, he's been able to go into majority of his game so far this year and not look like a rookie.
18:45
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like that's hard to do as a seven-foot guy in a in a league with a lot of bruisers, and a league that has so many fast point guards and people that you might have to switch on.
18:54
SPEAKER_00: He has not looked like a rookie one bit.
18:57
SPEAKER_00: Number two on the list is Webanyama.
18:59
SPEAKER_00: Going into this season, Wembin Yama was a super, super heavy favorite to win the rookie of the year.
19:04
SPEAKER_00: And if you look at the odds right now, Chet has actually jumped Wimby when it comes to uh when it comes to FanDuel Sports Book.
19:10
SPEAKER_00: But right now, Wimby's averaging 19 points per game, nine and a half rebounds, 2.6 rebounds, or it's 2.6 assists and blocks.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: Again, he's been great.
19:18
SPEAKER_00: Uh the efficiency is not there.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: Uh I could I could probably talk for an hour about the way they're using him over there.
19:26
SPEAKER_00: But it feels so weird, right?
19:28
SPEAKER_00: It feels so weird to look at a Greg Popovich team.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: And this is the first time in my existence as an NBA fan where this happened, where I looked at a Greg Popovich team and said, they're not using him right.
19:40
SPEAKER_00: No matter the circumstance, I've never thought that in my career or my lifetime, whether it be with Tim Duncan, Tony Parker, Manuel Ginobli, Bruce Bowen, whether it be uh after that when they got DeMar DeRose, Lamarcus Aldridge with a young DeJounte Murray, I've always felt like the Spurs are one of the organizations where you can put a player on the team and they'll figure out how to maximize that player.
19:59
SPEAKER_00: And right now, I don't think we're getting that from Wimmy.
20:02
SPEAKER_00: I think that they're this is gonna go into a Jeremy Sochan or Sohan conversation about him being the starting point guard on the team.
20:09
SPEAKER_00: And I don't want to delabor it, uh stay here too long.
20:13
SPEAKER_00: But it feels as though they might be sacrificing the development of some of the other people for Jeremy.
20:21
SPEAKER_00: And I don't really love that idea.
20:24
SPEAKER_00: I don't really love that idea.
20:25
SPEAKER_00: I think Wimby is the type of dude that's gonna be great no matter who's his point guard.
20:30
SPEAKER_00: But I feel also like if we had a better option, and it might be Trey Jones, the advanced stats say it's Trey Jones, but I'm looking a little bit past that.
20:38
SPEAKER_00: If we had someone at the one to run alongside him that we can trust to get him the ball in different circumstances, his numbers, his counting stats might be the same.
20:46
SPEAKER_00: I feel like his efficiency will be better because he wouldn't necessarily have to create for himself as much as he does now.
20:51
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of times where I watch the Spurs where he's open, stricken down the court, and he doesn't get the ball.
20:57
SPEAKER_00: Those are easy baskets, you know, easy, easy points here or there.
21:01
SPEAKER_00: But instead, a lot of times when he does receive the ball, it's in a situation where he has to create for himself.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: And if you compare that to what Chet Homegrid is going to, though, Chet can create his own shot and he has created his own shot, he doesn't have a burden to do it, do that thing.
21:14
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
21:15
SPEAKER_00: And Wimby kind of has that at the moment.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: But even with that said, 19 points per game and about 10 rebounds or two 2.6 blocks is still a really good rookie season.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Now, after that, the rookie race is interesting.
21:25
SPEAKER_00: We have guys like um Asar Thompson, Brandon Miller, uh Jame Hawkes Jr., Keonta George, and Jordan Hawkins.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Those are my other five.
21:34
SPEAKER_00: Now, if your rookie wasn't mentioned, uh, my apologies, okay?
21:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm supposed to be picking three and I'm giving you seven.
21:39
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
21:40
SPEAKER_00: How do I determine that third guy?
21:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
21:42
SPEAKER_00: I kind of just want to talk about each one of these guys just for a second or two.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: Asar Thompson is a guy that flies around the court.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: He's one of the one of the better transition players in all the association as a 19 year old.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: I watched the entirety and no cuts, no distractions, the entirety of their game, the Detroit Pistons versus the Washington Wits the other night, the tank fest.
21:58
SPEAKER_00: Some people called it um.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Um the Aster class instead of master class, it was ass.
22:02
SPEAKER_00: You know, the Aster class.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: I watched that entire thing from tip-off to last buzzer.
22:07
SPEAKER_00: And I was highly impressed, specifically with the first half of Asar Thompson, where he was everywhere defensively.
22:13
SPEAKER_00: And when they were on the break, they found him.
22:15
SPEAKER_00: Now, when the Washington Wizards slowed things down and prevented the Detroit Pistons from going on breaks, Asar Thompson's half-court value dropped significantly.
22:24
SPEAKER_00: He tries to keep you honest by taking three pointers.
22:27
SPEAKER_00: He airballed a bunch of them and then they played against the Lakers tonight.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: He also finished 0 for 3 from 3.
22:31
SPEAKER_00: It's not something I'm expecting him to develop in the first month of his NBA career, but he he has showed us a lot of things about him being a versatile defender and a guy that for the foreseeable future should be making a lot of all defensive teams.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: So I want to give him a tip of my hat.
22:47
SPEAKER_00: Brandon Miller has under has been somewhat underrated when we talk about these conversations.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: It always has been Chet Wimby in a SAR for the most part.
22:54
SPEAKER_00: Brandon Miller is just very cool, laid back and getting buckets here or there.
22:58
SPEAKER_00: I think I'm very interested to see what happens with his shots or the way they play with uh LaMelo being out now.
23:05
SPEAKER_00: Um I don't have they played their first game with LaMelo being out.
23:08
SPEAKER_00: They may have played their first game with Lamelo being out against the Knicks in the in-season tournament.
23:12
SPEAKER_00: That was a game that I did not catch up on.
23:13
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know exactly what his actions look like without LaMelo there, but I'm very interested to see how they use him.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: But he's been pretty good.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Started off coming off the bench, then got the starting job and struggled a little bit, but starting to put it together as a guy that you can see as a guy that can score on all three levels and also has the defensive versatility or defensive potential to be one of the better wing defenders in all of basketball.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: My guy Jame Jacquez Jr., a slow start to the season for Jameez.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: He tried to figure out if he was going to be in a rotation or not.
23:42
SPEAKER_00: But if you just look at the last two weeks, the the brother has been, uh I would I would say in the last couple weeks, he's been that number three rookie.
23:51
SPEAKER_00: He's he's a guy that, with him being a guy similar, well, is he the only guy on his list?
23:56
SPEAKER_00: He might be the only guy on his list that has a full four-year college experience as a ball player.
24:01
SPEAKER_00: And you see that and you feel that when he's playing with the Miami Heat.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: No matter what they need him to do, he's able to plug that hole.
24:08
SPEAKER_00: The one thing is, not a great three-point shooter, specifically not a great three-point shooter if there's somebody closing out.
24:13
SPEAKER_00: If he's open, adequate.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: Somebody closing out, he's shooting like 22% on those shots.
24:18
SPEAKER_00: But for the most part, if you need him to cut, he got that.
24:20
SPEAKER_00: You need him to defend, he got that.
24:21
SPEAKER_00: You need him on board, he got that, you need him to playmake a little bit, he got that.
24:24
SPEAKER_00: And those are the type of players that, of course, the Miami Heat value, but he is way further developed than I anticipated.
24:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, again, I'm not a guy that tunes into a lot of college basketball, but I watched the tourney.
24:35
SPEAKER_00: I've seen him in a tourney a couple years, and I didn't think that he would be able to transition this easily to the NBA.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, and while the Miami Heat were on their nice little win streak, he was a big part of that.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: So I wanted to give him his flowers.
24:47
SPEAKER_00: The next guy, Keontae George.
24:49
SPEAKER_00: Keontae George is my guy.
24:50
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know if he listens to this podcast, but Keontae, when I met him, said he was a fan of the other podcast.
24:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, hey, you want to come with a Kenny Beacham show?
24:57
SPEAKER_00: You know, just a 10-minute interview, 15-minute interview.
25:00
SPEAKER_00: We can chat it uh about all things Utah.
25:02
SPEAKER_00: I was, I've been there before.
25:04
SPEAKER_00: What it was chat, All Things Utah.
25:07
SPEAKER_00: When I landed in Utah, there was a billboard that said, LeBron, if you need a house in Utah, call this number.
25:14
SPEAKER_00: It was all-star break.
25:16
SPEAKER_00: I highly, highly doubt LeBron bought a house in Utah that day, but I respect the realtor for shooting his shot.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: It was a very expensive shot to shoot because we're talking all-star weekend.
25:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm assuming those bulletin boards or those billboards just cost way more.
25:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, but no, since he's been asserting to the starting lineup as a starting point guard for Utah Jazz, he's led all rookies in assists.
25:36
SPEAKER_00: His shot has not fallen just yet.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: But the other night he had a career high.
25:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, my boy Derek was really high on his potential to not do what Don Vamitchu did, because Don Vitchu came into the scene and he was incredible.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: But similarly, be able to start on this team and have an impact as a rookie.
25:51
SPEAKER_00: And of course, he's not doing it to Donovan's level in Donovan's rookie season, but he has been a plus for a team that, for the most part, doesn't have a lot of pluses at the moment.
26:00
SPEAKER_00: And the last guy is my guy Jordan Hawkins.
26:03
SPEAKER_00: What can I say?
26:04
SPEAKER_00: The Pelicans have been a team that has been so very desperate for three-point shooting, especially early in the season, where Trey Murphy has been out and they were they were missing Jose Alvarado.
26:15
SPEAKER_00: Uh, you know, the legendary clip of D'Angelo Russell asking if he can shoot, and he said, Yes, I can shoot.
26:20
SPEAKER_00: So he said he can shoot, so I'm just gonna say he can shoot.
26:23
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
26:23
SPEAKER_00: And they've just missed CJ McCollum, they missed this player, that player, and they've been able to stay afloat.
26:28
SPEAKER_00: And I'm giving some of that to Jordan Hawkins and his three-point shooting and his willingness to shoot the ball.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, there is no fear in his heart.
26:36
SPEAKER_00: If he sees a shot that he likes, he is going to take it.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: He can be 0 for six on the night to start off with.
26:42
SPEAKER_00: That's not gonna hinder him from getting that seventh shot up.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: And I appreciate that because, again, he's a rook on a team that is trying to be competitive.
26:49
SPEAKER_00: He's not a rook on a team that's going for another lottery pick.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: No, this team has Z.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: This team has BI.
26:55
SPEAKER_00: They're trying to compete.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: And as a rookie, having guys on the roster that have made all-star appearances here and there, it might be tough to kind of find your foot in.
27:04
SPEAKER_00: He's been able to do that and he's been a bright spot.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: I said it before.
27:07
SPEAKER_00: I need him to increase his accessory game one day.
27:10
SPEAKER_00: He is a rookie.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: The VC might not be up.
27:13
SPEAKER_00: Maybe one day.
27:14
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe one day.
27:15
SPEAKER_00: Who am I giving my third rookie of the year to?
27:18
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give it to Jame Haquez, I think.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: I think over the last two weeks, I convinced myself that Jame Jaquez should be third on this list, and then it'll go Asar, B.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Mills, uh J Hawk, Keontae George.
27:29
SPEAKER_00: Is that a good?
27:30
SPEAKER_00: It don't matter.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: It don't even matter.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: The next one, before we get into my favorite segment, Ask KB, is the Six Man of the Year Award.
27:38
SPEAKER_00: Now, again, this is my personal ballot.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: It holds no weight whatsoever.
27:44
SPEAKER_00: I look at Six Man of the Year a little bit differently than traditional.
27:48
SPEAKER_00: There are years over the last couple where if I had a ballot, I would have given Six Men of the Year to Andre Igodala.
27:54
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Iggy was not a guy that was putting up little wheel type numbers.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: He was not putting up, you know, 15 to 20 points per game off the bench.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: But when I think of six men of the year, who is the guy that comes off the bench and impacts winning the most is somewhere where my mind goes.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: And for a couple years, I felt like Iggy at least deserved one.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he didn't get it.
28:12
SPEAKER_00: But I was going through researching a little bit, trying to figure out is there a player that kind of fit that mode this year so far?
28:18
SPEAKER_00: So far, not so much.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: I like Al Horford was a guy I thought about for a little bit.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: I went to look at the numbers versus when he starts, because he started like seven games of the year when he starts versus when he doesn't start.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And when he starts, he's significantly better than when he doesn't start.
28:29
SPEAKER_00: So I can't do that.
28:31
SPEAKER_00: So I don't have that Iggy award, six man of the year.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: So I went the traditional route.
28:35
SPEAKER_00: Who getting them buckets?
28:36
SPEAKER_00: Who is getting them buckets?
28:38
SPEAKER_00: So my number one, I'm giving the award to Malik Monk.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: I'm giving the award to Malik Monk.
28:43
SPEAKER_00: This is his year.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Now, this team missed Dearon Fox for a little bit earlier in the season.
28:46
SPEAKER_00: Now I was very curious of what uh what Mike Brown ends up doing with the starting lineup.
28:52
SPEAKER_00: Do you put in Davion Mitchell or do you put in Malik Monk?
28:55
SPEAKER_00: That was my mindset.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Nope, it was Keon Ellis.
28:57
SPEAKER_00: Malik Monk, you're our sixth man.
28:59
SPEAKER_00: And I was just looking through his stats the other day.
29:01
SPEAKER_00: He played four full seasons with the Hornets.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: And in four full seasons, he started one game.
29:06
SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't like he was getting 10 minutes.
29:08
SPEAKER_00: Like he was averaging a smooth 14 points per game, and he only started one game in four seasons, which is like one thing, um, uh Lou Will, or is it Jamal Crawford?
29:19
SPEAKER_00: Damn, two of the best six men of all time.
29:21
SPEAKER_00: One of them said that like it wasn't their intention to be the sixth man.
29:25
SPEAKER_00: Nobody ever asked him to start.
29:27
SPEAKER_00: So and I wonder if Malik Monk was just destined for that same thing.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Like, does Malik is Malik Monk cool with being a six-man?
29:35
SPEAKER_00: Like, if you ask Malik right now, well, we're missing Kevin Herter tonight.
29:38
SPEAKER_00: You want to start Malik?
29:39
SPEAKER_00: Will he say, nah, I like the bench?
29:41
SPEAKER_00: Or will he be like, yeah, I've been wanting to be a starter for a very long time?
29:44
SPEAKER_00: I don't know the answer to this.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: But the other night, they played against um the Golden State Warriors for the 11th time in 24 games.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: Think about that.
29:53
SPEAKER_00: And the last 24 games, I'm sorry, 25 games of the Golden State Warriors schedule, 11 of them has been against the Sacramento Kings.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: Of course, that's dating back to the playoffs last year and so on and so forth.
30:05
SPEAKER_00: But 11 of their last 20.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: Like, that was a stat I read in the newsletter, and I'm like, that can't be true.
30:11
SPEAKER_00: No way, no way.
30:12
SPEAKER_00: I that just can't be true, and it is.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: Like near nearly half.
30:16
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, um, last night against uh the the Golden State Warriors, he played the entirety of the fourth quarter, and that's not something new for Malik Monk, especially when he's on the heater.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: But in this, he scored eight of the last 29 points for his team, and of course he hit the game winner, and it was a tough one.
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Like it was one of those wars where if you're a Warriors fan, you kind of just gotta look do that to Malik.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: Like you can be you can be upset about other things internally, but when it comes to that actual play, it's just like you can't play better defense than that.
30:45
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
30:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I've I've seen him take over games in that sense, hit the big shots, and we're talking about a team that had the clutch player of the year last year, De'Aaron Fox.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: You know, he took the last shot in this scenario and his playmaking.
30:57
SPEAKER_00: It's a little development in Malik Monk's game.
30:59
SPEAKER_00: A little development in Malik Monk's game.
31:01
SPEAKER_00: It's specifically when we saw De'Aaron Fox miss those couple games when they had Keon Ellis in the starting lineup.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: There's one game I don't remember who it was against off the top of my head, but he had a game where he was shooting poor.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: We had we talking 30% from the field, but he was one of the better players in the court.
31:17
SPEAKER_00: Kenny, how can you do that?
31:19
SPEAKER_00: He ended up with like double-digit assists and he also shot like 20 free throws.
31:22
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
31:23
SPEAKER_00: So it's not just like traditionally, six man a year is like, we're gonna get you buckets, buckets, buckets.
31:27
SPEAKER_00: And and Malik Monk in this case is, trust me, a lot of buckets, but also the playmaking aspect of things has really hit the next level, which we're appreciating.
31:36
SPEAKER_00: The number two guy on my list is strictly buckets this year.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: He's actually averaging the most points per game off the bench.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: That will be Tim Hardaway Jr.
31:44
SPEAKER_00: He is one of the more polarizing players to watch because when he is on, there is no stop.
31:48
SPEAKER_00: And he has two games so far this season where he hits seven threes already, a month or two.
31:52
SPEAKER_00: Two games with seven threes.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: One of them gets my bulls.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Yep.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: But two games, and he's able to do that.
31:58
SPEAKER_00: Um, one thing about him, though, that makes it different is that he'll have a hot quarter and have two terrible quarters.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
32:07
SPEAKER_00: And that that's one of the reasons why, like, yes, he's leading bench scoring right now.
32:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to have him number one because though his shooting splits are okay, I feel like the quarter-to-quarter consistency, even sometimes the game by game consistency has not been there.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: If you look at his last five games, shooting splits ain't been that great, but he started off pretty decent.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: He deserves to be in the conversation.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: Then this guy right here, my third guy, he only plays 19 minutes per game.
32:33
SPEAKER_00: 19.
32:35
SPEAKER_00: He averages 12 points in those 19 minutes.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: Mo Wagner.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he even deserves to be here because Cole Anthony, his teammate, is also having a really good year off the bench.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: But I have to admire a player that plays such a limited amount of time and makes the most out of it.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And he and he's a guy that gets under your skin.
32:54
SPEAKER_00: You saw what Kelly Hayes did to him last season.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna get under your skin.
32:57
SPEAKER_00: And when he's on a heater, you feel like there's nothing you can really do.
33:02
SPEAKER_00: He's a seven-foot dude that can hit multiple threes in a row.
33:05
SPEAKER_00: He can put it on the ground a little bit, and he is part of the scoring punch that the that the Orlando Magic need.
33:12
SPEAKER_00: 19 minutes per game, 12 points.
33:15
SPEAKER_00: He gets in, he gets down to business immediately.
33:20
SPEAKER_00: Another guy that deserves a mention here is Austin Reeves, obviously.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: Since they transitioned him to a bench roll, he's been a lot better than when he was a starter.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I I definitely thought about putting him in the top three.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: I wanted to show my love to Mo Wagner.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers are gonna get their love for sure.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: Um, but yeah, yeah, shout out to Austin Reeves.
33:36
SPEAKER_00: This portion of the Kenny Beach and podcast is brought to you by SeatGeek with over 28 million downloads.
33:41
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33:43
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33:47
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33:56
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33:58
SPEAKER_00: So I'm on a tour to go to an NBA game in every single arena in Detroit is my next stop.
34:03
SPEAKER_00: So I'll find the game that I want to attend and you'll see a picture of the venue.
34:07
SPEAKER_00: Every single one of those tickets are graded on the scale zero through ten.
34:11
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34:15
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34:17
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34:23
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34:25
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34:26
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34:35
SPEAKER_00: Let's take a break from the awards to go to my favorite segment.
34:39
SPEAKER_00: Ask KB.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: We can go on to X, you can go into the comment section and ask me a question for me to answer on the show.
34:45
SPEAKER_00: Today we got two elite level questions.
34:47
SPEAKER_00: First one comes from Big Mem, Big Mem 12.
34:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean Big Memphis, John Morant fan page.
34:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't really know.
34:53
SPEAKER_00: What is your favorite celebration of all time?
34:55
SPEAKER_00: Hashtag Ask KB.
34:56
SPEAKER_00: So this is very interesting.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: There are a ton of great celebrations in the history of basketball.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: He asked me my favorite.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: Conversation is fluid.
35:05
SPEAKER_00: You let me know in the comment section.
35:07
SPEAKER_00: I went with my top five.
35:08
SPEAKER_00: Starting off at the bottom with number five.
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Matumbo's finger wag.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Does that count as a celebration?
35:14
SPEAKER_00: Absolutely.
35:15
SPEAKER_00: You're talking about a guy that's gonna block four shots a game and he's gonna look at you and do like this?
35:21
SPEAKER_00: Elite.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: Elite.
35:24
SPEAKER_00: Even though I had a coach, I remember I was I'm a short guy.
35:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm you know, five, seven, five, eight.
35:29
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
35:29
SPEAKER_00: So I was never in uh the big man practice.
35:32
SPEAKER_00: But I remember overhearing one of our coaches one time to say, hey, blocking shots but blocking them out of bounds don't do anything.
35:40
SPEAKER_00: And when Tombo was the king of sending it to the seventh row, I guess.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: I was gonna say seventh floor and doing one of these.
35:49
SPEAKER_00: Uh and at the end of the day, you it just gives the opposing team another opportunity to score.
35:53
SPEAKER_00: Like if you're gonna block it, get a live ball block.
35:56
SPEAKER_00: But again, the coaches that was freshman B team.
35:59
SPEAKER_00: What is coach?
36:00
SPEAKER_00: He was a freshman B team, coach.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
36:01
SPEAKER_00: One even on varsity.
36:02
SPEAKER_00: Um, so my finger wag is number one.
36:04
SPEAKER_00: Number four, and I think this deserves to be higher, but I think it's been a little bit watered down.
36:09
SPEAKER_00: It's the Russell Westbrook rock the baby.
36:13
SPEAKER_00: What a legendary, legendary one.
36:16
SPEAKER_00: The problem is that people took it and they abused it in situations where it wasn't necessary.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Patrick Beverly got a lot of love for you.
36:27
SPEAKER_00: But come on, we ain't doing this, Pat.
36:29
SPEAKER_00: We ain't doing this on a regular basis, are we?
36:32
SPEAKER_00: You know, I like a celebration that is this guy's celebration.
36:36
SPEAKER_00: I think we all agree it's Russell Westbrooks, but like nobody else, don't even think about doing it.
36:40
SPEAKER_00: Don't even, don't even think about doing it.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: And I think the Rock the Baby thing has gone a little bit too far.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: I also like the, you know, you too small thing.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: It didn't make the list because it's not a signature celebration, but too small is like, come on.
36:52
SPEAKER_00: Too small is one of the best things you can do.
36:55
SPEAKER_00: Also, what I what I remember doing this, or I thought about doing this, is that the NBA is not like these other leagues.
37:01
SPEAKER_00: It's not like the NFL.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, you don't get one-off celebrations very often.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: The NFL, you score a touchdown.
37:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna do this one scene from baby boy, you know?
37:09
SPEAKER_00: You don't get that in the NBA.
37:11
SPEAKER_00: It feels like when a player has a celebration, the LeBron James Patton, that's LeBron's, and he's gonna do it.
37:16
SPEAKER_00: You don't get the one-offs, and I wish we did.
37:19
SPEAKER_00: My number three is D'Angelo Russell's Ice in the Vance.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: Oh boy.
37:24
SPEAKER_00: Oh boy, when he pulled that out early LA, I'm like, hold on.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: He's on to something.
37:30
SPEAKER_00: He is on to something.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: And that also is one of the ones like Rock the Baby where you see multiple people using it.
37:37
SPEAKER_00: But it's like D'Angelo Russell is a former all-star and has a lot of career left in the tank.
37:44
SPEAKER_00: Like right now, he's playing phenomenal ball against the pistons.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: He had what, like a 30-piece, and he had another 30-piece about a week or so ago.
37:50
SPEAKER_00: He's playing good ball right now.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: When it's all said and done, if he continues on this trajectory, that would be the thing he's remembered for.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: Like, that's how iconic this is.
38:03
SPEAKER_00: Other players across the association started to use it.
38:05
SPEAKER_00: Trey Young did it for a little bit.
38:06
SPEAKER_00: He's like, oh no, no, no, no, no, I can't say his stuff, so I'm gonna do one of these.
38:09
SPEAKER_00: It's a little colder here.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: I like that one too, though.
38:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the ice in the veins is up there.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: My number two, and this was the point of contention, right?
38:18
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if this counts as a celebration.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna count as a celebration.
38:21
SPEAKER_00: Steph Curry's no look.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: When Steph Curry turns around when the shot is in the air, I see that as a celebration.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: He's taunting you.
38:29
SPEAKER_00: I hit a shot before anybody in this arena knew it was going in.
38:33
SPEAKER_00: I knew it was going in.
38:35
SPEAKER_00: Like the only reason it's number two and not number one is because I think I might get a little bit of pushback on whether or not it's a celebration.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: But it is one of the coolest things that can be done in the sport is the look away.
38:48
SPEAKER_00: One of the coolest.
38:49
SPEAKER_00: If a quarterback throws a pass and walks to the sideline because he knows his wide receiver's gonna catch it and score it, has that ever happened before?
38:56
SPEAKER_00: Legendary stuff.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
38:59
SPEAKER_00: Watching a home run ball because it was a no-doubter, legendary stuff.
39:03
SPEAKER_00: And Steph Curry's no look is up there.
39:06
SPEAKER_00: But my number one, my favorite celebration in the history of NBA celebrations is Melo's three to the dome.
39:14
SPEAKER_00: Oh, iconic.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: Iconic.
39:16
SPEAKER_00: And I don't really I don't really have a story of why.
39:20
SPEAKER_00: Maybe maybe it's because that is the one I feel like can translate the most to regular people.
39:28
SPEAKER_00: There has been times, I didn't do it in a real game, but there have been times, let's say you you throwing a piece of paper in the trash.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: You say Kobe, obviously.
39:36
SPEAKER_00: May you rest in peace.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: But I've definitely did three to the dome after shooting the ball into the into the trash can.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: I didn't hit many threes in my playing career, so I didn't get an opportunity to do it again.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: But like that, that's my number one.
39:49
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Big uh Big Memph12.
39:51
SPEAKER_00: The next one comes from Calvin Cambridge, one of the greatest NBA players of all time.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: What do you play for the LA Knights?
39:58
SPEAKER_00: Ask AB, how do you manage and balance two podcasts, all your channels, and your personal life?
40:04
SPEAKER_00: Well, Mr.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: Calvin Cambridge, Mr.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: Bow Wow, Shade Moss.
40:07
SPEAKER_00: The answer is I do it poorly.
40:10
SPEAKER_00: Simply put, I do it poorly.
40:12
SPEAKER_00: Um but one thing I let's let's talk about the podcast and YouTube channel really quick.
40:16
SPEAKER_00: One thing that I try to do or pride myself on is making sure that the content across the platforms are different, right?
40:23
SPEAKER_00: I don't want you to tune into a Kenny for Real video and then just hear regurgitated stuff from the Kenny Beach and podcast, or vice versa, right?
40:31
SPEAKER_00: Because the association has 30 different teams and so many storylines, I kind of get to divvy up is this a podcast thing?
40:38
SPEAKER_00: Is this a a YouTube channel thing?
40:40
SPEAKER_00: And I so I try to make it feel like everybody is involved.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: It's just me talking hoops at the end of the day, but like elevated on the podcast, day-to-day things over here.
40:52
SPEAKER_00: I spend a lot of time working.
40:54
SPEAKER_00: Simply put, between all of the channels, I spend a lot of time working, and I don't count for the meetings and so on and so forth.
41:00
SPEAKER_00: And for at some time it had been a um a detriment to like my personal life.
41:06
SPEAKER_00: You're talking personal relationships and so on and so forth.
41:08
SPEAKER_00: Um Luckily, a lot of those things are coming around.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: Like there was there was a period of time, if we if we're gonna get real candid and real open right now, there is a period of time where I can look myself in the mirror and say that I was a terrible brother.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: I was a terrible son.
41:25
SPEAKER_00: And not in a sense that I was being mean to people, but like I was so invested in growing my platform that like the simple things of calling your sister and see how she's doing, or or just FaceTime and moms every day, those things I wasn't doing as often as I should, right?
41:43
SPEAKER_00: And now that I've been able to grow to the spot where I want to be, even though again, we want to get number one, but grow a good amount over the last couple of years, I feel like I'm I'm managing a way to get back to the version of myself as a partner, as a as a dad, as a son, as a brother that I feel is good.
42:03
SPEAKER_00: It's not great still, something I'm working with in therapy.
42:05
SPEAKER_00: Like it's a lot of stuff.
42:07
SPEAKER_00: But when you have as many outlets as I do and the goals that I have, it's like you have to make sacrifices.
42:14
SPEAKER_00: And that that was one that I made and turned to a therapy session.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: That's the last, that's the last SKB, okay?
42:21
SPEAKER_00: It's the last SKB.
42:23
SPEAKER_00: We got a couple more awards on the list.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna go to our guys and the DPOY.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: These ones are, for the most part, the harder ones to do this early in the season, because typically when you talk about defensive player of the year, you have like this is the way it works.
42:37
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna be one of the best defensive player or one of the top three to five defensive teams of basketball.
42:44
SPEAKER_00: Historically, that's always how it's been, right?
42:46
SPEAKER_00: But because things are changing day and day because the season is so early, uh, you can be the number one defense one day, have a two bad games.
42:53
SPEAKER_00: Now you're down to number six.
42:55
SPEAKER_00: Also because that the advanced stats that kind of carry the defensive uh player of the year are kind of skewed.
43:01
SPEAKER_00: So this is really just the eye test, and I love it like this.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: My number one is Rudy Gobert.
43:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:07
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: I'm back.
43:08
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
43:09
SPEAKER_00: I'm back like I never left.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Um, it's it's cool to see a victory lap by me and other Rudy Gobert fans.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: And I haven't been on Rudy Gobert Island without purpose, right?
43:21
SPEAKER_00: Last year, when he struggled, he was dealing with all the injuries.
43:23
SPEAKER_00: I came to my platform saying, hey, he's not looking good.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: I feared as though he was starting to regress as a 30-year-old center that relied on a lot a lot of athletics, and I was a little bit afraid for him.
43:33
SPEAKER_00: This year he's locking things down, and he is the best rim protector in all of basketball.
43:37
SPEAKER_00: I'm so happy for him that he has guys like Anthony Edwards, JD McDaniels, even, hey, I'm talking about Carnthony Towns defensively.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: Guys at Carnthony Towns and Mike Conley who are invested in the offensive side of the ball.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: So the things that Rudy Gobert excels at, he can really excel at because in his previous stops, he had to cover everybody's back, and he don't got to do that no more.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: He's locking things down, and I absolutely love it.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: On the opposite side of things, Beam Adabayo is my number two.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: He's not necessarily completely, completely rim protecting in the sense that Rudigo Berry is, but when we talk about versatility across the defensive side of the ball, there's not many people better than Bam Adabayo.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: And while they've been uh managing Jimmy Butler's minutes and uh Tyler Harrow's been gone here and there, he's been the one consistent thing on both sides of the ball.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: And he gives it all every single possession.
44:27
SPEAKER_00: There were times in the game yesterday against the Milwaukee Bucks where for some reason the Bucs are trying to get switches and they were trying to get switches on Bam at the perimeter.
44:37
SPEAKER_00: And that is not something I personally would think about doing because he he moves his feet like a wing.
44:43
SPEAKER_00: He can guard so many different positions in spurts, obviously.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: We're not saying here, hey, bam, uh, Damian Lillard is your assignment, but in moments in time, he does that, and I love it for him.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: My last one is Anthony Davis.
44:55
SPEAKER_00: He was, I think he was my pick in preseason to win DPOY.
44:59
SPEAKER_00: He just feels like a guy that because he is he's one of the best defensive players in our generation, but he has zero DPOYs.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is, you know, can never really stay healthy.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: Part of that is not being a part of great defensive teams.
45:09
SPEAKER_00: And though the Lakers, I think at this point are seventh or eighth in defense, a lot of that is on the back of Anthony Davis.
45:15
SPEAKER_00: Um, right now he's he's leading the league in like stock steals and blocks and stuff.
45:19
SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to give him his flowers here.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: There are a lot of other people that thought about, like Mitchell Robinson.
45:23
SPEAKER_00: Um, I thought about some wings and guards and stuff, but it doesn't feel like a wings or guard year.
45:28
SPEAKER_00: It feels like one of the bigs is gonna get it again, right?
45:31
SPEAKER_00: The next one, we might breeze to a little bit.
45:34
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I can sit here and and and talk about coach of the year for 20 minutes.
45:39
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I could, but is it good podcasting?
45:41
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
45:42
SPEAKER_00: My top three guys for coach of the year, number one based on the first month, is Wes Unsell Jr.
45:48
SPEAKER_00: My number two is Ime Udoka, and my number three is Nick Nurse.
45:52
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna give a couple senses of why these three guys are above the other 27 association right now.
45:57
SPEAKER_00: West Unsell Jr.
45:59
SPEAKER_00: is is oh my god, did I say West Uncell Jr.?
46:02
SPEAKER_00: Whoa, step back.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: That team is awful.
46:05
SPEAKER_00: That team, that team, okay.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: My apologies.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Mosley.
46:13
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Mosley.
46:15
SPEAKER_00: Okay, um there was another award that I was gonna do.
46:22
SPEAKER_00: It was the opposite of coach of the year, but but as as a guy that brand is in joy, all of the negative awards that I had, I got rid of.
46:33
SPEAKER_00: Oh man.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, yeah.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: I didn't I didn't erase it.
46:37
SPEAKER_00: Um it was it was him and Billy Dodd of a top of first, if I'm being honest with you.
46:40
SPEAKER_00: No, it is Jamal Mosley, Jamal Mosley with the Orlando Magic.
46:44
SPEAKER_00: Jeez, that is a crazy moment.
46:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, that I wish I would have reread my notes.
46:48
SPEAKER_00: Jamal Mosley is number one to to build the identity of the Orlando Magic and for them to be one of the best teams in the league on actively the best win streak in all of the association, whether it be the Boston Celtics, whether it be the uh the Denver Nuggets or this team or that team, it has not been a team that's put fear in their hearts.
47:03
SPEAKER_00: And I think Jamal Mosley, Jamal Mosley deserves a lot of credit for that.
47:08
SPEAKER_00: That is a crazy moment.
47:09
SPEAKER_00: Um, the next one, Ime Udoka, um, really put in a defensive identity for the Houston Rockets as well, where right now they're sitting as one of the best defensive teams in ball.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: When you look at their starting lineup, other than I guess Dylan Brooks, nobody else in that lineup has the reputation of being like a really, really good defender.
47:24
SPEAKER_00: Uh Fred Van Vliet has his perks, but obviously he's undersized.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: Um, Jabari Smith Jr.
47:28
SPEAKER_00: is a younger player, and though he was a decent defender's rookie season, I don't know a lot of people expecting him to be a lot better this year.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: So he's been able to get this young team to buy in along with these couple vets.
47:38
SPEAKER_00: And for a team that's been towards the top of the lottery over the last five years or so, four years or so, to have them be adequate, even though they're the only team left in basketball without a road win.
47:48
SPEAKER_00: They're the only team left in basketball without a road win.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: And let me double check because they were playing when we started filming, they lost to Jokic and Company.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: So still no road wins yet, Ime.
47:58
SPEAKER_00: So maybe get a couple road wins and we can move you above Jamal Moosey.
48:01
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
48:02
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, Nick Nurse, it's it's night and day between what he can do and Doc Rivers can do as coaches.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: But we've talked about that at nauseum here on this podcast.
48:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to belabor it.
48:11
SPEAKER_00: You know he's the guy.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: We had two more awards, three more awards.
48:15
SPEAKER_00: The executive of the year, Brad Stevens is yours.
48:18
SPEAKER_00: Cool.
48:19
SPEAKER_00: Most improved player.
48:21
SPEAKER_00: This is the most fun award outside of DPOY for me traditionally, because I always love to see players hit the next level.
48:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, I actually love marginal um gains from players, and and you're gonna see some of that today in one of these names.
48:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, my first name on the list, my my winner of the award is Tyrese Maxie.
48:40
SPEAKER_00: He's jumped his points per game by six, his assists per game by three and a half, and his rebounds per game by two.
48:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, you if you've watched the Philadelphia 76ers so far this season, you can see that he has hit that next jump.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: Not just like, oh, I could be the start in point guard, but no, oh, I can make an all-star appearance.
48:56
SPEAKER_00: If you look traditionally throughout the most approved player, it is usually a guy that went from a really good starter to an all-star, at least recently.
49:03
SPEAKER_00: And he is a guy that as if everything stays as they are, as it is, and there's no injuries here or there, and the 76ers continue to win basketball games, he is a lock to make an all-star appearance.
49:14
SPEAKER_00: He's in the conversations to potentially make all-NBA, but there are so many great guards.
49:18
SPEAKER_00: Nope, that don't matter.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: No positions, no positions, oh my God.
49:21
SPEAKER_00: So, no all-NBA season for Tyrese Maxie unless some injuries happen to other people.
49:25
SPEAKER_00: But he's my number one.
49:27
SPEAKER_00: He's the guy that is taking the biggest jump from yeah, really good starter, young, talented player to like, oh, snap.
49:33
SPEAKER_00: We actually don't need another star.
49:35
SPEAKER_00: The whole dynamic of this team changed because Tyrese Maxie is as good as he is.
49:40
SPEAKER_00: Next guy on my list is my top three favorite players to watch in the association.
49:46
SPEAKER_00: Alperin Shengung.
49:47
SPEAKER_00: Up his points per game by six and his assists per game by two.
49:50
SPEAKER_00: It's not too crazy.
49:51
SPEAKER_00: His rebounds are exactly the same, but this is one of those eye testings.
49:54
SPEAKER_00: This is one, one of those, like, he's always been a player that has a really good feel for the game.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: Throughout the first couple years of his career, if you watch them, you're like, okay, this guy knows what he's doing.
50:03
SPEAKER_00: He just has to develop the skill, you know, a little bit higher.
50:06
SPEAKER_00: And he's he's done that.
50:08
SPEAKER_00: And before I came down here to record this episode, of course, they were going against the Denver Nuggets, and there were two straight possessions where he came down court and just jacked up a three and it it was cash.
50:16
SPEAKER_00: And normally I wouldn't say my 28% three-point shooter goes shoot some threes, but he's starting to hit him more and more rapidly.
50:23
SPEAKER_00: We found out that, like of the young core of the Houston Rockets, he is the guy you invest in the most.
50:28
SPEAKER_00: And they've been allowing him to kind of be the engine of the team, and he has been the best player on that really solid Houston Rockets team.
50:36
SPEAKER_00: Another player that should be an MVP uh not MVP, uh, All-Star Conversations come February.
50:41
SPEAKER_00: Next year on my list, Scotty Barnes.
50:43
SPEAKER_00: Another player that if you look at the actual statistics, four points per game, two rebounds, one assist.
50:47
SPEAKER_00: It's not that crazy.
50:49
SPEAKER_00: But if you're watching the games, you can see that Scotty has taken jumps in his development as a passer.
50:54
SPEAKER_00: He's taking uh the steps in his development as a shooter, he's taken steps in his development as a defensive player, where like he's getting the tough assignments.
51:02
SPEAKER_00: Tim and OG are getting the tough assignments, they're switching off.
51:04
SPEAKER_00: Today they played against Kevin Red and Devin Booker, and they won that game.
51:08
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of that was Scotty Barnes playing on ball defense here there, but also playing the safety role where he's on the help and he's blocking shots, doing this, doing that.
51:17
SPEAKER_00: And he has kind of elevated things in the sense that before this season, there was a lot of questions about the direction of the Toronto Races.
51:26
SPEAKER_00: And I think those questions still stand, but one thing you know for sure is Scotty is your guy.
51:31
SPEAKER_00: And you didn't know that 100% certain until this season started.
51:35
SPEAKER_00: So he's my third.
51:36
SPEAKER_00: But I also want to give love to Duncan Robinson.
51:39
SPEAKER_00: Untraditional.
51:40
SPEAKER_00: Because he's had a few years in the league where he averaged double digital points 11, 12, 13.
51:45
SPEAKER_00: This year he's averaged 14.
51:46
SPEAKER_00: But if you think about last year where he averaged six, talk about an improvement.
51:51
SPEAKER_00: He would have one of the biggest points per game jumps of anybody mentioned from six points per game to 14 points per game.
51:56
SPEAKER_00: That's pretty good.
51:57
SPEAKER_00: But also, he, again, is improved at his individual game, where he's putting the ball on the floor way more than he's ever done in his career.
52:05
SPEAKER_00: He's taking and making more two-point shots than he's ever done of his NBA career.
52:09
SPEAKER_00: So I just wanted to give him his flowers.
52:10
SPEAKER_00: He wasn't in my top three, but Duncan, we see you.
52:13
SPEAKER_00: And the last award, I'll be honest with you.
52:16
SPEAKER_00: We we came into this meeting to do this podcast, and I was going through, okay, did I get every award?
52:23
SPEAKER_00: Clutch Player of the Year was one that I completely forgot about.
52:26
SPEAKER_00: It didn't take long to get my answer now.
52:28
SPEAKER_00: It didn't take long to get my answer.
52:30
SPEAKER_00: But it's one of the ones because it is so new that like I didn't even prep.
52:34
SPEAKER_00: You know, I didn't go into the intricacies of statistics in there, but based on what I know, based on what I've seen this season, Damian Lillard is my one.
52:43
SPEAKER_00: Right now, he's leading the league at fourth quarter scoring and he is doing it as efficient as anybody.
52:48
SPEAKER_00: He's not turning the ball over, he's hitting all of his free throws.
52:51
SPEAKER_00: He's already had a couple, not game winners, but game ceiling shots, some daggers here, there.
52:57
SPEAKER_00: And again, just like we talked about Giannis in the first segment with MVP, Damian Lillard is starting to really put it together as well.
53:04
SPEAKER_00: And I think that he deserves through the first month our clutch player of the year.
53:15
SPEAKER_00: Sheesh, that was a lot.
53:17
SPEAKER_00: That was a lot.
53:18
SPEAKER_00: I ain't mean to throw it all at you at one time, but we had to get through it all.
53:21
SPEAKER_00: You feel me?
53:22
SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, a fluid conversation.
53:23
SPEAKER_00: You let me know whether it'll be on X in the comment section.
53:26
SPEAKER_00: I Spotify actually has a spot where you can comment and I see the comments as a guy that uploads the episode.
53:32
SPEAKER_00: So you can reach out on pretty much any of those platforms.
53:34
SPEAKER_00: Let me know.
53:35
SPEAKER_00: Did I miss somebody?
53:36
SPEAKER_00: What do you think?
53:36
SPEAKER_00: Did you enjoy this episode?
53:38
SPEAKER_00: All of those things matter a ton as we continue to try to build out this show and figure out what works and what doesn't.
53:44
SPEAKER_00: Five stars.
53:45
SPEAKER_00: Subscribe, leave a like, and we'll see y'all in a couple days.