Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / The Big 4 Sixers, Jaylen Brown's Celtics + Should we Abolish the 65 Game Rule?

Transcript

The Big 4 Sixers, Jaylen Brown's Celtics + Should we Abolish the 65 Game Rule? · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:04
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecham.
0:08
SPEAKER_00: First episode of the year, man.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: Thank y'all so much for all the support getting to this season.
0:12
SPEAKER_00: And in 2026, the goal is to continue to get out good content.
0:15
SPEAKER_00: You know how it goes.
0:16
SPEAKER_00: So today's episode, there is no gimmick.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: There is no theme.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: We're kind of just jumping around the league and talking about some teams that, you know, just going through the notes of the previous episodes to start the season, I haven't really talked about these teams a ton.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: And I want to talk about them.
0:28
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about some of the more topical situations around basketball.
0:32
SPEAKER_00: The 65 game rules.
0:33
SPEAKER_00: Should it be abolished?
0:34
SPEAKER_00: Is a big conversation over the inner webs and the teams we're talking about later.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: The 76ers.
0:39
SPEAKER_00: Whew.
0:40
SPEAKER_00: Hey, man, I know it's not really a big three, but they're they're fantastic for.
0:46
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know what you want to say.
0:47
SPEAKER_00: They look as good as ever.
0:48
SPEAKER_00: The last couple nights had a good game against the New York Knicks, where they went into Madison Square Garden and the Knicks didn't really stand a chance.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: All right, we got to talk about that.
0:56
SPEAKER_00: The Phoenix Suns, I feel like, should be a bigger story in the NBA, considering nobody expected this team to have 20 wins at this point of the season.
1:03
SPEAKER_00: Their over-under was 30 and a half.
1:05
SPEAKER_00: They're already two-thirds of the way there, and we're not even at the all-star break.
1:08
SPEAKER_00: Then we got to get into like Jalen Brown and the Celtics.
1:11
SPEAKER_00: Just ahead of little 50 ball and then some smaller topics later on.
1:14
SPEAKER_00: Let's start off with the 65 game rule.
1:16
SPEAKER_00: Now, Nicole Jokic went down with an injury.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: Ended up being something they said he'll be reevaluated on in four weeks, which is like a blessing because when he went down, you know, Jokic don't go down often.
1:26
SPEAKER_00: He's he's he's an Iron Man.
1:27
SPEAKER_00: He very rarely misses minutes, misses games and stuff.
1:30
SPEAKER_00: So when he went down, it was like, oh snap.
1:32
SPEAKER_00: Because in my mind, the different nuggets are what, number two in the league when it comes to my overall contention teams.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: And when he went down, I was like, just don't be nothing serious.
1:39
SPEAKER_00: Don't be nothing serious.
1:40
SPEAKER_00: And four to six weeks is what they're saying.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: Four weeks to evaluation and maybe a two extra weeks after that.
1:45
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see.
1:46
SPEAKER_00: Now, with that, when he went down with his injury, a lot of people, me included, was like, hey, Nikole Jokic was the MVP at that point.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: Shea had it for the majority of the season.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: The OKC Thunder had a week where they lost two games, and boy, don't you dare lose two games if you're supposed to be legendary.
1:59
SPEAKER_00: And on the same thing, on the other side with the Denver Nuggets, they were missing three starters and they were still winning basketball games.
2:05
SPEAKER_00: And Jokic was putting up 40s, 12s, and 12s.
2:07
SPEAKER_00: He had the best Christmas Day performance ever, even though half the world was asleep because it went into overtime.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: So he was just playing such great basketball, which is the Nikola Jokic way.
2:16
SPEAKER_00: And now, because he's gonna miss four to six weeks, he's in jeopardy of not just not winning MVP, but in jeopardy of not making all NBA.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: And I've said it before, I'll say it again, just for the people that may be the first time to listen to the show.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: When I look at all NBA, when I look at awards, I look at it, and it is a snapshot of the season that we just watched.
2:33
SPEAKER_00: It is a way for me as somebody that was not really, I mean, I was watching basketball in 2006, but like I was 10 years old.
2:39
SPEAKER_00: So when I look back in 06 and I see the all NBA teams, in my mind, that those are the 15 players that the league had decided were the best 15 players in the world at that point.
2:47
SPEAKER_00: The MVP was the MVP.
2:49
SPEAKER_00: And now with the 65 game rule, this conversation is like, hey, will we have a real representation of what 2025, 2026 the NBA season ended up being?
2:59
SPEAKER_00: Because right now we did this two months ago.
3:01
SPEAKER_00: We were talking about how there was potentially eight all NBA spots open for grass because of injuries, because of Halliburton, because of Dub, because of Tatum, because um James Harden and the Clippers weren't playing well.
3:12
SPEAKER_00: And I guess they kind of figured some things out, but in that win streak they were going on, the opposing team was shooting 28% from three.
3:18
SPEAKER_00: Then he went against the Celtics, a three-point shooting team and got smacked.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, there were so many different players, right?
3:23
SPEAKER_00: Between LeBron James going down with his injury and so on, there were so many all NBA spots open.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: And now that number's even higher if Jokic is not gonna get the 65-game thing.
3:32
SPEAKER_00: So can we look at the 2025, 2026 eventual all NBA players and say, hey, these are the guys that represented this season?
3:40
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to say, I mean, I'm sure there are people in the industry or people that are talking about this topic of the 65 game rule that are literally just talking about it because it ends up being Jokic, it's the victim of it all.
3:50
SPEAKER_00: I am not one of those people.
3:52
SPEAKER_00: It could have been Jokic, it could have been anybody, honestly, but it's just the he is the breaking point, if you will.
3:57
SPEAKER_00: Like with all of those names, it's like, man, now it's Jokic.
4:00
SPEAKER_00: Now it's, you know, it could have been now it's uh Luca, now it's whoever.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: It's just one of the top guys that are making us having this conversation.
4:07
SPEAKER_00: And should we abolish it?
4:10
SPEAKER_00: I am I am pro 65 game roll.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: I want to take a step back a few years ago when it was incorporated and what the idea was from Adam Silver and the uh competition committee and the the uh players' association.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: Their goal was to get it so that the superstar players, the best players in the world, weren't low managing, which was a conversation for what felt like eight years leading up to the 65-game rule.
4:36
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't about penalizing players that were going through injury.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: It was about low management, it was about rest, and it was about, you know, the kid that gets to go to one game this season to see the Lakers, and it just so happened that this is a game that LeBron James is resting.
4:51
SPEAKER_00: And I'm just using him as an example.
4:53
SPEAKER_00: But it was about the fans.
4:54
SPEAKER_00: It was about getting the product to be as good as ever.
4:57
SPEAKER_00: And reminder, this was put in right before we the these media deals go on.
5:00
SPEAKER_00: So we wanted to have a little ramp before NBCs and the Amazons came through.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: We wanted to say, hey, here are the numbers.
5:07
SPEAKER_00: People are playing games, people are watching games, so buy our product.
5:11
SPEAKER_00: And for the most part, with that being the true intention to get players to play on a daily basis, it succeeded.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: We saw 30% uh increase in games played from superstar players the year before this was incorporated to the year after.
5:23
SPEAKER_00: And I felt like it was in a good spot.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: But now we're seeing more stars go down.
5:28
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like it's always a calf, it's always a strain, it's always it is, I'm always a hamstring.
5:33
SPEAKER_00: But we're seeing more stars go down, and that's the conversation of whether or not it should be abolished.
5:37
SPEAKER_00: If you go through the archives of All NBA, it's very rare that somebody plays less than the what 78 to 79% of the games in order to make all NBA.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: They have been exceptions, right?
5:49
SPEAKER_00: Some guys have made it when they, I think it was uh Bill Walton won MVP, would only play in a certain amount of games, like 70% of his games and so on, but they were really good right before he went down his injury.
5:59
SPEAKER_00: So there are the anomalies in the conversation, but for the most part, even though a 65-game rule was not enforced, the voters, the people that have these votes, basically live to it.
6:10
SPEAKER_00: They didn't they didn't really give you um any real wigger room.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: I vividly remember times where I was listening to podcasts growing up, it's like, yeah, we love this guy.
6:19
SPEAKER_00: This guy is so amazing, he probably should be all in BA, but man, he missed 22 games this season.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: And now it's getting to the point where maybe we should let the voters just self-govern themselves.
6:35
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
6:36
SPEAKER_00: Because it just they had already lived by this rule.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things that I I I've been listening to Zach Low a lot this season.
6:43
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to him.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: There was years where I've just wasn't listening to any NBA podcasts, and um, and he made a very good point that there's a world where you could convince yourself that 60 to 62 games of Nikola Jokic is significantly better than I don't know, 73 games of insert all NBA third team guy that's gonna make it.
7:03
SPEAKER_00: I think that's fair.
7:05
SPEAKER_01: But in the same thing, I'm like, man, 65 games is not that many games in the grand scheme of the NBA.
7:13
SPEAKER_01: 78, 79% of the season.
7:17
SPEAKER_00: So here are some solutions that I one of them I came up with, one of them I read in an article.
7:23
SPEAKER_00: The first one is that the 65 game rule only matters for overall awards.
7:29
SPEAKER_00: So, yes, you can't win MVP if you got 60 games in the season, which is that's pretty normal.
7:33
SPEAKER_00: You can't win DPOY with only 55 games.
7:35
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Wemby, sorry, it can't be you.
7:37
SPEAKER_00: But when it comes to all NBA, the 65 game rule only matters on first team and second team.
7:43
SPEAKER_00: I don't hate that idea.
7:45
SPEAKER_00: Because I'm trying to think of some third team guys, and this is just off the top of mind, this is not even my script.
7:49
SPEAKER_00: If Al Price Shingoon is there, shout out to Al P.
7:51
SPEAKER_00: I mean, he went down on the injury the other night, and it felt like the entire infrastructure of the Houston Rockets fail, and KD can't do everything by himself.
7:58
SPEAKER_00: If it's Shingoon in his season in third team versus Nikola Jokic in 60 games, I think we kind of just want to give it to Jokic and let him be like a part of the history, a part of the history that tells you what this season was about.
8:14
SPEAKER_00: So I mad at that idea.
8:15
SPEAKER_00: It opens up ways for a guy like Victor Wemanyama, who I don't know how many games he's gonna end up with.
8:20
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of this is um uh contingent on like this injury for Nikole Jokic only being something that leaves him out for the four to six instead of it being eight to ten.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: Because if Jokic plays 55 games, then like I don't even think this should be a conversation, even though he is as great as he is.
8:32
SPEAKER_00: I feel like there has to still be some level of threshold.
8:35
SPEAKER_00: And the one that I came up with, and I don't even know if this makes sense.
8:38
SPEAKER_00: This is just one of those things that's been in my mind over the last couple of days, is a lot of people have been having these conversations.
8:43
SPEAKER_00: Is there a world where we have some type of injury exemption?
8:46
SPEAKER_00: Because remember what the idea of this was.
8:49
SPEAKER_00: The idea behind the 65-game rule was to get it so we don't get resting and we don't get low management.
8:53
SPEAKER_00: But if you have a guy like Nikole Jokic, who already has the the um ideas of people of the idea of Nikole Jokic is that he's gonna play.
9:01
SPEAKER_00: If we have some type of injury exemption where we know that the games that he missed was literally because he cannot play, and it wasn't because he was resting, or it wasn't because he was low managing.
9:09
SPEAKER_00: Can we have an injury exemption if you're five to eight games off of that 65 game rule?
9:15
SPEAKER_00: You have to prove that the injury that you have this exemption for is a legitimate injury.
9:19
SPEAKER_00: It can't just be like a contusion, which does hold people out occasionally, but you need like a doctor's note that says, hey man, Nicole's wanted to play these last couple games that would have got him over 65 games, but unfortunately, his knee exploded.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: Not in his case.
9:34
SPEAKER_00: So can we have something like that?
9:35
SPEAKER_00: Because there is a little clause in the contract that says like you could go to the league office and you say, hey, we were at 63 games, but two of these games that we missed were extreme circumstances and they might let you be eligible.
9:48
SPEAKER_00: But injury exemption could be interesting.
9:51
SPEAKER_00: Now, I know that that opens up the opportunity for it to be finagled, but we ain't gotta think about that right now.
9:56
SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we'll talk about some teams that have been super surprising.
10:05
SPEAKER_00: I want to talk about the Philadelphia 76ers.
10:08
SPEAKER_00: Before the season started, usually I do an episode or video where I'm trying to create what I believe to be the standings for this next season.
10:19
SPEAKER_00: And sometimes I hit gold.
10:21
SPEAKER_00: I sometimes the the year the Sacramento Kings was lighting the beam, it was me that was like, this team looks decent and I'm believing in them.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: I ain't had them being, I think they were the 3C, right?
10:30
SPEAKER_00: They were the 3-6 matchup versus the Warriors that season.
10:32
SPEAKER_00: I didn't have them being that high, but I was like, this is a playoff team for the first time in almost 20 years.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: And there's also years like last year, I was like, the Clippers are trash and they won 50 games.
10:41
SPEAKER_00: And this year I didn't do it for a lot of different reasons.
10:44
SPEAKER_00: Family, yada, yada, yada.
10:46
SPEAKER_00: But I look back and think to myself, if I were going to do that, where the hell would I put the 76 before the season started?
10:52
SPEAKER_00: Because there's a conversation for them to be one of the four best teams in the Eastern Conference, but it's also a conversation for them to be number 10, number 11, maybe.
11:00
SPEAKER_00: And right now, according to the standings, they're at number five, it's always fluctuating.
11:04
SPEAKER_00: The difference between the fourth seed and the uh eighth seed right now is a game.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: So, like, I don't know, by the time this episode comes out, who knows?
11:11
SPEAKER_00: They might be down or they might be up.
11:13
SPEAKER_00: But they have put together a couple great wins and they've been able to stay afloat.
11:17
SPEAKER_00: We did the episode about the vibe ratings like two weeks ago.
11:20
SPEAKER_00: We were talking about how the 76ers have one of the best vibes in basketball because this entire season feels like foul money.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: And that is the case.
11:26
SPEAKER_00: But for the first um time for the entire season, they look like a really healthy and competent, complete team.
11:33
SPEAKER_00: All of their guys have been healthy.
11:35
SPEAKER_00: And over the last couple of days, they got their first wins with Maxi, VJ, PG, and Joel Embiid all on the court together, which is something they I think they were 0-2 before that.
11:44
SPEAKER_00: And since then, they've won like two or three games or so.
11:46
SPEAKER_00: And it's starting to like, forgetting about, let's say, forgetting about the history, forgetting about yada yada yada, if you were to look at the 76er team with no prior references, you say, hey, this team looks like a team that can be.
11:59
SPEAKER_00: Let me chill.
12:00
SPEAKER_00: But there's a couple reasons why I feel that way, right?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say that I believe that they're gonna win the Eastern Conference.
12:06
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even saying that they're in contention to do such a thing.
12:08
SPEAKER_00: But I do believe that this is going to be a team that once we get down to the playoffs, assuming health, which is maybe the toughest thing you can assume, but a 76er team, assuming health, this is a team that I feel like you should be finagling your standards stay away from.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: Because they got a little bit of everything, a lot of a lot.
12:24
SPEAKER_00: I want to start off with the head of the Snake, which now is Tyrese Maxie.
12:28
SPEAKER_00: Listen, Joel and B, go get your flowers because you have been amazing since you came back from that short, like four-game span where you were missing out.
12:35
SPEAKER_00: He's got 22s and sixes, he's got 36 and 9s, he's been phenomenal playing on the floor of the offense.
12:40
SPEAKER_00: But even Joel and B will tell you straight up, this is Tyrese Max's team.
12:45
SPEAKER_00: And I feel that way.
12:46
SPEAKER_00: See, me and producer Greg talked about this before the calendar turned around because he was at a game where he was watching the 76ers play against the Golden State Warriors.
12:55
SPEAKER_00: And we were just talking about how kind of unfair Tyrese Maxie is as an offensive guy, where he's too fast for you.
13:01
SPEAKER_00: But if you decide that you want to play off of him because of his speed, he is one of the best three-point shooters in all of basketball.
13:07
SPEAKER_00: And the reason why Tyrese Maxey has, let me let me make sure I can look at these stats really quick because I remember his series, of course, versus the 76ers a few years back and how electric that was.
13:16
SPEAKER_00: One of the reasons why he it he he kind of shows himself to be a guy that can perform well in the playoffs is basically that him being able to put the downhill pressure on him and then also be able to hit that shot if you're trying to play for him.
13:28
SPEAKER_00: You play a little bit too high, you play a little bit too tight, boom, he's getting downhill.
13:32
SPEAKER_00: And he just has been putting together the best season of his career.
13:35
SPEAKER_00: I think you can have a real conversation, especially if the 65 game rule is a thing, that Tyrese Maxie can be an all-NBA first team guy.
13:42
SPEAKER_00: He's averaging 31-7 and 4.5 on 47-40 and 88.
13:47
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how much better you can get.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: Like you can you can have a legitimate conversation about Tyrese Maxie being an all-NBA first-team player.
13:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he's gonna end up that way, but I'm just giving him his flowers, you know, however many games into the season.
14:00
SPEAKER_00: He has been the complete engine to this team.
14:03
SPEAKER_00: But it's not just him.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: Because they do got what the engine is Maxie and the generator, is VJ Edgecomb.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: Vijay Edgecomb had a little stretch where it's like, I mean, every rookie goes to this.
14:12
SPEAKER_00: Um, we just I just saw Jason Kidd talking about this with Cooper Flag last night that you don't want to just, you want to feel the rookie wall.
14:21
SPEAKER_00: He he had a quote that was like, hey, yo, um, but VJ had a couple games, and it literally ended up being like a three-game stretch.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: You're like, okay, rookie wall.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Since then, 25-4-6, 23-5-4.
14:32
SPEAKER_00: And that four, these fours I'm mentioning are steals, by the way.
14:35
SPEAKER_00: And then yesterday versus the New York Knicks, genuinely looked like the second best player on the court, only behind Tyrese Maxi.
14:41
SPEAKER_00: A game against Jalen Brunson, Carnthie Towns, OG Ananobi, Mikel Bridges, and so on and so forth.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: He had 26-4, and he had a sequence in this game.
14:49
SPEAKER_00: Well, I'm sure you've seen it over social media, where he hustles back on defense, blocks Mikhail Bridges corner three, then gets down to the other side of the floor, finishes, and he has a possession like that, or uh uh super man or video game possession every single game.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: And VJ, again, I'm not that high into the college basketballs of the world.
15:10
SPEAKER_00: We did do um uh specific draft coverage, so I had to lock in a little bit more um compared to previous seasons.
15:18
SPEAKER_00: The fact that he is shooting 38% from three on six attempts as a rookie, given that in college, let me see, he shot 34 uh percent on not great um um volume is insane.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And it felt like when he started off when he was dropping the most points by rookie debut, whatever ended up being, it was like, nah, this ain't sustainable.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: There's no way he can go out there and shoot this well from three the entire time.
15:41
SPEAKER_00: And it has dropped at least a little bit, but him being 38%, again, similar to what we talked about from uh Tyrese Maxie, being that athletic and that bouncy and being able to hit this shot.
15:54
SPEAKER_00: Now, this is gonna be a shot that once we get to a postseason series, whatever team they're going against, they're gonna give VJ all these shots because he is a rookie in his first playoff series.
16:01
SPEAKER_00: And again, though we have now 29 games of him shooting 38%, I'm sure when it comes to the scout rapport, you're gonna prioritize Max, you're gonna prioritize Jolan Bead.
16:09
SPEAKER_00: And if that means that the rookie has to beat us in the seven-game series, you're gonna live with that.
16:12
SPEAKER_00: So he's gonna have to make these in the postseason.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: But the fact that he's able to do this right now is just electric.
16:17
SPEAKER_00: And they just, I don't know, man.
16:19
SPEAKER_00: It's so amazing.
16:20
SPEAKER_00: If you look past the salaries of them all, the the pay grades of them all, Paul George is looking fine.
16:27
SPEAKER_00: He's looking good.
16:28
SPEAKER_00: Now he ain't looking like the$50 million player, but that I think that's okay in the right now because one of the things I don't want to blame it on a single player.
16:37
SPEAKER_00: Damn, I don't want to blame it on a single player.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: Because it's not a single player.
16:41
SPEAKER_00: But one thing that Paul George has been able to do is feel that fourth option thing better than let's just say any other player they've had in the previous Joel and B regimes.
16:53
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna say no names.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm not gonna mention nothing else other than saying that Paul George in that game versus the New York Knicks.
17:00
SPEAKER_00: I watched Paul George, who at this point in his career, you can tell me he's 42 and I believe you, but um, Paul George fought through and over screens as if this was an NBA finals game.
17:12
SPEAKER_00: The 35, almost 36-year-old was really out there playing defense as if he was back in OKC when he finished top three in defense.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: Now, the impact won't be that way because he's lost a little bit of his athleticism and so on and so forth.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: But to have a guy, again, he's making a lot of money, have a guy that can be the fourth most important player offensively and fight that hard, I gotta give Paul George's flowers because when you are one of the top-paid guys and you are a guy that's made all NBAs and all defensives and was top three in MVP, really recognizing that in this situation, on this team, in your later age, your role is going to shift, it's hard to do.
17:46
SPEAKER_00: We've seen some of the greatest players, I won't say fall out of the league, but fall out of grace with many teams because they couldn't personally accept the fact that they were a declining player or that they are not the player that they used to be.
17:57
SPEAKER_00: Paul George has been able to accept that.
17:59
SPEAKER_00: And he's averaging a 16, 5.5 and 3.
18:02
SPEAKER_00: He had that one 36-point game against Atlanta.
18:04
SPEAKER_00: I think they lost that game, though.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: But Paul George has been basically what they need, which is crazy.
18:10
SPEAKER_00: Because when they signed him, they didn't think he was, we need you to be the fourth best player on the team.
18:13
SPEAKER_00: They needed him to be the guy and one of the guys.
18:16
SPEAKER_00: The second guy, I guess.
18:17
SPEAKER_00: And he has not been that, but I think that's okay.
18:20
SPEAKER_00: Let's waste that money on like that.
18:22
SPEAKER_00: Jordan B.
18:24
SPEAKER_00: Jordan B and me have a checkered pass.
18:28
SPEAKER_00: Now shout out to Jordan B, he's always been um a friend of mine.
18:30
SPEAKER_00: Um but there was a time last season, I think it was, where he had a game and he got ejected from that game.
18:38
SPEAKER_00: And I had a one uh one, two, three, I had a um a three-word tweet that went viral on NBA Twitter that says, I'm, I'm sorry, four words, I can't count, done with Joel.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: It was just that simple.
18:51
SPEAKER_00: No other context involved.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: And that grew legs and it again went viral in it.
18:56
SPEAKER_00: And everybody, Jordan Bede included, knows that I have no ill will to Jordan Bede.
19:00
SPEAKER_00: Um, and this season, one of my favorite things about Joel Embiid, even though again he he he looks like he's laboring sometimes, and so on and so forth, him playing in the floor of the offense is at a whole nother level, if you ask me.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, we know Jordan Bede can be a guy that can average 30 points per game.
19:17
SPEAKER_00: He's been, he did it like four years of the last like six or something.
19:20
SPEAKER_00: But him playing within it and then be still being able to like late in the games, be like, oh yeah, I'm being guarded by some Huck Porti or just making up some guy.
19:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I can still get my own, it's just so great.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: And I I'm hoping that the way they're managing his minutes and they're managing his load for the entirety of the season can get it so that once we come to the postseason, he will be actively ready to give them 30 to 35 games and you know, a full win.
19:45
SPEAKER_00: The best thing that I've seen Jordan B do this season is not even something that happened on the court as far as like his overall stat line, but in that game versus the Grizzlies, I think he played almost 40 minutes and they won that game and it was great.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: And I just want Jordan B to be healthy for an entire playoff run because I think that this 76er team is going to be a really, really tough out.
20:12
SPEAKER_00: Before we get into the rest of the episode, we want to say thank you to our sponsor over at DraftKings.
20:17
SPEAKER_00: You may know all about DraftKings pick six by now.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: You pick more or less of different player stats for the upcoming games.
20:22
SPEAKER_00: Just pick two or more players until you pick set, decide more or less on some stats, sit back, relax as you see if you made the right decision.
20:29
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know how this has been going, man.
20:31
SPEAKER_00: I've been trying to put together these pick sets, right?
20:35
SPEAKER_00: With themes.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, I do want to say again, play responsibly as always.
20:39
SPEAKER_00: And you know, the themes ain't been working out for a little Kenny Beach.
20:43
SPEAKER_00: I won't lie to you.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: But maybe we get back on track today because we got another themed pick set, ladies and gentlemen.
20:52
SPEAKER_00: We got a nice little slate here in the NBA Monday night.
20:55
SPEAKER_00: As y'all know, Mondays are all about here on Peacock and everything.
21:00
SPEAKER_00: So, you know, I'm gonna I'm gonna pick some things.
21:02
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna pick some things.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: The Peacock games and Knicks versus Pistons.
21:05
SPEAKER_00: I saw Knicks fans saying this is the most important game of the season.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: Two game loser streak.
21:08
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about them slightly um later in the episode.
21:10
SPEAKER_00: We're going against the one C.
21:12
SPEAKER_00: And then the other game that we have after that is Warriors versus Clippers.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
21:17
SPEAKER_00: 9 p.m.
21:18
SPEAKER_00: Central Time tip off.
21:19
SPEAKER_00: All right.
21:20
SPEAKER_00: The theme of today's pick set is stars, stars, stars.
21:27
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes we'd be like, man, well, I want to see what this, the fourth most important player on the team, can do.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: The fifth most, no, no, no, no.
21:33
SPEAKER_00: Today we're going for the jugular.
21:35
SPEAKER_00: These are the best players in the some of the best players in the league, right?
21:38
SPEAKER_00: Starting off with Jalen Brown more on points versus the Chicago Bulls.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: Oh my goodness.
21:44
SPEAKER_00: I just watched him drop 50.
21:45
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna talk about him in the next segment.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: But that man is on a whole nother tear, and seeing the Chicago Bulls next, I can't imagine what type of performance he might give them.
21:53
SPEAKER_00: The next one is Kevin Durant more points versus the Suns.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: Again, like I mentioned earlier, Alperton Shangoon went out winning.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: Injury in their last game against the Dallas Mavericks.
22:03
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I'm actually looking right now to see it was an ankle sprain, and I don't know if he's gonna miss some time.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: But either way, in the moments where Alfred Shingon went down, Kevin Orant was going out there and doing Kevin Arrant type of things.
22:16
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they lost that game and all, but he's going against his former team, the Phoenix Suns.
22:21
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if there's any ill will between him and Book.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: And spoiler, we're gonna talk about the Suns in a little bit.
22:26
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but him going against the former team, I kind of like Kevin Oran getting more on his points.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: The next one is Shea Gildas Alexander versus the Hornets.
22:33
SPEAKER_00: Ooh, I see a little mini thing within my theme.
22:36
SPEAKER_00: The last two dudes were part of the previous thing.
22:39
SPEAKER_00: Like technically, Shay was a Hornet for about 36 seconds before he was traded to the Clippers.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: And now he's going against the Hornets.
22:45
SPEAKER_00: Now, this game, as you know, has blowout potential.
22:49
SPEAKER_00: But one thing about Shay, even in these blowout games, the three quarters that he play, he's gonna get you his 31-32.
22:55
SPEAKER_00: At least that's what it feels like.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: So even if it is a blowout, I still feel like Shea Gilders Alexander could go against that Hornets team and give them a bunch of buckets and a bunch of points.
23:03
SPEAKER_00: Calm, cool, collected, Shea Gilders Alexander.
23:06
SPEAKER_00: And lastly, Mr.
23:07
SPEAKER_00: Logo shooter himself, the greatest shooter to ever pick up a basketball, and maybe to ever is somebody ever gonna be a better shooter overall than Steph Curry.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
23:17
SPEAKER_00: Steph Curry, more on points versus the Clippers.
23:19
SPEAKER_00: There's no theme here.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: It's not like he's played for the Clippers.
23:21
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the Clippers was on a nice little streak, and then they went against the Boston Celtics, a team that can shoot the ball, shoot the ball well, and they struggled.
23:32
SPEAKER_00: Steph Curry is a guy that can shoot the ball, shoot the ball well.
23:34
SPEAKER_00: Derrick Jones Jr.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: went down with an injury as well, which sucks.
23:36
SPEAKER_00: Get well soon.
23:37
SPEAKER_00: Derrick Jones Jr., that's my boy.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, so they're gonna, they I think they're gonna struggle to stop Steph Curry.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: It's just a matter of will Steph Curry's teammates um play one and play well too.
23:47
SPEAKER_00: Um so that's my pick set.
23:48
SPEAKER_00: I'll read it again.
23:49
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brown more points versus the Bulls, Kevin Durant more points versus the Suns.
23:53
SPEAKER_00: She gets Alexander more points versus the Hornets.
23:55
SPEAKER_00: Steph Curry, more points versus the Clippers.
23:59
SPEAKER_00: How are we feeling about that one?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: It's it's it's a couple, it's a couple more stars that I was like, hmm, should I add it to the pick set?
24:05
SPEAKER_00: K.
24:05
SPEAKER_00: Cunningham versus the Knicks.
24:07
SPEAKER_00: I almost did a little uh Jalen Brunson and a Kay Cunningham rivalry while I went more on points one way and less on points the other way, but I refuse.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: I refuse to be wrong in that instance.
24:17
SPEAKER_00: I'm okay with being wrong if I put more and they go less.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't like going less on a player and they get more because it feels like I was hating on them.
24:23
SPEAKER_00: And I never want to hate on players.
24:25
SPEAKER_00: All right, when we come back, we'll talk about the Boston Celtics, one of the surprise teams of this NBA season.
24:32
SPEAKER_00: For those who haven't checked out DraftKings Pick Six yet, there's an exclusive offer waiting for you.
24:36
SPEAKER_00: Right now, new DraftKings customers can play$5 and get$50 in Pick Six credits.
24:41
SPEAKER_00: All you have to do is download the Pick Six app and use promo code Enjoy when you sign up.
24:45
SPEAKER_00: Pick six is available in most states, including Texas, California, Missouri, so don't be afraid to get in on the action.
24:51
SPEAKER_00: We're at the upside with Pick Six.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Bringing in the new year, I didn't do anything crazy.
25:08
SPEAKER_00: I actually stayed at home.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: Um my wife and my kids went to uh grandparents' house, and I was like, I'm gonna chill at home with a little bit of me time, right?
25:17
SPEAKER_00: While telling at home, I guess it wasn't me time, because I was chilling, talking talking to the guy.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: I got some face calls or FaceTimes.
25:23
SPEAKER_00: I'm talking to friends that I ain't really talk, talk to.
25:25
SPEAKER_00: You know, sometimes you text one of your buddies just to make sure they're doing okay, but you ain't really talk, talk to them.
25:29
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to one of my boys.
25:31
SPEAKER_00: My boy's a basketball fan, but he's not a basketball fan, if you know what I mean.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: Like he ain't a he wouldn't watch this show, even though I'm his boy.
25:38
SPEAKER_00: Um, but he likes to at least keep up with the NBA at least uh enough.
25:42
SPEAKER_00: And he asked me about the Celtics, because he knows Jason Tatum is out with an injury.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: And he also sees the standings of the the Boston Celtics being one of the best teams in basketball right now, even though six-time all NBA player Jason Tatum is sitting courtside with a fit on.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: And he asked me, how?
25:58
SPEAKER_01: And through all the games that I've watched with the Boston Celtics, the hours and hours I put into this craft.
26:04
SPEAKER_01: I ain't know how to answer that question.
26:08
SPEAKER_00: I mentioned the word Missoula Ball, right?
26:10
SPEAKER_00: As one of the things.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, you know, they play Missoula Ball the best they've ever had.
26:13
SPEAKER_00: And his follow-up question, shout out to him for being an attentive listener.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: He says, What's Missoula Ball?
26:19
SPEAKER_00: Damn, how do I how do I explain Missoula Ball to somebody that don't know Missoula Ball?
26:25
SPEAKER_00: And I I resulted to saying, yeah, man, they gonna get up a lot of threes.
26:29
SPEAKER_00: But a lot of teams give up get up a lot of threes.
26:32
SPEAKER_00: So Missoula Ball is a lot deeper than that.
26:34
SPEAKER_00: It's a lot deeper than that.
26:35
SPEAKER_00: And I still I've watched them a ton, watched them versus the Clippers, watched them in their last game.
26:39
SPEAKER_00: I I still don't know how to explain the success of the Boston Celtics, is all.
26:44
SPEAKER_00: And dare I say, even though they got all these years of success, all of these years being one of the best teams in the NBA.
26:52
SPEAKER_00: Damn, it's gonna feel like a shot at Tatum.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: It's not.
26:54
SPEAKER_00: I promise you, Tatum is one of my favorite players.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: Boy, I'm enjoying this Boston Celtics team more than I ever have.
26:59
SPEAKER_00: And maybe it's the lack of expectations, I guess.
27:01
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's the real thing.
27:02
SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's not even about the on-core product, maybe it is, but the lack of expectations is making me the like the Celtics are one of my most fun teams to watch as long as I'm listening to the other broadcasts.
27:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how they're doing it.
27:12
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how they could be a top five offensive team and one of the best defensive teams, too.
27:17
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how Jalen Brown has been able to go to a whole nother level a year and a half, two years after winning a finals MVP.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: I'm very candid about my guys versus not my guys.
27:30
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brown has never been one of my guys.
27:32
SPEAKER_00: I respected him as a player, respected his craft, but for whatever reason, it never clicked with me to say that that's one of my favorite players to watch.
27:39
SPEAKER_00: And I still don't have him in my top 10, don't get me wrong.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: But it's it's a it's because he is playing, and you know what?
27:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm speaking, I think it may be the lack of um playmaking.
27:49
SPEAKER_00: I'm I'm just a guy that, like, if you're gonna be one of the best players in your team, you gotta be a plus passer.
27:53
SPEAKER_00: Um and as I think about my favorite players of all time, or my favorite active players, all of them end up being plus passers to amazing passers.
28:00
SPEAKER_00: Maybe that's what it was with Jalen Brown.
28:01
SPEAKER_00: And this season, I think he, his timing on passes is better, even if the overall assist to turnover ratio, the stats may not say that.
28:08
SPEAKER_00: I feel like he's a better passer regardless.
28:10
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, Jalen Brown does not miss.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: Not only Jalen Brown not miss, he don't he don't miss the tough shots.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: Yes, his 50 ball versus the Clippers was insane.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: First of all, the Clippers were the hottest team in basketball.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers had their star, Kawhi Leonard, averaging like 41 points in like the last two weeks.
28:27
SPEAKER_00: And in this game, Jalen Brown, similar to what I said about Tyrese Maxie, continues to make a case of being an all-NBA first team type of talent.
28:36
SPEAKER_00: He has been on an entirely new level.
28:40
SPEAKER_00: And it's so intriguing to see what happens when Tatum comes back.
28:45
SPEAKER_00: The worst part about it all is that there is this conversation in like a corner of NBA Twitter or in Twitch chats.
28:51
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to my boy uh Mike been here.
28:53
SPEAKER_00: He's been streaming and they were having a conversation yesterday that somehow, even though these boys have won championships together or won eight championships together, have made all NBAs together, it still devolves to the conversation of who's better.
29:05
SPEAKER_00: And I don't think that even it doesn't matter.
29:07
SPEAKER_00: I'm st I'm still pro Tatum being better.
29:09
SPEAKER_00: I mean, you may not, it may not be the case for the next 12 months because Tatum's gonna come back from his injury and it's he's not gonna look good, I would assume.
29:16
SPEAKER_00: But I don't think it matters who's better because they're literally teammates.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: Do you know what I mean?
29:21
SPEAKER_00: And they've been able to get to the mountaintop together.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: So Jason Tatum is coming back, right?
29:26
SPEAKER_00: Unless he has some major, major setback from all reports, from everything I've personally heard from people and conversations, Tatum is not just coming back, but he's trying to come back with a vengeance.
29:36
SPEAKER_00: And I love that for him.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: I am one of those people that if the doctors tell you that you are 100% to go out there, go out there and get it done.
29:43
SPEAKER_00: I prefer that he gets it done at the end of the season versus the start of next season, because I do believe it's gonna take some time for him to get his legs under him.
29:49
SPEAKER_00: And if he could get that done at the end of the season and then they can go into the 2026, 2027 season with Tatum being back to 100%, it's better.
29:55
SPEAKER_00: I was talking to Tyrese Halliburton about these Achilles because y'all know he's another one of those dudes that that tore or ruptured his Achilles.
30:02
SPEAKER_00: And he was talking about um, first of all, a lot of people are saying that Tatum is the fastest guy to ever get an Achilles replacement or um to get his Achilles fixed, or whatever the hell the surgery would end up being.
30:14
SPEAKER_00: And that is the case because Tatum tore his Achilles while in New York and he just went to the one-of-one doctor.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: I don't know his name, but this guy has done every Achilles uh surgery in NBA history, it feels like he's the one-of-one guy.
30:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't think people know that Tyrese Halliburn also had his Achilles repair injury to surgery less than 24 hours after he tore his as well.
30:36
SPEAKER_00: Um, this is what he told me at least.
30:38
SPEAKER_00: He he toured about game seven and OKC.
30:41
SPEAKER_00: He flew home to Indiana for like an hour or two, got back on the flight, and flew to New York.
30:46
SPEAKER_00: So within 17 to 20 hours, he was also on the operating table, which means that, again, the science has not completely proven this, but there is some hypothesization going on that when you have the Achilles uh tendon repaired less than 24 hours before, there's a better likelihood that you'd come back with the same explosiveness and athleticism that you that you previously had.
31:07
SPEAKER_00: So both of these guys, at least in theory, should come back and look like similar players in a year's time.
31:11
SPEAKER_00: Also, Halliburton told me the timetable of coming back, like, you know, you come back 8 to 12, you don't feel like yourself, you still got the mental, the mental knot in your head about pushing off with that leg, and you may not look great to start off with.
31:24
SPEAKER_00: But by month 16 um and then month 20, that's when you really feel like yourself.
31:28
SPEAKER_00: So when Tatum does eventually come back and it'll be what, eight to nine months removed from the injury, I'm not expecting much.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: Anyway, Tatum coming back is one of the biggest wild cards in the NBA because this team is just straight up good.
31:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, I'm hesitant to put them in contention.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: The numbers say contention, the eye test at times say contention, but I just can't get there just yet.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the conversation comes back to their center rotation with it being the Manscada and Luca Garza and so on and so forth.
31:55
SPEAKER_00: Or should they be buyers of a guy like Zubots?
31:58
SPEAKER_00: I gotta sneeze and it won't, I'm not gonna let it happen.
32:01
SPEAKER_00: Zubots, if they should go out there and acquire another center that maybe has a higher ceiling and a better player than the two to three centers they have in the roster.
32:08
SPEAKER_00: And I'm here to say, I don't know if they gotta do that.
32:12
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the playoffs are gonna tell all, right?
32:14
SPEAKER_00: The man's cata's been amazing this season.
32:15
SPEAKER_00: There's nothing like a playoff situation to kind of expose a player if he's not as good as you you anticipate.
32:20
SPEAKER_00: But he has done everything, and I mean, everything you could have imagined.
32:23
SPEAKER_00: I said that sneeze wasn't gonna come out, it came out.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: My apologies.
32:26
SPEAKER_00: He's done everything you could have imagined for him.
32:28
SPEAKER_00: Here's some overall um super advanced stats for you when it comes to the man's Catum.
32:34
SPEAKER_00: Manscada ranks in the 95th percentile when it comes to rim deterrence.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: He's in the 92nd percentile when it comes to rim defense, in the 85th percentile when it comes to rim disruption.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: That is per basketball reference and per um Celtics blog over the intervals.
32:52
SPEAKER_00: And the numbers are the numbers, but the ITES say that as well.
32:56
SPEAKER_00: Where Namaskada, I don't know, I don't know.
32:59
SPEAKER_00: It's something about what the hell is going on in Missoula Ball or the system as a whole, where some of these centers, these replacement centers, end up in Boston.
33:06
SPEAKER_00: It's like, oh, snap, that guy's way more intriguing than we thought.
33:09
SPEAKER_00: Luke Cornette just did that and got a championship, and he's going over and he's starting over Wimby.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: Um, and I don't know what they're teaching over there, but a lot of these guys come into it because the Manscade spent two years in the league with Sacramento before he ended up in Boston.
33:24
SPEAKER_00: Luka Garza, who plays as hard as any backup center I feel like I've ever seen.
33:30
SPEAKER_00: He got he got offensive talent, as we know.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: We watched him in college, yada, yada, yada.
33:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, and we didn't know if he was gonna be an NBA player, but his motor enough, or at least in this system, is allowing him to not just be an NBA player, but an impactful NBA player on top of that.
33:43
SPEAKER_00: So, I mean, yeah, I guess in theory, going out and going to get a center makes sense because those guys may not be able to last against Carnotany Towns in a series, but maybe they could.
33:54
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, they're not gonna like outdoel Car Anthony Towns, but as far as doing what they do, so I think the man's case, we just talked about his defensive stats.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: I think he's one of the best screeners in all the basketball, Barton.
34:05
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things I love about Missoula Ball is how much they empower some of these bigs to, obviously they're not initiating, but on the screen, on the rescreen, have the ball and make the decision on where the ball goes next.
34:15
SPEAKER_00: It is like this Celtics team is a whale-oiled machine, and you watch them go against a Clippers team that felt like they were starting to get back on track.
34:23
SPEAKER_00: And it's like, no, you don't can, you're not even the same stratosphere as us.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Because we hit shots.
34:29
SPEAKER_00: Derek White was on our most disappointed players list a month and a half ago.
34:33
SPEAKER_00: Since then, since that very episode, that man is on a whole nother level.
34:37
SPEAKER_00: He's hitting shots, he's pulling up intrinsics, he's got the most blocks of any guard ever.
34:40
SPEAKER_00: He's doing everything you could have imagined.
34:42
SPEAKER_00: A lot of the guys that started off relatively slow, and the Celtics were still good when they're starting off slow, have put it together.
34:48
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brown at this point in time would probably end up top five on my MVP valid.
34:54
SPEAKER_00: That's crazy.
34:55
SPEAKER_00: So, shout out to the Celtics, shout out to Jalen Brown.
34:58
SPEAKER_00: The Celtics never die, even if it may feel like they're incentivized to do so.
35:02
SPEAKER_00: They got that pick.
35:03
SPEAKER_00: It won't matter.
35:04
SPEAKER_00: When we come back, we got Phoenix Suns.
35:12
SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned earlier, I think the fact that the Phoenix Suns are actually good should be a bigger story across basketball.
35:21
SPEAKER_00: I understand the best story in the league is a San Antonio Spurs, one of the youngest teams in the league, coming out there and being a two-seed and not just being a two-seed, being a team that a lot of people, me included, put them on the cusp of contention.
35:33
SPEAKER_00: To go against OKC three times a win, that should be the number one story of the league.
35:38
SPEAKER_00: But can I remind you where the Phoenix Suns were just a year ago?
35:43
SPEAKER_00: Last year, multiple times on this show, I was very open about the Suns having Devin Booker, one of my 10 favorite players in the league, by the way, Kevin Durant, one of the best players ever and one of the most fun watches in the league, having both of them on the team together, and they literally were unwatchable for me.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: I did not watch a like a start-to-finish Suns game for the last, I don't know how many months of the season.
36:08
SPEAKER_00: I was, I was possessions, I was highlights, I was this, I was that, I was getting in and getting out.
36:12
SPEAKER_00: But from start to finish, I was not watching because it was as, I don't know, dull and there was a lack of um inspiration.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: It was so bad.
36:22
SPEAKER_00: They had the new owner syndrome come through.
36:24
SPEAKER_00: Matt Ishby comes through and says, hey, I'm gonna turn this team around.
36:28
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna trade everything that we have to go get a guy like Kevin Durant.
36:32
SPEAKER_00: And I've seen, like I mentioned, that didn't really work out well.
36:35
SPEAKER_00: But he's he is he was a new owner that felt like, I bet he felt like a god to say, I know exactly what basketball is about.
36:45
SPEAKER_00: Remember, I played at Michigan State under Izzo.
36:47
SPEAKER_00: I know what basketball is, I know how to construct a roster.
36:50
SPEAKER_00: Go trade for this guy, go trade away this guy, go destroy the foundation that the Suns had created.
36:56
SPEAKER_00: And it didn't work.
36:58
SPEAKER_00: That owner traded away everything everything.
37:02
SPEAKER_00: And new owner syndrome is real.
37:03
SPEAKER_00: We see it all the time.
37:04
SPEAKER_00: But what is rare, what is rare is when the new owner syndrome turns down a notch, and then that owner's like, oh snap, I actually got something cooking here.
37:13
SPEAKER_00: I just, I don't know.
37:15
SPEAKER_00: He traded away everything to put together, failed big three, and then coming into the season, he made fun of us because we were like, that ain't that good.
37:23
SPEAKER_00: He said, he said, y'all thought we were good for the last three years, and guess what?
37:27
SPEAKER_00: Y'all were wrong, and now y'all think we bad, you're gonna be wrong again.
37:29
SPEAKER_00: Which is one of the crazier quotes you can have.
37:32
SPEAKER_00: And then they traded away that guy, Kevin Arrant, for what felt like pennies on a dollar.
37:36
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Green, Dylan Brooks, and basically nothing.
37:39
SPEAKER_00: Like that was it.
37:40
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Green has only played five quarters this season.
37:43
SPEAKER_00: And yet, this team, as of right now, as I record this, they do have a game tonight, they have 20 wins.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: They're 20 and 14 with an over under 30 and a half.
37:51
SPEAKER_00: That should be a bigger story.
37:53
SPEAKER_00: But it's not.
37:54
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, it makes it's the Suns.
37:56
SPEAKER_00: I mean, the Suns were goddamn competing for championships, and I feel like nobody's talking about it but me because Chris Paul was on the team.
38:00
SPEAKER_00: But the owner, who was as crazy as can be when it comes to the roster construction, eventually said, My bad, let me chill.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: And instead of continuing to throw gas on his fire and having the sunken cost fallacy, which I feel like a lot of teams end up having when they trade away five first-round picks for a player, he conceded that he was wrong.
38:20
SPEAKER_00: And then now this had they have a team full of outcasts, a team full of reclamation projects, and they continue to win basketball games.
38:28
SPEAKER_00: I also think it's funny that they don't have their own first-round pick for seven years.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: Seven?
38:33
SPEAKER_00: Seven?
38:33
SPEAKER_00: And seven years, I'll be pushing 40.
38:36
SPEAKER_00: That's the next time the Suns will have the full rights to their own first-round pick.
38:40
SPEAKER_00: Brother, I will be 37 years old.
38:43
SPEAKER_00: I guess 36.
38:44
SPEAKER_00: I'm not even 30 yet.
38:45
SPEAKER_00: Let me chill, you know.
38:46
SPEAKER_00: Um now, if you want to take a look under the hood, all of their, if not almost all of their wins they've had this season are against bad teams.
38:55
SPEAKER_00: I don't care.
38:58
SPEAKER_00: Because one of the most important things when it comes to being a playoff team or being a team that's above that bottom tier is it's taking advantage of the really bad teams they come to town.
39:07
SPEAKER_00: When you go into a city like, I don't know, um, Washington, no disrespect.
39:11
SPEAKER_00: You go into a city like Brooklyn, no disrespect.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: If you believe that you're better than them, you have to dominate that team every chance that you get, and they have been able to do that.
39:18
SPEAKER_00: And they do have sneaky wins against some top-end talent, but for the most part, they're just taking care of businesses versus bad teams.
39:24
SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned earlier, Jalen Green, who going into the season, a lot of us assume would be their second most important, second most impactful player, has played a total of five quarters and they're here right now.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: You gotta give a lot of credit to Jordan Ott.
39:37
SPEAKER_00: Jordan Ott has empowered players that we had already formed opinions about.
39:44
SPEAKER_00: We knew who Dylan Brooks was, we knew who Grayson Allen was, so on and so we knew who Royce O'Neill was.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: He's empowered them to play outside of the role that we had given them as NBA players.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: When Grayson Allen has been healthy, which is uh has been rare at this point, honestly speaking, Grayson Allen's running more ball screens than any time in his career.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: He was cutting more than any time in his career.
40:06
SPEAKER_00: He's been the role man more than any time in his career.
40:09
SPEAKER_00: And as a guy that, you know, what was that year?
40:10
SPEAKER_00: When Grayson Allen, before Grayson Allen uh turned into a super soldier and put on all that um muscle, Grayson Allen had that one year where he shot 46% from three.
40:19
SPEAKER_00: That was his full identity.
40:21
SPEAKER_00: That was his full identity.
40:22
SPEAKER_00: I'm going to shoot threes.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: They may be from the logo.
40:25
SPEAKER_00: That is what they pay me for.
40:26
SPEAKER_00: And since then, it's 18 games, he's having a career year, and he is putting the ball on the floor.
40:30
SPEAKER_00: He's getting into the bass, he's doing a lot of things that we just didn't see him do in his time in Phoenix or his time in Smilwaukee or his time in Memphis.
40:37
SPEAKER_00: And I forgot about his first year in Utah, golly.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: Empowered him to be more.
40:42
SPEAKER_00: And I think what obviously that won't work for everybody.
40:44
SPEAKER_00: You know, you can't you can't empower all your players because some of the players don't have the chops to be a guy that can run pick and rolls.
40:50
SPEAKER_00: But what it allows him to do in Grayson Allen is understand that there will be times where he's gonna be able to do that.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: But sometimes the role might shift back to what you normally were paid to do for the first six years of your career, and he still will be able to do that.
41:02
SPEAKER_00: So have this have this level of dynamism.
41:04
SPEAKER_00: Is that am I putting it together this episode?
41:06
SPEAKER_00: Y'all let me know.
41:07
SPEAKER_00: To have that level of dynamism to know that Grayson Allen's not exclusively a sit-at-the-wing three-point shooter anymore, opens up the offense for so many other players.
41:16
SPEAKER_00: Dylan Brooks.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: They said Dylan Brooks belonged to the Shanghai Sharks three seasons ago.
41:22
SPEAKER_00: And since then, he's having a career year 21 points per game.
41:26
SPEAKER_00: And the first week of the NBA season, I went on numbers on the board and I said, hey man, this is our like um shout out to the Ringers fantasy football team.
41:34
SPEAKER_00: They do this thing every single week where they call intrusive thoughts.
41:38
SPEAKER_00: You know, I think you all kind of do this when you watch sports, you have something in the back of your mind and say, wait a minute, this guy ain't even that good, or or this guy does this.
41:45
SPEAKER_00: My first intrusive thought of the entire season after the Suns' first three games was Dylan Brooks is a culture shifter as a role player, which is just straight up rare.
41:55
SPEAKER_00: Um, and that has been the case.
41:57
SPEAKER_00: The Suns team had zero fight last season.
41:59
SPEAKER_00: Right now, they will not go out without one.
42:01
SPEAKER_00: He's 21 points per game, man.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: Turnaround mid-range jump shot, signature move for Dylan the villain.
42:08
SPEAKER_00: Who expected that?
42:10
SPEAKER_00: You know?
42:11
SPEAKER_00: So it's been working out really well.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: Now, I say this recognizing that their January schedule is really tough.
42:16
SPEAKER_00: They got OKC tonight as I record this episode.
42:19
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, that goes.
42:21
SPEAKER_00: And then the second head leg of a back-to-back, they got the Houston Rockets, another tough one.
42:25
SPEAKER_00: Then they got the Grizzies, who's not a great team, but also in maybe in the same tier as the Phoenix Suns.
42:29
SPEAKER_00: They got the Knicks, and they got the so they got a nice, tough schedule coming up.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: So all the things I'm saying today may be gone in two weeks' time.
42:36
SPEAKER_00: But regardless, I did want to give them their flowers because they've been doing some really cool stuff.
42:41
SPEAKER_00: I mean, even looking at the times where teams have opted to double Devin Booker, because you have um Grayson Allen, again, when he's healthy, that's able to, you know, off a double team, create for himself and create for others, that opens up that 4v3 defense or 4v uh three offense, it's just better now because they have more guys that play unselfishly and can move the ball and so on.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: Their center rotation has been good in times, bad in other times, but like like able to hold it down.
43:11
SPEAKER_00: Kyle Gillespie, who's a name, I don't know how I've not said just yet, my boy.
43:16
SPEAKER_00: And the only reason he's my boy is this is how insane covering the NBA really is.
43:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, we did an episode for the people that don't watch numbers on the board, which hello.
43:28
SPEAKER_00: Um, we did an episode, we were predicting breakout players.
43:32
SPEAKER_00: We had to predict players that like, you know, some people are like um modest Wuzellas, right?
43:38
SPEAKER_00: Some guy that a lot of people believe was gonna have a breakout year.
43:40
SPEAKER_00: Hasn't really happened.
43:41
SPEAKER_00: He's been better as of late, but it hasn't really happened.
43:43
SPEAKER_00: And then we needed a few deep cuts, these guys, deep, deep cuts.
43:47
SPEAKER_00: Colin Gillespie was one of my deep deep cuts.
43:51
SPEAKER_00: And I I'm gonna take credit, but I can't take full credit because it wasn't even off watching him play.
43:57
SPEAKER_00: I used one of my advanced analytics.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: databases to compare Ty Jerome, first couple years of his career, to somebody.
44:05
SPEAKER_00: And that somebody, the match that was closest to, was Kyle Gillespie.
44:10
SPEAKER_00: And he's having the Ty Jerome season now is different because the man Kyle Gillespie literally I feel like I've never seen him miss a three-point shot.
44:18
SPEAKER_00: But I can't take full credit because it wasn't my real thoughts.
44:22
SPEAKER_00: It was data.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: So point one for advanced analytics, I guess, because they're predicting the Kyle Gillespie breakout.
44:31
SPEAKER_00: I'm sure it's had a lot of predictions where it wasn't.
44:33
SPEAKER_00: I'm looking at Colin Gillespie's basketball reference right now.
44:35
SPEAKER_00: He's shooting 43% from three.
44:38
SPEAKER_00: 43% from three.
44:40
SPEAKER_00: A position of need for the Suns was point guard.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: They got that.
44:44
SPEAKER_00: It's Kyle Gillespie full stop.
44:46
SPEAKER_00: He's at the seven threes a game.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: But I'm also the reason I bring him up I'm looking at his basketball reference.
44:52
SPEAKER_00: You know they got the nickname portion of basketball reference.
44:54
SPEAKER_00: His nickname is villain junior as in like we just talked about Dylan the villain he's villain junior I didn't know that that was going on in Phoenix.
45:03
SPEAKER_00: I had no idea that Kylie Gillespie was a villain as well.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: We root for those uh when we come back we're gonna we're gonna take a quick jump around the league a little bit more before we get out of here there's a couple smaller topics that I want to get to I feel like every time I try to step away from this player he continues to reel me back in with Victor Wimanyama probably not classifying or qualifying I'm sorry for DPOY there's a lot of conversations of who it should go to Chet Homgren gets a lot of buzz considering the Thunder are a great defensive team and Chet Homgren's a real big part of that.
45:47
SPEAKER_00: I am starting the Rudy Gobier DPOY campaign again.
45:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't care I know voters fatigue won't give him to him he can't be would he be the only player with five it would feel weird if he's the only player with five but as I continue to watch this Minnesota Timberwolves team and watch this man complete the defense I still think he's top of the world other than Women Yama.
46:08
SPEAKER_00: Yes, I'll say it.
46:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't care I don't care about postseason.
46:12
SPEAKER_00: That's not what this award is about name one time somebody won a a DPOI based on the postseason from the previous it doesn't happen.
46:19
SPEAKER_00: This is a regular season award and one thing Rudy Gobert has done for the entirety of his career uh except for the first year he got to Minnesota is take an okay defense to an elite level defense take a good defense to the best defense ever.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: And right now when Rudy Gobert is on the court they are 13 points better defensively than when he is off.
46:42
SPEAKER_00: When he is on the court they have a defensive rating of a 109 stop playing bro stop playing bro it's politics it's politics I don't care that occasionally some guy hits a get him in isolation and they step back and he turns around who gives a damn on a possession by possession basis there's not people holding down the defense better than Rudy Gobert outside of Victor Wimanyama.
47:05
SPEAKER_00: So here's the campaign Rudy Gobert for number five come on y'all got me worked up I know I know I know I know sometimes the eye tests don't look great for Rudy because he looks like a goddamn uh a giraffe that ain't developed yet I understand but the numbers are the numbers the eye test is the eye test y'all are we watching the same Timberwolves they shut the faucet off when Gobert is on the floor anyway y'all better stop playing my boy Rudy I I saw somebody have a list where they were predicting all defensive teams Rudy wasn't even on the all okay if say say that you want to give him a DPO why sure whatever who cares not having him on all defensive team take that vote away from that voter.
47:50
SPEAKER_00: Because what are we watching?
47:52
SPEAKER_00: That literally is the definition of politicking um the Knicks defense is scaring me though on the opposite end of a great defensive player to a not so good defensive team um I read this in in Knicks film school um Substack the Knicks have not held a team to under 110 points since December 9th we're almost about to go a month in time where they have not held a team under 110.
48:14
SPEAKER_00: Now for what is worth two nights ago against Atlanta a game that they lost they held the Atlanta Hawks to 111 so like they were one point away but who cares?
48:23
SPEAKER_00: In that game versus the 76ers, Tyree Smaxy, VJ Edgecomb, Jordan B got everything and anything they could have wanted.
48:31
SPEAKER_00: And I kind of want to give somewhat of I normally would give a little bit more grace considering this is the second leg of a back to back for the New York Knicks.
48:39
SPEAKER_00: But when we talk about it being a month's time they are 27th in defense the last month I I I know I mean like I'm a guy that believes that the Knicks are the best team in the Eastern Conference but when your your floor defensively is that low a team can come in and beat you in seven man they literally can.
48:57
SPEAKER_00: And I don't mean you have to get to the conference finals to get beaten seven if your defense is that bad.
49:01
SPEAKER_00: Luckily for them the offense is like really good.
49:04
SPEAKER_00: So like some nights it's all about getting timely stops and they've been able to do that on some nights other ones it's no stops coming.
49:13
SPEAKER_00: And it's like we got to play with fire.
49:14
SPEAKER_00: We got to continue to run and we got to continue to score every single possession because we're not getting the stops that we need.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: So it's just something that's in the back of mind sometimes I I try to figure out how much how much weight should something hold for the overall conversation about a team is a month sample size of being one of the worst defensive teams in the league I feel like that's something worth talking about regardless of what your team record is.
49:34
SPEAKER_00: So we'll see we'll see man I just I mean I don't think anybody looked at the Knicks and said yeah this is going to be a great off uh defensive team they they got rid of one of the best defensive coaches ever and they replaced him with somebody that's like normally was a good defensive coach, right?
49:47
SPEAKER_00: That was how he ended up getting his name for himself back at Cleveland and all but he's now transitioned to a better offensive coach because of his time with the Warriors and all.
49:56
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know something I'm monitoring.
49:58
SPEAKER_00: It's not just black and white when it comes to the Eastern conference because the Knicks and the Pistons are at the top neither of those teams are teams that I feel like are destined to just be in the conference finals.
50:10
SPEAKER_00: Hopefully there's another great episode of almost that numbers on the board of Smallball with Kitty Beach and I will see y'all next week tune in to the Enjoy Basketball hour every single day Monday through Friday 12 o'clock Eastern love you bye