Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / What's Next for the Timberwolves? Are the Pacers and Thunder the Blueprint?

Transcript

What's Next for the Timberwolves? Are the Pacers and Thunder the Blueprint? · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:00
SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to another episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecham.
0:03
SPEAKER_00: As I record this Thursday afternoon, we are down to our last three teams.
0:06
SPEAKER_00: And as you're watching or listen to this, we could be down to our last two.
0:09
SPEAKER_00: That is kind of insane.
0:11
SPEAKER_00: It feels like just yesterday, I was watching a game while putting together the desk that I am using right now.
0:18
SPEAKER_00: And I was watching the Pacers play against the New York Knicks in the garden.
0:22
SPEAKER_00: And I was watching Tarys Halliburton put up zero.
0:27
SPEAKER_00: Literally put up zero in the first week of the NBA season.
0:31
SPEAKER_00: Now that same Tarys Halliburton just gave us maybe the perfect point guard game in the history of basketball when it comes to comes to the postseason.
0:38
SPEAKER_00: 30 plus points, 15 assists, 12 rebounds, zero turnovers.
0:42
SPEAKER_00: The season has been a blast.
0:43
SPEAKER_00: We still got at least one more series left.
0:45
SPEAKER_00: It has been a blast, and I want to say I appreciate you for watching this show or whatever shows you have watched under this Enjoy Basketball Network or my YouTube channels throughout the course of it.
0:54
SPEAKER_00: I can't wait.
0:55
SPEAKER_00: Well, I can't wait because I do want basketball to continue.
0:57
SPEAKER_00: But I always love at the end of the season to review the content I put out so I could be better for next year.
1:02
SPEAKER_00: And I already got some notes that I'm I'm I'm we here, baby.
1:07
SPEAKER_00: I asked you to leave a like on the episode, subscribe to the channel, go over to watch the other shows on the network, numbers on the board.
1:13
SPEAKER_00: We're dropping Tuesdays and Saturdays, but now we're dropping on ESPN2 twice a week, too.
1:19
SPEAKER_00: So that is Tuesday as well.
1:21
SPEAKER_00: So we get two Tuesday shows, different shows, by the way.
1:23
SPEAKER_00: And now we do a Thursday show as well, which is kind of insane to say that you have a TV show, but not just one time a week, but two times a week.
1:29
SPEAKER_00: And then lastly, we got um teed up with Pierre Andreessen, where he just had Ray Hibbert, the Mr.
1:34
SPEAKER_00: Verticality himself on the pod to talk about Knicks versus Pacers.
1:37
SPEAKER_00: Now, I haven't listened to it just yet, but based on the way Pierre explained it to me, it's an absolute banger.
1:42
SPEAKER_00: So you get a diehard Knicks fan who's back against the wall, down 3-1, and a Pacer legend.
1:47
SPEAKER_00: And they're competing, they're debating.
1:49
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, but it seemed like they had a blast doing it.
1:52
SPEAKER_00: So go check all of those shows out.
1:54
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
1:55
SPEAKER_00: People are asking me, Kenny, if hypothetically, if the Pacers do close the series tonight, what are you gonna do for the next week?
2:00
SPEAKER_00: Because game one in the NBA finals is to Thursday.
2:02
SPEAKER_00: That is where I'm gonna start my NBA draft stuff.
2:06
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, I'm committed to it this year.
2:08
SPEAKER_00: We're doing a special draft show.
2:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give too much away.
2:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't want to give too much away.
2:12
SPEAKER_00: We're doing a very special draft show.
2:14
SPEAKER_00: And the last thing I'm gonna do is look like a jackass.
2:17
SPEAKER_00: So I want to make sure I lock into as many prospects as possible.
2:19
SPEAKER_00: We just got a signature account, something I mentioned last week when we had Subert on.
2:23
SPEAKER_00: So I can watch every single Carter Bryant pull-up jump shot if I wanted to.
2:27
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I will, but I'm locking into the NBA draft, and maybe we do a little bit of draft conversations next week when we preview the NBA finals.
2:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, let's get into talk about the Minnesota Timbs first.
2:38
SPEAKER_00: They lost a five-game series to the Oklahoma City Thunder.
2:42
SPEAKER_00: I already did a video doing a recap of game number five, so I don't want to go too deep into that game specifically, other than saying that the OKC Thunder, we talked about it all season long.
2:51
SPEAKER_00: Historic defense, poised to go on a deep run, and now they are four games away from being the NBA champions.
2:57
SPEAKER_00: I think I kind of want to talk about the conversation around the Minnesota Timberwolves after losing this series because though my screen time on Twitter is a lot lower now than it was, let's say, a year ago, I do occasionally tap in and see what NBA Twitter is having conversations about.
3:13
SPEAKER_00: And I know I am guilty of this as well, not to the extreme that Twitter does, but I am a person that becomes a prisoner of the moment.
3:19
SPEAKER_00: I am definitely a recency biased guy.
3:21
SPEAKER_00: Hell, I just said two minutes ago that Tyrese Halliburn just had one of the best point guard performances of all time.
3:26
SPEAKER_00: Guess what?
3:26
SPEAKER_00: I didn't even watch the 80s or the 70s or the 90s.
3:28
SPEAKER_00: So I couldn't even say it definitively.
3:31
SPEAKER_00: But in the moment, it feels like it, right?
3:33
SPEAKER_00: And I feel like people over on Twitter or all these other platforms, they are quick to anoint someone when things are going amazingly and quick to dethrone them immediately after doing something bad.
3:44
SPEAKER_00: And I'm talking about on the basketball court.
3:46
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the conversations are around Anthony Edwards, who, you know, they're throughout the course of the series, we saw him be ultra aggressive at points.
3:53
SPEAKER_00: We saw him have games where he couldn't get to the basket or he didn't shoot shots until later into the game and just ended up being very weird.
4:02
SPEAKER_00: Again, just talking about the conversation.
4:04
SPEAKER_00: Even this morning, no shots, but on Get Up, they had a segment that the lower third, and I didn't watch the segment, so I don't know what they responded to this, but the lower third said something along the lines.
4:14
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to Christian for sending this to me.
4:16
SPEAKER_00: Did we crown Anthony Edwards as a superstar too early?
4:21
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards is a 24, or maybe even 23.
4:25
SPEAKER_00: He might even be 23.
4:26
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'll just add it an extra year on his life.
4:28
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Edwards is a 23-year-old guy that just led his team to the conference finals and back-to-back seasons.
4:38
SPEAKER_00: Getting there once is hard.
4:40
SPEAKER_00: Damian Lillard knows that because he's only done it once.
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Right?
4:43
SPEAKER_00: Getting there is hard.
4:45
SPEAKER_00: The Clippers know that.
4:46
SPEAKER_00: They've only done it once in the Kawhi Leonard era.
4:48
SPEAKER_00: So the fact that Anthony Edwards, at this young age of 23, has done it twice already, and back-to-back seasons should be should be celebrated more than he is torn down at this moment.
4:58
SPEAKER_00: Yes, we can acknowledge that this wasn't the great Anthony Edwards series that we saw in the first round versus the Lakers.
5:04
SPEAKER_00: Or we can acknowledge that he got to the conference finals last year and we saw some similar, similar uh stuff happen on the court to this year.
5:12
SPEAKER_00: But we also have to recognize that he is just 23 years old.
5:16
SPEAKER_00: 23 years old, historically, they're just not this good.
5:20
SPEAKER_00: Full stop.
5:21
SPEAKER_00: Historically, we just don't see 23-year-olds lead their team to the conference finals multiple times.
5:25
SPEAKER_00: And not just the conference finals, the conference finals in the league that we deem to be, or the conference that we deem to be the tougher of the two conferences.
5:32
SPEAKER_00: Oh, who's gonna come out of the West?
5:34
SPEAKER_00: Who's gonna come out of the West?
5:35
SPEAKER_00: This is a dogfight.
5:36
SPEAKER_00: The difference between being the two seed and the seventh seed is one and a half games.
5:40
SPEAKER_00: Everybody's good out there.
5:41
SPEAKER_00: And he's led his team to the conference finals twice.
5:45
SPEAKER_00: So we need to just chill.
5:46
SPEAKER_00: We just need to chill.
5:48
SPEAKER_00: Because one thing we know about Anthony Edwards is every single season of his NBA career so far, he's come back the next year better.
5:57
SPEAKER_00: His first year of his NBA career, where he was second in rookie of the year to, I think it was LaMelo Ball, he shot 20, I'm sorry, 33% from three, if I'm rounding up.
6:06
SPEAKER_00: He shot 33% from three, average 19 points per game.
6:08
SPEAKER_00: The year after that, he becomes nearly a league average three-point shooter at 35.7.
6:12
SPEAKER_00: The year after that, it is 37%.
6:13
SPEAKER_00: The year after that, he drops down a little bit.
6:15
SPEAKER_00: And this is where people are like, man, he got to add some more jump shooters, some more three-point shooting into his game.
6:20
SPEAKER_00: This year he led the league in three-point makes and nearly shot 40% on those.
6:26
SPEAKER_00: We've seen him get better and better and better.
6:30
SPEAKER_00: And in his post-game interview, um, after losing game number five, he mentioned that there's nobody in the league that's gonna work harder than him this offseason.
6:39
SPEAKER_00: And guess what?
6:40
SPEAKER_00: Based on the track record, I believe him.
6:44
SPEAKER_00: He went from a guy that was just not a great shooter to one of the premier shooters in the league.
6:50
SPEAKER_00: Even just last season, after they lost to Dallas, if I told you that Anthony Ewitz was going to be one of the two best jump shooters in the league next year, you'd probably call me crazy, wouldn't you?
7:00
SPEAKER_00: He added that to his game.
7:01
SPEAKER_00: So maybe we can have the conversation of what he should be focused on, but he I think he knows.
7:05
SPEAKER_00: He said he's not even gonna tell the public, he's just gonna come back and do it.
7:08
SPEAKER_00: And one of the things may have to do with continuing to grow as a ball handler, as a creator for not just himself and others.
7:16
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's one thing that will get lost throughout the course of this series throughout history, is that I thought for all it was worth, again, him going against a historic defense that causes a gazillion turnovers per game for the other team, I thought he did a damn good job making the right play more often than not.
7:30
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, he piled up some turnovers throughout the course of this series, but more often than not, when he did get his paint, his feet into the paint, he made the right move, whether that be going up for himself or kicking out to the corners for shooters and so on and so forth.
7:42
SPEAKER_00: It got so bad that the noise got so loud that even in game number five, Anthony Edwards became, I think this may sound a little bit crazy, make became too aggressive because people talk about him being not aggressive at game number four.
7:55
SPEAKER_00: And Anthony Edwards said after game four that he doesn't believe he had a bad game.
7:59
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of people push back on that and said, Ant-Man, you're one of the two best players at your position, if not the best player at your position.
8:05
SPEAKER_00: We need you to attempt more than what, 13 or 14 shots or so.
8:08
SPEAKER_00: And and I can agree with that sentiment.
8:10
SPEAKER_00: But even then, considering how many open looks he got to his team and considering how much pressure he did put on that rim in that game, I don't know if I can look at it and say, damn, he had a bad game.
8:21
SPEAKER_00: Now, if you want to say it was underwhelming considering the circumstances, I can agree there, but bad?
8:26
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I can get there.
8:28
SPEAKER_00: See, there are times in history where a player can have a good game or a solid game or an average game without the jump shot falling.
8:36
SPEAKER_00: On the opposite side of the conference finals, Tyrese Halliburton has had multiple games throughout this season, throughout his career, where you look at the final box score and they say he has 12 points, but you look at and say, damn, he was pretty damn good tonight.
8:47
SPEAKER_00: Now, Ant-Man is not in that tier of playmaker, obviously, but like it doesn't always have to be, oh, he shot 27% from the field.
8:54
SPEAKER_00: He shot 38% from the field, and that means that he had a bad game.
8:58
SPEAKER_00: One thing that that has been on my mind a lot throughout the course of the series as we watch Anthony Edwards basically be the only ball handler on the team.
9:05
SPEAKER_00: Let's be real.
9:06
SPEAKER_00: Uncle Mike is 37 years old.
9:07
SPEAKER_00: He can add a little bit of value here or there, but he's not a guy that is facilitating like he would have been even just three years ago.
9:13
SPEAKER_00: Julius Randle was asked to be the secondary creator for the team.
9:16
SPEAKER_00: He got mauled at this entire series, and it made me rethink what the hell was gonna happen this offseason with Julius Randle.
9:22
SPEAKER_00: After two great series, where he even got Draymond Green to convince that he lost a series or lost a matchup.
9:27
SPEAKER_00: This series, I'm like, oh snap, do they even want to bring him back at that evaluation?
9:31
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know.
9:32
SPEAKER_00: So nobody else on this team is creating for others.
9:36
SPEAKER_00: Nobody on this else in this team do you trust to bring the ball up, other than Anthony Edwards?
9:40
SPEAKER_00: It got me thinking about how we get to the point, and this is part of the evolution of basketball, and I don't even know if this is a good or bad thing, how players that we don't see as point guards or league guards or league for elite facilitators, when they become so damn good, and Anthony Edwards is so damn good, it is easy for you as a guy that's curating the offense or building a team to say, hey, he's gonna be that point guard, if you will.
10:03
SPEAKER_00: He's gonna be our initiator.
10:04
SPEAKER_00: It has now happened with Anthony Edwards to various levels of success, obviously conference finals.
10:09
SPEAKER_00: It happened with Jason Tatum when we got two guards in the team with Derek White and Drew Holiday, but the last two playoff runs, Tatum was basically playing the point guard position.
10:18
SPEAKER_00: And what we've seen is that teams have taken a step back and be like, we want to get there, but the player has to showcase to us that he could be the lead initiator.
10:26
SPEAKER_00: And Tatum has done a really good job of being able to do that.
10:28
SPEAKER_00: And Anthony Ewers is getting to that point.
10:30
SPEAKER_00: But it makes me wonder I think that the OKC Thunder were just better, right?
10:34
SPEAKER_00: Full stop, just better.
10:35
SPEAKER_00: They have been better than every team this season.
10:37
SPEAKER_00: It's not a surprise to me that they're in the NBA Finals right now.
10:40
SPEAKER_00: But if I'm looking for next season where the Minnesota Timbows are trying to be back in the spot, but hopefully have a different result, I think you have to think about adding another ball handler or creator alongside Anthony Edwards.
10:53
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I ooh, I got synergy now, so I can go look at this.
10:56
SPEAKER_00: But I'm I'm thinking about when I was a kid or just younger throughout my high school or whatever, watching.
11:01
SPEAKER_00: I just feel like we didn't get this many non-point guards as primary ball handlers and facilitators.
11:07
SPEAKER_00: And I want to go back and look at that.
11:09
SPEAKER_00: I do want to go back and look at that.
11:10
SPEAKER_00: But we're seeing it more and more every single season.
11:12
SPEAKER_00: We're like, I wouldn't be surprised if next year we see this combination, and maybe we did see it this year because uh Jalen Suggers out, where it's more like Paulo Bencaro, you're now our point center, or Franz Wagner, y'all gonna share these duties.
11:23
SPEAKER_00: And we again, we did see a decent amount this year.
11:25
SPEAKER_00: We're gonna have you guys share this duty as being the league guy.
11:29
SPEAKER_00: Um, on a lesser scale, like Tyler Hero in Miami has done it as well, where like you don't look over the course of Tyler Hero's career, you never thought of him as a point guard, but he's gonna be our facilitator right now.
11:41
SPEAKER_00: And I don't know if that's a good or bad thing just yet, but I know in Anthony Elwitz's case, at least at this point in his career, he would benefit a lot from just having another guy to take that pressure off as a ball handler.
11:51
SPEAKER_00: Tatum has grown into that role, and they happen to have the greatest like construction of role players where like they can supplement his deficiencies wherever they may be.
12:01
SPEAKER_00: Um, but is it something I'm thinking about a lot?
12:03
SPEAKER_00: I think I don't know how you can look at this Minnesota Timbulls team and say that this wasn't a successful season.
12:09
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, you would have hoped to give more push to the OKC Thunder or win this series, but considering where you were at the beginning of the year, where right before training camp, you made a financial move to trade one of the greatest players in your franchise history.
12:21
SPEAKER_00: You made a financial move to get more um creativity or more flexibility down the line as Carnthony Towns is sometimes sticking it up in the opposite conference and making a ton of money over the next three years.
12:33
SPEAKER_00: You made a decision to trade away that guy for a role player and Dante DiVincenzo, and then a guy on an expiring contract, a good guy on an expiring contract, but nonetheless a guy on the expiring.
12:43
SPEAKER_00: So you look at that, I think a lot of people, me included, was like, man, immediately as that trade happened, we're like the Minnesota Timbus just went from a team that next year can win a championship to a team that probably won't be able to do it.
12:54
SPEAKER_00: And again, they didn't do it, so maybe we're right, maybe we're wrong.
12:57
SPEAKER_00: But given that, making it to the conference finals in this stock-stacked conference is a good season.
13:04
SPEAKER_00: It's just a good season.
13:05
SPEAKER_00: Anthony Elit's progression that we mentioned earlier, Jaden McDaniels being able to find himself as a put the ball on the floor occasionally, make the right play occasionally, and then make more than just corner three-point shots, that's a successful run for him as a what?
13:21
SPEAKER_00: I think he's 24.
13:22
SPEAKER_00: You know, it's easy for us to kind of put a cap on some of these players because we they come in so early, but Jaden McDaniels is still growing as a player.
13:29
SPEAKER_00: And I saw a lot of great things about him this season that like I'm excited to see what he does in this offseason to make him better next year because you know what the defense is going to be.
13:37
SPEAKER_00: So if he continues to grow as an offensive player, it just adds more weapons to the team.
13:41
SPEAKER_00: One of the questions going into the offseason for them is like, obviously, what happens with Julius Randle?
13:46
SPEAKER_00: And I still don't know the answer to that, by the way.
13:48
SPEAKER_00: But I think the Rudy Gobert stuff is very interesting.
13:50
SPEAKER_00: Full stop, just eye tests, so on and so forth.
13:54
SPEAKER_00: This was not a great playoff run for Rudy Gobert.
13:57
SPEAKER_00: Actually, it was a below average for him himself.
13:59
SPEAKER_00: And y'all know that a lot of people don't like his playoff runs throughout his uh his career so far.
14:04
SPEAKER_00: He obviously had the Lakers game.
14:05
SPEAKER_00: That was one of the greatest, ridiculous games we'll see.
14:09
SPEAKER_00: But even in this series, I feel like he was kind of a nothing.
14:13
SPEAKER_00: And as I say that, um, I was sent a screenshot from the user um know what happened was.
14:20
SPEAKER_00: And Rudy Gobert is always going to be an advanced stats darling.
14:27
SPEAKER_00: Right?
14:27
SPEAKER_00: There are guys that are just like this.
14:29
SPEAKER_00: Now, some of these guys also have the counting stats to prove it.
14:31
SPEAKER_00: Like Alice Caruso, always gonna be an advanced stats darling because, well, he plays great defense and the defense is contagious, but Alice Caruso also has the three steals and two blocks to show you, like, oh, this guy's a great defender.
14:44
SPEAKER_00: Derek White was in this case for a long time.
14:45
SPEAKER_00: Or like even before Derek White was who he is today, you would look at the advanced stats and be like, damn, his team was plus 16, have a 16 plus net rating when he's on the floor.
14:54
SPEAKER_00: That don't even sound right, but it is right.
14:56
SPEAKER_00: Rudigo Bear's in that tier of player as far as the advanced stats go.
15:00
SPEAKER_00: And I do also want to say before I read these stats that we're talking about a fucking five-game sample size.
15:05
SPEAKER_00: But if these this five-game sample size, these numbers that we read also traverse the series before this and the series before that in the last seven years, then maybe there's something.
15:14
SPEAKER_00: Listen, I'm not, again, I know I'm known as a Rudy Gobert guy on Instagram and Twitter and stuff, and it's kind of become a meme and everything.
15:21
SPEAKER_00: Again, I recognize that he was not impactful in the way that you need him to be impactful.
15:25
SPEAKER_00: But the numbers say in the 131 minutes that he played in the Western Conference Finals, he had a net rating of a plus 3.9.
15:32
SPEAKER_00: And the 109 minutes that he was off the floor, the team had a net rating of a minus 16.
15:38
SPEAKER_00: So that is a almost almost 20-point swing.
15:42
SPEAKER_00: Interesting.
15:43
SPEAKER_00: OKC's offensive rating per 100 possessions.
15:46
SPEAKER_00: All Liddy Sats are per 100 possessions against Minnesota in the Western Conference Finals.
15:52
SPEAKER_00: When Rudy Gobert was on, the OKC Thunder had an offensive rating of a 110.7 and again 131 minutes.
15:59
SPEAKER_00: When he was off, that offensive rating blossomed up to 128.4.
16:04
SPEAKER_00: Something's there, right?
16:06
SPEAKER_00: And then somebody replied to Mr.
16:08
SPEAKER_00: Know What Happened was saying, like, yeah, man, it felt like Chet Holmgren was a lot better when Rudy Gobert was not on the floor.
16:14
SPEAKER_00: Here's Chet Homgren's stats in the Western Conference finance per 100 possessions.
16:18
SPEAKER_00: When Rudy Gobert was on the floor, we're talking about 24 points per 100 possessions, which is still pretty good on 55.7% true shooting.
16:25
SPEAKER_00: When Rudy Gobert was off the floor, Chet Holmgren had uh 40.5 points per 100 possessions on a 72.9 true shooting.
16:39
SPEAKER_00: The counted stats are disgusting for Rudy Gobert.
16:42
SPEAKER_00: Undoubtedly disgusting counted stats.
16:45
SPEAKER_00: For him to be as big as let me see what these counted stats ended up being.
16:48
SPEAKER_00: For him to be as big as he is, there is no situation where he should average as little rebounds as he did in that series.
16:54
SPEAKER_00: I'm pulling them up as we speak.
16:56
SPEAKER_00: So in this series, Rudigo Bear averaged in this series, Rudy Gobert averaged six points per game.
17:05
SPEAKER_00: Six rebounds.
17:07
SPEAKER_00: An assist.
17:09
SPEAKER_00: Oh, they don't have his turnovers.
17:11
SPEAKER_00: Hold on, hold on.
17:13
SPEAKER_00: And uh a half a turnover.
17:16
SPEAKER_00: In a five-game series, Rudy Gobert scored 29 points.
17:19
SPEAKER_00: That's nasty.
17:21
SPEAKER_00: And what we saw is that his minutes decrease every single series.
17:24
SPEAKER_00: 28 minutes per game in the Lakers series, 27 minutes per game in the Warriors series, and then 26 minutes per game in this series.
17:31
SPEAKER_00: Um so you have to figure out for yourself if you are Tim Connolly and the guys over or the people over that make the decisions with the Minnesota Timberwolves.
17:43
SPEAKER_00: What do you think is more important?
17:45
SPEAKER_00: Those three different advanced stats that I read to you?
17:49
SPEAKER_00: Or the counted stats?
17:52
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
17:53
SPEAKER_00: Because as much as I just read to you how great the on-off defensive numbers were, I don't have those same those same numbers for the offensive rating for the team.
18:00
SPEAKER_00: For all we know, based on right now, the Minnesota Timbull's offense could have tanked.
18:05
SPEAKER_00: Nope, nope, because I didn't that rating.
18:06
SPEAKER_00: Never mind.
18:07
SPEAKER_00: Never mind.
18:08
SPEAKER_00: Never mind.
18:09
SPEAKER_00: Rudy Gobert stand is still standing, I guess.
18:14
SPEAKER_00: No, I I think that there you would have the conversation about there being a true limit to who you can be as a team if Rudy Gobert is your backline and he's only getting older and he's just signed an extension.
18:25
SPEAKER_00: So these are real conversations.
18:26
SPEAKER_00: And then you think to yourself, okay, hypothetically, if you did want to move Rudy Gobert, who's who's buying a center right now?
18:31
SPEAKER_00: It's not many teams.
18:32
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers are buying a center, they don't want fucking Rudy Gobert.
18:34
SPEAKER_00: The Warriors are buying a center, maybe they don't want fucking Rudy Gobert.
18:37
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna get become teammates with the dude that strangled you on national TV.
18:41
SPEAKER_00: Probably not.
18:42
SPEAKER_00: Um, so it probably stuck with him.
18:44
SPEAKER_00: And you have to recognize that, yeah, he might be able to do so-and-so things, but it also might have a ceiling on it.
18:50
SPEAKER_00: Um, so some interesting stuff.
18:52
SPEAKER_00: They also have the 17th overall pick this year.
18:53
SPEAKER_00: Didn't know that until like yesterday.
18:55
SPEAKER_00: I mean, it's a it's a decent enough draft class with 17th overall pick could be interesting, right?
19:00
SPEAKER_00: You saw some things in this series with Tierra Shannon Jr., the guy you drafted this year.
19:03
SPEAKER_00: You know, he might become a real rotational player going into next year.
19:05
SPEAKER_00: So I say that all to say, though there are some real questions with Minnesota, you should still feel pretty good about what this season turned out to be.
19:13
SPEAKER_00: And there's still a lot of optimism for the rest of the you know time that Anthony Edwards has here, which hopefully is the entirety of his career.
19:21
SPEAKER_00: Before we go into talking a little bit about OKC and the Indiana Pacers, I want to let you know that if you load up FanDuel Sportsbook right now, they got NBA Finals MVP odds.
19:31
SPEAKER_00: Now, I do want to say that it's subject to change as if I'm recording this video.
19:34
SPEAKER_00: We don't even know who's winning the Eastern Conference just yet.
19:36
SPEAKER_00: But as of today, Shea Gildis Alexander, the Magic Johnson Western Conference player, Western Conference MVP is a minus 600 to win finals MVP.
19:46
unknown: Damn.
19:48
SPEAKER_00: Hey man, this team is electric.
19:50
SPEAKER_00: After that, Tyres Halliburton is at a plus 800.
19:54
SPEAKER_00: The difference between the minus 600 plus the second place and plus 800 is crazy.
19:58
SPEAKER_00: Then you have JW at plus 3,300, and then Jalen Bronson, they still think there's a chance that they can come back and win in seven is plus 3,500.
20:05
SPEAKER_00: But again, like I mentioned earlier, that is subject to change.
20:08
SPEAKER_00: Um, obviously, Shea Gilles Alezander should be the heavy favorite based on him being as consistent as anybody in the postseason so far and his team being as dominant as they are.
20:16
SPEAKER_00: Uh, but you never know.
20:18
SPEAKER_00: Right?
20:18
SPEAKER_00: You never really know.
20:19
SPEAKER_00: I remember um going into the Cavs series.
20:23
SPEAKER_00: I didn't think that the Pacers would win that series, but I thought the odds were too good not for me to put a little bit of bread on.
20:28
SPEAKER_00: I put, I think I put 250 on it, walked out of there with a little bit of change, you know.
20:32
SPEAKER_00: Not again, not thinking about them actually winning the series and they did.
20:36
SPEAKER_00: So you never really know these odds.
20:37
SPEAKER_00: Things are always shifting, and anything can happen in the NBA as we are seeing as the Indiana Pacers are one game away from being in the finals.
20:45
SPEAKER_00: Um the NBA playoffs are underway, so don't miss your chance to bet on all the clutch shots and legendary performances with FanDuel, America's number one sports book.
20:59
SPEAKER_00: FanDuel is your best place to find your favorite player props.
21:03
SPEAKER_00: And now you can make heads-up plays with player performance trends.
21:07
SPEAKER_00: That means whether you want to bet on a player to drop 30 or to put up a triple-double, you can check the latest stats and see who's hot without leaving the app.
21:16
SPEAKER_00: Plus, after the game tips off, you can combine live prop bets with the same game parlay for a chance for a big win.
21:23
SPEAKER_00: Right now, you know I'm looking at round two of the playoffs, those young guards and the Cleveland Cavaliers going against the Pacers defense, it might be kind of nice.
21:32
SPEAKER_00: So if you don't already have FanDuel, it's not too late to jump into the playoff action.
21:37
SPEAKER_00: You'll get started with$200 in bonus bets if your first five dollar bet wins.
21:43
SPEAKER_00: So just visit fanDuel.com slash Kenny to join today.
21:47
SPEAKER_00: Make every moment more with FanDuel, official sports betting partner of the NBA.
21:51
SPEAKER_00: First twenty one plus and president and select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Arcanine.
21:54
SPEAKER_00: Or 18 plus and president and DC.
21:55
SPEAKER_00: First online real money wager only.
21:56
SPEAKER_00: $5 first deposit required.
21:57
SPEAKER_00: Bonus issue is non withdrawable bonus bets, which expire seven days after receipt.
21:59
SPEAKER_00: Restrictions apply.
22:00
SPEAKER_00: See terms at sportsbook.fanduel.com.
22:01
SPEAKER_00: Gambling problem call 1800 GAML or visit fanduel.com slash RG.
22:04
SPEAKER_00: Call 1888.789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgambling help.org in Maryland.
22:09
SPEAKER_00: Hope is here.
22:10
SPEAKER_00: Visit gambling help line MA.org or call 800-327-5050 for 247 support in Massachusetts.
22:14
SPEAKER_00: Or call 1877-8 Hope NY or text Hope NY in New York.
22:23
SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't want to go too much into this because the series might be over by the time you listen to this, but there was an article that I saw.
22:30
SPEAKER_00: And I do want to say before I even reference this article, maybe this is the worst thing I could say right now.
22:35
SPEAKER_00: I didn't read the article.
22:37
SPEAKER_00: Because I didn't want my thoughts about the topic of the article to be swayed either way.
22:42
SPEAKER_00: So same thing I said about podcasts.
22:43
SPEAKER_00: I'm not listening to NBA podcast because I refuse, even though I really want to know what Zach Lowe is thinking right now, I refuse to be inspired by Zach Lowe's takes.
22:51
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
22:53
SPEAKER_00: And I think I mentioned this in an article that was being written.
22:56
SPEAKER_00: That like when I say that, that don't mean that like if I listen to Zach Lowe, I was gonna come on the Kenny Beach and podcast.
23:00
SPEAKER_00: Nope, small ball, Kenny Beach and Regurgit, he's thinking, but like if if if Zach Lowe or Rasillo or I don't know who else is out there, O'Connor, they're saying something very specific, then I have a tendency to think about that while watching the next game.
23:16
SPEAKER_00: So if you say, Oh yeah, Tarry's Halliburton, I'm just making some stuff up.
23:20
SPEAKER_00: Tarry's Halliburton, when he's on the left wing and they start the action over there, they have a success rate of this.
23:24
SPEAKER_00: Now, the next time I watch Tyrese Halliburton, that's the only thing I can fucking think about.
23:27
SPEAKER_00: So that is why I'm not listening to NBA podcasts for the rest of the season.
23:30
SPEAKER_00: Um, hopefully I can pick back up next year because I'm I know there are a lot of great minds out there.
23:35
SPEAKER_00: Um and I I do enjoy listening to basketball shows.
23:39
SPEAKER_00: As y'all know, I've been listening to a lot of college basketball.
23:41
SPEAKER_00: And um shout out to Sue Bird, our guest from last week.
23:44
SPEAKER_00: I've been listening to her shows as well.
23:46
SPEAKER_00: So anyway, the article name or something along the lines was Can the Chicago Bulls use the Indiana Pacers as a blueprint?
23:57
SPEAKER_00: One thing that I was asking people um close to me, like, you listen to small ball?
24:01
SPEAKER_00: They're like, Yeah, we listen to small ball.
24:02
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, What is what would be your major criticism about small ball if you had one?
24:07
SPEAKER_00: Um luckily they did because I always want to get better.
24:10
SPEAKER_00: I like what people give me criticism.
24:11
SPEAKER_00: So if you have criticism, please let me know in the comments section because I always want to put together a great show for you.
24:14
SPEAKER_00: They were like, it's not enough, Kenny Beecham.
24:19
SPEAKER_00: What the hell that mean?
24:20
SPEAKER_00: The whole show is an hour of me talking.
24:22
SPEAKER_00: What the hell you mean it ain't enough, Kenny Beacham?
24:23
SPEAKER_00: You know what I'm saying?
24:25
SPEAKER_00: And they were saying that um we just don't get my my fandom as much as we should.
24:31
SPEAKER_00: And I asked for examples.
24:33
SPEAKER_00: Like, what do you what do you mean?
24:35
SPEAKER_00: And um Chris, Chris said, Well, my number one podcast every single year is is Bill Simmons.
24:42
SPEAKER_00: And like, you want you want me to be you want me to use the Bulls in every analogy, just like Bill Simmons used used the Celtics?
24:49
SPEAKER_00: I could I can fucking do it, man.
24:52
SPEAKER_00: So yes, I'm gonna talk about the Bulls today on um May 29th, where they have been at home for a month and a half.
24:59
SPEAKER_00: I've been watching Instagram stories.
25:01
SPEAKER_00: Every single player on our team has gone on one to two vacations already, and damn it, I'm still bringing them up.
25:06
SPEAKER_00: Uh, the short end of it, uh, no, no.
25:09
SPEAKER_00: The Bulls can't use the Indiana Pacers as a blueprint.
25:12
SPEAKER_00: And it kind of goes into the OKC talk as well, because it's very easy for us to kind of look at the teams that are successful right now and be like, yeah, we can replicate that.
25:21
SPEAKER_00: Well, I think that the what the Indiana Pacers have been able to do is somewhat of an anomaly.
25:24
SPEAKER_00: And I think what the OKC Thunder are doing is an anomaly as well.
25:28
SPEAKER_00: What do you mean, Kenny?
25:29
SPEAKER_00: The Pacers, if you're thinking about the blueprint that is the Pacers, the Pacers have drafted well.
25:34
SPEAKER_00: They've made trades, timely trades, time and time again.
25:37
SPEAKER_00: And for the last 30 years, this is a real stat.
25:41
SPEAKER_00: In the last 30 years, they've only had a top five or top 10 pick one time.
25:46
SPEAKER_00: One dime.
25:48
SPEAKER_00: So you talk about using them as a blueprint.
25:50
SPEAKER_00: There's a level of stability there where this team is notoriously just always in the playoffs.
25:55
SPEAKER_00: This team is always in the hunt.
25:57
SPEAKER_00: And they have a few seasons now where they were able to get over just being a playoff team.
26:02
SPEAKER_00: And now, again, they're one game away from being in the NBA Finals.
26:04
SPEAKER_00: But the reason I push back on it potentially being a blueprint is that you have to trust the people in charge.
26:11
SPEAKER_00: You have to trust that they can find an Andrew Nimhard at the end of the first round, early second round.
26:16
SPEAKER_00: You gotta, you gotta trust that when everybody's grading your trade as an F when you trade away Malcolm Broad, then that you say to yourself, no, we gotta, we got something here in Aaron Eastmith.
26:27
SPEAKER_00: You gotta find a way to finesse other general managers.
26:30
SPEAKER_00: The Patriots are not here if they don't make the trade to Monster Sabonis for and Buddy Healed for Jeremy Lamb and the Holiday Brother and Tyree Talliburton.
26:40
SPEAKER_00: What is the likelihood that you can replicate a trade like that if you're the Bulls?
26:44
SPEAKER_00: Any part of history?
26:46
SPEAKER_00: Not very high.
26:48
SPEAKER_00: The super, the super, super in the the Circle Bulls fans might be like, hey, did we already do that with Josh Gady?
26:53
SPEAKER_00: Maybe, hopefully, but probably not.
26:56
SPEAKER_00: So you need to find a guy.
26:58
SPEAKER_00: You need to find a guy, and you need to find a coach.
27:00
SPEAKER_00: You need to find the front office that is going to be able to pull off the Pascal Siakam train.
27:06
SPEAKER_00: You're gonna need to find the person that can find TJ McConnell, who is on the worst tanking teams in the history of this sport, and say, hey, we want him to not just be a part of the Pacers, we want him to be the heart and soul of this second unit.
27:20
SPEAKER_00: You have to find a way to do those type of things.
27:21
SPEAKER_00: And you have to know when it's time to move off of a player.
27:25
SPEAKER_00: Buddy Healed.
27:26
SPEAKER_00: I know there's a lot of flaws in Buddy Hill's game, but Buddy Hill and Tyrese Halliburton played very well together.
27:31
SPEAKER_00: And I remember once they traded him away, there was a little stretch.
27:34
SPEAKER_00: We'd be like, damn, the Pacers just ain't getting as many three-point shots up because they traded away Buddy Hill for nothing.
27:41
SPEAKER_00: Basically for nothing.
27:42
SPEAKER_00: So could they use it as a blueprint?
27:44
SPEAKER_00: I think that would be fool's goal to think that you can play the middle as good as the Pacers have played the middle until it was time.
27:50
SPEAKER_00: And spoiler alert, them playing the middle is a lot of the times them being a four, like throughout the last 30 years, they've been a one seed, they've been a two seed, they've been a four seed multiple times, they've been a five seed.
27:58
SPEAKER_00: The Bulls playing the middle is like, can we get to nine?
28:01
SPEAKER_00: Can we get to ten?
28:03
SPEAKER_00: Can we win that game to get to eight?
28:06
SPEAKER_00: So they're they're playing the middle class, or we're playing the lower medal.
28:11
SPEAKER_00: Nah, I can't do that.
28:13
SPEAKER_00: It would be fools go.
28:15
SPEAKER_00: It would be fools go.
28:17
SPEAKER_00: You have to do the right thing at the right times.
28:20
SPEAKER_00: And they haven't been able to do that.
28:22
SPEAKER_00: But I think this all ties in because I did see a tweet, and and I want to say it was from oh man, it was a Houston Rockets fan.
28:32
SPEAKER_00: One of their biggest.
28:33
SPEAKER_00: Let me make sure I get a shout out because I I don't I don't want to um talk about your question.
28:38
SPEAKER_00: It wasn't a question towards me at all, it was just a tweet that I saw.
28:41
SPEAKER_00: Um and if the internet's not working here.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Okay.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: All right.
28:44
SPEAKER_00: Well, um it was from a Houston Rockets fan that I follow.
28:49
SPEAKER_00: Um, and they were it's basically saying, like, hey, the OKC Thunder, Bias Houston, shout out to Bias Houston, Will.
28:56
SPEAKER_00: Will made the tweet that said OKC is equally a case study and being patient and letting your budding talent develop.
29:03
SPEAKER_00: SGA, Chet, J Dub, and also recognizing who's the wink leak of your team is and moving from them for impact players, Giddy.
29:10
SPEAKER_00: Well, I don't have anything that this would disagree with with Will.
29:14
SPEAKER_00: I think what he just said is 100% true.
29:17
SPEAKER_00: That is the best case study for something along the lines.
29:20
SPEAKER_00: But I do also think that this team is an anomaly.
29:24
SPEAKER_00: That a lot of the good young teams in basketball won't be able to use the same mindset and see the level of success that the OKC Thunder have.
29:32
SPEAKER_00: Because this is one of the youngest teams that have been able to do what they're doing right now.
29:37
SPEAKER_00: But also, I want to remind you that them keeping this young talent together is them having the fucking MVP of the league.
29:45
SPEAKER_00: And historically, if you're talking about teams trying to keep a young team together, one of those guys is not the MVP eventually.
29:52
SPEAKER_00: You know, one of those the other secondary guy is not also an all-NBA player and an all-defensive player, because that's who J Dub is.
29:58
SPEAKER_00: The third guy is not a guy that would also make an all-defensive team if he didn't break his fucking hip.
30:03
SPEAKER_00: You know?
30:04
SPEAKER_00: So in theory, I completely agree with what Will is saying.
30:07
SPEAKER_00: But similarly, what I said about people not trying to use the Indiana Pacer blueprint, I don't think the other teams should be looking at like, yep, their average age is, I don't know, I'm making this up, 24 and a half.
30:18
SPEAKER_00: Our average age is 23.
30:19
SPEAKER_00: We're one year away from doing what they do.
30:21
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no.
30:23
SPEAKER_00: No, no, no.
30:24
SPEAKER_00: So obviously, Will in this situation is talking about his Houston Rockets who are going to be in conversations this entire offseason about what should they do?
30:31
SPEAKER_00: Should they trade for Giannis?
30:32
SPEAKER_00: Should they trade for Kevin?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Should they do this?
30:33
SPEAKER_00: Should they do that?
30:34
SPEAKER_00: Is Alpha Shangoon available?
30:35
SPEAKER_00: Is this guy available?
30:36
SPEAKER_00: And again, I follow a few people on Houston Twitter, um, Houston Rocket Twitter.
30:40
SPEAKER_00: I think majority of them are team, let's just chill and let's see what we have again.
30:44
SPEAKER_00: And there's a portion of them like recognizing that as good as these young players are, if so-and-so is available, we have to really have the conversation.
30:51
SPEAKER_00: I don't know what I sit on this just yet.
30:53
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if I look at Alprin Shangun or Bari or Tari or even Amin, who's one of my favorite players in all of basketball, and think that they would ever be able to have the peak that is Shea Gilgest Alexander.
31:05
SPEAKER_00: You know what I mean?
31:06
SPEAKER_00: So, because of that, I'm a little bit of a, yeah, put just push back on that the idea just a little.
31:12
SPEAKER_00: Because at the end of the day, in order to do the things that OKC is doing with this young core, you need to have, I mean, whether you love him a lot, Shea is a historic NBA player.
31:21
SPEAKER_00: He is 26 years old.
31:23
SPEAKER_00: He already has an MVP and he's four games away from having an NBA championship.
31:26
SPEAKER_00: And there's nothing about his game to make me think that he won't be all NBA for the as long as he's healthy for the next six, seven years minimum.
31:33
SPEAKER_00: And then we might be able to be looking back on his NBA career depending on if this becomes a dynasty and be like, damn, he's one of the so-and-so players ever.
31:40
SPEAKER_00: Again, I don't know the future.
31:42
SPEAKER_00: Our press Shengun has been better every single year of his career.
31:45
SPEAKER_00: Iman Thompson has a ridiculous ceiling.
31:47
SPEAKER_00: I just don't know if it's Shay.
31:49
SPEAKER_00: So I'll just push back just a little bit on that.
31:51
SPEAKER_00: Just a little bit.
31:53
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think it's also about being timely as well.
31:56
SPEAKER_00: And I think that's probably what Rockets fans would agree with that even if we did want to move some of these younger players for somebody else, um it had the time has to be right.
32:05
SPEAKER_00: The time has to be right.
32:06
SPEAKER_00: You don't want to do it too late, and you also don't want to do it too early.
32:09
SPEAKER_00: And that's why I'm so happy I don't have Stone's job or I don't have the job of any guy that has to make these big decisions because I think it's easy to live in the moment as well, right?
32:17
SPEAKER_00: Like, yeah, Reed Shepard, third overall pick.
32:19
SPEAKER_00: There's teams that will still be calling about Reed Shepard.
32:21
SPEAKER_00: Reed Shepard, these draft capital, this draft capital, Cam Whitmore, who can't play.
32:25
SPEAKER_00: Hell yeah, we can go get a guy.
32:27
SPEAKER_00: And be like, damn, that guy don't really impact our ceiling too much.
32:31
SPEAKER_00: You know, you go you go get a guy and you turn out to be the goddamn Clippers.
32:37
SPEAKER_00: No shot at the Clippers.
32:38
SPEAKER_00: We got love for you.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: All right.
32:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, let's bring our producer Greg.
32:41
SPEAKER_00: We ain't had five out in a little bit of time.
32:43
SPEAKER_00: He got some takes or questions.
32:45
SPEAKER_00: Let's see what he's thinking.
32:46
SPEAKER_00: Greg, how are we feeling today, man?
32:48
SPEAKER_01: I'm good, Kenny.
32:49
SPEAKER_01: Um, November 21st, we did an episode and we did a five out, and I wanted to play it for you and get your reaction to it now.
32:59
SPEAKER_01: I want you to react to this hot take.
33:01
SPEAKER_01: At the end of this season, we will consider SGA and Jalen Williams as a better duo than Jason Tatum and Jalen Brown.
33:08
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, that's no, people people use hot take very loosely, I think, in sports, right?
33:13
SPEAKER_00: That's a hot take.
33:14
SPEAKER_00: That's because the Jays, I want to remind you, Jason Tatum's like third in scoring.
33:18
SPEAKER_00: Jalen Brown's average like 25, and they're still one of the best teams in the league.
33:21
SPEAKER_00: Coming off a championship, that's that's a little bit too hot for me.
33:23
SPEAKER_00: And J Dub is is one of them dudes that I've I've loved since my first summer league game of watching them.
33:27
SPEAKER_00: So that would be insane.
33:29
SPEAKER_00: The likelihood of it happen one through ten is probably a 1.5.
33:32
SPEAKER_00: So there's a world in it.
33:33
SPEAKER_00: That's why it's a good hot take.
33:35
SPEAKER_00: But the Jays have just been doing it so consistently.
33:37
SPEAKER_00: And I mean, if they go back to back, it don't matter what SGA or J Dub do.
33:42
SPEAKER_01: I guess this would be the assumption that the Thunder do knock them out in the finals.
33:45
SPEAKER_00: And if that's the case, you know, we all live in the moment, right?
33:48
SPEAKER_00: I love a hot take and a reactionary take.
33:51
SPEAKER_00: But honestly, I mean, yeah, if they if they win the finals, they can have that, they can wear that crown.
33:55
SPEAKER_00: But I still do got the Celtics as my favorite, so maybe that's why it's a little bit too far-fetched.
34:00
SPEAKER_00: What a what a take from Greg, baby.
34:02
SPEAKER_00: Let's look at you.
34:04
unknown: Wow.
34:05
SPEAKER_01: I'm sure you could pull a lot of bad takes, but uh yeah.
34:07
SPEAKER_01: How do you think that's what we're doing?
34:08
SPEAKER_00: We only care about hits on this channel, man.
34:10
SPEAKER_00: We only care about hits.
34:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, I I wholehearted agree now.
34:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think that they are a better mesh.
34:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, a good reactionary take.
34:22
SPEAKER_00: Isn't that what I said?
34:22
SPEAKER_00: A good reactionary take.
34:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, I think Shay is better than Tatum.
34:27
SPEAKER_00: Is that what it comes down to?
34:29
SPEAKER_01: Like, is that really what distinguishes it?
34:31
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, because I think if you polled 50 people, who's better, Jalen Brown or Jay Dub, I'm sure you might get 50-50 splits.
34:38
SPEAKER_00: I think I lean closer to J Dub right now.
34:41
SPEAKER_00: Um, but the gap, in my opinion, in in Shay and Tatum, I'm I'm leaning that way.
34:49
SPEAKER_01: I think just visually, like Tatum and Brown are bigger and stronger, and you think of them as two-way players, but J Dub and Shay are also big, long, two-way players.
35:02
SPEAKER_01: So I think um I think the offense goes to Shea and J Dub, and then you know, it probably is a is a conversation on defense as well.
35:09
SPEAKER_01: I mean, Jay Dub is all defense, right?
35:11
SPEAKER_00: Yeah, J Dub is all defense this season.
35:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, Jalen Brown has made an all-defensive appearance, and I don't believe Tatum has either.
35:17
SPEAKER_00: Um, they do have the luxury though that they play with also great players, and they're they're not bad defenders by any means.
35:22
SPEAKER_00: I think that people will hear me say they're they didn't make an all-defensive team and assume that that means that they're bad.
35:26
SPEAKER_00: Um, but duh, I think dub is a hmm.
35:30
SPEAKER_00: I think dub is a better defender of like the full defense, you know.
35:35
SPEAKER_00: Like I think that Jalen Brown is still really good on ball, but he still at this age still falls asleep defensively when he's not on ball.
35:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't think Jay Dub has any of those questions on his defense.
35:45
SPEAKER_00: While again, Jalen Brown has that.
35:46
SPEAKER_00: And I think Tatum and Shea are similar where they're more complete as defensive players, but Tatum being bigger and being able to do like what he did in the finals last year is like I'm gonna be the back line of defense and protect the paint, but also I can switch on to your best player as well.
36:01
SPEAKER_00: So Tatum is still a really, really dope defender, even if he never made an all-defensive team.
36:05
SPEAKER_00: But wow, I don't even remember having that conversation at all.
36:10
SPEAKER_01: So SGA and J Dub are the best duo in the NBA.
36:15
SPEAKER_00: Um over LeBron and and and yeah, there's there's a couple names that immediately came to mind.
36:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, if we're talking about pure duos, I still got a lot of love for the Denver two.
36:26
SPEAKER_00: You know, I I still think that you know they play off each other better than almost any two duo, like duo casts we can really put together.
36:34
SPEAKER_00: The Lakers obviously have the talent that makes them like, oh yeah, they're the best duo on basketball, but they're such a small sample size of those two guys together that it's hard for me to give them definitively it.
36:42
SPEAKER_00: Like, we obviously can say that Luca Dante's is top three and LeBron is still top ten.
36:46
SPEAKER_00: So that probably just carries it by itself.
36:48
SPEAKER_00: But you know, there were question marks in their last series where I think it was game four or five, where both J Dub, and let me let me see if I can figure out which game this was.
36:59
SPEAKER_00: Both J Dub and Jason, uh in uh Shake Alexander both had amazing playmaking games.
37:05
SPEAKER_00: I think they both ended up with like nearly 10 assists.
37:07
SPEAKER_00: And one thing that was really intriguing was that in this game, this is game for the people at home, game six, where they lost to um to the Denver Nuggets.
37:17
SPEAKER_00: In this game, Dub has 10 assists and Shay has six.
37:21
SPEAKER_00: So 16 combined assists between the two, and none of the 16 assists were to each other.
37:26
SPEAKER_00: And I was like, okay, that's interesting as far as like how they're playing when they're on the court, right?
37:32
SPEAKER_00: Or is Shay creative for dub?
37:33
SPEAKER_00: Is Dub creating for Shay?
37:34
SPEAKER_00: The answer had been no, and I I didn't track the games after that, or now in this conference finals where both of them were pretty damn electric.
37:47
SPEAKER_00: Now let's get into Ask KB.
37:48
SPEAKER_00: All you gotta do is hit us up on Twitter, on Instagram with some questions today.
37:52
SPEAKER_00: We got some ones uh written in on Twitter, we got some audio ones.
37:55
SPEAKER_00: We appreciate everybody that has been a part of the show throughout this last season.
37:59
SPEAKER_00: The first question comes from someone who says, Ask KB, who is your dream guest on the pod that is not an NBA player?
38:07
SPEAKER_00: Much love from Mongolia.
38:10
SPEAKER_00: Yo, that's we international, baby.
38:14
SPEAKER_00: Much love from from Mongolia.
38:18
SPEAKER_00: That's nuts.
38:19
SPEAKER_00: Um really good question.
38:22
SPEAKER_00: There's a couple names that come to mind immediately, but I could they're NBA adjacent.
38:27
SPEAKER_00: Is that is that okay?
38:28
SPEAKER_00: Like Amara Rashad um from Insight Stuff, one of my favorite shows.
38:32
SPEAKER_00: I may even have a UHS behind me of Insight Stuff, but one of my favorite shows, one of the shows that inspired me to become a creator.
38:39
SPEAKER_00: Um, I don't know what the hell he's doing nowadays, I'll be honest with you.
38:42
SPEAKER_00: But I would love to kind of pick his brain about the process that was creating that show and you know, hosting that show for as long as he did.
38:50
SPEAKER_00: And I'm sure he has, again, this is going back into basketball, so that's not maybe not answering your question, but I'm sure he has so many great um stories to tell because him and Mike are really close when Mike was in his prime, and and Mike, you know, not being a social media era and so many cameras and stuff, it's still like a fictional character to me, right?
39:09
SPEAKER_00: And I just know that every story we've heard is like, damn, that guy was a beast.
39:13
SPEAKER_00: Damn, that guy hit the right mindset.
39:15
SPEAKER_00: And I wonder if Amara Shah can like I I want to see the a different side of Jordan outside of the competitiveness, outside of the golf where he said he played 63 holes in one day, which is what is there a soft side to Michael Jordan, Amara Shah.
39:31
SPEAKER_00: Can we can we talk about that?
39:33
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
39:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, I would also like this is this is about the I would also like to, again, this is not basketball related.
39:43
SPEAKER_00: Um, had James Roday Rodriguez on the show.
39:47
SPEAKER_00: And I can tell you if he knows a single thing about basketball.
39:50
SPEAKER_00: But my two favorite shows in my life is the The Simpsons.
39:53
SPEAKER_00: Y'all know that.
39:54
SPEAKER_00: I don't even know who I'll be.
39:55
SPEAKER_00: Nancy Cartwright, you want to come on the podcast?
39:56
SPEAKER_00: Matt Rona, you want to come on the podcast?
39:59
SPEAKER_00: Um The Simpsons and Ooh, Conan O'Brien for The Simpsons.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: There we go.
40:04
SPEAKER_00: Boom.
40:05
SPEAKER_00: Conan O'Brien has written some of the best Simpson episodes ever, whether it be um Marge versus the monorail and so on and so forth.
40:11
SPEAKER_00: So it's Conan O'Brien for The Simpsons.
40:14
SPEAKER_00: But James Roday Rodriguez, and I never know if I'm saying it, if it's is it Rod Day, is it Rode?
40:19
SPEAKER_00: He's from this the TV show Psych, my second favorite show of all time.
40:23
SPEAKER_00: And it's like one of those things where like, I think I did this a little bit with Subert, where I get too excited about having a guest while I'm so quick to be like, hey, you did you impacted me this way?
40:32
SPEAKER_00: And I think it can be kind of jarring to some people.
40:35
SPEAKER_00: I need to tell him how important he was for me and my homies, my homie in high school, man.
40:40
SPEAKER_00: Like uh rest in peace to my guy Charlie.
40:43
SPEAKER_00: We became friends based on the show psych.
40:45
SPEAKER_00: And there's so many stories.
40:47
SPEAKER_00: I want to ask him about the production because he also produced and directed a lot of the shows there and about curating the characters and so on and so forth.
40:55
SPEAKER_00: And you know, if it wasn't for that show, I don't know if me and Charlie become friends and have this long long-lasting impact on each other.
41:01
SPEAKER_00: So um, those would be it.
41:03
SPEAKER_00: And if we're staying away from like just the pure, pure politics of it all, Barack Obama would be fucking dope to talk to.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
41:11
SPEAKER_00: First black president.
41:12
SPEAKER_00: My president is black, my Lambo's blue.
41:15
SPEAKER_00: I'll be goddamn, my rims ain't too.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: Come on, man.
41:17
SPEAKER_00: So that those would be my those would be my three.
41:20
SPEAKER_00: Um, or did I say four?
41:21
SPEAKER_00: Because Conan O'Brien's is kind of high on that list.
41:24
SPEAKER_00: Um, uh wear so many hats.
41:28
SPEAKER_00: Next one comes from Dav and it says if Shay wins MVP and finals VP, where does he rank amongst all-time Thunder players?
41:34
SPEAKER_00: I think in a vacuum, he is number one.
41:37
SPEAKER_00: But I think that the people like me that are in their 20s and 30s will be uh very um, we won't give up that crown from so I guess I guess the question is more like, are we talking about in fan love?
41:48
SPEAKER_00: We're talking about the best player that has ever played for this organization, right?
41:51
SPEAKER_00: Because even if Shay wins an MVP and a finals MVP, it would be hard for me, and maybe this is just because where when I grew up, for me to say that he was a better basketball player than the prime of Kevin Durant.
42:04
SPEAKER_00: Even if he does do that, I think it would be hard for me to accept the fact that he would be more well beloved in OKC more than Russell Westbrook.
42:12
SPEAKER_00: So I think the question has so many different tentacles, but if we're just talking about in a vacuum, the answer is yes, because nobody has been able to bring a championship to Oklahoma City.
42:20
SPEAKER_00: We obviously got Jack Sickman did it in franchise history, but not for OKC specifically.
42:26
SPEAKER_00: So just that alone will be like, yeah, these other guys were so great and we loved them all until we didn't, and they never did the thing.
42:33
SPEAKER_00: Um a lot a lot of Kevin Durant questions coming up today and yesterday.
42:38
SPEAKER_00: Um and I just I don't know.
42:42
SPEAKER_00: I don't know, I don't know, I don't know, I don't know.
42:45
SPEAKER_00: Because you can't you can't convince me, and I'm living in this fictional hypothetical world, that if Kevin Durant doesn't go to the Warriors in 2016, I think it's 2016, he doesn't go to the Warriors in the 2016 offseason, that if he goes back to OKC, that that team wouldn't go on to eventually win one.
43:03
SPEAKER_00: I mean, I don't know.
43:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
43:05
SPEAKER_00: But like it is obviously the history says he didn't win one, and that is enough to have takes about it.
43:12
SPEAKER_00: But that team was so well done, so well put together and one game away from being in the finals again.
43:17
SPEAKER_00: If they run it back, I do believe that they may get it the next year.
43:21
SPEAKER_00: Unfortunately, they he goes to the other team and then he gets his one, but like, or he gets one of his two.
43:27
SPEAKER_00: But it's just a lot of conversation about Kevin Lan not being able to do it.
43:31
SPEAKER_00: And obviously, again, he didn't do it until he went to the Warriors, but the motherfucker was in the finals once and he was one game away from the finals another time as well.
43:38
SPEAKER_00: So I don't know.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
43:39
SPEAKER_00: Maybe I'm bugging, maybe I'm bugging, and maybe I just like to preserve the legacy of some of my favorite players.
43:46
SPEAKER_00: Um, the last question, at least that I have, is from Nexzy.
43:49
SPEAKER_00: What do you think is the most inspiring NBA story, the best come up?
43:54
SPEAKER_00: You have a picture of Jimmy Butler as your profile picture, so I will feel like I am client.
44:00
SPEAKER_00: To say Jimmy Butler has one.
44:04
SPEAKER_00: I think what is a guy that's coming into this year's draft?
44:08
SPEAKER_00: Oh, what is a guy's name?
44:09
SPEAKER_00: Cedric Howard.
44:11
SPEAKER_00: Cowhart?
44:12
SPEAKER_00: Cow Coward?
44:13
SPEAKER_00: He was a D3 NBA player.
44:15
SPEAKER_00: D3.
44:16
SPEAKER_00: He might go in the lottery.
44:19
SPEAKER_00: If that ain't a come up, I don't know what it is.
44:21
SPEAKER_00: So he's gonna be high on that list eventually.
44:25
SPEAKER_00: I actually don't think about like the upbringings and stuff of players often.
44:30
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Bam Atabayo, I remember his story of him and his his mom and family living in like um, what is it, North Carolina, South Carolina?
44:39
SPEAKER_00: I think it was one of the Carolinas, and like they showed the picture of the trailer home that he's listed uh living in, and now the Bam has this max super max contract.
44:47
SPEAKER_00: It's pretty dope story.
44:48
SPEAKER_00: Um, Greg is saying Duncan Robison, who also played Juco and then got a big ass bag, and Giannis, obviously coming from Greece and selling the stuff on the side of the road and getting to America and everything and living the American dream.
45:00
SPEAKER_00: So there's there's so many field stories and hoops um on both sides.
45:04
SPEAKER_00: So yeah, man.
45:06
SPEAKER_00: So good, some good questions.
45:07
SPEAKER_00: Let's get into the audio questions.
45:08
SPEAKER_02: Hey there.
45:09
SPEAKER_02: Big fan of the show.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: Uh been listening for a long time, even from friends in Paris.
45:14
SPEAKER_02: Uh so the question was, who's your favorite prospect in the draft?
45:18
SPEAKER_02: And who would you pick at 12?
45:19
SPEAKER_00: I like that question.
45:20
SPEAKER_00: Like I mentioned at the top of the show, I am still trying to figure out exactly that, right?
45:24
SPEAKER_00: I'm still trying to figure out who's my favorite players in the draft.
45:27
SPEAKER_00: Historically, I've missed more than I hit.
45:29
SPEAKER_00: So take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt.
45:31
SPEAKER_00: And also, I have not watched enough film on a lot of people to have a real, real opinion, and maybe next week we do that a little bit more.
45:37
SPEAKER_00: Um, you mentioned that you were from France.
45:38
SPEAKER_00: I do if I can send gay a little bit.
45:40
SPEAKER_00: I don't think that I just don't know what to think of him as a player.
45:44
SPEAKER_00: And a lot of the times when I fall in love with a prospect, it usually is that this guy's a project, he showed flashes.
45:50
SPEAKER_00: I mean, Seku Dembuya was a guy I really liked.
45:53
SPEAKER_00: Yeah.
45:54
SPEAKER_00: So I am the opposite of what a good scout would be.
45:57
SPEAKER_00: But I was intrigued by the game that he had a few weeks back where he had like 21 points and so on and so forth.
46:01
SPEAKER_00: I've read that some people view him more as a big man prospect versus a wing prospect.
46:04
SPEAKER_00: I think that was Sam Vassini.
46:06
SPEAKER_00: Um, so I don't know just yet, but like I think that if you are gonna go 12, uh, I keep seeing Kyler Murray Boyles mock to us, which I'm not against necessarily.
46:20
SPEAKER_00: The team spacing is already in question with Modest being, you know, a wishy-washy shooter in his rookie season and his last year in the G League.
46:27
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, Josh Giddy shot a good percentage, but nobody's gonna respect him as a shooter.
46:31
SPEAKER_00: And then Murray Boyles would just come in and also be a bad shooter.
46:35
SPEAKER_00: Um, I do like Trey Johnson as a prospect.
46:38
SPEAKER_00: Obviously, he doesn't get to the basket as some of the other dudes in this draft class, but him as a pure shooter and him as a pure scorer is pretty cool to see.
46:45
SPEAKER_00: Um, on the higher end, I kind of been seeing this is again from the little bit of footage I've seen.
46:49
SPEAKER_00: This is not, don't take this as face value.
46:52
SPEAKER_00: But like some of the moves and some of the creation with the jump shooting reminds me of book.
46:57
SPEAKER_00: Some of the pull-up jump shooter reminds me of book, man.
46:59
SPEAKER_00: And I'm like, ooh, it's gonna be hard to be Devin Booker, but that would be kind of cool.
47:04
SPEAKER_00: Um, I did watch a lot of Kaspar's Yakashonis this year at Illinois since I'm an Illinois fan.
47:10
SPEAKER_00: I don't know how to feel about him at the NBA level just yet.
47:13
SPEAKER_00: And you ask it for 12, so I don't think we we even think about that too much.
47:17
SPEAKER_00: Carter Bryant was a guy that I started to like.
47:19
SPEAKER_00: I hit their group chat like two weeks ago.
47:21
SPEAKER_00: Like Carter Bryant was a guy that's projected to go in the second round.
47:24
SPEAKER_00: Then I eventually saw him in the 20s, and then I saw him in a damn lottery.
47:27
SPEAKER_00: I'm like, how how much can a player jump in just a two-week span?
47:31
SPEAKER_00: And Carter Bryant right now is mocked to a lot of different places.
47:34
SPEAKER_00: Um, but I could see him being like, I think it was um, oh my god, I'm drawing a blank on his name.
47:41
SPEAKER_00: Oh my god, what is his name?
47:43
SPEAKER_00: Um I'm gonna Google it.
47:45
SPEAKER_00: I'm gonna Google it.
47:46
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, guys.
47:47
SPEAKER_00: I know we're doing a lot of Googling today, but I'm I'm very oh, okay, Chris Vernon.
47:51
SPEAKER_00: Sorry, Chris, sorry, Chris.
47:52
SPEAKER_00: I you know I I got love for you.
47:55
SPEAKER_00: He had this thing years ago.
47:56
SPEAKER_00: I don't know if he still does it, that he calls the can't miss prospects.
47:59
SPEAKER_00: These are not the guys that is gonna go on to win MVPs and so on and so forth, but in his mind, these are the dudes that will be in the league for a long time.
48:05
SPEAKER_00: That's how I kind of see Carter Bryant.
48:07
SPEAKER_00: That regardless if he turns to Josh Hart 2.0 or so on and so forth, he's gonna be in the NBA for a long time.
48:13
SPEAKER_00: Um, I really like Jace Richardson until I found out me and him are the same height.
48:16
SPEAKER_00: So there's a lot of guys in this draft that are interesting to me, but I still haven't done the full deep dive on a lot of these players.
48:23
SPEAKER_00: Shout out to my boy D Queen as well.
48:25
SPEAKER_00: Thank you so much for listening or watching this episode of Small Ball with Kenny Beecham.
48:29
SPEAKER_00: If you enjoyed it, leave it a like, subscribe.
48:32
SPEAKER_00: Um, and what I said earlier in the show, I'm I'm very honest and I feel that way where I want you to comment down below ways we can make the show better.
48:43
SPEAKER_00: Again, gearing up for season season three of this show and different.
48:47
SPEAKER_00: We're not changing the name again, damn it.
48:49
SPEAKER_00: Season three of the show, I want to continue to get better and better.
48:51
SPEAKER_00: We had some goals at the beginning of the year of bringing on guests every other week or so that kind of fell through and it became more of a solo show.
48:58
SPEAKER_00: So that's something I'm kind of thinking about for year three.
49:00
SPEAKER_00: But um, I'm always open to becoming better at this craft.
49:04
SPEAKER_00: I don't take it anything for granted.
49:06
SPEAKER_00: So the people that are watching and listening, trust, I I really do, really do um appreciate you.
49:11
SPEAKER_00: And I will see y'all next week because we're gonna we're going to the NBA Finals.
49:16
SPEAKER_00: Is that nuts to anybody else?
49:18
SPEAKER_00: Going to the finals.
49:19
SPEAKER_00: I'll see y'all there.
49:20
SPEAKER_00: Peace.