Latest / Small Ball with Kenny Beecham / NBA Vibes Check

Transcript

NBA Vibes Check · Small Ball with Kenny Beecham

0:05
SPEAKER_02: Welcome back to another episode of Smallball with Kenny Beach.
0:08
SPEAKER_02: And before we get into it, I'm gonna remind you to leave a like on the episode, subscribe to the channel, tell a friend or tell a friend that if they're into the NBA or looking to get into the NBA, Smallball and Kenny Beach might be the place to be, man.
0:18
SPEAKER_02: I try my very best to talk about as many different teams and as many different topics every single week.
0:24
SPEAKER_02: Um, so you know, I might get to your favorite team, I might not, but regardless, just know this is the place you want to be.
0:30
SPEAKER_02: On today's episode, I want to talk about some news across the association, talk about the NBA Cup.
0:35
SPEAKER_02: It's now called the NBA Cup.
0:36
SPEAKER_02: I still hear people calling it the in-season tournament.
0:39
SPEAKER_02: It's the NBA Cup, talk about that.
0:41
SPEAKER_02: Talk about some big performances we had over the last couple of nights.
0:43
SPEAKER_02: We have we had multiple 50 pieces in a single night.
0:46
SPEAKER_02: But the bulk of this episode is what we're calling the NBA vibes rating.
0:50
SPEAKER_02: I got a few different teams, and I just want to grade the vibe over there.
0:53
SPEAKER_02: One through 10.
0:54
SPEAKER_02: The vibe of the fan base, the vibe of the team, everything involved.
0:58
SPEAKER_02: And this is really my excuse to talk, not trash, not talk trash, but talk about a few different teams that have not looked good and things ain't looking great.
1:07
SPEAKER_02: But I also got some some good stories in there too.
1:09
SPEAKER_02: So, like I said, leave a like on the episode, subscribe, let's get into the NBA Cup.
1:13
SPEAKER_02: Because I think it's uh way too early for us to tell if the NBA Cup is gonna stick around for the next 40 years if NBA basketball.
1:21
SPEAKER_02: But I can firmly say that I love it every single year.
1:24
SPEAKER_02: Now, I'm not the target demo, right?
1:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna be watching basketball regardless.
1:28
SPEAKER_02: This is really for the casual fan, but I love it as an experience.
1:31
SPEAKER_02: Um, on the other podcast, we were asked to open up the show what do we grade the season so far?
1:36
SPEAKER_02: And we're talking, what, three weeks, almost a month into the season.
1:39
SPEAKER_02: I personally said a C, but some of my co-hosts said a D and a D minus.
1:44
SPEAKER_02: And the reason they said that is it felt like none of these games have had real stakes.
1:47
SPEAKER_02: And that's just the reality of the NBA regular season.
1:50
SPEAKER_02: You're not gonna get a lot of high stakes games.
1:52
SPEAKER_02: The NBA Cup, at least day one, brought it.
1:55
SPEAKER_02: Oh my God.
1:56
SPEAKER_02: And I can't wait to record the next episode of that podcast because I want to ask has that has that gray kind of shifted from a D or D minus after we've seen some big time performances in the NBA Cup and some really cool stuff.
2:08
SPEAKER_02: So I think one of the main criticisms of the cup is a a lot of people don't really understand what the hell is going on.
2:15
SPEAKER_02: And I've never really understood that.
2:17
SPEAKER_02: It probably takes 30 seconds to really figure it out.
2:19
SPEAKER_02: What regardless, regardless.
2:21
SPEAKER_02: The other thing is that we don't know what the groups are.
2:23
SPEAKER_02: I think that's a really real criticism considering the groups are changing every single season.
2:27
SPEAKER_02: They had it be its own TV episode or TV show when they were announcing who's in whatever group doing summer league.
2:34
SPEAKER_02: And it was kind of weird to see because even the people on the panel weren't really that interested.
2:38
SPEAKER_02: Like when you see teams in the same cup group, you want to have the people on the broadcast be kind of excited.
2:45
SPEAKER_02: Oh, you got the Pacers in the same place as this team.
2:48
SPEAKER_02: And no, no, no, that didn't really happen.
2:49
SPEAKER_02: So that's that's major, major criticism that I think we can maybe figure out.
2:53
SPEAKER_02: I just don't know exactly how we get there.
2:55
SPEAKER_02: But the criticism that I don't understand is the people that complain about the courts not mattering.
3:00
SPEAKER_02: Like you can say that you don't like the courts.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: That's completely okay.
3:02
SPEAKER_02: Because some of them, majority of them, are actually really awful.
3:05
SPEAKER_02: But the idea of the court is super cool to me.
3:08
SPEAKER_02: So we're gonna talk about Clay versus Steph Curry a little bit later in the episode.
3:12
SPEAKER_02: But I think it's gonna be really cool that when we look back on that game, Clay versus Steph, Clay taking over for what, 12 straight points in the fourth quarter.
3:19
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna be on that very unique cup uh court.
3:22
SPEAKER_02: You're gonna remember that that game happened.
3:25
SPEAKER_02: That game happened during an NBA Cup game.
3:27
SPEAKER_02: And if it wasn't for those courts, there's no way for that to be engraved in history.
3:31
SPEAKER_02: So I really love that idea.
3:33
SPEAKER_02: Uh, I love that the players are in.
3:35
SPEAKER_02: I love that the coaches are in.
3:36
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's step one of getting the consumer to really care.
3:40
SPEAKER_02: Because I was watching a game, um, it was Orlando Magic versus Charlotte Hornets.
3:45
SPEAKER_02: The Charlotte Hornets early third quarter made it a game after being down like 20 a halftime.
3:49
SPEAKER_02: And then for the last six minutes of the third until the end of the game, the Orlando Magic put their foot on their throats because you know, if you've been paying attention, that the point differential really matters in the cup.
3:59
SPEAKER_02: So it's cool to see Jamal Mosley say, hey, Franz Wagner, I know this game is wrapped up.
4:04
SPEAKER_02: And with seven minutes left, and we're up by 28.
4:07
SPEAKER_02: Traditionally, you will be sitting your butt on the pine and letting these other guys get to run, but we want to run it up.
4:13
SPEAKER_02: That is so very cool to me.
4:15
SPEAKER_02: That is, I don't know, maybe maybe I'm crazy.
4:17
SPEAKER_02: We also in that same night saw a top 15 coach of all time in Eric Sposter pull a Chris Weber calling a timeout when you didn't have any timeouts.
4:26
SPEAKER_02: And shout out to JB Bickerstaff.
4:28
SPEAKER_02: That game versus um versus the Miami Heat, and then their game the other night versus the Milwaukee Bucks.
4:34
SPEAKER_02: You saw JB Bickerstaff pull up some really cool sideline out of bounds plays to A win the game against the Miami Heat.
4:41
SPEAKER_02: And then in the second game, it basically won it, but the rookie Ron Holland missed two free throws that would have iced the game.
4:47
SPEAKER_02: But JB Bickerstaff, I don't know, man.
4:49
SPEAKER_02: I know we call very very slightly called uh Josh Giddy the slob wizard.
4:53
SPEAKER_02: Maybe JB Bickerstaff is like that, but but the owner of it, what's what's the thing higher than a wizard?
5:00
SPEAKER_02: Who teaches a wizard?
5:02
SPEAKER_02: Who is Harry Potter's teacher?
5:04
SPEAKER_02: I didn't watch the series, but that's what JB Bickerstaff has been so far this season.
5:08
SPEAKER_02: Two sideline out of bounds plays that would have won the game is pretty damn cool.
5:12
SPEAKER_02: We saw the defending champion, Boston Celtics, go into Atlanta and lose.
5:18
SPEAKER_02: Like again, in a normal regular season game, this is not something I normally would care about.
5:22
SPEAKER_02: But because it's the cup and this matters, right?
5:24
SPEAKER_02: You only get to go against these teams one time before we get to the knockout stage, and the Boston Celtics already have a loss.
5:32
SPEAKER_02: Now that I'm thinking about it, it makes it feel like I'm getting paid by Adam Silver to gas this up.
5:36
SPEAKER_02: I promised Adam Silver ain't called my phone telling me to talk about the NBA Cup being great.
5:40
SPEAKER_02: But we saw the defending champions lose to Atlanta Hawks team that was without Trey Young.
5:44
SPEAKER_02: And briefly, why I'm here, the Atlanta Hawks is an enjoyable basketball team.
5:48
SPEAKER_02: Just full stop.
5:49
SPEAKER_02: They're an enjoyable basketball team, even when they're losing games and so on and so forth.
5:53
SPEAKER_02: But in this game specifically, boy, was it fun.
5:56
SPEAKER_02: And I think a lot of that has to do with Dyson Daniels.
5:58
SPEAKER_02: Dyson Daniels is in the running for defensive player of the year now, personally, especially with Chet Homegrim being out for eight to 10 weeks.
6:04
SPEAKER_02: I'd probably give it to Draymond.
6:06
SPEAKER_02: We'll talk about that a little bit later in the episode.
6:08
SPEAKER_02: But Dyson Daniels being a guard and getting all of the fletches in the world where he's leading the league in deflections, and he's had back-to-back-to-back games with at least six steals is incredible.
6:17
SPEAKER_02: And he also had 20 points.
6:18
SPEAKER_02: He had 10 rebounds.
6:20
SPEAKER_02: Like he had a near-perfect game.
6:22
SPEAKER_02: And I was always, I had always been a Dyson Daniels guy from the moment he was drafted, but it didn't really work out with New Orleans.
6:27
SPEAKER_02: They never really found a full slot for him.
6:29
SPEAKER_02: And then he was starting to play some good basketball.
6:31
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if y'all remember, but you know what the Pelicans do, right?
6:34
SPEAKER_02: They get injured.
6:34
SPEAKER_02: And Dyson Daniels got injured during the streak where he was starting to put his name on the map and then he got traded, obviously, in the DeJounte Murray trade.
6:42
SPEAKER_02: And I think I said this maybe the first episode of the season that Dyson Daniels is the mode of the type of player I would like to pair alongside Trey Young.
6:51
SPEAKER_02: He is basically all of the things that DeJounte Murray was like advertised to be.
6:57
SPEAKER_02: Like DeJounte Murray's the youngest all-defensive player in the NBA history.
7:00
SPEAKER_02: But all of that defense, not all of that, majority of the defensive impact had gone as his offense started to race.
7:05
SPEAKER_02: Dyson Daniels has all defensive impact, and he's able to cut without the ball.
7:10
SPEAKER_02: He's able to basically be right place, right time.
7:13
SPEAKER_02: And without Trey Young, in this one game, in this one game is what I'm talking about.
7:16
SPEAKER_02: The one game sample size.
7:18
SPEAKER_02: This team was really fun to watch where there was a lot of cool actions and they were getting into these actions very fast.
7:22
SPEAKER_02: And we saw a lot of different back um back cuts from Jalen Johnson, who's got the ball in his hands more than any time.
7:28
SPEAKER_02: And before this game even started, I had read an article.
7:31
SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm pretty sure it was only athletic, talking about the the transition between Trey Young last year and the previous years of his career, where it was heavy, ISO, heliocentric basketball.
7:42
SPEAKER_02: To nowadays, he's playing off the ball more.
7:44
SPEAKER_02: Now, if you go look at his touches, as you can imagine, he's still leading the team in touches.
7:48
SPEAKER_02: He's towards the top percentage in the league when it comes to touches per game, but he is playing off-ball a lot more.
7:53
SPEAKER_02: Now, he's not as much of a threat off-ball yet, but I kind of like the Quinn Snyder's trying to change the approach.
7:59
SPEAKER_02: Regardless, I just want to say, I'm not a true Trey Young truther.
8:02
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a Trey Young hater, but boy, was that game super fun to watch because the Boston Celtics really didn't have an answer for all of the hands.
8:09
SPEAKER_02: They didn't have an answer for Dyson Daniels, Larry Nance, um, uh Jalen Johnson just getting into these lanes and also didn't have someone that they can really go after, which was pretty cool.
8:19
SPEAKER_02: So shout out to the Atlanta Hawks with and without Trey Young.
8:23
SPEAKER_02: We also in the NBA Cup saw Jordan B come back.
8:26
SPEAKER_02: And boy, was that something.
8:28
SPEAKER_02: Um, we're gonna talk about a little bit later.
8:30
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about a little bit later, but having Jordan B back in the league is uh is good for basketball.
8:36
SPEAKER_02: I'll just say that.
8:37
SPEAKER_02: And like I mentioned lastly, we had Steph Curry versus Klay Thompson, which was a pretty, pretty cool site.
8:41
SPEAKER_02: So I'm all in on the NBA Cup, and I this is just day one.
8:45
SPEAKER_02: Like day two is tonight as you're watching this episode, and it could be a dud.
8:48
SPEAKER_02: We could see hella blowouts, we could see no game winners, no sideline out of bounds, uh wizardry.
8:54
SPEAKER_02: It could just be really bad.
8:55
SPEAKER_02: But day number one was pretty cool, and I'm looking at the day number two slate, and I'm trying to figure out exactly how I want to do it.
9:01
SPEAKER_02: And if you go to FanDuel Sportsbook, there's one game that I'm super interested in.
9:04
SPEAKER_02: It is the Brooklyn Nets versus the New York Knicks.
9:07
SPEAKER_02: Kenny, why are you interested in that game?
9:09
SPEAKER_02: The Knicks in theory is the better team, and they are.
9:12
SPEAKER_02: But right now, they are an 11-point favorite to beat the Brooklyn Nets.
9:17
SPEAKER_02: And I don't know which way I'm gonna go on this one, but the Nets have played almost every team this season really, really close.
9:24
SPEAKER_02: So an 11-point spread is let's just say interesting.
9:29
SPEAKER_02: The Knicks haven't been as good of a defensive team as some of us maybe anticipated.
9:33
SPEAKER_02: They're letting teams like the Chicago Bulls get a 20-point lead early into a game.
9:38
SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying, I will look out for an 11-point spread.
9:41
SPEAKER_02: Now, as of today, we don't know who's who's active, who's injured, but 11-point spread is something you should be looking at too.
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11:07
SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about some of these other performances across basketball.
11:10
SPEAKER_02: We saw Victor Women Yama have a 50-point game.
11:14
SPEAKER_02: His first 50-point game, the fourth youngest player in the history of basketball to have a 50.
11:18
SPEAKER_02: And anytime I see something like this and I see Brandon Jennings be number one on the list, boy, do I feel great because I remember the Brandon Jennings game.
11:25
SPEAKER_02: I wasn't there, but I was there at the same time.
11:27
SPEAKER_02: Women Yama put up 50.
11:29
SPEAKER_02: And uh a few days ago, I dropped a video basically talking about this uh anonymous scout across basketball that was talking about Women Yama not being a threat offensively.
11:40
SPEAKER_02: And then since then, Wimby has said a 24-point game, a 36-point game, and then a 50 piece.
11:46
SPEAKER_02: And it's just been incredible to see.
11:47
SPEAKER_02: I've said it before, I'll say it again.
11:49
SPEAKER_02: Anytime somebody has given you their opinion and they're sticking to anonymous, don't take that at face value.
11:56
SPEAKER_02: Because this man said this junk and didn't want to back it up by putting his name behind it.
12:01
SPEAKER_02: Every take that I've had, if you can put sign Kenny Beachum, whether I'm right or I'm wrong, and Lord knows I'm wrong a lot.
12:08
SPEAKER_02: But I'm not afraid to say it with my chest.
12:11
SPEAKER_02: This guy was, and Wimby is already looking great.
12:14
SPEAKER_02: Started off really slow.
12:15
SPEAKER_02: Like there, there is a real argument about Wimby and his start to the season.
12:18
SPEAKER_02: Oh, this doesn't this doesn't look great.
12:20
SPEAKER_02: Since then, because of those big performances, we're talking about 11, 12 game sample size, you have a 50-point game.
12:26
SPEAKER_02: Your averages go up.
12:27
SPEAKER_02: So now he's averaging more points, more rebounds, more assists than last season.
12:31
SPEAKER_02: His uh percentages across the board are up, and his blocks per game are up just by having a three-game stretch.
12:37
SPEAKER_02: And Wimby last year was also a guy that played his way into dominance.
12:43
SPEAKER_02: I feel like they're just uh a group of NBA players that are like that.
12:48
SPEAKER_02: Luka Doncic, historically like that.
12:50
SPEAKER_02: Come into the season, maybe out of shape, whatever, whatever.
12:52
SPEAKER_02: This year he had no training camp.
12:54
SPEAKER_02: This year he had no preseason.
12:55
SPEAKER_02: So it makes sense that he's starting off relatively slow.
12:57
SPEAKER_02: But some dudes come into the season slow.
13:00
SPEAKER_02: Women Yama, we're talking about year two, by the way, might end up being one of those guys.
13:04
SPEAKER_02: So if next season, let's say for the rest of the season he averaged 25 and four blocks and so on and so forth.
13:09
SPEAKER_02: And next season he has a 10-game stretch at the beginning of the year where he don't look great.
13:12
SPEAKER_02: Let's not overreact, please.
13:14
SPEAKER_02: That just might be who he is.
13:16
SPEAKER_02: Uh Jokic used to be like this.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: He's not like that anymore.
13:18
SPEAKER_02: He comes in and he's dropping 40 pieces immediately.
13:21
SPEAKER_02: But Jokic used to be one of these guys, and Wimby just might be that too.
13:25
SPEAKER_02: And it's also pretty cool to see because there's also a lot of conversations, even with him having 50.
13:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, I load up the Twitter verse, and Lord knows Twitter is one of the worst places on the internet right now.
13:34
SPEAKER_02: Um, and people are still complaining about him having 50 just because he took a lot of threes.
13:39
SPEAKER_02: And I understand it to an extent.
13:43
SPEAKER_02: I understand that you want your 7-4 player to be a beast down low.
13:48
SPEAKER_02: Why have all of these gifts as with your height and be a freakish athlete if you're not gonna use those things very often?
13:56
SPEAKER_02: I completely understand that.
13:57
SPEAKER_02: But I can't look at a guy that just had an efficient 50, an efficient 50 and complain.
14:06
SPEAKER_02: But that's what we are.
14:07
SPEAKER_02: That's what we are.
14:08
SPEAKER_02: Uh I'm again I'm not saying what's good and what's bad, but official 50 is something we should be admiring regardless.
14:15
SPEAKER_02: Speaking of efficient 50, Giannis.
14:18
SPEAKER_02: Giannis had 59 in their overtime win versus the Detroit Pistons.
14:22
SPEAKER_02: And, you know, occasionally you see a performance where you're like, bro, this dude is doing everything for us team.
14:28
SPEAKER_02: You see that a lot with Jokic, obviously.
14:30
SPEAKER_02: We have 40, 16, and 16.
14:31
SPEAKER_02: You see it a lot throughout Bronze career, where it's like game one of the NBA finals, he's got 52, and J.R.
14:37
SPEAKER_02: Smith did the stupid stuff.
14:39
SPEAKER_02: You see it, you see it, you see it.
14:41
SPEAKER_02: Giannis just did that.
14:42
SPEAKER_02: Where in the first quarter, his team had 22 points, he had 20.
14:45
SPEAKER_02: And when it got down through the stretch where we're talking about the overtime, shout out to Ron Holland for missing those free throws.
14:52
SPEAKER_02: Because boy, was that a it was about to be a rough night if Giannis and him lost.
14:55
SPEAKER_02: But we get into overtime, and he is as dominant as I mean, he was dominant the whole way there.
14:59
SPEAKER_02: I think he had 49 points going into overtime.
15:01
SPEAKER_02: So he scored his last uh 9.10 points in overtime, and that's mid-range pull-ups, get putting his head down.
15:09
SPEAKER_02: And somebody found a clip of Kay Cunningham when he's on the bench during the timeout and he's mouthing.
15:14
SPEAKER_02: This dude is unstoppable, talking about Giannis, and that's that's what he was putting his head down, getting to the rim.
15:19
SPEAKER_02: And I just want to say, Isaiah Stewart, come on, let's be better.
15:22
SPEAKER_02: He got ejected from this game by pulling Giannis down, and that's just something we don't accept in the NBA.
15:26
SPEAKER_02: He's had a few incidents like this, and I understand wanting to play with a little bit of great.
15:30
SPEAKER_02: I understand we're having a chip on your shoulder and not uh wanting a dude to drop 59 on your team, but we got to be safe out there as well.
15:37
SPEAKER_02: Um, but Giannis dropping at 59 is pretty cool.
15:39
SPEAKER_02: We also got like a turn the clock back Brook Lopez defensive performance, too, where Kay Cunningham blessed his heart, because the last two games have been something.
15:48
SPEAKER_02: Uh, he gets to the basket and it's just Brooke Lopez there sending it and sending it.
15:52
SPEAKER_02: And Brooke Lopez had at least two fouls in his game where I watched it back and I'm like, that could have gone either way.
15:58
SPEAKER_02: He could have had two additional blocks, is what I'm saying.
16:00
SPEAKER_02: And when I say Kay Cunningham bless his heart, in season tournament game.
16:04
SPEAKER_02: This is the game we're talking about where exposure sold by uh getting a technical foul by calling a timeout where they didn't have any.
16:10
SPEAKER_02: Kay Cunningham had like a four-minute stretch where he couldn't do anything.
16:14
SPEAKER_02: A four-minute stretch, he couldn't do anything.
16:16
SPEAKER_02: Turnovers, bad shot.
16:18
SPEAKER_02: He had one step back that was an AM1.
16:19
SPEAKER_02: That was dope.
16:20
SPEAKER_02: But I'm like watching this game, like, hey, brother, I got a lot of stake in you right now, man.
16:25
SPEAKER_02: Let's not turn the ball over.
16:26
SPEAKER_02: He turned it over.
16:27
SPEAKER_02: Time and time.
16:28
SPEAKER_02: Again, luckily they got the win, so it doesn't matter.
16:30
SPEAKER_02: And in this game, it wasn't necessarily turnover heavy when we got down to the stretch.
16:35
SPEAKER_02: But this is something my cousin slash co-host Pierre has said.
16:38
SPEAKER_02: And I'm very interested to see if they ever go this way with JB Bickerstaff in the Detroit Pistons.
16:43
SPEAKER_02: Wanted to see Kay Cunningham play alongside another point guard type of guy.
16:49
SPEAKER_02: Now he is playing off the ball more this season than last, but his usage rate is still extremely high.
16:53
SPEAKER_02: Where even in this game, uh, Marcus Sasser was closing out because they have their own injuries where Tim Hardaway Jr.
16:58
SPEAKER_02: went down an injury.
16:59
SPEAKER_02: Uh, thank God he's feeling okay.
17:01
SPEAKER_02: Um Jay Nivey is also out.
17:03
SPEAKER_02: They just had a bunch of different guys out.
17:05
SPEAKER_02: So it's like Marcus Sasser, you were a bright spot of our season for like a month last season.
17:10
SPEAKER_02: Let's see what you got.
17:11
SPEAKER_02: So Sasser was in this game with him and he did have some responsibilities, but we haven't really had a chance to see a guy like Kay Cunningham play without the ball.
17:21
SPEAKER_02: So I think that could be an experiment worth doing.
17:23
SPEAKER_02: I don't know if you're really in the way of experimenting where you've been in the rebuild for six years and maybe even 14 if you don't count first round exits.
17:31
SPEAKER_02: But I would just like to see it because sometimes I do feel like he's overtaxed by being the guy, the ball handler, the creator all of the time.
17:39
SPEAKER_02: And that's how we get to the point against the heat where he has back-to-back-to-back turnovers because nobody is there to really alleviate the pressure.
17:46
SPEAKER_02: And shout out to Jay Niveau, who's having a career year again, injured right now, but having a career year and everything.
17:51
SPEAKER_02: Um, I just would love to see them break it up just a little bit, just to see what Kay can do off the ball because he has the size and he uses his size pretty well when he has a mismatch, to see what he can do off-ball a little bit more.
18:04
SPEAKER_02: But shout out to Giannis in a 59.
18:06
SPEAKER_02: I think that's a season high so far, a 59-point game.
18:08
SPEAKER_02: And he had the celebration.
18:10
SPEAKER_02: The celebration was something.
18:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, what a what a freaky guy.
18:15
SPEAKER_02: Like he got named the Greek freak because, of course, he's Greek, but also he was a freak of nature.
18:20
SPEAKER_02: Nobody could have convinced me that he was gonna be like just this sexual deviant.
18:26
SPEAKER_02: Where every every time you put a microphone in front of Giannis, he's making a sex joke.
18:31
SPEAKER_02: He's got the bell ring the bell, and then in this one, he does a celebration where his arm is his just a freaky guy.
18:38
SPEAKER_02: Just a freaky, freaky guy.
18:40
SPEAKER_02: Um, the Greek freak for sure.
18:42
SPEAKER_02: Um, on lesser news or lesser fun news, um, we did see Greg Popovich deal with a health scare.
18:49
SPEAKER_02: It happened November 2nd, if I'm not mistaken, and we were all in the dark as uh the community, the NBA community, and it just came out a few days ago that he suffered a mild stroke.
18:59
SPEAKER_02: They said he's going to recover completely, which is a beautiful thing.
19:02
SPEAKER_02: Greg Popovich is 75 years old.
19:05
SPEAKER_02: And once the era of the Tim Duncan and Manu and Tony Parker had left a little bit before that, but once that era ended and they were going towards a full rebuild, once we talk about trading away DeJounte Murray, trading away DeMar DeRose, and the question was how long does Greg Popovich has have a coach?
19:23
SPEAKER_02: And he said, Hey, I'm completely okay with going through a rebuild.
19:26
SPEAKER_02: Of course, they end up winning the lottery, get evicted with Yama, and so on and so forth.
19:29
SPEAKER_02: But when you have a health score scare like this, of course, everybody's perspective is different.
19:33
SPEAKER_02: I don't know exactly where Greg Popovich is.
19:35
SPEAKER_02: I just want him to get healthy.
19:36
SPEAKER_02: When you have a health scare like this in these ages, and my grandparents have had, you know, these types of things, it changes the perspective.
19:43
SPEAKER_02: And I wonder if Greg Popovich is going to just call him.
19:50
SPEAKER_02: Just say, hey, you know, I knew I knew that I'd have a lot left in the coaching tank as I didn't want to coach till I was 90 years old, but he has been engraved in basketball for what, 40 years minimum, where he was the general manager of the um of the San Antonio Spurs, and then he appointed himself as the head coach, which at that time was a very controversial thing to do.
20:14
SPEAKER_02: And since then, he has just been the best coach in NBA history, where he's number one in wins by a good margin.
20:20
SPEAKER_02: When I say good margin, the guys that are beneath him are not no longer coaching.
20:23
SPEAKER_02: Like the next guy believe him that's active is Rick Carlisle, and Carlisle's like 500 wins away.
20:29
SPEAKER_02: So I just wonder if that's crossing his mind.
20:33
SPEAKER_02: Um, and if it is, it will be a sad day for the NBA community when Greg Poffits decides that he's no longer going to be on the sideline.
20:40
SPEAKER_02: He's just a one-of-one type of person and a one-of-one type of coach.
20:44
SPEAKER_02: Where I feel like every great coach we've seen, we've had people come out and not necessarily be a fan of that coach, right?
20:51
SPEAKER_02: And Greg Povavic does have a few, right?
20:53
SPEAKER_02: DeJounte Murray uh is was famously saying that he didn't really enjoy his time with San Antonio.
20:57
SPEAKER_02: They've they've squashed that beef, everything is love now.
21:00
SPEAKER_02: And like uh uh Stax or um Steven Jackson.
21:04
SPEAKER_02: Steven Jackson came out and said he didn't really enjoy his time with the San Antonio Spurs.
21:07
SPEAKER_02: But other than those, too, I have not heard a single peep about the ship that Greg Popovich is commanding.
21:14
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's that's amazing, right?
21:17
SPEAKER_02: To have this level of success.
21:19
SPEAKER_02: And it wasn't until, again, they got rid of DeJounte and DeMar that we've seen a not great Greg Popovich team where every year you can count them in for 50 wins, you can count them in for a playoff berth.
21:33
SPEAKER_02: So I hope, again, number one on the agenda is that Greg Popovich gets completely healthy.
21:38
SPEAKER_02: But I hope this is not it for Greg, as far as a coach goes.
21:42
SPEAKER_02: I hope it's not it.
21:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, the guy on the side is doing a pretty damn good job.
21:45
SPEAKER_02: The Spurs are now with a 500 team, and it's been it's been good.
21:48
SPEAKER_02: It's been good.
21:50
SPEAKER_02: But I would if the if the question was, would you rather see Greg Povich continue to coach but not get his health right or take care of the health?
21:58
SPEAKER_02: Take care of that health, Greg.
21:59
SPEAKER_02: Take care of that health.
22:00
SPEAKER_02: The last thing I want to talk about before we get into the vibe ratings is the injuries across basketball.
22:08
SPEAKER_02: Um, I made a tweet after Kevin Durant went down with this injury, and some of these injuries are so weird because there's no signs of it.
22:15
SPEAKER_02: Like Zion, we saw that one, right?
22:17
SPEAKER_02: He checked himself out of a game.
22:18
SPEAKER_02: He eventually came back, and then the next morning it came out, he's gonna miss some time.
22:22
SPEAKER_02: Feels like that adrenaline just said, hey, I'm able to go.
22:24
SPEAKER_02: And then the next day he woke up, he's like, oh, this hamstring is not working the way it should.
22:29
SPEAKER_02: But some of these injuries are happening off the court, happening on the court, but we're not hearing about it to a day or two days later.
22:35
SPEAKER_02: So when Kevin Arant got injured, I tweeted, what the hell is going on?
22:39
SPEAKER_02: And there are a lot of people in the comments like, yo, Kenny, injuries are just part of the game.
22:42
SPEAKER_02: We get it every single season.
22:43
SPEAKER_02: This is no different than last year.
22:45
SPEAKER_02: And I was like, sure, but it feels like it's happening more often this year than last.
22:49
SPEAKER_02: And the answer is that it is.
22:51
SPEAKER_02: Injuries right now are up by 35%.
22:56
SPEAKER_02: 35% is an insane spike to start the season.
23:00
SPEAKER_02: And here are the names.
23:01
SPEAKER_02: Look, look, listen, listen to the names here that are either actively injured for multiple weeks or have been injured to start the season.
23:09
SPEAKER_02: Kevin Durant, Kawhi Leonard, Scotty Barnes, Shep Homgren, John Morant, Zion Williamson, Palo Bancaro, Desmond Bain, Maxi Kleba, Jimmy Butler, Isaiah Hardenstein, Trey Young, Mitchell Robinson, uh, Chris Dasborzingas, DeJounte Murray, Herb Jones, Aaron Gordon, Lonzo Ball, Chris Middleton, CJ McCullum, Paul George, Joel, Embiid.
23:30
SPEAKER_02: Hello?
23:31
SPEAKER_02: That's multiple all NBA teams.
23:35
SPEAKER_02: And there's been a lot of speculation about what the hell is going on.
23:38
SPEAKER_02: I've seen some reports talking about how the miles traveled per game has gone up dramatically just in the last 10 to 15 years.
23:47
SPEAKER_02: As you can imagine, the pace continues to rise every single year.
23:50
SPEAKER_02: Um, that makes sense to me.
23:52
SPEAKER_02: Um, it makes sense that the season is too long.
23:54
SPEAKER_02: And there's never been a time in my life as an NBA fan where I've agreed with the idea of the season being too long.
24:01
SPEAKER_02: Until kind of right now.
24:04
SPEAKER_02: That list of names I just read you, those are the names of the players that I enjoy watching a lot.
24:10
SPEAKER_02: That's a small chunk of the injuries that are going on across basketball.
24:14
SPEAKER_02: Kevin Durant, before his injury, had an argument for the league MVP.
24:19
SPEAKER_02: Okay.
24:19
SPEAKER_02: The runner-up to the league MVP.
24:21
SPEAKER_02: Palo Banquero, before his injury, was playing like an all-NBA player.
24:26
SPEAKER_02: Chet Holmgren, before his injury, was the defensive player of the month.
24:30
SPEAKER_02: Because yeah, it's not, can't say of the year when it's three weeks into the season.
24:34
SPEAKER_02: And that's just guys that were in contention for awards.
24:38
SPEAKER_02: We still ain't seen Kawhi.
24:39
SPEAKER_02: We still don't know when we'll see Kawhi.
24:41
SPEAKER_02: Uh, we just talked about Joel Embiid coming back, but you know what I'm saying?
24:45
SPEAKER_02: Maybe he shouldn't have.
24:46
SPEAKER_02: We just got an injury problem.
24:49
SPEAKER_02: And I'm warming up to the idea of shortening the season.
24:52
SPEAKER_02: I don't think we ever will, just because you think about the accolades that are associated with the normal season, you think about the revenue from the owners and from the players.
25:00
SPEAKER_02: I just don't believe everybody will get on the same page uh to shorten their season.
25:05
SPEAKER_02: But if it happened, I promise you I wouldn't be one of the guys that's really, really upset about it if that means if that helps prevent some of these injuries.
25:15
SPEAKER_02: Right now, the NBA, a couple years back, yes, last year, the NBA incorporated the player participation policy, which basically means if you want to win an award, you want to make an all Olympia appearance, and so on and so forth.
25:26
SPEAKER_02: I think the only thing that it doesn't account for is all rookie teams, if I'm not mistaken.
25:30
SPEAKER_02: If you want to be incorporated there, you have to participate in 65 games.
25:36
SPEAKER_02: 65 games.
25:38
SPEAKER_02: That I just read you the list.
25:41
SPEAKER_02: And again, some of these injuries are one to two weeks.
25:44
SPEAKER_02: So I'm not acting like Kevin O'Reilly's done for the year.
25:46
SPEAKER_02: I'm not acting like uh Scotty Barnes won't eventually be back.
25:50
SPEAKER_02: But 65-game rule might prevent us from having like really competent all NBA selections.
25:59
SPEAKER_02: Where for a guy that was not around for the 90s, um, where I was born in the 90s, but not around to watch 90s basketball or not around to watch 80s or even early 2000s, I was a shorty.
26:09
SPEAKER_02: I kind of use the accolades to kind of tell the story of the season, to tell the story of the era.
26:15
SPEAKER_02: And if this 65-game policy is preventing a guy like Kevin Durant or a guy like Chet Holmgren from making an all-defensive team, or Kevin Durant making an all-NBA team, it I think it's not doing what you want it to do.
26:29
SPEAKER_02: In theory, it makes sense.
26:30
SPEAKER_02: You know, we had a lot of people sitting out second halves of the back-to-back for no reason.
26:33
SPEAKER_02: Just straight up rest, straight, straight up injury management, straight up load management.
26:37
SPEAKER_02: That was the reason why I was incorporated.
26:40
SPEAKER_02: I feel like we're seeing less of that, less of rest being a thing.
26:42
SPEAKER_02: It might be a select few across hoops, but less of the normal star player not playing on national TV just because.
26:49
SPEAKER_02: But now we might be able to, we might not be able to look at the 2024-2025 season and have a snapshot of what really happened or who are the dogs, who are the winners of it all.
27:01
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like that's part of partly a problem.
27:03
SPEAKER_02: Not to mention all of the contract implications that come into all of this, where some of these guys paychecks, their next big contract relies on them making an all-NBA appearance.
27:13
SPEAKER_02: The next big contract relies on what they do with the accolades.
27:19
SPEAKER_02: So there are a few different things that I wouldn't be surprised if the NBA rolled back the participation rule.
27:25
SPEAKER_02: And then also that goddamn second apron that's preventing teams from trading for Zach Levine.
27:29
SPEAKER_02: Come on now.
27:30
SPEAKER_02: Zach Levine's been a phenomenal NBA player trying to tell me nobody's really interested because of the second apron.
27:33
SPEAKER_02: Come on, man.
27:34
SPEAKER_02: Come on.
27:35
SPEAKER_02: In theory, both of those things made sense.
27:37
SPEAKER_02: And actually, I think that the second apron probably needs another five years of it being the way it is before we have a oh my God, it's changing the league.
27:44
SPEAKER_02: And maybe the player participation policy also needs more time.
27:47
SPEAKER_02: Maybe this is an outlier.
27:49
SPEAKER_02: Maybe this is not gonna be the new norm.
27:50
SPEAKER_02: That next season, this 35% increase in injuries drops down and now it's back to normal.
27:56
SPEAKER_02: But boy, is it just gonna be it's gonna be tough.
27:59
SPEAKER_02: It's gonna be tough.
28:03
SPEAKER_02: All right, next thing we want to do is bring in producer Greg so we can do your favorite segment, five out.
28:09
SPEAKER_02: Greg, how are we feeling, man?
28:11
SPEAKER_02: I love the hat.
28:11
SPEAKER_01: Thank you.
28:12
SPEAKER_01: I think it's uh last year's model, right?
28:14
SPEAKER_01: You got an updated one.
28:16
SPEAKER_01: Um, all right.
28:17
SPEAKER_01: First one, uh the Cavaliers are currently 13-0.
28:21
SPEAKER_01: I have two questions for you.
28:22
SPEAKER_01: When would they lose their first game?
28:24
SPEAKER_01: And what do you think their final record will be?
28:28
SPEAKER_02: Um, so right now they're 13-0.
28:30
SPEAKER_02: This is the fourth team in eBay history to ever start off this hot.
28:33
SPEAKER_02: Only one of those teams have won the championship.
28:36
SPEAKER_02: Um, I just a fun stat.
28:38
SPEAKER_02: I think now the Bulls played them really well on Monday.
28:42
SPEAKER_02: Like so well.
28:43
SPEAKER_02: Like I thought it was a chance, and I had memes ready to tweak.
28:46
SPEAKER_02: I was so ready for it.
28:47
SPEAKER_02: They play against the Bulls again tomorrow.
28:49
SPEAKER_02: I don't think that we stand a chance in that way.
28:50
SPEAKER_02: I think that they're not gonna, you know, come down and let us play to their competition again.
28:55
SPEAKER_02: I think that they win that one.
28:57
SPEAKER_02: I think they win against the Hornets scrappy team.
28:59
SPEAKER_02: The next real opportunity is against the Celtics, and that is Tuesday the 19th.
29:04
SPEAKER_02: And at that rate, they'd be 15-0.
29:06
SPEAKER_01: That's a cup game.
29:07
SPEAKER_02: And it is a cup game too.
29:09
SPEAKER_02: And as we mentioned earlier, the Celtics lost their first cup game, so they might be really into this one.
29:14
SPEAKER_02: So I'm gonna say they start off the season 15-0, and they go against the Celtics and they lose.
29:18
SPEAKER_02: If they win that game, oh my man, we might see a 20-0 start.
29:22
SPEAKER_02: Genuinely, we might see a 20-0 start because they are like almost unstoppable that even when they're having a bad game, they find a four-minute stretch to make things happen.
29:33
SPEAKER_02: And that's what makes a special team.
29:35
SPEAKER_02: I think they're a contender, even though they started this high, they're not one of my favorites, but I think they could potentially go on a cool run.
29:42
SPEAKER_02: But their final record, man, I can't say 60, right?
29:46
SPEAKER_02: 60 sounds crazy, but they're already 15 in.
29:50
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
29:51
SPEAKER_02: With relative health, I would say let's let's say 55.
29:55
SPEAKER_02: 55.
29:56
SPEAKER_01: But you know what's funny?
29:57
SPEAKER_01: Last night on YouTube, uh, a video came up and it was like a couple highlights from each of the 24 games when the Warriors started 24 and 0 in in 2015-16.
30:07
SPEAKER_01: And to your point, like even games where they were like down in the in the fourth or were struggling in the third, they would find, like you said, like a four-minute stretch, and it would just be game over.
30:17
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, and that team, of course, very special, all-time greats on there.
30:22
SPEAKER_02: This team doesn't have that.
30:23
SPEAKER_02: Maybe Donovan Mitchell was an all-time great.
30:25
SPEAKER_02: Maybe he is one day, but no, not like to the extent that Steph Curry is.
30:29
SPEAKER_02: So it kind of makes more sense that they were able to do it.
30:31
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the Cavs are just going, and they were a team I was really high on going into the season.
30:36
SPEAKER_02: I didn't think it was going to be this damn good.
30:38
SPEAKER_02: I don't think anybody, the biggest calf truther, can tell me they thought they were gonna start off 13-0.
30:43
SPEAKER_02: Uh, because basketball is just that, you know, like any given night you can lose to a really bad team.
30:47
SPEAKER_02: It's just like, oh well.
30:48
SPEAKER_02: And even last night's game against the 76ers, uh, Donovan Mitchell, I wouldn't say almost threw the game away, but he was trying to get that last assist because he's never had a triple-double before.
30:58
SPEAKER_02: So he was out there trying to get that assist.
31:00
SPEAKER_02: And uh even he was public about it, like my fault, y'all.
31:03
SPEAKER_02: Um 55 wins.
31:05
SPEAKER_02: 55 wins is the number.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: I like it.
31:06
SPEAKER_01: All right, next one.
31:07
SPEAKER_01: Um, given where the standings are right now, which of these potential contenders, or at least once thought to be contenders who are currently at the bottom, bottom of the standings, has the best shot to finish with a top three record in their conference?
31:21
SPEAKER_01: Sixers, Bucks, Mavericks, Timberwolves.
31:25
SPEAKER_02: Interesting.
31:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna immediately get rid of the two Western Conference teams.
31:30
SPEAKER_02: I think the conference is just too much of a dog that you know, both these teams starting off slow, and actually the Timberwolves are one of the teams.
31:38
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna talk about the vibrator, so be looking out for that in a couple minutes.
31:41
SPEAKER_02: But I'm gonna have to transition to one of the Eastern Conference teams.
31:46
SPEAKER_02: And of course, I have not liked a lot that I've seen with the Bucs, but Giannis is still, in my opinion, the second best player in the world.
31:53
SPEAKER_02: The 76ers, I don't think I'm really optimistic about everything.
31:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm a little bit more optimistic than the other NBA fans across basketball, I would say, but not as optimistic to think that they can jump up because even with Joel and B being back, again, he's not trying to play back to backs.
32:11
SPEAKER_02: And then I'm assuming there's gonna be games that are not back to backs that he won't play as well.
32:15
SPEAKER_02: So I out of all of this, I might have to go with the Bucks.
32:19
SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
32:20
SPEAKER_02: That don't feel right.
32:22
SPEAKER_02: If it wasn't for the injuries, which is that I guess it doesn't even make sense to say this, I would easily say 76ers, but the injuries are the thing with the 76ers, right?
32:29
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, you have to talk about Joel, you have to talk about Paul George's injuries, and then Maxi, of course, being out as well.
32:34
SPEAKER_02: If you asked me to pick between one of the Western Conference teams, it might be the Mavs.
32:42
SPEAKER_01: Well, speaking of the Mavs, and I think we're gonna go a little over five minutes, but that's okay for today.
32:47
SPEAKER_01: Um, towards the end of that Warriors Mavericks game, my brother who's a Mavericks fan, I brought him up before.
32:50
SPEAKER_01: Shout out Danny Holtzman, he texted me, he wrote, I want to know what you think of this.
32:55
SPEAKER_01: Mavs keep thinking the do him cut offense is gonna win them games late, cost them every time.
33:03
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the problem is Luca has had such good success with it that it's like, I mean, I've I have a couple Mavs fans in my life as well.
33:12
SPEAKER_02: Um, shout out to my boy Reese.
33:14
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, they got so much love for Luca.
33:16
SPEAKER_02: There's no way that they're doing any of this without Luca Dante's there.
33:19
SPEAKER_02: But a lot of them are also really upset with the way some of these games end up closing.
33:24
SPEAKER_02: And it's like if he doesn't take that shot against Rudy Gobert in the playoffs, then what happens?
33:29
SPEAKER_02: So you gotta live with it.
33:30
SPEAKER_02: But the last two games, the game against the Suns, where no, was that the no, there was a game against the Nuggets where it was Jokic versus Kyrie.
33:38
SPEAKER_02: Kyrie had 40, Jokic had 40 as well, and Luka Donchis with a minute left takes a long pull-up three in a game that didn't need it.
33:46
SPEAKER_02: If that shot goes in, he's the guy.
33:48
SPEAKER_02: You're so excited about it.
33:49
SPEAKER_02: But the fact that it missed, it's like, oh man, now we got to talk about it on Twitter.
33:53
SPEAKER_02: And I feel the same way about the Warriors game.
33:57
SPEAKER_02: The problem is a lot of these teams' offense just boil down to that when we get to the late stage of this game.
34:02
SPEAKER_02: I have one of the three best players in the world, put the ball in his hands, let's see what happens.
34:07
SPEAKER_02: And sometimes it doesn't look great.
34:10
SPEAKER_02: And that recipe has got them relatively far, right?
34:13
SPEAKER_02: We got they got to the NBA Finals last year with that.
34:15
SPEAKER_02: But as far as winning it, even the team that they lost to, that's what they boiled down to.
34:19
SPEAKER_02: Tatum sidestep three.
34:21
SPEAKER_02: It's two minutes left.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: We got it.
34:22
SPEAKER_02: Like, I think that's not necessarily a Mavs thing.
34:25
SPEAKER_02: That's kind of like an NBA thing.
34:31
SPEAKER_02: Now I want to check the vibe.
34:33
SPEAKER_02: You know, every NBA team has a vibe rating.
34:36
SPEAKER_02: Rest in peace to Capitol Steves, if you know, you know.
34:39
SPEAKER_02: And this rating varies.
34:41
SPEAKER_02: Going to the season, let's just let's take my favorite team, for example.
34:44
SPEAKER_02: Going into the season, I would say my vibe rating was like a like a three.
34:48
SPEAKER_02: You know, I knew we were gonna be bad, but I had a little bit of optimism about the younger core.
34:52
SPEAKER_02: And we won a couple games.
34:54
SPEAKER_02: Oh my God.
34:54
SPEAKER_02: We had Cone on the show.
34:55
SPEAKER_02: We were talking about the Bulls being three and two.
34:57
SPEAKER_02: Hold on now.
34:58
SPEAKER_02: I was feeling good.
34:59
SPEAKER_02: I would say a six.
35:00
SPEAKER_02: And then we lost three in a row to some teams we probably shouldn't have lost to.
35:04
SPEAKER_02: Oh, that's back down to a two.
35:05
SPEAKER_02: But we're going to Master Square Guard and then we ink out a win against the Knicks.
35:08
SPEAKER_02: Oh my God, I'm back up to a four.
35:10
SPEAKER_02: You feel me?
35:11
SPEAKER_02: So, like, this is my active vibrating for a couple teams that I basically just wanted to talk about.
35:17
SPEAKER_02: Greg mentioned this team a couple seconds ago.
35:19
SPEAKER_02: The Minnesota Timbs, right now, are sitting at the record of six and six.
35:22
SPEAKER_02: They're currently on a three-game skid after starting off, of course, six and three.
35:26
SPEAKER_02: The vibrating for the Minnesota Timbs as of today is a two.
35:32
SPEAKER_02: Ouch.
35:33
SPEAKER_02: A 500 record in the Western Conference is not ideal.
35:35
SPEAKER_02: That puts you outside of the play.
35:37
SPEAKER_02: And again, it's maybe a little bit too early to be talked about that, but that's that's where they are as of today.
35:42
SPEAKER_02: Last night, they lost a game 122 to 108 to the Blazers.
35:46
SPEAKER_02: And I'm sorry, this was two nights ago.
35:48
SPEAKER_02: Um, and that's not crazy, right?
35:51
SPEAKER_02: Any given night, a certain team can get hot, hit a bunch of shots, you end up losing.
35:55
SPEAKER_02: And that feels like that's what happened in that Blazers game, where at one point halfway through the third quarter, the Blazers were shooting 60% from three.
36:02
SPEAKER_02: 60% from three.
36:04
SPEAKER_02: Come on, man.
36:05
SPEAKER_02: Um, but that's not just it.
36:07
SPEAKER_02: This Blazers team had just lost the previous night by 45 to a Grizzlies team that didn't have John Moran, Desmond Bain, Marcus Smart, Vince Williams.
36:15
SPEAKER_02: You get the you get what I'm saying?
36:16
SPEAKER_02: They lost by 45 points.
36:18
SPEAKER_02: It got so bad that in my Twitter DMs, I had a Blazer fan say, Kenny, only you can help us.
36:24
SPEAKER_02: Me, the YouTuber.
36:27
SPEAKER_02: They're asking me to make videos and make tweets about Chauncey Billups to get him fired.
36:32
SPEAKER_02: Like I got the power.
36:33
SPEAKER_02: That's how bad it was.
36:34
SPEAKER_02: And then they go into these next couple games, and this was one of those home and homes against the Timberwolves.
36:39
SPEAKER_02: And I love a good home and home.
36:40
SPEAKER_02: I know we got varying um opinions about this, but I love to see a team have a little bit of a baseball series because I think that first game is like a filler game.
36:48
SPEAKER_02: See what each team is trying to bring to the table.
36:51
SPEAKER_02: And then the second game, you see teams make adjustments, right?
36:54
SPEAKER_02: And the 82-game regular season, sometimes you just have this is what we do as a team.
36:58
SPEAKER_02: This is what we do.
36:59
SPEAKER_02: We're not necessarily scouting too heavily because we got this game tonight and the next game tomorrow.
37:03
SPEAKER_02: So, yeah, we're gonna do our general scouting, but for the most part, it's it's not something we do a lot.
37:08
SPEAKER_02: With the home and home or the two-game baseball series, you really see coaches be like, okay, this team did this to us last night.
37:16
SPEAKER_02: We're not gonna let it happen.
37:17
SPEAKER_02: We're gonna make these adjustments so we don't lose.
37:19
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of the times, at least the numbers say this, then when you have the home and home, the two-game thing, they're split majority of the times.
37:25
SPEAKER_02: Majority of the times.
37:26
SPEAKER_02: Uh it's very rare that you see somebody sweep a two-game series.
37:30
SPEAKER_02: What the Blazers did.
37:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, the Blazers did.
37:33
SPEAKER_02: We talked about that first game where they gave up all the threes in the world.
37:36
SPEAKER_02: It's not necessarily about them giving up threes, it's the threes that they gave up that bothered the hell out of me.
37:43
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not even a fan of this team.
37:45
SPEAKER_02: We're talking about slow rotations, poor closeouts.
37:47
SPEAKER_02: And as of today, like Minnesota Timbus fans are getting a full Julius Randle experience, man.
37:52
SPEAKER_02: Julius Randle is one of the worst body language players in all the basketball.
37:55
SPEAKER_02: When he's going, he's going.
37:56
SPEAKER_02: His old NBA season, you can tell him a thing.
37:58
SPEAKER_02: You can tell him a thing.
37:59
SPEAKER_02: He's the perfect NBA player, felt like.
38:01
SPEAKER_02: He's blocked in defensively.
38:03
SPEAKER_02: He's taken long turnaround mid-range twos, and damn it, they went in sometime, so it was a worthy shot.
38:08
SPEAKER_02: So far this season, the Julius Randle experience has been the opposite of that, where he's not rotating well.
38:12
SPEAKER_02: You know how many times Jeremy Grant had an open corner three that Julius Randle didn't close out fully on?
38:19
SPEAKER_02: Jeremy Grant got a lot of love for him.
38:21
SPEAKER_02: He's a king of the no-dip three, one of my favorite shots in basketball.
38:24
SPEAKER_02: He is also a threat to pillow ball on the floor for sure, but not that much of a threat.
38:28
SPEAKER_02: He's definitely more of a corner threat.
38:30
SPEAKER_02: So the fact that we're not closing out, showing hands or moving feet just bothered the hell out of me watching.
38:36
SPEAKER_02: And offensively, that's another story.
38:39
SPEAKER_02: This Minnesota Timbows team had the identity last season of being one of the two best defenses in basketball.
38:46
SPEAKER_02: Rudy Gobert won a DPO wild war, his fourth one of his career.
38:49
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of, of course, is him, but more importantly, it was a full buy-in from everybody.
38:54
SPEAKER_02: Where a guy like Cartonny Towns, who historically has been a bad defender, and hell, he's not good in New York either, he had been a bad defender.
39:01
SPEAKER_02: He bought into that side of the ball where the team was a better defensive team when he was on the floor.
39:05
SPEAKER_02: Anthony Edwards has all the defensive tools, and it's rare.
39:09
SPEAKER_02: Well, maybe it's not rare, but there's just certain players in basketball that have the tools, but don't necessarily put it together.
39:14
SPEAKER_02: Wiggins was this guy forever until he got to the Golden State Warriors.
39:18
SPEAKER_02: Whereas like Wiggins, you're one of the most athletic guys in basketball.
39:21
SPEAKER_02: You have good hands and good feet.
39:23
SPEAKER_02: How are you not a good defender?
39:25
SPEAKER_02: So the fact that they got Anthony Edwards as a star player to be a great defender immediately was amazing.
39:30
SPEAKER_02: Uh Uncle Mike, in his old age, still moved in puppies, and more importantly, was a smart defensive player.
39:37
SPEAKER_02: And Jaden McDaniels was an all-defensive guy.
39:39
SPEAKER_02: That's where they held their hat.
39:40
SPEAKER_02: That's where they hung him.
39:41
SPEAKER_02: And so far the season, the defense ain't been bad, but it's not their identity anymore.
39:45
SPEAKER_02: It's a good defense.
39:45
SPEAKER_02: It's a fine defense.
39:46
SPEAKER_02: Rudy Gobert is still back there, even though I just saw Donovan Klinger take his lunch.
39:49
SPEAKER_02: He's still back there.
39:50
SPEAKER_02: You still got Jaden McDaniels who offensively, I don't know what the hell was going on with him offensively.
39:54
SPEAKER_02: But that's not what their identity is anymore.
39:57
SPEAKER_02: And a lot of these times when they played last season, with that being their identity, they were able to stump out teams even though their offense is not great.
40:05
SPEAKER_02: So now you're telling me that our defense is above average, but not amazing, and our offense hasn't evolved at all.
40:11
SPEAKER_02: What does that mean?
40:13
SPEAKER_02: We lose more games.
40:15
SPEAKER_02: On the offensive side of the ball, what bothers me the most is that they have so many actions that are starting with 13 seconds left on the clock.
40:22
SPEAKER_02: And then that's not an exclusively a Minnesota Timbulls thing.
40:24
SPEAKER_02: There are a few teams across basketball that I watched them.
40:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, what is taking us so long?
40:28
SPEAKER_02: I I don't think you have to be five uh seven seconds left, uh less sons, but damn it, can we start our action just a little bit earlier?
40:34
SPEAKER_02: Not if you're Minnesota.
40:36
SPEAKER_02: And I think part of that is they don't have a lot of variety in their offensive game.
40:39
SPEAKER_02: And though Julius Randle on paper, he's averaging 20 points per game, he's shooting a career high from threes, a career high from the field.
40:45
SPEAKER_02: Like his offensive stats look pretty damn good, other than like, I mean, his rebounded numbers are down, but like he plays with a good defensive rebounded team.
40:52
SPEAKER_02: So he don't need to grab seven to nine rebounds a game.
40:55
SPEAKER_02: But it's not pretty.
40:57
SPEAKER_02: And hell, last year wasn't pretty offensively either.
41:00
SPEAKER_02: But at least you had that defensive side of the ball.
41:02
SPEAKER_02: And I think the most glaring thing when we talk about the defensive side of the ball for them is the way Rudy Gobert is being used defensively.
41:09
SPEAKER_02: Where last season, um, and listen, I'll say this right now: the Timberwolves, the Knicks, these teams that make these big time adjustments deserve some grace.
41:18
SPEAKER_02: Pretty much every team that made a big adjustment, whether it be Klay Thompson going to Dallas or Paul George going to the 76ers, all of these big-time acquisitions, none of them are working out to start off.
41:28
SPEAKER_02: So that's why I'm gonna give Minnesota and all these teams just a little bit of grace.
41:32
SPEAKER_02: But last year, when they had Carl Anthony Towns, one of the best and work things about Carl Anthony Towns is that he was he was a center cost playing as a four.
41:41
SPEAKER_02: And one of the reasons that was good is because he still has the body of a five-man.
41:46
SPEAKER_02: So when you play against, I don't know, Alprin Shangoon, for example, you could have Carl Anthony Towns guard Alprin Shangoon, let Rudy Gobert guard Jabbar Smith Jr., who can't hit a goddamn jump shot this season, and let Rudy Gobert show his full defensive impact by roaming the paint full time.
42:07
SPEAKER_02: Because Julius Randle is not the size of Car Anthony Towns, where Julius Randle is truly a four, he's not, he can't play five.
42:14
SPEAKER_02: He's truly a four.
42:16
SPEAKER_02: You can't have him guard an Al Princift.
42:18
SPEAKER_02: You can't have him guard the Matis Sabonis.
42:20
SPEAKER_02: At least you can try.
42:21
SPEAKER_02: They have tried it.
42:22
SPEAKER_02: But because of that, Rudy Gobert has to guard these other centers.
42:26
SPEAKER_02: And that is nullifying some of the cool things that Rudy Gobert has been able to do throughout his career.
42:31
SPEAKER_02: I also just feel like Rudy Gobert has kind of lost a step defensively so far this season.
42:35
SPEAKER_02: Again, it's a 11, six, 12 game sample size, so I don't want to overreact too much, but Father Tabby doing his thing.
42:41
SPEAKER_02: He really does.
42:43
SPEAKER_02: And one of the most outrageous stats so far in Minnesota, last year, they were 24 and 6 against sub-500 teams.
42:52
SPEAKER_02: 24 and 6.
42:53
SPEAKER_02: And remember, if you're gonna be one of the top teams in the league, you have to beat the bad teams.
42:57
SPEAKER_02: So far this season, they're four and four.
43:00
SPEAKER_02: It's not ideal.
43:01
SPEAKER_02: Um Cartenton Towns, not being there, changes the game.
43:06
SPEAKER_02: It just has.
43:07
SPEAKER_02: And they're still trying to adjust.
43:08
SPEAKER_02: Their fans are not having a lot of fun.
43:10
SPEAKER_02: I mean, the reason it's a two and not a zero is because you you do have some cool things like Anthony Edwards being tall, Steph Curry, even though last night he didn't.
43:20
SPEAKER_02: Or um Rob Dillingham getting some real minutes because Uncle Mike went out with his injury just to see him on the floor.
43:26
SPEAKER_02: I know Minnesota fans love him.
43:27
SPEAKER_02: So there are some interesting things going on, but like Dante DiVincenzo, who you traded for part of this big trade, he can't hit a shot right now.
43:35
SPEAKER_02: Jalen Jaden McDaniel's offensive game has not evolved one bit.
43:40
SPEAKER_02: Not one bit.
43:40
SPEAKER_02: He ain't added one extra move to his bag.
43:43
SPEAKER_02: I'm so surprised with that.
43:44
SPEAKER_02: Because coming out of college, he wasn't known as like he's gonna make an all defensive.
43:49
SPEAKER_02: He wasn't coming out of college like Matisse Steible, like Ryan Dunn.
43:52
SPEAKER_02: I mean, he turned into a great defender, but that's not what he was doing in college necessarily.
43:56
SPEAKER_02: So it's just weird when you see a guy like that not be able to evolve.
44:00
SPEAKER_02: Of his offensive game, and sometimes you see him try to put the ball on the floor a little bit more, it just doesn't really work out.
44:05
SPEAKER_02: So last year you saw the Timberwolves have a bunch of people have career years or near career years.
44:12
SPEAKER_02: So far, the only person that feels like they're having that level of impact this season that they did last season, it's like Nikhil Alexander Walker and maybe Anthony Atwords.
44:22
SPEAKER_02: It's a little rough out there.
44:24
SPEAKER_02: And again, I'm giving them grace.
44:26
SPEAKER_02: I'm not overreacting, saying that this was a failure or anything like that.
44:30
SPEAKER_02: But I do see some Timbulls fans that I know watching the box score of Car Anthony Towns dropping nearly 50 against the Bulls.
44:37
SPEAKER_02: They also didn't win that game.
44:39
SPEAKER_02: But the vibrating is a big two.
44:41
SPEAKER_02: Losing back-to-back games to the Portland Trailblazers is nasty.
44:45
SPEAKER_02: I don't care.
44:46
SPEAKER_02: I don't care.
44:46
SPEAKER_02: It's nasty work.
44:47
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but I do want to say I do love the Trailblazers, man.
44:49
SPEAKER_02: A team I've watched their last three games.
44:51
SPEAKER_02: Again, it's just twice against Minnesota, then the one blowout game against the Grizzlies.
44:54
SPEAKER_02: Kenny, why are we watching a 45-point loss?
44:56
SPEAKER_02: Well, they have a lot of the times the last game of the day.
44:59
SPEAKER_02: So it's like, I'll watch it.
45:00
SPEAKER_02: You know, I'll watch it.
45:02
SPEAKER_02: And um, the other night they didn't have DeAndre Aiden and they didn't have uh Anthony Simons.
45:08
SPEAKER_02: I think they found it.
45:09
SPEAKER_02: I think they found it.
45:10
SPEAKER_02: Not saying they're about to be a playoff team.
45:11
SPEAKER_02: Don't get me wrong, boy, they're very far away from that.
45:13
SPEAKER_02: But man, was the ball moving a little bit more?
45:15
SPEAKER_02: Everybody felt a little bit more bought in.
45:17
SPEAKER_02: Uh, it was just cool.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: It was cool.
45:18
SPEAKER_02: Tumani Kamara as a defender is pretty cool.
45:20
SPEAKER_02: He's hitting his three-point shots this season.
45:22
SPEAKER_02: Donovan Klingon was so great last night.
45:26
SPEAKER_02: Where there were just a few plays, you're like, damn, there's not a lot of bigs in basketball making that block.
45:32
SPEAKER_02: It's very similar to rookie year Walker Kessler, but I feel like he has better hands than Walk had in his rookie season.
45:39
SPEAKER_02: Let's hope that his fate is a little bit better than Walker Kessler's sophomore year.
45:43
SPEAKER_02: But I'm loving Donovan Kling and Kling Kong defensively.
45:46
SPEAKER_02: And uh it just adds another element to the team.
45:49
SPEAKER_02: And he talked about in his post-game that the reason he loves uh defense is because it increases the energy.
45:54
SPEAKER_02: It gets everybody involved and makes them better.
45:56
SPEAKER_02: And with Shayden Sharp being back, catching all the lobs and getting the put back dunks and step back threes, him getting a career high, it was a really fun game.
46:05
SPEAKER_02: That's all I'm saying.
46:06
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what Chauncey, what the hell Chauncey is doing over there, or if he'll get an extension after these two games, but I'm I'm very intrigued by the future of this team.
46:15
SPEAKER_02: Um, even with NBA Scouts on Twitter saying that because of School Henderson, they're reevaluating the way they're re-evaluating the way they scout talent because School Henderson hasn't been nearly as good as a lot of people anticipated.
46:27
SPEAKER_02: But uh shout out to the Trailblazers.
46:29
SPEAKER_02: When they're good, it's gonna be fun because I think they have one of the best broadcast teams in the NBA.
46:34
SPEAKER_02: Lamar Heard.
46:34
SPEAKER_02: They got Tom Habistrow coming in every once in a while.
46:37
SPEAKER_02: They have a good interface.
46:39
SPEAKER_02: This is weird, like um the scorebug is pretty cool.
46:41
SPEAKER_02: Interface is cool, they got great advanced stats.
46:44
SPEAKER_02: I'm just saying, eventually the Trailblazers will be good again, and they're they're already a good, like a fun team to watch, at least right now.
46:50
SPEAKER_02: But when they're good again, tune in to their broadcast, brother.
46:54
SPEAKER_02: Because when they are playing, hmm, what broadcast team would I take over them?
46:58
SPEAKER_02: Maybe the Knicks.
47:00
SPEAKER_02: Give me the Knicks broadcast, maybe even Brooklyn.
47:02
SPEAKER_02: Brooklyn's broadcast is pretty good.
47:05
SPEAKER_02: I'm always gonna rap with Stacy Keene and Adam Amin, so that that's that's in my top three.
47:09
SPEAKER_02: But it's not a lot of broadcast teams I'm taking over them.
47:11
SPEAKER_02: So if the Trailblazers are on, I'm probably listening to their broadcast.
47:14
SPEAKER_02: Okay, anyway.
47:15
SPEAKER_02: Um, the next team.
47:16
SPEAKER_02: This is in high.
47:17
SPEAKER_02: This is a high, high vibrate.
47:19
SPEAKER_02: Let's talk about the Houston Rockets, man.
47:21
SPEAKER_02: The Houston Rockets vibrating is a nine point two.
47:27
SPEAKER_02: Nine point two is not even in my notes.
47:29
SPEAKER_02: I have nine in my notes, but damn it, I want to spice it up just a little bit.
47:31
SPEAKER_02: And most of that has to do with Amin Thompson and Tari Eason.
47:37
SPEAKER_02: And the last two games, those two players combined for 66 points, 35 rebounds, 10 steals, 9 blocks, and they're shooting 56% from the field.
47:48
SPEAKER_02: This is insane.
47:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm not a guy that does a lot of college basketball this season.
47:52
SPEAKER_02: I've watched more college basketball than maybe the last five years combined.
47:55
SPEAKER_02: So I'm locked in at least a little bit.
47:57
SPEAKER_02: And I always rely on my co-host slash cousin Pierre to give me the guys.
48:03
SPEAKER_02: He knows me.
48:04
SPEAKER_02: He's been my family for 28 years now.
48:06
SPEAKER_02: So he knows me.
48:07
SPEAKER_02: And he always gives me a list of prospects that he thinks I will love, right?
48:11
SPEAKER_02: A few years back, the number one guy on his Kenny's Gonna Love This Guy list was Tari Esa.
48:17
SPEAKER_02: So I went to the, I went into the Googles, I went into the YouTubes, I watched some Tari Esa hear that.
48:20
SPEAKER_02: He was absolutely right.
48:22
SPEAKER_02: So much.
48:22
SPEAKER_02: So I gave Tari Eason his whole own video after the draft, and Mama Eason hit me up like, yo, you the only guy talking about my boy.
48:29
SPEAKER_02: And I I feel great about how he's been performing this season.
48:32
SPEAKER_02: Last year, he almost missed the entire year with a leg injury.
48:35
SPEAKER_02: It was it was rough, rough times.
48:37
SPEAKER_02: And you kind of forget how impactful of a player he can be.
48:40
SPEAKER_02: So when him and Tari Eason come onto the court, they're him and uh Amin Thompson come onto the court, they're really there to wreak havoc.
48:47
SPEAKER_02: And it reminds me of like watching a really good action movie.
48:52
SPEAKER_02: And the reason I say that is because the starters start the game.
48:55
SPEAKER_02: And it's like getting the exposition to a movie, getting the setting, getting a vibe for the characters in the movie.
49:03
SPEAKER_02: And then Amin and Atari check in, that's when the action really picks up.
49:08
SPEAKER_02: That's when we get to the climax of the movie.
49:10
SPEAKER_02: That's where all the cool things is going.
49:12
SPEAKER_02: That's when you have the other team, offensive players, on the edge of their seats.
49:16
SPEAKER_02: It's high energy, it's highlights, it's all the things you want.
49:20
SPEAKER_02: Then they go to the bench.
49:21
SPEAKER_02: Start us, go do your thing.
49:23
SPEAKER_02: You know, you get you get from the climax, you start it, you know what I'm saying?
49:25
SPEAKER_02: It's starting to go down, go down, go down.
49:28
SPEAKER_02: And then they check back in.
49:30
SPEAKER_02: And it's like, boom, the big twists.
49:32
SPEAKER_02: My right-hand man was the killer the whole time.
49:36
SPEAKER_02: That's that's what it feels like watching the Houston Rockets to me, bro.
49:39
SPEAKER_02: It's it's amazing ball.
49:41
SPEAKER_02: And one of the more or the least talked about things outside of like Rockets Twitter and stuff is how much better Alpert and Shangun has looked defensively.
49:49
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I'm here.
49:50
SPEAKER_02: I'm locked in.
49:51
SPEAKER_02: We're nobody ever expects him to be Rudy Gobert or Bay Amaraballo or Anthony Davis.
49:56
SPEAKER_02: But one of the real questions about Alpert Shangon is like, will he ever become a positive defender?
50:00
SPEAKER_02: We know he's a good offensive player, but will he be able to hold his own in the paint?
50:05
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not basing this off the one play against the Clippers backups where he got the big dunk and the big block to seal the game.
50:12
SPEAKER_02: But just in general, he's playing better defense.
50:14
SPEAKER_02: And I think that's really good for their future.
50:15
SPEAKER_02: Obviously, they already extended this man.
50:17
SPEAKER_02: I also love Ime Udoka is not necessarily in love with his rotations any single night, or even a game against the Warriors where they eventually lost but came back down 31.
50:26
SPEAKER_02: He was riding with the bench unit.
50:28
SPEAKER_02: It was Tari, it was I man, and then his starters didn't touch the floor because they're the guys that put you in a deficit by 31 points.
50:34
SPEAKER_02: So I really love the coaching, really love the players over there, and the fan base is really cool.
50:39
SPEAKER_02: The reason it's not a 10 out of 10, so I'll divide um because people are down on Jabbar Smith Jr.
50:44
SPEAKER_02: I mentioned it earlier, he can't hit a shot.
50:46
SPEAKER_02: And he's still a positive rebounder, he's still a positive defender.
50:50
SPEAKER_02: Even last night, in order to try to shrink the pick and roll game between Zubach and James Harden, they opted to have Jabari Smith Jr.
50:58
SPEAKER_02: guard Zoo.
50:59
SPEAKER_02: And uh Jabari, I mean, um James had a really good start to the game.
51:03
SPEAKER_02: And guess what happened?
51:03
SPEAKER_02: I'm in Thompson check there.
51:05
SPEAKER_02: I don't think he scored the rest of the half, but they allow Jabari to be this positive defensive player.
51:10
SPEAKER_02: He's just not hitting shots.
51:11
SPEAKER_02: I think he's dead last and open three-point percentage, which is nasty.
51:15
SPEAKER_02: Um and Jalen Green, let's talk about Jalen Green.
51:17
SPEAKER_02: One of the more polarizing players.
51:19
SPEAKER_02: There's a portion of Rockets fandom that love him.
51:23
SPEAKER_02: Even last night, if you look at the box score, it won't tell you the full story.
51:25
SPEAKER_02: And I feel like Jalen Green is becoming one of those players where he can have a really, really good game.
51:30
SPEAKER_02: But if you're not watching and you look at the box score, he's gonna be like, oh, he was five for 14 from from the field.
51:37
SPEAKER_02: He was five of 17 from the field.
51:39
SPEAKER_02: Ugh, that's nasty.
51:40
SPEAKER_02: And yes, a lot, a lot of the times it is nasty.
51:42
SPEAKER_02: But a game like last night, I mean, a lot of those shots they needed to miss.
51:45
SPEAKER_02: I think he missed four or five in a row late in this game when the game was pretty much sealed.
51:49
SPEAKER_02: Um, he's just trying to like ice ice the game.
51:52
SPEAKER_02: So it's it's been an interesting thing because you're seeing progression in some places where I personally believe that he's been doing a damn good job on drop coverage as the ball handler.
52:02
SPEAKER_02: Um not having the most efficiencies, and honestly, his efficiency has not got better throughout the course of his career, and that's one of the biggest knocks on him.
52:09
SPEAKER_02: But like you're I'm seeing progression in his defense.
52:11
SPEAKER_02: He's bought in defensively.
52:12
SPEAKER_02: So he's one of those dudes that I don't know he'll ever, ever be an above-average efficiency type of guy because of the shots he ends up taking.
52:20
SPEAKER_02: I don't know what the consensus would be on a potential trade market for him, but I'm watching him, and some nights I'm in love with what he's doing, and some nights I'm not.
52:29
SPEAKER_02: So he's just it's kind of weird, man.
52:31
SPEAKER_02: It's cool to see that they're not a team, at least last year they felt like a team that was really reliant on what Freya Van Vliet could bring to the table.
52:38
SPEAKER_02: Now Freya could get him, get him nothing, and they can still walk out with a win, and that's pretty cool.
52:42
SPEAKER_02: And the fact that they are this high in the standings is is dope, man.
52:45
SPEAKER_02: Um, especially considering they've also dealt with injuries here.
52:47
SPEAKER_02: There, they're eight and four, three-game, one streak, big wins.
52:50
SPEAKER_02: Next team, I want to go with a vibe rating on.
52:53
SPEAKER_02: This is this is a bit weird because I I've switched this number out a little bit.
52:56
SPEAKER_02: Originally, it started off at a one, and then last night's game happened, and I raised it up to a four.
53:02
SPEAKER_02: It's the 76ers.
53:04
SPEAKER_02: The reason it was so low is because Joel and B.
53:08
SPEAKER_02: You know, a lot of people reacted very poorly to his game against the Knicks today tonight.
53:13
SPEAKER_02: His first game of the season.
53:14
SPEAKER_02: Listen, I understand he was awful.
53:16
SPEAKER_02: Maybe, maybe the worst modern Joel M B game I've ever seen.
53:20
SPEAKER_02: Only reason I'm saying modern because rookie season Joe Well had some sneakers too.
53:23
SPEAKER_02: But modern Joel and B game I've ever seen.
53:26
SPEAKER_02: And I am panicking, if you will, but I'm not full on 10 out of 10 panic meter.
53:33
SPEAKER_02: I think I need at least need to see five game sample size.
53:36
SPEAKER_02: Like it didn't look good.
53:38
SPEAKER_02: And we still don't necessarily know what the hell happened because he played in the Olympics, and then they said that he wasn't gonna be ready and what the what happened between the Olympics and training camp for him not to be ready.
53:47
SPEAKER_02: And then of course he missed a double-digit amount of games to start the season, and they're already saying he's not playing back to back, even though he said he was trolling.
53:52
SPEAKER_02: Who the hell knows?
53:53
SPEAKER_02: I'm not completely, completely panicking just yet.
53:57
SPEAKER_02: But him being down with his injuries, Paul George has not given us a game just yet where it's like, ah, there's PG.
54:04
SPEAKER_02: He's given us a moment, a minute or two stretch, but ah, there goes PG.
54:08
SPEAKER_02: Has a lot of money, PG.
54:10
SPEAKER_02: But the reason it jumped up is because Jeremy Cain.
54:12
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I think they found another one, y'all.
54:14
SPEAKER_02: Jared McCain says Tyrese Max's injuries averaging 26, 2-4.
54:18
SPEAKER_02: And there's a thing about Jerry McCain.
54:21
SPEAKER_02: So this offseason, we went to the NBA draft combine.
54:24
SPEAKER_02: We interviewed like 20 to 25 rookies in this upcoming class.
54:27
SPEAKER_02: And Jeremy Cain was the first person to come into our room.
54:30
SPEAKER_02: And of course, I did my due diligence.
54:32
SPEAKER_02: I did research on these players before they, you know, before we met him and everything.
54:36
SPEAKER_02: The reason I like Jerry McCain and what made me a fan of him, um, it's rare to have someone of his age.
54:43
SPEAKER_02: Let me see exactly what he's what his age is.
54:45
SPEAKER_02: He's a young cat, that's all I'm saying.
54:47
SPEAKER_02: It's rare to have a 20-year-old, a 20 to 20-year-old person, not just athlete, just person, know who they are.
54:56
SPEAKER_02: When I was 20 years old, I didn't have a goddamn clue.
54:59
SPEAKER_02: I'm 28.
55:01
SPEAKER_02: And I'm starting to figure it out.
55:04
SPEAKER_02: At 20, he is so comfortable with who he is and his confidence.
55:08
SPEAKER_02: And that you see that on the court, where even after last night's 34 performance, he went to the podium and said, I do not firmly believe that there's 15 guys that are better than me.
55:19
SPEAKER_02: You know, first couple games of a season, he got DMP coach decision.
55:23
SPEAKER_02: He does not believe that those guys are better than him.
55:25
SPEAKER_02: He gets onto the court, he says, I don't believe that Donovan Mitchell is better than me.
55:29
SPEAKER_02: Even if I'm I'm not writing this, which he's not writing this, I have to have that mindset when I go against the guy.
55:35
SPEAKER_02: And I like that.
55:36
SPEAKER_02: When he walked into our room, he just had this confidence about him, and that was pretty cool to see.
55:43
SPEAKER_02: Because it that wasn't the case for all of the prospects that were in the draft.
55:46
SPEAKER_02: I'll just say that very kindly.
55:48
SPEAKER_02: So he I became a fan in him through that.
55:50
SPEAKER_02: Of course, watching the college, and he was one of the top high school players out there in Cali and everything, and he was doing his thing.
55:55
SPEAKER_02: Um, and then he got over to college and was cool, maybe not as great.
56:00
SPEAKER_02: Um, but I'm a fan.
56:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm a fan for that reason alone.
56:02
SPEAKER_02: So to see him come out in these last couple games give you 27 against the Hornets on uh 10 of 18, and then against the Knicks, 23.7 of 16.
56:10
SPEAKER_02: And then the last game versus the Cass, he took 26 shots.
56:14
SPEAKER_02: 26 shots, but also play McDamell.
56:18
SPEAKER_02: Where after the game, Nick Nurfs was saying when Tyrese comes back, there's an opportunity for Jeremy Kane to be our starter.
56:23
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how I feel about that just yet, because that is a very small backcourt, and then they already have size issues with like Caleb Martin being an undersized four.
56:31
SPEAKER_02: So it's really like Paul George having positional size and then Joel Embiid on the back end.
56:35
SPEAKER_02: So I don't know if that would really work out with those who started, but hell, try it out.
56:39
SPEAKER_02: Try it out.
56:40
SPEAKER_02: And I like this, I like his passing ability.
56:42
SPEAKER_02: Again, some of these games he ended up with two assists, right?
56:44
SPEAKER_02: His first game, or both of these games, Knicks versus Hornets, he had two assists.
56:47
SPEAKER_02: But I enjoyed his playmaking.
56:49
SPEAKER_02: And in this Cavs game, he had 10.
56:51
SPEAKER_02: So the reason why it's not as low is because Jerry McCain exists and he's playing good basketball.
56:56
SPEAKER_02: But um, another reason why it's not as low is because the Eastern Harvest thinks.
57:00
SPEAKER_02: Well, you can start off the season as bad as the 76ers have and be like, ah, all we need is a one good month and we're back into it.
57:06
SPEAKER_02: They're two and nine, and two and nine right now only has them two games out of it.
57:10
SPEAKER_02: It only got them two games out of it.
57:11
SPEAKER_02: It's got them two and a half games out of a top six seed.
57:14
SPEAKER_02: What the hell is happening out east?
57:16
SPEAKER_02: Why is it so bad?
57:18
SPEAKER_02: I don't know.
57:19
SPEAKER_02: So, like, if you were if if they were in the Western conference, my panic meter, my vibe rating will be a lot lower, my panic meter will be a lot higher.
57:26
SPEAKER_02: But out east, you have a four-game winning streak, which I don't think is out of the realm of possibility.
57:31
SPEAKER_02: And just like that, we're competing for a playing spot.
57:34
SPEAKER_02: You turn that four into six wins and seven nights, six wins in seven games, then boom, we're the four seed.
57:40
SPEAKER_02: We're the goddamn four seed.
57:41
SPEAKER_02: So many teams are underperforming, man.
57:44
SPEAKER_02: New York Knicks, sub 500, Indiana Pacers, sub 500, Miami Heat, sub 500, Bucks, 76ers, sub-500.
57:52
SPEAKER_02: Hello?
57:54
SPEAKER_02: These conferences are overpowered.
57:57
SPEAKER_02: Well, one of the conferences is overpowered.
57:58
SPEAKER_02: If you look at East versus West, golly, if you look at East versus West, it is it is bad, y'all.
58:04
SPEAKER_02: I ain't gonna lie to you.
58:05
SPEAKER_02: I ain't gonna lie to you.
58:07
SPEAKER_02: Um OKC undefeated against the East three games, Suns underdefeated against the East two games, Nuggets underdefeated versus the East four games, Clippers underdefeated versus the E two games, and then the teams that have lost, the Warriors lost one game, the Rockets lost one game, the Kings lost one game, the Timberwolves, the team we just talked about having bad vibes, they've only lost one game out of four against the Easter Conference, bro.
58:32
SPEAKER_02: It's is it's rough stuff.
58:33
SPEAKER_02: All right, let's get to this last team before we get our ass KB going on.
58:38
SPEAKER_02: This team has a 10 out of 10.
58:41
SPEAKER_02: Can you can you guess which the Golden State Warriors have a 10 out of 10 vibrating?
58:49
SPEAKER_02: That game versus the Dallas Mavericks.
58:52
SPEAKER_02: I I've said this before, I think, on this show.
58:56
SPEAKER_02: Since I became a dad two and a half years ago, I am so much more of an emotional person.
59:02
SPEAKER_02: Not saying that I was this super, super thug that didn't show emotions or didn't cry.
59:08
SPEAKER_02: No.
59:08
SPEAKER_02: But I definitely, definitely didn't get heartfelt as much as I do now.
59:13
SPEAKER_02: Man, Klay checked it to that game, and everybody had the captain's hats.
59:17
SPEAKER_02: They showed the one-minute clip of him woking them back.
59:21
SPEAKER_02: I got emotional as hell, man.
59:22
SPEAKER_02: I ain't had no tears or nothing, but I'm like, bro, this is crazy.
59:25
SPEAKER_02: My whole life, I thought those three dudes would play together forever.
59:29
SPEAKER_02: I thought they played together forever.
59:30
SPEAKER_02: And it's that's not the reality.
59:33
SPEAKER_02: So when they got there on the court, and I think it was the very first possession, Steph Curry is guarding Klay Thompson.
59:39
SPEAKER_02: It was crazy, man.
59:41
SPEAKER_02: It felt like you remember when we were in Toronto for All-Star and Kobe was being guarded by Braun?
59:47
SPEAKER_02: That's what it felt like, bro.
59:48
SPEAKER_02: And I'm not even a Warriors fan.
59:50
SPEAKER_02: There's only been one year in Warriors history where I've ever rooted for them to win a game.
59:54
SPEAKER_02: And that was the last championship run with Stefan Wiggs and Dre.
59:58
SPEAKER_02: Every other championship they've had, I wouldn't say I was rooting against them, damn it.
1:00:02
SPEAKER_02: But Lord knows I would have been okay if they lost those series.
1:00:05
SPEAKER_02: That 3-1 comeback, I ain't gonna lie, I was rooting against them.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_02: I wanted to see history.
1:00:08
SPEAKER_02: I was I wanted to see history, but that's me again, mostly a neutral fan getting emotional to seeing those dudes on opposite sides of it.
1:00:18
SPEAKER_02: And the game lived up to all of the hype.
1:00:21
SPEAKER_02: Where Klay Thompson hit what five to six threes in this one, and Steph Curry's takeover in the fourth quarter was magical.
1:00:28
SPEAKER_02: Draymond Green's defensive takeover in this game, magical.
1:00:32
SPEAKER_02: And Steph Curry, when he shows emotion, is a really cool sight.
1:00:38
SPEAKER_02: Because Steph Curry nickname is Babyface Assassin, for God's sake.
1:00:43
SPEAKER_02: For the first 13 years of his career, he was just a cold-blooded killer, just straight up that didn't talk, didn't really do anything other than just random dances after a little shimmy.
1:00:55
SPEAKER_02: Now, you occasionally get that man take that mouth guard out and he's screaming it to the crowd.
1:01:00
SPEAKER_02: Like that emotion is not just we're winning this random regular season game.
1:01:06
SPEAKER_02: That emotion is a lot.
1:01:08
SPEAKER_02: Greg, come on, talk to me, talk to me, Greg.
1:01:09
SPEAKER_02: Greg is a worries fan.
1:01:10
SPEAKER_02: Talk to him.
1:01:11
SPEAKER_01: Well, speaking of that emotion, I'm sure you've seen that clip going around of him screaming to the crowd and people trying to make sense of what he said.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:01:17
SPEAKER_01: I really don't think he said, You gotta stay here, or we gotta stay here, and like at Clay.
1:01:23
SPEAKER_01: I think it was this is my shit here.
1:01:25
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, we gotta stay, um, you gotta stay here.
1:01:29
SPEAKER_02: Feels weird.
1:01:30
SPEAKER_02: Like in the context of it, because I I don't I didn't think so either.
1:01:34
SPEAKER_02: Even like some dude did a very slowed version of it.
1:01:39
SPEAKER_02: It's one of those things that like you told me that's what he said, so that's what I'm seeing him say.
1:01:44
SPEAKER_02: Totally.
1:01:45
SPEAKER_02: Um, but how do you how do you think the vibes are as a Warriors fan?
1:01:49
SPEAKER_02: Is my 10 out of 10 on mark?
1:01:51
SPEAKER_02: Or I mean I'm sure I mean obviously you're not the perfect team or anything, but how are you feeling?
1:01:55
SPEAKER_01: Yeah, I I would say nine, just leaving that extra room, knowing that they really won't be a serious contender unless they make some sort of move.
1:02:04
SPEAKER_01: And I think deep down all Warriors fans know that.
1:02:08
SPEAKER_01: But for the time being, yeah, I mean the vibes are are great, especially when you have when you have depth and nine, 10, 11 guys are really contributing, people feel good about themselves.
1:02:17
SPEAKER_01: And as a viewer, you can feel that.
1:02:19
SPEAKER_01: Uh, I just saw the news that that Milton will be out for a little while with a sprained ACL, which is a bummer because I think he's he's huge for them, especially long term.
1:02:27
SPEAKER_01: Um But one of the reasons the vibe might be 10 out of 10 is because Steph might still be that dude.
1:02:35
SPEAKER_01: He he might still be the one, um, despite being nearly 37 by the end of the season.
1:02:41
SPEAKER_01: Um and that makes you feel really, really good.
1:02:43
SPEAKER_01: Because at the start of the season, the vibes were great because they were playing really well as a team.
1:02:48
SPEAKER_01: But the question really was outside of can they make a move, is can Steph still be like a 1A on a title team?
1:02:54
SPEAKER_01: And I think the answer is unequivocally yes.
1:02:56
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, because even with your dominance to start the season, Steph was having games.
1:03:00
SPEAKER_02: We had 19 points, 16 points.
1:03:02
SPEAKER_02: And it's like it's working, right?
1:03:03
SPEAKER_02: We're winning games, we got this deep rotation.
1:03:05
SPEAKER_02: So for him to have this game where he just became unconscious was cool.
1:03:10
SPEAKER_02: And I think another one of the reasons is like the defense is just still so great.
1:03:14
SPEAKER_02: At one point they were number two, I think they're down to number four, which is still amazing.
1:03:18
SPEAKER_02: And every single great Warriors team has held their hat on the defensive side of the ball.
1:03:22
SPEAKER_02: Like obviously, the greatest shooting duo of all time, and eventually Kevin Durant came.
1:03:26
SPEAKER_02: So the offense was amazing as well.
1:03:28
SPEAKER_02: But every year that they won the championship, they have had a great defense.
1:03:32
SPEAKER_02: Um, and Draymond Green, like I mentioned earlier, is probably my favorite to win DPOY this early on.
1:03:36
SPEAKER_02: I mean, some of those plays against Gaffer were that brought the crowd down, man.
1:03:40
SPEAKER_02: And it's as big as Steph Curry's shot in some cases.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_01: And it's contagious.
1:03:43
SPEAKER_01: You can feel when Draymond's locked in, the whole team is locked in.
1:03:46
SPEAKER_01: And the other guy I want to give credit to, and Draymond has said this, is Stackhouse as the assistant coach.
1:03:51
SPEAKER_01: I think he's the leader of their defense, and he's I think he's made like a fun thing where he grades them out every game on specific defensive rotations and assignments.
1:03:59
SPEAKER_01: And I think the guys seem to be really into it.
1:04:01
SPEAKER_01: It sounds like a gimmick, but it seems to be working.
1:04:04
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, I got a tweet after that game, um, just a random tweet, um, basically saying, like, Seth Curry's like a good defender, huh, Kenny?
1:04:12
SPEAKER_02: I'm like, yeah, he always has been at least okay.
1:04:14
SPEAKER_02: The problem is he was playing alongside some amazing defenders for the majority of his career, and he's smaller.
1:04:20
SPEAKER_02: So, like, as an opposing team, you're gonna try to pick on the small guy, but he always has been decent.
1:04:25
SPEAKER_02: And now, again, he's completely bought in defensively as well.
1:04:28
SPEAKER_02: Where like sometimes you can get a star player that understands that I'm here to average 30, and I I can make a defensive play here or there, but that's not really who I am.
1:04:37
SPEAKER_02: Like, Steph Curry's really about it defensively, and I think again, when you see your star player doing that, it becomes contagious where uh guys can check in and provide some value.
1:04:46
SPEAKER_02: The the Anthony Melton thing sucks.
1:04:48
SPEAKER_02: I didn't see that because he had a big time shot late in that game as well.
1:04:51
SPEAKER_01: Um, I was gonna say, I think the shot he hit was right off.
1:04:54
SPEAKER_01: So they were down seven, timeout call.
1:04:55
SPEAKER_01: I was kind of feeling like, damn, four minutes left, down seven might be tough.
1:04:59
SPEAKER_01: Luca has the ball, and Steph plucks him.
1:05:01
SPEAKER_01: Melton hits the three.
1:05:02
SPEAKER_01: That's Steph's defense.
1:05:03
SPEAKER_01: Big shot by Melton, and the game totally flips.
1:05:06
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, yeah.
1:05:07
SPEAKER_02: The crowd was electric too.
1:05:08
SPEAKER_02: I've only been the chase.
1:05:09
SPEAKER_02: Have you been there?
1:05:10
SPEAKER_02: Have you seen a game, home game?
1:05:12
SPEAKER_01: Uh yeah.
1:05:12
SPEAKER_01: I went to a uh the game where Harrison Barnes missed the three for the Kings to lose to the Warriors in the playoffs in uh 22.
1:05:22
SPEAKER_02: Oh, wow.
1:05:23
SPEAKER_02: Oh, so you were at a big game.
1:05:25
SPEAKER_01: Yeah.
1:05:26
unknown: Yeah.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_01: Wow.
1:05:26
SPEAKER_02: So I've been to one game, and it was also a big game.
1:05:28
SPEAKER_02: It was ring ceremony night after their last championship.
1:05:31
SPEAKER_01: I mean, I I was there too.
1:05:32
SPEAKER_02: Oh, snaps.
1:05:34
SPEAKER_02: There we go.
1:05:34
SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
1:05:36
SPEAKER_02: Um damn, we didn't even know each other.
1:05:38
SPEAKER_02: That's crazy.
1:05:39
SPEAKER_02: Um, but that was that was just fun.
1:05:40
SPEAKER_02: I mean, at this point, I've seen two ring ceremonies.
1:05:43
SPEAKER_02: Um, it's just a different vibe there, man.
1:05:46
SPEAKER_02: And right in front of us when we were there, Matt Ryan was playing for the Lakers at that point, right?
1:05:51
SPEAKER_02: It was the Lakers, and um, his family was sitting right in front of us.
1:05:55
SPEAKER_02: So like he checked into the game.
1:05:57
SPEAKER_02: Um, or maybe I'm mixing up, maybe I've been there twice.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_02: I'm mixing up games now.
1:06:00
SPEAKER_02: It was definitely the Lakers.
1:06:01
SPEAKER_01: It was the Lakers because I remember once Gonel Anderson had just gotten traded to the Lakers and he was getting his rings.
1:06:07
SPEAKER_02: Yes, I remember that too.
1:06:08
SPEAKER_02: But maybe I'm I'm mixing up the Ryan Anderson or the Matt uh Ryan story.
1:06:12
SPEAKER_02: That might have been a different game I was at.
1:06:14
SPEAKER_02: Um so the story's not really important, I guess.
1:06:17
SPEAKER_02: But his family was right in front of us, so he checked in and they went all crazy.
1:06:20
SPEAKER_02: And then we're like, oh, they gotta be his family.
1:06:22
SPEAKER_02: And then the mom stood up and she took off her jacket, and it's the last name on it said Ryan, but it was in um like Sharpie.
1:06:28
SPEAKER_02: I was like, Oh yeah, that's gotta be family.
1:06:31
SPEAKER_02: Is he in the league?
1:06:32
SPEAKER_02: Yeah, he's um he's currently with the Knicks.
1:06:34
SPEAKER_02: He's with the Knicks right now.
1:06:35
SPEAKER_02: He's wearing double wristband as his accessory.
1:06:40
SPEAKER_02: It's different.
1:06:41
SPEAKER_02: Threw me off.
1:06:41
SPEAKER_02: Wearing number 37, I want to say.
1:06:43
SPEAKER_02: Storm me off a little bit, but still a sniper.
1:06:51
SPEAKER_02: So that's my vibrator for a couple teams across basketball.
1:06:54
SPEAKER_02: Maybe we check back into this throughout the course of the season.
1:06:56
SPEAKER_02: But now we're gonna start my favorite segment, the Ask KB segment.
1:07:00
SPEAKER_02: You can go over to Instagram, enjoy smallball over there, send us a DM, and uh you might be featured on the show.
1:07:06
SPEAKER_02: Let's get it.
1:07:07
SPEAKER_02: What up, Kenny?
1:07:08
SPEAKER_02: And I got a question for you.
1:07:09
SPEAKER_02: What are three trades that you personally want to see this season?
1:07:13
SPEAKER_02: Okay, I'm gonna give you one that's gonna be super biased, but whatever.
1:07:17
SPEAKER_02: Um Zach Levine is still really, really good at basketball.
1:07:20
SPEAKER_02: And understand the contract, the contract, the contract.
1:07:22
SPEAKER_02: I don't know how many of y'all are really listening, man, because that boy has been on a tear.
1:07:26
SPEAKER_02: He is as efficient as ever, uh, he is as bouncy as ever.
1:07:30
SPEAKER_02: And I'm seeing him make some great playmaking plays here there.
1:07:32
SPEAKER_02: In the Knicks game, there was the one pass that if you saw it, you saw it.
1:07:35
SPEAKER_02: So I would love to see him get to a different team.
1:07:37
SPEAKER_02: The question is what team can afford him, and it makes sense.
1:07:40
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna continue to preach to your Orlando Magic.
1:07:42
SPEAKER_02: I know Magic fans don't love that idea because of the contract itself, but I watched their offense and I know that they could use a guy that can create for himself, but also be one of the best catch-and-shoot players in basketball.
1:07:53
SPEAKER_02: The Lakers are always gonna be a team that's gonna be interested in him just because they have the mid-level contracts and he has the LA ties.
1:07:59
SPEAKER_02: And somebody said a sneaky team was the Kings.
1:08:02
SPEAKER_02: I can't get there because he him and DeMar didn't really work out too great.
1:08:06
SPEAKER_02: I can't imagine bringing that back.
1:08:07
SPEAKER_02: So let's say Zach Levine to one of those two teams.
1:08:10
SPEAKER_02: I'm gonna say Walker Kessler and Colin Sexton together in a trade.
1:08:17
SPEAKER_02: And the only place where that kind of makes sense is the Lakers.
1:08:21
SPEAKER_02: Colin Sexton City, Orlando imagine makes sense as well, too.
1:08:23
SPEAKER_02: But uh, they've been looking for center depth.
1:08:25
SPEAKER_02: Walker Kessler, uh great defensive center for what it's worth.
1:08:29
SPEAKER_02: And then Colin Colin Sexton is an absolute bucket and a grinder.
1:08:32
SPEAKER_02: So I wouldn't be mad if they use like uh D'Angelo Russell, Jared Vanderbilt contracts together with a couple first-round picks and take those guys away from the Utah Jazz.
1:08:42
SPEAKER_02: And lastly, it probably has to do with the Trailblazers getting off of Anthony Simons.
1:08:48
SPEAKER_02: Because again, the trailblazers are pretty fun without him.
1:08:50
SPEAKER_02: Uh, but the question is what teams can afford that?
1:08:53
SPEAKER_02: Anthony Simons' contract is pretty big, if I'm not mistaken.
1:08:56
SPEAKER_02: Um, so all of these trades, hey, I'm just trying to build them on the fly.
1:09:00
SPEAKER_02: So if they're not the perfect trade, so be it.
1:09:01
SPEAKER_02: I'm just I'm just kind of talking through it.
1:09:03
SPEAKER_02: But a team, oh never mind.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_02: I'm not nah.
1:09:06
SPEAKER_02: Anthony Simons has to have a home somewhere though.
1:09:09
SPEAKER_02: Because he feels he's been there since he was 19.
1:09:11
SPEAKER_02: This is year one, two, three, four, five, seven, year seven for Anthony Simons, but it's always felt like they were gonna go a different direction.
1:09:19
SPEAKER_02: Uh, let's just say Anthony Simons finds his next home.
1:09:21
SPEAKER_02: $24 million this year, uh$25 million this year.
1:09:26
SPEAKER_02: It's not as bad as I thought.
1:09:27
SPEAKER_02: I want to try to figure out a way to get the Clippers to get more depth over there, but I just don't know how to get there.
1:09:32
SPEAKER_02: But I appreciate the question.
1:09:34
SPEAKER_00: Hey Kenny, love your content, man.
1:09:36
SPEAKER_00: I've been watching for years.
1:09:37
SPEAKER_00: My question is what player do you think doesn't get the respect they deserve on the defensive end?
1:09:42
SPEAKER_00: You know we love defense out here, so you I want to hear your answer.
1:09:46
SPEAKER_02: Love that, love that.
1:09:48
SPEAKER_02: Does it get the respect that they deserve defensively?
1:09:50
SPEAKER_02: That's really tough because I feel like people are having more of an eye-opening like revelation with the defensive side of the ball with some dudes like Chris Dunn, who's maybe one of the five to seven best perimeter defenders in basketball.
1:10:05
SPEAKER_02: I think people kind of recognize that now.
1:10:06
SPEAKER_02: So I would have to go to like mid-rotation players, and I don't mean mid isn't bad, I mean middle rotation players.
1:10:12
SPEAKER_02: Like a Hayward Highsmith is a guy that's a really good defensive player that comes to mind immediately.
1:10:18
SPEAKER_02: Um, I'm thinking about these other teams across ball.
1:10:21
SPEAKER_02: It's it's hard because I could give you answers, but I don't know if they would be considered underrated necessarily.
1:10:27
SPEAKER_02: Like Tari Eason and Iman Thompson as a duo is pretty good.
1:10:30
SPEAKER_02: Even Jabari Smith Jr., he's not the perfect defender, but like I trust him on the defensive side of the ball.
1:10:36
SPEAKER_02: I think the Grizzlies, for what uh how do I feel about Jalen Wales being here?
1:10:41
SPEAKER_02: So still too early.
1:10:42
SPEAKER_02: He does have his mental lapses here, there, but I am let's just say I'm impressed with Jalen Wales on both sides of the ball to start his NBA career.
1:10:49
SPEAKER_02: Uh, the Clippers have a ton of these dudes, man.
1:10:52
SPEAKER_02: Derrick Jones Jr., Chris Dunn, even 97-year-old Nicholas Patum can get it done here, there.
1:11:01
SPEAKER_02: It's a good question, man.
1:11:02
SPEAKER_02: Um, Najee Marshall was getting up there as well.
1:11:07
SPEAKER_02: Uh Tumani Kamara.
1:11:08
SPEAKER_02: Tumani Kamara is my number one answer to this question because nobody's watching the Trailblazers right now.
1:11:12
SPEAKER_02: Tumani Kamara.
1:11:18
SPEAKER_02: Hopefully, that was another great addition of Small Ball with Kenny Beecham.
1:11:21
SPEAKER_02: If you did enjoy the episode, give it a like.
1:11:23
SPEAKER_02: Give us five stars as we continue to try to be the best in the number one basketball podcast out there.
1:11:31
SPEAKER_02: What I will say, one little thing I would appreciate.
1:11:33
SPEAKER_02: Hit me up on Twitter at KLT for a Q.
1:11:36
SPEAKER_02: I'm looking, I'm looking to add more people to our guests rotation.
1:11:40
SPEAKER_02: So if you have some people you think would uh mesh very well with me and Greg, let me know.
1:11:45
SPEAKER_02: I got some invites out there.
1:11:46
SPEAKER_02: I'm just waiting for responses, but I'm always open to seeing new people, meeting new people, and talking some hoops.
1:11:52
SPEAKER_02: I appreciate y'all as always.
1:11:53
SPEAKER_02: I'll see y'all next week.