What is crack a lac infelt thermonuclear afors. I am Dan Valley coming at
you with a mail bag podcast on my own, as these things tend to
be. We're doing a Twitter mail bag this time. This is being recorded
before games on Sunday, so if anything happens that makes it like majorly outdated,
or record an intro. But the stats everything we're going to talk about
accurate as of Sunday, November twelfth. I have about an hour, maybe
a little bit more. So I'm gonna try and bang through as many questions
on Twitter as I can. If I can get to some of the discord
ones, I will, But I'd like the idea of maybe switching every other
week. Although Elon killed Twitter a little bit, so we don't get nearly
as many mail bag responses on there from the NBA math account. So if
you're on Twitter and you feel like double dipping and you're also in our discord,
if you'd like to send us mailbag questions, so the best way to
do so you can be on the lookout out on Twitter for those solicitations,
but join our discord the links in the podcast and YouTube description, or you
can email us Hardwood knocks at gmail dot com. I don't check that thing
every day, but I will eventually. I will eventually see it and we
can edit to the queue. You're free to DM me my dms get to
be a mess though on Twitter, So again, there are very very different
There are a bunch of different ways you can reach out. But if you'd
like to get your question heard on a mailbang and you're not in discord,
hardware knocks at gmail dot com, but join our discord, follow us on
all the socials too, the links that are in the podcast and YouTube description,
and as always, thank you all for your support. We really do
appreciate every single one of you, and if you've not subscribed yet, please
consider hitting the sub button on YouTube as well as Spotify and Apple. Ratings
and reviews on Apple and Spotify help out a ton if we get some momentum
and like, let's drive us up the Apple charts. Can you all go
spam our ratings and let's see them skyrocket once? Those go a long way.
If you've done all those things though, worth of math recommendations, help
promote our our episodes, tell people about us though that's probably the biggest way
to help the podcast grow aside from the YouTube algorithm. At this point,
comment on the YouTube videos help the algorithm of us back. Maybe be nice
in the comments instead of telling us that we don't watch basketball, in which
case, anyone who says that, even if they say they, if they
tell us that we're not following Team X or that our takes are dumb or
we're not watching basketball, you can't do what we do. If you're saying
that you can't cover all thirty teams as well as we do, I'm just
gonna say that right now. I'm taking off the humble pie. There are
probably people in our discord. There are many listeners that I think could absolutely
do what we do. You can't do what we do if that's your first
gut check reaction, and I think that's it. That's all the housekeeping notes,
as well as me throwing shade it. There was just a lot of
hate on our Pacers and Timberwolves clips from the episode where we were actually pretty
complimentary of both teams. But you latch onto this thing about us saying Kat
has not been good to start the season, or Grant got eviscerated for his
benanicmathrine take. I guess both of US did because it was a joint video.
And then Bennett Mathrom went out to have the two best games of his
career. One clip was recorded beforehand. Two. Don't use a two to
three game, say ample size flashes over the course of a nine game season
or whatever, and just expect that to apply to a new normal. And
if you disagree, that's fine with the Benan mcmathin take. I disagreed with
what Grant said. Grant even said he might have been being too harsh or
hypocritical or cynical, whatever the word was that he used. It's okay to
have different opinions. It doesn't make us dumb. Doesn't mean that we don't
watch. But there's nothing wrong with Grant using we have a full season's worth
of data from last year, the struggles in Summer League. He has been
better to start this season. There have been flashes of more variants in his
offensive decision making. I think it's totally reasonable to say, and it's not
an insult that Bennancmathrin might top out as a great six man. I just
thought that was such an odd thing to latch into. Even if you think
he's been better, has a higher ceiling than Grant does. If you think
he has a higher ceiling that like, if you think he's going to be
a star, that's fine, justify it. But don't come in here and
say we don't watch basketball. We're not watching this team paying attention to this
team. When you are saying that, I'm just gonna tell you right now,
you can't do what we do. You just you can't. Not sorry
that not a rant I intended to go on. Mayve been feeling spicy on
Sunday. I've not taken it edible because I need to go to an event,
which is why I'm doing this early in the day. We need to
have a mail bag. One few questions here before we really get into this
are the are the solo mail bags? Fine? I don't like doing these.
I'm just gonna be I love interacting with the questions. I should probably
just find someone who's willing to give up everything and drop on a whim and
adhere to my schedule whenever I can record these and just throw the questions at
me as sort of a guest hosts. I don't I don't like these.
I don't like talking to myself. I know I talk a lot, I
know my speed demon when I'm talking. I hate it. I hate these
episodes, but I love the concept of the mailbags. I love hearing from
you guys. If you enjoy the solo episodes that I'll keep doing them.
If you don't like these solo episodes, I will not keep doing them.
My time is short as it is, so let me know in the comments
or discord if the if the solo mail bags play, Grant and I will
do joint ones from time to time, but I think it's more important for
us to focus on like real like not real content. This is real content.
But that's just these the episodes that are gonna age more quickly. I
want to break down games with someone in some of the biggest topics. That
makes more sense for us to do that together. But he will be on
with nobeg. Shout out to this support on that stat panding episode by the
way, and I want to start this. This is fine. I'm going
to ask a question, my mail bag question to everyone. I need to
start doing these, especially if you're on YouTube. I want to know what
you think in the comments here, but also in discord. Grant had asked
and it went the commenters went wild on YouTube. YouTube TikTok. What is
the rookie or NBA prospect you were most wrong about in a way that you
were too positive on them. My answer was among the two, But I
think the one I ended up settling on was I thought Justin Patton was going
to be a more athletic, better ball handling Chris tops Porzingis Grant said that
he thought this is kind of reasonable. He said that Ben Simmons was going
to be a bigger, faster Grant Hill. A lot of people were high
on Ben Simmons. I want to know in the comments what some of the
stuff on, you know, people who thought Jared Sullinger was going to be
a superstar, you know, kind of remembering how high people were on Nick
Stauskas and Ben Lackamore was fun. Someone thought Willie caley Stein was going to
be generational. I'm not just singling out King's draft basically, or I apologize.
There was a lot of dog Greg Oden was gonna be one of the
best big men of all times, like some of the more reasonable ones,
but then kind of these sort of random ones. I'm trying to think of
a good one off the top of my head, whereas like someone being thinking
that Avery Bradley was going to be a megastar, not just a really good
player. There's of course Frank Neilakina for me, who I think at the
time, I don't. I don't know if I wrote this. I definitely
said it somewhere. I thought he was gonna be the combination of Marcus Smart
and Avery Bradley, and a better shooter than both. I think it was
like a better shooter and ball handler, I think them both at the time
was what I thought, or maybe that was into his rookie season. I
said that, So that's another wild one. Let me know in the comments
in the discord, whatever, what is the NBA draft? What is the
NBA rookie or draft prospect that you were so high on that you ended up
being most wrong about. Let's dive into how about that for a freaking seven
minute introduction. Let's let's dig into some news. Actually two things I wanted
to cover, and Grant and I will normally do news together. But the
Kelly ubridgeior injury is just a fucking bummer. He sustained broken ribs and an
assortment of bruises and cuts. According to Shan Serania of the athletic to his
body after being struck by a car in Philadelphia on Saturday night. He was
apparently walking home. Ubray fortunately avoided more serious injuries, but will now miss
significant time. Tim Bontemps followed that up by saying that the Sixers have announced
Kelly rid Junior suffered a fractured rib on Saturday when he was struck by a
motor vehicle and that he'll be re evaluated in one week. That just that
blows. I mean, I'm glad it wasn't more serious and that it seems
like he's going to be okay and gonna be able to return to a basketball
court. He was banging for the buck wise one of the best free agent
signings of the offseason. I still can't believe he went for a minimum.
I know how people feel about players who don't pass. He's a bucket and
he's I mean, he's been moving off the ball really well and Philly's been
hitting his threes. That'll probably come down, but it just sucks. He's
having a great season. Definitely, I would have thought earned himself some money
in free agency and he's hopefully he can come back and pick up where he
left off. That's just a bummer. He's a big part of the sixer
success so far. They do have kind of wings to spare. But when
you look at their wings, unless I'm just like I thought about this,
because they have so many wings, they're not like the super speedster wings like
the anti Melton just a little on the smaller end. But we can defend
like a wing, so I sort of get it. And Tobias Harris like
that's fine, but like just for con Corkmas Robert Covington, now you're talking
about Nick with Toomb, I mean Jane Springer. So it's just they don't
have a lot of like bouncier wings. Maybe this means like kJ Martin becomes
a little bit more important, But he's been like not really part of the
rotation, so I think that they could miss some of the pace that he
plays with when you're looking at you know him and Maxie at Melton, like
those guys can play really fast. Hopefully he's fine. Hopefully he's not out
too long and when he cut whenever he comes back, I hope he's just
as good because it was it's been fun to kind of see him being so
impactful after I guess being forced to sign with the minimum, or maybe he
thought this would be a good situation because he knew the Hardens Harden debacle was
going to implode. But he's made himself some real money so far, and
I hope he can continue to do so. And then also shout out to
him because he's one of the I like that. I like an NBA player
who wears polish on his nails, unironically, not like a Jimmy Butler,
Emo Knight or EMO EMO media Day, Like just with the Kelly Bridge r
that you get to that guy. Fucks is that? Is that what the
kids? That? That what the kids are saying because he is polish on
his nails. No, that's that's the wrong way of saying it. But
I appreciate sort of the the offbeat there. And finally, uh, as
a news note, Uh, the NBA is talking about going to a two
draft, two day draft where they would have this I'm assuming the first round
or the lottery on one day. They didn't get into the structure too much
in that Shams and Woje reporting there's been talking about maybe them adding a third
round, which I guess could make sense with the expanded you know, two
way rules, and now you have these second round exceptions as well, and
I'm assuming those would spill over into the third round. I don't have a
strong take on this. I do recognize that this the second round is just
a blur. These they have like two minutes to pick all these trades are
happening. I know some people use the argument that by having more time in
the second round, more trades could unfold. Then I saw John Hollinger,
I think, said that there was like seventeen trades in the second round this
past year, just something wild. So how many if we have more time,
how many more trades are we going to do? I'm all for.
I like the idea of one not having someone like Nicole Jokic get drafted during
a Taco bell commercial, just having that memory, even if they're not in
person, to kind of remembering where you are when that happened, because there
are just second round picks that go off. I like having that idea,
and maybe you then are able to invite more of these prospects over. In
a case like Jokic, where he's international, maybe he's not showing up for
that if he doesn't think he's going to go in the top thirty, but
I'd be all for that. What I will say is that the broadcast need
to be tailored accordingly because they people are struggling to and I understand it could
be difficult if you tasked with if they don't have a separate NBA draft crew,
which I know that ESPN they have Jonathan Gavoni still, but like you
lose Schmidt's but like aside from Gavoni and then Jay Billis is gonna be on
there. Okay, fine, do you want to hear what Kendrick Perkins?
And I'm trying not to shit because I know how hard it is to do
this job as someone who complains about people saying we don't watch basketball. Do
I want to see Kendrick Perkins on TV mimicking spanking as a way of breaking
down the game? No. I mean, if if the standard of that
studio show was already higher, like if the barometer ford like it was,
if it was if they had the cachet and the built up goodwill of what
we see of inside the NBA and not just because we're employed by the same
parent company. That's a very enjoyable show when people get mad about things they
say. But they've built up goodwill. I think in part because the show
is actually the show where it's ESPN is rushing to commercials, and I understand
part of why they're doing that, but if you made the show more enjoyable,
you could get to a point where maybe the show itself, the studio
show itself, is being sponsored, so you don't need to cut to as
many of these commercials. I'm not even sure if that's how it works,
but if the show had built up more goodwill or was better, you can
deal with Shenanigans are fun. I'd like to think that this podcast is personable
and wacky in addition to also being super technical and in depth and thorough so,
but just because of ESPN it's so. And I don't necessarily blame the
talent as much for this because of how quickly they are cutting too commercials,
Like it's just it's big bang boom. You want to make fun of what
Steven A has to say or what Kendrick Perkins has to say, but they're
given like these with thirty five second snippets, and what are you actually supposed
to do there? My point being this is around my way of saying I
don't want to see a second day of the NBA draft if we're not going
to see people who have studied these players, who know these players that are
getting drafted, because you want the analysis to go along with that event,
So forget, forget even adding the third rounds. And maybe that would be
the argument for well, let's do the lottery, then we'll wrap up the
second the first round, in the second round on that second day. Sure,
but if you're gonna add the second day of the draft, make sure
that you have just the talent and the experience, the familiarity with these players
to back up that that type of I would say it's ambitious, vicious programming.
All for it. Otherwise, because again, the second round is such
a blur. We are heading into the mailbag portion now of this podcast.
Really good questions here. Let's start with and this is we've gotten this question.
This is something similar, but doctor Justin Quinn asked, why didn't the
league make divisions useful again with group play stage of the in season tournament.
Yeah, it's so. The way that they drew, just for anyone who
might not be familiar, is they created these five pots per conference, three
teams in each pot, and then what they did was one team was drawn
from each pot and like that made up a group is and the pots were
as follows for anyone who can follow along. Pot one teams with the three
best prior regular season records in the conference. Pot two teams with fourth through
sixth best records. Pot three was seventh through ninth, Pot four was tenth
through twelfth, and Pot five was thirteenth through fifteenth of that conference. I
understand why they did it this way because you don't want to end up with
LOP two. This seems like a better way of redistributing the teams relative to
what happened last season. Now a lot of teams look plenty different compared to
last year. You could you know, a team like the Wizards just now
all of a sudden even worse because they don't have Christaps Porzingis and Bradley Beal.
But you don't also want to have the issue of there are just certain
divisions right now that are hell fire compared to the others, and it's this
might be the case for getting rid of divisions, by the way, but
any AnyWho, and there's I think worth the point of the season. But
specifically, you look at that there's no I don't know that there's a shitty
division right now. I mean I'm looking at okay, there are divisions where
there might be two sort of pushovers, but they're kind of like in the
Atlantic, there's five teams that are trying to win right now. In the
Pacific there's five which should be really good teams at full strength. In the
Southwest with the Rockets just rolling, the Rockets are rolling, caps Lock rolling.
Now all of a sudden, there's four. There's four competitive teams because
the Grizzlies aren't one of them, and the Spurs they're sort of lightning in
a bottle. I kind of understand why you got away from divisions. If
you wanted to build back up those rivalries, sure, and maybe that would
create drama that would then spill into matchups that were being played outside of the
n season tournaments. Since that's happening so early. If we're trying to make
it from an even field, I do prefer the way like just trying to
even out, like the way that the teams are distributed in the level of
competition. I know that there are groups that are hell fire compared to others
right now. That's how it works out, especially when you're basing this decision
off of last year's records, where you're seeing a lot of turnover and changes
to team like the Blazers being one, and even the Jazz like their records
inflated because of the time that what they were doing before the trade deadline last
year. What I would maybe be interested in, and this again would make
divisions even more useless, is like, do we kind of keep these groups
from year to year because you build up rivalries that way, and there's more
of sort of the one off occasion to them because it's the n season tournament
game might matter more. Perhaps that's a stupid way of looking at it.
If I'm more concerned about them evenly distributing the competition, they should probably stick
with what they're doing. But if you want to build up rivalries, I
could understand the argument for, well, why didn't they just do it by
division? Again, it's a level of competition thing quite clearly to me.
But is that something they're open to doing moving forward or could they just be
at some point do we just lock in the groups just to kind of create
that drama. So I'm all for trying to build rivalries in the league,
and I would imagine I try to look by the way and see if there
was if this is why they did it or why they didn't stick with divisions.
I couldn't find anyone who had answered that question. So, Adam Silva,
I know you're listening. Why don't you just get at me? You
can email me, DM me on Twitter. You're probably in our discs.
So however you feel like you want to text me, however you feel like
you want to get in touch this question, this question is super interesting.
It's a little bit. It happened before the season, but I'm just getting
around to it now. From Matisse Thibeles Wingspan on Twitter. Question is who
do you think will make strength, slash, physicality, slash taking and giving
contact the biggest part of their game? Victor Weminyama, Chet Holmgren or Evan
Mobley. Very interesting question here. I think the answer is gonna wind up
being Evan Mobley. I've come back to yourself back and forth. This I've
mobily written in my notes, but I keep wanting to go with Wemby when
it comes to Chet, I do think that he's mostly going to be in
more of a play finisher role and it's ironic he's the one that's playing center
the most of the time, so there's gonna be more physicality on defense and
maybe so maybe that makes him the right answer just based off what's happening immediately
right now. However, I'm kind of considering it more on offense and Evan
Mobley of these three, just because the pick and pop element of Chet and
then him being around so many guys who can dominate the ball. Wemby just
being in all everything like person and mabab something, someone we've just never the
likes of which we've never seen before, gonna catch the ball over the floor.
They're not gonna, you know, use him as a facilitator, doesn't
seem like as but that he has the freedom of self creator, you're gonna
run stuff from him in the middle of the floor. And so with Mobley,
I feel like there's gonna be a lot of more center floor touches,
elbow type touches as we move forward. We don't always see a ton of
them. Also because that you're you are going to play invariably, compared to
Wemby, who's he's come out at the five a little bit like this person
just trotted that out and been like, hey, yeah, here we go,
We'll try this. But Mobley will play more center. I think long
term that might still be his best position. I know Cavs fans don't really
like when people say that, but he's just gonna you have Jared Allen there.
But if Jared Allen's injured, as we saw at the beginning of the
season or when you're looking at backup minutes, he will be playing. He
will be used as a center. I don't know, it's the center on
both ends of the floor who's featured where it's just chet. I don't know
if he'll ever have the center floor self creation, like let's slow things down,
run things through him. Because of not that he's not capable of it,
that dude's floor game is off the charts, but because of who's around
him right now, and so I think it's more critical for Mobili to develop
this part of his game. And I think I do think that it's going
to end up being him, and he's just not going to have the sheer,
you know, like when it's wemme just have that sheer. Yeah,
he's like he has that sheer size advantage over everyone, so he doesn't necessarily
have to rely on physicality as much. I will say four chat I have.
I think I mentioned this on a podcast already. I am very impressed
with how physical he's been. I know he's been bounced around a little bit
against some of the larger front lines, but I've actually been really impressed with
his strength level relative to what his frame looks like. Good question though,
and matisciples Wingspan had another question that I'd like to save for Grant, so
we'll get to that one whenever we talk to Grant. I have it in
my notes. Next comes from Pee Pete shout out recovering the Pacers as long
as your internet would hold up. I've been catching arrows in Indi for this
take, but I'm open to sending Mathrin and whatever else is needed with in
Reason to Toronto for Ogana. Noobi would love your guys take on that.
Okay, So, first of all, someone who watched the Indiana or listening
to the Nanis Pacers clip and didn't think that we don't watch the Indiana Pacers
shout out, PDP, I love you all of a sudden. No I
always loved you because you listen to this podcast. Love every single person,
even though they might be hate listening. Who consumes this podcast? Why are
you getting roasted for that take? I love the fit of og and India,
especially given what they need most, and like there is if he comes
in and you just have someone who defends all five positions, or you're looking
at it this way, Oh, like the four problems are just solved,
and now maybe we can you know, Bruce brown Is and Aaroni Smith are
able to guard more natural sized players. I think Nie Smith specifically is the
one where you kind of look at that. I don't do you think it's
worth My questions would be do you think that he comes in and you automatically
are that much better defensively? I believe you would be if you're keeping Turner,
which there was hostly a podcast today that was running through like Miles Turner
trades and like the Pacers are trying to win. Why are we still on
the like the Miles Turner trade stuff, especially like right now when they when
they're you know, sitting in third place in the Eastern Conference or whatever it
is. I find it weird that PDP would be roasted for this. Now.
The issue here roasted, I think is extreme people who are against it.
I get it. Ogi Ananoby's going into free agency the way the extension
rules are gonna work. If they wanted to offer him the max, do
they even have enough time after the sixth? If the trade happened right now,
would they have enough time to extend him before the season's over. He
doesn't matter. He's not gonna sign it. Four years, one hundred and
sixteen point two, I believe would be the max. I think that the
Toronto Raptors would have signed him to that already, as a versus they are
to signing their players to keeping their own players all of a sudden, it
seems so there's the risk of one. If you wanted to, you could
go and create the cap space necessary to chase him this summer. But that's
a risky way of looking at things. Would he choose I know he has
tied to Indiana. Would he choose Indiana over some of these other teams maybe
that are better position to win? Or could look you have Tyre's Haliburton here
and you have Ben mcmathern there. If you're gonna sign him, can you
promise him as large of an offensive role as he wants. You need to
be sure that he's staying, is my point, because he is hitting free
agency, and this is someone who everyone of all timelines will want. It's
not just the teams that might have cap space when you're looking at Philly,
when you're looking at Orlando. He is a player, especially relative to the
free agent class coming up, and how many that the Clippers kind of just
take off the board by having them on their team. Although maybe lots of
people don't watch James Harn't, at this point, you have to be sure
that he's coming back, because he is someone who is good enough for teams
to create cap space for, not to build their entire future around where it
will give you up eight first round picks, but he is good enough to
where he will have interests where even if teams don't have cap space, they
will they will make it if it means signing Ojannannobi to X if you're not
if you don't know that he's staying and you have that deal in place beforehand,
essentially where you know the number, let's just say I'm just throwing a
number out here. Let's say it's four and one twenty four or something.
I mean, he's got to be looking at some of these devinsel Jade McNett
like it's gonna cost you at least that annually, if not more to get
him. So let's just say the number is is worked at four in one
tent, which I think winds up being around that what was to sell five
and one thirty five, so it ends up being more as an average editor.
So let's just say the numbers four one twenty four and one twenty four
whatever average of thirty one million dollars a year. You need to know that
you're keeping him, because to give up Mathrin when you have who is not
not only showing flashes right now of more just complicated deeper decision making. Had
played really good, probably the best defensive performance I've ever seen from him with
that game against Milwaukee. By the way, regardless no matter how you feel
about him, that Grant would even acknowledge this. You have that draft equity
invested in him. You can't trade that for someone who might leave. And
I think that's where the hang up would be because in a nutshell, yes
I would, I would trade Mathrin for og Annobi. I think you have
Tyre's Halliburton you could also invest. I know Mathern does stuff off the dribble
that Buddy Heel is never gonna do, and Buddy Heil is never gonna have.
You know that Milwaukee as type of defensive performance. But if you have
Turner n Og you can look at keeping keeping Buddy. You have Bruce Brown
there like there you have other perimeter options that are small enough to where I
don't think that you should be opposed to trading Mathron. Now, what is
it within reason to get him? Is it Mathren and a pick? If
it's the only way you get Annobe is mathern in a first, that's not
an unreasonable cost. Guys, I know Pacers Shans will probably blanche at it.
If you think that Mathroom is going to be an all star fine,
like then then fine you want to keep him. But og An Andobi addresses
more of a need for you right now. Like for me, I would
view it as and I don't think, oh, g Annobey's cable this.
I want to be clear, But do you view someone in Mathrin who can
run the show with Tyre's Haliburton off the floor. I'm not confident he could
up into that player as a as a passer, as a score. Absolutely,
he might already be there to you know, anchor those units. However,
the data without Halliburton on the court is bad once again for the Pacers.
But if you believe that Mather is going to be that player, then
I understand not wanting to give him up in this deal. I don't know
if Toronto would have interest in him. That's just not the type of player
they normally go for. They could certainly use shot creation though they're also the
other thing that makes it difficult here is Toronto's not dead in the water like
we all thought, because Scotty Barnes leap has changed a lot of things for
them, and we've all been pretty open about acknowledging. Well, they did
trade that top six protected pick in twenty twenty four for Yaka Pertle. They're
not just gonna blow it up. I mean they might, but they're not
just They're not guaranteed to tank. So your offer is gonna have to be
super aggressive, which to me, there's no way you're getting out of an
og and and Ov deal without giving up an Nick Mathn. You could try
to sell them on Jaris Walker, but they have Scottie Barnes, Passali Siakam
and Jakob Pertle and you're not even really playing Jaris Walker at the moment.
So his trade value, you could say it's net neutral, still sort of
the mystery box. But he hasn't improved by being relative to the minutes that
he's been on the court. Mathurin's trade value's probably improved just over the past
week. So I don't Pdpete. I don't think you should be roasted for
it. I would do it. My issue, I'd just be My two
issues are what is the additional cost? And if I'm the Pacers, my
hard line is we will give you another first round pick and we'll make the
money work here. But like it's Mathrin that pick, we could talk about
seconds, we could talk about we could talk about Andrew Nemo, like we
didn't include it so the ancel rally pieces, yes, we could negotiable.
But if it's Mathron and two. First, I think you're too invested in
Mathrin. I think that he has at least shown enough to where you can
be skeptical of like giving up two first on top of him, it's just
too much for a guy that you're you're now acquiring for the right to pay.
And then that is the second issue. Do you think that he would
stick around otherwise. That's not a terrible take at all, just just flat
out it's not a terrible take to terrible take to say I think the Pacers
should give up Mather and if it means getting oh Giannaobi, if the rest
of the packages is within reason. Next question comes from which ended up being
way harder than I wanted it to be, from Texas Blocker. I'm sorry,
Blocker, Texas Ranger. What is Kyante George's ceiling with this jazz roster,
with this specific jazz roster, and we're seeing Kiante George now being featured
more prominently. That's kind of what happens when Jordan Clarkson, your your best
passer on this exact roster, Like there's a lot of space for him to
operate, But I don't know that. You're like, do you think he's
gonna be the one that el It's just it's such a weird I got too
caught up in the framing of this question of well, he's just so young,
and like, is this roster really not gonna change, because that's gonna
be issues defensively even with Kante George's size. So just in general, when
I look at him. He can kind of dance with the ball, almost
seems to prefer the tough angled layups. It's great. I saw when he
was coming out a lot of people were comparing him to these combo guards who
weren't really good passers, or they were, you know, ambiguous passers.
You didn't know what they were gonna be. I think it's it's great for
the jazz to know that, oh, this dude is six' four.
He's a rookie, not in the most ideal circumstances right now. Although Utah
spacing is at least the offense should be better, but the spacing a lot
of times is set up to give him room to maneuver this it's just a
turnover ratio is better than it was at Beller, and so that's just already
a win for them. Like I said, he's six' four, that's
great size for the position. I look at him and he's not like super
quick or explosive though, and so I don't know, like, what does
that mean for his ceiling. I don't want to say that I think he
plays like these players, but when I kind of look at them, it's
Kyrie with worse handles, just kind of the types of passes he's making.
I could see him being a better passer, but even being able to segue
into type of that off guard role if you ever get someone who's more dominant
the other one that kind of stood out bigger Darius Garland to me, I
don't think he's as fast. There's more maybe shiftiness to what he's doing where
it's like they're like it's like wiggle as the I think the basketball geek.
So the real sickos like to say that maybe Darius Garland has who there could
be more of a change of speed thing from here. He's got more just
blow by speed on him when he's when he's fully healthy. I know at
points it's been weird this season, feels like he might be boiling out a
little bit early in the lane. I think that's a fair ceiling too set.
I'm not saying he's gonna reach it, but a lot of people I
saw Jayden Hardy Comps was a big one. I did see Bradley Beal a
couple of times. That would be a fine outcome. I think he winds
up being a better passer than Bill based off what I've just I went back
and watched some of the stuff, like the passes that he's already thrown,
and I'm just I think he's gonna be I'm surprised that people were so low
on his passing that felt a lot of okay, college basing. He's that
like. He also wasn't there as far as I know, I didn't watch
him, so he also wasn't there primary Like, this is someone who was
kind of sounded like he was more of an off guard anyway. I don't
view him as a he's a combo guard, but he can be a floor
general, and so I think that would be fair his Like, so I'm
saying his ceiling Kyrie's probably gonna make the Hall of Fame. I don't mean
I'm not comparing it to his players, but that feels like a like what
Darius Garland is now, that level of player was last season where okay,
he's made an All Star Game and you're kind of waiting, Okay, what
does it look like on defense? He's six four, so he's bigger than
Darius Garland. I do see with some of the way that he passes.
And I was not gonna make this camp because I really don't think it's a
fair one. He's a better passer already, but the way he passes the
ball and some of the way we've seen him get to some of his pull
ups so far, I was like, Oh, there's like a little bit
of Donovan Mitchell there. There's a lot of different players that kind of stood
out. I'm gonna I'm gonna go with bigger, slightly slower, more shiftier
Darius Garland. How's that blocker, Texas Ranger. Next question comes from,
oh, we got two Orlando Magic questions. I know this because I group
them together in the dock that I'm using. We'll start with Tony's has is
Jalen Suggs turning a corner or just in the middle of the hot streak?
My answer is yes, I think he could be. I don't expect him.
In the past two games, he shot the hell out of the ball
from three. I don't think he's gonna shoot a trillion percent from three all
year, but he kind of showed a turn last year as someone who could
make his open threes. He's hitting his above the break threes, but he's
also spacing to the corner more often this year. I think that's a positive.
Even when they're not going in This is more anecdotal. It feels like
he's making quicker decisions away from the ball as well, so where he's coming
to go, when he's going to get it, like he will go and
get it, or he's gonna keep it. He catches it, he keeps
it moving, and then maybe he'll relocate afterwards. It feels like I'm seeing
more of that magic. Fans could definitely speak if they've watched every single game
that he's ever played, can speak more of that than me. I think
the bigger thing with him is there is more variability in his drives. He's
finishing better at the rim. It was the game against Milwaukee had some just
a couple of really nice left handed drives, So there's a little bit more
variance there. I know he talked about when he was injured in twenty twenty
two or was twenty twenty one, that he did a lot of dribbling with
his left hand. So it makes sense that he's a little bit like Ami
Dextriss. It feels like he's more Ami Dextrous this season. Uh. And
then the variability is not just in that, it's more so to me he's
passing on forty one point seven percent of his drives with an assist rate of
sixteen point seven percent last year twenty nine point seven percent pass rate, seven
point seven percent assists rate, So he's passing more. The passes are translating
to assists without there being some major uptick and talent around him, like yeah,
they've added like some guys. And then there's also just oh, these
players are gonna grow, they're going to get better. But this is largely
this is the base, This is the crux of the core that was there
last year, and so he's making smarter passes and that variability is important.
Also a fun fact as I record this, every player, here's every player
who has finished as many drives as Jalen Suggs while shooting as well, which
is over fifty three percent, and then matching or eclipsing his assist rate.
Jamal Murray made his hamstring continue to heal, and Spencer didnwitdy. That's pretty
good company and I would view it. We know what he does on defense,
it's basically controlled chaos and the assignments he takes on like they're tough assignments
and like he does a great job buy and large there's yes, he can
do stuff on the ball. He also takes some chances away from it,
but he is for stuff where it becomes ungoverned chaos. There is the controlled
chaos element of him where he is a type of perimeter defensive player that opposing
units kind of have to plan around. And just him and Markel Folts when
Falts is healthy able to be able to play them together when winnow Carter Junior
is healthy, like, I want to see the two of them. I
want to see more when Foalts is healthy. With Suggs and Antony Black.
I don't know what the offense looks like. That's that's quintessential polow at the
five territory. Then play them with Franz and just see see what that looks
like in extended run, not just in sort of fits and burse And so
I think this is a turned corner for Jollen Suggs. I saw someone compare
him. They think that he was going to have a Marcus Smart career arc.
That would be an exceptional career arc to have. I do believe there's
a more talented score in there, not necessarily as a passer. Maybe is
more of this playing within himself passer but like Marcus Martins also had to do
a ton of like the pick and roll or just you know from scratch table
setting volume that Jael and Suggs should never have to do with as long as
Faults and Franz and Palo Bank Caro is there. So I think that's and
look, him hitting his three is a big deal because I've seen this.
This isn't pushback that I thought was interesting. And that'll lead us into the
next question. Magic fans talking about like, you know, I can't remember
which game it was where they kind of lost at the end on why they
had a chance to win it was a wide open three, but it's like
kind of that's the point is it. Defenses are so comfortable leaving a lot
of players open on this team. Still you want to improve that. And
Suggs hitting his threes above the break no less is a really big deal,
but just sort of all over the court where it's oh, he's in the
corner more, but he's also hitting his above the breakthrees. Big deal for
the Magic. Next question also Orlando Magic related from Daniel Mortenson the third and
this dovetails with what I was just talking about. Who would be a better
fit for the Magic, Buddy Healed and Forony Simons or Zach Lavine. So
I'm not ranking these players in terms of how good they are, because zach
Colvine is the best player of these three. I ranked them in terms of
what I actually think the best fit is, and not necessarily in likelihood,
but a player that I could see the Magic actually going for. If it's
we're close to the trade deadline, we're super competitive. The defense is still
hell fire, but oh we're twenty fifth and a half court offense like they
are right now, and we could and here's this is I'm about to get
into why this is my first pick. Buddy Healed, I think is the
best fit here. He needs the ball the least of these three. He's
the best movement shooter of these three. He might be, he's not the
best. Zach Lavine has the seedling as a passer, and like everyby Simons
and zach Lvine have sort of the self starting pass that Buddy Heeld or not.
But if you're looking for like touch passes or like swing the ball really
quickly in transition, Buddy helds better that he's a better compliment. I think
Anthony Simons is close now. What I also like about Buddy Heald though,
is that he is gonna fly out in transition, and this Magic team could
really use some transition juice. I don't know why they don't run more often.
Every time I look at their transition frequency, I'm always just kind of
disappointed. In this season they're at nineteen in transition frequency. But the biggie
for them is just I think that they could stand to Yeah, there's the
fourth turnovers with like whatever off of live rebounds, just run and Buddy Heeld
will do that. He will run after makes as well, by the way,
and so you put him in. And it's also just it's so low
stakes because if you get zach Lavine, you're viewing him as a core player.
Is that tough to do when you have You're not, I've said this,
you're not. You don't need to give Apollo frands, you need to
give any like I think you could just build around salary and picks, to
be honest with you, to get zach Lvine at this point with where Chicago's
going, if they're actually going to be open to moving him, that's the
route they might almost be forced to go. H But Buddy held is just
more complimentary. He will come cheaper, and so that's all right. We're
gonna have to start thinking about Franz his next deal. He's extensional as well.
After this year. Palo's deal will be here before you know what.
Markel Foltz is entering the final year of his contract right now. Wendell Carter
Junior won't be cheap forever, and so I like him as a compliment.
Also, I think probably cost the least. And Frey Simons is banged up
right now, but I think his contract's pretty good. He'd be my second
pick. That dude can just stroke it off to dribble more than Buddy Held,
which is important. Buddy Hill just being off ball and knowing the players
that the Magic have already in place, and thinking, I don't think Buddy,
he like Buddy Hill's not gonna cost you. Jalen subs, He's not
gonna cost you Palo or Fronz and so or false, even if you don't
want him to, so that those ball handlers are gonna be intact. Simon's
is second for me pretty easily because he kind of he straddles both lines.
I think Levine is the highest end swing and he could come and I think
make this. You put him on a team that is built to insulate him
defensively, where if you're keeping Sugs and you're keeping folks as part of any
deal, and even whn No Carter Junior like you are insulated like an Anthony
Black, You're able to insulate him if it's just built around picks and salary,
or even if you're keeping I would assume faults would stay. So if
you're keeping one of Suggs or Black like, then you're all of a sudden
able to insulate him defensively. It's just you want him. He can be
complimentary, but he's also gonna have more of a frum scratch need. And
when you have Pollow and Franz there, I don't think you want to do
anything that's going to infringe upon their volume too much, that on ball volume
too much. At this point, I think you could acquire zach Lavine and
be incredible just because he becomes your third option behind Franz and Polo, just
because they're Paulow will be the better passer Franz. It's sort of iffy like
zach Lvine just doesn't he waxes in ways with his vision and so I would
trust Franz there more and you have you have faults, so you can kind
of just but you could balance it out to where it ends up in net
that zach Lavine is your your third option essentially, or your third best player,
and that's probably the ideal role for him. I think he's still good
enough to be a number two, but just the way he plays sometimes is
just eh. I would like him on this team, and I think Buddy
Held is just sort of the more more natural fit. Great question that I
think it's fair of the magic be thinking along this route there, not just
because the defense is good enough now, but it just it plugs such a
hole and it makes life ultimately easier on look at some of their offense where
it's like Franz and Polo just really having to drive into bodies, and are
they trying to draw out or get these tough finishes. So Buddy Healed,
and Frey Simons, even Zachleen, they'd all open up the floor and that's
the that's the type of acquisition I think that they need. Next question comes
from Jordan Scott. Do you think the lockdown defense of KCP is being overlooked?
He shut down some great scores through nine games. I think it's fair
to say he's underappreciated. I know a lot of people say that he'll be
in the all defense discussion, no more positions and to beat out some of
these biggs when we're just like, I mean, look at some of the
seasons they're having between Mitchell Robinson, Rudy Gobert is definitely in the defensive Player
of the Year running right now, you know, just like you know Giannis
and or Brook Lopez will end up there by the end of the season.
Evan Mobiley will end up there by the end of the season. There's just
so many Draymond Green is going to be right there. Bam Adebayo, of
course, there's so many talented bigs right now that it could just be hard
for him to make all defense. Now I'm not saying he needs to make
all defense. I do think Brian Large he's probably underappreciated though, looking at
just the assignments he tackles. He spent all like you know, guard Steph
guard, Luca, guard SGA, guard, Brandon Ingram et cetera. Like
there's really no it's kind of one through four when you really because Luca is
a power forward who's also a point guard. It's like, this is to
me, essentially someone who's can guard one through four. What's also interesting is
that, uh, you've had nights where he is like as a team like
yes, Steph Kurr. Like I don't buy too much into the like the
shot against data like for players, just because you don't know how that possession
unfolded. It's more so when you look at like what is the team scoring
when contain vious Callbo PULLP defense Steph Curry and the fact the Warriors average under
a point per possession on any possessions and with Kate in which CACP spent some
time on Steph Curry. That's a good harbinger. The other thing I will
say is he has spent time on Luca Sga, Steph Ingram didn't commit a
shooting foul against either of those four, committed only one shooting foul against Anthony
Edwards for someone who does what he does, and like his sal rate on
those players, shooting fal rate I should say is not higher. I mean,
sign me all the way, like that's that's a skill. And it's
just even in general looking at the breath of assignments, he covers. He's
everding two point four fouls per game right now, which would be a career
high. He's also happening thirty two point eight minutes per game is close,
is close, Like that's the most he's locked in quite some time. So
per thirty six he's at two point seven. That's not the highest mark of
his career. It's the second higest mark. But that's a reasonable rate when
you're sort of looking at the types of players he is covering. And so
I absolutely think you could make the case that and I think I just did
that. He is an undappreciated defender and this is just someone the CP in
KCP stands for championship player, Like the teams that he goes to are just
better with him. And there's been some I think he's been a big part
of they've rolled this out. I've seen it a few times and it's only
been in small bursts. But the okay, it's gonna be Yokich and KCP
and then three bench players, and it's normally been Reggie Jackson and Peyton Watson
and Christian Brown, and that lineup is absolutely killed defensively KCP. It's early,
this is all It's early. He's the highest net ratings swing on the
Nuggets. That is, that means something at any point, even the first
game of the season, because Nicole Yogic exists, and that is the net
rating swing king among high volume rotation players. The fact that he has the
highest net ratings swing on the Nuggets right now is just mind melting. So
yeah, I think you could. It's weird because people, I think Nuggets
fans certainly appreciate him and like after the way that he like watching him in
through two championship runs. At this point, I don't I don't think he's
underappreciated in the lexicon of discussion. I think people understand that KCP is a
winning player, but when they look at him, it's kind of like maybe
a gap filler. Super complimentary and he is probably a lot better on defense
than credit or I would say, a lot more important to what By the
way, the Nuggets are sixth and half court defense as I record this,
he's a lot more important to those things happening than he receives credit for.
That is just absolutely for certain because of what he allows other players to do.
Whereas, yeah, Jamal Murray is a really tough defender, but you
don't want him having to go up against a lot of You don't want him
having to chase around a lot of these guys, even though he invariably will
because of the position he plays, and to have CACP and Aaron Gordon on
the same team, and then even Michael Porter Junior defending he the way he
has for much of the season, that's just a luxury. And that also
you get lost in the shuffle of that because Aaron Gordon's a fantastic defender,
Michael Porter Junior has improved so much on that to the floor in net that
it's kind of lost in the shuffle there. But it's also high volume offensive
players stand out the most, and he's not super high volume. Not plays
aren't being run for him, he's not initiating the offense, and that could
also be a reason why he gets lost in the shuffle. I feel like
it's harder to stand out as a as a defensive specialist, even if you
have a fource basing capability at the other end, than it is if you're
just more of an offense first player. That might be asked backwards. I
think it speaks to maybe how hard it is for people to understand what's going
on with NBA defenses. Myself included there. Next question comes from Lee asked
about the Bucks defense. That's it might be the single most frequent question we've
had. We had it in the last mail bag. Grant brought it up
on the last podcast as well, third podcast in a row. Their defensive
reboundies of normally low, which I find is just to be weird. They're
now middle of the road and opponent rim frequency because they've switched Brook Lopez back
to more drop ever since they made that move, so that game against the
next on November three, they are eighth in opponent the share of opponent shots
coming at the rim, and fifth in percentage allowed. So that's better.
But man, you kind of look at what's happening and the defensive rebounding has
been weird. I'll chalk that up to some noise. Right now, they're
twenty fifth and a half court defense. Though. Ball containment has been a
biggie with the way that Damian Lillard is gonna fall behind when he's I know
he's miss time lately that he's gonna fall I mean, you're even looking at
Karen Payn's gonna play games you run in the same issues. The degree to
which they can fall behind on plays really hurts the Bucks. The Bucks remain
dead last and opponent transition frequency, and that's weird because they're not all like
rebounding like offensive misses at a high clip. They need to just this is
I don't mean to boil it down. They got to get back quicker on
these live ball misses. They don't seem to get matched up quickly enough in
those situations. It's been getting some of it could be long rebounds, but
we know just because Damian Lillard is there. Seth part now has done a
great job of talking about this. Having someone like that does not necessarily correlate
to more long rebounds, but they've been They've gotten burned on some long reboul
from what I've seen. I don't know if it's disproportionate to what other teams
are doing, but there are just a lot of times where it's it's too
easy to get behind their guards in transition. Malik Beasley Dame Willard campaign that
needs to be something that's better. And other times, look, I'm gonna
be honest, if you it's easy, it's it's also very easy to me
to get behind Bobby Portis. In transition, there's been Giannis when he's shooting
outside the restricted area kind of feels like he's watching a little too much,
not attacking the glass, just sort of watching, and that's been weird.
There were moments where brook Lopez feels like he's lasing back and he's not supposed
to be a super speeds through anyway. Middleton definitely doesn't have it. They
just feel a little slower collectively, and that might have to do with age
Brolo Middleton specifically Dame not being strong suit there. Having Leie Beasley on this
team now they got to get back and matched up more quickly in transition.
I think that would go a long way. Some other things they could do
because Lee wants to know what, if anything, can fix it, So
I think playing Marjon bojamp Moore will actually help. He battles more defensively than
Beasley, and I would even say pac conton where you're looking at the level
of assignments he can do. He might get burned by those players, but
if you don't have to send as much help or it's you know the team,
that player is scoring a lot, but you're free to not have to
have Giannis come out as often. I think that helps you out by default.
And then the other thing is just could you trade for someone? Would
mar John and seconds and the salary get you Alex Caruso Probably not at this
point, so some lower end options where I think it would just come down
to salaries in seconds once one of these players can't be traded yet, it's
Ioasunmu. That's someone I don't know if Chicago would help out a division rival
or someone who's you know, their neighbor, let's say, but that is
someone that could help this team. Dorrian Finney Smith, was that cast you
with the nets? Even make him available? Tory Craig at some point this
year, Royce O'Neill, Patrick Williams, what does he cost? I don't
think you have this. It's not Marjon Bochamp. I don't think it's you
Patrick Williams. And you could argue how much of an upgrade is that.
I think defensively, based off of what I saw last year from Patrick Williams,
it would Jayshawn Tate. He is playing in Houston. Tarry Easton's back
though, when I'm in Thompson's healthy, could he be gettable? What you
have to ask yourself is do you have enough shooting in the half court to
then be like feel the spacing liability at that end? Or are you so
invested in okay, because we have Giannis and he's still gonna take these threes,
but we want to make sure that who's ever is in that spot also
can at least reasonably shoot threes. In which case like Jayshawn Takets if he
there, I would assume it's so low volume. Even Alex Caruso, could
you get maybe clear, you can get Alex Cruzo, you get Alex Caruso.
That would be the way to fix it. I think they have the
personnel, though I will say this to be a lot better than they have
been. Is that damning? With faint praise? Maybe I predicted them to
have a top five defense this year. I still think they have that potential.
The biggest thing to stand out for me now that Lopez is dropping,
more specifically, it's the transition stuff, and that's a that's an everything thing,
every one thing. Excuse me. It feels like it's addressable. Maybe
not, if you just don't think that Brook Lopez a mile take can move
better? Ya ya it's again maybe I'm wrong, and that's anecdotal stuff.
I'm trying to incorporate that in addition to the stats. It's definitely too easy
to get behind their guards, and so that's something you need to neutral is
they mister von Carter in that vein too from both the ball containment perspective and
someone who could do who could do that? Our next question comes from Ryan
Yost. We're about to do a whole podcast on this type of thing,
so I'll try not to spend too much time here. If my not,
it's here out of control. Ryan Yots ask who's the surprise team or teams
that is most likely to sustain its early season success and how about the surprise
struggling team or teams most likely to turn things around. I'm surprised to stay.
I've looked at the East. I don't think there's like a surprise in
the East right now if you want to say, okay, the Pacers being
in third, But it's just we've dealt with such a small sample, so
I don't know if there's any big shock you surprise in the East that we
need to say is gonna sustain the MAVs in the West, stable, especially
because they're a team that's incentivized to trade for a defensive upgrade on the perimeter
and they can still move a first round pick in addition to just some of
the players they have. I think that's it on this, like the good
surprises that I think are just gonna be sustainable, in large part because I
don't know who else I'm floored by. It's you know, Orlando is just
it's been. They've won games the way that I thought they were gonna win
games. So I get like, do you want to say it's just even
Minnesota. I guess you could say the six and two that that's a good
one. I believe, But I already believed in Minnesota, so that's why
I kind of didn't. They didn't spring to mind immediately. And there's the
rockets. I can't get there. Do I think that they're gonna be like
a playoff team. They might be more feisty on the defensive end though than
I was really expecting them to be. I think I just underestimated the idea
of, oh, well, you have Fred van Fleet and Dylan Brooks and
like Jabari smarth Is Jabari Smith, excuse me, just gonna be moved around
a bunch uppera ching Goon's been pretty like not bad as a straight up room
protector as well. Well. The other thing with them, I just wonder,
because he's missed time, if you're gonna give a prominent role to Aman
Thompson, does that actually hurt you? If it's between Houston and Minnesota,
I'm gonna vote Minnesota as the early season surprize that will be more sustainable.
I believe in their defense. I really would like to see him get some
more shooting on the offensive end. Maybe that normalizes a little bit as Karl
Anthony Towns gets better. Uh, but it's like kind of a combo wing
for them, or even they could stand to have another guard there just because
Anthony Edwards can play the wing. But I think it's them because I'm in
such a big believer of their defense and and can drive these preternatural offensive performances
on any given night. Struggling teams gets a little bit more interesting. There
are some easy ones. The bulls are cooked. Blow it up, get
them just I don't even want to have to. I don't even want to
have to, you know, pretend that I want to watch them anymore.
I'm kind of worrying about how the Heat are going to generate offense with the
way that Jimmy's been playing. He did look good against the Lakers, but
they're twenty seventh in offense overall. They're twenty first in half court offense in
Caleb Martin and now Tyler Hero certainly matter. They're not getting into the rim
nearly enough they do. I feel like they need a trade. I can't
bring myself to panic just yet about the Clippers, but it's time to like
circle that button. Just let's see how this does with more time. I
do feel like they need to shake up the rotation. Whether it's do you
eventually you know, with a healthy Terrence Man, is he starting? I
saw justin RUSSI propose that maybe you actually need to start Norman Powell so you
can insulate him better defensively, and that by default should make the bench better.
But so, I think the Clippers will get better, but I'm not
picking them as a team that I think will turn around. I don't know
what to do with the Lakers. It has been such a weird start.
Yes, they've dealt with a lot of injuries, very poor start from Austin
Reeves has already been demoted from the starting lineup. Di Tho did show some
steadiness in the non Lebron minutes against the Suns, and so that might be
like something to latch onto. But the Lakers are plus five point six per
one hundred posessions with Lebron on the floor and a minus thirty two point seven
without Lebron. They're also minus forty one point eight in the minutes Davis logs
without Lebron. During that stretch, They're shooting sixteen percent from three fifty two
percent at the RAM, while opponents are shooting forty eight percent from three.
Those are not things that are gonna sustain. I'd like to see a bunch
of the lineup, and I know that injuries have impacted this as well,
even with Reeves playing the way he is. Reeves, Prince Hotchimore Wood Davis
feels like a way that you could navigate the absence of Lebron at both ends
of the court. Maybe you need to have if if gave Into is healthy
and or you trust him to play better him instead of Reeves. I like
the Prince Hotchingmore Wood Davis combo, though kind of tethering that to non Lebron
units, but it's it's complicated for them, and maybe they'll shoot better,
but like the defense, not being great certainly complicates things. The caveat a
lot of the this early season stuff. Opponent's probably won't shoot thirty nine percent
from three forever, but the Lakers are getting hurt at the rim when players
reach there. I think you look at some of the players they're starting next
to Ad, and then how responsible AD is for stuff to happening away from
the basket, putting them in some compromising situations. Only the Spurs allow more
points per play on offensive rebounds, and the Lakers are actually allowing offensive rebounds
at a higher rate their twentieth and the frequency of put back plays for opponents.
I I'm gonna say I think they turn it around ish, But if
you thought they were a shoeing to be one of the two or three best
contenders in the West, that's one that might be stepping on the toes of
probably piece or panic, which Grant and I are doing this week. That's
a team I'm iffy on the one that I'm confident the Suns will stabilize and
they will turn it around, And so the Clippers and the Lakers I think
will turn it around. But I'm not sure the Suns are going to be
fine. I don't know if they'll maybe they'll be a little bit worse when
it comes to their title. Stock Let's see the three stars play together a
little bit more often. I just they're they're going to be They're they're going
to be probably be able. Just came back. Let's get let's give them
some time. Next question comes from let's go to since run low on time
here, Nico me, nico, excuse me? Best Spurs lineup by net
rating this season? So I did this minimum of ten possessions slash played two
games together. I just it's it's such a tiny sample anyway, but that's
what I did. So it's the lineup of Trey Jones, Devin Vessel,
Victor Webbin Yama, Zach Collins, and Doug me Dermott. They have a
ninety two point four net rating anchored by one hundred percent shooting at the rim.
I would argue that they just haven't shot how many many attempts at the
rim and then sixty percent from three. That's a lineup. I think you
look at it, it's like, yeah, I mean, I get when
that'd be working. You have three players you trust defensively, maybe four because
the ball pressure Trey Jones can give you, and then Doug McDermot just sort
of flying all the way around out there. So Nico, that has been
their best lineup to date. That was a quick one, so it looks
like we're gonna be able to fit in some more. Next question comes from
Tom l This was might be quick to answer, was not quick for me
to find out. But what is the Lakers free throw differential per game?
After the NBA official Sleepless Nights tweet last year? So that was January twenty
ninth, so from that day because I believe they tweeted it in the day.
We're working with the sample size of forty what is it? Fifty seven
games? Excuse me, thirty two regular season last year than the sixteen playoff
games. The Lakers have another nine games that I included in the samples last
for this year, so fifty seven games. I was actually blown away by
how high the free throw discrepancy was. The Lakers during the last fifty seven
games have attempted and it even just still feels wrong right now, but the
Lakers attempted one, five hundred and thirty nine free throws to one thousand and
forty five free throw attempts for their opponent. That's a plus four to nine
to four differential, and that works out to eight point seven free throw attempts
per game. I understand. I'm assuming this question is in reference to the
Lakers letting it leak that they sent footage and you know, lobbed for the
referees to officiate better on them that they believe there was miscalls. What I
will say is Lebron remains a very difficult player to referee, and what they're
probably pointing out the most is he's being fouled on five point six percent of
his drives this year. That's down from eight point eight percent last year,
which is down from nine point five percent the year before. When you look
at Lebron, I don't think that there's no like he's not baling out sooner
on his drives. They're not more wide open lanes. The Lakers basing is
not that you know, open, So I think do they have a case
there, I don't know, but I think that's what it's in reference to,
and it's fair to monitor because five point six percent foul rate on drives
for Lebron is a very very low rate. That's someone can go check that
fifty seven game thing. I promise you I was this the question I did
after I took an edible on Saturday. I have no idea, but I
did. I spent time and I triple checked it. I promise. Maybe
I'm wrong, just because plus plus eight point seven per game, I think
when you break it down that way, that's not ridiculous. But I was
surprised that they took about five hundred free throws more than their opponents during this
man we look, we're still look at me, just blazing through this.
This has been under an hour. Still, so let's keep going. Uh.
Next question, we'll go to Oh, this one, this one's fun.
Uh. Roostin Hocketts, what is the math behind the Houston Rocket success?
I would love to go into more detail about this team with Grant.
We'll have to do our surprise sustainability pod that not this week, maybe the
following week. So I'm just gonna throw out some numbers here and some observations
from what I've seen but that I think are sort of defining. Now let's
get to this the outlier stuff. Opponents are shooting twenty nine point one percent
from three against them. That's not gonna hold every It's funny how every fans
from every team really think that their defense is responsible for team shooting so poorly
from three. You it can contribute to it, but I don't want to
hear because of how much pressure we put on the perimeter because of the shooters
that we're leaving open. Yes, you can do that, but there have
been set part now I believe is written extensively about it. It's called Jedi
three point shooting. Opposing defenses have very little impact on the percentage teams are
shooting from three. They can more so impact the volume at which they are
taking threes. Houston at Tel was also shooting thirty nine point three percent from
three. I never would have seen that come in Dylan Brooks hitting fifty five
plus percent of his threes. Now, the everything else I'm gonna say is
I think more interesting and stuff to monitor. The starting five is a plus
seventeen point one points per one hundred possessions. Opponents are shooting thirty two point
five percent in those minutes. But that's this starting five has been very frisky,
even when you're dealing with, you know, when Jalen Green before he
started coming on. Alpertn chang Gun, I think is probably the single biggest
reason that they've been so good this year. He's shooting. They've run more
of the offense through him, and it didn't even start out the season like
that. It just felt like he may or Dooka made a conscious decision at
some point, I don't know, two or three is it's like, no,
this is happening. He's shooting over sixty percent on hook shots, over
seventy percent on drives. Nikola Jokic is the only other player with as many
main shots and assists on elbow touches this year. That's a big deal.
Alprin Schangun just he can throw passes from all over the place. It's not
just someone who needs to be in these handoff situations or screening situations. He'll
make plays from stan stills, he'll bring the ball up to court. He
could do stuff from all over the floor, center of the floor, if
you need to put him down low. It's just happening at every level for
him, and I liked it. It seems like he's been more aggressive looking
for his shot when he's getting closer to the basket, and I think that
boats well Fred van Fleet. Yes, the shooting splits they have not looked
great, but he has come and he has given them a rhyme and reason
to what they're doing on offense. Now, part of that this is a
team stat. They're sixth in turnover eight. That's a big fucking deal.
It helps having lower turnover guys who are gonna play make for you, like
Fred van Fleet, like Shan Gun, even Jaalen Green relative to volume sub
twelve turnover eight, that's fine. Fred VanVleet specifically, though, is assisting
on over thirty percent of Houston's made buckets when he's on the court and posting
a turnover tent below ten percent. Here is every player who has had thirty
plus, a thirty plus assist rate and a sub ten percent turnover rate for
an entire season. Demarta rows in, Mike Conley did it twice because he's
Mike fucking Conley, Michael Jordan, and Gus Williams. That's wild. That's
absolutely wild. Do I think fredman Vleet will maintain that he could. He's
never been this super high turnover guy, and I think even when his his
shots aren't falling. I know he's been all over the place inside the arc.
Defenses react to him, guys and they're gonna load up or like overreact
is maybe the best way to phrase it. And he's gonna find people even
it's not directly leading to assist. Like he just creates this this crispness,
and you can see the value of just having that. It's not even an
adult in the room on offense because aside from him just attempting these wild passes,
Albert and Shane Ud plays like an adult on offense. That does a
grown adult on the offensive end. It's just someone who you can you can
trust. And another big thing here, So two things that are standing out.
Actually, Houston is sixth seventh in EFFECTI field goal percentage on catch and
shoot jumpers. That's actually I'm impressed because playing Dylan Brooks so many minutes,
looking at some of the other guys that you're playing, like even just having
Opera and Shangun and Jabari Smith Junior out there, when I looked at their
rotation, I would not have necessarily predicted them to be an efficient spot up
team where they were able to space the floor on their jumpers, so catch
and shoot jumpers to be ranked that highly. The other thing here that's been
a big part of that, not just Dylan Brooks shooting fifty five percent from
three. He was attempting about five pull up jumpers per game last year.
He said under two for this season, and so he has slashed that volume
by more than like he's like more than half, and so he's taking two
pull up jumpers per dame from Dylan Brooks. Fine, that's you're not gonna
see me blanche about that. And then let's talk about the defense that he
has played. And it's I hope that we weren't trolling the way that Grizzlies
got rid of him last year. I'm pretty sure we were on this podcast
and said, why would you be so public about getting rid of him.
We've definitely trolled Dylan Brooks before, and he's earned it. But people who
thought he didn't help drive what Memphis became at points, even as imperfect as
they were, I hope I'm saying, I hope we acknowledge that on this
podcast, or at least acknowledge that it was and I'm pretty sure we did
that. It was weird the way that the Grizzlies just decided to escape goat
him, But the Lakers averaged point six y nine points per possession as a
team when he spent any time on Lebron. The Rockets won that game.
The Warriors averaged point seventy five points per possessions as a team on any possession
that Dylan Brooks spent time on Steph They did lose that game. The Pelicans
average point eight to seven points per possession as a team when he spent any
time guarding brandon Ingram. They won that game. Those are the numbers driving
to success from for the Rockets. Right now, will it sustained? I
have no idea. We'll have to get into deeper that now. I think
let's look at the clock here. I might have time for one more.
So let's go fishing in. Let's go fishing. Let's go fishing in Discord.
We have other ones on Twitter, but I'm not as if I'm not
going to be as prepped. Let's give it to a Discord member. Since
you guys are thrown in and I love you all for it pods all the
time. Oh, let's let's make this a selfish one. Would you like
some peak behind the curtain. Austin asked in general how much recording gets skimmed
off in editing. Very little, because when it's a full episode of podcasts,
I want the realness to be in there where. If there's gonna be
pauses from Grant and high especially during stat padding, we both I have my
uzz or I'm a like guy Grants an uh guy. I hope he knows
that. I hope I'm not breaking any news for him, and so I
would love to cut that out. And there are programs that can, you
know, the jump cuts. I don't know how much I trust them generally,
though I'm not cutting out like we've never and we don't say anything inflammatory.
I guess some people react in the YouTube comments like we do, but
we don't ever say anything super inflammatory that we might put our foot in our
mouth or at the top of this podcast me selling Kelly Bridge and your Fox
like come some eighteen year old kid. But like that's the extent of it,
and so there's not a ton of editing that goes there. What will
happen is if my internet goes out and or there's you know, Grant's internet
freezes, something happens there, and I actually go back and edit like ten
or fifteen minutes. More editing happens on the ground floor. When it's I'm
posting clips from the episodes, I will try and cut out some silences just
to keep them between I'd like to be eight and nine minutes, but we
don't like to go higher than twelve now. We used to, and we've
posted some longer ones. But I used to just oh, if we talked
about the timber Wolves for seventeen minutes, that's going up as its own clip
if I thought it was a good clip. But now try and which is
maybe why people are reacting the way they do in the comments and they don't
get the full Timberwolves discussion. But I am linking out to the full episode.
That's how clips work, folks, and most of the editing. I
don't know how much the listeners of the full audio episodes follow our shorts content
or our TikTok content that commands aside from the podcast, like prep and recording
to where it's I would say, for let's use this mail bag as an
example. There will be times when Grant and I going cold to mail bags,
but for a mail bag, like I'll prep for two hours like watch
stuff if I haven't seen a team that's been asked about, and then recording
so you know, and then between editing like yeah, mailback episodes like it's
It's about I would say each podcast for me, he's a four hour commitment
between prep editing, getting the episode up. It's longer in the sense of
the shorts that I'm cutting, so chopping those clips down sometimes, you know,
the shorter ones seem to play more on YouTube, we'd like to keep
them a minute or less. Is like the highest will go as a minute,
and right now is even forty five seconds. Then editing those I'm I'm
sure I'm not as talented at it as other people. I wonder. I'm
sure that the Deep three podcasts, if anyone listens to them or through the
through the Wire, both of whom are you know under the House of Highlights
umbrella that Bleacher Report operates, they probably have their own producers that are doing
them. I don't know how long it takes them to do those shorts.
But if you see a video on YouTube, and let's just I'm trying to
think of the recent one as an example, was so Grant had the who
made more money? It was a forty I had to chop that down to
forty four seconds. It was only four players. But between actually chopping that
clip down that Grant has from the stat padding segment to then editing it and
like to the point where it's ready to post on Instagram, to talk and
YouTube, it's probably three hours a clip for me, And that's where a
lot of my time goes, is that I'm trying to put up six of
these a week. So that's like between I would say, because sometimes it'll
be less fifteen to twenty hours when it comes to chopping out of stuff,
of just these digestible clips from the podcast. And if I was to stop
doing that, my sleep schedule and my schedule in general will probably be so
much more manageable. But that's where a lot of this, most of the
cutting room for stuff is happening. If we had and we had listener,
Ian did fantastic work when he was editing the videos for us, but just
relative to how much we wanted to turn around, not fair to him,
and I don't think would be fair to anybody who would want to video edit
to that extent. I couldn't ask someone unless we were paying them like a
like a good enough money, I don't know. If someone's out there,
like, you want up six of these clips a week, what are you
gonna charge for it, It's gonna be more than just like, it doesn't
make sense to just pay so little. And I know there are podcasts that
video editors that they just don't pay, And I'm just not the biggest fan
of of doing something like that. So if we ever are successful enough to
where with the podcast specifically like Grant and I relative to the injury spoiler alert
folks, the humble podscam, like, we're pretty successful relative to what the
industry is. But the podcast itself, I think it's underrated, but there's
probably stuff we could do better. There's probably stuff being wrong in terms of
not building the audience up, but not having the video editor. That becomes
super time consuming, and that's that's where most of the editing is done.
And I I don't think I've never heard complaints that they want us to that
they want me to edit out. It seems like at least in our discord,
which is where we get our most feedback, and that's the feedback I
take most seriously. Unless I'm soliciting the stuff in the YouTube comments we have.
I don't want to be We have a ton of fantastic people who engage
with with us on YouTube. It was just some of the stuff rankles me.
And as I've said to people, I'm terminally online and I vacillate between
you know, incurable and imposter syndrome and then feeling underappreciated for the for the
work that we do. But it's that's where most of the editing is done.
And I think I like the realness, the wrong rawness of the full
podcast to where I know I think I think dunkd On does this where they
cut out a lot of their pauses, which you want to mainline the basketball
content into your veins. I totally get it, but I view us as
Look when I'm thinking of our podcast to compare shows Tom, I want to
be yes technical and thorough, but I want to be fun and personable and
funny. And I like having that relationship of knowing, Okay, Grant and
Dan are always going to be together once a week at least there may be
two episodes a week, because I feel like it builds more of a familiarity,
not just with our chemistry from two people who've worked together for over a
decade, but with our listeners as well, we're like I know some people,
but I don't necessarily know their Twitter handles, and like I followed some
of them back if I know you on Twitter, but from discord that is
really fun and important to me. And I think if I had to compare
us and I, we're not on the level of them because they have just
basket more bat They've nikay Is Duncan and Steve Jones have forgotten more about out
basketball in the past five seconds that it took me to say that that I
will ever know my life, but I appreciate how technical and in the weeds
they can get. We'll also just being so fun and enjoying each other's company.
That is the we didn't set We've never set out to be like them,
and the podcast has been around longer than them. What does it say
that they're way more successful than we are. They're They're great, That's what
it fucking says. But that's what we've always strived to be. And I
think the rawness, the realness of having the mostly unedited stuff in long form
where I'm not gonna cut out all those silences, that's more for the shorts
where I'm cutting out. There are segments that have been five minutes long that
I've cut down to forty five seconds, and so that takes a lot of
and I don't know if you guys consume I mean, you're listening to them,
so I don't know why you would necessarily watch them. It's the people
who are finding us. It's helped drive subscribers on YouTube specifically. I don't
know what the conversions are to our longer form ex episodes, but I would
like to think that at least some people, you know, when we gain
it's I would say we gain between five This isn't a lot, and like,
look, yeah, I compare us I've gotten. I look at the
the edits that are being made on the DP three on through the wire to
just kind of see what people are consuming. The D three does a lot
of we drafted this, and so I'm not going to co opt that,
but just the style of where there's the gifts that kind of popped up and
I try to be a little bit more unique with them, where it's like
you see a lot of the same emojis or gifts cropping up and I'll reuse
my favorites but I try and like make it each video feel unique. And
I also feel like we're trying to be you know, through the Through the
Wire posts. They're not doing their draft shorts. I'm not criticizing these shows,
the their behemoths. They've hundreds of thousands of subscribers on YouTube, but
they've kind of set the standard for like, what do you want this NBA
short content to promote your episodes to be? And so I've taken a lot
of inspiration from there. We're trying to see what people are consuming. But
to that point, we're gaining between like five and twenty subscribers on every short
that I post. I don't know how many of those subscribers are only with
us for those short clips or they're consuming a long form episodes. I'm sure
gaining five to twenty subscribers every time I post a short is low relative to
again, the Deep Three, and you know Through the Wire I do I
think we're as good as those podcasts. I absolutely do. Those All those
guys do fantastic work. There's probably also something about being in the same room
and Grant and I are on different coasts. That's something I've contemplated a lot
about and maybe that's like you can have more of that experience when you're just
together. And I'm sure every single one of those dudes work hard. I'm
not gonna begrudge anyone's success. Do I envy it, Yeah, for sure?
But I respect to Helf and Kenny Beacham is all over the place.
That dude. He seems genuinely nice. So those are what And I know
they've got to be younger. I know Kenny's a little bit older, but
like the Deep three guys are definitely And that might be the other thing is
we're just we get comments all the time where people say, like, with
regard to me, a lot of people think Grant just looks like Lionel Messi,
and people were shocked to find out that Grant. They still don't know
how old Grant was, but they thought he was a lot younger. People
generally think I'm a lot younger because I can't go facial hair, So I
guess I appreciate that. But it's just like the audiences the age demos,
are they going to be as engaged on YouTube? I don't know, like
the twenty five to thirty four demos on YouTube, we're getting a lot We
have a lot of older subs, which I really appreciate. Someone on the
YouTube comments that they were sixty and they started listening to us a bunch.
I fucking love that. If there's any and I've asked this once and I
got some Instagram dms that they do, but if there's ain't just kids out,
like you listen to us and you're in high school, you're college,
or you're super young, and are we hip enough? Are we trendy enough
to really engage you? So there's a whole bunch of stuff that goes into
my editing process. What I'm thinking about. I do sometimes think I'm trying
to make us be too many things to too many different people. But I
like that we can be a podcast where that breakdown on the Timberwolves defense.
I know Timberwolves fans were mad because we ended up calling out towns at the
end. What other national pod did that? The Dunker Spot would absolutely do
something and do something better. What other podcast is gonna do something like that?
Though? And then pivot into who makes a three Draymond Green with a
backpack or Ben Simmons that, like, do you want Raymond Green shooting through
with the backpack? Or ben Zimon's the line for two free throws. So
that's what I value about this podcast. I want it to be versatile,
and maybe we're trying to wear too many hats, but I'm proud of what
we've built here. And the editing is I'm not really proud of my editing.
I think it could probably be better, but that's what gets skimmed off
in editing, Austen, how is that for me having word Vomit is not
so much in the full episodes. I would say if you're watching and if
you're watching an eight to my minute clip on YouTube, there's a good chance
that there were a few minutes cut out. If you sense that there was
an actual conclusion to that clip, it might have just been like thirty seconds
or a minute where it's been it lined up. Once we did a clip
that just lasted eight and a half minutes and it was like a segment and
it was perfect. That rarely happens, though, and then the most editing
is gonna happen, and the most time is spent, believe it or not,
cutting up, the cutting up the YouTube shorts, and then the second
most time, I don't do it because we just never gained traction on Instagram.
I don't know what it is. Is the ones that I call them
the Twitter or the IG videos like they're a little bit longer two minutes,
two minutes and twenty seconds or less. I will try and do with those.
Those take a little bit longer to chop up than actually the like the
eight to nine minute clips, just because when you ever you're shrinking down that
window, it actually takes more effort. Hope everyone enjoyed this mail bag.
Until next time, and as always, please remember rate review, subscribe,
if you get your podcasts, tell people about us. Don't forget about the
question I asked at the top. If you're here, what is the rookie
or NBA draft prospect you were so invested in and then they just didn't pan
out because you were too high on them, let us know in discord link
that's the podcast and YouTube description, or in the YouTube comments. I appreciate
everyone for their support, even the people who hate listen, even the people
who are throwing comments that I take exception to and respond to. And then
we'll sometimes delete drafts that I have in there between these ears. It's not
the same as place, but I'm gonna be candid about it. Shout out
Frankie Lookina and apologies not as always, can I run when I run solo
episodes like I Forget. Apologies though to Jared Allen, but also apologies to
Mitchell Robinson The Walls