What is up, fellow thermonuclear A Effers, I am a dam valley coming
at you with my fans. Have you listic equally Thermonuclear AF co host Grant
Hughes Before we hop into hot or not two point zero, Please remember to
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and YouTube descriptions as well. Very quickly though at Hardwood Knox on Twitter and
TikTok at Hardwood Underscore Knox on Instagram. I'm glad I get to ask you
this one. This is from Rome eighty one eighty, who also gave us
the Horns depressing franchise question. Tim Connolly is a bad GM. He made
the terrible go Bear trade right when he got to the Wolves, made a
mess of the Nuggets payroll before he left there. I'd say all three of
Murray, Gordon and Porter's contracts are really bad. So is Tim hot or
not. Tim Connolly's a bad general manager slash executive or whatever his actual title
is. Now there's a discussion to be had about I want to make that
clear. The way that the Nuggets operated under him, where it was very
much take care of their own guys, even when their own guys aren't these
mega stars like Nicole Yokich. But I think there's value in that operating in
a market like Denver. I also do not view the Jamal Murray contract as
a bad one, and like you can't predict a c elenres now if you
want to get into the Michael Porter Junior stuff. I think that had he
hit the open market that year, there would have been similar not the fifth
year, of course, but there would have been similar offers available. I
don't think that Eric Gordon contract is bad at all. I'm fine with it,
and he's been good for not even good like bordering on great for much
of this season. Now do you fault him for going the I don't want
to compare him to Neil Shaw, who seems like a pretty bad human being,
but like, do you fault him for not really ever going the home
run route where it's like, well, we acquired Aaron Gordon and we took
a swing on Michael Porter, but he took swings on Michael Porter Jr.
And like, what were you gonna what star? Were you going to consolidate
into? And bones Highland? Great? Fine Zeke Naji. That was still
a pretty good find overall. So I don't think he's been a bad executive.
But there's a discussion we had about the way the Nuggets operated under him
and how eminently dispensable he seemed. But is that ownership we talked about this
is that the cronky is cheaping out because they don't want to pay execs.
We saw it with Masahi Jerry before him. Now, if you want to
have a conversation about what he's done in Minnesota where it's hey, if you
wanted to test out this model, could you have not traded for Miles turn
instead of giving up your entire future for Rudy Gobert. That's that's a fair
discussion. But to say he's bad, I think that's a little too hot
for me right now. And I don't know if you saw the discord like
conspiracy theory discussion on it. I did. I did see some of that.
I'm not sure. I'm not sure I could support or endorse or buy
into some of that. Check out the conspiracy discussion on why Tim Connley traded
for Rudy Gobert. It ranged from for the cliff notes of it was just
a way to prove that he could get rid of Karl Anthony Towns, which
would be that would be wild to me because you extended Karl Anthony Towns.
That would just be a wild way to operate. But that is that's the
teaser. There's another layer to it, So go to our discordant check it
out. It's a little too hot for me, and it's a lot too
hot for me. Yeah, so I defended, or at least was like
neutral to this is a not the worst idea I've ever seen on the Gobert
trade. I'm probably gonna need to walk that back. Although it is still
early. You know, this could work out, it seems less likely than
it used to. I wonder too, if, like if that was a
deal that you know, the Wolves are going to be under new you know,
A Rod and whoever else are the new owners of that team, and
you could imagine some push from new owners to be like let's like cannonball into
the pool real quick and see and let's like really do something that's I don't
know that that's the case. That's kind of like making an excuse. But
like, how do you judge the quality of an executive? We don't think
there's When we judge coaches, we always concede like we don't know ninety percent
of what they do. Executives might be even harder to judge. So it's
like, did the team win a lot? And did guys seem to like
being there? Are kind of your metrics because a lot of what you judge
an executive on like talent evaluation, How robust is your player development staff?
Do you make good trades? Do you like all that kind of wraps into
it? And the Nuggets, so Conley was there for nine years, they
made the playoffs in the last five, they made a conference finals. They
want a playoff series each of those last five years except last year when everybody
was hurt and they ran into the Warriors in the first round, who won
the title. So like, and you know, I guess you give them
credit for Yokich, although it's hard because it's almost thrown a dart at that
point because everybody had a shot at him. And you know, I'm sure
I don't know this for a fact, but I imagine the Nuggets had a
pick before they got him in the second round that they did not use on
him. So you know, I don't know, but to me, like
just the basics of what you want from an executive or a bunch of wins,
like you know some you don't mortgage the future, which looks bad for
Minnesota. But the Nuggets have been a good team. They got a guy
who wants two MVPs. Not all those contracts are that bad. Maybe only
importer is. So I can't. It's too hot. I can't get there.
If all you knew of him was he traded a zillion picks for Rudy
Gobert. Then like not hot at all, which we both fully supported by
the way I know I was. I thought, I was like, yeah,
I get it, you can justify this. I don't know, all
right, I'll do since we both have quick hitters. Let me let's do
this one the hot or not the Raptors. And this was inspired actually by
a listener on YouTube Super Sauce Super Sauce. However, it's pronounced the Raptors
are stealth candidates to tear it down this season. That is too hot for
me because I don't even know what that would look like. It would be
real stealth like, it would be silent. Does that mean? So that
means tearing it down to means and Anobi. Basically everybody but Barnes. Everyone
brought Barnes and an Anobi at this point. I would probably throw an Anobi
into the not going anywhere, but I will say too hot for me because
I still believe in the Raptors. YEA, with Gary Trench Junior going to
free agency, Fred Vanfleet going to free agency, Pascal Siakam next contract coming
up, o Jiannaoby gonna be extension Ledgible this summer as well. You're getting
to the point where you really have to double down on this roster. Would
it be completely shocking to see Massa yu Jerry pivot the other way? Because
do you want to lock yourself into this expensive core that maybe isn't good enough
to reach the next level of title contention. Here's the thing that they need
and there I know there are some Raptors fans who still deny it. They
need another just spacey or half court initiator and like their offense without Siakam or
when fred Van fleets in the slump that he is currently in. It is
a capslock slog. It can be tough to watch and even if it gets
you through the regular season, which at the moment you know right now,
it's not like since the middle of November, they've been among the least efficient
offensive teams in the league. So you know, twenty second in point score
per possession over their past twelve games. If you're not going to go out
and then it's so there are three two things. It's either you believe Scotty
Barnes is going to be that guy. And I thought at the beginning of
this year that everything was happening so much faster for him. The perimeter shooting
got a little bit better from three, but like nothing else about him is
really improved. But unless you believe Scotty Barnes is gonna be that guy,
you're maybe you're not at the point, but then you need to give real
consideration. Well, but then we need to go out and get that guy,
because we're gonna be too good to draft him at this point. Someone
who can really level up our half court offense. Who's going to take you
know, even if Pascal Siaka makes pull up threes more of his arsenal,
like those aren't necessarily shots he's looking to get to. They're not hot happening
at this super high processing speed. And I think that the Raptors. I
wouldn't blow it up on the Raptors. I go out and try and find
that guy who can level up evolve the half court offense. But when you
start to look at the contract situations and how many of these guys they have
to pay over the next two years, it's not It's not as hot as
I thought it was when I gave it some real thought. Yeah, I
guess it's still too hot for me, just because I would be fine paying
Siakam and Antanobe whatever the market says they're worth and having those two in Barns
And like, so are you blowing it up if that means Gary Trent Junior
and like you said, it was a free agent, and and Van Vleet
aren't back. That's not that's not quite blowing it up to me. We
agree on the Raptors. They just need someone that can, you know,
bend the defense by getting into the middle of it. So all these other
like guys that are sort of okay at you know, generating advantages and being
Shockrea don't have to be like doing it all the time, you know,
Barnes. Barnes shouldn't be saddled with that burden for this franchise. He should
be It should be a luxury that he can sort of do that or will
be able to sort of do that. I'll give you one of my quick
hot or nuts. James Harden and Joel Embiide will never make a conference finals
together. That's not too hot, because you might as well play the field
at this point, I was pretty hot on Philly during the season. I
think I might have had them. I'll have to go back and look.
I definitely had them in the top four of the East, but I might
have had them even higher than that. That's not too hot, though,
I mean, how do you improve this roster? And it's also if this
is James Harden's won game back from his injuries, I want to I want
to pump the brakes there. But like if James Harden is materially worse than
he was when the Nets first acquired him, let's say, how do you
like? What do you have to do then to improve the roster enough so
that you all are a title contender. I just I'm interested to see more
of it at full strength, and maybe with this version of Tobias Harris sprinkled
in. But I don't think that's too hot. I mean you're looking yet
consider who else is in the East not get out of the first round.
Oh that's what they're saying. They hit seven. What if I said,
what if I down? What if I'm trying to get it to be to
the requisite level of hotness? They don't win a second like, they do
not appear in the second round. Together. I think that's too hot.
But like it wouldn't shock me if I predicted this and it was off the
cuff. It was a last minute question that came in on the last week's
mailbag, was of the third mail bag, because we did so many of
them, so we had so many questions, who's the next superstar that's going
to demand a trade? And I just said Joel Embiid. So I'm trying
to think the top ten players that and that's that would be the pathway to
your take not being too hot. If they're together for the next two seasons,
I'm gonna say that's too hot. Like if they I could see them
getting bounced in the first round this year, and if Joel embiad is just
like I'm done or just the Sixers decide to blow it up from there.
So I'm gonna say that's not too hot. I think it. I think
the first round one shues a little bit towards too hot. But it's it's
got a it's got a pleasant heat. It's not overlea spicy, You've got
extra out. So the problem is this is Darryl Moorey is running this team,
and he just like superstars are all he cares about, so it's gonna
be hard for it, and they you know, there's clearly some kind of
agreement with him and James Harden that they're just gonna go down together. But
yeah, I think THEI the EMBID trade request is is like, it's a
little hot, but we're not that far from it being you know, he's
on the short list of guys that are gonna be like, I'm done with
this, I can't. I gotta do something different. Let me throw you
one of my quick hitters. Zion Williamson has entered the MVP discussion, and
by that, I'll say, if you did a ladder right now, he
would be in your top ten. I know it's only a five player ballot,
but first of all, this year's MVP race so far, my god,
we might be shaping up for And maybe this is all futile talking about
Devin Booker and Zion Williamson and Kevin Durant and y'all kitchen you maybe it's just
Steph or Luca Artatum. But is Zion Williamson on that top ten MVP ladder
right now? So I would I would like to take this opportunity to admit
that last week when we talked, I was a little skeptical of the Pelicans,
and you have been staunched in your lack of Pelicans skepticism, and having
watched two and a half of their games since we talked, I'm kind of
I'm kind of in now. I need to walk back the questions I had,
which were essentially, are they good enough defensively? And how do they
really know what role Zion needs to play? And what the sort of trickle
down effects are Opponent shooting has been kind of unsustainably unlucky. I think they're
at thirty thirty eight and a half. I can't remember what the stat is,
but like the Pelicans are what third defensively, that's a little that's not
gonna last. But they're not gonna be twentieth. I don't know their first
over their last twelve game. By the way, they have the best defense
in the league. That I don't buy totally or at all for being third
and first over that stretch. But I think they're gonna be fine. And
then Zion, it's like there's no question you you were on it. I
had I wasn't sure he needs to be on the ball, and you figure
everything else out around that, because like he's developing like week to week as
like a decision maker and his defense. I think the best part about this
defensive run is that he is working hard and like is not falling asleep off
the ball as much, and so the film just looks way better. So
I'm walking that back, and so that's all to say that, Like,
yeah, I think at this point, I mean, the Pelicans have the
second best net rating in the league right now according to Cleaning the Glass.
They're fifteen and eight, top six in you know, offense and defense,
because they're sixth on offense, and like if anything, when they get Ingram
back full time, like that can move up. So if the team is
that good, and I think most would agree that Zion is the guy driving
at least the offense. Like, yeah, that's the top ten m VP
candidate at minimum, right, I Mean, that's just that's just where we
are. Now. The names get crowded because there's Lucas, there's Steph.
There's Shay who belongs in this discussion as well. There's Jokich, there's Janis,
there's Devin Booker, there's Kevin Durant. Like those are eight names.
I think you have to mention I left Kevin Durant off my last top ten.
I just I feel like the Nets probably just killed my soul a little
bit. And they're just so inconsistent defensively, including Kevin Durant there, but
like so that feels like eight givens. And I might have even left off
an obvious candidate there, but I would say I would echo what you said
that I think Zion Williamson has entered that top ten radius. I don't know
where he is in relate like I'm not putting him and had his Steph Luca
or Tatum at this point. I don't like because he got to the point
when he started thinking about bowls he liked better than the Shay case. Is
he better than the you know, the the Kevin Durant like case of oh,
he's like, we're could throw them seventh here. The defensive improvement matters
a bunch. And I think, and this might have been like the better
hot or not? Is are the New Orleans Pelicans like this year's Boston Celtics
to where such different teams. But the Celtics no one even when they were
playing well, no one bought into them. But they looked inward and they
said, we're gonna make a trade for Derek White, and that helped push
them over the top to get to the NBA Finals. The Pelicans feel like
that team this year where everyone thinks they're up and coming. They're pleasant,
they're QC, they're quaint, but like they might be one Derek White level
trade away from being a Finals team. By that, I mean Derek White
is not the player they need, although I guess he's gonna shoot forty five
percent from three. They would take Derek White. They can make a non
star trade. That's sort of one. Also, their depth is sometimes a
problem to me, by the way, but they could make a non star
trade and be a Finals team. And like I would say, Miles Turner,
I've been banging that drum for years now, and I'm not taking credit
for it. I still think it would work. There are a lot of
Pelicans fans who are mad at me for saying that I don't think Valan Chunis
is mission critical. They said, well, that's CJ. McCollum, And
I think you get rid of CJ. McCollum, like you might sort of
simplify the offense a little bit more the two things I maintain is one,
he's going to become more valuable for you in the playoffs. That is just
I fully believe that. And two getting rid of CJ. Mccoum doesn't change
the best way to optimize your defense with Zion as good as he's gotten,
as good as the Pelicans defense has been, and you did point out they're
getting lucky on opponent three point shooting. Opponents are under thirty three percent during
this stretch where they're the best defense in the league. They're also getting torched
at the rim though, so and that's a little bit of an indictment on
Zion, which is your primary room pretender, but it just reads his help
has gotten a lot better this season. Two, And opponents are only shooting
only about sixty percent at the rim against him during this stretch. So I
think he's an MVP candidate. And I don't think it's too hot to say
that the New Orleans Pelicans are this year's Boston Celtics in that again, the
teams are so different, but they are a minor to middling move away from
needing to be taken seriously as a finals threat. I think I think I
take your point I think you're right about, well, a couple of things.
Consolidation trade seems pretty like logical, and that they may be one guy
away because they've got like three or four that I'll deserve to play that you
know, maybe it's better if you turn that into one or two guys.
The other thing is like you know they can aim higher than that, not
you know, we don't know who's out there, but like they've got the
Lakers draft control. You know they've got they have just like real options and
real salary and valentcionists Like sorry Pelicans fans, valentitionists. Is the guy that
you're gonna include in a move I think to get to get some salaries could
be CJ. If he was trade eligible, maybe they'd be more open to
it. But like he's not trade eligible, and I I just I need
to see it first of all. And you've dealt with enough injuries to both
Zion and Ingram that I don't know that you could look at is what CJ
does and say, Okay, well that's just we have a surplus of this,
like we don't need more of the shot. Like and I get he
hasn't had the best season, but you've dealt with enough injury hist sheet,
so forget about being full strength. Just to have him is just like,
Okay, well we know we're probably gonna have two guys who can generate offense
for themselves and others. Yeah, no, I think I think that's right.
I mean, if honestly, if they could just get like if they
could get if you could clone Derek White, It's like, now you have
Derek White, that that works great for me. Let's just do that again.
Daniels is like kind of that type of player, So I think,
well, I said, I'm just rehashing last like I think he is.
So he is a guy that has a chance to really matter for them,
maybe not this year, but just he fits he I mean maybe this year.
That's why you don't aim higher though, by the way, is because
like why would you if you aim higher, you're talking about getting rid of
I would say picks, yeah, and Salary Feller whatever. But like then
you're starting to talk about, well Trey Murphy and or Dyson Daniels are in
the aim higher move. If it's Kevin Durant, I'm giving up one of
them. I'm sure I'm giving up one of them. But like failing that,
if that's the bar we're gonna hold, I'm if it's a I'm trying
to think of another name here for them, Kelly olynk like I think,
and that was someone one of our YouTubers actually brought up with, Kelly Olenick.
I didn't consider him initially. You get a Kelly Olynick. What if
you traded? He's been and I don't know if a lot of people have
noticed how good he's been on defense. And also it's sort of just like
a help defender people Kyle Kuzma on this team, like like that's the level
of move I'm talking about. And I'm just I don't think it's too hot
to say that. I'm happy that you're coming around on the My Pelicans incandescence
because it was getting lonely out here with regard to this podcast. It was
a straight up just I just needed to watch him more and then it was
clear like I caught him. I caught some good games, but the eye
test did it? Can I? And this is easier for me to do
because it's not complementing myself. You are never gonna hear like another National NBA
podcast just like cop to what you just did. We have this conversation in
discord where there and I think it's born from insecurity and I get it too,
where you want to know as much as possible. You're supposed to be
an expert, but sometimes you just you don't know shit. And it's just
I thought the Timberwolves are gonna be like a dominant regular season team. I
don't know what we're talking talking about. Well, we're wrong all the time,
Like, just change your check. I'll never do a real victory lap.
I will never like like i'll make a joke about it. I'll never
I'm wrong so much that what's the point of a victory lap. I think
all of it, all of it succeeds to do is point out how rare
it is that you're correct. Well, I'm not. If Jonathan Kamina develops
on my certainty that he'd become a more athletic Paul George, I will do
the mother of all victory laps. It's gonna be a victory marathon. I
will never shut up about it. But I'm wrong so far about that trajectory
feels like it might be a little bit on life support, a little bit
a little bit. He's been a lot better lately. Yeah, he's a
role player right now, and like George, a little bit better than that,
right, a little bit, a little bit, a little bit,
well, Paul, George is still a role player, Dan, it's just
he's theoretically that's a role But I'm glad you came around on the Pelican.
So that's not too hot then, no, not too hot. I want
to throw this one to you because you gave it to me to throw to
you. And we're just gonna be fully transparent because I want to know what
you're gonna say, hot or not? Okay, see won the Uzman Jang
trade? Yeah, they want it. How niche are we getting because three
conditional first round picks they have We talked about this in the discord. It's
actually a question for the next mail bag we do. Does okay, so
you have too many picks? The answers, fucking yeah, you can't get
to a point. We have too many picks. They give up three conditional
first rounders that oh hey, the Knicks didn't fucking use when they went to
trade for a star and now Ushman Jang, and you could make a case
like, well, Jaylen Williams was still on the board too, and so
the Knicks could have used someone like him, but Uschman Jang. And I'm
only highlighting him because he started he was inactive for I think it was like
it was a bunch of games started playing the last five or so, and
I had noticed it. I can't remember. I was, oh, yeah,
So I saw him playing against the Hawks and I was just like,
oh, like, this has become a thing. So I went back and
watched more of him. There's a feel more of a field there. He's
quietly hitting. I don't know if this is Chep England at work here,
but he's at like, over this very small sample we're talking about like ten
attempts. He's shooting over his past four games eight at times sixty two point
five percent from three, and it looks it's slow, but it doesn't look
jagged. And the way that he moves without the ball, whether he's in
transition or the half court, there's also some directionality to him being on the
ball, and he's just going to be able to be plugged and played maybe
anywhere on defense. And this is someone who I said this to you before
we started. I might have said it in more of a crude way.
He runs counter, I feel like to the typical wing projects that they have,
because there's more feel there and it's less about the nuclear explosion or detonation
of how he's going to play, and there's more nuance to it. And
now looking at this and I'm like, it's so crowded and okay, see,
but to have that prospect on the Knicks right now will just be fucking
cool. And so maybe this is my home ordom coming out. They absolutely
want that they have three conditional first round picks. Look at those teams right
now, do you know many of those first round picks are projected to convey
this season zero zero? Okay? So I mean, I guess depending on
how you feel Washington will they be a lotto team, but they probably will
be. So they want to restron Jang Tray. There's a real basketball player
there. And if he's gonna shoot ultra wide open threes even in thirty eight
percent clip with the processing speed he has right now, my god. So
I this might actually constitute a premature victory lap because Jang was the player I
wanted the Knicks to take. They're never a player, I want to be
clear. They never would have taken them if they kept that pig Jang would
not have been the pick. That's just not what they do. But they
want they want to reshroon JANKI trade. I'm calling it now. I think
I think it's fair to say that's too hot, but I'm calling it.
They want it. You gotta are there anything you really want to get to?
There's a couple that I want to make sure we hit. Do you
want to do? Do you want me to pose you the Kings want?
Or you want to throw the Kings one at me? I want to do
a longer one. I'll throw it to you because I want to because a
little a little hint like I'm throwing it to you just so I can answer
after you. But so this is from Rome eighty one eighty again why to
advanced stats seem to suggest Evan Mobley is bad? I know there's something wonky
going on with Cleveland's hunt offs, which we alluded to earlier, but some
of the advanced metrics like Raptor don't like him either. Also, he's made
has he made any substantive improvements since his first season? And the gist of
it is like, when confronted with, well, why do you think Evan
Mobley is good. Sometimes all you have is the we'll just watch him,
uh you know counter, which there are worse counters, like saying well,
his fantasy stats are x, y and z in an argument about who's good
or not, but just you know, saying watch the games is kind of
is like the shit that we hate to hear sometimes from from critics. So
make the Evan Mobley case. Has he gotten better? Why do advanced numbers
not like him? And like is he actually as good as advertised? And
if so, like why and how is sort of what I feel like this
question boils down to you. So if the hot or not framing needs to
be in place, it's like, well, basically, Evan Mobile is not
good because advanced stats say that he's not good. I mean it's too hot.
I don't want to answer pell want you dances, but I will say
I do think part of it is when you're gonna spend so much time playing
with another big and then two higher usage guards that might artificially repress a lot
of your advanced metrics to where just like, okay, if Evan Mobley when
he's the lone big, like you know, his defensive rebounding rate, I
would think it is gonna be higher than twenty one. I think you're going
to see someone who is like and even I was shocked at how high his
block rate is. Given that he's not spending like a crap ton of time
around the basket. He's still a really good rim protector. Opponents are shooting
under fifty two percent there. If I could answer, the one thing I
would say is how has he gotten better? There is like a dynamic to
his offense where it's not yet efficient. And I'm not saying go watch the
games, but you can even see the tick up when you're looking at just
like the fade away jumpers, the hook shots. He's shooting forty seven percent
on hook shots like this is just year two trying to figure out a different
environment. So I do think he has broadened his offensive horizons. I don't
know that I have a good explanation for the advanced metrics, which I have
not. I have not looked at the catchalls yet. I normally don't start
because not all of them is released by the way, I don't really start
looking at catchalls to like the midway point. Yeah, I think, first
of all, like I will concede that he very much. Is an eye
test guy. Like if you watch enough basketball and you see enough guys his
size, it just leaps off the screen like there's guys don't move like him,
Guys don't process at the same speed. Guys don't you know, they
don't. They don't make the split second reactions as quickly as he does.
Like that's for sure, that's all I test stuff. The advancement. You
know, he's in a relatively small role, like he's not being asked to
do a ton yet, So yeah, that's gonna hurt the you know,
your your whatever advanced metric you want to use, like some they have different
inputs all over the place. It has to be part of that too.
Just like his usual rais is lower than it was last season, right right,
that's the thing, like now he's you got a high usage guard that
just showed up on your doorstep and Donovan Mitchell, Like that's gonna take some
food off of other guys plates. I think you can get there if you
want to. And maybe this is just cherry picking, but find the advanced
stat that there. It's not like they don't exist. Like when I looked,
he leads the league in defensive wind shares. Now, wind shares are
kind of a problematic stat and there are a lot of things that have overtaken
them. But if you lead the league in something over a large sample and
it's like a big one like that, that's not nothing. The other thing
that really stood out to me is like, just don't worry about the counting
numbers and the fantasy stats and whatever else, Like, look at the rate
stats and look at how much he's playing. So here's let's fin slice it.
There are three guys right now that are in rotations, you know,
that are playing significant minutes, that have a fifty nine percent true shooting percentage,
which like sixty is holy shit, you're great. He's over fifty nine,
a fifteen percent rebound ry, eleven percent assist right, four percent block
rate. Two of those are Joel Embiid and Anthony Davis. The other one
is Evan Mobley. So like, take that to your friend that says Evan
Mobley doesn't like rate, Well, statistically, that's ridiculous. Now he's not
asked to do as much as those guys, So yeah, if he had
to shoot twenty times a game, the true shooting percentage might be lower.
Everything else is legit. So I think he's ultimately an I test guy.
But you can find the numbers that if you, if you want to,
that will corroborate that he's good and the true shooting percentage specifically, I think
he was at like under fifty five last year, and so to jump from
there, which is right around league average up to you know, when you
talk about great high usage scorers sixty is like the golden cutoff. He's right
there. So his sorry, and like his shooting percentage between three and ten
feet which accounts for a lower share of his shots and last year, but
there's still almost twenty nine percent of his shots. It's spiked by seven percentage
points compared to last season. Yeah, just there's I don't know about you,
but I have, I mean I was. I said some crazy things
about Evan Mobile last year, and like I have, if anything, I'm
more up the stick this year. So I don't understand the narrative that he's
disappointing or or you know, he's like ad The numbers don't support all the
optimism around his I feel like people have like bam At a bio PTSD and
maam At a Bio has been like thermonuclear af lately, So that's that,
But there's like not all the metrics love him. I look at Evan Mobley
as a different type of player in the sense that one I trust him as
more of a rim protector than maybe I would BAM. And I think there's
more of a I don't know what the word is. Is it directionality?
Again, there's there's like more of just a there's an more of an unpredictability
to Evan Mobley's offense. It feels like he could be more fluid on the
ball and might actually be more aggressive in time at points than Bam is going
to be the better passer. I think that's going to be maybe not,
but I don't want to put a ceiling on MOBILEI but I do think there's
a similar case here where they do so many things also defensively and even offensively
by the way, which is moving through tight spaces, and Jared Allen does
a good job of this too. When you are playing with two bigs,
like being able to operate in a bunch of different eCos, some that maybe
aren't conducive to the traditional setup of what your game is, especially when you're
not taking threes, But that and then just the breadth of responsibility he covers
on defense. There are just things that are going to be tough to quantify.
And so if let's just say his outcome is a bamat of biotype player,
there's no way shape or form. Is that disappointing? Yeah, I
think just the last thing on him. I think like sometimes, you know,
you say a guy's just with respect to him offensively in particular, it's
sometimes you say a guy's just always just scratching the surface of what he's going
to be. And sometimes that's almost like a concession that like, and he
kind of sucks at this right now, hopefully he'll get better. But sometimes,
and this is the case with Mobili, you say that because you know,
once or twice a game he'll do something at the elbow with the ball
that's like, there's no fucking way a guy that size should be able to
like turn, pivot, assess, like make the right drive, pass,
shoot decision really quickly in the flow of the offense in ways that the defense
is not prepared, Like it's processing speed, and it's it's also like the
physical ability to do any of those things, depending on what the situation calls
for and he will do that. This is again sorry it's eye test,
but like he will do that occasionally, and it doesn't feel like, oh,
well that was out of character. It's more like, man, when
he does that all the time, like it's over so that the surface scratching
thing for him is is still admittedly probably the most tantalizing aspect, but it's
not. It's not speculative. It's like that's it's coming, Like that's going
to happen all the time, as opposed to, well, if he could
only do that more often, it's like, no, he will that.
That's that's kind of my that's the Evan Mobili take for me. In a
nutshell, I have one more to you have one more? Right? Or
did you burn through all yours? I can't even remember? Oh yeah,
I got another one. Go ahead, so I'll give you this one really
quickly. Hot or not, The Sacramento Kings have an above average defense,
not statistically at the moment where they technically do, but the Sacramental Kings defense
is above average, like will be above average. Yeah, so that's too
hot right now? They're eighteenth. I'm looking on cleaning the glass, but
I do I want to say, I should have looked this up. I
guess I can't look this up as I'm vamping a little bit. They have,
I mean, they're up there over like recent stretches, they are well
fifth, they're six excuse me in points slot per possession over their last twelve
games. So my hesitation with them is really just like who's the good defender
on this team? Like, like I just it's it's tough, like who's
the guy that's gonna fuel And usually this is a big guy, and Sabonis
is not that guy. Like we've we've the sample size is real big.
The Sabonis is just not you know, he's a really good offensive player.
I think. I think that's also like the sample size is big enough where
that should not be remotely controversial and potentially is even a really good offensive player
in a playoff scenario. But just defensively, he's not long enough, he
doesn't get off the floor, he doesn't move well enough, like a switch
involving him is like it's just a big blinking red light that every team is
going to attack in games that matter. So that's a problem. I think
I've always wished that Darren Fox, you know, could put the tools to
use defensively because he's so fast and he's long and he anticipates well. But
then he's been better. He has ball containment has been a lot better this
year. What's that His ball containment has been a lot better this year.
I thought, potentially, like in his first and second year, that this
was gonna be a guy that would just like lead the league and steals,
you know, would be all over the would be like a Dejontay Murray type
defender. Like I thought that that was very much in the cards. I
don't. I just I don't know if that's going to happen. So here's
what I was trying to get to. So if you're gonna make the case
that this is not a hot take, you look at their location based effective
field goal percentage allowed, which is sixth in the league right now. So
it's just like they're giving up the right shots. And that's kind of a
hallmark of a Mike Brown defense is they're gonna they might get some things wrong,
but they'll force you to take mid rangers. They're gonna keep you from
shooting a lot of threes, and they're gonna keep you out of the paint
as much as they can with the personnel they have, So there's like there's
some there's some like undergirding to like an average defense potentially, but all that
is kind of undone by what I think is just the personnel just isn't.
This isn't a team with the players to defend. So you know, if
they if they stick where they are seventeen or eighteen, I forget what it
is, what it was just a second ago, and they're gonna be this
good offensively, then that's great. But again, I just think it's way
more likely that they're you know, down in the twenties, maybe bottom five
defensively by the end of the year. So I can't get there with average.
That's too hot. I think it's probably a little too hot because I'm
thinking more in playoff terms that this feels like a defense that could be picked
apart during the playoffs. I do think that they take care of I don't
want to call it just low hanging through, but they do enough of the
fundamentals that it wouldn't shock me if like, yeah, they're fourteen twelve,
like sixteen whatever for the regular season. They end possessions with their defensive rebounding,
they are fourth in points allowed per possession after a made shot, so
like he has them getting back. They're also second in points allowed per possession
after committing a turnover, and so like getting back is a huge part of
the battle. This is not a defense is mostly effort rant. I do
think that they've gotten good minutes this year from Harrison. Barnes is getting better,
Like I said, Daron Fox has improved. Kevin Herder has been better.
I think just because he's bigger, like than people realize, I said
Terrince Davis. Already day on Mitchell can be like I don't know what he's
supposed to be on offense, but he's he's a blanket. That's the answer
to who's their good defender? That I just grossly overlooked is I mean,
he's at least like impactful. I think he's a little too small to really
make a difference on most most opponents that you know you'd have to guard if
he's like playing with Fox for example, or whatever, Malik Monk or you
know, there's a lot of there's too many fires for like a six foot
six foot one backup guard to put out for that to really matter. But
that's just in deference to him, like he's a monster on the ball.
It would suck to be guarded by that guy. And so like what you
said, when you're giving up the right shots, which is not it's not
personnel or luck driven. They're actually during their stretch, opponents are hitting a
crap ton of their shots at the rim and from three point and from the
three point line. But when you're giving up the right looks, that helps.
On top of okay, well we're gonna end possessions when players miss a
shot, and then we're also scoring so much on offense that we're going to
have time to set up our defense. You can overachieve relative to your personnel.
And so I do I buy into them being the sixth best defense like
they've been over their past twelve games. No, but we can light the
beam. I think on them being a regular season league average defense, like
I would be shocked if they finished twenty eight or lower at this point,
or twent bottom ten, twenty first or lower. But I do have questions
with how it pertains to their playoff defense, because this feels like a team
where you're going up against higher level opponents when they're going to have a series
to pick you apart and find your weak points in the half court. That
just ending possessions when they miss isn't going to be enough to really get you
mine. If your offense ever goes through these tougher slogs, it's going to
be harder for you to defend because you a lot of what they're doing is
predicated on Hey, they're getting their defense. Even as good as they've been
in transition, it's just we're getting our defense set. And I will commend
them when you go back and watch, by the way, like if they
are when they are committing turnovers like they are, and like they're hustling back
and they've like over this twelve games, man, like they've committed a bunch
of turnovers. They're like bottom twelve in turnover rate. So they do deserve
Like Mike Brown might be we haven't talked about this, and it's not just
because he might be the favorite win coach of the year. Yeah, well,
I mean that's so by the way, this talk about like, yeah,
I think you know, there's a chance that's sustainable through the regular season.
It might be okay, but the playoffs, I don't know. You
know, the Kings are ecstatic that that's the conversation, right, because it's
presupposing there that they weren't in the conversation about the most depressing franchise. We
just gave it to the Hornets and talked about the Nicks and moved right along.
Well, this time a year ago, it probably would have been the
Kings, right or we would have mentioned them, no question, and that
would have been true any the last fifteen twenty years. So yeah, I
mean, look, the Kings are where they want to be, at least
with their you know, that's that's there. There's no doubt about that.
Them in two thousand and six taking Back Sunday where you want to be?
Just who would get that reference? Do you think? I actually feel like
I probably have the year wrong, But that wasn't taking Back Sunday album?
What was the final one? You had to get real quick hot or the
Spurs will bobcat this year? Yeah, they're they're bobcatting pretty hard right now.
And that's for anyone who doesn't know the reference. Uh, it's finishing
in dead last in defensive and offensive efficiency, which the Spurs are doing.
Actually, I don't even look at the NBA dot Com ratings. Are they
Bobcatting relative to NBA dot com ers are just cleaning the as I only looked
at cleaning the glass. I'm gonna look up. They have to be because
they're signed to do it without like they don't need to trade anybody. I
think they should, like let's see what you could get for Josh Person and
Jacopoto, But like they have Devin Vassell, like running a million big and
rolls and get a million. And look, he's been good by the way
he's pulled off a little bit, but he's still been worth exploration. And
Trey Jones is fine. But like in KELLG like though you don't have an
offensive initiator on this, and who is their best offensive initiator? It is
Trey Jones, Ty Jones? And so is it? Well he's this time
they against the war I think it was against the Warriors, and they're one
one or two games on either side of that. Jeremy Sohan up, what
about as well as you could expect too? Sure, yeah, but my
expectations were not high like he delivered on those. It's just it's an unfair
ask. It's crazy, Like there's a scenario two years from now where that's
really interesting because he can and sort of do that stuff. But just like
so the ability to self sabotage, you know, if they really want to
go for the bobcat I guess that is what I'm saying, is that they
have the ability to just without really benching guys, just sort of aligning the
rotation in such a way that you're gonna play all the best guys you have
and it's still just it's gonna be real bad. They are not Bobcatting on
NBA dot Com. They're they're whopping super high twenty ninth and offense and thirtieth
and defense. You know what's cleaning the glass updated too. The Hornets are
thirtieth on offense. Why do I? Oh, I'm looking at Okay,
So, but they're they're coming pretty close to Bobcatting. So do you think
they will? I think they will. So I think the momentum right now
is like is just the downward momentum is irreversible and is going to accelerate it
because it's just like I think the Pistons would like to just be a little
better and not be terrible, and the Rockets play, like I said,
play really hard. Orlando is just better than five and twenty, just like
they've been destroyed by injuries. Even if it's young guys and guys we don't
really like that's still the case the Spurs just it's just the arrows down and
they wanted to go that way and it's really easy for them to keep ahead
at that direction. And look, if they get not that it would be
assured anything but like Scoot Hender's Intervictor women Yama would be huge for for this
team. They get one of those guys. Yeah, let's see, are
we're good or want us want me to take us out? Or is there
any other ones we didn't get to. No, we hit everything. We'll
have the mail actual Well you did do one of the mail bad questions in
the hot or not phrase from Rome, But that's good. But we'll have
more. We'll have an actual mail bag again next week. But this was
this was a fun instructive exercise has always and I enjoyed some of the ones
that you came up with, and I enjoyed you becoming a New Orleans Pelicans
Convert mid podcast. It's it's done. I can't go back now. If
they go on, like if they have a bad week, I'm gonna be
real upset. Yeah, so everybody, thank you for listening. These are
always fun. Thank you so much for these hot or knots. They're like
we said last time we did this and with the mailback stuff. This is
always awesome because it keeps us on our toes and we like making content that
you guys want to you know, listen to and have discussed. So everybody
wins that way, So keep them coming. We'll do these again in the
meantime. Tell all your friends and if you haven't done it yet, I
don't know how you're listening to this, but like, subscribe, comment,
do all the things you need to do, follow us on socials. They're
on the If you're watching this on YouTube, you can see them on the
bottom right. And thank you for listening. Listen. Next time we'll have
some more of this stuff for you guys, and I'll take us out with
an apology to Jared Allen maybe should have I already apologize to New Orleans Pelicans,
and last, but absolutely not least on behalf of Dan. We give
a parting shout out to the man, the Myth, the Legend, mister
Frank Nilikina,