What is kracklacing fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am in almost fully healthy Dan
fa Valley coming at you with my certified fantabulous, clean jerking extraordinary co host
Grant Hughes. That sounds a little bit more masturbatory than I thought. Yeah,
well, clean and jerk is a weightlifting moof for that that is very
popular in CrossFit for anyone might not know, So that's what I was referring
to. We are here to spread I guess we could call it holiday cheer,
but we did, you know, problems questions we have about every team
in the league last week. Now we're gonna focus on optimistic observations. One
reason we're optimistic about every team splitting it into the East and West. The
Western conferences up first, which means that it will be Grant's show because he
is the West last time, since I had it this time, since I
had it last time. Usual reminders before we get started, please remember to
subscribe to us. Hit that sub button on YouTube, Subscribe on Apple and
Spotify. Ratings and reviews on both Apple and Spotify, help us out a
bunch, follow us on the socials. The links to those are in the
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there. The discord link is in the podcast and YouTube description. You can
support the show by purchasing merch The link to that is in the podcast and
YouTube description. And if you've done all those things, please tell people about
us. Word of mouth recommendations go a long way as we continue to build
the community. And as always, Grant and I appreciate every single one of
you, the audience, the community. We just enjoy it all, So
thank you. Grant. How the heck are you doing? I'm doing well.
I am also healthy. I was not unhealthy before, but since we're
talking about our health, I thought I would throw that in there. You
know, you're you healthy, but you're rubbing it in dying people's faces.
How healthy you are? Apparently? I want to say that. I'm glad
we get to talk about positive things this week, because pointing out problems as
necessary as it is, which we did last time we had a conversation,
it can wear on you a little bit, and even putting together stuff,
if you're writing things like that, it just feels like you're nitpicking all the
time. So this is this is an appropriately positive holiday entry into the holiday
season. I think because we're gonna skew optimistic, We're gonna skew towards things
we like, things that have excited us or interested us or just been I
don't know, good vibe producing so far through the season. I'm excited to
do that today. I will say some I shared this information on discord.
I'm not sure if you saw it, but so we wrote the one problem
every NBA team didn't see coming and re repurposed it as a podcast. Kenny
Beacham on his YouTube channel also repurposed that article as a video. He just
beat us in views by about two hundred and fifty thousand. Yeah, so
like pretty close, several ten thousand x give or take. It did just
a little bit better than ours. I don't know what to do that,
but so people seem to enjoy his reactions and the stuff that we wrote.
I mean, no shade in him at all, his work at that That
is an indication of the industry. Basically, you know, there's your industry
in a nutshell. Honestly, if you want to, if people want to
super peek behind the curtain, it's always touch and go. When we're doing
the every team projects. I don't look at traffic anymore, but there's probably
a good chance that his video did more views than even the article did,
which is being disseminated and programmed in the Bleacher Report, app to like an
audience in the tens of millions. I'm sure. Yeah, No, I
don't have any debt. I haven't looked at the numbers either, but I
would not. My expectation would be that you're right about that. Uh wow,
yeah, I'm looking at it right now. I decided to bite the
bullet and look on our expectations were correct. Just leave it at that.
What's that not this time though? Because this one we're gonna do numbers on
this one. Oh yeah, this one's if everyone make this go viral,
share it, like it, comment, I don't know what it takes to
go viral on YouTube. With full length podcasts, So Eastern Conference, we're
gonna go in alphabetical order, always a risky proposition around in these parts.
As everybody knows, we begin with the Atlanta Hawks. Grant. Oh no,
we're doing the West. I was not. I was gonna let you
see, I was gonna say how long you were gonna go? Because you've
got the alphabet part right, because A is the first lesson that doesn't count
as an alphabet fail. Correct, No, no, it's a different category
conference fail Western Conference. We begin with the Dallas Mavericks grant. Please spread
some Dallas Mavericks optimism for us. So it's interesting that, uh, what
really I'm excited about, what I'm happy about, or what the Mavericks should
be happy about, is silence, which is to say, I don't know
about you, but I know that I coming into this season and it's really
going back to last year like this. Anyone who's listened to me talk at
all about Dallas will just you could just guess what I'm gonna say, which
is the Kyrie Irving trade triggered a cascade of possible futures in which in many
of them, Luka Dauncic asked for a trade because this thing goes sideways and
Irving does his whatever he does to you know, disrupt the team. And
the fact that Dallas is kind of asset poor and has some defensive deficiencies like,
oh, this is clearly the the catastrophe potential was not only like in
play but started to seem kind of likely if you're a real alarmist, but
the fact that Dallas has started out so well this year, the fact that
Kyrie Irving has just looked really good. Luca has been just as good.
The pace is up in Dallas, which people have been calling for all the
time. Now A lot of that's when Irving's out there without Doncic. Donchi
still plays slow, but the pace is up. The scoring efficiency for Doncic
is as good as it's ever been. He's making tons of threes. Maybe
that normalizes Derek Lively has brought energy to the defense. The defense is still
not great, but like there's a way forward you can see with him there.
And so that's all to say. I haven't even thought once about the
you know, catastrophe potential of Luca being unhappy and you know, at some
point this year or you know, maybe next or whatever, you know,
wanting to leave or at least agitating for more change or maybe and maybe that
changes like change me. I want to go someplace different. I haven't thought
about that. Hopefully he hasn't. And I think as long as this offense
holds up, and I think it will, you know, Dallas is going
to buy at least a year, and then who knows what happens later on,
how they improve the roster going forward, where they get that wing defender,
where they get that third ball handler. That those are all questions down
the line. But the thing to me that's so great is that we just
don't have to think about Luca wanting to leave. And I was I thought
that we would have to think about that this year. Mas fans are back
to complaining about Dwight Powell, which is a thing of how good things are
for the most part. And they're like, because you have Luca, you
could probably build a path to them winning everything, just if things broke right
and the West is aside from a healthy nugget squad, it remains so wide
open. But they're like, they're not a quintessential one player away. They're
more like a half a player away, where if you get the wing player
who doesn't torpedo your spacing, where it's okay. Derek Jones Junior has made
some shots, but those lineups have been touch and go because defenses don't guard
him the way they would others. If they get that player, it's just
the problem their assets are limited, and so many other teams are looking for
that player. I automatically assume. Let's say, for instance, and I
don't think they're gonna move him. I want to be clear. If o
Giannanobi becomes available, I don't think that they have the the juice to get
him. They might have enough if they're willing to pay him. They could
be a Jeremy Grant team. That might be like if you're just looking for
a first round pick or just stuff, depending on because Jeremy Grant has not
looked great, like just he's been exposed when you don't have other playmakers around
you right now. But like the fact we're talking about that rather than the
Lucas stuff and the other thing that I think coincides with your silence. And
I apologize if I missed this. Luca's complaining less. That's no, I
didn't mention that. That's that's like any half decent rider would have made that
reference is a podcast, You're fine? Yeah, right, Maybe Kenny was
covered in his reaction. No, that's totally right, that's totally right.
He he he's still doing it a little bit like I was. I forget
who they're playing the other night. I think it was the Kings. That
was a great game. By the way, Matt's King's Game, which Dallas
didn't win, but he he got. You could see him almost catch himself.
You could see him start to like do the palms up, like what
are we doing? How did you not see? Like and then he would
like reel it in. So you know, that's been such a like an
ingrained part of his whole like on court personality that it's got to be really
hard to like resist the urge to do that. But I think he's at
least making an effort, so and and like that is a you know,
on the in the grand scheme of things, that's not a huge problem,
I guess because he's just he's so good and whatever else. But like you
kind of want to cut that out if you're going to be like, if
you're if he's gonna be the best version of himself, I don't think it
can include all the historyonics and the complaining. I think he's probably at a
level that's badgeable now for it. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I think
that's fair. The Denver Nuggets are next up. Kill the alphabet now that
we have the right conference. This is another So the thing I'm enjoying is
that you know when a team wins a title, there's like, you know,
you start making excuses and guys maybe coast or maybe they're fatigued, and
I'm talking about the following season. It just kind of happens because they've you
know, been playing sometimes three months longer than all but a couple of other
teams, and that's just difficult, and you have kind of a downturn in
performance for for Nicola Jokicic like it's been the opposite, and I just it
makes me wonder whe like where the ceiling is, which is an insane thing
to say about someone who's been the best player in the league for going on
three years, maybe more if you really want to look into it. He's
on pace now to either match or tie several catch all metric career highs like
box plus minus, player efficiency rating, all that stuff is either tied with
or exceeding anything he's done before. He's on pace to set us. This
is all after coming off a dud the other night, too, so his
numbers looked even better a couple of days ago. But he's shooting more threes,
like more than twice as many per game as last year. Would be
a career highs attempting four point six per game. He's never rebounded the ball
better his assister down slightly. But I you know, things on the list
of things I'm not worried about, it's Jokic's assist numbers and passing. So
just this idea that he was he's been the best for a while. He
had every excuse to like chill. Jamal Murray is hurt, and like Jokic
just just leveled up ever so slightly, And when you're at at the heights,
that he's at a slight level up is sort of it's like almost unthinkable.
So that's been so exciting to me in the early going that like there
is no there's no coast, there's no let's turn it on later, at
least as far as he's concerned, And that's kind of awesome to see.
Yeah, I would have to agree with you there. And the fact that
just people I know are been saying they definitely miss Jamal Murray. But they
have a game where Michael Malone gets ejected, Nicole Jokic gets ejected, and
then they just go and beat the Pistons anyway, I know, I know
it's the Pistons, which you need to snort a bag of drama me and
if you're going to watch the Pistons a lot of the time these days,
so yeah, I mean, I'm with you. There's nothing I've seen that
makes me want to pick another team to win a title, just like Boston
has had its moments and even Milwaukee lately. But I just look at the
Nuggets and it's if they're healthy. I mean, there's some concerns about nobody
aside from Jokic gets fouled consistently, and so that could be something that comes
back to bite them in the playoffs. But like, let's see what Jamal
Murray looks like when he comes back and is healthier. I just have zero
even the whole zikenagy again is not panning out for the up team year.
I just have so few concerns. And by the way, top ten defense
without getting lucky on any really opponent shooting that they're allowing forty nine percent shooting
from the corners and it's not like on an absurd volume, and so they're
not getting nothing about what they're doing right now is unsustainable. And so there's
a chance we've yet to even see the very peak of Jamalberry's not playing aget.
It but like the peak of what a full strength Nuggets team looks like.
I know, they just won a title. We probably haven't even seen
it yet though, well, and like remember too, it's you know,
the peak you're talking about, like an objective peak, like this team could
be better than it's ever been. But there's also like a relative component which
and to your point of like you have no questions, you feel just as
good or better about Denver being the best team in the conference as you did
however long ago, and I agree, And that's like that's another key because
like just compared to say, you know, the day before the season started,
we both had Denver at the top, but we definitely had several other
teams that seem like real threat, like a healthy Phoenix, the Warriors put
it all together, the Clippers, you know, most other than like would
you say anyone but say, I guess Minnesota has to be there and the
thunder have been significantly better or at least, you know, on the high
end of expected outcomes in the West to this point in the season, But
almost everybody else looks like sketchier or we have more questions now than when the
season started. So relative to the rest of the conference, Denver it just
stands out even more because some of the main threats we thought were going to
be there just haven't been yet, and the ones that have risen up.
You know, Minnesota is an interesting one because everybody likes to say how well
they play the Nuggets and just Minnesota's just subjectively good now. But other than
those two teams, I feel like Denver has fewer threats now than it looked
like it was going to have, which is kind of amazing considering like they
came in as the best team. So I don't know, that's that's like
more of a macro discussion we could have at some points, like how of
the conference landscapes changed? But in Denver's case, it looks better for them
than it did not that long ago. The continuity and steadiness at the top
is part of the thing with them, and that's there's just value in that.
You know, what comes after D E and F. We don't have
teams for E and F, but we do have the Golden State Warriors.
Yeah, what do you have for them? The good thing about them is
the bench so far, their top five players and the net rating differential like
on off, which is you can check on cleaning the glass. There's noise
in all this stuff. It's still early. They all are bench players.
This was and this was a really pronounced difference, even earlier in the season
when the Warriors were winning more. They finally snapped the I think there was
a five game losing streak at home. They beat the Rockets last night as
we're recording this on Tuesday. But the through line of the season has been
the starters have been shockingly unproductive and the bench has either held the fort or
been the reason that some of these leads have expanded. And that is just
so upside down from how the Warriors have operated for so along that it's like
it's kind of the only thing you can talk about now because it it's the
biggest surprise. It's the biggest difference in how this team is operated, and
it sort of encompasses some of the other like problems. I know we're staying
positive, but the fact that you know, Klay Thompson and Andrew Wiggins have
been mostly very bad this year, with some positive signs lately, at least
for Wiggins, like that would be like just you know, lethal, it
would be it would be a massive problem if not for the bench and Chris
Paul in particular, who's like a plus fourteen point five in his minutes,
just you know, winning or just not losing. All these all these non
Steph Curry minutes. A step Curry, by the way, still has a
negative on off split, which is just like the first time in his career,
right aside from there was that year I think twenty twenty he played in
four games or whatever it was, and he's just routinely and it's just again,
it's just a total inversion of even last year in the year before,
where you just lose the minutes that he's not out there, and now they
lose the minutes that he's out there and they win when he's not. So
I think things will normalize, you know, gradually over the course of the
season, and maybe the bench is a mile positive and the starters eventually are
a bigger positive. But like for now, I mean, this team's seven
and eight and I don't know what that record is if the bench isn't really
good, so that that's a huge angle so far this season, and they've
tried to get I won't say too cute, but like when they go all
bench like Chris Paul plush all bench. If you considered Chris Paul an honorary
starter for like, I get it, but that unit is getting killed.
Yeah, and so they've had to find the balance of okay, because the
two of their three most lineups are demonstratively net negative right minus bwoth point seven
for the starters, minus nineteen point two for the all bench unit of CP
three GP two, Moody coming and Sharich. But you start to play around
with oh, if Draymond's on the court with and Steph is on the court
and you're playing with bench players, like, that's where it feels like they've
been able to really hold serve any other The only other thing I would add
is have you been I'm refreshing it now because want to make sure I'm not
saying out dated. It's up. But yeah, the Chris Paul Steph Curry
minutes have just been dominant offensively one twenty seven point seven offensive rating. The
defense isn't great, but a lot of these minutes have come without Draymond because
he's missing time right now. I've actually been impressed with how well those who
have been able to play together, and I think more than anything, Chris
Paul is definitely more adaptable than he gets credit. Steph Curry is just the
most scalable superstar bee a history. And no people want to say it's Kevin
Durant. It's not Kevin Durant. It might be Devin Booker, but it's
Steph Curry. Yeah, no, I think. I mean, there was
a play last night at the end of the first half against Houston where you
know, the game was kind of slipping away the Warriors. Couldn't you know
they were going to go into halftime, you know, not feeling as good
as they should have. Houston's on a second night of a back to back,
like just this is not a game. You've lost five in a row
at home, if you're the word, and Chris Paul just called a play.
It was like a double staggered screen that got Steph Curry and open three
and he hits it, as you know, with I don't know how much
time was left in the half and gets valid. It's a four point play
to go into halftime. And it's like that was one hundred percent Chris Paul
making that happen. And so you know, we'll see how he holds up.
We'll see just what him and Draymond are always going to be a really
weird fit because they kind of occupy the same roles in an offense. Paul
and Draymond and the Warriors generally have some lineup decisions that are gonna have to
get made if and when everyone's healthy. Like you know, they're playing like
twelve guys pretty routinely, and that's just just he's out there. He's playing
plenty. Like there's calls for play off the ball against the Rockets. Did
you see that? I think it was the first half. I mean there
are I don't know what I think Pods and Trace Jackson Davis just have to
be the guys to lose time once everybody's good to go. But you know,
if it were on merriage, my vote would be Andrew Wigins or Klay
Thompson. I'm saying like Klay Thompson is the guy that has I mean,
if you're just talking about how they've played this year, he you know,
he should have his role reduced. It's just that you know, things happened
before this year of some concertquinz that has earned him quite a bit of rope.
And the other thing is, like, you know, the Warriors have
underperformed record wise, I think for sure relative to expectations, But if you
assume that Thompson and Wiggins won't be just objectively terrible for the rest of the
year, like, there's a decent amount of upside here. So if you
want to keep with the optimism theme, there's also that speaking all of the
Houston Rockets, they are next up, there's plenty of reasons to be buzzing
about this team. What have you come up with? Just that they dodged
thinking kind of big picture, they dodged the Harden bullet and if is the
reason that you know, because remember that reporting, I think they they walked
it back and Udoka did did so I think in pretty pointed comments. But
there was definitely some indication that they, you know, the Rockets were very
much interested in James Harden. This is going back to last year. And
then Udoka said like thanks, but no thanks more or less. And just
imagine, like, here's what you're not getting. If you have James Harden
on this team, You're I don't know what you're doing. You probably don't
have brook So or van Fleet first of all. But the bigger thing is
Alprin sangun is not getting anywhere close to the chance he's gotten this year to
prove that, Like he's actually the team's best player and has just incredible upside
as an offensive hub. That's so he's obviously like we're not breaking news by
saying Shanggun has been incredible this year. He's the stat I uncovered on this
one. Now we're we're thin slicing whatever, but these are always fun.
He's on pace to become the youngest player in history to average at least nineteen
eight and five with a sixty percent true shooting percentage. Like damn, I
mean that's like, you know, we're thins let yeah again, like we're
cherry picking whatever you want to call it, but like those are real numbers
and the true shooting throwing, the true shooting in there is legit, and
you just watch the guy play and he's he's a monster in the post,
which he wouldn't get to be with James Harden on the team. He's a
great passer from the elbows, like he's gonna have like a Sabonus ish kind
of impact in that regard. He's improved defensively just all just his primacy on
the team does not happen if the Rockets go down that other road. And
I think, like, you know, maybe if Harden were healthy, committed,
like carried all that other stuff, just these massive ifs, like maybe
the Rockets are about as good as they are right now, but it's just
like the runway they have to be so much better. Is is very clear
with with this iteration of the team. So sometimes it's the moves you don't
make. Yeah, that's a great one. It's and they've been even during
this losing streak because we're recording this, they've lost three straight. You already,
we kind of very touched on this. They put up a fight against
the Warriors on a road, on a back to back. The defense is
just materially different in large part because of I mean, Jabari Smith Junior has
done some stuff. Shane Gouon's been a little bit better on that end,
and I expected, but like Fred van Fleet and Dylan Brooks had had Stephan
Hell both of them for a lot of that game. Steff eventually broke out
because it's Steph, but like the volume wasn't there, And that's part of
being in games against the Warriors is yes, Steph can be hyper efficient and
still go off, but if you're actually limiting his touches or his shot opportunities,
that's a that's an absolute win, and that their defense having the ability
to do that, they finally have a direction. There are some bigger picture
questions, but I think the fact that now you have your directional centerpiece and
you know that it's Shane Gun. This isn't to say that he can't play
with Jalen Green or Jabari Smith junior. We haven't seen a lot of aman
Thompson yet. He absolutely can, but this is the guy right now unless
someone comes and takes that from him. But it's not a requirement. Where
we had we were questioning who it was. Was it Jalen Green, Could
it be Jabari Smith? Is it automatically aman Thompson? And shange Gun was
kind of fourth in the pecking order, even though we knew he was really
good. There just wasn't that belief that the Rockets were gonna hand him over
the keys, and even to start this season, it wasn't sort of like
that. And then it was, oh, a half game in a game
in oh no, no, this is the direction we're gonna head and it's
working. Yeah, you hate to make the everyone makes the Jokic comparison just
because he's a big guy that passes and you can run the offense through.
But like, the thing that I don't think it's discussed enough is the way
that he's kind of made it obvious and seized the main role in the offense
is very much like Jokic did, where it was like, if you watch
the guy play for any length of time, it's just clear he should touch
the ball more than anyone. That's just it's like undeniable. It removes all
the controversy of like, well, Jalen Green is, you know, the
more conventional type of leading star that teams look at. You know that he's
just like, well, okay, cool. Maybe he'll become that someday,
but at the moment, it's you just can't justify anyone but Sangun being number
one. That's just he made it obvious. He made it easy for the
Rockets that way. Unless you have anything else on the Rockets, you're ready
to move on to the Los Angeles Clippers. Sure, am, I would
like to talk to you about Russell Westbrook and his personal growth. I thought
you were gonna go with it. Really just can't get much worse that.
No, Yeah, I mean searching for positives was harder for some teams than
others. This is one of them. I just focused in on. Like,
so you know, this is semi older news, but it's a big
deal. You know, Westbrook agreeing to just volunteering to come off the bench
to accommodate James Harden, Who's a guy that he's clashed with in the past,
and who like, really, if you're Westbrook, you'd be beyond justified
and saying I'm like, I'm not adjusting for anybody like us, let alone
this guy that you know is coming in and disrupting kind of you know,
what's been Like Westbrook has his late career arc is We're gonna have to like
do a deep dive on it at some point. But like his uncompromising nature
is unwillingness to change how he played with the Lakers was part of the reason
that whole thing did not work. That was eminently foreseeable. It's part of
the reason that he's making three million bucks. So, you know, just
gone from an MVP that just had to have the ball all the time to
just really having to figure out, like where do I fit now? At
this stage in my career and then for him to go and say I'll come
off the bench or I'll do whatever. Yeah, maybe that's pr spin.
Maybe that's I got to get this news out that I volunteered before the Lake.
The Clippers just demote me. You know, if you were going to
be cynical about it, that's something to consider. But I just I'm I'm
impressed, and like I've been harder on Westbrook than most, probably because of
his stubbornness and you know, style of play, but you got to give
it to him. I think, you know, he's just he's doing the
team first thing, and nobody's really ever. I don't think anybody's every question
that he cares about winning and that kind of thing. But I think up
until very recently, his position was because I care about winning and because I
have this unflinching self belief the way we win is by me doing what I
do. And I think he's changed a little bit in that regard, and
I think that's kind of kind of admirable. I don't know if that means
the Clippers are going to get anything done, probably not, but it's you
know, we got to celebrate some personal growth. Well, it allowed them
to get to the thing that we always knew they were going to have to
get to to try and optimize this team. And so that's and they did
it early on, fewer than ten games into the experiment, and so that
there's real value in that. I'm still so fascinating to see where this team
goes from here. I just still feel like I know the Daniel Tye stuff
will help, and it kind of proves that they're not looking to play ultra
small. But like PJ. Tucker has these stretches where it's, oh,
he still kind of has it defensively at points like the game yet against Yokich
like a week or so ago, But it's just he is so low volume
and sometimes a complete or most of the time a complete non factor on the
offensive end. How do you work around that? Are we going to run
into issues where they're sort of are these players okay where it's you know,
somebodys you're just not gonna have as many shots or opportunities because someone else has
it going. It still feels like they need to make another trade and I
don't I don't know if I would put them. I'm trying to think of
the most optimized version of them with this core and does it belong to the
inner circle of contenders. We don't know, but I think them getting to
at least part of the model that is going to serve them best in the
long term, in large part because Westbrook asked for it so early. That's
an absolute positive. Yeah, the Lakers, what do you got for it?
I mean, we're gonna get real basic and just talk about how Lebron
is so good at thirty nine? Can I interject? Yeah? Absolutely not
basic, dude? Is it is age thirty nine season and they just still
can't function without him? This is the thing. It's not just like,
well it's two things. One, He's had these fourth quarter takeovers multiple times
this season. So to your point, it's like, yeah, they the
Lakers, as you know, mediocre as they've been for a lot of the
season, they're without him just winning them games in fourth quarters. I don't
know where they are. I don't know what the narrative is. And then
it's just the raw numbers, like Karl Malone's the only guy at this age
to average over twenty. James is gonna be twenty five plus easy, Like,
no problem, He's you know, he's got the highest scoring average of
anybody at like thirty five, thirty six, thirty seven, thirty eight.
So this is just it just keeps going. And like if you had to
guess what, ye, this is an open ended question, what year do
you think we started saying before each season, Like I kind of think this
is probably the year he tails off or we can't count on him being you
know this guy anymore, because I think it's been it's been like eight years.
We've been having some version of that conversation, right, like some version
of it. Yeah, I guess it's sort of a thing of Okay,
Ken it happened in extended enough doses, there's definitely a difference there. But
yeah, for sure he Uh when I pulled these stats, he was plus
twis on off spit was plus twenty nine point one. I actually think it's
higher than that. Now. I think he's number one in the league and
it might be like in the forties or something like completely absurd. Uh.
Maybe I'll look that up at some point later. But yeah, like I
guess, I guess it's that he's not the same player he was three years
ago, five years ago, whatever. But the precipitous drop off. It
is just like it's just not gonna happen. We're just gonna get a little
incremental you know, He's not as fast as he was. He definitely is
not as vertical, you know, as like as an over your head dunk.
It's like that's really not there anymore except with the major runway. But
it's just like he's still I mean, he's still playing at an all NBA
level and he's doing it in ways that like are massively impactful on winning and
I know, like the level because he's been around for so long, Like
it feels like Lebron fatigue is just like a chronic condition we all live in.
But you can't like this is just different. This is another you know,
he's the greatest old player of all time, and he's also like maybe
the greatest young player of all time. And in the middle he was pretty
good too, So I just I don't know, we can't not talk about
that for the Lakers because everything else would feel like you were just ignoring what
he's doing. And it's sort of like I don't want to get into player
rankings, but who are the players that you are so sure are better,
more valuable than Lebron right now, Yokich, Jannis Steph, Doncic. But
like it's you know, and there are other embiids gonna be in that discussion.
People are going to talk about Shay they really shouldn't. Maybe they could
talk about Durant. I'd be more inclined to put Booker ahead of Durant,
but the sample size this season simply the fact that he's just even if we
want to just broaden it and say he's one of the ten most valuable players
in the league right now, that's not even close to a stretch, right
And that's absurd to say about an age thirty nine season Lebron. And the
other thing is, I know fan bases that aren't the Lakers get fatigued when
their team wins, but all these Lebron highlights are being spit out. I
get it. But it's also just as much as we rag on people for
going to age thirty nine or vintages Lebron route, this is age thirty nine
season and there are still chase down blocks happening, and there there is that
emotional component if you're just a fan of the game, how much longer are
we gonna watch this? Not because he can't do it because at some point
he's gonna choose to stop doing it, and I don't ever want that to
happen. Yeah, No, it's definitely like I remember feeling a certain way
when like Dirk retired and when Tim Duncan retail, like cause those were like
kind of generationally defined players for me, And like, I don't know what
I'm gonna think when Lebron retires, because we've you know this is it'll be
two plus decades of like, this guy is the defining feature of the league
we care so much about, and now he's gone like that, if for
no other reason, that's why we should be never shutting up about how good
he is in his age thirty nine season. Yeah, I'm totally with you.
I think you made the right pick there. I'm imagining this next team.
It might have been the most difficult one, although I can come up
with wonder easily off the top of my head, and I have not looked
at yours, So I'm very curious we went this route. It's the Memphis
Grizzlies. Yeah, So the best thing about the Memphis Grizzlies this year is
that there's lots of time left in the year, and like that might seem
like a real negative if you're of the opinion that the way the first what
are they played thirteen games? When I was putting this together, they played
thirteen and there were three and ten. You might feel great about the fact
that there's a long season ahead if you think this will continue. I'm just
like, I'm not persuaded that this is how it's gonna be. I think
you know, they don't have their best player, right. Ja Morant is
halfway through a suspension, give or take, and it's not like he's gonna
be Yeah, he'll need ramp up time whatever, but it's not like he's
coming off an injury, so you can sort of assume when he's back,
he'll be who he was, or close enough to it as to sort of
put everyone else back in the proper position. Marcus Smart should be coming back
fairly close to when Jaw does, maybe a little before, maybe a little
after, depending on that three to five week timeline. Jared Jackson Junior still
is a defensive Player of the Year caliber guy, like he didn't forget how
to do that, and then everybody else with Morant back in the fold,
sort of slots back into more sensible roles. You don't get Steven Adams back,
that's the big one. But I do see a way for this team
to play at like at a fifty win pace once their hole. And now
what that's gonna get you depends on how deep the chasm they dig is between
now and Moran's return. But I I think like, look, the Lakers
started three and ten last year. Now, granted they remade their team at
the deadline, but they made the conference finals. So with they start this
bad in terms of records, So it's like, that's the exception, that's
not the rule. But there's a very recent example of the first you know,
a dozen ish games do not sink your season, especially with half the
teams in the West are like six and nine or seven and eight and whatever.
So it's not like it's not like this is fatal just yet. For
Memphis. Now, my question would be, is it definitely not fatal?
Can you afford to lose this much ground in the West where okay, you're
three and ten, is we record this and what is the team? What
are the teams in front of you that you're banking on to actually get worse?
Because I think you could argue when it comes to the Clippers, the
Warriors, even the Pelicans, the Suns, those are teams we all expect
to get better. I would say so, like, as I'm looking at
the standings now, they're three games behind Golden State for tenth, I would
say Golden State's upside is probably higher, but that's still just three games.
And you know, the Warriors could have a couple injuries and then they're worse
off than Memphis. Is Houston I think has overperformed, but like maybe maybe
Houston's this good. Houston is five hundred right now. Maybe the Pelicans are
better than five hundred, but they're five hundred right now. The Suns we
think are better than seven and six, which is the pace they're on their
record now. But if they keep never having Bradley Beal in the lineup and
maybe Devin Booker, like you know, you're you're right, Like, it's
a lot easier to say there are rosier pictures for several of the teams ahead
of Memphis. But I do think if Memphis can play like break even basketball,
which seems like a big ask maybe given how they've played so far until
Jaws back, like it's not going to be insurmountable. I think you know
Portland, San Antonio done. They're three and ten and three and eleven.
That's just different. Memphis has like all these pathways to being better. But
like, I can't argue with the fact that there's twelve teams in the West
currently ahead of them, and you could make the case that everyone but Utah
might just be better. But this is a team that won fifty games two
years in a row. They're not a three and ten team. Just like
I can't get there yet, and they have a lot of time to prove
it. To circle all the way back to the hook of this, of
the many options for this optimism index, what did you settle on for the
Minnesota Timberwolves. I took it selfishly, and this is kind of for me
and for you, this is vindication. We thought that maybe last year this
is what the Timberwolves would be, and they were not. There were many
reasons for that, and I guess we probably shouldn't say that. They profiled
as a team that was going to have one of the best defenses in the
league, and I, by the way, I've walked back on my skepticism
of that defense a little bit, having watched more film of them because Jade
McDaniels and Anthony Edwards as like point of attack guys is terrifying and everyone should
be concerned about that. Uh, go Bear on the back line has been
Bear has probably been drug tested just because of the way that he's moving all
the defensive end this year compared to last year. Different there's been a random
drug test for him, different guys. So but so this is just what
we're seeing now is just like, oh, yeah, okay, this was
why we picked them to win fifty whatever games last year and be second or
third in the conference. I can't remember exactly how high we were on,
but we were high. Were we believed we then we said we were clearly
wrong, and now we're saying we're right. Yeah, so we remain inconsistent.
I think the takeaway was they definitely overpaid for Go Beart because it came
clear the market wasn't there. And now the hole that you put yourself into
into flushing out the rest of the roster. But like this is the if
you make a Western I would say, if you make a Western Conference finals,
it's just worth it because of your history. Well, and they are
they're are that they are the best team in the Western Conference. And the
only team I'm prepared to say is better than them in the West definitively at
full strength is the Nuggets, and that is the team that were excuse me,
Minnesota is the team that's given Denver probably more if you don't want to
say, matchup problems, matchup curiosities, than any other team in the West.
Well, and it's just the idea that the way that the pieces have
fit now. Conley was something they didn't have Mike Conley when last season started,
but and he's been important, especially the speaking of your own ship and
all over that trade. I mean, it's not so many bad takes.
How am I supposed to remember them? All? You picked Denver to win
the title last year, you can just you can dine on that one forever.
I just think the way that the Wolves fit and and the way that
they are playing is kind of how you would have envisioned it in a best
case scenario, which is to say, Edwards takes a step forward, which
kind of gets everybody in the proper spot in the pecking order because it's his
team. Kat scores when he can score, is his defensive lift is light
and so he can play. He's been a little better defensively. I mean,
that's a low bar for him. Go Bert cleans the messes up,
Jane McDaniels guards and hits threes and does a little more, and then Mike
Conley organizes it, and then the other thing. I don't know, this
is an unscientific thing to talk about, but like, do you like anyone's
six, seven, eight guys more than nas Reed, Kyle Anderson, and
Alexander Walker, Like, I just love I love that three off the bench
because they tick so many boxes and they just they Like Alexander Walker is a
pretty good McDaniel's stand in, and then Naz Reed just fits either, like
he's just one of the best backup pigs in the league. And Kyle Anderson
kind of does the commly organizing stuff. So like, I just I think
one through eight, I'm just I don't know, I feel vindicated. I
feel like we were a year early and maybe can use injuries as an excuse
last year. I mean, look at how few time their best forget about
the comedy stuff, but then say their other four best players spent together last
year. Injuries were certainly part of it, but Rudy Gobert played a bunch
and injuries probably had something to do with that, but did not look like
this, and so it's kind of like, I don't know, it just
feels like a bunch of different things. Also, this is a different version
of having towns available for sure, but like this is anthy Edwards is as
good as he's ever been before. First clearly leveled up and like the defensive
piece of it too. You worry with someone because there was never a question
about the tools for him defensively, and you worry sometimes when it's like,
oh, he's very engaged now that that might not be an eighty two games
thing like at might wax and way, and especially as well as the Wolves
have played, maybe he relaxes a little. But just like now I feel
confident that in a playoff series, Edwards is going to be a defensive monster
like that that I wasn't always sure of, but now that we've seen him
do it and also level up offensively, like I mean, good luck and
he's gonna it, feels, doesn't he feel kind of like a I mean,
not that he hasn't done it already, but he's in line for some
absolutely massive playoff series. I think where you leave it thinking, this guy
is was the best player on the floor with tons of other really good players,
and I'm scared of him in every series we see him. Now,
you made me think of something interesting. Are the Wolves, then, I
guess if you're just limiting it to eight, are they the deepest team in
the league. I'm trying to think of who would contend with them. The
Pelicans, if they were ever healthy, would have a chance, Like we
just between Trey Murphy, Larry has years out, CJ mccollms out herb his
miss time randing or miss time, we never kind of get to know.
So they're a team that could rival it. Boston might have player for player
the best six for sure, but it's gonna start to taper off after that.
Yeah, the Nuggets are there again, though we're talking about the top
six and Christian Brown has not had the best offensive start to the season.
And then kind of after that, it's when you're trying to look to flesh
out the actual depth of going that deep, where it's, oh, well,
who might have a deeper nine or as deep of an eight. The
Knicks are there, but their top end talent doesn't come close to touching Minnesota's
top It like, when you look at the top five, how many of
the Jalen Brunsen would be the what best player this season on the Timberwolves.
Oh wow, I mean he's Edwards for sure ahead of him. I mean
in terms of like the impact he's made ahead of Bear, ahead of him
is probably he might be third with as good as all this is spoiler alert
from when we get to these gards pot, Jalen bruns hasn't even been the
best player on his own team this year. Frankly, he's getting there.
He's back, He'll be fine. The the off the dribble three is a
big like that's gonna be huge part of the game. But that and I'm
not trying to single out John Brunson. That's just the Knicks are so deep
and it's the top end talent is so the Knicks's second best player is either
Mitchell Robinson. It's Mitchell Robinson right now, it's Barrett Julius Randall. Where
Mitchell Robinson rank as the best player on the timer. I mean, you
know they'd love to have him just because they can't get enough bigs so they
could roll out nas reed Rudigobert, Karl, Anthony Towns, Mitch, and
then let's get a healthy Leonard Millard. In their shout out Kyle Tige,
who's who has me on the Leonard Miller train. So like that's I think
it's fair to say they are, especially when you're trying to look at a
playoff rotation. They're the deepest team in basketball now, does that translate the
playoff proof? I think the Nuggets and the Celtics are gonna run into fewer
matchup issues, would be my guest. Yes, But like nas Reed,
when he's playing with another big, he kind of matchup proofs you in ways
that we definitely didn't account for when they made this trade, and people couldn't
account for last season because of how injured the bigs were in general. That
is. I know some Timberwolves fans said it kudos to them for recognizing it,
or their homersm just sort of paying off. I didn't think the Wolves
were the deepest team in basketball entering this season, and I think they are
right now. And I think I named all the teams that would Is there
anyone else I'm forgetting I was skimming through trying to lighten it up. You
want to throw them in there, just like you don't have to go well,
you want to start with like who are just the best teams? Cause
like, oh, you know, oh, Charlotte's got like nine guys that
can play. It's like, well, it's the same. It's interesting.
It's like Detroit is so interesting on paper, and it's like, Okay,
the results matter, no, and well, and that's just indicative of like,
well, that actually just means you don't have anybody that's really good.
You just have several guys that can all vie for minutes because nobody has got
them in a choke hold. So I mean, I don't I don't have
a good I'm trying to like the Sixers. I don't know. I don't
think so Cleveland. I love their starting five, But then after that,
it's like Lavert and what I don't I don't know. Maybe I'm forgetting somebody.
You know. You mentioned Lavert too, which makes me think talk about
another detour. So as of right now, in theory, the Timberwolves could
have the coach of the year, the sixth man of the Year nasried and
the defensive player of the year, and Rudy Gobert. I don't know if
he would actually get it, and then is it unreasonable? I don't think
he would win it just looking at me, oh man, I didn't even
think of that. But like an Edwards for Most Improved or should go Bear
win Most Improved? No, but like MVP, like could he Anti Edwards
could theoretically win one of those two m I P or the MVP. But
there's a chance they have three award winners. They're not. They don't have
the Rookie of the Year. Sorry, I don't think they're gonna get Executive
of the Year just because there wasn't enough turn over the past, like if
you were gonna account for oh, making that comedy trade, getting to kill
Alexander Walker, of course, but so they could have three, Like if
you get me over under right now on award winners on this teamv one point
five, I might take the over because I that's thas Reid. I know
the conventional counting stats may not be their relative to you know, well,
carousel Vert is averaging, however, like he's not averaging nothing like the twelve
point four points a game is up there. We're not trying to sell you
on like someone averaging in the single digits, But I think voters tend to
look at six Man of the Year differently, so you probably should take the
under. I'm gonna take the over on one point five award winners because right
now Finch feels like a lock for Coach of the Year. Yeah no,
I think so it just to your point before we move on, like they're
ten and three, if they're twenty and six, and we have the same
conversation, the odds of that multiple awards just keeps going up because, like
all things being equal, you're gonna give six Man of the Year to the
guy who played the most bench minutes and was really good for a team that
wins like fifty eight games or whatever they're on pace for, right Yeah.
Yeah, Like, as long as the wins keep coming, that one point
five over under, it's like you're definitely getting If the Wolves win fifth in
the high fifties, like the Coach of the Year is like done, we're
definitely getting that, Like and then you just need one more. So yeah,
you heard it here. For so the Wolves are gonna sweep every end
of season award because they started ten and three. The alphabet they takes we
go to the new Orleans Pelicans. What do you got for us? Quick
one? Uh? Jordan Hawkins. So he's just some guy that shoots thry
that threw. So like I think if you went back and did like a
count the number of times I know I have and probably you have said don't
draft for fit is like in the millions, give or take. And I'm
not saying necessarily that New Orleans did that, but this is a team that
the most sensible version of it. If you're building around Zion Williamson on the
ball and to a lesser extent, Brandon Ingram kind of you know, pounding
the ball and looking for mid rangers, get the guy that's gonna get threes
up and make them. And you know Grady Dick was in this draft that
he went a little earlier. Jordan Hawkins goes a couple picks later, and
like he's only hitting thirty six percent of his threes, but he started a
few games. He's surviving on defense despite like he's really thin and just probably
won't ever be a great defender. But the main thing is he's getting threes
up and that is exactly what the Pelicans need. So just fun stat Buddy
Heald's career attempt rate is nine point four or nine point five three attempts per
thirty six minutes, and Hawkins is right there at nine point four, So
he's like getting him up like Buddy Heel does, which is a good standard
to kind of try to meet if your job is to come in and space
the floor and just make sure the defense knows that it cannot leave you alone.
And like, even if he shoots thirty six percent, which I think
is like a tick below league average or based on last year, was like
thirty six point one, which always throws me. That seems really high for
the league average on threes. But if he's a league average shoter that's getting
up, you know, eight to ten a game, the dividends that pays
for what the Pelicans are trying to do offensively are just like it's worth more
than that because he's just spacing the he's driving lanes are open. You know,
he makes the defense do what it doesn't want to do, which is
like either collapse and give up three open threes or not collapse and let Zion
and Ingram work in the middle of the floor. So small thing, but
you got to give it to New Orleans for just like picking the right type
of player when there were a lot of other, you know, projects available
or different types of guys they could have gone for. So Hawkins has been
exciting to me just because of the fit that he's represented for the Pels.
I'm curious see how his minutes sustain when they're at fuller strength and CJ and
Trey Murphy are both in that rotation. Yeah, you just play Murphy over
him, all things being equal, if Murphy's healthy, I'm wondering, like
you could probably take a little bit away from Dice and Daniels. Yeah,
and I guess Matt Ryan's minutes when he's available will get Cup because Jordan Hawkins
needs to play. Yeah, I would say based off what he's done,
but maybe the publicans are looking at it some of the best I call them
the best player minutes because they've been a disaster this year. Those are starting
to normalize This team is you know, I can't quit the Pelicans, but
someone Kyle Rinker listener Kyle Rinker shout Out tweeted me saying, if you would
have told me in the off season that you would end up being higher on
the Timberwolves than the Pelicans, this far into the season, I wouldn't have
believed you. And as someone who was pretty high on the timber Wolves entering
this season, I can't confirm that I would have been equally shocked as she
told me that. So the Pelicans are starting to just perk up in general,
which is a good sign. Yeah, I know we're staying positive.
But does the Zion like lack of close range attempts stuff, and the diminished
athleticism, where's he's looked a little bit like Zippier. I feel like in
the past couple of games and so that we were talking about I think we're
talking about this in the discord. I think just he's one he didn't play
much basketball last year, hasn't played much basketball over his career. Might just
take his body longer to respond, especially when you just on top of that,
he is such a unique physical specimen that maybe his ramp up when he's
coming off such a long break, not just an offseason, but an injury
rehab is just going to take. You know, remember the James Wiseman ramp
up that's been lasting about five years. Still going. Yeah, the day's
watching ramps I'm still going, Like Zion Williamson just might need that little bit
longer of a runway to get a long ramp. Dan, it's like you
got a ten year time horizon on the James Wiseman ramp up. That's just
got to be patient. Sam Presty was a liar, meaning they Oklahoma City
under up net. He said they borrowed wins from the future. He's a
liar, That's what I'm knowing. You think I'm kidding, So I want
to give you the exact verbiage that I absolutely love from I think it was
Tim McMahon for ESPN is based on Presty's seat. One of the two media
availabilities he has all year, which was the preseason one where he talked for
like two more media availabilities in the Knicks front office, has spoke extemporaneously for
like, I don't know, three days, give or take. He said
that of the fact that the Thunder improved by sixteen wins last year over the
previous season, which is like, that's a lot of wins that does not
happen often, he said, they hit the seven percent high end bandwidth of
possibilities, which I just want to say, if you want to confuse somebody
or just make it so they believe you know more than they do about anything.
Just reference well, you know the seven percent high end bandwidth of possible
outcomes on the spector, like seven percent high end. I mean, like,
I just have so many I want to know. Is there a flow
chart somewhere in Thunder headquarters that has their Like, I know what all those
words are, but bandwidth doesn't make sense to me in that context. Anyway.
This is all to say that he did trick us. We are gullible
dummies and we should have expected the thunder some people did, by the way,
to be the darling of the season and to be the team that took
the leap, which they are. Uh, and that those sixteen wins they
got over two years AGO's total were like just part of an upward trajectory and
not something that is going to pull back. So like, I just this
team. It's they're so young, right, and they still have like a
lot of holes to fill on the roster. But just between SGA and Chet
and Jalen Williams, they like, I mean, Giddy is like an afterthought.
He's been up and down mostly down this year. I just don't see
where the falloff comes other than like you know, maybe the maybe the defense
isn't gonna be good enough, maybe the depth becomes an issue. But like
this idea that oh we borrowed wins or oh we exceeded expectations, and you
know, that's just it's just not accurate. Like he, I don't know
if he if Presty believed that when he said it, or if it was
expectation management, if it was sincere. I mean, either way, it's
probably good to underpromise and then over deliver, I guess. But no,
this is not a team that I think borrowed wins. I think this is
a team that is gonna have enough wins over the next several years that like
there'll be there'll be no talk of that kind of thing for a long time
with this team. This is going to and they clearly don't need it now.
This is only going to add nitrous to the national conversation where it's all
when in the thunder gonna push all their chips in, and it's just right
now, they don't need to push any chips in. We can quibble over
certain makeups of the roster of things we'd like to see them do or add,
but I see him come up a fake trays and get them Zack Lavin.
I'm just like, why why they don't need it right now? I
think like eventually maybe some more conventional size up front, like to help improve
it. They're but this team is just they're not finished, but they're definitely
more modeek Heel said this on a low post. They're more cooked in a
good way where it's like they're not as raw as I think even they were
expecting. And I think it's chen Holmer is just ready. And I got
into a spirited debate that I thought Wemby would have been my Rookie of the
Year in the moment when I was making the debate because his role is harder.
I still believe his role is harder, but like the optimization of chet
and the way he's just improved, like the stuff he's been able to do
off his paint touches. He was he's the rookie of the year. Oh
yeah, right, like say right now, I think that's right. So
and well, the Spurs are kind of I'm interesting when you came up with
them, they're in a little bit of disarray and free fall. So it's
if you're gonna be Sam Presty too. I don't know if he was purposely
trying to lower expectations, because that's one job security and two you don't want
to put undue pressure on a core that's still pretty young. But like you're
getting to the point where, no matter what the thunders say, now,
the results are so good, so comprehensive, that the expectations and the pressure
are coming. They're not just as happy to be in the mixed team anymore.
They might be internally, that's not gonna be the scope and even the
way their fan base can react at times. I mean this is a compliment,
Like there are expectations throughout the fan base now and I gave them.
I think we both hit the under on their wind total leading end of the
season in part because of what Sam Presty said. And like, by the
way, they're still doing a shit ton of experiments entation. It's like these
wins are just coming while they're still i would say, pretty capably planning for
the bigger picture. They've had to integrate other guys into the rotation because they
were injured, specifically Jay Willing and Kendrick Williams. This team is scared.
I don't know where they are, and just if we make an echelon of
the best teams in the league, but they have a top four scene in
the West right now, which isn't easy to do even this early, and
all their vitals. It's kind of like last year where on paper and the
things that they're saying, the Cavaliers aren't supposed to be contenders, but when
you look at their statistical vitals, they should be contenders. And like Oklahoma
City is just in that you can't have a top seven offense and a fourth
on defense, which I just questioned a few minutes ago, fourth on defense
while being twenty nine defensive rebound. Yeah, it's just like, I mean,
just like it's all there's so much, there's so many possibilities. I
don't know about where this is on their bandwidth percentage, but like this idea
that like we don't have any idea what kind of player Chet Holmgren is going
to be ultimately or you know, three years from now, even right like
he's you said, like he's in a way better position than Winben Yama because
he's been able to just kind of like SGA and and to the lesser extent,
Jalen Williams kind of just run the offense and and get he sets guys
up, and Holmgren really has been the beneficiary of like very good teammates getting
him shots where he's just positioned to succeed. But like, I think there's
every chance and you you know, his ball handling, his individual shot creation,
his ability to just pump fake and get downhill off of pick and pop
is like, who's to say this guy isn't like number one option, you
know, like who's like Lori Markinen, you know, level of shooting volume
and stuff like that with just nastier drives, and like, there's no telling
how good he's going to be by the end of this year, even forget
three years from now. I mean, I think Sga is he's a He's
like a top five ish player in the league right now. I don't know
how much better he's gonna get, but I think Williams will get better.
I think, I mean, like Cason Wallace is gonna get better even though
he's making half his three is like that's gonna come down. He might he
might make They might have two first team All rookies. I don't know if
Cason's gonna have the volume at the end of the day because his role can't
be that big with these other three guys. And just like you know,
Wemby's gonna be on first team no matter what, like how inefficient he is
unless something catastrophic happens between now and then, and that's gonna be when you're
talking about usar Thompson's gonna be in the mix, and Gante, George and
Bla Coolabali. There's just there's a rookie class. By the way, it's
just absolutely bonkers. Yeah, I just even I mean, Isaiah Joe has
been one of my Again, if you're gonna make a ranking of the best
the most entertaining players to watch, like yeah, that's where Shay and Chet
and Weber are gonna come in. Isaiah Jones is one of my favorite players
to watch this Season's like his shot has started to fall. But even when
it's not like he's working his ass off on defense, he'll set screens on
offense. Like this team is just there's so many players. I'm I want
to quit over that. Ushman Jang just doesn't get more minutes. And I
know he hasn't been hasn't been great this year. They are so they are
so well positioned, it doesn't make sense, and trying to reconcile that with
the immediate results and then expectations that come with with them. It still does
feel like there's warring agendas here between what the Thunder are trying to do internally
and what's actually happening on the court. It's not necessarily impacting how they operate,
though, so they're not warring. It's just it's very abnormal for the
self described stage that they're in. And again they're back like Cason Wallace is
playing like they're backing that up with the experimentation. So you already your first
Thunder the twenty twenty four champs on accident. We're tricked. Let's let's talk
Phoenix. This is quick. Do you want to you want to skip them?
Well, this is an eat. I mean it's a quick one.
You know. We Beale. Not being healthy sucks, Booker, missing time
sucks. Durant playing one thousand minutes a night not ideal. Depth issues are
still there. The other question we had coming into the season was like,
who's gonna play point guard? And how's that gonna work? Devin Booker is
a point guard, so that is that is the thing I'm happiest about so
far, and like it's not just always doing a good job as a converted
wing who's had to play on the ball. It's like no, no,
So just for some context, he's always been a high assist rate guy for
his position when he's always been mostly categorized on cleaning last as a wing.
He's a combo guard this year, which I guess technically is right. But
he's always been in the ninety plus percentile in terms of assist percentage among wings
with like a his assist rate, which is kind of the raw number,
is in the in the twenties, like twenty three percent, twenty five percent,
twenty two percent, that like that area. This year, as a
combo guard, he is in the one hundredth percentile in assist rate, and
his assist percentage is forty five percent, which like he has not touched like
just is nowhere near there. His turnover rate is eleven point three, which
is in like middle of the pack, which again, like this is not
someone that was born a point guard. This guy was just like, you
get buckets at Kentucky and that's your job and if you can pass, great.
It's not a part of his game that's been developed, the fact that
his assists are so far up and his turnovers have not spiked again, while
surrounded by guys that very much in a lot of cases depend on him for
their points. Because that was the theory of this team is we have durant
bial Booker. Everybody else is gonna have to like, you know, Eric
Gordon's gonna make some catch and shoots or catching drives, Watson, Abby's gonna
catch and shoot like someone like Kata bits Dap who's been disappointing and missed time.
Like all these guys are dependent scorers, and Booker has set them up
better than anyone could have exed better than I expected. I don't know,
maybe maybe you thought I think you've been You've been quicker to acknowledge how good
Booker is than I have, like at every step, so maybe this isn't
like a shock to you, But I've been blown away by by how good
he's looked running the offense like it's not serviceable. He's like an actual value
add as an on ball guy, to the point where it's like we can
we can we even afford to make sure he's off the ball enough to get
cleaner looks because he might have because he's of the three stars, he's the
best player off the ball, right, So like you just you need to
Devin Bookers, I guess, but one one has been planning so far.
Yeah, that's just he is. And this is a more of a blanket
statement because there are five players who are more valuable or better than him right
now. Like this is to say even to say when you look at the
level of star power at the top. We just talked about Anthony Edwards,
we talked about Or we mentioned the Thunder, and they have Shake gild just
Alexander, there's Jason Tatum, there's Giannis, there's Jokich, there's Embiid,
there's there's Lebron James. I know him forgetting people in Jeff Blake to say
you're a top ten player in the NBA right now, that's fucking wild.
And Devin Booker to say that they're certified. You can't tell me, Like
I'm not putting Devin Booker on probably gonna put closer to seven, then I'm
gonna put the ten in the top ten rankings. And that's just that's monstrous
to have that player. So I'm definitely with you. There, and he's
look, you want to start ranking point guards, he's gonna be up there.
I mean if if he's actually a point guard nine point eight assist per
game, nine point eight five, I get it. Remember we were making
bold or what was off the rails predictions and I was like, he's going
to average over seven just to make it a career high. Apparently that wasn't
even audacious enough, not bold enough. The Portland Trailblazers are up next.
What do you got for them? Oh boy, this was a struggle because
I used up that there's you can't use the Memphis thing of there's a lot
of time left, I think because and like there is much time left for
them not to like suck long term. That is a more immediate expected.
I guess if you wanted to zoom out, that is kind of where I'm
going. Is like, despite just I mean a raft of injuries to everyone
that would make plays for them. You know, Simon's is out. Scoot
has been This ankle thing has been a just a disaster for his development and
for getting an idea of the team. Shade and Sharp started out great,
but I think he's been overburdened. You got Skyler May's playing point guard Malcolm
Brogden has been pretty good when he's played, but like that's not a core
piece, that's that's trade fodder. I still think based on what we've seen
so far and just the you know, broad conception of this team, the
outlines of a of a team that like makes sense and could be good is
still there. I'm not talking about this year, but I think what Sharp
showed and continues to show, like if you just take some of the you
got to create stuff off of his plate and you know, make him you
know, what he should be at this ridiculously young age for as a starter,
just like more of a scorer who benefits on the space created by other
guys. Like I think I feel really good with Sharp as like maybe your
shooting guard and maybe your theoretical like top scorer going forward. Then you have
Henderson and Simons like this, I think that that's that's totally workable, and
if Scoot is what he was billed as, then beyond workable, like he's
gonna be a generational point guard. And then you got eighton just rebounding,
doing the dirty work stuff. I don't know what you do with Jeremy Grant.
I mean, Timani Kamara might just be like the glue guy that they
kind of need to grow with. This core that doesn't need to shoot,
really isn't a great shooter, but will guard anything that moves and can pass
the ball wants to pass. Like just the outline of the Blazers is still
a positive to me. I still am optimistic about if this core sticks together.
There's a lot of upside to it. It's just like, what else
are you gonna say based on how things have gone this year, because so
many of the most important guys just haven't played really, and so we don't
have like any sense of like what this team will actually be because you just
you can't form that opinion based on what we've seen so far. I wonder
how much definitely we'd be discussing them if they didn't have all these guard injuries,
because you can just see it in the way they play. I went
on the rant about DeAndre Ayton's touches. I don't know if you saw the
clip of him going around where he had the Wednesday before Thanksgiving energy chasing down
a loose ball. It was in like a three point game of two minutes
left against the Lakers, and just like if you even watch him, he
just won't connect on screens and he'll like flip screens when he's screening no One.
And there's you can make fun of DeAndre Ayen for. But there's like
a lack of organization and coherence and just a plan on the offensive end right
now. And would that have changed had they had I would say Malcolm Brogden
and or Scoot Henderson is critical to that having happened. So I don't really
know how to judge them, but this is I will say, is Jeremy
based on everything that's happened, is Jeremy Grant's trade value right now higher or
lower than you would have expected at this point in the season, and he
can't be traded right now? Yeah? Right, I think it's I don't
know if it's any lower than it was like from the moment he signed that
deal. I mean, it's definitely not higher though, so I guess by
default it's either the same or lower, just because well it's he's such a
weird player because we talk all the time about how he's had like five different
careers. He's been like five different types of player, and he's kind of
the Detroit Pistons Jeremy Grant right now, where he's you know, he's thrown
into a role where he's asked to do too much on offense and the efficiency
is suffering. I just I think, I will this isn't really going to
answer your question, but I've just sort of always thought he should be your
fourth or fifth best guy in the lineup who and he's going to defend,
he's going to make open threes, and he's not going to be asked to
do a ton of put the ball on the floor and figure it out for
yourself. And he's just not in a position where that's possible with the with
the Blazers right now. So his trade value depends on what a team thinks
like the version of Grant that I'm talking about is worth, and I think,
unfortunately, the answer is probably not going to be what he's being paid
right now. The Sacramento Kings, So my favorite thing about them right now
is Dearon Fox is basically Wolverine because the angle spraying he had that cost him
five games. When I saw it, I know that I know I always
do this, but when he rolled the ankle and you could see the entire
bottom of his shoe. I just thought, like, oh no, this
is how the King season just goes off the rails, because without him,
they just aren't. They're not anything of consequence, Like I don't, yeah,
you can run stuff through, so bonus that just they're two and three
without Fox this year, they're six and two with him. He's plus ten
point three in terms of offensive efficiency for the Kings when he's on the floor.
The turnovers drop like crazy when he's out there. So it's just like
he's He's player of the week just now, for whatever that's worth. Because
he came back and suddenly the Kings stopped losing games and their offense was league
best again. I just thought that he was done for like weeks and weeks
and weeks when he rolled that ankle, because it looked so bad. And
he's back after five games and just immediately looks exactly like he did before,
and the Kings are awesome again. So I guess I'm just happy that,
you know, we I think we still believe that the Kings are gonna suffer
injuries because they're just you know, that's what happens to teams except for them
last year. I'm just glad that that wasn't the one that that really threw
things off so early in the season because I don't know, I keep putting
guys in the all NBA conversation, like I can't talk about Tyrese Haliburton without
saying he's you know, he's gonna be on all NBA teams forever. Now,
same with Sga. I think Fox is the same like this, He's
not going to be a one and done all NBA guy. I think getting
rid of the positions is gonna do wonders for the guards. I think where
he's like, I'm glad he's not hurt. That's that's other than Bi Giannis
and Jokic, Like bigs are just well they even like bam Adebayo should maybe
deserve consideration. I don't know if he's gonna get there. Well, I'm
just attack on to what you're saying too. The Kings are a plus ten
point two when Fox per one hundred possessions. When Fox plays without Si Bonus,
they're a They're a minus nine point four when Sabonis plays without Fox.
The sample size there is obviously bigger because Fox the time and another development to
be optimistic, their top most played units I think all six of them have
really strong defensive ratings. A lot of that shot location, field goal percentage,
and they've been getting burned. The seventy percent shooting at the rim for
opponents, that's not going anywhere. We are going to make other things like
opponents. Are they gonna shoot thirty nine percent from three all year against them?
Maybe not. And when you look at the leap and I mean leap
that Kegan Murray has made defensively and that Fox has made defensively, this team
might be I still would like to see them trade for a defensive minded wing
and they they have more stuff to make that happen without giving up Keegan Murray
than say the Mavericks going after that player. That could change the complexion of
the championship pecking order for sure, if they go out and get that type
of guy. But they even now, I think that they're better equipped to
navigate the playoffs. And that's saying something because they put up a hell of
a fight defensively against the Warriors in Round one last year. Yeah, I
mean, I think like my biggest criticism of them was that they didn't that
they did all this talking about how we're not satisfied, and then they kind
of brought back the same roster that was, you know, gonna be a
bottom five defense or whatever, and like banked on organic growth. Like I
still think fundamentally, you know, I would have loved to have seen them
just go find guys that could help shore up their glaring weakness, but like
they also were kind of right to do the organic growth. You know,
let's bank on chemistry. Let's assume Murray's gonna get better. Let's assume Fox
has not topped out with both correct assumptions so far. So it's like I'm
of two minds about how they have built this team this year. I still
think they could have been more aggressive in addressing weaknesses, but also like they
weren't wrong in expecting some of their key guys to just get better and have
that sort of be the reason that some of their weaknesses turned into you know,
not strengths, but less significant weaknesses. I guess the San Antonio Spurs,
I imagine they weren't necessarily an easy task. No, And this is
kind of like a controversial one, I guess because I know that there's been
a lot of there's been a lot of discussion about the what what they are
doing with Jeremy Sohn. He's playing point guard. He's never played point guard
before. It's like, the one school of thought is this is stunting Victor
Wembenyama's growth to some extent and really all the other young guys, because you
know, he's just not great at this because he's never done it before.
And this is you know, why are you why are you seeing what he
can do in this new position at the cost of you know, developmental reps
or just the comfort of your other guys, many of whom are more important
long term. I actually still think it's mostly it's a positive. I think
if if you're gonna like come into a season knowing we have this generational talent,
we're young around him, we don't even know what women Yama's gonna be,
I think we might as well just like just try all kinds of stuff.
Let's like this, so I take it, I get it that,
like I think, like to to this point, Sohann is averaging This is
from Andrew Lopez on espnero point nine to sixty six points per possession. The
Spurs are averaging that when Sohn brings the ball up the floor, that's worst
among all fifty players that have brought the ball up two hundred or more times
this season. So like, if so Hann brings the ball up, that's
as bad of a start to an offensive possession in the half court as you
can get in the NBA, essentially, And I'm still not mad at it
because you might as well figure it out because he's such a weird player anyway
that I don't think there's a way that he's just gonna be like a three
and D wing because the shots not great, it's a slow release. He's
just a funky type of player. You might as well see if he can
fill this role. And like, really, how much damage are you doing
to win Benyama? Like, is are we really gonna make the argument that
this guy who is gonna be one of the greatest players of all time,
we're gonna throw that off course and ruin it because we're gonna spend half a
season seeing if a non point guard can play point guard, Like I don't.
If Wemby is as great as he's supposed to be, which I think
he is, this is not gonna matter. So he's gonna be great no
matter what. Like I if he's what he's billed as, so you may
as well just like screw around with the other stuff. I think, at
what point, though, do you think it could damage their long term trajectory
in the sense that, Okay, maybe it doesn't ruin Weben Yama, but
like what happens to Jeremy Sohn when he has to not be a point guard
anymore and you've now given him these reps at point guard, he has to
go back to being a forward. And look, the Spurs are like plus
a million when Trey Jones and Jeremy Sohan play together. They just don't play
too much together right now. And so I'm almost wondering, could you be
hamstreaming the development of other people by having Jeremy Sohan get so many reps?
Sure, but I'm all for experimentation and getting the information. At what point
though, And we're still so early into this year, so I'm I'm I'm
with you where I'm fine for the most part with what they're doing, But
so much of the focuses on Web and Yama or just the Spurs office in
general. Does could this adversely impact how Jeremy Sohan is supposed to come along?
I bet I don't think I guess I don't think so, because if
this doesn't work, and it probably like ultimately, I don't know what what
work really means, Like he's not gonna turn into someone that leads the league
and assists and you know, it's like he's just he's always gonna be an
unconventional type of point guard if that's what he ends up being. I think,
if if we have to scrap this as the Spurs, you still just
you got a guy, a bunch of reps at a tough position to where
when he's in a less you know, intense on ball roll, like maybe
maybe a couple of years from now, the ball gets swung to sow him
on the other wing and from the weak side he can and he can initiate
a pick and roll and he's just better at that than he would have been
otherwise. Like it's still like you're still stressing him, You're still forcing him
to like get better at things that are uncomfortable, and I just think there's
always gonna be value in that as long as he doesn't just like you know,
get sour about Hey, Spurs, you guys are making me look terrible,
Like how can you ask me to do this, I've never done it
before. I think some of his quotes actually in that Lopez article were very
much like sometimes I hate it, I feel uncomfortable, like that kind of
thing. So like maybe that's how it could really stun his growth, is
if he just is like, you guys are setting up to fail, which
I could see that being a problem, but ultimately I think it probably helps
him, whether it orcs or doesn't. The Utah Jazz the final team in
the West, Yeah quick for them. I am heartened by the fact that
their offense overall has been like surprisingly pretty good, and since Keyante George has
taken over as a starter. When he's on the floor, they're getting up
one hundred and fifteen and a half points per hundred posessions, which is like
a top ten ish figure league wide small sample that's five games, and it's
also you know, very subject to shooting luck and stuff like that. But
the fact that they can play passable offense in general without Mike Conley there anymore,
and the fact that you've got this point guard rotation that is either inexperienced
or just not real point guards. You know, Chris Dunn is limited.
George Clarkson is not a point guard. Horton Tucker is like shoehorned in as
a point guard. The fact the offense has been that good and that it's
been actually like quite good with George as a starter, that's pretty exciting because
this team is still one that other than market in I don't know, we've
talked about this before. I don't know who you're who, You're like,
oh, this is a this is a keeper, and even market it may
not be that guy. But to have George look like someone who can run
a capable offense, you know, a dozen games into his career and five
games in as a starter, that that's like, that's something you can hang
your hat on as this season, I think, uh it winds up ultimately
being pretty especially with if Walker Kessler is a defensive anchor once he's healthy and
back, you kind of have a theory of how you're going to operate on
both ends, so that that's a good place to be if you're the Jazz.
I think what's most Kiante George is hugely them. Wh's the most impressively
just how well Lowry Market has performed without that and you are alluded to this
without that and not just Mike Conley, but without the the dependable self creation
around him, and that was touching go for a while after the trade deadline
last year, he saw some nudges downward in his efficiency. So to see
him go that route and just be okay, No, last year wasn't just
some not even a one off, but the All Star There was no flukiness
to it, like this is the this guy can play that way. And
I'm so interesting how they flesh out this team because they're in this weird spot.
Where do they have? Is it Keyante George? Is it Lowry Mark?
And is it Walker Kessel? Like is that trio the basis for everything
they should be do moving forward? Like does any one of them? Like
because Lory marketing, this is probably his highest end outcome is I will contend
for a third All NBA A third team All NBA spot? Like do they
have enough to after this season? They'll probably get another highdraffic to move forward
and say okay? Or they do they run the risk of because they didn't
tank last year early enough? Like did they get in this weird window where
they're never gonna be bad enough to get the generational talent that they need?
I think they have the trade assets to overcome that, but it also takes
a lot to use. Yeah, those trade assets, they're just they have
a lot of talent, and so I'm not trying to belittle their rebuild.
I think they're in a very good spot long term. I just don't know.
Do you look at the trio of lowry marketing, Keyante, George and
Walker Kessler as that directional trio. Yeah, it kind of feels like,
and you could say this about everybody, they're like a three and D wing
away from that really being enticing and market in. I don't know how you
feel about it, but marketing, Like you know, the numbers are undeniable.
He's gonna be. He's right around twenty five a game this year.
He' shooting forty percent from three. He's taking one more three per game this
year despite his minutes being basically the same. Like, but I don't know.
He can't be. He can't be your best offensive player, can he,
Like, unless you have really great pieces around him. I just don't
know where he I think him, Kessler and Georgia are very interesting. I
think they tick a lot of boxes, but I don't I just I'm not
sure that Marketnan can be, you know, the number one option on a
really good offense, and maybe maybe he can. I don't know. It's
like it feels as I'm like stumbling through it because I'm just looking at his
numbers and he sure looks like a number one option, but I think he
would. You say, it's fair that like they need another guy. Maybe
it's not even a three and D wing, but someone that plays the two
or the three, that commands tons of defensive attention and can like create something
with the ball, you know, like a I don't know, just more
of your conventional shooting guard, small forward that's gonna get you twenty five a
game and just like be a problem defensively. I don't I don't know if
Markinin is good enough for the Jets to really get where they want to go
without like that type of guy next to him. I think that's fair,
it's hypothetical. Do we want to get into some guests of players before we
get out of here? That will be we'll focus on that solely on this
for stat padding have a bunch from rubiks Gal as well as one from be
Rich. I'll start with some of the rubiks Gal stuff. Let me scroll
up here. There were a few that were sent over. Let me just
make sure I have Yeah, okay, so are you ready, grant?
I'm ready. Clue number one. I hold a single season three point field
goals made record for two NBA franchises. Both are above two hundred made threes.
I have a couple guesses, but I'm not going to burn them.
Clue number two, I hold a single season three point field goal percentage record
for two NBA franchises. Both marks are above forty five percent. Both is
this? Uh? I just want to say, Kyle Korver. It is
not Kyle Korver. Clue number three. Not surprisingly, I led the league
in three point percentage in one of those years. Okay. Clue number four,
I hold the top three marks for NC double A single season free throw
percentage. I am also the NC double A career record holder for free throw
percentage minimum six hundred free throw attempts, which I knocked down in a ninety
one point nine percent clip. Oh man, I'm getting close. Okay,
keep going. Clue number five. I was lucky enough to play for good
teams, and I made the playoffs my first thirteen years in the league.
My first non playoff season was with a young team in twenty twenty, where
I was the old man, a young playoff team in twenty twenty, where
I was the old man. I can't remember anything about twenty twenty. That's
a hard one. Final clue number six. Do you want it or you
want to take a guess? It's not. Joe Harris doesn't have enough with
anybody. He didn't thirteen years, so he made the playoffs twelve straight years.
I need I need a better sense of the years. So he came
into the league in like oh eight, that was align with the timeline if
he wasn't twenty two and seven, I think, and he kept making the
playoffs. Oh these are the are these are not hard. But I'm not
going to repeat it. But think about some of the words I just said.
I can't. That's not helpful at all, you said. I'll read
clue number five again then, and just think about the words. All right.
I was lucky enough to play for good teams, and I made the
playoffs my first thirteen years in the league. My first non playoff season was
with a young team in twenty nineteen twenty twenty, where I was the old
man, the old man, is this JJ Reddick? Yes, it's JJ
Reddick. Okay, that was a good I didn't even put emphasis on the
old man, but I was wondering if I would get it. The final
clue was and the three point contest in twenty fifteen was my most embarrassing outing
at the All Star weekend because I accidentally set the unofficial record for most twos
in a three point contest, constantly overstepping the line. I did not remember
that. That's okay, So let's okay, all right, I should have
got that a little earlier. I don't think I knew that Reddick made the
playoffs every year for I'm surprised. I I guess just saying the thirteen.
But that was like a big thing when he went to the Pelicans. Was
his playoffs street. Yeah, all right, that's a good one. I
should have got that sooner. But that's a trend generally speaking. Rubik Scaliso
was a random trivia question, okay. Draymond Green is currently at one hundred
and seventy technical fouls over his eleven plus year career, but he looks perhaps
wistfully in from the outside on our collection of top ten players with the most
technicals. How many of the top ten players with the most technicals in NBA
history can you guess? Oh? My god, all time? Okay,
well, I'll just let's let's go with the obvious ones. I'm gonna say
Charles Barkley he is number two. Three. Rashid Wallace he is number three
at three seventeen, Chris Paul No no, So I got two and three.
I don't have number one. Number one is I think speaks to the
longevity. Also, I'll say number one is a terrible human being. Oh
god, well, there's so many terrible human beings. Who let's see,
who does Dan really not like? Uh? Caarl alone? Correct? Correct,
three hundred and thirty two? Great guess well, longevity and terrible human
being? You really zero me right in there. So I got one,
two and three. I don't care what else happens from now on. Who
else gets a lot of tech? I'll try and give you hints to see
if you can get the next six? Okay, I would love it.
His namesake is on the Warriors, number four. His namesake is on the
Warriors number four, Dreamland Green. That's not going to get me anything,
Are you serious? I can't? I oh his namesake, Gary Payton,
Yes, correct two hundred and fifty. He had number five, creatively colored
hair. Dennis Rodman correct number six. I think is gonna be a little
bit of a shocker. You are still gonna be up. You cried when
they retired? Uh ooh, I did cried when they were retired. Well,
there's there's a few Steve Nash, monitor nobly no, Tim Duncan,
no, who else you said it on this pot. I don't know if
you said you cried, but you were very you couldn't handle when they were
retired. Tim dunk Dirk, Yes, I'm really surprised by that. Number
seven. He's from the go New York, Go, New York Go era.
I don't I'm gonna confess something that will embarrass me in this podcast.
I don't know what the go New York, Go, New York, Go,
New York Go era is. I think nobody beats the Wiz wrote it,
go look that up New York Knicks. Nobody beats the Wiz. So
he played for the Knicks. And the other clue I'll give you is Charles
Oakley. Is it Charles Oakley? No, he was gonna be one of
my guesses. Actually Anthony Mason, John Star Anthony Mason number seven. This
number eight is an active player. Based on his facial expressions alone, you
would understand why he is on this list, and also he has played for
a bunch of teams in the past few years. His facial expressions, he
gets mad. It seems like very easily. He gets mad, very easily.
Hmmm, I'm not gonna get that. Can I guess? He's up
with James Harden three times team of russ yest. Where's Luca is Luca?
Is he crack the top ten yet? Nope? Not on the top ten?
Uh so number nine would be a good one. Superman Dwight Howard Correct,
that's number nine and number ten uncut gems Kevin Garnett correct, let's see.
I'm so okay. Yeah, that is kind of the usual suspects.
As you think back on that whole Kaviki being six, he stands out.
So that Chris Paul was not on there? Is that right? Correct?
He was not on there? Interesting? I got How about those clues on
the spot? Really good? Yeah? They all those are excellent clues and
they were short too, so it wasn't so I have a Rubik scal guess
for you? Do you want? You ready for that one? No,
I've been told that I'm not going to get it, so I think you
Well, it's so we have a litany of clue and I was got three
variants to choose from to try to get you the correct answer. So I'm
gonna pull from almost all of them, just and the impetus for this was
a very interesting episode that both she and I really remembered very well. So
I don't know, I'm I'm just stalling right now because I'm trying to think
what the best first clue to give you. All Right, So I am
a five time NBA champ, and my jersey was retired by the Boston Celtics.
Everybody's been retired by the Boston Celtics. Everybody's got five championships. There.
I was possibly the pre eminent six man of my time, regularly contributing
ten plus points a game and nearly five rebounds in both the regular season and
the playoffs. What was that stat? Basically a great six man of his
time, which should is like a giveaway that we're getting pretty old timing here
is Robert Parrish is six man? No, okay, we're going before that.
All right, let's see I'm trying to give you as a coach.
Oh, he's a coach too. I loved you might just get it here.
I loved bringing a bud light to postgame pressers. The league eventually banned
me from doing this in two thousand and seven. How rude I was?
Also what's that Red Holtsman? No. I was also known to have smoke
weed with my players. Oh, don Nelson, you got it? Okay,
we have a good job. We have to go to the reason that
this was became a guess a player slash guess a coach. There's so many
good clues that I could Would you have gotten it? On? My first
number one pick became alienated with my insistence on playing him at center instead of
power forward. He forced his way off the team. If he'd listened to
me and stayed with the team, he would have implemented the first small ball
lineup essentially. No, that's okay, that's Chris Weber getting halfway through his
rookie year being like, I hate this coach. So the reason we were
discussing this is did you know that Rule three, Section one A of the
Official NBA Rulebook allows a player to continue playing even after he has six fouls.
Did you know that? I did not know that. So the reason
that came up is there was a game in I forget the year now,
a Warriors game. It was the last game of the season and Steph Curry's
rookie year. The Warriors have like eight healthy guys, A couple guys get
hurt, one fouls out. Devin George is the last guy on the floor,
commits his sixth foul, has to go to the bench because the refs
don't know that rule. The Warriors have one injured guy on the bench.
Stephen Hunter comes back in the game. He can't move, so he comes
back out or commits a foul or something. I can't remember all the details
as I'm trying to blow through it, but basically don Nelson knows the rule
that if you foul out, you can still play if there are no healthy
people on the bench. The other team just gets an extra technical free throw
if after every personal foul beyond number six. So the Warriors finished a game
with I think multiple guys having six fouls, and they beat the Blazers,
who are like a fifty win team, and Steph Curry had a forty point
game as a rookie the last game of the year. It was like one
of the weirdestber Don Nelson's last game. I do not know any of that,
Yeah, but guess what you got it because the bud light and smoking
weed with his players smoking weed. One, I was like, Oh,
got you where you needed to be. Rubik Scale did so much research on
this, Like I wish I could convey how impressed I am. But you
know it alls well, that ends well because you got it, so good
job by you. There's another one here for you. Hit it include number
one. On November sixteenth, twenty twenty three, in the OKC at Golden
State Warriors game, Isaiah Joe shot the lights out of the building, going
seven for seven from three point range, those being the only field goals he
attempted. Interestingly enough, the record for most threes without a miss stands at
nine and is shared by Ben Gordon, who understandably did it twice. He
shot more than forty percent from three and seven of his first eight seasons,
and Latrell' spreewell what in parmatheticals, But both Sprewell and Gordon missed at least
one two point shot. So who was the other player to hit that many
threes? I guess without the miss Okay, I'm gonna guess Anthony Morrow.
That is not That's not correct. I felt really good about that. Guess
clud number two. The actual record holder for most threes with no missed field
goals threes or twos is me. Back in January nineteen ninety seven, against
a helpless Raptor squad, I attempted eight shots, all threes and made all
eight. Furthermore More, I also made both of my free throws. I
don't seven. Oh uh? Is it Morris Peterson? It is not?
Another great guess though? Is it del Curry? He was done? Okay,
it was a number three. I played seventeen seasons in the NBA and
made the playoffs in fifteen of them. I hold the distinction of having played
the third most playoff games without a ring. The only guys with more playoff
games without a ring are John Stockton and Karl Alone. Oh my god,
and this guy was nine for nine from three in a game with no tons
of playoffs. He was eight for eight excuse me, eight for eight tons
of playoff games, and he did he did the eight for eight and ninety
seven. Correct, All right, I need another clue. Clue number four.
I played for only four teams and made it to the NBA Finals three
times with three different teams, including Magic Johnson's nineteen ninety one Lakers squad.
Okay, So I was on the ninety one Lakers, but played for other
teams and won championships with other teams. I should get this right now,
made it to the NBA Finals with three different teams. Okay, okay,
ninety one laes. I don't know why I want okay, I need another
one. Clue five. But now you've decided I'm a shooting guard. Right
wrong. I was the best three point shooting big through the nineties, long
before Kevin Gardnt even got to the NBA. I hit a game winning three
in the nineteen ninety one NBA. Fine, is this Sam Perkins? It
is Sam Perkins. Second to last clue. I never would have got this.
Number six was I was part of the greatest draft in NBA history,
sandwich between Jordan and Barkley. Oh wow, I did not know that.
I forgot about that. That's a good one. Okay, Sam Perkins,
I think he was originally he's the original Big Smooth. I think that was
the nickname. Someone will have to fact check me on that one. All
right, you got anything else or do you want some? Well? Do
you have so? And we're gonna end it after this. I believe you'll
can take a step. Be Rich has one for you. Ready. I'm
ready to overthink Clue number one. I am. I am burgeoning superstar Tyres
Haliburton's older cousin. Oh, I don't know that. Clue number two drafted
tenth in nineteen ninety four. I had a fourteen year career, spanning five
teams, never playing for a team geographally geographically north of Charlotte tenth in ninety
four. Oh my god, I had the whole set of the first round
of that draft in my basketball card collection. Is that well? I would
ask you a bunch of questions, but you don't have this information. Okay,
keep going. Clue number three a three time All Star. I led
the league in steals in nineteen ninety nine two thousand, my best season,
in which I made second team All Defense, third Team All NBA four.
Is this Eddie Jones. It is Eddie Jones, not Job. I'm glad
I didn't overthink that one. I'll just say that this is one I should
have gotten for a sooner. The two final clues were my trade to Charlotte
in early ninety nine, opened up starting minutes for a future Hall of Famer,
and kick started at a dynasty. Yeah yeah. And then the final
clue, my career net rating plus eight is better than aforementioned Hall of Famer
plus five, primarily because that guy hung on a few too many seasons jacking
up shots for a losing team. Your friend Bill still jokingly contends the Lakers
would have been better off keeping me instead of pay Yeah. I definitely would
have got it, would have got it, buy that one, and there
have been a lot. Okay, well, now I know not to have
to look out for Eddie Jones anymore, now that we've got that off the
list. This was great. Before you take us out, we want to
wish everybody a happy, healthy, safe Thanksgiving. We're hoping that you're spending
it eating lots of food and just chilling if you celebrate it. But Grant,
are you ready to take us out of here? I am? Thanks
everyone for contributing, for listening, for watching, for being part of the
community. If you are not part of that. You can do so by
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ammies have a fantastic holiday. And eat cranberry sauce only out of the can
because that is superior means of consumption. Do not eat the kind that is
not in a weird cylindrical shape with lines on it, because why would you
do that? And as always, we close with a shout out to the
one and only Frank Milakina and an apology to Jared Allen.