What is track lack and philoped Hermo new Pierre after I am Dan Favalley coming
at you with a very brief intro before we get to a longer podcast.
I'm putting out a conversation I had with Andrew Claudio of Knicks Film School where
we actually bounced around the entire NBA. Didn't just talk about the Nicks.
I went on their show. Go check them out Nixt Film School if you're
not subscribed already, Apple, Spotify YouTube. They are a machine. Andrew
Claudio is one of the ogi homies for me in the industry. I remember
meeting him man like, I don't know how many years ago at this point,
and he was kind of just starting out. And now they Nix Film
School. I don't think Nixt Film School he was with them at the time,
but now they're a behemoth. He's one of the two primary brainchilds behind
that thing, and they do they fantastic work. So go subscribe to Nick's
Film School if you haven't already. I'm putting up this conversation in part because
instead of solo mail bag, which is normally what we kind of have for
Mondays, because my voice is only just getting back to Norman and I need
to try and conserve it for just you know, future podcast because it was
starting to sound pretty rough for a minute. Please remember though, just the
usual house. Can we note subscribe Spotify, Apple YouTube hit the sub button
if you haven't already like comment on the videos. That's always nice to see.
Follow us on the socials, join our discord. The links in the
podcast and YouTube description, and if you want to support us by buying merch
the links are in the podcast YouTube description as well. And as always,
thank everybody for all their support. Grant and I are genuinely appreciative of each
and every one of you for all the support that you continue to show this
show. And so I believe is the week of Thanksgiving. So Grant and
I will have a pot out Wednesday and Friday for you sort of like an
optimistic pod since we just sort of did a concern for every NBA team,
and I might have another podcast, a deeper Dive on the Rockets, up
for you all on Tuesday, and so that'll give you plenty of content to
travel to or just if you have some downtime this week, check it out.
I think I think we'll end up having four full length episodes up for
you, which is you know, that's pretty sweet if I'm a podcast listener
and I see one of my podcasts that I enjoy listening to us four episodes
out. So yes, let's get to this conversation with the homie Andrew Claudio
and just want to reiterate, hurry up and go subscribe to NIXT Film School
if you have not already. I can't say enough about the work that they
do over there. Joining me now if you're in the next Film School pregame
show with the NIXT taking on the Charlotte Hornets again for the second time in
six days, I'm not talking about the Hornets again. Much love to my
friends at the Buzzbeat podcast, Richie Randall and all of my friends down in
Charlotte. If you want a full preview of the Hornets and their season and
what's going on, just go back six days and check out the pregame pod
that I did with them there. Instead, I want to talk about the
league, and so let's talk about all things NBA with friend of the pod,
returning guests and one half of the Hardwood Knocks podcast as well as I
don't know if he's a hero or a villain to Knicks fans over at Bleacher
Report, mister Dan Favallei, Dan, welcome back. Oh it's good to
be back. Thank you so much for having me. Claudio, how are
you doing. I'm good. And I'll take people a little behind the scenes
that this is your game five in Utah Game Podcast, because I'm appreciative Dan
is a little under the weather today and he's still made time to talk Nix
and to talk about the NBA with me. So I always appreciate someone that
goes that extra mile to come on this podcast. I want to talk about
the league at large, and I'll say we'll go save Nick's talks for the
end. And just a very simple question to start. So eleven games,
just about for every team, what's one early trend that surprised you in a
good way? The Rockets being good? Yeah, I know. I know
that they acquired some like solid Town and Dylan Brooks, Fred van Fleet over
the offseason, even Jeff Green. I just didn't trust that they would.
Again, they're nine games into the season, so these caveats apply, but
they have co laced into like this actual force and I really respect what they
did offensively after like the first game or two, it just became clear,
oh, no, things need to run through and four al Prin Schangun.
They've made that switch and they haven't looked back. I think Fred van Fleet,
the efficiency inside, the arkist all over the place, the attention he
commands just opened things up for everybody. The connection he has with al Prin
Schangoun's already awesome. I think Shangoon has probably been one of the ten most
entertaining players to watch this year. Not best players, which is entertaining where
it's what is this guy going to do next? And part of that is
because you don't fully understand it because he wasn't playing enough in seasons past and
even just there. Yeah, there are some things that won't sustain. Opponents
are shooting poorly from three, like really poorly. I believe Dylan Brooks has
not missed the three this season apparently, but there's a real difference in the
style they're playing where Dylan Brooks is no longer taking these junkie jankey off the
dribble jumpers. They between Bret van Fleet and Dylan Brooks, Am and Thompson,
even when he was healthy, getting Tarry Easton back some of the minutes
jay Sean Tate has given you. Even Jabari Smith Junior, there's been real
like defensive cohesion there for them. Jeff Green has provided a steady and presence
off the bench. Jalen Green rough beginning, he's really starting to level off,
though, and they've run some units, or I should frame it this
way. When you watch them, they're more inclined to have Jalen Green run
his independent units from Shangun than Fred van Fleet, where they've decided FEV is
going to be tethered to Shangoon and we're going to let Jalen Green kind of
be more independent in the reserve heavier units. A lot of those units are
actually playing pretty well, and so they've been one of the most entertaining teams
for me this year. And I will add you included this in your notes.
The Timberwolves defense is for real, and it's just entirely unexpected. Even
if you thought Rudy Gobaert and Anthony Edwards and Jade McDaniels are gonna be this
good. I've never seen nas Reed defend better. He used to just be
ultra switchable and now he's like, oh, he's a back line stopper as
well. And Karl Anthony Towns still very slow footed, can still get caught,
you know, in Nowheresville in space. He's been good defensively too,
And so that's a team where they can kind of figure out their offense,
get their three point volume up a little bit, accuracy up a little bit,
and that comes down to Kat. They might be like the second or
third best team in the West. They just the low key just recreated the
Jazz, right, except Anthony Edwards is better than Donovan Mitchell and Keer is
well bigger, and Kat's obviously better offensively than Bogie or whatever for Victorian Prince
or whoever they used to have in Utah, right right. I think the
bigger difference too is that Utah. And this is why I could never understand
Jazz fans. Then even some national fans is growing disdain for Royce O'Neill when
he was at the end of his term. It's like, oh, he's
cooked defensively, and it's no, he's not cooked defensively. It's that he's
not Jade McDaniels, who will literally erase anyone you want him to. And
that is the bigger difference of And of course they're playing dual bigs, which
isn't something you Todd did, Like they got away from that eventually, and
so having just so many, I mean, when you look at their starting
five right now, I'd say Kat is probably still below average defender. But
if he's your worst defender, this version of him right now, you have
four above average defenders, even including Mike Conley, who's like older, but
he's just super smart. And so they've proven to be a force already.
They gave the Nuggets a run for their money to open the playoffs last year,
and we saw they really rankled Denver with the way they're like, well,
Kat, you guard Jokich and then we're gonna have you Rudy clean up
stuff behind you. There's not really another team right now that can do that.
And so you know, if you're Knicks fans, I get well,
you might not be super interested in the Timberwolves, but that's like those are
one of the teams that they could really pop. Where we're talking about them
in the vein of oh did they just win to playoff series? So it's
funny you say our Knicks fans not interested. They've come up a ton because
of the cat of it all and like we'll get to Knicks thoughts later and
how internal growth might just make superstar talk go away completely, but like Cat
is always going to be on the Knicks radar, and seeing the growth of
nas Reed and seeing how much better the Timberwolves are defensively, specifically with Reid
on the floor for Cat and going with the Gobert Naz Reid lineups that that
stood out. I will say that as far as the Rockets are concerned,
I how sustainable do you think that is? You mentioned the three point luck
that they're getting and whether they're going to be ninth in offense and third and
defense. I don't think so, But I mean I have their over for
a prediction this season. I felt they would more than thirty one games.
This hit that under. I also have been finishing twelfth in the conference.
I figured this is like a thirty three win team. But are we now
readjusting and this is like closer to forty I want to say yes. But
the things to kind of look are fred van Fleet's offense. His shooting specifically
might normalize a little bit inside the arc, but like what happens with Shannghun
playing this role over a more extended period of time something he hasn't done.
What happens when aman Thompson comes back to where it's He's been a part of
some really good defensive units, but he's a rookie. So are you going
to get into a dilemma where you want to get him run but you're so
much worse off on the floor. You kind of have to decide is his
development coming at the expensive wins. There's also gonna be a point where the
Rockets his own three pointers are gonna stop falling, and is that gonna embolden
Dylan Brooks to take more off the dribble looks once his three pointer stops falling.
I don't think that I'd be shocked if they finished fourth in the West.
That would be even right now. But I do think we need to
recalibrate. And I think I said this leading into the offseason. The only
teams I were sure or leading into the regular season, the only teams in
the West I was positive were gonna be worse than the Rockets were the Blazers.
And I said maybe the Spurs, And now it's okay, Well,
it's definitely the Blazers is definitely the Now it's time to start talking about the
Jazz and the Pelicans in that same conversation. If you're you know, if
you're not a believer in whatever the Clippers are doing, I understand, so
you could throw them in there too. So let's I need you to mention
an offense that you either are excited by or the early trend. Because if
there's the Dallas offense's obviously the Indiana offense, the Hawks, like the Knicks
just saw it the other night, They've seen it twice this year where they've
really had to outscore the Hawks. So which offense is standing out to you
the most? I mean, the Rockets are still fun to watch an offense
I make. The Pacers are just they are the best show on offense in
basketball right now. There is the best way I can describe it is they
are accessible to everyone who likes basketball. You will be entertained, but you
cannot multitask when you watch them, because if you put your head down to
tweet something or look at something, there's a chance that Tyre's Halliburton has just
done something else where. It's like they are gonna run off makes, They're
gonna run off missus. They're gonna run off steals and all the different things
Tyre's Haliburton is doing. I think Caitlon Cooper was talking about this a couple
of days ago. They even have him doing more off the ball, and
so I was like, oh my god, you got to defend this guy
off the ball now too. In addition to him kind of flicking up these
off the dribble, looks these tough angled layups. The way he throws these
lobs, these hit aheads, it's just it's non stop and they are so
uninhibited when it comes to some of the lineups they're running. And it's been
a joy to see Obi toppin where it's transition whatever, like he can do
some stuff there. He's probably underachieved. You watched them in a half court.
The dude is just never not moving. It's like he's a pinball,
is what he's become. And it's so cool to see. And the Pacers
have the ability to run their offense that way and open up the floor for
him in way that the Knicks did not. And he also doesn't have a
two time All NBA power forward in front of him, which also helps.
They're just fun. I don't know if they're gonna be Caps lot good because
the defense is like, the defensive issues are real. They like to play
small teams will hunt Halliburton and like aside from Bruce Brown, and it depends
on how much you play Andrew Nemhard and of course you have Myles Turner.
There feels like they need a sturdier combo wing to really bring that all together.
But it's watching the Pacers counts as cardio like. It's just it's not
exhilarating. I hate it because of the Nick Pacer rivalry that still exists to
me at least, and maybe this rejuvenates it. Listen, I have my
rivalries that I hold on to. It came back last year when the Knicks
played the Heat in the playoffs and I got to relive some of the late
nineties series. But you know, we'll see if we get like a four
or five or you know, who knows where both of these teams end up
in the future. I've been reluctant to jump on the Pacers, not bandwagon,
but the show before the season, I had them sixth in my predictions.
I had them finishing sixth and then higher than me then, So there's
here's the problem. Though, the day before we released our predictions, I
got spooked. I was like, you know what, that's a young team,
and I pushed them the eighth and I switched them with Atlanta. And
from what I've seen from Atlanta this year and then what I've seen from the
Pacer is like I fight stuck with that, I'd look so much smarter,
which like whatever whatever that means. But I'm glad the offense is what I
thought it would be, and like you said, it's a really fun league
pass team, which well we'll talk about in a bit. And look,
the Obie of it all. I hate when it becomes especially when Randall was
struggling in the beginning and it was like, see, we could have had
Obi. It's like, yeah, but we don't have Haliburton. So I
don't know if it was ever gonna matter. It's my take when the trade
happened was like, He's gonna look great there and the Knicks will probably be
fine, you know, And I think that's what has happened. And I
think it's really cool that he can look great there and the Knicks are kind
of fine without him. I think there should be a mutual appreciation for the
situations where it's just like, but that's it. There's no world. There's
no world for mutual nuances. I think it's gonna be frustrated by anything.
You could say that they may be held on to Obi Topping for too long.
It would have been better for them just to make the decision to move
him sooner because of the compensation that got back. But it's well, it's
yes, but the only reason, like he didn't show out enough in New
York because the minutes just weren't there because you have Julius Randall was a very
good basketball player in front of him, and so you needed you also based
off what the Knicks were doing, kind of needed something different out of the
players you were bringing off the bench than Obi Topping, And so when there
was a higher mestique around him, like they probably should have been a little
bit more. And this is tough because of knowing how Julius Randall played,
but like after his second year is probably when they should have been a little
bit more open to like seeing how much better would the compensation have been in
that moment. So two counterpoints. One, they tried to trade him for
Donovan Mitchell, So it's not like they didn't try to trade him. They
just there's a deal. There's a difference between including him in a star package
and then sending him to Indiana for seconds stuff. You're right, but the
when did they finally send them the second the Indiana for two seconds? When
they had Josh Hart. Once they finally had what they viewed as a suitable
backup four, they moved on and then A delegated those minutes to the Vincenzo,
which fits what Obi's role is a corner three point shooter. You know.
Just here's the thing, though, is because when you found that in
Josh Hart, that just proves that how different what you needed off the bench
was than in Obie. And so, like you, I don't think those
two decisions needed to be tethered together. Where was if you wanted to move
Obi a little bit sooner or didn't have to wait until you had the ideal
backup for option one? Last counterpoint in the playoffs, when Julius hurt his
ankle Game four against the Cavs, Obi played that entire fourth quarter because Julius
was still figuring life out with this ankle. If you're just in a world
where putting the transaction of vacuum, I agree with you. They did not
get him at his highest value point, and they didn't trade him at that
point. They were still in the business of trying to win basketball games,
and the Knicks were best option for backup power forward at the time. Was
Obie Topping in a role he's not suited to be in. I agree with
you, Like they probably could have gotten more for Obie Top and at a
different point, they probably could have just held on to Obi and like waited
this year and see what happens. See if at the deadline this year it
made more sense after sing I would have no. I'm just my point is,
like the fact that they've when he's been on the court, like the
RJ units that they've been able to get to. I don't know that Obi
would have allowed those to happen. So send him to Indiana for no picks
at that point, if it means that we get to see these lineups this
season that we got, yeah, I look, I love like o'be finally
breaking out against the Sixers was was cool to see. And I think that
was the moment that the Indiana thing kind of became real to me. Like
I thought they were scoring these points against really poor defenses and doing what the
trick that net rating and offensive rating does with us each year. It's like,
yeah, they're they're beating up on bad teams, and then when they
play the good teams, they are kind of kind of stifled. And you
look at what they did to Philly and I was like, oh, okay,
that's a little different. That's it. That's Joe l Emp. That's
a decent enough defenses. Why I'm curious when they play a Minnesota or the
Celtics, which they did play the Celtics without Haliburton and lost by one hundred
thousand, But like, I'm curious to see when this like when they play
the Knicks, I'm curious what they do when the rim is just unavailable.
I do think just the space that they create, so the different angles at
which you can go and attack, even teams that are able to really protect
or dis Way looks at the rim. Well, that's something that Obie never
would have had in you because he's still not hit in his threes or taken
enough of them by volume. Like that's the thing that's still happening in Indiana.
The difference is just that it's not just giving him the freedom to roam.
It's also giving him the room to like actually roam in the half court,
and the Knicks just aren't built that way. And so it's just I
think that's why there's a mutual appreciation where he's in a better situation and the
Knicks just you. I the discourse around Julius Randall is so divisive, but
you can't obi was never good enough to justify, well, this is the
reason we need to move on from Julius Randall, Like that was just that
never could have been a thing. And so I find it easy to very
much. Yeah, we can disagree on I might have moved him a little
bit sooner. Maybe the offers weren't that much better. Maybe it was like
a top twenty first and at that point it's eh, whatever. But just
the fact that he's in a better situation, you do still have your depth.
It's not like you totally obliterated your your backup four options. And as
you said, you did wait until Josh Hart was there. So there's just
a I don't know, it's not a both sides one trade, But I
think it's easy to look at it and understand the process of events and just
be happy that. Okay, Obi has found his fit. I also,
I wonder if we went behind the scenes, which will never get to see
because of it's the Knicks. If there was like a push and pull in
the little leon Ro's brain trust of Julius All NBA Julius versus the following the
year after he won All he won Most Improved Player, and if it was
like, we need to see that this Julius thing is real, Right,
that's a point. Yeah. If there may have been a version where it's
like, okay, this twenty this first year of Jalen Brunson is kind of
a wait and see for Julius too, And then when he returned to all
NBA levels, that's when you know they were like, okay, now we
can Now we can start to move on from you really want. I get
mad, and this is something I'm not still mad at. But it was
because I'm so often wrong that the fact that I was right, I so
bad. They wanted the Knicks to take Haliburton and yeah, you go ahead
and doing that rather than what Obi's doing in Indiana, which again I had
no idea what Julius Randall's gonna be that season on Draft night when the Knicks
got Obi. There was a lot of like a local kid from the from
New York. He's so Mari two point zero. They're Julius Randall on the
trade block. Here we go and we're gonna win twelve games. Randall goes
out and wins most Improved Player and they're the four seed, and it's like,
oh, so this is awkward. So I always wonder behind the scenes,
like if they thought that Obi was going there to be the point,
the powerful over the future, and Julius Randall just became an All NBA player
as a result. I agree there should be a mutual appreciation where we can
enjoy both what this NIXT team is post Obi and what Obi Top has become
in Indiana despite it being for a bitter rival. I agree with you.
The Pacers show has been fun to watch. I'm very curious what happens when
they have to play defense. Let's go to the negative, like, what
is one early thing that has stood out to you that is in a negative
way, something that has been disappointing, that has regressed. If you want
to make this an anti Clippers conversation, we can. I've I've been I
was bullish and when they first made the trade, and I was like,
all right, I think this will work out because it's the it's the the
small ball rockets on steroids. But what it's looked like so far is like,
oh, you know what you might need out there a rebounder? So
what about what do you think? I really? I mean, the Clippers
are disappointment, but I still think they kind of figure it out, and
Russ volunteering to come off the bench as a legitimate big deal. And it's
also you know, we don't need to pile on the Clippers. It's a
it's a disaster right now. I think they showed some progress in that game
against the Nuggets, except the caveat being weld. The Nuggets didn't have Jamal
Murray and like they couldn't figure out how to get to their best lineups to
defen Jokic, and even when they did, they went away from them.
The Clippers have been a disappointment, but there's still a chance that they just
figured it out. I think a lot of people look at Phoenix's availability.
Bradley Beal gonna be out in another three weeks. If I would have told
you in August when James Harden was still a sixer that by Christmas, the
Clippers would have played more minutes with Paul George Kawhi Leonard and James Harden.
Then the Sons played with Bial, Durant and Booker. You probably would have
thought I was bonkers. Kevin Durant went to Phoenix and they recreated the nets.
They're just never gonna play their three best players together, and they were
all gonna be like, yeah, but if they play together, it'll look
great. Yeah, when are they going to play together? It's the exact
same situation. I'm still gonna This is the I So we're talking about this
on our podcast that goes live on Saturday, that you need Devin Booker and
Kevin Durant, that if Bradley Beal is injured, it's kind of okay,
and I think it'll be fine. But like the Devin Booker absence and now
that he's back, now is when start to evaluate them even without bilmore thoroughly.
The actual disappointment for me, and anyone who's listened to me over the
past couple years knows that I can't quit the Pelicans. I'm very close to
quitting the Pelicans when you there. Their issues have always been being able to
stay healthy. It's never been the ability. Now all of a sudden,
it's both because you're still not healthy. CJ's out, Jose Alvarado's out,
Trey Murphy's out, HERB Jones missed some time, Brandan Ingram missed some time,
like say Larry Nance. Yet, like the injuries just go up and
up and up. However, the minutes with their best players on the court
should still be good. They are getting trucked when Zion and Brandon Ingram play
together. And it's not that they're getting torched by unlucky opponent three point shooting
either. It's Schmid Dua had wrote about this in the Know. The ball
is sticking with Ingram to the point where like Zion doesn't really know what to
do, and he kind of threw shade. I don't know if you saw
his comments a few days ago, where it was he's trying to fit in
and figure it out, and it's, uh, he is quite a little
the future of your franchise, and you've gotten away from the point Zion stuff.
He's definitely not as explosive as he's been in years past. You're talking
about the real quick you're talking about the comments or he was like I need
to I'm still trying to buy in or figuring out if I want to buy
in. Right, it was that, but it was more of like he
didn't kind of understand what he was buying into. And that's a whether you
want to criticize Zion for that. The fact that he doesn't necessarily understand what
he's buying into is a massive criticism of the organization. And to be losing
the minutes those two play together both of them are also the Pelicans are losing
the minutes in which one of them plays without the other, and they're actually
a net positive when both of them are off the floor. And so again,
the injuries contribute to this, but guess what injuries are The Pelicans default
and I don't care how like the defensive fundamentals can still be there. The
offense is just too broken for long stretches. And I don't know what the
answer is for them. They have the assets to go and make a trade.
But if you're gonna be one dealing with the health issues and two,
like, what are you doing with Zion right now? If you're committed to
playing him? Is kind of your point Thingam a Bob? Why is brandon
Ingram getting just kind of the agency that he is or why is he playing
the way that he is? And he's too talented to just be like there's
there's very It'd be very difficult to trade brandon Ingram and theoretically get better on
paper because even if you attach picks to him, like, what is the
team that is sending you the player that wants brandon Ingram When he's gonna be
making a ton more money soon even though he's relatively young, that's going to
elevate you to the next level. And so I don't know, these next
like month worth of games or so for them are gonna be huge because there's
been not as many highs as there should be, even when you measure it
against the injuries that they've been dealing with. So first of all, I'm
on cleaning the glass and I wanted to make sure to miss that they added
Bob as a positional designation, so it didn't not yet, So get up?
Can he email Ben? Was that Ben Glass? Does that last?
Yeah? Yeah, so we'll we'll make sure that we give you an inventor
credit on that for that. Dan for Valley Special of Positional Designation of think
I'm a bob. I'm staring at this lineup data. Now, They're minus
seven with Zion and Ingram on. They're minus ten with Zion on, Ingram
off. They're minus twelve with Ingram on Zion off, and plus three with
both of them off the floor. That is, I didn't notice that yet.
I had talked to Mason Ginsberg a couple of weeks ago when the Knicks
played the Pelicans and they were off to a one to oh start, so
I was like, oh, things are looking up, and things have not
gone that way since then. It was obviously pre CJ McCollum injury. Uh
man, I don't want to talk with fabric. That shouldn't make everything fall
apart though, as the thing is, like the units with him and Herb
and then spacing were killer and like you had Herb was Herb. Jones had
really turned a corner because he had more space to work and they were putting
him on ball like he ran like there was this one in like back to
back possessions. I think I was watching round. I got pick and rolls
like I don't think I've ever seen that ever from him, and those were
killer, but like you can't run your offense the same way when both Zion
and Ingram are available, and it just feels like there is warring functionalities at
play in New Orleans right now. Might be the best way for me to
frame it. I don't want to talk about transactions yet with them, because
I feel like they're a team that gets thrown into trade machine a ton,
whether it be uncertainty with either Brandon Ingram with his looming free agency or Zion
and his I mean, I feel like since he's been drafted, it's been
like, how can he go to the Knicks? And I don't know if
the Knicks want him at this point. I don't know if that's an upgrade
because of the availability concerns from like him to Julius Randall. However, it
does seem like they're a team that is going to do this one more season
and then wholesale changes are going to have to be made. Yeah, And
I think, look right now, the saving grace is if you go back
and look at the data from last year, they killed opponents when Zion and
Ingram are on the court, It's like the recipe is still sort of there.
But if you don't trust Zion to be I guess as explosive or you
don't want to put the ball in his hands as often. That does change
the context of what's happening. And so they're just a team I'm watching because
something, aside from injuries, just feels off. There. Any other team
stands out to you as a disappointment. Yeah, man, I go from
my preseason picks like the Bucks defense is a thing, but I'm not.
I would like to slitely push back on that, just because ever since they've
switched Brook back to a drop, they're like fifth in half and like they're
the best room protecting team in the league. I think their issue is going
to be, which I do agree with you on with this, would be
they've been weird in transition, Like they've even gotten better in the half court,
where yeah, Damian Lillard still gets behind plays, but playing Andre Jackson
a little bit more I think has helped their defense. We'll see how losing
Jay Crowder hurts. It's too easy to get out in transition on them.
Teams get behind their guards. Malie Beasley game a lot, even Giannis a
little bit when he takes shots that are outside of the restricted air. Yeah,
he's like kind of watching them and then like when he's missing his three
pointers so badly, like teams were able to run off of that. And
so that's one thing I'm watching with them. But I think they're I've been
surprised at how hard people have been where they think that it's sort of doomsday
there and oh they're so thin, and when Chris Middleton play more minutes and
it's we have these same questions about every contender except the Nuggets essentially right now.
Yeah, I the only pushback I'll give to your pushback, sir,
is there's some there's a hint of who they're playing, like some opponent luck
in that some of the some of the offenses that they're playing, Like what
started, I get it what you're saying with Brooke going back to a drop
and them leaning back into their rim protection that started in the tournament game against
the Knicks where Julie RJ was out and Julius Randall, my goodness, might
have had the might have gone to his official low in New York with with
how bad he was that game, and they were just the way they were
at the rim. They were playing a Knicks team that just could not buy
a basket, and like it was a night to Jaylen Brunson had forty five
points and the Knicks had like one hundred and five, So like that started
it. Then you have these really rough half court offenses in Chicago and Toronto
and uh Orlando, and the one game that sticks out in that stretch that
they lost was Indiana. So I want, like, I do agree with
you. I never thought that they were gonna be bottom five in defense,
and like the small sample size was nothing to fully buy into as this is
like this is the Bucks are in trouble. They got rid of their defense
so that way they can get Dame. I do have a question long term
about their point of attack because I just don't know what they're gonna do on
the perimeter in the playoffs when you have to face these teams that have guys
on the wing that, yes, fine, the rim has been taken away.
What are you doing with Jason Tatum. I do I think Marjon Bochamber
Andre Jackson could end up being an answer. I don't. I agree with
you in the sense that you don't want them to be the answer in the
playoffs, and so that's they're gonna have to be on the floor for important
minutes then can they be you know, I know, like the game the
Knicks played against them bow champ Pit like five threes and it was like,
oh, okay, if that verse exists, fine, you know, yeah,
look, it's a fair question to have with them, and they don't
have the assets to just go make a move. They might be able to
reacquire like Javon Carter, who they let walk in free agency when the Bulls
tear it down. I wonder if they have enough to get Io to soon.
Everyone wants them to get Alex Caruso. They just don't have enough.
They don't have a first round pick to trade, and I don't think mar
John does it plus salary maybe tweak. By the way you saw that the
I forget if it was Haynes or whoever it was that brought up Caruso to
the Bucks and how like Caruso would be a great addition to that team,
was whoever the source was, And I was like, that applies to twenty
nine teams. Man, like Alex Cruso would fit on literally every team right
now. I just wonder, like, yeah, and it rings hollow when
it's a team that doesn't have the assets to get him. We're sort of
like, oh, the Lakers would like to acquire Zaq Lavine. It's like,
okay, cool with what and they do have the salary in the clutch
connection. I agree with you. They don't want to trade Austin Reeves and
they can only give up one yea, what are we doing here? Really
quickly? Another sort of disappointment, and please he's played a little bit better
over the past couple games. Josh Giddy just has me uncomfortable right now.
He did such a good job of kind of fitting into the larger picture of
what Oklahoma City was doing. Last year, He's shooting about twenty percent on
catch and shoot threes this year about thirty three percent on floaters. The Thunder
have been more inclined to let j Dub wing Jayalen Williams run units without Shae
and Giddy than to let Giddy run units without Shay and Jay Dubb, which
I think is just weird. Giddy's two point percentage is falling off a cliff
without Shay, and so the fact that defenses are able to ignore him to
the extent that he literally needs the gravity of both Shay and Holmegrid on the
court at the same time to be kind of a scoring through. Is just
something I'm monitoring, and it's not look, I don't mean to make this
transactions transactions transactions, but like he's gonna be Extension Leville this summer, and
so it's a very real with Cason Wallace there playing well as a rookie,
it's a very real thing that they kind of have to like monitor and look
at. And the other thing I will be watching. I know that opponents
have burned them from three, and the sample size isn't huge because of all
the time, but the Cleveland starting five has a very like they've been bad
defensively and Jared Allen hasn't looked the same at points. Again, a lot
of it's opponent three point shooting, and also Darius Garland's off to a slow
shooting start himself. I think that normalizes He's at like twenty seven percent on
wide open threes or whatever it is. That is just something I'm watching because
Cavs fans don't like to talk about this, and I get it because it's
the lazy you know, we're not going to in depth here, but you
know, the dual big stuff matters offensively Forevan Mobile. They want him to
do a lot of stuff in the center of the floor that's not available when
Jared Allen's on the court, and so like, if that defense is an
elite capslock bold text italics elite, when those two are like in that starting
five, it's something just to just a question. I think that one is
more likely to normalize than my Josh Getty concern. Though, well so,
I I wonder what the Cleveland things. So the Knicks when they played this
weird back to back five games into the season against the Calves, the Calves
didn't have Alan for either one and they only had LeVert for one of them,
and it was like you're playing a beat up Calves team. It's funny
because of what happened in the playoffs last year. Evan Mobley went into that
back to back thinking, oh, we owe them some payback, and then
Mitchell Robinson just kind of picked up where he left off, and it was
unfortunate for Mobile, who I have high projections for that you still looked like
you were not able to physically match up against this new version of Mitchell Robinson.
That's just like Dennis Rodman plus Tim Duncan when it comes to the rebounds,
looking at their lineup data. Well, I wish I would have gotten
a chance to talk to Justin about from the chain is like they made the
switch from a Korro to Max Struce in the starting five and the drop off
in defense to have a respectable shooter there. I mean, their offense has
gone up, but their defense is really what carried them last year. This
team was second in net rating last year, and I wonder if that concession
is a little bit more drastic now, Like you said, the transactional stuff
and the Mitchell thing hovering over this, I wonder how much anxiety that's adding.
But man, the early sample size of the Calves and I had them
finishing third in the conference. Philly might change that. And I'm waiting for
the bump to eventually show up for them. Maybe they get healthy and that
changes everything. But like, what point should the panic meter start with the
Calves. I can't if they probably deserve another month at least, just because
of how small the sample size is when everyone's available, and like, look
that lineup that I was talking about, They're still winning those minut It's it's
just that the the defense is not as line talking about. There isn't the
strue lineup was a net plus on the season. I thought minus two point
two at the right maybe maybe, but like that's that's how small the samples
are. It's one hundred and twenty five possessions, you know, Yeah,
And so I'm just I would expect that I would expect them to be fine.
Uh, but it's still something that's like, oh, okay, well
this is this is sort of weird. And if one of these things don't
turn where it's ohs Darius Garland start shooting better? Does the does the dual
big minutes get better? Defensively, like opponent's still going to be hitting threes
at a pretty high clip. Like if one of those things just don't start
to sort of shift, then it's, oh, okay, what's happening?
Because they've had a lot of averts been good. Isaaca Corro's been good.
Sometimes there's too much Donovan Mitchell, but he's been good. And also their
offense is like it's faster than last season, which makes them more dangerous.
So I look at those I'm kind of clinging to those bright spots and even
some of the mobiley without Allen units, not maybe the ones that he was
they were rolling out when Allen wasn't starting. But it feels like there's a
pathway to them to kill some of the opposing like opposing teams, and you're
gonna run those mobile plus like bench and one or two starter line. I'm
said, don't have Allen Well, speaking of offenses that look faster this year,
I don't know if you agree, but this Knicks offense has looked a
hint better. There's not as much there's still the same amount of isolation,
there's a hint more ball movement, especially with RJ on the floor. This
is where I want to get your thoughts on the basketball team that I cover
full time and the basketball team of your childhood, Dan, that you once
had an affection before it, but start before you started calling for them to
fire the head coach in your day job, wondering how long does it take
for that to come up? Listen, it's gonna come up every single time
we talked DD. Your thoughts on the Knicks in this early start. What
are you buying? What are you waiting to see if you want to buy
in, whether it be Mitch on the offensive boards or this this revelation of
RJ Barrett or even like the disappointing ones with but Jalen Brunson like taking a
step back from unreach in from two point range to just kind of average from
two point range, or this back and forth Julia season that we've had.
Yeah, so the things I'll be buying with them, I'm bought in to
the defense for the most part. The stuff that Mitchell Robinson is doing is
absolutely incredible, and I know, like when you dig into some of the
individual rim numbers, the data is wonky and it just doesn't match anything that
you're seeing because he's covering so much ground from the outside end for the Nick
simultaneously and it's just kind of everywhere, and there's a real deterrence to what
he's doing. We're like, okay, opponents are kind of shooting good well
against him at the rim, But a lot of that stuff can happen when
it's like, oh, they're coming in from the corners and then Nicks were
a little bit late on their rotations. The looks that he is just a
racing before they ever happen is mind blowing to me. You mentioned the offense
of the stuff he's doing on the offensive glass. It feels like he's getting
this is anecdotal, it feels like he's just getting into more fifty to fifty
balls than I've ever seen in my entire life. And the ability for him
to just sort of cover and get to the basket on the offensive end after
a shot goes up. It helps your defense because if he's getting the offensive
rebound and he's either going back up with it and scoring, or he's passing
it to someone who hits a wide open jumper or or is cutting, it
allows you to get your defense set. And I feel like that's an element
that we kind of undersell, is like him being on the offensive glass increases
your efficiency on the offensive end with then allowed, which then allows you to
get your defense set, which should improve the state of your defense. He
is I haven't gone through my all defensive teams, but he's probably been one
of the ten best defenders in basketball so far. And I think it's tough
because of the EMBID and it's positional and the embid go bear hold that that
and then obviously brook Lopez hold that exists. It's gonna be tough for mich
to get there. But I agree he's he's in the conversation for what he's
been this year so far, and then getting rid of positions helps Biggs more
than anyone, including that's official the defense, all defense teams as well,
aren't. So mich has a shot then, Okay, yeah, we when
we were doing our awards podcast, we like looked into it to make sure.
So we might have been given the wrong information, have been wrong,
but I'm pretty sure this is the year that all defenses position Dan for Valley
reports that we just couldn't find it. So yeah, I'm buying into him.
Excuse me, I'm buying into r. J. Barrett's turn. There
are when you just kind of look at his efficiency from the floor, it
doesn't wow you aside from three, but he's just gotten so much better as
a decision maker. And the thing that I look to the most, Yeah,
there's the three point percentage for sure, Like that is huge. It
opens up the floor. But like he is so much smarter on his drives
when it's oh, let's get defenders on my hip or the passes that he's
gonna throw off of those drives, and when you dig into the data on
how much more effective those passes are off these drives, it's absolutely huge.
And now we're kind of back to it being okay when he's playing independent of
the starters, this is super fun. That's how you sort of inject even
more pace into an offense that, look, the ball might be moving faster,
they might be playing a little bit faster. There's still thirtieth in average
offensive possession time, I believe, and so like giving that injecting that pace
with the the RJ plus lots of bench players units has been great. And
I am still very curious to see, like, can this be someone who
develops a more efficient in between game or if you're going to lower your volume
at the rim like he's done, can you be a more efficient finisher than
being like shooting like sixty or sixty one percent? And a lot of that
is I do still think it's some spacing concerns around him at times, but
a lot of the other stuff is his takeoff points around the basket can be
super weird. But he is just so much more of a cerebral player this
year, and he just feels at both ends really more complimentary. Kind of
like was that year two when we were just all really excited about how complimentary
he was being. I think that was the second year and he shot in
the open gym. Yeah, yeah, and so and so, like it
feels you have more like that feeling, but because of the circumstances under which
it's coming where it's, oh, he's still playing a bunch with Julius Randall
and Jalen Brunson this time, but then he's like has some independent units.
It feels not just that it's more sustainable, but it feels more important than
we've ever than it's ever felt to me. The point I made yesterday on
a pregame pod because I'm getting I'm just flat out gonna get asked about his
shooting while he's shooting fifty percent from three. I'm this is like, is
this a thing now? And his shot looks better from my whatever untrained eye
about whether shots look better or not, Like, I'm not I'm not wincing
on it. R J threes. I'm now at the point as a fan
expecting them to go in. So like, we'll see when the regression comes
how far it aggresses. But you're right on the decision making. And the
point I made yesterday was that this is the first year he's really gone from
season to season with continuity in role, where year one it was I'm with
Julius and all these other power forwards my rookie year, and I have no
idea when I'm going to have an unimpeded path to the rim. Year two,
he was just a corner three point shooter and they ran the offense through
Julius and Derrick Rose and other people, and like he got his his his
cuts and his drives to the rim. And then year three, with whatever
was going on with Julius and the uncertainty with the team, he got a
thirty usage the second half of that year, and you didn't know if this
was like a thing with RJ or if he was, you know, just
boosting his trade value. And then last year, his worst year is a
pro so far, he was like caught in this middle ground of like I
run the second unit, but quickly's taking a leap and then I'm next to
Julius. But it's really Jalen Brunson's team. And this year he's actually settled
into like third best guy that takes over as the second guy from time to
time, and you know, he runs a second unit that he now has
some chemistry with, and these two lineups that they have with RJ on the
floor, their starters here are plus seventeen, their bench there plus seven,
and everything's a positive when RJ. Barrett's factored in. Yeah, the only
thing that I'm like wondering about when I watch him if it will sustain.
Like I'm not sold. I actually kind of am sold on the three point
efficiency. Not this high, not gonna be Doug McDermott. You're right,
right, He's no Dylan Brooks. You know he's Yeah, he's not gonna
exactly exactly. It's so I think right now, the last time I checked
and he didn't play against the Hawks, he was eight of fifteen on floaters,
and it's like he like that's like a real tool in his belt.
And can that efficiency sustain because it turns him into like a multi level score
in a way that when you look at kind of the pull up numbers on
a lot of his jumpers, like that's not like that's not there yet.
It may never be at a high enough clip to trust him to do that.
And when you know that he's never gonna be that type of off the
dribble shooter from beyond the arc anyway, I wouldn't think like to have that
just sort of as a weapon makes him that much harder to defend. And
then look, maybe it ends up with if he's knocking down that consistently in
addition of the passing improvement that we've seen and just like getting better at having
defenders on his hip, do we see his free throw attempt rate at some
point just absolutely explode and that's just another way for him to get some easy
points, especially if he can shoot better than seventy one percent at the vulne
Yeah, I think you as far as the other stuff that I mentioned about
the Knicks, I think you kind of mentioned the Julius of it all that
I'm glad you are on the record on this pod saying, like, Julius
Randall is a good basketball player. That's what we should evaluate him as.
There are questions come playoffs that he's gonna eventually have to answer. But like
you win a lot of regular season games with a guy as your first or
second option or high usage option, that probably means you're a good basketball player.
Yeah, for sure. And I think look, it was kind of
at the start of the season, it felt like there were moments where his
process was a lot better, then he would completely get away from it.
Now it feels like over the past two or three games or whatever, that
he's gotten a little bit better. I did not see their most recent game
against the Hawks, but like the previous two, it just felt like so
even when the shots weren't going in, like this wasn't someone who was hijacking
the offense or taking these inexplicable shots, And like when he is making smart
decisions as a passer, where it's he's reacting to the double teams or even
beating them sometimes with his playmaking. That's a fully optimized version of the Knicks,
even when he's not super efficient on the offensive end. I think,
you know, if you want to be concerned about anything, it's his three
point volume last year was so important to what they were doing, and so
it's I'm seeing right now he went three or five against the Hawks. That's
great. It's almost more important to me that he took eight three pointers against
the Celtics, because it's like that volume helps open up the floor and the
Knicks do need that as part of their half court offense in part because and
I'm assuming we're going to talk about him in a second, of the struggles
that Jalen Brunson is facing right now where there are times where he has not
looked the same when he's getting inside the arc. But I will blame basically
everyone else other than Jalen Bruntson for like the difficulty of some of the looks
he needed to take. Where the biggest difference is he's not hitting some of
the ridiculously tough shots he was last year. He is shooting thirty six percent
on contested heavily contested twos. He was shooting like forty seven forty eight percent
on the way does he at the rim? Do you have it near?
What is he at the rim? Because that was the thing that stood out
in the Hawks game most recently that he just like it wasn't even rim protection
like that the Clint Capella was deterring shots or whoever was guarding him was making
the shots difficult. He just was missing bunnies at the rim that he,
like you said, was making last season. Yeah, I mean as of
right now, he's shooting forty seven percent at the rim. So there's that
regression that I think a lot of Knicks fans are waiting for. That It
also like shots start to fall and I'm saying he feels like if I have
the numbers in front of me, Why don't I just toggle to the window
that can confirm it. Yeah, And look, I was gonna say,
it feels like he's getting in the rim a lot less. He's getting in
the rim a lot Like twenty one percent of his shots came with the rim
last year. That's not a lot to begin with, down to sixteen this
year. I do think a lot of that, though, has to do
with the way that defenses are able to guard the knicks, and Barrett playing
the way that he has and Julius Randall hiking up some of the volume or
the passing. I think that can improve it. And the fact Jalen Brunson
has still been like some of the threes he's hit in this year, like
those are really tough looks and he's almost I wonder if that's why he's not
getting in the basket as much. He's like, these shots aren't going in.
I have to work so hard from here. I'm gonna fire this one
up off the dribble. That's something I'm watching where I would just bank on
Jalen Brunson is going to be a more efficient basketball player by year's end inside
the arc. But it is you know this late into the season, it's
kind of like, all right, I'm a little bit uneasy because the Knicks
are the best version of the Knicks is going to include one or both of
Julius Randall and Jalen Brunson being a ridiculous shot maker inside the ark. Yeah,
and I look, I think the two point regression to the mean is
coming. I think he just set a ridiculous standard for himself last year that
we're coming to expect not too much of him, but like we're like any
concerns we have are like, oh no, he's he's averaging, you know
this inside the arc this early in the season. I do think they've made
an effort to play him off ball more, which with RJ being what he
is so far this year and looking to pass on his drives more and hit
the weak side open three point shooter that's been Jalen Brunson a lot of times.
And that's where like these this play in the most recent game for the
nixt that Mitchell Robinson makes this huge offensive rebound and it's a catch and shoot
for Jalen Brunson. Later on in the in the fourth quarter, it's another
catch and shoot in the corner for Jalen Brunson where he's playing off ball rather
than you know, him having to depend on pull up threes like he did
last year so much. Yeah, I mean, and that's like, that's
the fact that he's fully you know, there were questions about whether he could
do stuff like that earlier on in Dallas to where do you trust him to
hit forty five and a half percent of his catching shoot threes all season?
I'd probably bet on that number. Pulling back a little bit. He's a
viable threat as like in that type of role, so viable threat, and
it allows you to play quickly like then quickly can run the offense and be
a primary ball handler, and you have a forty five percent three point shooter
off the ball. So you know, I like, I'm very happy with
worth. Like the only thing that's frustrated me so far in nickx Land is
availability, like RJ. Getwell soon, like shout out to the pumping full
of them, you know, exactly whatever it takes to get this Migraine gun
the four games, J Water and Bear that's what I'm recommending. And Bear,
Oh okay, I thought I heard bear like a bear like a maybe
that's what. Yeah, the maybe that's the three essentials. I know their
record is not super impressive, but when you just dig into where they rank
in offense and defense, and the bigger thing is, I don't know what
their strength of schedule has been, but it had to be one of the
seven or eight hardest in the league. And so to come out of that
above five hundred, when you've been dealing with this level of jay On Brunson,
this level of Julius Randol for a lot of this season, that's like,
that's actually a pretty good place to be in. Like, you're not,
you very not. I won't. This is an extreme but and they're
missing a more important player. But look at what is happening to the Grizzlies,
or you can look at what's happening to Yeah, we have faith that
the Suns are going to rebound. You can't give up ground too quickly early
on, and like the Grizzlies, their season is just over already. And
again more injuries, jaw's not there, YadA, YadA, YadA. But
the Knicks like navigating some struggles from the collective against the difficult schedule, even
though they weren't playing some of the teams that were also not full strength.
I count that as an absolute win for this team. Listen, I echo
my brother Don at the MACRI that was like, I'll take five and five
through the first ten, and I do have a bit higher prediction for the
next nine. Like we're basically trying to get to the end season tournament in
one piece. But like we're doing this podcast, like I switched to in
All Things NBA format for this episode. Because this is the fourth back to
back that the Knicks have played in their first twelve games this season, or
thirst fourteen games this season, it's actually pretty ridiculous that they're already playing this
many back to this many games in this short amount of time. They've played
the Celtics twice, They've already played the Bucks, They've played the Cavaliers twice.
They played some pretty good teams so far. And to your point about
strength of schedule, the dad is out there that their schedule gets lighter,
and we'll see what these two games against teams they're better than should should be
this weekend. You know, not want to say their schedule gets a little
easier, because that's the effect of playing the Hornets twice. The Wizards and
the Pistons before November closes out. So listen, I'll take it. When
we start off this season and the first five are Boston and then the Hawks
on the road, back to back in New Orleans the next night, then
the back to back in Cleveland, and then Milwaukee, and then they get
a respite and they play the new look Clippers. Like there was a stretch
where I wondered if just every game the Knicks weren't gonna be favored going into
this year. Honestly, playing the new Loah Clippers is probably a pretty good
pull. We didn't know that at the time though. Da Going into that
game, I was like, oh great, we need to go back home
and we get to play this Clippers that just added a Hall of Famer.
Last thing before we get out of here, I've been doing the thing where
I do a route mount Rushmore of rivals here on the pregame pod. You're
obviously not you don't have a team that you cover specifically, So what I'll
get is your mount Rushmore of league pass teams. One of the four teams
you look forward to the most. I think already know that the Pacers are
on this, but the four teams that you're like circleing this on the calendar
because these four teams are playing. I'm gonna not include the Knicks here for
any expanse I get mad in part because this is a Nick podcast and so
they've been talking about enough. The Pacers, for sure, have probably been
the most entertaining watch this year. Uh No, So I'm gonna rank them
to Nuggets one, Okay, s Papers two, Oklahoma City three. Mmm,
it's probably too early. It's probably honestly Wolves four, though the Aaron
Fox has mitched too much time. But like the the Aaron Fox games are
rivoting if like, if you haven't checked out the Kings just yet, and
they are when he's not on the floor, it's the opposite of rivoting.
So we'll go with Minnesota. So Minnesota at four, Okay, see at
three, Pacers at two, Denver Nuggets at one. So two ends of
the spectrum that we didn't talk about. Are you buying the Dallas start to
the season. We'll start there, yes, but it still feels like their
achilles heel will be their playoff undoing, which is just sort of the defense
and when they cater towards too much of it, like Derek Jones Junior has
been really good for them. Their starting lineup tho it is actually a net
negative on the season and a lot of that again fluky shooting from opponents,
YadA, YadA, YadA. They need to go out there and find like
kind of another wing who is not as offensively limited. Even though Derek Jones
Junior has been good for them, and I'm just curious to see. Okay,
they're relying on Derek Lively a lot and he's been great. He's been
great for them, what happens if he hits a rookie wall as we tend
to see with a lot of the kids. So I buy it, but
like, the defense is still not good enough for me to be well,
they're at the same time kind of who we thought they are. I will
say one of the most pleasant early season trends Luca not complaining as much and
he's played better defense. There you go. And then the other thing.
The team with the longest winning streak at the NBA are the hated Miami Heat.
They have not won any of these games by double figures and they've been
playing the bottom of the league throughout this winning streak. Are they just gonna
do this? To us again where they just kind of win every close game
that exists, and even when even if they end up with like forty one
wins, it's like, yeah, but every game that you're gonna have to
beat them by is by five or six points. Yeah, I just default
towards there's alien stuff going on in Miami. I don't trust them when I
look at them on paper. But it's just Jimmy Butler starts the season injured,
looks terrible start like shooting fifty percent from three. Now Bamana Bayo is
definitely leveled up. They have Kayla Martin back. They're kind of doing it
again where it's they're finding guys to contribute with. Hayward high Smith and Jim
Hawk has has been pretty good for them a though he's not hitting his threes.
Kyle Lowry's been super low usage, but he's hitting his threes. They
just seem to figure it out. And so I look at them and I
say, no, like, this is not a real threat. But I
have to default to being wrong about that because we've now what are we in
year like twelve of this happening where it's just they're gonna find a way,
And I do think the single biggest development for them, though, might be
the past two years. Bam Adebayo has really leveled up his offense. He
has he has. This team's been outscored this year. Well, not like
point differential totally, but in per one hundred possessions. They're eighteenth in that
rating and it's a minus. And they they they're just winning games. They
wont seven in a row and I don't line up data, but like Tyler
Hero has been out right now, Kayleb Martin has played in two games,
so they probably haven't had their best four man lineup ever a five man lineup,
excuse me, ever on the court this season and you look and it's
like, what were they at one point one and four or something? And
then you look up and they're like, oh, it's eight in a row.
Later they've just won game. So I've given up on trying to understand
or explain Miami. I look, Knicks fans don't want to hear it because
there's a there's a need and a desired dismissed them and I was ready to
dance on the grave at one and four, but I was like, I'm
still gonna be terrified when they're a thirty five win ten seed and it's like,
yeah, I still would probably pick them to win the East, you
know, but now they're at least gonna be in the com it seems like
in the conversation. Yet it's still gonna be the same conversation of yeah,
they're they're they're like a seven or eight seed. I probably picked them to
win every playoff game that they play. I still push comes to Shovel'll probably
marry the idea like they need a pretty significant acquisition to change to like really
be like, Okay, they come out of the East and they're just gonna
get trucked by Denver again is what's gonna happen. So I will die on
that hill. And I also I picked the Milwaukee to come out of the
East. But as someone who doubted the Celtics, Mike more so before the
Drew Holiday trade after the trail, was like, they scare the shit out
of me. And it's just even watching the Nicks trying to defend them sometimes
stresses me out as someone who tries to just be this like heartless observer.
And I'll watch it and why and it's not just the Knicks. It's like
it stresses me. Their offense isn't even like special at a lot of points
because the ball movement isn't there and they don't have the same type of play
making. But they stretch you to the point of absolutely breaking you. And
christophs Porzingis is a much smarter player than he was two or three years ago.
And it's if they're healthy, which is the cave out for every team.
But you look at kind of the top of this roster man, was
I wrong about the Celtics. The craziest thing about the Celtics for me,
and like, the Knicks have played them twice, so they've gotten two looks
at this. One of them was without RJ. So you take with a
great assault. But my goodness, they they have so many things that you
have to take into account when you're defending them. And even like they started
pressing in the in the third quarter of the game that it's played on Monday,
and the Knicks we're getting into their offense with like twelve seconds on the
shot clock, and it just led to these inefficient shots in the third quarter.
And while you're a Knicks fan, you're like, why can't you be
better? It's like, actually, just look across the aisle, like the
other team is pressing eleven games into the season and they can because this is
how many weapons that they have, and you try to shut one thing down,
like, oh, Jaylen Brown's having an off night, Tatum's having an
off night, Chris Tops is missing. Oh, but they're Sam Houser hitting
like six threes and you're kind of screwed. And look, there's eighty three
year old Alt Horford holding up in space again. And my biggest compliment to
their offense, though, is that Mitchell Robinson needs to do peak Anthony Davis
against the Warriors things to salvage a lot of defensive possessions because of just how
again the word is just how far out the Celtics stretch you. And the
fact that we saw him do him on some possessions is pretty pretty big deal.
But they are their offense, and the way the way it's spaced induces
anxiety for me as a boss stander. Yeah yeah, someone said it in
the post game the other night, like Mitter Robinson is dominating every team in
the NBA except one, Like against twenty eight other teams in the NBA,
he's been a dominant force, but when he plays the Celtics. That's just
like the one team that you wonder Kenny stand the court and it's because he
needs to do so much and honestly, what is the alternative, like because
he has to stay on the court, because what are you going to in
that moment? You don't like, we know the Knicks are not going to
go center list like we just know. And Isaiah hart Andstein, okay,
like he's not gonna be much different for you, Like Mitchell Robinson is better
than Isaiah heart Hot take the robin to Isaiah inside. So I again,
their their offenses and it all comes down to the floor balance because when you
watch it, it's not it's absurd shot making and just spacing and like smart
like kind of like the way all Horford and Christos porzing Is know how to
work off the ball and you know kind of like toggle and flip their screens.
It's I was I was wrong. I mean, I'm wrong. You
know I'm wrong all the time, but I was. I was pretty damn
wrong about the Celtics. I think my my biggest early season conclusion is that
the Celtics are healthy. I think they're winning the title. That is the
most unstoppable thing I've seen this year is that starting five. See, I
might people go as far as they're gonna win the East, but I like
Denver is honestly is a is just a is an annihilator of worlds, And
you're right, that's actually I give the Celtics a not because there's a defensive
ceiling that they can get to that I wonder if it can match what any
dominant thing Denver can do. I should get the champs more credit than that.
I think we're getting a Celtics Celtics in the finals against Denver and that,
look, that'd be a good test of Denver's defense has been really good
this year, and like a huge part of that has been Michael Porter Junior.
I mean, Yoka has been better, too, but Michael Porter Junior
has improved a lot as a rebounder and defender. So I would love just
like match up. It doesn't have to be like if the Celtics and the
Nuggets are fully healthy. I hope that when they face each other this year
that they go full or in the regular season, because I do think those
are pretty clearly the two best teams in the league, and there's a chance
Milwaukee could sneak in there if they're healthy enough. But they feel you mentioned
you're concerns about their defense then like Dame's been all over the place with it
shooting too so far, and look that could change and maybe in a small
sample. I just every answer for every everything that the Bucks could potentially do,
the Celtics have an answer for. Yeah, And I don't know if
the Bucks are able to respond with like okay, well we can respond and
answer with this, you know, the Celtics just what they're doing to teams
right now. And look the Knicks, like I said this on the pregame
pod with the with Jack Simone the other day about the way you beat the
Celtics early on is like hope they miss, like hope they miss their threes.
They're three like near losses this year. They almost lost the Knicks game,
and they lost two games against the Timberwolves and the against the Sixers.
Are there three worst three points for shoot three point performances this year? It's
like the games that they shoot thirty and under from three, you got a
shot if they're at thirty four thirty five percent from three, just like good
night Irene. And that I think is where I'm I'm success yfully spooked by
any illusions that like the Knicks could upset them in the playoffs. I do
think they could get a game or two. And look, this could all
be mute because RJ Barrett is going to continue to take the sleep and they
almost beat the Celtics with RJ, and they didn't have RJ for the second
one, so who knows. I'm successfully bought into what the Celtics can be
and I will be rooting very hard against it because it's in my New York
DNA as it should be, as it should be exactly, Dan as always,
thank you for joining me. We went a little longer than I said
you would. I know you got to run before you go. Tell the
fine folks at home where they can find you. And Hardwood Knocks specifically on
the socials where you do, in my opinion, some of your best work.
Yeah, go check out hard one Knox. It's wherever you're you get
your podcast YouTube, Spotify, Apple, We post on TikTok as well at
hardwind Knocks and all the socials are at hardwind Knocks and we post these shorts
where they are quizzes where they're you know, start bench cut these NBA things
that you removed, so it's look, we call it stat padding because we're
not trying to hide what we're doing. We try to get a little creative
with it, like which player would you clone and build a or do which
team wins five Blu Dorts or five Jordan Poole. So that's the type of
technical basketball analysis that we provide. But we strive to be the least insufferable
national NBA podcast out there, and I think we do a pretty damn good
job. So go check us out again. Hardwood Knocks spelled exactly as it
sounds. Wherever you listen to any of your basketball content. I co signed
everything he said, both the quality of the podcast with Grant Hughes and how
often I enjoy it, like I'm someone that tries to reach out to every
single team to or every single a fan of someone who covers every single team.
You got tognize it with the pregame pods that you just want notwithstanding because
you just want to win, but the pregame shows that you do forever.
That's just like that's a special type of commitment and nuance. So you know
where I get a lot of my ideas for guests. They went on for
the look Ahead before the season at Hardwood KNOCKX. I just go through your
rolodex and I'm like, oh, Dan fa Valley had this person out.
I can reach out to them. So it takes takes one inspiration to know
another. You know, well, I appreciate that invite you so much as
usual for having the August. Of course, man welcome anytime.