What is krack Alac and fellow thermonuclear affers. I am Damp Valley coming at
you soon with my certified pant tabulous Thermonuclear AF co host Grant Hughes. But
this will be part two of our sort of bouncing around the League conversation.
Since we went for over two hours the other day, wanted to record an
intro in case there was any news to update. There really is no news
to update. James Harden really wants to go with the Clippers, and that's
about it. I don't understand there's another market for him. We've talked about
that extensively. We'll talk about it again. Grant is headed on a mini
vacation, a much deserved mini vacations, So I'll probably have two guests or
a solo pod with a guest next week for you. But before we get
started on this one, please remember to subscribe to us wherever you're consuming us.
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That is it for me. Hope you enjoy this conversation with Grant, and
for the people who are watching, I hope you're enjoying. Look Grants away.
So I obviously had to build a new Hardwood Knocks video background, which
looks kind of cooler when there's two people on it. But we're in space
now, forget the basketball card. We're just in space, real alien shit.
But grant me, we're gonna talk right now. Who's okay? I'm
sorry, but do we have to? We haven't really talked that much about
the Warriors, and this will shock no one that I want to discuss them,
and I need you, I think, to walk me back a little
bit. I'm sorry, we need the disclaimer here. Brant attended Santa Clarar
University. Oh. I wasn't even gonna mention Pods. I've been saying,
and even he says about Pods until we see Pods playing a real NBA game,
He's to be taken with a metric on Well, what I will The
only thing I'll say, because this is my only takeaway so far, is
he's a little loose with the ball. That's my Summer League takeaway from Pods,
Like he's the ball security for a guy that's supposed to be ready to
help right now and have great feel is a little rough, Like you just
watched Jordan Pool for four years. That's what I'm saying. I'm an authority
on the subject. It looks like when a guys loose with the basketball.
So start here, best best five man unit in the league last year,
right, the Warrior starters like plus I forget off the top of my head,
it's either like plus twenty one or plus nineteen per one hundred with their
starting five good, which is insane, Like, that's by far the bet
better than any any unit that played even close to as many minutes as they
did. And then Jordan Pool would come in and a bench that couldn't create
shots would come in and the reserves would just give it all back. They'd
give just like clockwork all year, turnovers just you know, bad offense,
you know, shaky defense, guys not knowing what to do. And so
if you like, there's a lot to sort of untie with with what Chris
Paul's role will be. Who's he gonna play with most like all that stuff
will he be? Hell? Is he washed like that? There's a lot
there. But if the theory is that he just stabilizes the second unit,
which now is going to have Gary Payton again for a full season, which
in theory, Jonathan cominga in year three will either be a good cutter or
rollman that Chris Paul sort of enables. Draymond said, he's going to totally
unlock him. We'll see. He said he's gonna unlock cominga. So that's
eight guys. So like why I think clearly, if I'm I know,
like you, I sort of just can't be trusted. But a lot of
times I'm too pessimistic about the Warriors. I know people will be surprised to
hear that. I'm just like my swings are too big with them. But
I don't see a good argument for why they aren't clearly clearly in that second
in that tier below Denver and like you know, like that discussion. Well,
I don't know because I think I think maybe it is because the cores
aging Clay Thompson, I don't think is going to get better. Like people
keep kind of waiting for the defense to come back. I don't think it's
happening. Draymond's older steps older. They just you know, there are still
questions there. And this what they did this offseason is feels much more like
a last dance type of thing than when everybody was talking about that because like,
you don't, Corey Joseph is not here for a long time. Corey
Joseph is here because he's like a veteran that's not going to screw up,
like they're very much the Warriors, like Mo. This offseason was like,
let's get guys that aren't going to screw up, like maybe the ceiling is
not that high, but just no more mistakes, like no more self inflicted
wounds, no more games kicked away like that kind of thing. And that's
kind of like a modest goal for a team that's supposed to be chasing a
title. But I think my contention is like that was the correct approach,
is just like let's stop beating ourselves because the starters are just killing everyone and
then we're still not getting it done because nobody else is helping. So I'm
not ready to be like they're on Denver's level. But I mean they did
win it two years ago with virtually everybody that's back, and Chris Paul is
in place of Auto Porter, Like I don't. I mean, like that's
really the main difference, unless I'm forgetting something Chris Paul in places of Jordan
Pool. Technically I guess that's true. Yeah, I forgot Jordan Pool already.
Yeah, and then the Cominga and Moody thing they've got to like basically
off you know, do what Auto Porter did. I like, I feel
like Moody is ready. I think the Warriors there, but Moody just based
on what we saw Feringhi the playoffs this past year, that just feels like
someone who should plug right in this year? Yeah? Can sorry? Can
I ask you? Then? Maybe this is the way to frame it and
you can go are they are they interesting? Like? Is this team interesting?
Am I? Or am I just interested Chris Paul? And I think
that the fan base because there's a lot of Warriors fans who were for Bleacher
Reports when I was out there and talk to some people from the West Coast
about how they felt, including one of our bosses was a big Warriors fan,
disgusted that Chris Paul's a Warrior. They are compelling as fuck because they
made that rad. Okay, I need you to assess me right now because
I am. I'm an unabashed Warriors fan, have been my whole life.
I had not a second of like I can't root for Chris Paul. I
can't do this like am I so? Am I a fan? Or am
I not a fan? Because I had zero emotional reaction to Chris Paul.
I don't care like this idea that, oh, how can I root for
this guy? I hated him for so long? None like zero zero of
that. No, I don't think there's anything wrong. Also, Steph said,
it's okay, So I'm just whatever. I'm just I'm with it,
but I'm not. It isn't That's what it is what makes them compelling because
he just runs so divergent to how they like to play. And I think
I do think Chris Paul can be more adaptable than people give him credit for
it. But like, you can't get Chris Paul then asked him to run
the second unit and not be prepared to run a bunch of traditional pick and
roll And I think it's gonna be a real question of they will play Draymond
at the five and then Wiggins and Clay and Chris Paul and Steph Curry.
How often do you actually do this at? Do you view Chris Paul as
a human trade exception? There are a lot of questions there. And then
how does he look in a role like is he the type of player that's
gonna need to I don't even want to say to have touches but beyond the
court a while, to continue to have the highest type of impact, where
if you shorten him from thirty plus minutes a game just twenty plus minutes a
game, is there a drop off from him that's not even necessarily age related,
but could it be something about the Arcadian rhythm of how he's he's trying
a play or operate. So there are questions, but I absolutely think they
belong in the second tier of like they're not No, they're not on Denver's
level. And if you want to put them in the third tier where if
you think Boston or there's another team that really Phoenix really stands out, that's
fine too. But like they're in the Milwaukee Lakers. I don't even know
if I have the Lakers in that tier, but like they're in the Milwaukee
like whoever you want a name, Like they're in that tier. They're in
the tier of if this team won the championship, it would you would not
like you have any questions, Like you wouldn't be like how did that?
You would say, Okay, I guess the Chris Paul thing worked Like that
would be your reaction basically right for sure? Anything else on that, Thank
you for not giving me a hard time about being emotionally dead inside about the
Chris Paul acquisition. I don't really know where I want to go. There's
so many places that I want to go next. Let's go with make sure
that I don't have someone team that's on your I don't want to just stick
with big markets. But I'm gonna start with this. Who had the most
overrated off season among all NBA teams? You're not gonna give me options.
I just gotta pick. Yeah, Well, this is an impossible question because
I don't know what the consensus rating is for anybody. Okay, I think
I know where you're going, and I want to talk about this team too,
and I'll just hijack this. I guess are you going to say the
Lakers? Yes? Okay, what? So tell me why? Because I
kind of I guessed it, so I guess I must share some of your
opinion on it. So you go ahead. Why is this an overrated off
season? I think it's a good offseason? But how much better is going
from like Dennis shrewder Malik Beasley and who else do they have on last year's
roster? Like you kept? It's just you went from Dennis shrewder Malik Beasley
two Okay, now we have Dave Vincent and Cam Reddish and Jackson Hayes,
and it's like we don't have Obama or Troy Brown Junior and we still have
the Angel Russell and and Ruy Hatchamora. Where make I need someone to make
the case of how much what's their pathway to being exponentially better than they the
conference finals version of themselves? And I struggle to find the answer other than
you need to think that Gave Vincent is a monster offensive upgrade over Dennis Shrewder,
which okay, fine, or Austin Reeves just explodes and that's not,
I guess unfair. Also, by the way, no one poisoned pilling him.
What the fuck? I know the Spurs were thinking about it, per
zach Low, Houston should have just done it. We Oklahoma City, you
didn't fucking use your tap space anyway, like you could have waited on the
old Depot deal or something like, I know you needed to do the Dovis
Parton's the deal one you did, whatever, whatever, whatever, someone should
just make the Lakers pay more than what might be one of the best cock
tracks in the NBA in like two years time. So I like their offseason.
Want to make this clear, it just feels like, how much better
are the Lakers compared to last year? So my thought on it, I
D I don't think I agree with you. And so basically like and I
s about this stat out whenever we talk about the Lakers after the after they
remade the roster and Austin Reeves got a bigger role, like, you know,
not because of that, but just that's just something that happened concurrently.
You know, they were the second best team in the league by but I
think by record and maybe even by net rating down the stretch of the season
starting you know, early February to the rest of the year. So it's
like, well, how much better do they actually have to get? Right?
So, like running it back is not you know, they're not a
playing team based on the team the roster that they had, So like if
they just brought that group back and you know, maybe they're maybe they won't
be the second best team again, maybe they'll be the fifth or sixth or
something like that. But to your point, that same group, you know,
didn't make it to the conference finals. So or no, wait they
did, right, I can't even remember now, they'd be Jesus Christ's off
the playoffs happened so long ago. Uh yeah, No, they beat the
Warriors, so they were in the conference finals, right, and then Denver
just was too good. So I don't see an explanation for why if you
played that series again this season, they're just oh yeah, well they're they're
they're clearly better positioned to beat Denver or even Golden State for that matter,
if they if they were to meet again. So yeah, I take your
point, like they didn't. They didn't make this leap. I think when
people are saying they had a good offseason, which we both agree they did,
it's just like they didn't. All the contracts they signed, you know,
Delo really good deal for a player that neither of us are really super
high on. The Vincent deal is fine. We both agree Rui got a
little too much for fifty one, and then Reeves. You know, they
just sort of made good decisions. The guys they lost are not going to
cripple them by any stretch. So it's sort of like they did about as
well as they could have, but it might just not be good enough.
Is that sort of what we're ultimately saying. It's just I don't have a
problem. I just think that we need to stop painting Rob Polinka as playing
chess instead of checkers or something that I think this off season is viewed so
highly. Again, they're going to be a very good team. I think
it's viewed so highly because the expectations for what they were going to do is
solo whereas are they going to chase the cap space route. But you know,
I'm not of the mind of you know, like the DeAngelo Russell contract
like almost perfectly matches up with an og At Anobe trade, Like look at
the salaries there, and it's no like, look at what Deans Russel did
for you in the playoffs, jack shit, And it's the numbers. Fine,
you're paying them basically over two years what you paid them last season,
just a little bit more combined. It's a movable contract. But do we
trust him to be a lot better, especially when you're going to be prioritized
prioritizing Austin Reeves and day Vincent. I'm assuming as well. And the other
thing is, I don't want to if any other team bait almost any other
team. There's some other teams that could have if any other team signed Jackson
Hayes or or Cam Reddish, we would not be talking about them like,
oh man, look at these flyers and but Tori and Prince that might be
like my favorite move aside from the Austin Reeves deal Theirs for the off season,
but like, they still don't have there's a deficit of two way wing
play here. It's like kind of when the Knicks needed caps lock shooting and
size on the wings, and everyone's like like trumpeting the Dante de Vincenzo signing,
who I think is a league average shooter for his career. He did
very well last year and like doesn't have any size, Like he's a good
defender, not create his own threes, like will not make a three off
the dribble, ever, And so it's like it's again, good player,
but it's let's not turn this into addressing needs. I think this was more
than anything, probably closer to lateral than an outright improvement. The improvement will
come because of one Austin Eaves maybe or two, Hey, we have this
group together for the entire season and not Yeah, I think I think that's
the right way to look at it. Who's they're closing five. It's obviously
Lebron a D. It's kind of a fun exercise. Reeves Vincent and is
Ruey. Is Ruey the closing small Prince, right, I don't know,
that's what I'm asking. I think I would go your four and Torrian Prince.
There might be some toggling done between. I think there's gonna be I
think Reeves, A D and Lebron are the only ones penciled in stone,
that they have no sense they're penciled in stone. I just love that too.
I said, yeah, totally right, Dan, penciled in stone.
They're the only one set in stone. And I think we'll see a lot
of sort of mixing with Okay, Ruey and Gabe Vincent de'angel Russell. I'm
assuming he is gonna fa because like at some point you're gonna need more on
ball creation and like Ruy's not doing that. Maybe you trust D'Angelo Russell a
little bit more there than Gabe Vincent. But I would go Gabe Vincent and
Torrian Prince, like because who who is this team's go to wing defender right
now? We no point of attacks gonna be gay? I mean it's Vanderbilt,
right, isn't it. Jared Vanderbilt about him, well, but you
can't. I mean that that's we've learned him with Lebron and a D like,
that's not that. Doesn't you know that you need to I guess you
can't play Vincent because you need spacing. And it's like, is that Russell
or just Tory and Prince anyway? And you trust Austin Reeves and Lebron to
initiate your offense that that actually I don't hate it. Well, I still
think it might be Vincent. It's just you're gonna have to live with the
two for eleven nights. Sometimes I think with him, But yeah, Vanderbilts.
I feel like we've been saying this, certainly since the last playoffs.
Vanderbilt's a pretty like swingy piece for them because it's like Canny just just canny
stay on the floor enough offensively to be that guy. Because I think clearly
if you're like, who's the guy that's gonna get us a stop or bother,
a main wing or even a guard, like that's that's the guy.
That's That's how big that closing lineup would be. So Austin Reeves whatever,
but Lebron, Vanderbilt a D and then Tory and Prince just within. This
team is going to be a really good defensive team. That's the only thing
I'm absolutely certain off Like, if they're not a top five defense, something
weird happened. I don't see how they're worse than that next team on your
list. Well, it wasn't gonna be the Lakers. This is this is
again like an improved enough question. I had this team with the Lakers,
and it's it's Dallas, another team that I think had a very good offseason,
like got better right, Like, I mean, the Kyrie thing is
what it is. I don't know if we need to be labor that he's
back. All of the concerns about him being back still exist and all of
the upsides still exists. I guess if if magically this is when it finally
works for him. I think Grant Williams is a good addition. I think
getting Dwight Powell back at that number is pretty solid. I think Rashaun Holmes
is going to help. I think Seth Curry's gonna help. So they're clearly
better. How did he not have anything? More? Man? I think
I wonder if because I thought that too, I think maybe the health thing
is teams are concerned about. And I think defensively, sure, defensively.
I think like there was a time where you felt really good about Seth Curry,
you know, guarding a point guard or even at two, and I
don't feel like that's the case anymore. I think he's just gotten older and
but yeah, no, agree, like he he's a he is your capslock
shooter, like that is the guy that if he is open someone made a
mistake, like that's that's the level of of spacer that he can be.
Having said all that, I'm sure I forgot something in there. I'm not
looking at their acquisitions right now. Doesn't matter because this team did not make
the playoffs. Part of that was on purpose, but most of the season
they were trying to do that. Have they improved enough to be more than
Yeah, they could be. You know, they're in the the eight to
five range in the West or something like that, Like are they do you
and again? Conference finals two years ago? So it's like, yeah,
a very different team, But I don't know that they've done enough to distinguish
themselves as a team that the contenders are actually worried about. What do you
think? I'm with you? Who is and I know that they try to
get matist tybel who defends wings on this team. And I saw when was
it Shams broke the news about Grant Williams. He said wing Grant Williams.
Grant Williams is extremely switchable. He's not a wing. And like when you
look at the I can't remember who had this. Maybe it was our I
don't even want to say the pockets. I don't want to get it wrong.
Like he was one of them. Ranked is one of the most versatile
defenders based off positions defended by high volume of possessions. It's like, yes,
he gives you that element and having him and Maxi Kleiba like that's and
even like Dwight Patt, like that's real, like front court defense, who's
defending wings? If you just decided that Josh Green is that guy, No,
you haven't because you try to go out and get matist Tyble And so
I think it's even more important because you want that wing to maybe also be
able to defend point of attacks that you can move Kyrie Iring and Lucadanchitch around.
That's a really big question mark for this team, especially because you trade
away Reggie Bullock who I think is more of like a the straight to DVD
version of that like player that you would want. And I don't mean that
as an insult. I don't do our listeners know what DVDs were. I'm
sure we skew older. Do we appeal to anyone who's super young? Is
anyone in college or younger listening to Hardwoo Knox? Because we love you very
much. All I'll say is I had the other day I had to try
to try to explain to my kids what a VCR was, because we're going
even back and even farther, and like the idea that there's also this plastic
thing that you put in the machine that has a thing on it that you
watch. It was just like it may have it may as well have been
like a foreign like none of none of the core ideas tracked for them.
You are kids are so young though I was working with influencers at one point
that like didn't know what a USB was, and I was like, I
wasn't a lot like I knew what or CDs or the other thing. It's
like I knew what a record player was growing up, and I wasn't anywhere
like I knew what we had one had a record player. I actually think
I have a record player because I have like Blink one eighty two vinyls because
I'm on that dude. But yeah, so digressing there. What were we
just talking about? Oh yeah, so like I just don't the wing defense
here, and then I will say this is not gonna be pertinent to this
season. I'm wildly uncomfortable giving up a twenty thirty swap and the Grant Williams
deal. I can't. I don't have strong feelings about that. If they
had gotten Tyble, how would you feel? Very differently? I would feel
a lot better because I started seeing people saying that Tyble is like one of
the most under overrated defenders in the league, and I was like, all
right, let's let's relax. If you overrated as a defenders, about can
you stay on the floor? And he will not shoot what he did from
three in Portland? Lash you thought, I'm like almost five attempts per game,
we're shooting like eighty percent. But like, you don't need him to
dribble or make decisions in this offense if he was there, So, yeah,
I feel a lot better. I don't know if that player is still
like, do they take a flyer on Kelly Woodbridge Junior, who I feel
like people call him three and D and he's kind of like not really three
and very little D, like something that's not what they need. And then
there's Io Dassoon move, but I don't think they would play him enough,
even if he falls into their price range, just because of all the guards
they already have. And you know, they could sign Javonte Green that would
really ingratiate me to them, but I think they need or they could bring
back someone else that would even really ingratiate you too. Yeah, Frank l.
Keen is sitting right there, and you went with dime store version of
Frankielokeena and Dante Exam who I'll believe he can shoot when I see it.
So I don't I think this team. I thought they had a very good
off season, but like even some of the moves, it's like, okay,
well, Derek Live even gonna factor in, Like how much does that
actually matter right now? Two or three years down the line that might matter.
So I think they need to still be pretty aggressive on the trade market
to get a wing defender, and I don't know who it is. Do
they have enough to get into Ogan and Obi sweepstakes. They could trade two
first round picks if they really want, like Derek Lively in another first round
pick. I don't know if that does anything for Toronto with the Yakam purtle
there, but they need they need win defensive, Like even could they get
Royce O'Neil from Brooklyn. We'll go a long way of I think, like,
of course, I just think about like they and mav fans go crazy
when you do this. But like between Hardy and Josh Green, I love
Josh Green. I just like he's one of my favorite. Like, hey,
let's talk about this guy players. Is he ready to do this?
Though probably not. I'm just saying like, if you're putting a package together
like Royce O'Neil, oh, you you better be able to use like some
combination of Lively, Green and Hardy. Oh no, I think you could
get that guy. They're ept to do it, I think, is the
point I'm making, Like they really can and probably they should, because if
you're investing in Kyrie Irving for three years on a big deal and you're really
hoping that Luca enjoys some success so he doesn't become the next guy to ask
for a trade, Like, you're gonna have to trade one of these like
twenty somethings for an underwhelming wing like the Tory Craigs and Royce O'Neill's and whatever.
You know, all the guys we always talk about. You might just
need to go get one of those guys, and it's going to cost you
a player you really like. I thought about Alex Carusoe for this team,
but I think he ends up being too small. I think, yeah,
it's gotta be the sixth seven well guy, which led me to mid season
Patrick Williams. Could they be like a sneaky Patrick Williams destination who's in the
final year of his deal? Maybe Chicago will excuse me, he's extensional.
Will He's not the final year of his deal. Maybe Chicago doesn't want to
pay him, so he isn't the final year of his He's entering the final
year of his deal. Maybe Chicago's like if he about paying him in restricted
free agency, maybe he gets extended and really can't be moved at that point
because of the poison pill provision. But like they could have, like Chicago
decides to tear it down, like between Lively round pick, and do you
give up Josh Green in that scenario where you certainly give up Jadon Hardy,
like that would be he's not proven enough. But like taking a flyer on
that, I'm just trying to come up with, do they try to make
a trade from a team They can't even trade from a teast table until next
summer now, so I'm just trying to think of like just more outside the
boxer's oh not a mega deal like which oh I think I would class by
og and a Nooby's a mega deal? Get out of my head. I
was just thinking like could they how would they get to Annaobi? But yeah,
no, it doesn't. I mean that'd be great, but it doesn't
have to be your Your use of Royce O'Neill is like a perfect example,
like if they had just because I think I like O'Neil better than Reggie Bullock,
but they're not that different really. I guess you get you get much
more quick trigger shooting from Bullock, but only after the month of like January.
It seems like that's how that works for him. So yeah, anyway,
I'll answer my own question. I think I think this is another team
like the Lakers, where it's a little different because the Lakers didn't really get
better, but the MAV's got I think a lot better. And I'm just
I'm not seeing a reason to view them as on the level of you know,
the top three or four teams in the West. Maybe not even that
fun game Denver or Dallas, Like, who's gonna give me it to?
Denver or Dallas. Denver Phoenix or Dallas Phoenix, Memphis or Dallas. Oh,
that's closer. I think it's still Memphis Golden State or Dallas Golden State,
Sacramento or Dallas oh Man, Sacramento Lakers or Dallas Lakers. So what
are we at? Seven? Now? Uh? Where we had Lakers,
Grizzlies, Warriors, Suns, Nuggets. That's five. Well, Clippers.
I might take Das over the Clippers. Okay, I worked five so far.
Pelicans are Dallas. Oh that's getting now we're getting into it. I
think I might go Dallas Thunder over Dallas Thunder or Dallas oh Man. I'm
gonna I'm gonna say I just pumped the Thunder up, so I have to
say Thunder. It's so worth Six Timberwolves are Dallas mhm, Timberwolves. I
think those are I don't leave off any of the team. So, like
you just picked seven teams over Dallas at that point, and it's so now
you're in play it in territory and I didn't miss it, Like we're not
Jazz Blazers, Rockets, Spurs, like shouldn't factory those are all Dallas is
clearly better than them, right I think? So? Yeah, So that's
what I mean, Like, okay, cool, you're you're a little bit
better, but you might be in the same position. Where how do we
really want, you know, the playing game or should we go for the
lottery pick again? Actually I don't. They probably don't even have their lottery
pick. I can't remember. What are we talking about? Well, we're
done talking about Dallas. Do you have another team you want to talk about?
I would like to talk about him. You might talking about the Pacers.
Okay, I thought, so they didn't do anything like monstrous. The
Bruce Brown addition amazing, so short term that it shouldn't You shouldn't care about
the dollar amount they John Hollinger his coin of human trade exception. He's basically
that. But I view it more as they decided to roll their tap space
over, which is totally fine. I don't know how to feel about Jared
Walker. I know you Jared Walker, jarss Walker, you like him better
than I do. I'm not sure what his offensive impact is at the NBA
level. There's a lot to love Defensively, they have will be Topping,
who I think works a lot on this team. What's mega interesting is I
brought h up because of the Bruce Brown signing. I'm so high on Tyrese
Haliburton. I'm very interested in just like the lineups they run out because Andrew
Nemhart is kind of a point guard, but he'll defend power forwards, so
you can get just really sort of kooky with your lineups. But they've also
and this just solidified it to me, we're linked to Pascal Siakam as a
potential trade partner. That would be so out of character for Indiana because you're
not getting out of that trade. You're not keeping both Jaris Walker and Bennedic
Matherin and a Pascal Siakham trade, and so I don't if you're this team,
do you operate on that type of timeline where it's if you have to
go up one of those guys plus picks for Siakam, do you do it
like or they at that point where you're ready because I look at as and
it doesn't even need to be. I don't know how to feel I'll bring
up because I don't know how to feel about them is currently constructed? Is
my point? Like do they belong in the playing conversation? And the like
To throw on top of that is would you look at making more of these?
It's an aggressive play, but does it come at not maybe a slight
discount because Pascal Siakam is about to enter free agency and so it's oh,
yeah, so that makes sense, But there's also a level of risk there
because we're accelerating our timeline dealing with a future or an imminent free agent.
Here the Pacers are there. I liked their off season for the most part.
I would have went with telling Hendrix over jarss Walker that I really would
have loved this team. But I liked their off season. I didn't love
it, and it kind of made me confused about their future, Like they're
one of the most confusing teams for me looking at just this upcoming season.
But wouldn't you agree that usually that's a really bad thing, Like I'm confused
I don't know where they're going, Like we level that criticism metric. That's
a good thing in this case, right right, because it's on this sort
of fluid trajectory because we can't even say long term, because the Pacers are
very adamant that this is like it's called a retool. It's not a rebuilding,
Like all right, you guys are rebuilding at this point, Like I
just but there's also just my questions are does Benedic Mathn like can he guard
hire usage players that you can play him in some of these lineups that you
want to have him in. Does his efficiency approved from the outside? I
think it will, So I'm not really worried about that. I'm more worried
about him defensively, What does like jareds Walker look like on offense? Already
brought that up, and you know there's still just you have Bruce Brown,
like, what is the wing defense on this team? It's very much like,
oh, Aaron Naismith, And then we're gonna play a bunch of undersized
lineups outside of that, And I can really dig it to some extent,
but I like, do they still have enough defense here? Maybe you trust
jareds Walker to really juice that up. Again, though he's a rookie,
how much of an impact does he have there? I think Taylor Hendrix was
maybe more on defense made I guess I see the appeal of JAREDS. Walker.
I just I if I were them, I would be all in on
Pascal. Like if you told me that if Pascal Siakam was willing to resign
and it costs you Benedick Mathern and Jarress Walker, I would do it.
Is my point, because Miles Turner, Siakam, Bruce Brown, Tyrese Haliburton,
all this stuff you have around them, I get and look, if
I'm the Raptors, I probably prefer Picks over Mathren would be my gut.
So it probably only cost you one of these dudes. I'm giving up either
one. If Siakam says he'll resign, I think they're they're a good like
what are you waiting for? Type of team? Because you know what I
mean, Like if you're not, it's like, oh, Haliburton is he's
too raw, he's not ready. It's like no, no, he was
an All Stars. He's plays like he's thirty already in the in a good
way. So it's not like you're waiting for him to you know, for
this timeline that's built around Haliburton in his early twenties, and it's like Turners
in this prime you had some other young guys, but like those are really
your your guys are principally concerned about. So like, if you're not going
to trade for Siakham, what are you waiting for? Like you're going to
preserve your cap space because yeah, Indiana has been a you know, a
noted free agent destination. You're not gonna you know, their cap space doesn't
really mean anything, uh in terms of like you're, oh, you're gonna
go get the Siakham equivalent in free agency, You're gonna sign it. It's
like, that's not it. So I think I think Siakam makes a lot
of sense. I think they absolutely have the ability to put together a package
Toronto like should accept, which is the other big hurdle when you're making up
fake trades. So yeah, I think I hadn't really thought about that,
you know, in a serious way. But there's not really like what's the
reason why shouldn't the Pacers go trade for I think an argument that I've seen
on Twitter a lot has been just the timing isn't right. But I'm like,
I mean, you just maxed out Tyres Alibert, and I don't think
based on what the timing for who it doesn't I don't understand, right,
And so it's the timing is I mean, like if you don't I understand,
if you don't view yourself as like a cap stock contender, but you're
not bankrupting, you know, if it costs you Jarress Walker and like two
protected first round pick, like I don't know what Siakam is gonna command on
the so let's say it's an unprotected pick Jarress Walker or Mathin and then another
first round pick on top. Maybe there's some protection that's not an astronomical price
to pay. You're not just without all this other stuff. I guess because
of the number of questions about just the overarching supporting cast where it's okay,
like what can Obie Topping or Jalen Smith be part of the bigger picture?
Like what about Aaronie Smith? I think if you've got another ball handled like
Siakam in there, it makes even more sense to have nice Smith around.
It was Buddy Heel, does he have to go out to make the money
work as part of this trade. You actually you probably don't, like you
could step ladder your way there, depending on like what Toronto wants to do
about it's roster spot situation. I just I don't. I don't know,
like I think the timing is right. I don't know that you don't.
I don't think you have to if you really believe that Mathin and Walker are
going to grow into these second and third and like fourth best building blocks on
your team type of players behind Turner and Haliburton. Okay, sure, I
just I feel a lot less comfortable about that than I did when okay,
when you trade in for Tyris Halibert, even when Tyris Haliburton was on the
Kings, like you knew he was that dude. We don't know that about
not this dude. I don't want to make that clear. He's exceeded expectations
in Indiana. But I just I think the timing is right. It's not
a half to thing. It's a you should absolutely be considering this thing.
I would argue, Sorry, they'll also be linked to o Giana Nobi if
he's available. That would be sort of the straddle the line trade, like
sort of something that Portland would have done or Toronto would have done before it
all just brew up in their face. I would be more intrigued by getting
Pascal Siakam than O Giana Noobe, just because of the depth of Siakam's armory
on offense. I think that's right. And I think that you've really crystallize
the timeline thing for me because we agree it's not well, Haliburton and Turner,
it's not it's not quite right. We can't add like an you know,
a nearing thirty max guy in Siakam. I think it makes way less
sense to think, like, well, we got to really wait on Matherin
or Nemhard or you know, Jalen Smith or Jared's Like no, no,
those those guys are like if they if they pan out to be starting caliber
players on a contender, like great, but the odds are real low that
any of them will be. And and so that's like you're not gonna gear
your whole roster building, you know, approach around a bunch of guys that
like might be rotation players on a winning team or might not. Like,
that's not how it works. I think you can comfortably say that, Like
you could say something like Nemhard I think can be contributing to a very good
team, but for sure make decision no. And they have a deficit of
players like that, which is not a bad thing because you already have the
it guy, so you don't need as many of those. Let's wait and
marinate and see what his co star rises up. I look, if they
had they're not Oklahoma City, is what you know what? Frankly, they're
not even New Orleans where it's like looking at Trey Murphy and looking at Dyson
Daniels like those two players. To me, I'm if you're looking at future
equity, who are you more intrigued by Benedick Matherin, Jarress Walker or Dyson
Daniels and Trey Murphy. Right, yeah, it's probably the ladder. I
like Murphy and Daniels better. I think it's the latter pretty comfortably, unless
you think that Jarress Walker's like the next Pascal Siakam or something. I don't
know enough yet about him. So yeah, that was why I wanted to
so you would be in on I guess I hate Framy is accelerating the timeline
because I don't think it's actually that. I think it's just capitalizing on an
opportunity that jobs with Hey, Tyrris Halberd's like really really fucking great. Yeah,
And like I think just from a like a personnel backtive in a roster
building perspective, it's difficult to think of a team, and we're probably elevating
Turner a little too high to talk about him on the level of Haliburton,
But like as book ends, those two guys might be like the easiest two
players to build whatever kind of team you want around. Because Haliburton, we've
now learned, absolutely should be on the ball like all the time. But
if he's not, he's like a just lights out shooter that's gonna kill you
from the second side if you're rotating towards him, and then Turner gives you
the spacing, gives you the shop blocking you can put. That's why I
kind of like the walker fit to circle all the way back is like,
yeah, this dude is just gonna guard everything that moves and be physical and
switch all over. Like that works with Turner, but you don't even think
that you could have a true banger like they just those two guys, Haliburton
and Turner are so easy, Like there's the whole team is plug and play,
just like, throw three other guys out there and it should work,
you know, with some exceptions. And that was the Caton Cooper had written
about this on her Patreon. Everyone should go subscribe to that like ours.
Walker gives them an element of defensive pressure that they haven't really had and they've
already kind of busted out in Summer League. I just and so like we
can get into discussion you have to give up one of those players Mathrin or
Walker in a Pascal Siakham trade in theory, I think you would pick Walker
just because, Okay, you have Siakam and Turner, and I'm assuming you
keep Turner, but like there's a chance that Walker ends up being just the
more scalable pro and easier to like contribute to winning. And so would you
look at moving Mathren and then if you it's kind of all right, could
you try and play those three dudes together, Walker, Siakaman Turner or is
this just well the Turner rumors never die down anyway, So if they move
on from him, you a Siakam and Walking in the front court, I
just I would be all in. Like if Toronto's asking prices up scene.
But like even if it was just they don't even want picks or something ridiculously
protected. Plus these two young guys for Siakam, and Siakam is staying that's
the pretext of all this. You have to consider it. You know,
what we've just done in this conversation is set up a dynamic that we're gonna
return to like a thousand times between now and the trade deadline, where we're
just like Indiana's gotta get in there, gotta make gotta do something. There's
no time to wait. They have all these assets. But I can already
feel it. This is gonna be a team we talk about constantly and are
just begging them to do something unless they go get Siakam and then we can
shut up. But like, I just you've really you've framed it for me
now where I know we're never going to get over wanting the Pacers to make
like a splashy move because it's just like they should. They just should that
that's that's it. They have to do this. Did you want did you
have another team? That you don't have another team? But I can make
one up real quick. I okay, Cleveland, I just they just jumped
out Cleveland. Yeah. Actually, so contrary to what you just said,
you didn't make them up. They are real bast exist. Yeah, they
did not exist in my brain for purposes of answering this question until when I
looked at them. So I'm still only sort of wrong. Uh. Good
offseason, I think we agree, you know, didn't do a ton,
but getting Strus we liked, and that sort of addresses the need I'm calling
into a theme here, But like it's easy to forget because of the way
they went out in the first round and like it looked. It was a
bad look for Evan Mobley, who I think if you're a believer in the
Calves, he's still sort of the central figure. If you think they're getting
to that next level, it's well, it's it'll be because Mobley becomes Kevin
Garnett or what you know, that that kind of talk, which I have
been guilty of. For sure, he looked bad in ways that are like,
oh, I don't know if that's you know, just couldn't handle the
physicality, couldn't make decisions as a role guy. Part of that was because
they had no spacing and it was easy for the NIXT to collapse on them.
But like some flaws for sure, which if you're in your second year,
you're gonna have flaws. And maybe this is this whole thing is unreasonable.
But I wonder if, but by virtue of Cleveland addressing the need we
all agreed up and down side, left and right all year they needed to
address they have a three and D guy that can play on the weighing in
struce. Now are we sure that like it does that unlock everything? And
are they now do they deserve to be discussed as like, you know,
we'll just say like the Milwaukee, Boston whatever level because phenomenal regular season have
been a really good defense and should continue to get better, like or have
they leveled up or are we still just kind of because of the way that
the postseason ended for them? Now, do we have like more questions than
just oh, they needed a small forward and that was all, you know
what I mean? Like, I think I think they had a good offseason,
but I wonder if it's consequential enough. I think it is, And
if it's not, the reason you're you're the reason the reason it won't be
is because we're going to be having a discussion about ken The's two small guards
work or I actually think it's more likely. Is it time to move on
from the Mobli Allen Dyna dynamic. And I'm not saying it can't work.
I think it still ken but offensively, Like if this wasn't enough specifically offensively,
then that's you're gonna have to start looking at that dynamic and it's you
know, maybe it's an indictment on as Evan Mobile is still not coming along
quickly enough. I think his trajectory is still just out of this world.
But if you're going to actually continue to shrink the floor, make life harder
on your guards or only give you at any given point, it's so much
harder to have more than two shot creators on the core because Mobile is not
that traditional guy. We know Alan's not going to be that guy, and
you're gonna, invariably because of having those two, you're gonna end up with
a specialist at the three or of like an accessory on both ends of the
floor. Like, yes, you have to look at breaking that up,
and can you go out and get either someone who is more of a caplock
like a cap slock four, But then that nudges Mobile to the five,
And what does your rebounding look like there when you're rebounding struggles enough during the
Alan and mobile minutes sometimes or can you get someone who's more of a like
a floor spacing five in the Alan spot who doesn't who can also help your
rebounding and like take off some of the center responsibilities defensively from mobile? Who
right now is just I have a problem if he's the answer to this question
where it's we have had, Oh, who's gonna defend wings and like some
of these like certain perimeters, like it might just be having boldly And that's
fine because you're Jared Allen there. That dynamic then changes if you move Jared
Allen, what you have to think about on the defensive end as well?
What's the last and I sorry, but what's the last small guard combo to
really have a ton of success? Like you know, you think of the
Lillard McCallum group. We're talking now about Garland and Mitchell. I'm like I'm
struggling to think of like I guess like Isaiah Thomas and Joe Dumars, Like
is that how do we need to not we can't have to go back to
Stephan Marberry and yeah, right, I forget. How could I forget?
Uh, it's just like it shouldn't be the case that like that's a disqualifier.
But it is kind of weird to think I got it. Somebody chime
in or something like tell us comments somewhere or tweet at me, and I
no, I just like I can't get over like I must be overlooking some
small guard combo. He just made me think this Tony Parker and Janovac count
I guess not. Yeah, I mean that's pretty clear. Genobley was like
six five and yeah, I don't know. It's just I first of by
the way, I don't think breaking up Garland Mitchell is like the solve.
I think it's more likely you got to break up the mobiley Allen, I
agree, And it's clearly Alan because I think you're sort of like Mobley again,
he sort of gets more important every year for them as far as is
the ceiling a championship for this franchise or not, you know, in the
next ten years. And it's just that the answer that question is it depends
on Evan Mobley, which is like a wild place to be for a guy
that just finished the second season. I made I made up a team out
of nothing. When I concocted the Cleveland Cavaliers, Do you have one you
would like to discuss or are we running short? Uh? No, We're
not running short because I think we skipped over them when we were gonna plan
on talking about them. They weren't on my initialists, like we should talk
about the Spurs and Wemby, right, I guess because it's just with some
league and the discords there. Yes, should we have buried women Yama at
like the hour forty minute of this podcast or it might be two podcasts?
At this point, I thought we were only gonna go ninety minutes, so
I might split it up into into two. Look, he's that guy,
and I said to see you before we started like actually recording, I said,
I actually didn't see his good game quote unquote good game. I only
saw the performance everyone was dragging. I came away from that. I was
just like, he's going to be one of the greatest players that we've ever
seen. This might be my favorite take of yours because because I like,
I have not heard a single person one who only saw the first game and
didn't see the second one and who based on that first game, was sold,
which is like, I don't think you're wrong, but like how I
mean how the level but the way that speaks to how great women Yama might
be is unbelievable to you. Just see what he's gonna be able to do
off the ball, and I'm bothered at all. You must have been bothered
by some of how he looked in the first game. Give me, what
were you concerned about? And I'll tell you why. That's not a concert?
Oh yeah, no, I'm so. I mean it's not. It's
not a revelation. It's like he looked sped up. He looked like he
got pushed around a little bit. He got tired, the number one thing,
and this if I have a concern about him, so we got tired
after taking his team all the way of the finals like a week, right,
Yeah, and he's been on like an incessant media tour for like eighteen
months. Who could be Britney Spears accosted him like that'll wear anybody out.
The thing was so stupid, just on both fronts. I mean, by
the way, if anyone wants to assign blame, it's on security. Well
it's not on Wemby. I don't even know if it's on Britney Spears.
It's just the whole thing was stupid. But come on, what security people
ask someone to get to get that close and allowed to get that close?
It's because you should know, is Britney Spears, who like runs Las Vegas
right now? So what are you doing anyway? Well, she doesn't.
She clearly doesn't run it because she approached a bigger star apparently and was so
the women. I'm a thing. The thing that I left the first game
thinking most about is that I'm really unclear on what you're supposed to do with
him as the Spurs offensively, you know what I mean? Do you really
want him dancing out there with a live dribble creating? Like? Is he
is he a pure three offensively? Is he a guy you know nobody posts
up anymore? But do you have him do duck ins like ten times a
game to just like steal buckets? And I don't know what you do with
him offensively? And I was always kind of unsure about that, and that
first game. The second game he looked great doing literally everything, so I
was like, well, I still don't have an answer, because apparently you
could do whatever you want with him, But the first game, I was
kind of left with the impression of, I'm I'm not sure it's going to
be easy to figure out the best way to use him on offense. That
that was my main concern. If that's even a concern after the first game,
right, and it's a good concern to have one. I think what
people need to mistake is that it might be similar with the Spurs this year
because they don't still have like that wild advantage creator like Summer League at the
time, Like that's how we decided that Desmond Bade was going to operate on
the ball more because you're giving guys opportunity agency they wouldn't normally have. So
yes, you're gonna try everything, and you're gonna have him running the offense
the east with which he got to his jump shot, and it was just
like, okay, I want to here would be my father question that did
you know early on in their career is how you were gonna use Kevin Garnett
or Kevin Durant offensively. I'm not comparing him to either of these players.
The Cavs probably st don't even know they're gonna use Evan Mobile offensively. And
we're still through the moon over the moon about my god, my word,
my verbiage. They has been off pencilate and stone through the moon moon.
So I'm just watching that. I'm just like, yeah, okay, it
doesn't need to be like super efficient or pretty all the time, like look
at look at what he's just the theory of him. And that's how I
approached Summer League, by the way, or non NBA games, and it's
also how I approach a lot of rookie and sophomore seasons. There's no science
behind it. I want to make that clear. I don't think I'm operating
on some higher level playing forty chess against everybody else. I just the theory
of Weben Yama. You could see it in practice where it's like we're having
a different discussion if okay, yeah he had pockets of time where he wasn't
made an impact. The dude, that's gonna happen when you're young. I
think on a team that you just don't have like any familiarity, Like they're
not going through a real training camp, so it'll be different once against the
gets the regular spurs. So I'm just like, and you're also you have
other guys that are like also Matt like matter here but on that Spurs team
where you're talking about like Malachai Brandams Blake Wesley specifically. Yeah, So I
just I watched that and just the theory of him shine through in practice even
when it didn't always look pretty, And I'm just like, yeah, I
was kind of wondering why he took him. It took a little while first
passing to get going in that game, but like we still saw like,
oh he can when it might be more reactive at this point, but the
reactions make a lot of sense. So I'm I'm I'm not just all It
wasn't that I wasn't all in on weheb to begin with. But I found
and I know on Twitter as Twitter as Twitter as Twitter, but like the
amount of people that weren't being facetious when they were talking shit was just like,
are you fucking stupid? Like this is just sit down and shut up,
not farting out these dumb ass takes this guy. I'm prepared to be
wrong and we can circle back that, but I came away of the impression
just like this is gonna be one of the greatest players that we have ever
watched in the NBA. So ultimately, I do I agree with you.
I just think so even in even in the bad game, because the good
game is sort of it speaks for itself. It's so funny that we're talking
about these singular games because it's all we got, Dann, we got two
games, and it's against like maybe a handful of guys that will actually play
in the NBA. And right, I still haven't seen him do it against
Marquette on a Tuesday night in January, though, A and M is gonna
do against him. No, So even in the bad game, you're right,
Like he made some passes on the move where it's like, well,
no one that tall has ever made that pass, Like just I've never seen
that before, and like really niche stupid things that no one cares about,
Like just when he throws a chess pass, like it looks he's coordinated and
he throws it like with pop and it's not one of those things where like
when some other seven footer gets the ball at the top of the arc and
he has to like make just a simple pass to the wing, You're like,
oh shit, he's gonna get that's getting stolen, Like no, no,
no, he he he moves the ball like quickly, with purpose,
with coordination. He's like he's in control of all of his limbs, which
seems physically impossible just because of how long it must take for a signal to
get from his brain to his extremities. Like he's able to do things physically.
They're just like literally in the in the first you know, a few
minutes, it's just like I've again with the passing or with you know,
the weird like his first bucket in the Bad game was like a lefty and
one that was just like I've never seen anybody that big do that, And
so there was even in the Bad Game there were a half dozen things like
that, and then the Good one was just he had a couple plays in
that one that I it was just he like, I've not seen a second
of that. Give me the give me just the biggest take with like what
one of the plays like the good game. Yeah, So in book games,
I'm pretty sure he blocked a three just like he was the guy was
squared up on him and thought he was further away, too far away to
bother it, and he just blocked the three. Uh. Those so that
happened in both. But the play in The second game was I think he
was like he beat some guys down the floor and there was a long outlet
and he caught it like around the block, but probably outside the key,
and there was at least two guys around him, obviously smaller, and he
turned and dunked it like from a distance that is not a distance you dunk
from. Uh So I had never really that jumped out as and he just
like sort of reached over the top like it was it wasn't like I'm going
through anyone. It's like I can hold the ball at a height that you
cannot bother me. So that was one and the other one he had a
putback dunk with two hands. It was basically flat footed, which was just
like, well, this seems unfair if if we're not going to need to
jump to tip dunk missus. So those were the two in the good game
that that really showcased like, yeah, he's he does different stuff like we're
not We're gonna see several things this year that have just you know, will
be shocking because we've never seen it happen before. So that's cool. I'm
so excited to watch him. Have you thought about what is like the over
under on the number of national televised games that Spurs are gonna get this year,
because it's just like even if you like because Zion and I guess a
part of the at this point it's in part because of his health. But
like even Zion, which is like, okay, came in a New Orleans,
it's just like they wouldn't be a market drawer or whatever for the national
TV and like they haven't had a ship ton. I guess he had a
bunch of rookie season. Like if we were set over under it eight,
none of them are gonna be enough. I want to make that clear every
like is that too aggressive or is that too is that not ambitious enough?
I think it's definitely we'll think of it this way. I'll bet you that
Opening Night like a will be one of the feature games whoever the Spurs are
playing, like that's you know, that'll be one that is probably gonna get
a national national coverage. And then like, honestly, I think they're flexible
enough now where it's like if he comes out hot and is putting up crazy
numbers and whether the Spurs win or not, I don't think that's halfway relevant
to how often they're gonna be on, Like if he's great, then you
might they might be on twenty five times. I don't know, they might
get like a Warriors level, National Lakers level, you know, national TV
thing, because like the he is unique in that he's just gonna do stuff
you won't see anyone else do and as like an entertainment product that makes him
like a singular thing. You know, he's just gonna fascinate like people that
don't care that much about basketball, like you gotta still be interested in Like,
look how big that guy is look like and he can do all this
cool stuff that you know, smaller like that, I feel like it's just
a universal draw. It's almost it's like it's it just looks it looks wrong
that like someone big and can do the things and is this core neated as
he is, right, Like I don't know how else is that it looks
wrong? Yeah, or something like that. It makes you think, I
don't know. It's like if you're watch those weird AI generated videos where like,
oh my god, that is not what my eyes are used to seeing.
It's a little bit like that he's an AI generated basketball player. Yeah,
I'm just and the other thing that's intriguing about the Spurs really quickly looking
at their offseason, I think they made like I would have liked this seem
them been more aggressive with their cap space, which they still have by the
way, but like you got Reggie Bullock who can actually play for you if
you want him to, and they their core is not just Wemby And we'll
do a podcast when we go through the young cores. But like Devinsell is
like a real guy. I'm so Jeremy Solway is just like he might be
there after Trey Trey Jones, Like is he just their second best bite at
the like facilitator apple right now? I think yet maybe when if you want
to throw him there, I think it's worth a trip. It's definitely you
should. That should be the approach. I think for them, it's like,
let's find out for sure if somehan is this guy, if Julian first
fans are gonna Julian Champanni is like someone that everyone is pretty high on two
there and look I was late to the party on him, but like he's
a real, like three indeed guy, and there's he can do some stuff.
I actually had a segment about him. It was like he looks very
comfortable going with his right handers left hand. Can he finish with his left
hand? That might be a question, But like this is just it's it's
a three indeed guy who's more than just a three in D guy look and
plays super hard and the super comp like he's got kind of like a little
bit of an end. He's rebounding translates to the regular season, like he's
just been like super opportunistic on the glass. But how much of that is?
Okay, well, look who he's playing against. You know, he
kind of could be like it's like what if he was like supercharged ken Rich
Williams right here? Oh that would I mean, that's a universal fit because
Kenrick Williams is getting a statue in Okay. See, so immediately anything else
Portland real quick, non non dame related Portland talk. We're gonna start end
this podcast had well we didn't start with him, but startgling back here.
I'm ready. Are you? How excited are you for Shade and Sharp and
Scoot Henderson? Because have you seen much Scoot? I mean there hasn't been
much because he got hurt, but like, did you see the at least
the highlights from Henderson's first game, Scoot looks just when I go back and
forth on whether we were unfair to Brandon Miller in like the discussions of the
gap, but you go back and you watch those Scoot highlights, it's like,
oh, yeah, there was a gap, and it's just like,
what why is Damian Miller mad? You don't want to play with this game?
That's what I mean. Like he, more than anything, justifies how
Portland is operating right now. But I was really interested. So Sharp played
in the second game with when Scoot didn't and they had, he had the
ball a ton and it didn't go great, But like he's still I think.
I think Sharp and Henderson I'm trying to I don't want to overstate it,
but like at some point one or the other of us is gonna have
to rank like young backcourts or young guard tandems or whatever. And it's like,
you know, our boss, listen to this podcast and now we're definitely
gonna that's fine, And I'll tell you now, Uh, there's gonna be
a there's gonna be a mention and along write up. Well, I won't
be long of Henderson and Shady Sharp. The Internet has made us. All
right, shorter things, that's for this long. You have the attention span
to listen for either two podcasts or a two hour one podcast. You're not
the problem. You have the attention span to handle it. But I have
to wear over two hours. I have to split this one up soally,
like part two, go look at part one. I'll be able to mash
up your your outro on the book, but I have to. I mean,
like I could publish a two hour podcast on the off chance that this
can actually be monetized, Like I feel like I have to put up too.
You know, do what you do, what you want to do.
That that's fine with me. I'm just all I'm saying is I was very
excited by Shade Sharp and Scoot Henderson for like five to ten years. I'm
I'm into that. Yeah, there are Shade Sharp. I'm not more intrigued
by him and Scoot Henderson, but he still feels like maybe because we've seen
him in the NBA, like there's just so much more for him to offer,
and I feel like that's someone who might become a defensive monster. You
could just see traces of it he has, Like the tools are all like
there's no question, he's like physically capable. It's like, does does he
want to be that which moves is like sort of like I don't know,
like a steak knife cutting through butter or Marjorine even like it's like whatever.
It's just it's incredible, and I think some of the shots he's comfortable with
take and even when they're not going in, I'm just like, so they
just have they have three guys on the roster right now, and maybe depending
on how you feel about Simon's, but I argue Sharp has the potential to
be this guy more than Simon's. But like they have three or four guys
right now on the roster with Damian ARD's like they can literally hit anything from
the perimeter in fury. Yeah, getting a bailout shot will never be a
problem when the shot clocks running to design. It's just all these bailout shots
with four seconds left on the shock box. Yeah, And I will say
that Scoot is probably going to prevent you from having too many of those possessions
because he just gets wherever he wants and either finishes or makes the correct paths.
So like those guys aren't even gonna have to do that it's like someone
who's like feeling I don't want to say next season, like I don't know
if this will be a trey. I'm a situation because maybe Dame starts the
season and I don't really know, but it's this like it's Scoot a double
digit assist guy, not right off the bat, I just mean, oh,
like ultimately, yeah, I think he's I think I think so because
he has like you know, you gotta you gotta invoke like stupid names and
I don't want to do it now to compare him, but it's just like
he has the mentality of the guy that's like I'm looking for the best shot
wherever that happens to be. But he also has like the the Derreck Rose
athleticism, and it's like I don't remember a guy that had those two things,
you know what I mean. It's like it's as if I'm not gonna
do it, I'm not gonna say it's like you have Chris Paul's brain and
Derrick Rose's athletics because that would be an insane person thing, and Damian Lord's
bail out. Yeah, you know, like the trailblazing spirit of like Bill
Russell or I don't know whatever. H No, I think. I think,
like, if he's not getting ten assists, does that mean it's because
he's getting like thirty points and he's just swing that way. So he has
that talent as a passer, is what I mean. And maybe that's I
didn't watch enough of him when he was coming out of like you know,
G League at night. I saw him like I can't. Maybe other people
will be like I just he's in a bold text passer. Yeah, and
it's like an intuitive passer where it's like those are passes you're not going to
see. He's passing guys open. He's also reacting, but it's not really
reacting, so it feels like he's read the defense like five seconds in advance,
even though we're only four seconds into the possession. How did that happen?
It's just it's wild. He I mean, it's summer League. We
should have just we should start every sentence but that we're in summer league.
Until these takes can be penciled in stone. Yes, until they're penciled in
stone, and I can't. I wish I could think me the next shirt
as we need through the moon. I just think, like it's so clear
year that he's already manipulating what's happening on the court, which just isn't a
normal thing for rookies or even almost anybody in summer league unless you get some
like veteran twenty seven year old that's been overseas or whatever kind of has the
feel that we had with a different feel where it was like, okay,
well why is why is Jay dubbed? Like playing in a summer league game
and it's a gear two that player comes in, it's he it's not even
we only needed to see him for a second. It was he shouldn't even
be in this game. Yeah, well, and it's it's for the that
specific reason of like, oh, the game's happening really slow for him and
nobody else. And that happens with second year guys because they're not all frazzled
and they've seen a full season of reps and like they've seen the pictures or
whatever, and it's like he's just playing at a different cadence and Scoot like
from moment one was that way. I mean again, he played like three
quarters of basketball, but like you see it, you see what you see,
like it's not you can't imagine that kind of feel that it was a
real thing. Yeah, and it's I guess it's just a roundabout way of
saying that this was an anti Charlotte Hornet's podcast. I don't. I just
it's too early to make any I'm actually I feel like I'm higher on Brandon
Miller after watching Brandon Miller than most people and then what it was before.
But I just based off what Scoot is doing. I know you have a
melo, but you have to be feeling a little and maybe I'm sure NBA
teams and execs are just better of not reading too much into some rely than
we are. And also they're not being exposed to Scoot and Brendon Miller for
really, like we have outlines of these players going into the draft because we
don't really touch them until they come into the league. I touch them,
We're not grabbing them, we don't really cover them to it. I'm all
over the place to say we need to add this. Please take this out
of here, alright, you don't want to keep going. I'm just saying
you can't if you're Charlotte. There just has to be a sense of there
has to be a lingering, at least a teen te tiny bit of massively
impactful, existential dread going it just like an eye dropper full of full blown
panic. Well, so here, I don't see the scenario where Brandon Miller
has anything close to the just the star upside. I think he's probably gonna
be a really good player for a long time just because of his position and
skill set. But it's like, I mean, I think Scoop might be
a generational point guard. And that's like kind of the consensus at this point,
and sort of was the consensus even before the draft. So what are
we doing? Like, how was this ever? I don't. I mean,
so here's I'll take us out, I promise. But now you got
me thinking about the Hornets that they're gonna be there. Ah, this is
it. They're gonna be the team. Whenever we say, don't draft for
fit, don't do it. Don't ever draft for fit. Remember the Charlotte
Hornets when they passed on fourteen time All Star Scoot Henderson because they liked Brandon
Miller, who averaged twenty a game like twice. That that's why, all
right, that we have mercifully we're gonna end this, which you couldn't mention,
You didn't take us out in the sense of that you're listening to part
one or part Yeah. No, I don't know whether you listen to part
one or part two. Neither of us knows which way is up at this
point. And if we seem really loopy at the end of a short hour
long podcast, it's because this is actually part of a much longer podcast we
did. Dan said this at the top, and he always says it,
and I always say it. Follow us on all of our socials at Hardwood
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I will be sporting it possibly by the next time we go pod up.
And yeah, thanks everybody. We're going to close this with a shout
out to Frank Nilikina and an apology you to charrydow