What is kracklacing fellow thermonuclear a efforts. I am Dana Valley, joined as
always by my certified fantabulous co host, mister Grant Hughes. It is Peace
or Panic Time, which we're putting a unique spin on a recycled idea.
We think where we're gonna go through. We'll start with the Eastern Conference.
It'll be a two part podcast, and we're gonna do every team, and
sometimes when we're talking about the essence of an entire team to panic, that
will be the discussion. But otherwise we're gonna look even for the really good
teams, the really pleasantly surprising teams, identify a trend or something that might
be troubling, and then decide whether it's worth panicking or this will just normalize
and let's just show peace and patience and process. What have you? Usual
housekeeping notes very quickly, justbscribe if you haven't already, Apple, Spotify,
YouTube, follow us on the socials. Links that are the podcast and YouTube
description. Join our discord, which I will include also the link to that
in the podcast and YouTube description, and we have merch The links to those
are in the podcast and YouTube description. If you've done us, done all
those things and supported us in all those ways. Please consider telling people about
us, spread the word. We love you all and appreciate everybody's support who
listens to this. And finally, I'm gonna try and keep my talking to
a minimal on this one. It's Grant show because I am I am.
I can't use the word deathly. I am lethally ill at the moment,
and so if my energy is not there, if my voice starts to crack,
I will pull back and not talk as much. My voice is okay
right now, so I can talk. But if Grant, if you notice
I start giving you short answers, I'm not mad at you, just because
I don't want to sound like I'm going through puberty in real time. Well,
I wouldn't want to rob the listeners of that potential for comedy, but
I understand. I've definitely the podcast game is not a great game to be
in if you're halfway losing your voice and have to keep speaking for over an
hour. So, uh, you know, I sympathize, and I will
I will try to speak. Let's see, should I talk more to fill
the space or should I talk less? So it's not as obvious that you're
also talking less. We also up front also so that people like, why
are we again listening to an eight hour podcast from these two jackasses? Like,
just listen to it at like three X speed and it won't be eight
hours anymore. Have you listened a three X speed? I tried to pull
back to one and a half and I'm already up to one point seventy five
on most And then the other day I was on two and I was like,
if only these things went faster. I don't think Apple podcasts give me
the option to go to three time speed. Do you ever worry that if
you listen to a lot of podcasts on two X, for example, like
one and a half, I think you can get to the point where you
don't really even notice it anymore. And then if you listen to that at
regular speed it sounds weird. But if you I worry like, if I
listen to stuff on two X, which I don't do very much, I'm
gonna start speaking really fast and everyone's gonna think I'm a crazy person because it's
just penetrate my brain. Does this explain why I sound like a coked up
fiend? If you listen to just to me on two X because I talk
so fast as I'm listening to everyone else on I can't listen. If people
listen to me on two X, kudos to them. We get I used
to get trolled all the time. I think people just have accepted it.
I'm not gonna slow down. The only one person that I think sounds or
speaks not. I'm not saying I'm the fastest. But have you ever listened
to Locked on Jazz with David Locke. Yes, he is on eleven or
twelve. I'm on eleven and he's on twelve, and so he talks so
fast. Listening to him on two X, which I have done, by
the way, it's just a certain podcasts. You're You're, I just I
want to make sure I'm supporting and also listening to all this different contents.
I'm like, I need to squeeze this in. But if I want to
sit down and enjoy a podcast, I'm like, I'm put on one point
seventy five. I'm gonna live. I'm gonna live wild right now. I'm
gonna treat myself. Yeah, I've gotten to a point where one and a
half on some podcasts sounds really slow, though, that's not the problem.
You actually do have a problem. If that's where you're at, that's that's
Uh, it doesn't sound slow. It's like I feel like a lot of
the time on two X I I'm not even processing what's being said, Like
I understand words are being spoken, but it's just I can't catch up to
it. You sound fantastic on one and a half speed, maybe because I
speak to your perfect cadence. Yeah, so I should. So what you're
telling the note you're giving me is grant talk faster. So there are people
on one x the normal speed. You sound halfway decent, got it?
No, I'm saying I'm incoherent on one and a half. So if anyone's
listening to me on two X, you're on one and a half. Your
because I've listened back to our podcast at points to try and just like again,
there I go. I want to cut out my likes. You sound
great on one and a half. If I have to listen to myself on
one and a half or two, it's it's too fast. I don't like
listening to myself under any circumstances. So I don't really have a strong opinion
on how I sound at various speeds. I do know, and I just
did it right now. The ums. Are you aware of your verbal tics?
You don't really have any. I think you have enough reps to where
yours are pretty minimal. I if I listen to myself, I'm immediately incredibly
annoyed by all of my pauses and ums, and like, I'll catch myself
repeating the same phrase, you know, at minute five, and then again
at minute forty, or then again three different times, because it's like,
well, it's rattling around my brain. I better just say this dumb thing.
We both do the repeating of phrases, and I call it out sometimes,
like for me podcast saying this is gonna be the phrase of the podcast.
Apparently I still have the likes. And it's because I edit us so
much for the shorts that I'm aware of it, and you have the I
even said it. I think once on a SO episode, I have the
I'm the like guy and you're the um yep guy. And so your pauses,
though, don't bother me at all. They make they're very easy to
chop up. When I'm doing shorts. It's a favor to you that I
can't form a thought without stopping halfway through the uzz and the likes get annoying
to cut out because they're sometimes in the middle of thoughts and so when you're
like having to separate words with the US and the likes. Our listeners are
super awesome though, because they don't and viewers. We never get shit for
that really, so I very much appreciate everyone just powering through it. They
did ask, though, how much editing we do on full episodes in the
mail bag. I think I think Austin had it, And surprisingly, the
full episodes are just like I'm throwing them up there. Yeah, it's the
clips and the shorts where I'm putting in real time to edit. So like,
thank you, guys, like thank you. I think that. I
think leaving mistakes and poor turns of phrase is endearing. That's how I'm gonna
frame it. We're just regular guys, you know, we're no nobody's perfect.
We're just doing the best we can. Uh. Oh, I see
now, I'm gonna think every time I do it, and I don't know
what direction I need to go with the next thing. I'm gonna say.
I'm gonna be in my own head so bad on this pod We shouldn't have
done this. We shouldn't started talking about this before we get to Eastern Conference.
Piece or Paddock, Do you want to go through some news? Since
sure, I'll start with the Nets here, since that's the first item.
Ben Simmons, who has not played since November sixth, is set to miss
additional time while he battles a nerve irritation in his hip and lower left side.
Brian Lusa New York Post reports Cam Thomas, still in the Nets,
is still out with the sprain ankle. This Ben Simmons thing not great,
considering the ups and downs his back has put him through over the last couple
of years. Right, and anytime I'm not even close to a doctor when
I hear nerve not great. Yeah, I'm just I'm over Hornets Miles Bridges.
This is a statement from the Charlotte Hornets. Miles Bridges is eligible to
return to our active roster on Friday after serving his NBA suspension. We are
comfortable with Myles returning to play based on our current understanding of the facts of
the recent allegations, and remain in contact with the NBA as that matter proceeds
through the core process. For anyone who has forgotten and I don't know why
you would. He served the balance of a thirty games, which was ten
games this year after pleading no contest to a fellony domestic violence charge. Another
arrest warrant that dates back to January came to light, like a few weeks
ago, and then another criminal summons was issued for an incident that happened earlier
in I believe it was October. This is I want to know what information
they know that makes them comfortable having this guy on the court, and we
can let the due process play out. But this is that is a it's
a cringey ass statement. I don't know what else to say about that.
I don't know what the right words other than he's not going to play for
us would have been. I'm sorry. After that second, I want to
make it clear the first one I would have got, he shouldn't be this.
These are players. If you believe in redemption, I get it.
This is now happening a second time afterwards, in the details of that second
summons were harrowing. This guy should not be in the league. Yeah,
it's just quite frankly, Yeah, moving on to less cringey, the scruggle
Bulls are the next team here. Zach Lavine and the Bulls are open to
a trade per Shampstrania. Great, good job, fellas, we're getting there.
We'll talk. That'll be more about the Bulls. But that's franchise malpractice
that it happened eleven games into the season day in the offseason before sure.
Additionally, ten plus teams are expected to show interest in Alex Crusoe per Mark
Stein. DeMar DeRozan remains away from the team due to personal reasons. I
forget where I saw it, but there was also some indication that DeRozan would
be someone that maybe the Lakers were interested in. I mean, that's been
kind of floating around forever. So no news there. The Bulls like tiptoeing
around the blow up that should have happened quite a while ago, so you
know, and they might come up in the Eastern Conference piece for panic,
I don't know it may or may not. Denver Nuggets they signed head coach
Michael Malone to an extension that will make him among the NBA's highest paid coaches.
Extremely well deserved, I would say, just want a title and the
relationship he's built with his players, even though some of his rotations can get
a little stubborn, and he's probably been a little bit better about that this
year. Just well deserved. I respect the hell out of the relationship he
has with his players, and this is also just we talk about it all
the time, but it's really cool how much leeway or time the Nuggets were
given to turn into this. It's not even a title team. They're just
a juggernaut. They are a juggernaut. Yeah, Warriors and Wolves got them
one together here. Steph Curry is set to miss an undisclosed amount of time
with the sprain right knee. It's not considered serious. There was no structural
issue showed on the MRI he took, but still, given his age,
given how vital he is to the team, anything going wrong with him as
you know, a five alarm fire. Draymond Green got suspended five games for
putting Rudy Gobert in a headlock. That is the longest suspension for Encore conduct
I think I saw since then Metal World Peace got seven games for the for
elbowing James Harden. That's I think twenty twelve when I saw shot cra Yeah,
that was you knew that was that was going to be an issue right
then, but pretty significant suspension for the Adam Silver era and frankly not unwarranted
given the track record. I also like, yeah, we're gonna get take
us ten years to get through this spot if we keep having tangents. But
like, I like, I like that Joe Dumars is looking at like past
behavior and saying, you're just a habitual uh violator of various rules and we're
gonna treat you a little bit more harshly. That's that's fine, Like that's
how the world works that whole. I don't mean to laugh, but he
comes in to break up the fight and just puts real Bert to headlock when
two other dudes are fighting, and I'm sorry. The war You know,
the Warriors broadcast is awful. I'm not breaking any news here. Their spin
on that was so disgusting they had I think it was fits said no punches
were thrown, which is good. Are you fucking kidding me? And that's
just the factual statement. Also, no punch is not being thrown as bad?
Is that what you're saying? No? I yeah, I I didn't.
I wasn't. I was watching the Wolves broadcast because that's one of the
best broadcasts in the league, and I love it and and they were surprisingly
measured but were very clear on he's absolutely needs to be thrown out. There
will absolutely be suspensions. They were fairly sober about it. The Warriors one
I didn't hear, but I don't need to have heard it to know exactly
what the tone was. And the other thing, too, is just that
there was I think Tom Habitstrow posted something where it's like Draymond Greens suspensions or
ejections are disproportionately high in games that oh yeah, well Wredy Gobert called him
out. Did you see that quote about how he basically everybody must know about
that if you're listening to this podcast, I can't I can't imagine that you're
not aware of the quotes from Gobert after the game, but it was basically,
well, I was thinking beforehand that with Steph out, he's definitely going
to get tossed out because he basically doesn't like to play without his guy or
you know, I love thee Yeah, it was, it was definitely.
I mean, then the numbers back it up, so that's that's kind of
fun. Additionally, Gobert, speaking of and Klay Thompson and Jade McDaniels,
who started the whole thing by like playing tugga or with each other's jerseys,
will each find twenty five grand. No suspensions for either of those any of
those three guys. The Clippers, multiple reports have said that they have been
relegated to the G League. No Dannuel Tye is expected to sign with the
Clippers after completing a buy out with the Pacers. He gave Indye back a
little over two million dollars, which not coincidentally is basically the amount that will
be offset when he signs with the Clippers. The Lakers announced Thursday that gave
Vincent Lefnie's progressing in his recovery and will be re evaluated in two weeks.
The Memphis Grizzlies have been granted a disabled Player Exception worth six point three million
by the NBA for the season ending loss of Steven Adams. They have until
March eleventh to use the DPE. They can use it to sign a player
for one year or acquire someone who only has one year left on his contract.
However, they currently have fifteen players on the standard roster, in addition
to also having John Morant on the suspended list, So if they're going to
use it, there's going to need to be some roster for naggling there.
And if you do remember, they used part of the mL who signed bizmac
Biambo. The Pelicans announced Monday that Larry Nance Junior has been diagnosed with a
right rib fracture and will be reevaluated in ten to fourteen days. The Pelicans
stay snake bit Kelly Rubridge Jr. I went over this in the solo mailbag.
When he was hit by a moving vehicle ribs. He's resumed, has
broken ribs, fractured ribs, has resumed taking part in light work, the
Sixers said, and the team has hoped that he could return to game action
in around two plus weeks. There's also I don't know if you saw the
TMZ video floating around about him coming. I don't know. I hope he
sent him or his agent sent them that tape of his ring camera. Otherwise
that's scary as hell. And I also just that we're just conditioned to doubt
people because this is someone who's new to the city and couldn't give the correct
look. He clearly had injuries. It was just and he's also a known
like bike enthusiast, and so nothing disaligned with what reality was that those reactions
made me that was the camera. I don't know who sent it. If
it wasn't Kelly Rubridge, you're his camp to kind of clear up if people
thought he was lying, which imagine feeling that you needed to send that because
you were, oh, is he lying that? Like the line of questioning
on it was just like that. Nick Nurse even had to say, Oh,
we're gonna believe our player. Yeah, no shit, I just I
think people deserve benefit of the doubt until proven otherwise, And so that that
whole thing was just, eh, yeah, we all got to get rid
of our ring cameras, unless Amazon ever wants to sponsor this podcast, in
which case we should all have lots more ring cameras than we haven't put them
inside our house. Robert Williams, the third for the Blazers, underwent successful
surgery Monday to reconstruct a torn ligament in his right knee after he sustained a
p teller dislocation and is expected to make a full recovery ahead of twenty four
to twenty five. And finally, the Wizards announced on Saturday that Delann Wright
will miss appropximately four to six weeks with a knee injury. I'm actually kind
of happy for him that he doesn't have to deal with what's happening on the
court anymore in Washington. The Eastern Conference piece or panic, Grant, are
you ready? And so the way we split this up is Grant handled the
East and so he'll be driving the bus here and then I handled the Western
Conference. We'll obviously give thoughts to respond. There will be certain teams that
we allocate more time to just because of the nature of the piecer panic elements.
Yes, and I have anything else to add to that. Not really,
This is a good example here. I'm just we'll just go alphabetically and
it'll be I'm confident we're going to get the alphabet correct this time. So
an issue here, as I'm sure many are aware, a lot of things
have looked pretty good for the Atlanta Hawks. Trey Young is not shooting the
ball well at all, and some of these stats may be like a day
Actually I don't think so, because we're recording this Thursday night and the Hawks
aren't playing tonight, for example, so it's pretty light slate. So Trey
Young is I'm trying to find the stats that I had in the article here
basically, but essentially, he's on pace to post the worst shooting numbers from
from two to from three. He's under thirty percent from three. I think
he's pretty comfortably under forty percent from two. And this is all weird,
right, because Quinn Snyder's gonna get him moving off the ball more, which
sort of has happened. But it's also true that the Hawks are throwing twenty
five more passes per game than they did last year. They're way more efficient
on cuts, So like some of the Snyder stuff, it is definitely happening,
right. And the offense itself has been good. But and that is
in spite of Trey Young really just not shooting the ball well at all.
Are we how concerned are we about this? Dan? Is this something that
you know? Trey Young has a very specific playing style that he's kind of
been able to utilize over all of his NBA career. Very ball dominant,
very pick and roll heavy. It doesn't have to do much when he doesn't
have the ball. That's all changed now. I guess if you're panicking,
that's something you might point to as he's not adjusting well to a different role,
or is this just noise and we don't need to worry about it.
Oh, it's I would say it's piece a cap block piece here, because
Okay, maybe he's not comfortable firing more shots up off the catch, which
he has done this year from three, and it's still such a small part
of his game. Maybe his pull up jumper, there's pull back. He's
shooting twenty four percent on pull up threes. The big thing for me is
just, okay, this is not he's shooting Most of his three pointers,
by the way, have been open or wide open, and so he's getting
more wide open threes this year than last. Yeah, fourteen of fifty one
on open and wide open threes. That's not he's going to hit his open
and why if he keeps getting those looks, he's not shooting twenty seven and
a half percent on open and wide open threes for the rest of the year.
And I'll point out very quickly, defense is still just overreact to him,
and so he's able to get to the foul line and kind of offset
a lot of the efficiency was that he's dealing with from from the field.
All right, kind of another niche one here moving to the Boston Celtics,
so they are I guess you would say that the problem Boston has had historically,
or at least in this iteration of the team, is the offense stagnates
at the worst possible times. It has arguably cost them a title. It
definitely has contributed to their you know, they've had playoffs success and that they've
always make the playoffs. They tend to advance pretty deep most years. But
when things go sideways for Boston, it's that the offense stagnates, they can't
generate good shots and so on and so forth. We've seen it several times
and that's still kind of the case this year. And the thing I pointed
to that you know, caught my attention at least is they're twenty first and
assist percentage, and like the whole you need a bunch of passes per game
where you need a high assistrate to be a good offense. That's not necessarily
true, but it is striking to me that Boston is twenty first and assist
percentage after being fifth last year. So like and the fact that you're essentially
playing two point guards because you have Drew Holliday and you have Derek White out
there together. I think having porzingis playing more. I guess in Robert Williams'
spot is I don't know, maybe a wash because Williams could pass it.
I think that was kind of an underappreciated skill of his. So I guess,
like the bottom line is the Celtics offense is still really good. It's
you know, top five inefficiency that there's nothing that looks to me like this
is a team that's, oh my god, these offensive issues are gonna get
in the way of them winning a title, except like the problems that they've
had are still kind of there. So I don't know panic would be strong.
But I'm curious what your take is on the Celtics offense and are we
making too much out of the fact that, like the personnel is very much
changed, but the like the one kind of little issue that we worry about
with them is still present. Yeah, it's still a piece for me,
I might be more that. I think when you combine it, it'd be
closer to maybe that's something in between sort of what would be in between peace
or panic on the scale patients like peace basically like this awkward discomfort or something
because they're also not getting to the rim at like they take. It's almost
half their shots are coming from three, it's forty five percent. Are outrageous,
And then you look at their shot frequency everywhere else and they're just in
the bottom ten or worse because they're still relyed on the three, which is
fine relative to their personnel. But now when you're talking about the playmaking passing
deficit on top of oh a rim frequency deficit, and they're seventeenth, I
believe in foul a tenth rate right now. That is something where it's okay,
Could these forces in the playoffs combine to form more of a major issue?
Is that fair to say? Which is why I would land somewhere.
I'm gonna skew towards peace, but somewhere in between people when we're looking specifically
at the postseason, where oh, okay, could this do anything to derail
them? I think it's good. I don't remember what they ranked in turnover
eight last year, but they're in the top five of turnover eight this year.
They were top seven last year as well too. Apparently, as I
look at it, I just they're so good and I missed on them already
with my concerns that I can't. I can't reasonably go panic here. That's
right, you were a little more you were pre drew holiday trade though,
yeah, yeah, true, that change a lot of things all right on
on how good the Celtics were going to be meant like piece or Paddock here,
where did you land on the spectrum? I mean, it's it can't
be panic because you know, the baseline numbers are all still so good,
and just when you watch this team play, it's, you know, those
six guys are just I mean, and like you know, they they beat
the Sixers without Jalen Brown and without Porzingis, and you know the Sixers played
well for stretches. So I can't. It would be hard for me to
think of the thing that's happening with Boston that would cause me to panic.
But like the reason I focused on this is is this is the issue,
and I don't know like what the root cause. And maybe it's just the
way that Tatum plays, like he loves to just find ways to get jumpers
when things are going bad instead of you know, I don't know, moving
the ball for open shots or getting the basket. I'm not panicking, It's
just I want to flag it, and it's something I'm in a monitor just
to see if these stagnant episodes like persist, he's panic or percolating. So
we're kind of into percolating or percolating. Just yeah, that's let's go with
that, all right. The Brooklyn Nets are next up. So I don't
know where you were on Brooklyn coming into the season or even late last year.
I just thought this team had the chance to be just a dynamite,
like such a good defense, and maybe they'll get there, and that's why
we're doing piece of panic here. But some of the numbers that like blew
my mind. A team with and granted there have been injuries, but you've
got Claxton, you've got Bridges, you've got Finney Smith, you got Royce,
O'Neil, cam Johnson, Ben Simmons, a lot of link Dennis Smith
juniors on this team. That all he's in the league because he can defend.
They are twenty ninth in steels per game, and I think either twenty
ninth or dead last in opponent turnover rate. That seems impossible to me because
this is an entire team of just long arms. That's all, Like,
that's all this is is just you know, seven foot wingspans all over the
floor, and they're not making other teams uncomfortable. And the other thing that
that really like has a negative effect on is what is otherwise a very good
transition offense. So the nets are because of all these long athletic guys that
when they get out on the break the results are good, but they don't
get out on the break as often as they ought to, and so they're
squad there's leaving low hanging fruit unpicked. I think was the phrase I want
to use here. If you can generate steels which they should be able to
force turnovers, which they should be able to, you can prop up your
offense, which otherwise isn't great as long as cam Thomas isn't hitting like contested
you know, turnaround, double turnaround, three hundred and sixty degrees, spinning
eighteen footers. You got to run a little bit. They can't do it,
so piece or panic on the nets inexplicably not being an awesome defense.
I think they're twenty first overall. But the turnover forcing stuff is the failure
to force turnovers and make offenses panic. To use the word of the day
is troubling to me. I think you kind of have to go with closer
to panic than peace and if you don't want to take a definitive stance here.
As you said, there's been injuries. Claxon missed a bunch of time
where we mentioned that Ben Simmons is going to be out for a minute.
You look at their top end lineup which has been used this season of Ben
Simmons Spencer did when he cam Thomas mckal bridges and Tory Finney Smith. That
one speaks to, oh, look how much time Claxton missed. They have
a one on one defensive rating. So there's the top end talent is there.
But I think you have to ask yourself are they going to all be
available enough together to actualize what is going to be the best version of this
defense And the fact that they I think they're one of the teams that have
gotten a little bit fortunate on opponent three point shooting. Opponents are hitting,
yeah, thirty four percent of their threes against Brooklyn and so maybe that's not
ridiculously low, but that's something that could come up. And I'm not too
worried about what's been happening at the rim I know that they're not particularly big
or strong, but having Claxton back. I think it was Matt Moore was
on the Lockdown NBA podcast or it said something about where he doesn't you know,
he thinks that Claxton's better as a switcher and he's not really a good
rim protector. I just really disrespectfully disagree, and I don't if I'm taking
what he said out of context. I think he can be not even just
as a helper, you can be a good straight up when rim protector.
Having him back will help. But I would just be Okay, this Ben
Simmons stuff, you're now dealing with the Claxton injury. I'm just sort of
like and some of the lines that you have to cobble together to make sure,
well, these two we don't know if they can play together. We
need to make sure there's enough offense on the floor. I'm gonna just go
to a little bit more towards panic, especially if you're standard I'm assuming you're
on panic. If you thought they were gonna be like a top five or
seven defense, yeah, I mean it's as much. Yeah, that's really
what it is. Is just this the way they've played so far, deviates
so much from expectations that I kind of am thrown for a loop, and
I'm closer to panic than peace. For sure, they are since I put
these stats together. They are running more still, but their their transition efficiency
is just like off the charts, absurdly good. So they should be like
the number They should be like the number one transition frequency team, and they're
just okay. Charlotte Hornets. This is a simple one too many fouls.
So they are let's see, last in the league in scoring confiiciency a year
ago. They're tenth in points per hunter prossessions, so the offense is going
fine. They're twenty eighth in opponent free throw rate. A lot of this
is Nick Richards, who's averaging over six fouls per thirty six. That's not
good. That's like Mitchell Robinson a couple of years ago, Territory. You
don't want that. Brandon Miller's hurt, but he was over four fouls per
thirty six. LaMelo's over four per thirty six. This is a minor niche
point, but like, I just don't see this getting better because of the
personnel on this team. It is weird though, because Steve Clifford teams tend
to not do this, so it is also in addition to like not a
real problem, it's very out of character. So that's just a small one
for Charloie here. But yeah, if you're if you're not gonna be a
great defense, you also just can't foul all the time because then there's just
no hope And it doesn't really doesn't matter how good your offense is. You're
not going to be a playing team, which is a low bar. But
if you're if you're putting teams on the line all the time and your defensive
structure just doesn't you know, because of the personnelity isn't great. Uh,
it's it's caused for some panic for me, like with the understanding that what
we're panicking about is not Charlotte, Like Charlotte's not gonna win fifty games.
Now it's like, well, now they might not be a playing team.
Yeah, that's just I don't know how that's going to get better necessarily with
their with their personnel. I think that's I don't know, is it something
to panic over. I mean, when you have the worst defense in the
league and Steve Cliffords your head coach, I know, opponents are shooting like
forty percent from three against them. That's probably just something outright to panic about.
I don't know how much. You know. Turnovers could be contributing to
a little bit, but they're like middle of the road there as well.
I think you have to go towards panic here, and a lot of that
is just honestly, one of the most impressive defensive players for them this year
has been Brandon Miller. It's been really good on that end. But as
you mentioned, when you're dealing with a lot of young younger and then also
what is I don't really want to talk about him like Miles Bridges coming back
into the fold, what does his timing and shape look like. I don't
think that's going to necessarily help this. I was curious, though, there
is a separate issue where you landed on just are you at all concerned that,
Okay, LaMelo Ball's efficiency at the basket has not been great or does
it matter more that which is, by the way, it's never been great,
Or does it matter more that, oh, LaMelo Ball is just attacking,
attacking, attacking more. I think i'd I probably view it, I'd
view the aggression as a positive, but I just don't think he's ever going
to be someone that finishes at like, I don't know what you'd you know,
above average for his you think he'll ever finish at sixty percent at the
rim. He's at me because he's at his career. He's actually so it's
I mean, he's pretty consistent rookie year, fifty three percent at the rim,
fifty four percent as a sophomore, fifty four percent in this third year,
and fifty five percent this year, which would be a career high.
No, I mean, I don't I want to look at these numbers to
see what the percentile ranks are for him. He's in the forty second percentile,
so it's not terrible. But I'm just looking at I I value the
volume as you do. I'm just very curious as to I was honestly shocked
you didn't go with that. But I guess his percentage probably ticked up a
little bit over the past few games. I think. I think I like
the idea that he's attacking more in general, but I was kind of sold
on this idea that, oh, he would be someone who could be a
really good finisher at the basket based off the angles he can use and how
smart he is, and I'm starting to question that. Yeah, I think
there's kind of a there's kind of a a broader set of concerns about him.
I think Zach Low wrote a lot about it, about how just the
way he operates in the pick and roll, because I think partly because of
the lack of a threat as a finisher that he is he he you know,
is it prior to this year anyway, wasn't you know, getting like
he wouldn't put the defender on his back and pin him there and then go
try to score. He would kind of turn the corner and get off the
ball beat too early and just not stress the defense like you want someone in
that position to do, taking another dribble, threatening to score before drawing a
defender and moving it. He just has some like he's obviously his vision's ridiculous.
He can throw every pass in the book. He you know, can
read the floor really quickly. But I think it's sort of his the weirdness
of how he operates in the pick and roll, while not ineffective, I
think is still sort of tied to like he's just not he doesn't like,
you know, he doesn't spring off the floor he's big for his position,
and he's long, but like he has to try to convert these difficult like
running floaters and like you know, little push shots and and and flips that
are just like, I don't know, a couple feet farther away than you
want those types of shots to be taken from. So he's just gonna he's
got a weird finishing package. And and so I agree, I don't know
if you said this. He's in the ninetieth percentile among points at his position
in rim attempt frequency, which is like, yeah, thirty five per shots
or we're coming from the exact rat I mean, which is great. And
that comes in in conjunction with like his his longer mid range shots are just
those are out of his diet. Now he just doesn't shoot those anymore.
So like from a process perspective, that's great. I just don't know if
he has the tools. If he does become a really good finisher near the
basket, it'll be be like, it's not gonna look like other good finishers
near the basket. Look, it'll just be he gets really good at the
types of shots that you know are hard to make, Like he'll make a
bunch of Yokic, you know, awkward floaters and just become good at that.
Let's see where do we have next to go? Alphabet in Chicago?
Here we go? I don't know what I mean. Should we just say,
like the whole thing is worth panicking over? Is it? Yeah?
I mean it's piece or panic in Chicago? Is it? I would it
be to frame it this way? Are you at peace that it seems like
they might be ready to blow it up? Or is it panic mode that
they Why did they let it get to this point where they didn't do this
over the offseason because you can say, well, Zach Lavine, they shopped
him over the summer and he wasn't gonna get a lot. What makes you
think he's gonna get more now that you've waited for James Harden, Damian Lowder,
and Drew Holliday all to be relocated. And I'm at I mean,
it's a panic I think because of what it says about the overarching pitcher of
the Bulls that it took the report comes out eleven games into the season.
That's not if you're a team that if you have a team you actually believe
in or you're not fooling yourself into or you know, what you're doing.
You need more than eleven games to make this decision. The fact that it
came to a head so soon in the season proves to me that the process
behind the scenes is horrid. I just don't I wish wouldn't you like to
know if what the front office or even like Billy, I mean, Billy
Donovan, I'm sure is it's different with a coach because like, yeah,
I believe in these guys were gonna, you know, just try to get
better every day, blah blah blah. But like, what do you what
did the front office think was going to be meaningfully different this year or what,
you know, what were their realistic expectations. I would love to know.
I'd love to have been a fly on the wall, you know,
when they've had the real let's like what's the state of the team kind of
conversations at a high level, because like there was no reason to believe I
mean, you know, maybe you thought we wouldn't have a player's kick the
coach out of the locker room after game one. I'm gonna never stop bringing
that up because that's so nuts to me. But like, just for you
know, I just thought this team was you could win forty two games or
something like that, Like that's a pretty you know, not best case,
but that's you know, on the high side of the outcome spectrum for them,
and that hasn't happened. And now it's pretty clear things are stale,
Guys don't like seem to like playing with each other. There's still just I
just don't understand what the expectation was. So this is all just I'm agreeing
with you, like this is panic because all of the issues that have arisen
were either already there and understood or eminently foreseeable. So I just I don't
know. The one the little niche thing I had was Demarta Rosen is now
not making mid range jumpers, which is just like a sign of imminent catastrophe
because that's the one thing you could always count on. But yeah, just
across the board, the Bulls are very panic worthy. Is there if we're
going through their players that I think they wind up keeping Patrick Williams just because
I don't know what you could get for him now, and you might as
well see it through. I know that they demoted him, but he had
what game was I watching from them? Where it was I tweeted, I
was just like, I can't quit Patrick Williams because he makes these defensive plays.
He'll hit the threes. I think he winds up saying I think the
names are Cruso, de Rozen and Levine and Vouch would be sort of a
sneaky short term acquisition for a team that I mean, you know, Memphis,
depending on what salary matching to like have vouchin there while Steven Adams is
out, that could that could be something they look at. But now you
have to deal with, Oh, he's under contract now for the next few
years and so it might be harder to move him. The three players I'm
looking at the most, I mean, honestly, if I'm being I'm being
I want to see Iotis MoU somewhere else. But maybe if he stays he'll
get even more of a shot. But even Javon Carter coun interest teams,
they're just any destinations player fits that you particularly like. Yeah, I'm just
kind of fascinated by the Levine piece of it. I think all those guys
you mentioned are I mean, everybody should be you know, there will be
a bunch of December fifteenth, like caveats on there because of so many guys
had signed this past offseason and can't move until then. But the Levine thing,
you know, I'm sure you've had to come up with fake Levine trades
at some point this year. And I have two, and it's the Sixers
always, you know, get brought up and like, I don't think anybody
loves that fit, but it's just like I'll send him there because he's probably
the best Alex Caruso to Afilly instead. I mean, Alex Crusoe fits anywhere.
He's kind of I was thinking the other day, this is a tangent.
We need to come up with a category of player that's just like,
this guy fits anywhere, And Alex Cruso is definitely on that list. Contavious
Colbell, Pope. And then there's somebody else who I can't remember who it
was that was. We called him infinitely scalable, Infinitely scalable. Yeah,
that's that's a definite. That's a danism. Infinitely scalable. Yeah. Do
you so where if you could send Levine like the best, forget the return
packages, forget how if they want him, Like, where does Zach Levine
make the most sense? Do you have? Like, is there a team
that jumps to mind. There are a couple one Minnesota timberwol fans got mad
at me because I said, this doesn't make sense for the Bulls, but
Towns for Zactlyne would be an interesting challenge. Trade Towns has been I was
talking about this in the discord with someone where they said Towns has been good
defensively all season. I at the beginning, just a lot of the off
ball stuff. He's actually been good defensively from what I've seen, like a
lot more lately. And so if you're the Wolves, maybe you wouldn't make
that trade. I think it's Orlando. I hate that. I think it's
Orlando too. I think so first of all, you try to send every
single guard who can make it to Orlando's that you're one hundred percent correct,
that's right. Although Jalen Suggs has been better, I'm ready. I'm not.
I'm maybe ready to wash the Magic have the equity to where it's if
you don't want to give up. But like I think you probably have to
give up Anthony Black, which I wouldn't or jail and Sugs and Melvine trade.
But theoretically, if you didn't want to and you just did money and
all picks. You don't need to give up Sugs or Black. You're definitely
not. You know, Franz and Polo are non starters. Of course,
you don't need to give up any of the players that you have any equity.
And it's like, look, you have the matching salaries of Dary Harris's
there, Jonathan Isaac's there. You don't even need to trade Martel Foltz as
part of the deal if you don't want to. What do you think about
the Magic sending Wendell Carter Junior and Franz Wagner and another first rounder to the
Bulls for Vucevich? Do you think that would be a good trade? Not
great? So I think it's Orlando. What about Alex Caruso? I know
you said he fits anywhere. I know there, I saw a lot of
people were. Philly's been a big one, Denver's been a big one.
I don't even know, given Christian Browns on even start to this season,
I don't I don't know if one the Nuggets want to give up the wing
for a small guard who's afraid to shoot, And I just don't know if
the Bulls do that. And you just don't have first round equity to trade.
Are there any other teams where it's like, oh, he goes there,
I mean kind of a complete game changer. Well, I mean Milwaukee
needs him because now, I mean he's not gonna guard the same guy's crowder
is. But you just lost John and Content in seconds? Is that like,
No, I don't I don't think it is. I don't think.
But the Bucks can't really get anybody. That's what's so scary about them.
When we get to them. At some point they have like, no,
there are no rounds in the chamber for Milwaukee really unless you trade marj On
and like, I don't know, what are you getting for him? He
might just be more valuable to keep and actually play and hope he works out.
We should move on to the Cavs though. Here Darius Garland not making
any threes twenty eight point six percent from deep, which is kind of wild
because he was forty one or something forty forty four per catch and shoot last
year from deep, which is excellent. He's always been a good pull up
three point shooter. Very dangerous in the pick and roll. I flag this
just because you know, I think it's always dangerous to have too smallish guards
in your backcourt. But it always that's mostly a defensive issue. But the
Calves are more than equipped with a bunch of erasers behind those two to kind
of mitigate any problems you're gonna have there. It's not Lillard and McCollum in
Portland. That's the comparison I always draw. There's just more defense behind them.
But something is a little different about Cleveland. If both of those guys,
meaning Mitchell and Garland, are not massive threats off the ball, this
is I'll just say, now, this is a piece for me because I
think Garland is awesome and he's gonna make his threes, but like under thirty
percent to start the year through his first like tennis games is definitely definitely a
concern so far, and it's part of the reason the Calves are sub five
hundred still as we're talking. But I'm not worried about the Calves long term.
I think they're still gonna win fifty games and I think Garland will sort
it out. But it does just sort of expose like there, you know,
there are ways for things to look bad offensively for Cleveland, and one
or one of the two guards not being able to hit an outside shot is
definitely is definitely one of those. Yeah, twenty six point three percent on
wide open threes is just not gonna hold for him. That's a cap flock
piece for me and this suitable Jedi defense against him. I feel like if
we fast forward to I don't know a month from now, that the Calves
exponentially of the conversation around them is is a lot different. They had so
many absences at the beginning of the year and I don't know how many,
Like some of the injuries could still be hampering like Garland a little bit.
This team. I still believe that they were forced. I know there was.
I was on a radio show and they were kind of trolling me and
they're like, which team do you think it kind of come out of nowhere?
And I don't know if it's out of I don't think it would be
out of nowhere. I think the Calves are just gonna be ridiculously good.
Yeah, they're the easiest pick for like who's who's slow start is? You
know one minute you should not worry about it? Helps that, Like,
so if Garland's gonna progress to his normal the fact that Okay, Isaaca Corro
shooting forty percent from three this year on two and a half attempts. I
have not I want to make it clear, I have not gone through six
Men of the Year voting. But like the stuff that Kris Lavert has done
for you this year, Max Shruz is shooting about thirty five percent from three
on the volume, that's okay. And he's doing other stuff as well where
it's like, oh, if he's gonna you know, the passing has been
really good for him, or some of the screen setting for him has been
really good. I'm just not worried about this team in any facet of it.
I think actually the biggest and it's not I want to be clear,
it's not it's not where the piece are panic. It just to the question
still just comes down to me of I know CAS fans don't like this.
It's the dual big stuff still makes me uneasy to where if you want to
ever optimize Evan Mobley offensively, I'm just curious if this, if this is
going to be the way to do it. I think there's a real chance
you can if you have you know, once Garland starts hitting his threes,
there's just gonna be lineups where oh, there are three above averag shooters with
them, that'll be fine, But for the space that Evan Mobley needs to
attack and occupy, it's just something I'm continuing to watch. Yeah, fair
to say this is how I feel that as high as we are on Cleveland
as a regular season team, and as much as we believe they're gonna win
tons of games this year and have great, you know, underlying metrics and
stuff, might be the best defense in the league, again, they're very
much in, Okay, you're gonna have to show me as a playoff team
because they had like the spacing concerns you're raising, the dual big stuff the
way the Knicks just clearly like kind of solved them, you know, last
year, and the two small guard thing. There's a bunch of like issues
that if any one of those were present, we would have questions about a
team's playoff viability, and there are several for Cleveland. So it's just they're
definitely gonna have to win a series or two before I stop kind of just
having like a little bit of a reservation about Cleveland as a Oh, they're
gonna be a conference finalist at some point, right, Like I think just
their specific issues are ones that we've seen. Yeah, hamper playoff teams over
and over again. This is a quick one for the Detroit Pistons. I
don't know if you're aware of this. Jade and Ivy after the All Star
Break last year nineteen point three points, seven point one assists, three point
seven boards. His usage rate was twenty eight point seven percent, which was
up from pre All Star Break, and his true shooting percentage, well,
I'm not great, was still higher in that larger role. Why is he
not playing Dan? He like, I get Marcus Asser has been surprisingly good
making shots. I get Cad Cunningham's back. I get that the Detroit Pistons
cannot quit Killian Hayes. But Jade and Ivy is playing. I want to
be thirty one point one minutes per game last year, and again that went
up down the stretch of the season. Started seventy three of the seventy four
games he played. He's played eight games this year. He had an illness.
He's at nineteen point six minutes per game, and that's with all of
his rate stats way up and all of his permanent stats way up. So
I like, as a team in the position the Pistons are. Why aren't
we just giving Jade and Ivy Alie can eat and why are we prioritizing guys
that have less that mean less to the version of the Pistons that someday might
be great. Right, Because if the Pistons are gonna be awesome, Ivy's
gonna have to be a part of that. And if he just isn't going
to be good, then whatever, then then fine. But the fact that
he's playing under twenty minutes a game in his second year after getting a lot
of opportunities last year and improving, I just like I've made so many injuries
to guards. I just I don't understand it. It's it's frustrating me because
like he's a flawed player. I think defensively, he's got a long way
to go. And for sure, like if you're gonna put the ball in
one prospect's hands on the Pistons, it's Cunningham. He's just better. But
there's room for Ivy. I mean, we don't need Killian Hayes minutes anymore.
I don't. I don't I know what I need to know. I
know his ceiling is not what Jade n Ivies is and sass A the same.
You know he might be a great rotation player. I think if if
you think there's a chance that Ivy is going to be a quality starter or
or an All Star, which should you know, that's part of the expectation
drafting him where they drafted him, Like you gotta play him. You need
the information, yeah, because it's just you have this draft equity invested in
not only him, but looking at Kaid, looking at our star Thompson,
looking at Jalen Duran, It's okay, do those four fit perfectly together?
Absolutely not, But we also just haven't, like we haven't seen that to
see, Okay, well what does this look like? In part Yeah,
we've seen three of those guys play together a bunch, but we haven't seen
I've even seen I don't know if I've seen any minutes with all four of
them on the court together. And like those have been four of your they've
played fourteen possessions together this season, So I'm pretty confident in saying I must
have missed all fourteen of those possessions. Their net ratings of plus twenty four
point eight in those You need to get that information, and I would say
I think you could select elements for Pieter panic of the Pistons, where I
mean Caid's efficiency after off the hours, it's yeah, and it's it's brutal,
But then I go you go back and you watch and it's, oh,
there's there's eight of five players on the court are all collapsing somehow on
Kay cunning him on the drives because the Pistons don't know how to punish it.
So I can't panic about Kate in the long run. Asar Thompson's been
really good. He was at one point it was it changed now. But
did you notice that for like the first ten games of the season, four
of the five stocks leaders were all rookies. It was chet Wemby a SAR
and who was the other one? I forgot or three of the top four,
it was those three. So w'sar has been great for them. But
I think, is it I don't want to turn this into a macro issue.
I still remain higher. I don't care about the efficiency numbers. He
is put him in a better offensive ecosystem, and I guarantee you that this
is someone who can be a star, a caps Lock star. But I'm
looking at the Pistons and is it if we were to go piece or panic
on their outlook? Is it a panic? I just don't. I know,
there has to be patients here. You signed Monty Williams of this long
term deal. You're still trying to get information on a lot of these guys
You've gotten away from some of the more damaging lineups of last year. What
is the process here? What is the what is the identity driving this team
right now? Yeah, it's weird because I'm really high on several other like
Thompson, I think is I don't know what he's gonna be other than on
a lot of all defensive teams for sure. I just like fitting around him
is tricky so far because I think he's shooting in the teams from three.
I think it's like fourteen or fifteen percent or something, which is just you
can only you know, you can only be I guess you could be Tony
Allen or whatever, like a more athletic Tony Allen, or you could be
Andre Robertson or something like that, and just like you know, matters still,
but there's such a ceiling if you just can't make a three at all.
Yeah, and it's thirty nine percent on drives. He's been a little
bit better as a passer out of those situations than I thought. But it's
Duran. Of course, we all love Duran. It's just like even the
veteran pieces who haven't played, it's like, oh, and that's the other
thing with Jay and Ivy. It's like if Montey Morris had been healthy to
start the year, do you maybe understand, Oh, okay, they decided
to go. It's no like Al Burks has been banged up, Joe Harris
has banged up. We know Marcus As is playing well. I don't I
honestly, and I've been pretty we were pretty bullish on the Piston's future when
we did some off season things at the point. Yeah, a couple of
Pistons people had said something to me like, we're just not as And I'm
starting to just kind of understand. It feels like there's a lack of direction
and coherence here, even though so much of what's in place is intriguing.
Yeah, I think that's right. It's just that the it doesn't I don't
know, it's harder to be really optimistic about them as a rebuilder, which
is weird. I mean, yeah, I don't. I don't know.
We're just hopefully if you're in a sense, they have more losses than the
Wizards as we record this. That's a problem. I know they played,
they played one fewer, they played one more game, but still that's a
problem. That's not a that's not a conversation you want to be in.
Okay, Uh, let's do the Indiana Patriers real quick here. I don't
know so what we I think we're both kind of panicking on the on the
pistons one and well we will not be panicking here. I just the pay
transition offense is just okay, which is why is wildly in the face of
my expectations, because it was by far the best in terms of points added
for transition possession last year and it's nowhere close to that. It's like Midpack
using cleaning glasses numbers. They're also running less frequently I'm more as a raw
number, but less in terms of how often the league is running. Their
points per play in transition is like mid pack after being second last year.
The good news is because Tyr's Haliburton is like able to manipulate space and time,
their half court offense is the best in the league, so not a
huge problem, and probably if you want to be good at one or the
other, you much prefer to be good in the half court because that's what
matters in the playoffs and stuff like that. But like we got Obi Toppin,
we got Bruce Brown, we got Tyre's Haliburn throwing outlets. Well,
what's going on? Why aren't we Why aren't we averaging? I mean,
they're scoring a ton, but I cannot believe that the transition offense is like
middle of the road in terms of its production. It still looks cool a
lot of the time because they you know, when they really do get out
and run, it's it's great. I love it. I just am stunned
that the Pacers have not run as much. And I'm not going to panic
about it. I'll just I will spoil that right here. I don't know
how you would panic about it. It's kind of like, well, Buddy
Heal will probably eventually shoot a higher clip on his transition threes. I like,
I don't Aside from that, it's they're not even turning the ball over
that much in transition relative to the to the league average, I don't think.
So that's got to be something that's a good Harbinger. I'm just surprised
you focused on that. Where we expect them to be so good, the
fact that they're the fourteenth most efficient team in transition is is sort of a
problem. I think it's a bigger development for their half court stuff, where
a lot of it is just if you I don't know who is. I
know it's a lot of like the cameras, but like, how do you
separate between when they run so fast after makes It's like sometimes the line between
transition and half court becomes a little bit blurred as well. And I do,
by the way, I think part of the trends position stuff is trying
to sort of figure out a little bit of the new pieces in there where
it's you know, Obi has almost been better for them in the half court
with his constant motion that he's been better for them in transition. And also
teams are just they're probably more cognizant of what the pacers are trying to do
points and steals, and so they're gonna like make sure that they're back,
that they're matching up and I'm assuming that would be sort of a like a
driving force there for sure. Yeah, definitely, Like if you if you
come into a game this season, the first item on the opposing scouting report
is like get back probably, so like make sure you're not allowing runouts.
So they were also and when you break down the percentages, it's not really
that big. But they were eleventh in forcing opponent turnovers last year compared to
twenty third this year. And so the opportunities in transition might not They just
might not be as clean. Like you're gonna get cleaner looks in transition off
of turnovers most likely than misshots. Yes, that that is totally fair.
We are not panicking there, all right. I'm gonna continue just with a
bunch of weird niche stats because it's so early in the year. Most of
these things are just that this is what jumps out of me. There are
over one hundred players averaging real tells what team that you're gonna take us to?
Maybe, thank you, Miami. There are hundred over one hundred players
it might be quite a bit over by now, averaging at least twenty nine
minutes a game. Uh, there's one with a lower usage rate than Kyle
Lowry and and like Robinson, which is hilarious because he just gets offensive rebounds
and kicks it out and that's basically what he does all game. Lowry has
never been a high usage guy, just has historically always been kind of like
contributes on the margins and you know, figures out when to shoot and then
he'll go on a floria scoring. This is like ten years ago, Kyle
Lowry. But for a Heat team that you know, we've made so much
of You lost Kay Vincent, you lost Max Struss, So now it's gonna
be We're gonna skew towards offense and we're you know, play Tyler Hero and
Duncan Robinson together a lot. I just like the usage thing. I want
to get the actual number here, and I'm gonna pull up the the uh
stat head numbers just like it's hard to fathom it is under Sorry, it
was like eleven percent the other day, and I won't I think it actually
went lower. But anyway, I don't know how much of a problem this
is for the Heat because they've actually exceeded my expectations this year. I think
we would we both give them fs for the offseason, mostly because they like
it was touching go for them for a while with Jimmy, but that it's
just you look a week later and until they've rattled off X amount of victories,
they're just hopping around five hundred. They're not like I think coming into
tonight. I don't have the games on tonight. They've have been fine,
but all right, eleven point three percent usage rate for Kyle Lowry, which
is just like he's playing just under thirty minutes a game and has actually been
like a positive defensively according to his defensive box plus minus. But like,
I don't know, you lose key personnel, and Lowry's actually been relatively healthy
for him this year, and he's just not doing anything. I just I
think the reason I flagged it is because I felt like, I think we
both felt like the heat just kinda they're just short short on guys coming into
this year, and they were gonna have to manufacture the next Caleb Martin,
and they were gonna have to find the next Duncan Robinson because they just needed
bodies in the roads. They're gonna play Vin Love a lot. That's gonna
hurt the defense. The offense should be better. I just I think the
Lowry thing, I guess I get it, Like he's thirty seven, how
much do you want from him at this age. The fact that he's been
able to play, you know, as much as he has is kind of
a win based on his history of the last couple of years. But like,
if you're the Heat, you kind of need Kyle Lowry to be pretty
good, and he's just like not contribute. He's not doing anything out there.
So I flagged that as an issue. I think it ties into some
of the bigger reasons to panic about the Heat. But again, like the
bottom line so far has been okay, they're they're winning more than they're losing,
So I don't know how much that bothers you. If you have another
Heat concerned to think about. I think it would just be they're so they
could be so banged up at points where Jimmy wasn't healthiest start the season,
but now he looks fine, So I guess it's just it has to be
peace with them. And I think the big reason for me when you're talking
about, you know, Kyle Lowry is used to not being high is one,
he's shooting good enough from three this year, which is fine forty three
percent or whatever. And two bam Ouda Baio just continues to level up on
the offensive end to where Jimmy Butler's still your best offensive player, but like
bam Oda, Bayo does a whole bunch more stuff now. The self sufficiency
part of his game is a lot better, a lot more expansive. And
I just it's so because when you look at the heat on paper and when
you watch some of their games, it looks like we should be panicking about
something, but we panicked all off season early, and then it's just I
don't think they have enough to win a title, Like I think you're gonna
run out of steam with this group. I know, Kayla Martin's only played
in one game, but and Tyler hero is injured right now, but it's
like you still need another higher end player. But that's not the cliche talking
point. When you're looking at this team, it's okay, well maybe we're
just there's something going on in Miami and this team is able to be greater
than the sum of its parts when you're looking at them sort of on paper
this year, and look, they've done it again. We said that they're
gonna need these guys to sort of step up and fill some minutes, and
so you have Hayward high Smith coming in this year, and you have Jimi
Hawkas, who's played a good amount as a rookie. He's played in every
single one of their games, I think except for one, and he's given
you really good minutes even though he's not hitting his threes, And so this
is a team I think. Look, the thing I might panic about most
is like, can they are they gonna be able to trust like some of
these guys once you get to the playoffs, or how many of these guys
are you still gonna be reliant upon when you get to the playoffs? And
Jimmy Butler are gonna continue to hit fifty percent of his threes all season?
Because the three point shooting for this team, no matter what the metrics are
gonna say, can get pretty iffy. Where it was for a lot of
last year. It was kind of Tyler Hero and even Cayleb Martin a little
bit carrying their percentage from three. And so, yes, you're hitting thirty
seven percent this year and the heat as always like they're going to have one
of the league's better shot profiles, but they're also bottom tennis in three point
attempt rate, and so that's just not a huge part of their game even
forget about we say they need another off the dribble creator and this would be
caked into your lowry concern, but they might need more three point volume as
well. So there's just all these different moving parts in the air. But
you watch them. You see the stretch where they're rattling off seven victories in
a row, and we're recording this before they're playing the nets I think on
Thursday, and we weren't watching, so if they win, it'll be eight.
I guess they're riding the ship. So it's I'm just peace. You
have to default to piece with a heat. They've earned that benefit of the
doubt. That's where I'm at because if they sneak into the plan and they
just make the finals, so it's hard to get two worked up. Okay,
this is a big one. We could go in a thousand directions for
the Milwaukee Bucks. Do you want to talk about the defense? Do you
want to talk about Giannis's free throw shooting? I just like, I guess,
since I'm like kind of leading the I don't know the thought here.
I know that we've the defense was such an issue so early that we've already
done like a couple of ping pongs back and forth between like oh, this
is a systemic issue and then oh it's early and oh it's Dame's fault,
and then they're actually better on defense with Dame on the floor so far,
so like, yeah, he's a bad defender, but it's not just him.
Adrian Griffin doesn't know what he's doing. Oh no, he listened to
the team and now he does. He's playing Brook lopezn't drop Like it's clearly
something's up with the defense or several somethings are up with the defense, and
it's not just the thing the things we go to as like oh, opponents
are making fifty percent of their threes or whatever. Like I think there's something
really I have, like bad, I have a bad feeling about the Bucks
this year, and I did not have a bad feeling at all coming into
the season. And I think it's twofold for me. One is the different,
Like I think we're just seeing how much Drew Holiday matters one and two.
It's the honest piece of it. All his numbers are still awesome,
Like he's been super productive. He's you know, his free throwing is like,
you know, basically where it was last year. But which is to
say, is still a huge problem. Three point shooting's even worse. But
I started having the thought the other day of, like, what if doesn't
it make sense that Giannis is one of those guys that's just not going to
age well just because it's not like his game was skill based necessarily, Like
he was just overwhelmingly athletic and could get to the hoop whenever he wanted.
And as he ages, it's just going to get harder and all those other
peripheral skills that he never really developed are not going to be there to like
prolong his prime. So I'm raising a lot of like major issues for the
Bucks. Maybe we start with the defense. Do you have concerns that this
defense is just not going to get where it needs to? Ah, I
have concerns, But did you look when you were doing this, Like,
did you look at the numbers? What they've been since brook Lopez started dropping
more frequently. Again, it's like it fixed everything, right, Rights been
the best rim protecting team in the league since then. They are fifth or
I'm sorry not fifth, twelfth overall in points allowed per possession. During this
stretch the half court where they were getting beat a lot and still are at
points from the point of attack. They're now eleventh and half court defense.
Even there, I would say the bigger concern for me, and they've settled
down here from an efficiency perspective, was they were just getting torched in transition,
and they still might be allowing it too frequently because it's so easy to
get behind their guards off forget about makes missus turnovers whatever. So I look
at the personnel and it's certainly fragile. Now. The thing we didn't mention
the news is like Jay Crowder's missing a bunch of time and so like that
throws another curveball into the element. But I would be I'm not concerned.
I'm not concerned about the bucks. Like, let's get I mean, this
won't fix the defense, but let's get Chris Middleton to a point where he's
playing more minutes per game. Damian Little We've already kind of seen what he
does, the havoc he creates off the dribble in the half court, and
he's not even hit his threes at his normal clip just yet. The Yannest
stuff is interesting because I have this discussion I'm gonna have to stop, I'm
gonna have to throw it to you as soon as my voice is cracking again
like a little child. I had this discussion with ty Wendish before the season
that I'm very curiousy how Yannis ages. But is that like an immediate concern
for you, because every time from what I've seen from him this season,
I'm not. I'm not concerned about what Yannis is going to be for the
rest of this year. I think it's if you want to point out,
what did you say he was shooting from the free throw line? I don't
even know. It's in the sixties again here, that's it's a piece.
It's a bold text italics capslock piece for me across the board. You know
why? Why is that? Because Marjoon Beauchamp is going to is going to
be a two time champ or a multi time champ. We both we both
love that you mentioned the transition stuff, just to just to put a fire
point on it, that the Bucks are dead last in opponent transition frequency,
meaning teams run on them more than any other team. And what's crazy is
you don't run off the Bucks on steals. They're fourth in suppressing opponent transition
chances off of steals, live rebounds, run all you want bucks opponents again
dead last and how often teams run off live rebounds, which is I would
be curious to to sort that into the pre and post, which yeah,
oh yeah, brook Lope should be in a drop. So I did.
They're still dead last in frequency, So what's going on the and they're not
They're not like a team that's really getting after it on the offensive glass.
There be a few things I already said about it's just easy to get behind
the guards on their teams. And so is that a dame thing do you
think? Because the dame thing, that's the Malie Beasley thing. Yeah,
right right, I'm gonna be frank, and this isn't a guard At times,
it's been ay honest thing, because like when he puts up those shots
outside the restricted area, whether it's I would be interested to see, like
what are opponents running off of Giannis threes? He's not back in time when
he's putting up like kind of mid range shots. It's almost like he needs
to. And I guess it makes sense because if you're dunking or laying up,
you know the outcome of the shot one sooner and two it's more likely
to go in. So they're not gonna have be the opportunity to run.
And so it's been I don't want to say in everyone problem, but that's
what I've noticed. I'm sure maybe Bucks fans have noticed something a little bit
a bit differently or notice more of it, but that's not something that has
been you know, remedied, and so I think, look, I don't
know what the answer is or what they could do to, you know,
aside from it's not even getting healthier for them because they're sort of just running
out of different personnel options. That's the part of their defense though that I
could see. Oh, it's not really gonna normalize. I would love to
see them. I don't know if you've seen any of Chris Livingston this season,
but like that's someone that they can maybe test out a little bit in
some more run here or oh my god, my voice is my voice is
cracking so hard right now. But again, like that's that's like the closest
thing to excuse me. It wasn't even Andre Jackson Junior is the name I'm
thinking of. This is just like he's a very smart and cerebral player and
he knows how to like he's just better at getting back than a lot of
the other guys that they're playing right now. Is really is really where I'm
at with Milwaukee. But that's like, if we're at that point with Andre
Jackson, that that would be the part of their defense though that I'm most
concerned about. Yeah, I think I'm just broadly closer to panic for them,
because I it's not quite to the same extent as maybe two years ago
when when our refrain was like, I got no notes on the Bucks.
They're just I have no questions about them. They're gonna win the title.
They're great. And then of course they got bounced in the first round,
so we're wrong there. But this team just seems more vulnerable. They're thinner,
they're older. The thing about Middleton, like yeah, once he's right,
will be good. It's like, well, but he's not yet.
And I'm not confident that Middleton's gonna be the guy they need him to be.
I don't know. I'm I'm being sort of irrationally panicky about the Bucks
because it's so jarring to me that now they they were once the team that
I was like, yeah, just wake me up in April. They're gonna
be awesome, and now things feel less stable to me, and so I'm
worried. That's I think that's a fair macro concern. But I mean,
like they're seven and four. Damian Lillard hasn't been hitting threes, and like
they haven't had like the cleanest bill of health, and it took them so
not so long. But their defense was so bad for part of the season.
It's just the ceiling of this team still feels incredibly high, even if
a few things need to break right, How would you feel about them if
they reacquire Javon Carter at the trade deadline? Way better, way better?
From your mouth together, there's okay, bad news if your voice is going
out. Because we have the Knicks as our next team, and it's the
shooting, the two point shooting at the rim shooting, it's been horrible.
They're the least accurate team in the league at the rim fifty four point four,
which it would be the worst in franchise history. As far as cleaning
the glasses concern, which goes back to three to four. So the Knicks
are making nothing at close range. Jalen Brunson's floater has been offline. They've
been better lately. Julius Randall has started to make some shots after. I
forget what the number was, maybe you came across it, but like he
was in the twenty percents. Yeah, he was bad. It was just
like and like at the rim, he was in the third just like inexplicably
bad shooting. Now, the Knicks were not a great effective field goal percentage
team last year. They succeeded on offense. They were the number two offense
because they got every offensive rebound. Fred Katz had great research on this.
They always kicked out offensive boards and got open threes and so they that's that
is how they succeeded. They took care of the ball like all that stuff.
So you know they're looking at it now, twenty sixth in effective field
goal percentage in the league. They were twentieth last year. So it's like
it's not a death noell, if your effective field goal percentage is low,
but like this is low, low, low, especially at the rim.
I'm sure you've watched more Knicks than I have, how like in order to
piece for panic, but like, is there any part of you that wants
to panic about this or is it just oh, they'll make shots eventually.
I'd probably lean towards peace on this just because I think you can say the
bigger concern if you want to panic, is to say that the offense does
not really have a lot more variance than it does last year. Dante Devincenzo
has brought some of it, and like the RJ. Barrett when he's been
healthier, not having migraines, he's been really good for them. But the
defense are still really going to they can pack the paint against them, and
I think that's made life really difficult. When you're looking at Jalen Brunson's finishing
inside the arc. He's had to be a little bit more reliant on the
perimeter game on his threes, and like the Knicks are shooting well enough from
three, and I think their tenth and three point a tenth right, they're
dead last in average possession time on the offensive end, and so it's like
they're not dead last in transition frequency. But this is not an offense that
is going to operate at a super quick pace. They're going to kind of
more, you know, when Jalen Brunson or Julius Randall are operating like they're
going to like meticulously kind of pick their spots and to some extent that's fine,
but I would like to see there be more urgency caked in and you
see it more when it's you know, the RJ. Barrett plus bench units,
I'd be mostly a piece here. If it's more of a okay,
you know, if you're measuring it against last year when they were second in
point score per possession, you could go as a panic. But I mean,
as we're recording this, like to be twelve in point score per possession
while being twenty six in effective field goal percentage. It's unsustainable, but it
means okay, where there's room to grow somewhere. And the defense has been
so good that I think it offsets a lot of it. But the offense,
I'll say, their methodical, deliberate, the half court offense, outside
of them getting offensive rebounds, which they are still, by the way,
more than capable of doing, it's you know, that would be the Do
I have confidence that this team, as currently constructed can be a much better
half court offense? No? And that would be where the paddic sets in
a little bit, because they are twenty fifth in half court offense right now,
and I think that comes up organically as Jalen Brunston continues to get better
and as RJ. Barrett's little bit more available, and we continue to get
into Julius Rannol even if not all NBA, Julius Rendald getting a little bit
better. But outside again, outside of the offensive rebounding element, that's where
you needed your offense to improve and it has not. Yeah, another offensive
I mean, it's these happen to be back to back alphabetically. But the
Orlando Magic, do you want to guess what their highest ranking and offensive rating
has been over the last four years? Just you know, over the last
four years their highest I'm gonna say eighteenth, twenty sixth. Not good.
They're twenty seventh this year. And like the defense again, last year they
flirted with top ten. I think they finished eleventh. Now they're currently fourth
in defensive efficiency. I kind of think the defense is they force a ton
of turnovers. Jalen Suggs is a monster. Every second that Jonathan Isaac is
able to stay on the floor with Jalen Suggs is just like, that's that's
tough. Isaac can still move, can still block shots. I think when
I did the numbers the other day, he's obviously not playing thirty six minutes.
But Isaac is averaging like three point nine blocks and two point six steals
or something absurd like that for thirty six minutes. So he's just like wreaking
havoc in the you know, in the high teens or mid teens minute totals
he plays. But when you have foults, when you have sugs. I
think Anthony Black has massive defensive potential, but he's a rookie. I think
just Wagner and Banco because of their size, this defense is gonna be good.
The offense though, like I don't know how it gets better without personnel
changes, so I guess, you know, So I'm panicking about the offense
even though it is mostly young guards and you and like ben Caro's in his
second year, Wagner's in his third, and so the front court should get
better too, but like we're now going on four years of twenty six,
they're worse. That's not all on this roster, but there is carryover from
last year when they were twenty six, and some from the year before when
they were dead last So I just I'm trying to see a way towards you
know, the defense being I think, legit, what do you do to
make this offense function? Because it just isn't right now. And so for
me it's a panic because I do think there's pretty significant potential at least defensively,
and I like a lot of the pieces offensively, but it's just the
results aren't there. So and it's gone a long enough to where I'm not
comfortable just talking about like shot variants and whatever, like it's not it doesn't
feel like noise to me. So I'm pretty panicky over the Magic's offense.
Yeah, and look, I think you should be. And if you're looking
to address it in house, aside from kind of banking on the development of
players, which is, by the way, is fair when you look at
who is on their roster, you could talk yourself into Okay, you know,
Anthony Black's been better than I've expected this year, so you could talk
yourself into to certain things. But their I think what you could do is
to you already mentioned what they're doing on defense by forcing the turnovers run more
off of those, they're like twenty second in the frequency of transition in which
they run after forcing turnovers. When you're forcing turnovers that much, that's not
okay, and then they're twenty fifth in average possession time after forcing a turnover.
This is not an offense that is built to slow down, even if
you look at their players and they're not necessarily built to operate super fast,
and you kind of look at the way that their offense gets run in the
half court where it's Franz Wagner or Palo bink Caro when they have to attack
on these drives and they're running into all these different bodies. Yeah, you
can generate some wide open three point looks, but guess what teams don't give
a shit about those. You're shooting thirty six point four percent on wide open
threes this year, and that's bottom seven in the league. Like an average
mark on wide open threes I think is around like thirty nine percent or whatever
it is. Gohead and they don't shoot them. They don't shoot threes.
Like, so they're a ten frequency from three is twenty sixth in the league
this year. They take just under thirty two percent of their shots from deep.
Last year they were twenty fourth and a ten frequency. They get to
the rim a ton, which like makes sense because because you just said banker
attacking the basket. They're just not clean looks at the rim though, and
it's I mean, they're not making their shots at the rim. They're not
making it. So but like that part of the process is good. But
I think it's all tied to what you said. You have your forwards essentially
initiating the offense, and if they do collapse the defense and it is collapsed,
because why are you not You don't care about Jalen Suggs or markl Foltz
or even you know, Cole Anthony all that much outside Like those those kickouts
are going to guys who either are not shooting them or just like have maybe
been told like, oh, let's drive and kick again and try to get
it to a It's just like the structure of this team for a long time,
I mean a long time, for a couple of years, to me
has just not made sense. Because if you're gonna run the offense through your
awesome forward combo, which should that like good idea. We like that your
guards have got to be able to shoot like and they don't even have to
be able to do much like you don't need anything else from them. You
don't need them to run pick and rolls or generate offense, just make open
shots and scare the defense, and they just don't have those guys. Yeah,
they need to look if they again, if they want to let it
marinate, that's fine. There doesn't have to be like intense urgency here.
But they're a team where if Zach Lavine becomes available, if Buddy heels available,
which I don't know why, the Pacers will be gettingrid of Buddy Heeler,
Like you need to be in on that if you have aspirations this season.
Yeah, I agree. That takes us to the Philadelphia seventy six ers,
and like I just I am so excited about the Sixers. I was
watching them even though they lost the game against Boston where it's just like,
oh, I've circled all the way back now, Dan, remember how I
said we need to come up with a player category for guys that just fit
anywhere. I thought of this and watching d Anthony Melton, because I just
was thing like, who wouldn't want this guy? Memphis? What do we
do? What in a role player? Does does Melton not give you?
Like answer? Nothing? He's he's never going to be a star. But
I would feel one hundred percent comfortable with him on the floor in the last
two minutes of a Finals game, Like, I just he's in the KCP.
He's Danny Green might be like the original guy for this role for me,
like just Spurs Danny Green is like, give me him. I want
him on my team. I don't care who he plays over. He's my
starting shooting guard. So I just got super excited about the Sixers, and
the knit I was gonna pick is that they're giving up like too many layups
basically, which is just like who cares. They're twenty fourth and opponent roumatanpt
frequency, but like whatever. So I don't really have a piece of panic
for the Sixers other than like, well, here's do something stupid with your
trade assets now and mess this up, and just you know, Zach Levine
probably isn't the answer, I guess. Let's see, I'm punting on a
piece of panic for the Sixers because I just don't really have any major concerns
for them. Here's a piece panic. Do you think that they will actually
start playing Jayden Springer over Marcus Morris and Patrick Beverley. God, I love
Jayden Springer again. In that Celtics game, He's just like steal dunk him.
Nurse said something after basically along the lines of we need to figure out
a way to get in more minutes. Yeah, you grammatic? Will they
figure out a way to get Jaydan springericking right now? Because he should play
a lot. He should play a lot. I really, even preseason,
I was thinking, I just I don't know how many different things I wrote
or said about Jaden Springer, and then I came, you know, looked
going into last night's game, and he's playing. He's just not playing at
all, and every time he gets in the game he does. He might
be one of those guys, He's another Gay Vincent where I only ever see
his good moments somehow because it's it's inexplicable to me. So I'm panicking.
If you're not playing more Jayden Springer, I think that's I think they're going
to wind up out of necessity, especially with Kelly Ubridge Junior out for a
little bit. I'd be a little bit surprised if they wind up not playing
him more over the next couple of weeks. I'm gonna say peace there.
I think jaymeans Springer gets more minutes. Have you been concerned at all?
You said they're giving up too many layups. They're like one of the worst
finishing teams at the rim two this season. Is that a piece or panic
when you look at you know, do they have enough? Look? The
real piece of panic to me would actually be are they gonna be able to
get a second creator for the bench, because the second creator for the bench
is a big part of I think what is gonna ail them? And like
you've had the Maxi Noan Beid minutes. I think it been great this year,
That's what everyone was in fanfare. But you need just another kind of
ball handler type on this team. And that's the piece or panic is can
you figure out a way because it's not he's not on the roster. I
think we all agree about that. Can you figure out a way to acquire
one without acquiring the wrong one? Because Zach Levine is very much a well
we're committing to this pot, which is why I don't like it. And
Alic Caruso is also not that guy, even though he'd be a great hit
in Philly. You meagine Alice Cruzo and danpy Meultain on the same team.
I got oh Man and then you go get Annonobe. This offseason then you
just have Jamee's bringer there. Yeah, you know, I'm scoring on this
team. Ever, the rim stuff is interesting on offense, I guess,
like I'm not. I wouldn't be concerned about that one because the sixers are
always going to generate a ton of free throws and so that's going to offset
some of the lack of the other thing is, like, I mean,
part of the value of rim pressure is that you're bringing defenders away from perimeter
shooters, and so those guys are getting free runs at offensive boards and or
open shots if the ball gets kicked out, And as long as you have
Embiid, you're gonna attract defenders into the lane. So whether they're finishing or
not, I think you're still getting most of the benefit of you know,
the same types of benefits you'd get if you were like the Thunder and just
relentlessly we're attacking the basket all the time. You kind of have the same
effect on the defense just by Himbiid like existing and being on the court somewhere.
Let's see, we got the Raptors next. Okay, this is gonna
seem like a cop out, but like, should we panic that all of
the shit that has gone badly for them this year, other than Scottie Barnes
being good again was foreseeable, and that like the half court offense was bad
last year, sucks worse this year because you have Dennis Shrewder for Fred van
Vliet. The turnovers are way up because you just don't have enough like capable
ball handlers. You are not getting to the line nearly as often again because
like the whole So, I don't know if this is the most common criticism
of Nick Nurse, but it seemed like last year it was like a lot
of matchup hunting, a lot of grinded out, a lot of Pascal Siakam
like eight dribble possessions where he turns one shoulder then the other. There was
no flow. The half court offense was bad, like across the board,
and it's just worse. And I think that's because you got an infer model
in at point guard and all of the same tendencies that your best players had
are still there. Siyakum has been a lot worse this year than last.
So I think, like this is easy for me. I'm panicking because it
just it just suggests to me that the Raptors like this is more than the
pick a direction thing we've harped on forever. It's just like, how did
you not anticipate exactly this fate? You know, like this is where all
of the signs, all of the moves and non moves made over the last
couple of years we're pointing towards and now we're just here. And so it
gives me no confidence that the Raptors are going to navigate their way out of
this. It's great that Scotti Barnes looks good now, but that's just like
as an organization, it just feels like this is a total panic situation because
they've messed up roster construction, free agency trades. The pearl trade, I
think is still a mistake, and I just I'm panicking. I'm panicking across
the board that And look, that's the thing I keep coming back to is
when you're framing it as is it Pascal Siakam or Scottie Barnes, I honestly
feel like it's is it Pascal Siakam and Scottie Barnes or is it Scottie Barnes
and Yakam Perle, And it's you have to like those My point is those
three that was probably a terrible way to phrase it. But those three can't
be together, and the rafts are getting hammered with them on the court.
This year, when those three play together, I would like to see them
start Gary Trent Junior when he's healthy, just to see if that opens things
up a little bit more, because you don't have the surround, like have
two shooters on the court at all times when those three are there. And
I know Scotty Barnes improved his shooting this year, but Pascal Siakam's been a
little bit off. He is up to want to, It's clear after some
good performances. He's up to thirty seven point eight percent shooting on drives.
There's just the space is not there numbers, yeah, for all for all
these guys to operate. And so I think it's a panic because I don't
think I don't trust themselves to navigate out of this, because it feels like
they might lean further into it. It's just like you, why would you
trade? I actually think Scotty Barnes and Pascal Siakam can work together. It's
just going to take a different look at center. That's a hard look at
center to find, though, and you just invested in Yakub Purtle, and
why would you trade Pascal Siakam right now? Because the value you're going to
get for him months away from free agency, where teams don't even get a
training camp with him, what is the value they're going to give up?
Yeah, I think I mean Toronto has done this time and again they just
you know, whether I mean Trent you know opted in. I think that
was a surprise. But the Van Fleet thing, you know, they had
many opportunities to trade him, didn't they even do this with like going back
to Kyle Lowry where they just like you know, there were always times to
move guys and they waited and waited and the value went down. And so
it's that that is where we are with and now it's complicated because the extension
you probably you can't extend it in an OBI, so you know you're gonna
he's gonna get the free agency one way or the other. But you know
that's another reason to try to get maybe what you can for him if you
don't think you can resign him. And Sam is again as kind of a
similar boat, but like just waiting and hoping that these this personnel group is
going to figure it out when the pieces just don't quite work. Is it's
like it's just a mistake. I just I don't. I don't. I
don't see the way forward with this group. So I will say we're probably
talking I don't know who would have cost them, but we're probably talking this
team about in a much different reign if they were actually in on the Damian
Lillard sweepstakes. Because even when he's not making shots, as you talking of
these cold sports Milwaukee, you just see the impact on what he opens up
inside the arc for everybody. Could you imagine him next to I'm assuming they
could have based off what the package ended up being, I'm assuming they could
have gotten him without giving Upakam and Scotty. You think, I mean he
would so like if you're talking about, you know, can't Siakam and Scotty,
like can't play together and all this other stuff, it's it's and again
it's not I want to make it clear in case I said that, I
just don't like the Pearl Scottie Siakam. Look, that does not feel like
a set up that can sustain. I don't like it either, But I
think it's almost like and I'm not saying you're making the point that Siaka and
Scotty can't play together. I think there's like, I mean, there's concerns,
for sure, there's concerns about that. I think I don't think the
answer is move one or the other necessarily. I think they're gonna be in
a position where they sort of have to do that just because of where Siakam
is contractually. But I think the fix for that is like not Dennis Shrewder
at point, like it's got to be you know, it doesn't have to
be Dame either, but it has to be somebody that is going, like,
I get it, you want Barnes on the ball, or at least
you definitely did before because his shooting was such a non threat, and now
maybe that's different because he's making forty percent of his threes. But I think
the answer that the fix would be an on ball distributor that's going to get
both of these guys involved in an offense that involves that has some movement to
it like that that I think mitigates a lot of the your turn, my
turn, you know, pounding the ball like isolation stuff that just has not
worked. So I think it's like sort of a false choice that that you
see presented between well, you know, oh Scotty, you gotta choose Scotty
or or you know, has to be if we're maximizing Siakam, we're necessarily
minimizing Barnes and vice versa. Like. I don't think it has to be
that way, but if if the rest of the roster around them is what
it is like currently, then maybe maybe that's just how it is. Like
you can't have both of them going because you don't have the supplementary support.
A more accurate way, which it seems like we're both saying to phrase it
would be they actual they need to pick a direction, which you said before,
and that direction doesn't need to be we need to trade Siakam. It
needs to be this roster needs to have a direction where it's, oh,
we see, we see the vision of what they're trying to do with the
personnel that's in place, and right now I don't. There's just still too
many And again you can point out, well, what else are they're supposed
to do after they lost Red van Fleet for nothing other than get Denis Shooter.
That's also part of the problem. Don't use them for nothing. Final
team Washington Wizards, Washington Wizards, do we just like I mean, Okay,
on the one hand, they're doing what we wanted them to do.
They're being tear, They're losing a bunch of games. They are not I
want to get I want to see how much they're playing before I who has
been By the way, that dude's gonna make an All rookie team. I
know I had him as first team All Rookie. I don't think he has
the offensive volume to get it. He is him and Denny avia the future.
So I saw Kevin Pelton and Bobby Marks did their rookie rankings today and
neither of them had Koolibali in the top ten. I was, I was
in the top ten. You have wemby Chet. I mean, this is
not me throwing shade. It's not a critique. It's just I'm a little
bit surprised, and how many people I've needed to clarify, Like when I've
mentioned Chet in rookie stuff, They're like, Chet's not a rookie, and
I'm just shocked that that's not more of a I guess you're just more of
a casual watcher. You wouldn't you just look at the draft class rather than
I'm not playing, and it's I mean, that's how it was for Embiid
and Blake Griffin and and Simmons. I'm just I've been a little bit surprised
at how much it's not put again. I'm not even yelling at people.
I've just it's one of those things where it's, Oh, I thought it
was just common knowledge that he's considered a rookie this year, but yeah,
it is the people that are confronting you with that are unfamiliar with that.
We haven't been nasty about it. I want to make that clear. I
just I've been a little bit surprised at how many times I've needed to clarify
it. That's crazy. I wish we could talk about them instead of the
Wizards. I don't know, like cool Bolli, by the way, playing
just under twenty six minutes a game, and that's trending up. He looks
like such a more finished He was supposed to be raw and it was he
was almost like a two years away from being two years away guy in theory,
and he's just not that. Like the defense is the defensive disruption is
like off the charts, Like if he makes an All Rookie Team All Rookie
Team, it will mostly be on the strength of his defense, except like
offensively, he's so much more developed, like he's making threes, he looks
more comfortable, more poised, He's I think he's the third youngest guy in
this draft class too. So it's just like he's way ahead of schedule,
way and a very different player than what I thought he would be, like
all the best ways. So panic on that, Well, there's nothing.
I was just on a tangent about cool Bali because I started talking about like,
I guess it's just peace because the Wizards are doing what we thought they
should do. And then I was gonna panic if Kolbali wasn't playing enough.
But he kind of is my my niche stat is basically or not niche stat,
but niche piece or panic discussion topic is Jordan Poole isn't even giving them
counting stats. Are we concerned about that? Because he's like, he's shooting
worse, he's scoring fewer points, he's playing fewer minutes than at any point
since he was like still bouncing between the G League and the Warriors several years
ago. And I thought at least we were gonna get a bunch of fifty
point games out of Jordan Pool this year amidst all the nonsense, and we're
just not So there's I mean, we have to juxtapose this against I don't
know if you saw the clip of him saying, sit the fuck down,
this is my team or something in the huddle whatever it was, Oh yeah,
that's a panic. If this is if Pool is in charge of your
team, run But I actually don't and maybe I just haven't watched enough Wizards.
I don't think he's been hijacking the offense to like an upteam degree.
It feels he's been he's been not great, but I don't know that he's
done anything less than I expected to where if you were expecting him to either
have a breakout season or to be more of a chucker. But it's like
his his average touch time is down, like he's not taking all these like
super clock sappy possession looks. So I've been pleasantly surprised with that and the
Wizards in general, like and this tends to happen with bad teams. We
saw it a lot. I believe with the the process era sixers is that
you try to play fast as a way to just decide, Okay, we're
gonna cover up the the talent deficit here. And like the Wizards, they
play fast their six and average possession time and they were they're gonna run a
lot after defensive rebounds. I don't actually mind watching them as much as others.
And so it's a it's a piece for me because this is what here's
here's where I land on it, and I'm not. I don't think you
know where I land on. Jordan Poole, you love them. The building
block here is the chaos for now. It could be Pool of Bali,
it could be Denny Avia, but like so, not even the building block.
The direction is the chaos you need to go through this season to reach
the subsequent seasons and the more coherent looking seasons. And so it's a piece
for me. And it's are they high comedy? Sure? Some of these
guys aren't going to be I mean the two that we're talking about, Kyle
Kuzman, Jordan Poole, one of them is not going to be here past
the trade deadline at least. Yeah, I think that's right. I think
so it is piece because you're circling all the way back like they're doing what
they're supposed to be doing, being bad as good, up as down like
that, that is very much where we are. I'm just panicking a little
bit because I was never more sure of anything than that Jordan Poole was going
to be like hilariously prolific and also awful this year. Like I thought for
sure he was going to average in the high twenties, like I just I
saw, I knew it, and it was still gonna be like bad for
the team somehow. And I'm very, very very wrong about that so far,
and it's kind of rattling me a little bit. So I'm panicking about
that. I think if I was gonna panic about anything, it'd be nice
if, you know, Daniel Gafford could grab a defensive rebound, or this
team in general could grab a defensive rebound. Yeah, I mean, you
know, but the chaos, you just want the chaos. What's up?
What's the benefit of not grabbing defensive rebounds? I don't know. The ball
bounces around and anything could happen. That's that's the benefit. Yeah, No,
that's I mean, that's by the way, that's been another aspect of
block cool Bali's game where he just comes in, It's like, oh,
is honestly by position? I'm kind of just like, is he their best
defensive rebound or sometimes like that. That's what I'm thinking, And so it's
here's what I would say. This is not a piece of panic and factor
fiction block cole Bally will be this team's best player by season's end, my
season end. No, I can't get there. I mean Kuzma is still
like a legit NBA. Yeah, he's gonna be playing for like the Grists,
right, yeah, Kuzman not there. We still love Denny Avdia though,
right, I mean he's been a lot better this year. You know,
I love Denny. I'm not giving up on as being this Okay,
I was gonna say, it's not a matter of give up. It's more
pro bla cool Bali. I'm very pro ten rookies than if Balala didn't make
it. So let me can I guess do you have it? I don't
have it in front of you, but so it's gonna be hard for me
to validate your guesses. Maybe I should go. So I would have Cat
George had to be in there. Chet Wemby, I mean, I guess
I saw Thompson. You definitely put him. Star was third, I believe
on both Pelton and Marks of Boards. I mean, I mean Jordan Hawkins
was probably in there. He was in there. I think. Uh,
I'm ten rookies who've been better by den Bala cool BALI I mean this would
help if id list of rookies up. We just need to get out of
here. I think at this point I get I got the list though.
If you want me to tell Okay so Keyante, George Chet, Holmgren,
Victor Weber, Yama Arsar, Thompson, Jordan Hawkins, try and think of
other is Brandon Miller on there? No you want me to go from,
I'll give you Pelton's list from ten to one. If you want it,
all right, get hit me number ten and number one in your heart.
Brandon Pajemski, I'm not making this up. Was it just the based off
the one game? I didn't. It's just that's all you need to know
is he's number ten, Jordan Hawkins nine, Brandon Miller eight, Jimi hawk
Is seven, Case and Wallace six, Derek Lively five, Sasser four,
A Star Thompson three, Wemby Chet that's okay. So honestly after he wait,
Kiante, George wasn't even on that. No, he's not on either
of their lists. Wow, So I would say based off Pelton's the only
one that I would So you had Pods and then who's nine Hawkins? Yeah,
I mean, honestly, ten is the only one I would quibble with,
like I should be George or I would think Belaal. Yeah, POD's
had one good game and has barely played other than that. But uh,
yeah, I don't, I don't know. And then Marx is Marx is
not meaningfully different, same top for Holmegrin, Wimby, Thompson, Sasser.
Then he flip flops Wallace and Lively at five six Hawkes still belong there,
Yeah, I mean sass are, Lively and Wallace absolutely belonged. Yeah,
yeah, I agree with that. That's actually not George. I'm surprised because
he's starting now like we thought he would and has been their best card.
Yeah for sure, So that would be the only thing I quibble over.
Do you want to take us out? Sure? Thanks everybody for checking in
with this one. We will also, we will I don't know what order
Dan will put these up in, but we're also going to do the West
uh for Piece of Panic. As we always mentioned at the top, please
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