What is krack alacin fell at thermoe fear a efforts. I am dam Via
Valley coming at you with another solo podcast. It is a mail bag and
these things will be done solo a lot of the time, since, like
I said, it feels like I can have a conversation with you all.
Recording this on a late Monday morning post gym workout, wanted to have it
up Sunday night into Monday, but I conked out. Spoiler alert, two
all nighters that past week and averaging like three four hours of sleep on the
other nights. Body's not built for it anymore. And I just I crashed
for most of Sunday, caught a little bit of Grizzlies Blazers. I thought
the Grizzlies were gonna have one lose to the Blazers again. And two I
couldn't wrap my head. I feel like the Grizzlies and blazer were played eight
times this year, maybe even nine. That end of that game was just
Grizzly time they gotta win. Not that anyone cares about that. Just in
case you want to know why this wasn't up on a Monday, before we
get started, the usual reminders please remember subscribe if you haven't done so already.
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Magic fans and the breakout thing. I had tears. I talked about all
these different players and Magic fans. Who's broken out for you this year?
I think Palo Bankaro and Franz Wagner. You want to be like studs multi
time All Stars, but either of them, Palo is starting to come along
after a slow start, They're not like it was just based off what we've
seen so much this season. But again, love you, Orlando Metri fans,
the fact that you guess, you watch and listen. Love you so
join our discord. If you want to dictate some of the discussion, you
can answer malbag questions. I don't know how often we're gonna do these this
year, just because I want to make sure we have enough material for a
good, good episode. So maybe it's every other week. Maybe I do
one week Twitter, one week Discord, Join discord. You can ask about
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the podcast and YouTube description. And finally, but not leastly most importantly,
we have a birthday shout out to Rubik Scal recording is on your actual birthday,
which I believe is November sixth. Hopefully you hear it, if not
happy belated birthday, but happy actual birthday as well from your wife who DMed
us on Instagram. More than happy to throw that shout out. Rubik Scale
has been great, great great at sending us guests the NBA players. You
have inspired other people to send them to us. I have some in my
Twitter dms and my Discord dms. I have not responded to you all.
I promise I'll try and get to it. So you have started a trend
that they have been great. I love trying to stump the ever living hell
out of Grant every time those things pop up. So thank you for sending
us all of those. And for your birthday. Since I've been told you
do not really have a favorite team, but you do like to root for
maybe Jimmy Buckets or yell about Tobias Harris, it does seem like you might
be the most loyal or invested in the Warriors. So for your birthday,
I try to get in touch with the Dubs and get them to promise that
they would play Brandon Prejemski at least, like I don't know, twenty minutes
a game for the rest of the week. I hope you just get some
good pods minutes for your birthday and not on your birthday. I don't even
if the Warriors are playing. I haven't looked at the schedule tonight, but
your birthday week. I hope that PODS gets lots of minutes. So shout
out Ruby, Scout happy birthday from your wife and myself and Grant and just
everyone the hardware NOS community, because we know that everyone would like to wish
you happy birthday. I'm sure we now move to the actual mailbag portion of
this podcast. I'm gonna have to, Like I said, I will try
and timestamp this as I go along so I don't have to do it later.
If you see my hands gleaning like this or my eyes kind of squint,
that's what I'm doing. Should you be watching on YouTube. Let's start
with Austin had this question that we did not get to when I did the
Breakout Players slash NBA in season tournament mail bag. What is it gonna take
to have Nike put down the pencil for a year and actually make a good
thirty two set of alternate jerseys? Man, I don't fucking know, but
they definitely need they need to. And here's the thing there's not going to
be. You're not gonna have all these hits. I get it. Not
everyone's gonna like every jersey, but they're so bad they're either so creative or
they just don't make any sense, and then they kind of hide behind well,
this is a tribute to X, and then I feel bad criticizing something
because it's supposed to be a tribute to the fabric of the city. No,
they're bad this year. There's only a very handful of good ones.
Grant and I think we'll have a rankings of them as a segment on one
of the upcoming shows. I enjoyed the courts. I mentioned that on the
nd season tournament. But we need I respect teams if they want to take
a chance. And so it was like, you look at the Warriors and
the Lakers jerseys this year's, which are objectively bad, but I kind of
like, oh, at least they tried something different with the font or the
angle of the font. That's where we're at where I'm just appreciating teams that
go outside the beaten path. That's why I really liked the net one.
What was the other one I really liked? I mean, Utah's was great,
but that like that kind of like a conservative backdrop there when you're looking
at it. There were just a very few. There are handful ones that
I oh, the Pacers one. I appreciated that one as well. I
almost appreciated the Clippers one, but I get very much you know Microsoft Windows
vibes that paper clip that used to kind of show up. That's what I
when I see the clips, that's what I think of. I don't and
I don't know whether I like it or love it. Let's just see teams
take more chances and be actually inventive or didn't just roll it back. And
you know, if you're allowed to go, and you are allowed to go,
just tap into the nostalgia element, which is where we've run out of
good ideas when it comes to TV shows and movies. It seems we're just
gonna reboot that, or remake this, or make sequels and prequels off of
that, just go back. And it's like you can't go wrong with some
of these classic jerseys as well, And so I recognize you're not gonna please
anybody, but like there needs to be like these were objectively at least two
thirds of the week is were pretty bad this year. So that's where I'm
at on that I would like them to just be more creative. I like
loud stuff, and I recognize not a lot of people like the loud colors
and the explosions of colors. So again, you can't cater to everyone's taste.
At the same time, could we just get to a point where they're
not underwhelmingly or overwhelmingly playing, or underwhelmingly creative or innovative. They're not pushing
any sort of bill and we're at a point where Okay, the New York
Knicks have liked this reflective like holographic font where it's like the backdrop on I'm
like, wow, that's like that's really fucking good and clever. And then
no, no, it's not. The jerseys. It looks fine. I
saw seeing players wear them. I liked some of them a little bit more,
but no, like you can't get bonus points for oh, you just
didn't suck or you were like kind of creative relative to these other jerseys that
weren't creative at all. So the Knicks jerseys are good, but they're not
on the scale of Wow, these are amazing. It's because you would be
grading on a curve. I don't want to grade on a curve. I
want to be entertained when I see these jerseys. I want to want to
wear them other than to do yard work or when it's laundry day. So
that's where I'm at on those. Let's get to this next question from the
from unbiased Pistons fan. Can I get a national perspective on why Killian Hayes
starts and gets more minutes than Jade and Ivy Man. So I asked some
people about this, and I've been told that there is other things that I
am not factoring in, and I was not told what those things are.
So I'm going to continue to lampoon this decision. I think that when you
look at it from we do get too caught up and who's starting. I
want to make that clear. But if you think that someone needs to start,
and we know that Jade and Ivy is not happy by coming off the
bench, you could get to a pattern where it's staggering. Or if you're
gonna come off the bench and you're still just getting a crap a ton of
minutes, I just, you know, don't get too bent out of shape
about not starting. I think if you look at it from two perspectives,
Monty Williams is notoriously just holds his point guards to a higher standard, especially
on the defensive end, and I think that that would account for at least
some of the decision making here, going with Killian Hayes over Jade and Ivy,
or even going with Marcus Sasser at points, just because he's giving like
he's just going to be better on that end, He's giving you like more
gritty minutes there. It feels like from what I've seen, want to make
clear, I've not seen every single minute of every single Pistons game. And
then also just the Killian Hayes stuff, it's size for switching, and I
believe I didn't get confirmation on the data, but it feels like the Pistons
they are going to like to switch with some of their lineups, and so
Killian Hayes is going to be better for that. He's not as eminently screenable
either, just from a I'm talking about never mind the never mind the effort.
It's harder to screen Killian Hayes right now that is Jade and Ivy.
I still I'm just like, what are we doing here? You have this
pick equity, this future equity invested in Jade and Ivy, and he's played
better offensively than Killian Hayes. For sure, He's shooting less, so much
is like forty seven percent on catching shoot threes. That's a big deal.
So this isn't a matter of well, the Pistons really want spacing or they
don't think he could play next to Kaid if I thought it was will.
They want him to kind of just build up as the floor general type in
these lineups where it's all him. You could kind of hide behind that.
But like he's still playing a bunch with Marcus Sasser, He's playing a bunch
with We've seen him play with Caid for sure. We've even seen play some
minutes with Killian Hayes, which I don't I don't need to see that.
I'm not gonna lie that's not something. I mean one of the lineups that
they actually played, which one was it? I mean, like what,
First of all, the lineup has been kind of frisky that they've rolled out
Sassar, Ivy Burks, Joe Harrison, Badley. She's been a little bit
friskier than I thought. I'm like on kind of holding up better on defense
than I would have predicted, and they're just like lightening it up on offense.
I just I want to know, aside from the defensive thing, I
need someone to tell me, then what if someone who's plugged into the Pistons.
I do Pistons. Excuse me, I do read James Edwards while the
athletic I pay. I follow Pistons people on Twitter. They all seem pretty
frustrated. Not James Edwards. He's a reporter about what the Pistons are doing
with with Jade and Ivy. I don't have a good explanation. I think
it's a bad decision because I think that you want to show that confidence in
him, and look, you just don't have the the equity invested in Killian
Hayes anymore. You didn't sign him to an extension. I would I guess
I wouldn't be shocked if he's still on the Pistons. But like, this
is someone that you could look at moving in advance of restricted free agency,
or who you've at least proven, Oh, we're not going to pay him
a bunch of money if it came down to we want to make sure that
Kate has the ball in his hands a bunch and we're really leaning into this,
and I mean Kate Cunningham. The turnovers an issue, the finishing is
still an issue. He's been buying large spectacular big people writing him off as
just oh, he's he's gonna be good, maybe an all star, but
we can't be a superstar. I disagree. I'm not there yet and I
don't personally, I don't think I'm gonna get there. So just play him
more. If you're not gonna start him, I get it, but like,
this needs to be someone who is closer to thirty minutes per game than
not. And you want the information of Okay, you know, let's see
what he looks like next to not just not just Kate, but let's look
at what he looks like next to or start Thompson as well. And if
you think these guys are a bad fit together, find out now before there's
actual expectations. The fact that as I'm recording this thirty two Possessions, we've
seen Ivy Osar, Thompson and Kate cunning him on the floor together. Just
this feels like malpractice and they've not been good minutes. I want to make
that clear thirty two Possessions, though, like, find out what you have
in I don't want to say there you're like, are they your three most
important players in the building? No, because Jalender exists and I think he's
your second most important player at this point. But when you're coking about your
perimeter guys, those are your three most important perimeter guys as of now moving
forward, find out if they can all play together. And so I do
think that they're doing themselves. Never mind the whether he's starting or not.
I think they're doing themselves a disservice with the way that they are kind of
limiting Ivy's minutes. I get that you want to see him earn them,
but I actually think that he's given you some pretty like highs on offense this
year. I'm I'm puzzled, to say the least. So if anyone wants
to crack that code and they're not, you know, related to Monty Williams,
are just super like you don't watch the Pistons and an Ivy sucks and
this is gonna this is gonna help roop him into a superstar. If you
have actual answers to this, because I don't have any rational ones, please
let me know. I'd really appreciate it. Next question comes from well,
well, this came from h P. Burgie. What team and what deep
cut player your biggest positive surprises this season? I already did this podcast at
Breakout Players, so but I will the two things that I will stand out
just to you know, just in case you listen to the Breakout Player podcast.
Co go ahead, check that one out. HB. Burgie and I
appreciate this question. Jalen Johnson is the one I'm kind of obsessedsessed with.
He's been really good, I think defensively, running the fault floor super well,
excuse me, finishing well in his two is kind of hitting the glass
for them. His hands are just everywhere, They are everywhere, and I
would like to see him hit more of his trailer jumpers and more of his
jumpers in general. But he's been I think, by and large, pretty
fantastic for the Hawks. Gives them a lot of defensive optionality as well,
and I think, look, if he can kind of control the ball a
little bit better on the move, this dude's like a for his position,
like a capslock passer, and so that's probably the benefit. One of the
benefits of moving John Collins is getting a more extensive look at him. But
I'm a big jail and Johnson guy, and I think I didn't cover a
team and so this would be like the actual good answer to your question,
HP Bergie. I know they've played a soft schedule, but I'm not sure
that I expected the Mavericks just to be five and one as I record this,
and like, okay their loan, their lone loss is coming against Denver
Nuggets, like the real opponent that they've played. But I've been really impressed
with that team overall and how they're playing whenever I watch them. Luke has
been spectacular to start the season, just and he's I think, did I
mention this? I actually I might have mentioned this on the breakout one.
The fact that he's complaining less just feels like a really big deal, and
we've seen better effort from him on defense. Almost out of necessity, I
grant Williams. I'm still uncomfortable with giving up the pick swap to get off
of Reggie Bullock's money that in twenty thirty. That was just awkward. But
he has been He's been great for the mass He's shooting like a trillion percent
from three, really stretching the floor. He's done well on switches and then
look Derek Lively, he just gets it. I talked him. We had
a little clip on him for this podcast. Already, so I don't want
to spend more time on it. This is just I know people. I
still see people saying, while I'm a little uneasy, what their ceiling is
gonna be kind of playing a rookie big and I'm just like, all right,
like what do you what do you want them to do? I just
like you're looking at the options, and I think by far he's been defensively
but maybe by far it's a little bit Grant Williams of you want to include
him, I don't, like, we don't want Grant while he was playing
a ton of center. But like Lively's just been the chemistry he has with
Luka Doncic incredible already, Like in that's giving Luca a lob threat the likes
of which he's really just never had to this degree. I know Dwight Powell's
been there for a minute, like that was never KP's strong suit. And
like Derek Lively is really explosive. He's held up well I think as a
rim protector, as someone who's not super strong just yet, and like is
just a rookie in general, and he's tapped with doing a lot of different
things and you know some of the rim protection numbers aren't gonna be favorable,
but limiting an opponent, it's about sixty one and a half percent shooting around
the basket. That's not We're talking about a rookie who's starting shouldering a like
shouldering a ton the way that he's able to move on defense. And then
I've I've mentioned this before and it's stuck him just being able to get off
the rim quickly on his finishes and then looking to get back on defense.
So the MAVs just being this good, especially with Kyrie missing time to where
they're we're at the point where I think they're losing the minutes with Kyrie on
the court, definitely skewed just because we're talking about such a small sample size.
The MAVs haven't impressed me, just because they look like a team that,
oh yeah, they still need to make a move. And you know,
I do question some of the decisions with their some of their lineups,
their starting lineups. Where's hey, do we need more a little bit of
Josh Green here? Is that even the answer? Necessarily Defensively, I don't.
I don't want to get too caught up in that. But when we're
seeing I like having the idea of Derek Jones Junior has been really good.
I might prefer to see Josh Green in the starting lineup than him, just
as your offense doesn't need it, I guess. And Derek Jones Junior has
hit some good spot up looks this year, but like, let's kind of
maximize the spacing and I don't know that you're giving up. I guess you're
giving up some defensively there, but that's a look AT's working, so I
can't let me. But again, they've beat They beat the Spurs, they
beat the Nets, are a quality team to get a win. They beat
the hammerd on the Grizzlies, they beat the Bulls, they beat the Hornets,
and Sunday night was just a frigging wild game. So I'm not going
to complain about it. That's just like one of the oddities. But again,
d Double j has been better than like I would expect it while being
used more frankly than I would have expected for this team. So they're the
team. I guess. They're not a deep cut team, so apologies for
that HP Purgey. I guess is it just the Spurs being good where they
could very easily when you look at how some of their games have unfolded b
above five hundred. So I don't know if there's a deep cut team,
I'll say, here's a deep cut one for you, HP Burge, anyone
else listening. I am pleasantly surprised, a little bit flummoxed by how little
fucks the Washington Wizards just give. They're just it's not that they're not trying,
but they don't. They just don't care. Like they'll hold the Jordan
Pool, thrown the thing off the backboard down twenty. I love it.
I love that energy like they are. You'll kind of come they're getting blown
out by the heat in that nd season Tornment game. They're just kind of
just scrapping their way back to ruin some of the point differential. I just
I appreciate the vibes. This is the zero fucks given team I think is
the Washington Wizards. Is they're going to carry themselves with an arab ravado at
points and games they'd be down like thirty or they just have no chance of
winning. I respect it and appreciate it. That is my deep cut reaction.
Shout out to all the believers in bla cool bally there though we're still
there. Next question comes from Rubik's Gal asking, look, and this was
kind of a joke question, but for real, I'm gonna I'm gonna tackle
this. James Harden saying, what's the what's the what's the least self what's
the I'm sorry, what is the least self aware comment? James Harden saying
I am a system? Or Draymond Green complaining about last season's Warriors team chemistry.
I think it's the James Harden quote. And just for let's start with
Draymond specifically. I think it's funny that he's the one who's saying that because
he is the guy who punched Jordan Poole and probably added, look, let's
I would love to know what contract Jordan Poole signs last year if Draymond Green
doesn't punch him. I feel like there's at least an extra five million and
guaranteed mony caked into that deal because Draymond fried his face. There was other
stuff going on with the Warriors, though, whereas like young guys not really
appreciating their role, there are reports I think even guys like Jamichael Green were
kind of rankled with how they were being played and used it, So there
was clearly other stuff going on there aside from the Green Jordan Poole stuff,
and Green should be allowed to comment on that. It's just hysterical that the
biggest shift and turning point was clearly just him punching Jordan Poole. But if
they were getting to that point anyway, those could have been issues that bubbled
to the surface in the middle of the year and that could be a larger
comment on the chemistry of that team at large. But the Harden stuff and
everyone said they were being taken out of context. He did give a lengthy
answer, and I think I might have even mentioned this on the one of
the pods we did since then. Is that he's clearly he does feel like
he was betrayed by Darryl Moury. This doesn't feel like a performative response where
Chris Paul just blatantly says stuff that I think is not true because he's trying
to game the system. Include like Chris Paul, I IQ I did not
get that vibe from James Harden, But there is a level of ignorance here
to saying that I am a system when okay, you are, and you
can be pretty damn effective when during the regular season it is not come close.
Save for one year, you know, and you had CP three on
your team, it has not come close to getting you a title. So
there are limits to James Harden the system and to not acknowledge that or to
say that coming into a new team, where like even Russ when he joined
the Clippers and ever since then, has been more I mean, he did
say he had the quote about how he views himself as a point card,
and he could have been I guess more generous of I'm fine moving around positions
and I don't need to start blah blah blah blah. And we know that
they're gonna start him and recording this before Harden's debut. But just like you're
James Harden, you're coming into and I'm sure different. He'll be different behind
the scenes and maybe he will be more open to adapting. But to just
frame it as just like I need to be or I am the system with
a straight face here when it's there's been clear limitations placed on how far that
could get you. When you're joining a new team that you pushed to be
traded to and you're going to everyone's gonna need to adapt and make concessions here.
That's just not you know, James Brn's going to have to spend more
time off the ball, or the Clippers are going to have to get super
creative with their stackering, or he's gonna have to give more dams on the
defensive end, depending on what type of lineups they run. If you want
to start Russ and James Harden together with zu bots like and there needs to
be one of those guys, you know, needs to give a shit on
the defensive end between Russ and James Harden and Russ's you know was on ball
defense with the Clippers. I think he's been fairly and not We're not just
talking about the postseason last year. Like that's someone who's given you some good
odd ball moments over the years anyway, But if those two guys are going
to be targeted or putting a bunch of actions in the half court, it
puts a lot on zobots behind them, and then also just Paul George and
KWHI Leonard in general maybe having a guard up to more of attack stuff.
It's just it's a pretty it's a comments that's lacking self awareness to like the
up teams degree, even if you want to put actual legitimacy behind some of
what he said, where I didn't take his I was on a leash in
Philly comments to believe that, oh, they just wanted me to get rid
of the ball. I didn't have the ball. It just felt like Doc
wanted more of a final say over the offense rather than letting James Harden have
that type of agency. But he still had supreme control of the offense,
even if you need to view him as the top option. So this is
still a really good player, and I would bet on the Clippers having some
when they're at full strength, incredibly high peaks. I just don't trust him
to adapt adapt enough. Where it's we talk about these players who they've been
so heliocentric for a bunch of their career or so ball dominant, can you
trust them to play different styles. I think we've seen Chris Paul make stride
to someone who needs to adapt, even before he went to the Warriors.
Like we're talking about Days and Phoenix, we're about Devin Booker. When we're
talking about stars, excuse me, who adapt to different roles as soon as
CP three comes in there and the stakes get higher, and Devin Booker has
always been pretty scalable, but like he was able to just take that to
another level. And we're still we've seen it not as much this season because
of injuries, Like we've still seen it in the couple of games that he's
played for Phoenix. And then so you get to the question of, like,
well, can Trey Young play differently? Can Luka Doncic play differently?
Between those two and James Harden, I'm honestly wondering who's the player that's gonna
be less equipped to adjust or that you would trust less to adjust? Is
it Harden? I feel like maybe it's Luca. I don't know, it's
not Luca. I don't think it's Luca. I think he's just too talented
and too big to where like even if you needed to use him as a
play finisher something James Harden can do. Maybe it's Trey Young. Maybe it's
Trey Young, but like you can envision there's at least the vision of,
oh, you can imagine Trey Young kind of flying around off the ball a
little more. Do you get that from Harden? Can he do something other
than play bystanderd duty? When he doesn't have the ball on offense, and
that's a I think that's a fair critique. I think I think James Harden's
still really good. I think this Clippers team at full strength probably is still
gonna be really good. It's gonna take some lineup tweaks. I think they're
actually gonna have to make another type of trade. I do not think,
and maybe i'll I'm really gonna have to figure out how to title these mailbag
podcasts. They don't normally get the eyeballs that they should on on YouTube,
and should I use the hook of is James Harden and the Clippers destined to
fail? And then people can skip to the time stamp and see what the
actual take is no idea. I don't think it's destined to fail. I
think a lot of people believe that something's gonna go wrong, especially with the
Russ Harden dynamic. The stakes are so low with Russ's contract that if it's
really not working, and Russ is one of the reasons why, I think
you can easily move him to the bench, or just start staggering super aggressively,
or you just you just get rid of Russ. I honestly, I
don't think he's gonna be the issue though, just based off what we've kind
of seen over the years. That's my long winded way Ruby's scalf saying,
yeah, this is on, this is on James Harden like that. That
comment lacked more self away ferness than anything Raymond has said. Another question from
Rubik scale here, does the Bucks coaching staff understand that Lopez's rerimproduction was what
made the Bucks one of the best defenses in the NBA? No, obviously,
so I will say before we got to the nd season tournament, the
Bucks were twenty fourth and half court defense and dead last in transition defense.
Not the frequency, but just when you're looking at opponents points scored per play
in transition. They did have brook Lopez play more drop against the Knicks and
the result was they held him to fifty seven point one percent shooting at the
rim, and Adrian Griffin went on, I actually clipped that and put it
on Twitter. I don't know if anyone saw it, but he went on,
did the midgame interview with ESPN and said, our players wanted brook In
a drop more and so I listened to them and it's working. There are
some people dunking on that I posted it because there's been a lot of fair
critiques of Adrian Griffin and I still think. Look I personally, I probably
wouldn't have fired Bud. I think Bucks fans have been vehemently against that.
And if he lost the locker room and Giannis wanted to change, which it
does feel like without putting the onus on Giannest, he really did want to
change, I get it. I wouldn't have gone with Maybe I'll be wrong.
I wouldn't have gone with Adrian Griffin. The stakes are just too high
to gone with a rookie head coach here. This wasn't a Raptor situation.
When Nick nurse Like took over it was. And I guess it's different because
they have Dame and Yan assigned the extension, so you could afford to be
a little bit more patient. But like looking at the age of Middleton Lopez
Dame, of course you didn't know you were gonna get him. Then they're
just we don't know if it was the wrong hire. Yet this is why
we play the games. My point is people were dunking on him for saying
that. I posted it because I thought it showed self awareness from Griffin to
acknowledge, Okay, we're only a few games into the season. This isn't
working bringing Lopez higher up a lot of the time, it's putting a strain
on our defense, both in the half court and even in transition when you
kind of look at how their offense has been running. So to make that
change, to listen to the players, I think that's a really good sign.
And so I wasn't dunking on him in any sort of way. But
I will say there are still issues with the defense. There is they're not
getting back in transition off missus and that's been a pretty big deal. Their
point of attack defense, containing off screens is another issue. They just don't
really have the personnel to do it. I keep thinking this team could look
a lot different if they had just paid Javon Carter. They right now though,
you're even looking not just at the point of the attack but all over.
They have the league's worst defense when defending against screens right now. So
that's an area where maybe having Brook Lopez dropped more. Just being around the
rim takes care of some of it. But there's stuff up top that's been
pretty difficult, and they've leaned more on marj on Bochamp. I think maybe
he could end up being a sneaky option to kind of help them get it
together there. But as of right now, you look at the makeup of
this roster, how easy it is to screen Damian Lillard out of plays like
this might be a season long issue and I don't think it's going to mean
their defense is awful. I'm curious to see moving forward, do they try
and vary up their coverages more? Do they kind of revert Okay Lopez,
He's going to be in a drop. He's one of the best room protectors
in the game. That's just how we have to operate. Do we see
Giannis maybe trying to clean more stuff up top, which we still really at
least I have yet to see a ton of They have options, but when
you look at the personnel on this roster, you're almost like they might need
to go externally for an answer, but they don't have the assets to go
do that, and then make you start to wonder, Okay, can pack
content or even Bobby Porters Junior, who's pretty important to what the Bucks are
doing, Like, can those contracts get you anything? So I would expect
to see more just based off with Griffin said on that game against the Knicks.
The caveat there, though, is it was the Knicks. I'm not
trolling the Knicks here, but their offense has been rough to start, and
so it's a lot easier for that to look good against New York. I'll
be interested to see how it looks in assuming that they do revert to using
Broock Lopez is more of a drop guy. How it looks against teams that
are fielding better offenses. Another question from rubikscal here, if you moved I
remember, yeah, okay, I spend time on this one. This was
a thinker. If you moved all the healthy Houston, Detroit and Memphis players
on one team, could you put together a consistent ten man rotation today?
I'm not talking about putting together a contender, just a playing team. So
here are the limitations that I set for myself and also injuries. Did no
Tari Easton, no Jahn Morant, no Boyan Bogdanovich, no Monte Morris,
no Steven Adams. Those were the players that I missed the most personally when
going through this exercise. So here would be my starting line up from the
again Houston, Detroit, and Memphis trying to build a ten man rotation with
just healthy players. I have Kate Cunningham with Desmond Bain, Marcus Smart,
Jaron Jackson Junior, and Alprin Shang Gun in this twenty five. That's a
pretty not much Alprin Shangun. People have watched this year. He's playing,
He's playing really well. I actually really like the starting unit. I'm not
there is Alprin Shangun a defensive net negative, Kate, Cunningham and Bain probably
close to the league average, and like this this this could be a pretty
good defensive lineup, and I'm taking three Grizzlies players from it. But I
make no apologies. I did think about putting Jalen Duran over Shanggun in this
lineup, but I with Smart, I kind of want to make sure that
we have a big that maybe he's gonna space the floor a little bit better,
and Shangoon has done a pretty good job of that this season. I
thought I also had enough defense to hey, let's throw Shangun in here,
because I have Smart, Jaron Jackson Junior, even Bay and Cunningham. But
Jalen Deran my first reserve, Fred van Fleet my second reserve. Things went
off the rails here where I just don't feel confident in anything. I have
Asar Thompson as a reserve. I appreciate his defensive energy. I don't have
Aman Thompson in this is that sacrilegious. I have Jabari Smith Junior and Jalen
Green, neither of whom has come out like gangbusters on the offensive end to
start the season. I just wanted another big here and Jabari Smith Junior.
You could toggle between both big man spots pretty easily. And then Jalen Green
is just I know what his peak can look like, and so I'm I'm
gonna trust a little bit more that he's gonna give me consistency that in Amen
Thompson can not, or you know, if you want to sub about Amen
for Rosar Thompson, I guess I would listen. But I've been more.
I've probably seen more of Rosar Thompson this year, to be fair, I've
just been more impressed with him than ahmen. It's this was not easy.
I think once you get this for the first seven guys, someone can correct
me if I'm wrong. Cad Bain, Smart, Triple j Shangoon Duran and
Fred Van fleet kind of feel like home runs there, Like that's a really
good seven man rotation team. I think this ends up being a playing team.
What say all of you? Let me let me know. Next question
comes from Real Syrup twenty two to nineteen. Real question, should we already
be concerned about the Suns? I know they've played entirely without Bio and sporadically
without Booker, but their problem is defense, and I don't see either of
those guys coming back to anchor them on that end. Their crunch time D
rating is one twenty three. That's not going to get it done. Their
offensive rating is somehow worse eighty six point one, but I expect that to
stabilize. Beyond the small sample size stats, they really just don't pass the
eye tests at all. I think this team is a lot to figure out,
so I don't disagree. It's just so hard for me to know juice
up the concern without seeing how they look when Booker plays in a bunch of
games in a row, or all three of the stars in Durant and Beal
play and I have actually thought that they've been a little bit better on defense
then than I've expected. Not been super impressed by use of nurdic. But
they're tenth in points allowed per one hundred possessions right now, and or ninth.
Even so, they actually improved since I was doing research on this.
You look at some of the issues they're they're gonna have, They're experimenting with
their rotations. I think there's value in that. I'm surprised that they haven't
gone to nas little more. Took them a while to get to Cata Bates
d up as well. They played Josha Koge a bunch. I think you
don't want to Nobby's had some really good moments for them. The center spot
feels like it could be sort of a season long tug of war, but
like because you're looking at them, and I think part of this might just
be the makeup of the roster. But teams are getting out in transition too
much against them right now that will settle Though they've turned the ball over a
lot more than I would have expected. How much of that does it have
to be with the does it have to do with the newness of the roster
together? I would think it would settle down at some point, and so
allowing your defense to get set would be a big deal. But they've also
just not been able to get back off missus, and Devin Booker is someone
who will get back off misses. I think he is people. There's a
joke I think it was from Rome eighty one to eighty and discord that just
I want a team made up of fifteen Devin Bookers or whatever. He's one
of my favorite players to watch, and I think I can't paign for him
so strongly because it feels like he still exists outside of the superstar tier for
some. He is so critical to making this all work, and I don't
think we appreciate one his scalability nearly enough. He's taken over from John Collins.
Is just infinitely scalable for me. But like, this is someone who
gives you can filling gaps aside from being the floor general of this team where
the Sun's lack rim pressure right now, in transition frequency, he will give
you change of pace on and off the ball, I think he helps with
that. I think he will help you get back better in defense. I
think he'll give you some more options in your best lineups having him defensively in
the effort that he's given probably the last like year and a half to two
years. I also think there's value though, in them kind of experimenting with
how they're gonna run some of these rotations and who they're gonna play right now.
You want to figure it out now rather than in the playoffs. I
just I will keep coming back to this. This is not the only issue
they have. We need to see their three stars play in a bunch of
games together, and I think there will still be nights where they kind of
just lose the math. Their team that's gonna get to the free throw line
a bunch, but will they take and make enough threes. That's also why
Devin Booker is so critical to make this work of the three stars. He
is the guy that you just pointed to, like, yeah, he'll help
U se up jack up his three point volume. And so this team,
I would almost say, I don't want to say it's a god send that
they're three and four, but it's almost like they're almost kind of lucky that
they're three and four. At this point, we've played some really tough games.
They've missed like really important players for some of those games, and I
recognize that the defense is probably getting a little bit lucky right now because a
perimeter shooting. I think opponents are shooting sub thirty four percent on threes against
them. They're also getting destroyed at the rim. Opponents arehooting like sixty nine
percent there. They've probably again the defen's probably gotten a little lucky when you
look at how opponents are shooting specifically from the from the perimeter, and you
have to be concerned with there's no true even as much as you like Drew
you Banks, there's no true rim to turn here. Like teams are gonna
especially if you let them get out in transition, they're gonna get to and
finish at the rim. Against these guys, there are real concerns to be
had. But we need to see all three of these, you know,
Booker Bill and Kevin Durant, not just playing together, but in the rotation
for I mean like seven games in a row or something, or just like
can we get a seven to ten games ample size with all three of those
guys so we can see what their lineups look like. You know, how
are they staggering? What does the general rotation look like? And so I
can't be too concerned until we get to that point. But there are certainly
along with secondary ball handling. There are valid concerns, not all of which
are going to be addressed by the return of Bradley be On better availability from
uh Devin Booker. This next question comes from Nicolcha Kolev. I apologize if
I mispronounced mispronounced that. So how about the heatals? I know their schedule
has been tough, but the record is very disappointing. I know they have
a mid season switch where they just get a lot better because of familiarity.
But is it too hot of a take to say that they're going to miss
out on the plane? Who is that too hot of a take? So
the heater sitting in two and four? Let's I mean Boston Philly playing team.
Yeah, I mean it's probably not too hot. I mean Cleveland will
get going at some point as they get healthier. It's is it too hot
of a take to say that they can't. I don't know, It's probably
not too hot of a take. This sounds like a team that expected itself
to look a lot differently, and frankly, they don't look that much different.
Some things that keep in mind definitely not having Caleb Martin to start the
year. That's a really big deal. Jimmy Butler's clearly banged up as he's
I think he's dealing with right knee issues right now. But the half court
offense, which is so predicated on him getting downhill, not getting to the
rim at all. The mid range jumpers aren't falling, Butler's rim frequency is
plummeting. And is that going to do with the right knee issues. I
know some of heat fans think he's just coasting right now. I don't know.
Man. The fact that he's shooting under thirty percent from mid range,
that's a big part of what he's able to do. I do think that
you've had some positives when you look at Tyler Hero, He's had mostly a
very good start of the year. Bam continues to evolve on the offensive end.
He can do a lot more just self creation stuff, and there's more
complicated things he can do away from the ball. There's just not a ton
of space in the half court right now. Threes are kind of falling,
but only Boston and Cleveland are generating fewer wide open jumpers as a share of
their attempts, And so you look at those teams and they have all these
nuclear tough shot makers. The Jason Tatum in Boston, Donovan Mitchell, and
a healthy Darius Garland in Cleveland, and you sort of look at those teams,
you're like, well, Cleveland, they haven't even played the two bigs
yet, so it's weird they're not generating more wide open jumpers. Boston,
they just have so much spacing guys or maybe glued to the to the perimeter
right now. I was actually surprised that wide open jumpers counted for such a
low share, but they have such top end guys that we were looking at
Tatum and what I mean, every Christops jumper is considered wide open because he's
coming over the top of everybody. But that's a real problem for Miami.
There's just not a lot of space. Teams are able to pack the paint
against them. Still they're able to, you know, like some of the
shooters, how long it takes them to get off shots, Like they can
really close out strongly. They heat themselves. Are just not playing in a
ton of with a ton of pace consistently. They can vary it up depending
on the lineups, but they look awfully slow at points, and so that
would be a way to juice up your rim pressure is can you do more
damage in transition and or at least prove to at least prove would be more
of a threat in transition Right now, Miami at the moment is second in
transition frequency, but they're just not They're not scoring efficiently in there, and
they feel like a lot of it feels like kind of faux transition opportunities if
we're being honest from them. The bigger concern though, is just the half
court in general. Where you're gonna be bottom ten in half court, You're
not going to be a team that's crashing the offensive glass. They're second to
last in half court offensive rebounding percentage. You need to figure out a way
to clean that up. Is it running smaller? Is it running with lineups
that are just gonna get out and run a little bit more. In general,
the defense has been probably okay, they've they've been another team that's when
you look at it, probably got a little bit lucky. When it comes
to opponent shooting, they are Did they have the least best three point defense
at at the moment? Oh no. The teams are actually hitting their threes
against Miami. So the event their defense is ranked as highly as it is
I must have had them confounded with with someone else when teams are not gonna
shoot over four forty against them from three for the rest of the season.
I think when you look at that they're allowing seventy percent shooting at the rim,
the fact that their defense just barely ranks outside of the top ten probably
bos a little bit well for them. They are a team that's still gonna
be able to force turnovers and you can change up the pace that way.
That's helped them at some points to get out in transition. But again,
it's about finishing and taking the right shots in transition. But Miami's gonna need
to when you're not getting to the basket, or if you don't have Jimmy
being Jimmy like you're just who's the other person that you're gonna trust to draw
those you know, free throw parades, which are some easy points for an
offense like this to score. Who are you trusting for from scratch creation from
on the perimeter, it's Tyler Hero If Jimmy Butler isn't that guy, you're
asking a lot of Kyle Lowry in that instance. Let's see how they get
when they get healthier. I do I will say this is not a hot
take up Nicole Jay, I don't. I don't think to say that they
aren't able to flip a switch. That doesn't feel like a hot take.
This team is materially different. There's a deficit of the guys that were playing
the most last year, and I think even when you dig into it there
until their last game they're starting five that they were using was kind of obliterating
opponents. And so that's a nice little baseline that you're going to be able
to to or at least their most used five man unit. That's a nice
little baseline when you have love at a Bio Butler, Hero and Lowry.
They're out scoring opponents by twenty six points per one hundred possessions right now,
and so like that's a nice baseline to be able to work off of.
But you've seen a lot of you know, when you're going and you know
Thomas Bryant's playing some minutes, and you've seen the defense kind of sacrifice in
there without really there being in an offensive benefit. I mean to be able
to steal some minutes on the wings with a hime Hawks, but getting to
lineups where it's okay, we're you know, we're kind of a little bit
smaller. It's not a traditional like not Kevin Love on the court, a
team that can maybe play with more pace or be more versatile on the defensive
end. Haywood high Smith is probably really important to that working and we've seen
some where you slide him into you know, we'll call it Haywoo high Smith
plus the you know, the four main guys, Caleb Martin in that regard
will will be huge for this team. And I just, you know,
I don't want to say that it's gonna be something that solves everything for them.
So it's probably too spicy to say that they'll miss the play and we
need to get anything along those lines. Is probably a little bit spicy when
we're sub ten games in the season. But your concern is duly noted and
I don't think it's unfounded. Next question here comes from Carrigan. The Jazz
need a point guard who would be the perfect fit. Here's what's interesting is,
I eventually do believe that Keante George will be the answer for this team.
And so what you're trying to do is because I would agree that,
yes, it'd be nice to see them have sort of a veteran floor general.
But you want someone who is not going, who can either play off
of him in the long term or is more of a stop gap to where
when he's ready, yeah, maybe they could spend some time with him,
but when he is ready to be just the guy, you can move away
from them. And so I have a bunch of names here the ideal fit.
I will say he's not available, and he can't he can't be traded
at the moment anyway because he signed his extension. Uh, and then the
poison pill and stuff. But LaMelo ball for this team would look really,
really like picture I'm playing alongside Walker Kessler, Larry market In. He could
play next to Keiante George. That is like the that is like the player.
And so if we're fastward into the offseason and Charlotte's kind of cratering and
LaMelo's getting a little itchy, that's just the name. That's not the name,
but that is a name that I'd be interested in. Uh. Trying
to be a little bit more realistic here though, So some of these are
I'll start with the ones that I think are super realistic. Tias Jones and
Washington would be a really good game manager to get. He won't turn the
ball over, He'll make a lot of good plays in the pocket, he'll
hit it. He should hit enough of his threes away from the ball to
where if you want to try playing in with Kante or just give Lowry market
in some of those frum scratch touches. And then he's sort of he's in
an expiring contract. I'd be curious what it takes to get him, and
the Jazz are not a team that would normally look at getting this veteran on
an expiring contract. You have to give up value and you would have to
believe that you or in the play in Chase try to make the play in.
I don't think they're gonna be super interested in that. They have the
second worst record in the West right now. So but like if you if
you just want some organization, there does two seconds get him? I would
if I'm Washington, I might just rather have his bird rights. But Spencer
Dinwidy, if the Nets wind up selling, that's someone money's a little bit
big. But it's again, it's an expiring contract. What does that cost?
He is someone who will give you some four organization, some defensive intensity
at points as well. That's do you want to play him in Kianton George
if you trust Kianton George's jumper because Spencer Dinwiddies can Wax and Wayne. But
that would be a nifty option. You could throw Manual quickly in year as
well. By the way, Jalen Brunson would be a great fit for them
if the Knicks really ever just decide to blow it up if their season goes
off the rails. I don't think the Knicks are looking to move quickly in
advance of him entering restricted free agency and you're gonna have to give up.
I would say a first round pick to get him, and he's too important
to the Knicks offense right now, I'm throwing out names from the jazz perspective,
I'd be monitoring. There's pathways. So well, if the Knicks kind
of continue down this path and quickly staring at a twenty twenty five million dollars
a year contract, do they get a little itchy? Uh? So,
he would be just to try it. He's not the passor that you would
necessarily want, but as a defender and someone who's gonna stretch the floor,
and it's just when you look at who they're still he's a better passer than
like, I mean, Jordan Clarkson might be a better passor than Manuel Quickly
at this point, but like I'm not trusting you know, thht or Chris
Dunn doesn't have the consistency level on offense that Manuel Quickly would. I would
one hundred percent trade for Kyle Anderson and just start him at point guard.
Don't know how gettable he is uh in Minnesota, but he is entering a
contract year and sometimes of the Jutah Jazz and the Timber is gonna trade with
each other. You get into all right, what does the defense look like?
Because you're gonna have lowry marketing and Collins and Kessler and then Anderson.
That's really really huge. Uh, But Kyle Anderson should not be defending at
the point of attack, and so are you gonna start him if Jordan Clarkson's
remaining in that that unit, that's that that's going to be a no.
You can bring Anderson off the bench though, and play him at point guard
pretty easily and mix and match some of your rotations that way. Another question
would be how gettables Andrew Nemhard would be a really good pickup for them.
Someone is really good steward of the game. He will space the floor.
He can defend up, but he can also defend his own position. He's
super cheap the pacers they are using him. I was worried that he might
get buried a little bit more than he has. I've actually not looked at
how many minutes he's playing. He was at like twenty one I think when
I last checked, which I think is a based off the players, He's
down to twenty and a half. It's just like, hey, because they
have Tech McConnell, there you go after TJ McConnell as well. He's playing
less than Andrew Nemhard, but I really like Nemhard. The three point clip
has fallen off a cliff at the moment. That's still someone, though defensively,
who you can trust. Is a controlling playmaker, and I think we've
seen him. Look, he will hit more than twelve percent of his threes,
like he shot thirty five percent on negligible volume this year, but he's
not a twelve percent three point shooter. That might actually be my favorite name.
I don't know how realistic it is. I would pay money to see
them try and get Jail and Pickett from Denver. I just don't think the
Nuggets are going to want to give up on him. His sort of just
like Turky Jerky change of Caden's game would work really well. And then two
more names that they're probably not super big. One of them can't even be
traded right now, but just would be interesting if the Jazz were looking to
improve Markel Foltz entering a contract year. You don't need his shooting. He's
become a really good passer, serviceable from the mid range, and he's a
really good defender. And then also Fred Van Fleet. That's someone who's gonna
help your defense as well. His three point clip has been all over the
place this year. I'm just sort of like it was last year. But
if he's gonna shoot thirty five percent on such a you know, super high
volume, that counts as floor spacing. And he can play on or off
the ball, whereas Folds you might run into some off ball issues. You
have enough space to where you could get him moving off the ball, and
the Magic have done a good job of that at points. But I would
love those two names. I think my favorite names off this list, and
one of them I still haven't mentioned again. LaMelo would be I'd love to
see him on this roster, But realistically, my favorite names where I could
see them maybe becoming available Tias Jones, who has to be already available,
and just Markel foltson, Fred van Fleet and Andrew Netthart would be my top
options. And if I'm saying between Fulton van Fleet, I think van Fleet's
more likely to become available matching money just because of where the Rockets are.
Matching money might get a little bit tough because the Jazz have some they can
get the salaries there. But you're looking at like it's more than thht and
O Linik. You need like three players to get there unless you want to
tap into the the John Collins element of it. And I don't know why
Houston would be interested. So Folts would be more interesting from that perspective,
And another name I did not mention would be something to maybe keep an eye
on longer term. You don't need when you're looking at because of how good
Lowry market it is, and you know that Keyante George is there, and
because of the spacing that I think you can carve out with a bunch of
these lineups. I don't know that you need someone to be you need more.
I'll say either someone could be connective tissue like a Fred van Fleet,
or just someone who is good enough as a passer. Markel Folt to be
an example where it's a league average type passer. And so if you go
after de Jontay Murray, depending on what happens in Atlanta over over time,
these are much longer term solutions. The more immediate one, look, Andrew
Demhard would just be the guy in Tias Jones like, those are the two
immediate ones. The other ones I'm naming are sort of Yeah, some of
them could be available this season, most of them won't be. De Jontay
Murray did sign his contract late enough that I think he can be traded this
year. I'll double check that as I'm recording this. I just the Jazz
are not. It wouldn't surprise me if they made kind of a consolidation type
trade. Yeah, de Jhonta Murray can be traded in January. But like
those names, the Faults, the Van Fleets, you would have to give
up value for basically all of these guys. Tias Jones and Nemhar feel like,
Okay, maybe the cost is low enough that they would make this type
of a move. But Jean Tai Murray would just be a name long term
because the defense that he brings, He's not an A plus pass He's kind
of like a B B minus passer, which I think is really all This
team needs that from that position, at least within its top lineups. And
maybe that just speaks to more of me being a believer in Kiante George.
It's more so just can you get an upgrade over Clarkson done thht as those
guys in the meantime, and I think de Jontay Murray would certainly qualify as
that. Our next question comes from Peto. Scotty Barnes started the season on
fire, and it looks like he's taking a leap. If you or the
Raptors, would you lean on him being the de facto point guard? Would
you look towards trading Siakama maybe find a guard a pair with him? Good
timing on this question. Scotty Barnes is absolutely lit it up against the San
Antonio Spurs on Sunday Night. I've been really impressed with basically everything that he's
done. You're not really you know, they're not channeling it. The offense
is still just very wonky, very clumpy at points, but they have decided,
and I think rightfully so, because you want to know whether Scottie Barnes
is a player around which you can build. They want to know what they
have in him, and I think what he has shown offensively, looking a
little bit comfortable reacting to double teams or passing out of traffic, that is
valuable information because this proves to me that he is someone around whom you can
build, rather than just someone who's gonna be part of that build. I'd
like to see him ditch you know, some of the laborious turnarounds, but
like there, a lot of them are going in right now. And he's
shooting on by the way, five point four to three point at times per
game. He shooting forty two point one percent fifty six percent on his twos.
This is still someone I think could stand to get to the rim more,
not shy away from contact as much. I don't know how you are
upset with his start to the season. Even the defensive effort has been better.
You look at the counting stats, you look at tracking, you just
watch him. It's just better. Twenty three points, which over I don't
know if the two blocks are you gonna stick per game? That's something that
stands out to me. But twenty three and six, he's averaging almost like
ten rebounds per game. By the way, as well, he's playing a
ton of minutes well really thirty six and a half. That's like, that's
light work if you were being coached by Nick Nurse, which or not.
So the pathway forward is okay, let's yes, let's absolutely build around Scotty
Barnes. I think that he is. This is someone When I was doing
the breakouts, I include him the third year Leaps rather than the Star Bound.
It was just a way of sort of getting all the players I wanted
to talk about in. This is absolutely someone Now when you look at the
Mobile and Cunningham and Barnes, like, all those guys are someone I would
bet on making numerous All Star teams. Right now he's been Scotty March is
just fantastic and so now you know that he is the and he might have
always been. They didn't include him in KD. Trey talks, they didn't
include him for Damian Lillard. They've always valued him highly. But now you
know you have this information, even amid you know a less than stellar start
to the season, you know that he is someone who can dictate the terms
he rebuild. Where do you go from here? Is basically what Peto was
asking. I still believe in fury that Pascal Siakam and Scotty Barnes can work
together. Pascal Siakam has hit enough of his catch and shoot threes for that
to work. In fury, I'm more skeptical of it being well, well,
when one of the other guards you're gonna play Sometimes looking at a Dennis
shooter is not going to space the floor and you have Yaka Purdl is not
going to space the floor. That's where the crunch begins to come in to
where it's you need to get another if you want to say, an actual
point guard type, because yes, Scotty Barnes will do most of the ball
handling. You have Siakam there, but if it's gonna be shooter, if
it's gonna be someone else, you need that spot to get more shooting,
or you need to change your primary big and pertal. It's a lot easier
change up the guard stuff there just finding rim protecting shooters at the five spot
is. Every team would love to do that, so it's unbelievably difficult.
And I think that's where the issue comes in because right now, when you're
looking at Siakam, his role has changed such a he is standing s berehen.
He had pointed this out for SDPN, and it's just it's evident too
when you watch it. He's being used more just kind of as a bystander
in the corner. I don't necessarily think that's a bad thing, but when
you're getting into well, how can we still optimize Siakam on the ball.
It's not happening right now because the lineups are just so clumpy. Even if
he's hitting his threes, Even if Barnes is hitting his threes, they're not
being defended like they're hitting their threes when they're off the ball. It's just
Siakam is shooting on drives twenty six point three percent have one hundred players who
have finished at least twenty five drives this year. That's ninety seventh and so
that needs to Seacam. Look, he's gonna be better. This is someone
who has worked within negative spacing before, and I think between Grady Dick's when
and now that I've seen some more of the Raptors, like Grady Dick just
being on the floor and being able to move around. That's a breath,
as Mike Gage would say, from this cord of fresh air, to see,
uh the Raptors have had. I think they've had higher highs this season
than when you look at some of the games that they've played, like that
that Bulls won, and you look at their record where it's it's three and
four and you kind of felt at some point you felt like the world was
ending. I think they've had higher highs than I would have expected for a
team that still does have a negative point differential, for a team that still
needs to be concerned about the half court offense, and if they're gonna be
Raptors fans and the YouTube comments who are not concerned about the half court offense,
more power to you. You're still for the season, Toronto. There,
it's not as egregious anymore. They've moved up from thirtieth to now twenty
ninth. Portland has the worst half court offense now in the league. Not
too surprising when you look at their personnel. So what would I do with
Siakam? I mean it seems like he wants to be in Toronto or just
have the right to be a free agent. And so I'm not not really
nearly gonna move him because you probably missed the best time to move him.
I just don't know how much he commands as an expiring contract where there's only
part of the season left, rather than doing this over the offseason when you
could have integrated him in training camp and the preseason. But if you're not
gonna figure out a way to get and I don't even know who the perfect
player to this would be. It feels like the Raptors, if they want
to optimize the Scottie Barnes, oh Giannanobi, Pascal Siak comparing long term,
that they need another player. It doesn't need to be a star, but
someone who's gonna sort of open up a lot of their most used lineups.
And can that come at the expense of Yaka Pertle, Can it come at
the expense of Dennis Schreuter. Some people might think it's just Gary Trent Junior.
Is that just sort of the the answer there? You can sub him
out if you trust for more of those minutes, if you trust Scottie Barnes
to run point. I mean, sure, I think that spot still needs
more of a of a playmaker if you're gonna go that route, and I
don't I don't have the exact answer, but I can't get on board with
moving unless it's for I think if you're gonna go that route, then you
need to kind of be picking up like wings that are just gonna space.
They don't need to be stars. You have barns, you're stone invested in
in Adenobi, it seems like. But it would need to be someone who's
going to consistently open the floor from those wing spots then, and that's just
not you know, there are players like Michael Bridges. If you're trying to
like look mid end not to that that would make sense. Why are the
Jazz sending him out? In sort of a Pascal Siakam trade. This is
gonna step on the toes of some that I might that I might that I
think we're gonna cover later in this mailbag. But an interesting challenge trade,
I understand. I think this is gonna rub a lot of people in the
wrong way. Zach Lavine for Pascal Siakam might be kind of an interesting challenge
trade here, you've now You're not gonna put the ball in the Vine's hands
with Barns, and you have enough defense, I think, to insulate him,
but you would still pretty clearly need Zach Lavine to be your your second
best player. And I'm not just because of what he does on offense,
but just having me off the dribble, three point shooting, and even he's
a good enough catch and shoot player as well. But I just you look
at the Raptors right now when they're outscoring opponents by twenty two points per one
hundred possions when Barnes, Siakam, and Anacobi share the floor, And that's
why I'm just reluctant to think along these terms where it's, oh, it's
kind of just dead where they stand. And I'm not criticizing, I'm questioning
the lineup viability of Shrewd and Perl. With those three, they're a plus
fourteen points per one hundred posession on the season, and the offense has been
not thermal nuclear, but it's been decidedly above above average there. And if
you get into some of the lineups that you want to see more of,
and it's we haven't seen Gary Trent Junior subbed in for Yaka Purdle might be
a way to go. We haven't seen a ton of that this year.
You can try to play like super big at that point, it's like is
Otto Porter Junior coming in for Perle, so you're still on the bigger end
there. We haven't seen a ton of that this year. I think it
really comes down to, though, if you want Sam, if you Wantam
and Barnes to stay in long term, it comes down to getting another floor
spacer there who could either play the five or is just in the backcourt with
Scottie Barnes and maybe can defend some point of attack to I don't know if
that's Gary Trent Junior. I think when you're looking at names that become available
this year, no one like I feel like the player I'm asking for it
needs to be a megastar and the Raptors don't need that if you're keeping Seakam
and Barnes. I just find it hard to believe that with Siakam and Ananobe
and even Gary Trent Junior heading towards free agency, I find it a little
bit hard to believe that this team is going to remain the same. But
I could see like they're good enough to where well, maybe it's a consolidate
another consolidation trade that they're making. I wish I had names. I've been
racking my brain for them. The Zachlavine challenge trade was just like semi interesting.
Could you get Zacklovine without giving Upakam, Barnes or Ananobe would be the
question at this point, And then it's like, okay, well now we're
getting interesting. Zack Lavine's your third best player, you have him in the
I guess I would throw him in for Shooter and just lean into Barnes as
the one up in those starting lineups. But like so, Lavine, Ananobe,
Siakam and Barnes is a setup, and then you could, if you
want it, to still play Shooter in that and move and Anonobe up a
spot. But like perto being, I just think it's that would be the
route I would try to explore, is can we do something where it's like
it's that. It's like an off the dribble three point shooter. It's a
very good, reliable catch and shoot guy who gives you a little bit more
dribble creation. Then Garrit Trench Junior is gonna get tunnel vision at points and
then Grady Dick that's just not as bad like as a motion shooter for sure.
I think a lot of Raptors sends would hate the idea of Leavin there.
But Raptors sense, if you're listening, if you could get Levine without
giving up Anobi or Barns, I'm not trying to make this Oh, take
all our bad players for or players we don't need for Zaclavigne, like you're
just building it on picks to Chicago decides to rebuild and its picks and salary
is just the the meat and potatoes of the deal. Do you hate that,
Raptor Sends, I don't. I don't, but uh that's where I'm
at. So I'm not out on Sac Barnes just yet, PETEO. But
I do think that it's very clearly like with Siakam entering free agency and how
there's still just not a ton of room in a half court for this team,
I think if you're gonna keep those both, there still needs to be
something done to open it up. Our next question comes from jt Alexander as
perfect landing spot for Zach Lavine the speaking We're just gonna get right to the
Zack Lvine trades. I already I'm intrigued by Toronto. It was just Siakam
for Levigne and Patrick Williams. Is that an interesting challenge trade? I don't
want Raptor fans to hate us, and I don't know. I think Bulls
fans are just like so numb right now. They probably would be Zack Levine
for like Tobias Harrison there, they'll just be numb to anything. I propose
that's a semi maybe not rap like Zach Levine for Williams and Siakam is a
fairly interesting challenge trade. Who needs to give up picks in that scenario?
Patrick has been really rough to start the year. That that's just an interesting
challenge trade for both teams. Can someone agree with me? Please pretty please?
Without fleshing it out like just the basis of that U other spots for
Zack Lavine, the Knicks I don't nix sense tend to be lower on that,
and that's not the guy that you want to push all your chips on.
The defense has been good enough, though, if you're moving, I
think you need to move away from Julius Randall. I don't know if he's
in that deal, but if you're getting Levine and Julius Randall's leaving the team
or coming off the back. I mean he would have to be there.
He would have Julius Randall has to go if you're getting Zack Lvine. That's
just that's where I'm at. There are still a team that I think could
really use him. He'd open things up for John runs In and RJ Barrett
a ton Maybe RJ. Barrett needs to be part of that deal. I'd
rather see RJ Barrett stay. I think the Knicks have the pick equity to
at least get that down, and the Sixers, for sure, Maxi,
Levine and Embiid I don't know if they have the wing defense to kind of
make up for that. At this point, you have the Antey Mountain super
reliable, and you did get if Nick Patoome ever reports to the team,
and you did get Roco, I just I don't I mean, some of
those guys s would have to go out as matching salary nless it's Tobias Harris,
who's had a pretty good start to the year. I mentioned Toronto.
I think so now some of these Miami I think you could make a case
for it would just be a little bit of a bummer. I don't know.
I don't know how much of an upgrade individually Zacklvine is over Tyler Hero.
There's more levels to Zack Lvine's offense, but I think Hero is probably
the better passer at this point, And so do you want to you want
to keep Hero as part of that, then how much you playing Hero and
Zack Lvine together. But just because of where Miami's half court offense is at
Levine, Bam and Jimmy's a hell of a trio and theoretically you could keep
if you're moving Lowry and other salaries. I mean you might even be able
to keep Lowry as well, just use Duncan Robinson's salary as the anchor.
I think you would still need to move Lowry is part of that. But
if you're able to keep here on get Levine, there's a little bit redundancy,
but they're both so capable off the ball, I wouldn't hate it.
I thought about Indiana for a second, with their offense is just too good.
And I'm just like, we're already trying to I'm not a Benanic math
in person per se, but we're already trying to figure out what the Pacers
are going to do defensively, And Kaitlin Cooper was just talking about on Twitter.
I think about when their defense looks the best and all the stuff that
she was describing, Zach Levine cannot be a part of the Lakers. I
just do they have enough. The shine has worn off of Austin Reeves.
You're not gonna be able to trade a boload of picks. That'll be more
open for them, probably over the offseason, depending on the asking price.
I mean they're off. They're all half court offense though could use it.
And so it's like, once del is eligible to be traded, can we
get you know, is there a way to get there? Like are the
Bulls interested in no in Austin Reeves to you know, move him and then
d Loo and picks. I just a little bit rough there Memphis, but
not really just like right now you have Memphis, but you have Smart,
you have Maine. John Morant will come back. I don't love that fit.
I wondered if New Orleans would be and we have New Orleans fans in
the discord. So again, don't get mad at me. I'm just I'm
throwing stuff out here. Would they be better off with zach Lavine's three point
volume than they would with Brandon Ingram. Brand Ingram is the better player,
But like, is there when I look at what's happening? We have another
question on New Orleans later at CJ McCollum injury man collapsed along that was I
woke up. I was Sunday, like I said, I was so fried,
and I woke up to that news like I was taking a nap,
and it was just such a bummer. The Pelicans just can't catch a break,
and they're not even I know, we could say, well, that's
the thing with all these guys, they're always kind of injured. It's not
a chronic injury for any of these dudes. It's just shit keeps happening.
That was a bummer to find out. Uh the team. Then there are
two teams that I think I don't I don't know that their fan bases would
appreciate it, but I would really I think that he would make a huge
difference. Minnesota, do you have enough, Like with Towns, do you
have enough to get Zach Lvine from Chicago? Your pick equity is just a
bust, And so it's they have interest in any of your youngsters plus towns
or do they view that as a challenge trade he would do. We're talking
about the best defense in Minnesota. You run Edwards, McDaniels, Levine,
Gobart as like your Ed Conley, as like that's your those are your units.
You're asking Edwards to kind of move up and McDaniels to move up.
I don't know, man, I would love it. I would love it,
and especially just as like Mike Comedy's getting into free agency, you don't
know if he's gonna be back. I think Levine does a lot to improve
their offense, and him and Anthony Edwards can play off each other. I
have no doubt in my mind that'd be a fun reunion. And then I
would still be on about this. This team is not you know, Minnesota
has real urgency to what they're trying to do. This team does not,
even though they have the potential to be really good Orlando, they are twenty
third in a half court offense, which I believe is a little bit of
an improvement. They've had some rough games from Franz Wagner and Palo bank Caro
at different points this season, actually sometimes in the same night. Their ceiling
is higher than what we've kind of seen from them right now. I fully
believe, as currently constructed, they're they're a team that look, they're four
and two, They're one of the best defenses in the league. I think
they can insulate Zach Lavine defensively enough to be like, this might be interesting
to try, and I don't know. I think what some of the issue
is is that, Okay, so you're just the faulting to your top five
guys at that point is Pallo, Franz, Wagner, Wendell, Carter Junior,
then Faults and Levine. Like, that's a pretty interesting starting five where
you're basically from your preferred five man unit. You're deciding, well, we're
gonna plug, We're gonna sub out Jalen sucks for Zack' that's a hell of
an offense, an upgrade and you have the scratch to kind of to make
that deal happen without having to include I don't know where you land on,
do we want I give up Jael and Suggs for like, you don't have
to move Carter Junior to do it. You know, you're definitely not moving
Palo with Franz Wagner to do it, But are you willing to move Suggs
in a Lavigne deal and a first or two? I think that's reasonable.
I just don't know if that's kind of jibing with Orlando's timeline. I will
say I've been impressed with Anthony Black in his minimal minutes within like this offensive
ecosystem that I thought I was going to be and that was someone that I
really liked leading into the draft. But I thought he ended up in a
spot where I wasn't going to appreciate what he could do. Probably judge too
soon there. We'll see how his minutes continue to tick up as the as
the season goes on. So like, would you give up? You would
have to give up one of those dudes, It's Sugs or Anthony Black to
get in the Zach Lavine sweepstay plus picks salary match and gets a little tough,
But you have Gary Harris there, you do. I mean, once
Joe ingles, he could be the important part of that trade once you get
to a certain time of the year. I think some people might still want
to hold out for Jonathan Isaac, but you have him, like you can
get to the salary for Levine without including any of your core guys. Would
you give up Suggs or Anthony Black for Zack Lavine and plus picks? I
would. I would, definitely, I would. I would give up Suggs
because this already he's playing the position he's not. Suggs is great defensively,
and I think his look, I'm not worried about his start to the season
forty three percent on two. I still believe in Jalen Suggs, but it
might make sense to move him now when he still kind of has a little
bit of that that mystique. It was both and picks, I probably wouldn't
do it, But if it's one and picks and salary, I think I
would consider it. I think Zach Lvine makes a huge difference for that team
personally. Next question, Rome eighty one point eighty. You actually get a
great question, but I'm going to save that for when I can do it
with Grant about young teams winning titles, So I would like to That's one
where I feel like I need more of a like I need someone else here
for me. Let's look at there's some ones that came in that I have
not had the opportunity to, like go in depth on but let's get to
a couple more of these mailbag ones. It's probably this is just gonna be
a long episode that was gonna be short. Ruben Scout asked, Uh,
it turns out I do have another mailbag question. Do we like the catch
and shoot gunner that McCall ooh rough timing? Do we like the catch and
shoe gunter that McCollum is turning into fifty six percent of his shots and eighty
three percent of his three point makes this season are assisted. Both of those
are career highs. Get get well soon, CJ. I. I think
it's huge. I think it's I love do I love it. I love
it, and I think it's necessary because the Pelicans are still at a three
point shooting deficit, not just on most nights, but when you're looking at
like their best units with the exception of someone, you're gonna see them run
out that you know this the CJ. CJ her Matt Ryan Yonas Valenciunis and
then Jordan Hawkins unit. Yeah, CJ is going to be you need him
for a ton of self creation in there. But when you're looking at their
most used lineups right now, like some of them aren't even getting it done
on the offensive glass. And so like, if you don't have the three
point deficit to uh, if you're not bridging the gap in the three point
deficit, that can make it very hard to as Shimid Dua likes to really
have her home with this team from the in the No podcast and substack like
that could make it very hard to win the possession battle. And so we've
seen games where they've done a great job of winning the possession battle because of
what they're doing on the offensive glass. We've also seen games where if you
lose the battle on the glass, it becomes incredibly difficult for them to then
win the possession battle, just if you're ever at a deficit in there.
And so I think CJ taking more threes, not having the not needing the
ball to hit them is super necessary for this team when he's healthy. Now
does this hold up when Trey Murphy the third comes back, I mean it's
I would say, I don't know how Trey Murphy ends up changing CJ McCollums
role. I think he would help sort of bridge the gap on three point
volume with New Orleans right now where they've made sixty eight threes on the season,
and it's just like that's that's very that's very middle of the road.
You would like to see that number come up. I don't even know what
their three point attempt rate is offhand. I don't really know why I should.
I'm like mad that I don't know that offhand. I don't know why
I should know every team's three point attempt rate off hand, But the Pelicans
right now in three point attempts rate are fifteenth and so like the volume just
isn't you know, and above the break like they're even lower. They're twenty
second, and so you'd like to see that ideally would be able to tick
up. And when you're kind of looking at like, all right, well,
if they've made sixty eight threes their opponents have made they've actually they've tied
that. Wow, sixty eight to sixty eight, you're almost lucky that you
have not lost the three point back all their overall in net for the season.
But when you look at some of the lineups they're running, they're still
just not taking enough threes and the spacing is so hard up we've seen it
a lot with the unit that's gonna have Zion Herb in there like it's not
been you know, b I missing time. That certainly fudges some of these
returns. I just think that this development from CJ, who was having a
really good season before dealing with this this long stuff, I think it's mission
critical, and especially if you want, you know, you're looking at that
what would be we'll call it the presumed starting five because Herb Jones has played
so well. I don't I know, there were people and I might have
been. I might have been one of them. They just weren't about like,
hey, maybe we should start Trey Murphy. You could do that,
certainly with CJ. McCullum out, although I don't know if you're gonna want
to go. I'm trying to look. I'm trying to think, when Bi
and Zion and Murphy are all healthy, do you start all of those guys
with Herb and valanchowness. I guess yeah, between Zion and Ingram, that's
enough playmaking. But you look at that starting five this year, twenty nine
point four percent of their shots are coming from three. That is just not
that's not enough, And only twenty one point two percent of their shots are
company gets above the break threes. You need to get that volume up there.
And so I think on a night tonight basis, maybe not sometimes net
in some you are at a large enough three point deficit that this this turn,
this developmental turn from the CJ at this late in his career, I
think it's nothing but a good sign. But we have to see what this
team looks like fully healthy in that lineup that everyone loves that we're not gonna
see you for a minute, they're taking thirty seven percent more than thirty seven
percent of their shots from deep. That is like, that's the that's the
goal you need to have. Even when you sub out herb Jones for Dyson
Daniels, that lineup is actually taking thirty fifty four and a half percent of
their shots from threes. Thirty nine point four percent is above the break threes.
If it's in service of that put improving a three point a sign for
the lineups that are gonna have Zion NBI. I think that's where it becomes
super important for or c J. Mccllum. Hopefully that makes sense. I
tend to be a little bit rambly if I haven't studied for the questions everything
blacks, Oh, this is a good one that I feel like I should
have thought, should have looked at and then thought more about. All right,
everything black. You find a basketball lamp and out pops an NBA genie.
Who will grant you three wishes affecting the current NBA season? What do
you wish for? I wish for career best availability from all injury prone stars.
I want to see Zion play in seventy games, Kawhi playing seventy plus
games, all that jazz. What else would I wish for? I would
like to see players. I would like to see players I want to rule.
Okay, here's what I want. I want to rule where if a
player insists on getting a challenge and has their coach unit and use it and
burn it that they can get fined or penalize in some way, they have
to run. Yeah, you know what. They have to run sprints full
court, sprints for a full minute, full bore, in front of the
entire arena during a dead ball. If you are coaxing your I don't care
if you're a star or if you're the ninth player in the rotation. If
you coax your coaching staff into using a challenge specifically like in the first half
and it's not successful. That's what you need to do. That's what absolutely
needs to happen. I want that to be a rule. So those are
my two three witches that I need a third one that affects the affects this
NBA season. I don't like, I don't really I don't want to focus
on a on a single team. Oh oh no, per it is.
I want someone else, Like, can we get one of the creators who
you see them they make these jerseys on Twitter? Like even get NBA paint
to do it. But you see these people on Twitter. I want them
to design alternate jerseys for all thirty teams. How's that I want? I'm
gonna ask for a do over on these city edition jerseys. But we get
to pick like the designers, and there's these more individual designers per team,
and so you can see there's there are accounts where they just throw out these
jerseys and they look incredible on Twitter or Instagram, and it's like, just
commission these people. They're doing to bang up job, and Nike can't get
it done. And so we're just gonna We're gonna come full circle back to
how we open the podcast with Austin and really just you'll cross our fingers that
these jerseys can get better. And so I am wishing for career or close
to it availability from all the injury prone stars. I want players to have
to run wind sprints for a full minute in front of a full arena during
a dead ball of a game if they force their coaching staff to use a
challenge and it's unsuccessful, and I'm gonna wish for a do over on all
the NBA city in this jerseys, quite frankly. And we get to collectively
this not you know not, we as fans collectively the Hardwood Knocks discord.
That's why you go and join the Hardware Knocks Discord. We get to choose
who's designing each team's jersey. Let's see, there were conditions to that that
I didn't say. You can't ask for more Wemby's. You can't bring back
someone who has retired. You can't force a player to love a front office.
I think I and that was the joke. Let's be real, Dan,
it's just gonna ask for two hundred and twenty five Devin Bookers and two
undred twenty five Evan mo please. Yeah, I mean, and maybe He'll
leave a spot for Frank Neilackina and this might be the this might be the
final question we we get to. Glad asked, could we get a Dan
and Frank neil Akina backstory. I love it when people care enough about me,
specifically in my proclivities to ask questions. Although Mike hs is that young
from Malcolm Brand one of the worst traits in recent memory. Holy hell,
uh picked Umber twenty with malchim Brand. I'm still the floater king starting for
the Spurs the other night with U with Devin Vessel injured. Yeah, that's
I mean, that's a pretty it's a pretty bad. The Rapper's been a
little bit haphazard with their picks. But let's get to this question about me
and my Frank Nilakina origin story. As Rubiskau pointed out, Who's man if
you need receipts apparently has receipts on all my my shit. I think Dan
featured the Frenchman in a twenty eighteen article about surprise NBA players to stand for,
along with the likes of de Aaron Fox, Josh Hart, and Maxi
Kleiba, right after a speculatory underwhelming rookie season, when he averaged crappy numbers.
If I did, in fact write that article in two as an eight
team, can we can I dislocate my shoulder patting myself on the back.
I mean, Maxi Kleba, dearon Fox, Josh Hart, that all aged
fairly well. Look the thing with Franknila Kino was I looked at him.
It was into the draft process. I always become obsessed with certain players.
Sometimes their hits like shake Yojes Alexander, sometime they're they're missus, like we
won't invoke Frankie la Kini here because he was clearly a hit. But like
Nikoil Alexander Walker, that was someone who I became obsessed with as well.
I looked at him and I saw a very raw player on offense, but
everything he did looked fluid, And maybe it was because of his length.
A lot of the time it looked fluid, but the way he could dribble
inside the lane, it looked like it was fluid. He just never it
feels like he never developed the quicker fire decision making. Just even when you're
looking at his jump shot, I thought the mechanics were okay, but there's
not There's not like speed to it or a rhyme or reason to it,
and it takes so long for him to go through that process. I also
appreciated like what he was able to do on defense, and I can't remember
who I compared him to in that lead up, but it was like what
if Avery? I think I said, what if Avery Bradley was longer and
could dribble? Is how I compare him. And that's I really thought that
Franklokan was gonna be this difference maker, and I think you've seen the difference
making moments on defense that he can just come in cold and get real stops
U. But man, it's it's been rough out here, and now we
don't know if he's gonna play this season. Given after getting an injury,
he did sign out with Charlotte, I was worried he wasn't gonna land with
an NBA team. I would have wished that he landed with a better NBA
team, but they had They have a real void kind of in the backup
guard spot. So I would love for Frankilickin to be healthy and maybe get
some run. Their final question here from Austin good point, I just heard
today with all the effort and hype they are putting into the new tournament.
Can theyko come up with a better name than the in season Tournament and in
season Tournament Trophy? And if so, what it should be called? Everything
Black said, it's a test run, prove that it's a viable product at
or sponsorship later, get ready for the Kia NBA Mid Season Classic in the
years to come. Though the trophy almost certainly gets named after David Stern.
I think, as Glad points out, they're calling it the NBA Cup,
I don't think that's very As everything Black said, it all feels very placeholder.
I don't know what a name would be. Let's say it doesn't have
to be sponsored. Even if it could be sponsored, give us a name,
you could submit a name. What should they call the actual NBA Cup
that's not the the NBA Trophy or the David Stern NBA Cup whatever they're gonna
wind up naming it, or if you want it, Like, is there
a really good branding opportunity like the Smokey's Cannabis Cup, Just something ridiculous like
that. I'd be all for it, but like, what's the you know,
do you like the name of the championship Trophy, the Larry O'Brien Trophy
is like, do do we want that type of thing that David Stern mid
Season Cup? I don't. I don't know it would be a great name.
But I'm with everything Blacks in the sense everything feels super placeholder right now
and they're just trying to im up interest and the fact that we're talking about
the courts and I think that, you know, there were a lot of
teams. We'll see if this holds. You know, there are teams that
will have I think I saw this note no inn season tournament games take place
as the second night of a back to back, but some of them are
the first night of a back to back. Could that impact the effort as
just time goes on the fact that it's just like a month long basically,
I'm I'm still very interested in it. I recorded a huge segment on that,
so you can go check it out. That'll do it. Good mailbag
here. I think I got to every question that was in there, aside
from Rome's grant, and I think we'll tackle yours together next time we record.
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If we do, Frank