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What is krack alacin fell at thermoe
fear a efforts. I am dam Via

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Valley coming at you with another solo
podcast. It is a mail bag and

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these things will be done solo a
lot of the time, since, like

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I said, it feels like I
can have a conversation with you all.

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Recording this on a late Monday morning
post gym workout, wanted to have it

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up Sunday night into Monday, but
I conked out. Spoiler alert, two

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00:00:38,200 --> 00:00:42,840
all nighters that past week and averaging
like three four hours of sleep on the

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other nights. Body's not built for
it anymore. And I just I crashed

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for most of Sunday, caught a
little bit of Grizzlies Blazers. I thought

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the Grizzlies were gonna have one lose
to the Blazers again. And two I

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couldn't wrap my head. I feel
like the Grizzlies and blazer were played eight

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times this year, maybe even nine. That end of that game was just

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Grizzly time they gotta win. Not
that anyone cares about that. Just in

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case you want to know why this
wasn't up on a Monday, before we

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get started, the usual reminders please
remember subscribe if you haven't done so already.

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YouTube, Spotify, Apple, those
are the three biggest mediums for us.

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Leave ratings and reviews on Apple and
Spotify if you've not already five stars

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only you can leave constructive criticism if
you would like, in your review.

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But again, the written reviews and
the ratings do help us climb the charts.

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Follow us on the socials. You
can see the links to those in

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the podcast and YouTube description or on
screen on YouTube. Join our discord if

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you want. I try to monitor
the YouTube comments, but I really,

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honestly I can't shout out to Rome
eighty one to eighty for defending me against

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Magic fans and the breakout thing.
I had tears. I talked about all

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these different players and Magic fans.
Who's broken out for you this year?

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I think Palo Bankaro and Franz Wagner. You want to be like studs multi

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time All Stars, but either of
them, Palo is starting to come along

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after a slow start, They're not
like it was just based off what we've

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seen so much this season. But
again, love you, Orlando Metri fans,

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the fact that you guess, you
watch and listen. Love you so

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join our discord. If you want
to dictate some of the discussion, you

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can answer malbag questions. I don't
know how often we're gonna do these this

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year, just because I want to
make sure we have enough material for a

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good, good episode. So maybe
it's every other week. Maybe I do

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one week Twitter, one week Discord, Join discord. You can ask about

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the magic, you can ask about
the jazz. We're gonna talk about the

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jazz today. I believe that's everything. If you want to support the show.

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Also, you can buy our merch
We will have new stuff eventually.

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I'm not wearing a shirt because it's
post gym. That's also why it looks

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so disheveled. Probably, but you
get these cool stickers that you can put

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on your bottles. So go support
the show. Link to our stores in

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the podcast and YouTube description. And
finally, but not leastly most importantly,

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we have a birthday shout out to
Rubik Scal recording is on your actual birthday,

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which I believe is November sixth.
Hopefully you hear it, if not

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happy belated birthday, but happy actual
birthday as well from your wife who DMed

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us on Instagram. More than happy
to throw that shout out. Rubik Scale

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has been great, great great at
sending us guests the NBA players. You

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have inspired other people to send them
to us. I have some in my

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Twitter dms and my Discord dms.
I have not responded to you all.

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I promise I'll try and get to
it. So you have started a trend

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that they have been great. I
love trying to stump the ever living hell

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out of Grant every time those things
pop up. So thank you for sending

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us all of those. And for
your birthday. Since I've been told you

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do not really have a favorite team, but you do like to root for

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maybe Jimmy Buckets or yell about Tobias
Harris, it does seem like you might

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be the most loyal or invested in
the Warriors. So for your birthday,

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I try to get in touch with
the Dubs and get them to promise that

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they would play Brandon Prejemski at least, like I don't know, twenty minutes

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a game for the rest of the
week. I hope you just get some

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good pods minutes for your birthday and
not on your birthday. I don't even

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if the Warriors are playing. I
haven't looked at the schedule tonight, but

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your birthday week. I hope that
PODS gets lots of minutes. So shout

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out Ruby, Scout happy birthday from
your wife and myself and Grant and just

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everyone the hardware NOS community, because
we know that everyone would like to wish

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you happy birthday. I'm sure we
now move to the actual mailbag portion of

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this podcast. I'm gonna have to, Like I said, I will try

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and timestamp this as I go along
so I don't have to do it later.

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If you see my hands gleaning like
this or my eyes kind of squint,

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that's what I'm doing. Should you
be watching on YouTube. Let's start

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with Austin had this question that we
did not get to when I did the

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Breakout Players slash NBA in season tournament
mail bag. What is it gonna take

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to have Nike put down the pencil
for a year and actually make a good

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thirty two set of alternate jerseys?
Man, I don't fucking know, but

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they definitely need they need to.
And here's the thing there's not going to

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be. You're not gonna have all
these hits. I get it. Not

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everyone's gonna like every jersey, but
they're so bad they're either so creative or

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they just don't make any sense,
and then they kind of hide behind well,

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this is a tribute to X,
and then I feel bad criticizing something

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because it's supposed to be a tribute
to the fabric of the city. No,

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they're bad this year. There's only
a very handful of good ones.

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Grant and I think we'll have a
rankings of them as a segment on one

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of the upcoming shows. I enjoyed
the courts. I mentioned that on the

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nd season tournament. But we need
I respect teams if they want to take

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a chance. And so it was
like, you look at the Warriors and

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the Lakers jerseys this year's, which
are objectively bad, but I kind of

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like, oh, at least they
tried something different with the font or the

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angle of the font. That's where
we're at where I'm just appreciating teams that

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go outside the beaten path. That's
why I really liked the net one.

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What was the other one I really
liked? I mean, Utah's was great,

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but that like that kind of like
a conservative backdrop there when you're looking

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at it. There were just a
very few. There are handful ones that

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I oh, the Pacers one.
I appreciated that one as well. I

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almost appreciated the Clippers one, but
I get very much you know Microsoft Windows

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vibes that paper clip that used to
kind of show up. That's what I

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when I see the clips, that's
what I think of. I don't and

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I don't know whether I like it
or love it. Let's just see teams

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take more chances and be actually inventive
or didn't just roll it back. And

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you know, if you're allowed to
go, and you are allowed to go,

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just tap into the nostalgia element,
which is where we've run out of

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good ideas when it comes to TV
shows and movies. It seems we're just

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gonna reboot that, or remake this, or make sequels and prequels off of

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that, just go back. And
it's like you can't go wrong with some

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of these classic jerseys as well,
And so I recognize you're not gonna please

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anybody, but like there needs to
be like these were objectively at least two

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thirds of the week is were pretty
bad this year. So that's where I'm

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at on that I would like them
to just be more creative. I like

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loud stuff, and I recognize not
a lot of people like the loud colors

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and the explosions of colors. So
again, you can't cater to everyone's taste.

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At the same time, could we
just get to a point where they're

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not underwhelmingly or overwhelmingly playing, or
underwhelmingly creative or innovative. They're not pushing

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any sort of bill and we're at
a point where Okay, the New York

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Knicks have liked this reflective like holographic
font where it's like the backdrop on I'm

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like, wow, that's like that's
really fucking good and clever. And then

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no, no, it's not.
The jerseys. It looks fine. I

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saw seeing players wear them. I
liked some of them a little bit more,

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but no, like you can't get
bonus points for oh, you just

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didn't suck or you were like kind
of creative relative to these other jerseys that

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weren't creative at all. So the
Knicks jerseys are good, but they're not

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on the scale of Wow, these
are amazing. It's because you would be

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grading on a curve. I don't
want to grade on a curve. I

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want to be entertained when I see
these jerseys. I want to want to

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wear them other than to do yard
work or when it's laundry day. So

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that's where I'm at on those.
Let's get to this next question from the

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from unbiased Pistons fan. Can I
get a national perspective on why Killian Hayes

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starts and gets more minutes than Jade
and Ivy Man. So I asked some

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people about this, and I've been
told that there is other things that I

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am not factoring in, and I
was not told what those things are.

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So I'm going to continue to lampoon
this decision. I think that when you

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look at it from we do get
too caught up and who's starting. I

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want to make that clear. But
if you think that someone needs to start,

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and we know that Jade and Ivy
is not happy by coming off the

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bench, you could get to a
pattern where it's staggering. Or if you're

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gonna come off the bench and you're
still just getting a crap a ton of

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minutes, I just, you know, don't get too bent out of shape

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about not starting. I think if
you look at it from two perspectives,

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Monty Williams is notoriously just holds his
point guards to a higher standard, especially

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on the defensive end, and I
think that that would account for at least

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some of the decision making here,
going with Killian Hayes over Jade and Ivy,

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or even going with Marcus Sasser at
points, just because he's giving like

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he's just going to be better on
that end, He's giving you like more

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gritty minutes there. It feels like
from what I've seen, want to make

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clear, I've not seen every single
minute of every single Pistons game. And

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then also just the Killian Hayes stuff, it's size for switching, and I

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believe I didn't get confirmation on the
data, but it feels like the Pistons

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they are going to like to switch
with some of their lineups, and so

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Killian Hayes is going to be better
for that. He's not as eminently screenable

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either, just from a I'm talking
about never mind the never mind the effort.

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It's harder to screen Killian Hayes right
now that is Jade and Ivy.

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I still I'm just like, what
are we doing here? You have this

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00:09:05,799 --> 00:09:11,679
pick equity, this future equity invested
in Jade and Ivy, and he's played

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better offensively than Killian Hayes. For
sure, He's shooting less, so much

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is like forty seven percent on catching
shoot threes. That's a big deal.

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So this isn't a matter of well, the Pistons really want spacing or they

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don't think he could play next to
Kaid if I thought it was will.

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They want him to kind of just
build up as the floor general type in

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these lineups where it's all him.
You could kind of hide behind that.

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But like he's still playing a bunch
with Marcus Sasser, He's playing a bunch

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with We've seen him play with Caid
for sure. We've even seen play some

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minutes with Killian Hayes, which I
don't I don't need to see that.

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I'm not gonna lie that's not something. I mean one of the lineups that

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they actually played, which one was
it? I mean, like what,

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First of all, the lineup has
been kind of frisky that they've rolled out

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Sassar, Ivy Burks, Joe Harrison, Badley. She's been a little bit

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friskier than I thought. I'm like
on kind of holding up better on defense

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than I would have predicted, and
they're just like lightening it up on offense.

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I just I want to know,
aside from the defensive thing, I

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00:10:09,519 --> 00:10:13,440
need someone to tell me, then
what if someone who's plugged into the Pistons.

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00:10:13,519 --> 00:10:18,000
I do Pistons. Excuse me,
I do read James Edwards while the

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00:10:18,039 --> 00:10:20,039
athletic I pay. I follow Pistons
people on Twitter. They all seem pretty

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00:10:20,039 --> 00:10:24,519
frustrated. Not James Edwards. He's
a reporter about what the Pistons are doing

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00:10:24,559 --> 00:10:26,720
with with Jade and Ivy. I
don't have a good explanation. I think

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it's a bad decision because I think
that you want to show that confidence in

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him, and look, you just
don't have the the equity invested in Killian

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Hayes anymore. You didn't sign him
to an extension. I would I guess

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00:10:37,240 --> 00:10:39,320
I wouldn't be shocked if he's still
on the Pistons. But like, this

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is someone that you could look at
moving in advance of restricted free agency,

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00:10:43,440 --> 00:10:45,559
or who you've at least proven,
Oh, we're not going to pay him

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00:10:46,360 --> 00:10:48,919
a bunch of money if it came
down to we want to make sure that

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Kate has the ball in his hands
a bunch and we're really leaning into this,

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00:10:50,639 --> 00:10:54,360
and I mean Kate Cunningham. The
turnovers an issue, the finishing is

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still an issue. He's been buying
large spectacular big people writing him off as

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00:11:00,600 --> 00:11:01,799
just oh, he's he's gonna be
good, maybe an all star, but

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00:11:01,840 --> 00:11:05,440
we can't be a superstar. I
disagree. I'm not there yet and I

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00:11:05,440 --> 00:11:09,960
don't personally, I don't think I'm
gonna get there. So just play him

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00:11:09,000 --> 00:11:11,200
more. If you're not gonna start
him, I get it, but like,

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this needs to be someone who is
closer to thirty minutes per game than

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00:11:16,320 --> 00:11:18,720
not. And you want the information
of Okay, you know, let's see

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what he looks like next to not
just not just Kate, but let's look

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00:11:22,759 --> 00:11:24,039
at what he looks like next to
or start Thompson as well. And if

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00:11:24,080 --> 00:11:28,159
you think these guys are a bad
fit together, find out now before there's

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00:11:28,200 --> 00:11:33,720
actual expectations. The fact that as
I'm recording this thirty two Possessions, we've

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00:11:33,720 --> 00:11:35,840
seen Ivy Osar, Thompson and Kate
cunning him on the floor together. Just

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00:11:35,840 --> 00:11:39,919
this feels like malpractice and they've not
been good minutes. I want to make

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00:11:39,960 --> 00:11:43,559
that clear thirty two Possessions, though, like, find out what you have

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00:11:43,720 --> 00:11:48,000
in I don't want to say there
you're like, are they your three most

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00:11:48,000 --> 00:11:50,960
important players in the building? No, because Jalender exists and I think he's

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00:11:50,960 --> 00:11:52,919
your second most important player at this
point. But when you're coking about your

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00:11:52,919 --> 00:11:56,639
perimeter guys, those are your three
most important perimeter guys as of now moving

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00:11:56,639 --> 00:12:00,399
forward, find out if they can
all play together. And so I do

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00:12:00,440 --> 00:12:03,879
think that they're doing themselves. Never
mind the whether he's starting or not.

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00:12:03,919 --> 00:12:07,679
I think they're doing themselves a disservice
with the way that they are kind of

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limiting Ivy's minutes. I get that
you want to see him earn them,

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but I actually think that he's given
you some pretty like highs on offense this

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year. I'm I'm puzzled, to
say the least. So if anyone wants

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to crack that code and they're not, you know, related to Monty Williams,

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are just super like you don't watch
the Pistons and an Ivy sucks and

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this is gonna this is gonna help
roop him into a superstar. If you

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have actual answers to this, because
I don't have any rational ones, please

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let me know. I'd really appreciate
it. Next question comes from well,

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well, this came from h P. Burgie. What team and what deep

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cut player your biggest positive surprises this
season? I already did this podcast at

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Breakout Players, so but I will
the two things that I will stand out

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just to you know, just in
case you listen to the Breakout Player podcast.

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Co go ahead, check that one
out. HB. Burgie and I

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appreciate this question. Jalen Johnson is
the one I'm kind of obsessedsessed with.

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He's been really good, I think
defensively, running the fault floor super well,

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excuse me, finishing well in his
two is kind of hitting the glass

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for them. His hands are just
everywhere, They are everywhere, and I

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would like to see him hit more
of his trailer jumpers and more of his

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jumpers in general. But he's been
I think, by and large, pretty

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fantastic for the Hawks. Gives them
a lot of defensive optionality as well,

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and I think, look, if
he can kind of control the ball a

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little bit better on the move,
this dude's like a for his position,

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like a capslock passer, and so
that's probably the benefit. One of the

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benefits of moving John Collins is getting
a more extensive look at him. But

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I'm a big jail and Johnson guy, and I think I didn't cover a

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team and so this would be like
the actual good answer to your question,

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HP Bergie. I know they've played
a soft schedule, but I'm not sure

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that I expected the Mavericks just to
be five and one as I record this,

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and like, okay their loan,
their lone loss is coming against Denver

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Nuggets, like the real opponent that
they've played. But I've been really impressed

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with that team overall and how they're
playing whenever I watch them. Luke has

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been spectacular to start the season,
just and he's I think, did I

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mention this? I actually I might
have mentioned this on the breakout one.

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The fact that he's complaining less just
feels like a really big deal, and

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we've seen better effort from him on
defense. Almost out of necessity, I

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grant Williams. I'm still uncomfortable with
giving up the pick swap to get off

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of Reggie Bullock's money that in twenty
thirty. That was just awkward. But

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he has been He's been great for
the mass He's shooting like a trillion percent

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from three, really stretching the floor. He's done well on switches and then

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look Derek Lively, he just gets
it. I talked him. We had

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a little clip on him for this
podcast. Already, so I don't want

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to spend more time on it.
This is just I know people. I

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still see people saying, while I'm
a little uneasy, what their ceiling is

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gonna be kind of playing a rookie
big and I'm just like, all right,

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like what do you what do you
want them to do? I just

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like you're looking at the options,
and I think by far he's been defensively

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but maybe by far it's a little
bit Grant Williams of you want to include

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him, I don't, like,
we don't want Grant while he was playing

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a ton of center. But like
Lively's just been the chemistry he has with

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Luka Doncic incredible already, Like in
that's giving Luca a lob threat the likes

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of which he's really just never had
to this degree. I know Dwight Powell's

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been there for a minute, like
that was never KP's strong suit. And

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like Derek Lively is really explosive.
He's held up well I think as a

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rim protector, as someone who's not
super strong just yet, and like is

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just a rookie in general, and
he's tapped with doing a lot of different

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things and you know some of the
rim protection numbers aren't gonna be favorable,

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but limiting an opponent, it's about
sixty one and a half percent shooting around

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the basket. That's not We're talking
about a rookie who's starting shouldering a like

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shouldering a ton the way that he's
able to move on defense. And then

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I've I've mentioned this before and it's
stuck him just being able to get off

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the rim quickly on his finishes and
then looking to get back on defense.

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So the MAVs just being this good, especially with Kyrie missing time to where

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they're we're at the point where I
think they're losing the minutes with Kyrie on

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the court, definitely skewed just because
we're talking about such a small sample size.

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The MAVs haven't impressed me, just
because they look like a team that,

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oh yeah, they still need to
make a move. And you know,

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I do question some of the decisions
with their some of their lineups,

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their starting lineups. Where's hey,
do we need more a little bit of

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Josh Green here? Is that even
the answer? Necessarily Defensively, I don't.

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I don't want to get too caught
up in that. But when we're

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seeing I like having the idea of
Derek Jones Junior has been really good.

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I might prefer to see Josh Green
in the starting lineup than him, just

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as your offense doesn't need it,
I guess. And Derek Jones Junior has

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hit some good spot up looks this
year, but like, let's kind of

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maximize the spacing and I don't know
that you're giving up. I guess you're

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giving up some defensively there, but
that's a look AT's working, so I

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can't let me. But again,
they've beat They beat the Spurs, they

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beat the Nets, are a quality
team to get a win. They beat

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the hammerd on the Grizzlies, they
beat the Bulls, they beat the Hornets,

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and Sunday night was just a frigging
wild game. So I'm not going

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to complain about it. That's just
like one of the oddities. But again,

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d Double j has been better than
like I would expect it while being

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used more frankly than I would have
expected for this team. So they're the

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team. I guess. They're not
a deep cut team, so apologies for

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that HP Purgey. I guess is
it just the Spurs being good where they

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could very easily when you look at
how some of their games have unfolded b

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above five hundred. So I don't
know if there's a deep cut team,

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I'll say, here's a deep cut
one for you, HP Burge, anyone

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else listening. I am pleasantly surprised, a little bit flummoxed by how little

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fucks the Washington Wizards just give.
They're just it's not that they're not trying,

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but they don't. They just don't
care. Like they'll hold the Jordan

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Pool, thrown the thing off the
backboard down twenty. I love it.

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I love that energy like they are. You'll kind of come they're getting blown

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out by the heat in that nd
season Tornment game. They're just kind of

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just scrapping their way back to ruin
some of the point differential. I just

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I appreciate the vibes. This is
the zero fucks given team I think is

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the Washington Wizards. Is they're going
to carry themselves with an arab ravado at

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points and games they'd be down like
thirty or they just have no chance of

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winning. I respect it and appreciate
it. That is my deep cut reaction.

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Shout out to all the believers in
bla cool bally there though we're still

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there. Next question comes from Rubik's
Gal asking, look, and this was

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kind of a joke question, but
for real, I'm gonna I'm gonna tackle

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this. James Harden saying, what's
the what's the what's the least self what's

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the I'm sorry, what is the
least self aware comment? James Harden saying

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I am a system? Or Draymond
Green complaining about last season's Warriors team chemistry.

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I think it's the James Harden quote. And just for let's start with

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Draymond specifically. I think it's funny
that he's the one who's saying that because

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he is the guy who punched Jordan
Poole and probably added, look, let's

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I would love to know what contract
Jordan Poole signs last year if Draymond Green

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doesn't punch him. I feel like
there's at least an extra five million and

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guaranteed mony caked into that deal because
Draymond fried his face. There was other

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stuff going on with the Warriors,
though, whereas like young guys not really

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appreciating their role, there are reports
I think even guys like Jamichael Green were

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kind of rankled with how they were
being played and used it, So there

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was clearly other stuff going on there
aside from the Green Jordan Poole stuff,

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and Green should be allowed to comment
on that. It's just hysterical that the

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biggest shift and turning point was clearly
just him punching Jordan Poole. But if

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they were getting to that point anyway, those could have been issues that bubbled

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to the surface in the middle of
the year and that could be a larger

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00:19:33,960 --> 00:19:38,480
comment on the chemistry of that team
at large. But the Harden stuff and

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everyone said they were being taken out
of context. He did give a lengthy

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answer, and I think I might
have even mentioned this on the one of

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the pods we did since then.
Is that he's clearly he does feel like

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he was betrayed by Darryl Moury.
This doesn't feel like a performative response where

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Chris Paul just blatantly says stuff that
I think is not true because he's trying

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to game the system. Include like
Chris Paul, I IQ I did not

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00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:07,799
get that vibe from James Harden,
But there is a level of ignorance here

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to saying that I am a system
when okay, you are, and you

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can be pretty damn effective when during
the regular season it is not come close.

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Save for one year, you know, and you had CP three on

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your team, it has not come
close to getting you a title. So

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there are limits to James Harden the
system and to not acknowledge that or to

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00:20:30,440 --> 00:20:34,640
say that coming into a new team, where like even Russ when he joined

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the Clippers and ever since then,
has been more I mean, he did

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say he had the quote about how
he views himself as a point card,

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and he could have been I guess
more generous of I'm fine moving around positions

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and I don't need to start blah
blah blah blah. And we know that

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00:20:47,119 --> 00:20:51,559
they're gonna start him and recording this
before Harden's debut. But just like you're

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00:20:51,640 --> 00:20:55,880
James Harden, you're coming into and
I'm sure different. He'll be different behind

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00:20:55,880 --> 00:20:59,279
the scenes and maybe he will be
more open to adapting. But to just

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00:20:59,359 --> 00:21:03,240
frame it as just like I need
to be or I am the system with

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a straight face here when it's there's
been clear limitations placed on how far that

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could get you. When you're joining
a new team that you pushed to be

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traded to and you're going to everyone's
gonna need to adapt and make concessions here.

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That's just not you know, James
Brn's going to have to spend more

347
00:21:19,079 --> 00:21:22,519
time off the ball, or the
Clippers are going to have to get super

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00:21:22,519 --> 00:21:26,400
creative with their stackering, or he's
gonna have to give more dams on the

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defensive end, depending on what type
of lineups they run. If you want

350
00:21:27,880 --> 00:21:32,440
to start Russ and James Harden together
with zu bots like and there needs to

351
00:21:32,480 --> 00:21:37,160
be one of those guys, you
know, needs to give a shit on

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00:21:37,200 --> 00:21:40,279
the defensive end between Russ and James
Harden and Russ's you know was on ball

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defense with the Clippers. I think
he's been fairly and not We're not just

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00:21:44,519 --> 00:21:48,079
talking about the postseason last year.
Like that's someone who's given you some good

355
00:21:48,079 --> 00:21:51,160
odd ball moments over the years anyway, But if those two guys are going

356
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:52,359
to be targeted or putting a bunch
of actions in the half court, it

357
00:21:52,400 --> 00:21:56,599
puts a lot on zobots behind them, and then also just Paul George and

358
00:21:56,640 --> 00:22:00,119
KWHI Leonard in general maybe having a
guard up to more of attack stuff.

359
00:22:02,079 --> 00:22:07,480
It's just it's a pretty it's a
comments that's lacking self awareness to like the

360
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up teams degree, even if you
want to put actual legitimacy behind some of

361
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what he said, where I didn't
take his I was on a leash in

362
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Philly comments to believe that, oh, they just wanted me to get rid

363
00:22:18,240 --> 00:22:21,799
of the ball. I didn't have
the ball. It just felt like Doc

364
00:22:21,880 --> 00:22:26,279
wanted more of a final say over
the offense rather than letting James Harden have

365
00:22:26,400 --> 00:22:32,279
that type of agency. But he
still had supreme control of the offense,

366
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even if you need to view him
as the top option. So this is

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still a really good player, and
I would bet on the Clippers having some

368
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when they're at full strength, incredibly
high peaks. I just don't trust him

369
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to adapt adapt enough. Where it's
we talk about these players who they've been

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so heliocentric for a bunch of their
career or so ball dominant, can you

371
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trust them to play different styles.
I think we've seen Chris Paul make stride

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to someone who needs to adapt,
even before he went to the Warriors.

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Like we're talking about Days and Phoenix, we're about Devin Booker. When we're

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talking about stars, excuse me,
who adapt to different roles as soon as

375
00:23:06,599 --> 00:23:10,079
CP three comes in there and the
stakes get higher, and Devin Booker has

376
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always been pretty scalable, but like
he was able to just take that to

377
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another level. And we're still we've
seen it not as much this season because

378
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of injuries, Like we've still seen
it in the couple of games that he's

379
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played for Phoenix. And then so
you get to the question of, like,

380
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well, can Trey Young play differently? Can Luka Doncic play differently?

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Between those two and James Harden,
I'm honestly wondering who's the player that's gonna

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00:23:33,920 --> 00:23:37,039
be less equipped to adjust or that
you would trust less to adjust? Is

383
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it Harden? I feel like maybe
it's Luca. I don't know, it's

384
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not Luca. I don't think it's
Luca. I think he's just too talented

385
00:23:45,880 --> 00:23:47,839
and too big to where like even
if you needed to use him as a

386
00:23:47,839 --> 00:23:52,279
play finisher something James Harden can do. Maybe it's Trey Young. Maybe it's

387
00:23:52,279 --> 00:23:55,279
Trey Young, but like you can
envision there's at least the vision of,

388
00:23:55,319 --> 00:23:57,160
oh, you can imagine Trey Young
kind of flying around off the ball a

389
00:23:57,160 --> 00:24:00,000
little more. Do you get that
from Harden? Can he do something other

390
00:24:00,079 --> 00:24:04,039
than play bystanderd duty? When he
doesn't have the ball on offense, and

391
00:24:04,559 --> 00:24:07,680
that's a I think that's a fair
critique. I think I think James Harden's

392
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still really good. I think this
Clippers team at full strength probably is still

393
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gonna be really good. It's gonna
take some lineup tweaks. I think they're

394
00:24:12,920 --> 00:24:17,119
actually gonna have to make another type
of trade. I do not think,

395
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and maybe i'll I'm really gonna have
to figure out how to title these mailbag

396
00:24:19,279 --> 00:24:22,559
podcasts. They don't normally get the
eyeballs that they should on on YouTube,

397
00:24:22,599 --> 00:24:26,240
and should I use the hook of
is James Harden and the Clippers destined to

398
00:24:26,240 --> 00:24:29,160
fail? And then people can skip
to the time stamp and see what the

399
00:24:29,240 --> 00:24:32,039
actual take is no idea. I
don't think it's destined to fail. I

400
00:24:32,039 --> 00:24:34,039
think a lot of people believe that
something's gonna go wrong, especially with the

401
00:24:34,480 --> 00:24:38,799
Russ Harden dynamic. The stakes are
so low with Russ's contract that if it's

402
00:24:38,839 --> 00:24:41,799
really not working, and Russ is
one of the reasons why, I think

403
00:24:41,799 --> 00:24:45,039
you can easily move him to the
bench, or just start staggering super aggressively,

404
00:24:45,720 --> 00:24:48,240
or you just you just get rid
of Russ. I honestly, I

405
00:24:48,279 --> 00:24:51,920
don't think he's gonna be the issue
though, just based off what we've kind

406
00:24:51,960 --> 00:24:55,279
of seen over the years. That's
my long winded way Ruby's scalf saying,

407
00:24:55,680 --> 00:24:57,680
yeah, this is on, this
is on James Harden like that. That

408
00:24:57,720 --> 00:25:03,400
comment lacked more self away ferness than
anything Raymond has said. Another question from

409
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:07,519
Rubik scale here, does the Bucks
coaching staff understand that Lopez's rerimproduction was what

410
00:25:07,559 --> 00:25:11,440
made the Bucks one of the best
defenses in the NBA? No, obviously,

411
00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:15,880
so I will say before we got
to the nd season tournament, the

412
00:25:15,920 --> 00:25:19,880
Bucks were twenty fourth and half court
defense and dead last in transition defense.

413
00:25:19,920 --> 00:25:23,279
Not the frequency, but just when
you're looking at opponents points scored per play

414
00:25:23,279 --> 00:25:30,039
in transition. They did have brook
Lopez play more drop against the Knicks and

415
00:25:30,079 --> 00:25:33,279
the result was they held him to
fifty seven point one percent shooting at the

416
00:25:33,359 --> 00:25:37,400
rim, and Adrian Griffin went on, I actually clipped that and put it

417
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:40,319
on Twitter. I don't know if
anyone saw it, but he went on,

418
00:25:40,519 --> 00:25:42,519
did the midgame interview with ESPN and
said, our players wanted brook In

419
00:25:42,599 --> 00:25:47,279
a drop more and so I listened
to them and it's working. There are

420
00:25:47,279 --> 00:25:49,960
some people dunking on that I posted
it because there's been a lot of fair

421
00:25:51,000 --> 00:25:55,519
critiques of Adrian Griffin and I still
think. Look I personally, I probably

422
00:25:55,519 --> 00:26:00,279
wouldn't have fired Bud. I think
Bucks fans have been vehemently against that.

423
00:26:00,640 --> 00:26:03,359
And if he lost the locker room
and Giannis wanted to change, which it

424
00:26:03,400 --> 00:26:07,599
does feel like without putting the onus
on Giannest, he really did want to

425
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:10,359
change, I get it. I
wouldn't have gone with Maybe I'll be wrong.

426
00:26:10,400 --> 00:26:12,039
I wouldn't have gone with Adrian Griffin. The stakes are just too high

427
00:26:12,200 --> 00:26:15,599
to gone with a rookie head coach
here. This wasn't a Raptor situation.

428
00:26:15,640 --> 00:26:19,759
When Nick nurse Like took over it
was. And I guess it's different because

429
00:26:19,759 --> 00:26:22,160
they have Dame and Yan assigned the
extension, so you could afford to be

430
00:26:22,160 --> 00:26:26,440
a little bit more patient. But
like looking at the age of Middleton Lopez

431
00:26:26,880 --> 00:26:29,799
Dame, of course you didn't know
you were gonna get him. Then they're

432
00:26:29,839 --> 00:26:33,599
just we don't know if it was
the wrong hire. Yet this is why

433
00:26:33,640 --> 00:26:37,319
we play the games. My point
is people were dunking on him for saying

434
00:26:37,359 --> 00:26:41,079
that. I posted it because I
thought it showed self awareness from Griffin to

435
00:26:41,119 --> 00:26:44,400
acknowledge, Okay, we're only a
few games into the season. This isn't

436
00:26:44,440 --> 00:26:48,759
working bringing Lopez higher up a lot
of the time, it's putting a strain

437
00:26:48,920 --> 00:26:52,640
on our defense, both in the
half court and even in transition when you

438
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,759
kind of look at how their offense
has been running. So to make that

439
00:26:56,880 --> 00:26:59,680
change, to listen to the players, I think that's a really good sign.

440
00:26:59,720 --> 00:27:03,839
And so I wasn't dunking on him
in any sort of way. But

441
00:27:03,920 --> 00:27:07,359
I will say there are still issues
with the defense. There is they're not

442
00:27:07,440 --> 00:27:12,000
getting back in transition off missus and
that's been a pretty big deal. Their

443
00:27:12,039 --> 00:27:17,799
point of attack defense, containing off
screens is another issue. They just don't

444
00:27:17,839 --> 00:27:21,079
really have the personnel to do it. I keep thinking this team could look

445
00:27:21,079 --> 00:27:23,960
a lot different if they had just
paid Javon Carter. They right now though,

446
00:27:25,079 --> 00:27:26,279
you're even looking not just at the
point of the attack but all over.

447
00:27:26,319 --> 00:27:30,720
They have the league's worst defense when
defending against screens right now. So

448
00:27:32,519 --> 00:27:37,160
that's an area where maybe having Brook
Lopez dropped more. Just being around the

449
00:27:37,240 --> 00:27:41,279
rim takes care of some of it. But there's stuff up top that's been

450
00:27:41,319 --> 00:27:44,680
pretty difficult, and they've leaned more
on marj on Bochamp. I think maybe

451
00:27:44,720 --> 00:27:47,839
he could end up being a sneaky
option to kind of help them get it

452
00:27:47,880 --> 00:27:49,680
together there. But as of right
now, you look at the makeup of

453
00:27:49,720 --> 00:27:55,599
this roster, how easy it is
to screen Damian Lillard out of plays like

454
00:27:55,720 --> 00:27:57,680
this might be a season long issue
and I don't think it's going to mean

455
00:27:57,680 --> 00:28:02,200
their defense is awful. I'm curious
to see moving forward, do they try

456
00:28:02,240 --> 00:28:04,319
and vary up their coverages more?
Do they kind of revert Okay Lopez,

457
00:28:04,599 --> 00:28:07,880
He's going to be in a drop. He's one of the best room protectors

458
00:28:07,920 --> 00:28:10,160
in the game. That's just how
we have to operate. Do we see

459
00:28:10,160 --> 00:28:14,079
Giannis maybe trying to clean more stuff
up top, which we still really at

460
00:28:14,119 --> 00:28:18,079
least I have yet to see a
ton of They have options, but when

461
00:28:18,119 --> 00:28:21,799
you look at the personnel on this
roster, you're almost like they might need

462
00:28:21,839 --> 00:28:25,759
to go externally for an answer,
but they don't have the assets to go

463
00:28:25,839 --> 00:28:29,119
do that, and then make you
start to wonder, Okay, can pack

464
00:28:29,160 --> 00:28:32,680
content or even Bobby Porters Junior,
who's pretty important to what the Bucks are

465
00:28:32,720 --> 00:28:36,279
doing, Like, can those contracts
get you anything? So I would expect

466
00:28:36,319 --> 00:28:37,920
to see more just based off with
Griffin said on that game against the Knicks.

467
00:28:38,200 --> 00:28:41,279
The caveat there, though, is
it was the Knicks. I'm not

468
00:28:41,319 --> 00:28:44,200
trolling the Knicks here, but their
offense has been rough to start, and

469
00:28:44,240 --> 00:28:47,319
so it's a lot easier for that
to look good against New York. I'll

470
00:28:47,359 --> 00:28:51,680
be interested to see how it looks
in assuming that they do revert to using

471
00:28:51,720 --> 00:28:55,559
Broock Lopez is more of a drop
guy. How it looks against teams that

472
00:28:55,880 --> 00:29:03,960
are fielding better offenses. Another question
from rubikscal here, if you moved I

473
00:29:03,039 --> 00:29:06,119
remember, yeah, okay, I
spend time on this one. This was

474
00:29:06,119 --> 00:29:08,599
a thinker. If you moved all
the healthy Houston, Detroit and Memphis players

475
00:29:08,599 --> 00:29:11,799
on one team, could you put
together a consistent ten man rotation today?

476
00:29:12,000 --> 00:29:15,400
I'm not talking about putting together a
contender, just a playing team. So

477
00:29:15,880 --> 00:29:19,960
here are the limitations that I set
for myself and also injuries. Did no

478
00:29:21,160 --> 00:29:25,200
Tari Easton, no Jahn Morant,
no Boyan Bogdanovich, no Monte Morris,

479
00:29:25,240 --> 00:29:29,480
no Steven Adams. Those were the
players that I missed the most personally when

480
00:29:29,519 --> 00:29:32,960
going through this exercise. So here
would be my starting line up from the

481
00:29:33,039 --> 00:29:36,599
again Houston, Detroit, and Memphis
trying to build a ten man rotation with

482
00:29:36,680 --> 00:29:41,359
just healthy players. I have Kate
Cunningham with Desmond Bain, Marcus Smart,

483
00:29:41,480 --> 00:29:44,839
Jaron Jackson Junior, and Alprin Shang
Gun in this twenty five. That's a

484
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:47,920
pretty not much Alprin Shangun. People
have watched this year. He's playing,

485
00:29:48,240 --> 00:29:52,200
He's playing really well. I actually
really like the starting unit. I'm not

486
00:29:52,359 --> 00:29:56,680
there is Alprin Shangun a defensive net
negative, Kate, Cunningham and Bain probably

487
00:29:56,680 --> 00:30:00,519
close to the league average, and
like this this this could be a pretty

488
00:30:00,559 --> 00:30:03,839
good defensive lineup, and I'm taking
three Grizzlies players from it. But I

489
00:30:03,880 --> 00:30:07,599
make no apologies. I did think
about putting Jalen Duran over Shanggun in this

490
00:30:07,720 --> 00:30:11,880
lineup, but I with Smart,
I kind of want to make sure that

491
00:30:11,920 --> 00:30:15,559
we have a big that maybe he's
gonna space the floor a little bit better,

492
00:30:15,559 --> 00:30:18,359
and Shangoon has done a pretty good
job of that this season. I

493
00:30:18,359 --> 00:30:21,200
thought I also had enough defense to
hey, let's throw Shangun in here,

494
00:30:21,200 --> 00:30:25,480
because I have Smart, Jaron Jackson
Junior, even Bay and Cunningham. But

495
00:30:25,640 --> 00:30:30,240
Jalen Deran my first reserve, Fred
van Fleet my second reserve. Things went

496
00:30:30,279 --> 00:30:33,599
off the rails here where I just
don't feel confident in anything. I have

497
00:30:33,640 --> 00:30:37,880
Asar Thompson as a reserve. I
appreciate his defensive energy. I don't have

498
00:30:37,960 --> 00:30:42,640
Aman Thompson in this is that sacrilegious. I have Jabari Smith Junior and Jalen

499
00:30:42,680 --> 00:30:45,920
Green, neither of whom has come
out like gangbusters on the offensive end to

500
00:30:45,920 --> 00:30:49,359
start the season. I just wanted
another big here and Jabari Smith Junior.

501
00:30:49,359 --> 00:30:55,440
You could toggle between both big man
spots pretty easily. And then Jalen Green

502
00:30:55,519 --> 00:30:57,720
is just I know what his peak
can look like, and so I'm I'm

503
00:30:57,720 --> 00:31:02,279
gonna trust a little bit more that
he's gonna give me consistency that in Amen

504
00:31:02,359 --> 00:31:03,640
Thompson can not, or you know, if you want to sub about Amen

505
00:31:03,720 --> 00:31:07,640
for Rosar Thompson, I guess I
would listen. But I've been more.

506
00:31:07,920 --> 00:31:11,720
I've probably seen more of Rosar Thompson
this year, to be fair, I've

507
00:31:11,759 --> 00:31:15,720
just been more impressed with him than
ahmen. It's this was not easy.

508
00:31:15,720 --> 00:31:19,039
I think once you get this for
the first seven guys, someone can correct

509
00:31:19,039 --> 00:31:23,039
me if I'm wrong. Cad Bain, Smart, Triple j Shangoon Duran and

510
00:31:23,039 --> 00:31:26,079
Fred Van fleet kind of feel like
home runs there, Like that's a really

511
00:31:26,119 --> 00:31:30,000
good seven man rotation team. I
think this ends up being a playing team.

512
00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:33,160
What say all of you? Let
me let me know. Next question

513
00:31:33,319 --> 00:31:40,200
comes from Real Syrup twenty two to
nineteen. Real question, should we already

514
00:31:40,200 --> 00:31:42,759
be concerned about the Suns? I
know they've played entirely without Bio and sporadically

515
00:31:42,759 --> 00:31:45,359
without Booker, but their problem is
defense, and I don't see either of

516
00:31:45,359 --> 00:31:48,599
those guys coming back to anchor them
on that end. Their crunch time D

517
00:31:48,720 --> 00:31:52,839
rating is one twenty three. That's
not going to get it done. Their

518
00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,440
offensive rating is somehow worse eighty six
point one, but I expect that to

519
00:31:56,440 --> 00:31:59,839
stabilize. Beyond the small sample size
stats, they really just don't pass the

520
00:31:59,839 --> 00:32:02,000
eye tests at all. I think
this team is a lot to figure out,

521
00:32:02,200 --> 00:32:08,359
so I don't disagree. It's just
so hard for me to know juice

522
00:32:08,440 --> 00:32:13,519
up the concern without seeing how they
look when Booker plays in a bunch of

523
00:32:13,559 --> 00:32:15,799
games in a row, or all
three of the stars in Durant and Beal

524
00:32:16,680 --> 00:32:20,759
play and I have actually thought that
they've been a little bit better on defense

525
00:32:20,799 --> 00:32:24,880
then than I've expected. Not been
super impressed by use of nurdic. But

526
00:32:24,920 --> 00:32:30,000
they're tenth in points allowed per one
hundred possessions right now, and or ninth.

527
00:32:30,160 --> 00:32:34,039
Even so, they actually improved since
I was doing research on this.

528
00:32:36,119 --> 00:32:39,839
You look at some of the issues
they're they're gonna have, They're experimenting with

529
00:32:39,880 --> 00:32:44,079
their rotations. I think there's value
in that. I'm surprised that they haven't

530
00:32:44,119 --> 00:32:45,720
gone to nas little more. Took
them a while to get to Cata Bates

531
00:32:45,759 --> 00:32:49,880
d up as well. They played
Josha Koge a bunch. I think you

532
00:32:49,880 --> 00:32:52,920
don't want to Nobby's had some really
good moments for them. The center spot

533
00:32:52,960 --> 00:32:57,559
feels like it could be sort of
a season long tug of war, but

534
00:32:58,160 --> 00:33:00,880
like because you're looking at them,
and I think part of this might just

535
00:33:00,920 --> 00:33:02,359
be the makeup of the roster.
But teams are getting out in transition too

536
00:33:02,440 --> 00:33:06,839
much against them right now that will
settle Though they've turned the ball over a

537
00:33:06,880 --> 00:33:08,960
lot more than I would have expected. How much of that does it have

538
00:33:09,039 --> 00:33:13,359
to be with the does it have
to do with the newness of the roster

539
00:33:13,680 --> 00:33:15,799
together? I would think it would
settle down at some point, and so

540
00:33:15,880 --> 00:33:20,079
allowing your defense to get set would
be a big deal. But they've also

541
00:33:20,240 --> 00:33:22,559
just not been able to get back
off missus, and Devin Booker is someone

542
00:33:22,559 --> 00:33:27,920
who will get back off misses.
I think he is people. There's a

543
00:33:28,000 --> 00:33:30,640
joke I think it was from Rome
eighty one to eighty and discord that just

544
00:33:30,759 --> 00:33:35,000
I want a team made up of
fifteen Devin Bookers or whatever. He's one

545
00:33:35,000 --> 00:33:37,240
of my favorite players to watch,
and I think I can't paign for him

546
00:33:37,279 --> 00:33:39,880
so strongly because it feels like he
still exists outside of the superstar tier for

547
00:33:39,960 --> 00:33:44,359
some. He is so critical to
making this all work, and I don't

548
00:33:44,400 --> 00:33:49,440
think we appreciate one his scalability nearly
enough. He's taken over from John Collins.

549
00:33:49,519 --> 00:33:52,680
Is just infinitely scalable for me.
But like, this is someone who

550
00:33:52,759 --> 00:33:57,480
gives you can filling gaps aside from
being the floor general of this team where

551
00:33:57,480 --> 00:34:00,440
the Sun's lack rim pressure right now, in transition frequency, he will give

552
00:34:00,480 --> 00:34:04,319
you change of pace on and off
the ball, I think he helps with

553
00:34:04,359 --> 00:34:06,400
that. I think he will help
you get back better in defense. I

554
00:34:06,400 --> 00:34:09,400
think he'll give you some more options
in your best lineups having him defensively in

555
00:34:09,440 --> 00:34:13,920
the effort that he's given probably the
last like year and a half to two

556
00:34:13,960 --> 00:34:16,719
years. I also think there's value
though, in them kind of experimenting with

557
00:34:16,760 --> 00:34:21,159
how they're gonna run some of these
rotations and who they're gonna play right now.

558
00:34:21,199 --> 00:34:24,480
You want to figure it out now
rather than in the playoffs. I

559
00:34:24,639 --> 00:34:28,519
just I will keep coming back to
this. This is not the only issue

560
00:34:28,519 --> 00:34:32,559
they have. We need to see
their three stars play in a bunch of

561
00:34:32,599 --> 00:34:36,360
games together, and I think there
will still be nights where they kind of

562
00:34:36,400 --> 00:34:37,840
just lose the math. Their team
that's gonna get to the free throw line

563
00:34:37,840 --> 00:34:40,800
a bunch, but will they take
and make enough threes. That's also why

564
00:34:40,840 --> 00:34:45,159
Devin Booker is so critical to make
this work of the three stars. He

565
00:34:45,320 --> 00:34:46,599
is the guy that you just pointed
to, like, yeah, he'll help

566
00:34:46,679 --> 00:34:51,360
U se up jack up his three
point volume. And so this team,

567
00:34:51,679 --> 00:34:53,719
I would almost say, I don't
want to say it's a god send that

568
00:34:53,760 --> 00:34:58,239
they're three and four, but it's
almost like they're almost kind of lucky that

569
00:34:58,280 --> 00:35:00,800
they're three and four. At this
point, we've played some really tough games.

570
00:35:01,039 --> 00:35:07,159
They've missed like really important players for
some of those games, and I

571
00:35:07,199 --> 00:35:09,320
recognize that the defense is probably getting
a little bit lucky right now because a

572
00:35:09,320 --> 00:35:14,519
perimeter shooting. I think opponents are
shooting sub thirty four percent on threes against

573
00:35:14,519 --> 00:35:17,639
them. They're also getting destroyed at
the rim. Opponents arehooting like sixty nine

574
00:35:17,679 --> 00:35:21,880
percent there. They've probably again the
defen's probably gotten a little lucky when you

575
00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:25,280
look at how opponents are shooting specifically
from the from the perimeter, and you

576
00:35:25,320 --> 00:35:29,960
have to be concerned with there's no
true even as much as you like Drew

577
00:35:30,000 --> 00:35:32,159
you Banks, there's no true rim
to turn here. Like teams are gonna

578
00:35:32,199 --> 00:35:35,440
especially if you let them get out
in transition, they're gonna get to and

579
00:35:35,480 --> 00:35:38,519
finish at the rim. Against these
guys, there are real concerns to be

580
00:35:38,519 --> 00:35:42,079
had. But we need to see
all three of these, you know,

581
00:35:42,199 --> 00:35:45,880
Booker Bill and Kevin Durant, not
just playing together, but in the rotation

582
00:35:45,400 --> 00:35:49,679
for I mean like seven games in
a row or something, or just like

583
00:35:49,760 --> 00:35:52,119
can we get a seven to ten
games ample size with all three of those

584
00:35:52,159 --> 00:35:54,159
guys so we can see what their
lineups look like. You know, how

585
00:35:54,159 --> 00:35:58,960
are they staggering? What does the
general rotation look like? And so I

586
00:35:59,039 --> 00:36:01,760
can't be too concerned until we get
to that point. But there are certainly

587
00:36:01,840 --> 00:36:07,039
along with secondary ball handling. There
are valid concerns, not all of which

588
00:36:07,039 --> 00:36:10,000
are going to be addressed by the
return of Bradley be On better availability from

589
00:36:10,320 --> 00:36:17,079
uh Devin Booker. This next question
comes from Nicolcha Kolev. I apologize if

590
00:36:17,119 --> 00:36:22,920
I mispronounced mispronounced that. So how
about the heatals? I know their schedule

591
00:36:22,920 --> 00:36:24,679
has been tough, but the record
is very disappointing. I know they have

592
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:29,159
a mid season switch where they just
get a lot better because of familiarity.

593
00:36:29,199 --> 00:36:30,360
But is it too hot of a
take to say that they're going to miss

594
00:36:30,360 --> 00:36:35,599
out on the plane? Who is
that too hot of a take? So

595
00:36:35,760 --> 00:36:39,679
the heater sitting in two and four? Let's I mean Boston Philly playing team.

596
00:36:39,719 --> 00:36:43,159
Yeah, I mean it's probably not
too hot. I mean Cleveland will

597
00:36:43,199 --> 00:36:46,800
get going at some point as they
get healthier. It's is it too hot

598
00:36:46,920 --> 00:36:51,159
of a take to say that they
can't. I don't know, It's probably

599
00:36:51,199 --> 00:36:54,119
not too hot of a take.
This sounds like a team that expected itself

600
00:36:54,159 --> 00:36:59,440
to look a lot differently, and
frankly, they don't look that much different.

601
00:37:00,280 --> 00:37:02,280
Some things that keep in mind definitely
not having Caleb Martin to start the

602
00:37:02,360 --> 00:37:07,360
year. That's a really big deal. Jimmy Butler's clearly banged up as he's

603
00:37:07,360 --> 00:37:10,239
I think he's dealing with right knee
issues right now. But the half court

604
00:37:10,239 --> 00:37:14,320
offense, which is so predicated on
him getting downhill, not getting to the

605
00:37:14,400 --> 00:37:17,559
rim at all. The mid range
jumpers aren't falling, Butler's rim frequency is

606
00:37:17,639 --> 00:37:21,320
plummeting. And is that going to
do with the right knee issues. I

607
00:37:21,320 --> 00:37:24,239
know some of heat fans think he's
just coasting right now. I don't know.

608
00:37:24,320 --> 00:37:28,119
Man. The fact that he's shooting
under thirty percent from mid range,

609
00:37:28,159 --> 00:37:30,159
that's a big part of what he's
able to do. I do think that

610
00:37:30,199 --> 00:37:35,440
you've had some positives when you look
at Tyler Hero, He's had mostly a

611
00:37:35,559 --> 00:37:38,000
very good start of the year.
Bam continues to evolve on the offensive end.

612
00:37:38,000 --> 00:37:40,760
He can do a lot more just
self creation stuff, and there's more

613
00:37:40,800 --> 00:37:44,840
complicated things he can do away from
the ball. There's just not a ton

614
00:37:44,840 --> 00:37:47,119
of space in the half court right
now. Threes are kind of falling,

615
00:37:47,199 --> 00:37:52,840
but only Boston and Cleveland are generating
fewer wide open jumpers as a share of

616
00:37:52,880 --> 00:37:57,440
their attempts, And so you look
at those teams and they have all these

617
00:37:57,920 --> 00:38:04,039
nuclear tough shot makers. The Jason
Tatum in Boston, Donovan Mitchell, and

618
00:38:04,079 --> 00:38:07,840
a healthy Darius Garland in Cleveland,
and you sort of look at those teams,

619
00:38:07,920 --> 00:38:08,719
you're like, well, Cleveland,
they haven't even played the two bigs

620
00:38:08,800 --> 00:38:12,960
yet, so it's weird they're not
generating more wide open jumpers. Boston,

621
00:38:13,559 --> 00:38:16,119
they just have so much spacing guys
or maybe glued to the to the perimeter

622
00:38:16,239 --> 00:38:20,719
right now. I was actually surprised
that wide open jumpers counted for such a

623
00:38:20,760 --> 00:38:22,679
low share, but they have such
top end guys that we were looking at

624
00:38:22,679 --> 00:38:27,960
Tatum and what I mean, every
Christops jumper is considered wide open because he's

625
00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,320
coming over the top of everybody.
But that's a real problem for Miami.

626
00:38:30,360 --> 00:38:34,280
There's just not a lot of space. Teams are able to pack the paint

627
00:38:34,320 --> 00:38:37,000
against them. Still they're able to, you know, like some of the

628
00:38:37,039 --> 00:38:39,159
shooters, how long it takes them
to get off shots, Like they can

629
00:38:39,239 --> 00:38:45,079
really close out strongly. They heat
themselves. Are just not playing in a

630
00:38:45,079 --> 00:38:47,800
ton of with a ton of pace
consistently. They can vary it up depending

631
00:38:47,840 --> 00:38:52,280
on the lineups, but they look
awfully slow at points, and so that

632
00:38:52,320 --> 00:38:53,840
would be a way to juice up
your rim pressure is can you do more

633
00:38:54,320 --> 00:39:00,559
damage in transition and or at least
prove to at least prove would be more

634
00:39:00,559 --> 00:39:05,239
of a threat in transition Right now, Miami at the moment is second in

635
00:39:05,320 --> 00:39:08,960
transition frequency, but they're just not
They're not scoring efficiently in there, and

636
00:39:08,960 --> 00:39:14,079
they feel like a lot of it
feels like kind of faux transition opportunities if

637
00:39:14,119 --> 00:39:16,599
we're being honest from them. The
bigger concern though, is just the half

638
00:39:16,679 --> 00:39:21,920
court in general. Where you're gonna
be bottom ten in half court, You're

639
00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:23,719
not going to be a team that's
crashing the offensive glass. They're second to

640
00:39:23,800 --> 00:39:29,800
last in half court offensive rebounding percentage. You need to figure out a way

641
00:39:29,800 --> 00:39:31,840
to clean that up. Is it
running smaller? Is it running with lineups

642
00:39:31,840 --> 00:39:35,519
that are just gonna get out and
run a little bit more. In general,

643
00:39:36,159 --> 00:39:38,719
the defense has been probably okay,
they've they've been another team that's when

644
00:39:38,760 --> 00:39:42,480
you look at it, probably got
a little bit lucky. When it comes

645
00:39:42,480 --> 00:39:46,840
to opponent shooting, they are Did
they have the least best three point defense

646
00:39:46,960 --> 00:39:52,360
at at the moment? Oh no. The teams are actually hitting their threes

647
00:39:52,639 --> 00:39:54,679
against Miami. So the event their
defense is ranked as highly as it is

648
00:39:55,320 --> 00:39:59,480
I must have had them confounded with
with someone else when teams are not gonna

649
00:39:59,480 --> 00:40:02,079
shoot over four forty against them from
three for the rest of the season.

650
00:40:02,079 --> 00:40:06,440
I think when you look at that
they're allowing seventy percent shooting at the rim,

651
00:40:06,960 --> 00:40:09,719
the fact that their defense just barely
ranks outside of the top ten probably

652
00:40:09,760 --> 00:40:13,239
bos a little bit well for them. They are a team that's still gonna

653
00:40:13,239 --> 00:40:15,639
be able to force turnovers and you
can change up the pace that way.

654
00:40:15,679 --> 00:40:19,039
That's helped them at some points to
get out in transition. But again,

655
00:40:19,079 --> 00:40:23,079
it's about finishing and taking the right
shots in transition. But Miami's gonna need

656
00:40:23,119 --> 00:40:27,239
to when you're not getting to the
basket, or if you don't have Jimmy

657
00:40:27,280 --> 00:40:30,840
being Jimmy like you're just who's the
other person that you're gonna trust to draw

658
00:40:30,280 --> 00:40:34,400
those you know, free throw parades, which are some easy points for an

659
00:40:34,400 --> 00:40:37,119
offense like this to score. Who
are you trusting for from scratch creation from

660
00:40:37,239 --> 00:40:42,400
on the perimeter, it's Tyler Hero
If Jimmy Butler isn't that guy, you're

661
00:40:42,440 --> 00:40:45,639
asking a lot of Kyle Lowry in
that instance. Let's see how they get

662
00:40:45,639 --> 00:40:47,760
when they get healthier. I do
I will say this is not a hot

663
00:40:47,760 --> 00:40:52,000
take up Nicole Jay, I don't. I don't think to say that they

664
00:40:52,000 --> 00:40:55,679
aren't able to flip a switch.
That doesn't feel like a hot take.

665
00:40:55,760 --> 00:41:00,320
This team is materially different. There's
a deficit of the guys that were playing

666
00:41:00,360 --> 00:41:05,159
the most last year, and I
think even when you dig into it there

667
00:41:05,239 --> 00:41:08,480
until their last game they're starting five
that they were using was kind of obliterating

668
00:41:08,480 --> 00:41:12,599
opponents. And so that's a nice
little baseline that you're going to be able

669
00:41:12,639 --> 00:41:15,119
to to or at least their most
used five man unit. That's a nice

670
00:41:15,119 --> 00:41:19,119
little baseline when you have love at
a Bio Butler, Hero and Lowry.

671
00:41:19,199 --> 00:41:22,039
They're out scoring opponents by twenty six
points per one hundred possessions right now,

672
00:41:22,519 --> 00:41:27,199
and so like that's a nice baseline
to be able to work off of.

673
00:41:27,280 --> 00:41:29,840
But you've seen a lot of you
know, when you're going and you know

674
00:41:29,880 --> 00:41:32,159
Thomas Bryant's playing some minutes, and
you've seen the defense kind of sacrifice in

675
00:41:32,199 --> 00:41:36,559
there without really there being in an
offensive benefit. I mean to be able

676
00:41:36,599 --> 00:41:38,119
to steal some minutes on the wings
with a hime Hawks, but getting to

677
00:41:38,159 --> 00:41:42,239
lineups where it's okay, we're you
know, we're kind of a little bit

678
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:45,039
smaller. It's not a traditional like
not Kevin Love on the court, a

679
00:41:45,039 --> 00:41:47,800
team that can maybe play with more
pace or be more versatile on the defensive

680
00:41:47,880 --> 00:41:52,639
end. Haywood high Smith is probably
really important to that working and we've seen

681
00:41:52,679 --> 00:41:54,880
some where you slide him into you
know, we'll call it Haywoo high Smith

682
00:41:54,920 --> 00:41:59,639
plus the you know, the four
main guys, Caleb Martin in that regard

683
00:41:59,760 --> 00:42:04,199
will will be huge for this team. And I just, you know,

684
00:42:04,320 --> 00:42:07,480
I don't want to say that it's
gonna be something that solves everything for them.

685
00:42:07,679 --> 00:42:10,480
So it's probably too spicy to say
that they'll miss the play and we

686
00:42:10,519 --> 00:42:14,239
need to get anything along those lines. Is probably a little bit spicy when

687
00:42:14,280 --> 00:42:17,239
we're sub ten games in the season. But your concern is duly noted and

688
00:42:17,239 --> 00:42:23,960
I don't think it's unfounded. Next
question here comes from Carrigan. The Jazz

689
00:42:24,000 --> 00:42:28,559
need a point guard who would be
the perfect fit. Here's what's interesting is,

690
00:42:28,599 --> 00:42:34,000
I eventually do believe that Keante George
will be the answer for this team.

691
00:42:34,280 --> 00:42:37,159
And so what you're trying to do
is because I would agree that,

692
00:42:37,199 --> 00:42:40,239
yes, it'd be nice to see
them have sort of a veteran floor general.

693
00:42:40,599 --> 00:42:44,960
But you want someone who is not
going, who can either play off

694
00:42:45,000 --> 00:42:47,119
of him in the long term or
is more of a stop gap to where

695
00:42:47,480 --> 00:42:51,000
when he's ready, yeah, maybe
they could spend some time with him,

696
00:42:51,039 --> 00:42:53,840
but when he is ready to be
just the guy, you can move away

697
00:42:54,199 --> 00:42:57,639
from them. And so I have
a bunch of names here the ideal fit.

698
00:42:57,920 --> 00:43:00,679
I will say he's not available,
and he can't he can't be traded

699
00:43:00,719 --> 00:43:05,159
at the moment anyway because he signed
his extension. Uh, and then the

700
00:43:05,199 --> 00:43:08,000
poison pill and stuff. But LaMelo
ball for this team would look really,

701
00:43:08,039 --> 00:43:12,840
really like picture I'm playing alongside Walker
Kessler, Larry market In. He could

702
00:43:12,840 --> 00:43:16,159
play next to Keiante George. That
is like the that is like the player.

703
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:20,599
And so if we're fastward into the
offseason and Charlotte's kind of cratering and

704
00:43:20,679 --> 00:43:23,480
LaMelo's getting a little itchy, that's
just the name. That's not the name,

705
00:43:23,480 --> 00:43:27,440
but that is a name that I'd
be interested in. Uh. Trying

706
00:43:27,440 --> 00:43:30,840
to be a little bit more realistic
here though, So some of these are

707
00:43:31,159 --> 00:43:34,960
I'll start with the ones that I
think are super realistic. Tias Jones and

708
00:43:35,039 --> 00:43:37,960
Washington would be a really good game
manager to get. He won't turn the

709
00:43:37,960 --> 00:43:40,360
ball over, He'll make a lot
of good plays in the pocket, he'll

710
00:43:40,400 --> 00:43:43,679
hit it. He should hit enough
of his threes away from the ball to

711
00:43:43,679 --> 00:43:46,199
where if you want to try playing
in with Kante or just give Lowry market

712
00:43:46,199 --> 00:43:50,760
in some of those frum scratch touches. And then he's sort of he's in

713
00:43:50,840 --> 00:43:52,679
an expiring contract. I'd be curious
what it takes to get him, and

714
00:43:52,719 --> 00:43:55,440
the Jazz are not a team that
would normally look at getting this veteran on

715
00:43:55,440 --> 00:43:59,440
an expiring contract. You have to
give up value and you would have to

716
00:43:59,440 --> 00:44:02,000
believe that you or in the play
in Chase try to make the play in.

717
00:44:02,039 --> 00:44:05,079
I don't think they're gonna be super
interested in that. They have the

718
00:44:05,119 --> 00:44:09,760
second worst record in the West right
now. So but like if you if

719
00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:14,920
you just want some organization, there
does two seconds get him? I would

720
00:44:15,079 --> 00:44:17,719
if I'm Washington, I might just
rather have his bird rights. But Spencer

721
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:22,519
Dinwidy, if the Nets wind up
selling, that's someone money's a little bit

722
00:44:22,519 --> 00:44:24,920
big. But it's again, it's
an expiring contract. What does that cost?

723
00:44:24,960 --> 00:44:29,440
He is someone who will give you
some four organization, some defensive intensity

724
00:44:29,480 --> 00:44:32,880
at points as well. That's do
you want to play him in Kianton George

725
00:44:32,920 --> 00:44:37,559
if you trust Kianton George's jumper because
Spencer Dinwiddies can Wax and Wayne. But

726
00:44:37,880 --> 00:44:42,000
that would be a nifty option.
You could throw Manual quickly in year as

727
00:44:42,039 --> 00:44:44,239
well. By the way, Jalen
Brunson would be a great fit for them

728
00:44:44,280 --> 00:44:45,840
if the Knicks really ever just decide
to blow it up if their season goes

729
00:44:45,880 --> 00:44:50,199
off the rails. I don't think
the Knicks are looking to move quickly in

730
00:44:50,199 --> 00:44:53,679
advance of him entering restricted free agency
and you're gonna have to give up.

731
00:44:53,719 --> 00:44:57,559
I would say a first round pick
to get him, and he's too important

732
00:44:57,559 --> 00:45:00,800
to the Knicks offense right now,
I'm throwing out names from the jazz perspective,

733
00:45:00,840 --> 00:45:02,320
I'd be monitoring. There's pathways.
So well, if the Knicks kind

734
00:45:02,320 --> 00:45:07,000
of continue down this path and quickly
staring at a twenty twenty five million dollars

735
00:45:07,000 --> 00:45:10,559
a year contract, do they get
a little itchy? Uh? So,

736
00:45:10,760 --> 00:45:14,199
he would be just to try it. He's not the passor that you would

737
00:45:14,239 --> 00:45:16,239
necessarily want, but as a defender
and someone who's gonna stretch the floor,

738
00:45:16,880 --> 00:45:20,840
and it's just when you look at
who they're still he's a better passer than

739
00:45:20,880 --> 00:45:23,840
like, I mean, Jordan Clarkson
might be a better passor than Manuel Quickly

740
00:45:23,880 --> 00:45:27,400
at this point, but like I'm
not trusting you know, thht or Chris

741
00:45:27,440 --> 00:45:30,719
Dunn doesn't have the consistency level on
offense that Manuel Quickly would. I would

742
00:45:30,719 --> 00:45:36,039
one hundred percent trade for Kyle Anderson
and just start him at point guard.

743
00:45:36,079 --> 00:45:39,280
Don't know how gettable he is uh
in Minnesota, but he is entering a

744
00:45:39,320 --> 00:45:44,000
contract year and sometimes of the Jutah
Jazz and the Timber is gonna trade with

745
00:45:44,119 --> 00:45:46,519
each other. You get into all
right, what does the defense look like?

746
00:45:46,599 --> 00:45:50,400
Because you're gonna have lowry marketing and
Collins and Kessler and then Anderson.

747
00:45:50,480 --> 00:45:53,960
That's really really huge. Uh,
But Kyle Anderson should not be defending at

748
00:45:53,960 --> 00:45:58,000
the point of attack, and so
are you gonna start him if Jordan Clarkson's

749
00:45:58,000 --> 00:46:00,679
remaining in that that unit, that's
that that's going to be a no.

750
00:46:00,719 --> 00:46:02,159
You can bring Anderson off the bench
though, and play him at point guard

751
00:46:02,159 --> 00:46:07,519
pretty easily and mix and match some
of your rotations that way. Another question

752
00:46:07,519 --> 00:46:12,559
would be how gettables Andrew Nemhard would
be a really good pickup for them.

753
00:46:12,639 --> 00:46:15,480
Someone is really good steward of the
game. He will space the floor.

754
00:46:15,519 --> 00:46:19,119
He can defend up, but he
can also defend his own position. He's

755
00:46:19,119 --> 00:46:22,079
super cheap the pacers they are using
him. I was worried that he might

756
00:46:22,119 --> 00:46:25,199
get buried a little bit more than
he has. I've actually not looked at

757
00:46:27,079 --> 00:46:30,360
how many minutes he's playing. He
was at like twenty one I think when

758
00:46:30,360 --> 00:46:34,960
I last checked, which I think
is a based off the players, He's

759
00:46:34,960 --> 00:46:37,519
down to twenty and a half.
It's just like, hey, because they

760
00:46:37,519 --> 00:46:39,320
have Tech McConnell, there you go
after TJ McConnell as well. He's playing

761
00:46:39,400 --> 00:46:45,360
less than Andrew Nemhard, but I
really like Nemhard. The three point clip

762
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:49,960
has fallen off a cliff at the
moment. That's still someone, though defensively,

763
00:46:51,280 --> 00:46:52,880
who you can trust. Is a
controlling playmaker, and I think we've

764
00:46:52,880 --> 00:46:57,480
seen him. Look, he will
hit more than twelve percent of his threes,

765
00:46:57,519 --> 00:47:00,840
like he shot thirty five percent on
negligible volume this year, but he's

766
00:47:00,880 --> 00:47:04,719
not a twelve percent three point shooter. That might actually be my favorite name.

767
00:47:04,719 --> 00:47:07,119
I don't know how realistic it is. I would pay money to see

768
00:47:07,119 --> 00:47:08,519
them try and get Jail and Pickett
from Denver. I just don't think the

769
00:47:08,559 --> 00:47:12,679
Nuggets are going to want to give
up on him. His sort of just

770
00:47:12,760 --> 00:47:15,079
like Turky Jerky change of Caden's game
would work really well. And then two

771
00:47:15,119 --> 00:47:20,320
more names that they're probably not super
big. One of them can't even be

772
00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,599
traded right now, but just would
be interesting if the Jazz were looking to

773
00:47:23,280 --> 00:47:28,840
improve Markel Foltz entering a contract year. You don't need his shooting. He's

774
00:47:28,880 --> 00:47:31,320
become a really good passer, serviceable
from the mid range, and he's a

775
00:47:31,360 --> 00:47:36,079
really good defender. And then also
Fred Van Fleet. That's someone who's gonna

776
00:47:36,159 --> 00:47:38,079
help your defense as well. His
three point clip has been all over the

777
00:47:38,079 --> 00:47:40,760
place this year. I'm just sort
of like it was last year. But

778
00:47:40,760 --> 00:47:45,039
if he's gonna shoot thirty five percent
on such a you know, super high

779
00:47:45,119 --> 00:47:49,599
volume, that counts as floor spacing. And he can play on or off

780
00:47:49,679 --> 00:47:52,760
the ball, whereas Folds you might
run into some off ball issues. You

781
00:47:52,800 --> 00:47:54,119
have enough space to where you could
get him moving off the ball, and

782
00:47:54,119 --> 00:47:58,760
the Magic have done a good job
of that at points. But I would

783
00:47:58,800 --> 00:48:00,239
love those two names. I think
my favorite names off this list, and

784
00:48:00,239 --> 00:48:04,159
one of them I still haven't mentioned
again. LaMelo would be I'd love to

785
00:48:04,199 --> 00:48:07,000
see him on this roster, But
realistically, my favorite names where I could

786
00:48:07,000 --> 00:48:12,119
see them maybe becoming available Tias Jones, who has to be already available,

787
00:48:12,280 --> 00:48:15,039
and just Markel foltson, Fred van
Fleet and Andrew Netthart would be my top

788
00:48:15,079 --> 00:48:19,280
options. And if I'm saying between
Fulton van Fleet, I think van Fleet's

789
00:48:19,280 --> 00:48:22,960
more likely to become available matching money
just because of where the Rockets are.

790
00:48:22,079 --> 00:48:25,039
Matching money might get a little bit
tough because the Jazz have some they can

791
00:48:25,039 --> 00:48:30,239
get the salaries there. But you're
looking at like it's more than thht and

792
00:48:30,360 --> 00:48:32,280
O Linik. You need like three
players to get there unless you want to

793
00:48:32,280 --> 00:48:36,280
tap into the the John Collins element
of it. And I don't know why

794
00:48:36,320 --> 00:48:39,119
Houston would be interested. So Folts
would be more interesting from that perspective,

795
00:48:39,119 --> 00:48:43,280
And another name I did not mention
would be something to maybe keep an eye

796
00:48:43,320 --> 00:48:46,920
on longer term. You don't need
when you're looking at because of how good

797
00:48:47,000 --> 00:48:51,400
Lowry market it is, and you
know that Keyante George is there, and

798
00:48:51,480 --> 00:48:52,800
because of the spacing that I think
you can carve out with a bunch of

799
00:48:52,800 --> 00:48:58,239
these lineups. I don't know that
you need someone to be you need more.

800
00:48:58,559 --> 00:49:01,320
I'll say either someone could be connective
tissue like a Fred van Fleet,

801
00:49:01,599 --> 00:49:06,880
or just someone who is good enough
as a passer. Markel Folt to be

802
00:49:06,920 --> 00:49:08,800
an example where it's a league average
type passer. And so if you go

803
00:49:08,840 --> 00:49:14,599
after de Jontay Murray, depending on
what happens in Atlanta over over time,

804
00:49:14,639 --> 00:49:17,280
these are much longer term solutions.
The more immediate one, look, Andrew

805
00:49:17,280 --> 00:49:21,079
Demhard would just be the guy in
Tias Jones like, those are the two

806
00:49:21,079 --> 00:49:22,960
immediate ones. The other ones I'm
naming are sort of Yeah, some of

807
00:49:22,960 --> 00:49:27,400
them could be available this season,
most of them won't be. De Jontay

808
00:49:27,480 --> 00:49:30,679
Murray did sign his contract late enough
that I think he can be traded this

809
00:49:30,840 --> 00:49:35,559
year. I'll double check that as
I'm recording this. I just the Jazz

810
00:49:35,599 --> 00:49:38,480
are not. It wouldn't surprise me
if they made kind of a consolidation type

811
00:49:38,480 --> 00:49:43,280
trade. Yeah, de Jhonta Murray
can be traded in January. But like

812
00:49:43,440 --> 00:49:46,800
those names, the Faults, the
Van Fleets, you would have to give

813
00:49:46,880 --> 00:49:51,679
up value for basically all of these
guys. Tias Jones and Nemhar feel like,

814
00:49:51,719 --> 00:49:53,519
Okay, maybe the cost is low
enough that they would make this type

815
00:49:53,519 --> 00:49:57,199
of a move. But Jean Tai
Murray would just be a name long term

816
00:49:57,199 --> 00:50:00,679
because the defense that he brings,
He's not an A plus pass He's kind

817
00:50:00,679 --> 00:50:02,760
of like a B B minus passer, which I think is really all This

818
00:50:02,840 --> 00:50:08,199
team needs that from that position,
at least within its top lineups. And

819
00:50:08,239 --> 00:50:12,159
maybe that just speaks to more of
me being a believer in Kiante George.

820
00:50:12,159 --> 00:50:15,519
It's more so just can you get
an upgrade over Clarkson done thht as those

821
00:50:15,559 --> 00:50:20,639
guys in the meantime, and I
think de Jontay Murray would certainly qualify as

822
00:50:20,679 --> 00:50:27,960
that. Our next question comes from
Peto. Scotty Barnes started the season on

823
00:50:28,000 --> 00:50:29,639
fire, and it looks like he's
taking a leap. If you or the

824
00:50:29,719 --> 00:50:31,199
Raptors, would you lean on him
being the de facto point guard? Would

825
00:50:31,239 --> 00:50:35,840
you look towards trading Siakama maybe find
a guard a pair with him? Good

826
00:50:35,840 --> 00:50:37,599
timing on this question. Scotty Barnes
is absolutely lit it up against the San

827
00:50:37,639 --> 00:50:44,559
Antonio Spurs on Sunday Night. I've
been really impressed with basically everything that he's

828
00:50:44,639 --> 00:50:47,320
done. You're not really you know, they're not channeling it. The offense

829
00:50:47,400 --> 00:50:52,639
is still just very wonky, very
clumpy at points, but they have decided,

830
00:50:52,719 --> 00:50:54,920
and I think rightfully so, because
you want to know whether Scottie Barnes

831
00:50:55,000 --> 00:51:00,360
is a player around which you can
build. They want to know what they

832
00:51:00,400 --> 00:51:02,960
have in him, and I think
what he has shown offensively, looking a

833
00:51:04,000 --> 00:51:07,519
little bit comfortable reacting to double teams
or passing out of traffic, that is

834
00:51:07,639 --> 00:51:12,280
valuable information because this proves to me
that he is someone around whom you can

835
00:51:12,320 --> 00:51:15,320
build, rather than just someone who's
gonna be part of that build. I'd

836
00:51:15,360 --> 00:51:20,320
like to see him ditch you know, some of the laborious turnarounds, but

837
00:51:20,360 --> 00:51:22,000
like there, a lot of them
are going in right now. And he's

838
00:51:22,000 --> 00:51:25,360
shooting on by the way, five
point four to three point at times per

839
00:51:25,400 --> 00:51:30,400
game. He shooting forty two point
one percent fifty six percent on his twos.

840
00:51:30,519 --> 00:51:31,760
This is still someone I think could
stand to get to the rim more,

841
00:51:31,880 --> 00:51:35,440
not shy away from contact as much. I don't know how you are

842
00:51:35,519 --> 00:51:37,880
upset with his start to the season. Even the defensive effort has been better.

843
00:51:37,920 --> 00:51:39,920
You look at the counting stats,
you look at tracking, you just

844
00:51:40,000 --> 00:51:45,280
watch him. It's just better.
Twenty three points, which over I don't

845
00:51:45,280 --> 00:51:46,599
know if the two blocks are you
gonna stick per game? That's something that

846
00:51:46,639 --> 00:51:51,480
stands out to me. But twenty
three and six, he's averaging almost like

847
00:51:51,840 --> 00:51:53,199
ten rebounds per game. By the
way, as well, he's playing a

848
00:51:53,239 --> 00:51:57,119
ton of minutes well really thirty six
and a half. That's like, that's

849
00:51:57,239 --> 00:51:59,719
light work if you were being coached
by Nick Nurse, which or not.

850
00:52:00,119 --> 00:52:05,760
So the pathway forward is okay,
let's yes, let's absolutely build around Scotty

851
00:52:05,800 --> 00:52:07,719
Barnes. I think that he is. This is someone When I was doing

852
00:52:07,719 --> 00:52:12,159
the breakouts, I include him the
third year Leaps rather than the Star Bound.

853
00:52:12,320 --> 00:52:15,800
It was just a way of sort
of getting all the players I wanted

854
00:52:15,840 --> 00:52:17,519
to talk about in. This is
absolutely someone Now when you look at the

855
00:52:17,559 --> 00:52:21,480
Mobile and Cunningham and Barnes, like, all those guys are someone I would

856
00:52:21,519 --> 00:52:25,639
bet on making numerous All Star teams. Right now he's been Scotty March is

857
00:52:25,639 --> 00:52:29,599
just fantastic and so now you know
that he is the and he might have

858
00:52:29,679 --> 00:52:31,119
always been. They didn't include him
in KD. Trey talks, they didn't

859
00:52:31,119 --> 00:52:35,159
include him for Damian Lillard. They've
always valued him highly. But now you

860
00:52:35,199 --> 00:52:38,800
know you have this information, even
amid you know a less than stellar start

861
00:52:39,000 --> 00:52:43,159
to the season, you know that
he is someone who can dictate the terms

862
00:52:43,159 --> 00:52:45,079
he rebuild. Where do you go
from here? Is basically what Peto was

863
00:52:45,119 --> 00:52:51,760
asking. I still believe in fury
that Pascal Siakam and Scotty Barnes can work

864
00:52:51,880 --> 00:52:55,280
together. Pascal Siakam has hit enough
of his catch and shoot threes for that

865
00:52:55,280 --> 00:53:00,079
to work. In fury, I'm
more skeptical of it being well, well,

866
00:53:00,159 --> 00:53:02,000
when one of the other guards you're
gonna play Sometimes looking at a Dennis

867
00:53:02,000 --> 00:53:06,440
shooter is not going to space the
floor and you have Yaka Purdl is not

868
00:53:06,480 --> 00:53:09,719
going to space the floor. That's
where the crunch begins to come in to

869
00:53:09,760 --> 00:53:14,760
where it's you need to get another
if you want to say, an actual

870
00:53:15,119 --> 00:53:16,920
point guard type, because yes,
Scotty Barnes will do most of the ball

871
00:53:16,960 --> 00:53:21,599
handling. You have Siakam there,
but if it's gonna be shooter, if

872
00:53:21,639 --> 00:53:23,400
it's gonna be someone else, you
need that spot to get more shooting,

873
00:53:23,519 --> 00:53:27,760
or you need to change your primary
big and pertal. It's a lot easier

874
00:53:27,880 --> 00:53:31,480
change up the guard stuff there just
finding rim protecting shooters at the five spot

875
00:53:31,599 --> 00:53:37,039
is. Every team would love to
do that, so it's unbelievably difficult.

876
00:53:37,440 --> 00:53:38,679
And I think that's where the issue
comes in because right now, when you're

877
00:53:38,679 --> 00:53:44,760
looking at Siakam, his role has
changed such a he is standing s berehen.

878
00:53:44,800 --> 00:53:47,280
He had pointed this out for SDPN, and it's just it's evident too

879
00:53:47,360 --> 00:53:51,920
when you watch it. He's being
used more just kind of as a bystander

880
00:53:52,000 --> 00:53:53,320
in the corner. I don't necessarily
think that's a bad thing, but when

881
00:53:53,320 --> 00:53:58,199
you're getting into well, how can
we still optimize Siakam on the ball.

882
00:53:58,599 --> 00:54:01,440
It's not happening right now because the
lineups are just so clumpy. Even if

883
00:54:01,480 --> 00:54:04,960
he's hitting his threes, Even if
Barnes is hitting his threes, they're not

884
00:54:04,960 --> 00:54:08,559
being defended like they're hitting their threes
when they're off the ball. It's just

885
00:54:09,079 --> 00:54:14,480
Siakam is shooting on drives twenty six
point three percent have one hundred players who

886
00:54:14,480 --> 00:54:17,159
have finished at least twenty five drives
this year. That's ninety seventh and so

887
00:54:17,320 --> 00:54:22,159
that needs to Seacam. Look,
he's gonna be better. This is someone

888
00:54:22,159 --> 00:54:25,679
who has worked within negative spacing before, and I think between Grady Dick's when

889
00:54:25,800 --> 00:54:29,159
and now that I've seen some more
of the Raptors, like Grady Dick just

890
00:54:29,199 --> 00:54:30,320
being on the floor and being able
to move around. That's a breath,

891
00:54:30,360 --> 00:54:34,559
as Mike Gage would say, from
this cord of fresh air, to see,

892
00:54:35,079 --> 00:54:37,119
uh the Raptors have had. I
think they've had higher highs this season

893
00:54:37,119 --> 00:54:40,239
than when you look at some of
the games that they've played, like that

894
00:54:40,239 --> 00:54:44,159
that Bulls won, and you look
at their record where it's it's three and

895
00:54:44,280 --> 00:54:46,199
four and you kind of felt at
some point you felt like the world was

896
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:49,920
ending. I think they've had higher
highs than I would have expected for a

897
00:54:49,920 --> 00:54:52,239
team that still does have a negative
point differential, for a team that still

898
00:54:52,280 --> 00:54:57,880
needs to be concerned about the half
court offense, and if they're gonna be

899
00:54:57,960 --> 00:55:00,440
Raptors fans and the YouTube comments who
are not concerned about the half court offense,

900
00:55:01,519 --> 00:55:06,000
more power to you. You're still
for the season, Toronto. There,

901
00:55:06,000 --> 00:55:08,960
it's not as egregious anymore. They've
moved up from thirtieth to now twenty

902
00:55:09,079 --> 00:55:13,639
ninth. Portland has the worst half
court offense now in the league. Not

903
00:55:13,760 --> 00:55:16,159
too surprising when you look at their
personnel. So what would I do with

904
00:55:16,199 --> 00:55:22,679
Siakam? I mean it seems like
he wants to be in Toronto or just

905
00:55:22,679 --> 00:55:24,639
have the right to be a free
agent. And so I'm not not really

906
00:55:24,639 --> 00:55:29,639
nearly gonna move him because you probably
missed the best time to move him.

907
00:55:29,639 --> 00:55:32,639
I just don't know how much he
commands as an expiring contract where there's only

908
00:55:32,880 --> 00:55:36,519
part of the season left, rather
than doing this over the offseason when you

909
00:55:36,559 --> 00:55:39,760
could have integrated him in training camp
and the preseason. But if you're not

910
00:55:39,840 --> 00:55:44,119
gonna figure out a way to get
and I don't even know who the perfect

911
00:55:44,199 --> 00:55:45,880
player to this would be. It
feels like the Raptors, if they want

912
00:55:45,880 --> 00:55:52,199
to optimize the Scottie Barnes, oh
Giannanobi, Pascal Siak comparing long term,

913
00:55:52,639 --> 00:55:55,960
that they need another player. It
doesn't need to be a star, but

914
00:55:57,039 --> 00:56:00,679
someone who's gonna sort of open up
a lot of their most used lineups.

915
00:56:00,679 --> 00:56:05,199
And can that come at the expense
of Yaka Pertle, Can it come at

916
00:56:05,239 --> 00:56:08,039
the expense of Dennis Schreuter. Some
people might think it's just Gary Trent Junior.

917
00:56:08,159 --> 00:56:10,840
Is that just sort of the the
answer there? You can sub him

918
00:56:10,840 --> 00:56:15,559
out if you trust for more of
those minutes, if you trust Scottie Barnes

919
00:56:15,599 --> 00:56:20,159
to run point. I mean,
sure, I think that spot still needs

920
00:56:20,199 --> 00:56:23,840
more of a of a playmaker if
you're gonna go that route, and I

921
00:56:23,880 --> 00:56:28,079
don't I don't have the exact answer, but I can't get on board with

922
00:56:28,199 --> 00:56:32,079
moving unless it's for I think if
you're gonna go that route, then you

923
00:56:32,119 --> 00:56:36,280
need to kind of be picking up
like wings that are just gonna space.

924
00:56:36,320 --> 00:56:38,679
They don't need to be stars.
You have barns, you're stone invested in

925
00:56:38,679 --> 00:56:44,000
in Adenobi, it seems like.
But it would need to be someone who's

926
00:56:44,000 --> 00:56:46,199
going to consistently open the floor from
those wing spots then, and that's just

927
00:56:46,280 --> 00:56:51,239
not you know, there are players
like Michael Bridges. If you're trying to

928
00:56:51,280 --> 00:56:53,000
like look mid end not to that
that would make sense. Why are the

929
00:56:53,079 --> 00:56:57,519
Jazz sending him out? In sort
of a Pascal Siakam trade. This is

930
00:56:57,559 --> 00:57:01,440
gonna step on the toes of some
that I might that I might that I

931
00:57:01,440 --> 00:57:06,760
think we're gonna cover later in this
mailbag. But an interesting challenge trade,

932
00:57:06,280 --> 00:57:08,800
I understand. I think this is
gonna rub a lot of people in the

933
00:57:08,800 --> 00:57:14,599
wrong way. Zach Lavine for Pascal
Siakam might be kind of an interesting challenge

934
00:57:14,639 --> 00:57:16,760
trade here, you've now You're not
gonna put the ball in the Vine's hands

935
00:57:16,760 --> 00:57:21,119
with Barns, and you have enough
defense, I think, to insulate him,

936
00:57:21,119 --> 00:57:24,760
but you would still pretty clearly need
Zach Lavine to be your your second

937
00:57:24,840 --> 00:57:29,800
best player. And I'm not just
because of what he does on offense,

938
00:57:29,840 --> 00:57:32,000
but just having me off the dribble, three point shooting, and even he's

939
00:57:32,000 --> 00:57:36,920
a good enough catch and shoot player
as well. But I just you look

940
00:57:36,960 --> 00:57:39,119
at the Raptors right now when they're
outscoring opponents by twenty two points per one

941
00:57:39,159 --> 00:57:43,719
hundred possions when Barnes, Siakam,
and Anacobi share the floor, And that's

942
00:57:43,719 --> 00:57:45,920
why I'm just reluctant to think along
these terms where it's, oh, it's

943
00:57:46,000 --> 00:57:51,360
kind of just dead where they stand. And I'm not criticizing, I'm questioning

944
00:57:51,599 --> 00:57:55,400
the lineup viability of Shrewd and Perl. With those three, they're a plus

945
00:57:55,400 --> 00:57:59,360
fourteen points per one hundred posession on
the season, and the offense has been

946
00:57:59,719 --> 00:58:02,519
not thermal nuclear, but it's been
decidedly above above average there. And if

947
00:58:02,559 --> 00:58:05,719
you get into some of the lineups
that you want to see more of,

948
00:58:06,000 --> 00:58:08,679
and it's we haven't seen Gary Trent
Junior subbed in for Yaka Purdle might be

949
00:58:08,719 --> 00:58:12,079
a way to go. We haven't
seen a ton of that this year.

950
00:58:12,719 --> 00:58:15,239
You can try to play like super
big at that point, it's like is

951
00:58:15,280 --> 00:58:19,599
Otto Porter Junior coming in for Perle, so you're still on the bigger end

952
00:58:19,880 --> 00:58:22,360
there. We haven't seen a ton
of that this year. I think it

953
00:58:22,400 --> 00:58:27,440
really comes down to, though,
if you want Sam, if you Wantam

954
00:58:27,480 --> 00:58:30,800
and Barnes to stay in long term, it comes down to getting another floor

955
00:58:30,800 --> 00:58:35,840
spacer there who could either play the
five or is just in the backcourt with

956
00:58:35,960 --> 00:58:39,679
Scottie Barnes and maybe can defend some
point of attack to I don't know if

957
00:58:39,679 --> 00:58:44,159
that's Gary Trent Junior. I think
when you're looking at names that become available

958
00:58:44,480 --> 00:58:46,559
this year, no one like I
feel like the player I'm asking for it

959
00:58:46,639 --> 00:58:51,159
needs to be a megastar and the
Raptors don't need that if you're keeping Seakam

960
00:58:51,639 --> 00:58:55,639
and Barnes. I just find it
hard to believe that with Siakam and Ananobe

961
00:58:55,679 --> 00:58:59,679
and even Gary Trent Junior heading towards
free agency, I find it a little

962
00:58:59,679 --> 00:59:04,920
bit hard to believe that this team
is going to remain the same. But

963
00:59:04,960 --> 00:59:07,159
I could see like they're good enough
to where well, maybe it's a consolidate

964
00:59:07,159 --> 00:59:12,639
another consolidation trade that they're making.
I wish I had names. I've been

965
00:59:12,760 --> 00:59:15,159
racking my brain for them. The
Zachlavine challenge trade was just like semi interesting.

966
00:59:15,199 --> 00:59:21,199
Could you get Zacklovine without giving Upakam, Barnes or Ananobe would be the

967
00:59:21,280 --> 00:59:23,280
question at this point, And then
it's like, okay, well now we're

968
00:59:23,320 --> 00:59:28,280
getting interesting. Zack Lavine's your third
best player, you have him in the

969
00:59:28,960 --> 00:59:31,559
I guess I would throw him in
for Shooter and just lean into Barnes as

970
00:59:31,599 --> 00:59:37,400
the one up in those starting lineups. But like so, Lavine, Ananobe,

971
00:59:37,559 --> 00:59:40,039
Siakam and Barnes is a setup,
and then you could, if you

972
00:59:40,079 --> 00:59:44,760
want it, to still play Shooter
in that and move and Anonobe up a

973
00:59:44,760 --> 00:59:50,159
spot. But like perto being,
I just think it's that would be the

974
00:59:50,239 --> 00:59:52,880
route I would try to explore,
is can we do something where it's like

975
00:59:53,039 --> 00:59:55,559
it's that. It's like an off
the dribble three point shooter. It's a

976
00:59:55,639 --> 00:59:59,559
very good, reliable catch and shoot
guy who gives you a little bit more

977
01:00:00,039 --> 01:00:04,079
dribble creation. Then Garrit Trench Junior
is gonna get tunnel vision at points and

978
01:00:04,079 --> 01:00:07,280
then Grady Dick that's just not as
bad like as a motion shooter for sure.

979
01:00:07,760 --> 01:00:08,960
I think a lot of Raptors sends
would hate the idea of Leavin there.

980
01:00:08,960 --> 01:00:13,280
But Raptors sense, if you're listening, if you could get Levine without

981
01:00:13,400 --> 01:00:17,280
giving up Anobi or Barns, I'm
not trying to make this Oh, take

982
01:00:17,320 --> 01:00:21,679
all our bad players for or players
we don't need for Zaclavigne, like you're

983
01:00:21,719 --> 01:00:25,079
just building it on picks to Chicago
decides to rebuild and its picks and salary

984
01:00:25,280 --> 01:00:29,239
is just the the meat and potatoes
of the deal. Do you hate that,

985
01:00:29,679 --> 01:00:32,719
Raptor Sends, I don't. I
don't, but uh that's where I'm

986
01:00:32,719 --> 01:00:36,880
at. So I'm not out on
Sac Barnes just yet, PETEO. But

987
01:00:36,920 --> 01:00:43,199
I do think that it's very clearly
like with Siakam entering free agency and how

988
01:00:44,360 --> 01:00:46,320
there's still just not a ton of
room in a half court for this team,

989
01:00:46,360 --> 01:00:49,280
I think if you're gonna keep those
both, there still needs to be

990
01:00:49,280 --> 01:00:57,119
something done to open it up.
Our next question comes from jt Alexander as

991
01:00:58,400 --> 01:01:00,360
perfect landing spot for Zach Lavine the
speaking We're just gonna get right to the

992
01:01:00,400 --> 01:01:05,440
Zack Lvine trades. I already I'm
intrigued by Toronto. It was just Siakam

993
01:01:05,440 --> 01:01:08,079
for Levigne and Patrick Williams. Is
that an interesting challenge trade? I don't

994
01:01:08,079 --> 01:01:10,320
want Raptor fans to hate us,
and I don't know. I think Bulls

995
01:01:10,320 --> 01:01:15,039
fans are just like so numb right
now. They probably would be Zack Levine

996
01:01:15,119 --> 01:01:17,559
for like Tobias Harrison there, they'll
just be numb to anything. I propose

997
01:01:19,119 --> 01:01:22,079
that's a semi maybe not rap like
Zach Levine for Williams and Siakam is a

998
01:01:22,079 --> 01:01:25,480
fairly interesting challenge trade. Who needs
to give up picks in that scenario?

999
01:01:25,719 --> 01:01:30,039
Patrick has been really rough to start
the year. That that's just an interesting

1000
01:01:30,119 --> 01:01:32,119
challenge trade for both teams. Can
someone agree with me? Please pretty please?

1001
01:01:32,519 --> 01:01:37,000
Without fleshing it out like just the
basis of that U other spots for

1002
01:01:37,119 --> 01:01:40,480
Zack Lavine, the Knicks I don't
nix sense tend to be lower on that,

1003
01:01:40,559 --> 01:01:43,840
and that's not the guy that you
want to push all your chips on.

1004
01:01:44,239 --> 01:01:46,079
The defense has been good enough,
though, if you're moving, I

1005
01:01:46,119 --> 01:01:49,599
think you need to move away from
Julius Randall. I don't know if he's

1006
01:01:49,599 --> 01:01:52,119
in that deal, but if you're
getting Levine and Julius Randall's leaving the team

1007
01:01:52,239 --> 01:01:54,559
or coming off the back. I
mean he would have to be there.

1008
01:01:55,639 --> 01:01:59,880
He would have Julius Randall has to
go if you're getting Zack Lvine. That's

1009
01:01:59,880 --> 01:02:01,280
just that's where I'm at. There
are still a team that I think could

1010
01:02:01,360 --> 01:02:05,320
really use him. He'd open things
up for John runs In and RJ Barrett

1011
01:02:05,360 --> 01:02:07,519
a ton Maybe RJ. Barrett needs
to be part of that deal. I'd

1012
01:02:07,599 --> 01:02:10,239
rather see RJ Barrett stay. I
think the Knicks have the pick equity to

1013
01:02:10,320 --> 01:02:14,840
at least get that down, and
the Sixers, for sure, Maxi,

1014
01:02:14,960 --> 01:02:17,519
Levine and Embiid I don't know if
they have the wing defense to kind of

1015
01:02:17,519 --> 01:02:21,519
make up for that. At this
point, you have the Antey Mountain super

1016
01:02:21,519 --> 01:02:23,880
reliable, and you did get if
Nick Patoome ever reports to the team,

1017
01:02:24,400 --> 01:02:28,039
and you did get Roco, I
just I don't I mean, some of

1018
01:02:28,079 --> 01:02:30,719
those guys s would have to go
out as matching salary nless it's Tobias Harris,

1019
01:02:30,719 --> 01:02:32,400
who's had a pretty good start to
the year. I mentioned Toronto.

1020
01:02:34,360 --> 01:02:37,320
I think so now some of these
Miami I think you could make a case

1021
01:02:37,719 --> 01:02:40,519
for it would just be a little
bit of a bummer. I don't know.

1022
01:02:42,000 --> 01:02:45,639
I don't know how much of an
upgrade individually Zacklvine is over Tyler Hero.

1023
01:02:45,719 --> 01:02:47,960
There's more levels to Zack Lvine's offense, but I think Hero is probably

1024
01:02:47,960 --> 01:02:51,760
the better passer at this point,
And so do you want to you want

1025
01:02:51,760 --> 01:02:53,400
to keep Hero as part of that, then how much you playing Hero and

1026
01:02:53,480 --> 01:02:57,840
Zack Lvine together. But just because
of where Miami's half court offense is at

1027
01:02:58,280 --> 01:03:02,079
Levine, Bam and Jimmy's a hell
of a trio and theoretically you could keep

1028
01:03:02,119 --> 01:03:05,719
if you're moving Lowry and other salaries. I mean you might even be able

1029
01:03:05,760 --> 01:03:08,679
to keep Lowry as well, just
use Duncan Robinson's salary as the anchor.

1030
01:03:08,679 --> 01:03:12,519
I think you would still need to
move Lowry is part of that. But

1031
01:03:12,559 --> 01:03:15,840
if you're able to keep here on
get Levine, there's a little bit redundancy,

1032
01:03:15,880 --> 01:03:19,440
but they're both so capable off the
ball, I wouldn't hate it.

1033
01:03:20,280 --> 01:03:22,840
I thought about Indiana for a second, with their offense is just too good.

1034
01:03:22,039 --> 01:03:24,679
And I'm just like, we're already
trying to I'm not a Benanic math

1035
01:03:24,800 --> 01:03:28,639
in person per se, but we're
already trying to figure out what the Pacers

1036
01:03:28,920 --> 01:03:32,559
are going to do defensively, And
Kaitlin Cooper was just talking about on Twitter.

1037
01:03:32,719 --> 01:03:36,360
I think about when their defense looks
the best and all the stuff that

1038
01:03:36,400 --> 01:03:39,800
she was describing, Zach Levine cannot
be a part of the Lakers. I

1039
01:03:39,960 --> 01:03:44,360
just do they have enough. The
shine has worn off of Austin Reeves.

1040
01:03:44,559 --> 01:03:46,039
You're not gonna be able to trade
a boload of picks. That'll be more

1041
01:03:46,079 --> 01:03:50,159
open for them, probably over the
offseason, depending on the asking price.

1042
01:03:50,360 --> 01:03:53,119
I mean they're off. They're all
half court offense though could use it.

1043
01:03:53,199 --> 01:03:55,679
And so it's like, once del
is eligible to be traded, can we

1044
01:03:55,719 --> 01:03:59,159
get you know, is there a
way to get there? Like are the

1045
01:03:59,159 --> 01:04:02,840
Bulls interested in no in Austin Reeves
to you know, move him and then

1046
01:04:03,519 --> 01:04:08,880
d Loo and picks. I just
a little bit rough there Memphis, but

1047
01:04:08,960 --> 01:04:12,280
not really just like right now you
have Memphis, but you have Smart,

1048
01:04:12,320 --> 01:04:14,840
you have Maine. John Morant will
come back. I don't love that fit.

1049
01:04:15,840 --> 01:04:18,119
I wondered if New Orleans would be
and we have New Orleans fans in

1050
01:04:18,159 --> 01:04:20,039
the discord. So again, don't
get mad at me. I'm just I'm

1051
01:04:20,039 --> 01:04:25,239
throwing stuff out here. Would they
be better off with zach Lavine's three point

1052
01:04:25,320 --> 01:04:29,840
volume than they would with Brandon Ingram. Brand Ingram is the better player,

1053
01:04:30,039 --> 01:04:32,679
But like, is there when I
look at what's happening? We have another

1054
01:04:32,800 --> 01:04:39,239
question on New Orleans later at CJ
McCollum injury man collapsed along that was I

1055
01:04:39,280 --> 01:04:42,000
woke up. I was Sunday,
like I said, I was so fried,

1056
01:04:43,039 --> 01:04:45,079
and I woke up to that news
like I was taking a nap,

1057
01:04:45,079 --> 01:04:47,960
and it was just such a bummer. The Pelicans just can't catch a break,

1058
01:04:48,000 --> 01:04:49,960
and they're not even I know,
we could say, well, that's

1059
01:04:50,000 --> 01:04:53,639
the thing with all these guys,
they're always kind of injured. It's not

1060
01:04:53,679 --> 01:04:56,920
a chronic injury for any of these
dudes. It's just shit keeps happening.

1061
01:04:57,320 --> 01:05:00,079
That was a bummer to find out. Uh the team. Then there are

1062
01:05:00,079 --> 01:05:03,159
two teams that I think I don't
I don't know that their fan bases would

1063
01:05:03,159 --> 01:05:06,400
appreciate it, but I would really
I think that he would make a huge

1064
01:05:06,400 --> 01:05:12,480
difference. Minnesota, do you have
enough, Like with Towns, do you

1065
01:05:12,519 --> 01:05:15,599
have enough to get Zach Lvine from
Chicago? Your pick equity is just a

1066
01:05:15,760 --> 01:05:19,880
bust, And so it's they have
interest in any of your youngsters plus towns

1067
01:05:19,960 --> 01:05:24,840
or do they view that as a
challenge trade he would do. We're talking

1068
01:05:24,840 --> 01:05:29,480
about the best defense in Minnesota.
You run Edwards, McDaniels, Levine,

1069
01:05:30,280 --> 01:05:34,920
Gobart as like your Ed Conley,
as like that's your those are your units.

1070
01:05:35,159 --> 01:05:39,079
You're asking Edwards to kind of move
up and McDaniels to move up.

1071
01:05:39,119 --> 01:05:42,159
I don't know, man, I
would love it. I would love it,

1072
01:05:42,199 --> 01:05:45,159
and especially just as like Mike Comedy's
getting into free agency, you don't

1073
01:05:45,199 --> 01:05:47,199
know if he's gonna be back.
I think Levine does a lot to improve

1074
01:05:47,239 --> 01:05:49,480
their offense, and him and Anthony
Edwards can play off each other. I

1075
01:05:49,480 --> 01:05:53,960
have no doubt in my mind that'd
be a fun reunion. And then I

1076
01:05:53,960 --> 01:05:57,039
would still be on about this.
This team is not you know, Minnesota

1077
01:05:57,119 --> 01:06:00,360
has real urgency to what they're trying
to do. This team does not,

1078
01:06:01,119 --> 01:06:05,159
even though they have the potential to
be really good Orlando, they are twenty

1079
01:06:05,239 --> 01:06:08,599
third in a half court offense,
which I believe is a little bit of

1080
01:06:08,639 --> 01:06:12,960
an improvement. They've had some rough
games from Franz Wagner and Palo bank Caro

1081
01:06:13,039 --> 01:06:16,000
at different points this season, actually
sometimes in the same night. Their ceiling

1082
01:06:16,079 --> 01:06:19,599
is higher than what we've kind of
seen from them right now. I fully

1083
01:06:19,639 --> 01:06:23,559
believe, as currently constructed, they're
they're a team that look, they're four

1084
01:06:23,559 --> 01:06:26,519
and two, They're one of the
best defenses in the league. I think

1085
01:06:26,559 --> 01:06:31,039
they can insulate Zach Lavine defensively enough
to be like, this might be interesting

1086
01:06:31,079 --> 01:06:34,960
to try, and I don't know. I think what some of the issue

1087
01:06:35,000 --> 01:06:40,400
is is that, Okay, so
you're just the faulting to your top five

1088
01:06:40,400 --> 01:06:45,079
guys at that point is Pallo,
Franz, Wagner, Wendell, Carter Junior,

1089
01:06:45,880 --> 01:06:50,119
then Faults and Levine. Like,
that's a pretty interesting starting five where

1090
01:06:50,119 --> 01:06:55,360
you're basically from your preferred five man
unit. You're deciding, well, we're

1091
01:06:55,360 --> 01:06:59,559
gonna plug, We're gonna sub out
Jalen sucks for Zack' that's a hell of

1092
01:06:59,559 --> 01:07:03,039
an offense, an upgrade and you
have the scratch to kind of to make

1093
01:07:03,079 --> 01:07:06,360
that deal happen without having to include
I don't know where you land on,

1094
01:07:06,400 --> 01:07:09,760
do we want I give up Jael
and Suggs for like, you don't have

1095
01:07:09,800 --> 01:07:12,280
to move Carter Junior to do it. You know, you're definitely not moving

1096
01:07:12,320 --> 01:07:15,719
Palo with Franz Wagner to do it, But are you willing to move Suggs

1097
01:07:15,920 --> 01:07:20,719
in a Lavigne deal and a first
or two? I think that's reasonable.

1098
01:07:21,599 --> 01:07:26,880
I just don't know if that's kind
of jibing with Orlando's timeline. I will

1099
01:07:26,920 --> 01:07:34,199
say I've been impressed with Anthony Black
in his minimal minutes within like this offensive

1100
01:07:34,760 --> 01:07:38,719
ecosystem that I thought I was going
to be and that was someone that I

1101
01:07:38,760 --> 01:07:42,079
really liked leading into the draft.
But I thought he ended up in a

1102
01:07:42,079 --> 01:07:45,360
spot where I wasn't going to appreciate
what he could do. Probably judge too

1103
01:07:45,400 --> 01:07:49,400
soon there. We'll see how his
minutes continue to tick up as the as

1104
01:07:49,400 --> 01:07:54,679
the season goes on. So like, would you give up? You would

1105
01:07:54,719 --> 01:07:57,840
have to give up one of those
dudes, It's Sugs or Anthony Black to

1106
01:07:57,920 --> 01:08:02,119
get in the Zach Lavine sweepstay plus
picks salary match and gets a little tough,

1107
01:08:02,119 --> 01:08:05,920
But you have Gary Harris there,
you do. I mean, once

1108
01:08:06,000 --> 01:08:10,119
Joe ingles, he could be the
important part of that trade once you get

1109
01:08:10,119 --> 01:08:13,000
to a certain time of the year. I think some people might still want

1110
01:08:13,000 --> 01:08:15,599
to hold out for Jonathan Isaac,
but you have him, like you can

1111
01:08:15,639 --> 01:08:18,319
get to the salary for Levine without
including any of your core guys. Would

1112
01:08:18,319 --> 01:08:25,520
you give up Suggs or Anthony Black
for Zack Lavine and plus picks? I

1113
01:08:25,560 --> 01:08:28,920
would. I would, definitely,
I would. I would give up Suggs

1114
01:08:28,960 --> 01:08:31,920
because this already he's playing the position
he's not. Suggs is great defensively,

1115
01:08:32,000 --> 01:08:34,520
and I think his look, I'm
not worried about his start to the season

1116
01:08:34,560 --> 01:08:38,439
forty three percent on two. I
still believe in Jalen Suggs, but it

1117
01:08:38,520 --> 01:08:40,920
might make sense to move him now
when he still kind of has a little

1118
01:08:40,920 --> 01:08:44,920
bit of that that mystique. It
was both and picks, I probably wouldn't

1119
01:08:44,960 --> 01:08:48,079
do it, But if it's one
and picks and salary, I think I

1120
01:08:48,119 --> 01:08:51,800
would consider it. I think Zach
Lvine makes a huge difference for that team

1121
01:08:53,000 --> 01:08:56,600
personally. Next question, Rome eighty
one point eighty. You actually get a

1122
01:08:56,600 --> 01:08:59,640
great question, but I'm going to
save that for when I can do it

1123
01:08:59,680 --> 01:09:02,720
with Grant about young teams winning titles, So I would like to That's one

1124
01:09:02,720 --> 01:09:08,760
where I feel like I need more
of a like I need someone else here

1125
01:09:09,039 --> 01:09:12,520
for me. Let's look at there's
some ones that came in that I have

1126
01:09:12,640 --> 01:09:15,880
not had the opportunity to, like
go in depth on but let's get to

1127
01:09:15,439 --> 01:09:17,800
a couple more of these mailbag ones. It's probably this is just gonna be

1128
01:09:17,800 --> 01:09:20,680
a long episode that was gonna be
short. Ruben Scout asked, Uh,

1129
01:09:20,720 --> 01:09:23,960
it turns out I do have another
mailbag question. Do we like the catch

1130
01:09:24,000 --> 01:09:27,079
and shoot gunner that McCall ooh rough
timing? Do we like the catch and

1131
01:09:27,079 --> 01:09:30,000
shoe gunter that McCollum is turning into
fifty six percent of his shots and eighty

1132
01:09:30,000 --> 01:09:32,920
three percent of his three point makes
this season are assisted. Both of those

1133
01:09:32,960 --> 01:09:40,239
are career highs. Get get well
soon, CJ. I. I think

1134
01:09:40,279 --> 01:09:45,319
it's huge. I think it's I
love do I love it. I love

1135
01:09:45,319 --> 01:09:48,039
it, and I think it's necessary
because the Pelicans are still at a three

1136
01:09:48,039 --> 01:09:53,000
point shooting deficit, not just on
most nights, but when you're looking at

1137
01:09:53,279 --> 01:09:56,279
like their best units with the exception
of someone, you're gonna see them run

1138
01:09:56,319 --> 01:10:02,079
out that you know this the CJ. CJ her Matt Ryan Yonas Valenciunis and

1139
01:10:02,079 --> 01:10:04,960
then Jordan Hawkins unit. Yeah,
CJ is going to be you need him

1140
01:10:04,960 --> 01:10:09,159
for a ton of self creation in
there. But when you're looking at their

1141
01:10:09,199 --> 01:10:12,159
most used lineups right now, like
some of them aren't even getting it done

1142
01:10:12,560 --> 01:10:15,560
on the offensive glass. And so
like, if you don't have the three

1143
01:10:15,600 --> 01:10:19,520
point deficit to uh, if you're
not bridging the gap in the three point

1144
01:10:19,560 --> 01:10:23,920
deficit, that can make it very
hard to as Shimid Dua likes to really

1145
01:10:23,960 --> 01:10:28,439
have her home with this team from
the in the No podcast and substack like

1146
01:10:28,520 --> 01:10:30,239
that could make it very hard to
win the possession battle. And so we've

1147
01:10:30,239 --> 01:10:32,800
seen games where they've done a great
job of winning the possession battle because of

1148
01:10:32,840 --> 01:10:36,520
what they're doing on the offensive glass. We've also seen games where if you

1149
01:10:36,560 --> 01:10:41,640
lose the battle on the glass,
it becomes incredibly difficult for them to then

1150
01:10:41,720 --> 01:10:45,560
win the possession battle, just if
you're ever at a deficit in there.

1151
01:10:45,960 --> 01:10:49,800
And so I think CJ taking more
threes, not having the not needing the

1152
01:10:49,840 --> 01:10:56,840
ball to hit them is super necessary
for this team when he's healthy. Now

1153
01:10:57,359 --> 01:11:01,800
does this hold up when Trey Murphy
the third comes back, I mean it's

1154
01:11:02,800 --> 01:11:09,000
I would say, I don't know
how Trey Murphy ends up changing CJ McCollums

1155
01:11:09,039 --> 01:11:12,880
role. I think he would help
sort of bridge the gap on three point

1156
01:11:12,960 --> 01:11:17,399
volume with New Orleans right now where
they've made sixty eight threes on the season,

1157
01:11:17,560 --> 01:11:21,359
and it's just like that's that's very
that's very middle of the road.

1158
01:11:23,079 --> 01:11:24,920
You would like to see that number
come up. I don't even know what

1159
01:11:24,960 --> 01:11:28,520
their three point attempt rate is offhand. I don't really know why I should.

1160
01:11:28,560 --> 01:11:30,920
I'm like mad that I don't know
that offhand. I don't know why

1161
01:11:30,960 --> 01:11:33,840
I should know every team's three point
attempt rate off hand, But the Pelicans

1162
01:11:33,880 --> 01:11:38,840
right now in three point attempts rate
are fifteenth and so like the volume just

1163
01:11:39,000 --> 01:11:43,039
isn't you know, and above the
break like they're even lower. They're twenty

1164
01:11:43,079 --> 01:11:46,520
second, and so you'd like to
see that ideally would be able to tick

1165
01:11:46,600 --> 01:11:49,760
up. And when you're kind of
looking at like, all right, well,

1166
01:11:49,840 --> 01:11:55,680
if they've made sixty eight threes their
opponents have made they've actually they've tied

1167
01:11:55,680 --> 01:11:58,600
that. Wow, sixty eight to
sixty eight, you're almost lucky that you

1168
01:11:58,600 --> 01:12:01,640
have not lost the three point back
all their overall in net for the season.

1169
01:12:01,720 --> 01:12:04,359
But when you look at some of
the lineups they're running, they're still

1170
01:12:04,399 --> 01:12:09,640
just not taking enough threes and the
spacing is so hard up we've seen it

1171
01:12:09,680 --> 01:12:14,880
a lot with the unit that's gonna
have Zion Herb in there like it's not

1172
01:12:15,000 --> 01:12:17,359
been you know, b I missing
time. That certainly fudges some of these

1173
01:12:17,399 --> 01:12:21,640
returns. I just think that this
development from CJ, who was having a

1174
01:12:21,680 --> 01:12:26,720
really good season before dealing with this
this long stuff, I think it's mission

1175
01:12:26,720 --> 01:12:30,159
critical, and especially if you want, you know, you're looking at that

1176
01:12:30,399 --> 01:12:32,840
what would be we'll call it the
presumed starting five because Herb Jones has played

1177
01:12:32,840 --> 01:12:35,479
so well. I don't I know, there were people and I might have

1178
01:12:35,560 --> 01:12:39,119
been. I might have been one
of them. They just weren't about like,

1179
01:12:39,159 --> 01:12:41,800
hey, maybe we should start Trey
Murphy. You could do that,

1180
01:12:41,840 --> 01:12:44,840
certainly with CJ. McCullum out,
although I don't know if you're gonna want

1181
01:12:44,840 --> 01:12:45,680
to go. I'm trying to look. I'm trying to think, when Bi

1182
01:12:46,520 --> 01:12:50,520
and Zion and Murphy are all healthy, do you start all of those guys

1183
01:12:50,560 --> 01:12:55,479
with Herb and valanchowness. I guess
yeah, between Zion and Ingram, that's

1184
01:12:55,560 --> 01:13:00,800
enough playmaking. But you look at
that starting five this year, twenty nine

1185
01:13:00,840 --> 01:13:03,680
point four percent of their shots are
coming from three. That is just not

1186
01:13:04,239 --> 01:13:08,159
that's not enough, And only twenty
one point two percent of their shots are

1187
01:13:08,199 --> 01:13:12,079
company gets above the break threes.
You need to get that volume up there.

1188
01:13:12,079 --> 01:13:14,840
And so I think on a night
tonight basis, maybe not sometimes net

1189
01:13:14,840 --> 01:13:20,399
in some you are at a large
enough three point deficit that this this turn,

1190
01:13:20,560 --> 01:13:24,520
this developmental turn from the CJ at
this late in his career, I

1191
01:13:24,560 --> 01:13:28,000
think it's nothing but a good sign. But we have to see what this

1192
01:13:28,000 --> 01:13:30,680
team looks like fully healthy in that
lineup that everyone loves that we're not gonna

1193
01:13:30,680 --> 01:13:34,000
see you for a minute, they're
taking thirty seven percent more than thirty seven

1194
01:13:34,039 --> 01:13:39,199
percent of their shots from deep.
That is like, that's the that's the

1195
01:13:39,239 --> 01:13:42,840
goal you need to have. Even
when you sub out herb Jones for Dyson

1196
01:13:42,920 --> 01:13:46,800
Daniels, that lineup is actually taking
thirty fifty four and a half percent of

1197
01:13:46,840 --> 01:13:49,880
their shots from threes. Thirty nine
point four percent is above the break threes.

1198
01:13:50,600 --> 01:13:54,920
If it's in service of that put
improving a three point a sign for

1199
01:13:54,920 --> 01:13:58,760
the lineups that are gonna have Zion
NBI. I think that's where it becomes

1200
01:13:58,800 --> 01:14:01,439
super important for or c J.
Mccllum. Hopefully that makes sense. I

1201
01:14:01,439 --> 01:14:06,720
tend to be a little bit rambly
if I haven't studied for the questions everything

1202
01:14:06,840 --> 01:14:10,920
blacks, Oh, this is a
good one that I feel like I should

1203
01:14:10,960 --> 01:14:14,840
have thought, should have looked at
and then thought more about. All right,

1204
01:14:15,159 --> 01:14:17,039
everything black. You find a basketball
lamp and out pops an NBA genie.

1205
01:14:17,000 --> 01:14:20,399
Who will grant you three wishes affecting
the current NBA season? What do

1206
01:14:20,439 --> 01:14:28,479
you wish for? I wish for
career best availability from all injury prone stars.

1207
01:14:28,800 --> 01:14:31,359
I want to see Zion play in
seventy games, Kawhi playing seventy plus

1208
01:14:31,399 --> 01:14:39,279
games, all that jazz. What
else would I wish for? I would

1209
01:14:39,359 --> 01:14:45,600
like to see players. I would
like to see players I want to rule.

1210
01:14:45,920 --> 01:14:48,159
Okay, here's what I want.
I want to rule where if a

1211
01:14:48,159 --> 01:14:53,760
player insists on getting a challenge and
has their coach unit and use it and

1212
01:14:53,800 --> 01:14:57,359
burn it that they can get fined
or penalize in some way, they have

1213
01:14:57,439 --> 01:15:00,119
to run. Yeah, you know
what. They have to run sprints full

1214
01:15:00,199 --> 01:15:03,680
court, sprints for a full minute, full bore, in front of the

1215
01:15:03,800 --> 01:15:10,000
entire arena during a dead ball.
If you are coaxing your I don't care

1216
01:15:10,039 --> 01:15:13,560
if you're a star or if you're
the ninth player in the rotation. If

1217
01:15:13,600 --> 01:15:18,359
you coax your coaching staff into using
a challenge specifically like in the first half

1218
01:15:18,399 --> 01:15:23,560
and it's not successful. That's what
you need to do. That's what absolutely

1219
01:15:23,560 --> 01:15:26,479
needs to happen. I want that
to be a rule. So those are

1220
01:15:26,520 --> 01:15:30,960
my two three witches that I need
a third one that affects the affects this

1221
01:15:30,159 --> 01:15:33,000
NBA season. I don't like,
I don't really I don't want to focus

1222
01:15:33,039 --> 01:15:36,880
on a on a single team.
Oh oh no, per it is.

1223
01:15:38,000 --> 01:15:42,840
I want someone else, Like,
can we get one of the creators who

1224
01:15:42,960 --> 01:15:46,000
you see them they make these jerseys
on Twitter? Like even get NBA paint

1225
01:15:46,239 --> 01:15:48,479
to do it. But you see
these people on Twitter. I want them

1226
01:15:48,479 --> 01:15:53,479
to design alternate jerseys for all thirty
teams. How's that I want? I'm

1227
01:15:53,479 --> 01:15:57,359
gonna ask for a do over on
these city edition jerseys. But we get

1228
01:15:57,359 --> 01:16:00,479
to pick like the designers, and
there's these more individual designers per team,

1229
01:16:00,600 --> 01:16:04,079
and so you can see there's there
are accounts where they just throw out these

1230
01:16:04,159 --> 01:16:09,439
jerseys and they look incredible on Twitter
or Instagram, and it's like, just

1231
01:16:09,479 --> 01:16:12,720
commission these people. They're doing to
bang up job, and Nike can't get

1232
01:16:12,720 --> 01:16:15,479
it done. And so we're just
gonna We're gonna come full circle back to

1233
01:16:15,520 --> 01:16:19,399
how we open the podcast with Austin
and really just you'll cross our fingers that

1234
01:16:19,479 --> 01:16:24,720
these jerseys can get better. And
so I am wishing for career or close

1235
01:16:24,760 --> 01:16:28,520
to it availability from all the injury
prone stars. I want players to have

1236
01:16:28,560 --> 01:16:31,560
to run wind sprints for a full
minute in front of a full arena during

1237
01:16:31,560 --> 01:16:34,159
a dead ball of a game if
they force their coaching staff to use a

1238
01:16:34,239 --> 01:16:39,680
challenge and it's unsuccessful, and I'm
gonna wish for a do over on all

1239
01:16:39,720 --> 01:16:43,359
the NBA city in this jerseys,
quite frankly. And we get to collectively

1240
01:16:43,399 --> 01:16:46,039
this not you know not, we
as fans collectively the Hardwood Knocks discord.

1241
01:16:46,239 --> 01:16:49,359
That's why you go and join the
Hardware Knocks Discord. We get to choose

1242
01:16:49,640 --> 01:16:57,039
who's designing each team's jersey. Let's
see, there were conditions to that that

1243
01:16:57,039 --> 01:16:59,159
I didn't say. You can't ask
for more Wemby's. You can't bring back

1244
01:16:59,199 --> 01:17:01,760
someone who has retired. You can't
force a player to love a front office.

1245
01:17:01,840 --> 01:17:04,920
I think I and that was the
joke. Let's be real, Dan,

1246
01:17:04,920 --> 01:17:06,960
it's just gonna ask for two hundred
and twenty five Devin Bookers and two

1247
01:17:08,000 --> 01:17:11,319
undred twenty five Evan mo please.
Yeah, I mean, and maybe He'll

1248
01:17:11,399 --> 01:17:15,920
leave a spot for Frank Neilackina and
this might be the this might be the

1249
01:17:15,920 --> 01:17:18,840
final question we we get to.
Glad asked, could we get a Dan

1250
01:17:19,039 --> 01:17:24,560
and Frank neil Akina backstory. I
love it when people care enough about me,

1251
01:17:24,720 --> 01:17:29,800
specifically in my proclivities to ask questions. Although Mike hs is that young

1252
01:17:29,800 --> 01:17:32,039
from Malcolm Brand one of the worst
traits in recent memory. Holy hell,

1253
01:17:32,600 --> 01:17:36,039
uh picked Umber twenty with malchim Brand. I'm still the floater king starting for

1254
01:17:36,079 --> 01:17:41,439
the Spurs the other night with U
with Devin Vessel injured. Yeah, that's

1255
01:17:41,560 --> 01:17:44,079
I mean, that's a pretty it's
a pretty bad. The Rapper's been a

1256
01:17:44,079 --> 01:17:46,039
little bit haphazard with their picks.
But let's get to this question about me

1257
01:17:46,199 --> 01:17:50,760
and my Frank Nilakina origin story.
As Rubiskau pointed out, Who's man if

1258
01:17:50,760 --> 01:17:55,479
you need receipts apparently has receipts on
all my my shit. I think Dan

1259
01:17:55,520 --> 01:17:59,199
featured the Frenchman in a twenty eighteen
article about surprise NBA players to stand for,

1260
01:17:59,479 --> 01:18:01,000
along with the likes of de Aaron
Fox, Josh Hart, and Maxi

1261
01:18:01,079 --> 01:18:06,159
Kleiba, right after a speculatory underwhelming
rookie season, when he averaged crappy numbers.

1262
01:18:06,600 --> 01:18:09,720
If I did, in fact write
that article in two as an eight

1263
01:18:09,720 --> 01:18:13,000
team, can we can I dislocate
my shoulder patting myself on the back.

1264
01:18:13,039 --> 01:18:15,720
I mean, Maxi Kleba, dearon
Fox, Josh Hart, that all aged

1265
01:18:15,039 --> 01:18:19,479
fairly well. Look the thing with
Franknila Kino was I looked at him.

1266
01:18:19,680 --> 01:18:23,720
It was into the draft process.
I always become obsessed with certain players.

1267
01:18:23,720 --> 01:18:28,239
Sometimes their hits like shake Yojes Alexander, sometime they're they're missus, like we

1268
01:18:28,399 --> 01:18:30,199
won't invoke Frankie la Kini here because
he was clearly a hit. But like

1269
01:18:30,279 --> 01:18:35,439
Nikoil Alexander Walker, that was someone
who I became obsessed with as well.

1270
01:18:35,800 --> 01:18:39,760
I looked at him and I saw
a very raw player on offense, but

1271
01:18:39,800 --> 01:18:43,359
everything he did looked fluid, And
maybe it was because of his length.

1272
01:18:43,399 --> 01:18:45,680
A lot of the time it looked
fluid, but the way he could dribble

1273
01:18:45,640 --> 01:18:48,920
inside the lane, it looked like
it was fluid. He just never it

1274
01:18:48,920 --> 01:18:55,199
feels like he never developed the quicker
fire decision making. Just even when you're

1275
01:18:55,199 --> 01:18:58,680
looking at his jump shot, I
thought the mechanics were okay, but there's

1276
01:18:58,680 --> 01:19:02,479
not There's not like speed to it
or a rhyme or reason to it,

1277
01:19:02,520 --> 01:19:05,399
and it takes so long for him
to go through that process. I also

1278
01:19:05,439 --> 01:19:09,079
appreciated like what he was able to
do on defense, and I can't remember

1279
01:19:09,119 --> 01:19:12,439
who I compared him to in that
lead up, but it was like what

1280
01:19:12,520 --> 01:19:15,800
if Avery? I think I said, what if Avery Bradley was longer and

1281
01:19:15,880 --> 01:19:20,760
could dribble? Is how I compare
him. And that's I really thought that

1282
01:19:20,760 --> 01:19:25,119
Franklokan was gonna be this difference maker, and I think you've seen the difference

1283
01:19:25,159 --> 01:19:28,960
making moments on defense that he can
just come in cold and get real stops

1284
01:19:29,439 --> 01:19:31,800
U. But man, it's it's
been rough out here, and now we

1285
01:19:31,800 --> 01:19:35,439
don't know if he's gonna play this
season. Given after getting an injury,

1286
01:19:35,479 --> 01:19:38,439
he did sign out with Charlotte,
I was worried he wasn't gonna land with

1287
01:19:38,439 --> 01:19:41,079
an NBA team. I would have
wished that he landed with a better NBA

1288
01:19:41,119 --> 01:19:43,720
team, but they had They have
a real void kind of in the backup

1289
01:19:43,720 --> 01:19:46,239
guard spot. So I would love
for Frankilickin to be healthy and maybe get

1290
01:19:46,279 --> 01:19:50,520
some run. Their final question here
from Austin good point, I just heard

1291
01:19:50,560 --> 01:19:54,000
today with all the effort and hype
they are putting into the new tournament.

1292
01:19:54,159 --> 01:19:56,880
Can theyko come up with a better
name than the in season Tournament and in

1293
01:19:56,960 --> 01:20:00,600
season Tournament Trophy? And if so, what it should be called? Everything

1294
01:20:00,640 --> 01:20:03,199
Black said, it's a test run, prove that it's a viable product at

1295
01:20:03,239 --> 01:20:06,560
or sponsorship later, get ready for
the Kia NBA Mid Season Classic in the

1296
01:20:06,640 --> 01:20:11,039
years to come. Though the trophy
almost certainly gets named after David Stern.

1297
01:20:11,520 --> 01:20:13,800
I think, as Glad points out, they're calling it the NBA Cup,

1298
01:20:13,800 --> 01:20:17,000
I don't think that's very As everything
Black said, it all feels very placeholder.

1299
01:20:17,239 --> 01:20:19,439
I don't know what a name would
be. Let's say it doesn't have

1300
01:20:19,479 --> 01:20:23,359
to be sponsored. Even if it
could be sponsored, give us a name,

1301
01:20:23,479 --> 01:20:26,520
you could submit a name. What
should they call the actual NBA Cup

1302
01:20:26,560 --> 01:20:30,920
that's not the the NBA Trophy or
the David Stern NBA Cup whatever they're gonna

1303
01:20:30,960 --> 01:20:32,960
wind up naming it, or if
you want it, Like, is there

1304
01:20:32,960 --> 01:20:41,119
a really good branding opportunity like the
Smokey's Cannabis Cup, Just something ridiculous like

1305
01:20:41,159 --> 01:20:44,319
that. I'd be all for it, but like, what's the you know,

1306
01:20:44,399 --> 01:20:47,399
do you like the name of the
championship Trophy, the Larry O'Brien Trophy

1307
01:20:47,439 --> 01:20:50,920
is like, do do we want
that type of thing that David Stern mid

1308
01:20:50,920 --> 01:20:54,520
Season Cup? I don't. I
don't know it would be a great name.

1309
01:20:55,119 --> 01:20:59,319
But I'm with everything Blacks in the
sense everything feels super placeholder right now

1310
01:20:59,359 --> 01:21:02,000
and they're just trying to im up
interest and the fact that we're talking about

1311
01:21:02,000 --> 01:21:04,520
the courts and I think that,
you know, there were a lot of

1312
01:21:04,560 --> 01:21:08,279
teams. We'll see if this holds. You know, there are teams that

1313
01:21:08,479 --> 01:21:12,680
will have I think I saw this
note no inn season tournament games take place

1314
01:21:12,680 --> 01:21:14,680
as the second night of a back
to back, but some of them are

1315
01:21:14,680 --> 01:21:16,840
the first night of a back to
back. Could that impact the effort as

1316
01:21:16,880 --> 01:21:20,520
just time goes on the fact that
it's just like a month long basically,

1317
01:21:20,880 --> 01:21:25,600
I'm I'm still very interested in it. I recorded a huge segment on that,

1318
01:21:25,600 --> 01:21:28,479
so you can go check it out. That'll do it. Good mailbag

1319
01:21:28,479 --> 01:21:30,479
here. I think I got to
every question that was in there, aside

1320
01:21:30,479 --> 01:21:34,319
from Rome's grant, and I think
we'll tackle yours together next time we record.

1321
01:21:35,159 --> 01:21:39,119
Please, if you made it all
the way to the end, remember

1322
01:21:39,159 --> 01:21:43,560
to subscribe Apple, Spotify, YouTube, leave ratings and reviews on Apple and

1323
01:21:43,560 --> 01:21:45,439
Spotify. If you've done all those
things, please tell people about us.

1324
01:21:45,439 --> 01:21:48,600
Word of recommendations go a long way. You can help us by promoting the

1325
01:21:48,600 --> 01:21:53,640
podcast on Twitter as well or blue
Sky. If you're following me on there,

1326
01:21:54,039 --> 01:21:57,239
follow us on all the socials.
Links arening the podcast YouTube description,

1327
01:21:57,359 --> 01:21:59,279
join our discord. How many times
are like to plug that? Go?

1328
01:21:59,359 --> 01:22:03,039
Join it podcast and YouTube description.
And finally, if you'd like support the

1329
01:22:03,079 --> 01:22:06,720
show, you can check out our
merch that is in the link to the

1330
01:22:06,720 --> 01:22:10,840
podcast of the YouTube description. And
with that, when we get to shout

1331
01:22:10,840 --> 01:22:14,159
out to the one, the only, the indelible, we will never stop

1332
01:22:14,199 --> 01:22:15,760
shouting him out, although maybe we
will, but that day is not today.

1333
01:22:15,760 --> 01:22:16,840
If we do, Frank