What is krakolac in fellow thermonuclear af efforts. I am a thoroughly disheveled Dan
Valley who is just very upset right now about a template that I made that
wasn't working for Granted. And I joined by the certified fantabulous Grant Hughes,
who is here. We are going to bounce around the league and talk about
surprises or disappointments and basically play a game of real or not, like,
do we need to expect these disappointments to continue? Are these surprising teams,
players, whatever? Sustainable? Felt like a good time to do that now
that we're about Grant, we're about a quarterway through the regular season. I
don't know if you noticed that, but I know I keep waiting to get
officially to the quarter because then we can Then it's then you feel like some
of these things are stabilizing and we can really plus then you could do first
Quarter Award. We all want to do that, right. That's gonna be
fun. I do wonder though, if the increase in parody does make it
less valuable to go through the first twenty games like it normally does, where
it's there are just so many teams where you're just using one as an example.
It's like, Okay, the Clippers are old and don't look great,
but like they have these players. If stuff like starts flowing, like they're
a team that could just surge, even like the Warriors. So I'm curious
if there will be more middle Why in the first minute and fifteen seconds So
you have to bring up the Warriors after the worst loss of the season last
night. I'm sure we'll get to them with the news updates very quickly.
To everyone, just please remember to rate, review, subscribe Apple. Spotify
ratings help us a ton. Leave reviews on Apple even if you don't use
them. It takes five seconds. Definitely subscribe on YouTube. Tell people about
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Those are really cool to see, so send them our way. Tag us
in discord, Join our discord. The link that's in the podcast cast and
YouTube is decription. We really do appreciate all the support that we've gotten this
year. It was a banner year in terms of downloads, and certainly this
is the first year that like, we really committed to YouTube, and so
I think this is the will be the first twelve month period we ever did
a million views on YouTube, which is so tiny compared to all these other
podcasts that do it, but it's a big milestone for us. So we're
super appreciative. And look, we're closing in on four thousand subscribers, so
we're a few hundred away from that. Go go get us to four k
socials. They're on the screen podcast YouTube description Grant, how the heck are
you doing? I'm shoveled because you were dis shoveled and it made me wonder
has anyone ever described them? And what do you think shoveled means? Like?
Put together? It feels like a compliment or feels like a positive.
It's too close to shoveled. And I don't really if someone said I'm shoveled,
I don't really. I would think that they were drunk. I was
ready to shovel some dirt on the Warriors last night. If you want to
use that term, what do you want to start with? You want to
start with some news? Yeah, let's let's get to news. Do you
want to start us off? And we'll alternate. Sure, Uh again,
alphabet is the alphabet thing? Is it unfunny? Do we need to drop
the alphabet bit? No? Did you see it in discord? I think
it was b Rich said you know this, you know this podcast is gonna
be a banger or whatever because Grant started off with A in the alphabet.
So I think our listeners appreciate we're just admitting that, Yeah, there's human
error, but there's an element of us where if we overthink it, we
just become an eft and we jump teams in the middle of the alphabet.
It happens. I feel like once every other like conference episode where we're trying
to go through all these teams, I'll fuck up the alphabet. I think
probably if we leave it alone, if we don't continue to make it a
bit, that's when we'll mess it up and then not acknowledge it. And
that would be the worst thing is if we just go right from like Atlanta
to like Charlotte or something and just forget B as a letter. Okay,
so Atlanta, worn't you skip the c's or the d's just because there are
so there are a bunch of teams with those or the ms. If you
just went, that'd be the world. That'd be the probab the most egregious,
where you just go from the Lakers and it's like, all right,
the New Orleans Bellies. I've done so many and you are in the exact
same boat, so many thirty sliders that like it's apha. Alphabetically naming every
team in a row is just like it happens without my brain even acknowledging that
it's happening, just as long as I get started and get on a run.
Do you know how I I practice it out by whenever we do these
every team exercises, I won't copy and like I have a list of teams
on so many different like we have our master spreadsheet. Yeah, I type
them out, like I go Atlanta all the way through Washington just to like
condition myself and okay, like that's the that's the order. It does get
tough. This this is now a full on bit. Maybe people are gonna
be tired of it now when we're splitting it by conference, right, it's
like if I don't separate them in the dock that I'm looking at in my
notes, and so it's like if you have to kind of calculate that where
it's oh no, we're not going to Dallas, we got to go to
Detroit. Right, just give over Dallas and Denver because we're doing the East.
But if you have the East, do you have like the first six
teams in a row alphabetically because you don't get to a West team until Dallas.
And speaking of that, this is tangentially related. I promise whenever we
do those East West stuff, or even if we focus on a like a
cluster of any I'll just put this right. Any hook on YouTube that has
anything to do with the Western Conference always thoroughly outperforms the Eastern Conference. One
I don't I guess it has to do with our following. I don't understand
it necessarily. So you must be the driver of this podcast, really,
because I live on the East coast and there's a the posse that get no
attention, and then the West one is just just pop off. Yeah,
well you know this is the This this is where you should live. If
you could pick anywhere, just you know, time zone, your weather is
better than where I live, I'll take it. The only place you could
top at is Hawaii because then you're in your late games start at like four
o'clock or whatever. It's perfect or even earlier anyway, Atlanta Hawks, Let's
do it. Hawks Now Sunday that Jalen Johnson underwent an X ray on Saturday
night and an MRI on Sunday morning been diagnosed with a left distal radius fracture.
What I saw was that he will not require surgery, so that's a
positive. He's going to be reevaluated in three to four weeks. That's a
big, big loss for the Hawks because he does a ton of stuff athletically
that they just don't get from other guys that can play that position. Yeah,
and you mentioned a quarter season awards. I haven't thought about it,
but he has to be in the running for Most Improved Player for sure at
the moment. The Celtics coach Joe Mizzoula said Sunday that Christops Porzingis and his
calf injury will be reevaluated after about a week or so. Brooklyn nets Cam
Thomas is expected to be back from an ankle injury on Thursday. Then that's
also announced on of Eber twenty second that Ben Simmons, who has a back
injury that has a much longer, more complicated name I think they've called it
has begun light individual work and he's going to be reevaluated in seven to ten
days, so end of this month probably, so coming up fairly soon.
That's according to Adam Zagorio zagsblog dot Com on to the Bulls. I had
a oh no there, so I don't have I had the wrong Hornets update
in there for some reason. But so for the Hornets this is and this
is a big one. I don't really know how I ended up missing that.
Ben LaMelo ball, I don't even know what the exact injury is,
but he's going to miss a ton of time. Let me look at see
if I can find it likely to miss extended time with his ankle sprain per
report, there's no exact timeline, but it is the same ankle that he
had surgically repaired. He's not he did avoid a fracture that was per Sham's.
But when you're dealing with the same ankle injury and I saw people kind
of floating around, at what point do we start to have longer term questions
about his viability? The thing I will say, he's been good for the
most part when he is healthy and we had these same questions about Steph Curry
earlier in his career, and that turned out, all right, I'm not
LaMelo Ball's not Steph Curry, but we don't need to be. I know
it's been four years, almost four years now he's been in the league.
At the same time, still kid in his early twenties. Let's not you
know, jump the shark here, Yeah, Kuggo Bulls. They are focused.
I thank god we're getting this now on trading Zach Levine and have told
other teams they won't even deal anybody else until they know what they're going to
get for Levine. That's according to Casey Johnson of NBC Chicago. You know
better three years late than never. I guess to start the teardown. That's
it. Stupid logic though, by the way, right it isn't it.
I bumped on that too, but I didn't have a strong opinion on whether
that made sense. What do you think? Why do you think that's bad
logic to wait until you know what you're going to get for Levine before you
move down the ranks to like whatever, DeRozan Caruso Vouch. Isn't the whole
idea of running an NBA team, Hey, we can multitask. Well,
I just like, and if you wanted to get to a position where,
well, let's see what we get for the Lavigne return, maybe you shop
Levine when other teams are actively engaged on the trade market, where right now
you know we're getting closer to December fifteenth, but that's sort of this just
unofficial benchmark. And I think the chaos and parody of this season is going
to have more teams than normal maybe waiting, especially if you're you know there
are gonna be teams. Yeah, I'm sure there's teams ready to buy,
but there are probably people that are kind of just waiting, like, oh,
Lavine's available, but could Toronto still blow it up? And the answer
is just I think it's no at this point. But could they be waiting
on to are they? Like? Could something go wrong with with the Clippers
and Paul George's decides that he wants to trade? And so if you wanted
to wait to see what the Lavine return was, then you should have done
this over the offseason rather than waiting until you were eleven games in the season
to acknowledge, Oh, fuck, like, something's not right here. Let
me try this on you. I just I just thought of it. What
if the reasoning behind like, well, we're gonna see what the packages are
for Levine before we do anything else is Levine is probably the squeakiest wheel among
the guys that are angling to get out of Chicago, because there's just been
more reports than about him being upset or disgruntled than anybody else, and they're
kind of thinking this almost feels like a half measure, like let's just get
rid of him before we consider trading anybody else, and maybe that this would
be very bulls thinking of like maybe that'll solve the problem because everything else is
great. We just got to get rid of zach Lavine and then we don't
have to blow it up. We'll just go forward with what we have.
What if that, if that's the path they're taking, they should just bench
Nikolovucevic and then they can play all a rollout on Andre Drummond. And so
I don't think they're thinking in those terms. This might just be a leverage
thing. But the framing, even if it is a leverage thing, to
me, I think is dumb fair. It's on to me and we are
We're on to the Mavericks. Maxi Kleeba has not played since November eighth and
remains out with a dislocated right toe. He's not listed as out indefinitely,
but just something to monitor there. He's dealt with so many injuries over the
past few years. We already covered Mark Cuban selling his majority steak in the
team, so go listen to that mail bag podcast where I covered it.
But he reportedly did not sell the majority stake to run for president. I
can't believe That's the thing that I need to say. So he's not leaving
Shark Tank at the end of next year and selling his majority stake in the
match that he can run for president. What he actually did is he took
less than he could have gotten because the maps were valuated technically higher than the
three point five billion dollar, which I did clarify on that podcast, but
people were reporting that he made three point five billion dollars. No, he
sold a share of a three point five billion dollar evaluation of that valuation could
have been higher, but he elected to take less so that he could remain
in charge of the team. This is I don't think anything like this has
ever happened in the NBA as far as I know, so I'm interested to
see how it plays out, because if you're going to drop billions of dollars
like this is still let's just say to fifty to fifty split or fifty one
fifty, that's still going to run one point eight billion dollars or whatever.
At some point you're gonna want to say on how the team is being run,
I would assume. But the whole casino ties there, and how much
of an advocate Mark Cuban has been for getting casino gambling, sports gambling into
Texas unsuccessfully obviously, the fact that it was sold to someone so embedded with
the Las Vegas Sands Corporation just just some interesting stuff to monitor over the next
few years. I think it seems very much like and this has to have
been reported or at least like alluded to now with the new ownership group coming
in or you know, joining Cuban, I guess like you can dangle a
brand new arena with like tons of you know, casino complexes around it as
part of a Hey, Texas, can we legalize gambling here? We're going
to privately fund this like multi billion dollar project, create all these jobs,
create all this revenue. You think you want to maybe rethink the you know,
gambling legality here so we can just you know, rake in tons of
money for everybody involved. Like that's that seems like it's not even the cynical
take. It's just like that's what That's what's happening. It feels like I
have the Detroit Pistons next. Mark Stein reported back on November twenty first that
Monte Morris will be reevaluated in six to eight weeks why not just way longer
following additional treatment to addresses ongoing quad strain. Boyan Bogdanovich calf is expected to
make his season debut soon. The Distons stay losing in a batter moment for
the out, I had the Nuggets listed after the Pistons on our dog.
We did it, We did it. Nikola Jokic is playing through back issues
and he did miss Tuesday's game. Jamal Murray, who's not played since November
fourth, returned to the Rockets on Wednesday night, a game that I believe
is unfolding as we record this podcast. Okay, here we go. Uh,
don't say Warriors, this isn't in the news doc. I'm just gonna
just point lead and became the first team in like ten years to allow a
team to shoot forty free throws and turn it over twenty times. Just atrocious,
awful loss to the Kings, uh during which Gary Payton the Second suffered
a right calf injury. He's gonna be out indefinitely. Chris Paul also left
with what they're calling a left leg injury. We don't have any more information
on what that is or how long he's gonna be out, but you know,
given his age, given his history with like muscle strain injuries, and
how long that how often those can recur, that might be a while as
well. Also, just to pile on the great news, members of the
organization, according to I think it was a Kendra Andrews report, were frustrated
with Andrew Wiggins for basically not coming into this season in shape. So everything
is super great for the Warriors right now, and nobody on Twitter is calling
for Steve Kurr to be fired or the core to be blown up or just
you know, canceling the rest of the season. That's definitely not happening.
There was also the report, I didn't include this in there, that they're
interested in bringing Chris Paul back next year. At a discounted number, So
go figure that they don't want to pay his was he guarantee or his non
guarantee of twenty five million, thirty million, whatever it is, So go
figure. The Houston Rockets, we're back on the good alphabet train. I'm
and Thompson, who's been out with a right ankle injury since November first,
was able to take part in non contract, non contact drills during practice this
past weekend, but he's yet to be cleared as of now for contact for
scrimmage work. That came per Jonathan Fagan of the Houston Chronicle. SI dot
COM's Tony East reports that Pacers forward slash leander Jalen Smith is going to miss
at least the next two games with left heel and left knee injuries for the
For the Lakers, there's old notes in here that didn't delete when I apologize
for not proofruiting this plant. Grant Ruy Hachimura underwent a procedure on Friday to
repair a nasal nasal fracture and he'll be re evaluated in one week, which
we are coming up on. That comes per Mike Trudell of Spectrum Sports Net.
For the Memphis Grizzlies. Marcus Smart spotted during Wednesday's shoot around without a
boot on his injured left foot. That's per to Michael Cole of the Memphis
Commercial. He has not played since November fourth. Additionally, for the Grizzlies,
Jake Lavia is going to undergo a procedure was set to undergo procedure about
a week ago on November twenty first, to address a corneal abrasion in his
left eye. Sounds fun and is going to be reevaluated in two to three
weeks. Luke Kennard, also who's been out since November fourteenth, has about
another week to go for he's gonna get reevalued. Waited for a bone bruise
in his left knee. Tyler Herrowa has been dealing with a left ankle injury
and has him played since November eighth, is at apparently at least one week
away from returning to Miami's lineup. Jade McDaniels, with a sprained right ankle's
been out since the twentieth. He's at least one to two weeks away from
being re evaluated. So that always you know, you don't know what that
reevaluation is gonna show she could be some more time after that. Anthony Edwards
left the Wolves win over the Thunder on Tuesday, which was a great game.
He had a nasty fall right on his right hip. It's right hip
contusion. Not expected to play Thursday. Unclear on the full timeline when he
went down. I don't know if you saw it, but man, it
was just he was way up there, got kind of undercut and just right
smack on that hit pointer. He was going through it for sure that one.
I thought when he did it was going to be a big deal.
I was surprised because I watched that game too. I was surprised that they
didn't call time out earlier or commit a foul to get him off the court
after he hit his free throws. That surprised me. He was hurting the
Pelicans. After more than three weeks on the sidelines due to a collapse lung,
CG. McCollum returned to the Pelicans on Wednesday versus the Sixers. Despite
speculation from fans not really reporters, that he might come off the bench,
he was in the starting lineup. Trey Murphy, still dealing with that left
knee stuff, has been upgraded to doubtful on the Pelicans' injury report. He's
yet to play this season, and Matt Ryan, who's dealing with the right
cap strain, hasn't played since November eighteenth. He could return soon. Update
on the Josh Giddy situation which is ongoing for the Oklahoma City Thunder. The
family of the alleged underaged girl with whom he also allegedly had an inappropriate relationship.
A lot of alleging happening. Just to make sure we're covering our bases.
The family's not cooperating with the Newport police investigation as of now, so
maybe not hear a whole lot more about this with any kind of definitive information
for a while. Hopefully we get the results. But we really all myself
included because I probably spent too much time on it, just need to withhold
the actual opinionated commentary until we have any facts whatsoever. This is me quietly
nodding and not opening any further. For the Orlando Magic, Markel Foltz is
now day to day with his left knee tendonitis. He has not played since
November ninth. Wendell Carter Junior, who has been sidelined since November second with
a fractured third metacarpool of his left hand, had his cast removed and could
be ready to play in two weeks. He called that, by the way,
the best day of his life when he had the cast removed. WoT
out to Wendell Carter Jr. Jonathan Isaac has missed the past two games with
a sore left ankle and remains day today. Everybody sit down for a second
Phoenix Suns. Bradley Beal, who's been dealing with a lower backstrain, is
at least one week away from being reevaluated. This is dragging for quite some
time in ways that should concern the Suns, although they have done just fine
with their two stars for the most part. Those are the two stars we
talked about that they can't lose Booker and could Durant give some chance for the
Blazers. Anthony Simon's who has appeared in just one game and had right thumb
surgery. He had the splint slash cast removed on November nineteenth. He has
resumed on court work. I still have not found anything about the timeline specific
timeline for his return. Keigan Murray has been out since November twentieth, with
a lower back injury. He is at least practicing again, so that's a
positive something to monitor in Utah. Larry marked and experience left hamstring soreness during
practice on November twenty fourth, so he technically hasn't played this November twentieth,
I think was their last game before that. He's not expected to return while
they're on their current road trip, which means that the earliest he will come
back is against the Blazers on Saturday, December second. Wrapping up here for
the Wizards, you can skip this. That's an old note. I apologize.
He still out for four to six weeks. Actually, so we did
that like two weeks ago. Delann Wright should be like two to four weeks
away from returning. How about's all that day? That's good? You just
you just healed Delon right by two weeks. Good job. I apologize for
leaving so many odds and ends. This putting these things together is actually tedious
and annoying, but I think it's it's important. So all right, you're
this is your this is your show for the man, all right. So
I don't I don't know, I never knew. I don't know if I
arrobbed at anything you said, what did you suggest real or not? As
a as a sustainable but you don't want to call that for disappointments shows sustainable.
This podcast, for me, what it is is kind of like a
so what's up with and then insert team you know whether and it might just
it might not be. It's just really more it's kind of a personal thing,
I guess, because there's just you know how there's just teams where you
just don't you don't have a feel yet or maybe you're not really sure.
There are some sustainability questions with a lot of these, and you know,
the real or not I think does apply, But they're really just teams that
I I don't know. I wanted to kind of kick back and forth with
you to see if we can, I don't know, help crystallize like what
we ought to be thinking about these teams. And the first of those is
the Orlando Magic and this will happen in a couple of cases. I put
most of these stats together yesterday. So the Magic have since throttled the Wizard's
Surprise surprise one thirty nine to one twenty. I will say, look touching
go at the beginning, it did I watched the first half of that game,
and I was ready to just just start downgrading everything I was gonna talk
about. And then they score one hundred and thirty nine points. I'm not
gonna look. I assume that's the season high by a comfortable margin. But
the Wizards will do that to you. And it's kind of like, I
guess I'm not going to lean too hard on that one thirty nine because most
of my questions are about Orlando's offense. So they're now thirteen and five.
Their net rating was plus six point two as of yesterday. It's significantly higher
than that. They were sixteenth in offense, second in defense. Just to
get like sort of a baseline, I don't know if cleaning the glasses cleanlass
probably hasn't updated with that game, but rest assured that their offensive rating,
I'm sure is better than sixteenth. Now I'm gonna refresh real quick and just
double check and see if that has changed. They are up to thirteenth in
offense and they are fourth in defense. Now plus six point eight is their
net thirteen and five is a new record. So when Wendell Carter, we
mentioned Wendell Carter's got the cast off when he went down. I thought,
and I think maybe conventional wisdom was that well, defensively, now there's big
trouble. And this is a team that even you know, based on last
year, was gonna hang his hat on defense. Nobody thought Gogobitadze was gonna,
you know, be adequate. Jonathan Isaac could not be relied upon.
Mo Wagner, you know, a nice like twelfth guy, but he's not
gonna do much. And then what's happened is they've gone ten and three now
and have won eight straight. There are some pushover wins in that run,
but they've beaten the Lakers, they've beaten the Bucks, Denver, Boston.
There's some good wins in there. As of yesterday, four of the top
five guys and plus minus during this run are bench players. So it's not
like, oh, you know, Palla was just player of the Week in
the East. But it's not just him and Franz Wagner being great. It's
like Gary Harris is positive, Joe Ingles is positive, Cole Anthony Isaac,
go, all these guys. So now as a result of all this,
they do you remember what their preseason over under was and where you were on
it. I can tell you I heard I bet you it was probably thirty
three and a half, and I took the under it was thirty seven and
a half, which you did go under. I went over, I said
thirty eight. And now they're projected for like a mid forties win total.
This has gone by ESPN's BPI, which is like that validates people that thought
Orlando was gonna be kind of like, okay, see East be the team
the young team that really like rises up and is now just a playoff team
more than it does people like me and I guess you're joining me here that
thought marginal improvement was coming but not necessarily anything great. I guess I have
a bunch of stats here. Most of them are really positive towards the defense
being legit. I'm just curious, like, based on what you've watched or
any numbers you've come across, would would you start to skew more towards Orlando
is like maybe even better than a play in team because they're you know,
they've won thirteen out of eighteen games right now, like those wins are banked,
so you can play five hundred ball and your your eight games, you
know, your eight games on the good side of five hundred. Have you
changed your opinion? Do you have questions about them? Like? Is there
any if you're curious. I have a lot of numbers we can go through,
but I just want to know where you're at before I kind of continue.
I think I'm at they're closer to a top six team in the East
overall than not or that they're more than a playing team and certainly not a
lottery team. A big part maybe I'm reading too like the offense has been
pretty good over this stretch. They're tenth in first chance half court offense,
which is a big deal. However, and you sort of alluded to this
when you start to dig into what their best lineups have been, and you
sense it when you're watching them. Their best offensive units, articularly, are
usually just a bunch of bench guys that are on the floor, and so
yeah, like Palo might be in there with Frans might be in there,
but it's Cole Anthony sort of driving that ship. They're winning minutes. Where
Mo Wagner or Gogo Batadz is going to be in there, that's not but
that's fine to get through the regular season. I worry, what do your
top end units look like in the playoffs, and maybe it doesn't matter that
much. I mean, so, for instance, their preferred what I would
think would be their closing lineup at this juncture if everyone were healthy, faults,
Sugs, Wagner, Franz Wagner, if anyone was wondering about the confusion,
Pallow and Wendell Carter Junior. They barely play together this season. They
have a plus thirteen net rating, though, and it's all because of what
they're able to do on defense. And so you can put your top end
guys on the court and say, yeah, we'll win these important minutes against
other teams as best players. But if you need buckets, if you get
to a point where you need to open up the floor in the half court,
and I'm not talking about look the Magic do. If you watch them,
they do a pretty good job of spacing the floor around the drives of
Palo Bancaro and Franz Wagner. However, defenses don't give a fuck still,
they are going to crowd those and so you need I don't think you necessarily
need someone who's gonna hit shots off the dribble, but they could really use
another shooter, and I don't think it's a cliche to talk about, but
like that is the missing element to this team. It's you know, maybe
it changes if when you have everyone who's healthy and if Jalen Suggs is gonna
hit a bunch of threes and you have Wendell Carter Junior kind of stretching the
floor from the five spot, but defenses just aren't for the rest of the
season. Are You aren't gonna care? And so during the regular season,
I don't think it matters. Like if you told me right now the Magic
finish that it's okay, there's Milwaukee, there's Boston, there's Philly, and
then the Magic are fourth in the standings, I'll believe it. Their playoff
stock still concerns me unless they figure out a way to effectively open up the
floor, I'll say, in those high leverage minutes. Yeah, to that
point, you're you're absolutely right, Like the look of the offense don't seems
so shocked. No, it's like, oh shit, I agree, No,
no, no, well, it's just like, as I'm looking at
my numbers, what you're saying is like you could not have provided a better
sort of like segue into them, because they're the Magic going into tonight's game.
In anyway, I'm sure it's better now because they played the Wizards.
They're number one in rheum attempt frequency. They are number one in location based
effective field goal percentage, but they're twenty second in actual field goal percentage effective
field goal percentage. So that's just like and it's because they don't make threes
and they don't shoot them, and it's because they don't have three point shooters
like Jalen Suggs came into tonight at thirty six percent. He was three or
six, So he's nudging up towards like the high thirties. Which if Jalen
Suggs is like a moderate volume, you know, thirty eight thirty nine percent
three point shooter, that changes a ton That doesn't. It doesn't mean he
can run a pick and roll. It doesn't mean he's going to break down
his guy individually and create shots for other people. But he's a hillacious defensive
guard who he's no defense for sure. Oh again, with the getting rid
of positions he's on, I don't know if he's first team that would be
something like he right now, he's been one of the ten best defenders in
basketball. You can't have the best defensive guard in basketball conversation without getting to
him like in pretty short order, and so and the Magic are number one
enforcing turnovers, Like he is very much a part of that. But yeah,
the stuff he does, I mean on the ball to but away from
all, he's just he's a he's a menace. And yeah he's awesome.
He's awesome at what he does. If he is a legit three point shooter,
and we're way it's like his his track record is what it is just
awful, and so like we can't say this is the new normal. But
if he's improved enough, then you don't sort of because if he's not,
then what you're talking about is like you kind of have to make a decision
and it's gonna necessarily mean your defense will get worse to bring in the type
of shooter or offensive player you're talking about, and you hate to take away
from what's been such a strength so far unless you really have to. Now,
Like the other upgrade is like right now they're starting Anthony Black, who
just like barely looks at the basket. Is not like no defense cares if
he's open. Then Mark el Foltz is kind of the same way, except
like he can be on the ball a little more so it's a little different.
But like the Magic just do so much right, Like they get really
good shots. They are number three in free throw rate coming into tonight.
Like they the offense like has the bones of something that will work, they
just don't have the pieces that will cash in on the good shots they're creating.
So like, so anyway, like to answer my question to you is
I'm much more bullish on the idea that this is like a mid to high
forties or maybe more win team in the regular season. But like you could
almost not draw up a like a worse or like a simpler playoff matchup for
a team to attack where it's just like, we don't let Franz and Poalo
score, we pack the lane and just if Jalen Suggs and Markel Foltz and
whoever else are gonna beat us from three great and they just you know,
the game plan is already done for whoever plays the Magic unless they change the
roster. But yeah, I think like you also assume that you get Wendell
Carter back. Like, by the way, he's been a decent spacer at
center, so maybe that helps too, and the defense is at least as
good because you're gonna get regression from guys like like Mo Wagner's like seventy percent
true shooting, and it's just like suddenly incredible, Like in the six Man
of the Year conversation, Gogobatadz is not going to stay this good. You
might say Suggs is a little over his head. Maybe Carter coming back off
sets that. But yeah, this team is like they're on like a high
fifties win pace right now. So if they could find any kind of offense,
pretty exciting for them. And I think what has changed, And like
to your point, by the way, just about the shooting. Having Franz
Wagner Leisure team in three point attempts per game at five point two is just
that's like you need a higher volume guy, and there is right now.
Among their rotation players, they have one dude, and that's Gary Harris,
who is averaging more than seven attempts per thirty six minutes. And like the
fact that Jonathan, that Jonathan Isaac is second among their everyday rotation players in
three point tens for thirty six minutes is just weird, And like I don't
know how else to frame that. I know it's because he doesn't play a
ton like he's in his small stins. They I did mention them as a
potential Zach of then Destination Magic fans don't like that. I understand why they
don't like that. I might still depending on the cost if it's just salary
and picks taking a look. But I do think their success has changed the
context of what they need where it's I don't think Buddy Heal becomes available at
this point, given how if he Ben mcmathern has been and the Pacers are
trying to win. But it could be like, does Tim Hardaway Junior become
available? Does what about aj Griffin in Atlanta? Are they ready to sell
medium on him? That might be someone who could help them a little bit.
I keep thinking back to how much like this team might be the second
best team in the East right now if they they had been the squad that
got Max Truce instead of Cleveland. That's a pointless what if because it's just
they're not gonna get him. If the Grizzlies go off the rails Luke Canard
on this team, that could be super interesting. I don't know who else
could really become available, Like they just need sort of a caps lock shooter.
It doesn't need to be someone who operates a ton on the ball.
It just needs to be someone who defenses, will guard in the half court
in their most important minutes. And so that that's kind of a big ask.
But it's a lot different than saying, you know, you look at
some of these other teams and it's they need a secondary like off the dribble
score and the magic because you have Fronds, because you have Pawo Bancaro,
and because you have Martl Foltz and even just Jalen Sugg's doing some stuff when
the floor is actually open, and even you can run things through Wendell Carter
Junior. They don't need that player anymore. To me, it's they need
they need the buddy heeled who becomes available, because I don't think he's going
to be Buddy Heel or just like what if you had he's not available,
but literally anyone could have had him once you had Isaiah Joe, just like
someone that is out there to just if you're open, he's gonna get up.
You know, ten twelve threes per thirty six and they're all good shots
by definition, because he's shooting. Just someone like that, you don't even
need to be an ace defender, you can. Yeah, it seems like
it should be fairly easy to go find because you're not looking for a fully
like a fully rounded out player. You just need a guy who's gonna like
not get crushed on defense and take and make a bunch of threes like that's
that's a niche guy. I do wonder if they're positionally this could be tough,
Like Doug McDermott could be like, I'm just trying to float names that
are just gettable and won't cost you a ton here. Uh, like there's
just no one else is really springing springing time. I'm like, preferently they
need to kind of come in like the wing format, or at least someone
who doesn't infringe upon minutes that you're gonna give to your Wendell Carter Junior and
Pallo and so you know there are some players like Doug McDermott is better off
at the four if you're gonna play Franz Poul and Wendel Carter Junior together,
Like does Doug McDermott can he see time in that lineup, and you know,
I don't know if you want it to come. Like I mean,
maybe if they're hitting, he's hitting enough of his threes, Like if Tias
Jones became available, defenses will guard him a little bit more than they will
A Falter and Anthony Black. But like, I don't know if that's enough,
but it just feels like it could be a like maybe even Royce O'Neill
or Dorian Finney Smith do it for them. I don't know if the volumes
necessarily enough, but like that's the we've I've beat it to depth. Like
that's the kind of level of player they need, I think to really turn
a corner, rather than they need a star or primary or secondary creator.
Yeah, all right, you want to talk Pelicans, have you? I
mean, I feel like I'm stepping onto your corner by bringing up the Pelicans,
But they are a team that I want to know. What's up with
them? Rome eighty one to eighty is mad at me for not I was
on the verge of just deboarding the bandwagon, and I stayed on and then
they turned a corner and he said, ever since Dan announced that he was
staying on the Pelicans bandwagon, it's just they they're losing to the Jazz.
It's just nothing looks right right. They lose the Jest twice. Did I
imagine both times without lowry marketing? I think, I think so, So
I'll double check that. But yeah, that's not so. They beat the
Sixers tonight by ten, but Joel Embid didn't play. But so I'll update
some of their numbers. They are. The Pelicans are ten and nine now,
minus point five net rating, eighteenth in offense, thirteenth in defense,
nothing like, you know, spectacular coming out there. And they've had their
injuries, like like Trey Murphy. We we went through them already on the
newser but like Trey Murphy hasn't played yet. McCollum just now is getting back.
Naji Marshall missed some time. Jose Alvarado, I think he's played four
or five games. So you know, there's like, you know, Murphy,
I think in particular, everybody had him pegged as a most improved guy,
and I think his shooting and his defense and athleticism would be a perfect
compliment. So not totally fair to evaluate them, But injuries have long been
a part of New Orleans whole story and That's what is most interesting to me
is like the injuries that we worry the most about Zion to Zion and Ingram
like haven't really happened, right, So in some sense, at least,
you know, the worst the best case scenario has taken place, Like both
of those guys have been available for you know, the vast majority of the
season and you're still roughly a five hundred team. You've gotten out scored on
the year, and so I just kind of wanted to dig into like,
well, they have those guys, and the whole theory was if you have
Zion and Ingram or at least Zion really like, your offense is great and
this team is capable of getting right back to where it was when it was
at its best. Some red flags have arisen for me, and a lot
of this is going to be made to look Redicut because if have you looked,
because a lot of it's going to be on how Zion you know,
the career low for field goal percentage a percentage of field goal attempts at the
rim used to be seventy five percent for him and now he's at sixty four
percent. So he's just not getting to the room as much. He was
ten of ten in the restricted area tonight against the mbidless Sixers, So I
don't know what that's going to do to the numbers, but it will improve
them. But the problem is he's replaced a lot of that stuff generally this
season with like mid rangers. He's he's passing a little more out on drives.
That's helpful. His assist rate has never been higher in his career.
The problem though, is like, just anecdotally, he looks less explosive.
I know I've mentioned that, and I think you were correct to note that,
like, well he's coming off you know, basically a lost season.
Like let's take a break on that. I just think if if Zion is
not like maximumly explosive attacking the basket, it's just not the same thing.
Like his dunks are down. I had a stat there, I can't find
it now, But his free throw rates never been lower. True shooting has
never been lower. Again, this ridiculous eleven of twelve night he had tonight
might change some of that. His rebounding has never been worse, his average
shot distance has never been farther from the basket. All these things are just
indicators of like limited or like declining athleticism, or you know, his athleticism
hasn't like returned. I don't know. I just the theory of the Pelicans
depends so heavily on Zion being like this, you know, sixty percent on
twos and unstoppable getting to the line all the time, spurring a transition attack.
Like none of that's really happened, And so it just changes the way
I think about New Orleans because the good thing has basically taken place, which
is he's been healthy, and they're kind of just not that great. So
I have a harder time saying, well, all these other injuries, once
these guys are back, maybe at clear space resion, maybe the dunks come
back. Maybe the you know, downhill drives you know, are just more
effective with more room as Trey Murphy is on the perimeter. I don't know,
it's just I'm sort of I've never been as high on the Pelicans as
some people have, and I guess, like the thing I was worried about
was Zion's never going to be healthy, and he's been healthy, and yet
it's I'm still kind of cold. So that's a lot for you to unpack.
But like I just think the theory of this team now has changed,
and I'm less optimistic about it in general for that reason. That's interesting so
a lot. And I went into this a little bit on the mail bag
because we had a question about his drives. The spacing can be so bad
at points, I think, because even when you have shooters on the floor,
defenses are so just obsessed with Zion Williamson. And sometimes it doesn't matter.
But I've wondered if the amount of bodies being thrown at him has impacted
his volume at the rim has impacted his rebounding just having more just having more
bodies on him or teams playing him more physically. And then also when you
look at his drives, his assist rate has never been high enough on drives,
even when his pass rate is is high enough on drives. And that's
sort of the case again this year. And if he had more open space
to work with, would he'd be better at finding his teammates, would be
able to get to rim even more easily for him. We've seen instances where
it just doesn't matter. But it's got to take a toll on your body
if you have to go through two, three, four guys just to get
a semi contested look at the basket where maybe you don't get an end one
because I think you know, there are players where it's just difficult. I
don't want to excuse what people might think is poor officiating, Like some players
are just hard to referee. He's one of them because of the way that
he is just built and the fact that their first chance offense has been I
mean, it's been better over this stretch. I think they're tenth in first
chance offense since they've turned since November fourteenth, during which time they're how many
games have they won? Were they like seven? And how many games they
won during during that stretch. They are six and three over their last nine
games, So since that like November fourteenth stretch, so their tenth and first
chance offense. But they're just not doing a ton with their first offense,
like overall, when you're looking at the efficiency of it, and like does
the spacing improve as you get CG. McCullum back, as you get Matt
Ryan back, as Trey Murphy the third comes back. Those feel sort of
like flash bowl of developments for them because it's not about yeah, if you
want to see them even nudge up excuse me, VI the number of threes
that they're actually taking. Okay, I get that, but it's more so
about, yes, we don't want this team during the stretch. They're still
dead last in above the break three point attempt to eight twenty ninth and overall
three point attempt rate. You want to see them take more threes, but
just having the floor more open makes the job easier on him. I also
think for the way it seems like they want to play, we've seen a
little bit more synergy between Brandon Ingram and Zion Williamson, and the minutes with
both of them are getting better. But they operate so separately even when they're
together at times that if you're not going to involve them in a ton of
the same actions. And it's good that they got Zion out of the post
and he's doing more point guard things, but if they're going to do so
many things separately, the floor needs to be open to accommodate that. And
I don't know what's a mystery with this team. I do believe just because
we haven't seen Trey Murphy CJ. McCollum was having a heck of a year
before he went down for the most part, part of me believes that the
tools are in place, even when looking at Jordan Hawkins and Matt Ryan,
that you could finagle enough of these lineups to say, hey, the floor
will be open. The defense they can still defend really tough. Willie Green's
been really great for the most part since he's come at coaching that end of
the floor. That could be you know, that could be something that's going
to be fine in lineups where we actually do carve out enough spacing. But
there's a chance that this team does need to make a move more so to
your point, and I just don't know if they have the gall or the
conviction in this corps right now to make that move in the middle of the
season, or they might just be in that constant state of weight whereas we
got to wait for not that Larron NaNs Junior is down again, but oh
like brand Ingram is now missing time, that CJ and Trey Murphy you're back,
or something along those lines. This is we're gonna deviate from, you
know, the numbers based stuff we've been talking about. But just like,
do you like the combination of Ingram and Zion, Like, is that is
that a one two that makes sense to you. Man, No, look,
it doesn't. It doesn't. You're right, it doesn't make sense,
but it can be done. I don't know if the Pelicans have optimized it,
whether you're gonna use them, if it's a matter of using them more
together, and I'd love to see the data on just like the two man
game that they've run over this nine game stretch. But even if you're gonna
try and use them independent of one another, I'm talking in the same lineup.
It's like you need to figure out a way to open the floor then,
because like Zion is a non shooter at this point, and defenses are
just going to They guard Brandon Ingram differently. They even guard CG. McCollum
differently when he's away from the ball because he's not known as this motion,
high volume three point shooter, even though we did up his three point volume
this year. I don't know if they, but I look at them and
it's just I want to see their best players together, and they've they've done
creative stuff where it's okay. And the lineups that we were talking about that
don't have Zion or Ingram and it has one of them where it's oh,
let's put the ball in Herb Jones's hands, so that kind of eradicates one
of the non shooting problems. There's just so many different plays that they could
make. I just I need to see Trey Murphy back because it feels like
that could open up everything. Yeah, I agree, that is the and
that that's been you know, some version of this, although it's usually been
well, one or the other of Ingram or Zion or both are not healthy,
and so like you know, you we'd have this. You're not saying
you and I, but we probably have. At some point, people would
have this conversation of like, well, does the fit really make sense with
Zion and Ingram, And probably the fairest answer was always like, I don't
know. We haven't really seen enough yet, and we and and if they've
been healthy, we haven't seen enough with Now we're talking about Trey Murphy,
like, oh, Trey Murphy's gonna I'm not saying you're saying this, but
the idea is Trey Murphy unlocks the maximum potential of these two guys and they
are hard to sort of scheme and fit around, but it's doable, and
someone like Murphy really matters. So like it does feel like we're just constantly
waiting for one reason or another to like get a fair sample to evaluate this
these two guys, and like I just can't get past the feeling that,
like, yeah, there's definitely ways to make it better, but just on
a fundamental level, Like you know, if you're going through the best duos
in the league and you care at all about how they compliment each other,
like this one's pretty far towards the bottom of the list in terms of like
complimentary skills because they just like, I don't know what you would say they
are, like Ingram can be a good three point shooter, but he doesn't
really want to be a catch and shoot three point player, and he can
do so much other stuff that doesn't really make sense to use him that way.
So I don't know. I got a couple other ones. I was
gonna do the Lakers, but it's almost like do we need to do the
Lakers? They're just they've had so many rotation guys hurt, And you know,
I will say with the Lakers, I was wrong. I thought their
offense was going to be a lot better this year, and it just haven't
been. They're so reliant on Lebron James that it's not even funny, and
you start to toggle with lineups when he's not on the court and they become
disastrous. The fact they had to move Austin Reeves has been playing better since
he moved to the bench feels less than ideal because now they're kind of searching
for that, like it's another guy that they need to figure out how to
round out their best lineups with. But you are right, they haven't been
healthy and so it's tough to get kind of a hold on them. I
just I think it's I don't know that. I never have them in my
inner circle of contenders, but if you did, it's probably time to rethink
that. And I'd be curious. Zach Low would talk to David Benaman about
this. How many games were they going to give it before they're like,
Okay, we're gonna dangle our non Reeves assets to see what we can get
in here. I don't know what one first round pick and some of the
money that you can offer ultimately does for you. Again, though, because
gave Vincent is misstime, because Ruya Chi Moor is miss time. Jared Vanderbilt
hasn't played this season, although he was played off the floor in the playoffs,
and so it's if you're gonna use that sort of as the excuse here,
we can't help him now saying like, oh, well, Anthony Davis's
perimeter game come back. It existed for like a season and a half.
Yeah, this is just like this is just the normal. So their offense
is concerning, and they're a team that needs to figure out either one.
I mean, they need to figure out how to open up the floor in
general. That's just that's a fact when you're looking at them. They are
currently twenty seventh in three point attempt rate on the year, and they are
twenty sixth in three point percentage. There's I don't look at anyone and say,
oh, when they come back, they'll bring that up. Like Gabe
Vincent, you can't like he's gonna rely on that. They knew something about
that. I just don't know that they have the the assets necessary to get.
If there are players who other teams are interested in, the Lakers are
not going to outbid them. No. I think you know, the reason
I hesitated was like a lot of the analysis for me on the Lakers,
you know, not a lot, but one key part of it was going
to be similar to the Pelicans, which is to say, like, well,
the disaster scenario for this team was that their two best players just couldn't
stay healthy. And for the most part, Lebron and Ad have been on
the floor and you so now you're left saying, well, I guess Gabe
Vincent really is important because that's the guy that they need out there. It's
just like, that's that's a concerning thing. That's a little bit of a
red flag when the you know, the thing you were most worried about has
not happened. And the Lakers are still kind of disappointing. Not you know,
they're ten and eight like they're this time last year they were in a
lot worse shape. But just this the Austin Reeves thing, I had a
stat on that that like blew my mind. So the minutes in which Ad,
Lebron and and D'Angelo Russell are on the court together, the Lakers are
plus eight point four if you add Reeves to that group. This is including
all season. He's been much better. As you mentioned, it is I
have some of his numbers as a reserve versus a starter, But the lineups
with Russell Reeves, Lebron, and ad which you would assume would be like,
well, those guys are you know, they're definitely maybe del gets,
you know, a little bit limited in the playoffs, but those units are
minus five, like they're getting out scored with those four guys on the court.
And there was a decent enough sample that Reeves just got moved to the
bench. Now he's been significantly better. He's sixty three percent true shooting percentage
as a reserve, which is back closer to like his ridiculous efficiency of you
know, the last couple of years fifty two percent as a starter, which
is significantly quite a ways below league average. So one of the things we
were most sure about was that Austin Reeves was one of the most you know,
the best bargain contracts of the offseason. He's kind of playing like a
thirteen million dollar player. He's kind of not playing like a guy that should
be making twenty five a year right now. If if what he is is
a luxury reserve that for some reason doesn't work with the starters, now,
I'd be surprised if we had these ridiculous, you know, starter reserve splits
for Reeves all season. I would also be surprised if he continued to come
off the bench just based on how good he's been, you know, recent
not recently, talking about like last playoffs and last year. Still that's a
problem. The injuries are a problem. I just I don't know. Yeah,
there wasn't a lot to say here other than like, it's not great
if the big guns are healthy and you're kind of you know, hanging around
five hundred because they're not gonna be that. They sorry, but they're not
gonna you know, Davis and Lebron are not gonna play seventy games or whatever.
They're on pace for high sixties even I'll give you a choice here for
a week, because we're at almost an hour already. So we can do
the Toronto Raptors, or we can do the Sacramento Kings. Who would you
like? Who do we need to ask? What's up with? What are
the Let's do the Kings. I'm very curious as to where you're going with
this. Oh well, the fundamental question is is the defense improved enough?
And so I'm gonna pull up their their peripherals here or the rest of their
numbers. Let's see, they are ten and six. They beat the Warriors
last night. I don't know if I mentioned that or like, is your
Mike dies sounds like you're a million miles away from me. I just don't
want to talk about it. I think that's probably probably the reason. So
they're ten and six. They have a neutral net rating. They are fourteenth
in offense, surprisingly low. They are nineteenth and def some would say surprisingly
high. So basically some of this will be like me rehashing my overall thoughts
on the team, but like, they were horrible on defense last year,
so their greatest offense of all time was not good enough to hold up and
offset that. They didn't make any significant improvements. Keegan Murray was playing better
until he got hurt. But other than that, it's kind of like we'll
just be better because we believe we will be defensively, like we'll have better
chemistry all this other stuff. I think there's marginal improvements, Like they're forcing
a little bit more frequent turnovers from opponents, their defensive rebound rates better.
These are these are not necessarily like you know what you'd like, are you
know, changing the shot diet and defending the rim and stuff like that.
But they are third in opponent location based effective FOG goal percentage. They were
eleventh last year, so that's I mean, the process is getting better.
They're nineteenth in deflections per thirty six. They were eighteenth last year, so
their turnover rate is kind of I don't know how much stock you want to
put into it. Both Murray and Fox their steel rates are up over two
percent. Those are improvements over last season, although kind of cutting against that,
Davion Mitchell has been in and out of the rotation, and that guy
is basically in the NBA because he can guard, and so if he's not
doing enough to play like regular rotation minutes because you know, for a minute
there, Malik Monk was just the backup point guard and really still he's the
guy that they prefer to play over Davion Mitchell. Just throwing some stuff out
there to say that I think there's marginal improvement defensively for the Kings. I
have no questions about their offense. I think the fact that they're fourteenth right
now is like there's no chance that holds. But I'm not convinced that,
like, especially if we assume that there will be injuries this year for them,
which they're already have and there weren't last year that this defense has improved
enough or even really at all to make a difference. So do you have
the same concerns. You've always been a little less worried about the Kings than
I have, I think, But I'm curious where you are with how they've
played so far this year, if you see more positive signs defensively than I
do, or if you see personnel that you know stand to make a difference
on that end, that I don't. I think when it's when you're talking
personnel specific, if you're looking for this super meaningful change that's going to turn
them into a sustainably top ten defense that players not currently on the roster,
that's that's pretty clear. But like Sasha to Vazankov has held up better defensively
from the moments I've watched him, and he was really good defensively against the
Warriors the other I mean, he can't really move, but he does get
to where he ought to be and he's really smart. So yeah, I
think I think he's I agree, he's been better than I would have expected.
And look, we've only seen what would be their top unit this year
for two hundred and sixty possessions because Fox has missed time, Murray has missed
time. The defensive rating of that unit is one oh seven point seven,
which is in the sixty fifth percent high. And when you dig into okay,
well, how is that happening? They're not getting super lucky when it
comes to opponent three point shooting or shooting at the rim. With that unit
on the court, opponents are shooting seventy six point three percent at the rim
fourteen percent time. I'd argue that number is gonna come down and opponents,
what's that will it? And then opponents are shooting thirty eight percent from three.
This is what the Kings do, and I think the improvement is more
starke than effort. They keep teams out of transition and it's not just a
matter of getting their scoring and getting their defense at like they get back and
they just they eliminate all second chance opportunities basically for other teams. I do
think it's kind of a different animal when you get to the playoffs and that
you're gonna face teams that are more equipped to hunt mismatches or go after Sabonis
and put him in very uncomfortable situations. I do not think that means the
Bonus is a terrible player, like a lot of people think the Kings should
trade him. I want to know so many players are imperfect that we get
caught up. Can you be the player in a championship team shut the fuck
up like they have the Aaron Fox they might have, like he could be
the best player. Yeah, the way he's been defending better, Murray's been
defending better, Malik Monk has been defending better. There's enough incremental improvement for
me to say this team is as good or better than last year. And
I think it still comes down to can they get some extra wing defense?
Rim protection would be nice, but just you're gonna place the Bonus heavy minutes.
Can you get sort of a combo wing a three to four, a
different type of three to four guy in here, a pair with Keegan Murray
in place of some of the Harrison Barnes defensive minutes. And that's why I
was just sort of surprised that you picked them, just given some of the
injuries they've dealt with. I kind of assume they're where they should be.
You look at the vitals and the record, and maybe you would like to
see them be a little bit higher, and I get that, but their
fifth in the West, and that's like, given how much time to Aaron
Fox missed, I think that's a that's an absolute win for them. So
I'm neither worried nor surprised by anything from them this year. Yeah, I
guess like that's why I struggled to brand, because it's kind of like I
just want to know what's up with them, what's going on, you know,
I want to get a feel for them. I do. I once
said, I didn't mention. I don't know if you you kind of touched
on this a little bit. But their third in opponent rim attempt frequency,
which is a huge step up from last year when they were fifteenth. So
like that, I think if you're looking for the biggest differences, I cited
some other marginal improvements, but to be top five after being like middling at
just because when opponents get to the rim against Sacramento they finish like that.
That's just because of the personnel. That's just what's going to happen. So
limiting rim frequency for them is absolutely critical. I think maybe that does point
to you know, they're a little more disruptive on the perimeter. Some of
their guys like Fox that have just been about to say, yeah, like
Keegan Murray and Fox. I feel even Keegan Murray specifically feels like they help
with the containment and they have it like that's a must because you know,
guys get downhill against the bonus. He's just he's just not a vertical rim
protector, so you just have to keep guys out of the lower paint.
So that has been a big difference, and so that's a positive. Like
what's up with the Kings angle? I suppose, yeah, hypothet unfair hypothetical.
So let's say the Kings end up with you know, it's April and
the Kings are second. Let's just give them second in offense because maybe Indiana
holds holds this up all year and they're like twelfth in defense, which is
would be an improvement? Would that? Yeah, I mean an improvement over
where they are now? Yeah, it would be right, would you would
we still just have the same conversation about like, yeah, that's all great,
but they're just solvable in the playoffs because of Sabonis, because of whoever
else, like or would you feel you know what I mean? I think
they're a team that the numbers can be what they are, But until they
show in a playoff series that some of the weaknesses we all understand them to
have just they can overcome those, it's gonna be hard to be confident that,
you know, oh, the numbers say they're much better on defense in
the regular seat, and I just do you think you'll feel confident then or
will it just still be a prove it situation. It'll still be a prove
it situation for me unless they It's always gonna be a proved situation because we
need to see them do it. They didn't win a playoff series, Lasuer.
They took the Warriors to the end, but they didn't win. If
they make a move, though, like this is a team, I'm not
picky, I would be. Would I be flabbergasts if you said, oh,
the Kings came out of the West. No, I wouldn't, but
I would be. I'd be more shocked if you said that about them than
if you said it about Okay, the Nuggets, the Suns, sure like
some of the other I mean, frankly, if you told me I think
the Timberwolves and the Pelicans, I'd be more confident in coming out of the
West at this point because I trust that those teams have the higher gear defensively.
It changes for the Kings a little bit if they make a move,
But you need to make that move, and does the right player become available?
I'm not sure if someone like a a Dorian Finney Smith would make enough
of a difference from I just don't think O Jiannaobi's gonna become available. We
can talk about him until forever. I just don't think Toronto ends up moving
him this season. That would just be such a wild thing to for them
to do, like, oh, here's half a year before you pay him.
What is the value you even get for him in that circumstance? So
and so, I don't you know. You go through the list and it's
like there might be some guys that come available as the season goes on,
but can they get that again it just comes with like upgrading their combo wing
defense and they look they have the assets like that to make a deal happen.
It's just who is the right player for that? And you're not giving
up everything for a Dorian Phinney Smith, But are you making that move?
Do you think he is someone who makes enough of a difference and to be
I mean, to be quite frankly, I honestly don't know, like that'd
be a question. Yeah, I mean I think really like, you know,
we we get caught up talking about you know, obviously Anonobi is the
name that comes out the most. And guys you know, quote unquote like
that Dorian Phinney Smith like these big wings, Like what if they just had
Like I don't even and I'm just spitballing, so I don't have a we
can come up with one, I'm sure, like a switch bull big that
could block a shot, Like is there, like who's like, where's that?
Who is? So name me the most? I guess like one if
you're gonna go get that big And let's say they do exist in the realm
of gettable. Let's say Nick Claxton, Oh God, you're never gonna play
him with Sibonis, So what's the point. That's that's why this team is
so confounding sometimes because of the s Bonis piece of it. It's so hard
to like give them what they need without getting some Bonis out of the picture.
And then if you remove the bonus from this team, they're just not
even close to the same team. Anymore. Their offense is completely different.
It's way worse. So I just like, maybe that's what's up with the
Kings, Like how do you how do you really get them what they need
without blowing it up? You don't name? That kind of springs to mind,
and this is you might be engaging in some fluky three point shooting,
especially because this is a team that notoriously has these guys shoot better from three
whenever they get there. But he thible ooh on this team. Oh he's
hitting like thirty seven percent of his threes or whatever, and he's been defending
his butt off. Even Jeremy Grant been playing. You know, he didn't.
I wasn't too. I didn't like what I was seeing a lot early
on. He looks a lot better now. Like that's a lot of money
for Jeremy Grant. I want to make that clear. But those are guys
Jeremy like, Jeremy Grant and Keegan Murray can play together. I wouldn't if
you said, here's sa bonus Grant and Murray. I'm not worried about it.
No, can we get the Jeremy Grant that played center for the Thunder
like for a little bit years ago. That would be cool. And what
about what do you from like three years what fit with simonas the injuries with
maxi Clebland, The idea of Zeke Nagy, Yeah, I love the we
listen. If we love one thing, it's the idea of Zeke Nay.
We love the concept of Yoh would actually be really good for this He might
just wouldn't trust the spacing necessarily, and he's going towards free agency and they've
already paid a lot of not wings. Kyle Anderson, Yeah, you're the
you can't afford to give him up right now, but that would be uh
not. First of all, not Reid would be perfect for this team,
but they sure can't move him now. I'm obsessed with who, like what
if like like a Horford type, because you can play Horford with another big
and he'll survive on switches or like again, we're gonna have to go back
to like several years ago. But Marvin Bagley, what about you know?
I I Marvin Bagley has actually been probably the second best big in Detroit after
I guess Stuart's there. But during I mean, he's been effective because he's
not shooting threes anymore. But Detroit is we don't need to talk about Detroit.
I think that's all I'm prepared to do. I had one other team
I can't remember. Oh is Toronto? We don't need to talk about Toronto?
I have? I have? Can we talk about a couple that I
that are springing to mind for me? I'd love to Cleveland? OK?
Is there a level of worry here? Their bottom ten in offense right now?
It comes with the caveat that they're four best players and I mean five.
Max Shrews has been so important, so let's just include Max Drews in
this. They just haven't played together because Donovan Mitchell's miss time, Darius Garland
missed time, Jared Allen miss time. The unit like what would be your
best five man unit in theory, having Evan Mobley, Jared Allen, Darius
Garland, Donovan Mitchell, and Max Shreuce has played two hundred and eleven possessions
together, which isn't enough. However, the offensive rating is in the forty
second percentile, which isn't good enough during those stretches in the half court.
The fiftieth percentile still not great. I think that, and I'm getting to
what I think the actual problem is this team overall, when you look at
their four best players, Mitchell, Garland and Allen and Mobi, they're playing
faster when they're together, and the Cows are doing a better job I think
of being opportunistic and getting out in transition. There's a different pace to the
way that they are playing. They are fundamentally failing with their three point volume
at this point. And it's when you're gonna play Evan Mobley and Jared Allen
together, You're you're making a concession there because together those two were attempting what
half a three point attempt per game, And so now you have these other
three players, and even Max Struce's volume per thirty six minutes has come down
from last season since joining the Cavaliers, Darius Garland's under five to three point
attempts per thirty six minutes. He's moved off the ball. Well, that's
something I've watched ever since Justin Rowan kind of pointed it out to me.
That needs to come up. And so I want to see more of this
team together because when I watch it, even Evin Mobley feels like he's making
more like that he's making quicker decisions. He can still go through his lulls,
but feels more confident in decisions he's making, feels more equipped to handle
contact and such, to make plays in the center floor, to not have
to be necessarily near the basket all the time. And then even Jared Allen,
the dunker spot pointed this one out. Like he's feels like he's more
confident've been making plays out of the short role the offense. Just the process
looks okay, but like the end result is just not good enough right now.
And I don't think it's just yes, we can wait for some of
the we can excuse me, we can wait for the sample to tick up.
And do I think that they're gonna shoot thirty five and a half percent
from three for the rest of the season. No, But like them being
around the bottom ten in three point ten three that no, Like you can't.
You just can't do that, especially when they're right now, they're just
really relying on getting to the basket. They're third in rim frequency, They
don't take a ton of mid range jumpers relative to other teams right now.
And I'm interested to see how this all comes together if we ever get an
extended stretch of Oh, all five of these players are available together. I
even like the look George Ygg is not the guy that you think does this,
but like the Couches feel like they play a lot faster when he's in
the court, So there are different dimensions to their offense. But the floor
is not even with Max Shrew's doing the things he does. I feel like
the Cavs are either not opening the floor enough when they're watching them, or
they're not capitalizing on some of the personnel that they can run out or the
different combinations that that they can really test. And I don't know how much
of that is a function of well, this is just who's available, or
you look at their best players and it's well, a lot of them don't
want to be high volume three point, like Don min Mitchell does a lot
of the stuff he does out of necessity, and you have Max Struce.
You can't have Jared Allen or Evan Mobley be your quote unquote floor spacers.
Karl Slavers never wanted to be a super high volume guy from behind the arc.
It feels like Darius gone On is kind of pushed back against that.
Even like you know, Don Mirian Mitchell is, I would say, is
the only player on this team taking enough three point attempts on a permanent basis,
and even eight and a half per thirty six, I'm just like,
yeah, that should be that closer to ten. And so is it just
a three point shooting or is it come back to you are kind of battling
against the current just by having Evan Mobley and Jared Allen on the court together,
and then in those minutes. One of the issues has been yes,
you're winning those minutes, it's not by this huge margin right now because the
offense has been so statistically vanilla, and I just when you dig into it,
I don't know with that lineup, Okay, cool, they're shooting seventy
two percent at the rim, that might come down. They're three point percentage
of thirty four and a half percent thirty two point six from above the break.
That might come up a little bit. But there's like that sort of
balances each other out, and I just don't know what to make like this
is the perfect what's up team because I just really don't know what to make
of what they're doing. And then also I can't, for the life of
me figure this out. Just the rebounding, the defensive rebounding with that five
man unit on the court. Again, it's been so little they were in
the zero fix percentile of defensive rebounding when those it's bad overall too, Yeah,
I mean it's more concerned that last season. Yeah, no, that
which again I mean it's less slightly less bad, but still bad. I
guess like as I'm looking through some of the the underlying numbers, what's what's
kind of interesting is like offensively, the Calves and the Magic have like a
lot in common, which is which is not great. It's not where you
want to be necessarily because we just talked about some of the fundamental flaws.
Like just for example, you know, Orlando is seventeenth in effective footbal percentage,
of the Caves are sixteenth. Orlando's first in location based affect footbal percentage,
the Caves are third. So like, the process is good because you're
getting to the rim aton, you're not taking a lot of mid rangers,
you know, all the all the stuff you want. But again, the
thing that sticks out is like, yeah, Orlando doesn't shoot threes because they
don't have three point shooters. Cleveland has almost always two and often three in
that first unit with Strus alongside Garland and Mitchell, three guys that, like
defenses absolutely should honor and like you said, should absolutely be getting up like
eight ten per game, just everybody should, especially if you got two guys
in the front court in Alan and Mobley that aren't going to shoot. I'm
less. I just can't get that concern because I believe in the talent of
at least their three you know, I guess perimeter shot takers and creators in
that first unit. But like you know, it's not like what was what
were they last year on offense? Like they weren't like this is still they
were there were seventh. Yeah, they were number seven offense last year.
I guess a couple things. They're turning it over a little more this year,
Like that shaves off a touch, you know, of your offensive rating.
They're getting slightly fewer offensive rebounds. They're free throw a tenth rate dropping
despite getting to the rim more. Yep, that's interesting. I mean I
suppose like if you improve the turnovers, you get a couple more offensive boards
and you get to the line a little more. Maybe we're talking about a
team that's like fourteenth in offense instead of twenty first, which they are right
now, and like even that would be kind of disappointing. So, yeah,
I don't I don't get quite what's up there. I wonder if just
like I don't know from a from a like a philosophy perspective, like offensively,
they should just be prioritizing let's get up tons of threes and just see
what happens. Because like again, although like, why aren't they better on
the offensive boards with Allen and Mobley banging around in there? If you have
the floor space then those two guys going for you know, fifty to fifty
balls on the glass, you would think you would get a lot more second
chance points than this team does. Yeah, that's a good, that's a
good. What's up? And I don't have a great answer other than to
say I I just think I believe in the talent there and they're gonna be
fine. But like you're just I'm taking it on faith because the numbers are
not good right now. There's I'm just wondering, is it because they're not
even though I think Evan Mobley is better equipped on offense to deal with some
of the things defenses are throwing at him. Is it just because they don't
have. These are not the most physical bigs in the world, and you're
gonna have when you're looking at the other players on the court. You know
how, Let's look at it this way. Of the cows is five most
important players relative to their position, size, whatever you want to say it.
How many of them are above average rebounders? Oh? Man, I
get it maybe, and I sort of feel like it's by necessity like this
this season it's probably Mitchell and Struce, I mean, as above average rebounders.
Now, I got to like these guys. That's where they you would
say, is in Actually we could actually play a stat game with this.
That would be in the seventieth percentile of just rebounding. All right, I
have it here, I've got I've got there. Like this is defensive rebounding
rates for so so who's in the How many of those five guys are in
the seventieth percentile of defensive rebounding for their positions? Strewce seventy fourth percentile,
Mitchell seventy eighth. And that is all she wrote. Jared Allen is in
the thirty first percentile at his position for one rate. Shout out to me
for getting that right. Without a good what about offensive rebounding is it?
Is it the same too our above average? That'd be real. So Struce
is bad there. He's thirty eighth percentile. Mobley is sixtieth percentile, which
is very surprising. Allen is seventy fifth percentile. So I guess you'd say
Mobley and Allen are doing their part on the offensive boards, Like I mean,
they're not getting killed there, but nobody else is. It's really got
the defensive reboundings. Patsy, Yeah, no, I I default too.
We just need to see it a little bit longer when they're together. But
I am I'm just and I Cavs fans hate this, so I feel bad
talking about it. They probably already tuned out of this since this feels doom
and gloomy. I said they were gonna finish second in the East this year
or third, whatever it was, and they still might do it. But
the more I watch it and the more I like the stuff, and yet
not enough good things are happening. I'm like, I don't know if this
big man thing is the is the way to go? At least maybe in
the regular season you figure it out. But I keep thinking back to the
playoffs, I'm like, I don't know, Well, in a lot of
ways, nothing has changed, because this team ceiling depends entirely on Evan Mobley
becoming the best player on the team, and like, as of right now,
like the idea that he's better than Donovan Mitchell or close to it just
is kind of ridiculous. Like he's not so as good a defender as he
is. He's just not that guy. And so like if he were,
like, we're probably at least a couple years away from Evan Mobley colon three
point shooter, if that's ever gonna happen. But if he were, like
I think you would that there's how your offense gets unstuck, if it's if
it's him spacing the floor or or becoming without Allen in the way, Like
that's there's a couple of ways you get there. But I think still the
story is very much the same, where it's just like this team goes as
far as MOBILEI can take it. I think, you know, on like
a five year time horizon. And I also, I mean like that's also
you may be inadvertent, not inadvertently, but you kind of touched upon one
of the concerns where it's Cavs fans don't think that Evan Mobley is this center
long term, and I do kind of agree when you look at his build.
But if he's not going to be your center, and the Cavs have
won the minutes he's played without Jared Allen this year very slightly, the offense,
surprise surprise, hasn't been great, then you need a very specific five
with him, and that again, that's that's an obstacle to building out your
team. Probably enough on the Cavs though, So before we get into the
guess a player stat padding, I'll throw it at this as a way to
talk about maybe two teams are a macro topic. Are we officially seeing a
changing of the guard in I'll focus on the West because we already did the
Orlando Magic. Are the Minnesota Timbers just the best team in the Western Conference?
Are the Oklahoma City Thunder? Is the expectation just that they are one
of the four three or four best teams in the Western Conference? Is that?
Just? Is this where we're at? Because I think a lot of
people are just talking up all the Warriors will come on, the Clippers will
come on, the Lakers will continue to come on. And I'm just like,
yeah, like, you know, maybe some of those teams, I
mean, the Clippers already made their moves. I look at and who of
those two teams are you more this season? Long term? I think we
all know who we believe in more. But yeah, like, what is
the bigger threat? It feels like to me, I will say, based
off what Minnesota is able to do defensively, there are still things I would
like to see from them for their their offense to open up. They're they're
a team that yeah, they're their fifth and three point percentage right now.
I would like to see them take more threes. They are twenty fifth in
non corner three point attempt rate and they're still in the bottom ten of three
point attempt to rate overall. They also just and this is a function of
the lineups they play, You just I don't know they can get around it.
They don't get to the rim a ton when you're looking at the frequency,
and that's a marginal concern when you look at how basically everyone is defending.
That's Karl Anthony Towns included at this point there, I would say,
what are their their top seven players this year? Have no top eight players
have all been decidedly above average defenders. You look at you can find possessions
where Rudy Gobert is covering like eight different things. He's just moving so much
better. Anthony Edwards is so much more locked in nas Red. I think
he's there's so many good candidates right now. I think he's my sixth Man
of the Year right now. I don't know if that's too We're talking about
the wolves, so it must be NOAs Reed. I don't know if that's
sort of like that's at play right now, But you go and you dig
into their big man common nations. Almost no matter who they're rolling out right
now, they're killing it. There's only like one combination that's not great.
I'm just I'm watching them, and I'm watching what the thunder are doing in
the Gudea performance lately. I don't know how much of it has to do
with what's going on off the court, but he's been up and down all
year since before the allegations even sort of resurface. He was down for a
good part of that stretch. But I'm looking at these two teams and I'm
just like, I feel like we're watching a changing tide. So I think.
I mean, obviously Denver they're going, I mean they're not going.
Sorry, But to your point, like, yeah, and I think I
think Minnesota right now, I would view Minnesota as like they're just the second
best team in the conference, just like with no qualifiers, and the record
says it. I mean, the record says they're better than that. But
you know, we're gonna just we're just gonna grant Denver the top spot there
and then like after that, like you're not gonna take Phoenix with their injury
concerns and like a bunch of minimum guys behind Katie and Booker. You're not
gonna take the Warriors that are terrible now and you're never gonna win another game
in the existence of the franchise. The Clipper not so Yeah. The thing
with Minnesota, you mentioned Gobert, like he is, who is the better
defensive Player of the Year pick right now today than Gobert, Like, I
don't think there is one, because this defense is really good and we got
got he's got the statistical case and just anecdotally, he made Chet Holmgren in
that game against the Thunder just not shoot the ball several times because he was
quick enough it was not last year and mobile enough to get out and at
least dissuade him from taking a three. I think Homegren should just shoot more
threes. He was a little hesitant, and generally I think just should just
pretend as if when the ball comes to him, he should just shoot it
if he's open, because he's gonna pull the center out like much more effectively
if he does that. But he sort of talked Holmgren out of shooting a
bunch of threes. Thenumber of shots that thunder like penetrators just did not take
because Gobert was around. It was like vintage Jazz Gobert, so like that's
a game, but we've got a you know, a full what do we
seventeen games? The Wolves have the best defense in the league. Gobert is
their best defensive player, but they also like don't play bad ones, like
you said, so like I guess the question would be what does Minnesota not
have that you would like to have on a team you view as a threat
to win the conference, win a bunch of playoff series? Like who what
is it that they're missing? Because I struggle to come up with like a
clear uh deficiency. I think a motion shooter, And then I do think
this is an overall team weakness, like they've turned the ball over a lot.
They do turn it over, but don't you. I still trust Mike
Conley as like just the ultimate game manager point guard that actually knows how to
play with Gobert, Like, yeah, the turnovers are up. That that's
the thing that jumps out in their four factors. They're twenty sixth in turnover
percentage, Like how much how much better are they if they just take care
of the ball, Like Edwards gets a little wild, Gobert is just gonna
bobble passes sometimes. That's part of it, I do. I mean,
I think we say they need a motion shooter, but it's hey, Karl
Anthony Towns, Jack Moore threes. I like what I've seen, Like there's
variant of what he's able to do of the off the dribble, but there
just feels like, oh, there's he goes through these stretches where oh,
he did take a bunch of threes. He's four or five one night,
but then he's going one of three the next night, and even just it
feels like his volume is just dropping precipitously. And I look he's shooting a
fairly good clip on Tuesday, he's hitting almost forty percent of the threes he's
taking. But five point three three point attempts for thirty six minutes is just
not enough from him. And if that's gonna be what you do, I
think what also was the problem is you put the ball in Mike Conley's hands
more. You kind of negate, even though he can be a little bit
all over the place, you negate one of your best off ball shooting threats
by having him on the ball, because defense is like Anthony Edwards feels like
that quintessential Oh. I'm convinced he would shoot thirty eight percent on pull up
triples before he would shoot thirty eight percent on catching shoot trip. I think
he's turned into quite a good shooter. But if you're gonna put Mike Conley
on the ball, you know he's shooting forty four percent from three this year,
So you're removing one of your best off ball threats. I think that's
the the turnovers you could probably live with, just because I don't like Anthony
Edwards is chaos in the best way possible. And so if that's going to
be someone where those offensive moments aren't great, or if you start to mix
a match with some of the Ben's players and you're letting a bunch of guys
explore their their floor game here Jaden McDaniels nas reed Conthy Towns, I think
it's worth it, Nikhil Alexander Walker, But I just feel like it's they
need to bump up their three point volume in the half court somehow, and
that could happen with Towns theoretically. Otherwise it's let's just throw out the name,
like, hey, they need like their Isaiah Joe or they're Matt Ryan.
That's that thing because as you're as as I was asking, like what
does this team not have? It's not like a player deficiency necessarily, but
like, so Conley's the best passer on the team, I think we would
agree, Like I guess maybe Kyle Anderson you'd say is a good passor he
definitely would say Kyle Anderson's good. Yes, is anybody else a good passer?
Like I don't that's good. It's like but he's so wide, like
he gets a little wild though, and like he gets tunnel visiony. Yeah,
he like he is he a good passer? Is he like adequate that
maybe that all I'm saying is like, maybe that's part of the reason some
of the like why isn't Towns getting a bunch of extra threes that we would
like him to get. It's like maybe the guys just aren't quite finding him,
and like it's definitely hard to play with Gobert, like because he just
like the ball just you know, clangs off his hands pretty often. So
like, you know, McDaniel's is not someone i'd say is a great passer.
H Reed is not really asked to do that. He doesn't stand out
as a great pastor. Alexander Walker is not a pass like a lot of
the guys they play are just not like making the the play before the play
or the pass that leads to the past. This is all just anecdotal,
Like they're assist a turnover is twenty six in the league. So there is
some statistical underpinnings for this, Like half baked point I'm trying to make once
there's a sis percentage nineteenth, so you know, you can have a great
offense without having a highest six percentage. Just for for reference, the Spurs
have the highest assist rate in the league. So I'm just harping on this
and they're twelfth in point scored per possession. There's like their offense is good.
I'm just saying like if we're if we're looking for issue trouble spotting,
like maybe they could use I mean there's seven, they're seventeenth and first chance
offensive rating in the half court and they're not really more efficient. I mean
they're more efficient, but they're not. They don't rank super high when it
comes to put backs or the number of plays that they're generally like, they're
not a team that's getting a bunch of second chance opportunities. And so I
want to to what to do the Thunder need, Like there I do the
timberlves are more complete when you look at their top eight, but the Thunder
feel like they have more buttons to push. I think they need more s
like they just you know, if Holmegren, you can play Homegren and you
can play Arkansas Jalen Williams, who is like just not a you know,
he takes a bunch of charges, but he's not big enough to defensive,
rebound, protect the rim, you know, set even as screen setters,
Like I think maybe that's SG doesn't need screens. But like that's something I
think they need. The other thing, I was noticing this against the Wolves
the other night, you know, they had some lineups out there where it
was you know, they do a lot of second unit stuff where Santa Clara
Jalen Williams is the point guard and they had him surrounded with other Jalen Williams
giddy I think Kenrich Williams and like Dort and so it's like where like where
is the shooting in this line? So they can put some lineups out there
that just really can't space, which you know, they drive and kick and
drive and kick again and there you know, they get to the rim and
they get to the foul line, and that they make it work that way.
But I think that's another deficiency where some of the lineups they trot out
there are both are both small and like not good spacers. So maybe I
don't know, let's let's just clone Isaiah Joe since he's all we're talking about
this whole pod. But I think those are a couple of things that I
would I would point out that the Thunder maybe could use some help with.
Yeah, and look they're another one. They're three point of tenth riches isn't
high enough. They have the second best half court offense in the league right
now, but they don't spend a ton of time in the half court like
so much of their stuff is. If it's not transition, it's almost semi
transition of how they're attacking it before defenses are set. But they're just they're
another revelation. And I will say, to wrap it up, both Minnesota.
Neither Minnesota nor Oklahoma City feels like a fluke at all. And if
you had to pick one, I probably would just veer towards Oklahoma City,
if only because I could still see them kind of experimenting their way out of
it, and they're not even they're not doing that because they are. It's
not I could say, Oh, they're playing Case and Wallace, so they
are experimenting right now. Kase Wallace is good, so it's not. They're
not playing Usman Jang a ton. He spent a ton of time in the
G League. He played three game, I say a ton of time,
but he was racking up DMPs with the Big club. Played a little bit
against the Timberwolves the other night. So I think they're cognizant of what we
need to like sort of play our best players. I guess where I go
with it. And I don't mean to say let's focus strictly on the basketball.
I do think the Josh Giddy performance has created certain conumdrums with your best
lineups, especially when you're as small as you are, because if you're gonna
be that undersized, like the floor in the half court needs to be open
enough. And it feels like it doesn't matter when you have Jay Dubb and
Jake Gilich Alexander who can just get through wherever. But when it feels like
Josh Giddy can't operate without one or both of them on the court, so
that he's not even close to a primary defensive focus when he's on the ball.
But how much they sag off him, whether he's on or off the
ball anyway, it makes me wonder just on I haven't went to the numbers
for this, and I will after I ask the question, is it,
Hey, maybe is Cason Wallace like the best fifth best player options that just
let's throw Isaiah Joe with the home groun J Jubb Sga Dort combination and that
you're you're Because if we're all in agreement, that okay, Shay needs to
be on the court. Jay Dubb needs to be on the court. Chet
Holmgrin needs to be on the court. I would still say, when you're
talking about high leverage moments, I would still think Loue Dort falls into that
category of needs to be on the court and the thunder of winning the minutes
with those four on the court plus eight point seven. When Giddy's there,
it's plus six point two. When you throw in Isaiah Joe, do you
know, it's plus twenty one point eight. Of course they're not ready.
When you throw in Caseon Wallace, it's plus forty four plus forty three point
three. Now, the sample sizes on those are unbelievably small. But that's
just kind of where I'm thinking, And that's not so long as Giddy is
an active member of the team. I don't see them pulling back his role
because they need the information on well, what can he be? What can
we do? But that's just an obstacle where I feel like the Wolves don't
necessarily have that, even if they are a team that has less optionality on
their roster. Yeah, I just think, you know, if Giddy is
not gonna be a threatening catch and shoot guy, And if he's not gonna
be a half decent defensive player, then I'm not really sure, like how
much value he's adding to a team that clearly, you know, has at
least at least one probably two if you're counting Jalen Williams. And and god
knows what Chet Holmergan is going to be like as an on ball guy,
because already he's got more skills than someone his size should have as like a
individual attacker, you know, someone you can get the ball to on the
move and he can get to the hoop. Like, so you're you're looking
at a scenario where Giddy's maybe like the fourth, you know, the fourth
best option to be on the ball, Like maybe not this year, but
like you definitely want SGA to have it. I think Jalen Williams is has
value as an off ball guy, so like, yeah, I guess you'd
give it to Giddy over him, but like Williams is a much more threatening
driver, is just a more multi skilled offensive player. And then whatever Chet
be Like, so you know, Getty's still so young, but like you
know, the thunder are gonna have to make a decision fairly soon. I'm
like, well, is he part of the core or not. It kind
of like, I don't know, he'd have to get a lot better at
a couple things for me to think he made sense as like, we're gonna
pay this guy like a starting member of the Corps on his next deal because
the stuff that he does, while valuable, just like it doesn't it's it's
not as valuable to this team, in particular because they have guys that need
the ball and should have it and should be the guys you know, passing
teammates open in addition to scoring, and Getty's just is a weird fit.
I mean, he's kind of a weird fit anywhere, but he's especially a
weird fit on a team that has sga uh and just you know, has
has defenders, has you know, needs shooters, right, we just talked
about they need shooters, they need to shoot more threes. Getty's not gonna
help you do that. So it's just a weird fit. I do think
I wonder if it comes down to everyone's gonna frame it as it I think
a j dub or Josh Gidty conversation. I really just wonder long term,
is it a Lou Dort or Josh conversation when you're looking at just the complimentary
players and how they're gonna play off your two or three best players who are
I mean the three best players in the Thunder right now are Chet, J
Dubb and Jake Gibs, Alexander and Lou Dort because of what he does defensively
and also effect to be shooting forty three percent from me this season, is
the better complimentary player. And then I still just come back to and they
have not walked back from this. They just trust J Dubb to run the
non SGA units more than Giddy, And to me, that's great for Ja
Dubb as not great for the Giddy fit. And if I flip flopped on
Giddy, I wasn't high on him. He impressed me last season. I
recognize that he's still young and has the chance to get better. But it's
just an interesting conundrum to be in. And by the way, it gets
harder if you decide to get beef here, because if you want to play
Chet next to another big at any point, that's just gonna make unless that
big is Miles Turner or Brook Lopez, like, that's gonna get even harder
to sandwich in the Giddy minutes. Yeah, you're you're really Like I'm sure
there's a turn of phrase that encapsulates what I'm trying to say better than I'm
going to by speaking it out. But like if you just, if you
don't capitalize on Chet's ability to space and add another like you're just you're taking
away from one of your own biggest strengths if you have you know, if
Giddy is a part of like that unit and he still can't shoot, like
he's just he's a he's an interesting player. But I'm I mean the fat
Like I realized that I can't speak unbiasedly in an unbiased way on this topic.
Like there's no Jaylen Williams versus Josh Giddy question, Like the question has
been resolved right, Like there's no one that thinks Giddy is more important long
term to the team than Williams. Like if there are, I'd love to
hear the arguments, but like I I don't see it. I think the
fact that the thunder give like you said, give Williams the ball when SGA
is not on the floor, and they don't do that for Giddy, It's
like, well, we've the issue is settled, and j Dubb is still
played more minutes without both and Giddy. Think Giddy has played without both Shay
and j Dubb. And I think the bigger thing is you even can the
minutes, So forget about Jay Dubb. Maybe he's on the court for these
maybe he's not, But in the non Sha minutes, there's a pathway to
Oh, if Ja Dubb has the ball, Chet doesn't necessarily need to be
on the floor. If Giddy has the ball or Giddy is just on the
floor, Chet absolutely needs to be on the floor, right, Yeah,
that's true. Yeah, you have to make a bunch of concessions, like
lineup wise for Giddy if he's going to play a major role. So yeah,
I don't know those so yeah, OK. But to circle back,
I just think that means, Okay, see has more questions than the Wolves
do, at least short term. Like long term, I think we both
take a thunder. We believe in their you know, we want that long
term stock. But if you're like, who's gonna win the most playoff series
this year? I think I probably, I know, I definitely would pick
Minnesota. I just they have more veterans. The theory of the team makes
sense. I think they're both great, but I think the shorter term and
is very much operating on a shorter term timescale like the Wolves are are I
think pretty significantly in my mind ahead of the thunder, for like how far
they're going to advance this year. We're gonna do some guestsa players here before
we get before we vacate the podcast. You want me to start or do
you want to start? How do you want to do this? Let's see
you go ahead. I got to pull up at least one, and I
can do that while you're talking. Okay, So rubik Scal sent me a
bunch. I want to make sure that I have all of them here.
Okay, So all right, clue number one and shout out again to rubiks
Scal for sending these over. My entire NBA career comprised of a total of
two point five minutes of playing time. In one preseason game, I committed
one shooting foul and I made the only shot I ever attempted, a twenty
foot baseline jumper. My entire NBA career was a pre two minutes in a
preseason game. Correct, you're not gonna believe I don't have a guess yet.
Clue number two. My NBA career happened because the studio wanted footage of
me playing in the NBA for my upcoming show. I signed a two day
contract with the Sixers so I could play in this preseason game, and I
retired immediately after. Oh, I was gonna say Mark Curry, but that's
not right. That's not a Sixers thing. Clu three. I was drafted
fourth overall in nineteen seventy two, and I had six eight hundred and thirty
one receiving yards on four hundred and ninety five career receptions. Wait, what
what sport are we talking about? So he was drafted fourth overall in nineteen
seventy two. Yes, okay, I'm clue number four. I'm a four
time Pro bowler from nineteen seventy eight to nineteen eighty one, and I was
part of two of the greatest football moments of the decade, the Miracle at
the met where I caught a forty six yard hail Mary pass one handed on
the last play of the game in nineteen eighty and the ninety eight yard play
from scrimmage in nineteen seventy two, a record for the longest play that didn't
score a touchdown. I you know, my NFL knowledge is solid, but
I'm not so hot on the seventies. You're gonna get You're gonna get it
after this, I hope. So fifth and final clue I host. I
host the show for sixteen years, first on NBC, then on ABC.
In twenty thirteen, the show was resurrected with Grant Hill and Kristin Medlow.
This is a mohot correct. I did not know that he got a A.
I don't know if you could even call it a cup of coffee in
the NBA. But okay, Ruby Scale remains undefeated, just with the knowledge
of everything encyclopedic. Okay, So I have one from Rubik scal Can.
I interject with it. It's very specifically for you. So I'm gonna have
to think back to articles I wrote and like, you know what, I
feel like that's a misleading comment. But that was the genesis of this,
all right. So that is someone I have not thought about for at least
eighteen weeks. Were actually talked about him in discord the other day, which
is why I yelled at A. I like the tall point guards, you
know, I think I think that's that's a player type I'm into. Okay,
So this is a guess the player again from Rubik scale shout out.
But it's semi colon. What did I just say? So you're gonna have
to guess this player based on their quotes only Holy shit? All right,
let's do this, all right. Clue one about his new plant based diet
quote, steak doesn't come from anything natural. God damn it. Okay,
can I read the rest of the questions, the rest of them? Still,
that's correct? Good job by you? Did you? Did you?
I don't remember that that quote. I vaguely remember it. He's one of
the people that want was vegan and wanted you to to know it. Okay,
after a nine I just these are these are fun. So I'm gonna
go through nothing against vegans. By the way, each their own after a
nine point performance in a playoff game. Quote, I'm an actual genius when
it comes to this game. It's great. Had a Thanksgiving charity meal in
twenty seventeen, when asked about having a platform as an elite basketball player.
Quote, I see you. I see everyone more than just your physical presence.
I see your energy. I feel it, I know it. Okay,
cool. You could you can training. I'm gonna I'm gonna change change
it up a little bit. Uh. Following a loss to the Knicks,
when a reporter wished him happy Thanksgiving, what did Kyrie say to celebrate Thanksgiving
or some shit like? Basically he said, fuck Thanksgiving? Yeah? I
respect that quote? Oh man? Uh? Do you want a couple more
these? I just like so I have another one from Rubik's gal. Okay,
no, I got a couple more Kyrie quotes. Let me see REQUI
if any of them top the Umm, that's okay, okay, just just
another Like, Kyrie is the type of person that would would tell you over
and over how he like doesn't own a TV, you know, something like
that, or like I'm not on social I mean, I like to say
I'm not on social media, so I can't complain. When asked what he
felt about playing in the upcoming Christmas game, quote, I don't really necessarily
think of Christmas as a holiday, so I'm just happy I get to be
with my family, so looking forward to opening presents in that whole thing.
But I don't think Christmas is a holiday. I just want to open presents
with my family, like on a morning, like under a tree hypothetically.
Oh that dude, man, all right, that's it. So I'm gonna
do it like this. I'm just gonna keep reading through the clues, and
you can interject when you have a guest. If you need clarification, just
interject, Okay. Clue number one. When someone came up during the two
thousand and six draft and told I was next to be told me I was
next to be picked, I thought he made a mistake. And then they
told me that I was being picked thirteenth and being traded to the Bulls,
and I was sure somebody was going to get fired for mistaking me for someone
else. Thirteenth traded to the Bulls in six. Clue two. When I
entered the league, I was a French League All Star, and I had
a massive wingspan, a love for playing defense, and very quick hands.
I'll pause anyway, because that's how it has to work. French League All
Star. Okay, go ahead. Clue three. Well, I didn't crack
the Bulls roster because the head coach who drafted me got fired in my sophomore
season. I told you someone's gonna get fired. I really came into my
own at my next stop with the OKC Thunder. Uh Dabo Cephalosha correct got
it on clue three, and there were seven clues you would have gotten on
is any Swedish or something? I didn't think it was well inclue number four
was I am fluent in multiple languages, which is partly because I grew up
in Switzerland. I'm the first Swiss player to be featured in the NBA.
How can I an unrelated stat patting question? How stupid am I that?
All my life? I have confused Sweden and Switzerland they're not near each other.
But like, I just did it right now, and I'm sorry,
sorry, I'm just gonna be open about it. Typical American just so sheltered
when it comes to geography. Yeah, it's embarrassing. Uh she So.
Rubisk also had said when with the answer, did you know that in cephalosious
time with Okac there was a total of one game that he did not start
and that was the first game after the trade from the Bulls. Six seasons,
three hundred and sixty eight appearances, three hundred and sixty seven starts for
the Thunder. That's pretty wild that guy could guard man. That was like
he belongs on the modern Orlando Magic. He could really guard ones and twos
and some threes, but he couldn't shoot at all. Random trivia question for
Grant from Ruby scal Boy. This is the first season in a decade or
so that Steph Curry's plus minus stats are in the red. Ignore the tanky
or when he broke his hand. We've talked about that on this podcast.
Can you name every Warrior minimum ten games played who has a better plus minus
than Steph Curry this season? Oh uh, we did talk about some of
this. Gosh, these have probably changed. Well, Chris Paul, I'll
bring up I'll bring up the current ones, just to hold you accountable to
that. I'm not gonna look so this is this year guys that have a
better on off than Steph. Yes, and I'll do well. I'll do
it by We'll do it by total, so rather than like per game or
whatever. Okay, Chris Paul, correct, that is one of I'll tell
you how many there are? Oh my god, five or six? When
I looked a few weeks ago or days ago, you know, it's it
might have doubled everyone. Can I say everyone on the team eleven players have
a better plus minus than Stephan the Warriors right now. So you're asking me
to name the entire Warriors roster basically what I think it will miss. I
think there's there's a method to this that would make you get it. I'm
curious if you if you follow it. So you're one of one, Chris
Paul and there's eleven. There's eleven, all right? Uh, Brandon Pajemski,
that's one move to uh trace Jackson Davis three of three and you just
named the top three players in plus minus all the Warriors. Uh, let's
see. I'd like to get him in order if I could, that would
be impressive. Well, you're already out of orders, so don't worry about
one. Two. Dario Sarich that's four four four and he's fourth. Moses
Moody you're five of five, he's sixth. Uh hm, he's seventh.
Actually sorry, Jonathan Kaminga, you're six of six and he is sixth.
GP two seven of seven and he is fifth. So you have the top
seven guys and plus minus. Uh. I mean like there's only so Really
the question should be who who is in the naked who's worse than him?
And I'm gonna say Wiggins is worse. Okay, that's congratulations to you.
That's not this game. A man. Then I'm just naming warriors. I
can just keep firing them off. I think I can name. I should
be able to name the whole roster. You're not going to. I'm not
going to just because of I mean, try it. Go ahead, Lester
kenyone is okay? Eight of eight? Gie Santos nine of nine? What
do you want to do here? Jerome Robinson ten of ten? One more?
Ooh, so which starter is it? I've already like lost the threat
of who I so we got leftover? We have? These are not my
guesses. Clay Wiggins, Draymond Looney? Am I forgetting somebody? Corey Joseph?
Did I say Corey Joseph? You did? Okay, I'll just say
I'll say Draymond. No, it's Jerome Robinson. I said that even minutes
you did? Yeah? Oh, then you didn't say Corey Joseph. Okay,
you got Joseph, you got it. You're basically like the system was.
Who hasn't spent aside from Paul, a lot of time in the starting
five? Yeah? God, what an upside down? Yere horrible. I
don't think I was gonna get Gee Santos and Lester Kan did you once you
got those who I was like, Oh, it's it's over. He's gonna
he's gonna get it. I don't know much. I don't know the difference
between Switzerland and Sweden, but I know the Warriors two way players and that
they've been better than Steph on off. Did you have any guess of players
for me left? Because I have a couple left for you. I don't
haven't, no, no, I don't. All right, So question for
Grant? Why do you hate Madonna? Why do I hate Madonna? Do
I hate Madonna? Madonna's overrated? I guess I don't know. My ears
are burning again? Is there like an actual answer I'm supposed to arrive at?
Or is this just an open How long? So let me just think
of something else? Really okay? Which movie did a better job of exploring
the emotional depth of the subject matter? Lion King or Coco? Oh?
Well, those are the top two. I think they were in the finals
of a Disney bracket. Which which emotion? What are you trying to get
me to? This movie was did a better job of encapsulating the emotional depth
of the subject matter. Of the subject matter, I feel like you're speaking
to me in a code that I don't understand. Okay, why did Disney
during The Lion King not do a better job of addressing how Mufasso was a
polygamist? Why did it not do a better job? I don't know.
This is so confusing. Okay, I'm gonna tell you why this is dumb.
Yeah, here, here's why that's dumb. Yeah, I'm supposed to
say I listened to an episode dumb. Yeah. Oh, I'm so sorry
you had to do that. I enjoyed it. Uh, And I've never
seen Coco, but now I want to see Coco. You were you were
shipping all over Madonna though, and I was like you, uh yes.
I mean you should know from this part that I don't remember most of what
I say, but I shooting on Madonna is definitely something I would have done.
I can't remember why. You were just like, she feels overrated was
basically your day? So I did remember why? So I have two actual
questions from I just want to see if you could catch on to so.
Not until I said the name of it, did you realize Well no,
I mean, I understand this is so off base that I that I I
figured that was what we were talking about, but I didn't know what the
what the expected answer was supposed to be. Well, I have two questions
for you, actually, Okay. One comes from this is a guess A
player from Rome eighty one to eighty Okay. Clue number one. I was
drafted in the lottery in the two thousand and two draft after my junior year
in college. I don't think you're going to get it off that. Two.
I was drafted by a Western Conference team, where I remained for my
first five seasons before being traded to the Eastern Conference. From then on,
I only played for teams in the Eastern Conference. Okay, I'm not going
to help me there. Clue three. I was a solid defender, but
I was best known for my three point shooting, shooting over thirty percent on
decent volume for seven straight seasons in the second half of my career shooting what
percent, thirty eight percent and went from west to East. Yeah. O
two is this Mike Dunlevy, Mike Dunleavy junior. Correct, got it?
He gave eight clues and you got it in three. That's good shit.
You would have gotten it I think by I am the son of a player
slash coach slash GM. That is so weird that that was the player in
a guess a player, and I have Mike Dunlevy in a stat padding question
for you. That's crazy. Okay, final one from be Rich Underscore at
X number one where you start. Let me just try to get into the
mind of a psychopath. Okay, now, I'm ready, Go ahead,
coul One. I started my professional career in Italy in two thousand and one
at age seventeen, Drafted in the late first round in two thousand and four,
I went on to set that franchise is single season record for best three
point field goal percentage of forty three point seven percent in the seven to eight
season Italy is this andres NOCCIONI No, I like that guess though, clue
too. I was arguably instrumental to helping that franchise win two titles in six
seasons before being traded to the Nets during the twenty ten twenty eleven season.
Okay, hold on, I gain, you gotta read me the first two
again because I'm annoyed that I don't have this yet, So reread the two
clues. I just broad. He was played in Italy as a seventeen year
old. Professionally, I started my professional career in Italy in twenty and one,
and age seventeen, I was drafted late in the first round in two
thousand and four. I went on to set the franchise that drafted me's single
season record for best three point field goal percentage forty three point seven during the
seven to eight season. That was Clue number one. Okay, thank you.
I was arguably instrumental to helping that franchise win two titles in six seasons,
before being traded to the Nets during the two ten twenty eleven season.
God this, I mean two titles in six seasons to just give it dead
away in like those Okay, go ahead. In July twenty eleven, this
is Clue three. I moved back to Europe, playing two seasons in Turkey.
I then signed on a ten day with the Clippers in twenty fourteen.
After unsurprisingly failing to make an impact, I retreated back to Europe, bouncing
around in Italy, Spain, and Turkey over the course of one season.
I then made my triumphant return to the NBA, joining the Knicks for the
twenty fifteen, twenty sixteen, and twenty sixteen twenty seventeen seasons where I started
twenty nine games and had an atrocious net rating. Is this Pablo Prigioni,
No shame on you, name on me. He's Italian. He was on
the Knicks around that time. Clue four. Never across ten seasons in the
NBA did I average even ten points per game for a season. I never
averaged four rebounds nor three assists. My career affective field goal percentage was forty
eight point seven. And this guy set a franchise record for three point percentage
in seven eight Oh my god, and won two titles with that team.
I should just know it from the titles like who the hell was winning titles
in the middle. I think you'll get it on this fifth and final clue
and the final one. I was better known for wearing an ugly hair band,
as well as dating and getting engaged to Maria Sharapova in twenty eleven.
Well, there's no evidence of this. I was likely even cause of her
multiple anti doping violations. This is Marco Yarrich, right, This is absolutely
not Marco Yarich. Wait, Marco Yarich, who did Oh, he's a
he's got another he's got a supermodel girlfriend, Maria Sharapova. She's not a
supermodel. That's a tennis player Italian. I don't think I know who this
is. Can you tell me the team he won the titles with? Or
is that too easy? I think it'll be too easy, But I will
tell you rather than do Oh, I should give you clues. Let me
get he I all, so I'm talking as the player. Okay. I
always looked like I purposely had two days stubble on my face. Oh I
know, God, damn it, this is Sasha Vuyashitch. Nice job,
You're welcome. It was my clue that did it right? Well, I
should have got there. I really should have got there. Yeah, the
last clue was a dad giveaway. I thought the thing, Yeah, I
picked the wrong Like, how did he pull that? I picked the wrong
guy for that? Okay, what's the name of Marco Yarich's maybe wife?
Is it? It's like, uh, some this is a supermodel for sure.
It's not like it might be like Adriana Lima or like something like that.
I don't know. Good thing we don't have the internet. Well,
I have some stat padding for you. All right, we'll hit me,
hit me with the stat padding stuff some of that. By the way,
Adriana Lima is Marco Yarich's wife. That is correct. There are still Nope,
they only made it five years ended in twenty sixteen. I don't believe
in love any rip to that relationship. All right, quick fire? Dan
who had more and ones in twenty two to twenty three? This is last
year? Joel Embiid or Nicola Jokic Nicole Okch That is incorrect. Joel Embiid
had eleven more. John Morant or Diaron Fox, Diaron Fox incorrect? Ex
John Ran had it more and ones. Alprin Shangun last year or Benedict Matherin
last year? Ooh, I'm going to say Alprin Shangun m over three,
Matherin had ten more. Jimmy Butler or Julius Randall more and one's last night.
Randall correctly smoked him by twenty. Luka Dancic or Janis ooh, Yannis
Yannis by a lot had ninety eight to Lucas seventy four. Okay, so
we'll continue all this on the next pod that will go up on Monday.
Lots more stat padding stuff to get to do you want to take us out
of here in the meantime, happy to thank you everyone that made it through
this episode with us. I hope you're looking forward to the next one as
much as we are. More stat padding, all that good stuff. As
Dan mentioned at the top, and as you should know by now, we
shouldn't have to keep doing this, but you know, it's like a ritual
rate review. Subscribe wherever you get your podcast, leave us you know,
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thanks again. We close with the shout out to the one only Frank
Mila Kina and an apology to Jared out