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Hello everyone, and welcome to the latest

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episode of Hardwood Knox. This is
Adam from Will here with my fantastic co

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host Dan Favalle, and we're gonna
be talking some NBA rookies today. I

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think, as expected, this twenty
twenty draft class was a little bit devoid

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of star power at the top,
with a few exceptions, but the depth

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of talent has lived up to the
building where there are just so many low

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level starters high level role players that
it was actually tough to come up with

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the All rookie teams which was our
task today. So just like the NBA

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does, we're trying to pick out
five first team All Rookies and five second

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team All Rookies. Positions are not
relevant here since they are not relevant on

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the official ballot either. And it
was a tough process. Was it as

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tough for you as it was for
me? Dan? Yes? It was.

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It was incredibly difficult. I just
I don't even know like how to

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approach some of these second team names
because it felt like my honorable mentioned list.

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I had to really work hard to
not have it be double digits.

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Yeah. I was trying to narrow
down before we were recording, and we

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went through our teams with each other. But I had seven people that I

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couldn't even forget about honorable mentions,
but I couldn't like delineate between them on

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the second team. I just wanted
I couldn't figure out the math wouldn't work

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out. Five spots and seven players. I just couldn't make it work.

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I don't know why square peg round
hole. Yeah, do you want to

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start with and here's a quick question, do you think any of this has

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the potential to change before the season
ends. I'm reticent to always do awards.

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I want to wait like until the
season's over, but then no one

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cares about them at that point.
Really, and I'm wondering if this is

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one of those things that you could
see. We know who's going to win

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MVP, for instance, in the
one spot, so the only thing you

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debate there is two through five on
the actual ballots. Yeah, I mean,

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I think it definitely can change,
just because the threshold between so many

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of these players is so minimal that
like a hot streak from Aaron E.

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Smith, right, is coming on
really strong for the Boston Celtics towards the

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end of the season, another week
of ridiculously scorching shooting and positive contributions,

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and yeah, he might work his
way under the second team. I think

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the only thing that is a lock
here is three names on the first team,

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and even beyond that, there's a
lot of potential inclusions for the fourth

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and fifth spots on the first team, much less the five on the second

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team. It's tough, and because
the gaps between all these these natural tiers

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that should form are so minimal.
Yeah, I think there's absolutely potential for

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this to change fairly significantly. Why
don't you take us off with the three

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locks. Yeah, I mean it
has to be LaMelo Ball, Tyrese Haliburton,

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and Anthony Edwards, and not necessarily
in that order, but those are

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the three obvious Rookie of the Year
contenders. I think LaMelo Ball would have

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won the award kind of going away
if he hadn't had the fractured wrist that

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kept him out for a while,
even though he has managed to return before

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the end of the season, albeit
clutching at his wrist in a scary way

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sometimes. Now that he's back on
the court, Anthony Edwards has come on

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so strong after the All Star Break
and really even a little bit before the

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All Star break, where he's no
longer just putting up points because that's his

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role and he's not doing so efficiently. He's taking the right shots, he's

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showing better shot making skills, he's
showing more willingness to get his teammates involved,

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his defensive presence has improved. He's
done absolutely everything that you could want

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to assert himself as. Yeah,
this guy is one hundred percent, unquestionably

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a franchise cornerstone for the Minnesota Timberwolves. And then there's Tyrese Haliburton, who

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might not have the star power of
those other two names, but he's just

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been steadily productive without any holes in
his game, filling whatever role the Sacramento

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Kings ask of him from start to
finish, and steadiness is the name of

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the game there and it has paid
off. I don't think Haliburton is much

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of a threat to win Rookie of
the Year just because he hasn't gotten the

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same attention as those other two,
but he without question deserves to be in

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that top tier of unquestionable locks for
this first team spot. I couldn't even

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add anything there. The only thing
I might say, or I will say,

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I'm not convinced that in my Rookie
of the Year ballet, Haliburton's not

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going to be my runner up.
I still might place him above Anthony Edwards.

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Looking at end to end impact.
He was good this year and he's

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injured and out for the season,
which tolly sucks. He was good this

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year on both ends of the floor, which is incredibly tough to do as

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a respecially Kings team that doesn't play
defense. Correct. Sometimes they played defense,

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but very rarely, and at the
beginning of the season they were just

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getting torched because they were switching everything
just for no reason they would switch.

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Still, I do think people will
gravitate more towards Edwards because he's a flash

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year score and a higher volume score, which I think matters. But I

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also think that people undersell how much
flair there is to Halliburton's game. There's

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more craft there when he's on the
ball. But I don't have anything else

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to add with the with the other
three. I think it's funny our last

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two names on the first team really
differed originally, but I think we ended

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up having the same right, I
went back, I flipp plopped, we

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went back. Okay, yeah,
so my first inclusion there who well,

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I mean again, these positions within
the all rookie teams are not ranked,

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you know, they're all just first
teamers or second teamers are not on them.

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But for all intents and purposes,
I wanted to put this together in

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the order that I had them included. So my fourth name was Jayshawn Tate,

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who was undrafted in twenty eighteen,
played overseas, overcame a lot of

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hurdles to get to the point that
he was in the NBA. Would highly

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highly recommend reading mir and Fader's piece
on him for the ringer, it'll just

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add so much context to what he's
been through to get to this point.

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But he's been such a consistent energy
presence for a really bad Houston Rockets team

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that has undergone a lot of turmoil. I think it's kind of gravy that

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he's averaging eleven point two points per
game and shooting fifty point six percent from

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the field. He's not much of
a three point shooter, but twos though

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for him. Yeah, he's an
efficient finisher around the rim for sure,

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but the intensity that he brings on
the defensive end is contagious. It hasn't

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necessarily led to success on that end, but as an individual, he has

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looked the part of a perimeter stopper, of a wing defender, a guy

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who can fill a number of different
roles and show malleability on that end of

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the floor without ever letting that that
level of intensity waiver. He impacts passing

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lanes. He's a pesky point of
attack defenders. There are just so many

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positives to his game on that end
of the floor that all stem from this

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just indefatigable motor that he has.
That again, all the offensive contributions are

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just kind of gravy there, and
I think it's it doesn't typically happen where

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an undrafted rookie from years ago makes
an All Rookie team. But I think

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he's at least a lock for the
second team, and I really do think

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that he should be strongly considered for
one of those first team spots. I

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agree with everything you said. I
did not have him on my first team.

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I had him on my second team, and I think the reason why

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is I would like to see him
more variance from him on offensive, have

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just any sort of jumper. And
then I don't want to say his defense

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is overrated because he is. He
is feisty as hell. He is not

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hell yeah, he is not defending
consistently the best players on the other team,

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though. There is just you can
look at data and I think he's

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like fifth on the team. In
guarding the number one option. There is

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the noise of okay, well,
you saw John Wall there a lot because

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he plays point guard, but they
were more wanting to use Sterling Brown in

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those positions for some of the time. Also Daniel House Junior before he was

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injured, David Nawaba as well.
And I think that because he's a rookie.

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What he's doing defensively is incredible.
But I put so the person I

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put I think instead of him basically
is for Kundo Compozzo, and Kudo Compazo

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is a hell of a defender too. And first of all, I didn't

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know much about him coming in.
I think if you remember when we were

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talking about the Nuggets heading into the
regular season, I didn't understand the Composo

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signing because I thought they needed more
events that he was gonna bring. I

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didn't think his size was gonna hold
up even though everyone had said he's a

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high energy player there. And also
they had Monte Morris, the best backup

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point guard in the league probably and
now him a Composito were both those guys.

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But Vacuumpozzo has far and away succeeded
exceeded my expectations and want its defensively

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because there's there's ball pressure there.
He is so disruptive. We've seen even

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more from him lately, which I
think helps his case for the first team.

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Because Jamal Murray's injured, Monte Morris
has been injured as well, Will

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Barton has been injured too, and
so that they've really leaned a lot on

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him lately and he is up to
the task. I think he want more

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from him on offense, but he
has his three point percentage up to thirty

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six point three percent, very close
to the league average. H You know,

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you can't really look at him and
say, well, what is he

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gonna do if if he gets inside
the arc? He's not like this.

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He's finishing okay around the rim,
but you know he's not going to get

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there a ton. He can run
an offense, though he is an exceptional

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pa asser, and some of the
passes he throws and you just don't see

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it nothing. He's not throwing a
ton of passes, but you don't see

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it in his assist numbers. But
like the fact that this team has Nicolea

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Yokich and Fakuno Capozzo in the same
rotation, we just we probably haven't appreciated

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enough because they're both yo kitch more
so. But that's like the duo.

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Name a duo in the NBA that
can throw collectively more ridiculous passes and I

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just don't. And so I had
him there. It was because he exceeded

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my expectations pretty much everywhere as a
shooting started to normalize on offense, even

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kind of looking at the steadying hand
he's brought in Monte Morris's absence, but

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a lot of it was the defense
for me, and I think he quietly

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you don't expect this from him because
of how deep the Nuggets are overall,

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and they're trying to win. That's
the other thing. They're still a title

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contender. They're in that top five
Western Conference conversation. He is eleventh in

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all rookie minutes. That's for when
you play for a contender. That's not

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nothing to me. I struggled with
where to put him. I did have

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Composo on my second team. I
didn't really consider the idea of moving him

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up to the first team though,
just because I think that he's largely benefited

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from the situation in parts, like
even in the last dozen games, since

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he's moved into the starting lineup on
a more permanent basis, the shot has

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fallen off a little bit. And
I think it's been pretty clear that Denver

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is thriving because of Yokich has continued
excellence, and because Michael Porter Jr.

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Has been the one taking on an
even larger offensive role. And yeah,

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Compozzo has been the steadying presence,
He's been a brilliant passer, he's continued

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to be a pesky defender who makes
a legitimate impact on that end. But

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I can't help but have this feeling
that it's still a bit more situational than

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the success of the other guys I
have on my first team. Not hating

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on the selection by any means.
He's had a really really strong first season

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and proved that there's more to his
game than we initially thought when he did

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join a Nuggets team that didn't seem
to make much sense for him. Fair

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enough, does sound like you're shooting
on him though, even though it said

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you weren't. But yeah, maybe
a little bit. My last inclusion on

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the first team, which was a
really tough one, was Emmanuel Quickly consistency

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not necessarily there, the ability to
get to the foul line not necessarily there,

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but the hot shot making, the
floater game, the presence that he

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brings on the offensive end, and
the ability to give the Knicks that secondary

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ball handler that they've lacked in a
lot of situations. Now, we've we

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talked in previous episodes and on other
shows that we've appeared on about whether it's

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going to be him or like Alec
Burks who's tasked with stepping up in the

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playoffs and that kind of role.
I still think it could be quickly as

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long as he's on fire, which
he has been for enough portions of this

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season that I wanted to give him
some love here. Yeah, he actually

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ended up going on my second team. I don't feel too confident about it.

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Maybe I more so wanted to reward
Isaiah Stewart, who I rounded out

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my first team with, for the
work that he's done. He's been better

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on defense than people have credited.
We've noted the impact room numbers with him

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on and off the court for Detroit. He gives you something on offense,

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They've they've explored his three point range. He's someone that is not going to

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be super explosive to the basketball using
him as a roller, but he's gonna

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navigate the floor really well when he's
coming off screens. We've seen, you

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know, there was a few games
that we had this wicked chase down block

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because well, he's not the fastest
player, like he's going to get up

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and down the floor, and when
it came to I would looked at,

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you know, Emmanuel quickly for Kuno
composit Isaiah Stewart. That was like the

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decision for me. It was tough. I ended up favoring the players who

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had logged more minutes. And there's
a chance I think you could argue that

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quickly his minutes are slightly more impactful
if really wanted to, because he's gonna

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have the ball in his hands more
and he's hitting those super deep threes.

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But Isaiah Stewart just sort of the
the IQ and the understatedness with which he's

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playing. I feel like he's been
more consistent this year too. That might

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have to do with how the dr
Pistons use him. We've seen quickly not

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really fall out of the rotation,
but his playing time is varied, especially

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post Rose trade. And it was
more so because it felt like the Knicks

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wanted to play him more with Derek
Rose. They weren't limiting his minutes because

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of Derek Rose. It was when
Rose was injured so quickly made my second

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team, but I ended up going
with Isaiah Stewart in that final spot for

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first team. Isaiah Stewart was my
second inclusion on the second team. I

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actually don't know that I have him
first on his own team. Among rookies,

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just because moving on to the second
team, I guess Sadique Bay needs

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a lot of credit for the three
and D presence that he's brought to this

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Detroit team and the stability that he's
provided. Despite Detroit playing roughly seventy six

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players during the twenty twenty twenty one
season. Now he is still shooting thirty

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eight point one percent on six point
three attempts per game. Only thirty five

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qualified players in the NBA this year
are clearing six and thirty eight, respectively,

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and they're all established good shooters.
I think it's already abundantly clear just

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how much of an impact he can
have on as a floor spacer on this

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low level team. But also when
this team is ready to be more competitive,

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that role is going to translate.
I'm not entirely sure that Stuart's game

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will translate as well when the team
is ready to compete, because he's such

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an energy, high effort guy,
and he does so many good things,

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but you know, fouling can be
an issue at times. He's definitely not

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going to create many offensive looks for
himself. He's trying to space the floor.

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It hasn't really been that successful he
doesn't get to the foul line a

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lot as a big and I'm giving
these negatives just to justify why he's not

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on my first team. But obviously
he's still been a remarkably impactful rookie at

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a tough at a position that's pretty
tough to immediately thrive at. So deep

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Bay was on my second team.
And in addition to everything you say,

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one of the things that we've noticed
this season two is there's more ball skills

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there offensively where it's he's going to
compete. Defensively, he can knock down

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threes. He's over thirty eight percent
this season. He's not been the most

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efficient player when they're running the ball
through his hands. There's more to his

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game there to plumb, though,
and I think that absolutely matters. Sugar

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00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:18,720
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but what is not an endorsement.
So to recap my first team,

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and then I'll name who's on my
second team that we've already talked about.

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LaMelo Ball, Tyrese Haliburt, and
Anthony Edwards, Fecundo Composo and Isaiah Stewart

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were on my first team and the
players that we've talked about already that are

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on my second team Emmanuel Quickly,
Jay Shawn t and Sadique Bay. And

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I had LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Halibert, and Jay Shawn Tate

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and Emmanuel Quickly on my first team, and we have now talked about Sadique

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Bay, Isaiah Stewart and Fecundo Capozzo
off of my second team. You want

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me to get started with the final
two second team spots, Yeah, I

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have, and I feel like he
started to fly under the radar. I

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have Patrick Williams on my second team. He has been a joy to watch

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because there's the Bulls have really tried
to vary how they're using him. One

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of the things that's been a constant, and you could see it. Now

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they're going to really make him work
defensively by putting him on these really toughest

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signments, and they probably want to
know whether he can handle it long term.

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I think he's done an excellent job
of holding up relative to who he

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is this season when he's going up
against you know, effectively twos, threes

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and fours. He switched on to
a bunch of point guards. He hasn't

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really guarded centers that much. But
I think long term he might be able

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to do that. I would say
based off his body of work this year,

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he can capably defend four positions,
which is nothing to sneeze at.

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I like the idea too that I
think he has more ball skills to plumb.

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He's not necessarily getting that chance as
much in Chicago, and you're not

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always going to see it in the
you know, in his efficiency numbers there,

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but he's hitting, you know,
thirty eight point three percent from three

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fifty one point one percent on his
twos. This is someone who I think

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is going to end up being a
decidedly valuable two white player, and he

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may never broach stardom. He's in
that Tyrese Haliburton camp, although I'd have

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Haliburton significantly ahead of him and more
likely to become an All Star, where

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he just does so many things that
are solid. I don't know if he's

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going to stand out in any one
area and be elite. But the Bulls

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got their hands on taking him at
number four. A lot of people thought

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was a reach, and there are
players behind him that maybe they regret passing

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on. Chief among them would be
Tyrese Haliburton. There are so many teams

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00:19:14,759 --> 00:19:18,200
that pass on Haliburton too, and
I think Williams has sort of justified that

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00:19:18,319 --> 00:19:22,680
top five draft stock. Yeah,
I have him on my second team as

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well for all of the reasons that
you mentioned. I'm similarly not quite sure

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what to make of his ceiling.
But the floor is higher than I thought

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it would be, which is a
testament to the work he's already put in.

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This guy came into the NBA as
the youngest nca prospect in the NBA

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draft. He was very much this
multible ball of clay, and the Bulls

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are already successfully molding him. It's
pretty clear that he's going to have a

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positive impact on both ends of the
floor. How positive not quite sure yet.

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I'm not sure the Bulls know yet. But the fact that the floor

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is already this high, I think, given the weird the strengths of this

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00:19:57,079 --> 00:20:02,799
draft class were supposed to lie,
it definitely justifies using the number four pick

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on him. You know, ideally
you're trying to find a star that high

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up in any draft selection process,
but we kind of knew going in that

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this was a class that was devoid
of much star power and had a lot

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of potential good contributors who could play
positive basketball for a long time. And

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the fact that they found a guy
who unquestionably looks like he will fill that

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00:20:26,079 --> 00:20:32,960
ladder role but still has enough untapped
upside in basically every area imaginable that he

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could still fill that star designation down
the road, I think that's a huge

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00:20:36,519 --> 00:20:40,559
success for the Balls. Sweet we
were in lockstep in one of these players

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on second team. I think we
differed because I believe I remember who you

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put the round out, but I
ended up this spot for me came down

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between Desmond Baine and the player I
ultimately went with, which was Jaden McDaniels.

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I don't know why I feel like
I'm favoring defense so much about this

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process, but we seldom talk about
how valuable rookies are defensively, and this

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well, Jason Chait was not a
part of this draft class, but Jade

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McDaniels as the player I actually went
with, defends all five positions. Basically

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00:21:07,519 --> 00:21:11,839
for the Minnesota Timbs, He's guarded
every position on at least ten percent of

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his possessions. He spent the least
amount of time on center. That's notable,

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shooting a pretty efficient clip on threes, hitting over fifty percent of his

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twos. I don't know. This
is one of those players where I say,

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00:21:22,519 --> 00:21:26,799
oh, I'm surprised at how much
ball skills Sadiq Bay has or Patrick

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00:21:26,839 --> 00:21:30,839
Williams. I don't necessarily see the
same with Jade McDaniels. There might be

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potential for him to do some straight
line stuff, but still looking at with

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the value he's going to bring you
defensively, hitting thirty seven percent of his

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00:21:38,039 --> 00:21:41,039
threes. The ultimate compliment I would
call him. He's going It feels like

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he's going to be that type of
player. Is he the answer at the

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four long term for Minnesota? If
you're looking at their best five players,

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I'm not going to give a decided
yes, because we have to see what

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00:21:51,839 --> 00:21:53,839
other options are going to be available
to them. It could be their draft

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00:21:53,880 --> 00:21:56,640
pick this year if it lands on
the top three, it could be a

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00:21:56,680 --> 00:22:00,440
trade that they make. It probably
won't come in free agency because they don't

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00:22:00,440 --> 00:22:03,359
have cap space. I think he's
in the mix. This is just their

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00:22:03,400 --> 00:22:07,240
core Anthi Edwards, Jade McDaniels,
Karnthy Towns, Deangel Russell, and Thelik

322
00:22:07,279 --> 00:22:08,319
Beasley. That's what I look at
it as right now, and so the

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00:22:08,359 --> 00:22:14,519
fact that he's played his way into
that a tier of importance for Minnesota is

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00:22:14,559 --> 00:22:18,119
a huge deal. I was really
close to including McDaniels, but I did

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ultimately go with Desmond Bane. The
three point shooting alone has just been so

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00:22:23,880 --> 00:22:27,519
valuable for this Grizzlies team. Joe
Ingles, Michael Porter, Junior, Joe

327
00:22:27,559 --> 00:22:30,920
Harris, Kevin Durant, Seth Curry, Reggie Jackson, Marcus Morris, Senior

328
00:22:32,279 --> 00:22:34,720
Boggdon Bogdanovitch, Bryn Forbes, and
Desmond Bine. Those are the only ten

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00:22:34,839 --> 00:22:37,920
qualified players in the NBA right now
taking at least four threes a game and

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00:22:37,960 --> 00:22:42,160
hitting forty three percent of them.
That is an elite club, and it

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00:22:42,279 --> 00:22:47,480
looks sustainable one percent. Looks like
he could be a yearly fixture in that

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00:22:47,519 --> 00:22:52,839
group. I think so many times
you see how steep the learning curve can

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00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:57,559
be for rookies entering the NBA.
It's tough to figure out how exactly to

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00:22:57,680 --> 00:23:03,440
rotate on defense. It's tough to
figure out exactly how you're going to maximize

335
00:23:03,680 --> 00:23:07,079
the relatively meager opportunities that you get
on the offensive end, and it's hard

336
00:23:07,119 --> 00:23:11,480
to accept those limitations. But he
has very much been one of those rare

337
00:23:11,680 --> 00:23:18,359
veteran rookies where it just immediately looks
like he knows exactly what he wants to

338
00:23:18,359 --> 00:23:22,559
do. He understands his role completely, and he's able to maximize his abilities

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00:23:22,599 --> 00:23:26,960
within that role. I'm not sure
there's anything that Desmond Bane is particularly bad

340
00:23:27,000 --> 00:23:32,039
at for this Memphis Grizzlies team,
which is why he's been seventh and minutes

341
00:23:32,039 --> 00:23:36,000
played for them on a very competitive
team with a lot of depth and a

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00:23:36,039 --> 00:23:40,440
lot of underrated pieces, and he's
one of them. His three d abilities

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00:23:40,759 --> 00:23:45,359
are immaculate, but beyond that,
he's able to fill these other secondary and

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00:23:45,400 --> 00:23:52,039
subsidiary roles efficiently, without complaint and
in a way that maximizes the success of

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his team on a nightly basis.
Do you want to run through before you

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00:23:56,599 --> 00:24:00,359
list off onnable mentions? Let's recap
who your two teams were For people that

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00:24:00,400 --> 00:24:03,200
just joined the room, I can
do that. I had LaMelo Ball,

348
00:24:03,240 --> 00:24:07,240
Anthony Edwards, Tyrese Haliburt and Jayshawn
Tate and Emmanuel Quickly on my first team

349
00:24:07,640 --> 00:24:11,160
at Sadiq Bay, Isaiah Stewart,
Desmond Baine, Patrick Williams and Fecundo Composo

350
00:24:11,240 --> 00:24:17,039
on my second team. My first
team ballot is Lamello Ball, Tyrese Haliburton,

351
00:24:17,160 --> 00:24:22,039
Anthony Edwards, Fecundo Composo and Isaiah
Stewart. My second team is Emmanuel

352
00:24:22,119 --> 00:24:26,599
Quickly, Patrick Williams, Jashawn Jade
McDaniels and Sadiq Bay. And now to

353
00:24:26,720 --> 00:24:32,240
run through the many, many,
many honorable mentions real fast. The toughest

354
00:24:32,240 --> 00:24:37,480
omission for me was Isaac Accoro.
He's been a disaster on offense for the

355
00:24:37,559 --> 00:24:41,039
vast majority of this first season in
the NBA. His defensive presence is already

356
00:24:41,039 --> 00:24:45,440
there, It's already really strong,
and it makes a difference, and it's

357
00:24:45,440 --> 00:24:48,640
going to make a difference for a
long time. And it was enough that

358
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I really tried hard to find a
spot for him and just couldn't quite do

359
00:24:52,279 --> 00:24:57,240
it. Other guys I considered were
Xavier Tillman Senior, James Wiseman, Cole

360
00:24:57,279 --> 00:25:02,160
Anthony, Jaden McDaniels, Denni Via, Peyton Pritchard, Devin Vassell, Tyrese

361
00:25:02,240 --> 00:25:06,920
Maxie, and schumanok Key. And
I think you can make cases for basically

362
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any of them, because the gap
between basically anyone on our second teams and

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00:25:12,559 --> 00:25:18,400
anyone in that list of honorable mentions
is fairly minimal, right, And the

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00:25:18,519 --> 00:25:21,920
only honorable mentions I'll add would be
I had Desmond Bayane as an honorable mention

365
00:25:21,920 --> 00:25:23,640
instead of actually making it. And
a player who and I agree with you

366
00:25:23,680 --> 00:25:26,240
on Isaac Waccorro. He's shown that
he can run some pick and roll and

367
00:25:26,440 --> 00:25:30,200
finish off straight line drives, just
not consistently enough. And there are still

368
00:25:30,400 --> 00:25:34,279
there are plenty of question marks about
his range. The other big one I

369
00:25:34,400 --> 00:25:38,160
wanted to mention is if he had
played more, which he couldn't because of

370
00:25:38,200 --> 00:25:42,160
the how the depth in Denver.
But RJ. Hampton has been borderline fantastic

371
00:25:42,440 --> 00:25:45,079
in Orlando. He's going to be
really good, and so if he had

372
00:25:45,119 --> 00:25:48,319
a larger sample size under his belt, he might have ended up being a

373
00:25:48,359 --> 00:25:55,599
shoe in for one of these top
you know three top or excuse me,

374
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top two all rookie teams. And
the the other one I was going to

375
00:26:02,319 --> 00:26:04,839
mention is and I can't remember if
he was a rookie or not. Maybe

376
00:26:04,880 --> 00:26:10,119
he wasn't because this his second year
on a two way contract before it was

377
00:26:10,160 --> 00:26:11,519
converted. I'll look really quickly,
Oh it wasn't. All right. I'm

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00:26:11,519 --> 00:26:14,559
not even going to mention his name
because it's a stupid part of my part.

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00:26:14,599 --> 00:26:17,079
But those are the only two honorable
mentions I would anti year long list

380
00:26:17,119 --> 00:26:18,960
of them. I think the only
other one I have to mention. You

381
00:26:19,039 --> 00:26:23,160
know, there's a guy averaging twenty
eight point two points four point seven assists

382
00:26:23,200 --> 00:26:27,440
and only one point six turnovers per
thirty six minutes, shooting seventy two point

383
00:26:27,480 --> 00:26:32,200
seven percent from the field and fifty
percent from three Those are Hall of Fame

384
00:26:32,279 --> 00:26:34,880
numbers if he's able to maintain those, And that's Grant Riller. And you

385
00:26:34,920 --> 00:26:37,599
know, you could say he's only
done that in twenty three minutes, and

386
00:26:37,599 --> 00:26:41,920
I don't give a shit. He's
been so good in those twenty three minutes

387
00:26:41,960 --> 00:26:45,400
that I have to mention him here
the player I actually wanted to mention because

388
00:26:45,440 --> 00:26:51,160
Grant Willer is in a different conversation. It's the MVP conversation Tayl Malodon of

389
00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:52,680
the Oklahoma City Thunder. He can
be a little wild, but I think

390
00:26:52,720 --> 00:26:56,799
he's actually going to be. It
can be hard to discern who are their

391
00:26:56,880 --> 00:27:00,400
keepers outside of Shay and lou Dort. At this point, I think he's

392
00:27:00,400 --> 00:27:03,559
gonna end up being one of them. I can see that for sure.

393
00:27:03,240 --> 00:27:07,920
The flashes are there. We are
going to leave it there. Please join

394
00:27:07,039 --> 00:27:11,240
us again next week four pm Easter
Time, And if you've not checked out

395
00:27:11,279 --> 00:27:14,759
the podcast, the Hardwood Knox Podcasts, go check us out. You can

396
00:27:14,799 --> 00:27:18,160
find us wherever you're getting podcasts,
or you'll find links on Twitter at Hardwood

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00:27:18,480 --> 00:27:22,319
Knox. Until then, or we
do have a quick question from Maxwell Millington,

398
00:27:22,359 --> 00:27:25,759
Who would be your Rookie of the
Year? Give me your top three

399
00:27:25,799 --> 00:27:30,240
options really quick, Adam. It's
LaMelo Ball, Anthony Edwards, and Haliburton

400
00:27:30,359 --> 00:27:34,880
in that order. I think,
had Ball not returned, Edwards has done

401
00:27:36,000 --> 00:27:38,200
enough in the second half of the
season that I could see him pushing ahead

402
00:27:38,240 --> 00:27:42,680
into that number one spot. But
ultimately I don't view Rookie of the Year

403
00:27:42,880 --> 00:27:48,400
as which rookie reached the highest level
by the end of the season. If

404
00:27:48,480 --> 00:27:52,480
that were the case, Edwards would
be my pick right now. But because

405
00:27:52,759 --> 00:27:57,200
it's supposed to be an award given
to the most productive rookie season, I

406
00:27:57,440 --> 00:28:02,200
have to include that first half of
the really the first third of the season,

407
00:28:02,720 --> 00:28:07,400
where Edwards was not there on defense, where his shot wasn't falling and

408
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:11,799
he was taking way too many hero
jumpers that didn't make sense within the flow

409
00:28:11,839 --> 00:28:17,599
of the offense. LaMelo Ball has
consistently been a massively positive presence for the

410
00:28:17,680 --> 00:28:22,119
Charlotte Hornets from start to finish,
and that to me is enough where he's

411
00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:27,880
my going away favorite and Edwards and
Haliburton are closer together for second place.

412
00:28:30,200 --> 00:28:33,000
Maxwell loves the Grant Roller shout out. By the way, Adam, you

413
00:28:33,119 --> 00:28:37,279
have found. I appreciate that we're
going to be best friends. Maxwell Mine

414
00:28:37,359 --> 00:28:41,319
would are its basically the same Intelanello
ball, then Terres Halibert and then Anthony

415
00:28:41,440 --> 00:28:45,759
Edwards. You hit on my argument
for Alibert by just saying, look,

416
00:28:45,799 --> 00:28:48,480
he had the season in some I
think Haliburton's been more impactful at both ends

417
00:28:48,480 --> 00:28:52,440
of the floor, and he clearly
doesn't have the same ceiling as Edwards.

418
00:28:53,519 --> 00:28:57,240
I don't know if that I mean, well he might look is that I'm

419
00:28:57,240 --> 00:29:00,039
not Yeah, I'm not ready to
put a cap on his heeling. I

420
00:29:00,039 --> 00:29:02,680
don't think he's as the same ceiling
as a scorer, but you know what

421
00:29:03,160 --> 00:29:07,279
he does everything else so well that
if we're just looking at the Draymond Green

422
00:29:07,359 --> 00:29:10,880
of guards, like the guy who's
gonna be that impactful at both ends of

423
00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:15,240
the floor and probably a terrible comparison, but because Draymond's an all time defender

424
00:29:15,319 --> 00:29:18,920
and not the best great passer,
not the best offensive player overall, think

425
00:29:18,960 --> 00:29:22,079
what you mean is to say that
he could be like Malcolm Brodden and you

426
00:29:22,119 --> 00:29:26,359
know, be like a potential top
twenty twenty five player first for a time.

427
00:29:26,000 --> 00:29:32,440
Yeah exactly. Yeah, So you
know, like picture like Kyle Anderson,

428
00:29:32,519 --> 00:29:37,119
but hitting off the dribble jumpers type
deal or not Kyle Anderson, Manugen

429
00:29:37,200 --> 00:29:41,079
nobly, but a little bit more
under control. That's what the under control

430
00:29:41,160 --> 00:29:45,799
man, wugenoble. That is my
ceiling for Tyres Haliburton somewhere Grant. He

431
00:29:45,839 --> 00:29:52,119
has just got excited and has no
idea why. Until next time, guys,

432
00:29:52,160 --> 00:29:55,720
please join us again four pm Eastern
Time every Sunday. We normally go

433
00:29:55,880 --> 00:29:59,319
longer, but there's been issues with
locker room sending the audio, so we're

434
00:29:59,359 --> 00:30:02,759
going to record a second podcast after
this. But you also might be hearing

435
00:30:02,799 --> 00:30:06,279
this on the podcast should our audio
actually come over. But we will leave

436
00:30:06,279 --> 00:30:07,400
you a shout out too, and
you know what this is. For you

437
00:30:07,599 --> 00:30:11,839
Adam and for you Maxwell, leaving
you with a shout out to the one

438
00:30:11,319 --> 00:30:19,839
the only, future multi time MVP, perennial All NBA player and future inevitable,

439
00:30:21,119 --> 00:30:25,720
undeniable, in arguable Hall of Famer
Grant Ruler. We have now left

440
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,960
the locker room and are ready to
begin part two of this podcast, which

441
00:30:30,480 --> 00:30:33,119
is a mailbag. We're going to
answer some of the best of the many

442
00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:38,119
questions that we received on the NBA
Math Twitter account. Cover a wide range

443
00:30:38,160 --> 00:30:41,559
of topics here as always, But
before we do that, I just have

444
00:30:41,680 --> 00:30:45,440
to gloat a little bit because I
won. I converted Dan to the Grant

445
00:30:45,519 --> 00:30:48,960
Ruler bandwagon. He is now on
board with him being a future Hall of

446
00:30:49,000 --> 00:30:55,720
Famer multi time MVP, and there
really aren't any reasonable questions about that.

447
00:30:55,839 --> 00:30:57,920
Just look at what he's done and
is wopping twenty three minutes of action.

448
00:31:00,119 --> 00:31:02,599
Yeah, I mean, that's a
huge sample size to go off, but

449
00:31:02,880 --> 00:31:04,680
it is. It's twenty three more
minutes of NBA basketball than you and I

450
00:31:04,759 --> 00:31:10,200
have played combined. That's a lot, that's all. That's like all the

451
00:31:10,279 --> 00:31:15,559
minutes it is, and like twenty
three is a special number in basketball circles.

452
00:31:15,599 --> 00:31:18,440
Anyway, I think that it's at
this point it's reasonable to start the

453
00:31:18,519 --> 00:31:25,880
Michael Jordan comparisons. Let's get into
this mail bag. We had a bunch

454
00:31:25,920 --> 00:31:29,640
of good questions. I will note
we had a bunch of award questions.

455
00:31:29,799 --> 00:31:32,720
I'm ignoring them because Adam and I
are going to do an awards pod and

456
00:31:32,799 --> 00:31:37,039
so we don't want to keep recycling
the same content. And also we're taught

457
00:31:37,079 --> 00:31:40,680
we're tired of talking about who's going
to win MVP. Because it's just not

458
00:31:40,759 --> 00:31:42,519
a debate anymore. If you ever
have questions about two through five, that's

459
00:31:42,559 --> 00:31:47,799
the interesting point to me right now. But we had other awards questions too,

460
00:31:47,839 --> 00:31:49,480
I think about six man and about
Defensive Player of the Year. We

461
00:31:49,559 --> 00:31:52,559
might have even had a Most Improved
Player one, but we're going to cover

462
00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:57,319
those in a separate podcast. Let's
start here with our usual dose of Nuggets

463
00:31:57,440 --> 00:32:04,440
questions at why can't I see this
ad? This is awkward? At doctor

464
00:32:04,559 --> 00:32:08,599
ramblings, as why are the Nuggets
perpetually overlooked? It took Yokich having an

465
00:32:08,640 --> 00:32:13,119
historic year as a big man to
be talked about, and some people say

466
00:32:13,440 --> 00:32:17,319
he still isn't worthy of MVP and
the Nugs aren't a legit championship contender.

467
00:32:17,559 --> 00:32:22,880
I would like to chime in here. First, I don't think that this

468
00:32:22,039 --> 00:32:25,400
is a thing. I don't know
that the Nuggets have been perpetually overlooked,

469
00:32:25,559 --> 00:32:30,559
and maybe we're basketball nerds and have
not overlooked them. I would also say

470
00:32:30,920 --> 00:32:35,000
that there are very few people who
don't think he's the MVP right now,

471
00:32:35,119 --> 00:32:38,519
and so we have to stop stop
painting him as the MVP underdog or that

472
00:32:38,559 --> 00:32:42,599
he's being slighted. Is he an
underdog in the grand scheme of things,

473
00:32:42,799 --> 00:32:45,839
drafted at number forty one and turning
into an MVP within basically a half decade

474
00:32:45,880 --> 00:32:52,880
sixty years. Yeah, for sure. But he's going to He's not going

475
00:32:52,920 --> 00:32:54,559
to be consensus, He's not gonna
be unanimous. He's going to be the

476
00:32:54,640 --> 00:33:00,680
runaway MVP. So we need to
stop, like stop this. The second

477
00:33:00,759 --> 00:33:05,519
part of this question, I'm more
interesting because I do think that the Nuggets

478
00:33:05,519 --> 00:33:08,359
are overlooked as contenders, in large
part because people didn't believe in Nicole Yokich

479
00:33:08,880 --> 00:33:12,839
until maybe this season or last season, that he could be the best player

480
00:33:12,880 --> 00:33:15,880
on the title contender. I think
people warmed up to the idea that they

481
00:33:15,920 --> 00:33:20,839
could do damage against anyone, particularly
after the Aaron Gordon trade. Now,

482
00:33:20,960 --> 00:33:24,279
I think the doubts spawn from mostly
that they don't have Jamal Murray. And

483
00:33:24,680 --> 00:33:29,440
while they have been good for the
most part without him, while Michael Porter

484
00:33:29,559 --> 00:33:32,960
Jr. Has for the most part
since Murray's injury, been playing out of

485
00:33:34,000 --> 00:33:38,039
his mind, you are going to
miss that crunch time element that Jamal Murray

486
00:33:38,119 --> 00:33:42,720
brings, the frum scratch shot making
in addition to the playmaking, he played

487
00:33:42,759 --> 00:33:46,279
tough defense in the bubble last year, Michael Porter Junior replaces only so much

488
00:33:46,319 --> 00:33:50,039
of that. He has the shot
making, but it's not the same yet.

489
00:33:50,119 --> 00:33:53,160
He's not hitting those absurd off the
dribble jumpers, and he's definitely not

490
00:33:53,279 --> 00:33:58,119
setting up your offense. You might
have players that could replace them by committee.

491
00:33:58,359 --> 00:34:02,839
And I sat on our last podcast, I did a factor fiction saying

492
00:34:04,279 --> 00:34:07,880
factor fiction, Denver has a better
chance of coming out of the West than

493
00:34:07,039 --> 00:34:10,239
Utah. And this is without Jamal
Murray. I think it's a discussion.

494
00:34:10,400 --> 00:34:14,880
I think it's a discussion. So
maybe they are being overlooked in the championship

495
00:34:14,880 --> 00:34:17,920
discussion. I would argue at this
point that's mostly because of Jamal Murray's absence,

496
00:34:19,159 --> 00:34:22,400
which, if anything, that's respect
at a tip of the cat to

497
00:34:22,480 --> 00:34:25,000
Jamal Murray and how much he means
to this team. To me, it's

498
00:34:25,119 --> 00:34:30,679
kind of like the concept of the
one person who who stands up in a

499
00:34:30,800 --> 00:34:36,119
crowded movie theater as unfathomable as that. Maybe these days and yells fire and

500
00:34:37,039 --> 00:34:40,880
there are way more people who are
quiet and accepting what's happening and watching their

501
00:34:40,920 --> 00:34:45,119
movie in peace, that one person
gets a lot of attention. So whether

502
00:34:45,199 --> 00:34:52,119
it's with national analysts not wanting to
pay attention to the Nuggets or someone like

503
00:34:52,280 --> 00:34:57,239
the inaccurately named Nick Wright wanting to
you know, shoot on his MVP chances.

504
00:34:57,599 --> 00:35:00,039
You see what Jamal Murray tweeted,
I did. Yeah, Nick wrong,

505
00:35:00,159 --> 00:35:05,920
I feel so funny. Yeah,
exactly, exactly. Yeah, it's

506
00:35:06,159 --> 00:35:13,960
fun to pick on those outlandish takes
and want to view that as an overall

507
00:35:14,079 --> 00:35:17,079
lack of respect. But honestly,
like, unless you're playing in LA or

508
00:35:17,199 --> 00:35:22,239
Boston or New York, I think
almost every fan base feels that way at

509
00:35:22,280 --> 00:35:25,840
some point, especially when they're good. The other thing is, don't listen

510
00:35:25,920 --> 00:35:30,599
to these people there, And I
understand I'm not. I mean, if

511
00:35:30,599 --> 00:35:32,760
you want to listen to him and
use it as motivation, fine, yeah,

512
00:35:32,800 --> 00:35:37,920
but there are better national there's better
national coverage of the NBA than people

513
00:35:37,920 --> 00:35:42,760
who are covering every single sport on
a talk show. And Nick Wright has

514
00:35:42,800 --> 00:35:45,880
to cover a wide breath of sports. So I'm not trying to insult the

515
00:35:45,920 --> 00:35:47,400
work that he put in to get
there. I won't do that about anyone.

516
00:35:47,920 --> 00:35:52,039
I'm just not if you come to
this podcast if you want more level

517
00:35:52,079 --> 00:35:55,159
headed, in depth NBA coverage I'm
gonna push back on that. I'm gonna

518
00:35:55,199 --> 00:35:58,880
push back on that. I will. I will go after him a little

519
00:35:58,920 --> 00:36:01,199
bit because of that follow follow up
video where he says that the reason that

520
00:36:01,239 --> 00:36:06,519
he doesn't want to talk about Nikola
Yokich as the MVP is because Denver doesn't

521
00:36:06,519 --> 00:36:09,920
get ratings. Like, come on, well, that's just an admission that

522
00:36:10,079 --> 00:36:16,039
you're tailoring your opinions to getting people
to view your show and to tune into

523
00:36:16,079 --> 00:36:21,440
your show, and that there is
a level of intellectual dishonesty in play there.

524
00:36:21,760 --> 00:36:24,599
That to me, that's inexcusable,
even if it's your job to get

525
00:36:24,719 --> 00:36:29,480
people to watch your show, at
least admit as such on the main platform

526
00:36:29,559 --> 00:36:32,840
instead of a side video that you're
putting out while driving your car. That

527
00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:37,360
really pissed me off. That was
the second part of my argument was these

528
00:36:37,440 --> 00:36:43,280
people are playing characters. This is
not I do not You're not gonna convince

529
00:36:43,320 --> 00:36:46,440
me that Skip Bayless believes everything that
he has said over the years, did

530
00:36:46,519 --> 00:36:50,880
over Nick Right, did over Steven
A. Smith. There, if there's

531
00:36:50,920 --> 00:36:52,679
a level of ignorance where they're saying
things they believe that are just wrong,

532
00:36:53,159 --> 00:36:57,079
I think it's probably maybe they don't
care to do the work. But I

533
00:36:57,079 --> 00:36:59,840
would more be inclined that they were
covering such a wide breath of things.

534
00:37:00,360 --> 00:37:02,079
The more nuanced stuff you're not going
to get from them. You don't go

535
00:37:02,199 --> 00:37:05,519
there for that. And the other
thing is they are trying to get ratings.

536
00:37:05,679 --> 00:37:07,519
That's the name of the game.
Now. You have to look at

537
00:37:07,960 --> 00:37:13,239
all the engagement fucking going on in
social media, look at what brand accounts

538
00:37:13,280 --> 00:37:16,519
have turned into. They don't promote
their own content anymore. They're not promoting

539
00:37:16,599 --> 00:37:20,280
writers work. We're not even having
these video clips for the most part,

540
00:37:20,320 --> 00:37:24,599
unless you're a TV show like it's
the who name your top five players of

541
00:37:24,679 --> 00:37:30,280
all time? Would you rather have, you know, a six nine Stephen

542
00:37:30,360 --> 00:37:35,760
Curry or whatever, like six three
Lebron James type things. That's just the

543
00:37:37,159 --> 00:37:39,239
Curry, by the way, I'm
actually with you, But that's just the

544
00:37:39,360 --> 00:37:45,199
name of a game now. So
I I understand these people have jobs to

545
00:37:45,239 --> 00:37:46,599
do, and a lot of them
have worked hard to get in those positions.

546
00:37:47,119 --> 00:37:51,079
And I'm not going to be able
to go on and blather and talk

547
00:37:51,119 --> 00:37:54,119
bullshit in front of a camera without
you know, sweating bullets or stuttering all

548
00:37:54,159 --> 00:37:58,000
over the place because I'd be too
nerverse. There's plenty of talent there.

549
00:37:58,360 --> 00:38:06,440
I cannot get myself worked up about
a national sports reporter or talk show host.

550
00:38:06,519 --> 00:38:09,960
And I say national sports because it's
every sport. Not knowing the nuances

551
00:38:10,320 --> 00:38:14,519
of my favorite sport or favorite team
in a specific sport, or saying something

552
00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:20,800
inflammatory because they're trying to get engagement, and what you're doing when you're quote

553
00:38:20,800 --> 00:38:23,440
tweeting those takes, when you're responding
to them, that's exactly what they want.

554
00:38:23,679 --> 00:38:27,719
At least that's what the TV show
producers want as a one hundred percent

555
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:31,119
what they want. I think,
circling back to the original question about the

556
00:38:31,159 --> 00:38:37,280
Nuggets, to me, the answer
is that it's an overall media landscape issue

557
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:42,400
and not anything to do with the
Nuggets in particular. Correct, And I

558
00:38:42,480 --> 00:38:45,239
don't think it's it's not that's a
great point. Because the Jazz are not

559
00:38:45,320 --> 00:38:50,079
getting enough attention for having the best
record in the NBA. The Suns probably

560
00:38:50,079 --> 00:38:53,719
aren't either, and I think the
Suns are getting more attention, or at

561
00:38:53,760 --> 00:38:59,119
least relative to what they are.
At the same time, people are quick

562
00:38:59,159 --> 00:39:01,880
to dismiss them because it's the Suns, or they talk about oh CP three

563
00:39:01,880 --> 00:39:06,320
belongs to the MVP discussion because they
sucked before him, and it completely ignores

564
00:39:06,360 --> 00:39:09,360
the bubble the Stris Devin Booker has
made, Mkal Bridges has made, and

565
00:39:09,800 --> 00:39:13,760
also the other talent that they added. Just having Jay Crowder there has been

566
00:39:13,760 --> 00:39:16,280
good. Tory Craig has been absolutely
monstrous for them turning to Dario chars at

567
00:39:16,320 --> 00:39:20,880
the five towards the I think it
was a halfway point of last year,

568
00:39:20,920 --> 00:39:22,079
maybe towards the latter part of last
ye or whatever. Like, there are

569
00:39:22,159 --> 00:39:25,719
other things they did, but I
do think you pointed out unless they are

570
00:39:25,760 --> 00:39:30,360
the Lakers, the Knicks, maybe
the Celtics, the Bulls, the Nets.

571
00:39:30,480 --> 00:39:34,559
You want to throw those flagship market
teams in there, that's also a

572
00:39:34,639 --> 00:39:37,280
symptom here. So it's not probably
any team with like a big three too.

573
00:39:37,360 --> 00:39:39,880
Like I think the Clippers get enough
attention granted LA, but brother in

574
00:39:40,079 --> 00:39:45,039
LA. Yeah, so or unless
you have that, Yeah, Nicole Yokis

575
00:39:45,039 --> 00:39:46,639
isn't the draw that Stephen Curry is. So the Warriors are gonna get playing

576
00:39:46,639 --> 00:39:50,760
of attention too, That's not that's
not the award we're talking about. I

577
00:39:50,760 --> 00:39:52,880
don't think it's specific to the Nuggets. I do think they're probably being undervalued.

578
00:39:53,599 --> 00:39:58,400
I will give Nuggets fans this there. I still they're being undervalued in

579
00:39:58,400 --> 00:40:00,880
the championship discussion even without Murray.
I don't know which team i'd put them

580
00:40:00,920 --> 00:40:04,320
in front of, but of those
five teams in the West, I don't

581
00:40:04,360 --> 00:40:07,880
think they're fifth anymore after watching them, right, But yeah, I mean

582
00:40:07,000 --> 00:40:10,320
to your overall point, like it
is really hard for those people to cover

583
00:40:10,639 --> 00:40:15,239
national sports in general. It's hard
enough to cover one league on a national

584
00:40:15,320 --> 00:40:19,440
perspective. So you know, if
you happen to find a podcast that you

585
00:40:19,559 --> 00:40:22,320
think does a decent job of covering
every team, like maybe give them a

586
00:40:22,440 --> 00:40:28,159
rating and our five star rating in
a review or something, Yeah, that's

587
00:40:28,199 --> 00:40:30,440
a good idea, do you think
so? Yeah, I think that's something

588
00:40:30,480 --> 00:40:32,840
people should do. Yeah, and
if look, if they're a hard one

589
00:40:32,920 --> 00:40:36,719
Knox podcast, you should do it
twice. That would be my recommendation.

590
00:40:36,800 --> 00:40:37,639
And we're not even saying us.
By the way, there are a ton

591
00:40:37,719 --> 00:40:44,480
of like really good national NBA coverage
go to that, like there's I'm not

592
00:40:44,519 --> 00:40:46,119
gonna I'm gonna leave somebody out.
I'm not gonna name anybody. We need

593
00:40:46,159 --> 00:40:49,679
to make a running list and on
a dock and share it and keep adding

594
00:40:49,679 --> 00:40:52,360
to it. Anyway, let's move
on to the next question. Thank you

595
00:40:52,400 --> 00:40:58,000
for the question, Doctor Ramblings.
This one comes from Kim at Kim,

596
00:40:58,599 --> 00:41:04,679
Joe Biel or Joe Bill. Where
do the grizz go from here? And

597
00:41:05,360 --> 00:41:07,360
is this a season? Is this
season of success for Memphis? They will

598
00:41:07,400 --> 00:41:10,880
likely end it after losing the playing
game, just like last season. Where

599
00:41:10,920 --> 00:41:17,559
are the steps forward? I think
the step forward is just kind of internal

600
00:41:17,679 --> 00:41:24,000
growth. Mean, every single player
playing significant minutes for this team right now

601
00:41:24,719 --> 00:41:30,920
is under contract next year. There
really isn't room to go out and get

602
00:41:30,400 --> 00:41:36,400
a big external free agent addition.
I don't think many of these pieces you're

603
00:41:36,400 --> 00:41:39,480
gonna be shopping and blockbuster deals.
But if you look up and down this

604
00:41:39,679 --> 00:41:44,679
roster, there is so much talent
just waiting to be plumbed. You know,

605
00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:49,159
John Morant, while he is not
a top five point guard like he

606
00:41:49,280 --> 00:41:52,679
said he was, he has potential
to get there. Jaren Jackson Jr.

607
00:41:52,760 --> 00:41:55,679
You know, he wasn't available for
most of this year, and I think

608
00:41:55,719 --> 00:42:00,880
it's pretty obvious how much two way
potential he has. Kyle Anderson, Dylan

609
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:07,039
Brooks's defense, Jonas Valentiunis, Brandon
Clark, Desmond Vane, Xavier Teman,

610
00:42:07,159 --> 00:42:12,119
sor like. There are enough pieces
here for this to be a legitimate contender

611
00:42:12,719 --> 00:42:17,199
if John Morant and Jaren Jackson Junior
in particular continue to make the strides we

612
00:42:17,360 --> 00:42:22,119
expect we expect them to make given
the level of success they've already reached and

613
00:42:22,239 --> 00:42:29,360
their relative age and inexperience levels in
the NBA. So I think it's kind

614
00:42:29,360 --> 00:42:32,239
of a good situation to be in
where you can legitimately look at this roster

615
00:42:32,360 --> 00:42:37,199
and be like, let's just run
it back and we're just naturally going to

616
00:42:37,239 --> 00:42:39,639
get better. Would it be great
to make external editions or find another star

617
00:42:39,719 --> 00:42:44,719
in the draft, shirt, of
course, But given the current pieces,

618
00:42:45,079 --> 00:42:47,840
I think this season is a success
even if they're eliminated in the play in

619
00:42:47,960 --> 00:42:52,199
game, because you're continuing to foster
the growth from those pieces. And as

620
00:42:52,239 --> 00:42:55,599
soon as Jackson was knocked out of
the lineup for most of the year,

621
00:42:57,039 --> 00:43:00,119
the expectations had to be diminished a
little bit. And the fact the Grizzlies

622
00:43:00,159 --> 00:43:06,199
were so competitive from start to finish
and managed to get positive contributions from close

623
00:43:06,280 --> 00:43:08,800
your eyes and point at the roster
and there. It is like that's a

624
00:43:08,920 --> 00:43:14,480
success in and of itself. I
agree with everything you said. The season

625
00:43:14,559 --> 00:43:16,639
is an unmitigated success to me,
and your last point is most shalient to

626
00:43:16,719 --> 00:43:21,360
me. Losing John Morant and still
being this good, not having Jaren Jackson

627
00:43:21,440 --> 00:43:23,960
Junior from most of the year still
being this good, and Jarres Jackson Junior

628
00:43:24,000 --> 00:43:28,239
hasn't been awesome since he came back. I actually think his best stretch of

629
00:43:28,280 --> 00:43:30,559
the season was like his first two
games or whatever it was. I also

630
00:43:30,559 --> 00:43:34,719
don't John Morant hasn't made any sort
of leap. He's good, He's still

631
00:43:34,719 --> 00:43:37,119
just as good as he was last
year. But this is not we're not

632
00:43:37,199 --> 00:43:39,480
talking about he's made the Zion size
leap here in year two or the Michael

633
00:43:39,519 --> 00:43:44,079
Porter junior size leap here in year
two. Not saying he's worth than Michael

634
00:43:44,079 --> 00:43:46,800
Porter Junior overall. I will say
the path Thorne is they still need to

635
00:43:46,840 --> 00:43:50,079
get another wing. Desmond Baine looks
like he's gonna be good for them in

636
00:43:50,119 --> 00:43:53,639
both ends of the floor. Kyle
Anderson has always been that cozy two way

637
00:43:53,679 --> 00:43:57,440
player, and the fact that he's
hit his threes at a higher clip this

638
00:43:57,599 --> 00:44:00,639
year had actually taken them more often
is huge. They need that other long

639
00:44:00,760 --> 00:44:04,440
term wing and it's not Justice Winslow. Well, it's to me, it's

640
00:44:04,480 --> 00:44:07,599
I know he hasn't played that much
this year again, but under thirteen percent

641
00:44:07,719 --> 00:44:12,519
from three the fit with John Morant. They've put him in John Morant going

642
00:44:12,599 --> 00:44:15,119
up against a lot of bench heavy
units this year and it's worked out.

643
00:44:15,719 --> 00:44:17,679
That is not enough for me to
be like, oh, there's still hope

644
00:44:17,719 --> 00:44:21,360
there. Winslow can still do a
lot on defense, but if you want

645
00:44:21,400 --> 00:44:24,199
to put him in the starting five
or in closing lineups when the game's on

646
00:44:24,280 --> 00:44:28,440
the line, there's going to be
an awkward offensive fit there. He needs

647
00:44:28,480 --> 00:44:30,239
to hit those threes, do better
work off the ball, or you need

648
00:44:30,320 --> 00:44:36,880
John Morant, who shot a pretty
good clip on threes, especially since April

649
00:44:37,000 --> 00:44:40,519
first. He's not used to stroking
these spot up jumpers in higher volumes.

650
00:44:40,559 --> 00:44:43,599
You need one of them play off
the other. I don't know how you

651
00:44:43,679 --> 00:44:45,119
get that wing. Is it through
the draft? You have made it harder

652
00:44:45,159 --> 00:44:50,320
now by being good and probably being
out of a lottery or being in the

653
00:44:50,920 --> 00:44:54,039
very back end of it. You're
not a free agent destination. However,

654
00:44:54,599 --> 00:44:57,840
there's gonna be a time and it's
like this season, I don't know.

655
00:44:57,840 --> 00:45:00,599
I don't think they're gonna use the
full breadth of their taps. They're gonna

656
00:45:00,679 --> 00:45:04,119
maybe get to I think they're gonna
end up operating. Isn't over the cap

657
00:45:04,199 --> 00:45:07,920
team. But the year before John
Morant hits that MAX money so his extension

658
00:45:07,960 --> 00:45:10,920
eligibilityear, which would be next summer, they should be slay to have cap

659
00:45:10,960 --> 00:45:14,599
space. And no, you're not
going to get a star because it's Memphis,

660
00:45:14,880 --> 00:45:19,239
but maybe that's how you know.
You sign someone who can squeeze into

661
00:45:19,320 --> 00:45:23,199
that combo three four spot that you
don't really have right now, or you

662
00:45:23,280 --> 00:45:27,440
do it via trade. Like their
future draft picks are valuable, they have

663
00:45:27,480 --> 00:45:30,079
a lot of now just their contracts. They're not huge and interesting players that

664
00:45:30,199 --> 00:45:34,199
you can flip and I don't I
don't think they're the team that's gonna roll

665
00:45:34,280 --> 00:45:37,320
the dice if a Bradley Biel becomes
available, even though he would be a

666
00:45:37,360 --> 00:45:42,920
fantastic fit on this team. Just
get imagine giving a Dylan Brooks's minis to

667
00:45:42,920 --> 00:45:45,760
Bradley Biel. This team is a
minor upgrade. Yeah. So, and

668
00:45:45,880 --> 00:45:50,280
the final thing I'll say is is
there another level of Jarren Jackson Junior that

669
00:45:50,360 --> 00:45:52,880
we haven't said yet. Is he
gonna end up holding up defensively at the

670
00:45:52,920 --> 00:45:54,960
five? Is he going to his
offense will be fine, but will he

671
00:45:55,039 --> 00:45:59,079
do more off the dribble than just
bombing away these super deep three? So

672
00:45:59,159 --> 00:46:01,199
there are multiple path that's there.
I think the most critical part of moving

673
00:46:01,239 --> 00:46:07,519
forward for them is they gotta get
a mainstay wing. I do think there

674
00:46:07,760 --> 00:46:12,480
is the potential for them to be
a sneaky free agency player for said wing,

675
00:46:13,039 --> 00:46:15,440
just because if you look at what
they have on the books, the

676
00:46:15,559 --> 00:46:20,920
dead money owed to Gorty Jang and
Dion Waiters is coming off after this season.

677
00:46:21,280 --> 00:46:23,960
They have a team option for thirteen
million dollars for Justice Winslow. If

678
00:46:24,000 --> 00:46:28,760
you decline that option because you don't
think that he can be a contributor given

679
00:46:28,760 --> 00:46:31,440
all the injuries that he suffered,
all of a sudden, you're looking at

680
00:46:31,519 --> 00:46:37,679
like twenty million in cap space,
and that could be enough to land that,

681
00:46:38,039 --> 00:46:43,039
you know, not star level wing, but that solid starter who you

682
00:46:43,119 --> 00:46:46,079
could need to complete this puzzle around
the young guys. I don't know if

683
00:46:46,119 --> 00:46:50,719
this is I thought about that too. I would probably lean towards picking up

684
00:46:50,760 --> 00:46:53,000
the team options. I think I
would too, just because thirteen million is

685
00:46:53,039 --> 00:46:58,360
whatever, and if worst case scenario, like maybe there's a trade that you

686
00:46:58,440 --> 00:47:01,360
can make in that expiring contract helps. I also don't think this is the

687
00:47:01,480 --> 00:47:06,199
year to bank on signing anyone in
free agency. And then when you look

688
00:47:06,239 --> 00:47:09,360
at the wings after Kauai, who
is the best wing that's slated to be

689
00:47:09,400 --> 00:47:14,360
a free agent. That's a great
question and I don't have an answer to.

690
00:47:14,440 --> 00:47:15,239
I don't know if, and I
don't know he would actually be a

691
00:47:15,280 --> 00:47:19,840
good fit here unless you want someone
with more ball skills. I don't know

692
00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:21,840
if you want to call him wing, but it'd be Duncan Robinson. I

693
00:47:21,920 --> 00:47:24,920
think it's the second best wing on
the market after Kawai. There would be

694
00:47:24,960 --> 00:47:28,440
a fun fit, for sure,
it'd be an awesome fit. I think

695
00:47:28,440 --> 00:47:30,960
that's why Desmond Bain has gotten so
many minutes of a rookie's because they need

696
00:47:30,280 --> 00:47:35,320
that shooting, and he's obviously he's
deserved the minutes he's gotten. This was

697
00:47:35,400 --> 00:47:40,599
an interesting question. It came from
at Josh Josh kap Kaplan. But there's

698
00:47:40,599 --> 00:47:43,440
a one in it. Yeah,
a friend of mine, Josh Kaplan.

699
00:47:43,639 --> 00:47:45,920
Oh, that's it. I like
the clever way he spelt his name too,

700
00:47:45,960 --> 00:47:49,440
and the question was really good,
Who's your I don't want to answer,

701
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:52,440
feel free to answer this question who's
your most improved player? But he

702
00:47:52,719 --> 00:47:59,639
asked should all Stars be disqualified from
the most improved player discussion? I think

703
00:48:00,119 --> 00:48:05,559
the most improved player this year has
to be Julius Randall. The leap that

704
00:48:05,639 --> 00:48:09,239
he's made is just seismic, and
we've talked about him enough that I don't

705
00:48:09,400 --> 00:48:13,519
really feel like we need to back
that up too much, just because we're

706
00:48:13,559 --> 00:48:17,280
talking about a guy who went from
outside the All Star conversation to a player

707
00:48:17,320 --> 00:48:21,599
who might show up on the back
end of some MVP ballots, and justifiably

708
00:48:21,679 --> 00:48:25,960
so for Nix's team that is finally
moving out of those long term doldrums.

709
00:48:27,320 --> 00:48:30,679
And I think that also kind of
answers the second part of Josh's question here.

710
00:48:31,079 --> 00:48:36,320
I do think that All Star and
All Star caliber players should be eligible.

711
00:48:37,079 --> 00:48:42,239
And we've talked about this before where
not every leap is the same.

712
00:48:42,840 --> 00:48:47,159
Now, if you if you're improving
from let's say that you can reasonably grade

713
00:48:47,159 --> 00:48:52,199
a player on a one to ten
scale, and jumping from a one to

714
00:48:52,320 --> 00:48:58,119
a five is the same as jumping
from a five to a nine in terms

715
00:48:58,199 --> 00:49:01,920
of the distance between the rungs on
the ladder. But that ladder jump is

716
00:49:01,960 --> 00:49:07,079
a lot harder to make because it's
tougher to go from good to great or

717
00:49:07,199 --> 00:49:14,679
from great to historic than it is
to go from bad to good. So

718
00:49:14,920 --> 00:49:19,400
no, I don't think that all
stars should be deemed ineligible or discounted or

719
00:49:19,440 --> 00:49:23,559
anything like that personally, like I
thought that Jannis should have deserved more most

720
00:49:23,639 --> 00:49:30,159
improved Player love last or two years
ago when he made the jump from All

721
00:49:30,320 --> 00:49:34,960
NBA to MVP, because the leap
that he made was still just monumental.

722
00:49:36,519 --> 00:49:39,239
Yeah, I'm absolutely with you there, and I would agree that it's harder

723
00:49:39,360 --> 00:49:43,000
to make if you're especially if you're
an entrenched All Star. There's also a

724
00:49:43,079 --> 00:49:46,320
difference where having your first All Star
appearance and making a leap to there is

725
00:49:46,559 --> 00:49:49,480
you know, that's part of your
most improved player case. Oh, he

726
00:49:49,519 --> 00:49:52,159
made his first All Star appearance,
But if you're an All NBA level player,

727
00:49:52,239 --> 00:49:54,599
an All Star player already and you've
gotten that much better. And I

728
00:49:54,679 --> 00:49:59,679
think Johanneston to Cubo is a perfect
example. The was it? What was

729
00:49:59,679 --> 00:50:01,599
it? What Steph year? Was
it? Where it was the twenty sixteen

730
00:50:01,679 --> 00:50:05,000
season. Yeah, so I was. I just that was the low hanging

731
00:50:05,039 --> 00:50:07,519
fruit one. I wanted to make
sure I was right though, So I

732
00:50:07,559 --> 00:50:10,000
absolutely don't think they should be disqualified. I don't know that they're ever going

733
00:50:10,039 --> 00:50:13,400
to be the standard. I always
think that this award is going to be

734
00:50:14,000 --> 00:50:17,920
aimed at trying to spot that next
superstar. And that fits with Paul George

735
00:50:17,920 --> 00:50:22,719
winning it. Jan Is winning it
when he did. It's not all these

736
00:50:22,760 --> 00:50:24,840
players, you know going on one
in and that's you know, all star

737
00:50:24,960 --> 00:50:29,760
level player, but never to the
heights of Jannis or or Steph. And

738
00:50:29,800 --> 00:50:31,519
I don't know where Julius Randall is
going to end and all this, I

739
00:50:31,559 --> 00:50:36,679
would say he is my pick.
Had Jeremy Grant played more, I think

740
00:50:36,840 --> 00:50:40,480
the expansion of his skill set was
probably wider than what Randall was doing.

741
00:50:42,800 --> 00:50:45,079
I guess with Randall with defense,
but I do think he would have been

742
00:50:45,079 --> 00:50:49,239
in. I also would say if
he didn't start dealing with Planter Prasietist in

743
00:50:49,320 --> 00:50:52,679
his right foot, Shais Alexander would
have been up there for me too,

744
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:55,679
because this is he just took on
the role of the entire offensive engine.

745
00:50:55,719 --> 00:50:59,159
Just like that. He's been secondary
first first two years all that he was

746
00:50:59,239 --> 00:51:02,199
the Mary. So I do think
someone had the opportunity to beat Julius Randall,

747
00:51:02,440 --> 00:51:07,960
and that actually might have stepped on
the toes of this question from at

748
00:51:07,800 --> 00:51:13,639
Joe gets busy, congrats on the
sex, Joe. What player improved more

749
00:51:13,719 --> 00:51:19,639
than Julius Randall this year? I'll
wait and silence fills the room. I

750
00:51:19,719 --> 00:51:22,559
think a case. I think Shay
had a case. I don't sorry,

751
00:51:22,960 --> 00:51:28,519
look love Shay think he got a
lot better. But Julius Randall's leap was

752
00:51:28,599 --> 00:51:32,559
just so big. What was the
leap? What made it bigger than Shay's

753
00:51:35,480 --> 00:51:38,000
everything? I mean as nebulous an
answer as that may be, Like,

754
00:51:38,039 --> 00:51:44,039
we're talking about a guy who had
a very exploitable weakness. You knew that

755
00:51:44,559 --> 00:51:49,360
even if he was this wrecking ball
who could get to the basket at will

756
00:51:49,679 --> 00:51:52,559
and finish, you knew that he
was going to go left every time.

757
00:51:52,039 --> 00:51:57,480
You knew that he couldn't pass out
of those drives. And now we're talking

758
00:51:57,480 --> 00:52:00,559
about a guy who can get his
own offense from all over the floor while

759
00:52:00,599 --> 00:52:02,920
improving as a playmaker, who's able
to make those I think it was Zach

760
00:52:04,000 --> 00:52:07,119
Low who said the eleventh hour passes
just out of these impossible situations, and

761
00:52:07,239 --> 00:52:13,280
beyond that, he has made those
offensive leaps while also becoming a defensive stalwart.

762
00:52:13,880 --> 00:52:17,039
There is no portion of his game
that didn't improve, and unlike Shay

763
00:52:17,119 --> 00:52:22,000
Gili Alexander, he's doing it on
a team that is in contention. That's

764
00:52:22,039 --> 00:52:29,119
the other part of this is that
Auxander supporting cast and then sure, sure,

765
00:52:29,159 --> 00:52:35,920
absolutely, but I think that the
improvement that Shay has undergone is and

766
00:52:35,960 --> 00:52:37,760
I don't want to discredit at all, So I hope it doesn't come across

767
00:52:37,840 --> 00:52:43,119
that way. But it's easier to
come by when Chris Paul leaves. You

768
00:52:43,239 --> 00:52:46,239
still have a relationship with Chris Paul's
you're still learning from Afar, but all

769
00:52:46,280 --> 00:52:52,360
of a sudden, you have unfettered
access to doing whatever you want on the

770
00:52:52,440 --> 00:52:57,440
offensive end on a team that is
playing for absolutely nothing and not succeeding.

771
00:52:58,079 --> 00:53:00,280
Well, it's succeeding and doing absolutely
nothing, but that's about all it's succeeding

772
00:53:00,320 --> 00:53:02,599
at. I mean, if you
look at the NBA Math rolling team ratings

773
00:53:02,719 --> 00:53:07,440
right now, the Thunder currently have
the lowest score of any team since the

774
00:53:07,519 --> 00:53:10,280
Process era Philadelphia seventy six ers.
This hasn't been a good team, and

775
00:53:10,360 --> 00:53:15,880
you compare that to a Knicks team
that has ascended into that Eastern Conference contention

776
00:53:15,000 --> 00:53:20,559
tier where it is not just a
playoff lock, but the Knicks could very

777
00:53:20,639 --> 00:53:24,119
well win one, maybe even two
rounds if a lot goes right in that

778
00:53:24,280 --> 00:53:31,360
second round. And for Randall to
improve so monumentally on that team, that,

779
00:53:31,639 --> 00:53:37,320
to me, it is an unassailable
case. I'm just wondering if he

780
00:53:37,559 --> 00:53:44,519
made the Schekula Shoan Sanders leap feels
more wholesale than Julius Randall where it's I

781
00:53:44,599 --> 00:53:47,199
think the biggest thing that Julius Randell
added is he's hitting these step back jumpers,

782
00:53:47,239 --> 00:53:51,760
step back jumpers from the baseline.
There's the passing is better, but

783
00:53:51,920 --> 00:53:54,920
it's been you know, he's gotten
better at throwing last second passes. He

784
00:53:55,039 --> 00:53:59,039
had some triple doubles even during the
Lakers days and stuff. It's been there.

785
00:53:59,199 --> 00:54:02,679
I get that. So the defensive
one might be his most impressive improvement

786
00:54:02,880 --> 00:54:07,159
to date, being as a team
defender, because he and he's always had

787
00:54:07,159 --> 00:54:08,800
moments of one on one he is
he is the most improved player. And

788
00:54:08,840 --> 00:54:12,159
had Shay lasted the entire year or
what he was doing, I don't know

789
00:54:12,280 --> 00:54:15,519
who I would have picked, but
Shay's role was arguably more difficult to me

790
00:54:15,639 --> 00:54:20,360
because of the lack of talent around
him. And so he's in a developmental

791
00:54:20,480 --> 00:54:22,119
year, what's supposed to be a
developmental year, And I don't know how

792
00:54:22,159 --> 00:54:24,800
you weigh at where it's, oh, Julie Randall's age twenty seventh season and

793
00:54:24,840 --> 00:54:29,480
he's doing this and players aren't supposed
to make that leap, or it's Shay

794
00:54:29,599 --> 00:54:34,760
still in the conventional developmental window.
But now he just doesn't have a ton

795
00:54:34,800 --> 00:54:37,880
of help around him. And it
was look, that was before they said

796
00:54:37,199 --> 00:54:40,440
Al Horford go home. George Hill
wasn't playing, he was injured. Trevor

797
00:54:40,559 --> 00:54:44,960
Reason never reported to that team he
is And we have another Shay questions,

798
00:54:44,960 --> 00:54:46,199
So I feel like I'm gonna spoil
an answer to that, so I'll just

799
00:54:46,320 --> 00:54:51,679
wait. But he he had no
help, just offensively. It was him.

800
00:54:51,760 --> 00:54:55,159
He was creating everything for himself and
for others. And I do think

801
00:54:55,199 --> 00:54:58,039
there's a chance that I would have
voted him first, and I do think

802
00:54:58,079 --> 00:55:02,159
there's a chance that he improved more, however you want to frame it,

803
00:55:04,239 --> 00:55:07,360
then Julius Randall did this season,
So personally, I don't really look at

804
00:55:07,400 --> 00:55:12,000
ages or experience level or anything.
When I'm talking about the most improved player,

805
00:55:12,039 --> 00:55:15,320
it's solely just like value added this
season, level reached this season versus

806
00:55:15,400 --> 00:55:19,920
the same things in the previous year, which is why I tend to be

807
00:55:20,119 --> 00:55:23,039
more okay than a lot of people
with including rookie our second year players in

808
00:55:23,119 --> 00:55:28,960
that conversation. Even though there's definitely
a camp that wants to immediately discredit sophomores,

809
00:55:29,000 --> 00:55:32,440
and validly so because they're expected to
improve more coming off of that first

810
00:55:32,480 --> 00:55:38,159
season, I just don't view it
that way. So the age and the

811
00:55:38,280 --> 00:55:43,880
experience level, to me at least, is usually pretty irrelevant. I think

812
00:55:43,920 --> 00:55:45,800
that flip flop though the age and
experience level doesn't matter me. I was

813
00:55:45,800 --> 00:55:50,880
just wondering, if you've viewed Julius
Randles is more impressive because it's less predictable

814
00:55:51,039 --> 00:55:53,239
in the sense that oh, players
his age don't improve. I go back

815
00:55:53,280 --> 00:55:57,360
and forth on whether there's sophomore it's
more just about the team that the improvement

816
00:55:57,400 --> 00:56:00,199
happened on. I think that's fair. Let's get to so we have two

817
00:56:00,280 --> 00:56:07,679
TPA questions here. The first one
comes from Curig is bad? Does TPA

818
00:56:07,880 --> 00:56:13,199
adjust four minutes played. Ie,
is it a measure of how many points

819
00:56:13,320 --> 00:56:16,840
Julius Randall, Hey, there's your
guy adds per minute played or total value

820
00:56:17,280 --> 00:56:22,880
added increasing with minutes played. Yeah, I mean kind of sort of.

821
00:56:22,880 --> 00:56:25,639
In The full explanation is in the
gloss roy on the NBA math website.

822
00:56:25,679 --> 00:56:30,800
But TPA is looking at box plus
minus vpm from Basketball Reference and adjusting for

823
00:56:30,880 --> 00:56:35,400
possessions played, which is slightly different
than minutes, but it does still take

824
00:56:35,480 --> 00:56:39,480
volume into account. Theory being a
player, it's looking at value added relative

825
00:56:39,599 --> 00:56:43,760
to a league average player as best
we can, and you know, as

826
00:56:43,800 --> 00:56:45,519
we've said in multiple episodes, it's
by no means a perfect metric, and

827
00:56:45,960 --> 00:56:50,840
context in the eye tests are still
important here, but the basic theory is

828
00:56:50,920 --> 00:56:55,320
that a player who is twice as
good and plays half as many minutes as

829
00:56:55,440 --> 00:57:00,280
the player who is not twice as
good is adding about the same amount of

830
00:57:00,320 --> 00:57:04,800
value. I want to give a
special love to this question from att John

831
00:57:04,880 --> 00:57:07,320
J kp One. I hope I
am butcher. The pronunciation of the app

832
00:57:07,360 --> 00:57:12,880
there too badly took screenshots of the
TPA definition, so I don't know if

833
00:57:12,920 --> 00:57:15,960
you if you saw this question,
and I guess it was a threefold question.

834
00:57:16,039 --> 00:57:20,320
But the first part of it was, since there's an ongoing MVP discussion

835
00:57:20,320 --> 00:57:23,679
and the most the most used chart
is with TPA, I went to check

836
00:57:23,719 --> 00:57:27,440
out TPAs calculated, and I wonder
if I understand this correctly. So if

837
00:57:27,440 --> 00:57:30,679
a player plays more minutes, he
will get the same points as a player

838
00:57:30,719 --> 00:57:35,960
who plays less, but it is
two times more effective if he plays half

839
00:57:36,000 --> 00:57:37,639
as many minutes. Yeah, I
mean, that's that's the same example I

840
00:57:37,719 --> 00:57:43,360
was just trying to give. The
second part of this was, is yokis

841
00:57:43,400 --> 00:57:46,840
so high because of minutes played and
because the passes or assists of center are

842
00:57:46,920 --> 00:57:52,840
considered of more value than those of
guards. Yes, because he's played more

843
00:57:52,880 --> 00:57:57,199
minutes. I believe that as of
recording, the only player who has played

844
00:57:57,320 --> 00:58:00,760
more minutes in the NBA is Julius
Randall. Might be lately off there,

845
00:58:00,920 --> 00:58:04,199
just because I haven't looked at that
table on a little bit. But no,

846
00:58:04,639 --> 00:58:08,440
the positional designations don't matter. We
just include those for easy sorting purposes

847
00:58:08,559 --> 00:58:14,239
and easy reference. But you know, especially if we're only delineating between five

848
00:58:14,320 --> 00:58:19,800
positions, that's tough to do in
today's fluid NBA positional schemes. So no,

849
00:58:20,199 --> 00:58:22,800
he's so high because he's had a
historically good season, and also because

850
00:58:23,159 --> 00:58:28,000
the metric tends to favor players who
produced both assists and rebounds due to some

851
00:58:28,480 --> 00:58:32,159
interaction effects, and his number is
probably a little bit inflated. But he's

852
00:58:32,239 --> 00:58:37,960
also running away with first place in
TPA, So it's hard to say,

853
00:58:37,039 --> 00:58:42,079
like if you deflated it, what
would happen? But I think he would

854
00:58:42,119 --> 00:58:45,159
still be in first place this year. Colson answer is the third and final

855
00:58:45,199 --> 00:58:49,159
part of your question, where it
was if this is not the reason you'll

856
00:58:49,239 --> 00:58:51,480
kid just so high, which it
wasn't while you were explaining why is he

857
00:58:51,559 --> 00:58:53,440
so high? And you just explained
that Adam, So thank you for the

858
00:58:53,559 --> 00:58:59,239
question, John J. Kp One, and hopefully Adam provided the answer that

859
00:58:59,280 --> 00:59:07,079
you were looking for. At G
Park zero one asked has any second year

860
00:59:07,159 --> 00:59:12,920
player made as big of a leap
this season as Michael Porter Jr. I

861
00:59:13,400 --> 00:59:21,280
think a lot of nuggets questions.
I think that you can throw probably RJ.

862
00:59:21,480 --> 00:59:25,320
Barrett into that conversation. I think
that you can include Zion Williamson.

863
00:59:25,679 --> 00:59:30,519
Yeah, include Zion. I think
you can. You can, And I

864
00:59:30,519 --> 00:59:32,519
don't know how much dis counts because
he's been injured for most of the year,

865
00:59:32,599 --> 00:59:37,119
but DeAndre Hunter was certainly on pace
to be in that discussion. Yeah,

866
00:59:37,239 --> 00:59:42,719
if he had stayed even remotely healthy. Keldon Johnson maybe probably not,

867
00:59:43,719 --> 00:59:46,320
but there's definitely been some improvement there. But I think I think you're looking

868
00:59:46,400 --> 00:59:52,480
at yeah, potentially. I mean, he didn't even play as a rookie

869
00:59:52,559 --> 00:59:57,480
like he's improved a ton. No, I think it's I think it's Zion

870
00:59:57,760 --> 01:00:02,880
R. J. Barrett and Michael
or as the standouts who have made pretty

871
01:00:02,920 --> 01:00:07,559
substantial leaps this season. I'm going
to go ahead and throw use all those

872
01:00:07,679 --> 01:00:09,679
names. And also, he played
twenty games. We're gonna give it to

873
01:00:09,719 --> 01:00:14,559
DeAndre Hunter. That's more this season, So all right, shout out to

874
01:00:14,679 --> 01:00:22,239
him. Next question comes from at
Brandon At Brandon Abert, this is only

875
01:00:22,320 --> 01:00:25,760
ten gently related to the Nuggets,
and I actually thought it was a fascinating

876
01:00:25,840 --> 01:00:29,519
question. Would it be better to
build a team around Shade Gil, Just

877
01:00:29,599 --> 01:00:34,960
Alexander or Michael Porter Jr. When
players are at a similar level, which

878
01:00:35,000 --> 01:00:38,280
I do think that SGA and MPJ
are. I tend to default to the

879
01:00:38,320 --> 01:00:43,840
guys who have the most important roles, and as good as Michael Porter Junior

880
01:00:44,000 --> 01:00:46,679
is and as important as his shot
making ability has been, especially now that

881
01:00:46,760 --> 01:00:52,280
he's shown so much more ability to
generate his own looks and not just serve

882
01:00:52,280 --> 01:00:58,679
as this incredibly tall, incredibly accurate
spot up weapon. Gil Just Alexander initiates

883
01:00:58,719 --> 01:01:01,599
possessions and he involved his teammates and
he creates his own shot on a more

884
01:01:01,639 --> 01:01:06,920
regular basis, and just by virtue
of roles, I would want to build

885
01:01:06,960 --> 01:01:10,719
around the guard, right, and
the two things that I'll look at just

886
01:01:10,840 --> 01:01:17,159
to differentiate, I essentially have the
same answer as you, but looking at

887
01:01:17,199 --> 01:01:22,280
just the disparity and how they're getting
their shots. Eighty seven point one percent

888
01:01:22,000 --> 01:01:28,039
of Shay Giljis Alexander's baskets are going
when unassisted this year, his made baskets

889
01:01:28,360 --> 01:01:32,760
among every player to appear in at
least fifteen games, that's four hundred and

890
01:01:34,280 --> 01:01:38,000
fifty seven players. He ranks first
in that metric, so no one has

891
01:01:38,599 --> 01:01:43,239
had more of their made baskets go
unassisted than him. And whereas you look

892
01:01:43,320 --> 01:01:49,039
at Michael Porter Jr. About twenty
percent of his baskets have gone on assisted

893
01:01:49,079 --> 01:01:52,360
this year because he plays alongside Jamal
Murray, Nicolo Kitch, even Amante Morris

894
01:01:52,440 --> 01:01:57,519
Vacruno Compazzo will Barton those guys and
that number has not ticked up a ton

895
01:01:57,679 --> 01:02:01,400
since Murray's injury and Morris's injury.
Barton's injury, it's around, it's still,

896
01:02:02,360 --> 01:02:06,159
you know, it's around like twenty
two, twenty three percent when I

897
01:02:06,280 --> 01:02:08,840
checked a couple of days ago.
Can he get to the level where he

898
01:02:09,000 --> 01:02:15,000
is hitting more baskets that were self
created? I absolutely believe so. Will

899
01:02:15,000 --> 01:02:17,679
he ever be someone though, who's
also initiating the offense in that and if

900
01:02:17,719 --> 01:02:21,840
you are asking him to do that, does his efficiency hold? And right

901
01:02:21,920 --> 01:02:25,159
now, I think Shay Gili Alexander
has shown that he can hold this difficult

902
01:02:25,280 --> 01:02:30,280
role while still holding his efficiency.
The only other players who are averaging over

903
01:02:30,320 --> 01:02:34,559
twenty points and five assists per game
while matching Shay's efficiency on two's fifty four

904
01:02:34,599 --> 01:02:38,320
point seven percent and three's forty one
point eight percent, Steph k D and

905
01:02:38,440 --> 01:02:45,039
Yokich's seems like good company. It's
okay company sucks, which is why he's

906
01:02:45,079 --> 01:02:49,400
not gonna win MVP, right you
know we can't. He has no possibility

907
01:02:49,480 --> 01:02:53,000
of ever ascending past a lot of
like the previous twenty five MVP winners.

908
01:02:53,880 --> 01:02:59,559
This next question comes from zach at
Zack Snyder. I found it interesting because

909
01:03:00,000 --> 01:03:04,840
I've been asked some variation of this
question on other podcasts and radio shows this

910
01:03:04,920 --> 01:03:07,559
year, and I'm actually a little
bit surprised by it. How far is

911
01:03:07,599 --> 01:03:09,800
too far when it comes to tanking? And are any teams doing too much

912
01:03:09,840 --> 01:03:13,559
this year? I will say this
question differs and is actually more interesting to

913
01:03:13,639 --> 01:03:17,199
me than the version that I've mostly
gotten, which is are too many teams

914
01:03:17,280 --> 01:03:21,280
tanking? And must the NBA be
concerned about it? Because I would argue

915
01:03:21,679 --> 01:03:24,400
this is a separate question from that
a little bit in the sense that there

916
01:03:24,440 --> 01:03:30,599
are still like twenty three teams actively
competing for something right now, and normally

917
01:03:30,679 --> 01:03:34,000
we would have a third in the
league or more having thrown in the towel

918
01:03:35,000 --> 01:03:40,679
by now. Yeah, I have
tended to fall more on the pro tanking

919
01:03:42,000 --> 01:03:49,559
side of the spectrum here. I
wish that it wasn't incentivized. But so

920
01:03:49,760 --> 01:03:53,760
long as it is, like you're
not breaking the rules, as long as

921
01:03:53,800 --> 01:04:00,079
you're not like shutting down healthy young
players and hindering their developments, like okay,

922
01:04:00,280 --> 01:04:04,119
like you're not always competing to win, that's generally something the front office

923
01:04:04,239 --> 01:04:09,559
is doing. If you have a
coaching staff. That's actively sabotaging your ability

924
01:04:09,599 --> 01:04:13,079
to win a game. If you
have players who are turning down last second

925
01:04:13,119 --> 01:04:15,800
shots because they'd rather lose than win, that's when you have a real problem.

926
01:04:15,880 --> 01:04:20,719
But that's not what we see.
It's generally front offices making smaller scale

927
01:04:20,800 --> 01:04:27,760
moves or not putting together the most
competitive roster possible because they're incentivized to do

928
01:04:27,960 --> 01:04:31,800
so, and if they're willing to
accept that, it could potentially create a

929
01:04:31,920 --> 01:04:35,199
losing culture that needs to be shifted
when the talented pieces are in place.

930
01:04:35,679 --> 01:04:40,719
If they're willing to accept that,
it might lead to diminished local TV ratings

931
01:04:41,400 --> 01:04:46,159
and a paucity of nationally televised games. So be it. They know what

932
01:04:46,280 --> 01:04:50,559
the price is and they're clearly willing
to do it because the draft, as

933
01:04:50,760 --> 01:04:56,239
archaic and institution as it may be, is set up to incentivize being bad.

934
01:04:56,280 --> 01:05:00,800
If you're not really good, there
is no reward for who are on

935
01:05:00,920 --> 01:05:03,800
that mediocrity treadmill. The only thing
I have an issue with if you're going

936
01:05:03,840 --> 01:05:08,159
to tank to try and exploit the
way that the lottery is still set up,

937
01:05:08,239 --> 01:05:10,840
I'm actually more fine with it than
ever because you're taking more of a

938
01:05:10,960 --> 01:05:14,360
risk since there are flattened dodds and
you have less of a chance of getting

939
01:05:14,840 --> 01:05:18,360
that top pick. Now that being
said, I have an issue with the

940
01:05:18,719 --> 01:05:23,119
sending players home or not playing them
when they are healthy. Al Horford's a

941
01:05:23,119 --> 01:05:27,639
perfect example. I agree with that, and they're also it's a terrible look

942
01:05:27,639 --> 01:05:31,519
for the MBA to me when they
were putting pressure on the New Orleans Pelicans

943
01:05:31,599 --> 01:05:35,079
to play Anthony Davis after he demanded
a trade, and that really could have

944
01:05:35,119 --> 01:05:39,719
fucked up their franchise because he gotten
injured. Would that have impacted his trade

945
01:05:39,800 --> 01:05:43,079
value? Maybe not. The Lakers
wanted him so bad they're bidding against themselves

946
01:05:43,119 --> 01:05:45,079
and gave up a ton. Anyway, it was worth it because we're talking

947
01:05:45,079 --> 01:05:49,599
about Anthony Davis, so there's not
really much risk of getting injured. You're

948
01:05:49,679 --> 01:05:56,480
in hassle. But now because it's
Al Horford and because it's the Thunder and

949
01:05:56,679 --> 01:06:00,320
they're not this marquee National TV draw, he should be there. If they

950
01:06:00,360 --> 01:06:02,440
didn't want him on the team,
they should have figured out a way to

951
01:06:02,440 --> 01:06:04,920
trade him and had that been getting
rid of an asset in the process,

952
01:06:04,960 --> 01:06:08,639
which they might have to do over
the summer. So I've been issue with

953
01:06:08,719 --> 01:06:10,920
that, if he had a legitimate
injury, I don't have a problem slow

954
01:06:11,000 --> 01:06:14,360
playing it with you know, shame. It might be a bad example because

955
01:06:14,400 --> 01:06:17,280
I was actually reading a few days
ago that the tear of his plan or

956
01:06:17,280 --> 01:06:20,440
fascio was actually pretty serious. So
that's a bad example. But if it's

957
01:06:20,480 --> 01:06:23,960
you know, lou Dort hasn't been
playing a ton and I don't know if

958
01:06:24,000 --> 01:06:26,480
he's trying to play through pain,
which is why he's still playing, or

959
01:06:26,480 --> 01:06:30,000
if they're just you know, oh
here and there, like the stuff like

960
01:06:30,079 --> 01:06:31,960
that, and it's the Al Horford
one is the extreme. I'm not really

961
01:06:32,000 --> 01:06:34,280
a fan of that. I get
it from a team's perspective of why you

962
01:06:34,400 --> 01:06:36,800
do it, But then you know
what, in the situation where the Pelicans

963
01:06:36,800 --> 01:06:39,880
and Anthony Davis, they should have
been allowed to have told him to go

964
01:06:40,000 --> 01:06:44,119
home, So it has to be
I get I'll say, I only have

965
01:06:44,199 --> 01:06:46,360
a problem with it if it's not
going to be equitable, if there's only

966
01:06:46,440 --> 01:06:49,320
certain teams can do it, or
only certain players can just be sent away,

967
01:06:49,639 --> 01:06:54,360
like Al Horford is not Anthony Davis, so he doesn't have to play.

968
01:06:55,079 --> 01:06:57,480
Don't make everyone have to play.
Then if those are the rules,

969
01:06:57,679 --> 01:07:00,360
is this an old man yelling at
cloud moment, I feel like a very

970
01:07:00,400 --> 01:07:02,199
little man. Take we can go
with that a few it would make you

971
01:07:02,239 --> 01:07:05,159
feel better about yourself. I'm willing
to let you have that would make me

972
01:07:05,199 --> 01:07:10,079
feel much worse about myself. Actually, okay, well, then definitely we'll

973
01:07:10,079 --> 01:07:15,360
accept it. This next question comes
from at Tucson, John what player had

974
01:07:15,440 --> 01:07:21,320
the fewest starts and won the MVP
that year? I had brought up the

975
01:07:21,400 --> 01:07:27,400
list of MVP winners, and I
don't know that this wasn't. I couldn't

976
01:07:27,440 --> 01:07:32,159
sort by games started, but the
fewest games that an MVP has played in

977
01:07:32,400 --> 01:07:38,119
and won, I don't. We
can't count nineteen ninety nine carmelone forty nine

978
01:07:38,159 --> 01:07:42,280
games because I was a fifty game
season. Nineteen seventy seven. Nineteen seventy

979
01:07:42,280 --> 01:07:46,400
eight Bill Bill Walton played in fifty
eight games and won the MVP. And

980
01:07:46,519 --> 01:07:49,960
that's by after that, no one
else has played under sixty and one.

981
01:07:50,119 --> 01:07:55,679
And that's actually pretty incredible because Lebron
James won it in twenty eleven twenty twelve.

982
01:07:55,679 --> 01:08:00,320
We played in sixty two of the
sixty six games, so Jannis won

983
01:08:00,360 --> 01:08:04,159
in twenty plenty sixty three. But
the season ended up being abbreviated, so

984
01:08:04,320 --> 01:08:10,760
Bill Walton that that year, him
playing fifty eight games is clearly the fewest

985
01:08:10,760 --> 01:08:14,119
amount of starts because those are the
games that he played in. I don't

986
01:08:14,159 --> 01:08:15,880
know, you know, is there
any MVP. I would have to go

987
01:08:15,960 --> 01:08:18,960
looking at the list. None of
them jump out to me. But there's

988
01:08:18,960 --> 01:08:23,720
not an MVP that was coming off
the bench at some point then all of

989
01:08:23,760 --> 01:08:27,880
a sudden, wasn't I don't know
that. I don't think any player of

990
01:08:28,000 --> 01:08:30,920
that. I don't think so either
would be in the MVP discussion to begin

991
01:08:30,039 --> 01:08:34,279
with. And even that Bill Walton
season was kind of weird because it was

992
01:08:34,359 --> 01:08:39,760
almost like he was getting rewarded for
what he'd done the previous season where he

993
01:08:39,880 --> 01:08:42,960
was even better, he was healthier
and he carried Portland to a championship,

994
01:08:43,239 --> 01:08:45,840
and then kind of like he was
really good during that nineteen seventy seven seventy

995
01:08:45,840 --> 01:08:49,640
eight season. But it was definitely
a bit of a reputation play. He

996
01:08:49,760 --> 01:08:54,840
got outplayed by George Gervan, David
Thompson, and Kareem Abdul Jabbar. That

997
01:08:54,880 --> 01:08:57,319
should he should not have won MVP
that season. If you want to make

998
01:08:57,359 --> 01:09:00,000
the argument that he should have the
previous year, sure, but I'm I

999
01:09:00,039 --> 01:09:03,399
don't want to go there. In
seventy eight, I want to ask if

1000
01:09:03,920 --> 01:09:08,119
should Carmelon would have won his ninety
eight ninety nine MVP Award. No,

1001
01:09:08,600 --> 01:09:12,000
yeah, okay, I wanted to
make sure we're in lockstep there. Carmelone

1002
01:09:12,039 --> 01:09:15,479
have been allowed to be legally playing
basketball would probably be the better question at

1003
01:09:15,520 --> 01:09:20,840
that point. Let's get to our
final question, which was like super specific

1004
01:09:21,399 --> 01:09:26,439
and I'm totally here for it.
At Bryson seventy seven asked which player has

1005
01:09:26,479 --> 01:09:29,359
the most twenty seven point games in
NBA history? I have a follow up

1006
01:09:29,439 --> 01:09:32,640
question I'd like to direct at Bryson, what did we miss that this was

1007
01:09:32,680 --> 01:09:36,279
a question? But if you so, if you could let us know,

1008
01:09:36,279 --> 01:09:41,960
because Adams I have no clue.
Do you care to guess who is the

1009
01:09:42,079 --> 01:09:46,520
leader in all time twenty seven point
games? Exactly twenty seven points, not

1010
01:09:46,840 --> 01:09:50,800
over twenty seven points. I mean, I feel like the safe guess is

1011
01:09:50,840 --> 01:09:56,439
the all time scoring leader Kareem abdul
Jabbar, especially because unlike like Wilt Chamberlain

1012
01:09:56,720 --> 01:10:01,199
and Michael Jordan, he doesn't have
quite as many of those ridiculous scoring outputs.

1013
01:10:01,520 --> 01:10:04,800
So I'll go with Kareem. It
is Kareem. I'm convinced that you

1014
01:10:04,920 --> 01:10:09,960
cheated now or that you read my
face when you were guessing beforehand. Kareem

1015
01:10:10,039 --> 01:10:13,840
has seventy five twenty seven point games. Lebron is in second with seventy two,

1016
01:10:13,960 --> 01:10:17,800
karmelone third with sixty five, Kobe
Bryant in fourth with fifty five,

1017
01:10:18,119 --> 01:10:20,760
and he's tied with Dirk who also
had fifty five. So those are the

1018
01:10:20,800 --> 01:10:27,000
top five and exactly twenty seven points
played. I want to know why,

1019
01:10:28,920 --> 01:10:35,079
what is significant about that? Right? Here's my follow up because this might

1020
01:10:35,119 --> 01:10:41,079
be the answer, is which rookie
has the most twenty seven point games in

1021
01:10:41,239 --> 01:10:46,119
NBA history? Which way? What
was the question? Which rookie has the

1022
01:10:46,159 --> 01:10:50,279
most twenty seven point games in NBA
history? We can actually filter that.

1023
01:10:50,439 --> 01:10:53,720
I believe I've already done it.
You're not allowed to cheat. Now.

1024
01:10:54,439 --> 01:10:57,159
Which rookie has the most twenty seven
point games? Oh? My god?

1025
01:10:57,520 --> 01:11:04,159
Is it Alan Iverson? It is
not. Iverson had two had two twenty

1026
01:11:04,199 --> 01:11:10,239
seven point games. I'm guessing that
Anthony Edwards might be the impetus here because

1027
01:11:10,279 --> 01:11:14,399
he's part of a twelve way tie
for fourth place with five twenty seven point

1028
01:11:14,479 --> 01:11:19,399
games, trailing Alonso Morning who had
six, Steve Francis who had six,

1029
01:11:19,680 --> 01:11:25,800
and Mitch Richmond at eight. That
I never would have guessed that that's even

1030
01:11:25,880 --> 01:11:31,520
more of a specific question than than
we actually got. The list of players

1031
01:11:31,520 --> 01:11:35,159
who have had five twenty seven point
games as rookies is really interesting too,

1032
01:11:35,720 --> 01:11:42,600
because there are like a number of
all time grades among that dozen. It's

1033
01:11:42,680 --> 01:11:46,560
Kareem, Steph Curry, Terry Dischinger, Anthony Edwards, Tyreek Evans, Ron

1034
01:11:46,640 --> 01:11:50,399
Harper, Michael Jordan, Pete Maravich, David Robinson, Ralph Sampson, Colin

1035
01:11:50,479 --> 01:11:55,560
Sexton, and Carl Anthony Towns.
All right, do you think here's the

1036
01:11:55,720 --> 01:12:00,319
real question. Do you think Lebron
is going to surpass Kareem in twenty seven

1037
01:12:00,359 --> 01:12:04,439
point games exactly? He's three games
behind, so he need four more twenty

1038
01:12:04,479 --> 01:12:11,239
seven point exactly performances. I think
I think he will. I can't say

1039
01:12:11,279 --> 01:12:15,600
I've thought about this question before.
He just now, this was a great

1040
01:12:15,640 --> 01:12:18,880
mailbag. Again, We actually had
we had a bunch probably about ten questions

1041
01:12:19,000 --> 01:12:23,439
on the awards that we just ignored
this time because we were going to do

1042
01:12:23,479 --> 01:12:26,680
an awards pod. But thank you
guys, for sticking with us through both

1043
01:12:26,760 --> 01:12:30,359
parts until next time. Well,
if you have not given us a rating,

1044
01:12:30,520 --> 01:12:33,479
reviewed us on iTunes, please go
do that. I don't care if

1045
01:12:33,479 --> 01:12:36,000
you use iTunes or not. Adam
doesn't care either, None of us care.

1046
01:12:36,279 --> 01:12:39,600
Head over to iTunes, search Hardwood, Knox, throw us a five,

1047
01:12:39,640 --> 01:12:41,960
start rating, no matter what,
and then you can write whatever the

1048
01:12:42,000 --> 01:12:45,600
hell you want and the reviews.
Do we suck? Do you hate that

1049
01:12:45,720 --> 01:12:47,680
my nose looks like the guys from
Despicable Means? I might have already used

1050
01:12:47,720 --> 01:12:51,279
that outro once for us. Do
you hate that Adam has such inflammatory takes

1051
01:12:51,720 --> 01:12:57,279
that he should probably be on Fox
talking about sports? Whatever you hate in

1052
01:12:57,319 --> 01:13:00,600
there, throw us to five.
Start rating at all anyway, and definitely

1053
01:13:00,600 --> 01:13:03,960
subscribe and download every person wherever you
get your podcasts, and feel free to

1054
01:13:04,039 --> 01:13:08,399
let us know if we are only
coming out of your left ear. Because

1055
01:13:08,399 --> 01:13:11,439
I know that was a technical issue
last week. I apologize for that.

1056
01:13:11,560 --> 01:13:14,319
I figured it out. It's actually
Adam's fault when you really dig into it,

1057
01:13:14,439 --> 01:13:18,079
for getting vaccinated. Shame on you
for being a responsible citizen. Until

1058
01:13:18,119 --> 01:13:21,079
next time, I'll leave you with
a shout out to the one, the

1059
01:13:21,279 --> 01:13:28,680
only, the career all time leader
in twenty seven points exactly games. Kareem

1060
01:13:28,720 --> 01:13:36,000
Abdul Jabbat, Sugar Ray, Leonard, Roberto Duran, Marvelous Marvin Hagler,

1061
01:13:36,079 --> 01:13:42,560
and Thomas Hearns, legends whose four
way rivalry define one of the greatest errors

1062
01:13:42,600 --> 01:13:47,039
in boxing history, relive their decade
of dominance in the new Showtime Sports documentary

1063
01:13:47,199 --> 01:13:51,279
The Kings, a four parts series
premiering Sunday, June sixth, only on Showtime