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but Freddy didn't live up to the height. He has turned down every single
documentary project looking closely at the details of his career until now. People are
gonna look at everything you did because of the hype surrounding your arrival and what
they think you can be. I'm Grant Wall and this is American prodigy Freddy
Do from Blue Wire Podcasts. Hello, Hardwood Knocks listeners, This is Adam
Promwell here with my co host Dan Favalle, and we have a special Thanksgiving
addition for you this week. We're going to attempt to keep this somewhat short,
which is usually quite the challenge for us, but we're going to be
going through all thirty NBA franchises and alternating and just giving one thing that we
think fans of that franchise should be thankful for at this point in the NBA
calendar. It can be a player on the roster, it can be their
goals for the upcoming season, it can be something in their history. Anything
goes. But with that said, we also want to hear from you,
So if you could, when we're promoting this on Twitter or wherever you see
it, just give us a shower and let us know what you're thankful for
with regards to the franchise for which you cheer before we dive in a shout
out to our sponsors that online dot ag and indeed they'll be hearing from them
shortly. And Dan, how's it going today. I'm doing well, feeling
a lot better since we last recorded. I've listened back to most of our
podcasts to see specifically where I can improve or like, you know, whatever,
and I sounded just absolutely awful, sniffling the entire time. So I'll
give you that. I'm perpetually nasily. My voice is nasily, but that
was bad even by my standards, so I feel a lot better. I'm
ready to crush them Thanksgiving food with only my wife and her two parentals,
whom live on the premises with us. So that's that's all we're doing.
I hope everyone is doing the same and staying safe and not mass traveling or
having mass gatherings. But I'm ready to crush them Turkey Day food. And
how about you, how are you doing? I'm good as well. Yeah,
we're doing a virtual Thanksgiving, so we'll just hop on like a Google
hangout or something with my family and then with my wife's family and then probably
with my brother as well, and just use the day to say hi to
the people we aren't getting to see in person. I'm not gonna lie.
I would never do that, like my idea after finding out that I was
off. I was originally scheduled to work and now I'm off, so I'm
thankful for that. I would have loved to have just been me and Hang
as you like to call her. That's the only thing I can call her.
I would have that's her name. I would have liked to have ordered
Chinese food and seen absolutely no one. That would have been my idea of
Thanksgiving. But I love I love food, so we press on. I'll
be eating many many cheesecakes after we record this. Twenty twenty has like broken
my introvertness because typically, like I'm the kind of person who I like,
I can be totally fine in social situations, but it just wipes me out
and just leaves me kind of exhausted the rest of the day. So I
don't always crave those interactions. I am craving those interactions. Like I'm tired
of not seeing people. I would very much like to get to a point
where we can see people again. I'm totally with you. I just like
I'm not a big like zoom person, like I'd rather do it in person,
which I will not do. Just debate that clear, and so like
if I'm on a zoom call with friends, which I've done during this and
I've done a few game nights and like many of them have been fun,
but there's like some of the other times, I feel like I should be
doing something else more productive, which is probably more of an issue with myself.
But I tell I'm cravings. I haven't seen like my friends in person,
and it feels like forever at this point, though, are you ready
to go through what we're thankful for? Every team? And as you said,
the fact that this is going to be brief and we're talking like thirty
minutes or less, let's call it like that's gonna have to be an achievement.
But I'm ready to rock and I'm ready to roll. How about you?
I'm ready to sign off two hours from now. You're starting us off,
though we're alternating. Like you said, I'm gonna start off with the
Atlanta Hawks, and you know I was. I was debating here, or
like, do I go with the ridiculous depth of this new look lineup?
Now that they've signed Bogdan Bogdanovitch, Danilo Gallinari, Chris Dunne, Rajon Rondo,
they still have DeAndre Hunter and Cam Reddish and John Collins drafted on Yuka
Kongwu. But I think that the number one thing for the Hawks to be
thankful for. It is still just Trey Young, Like he is just such
a joy to watch, the ridiculous passing, creativity, the thirty plus foot
three pointers, just the way that he controls that offense and just injects excitement,
excitement into the lineup whenever he's on the court, like he as good
as this team could potentially be. He's still the unquestioned star, and I
think he's the top thing to be thankful for. Yeah, without the question,
Try Young's not a good passer though. Don't you remember that? I
can't remember who said it at this point, but that was sloading around at
the beginning of the year. Do you remember the season this season? I
don't at all. We definitely made fun of it on the podcast. Maybe
you weren't an official co host at that point, but I definitely trolled it
on the podcast. Trey Young is in fact a good pass for those so
I support that. So for Boston and look, I'm gonna go super quick
because sometimes I have two of these, just because I couldn't choose. For
Boston, I adjacent tadhum escape dribble threes, which is just that's probably the
most important shot in basketball. Right now, and he's really ridiculously good at
it. But I also have Marcus Smart heat checks, which are basically every
single shot that he takes. And I think people kind of slept on the
fact that I know it declined in the postseason, but he's got over forty
percent on pull up triples this past year. Like that's a really big freaking
deal. And I also like watching Marcus Smart on defense. I know we
can get caught up in the minushav of defense, but he's actually something that
I really enjoy watching work is butt off on that end of the floor.
I'm looking forward to reaching a point where people just aren't surprised when Marcus Smart
makes jumpers because he's made a bunch of them for a little while now.
But with the Brooklyn Nets, it's the medical advancements that have helped Kevin Durant
reportedly returned to form in workouts. In the past, achilles injuries have been
so devastating to players careers. There are very few examples of players returning to
anything close to the forum they were at before the injury, and we won't
know anything until he's actually playing games, But from what we're hearing from players
and reporters around him like he looks really good, you know, as a
slight corollary the medical advancements that will inevitably help with future Kyrie Irving injuries.
I'm interesting what he looks like coming off Achilles because I was listening to the
light Years podcast. They were talking about Klay Thompson's Achilles injury. They had
on a doctor and he said, typically, it's going to take you two
years if you're going to recapture full form. Durrant feels like he could be
different, just because he shoots over the top of everyone and might not need
to move a bunch. But I can't wait to see what he looks like
post recovery. I to Charlotte Hornet's next, and believe it or not,
I am not thankful for Michael Jordan's willingness to overpay people every few years.
I have a mellow balls passing because that seemed like something that kind of flew
on, not under the radar, but was being I don't even want to
say overlooked. But we talked more about his inefficiency and his general shot selection.
I'm leading into the draft. I feel like, collectively not necessarily this
podcast as we don't cover the draft, but he's going to be a really
good passer. I think there's going to be growing pains, but I'm hoping
that the Hayward signing doesn't portend him having the ball too much less because I
want them to let him experiment, and I feel like he's one more so
than Hayward was ever gonna do, will eventually put fans in seats. And
I'll also say just any off the dribble juice lineups featuring he and DeVante Graham,
Like, I don't know how often they're going to lean on those,
but because LaMelo Ball is so big, like I hope that's a back court
pairing we get to see a bunch of it. Seems like DeVante Graham,
Terry Rosier and LaMelo Ball could like kind of do what Dennis Shrewder, Chris
Paul and Shay Gil just Alexander did for the Oklahoma City Thunder last year with
those three guard lineups, like not as good, but similar skill sets meshing
together. So I'm excited to see them try that with the Chicago Bulls.
I've got nothing on the current iteration of this team, Like sure you can
get excited about Zach Lavine's dunks and Patrick Williams's potential after they reached for him
at number four in the draft. So I'm gonna go with memories of Michael
Jordan because those are everlasting and we will never get sick of them. So
when you're feeling depressed about the Chicago Bulls in twenty twenty one, just go
on YouTube and watch highlights of Michael Jordan and you'll be grateful. I would.
I'm definitely they took Patrick Williams at number four, just validating my love
for him. I'm also thankful for the prospect of maybe Wendell Carter Junior looking
at the rim this season. Those might have all been when he catches the
ball. I mean, I have the Cleveland Cavaliers. Look, I'm gonna
be mega thankful. I don't know if the roster is gonna hold long enough
for us to see it, but if these players are all on the team
on opening night and thereafter, I'm excited to see the all big lineup of
Kevin Love, Larry Nance, Andre Drummond, and Drew val McGee. You
know they're gonna roll that out once. But you know that three of them
are gonna play together because they tried it last year with Love, Drummond,
and Nance, and so if they do that again, and maybe if Isaaco
Coros involved in there, that's something that I would just love to see for
this year. Novelty of it. I don't know if it would be good.
The three big lineups stay kind of well last year, but I want
to see more of it. So I'm hoping that and I'm looking at Kevin
Love is just in town long enough. Maybe even Larry Nance feels like he
could be a popular trade target that everyone's in town for us to see more
of that. And I'd love to see more of Kevin Porter Junior, who
won thankful for his hair, and two he puts a lot more pressure on
defenses the half court that I think people realize. It's funny you said that
about Kevin Porter Junior's hair, because I was going to say the same about
Colin Sexton's hair. They have just they have a great hair lineup. I
was good at Look spoiler alert, I can't be I'll save it. Let's
just keep going, just keep going. But the Dallas Mavericks, I think
it's obvious here. It's just it's Luca don Chich, you know, the
youngest ever top five finisher and MVP voting. He's only going to keep getting
better. He he by himself makes this roster a playoff contender in the West
throughout the foreseeable future with title aspirations. He is an absolute joy to watch,
the way he plays, the way he commands the offense. Just it's
Luca don Chich. There are no qualifiers necessary. Yeah, I don't know
what else you could go with at this point. Maybe eventually it'll be thankful
for Josh Richardson's defense on that team. Just feels like, I guess,
or like that they're changing their alternate uniforms away from the monstrosities to the white
and gold ones this year. The white and gold ones are ugly as hell,
and the other ones that were cartoonish were awesome. That is my hot
take. The best jerseys they've had are like the black and blue ones.
I think if you remember all black with the the blue letter those. Yeah,
so at least we found common ground on that. I have the Denver
Nuggets and this one seems fairly obvious to me too. I think you could
go with Jamal Murray Debt Nations, but I'm going with Nikolayoka water polo passes,
and you could just say Nicoleoka passes in general, there are i would
say, like one to two times a game, even if they don't end
it in the syst there's a pass that he still throws where I'm like,
oh, and yeah, maybe not every game because I'm not watching every Nuggets
game obviously, given the nature of how we cover the league, but the
fact that he can still continue to shock me like that is just just absolutely
mind melting. I'm definitely not thankful for Michael Porter Junior's anti vax stances,
though that I can confirm if anyone's wondering, I think the water polo passes
are the objectively correct answer, where the outlet passes too, Like those things
are like, that's the one I spent crapping over. I didn't know whether
to go with polo or outlet. And the water polar ones are just when
they're in the half court like they just look a little bit niftier. But
the outlet passes are truly incredible as well. You could have just gone with
Monte Morris in general two and that would have worked. Look, they shouldn't
have signed Camposito or maybe maybe I would have think about that. I feel
like we could end up being thankful for Fakundo Composo passes just because there are
going to be lots of highlights generated with that too. We need to have
like the like the hockey assist potential on the Nuggets right now is upsurd,
Like if Yo Kids throws it to Camposo and then he like throws it to
someone else like that could be absolutely mind blowing. So for the Detroit Pistons,
it is the strength of the twenty twenty one NBA draft. Look,
they're going to be bad this year. We know they're going to be bad
this year and big. They're also definitely going to be big. But it's
a great time to be bad because this twenty twenty one draft is stacked at
the top, it's deep, so even if they don't end up with the
number one pick, there are plenty of options. And beyond that, they
can't get more big men in this draft at the top of it because it's
very garden wing heavy. So just expect to see k Cunningham, Jalen Green,
Jonathan Cominga, Evan Mobley, Scotty Barnes, Zier Williams just highlights of
all the up and coming draft prospects in Detroit all season long. I look
forward to seeing what the tanking slogans are going to be in their defense.
They did get rid of two bigs and Tony Bradley and Dwayne Deadman, so
they could probably use a couple more. So maybe maybe they'll make a reach
or trade down so that they can acquire another big. I do agree with
you, they're gonna be bad this year. That leads me into the indianap
No, where am I gold Day Wars? Excuse me? I mean Stephen
Curry's gravity, right, This is not It's probably cliche to say at this
point, but when you watch him dribble up the court and there are like
three all five sets of eyes like if they're back, are just on him,
and they are like three defenders at minimum, just gravitating heavily towards him.
And I'm very sad about the Clay Thomson injury, but I want to
see Stephen Curry stay healthy this year because I do think his supporting cast is
still suboptimal when you look at the fit around him, like Ubre and and
Wiggins are not the best shooters to this point, and we know Wiseman doesn't
really have that kind of range. I feel like we might really see him
be able to levy the true extent of his impact on a roster that's this
suboptimal without Clay because those I think at least a few of those guys are
gonna end up shoting way better than they would from the outside because of him,
or just the sheer number of bunnies they're going to get at the rim
because of his gravity. And so here's hope he doesn't break his hand or
anything like that. And look, the Warriors, they had their dynastic runs,
Like you don't need to feel sorry for them, but I've had enough
injuries, major injuries from Warriors players to last me the last half decade.
Or though, look, Steph has to be the choice because he only played
five games last season, Like, of course, we're thankful that we get
to watch him again. I personally, when I'm picking something about Steph Curry,
it might be his off ball movement at this point, like he is
just he is such a joy to watch. If you if you watch a
Warriors game and don't focus on the ball, but just watch Steph move the
entire possession in the half court, just in constant motion, trying to find
those open crevices where he can use that quick release, and it's it's really
entertaining and informative. Just if you're trying to figure out, like how to
play off the ball. How feasible is it for him to play extensively off
the ball this season? Because who do you trust to handle it aside from
Draymond Green on this team? Like, I mean, Brad Watermaker is fine,
Who would you say, James Harden Eventually, that's fair. You've been
You've been pushing for that one. I'm thankful for the prospective James hardened Warriors.
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Speaking of James Harden the Houston Rockets, I think it's either the three scoring
titles that Harden has won in the last three years, just because if you're
a Rockets fan, it's been a blast to see him rack up those points
and kind of frustrate fans of other teams with his unconventional playing style for lack
of a better word. I think the other choice here is the chance to
watch Christian would develop and see if that small sample of stardom is going to
be realized in a bigger role over a larger sample. Now that he has
signed a three year deal with the Rockets, So I'm good with either one
of those, and I couldn't really decide between them. I agree with everything
you said there. I think the Rockets are kind of like that's a given.
I have the Indiana Pacers next. I'm thankful that they seem to be
playing some sort of holiday family bingo and they really only have Drew left and
then they'll be fine. I wanted to be thankful for the way that,
and I still kind of am. If you just put a wing there,
like and maybe not a star wing, but just like someone who's like close
to replacement level, they all of a sudden just becomes so much better on
defense. Indiana. You look at bay On Bagdanovitch, even justin holiday,
you look at what TJ. Warren's done. I don't know how plausible it
is to still be thankful for that after Dan Burke, the assistant coach credited
with doing a lot of that work left for the Sixers. So I will
just say this one might be the biggest cliche of all, but Indiana's sort
of ability to navigate every single injury or absence over the past like twoish years
where they're still no They're not a flashy playoff team. They're not even a
threatening playoff team. But like when Victor Oladipo has basically missed you, let's
say season and a half, they're still able to be competitive. Malcolm Brogden
was banged up a ton last year. With all these different injuries, they
were able to navigate that they lose Jeremy Lamb, so they've They've had like
some underachieving from Miles Turner on offense, though I'm hoping he gets a bigger
opportunity under Nate Borkin and that might be the other thing. This was the
team that was hardest for me to pick. Miles Turner's defensive movement, Like
I all of a sudden't feel like he's viewed as like this negative asset because
he has was it, three years and fifty four million about left on his
deal. We both said this, and I think, or at least I
said, and I think you agree with me. The Celtics, if they
had the opportunity to get Miles Turner in a trine and trade for Gordon Award
and did not short of the Pacers asking them to take back Jeremy Lamb in
that deal, there was no reason for them to say now, just because
I think Miles Turner's really good and we're kind of forgetting about that. So
that's where I'm at. On the Pacers, I like it, I don't.
I don't really have anything to add there because I think you you definitely
covered the highlights with the Clippers, the Los Angeles Clippers, you know.
I think the player empowerment era that we're in is a great thing. I'm
all for empower the players as much as possible. It also leads to shorter
title windows because if something doesn't work, we're seeing a lot of players move
on. So after the Clippers blew a three one lead to the Denver Nuggets
in the playoffs, I think they should be most thankful that they're getting another
chance to run this back with Kawhi Leonard and Paul George leading the charge.
They've reloaded a little bit by bringing in Luke Knard, by bringing in Serge
Ibaka. This is still a really deep and talented roster that should have title
aspirations and is very realistically a championship contender, and that shouldn't be taken for
granted because this could have gone sideways really fast after such an ugly exit from
the playoffs. So just getting that second chance with Kawai and Paul George before
they have the ability to opt out for free agency, that's definitely a reason
for them to be thankful for it. One thing I'll note on this team
that's gonna be interesting. I think they end up missing ja Michael Green more
than is being talked about. Maybe they didn't go to him at the five
enough last year, which is to say at all for them to appreciate what
he kind of brought there. But I do think that that's kind of an
underrated storyline because Abacca is more of a limited big man defensively. Now that
leads me with the Lakers this one. I guess it could be difficult because
there's so much that you could go with, you know, Anthony Davis's defense,
Alex Carusoe's highlights, and a Billy Eagle viral on social media, and
then there's Lebron in general. I wanted to zero in a little bit.
Lebron's passing to the corners is just absolute sorcery. Still continues to be among
the league leaders every single season in points generated offices from three pointers, and
then just the looks that he's able to create in the corners like just so
wide open for his teammates. He has helped so many guys get paid,
And no, that wasn't necessarily Casep's function. So you're looking at his deal,
that's not necessarily that, but so many lineups work just because he is
still such a pull when he's going downhill. Is still one of the most
terrifying things in the NBA. And when you factor that in with his vision,
just like you know, some of the angles he's throwing these passes to
the corners are just absolutely upsurd. And he's about to turn thirty six.
By the way, I think it's lost. It was lost on me because
the season is starting like so quickly, but also so late. He's about
to turn so true story here. You know, when I'm hanging out with
my almost two year old in the backyard, we have a big garage offset
from the house, and there's like a brick portion of it that I like
to just throw passes against because it rebounds right back to me. So I
was trying to imitate Lebron James's corner passes the other day, and you know,
like not really look where I was going. I definitely broke a window
on the garage. Just like the passes that he makes, I have no
business trying. So yes, I totally agree that we should be grateful for
the ability to continue watching those as he defies father time. On the opposite
end of the age spectrum with the Memphis Grizzlies, it's just Jah Morant.
Everything, like the command that he already has over an offense, has changes
of pace, his ability to take off earlier than defenders expect and just hang
in the air for that split second longer, Like there are so many parts
of his game that reminds me of just vintage Dwayne Wade and just getting a
chance to continue watching him grow and and praying that he stays healthy because some
of the falls that he takes are so awkward. So just John Moran everything.
He needs to work on the landings, though I think we could he
does. I'm hoping someone's talked about that from Miami. I have Jimmy Butler's
ego, and I mean that in a really good way where he talks about
like how much he works. Where do you remember the story in the bubble
he apparently had, like you know, the hotel, like called because they
heard noises from his room and it was too loud was because he was working
out. He's the type of guy who would have called the hotel frontest himself
and said, I hear these noises coming from Jimmy Butler's room. He's working
out too loudly. I actually legitimately love that. And then something just a
little bit more granular and serious. Bam Adebayo was a warp speed footwork on
defense is amazing to me. And that's another player that I enjoy watching on
that side of the floor. I think we could throw in Jimmy Butler's coffee
business too. I don't know he's not paying his nephew or who was ever
in that video friend of the family that was making coffee for him. So
I have some questions, and I'd like to maybe talk to the Better Business
Bureau to see if things have changed there at all. We need a deep
dive on on the coffee habits. Yeah, we do. For the Milwaukee
Bucks, it's the acquisition of Drew Holiday just what a perfect fit alongside Chris
Middleton and Janna Sounded Kombo, and everything is about getting him to sign that
Supermax now or retaining him in free agency next year. So if you're a
Bucks fan, like as disappointed as you're going to be about the Bogdan Bogdanovich
disaster and the and you know disappointment in Janni's not already putting pen to paper
on that Supermax. Just the fact that the front office went out and acquired
such a perfect fit and another star caliber player for a team that has struggled
to get over the postseason hump is one hundred percent something to be immensely grateful
for. Yeah, it's gonna be interesting when they have to see Bogdanovich and
Hawks Jersey three times this year. Who knows every money with the seventy two
games schedule, you can also just be thankful for maybe Jannis eventually signing the
Supermax. It still feels like that's an eminent possibility for Minnesota. I have
Karl afy Town's offensive bag. It's like watching this dude on offense, it's
like someone took the Marcus Cousins and Al Horford put them together, made him
faster and a better shooter, and like that's the best way I could describe
it, which basically means like someone didn't put Boogie and Al Horford together.
But his ability to way he's like so light on his feet when he puts
the ball on the floor of the work he could do in the post,
and then just his three point volume and efficiency is is crazy to me.
I think a lot of people are, you know, talking about, well,
how is it going to work the offense now? Like D'Angel Russell and
Ricky Rubio, they both need the ball in their hands, even at the
Edwards and Jared Colver to some extent, you don't want to see touches being
taken away from towns like from scratch touches. But he is such that he
fits alongside literally everyone and anyone, and that's just something to appreciate. Also,
because he's back Ricky Rubio huggable demeanor, just seems like a super likable
guy and now he's just running the gamut of having to play in all these
on these different teams. At least he's going back to Minnesota, so that's
where he's familiar with, but he hasn't been able to like I guess,
Phoenix is probably objectively the best market he's played in for his career. What
is it Minnesota and Phoenix and who am I missing? Now is that it
is only Minnesota and Phoenix? I think so. No, I'm forgetting one.
Where was he traded? Why are we blanking on this? Well,
it was trading to the Thunder very briefly. No, but he played somewhere
else, did he not? Oh wait? No, oh no, you're
right. It was just Minnesota and it's just a utah wow two seasons.
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, I've already replaced all memories of
Ricky Rubio with with Mike Conley. Apparently. Wow, that was bad.
That was That was a brain far because that was recent. But I'm thankful
for Ricky Rubio's huggable a demeanor as you should be. You know. I
think with Towns, it's funny. I think back to the one on one
All Time tournament that we did at NBA MATH and I remember, like so,
Karl Anthony Towns in the six to eleven region, he beat Bill Walton
in the fan vote, and people were pissed about that because you know,
Bill Walton is a Hall of Famer, a champion, an MVP candidate,
and Towns is still so young and up and coming in his career all things
considered, But like, yeah, Towns is gonna win a one on one
matchup, Like as you said, like the offensive bag is just almost unprecedented
at the position, the three level scoring, the off the bounce juice,
like everything that he does is just unbelievable and underappreciated because the Timberwolves haven't been
able to win around him. And I think the other thing that definitely flew
under the radar this season, and it comes with the grain assault of his
playing only thirty five games, but he averaged four point four assist per game
this year. He's just really good in general. I like that destimation.
Carlo the doown's really good. Let's move on New Orleans Pelicans. You know,
I think you can go with Lonzo Balls, brilliant passing, with JJ
Reddick's ability to make the playoffs every year except this last one with Brandon Ingram
coming back as a restricted free agent with Steven Adams is just general awesomeness and
interviews and postgame pressers. But come on, it's Zion Williamson and the Thunderous
Dunks, like right now, like he's one of the absolute marquee players in
the NBA, even though he only played a handful of games as a rookie.
He's on the cover of NBA two k you know he is. He
is the face of the franchise, even if he might not yet be its
best player, and every time he's on the court, something special could happen.
And also the front court if he and Steven Adam. Steven Adams definitely
the only one in the NBA, perhaps an NBA history on whose arms you
could do pull ups for both the players that power forward and centers throwing it
out there. I had the New York Knicks, and I think one Mitchell
Robinson empty gym videos are the best because they don't want to say swindle fans
into thinking, but they get fans thinking that, hey, maybe he's going
to start putting the ball on the floor shooting threes. I'm actually thankful for
I call it Frankneilikina's pick andtrol defense because he's so good. It's almost like
he's doing it in spite of the Knicks, because they don't give him enough
playing time, and the Knicks have just been so poor defending the pick and
roll in general for so many years. For the most part, just watching
him making reads there and being just semi disruptive in all of his three seasons,
by the way, he has ranked in the sixty fifth percentile or higher
of points allowed per possession to the pick and roll ball handler. That's pretty
damn good. And one of those seasons he was in the ninety first percentile
as well. Just throwing it out there. Speaking of Mitchell Robinson, I'm
just thankful for every minute that he gets to play without a foul being called
on him, because he's so much fun on defense and just so impactful,
and if he can ever get control of the fouling issues, then there's a
breakout coming imminently. I made the joke that between him and Newrlan's Noels and
Nick's probably have like thirty six minutes of center play now if you go by
six fouls per So that was pretty generous of you, I think with the
Thunder, you know, I personally have decried the existence of the Steppian role
in past episodes, but I'm gonna go kind of the opposite tack here and
say that the Thunders should be thankful for the lack of limitations on how many
first round draft picks you can acquire at one time, because they have approximately
eight hundred In the next decade. And the beauty of it is that it's
not all stacked in one specific draft. So it's not like the Thunder are
going to be on the clock ten times in the first round of any specific
draft and have too many rookies to bring in at once. They're all spaced
out. They have like three or four picks or pick swaps forever, just
roughly for forever, So they're eventually going to be consolidated because that's just too
many young players when the next disgruntled star is available, Like, you can
be sure that the Thunder are at least going to be in that conversation.
But yeah, just the lack of limitations on what Sam Presty can do as
a pickharder is great. Are they going to be the first team to acquire
a first round pick, you know, actually obligated, not one that could
stretch out. Are they gonna be the first team to acquire a first round
pick from the twenty eight draft or later? They're gonna be the first team
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Orlando Magic. I think this is tongue in cheek, but I respect,
and I guess I'm thankful for their commitment to just signing and drafting long players
who can't shoot. It's just like it's been even pre dates this front office,
I think. But I'm actually thankful for them giving Mark hell Folt's resurgence
a home. I'm definitely not as high on him as the organization seems to
be. I had no problem with them picking up his team option, though,
if they extended him for like a significant amount of money. That's where
I think the division would come in. But he's become really good. He
could be disruptive on defense or what it's worth. I don't know what's going
to become of his jumper. But he shot fifty percent from mid range after
the All Star Break last year. Not an insignificant sample size either. He
was taking three point two of those attempts for game, and for someone who
has the ball in his hands so much and it's creating those looks, those
shots are actually okay. It's not like you're asking him to spot up from
mid range. So I think we should all definitely be thankful that he's actually
going to see it. Seems like he's going to carve out an actual semi
impactful NBA career. And look, he's probably young enough to where maybe he
can even build upon that. And perhaps I'm underselling him. Maybe a shout
out to Chimo Okak as well. Just the fact that he has recovered from
that torn acl that he's going to make his delayed debut and could be an
intriguing three D guy for a franchise that needs that kind of production. Who
breaks the mold of the long players, who can't shoot. I actually don't
know how long he is I forget, but the fact that he could shoot
sort of removes him from this discussion entirely. Yeah, So with the Philadelphia
seventy six years, it's just it's having access to Daryl Morey. I mean,
what a tremendous impact he has already made on that franchise. In just
a few weeks now, we've gone from wondering whether they were going to split
up the Ben Simmons Joel Embiid pairing to finally putting the right kind of pieces
around them. They got rid of the Al Horford contract. They brought in
Seth Curry and Danny Green and Dwight Howard to provide capable backup. Five minutes,
Mike Scott is back. Isaiah Joe was an interesting draft pick, as
was Tyreeks Maxie. This is just it's a compelling and cohesive roster around two
absolute stars, and it is a testament to Maury that he was able to
do that in such short order. I think that's tough. I mean,
look, he's completely like it's not a perfect roster now, but it's one
that makes sense a lot more sense, at least around Joel and Beat and
Ben Simmons, So I think that's absolutely valid one. You can also go
with Ben simmons is passing or Joel and Beat's Twitter was the ones that I
had jotted down for some of the teams that I wasn't in charge of Phoenix.
I have Devin Booker's passing. We've already talked about that on this pod.
But while it's not complicated or flashy, he's creating shots that would otherwise
not be there for his teammates. I'm so interested interested to see him play
beside Chris Paul. I'm also very thankful for mcal Bridges, his arms and
the other thing. I'm just very happy and people when I put this on
Twitter, they wanted to throw Micaal Bridges into this as well. But I
love that we have Javon Carter, Jay Crowder and CP three on the same
team, just from the sheer facial expressions that will probably get from all of
them after big plays. So many things to be thankful for with the Phoenix
Suns. Javon Carter's defensive intensity. He has been a huge favorite of mine
dating back to his college chase at West Virginia. Would you like my semi
hot take. Always the Hawks would prefer to remove the semi though, Okay,
the nature of him being an early bird restricted free agent, this is
Javon Carter would limit to the amount that Atlanta could have offered him. I
would rather him be in Atlanta than both Rondo and Chris Dunn. Doesn't bring
as much ball handling, is probably either, but I think he's just the
best of both worlds and someone more you can depend on for shooting. And
I don't necessarily think you needed the ball handling as much with Bodon, Bogdanovich
and Gallo, who, by the way, according to Travis Slank is coming
off the bench in Atlanta, So just my right decision. It probably is,
but it just further proves my decision that Javon Carter would have been a
better fit than Rondo and Done there combined. I get that take, but
I'm really high on the Dun fit, so I will disagree, but just
only slightly. And it's funny because if you were going to have that she
was one of them, you probably would still rather have Rondo there with Javon
Carter, just for the ball handling. Since Carter's then replaced a lot of
what Dune does on defense with better shooting. But I'll be interest to see
how Dun's fit is there. I think it's fine that you're higher obviously on
that than I am. So with the Portland Trailblazers, you know, I
think it would be easy to highlight just the off season improvements they've made,
bringing in bringing back Ennis Cantor, Harry Giles, the third, resigning Carmel
Anthony, bringing in Derek Jones Jr. This is a really deep and good
roster. But for me, it's just it's Damian Lillard. Just I think
he's my favorite player to watch him the NBA right now, just because of
the mastery that he has and the improvements that he makes year after year.
He's just this devastatingly explosive offensive weapon. And when he is on fire,
as he was during the bubble portion of the season and really before the league
shut down as well, I just I don't think there's anyone who's more fun
to watch. And I'm very jealous of the Rip City fans who who get
to support him on a game by game basis. Yeah, that's the easy
one. I would run through a wall for Damian Lillard. So I think
that I have for the Sacramento Kings. This is the one I must spoil
before. I'm thankful Harod grows back because I'm hoping that Dearon Fox grows his
out again. I'm actually thankful for Dearon Fox, though he is the vessel
through which they run their offense. I think I had him as the top
twenty five player coming into this year. He never got there. He was
dealing with I think was an ankle injury that that certainly hampered him. He's
just so fast. Only five players average more drives per game last season,
and after the turn of the calendar, he averaged twenty three points basically seven
assists while hitting fifty four point two percent of his twos. I liken him
to like, I don't know if he's as strong as John Wall, he's
definitely as quick, and it seems like he's going to have better touch and
I think, you know we're talking about he's going into year four, so
we'll see. So I'm super thankful to watch him and look, can we
also just be thankful for the King's giving us the steady stream of drama even
more so than like the Knicks, you don't have players on the Knicks,
like Buddy Healed liking a tweet about a joke about him being sad to still
be in Sacramento from a brand account that Mieter might not be the parent account
of this podcast, but anyway, I think we're onto the Spurs now.
As an Atlanta Hawks fan, I'm just I'm thankful for the Kings in general
right now, just their existence. Look, I we shouldn't get too part
of the weeds with this. I think they should have matched, but I
do think at least it shows that the front office isn't trying to chase a
ten seed and they're playing a longer, larger game. However, if that
was the case, like you needed to move him before that, and I
would have matched it and then figured out the rest later. Like I still
think four years and seventy two for him is probably movable. He's older if
he's twenty eight, so he's older than people think. But I still think
that contract would have been dealable, just like I think people talking about how
Buddy Healed is it movable? That's a ours, Like Buddy Heelt is absolutely
movable. I'm with you. The San Antonio Spurs, they've been so good
at straddling the line recently between being competitive and developing prospects, like we saw
that in the bubble at the end of this past season, where they were
clearly focusing on player development and still winning games enough that there was a chance
they were going to sneak into that play in game. So I'm thankful that
after this coming season, Demarda Rosen, LaMarcus Aldrich, Rudy Gay, and
Patty Mills will all have contracts that have expired and give the Spurs the financial
flexibility to just turn the page and move on to the next era. Let's
see if they do it. I would like to shout us out. We
basically got through up to the Spurs in thirty minutes minus hour, like four
minutes of bantering at the beginning, so we are a little bit over bokudos
to us for blowing through this. And in that same vein Ronto, I
have two things, the easy one and I think the important one is Kyle
Lowry. If you if I made a list of NBA players that I would
be prepared to follow to hell and back and then back to Hell again,
Kyle Lowry would probably be at the top. Damian Lillard would also certainly be
on that list. He's just an absolute joy, and the things he does
on the court kind of like mirror that feeling where he's going to set screens
as a guard. I know people or specifically fans of other teams don't like
his gimmicks on defense. I'm, you know, taking those charges, but
they certainly work. And look, I have to shout him out. I
think once a podcast, we're contractually abligated to Chris Brusche. He's gonna have
a bigger role this season, and I would just like to point out,
here's every single NBA player who in one of his first three seasons at least
logged at least one hundred minutes and then proceeded to average two point five blocks
and one point five three point makes or more per thirty six minutes. Eddie
Griffin, Mo Bamba, Chris Bouche, and Chris stops Porzingis. I'm actually
choosing to ignore basically every single other name on that list, aside from Bouchet
and christops Porzingis. His ceiling is clearly that of Kris stops porzingis probably higher
because he's healthier. So let's just get that out of the way. And
move on. That seems fair. I'm also thankful for the perfectly legal screens
the Aaron Bands and Kyle Lowry are going to set throughout the season. Kyle
Howies are way more legal than Aaron Baines is. He's just smaller and sometimes
falls under people that makes them look worse. Yeah, that's fair. With
the Utah Jazz, I think it's it's the Donovan Mitchell signed an extension already.
You know, there was so much drama surrounding him and Rudy Gobert throughout
the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic and the NBA shutdown, and then we heard
all the can they work together? Stories? Are they going to have to
move one of them? But it seems like they're committed to keeping together a
pairing that works really well on the court. And Donovan Mitchell is just an
absolute joy to watch, not just because of the explosion in this past year's
playoffs, but just the way he plays in general, and even more importantly,
his presence off the court. He's already such a vital figure in that
Salt Lake City community. He does so much community service work. He is
a consistently supportive and endearing presence on social media. He is just he seems
just like a great human and he is really easy to work for, to
work for and to root for. Jazz fans get to continue doing that for
the foreseeable future and four years, probably because he has a player option on
year five. He less thankful for that part, more thankful for it if
you're a jazz player. Empowerment. Yeah, Washington, So I only have
two for this one because you told me mine was too much of a deep
cut, which I think was fair. So Bradley Beale is definitely what I'm
thankful for because he's so if you make a list of players that you've never
actually met or had to cover in person, and you could just tell that
they're probably really good dudes, I feel like Bradley Beale's at the top of
that list for me, and having covered a game or that Damian the Lord
was at like I'm excluding those type of people from the list. The thing
that got me was once where he said he's talking about when his I do
not know if it's his wife, so I apologize, but his girlfriend or
his wife she was pregnant with Sean. He was talking about all the terrible
food he was eating because he wanted to eat it with her, and I
was just like, I feel like that's so relatable and also well, it's
definitely a treat for him, sort of kind of nice, but just like
sort of those anecdotes are why I love Bradley Beale also an offensive mon there.
I'm also thankful for Garrison Matthews' offensive confidence. I cannot believe he didn't
get an MBA contract this year. I'm not trying, like I, you
know, make the joke that I'm like sort of harping on this Caucasian dude,
but he like he takes ultra deep threes. They're quick, and he's
like he can draw contact and get to the foul line and work off the
dribble. So I am hoping that he gets ample opportunity while being on a
two way with Washington. But I was just very surprised that he didn't land
an NBA contract over the offseason. I'm shocked that you aren't talking about how
Thomas Bryant is unquestionably a top fifty player. I gotta give him his credit,
though, A three point shooting last year, like that's gonna be huge
for Washington with WHI all coming back. I would think another person who might
be able to set him up for some really nice corner looks. That doesn't
think we got through this in under two hours, Yeah, look sub forty
minutes. It's gonna be a little bit longer once I edit this and put
the ads in, but I'm proud of us. Hopefully, hopefully I have
time to go through this and get the time stamps for everything. We hope
you enjoyed it. Everyone. Please have a safe and happy Thanksgiving, good
long weekend. We hope when you're listening to this at all, we will
catch you soon. As always, though, please please pretty please with sugar
and whatever else you like on top, Remember to rate, review, and
subscribe to this podcast on iTunes even if you don't use iTunes, and definitely
subscribe and download every episode where you are consuming your podcasts. For Adam frommel
I am Dan Favalley, Happy Thanksgiving and shout out to the one the only
future three point Contest champion Darrison Matthews. Why not nobody builds five G like
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