Speaker 1: What is up, fellow Sikos. I am an actual sick
person in Dan fa Adey coming at you with my
certified fantabulous co host, mister Grant Hughes for our first
sort of bounce around of the season where we're gonna
dive deep into a handful of teams or players normally
between like two and four. Just to give more in
depth thoughts and impressions, I will say very quickly before
I throw it to Grant, we do have our Mega
Overreaction podcast that will go live on Saturday. So join
our discord the links in the podcast and YouTube description
and you will be able to submit your own overreaction
that might appear at the end of the show that
we will respond to. So just another reason to join
that discorder. Then talk to all the cold people we
have in there, especially active during the games that are
being play. Mister Hughes, how the heck are you doing?
Speaker 2: Unlike you and your your sickness riddled itself. Uh and
very much like our guy, our our our dude, Lindy Waters,
I'm thriving. Are you aware of what's happening with Lindy Waters? Dan?
We've turned him from a bit into a superstar. H.
Speaker 1: I one would like to pat myself on the back
to the point of dislocating my shoulder for saying how
many teams should trade for him before the Warriors actually did. Uh,
he did dunk the Pelicans into the G League, I think,
but he I guess do we want to start you
said one of the teams you wanted to start with
or talk about today was Golden State. So do you
want to talk about Golden State?
Speaker 2: Yeah? I mean, I figure watching every minute of every game,
so I might as well. We might as well repurpose
that for.
Speaker 1: Hold on, hold on, well, check in the games around here.
Speaker 2: Let's not that's those are the only games I watch.
Speaker 1: That's it.
Speaker 2: Yeah, Like so I don't know. Obviously, the headlining is
that Steph Curry spring his ankle twice in the span
of like a quarter a couple of nights ago and
went out and it was both non contact. I don't
know if you have you seen the clips of it
where it was just like, didn't step on anyone's foot,
just like trying to move around like a normal person.
Speaker 1: Role. I first thought was, I'm still not sure if
he's worth that four year, forty four million dollar extension.
Speaker 2: Yeah, everybody from what ten plus years ago now is
like see see kids is never gonna stay healthy. Uh
so yeah, that was I mean, it's nothing you haven't
seen just several times before, and it seemed like a
fairly minimal absence is in store. Uh and man like,
of course that obviously matters. But the story for this
team of the early season is just and everybody's picked
up on this, like I think it was obvious in
the preseason, So no kudos for anyone that's just now
coming around to the to these facts. But like, this
team is super deep. Lindy Waters does mean you have
thirteen guys that can actually play? Uh? He was unbelievable.
I've got I want I just want the numbers. So
the Warriors beat the Pelicans the night before we're recording this,
and Water's just like, I want to find his game
log because it's just I know his rebounds were what's up?
Speaker 1: It was filthy the stat.
Speaker 2: So just here are the numbers and then we could
talk about like just how this is happening. This may
just all be about Lindy Waters twenty one points on
eight to thirteen, three to seven from three. That seems low.
Eight rebounds as a career high four assist to steal
no turnovers. He's a plus twenty six in thirty minutes
in an eighteen point win for the Warriors. So like
he's definitely symptomatic. He's a symptom of like what is
just happening on Golden State, which is the ball is
moving in ways that like it just really hasn't for
several years, and that's partly by necessity because they're just
aren't guys. You have to slow the offense down to
four shots to It's honestly, I think a lot of
it is the influence of Brandon Pajemski, who just his
playing style is like so frenetic and quick and just
kind of also bordering on chaotic a lot of the
time that it just like if you're on the floor
with him, you're almost infected, and like you just sort
of pick it up a little bit, so the ball
moves better. Everybody's hustling on defense. It's not all him,
but he is a league leading plus seventy six plus
minus on the season despite shooting like eighteen percent from three,
maybe nineteen percent and under forty percent from the field.
Speaker 1: Because he went he was like he had three of
them against the Pels, right, that was probably perform Yeah,
And like the shooting and the scoring for him is
a real problem, but he's so good at everything else
and so good at what seems to be like an
intangible ability to just like lift the intensity of teammates.
It's just it's worth it, even if he's going to
shoot under forty percent from the field, Like, it's just
the payoff is there, the plus minus is not. It's
been a year plus now where that's just a thing,
and I don't think it's a it's it's magic.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I mean it's the depth is unbelievab. Buddy
Heel has I texted somebody the other day, Like, Buddy
Heel shoots every shot as if he's never missed a
shot before. And it's just like they come off the same,
the same level of confidence. He's so thirsty for shots.
He chases the ball wherever it goes. It's just like
it's a fun time because the Warriors are winning in
ways that they haven't really in a long time. The
defense is super chaotic. They're forcing more turnovers than anyone
in the league. They have the highest transition frequency in
the league, and those two things are very much related
because they just get the ball and take off. The
Jonathan Kaminge stuff maybe we can talk about, but I
mean pretty hard to be more optimistic just based on, like,
you know, how bleak this season could have looked. Maybe
you know, if if you just if it had gone
the way that many thought where it was. They don't
have a second star. Everything's too dependent on Curry. Draymond's
getting old, Like you know, there were some real downsides here,
But I do think this is about as exciting and
fun and encouraging as like as you could have really
realistically hoped for three and one through four games. Pretty
solid start.
Speaker 1: Is there. I mean, I think the overarching question here
would be are the Golden State Warriors as constructed potential
contenders or outright contenders? And I think when you look
at their defense specifically, you mentioned a lot of the
stuff they are. Also they and the Oklahoma City Thunder
are currently the only teams that rank in the top
five of opponent shooting percentage at both the rim and
from the three point line. I mean, we know that
three point defense is there's just so much noise in there,
the deflection they're getting it's all over the place. I
do think some of their success might be predicated on, well,
how healthy is Theanthony Melton going to be moving forward
because his back issues already flared up. I don't we're
so early into the season. I think we could say
I don't necessarily know what to make of this team
ceiling right now, but like how good can this team
be as currently constructed?
Speaker 2: That is the question, because you wonder if the things
that have led to so much success really just go
down the line, like tend to be things that we
say mean less in the playoffs, depth being the first one, right,
Like in the postseason, you just play your best guys more.
And so this advantage the Warriors have in say second
quarters and the beginning of fourth quarters where they just
have better players on the floor because their reserves are
better than yours, like that may just go away. So
that's one. Two, Like winning games by just disorganizing things
and creating chaos, you would imagine is just harder against
you know, playoff teams that one are playing their best
players and two are just going to be better able
to handle like you know, being sped up or being
forced into like difficult shots where. And let's remember too,
the Warriors did not exactly face a murder's row to
start the season, like the Pelicans even are beat up
and that's the best team they've played. So you get
your you know, you lose to the Clippers, but you
also get Portland and now and Utah, Right, I think
those like, okay, so what are we even judging it on?
I do think there are there are real questions about
whether any of this is like postseason h like, is
viable in the postseason, or will be anywhere nearly as effective.
But this is a team we weren't really sure was
going to make the postseason in the first place. So
I do think the silver lining is that all this
stuff should continue to work during the year and then
at least the Warriors will have the opportunity to prove
or disprove like how valuable this stuff is in the playoffs,
because I don't that certainly wasn't a given, right. We
were kind of on the fence, like when you're going
down the playoff list in the West.
Speaker 1: Where I had them, I'm sure it was out of it.
It was.
Speaker 2: It was one of the things where it's like, who
can you guarantees better like guarantee, and there were three
or four teams, but then it's like, who can you
guarantee they'll be better than? And it's like Utah and Portland,
maybe the Clippers. Like that was kind of it.
Speaker 1: I think in there, I think.
Speaker 2: There were probably the Spurs. Yeah, but but yeah, I
think the playoff viability of all this stuff is really
still a lingering question. But for now, just you know,
stick with what's working and see where it gets you.
And and maybe it falls apart, you know, when the
stakes raised, and maybe maybe you surprise somebody. I don't know.
Speaker 1: I want to ask you about the Jonathan kamingo of
at all, but I really wanted to like to boil
it down to just two things, as in, what is
something that you view as the most unsustainable about this team?
And like, what is the one surprising trend that you're
kind of buying? And I will say my my biggest
concern or not. I don't want to look at this
and say it's the offense writ large, but I do question,
and you mentioned this already that maybe this could be
more of a playoff concern, the fact that they are
seventh in point score per possession. But Kevon Looney is
the player on this team that has seen the largest
share of his shots go unassisted so far. Is wild
to me. And I think even as of right now,
when you look at generally these these real NBA contenders
and some of these most of these times, I would say,
all of these top offenses, with the exception of perhaps well,
what Denver supposed to be is that they have two
guys who can go generate shots on their own. And
I'm not saying that you need to hit all these
unassisted buckets, but you're gonna normally look and see, oh,
these guys rank in the top twenty or top twenty
five of unassisted points generated. And with the Warriors right now,
Kaminga and Loony are the only two players that we've
seen that have most of their Maine shots going unassisted.
Which is the fact, like it's Steph is always kind
of hovered on the line of that because of all
the stuff he does off the ball, and so I
think he's throw him in there when he's healthy, hot
take Steph is really good. Like, so you can say that,
but after that, I'm just curious, It's like, Okay, how
does this offense sustain long term as my biggest concern.
I do say on the buying side, I'm very interested
to hear what you have to say. By the way,
I think I'm buying too much of what I'm seeing
on the defensive end, to the point of like I
feel like I should feel as if it's more sustainable.
But the energy, the chaos that they're playing with right
now and just the personnel that they have, is it
a matter of while you're not overextending anybody. And I
said this to listener be Rich during the Pelicans game.
I said, this is really spicy, but when Draymond Green
is available, he's pretty good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I think I guess, I guess one thing where
we should just stick to our priors. It is on
the issue of the second like dynamic you know, doesn't
need any help scoring threat because that's still that's still
just the thing. And that does tie to kaminga. He
hasn't really he hasn't and hasn't really has not at
all been that guy so far. And Wiggins has looked better,
uh in that capacity. But I just don't like if
you're relying on Andrew Wiggins to be like a singular
offensive creator, like consistently and reliably often as a first
option depending on the lineups. Like, that's just you can't
that's not that's not a functional way to play NBA offense.
So that I think is the you know, I guess
you'd then sell some of the offensive effectiveness because it
has been so predicated on ball movement and just mathing
it and shooting a ton of threes and getting all
these transition looks that are really built by the defense.
And so I'm with you. I would buy I would
buy the defense being really disruptive and deep and being
able to speed games up and make them like messy
in favorable ways. I do think I Viza Zubats showed
that this team is vulnerable to real size though like
that they hadn't really seen a ton of that outside
of the Clippers game the Pelicans obviously, Like actually even
eve MESI had some had some moments uh against the
Warriors in that first of the back to backs with Normans.
Speaker 1: He's pretty good overall. I dismissed Pelicans big on the.
Speaker 2: R I was gonna say, is he making you you know,
we don't need to go into the Pelicans, but like,
is he making you reevaluate? Like the because it was
just you couldn't talk about the Pelicans without talking about
the need for a center and how this roster's unfinished.
Is MESI changing that, and if so, to what degree
for you?
Speaker 1: As an aside one, I was panicking when Javonte Green
went down against the Warriors, but it seemed like he
was okay, so we we power well.
Speaker 2: Herb Jones hurt his shoulder too, But Brandon Pajimski is
diving on everybody that that was a risk.
Speaker 1: I also looked. I'm surprised it didn't pop out. I was.
I was actually a little bit shocked about that. I
will say I don't really want to go into into it,
but failing any major changes before we record our overreactions,
I am so out on this New Orleans Pelicans offense overall. Okay,
so Eves Meci's performance has not made me feel any
better about them. I just look at their shot profile,
the process that they're going through on offense, the talent,
and I don't I mean, look, they're twenty second in
points per possession as we record this. So the Pelicans
are the team that I'm highest on relative to consensus
every single offseason heading into the regular season and then
normally they kind of float my boat until January and
we're in November ish and I'm kind of just I'm
not feeling great, and I maybe I feel better if
Johnta Murray was there, but the mecI breakout or serviceability
has not made me feel any differently about their situation.
Speaker 2: Okay, makes me feel a little better, just but like
he's not the solution to your problems, like that's just he's.
Speaker 1: Just honestly, it would make me feel better if they
just had anyone on this team that was comfortable taking
a pull up three. And I know Trey Murphy's injured
and Dejante Murray's injured, but like even the good brandon
Ingram moments, because they come so independent of Zion or
watching Zion set is screen for brandon Ingram to take
a contested two pointer. I mean, just look at I
hate to oversimplify this, but look at the math against
the Warriors that would they make twenty two threes against
the Pelicans and the Pelicans took twenty one or something like that.
I mean, they're and stop with the They'll eventually shoot
more threes. It's over. We've been there. We've held out
hope for it. The personnel hasn't changed enough for it.
It's weird to be down on a team that still
just has so much talent and isn't by any means.
I don't think that they suck. I'm just so over
their offensive process. And the other thing here is they're
playing slower. It feels like and when you don't have
the half court offense to like kind of prop up
these going up against set defenses, run goddamn it, just
run more. Yeah, And so there I when I last checked,
they were twenty seventh in offensive efficiency after opponent makes
And so it's like, if you're giving defense as a chance
to get set, not even having Zion Williamson is saving
you at least the overall outlook right now. So this
is about the Warriors, though, which I'm buying the I
think specifically on defense, it does feel like the turnover generation,
which as you've mentioned, is fueling a lot of their
offense because of the speed at which they could play
and at the time they spend in transition. I think
I'm all the way buying that aspect of their start.
I just look at this team and it's I hate
that it comes back to this, what let's we need
to get to Jonathan Kaminga. What have you made of
his performance? The decision of Kurt not only bench him,
but to bench him on a night when Steph Curry
was out, I thought was fascinating. What is what have
you made evolve this?
Speaker 2: I mean, I will say first I totally understand the benching.
If if and this seems to be the case the Worris,
You're just gonna play like there's no nobody's like guaranteed minutes.
It's just gonna really in theory go to who's earning them.
And Kaminga was just like was just not a part
of all the positive things I mentioned earlier about how
the Warriors are playing across their first three three games,
Like it was really jarring that you'd see all this
incredible ball movement, all of this hustle, all this like
intuitive you know, connected play, and then and then there
was Kaminga right like and it would the ball would
get to him, it would stop, he'd bobble it. I
really do think we can talk about we could just
kind of free range this, like I assume he's pressing.
I assume the lack of an extension is like a
factor because it just the things he was struggling with,
which were of which there were many were Just like
he looked like a rookie again for stretches, just like uncertain, hesitant,
not not really understanding where he fit in this movement offense,
and like, if you want to be alarmist about it,
you can definitely make the case that like he just
isn't in his worst moments, he is not like a
system player. And normally that's a pejorative if you say
someone's a system player, but I use the term to mean,
like he can function within like a free flowing offense
where there are quick reads and there's nothing predetermined and
you don't stop things to get into your bag. You
just the point five offense stuff. Like I really think
there's a lot of a lot of evidence to suggest
like he just isn't cut out for that, and he
wants to be the guy that the possession stops. He
has it at the top and he tries to beat
his matchup like that that I feel like is the
type of player he wants to be, and maybe is
the type of player. Is the only type of player
he can be. He's twenty two. He looked much better
against New Orleans, especially in the second half, where he
did seem to be more much more a part of
like the collective, Like holy shit, these guys are playing
hard and running and doing all this stuff. But for
the most part he has been like operating independently of
all the rest of that good stuff, and that's when
he's looked worst. So the bench I totally get. I
think way too much is being made that it was
done over text message. I feel like that's it. Kurr
texted him and explained, like we're in twive basically, I don't,
I don't. I'm I think that become like getting into
the news cycle was just like I understand it because
obviously there is some kind of disconnect between Kaminga and
the team and kurve uh. But like I don't feel
like that's you know, much of anything. But like if
he continues to not start, it wouldn't surprise me, and
and like he hasn't deserved it, honestly, Like, based just
just on his play to this point, that's bad news
for him if he wants a big contract for the
Warriors who need him to be better than he is.
But I just I think if you have watched all
four of the Warriors games that they've played so far,
I think any rational person would conclude, like Kaminga has
not played well enough to deserve a starting spot, like
unless and until he fits in better and earns it back.
Like maybe that's harsh, but that's just the reality of
what we've seen so far.
Speaker 1: I think that's totally fair. And I'm wondering how much.
I mean, the contract situation has to factor into it
in the sense of this is someone who passed on
thirty million dollars a year or so, and so in
your head you're probably putting a ton of pressure on yourself.
But your mindset is also I have to perform so
I get paid now. But the other aspect of it
is too. I wonder how much of it is tied
to Okay, we saw the preseason three point shooting and
like volume man efficiency, both of that has been yanked
all the way down. And also when you look at
his drives per third, this is the thing that I
found out. I do agree with you about the hole
he's operating separately, but even when he has kind of
made the quick decisions on drives, his drives per thirty
six minutes are down overall, and it still feels like
he's running into just these congested lanes, which is fascinating
to me from the perspective of Golden State has been
getting up a lot of threes. I think they're fifth
in three point a tenth rate. I think they've also
they've been hitting them to start the season as well.
If they not so, they're yeah, they're so. They're fourth
in three point at tenth rate and they're fifth in
three point percentage, But defenses don't seem to care. And
maybe it's you know, I guess that's the benefit of
moving him to the bench, is do you take him
out of the lineup in which he was most awkward
and Okay, he might still see minutes in that lineup,
but it won't be as many minutes. Is that kind
of a lot, Like what have you kind of made
a like even that part of his game where it's, oh,
it feels like he's catching and going quickly, but it's
these are drives to nowhere.
Speaker 2: It's yeah, it's just it's hard to describe, Like I
imagine if you really like parse the Synergy data or whatever,
like with his touch time and like where he's getting
it on the floor. You could maybe come to some
sort of more like analytically sound explanation for what's happening.
I would just say, it really feels like he's catching
the ball and it's like there's a there's enough of
a moment of hesitation, which I think is compounded by
he's just overthinking because of the contract stuff. Like can
you imagine like he's just out there thinking, I gotta
I gotta prove it. You know, I got I. This
is a prove it season officially, Now I gotta I
gotta do something great. And like that on top of
his like natural tendency to not just make a decision
is like the offense just like shudders for a second,
and then the defense you know knows he wants. That's
the other thing is there's not like a lot of
deceptive anything in his game. It's like he's going downhill.
You know, there's not gonna be a lot of cleverness.
It's gonna be fairly easy to see. And he's good
in an athlete that he can just power through, over
around whatever. But the delays and the like just bobbling
the ball, it's all just slowing it down so like
that affects the rhythm of the offense, and it affects
his drives. It makes it so like he's maybe not
driving hard right when the opening's there, it's that split
second slows it down and then like ive Mesie comes
out of nowhere and like swats him out of bounds,
which is what happened in the first half last night
as we're recording this. Yeah, it's early. The signs are discouraging,
but I think the good news at least again to
circle back for the regular season at least, is like
the Worriors got options, like they if if this is
how Kaminga is gonna play, they just don't need the.
Speaker 1: Guy got Lendy Waters at home.
Speaker 2: They got Why would you buy the Kamingo when you
get the Lindy Waters for free or something?
Speaker 1: Do you think he's going to have this is the
last thing. Is he gonna have a regular role moving forward?
Like because it gets into the I mean, the perimeter
of it all gets tough when it's easier when two players,
especially when Steph who plays so many minutes, is out,
But when Stephan Melton they're both out.
Speaker 2: That's the thing, Like, I mean, you don't want to say,
like I'm sure, well, they're just always going to have
two or three guys hurt, so you know, all you know,
the thirteen man rotation turns into nine and that's totally fine.
Like I do think it's realistic to expect, you know,
Draymond will take nights off anytime Steph is hurt. They're
gonna give him two extra games to get better, you
would assume, and you know it, but it's gonna be
really hard to get like guys like Waters and even
obviously Moses Moody again, like what's the guy gotta do?
Like it's the same thing, but like Gary Payton, the
second has been ahead of both of those guys in
the rotation, and he's been just like an insanely disruptive,
perfect example of the guy that's like making the quick
decisions in the flow of the offense type of thing.
Like he just he's been good and he's deserved to play.
And Kavon Looney has been good and deserves to play.
So it's just like Waters is the last guy on
the bench that you know other than your two ways
and stuff. But like I guess I would just say
there will be more games like that New Orleans game
where he comes in and is just like that guy's
a fucking NBA rotation player, Like there's just there's no
question about it. He's a ball, like he can really
help any team and sometimes like he didn't win them
the game, but he was integral in them erasing a
twenty point deficit and winning comfortably, like that was a
real thing that happened. And I don't think, well, I
don't think like it's not the last we're gonna hear,
certainly on this podcast of one Lindy Waters.
Speaker 1: The other thing super quickly here, there's probably something too,
at least during the regular season. Who are the heavy
minutes guys like who do you want? Not even who
do you trust? You don't even want Steph playing heavy
minutes at this age, And so it's if you got
to spread the love and it gets awkward, I guess
when you're ripping some from cominga to like, oh, can
we find a little bit more for Lindy Wash we're
gonna pull from Kaminga. Maybe we gotta pull even more
for Melton, who wasn't necessarily playing a crap ton of
minutes to begin with. But it's that just you have
to manage some of these guys where it's like I
would say Draymond Steph and Buddy Heal has played heavy
minutes before, but defensively do you want him on the court?
So maybe their regular season. I don't look at the
team and say they need a consolidation trade. Do I
know whether they were contender is currently constructed? My answer
is gonna default to know. But yeah, man, they are
way feistier than I was expecting.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I think that's probably where to leave it. And Pajemski,
the minest thing, leads the team at twenty seven a game,
so it's just like nobody is I would be fascinating
if they just.
Speaker 1: Aver Jenkins innovating. No one can average thirty right.
Speaker 2: Well, yeah, the Grizzlies are doing that too. I mean,
it would be really interesting. Maybe this is the response
to the whole like there's too many games, this season
is too long. It's like, all right, cool, we're just
never gonna play anyone thirty minutes a night. That's just
depth is going to be the new market. Inefficiency seems unlikely,
but that's what it's looking like.
Speaker 1: Do you want to talk about probably do a Knicks
check in I would like to hear you want to
stick small market I think that's fair.
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's stick small market teams that nobody cares about.
Speaker 1: What is your question or questions about this team? I
can't imagine that you have any.
Speaker 2: Well, the first is, uh, how can you describe to
me your concern level for the whole Karl Anthony Town's
experience and what facets of it do or do not
concern you so far? Because there's a few issues, some
some that he was supposed to fix that he hasn't,
and some that he was not supposed to fix that
he also hasn't.
Speaker 1: So my concern level probably is cues toward alarmist right now,
and that just might be me because of my Knicks
fandom just kind of shut bleeding out here. Let's start
with the offense. I think when he's I think he
still has an effect, like the lanes are more open
for Jalen Brunton than they have been last season. What
I don't understand, and I do think it's been oversimplified
a little bit. He's taking, as we record this, two
to three pointers per game. Mister Grant Hughes, Can.
Speaker 2: I gotta stop you? How is that happening, like how.
Speaker 1: I'm about to get into it. Please One, he's being
too passive overall. So I've seen both sides where said
this dude just needs to be more aggressive and take
more shots, and then you have the well, actually, how
are the Knicks supposed to generate better looks or more
looks for him? They're both right, But anyone who's kind
of being condescending and saying you can't just say he
needs to take more shots. No, you absolutely fucking can.
This guy's taking eleven point six shots per thirty six minutes,
which would be a career low. He absolutely just needs
to take more shots. What I do think there's room
for more nuance on and uh from dj ace Nba
from Nick Film School, I thought had really astute tweet
on this is that the Knicks need to bump up
Kat's three point volume almost by force having him run
off these like off ball screening actions. And so, you know,
just shout out to DJ for pointing that out the Knicks.
That's never really been their mo under Tom Thibodeau. Let
alone for a big guy, and maybe that's something they're
still getting used to the other on offense that I've
taken issue with is he's yet to I'm mean, just
put it this way. He has taken as many fourth
quarter threes as Jericho Sims and Ariel huck Porty combined,
which is to say zero. And so when you're looking
down the stretch, specifically when you're looking at what the
Knicks are doing, they kind of have him going down
low without setting a screen, and so it's, oh, is
he gonna try and seal guys off when Jalen Brunson
is coming off of a screen. No. So I don't
understand the Knicks's offensive process, particularly down the stretch of
those games. What they've also done more this season. And
hat tip to John mcrey also Knicks Film School for
pointing this out. They've gotten mismatch hunting more and it hasn't.
I mean, their offense is third in points score for
processions and you look at it and say it's not
the problem. It is. And I'm filtering out the Celtics game, grant,
so I don't want to hear yeah, one game. Still
excuse it because we're talking about too, but I took
out the Celtics game. They're twenty seventh in points score
per possession in the fourth quarter there. We've talked about
this time and again with the Knicks way before TIBs,
but even under TIBs, there does feel like there's a
lack of movement and innovation to it, and so that
I don't necessarily lay at Karl Anthony Towns's feet, but
there also is you need to be a little bit
more aggressive, especially from beyond the arc too, or at
least make quicker decisions with the ball. And I don't
need to see him. This is not the theory of
this team is not like we really need to want to.
If you want Karl Anthony Towns down low, put him
in lineups exclusively without Jaylen Brunson, that are going to
lack the creation necessary. If you put him in the
post through at the elbows, him rolling off of a screen, fine,
like that's part of the process, but I view that
as clogging the floor at this point because of what
you peddled this team as is as five out and
it's really if you're playing Josh Hart, who's has like
eight injuries going on, it's really four and a half
out before we get into the defense. Do you have
any thoughts about again, we're talking about a team that
right now ranks third in offensive efficiency, but filtering out
that Celtics game because they would probably I don't know
if it'd be worse or better. I didn't even look
at it with the Celtics game because I don't care.
You're twenty seventh and fourth quarters, and you know the
games that you've lost, like losing to the Cavs specifically,
your offensive process was dog shit. Yeah, the strect of
that game.
Speaker 2: I guess like it's way too early, Like I start,
I'm starting to parse the lineup data and on off stuff,
and then I catch myself and I was like, we're
talking about like a few one hundred minutes for most guys,
Like it doesn't.
Speaker 1: Trade, it's over.
Speaker 2: Well, I just was. I was saying, like anecdotally, which
is where I feel like I have to default to
this early for the most part and forget some of
the numbers. It just seems like the issues that were
foreseeable even with Kat on offense, again, we don't need
to spend all this time on the offense because it's
been it hasn't been a problem relatively speaking. But it
continues to feel like Brunson is just like so overly
important to everything like it just he gives the ball
up and it's an immediate like go get it back,
because whoever he gives it to just feels I don't
know if it's if it's being if this is a
like a coaching point of emphasis for them, like just
let's get it back in his hands and like restart
the clock because he's alive, dribble again, or if it's
a hesitation on the part of you know, the Anonobe's
and Bridges and whoever else. But it does just continue
to feel like the I mean, I can't sit here
and make the case that like if they just held
onto Julius Randall, we wouldn't be running into this because
I just like that's crazy. But the well, I guess
I throw it to you. Does it feel as if
even with Towns, everything still just starts and stops with Brunson,
And like, if anything, the team's lack of depth now
after the trades and losses and free agency makes that
even like that's a big preseason prior for us, right,
like Brunson's too important, Like has anything that you've seen
changed that like that stance?
Speaker 1: No, I just I mean, look, McHale, Bridges make me
feel a little better. I will say that I was.
I was pretty nervous about him heading into the season.
And it's not like he's, you know, shooting the lights out,
but the fact that he's hovering around thirty six percent
from threes and hasn't really had he's had one, Like
I would say, really good performance for them, But when
it comes to just generating offense, like who is there's
always going to need unless you're the Warriors, apparently like
there's going to need to be the one player or
the two players who are generating your offense. I mean,
even OKC Thunder, They've been great to start the season,
their offense has been when efficiency wise, lackluster because there's
still you know, we gotta wait and see more of
J dub and chet Holmgren, but like they still don't
have that. It's a similar situation to the Knicks, where
maybe you feel better about it for them because one
their defense and two they have two of these up
and coming guys, But you look at it and say, okay,
well who is just that you know that's the second
guy who can generate offense not just for himself but
everybody else. The Knicks don't have that even if you
think and look, they're third in offense and Karl at
the Towns will figure it out. That was gonna be
kind of a the story. I'm probably gonna be wrong
about him attempting a career high of three pointers, but
I do think the volume will come up. I think
they'll figure it out. This trade happened basically during training camp,
so there's a level of this thing needs time. But
I do believe you are seeing some of the limitations
of the Knicks offense down the stretch specifically, and maybe
it's a little different if Brunson's not battling his own injury.
But again, I don't want to be labor this point because,
as you mentioned, we talked about in preseason, you emptied
the asset clip basically and left yourself more dependent than
ever on this one player. And it's a testament to
Jalen Brunson. But it's also just that one player could
name the one player. I don't care who Luka Donci,
I don't care who it is Shay himself. That's a
risky proposition and what I've yet to see from the
Knicks on offense, and maybe that's now we can get
in the defense. I don't understand what the contingencies are
beyond Jalen Brunson being just the like the only central
nervous system to it, and maybe Timm's will change some
of his lineup pattern. I guess you could talk about like, well,
they're like kind of banged up, but you know, having
a precious that you are Mitchell Robinson back, like that's
that'll help your defense, which has been again even like
filtering out the Celtics game, by the way, the Knicks
defense has actually been pretty good official like they they
had moments against the Calves, they definitely had moments against
the Pacers. But do you have anything to add on
the offense. I think that the Knicks will find more
of an equilibrium on offense, but I don't think that
the concerns that we have and that I would argue
fans understand it. They might be more okay with it.
If you're really just locked into the Knicks more than
we are, you might be more okay with it than us.
But I think it's been in the backs of at
least everyone's minds, if not the forefront of them, And
I don't know. I think that's why if they're gonna
ever make a trade, and I'm not saying it needs
to be a big one. It probably you know, I've
talked about like it'd be nice to have some extra
wing depth, or do you want to get a more
bankable center, like outside of Carl Anthony but outside of
Mitchell Robinson the guy behind Karl Anthony Towns or beside him.
It might just need to know you need some type
of like who is this season? Are we bringing back
Alec Burks like the Miami Heat type deal.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I wanted I did want to just pivot to
the defense because I guess I was gonna ask you, like,
is there anybody that you know outside of Deuce McBride
that has come off the bench that has given you
any any sense of like, Okay, there's a little more
here than I thought. I thought, Like hook Porty even
has had moments and that's not someone who was on
my radar at all prior to the season. But if
if you're pointing to him as someone that's like made
a big difference, then man, all the depth concerns really
are just very well founded and playing out.
Speaker 1: I'm kind of looking at Pocomb, Dottie. We've seen a
little bit of it was like, you know, he's a
little bit shift here, and then I thought, like against
the NBA, that wi but it's no. I don't think
you look at this bench outside of and even look
at the injured guys. I don't think you look at
Mitchell Robinson or pressure to Chew if they're gonna coming
off the bench and they make you feel a crap
time better about this team. However, if you are concerned
about the defense, which I think they're probably like close
to last in the league when you include the Celtics game,
but when you're just the Calves and Pacers, they're they're sixth.
So that's how much. But that's how much one game
can swing stats right now, But it's also how much
they can swing our impressions. Defensively, though, what I what
I've been concerned about is I don't think that they're
using Karl Anthony Towns like in his by the way,
I do think a lot of it is on him,
and the Knicks have forced like they've had stretches where
it seems like they're playing hyper aggressive on defense. But
if you're gonna put him, we've seen him. I feel
like in I know there's only technically three levels to
a basketball court, but it feels like we've seen him
in seventeen different levels of drop coverage now to where
he's just like, and I don't know if that's by
design or he's just not yeah so, but he has
not buying log there's again, there's been possessions, but he
is buying Marg's not farewell there. And I don't know
if that's more about his surroundings. You could say it's
an effort thing, but if you're going to have him
consistently like in this, you're gonna consistently have him in
these inconsistent drops to where like, okay, well, how far
is he dropping? And is that by designers? And that's
what I don't know yet, And I don't know that
I've seen Tim's talk about this. He wasn't in very
much of a talking mood after the Cavs game when
you look at the postgame comments, and that's where I
would be concerned. Now, Grant, here's a fascinating stat filter
out the Celtics game. Again, I'm throwing this out. Can
you guess what opponents are shooting at the rim against
Karl Anthony Towns By opponents. I mean the calves and pacers. Hmmm,
I'm like, okay, over under sixty five percent.
Speaker 2: Oh gosh, I was not gonna go that high. I
guess I better go over based on the tone of
what you're saying.
Speaker 1: It's over. They are twelve of twelve one hundred percent.
And I went back and watched all of them. There's
been there were like a couple of like really good
contests that just it's okay, you tip.
Speaker 2: Your cap and you should be ten of twelve.
Speaker 1: He is just not most of the time, feels like
not in the right position. And I think that's troubling.
Where you've seen him in some like mid to deep
drops where it's well, okay, like at least be but
teams are targeting him also on the defensive end, like
they've gone after him, And I just wonder, what is
is the solution to hit the play better button for
Karl Anthony Towns or is it we need to decommit
from any type of drops. Again, I do think the
Knicks have varied up some of the stuff that they've done,
But do you need to just say I don't have
this belief that Karl Anthony Towns because as of right now,
the personnel that you have, unless you're gonna play him
against Mitchell Robinson, this ain't changing like you've seen him
in your quote unquote best lineup. So what more do
is it? Maybe like if you think deuced me Bride
is going to be a better fit defensively than Jalen Brunson, Okay, yeah, sure,
good luck generating offense with that lineup. So and you
would never bench Jalen Brunson obviously. I'm just saying you're
not going to get better defensive talent around him unless
you start him alongside Mitchell Robinson and maybe bring Josh
hardoff bench. Which at this point, again we need more
evidence because they've been okay against the Calves and Pacers
up for extended stretches. The Calves had some of their moments,
and man Evan Mobley looks good this year. Boy he
had handled a lot better. But That's where I'm att
with the defense is we need more evidence, And I
would honestly say I'm more concerned with Karl Anthony Townsen's
performance on offense thus far, and I think part of
that with defense is okay, well, it's been we kind
of knew that he wasn't gonna solve things on defense.
And the other thing is I'm struggling on defense more
in a good way to understand how much of that
is on the team versus Kat, Whereas I think you
look at the offensive end and it's very clearly both.
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean we talked about I think we talked
about this angle a little bit when we went, you know,
through the pluses and minuses of that trade. The Knicks
really did create like a blinking green light, like go
at this when they essentially paired Kat and Brunson as
a pick and roll defensive duo, right, Like, that's just
that's you know, because you're certainly mean it's almost by
default too, because you're not gonna run anything at Antonobe
or bridges, and so when you just have the if
you get a one to five pick and roll against
the Knicks the way it's being defended right now and
with the personnel they can put out there, it's like
that's a pretty high value approach, you know, And maybe,
like what do you think about the Knicks? Just like,
let's look at what Denver did to make it so
Nikole Jokic is a functional defensive center on a contender,
Like is it just you got to be up at
the level and then you can sort of lean on
og and bridges on the back line to scramble around
and help or like Towns, I worry about bringing up
to the level because of his He'll reach, you know,
and he'll get He'll get into foul trouble out there.
That's been a huge bugaboo for him forever. So like
you can't drop him, you bring up to the level
frequently you might just play him off the floor because
he's gonna get three fouls in the first quarter, Like
it's it's gonna be really interesting to see, like who
And then there's the whole like Thibodeau wants to play
a certain way defensively, like he's the inventor of icing
pick and rolls. Like that's just you know, he's much
more flexi bull in the intervening years. But you know
what I mean, Like I think you really just got
to look around the league at like how do other
teams make this work with with like you know, because
the the Brook Lopez plan is not gonna happen, Like
you can't just have Cat drop and have his length
bother shooter like that isn't gonna work.
Speaker 1: I've thought a lot about the way Denver. I don't
know why I'm saying a lot. We're a few games
into the season, but I've thought about the Joki point,
about how they use him, and even this season, I
think there's still eleven the defensive efficiency and Michael Porter Junior,
whose defense I praise coming out of the championship run
during moments last year, has been in atrocity by a
march to that end of the floor. And because my
point was you're talking about having you know, if you're Denver,
the setup is, well, we have reliable guys who can
be the low men, but also like that we're not
gonna sacrifice anything at the perimeter. Right now, you're kind
of in that situation. But I guess they still you know,
you look at Peyton Watson, Christian Brown, Aaron Gordon. There's
still enough. Now you'll get the knicks. There's Michael Bridges,
there's Ojananobe. If you use those guys in that type
of a role, then it's okay, Well what's happening up
top with ten? Because you still have Jalen Brunson to
target there and Jalen Brunson is not as good as
a defender as a the best version or the medium
version of Jamal Murray on that end of the floor.
There's a sage differential there. Yeah, so I wonder, And
then you mentioned Nicole Joki is better at staying out
of foul trouble. He's also at this point in his
career better at playing kind of like both sides of
the pick and roll. I think. So, I don't know
what the answer is, but I do, and I don't
know who to blame even is this on Towns or
is it Tims has yet to do enough adjusting to
the personnel that's there, or is he kind of looking
at it from the perspective of, well, I'm eventually just
going to start mith L Robinson next to him. But
then also, aren't you still going to have to change
the way you're kind of defending if you're playing with
those two centers.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, no, it's you know, I think probably the
most charitable thing we could do is say, it's been
a handful of games and this is a massive, like
roster altering trade that happened with basically no time for
the team to adjust to it, and we should just
assume whatever the extremes are will just kind of get
more towards them as we go.
Speaker 1: Like wrap it up with this concern level for the
Knicks on a scale of three games into their season,
on a scale of one to ten, I'll probably yet
like a three point seven to like four point five, yeah.
Speaker 2: I think, And it might be higher if you went
into the season thinking they were like anywhere close to
the Celtics. Okay, see tier of like top top threat contenders,
like I think, because it's irrational to to get much
higher than you've said, uh this early. But it's like
I don't I'm not seeing a lot that suggests like
even when this gets going perfectly, it's going to get
the Knicks up to that level, which is fine, like
not everybody can be that, but yeah, I'd be right
right around there with you.
Speaker 1: We want one more team, Okay, you want to hit
those quick? Would you like to stick small market?
Speaker 2: Yeah, let's stick really small market. And uh, there's this
team called the Lakers. I don't know if you are familiar.
Speaker 1: Yeah, isn't used to that team? Right?
Speaker 2: Yes? Team?
Speaker 1: Okay?
Speaker 2: Uh huh. They so to just really two things here,
I guess I don't know how much more like championship
equity to kind of piggyback off the the last little
knicks point the Lakers have, But it does through the
early going feel to me like they're quite a bit
better than some of the teams that we thought maybe
they'd be kind of knocking around against for the seven, eight, nine,
ten spots in the West. And that's kind of remarkable
because like this roster is not different unless you count
and give Vincent being healthy as like a meaningful change
oratorium prints being gone being a meaningful change. Like really
to me is it's it's so risky to say, like, oh,
JJ Reddick scot them like working perfectly and stuff. It's
you know, it's been a few games.
Speaker 1: But it is pretty clear exact. But JJ Reddick was
watching film at the car wash.
Speaker 2: Yeah I heard, I did hear about that?
Speaker 1: A lot of sticks go.
Speaker 2: I bet I've watched NBA film like Getting My Little
Change before. I'm not an NBA coach. I'm not impressed.
So I think he's at least got the big stuff handled.
And a lot of it was sort of as advertised,
where Anthony Davis is going to touch the ball early
and often it's gonna be you know, we'll give it
to him and it'll move and he'll get it back,
Like just more touches. Is the highest usage Ratey's had
since like sixteen seventeen when he was just really the
guy in with the Pelicans. His scoring averages up over thirty.
The shot profiles not like this is the other thing.
You look at the Lakers year over year numbers and
really like they're just making more shots. Like their shot
profiles not super different. It's just the offense looks smoother.
Anthony Davis is making more shots, He's taking more shots,
he's more involved. Austin Reeves looks basically like the handcuffs
came off. And I do think that's like what I
do feel confident in is that JJ Reddick so far
looks like he he's just got a better handle on
like what the priorities need to be for an NBA
team than Darvin Ham did. And that might just be like,
that's an unfair comparison because Ham might just go down
as like that guy was just not a good NBA
coach or not a good head coach, and Reddick is
just kind of average. But the contrast is such that
it makes Reddick seem like, oh my god, he's like
he's got it wired, he's figured it out, and like
he's definitely putting forth that detail oriented, like hyper intense
competitive demeanor so far, and that sort of helps that
like adds to the the not the legend, but something
like that. But Yeah, it just seems to me like
the Lakers as long as Davis is going to be
like this version of himself kind of a fully actualized
two way superstar and is being like not pushed to
be that, but certainly like enabled by the scheme and
the coach and all that other stuff, then I think
you've got to view the Lakers as you know, right there,
even though they just lost this most recent game like
with the Suns, where it's like, I don't know if
they're top four, but they're not. They're also not like
a nine to ten seed.
Speaker 1: I don't think.
Speaker 2: I think they look much more dangerous. And most of
that's Davis and some of it's some of it really
is a guy like Reeves just kind of looking more
like we thought he would a couple of years ago.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I do. In the macro. We'll see how this
take ages. I think they're way better than we expected,
and it's kind of been more than just the low
hanging fruit though, right because they're by the way, they're
still not taking enough threes. I don't know if they
have the personnel to actually take more threes, but they're
they're actually offensive rebounding. That's a big deal. Yeah, they
and like cutting down on the turnovers. That's also been
a big deal for them offensively. They I think they've
dropped their turnover percentage by a full point compared to
last season. Again, we have to see if this holds.
What's fascinating to me the most, aside from just the
Austin Reeves dynamic is Anthony Davis. It's not even he's
shot well on long twos, but his mid range percentage,
the frequency right where it's basically been the percentage is
still sub forty percent overall because he's been struggling from
the short mid range area. I just look at him
and I feel this might have been kind of a
dull thing to do. So maybe it wasn't the low
hanging fruit, but it wasn't just they're not only using him. Yeah,
the post up frequency, I believe that is up as well.
Elbows however you want, like the paint touches. Those are
gonna be up. But also getting him to drive. He's
gone from like three point eight drives per thirty six
to over six drives per thirty six. And what that
does is not only put additional rim pressure on defense.
Now he's just drawing. He's always been pretty good at drawing,
shooting fuls. He's currently in the one hundredth percentile.
Speaker 2: It's a drawing that's a huge like you start looking
for like, where are all these extra points coming from
this year? It's all free throws. Like he's just generating more,
way more free throws. It's a huge difference. You're right
about that.
Speaker 1: So I think that's super encouraging because I don't know
that he's doing anything that you offensively. We know what
he is defensively, but he's not doing anything where it's, oh,
this is a mega outlier on offense. If you had
to pick one, it would probably be, oh, is he
going to continue to average almost thirteen free throw attempt prett? No,
probably not. But if you get Anthony Davis going downhill,
I would think, and I guess you could. Could you
manifest any concern about Lebron sometimes feeling a little bit
like disengaged. I can't get there. He's still be like,
he's still shooting thirty nine plus percent on three. I
would say, if I had to pick a concern, it's
not even Delo shooting. It's just I don't We've seen
some lineups work outside of their core lineup, but I
don't know which secondary lineups that I trust the most.
And I understand JJ Redick seems like he's still kind
of going through the motions with it. But when you
look at what there's been, I guess Gabe Vincent is
he's kind of had like Colin Sexton vibes on defense
immediately where it's like, oh, he's really getting into the ball,
but like sometimes guys are going right around him in
any way, I don't like that is someone that I
still have questions for. I think it's been great that
they've been in. I'm Dalton connect. I don't think he's
played more minutes than I expected. I didn't necessarily I
thought Max Christy would be playing more. Is that more
of a he has started hitting his threes thing? Yet
I kind of find myself wondering, Oh, were they too
dependent on Jackson Hayes. But it's where else are they
actually supposed to go at this point. It's again, the
core lineup just seems fine. Maybe Reeves and Ruey Hotchimore
at cool off a little bit, but we've been waiting
for Ruey hatch More to cool off for like two
seasons now ever since he arrived from the Lakers. So
I trust this team way more than I did. But
I'm still just wondering, like, what is gonna be sort
of their go to lineups outside of their core lineup,
because there are some secondary lineups right now. The one
where I think if you yank Anthony Davis and throw
Jackson Hayes in like the starters have been, have killed
opponents thus far, if I'm not mistaken, all right, is
that something that's kind of going to hold? What are
Like we've seen bad lineups where oh, you put Gabe
Vincent in for D'Angelo Russell and you somehow got way
worse on defense. What is going on over there? I'm
very interested to just see what JJ Reddick continue to
test out, and I'm just wondering. I don't know that
we have a timetable yet for his return. Does J
Vanderbilt's availability impact this at all?
Speaker 2: I just don't. Don't you think that sort of the
combination of the real the principal guys looking better, that
lineup that that open, that starting lineup looking like pretty
tightly wired, and the team's success and what seems like
a pretty ambitious kind of outlook. Doesn't that just mean
a trade is more likely than maybe it would have,
like because you know there was there's there's the constant
to the Lakers, is the right guy available to justify
giving up what is it three? Like two in a
swap they can trade? I can never remember if it's
three outright.
Speaker 1: So they can give out two outright first round picks?
Plus I think three swaps okay?
Speaker 2: Is now the time? And is the guy available to
make that trade? Like that's been a question for like
two and one and a half seasons basically, And if
this is how it's gonna look, then I would posit
that like it's just more likely that they pull the
trigger on a deal like that because they're a lot
closer to being a contender than we thought or than
most and maybe they thought, I don't know right like
cause it doesn't make a trade less likely if you're
this good, I would think if you have all these
secondary lineup questions.
Speaker 1: No, I think what it might do is make the
in between more likely to where it's that blockbuster trade.
Always felt like if it's the right player or someone
they deemed the right player either for now or they think, okay,
we'll get incrementally better now. But if it's let's just
say it's Trey Young, it's but he's going to be
young enough to where he can anchor us with a
d past Lebron, I view it as okay, are they
more like just as an example, because they're reportedly interested
in Walker Kessler, would they give up one first round
pick to get someone like Walker Kesler in here now?
Because it's, oh, we think if we improve on the
margins or if we get someone who's really good in
this one complimentary area, that that will put us over
the top. I thought that scenario would have been off
the table just because leading into the season, whereas well,
why give up the one first round pick? If you
just give them all up and make the swing, I
think it makes it more likely that they might seek
those kind of medium grade about it.
Speaker 2: So upgrade it's less likely Trey Young, Zach Lavine more
likely Kuzma Kessler like that that kind of that level
of actuity.
Speaker 1: Yeah, maybe, or even just like a Jeremy Grant. And
it's even so when you look at this team, though, Grant,
this might be a good thing to wrap up, wrap up,
it's not, well, what are you concerned about the most scessarily?
But what is even their biggest need or what archetype
of player outside of a star would make sort of
the biggest difference here. Is it a Walker Kesler, Is
it a Jeremy Grant?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I mean I don't know. I would lean more
towards and this is you just maybe this is because
you default here for almost anyone. It's like another three
and d Wing like someone someone that is going to
make open threes and make it so like Ruiye or
Lebron aren't your best options on you know, the Jason
Tatums or that like that type of player. I mean,
maybe Davis is frankly your best option on any of
those times.
Speaker 1: I was going to ask, was it You know everyone's
gonna say, oh, why would you want to keep up
a first for Walker Kessler? But if you make Walker
Kessler like your base rimt protection guy, and then Anthony
Davis is the guy who's insulating everyone else on the perimeter, which,
by the way, he's basically that guy anyway.
Speaker 2: Right, Yeah, the lazy doesn't have to do both, going
for it. Yeah, no, okay, the Lakers are really interesting,
like in a genuine way, not in a way that
like we must speak about the Lakers that that's a positive.
Speaker 1: So we've got news updates here. We'll just go through.
I mean, if there's any additional commentary that that needs
to be had, we will obviously give it. But this
function is just a good exercise for us to kind
of keep up. It's mostly on injuries spoiler alert, but
also just like any if there's any big time rumors,
will include there so we can alternate on teams. I
will begin with the Atlanta Hawks in the alphabet. Apparently
Bogdan Bogdanovich will miss at least a month after undergoing
a non surgical procedure to address a hamstring injury. That's
a bummer for that team. And then also Kobe Buffkin
will miss extensive time after suffering a partially dislocated right
shoulder for the second time, and also DeAndre Hunters dealing
with right knew information as well. I will say just
the number of this the potential creators on this team.
With Bogdanovich and Buffkin out, it continues to dwindle.
Speaker 2: That's rough. Will jump down to the Charlotte Hornets here.
Brandon Miller, currently out at least a week with a
left gluten strain, probably did it. He didn't, actually, but
had a phenomenal opening night dunk and was basically not
heard from again in that game.
Speaker 1: I still haven't watched that dunk. I needed to do,
got to do it.
Speaker 2: It's a good one.
Speaker 1: Onto the Bulls. Lonzo Ball will be reevaluated in ten
days after suffering a right wrist sprain. He said that
playing through it could make it worse. This is this sucks,
but I'm also just happy that it has nothing to
do with his lower body. Right.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that takes us down to the Detroit Pistons. The
sar Thompson still waiting on NBA clearance to return from
the blood clot issue that sidelined him all the way
back in March. So we still just were just just
a waiting game. I guess these are the blood clot
thing is always you know, and basically ended Chris Bosh's
career Like it's such a scary thing. I get the
I get the the the careful approach here.
Speaker 1: We already talked about the Warriors a little bit, but
just to recap, Steph Curry suffers his brain left ankle
twice in the same game. He will miss at least
one more game after I already missing that game against
the pelop The Anthony Melton is dealing with a back issue.
He's going to miss at least one more game as well,
But we haven't gotten it. Ironclan guarantees that this is all
the time they're going to miss.
Speaker 2: Yeah, that's that's not on the level of a Lonzo
Ball knee injury. But d Anthony Meltain's back has been
especially the last year of major issue. So concerning uh
Houston Rockets, a little bit of non injury news here.
If Jimmy Butler becomes available, Houston is considered a team
to watch. According to Mark Stein. Yeah, I mean they
got a million young guys to trade like that's you
can get there with the salaries for sure.
Speaker 1: I just don't And we'll get into this more. We
have an extension reaction that will come out eventually at
some point. I don't even know what day it is
and what is time grant? But it's not happening. It could.
I mean, they have that huge van Fleet salary if
they want to, and they have other ways to get there,
but I can't imagine that that happens mid season for them.
Speaker 2: Is that a jail? Is that the Jalen Green trade?
Somehow Someway all like, well, it's just going to be.
Speaker 1: A free agent though, Like and also if you're Miami
and you're moving Butler, I think you would prioritize would
you prefer having van Fleet and just the flexibility of
his expiring contract or do you want to take the
gamble on jail and Green? Plus there'll be other salary
and there to make the math work.
Speaker 2: Kind of fascinated by Jalen Green in Miami as like
a cornerstone, if I'm being honest, that's.
Speaker 1: A cornerstone to the Indiana Pacers. James Wiseman suffer a
torn left achilles tendon. He will miss the rest of
twenty twenty four twenty twenty five. Presumably his contract is
guaranteed for this season, which I'm always happy, but the
Pacers have a team option on him for next season,
so we'll see. If they it's so cheap, they might
just keep him in tow, let him rehab and maybe
pick it up. But we'll have to wait and see
what happens with that.
Speaker 2: Yeah, rough tough break for a guy that's had a
few of those in a young career. Moving on to
the Clippers, PJ Tucker has been granted permission to find
a trade. According to Chris Haynes, Sixers, Bucks, Sons, and
Heat are all reportedly interested.
Speaker 1: I'd like to interject to say that none of those
teams are actually going to trade for PJ. Tucker. Like, there's,
first of all, the way that you can't trade with
his second Apron team while you're like the whole these
teams being subject to the Apron. So there has to
be a third team involved in most cases, and it's
which of those teams has contracts that they want to
get off in exchange for PJ. Tucker's eleven million dollars.
Those all sound like destinations that will want PJ. Tucker
after he's bought out.
Speaker 2: Right, that's that if this ends any other way than
a buyout, I'm gonna be pretty surprised. Also, Randy Sheldon,
a former strength and condition this is an interesting story.
A strength and conditioning coach for the Clippers is suing
the franchise and president of basketball Ops, Lawrence Frank, alleging
wrongful termination, which is in part for raising concerns about
the management of Kawhi Leonard's health and injuries. According to
Baxter Holmes and Ramona Shelbon of ESPN, kind of painting
himself as a whistleblower, I guess, although, like I did
in reading up, I think it was in Holmes' piece
like his contract had expired and was just not renewed.
So like this whole wrongful termination thing is kind of suspect,
but you know, just another layer to the whole, like
Kawhi injury got his own team, Like all this is
just like I don't know, it's it's a mess. I
don't know that anything's gonna come of this, but just
an another thing to pile on top of the whole.
Speaker 1: This would have been a topic to get you the
gavel and the wig and the robe. I tackle Grant
Hughes esquire over here.
Speaker 2: I need to read the court documents.
Speaker 1: I'm about to troll the shit out of this team
on one of these news notes. But the Lakers we
already mentioned Walker Kessler's on their trade target list. Per
Jovan Buja of The Athletic, we already talked about why
Christian Cloco has been medically clear to play after missing
last year do a blood clot issue. That is fantastic news.
We just talked about how fickle and dangerous and unnerving
blood clots can be. However, I'm taking issue with this
framing from Shams Grant.
Speaker 2: I knew you would.
Speaker 1: This is the tweet promising news for the Lakers' development program,
which now adds KloCo to recent successes in Austin Reeves
and Dalton Connect. Lakers have been intrigued with KloCo, who's
expected to provide another center to play alongside Anthony Davis
in the front court. I all, this is all due
respect to Christian Cloco has not played a fucking game
for the Lakers. So what success is this other than
what did the Lakers actively do? Did they say did
they go about life saving maneuvers here with the blood
clot if that's what this is referring to, Fine, don't
connect is played fewer than five NBA games, Grant, the
fuck are we doing here?
Speaker 2: Well, what we're doing is mouthpiecing for the Lakers and
Clutch like, that's that's what's happening.
Speaker 1: I know what we're doing, but it's exhausting. It is.
Speaker 2: When I saw that. When I saw that, I was
immediately like, oh, this is this what we're in for?
Like with the new news breaking situation at ESPN.
Speaker 1: I will say, why didn't Max Christy make the cut? Then?
Speaker 2: Right? Rough? Really rough? Well, I don't know who's he
represented by. That's probably a factor.
Speaker 1: Didn't get a player option because I'll I'm not as
up on like the agency. I know more.
Speaker 2: I'm not either. I just it's just such a like
what is that? I don't even understand what this means
about what is the Lakers development program?
Speaker 1: I was wrong. He's his agent is Lacey Lafour and
In Bradbury. So that's why he didn't get a shout out.
He's not with Clutch. Okay, time to make a move,
Max Christie. That's enough.
Speaker 2: That's enough. On the Lakers, Memphis Grizzlies, Jay Huff he
of have you seen the Jay Huff dunk Dan?
Speaker 1: Because that I was watching the Jay Huff dumble that.
Speaker 2: Was I mean, good for him. Didn't see that coming
he was converted from a two way contract to a
standard NBA deal, and I have been converted from someone
who did not know who Jay Huff was to a
Jay Huff fan. He signed for four years in ten
point one million. Like a floor stretching center that can
do cool reverse dunks in traffic and block some shots
like that. Guy probably should have had a job or
more consistently up to this point. We'll see how that
works out in Memphis. Also on the Grizzlies front, less exciting.
John Moran miss Monday's game with a thigh contusion I
believe is the injury for.
Speaker 1: The Miami Heat. This is not injury related at least
a Dwayne. Wayne's statue was unveiled. He did not look
enthusiastic while he was clapping for its unveiling, but he
defended the criticism thrown at the artist way. I'm only
putting this in here because I appreciated it, just as
I try to say that all my jokes are in
good fun, even when they can be overly snarky or critical.
But to like, as Wade basically said, being a player
in the public eye, having dealing with the criticism, like
I know what that's like when people don't appreciate all
this effort that you put into something that's his work,
that's his recreation of a moment. And I just really
appreciated that defense, and it has as I've gotten older.
It's defined how I go about criticism towards I never
try to make it super personal, and it's I'm not
trying to demean or claim that a player deprecate their work,
ethic or their body type, not saying that's the right way,
but it was kind of just like in a ha
moment to where yeah, like that's the it's the memes
were kind of funny because it does not look like
Dwyane Wade, but it's also yes, someone did pour play
their heart and soul into that, and so it subs cotrol.
Speaker 2: And like, how about let us know next time there's
a statue that everyone is like, oh, perfect likeness, it's
always this. It's always like can you believe how ridiculous this?
Like what is it? Like the Christiano Ronaldo one is
like the biggest joke of all time. It's just like
that's what she gets. Yeah right, this is what happens
with statue that just okay, Minnesota timber Wolves are up next.
Mike Conley says he's been dealing with a little wrist soreness,
according to John Krazinski of The Athletic stems from something
a few years ago. This is what happens when you
get old a few years ago. Injuries just show back up.
When he's uh that when he's done playing, he's gonna
need to have it addressed. He's confident it's not the
reason for his slow shooting start because he just had
it for a while. Not super encouraging, but at least
it's not some new acute injury, so that's slightly positive.
Speaker 1: This is mostly just a catch up on the Pelicans.
I'm hoping. I've not seen anything about Herb Jones's shoulder
injury he suffered against the Warriors. Grant have you like
sen No.
Speaker 2: He had to leave the game though, and did not
return after like a rough a rough scrum on the
floor of Pajemski kind of fell on it on his
right shoulder and bent it bent in a way that
would suggest there's an injury there.
Speaker 1: Those Santa Clara alums are just notoriously dirty, dangerous or dangerous.
So de Jante Murray he will be out at least
four to six weeks after he had surgery repair Fractioners
left hand that he suffered on Opening night because the
Pelicans are cursed. In further evidence that the Pelicans are curse,
Trey Murphy right hamstring injury will be reevaluated after the
first week of November. He has yet to play this season.
Speaker 2: For anyone wondering, former Pelican and current New York Nick
Josh Hart proving there is curses that follow you elsewhere.
Dealing with multiple injuries, including a left ankle issue, he's
likely to pla he almost got me to read this part.
I will just anyway. He's likely to play until he
dies anyway.
Speaker 1: Well, he was listed is out before the game against
the Cabs, I think, and then played.
Speaker 2: It doesn't make sure you can't keep josh Hart out.
Speaker 1: We're onto the Sixers. We're still waiting on return timetables
for Embiid and Paul George. Both of them have left
knee stuff going on. But the team has been fined
one hundred thousand dollars for public statements on Joellembid's availability,
per Sham Sourced said. The NBA's investigation showed that the
Sixers did not violate player participation player participation policy, my god,
within Bead's missed games, but in fact, with the public
comments that did not properly his health issues with his knee.
I don't understand what that means other than did they
mislead fans into buying tickets for games that they thought
they were going to see Joel Andbiid play.
Speaker 2: To me, that is exactly what this means, is that
the Sixers know his injury is more scar Yeah. It's like, so,
what are they being fined for for not saying so?
I guess I don't know, Like, yeah, cause it's it's
not it's it's just I guess it's just about under selling,
you know it, calling it maintenance or whatever when it's like, no, no,
his knee is not he can't play, it's he's hurt.
Speaker 1: Like what the hell he played in the Olympics. Not well?
Speaker 2: He was out there for the most part. Yeah, not great.
And you said, you said, don't have timetables on either
him or Paul George. Moving on to the Spurs, Denvasel
expected to make his season debut the first week of November.
He's coming back from right foot surgery last season. H
huge piece, like just a huge piece for the Spurs
because that offense is I mean, the Chris Paul Wemby
pick and roll is just kind of not a thing yet,
So need that creator that shooter. Uh.
Speaker 1: For the Toronto Raptors, Scottie Barnes suffered an orbital fracture
and will be reevaluated in three weeks. That is bad
news for Toronto's Raptors offense. That is already bad news
in general. So I mean everything about their team, well
not everything about their team, but their statistical performance has
probably been Look, they's just perfect loss to the Nuggets.
Let's force over time and anyway.
Speaker 2: When you got four and a half good players and
one quickly is already hurt with that pelvic contusion or
has been hurt his back looks like looks looks like
he might be last year.
Speaker 1: R J can I very quickly for emotion and I
can cut this if you don't think it's podcast worthy.
I'd like permission to call Grady Dick rejections cock blocks.
Speaker 2: I don't know what else you could even consider calling them.
Speaker 1: Have you heard it before the first one to come
up with it? We have to be even in there then,
it's someone it's not hot.
Speaker 2: If you arrived at that like in a tie with
you just need to get it out there. So it's
attributed to you. I think you're gonna want that on,
you know, just in your your ledger.
Speaker 1: It's gonna be a terrible se Yeah, okay, well there's
no good way to do it. Uh.
Speaker 2: For the Jazz, Taylor Hendricks suffered a right fibula, a
fractured right fibula, dislocated an ankle, the one of those
like foots going the wrong way things and one of
the strangest like I just there was no contact. He
was just running by himself and tried to stop like
essentially fell on his own right foot. Brutal, like ugly,
scary injury. The good news is, like guys come back
from this, like you talk about Paul George, Gordon Hayward.
That happens in football, like Aiden Hutchinson just had the
same thing with for the Detroit line like this is
it looks as bad as an injury can look, and
then guys do come back. So we like Hendricks, were
rooting for him, but he is going to miss the
rest of the season. Unfortunately for the.
Speaker 1: Jazz, I did not see it. I won't be watching it,
and hopefully he falls to the Paul George end of
the spectrum, just because he's younger when it happens, so
hopefully it doesn't alter his career too much. And finally,
the Washington Wizards Kyle Queen was out indefinitely after suffering
a right groin strain. More, honestly, more shots for black
Cool Bali, who just needs to take more shots. He
looks He just looks so good on the ball right now.
Not in the process is not always like the end result,
I should say, is not always good. But he just
looks so comfortable and poised, and I just want him
to continue shooting more, but probably more shots for Jordan
Poole as well.
Speaker 2: Oh boy, you're.
Speaker 1: Ready to take us out of here, mister Hughes. Yep.
Speaker 2: Thanks everybody for checking in with our check ins. We'll
try to do something like this once a week going forward.
If you haven't already, please just remember rate us review,
subscribe where we get your podcast positive reviews, especially super
helpful five stars, all that good stuff. Subscribe on YouTube.
Make sure you leave comments, help the algorithm, love us back,
tell your friends. Word of mouth is very helpful. Check
out our merch join our discord links for all that
in the YouTube and podcast descriptions. Almost what a week
plus in now so we're ramping up. Feels like it
feels like a month as far behind as I feel
about everything going on. Thanks to everybody shouts frank O
kan An apologies, tear down m