Locked On Lakers - Daily Podcast On The Los Angeles Lakers - NBA SQUAD: Rockets Fred VanVleet Injury Nightmare, Media Day Wishes, Can the Thunder Level Up Again

Episode Date: September 26, 2025

It's time for another episode of the NBA Squad! Today we are breaking down the Houston Rockets' nightmare Fred VanVleet injury, what we want to see from NBA Media Days, whether or not the Oklahoma City Thunder can take another step up and more! Follow & Subscribe on all Podcast platforms…🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/podcasts/locked-on-nba Locked On NBA League-Wide: Every Team, Fantasy, Draft, WNBA & More🎧 https://lockedonpodcasts.com/leagues/nba Follow the Locked On Podcast NetworkTwitter 📲 https://twitter.com/LockedOnNetworkTikTok 📲 https://www.tiktok.com/@lockedonsports Support Us By Supporting Our Sponsors! | Offers: https://lockedonpodcasts.com/offers/ #NBA #Basketball #Podcast #NBAPodcast #Sports #SportsPodcast Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

On today's show, it's the Lockdown NBA Squad Show. We take over the feed of your favorite show, and we're all in here talking about Fred Van Fleet's injury. We talk about things that we want to see at Mediate. We talk about what the Thunder need to do to level up this season. All coming up right here. Locked on NBA Squad starts now. You are Talking Ball with the NBA Squad Show, sponsored by game time.

From the Warriors to the Lakers, the Knicks to the Heat, and everyone else in the league. The local experts of the Lockdown Podcast Network bring you all the scoops, breakdowns and the most comprehensive look cross the league. Trash talk and big takes included. No holding back, we're giving the green light. It's time to talk NBA squad show. And welcome into the Lockdown NBA Squad Show

where we take up with the feed of your favorite show. I'm Nick Engstead host of Lockton NBA Game Night, Lockdown Mavs. I'm joined by some of the greats on the Lockdown Podcast Network from Lockdown Magic. Philip Rossman Reich. How are the magic? Is it magic down there? It's magical.

We're eager to get this thing start. after the summer they had. From the rainy champion, Thunder, Locked on Thunder, Rylan Stiles. Does the trophy still shine or if all the fingerprints dinged it a little bit? They have a professional cleaner every night, so it's still shiny and new.

And the host that everyone loves to hate, Matt Moore from Lockedon, NBA Daily Locked on Nuggets. Matt Moore, how goes Denver? Good. They're excited. I'm the only person that has a fall happening right now. three of you are no fall. But what is you're changing?

It's like 70 degrees outside. It's crisp. It's pumpkin spice season for those that are take. It's great. I'll join you in December here from Dallas. What is a fall? January 1st. We may end up somewhere completely different like we do on the squad show.

But let's talk about Fred Van Bleet. Let's talk about his injury and how it affects the entire Western conference. Because to me, I think with the Fred Van Bleet injury, they lost their most valuable player. Like Kevin Duran is their best player for sure. Amit Thompson is probably their most important player going forward. Shangun could be their best player this season if KD takes a little dip down because of age.

But I think Fred Van Blee was their most important player. Danny Cunningham locked on Cavs joining in. As soon as I was done to the introductions. That's how I wanted to do it. I wanted to time it up to just make you look bad. Um, did, are the Rockets no longer contenders? Um, I mean, I think that they're going to be really good, but like I don't view them as a team right now because of the FV injury and even before so.

Like I just think it's really unlikely that somebody other than Denver or OKC comes out of the West. I don't think that they're capable of winning the title this year. That doesn't mean they're not going to be really, really good. I think they are going to be really, really good. But I just don't know that they're going to have enough to hold up in the playoffs because I just think that ball handling and playmaking really matters in that setting. And without Fred, I think the rockets are just they don't have enough in that category. now of course they can go out and make a move um but teams that make moves in season very rarely when the championship do so i would say no so i think maybe one of the ancient questions here is

to frame it we're based in this off of known knowns this is i have a really hard time with preseason because everyone gets together and we all agree these teams are going to be good these teams are going to be bad these teams are going to be mid and then oftentimes like we all knew the thunder were going to be great and they were better than we thought though right and we all knew that some certain teams were going to be bad, but you know they're going to be that bad, right? The jazz weren't supposed to be that bad, but it's those outcomes that we don't expect.

And as part of it is you almost have to plug in, I do this kind of exercise with every team I evaluate in preseason. How many ifs do you have? And the good news for the Rockets is actually that they have a lot of positive ifs in this situation. Like, yes, FV, losing FVV is terrible. If a man Thompson makes a huge jump.

and he just like his three point shot comes around and he is that two way menace okay that fundamentally reshapes what they're going to be like if he's a most improved player leader that changes their conversation if albert shangoon surges off of the run by turkey uh this hold on i'm going to call jackson real quick just for a correct correct pronunciation of turkey um uh then if he becomes that player that can finally reshape things. If Jabari Smith Jr. makes this kind of a leap, there are these kind of things that can compensate for the Fred Van Bleet injury. They are going to miss like the setting the

floor, the ability to be a guard that's like, I will bring the ball up, I'll give the ball to Kevin Durant, and I can space appropriately around him and act as a secondary playmaker. They are, they do not have that right now. And that's big. But it also, their formula was always going to be kind of thunderish, where it's like, hey, we've got like one amazing individual isolation player. And then like our general offense is pretty good because we always get stops. And so we're always going against a rush defense. But really the answer is like we win because of our defense. Like that was always going to be their answer.

So I think that there I still consider them to be a serious threat. But now it's like you don't have the finished product coming in. You're going to have to figure that out by the end of the year. And it just became harder for them. Yeah. Yeah, I feel like like with Houston. They need that guy, though. It's not like they're a veteran group that's been there before.

Yes, they made the playoffs last year. Yes, they were the two-seed. And I think we kind of forget how good they were last year. So I don't think they'll take a step down to being like, they're still going to be very good, as everyone is saying here. But Fred Van Bleet does something that I think very few players on that Rocket's team do. He's a three-point shooter. He's a legitimate three-point threat.

They were, I believe they were near the bottom of the league in three-point shooting last year, not as bad as my team, of course, because no one's as bad as my team. But they were not. This is a team in Dallas that may rival that this year. We'll see. Okay, then do it for 10 years after this year. And then. Yeah, for 10 more years.

But like, but like when Houston got to the playoffs, you know, it's one thing to get through the regular season. Getting to the playoffs, that's where they really need a guy like Fred Van Vleet to kind of balance things out for their star players to be star players. And, you know, Houston's going to be fine. They'll probably still be a home court advantage team. like Matt said, they're going to have to figure some things out now. But their goal is to win a championship.

And I just don't know if they have it right now. Again, maybe guys develop it. That's not a team with a lot of like true point guards on that team. Like Fred Van Vleet was one of one to make that system work. And I think one of the things too that matters here is you have to look at what their potential path would be. And Oklahoma City is very obviously standing in their way. And I don't think that you can beat the thunder. unless you have a lot of really good ball handling and playmaking because of the amount of chaos that

their defense causes, I think that you just need to have multiple guys on the floor at basically all times that can take care of the basketball, that can create for themselves, that can create for others. That I think is one of the biggest things that they make opponents do. They're beatable when you can do that. It's just not very many teams have that formula. And when you take away a guy like Fred Van Vleet, I just think it's really hard for the rockets to get to that point where they have enough in that category. Hayes over on Lock on NBA Daily had the answer for what they should do.

And it's, it's been rattling around my brain. Making the money work is very perilous. But Colin Sexton is like the answer here. That is like the guy. If they are willing to part with one of the centers, Clint Capella, Stephen Adams, like let's say Steveo falls off the cliff this year.

Because Steveo was amazing line. year, but it's always about how many miles injury status can he play? I think they call it a leggy in New Zealand. A what? A legion. The cliff. I think they call it a legy in New Zealand. A leggy.

Okay. If he slipped off the legy and is no longer as important because they have Capella as kind of a backup and they're playing more small ball, right? You can use that as a big chunk of this along with J. Sean Tate and get a lot of the way there. That to me is the type of player that you want. If you're like Colin Sexton, well, yeah, you're not going to get a replacement level for Van Blit. There aren't any.

Like, you're not going to get one. So the key is going to have to be a try and find somebody who can like amalgamate those things that he does, which I think Colin Sexton could. I think that there's still like legitimate threats in the sense of winning a lot of games in the regular season, being a home court advantage team, winning a playoff series. But when it comes to contender status, to me, it would be a disappointment to see Denver or Oklahoma City lose to Houston. and that in itself makes them not a contender to me.

Whereas before this injury, they realistically could have beaten one of those teams in the postseason. But now it just really is hard to see the path for them to get through the West. And they now have a bunch of question marks, just like the rest of the non-Thundered Denver teams. On lockdown maps, we're trying to put together the tiers of the West, they get thunder in their tier on their own, then probably Nuggets tier on their own.

Yeah. Then it's like, like Minnesota, Houston, Clippers, Lakers, Mavs. Not the Mavs. Not the Mavs. When's Karee coming back? We're just like checking to make sure that we were listening when you said Mavs? Mavis fans like really think this team that like Isaac Harris from Locktime Mavericks was like talking today about like, well, yeah, I think it could be like a sixth seed before Kairi comes back.

DeAngelo Russell is their starting point guard. And he's their only one. You're just talking about one, you're just talking about the Rockins getting Colin Sexton. That was going to be like the answer for that. They have a man Thompson. They don't even have Kevin Durant. We have a man Thompson at home. His name is Cooper Flagg.

He's six nine. That's spanking a lot on Anthony Davis, like, playing a full season. I mean, obviously. I mean, if he's going to, if he's not going to play a full season, then we're not even talking about them as a playing team. But they're deep. They're a really deep team. And Cooper Flag is a big X, you know, big X factor. Like, we don't know exactly what he's going to be year one.

but what if he's Blake Griffin, you're one? You know what I mean? Like all of a sudden, that's huge. I want to go back. Let's not go down, making this about the matter. It's always. Today's episode of the lockdown NBA squad show

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They also have stores, too, so you can go check. check out and see what they have there. Again, it's skims.com. Select podcast in the drop-down menu after you place your order at skims. com. I want to go back to, I think, where Houston is, because I want to make the case that they're in that tier two. With Denver?

Yeah. So they're the two seed last year. They won the games. Now, a lot of those were they had a stellar record versus teams, the elite teams in the league, and we were all like, yeah, that's not going to hold. And then what do you know it didn't hold? But I actually was pretty encouraging. by that first round series versus the Warriors.

Because if that young team had gotten in there versus the veteran membership of those creaky old dudes and just falling apart, it would have been like, hey, you may not be 16 players. But they actually like stepped up and responded. Shangoon had moments. Jalen Green had a half. Like, a man Thompson had a half.

Like they had these moments along the way. And then, you know, Kevin Durant honestly hasn't had a great playoff run recently. which is a little alarming, but I still look at Houston and go, is the defense going to be elite under Ema Odoca with that athleticism? Yeah. Is the offense probably still going to be really good because they were 12th last year and they had KD? Yeah. Like I,

Fred Van Blee's the type of player that I always think is super valuable and nobody pays enough attention to and the numbers always bear out how important he is. But if we're looking at the rest of the West, I think the rest of those teams all have like big glaring, flaming issues. more than Houston does with the loss of their, you know, secondary playmaker spot up floor general. Well, if we're going to put them in the same tier as Denver, what's Denver's big glaring flaming issue?

I think their big glaring flaming issue. The bench may not be better. Like we think it's going to be better. You hope it's going to be better. I mean, but also if you're talking about like the bench might not be better compared with this team lost their starting point guard. and doesn't really have a ton of depth there. Like, I just think those are in two different category.

I'm not saying that the Rockets shouldn't be at the top of that third tier, but I think it's probably not right to put them in the same tier as Denver. And it's probably not right for Denver and I'm more of like that tier is very wide. And I think Denver has done enough not only this off season, but having like championship equity to be in a tier above the rest of those teams that have not. Maybe they do have an inexperience. This is the first year head coach.

How many games with the playoff run underneath his belt already? Yeah, really impressive playoff run. How many games with the Rockets take off the Thunder? 20 games with the Rocks. I mean, soft six. Soft six. That's ending in five. They can't dribble against that team.

Yeah, I mean. I'm really curious to see what happens with the Thunder defense this year. I'm really curious to see what happens. Because the second half of the year, there was a lot of shakiness. And it's like, yeah, because they locked up the one seat in like January 1st. but a lot of the defense was also built on the back of hey what if no one could ever make a three versus them like doesn't matter if you're how open you are

doesn't matter if you shoot from the corner doesn't matter if you're creating good looks like no you're just going to miss every three point that's or a defense there's also there's also the thing of like every team has probably spent the entire summer watching the thunder and figuring out what they do and I think this happens with every champion because they're trying they're going to it's a copycat league

everyone's going to try and copy what the thunder are doing to some extent. And someone's going to figure out a way to, like, frustrate them. And that's probably Dallas because they seem to always frustrate them. But someone, someone's going to hit on something. And the moment they hit on it, it's going to spread like wildfire throughout the league. Now, I'm not here saying the thunder aren't the favorites to win the championship. Like they're the favorites to win the championship again. But this is what happens in the league.

I think the question for OKC as they defend their title is, is how do you evolve? Like, how do you kind of keep innovating and keep doing something different because you can't win a title doing the exact same thing? It doesn't work that way in the NBA. I mean, whole story.

Yeah, I don't know. I mean, it's just the topic where it's like, you know, they had the historically great defense last year. They brought everybody back from that historically great defense with a bunch of guys whose DNA is bredded in defense. And they're going to have to make an adjustment at some point this season for sure. I mean, they're going to see teams throw different things at them and then how they adjust from there. We don't know if it'll be positively negatively.

But what do you see? So I am also very interested in it. Are there probable more concerns in Oklahoma City? Do you feel like they're all locked in on a second championship? I mean, it's not locked in because it's just so hard to win a championship. And I think that it would be a little dishonest to say that. I do think they're their favorites to win it. But we've done this the last couple of champions as well.

The Celtics were the obvious favorites. the nuggets are the obvious favorites and the thunder now fall into that category. The only difference being that Oklahoma City has guys who can still progress. It's like you expect Chet to be a lot better this season than he was last year and play more games, frankly, although that doesn't really matter. He played all the postseason, which is what we're really talking about here. But offensively, he can get worlds better. I think Kaysen Wallace can get a lot better and on down the roster.

So how this team internally develops is going to be the biggest story. It's going to be the difference in between repeating or falling in line with the rest of the NBA history recently of this parody era. Like if their big move this summer was to bring everybody back and bank on all these guys getting better, they're going to be right or they're going to be wrong about that. And we'll see what's going to happen this season. But I think that they made a really good bet that these guys are going to keep getting

better and particularly Chet Holmgren. And even Jathan Williams can get better as well. We saw them play way differently in the playoffs. They did in the regular season at getting downhill and getting to the free throw line more and being just a bit bigger force as a score. So I'm very interested in seeing them. It's not going to be a waltz your way to the championship by any means, but they are in a good position. So I got a, I got, I got some nerd stats here.

Teams that finish number one in defensive rating, the following season, their average finish since 2011-12 is 6.33 on defense the next season. So you finish with number one on defense, your average finish is 6.33. Four teams went back to back with the number one. Pacers, 2012, 2013. It was three years in a row. They did that because that Franksville team was insane. The 2016 Spurs and the 2021 Celtics. So it is just kind of interesting to see this like teams,

teams that went number one on defense and their average finish. One of the kind of conclusions I've come to is that defense is sticky, but elite defense is not. if you're a good defense, you're going to be a good defense. If you're an elite defense, you're going to be a good defense the next year. But replicating these just, oh my God, juggernaut performances is very difficult, which is interesting. Now, the Thunder's offense is still more than good enough. Like, I actually think that they probably underperformed offensively last year.

And you think about Jalen Williams' development. Chahongren, Michael, Cove. And like, 700 million great players that they have, and they're likely to compensate for that. But I just think it's interesting in that kind of what we're talking about, which is they will have to find a new way to win. That to me was Boston's big miscalculation. And honestly, Denver's too is if you really look back at this, what happened to these teams is they thought that they could just do it again. And you can't. Not right now.

You can't just run it back. You've got to be something new every season, I think, in the NBA. But how new do you have to be? Like, how new does that new thing have to be? And there's an argument that like that Thunder can be one of those outlets. outlier teams as hard as it is. But, I mean, whenever you have a group of players that arguably can take up a whole all defensive team in this roster of its own, that I think that there is no reason to head

into the season with any sort of worries, really, about their defense. I think, I think the big thing and kind of the big takeaway on that is that, you know, the other aspect of it is you just don't know what's going to happen during the season. Like, you know, knock on wood, someone, you know, Shay could miss 30 games, you know, you know, for whatever reason. You know, it could be fine for the playoffs, but things happen during the course of the season. Every season is different.

You can't, you know, you can't, you don't just run it back because something always happens that you have to be able to navigate. And I think that'll be a factor in this as well. And then again, like, it's hard to be that intense on defense. And I think one, you know, it's a test for every team defending a championship.

And it gets to what Matt was saying. You have to have the, you have to have the energy to do it again. You have to have the desire to do it again. And you hear this from every single team that wins a championship and every single team that wins multiple championships. They always say the second one's harder than the first one because you got to find the motivation. You know, I mentioned the problem of more.

These are a lot of young guys and they've been very, very selfless. But at what point does someone say like, hey, I want my turn. I want to get mine a little bit. You know, I got a, you know, Chad and Jalen got their, and J-dub got their contracts. But does that play into things as well? how committed are they to doing this again? Or do they go into that thought process of, oh, we're the, you know, we're not running away with the one seat.

We're fine. We can let some things slip. We'll focus back up in March. That's where a lot of these teams slip up and get burned into playoffs and why the champion always loses in the second round. And that's where it's going to be difficult for the thunder to lean on their foundation of ever since Mark's taking this job, even whenever the team was winning 20-something games. He's talked about being, you know, one of 82 and zero and zero. and stacking days and all that stuff that gets monotonous, but stuff that you can see that they've really bought into.

Can you keep that same level of buy in after getting your accolades? I'm not in their brains. I have no idea. But I mean, I think that the proof is in the pudding for now of that they still showed up to work every night. And we talked about it on the various shows on this network whenever they were winning 20-something games, that they were a tough, bad team back then.

So they showed up then whenever there was no motivation at all. And the guys that were playing weren't going to even be in the NBA the following season. So we'll see if they show up now. on the quest to defend their title. Today's episode of the Lockdown NBA Squad Show is brought to you by Banduel. The NFL season is here. NBA season is right around the corner.

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Get started. That's Fandwell.com to place your first $5 bet at Fandwell. Please gamble responsibly. I speaking of like wanting to become something different this is where I'm really hoping the calves recalibrate back Danny is you know they were so good defensively under bigger staff right so good defensively and I really did kind of I kept waiting for them to turn that corner and maybe pick it up and look more like that and that never really happened they made a jump where they landed I think they were top eight at one point for a while like they were surging for like a little bit bit, but it wasn't ever like this elite defense. And to Phillips point about how much energy it takes, it's so hard to be a great offensive team if you're great on defense because it's just, it's such a grind. And it felt like the offense became a little bit of a crutch for the Cavs.

And I'd like to see them rebalance things this season a little bit. I think that needs to be part of their goal. Because last year, and the Cavs have since Evan Mobley's been there, they've gone into it being like, we are a defense first team. man, for the first few years, they were. Like his second year in league, Donovan Mitchell's first year in Cleveland, they were the number one team in defense. And then the year after that, I think they were seventh, but Evan Mobley missed like eight weeks throughout that season. So like that I just don't necessarily read into that drop off because you lost a guy that was defensive player

of your finalist the year before. But I think last year, they figured out pretty early that's like, oh, we're sick offensively. Like we can just outscore teams. And Matt, I'm sure you can think back to this, but like, they played a game in Denver. And it was in, I believe, December when they went out West. It was right around Christmas. And they beat the nuggets like 149 to 135 in a game that did not go to overtime. Like, they almost scored 150 points in a regulation game. And the cat, like, management and the coaching staff was not too thrilled about that because they gave up 135 points. But I think there was just things like, we can just score more than anybody else in the league. to be fair to them, they had the second most efficient offense in NBA history last year.

So they could do that. But I do think some of the changes that they've made, particularly to some of the role players, do tend to lean towards defense just a little bit. And you can't count on Lanzo ball a ton because he's played 70 games in four years. But replacing Tide's Rome with him in the rotation is a really big step up for them defensively. And to get back to the earlier point about the thunder, like, and even the Pacers, too, those two teams didn't have anybody, certainly not role players, that opposing teams could just be like, you know what, you can't play in this game. Like, we are going to play you off the floor. And the Cavs had that last year. Like Ty Jerome could be played off the floor because he was a traffic cone defensively. And Isaac Okoro could be played off the floor because nobody was going to defend him on the offensive end of the floor. And I think that what they wanted to do, and I think that what they wanted to do, and I think. do think that they accomplished this on paper. We'll see what happens when they start actually playing games.

But I think what they wanted to do is just build a roster where the only guy that is truly a one-way guy is Darius Garland. Because he's just small and never going to be a good defender. And I do think that, like, he and Donovan at least give effort, even if they're not great defenders. You can have a star that's a one-way guy, but they don't have role players that are one-way guys. So I do think that there will be a bit more of a commitment to the defensive end of the floor this year than there was last year. Let's go around the room and say what you're excited about. or what you want to learn from your media day. We'll start cabs since we're still going cabs.

What are people excited about? What do you want to learn from your media? I mean, I think people are excited to see what Evan Mobley looks like. So he came into media day last year and like, look noticeably bigger. And he didn't want to get into how much weight he gained or, you know,

what kind of stuff he did to, to become stronger. But I do think that being stronger is something for him that should be like number one on the priority list. I think it's that and I think it's tightening his handle because ultimately like if Evan Mobley is a, and I'm not saying that I expect this to happen this year, but if Evan Mobley is a top five player at the end of the year, and I don't expect that to happen. But if he is, the Cavs are going to win the title this year.

Like if he takes that sort of leap and internally the Cavs believe that is a possible thing for him. But if he does that, the Cavs are going to win the title because they're going to be awesome because that is a huge leap for a guy entering this season as your second best player behind somebody else that was first team all NBA. So I think it's what Evan Mobley looks like. Kenny Atkinson and Kobe Alman already talked. They talked on Tuesday of this week. So we kind of got the updates about Darius Garland's health and Max Drews is going to miss a few months. So like the news year items are not going to be unveiled next week. But I think it's like, does Evan Mobley, does he pass the eye test sitting at a podium in a jersey, not actually doing anything with the basketball?

Danny is on full muscle watch. Yes. Yes. Remember that one year, Janus came back to Milwaukee. He's like, you are jacked now. Can we get some of that from Evan Mobile? Mm. Full muscle wash.

About the magic? I mean, I think the first thing we want to know is, are they going to actually make shots this year? Because that would be nice if they could make shots at all anywhere. Just, you know, anywhere on the floor, threes would be nice, but midrangers are good too. You just wanted to play a game of knockout and just watch them. Yeah, yeah.

Just like during meaty day, just like, just play knockout. Just make sure the ball goes in the basket. Yeah, I think the biggest thing, that we want to learn or just begin to understand is how Desmond Bain's going to actually fit into this thing and get a sense. The sense is that everyone is very, very excited about what this team can be. And I think the anticipation is probably outpaced what they'll actually do.

I'm a big believer that it's a process. It's going to be multi-year thing. They're not a championship team this year quite yet. But I think what they want to show is that they're on the path to it. So we got to see how, you know, whether Desmond Bain actually works in the way that we all think he's going to work. And the newsiest item that we'll be watching on Monday is Jalen Suggs hasn't exactly committed that he's ready for training camp after his knee injury.

That's kind of a big deal. I don't, we don't know where he's at in his recovery from the injury. And while the magic described his knee injury, his knee surgery that he had in February as just cleaning up some cartilage, he had a pretty complex procedure. It's called a mosaic plastic. You can look that up. It is a pretty complex procedure. He's on the court.

They've posted photos of him not wearing a brace or knee padding or anything like that. We just don't know if he's doing contact yet. We don't know if he's going to be participating in camp yet. We don't know if he's going to be ready for the preseason game in Puerto Rico yet. We just don't know where he's at. So I think that's a big, big piece of the magic puzzle is Jalen Suggs as a spot-up shooter as the point guard and name as the head of the snake on defense. They need him and they need him to play 65.

games at least. Who has a healthy point card? Denver. The Thunder. The Thunder don't have a point guard. Whoa. She's a great point card. Jaylon Greenbook.

He's a point guard. He's a great card. Sure. I mean, he plays whatever he wants to play. But the Thunder's biggest storyline is Nicola Topich. Just because there's no idea what his role looks like. I mean, this is a guy.

that will struggle to playoff the ball, he'll struggle to defend, but he is an elite playmaker, and he showed the ability to get to the rim in Summer League, although that means about as much as, you know, a scrimmage against Eisenhower High School. So who knows what that looks like with Nicola Topich? So is the plan to kind of put him in the G League as a guy that hasn't had a lot of opportunities to play post-knee injury in a live action type of game? Is the plan to put them in the back of the rotation, expecting some lopsided scores that you got a year ago with the best point differential on the NBA? is the plan to have him be incorporated into that secondary unit to take some of the playmaking

burden off of those J-dub staggered lineups that could stall in the half court very easily last season offensively. So I think that Nicola Toppich is like the only question out there for this thunder team heading into the season. The only question about the team is the I mean, life's got over here. What could go wrong? Do you like what you saw? I mean, the whole team could get injured. We could all die in a plane crash. Who knows? But I mean, as of the I got dark. That got dark. Did we just learn Rylan and rides on the plane with the team?

As of this, no, I do not. As of this, I actually had to drive the replayoff game, but as of this moment, there's not a ton. Now, there's going to be questions pop up throughout the year. They're not going to go 82 and O and they're not probably going to go wire to wire with the one seat even. They might lose opening night if you look at the history of champions on ring night. So again, this is not to say the Thunder going to be awesome, but heading into the season, that's like the biggest storyline, which is a good spot to be in.

What a storyline. Brian is infuriating because he manages to deflect all criticism without ever boasting and he project supreme confidence, but it's all like hidden behind a very like, yeah, no, who knows what could happen? It's like measured boasting. Yeah, like, yeah, no. I'm a very measured person. You might win. Crazy things happen. Yeah.

Nuggets is there will be questions about David Adam and kind of his plan for reshaping things because he gets he's a whole new staff. Will Jamal Murray continue to stagger with the second unit? But to me, the biggest question is just like, Joker is at a point now where he has very little patience and that he exuded that last year. I think Nicole Yokoj had what is probably, it's debatable, but it's probably the best single offensive season in NBA history last season and was miserable. the entire time because he knew that team wasn't good enough and he was constantly frustrated

and that's not how he wants to play. He does not want to average what he averaged last year. He does not think that is how basketball should be played. So if Joker comes in to Media Day, if he arrives, because he's going to come literally

from the airport and will be there exactly 15 minutes after when he's supposed to be. Takes a while for a horse to get from that. Yes, over the sea. It's Denver. They have horse links.

And if he comes in and is like, I'm really excited. Like, I think that this, he does indicate how he feels about things. So if he comes in as like, he, there's that sense of we're going for it. He'll always be like, we'll see. Like the, you know, the moves are good, but you have to do it on the floor. Like he's very measured in that way. Him and Ryle him would get along. But if he comes in with a better attitude, it's going to be a big deal.

And it's going to be a big lift for the entire team. The other question is Christian Brown and Peyton Watson's extensions and that whole restricted free to the mess. Will there be any talk about we're glad that we don't have to deal with Michael Porter Jr's podcast? I don't think anybody will mention it because they all, it's weird. I think they all like Mike. He was frustrating to play with at times and has certain issues with awareness at times. But I think, I don't think that they're glad he's gone. So I don't think that there'll be a lot of backbiting.

I think the, like, one of the things about this entire thing with Porter and the podcast is, the real problem is that Porter just said all the things that said, get said a lot in NBA locker rooms. Like, he's just said those things. And people that have spent time in them know that. And that's like a real problem. And if you're going like, well, then why don't you talk? about it because I'm literally not allowed to like they're on record or they're not so um while I

don't like Porter's comments are obviously like a whole big bag of ugh but they're also not unique to mbj did the Nets like skate when their media day with the like the biggest most notable thing that Porter jr said was that he spends $250 a day in ubers and ubers that is wild didn't he say he's thinking of retiring. Yeah, he said he's still thinking of retiring. We kind of knew that. Then there's, he's also still splitting an apartment rent with his Yes, with an ex.

And he's splitting, not just, I'm just straight up paying. Just like. Yeah. Yeah. How's not a reality TV camera following him at this point? I mean, it's called, what's this podcast? He wasn't on starting five.

Yeah, he should be on this year's. Netflix. Don't you have to get some subscriptions up? Starting five tries to pick the most boring guys because they won't cause trouble. For the Mavericks, it's, I'm excited to hear the phrase, Kyrie Irving is ahead of schedule. That will happen almost guaranteed. We're doing lockdown Mab's media day bingo and that's my free space.

Why? Because they're just going to say that. I know, I know they're going to say it. But what if they don't? If they don't. And you don't get the free space, then you're not going to win an end up. Yeah, you're not going to win the video. How much panic, though, is induced if they don't say it?

none for me because I have low expectations for him. I think he will come back at some point during the year. The thumbnail you're going to make, though, is going to be panic-inducing. As the 80s, 80s not a center on that, on that bingo card? Yeah, though. So the real thing is that I want to know the status of Anthony Davis because he has been back on the basketball court. We've heard him play five on five. But he just posted a picture recently where his eye, I mean, he just looks like, I mean, he looks like a frog.

frogs like the eyes that are on top of their head that are just like bulging out like I need to know this the status of that he was recovering from the adductor injury at the end of the season then he had this detached retina which I don't know I don't think he had a detached retina you can't see out of that eye if you have it's Tio Cells and Dallas now and so in earth reference I missed I'm no idea what that is missed on me eyeball eyeball monster it was crazy uh and so I want to know I want to know I want to where Anthony Davis is where he is on that because obviously like we said earlier the whole season revolves around him.

I don't know if there's anything about Cooper Flagg I'm going to learn or hear about or see. They've already, Jason Kidd has already talked about. They want to use him as a guard. That's interesting, but already been said. And that's where I'm on that. And then obviously, I think for all of us, there's like hierarchy on where certain players are. Like,

do you learn like if one coach thinks of highly of another player compared to another one? Like, especially the players that just got brought in. Yeah, I think I think that you learn a little bit more during training camp than you do at Media Day just because it's a week long of just asking players about practice and whoever they keep bringing up is the guy that's kind of performing

the best and especially the ones that they keep bringing up unprompted. So I'm kind of more interested in training camp than I am at Media Day, but still. True. Well, I know the maps have gotten together a couple times already, so we can be getting some drops. Just as like a little heads up. If your

GM and your coach won't do press together to start it, It's probably a bad sign. A small head out there. What if they won't do press together at all? Ever. Jason,

yeah, Jason, Jason Kidd has been elite during this process of, didn't he, he got extended, yes? No, not yet. But there was talk about that, Stein. There was talk there.

But when, when the, like the Knicks job thing came up, I was just waiting. I was just waiting for that extension to come in and never did. That's what a college coach would do. He avoided blowback on the Luca thing, managed to basically duck under any of it,

and avoid any sort of being implicated in anything, got mentioned for the next job, and then it's going to wind up using that to get an extension. It's, it is pro-level finessing by J-Kid. Good for him. That's what he does. That's what he does.

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