The Deep 3 Podcast - Everything We Want To See On NBA Opening Night | TD3 Live

Episode Date: October 20, 2025

Today we preview NBA opening night! #nba Support the stream: https://streamlabs.com/thedeep3pod Check out the TD3 merch: https://the-deep-3-shop.fourthwall.com/ Join the TD3 discord!: https://discord.gg/RUkjpMPp7E Listen on Spotify!: https://open.spotify.com/show/3elbbqVumwqz8wlIdknsLW Listen on Apple Podcasts!: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-deep-3-podcast/id1657940794 Follow us on TikTok!: https://www.tiktok.com/@thedeepthree Follow us on Instagram!: https://www.instagram.com/thedeep3podcast/ Isaac's twitter: https://twitter.com/byisaacg Muhamed's twitter: https://twitter.com/Mojo99_ Donnavan's twitter: https://twitter.com/Dsmoot3D Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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in market abholing. not only are we here we're on time I don't see any I don't see any latest in the chat we're here on time for what's essentially our first stream of this season technically second but considering we are here for a very special reason

and as a preview the first day of the NBA season to me this is the start of TD3 Live for real how are y'all doing? Doing fantastic I can't believe tomorrow is the first day of the actual official NBA season. There's been ages. You itching?

Dude, scratching, feigning. I can, like, smell it. I can smell the sweat stains. I can smell the chalk in the air. I'm almost home. As you guys are going to be here today to preview everything we want to see in opening night of the season.

Before we get to that, we got to do what we always do. We're going to start with a whole lot of news, a whole lot of contract updates, some drama updates about the king. So much going on today. talk about before we get to the main topic should be a fun stream we're the real eater's at but before we get into everything that's a really important let's start with some some housekeeping

about some new contract extensions today was the deadline to extend people getting paid we are bag watching bread talk to start the stream lots of guys got generational wealth today because today was the deadline for a lot of extensions for young players coming out the rookie contracts so first one most notable one for everybody up here considering we have a hawks fan dyson daniels is now a rich motherfucker after getting a four-year, $100 million rookie contract extension with the franchise, $25 million a year. Mo, how do you feel about this value? I feel amazing.

I feel ecstatic to be like, okay, now we don't have this thing looming in over our heads. But also, this more so tells me a lot about the NBA landscape as a whole. We'll get into the other contracts, I'm sure later. But this is fantastic value for a young budding star who's only 22 years old. old and he has genuinely improved at every facet of the game and has stamped himself as one of the best promoter players in the league amazing deal amazing value i didn't want to pay him as much as someone like um jalen johnson who's making around like 30 million dollars year which is still like insane value for someone of that caliber just below that a plus signing our gym is cooking

yeah this is solid i think we're going to see a running theme a lot of these like good supporting players that aren't stars like you said there aren't jalen johnson level where you can justify maybe he'll make an all-star game one day nobody has that expectation for dyson daniels so i think this is kind of the going rate's 25 a year that's about 12% of the cap in the new structure which sounds crazy it's only 12% of the cap these days but it's a nice modest contract that's danis do a money spread do a money spare for the chat dyson because this this is good work this this honestly is and i think like for all the reason that that you guys just said and like even so like we have to think of like every single extension that that comes through regardless if it's for like a

role player like dyson daniels or for a star whatever the number is today it's going to look better next year and the year after that and the year after that because the cap just consistently goes up and so whenever you look at like okay it's only you know it's only 12% of of the cap in four years by the time that this whole deal is done it's going to look much better we don't even talk it's still crazy and we'll probably talk about it in the last year of his deal but we got so used to what Jalen Brown's contract was

and he was the first guy in the NBA to have this like $300 million contract and now you look at it as the cap keeps going up and it's like okay fine we can deal with that you can still build a championship roster around that so for this to get like good value in the moment you know that three years from now

you're going to look back at it and still say oh yeah that's a good value they're debating if you look more like McHale Bridges or in the comments right now What the fuck? What can we have both? Like we just got back on trying to give serious analysis about market rate and economics in the NBA, right? And you guys don't have your pen and paper out.

More importantly, they said, why is Moe wearing prison pants? Prison pants? These are fluffy, man. What are you talking about? These are mad comfy. And also this is, this goes very, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Look at the screen. It looks like a jumps you a little bit of orange on the screen.

Out of all the things we could have focused on, like this incredible like TD3 merch that's like been out. I don't know if you had it or not. You want to talk about my pants. Again, focus. He's trying to teach you economics. I'm trying to teach you about drip right now. You focus on the wrong thing. Bullshit.

They said you're on the yard. You could dress well and get two money spreads by tomorrow if you just listen to us and focus. But y'all want to make jokes. And see, that's the thing. Not everything's a game, right? Everything's not really funny. So if y'all can just lock in, then we can continue with the show and we can keep these things going. But it looks like he is selling album cover.

All right, buddy. Yeah, very good contract for the Hawks. This is, you know, locking up their core now. Everybody's locked up besides Stray Young. So good on them. This one is one of the more acceptable ones. Nobody's really going to disagree about Dustin Daniels deserving $25 million a year. Yeah.

But there's some debatable ones up here. And I think this one is interesting to talk about. Christian Brown also gets $25 million a year, but for five years. So once again What Donovan said By the time we get that fifth year This would look very cheap Up front though

$25 million a year for Christian Brown I've seen some people say You know that's fine Same same reasons Some people we're saying They feel like he's more of like A mid-level exception guy Yeah

Where do we fall There's I feel fine with this Because there's multiple levels of tax And different things That you have to like Bring into account Whenever you have the best player In the world

Which is one We just kind of went through This like mini retool And like semi not like waste but like this weird transition period because we were getting rid of all of our depth that's not happening again you lock you lock any like good uh rotation player whether they're starting on the bench you lock them up immediately and then you also know that like yes if if if christian brown was playing for the brooklyn nets or the minnesota tim wolves

he probably wouldn't be the same player that he is playing with yokech but guess what he's playing with yokech you're in this moment right now it makes sense to give him this money for what he has for what he's done for what you think he's going to do because the leaps and the improvements that he's made in his game it has made him a player that is very integral

to what they want to do and that's a championship contender so I feel completely fine with this extension yeah it's not like they're going to be a caps face team in recent years in a couple years anyways with their core pretty much locked up and paid substantially

so only thing that matters is where this puts them in relation to the second apron how much this makes your tax bill worse and makes it more expensive and how much they can stomach that for whether or not they're contending or not But if it's between 20 or 25 mil, and that's kind of like the negotiation window, I'm fine with them landing on 25, especially when you get the fifth year,

just because if you do believe this is going to be a guy that's part of this core for a long time, the longer you can make this contract, the better just because it will be cheaper by the time we get to the end of it. Right now it's 12% of the cap, it'll be like 9% by the end. So that extra year, I think some people get scared by that because like, whoa, what a commitment. Yeah. For this team and how much they are already locked in, I think the fifth year is actually better. I agree with you guys. But just the thought process of stumbicking the fact, like, you know, Christian, Braun is going to be making $125 million over the next five years for where, for how I think about him in like the NBA role player ethos.

It's not low, but it's not like, I can't think of him as one of the best two guards in the league, one of the best like rim finishers or anything. He's like great in transition. He's actually a really good defender. But five years, 125, this is just hard for my mind to. establish. It's that sticker shock because really this is like half of what the best shooting guards

in the league make. So like, yeah, I also can't imagine him that as that. But that's why he's not making 45, you know? Like the numbers that we have to get used to now as being a small percentage of the cap are just ridiculous. I mean,

it happens every like two years where you really have to like realign what you think is, is going to be, you know, reasonable for what deals are. Yeah. You know who didn't get an extension? Who?

Your boy. Who's that? Benedict Mathrim. No money spreads. No money. Money spreads for Benny. Mathron will enter the final year of his rookie deal and become a restrictive free agent next offseason, a time where Indiana will need to make a major financial decision

for its future. Yeah, that honestly checks out. Considering how they handled the Miles Turner situation we're stingy with giving him bread, makes sense. I think Ben-Hen and Mathurn is a player who can either make like the mid-level exception or he could get like $30 million, maybe like $26, $27 million a year. he's that level of player who just has like incredible variance to his game so if i'm then like this is a smart move and i for someone like bened it for a player of his archetype who thrives

with having a ball in his hands prove it to me prove to me that you're worth that level of money yeah i think for for indiana the one question every their entire team is built on this like power friendship we do this all together and then there's math or not off to the side and everyone's Like, yeah, does he really fit with what we're trying to do? And he really, you know, one of us. And that's kind of been one of the, like, prevailing narratives over the last, like, year and a half. So for the way that, like, that they think about them, it makes sense that you are continually proving that you can buy into being, you know, what we, what we need, especially in, like, this retooling year where everybody, like, yes, you want to see everybody take a leap, but you also want to see everybody just be able to, like, to show that, like, you. you are worth whatever investment you have whenever Tyrese gets back.

Is he one of us is hilarious? Does he play hard? Does he want to pass the ball? Can we claim it? Yeah, obviously it's not necessarily the most seamless fit in their play style to your point. But I think they kind of view it as probably like maybe he becomes an amazing score and it stands out in a good way or doesn't develop this year. It's kind of just like odd man out.

Yeah, that's the question of like, is this going to be like our secret weapon or like do you really just like should you just be somewhere else? Yeah. So really he's the he's the Malik Beasley of Jonathan Camingas Okay, I was going to say Okay, I was going to say Millic Beasley of someone like RJ Barrett

Yeah, you know what RJ Barrett is RJ Barrett is the Devin Booker of Jonathan Camingas That's true These are all the same John Okay So thoughts on Isaac Banga No You know who I do have thoughts on

To Moni Kamara has gotten any contract one of the best deals in the league this is crazy value four year 82 million dollars for one of the best young defenders in the NBA who isn't a total black hole on offense by any means can shoot attack closeouts be a part of a good offense clearly while being the best defender on your team for 20 million dollars a year if you can just sit down in a stance you two can have generational wealth and I love that for for tamani kamar this is awesome this is this is super good I think for for Portland. It's a great number.

You get somebody who's going to be in first, you know. Yeah. We'll see how many bigs are on first team, but like in first team all defense conversations year in and year out. Like this is awesome. I will say I have two things. Humongous respect to Tumani Kamaana. Like when I,

when this trade first happened like two years ago and you're laughing because I pronounce his name and I was pronouncing it like the African way, but then I was pronouncing the American way, so I kind of combined it to. But, um, come on when this trade first happened i was like bro who was too many cameras i've met so many too many cameras before my life there's such like a nobody in the trade and he proved to be like one of the more important one of the best like three and d players in the league amazing great work

also two fire the fuck out of your agent this is terrible value for someone like you you're like you are easily one of the more valuable role players that the league and that the league has to offer honestly this deal should have been like four years one 50s you're like you're like you're It should be double this genuinely You should be getting like Keegan Murray type of money I don't know about all that He's better than Keegan Murray King Murray's overpaid

That's what I'm talking about Yeah great for Tumani I don't know it's tough because like we always like All the NBA nerds are gonna glorify These like pesky defenders But like I don't know 20 million's like He could got a little bit more Like if you told me he was 25 as well

Like the other guys I'd be like deserved But it's also not crazy to give Your fifth best offensive player 20 million Yeah I think that that that That 100 million really comes with like Like how expensive can your offensive game be? And yes, we want you to be there. We want you to grow and to expand your offensive game.

But I'm not sure. I'm not like 100% sure that he's going to end up being one of like the best two-way players in the league. So it's okay if I'm not giving him $100 million. Yeah. You know who also didn't get $100 million from the same team? Shaden Sharp. And everybody on Twitter sees his contract, four years, $90 million. And everybody on Twitter says, that's a steal.

That's one of the best athletes promising young scorer is in the NBA. Is that how y'all feel? Is this a steal of a contract? This is a great contract for both sides, honestly. This feels to me the most fine contract I've ever seen. I feel like this is the opposite of a steal. This is like perfect market value for a guard who is like super athletic, super promising. Can click any year.

Maybe we see a leap, but also hasn't. You know, like he's shown to me a lot less than Tumani Kumar has. And that, yeah, and that's why I'm not going to say he ran off on the blazer. but if you had to say like who won this it's it's going to be shading sharp because for all the things that you said there's not there hasn't been this like i've proven that i am that i'm worthy of you know where you guys drafted me at or like that we are going that i'm going to be like the future star guard of this of this team and like your your placement within this entire franchise is still very much

much in limbo. Like, we still have to see so much from Shady Sharp to think that he's going to be, you know, one of those kinds of guys. And so for you to get $90 million on the front end of this, yo, shout out to my agent. Like, that's all, that's good for you. Yeah, they paid him for what he can be, not what he's shown so far. And when you have this most potential, I'm not going to say it's a bad deal or it's a bad bet because he has gotten better every year to some extent. Just not to an extent that I'm, like, confident who would be one of the better role players in the league. Like, I think even like Christian Brown has a much higher floor than Shaden Sharp in terms

like being a productive role player on a really good team. Obviously, okay, she was going to happen in Shaden Shard's game. I guarantee you. Yeah, we'll see. Well, everyone keeps making jokes on mac and cheese. Apparently Shaden Sharp loves mac and cheese. I don't know the background to that. Shane Sharp is...

What? Everyone says Shaden, Mac and Cheese Sharp. He can buy so much mac and cheese with that. What's the background to those mac and cheese things? I feel like I missed a joke here. I have no idea. I never heard of that before. Am I out the loop?

I don't know. On mac and cheese? Apparently Shane Sharp's mac and cheese guy. But regardless, dude, Joe Cronin, he has been cooking since he's like, Loki's been frying the entire time he's been there, dude, or at least over the last like two years. You didn't cook it. Okay.

Now, now, what happens in a situation where Shaden Sharp does not develop to the level that you want until then in like two, in three years, you're paying Shadden Sharp this money, you still have $37 million that you're paying Drew Holiday. for for vibes like there's there's still deals on this team where even if you are progressing they're they're gonna have to navigate themselves out of a like low key disadvantage to really take whatever next step if they do keep taking you know incremental steps to be a better team that Joe Cronin he's to prove himself like I do think that he's done I do think that he's done like yeah like he's he's done good good things obviously but it's not he's not frying

They said I'm tweaking and I need Adderall because I'm shaking my leg, which I do this every time. Like, this is y'all first episode? That's not, it's tweaked. I'm another galaxy. I don't think you're done an episode where I'm not shaking my leg. So y'all called us casuals for not knowing the mac and cheese thing. Your casuals for not realizing my leg is always bouncing. What?

Yeah, I think it's a, it's fine. You know, Shane Sharp deal is completely fine. They said restless leg syndrome. It's for legends. Isaac, tweaking from watching the Chargers' offensive line, man,

I got to talk about this shit tomorrow. Don't get me going today. That's a low blow right now. They'll get me started. So we talk about the biggest deals that have happened. Obviously, Keegan Murray happened two a few days ago

we didn't get to talk about that. These are the biggest deals that did not happen, the guys who didn't get paid. It's a crack and cheese. These are the guys that are without a contract after today's deadline.

No J. Nivey deal, which I think was to be expected. No, didn't play last year. Because of injury, already hurt to start this year. unsure but to fit with Cade long term. Makes sense. Ben McGrath and we talked about it.

Daniels digged a deal after this tweet. No Sahan deal. Interesting. Not, I mean, not a guarantee he's their long-term starter at Power Forward, so also make sense to me. Yeah. Ouzmond Dang, obviously. No Jalen Dern deal.

That's surprising. It is surprising. Okay. Very surprising. How do I say this? I'm okay with teams doing less player empowerment on contract extensions. I'm okay. More teams need to let players go to restrict a free agency and say,

see what you can get. We're going to match if you get a good deal. Like, we're not going to let you walk, but like, go prove it. In the new age of the second apron, I'm totally okay with good players that might take a leap and be great or might just stay good in Jalen Duren. I'm totally okay with the team saying, like, go earn that shit and restrict their free agency. That is 100% true. And it's exactly what's happening because I feel like whenever, like, whenever Cade got his contract and Lamello got his contract and they were automatic, like, you know,

contract extension guys, everybody was looking around like, okay, I understand this is kind of what you do but like should we be doing this yeah and so for for all of these for all of these like rookie contract extensions i get it your guy too is one of the first like all-stars superstars to really be kind of in this in this uh the situation where normally a guy like trey young who's been on the team for a long time has been to a conference finals done all the things this deal this deal would have been done last year and the fact that that him and the hawks is still going back and forth they understand what the second apron does. They understand that like if you really aren't one of the definitive 10 best guys,

12 best guys, I don't know if I can pay you max max money. And so if they're able to get an extension done with Tray Young and it's not the max and it is like a lower rate, I'm very curious to see how other teams and how other players navigate that. And if that starts to become the norm again where yeah, you really only get the max if you're, like a top five guy. Yeah. Yeah, I agree with you guys.

It's so interesting because traditionally you're right, this would happen. We've seen it with Mello, we've seen it with Zion, Kade, like you said. But in today's age, the second apron is the grim fucking Reaper. Like, that's everyone's worst nightmare, the type of restrictions that it puts on your organization and how it can legitimately hold back your organization for years. Scary timing. And I think for the first time we have a very smart GM in our hands. and he's someone who has put us in a fantastic situation cap-wise while also like

allowing us to be to thrive on the court flexibility or flexible on the court like actually while also like back and go back and pivot our way into like bad moves and stuff so yeah uh interesting tar is also another big name here that is obviously really good we respect him in similar ways to timani kamara i think as this like premier defensive young player that all the NBA nerds loved didn't get a deal probably for like we're talking about second ape and looming the rockets just paid kevin durant singuna's expensive they already paid jabari smith they're gonna get expensive real fast and they'll have some decisions to make don't mind them punting that decision for taris and for all the reasons we said yeah and i mean they paid they played a paid

kd they paid dfs you just uh signed clint capella as well like they spent so much money and so i yeah i I completely get it for Tari. Plus, you already, you already have your young demon. You have Amin Thompson. So it's okay if next year or after this, if you end up feeling like you need to, you need to trade Tari or you just can't give him the money, you'll still feel decent. You'll feel better knowing that Amen is still here. Yeah.

Yeah, they have a lot of passes that can go down with Tari Sen. They can either keep them and maintain this insane flexibility they have if they can land a good deal with just the crazy depth right now with him there. or you could be a trade piece in which maybe makes sense to let the next team decide what to pay them or maybe it doesn't work out

doesn't make a leap you let him walk or do some kind of sign and trade there's tons of paths that can go down so they're the exact team that should let Tari's some wait. Yeah.

Honestly, what's more hilarious to me and it doesn't even make any sense as to why this is still an ongoing conversation you would think this team is just like more reluctant to throw a bag but what's happening with Walker Kessler

is hilarious considering I mean, they, low-key, they don't want him for real, but they also don't want to throw him away for nothing. They don't want to, they weren't even interested in, like, resurfacing contract negotiations with him either. Last year, just so weird. Yeah, that's a weird one, because I feel like with Danny Aange, we don't really know what the hell he wants. Like, there's so much smoke he puts in the media of like, I need two first for this guy, but I'm also not going to blame them that much. He's also super available. Either he's available, but only if you give me a King's fucking ransom, what does that mean he's really not available?

or he is available, but I'm just trying to scam someone. It's probably the scam. Because he's also gotten the reputation of if Danny Ains calls your phone, hang up, like you're about to get scammed. So I wonder how much of it is like, yeah, I can call anybody and kind of get whatever deal I want.

And so I'm just going to be, you know, unreasonable with some of the asking prices that I'm putting out there. I'm choosing to be annoying on purpose. But enough contract talk. It's for the brand. Enough contract talk. And have Danny Ains talk, surely.

We got to talk about some motherfucking drama. Hell yeah. There's a report that came on today that Russell Westbrook reportedly grew tired of LeBron James' fake behavior during their time in Los Angeles. He said, I hate that fake shit. I just can't do it.

They told stories about Will Smith coming into the locker room and LeBron and AD had walked out a few minutes ago. They heard Will Smith there. They came right back, started acting real buddy, buddy with everybody. Started trying to put on a show pretending there's some great camaraderie in the locker room doing pressville smith they were talking about lebron uh quietly pushing for a trade for kairi irving a move that would have required russell russell rusk to be traded and then publicly denying it so russ

felt like he doesn't really want me here he's trying to trade me for his ex but he's saying then he's saying let russ be russ i don't know but i can't i'm getting mixed signals how did y'all feel reading this report one so the quietly push for the kairy thing there was also an interview afterwards where where lebron was like listen i can't lie like i am disappointed you know that that we didn't go get Kyrie, a guy that won championships with, the guy that you can, like, win with. But, you know, like, we got the guys here in the locker room, so I'm just ready to work, and this is my focus, this, and that. And it was, it was very funny because this report came out today.

Yeah. Some other media came out today. It was just a hit day on LeBron. Yeah, you're right. All around of people saying that this is how LeBron acts or these are the certain problems that they have with them. And this makes a whole bunch of sense because any time, After game one of the Russell Westbrook tenure in L.A., vibes were off.

It was just the worst time possible. And you could tell that every, then, listen, nobody was having fun. I had no more fun in the game. The joy of the game of basketball was being snatched away from me. It was very clear. Look at this last paragraph. Westbrook saw multiple examples of LeBron misrepresenting himself, like claiming the Godfather was his favorite movie but not knowing a single line,

carrying the autobiography of Malcolm X to interviews without being able to discuss it and even saying he predicted Kobe's 81 point game these moments made Russ view LeBron as inauthentic

You know what's so funny I somehow the video of him in the bubble with the Malcolm Beck's book in his hand resurfaced on my timeline and I saw the actual clip was like 20 seconds long and the interviewer

the reporter was like so like what do you find interesting about that book and he was like you know Malcolm X very insightful smart man that's all he said

so many things so many ideas where do I begin he stood for so much yeah this last paragraph killed me because like this made me respected less

because I'm like this written by Twitter ass paragraph all these Twitter things I feel like I didn't read the whole article so maybe it like isn't so rage baby

but this sounds like somebody who was like If this was like directly cited through Russ as a primary source, it was like, yo, did you see that Malcolm X thing? And he's, oh, yeah, yeah, that too. Like, it just sounds like this was teed up to him because these are all so viral on Twitter. Yeah. And then on top of that, too, another piece, yo, the anti-lebron and Lakers thing has been like fuming behind Russ too because there was a video that came out where Russ was signing up a OKC jersey. And then some other like, I think it was a Washington Wiz jersey or whatever. And in between fans holding up their jersey, it was the Lakers fans in between that. that too and he purposely skipped that and the video like was cut short it was cut short and it was made out to seem that he didn't sign the linkers jersey when the reality he was talking to another fan asking where you were you want me to sign your shirt your jersey or whatever it is so there's some type of weird Russ Lakers thing looming right now what do you mean weird what do you

mean weird it's weird they hate him and he hates them no but that's like I don't think he really hates him I I disagree maybe it's like his experience exactly I think like he should hate Lakers fans He should again I've never ever seen A player be wide open And the entire crowd Yo no

I've never seen that And like Andre Robeson has played NBA basketball Tony Allen's played NBA basketball Like there's been There's been notorious non-shooters in the NBA And and people have not

Have not said that That entire tenure was Was just It was a bad time And, like, obviously, Russ did not play well whenever he was a Laker. That trade should have never been done in the first place. But if you ask a lot of Lakers fans and just, you know, NBA people like in general, Russell Westbrook is the reason why LeBron, you know, doesn't have another ring.

Like the moment they, because they ultimately ended up being like the moment they got Westbrook, the championship window was closed. And so people are going to look at Westbrook and they're going to look at that acquisition and say, you're the reason my king doesn't have another ring. And so when people are... It's me. I say that shit. It's true.

Exactly. And so when people are telling him that and are coming up to his face, calling him, you know, calling him Westbrook saying that he, you know... No, they're calling his kids Westbrook to their face in the schools that they go to. Yeah. They're saying all of this stuff. Of course he's going to hate them. Yeah.

And like it's always, every time something like this happens, the discourse comes back to Twitter where Russell Westbrook fans are like, they put him in. in a bad role. He was never supposed to stand in the corner. They didn't know how to use him. And then there's the Lakers fans who were like, he is Satan. I want him gone from my life.

Like, it's so extreme on both sides. And I feel like people are like, already forget like the actual specifics to how the error went. Everybody talks about it through generalities. Like, yeah, it makes sense that Russ didn't work on the Lakers. LeBron puts a lot of players in the corner.

It probably didn't work because Russ was in the corner. Like that stands to reason. That age is fine in my mind. Russ had the ball so much. so unbelievably much. They played LeBron as Center for spacing reasons whenever they lost some big men because that would help with Russ.

Like that was part of the equation there. They did a good amount to facilitate him. It didn't work. The personalities didn't mesh. The on-court play didn't mesh. We don't have to like make somebody a martyr. It just didn't work. Every, did you guys see the picture where the last three,

somebody had like screenshoted, like tweets from the last three coaches that Russ played for when he was on the Lakers, on the Clippers. and the team before. And every single, oh, and the Kings now. And every single coach said the same thing as soon as they acquire Rush. We're just like, yeah, you know, like,

we're just going to let Russ be Russ. And like that is, like, what do you mean? You want a Trinidad and hit my house and me not to take cover? I saw a King's Fed on Twitter. He's like, no, you can't just allow that to happen. Is that a threat? That's the bad part is that Russ plays such a unique style of basketball that the only way to have an opportunity to maximize him

is to let Russ be Russ. And so then that puts everybody else in a position where LeBron has to play center or you have to switch up how you're running your offense. And so there's that aspect of it. And again, like, we can't forget, he was hitting the side of the backboard once every two weeks.

So many times. It was so often. I guarantee you. Like, I don't know if there's probably not a data point or any type of like analytics behind this, but we've never seen an NBA player hit the side of the backboard more than Russell Westbrook. Ever. And even if you can excuse the bad shooting for that, for that error, which, again, was bad.

There were always moments and the moment that stuck out to me the most, and they referenced it in that article because that article, it's an excerpt from a book about the, about the Lakers tenure. And so one of the moments that they talked about was a moment where, like the Lakers were up and all they had to do was, you know, just run the clock out, dribble it's low and Russ runs up the court and takes a 15 footer misses and then the Blazers were able to come back and have another possession and LeBron and AD were like, yo, what is going on? What are you doing?

They're like, I remember that play. You're giving me PTSD. We need to move the fuck on. I forgot about that. I just remembered and I think I hate the Lakers, Russ tenure more now after you saying that. And before I was under the assumption. that nobody in the world hated it more than me. And you just proved me wrong because now I hate it more.

So either, yeah, you either let Russ be Russ and you put the ball in his hands and either missing shots or you have those bonehead moments where you've been in the league for 16 years. You should know at least the mental side of what you're supposed to do. And there were a lot of lapses. So I understand why people aren't happy on both sides throughout that entire tenure. I wonder if you ever see a player who has the same mentality of Russell Westbrook and also skill set and athletic abilities. Well, no, to all that.

But mentality, you didn't they exist already? Cam Towns? Nah. Low key. They said, you know, like, do you think you want to grow as like a playmaker? He's like, man, I'm just play my game.

He's like, don't ask me about that. He's the fuck out of that nerd shit. Get out of my face. Who is the closest to Russ mentality-wise? Because obviously, the Russ experience is tied because the mentality that he has, plus I grew up being a way better athlete than everybody, and it works

because I can run super fast and make the play be a good pass and do all this stuff but take that away what would it look like to have that mentality without that specific skill set

It's like Benson's I'm thinking RJ Barrett Hmm I don't know I feel like that's a little unfair to RJ Well it's not necessarily negative thing

When I say the mentality thing is what I guess what I mean but that is extreme aggressiveness and the like desire to constantly make penetration happen and make a play happen

and like push and be aggressive, right? Which isn't really inherently negative. It becomes negative when you tie in the like blind aggressiveness in big moments. That comes to like playing too fast. And I feel like that's RJ Barrett a little bit. Like he makes a play. He's a good driver, but isn't a good fincher at the rim.

He like doesn't have late game IQ like that, but he is very aggressive and it helps at times. People are in the chat are saying that's Kaminga. Kaminga. Oh, y'all are cooking. Yes, it is Kaminga. Good job. It sounds like Russell Ryan. Yeah, Kaminga last year.

That is a good, that is a good comparison. Marcus Smart. Yeah, as a playmaker, it's Marcus Smart. He is an aggressive passer and Kaminga's an aggressive slasher. Yeah. Combine Markis Smart. Caminga, that's Russ. Whoa, man.

Marcus. Yeah, we can't have that on the team. We can't use one of our 15 roster spots for a player like that. It makes sense. That's so insane. That's kind of a guy, though. No, the best version of Marcus Smart, like a slash at Comingo,

that would be a fucking beast. Literally Russell Westbrook. No, that's a great player. Like, you can defend, like, Marcus Smart, has some passing, can shoot a little bit, but not consistently,

but we'll pull that bitch, fucking slash. Okay. That is Russell. That's not Prime Russell Westbrook because he's obviously better than that. But that's like last year in OKC Russell Westbrook

Westbrook where it kind of went up the rails a little bit. And then he went to the Rockets and got the crazy spacing and like really maximized. slashing for one more year. But last year, Russell Westbrook, where he was going out against the jazz, taking a lot of bad shots, being goaded into bad shots by Ricky Rubio, that's what we're describing. Yeah, okay.

That's a hall of favor. Late peak Russell Westbrook, that's still a superstar, but lower, actually, still an all-star, but a little flawed. Mind you. And now that you say that and you're bringing up the Rockets tenure, let Russ be Russ, made the Rockets be like, yeah, everybody on this Ross has to be six, five, or shorter. So it's Kaminga went from Yonis comps to old Russ. Whoever said Yonis.

The fucking Warriors fans. Kaminga. God do. Kaminga and his agent. Before we move on from the drama slop, we have another person that came in taking shots at LeBron. And that is Stephen A. Smith, who continues to want to reinvent himself as a LeBron hater, continues to make it clear that he does not fuck with this man.

He went on Carmelo Anthony's podcast on 7 p.m. in Brooklyn and said, I do not like his ass, not even a little bit. bit. You do not understand that lengths this man will go to. This dates back more than a decade. I believe he's one way publicly and another way privately. All of this bad energy towards LeBron really didn't happen until last year when LeBron confronted him during, like, during the sideline or whatever. So him reinventing himself also suddenly feels like so contradictory and like so critical when it comes to how he's trying to portray LeBron right now because that's literally you. Yeah. And I think Stephen A. Smith in his interview.

you talked about that that like that moment is like what made him view LeBron differently because he felt like it was okay he felt like LeBron was choosing his target specifically and trying to like make an example by pressing him and he was he basically was like you don't press he's white reporters but you coming to me talking crazy which feel how you want to feel about pulling that but he feels like he chose to go at Stephen A. Smith when he wouldn't have done that to say Brian Wenthorst or whatever but then but one so he went he went on the paper podcast and brought that up and then brought up an example of LeBron checking Brian Winhorse which is like, okay, like you, you immediately just went against this.

Like, you won't do it to a whiteboard theory. But that's one. Two, also in this one, he was saying, essentially, because he was dancing around a lot, but like being direct, but not being direct. But he was saying that, like, he did feel like that specific moment was kind of a setup because he's like, there's millions of cameras everywhere. How come the one where my back is turned and LeBron is like angrily all up in my face? How come that's the only angle?

And so to him, that was the moment where he felt like it went into a different sphere. The one thing is he keeps saying in all of these interviews, I really don't want to talk about it. I only talk about it if I'm asked. Stop going on these platforms where you know you're going to be asked about it. You've done two podcasts in the last week that have come out and you're still talking about LeBron. This happened in January. This happened at the All-Star break. Why are we talking about this still?

The new season is about to start. And guess what? First take is in like season 25. What are he still doing? In 2032, he's still going to be talking about this exact same storyline. This has helped add extra years, extra levels of content, extra at space inventory for him to go ahead and talk about this, right? No.

It's ridiculous. To double back on on the hate tour, on the press tour is ridiculous. You need to stop doing this. Shout out to Rasta Lewandowski for tipping $50. roasting us in the comments. I'm going to take your money but not read your comment. Appreciate you.

You go ahead and read that. But yeah, Steve and I spent this is a hilarious guy. So do you think he's going to pivot this way for like the next 10 years and just go out like Skip Bayliss is hating on LeBron forever? Like is this going to be his new thing

that he clings on to forever, you think? I hope not because it's incredibly lame. Yes, he will. But I don't, I don't think it's going to be like as consistent and like blatant as Skip was where like every every Laker game or every LeBron game Skip would find one thing and blow it up and be like look how LeBron you know took water from from the equipment manager that's not a leader like it's not going to be like

that but I do think that despite what he says of like I don't want to talk about it I only talk about it whenever people are asked whenever he is asked he does give give like 20 minute answers instead of five, which would satisfy the other thing that he said, which is I don't want to be hypocritical because I'd always tell people that they have to talk. So it's like, that's cool. You could say something about it. You just don't have to spend

half the episode talking about it. But he will always, at this point, it sounds like he's going to always have something to say about the voice. I don't think it's a gimmick like it was with Stephen Day Smith. I think he, I mean, like it was with Skip Bayliss. Yeah. I think he's like just being honest. And I think he feels the need to like,

I don't know if Be Cool is the word, but like stand tent toes on things he got egoed at the end of day that's what it is he got punctured as a man and he fucking hates that and he got embarrassed in the biggest, widest, grandest stage ever bro and for someone like Skip is just trolling

into art form. You know people always point to him doing his walk-ins on game days saying he walks and he's one of the players. Did you go walk into this podcast? I didn't. I'm sure it was very grandiose and it was very self-important and very self-aggrandizing. I think that's all true. I think that is something

we can actually psychoanalyze about Stephen A. Smith him carrying himself walking like a pimp like he's a player very much does a lot about him and i think these comments these comments like match that like he clearly like it was the need to like not let anybody step on him like he thinks he's Omar yeah and he does like everything that he does you are you're right it does does say that but the ego stuff is the weird part about all of this because once again this happened last season before the playoffs right and so we've gone through this entire off season you coming back right now and saying i don't like lebron when since that specific moment lebron hasn't come out and said in you know

done another interview about about steven a it makes you come off as as very like overly hating and lebron and lebron fans which you're just never going to be lebron you're never going to win the popularity contest between you and lebron james so anything that you say about like oh i don't don't like LeBron, it comes off as, like, you're just this hating old man. And you're just going to lose that battle every time. And of course, Dustin, he's not used to losing, like, many battles. The last actual battle that he lost from like a, you could say, debate or just like, standpoint in terms of how fans view you is, of course, this LeBron thing.

Then after that, oh, shit, like, JJ Reddy, you just used to slut you out every fucking Monday when he was on. Slot you out. And then also, Max Kellerman used to dog walk the fuck out of him, too. All those guys are gone. JJ Redick for other reasons, but he got Max Kellerman out of here, you know? He's used to just like being the big macho man

and knocking everyone out to a degree. Yeah, we're psycho analyzing Stephen A. Smith today. Let's go. We're having discourse about media members. Who's next? Bill Simmons? What do we got to say about him? Yo, his eyes are crazy, bro.

Let's go. Yeah, but Stephen A. Smith, you know, that's a funny part. He's begging us to psychoanalyze him. He wants us to talk about how tough he is. how big he is, how much he's the baddest motherfucker in sports media. This is what he wants.

Because don't forget, he would have swung on LeBron. He would have. That's it was so funny. Oh my God. You know? And if it happens again, he will swing all the brother.

And the only reason he didn't? Because Jay Prince told him to stop before he gets ugly. Oh, God, man. He's so good. Because Mickey Mouse was in a black issueb outside of Crypto.com with his newly minted money. He's like, yeah, I can't mess up the back. Jay Prince heard the response.

He saw the swing and said, no, we can't do that. Oh, my God. Boy, 44 minutes into the stream. I guess we should talk about the main topic now. Oh, there's a main topic? I guess we should preview over the night. It's not having Stephen A. Smith discourse. All right, let's do it.

I guess. We should start a podcast about Stephen A. Smith. Have you seen those people that have the podcast breaking down the Bill Simmons podcast? Yeah. We should do that for Stephen A. Smith. Oh, let's do it. Stephen A. Smith's podcast breakdown podcast. I didn't know people who did that with Bill Simmons.

That's crazy. Yep, yep. So let's talk about NBA opening night. We have two games tomorrow. Obviously, Rockets v. Thunder and Warriors versus Lakers. Where do you all want to start? So we'll go in order. First game.

Okay. Rockets versus Thunder is the first game of the night, defending champs. Is it ring night? Did they get the rings? Yeah. Okay. It is ring night. They get the rings.

And Kevin Durant will be there to watch. And not only would Kevin Rand be there to watch, he will be playing a shooting guard for the first time since his rookie year. And which did do that a little bit. They are starting four players that are measured and listed at six. foot 11 and then a men thompson point guard who is six foot seven my god the girth and tonnage i think this works for a team like okayc specifically because they aren't like slight themselves either the shortest player in their starting lineup is probably lewd dort and he's like

six four six five and he's like a girthy six four six five too so linebacker that top of size like the lack and height matches up everywhere else this feels good specifically against okay c they can definitely give this team issues when it comes to the boards being physical and all that. I'm just curious how the playmaking and how easy you can get to your buckets in certain spots on the court. Tapteo said comic relief lineup and that's what it feels like. It feels goofy like somebody's like having fun, but it's probably going to work to some extent, right?

And I guess it's interesting. Okay, so before we get into specifically the Embers OKC because I think Jdub's absence will make this an interesting chess match. The general point of this, I think they're going to do this thing to every team. I don't think this is just an okay C thing I think they want this to be the starting lineup and they want this to work and they want to like IMA Yudoka wants to like bend NBA history

and like be the guy that brought back size right he was talking about that in his last media availability people were on his ass because they were saying IMA is making it sound like he invented double bigs but clearly they are doing it in a different way right it's not just playing two bigs like Kat and Gobert did it's not just playing too bigs like Mowgli

and Jared Allen did those are your best players you had to get your best guys out there that's a difference he's doing this shit for the love of the game. He does not have to start Stephen Adams. Stephen Adams is not when his four highest play players. He does not have an obligation to make it work. In fact, almost everything about modern NBA thought would say, don't do this. Run from this as far as you can.

This doesn't make sense. And they're going to it. They're not just doing double big. They're doing a complete and total absence of shooting and focusing on every single thing else. And this feels like the next version of that because they have shooting and they kind of like, I guess you could say, fix that issue to some extent with Jabari and KD in the lineup. but they don't have ball handling really they have a man Thompson as the best playmaker

here or best dribbler here I guess no no so they're wrong as the nominal point guard here well he's not the best handle as Kevin Durant but you don't really want Kevin Rand playing point guard so I don't know how to interpret this as like the next evolution of this it one okay so it makes sense for everything Udoco wants to do

because even in Boston like they made their turnaround especially midseason because they just became one of the best defenses in the league and they like they rattled off all all of those wins because they were super physical. And so coming in into Houston, there were even times early on where some of the top guys were like, hey, you're not going to play because you're not giving effort on the defense

event. So this is an extension of the culture that he's been trying to set. So I do understand it from that aspect. The Fred, the Fred injury changes so much of this because while I do think that they would have used this lineup at a point in the game, even if Fred was here, the fact that he's not really makes it say like, okay, what advantages do we have over a majority of the league? And if we are trying to like mold a man Thompson into being the point guard, if he's not right there, if he's not like that right now, on a night to night basis, what can we do

better than anybody else? What are our strengths? And the strengths are the girth and tonnage of your team. Yep. And so I completely understand leaning into it and just saying like, hey, we may not win, we may not win the ball handling battle, which for many teams is one of like the one to two biggest things, but we're going to win everything on the checklist of three, four, five, six, seven, and then we'll win like that. So I get it. I like it. I feel kind of bad for KD because like, okay, bad is the wrong word, but like, damn, like he just wants to hoop and now this is going to be some of the weirdest spacing that he's played within a long time. Yeah, for sure. I agree.

I genuinely think I'm a Yudoka. Shout out to him. He's such a radical thinker, though. He's such a radical head coach with how he's like pushing these far-fetched ideas and making this into an actual reality throughout the, I'm not going to say throughout the course of 82 games because he could easily like bend and start someone like Tori Easton and play Alfred Singuna at the 5 or whatever. But again, I feel sorry for KD.

I feel sorry for amend a little bit because all the pressures. on your back and genuinely, like, you are relying on Katie and Jabari Smith, Jr. to be on all 10. You're relying on all your young, young assets. And I meant, of course, Alfred Sengoon to genuinely make that leap. And I don't, I don't know, man. Shout to see you and Steve. Steve Nathamon being important again, though. Yeah. Shout to him. Come back. The league needed him. Yeah. Is it all going to be on a man? I feel like they're going to treat Sangoon more like the point guard in this. I think they're going to, in the same way they're doing this, like, lack of spacing, throwing it back to the 80s and like going all in on these small things, like winning

the offensive rebound battle, having more size than you, being going to go to zone and do these things that are contradictory to the way everybody else wants to play, spamming three, spamming pick and roll, etc. I feel like we might see them like play through the post and have like Sangoon as the main hub and do some like modern version of the triangle and like make it very, very unconventional in that way. And maybe they just like won't play with the guard. Like maybe it'll be Sangoon in a bunch of forwards. So I can see a situation like that. I can see the rockets going in and trying to play through Sangu

because he is their best passer and it would make sense. But if you're going with this lineup and you're doing this intentionally, I can also see a world where they're just like over and over and over and just tried to run into a brick wall every single time and really try to force this idea of like being overly physical, being super, um, I, simple and, you know, aggressive with how you're playing an offense instead of trying to expand this out. But offensively, like, that would make the most sense, I think, to play through San Juan, which for a lot of teams, you're not, you're not really doing it, right? And I can,

I can see that because there's just one play that perfectly pictures what you just said. There was, this play happened against, like, last week against Atlanta Hawks in one of their first preseason games. And Jabari Smith, Jr., was coming down towards the right side of the court towards the right ring specifically and he passed over katy passed katy passed it back to him and he was like yo like swing it swing it to the pose give it to sangoon give to sangoon and jabari like kind of had a couple hesitations and stutters mentally and he passed the singoon took his shoulder drove into the defender's back i think it was kp of course his chest is going to fold naturally and then he swung

it back to jabrismith junior he had wide open three you know just like a simple play like that where Katie's kind of like, he has to play like a pseudo point guard role in terms of lining these young guys up in Jabari Smith Jr. to be like, he's so important. He's so like make or break for this offense too. Oh, definitely. Yeah, I mean, as one of two shooters, they're both make a break, right? Yeah. And obviously, Kevin Durant is Kevin Durant.

Nobody's really questioning his ability to be consistent as a shooter. So it really will work as far as Jabari Smith lets it work. I guess the interesting part to me is how much do they do this double big lineup? Because, you know, they got Klincapella. So they could do it for 48 minutes that they really wanted to. I think it had two motherfuckers that are 6-11 or higher out there for the entire game

but I'm in Thompson is shooting a little bit better in the preseason we'll see if it holds you know some people on Twitter are like the men jump shot leap is here

the league better not be ready after Ryan done the preseason last year I reserve judgment on preseason three-point shooting numbers I'm never gonna overreact again to that

but maybe it's true and maybe it's a little more traditional than we think because you can shoot and it's not three-on shooters Reed Shepard has a moment in preseason dude he was so good

during the preseason he looked playable And I think he looked good defensively. The activity we saw from him as a college prospect was there. He looked to me in one or two preseason games. Kind of like what I expected him to look like after college. So that's the case again. And we can kind of like allow ourselves to treat him like a rear rotation player again.

Like we had hopes for a pre-draft. Then you can see a world where he plays 18 minutes a night, 12 of those minutes. He's playing point guard leading the offense with the bench. So that leaves 36 minutes of double big playing through Singoon. Is that what it's going to be like? Or where's the balance going to be? between double big versus traditional point guard? I have no idea.

I think that's one of the main things that I'm watching over like this first month of the season with the Rockets. It's like, yes, because it's weirder now that Fred's not there because you have to try to figure out who's going to play point. But even with Fred, it's like, okay,

he's going to play 30 minutes a night. Katie's going to play 30 minutes a night. Sangoon's probably going to play 29, 30 minutes a night. Where are the other minutes for everybody else going? and you just paid Capella like you pay him all that money just for him to play eight minutes a night

that feels kind of weird did you pay DFS all that money so that he could play 15 minutes a night like who who's doing all of this you still have Tari that we just talked you know that we just talked about trying to find the fit between all of those guys and seeing how like you know

like what lineups work how you're going to try and deploy them the actual operation of the rockets at this point is probably the most interesting thing yeah to me outside of like obviously can you just win? And now you're saying that, you just mentioned a lot of players

that are big, right? So now that I heard you say that and like complimentary, you know? That makes it make more sense to me on why they're starting and presumably finishing games double bigs just because they have to make so many minutes four six, eight plus guys

like Tari, DFS, etc., off the bench that it kind of makes sense to treat your starting lineup as four big guys and one small guy with a man being the small guy, quote unquote, because you have so many of these guys you have to play. So you might as well install a system that plans for that

for as many minutes as you can on night. And again, now that you say that, and I think about it, kind of feel like everything rides on Reed Shepard's ability to be the one guy

that can give them point guard looks when needed. Because if he can play 25 minutes a night plus giving them point guard and really off guard in some of these lineups, I kind of see the vision.

And I think that'll fucking happen. I think what happened to Reed Shepard over the course of last year is just like a genuine, terrible move, terrible mistake that we see once in a while when it comes to teams

and how they handle their top picks, I think Reed Sheper is going to be the type of guy to come in, be disruptive like we've seen him be in Kentucky, will also be clearly, like, one of the best shooters, not only for the Houston Rockets, but one of the best shooters, like, on the floor. Yeah. I think we've under-talked about Reed Shepard in this preseason. We did our breakout episode, and we didn't even mention him, I don't think. I kind of, like, forgot he exists after such a quiet rookie season. And I didn't, like, sell my stock or anything, but I was like, shit's on layaway.

I don't know what he is right now. for a year when he didn't play. When he did play, he wasn't good because he wasn't a consistent rhythm, was barely playing. And, like, he had moments in March basketball when everybody rested and he went nuts.

He had moments in the G-League. But I kind of just, like, put him in the back of my head as I'll wait and see and not coast off my priors and assume it would be good. I want to see him do something. There's going to be a lot of opportunity.

We always said in the beginning of the season last year that it makes sense. He starts slow as a small guard and a contending team. Like, they're going to kind of, like, redshirt him and let him do good next year.

If that happens, like, we always said, it would and really just like revisit that and it is true i think maybe i mean i need to move this team spot higher in my rankings and i feel like putting putting read on or putting your reed stock on lay away that's the right thing to do um instead of you know coming out here and seeing him play well and pre-seeing his and i told you motherfucker he's great i told you right like he's an all-star all this stuff like that's that's fine i also think um and i just saying this the rockets are like you keep using the word of like a traditional lineup i think that's out the window i think like they're

they're probably going to operate at the extremes of everything and so if you're going to start you're you're going to start the games with this crazy lineup where katie's playing two there's probably going to be points in the middle of of the of the game where you're probably just going to go ultra ultra small and you're you're leaning into your your wings and the the the terror twin stuff that you were that you were leaning on last year and you can just for five six minutes turn up and end the game because we're going to go on this you know 17 to four run that's also that's probably what what it's going to be where it's like we're going to see we can get an advantage on the boards early and then after after we you know we hit you up with all all of

these body shots now now we're going into into speed work and now you know like now now we're going to get out we're going to run we're going to defend do all that stuff so I can I can see them just being at the at the extreme opposite end of the spectrum and so once we get to like November or Christmas it's going to be so interesting seeing how people talk about them because I doubt that they're going to look anything like a regular basketball team so I don't know how people are going to you know accept them and be like yeah this team can actually do something because the way that the rest of the league plays or the way that you've thought about a basketball team for the last four or five years probably isn't going to make sense with how they want to do it

Okay. So now let's just shift to view this. So I think we kind of understand their M.O with this big lineup. It makes sense for the talent they have. It's necessitated by the roster they've built, right? And the preventively injury. Opening night. Denver's OKC.

OKC is down J-dub. He won't play in this game. We don't really know when he's going to be back. Presumably not that long. I don't think he's going to miss more than a handful of games. But he won't be in this game. He's insanely important for being going to play a team like this. That goes this goddamn nuclear big.

Because I think what they're going to start is Shea, Dort, double bigs with Chet and Hardinstein. At the three, maybe they go Caruso, who showed last year against Yokic, he can defend up and play big guys. Like, you can put Caruso on St. Goon for minutes and give him trouble and get into his handle and, like, do the same thing they did the Oaks in the playoffs.

Or they can start a big wing if they want, if you want to go, like, Wiggins, who's tall, but like not a good defender, not physical down low. So I don't know if that really helps. Then again, your Bart Smith Jr. is out there, so you can hide them there if you want to, just to match the height and give you one less small guy in terms of rebounding.

But I kind of feel like the Rockets have a pretty good, opportunity to get out fast with this and get a win with j dub out genuinely just go ahead if i'm okay c if i'm mark dagonal i'm starting caruso and i'm telling y'all beat each other's ass this is a full-on fist fight this is this is genuinely like the probably one and two best defense in the entire NBA and i think for me personally if i'm mark dagonal and okay c you're trying to figure out waste you're creative and edge off this win as you're down a star player this is chet's moment to go ahead and rise. It's going to be kind of tricky and difficult because I feel like Jadab alleviates like so much pressure in terms of the spots where he tends to get his shots off. So it's

going to be interesting to see how we get set up to go ahead and do those things. And especially what is, so the big thing with Chet obviously is coming up the finals in which deep in the playoff run after playing eight months of basketball, well, less for him because he got hurt, his legs were shot. There was times where he was missing open dunks because he just was not physically right after an injury right. We kept saying all summer, I hope he's doing squats. I hope he's working on that body. I hope the core strength is good next year. This will be a good test because they're going to play through Sengun like we said. And I can't, I imagine we're going to see Chet guarding Sengun 101 in the post all game. What version of Shet we're going to get? Because Sengun has

some success against him in the past. He's a big strong guy. Chet, that's not his strength. You know, post defense isn't what makes him a great defender. If that is what makes him a great defender now and he's better here, that'll be why they beat the Rockets tonight, I think, or tomorrow. Yeah, they'll probably, I'm thinking about the Thunder. They'll probably start Kaysen, though, and probably move Lou door up to up to three I think and because I do think that if especially if you have Chet and Hartstein and Chet can obviously shoot but I think you want as much shooting let's let's really test the limits of this double big of having Sengun be able to to guard in certain spaces see what Stephen Adams can do see if you can get him into actions

KD you know good good team defender you're also 37 come here right I want to, I want to test every single aspect of this defense and what you're able to do. And so I think having, having Casey Wallace out there, so you're not giving up any defense, if his three-point shot can come back. Because it wasn't, like, especially in the playoffs, it was not reliable. But we've seen in the regular season, we've seen him have success from three. That's something that they could probably lean on and be okay. So I think that's probably what I would do.

But I'm not 100% sure what Dagnall is looking at right now. Yeah, and I don't think he's putting anything out yet. I guess it would be a thing we find out an hour before the game. I don't know if Wiggins is good enough defensively. But again, I feel like him and Jabari Smith are like equal physicality. Like I think he'll, I think we'll fucking live. You know, like I don't think we've got to worry about Jabari. Y'all go in the corner just playing against outside.

No, it's fine. Over the corner. Yeah, it's fine. It's chilling. How are they going to defend Shea? Are they going to switch everything, trap him with this insane length? Like, how do you defend with these two bigs?

Pray. That's what you're going to do. You're going to, you're also like, let's put it, let's put a man on him. Let's see, let's see what we can do. And that's, there's probably, like, I think a man is going to be the main defender on, on Shea. They're going to go zone, a good amount.

Especially if they start Caruso and have blacklisted shooting. They're going to zone the shit of them. Say we have a million wingspan out there. We're going to make sure you have to make crazy reads. We're going to hold hands. We're going to create this zone. You know, they can probably damn to do that. They could probably damn to reach each other if they shrink the floor and run zone.

It's probably not that crazy. That's the best way to put it. They do it at like free throw line, free throw line extended. They just cover the paint. They could all stand on the elbows and like reach out to the three point line and like contest a mid-shooter. Yeah, Ima Yudoka's the top of course to try that. He is.

He's the only one in an NBA who would try that. But going back to, um... Bro, this game plan. This is, dude. This is going to be a fun-ass game. There's be so many wrinkles. I want to see a man and really like Katie give Shay hell in the court in terms of making him think quicker and making him go ahead and like force certain passes because clearly

that's like been a gateway to success. Of course. They won at the end of the day, but it wasn't the prettiest way to. a win. And some of the losses is when he struggled with the playmaker and then the game after that he'd come back and like, I understand it now and dying people up. The consistency as a playmaker is what made these series go to seven when they really shouldn't. And I think that's going to be the big focus. In the preseason, Shea hasn't been as aggressive as a score to the same extent because he's been focused on playmaking clearly. Now, it's the preseason.

He's trying shit out. That's probably just like, you know, let me try these reads I'm working on. That's what I'm most curious to watch here. We're talking about what we want to see from the Rockets. What do they do with Reed, et cetera? All I really care about for the first game for the Thunder is what do we see Shea focusing on because he's kind of like Ant where every single year he comes in with the new focus, improve something early last year if you remember, he was also doing the three-point volume thing, shooting hella pull-up threes,

abandoned it by the end of the first week of the season. I think this year it'll be, I'm focusing on being a playmaker. I think if he can average 29 points instead of 32, we'll get up to eight and a half assists and it allowed Chet to thrive as a score. That is probably the M.O., I think. Because, you know, it's no coincidence that Chet struggled last year in large parts because there's no other

playmakers on the goddamn roster besides Shea. Shea has never thrown a lob in his goddamn life He was physically incapable of throwing a lob And listen Say what you want about Josh Giddy And how much he sucks at everything He could feed Chet an assist or two That helped a lot in his rookie year

That is very true So I bet Shea's gonna be focusing on that in his first game It's so hard for a player Like Shea or a player who's just like not naturally a playmaker To like develop that I feel like it's one of those few things in league Where it's either you have it

Or you don't And I feel like it's more likely for a playmaker a natural born playmaker to develop offensive skills when it comes to scoring rather than a score like develop the playmaking chops and when you do see it's never like as pretty or natural and i think the best case for shay in this hypothetical scenario is to position possession by possession literally play the game by ear and not to necessarily like force to force anything and that's the best way to get those playmaking bags off yeah so yeah we're going to see that a lot they're going to zone them clearly so it will come down to what kind of shooting lines

can put out there is chet's three back is he going to be shooting like it in his rookie year or is he can be shooting like he did post-injury and it was not terribly impressive that'll be a big part of it who they start to three whether it be caruso kaysen wiggins etc can they force the rockets out of that zone defense by hitting their threes same thing with dort obviously can you continue to be a goddamn flame door from the corner and how does chet attack these lineups because we did see in part especially against the nuggets if you remember the way they were able to slow him down is by doing that extremely hard almost zone light defenses doubling him

at the elbows not letting him slashing it to the rim couldn't really beat it as a playmaker for a lot of that series. We're going to see the same thing tonight. Yeah. I keep saying tonight. Tomorrow night. Final predictions. Who's winning this game? Oh, man. I think I got I got O KC winning this game.

Not by much. I'm saying OKC winning by like seven points. It's going to be a nasty fist fight of a game. You said OKC by seven? Yeah. That's actually the spread. Really seven? It's seven and a half. I had no idea. I think the Rock is cover. I think there's going to be a rock fight to the end. I think it's going to be a low scoring game.

I'm betting the unders, whatever it is. I haven't even looked at it. I bet it's low. I'm betting lower. 92 to 97. Yeah. I think we're going to see a very, for like the fans out there

want to see points opening night. We're going to see a very disappointing game in that regard. I think this is going to be a defensive slug fest. Yeah. I'll go with the Rockets right now. I haven't seen anybody in the chat say Rockets. Everybody's saying Thunder. Someone said blink twice if you're in danger.

No, Edward's glazes to say, yo, it's Rockets by 15. Oh, okay. someone said chat is always shrilling so they get ignored. Yeah, pretty much. I'm talking about the fucking defensive strategies of the little big lineup at Hally Defend She and y'all are over here talking about R. Kelly.

Of course, I'm going to ignore it. What do you want me to say? That's a community, man. Also, you guys lied. You guys said that Jalen Suggs went bald. I had to do some research. He honestly might be worse. He cut the hair just as lower as you can go.

But he's not completely bald. It's not a smooth wax on the, on the head. So he's not bald. Yeah, if you made it a smooth wax And you're pretty much at that point admitting defeat I can't Exciting discourse going on here today

I never admit to the thing He's got that CP3 All right Next game on the docket Warriors versus Lakers We don't know what we're getting yet From the Warriors as far as starters go But JJ already confirmed

That the last preseason game Was a dress rehearsal For the lineup that he intends to start Against the Warriors He did not say it's the long-term starting lineup He said it's going to be matchup dependent But against the Warriors Against Steph Curry

they are starting Gabe Vincent as their fifth starter along with Austin Reeves Luka Donchich, Rui Hachimora, and DeAndre Aden. How do you feel about that? He's there to chase screens and run around with Seth Curry. Gabe Vincent, okay. That's food. Not really.

Against the Warriors, not really. That's food. No, it's not. Against the Warriors, that's probably the right choice. Just because you need foot speed, you need people that can run around screens. 10. Point one. With Shea.

I mean that's Jay, with Curry. Tim point. I think that's the right choice. People obviously hate Gabe Vincent because he got here and has had so many cold shooting stretches and he's small and can be attacked in certain ways, you know? As far as needing to defend Steph Curry offense, you need a good screen chaser out there.

I don't want Luke Dodgers doing that. I don't want Austin Reeves doing that. I damn sure don't want Ruya Hachimora doing that. Gabe Vincent is the best equipped on his lineup to run around with him. Yeah, I agree. And, hey, if you go ahead and convince me that Gabe Vince is going to look like the same Gabe Vincent, who went ahead and Gabe Cooper flagged like eight threes in a row, you got it.

If he's going to have a decent. since shooting season. Shoot 34% from the three-point line. And whenever LeBron is out, you have this be the inserted guy here. You got it. This really isn't bad. Like the Warriors are, apparently, I think they saw that they're not planning on starting Al Horford. They're planning on starting Dremont at Center most likely to, you know, ease Al-Horfer's minutes, knock and throw him into the Luca Dosh's fire game one, because Luca would be attacking his ass every single time. So they're going to start Dremont at center. Kaminga maybe at Power 4. Maybe they go with a little bit of athleticism. Match Rui out there, get a forward out there that can run up and on the court.

I don't mind this line up at all. You don't need to be huge against the Warriors. They're obviously a finesse team, you know, even with Jimmy Butler out there. DeAndrean's already going to be the biggest player on the floor. Luca Donchich, I think defensively, I think defensively is going to be playing as a help defender and the interior essentially playing power forward defensively for them.

He's the second biggest player on the court, I think, even bigger than Draymond Green. Rui gives you a size there. They're not going to be too small for the Warriors. No. And it's very rare that I think anybody is, like, too small for the Warriors. That's almost nobody in those. It doesn't exist.

Yeah. Yeah. they're fine um i'm just i'm very i'm just very curious honestly at this point to see to see this lucca aitin thing to see how it works and like because because they are are going to be the two biggest players on the floor i want to see their level of physicality with with every with everybody else specifically aton because you know luka can be can be physical you know that he knows how to use his body with Aiton is Luca going to be able to like spoon feed him

enough and put him in positions where he feels empowered to go ahead and really challenge Dremont or challenge Alhorford or if he gets a mismatch that they like can you can you abuse that that's the main thing that I want to see guess what it's not happening it's never going to happen when it comes facing someone I'm not asking for like 27 from Ait and like abusing it every single time

Yeah. I'm asking for the Isaac Gutierrez special. Can you give me 16 and 10 tomorrow night, right? And can you do all the things? Everything that we've been saying is like best case scenario for Aiton. That is what I want to see from night long. Heavy on the 10. That's what I care about.

The Warriors team is obviously susceptible to rebounding as an issue, especially when they start Dremont. They're pretty small out there. If they start Kaminga, I don't think he's crashing the boards or necessarily going to be a huge impact there. I also don't know if they're starting coming. I'm pulling out of thin air. But DeAndra Aton is going to be the biggest guy by far, like we're saying.

And obviously, Dremont Green is, like, the best ever at defending up. So it's not like he's going to be a defensive liability for rebounding. But if D'Andre Aidan can be a force in the rebounds, give them second chance opportunities, let them be a... Like, will them keep up in the three-point battle by second-chance abilities? Because obviously, they're not going to out-shoot the Warriors with this lineup. That'll be what I care about the most of him, Aden. But I think we've seen the preseason. He's going to be focusing on playing defense.

I think he'll defend the rim well enough. He's going to be trying to do the screen and roll stuff, be a lob threat. Him and Luca don't have chemistry yet as a lot threat. There's a couple times as a preseason. He threw him a lot. and the eight and like didn't jump in the same chemistry and he just like caught it and like went up with it so i think all that would be fine but his physicality as a rebounder will be the thing for me yeah also something else that i want to see is definitely lucid don't just come out guns fucking

blazing like day one into the season that's that's a must when it comes to considering where i have my MVP predictions and expectations hell this is this is what i need to see and this will be an attackable lineup from luca dants too obviously curry is like not going to be started on him, but you can always attack Curry when you're Luca Donchish and you're 6-7. And I think they're going to start Pods

who, do you think Pods is going to be the primary Luca defender to start the game? Yuck. Food. I mean, maybe, is it Jimmy Butler? Do they want to do that with him? Wow.

I guess. Gravy. Mac and cheese. Did they start Gary Payton as a fit starter to match up with Luca? Green. Green. Yeah.

Who's going to be their fit starter tonight? Now we're talking through it. It has to be like a Luca guy, right? I don't know, man. They're going to switch a lot, obviously. It might be Kaminga. No, I'm thinking GP2. Yeah, they're going to switch clearly.

They're going to do all that. They're not going to allow Luka to create rim pressure and get the bone-moving transition. They're going to make him beat you one-on-one. And I think they have attackable guys. But you don't really want Luka attacking like a Jimmy Butler or Jermon Green. So they're going to put those two guys on Aiton and Rui, presumably. So we're going to see a lot of guard-guard screens in this game, I think,

trying to get Luka onto Curry, trying to get Luke on to pods, I guess, GP2, whatever. Yo. It could be a weird game. Yeah. Doesn't sound very exciting for you the team just given the lack of LeBron, the questions with the Warriors.

It's going to be a fun game. It's going to be exciting in different ways. It's nice because, like, you'll be able to figure out a little something for the Warriors. All right, Doc Rivers. One word. We're going to focus on a little something.

Yeah, the only thing I'm trying to really focus on for the Warriors really. Oh, most moody. Yeah, there you go. Yeah, Moody. Oh, yeah. Yeah, I can use it sometimes.

Oh, no, he's hurt. He's hurt. He's injured. I forget, something minor, but he's going to be out for a few weeks. Yeah, okay. Well, I just want to see how Cominga is going to be ingratiated into this offense and whether or not he's going to take a different approach, like, day one. That'll tell me fucking everything.

And I'll probably learn that within his first, like, 15 minutes of the game. This is a game where Camiga should be able to play and should be able to make an impact. We say that about every coming of a game. Like, every game should be set up for him to play. but I mean you are you are right and I think I don't know like the the words especially at this point they feel so entrenched in terms of and obviously they've been doing this for so long I know exactly what a warrior's game is going to look like and especially after we made the or we got the run last year with Jimmy Butler you know what it looks like with Jimmy as well and he obviously fits so well it's everything that they're doing so for that them, I'm looking at the, you know, who's ever playing that, that two guard of, you know, pods or GP2 or any one of those guys. And early on in the season, especially from what we saw last year, Buddy Heel and also,

are you guys just making shots? Because their run at the beginning of last season, a big part of that was even though that PODs was playing some of the worst basketball in the NBA, Buddy Heel was shooting the lights out and you were able to compensate with that. and then once we got to the second half of the season and that flips and now you have pods playing actually well and and you have a legitimate uh back court that you can trust in step and in pods it's okay so when you have step when you have pods is he going to start start fast is buddy heel going to start fast that's that's the question for for me that i'm looking at for golden state

lakers by a million i'm thinking a 14 point blow up uh not 14 point is insane no i'm kidding lebron out the Warriors are close to full health, you would think that they should be favored? Did you see what the spread is right now? No, I'll check. I don't know who's favored right now, but the Warriors are closer 100%. They're missing some role players, so maybe they aren't, I can't say they're full strength, but conventional logic would say pick the Warriors.

They're coming off of a season where they figure some stuff out in the second half of the year. I think they're going to start strong, being an old team that is no stranger to, you know, starting season strong. They are, they're not relying on new pieces up and on the roster, besides out of Forford who should fit in seamlessly. The Lakers, I think, are going to need like three or four games to get going. Really?

It's also, it's very close. I mean, Warriors minus two. I almost feel like, I feel like the Lakers probably aren't going to need like a three or four games to get going because it's similar to the Warriors, like they made their offseason move in the season, in the regular season last year. And all the pieces are in place. You have LeBron not there, so the offensive game plan is so much easier to go ahead and talk

about you just need guys to make shots and seemously fit into their role i think the lakers got this one it's going to be close it's going to be like i got the lakers by like four lakers by four okay yeah yeah this feels like a last minute of the game type of game because they had nothing for luka the lakers have so many questions defensively without lebron they're going to have to rely on gimmicks to some extent like they did last year they're going to have to be a lot of pre rotations a lot of switching a lot of zone i'm most curious how they're going to utilize Luca defensively because I think they need him

to be an impact defender and I think we saw him be a good defender in Eurobasket in preseason I think I was encouraged by the way they were using him as an interior defender and maximizing his size and he was blocking shots

in some of those games granted they were playing the Phoenix Sons backups and it was pretty goddamn easy to block some shots but they were focusing on that he was being a help side weak side shot blocker

I kind of liked what I was seeing you know with his activity and him being skinny he can move around a little bit now how does I go with no LeBron when Luca has to take 30 shots a game I don't know but then I it'll be

be a good test here. Yeah, if the Lakers win this game, that means that DeAndre Aden had a ferocious game, that means Luca did look at things. Yeah, ferocious, meaning, like, you know, he gave you like a cool, again, the Isaac Gutierrez special, 16, 10,

17, 10, 18, 10, something of that nature. He didn't get dominated. Can you have 20 tonight? Yeah, and if he does it, I think they, they first. No, I guess, for sure. They can win. This is, yeah, that's like the worst big man duo that you can go

defensive that you can face in the league right now. For someone like Aiden, who has the issues that he has. Aidan's going to walk into a lot of mid-range jumpers, though. And he is a good shooter, you know, despite everyone, like, hating the fact that he loves jumpers and wants him to get his big ass in the paint and play like Patrick Ewing. That's not him. Oh, Patrick Ewing is the wrong thing.

I meant to say David Robinson. Patrick Ewing, what did you shoot a jumper? Yeah, that's how he wants to play. And I think we saw some good chemistry there between him and Luca in the preseason. I think we're going to see DeAndre Aiden get a lot of shots fed to him in that way, which, listen, when they're not dropping is going to piss people off. But I do think it'll work against a team that wants to play some switchy basketball and, like, allow them to, like, focus on not allowing Luca to attack one-on-one.

I think that'll get some good pick and pop opportunities for Aiden. But, yeah, I don't know. Horford, that's a tough match-up. I'm going to Warriors by four. Okay. Okay. I can see that happening, too. And that's true, I think if I'll spend my life on his game, Warriors.

Yeah, I did. But I'm betting my agenda. I'm going against my agendas right now. They're just, yeah, they're just healthier right now. And I think that not having, not having Bronn in this one is, it is tough. But you got Austin Reese for. reason like he is that secondary playmaker and i think he's genuinely going to give you a his normal 20 and five performance or whatever yeah but but a lot of times whenever especially like when these

two teams play um and it's been different in years past because it's been lebron and ad as opposed to like lebron and lucca but the lakers have been able to impose a lot of physicality and size on golden state and so if you don't have a d because he's gone and i luca's there but like he's going to cook whoever but like if you also don't have lebron there to them then do even more of that physicality stuff. We don't know if Aiton is going to come out 100% and be this bullyball guy and take advantage of whatever opportunities

he has to be physical. Then if we start getting into more of a quote-unquote finesse game, I just trust the Warriors in a game more like that. I'm getting on price picks tonight and I am betting the over on Steph Curry points and the over on Luca Donch's points. The more I think about it, neither one of these defenses have a single thing

for their other team stars. The Lakers have some solid big defenders that can defend the interior, not a soul that can stop dribble penetration. The warriors have not a soul that can hang with Luca in isolation. While Luca's looking good and the three-point shots falling in preseason, these guys are both going to go fucking berserk. I'm letting you know right now. NBA's back, I feel in my bones.

Oh, yeah, I'm gambling. It's always the first week. I got some parlias to play. I know everything. And then I lose and I'm like, fuck, maybe. I mean, I'm not very good at this. But this will be a fun one. It's always fun when you can, you feel.

like petting the over on the star is smart because that's the funnest thing to root for it, just hope Luke could go sickle mode. Question. Is Bonnie James gonna get much burn in this game? Doubt it. He's a warrior.

It's a hard team to play a young player against. Well, other swing factor. I need to see something that Dalton Connect. I forget he's on the roster. He was dog shit in preseason, right? No, no, he was. Oh, I don't know, but it was. It was probably just a single game that I saw.

I don't know. I didn't check his long numbers. but in the training camp preseason buzz type of thing there's been a little bit of noise you know when a coach is like he was the best player in all of training camp he was dominating everybody I don't think JJ Redick tends to lie about stuff like that

and he's saying that Dalton Connect's been out there in the practice gym killing everybody we'll see again I don't think JJ Redick would just say that especially knowing that Dalton Connect has like so much criticism going his way at all times I think JJ Rec knows if he says that and connect his buttons that that's going to reflect poorly on him you know people are going to harp on that so I kind of believe him

that connect us in a good groove going to this year, second year leap or whatever that looks like, I want to see him at least be a good shooter and give them space and they need. What if it's just a confidence play? Exactly. Exactly. Like, what if he was like, again, not trash,

but like just fine, you know, and know that you still have to still reintegrate connect back into this team because again, he was traded. And then brought back like, I, that's so funny, bro. You know, like that stays. That's a very, you know, tough. 100%.

thing to place to navigate. Obviously his defense needs to be good so they can play him but offensively even if his defense will never be great it can obviously be better than last year but I don't expect him

to be a great defender ever I want to see him be a flame door offensively I want to see him give him legit buckets Are you praying that some like Vando can shoot like 33% this year can he like show some life of a shooter or some level of consistency? We're asking for 30%

Do you think I'm a fucking idiot? Do you think I'm fucking stupid? Do I look like I've never watched NBA basketball to you? No, I'm not praying that Jared Vanderbock can shoot. Do I look like a dumbass? Now, I will say one thing that I am looking forward to when it comes to Vando, having his first fully healthy offseason in a long-ass time, is like, okay, like, if you're not going to shoot to like the normal expectation or rate that people have

been trying to put upon you, can you at least, like, be a kind of surprising, shocking playmaker? I'm not telling you to, like, break the fucking door, but can you give me, two or three assists a game. Let's get nerdy. You make Jared Vanderbott a playmaking hub. He can surprise some people on the short roll. Let's do some buzzwords. Can you do some stuff out of the dunker spot?

I'm not expecting you to go ahead and go ahead and dunk there or like do none crazy for a little bit. Go bounce passes. Give it to me. Yeah. I mean, that is a thing. He's a decent passer in transition. So maybe you can talk about the nail.

What they did say is though. Talk about the nail. They did say that they're going to use Jared Vanderbilt Like a perimeter defender again Instead of last year he basically got a defense centers Because the way they line up constructed post trade Which isn't good for him He's not like a good post defender

He's not a good rebounder like that But he is nasty Fighting over screens, defending point guards He can do that So maybe that's the answer to the stuff thing Maybe they put Jerry Vanderbilt out there He would be an elite corner in football Or safety

What position would you pay if he was in? Okay, that's Richard Sherman He's a cover three corner That can use his length and space Yeah, he knows how to cut into corners and angles really well Nice. Okay.

Put on some weight. You can be a coverage outside line, Becker? I think so. Which is Derek Brooks playing the wrong sport. Yeah. It's a Hall of Fame.

We're waiting. All right. Well, that's what we think about both games. It sounds like we're going, did you go Lakers or did you go Warriors? I'm going Warriors. I'm going to Lakers.

I guess I'm going Lakers just because I have to. And then... I went Rockets. I got OKC. I don't know. Something tells me to go Rockets, but then something tells me

it might take time for them to figure that out, that wonky system. And OKC is under man, but we know that it really doesn't matter for them. But there really doesn't matter as far as Biggs go. It might matter as far as J-Dub goes. I'll go OKC by two. I'll go OKC because I think Shay is going to close well, but it'll be close. Yeah.

I think it's going to be a lot easier for OKC to guard and make the Houston Rockets life-held because they're already like making their own life-held in certain ways that they chose to do so. So I'm going with OKC. All right. we'll see what happens we'll be back on Friday with you guys to overreact

to every single NBA team's first game we'll be here to do the full rounds give you reaction to these games everything that happens on Wednesdays

TBD about Thursdays I think it might have to record early day Thursday so I think there's two teams that play on Thursday that didn't play

on Wednesday Nuggets and I forget the other team Nuggets and Pacers I think Nuggets and Pacers you will not get thoughts on

Nuggets and patience most likely that's tough everybody else though we will have overreactions for you come Friday Hell yeah

with that being said we'll see y'all in a few days.