The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Ben Simmons Brooklyn Nets debut, LeBron, Russ & Lakers preseason action + Full league recap.

Episode Date: October 4, 2022

Jason Timpf breaks down Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving, and Kevin Durant's preseason debuts against Tyrese Maxey and the Philadelphia 76ers, how Ben Simmons played in his first game since being traded to the Nets, and Russell Westbrook, LeBron James, and Anthony Davis' performances in their preseason debut against De'Aaron Fox and the Sacramento Kings. Plus, Timpf breaks down the near trade between the Los Angeles Lakers and Indiana Pacers, LeBron James' continued support of Russell Westbrook, Steph Curry and the Golden State Warriors' preseason highlights, Jaylen Brown and the Celtics' rout of the Hornets, Deandre Ayton's lack of enthusiasm for the Suns, and the Jazz' victory over the Raptors. #Volume #HerdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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I hope all of you guys are having a great week so far. quick show today. We're only going to go for about 15, 20 minutes. I want to touch on the Nets Sixers game from last night, as well as the Lakers' first appearance of this season. We also did have a hilarious mistake yesterday. I shouldn't say we. I had a hilarious mistake yesterday. I watched like five preseason games in the morning for the purposes of the show. And I saved the Warriors for last. And for all of them, I stopped watching typically around halftime or shortly after halftime because most of the guys playing the last portion of the game aren't even rotation players. And when I'm trying to cover the whole league, I just don't have time to watch end of the bench guys. And so the Warriors were trailing big in the middle of the third quarter. And so when I was done watching film, I quick took a peek at the box score. And I must have got dyslexia or something because Warriors and Wizards just melded into one for me. And I thought that the Wizards ended up winning that game. So I got the full roast job last night on YouTube. Shouts to Patrick, you were the one I thought was the funniest. You said something along the lines of

like I've never seen somebody do a in-depth breakdown of a basketball game that he doesn't know who won. That legitimately made me laugh this morning. So you win the roast, Patrick. I'm going to make mistakes all the time on this show. It's just the nature of the business. I can promise you, though, when it comes to real basketball games in the regular season and the playoffs, I will be aware of who actually won the game. But today we're talking net sixers and Lakers. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volleyball. volumes, YouTube channel, so you don't miss any more of our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT for show announcements. I also do my film breakdowns there. I did two more this morning, about four minutes on the Netsixers game, and then another two minutes on the Lakers game. I do voiceovers and I break down. It gives me the opportunity to actually put footage to the things that I talk about on the show. So you're going to want to follow me there. I will frequently make references

to plays there. And then last but not least, if for whatever reason you miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. So with the Nets and the Sixers, it got ugly for the Nets early on, but they played much better in the second quarter. A couple things I wanted to hit on. First of all, Tyrese Maxie came out gunning. And at first I was like, man, I can't even imagine the confidence it takes on your first offensive possession. Like literally, first offensive possession of the game to come down and kind of like a semi-transition set off of a ball screen and just elevate into like a 27-foot pull-up jump shot and knock it down. But he did. And then like

two possessions later, he dribbled up the left wing and took a pull-up transition three. But hey, this is nothing new. You guys know how high I am on Tyrese Maxi. You guys know how high I am on Tobias Harris. I find those two guys to be what makes me most excited about the Sixers. And this pull-up shooting stuff is not new. Tyrese shot 40% over 40% on five pull-up jump shot attempts per game last year, including over 40% from three. He was just magnificent in this game, getting consistent rim pressure, drawing fouls against guys in switches in pick and roll. He was making floaters and drawing fouls and floaters. He was dropping off passes to Paul Reed at the basket. Just a really

impressive game from Tyre's Maxie, one of my favorite young players in the league. Tobias Harris flashed everything you expect to see from him. He was scoring in post-mismatches. He did so in a really nice spin move on Kyrie Irving on a switch. That's in my video that I posted. All those Tyrese Maxe clips that I talked about are posted in my video breakdown as well. He also did like a really nice, you know, Tobias is, he functions really well in this system because he can do all the basketball player things. Like we think of him as like a big scoring forward, but he can do all of the off ball stuff too. And he had a really nice play where he came off of a wide pin down for a three-point shot, and Ben Simmons went underneath the pin down.

And little hint for all shooters growing up, if you are coming off of an off-ball screen, if the defender is trailing you, you want to curl around the screen for your shot. If the defender goes underneath the screen, you want to fake like you're going to curl around the screen and then back up, because that's where your opening is. Tobias had a really nice example of that that you guys will find in the film. But hey, Tobias Harris and Tyrese, as you're third and fourth best player. Not a bad spot to be in. That's why I had the Sixers so high in my power rankings. Also, some good stuff from Montres-Harrell in the second quarter. Just manufacturing points on the offensive glass and in transition. Again, I covered him with the Lakers.

He's not a guy you want in your playoff rotation in a big way, but if he's a one-shift player, like if he's playing one shift per half in the playoffs, and then if he can eat any innings for you in the regular season, he does bring a lot of value. So, obviously, Obviously, we wanted to know how Ben Simmons would look. And honestly, it went about exactly as I expected. He was really good and impactful on the defensive end of the floor. On the offensive end, whenever he had the basketball, he did a really nice job of finding shooters.

I cut, I think, like, five clips together of him generating wide open three-point shots that you guys can find in the video breakdown. That's his natural gift, and that's the best way he's going to impact this offense. He's like Bruce Brown with less shooting and scoring ability, but with more passing ability. And so he's going to open up a lot of things for them and their other shooters on the floor. But at the end of the day, he still is not a threat to score the basketball. He's not even really looking to score. There was a post up he had on the left block where all of Philly's defenders stayed away and let him on an island.

I believe he was attacking George's knee-ang on this possession, and he took like a drifting fade away through the lane and bricked it pretty bad. he missed a right-handed hook shot in the lane two. He missed a couple of free throws. Obviously, the scoring stuff is still an issue, and if he doesn't figure that out, teams will find ways to attack him in the playoffs, or I should say attack that flaw in the playoffs by ignoring him. That's going to be the thing to watch over the course of the season. But I never want to react too strongly to one preseason game. He probably has been working a lot on these things, and only time will tell if there's any legitimate improvement there. in the second quarter the nets really got going on both ends of the floor first of all in the first half on defense they were just completely disengaged they were giving up wide open shots in transition because they weren't running back and communicating they were overhelping one of the consistent theme you'll see in both videos i released today is when you're there's you want to help out of specific spots on the floor you always want to help out of the weak side of the floor not the strong side of the floor why is that it's because it's a longer pass and because

when you're making a longer pass across your body, like if I'm driving to the left and I'm passing to the weak side corner on the right, I've got to go across my body. That's a difficult pass. It's probably going to be a looping pass. My guys can rotate out of that. But when you help out of the strong side, I'm already facing that way.

I'm driving that way. I'm looking that way. And it's an easy push pass to shooters. And so there are a couple examples in the film that I'll show you. There's a Royce O'Neill one. There's a Kevin Durant one. there was a Russell Westbrook one from the Lakers game. When you're on the strong side of the floor,

you want to stay close to the shooter. That's not the place to help from. You want to help out of the weak side corner, make it a more difficult cross-court pass so you can rotate out of it. But the Nets defense in that first half, way too much overhelping, really bad transition defense.

They gave up a million points in the first quarter. But in that second quarter, they played a lot more discipline. There was a great example of help where Patty Mills was compromised on a Tyrese maxi drive and actually fell over. But in the play, Tyrese had to spin back. And right as he was spinning,

Kyrie caught him off guard and forced to turnover. Those are examples of being more smart with your help. Helping when your defenders, or when your offensive player is really compromised, when you know that the ball handler is not going to be able to make an easy pass out to your man. It's kind of like a decision-making process. And their decision-making with help just got much better in the second half.

they started spamming, they got their offense going, spamming a really interesting action where they'd have Ben Simmons in the opposite corner, and I believe it was Joe Harris in the left corner. And then they had Katie on the left wing, Kyrie on the right wing, and Claxton in the middle of the floor. Well, Katie would start on the block, but he would come off of a Claxton screen up to the left side of the floor. Then essentially what would happen is, is Claxton would go up and set a flare screen for Kyrie. And when he would set that flare screen, KD would, like, hit Kyrie with a skit pass. And on the first time they ran it, a Kyrie hit Claxton slipping to the rim for a dunk.

And then the very next time they ran the exact same play, and Kyrie got a wide open three. And then the very next time they ran it, and then they flew after the flare pass was taken away, Claxton just flowed into a pick and roll with KD. And KD was just putting passes right on target everywhere. hitting Kyrie on the flare, hitting the weakside corner on a skip pass when he drove down the lane in the pick and roll. Really impressive playmaking from KD in that second quarter. They scored 20 points in less than five minutes after KD checked into the game for his second shift there in the second quarter. And most importantly, the passes were on time and on target.

This is a big theme with passing. You can see this with the Ben Simmons clips that I showed too. These NBA athletes are ridiculous and they close out at a high rate of speed. and they take away openings. If you don't hit guys on time and on target as shooters, they are not going to have an opportunity to get a shot off, but they did a really nice job, particularly Ben Simmons and KD,

and generating high-quality shots. Again, preseason basketball early on still, a long way to go. Still want to see a lot of Ben Simmons to see what he's capable of, but this Nets team has a lot of talent, and they're going to figure some stuff out, and they're going to be a good team. Looking at the Lakers, the defense looks good.

They're definitely prioritizing the paint, at the expense of jumpers, but it's overall encouraging. There's a lot of aggression from the perimeter, a lot of Russ and Patrick Beverly being up into ball handlers, and they're giving up driving lanes as a result, but that's okay when you've got all of the size that the Lakers have around the basket. They're chasing over the top of ball screens, and Russ, Kendrick Nunn, and Pat in particular did a really nice job of,

even when they get caught on screens, they kept sprinting back into the play. Because again, if that ball handler takes three drivers, to get to his spot where he wants to pull up, and he's got separation from you coming off the screen. If you sprint back into the play while he's dribbling slowly into the lane, you have an opportunity to make up ground, and they did a really nice job there. The defense was definitely encouraging, specifically from the Biggs. Didn't love what I saw from Damien Jones, didn't love what I saw from Thomas Bryant, but I did love what I saw from Wenian Gabriel. He was everywhere in the second

quarter. His length and athleticism pops off of the screen. Had a bunch of bunch of big blocks, changed some shots around the rim. He was the one who had the block that ignited the fast break that led to the Patrick Beverly Lobb Pass to want to Scano Anderson for the dunk. Just really encouraging stuff on the defensive end of the floor. But that's what we expected. As I told you guys in the season preview, I see this as a top five defense and a somewhere around the 15th best offense. I think it's going to be very different from what we've seen from the Lakers last season. Russ had a really good game. He was really good with the ball in his hands,

getting pressure to the rim. Dearen Fox is just too skinny to guard him. He was getting to the rim at will. He was consistently applying rim pressure and kicking out to shooters. And the Lakers were getting great stuff when he had the ball in his hands. Now, with Russ, with this kind of stuff,

I'm always trying to differentiate between what it looks like against the Kings and what it looks like against a really good basketball team. And then also it's just, the Russ is not going to have the ball in his hands that much when this team really gets put together. It's going to be a lot of Schroeder. It's going to be a lot of LeBron. We're talking about LeBron in a minute. LeBron almost totally took a backseat in this game. A ton of screening and diving to the basket. Not a lot of basketball in his hands trying to make plays and make shots.

So the reality is when the team is at their best, LeBron's going to have the ball. Dennis Schroeder is going to have the ball. Kendrick Nunn's going to have the ball. Anthony Davis is going to have the ball. So I want to see more reps of what Russ looks like off the ball. I didn't even get to enough of that last night to get a good feel for it. But when he had the ball in his hands, he played really well, and he did his job on the defensive end of the floor. There were a couple of nitpicky plays. I have them in the film breakdown where he lost his man on a backdoor cut.

You saw that clip that was going around all over the place this morning. And then there was that overhelp play that I was talking about. For the most part, though, he's chasing over the top of the screens. He's getting into ball handlers. He was sliding his feet and competing, getting on the glass. Russ played really well. Again, I don't hate Russ. The way he plays sometimes is really frustrating for me,

but I have no personal vendetta against him, and when the guy plays well, I'm going to call it out. He played well last night, but it was against a bad team and he was heavily featured as a ball handler. So I'm curious to see, as those dynamics change, games when he has the ball less, games when they're playing better defensive teams, if he can still be as impactful as he was last night.

LeBron obviously didn't shoot well, but like we were talking about with the Warriors in their first preseason game. I just don't care about shot making in the preseason. Everyone's building their conditioning. Everyone's getting their legs underneath them. It's to be expected that you would struggle in that setting. Defense is where I was concerned.

For starters, his first shift, his effort was good, but you could tell his legs weren't there. His quickness, he was struggling, keeping ball handlers in front. He got beat on a couple of closeouts. Harrison Barnes was getting dribble penetration on him. it just, again, I associate that with him getting his legs underneath him. But at the end of the day, like, this is kind of the LeBron process at this point. I remember, I tweeted it out this morning.

One of the things that happens with LeBron is early in the season, he tends to look slow, especially as he's gotten older. He tends to look slow. He looks a little broken down. Last year in the preseason, he shot 64% in the restricted area, and everyone was concerned that he couldn't make layups anymore. Then we got to the regular season, and he was, one of the most efficient rim scores in the entire league and scored there almost as much as

Janus did. So I always want to wait a couple of months before I start judging LeBron's physicality, but he definitely looked to touch slow last night, particularly on the defensive end and finishing around the rim. Also, he just, like, he was really taking a back seat as an initiator last night, and he's the best initiator on the team. At a certain point, these guys need to learn how to play when he has the basketball in his hands a lot. Because for this team to reach their ultimate ceiling, he has to have the basketball in his hands a lot. I think it's a selflessness thing from LeBron. He's trying to get Russ going. He's trying to get Kendrick Nung going. He's trying to help the team get into their sets and run their stuff. But at the end of the day, this is a

LeBron basketball team. This is a team that's going to have to have the basketball in his hands a lot. And then in the mid-second quarter, he let go with a rope defensively and just stop trying. And there were some ugly possessions in there where he was getting beat for rebounds and just standing around while stuff was taking place, just given minimal effort. I had an example of that clip, a clip that is an example of that in the video breakdown as well. My thing with that is I know what LeBron's capable of when he's in shape and when he's trying on the defensive end of the floor. And when he does so, it trickles down and the rest of the team plays hard and they're a very good defensive team. He does not have the luxury of taking

defensive possessions off, not on this roster. They're not going to be good enough offensively. They're not going to score enough to make up for being anything less than a top five defense. So I hope to see, again, it's preseason. He's the one guy that you're like, okay, it's preseason. I get it. You're in your 20th season. But when we get to October 18th, I hope to see consistent defensive effort from LeBron from the opening tip of this season throughout the 82 games. Anthony Davis looked amazing.

He knocked down two spot-up shots. again, with how little shooting this roster has, the Lakers are just absolutely going to need Anthony Davis to make shots. I think he went two for four from three in this game. Two of them that he made were on catch and shoots. And then he was the same amazing defensive self that he always is truly imposing around the basket. Last note for the Lakers, Kendrick Nunn. It was just refreshing to see a real ball handler that could shoot out there.

Again, Malik Monk, it's more of a score. And so it gave you some. of that off the dribble dynamic, but he didn't pass the ball well enough for it to really matter. Kendrick Nunn is the guy that can run pick and roll and shoot off the dribble, which forces the guards to chase over the top, which opens up things in pick and roll that haven't been there for the Lakers over the last few years. There was a play, it was one of the first couple possessions of the game where Anthony Davis and Kendrick Nunn ran a pick and roll on the left side of the floor and they had the side cleared. And on it, a herder had to chase Nunn over the top of the screen, and as a result,

pocket pass was open to AD. When he hit AD on the, the pocket pass, Hurtor and the big, both ran to Anthony Davis. Kendrick Nunn popped to the three-point line AD made a really nice pass to Kendrick Nunn in the corner and he knocked down a three. And when I saw that, I was like, that's the kind of stuff that Kendrick Nunn opens up for this offense that they just haven't had in recent years. But yeah, all in all, I would take it, again, it's early. Everyone's sloppy at this point. So you can't get too nitpicky. But I thought Russ looked as good as you could have hoped in that type of situation. Anthony Davis looked about as good as you could have hoped in that situation. LeBron didn't look good, but he's LeBron. He's the last guy you need to worry about on this

roster. Kendrick Nunn looked good and the defense looked good. So today, even though I'm not about to say the Lakers are like a top tier contender or anything, they definitely looked better than I expected them to look at this point and we'll want to definitely keep an eye on them over the rest of this preseason. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, but encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast's Superhuman documented it all, embedded in the games and with the athletes for a full year. Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the I-Hard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your

podcasts. A win is a win. A win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Cliver Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, the reactions, my journey from basketball to college football, or my career in sports media. Well, somewhere along the way, this platform became bigger than I ever imagined. And now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifford Show. This is a place for raw, unfiltered conversations with some of your favorite athletes, creators, and voices that not only deserve to be heard, but celebrated.

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or wherever you get your podcast. And for more behind the scenes, follow at Clifford and at TikTok Podcast Network on TikTok. Do you remember when Diana Ross double-tapped Little Kim's boobs at the VMAs? Or when Kanye said that George Bush didn't like black people. I know what you're thinking. What the hell does George Bush got to do with Little Kim? Well, you can find out on the Look Back at it podcast. I'm Sam J.

And I'm Alex English. Each episode, we pick a here, unpack what went down, and try to make sense of how we survived it. Including a recent episode with Mark Lamont Hill, waxing all about crack in the 80s. To be clear, 84 is big to me, not just because, of crack. I'm down to talk about crack on day, but just so y'all know.

I mean, at this point, Mark, this is the second episode where we've discussed crack. So I'm starting to see that there's a through line. We also have AIDS on the table right now. Thank you finishing that sentence. Yes. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Really? Yeah.

For me, it's one of the most important years for black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your 2000, 2008, 2022. When it comes to the economy, those are some scary years. Dot com crash, the housing crash, and the roller coaster we're currently going through right now. One thing is certain, it's a dangerous time not to know your numbers, but over 31,000 businesses have confidence and clarity they need because they rely on NetSuite by Oracle, the number one cloud financial system. That suite gives you visibility and control over your financials, inventory, HR, plans, and budgeting so you can manage risk, get reliable forecasts, and improve margins.

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Right now, NetSuite is offering a one-of-a-kind flexible financing program. just head to net suite.com slash jason right now. That's net suite.com slash jason. Once again, net suite.com slash jason. And on that note, let's talk some basketball. So the Lakers report. Basically, the gist of it is that the Lakers almost made a deal with the Pacers right before training camp, the one that we thought of, which was Russ, plus the 2027 first, plus the

29 first for Buddy Heald and for Miles Turner. A couple other notes that I thought were very very. interesting from there. First of all, they had lots of meetings about it. They decided not to do it, but they still are potentially considering trades in the next few months if it doesn't go well, you know, the whole deal. But there were two notes in particular that stood out to me from that report. First of all, Rob Polinka, Jeannie Bus and Kurt Rambus are considered like the brain trust of the Lakers when it comes to basketball decisions. But in the article, they did mention that they are now factoring in the opinions of Jesse and Joey Bus when they're,

considering these trade options. That was encouraging to me on some level because I think those are the two smartest basketball minds in that front office. Kurt Rambis is just completely disconnected from the modern NBA. So his advice I'm really concerned about, obviously Jeannie Bus is not a basketball person. And then Rob Polinka, all we have to go on is his decisions over the years. And his decisions are once again more indicative of him being kind of like a figurehead, a personality manager, a sales person more than he is the exes and nose guy, you know. And that's always been one of my biggest concerns with the Lakers front office is their decision-making people are not basketball people, you know.

And then we have their scouting department, which is led by Jesse and Joey Bus. And the two of them have a track record of finding really high-quality NBA players on the fringes of the draft and the free agency market, right? like Austin Reeves, right, who's turned into a pretty solid NBA player, a guy that I think will be their fifth starter this year under the current iteration of the roster. I say fifth starter. That doesn't necessarily mean starting lineup. It just means like the fifth guy that they'll have in key lineups, particularly closing games. But they found Austin Reeves. They found Kyle

Kuzma. They found Talyn Horton Tucker. They have a track record of finding quality NBA players on the fringes of the draft. That is indicative. of the fact that they understand the basketball. They understand what works in the modern NBA. Obviously, I haven't had the luxury of getting to chat basketball with Rob or chat basketball with Jesse or Joey. All we can go on is their decision making. And Rob Polinka has a very questionable track record with decision making.

Jesse and Joey do not. So I like the idea of having them more involved in decision making, although it was not enough to sway them, apparently. They did mention in the article that they want universal approval. They want all five of those people to be a decision-making. on board before they make a deal. The only other thing that I thought was really interesting in that report is they said LeBron was among those who are supportive of keeping Russ.

And I'm not, or basically that he's been, you know, supportive behind the scenes and that he's not putting pressure on them to make a trade. That's not a big surprise to me because LeBron's credibility was on the line there. He's the guy who basically recommended this deal, pushed heavily for this deal. he's the guy that's always wanted the backup playmaker. He was the one who wanted Russ. So I'm not surprised that he'd be one of the last people to be the one who admits that it didn't work out.

The reality of the situation is the Lakers are banking on Russ to become what they need him to be. Not what he actually is. Not what we have evidence of. He's in his 15th season. It's not exactly like we're going on small amounts of information. They're banking on him changing in his 15th season. My dad used to always tell me

I was growing up, that the best indicator of future performance is past performance. What does that mean? That means that obviously people can change, and we should hope for people to change, especially in our personal friends and family network, right? Like, we should be rooting for people to make changes, you know, especially when you're dealing with people that have larger issues. But the reality is, is that the best indicator of future performance is past performance. So it's one thing to hope for those types of changes. But when you're planning, You should plan on what they were. That's the most likely scenario.

And so I don't like the idea of planning the Lakers future based on Russ changing, because it's just not likely at this point in his career. And again, we're going to find out quickly. We might find out tonight. And when we watch him play in this preseason game, we're going to find out quickly how serious Russ is about changing. I wanted to give you guys a really quick checklist of things to watch for in tonight's game. One, his shot selection.

As we mentioned last year, in terms of high-volume ball creators, he was one of the least efficient in the league. One of the ways to pair that back is to pair back his shot selection, take shots that he actually can shoot at a high percentage. Offball offense. So making spot-up threes, screening away for teammates, screening on the basketball, cutting without the basketball, and crashing the offensive glass. And then off-ball defense, he has a tendency to ignore his man to reckless. help or to chase rebounds. Watch him keeping tabs on shooters,

offering smart help, not getting out of position unless he needs to, and then boxing out or checking to see where his man is before he crashes the glass so he doesn't get out of position. Those are things that I want you guys to watch for in tonight's game. But I don't want to go too much further on the Lakers thing because we've hashed it out before. But yeah, LeBron's clearly in the pro-Russ camp. It's good that they're factoring in Jesse and Joey. Those are the two smart basketball minds in that front office.

And it's a whole bunch of maybes. and this is the group of basketball players that they're going to work with this year, and we're going to find out pretty quickly what they're capable of. Lots of positive energy coming out of Lakers' camp, but that's training camp. There was positive energy coming out of last year's camp. So before we move into these preseason games, because this is going to be related to the Laker thing we just talked about,

I care about preseason, not just because I'm a basketball nut job, but also because I really do think it's indicative of your team's personality. You know, like, I'll give you guys an example. T.J. McConnell came through the University of Arizona, and I've always been a psychopath on the basketball court. Like, I just care about every game. I hate losing, and I'm crazy enough to devote huge portions of my life to it, even though I'm not a professional basketball player. I relate to basketball psychopaths. And I remember when I was playing at the rec center back at the University of Arizona, when T.J. McCona.

would come through and we'd play, we'd be in these pickup games. And a lot of the guys who came through the U of A, they'd go up there and they just kind of mess around and they kind of act too cool for school. But then I'd see T.J. McConnell up there just being a psychopath and like just caring about winning pickup games against random students at the University of Arizona. And him and I went at it a bunch of times. And like, I remember just sitting there thinking like, I like this guy because he's just a psychopath and he doesn't see a basketball game that he doesn't care about. And that's kind of the way I feel about preseason basketball. It's indicative of how serious you are as a team. Because the reality is, every time you play preseason basketball, that's an opportunity to get

better. It's an opportunity to get reps. It's an opportunity to see how you stack up against other teams around the league. It's an opportunity to establish habits to demonstrate what your intentions are on a night-in-a-night-out basis throughout the regular season. I don't think it's a coincidence that the 2020 Lakers beat everyone's ass in the preseason and then started 24 and three in the regular season. I don't think it's a coincidence that the Lakers went winless last year in the preseason and then immediately came out the gates sucking because that's what happens. What you're seeing is what that team is made up, made up of psychologically. How much do they care about defending in a preseason game? Because if they don't defend in a preseason game,

they're probably not going to defend against the Oklahoma City Thunder in mid-November. You know what I mean. Like at a certain point, you're learning about the psychology of these locker rooms. So that's why I care about preseason. Again, that doesn't necessarily mean wins and losses, but it does mean what you see with those groupings. Your core lineup groupings should be performing well in preseason, or they're not going to perform well in the regular season. If they perform poorly in preseason, they're setting a bad, they're setting a bad, kind of like precedent, a bad set of habits for the way they're going to play once they start playing meaningful basketball. So we're going to start with the Warriors.

Only going to spend a couple of minutes on them today because we did a whole video on them the other day, and they just played the exact same team. They jumped out to an eight-point lead against the Wizards and then kind of relaxed and they ended up losing the game, fell down big in the early second half. They did have 14 points in their first four and a half minutes and their offense looked really, really good. So I wanted to kind of go play-by-play through their first 14 points to kind of demonstrate the beauty of Warriors basketball.

So in the first play of the game, they ran one of their four-out, one-in actions. And on the play, Jordan Poole backscreens for Dremont Green. And Dremont Green looped around the baseline and got a dribble handoff. Right after Poole back screened for Dramon Green, he went up and back-screened for Steph Curry. Steph and Jordan Poole's man, they kind of were confused. They decided to switch. Then Steph just cuts and curls off the screen to the basket and his defender chases. Right as that second defender came, then Jordan Poole's.

just went right off of that second defender as he was chasing Steph, and right there waiting was Kevon Looney setting another screen. Jordan Pool curled around that and got a wide open three. And I was just sitting there thinking like, man, imagine getting all hyped up for a preseason game in Japan in front of a packed stadium. You're getting ready to go out there and play hard and show what you can do, and then you just immediately get thrown in the blender. And after trying to navigate three different screening actions, you end up running into a brick wall, Kevin Looney and giving up a wide open three. Very next possession, they ran a transition pick and roll with Steph, kind of like as they were going up the floor, Steph and Draymond.

And both bodies went with Steph. Steph dropped it off to Draymond. They ran a four on three and Andrew Wiggins got fouled. A couple possessions, or very next possession, Draymond hits a three off of an Andrew Wiggins post up. Always good to see Draymond Green hitting threes. It's like one of the, it's like the, every team has like a thing. Like if the Boston Celtics are actually driving and kicking, they become unbeatable, you know. The Warriors, when Draymond Green's making three,

they become unbeatable. A couple possessions later, there was a transition play where Dremont Green was leading the break. And it was a really interesting action from Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins. So Jordan Poole and Andrew Wiggins are running up the left side of the floor. And what typically happens when you don't have floor balance in transition is one guy will run through and then the other guy will stay in the corner. So Jordan Poole runs through.

And Kyle Kuzma's guarding Andrew Wiggins and he's expecting Andrew Wiggins to stay on that side for floor balance. But instead, Andrew Wiggins just cuts in the way. follows Jordan Poole. And Cusma's completely caught with his pants down. Dremont Green throws a perfect bounce pass in transition, and Wiggins gets a layup. A couple of possessions later, they ran their classic warrior split cut action. Basically all that is is they throw it into the post. Usually it's Dremont, sometimes it's Wiggins. On this play, it was Wiggins. And then as soon as Wiggins caught the ball in the post, Looney, who was one pass away, just cross

screens for Steph. They call it split cut. Some people call them post splits. It's really just semantics. I don't care as much about semantics with play calling because every team calls things different. Like the Lakers run a drop coverage and Darvinham calls it center field. It doesn't mean like everybody just has their own nomenclature for what these things are. But the Warriors, they refer to it as their split cuts or their post split actions or whatever it is. But essentially all it is is you make a post entry and then immediately the guy who makes the post entry sets a screen away. And then from there it's usually a shooter coming off of that and then the screener will dive. That's typically how split cut actions work. On that play, Wiggins gets the ball

in the post. Looney just sets a basic cross screen for Steph, gets a good screen. Steph catches and nails a wide open three. And then on the last play of that run to get them to 14 to 6, there was a basic five-out set. Looney has the ball in the left wing. Wiggins is in the corner. He runs up with his left hand to do a dribble handoff for Wiggins, and Wiggins just cuts back door and Luni hits him on the bounce for an and one that went into a timeout. So like the thing is, like we talked about earlier, that five out set keeps things open for cuts and for slipping out of rolls and short rolls and things along those lines. So what's beautiful about that is that dribble handoff Wiggins cutting back door probably doesn't result in a basket in a four out one inset or in a three out two

in set. But because it's in a five out set, there's just no help there. And it just kind of makes, It makes everything that they do so much harder to guard. Again, anybody you missed that, we did a whole like 40 minutes on Warriors' offense, what their five outsets look like, how they use them to get open threes, and the cuts and rolls to the basket. You're going to want to check that out. It's just a little bit further back in our feed. So obviously they ended up losing that game.

Things got sloppy. Who cares? It's the preseason. But early on, we saw some classic Warriors offense. Their continuity is. going to have them humming on all cylinders going into this season. Moving on to the Celtics and the Hornets, an utterly destructive performance from Boston. They looked really, really good. First of all, Jalen Brown, the score, I think he had 24 points in 24 minutes. I think he was like

eight for 11 from the field or something like that. I talked about this a lot when we were doing our Celtics breakdown. He's the pure score on the roster. I view Jason Tatum is more of like a playmaking forward, you know, like a classic point forward kind of guy. All of the metrics, isolation, post-ups, dribble handoffs coming off screen, stuff like that. Jalen Brown was the better play finisher. He's better at putting the ball in the basket right now than Jason Tatum is. Jason Tatum is just a much better passer, and he's more consistent with getting dribble penetration and making the right reads out of it.

Jalen Brown's still kind of a mess as a passer. But Jalen looked dominant again in that game against the Hornets. A couple things that stood out to me, particularly at the, that helps him have a success with the basketball. First of all, quick decisions. Jalen Brown doesn't mess around with the ball. Like, he is very aggressive, but he's quick with his decisions. What that means is it makes him predictable.

You know, a lot of ball hogs or guys that are gunners, guys that are scores, they disrupt the flow of the offense because they're indecisive. You know, they catch, they'll jab step four times and then they'll shoot, or they'll dribble 30 times before they go into their move or whatever. In those moments, things get stagnant. everyone's standing around. What I appreciate about Jalen is he's aggressive, but he's quick, decisive, and predictable. So it makes it easy for his teammates around him to play off of his aggression. And then lastly, he's the, I was working on closeouts with my high school kids this

morning. And one of the big things I kept telling him is like, shoot the three. Like, you don't, yes, it's a drill to work on isolation skill. Yes, it's a drill to work on putting the basketball on the floor and beating people to spot, like beating people to spots with contact and getting to the rim. the reality is, is if you don't demonstrate the ability to shoot the shot, they're going to close out short on you. And as soon as they start closing out short, then it just makes your job 10 times harder when you're trying to beat them off the dribble. And so I was just encouraging my kids like, on the catch, shoot it every time when you're open. Forced them to close out hard on you, then you can start attacking the rim. And that's the kind of the interesting thing with

the Jalen Brown stuff is he's so aggressive as a pull-up shooter right now, both off the dribble and jab steps, like out of triple threat, that guys have to press up on him. And now the guys are pressing up on him to that extent, he's getting consistent dribble penetration because he's a big, strong athlete with a low center of gravity. And he's just, you know, I'm really surprised that Brooklyn didn't want to take that deal to get jailing because he would have been such an awesome centerpiece, especially attached to draft picks. But hey, maybe Boston's better off in the long run. Tatum had a somewhat rough night, but who cares? It's the preseason. Like I said, I'm more,

I'm not concerned about result. I'm not concerned about the shots, the shot result. The guy's not shooting well when they're trying to get their legs underneath them. What I care about most in preseason is, are guys playing hard? Are they running their scheme right? Like, do they look like a team that cares? Do they look like a team that's bought into their coach? Do they look like a team that's on a mission? Or do they look like a team that's just coasting and floating through? Tatum was out there defending, playing hard. He just didn't shoot well. and I think he had three assists with five turnovers, which is obviously not great for him. Malcolm Brockton.

This is the main reason why I wanted to watch this particular game. I wanted to get a feel for what he looks like in a Boston jersey. His first shift, particularly up to the end of the first quarter, was pretty rough. A lot of overpassing. It's really tough in general to integrate a good ball handler into an existing basketball team that really already knows how to play. In generally, you don't want to step on each other's toes. So like there's some force-feeding him, but then he's also like force-feeding others.

And the reality is, what they need for him is to be aggressive with the basketball until the team collapses on him and then look to make plays. And in that first stretch going into the end of the first quarter, he was a little bit sloppy, some overpassing, wasn't looking for his own shot enough. But man, in that second quarter, to start the second quarter, they went with a bench lineup. and I'm pretty sure smart Tatum and Brown were all out at this point. It might have been Brown was out there too, but they featured Brogden primarily with the basketball to start the second quarter. And almost immediately you could see what he brings to the table. Consistent dribble penetration. He's really good at pinning the defender on his backside on ball screens and then methodically working his way down the lane to get dribble penetration off of ball screens. And then he was just spraying out to shooters all day long.

He's already got really good chemistry with Grant Williams. They had a pick and pop three, and then they had another driving kick three. Just in general, you could see the fit there with Brogden as like a legit shot creator, not just with the bench lineup, but that's going to work really well with the starters as well. I thought it was confusing that they started Derek White and brought Malcolm Brogden off the bench. I'm assuming it's for staggering purposes and they're going to want to have him with the bench lineups. but at the end of the day, Brogden's just a better player than Derek White, and he's got to be with them as much as possible.

So I'm curious to see how that dynamic goes over the course of the season. One last note with Brogden, his transition passing, he was grabbing the ball and pushing with pace and making plays to get easy shots in transition. I think that's going to be a good fit with that Boston team, which I think could stand to run a little bit more with how athletic they are. Quick note on the Hornets, again, I just started covering the league as a hole last year in February. So I've watched La Mello Ball probably as much as the average basketball fan has or the average big-time basketball fan. Like I've watched him a few dozen times.

But I don't know enough about him to have a strong opinion. And I'm really excited this year to watch a lot more of him to get a stronger opinion and just to learn about him on a night-in-night-out basis in the NBA. Last year, by the time I started covering the league, the Hornets were already kind of out of the picture. So I just wasn't watching them that much. there are things that I like and there are things that I dislike up front. Natural feel as a passer. When you get him in the open floor and that's usually in transition or when they set that really high ball screen almost starting like 25 feet away from the basket so he can get

downhill, when he's in the open floor and he's making plays, the passing is, it's really impressive. And he has the ability to beat Biggs on switches with quick dribble moves to the right. he's got the ability to knock down, pull up jump shots. But the shot selection sometimes is truly puzzling. Like he'll take, obviously, when he was in high school, he took wild shots. But now there's still a little bit of that there. And adding unnecessary difficulty, there was a play where he was coming off a pick and roll on the left side of the floor.

Defender gets caught on the screen, he's got a ton of separation. And he's coming down to like 18 feet on the left wing. The big is in drop. He's way far back. And instead of like getting balanced and raising up to, uh, to like take a nice up and down, pull up jump shot, he just took a drifting, floating 18 footer, uh, where his legs were kicked out. And I know he kicks his feet out a little bit naturally, but his whole upright body was moving from right to left on the shot. And I'm just sitting there thinking, like, that's just unnecessary

difficulty. Like you, that is a 20% shot probably. But if he goes straight up and down, it's probably a 37, 38% shot. And random pull-ups in transition, the, like, he's such a gifted passer that looks for his teammates often, but then he goes through these random stretches where he gets kind of tunnel vision and he doesn't take great shots. And then on the defensive end of the floor, it's just, it's just a nightmare. He's so upright and thin that the big wings just have their way with him. Jalen Brown had a dunk where he caught the ball, literally looked at Lamello face-to-face, and just drove right around him. There was a little bit of contact, but, Jalen just ripped through him because he's too thin and went up and threw a nasty one-handed dunk down.

Lots to be desired on the defensive end. A lot to be desired with shot selection. Lots of good, too, as a shot creator, especially in high pick and roll. I've really mixed feelings about him right now. Not a strong opinion, like I said, I want to see more of him before I have a strong opinion. But that was an ugly one to watch. I think he went five for 19 overall. Moving on to the Sons.

So they lose to the Adelaide 36. It's kind of reminiscent of that Thunder team that lost. I can't even remember who it was, but they lost to some EuroLeague team a few years back. Obviously, motivational advantage plays a big role here. It's hard to get up for these kinds of games. Adelaide's their biggest game of the year. Like them winning that game will matter as much to them probably

or close to them winning an NBL championship, right? But the reality is, is like we were talking about earlier with that T.J. McConnell's story, you just find out about the psychology of these teams in these settings. Because, yeah, they were at a big motivational advantage. The Adelaide 36ers were. But all of these preseason games are not exactly motivational events. You're not super stoked to go out and play in front of a third full arena, you know, in a game that doesn't mean anything. I get it.

But you find out a lot about the chemistry of these teams. This is a team that we were concerned about their motivation. We were concerned about what was going on between the ears in the locker room, right? And they couldn't get up to play hard for this team. And obviously they ended up blowing the game, giving up 130-something points in the process. The main thing that stood out to me on film, and I did a whole video breakdown on this. You can find it on my Twitter feed. Again, at underscore Jason LT.

I did like a two-minute video breaking down DeAndre Aiton. But from the opening tip, he just didn't care. And again, look at the box score. I think he had like 22 points. Dominant offensive performance. Like, he still has like magnets or vacuums for hands and catches everything around the rim and finishes it every single time. He's every bit as good offensively as always would hope for him to be.

But on defense, he's just doing the bare minimum. You know, like this is before we get into the details, the main concept I wanted to get out here is the difference between doing the bare minimum and getting the job done. Yeah, in your scheme, it might be your job to help here or to show here or to hedge here or to chase this guy or whatever your detail is in the scheme. But you either do it well enough to get the stop or you don't. And most defensive schemes, when ran right, will work.

But the amount of effort that Aiton was putting in to his role was just simply not good enough. Opening possession of the game. Devin Booker gets caught on a back screen from from DeAndre Aiton's man. What are you supposed to do when you are the big and your big sets a back screen and the guy gets loose to the rim? That's your responsibility. The 36ers ended up blowing it with a bad lob pass, but Aiton was completely out of position and offered no help on the play. It was wide open at the rim. Like very next possession, he's kind of like overhelping on a pick and roll drop coverage. Booker's got the guard completely contained, like just completely under control. And Aiden's just kind of floating around behind him.

Meanwhile, his man is popped to the elbow, and they drop it off and he gets a wide open 15-footer. That guy ends up getting going and gets going from three. A couple possessions later, he's overhelping on a curl. Once again, just sinking into the paint because that's the easy thing for the big to do. His guy pops out to the three-point line, knocks down a three. There's another possession where in transition he ends up getting switched onto, or in a screening action, he ends up getting switched onto one of their guards. And D'Andre just doesn't even go out past a three-point line. Literally just standing about 10, 12 feet away, arms up, just offering a cursory, you know,

presence there. And the guard just shoots the wide open three and nails it. It was number 12, the left-handed kid. He gets going. Now next possession, he races down and shoots like a wild transition three in McHale Bridges his face and makes it. And the reason why he makes that is he gets his wrong. rhythm when Aiton's not guarding him on the previous possession.

Like, the rhythm is a delicate thing. When you lose to a team that shoots you out of the arena, it usually starts with you not defending well at the beginning of the game. And then the big, the big glaring one was at the, I think it was late second quarter, or mid-second quarter, but Devin Booker takes a tough, like, step back transition three. And it was a bad shot. Don't give me wrong. But he's Devin Booker.

And he needs to have a green light and he needs to have the freedom. him to take difficult shots. And Aitin doesn't like the shot. So he turns around and literally walks for like five steps as the team is running the other way. Then he kind of gets going into a jog. And in the process, Mikhail Bridges has to pick up his man, the big. So then they, the 36ers immediately run a pick and roll.

They switch it. Now Chris Paul's on the big. They dump it down into the block and Chris Paul fouls him as he's going up for a layup. And once again, that's a mismatch that was given because Aiton wasn't trying. He was walking up the floor in transition. It was just like the most embarrassing 22-point performance I've seen in a long time because his body language is bad. His defense was atrocious, and it allowed a lower-level professional team

from a league in Australia to beat an NBA team, which is inexcusable under any circumstances. It's just something to watch here in the early part of the season. You know, like this is a team, like I said, that's got some baggage from the summer. when the losses pile up is when the baggage rears its ugly head. Now, I think this team is talented enough to win their way through this. But if they do start to lose, and once again, this is just a preseason game, if they do start to lose, it could be a problem in the long run.

But congrats to the Adelaide 36 are just a really cool moment for them. The basketball gods definitely levied a judgment on the effort level from the Sons. The other thing, too, is just the gap between basketball talent from different levels is it's it's kind of both it's like people don't realize how good NBA players are like people see me a 6-6 wing with a 610 wings band that can get his head by the rim and shoot and dribble and stuff and they think like oh he uh he he must be a near NBA player it's like no no like if I went to an NBA training camp tomorrow I get my ass handed to me like these guys are insanely good but at the same time like if I was playing in a game and the team wasn't respecting me and they let me get comfortable like

yeah I could get going I can make sense. some shots. And that's kind of the way I look at it is like if you go up against an NBA team, if you go up against a CBA team, if you go up against a Euroleague team and you don't bring effort, these are good basketball players. Like they will beat you. They will beat you if you do not take them seriously and respect them. And they found out the hard way. Lastly, Raptors Jazz. Quick note on the Jazz, they have a deep repertoire of good basketball players. I think they ended up starting Malik Beasley, Mike Conley, Lori Markinen, Jerry, and, Jerry. Vanderbilt and I can't remember who the fifth guy was.

But then they ended up bringing like Colin Sexton in off of the bench. They have a lot of good basketball players. So I wonder how much they're going to be willing to be a team that is under 500 but competitive before they decide that it might be time to start selling those guys off in pursuit of picks, although they did end up getting eight picks this summer. So maybe they don't need them. Looking at the Raptors, it was kind of funny to watch them on offense. We didn't do a season preview for them because they were kind of in that middle of the pack.

And I generally am lower on the Raptors than most people just because of the lack of ball handling and shooting, which we're going to get to. But they are an interesting team. We just didn't have time to get to them in the season previews. They are relentless with matchup attacking. They've got these huge forwards, right? Like O.G. Anobie and Scotty Barnes and Pascal Seacum. And on a lot of possessions, it's just like give the ball to one of them and they just play bully ball. You know, live dribble from the perimeter, turn their back to the basket, back them down, back

them down, back them down, wait until the defense collapses and then spray out to shoot her, right? But it gets a little bit, it gets a little bit rudimentary because they don't shoot the ball well enough, things collapse around them, they get caught in traffic, they turn the basketball over, they can be a little sloppy on the offensive end of the floor. Again, I don't think they have nearly enough shooting and ball handling to truly contend compared to the best teams in the league, but they do have some of the most physically imposing five-man groupings in the league. There was one lineup in particular that Raptors fans were getting really excited about in that game. O.G. and Inobie, Anobie, Pascal Seacum, Chris Boucher, Preschee, and Scottie Barnes.

And they played quite a bit there, I believe, it was either end of the first or start of the second quarter. And they actually didn't do that well. And a big part of it was they had really bad off-ball defense. And I did a whole video on this again, so you can find it on my Twitter feed, kind of breaking down these concepts. But like the whole point of that type of lineup is if you switch everything, they don't have a good option to attack. It's like, okay, maybe I can get some dribble penetration on Chris Boucher, but he's so long and athletic, he's going to be able to gain some ground, right? You know, or like maybe you think you have a decent chance against O.G. Anobie because he's only six foot seven or whatever if you're a taller player. But the truth is there's no good option.

and so what you're supposed to do in that defensive scheme is switch everything and bait them into playing ISO. And if they make some tough shots over contests or if they occasionally beat you to the dribble as your big forward is coming and slapping the backboard and he barely makes a layup, it's like applause, nice shot, run back on defense. Let's see if you can do that next time. You know what I mean? But instead what they were doing is they were doing the classic Nicknour's thing where they're overhelping everywhere. There was a play where Boucher had Conley completely corralled on a drive. And like Conley has no advantage, but he's kind of getting downhill, but Boucher is still between him in the rim.

And Pascal Seacom just blatantly abandons his man to step up and help, and his man cuts backdoor. And Conley drops it off and they draw a foul. There was another one where Scotty Barnes had Jordan Clarkson on his hip. And Clarkson gets just a little bit of a step, and he's going to the rim. And you know what? He would have got a layup off. Like he would have gotten there to the rim. But Scotty Barnes is going to block that into oblivion.

He's a better athlete and he's going step for step with him. That's going to end poorly for Jordan Clarkson. But no, instead, I think it was precious steps up. After precious steps up, the ball gets kicked out and the raptors don't get matched up. And then someone finally closes out and there's a wide open man right under the basket for a layup. It's like, it could have been Scotty Barnes blocking Jordan Clarkson off the glass. and then going the other way on the break, but instead it's a layup because you overhelped.

And then there was one last play where I can't remember who it was that was guarding the ball, but once again, ball was under control. Precious gets cut back door on because he's not paying attention off ball and they end up getting a wide open layup. So the thing is, is like that lineup should be devastating defensively, but the whole purpose of that lineup is to bait you into playing one-on-one basketball. You don't want to overhelp with that group. You want to encourage them to think that they can isolate you.

because in the long run that will work out for you. A couple other positive notes. Scotty Barnes looked pretty good on the ball again, attacking mismatches. He got a foul call attacking Kelly Olinick in an ISO. He had a really nasty post-up fade away over his left shoulder over Jared Vanderbilt. Then he had like a misdunk right at the end of the first quarter that kind of reminded me of LeBron dunking on Yusuf Nurkich in that Portland game back in 2018 where he kind of curled around. one was more in transition. LeBronzo's more of a half-court type of deal, but they ran a set where they get inbound the ball to Scotty in the back court so that he can get ahead of steam. And as he curled around the ball screen, like there were people in the lane, but it's Scotty Barnes with

the head of steam. They had absolutely no hope of stopping him. He ended up missing the dunk off the front room, but he was right there and it was a good play. I just would like to see them continue to do stuff like that. Get Scotty with the head of steam. Whether that's semi-transition, or running your pick and rolls further out towards half court. Just anything to get him ahead of steam because he's almost impossible when he gets there. Impossible to handle when he gets there. He was moving the ball well. He had a nice little pick and pop pass to Precious for a three.

He ended up scoring eight points, having five rebounds and three assists in 18 minutes. So extrapolated out to a 36 minute game. That's 16, 10, and 6. That's a really good, well-rounded game. And the last positive thing, Precious to Chua, but I started to come around on this towards the end of the year last year, but I really like what he's doing attacking closeouts. He demonstrated a little bit of movement shooting with his pick and pop shot

with Scotty Barnes getting his feet set quickly after screening and popping hard to the three-point line. And then he had a nasty dunk on the left wing where he caught the ball. Defender closed out and he just ripped through and extended out in front and turned the basketball over on the rim. They're a really interesting team. Again, I'm not as high on them as Raptors fans are. I'm really high on them for the future, right now, they need somebody to really develop into a good creator with the basketball.

And hopefully it's Scotty, but I think he's a few years away. I think Scottie Barnes is like a, is going to be an all-N-Ba player. Like, that's how good I think he's going to be. But I'd be keeping an eye on his on-ball creation. And just in general with the Raptors, I haven't seen enough to make me take them seriously as a threat. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We would be back tomorrow with some more, um, a preseason breakdown. as well as some gambling content, some season over-unders and things along those lines. I also saw the NBA GM survey, the annual GM survey, came out yesterday. Or excuse me, today we'll do some stuff about that as well.

I think it's really interesting to see how my ideologies line up with the general managers around the league, see where we disagree, see where we agree, things along those lines. All right, as always, I appreciate your guys' support, and we will see you next time. The volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. On Humor Me with Robert Smygel and Friends, me and hilarious guests from Bob Odenkirk to David Letterman help make you funnier. This week, my guest, SNL's Mikey Day and head writer, Streeter Seidel, help an a cappella band with their between songs banter. Where does your group perform?

We do some retirement homes. Those people are starving for banter. Listen to Humor me with Robert Smigel and Friends on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Imagine an Olympics where doping is not only legal, But encouraged. It's the enhanced games. Some call it grotesque. Others say it's unleashing human potential.

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