The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Reaction to Kyrie Irving's suspension, Top-5 most disappointing teams

Episode Date: November 4, 2022

First (3:00), Jason Timpf reacts to Kyrie Irving getting suspended for at least 5 games by the Brooklyn Nets. He discusses whether he thinks Kyrie will ever suit up again for the Brooklyn Nets and what the future holds for both him and Kevin Durant. He also mentions how the Nets could be having second thoughts about potentially hiring Ime Udoka after the firing of Steve Nash. Later (21:30) Jason Timpf breaks down the five most disappointing teams so far to start the NBA season. Jason discusses Stephen Curry and the Warriors losing streak, Kawhi Leonard's injuries and the Clippers offensive struggles, how James Harden's injury impacts Joel Embiid and the 76ers, how Kyrie Irving's suspension impacts Kevin Durant and the Nets, and Rudy Gobert's inability to improve the Timberwolves defense. #volume #herdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Within probably 10 days, I'd put on 10 pounds. I was having trouble stopping the muscle growth. Listen to Superhuman on the IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford Taylor the 4th. You might have seen the skits, my basketball and college football journey, or my career in sports media. Well, now I'm bringing all of that excitement to my brand new podcast, The Clifers Show.

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This morning we're going to be covering the Kyrie Irving suspension, obviously the biggest news of last night. And then later tonight, we'll have one more video coming out that's going to be breaking down some basketball one last time before we get into the weekend. Here's the deal. I'm not going to discuss any of the actual subject matter as it pertain. to the Kyrie Irving situation. For starters, that's just not what you guys come to me for.

And secondly, there's just a lot of people much smarter than me that can dive into those specific topics. You guys come to me for the basketball, and that's what we're going to do today. We're going to discuss what this means for Kyrie Irving, the basketball player, and what it means for the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA basketball team.

So here's the situation. Kyrie Irving is suspended for at least five games, for not being clear with his apology. and last night he came out with a much more clear apology. So he did take one step in the right direction. I do think, especially on the apology front, now there's other steps that Brooklyn's going to have him go through, but I do think on the apology front as well,

that Brooklyn's going to want to see him do another press conference and hold up under questioning with the same, you know, level of contriteness as it pertains to, you know, basically what he said on Instagram last night. Kairie is a prideful person. like so many other successful people are in the world. And it's just different when you're typing it, you know, probably under advisement from somebody else,

as opposed to in front of a camera, in front of a bunch of members of the media, the media that kind of, you know, Kyrie already has a pretty contentious relationship with. He's going to need to hold up under some of that questioning in order for Brooklyn to trust him again. Because if you put him back on the team and he's doing post-game pressers,

there's no doubt that he's, he's going to face random questions from time to time that will try to incite that type of behavior, and they need to trust Kyrie in those situations. So even though the Instagram apology was a step, my guess is they're going to want a verbal version of that in front of a camera. But Kyrie's gone for at least five games, no matter what. And yes, there's a version of this that goes further south. Like maybe he does that press conference and it goes bad again, you know, or he fails to finish the steps that Brooklyn wants him to finish. But for the sake of predicting,

let's just pretend that Kyrie does everything Sean Marks and Josiah ask of him over the course of the next couple of weeks, and he returns after five games. Well, the upcoming schedule for Brooklyn, as of right now, they are on the road tonight in Washington, and the Wizards are favored by three. They will probably lose that game. Then they're on the road in Charlotte.

That's probably their easiest game over this span. But even in that game, Charlotte at home, probably going to be a one or two-point favorite. And you got to remember, Ben Simmons is still out as of right now. Seth Curry is still out. T.J. Warren, I saw a report yesterday. He's not imminently returning, you know, anytime soon. So they're going to be at a severe talent disadvantage in every single one of these games. And they're on the road for four of them. On the road of Washington, on the road in Charlotte, on the road in Dallas, that's going to be a loss at home for the Knicks. You know, the Knicks, they overheld and give up three-point shots.

You know, Brooklyn's been having trouble making threes on the back end. That's to be a problem. And then they go on the road to L.A. to play the clippers. So O and five is on the table. KD. will have to play like an absolute superhero to win any of those games. But even if we're nice and we give them one win out of that five-game stretch, they're going to be bringing Kyrie back sitting at three and ten. They would have to go 38 and 31 the rest of the way to get to 500, which would still leave you probably in the play-in tournament having to win two games to get into the postseason. And even if they happen to win those two games, you're going to be on the road for a seven gamer against either Milwaukee or Cleveland or Boston or Toronto. And all four of those teams are

going to be major favorites in the series, and you'll be staring down the barrel of potentially another sweep. So it looks super bleak right now for Brooklyn. That's just reality. Then we look at the EMA-U-Doka situation. So it was pretty quickly, reported after the Steve Nash firing that IMA Udoka was the guy. Now, it's worth noting that Adrian Wojianowski was a little bit more reserved and talking about how things were heading in that direction and that a deal could happen in the next few days. Shams Charanio was much more aggressive in his report, basically said it was a done deal. But several days have passed, and it's been all quiet ever since.

So it was kind of, the quickness of the original report was. was strange because it led you to believe that the Nets were very much invested in trying to salvage this situation. Ime Udoka was the obvious salvage this team type of pick. The nets were scoring just fine. They were specifically struggling with rebounding in defense. And if you watched on tape, did they have the best personnel in the world for those situations? No, but they certainly weren't the worst personnel for those situations. You did have Ben Simmons for most of the season. Kevin Durant is out there on the floor. Royce O'Neill. Kyrie Irving is a capable defensive player, and hell, he had a half where he grabbed nine defensive rebounds once this season. Like,

the guys on the floor also weren't doing nearly a good enough job. Ema, Udoka, famous, tough guy, can look eye to eye with those guys, try to get him to play hard. That was the obvious pick to try to like salvage this situation, obviously not looking at all of his drama and controversy surrounding his exit from Boston. But it's been all quiet ever since. So it kind of it leads you to believe that maybe the net spras has had some second thoughts after their initial quick reaction to the Steve Nash hiring. And then the Kyrie Irving stuff goes off the rails. And they blow a game that they had a big lead against the Chicago Bulls. And now they're staring down potentially a two and eleven start or a three and ten start. So then you start

to ask yourself, is it too bleak to risk the massive public backloss? of bringing in IMEYudoka to try to salvage this basketball situation. Would you be better off going to someone like Quinn Snyder, you know, a desirable NBA coach, just like EMA Udoca is, but there's obviously all the baggage that comes with him that makes it a lot tougher? But you could get someone like Quinn Snyder potentially to sign a long-term deal to guide you through a rebuild if you tell him that you're blowing the team up and getting all of the drama out of the building.

Would that potentially be a better pathway, right? Because here's the deal. My guess is that Kyrie never plays another game in a Brooklyn Nets jersey. I said that yesterday in my instant reaction video that I did. I just, if you think of it this way, at 3 and 10, at 2 and 11, what is the point of bringing those guys back and trying to salvage the situation? At what point do you consider trying to retrieve as much asset return is possible before this goes further and further off the rails and everyone's value

starts to tank. And it's not a great situation. I'm not sure what Ben Simmons's value is around the league right now, probably not much. That might be a guy that you're better off just keeping, giving him like six months to get 100% healthy and then letting him kind of work his way back onto the court to build some value there. But, you know, I don't know what you can get for Kyrie anymore because most of the teams around the league are not going to want to touch him, certainly not for assets. Yeah, the Lakers used to want to pay two first round picks for him, but that's not going to be the case anymore.

They probably think they can get him in a buyout. And that's probably where this is headed. My guess is that Kyrie's representation approaches Brooklyn at some point in the future and says we want a buyout. And then Brooklyn's brass will say, okay, fine, but you're giving us back $10 million, you know, or something along those lines. And there will be a negotiation,

but my guess is that they eventually settle on some dollar amount that Kyrie concedes back to Brooklyn and gets the buyout so that he can go play basketball elsewhere. At that point, you know, there's no point in just having Kevin Durant just run around floundering on this terrible basketball team, especially when you can get a bunch of asset return for him. So I think that this is trending back towards the nets blowing up,

sooner than later, especially if it goes as badly as I expected to go over the next five games. So what kind of teams would be interested in Kevin Durant? I still think Boston has the best chance. They're struggling a bit in Crunch Time again this year. They've lost, they're three and three in the six games that involved crunch time. Kevin Durant is one of the best closers to ever play the game of basketball, you could see a team like Boston potentially considering making that move. But then again, Jalen Brown's been so good this year, there's a chance that they don't even consider it. Which brings us back to a couple of specific teams, Phoenix and Toronto, two teams.

Toronto never wanted to include Scotty Barnes. And I don't blame them because Scotty Barnes has been off to another incredible start this year. He's scoring efficiently, and he's playmaking out of the post at an extremely high level for a young player. So Toronto without Scotty Barnes, their package was a little bit less desirable. And then Phoenix was considered basically out of the running because they didn't have enough. Those are two teams that kind of like float back up to the surface here now that you can see that the Nets don't quite have as much leverage as they did over the summer. Toronto's off to a really good start.

So you could see them thinking that as an all-in sort of trade. and Massai Ujiri has a history, as we've seen, with the Kauai Leonard situation, of being interested in making that type of trade. So I think that a Phoenix and Toronto would be the two teams that I'd keep an eye on, but in general, I think leverage has shifted back towards the rest of the league in a different way than it was this summer when you kind of just believed Brooklyn that they would hang on to him for a while. But now it's like things have gone so far south, so quickly in Brooklyn,

that it's headed in that direction. And then on the Kyrie Irving front, you know, I said this on my instant reaction video yesterday, but the rest of the league's not going to touch him in all likelihood. So you've got to look at teams that are desperate, that are one piece away from being legitimate contenders, and that specifically need high-level guard creation. And the two teams that come to mind from me there are the Dallas Mavericks and the Lakers. Let's take a look at Dallas for a second. So you lose Jalen Brunson.

The specific design of the roster is all of these spot-up shooters that defend and three dribble creators. Last year it was Luca, Spencer Dinwoodie, Jalen Brunson. They staggered it out nicely. You started with Luca and Jalen. One of them go to the bench. Spencer Dinwiddie would come in. Then the other would go to the bench and then the other guy would come in. And then maybe you'd close with all three.

Maybe you'd close with just two. that was the design of the team, got you to the conference finals, and gave you a legitimate chance to make it to the finals, right? You lose Jalen Brunson. Now Luca Donchish's usage is through the roof over 40%, and that's concerning in the long run because, you know, high usage players, generally speaking, flame out early in the playoffs, at least when they get to that absurd of a level of usage.

And I'm as big a Luca fan as you'll find. Kyrie Irving brings you basically a better version of Jalen Brunson. that can come in and if he buys in to Jason Kidd's defensive scheme, he's capable as a perimeter defender, as long as he's not going up against bigger, stronger players. And then he'll be a perfect fit in that drive-in-kick system that Dallas has. Slots Spencer Dinwiddie back to his bench roll that he had last year, and then gives you like another really, really legitimate playoff scoring option there.

Again, you're going to have a long conversation about all of the stuff that comes with Kyrie Irving and whether or not that's worth it. And there's a good chance that they still say no. But that's the type of team that I think would consider it. Lakers, exact same situation. You have the second best defense in the league. And Anthony Davis in his last two games has played like a top 10 player. LeBron James has been really bad this season by his standards. His effective field goal percentage is like 47.7. which is the lowest since he was a rookie. But you're expecting him to get better.

But their specific weakness is offensive skill, particularly in the back court. Kendrick Nunn has been a disaster. Patrick Beverly hasn't been nearly as good offensively as he was in Minnesota last year. And then you've got some good wings. Like Lonnie Walker and Troy Brown Jr. have been the two home run signing so far from Rob Polinka this past summer. Got to give him some credit on that front, even though some of the rest of the, you know,

Juantzano Anderson completely out of the rotation, Beverly's been a disaster, Kendrick Nunn's been a disaster, there's a lot of bad there, but there's a couple of good pieces there. They just need a legitimate scoring guard, specifically one that would force guards, defensive guards, to chase over the top of screens,

opening up the pocket pass in Anthony Davis screening actions. Kyrie Irving fits that bill perfectly. He would turn them from one of the worst offenses in the league to a mid-level or better offense like that. And from that guard position, the guys that are playing those minutes, I think he'd be enough defensively to kind of keep them afloat.

So as we look at that situation, the Lakers would probably consider it. But it's still possible that they look at that situation and say no. So there's a chance that we don't see Kyrie Irving play basketball at all this season. But those are the two teams that I would keep an eye on.

And then the bottom line after all of this, if Josai tries to salvage this situation, if he brings back Kyrie Irving after starting three in ten, or two and eleven, if he hires Zemeu-Doka to try to salvage this, then he deserves everything that happens after that, because it will continue to go south in all likelihood. And again, he would just deserve that outcome. It kind of reminds me of, uh, any of you guys ever watch,

how I met your mother. And Ted Mosby has this college girlfriend. Her name is Karen. And every time he gets together with her, she treats him like crap. And then every time he goes back, his friends are always like, okay, buddy, like, I guess we'll see if it goes differently this time. And that's kind of the way I feel about Josiah in this situation. Like, every single time this is blown up in his face, he's gone back to the table and tried to make it work again. And if he's, he's, he's, does so again, he deserves what happens next. 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. or wherever you get your podcasts.

A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what I'm saying. Yep, that's me, Clifford 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. One week, I'll take you behind the scenes of the biggest moments in sports and entertainment, and the next we'll talk about life, mental health, purpose, and even music.

The Clifford Show isn't just a podcast, it's a space for honest conversations, stories that don't always get told, and for people who are chasing something bigger. So, if you've ever supported me, or you're just chasing down a dream, this is right where you need to be. Listen to the Clifford Show on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcast, or we're 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-tap 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 it 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 was big to me, not just because of crack. I'm down to talk about crack all 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, so... 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.

from black people in American history. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Today we're doing our top five most disappointing teams in the NBA through two and a half weeks. Kind of like the opposite of our power rankings list that we did yesterday. Although there is one team that is on both lists that you guys will see shortly. You guys know the drill before we get started. Subscribe to the volumes YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.

follow me on Twitter at underscore Jason LT, so you guys don't miss any show announcements, as well as that's where I put NBA footage since I have limitations on my ability to use NBA footage here on YouTube. And then last but not least, if for whatever reason you guys miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them, you find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. And then one last note before we get started, I had a few more complaints this week about how much we talk about the Lakers, Nets, and Warriors. I've covered this a couple times the season, but I just wanted to do it one more time and try to help you guys kind of sort through the way this content is presented.

First of all, the Lakers and the Warriors are the two most popular teams in the NBA. They have the two most large, they have the two largest fan bases. We have to talk about them. That's just good business. And at the end of the day, this is a business. Both of them are struggling to start the season, but the Warriors are obviously going to figure things out. At some point, they're the defending champions,

and their starting lineup is murdering everybody. and then the Lakers are the second best defense in the league, and just by virtue of that, they're going to be competitive throughout the season, and they'll probably be relevant. If either of them descend into irrelevance, like out of the playoff picture entirely after a good chunk of games, then yeah, we're going to stop talking about them. But they are relevant right now, and they have huge fan bases. We're going to cover them heavily. And then the Nets, because of their drama, have just persistently been one of the top stories in the league

on a daily basis. That said, my goal has always been to cover. the entire league and that's what we do. Those of you guys who've been following the show for a while, no, I'm doing like six or seven videos a week. Okay. So yeah, there's going to be a lot of Lakers, Warriors, Nets content in there, but the other half of it is covering the rest of the league. And so what I've been doing and what I will continue to do is at the beginning of these videos, I'll tell you the teams we're covering. And if you're, if you hate the Lakers and you're sick of hearing me talk about them, you can always just fast forward until we get to the other teams. And it will

always be a consistent goal of mine throughout this season to continue to touch on as many of the teams as possible. I even want to spend some time, especially here in the next couple of weeks, to dive into the bottom of the barrel teams and talk about some of the young, up-and-coming talent in the NBA. We will always get to that stuff. You just, obviously, there's going to be a lot of Lakers Warriors and Nets surrounding that. That's just the nature of the business. So, top five most disappointing teams in the NBA. Now, to be clear, this is based on expectations. and performance that's under your control. There are always going to be things that I find, you know, more like the players have control over

versus some things that are beyond your control. For instance, the Lakers are not on this list for me. I had them 13th in my power rankings before the season, right? And I even only had them that high because of the potential of a Russell Westbrook trade and what that might bring down the pike. their opening schedule was damn near impossible. They had a really good team every single night. And during that stretch, because they had not made the rush trade,

they had severe limitations and offensive talent. I expected them to lose those games. I expected the Lakers to get off to a bad start. You guys remember me saying that to start the season. I predicted they'd be a top five defense. That's gone well so far. But they're shooting horrifically bad, but they're competing at least. They're going out there, they're playing as hard as they possibly can.

They're just losing games because they're not making shots. And then in the last couple of games, they've made more shots. They've won a couple of games. But the Lakers are kind of performing two expectations to start the season. That's why they're not on this list. If they do go on a run and win some games, it'll be now that their schedule softens up a little bit. The teams that I have on this list have no business being on this list.

All five of these teams should be significantly higher in the standings and should be playing better basketball than they actually are. All right, so number five, the Minnesota Timberwolves. They are four and four to start the season. Two wins against the Thunder, one against the Spurs, and one against the Lakers without AD. So nothing overly impressive there. They also have two losses to the Spurs.

A loss to the Suns, which is a tough game in Phoenix. You're probably going to lose that game, even if you're a good team on most nights. And then they lost at home to the Utah Jazz in overtime, a game where they got beat by Lori Mark and in a game. they had no business lose it. My biggest concern about the Gobert trade coming into the summer, if you guys remember, there were two things that I talked about.

One was their loss of perimeter defense. You know, say what you want about Malik Beasley as a shooter. He, you know, a lot of Timberwolves fans were not exactly, you know, devastated when he left. But the truth of the matter is, is towards the end of that season and into the postseason, he had become a pretty solid perimeter defender. competing for them. Patrick Beverly, that was his best skill. That was the thing he did better than most players in the league. He could defend on the perimeter. Jared Vanderbilt, say what you want about him on the offensive end of the floor. Freak athlete played super hard every single night, a great

perimeter defensive player. They gave that all away for a defensive anchor. They were betting on a player that was going to give them an outstanding regular season defense. But I was concerned about that lack of perimeter defense because when you get into the postseason, teams find a way to scheme around Rudy Gobert and get him out to the perimeter so that he can't help around the rim and then they will score or drive and kick and get wide open threes because you lack perimeter defense. That's literally what happened to the Utah Jazz over the course of the last few years. And then in the process, when you bring in Rudy Gobert, you fundamentally change the geometry tree of your offense. Outside of Jared Vanderbilt, every single lineup that the Timberwolves

played had a five-out concept because Carl Anthony Towns could shoot, Nas Reed could shoot, you know, Jada McDaniels could shoot. So essentially outside of the minutes when Jared Vanderbilt was out there, they had a real five-out concept. So everyone's operating around the rim. Anthony Edwards is getting downhill. Carl Towns is operating a lot downhill. His face-up game was really effective in their five-out sets. By bringing in Gobert, you're now basically perpetually running a four-out, one-in offense, and now it's more of like a screen and dive offense or put Rudy Go-Ber in the dunker spot type of offense. And as I've always told you guys, vertical spacing brings value, but not nearly the same type of value as five-out spacing. The rotations are just so much

easier to make in those cases. So what I was concerned about is that their defense would be a little better but not good enough because of their lack of perimeter defense and that their offense would take a hit and that's exactly what has happened. The defense is only slightly better than last year overall and you make a go bear trade to be a top five defense and that's not what's happened. They've been 10th. And then they're spacing with Anthony Edwards has been a problem. Anthony Edwards is one of my favorite young players in the league. I think I ranked him 20th in my player rankings, which is higher than most people have him. That's how high I am on Anthony Edwards. I view him as a mini LeBron.

He's an incredible downhill threat. He's very difficult to knock off of his line. He's so big and physically imposing that in the postseason, he can continue to pressure the rim, which a lot of guards and wings that get downhill in the regular season struggle to do so when you get to the postseason. He's also flashing high-level pull-up jump shooting over the course of the end of last season, right?

So there's a lot of potential on that front. I'm a huge aunt fan. But at the end of the day, he's at his best. when they're five out and he has plenty of space to operate. And the story of the early season has been how bad their offense has been with the starting group. So their starting lineup is DeAngelo Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jada McDaniels, Carl Towns, and Rudy Gobert. We've already seen Anthony Edwards make comments about the starting lineup.

We had Carl Towns go respond to that by criticizing Ants diet. There's a whole thing going on there where Carl Towns was kind of like the darling of the Minnesota fan base, and now that's becoming Anthony Edwards, which is changing that entire dynamic. You saw a similar thing happened to Ben Simmons and Joe Al-M-Beed over the years, where Ben Simmons was kind of that guy, and then it became Joel Embed, and then like kind of a rift forms between the two players. You're seeing a similar thing happen there. And then there was that weird moment the other night.

I think it was after the Suns game where Anthony Edwards is like with Jordan McLaughlin at the press conference table, and he's looking at the box score, like realizing that the starters are getting rolled. and it's a real problem. That starting lineup has played 260 possessions. They have a 99 offensive rating and a 104 defensive rating. So the defensive rating is good but not outstanding and their offense is atrocious.

And you could see it on tape. The paint is a complete shit show. Historically, when you see things kind of crowded like that, you need half-court surgeons to succeed in those environments. And what I mean by that half-court surgeon is like super high-level playmaking. So like a LeBron with the 2020 Lakers, for instance. Like it's crowded, there's two bigs, everything is packed in the paint, but LeBron is such a gifted shotmaker and passer that they can still functionally run an offense there.

Delo's never going to be that guy. Anthony Edwards might one day be that guy, but he's not that guy yet. Right now he's more of a downhill score mixed with some pull-up jump shooting. A lot of potential there, but he's not quite that guy yet. I watched the Suns game earlier this week. I think it was on Tuesday. and Anthony Edwards had a couple of nasty pull-up threes to get it down. I think it was like 87, 85 after that.

And they call a timeout, Timberwolves are rolling, but those are two difficult shots over the top of a set defense. And after that timeout, the Timberwolves' offense, the rest of the game, was hilariously bad. So after that we had, these are literally their next eight or so possessions, nine or so possessions. Anthony Edwards turns the basketball over.

Then DeAngelo Russell turns the basketball over. Then DeLo hits a pull-up jumper. Then Anthony Edwards turns the basketball over. Then Carl Towns turns the basketball over. Then Anthony Edwards misses a super long three that had almost no chance of going in. Then DeAngelo Russell turns the basketball over. Then Tori and Prince bails them out with like a ridiculous step-back jump shot at the end of the shot clock in the right corner. And then Carl Anthony Towns gets a guard on a switch and opts to take a step-back three rather than bullying him to the back.

and now you're down 14 with three minutes left and the game is over. They just have no idea how to operate with that type of spacing because they don't have the offensive personnel to pick teams apart in that type of spacing. I preferred the old Timberwolves from last year. And I'm really curious, if you're a Timberwolves fan, please drop that in the comments. I want to hear your thoughts about how you feel about last year's Timberwolves compared to this year. Now, I know there's a lot of basketball left, and they might figure it out with this

group. But obviously through this eight-game sample size, I'm just curious to hear your guys's opinions. Like I said earlier, they basically played five out all the time, except for when Jared Vanderbilt was out there, and he was so damn athletic and played so damn hard that it was worth it. Their perimeter defense was much better. Anthony Edwards was downhill all the time. And then the big guy that it's hurting right now is Carl Towns. Like, they're basically turning Carl Towns into a wing instead of what he was last year, and for most of his career, which is like this hyper-versatile downhill forward that kills people in face-up, but also have some spacing effects with his ability to shoot the three.

But he was operating around the basket a lot. Last year, Carl Towns made 4.2 shots per game in the restricted area at 68%. This year, it's at 2.1. So half that. And he's only making 61% of them. You're basically using Carl Towns as a wing on both ends of the floor, which is literally the worst way to use him. So you brought in Rudy Gobert to kind of redefine and re-anchor your defense, but in the process, you took an all-star level player

and are using him in literally the worst possible way and in a way that dramatically diminishes his value. I hated the Gober deal when it went down. I'm not surprised that we're seeing disappointing results so far. And again, maybe it all works out in the long run, and if it does, I'll be the first to admit that I was wrong. but right now I'm not optimistic. And again, Wolves fans, I want to hear your take.

Drop it in the comments. All right, number four, the Brooklyn Nets. I'm not going to talk long about them because we've done that a ton in recent weeks and more than they honestly deserve. I had them in my list as the if things go right contender, and I wasn't the only one. I was listening to a Zach Lowe podcast the other day, and he said that he called them before the season the Dunder Mifflin NBA team

because they were good on paper. And you could tell looking at the talent on the roster. You're looking at Kevin Durant, who's one of the best two-way superstars in the league. You have, you know, Ben Simmons, who's one of the best defensive players in the league, or allegedly is, you know, you bring in Roy So Neal that bolsters your perimeter defense. Nick Claxton is a big athlete with long arms that clogs up the lane and can grab contested rebounds. And then Kyrie Irving, for all of his flaws, when he's locked in is actually an OK perimeter defender

and he can grab contested rebounds. He grabbed nine defensive rebounds in a single game one. or excuse me, in a single half earlier this season once. So like they had on paper the potential to be a good basketball team, and instead things have gone horribly wrong. They're 17th in offense, which is nowhere near good enough for their talent. They're dead last in defense, 28th in net rating. So on point deferential, there's a third worst team in the entire league.

And then they're dead last in rebounding. So they had plenty of on-paper talent to be a good basketball team, but instead they completely mailed in every single winning basketball trade. and now they're staring down the barrel of a 2-11 start if they go 0 and 5 during this Kyrie suspension. So horrifically disappointing team, Brooklyn Nets at number four. Number three, the Philadelphia 76ers, they got on a three-game winning streak and then immediately had an awful game at home against Washington on Wednesday where they didn't defend and got killed on the glass again.

And really what the sixers are is just a slightly better version of the Nets. Offensively, they're great. and Brooklyn was good offensively, for the most part, up until the last couple of games. Philly's fourth in offense overall, third and half-court offense, according to cleaning the glass, but they're 23rd in defense, 29th in rebounding, the only team worse is the Nets, and they're dead last in transition defense. So similar kind of concept, like, I'm disappointed in this team. I had them fifth in my preseason power rankings.

I thought they were just as talented as the most talented teams in the league. The league is wide open. and anybody can win this thing, and they came out with no urgency in the winning areas of the game. And they're clearly not bought into Doc Rivers, which is why I thought, similar to the Kerr thing, similar to the Vogel thing, they might need to consider just bringing in a new voice just to get the guys in the locker room to buy into the winning details again. And now they have this James Hardin injury. He's going to be out for at least a month with a foot ligament issue.

And I'm bummed out for James Harding because you finally get back in shape, and you're honestly looking great to start the season, maybe not quite. 2019 James Harden, but a lot better than he looked last year. And now you're going to be hurt again. And the tough thing with that is, you know, this is a guy that historically has struggled keeping weight off and now he can't play basketball for a month. So I'm really curious to see how well he takes care of his body over this next month. And now for the next month, everything is going to have to flow through Joel

and Bede. So so much is going to depend on how well he defends, how well he handles double teams because he's going to get doubled everywhere on the court. Like his body language is going to be a key thing to watch. like when things go poorly, is he going to keep his team galvanized or not? Because even without Hardin, they have enough talent to float around 500 until James Harding gets back, which gives you a fighting chance down the stretch of the season. And I'm, you know, I'm challenging Joel Embed. I'm really, you know, you probably fancy yourself the best player in the league. You know, you put yourself in the

same conversations with guys like Nicolioch and guys like Janus. This is your chance. James Harden out, he's going to be back, your team is incredibly talented, the league is wide open, you have to keep your team afloat for a month here. And I'm really curious to see how he does in that month. But they had a complete lack of urgency from the jump this season and kind of blew an opportunity to come out and just start whooping everybody's ass. And so I have them as my third most disappointing team to start the season. Number two, the L.A. Clippers, kind of similar to Minnesota. They're four and four, but their actual quality of wins is not good. They beat the Lakers, the Kings, the Rockets, and the Rockets again.

They have two losses to the thunder, and then they got destroyed by the two good teams they played, the Sons and the Pelicans. All of their issues are on the offensive end of the floor, kind of similar to the Lakers. The only teams scoring less points per possession in the half court than the Lakers, according to cleaning the glass, are the Clippers and the Rockets. Yes, you heard that right. The Clippers are a worse half-court offense than the Lakers. And so many people are going to blame the Kauai thing. And the Kauai thing is weird, man.

Like he's going to be out for this upcoming road trip again. I told you guys I had a guy who's been covering the league for a long time who told me that Kauai's knee was degenerative years ago. And I was kind of like up in the air about it because I'm like, who the hell knows what's going on with Kauai? His camp is so airtight. You're not getting any intel out of anything. So I just didn't know what to make of it. But here's the deal, man.

It's been a year and a half since his ACL surgery. It wasn't even a complete ACL tear as a partial ACL tear. The dude played basketball for a couple of weeks, and now he's out again. So like something's going on there. But either way, regardless, let's put the Kauai thing on the side for a minute. This is largely the same assembly of players that destroyed the jazz in the 2021 playoffs, a good defensive team on paper again in the regular season. And then they nearly beat the Suns.

They were two wins away from making it to the NBA finals. basically, you know, Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and a bunch of wings that can shoot and defend. It's the same group. I put them, if you watch on film, you can tell immediately watching the Clippers that they are just hunting pull-up jump shots off the dribble.

It's a lot of ISO, a lot of just your turn, my turn, and they're getting away from what made them good at the beginning, which was, this was, if you remember, when we did our season previews, I had the clippers as the best, drive-in-kick team in all of basketball. What they do is they beat people off the dribble,

draw help, kick, drive, kick, drive, wide open three. That's what they do. That's what they do best. And the majority of the blame for this season, and you could see it on tape, Reggie Jackson, Paul George, they're not doing their job of drawing that initial help and starting the driving kick.

instead they're hunting as ISO players. Kind of similar to the Tatum Brown thing in the finals, where when they're driving and kicking the offense is fluid, but when they're driving to ISO, things kind of tend to fall apart. And you can see it in the metrics. It's actually pretty wild. Only 22.3 attempts per game in the restricted area for the clippers, which is 29th in the NBA.

They aren't putting any pressure on the rim, so as a result, they aren't generating any wide open three. The clippers are generating 8.1 wide open threes per game. Remember wide open is defender at least six feet away. They're only generating 8.1, which is dead last in the NBA. Instead, they're taking 25 pull-up jumpers per game, which is top 10 in the NBA. Their assists are down. In 2021, that season I'm referencing, they were 13th in the league. And assists this year, they're 27. So instead of being the driving kick team that generates high quality three point shots that they were, high quality three point shots and layups at the rim that they were in 2021, this same group is basically turning into a your turn, my turn, ISO team that's not generating high quality shots.

Their offense is tanking as a result and as a result they're not achieving at the level you'd expect, given the softness of their early schedule. you know, any driving kick system as the initial initiator, you have to understand your role. And it's hard because these guys, you know, your primary perimeter initiators are usually super skilled. So they're usually guys that, you know, when they're taking step back threes, they feel good about that shot because they've worked on it all summer for the last 10 years and they're damn good at it. And so for them, when they're taking those shots, they're like, man, I like this shot. I like my chances. This is probably going to go in.

If they get a post-missmatch against a player on the left wing, they are like, I like my chances here. This is a good matchup for me. But when you're in that perimeter initiator role on a driving kick team, that's not your job. You pull that stuff out of the bag in late clock situations or every once in a while when you get a fantastic matchup. But when you actively hunt those possessions, you're undercutting your own offense. The job of that perimeter initiator, Paul George, bringing the ball up the right wing, Clippers possession, 17 on the shot clock. His job is to beat someone off the dribble and kick it.

That's it. It's all you need to do. Now, if it kicks and then that guy drives and it kicks and that guy drives and there's no advantage and Paul George has the ball with six on the shot clock, then yeah, go to work, hunt or pull up jump shot to salvage the possession. But this team is not getting into their driving kick the way they're supposed to and as a result their offense is suffering. as soon as they do that.

As soon as they start attacking the rim again, things will turn around for them. Things will click immediately for them. They are fourth in defense. So like the Lakers, when you're that good on defense, all you got to do is get your offense going a little bit and the wins will follow. So I still believe in the clippers in the long run,

but right now they've kind of lost their identity a little bit offensively. All right, number one, the most disappointing team in the NBA to start the season. The team that I had at 10th in my power rankings yesterday, based on how good their starters have been, obviously paying respect as the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors.

So they lost again last night, an embarrassing fashion to the magic. I just caught crunch time of this one, but I did see on the box score that the bench was a problem again. Shout out to Jalen Suggs, by the way. He was the one who made all the big plays at the end of this game. I talked a lot about his pull-up jump shooting in the opening week of the season, if you guys remember.

Well, he's 50% on pull-up threes to start this season, and he hit two more massive pull-up threes in crunch time last night, one where he kind of came off of a ball screen to the left, and the Warriors botched a switch, and he was completely unguarded on the left wing, and then he had a disgusting step back, like kind of pound through the leg, step back on the right wing. That was a deep one. It was like 27 feet, too.

And then he had two huge steals on Steph Curry, a ball pressure steel at the top of the key, and then a play where he made a defensive rotation, sprinting back into the play to get a steal off of a Steph Curry pass, big time plays for him. Weird up and down crunch time from Steph Curry. It was like gigantic shot, big turnover. Gigantic shot, big turnover.

Gigantic shot. It was just so up and down. It was like he wasn't missing anything, but he tossed away a couple possessions at the end of the game being sloppy with the basketball, and it cost them the game. And look, again, like the bench struggled, again, you could see it in the box score. and it's still a huge problem,

but we've talked that to death, and I'm not going to get into that right now. And quite frankly, we can't keep making excuses for the starters. Let's look at the reality of this losing streak real quick. So every single team that the Warriors lost to in this four-game losing streak has a losing record. Their combined record is 11 and 24.

Each of the four teams the Warriors lost to are bottom 10 offenses in the league. In this four-game stretch, the Warriors are allowing 120, points per 100 possessions to these four terrible offenses. If you just took every team's last four games, that's dead last. So nobody in the league is defending worse than the Warriors over this last week. And the starters aren't blameless.

During this four-game stretch, the Curry-Thompson Wiggins Green Looney lineup has played 42 minutes. They have a 115.4 offensive rating, which is good, and a 11.4 defensive rating, which is bad. They're only plus four net. against this type of competition, your starters, who have been destroying everybody, should be destroying these teams. Especially when you know your bench is struggling and you need to buy them more margin for error. Instead, they're only slightly positive and they're struggling at the end of games. Do the Warriors need to figure their bench out?

Yes. But the starters are also not nearly playing well enough. Here's why I'm disappointed in the Warriors. This is why I have him as my most disappointing team. They aren't like the other teams on this list. This is not the Minnesota Timberwolves who are undergoing a massive identity change after a trade. These are not the Brooklyn Nets who even coming into the season

we knew could be a title contender or could completely implode. Like we knew that was a potential outcome. The Sixers, same thing. Like, yeah, I had some optimism around James Hardin in their roster, but, like, would you be stunned if Joelle and Beat and James Hardin came out and didn't play any transition defense or if James Hardin got hurt? or if the team didn't want to compete for Doc Rivers, no, you're not overly stunned, right? And then the Clippers have had a ton of health issues.

We knew they'd have a ton of health issues. Like Kauai Leonard's injury history kind of speaks for itself. And then none of those teams recently won an NBA championship. What did I say about the Warriors coming into the season when I picked them as my championship favorite? I said they were the best combination of talent, coaching, management, experience, continuity. They don't have an excuse to be this bad, especially against the type of competition that they've played in the last week. So they deserve, like, guys, the Lakers have a better net rating right now than the Golden State Warriors.

It's embarrassing for them, and I'm sure they're embarrassed. I still have them as my championship favorite. I believe they will figure this out. If you're a betting man, betting on Steph Curry, Clay Thompson, and Draymond Green is just a smart bet. they'll figure it out. But without a doubt, sitting at 3 and 6, with the soft schedule they've played, you have to be disappointed in the Warriors.

And I would hope if you're a Warriors fan, that you're disappointed as well. Do they need to figure out their bench? Yes. But they also should not be going 0 and 4 against this type of competition. I don't care if it's me out there playing on the bench. It's just inexcusable at this point.

All right, that is all I have for this week. We're taking Saturday and Sunday off. We will be back on Monday night. The game plan for this week, coming week, is on Monday night, on AMP, we're going to be covering the early slate from Monday. Then on Tuesday, Election Day, there's no NBA games, but on AMP that evening, we'll be covering the later slate from Monday night. And then on Wednesday, it's Lakers Clippers.

So we'll be covering the early slate on AMP, and then YouTube Live at the end of the night after Lakers Clippers. and then we'll have two normal film breakdowns on Thursday and Friday next week, including our first player rankings of the season. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys' support, and I will see you next week. The Volume. Another podcast from some SNL, late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor me with Robert Smigel 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, Queen 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 I-Heart 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. 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 IHard Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On the Look Back at it podcast.

From 1979, that was a big moment for me. 84 was big to me. 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. With our friends, fellow comedians, and favorite authors. Like Mark Lamont Hill on the... 80s.

84 was a wild year. It was a wild year. I don't think there's a more important year for black people. Listen to look back at it on the IHeart radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed human.