The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Why Jokic’s Nuggets, Embiid’s Sixers & Anthony Edwards’ Wolves have been BEST in NBA

Episode Date: November 15, 2023

Jason Timpf gives his NBA Power Rankings through the beginning of the season. Jason explains why Anthony Edwards and the Minnesota Timberwolves have been far and away the BEST team in the NBA (38:10). Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets have gotten off to a fast start (37:00), and Joel Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers have the best record in the NBA after Tyrese Maxey has emerged as a bonafide superstar (35:20). #volume #herd (Timestamps may vary based on advertisements.)See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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The Chicago Bulls apparently are going to start looking at potentially moving Zach Levine per a report from Shams Sharania this morning. We're going to talk about the Bulls, any one of their four or five trade targets that could be available this season and what teams could benefit from those potential trades this year. Then we're going to do our first edition of power rankings of the season. We're going to hit the top 10 teams in the league and talk about each of them for a couple of minutes. Then I have nine mailbag questions for the end of the show. We're going to hit on a bunch of different things.

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So DeMar de Rosen, Zach Levine, Nicola Vucevic, and Patrick Williams combined to miss just 13 games last year. Combined between four players. Patrick Williams and Nick Vucevic in particular played all 82, and they were still a below 500 team that missed the playoffs. And so I thought it was pretty clear that that group, you know, it's one thing when you win 50 games in the regular season, you have a disappointing playoff run, right? It's another thing when you have, you know, you're hovering around 500, but you've been decimated by injuries and you never got to build continuity and see what the guys are capable of. And don't get me wrong, like this team was intended to have a steady dose of Alex Caruso and Lonzo Ball in the back court taking perimeter defensive assignments and kind of anchoring that end of the floor. and obviously Lanzo Ball has been a complete non-factor because of his injuries and Caruso's been in and out of the lineup, but they've had other guys, right?

Like Ayudasunmos come in and played a lot of quality perimeter defense. They've had enough around their core four guys to be able to contend, or at least to get to see what this group is capable of. And it just clearly seems like there is a ceiling there. I think in general, among the four guys there at the top of that situation, there's not enough just total commitment to the defensive end of the floor. You're weak at, in terms of rim protection, you're weak at the point of attack defensively. Zach Levine in particular has always struggled in help and recover situations. So like,

it just kind of was doomed from its inception, so to speak. And I'm surprised they brought it back, but they did. And obviously this year is off to yet another below 500 start that's had player, players only meetings and other frustrations. And so it seems like they're heading in this direction. Now, what I find is interesting. is they, this particular report from Shams mentioned that they're willing to trade Zach Levine in particular. What does that tell you? Zach Levine is like the one guy in terms of timeline that could still be worth building around. So it's not like they said, you know, we're willing to trade Demarta Rosen and Nicola Vucevic and start over. Like, they're

potentially considering trading Zach Levine, which means that they're kind of leaning more towards a full rebuild. This is what I said that I would do if I was running the Bulls based on a simple question. If you were to look at the Bulls roster, who's the one guy that looks like he either is on track or has the potential to be a bona fide superstar that could win a championship? Who? On the roster? There's nobody. Like, I really like Zach Levine. He's a good player. He's not on the track to be a top-tier superstar. Patrick Williams, really interesting young player, not on track to be maybe even a star, let alone a superstar, right? So, like, Like, there isn't a guy that you see in that locker room that you're like, that guy.

Like, that's the dude that's going to take us to the promise land. It doesn't mean that any of them aren't good basketball players. It just means you're fundamentally flawed from the beginning. And we went over this the other day. But there are lots of small market teams out there that have bona fide superstars. Oklahoma City has Chegildas Alexander. Denver has Nicole Yokic, right? Milwaukee has Janice and Tenacumpo.

So, like, you can get that guy in a small market. and before you do anything else, that's the number one thing. Like, you can't do anything until you have that guy. And if you don't have that guy, you at least need to have a guy who could be that guy, right? Like, we're going to talk about the Cleveland Cavaliers later. They have a guy who could be that guy in Evan Mobley. He's far away, but he could be that guy. He's a way better prospect than anything going on inside the Chicago Bulls locker room, right?

We look at Kate Cunningham with the Pistons, right? Like, is he going to be that guy? Don't know. but he could be that guy. And so that at least gives you an ability to kind of cope through the down times as you're basically patiently waiting to see what this talented young player can develop into and the Bulls just don't have that guy, right? And so as a result of that, I leaned towards full rebuild for the Bulls

in the sense that there wasn't anything here that was like, hey, we just got to make some small tweaks and give it time and maybe it all worked out. I just didn't see anything like that. So in the event that they go full rebuild, there are basically three versions of players you could go after with the Bulls. There's the kind of like perimeter shot creators, right, DeMarrozen and Zach Levine. There's your high-level role player in Alex Caruso, right? And then there's Vucevic is essentially an offensive-minded post-up stretch five, right?

So starting with DeRosen and Zach Levine, I'm looking here at teams that need more offensive firepower, but are relatively close to contention. I think that neither of these guys, De Rosen obviously just at this phase of his career. And Zach Levine in terms of long-term potential, neither of them is like the kind of foundational star that some bad team is going to go after to try to start fresh. Like I don't see that being the case. So I think it's going to be teams that are close to contention that view a Levine de Rosen trade is like an all-in type of thing.

I put down the Philadelphia 76ers. I know they're playing really well within the scale of the regular season. But if you're going to beat Boston or Milwaukee, I think you need a better, I think you need a better top-tier shot creator. I really like Tyree Smaxy. We're going to talk about him today. But I think that they, I think if I know Daryl, he's probably going to want to beef up his perimeter shot creation a little bit, right?

Miami Heat have been in desperate need of another perimeter shot creator forever. The New York Knicks are another example of a team that like too frequently it turns into Jalen Brunson and no one else. And so they could use another guy like that. The rafters are pretty much devoid of high-end offensive skill at this point. So that would be another, you know, Zach Levine next to Scotty. Barnes is a really interesting duo, right? I look at the Minnesota Timberwolves as like an all-in type of trade. Like, what if they were like, hey, we have this all-time great potential defense?

Why don't we put, why don't we upgrade Mike Conley into, you know, someone like Zach Levine or Demarta Rosen and now we're just that much better offensively while, you know, giving away the one guy in our starting lineup that wasn't a great defensive player, right? Like that, that I think is a, is an interesting potential move there. Golden State, they desperately need offensive firepower too frequently, and we saw this in the Cavs' Wolves games over the weekend, but when they run into the really good defenses with good rim protection and guys that are flying around on the perimeter, Steph is basically the only guy in the team who can get his own shot. So that's another team that could use that firepower. The Los Angeles Lakers, I don't think

they are as much in need because of how good LeBron has looked this year. And I look at that as like if you could get DeRosen as part of a Caruso deal, I would be interested in. that, but I have them lower on this list because I don't think they really need it. And last but not least, I put the Los Angeles Clippers. Actually, I'm just kidding. That was a joke. All right, Alex Caruso was the next guy that I put on this list as someone that teams would be targeting.

Now, in this case, we're looking at teams that need backcourt athleticism as well as point of attack defense, right? These are some obvious ones at the top, right? Lakers and Bucks. These are teams that desperately need upgrades at that two-guards spot. The Miami Heat are a team that isn't the most athletic backcourt in the league. The Dallas Mavericks are a team that you could see Alex Crusoe essentially as a guy that could play significant minutes on the perimeter alongside Kyrie Irving and Luca Donchich,

especially as a team that kind of needs a perimeter defense upgrade. And then I put the Sacramento Kings as well. They're another team that you saw last year. they kind of went away from Keegan Murray and Kevin Herder at stretches during their playoff run because they didn't trust them defensively and they weren't making shots. So Alex Crusoe is a guy who could potentially be an option that they put next to Deer and Fox in a playoff series and just kind of up their defensive potential a little bit. So those were some examples.

And then Nikola Vucevic. So I'm looking at here I'm looking at teams that have excellent perimeter defenders, but that they want to space their floor for slasher's. So like you, when you have excellent perimeter athleticism, they typically are capable of being good perimeter defenders. And then on the offensive end, they tend to be downhill guys that want to get to the basket. And so that kind of pairing kind of calls for a stretch big, right? Because if I have excellent perimeter defenders, it makes my rim protection job easier.

And if I have slashes, I want to create space for them to get into the basket. And so I put five teams down here. Indiana Pacers, they have a ton of downhill athleticism from Benedict Mathurin and Bruce Brown. and obviously with Tyrese Halliburton kind of run in the show, they are an excellent perimeter defense team that is capable of protecting the rim by just containing the ball. And then as far as the offensive end of the floor goes, this is a fast downhill guard team.

Vucevic could help space the floor for them a little bit. Obviously, Miles Turner is an excellent center there already, but in terms of just giving them a good backup center option, He's a guy that I would look at, although I think Jalen Smith has been pretty good this year, too. But I just put the Pacers down as another team that might consider Vucevich as a guy that could be essentially like what, essentially like a five-out option. So giving them the ability to run a lot more, you know, DHO stuff and have just a little bit better offensive player at the five than Miles Turner, who I really like. And again, I'm just coming up with examples here. Pacer's fans might think I'm crazy there. The Toronto Raptors are another team I thought that could benefit from a stretch five,

especially with how good their perimeter defenders are. The Oklahoma City Thunder, they've been a bit small this year. I thought it would be interesting to give them a big look if you put Vucevich next to Chet. You kind of saw this with Christian Wood and Anthony Davis. Like when you take bad pick and roll defenders and you put them in help side, so where they're more just, you know, cracking down as a low man and grabbing defensive rebounds, and then you basically put Chet and all the pick and rolls. Like that would be an interesting way to try to, you know, kind of make them bigger physically because they, the thunder as good as they've been, they've struggled with really big teams this year.

The Pelicans, floor spacing for Zion, like getting away from a big that can shoot to a big that teams have to guard and basically kind of giving Zion more room. And then I put the Cleveland Cavaliers as another team. And we'll talk about them when we get to the mailbag, but like putting him next to Evan Mobley. Again, like these are, I just gave you like, what, 25 potential trades. So I did not all of them make a ton of sense, but I just wanted to kind of give you guys an example of teams that would be interested in these players potentially. All right, moving on to the power rankings. So I want to change my criteria up a bit this year and get away from the whole, like, you know, big picture title contention stuff. And I want to really just use power rankings as an opportunity to talk about the teams that are playing the best basketball right now.

So this is going to be very, like, in a vacuum right now type of analysis surrounding these teams. Three teams that missed the cut, just to give you guys an idea, one of the things that I used as a tiebreaker was your, like, strength of schedule. So I looked at your games that you won against teams that were 500 or better. It was a big tiebreaker for me. So, for instance, the Knicks, the Thunder, and the Pacers did not make my top 10 power rankings despite having solid records. And the reason why is those three teams have combined.

to win just three games against teams that are 500 or better. So they've benefited from some strength of schedule stuff. Don't worry in the long run. We're going to do this power rankings thing probably about twice a month the rest of the way. And it's going to be a – every team is going to have opportunities to beat good teams and to make their way onto the list. All right, starting with number 10, the Atlanta Hawks. They're five and four to start the year.

They're sixth in offensive rating, 16th in defensive rating. ninth in net rating. They have a couple of signature wins to start the year. They beat a solid Orlando Magic team. That was that Trey Young kickout pass and pick and roll along the baseline to Dejante Murray in the corner. They blew out a solid Pelicans team in New Orleans, and then they beat the Timberwolves at full strength with Jada McDaniels in the lineup, albeit it was his first game back. Crazy second half defensive run. DeJante Murray went crazy and they beat the Timberwolves. It was a really good win. And then they destroyed the Bucks with Damon Janus at their place. Now, They're too inconsistent at this point.

Their highs have been really high and their lows have been really low. They've had these crazy defensive runs, that first half against Milwaukee, that second half against Minnesota, that second half against the Pelicans, that fourth quarter against the Orlando Magic. They've had these defensive runs where they look insane. And then the other end of that spectrum is they've been really, really bad defensively outside of those moments. But I think it's a good example of what they're capable of.

They're just a lot more, they're not faster this year. Jalen Johnson's development combined with getting John Collins out the door is given them more of a kind of like fast and a fast break type of lineup. The spacing has been significantly better without John Collins in the lineup, which has opened things up for them offensively. Just in general, their effort in on-ball defense on the perimeter has been way better than it was in previous years. It's actually really fun to watch the Hawks when they are locked in because of what they're capable of. And in general, Dejante Murray and Trey Young are getting better at playing off of each other.

That was a big problem last year is they kind of struggled with off ball spacing and it wasn't just the forwards. A big part of it was Dejante Murray in particular were struggling to play off of Trey. But you're seeing Dejante Murray hunt more catch and shoot opportunities relocating on the three point line trying to stay involved in the offense when Trey Young is out there. And that's been a huge element to their offensive success to start the year. They're running more ball screens without centers. Remember, that was kind of the thing in the past. It was like a steady diet of John Collins and Clint Capella and pick and roll. Well, now they're actually like running a lot of pick and pops with Sadiq Bay, with Jaylon Johnson, right? Like they're getting these with even

DeAndre Hunter. They're getting like all of those guys have hit multiple pick and pop threes this year. And again, like when you start running those screening actions without bigs, you start to have a lot of success because teams will try to hedge and recover, which will leave openings. In general, like ball screens with perimeter players are not practiced as often defensively because teams want to set their pick and roll scheme up, you know, with the big man. So, like, you can get a lot of good stuff if you have guys that are capable of setting good screens and popping to the three point line and making plays. And Atlanta's, they just look like a better version of what they were last year. And that to me makes them particularly exciting. Again, I was pleading with them

this summer to run in transition more. They've been one of the highest transition frequency teams in the league this year. Big shout out to Jalen Johnson on that front. The Hawks are fun. I have them at number 10 in our power rankings. Number nine, the Golden State Warriors. Losers are four out of five, but they started the year five in one. They're currently six and five.

They're 10th in offense. 11th in defense, 11th in net rating. Their signature wins at this point, they beat the Thunder in Oklahoma City. They beat the Kings twice. They beat the Rockets in Houston. Rockets are good. and then they blew out the Pelicans in New Orleans. They did take a solid ass kicking over the weekend

against two very good teams in Cleveland and Minnesota. Classic things that we've seen from this Warriors team. When they run into teams that have a good combination of perimeter defense and rim protection, it tends to expose the lack of scoring punch after Steph Curry. They're getting nothing out of Andrew Wiggins, Clay Thompson, and CP3 offensively right now. In the last two games, those guys had 30 points per game combined.

between the three of them, you need those three guys to be closer to 50 points a game. You need Wiggins around 18. You need Clay in that 18 range, right? Like you need CP3 in that 10 to 12 points per game area, right? So, like, they're just not getting enough scoring out of that group. And the main culprit is Wiggins. The on-off numbers are not pretty. The Warriors have been outstanding when Wiggins is off the floor this year. And pretty damn bad when he's on the floor.

And this is a guy who is their second best player in the title run in 2022. too. And he has not been the same player since he came back from his, since he came back from his personal issue last year, just hasn't been the same. And until he gets back to being the same, I'm not sure that the Warriors are capable of reaching the championship ceiling that they were at in that season. Do I think he's capable? Yes, it's just, it's just weird. It's just weird that it's been, it's taking him this long to get right. But there's a lot to be excited about for Warriors fans as well. Jonathan Camingo looks like he's really starting to blossom into a good NBA player. It's getting to the foul line at 10, nine free throw attempts per 36 minutes so far this year.

29 points on 24 post-ups. He's still been one of the more productive post-up guys in the league, especially in a role like his. And then team chemistry is in a much better place. They're five and two on the road. Most of their problems can be fixed by the guys in the locker room, and that's a good spot to be. The only thing that's concerning for them right now is Steph is missing the game tonight against Minnesota in the in-season tournament based on a potential knee sprain. the reporting is that he's not going to be out for long, but this is a guy that's been vitally important to their success early on

and has been playing like an MVP, so definitely a big concern for the Warriors. Moving on to the Miami Heat. Six and four, 24th in offense, ninth in defense. Got a little dark to start the year, but now they're riding a five-game winning streak, which, by the way, is something that they never did at all last year. They also have two wins over the Lakers and the Hawks in that span,

a couple of quality wins, and they found new guys, just like they always do, right? like they lost Gabe Vincent, they lose Max Truce, and who's going to be the new guys that come in and kind of embody that Miami Heat culture? And it's been Josh Richardson's done well. He hasn't shot the ball well, but he has been a weapon at the point of attack. And he made a couple of really big shots at the end of the Spurs game that I think are good indicators of the fact that he's starting to get his rhythm a little bit. You could tell he was feeling confident and good. He had a catch and shoot three. That was a big shot on the left side. And then he had to pull up mid-range jump shot that ended up being a very, very important shot in this. Spurs game that you could tell he was fired up about. I think that's been a quality, inexpensive signing to kind of replace what what gave Vincent gave you last year. Jaime Haqq-Haz-Jr, hasn't shot the ball well, but his shot creation data has been off the charts good.

It's been really good attacking smaller players going towards the rim. He's run 29 pick and rolls, ISOs and post-ups this year, including passes that have amounted to 40 points. That's 1.38 points per possession. So Jaime Hawkeyes Jr looks like he's a home run draft pick. Obviously, they need him to start knocking down threes, but we'll see in time. Trust that with the Miami Heat development. Drew Smith is giving them quality minutes off the bench.

It's like every time you turn on the heat to start the year, you always see like two or three guys that you haven't had much experience covering that are suddenly playing competent basketball in large part because the Miami Heat are just really good at finding guys that are willing to put in the work. And when you work hard alongside Eric Spolstra, he's going to find a way. way to help you impact winning within his system. And then I wanted to give a special shout out to Duncan Robinson. He's been much maligned over the years for being overpaid on his new contract. But he's added a really convincing off the dribble game.

He's really good at weaponizing his pump fake to get separation. And then he's added that escape dribble. He's added that ability to get downhill and make reeds. And he was incredible down the stretch of that Spurs game, not just hitting relocation threes off of pump fakes. but also like driving to the basket and drawing fouls, driving to the basket and making kickout passes. I think it might have been him who made the kickout pass that led to the Josh Richardson three at the end of the game. Like Duncan Robinson has addressed his weaknesses and turned himself into a damn good basketball player,

and it's gone a long way to helping the heat at the start of this year. And then classic Jimmy and Bam, just being awesome, they're anchoring the defense like they always do. Bam has been scoring really well in the winning streak, 24 points, 12 rebounds, and five assists on 54% from the field. Do they need more firepower? Yeah, of course they do. And like we talked about earlier, they're a team I expect to potentially get involved in the Zach Levine and DeMardo Rosen sweepstakes. But they're not going anywhere in the meantime. They're just too well coached and they've got enough in the building to be a competent regular season team. All right, moving on to number seven, the Milwaukee Bucks at five and four, seventh in offense, 25th in defense, 19th in net rating.

Their signature wins this year. They beat the Sixers, the heat, the Knicks, the net. So a couple quality wins in there. They had some issues with injuries and alignment, right? Like Chris Middleton's been in and out. Dame missed a couple games with a sore calf that they ended up losing a couple games because of. And then they were running a very different pick and roll coverage than they did in previous years, basically bringing Brooke higher up to the level of the screen instead of dropping

him back to the basket, which has caused problems for them defensively. But they've addressed that. And despite all of those issues and the defensive backcourt issues and the, you Dame not playing well to start the year, really outside of crunch time, and the Dame Yonis pick and roll, not really being as dominant as people expected it to be. Despite all of that, there are still 5 and 4. And they are 4 and 0 in games that went to crunch time, meaning within 5 with less than 5 minutes left, and where Damien Lillard was available, 4 and 0.

He straight up stole the Pistons game with late game shot making. He outplayed Brunson down the stretch in the Knicks game. He made a bunch of big plays down the stretch in that Sixers game to start the year. Dame is actually tied for the league lead in clutch points with 32 this season. So again, that trade's going to pay dividends if they can figure the rest out. I do think they need an upgrade at the two-guards spot, though, like we talked about with the Lakers. All right, number six, the Houston Rockets, six and three, 11th in offense, fifth in defense, and sixth in net rating.

They've been the sixth best point differential team by pace to start the year. That's pretty impressive. Signature wins, they beat the Nuggets, beat the Pelicans, beat the Lakers, beat the Kings twice, all in their six-game winning streak. EMA Udoka clearly is one of the best motivators in sports right now. He's done a really nice job, kind of anchoring that defense around Javari Smith Jr. and Dylan Brooks defending on the perimeter and getting buy-in down the line from the rest of the guys. Fred Van Vleet has always been a good perimeter defender.

Jalen Green has gotten a lot more involved in the offense after I kind of complained about that to start the year. He's shooting the ball extremely well over the course of this win. streak from the three-point line. And then Alpern-Shangoon, so far to start the year, 20 points, eight rebounds and six assists in the win-street. So in the six-game streak, 28 and six on 63% shooting and 1.22 points per post-up, including passes. I think it's been really telling how often Eme Udoka has run the offense through Shangun, especially down the stretch of games, to show you how much he trusts him to be one of his primary decision-makers. This is a tough basketball team. I mean, there's a ceiling here, obviously, but they're just going to be a pain in the ass all season long.

And again, like, what a great spot. We're going to talk about this when we get to the calves in the mailbag. But, like, this to me is, like, a really smart way to go about the development process for one of your young stars. Like, give him, make him play good basketball. Like, surround him with competency and competence, I should say, and veterans and have him learn how to play basketball the right way instead of having it just be a roiling shit show where he just takes a bunch of bad shots. I think it's an interesting approach and I'm curious to see in, you know, five years or so how this particular approach for the Rockets pays dividends. Number five,

the Dallas Mavericks, eight and two, second in offense, 24th in defense, fifth in net rating. They've definitely benefited from a little bit of an easy schedule to start the year. Six of their 10 games have been against teams that are below 500. but they're 6-0 in those games. And again, like, you, taking care of business against lesser teams is a very, very important part of being a great basketball team. And 8-2 is impressive no matter how you slice it. And there have been a couple of quality wins in there.

They beat the shit out of the clippers, albeit when they're playing some bad basketball. They blew out the pelicans in magic on the road. I thought the win in Orlando against the magic in particular was really impressive when you factor in the size differential between those two teams. Then they beat the nets, and the nets are solid. So there's some quality wins in there, but they've definitely benefited a little bit from a light schedule to start the year. They've held up better physically than they did at the end of last season. They've hit on some signings.

Derek Jones Jr. has been an interesting point-of-attack threat who's also had success spotting up by slashing and knocking down threes. Grant Williams, that was a home run. Derek lively, as far as a draft pick that can immediately impact winning, that's been a home run. Luke is playing the best he's ever played, 33 points, eight rebounds, nine assists on a career high, 66% true shooting. hitting his step back three at just a preposterous rate. Kyrie got off to a rough start, but he's starting to find his legs. Last two games, 31 points per game on 54% shooting, and he's got his three going finally. He made 12 threes in the last two games.

In his first six games the season, he made only 10 combined. So the shot starting to come around, and you're starting to see Kyrie get going. What did I say when he was slumping? I said he looks great physically. He's finishing at the rim. He's getting to his spots. He just needs to start making shots, and the rest will come. And he started making shots, and now he looks more.

or less like Kyrie at his best. Again, they're going to have to defend better if they're going to continue their winning ways as they get into the tougher parts of their schedule. And it's about to get hard because in their next five games, Pelicans, bucks, kings, and Lakers. And the Wizards, I think, are the fifth one in there. But that's four tough opponents in their next five games. So we're going to find out a lot about the Mavericks and their potential this year in this stretch.

Because as good as they've been offensively, they've still been pretty bad defensively and on the glass to start the year. That's three massive front lines there between the Pelicans, the Lakers, and the buck. So they're going to be put to the test in the next couple of weeks. 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 is a win.

I don't care where you're saying. Yep, that's me, Clipper 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 Podcasts, 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-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 Jette. 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's 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. Thank you for 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 podcasts. Number four, Boston Celtics. It's going to sound crazy to hear them down this far, but hear me out. Seven of their eight wins are against teams that are 500 or better as well. The only reason they are not higher on this list is their two losses are against two teams. that are above them on this list, the Timberwolves and the Sixers, and the other team that's ahead of them has the same record as them at 8 and 2 and is the defending champion, which is like an automatic tiebreaker for me. So you've got the defending champion who's the same record,

and then the other two teams beat the Celtics. So that's basically why I have them down at number four right now. But make no mistake, they've been incredible. Fourth in offense, third in defense, number one in net rating. They're outscoring opponents by 13.7 points per 100 possessions this year. That is historic level of dominance. were the best net rating in the league last year at plus 6.7, and they're at double that right now, more than double that right now. The Porzingis and Holiday acquisitions have been home runs. Chris Ops has anchored their defense on the rim, and he's been a dream fit in their offense. He's currently averaging 20 points per game on 71% true shooting. He'd be a 50, 40, 90 guy,

if he could make a few more of his free throws. Drew Holliday is giving them a ton of defensive versatility. They've been throwing him at centers all year long, which is crazy. But it's just the classic like have Drew Holiday front the post and be very physical on the bottom and then you basically offer help and rotate out of it and it's worked really well for them. The bench has been bad, but who cares? They can stagger starters into those lineups to make it work and it just really hasn't been a problem for them in terms of actually winning games to this point. Tatum is playing like a bona fide MVP candidate. So I think the Celtics are in a pretty damn good spot here through 10 games. Number three, the Philadelphia 76ers at 8 and 1,

only remaining one lost team in the NBA at this point. Third in offense, seventh in defense, second in net rating, plus 11. They're outscoring teams by 11 points per 100 possessions. That's also an off-the-charts metric for them. Tyrese Maxey, after a 50 piece that he put on the Pacers the other night, is now averaging 29 points, five rebounds, and seven assists on 63% true shooting. That's remarkable. Mbid has been his typical dominant self,

as scoring and efficiency or down a touch, but as rebounding and playmaking have gone up a level. Tobias Harris is having an excellent season, arguably his best season as a sixer, 20 points on 67% true shooting, both bests for him in a Sixers jersey. The Kelly Ubrey signing has been a home run. And then the biggest shout out that I can give to this team that I've noticed on tape to start the years, their perimeter defense. De Anthony Melton, Kelly Ubrey, Tobias Harris, Nick Batum, Jaden Springer's been great in spurts at the point of attack.

Patrick Beverly has been a good option for them there off the bench. They're combining great perimeter defense with Joel Embed at, the at the rim, and it's made them a formidable defense. This is a really good team. And most importantly, I think they're positioned really well to make a trade at the deadline that could potentially push them over the top. Number two, the Denver Nuggets, 8 and 2. They beat the Warriors, the Pelicans, the Mavs, the Lakers, and the Thunder. They're fifth in offense and sixth in defense, and that's been the story of the season so far for the Nuggets. The offense is just exactly what it was in the

playoffs last year, just as unguardable as it's ever been. All five of the starters came into camp in shape and ready to go. They picked up right where they left off. That's all great. But most importantly, they also picked up where they left off defensively and then some. To give you guys an idea, to this point, their 108 defensive rating, it was about 115 this time last year. So they're considerably better defensively even than they were last year going into the regular season. Contavius Caldwell Pope has been one of the best point of attack defenders I've watched this year. Aaron Gordon is doing an amazing job guarding wings and in help situations. Michael Porter Jr. is playing his best defense of his career and helping recover situations.

And then Yokic and Murray have just been doing their jobs, right? The bench has a ton of switchy athleticism as well. They've struggled a lot, especially after the Jamal Murray injury. But there's a lot of potential there. And then they can kind of slot specific guys like Christian Brown or Peyton Watson in with the starters. And it even pushes their defense to a higher level at that point. And then since Jamal Murray went down with a hamstring injury, Michael Porter Jr. has been incredible as a score. In his last five games, he's averaging 23 points and 8 rebounds on 52, 41, 89 shooting splits. 52% from the field, 41% from 3 and 89% from the line.

Hard to do better than that. Perfect timing filling in for the Jamal Murray hamstring injury. The Nuggets are sitting pretty right now. But number one, the only team to beat both the Celtics and the Nuggets this year, the Minnesota Timberwolves at 7-2. there. 17th in offense. And again, they dropped two games early in the year, one where Jada McDaniels didn't play,

and another which was Jaden McDaniel's first game back from injury. So basically, they've been, they've looked borderline unbeatable in the last, you know, six games or so, specifically on the defensive end of the floor. This is a, I talked about this a lot this summer. Towards the tail end of the year last year, the Minnesota Timberwolves were one of the most impressive teams to me. And I saw, I kept seeing this consistent theme. at the end of these games, Anthony Edwards would lock in defensively, and him and Jade McDaniels would just shut down the opposing perimeter players.

And then they'd finally get a rest, and it'd be Nikiel Alexander Walker and Kyle Anderson doing damn near just as good of a job, right? Troy Brown Jr. brings another perimeter defender into the equation. They are getting, they are getting highly committed perimeter defense down the line on the roster, anchored by Rudy Gobert in the paint. That combination just makes them, you know, again, I think this team has potential. will be all-time great defensively. They have been so to start the year. The gap, here's the thing. Not only are they the number one defense in the league.

They are four points better per 100 possessions than the field. The gap between the Timberwolves and the second best defense in the league is the same as the gap between the second best team in the league and the ninth best team in the league. Anthony Edwards has been one of the five best players in the world to start the season, in my opinion. I think he's a bona fide MVP candidate. He's averaging 28, 6, and 5 on 59% true shooting. Nobody can guard this guy.

Basically, you have to pray that he settles for a pull-up jump shot and then pray that he misses. He has seven assists again against the Warriors on Sunday. That's his fifth time this season, logging at least seven assists. It took him 29 games to log five seven-assist games last season, to give you an idea of just how much more actively he's been looking to punish teams for how much attention they throw towards him. His playmaking has been a revelation watching him on film this year. Jaden McDaniels is the best perimeter defender in the world, in my opinion,

and he's adding real scoring punch to his game. He's got kind of like a reliable little 10 to 15 foot pull-up jumper going to his left on the left side of the floor. And they're anchored by quality perimeter defenders off the bench. You don't get a rest. Here comes Nikiel Alexander Walker. Here comes Kyle Anderson. Here comes Troy Brown Jr.

You're going to have issues no matter who it is that comes in off the bench for this team. And they've got depth that can help them deal with injuries, right? Like, Troy Brown Jr. is barely played. And that was a dude who was playing significant minutes for the Lakers last year. and one of the things he does well in the NBA is he can defend on the perimeter, right? Gobert's been excellent. He's done a good job in his help decisions

and not over-helping to make sure he can stay home on the defensive glass and force guys to make shots over length. Shout out to Mike Conley, 45 assists to just six turnovers this year. Nas Reid, 120 points off the bench. That's the 11th most in the entire NBA. They're getting a lot of contributions. This is not a fluke. We talked about their frightening defensive potential all summer.

You're seeing it come to fruition. I think the wolves have been the most impressive team to start the year. All right, let's move on to our mailbag. I've got nine mailbag questions, so we've got a long one today. Hi, Jason. How would you go about fixing the Pistons free fall in the short term? Had a tough schedule, RE back-to-backs, four games, and six nights. Plus, the shooting depth has been decimated by injuries, so that explains part of the slide.

However, I'm worried Monti's running Cade into the ground with high minutes and usage, plus refusing to play Ivy alongside him to alleviate ball handling slash offensive initiation load reflected in his fourth quarter shooting percentages. From watching their games, I believe whatever defensive improvement Monty sees with Killian starting over Ivy is negated by him being a complete scoring non-factor. I'd love to hear your thoughts if you think I'm onto something or just scared from, or just a scared fan, Monty's dog housing, another top draft pick. So a couple things.

First of all, with Cade Cunningham, it's not entirely uncommon. and for young players in particular to kind of fade at the end of games. It is when you've basically, essentially, professional perimeter defenders have now seen him for three quarters, and they just kind of like have a little bit better of an idea of how to kind of make things tougher for him in the end of games. Obviously, the physicality goes up a level as the refs swallow their whistles. Schematically, coaches will get more aggressive to slow him down.

That's not unheard of. That's an important part of a player's development. Cade has to develop to the point where he can station. in fourth quarters. That is totally normal for a young perimeter ball handler, right? The thing with going with Killian Hayes as a starter, again, a lot of coaches look at it this way, you got to have a guy who's going to take your primary point of attack assignments, and it's not just one guy. Asar Thompson, you know, I said to you guys, like what, a week and a half ago that I think he's potentially the best perimeter defender that I've scouted

since I started scouting prospects, what, three, four years ago? And obviously it's a short span, but he's the best that I personally have ever seen in my time doing this. But you play against these teams, there's usually two of them. And having Killian Hayes is just another guy in that lineup because you've got to think, you don't want Cade doing that, and you're running two bigs right now. So, like, you need another guy that can guard the opposing secondary ball handler. And so that's kind of the direction they're going there. Again, like, I look at it, you mentioned short term.

The short term, you're going to be bad. Like, there's no fix for that. Like, I mean, maybe Boyan Bogdanovich comes. back and, you know, what are you going to do, move a Sart Thompson to the two at that point? And now you have Killingayne Hayes and did an Ivy off the bench. Like, I don't know how that works or does Boyan come off the bench? Like, I don't know. But that's not solving your problems.

And so, like, you're going to be bad. So the question is, are you building towards something that is going to help you be good in the future? And what I look at there is, like, positional compatibility. So, for instance, like, let's look at the Thunder. and the thunder obviously much further along in this process. But when you look at them, it's like, oh, Chet Holmgren, he's our rim protector, he's our five.

Like, that's pretty clear cut, right? Shea Gildes Alexander, he's like, he's our point guard. He's our superstar point guard, right? And then you go, uh, Josh Giddy, he's like your secondary guard that compliments Shay because he plays a different style and he's big so he can play next to him, right? And then, you know, you've got Lou Dord is a textbook three and D player. That's perfect. And then Jalen Williams is like a big slashing scoring forward.

And so all of them can play together. And that lineup is just super synergistic and it just makes sense, right? But then I look at the pistons and it's like the exact opposite. And it's like, okay, Jalen Duren is really, really good. I like I like Jalen Duren, but like you're running a second big alongside of him. And, you know, I get it. Isaiah Stewart's been hitting threes this year. But at the end of the day, that's not a lot of ball handling up there.

And we've seen this before where it's like, I have the same issue with the Timberwolves, but like when you have that second big, there needs to be ball handling with that group because it's less about can Isaiah Stewart knock down a catch and shoot three, which he has been this year. It's more about in against elite defenses when you're not, you know, because when you're, when you play against an elite defense, you're not just running a pick and pop and getting a wide open shot. Like there's a rotation and like you've got to beat the team in rotation by making multiple drive and kick reads for a quality shot. And that's where aggregate ball handling in the lineup takes over.

And like, that's where it's like, you know, if Jalen Duren's your five and you've got four guys that can pass shoot and dribble on the floor, that's great. But if it's a second guy on there that can shoot but isn't a great, you know, drive and kick guy, then it can start to kind of dip you below that minimum amount of ball handling, right? And then I go into the back court and it's like Killing Hayes is a very different type of player than Jaden Ivy, but he's exciting in different ways, right? a good defensive player, one of the best young playmaking guards that you'll see in the league in terms of taking care of the basketball and playing that driving kick style, right?

You know, he flashes a lot of that in transition as well. But the thing is, is like, Jade and Ivy plays the same position. Different player, like he's a downhill guy, like a rim pressure guy, and he's capable of being a good perimeter defender, but he isn't at this point, right? And I think even though Jaden Ivy has a long way to go as a shooter, he's a better shooter than Killian Hayes, right? So like at the end of the day, if those guys, you start to look at the roster and you're like, okay, you need one of these centers to pan out, probably Jalen Duren, right? Cade's your point.

You need a point of attack guard next to him. I like Jaden Ivy in the big picture more than Killian Hayes. So if it were me, I would look to move Killian Hayes and I would lean more into Jaden Ivy. You do a disservice to both of them, though, when you put them in a situation like this where neither of them is getting as much opportunity. as they need, and they're not playing with your best lineups, and all it really is doing is just kind of putting you in limbo even further, right? What you need to look at in the big picture is where Assar Thompson fits in all of this. Let's say he's the three. Then you need a big picture four with this core, and you need a big picture two with this core. You've got two twos, and you

kind of have zero-fours. You know, maybe if you had Sadiq Bay, maybe he slots in there, but clearly he didn't fit into that image anymore, right? So, like, at a certain point, you almost wonder if it's worthwhile for you to, you know, look to move Killian Hayes for someone that you can slot between a Sarr Thompson and Jalen Duren. That's more of a perimeter-oriented type of player. Like, that's kind of the way I look at it. Because, like, it's really easy. We're going to talk about this same type of issue when you get to the Cleveland Cavaliers, but, like, it's a lot easier to see the progression of a team into the future when they have their core five guys that are all kind of on the same timeline that all kind of fit their roles perfectly and they all can play together.

And that's not the situation the Pistons are in. Now, here's the upside Pistons fans. Assar Thompson, like I said earlier, is just an unbelievable defensive prospect. I pulled this stat up the other day for you guys, but he's averaging like four offensive rebounds and two blocks a game. Imagine that. He's turning four shot attempts by your team into extra shot attempts and he's erasing two shot attempts from the other team.

That basically means every game he's buying you six shot attempts. Now just run a basic equation like, oh, based on your average half court points per possession on both ends of the floor, it's going to be roughly a point. It's called it six points. So Assar Thompson, just on the glass and blocking shots, is adding six points to your team. Every game. In addition to just how disruptive he can be at the point of attack, how well he passes the ball just as a connective piece.

he's a very, very exciting prospect there. So you've got Kate Cunningham, who has the potential to be a bona fide superstar, and you've got a Sart Thompson, who's got all the potential in the world, right? So you're in a really good spot in terms of like you're not like the Bulls, where you just don't have anything related to get excited about, but you've got a little bit of a redundancy in the back court and in the front court, and that eventually needs to get addressed. Next question.

Do you think the warrior's strong offensive rebounding isn't so much a team strength and more result of how much other teams are selling out to the three point line to stop their shooters. Very interesting question. But I think it's both. Like, Kavana Luni is genuinely an excellent offensive rebounder. He's just very strong and he's good at leaning on people. So, like, he can bury even the best bigs in the league under the rim and get rebounds. But I thought I looked at this stat up to kind of prove this shot, this kind of idea, though.

Because, like, essentially the idea that this question is getting at is like, is there a schematic thing that takes place with the Warriors that creates more offensive rebounded opportunities? Now, what we're looking at there is the defensive big has to show at the level of the screen. So the screener has an opportunity to get to the rim, right, to grab an offensive rebound if Steph puts up a shot, right? Imagine against the Celtics, Robert Williams in the finals, like steps up on a Steph Curry three in pick and roll. Steph misses it, balloonies barreling downhill to get the offensive rebound. So that's schematic approach one. And then the second part of it is like lots of three-point attempts. the Warriors are a high three-point attempt team.

As a result, their field goal percentage is lower because threes don't go in as often as twos. They are 45% field-go percentage team. That ranks 25th in the NBA. So they miss more shots than every team in the league except for 24 teams, except for four teams, excuse me, five teams. So essentially, more missed shots and the actual defensive rebounder for the other team being pulled out to the three-point line definitely helps a lot. Here's an example.

Dario Sarich is averaging a career high, three-point. four offensive rebounds per 36 minutes. His previous career high was 2.4. So there you go. I feel like that's pretty strong evidence that your theory that the Warriors and them forcing teams to sell out to the three point line goes a long way towards helping them as a team offensive rebound better. Hi, Jason.

I'm curious on what do you think the Cavs should do moving forward. They're in a weird spot of contending and developing. I think it's clear Donovan is not good enough to be the guy on a title team, knowing that the calves, knowing that should the calves take the patient approach, you said the Celtics should, uh, I'm a little confused by this.

Hold on. Should they take this, I'm going to just skip that part. Should the calves take the patient approach and hope Mowbly can be that guy? Or should they eventually make an all in trade, in trade garland and assets for the next available superstar who can be that guy? A couple things. I agree about Donovan Mitchell.

I don't think he can be the best player on a championship team. But at the same time, like, it makes the most sense to keep him where he is. I definitely feel like Darius Garland is not that guy. Like Darius Garland, interesting young player, don't think he's got superstar potential. Can Evan Mowgli be a superstar? He's got that potential, but he feels very far away from that at this point. Offensively, he's a little below where he was last year. That's never encouraging. And his offensive shortcomings in the short role ended up being a big problem for them in the Knicks series. If you move him to center, you're immediately going to go from pretty good to probably average fast just because you become

pretty small on that front line, even though I think that's where he's going to be in the long term. It'd be a short-term sacrifice for a long-term benefit. So, like, in that example, you're in a tough spot because, like, what you really need to do is see what Mobley can become and then stay positioned to make potentially a star trade if it comes up in the future. And so I wanted to kind of like pitch an example of like a soft rebuild you could do that would make the calves better in the short term while also buying you the time to see what Mowgli can do by making the team a little bit more compatible with each other. So here's an example.

And again, these trades might be completely unrealistic, but hey, we're just having some fun. Number one, call up the nets and see if you can work out a garland for McHale Bridges swap. Okay? essentially that's a team that's heavy on six eight dudes that can shoot right you know they already have cam johnson and dorian finney smith and you know ben simmons is hurt again but theoretically he's another forward in that lineup right so like you you bring in a guard essentially for a team that right now basically has spencer dinwitty and cam thomas has got at guard and cam thomas got hurt as well but there are a team that could use some more offensive initiation and organization dari

scarlin could help them there i don't know if you need to throw in a draft pick i'm not sure how those GMs value those teams. But Garland and McAil Bridges, you swap those two guys. That essentially puts McAle Bridges at the three and moves Max Trues to the two, which is probably a better spot for him there. Then you call up the Bulls. And you offer him Jared Allen for Nicola Vucevic. Once again, not sure how the GMs value those respective contracts,

not sure if you would need to throw in a pick here or there, but those are two trades that seem at least possible, right? you flip Alan for Vucevic, this is what the lineup looks like now. You've Donovan Mitchell with Max Truce with Mikhail Bridges, Evan Mowbly, and Nikola Vucevich. Now, Evan Mowgli is surrounded by four guys that can shoot, three of which are like knockdown three-point shooters, right? They're not going to be as good defensively, but the spacing is going to be much better. Again, you kind of do a similar type of thing that we were talking about with the Lakers with

Christian Wood and Anthony Davis. You basically put Vucevich as the help side defender guarding the low man and you have Mowbly defend and pick and roll, that kind of allows you at least a decent chance of defending at a high level. And then again, maybe you're not as good in the regular season, but I think you're a little better in the playoff context. And then you just let Evan Mowbly develop in a spaced out environment, see what he's capable of.

And then in two years, you can find out whether or not he's on that track or not. And most importantly, those are, excuse me, those are two deals that don't empty your asset trove. And so you can still kind of hang tight and wait to see if a better deal comes up down the line for a star. Next question. As good as the Celtics starting five looks this season, the bench has been going through their ups and downs. Do the Cs need to concentrate on the roster or look to strengthen it by adding a piece or two via the trade before, via trade before the deadline? I'm not worried about the perimeter depth at all. You know, obviously the bench hasn't produced a lot offensively.

But at the same time, the starting five is so talented and they can stagger things properly that they always have two or three excellent players on the court. With their top six, like at any given moment, you're going to have six, you know, you're going to have at least two or three excellent players on the floor. So like, I'm not really worried about that. The main thing for me would just be the center position and what would happen if Horford or Porzingis went down in their lack of depth at that position. So do I think they need to keep an eye on, you know, a potential center down the line?

Yes, but the roster is not going to be an issue for this Celtics team. It's going to be about the guys in that group and what they can accomplish. Do you think if Cam Reddish can keep doing this well, does he help the Lakers in the long run? Playoffs in the playoffs. So here's the thing. Cam Reddish is playing better. He's defending at the point of attack well. He's finding a way to impact winning for the Lakers, which is an excellent shout out to

Cam Reddish in his mental fortitude through what's been a challenging couple of years and just scraping and clawing his way into a rotation spot, right? Like, that's all very impressive. Here's the reality. If Cam Reddish is in your playoff rotation, you're probably not very good. Like, that's just the reality. Cam Reddish has knocked down a bunch of important corner threes the other day, like in that Sun's game. That goes without saying.

But overall, offensively, it's been pretty rough with Cam Redish. And the perimeter defense has been good, but not great. What you really need for the Lakers is you need an excellent version. version of Cam Redis. You need a top tier 3 and D guy. You need to, you need somebody that can, that can legitimately cause problems consistently at the point of attack while also maintaining a threat offensively. That's why I keep pointing towards that Alex Crusoe option. I just think he makes the most sense in the world as a guy that they should try to hunt. What do you think of Wemby so far this season? Do you think he's a strong candidate for rookie

of the year? Yes, he's going to get rookie of the year. If you look down the line, there's just nobody that's having a more impressive season. Chet, obviously, more of a winning context, but Wemby's just, you know, I just, even within that context, I think he's been a more impressive player this year. A couple things have clearly screamed off the screen as weaknesses early on, being strong with the ball. Whenever he goes up against a good forward defender, they just are really good at identifying the times that Wemby gets loose with the ball and they just swipe down and knock it away. He's not very good at setting screens. That's something that he's definitely going to have to get better at over the years if he wants to create openings,

not just for himself, but for his guards. But that's all classic young guy stuff. And like his jump shot, still shipper inconsistent. That's a classic young guy thing as well. All these things I think are going to get rectified over the years. Being a long-time subscriber, I've noticed you always put the recent finals MVP as your best player in the world moving into next season. Could you ever make a case one year that another player that didn't win the championship the previous year could be the best player in the world in front of the person who won the chip in finals MVP? So obviously weird finals MVP selections like Kauai in 2014 or Anduehuehda in 2015 are examples where you're obviously not going to call them the best player in the world.

The other thing, too, is like, I'm just going to start keeping separate lists now in the vacuum list and then the, like, actual, you know, a trophy award ceremony, whatever, bragging rights list, right? Like, I got in all this trouble with Mavericks fans for having Luke at 10 and, like, do I think Luke is the 10th best player in the world? No, but my list is like, it's a bragging rights list. Who has the, like, Bill Simmons calls it the championship belt, right? Like, who has the championship belt? And I like that concept.

from the same point of like, to me, winning should matter. And so if I win the trophy and I win finals MVP, I should get to be at least respected as the best player in the world that year, even if you might not think that I am, right? Like, that's kind of the way that I think that that should work. So again, like, I think the way you address the other end, so I'll give you an example. Steph won finals MVP in 2015.

I do not think he was better than LeBron. I think LeBron was clearly a better player than him at that point. And if I went into the next season in a vacuum, LeBron's the best player in the world. But if that same situation happened today, I would be like, yeah, but you kind of got to give Steph the respect within the scope of the regular season

as like he's got the belt, so to speak, right? Even if in a vacuum you would take LeBron over him. That's kind of an example of what I'm talking about. Do you expect Jordan Poole to improve as the season goes over? I understand he's running his team for the first time, but he's averaging 16 points per game on 40% from the field and 30% from three. A couple things.

First of all, I haven't watched a full Washington Wizards game this year. So I don't want to talk profoundly about that team because I just don't know what I'm talking about. That said, what happens when you go from being a sixth man that's playing alongside a superstar and is pretty far down on the scouting report, playing a lot of your primary scoring minutes against bench groups to suddenly you're at the top of the scouting report and you're the guy that like the other team's putting their best point of attack defender on from the start of the game. like it just gets harder to play. And in general, I think like, you know, Jordan Poole and Kyle Kuzma and the rest, like they're, they're all getting roasted right now.

And for good reason, they've put together a highlight reel of kind of embarrassing moments to start the year. There was one of them going around this morning on Twitter. That was funny. But at the end of the day, like, they as a team have to make a decision, do they want to be serious or not? And I think that'll go a long way towards both of those players and their development in the long run.

Like, does Jordan Poole just want to have his own team and put up shots? Does he want to become the best basketball player that he can be? Because if that's the case, I think it's going to be a little bit more serious down the line. But it's early, guys. It's only been like 10 games. So I want to give those guys more time before we just immediately characterize them as one thing or the other. All right, last question. Then we'll get out of here.

How did you get on with Colin? Did you graduate with a journalism degree or have a pot and take off that Colin saw it? And then he reached out. So I'll give a really brief version of this just so you guys know. Here's the thing. Like there are, in the old days, that was what you did. did. You got a journalism degree and you started writing for, you got on as like an intern at some journalistic entity and then eventually you got an opportunity to write occasionally and then

then you started writing full time and maybe you part laid that into a podcast or a radio appearance or something like that. And then on the radio front, it was like you'd go into the radio station and you'd work the control board and then maybe you'd get to fill in for a guy on a Saturday and do three hours and then maybe the producer like, or the big shots like you and they you on, you know, the next time there's a vacancy somewhere else or you go to some other station. But I didn't have the time to do either of those. Like, obviously, I had bills to pay and the responsibilities and I'm married and my wife and I had a house and at the time. And so, like, we had, I had no choice, but to, to make it work and to, uh, to earn money in the meantime. So

basically for me, I sold real estate to make a living. And then I, on the side did all of this stuff at home. And essentially, like, I'm very thankful that we live in this day and age because other, like, if I had the exact same set of circumstances 10 years ago, I literally would never have been able to do what I do for a living. And I'd probably still be either working in corporate America or, or, um, selling real estate. The advantage here was, is like the current set of tools that are available made it so that I could pursue this as basically a hobby. And then once the show had success, the volume reached out to me in my direct messages. I didn't do anything. They just reached out to me. Now, we had a lot of success when I was starting, when I was doing State of

the Lakers with Raj. But like, at the end of the day, like, they just straight up came out and contacted me through direct messages. Now, the way that this works, this is the best advice that I can give. Like these companies, they have people constantly searching for quality content creators. They're out there looking. The tools you have available right now at home are capable of getting you exposure. YouTube has a built-in algorithm. TikTok has a built-in algorithm. Instagram has a built-in algorithm.

Twitter's algorithm sucks, but it's there. Like if people retweet or like your tweets, they'll get shown to other people. Like, there are tools that are available for free. There are podcasts hosting platforms that are free. Spotify for podcasters, completely free. That's where I host the Tucson's podcast that I do with my buddy, Luke. So, like, I'll give you the Tucson's podcast as an example. This is a, that's a podcast I don't get paid for.

Building it from scratch from the ground up. It's a different vibe. It's me and my buddy, Luke. We talk about things that are not basketball, including Star Wars and other current events and stuff like that. And, like, we record a show. and I upload it to a podcast feed for free. I upload it to my YouTube channel for free.

I cut clips of it and put it on social media for free. And from there, it will grow organically if it is quality content. Those algorithms are meritocracy in the sense that like when people watch, it gets automatically recommended. So your average watch time, your ability to retain an audience is directly responsible for promoting the content elsewhere, right? So like you have tools at home. That's what I did.

And it allowed me to do that while I was earning a living elsewhere. Then I basically slowly phased out of real estate when I was doing this full time. Now I'm at a position where I can afford to do this full time. And now I can actually give it my best effort, which is where I'm at right now. But again, like, I think if there's one last piece of advice I'd give on that front, the downside of having it be that easy and having all these free tools is that you basically are in there's just kind of a sensory overload so to speak there's just a lot of people that are producing content and as a result of that like it's harder to stand out and so do it but give it your

best don't be lazy about it because if you are the people that aren't will naturally kind of float to the top so that just hopefully that gives you guys a little bit of perspective i um if you have questions surrounding that sort of stuff don't hesitate to drop it in the youtube comments and I'll continue to kind of expound upon that in the coming weeks. All right, guys, that is all I have for today. We'll be back tomorrow, breaking down tonight's in-season tournament slate. I will see you guys then. Volume.

Another podcast from some SNL late-night comedy guy, not quite. Unhumor 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 I-Heart 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, Cliver 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. This is a place for raw, unfilts, unfilts,

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Others say it's unleashing human potential. Either way, the podcast, 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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHart podcast. Guaranteed Human.