The Herd with Colin Cowherd - Hoops Tonight - Zion Williamson & Donovan Mitchell first impressions + Lakers-Suns preseason action

Episode Date: October 8, 2022

Jason Timpf gives his first impressions on Donovan Mitchell's Cavaliers debut vs Joel Embiid, James Harden and the 76ers and Zion Williamson's return vs DeMar DeRozan and the Bulls. Jason breaks down LeBron James and the Lakers preseason game against Chris Paul, Devin Booker and the Suns, and responds to listener comments. #Volume #herd #ColinCowherdSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This is an I-Heart podcast. Guaranteed Human. 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.

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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 IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes.

Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith ruling. of two. Listen to Stuff to Bole Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The volume. What's up, guys? It's Jason from Hoops Tonight, presented by Fandual. Football season is here, and there is no better place to get in on the action than with Fanduel. It's my favorite

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Today we're going to hit on Pelicans Bulls, our first time seeing Zion Williamson in over a year. Lakers' Sons, another impressive performance from a Lakers team that a lot of people were pessimistic about going into the season. And then last but not least, Cavaliers Sixers, our first taste of Donovan Mitchell with the Cavs and of James Hardin in his revenge tour this year. I'm also going to hit on a couple of your guys' comments from the YouTube comments from the Victor Wenbanyama and Scoot Henderson video yesterday. yesterday. I really want to work hard this year to get you guys as involved in possible and have more back and forth. We got a lot of plans on that front. I'll keep you guys posted. 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 get out, you guys don't miss show

announcements. That's also where I drop NBA footage since I'm not allowed to use it here. That's a great place for you guys to see some visual aids for some of the concepts that I talk about on the show. And last but not least, if you miss one of these shows and you can't get back over to YouTube to finish them. You can find them wherever you get your podcasts under hoops tonight. So there were two main disagreements that I saw in my Victor Wemnon Yama and Scoot Henderson video yesterday. There were some of you guys that tried to give other examples of legitimate, you know, stretch bigs that were great rim protectors. And there were two that were thrown out, one that I disagree with and one that I do agree with, but I think that Victor is going to be

even another level above that. So, A lot of people threw out Joel Embed, and the reality is he's just too low volume. You know, like he does shoot about three, three-pointers per game. And he does shoot in the high 30s, right? Like about 37, 38%, give or take a few, depending on the year. But the reality is, his teams aren't guarding him out there because it's a really low volume. If James Hardin and Joe El-Mbeed run a pick and pop, they're conceding that shot to try to take away things in the paint. When guys are closing out on him, they're closing out short preparing for him to

to attack that closeout. And the reason why is he's only taken three per game and he's not exactly lighting you on fire with them. That's three completely wide open attempts per game that he's barely making over a third of. That's not a real stretch big. Also, when I'm talking about Victor Wemnon Yama and this concept of being a stretch big and rim protector, I'm talking about it within the role. Obviously, Embed is 50 times the player that Victor is right now. So is Nicoliochich. So is Carl Anthony Town. So are so many of the bigs around the league. But I'm just, just specifically talking about plugging a player into a role as a rim protector and as a stretch big, a legitimate stretch big that teams would guard on the perimeter and be scared of giving

up open shots too. So there was one other, one of you guys, a couple of you guys, I mentioned Brooke Lopez a few years back. Now, his shooting has fallen off of a cliff since this season, so it kind of appears to be some kind of outlier. But a few years back, he averaged over two made threes per game and over two blocks per game. And he was averaging right around, I think, six or seven attempts per game. Most of them were catch and shoot and pretty wide open, but there were some complicated shots in there, a few jab step pull-ups and occasionally some wild step-back threes that he would take and make from time to time. So I do think that that's a good example of a legitimate stretch big rim protector that we had in the league a few years ago.

But I think that, even what we saw from Brooke, I don't think it's going to be nearly like what we're going to see from Victor. I think it's going to be the type of movement shooting and running him off of screens and the off the dribble shooting you're going to see from him. I think he's going to run inverted pick and roll as the ball handler a lot and elevate into pull up threes. I think that what you saw from Brooke that season, that one outlier season that kind of stands out from the rest of his career, I think you're going to see that from Victor every single season of his career, which is why I think he's such a unique prospect. And then the other complaint, several of you guys were asking why I don't include Dwayne Wade and Aunt Edwards in the small,

super athletic guard archetype that we were talking about. And the main reason why is that they're both bigger. Dwayne Wade is about 6-4-65 with basketball shoes on, and Anthony Edwards is like 6'4. five, six, six with basketball shoes on. And so they have like a legitimate presence, a physical presence on the floor. Like, Dwayne Wade was routinely operating out of the post as a guard when he was in his prime. He was like, consistently played significantly above his size as an impact rebounder, it's shot blocker, as a backline defender and things along those lines. Anthony Edwards,

I've called him, I've called him like Minnie LeBron with the way he attacks the rim because he has such incredible athletic presence going down the lane. These guys that I'm talking about, these, you know, John Morantz and Scoot Henderson and John Wall and Russell Westbrook and all these guys, they're all shorter. And I mean, I think John Wall is the tallest of that group, and I think he's about 6'4 with shoes on. But there's a specific reason why I'm kind of parsing those guys out.

Like, Dwayne Wade and Anthony Edwards will be able to, like, Dwayne Wade in his prime could consistently guard bigger wings. And Anthony Edwards, when he gets to where he's going to be. as a defensive player, he's going to be able to guard big wings as well. But I sincerely appreciate you guys offering lots of feedback and questions and comments and stuff in the YouTube comments. I'm going to try to make more effort every single day. During our live shows, we'll respond to comments at the end of the show. And then during these shows, I'm going to try better. Drop questions, comments and things like that in the YouTube comments, and I'll

address them in the next show that we do. So moving on to Pelicans Bulls. So this was kind of an ass kicking. The Pelicans really manhandled the bulls on both ends of the floor. That roster is loaded, that Pelicans roster. And it's such an interesting combination of ball handling, because they have all these guys like, say, Jim McCollum that can dribble the ball well. Brennan Ingram can dribble the ball well. You know, Devante Graham coming off the bench can dribble the ball well. Jose Alvaredo can dribble the ball while. They've got all this ball handling, but they also have all these big rim pressuring forwards. Like, like obviously Jonas Valachunis causes a lot of rim pressure just with his presence around the

basket. Zion Williamson was just straight up frightening once again. And when he catches the ball on that right kind of like, like high, like it's kind of like baseline extended short corner. He catches there and like he had a play where he just ripped through and Patrick Williams just literally had absolutely no chance. The next thing you know Zion's hanging on the rim or when he rips through to the left, he just, he doesn't actually need to get separation. If he, gets the slightest edge on you. He's so strong and his center of gravity is so low that he's just going to blow through your shoulder and get to where he wants to go.

And he was driving and kicking to C.J. McCollum for wide open shots. And Devante Graham, just a really interesting combination of guys who can apply rim pressure, guys who can handle the basketball and shoot off of the dribble, and just overall athleticism everywhere. And so as a result, they generate a ton of rim pressure and they generate a ton of good, high-quality three-point shots. And that's the two most efficient shots in basketball. And I think they're going to be a damn good offensive team as a result of all of that talent. Zion Williamson was actually especially active on the defensive end, trying to make plays at the

rim. He had a really nice chase-down block in transition. And then when he was in help side, he was really loading up and trying to cause problems around the rim. Still has a long way to go there, but I do appreciate the effort that he's putting in there. And it is showing some results. Hayes, he had a really, really good first shift playing the passing lanes and getting out in transition. He just has these super long steps and super long arms. He made two big plays in transition where I don't know if any other player in the league would have been able to score, maybe a small handful of players in the league could have scored in those specific situations, like a bad bobbled pass that he tracked down on the right wing and then still just grabbed

and took like two long steps to the basket and finished. He had another one where he did like a dramatic kind of pull over, dribble over his head and then shot a floater and he made it. Really impactful minutes from him playing off ball defense and getting out in transition. Devante Graham, he's had a rough run so far in New Orleans in the last couple years, but he actually, or it might even only be one year with Devante Graham, but his pull-up shooting is a big impact thing, a big impact talent for this particular team. He shot the ball really well last night. just a really impressive performance from the Pelicans. Again, one preseason game, but I'm really excited about that team and what they could accomplish this year. The Bulls are just clunky and weird.

Their offense is just a weird mix of Demarderozen pump faking as he comes off of screens, and Zach Levine taking really difficult three-point shots. They're still way too thin on the front line. I know they brought in Andre Drummond to try to address that, but his fit is clunky. He's got bad hands. He doesn't finish around the rim very well. And he just was getting cooked in transition when the pelicans really tried to run the floor. So I really, I'm just, I feel like even in my power rankings at 16, I might have had the Bulls too high. There are a couple of teams there that I might have to consider moving above them if we ever do. I mean, most of our power rankings this season will probably focus on the top 10, but I think you can safely say that the raptors are probably

better. The pelicans are probably better. I might have jumped the gun on that one. But again, let's give it a little bit more time. And also, I was expecting Lonzo Ball to be ready to start the season. All right, let's move on to the Lakers. So this is their second, back-to-back, encouraging preseason performance. And I know they lost both games, but their core lineups when the stars were playing one, both matchups, one against a bad but talented Sacramento Kings team. And then last night, or Wednesday night, against a very talented Phoenix Sun's team

that has had a psychological holdover this team. ever since Anthony Davis pulled his groin in game four of the Western Conference first round series in 2021, they've whooped their ass every single time they've played. And so for them to go out there without Anthony Davis with a small ball grouping of Wenian Gabriel with LeBron James, Russell Westbrook, Austin Reeves, and Patrick Beverly, for them to go out and play as well as they did is an excellent indicator for this team. I told you guys when we started preseason breakdowns, I care about the preseason. I think it is the best opportunity to build good habits, to build an identity,

to build conditioning, to build continuity, to see the way you stack up against other teams. I think it matters. And so to see the Lakers come out and some of it's starving hand, some of it's just them getting a different voice in the locker room and them not wanting to listen to Frank Vogel anymore. A lot of it is effort and focus and just trying to actually be a good defensive team, and then a lot of it is an influx of some better defensive players. Patrick Beverly is a great defensive player. Getting Austin Reeves a little bit more muscular over the summer, that makes him a better defensive player. I want to look at the defensive end from two different angles here. So first of all, Austin Reeves and Patrick Beverly. The two of them are,

you know, both for undersized, because they're both considered undersized for their respective positions, both of them are players that teams love to attack in isolation. Their ability to hold their own in those isolation situations and their ability to fight over the top of ball screens just adds a dynamic to the Lakers perimeter defense that they haven't had in the last year or so. Austin Reeves in particular is an excellent positional defender. He gives ground.

He does not go for the basketball until you expose it as you're going up for a shot. And so often you'll see guys put their head down and try to drive past Austin and they're just driving right into his chest and he's just holding his ground, holding his ground, and then you show the basketball and he'll poke it away. Or he'll just wall up and make you make a tough shot over the top. He got stops on Devin Booker. He got stops on Landry Shamit. He was sliding his feet and playing really solid defense.

Patrick Beverly is a more aggressive defender. He's going after the basketball and trying to make you feel uncomfortable. But from the start of this game, the Sun's stars were way less comfortable than usual. And as a result of that, their shot quality was lower, and it's set a tone for that game defensively. Every other time the sons have played the Lakers in the previous year, they come out easy, breezy basketball because they just weren't making them feel uncomfortable from the opening tip.

The second dynamic here that you're seeing with the Lakers, and last night it was even with their small ball groupings because Wenyon Gabriel and LeBron James were flying around trying to block shots. This team has blocked seven and a half shots per game through the first two preseason games. A lot of Damien Jones, a lot of Wenin-Gabriel, a lot of Anthony Davis, a lot of LeBron James. because of that, they are building this unique reputation of a perimeter pressure team with their guards like Austin

Reeves, Russell Westbrook, and Patrick Beverly that is going to swallow everything up around the rim. Now, they're going to give things up. They've been great defensively in these two games. One major caveat against the Phoenix Sun's pick and roll, they were offering help out of the strong side wing every single time. So pretend Devin Booker's on the left wing. He's coming over the eight. and ball screen. He's getting downhill. Russell Westbrook is guarding McHale Bridges, let's say, on the right wing. So where the direction that Devin Booker is driving, Bridges is right there. Russ is coming into the elbow to contain that Devin Booker drive, and they're consistently making that swing pass one pass away to a wide open shooter. They did it about six times in that first

quarter and only made one of them. That is, for the record, a staple of the Milwaukee Bucks defense and presumably the scheme that Darvinham brought with him to the Lakers. They give up threes at the expense of taking everything away at the point of attack and at the paint. It's a concept that can beat you, and it's a concept that can beat the other team. If you bait teams into taking those shots and they miss them like the Suns did last night, you get a good result. You do what the Milwaukee Bucks did to the Celtics in game seven, in game six last year. They make 40-something threes or whatever they did in the last two games and you end up getting beat. So there's a, it's a gamble there, but at the very

least, they're going to be very good in two specific areas defensively. They're going to be good at the point of attack, and they're going to be good in the paint. That is enough to build a functional defense around, but they're going to have to figure out some way to at least make it a little bit more difficult for these teams to shoot threes, especially in easy kickouts like they do when they're helping out of the strong side like that. Um, on the, the other thing that I wanted to point out as it pertains to the shot blocking. Again, seven and a half blocks, that would have led the league last year. I think the team that led the league had about six and a half blocks per game last year. Again, just two preseason games, but a good indicator of their activity around the

rim. Most of this is extra efforts. And you're seeing it from LeBron James and you're seeing it from Wenian Gabriel. You're seeing it from Anthony Davis. Seeing a play that you could let happen, you could just let him go, but instead saying, no, I'm going to go get this thing. There was a play in transition where McHale Bridges ended up getting a runout and he had an opportunity at the rim. LeBron could have just let him go, but instead he loaded up and went for the block. The most important part of that is once you start making those extra effort plays, once you start getting block shots to the tune of seven and a half per game, you start to get in the other team's heads.

It gets to the point, and we saw this a ton with the 2020 Lakers. Guys start to start thinking their shot blockers around them even when there's not. makes them feel, again, the big key defensive concept that I talk about, comfort, when you make teams feel uncomfortable because they're getting in you at the point of attack and they're flying around trying to block shots at the rim, that right there in and of itself will make stars feel uncomfortable, which makes them less confident when they're rising up into shots, which directly affects shot result. So I really like what I'm seeing so far from the Lakers on the defensive end, even though it's not perfect, even though they're going to have some work they got to do,

I really like what I'm seeing there. 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. A win is a win. A win is a win. I don't care what you're saying. Yep, that's me, Cliford 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 IHeard 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. Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun,

thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tauntons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two. Listen to stuff to blow your mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. The Lakers are making a concerted effort to get out in transition so far in preseason.

Once again last night, LeBron James and Russell Westbrook attacking down the floor when they get stops. Russ had a really nice left-handed finish in transition on the first possession of the game. And then LeBron, one of the most ridiculous finishes I've ever seen where he was going along the left side of the rim and extended like he was going to go with his right hand. And then basically turned his body and flipped a left-handed spinning shot off the glass. Just a ridiculous shot. The main key there is this is not going to be a good half-court offensive team. They don't shoot the ball well enough. They simply don't.

So this is a brute force offense that's going to rely heavily on LeBron James and Anthony Davis generating rim pressure when things get tight. but as much as they can avoid the half court, the better. Because if they can get out in transition where they're going to be a much better offensive team, let's say 20% of the time, then that buffers and adds and supports your half-court efficiency. I'll give you an example, the 2020 Lakers. That team, according to cleaning the glass,

was not a very good half-court offense team. But before they went into the bubble, I believe they were fourth. It was either sixth or fourth. before they went into the bubble, they were a top six offense by offensive rating, even though they were a bad half-court offense. It was because they got out in transition so frequently that it bolstered those numbers enough. And the best way to get out in transition is to get stops.

And so they're building an identity as a defensive team that prioritizes the point of attack and the rim, and when they get the basketball, they run the damn floor because that's their best opportunity to score. I like the identity that they're building so far. A couple other quick notes that I wanted to hit. Austin Reeves, the ball handler. So we heard a lot about Austin Reeves doing well in early training camp as a primary ball handler. I've always really liked him attacking closeouts making reeds, but I had heard over the summer that he put on a little bit of muscle, and then he had been working a ton on his handling and shooting. And he's flat out turning into a very good second side creator. He's running pick and roll. He's not an excellent athlete,

right? But what he's doing is he's playing smart old man basketball as the initiator in pick and roll. He's getting over the top of the screen, getting the defender on his backside, slowing down his dribble, pinning him on his backside, working into the lane. He was drawing fouls yesterday by shooting those little floaters and push shots as the defenders draped on his back. He's consistently making good reads and swing passes out of it, and he's attacking closeouts as well as he does. I put an example of one of Austin's closeout attacks in our video, in video form on my Twitter feed, so you guys can find that there. I really like what I'm seeing from Austin Reeves so far.

Last note on this game, the Suns continue to have weird negative energy. Now, some of that you've got to give the Lakers credit for the way they played defensively, but once again, DeAndre Aiton was awful on the defensive end of the floor. Really bad in tape. I shared one specific clip of that on my Twitter feed. You can see that there. Look, I said that the Sons were going to go out and win a ton of games just on the strength of their talent. And it's still early, and there's a long way to go.

But through two preseason games, if they come out with this kind of effort, they're just simply going to lose a lot of games this year if they're not careful. All right, before we get out of here, Sixers' Caps. I only watched the first shift of this game, so I'm only going to give you a couple of notes. on the Cavs front. And when I say first shift, I just watch the starters go against each other for about six minutes each. I just have a ton of film that I still have to watch

and I haven't gotten to this full game yet. So first of all, they started Karris Levert. Now, Evan Mowley's dealing with an ankle sprain. So they plugged Kevin Love into the power forward position. We're going to talk about him in a minute because he was awesome, at least in that first shift. But I really thought it was interesting that they put Karris Levert at Small Ford. Who knows if that's something that they plan on doing

during the regular season or if that was just something did for this specific preseason lineup. But it's a redundancy in ball handling. They don't need him with Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell on the floor. And he's simply not as good defensively as some of the other wings that they have on the roster. So I thought that was strange. But the natural give and take between Darius Garland and Donovan Mitchell on the offensive end already looks pretty good. They're actively hunting each other. They're making quick decisions. They're not dribbling the air out of the basketball. There's already a good natural give and take there. That's very encouraging for Cavs fans. Also, let's do Kevin Love first. Kevin Love is a legitimate knockdown three-point shooter,

as you guys all know, and I know this from when I covered him with the Cavs. He, every single time the Sixers offered help out of his position in this game, Kevin Love made them pay, knocking down shots on the wing above the break, and in the corner as well. He's got a quick release. he's got a good pump fake that gets people to blow by. I don't necessarily like it, the fit necessarily next to Allen, because I think it'll be, I just don't quite think they're fast enough in terms of overall foot speed with that grouping. But when they actually are healthy,

you're going to see Evan Mobley next to Allen. But I really like the idea of running a bench lineup with Evan Mobley and Kevin Love. Because I think Evan Mobley's overall foot speed will allow them to hang in transition and in five out settings really well. And Kevin Love just shoots the ball. all so damn well. It's going to help solve a lot of their spacing concerns. And then you saw a lot of that classic Kevin Love transition passing yesterday as well. I like it as a mix-up when spacing becomes an issue to put him next to Mobley and just give you a different look, especially if

Mobley develops as a three-point shooter. Last note from the Cavs in this game, Donovan Mitchell from the opening tip, decided to guard James Harden, got up into him, got up into his airspace, made him uncomfortable. Look, this guy got fairly and legitimately criticized for being atrocious on the defensive end last year. One preseason game wasn't perfect, but I liked the mentality of him trying to address that concern early in this season. Going over to the Sixers, James Harden to me looked about the same.

And I say that as a biased person who sincerely believes he's going to have a bounce back year. but this is preseason as I've said almost all of the players are a little bit slow-legged right now because they're out of shape they're building up their conditioning I always refer to it as breaking through the wall in your preseason conditioning there's about four weeks where your body is just getting destroyed because you're not used to playing every day to this level of intensity you're not used to this level of physicality every single day you're worn out but right around that fourth week in this case basically that end of, if training camp started September 30th, we're talking like second, third week of the

regular season is where I'm really going to start looking at athleticism. If James Hardin still looks pretty slow in early November, then I'll start to be concerned, but I'm not overly concerned here. He still got into the paint a couple times, made a really nice and one floater, um, uh, drew a foul on a driving layup going left once. He still got some dribble penetration, but still doesn't look like he had the burst that he had a few years ago, but I'm not concerned until about a month from now. Same goes for Joe L. Embed, and he's going to be one of the last guys

to get his conditioning going, so I'm not worried about his shot making as well. Last note from this game, PJ Tucker. One of my favorite things about PJ Tucker is he knows what he's good and bad at, and he tries to find ways to impact the game as a result. This guy is not a knock-down shooter,

and he struggles to attack close-outs. That's just reality. He had a stretch with the Houston Rockets where he shot corner three as well, but that doesn't appear to be going on anymore. But he does two things that make him an impactful offensive player despite that. One, crashing the offensive glass, he'll just run down the lane and just truckstick somebody

to fight for a position and go get the basketball. But secondly, off ball pinscreens. So, like, if PJ Tucker's man abandons him out of the corner to go help on a drive somewhere. And Tobias Harris is on the wing with him, and he's in the corner, rather than just stand there, knowing that if he catches it, he's got a 34% chance or whatever of knocking down that corner three,

he will just run and screen Tobias Harris's man, which then gets Tobias Harris a wide open three. So now, even though the Cavs in this case made a decision to leave PJ Tucker open, the result is Tobias Harris got open. And that off-ball screening, he did a bunch of this in that first shift. that I wish Russell Westbrook would just watch tape of that for a while and gain an understanding of how you can be an impactful off-ball player

even when you're not shooting the ball well. And again, I like what I've seen from Russ through two games. He's got a long way to go before I start believing in what he can do, but those are types of little things that will help him be more impactful in off-ball situations, especially on the offensive end. I didn't even get to Russ when we were talking to the Lakers really quickly, you know, by a little one-minute rule. I thought he was really good in transition on offense.

I thought he was really good off ball in offense, made a couple of threes, attacked closeouts well, but he did not do well in primary creation against that sun's set defense, and that's to be expected. He's just not good enough anymore as a primary creator to be able to successfully create good shots against an elite defensive team. But I'm not as concerned about that, because I think on this team with Kendrick Nunn,

with a healthy LeBron, healthy Anthony Davis, with Patrick Beverly, what he's been doing with the basketball, and with Dennis Schroeder, they're not going to need him to create as much. They need him to defend the hell out of the basketball on and off the ball. They need him to attack in transition. They need him to attack in off-ball situations, driving closeouts, knocking down the occasional corner three.

That's where he's going to be an impactful basketball player for this team. If he does all of those things, then he will be a huge plus for this team, and they won't need to trade him. But he needs to demonstrate that he's willing to do those things night in and night out. We're two games in and he's done a good job. but we've got a long way to go. All right, that is all I have for this week, guys. We're going to take the rest of the weekend off.

Monday, we're going to have a show coming out late at night. I'm going to San Diego tomorrow morning, and I'm going to be gone through Monday at about, you know, sometime in the afternoon. But that night, I'm going to watch those games and some games from the weekend. We'll have our first film breakdown of next week coming out on Monday night, and then we'll go back to our normal schedule starting on Tuesday.

As always, I sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting the show. Thank you so much. I will see you after the day. weekend. The 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. 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.

Hey, this is Robert from the Stuff to Blow Your Mind podcast. Joe and I are both lifelong Star Wars fan, so we're celebrating May the 4th with a brand new week of fun, thought-provoking Star Wars-related episodes. Join us as we tackle science and culture topics from a galaxy far, far away, such as the biology of tontons and wampas on the ice planet hot, or the practicality and corporate business sense of the Sith rule of two.

Listen to Stuff to Blow Your Mind on the IHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. This is an IHeart podcast. Guaranteed Human.