The Mismatch - 10 Things to Look Forward to This NBA Season With David Jacoby

Episode Date: September 26, 2024

Chris Vernon is joined by The Ringer's David Jacoby as they discuss what they are looking forward to the most this NBA season (01:42). Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and not joining me. As Kevin O'Connor, as you know, you may have seen the news. Kevin has left me after eight years together. Kevin O'Connor has moved on. And I just want to say, for all of you out there, and I think this came through in the podcast, and so many of you that have listened to us for so many years together, you know I love Kevin, you know we became friends over the years.

You know we went through a lot together. and we are forever indebted to so many of you that got used to listening to us every week throughout the NBA season. Nothing is going to change regarding the mismatch and an NBA season. I am still going to be doing the mismatch every single week. I'll be doing it twice a week. So if you want NBA news, if you want NBA talk, if you want NBA opinions, I am still going to be here. And I think you're going to be very, very excited about what we've got coming in the future. But with that, let's continue with the mismatch. Welcome to the mismatch.

I'm Chris Vernon, and Kevin O'Connor is not here. He has left me. After eight years together, Kevin is gone. But life goes on. And now this NBA season is upon us already. The Celtics have already had Media Day. And there's a bunch of stuff that has already been going on. And teams are going to have their media days and training camps starting within the next week.

So we have to start looking forward to this upcoming season. joining me today from the ringer Jacoby What's happened at Chris Vernon? Oh my gosh. What a blessing. In person. What a blessing.

In Memphis. He has flown to Memphis to show me how much he loves me. No, mainly to get away from my family. Mainly to get away from his family, but also to show me how much he loves me. He has come all the way to Memphis. I've been down and out.

And Jacobi said, no, no, no. There is no down and out. We are going to be talking about the NBA. And so then I said, well, then let's do five things each we're all looking forward to for this upcoming NBA season. And here you are. And here we are. Here we are. I love Memphis, Tennessee.

I might move here. I can't believe it. I love it so much. How much you've loved it. When people talk about places, right, when people talk about cities or anything, it's, there's a few factors you take into account. the people, the culture, the food, the layout. You here in Memphis have nailed all of those. All of them.

The people, the best. I'm on a jog. The people jogging are looking me right in the eye, and they want me to say hi to them. And as a New Yorker, I am not familiar with this behavior. So I have to say hi to strangers here. The food, rendezvous, dry rib rubs, so good. The Mississippi River, beautiful.

You've loved it all. The culture and the Grizzlies. This is a basket. I didn't realize how basketball this town was. I love that you have come here and you love it. I'm sure they're going to try to hire you for the Convention of Visitors Bureau. All right. Let's get to this upcoming NBA season.

So I've tried to jot down five things I'm looking forward to for this upcoming NBA season. I gave you the same assignment. You have understood the assignment. Yes, sir. Do you want to start or do you want me to start? I'm starting. Okay, go ahead. Houston Rockets.

Because the Houston Rockets did not make the playoffs, I think people are very quick to forget just how good they finished the season and what a tear Jalen Green was on. And when you think about this team, they have the right mix of things. Shangoon got hurt, right? Is that the reason Jalen Green went crazy, though? Yes.

I mean, there's a little addition by subtraction there, but I also think that people forget that Imeudoka was an amazing head coach for the Celtics. Now, me and you can talk off air about why he is no longer the head coach of the Celtics, but he did a great job there. And you bring in Fred Bamblite, and you've got Tari Easton

there, and you've got Jabari, and you've got Banblete, and you've got Jalen Green, and you've got San Goon, and you've got Thompson who is... I love the Thompson twins, by the way. Like, everything that wasn't in this year's draft was in last year's time. When are you getting to him?

When are you getting to what I saw in Vegas. Would you see? When are you getting to read Shepard? Oh, well, first of all. Like an incarnation of curry at the friggin' summer league. He was unbelievable. I am well known to be a supporter of Caucasian American basketball players.

So I was trying not to lead with that. Dude. I was trying not to lead with that. He was off the charts. He might be the best player in the draft. Oh, I don't think. There is nobody that was at Summer League this year that did not walk away. raving about Reed Shepard

and wondering if there was a tremendous mistake made by both the Wizards and the Hawks in the picks that they made prior to. Agreed. And I don't think, am I going to predict them to win the West? No. To make the second round of the playoffs? No. But in terms of my behavior and my league pass watching, I will watch the Rockets. That team, and Jalen Green specifically at the end of the season

last season was excellent. Well, and there's nothing more fun than rookies. and there's nothing more fun than guard rookies, right? So Shepard's going to be very high on the list. Like, it's always, look, the lead pass teams are always when there's somebody that you have not seen before, and now you're getting to experience that for the first time. This is before they start getting knocked down a peg. You see all the great in it, so everything they do becomes exciting.

And frankly, most of the guys when I was out in Vegas this summer, they're not fun players to watch. Like you don't sit there and watch Reese's Shea. You don't watch Alex. You don't watch those guys. And then there were bigs, right? There's Zach Eadie. There's Donovan Klingin and there's these others.

Shepard's like a fun player to watch. The ball's in his hands. And he's shooting the ball from 40 feet away. And he was running off picking rolls. And so Hope sprang eternal when you were watching him. So people are already going to go out of their way to check out this new thing that's in the NBA. And that is to go with, it's interesting. They've just got so many young players on their team that it does feel like at some point you're going to try to figure out,

all right, what is the core? What is this group of players that we're building out around? Because there's a lot of overlap with those guys. You can't have all of them out on the court at same time. They're all their rookie deals too. I know, but you've got eight or nine of them. Eason, Green, like,

Shepard, they're all in their rookie deals. At some point, they're going to have to sort of filter that and decide who they're going to invest in Lentra.

And you had times and playing power forward. For them last year, right? You didn't play power forward and they are. They got to figure out which of those

that you're going to, there's going to be a core, you know, that you build out around, and now is it going to be Reed Shepard and Jalen Green and Jabari? Like those are the three

highest draft picks that they've had recently. and frankly, the best performer last year was shaking. I can buy them being a fun one. I can't understand enough how important EMA of Doca is to this team because whatever happened in Boston happened in Boston, and we can, again, talk about that off the end. But I think that he is an impactful head coach

in a way that most head coaches are not. And I believe in him. And then you've got like the Bamblite thing where you've got this veteran point guard that can run the show. I really believe in this team. And when you ask me this assignment, What are the five things I'm excited for? I thought about who am I going to watch on League Pass?

What button am I going to click on my phone? What click? When I'm going to click on my remote control and the Houston Rockets were the number one thing that came in my mind. That's interesting. And I do think, look, they were the team that took a huge step towards being competitive last year. Yes. And we see this in the arc. We see this with the arc of team.

We see the three-point games. He had like, what, 10 straight 30-point games the end of the season last year? Like, we see this with the arc of teams, right? You became pretty competitive before you became very close. competitive. And they were, you know, around that 500 team and maybe they are one that takes a big step up. You mentioned Doca and one of the reasons that you like them is because of the coaches.

Well, one of the things I'm looking forward to this season, my first one was seven new head coaches. I mean, there was a lot of turnover when it came to NBA head coaches. And with that, some of the premier franchises. So there's JJ Reddick with the Lakers. Yep. Everybody can have an idea of what that's going to be like. what that's going to work like. We have absolutely no idea what JJ Redding's going to be as a head coach.

I don't know if the Lakers are going to look dramatically different than they did with Darvinham. Is he a guy that could get them to look dramatically different? Or if you have LeBron and you have AD, it is what it is. Like, there's a limit to what you're going to look like. Everybody always, every coach always comes in and they always. say, here's what I want to change. I've got some ideas of what I want to do here.

And also they're going to establish a culture. Every coach is going to establish a culture, and they're going to, so they're going to establish a culture, and then they're going to have all this stuff that they've added to the mix, right? I covered a team years ago where Dave Yeager walked and he took over and they were saying, we need to get up and down the court. That's what we need. He had to get Zipo.

Like it lasted two weeks. Right? You have Morgasol and you got Zibo. It lasts two weeks. So you fancy yourself as like having all of these ideas. And then you realize, bro, you're going to do what LeBron wants to do. The Brons is going to have the ball in his hands, in the back court. He's going to take it in the front court. He's going to do whatever he decides.

And so everybody's been convinced right. Like Frank Vogel, you got them and won them a title and he was out. And then everybody thought Darwin Ham stunk. And I'm not going to sit here and tell you, Darwin Ham didn't stink. He might have. but I don't know how drastically different L.A. is going to look. And the fact that a guy got hired from a media job, I get. He was drinking wine doing podcasts with LeBron James and then became LeBron James' coach.

Right. It's like they met on Bumble or something. Honestly, they went on in a couple days. It's like, sure, let's get married. So now the guy is the head coach of the Los Angeles Lakers. That's one of seven. He's clearly, look, he's clearly a smart guy. He is a smart guy.

Oh, and I've spoken to him on air and off air. He is as likable as you would like, as amenable as you would like. He is an A plus human being off air and on air. I do think it's going to be very interesting for him to deal with the kind of scrutiny that comes with being the Los Angeles Lakers coach. Oh, yeah. Because I don't know how much you even saw when he was dropping the F-bombs in the introductory press conference.

I do think he is a guy that can. He's not ultra-thific. I do think that it is going to get to him when it's when people are criticizing his moves. It's not. And criticizing his lineups and criticizing, I could see him firing back. But you're saying the Los Angeles Lakers head coach, but I see this as the LeBron James head coach. Like every single head coach LeBron has had, has come under scrutiny, including Eric Spolstra. People talk about the championships they want, but they forget.

early on in that relationship, that was, that was not copesthetic early on. It's a thankless job, bro. No coach ever walks away from it. The only one, he's the only one that maintained reputation. But they won the title and they came back from 3-1. Yeah. So he was a made man. But if, I've always said this.

If you win, it's LeBron. If you lose, it's you. Exactly. How is JJ Reddick going to deal with? with that because they don't have a team that's competing at the highest level. Oh, they're going to lose some games. Right. They're going to lose some games.

The other ones. Kenny Atkinson, look, I loved Kenny Atkinson and Brooklyn. Yeah, me too. I love that team. That is a guy that said he was going to build a culture and actually did. They were the most fun. That's the Jared Dudley. Oh, yeah.

The Angelou Russell, they're bouncing around. The woo walk on the sideline that series against the Sixers. Great. I mean, they lost. But they were competitive and they were so much fun. And DeAngelo Russell was a guy. And so we're going to see if he can figure out they've got a lot of overlap. You know, do you get the best of Mitchell, Garland, Mobley, and Allen all playing together?

And so this is a guy that I thought was a very good head coach when we last saw him before he got run out for doing right in playing Jared Allen over D'Andre Jordan. But obviously was not the captain's pick of the Durant-Kyrie team. And so he moved on, but I don't think anybody lost any faith in him and his ability to do the job. So it's going to be interesting. He's now taking over what I think. It's a very talented team, a good team that does need to look different, right? It does need to look differently than it did. That Celtic series was Donovan Mitchell or nothing.

If Donovan Mitchell is going to stand on his head or we're going to lose the game. And they can't play that way. Their roster is too strong for that. And I do think he is the kind of guy that could come in, try some different. stuff and if it doesn't work then you have to come to terms with it's a roster thing rather than a coach. Do you feel it's a Mobley

or Allen conversation? It certainly has always looked like that. Can you get the best out of both? Because I love both of them. I do. I love both Mowbly and Allen. I do too. But that Allen contract that was signed in the offseason

is amazing. It's an amazing contract because you've locked him in if it does work. Tradeability. And if it doesn't. Tradeability. Oh, I mean, you could get, you could get unbelievable return on that.

I mean, I think unless Mobile is going to be able to stand out there and shoot, he's going to have to play center. He's not. It's not what he does. Mobile can't shoot. Right? You think in the last three months, Mobile's turning into a 45% three-point shooter? It's the weirdest thing, because if you watch him shoot, a lot of guys, you watch them shoot,

and it's just broke. And it's like, that guy's never going to be able. His shot always looks good. It looks smooth. And then he, but everything about the way he moved. Like you watch Joel M. B. shoot, you're like, how is that man going to hit a three? Yep.

And he does. And you watch Moby's shoot and you think that he should shoot 50% from three. So we got Charlotte's got Charles Lee, which is a sneaky one because obviously they couldn't stand their coach. And they were mega injured, but they got some really junk talent. If Lamello stays healthy, they obviously brought Bridges back. They've got Brandon Miller, who. had a very good rookie season. They got some players.

They got some players on that team. And Charles Lee was very highly regarded in his time. It'd been part of two winners back to back before he got this job. Brian Keefe, you know, prayers up for him. He's coaching the Wizards. Everybody loves Brian Keefe from what I gather, from the things that I read. It's an impossible job. And they're going to be trying to get Cooper flagging the draft for the upcoming season.

So that's just a guy that's taking a job and like, bro, I hope you're ready to put 70 losses on your record because it's tough to dig out. 70 would be tough. 65. Jordy Fernandez at the net, same thing. It's Cooper Flagg sweepstakes. Bootenhozer, I actually think will be great for the sun. Oh, I think so too. I think that'll be a great one.

That's a sneaky one. They added Ty's Jones, who had a tremendous amount of success under Taylor Jenkins. and a team I covered. Jenkins is a bud guy. So they will be used the same way. And I think you're going to see the same kind of stuff. And also, it was better not to have the ball in those guys hands.

Like somebody that can facilitate and get those guys into different spots on the court. So I actually think Boonehaw would be great for them in Phoenix. I think the sons are underrepresented as a team that can be much better than they were last year. Because I think people talk about the Western Conference, but they talk about O.K.C., Timberwolves, and the Mavericks.

Yep. And I don't think the sons are mentioned enough as a team that could be the number two team in the end of the biggest. And then the seventh of the coaches is J.B. Bickerstaff. A guy I know, a guy I love, a guy that I do think is going to give them. He will instantly, he will get those kids playing defense and he will get them organized, which I think goes a long way in being able to make them competitive, right? That's all I would say. I don't have some kind of extreme high hope for Detroit, but I know J.B., I have covered him. as a head coach. And I know that he is not one that is going to get run over by a young player. This is a very young roster still.

And I do think he is going to get them playing competitive basketball. And I do think he's going to get those kids defending. And I do think it will be good for their careers. And certainly they have a lot of talent that has yet to show as much talent as it is. because they've just been beat down by losing. And I do think a fresh voice. And somebody that does have credibility as a head coach, I think he's going to do very good things.

And they're not going to be just run over every single night the same way they have been run over over the course of the last few years. So I'm actually excited about seeing what a lot of these new coaches are able to do in their new places. And frankly, you and I, I think, have the same opinion on a lot of these in terms of like the idea of Kenny Atkinson, like the idea of Budenholzer. Oh, I like Coach Bud. I like Coach Bud in Phoenix.

Because the other guys are not really trying to win. That's right. But the coach, but I think Coach Bud can really make a difference. I think the son's going to be better than people think they are. That's one of my picks to perform above expectations. And my second one, I'm going to take us off the court a little bit. Okay. I'm excited about inside the NBA.

Oh. The media change that we will not feel this season. but what has happened is NBC and Amazon have picked up MBA rights. Their official NBA partners moving forward in the media, which leaves T&T out. Now they've sued or whatever. This isn't a lawyer podcast. We can adjudicate that another time. But I will say that they came out the documentary last year about the inside the NBA.

They kind of saw this coming. And with Charles and Kenny and Ernie and Shaq and them seeing the end and the way that they are going to perform, the way that we're going to take in those games. Do you know what I might do? I live on the East Coast. I might stay up a little bit later. I might watch the end of the show after the game is over. I might appreciate a little bit more.

I think there's going to be some iteration of that show moving forward at one of those NBA partners. I don't know exactly what that is. We'll find out. But just watching that come to a close in its current iteration is something that I'm extremely excited for because it has been for so long such a big part of the way that I ingest NBA basketball. basketball. I think it's going to be very fascinating to see how Adam Silver handles the Barclay jokes. It's not going to stop.

This last season, when they don't care, that show is happening no matter what. Oh, yeah. But no longer being a partner, like, he really, he is, he cannot be controlled. That's the best thing about it. But there will be jokes all the time about. how they're no longer going to be. And about what happened with T. Oh, I know. No, no, for real.

Because it's going to be like, and they didn't want, you know, I mean, he's just going to be cracking jokes all the time about how this is like their swan song. I don't care. What are they going to do to me? Do you think he's going to leave media? I know. I know. You think he's never going to speak into a microphone again at the end of the season?

No, it's going to continue, but it's not going to be like this. And I think they're going to take advantage of that opportunity to be unhinged, unleashed, and I will be watching until 1.30 in the morning every single time they're on. I've got to ask you a real question because you had, you were in that ESPN building for over 20 years. I'm not going to do anything that's going to get you in trouble talking about the past. I am asking you, this is a television question. One of the things that stood out to me over the course of the past couple of years is you have seen a sea change, and this is what I've wondered what will happen with them.

And maybe then that would couch some of them goofing about the future because they know they're going to be somewhere in the future. I agree. But they don't want to leave Atlanta. They don't want to leave all those people. They want to do it at Turner. He's under contract. There's a lot to be worked out, right? You have seen a sea change now, whether it's what's going on with McAfee, whether it's what's going on with like this Manning cast that I love watching during the Monday night football games, where people are, and this is what I've wondered if they're going to do, you start your own production company. You've got your own people. So I've got my own people. Like all these people from Turner were still employing it. Like I don't want something new. I don't want something different.

I don't want to be somewhere else. And so, you know, Omaha production, they got their own people. McPhee's got his own people. And then you lease it out to these places, right? Do you think that that is going to become much more common where it's like, that is the program inside the NBA? And so now it's, do you want it NBC? Do you want it, Amazon? Do you want it at ESPN?

Well, whoever the case may be, you're doing it our way. You are, we have our own. So you are just paying our production company, and then our production company is going to produce this show that is going to be over your airwaves. Because that has been a fascinating thing that has taken place, and it seems to be more often in the course of the past like two years. There is one thing.

I don't want to get too into the business of basketball. We'll get back to basketball shortly, but they pay billions of dollars. Do you know how far a billion is from a million? Like, they pay billions of dollars to be NBA partners, and that includes rights to the footage, rights to the highlights, rights to the air. Like, they're not going to have that.

So if they just say, we're going to start our own thing on the side and we're not going to be an NBA partner, it's not going to be the same product. I think... No, no, no, but they would sell it too. What I'm saying is you do your own thing and sell it to one of the entities that does have the NBA. I could see it.

Yeah. But let's focus on this season. It's going to be fun to watch them on T&T. Look, let's stay focused on this season. He doesn't care. It's whatever happens after this season. This is going to be the FU season on inside the NBA. And I'm excited to watch.

And you're also going to have everybody tweeting and talking about every single episode, we cannot lose them. We can't. Heroes! We can't lose them. Oh, they're going to be heroes. Don't let us lose it. Absolute heroes.

They're going out on top. And guess what? You think a year from today, they're not going to be in another network doing TV together. They are, but we're going to celebrate them. Like, they're going off into the sunset and I'm here for it. Don't let this end. Yes. Every joke.

It's not going to end. I can't believe we're losing this. All right. Next one is which of the six Eastern Conference, actually seven, I'm making seven, Eastern Conference Afterthoughts get in the mix. Okay. Number one. Hear me out.

Who are the non-afterthought? Here we go. I want to hear how many. non-after thoughts. Who's Godfathered in to the top of the Easter conference? In your mind? Here's eight. Eight.

Hold on. Eight. Eight. Eight that nobody would argue. Not even you. Not even you. What are you talking about? Here's eight in the Eastern Conference.

I'm not talking about at the top, but I'm saying when we talk about who's going to be a playoff team, there's a line of demarcation. Just trust me on this. Here's your eight. I don't trust you, but continue you. Okay, tell me when you don't agree with one of the eight. for it. Pacers don't agree.

Shut up. Boston, New York, Philly, Cleveland, Indiana, Milwaukee, Milwaukee, Orlando, Miami. Miami. Okay. Miami.

That's fine. Miami, I'm out. All right, hold on now. Now listen to the seven. This is seven afterthoughts, I said. Okay. Brooklyn, Toronto, Chicago, Detroit, Atlanta,

Charlotte, Washington. Can't disagree. Atlanta would be the only point of demarcation. Atlanta, maybe. So you don't want to put Miami with those, the ones I just named. No. But look, here's what I'm telling you, there'll be one or two competitive. Atlanta.

So Atlanta? Atlanta. And then would you say, no. Okay, look. None of those other teams you mentioned are in competition. How about Charlotte? No. Could you foresee a circumstance?

No one loves lamello ball more than I love La Mello Ball and even then. Could you see a circums? No chance. P.S. two of these teams have to be nine and ten, even if you want to say. Are you sure? They have to. Are you sure?

That's the way the rules work. Can we change it? Toronto? No. Okay. Of those, who has the play? Who is the best player in Toronto? Scotty Barnes?

All right. Of those, who is the player you believe in the most? Scotty Barnes. Trayon. Cade Cunningham, Lamello Ball. Le Mello Ball. I have a personal thing for La Mello Ball. and for sure,

Tre Young. And then Chicago, but they like... The best player on those teams is Trey Young. I've seen him take a team to the conference finals by himself.

And we all thought Quinn was going to be good there. Yeah. We did. Yeah. And they've moved off the Murray thing. They made that choice. They made that choice.

I think moving on the Murray thing was a bad decision. Moving off the Murray thing was a good decision. Right. So now we will see going forward. But of those, You would say Atlanta, do you have more faith in Atlanta than you do Charlotte?

Absolutely. Okay. I've just seen it before. I've seen it with Tray Young. Charlotte and Detroit feel to me like ones that could become competitive. I'm not really there yet with... Charlotte, Detroit is what I want to see is them be good this year and get better next time. Competent.

You know what I mean? I want to see them trend in the right direction. Detroit, it feels like every year Detroit's next year is going to be a great year. With the amazing draft on the horizon. They had an amazing draft two drafts ago. No, no, no, no. I'm saying with the prize that it is, that's what's going to be fascinating. We know for sure.

Brooklyn's not trying. Washington's not trying. Chicago will probably get to the point where they're not. And then which of those... I feel Detroit's trying. Which of those ends up punning the second half of the season? If you're in the building, in Detroit, you're thinking... What do we need another top five pick for?

Exactly. We've had it the last four years. So I'd say Detroit and Atlanta would be the two teams that I would. I would hope to fill that nine and ten spot. Your third one. My third one. I'm going to give you a Tuesday on an adventure. There's two revenge tours that are going to happen this season.

Oh, no. Would you like to be in Milwaukee or would you like to be right here in Memphis with the dry rub ribs? I thought you were going to say the Boston guys for not, like, we're having the summer from hell after winning a title. Everybody keeps, that's the common trope. Jalen Brown's pissy. Jason James Pissie. He couldn't play in the game of the Olympics. KP's going to be hurt forever.

Yeah, I know. They're fine. But they're pissy. He didn't win the finals MVP. He didn't get played in the Olympics and all this stuff. They got rings. They got rings. I'm singing no songs for Boston.

The revenge tour is either going to be the Bucks or the Grizzles. The Bucks actually had a reasonable season last year that got stripped away from them at the end. The Grizzlies had the season from hell where the whole team got injured. Yes. So let me, let me stay with me, and I believe Milwaukee for this reason. The Dame season last season was strange to me. And it wasn't just what happened to on the court,

which was odd. But remember his quotes about having nothing to do in Milwaukee? Oh, yeah. Going through a divorce. Like, it's just kind of like it just seems. They said he was out of shape. Yeah, Dane Lillard out of shape. Like I'm a Dane believer.

And I think, how do I say this? I think Dame is going to be good enough to overcome some of the obvious issues. that they have. Because when they won a championship, it was Coach Bud, and it was Lopez, was a huge part of what they did.

Lopez is not getting younger. And Janus is, it was Lopez and Janus packed the paint, let the other team shoot threes. We're going to watch them shoot threes, and maybe they'll shoot 30%, we'll win. If they shoot 45%,

we'll lose, and it worked and took them all the way to the finals, which they were losing, by the way, to the suns. People forget that. And then they eventually won the title. But I will say that I believe in Dames's

year two being much better than dames year one and i believe in them being looked off and forgotten and being at least the second seed at the end of the seed well you added a couple of like more adult players to try to like the win now stuff because you got like these guys tarine prince delon right uh you added uh who's got the gary trent junior right to some other role player type guys but maybe it helps you get by when chris middleton misses you know 25 games i didn't mention him for a reason right How involved, what would you say your level of activity is on social media slash Instagram? My level of activity?

Yeah. Do you check Instagram regularly? Yes. Okay. Yes. You know who David Goggins is? No. The maniac, I don't want to say maniac, but he was a former Navy SEAL.

He's a motivational guy. He's got the hardest. Doesn't hit my algorithm. He does the stay hard. He does the running. I just get a lot of women in butt cheeks. They know me well. So this is the guy.

He'll be like running down. He's like, who's going to carry the boats? Who's going to carry the logs? This is the, stay hard. I just get. Girls dancing with their butts out. Yeah, that's what I get. This guy is like a motivation guy.

So he's the kind of guy that shows up on my algorithm because they're like, this fat ass needs some motivation. So this fat ass needs a motivation. I'm going to give him David Goggins. Anyway, the guy's got the most insane. workouts ever, ever in the world, right? He's been posting these videos of Lillard doing him with him. I love it. Oh.

And I remember Lillard was boxing two years ago? You see him with this thing with David Gagons and you're like, oh, but. I'm with it. Talk to me. Talk to me. I'm big on Dame. I'm buying all the Dame stock. This guy is going to be in the most ridiculous, cardiovascular physical shape that you

could be at that age. go look this guy up man trust me by the way you'll love him you're not going to believe it's a real human being he's going to get you off your bucks it's going to make you want to run I'm going to get in front of other takes

Janus MVP What are you doing all this for Yonis MVP You'll see it The whole season preview Yeah I might not be back next week You're trying new hosts

I got to get them all out now. In case, just in case. Just in case. You never know. You're on record. Yonis MVP. Yonis MVP. You're turning my turn.

No, you said you did your old bucks thing. Yeah. All right, then it's me. My third is Wemby. Okay. Now, here it is. Oh. Are we Wemby top 10?

Are we Wemby top five? Are we Wemby top top top? Go. How fast does this happen and can it happen now, right? With many other. Talk dirty to me, Chris Vernon. We know he is generational. Talk dirty to me, Chris Vernon.

We know he's generational. We saw last year, look, I am much higher. One of the reasons that last year I put, and this was a pick that hit for me, but at the season preview, I had Orlando. And it was on the strength of Ben Carrey. I think Ben Carrow is going to be one of the best five to ten players in the league when he hits his prime, right? And I have a great belief in what he could be already. Now, he made the All-Star team.

He helped lead this team to this good team. I like some of the players around him, like Franz and Jalen and all these guys. Get back to Wemby, Chris. Okay, so here's the deal. It's year two. You saw what Paolo just did. He was ready to win by year two leading that team. Wemby now he's got Chris Paul

now he's got another adult in Harrison Barnes we'll see how many games those guys can play or whatever and then it's not like they load it up to try to win right now like they're doing this at a pace but if he is truly one of the best five or ten players in the league already by next year then you've got to start look at them as a team that is much different competition-wise

and so I think what stands out to me is we've seen generational talents and we've seen that they go through that rookie year. And then that second year, they can really, really take a leap. And they can help people win. Last year, just for instance, like, Palo Ban Carroll helped people win on a lesser level, even as more role guys. Jalen Williams helped people win number one seed in the Western Conference.

Kagan Murray has helped people win already. And like, but we look at this guy in a totally different way. We look at this like we did Luca, like we did great players of the past. LeBron, all these other. Is it already the time that we're going to be talking about him? Because I don't think most lists have him at the very time. Here's my concern. How good can you be how soon?

Everyone listening to this podcast, my concern is that people overvalue offense and forget that 50% of the time you're on the basketball court, you're playing defense. And Wimby is, in my opinion, the best, most effective defender in the national basketball. Association. Like he changes. Boy, is that refreshing to hear. He changes shots. It's just like it's, it, there's, you get blocks, you get defensive rebounds, but he

terrifies human beings that go towards the basket and try to finish over him. He terrifies jump shooters. They're just in his vicinity. He changes the game so much more on defense. People want to say, oh, he scored 20 points. He scored three points. Oh, do you see him dunk? You see him do this.

But what he does on defense is going to be more effective and more impactful to win. and losses for the spurs than anything he does in office. You can find a clip of a game last year, Memphis versus San Antonio. We had three on one break, kicked it out to the corner. Because he's there. Dribled it. It's a no-go zone. Dribbled it all the way back out to the three-point line.

I'm like, okay, I've never seen this. He'll have a foot in the paint and then block a shot in the corner. Yes. It's what he does defensively, and what he does offensively is, spectacular, like nothing we've ever seen. What's the highest ceiling that you could see? We rank players at the end of the year. Honestly, I'm not good.

I'd say ceiling. He's not in the Embedd and Yokic and Janus conversation. He's going to be number five in MVP voting. How about that? I'll give you that. So you think he could be top five? No, no. I wouldn't say top five.

I would say number five. Because he's young. Like he's still, and he still got a lot to do. It can happen fast, though. It can happen fast, but I don't see it this year. And I will say that one of my five things I picked out was the Chris Paul of it all. Oh, this is your fourth. This is my fourth.

Chris Paul could have gone to any team in the National Basketball Association, any team. And he could have ring chased. Like we've seen so many done before us. So many. And he said, I want to impact the sport. You and I love the sport of basketball. He said, I see something happening with this Victor Wembenyama kid that I want my legacy to be is giving him the gift, passing the torch to him, staying with him, not just on the court, on the plane, at practice, lifestyle, training. And I think Victor Wembenyama is going to gain more from being around Coach Pop and Chris Ball than anyone else in that San Antonio organization, which is why Chris Paul's decision to play with Victor Wembaughan.

Wembenyama and be a playing team or a six seed. His decision was so respected by me and I believe many others. Ready for this take on that? Love it. Chris Paul will have a greater effect on all those guys that people don't really care about than he will, Wembe. Wembe's going to be amazing no matter what, but he will help him. But the Devin Vassals of the world, the Kelton Johnson's of the world,

Preach. All of these young guys that are there, the Trey Joneses of the world, all these other guys that are there, Jeremy Sohans of the world. Like, these are the guys, Stefan Castle. He's got like a little magic wand. How about Stefan Castle? He waved his little magic wand over the thunder. Remember that in the bubble? Bro, he waves, Lou Dort, you're a person now.

Shea Gilders Alexander. You're a person now. And now he deserves. And the sons. He deserves the coach of the year award that Mani stole. Yes. Yes. I just feel like he's decided that I'm not going to win a championship in my career,

but my legacy is going to be passing the torch to others. He also might have wanted to play. Fair. That could be part of it. That could be part of it. And how many? You know, he's going to start.

He was better on the Warriors than that. people remember. But he's going to start. Yeah. How many teams would be willing to make Chris Paul they're starting. I mean, he's replacing Sohan as the point card. I'm well away. Tray Jones really. His second half of the season. But yeah,

how many teams would be starting it? They would start him, but they might not finish with him. Like they would start him because Chris Paul. Well, he might play 25 minutes a game. And it's been a decade as he's played over 70 games. Not really, but it's really been four or five years since he's probably played over 70. He's usually in the 50s.

I just love that decision that he made. Oh, yeah. I love that decision for the game and for the league. That's one of the things I'm most excited about. And I also think that he will have a profound impact on a lot of those young players. Yes. We have seen him do it over and over again. And he's taking our jobs. The second, the second

that he retires from the league, he's taking over media. You do wonder if that was part of the equation here. Oh, conspiracy theory? not a conspiracy theory. I'm saying getting in that... Build a relationship with Wemby. No, no.

So when you're on our side of the camera in 10 years, you've got Wimby on the text. Do you think it's more likely? No, I would say on the coaching and management and ownership side of things, we're better to learn than be ingratiated in that organization. We have seen all manner of people be ingratiated in that organization. and then go on to success. Can I take this further? Can I take this further? You're saying the media side, what if it's any other side?

What if it's this? Out with Coach Pop, in with Coach Paul. I mean, I didn't even think of that until now. Literally this second is the first time that's ever come to my mind. Out with Coach Pop, in with Coach Paul. Couldn't you see that happening? It's not the craziest thing in the world. I never thought of that until now.

Does he want to be a head coach? Does he want to be, like everybody. He can do whatever he wants. And everybody, everybody, every. year when that GM survey comes out and it says the most likely player to become a head coach. He's the guy that knows exactly the clock, the foul number. Oh, yeah. He is always.

He's not doing two for once. He's doing like four for five. He's made. I don't even know what he's thinking. Right. He's managed a game in a different level than you even understand. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Always.

And so he may, and he may not fancy himself as a head coach. But honestly, being a part of that. organization and being a part of seeing the way Popovich runs things is going to serve him well no matter what he does post career of course and he there's a blank check for him from every media company for sure from the league itself and from every franchise blank check for Chris Paul my fourth two other old guys since you mentioned Paul they're talking about I thought you're talking about us no the Curry LeBron competition chances okay so that's how I'm framing this the competition and chances. Where are we here? Are we closer to, much like they saw like what Dallas did last year, right?

They say, hey, man, we got LeBron or we got Luca here. We got to be able to compete, right? Like, this ain't doing. And, you know, you never know the way this stuff, how many years you're going to have to with all this stuff. Yeah, let's go. We're going to get Kyrie. And then we're going to go and we're going to do some stuff. And we're also going to do some stuff midseason that enabled them to end up making the NBA. finals, right? They bolstered themselves and became a radically different team for the last month and a half of the season. Oh, talk dirty to me. What are you going to say? These are things that have not been done by either of these organizations. So are we closer to, hey, we're, we've got LeBron and AD and we're going to try to compete and we're not close to competing right now. We have Steph Curry and Draymond Green and who knows what's happening with the comming a thing and everything else.

And we are trying to compete right now, or are we closer to punt what's the future of our franchise? Or are we just going to live in this end of Kobe world where it's like, okay, we're going to ride it out with the superstars. We all watch the Olympics this summer. And at the end of games, it's LeBron James and Steph Curry looking at each other and saying, let's take over this game. Oh, we're down. Let's take over this game. Let's win together. and when the buzzer rings and they win by two or three or foot 10 or whatever it is,

what do they do? They go right next to each other. They give each other the biggest hug. And every single person that follows the league that watched them in the Olympics said to themselves, wouldn't this be nice? Seems like those two guys like each other. Seems like those two guys see the end of their careers coming. Wouldn't it be nice?

And I feel like the universe wants this to happen. But my question for you, Chris Vernon, you brought this up. How does it happen and who does it? Because I can't see LeBron going to the Warriors. I can't see the Lakers who just drafted his son trading LeBron James. It has to be the other way around and I can't see a world in which that happens. The question is, do you think they're closer to competing or turning the page to whatever is next? Interesting.

Obviously, LeBron is in a different place. Like, he is. We accept as currently constructed, they cannot compete. There's not enough hair plugs and hair dye to cover. There's not enough Beijing and China to cover the fact that LeBron James is aging. All right. So, like, he is closer to turning the page. But I would say as a team, the Lakers are closer to competing because of Anthony Davis.

I think that the bad season that Lakers had last year covered up a great season that A.D. had last year. And in Olympics that he had last year. I'm going to throw you a random name. Okay. And I'm just going to say, okay, I tell you. and it's not somebody you're going to have some kind of high opinion of, right? But somebody that they go and attain and with the thought of, hey, there's only so many.

No, hold on both of them. I take, I'll give you a specific guy, Zach Levine, okay? And I take Zach Levine and let's just take him off of Chicago and I'm not going to do all the trade stuff and everything else. I'm just telling you, taking Zach Levine, and I'm putting him on the Lakers. I ain't taking Zach Levine And I'm putting him on the Warriors Okay Hmm

Do you view That's like a win now Here's another third guy To go along with my guys Right Here's a third guy Like no matter what your opinion is Of a Camingo

Or an Austin Reeves Or whoever we want to say Right We're saying Here's their third piece Right that goes on So I've got Steph I got Dremont

Now I'm bringing in This guy Okay and I've got LeBron and I've got AD and now I'm bringing in this guy and I gave you that's a random name

but somebody that very well could be available he is available like nobody wants him but if I said either of those which of those is more likely like do you sit there and go

if they added that guy now I'd look at them in a different light as a team that would be able to compete I would say he's not winning anybody championship or if they would have done what the Kings did and added DeRosa.

DeRosa specifically said no to the Lakers. And was like, I'm going to go to Sacramento and I'll play with DeMontas, Sabonis, and Deeran Fox, which is wild to me. And I would say that Levine, a player like that would be more impactful in wins and losses in the regular season to the Warriors than he would be to the Lakers

because it is such a LeBron-D dominant environment on the Lakers. So I would say that the Warriors need someone like that more than the Lakers do, and the Warriors wins and losses would go up in my mind seven, eight games by adding someone like Levine more than the Lakers. So you think right, even right now, the Lakers are closer to the competition thing than turning the page. Personally, yes. I mean, you look at the Lakers.

You've got two aces. It's like spades. You have the ace of spades and the king of spades. You know what? The rest of your hand might not be great, but you're going to win two books. LeBron and Curry are both still great. That's the decision you have to make. How much are we winning now?

I thought you were putting them together. No. We can't play it. Come on. I don't know how you get them together. I know. I want it, though. I mean, you never know.

Can I go to my next one? Let them, let those teams not compete for another year. Right? You're going to be looking down at a calendar and you're going, hey, man. Oh, no, they'll be competing for what? For the 60s. Stop. They'll be competing for the playing tournament.

Right. They may play each other in the playing tournament. They did. I know. I know. My next one, I love it here in Memphis. I love it. Okay.

But let me tell you what's happening in New York City. This city has not been higher on the Knicks. I think it must have been like the stack in mellow years. Oh, this is good. You live there. Bro. All right. Let me ask you.

Let me tell you something. Do you know what I see? I don't see Knicks hats on guys. I see Knicks hats on girls. When I'm on the subway train, women have person. that have the Nix logo on it. Like, it is, it is taking over the city in the off season, not just picking it up for the playoffs.

Like, this is a Nix city again. Because when the Nets had the juice, when they, you know, the Kevin Durant three, they didn't go in with the bucks and, like, they were like the Nets kind of had a little juice. This is a Nix city now, like it's never been before. Ticket prices for Nix games are out of control. Quiz time.

I can't take my kids there. Quiz time. Very exclusive. exclusive club. There's one VIP table left. Same time. Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson gets it. Don't even ask the question.

And Aaron Judge show up at the same time. Oh, Jalen Brunson. Jalen Brunson. Over Aaron Judge? Absolutely. When I went to Yankee Stadium, 95% of the people in the crowd had on Judge 99 shirt jerseys or jerseys.

I've seen anything like it in my life. The men's are good too. There's two baseball teams. There's one basketball team in New York right now. There's one basketball team in New York right now. One. You think Jalen Brunton is the most popular athlete in New York? Absolutely.

There's no question. Who else are you putting up besides Aaron Judge, we put Danny Jones? Like what are we talking about? Air Rogers? Like what are we talking about? Soto? Yeah. What are we talking about? The energy. There is no job.

or jet because of the Rogers thing. I get belief neighbors will be hot in a minute. It's always wild to me that Coach Tibbs coaches for three years and then leaves. But he's sticking. And this chemistry that they have. Well, it's all his friends running the team. That's the thing.

It's like the chemistry they have. Villanova. You're buddies from college. I still play with my buddies from college. Like, there are buddies from college. You see the chemistry in the podcast. Like every single player that they've attained from somewhere else, Tibbs has gotten the most

from. Think about Dante DiMenzo with the Bucks or the Warriors. And think about what he did in the playoffs last year. How worried are you already about the like Mitchell Robinson thing? Hartstein's gone. Hartstein's gone. But think about Hartstein and the Lakers. I think me and Bill Simmons were the only people that even knew he existed when he was with the Clippers.

We didn't even make it to the season. Pressure when he was in Toronto. Yeah. Like every single player that comes to the Knicks becomes a better version of themselves because of the cohesion of the chemistry and what Tibbs gets from them. Now you brought up a good point, which I didn't want to discuss. They do not have a big. It's already the Hardinstein was big for them.

Big. He was everything. He was bigger than Robinson. And Robinson is not even available. Now you got precious and like they need like Isaiah Stewart. You know what I mean? Like that's what they're looking at right now. Like they're kind of looking at the bottom of the barrel looking for a big.

And that is a problem. And you know one that I saw come up? Again, I don't know. For me, Beef Stew was like, he was the only one that fits. Well, there was, I did not see anyone. who knows what his health situation is, but a guy that I had that I covered in Adams. I saw that come up.

Oh, yeah. Because Adams is in Houston. I know. So it's not the most natural fit. How much is Stephen Adams going to be able to play? I was one of the biggest Stephen Adams fans in the world. But he's coming off a real injury. But when he was with the Thunder,

and even when he was here in Memphis, but in Memphis he was more of like a screener, offensive rebounder guy, but like they need some. someone that can pop and dunk and catch lobs and pick and roll more than Adams can. Like, he's just size. Grab a lot of rebounds, though. He's just size.

You got to have somebody who can grab a lot of rebounds. Do you know who would be great for the Knicks? I say Hartinstein. He got a bazillion dollars. He'd be great for the Knicks. He got a bazillion dollars to not be a Nick. What do you got? Like, they made him a lot.

The last one, total Homer picks since you got to do your next. The return of John Morant. Oh, God. I think this is like, this is the. Why are more people talking about this? So he played nine games last year and averaged 25, 8, and 6, and had an absolute masterpiece in his first game back, which is a 34-point masterpiece with a game winner in New Orleans.

We all remember that. He played nine games. He won Western Conference Player of the Week, and then we never saw him again. I mean. And then he was done with the shoulder for the rest of the year. This is a true, remind me, I have a love. lot of hope in terms of what he's going to be able to bring to the court. Also, how he has

changed. People do grow up. And I would just alert everybody, you can probably find it somewhere. This summer, of course, I don't know a lot of people that went down to it. At Murray State University, they finally did this thing. They did this whole Hall of Fame. They inducted him into the athletic hall fame, whatever. And there's a bunch of people from Memphis that went down there for it. And you could probably find it. He stood up there and he talked about it. And he looked out and there was like the coach was there and the GM was there. And there was front office people and there's all all manner of people there and he did this whole bit about like you got that you have no idea how much it means for all of you to show up and i know i've put you

all through a lot and i've made mistakes in my it just sounded like an adult talking and people do grow a lot and he's made some terrible errors that he had to pay dearly for it's how you know let me ask you a question because you live here you know you know the grizzlies more than anybody else right is from the outside looking in jaws story has gotten to the point where someone like my wife who doesn't follow the NBA will hear the name john moran you know what she says oh it's a guy with the guns right and and that's what he has to change and it can be changed iverson fan jacobby all the stuff with iverson history retells a different story. But I mean, like I ever seen was, it was always something. It was like, he went out and did this.

And there was the stuff with the, you know, there's the famous clip with the mom and the wife rolling down the window screaming a report. And all like there was all this controversy and all this stuff that was going on. And he was terrible for the league and all this kind of stuff. And it's like, look, I do think that now was a grizzly, by the way. One of the things for a day, one of the things, I think that now we live, in a culture that wants to tear you down and pile on more than ever before. But I also think we live in a culture that wants the redemption more than ever before. And so I think once the redemption starts to take place, and that takes place on the court, right? That takes place on the court. Once that starts happening, look, this guy played nine games last year and sold millions of shoes and

had one of the top selling jerseys in the NBA. I went to a foot locker. I went to a foot locker two days ago, and they've got four different color rays of the John Moran's shoes. They're waiting for him to be great. And he is, I've said this before to you, and I'll say it again, he is the most exciting player to watch. Is he the best player?

No. Is he a top 10 player arguable? The most exciting player to watch play basketball, in my opinion, is John Morant. It's not even close. And we haven't gotten to see it. And he also got replaced by Anthony Edwards in terms of the young American that ever. Well, American.

That's fair. That's fair. They needed to be in a, look, you look up and down and by all measure, right, if I listed off, and we even talked about Wembe, maybe being on that list, right? We say, I'm listing the best players in the NBA. People say Yokic. People say Yonis. People say Embed.

People say maybe Wemby. They say, Luca. At what point do we get? Brunson is the only American-born player that registered in the MVP voting. Shailin Brunson. You have Brunson, you have Edwards, you have... Morant. Morant.

And Cooper Flagg. I mean, we have been waiting because of that draft class that was Morant and Zion. Zion looks kind of spelt right now. He does. bro, if he ever gets his ass in shape, he will be one of the top. Let's end with this, though. I always say, happiness is a function of realistic expectations.

As someone who's wearing a grizzlies hat right now, I could spit and hit the FedEx forum right now. What are your realistic expectations for the Grizzlies and John Moran? I think Morant will be all NBA. Top first team? Yes. I think it will be first. That puts him ahead of some players.

I mean, I think he would have been if he wouldn't have gotten suspended. Fair. He was very close. If you looked at, if you just want to do the numbers thing, and they were the number two seed. Two years ago. So I think, okay. All right. He's hurt.

How about this? He will be top two teams, NBA. So when I say all NBA, first or second team, not 30. Top 10. Okay. And the Grizzlies, Memphis Grizzlies. We're right here. Top four in the West.

Hosting game one of the first round of the NBA playoffs. When they have been healthy, when they've been healthy, they've been the two C two years in a row. That's hard to argue with that. That got forgotten. And they weren't as good as they are now. John Moran, Desmond Bain, and Jaron Jackson, Jr. didn't suddenly get worse. And they added Zach Edie and they added a better bench. Like, why would they?

not be good. Why? Somebody wants to tell me why they wouldn't be good. Here's what I know. Why would they not be good? I'm coming to at least three Grizzlies for this season. I'm coming to three Grizzies game this season and I'm not paying for tickets and I'm not paying for dinner. Don't worry. But I'm also not staying at the Peabody. F of them, how dare you? You like the Peabody. I do like the Peabody. The ducks are overrated. You think the ducks are overrated. My man, thank you for joining me, Jacoby. You're the man. Appreciate you.

It's going to do it for another episode of the mismatch. Thank you to my executive. producer Jesse Lopez and we will talk to you soon.