The Mismatch - 12 Things We Like and Dislike from the NBA

Episode Date: November 15, 2022

Verno and KOC each give three things they like and three things that they don’t like from this NBA season so far. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey everyone, it's Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, aka Kevin O'Connor. Wait a minute, you're not Chris Vernon. No, Kevin, sadly, I'm not as cherubic or as raspy as Verno, but it is I, Jay Kyle, man. And folks, basketball has been and continues to be so very good. That's exactly why Kyle and I are hosting a brand new basketball show on a brand new podcast feed, the ringers NBA draft show. We're going to have you covered every week as we go in-depth and deep dive in hopes of answering an ever-important question in the NBA. Who's got next?

Whether it's an international phenom like Victor Winbenyama or the G-League Scoot Henderson. Or stars from Overtime Elite like A. Men Thompson, as well as a full-blown swarm of talented prospects from the promising 2023 NBA draft class. For sure, Kyle. And we're also going to get into players from the college ranks because this is a loaded class. for us to discuss prospects rising and falling, and we're going to revisit and redraft recent draft classes and get into how the league's evolution could help inform what's valuable in a prospect of the future.

This is a podcast for a fan of every team, whether you're losing and have high draft lottery odds or you're looking for sleepers later in the draft. We're going to be covering everything in the months to come, so please make sure you follow and subscribe to the Ringer NBA Draft Show. And hit us with those five-star ratings. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Varnan and joining me

he does every Tuesday from The Rigger.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.K. Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K.A. Kevin O'Colm, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Clyne, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Candiland, Kevin O'Candibon. Boone! How is your Tuesday going? Everything's great. So we're recording this on Monday night for everybody out there. Not actually Tuesday yet. What we're going to do is we've had about most of the teams have played around 12 games

so far this season. So today we are going to give you 12 things that we like and dislike. We have put together three each. This is for the NBA season up to this point. And I'll tell you this. We did not go in-depth when you and I talked about this before the show. Not at all. I tried to mention some stuff

that I have not talked about on the show yet. Right? We end up talking about the same subject so many times just because that's the nature of NBA news. So I wanted to give some special shoutouts to maybe some subjects that have not talked about as in depth. And likewise, on the dislike side, things that I probably haven't mentioned before. And I'm sure that years are going to be different also. Hopefully we do not overlap because in the interest of making this as fresh as we could, we did not convene on what we had for our three likes and dislike. So it was very important who goes first because in case there is overlap,

one of us is going to get busted out. So I will let you choose. Do you want to go first or do you want to go second? I go first. I knew it. Go ahead. Are you doing like? Let's do a like.

Okay, sure. We'll start with a like. All right. We'll start with something that happened over the weekend. I really like Joe L. Embed, his development after the slow start that he had. He had the 59-point bomb on the jazz. And, I mean, like, there was literally nothing Utah could do. Nothing they could do against him.

And I felt like watching the game, it was a culmination of all the work he's put in over the years, but especially the summer. Because I reported back in June that what he was working on this offseason was more of a perimeter game, you know, attacking on drives to the basket, pull-ups, stuff in transition. And we saw him against Utah use stepbacks from the elbows, hang dribbles on drives to the basket, pump fakes to get into his pull up going left or right. And this season, he had the slow start, you know,

dealing with plantar fasciitis, but he's more fluid than ever on jumpers, more fluid than ever on drives to the rim. And it shows them the numbers too because, granted, we're dealing with small sample hot sizes here. He's shooting 49% Chris on dribble jumpers this year. That's according to the second spectrum. That's up from 40%.

over the last two seasons. So maybe that number falls over the course of the year, but his mid-range jumper is on fire more than it ever has been. He's driving to the basket over six times per game, up from five last year, for the year before. He's driving more than ever, shooting better than ever. And B. looks like better than he did last year when he was second MVP voting.

And that's what I like, maybe more than anything this year, because how does this guy continue to improve even more? Yeah, we're midway through November. Now, I think it's only four games that he's played so far in the month, but he's averaging 40 points of game. Oh, that's absurd. He's averaging 40 now. And now, of course, a 59 will do a lot for your average. It's not like the other games weren't high up there either, though.

42 against Atlanta? Yeah, yeah, yeah. So 101 over the weekend. Yeah. Tell me you saw the maxi quote about Doc. Oh, yeah. Wanted to run a pick and roll. I mean.

I don't think it was an intention. shot, but I know. I mean, the way it read, it was like, of course, the player has a better idea than Doc Rivers. Yeah. Tyrese was like, you know what? This seems to be working really well. Where I just give it to. So two things on the flip side of that, just as we're talking about Embed, we figured out the one thing that Utah has a massive problem with.

While Utah has been an amazing story thus far this year, they really have nobody to throw at the Joe L. them beads of the world. Right? There's nobody, and even when you look up and down the roster, it's like, all right, who should we try here? Kelly Olenic, Lori Market, like, it's a fool's airing.

That is one spot where they really have nothing. They don't even have like some big stiff just sitting on the bench that you could go in there and try to like use six fouls on the guy or something. Like, that is one thing.

The second thing is it took every bit of that 50, to knock off the damn jazz. Like they are a menace still. And I'm watching that at the end of the game. I mean, that's a, that's one of those games where the, the clutch time stats are getting recorded because it's a five-point game.

Yeah. Within the last couple of minutes of the game, right? That was not out of hand. And you would think, if I told you Joelle and B., scored 59, you'd think they demolish someone. And in fact, they needed every bit of it. But he went through this span last year prior to the Hardin Trade where, you know, he put up really freaky numbers. He was right there at the top of the MVP voting, you know, they were doing within the season when Timbontems always does his MVP voting column that he puts together.

And so MB was that last year, you know, it bothered him not being in. the mix in a real, real way last year. It's kind of like split, Yokic kind of ran away with it. And so I'm sure that this year he'd love nothing more than

to cement himself. But he has just been, when he gets like that and like that is obviously extreme. It was a career high. But good night. I mean, we've talked about before, Kiv. He can be the best player in the NBA. 100%. You really can.

Absolutely. I mean, he said, I interviewed him in 2016-17, and that year he says, I want to be a point guard, right? And like it was kind of funny, right, to hear him say that. He's a seven-footer, you know, 280 pounds, whatever he is. But, I mean, the development over the years, he's not a point guard and the playmaking sense, but man, like that dude, the way he can move with the ball on his hands, it's very guard or wing-like. And I like, he's better. He's better. And I'm buying the uptick.

And the reason why I buy it, despite the small sample. is because he's gotten better every single season. Why would you not believe it? He always puts the work in, and we're seeing all of the results right now carry over with performances like that, where he's just pulling up, turning around, doing whatever it takes the score

and pulverizing teams inside because he can still do that too, and dominating on defense. I mean, it's special, man. He's a hell of a talent. My first like! Oh, you're going to love this one. Jose Alvarado.

Oh, yeah, I love it. So I tweeted about him over the weekend, and I happened to be watching that Pelicans Rockets game. It had gotten close in the third quarter, and then the Rockets were up like eight, I think, towards the beginning of the fourth quarter. The Rockets kind of had built a little bit of a lead. And it was like you had unleashed a pit bull

that had not eaten in three days in the middle of that game. Very rarely, you see somebody have the profound impact that I watch. And look, Houston sucks, okay? And they're a mess. That being said, it looked like this was hurtling towards a very, very disappointing loss for the Pelicans. And this guy came in there,

and they went on the run of all runs, and you saw the energy in that building and you saw the energy of that team go up 50-fold, all right? And I'm sitting there watching it, and I could not help but think as I'm watching this game. I'm going, they got to start this guy. They've got to start this guy.

I've talked to you so many times, Kevin, about how there's a balance to teams. There's stars and there's role players. This guy clearly knows he's, a role player. There's a great article that just came out today on CBS Sports. I'd encourage people to read. It's by James Herbert. He got all kinds of quotes from all kinds of people about Alvarado. You know, he's got quotes in there from Van Vlead. He's got quotes in there from his G League coach. He's got quotes in there from Larry Nance, all kinds of stuff. It's really, really good.

We love Larry Nance with the ringer. Love him. And one of those things that was mentioned in there is that, you know, at practices, he's that guy. He's that guy that starts cussing somebody out. He's that guy that starts trash talking. He's like consistently raising the level of those guys. And he mentioned in the article, and I thought this was very fascinating. Because when I say the balance, right, stars and role players and somebody's got to not need

the ball. That Pelican's starting lineup has been really weird to me. CJ's not a point guard. I know they're trying to make it to him. I know the quotes are great. He's not going to be at his best in that role, okay, having to initiate the offense. But when you see Alvarado out there, he had this number in his article, James Herbert did. They've played 128 minutes so far this season with that back. They are outscoring their opponents by 17 points per 100. possessions. And I know he's leading the second unit. I know you like that change. You know, if you're the coach, you like that change of pace, whatever. But you're constantly having to go to mixing and matching this because your starting lineup is not your closing

lineup, virtually ever. And many times, your starting lineup's not, you got one defender in that thing. And you really have one role player in that thing, in that being Herb Jones. He's the only one that doesn't need shots. Can just kind of do dirty work stuff or keep the ball moving or cut to the basket, whatever. You know, all those other guys are scorers by nature. That's what they're best at doing. And just having him out there running the offense and just watching him the other night, everybody, I tweeted out, everybody needs a player like that, everybody.

And whether that is, we've talked about it with Pat Bebe, We're talking about it with Caruso. We're talking about sometimes it's the best player on the team that can provide that energy. But when you saw that was a bunch of guys that are too cool for school, they ain't diving on the floor for anything. They're not raising the level of intensity. And this guy, like 100 million miles an hour at all times,

I think he's shooting 48% on catching shoot 3. So, I mean, he's not, he's not like some kind of, he's a good player, a really good player. And I think that what we're going to find is that as the season goes on, he bullies his way into that lineup, into that starting lineup. And I think it makes a little more sense having CJ playing off of him. But I wanted to give this guy's shout out. He even said in the article, one of the things was, every time I read about the guy, I love him more, you know, him working his way up,

him trying to introduce himself to the 18 teams he worked out for. In high school, he had a quadruple double with 10 steals. And then he kind of goes through the whole like Grand Theft Alvarado and the hiding in the corner thing. Which he almost got in a damn fist fight over at the end of that Houston game, by the way, because he stole the ball on Kevin Porter. I thought it was going to, I thought Kevin Porter was going to punch a guy. But here's another one about, you know, kind of what this guy is. So he's watching videos of Tony Parker.

He, like, wanted to learn from Tony Parker and, like, watching him do pick and roll as or watch him do whatever. And you know what he did? He frigging DMs Tony Parker to reach out to him. Next thing you know, he got to go work out with Tony Parker out in Las Vegas. And Tony Parker, like, took him under his wig and tried to, like, help him out. Sometimes all you're going to do is shoot your shot.

No, I know. And it's like this guy, this guy is like the ultimate underdog. Really, truly. I can't imagine how annoying it is to play against him. Oh, the worst. The worst. He is. He's one of those guys that you hate him if he's on the other team.

But, man, as I was watching him, I can't help respect it. Because fighter. Question for you, Chris, though. After everything you said there, who does he start over? Or is it finishing? Does they finish over CJ? Are they playing small ball without Valanchunis out there? Yeah.

But can you, do you have any interior, you don't have any interior defense if it's not Valachunus? I think there's an issue there if you want him to finish. I know. So are you saying you're going to be benching CJ and the games? Well, then where's your perimeter shock creation? No, no, no, no. You don't have to, you don't have to bench CJ.

So it's Valanchunis. Yeah, I mean, if you have to, if you, if you, if you, but then you have no high. No size. They don't rebound or block anything at the rim anyway. Well, that's the problem. I mean, we talked about Miles Turner last week as a trade target for them. Well, at least at point of attack, this guy can guard.

Oh, he's unbelievable. This guy can guard and he can wreck your offense, truly. Yeah. He can wreck your offense. He's absolutely unbelievable. One of the best defenders in all of basketball. Look, and if you want to bring Herb off as a role player guy off the bench, you can. if you're just insistent on keeping

Ingram Zion and McCallum out there. I think the key thing is the two best guys, Ingram and Zion. Ingram has already stepped up a lot on defense. He's gone better. His efforts more like it was that last year in L.A. Zion still needs to get tremendously better on defense. As we talked about last week,

we don't need to hit that again. But if you are going to have Alvarado out there instead of Herb Jones or instead of the size Valentinus provides, Zion is like more than anybody else. Like you got to step up, dude. Like, you really got to. That's for sure.

Yeah, but I want to give a shout out to Alvarado because. Glad you did. He's awesome. Yeah, that was, he was a force of nature, man. Yeah. Force of nature. When I interviewed Zion for the Pelicans thing, he said to me how with Alvarado, it reminds me of Trey Jones in college.

Oh, interesting. Trey used to set a tone and inspire him to play defense. And, I mean, like, we haven't, we haven't seen that inspiration too often from Zion. but you'd hope he starts doing it. Sometimes he can bring the best out of you. Yeah. You know what I mean? The NBA season is underway

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The bottom five are five, Mason Plumley, four, Jonas Valenciunis, three, DeMontas Sabonis, two, Carl Anthony Towns, and one, Nikola Vucevich, who is my choice here for my first dislike

because Vucevich has frustrated me on a near nightly basis this season that I've been watching the Bulls. Last week against the Raptors, Christian Koloko had open dunk after open dunk, lob after lob, because Vooch was just so ineffective at cover

the pick and roll, then recovering to the roller. Coloco was just flying over the top of the defense, no one near him. Last week against the Pelicans, he gave the ref a middle finger. It's kind of funny. Then he his Nuggets the other night, just a few minutes into the first quarter,

there's this pick and pop the Nuggets ran with Yokic. And Vooch, the way he moved, it looked like he was at the end of like the 45th minute on the floor. It's a couple minutes into the game. And he takes two, you know, uninspired steps towards Yokic, who had popped behind the perimeter, stops,

and just lets Yokic go by on a drive to the basket. And like that play for me summarized everything that I've seen from Vouchon defense this season. This guy is just not putting in consistent effort, and he just also just isn't effective at getting stops. So for the Bulls, you got DeRosen who's crushing again. You got Zach Levine, who's really good. You get some young talent on your. your team. You got good role players like Caruso.

Ayudosunu coming up getting better. And Vooch feels like the guy who's holding them back from being what they could be. So, if the Bulls intend on making the most of this core and competing and trying to make the playoffs, they get to get rid of Vooch ASAP or they're going to waste it

away. Because it's weird because they kind of got something going too with the, when I was looking at the plus minus stats, you know who's way high up in plus minus this year are the Caruso and Dragge. Yes. Both those guys.

Energy. They got something going there. There's some good things going there with Chicago. There's some good trends. You know, as soon as you were describing that, you know what ran through my head? I was trying to think of the player. And it's so crazy that there are similarities in the old school. You remember the old Billy Donovan clip?

Oh, can't play canter. Billy Donovan's a coach there. Like he's been through this before. But can't you see that playing out in the playoffs? 100%. I can't play this. He is a better can't right now. Drummond has been better for the balls.

And without the Fox News appearances. Yeah, but no distractions with Booch, at least. Hopefully. Not yet. Zip it. All right. My first dislike. Oh, Kevin.

Now, this is something we have talked about, but I have to bring it up because the tweet got a lot of attention that I sent out on Friday night when I was watching Minnesota in person. I retweeted this, I think, right? It is this, it's this Minnesota team, Kevin, and you and I have spoken like, hey, can they get this right? Is this still just kind of growing pains? What's going to happen here? And after seeing it in person, no way. No way. Let me just expand.

So for those that didn't see, I said it's jarring to watch them because I had just seen them four or five months ago in a playoff series against Memphis. Now, keep in mind, Kevin, a Memphis team that was really, really good. good that Minnesota had dead. Minnesota was up 26 on them like twice. At one point, Billy Beasley was like, we should be up 3-1 in this series

or we should already won this series. And I was like, you know what, he's right. Like, they should have. They, and they're that close. They're that close. And they would have given Golden State some problems. They wouldn't have won the series, but they could have won a couple games off of them.

And then you probably would have thought about it all different. But they sold out to do this, go bear move. And forget what I thought about it basketball-wise, right? A lot of the things are playing out the way I thought, which are you don't want towns consistently having to guard fours and being guarded by fours. Like even the other night, Santiago and Brandon Clark both had really good games.

And I don't think that that's some coincidence. Beyond that, watching the... those guys, A, the lack of effort, but also, more importantly, it's not even, like, I can't even say the word chemistry, because there is, you have to see it to believe it. They don't talk to each other. They don't talk to each other. And you really saw that in the building, too. You're able to look at their bench the whole time, not just TV cameras and all that.

Well, look, Gobert is either looking at the ref or looking at his teammate every time somebody scores at the rim. The Grizzlies, despite the fact going up against modern day Bill Russell, had almost 70 points in the paint. And every time he's looking around like pointing at somebody else, they're pointing at him. So like you've got like DeAngelo Russell, who stinks, by the way. But at one point, Brandon Clark, you know, goes in and gets a dunk on the baseline. Rudy looks at DeLo, Delo looks at Rudy. They're like both with their hands in the air. Anthony Edwards is at the top, like looking for chicks in the crowd.

And then they walk over to the bench. And as they walk to the bench, got to love those Memphis girls. Yeah, right? As they walk to the bench, Rudy goes and tries to talk to DeAngelo Russell. Russell just literally turns us back to him and walks away. and I'm like, this is, this is untenable. At one point, Rudy's going up and he's talking to the ref, like, I can't remember what he's bitching.

And Anthony Edwards was like, Rudy, shut up. It's Anthony Edwards. I'm like, oh, my God. Like, I watch this team on a string. Like, Malik Beasley's flying at you, Vanderbilt and Pat Bev, and then they had these. And then Edwards is like this runaway. freight train and they were terrifying.

As someone who's rooting for the other team, they were terrifying in the playoffs. And then to watch it, I felt bad. No lie. As annoying as T. Wolves fans were towards me during the playoffs, I felt bad for them because it was unrecognizable. Absolutely unrecognizable. And they are so out of sorts.

And I know they got that win Cleveland without Mitchell and Jared Allen. but I'm telling you with the way they interact. One of the things that... Still gave up 124, that, by the way. One of the things that's important is when you're at these arenas, it's all the dead time, it's all the times where you can watch kind of who's the leader, who's talking to everybody, and man, they're just five guys going their own separate ways

and all just frustrated with nobody with any kind of answer to how it's going to get fixed. And you can tell, you know, aunt can't stand Rudy. Like, it's so visible. Like, the body language and the interactions between these guys is just terrible. It's terrible.

And I just, I mean, look, I had the prediction that I did not think they were going to be better. I obviously hated the trade. But after seeing it, I don't know how you fix that. I don't know how you fix that because it seems like

they're all just resentful of their plight now and I'm sure Gober feels that way too you know and then you got Chris Fence to try to figure it out and he keeps trying to say the right things and I don't know man

what would be the first thing you do is it just get rid of Deloaf or whatever it takes is it swallow your losses and flip Gobert somewhere else and what would you do in the GM spot for the wolves I would you keep it going and like just see how it develops by February are you like out out out out on it I mean look you've got to stick with it now you've got to give it every chance and it's not to me because it could be serious growing pains it could be I think I think the basketball fit is bad okay I do think it's bad but could it be better could they start to get used to playing a way that makes everybody at their best Yeah, because in theory, it could be.

No. Gobert. Gobert is one of the best rollers in basketball. Cat is one of the best pick and pop players in basketball. You pair them with Ant or Delo that feels like on paper. They can't shoot. Yeah, I mean, with you got Gobert, you got to, on defense, you got to have a defense that funnels everything to this guy.

And on offense, you got a five shooters. You got a five guys that could knock down shots. And they don't even play. I know they have guys that can theoretically knock down shots, you know, but they don't have shooters. Their leaders and three-point attempts just pulled it open. Anthony Edwards, 6.9 per game, 34%. DeLo, 5.9 per game, 33%. Cat, 5.6 per game, 37%.

Jalen Noel, 3.9, 31%. Prince at 42%, McDaniel's at 36, Nas read at 30. Bryn Forbes not even shooting Wallwell, 29%. A lot of underperformers there. Well, the only thing he can do is get a putback or finish a lot, and that's if he catches it. Rudy.

Yes. He can't dribble, pass, or shoot. The benefit of Rudy is the gravity of him pulling the defense into the paint because of his rolling. The issue is that you're seeing teams switch more often. DeLo's struggling a lot. He's been terrible, and Ants just having

a hard time adjusting to playing with a player like Rudy Gobert. I mean, the aunt is so young. I think he's going to get better in that regard. DeLo, I mean, I don't know what's going on there, man. He just seems like a lost cause in this situation, which is unfortunate because theoretically it feels like it could work with him

because he can play on and off the ball. She's not working. Then Cat, I mean, he's whining all the time. Yeah, I'm more worried about the personality mix than I am. You know what I mean? Even if the basketball thing, you know, Kat's a better than it is.

He complains about every call. He's pointing fingers. And I love Kat. Like, I've defended Kat for years, man, and talked about how they're going to feed him the ball more often. Why is this guy not getting 17, 18, 19 shots per game? For years I've been saying that.

But I'm like, I'm so tired of the act on the court lately recently. That does not set a positive example for your team as one of the best players on the roster. like you have to be more composed. Yeah. It just, I don't know. Can you imagine the stuff he's saying in the locker room behind those doors about this situation?

Yeah. You know, I mean, like, geez. Oh, no. Look, there were, my producer covers the locker rooms for, uh, for, you know, after the games for postgame radio. And so, I mean, this isn't speaking out of school. This wasn't like in the locker room type of stuff. This is in the hallway where everybody is out in the hallway. And he's walking by and Kat is saying.

to like a group of his friends. I'm a two-time All-Star, aren't I? I'm a two-time All-Star? I thought I was. Was I not? I thought I was a two-time All-Star. I mean, this is after the game. Like, loud enough to where people could hear

if you were walking by, like strangers walking by. So obviously he didn't care if everybody's hearing it. Type of thing, maybe he wants people to hear it. Crazy. Yeah. Crazy. So, I mean, yeah, there's just this level of disc-it. It's like a resentful thing.

It's like they're all resentful. And I'm telling you, man, they were close. They did not have to change very much. And then just bank on the antecent because he was on his way. Yeah, but like what we were talking about, how close were they really when we're talking about the immaturity of Cad and and Ant and D-Lo? Like, were they really that close with those three guys?

I know. Is there are centerpieces? You take, look, you decide. And look, let me juxtapose against the other team I was watching, which is Memphis. Okay. One of the things I'll give Memphis credit for is every decision made is based upon how does this fit with John Moran

here is the future of our franchise here is what we're building around what is the best way to get the apex performance out of him what are the type of players that are best to surround him with what's the type of center we need so they trade for Stephen

Adams that can guys die on screens what are the kind of shooting guard I need so now I can kick it out to Desmond Bank what's the kind of small forward that I need? What's the kind of four I need? Oh, I've already got Jared Jackson who can stand in the corner and stretch the floor. Back Tuesday night for him.

Yeah. And so it's like all the decisions are made towards the future of your franchise. And they did literally the opposite. Yeah, but how is Gobert not a good on-paper fit with Anthony Edwards? Because he has to be. It's the same reason Adams has a good fit with John Moran because he sets some of the best screens in basketball. He rolls hard of the rim. He's selfless.

He plays hard on defense. He's in good position. He rebounds like crazy. It's a good fit for Ant if he just embraces it. To me, it's not a good fit with Ant, and Delo, and Cat. That's what makes it not a good fit. Maybe it happened. They should trade Cat if they trade anybody,

which is where this could end up be going. Because they're not treating Gobert. I'll not going to flip him. I'll tell you this. I don't remember a time where Gobert set a screen for Anthony Edwards. They're not using him nearly as offense. I don't know if it's ever happened. I don't know if that's ever happened.

It's not part of their offense. So, I mean, that thing that you're talking about, I would much rather just have that spaced out. That's why I thought Towns at 5 was devastating. Towns at 5 opens it up. There's nothing you can do. You can't have a guy in the paint if the center is at the three point line. for what it's worth

Gobert has screened 114 times for Edwards this year 9.5 times per game they're scoring only 0.83 points per pick and roll with the Edwards Gobert combination which is not good well because Ant Camp

he's not a playmaker he's not a playmaker and they just have they have no feel with each other right now there's no chemistry the best pass Edwards has made is still yet to come you know very fair have you ever seen an Anthony Edwards pass highlight It doesn't It's like

It's like the Loch Ness monster That exists It's on the dark web Just to put it into perspective You know Last year Conley and Gobert scored 1.01 points Mitchell and Gobert scored 1.04 points

So I mean like that's That's like really good Like that's like 75th you know Ish percentile Edwards Goberra is terrible right now All right. All right what's your first Or what's your next dislike?

Let me give you my next like. Oh, yeah, yeah, let's go to like. Yeah, yeah, yeah, because we've done one each. That's right. I'm really liking the amazing three-point shooting performers this season because we've got a number of them. There's been only one player in NBA history that has shot over 45% on seven plus three-pointers per game.

That's Stephen Curry in 2013 and 2016. There are four players doing that right now, four in this young season. Your guy, Desmond Bain, 45.1% on 8.5 attempts per game. Kevin Herder on 50% from 3 on 7.5 attempts per game. Michael Porter Jr., 46.3% on 7.3 attempts. And then Spencer Didwitty, 45.9% on 7.1 attempts. All four of those guys, Dinwiddie looking all the way back to being himself after a horrible start in Washington last year, getting traded to Dallas.

Michael Porter Jr., missing basically the entire season with back injury, all the way back to being himself, if not better. Kevin Herder, first year out of Atlanta now in Sacramento, playing the best basketball is his life next to De Aaron Fox in that backcourt. And then Desmond Bain, 25 and 5, looking like an all-star, an all-NBA candidate, getting even better again, looking at the most improved player-of-year candidate, once again with an even more impressive leap,

considering the fact he's scoring with such volume, playmaking more, and doing it next to John Moran, helping elevate that Grizzlies team. All four of those guys. Bain, Herder, Porter, Dinwiddie, I'm loving watching them do what only Steph has done before. Only Step Curry ever has done that. Yeah, 45% or better from three on seven plus attempts per game from three.

Only guy ever. Wow. And now there's four doing it. All right. Well, my next like, I might as well play off the Herder thing. Is it a guy. Hell yeah. No, it's the guy next to him.

He's living up to it, Kevo. Deer. Fox. I had all my stock, 25.5 points per game. Five rebounds, six assists, 55% from the field, 38% from three, 83% for the free throw line. He's only 24 years old, and he is leading the league in clutch scoring. It's one of the knocks. Oh, down the stretch, you know, can you trust DeAnne Fox. DeAnne Fox has more points in clutch scoring situations than any player in the entire NBA. Number two is Donovan Mitchell. Number three, Steph Curry. Number four, Luca Donchich. Number five, Desmond Bain. Boehne's shooting 50% in the clutch.

Luca's shooting 44% in the clutch. Curry is shooting 48% in the clutch. Donovan Mitchell's shooting 42% in the clutch. Deeran Fox is shooting 64% in clutch situation. And he's been in the most of them of any player. I think he's played more clutch minutes than any player. And he's shooting the best percentage and scoring the most point. At the beginning of the season, after they had started like hell, I came on the mismatch and I told you I'm not panicking at all. I had just watched them and I was like, they got good players.

They're going to figure this thing out. They had lost to some good teams. And had some BS calls at the end of games too, right? Multiple times. Man, I'm feeling good about it. I'm feeling good about Fox as a possible All-Star. I'm feeling good about that streak being broken. I got a lot of stock in this Kings team.

And by the way, for anybody that hasn't watched them on League Pass, they are fun to watch, man. They are so fun, man. They are fun. Keegan Murray looks like he's been in the league for two decades already. Savvy he plays with next to Fox. All the pieces just fits a bonus.

Such a funky player like he's always been. I mean, they got a, they got such a nice mix, man. Yeah. And Fox is kind of, he's, you know, it's different timelines. This is year six. It's year six.

He's got a real coach and he's got real players around him. Like, for one of the first times. Really since, like, the Dave Yeager, since that last year of Yeager, where they had a, they had a chance. Like, they were, you know, they were under 500 still. But, I mean, like, they weren't out of the mix completely. And then really, like, these last, these last couple of years, Walton and then Gentry, I mean, they're just pissed away. Truly. Pissed away seasons.

Like they didn't have good enough teams or good enough coaches. Now they got like a real roster and they got a real coach. And they've been fun to watch. I've liked it. I've liked it. They've gotten back going and they're, I'm happy for the fans at Sacramento because God knows they've been to hell and back over the last 17 years.

They've got something real to root for right now. Yeah, it's fun. If nothing else, it's an entertaining product. I want to go up there for a game this season. I've never been to Sacramento. I haven't either. I want to go, yeah. No.

All right, what's your next dislike? We've talked about this at the beginning of the season, and at that time, the conversation was different than it will be right now. Trey Young's off-ball movement. Early in the season, Trey Young was running off screens more than double the time he ever was before. On the ringer, I wrote a little blurb about it in one of my seven observations articles, and at a time he was coming off of screens 11.2 times. per game according to Second Spectrum and over the past seven games that's down to 3.4 which is

even less than it was last season. He's just completely inactive off the ball. No movement not coming off of screens like he did at Oklahoma or in high school and has shown that he can do at an extremely high level whether it's shooting threes or attacking the basket. I'm just very, very frustrated watching that and granted as we record right now, the Hawks are up on the bucks and I haven't watched any of this tonight because we've been recording the podcast. Trey seems to be having a good game looking at the box score

so maybe they get the dub. But from a process standpoint, win or lose, I'm just perplexed why we haven't seen more of that in Atlanta's offense. To me, that's something that could bite them sometime down the line. Yeah, one of the things, when he was first coming out of Oklahoma

and I was talking to All Manor of Scouts, getting ready for, you know, try to put my ideas all together. One of the things I remember, one of the really smart guys that I talked to said, is he good enough to turn everything over to? Because that's what you're going to have to do. You're going to have to turn everything over to him. You know, and obviously there's some guys that, James Hardin, good enough to turn everything over to.

Luca Dodgich, good enough to turn everything over to. And I think... Trey is, too. I mean, Trey's unbelievable. Yeah. He's unbelievable. He averts 30 points a game and they went to the East finals. Yeah, he's fantastic. Well, I mean, is Dejante the one that should be, can Dejante be great as the off ball guy?

Right? Like there's this onus on Trey needing to be the guy because they brought in another guy that can handle the ball. But, I mean, I think this idea that Trey could be like Curry and he's going to run around. He's going to run off screens. Not like Curry, but. do what he did in college. Like he did this in college. He had the ball in college.

And I know, but like you can watch this film in college. He was coming off screens, shooting threes, attacking closeouts off those screens. Like he could, he could do this and he did do it with more frequency than he ever does now.

That's a long time ago. It was a long time ago. It was. And after becoming for a long time. Of course. And after becoming the guy, Chris, you know,

it's hard to go back to doing some of that other. stuff for sure. He's an unbelievable talent. He's an all-N-B-A guy. He's an all-star. He went to in these finals, like you said. But you're also teammates with DeJante Murray, who's a high-level passer, playmaker, creator. To me, like, that's how you maximize what this team can be. I get it, but all those guys, all those guys like that, just stand around if they don't have the ball. Yeah. Luca stands around if he doesn't have the ball. Hardin stands around if he doesn't have the ball. But Luca isn't like a 40% shooter off the cat.

right like tray can be maybe I don't know shit he's shooting 30% now isn't he yeah no I mean that's because he takes so many from 30 feet off the dribble even if the jontz-day Murray he's not like he's cutting off ball it's just I mean to me like more than anything else like Atlanta might be nine and five after tonight and like you can poke holes at what they are they're near the top of the Eastern Conference so like it shouldn't be complaining you know hawks fans might be like really it's a negative thing you're talking about us when we're this good this season yeah we'll see how it plays out in the playoffs that's my point My next dislike.

So we were just talking about the Kings and I was saying that, you know, those pissed away seasons. And you can see these from a mile away. And this is on the flip side of that Pelicans game I told you I was watching. This Rockets thing just absolutely disgusts me. You're going to say something bad about Shengun? Dude, no, this whole operation. Truly disgusts me. We're watching all over the NBA.

These teams that, yet, they're not good, they're probably going to tank at the end of the year. But they are putting together teams that can go out there, can compete, can teach these guys how you're supposed to play basketball, share the ball win. We just lauded how you're getting picked off by teams, you know, Utah, who we didn't expect to be good, but also Indiana, also San Antonio.

Antonio, also some of these teams that we did not expect to be competitive at all. And they're shooting a bunch of threes and they've got regularly 30 assists in a game, et cetera. And, you know, they've got veteran guys on their team that kind of teach these guys how to be professionals. I watch that operation and I'm like, how can you do this to all these young talented players? How?

They have nobody there except Derek Gordon. That's it. Like the, what do they say? The crooks are on the asylum? Like, it's crazy. It's crazy. They got these young guys. They do whatever the hell they want.

The basketball is awful. And they have got so many talented young players. I love Javari, who's really struggled coming out of the game. No, he's not been good. No, he's not been good at all. No. But Tari Isan and Jalen and Sengoon and Porter Jr. And, you like, but like, you like all these players.

What's the issue then? The system? All of it is, yeah, dude, they got to have some veteran players that teach these guys how to play and have some kind of like, this is the way you play winning basketball. This is just an AAU team out there. I think it's, it's stupid. I think it's gorgeous to watch.

It's awful. It's beautiful tank. It's horrendous. Luzerama for one bat yama. Well, look, that is, I, I beg to the Lord above that that poor kid does not get sent to that hellhole. Because that situation is gross. Gross. But what they're doing to those kids?

Would it be gross with Webbenyama and Jabari Smith and Shengoon and Jaylon Green? It would be gross then? And Ethan? Like, if you, if you just chop off everything else and you and you're- Those guys, that's not how this worked. The coach will get fired. The GM will get fired. And then entire roster is going to be flipped over.

That's what's going to happen. Exactly. 100%. So then you turn everything else over. You get rid of the coach. You get rid of your bottom 10 on the roster. And you got Shengoon, Smith, Green, Wembeyanama.

You are destroying. Tarry Easton, those are, if you keep those five players and get rid of everybody else. You are destroying developmental years of these kids. Truly. You're destroying it. I've seen it. I don't view it the same way with Gaila Green. I'm telling you as someone who's watched this happen,

your career trajectory is totally different. Just get some real guys in there. Run a real system. Get some real veteran guys in there that can show these guys how to be professional basketball players. It's going to be funny when they trade away Eric Gordon. I know. I know.

I mean, they could really teach Schengoon and Ethan and Jaylin. What's wrong with all these guys? Bro, these are just stupid, empty stats. Anybody could do it. They're running up and down the court with like chickens with their head cut off. And anyone, whoever's got the ball shoots a, it's stupid. Sounds like some good high-level tank. And if you ask me, in a year with a transcendent franchise league altering prospect of me.

Yeah, well, you want to be bad. And also, by the way, if Brooklyn, they have an 86% chance of not getting that. Not true if Brooklyn misses the playoffs because they also have the odds for Brooklyn, too. Because it's a pick that's not going to miss the playoffs. I got Kevin Durant's over time. You never know. I do. Kevin DeRerer ruptured his Achilles two years ago.

I get it. He's in his big 30s. So now we're going to bank on a ruptured Achilles? No, I'm not just saying that. I'm just saying he's old and he's been injured. It's not out of the question for him to miss two weeks here, two weeks there. Jalen Green, Shengoon, Ysin, Javari, all these kids deserve better. They all deserve better.

They all deserve better. Send them off somewhere else you want to tank. Just don't even play a season. Just go 0-802 and give these kids a chance to go develop into non-losing basketball players. Because this will have a profound effect. some are just going to be so talented they make it out of it. But those are few and far between. Do you still feel that way about Joelle Embed and Jeremy Grant?

Jewel and Bede never lost. And Robert Covington and some of the guys on those bad Sixers teams. Joel M.B. never lost. Yeah, he won like 25 games this first year. He wasn't part of the seven win. No, he was a part of that one. No, but he was part of the team that won like 25 games. That's the one I'm talking about.

Some of the young players on that team did it matter for like for Sean Holmes? They also had some real play. Rashad Holmes never done shit. What are you talking about? I'm talking about like a deep bench guy. Dario Sorich? He's still in the league. It's not like he's playing in China right now.

Where is Dario Sorich? He got hurt last year. Where is he now? But Sarish got hurt, unfortunately. So where is he now? He's in Phoenix. He's not. Oh, he is?

He tore his ACL. He's a really good player on a really good son's team. Then he tore his ACL. And now he's coming back from that torn A. That's where he is. He's in Phoenix. Mm. Okay.

Like, is it really, like, did T.J. McConnell go from, like, being a reliable. T.J. McConnell. I know. I'm just throwing out some names from that crappy roster. Yeah, I know. But you can name the other 70 that came through there. You know what I mean?

These aren't high-level players, by the way. These are all role players that are talking about. It definitely, all that losing definitely screwed Jeremy Grant. They're all role players. Yeah. Jeremy Grant's a really good guy. Really good guy to have your team. borderline all-stars first year in Detroit.

See, I just agree on Tang. I think it's the individual player, and I think Shengoon's progress is impressive. Jalen Green's progress is impressive. Like, you want to see Jabari Smith, Jr. hopefully get better. But there's a lot of those guys on your team that are not going to be part of your future,

and it's just not relevant to me when assessing the core pieces there. I mean, yes, it's ugly. Yes, it made me make more sense to play some more veterans. But at the same time, like, it also makes sense to develop your youth.

One of my dislikes, I'll go to this next one. I'm sick and tired of Steve Clifford. Wasting his time starting Mason Plumley. Plumley's 32 years old. Playing 26 minutes per game. He's starting and finishing most games. You get Nick Richards, who's 24, playing under 20 minutes. Kai Jones, collecting dust on the bench.

I want to find out if he's actually not good. You got Mark Williams, your first round pick, bawling out in the G-League, yet to play in the NBA outside of garbage time. What are you playing? Plumley for. You're not a contender. Get rid of him for a team that might maybe use him.

Let's just stop. Exactly. It's like, stop it. Focus on development and competing with these young guys, though. What are you competing for? Are you now using the Bomba thing to now hate him? Plumley is the new Ken Birch, exactly. And it's a Steve Clifford thing.

He's just always trying to win every game, playing his vets. Plumley is not a part of your future. Nick Richards, Kai Jones, Mark Williams, those are the things that they should be investing time into. That's any of those guys

from that era, though. Exactly. You're right. See, hey, look, Steve Kerr's already, Hey, Steve Kerr's already bailed on James Wise.

All I'm saying is sometimes playing your veterans ends up blocking the minutes of your young guys who could be getting valuable time on the court with the guys who are part of your future.

Like, shouldn't it, shouldn't Mark Williams be running some pick and roll with La Mello Ball? Like, shouldn't that be happening on the court against an NBA defense? How is that not valuable for two, three, four years from now for those guys to build chemistry for the time when it comes the moment where you're actually trying to win and compete in the playoffs?

Isn't this valuable? Like, what's he in the G-League for? Look, look, dude. They just had to find somebody to coach the damn team. I know. After they got screwed with Kenny Ackinson. I know. They did.

I mean, they should have called Jeff Saturday. Congrats to him on his first win. That was big time. That was big time. Oh my God, I love the righteous indignation. The idea that nobody can stand on an NFL sideline and coach a team was beautiful. And then he beat Josh McDaniels. It's unbelievable.

I loved his press conference where he kind of stood up for himself. He's a good dude and he's good in front of the camera. I don't know if it'll work out, but I mean, who knows? God, Phil Coward being like it's a most disgraceful thing I've ever seen him. I'm like, calm down. All right. For goodness sakes, guys. Not that big of a deal.

All right. So that was your, that was your last dislike, right? Yeah, it was. Yeah. Well, I'm going to give my last like. She's, you, you, you, you love Mason Plumley, don't you, Chris? And Ken Burns. Zach Lowe loves Ken Burns.

You love Mason Plumley. Get him off the course. I don't care about any of the Plumbley. I don't care about any of the Plumbley. All 40 of them. Look, I am all for the Mark Williams thing. Look, the better the Hornets are, the happier I am, because I just love listening to that guy yelling.

Looks like Plumlee scored 18 points tonight in 31 minutes. Let's go. Congrats on the victory. Career high. Yeah, congrats. It wasn't really a career high. My last light, Kevin Love. Kevin Love.

So here's a guy I'm going to highlight. So Kevin Love is. in his 15th year in the NBA. And how many times do we talk about this? We've seen it over the course of the last few decades where a guy can reinvent himself and star in his role. That's what we talk about, right?

A guy that can star in his role. And he's now the sixth man on a very good Cleveland team. He's averaging 12 points, tick under eight rebounds, three assists, 62% true shooting percentage. I mean, this is a guy that's been a five-time all-star, he's been an NBA champion. When he was on that tanking Cavs team,

he's a guy that had these horrible looking low lights where he just didn't care, he didn't want to be a part of it at all. It looked like just get me out of there, but you can't get me out of here because you pay me too much. And he has truly reinvented himself into this outstanding bench role player. And, man, when they get Rubio back, and they throw out there because Jetty Osmond comes off the bench for them too, like they got some guys that come off the bench that like kind of intermingle with their starters too. And love who can knock down threes at a great rate, still get you some rebounds.

I think you'd be interested to hear amongst the cumulative plus minus guys in the league, number one is not going to surprise you. it's Nicoliochage. He's plus 144 so far this year. No surprise there. Number two is Devin Booker, 139. It's plus 139 on the season. Number three is Kevin Love.

In the NBA, and plus 128. Like, he has a profound impact still in year 15. And we talk about, and we're trying to learn this with Russ, who is, interestingly enough, a college teammate of Kevin. and loves, where he's trying to figure this out, how to be star in your role, whatever your role may be. And I have a real soft spot for any of these guys, especially, I think it's very difficult when you've been at the top of the sport.

You've been one of the best players. You've been an all-star. You've been an all-N-B-A guy. You've been an NBA champion. And then now you're, he's the left-over one of the Cleveland. Cleveland years. Like nobody else is there. Even Larry Nance, none of them are there anymore. He's the only one

left. And yet here he is, and he's been there long enough to now it's come back around, and they've got this awesome back court, and they've got this awesome front court, and they've got this young budding superstar in Mowgli, and then they got this sixth man

who's this guy. It's like this old school, like old Bill Walton Celtics type stuff, where he can come off the bench. It's like this guy that used to be a guy that could maybe have 30 and 20 on a given night, still goes out and is mega effective. And Yokic Booker Love, those are the top three in the league in terms of plus minus. And we've seen it happen before. Grant Hill, there's been other players in NBA history that have figured it out.

But it's not easy. And I love it. I love it. I've always been a Kevin Love fan. and to be this effective this far down the road in your NBA career is super impressive. It's amazing, truly. I mean, like he fits with either of those guys, Alan or Mowbly, pick and pop, playmake, playing pretty good defense for a guy who's, what, 34, almost 35 years old.

Yeah, I mean, he's still, he still can be traffic, Coney. Of course. But good positionally, you know, at the least he's directly guys around. And he does rebound. If you miss, he can get it. You know what I mean? And he can stick around with fours. And he can also get down there and bat.

And he's not scared to, you know, bang around with fives. If he's got bang for a rebound. Post defense, you know, he hustles. He's a good basketball player, man. He's doing what he needs to do. He's just good at everything. You respect it. He really is.

He is. He's good at everything. All right. Well, I guess your last light because I've got one dislike left. My last like, we might have talked about this couple weeks ago. I'm not positive. I don't remember the Blazers' new defense, how they revised their scheme. Their defense was terrible last year, 29th in defensive rating.

Their top 10 this season. Last season we saw Yusuf Nurkich hedging, blitzing on picking rolls, and aggressively come out to the three-point line to disturb the ball handler. And that's just not Nurkich's game. This year, they're doing something more frequently called up the top. which is where he's coming up to the level of the screen and then dropping back to the screener. And he's doing that about double the time he did last season for the Blazers. And that's working with Nurkich, but it's also working because of all the guys we've talked about,

you know, Jeremy Grant, Nasir Little, Josh Hart, Shaden Sharp, even providing size of the wing their rookie. And Gary Payton, the second hasn't even come back yet. So they're doing that with Nurkich out there. But then they're switching a ton of screens when Nurkich isn't on the floor. They don't have a center on the floor at all. So they're playing these different types of schemes for different types of situations and matchups. And after what was a disastrous preseason for Chauncey Billups and the Blazers, it's just been really cool to see them find something that works with different units over the course of this regular season.

And they don't even have Gary Peyton the second back yet, who we saw with the Warriors over the years. He can do literally anything on defense. He can defend any player. And once they plug him back in, I mean, that's only going to amplify. file all of the versatility that they have, whether it's NERCCH out there or whether it's a small ball five with Grant out there. It's just been very impressive to see them

use their new personnel in different ways. You know, they have been, they've been one of the real surprises. They have so far this NBA season. It's going to be interesting to see how they fit in, Gary Payton. Because Simons is so damn awesome and so is Liller, right? Like, I mean, where does

who's sitting? Are you three-guarding it? Maybe. Might be. I mean, Peyton's. As you mentioned, such a good defender. It might depend on the night. Some nights it might be Josh Hart. Some nights it might not be. Some nights it might be Simons. Yeah, it's going to be. But I'm saying with Peyton.

Yeah. How do you get him in there if you got Lillard and Simons? Thoughts what I'm saying. Some nights it might be Hart, you know, who takes a seat. You never know. You ain't sitting Josh Hart. No way. Over my dead body. You're giving him the backs, Chris. over my dead body. All right, my last dislike.

So I was going to do all the NBA drama. I want this to be a drama-free podcast. We're not even going to talk about all that. But this does, I'm just going to say this irritates me. Okay? And this is going to sound old manny. So Kevin, it made all kinds of different adjustments to the schedule over the course of the last several years.

have been like, you know, now there's way less back-to-backs than there was once upon a time. Teams are stretched out. There's more days rest between these games. Sometimes these teams have pretty long breaks between their next game. You're seeing a lot of the played the same team twice, right? So you're staying in a city. And we're seeing like where they play against each other in a very short span of time, right? You might play them on a Friday and then you play them again on a Sunday and then you're done with your trip there.

And they've over and over and over and over. They have made these concessions to try to make this as easy as it can be if you're going to play 82 games. And I'm not going to argue about they should just play last games or whatever else, right? The schedule is 82 games, you're playing 18. Kevin, we are the most, I think the teams with the most games have played 14 as we record this. You're pretty well between 12 and 14 right now, virtually every team. Of the top 10 scorers in the league, three have played in every game. We are not even to the 15 game mark of the season.

Luca Donchich has played in every Dallas Mavericks game. Jason Tatum has played in every Boston Celtics game. And Kevin Durant has played in every Brooklyn Nets game. That's it. Every other player on the list. Curry, M.B., Janice, Donovan Mitchell, SGA, John Moran, Trey Young. Everybody's missed at least one.

Some a couple, right? We're not even to the 15-game mark of the season. and this is just kind of how it is now, but it does bother me. It does. You're saying to ban injuries in addition to load management? I don't think it's because I think that,

I don't think it's just injuries. It's not always injuries, right? With these guys, it's like any kind of minor thing that might be bothering them is keeping them out. I know that health has been a priority. you probably see

but man they've made a million adjustments to this schedule and we're like 15 games in and I say this as someone who you know as a fan of the NBA I feel like you're like

you know it's like a crap shoot to buy the tickets to the game in a way that I never felt that way years ago I'm saying if you buy tickets to a game it's a crap shoot that like

are the other are the other team going to have their guys or guys going to play? Like you have to check these reports like every day now. I'm sure it drives fantasy players nuts too. If you have fantasy things, I know most people don't have like season long fantasy things but daily fantasy people.

They got to be going crazy over this. But I mean, it's like we're not even 15 games into the season. We've had three guys that have played in every game. That's like impossible. And that's just, the way it is now. Like, just, nobody's going to play 82 games.

You know, I was watching that thing on Showtime with Kevin Garnett. And I know he's old school and I know he's hardcore. And he's like, they pay you to play 82 games. You play 82 games. You know what I mean? And that's like how he felt that, like, he was going to do everything he could to play 82 games. And now I think part of it's the teams.

The teams don't expect you to play 82 games. And I'm not so sure it keeps everybody healthy around. anyway. That would be the other thing I'd say. I'm not so sure. You know, they've done all those studies with the minutes thing. They've done all the studies with the games thing. I'm not so sure it keeps, you know, that there's any evidence that it keeps you much healthier to be doing the stuff. I think most of the injuries end up being freak accidents anyway, not because of the wear and tear of the season. But I mean, damn, man, we're like 13 games into the season and every star player has missed one. So, I mean, if you bought tickets to go see that,

guy. It's too bad for those kids, you know? It sucks. Yeah, it does. You know what I mean? Like, I mean, as someone who grew up,

you did too. Like, our dads took us to games. Yep. When we were kids. And it would have, I mean, it would have broken my heart. Yeah.

You know what I mean? Show up and the guy I went to go see wasn't playing. Because they only, in many cases, they only come through town one time. Yep. You know?

They only come through town one time. And so I just wanted to lament that Because it's annoying to me I got a text message Chris From somebody that says You'll like this Shengun picked up three files

In about 15 seconds Is getting abused by Clippers guards And just had a three blocked Winning basketball Yeah just thought that put a little smile On your face to end the podcast Nah just a look man I've told you so many times

It's not an end all be all Okay But it's like I've told you a hundred times. If you take a kid and you put him in a bad school, there's going to be kids that can get through it no matter what. You increase the chances that he goes out a bad path, learns bad habits, and it takes it with him for the rest of the lives. Nature and nurture, right? Good schools and bad schools. And yes, there's going to be kids that are so exceptional that it doesn't matter their circumstances. They're making it out. They're going to turn into something.

Yeah. But by and large, most, if you put them in, and, and, and I, and I, I don't think that Indiana is going to be there in the end. I don't think that San Antonio is going to be there in the end. But, I mean, I know, and you're celebrating Houston for. I'm not celebrating. Yeah, you're saying all-time tanking. No, no, no. Why can't you?

It's not celebrating. It's just saying that they're investing in some of their young guys. It's not celebrating it as much as like, I still like the way Jayland Green's developing. I like the way some of these young guys are developing. You watch them? It's a train wreck. I know. It's gross basketball.

It's the worst basketball to watch in the league right now. And that's what I'll say about Indiana and San Antonio. Like, these teams stink, but they, man, they make the most of stinking. Like, they pass the ball around. They play, like, real basketball that you would play if you did have good players. I don't think it's a lot to expect to play, like, basketball like you did have good players. You know? Yeah, which is fair.

And have them learning how to play real basketball. I don't. And part of that is just having veterans around. You know? Yeah. They should hire Steve Clifford. Oh my God. Your favorite.

How was you? You got Lamello back. He did. He just got Lamello back. He'd be starting Bobon over. Jparry Smith. You know poor Bobons on that Houston bench. I know.

Oh, poor guy. Free Bobon. They're going to put them on a floor. You got a free Bobon. Man, you got a free Bobon. Yeah. I hate seeing them. like that.

Get him out of there. Just sitting at the end of the bench watching losses every night. Boba's been on winners this whole career. Bring in some veterans, but not Marianovic. Yeah. He's just sitting there. I mean, that poor guy. He's just thinking about John Wickford.

All right. Kevin, it's always a pleasure. I'll talk to you later this week. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. And I'll talk to you on Friday. I'm looking forward to it, Chris, and make sure you subscribe to the Ringers NBA draft show. We'll be back on Wednesday, me and J. Kalameh.