The Mismatch - Ben Simmons Devastates Luka Doncic and the Pelicans Are Confusing As Ever. Plus: Coach Malone Put His Foot in His Mouth, and Mailbag!

Episode Date: February 26, 2021

Verno and KOC are back this Friday covering the Bucks' win over the Pelicans and what makes the Pelicans the most confusing team in the NBA (4:30), Michael Malone’s ill-advised comments after the Nuggets lost a tough one to the Wizards (18:00), Ben Simmons's devastating defense stifling Luka Doncic (27:00), and G League player Jonathan Kuminga making a name for himself on the Ignite team (34:40). Then they delve into the mailbag to answer questions about basketball, life, video games, and more (40:45). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

They don't have guests. They have contestants. Ten Questions with Kyle Brandt is the perfect game show and talk show hybrid that you need. Check out 10 questions exclusively on Spotify. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. Join him as he does every Friday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, a.k. Kevin O'Blesser, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Kineness.

Kevin! Vernon! It's Friday. It is Friday. And I have not been the same since... Last evening, Kevin, I'm going to tell you this that we, today on the show, we're going to go through all the news and notes, things that are relevant within the NBA, and then we are going to answer email submissions that we have gotten from our listeners, and we have gotten overwhelmed by the amount of submissions. So we will get to as many questions as we can today, but I have not been the same since last evening when Sasha sent to us and one of our first. of our emails, this is not a question, so I want to do this off the top.

Who's from one of our listeners, Evan, and he sent us a picture of kittens. Yes. Now, why on earth would a listener send us pictures of kittens when we have asked for email submissions for questions to answer on the show? Upon reading said email, Evan says to us, he does not have a question, but he did want to alert us that as he has taken on these kittens in foster care, he is such a big fan of the show that he has named one of them Chris Pernan and the other one, Kevin O'Catter.

Yes. And they are kittens. And then there's another one, Bill, what is it, Simiowans? or something like that. Bill Simiow. Bill Simians. Bill Simiowans. Bill Simiowans. Bill Simiowans. Yeah. I'm a big fan of Bill's too. Chris Pernan and Kevin O'Catter. I never in life thought I would have a cat named after me. But here we are. Here we are. We are really, we are touching people in a way that I was unaware to the point where

somebody named their pets after us. That email really just made my night, it made my week, it made my month, made my year. It was wonderful,

Chris. Beautiful kittens. And thank you, Evan, for, you know, taking great care of them. Taking great care of them. I hope,

I got to tell you, I looked at the picture that the guy sent and I looked at the, there's three, kittens in the picture. And when I saw the picture, I was like, that one better be me.

I wanted to be the one on the bottom, the one kind of looking up at the camera. I immediately had a connection to one of the kittens. And so I'm hopeful that it is Chris Pernan. We should email Evan back and ask for permission to post the photo. Yeah. All right. I'll respond after a record and share.

Let's get to everything that took place last night. I came home from the Grizzlies versus the Clippers, which was not much of a game at all. It was a runout. The Grizzlies really blasted them last night. Justice Winslow, baby. Yeah, Justice Winslow finally, who had, did not, he was not good.

The first two games that he played since he has come back. But, I mean, it's been a year, right? But he had, like, taken, like, 24 shots. I think he hit four of them in those first two games. and then last night you saw kind of what he can bring to the table. He forced a shot clock violation on Kauai, which is very rare. And he also just straight ripped the ball from him. He did the Kauai move to Kauai all the while made some shots in the game.

But all at all, like that was they play again tonight, those two teams. So, I mean, I'll go see him play again tonight. But it was kind of shocking how big of a runout that was. But anyways, I got home, and we were on a text thread where that Pelicans game was still on by the time I got home. And so I was able to watch the fourth quarter of that game. And it was odd because you cannot watch the Pelicans without, at least for me, this week, harkening back to the video you just posted about Zion and his playmaking. And you had some crazy stats in there.

For those that haven't watched it, The Void, you can go pull it up on YouTube. And then you watch the Pelicans and you watch kind of how they use Zion through that prism of what you had just covered because that's what was on my mind. And it is, I mean, truly malpractice. Like, I don't understand. Now, for those that didn't see the game, games nip-tuck goes down to the wire. Zion's killing it as he has been for the last couple of weeks offensively. And at the end of the game, like the last couple minutes, you know, he doesn't get the ball. Like these are the biggest possessions of the game.

Like, just give him the damn ball. I don't understand. It's like you've got this superhuman on your team that is totally unstoppable. And he's just, I mean, he's doing cardio the last two and a half minutes of the game. It's crazy. Yeah, it's ridiculous. And so in the video, the stat you're talking about it was via second spectrum that in the last five games or the last, you know, a couple of weeks he's averaged about 14 pick and rolls run per game is the ball handler. That's compared to before January 30th is about like one and a half.

One. I mean, that is. And so, but the thing is in last night's game, Chris, I counted. I was watching last night. I counted one, the entire game. One in the first quarter. Zion running pick and roll. One.

One. When it's been one of the most effective players in the NBA was when Reddick screens for Zion or when Lonzo screens for Zion, they get away from him too much. It's sometimes it feels like they forget about the talent that they have and him. And granted, the Bucks, I thought that a pretty nice job defending Zion in instances in which that he did have the ball. There's a time where you just got to feed one of your two best players. there's just a time when you got to make that happen. Well, here's a thing, Kev, in reference to that video and it's what we're saying, just let him bring the ball up the court.

You had clips from a grizzlies game of which I was well aware the week before. They blasted the grizzlies. And Zion was bringing the ball up the court. And I remember saying to my buddies that I was like, I was like, what the hell are you supposed to do? Like you're going to go run a double-ta? team at him, like, I guess, like, just to try to get the ball out of his hands. A little bit of a press possibly.

But if he, I'm not talking about Focor, if you just give him the ball at the top and he's 30 feet from the basket, I mean, you had in the video too, he's number one in the league in drawing fouls on isolations. And that's in a league with Trey Young, James Hardin, Kyrie Err, like, you named the guy. Number one in the league of drawing fouls on isolations, number one at rebounding his own misses. I mean, like, he's already a dominant force. What do you want? Like, so in the case that you do slow him down, you typically foul him.

And which by the way, Brooke Lopez may have actually done on that drive near the end of the game. But close play. And in the case that you do a great job and you force a miss, he gets a ball. back. Like, that's what the numbers tell you. Right? So what are you supposed to do here? And instead, he's like an innocent bystander to this loss.

It's crazy to me. And it does. And you saw this, we saw it in that Boston game. I mentioned this on Tuesday because we had watched it over the weekend. And it was like, you know, they went to halftime. He's like one for four. And then like in the second half half, it's like, Like, oh, yeah, Zion Williamson plays for us.

And there was nothing to sell things or anybody else can do. It's the same story. Like, every night. Like, it's, it's unbut, there's two things that are unbelievable. A, their record. B, the fact that they are 30th in the NBA and defense is just abhorrent. With Eric Bledso and Lonzo and Stephen Adams. And, like, the team is set up for.

defense. Like you don't have, but like those guys hurt you offensively. You know, like, because you saw, you can't just swing it out to them and they're going to bury a three. You saw a blood so last night. Like he, Bloodsoe's greatest contribution to your team theoretically is defense. Stephen Adams' greatest contribution to your team, theoretically, is defense. And it's like, you're the worst? How? How? How? How? And yeah, I swear, we're 30 games in the season. They are the most confusing team I've ever seen. They are. They are. I mean, I thought the comment that we used in the void from Stan Van Gundy earlier this month is really interesting. He basically said how early in the season or beginning of, you know, preseason training camp time. Everybody was talking about the pelicans like, well, how is the offensive spacing going to work? This is Van Gundy. Like he's saying this. Everybody's talking about spacing. How's it going to work? You know, but we were a good defense at the time. And things have. He said, we did a 180.

Now the offense is like number one, number two in the NBA over the last handful of weeks. And their defense stinks last in the NBA in recent games. It's nearly last in the NBA over the course of the full season. And Van Gundy said, he said, even though I'm a defense first guy, I'd prefer it this way. Because if you have a hard time scoring points, you'll be like banging your head against the wall trying to generate buckets. He says defense, he feels like is fixable. Do you feel like, like their defensive.

issues are fixable? Is this just a matter of like the team's too young, you know, efforts not there, you know, Zion, focus on all that? This is what I would worry about. I would worry that, I don't know when it was, two and a half weeks ago, three weeks ago, before they started winning some odd games in a row or out of how many, there was a story that I read that came out and it was Stan Veer Gundy saying that what they were doing was after games, he would get Zion Williamson and Brandon Ingram. And they would go sit in his office and they would watch film. That's what they would do.

And so I was like, oh, okay. Because you remember that one time he took, this was not long after, he took Ziaa Williamson out of a game for defensive purposes. And then it was like, okay, I can't lose him. So now I want to get the best players on the team on my side. So we're in there and we're watching film. was kind of like this, oh, well, now kind of everything, kumbaya, they're kind of coming together, and the defensive numbers, at least for a game or two, got a little bit of, but the fact that

we're, we're past that. Like, I read that story a couple of weeks ago, and it's like, nothing's changed. Like, they still, they still don't stop anybody. I mean, I think guys have individually, Zion has had some better moments, for sure. I think in offball help situations, and he's been better. Ingram, that to me is the disappointment there because I've said there's a whole bunch of times on the pod. His last season with the Lakers, really his last two seasons of the Lakers, I thought he was very good defensively. As his offensive load has increased dramatically with New Orleans getting more opportunity to be a star scorer, it has hurt his defense. And is it a matter of effort? Is it a matter of focus? Is it a matter of conditioning? I don't know the answer to that.

But Ingram needs to get back to being the same defensive player he was before. There should never be a moment in which he feels like a liability, but too often he does. And with Zion, I think over time, he will get better. I feel some confidence in that. We're seeing steady progress. So for the New Orleans, Pelicans, it really just might be a matter of the fact that these two guys are still super young. And they're carrying these heavy offensive workloads for the first time.

And that's another thing being Andy said. He's like, there's a higher level to conditioning for, you know, a star level player to be able to do everything, to handle the ball all the time, to also defend. a high level. So, you know, with these guys, maybe it's just about breaking through that ceiling, you know, that maybe a plateau they're already at right now. And the other thing is we can focus on

the individuals and what they, whether it's eye on, whether it's anger, there's clearly the biggest names on the team. But defense is a team thing. And you watch them and that team does not talk to each other. And it's not

on the proverbial string as you usually. When you see some of these really good teams. You can see on the screen the communication between these teams, right? And calling things out and constantly, you know, everybody knows where to be when and who's switching on who or how they're going to defend this particular action. And you don't see that with them in the same way that you see it with good teams. I'll tell you, like, if you ever see, like, because I saw them earlier this year,

a person, if you ever watch the Lakers in person, you get it. You understand why their defense is, now, their offense stinks this year, you know, so far. They've had guys out, too, of course. And they've had shooter out, they've had AD. But their defense is still good. And it is because they are barking out to each other. Yeah. If there is one thing, constant communication.

Constant communication. And you see it. critical, man. The good teams do that. It's the truth. You got to communicate whether you're playing an NBA game or you're playing war zone. You've got to communicate. It's the truth. So,

and that game ended in the most bizarre way ever, and we're talking about the Bucks game. You have Devinchenzo make two monster plays down the stretch. Oh, that offensive rebound? Well, first of all, I think that play was great. Like, that was a preview of what you're going to see more from the bucks in the playoffs.

High pick and roll. Chris Middleton, on the ball, Janus screening. Yonis rolled hard to the rim, caught the ball around the free throw line on the short roll, and immediately, you know, the defense collapses inside to stop Yonis from getting into the paint. And he kicks it out to a wide open, Devin, so he missed the shot. But that's a quality, wide open look for a quality shooter. And I bet we're going to see a heck of a lot more of that type of pick and roll from the

bucks with Yonis on the short roll being able to pick apart defenses in the postseason. That we're going to see that a heck of a lot more. And one of the things you saw with Yonis last night, and this is what he's going to have to do this in the playoffs, he gets that floater game working, he becomes a different offensive player. He really does because he's kind of got the, you know, if you're saying extend his range out from three feet, right?

But if you can just get to that spot where you can knock down floaters, floaters are available now. People are trying to run you off of the rim and off the three. point line. And so that mid-range, and it doesn't necessarily be mid- and he can get there in one step. But if he can knock down that little like six, seven-foot floater, now he's a different weapon, truly. And he hit a couple of those last night. And I was like, oh, like not going all the way to the rim, just stopping up short, because you can't block it. He's too long, right? I mean, it becomes like actually, if he could make that like a shot that, like, is that you can count on,

that's a real problem for people. And in the absence of being able to knock down threes, you know, you're looking for different things you could theoretically add to your arsenal. That is one that's totally doable. It's just knocking down that little, you know, mid-range floater. Anyway, the end of the game, Devin Chenzell makes those big plays.

And then, you know, that this is a, like the Pelicans, like not knowing what you're doing in regards to time and score. and they just, they were clueless. Like Alonzo passes up a three. He wanted absolutely no part of it. So I don't even know why he's out there if he's not willing to shoot a wide open three with the game on the line.

And then Ingram ends up just barreling over Devinchenzo and the game's over. That was a weird possession. We've had a couple of those in the last week. I don't want to jump too far ahead here with some stuff to discuss. But we saw that with Tray Young towards the end of the Atlanta game. Last week against Cleveland where he passed the ball with 0.8 left instead of putting up a shot.

We saw that with the Denver game with the three on one in transition in which like, why are you not attacking the basket on a three on one? Just some time situational basketball has been kind of a mess the past week in some end game situations. Okay. So that was the thing that took over social media the most last night was the end of that Denver Nuggets game, which was absolutely appalling. because it is, you know, when people complain about,

hey, there's somebody, there's too many threes that get taken. And teams just focus on this so much that when it comes down to, it's when it goes too far is when you have a three on one break and you're down by two and Jamal Murray stops at the three point line instead of going, everything about it was appalling. and both the players that were on the break with him, including Porter Jr., ran out to the three-point line. They flank out to the three-point line. And that is, you know, that can certainly be, they practice this stuff on odd man breaks, too.

Now, three-on-one is when it. Not enough. That's when it got extreme. No, no, no. I'm saying they practice running out to the three-point line. Oh, yeah, yeah, I know. If you ever watch these teams. They don't practice clearly enough at an end-game situation in which the habits that you

built for many situations don't apply. I mean, like Chris, I grew up a spoiled Patriots fan. You know that. Yeah. Belichick talked all the time about situational football, end game situation. We saw this in the Super Bowl against the Seahawks. Like obviously, it's easy to look back. They made the right decision not to call a time out against the Seahawks.

But situationally in football, you need to think through all those scenarios. They knew to send Malcolm Butler out on the field. They had planned that. We saw that in the NFL. films, you know, when they practiced it out. Basketball, like, it's a different type of sport. You don't have two weeks to prepare or one week to prepare during normal regular season like you do in the NFL.

But that, that's what I saw last night during that Denver game. That 301 situation was they're doing what they would normally do when the defense is also getting back and there's two guys kind of in the pain preventing a layup and you're going out to the three point line. But in that situation, you got to read the play in the moment and be prepared. you got to know, you got to know what's going to happen. And I took, I took some serious issue with Michael Malone throwing Michael Porter Jr. under the bus there.

Did Michael Porter Jr. make the wrong play? Yes, he did. He made the wrong play. But as the head coach of an NBA team, it's your responsibility to protect the players. Malone should have gotten up there. And instead of saying Michael Porter Jr. made the play, he should have said Michael Malone should have prepared his team better. He should have said, it's,

on me as the coach, a mistake was made to assure that my players to know in this situation, end game attack, cut to the rim, get to the basket. Instead of saying all Michael Porter Jr. should have done was cut. He should have said, I should have instructed him clearly to do that, even if you did. Because it's the responsibility of the coach to protect the players. And so I didn't like that last night, even if it was true. Because at the worst, you say, I wish we could have it back. Yeah.

Or just give like some, you get some BS answer like that. I wish we got that playback. Like, that's all you're going to do. But the last thing you should do, but the last thing you should do. The last thing you should do. I wish we could have that back. And I know Michael and the other guys do too. Of course.

Like, you're all, simple. You're all in the same. You're all in the same boat here. Yeah. It's so simple. Not this dumb ass.

He just caught. We all wish we could get that play back. Michael wishes we could have that playback. And as the coach, I need to do a better job of preparing my players so that it's end game situations. Boom, it's over. It's done.

Like, that's all he going to do. And I just took some serious issue with that last night. I don't know if anybody has the numbers on this, but I thought it was so fascinating. We were on a text with Rosillo last night. He was saying, I would love to see the numbers of how many times a team is down two and they take a two. He said, I've got to believe it feels like eight, and he watches a ton of games, 80% of the time the team down to takes a three. That's what he theorized. I wonder what the number is, but it does feel like at some point, we've got to draw a line

to where the gimmie buckets, and we do see this all the time. If you're watching NBA games, to where a guy can, he has a straight line to the basket, and he gives up a layup to throw it out to the three point line. Or a guy gets an offensive rebound could easily just put it back in the goal, but turns around and throws it back behind the three point line. It's crazy. Like there has become an overreliance on this. There's no doubt to when you are giving up what would be 80, 90, 100 percent two-pointers,

just for the chance at making a three-point? I don't think it's like some rampant issue, but we do see it more often where players are conditioned. It's like the end game situation where you just talked about in Denver. You have a chance to get a layup to tie up. to tie up the game with seconds left, and Jamal Murray kind of pulls up short and nobody cuts to the basket. They're conditioned to do that over the course of the 47 minutes prior in the majority of situations when the defense is actually back, just like you're talking about with offensive rebounding. I think the flip side could also be said, there are a lot of instances where a big guy might grab an offensive rebound and hucks it back up instead of kicking it out.

And that's something I always used to piss me off a lot over the years watching the NBA is when guys wouldn't kick it out and restart the offense. Especially back when the shot clock used to go back to 24. Now it goes to 14. A bit of a difference there. But I think it goes both ways there, Chris, when it comes to offensive rewriting. Some guys kick it out too often. I'm just talking about when there's nobody around you. Oh, no, I know.

I know. I'm just saying. I'm just saying. But like, you know, there's, it's offensive rebounding is weird. I like seeing them kick it out, but not when it's wide open. We do see that more often. But it's because of conditioning, I'm saying.

They're trained to do that. You know, it's the habits you have built in to look out instead of looking back up at the rim. But it's hard to read that play. Well, and then you are conditioned so much that when you're down by two

with the game on the line, everybody flares out to the three point line instead of going and making a layup. I mean, that is, that is, that's what they thought to do. do. You know what I mean? And most of the time, most of the time, it's the right thing to do.

It's just in that situation, like, it's the utter wrong thing to do. I mean. Yeah. And I agree with you on the loan. Got to read the play. That's a bad job by him. He shouldn't, he shouldn't be doing that. Malone?

Yes. I mean, with Malone, like he, he, I'm saying, forget the bad job of not preparing it for the moment. Whatever. Players have to play. It's throwing the players under the bus. I don't think you get any. I don't think you get any points in that locker room

for coming out and saying these guys did something stupid. And it wasn't just Michael Porter. They know. He hated on Javall Murray at the end game moment with there too. In front of the media. I just don't think that something the coach should be doing. I don't need it. Throwing the players to the bus.

Yeah. No, I'd be like, what if at the end of the game, you know, Jason Tatum takes his two foot step back and clanks a three. And he says, and Brad Stevens, comes out and he's like, you know, I wish Jason would have better SOT selection with the game on the line. You know, I, that's not, it's not what we want. It would be shocking. It would be shocking.

You'd be like, what? Yeah. Are you out of your mind? Like, what's wrong with you, man? Like, even if it is a crappy shot. Yeah. It's like, first of all, as a fan or a media member, thank you for your honesty. But secondly, why would you be honest? Yes. Right. I go, what are you trying to do here, man? You're trying to get everybody to hate you? Yeah, yeah. I mean, that's the thing. That's just frustration boiling over.

They're having a disappointing season. It was a Western Conference Finals team that's a 500 team now. Like, we're a little, we're getting further into the season. That's part of it, though, man, like is with adversity, how do you handle it? Yep. How do you handle adversity? And this is a team that's sorely underwhelming, like the Celtics are. It makes sense you brought them up.

It's another reference. But at least the Celtics have had like some injury. You know what I'm saying? Like, you know, having Marks Smart out there's been a thing. Yeah. Marcus Smart. Kempba not looking like himself.

Tatum was out with COVID at one point. Yeah. Tatum himself has a conditioning. Tatum himself said his conditioning isn't quite what it was prior to. Denver doesn't have as many excuses. No. You know what I mean? They've had a guy playing at like MVP level for this whole year.

So far. Another thing that came up last night was rarely do you see the celebration of defense. But I could not help but notice that there were a lot of people mentioning how devastating Ben Simmons was guarding Luke last night. So good. Like you rarely see, would you, I mean, when is the last time that you saw somebody get celebrated for the defense that they played?

But spotlight's on. You see everybody's watching Luca Donchich. And we, especially after this weekend where we just saw that crazy stuff happened at the end of their game, where he hits those two stepbacks in a row to win the game. But against Boston, now you fast forward, you know, Luca's been on this tear. And here's the moment where he's going up and we'll see, oh, what do the Sixers do against Luca? and Ben Simmons remind everybody, like, I am the guy that can really fluster the stars.

So here's the stats, Simmons versus Luca via Derek Bodner, Godner, according to Sixers fans from the athletic, Godner tweeted this last night. He watched all of Lucas shots. He said he had him at seven points on three of nine shooting with five turnovers when defended by Simmons. 12 points on 3 or 4 shooting when guarded by anyone else in the Sixers. So just to repeat that,

seven points on nine shots with five turnovers when defended by Ben Simmons. Wow. Dominant stuff with Ben and like forget about the numbers, you know, like watching the game. You should, you could see how much Ben Simmons was making things difficult for Luca. With his ability to get around screens, the size to match the physicality and the speed and the shiftiness.

Not that Luke is fast, but his movements are. quick with his footwork. And Ben Simmons could stick right with him, man. It was really, really impressive to watch that last night. It's really amazing. I don't know if you remember this, but a couple of months ago, well, it's now several months ago now, when we were first in that quarantine, there was no sports going on,

and they just started, like, all these channels just started running whatever sports archives they could. One night in my infinite boredom, they were re-showing the Sixers Raptors. and they were re-showing that series. And for whatever, it was on NBA TV, and I left it on. And I was like, all right, I'll watch this. Or maybe it was ESPN at that time. They was showing it.

Whoever. Somebody was re-showing it. And I started watching it. And I remember coming on the mismatch not long after and saying, yo, I just watch this back because you forget, you know, the way these things play out. You know, in the end, when we think about that series, we think about Kauai's shot that hit the rim three times and dropped in at the very end. and Embed in tears at the end of it. But watching that back and watching Simmons Guard Kauai,

it was the thing that I was left with thinking about after I'm watching it. Like, I know what happens in the game, but he just was making it so hard on that guy. The numbers were the numbers. Kauai had great numbers. But he could make him so inefficient. And you saw in the moments where he was guarded by Simmons, he was not doing what he wanted to do.

And just swallows guys up. He is so damn big and agile that he really is. He is a special defensive player. And it was odd to see somebody get so many kudos for their defense last night because that is just such a rarity now. And rightfully so, man. Rightfully so. Like, you know me with Ben Simmons,

my relationship with him. I've always over the years knocked them for the shooting hand and all that. But I think you have to give credit to a guy for making improvements in other areas. He has become the best possible version of himself that he could be on the defensive end of the floor. That's a testament to the work he puts into the focus to the fact that like he is going out there with the determination and the mindset to be a locked down guy and doing that every night. That takes commitment, you know? It takes a will to do it. And he is.

And then offensively, he's doing the little things. He's, he's setting screens, Chris. That wasn't something he wanted to do or even did that often in the past. He's doing it more often. So you got to give that guy credit for the big flaw is the shot.

And it still is. But he's done everything he possibly can to overcome that by maximizing his talents in every other category, every other category. He's very, very good or great or even elite. Well, and I said this couple of weeks.

I mean, I think that. I think that's the team that's going to be in the finals. I do from the Eastern Conference. And part of that is because with this guy, let's assume they're healthy, if I know I can take out or even if I don't take out, at the very least, make the best perimeter player on any team I'm facing wildly inefficient because I've got him. I mean, that just goes such a, I mean, it goes such a long way towards being able to win a series.

He's like, I mean, if I can, if I take whoever your best guy is, whoever your best perimeter guy is, if I can throw him on him and he's not going to get his numbers, he's not getting his averages. Because you need guys to step up and be better than they've normally been. Playoff time, I think that creates, you know, and of course, obviously, behind him, you've got M-Beed, so it's not like. Well, you know, with those top three teams in the East, Philly, Brooklyn, and Milwaukee, you know, one, it does get to that point.

know, it's going to be fascinating to see what these teams resemble at that point, what type of, you know, scheme shifts that they make, you know, like Milwaukee right now is trying out more switching than they've done in past seasons. They're doing it quite a bit more regardless of the lineup, but especially doing it with Janus at the five, which they don't do a lot, but maybe we see them go to that at a high rate in the postseason. With Philly, though, they match up really nicely with Milwaukee.

You can start out Ben Simmons on Chris Middleton, if you want to, and then bead on Janus. And you can switch those screens if you want to and comfortably survive with Embed on Middleton and have Simmons still on Janus. You can not switch that and have your two best defenders against the two best opposing offensive players. Brooklyn's going to be the team that really presents the serious challenge. The fascinating thing about that is in what in what world would you ever think you would have a player that you could throw on Kyrie, Hardin, or Durant. Yeah, I know. He could guard any of them.

And Simmons has that level of versatility. You could just have him totally try to swallow up a Hardin or a Kyrie. And odds are he'd probably be Katie or Hardin. Like then he actually has the size to where, yeah, he has the size where he could, you know, again, you're not, you're not stopping these guys. You're trying to make them score their 30 points. Yeah, yeah, you're trying to make them score their 30 points on 30 shots. Yeah. which is actually what Kauai did.

Yeah. I mean, he did. He scored like, you know, but if you can make him do it on, you know, on 30 shots instead of be 12 of 17 and go to the line, you know, 10 times. Now all of a sudden that's a different world. But he's a special defender. There's no way around that. All right, Kevin. We have gotten a ton of email submissions.

And we said that today we were going to try to get through as many as we came. Oh, one other thing before we get to the email submissions, I do want to mention. I happen to watch the G League. My producer here does G League games, and he's been doing pregames or whatever, and so I've been watching some of those. And so the Memphis Hustle, which is the G League team from here, they've got your guy, Tyrell Terry, playing for them. For a while, they had one of the guys from the Bucks who they've called up. Sam Merrill, who is a young player for them. But anyways, so they played that team Ignite the other day.

That's the team that's got all the kids that went straight from high school into the G League. So they got Jalen Green and they got Cabunga and they've got Isaiah Todd. And they also have like these veterans around them, which is brilliant. Like Jarrett Jack is the one that feeds it to him on the brakes and stuff. I love seeing Jared Jack out there. Kevin, let me tell you something. That kibunga dude, holy crap,

he is awesome. Like, awesome, awesome. I don't know where he's going to end up on these draft boards. But I had not seen him in a long time. Of course, you know, you see the highlight mixtapes from high school or whatever. But seeing him in that game, going up against guys that have like NBA experience.

In some cases, a lot of NBA experience. This guy is a guard and they would throw it out to him, bam, knocked down a three with no hesitation. I'm talking in big moments. And then he was posting people up and had post moves. And then he'd catch it on the break. He caught one on the break. He frigging windmilled it.

I'm like, yo, who is that? this guy. This, that is a special talent, man. Now, Jela Green, in his own right, is a very special talent. And everybody knows about- Different types of players. He's, you know, look, he is mega-athlete, but those kids, like, watching them in that setting, and I have seen even NBA guys and certainly first and second round picks go down there, they do not look like that. They just don't. These kids are, they are different. And they look like if you put a lottery pick in the G league. I think this is going to be huge for their development and for their draft stock.

Because there is no way I would encourage anybody. Tune that kid in and watch him. And he is playing against men. He's playing against guys like, you know, David Stockton. I saw one of the highlights, Gary Payton's kid. Like these are Yogi Farrell. Like there's, but I mean, there's people that have like, real NBA tenure that are in this, and a bunch of guys fighting,

and a bunch of guys that are on two ways that have a roster spot for an NBA team. And holy crap, this kid. Kaminga, I was over the moon watching him. Kaminga, let me get this right. Kaminga, right? Is that right now? Okay. I've been saying it wrong the whole time.

Jonathan Cominga. I apologize to the Kaminga family. But he is, he's sensational. He's really good, man. I don't give a damn what his name is. I'd take him high.

Yeah, definitely. No doubt about it. Different types of players, him and Jalen Green, but both of them, top five, top six guys in this year's draft.

Dude, it's a good year. It's going to be a good job. I'm looking forward to having the, the ringers 2021 NBA draft guide come out in a couple of, weeks or months. I'm not sure when exactly will do it,

but I think sometime this month we'll have something out during March madness. Okay, during March madness? Yeah, yeah. I've tried to watch, I've tried to watch some more college basketball, especially since football ended. And I don't know.

Like, I honestly, like I found myself way more entertained by the G League stuff. I really did. And that's just because of the level of talent. Yeah. There's not the guy. It's not the guy. It's good.

Outside of cunning. and a few other guys in college, there's nobody that I, like, really go out of my way to seek out. I wonder if this will be more of a path. I think it will be. That's my hunch, but we'll see.

Well, especially, I mean, look, that green kid got a half a million dollars, Kevin. Yeah, I know. It's not like he got a hundred. Sometimes you can get half a million from a college, too, but... All I know is, it's not a hundred grand. I'm not wrong. It's true.

I did have a player. I want to tell you the school. I had a player one time that told me that they, he went to a school, no lie. He went to a school to get recruited. And they gave him like the school's book bag. And they were like, hey, we filled it up with some swag and whatever. And he got back to his hotel room. And it was just rubber bands, wads of cash in the book bag. He didn't even know what he was. He said, I didn't even know what I was carrying. I didn't even know. Like, I thought it was really, like, you know, T-shirts and swag and whatever. Unbelievable. Truly unbelievable. Wow. These are things the guys never talk about, right? Yeah.

You never, like, that person would never tell that story in a million years, like, two people. But, yeah, had a frigging book bag just filled with cash. I was like, man, what a life. College basketball has got some competition. They must have really wanted you. All right, Kevin, we got a lot of listener submissions via email. Producer Sasha has them all together. The ones that we can get to, we'll get to as many as we can.

All right, Sasha, what do we get this week? Well, we got a lot of great questions this week. Just want to shout out everybody. This was a really good batch, really great batch this week. So the first one I want to get to is a basketball question. Then we got a bunch of really good non-basket questions. And so we'll do. When Kauai and PG went to the Clippers, there was a lot of hype over this team having

two stars with elite two-way versatility and the nightmare would create for other teams going against their defense. Fast forward to today. And it seems like the Clippers have potential matchup problems with most Western conference contenders, even though the sport's becoming more positionless, do you guys think the value of the elite two-way wing player is a bit overhyped? Are we seeing the value of the big man, Embed, Yokic, Ad, Gober? I'm saying go bear, start to rise again.

That's from Christian. I would say, yes, on the big men front, there's no question the value of big men has gone up. I would also say that you still have to have guys to match up with those guys. And you could say, well, there's a lot of teams out there that have guys that can match up with those guys. but that's because of the value of. If you don't have it, you're screwed. So I would just say that the value has been so high that, yeah, generally the good teams have versatile wing players now.

And so, and you need that. And now I think you are, you know, there's always patterns within the league. And I think you're seeing more teams now want to have a legitimate big guy because they know they have to go up against Anthony Davis and Nicolioch and whoever. else, but that we already went through the wave of you really need versatile wings. And so those guys are still the best of the best at that. And yeah, there might be teams that have that, but I still think they create you an advantage over and over again.

And I will tell you, like last night, I watched them in person and they got blasted by the Grizzlies. But in part, it's because the Grizzlies had Kyle Anderson, they had Justice Winslow, and they had Dylan Brooks. They're all big, versatile guards that were wing players. So they had somebody to throw with those guys, which created that problem. But, I mean, look, if you don't have the wings, you're in a bad way. I do think they need to improve their bigs.

They need to improve their bigs. They only have Ibaka. They have Zubotch. They bring off the bag. Like, they need to get a big guy. somebody better than what they've got right now. And so to that point, I would say yes, but I'd still, in the land of versatile wings,

I'd still want Kauai and Paul George. Yeah, I agree with Chris there. I'm not so sure that the value of the elite 2A wings has dropped necessarily as much as just the value of bigs has risen and the amount of high-level bigs have risen that has necessitated the teams have a big that can stop them. And I do think you'll see, like let's just say we see Clippers,

in the playoffs at some point, you'll probably see sometime Kauai or George on AD and then the other one on LeBron. And that way, like they have that level of positional versatility to do that and switch those screens and, you know, and alternate between them. So it still matters a heck of a lot to have those guys. But yes, the big, the rise in the valley of the bigs has created some issues for those teams. All right. Let's move on to everyone's favorite player to talk about this season.

or to not talk about, but to say that he's playing well and that he deserves better. Zach Levine, with Levine playing at an all-star level this season, is it time for the Bulls to move to Lowry Markanen, or to move Lowry Markinen, and what does the market for him look like?

That's from Jed. I talked a little bit about this with Kenny Beecham on this week's episode of Ringer NBA University, who came on as a guest afterwards. And, you know, with Lowry, Bulls fans, a lot of them feel like they are ready to move him. and that's because of the fit issues of some of the other guys in that team.

And yes, including the rise of Zach Levine. But I still look at Laurie and it's like he's still a young guy who's had some injuries early in his career who's averaging nearly 20 points per game who has offensive versatility. I wonder if he's one of those players

who can end up being a late bloomer. So for Chicago, they do need to mix this up. They do need to get the right blend of talent around Levine. But also the trading Lowry I would want something good back because there's still a lot of talent there that could turn into something for you.

I feel like Markinen's value is at an all-time low right now, don't you? It's definitely a lower after all the injuries and everything. Yeah, I wouldn't trade him now. You know what I mean? You want to get to the off-season, get to the off-season. But theoretically, he is the kind of guy that you would like on a Levine Kobe White team, somebody that they can, when they drive and the guy from the corner has to pinch in, you could just throw it out too and he can be a marksman,

a knockdown corner three guy. He actually is the type of guy in theory that you would want. He's got to be able to knock those down at a very high rate. And I do think that could be his destiny in the league is being one of those knocked down type of guys. I mean, you would hope he's like Bertons. You know, and you can say, well, I hope he's better than Burton. Bertons, but I mean, Bertons just got paid a fortune.

You paid $80 million for being able to knock down shots after a guy's driving kick. So, I don't know. His value is so low right now. I would, I would, I'd hold on until I could get that value back up. Because I think you're getting 50 cents on the dollar. Diamond hands. Diamond hands. Diamond hands Chicago.

Okay. So that was fun. Just really quick, really quick. I don't want to get too far into this, but are you guys worried about the Lakers at all? Tyronus Rex asked, I'm asking, or all asking, are you worried at all? Just really quick. No, no, not worried. Not worried about the Lakers.

They have injuries right now. 80s out. It's as simple as this. They ain't winning shit without AD. But if they get AD back healthy, don't bet against them in the playoffs. Okay. Yeah. That's what I would say.

You know what I mean? Like, again, it's a regular. season. I would only be worried. I would only be worried about AD's injury. If it is serious and he's gone, it's over. He ain't winning nothing. But if he's back and he's AD, I mean, come on. There's still the favorite. No matter what happens right now. Okay. Let's see. Let's see. Okay, really quick. which NBA player retired or current would would you want to be the next bachelor? That's from John.

Who would be funny? Who would be like a funny player? Blake Griffin. Tony Allen is he? No, he's married. Okay, all right. Who's like a Tony Allen-esque, like funny personality? J.R. Smith?

How about who you know who seems funny with the young guy? J.R. Smith. You know, you know, Jay said that he's famous for the, you know, you're trying to get the pipe. Tyree. Right? Tyree Taliborne's been really engaging and funny on Twitter as our nice rookie. He's one of those guys who's like so young where you're, you'd be like, actually

don't get married at the end of this. Maybe he's too young for that. I don't know. I don't know who's single. J.R. J.R. is J.R. is not married, right? Let's go with J.R. J.R. Smith.

Oh, my God. If you told me J.R. Smith was a bachelor, I would never miss an episode. He is not getting married at the end. He's just not. Okay. I'm not loving the season right now. Matt James is too bland on the show. He's got to show his personality, man.

He's going to show yourself. Okay. Ricardo from Italy would like to ask both of you, what would be the first thing you do once this shit is over? A.K.A. the pandemic. Yes. And he said he'd give you a free tour of Italy. Oh, I'd love that. That would be a great first thing to do after this.

I just look forward to having like a dinner with friends. Simple as that. See like seven, eight people and have a big group dinner and just share plates. I look forward to that. That's just something simple. I'd say go out to eat. And I would say, I'd say go out to eat. And I would say go to like a concert.

Yeah. Yeah. I miss that. That's a good one. I haven't been to a concert since November 2019 when I saw Mount Joy play at the Wiltern in Los Angeles. Great band, friends of the show, Mount Joy. And yeah, that was a great, great time.

The audience was so into it. I remember just at one point, because they're my friends, like in the band, just turning around and seeing smiles and people singing along and just thinking, that's awesome. I'm so happy for them. Just to be able to be on stage and look out at that. And, yeah, I look forward to those moments again, dude. people just all together in one big room together for one moment. I miss it, dude.

I miss it. I would, I agree with you guys about like dinners and concerts and stuff. I think one thing that I really can't wait for is for farmers markets to be normal again. Because right now there's like, there's just like way less stands and like it's, you have to be like super careful about like touching stuff. You can't pick out your own stuff. And I know it's like, this is a small thing. But if you do it every week, it adds up.

So I can't wait for that to be like more normal experience. again. All right, let's do some video game stuff for video game week. This is a fun one. If you can live in a video game world, what world would you choose? That's from Powell. That's a good question. Is there any game that your son plays, Chris? You're like, oh, I'd love to hang out there. Animal Crossing. He only, he only plays sports games. Oh, my man. Maybe you look there. It's familiar to reality. You spend time. He only plays sports games. I really, the majority of them, I only played sports games except for, you know, the Mario

games, Sonic, Zelda. Zelda would be a fun one. I think I think I would choose Verdansk, Warzone. I know every inch of that map. I know, I know, I know everything. I know where, I know everything in that map. Did you get shot in? I know, but like, you.

I'm pretty good. You have more lives. Oh, you do? You just keep regenerating. You can respond. Yeah. It seems like a lot of fun. Yeah.

Yeah, I guess I would say like Mario 3D world. Oh, that's fun. I've never played Animal Crossing, but I think I would probably pick Animal Crossing. That's a good one. Really good one. There's a community. Right. Or Farmville.

Ah, Farmville. That's a great one. Speaking of wars. Kevin O'Call of Duty, what's your go-to war zone loadout? That's from Brandon. I mean, we'll figure out the loadout with the new season that's just started up. But typically, I like going with the Mac 10 as my secondary. You got to have that for close range.

And then I like going with an LMG usually. I think in my team, I'm not the leader in kills and games usually, but I do think there's a lot of value in suppressor fire. And so I like going with a PKM 200 rounds or even a Bruin 200 rounds. And if I don't do that, I'll go with like an A-Max or the kilo, something like that as an AR. So that's my typical low. You're serious. Yeah.

I don't know. I don't know what that. I don't know what that. If you wanted to, if you want to say, you never snite. You're a idiot. You're speaking a different language. You're an idiot. How do you guys use the car?

And J.M. Do you like Rebirth Island? That's what he asks. Yeah, I like Rebirth Island. The talent pool is not quite as high as Verdansk, so it's fun to just plow through teams sometimes. And then there, it's fun to switch up the maps, too. I'm excited for like in Warzone Island, Vernais. They get the ship.

They get the ship there, near prison. That's like where my team likes to drop is prison. All righty. One more. Do you guys ever play NBA Jam? Yes. Okay. So who is your go-to team?

And then also, that's from Dustin. And then also Dylan asks, like, out of all of the, like, great duos and NBA history, like, including today, who would you, like, say is the best, like, two-man duo for NBA jam? Dremont, Steph, Kobe, Jordan Pippen are the ones that he. Could I choose, like, Steph and Clay? Is that allowed? Yeah. Very fun. Yeah, there's been, there's been two guard teams.

teams before. That'd be fun. I never really played NBA jam to be honest. No, you haven't. I think I was a little too young for that or I just didn't go to arcades. I wasn't cool. I was on a place I hung out. So I have I have an interesting one where I have like I have an old Sega Genesis and I plugged it up recently and me and my son have been playing on it. That's fun. Yeah. He had he he he got a little arrogant last week. And so he took, he said, oh, well, I'll just be, you know, the worst team, whoever it is. I'll be the Milwaukee Bucks. And he's like, who is Lohouse? And I was like Brad Lohouse.

And so he was him. But he got a little arrogant, so I buried him. Like a good dad should. Like a good dad should. Haven't played since. That's what you get for taking Brad Lohouse, stupid. Hasn't been sense. You don't want to, you don't want this smoke.

You're out of your mind brand low house. How dare you? So yeah, we, we played that quite a, but that's the old, that's the old, old version, the one that we were playing. And so I would say,

on that one, that's the one that has like Mad Max and Elijah Wan for the Rockets. It's got, I mean, it's got a bunch of really good teams on there. But I would say, yeah,

I'd probably say that Rockets team. I'd probably say that Rockets team. Because Maxwell's hits threes at a pretty high rate. Oh, Peyton Kemp, too. That one's awesome. All right, that's going to do it for another episode of The Mismatch. Everybody have a great and safe weekend, and we will talk to you next week.

Have a good weekend, everybody.