The Mismatch - Impressions After the First Week of the NBA, Plus Teams, Players, and Things We Loved and Loathed

Episode Date: October 25, 2024

The NBA is finally back as Verno and Jacoby react to last night’s slate of games and share their first impressions after the opening week of the NBA season (01:19). They then each discuss one team (11:46) and player (20:25) that they loved from the week as well as what they completely loathed (40:13). The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producer: Jessie Lopez Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Everybody lies. But most of us don't like to talk about the lies we tell. Until now. From Spotify and the Ringer podcast network, I'm Brian Phillips. In my new podcast, Truthless, I'm talking to people about their best tales of deception. From changing an entire family history to building an award-winning Hollywood career on a lie. You can listen to Truthless on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does this Friday morning from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby.

Jacoby. We have actual basketball games to discuss. A ton of actual basketball games. Yeah. And all right, let's go to a first impression of the league since we just started the season. Now, again, this can be a grand overreaction because things we've only seen most of the teams one time thus far. But I'll start and I will tell you that as I was watching night one of the NBA season, which was Wednesday night where there were 10 games, this was unbelievable to just

fire up league pass and then flip around and watch all of these games. One of the things that I was left with when I was watching those games and I capped my night by watching the Grizzlies, game, which had 70-something free throws in it. And as I was watching all those other games, I'm watching guys at the free throw line regularly. And the first thing that ran through my mind, if we're just doing a first impression was, we can't do this again.

We can't do this again with the crazy scores, the crazy high foul rates, the crazy amount of free throws, where all I'm watching is three-pointers and free throws. And then we get later in the season, And there comes another edict that they say is not an edict when last night or, you know, a couple of nights ago, my, uh, my local producer, John Rosa ran some numbers. And there were 46 and a half combined fouls in games and 58 combined free throws in games.

Because one of the things we always talk about is you never want more free throws than minutes in the game. They only play 48 minutes. Teams on average, games on average were at 58 free throws. We, and then we went the complete opposite way last year to great reviews, right? We had the Buck Celtics game in April that literally set an NBA record because they shot two free throws in the game. I think we can agree that was extreme. But I was at a game last year, Jacoby, when all of this was a topic and people were like,

no, the NBA didn't say anything. There was no edict, whatever. I was at a game between Memphis and Charlotte, where Charlotte did not shoot a free throw for the first three quarters of a game. There's very obviously a change in officiating that took place last year. And all of us that love basketball loved it. The games were going faster. Scores did come down. But it was much more watchable when they were letting some stuff go.

And they were letting some physicality go. and it got to the point last year with Kevin Peltin, I remember even reported that like when we got to February, it was the third lowest free throw rate in NBA history. So it went super extreme last year. And I guess my hope was we'd kind of find a happy medium coming into this year. My first impression was, oh, God, we're going to do this again. We're going to call every foul at the beginning of the season. and then it's going to have an effect, and people aren't going to like it as much,

and then they're going to start getting very lax on the foul calling. And so, anyway, that was just my first impression from night one because I loved what the NBA had become the second half of last season. It's great. We start the pod. We're so excited for the games to be back. We're talking about how great it is to watch all the games, and they just immediately start complaining about free time.

This is great. This is great. It's great. You love the game. Look, the people that love something the most are the ones that complain the most. Go to a Star Wars Reddit. I'll say this. Last year was funny because there was a dramatic change win at the All-Star game.

When everyone gathers together in one city and they all talk about the game and there's high-level conversations in rooms and expensive hotels that we're not invited to, and then everything changed after that. So there was clearly some sort of edict from above, and I thought they would continue into this year. because I thought it was an appropriate correction, maybe an over-correction, but like you, I thought it was like three free throws. We're like, the first one you miss long,

the second one you miss short, and now we'll get it right, right? Because the first and second half of the season last year, too many calls in the first half, probably two little calls in the second half. I, like you, thought it would be better. And again, this is a very, very, very small sample size. But I think across the board, everyone agrees.

The less free throws, the more flow, the better basketball. It's just that simple. And of course, I am obviously persuaded by the fact that I watched a game with over 70 free throws in it. It's unwatchable. De Rosen had 37 free throws last night, I feel like.

I'm not sure what the exact number is. Every time he touched the ball, he was at the line. Every time I looked at that game, I was like, oh, DeVar de Rosen, at the line, shooting free throws. Well, we had really, we had gotten into a good spot

where it wasn't just threes and free throws. And I get it. Everybody in the NBA wants their shot chart to look the same. It's all lay it up or tray it up. You want all those little dots right there in the paint. You want all those little dots all the way around the three point arc, most especially in the corners. But it can't be that every time everybody drives or anytime anything happens

inside the three point line, that there's a whistle. There was a Chet block last night that was called a foul that was overturned. I can think of another block that was also called a foul. that was overturned. And that's a, that's a bad sign. It's a bad sign if the reps are calling fouls that are then overturned and turned into blocks. And that was actually the one game where it was more like last year. And it's interesting that you even found that out, you know, noticed that from watching that game because that one was like 26 combined free throws, I think, is what they took in that game. That's not that bad. That's totally reasonable. In fact,

it's on the low side, right? But there's got to be some kind of, there's got to be some kind of sweet spot with this. I'm going to, so from my big first impression, I would never sort of like just watch a few nights of games and then irresponsibly just completely make a sweeping statement that'll sort of like go directly to the end of the season. Oh, wait, that's exactly what I'm going to do. My big first impression is there is not going to be a race for the number one scene

in either conference. There will only be a race for the best record in the NBA. The number one seeds are very clearly going to be the Celtics and the Thunder. And it's starting to feel, I'm not saying things can change in the playoffs, but in the regular season, it feels like there's a very clear number one seed in each conference just based again, one, two games in the Celtics in one game. It just feels that way to me. It really does.

It has this inevitability feel like the Cavs Warriors days, where it's like, let's just pass forward to the finals. Now, I'm not going to say that that's the finals matchup. It happened to be what I picked. but it does feel like those are clearly, again, tiny sample size, those are clearly the two best teams that I've seen. The Knicks, all offseason, we heard that they were built to beat the Celtics.

They've got the wing defenders to do it. They can match Tadem and Brown, O.G. Ananovi and Macau Bridges, and now we're going to space out for Brunton and Cat. Poor Zingas and Cat. Look, we're built to beat them. That didn't work. Oh, the Nuggets, the MVP, you know, the former champions, before they were unseeded.

Like, those are supposed to be tightly contested sort of, marquee matchups between two of the best teams in the conference, and both of them were just kind of blowouts that were over in the third quarter. Well, Denver was at home, a place that they've dominated. Great point. Right? Over the years. And I will say it very well may be a grand overreaction from just seeing one,

but I think it's totally fair to say everybody talked up both of these teams all offseason. At the very beginning, right, it was everybody knows that Celtics are going to be great, everybody knows Oklahoma City is going to be great. It's just going to be a matter of how great. And the first impression that we got of both of them was, I mean, exactly, exactly, exactly, exactly what anybody, anybody would have expected. And Oklahoma City, you know, obviously they got their starting center and the guy's not available for the first six weeks of the season. But Chad played so good last night.

But it stands to reason that they could. could be getting significantly better two months into the year. Of course. They're so young and all of their players are making second to third year leaps, third to fourth year leaps and just getting better and training better. And Chet, in particular, last night, of course, they had to double when Yokich had him in the post. And a couple times Yokch made him look silly. But a couple times Chet held his ground.

And we've all heard all offseason, Oklahoma City, number one problem is rebounding. Number one problem is rebounding. I think Chet had 14 last night. He had some really strong ones, some contested ones and some good blocks. They were just really, really impressive across the board. And Caruso, I think one of the discussions about Oklahoma City Thunder all offseason was, well, Caruso and Hartinstein are sort of like going to plug the holes in the boat. Like that's exactly what they need those too.

Caruso did not have any imprint on that game whatsoever. And obviously, Hartstein was the street close, but they looked so, so good against a very broken Nuggets team that I will get to later. I thought that was crazy when we were watching last night. And they showed that old picture of Mark Dagnold and Alex Carrou. Russo, he coached him for the Oklahoma City blue. I was like, really? It's kind of wild that those guys kind of got the start of their career together. But Oklahoma City and rightfully so was picked to be fantastic this year because they're in

this great spot where one of the things you're noticing from a lot of these teams when you're watching them is if you've got awesome players, very hard, if not impossible, to have great depth. and they're really only paying one guy. You know, they signed these contracts. They were added Caruso. They added Hartstein. But like these other, when you've got a couple of max, guys, there's going to come a time where they've got to pay,

Chad Holmgren, where they've got to pay Jalen Williams. But in the meantime, it's almost like those teams that are able to build out with a rookie quarterback that can get it done. That's exactly what I was going to say. Right. Yeah, it's like when you have a rookie quarterback, you can, like, you've got a Brock Purdy or C.J. Stroud, you can fill the roster with other things.

That is sort of what Presti has done. And I don't know if you've heard this before, but he's also got a bunch of draft. Yeah. All right. So we have gotten to see most of these teams one time thus far. Therefore, we will make all manner of overreactions. We're going to do love and loathe. So we're going to do players we loved, teams we loved, things we love through this first week of the season.

You want to start or you want me to start? You start, buddy. All right. We'll start with the team I loved. I let you bully me off of my Charlotte Hornets. That is not true. I've been a lamello guy forever. No.

No. I let you talk me out of this after you mocked me for saying that I loved the way they were responding to Charles Lee. I see Charles Lee at the press conference wearing lamello ball branded clothes. They say, what is that shirt? and he said, we are a family here. And if my players have a brand, I want to support them, I told them, give me the gear. I'll wear it.

And I'm like, this is what I saw. I saw a guy communicating. Look, the first time around, under the new coach with each other, down 18 on the road, hostile environment. And they pull themselves up by their bootstraps. Little Iverson, Trey Man with the headband and the baggies is crossing people over and stepping back. Lamello balls damn near got a triple double. Brandon Miller, one of their major cogs, goes out in the second quarter with a hip injury.

So he's not available. And they started playing, you know, this brand of basketball where you saw one of the things that you've noticed. you forget because the guy has not played many games is that number one when lemelo is available he is a fantastic NBA point guard the other thing is and this was in stark contrast because he was playing on the opposite side of Fred Van Vleet the first thing I noticed when I turned on that game I'm like oh my god he's huge like the size difference between him and Van Blyt he really create a massive advantage against many of his peers because he's a legit like 6-6 and he looks huge out there compared to other point guards. And it's just, it's been a long time

since we got to watch him. He was great in the preseason. They've got this little fun heater off the bench and Trey Man. And I just, I mean, I was kicking myself as they're storming back from down 18. I'm just kicking myself the whole time. I'm like, I let you coat you. Kobe. Talk me out of this. Talk me out of this. And at least for one night, I got to gloat because you were like, oh, the Rockets, the Rockets. I can't wait to watch the Rockets. I was like, I hope he tuned in for this. I hope he tuned in for this. Maybe he's going to start respecting my coach player relationship analysis. I will never respect your coach player relationship analysis. But I definitely got a text. I did

get a little gloaty text from Berno after that one was wrap. Hope you're watching my hornets. Yeah. Well, the thing is, I've been, I'm on record as a Lamello believer, long before everyone else believed in Lamello. And I often think of one of those like sort of sliding door moments in NBA histories, if Lamello was drafted by the Warriors instead of games wise and how different things would be. Now, obviously, wise been at the time, if I were the Warriors, I probably would have picked him too, but we know how that worked out. But, you know, I think that. Steve Kerr would have hated his guts.

There's your answer. That's a good point. That's probably a good point. But, I mean, obviously, what happened with Bridges off the court is disgusting and whatever. But before that, when he was playing, he was having a breakout to himself. And I think that we saw the Airbnb connection. You know, the nickname, Lamello to Bridges, Airbnb. I like that a lot.

I'm on board with that. Get yourself a good nickname. He'll even worth it for Render Miller to B as well. But they, you know, they're good, man. And I think there is something to this Charles Lee thing, you know, because it's not like, I'm not going to sit here and be like, oh, yeah, I've got a lot of info about Charles Lee before this season because I followed his career as an assistant here and there. No, but my guy, Berno says that the players respond. My guy, Bruno saw a lamello logo on his chest because they're a family.

I'm in, I'm 100% in. You put him in the play in. They're probably going to get their ass kick tonight. Yeah, that's the way it goes. Yeah, that's the way it goes. For sure. So let's just be clear. I'm well aware of what the Hornets are going to be this year.

This is my opportunity. It might be the last time I get it. So this is similarly, the team that I love during this, the first game, is a team that also supports one of my precinct predictions. You see how we've both done that? Mine is the Orlando Magic. I mean, in that heat game. I think that everyone saw the final score and they're like, oh, look, the magic blew out the heat.

Like, that's crazy. But they started the game down in that one. And it was pretty close until this third quarter when they just absolutely just put the clamps on. And I think the heat missed like 14, 15 straight shots during the third quarter and the magic ran away with it. I'm going to start with the star, which is Palo Bencaro. And just like from his rookie year, he was great.

Second year, he was great. Everything is trending in the right direction for him. And it just, it's almost like, what is he bad at? He's hitting threes. He's posting up Littles. He's passing. Like, he's rebound. At one point, he had highsmith on him.

He just laughed at him. He just, with the little reverse thing, he gave him the too little. There's just no one that really can match up with him. And, you know, if Isaac stays healthy and, you know, they're passing, they had so many possessions in that game that consisted of three or four passes to an open shooter or an open layup or an open dunk. And when you think about teams that do that, there just aren't many. Like, there aren't many teams that have four or five pass possessions.

and in that one game, they absolutely just were whipping the ball around and getting just open layups and open dunks pretty consistently. I was really, really impressed with what they've done. We always discuss what they do defensively, and that's well documented, but I was really impressed with their offense in this one against the year. Another one of those teams, much like Oklahoma City, that has the ability. Now, when your star is still on his rookie contract and he's able to deliver in the manner, Van Caro can match up with your other side.

superstars on the other teams. And then you have these contracts that were just signed, these extensions, where Franz got the big payday, but they were able to sign Suggs for what they signed him for going forward. It might have raised an eyebrow at the beginning simply because of his availability the first couple of years. But that could really look like a great contract, you know, down the road because they locked into him.

Wendell Carter on another totally reasonable deal. Like there's going to come a time where you look up and they're paying a bunch of guys that it's hard to have everybody and have the ancillary parts that go along and fit around them because they've gotten some really great players. But I, you know, when I first saw Beacero last year, I came on the mismatch and I said, I think this guy could be like one of the five best players in the league. I agree. That's his ceiling. He's 6'10. I mean, when you're around him, he's. He is just an absolute mammoth.

And now he's starting to figure it out. And the other thing is with a lot of these guys coming into the position he is yearwise on his contract, there's he makes all NBA. There's 300 something million dollars on the line here. That guy's going to try to be an all NBA performer. Because if you become an all NBA performer in this rookie deal, now that extension you can sign gets ludicrous. I mean, that is made for life.

Yeah, I know. I mean, this is one game, but if you look at just his performance and his numbers from rookie year to last year, and it just seems like he's progressing, he's learning the game, and it comes naturally to him. And again, like, he can hit threes, he can post you up, he can take you up the dribble, he can make others better. Like, there's not a lot of holes in his game offensive. Player I loved.

I went with Anthony Davis. you know, everybody tuned in because it was opening night. We knew there was going to be the LeBron Bronny moment and all of that. But what we ended up getting was the Anthony Davis show. I've seen this happen in years past where guys that don't get defensive player of the year or aren't considered in the same realm as Rudy Gobert, go extra hard against the team that has Rudy Gobert. Because they say they don't care, but they care.

And guys get up for a second. Everybody hates Rudy Gobert. I've never met this man. He's never even said anything that really bothered me. But I was watching that game. I think even the refs hate Rudy Gobert. Like they were calling touch fouls on him. I was like, it's just because it's Rudy Gobert.

It's unanimous that everybody hates Rudy Gobert. The media. The media loves him. They love him. Oh, my God. The media love Rudy Gobert. They love him. Yeah, there has never been a,

the greatest differences that I've experienced in 20 years covering the league between media opinion and player opinion are Rudy Gobert on one end of the one side and Westbrook on the other. I was going to say Westbrook. I was going to say Westbrook as well. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And Westbrook obviously had a disgusting debut last night. But the difference, I'm saying, if you sit. down and you talk to NBA players and you get their views versus what you hear a lot from

national pundits and local pundits and anybody that talks about the NBA. Those are the two most radically different. Anyway, back to Anthony Davis. One of the things that has been said over the last couple of years is when do they realize that Anthony Davis is the best player on the team and he's the one that they start playing through? He's the one attacking. He's the one. He's the one getting the most touches. And it was something that Darvin Ham kind of talked about. And then it just like never came to fruition. And at least night one felt like the first time that it's like, oh, there's,

there might actually really be a passing of the baton where the Batman becomes Anthony Davis, that he's the one night in, night out, asked to deliver. No disrespect to LeBron. No disrespect to where he is in the context of. the league, but that this guy is the guy that's leading that team in field goal attempts. This guy is the guy that, you know, you're not going eight minutes in the fourth quarter without him getting a touch. Like, he's the centerpiece.

And when he is healthy right now, he is in the top three offense, defense combined players in the league. offense, defense, can bomb. I could argue that. I could argue that. But I'll say something that I think, you know, I love defense. You know that about me?

Like, I think everyone just focuses way too much on offense. There was a play in that Wolves game where, do you remember in the finals when Janice showed on a pick and roll and then ran back and blocked the lob pass? It was like he was like in two places at once. Yes. Anthony Davis did something similar. Like, we both watched so much basketball that sometimes like something catches

to your eye. Like, how is that possible? he jumped to contest, I believe it was like an Anthony Edwards, I want to say like a 13 foot little jump shot that he missed, and then he grabbed the rebound. I was like, how did he just, how did he travel faster than the ball? Because he jumped up in the air to contest the shot,

and then he got the rebound. And I believe the call was Anthony Davis is everywhere, and they said it again later. It really did feel like he was using his length and his speed and his anticipation defensively in a way that we've always wanted to see from him. And it was really, really impressive on both sides of the ball in that one game. And he's a player.

I had him, when we were doing this exercise, I had him written down as someone that I wanted to mention. So when I'm going to get to the player, you go. Yeah, no, I'll just say that like when we look up and down, like Janus is certainly right there at the very top of the list, right, a guy that both ways does it all. And then you think about some of the other guys when I'm saying combined player. Yeah, I see. We think about Yokic's one side of the ball.

We think about Luca's one side of the ball. We think about M.B. Indeed. Yeah. Right. Like, as you go down the list in terms of just full on... Brinton. SGA was someone that would come on mind, I guess.

That's right. Anthony Edwards. Anthony Edwards. The overrated according to... The overrated Anthony Edwards. I said that he was overrated. I was like, I'm saying this on Berno's local show. If I'm going to start...

If I'm going to start exercising... takes, you know, just warming them out. Yeah, immediately your social team posted it by the time I, by the time I finished with the word overrated, your social team and already tweeted about it. I sent them $250. Of course you did. So the player that I love, and again, first impression, one game sample size, I was going to say Chet, but that was a little too like chalk.

And this is more narrative-based because the player I love to see. And honestly, like, like, made me emotional with his performance was Clay Thompson. Oh. There was so much question about Clay. And his numbers were actually pretty good last year. I think, like, the narrative of his year last year and the numbers don't really match up. But the idea was, like, Clay is on washed, watch. You know what I mean?

Like, Clay Thompson will never be the same. And then the next thing you hear, which kind of played out last year is, is the offense still works, the jump shot still there, but the defense isn't the same. And I say that the tape did match that. But he came out this summer and he was like, that's one of the things that I'm going to change. Like, I'm going to get back to playing defense. And in this game,

we're all going to talk about the six threes. But he really started it by getting some steals, getting involved in defense. One of the steals was on Wimbunyama. Like Wimbabh was going up for a shot. He kind of slapped it on the way up. And the threes were kind of got a little crazy towards the end. He had like an ATO3, which was like clearly set up for him that he hit.

There was like one that got kind of slapped out to him and it was wide open. But there was a couple Luca threes at the end where he was just butt naked. And it's one thing when you're in the motion offense with the Warriors and you're running off a screen and you're sort of running fast and stop catch, shoot threes technically, it's a whole other thing. When you're standing there in the wing and there's no one around you and you get a pass from Luca right in the shooting pocket and you take a rhythm dribble and you shoot a three and you're Clay Thompson.

Like the threes didn't just go in. They looked like old Clay Thompson. and threes, just nothing but net, rhythm shots, solid bass. Like, it was, it was so good to watch that because if Clay can, he's never, he's not going to be this Clay every day, but if he can, there's going to be so much attention to gravity towards Luca Donchich, that if he gets easy catch and shoot shots like this, these are the shots that Tim Hardaway Jr. had, like Derek Jones had, like, if he, if he placed those guys with Clay Thompson and his defense is there,

man. Well, and here's everything. Here's the other thing, Jacoby, is part of it was colored by the fact that he was 0 for a thousand in his last Warriors game. And so that was what everybody was left thinking about. That was the taste in our mouths. Right. And then the other thing was he needed to do more for that Warriors team.

You're going, here is Steph Curry. Who's the other guy that's going to score for us? And I think that you're probably miscast. as a second guy at this point in your career, but as a third guy, as a fourth guy, as a guy that I'm not like, okay, I'm going to double Curry every time he touches the ball or I'm going to have two paying attention to him,

and then I'm face guarding Clay Thompson. And if Andrew Wiggins and Jonathan Camiga and Draymond Green want to beat me, then go ahead, right? And so there's a lot more attention paid on you what you're playing within that warrior system, and for good reason. They were a great team for a very long time. But as time goes on, your role has to change.

All of a sudden, you're not that guy that's going to deliver every single night, right? But there are going to be those nights like you saw in the debut. I saw where he set the Dallas Mab's debut record with the six threes last night. And it was just, you know, we talked about how some things can solicit. our preseason opinions. That was one of them where it's like, boy, he sure is going to get a lot of open threes. Yeah, but there's also what we thought. So one of the things I thought was, is like, which Clay are they going to get?

You know what I mean? Like I have to admit that I was curious about Clay's career moving forward. Not that he's going to retire anything, but I was like, is this going to sort of like go bad the way that some of those games went bad at the end of last year? But, God, this was so encouraging. He was as good as Victor Wimbunyama was bad. Let's get to the thing that we loved. So a team player thing. I'm in love with the wall.

The wall in the Intuit Dome is absolutely awesome. For years, Steve Balmer talked about this. And then it was one of those things that you hear about in theory. Oh, they're going to interview the people. that sit in the first 13 rows. They're required to stand the entire game. It's going to be this big vertical wall, and they're going to mimic college basketball, you know, student section.

And there's part of it's like, ah, that might be cool. And then there's part of it where you kind of like roll your eyes. It's like, that's just not, that's not NBA culture. Like, how is that kind of work? And then night one, Devin Booker's like, yo, that wall made me miss a free throw. Kevin Durant's like, yeah, man, I couldn't stop looking up at it. He missed two free throws facing the wall.

The idea that this is like, this is an NBA game, and this is so different than anything else you see in NBA games, I was one that was at least a little bit skeptical of how it would work. It looked like a legitimate adult student section with people going bonkers. behind the goal that the opponent is going to face throughout the entire second half. I love it. I love it. Balmer did this right. And I do think that as new arenas get built, it very well may be something that other teams end up trying. And when we look up in 20 years, and I think we need more of the stuff that gives people home court advantage.

We need more of the stuff that gets blue-collar people close and involved in the game and we need more of the stuff that gets people to the arena, especially when my couch is so comfortable and my TV can be so big for a very reasonable price. You make some great points, Bruno, but three words. Fuck the wall. What? I'm out. I'm out on the wall.

I'm out of the wall. I don't want to hear about it anymore. No. No. It's like, okay. Okay, Chris, guess what? I'm not letting you do this. You open a new dome.

It's open. night, everyone's excited. It's a close game against the Suns. Great. But when the Clippers are 10 and 22, and they're losing by 35, are you really thinking they're up there? Oh, guess what?

It's got a slant on it. It's got different verticality and slope than other arenas, which changes the sightlet of the players, so they're going to miss shot. No. You think, oh, Kevin Durant missed two free throws, so the wall works. Oh, oh, David Booker said the wall works.

Guess what? Maybe the first time you see the wall, The first time the first team saw the wall, they might feel a certain way. But I heard so much about the wall. There's no way you feel this way. I absolutely feel this way. Because after I hate the wall, I hate the narrative around the wall. I hate how much we talk about the wall.

The wall is awesome, Jacoby. I hate the fact that the people really think that NBA players, NBA basketball players are going to miss a 15-foot three throw. They did. Because there's a 45-year-old guy waving his arms on the other side. I think Mr. Rammy in Brooklyn probably has more effect on players missing free throws than the wall. Absolutely not. Maybe first time through.

I saw it. No. It'll be like a pitcher with a sidearm delivery. It's like, all right, first time through the league, it's going to be hard to hit. But we'll figure it out soon. They're not. And again, Chris, what about when this team sucks? Chanting, waving their arms, thunder sticks, banging the thunder sticks.

Explain the chickens to me. I'm watching the game. I'm like, why does everyone have a rubber chicken? What is this? Why does everyone have a rubber chicken? I hate the chickens. I hate the wall. I hate that the arena was the story.

To me, it's the wall is part of this whole. So as I don't narrative, look, this is part of the story. This is going to be part of the evolution of the mismatches. We're going to learn a lot about each other. And what I'm learning is you don't like fun. No, I just say, I don't mind. I love fun. It sounds like you don't like fun.

Yeah, that game was fun. What is that game? What's not going to open? about the wall. But you know what we're not talking about the free throw that James Harden missed. Oh, Kevin Durant missed a couple free throws. James Hardin missed a free throw to tie the game. But he's been missing big shots for his whole life.

The wall thing, I don't hate the wall that much. I just hate this arena and how much it's been discussed in the, I'm booking a flight. Everyone falls victims to the PR press release. is. Oh, the halo is so cool. Oh, look at, I saw this thing online. It was, it was Kauai Leonard on the halo, pretend to throw a t-shirt, and their t-shirt would pop out where he threw it. And it was like, this is so cool. Is it? Yes. Is it? So cool. Is it? I, you know what? I'm booking a flight

to Los Angeles. I want to sit on the wall. No, no, you can't sit. You have to stand. And when they're down by 25, okay, I don't want to stand. Then you, then you have to stand there. don't want to stand. I'm over the wall. But I want to watch one game. But I will say this. I want to watch people stand. You know how I view this is like a lot like, I see these like music fest that go on all

around the country. And then I see like, you know, said it would be like Tyler the creator goes out there. And he's playing and the whole crowd's like bumping and going crazy. Right. And I love watching videos of that. But it also gives me like super anxiety that I would never want to be. involved in that, right? No.

But that's how I feel about the wall. I watch it. I'm like, that is awesome. And now that I said, I want to go and be a part, I don't actually want to be a part of it. No, I don't want to stand up in cheer. I want to sit down. I want to sit down. I want to watch you stand up in TV.

Yeah. Yeah. The wall, fine. You make a good case for the wall. But it's sort of like the narrative has the narrative of the introet it's like, all right, cool. They've built a great arena. They've got a bad team. And this was a good game.

But when they're losing by a bunch, you're not going to get the same energy that you had on night one. What's going to be funny is if the wall is like, there's like five people at the wall. But they're sitting down. Steve Balmer's just giving it to Microsoft employees. Yeah, Steve Balmer's going to start leaving a $100 cash. I need to see.

Thing I loved, first impression. And this is something I've always loved. but I always say that your actions speak louder than your words, right? And the thing that I love, it really reminded me of something that I love so much is league pass commercial breaks. Like, I just love the,

like, ambient arena sound and like the Jumbotron. And, like, I was watching the Kings last night, and there's like a Waleigh concert at halftime. And I was like, there's so many, there's a Thursday night football game on. There was the, you know, the other game was going on.

And I'm just sitting there watching Walay, like apathetically go through some hits and like, you know, the cheerleaders are dancing. And I'm just like, and he's like, what? He starts asking for the kiss cam and no one's kissing on the kiss cam. And I found myself saying, like, I could be watching a close football game. There was a good football game. I could be watching, you know, the nuggets in the thunder. But instead I'm watching a bad valet concert.

Oh. And he's demanding for a kiss cam. I love it. I love the sound. I love the sound of the horn when they're going to go back. You know, like the timeouts over. And like you're kind of like, you're kind of like, you're dripping. lifting off and you hear the horn in the arena and they break in the huddle.

Like those commercial breaks are so comforting to me. It's like ASMR or something. It's like it's NBA ASMR. Yeah, yeah, whatever. I know what you're talking about. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Two things on this. Number one, did you happen to see Gucci Main at the Atlanta game?

I did not. So this is one of those. You'll be able to find it like on Instagram or somewhere like that. Gucci Maine went out and like performed and did not edit himself at all. They're like for sure going to get a call from the NBA. Yeah, he, he didn't, like usually you see these guys and they don't say the curse words. Gucci Mane did all of it. He was like, and then I got a, he's like, then I got a hole, then I got a bitch.

And I'm like, what the what is going on? I'm like, you got to be kidding me. his whole songs was about like booty clapping or something i was like i don't know wallace this doesn't seem appropriate like there's a lot of children there then the second thing is i've got to encourage you on saturday night is the memphis home opener and they're playing your beloved orlando magic oh that's a and that's the one you need to tune in on league pass because guess who's performing saturday night Memphis a blast no this is a blast by the way introduction are going to be done by Project Pat,

which is amazing. Great. But the halftime performance, the Quad City DJs. We're running the train in Memphis. Wow. Oh, yeah. So as someone who loves that stuff,

wait, do you see the Quad City DJs? Well, that's the thing that I've always loved it, but I say, like, action speak louder than words. Like, I find myself watching the commercial breaks with the same intensity that I watched the basketball action. And someone is going to get fired, fine, suspended for their behavior during the break because someone's going to do something at some point that is going to get, they're going to be like, all right, we have to go to bars and tones for the commercial breaks moving forward.

That's going to happen. For sure. It's going to take one Tom Brennaman. You remember that announcer? Yes, of course. All right. Well, this has been way too positive so far, Chris. All right, then we're getting the loads.

The team I loathed in week one. easy it's the knicks this is you're doing this is this is you've done this twice now you're just trying to I call it I this is what I tell my wife I call bickerbait no which she says something that she knows I don't like to hear this is legitimate she wants to argue you're bicker baiting this is legitimate I came on and I said I picked them to come out of the eastern conference I loved the towns move I love the mckell bridges move and then I'm watching night one and they are getting

absolutely emasculated by the Boston Celtics. Wingstop, as they call it, with O.G. and Innobe and McKell Bridges were absolute trash, lit up completely, did nothing to impede progress whatsoever. Then you have all these jokes about McKell Kid Gilchrist. Then I've got Celtics fans in my mentions saying, ooh, well-equipped to be to deal with the Celtics, right? And I'm like, all right. This is what I needed. I get it. And all right, sorry, Jacoby that I didn't get super excited about the fact that,

okay, time to go to the bench. Oh, wow. Now I get to watch Campaign and Jericho Sims. What have I done? What have I done? I love this team. Count of point. No, I'm not done.

Jailen. Brunson before the game, before the game, said it is fair for this to be used as a measuring test. This is fair for this game to be used as a measuring stick for where we are against the best team in the Eastern Conference. And I would profess to you that the Knicks if that was the measuring stick, that they have been diagnosed with micro penis. Now, they are going to be able to consult another doctor to see if that diagnosis is correct.

They can get a second opinion. But for right now, they have micropenus. Okay. So I was very upset by that. That game was a little concerning. You think? It was it was it's it was the amount of uncontested threes just naked threes that they got everyone's like oh oh they're not going to like my next fan's friends, they ran into a buzzsaw. The Celtics shot out of their face.

They literally tied the record. They broke the quarter record like that that was just an anomaly. That was a ring night thing. That was a momentum thing. And that was just sort of an anomaly throwing the trash that I would feel that way if they had if they hit contested threes. But they had in the first half the first quarter so many uncontested threes. However, counterpoint. Two things happen in that game that I found very, very encouraging.

Well, three things. Number one, Cat seemed comfortable. Cat seemed to have a thing, right? It's not perfect, but it's, there seem to be moving a direction where Cat will be a good weapon for them. I like that. But that's lesser than these two things. The Macau Bridges thing, which anyone who listen to this knows,

the jump shot has not been falling, the hitching the shot, blah, blah, blah. the second half, it seemed like Brunson walked over to him and smacked him in the face in the locker room, which just like snap out of it, play basketball. The second half, McAlli Bridges looked good. He hit a couple, like, really smooth fadeways. He hit three. And the second half, it seemed like he was back to being McAllet Bridges. And the revelation that was Deuce McBride.

I mean, no one's going to talk about it because they got absolutely wax. But Deuce McBride was like perfect. Like, he looked perfect. He's a great defender. And again, I'm not going to, oh, I'm not going to say, Doos McBride is it going to be in the MVP conversation. But like, but that was,

that was, again, that was a really good performance from Two-Swick Pride. And I felt good about Bridges moving forward. And I also feel good

about bringing Cat in moving forward. And there is somebody of you said that like, look, I could love them by next week. Yeah. This is,

this is who I loaves this week. Let me get to the team that I love this week. This is like a bigger than just like the team that I didn't like to watch. This is a bigger problem. is I feel like the Nuggets might be ruining the best player on the planet.

I feel like the Nuggets might be absolutely just ruining the prime, the peak of the best player on the planet. Niga Ljokic is the best player on the planet. And watching that game last night, it just seemed like if Yokic did not create the basket or score the basket, there was no basket. and your guy, Jamal Murray. My guy.

Your guy. Jamal Murray. How dare you? I mean, do you remember when Jamal Murray was Jamal Murray? Like, I never thought I would see a Nuggets game and be like, did Jamal Murray play? He was four for 14. He had 12 points. They have just absolutely no shooting.

None. They have absolutely no shooting. And, well, hey, look, if it makes you feel any better, I was looking at, uh, Instagram last night. And you know how you can, like, just scroll through and they'll just show you reels that they think that you're going to like. Yeah. And, yeah, there was one of, uh, it was Michael Porter Jr. interviewing some guy about whether Jeffrey Epstein really committed suicide.

And I was like, I want to know his thoughts. I was like. And the nuggets were on while I was watching this Instagram reel. And I was like, it said Curious Mike. And I was like, this is a thing. I didn't know. Well, I'll look that up after the show. Strother, whatever, Watson, whatever.

Dario Sarge is who we're going to spell Yokic with? Like, Dario Sarge, like, Luca has a new haircut. Sohan has a new haircut. It was got a new look. Like, Sarge looked like he just got out of Burning Man, just like drove back from the desert. So what are we doing? And then, I mean, I don't even have to sort of document the Russell Westbrook of it all.

but like I said before, remember when I said this, on the last show, I was like, at some point, Yogers is going to be like, do not put me and him on the floor at the same time. Do not. Like the Russell Westbrook experience already failed, and we had one game. You also have a coach that is reluctant to play the young guys, and now they are forcing him to play the young guys. He has no other choice. There's nobody else. There's somebody else.

So that's the rest of the roster. And the best way for young guys, guys to get better is to get court time. That's it. That's it. And now it's just this expectation of, hey, hope you've developed. Go play. Let me ask you a question. Are they

wasting yokers? There was, look, at the very beginning when we just did our preseason predictions, they were one of the teams I had taking a step down. I thought, part of that was, and this goes to the team that you loved,

I am I think teams need a player to guard the opposing team's best player every night. And that was the Caldwell Pope role. And so when you have that, when you lose that on that end, and then on the other end, it's like, what can we do without Nicoliochic on the floor? I think that is, I mean, they can't win. without him on the floor. There's a possession.

At all. Like they, his plus minus is, it's well documented. It's historical that like, they, he's, he's it.

He's everything to it. And it just, you know what it felt like? Because of the, what we've seen Murray look like, it felt like his Olympic team. Oh, oh yeah.

It's just Yo Kitch and five dudes. Yeah, but it, The Olympic team looked more cohesive. They had shooting. They had hustled. They had heart. I think that's disrespectful to the Olympic team, to be honest with you.

I think this team is going to make some changes before the trade deadline. It's just like so they just need shooting. They don't have shooting. They do not have any shooting. I just, I love Nikola Yokic. I don't love this team they have around them. I think that they're going to have to make some changes. And there's one possession where it was like, I think it's like Watson had the ball.

Christian Brown was supposed to get like a pick and roll or something, and he just runs into two defenders, and they don't have anything going. It's just like, it's just clogged and slow and they suck. And then they pass at the Yokic with like five seconds the left on the shock clock.

And I swear to God he had this look like, I'll fix this guys. Don't worry about it. And he like makes a little spin move and passes to somebody per a dog. Just like, no one else can create besides him on the floor. Honestly.

Player I loathed in week one. Oh, this is, whatever number two is is so far behind him, it's ridiculous. I told you that one of my favorite things to do, especially when the NBA starts. So on Wednesday night, my son comes in and he's on, he pulls out his phone and we've been doing this since he was a little kid on NBA nights. And he goes through and he'll alert me when anybody is like in a close game. And so we watched the end of the Detroit game against Indiana. And then he said the one that's closest to finishing is the nets and the hawks.

And I was like, I'm going to vomit, but I'll turn it on. And so anyway, I flipped on the game. And it's a fourth quarter. And almost immediately after I turn on the game, very rarely am I mortified by something I see in an NBA game. but I flipped onto it. So the player I load is Nick Claxton, and it's not even close. For those of you that did not see this foul, this is one of the worst fouls I have seen in years.

This is like something from the bad boy pistons 30 for 30. And Dyson Daniels is going up for a layup, and Claxton just legit wrestling clotheslines him out of midair. And it was violent. And then he's like over on the bench and him and like some other guys on the nets are like laughing and whatever. And I'm like, oh no, no. Like I look, you know I love physicality. You know I love when the refs start letting more stuff go.

But this was just so egregious, so boneheaded, so could have like really altered a guy's career. It was that bad where he took the guy out of midair. that I was mortified by the entire thing. And then his reaction after the game, he, like, kind of laughed and it was like, maybe I need to get therapy. What is funny about this? What is funny about this? I hated it.

Absolutely hated it. It wasn't a basketball play. At all. I don't mind hard fouls. Even if you guise it as I'm going for the ball, you know what I mean? But it wasn't guised or veiled under any other intention besides, let me put this man on the ground. What are you trying to do here? You know what I mean?

what are you trying to do? That's just so against the code. And I didn't like Dyson Daniels following him up into the stands and then not doing anything. I wish you would have punched him. Well, he deserved. He had every right to.

And I think it's going to be a very frustrating year for the Brooklyn Nets. And, you know, it's going to be, it's going to be a weird year in Brooklyn, for sure. And that brings me to the player that I load in week one. Because this player, I've mentioned before on this show,

has routinely, habitually made plays with intent to injure opponents. Need people in the balls, twisted ankles while he's on the ground. The player that I loat from week one is Joelle M.B.

Joe L M.B. Played in the Olympics. Played in the Olympics. To win a goal. And then, you know, he had a knee issue, a left knee issue last year, sat out for a few months, came back,

built himself back up for a playoff run, in the playoff run, tried to hurt the opponents constantly, and complained to the refs constantly about every single call. I understand that people are going to complain to the refs, and this is a Luca thing too, but you can't complain about every single thing that happens on the basketball court.

Between the dirty plays and the complaining, I was already off MBD, but this whole, like, I'm not ready for opening night, on national TV opening night on national TV against the Milwaukee bucks what other date on the calendar

do you have circled outside of that work if you have an injury that you are preparing yourself to be ready for it's not the preseason it's opening night also what's wrong with you yeah that I mean that's another thing is it left knee you had a left knee injury

what was it last January but you're back from that You played in the Olympics, which was a couple months ago. So what is the injury? And why are you out? And the back-to-back thing is whatever. But this week one, when I got the notification that he was not playing, I was just like, what are we even doing?

Paul George is hurt. What is Joe L&B? What is he? I wish you could see how the timing for a message that I got this week was so terrible that I got this very exciting text from our mutual friend Joe House. Joe House, you know, he's a big mover and shaker. He knows everybody.

He says, hey, Verno, would you want to go to the CMAs, the Country Music Awards? I'm like, I would love to. My wife's a huge country music band. It's right down the road in Nashville. Yes. He's like, I have two tickets. And he's like, here's the date. And I go and look at the date on the calendar. I have a home game against Philadelphia. And I texted back and I said, I hate if he sits out that game. And I miss the CMAs. Because I so I was like, I already can't. I've already mad at him. And now this is happening. And then. Of course, it had just been announced that he's not playing.

So I was already bad at Embedne. Now I get this offer. I look and see, oh my God, it's the same night as the Sixers game. I can't do it. I can't go. I got to watch Andre Drummond against Zach Edy. I'm like, you have got it. I'm like, and this sum of a bitch sits out the game.

I'm going to lose my mind. I mean, hell hath no fury. But yeah, no, you're right. It's almost guaranteed now. I mean, look, the fact that we've got, the season starts, it's like, hey, welcome to the. season, everybody. Oh, by the way, the NBA's going to investigate whether this is some cockamamie reason that one of the superstars of the league is sitting out. Okay.

That's great. That's great PR. Burn, I'll have a question. How exactly does this investigation pan out? Do they have a doctor inspect his knee? Like, what do they give you your phones? Let me see what the text messages are. Like, what are they investigating? How does the investigation get played out? They talk to the coach, say, is Embed heard? He says, yes. Like, what? What are you? What? What are they investigating? What are they investigating? No, it's their attempting to persuade them to play. That's it.

The loaves are so much more fun than the things I love. All right. The last thing, thing I loathe, oh, okay. So one of the things that I have loat over the years is all of the New Jersey's. And especially when you have franchises that have great historical uniforms. I'm not one that is, I'm not a prude, right? I love when Oregon comes out every week in some kind of different crazy uniform and they've got all kinds of whatever.

But when the uniforms are different and terrible, that's when I draw the line. when you have something great that you could be doing. And so there's like this whole rebrand with the Utah Jazz. And they have these beautiful purple jerseys, the mountains, Utah. Yeah, those are dope. The whole thing dope. They come out opening night home opener and they wear these damn security guard outfits where they've got the black jersey with the freaking neon yellow that says Utah

across it, they look like, you know, they look like they should be like on the slopes, like telling people like, oh, be careful on the black diamonds. You know, I don't under, I don't know what the hell this is an homage to. Like, if there's an homage to something, if it's a throwback, if it's something special, I totally understand. But when you have the opportunity to wear amazing looking gear and you have uniquely this. purple and this purple jersey with the jazz or Utah or whatever across it that has been a staple for many, many years and it has a ton of history.

And then you go out there wearing black with yellow across it with these gaudy huge font and the big numbers. I'm like, this is, this is bananas. Who is wearing this stuff? They have the purple ones with the mountain on it. Like they have those as an alternate. They chose not to wear those. It's when they were designed that, that, I'm glad you call it a security jacket because it does look like that.

It's like, the thing about the font selection. I'm not a big font guy. I'm not a graphic designer. But who chose that? Like, what font should we use? I don't know. Can you make it as big and boring? The worst.

Big and boring as possible. It's the worst. And so, look, I don't mind alternate jerseys. Just make sure the alternate jersey is awesome. It's a great call. That's it. It's a great call. the thing I load

I hope Bill doesn't listen to this episode oh he won't listen to the first one listen to the first one and then make it and they decide whether it's good or bad

that's right and then this he's not going to listen to the end either you know what I mean no question yeah no chance he made it this

so I feel free to say this I feel free to say this please and I grew up a self-expans I'm now an ex-man I grew up in during Larry Bird era huge self-expan

when I was a kid not anymore they call you a turn coat I am No, I'm a die easy fan. That's what I am. It's called a die easy fan, the opposite of a die-hard fan.

My team starts losing I jump shit. I'm not loyal at all. The thing that I load from week one is this whole Celtics chip on their shoulder shit. I'm so sick of this. I'm so sick of... Oh, Jason Tatum got a couple of DMPs in the Olympics.

He's going to be on a war path this season. Oh, Jalen Brown didn't make the Olympic team. He's going to be on a war path. Oh, the best thing is. that could ever happen to the Celtics is they're so disrespected. They're going to play the whole season with a chip on their shoulder. They won the championship. Jalen Brown, Jason Tatum, they are NBA champions.

I watched them get their ring. Finally get their ring. They've been to the Eastern Conference finals after Eastern Conference finals. They've been to the finals. And then they win the thing. They win it. They've got their jackets on. They've got their rings on.

The banner gets revealed. And I have to hear the next two hours about how they've got a chip on their shoulder. Where did this come from? Oh, no. Jason Tame had a couple, he had a couple DMPs in the Olympics. But was he supposed to start over KD? He wasn't shooting well. And they've got a whole array of players that were better for the floor.

Sorry, that happens sometimes. You're still a great player. And Jalen Brown didn't make the team. And he was finals MVP. He was each of a conference finals MVP. He was finals MVP. And they won the championship. chip. But the whole idea that

this is like a revenge tour for the Celtics is disgusting to me. And I'm so glad they didn't break that record because they tried so hard at the end of that game. I swear to God, I didn't watch the stupid game against the Wizards because there's other things happening in the world. But I swear I got at one point they're playing with a chip on their shoulder

because they didn't break the record. There's a chip on their shoulder. I'm so tired of the Celtics having a chip on their shoulder. There is no chip on their shoulder. They're champion. Okay. I'm going to do this. welcome to the ringer. Here's how you get a raise.

Jacoby, that was the worst rant I have ever heard in my life. I support Bill Simmons and his team. No. I'm kidding. No. No. Look. The best player on the team is not considered one of the top five in some list,

not top 10 superstars in the league. The guy that won Easter Conference and Western Conference, and I'm sorry, and finals MVP, did not even, his teammate got called. When Kauai Leonard goes home, he doesn't get that call. Even then, they passed over him twice. Okay. Then Tatum goes to the Olympics and say what you want. He doesn't even get to play.

Like they treat him like he's a little Bobby that should be in right field or something like this. These lists come out of the top 10 coaches in the NBA and Joe Missoula is like not even in some of the list. If you wanted to say Missoula, I would get it because I'm over him. I'm over the French kissing the court. I wish it tastes like blood. I'm over the, my, I didn't like the championship ring. It's too big and I'll never wear it. Like, I mean, the Joe Missoula Act is a little, it's a little much for me.

But they do have some real reasons to have chips on their shoulder. They do. I get it. They won the title. but people also think that they didn't have to, you know, beat anybody to win the title. So I don't think that that's manufactured. I actually think that that's legitimate. Missoula even bought into this and fed into this.

He even himself, when he was done saying that nothing matters because we're all going to die soon, and that the court tasted like blood, okay? Again, we're two games in the season for the Celtics. And this is what we've already got from him. It's, I understand that you can draw some motivation. from perceived slights. Michael Jordan famously did this. We all saw the last dance, right?

And you can draw motivation from that. I'm not saying that that does not exist. I'm not saying that that is not a variable in the equation of the Celsius performance. What I'm saying is, we've heard enough about it already, all right? It's not like in games in March, while he's lacing his shoes,

Jalen Brown's going to be like, man, I'm so pissed. I wasn't a team USA last summer. I'm going to show these guys. Like, I'm just over it. I get it. I get what happened. People don't respect Joe Mazula.

He's a champion. And Jason Tatum, his shot wasn't going in the Olympics. He didn't play. I get it. And Jalen Brown wasn't on the team. But you don't hear anyone saying that about Brunson. Brunson was in the MVP. He was in the MVP voting.

But no one's like, oh, he was slighted because he wasn't on Team USA. So he should go on the war path. Well, and that's because Jalen Brunson lost to Tyrese Halliburton and the Celtics beat Tyrese Halliburton. Congrats. That's fair. I just, listen, I don't want to hear it anymore. All right, Celtics, you guys are great. You guys are great.

I don't want to hear this anymore. Enough already. Enough. All right. We have made it through the first week of the NBA season, and we will reconvene next Tuesday. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week.

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