The Mismatch - James Harden Trade Reaction, Plus Second Impressions From the NBA Season So Far

Episode Date: October 31, 2023

After requesting a trade in June, James Harden finally got his wish, and Verno and KOC react to the 76ers sending him to the Clippers for a handful of expiring contracts and picks (02:30). The guys take a look at the trade from the Clippers' perspective and discuss the huge risk they are taking by bringing in Harden (20:17). Also, the guys discuss the improved Sixers offense under Nick Nurse (34:27), as well as the terrible start for the winless Grizzlies and the ongoing struggles for the Lakers (40:26). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out http://ringer.com/RG to find out more or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

What's up everybody, it's Austin Rivers from Offguard, and I've got some exciting news. Offguard hosted by me and my guide Pasha Giggi is officially moving to our own podcast feed. We are now dropping two shows every week. Me and Pasha go way back and talk so much hoops already that we figured it was time to fire up the mics and let you in on these conversations. Every week, Pasha and myself will hit on the biggest stories happening around the league. Tap into the show twice a week on our new Offguard feed on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Welcome to The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me on this Tuesday morning.

From The Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, A.K.K.A. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Clymer, Kevin O'Clyne, Kevin O'Brien. Kevin O'Brien. Kevin. I heard last night that you called Daryl Mori and said, Hey, I really don't want to talk about the Grizzlies being winless. Can you do something to help us out? Please, I don't want to open the show talking about Memphis being O and four. Oh, no. I just watch.

Please, Daryl, please. The Maverick just hit another three as we are recording. Please, Daryl. Morey. I heard Woj this morning saying that this poor guy working for the people. He said that he was at the Newark Airport. He was going to have to fly out to ESPN. You know he's got to be so frustrated with this because this happens at 2 a.m.

His time. He's at the Newark Airport. He said he stayed at the airport until 3.30 in the morning. They had kicked him out of the lounge. They're shutting down the airport, everything. And then finally, he gets the story filed, and then he just goes home. And so now he's got to try to find another flight back to Los Angeles. And he said, this is the second time this happened, because you will recall,

we were both out at Summer League, that crazy year where we were actually still awake when that Paul, George, Kauai, Leonard, all that big stuff came together. And it was, again, the Clipper. The Clippers, like, do these deals. the middle of the night when they do them. And so for the majority of us, we woke up to the news this morning and that James Harden had been traded and that James Hardin, along with PJ Tucker and Flip Petrusiv, are leaving the Philadelphia 76ers and they are going to the Clippers.

And in return, the Sixers are going to get Marcus Morris, Robert Covington, Nicholas Batum, KJ Martin, a 2028 unprotected, two second round picks, pick swap in 2029, and then an additional first round pick, which the details are still being worked out, that coming from a third team. So we do know all the details now, Chris, that that 2026 pick from the Clippers is actually the worst of a first from the Clippers, the Thunder, or the Rockets. And they also have the 2028 unprotected from the Clippers, as you said, and then they have a 2029 swap best-of clippers or sixers pick.

They also have their own first in 2024, 2026, 28, and 30. So ahead of this year's trade deadline, they have the ability to trade up to three first-round draft picks, and then next off-season, they could trade four first-round draft picks. So it's a good position to be in. They have more flexibility right now. That swap in 20-29 is going to be very valuable. They also have eight second round draft picks through 2030.

They have three in 2020-29, two in 2024. They have flexibility here to make some moves ahead of the deadline. And then they have even more draft capital next offseason to make a bigger move if they don't choose to do anything in the meantime. But a good position for Philadelphia to come out of this with flexibility. So when we recorded late last week, I was the one that was saying, just do something, pull the trigger, move on with this some way, somehow. You were preaching patience on this.

Do you feel like this was worth not having patience on it and that Moray got a reasonable return for the services of Hardin? I think getting two first round draft picks plus a swap in the deal makes it worth it. I mean, like I wrote on the ringer on Monday about how James Hardin's best choice is to go back to this new Sixers situation, which we'll talk about a little bit later with their new offense. And in that, I mentioned how for the Sixers, they should be patient here. Getting two first-round draft picks and a super valuable swap. If you have the rights to the Clippers first in 2029 with the ability to swap, for Philadelphia to offer that to other deals

to say, hey, you get the best of our pick, the Clippers pick, and your own, Like the Clippers, who knows, Kauai could be retired by then. And Bede could be playing for another team. That pick could be incredibly valuable in 2029 from the Clippers or the Sixers. So I think to get all of this, they effectively get two and a half first round draft picks with the two from the Clippers and the Thunder with the three-way and then the swap. That's really, really, really good value. And then you get two second round draft picks on top of that.

So now you have two seconds in 2024, a second in 27, a second and 28, three. three seconds in 2029 and then your own second in 2030. That's a lot of draft capital to have and package together ahead of the deadline or with the additional first next summer that you could give up four of them. So getting three now or two now, depending on how you work it out, and then four next summer, that suddenly six years have a little bit of draft flexibility. It obviously does not make them better in the short term. that being said, I do think that this is going to have to be judged after they make their deal. Whatever that deal is.

Yes, I agree. Because when you look at this, you know, those players on the surface are not wowing anybody. And so on the surface, it looks like, oh, wow, you know, I know there's some sentiment like, oh, they got fleeced or whatever. Like, look, this has got to play out. Those are all expirings. That's one thing that we, you know, really made. me notice like all right what do these things have a common morris is at expiring covington's in expiring batum's in expiring so this is all either you can package together you've got the

salaries and the picks to be able to package it together to a team that's willing to give you something hopefully a star hopefully you have enough to make a star package um with a bunch of picks and with expirings so that people can have that come off of their books when they move said star because he did look he said i have to get a star back well if you don't get a star back you better get the ammo to be able to get a star back and we're about to find out if they got yeah we're about to find out did they get the ammo to get a star back because if they did then you don't have to get the star back for hardin you've got the goods to be able to go get one elsewhere. And so I feel like you're going to have to see what they do with this stuff and judge it upon

that. And I do think that they need to do something, you know, this year. This is not like a wait and see on this. You know, you only have a finite amount of time that Embedd is going to be one of the best, you know, five to ten players in the league. And so I think you want to take advantage of that sooner than later. And again, it's ideal, Chris, you're right. It's ideal for them to use that ammo this year before the trade deadline. Like, I think that goes about saying. They can't win with what they have against the best team.

Sure. They can make the playoffs and be a competitive team. Like the Nick Nurse revisions to the offense, like I wrote about on Monday, dribble handoffs are way up. They've tripled their dribble handoffs from last season. Maxi, as we talked about last week, and our first impressions looks more like an all-star at this point. Embedd is like doubled his assists per game.

He has the ball in his hands in space. The Sixers are cutting and moving. They look really good offensively. They look really good. Even without Hardin, they look really good. So I think they're good enough to make the postseason with Embedd and Maxie and their supporting cast that they currently have. But to win the finals, to your point, they have to add another guy.

And they're in a position now where they can, at least be competitive for a guy that can become available ahead of the deadline. But the fact is that they don't need to make a deal, though, because if they wait until the summer, they could have $55 million in cap space. Top free agents could be guys from the cook. You can't waste another unbeat year. But listen, but you could. If you need to, you could wait to sign Paul George, Kauai Lanner, O.G.

and Ninobe, DeMardo Rosa. Pascal Seaccom, Clay Thompson, LeBron James. I mean, like there's just a bunch of free, those are the free agents available. It's not a great class. They're better off making a trade. All I'm saying is that the plan B of waiting for cap space to pursue free agents is there. And the plan B to wait for trades in the off season is there as well because you'll also have that 2024 pick available to move.

So like the Sixers have some options. they can deal the two first ahead of the deadline plus the swap so they can give three firsts ahead of the deadline then they can change to four firsts after the deadline next summer so they have different options and different paths here and i think for philadelphia that equates to a victory getting those numbers of first round draft picks it was worth getting this deal now rather than waiting and i'm not so sure you could have done better than this So clearly the Clippers, a team that wasn't willing to give up Terrence Mann, they did clearly want Hardin. They clearly did want Hardin to give up all of this draft capital. Like they are really stripped in the future.

They got pretty much nothing. Not to mention that Hardin's a free agent in a couple of months. Paul George and Kauai Leonard have player options for next season. Like they got nothing from here moving forward of their own. Clearly an all-in move for them to give up all of this draft capital. Yeah, I mean, they're not worried about the future. They're not at all. They're all in right now, dude.

And I will tell you this. This is where we split ways. If you're more, you have to do something this year. You have to. Because at that point, but, but you,

like you can't do anything dumb, though, is what I'm saying. I understand, but you're getting farther away from having a chance at a title. If you, if you don't. And you, you're looking,

you got guys looking around going, all right, this is a team, you know, my team is, has not been able to build out around me. I'm starting to lose a little bit of trust in this if you're Joe L&B. I just don't think you can, you can't have a season where he goes in with what he's got right now, gets bounced in the first or second round again, because then you're playing with fire. Because then it's like, hey, just trust me, wait until we get to free agency. And then what? Then if, then if you can't sign somebody or you can't bring

the goods then. It's like you're, you're really stretching it, especially with these stars now. And because you lost, and look, I don't like losing Tucker either. I mean, that's two guys that you would have had to go into a fight with, you know, when it comes playoff time, whether or not they're contributing a lot during the regular season. He's a guy that's going to be in the game in the playoffs. Yeah, but he's not, he's not. he's not his prime level PJ

No but he's gonna play He's not anymore But he shoots like he barely shoots He's not a shooting threat He's not the level of defender that he wants was He's still a tough guy He's still a tone setter But like I don't I don't think the Sixers are without tone setters

Like they still have Melton And Beads a tone setter They still have like you added You added some tone setters What tone is in bead setting What he's a great shop Locker. He's doing the Suckett DX celebration.

That's hilarious. That's bully ball stuff. Like, you know what I mean? He wasn't doing Suckett versus the bucks. He was loafing back down the court. Yeah. Doing tip passes. But then watching them flip the game on him. But this speaks to the point that we're

overall talking about, though. You get off the Tucker deal next season and you open up all this cap space. It is about this season. but it's also about next summer as a backup plan if there's nothing that you can do this season. Like if it is about this season, who are the guys that you think would make sense for them to target? Because the top guy on my list is Zach Levine as the most realistically acquireable name that fits their style of play. Is there anybody else that you think about that Philly should go after before the deadline?

Oh, I like the Levine one. You know, I think you can mess around with the margins too without giving us. bunch up, right? Like, I think you can move like Malcolm Brogden, that type of guy, like a Brogden, Boyon Bogdanovich. Healed? Yeah, I like it. Yeah. Yeah, by God. I was just listening to somebody else. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

Gary Harris, what goes off yesterday for the magic, he's shooting the heck out of it again. Guys like that is what you're saying. Yeah, I'm saying like you, it doesn't, like, look, you're going to obviously want to get a star, but I also think that you've got some goods that you can play with to mess. around with the edges. You've just got to make this roster better. You've got to give him a better chance at winning a title while you've got these prime years. Because I think we both agree. If I put the over under on, he's one of the healthy, best players in the league, and I said over under two and a half years. There's a lot of, you know, it's a fair line.

You know, there's new guys coming into the league. There's new stars developing constantly. And it's like you've got the reigning MVP. You can't give him a worse team the next year to compete with than he had the year before. That's what we've learned. Or else those guys, rightfully, that's the only time I support it. Much like, you know, and he kind of set his piece this last summer, you know, much like, much like Janus did. and I think those things go hand in hand.

You're sitting back, you're going, man, Miami was just in the finals, and they were going for it. They were trying to go get Damian Lillard, and they didn't get it. And Boston was playing in the Easter conference finals, and they went for it. They went and got Porzengis, and they went and got Drew Holiday. And Janus got bounced, and his team went out and got him Damian Lillard. My team got bounced, and we lost. You know, two veterans off of our team and, you know, the guy that was supposed to be my running mate, I love that Max, he's gotten better and better, but I mean, we've got to have more if we're going to go into this fight.

Get like, at least just make it a fair fight. Give me a chance. And I think that's a situation to be in if you don't improve this roster this year to give him a chance to win the title. And again, I think you probably got the ammo to do that, you know? I think you do. and you could go get and then there's other guys too right like you know with those expirings and first somebody's going to go and we talked about some of these teams somebody's going to go and uh you know give an expiring and some picks for like the jeremy grants of the world and go pick them off right

yeah and you got a and then you got a wing and then you got that's the kind of stuff that you can do OGN and obi somebody like that ahead of his free agency well you got to give up five first round Or Pascal Seacum, you got to give up eight. You got to give up eight. Yeah. But there are interesting guys. You're right. Like you mentioned Buddy Heald, like Dorian Finney Smith, guys like that.

But ultimately, like Darryl Morey, he said it. I'm pretty sure in what was, a radio interview. Or the summary, he's like, we need either a star or the picks to go get a star. I mean, like, depending on your definition of star, you might not. consider exactly being a star, but he's a big name player who's a, you know, a 20 plus point per game guy who can drop 25, 30 points

who can shoot the heck out of it. He's a two-time All-Star. So he kind of, well, to me, like, Levine's the guy. He's the one that makes the most sense because he can kind of share creation responsibilities with Tyrese Maxi in the

back court. He can play off ball. He's a smart cutter. He's a lob threat. He's a great shooter off to catch. Defensively, I think some of his flaws have been improved on over the years. I've been very critical of Levine in the past. When he's locked in, he's at least average, where I think within the Sixers ecosystem with all their versatility and B protecting the room and all that, it can work. To me, Levine's the number one target. But Jeremy Grant, that's a really interesting one, too, because Grant can provide something different. There might be too much overlap between

Levine and Maxie. Grant with his size, defensive versatility, he can still score. We saw him, you know, be a 20 plus point per game guy with the Pistons. We've seen him be a high level role player with the Nuggets. We've seen him be a kind of a hybrid version of that next to Dane with Portland. Grant might be actually the best target overall. It's just he's even more pricey of a contract. And I think Grant would also have more competitors for him than Zach Levine would. But I think both are Requirable for Philly. I do.

I think they have enough picks to get one of those guys. It's not like, I don't think the Thunder or the Pelicans or one of these teams with a ton of first-round draft picks are going over the top for Jeremy Grant or Zach Levine. I think the Sixers can go get them if they want them. Jump into the NBA action with Fandul,

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All right. Let's talk about the other side of this, the Clippers, who have been admittedly fantastic thus far. I was reading an article this morning saying that the usage rate is already down for George and Leonard, and yet they are getting the best shots of their careers. And that's now. And so then it was it was Pelton's article where he's kind of breaking down the trade that took place from an analytical perspective.

and we know the usage rate historically for both those guys as well as Westbrook and now you are adding in a guy with one of the highest usage rates ever and so one of the things he said is you know Hardin will probably be the guy that has to sacrifice the most in this deal now he is evidently thrilled with the situation I tweeted this morning it is it is baffling that he can quit in every situation and so somehow end up where he wants to be. Like, he doesn't get traded to like Charlotte or even like when the stuff, you know, when Kauai didn't want to go to Toronto, but then he went and did it and then he won the title anyway, right? Or you get,

there's 30 teams to send him to, this guy like literally says, this is where I want to go. And whether it's putting on a fat suit or it's like basically sitting down on the court in Brooklyn and just refusing to play or in this case like like a protester gluing their hands to the ground yes in this case just like diabolically showing back up getting everybody to report he's doing the right things so that you can't find me you can't really suspend me you're going to have to play me and then when you play me I'm just going to dog it to you move me like and so

Somehow he gets to go to his preferred destination every time. He doesn't get sent to like some rat team he would be miserable on. He gets to go exactly where he wants to go. And so here he is with the clippers. Is this the right choice for him? Like I wrote yesterday, I said earlier that Hardin, his best choice would be to go back to the Sixers. Embrace playing in that nurse offense. Take some of what he used to do way back in the day with OKC.

He was a dominant cutter, off ball guy, off screens. Take a little bit of that. Bring it back with what you do now. Was that in a perfect world his best choice? In most people's situations, most players that we analyze, the number one thing that I would answer that question with is an answer to, is this his best chance to win? Because that is typically what is most important.

to the players. This is a extenuating circumstance in which I have to analyze the situation based upon what he cares about, which is not winning, what he cares about. And I think if we're trying to meet his goals, which is I can be like the fourth guy. If I come with tequila on my breath in the morning, it doesn't even matter. And if I play like shit or I don't feel like playing, it doesn't matter. If we choke in the playoffs, they're not going to blame me. Like, if all those are the goals, yes, they are all 100% reachable.

Now, in most situations, Jose, is his best chance to win? Or play his best basketball, or be a part of a team that has a chance at winning a championship. He also cares about making money. Is his chance to restore his value best with the clippers or the Sixers? I think the Sixers would have been better had he fully embraced that style of play. but that's the biggest, if possible, and the greatest unlikelyhood. Like, writing about that, I even acknowledged in the article, like, this isn't going to happen in all likelihood.

He should, but he probably won't. And the Sixers have moved on from that style of play that worked for Hardin. Now it's Hardin's choice, right? So the Clippers are a situation where it's not like that type of motion, movement-based offense that the Sixers are playing with right now. The Clippers are a bit more your turn, my turn. turn. It's not like isocentric. They still have some movement-based packages, but I think the Clippers at this point, yes, you're right. He won't be necessarily blamed, but he would be

blamed if he's taking touches away from Kauai Leonard and Paul George giving them. They're the most efficient shock creators on that team and guys who can score, particularly Kauai. And adding James Hardin to that, if he's having some games where he's choking in the playoffs, he could get blamed. He couldn't be the guy that I guess no, no, because here's the thing. I, and I'm going to give him credit for evolving as a player. He helped Embed win that MVP last year.

He did. He's playmaking. And he led the league and assist. He did evolve. He has, and that's why I felt like maybe there's more evolution to his game. That's why I feel like this. I pass a lot more. He might pass more, but I still think, how about shooting off the catch

from three? How about that? That would be Nice. And wouldn't it be crazy if they both evolve simultaneously? Like the idea that they would be the third and fourth leading shot takers. Also Westbrook and James Harvey. Yes. Yeah. And for all the talk of the two of them and how their careers have kind of intersected, you know, twice now.

Twice. Yeah. Twice now. And now three times. Yeah. How crazy is that? And the very famous, you know, MVP debate that went on when Westbrook won his. Absolutely should have been hardened.

It's kind of crazy to see how this is evolved. But I do think he is, he's moving more into a background role with the Clippers. And, I mean, look, they're loaded up and they can lose a guy to injury or they can sit there, for their rest and still have guys that can go out there and get it done. Like you saw last year and we goofed about it, or at least I did, during the playoffs. Like you saw Hardin in that moment where M.B.D. went out for that playoff game in game one and he just set the Celtics on fire. And it was like, oh, God. Like, if it is just James and it's Jamescentric, he still gets.

do this, but that's what it's going to take in order to. But I think it's a lot more like what he was like in Philly, maybe even less. Like we're talking about him having a sacrifice. He's not going to have the ball all the time. He's going to be knocking down threes, and I think he's going to be, you know, keeping the ball moving. And so I wouldn't, I don't envy Ty Lou. That's going to be easy. It's not going to be the easiest thing to keep four happy.

Clearly they wanted it. though. Clearly they want it. I think that that's part of the human elements here. It's not like they don't talk to Kauai Leonard and Paul George about, should be, uh, Paul George. I think Kauai would have a voice here.

I think he probably did whatever. Yeah. I mean, and look, do what you want. Leave me alone. To me, I think the Clippers, this is obviously a monumental risk. They have virtually no draft capital moving forward into the future. Hardin's a free agent next summer. Kawhi Leonard and Paul George can both be free agents.

Those guys could potentially all leave, or even if they resign, it doesn't mean that you're going to sustain contention, considering their injury history and what age they are at this point. But you weren't winning a championship this year without raising your ceiling with James Hardin. Hardin is a far better player at this point of their careers than Russell Westbroe. It's not even a debate. So for the Clippers, this is a victory in the sense that you raise your ceiling for this season.

But boy, oh boy, like the risk is like, do that. I don't know. Is it? It is. You have basically no picks. I get it. The heat never have any picks. It's a risk.

They're a three-pointer away from going to three out of four finals. Hardin has. There's different ways to do this, you know. You just described it, how Hardin has pushed his way. at a different situation. It could get ugly for him with the Clippers, too. For sure. I mean, it just did with Philly.

Yeah, no, it could happen with the Clippers in a year and a half or next summer. Yeah. Like, it could happen before the trade deadline, that for some reason, him and Kauai or him and Paul George or him and Russ have friction again and the locker room gets weird. I like that stuff like that could happen pretty quickly. But they had to do it.

They could just trade them back to Philly. And Darrell can be like, all right, quit on them and let's be friends again. I mean, it's going to be, like, I think the one thing for, like, the other factor for the Clippers here is that by having Hardin, you have more star depth, right? Like, I think if, if Kauai misses a week or Kauai needs a rest day, you do have more guys who can elevate their roles, like with Hardin now. I think that that is a big factor here with the amount of depth that they have. And then, like, off their bench, like, Norm Powell's a good player, Bones Highland looks like a sixth man of the year candidate right now. Granted, we're less than a week in.

I mean, he looks good. Like, they have some depth. Tucker's going to play for them. Yeah, Tucker's solid. He's better than Robert. I mean, look, like, he's better than Robert Cumberton. He's better than Nick Baton. They threw Tucker on Yokic last year.

Yeah. Philly did. Yeah, but nobody stops Yokich. I understand. but, I mean, he did about as admirable job as you can. And that's the thing that now the clippers have flexibility because sort of like they did with the existing guys, but especially with Tucker,

you can play with a big in Zubots, and then you have a backup big and Plumley, but now you have Tucker where you could go with a lineup of Tucker at the 5, Kauai Leonard, Paul George, Terrence Mann, James Hardin. Like, that's a super versatile five-man lineup with Tucker at the 5. that you can play five out spacing and still have an interior presence

with him if necessary. All four guys who can attack off the dribble, even Terrence Mann can attack closeouts. Like, it gets, Tailu has a lot of lineup flexibility with the Tucker edition. The Clippers, they do belong in the, in the pile of teams that feel like

they have a chance to win the championship. There are no way the favorite. In that sense, it doesn't really change the championship odds necessarily. Denver's still by far the favorites in the West. But if it's Denver and then, they got as good a chance as anybody else. A hundred percent truth. They're right there.

They are right there. And in a seven game series, who knows what happens? Like so much can swing your way with a hot shooting streak, guys missing a game or two. And that's what the clippers are doing by raising their ceiling. Or like, Daryl Morey, what was the phrase he used years ago, risk profile? Their risk profile is increased and decreased. They could fall apart, but they also could be this juggernaut in the playoffs. If James Hardin is indeed, as his people have been hyping up the entire summer,

his agent said Hardin's doing two-a-day workouts and the best shape of his life. All reports, everything I personally heard, everything that was reported from others were that in his pretty much lone training camp practice, he looked really good. He looked good. So I think with Hardin, if he is indeed in really good shape, and if he does start doing some of the things that he needs to do, like he needs to start shooting threes off the catch. If Kauai Leonard is isolating on the right wing and Hardin's on the left

wing or in the left corner, you have to be willing to shoot threes off the catch at a minimum. You got to do that. He can't stop the ball all the time like he's been doing in recent years. But if Hardin starts incorporating some of that, you mentioned how he's evolved to cut down on the scoring and increase his playmaking, bring back a little bit of that. And this could be a very juicy situation for the club. But we'll see.

I look forward to seeing what happened. And I also just think a lot of the negatives from him get covered up. You can hide him on defense now because the other guys are going to be playing hard and are pretty versatile. And, you know, end of game situations, Kauai's the guy of Kauai's. You know, he's like kind of the third guy in the mix now. And it might even be the fourth. Obviously, when Russ gets to deciding that he wants to take it into his own hands,

but it's not the easiest job for Tailu, but I do think that they are, they load them, man. They got a lot at their disposal because they got a lot of good players and a lot of ways to massage that and figure it out. Again, they got firepower, man. Like, in the end.

And I also think three of those guys, you know, George doesn't have an extension, and Kauai doesn't have an extension, and Hardin doesn't have an extension. That's three guys. So it behooves them to make it work for sure. In a way that is a little bit different if you've got a three-year, four-year contract. That's what I'm saying.

And so I guess we will see the way it all plays out. You know, before this all went down and you did write that you thought it was in Hardin's best interest to go back to Philadelphia, you did Chronicle that, you know, you were really looking forward to how, nurse was going to change things. And one of the opening observations from the first couple of games of the season was that stat that you had where they were heavy, heavy pick and roll team, that of course by virtue of having James Hardin, but that they have really altered to a lot more dribble handoffs. In fact, one of the highest rates in the league and a lot more movement.

What do you like about what Philly looks like? like now in this new version with Maxi averaging 30 points a game and shooting 56% from three so far. Again, it's just a couple of games, but even in the couple games, you can tell what's different already. I mean, I think with the Doc Rivers' offenses in recent years, what was so frustrating was just the lack of offball movement. And this year, at a minimum, you got like, there's a play in one of their games this weekend where Maxi fed the ball to Embed at the left elbow. and he got double-teamed immediately, and then Kelly Ubrey cut to the basket, and Embed found him from the double team.

You got situations where Maxi's pushing the ball up past half court at the 21-second mark. He's not walking it up. They're pushing it up. They're getting into their sets early, and he gave the ball to Embed who attacked immediately. The paint was completely packed. He kicked it out to Maxi.

They immediately flowed right into a dribble handoff. Maxi bangs down a three. Everything is just moving so fluidly compared to the last, you know, really as long as Docs been the coach, but especially with James Hardin there, where it's just slow, methodical, ISO, ISO, pick and roll, pick and roll. There's movement. There's cutting. There's flow. And it's just nice to watch Joanne Lombie playing in a situation. As you and I talked about this summer with the vision for what we hoped it could be, this is beyond what I could have hoped for, to be honest with you, man,

with Embed in space, playing with cutters and movement and shooting. So for Philadelphia, whoever they target with those picks, whether it's this offseason or next summer, to me, like now suddenly they're going into a situation with MVP talent and Embed a potential all-NBA guy and Maxi, if not an All-Star. I'm buying it, the progress that we're seeing from him. He's improved every single year of his career. and significant ways.

It feels like another leap is happening. He's being empowered in this type of offense that capitalizes on all of his space, ability to just attack space off the catch and how fast he is. I think the Sixers are suddenly in a position of optimism. And that's not something I would have expected to have said, especially this early in the season. And way better for the wings. I mean, you know, Tobias Harris has to be.

much better. Harris has to be on cloud nine. Ubre has to be on cloud nine. It's like, so that's what I'll say it. If you go and get you a couple wings to go along with it, you can imagine, I mean, it generates open shots. And so that's why when we were talking about whether it's healed or Jeremy Grant or Levine or any of those days that we talk about, like it's a, it's a very good opportunity for guys to be able to play within that because we're seeing guys that have really played above their head. And look, Tobias Harris has been better than the opportunities given to him. No matter what you think of him and obviously his contract is high, but he's better than just standing around. Oh, no doubt about it.

And that's it. Like, that's it. Like, there's a play that I put in my article where, like, Embedde received the ball at the elbow and it looked like it was going to flow into a dribble handoff with him and Maxie. But instead, Maxie set a little screen for Harris, who cut to the basket and Embedd found him

immediately off that screen like an open layup opportunity. And that's the type of stuff where Harris is he's not just standing in the corner. He's being used in motion and movement and this is the way that you capitalize on his greatest strengths. It just feels like Embed

just won MVP. But then they got roasted in the playoffs. Yokic is the guy who goes on to win the finals. It wins finals MVP. And Embeded had this great quote after his game this weekend where he was talking about how when nurse was hired, this is one of the first things they talked about, was their vision for the offense. And Embed, without mentioning Yokic, pretty much just said, look at the last two teams that won the finals, the Nuggets and the Warriors. How do they win? With cutting, with movement, with the ball not sticking

in guys' hands, with guys playing selfless basketball. And that's what it feels like the Sixers are doing right now. And part of that is James Harden's not there. Part of that is Nick Nurse actually is fully utilizing the talents of his teammates of the roster, something that Doc Rivers just didn't do in recent years. It was too stagnant under Doc. But Nurse is doing a good job, I feel like so far, and we'll see how it develops. What matters most is what more he does with those picks. That's going to make them a finals contender or just a team that's a nice, fun playoff team.

but I feel good about where Philly is right now. I think they come out as winners today. It's very rare that a deal is made that makes sense for both teams completely, but the Clippers had to take this risk. They had to do it. Like, you're just in this position. You've got to do it. And the Sixers, like, they suddenly can deal next summer four first round draft picks

or three first round draft picks before the deadline this year. Things get interesting for them. All right. So before this deal went down, we had decided we were going to, to do some second impressions because we did first impressions after we had seen. We want to do them today still? We want to do them today. You know what?

We don't have to go super in depth into any of them, but let's just kind of read them off, okay? Chrisley's number one. Go ahead. I'm saying you up, Chris. Tell me why I should not be concerned about a team that is 0 and 4 with John Morant suspended for 25 games when their half court offense right now is 26. and points per possession, according to cleaning the last season,

fourth the season before that. Everybody's competing for the playoffs in the Western Conference, and Jod doesn't come back for 25 games. They don't have a center. They just got Bismack-Bionbo. Who cares? Why should I not be concerned when over a quarter of the season they're going to be at one out their star

and that they're going to be at a really deep pole when the race is really, really competitive in the West? It's concerning. There's no question. It's a concerning start. you, they're playing with new players, including two new point guards. They're five of their top, what, eight guys are out of who they would have. And when you've lost, when you already were short-handed and then you lost Luke Canard to a

concussion, you lost Santiago to a sprained ankle to start off the seat. There's a bridge too far. Like, I mean, how deep can you go before you have to start playing guys that should not be playing the amount of minutes that they're playing. Also, their offense is generating the shots that they want to get. They have run into some buzz saws. I mean, they got 24-3s knocked down on them by the Mavericks last night. They've also played short-handed four games in six days, only one of which they were not

favored in, which is what many would deem a schedule loss. And we have seen a lot of times where, like you saw. who was it, Oklahoma City or whoever it was, get blasts. Like a lot of these teams at the first time they're playing three games in four days, it isn't not, it's not going their way. And so I would tell you, when you've got five of your eight guys that you were going to go into the season with out, and with the Beambo thing, it's not about Beambo being as long as he can play with size, and as long as he can be the guy next to Jaron Jackson that has to be worried about on the offensive,

glass, he will be able to have an impact on the team, not because of what he does individually as much as the impact he has for somebody else. They just have to have somebody else big. They got one player that's playing over 6'8, Kevin. They're playing David Roddy at Power Forward or Zaire Williams at Power Forward. You're giving me way more reasons to be worried. But Santiago Alma is going to be back, like, hopefully by the next game. Does this help me feel better about the fact that the Grizzlies have a crowsy's

have a crappy half-court offense and they're going to have 25 games without John Morant. But if they've got, if they're short-handed and lost to the Pelicans, the Nuggets and the Mavericks. And the Wizards. No, no, no, but I'm saying like those are three of those losses. Three of them, you would not, you think that's alarming? And they lost to the Wizards. And they lost to the Wizards who got absolutely destroyed by the Pacers and the Celtics. But do you think that they should have beaten those teams, given what they had to take to the game?

No, which is the point that it's concerning for a team that has finals, hopes, or always deep playoff on hopes that they might be the nine seed and have to win two games in the playing. But if they're getting two of the rotation guys back. Chris, it's concerning 25 games without John Morant when your half court offense stinks. The half court offense stinks. John Morant. Where have you been? But it didn't last season. They were 11th and half-court offense.

It was fourth the season before that. What? What? According to what? Goofystats.com? I said cleaning the glass. Boy, that's goofy. I don't know how they're measuring that.

Trust me. Okay. I mean, it was better than it is now. That's the bottom line that it is. Well, they've got a new pit. It is in the gutter right now. It's the bottom of the league. at the moment.

Look, they've got new players. And I know you Boston weirdos are so obsessed with smart and this whole thing not going well. Give it time. Give it time. It's four games. Look, how about this? How about this? How about this?

You come to me. You come to me in a week. They play Utah, Portland, Portland. And you tell me if you're still concerned. How about that? How about that? We'll see. Okay.

I mean, is that fair? Yeah, I mean, yeah, maybe. If there's three and four? Like, we'll see. We'll see. So they have Utah Wednesday, then Portland on Friday and Sunday. Next Monday night show, they have three more games. You're saying there'll be three and four.

I think they will win at least two of those three. Okay. At least two of those three. Okay. Well, look, okay, hold on that. Okay, so they start the season. You had a hero. Two and five.

Let's talk. All right, let's talk about your Lakers. Okay. Because you're always on their nuts. Okay. Except for the hero. They had a heroic effort to come back. A heroic effort to come back against the magic.

Or else they would have been what? One and three? Yeah. Should we have? Is it panic time? I mean, is it? Is it panic time? I wouldn't say it's.

panic time because their best player. Because their best player isn't suspended for 25 games. We know Jha is out for 25 games. He also has missed 25 like most seasons. Okay. All right. So let's talk about the Lakers then. I think with the Lakers.

All right. We'll talk about the Lakers for a minute here. Austin Reeves looks like he lost his superpowers. Okay. He has been terrible to start the season. It doesn't matter how he's been used on ball off ball. He's been absolutely terrible. terrible. Cam riders cannot continue getting minutes over Max Christie. I don't know what

Darvinham is doing. Darvinham is making weird lineup choices at this point so far in the season, like in their game over the weekend, Rui Hachamora, who has not been good, had his best game, and yet he didn't play the final seven minutes of regulation. He didn't play at all at overtime. He just got benched for nothing. Their best lineup so far this season is LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Christian Wood. Those guys have only played 28 minutes together, the three of them. And in those 28 minutes, they have a 127 offensive rating, a 50 defensive rating. Small sample size alert.

But that's been their best lineup so far. Christian Wood needs to be playing over 30 minutes per game. They need to be playing with two bigs next to 80. It's working. It looks great. I think with Darvin Ham, like you just get to lean into that, roll with that. Austin Reeves needs to figure things out. Max Christie needs to play.

Like, get that dude off the bench. He's better than Cam Ranich with all due respect. But Cameran Rush is not a good basketball player anymore. It doesn't offer a lot on offense. Christie's better. Some tweaks the Lakers will be okay. Here's what I'm going to tell you. And I'll tell you, like, we should have learned our lesson last year after 10 or 20 games.

Let's come back and we could talk about a lot of these teams. Because when you make grand statements in the first, like, three, four, five games of the season, a lot of times. And so I've told you that Memphis will be fine, just like I told you after an 0-and-4 start last year, Sacramento would be fine. It's the same deal. This happens every year.

But Jaws out for 25 games. That's the point of the concern is not that they won't be fine at some point. It's that the fact that they're in a deeper hole in a Western conference where like 13 teams are competing for the playoffs. three more rotation players, which they will have back, it will be a different world.

Three rotation players. You sound like... Desmond Bayne and Jaron Jackson. You sound like you're in denial about the fact that their half court offense stinks and that they are in a competitive Western Conference where they might end up...

Of course it does. They're playing guys that shouldn't be playing. Yes, but they might end up the nine seeds because of this beginning to the season. It's concerning. Because of Owen 4? I mean, not just 0 and 4, but 0 and 4 and then Jaws out for another 21 games. And these other guys are already out.

Like, yes, it's concerning. I love the changing. Everybody pivoting on this. Are they better without John Morant? Make up your effing mind, people. Now they're dead because they don't have John Moran. But they might be better without Joe. Like make up your mind

Which is it? Now they're dead Come on Give it time Let them get up We'll give it We'll give it time I'll talk to you in a week

I look forward to seeing what their record is In a week after this easier schedule Fair enough They should beat the Blazers You know like they have not been good at all Granted they just got their first win Last night Scoot has really really struggled

And I hope he figures it out It's a slow start Not gonna overreact Look, if you're short-handed and you play four games in six days, three of which were against good teams, might go bad. Go back and watch their Denver game, and you tell me how concerned I should be. Because other teams have gotten their ass kicked by Denver.

They're right there. I mean, again, they've got to figure some things out, for sure. All right, here, I'm just going to run through my four. The player participation thing is going great. Yeah, great. job by the NBA. Showed up to the arena last night and they're like,

Kyrie Irvig's not playing. I'm like, why? Why? He wasn't even, I guess he has a sprain in his foot of which wasn't even talked about until like 1.30 yesterday.

Now, is it possible that Kyrie is actually hurt? And here's why. Of course it is. Because he's shooting 17% from three. He's shooting only 50% from within three feet of the

basket, a career low. Yes, it's possible. Small sample size, but the dude's not scoring. He hasn't been scoring. There might be something up. Of course there could be. Of course there could be. I just found it unbelievable.

There was nothing on the injury report the day before. An hour before the game. An hour before. And then they say, yep, he's not playing. Like, bro, if you've got a sprained foot, you knew you weren't playing a day ago. Like, it's just weird. This is why the NFL has such issues with situations like Bejohn Robinson with the Atlanta Falcons a couple weeks ago.

Because with the gambling aspect, your injury report needs to be accurate, right? And so the NBA, like, not having Kyrie Irving on there at all at all. And then suddenly he's out. That screws the fans over attending games. But from a gambling perspective, I mean, what the heck? Like, where's the information? You need to be accurate here. So it sucks.

It was by the third game of the season that I went to that one of the stars was out. It's so funny. It's unbelievable. All right, the other ones I had. Well, it was for us last Thursday. It was the first Thursday night of the season. Our pod plans were kind of changed a little bit. I'm just going to list them off.

Denver has the goods again. I saw them in person. They're my new finals picking the West over the Lakers. Yeah, I guess so. Peyton Watson, special defender, special. Calvin Booth. spot on, wasn't he? Yeah, he was Watson was unbelievable. He made

three or four just ridiculous plays. And I did not see the game, but I'm told he made life help for Gildes Alexander as well in their Thunder game. Peyton Watson looks unbelievable. I mean, I think that Nuggets article I wrote earlier this month, Calvin Booth was spot on about Peyton Watson. He brought him up

unprovoked in our conversation. And so did Christian Brown. I didn't plan on asking a lot about Peyton Watson, but those guys were like Payton Watson's ready for to have a big year and like it's proving to be true. Yeah, the more you irritate me, the more I start to like Calvin Booth.

It'd be really interesting to see how many of the rookies are on good teams. I wrote down because we have had like a swell of rookies but it feels like a lot of these teams are kind of loaded up with vets now and

I think it may be And for years and years, rookies were always on bad teams. And I feel like we're kind of back to that. Like we had rookies kind of really contributing sometimes starting. Like even last year, top four seed at Kiga Murray starting for them. Whereas I think it's going to be fewer this year, like good teams with rookies that are actually in their rotation. And I think we could have less rookies playing teams. playoff minutes than we have had recently.

That's what I'd say. Because I do think most of them that are going to be able to do that are not on as good of teams this year. And then the last one is I feel great about my magic pick still. Loved what I've seen so far. Almost had a win against the Lakers yesterday. But yeah, really like that. And I've been pleased thus far.

All right. What did you have? I mean, we talked about Memphis. We talked about the Lakers. I said Christian Wood should be playing more. Of course, you love Christian Wood. Let's go with Brandon Miller, looking like the right choice. You know, I had him ranked second last November.

Stuck with that from the pre-draft process, March and Beyond. You know, Scoot Henderson still could pan out very well, not going to overreact to his terrible start. But Brandon Miller, I mean, he's. looking excellent for Charlotte. He's got in three games, 13 points, 17 points, 22 points. He's shooting over 40% on over five three point attempts per game. He's getting to the basket. He's he brought back the mid-range, just like I said he would because he was a mid-range player in high school. He's rebounding. He's playing solid defense. He's picking up foul trouble in part

because he is competing on ball. He's getting some rookie whistles. He had a chase down block the other night. Brandon Miller looks like a really good two-way player. He, in Charlotte's last game, I thought he was the best player on the floor for the Hornets. He's looking like the right pick. And he like Ched is getting to fit in. Right? The other guys,

Wembeian scooter on crap teams. Yeah. Right? Right. All right. And then the last one is just the wolves, you know, them blowing their second half lead to the Hawks last night. absolute embarrassment that they need some changes but we'll talk more about them I'm sure later in the week

yeah yeah oh the only other thing is I obviously like it was unbelievable to see a team with such amazing chemistry have the problems they had against the Warriors last night

I love I love how Trey Murphy tell you the Pelicans like you no the Pelicans team account I've never Of all the things I've said on the mismatch, saying that a team had some weird chemistry with the starting lineup, it turned into the most unbelievable, horrible thing

you could say about somebody. But it was good to see them all rally together last night while Steph Curry was pissing on their collective heads. Gotta be crazy when the Pelicans end up with a better record than the Grizzlies, huh? I know. Oh, you said that last year. Remember, how'd that work out for you?

How did it? I can't remember. How did that work? out. I can't remember. I couldn't remember. I was watching the Grizzlies Lakers. I can't remember. I mean, maybe this will be the year, Chris.

We'll see. One day it'll go your way. Thank you to our executive producer. Jesse Lopez, as always. And Kevin, I'll talk to you later this week. Have a good week. Must be 21 plus in President Select States. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas

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You know,