The Mismatch - Luka Needs Help, Believing in the Blazers, and Do We Really Need All These Jerseys?

Episode Date: November 11, 2022

Verno and KOC begin the show previewing Timberwolves-Grizzlies before diving into last night’s Blazers-Pelicans game (01:59). As the Jazz keep winning, the guys debate if it’s time to consider them a playoff team and whether or not Danny Ainge would make a move (23:44). They also discuss Luka Doncic’s struggles after the Mavs dropped their last two games against the Magic and Wizards. KOC then ponders if we truly need all these new City Edition jerseys before getting into the latest about Kyrie Irving, then previews his newest podcast, 'The Ringer’s NBA Draft Show' (44:58). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

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

match, I'm Chris Vernon and joining me he does every Friday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Colk, Kevin O'Colm, Kevin O'Colnsk, Kevin O'clock, Kevin O'Hournoy. How's your Friday going? Everything's great. It's going to be a very, very late night for me tonight, so I have to mentally prepare for this. I am, as you know, in the central time zone, and it is commonplace for your games to be at 7 p.m.

But that is not so. I was alerted this morning that it is scheduled for an 830 tip, which is a rematch of the playoffs, Memphis versus Minnesota. It's an ESPN game, so people will be able to watch this on national television. Games not even going to tip off until like 8.45 central time. 9.45 for those on the East Coast. So I am mentally preparing myself for an extremely long day. But I'm excited that I'm going to get to watch a good basketball game.

tonight, hopefully. You're going to take a nap at halftime? I think I'm going to have to. I'll never forget the time. I saw Tommy Heinzen taking a nap at half time when I was an intern at NBC Sports Boston, then Comcast Sports at New England. It was like a late Celtic Suns game in 2013, and he was snoozing away

at halftime. So usually I don't like snooze my go-to, and this has happened over the course of the last week. Not halftime. It was middle of the third quarter. Oh, for goodness sakes. When I've seen, when I saw Charlotte in person, when I saw Washington in person, I just start shopping for basketball cards on eBay.

Like when it gets that boring, I just start looking at eBay for basketball card deals. And then every once in a while, you know, obviously, look, when Morant's in the game, I got to keep my head on a swivel because at any point he might strike. He might straddle somebody. And then obviously Desmond Bain has been off the charts. But I am kind of interested to see that Minnesota team tonight because they have been one of the stories the wrong way in the NBA. We've had a lot of really good stories.

The instant returns on their off-season moves have not been good, though they continue to attempt to say the right things. Anthony Edwards saying, you know, we're close. We're going to get this worked out. you know Memphis brings out the best of us so hopefully we'll get it on the right track in Memphis but the the mega fascinating thing is this was a very good playoff matchup last year and you know that one of my levels of discontent with the Minnesota deal was I thought they very well should have or could have beaten Memphis last year and I thought that they're spacing Edwards looking on the way to a massive assent I thought that I thought they had something going. I thought they had the stars and role players thing. I thought they had a devastating combination where they have a center that stretches the floor completely.

So there's nobody, you know, if it's one on one, he's too big, he's too strong, he's too fast, Edward. And so I thought that, you know, that maybe not being available in the same way that it was. And I thought they were just really close, but they made these moves to try to extend their ceiling. I'm interested to see them in person. I know there's been a lot of bad news about it. You know, not great post-game press conferences, not great body language,

this embarrassment of the DiAngelo Russell standing on the sidelines while his team plays four on five against the suns the other night. And so, you know what, hopefully because it was a hard-fought playoff match up last year. Hopefully I'll get to see something good. I'm hopeful. I'm hopeful. At the least, you know,

you're seeing a different version of Rudy Gobert, right? Yep. I mean, like, then we've seen in the past, he's just, they spend all that, you know, draft pick capital,

young players and depth to get them. It just hasn't worked, right? Like, it's hindering, spacing. Cat has not been as effective and hasn't been as effective. And I don't necessarily put that in Gobert. It's just been, it's just been so,

strange to see how the whole dynamic of this team has changed because of that decision. Like I wonder over the course of time how much they're going to be able to make this fit or if the organization is going to have to make another change. I know earlier this week, you know, I was tweeting with some Minnesota fans about what's gone wrong. A lot of them have talked about Chris Finch, you know, kind of letting the team be willy-nilly out there, not a lot of, you know, accountability. How much does that fall on Finch versus the, you know,

inexperience or lack of maturity from a Delo or an aunt or a cat? I mean, that's a tough balance there to figure that out. But overall, I think more than anything else, they have to figure out a way to make that Gobert cat dynamic work. And that's going to require, you know, DeAngel Russell would be better, Anthony Edwards to be better specifically because Rudy Go Bear just hasn't been as effective in the pick and roll in part

due to the ball handling that isn't on the same level as it was last year. And to your point about the FinC thing, who is that leadership now? You remember the Pat Bev tweet afterwards where it was something to the effect of talent isn't talent if it doesn't work hard

or something like that. It gave you the sense. There were a million articles last year about his profound impact and when you have those guys like that, Pat Vanderbilt, these kind of grinders, these guys that are playing hard, every single possession. It does bring out the most in the rest of the guys. Also, they're the kind of guys that can speak up in a locker room and people do listen to them. And so they're kind of absent of that.

It's not Ant's team. It will be. And it will be for a decade. but they decided to go a different route than the trajectory they were on. And I thought it was about to be set for, you know, Edwards really to have a big breakout this upcoming year. And so, I don't know, we'll see. We'll see. And look, the book is never written on these teams.

I talked to you many times about how to the first 20 games of the season, we've seen teams become radically different in the last 62. games of the season. Right now, they just have a loser mentality. That's the way it's like. It does not go good. They don't play with effort, no hustle, not the type of team that's, you know, win and battles to lose balls.

And they get a change. I don't know how you feel they've got a lot of talent, but talent now cannot just win. And I think that one of the things that has stood out over the course of the past, I don't know, 15 games, you know, roughly, most of these teams have played, is the insane amount of parity that is in the league that I think that, and this was on display last night, we'll get to it. I think that there's like for many years been kind of a have and a have not class.

And if you were a half, and especially if you were a veteran team or you were a talented team, you could dick around for three quarters, crank it up in the fourth quarter and come away with the win. And the fans of teams that do not have good records or are not very good, sit there and they go, oh, we almost had them. But like that's what everybody does to your team. They come in and they decide to crank it up when they have to crank it up because they don't have, they think they can just turn it on.

And I see all of these teams, and one of the things that truly stands out, and this is a credit to the coaching staff and not only the players on all of these teams, is teams that we expected to be very bad. Indiana, San Antonio, even Utah, for that matter, was not expected to be a good team. The way these teams share the ball is absolutely unbelievable. and they are playing a different style than they have before in many cases to great, great success. And I went and looked throughout the stats because you're trying to figure out, like, why are some of these teams that we did not think we're going to be good at all?

Like, now kind of consistently catching people off guard. And one of the things that was in common, the assist numbers are great. The assist numbers for these teams. Utah is right up there in assist. They had a game this year where they had 39 assists in a game. The league leader in assist is the Spurs. Indiana is fourth. You saw them get 30 assists, San Antonio,

against Memphis the night at an overtime game. They're whipping the ball around. They whip a good shot for great shot. And then the other thing is three-pointers made. you know, Utah has, I think, 38 more than everybody in the league. Second is Boston, who's shooting like 50 a game. So Utah's made 196 three-pointers already. Second is Boston.

You'll never believe this, Kevin. Third is Indiana. Fourth is the Spurs. And I think you can go with like Utah, Indiana, Spurs, all these teams that you are expecting to just wipe the floor with. or be able to screw around with, and they're all passing the ball like crazy. The assist numbers are all great,

and they're all knocking down a bunch of threes. And I think it speaks to how the league has changed when a Rick Carlisle team and a Greg Popovich team are amongst the top five three-pointers made at any point. Forget that it's only 13 games. Just the fact that at any point, these these a Popovich team and and and this Carlisle Indiana team are amongst the league leaders. And so even the bad teams are sharing the ball and knocking down a bunch of threes,

which leads to some variance. But I don't know. I feel like the parody in the NBA right now is as great as it's ever been, certainly since you and I started talking about basketball on this show. I mean, I think, you know, we mentioned San Antonio. Antonio in passing there before the season, you had kind of said, like, they're not a team worth watching, but they are a team worth watching. Like, you know, like, I think it speaks to what you're talking about here, that every team

has talent, every team, including the San Antonio's teams with not a lot of big names or Indiana. Like, we know Tyrese Halliburton and Benedict Mathurin and Miles Turner because we're hardcore NBA fans, we're podcasters, we're on Twitter and all that. But it's not like, you know, the broader population. knows those names are not household guys, and yet you watch them play, and they're the types of players that anybody would enjoy. Matherin can hit step-back threes. He can have thunderous dunks the rim and, you know, and acrobatic layups around contact at the rim. Halliburton is just this majestic passer with this funky looking jump shot that doesn't look like it should work,

but it does. It's like all of these teams have that level of individual talent, but also playing style. And I mean, like with that Spurs team, I mean, like, what stood out to you like that night? I mean, like, it's like Sohan, right? Like it's the rookie for them. It's, it's seven Vesel. It's Trey Jones. He had 10 plus, what, 10, 11, and 12 assists that game.

And he's been so much better this year for them with the opportunity he's received. Like his jump shot is starting to click and now the rest of his game is because of it. I mean, it's like every team has good players. Sohan could really develop into something. but really good. He could be special. In the fourth quarter, Kelden kind of turned on in that game that I watched,

but he had really struggled up until... He didn't shoot the ball well that night, right? He had struggled up to that point. Like, Josh Richardson was making plays. It was just strange. But I say, like, all these teams that are, the less talented teams are, in fact, passing the ball and popping it around so much more

than what you would typically think. Usually on the teams that are devoid of talent, there's not your standard pecking order that goes on. And guys do, and maybe this will happen as the year goes on, guys start looking up for themselves. Because the team is not successful. But to get them to buy end and to really play together and to sacrifice for the greater good,

that it's impressive when you when you don't have a very good team and I do think that that's why look these teams are all going to fall back most of them I don't know if any of them in fact let's do this I don't know of the ones that we believe in that are not where we expected them to be Utah Portland the clippers at six I think is a little high if we if I would have told you there's no Kauai um and then the spur of the spur of the spurs. at nine of those, which one do you believe it? And look, we're not saying Utah won Portland, too. But I'm saying that this is this first small segment of games is a reliable indicator

of kind of what they're going to be as the season goes on. What do you think? I mean, we talked about them a bit earlier the week, so I don't want us to rehit everything here but the Portland Trailblazers would be the answer to your question. I was dead wrong about them based off the way they played in preseason. They looked like an utter mess.

But the way Chauncey Billups has those guys playing right now using a wide variety of different schemes, their ability to win games with guys missing. They beat the Pelicans last night. No Damien Lillard, no Yusuf Nurkich, and

Jeremy Grant has that big dunk just blowing past Zion at the end of the night. Justice Winslow, who we talked about a bunch on Tuesday, slides into the starting lineup, and he doesn't score the ball well, but he's playing point for them. Again, like we talked about, sometimes he's playing center, sometimes he's playing point. They just had a bunch of switchable pieces and switchable schemes. And you know who was yelling at the bench last night every time he was making a play? My guy, Josh Hart, the discarded one.

They moved, I get to do a Josh Hart victory lap today. Go ahead. He was locking people down. He was taking the ball to the rim. He was banging down shots and he was yelling at that Pelicans bench every time he walked by. It was crazy. On the other hand, the Pelicans, like, I talk so much about this whole stars and role players and kind of who can be really good without having the ball.

And it's a weird fit without like a traditional point guard because CJ is doing that. And all these guys being able to be at their best while playing together because Herb's really the only one that doesn't need to shoot. Well, and he really doesn't need to shoot. He's shooting 13% from three. So the rest of the guys in large part, you know, need to get buckets or have the ball. in order to be at their best. And, you know, it's going to take some time still to work it out and to figure it out. And defensively, you know, I know, I know Zion, unfortunately, was the, he was the victim of the Jeremy Grant crossover.

He got, he got destroyed all night, really. I mean, they targeted him on 10 pick and rolls. They targeted him in that second half, Portland did. Anthony Simons, you know, or Jeremy Grant targeting him a lot occasionally, just as, Winslow. And I mean, like that bucket is the one that went viral, understandably so, because, you know, he got his ankles crossed and Grant,

you know, destroyed the rim. But it wasn't like that wasn't happening. The whole second half, Anthony Simons, you know, you pulled up the clips this morning catching up on the game. And like, this guy is getting to the rim at will. And the problem is that there's no room protection

behind him. Jonas Valentunis, who is a good center. Offensive. He's an offensive. He's an offensive center. He is not a rim protector. And so the issue here for Willie Green, among many issues, you pull Valentuna's off

the floor. Then where's your rim protection? There was a play in the second half where Zion got a switch onto the perimeter and the guy drove and then they kind of like did a peel off switch where Zion went to somebody else. The ball guy kicked out.

But then Zion was under the rim in a position to alter a shot, but he's not a room protector. And it's like, what do you do here if you're New Orleans? You have one clear issue on the roster. You know, we talked earlier in the week. I put this in my article, like, do you go after a Miles Turner? Is that something that could help address your issues?

We saw him bomb out New Orleans when Indiana faced him earlier this week. I mean, somebody like that sure would help a lot, I think, considering what we're talking about here. if you're if you're if you're if you're perimeter players i don't think it's fair to expect zion to go from worst defender in basketball to you know slightly better than worst defender in basketball to average or i don't think that i don't think that's going to happen this year i think like any improvement that's happened is only because the bar is on the floor um so if you if you're gonna have guys get blown by in the perimeter you're going to have some support inside this was the utah thing for years.

So Rudy Gobert, he's, he was always erasing mistakes on the perimeter, always erasing, you know, blowbys. They would sometimes even just, you know, let them go into the paint knowing Gobert was there. Just need a role-playing rim protector. I mean, I mean, no, no, no. That's why Turner makes some sense. Like, it's like, who else you're going to go after?

Mobamba. I mean, it's unfair to expect him to handle the entire load, though, right? Like, 30 minutes per game, that's what you need. 25, 30 minutes per game. Do they have it? I mean, is Jackson Hayes? You think going to end up becoming that type of guy? He's a goner.

You think so. You're done with him. I don't think he should be in the rotation, period. They need room protection and they need some more consistent shot creation aside from, like in that back court. CJ's hurt right now, like the whole time I interviewed him, he was icing his middle finger, like, for like 10 straight minutes. Yeah, because he's not, like, what, 29%? from three. He's a killer.

He's hurt right now. I think that's really limiting his play. Well, and you see all of those like... And by the way, he's not a pure point guard either. For sure. All those important stats, right, the winning offensive rebounds, total rebounds, you know, having less than 10 turnovers in the entire game, winning steals and blocks, like, that's all the stuff that Portland did.

They got the extra possession game. And that's how you're able to beat the, you know, the more. talented team for sure is by doing all that extra stuff. So credit to Portland for getting it done. The NBA season is underway and it's a perfect time to download

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Hope, New York. In Tennessee, call redline 1-800-8-9-9-9-7-8-8-9. In Wyoming, call 1-800-2-2-400-Gabler.net. Utah, look, we don't think they're going to be the number one team of the Western Conference. But do you think we do need to start thinking about them as one of those teams that could take a spot from a team that we expected to be there, that we're going to look up at the end and they might be in the top eight

or they might be in the top 10, that they're going to be a team that's in, you know, in the play end. Because at this point, it's too good, it feels like. It's too good. Will Hardy's got those guys playing really hard and they keep on beating teams, you know, and another team.

shares the ball like crazy, has made more threes than any team in the entire NBA. I know that you brought up like, hey, do you add to this? Do you augment this to make it even better than what it's been? I mean, at what point does whatever you're, if you're running them, if you're Danny Aang, at what point do your plans change from being a total rebuild, want my lottery, pick to hold on now maybe we should maybe we should keep rocking with this because this team's pretty solid well i mean danny ains spoke on the record to chris manix

with sports illustrated that an article that published today and he was asked about you know bringing in talent in the quote aange gave was we'll see i wouldn't discount anything we have a lot of opportunities to make deals with all the picks that we have i mean it's it's it's really a non-answer. No answer. And he lies anyway. And he lies all the time anyway. He also said I've never built

teams to lose. I mean, you just trade it. Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert for a 10 first round draft fix. However, he's not wrong about the fact that they can be opportunistic, that they do have all of those picks and it does give them the flexibility to do whatever the hell

they want. So if he feels like suddenly the team is in a position to add an established player and to be in a position to, you know, make a playoff run. Well, then he might, he might do that. I just like 10 and 3 number one in the Western Conference. It's crazy. It's not. It's not sustainable.

No. It's just not. But they do, like we talked about two weeks ago, Chris, when I raised the Kevin Durant theoretical, right? Danny Age going after his long-lost superstar. He didn't get him in Boston twice. Maybe now he has the picks. They do have a foundation.

That's what's clear. That's what's clear here. Even Walker Kessler is a backup center. One of the best backup centers in basketball as a rookie. Vanderbilt, Marketing. Clarkson, like granted he's doing more than he normally does. We already know Jordan Clarkson's a really good rotation guard, spark plug, and now his playmaking, he's 30 years old.

maybe he actually has gotten better. His playmaking is better than it's ever been with the opportunity that's provided to him. So Colin Sexton, your guy, you love him off the bench. Malik Beasley, really good 3-Indie wing. It's not like they don't have talent. It speaks to what we've talked about earlier when it comes to even the bad teams have talent.

But one of the bad teams that we thought would be bad ended up being pretty good. So they have a foundation here. What do they do with it? I have a hard time seeing Danny Ames just blowing the whole thing up, like trading away guys for more picks. You know what I mean?

Like for more picks? Really? You think that's what he's going to do? I really don't know. I mean, it is only, it's still under 15 games and how much of this is sustainable.

Like, would you be stunned if Utah went on a five-game losing streak? Of course you would. No, of course, not. Of course you wouldn't, right? That's what we expected. And so I do think we could recalibrate very, very quickly on them. I mean, didn't we just talk about their upcoming schedule on Tuesday or last Friday, whatever it was? I mean, this is more of a, you know, defining stretch coming up.

A lot of road games. Yeah. What about on the other side? Cleveland's been an amazing story. They're second in the east. Atlanta's at four as a home court advantage team. Washington and Indiana are actually both in the top eight right now. I mean, I'll just go ahead and give my, like Washington and Indiana are not going to be there.

Great win for Washington last night, like unbelievably. It might say more about the, I think it says more about the opponent, unfortunately, than it does about the Wizards last night because the Mavericks. I mean, come on. That Wizards team last night, this was their starting lineup, Kevin. Anthony Gill.

Anthony Gill could walk down any street in America in his jersey, and people wouldn't know who that is. No offense to him. That's a tall guy. He must be a Wizards fan. Anthony Gill. Monty Morris

Cody Kisbert Denny Avija and Kyle Kuzma That was the starting lineup last night No Beal No Porzingis And then off the bench they brought in Ruby Hachimborah

Will Barton, Dan Gafford and Jordan Goodwin Unfamiliar with his work also and they want how how Kuzma I mean he's

Kuzma like kind of became a it's because of the L.A. thing his years there he just became more celebrity than basketball player but he's a good basketball player he's a good player and he can go off for big nights when you think of Kyle Kuzma

if you if I say Kyle Kuzma to you is the first thing that come into your mind the pink sweat with the really long sleeves? No, my mind doesn't work like that. Really? No, I don't visualize.

So it's like with Coosemey, I just think good basketball player, like he's improved. Oh, I think I think sleeves. Yeah. I think that's the image that comes in my mind, that outrageous sweater with the sleeves that like went down to the floor or whatever. I mean, I think of that.

Yeah, like I'm aware of that. I did a meme of myself during the finals with my face photo. Photoshopped onto that. It was also, by the way, spoiled Spencer Dinwiddie's game of 33. Like, Luca had a running mate last night.

He had a guy get 33 of the game and they could win. And the Mavericks have been decidedly average so far this year. We know about the usage numbers with Luca and the idea that that is not sustainable

over the course of 82 games and the playoffs to have it be so centric on one player. That being said, I think they're probably one of those teams also. And this can happen when you make even a conference finals. You have like a really successful season. Remember what happened to Atlanta last year? Just totally average-ass season.

I mean, you talked about it, you know, recently. Like, is it sustainable? Is it sustainable? What are we talking about that? After he had like 38 points or something like that and in the two games since he has definitely not been the same level, I saw Stat Mews tweeted out last night. Lucas shooting gets worse, the longer the game goes on.

This season, first quarter, 53% from the field, 35% from three. Second quarter, 53% from the field, 35% from three. Third quarter, 48% field goal,

28% from three. Then fourth quarter, 36% field goal, 17% from three. That speaks to, you know, what we're talking about earlier in the week.

And you're the question you asked, is it sustainable? He has gotten worse with the third highest usage rate and the three point error. so far this season and we're only in November and there's not the

count on other guy like last night I said you know Dinwiddie's got over 30 points right but like how often is Dinwiddie really going to go off how often it like the idea that like you have to count on like one night

it's Tim Hardaway can be the running buddy and one night it can be Christian Woods that can be the running buddy. One night it can be whoever. Dorian Finney Smith can have a good game one night. And it's like somebody else has to be like consistently the other guy that you can count on. And count on like the last night where Luca didn't have as good a night.

They did have the other guy. But I mean, that's a, that is a dismal loss. I mean, Anthony Gill and Monty Morris. as a starting back court on a team that, I mean, look, I'm not trying to crap on those guys, but I mean, for goodness sakes, you're the Maveridge. You were in the Western Conference finals last year, and I get it. It's one game, but it's kind of been a continuation this year where they've kind of been decidedly average.

And we've got a couple other teams that are like that, Kev, that both played last night, so it's interesting to play off of that. One is Philly. And Philly's trying to make their way in the absence of James Hardin. When asked about the struggles, Doc Rivers says health. Like that's what our problem is. I don't buy that. They still have enough talent.

Well, and one of the things is Maxie. Because Hardin going out has moved Maxi to a much more prominent position of being the caretaker. This is the question at the time of it, right? Like you said, they might be okay without James. We'll see with Maxie what he can handle. You're right. Yeah, I mean, their playmaking has not been what it needs.

The instant results are poor. He was shooting 52% from the floor and 47% from three through the first nine games of the season. The last three, it's been the total opposite. He was 5 for 17 last night in their loss. to the Hawks. He's now shooting 19 for 64 from the floor and six of 23 from deep over the last three games. And the poor shooting obviously coincides with the injury to Hardin, who, I mean, it made life easier for Tyrese Maxie. Now, Maxie's got to figure it out. Maxie was good last year

when James Hardin wasn't on the team and Ben Simmons wasn't on the team. And, you know, they got some real figure not to do. They still have a new roster. they're going to play that same Hawks team, I believe, this weekend. So it'll be interesting to see how they attack it and how it looks when... I like this. Do you notice this is a bunch of these games because of the way they did the schedule where the teams play the same team twice in a very short amount of time? Yeah.

I'm a fan of this because I think it does tell you a lot about these teams because it mimics a playoff series in some ways. It's like, all right, we just saw this team. It's not a one-off. We just saw them. Now, we're going to make our adjustments. And it's really the only time you get to do that until you get to the playoffs. It's like, all right, here's how they beat us.

The losing team is for sure going to make adjustments going into the next game in a way that you would not normally get to do when you're playing just random opponents, night in, night out. So I kind of like the two games against one particular team in a short amount of time. And we very well may see these two teams play each other in the playoffs, right? Yeah, I'm into it. I mean, it kind of creates like a mini-series during the year. Yeah. And so we get to see if Philly makes adjustments, if their offense looks way better organized than it did in that game against Atlanta where they're completely disorganized,

guys on wrong positions, you know, knocking the ball up the floor as quickly as they need to. at least Embed, you know, minus the turnover, at least he's scoring, you know, ever since he got back like he did last season. I mean, that's going to be encouraging for them long term. And as we hit on what the time of the hearten injury, maybe this, you know, these struggles from Axi end up being an aggregate good by the end of the year.

If he's able to grow as a playmaker and, you know, get better adjusted running the offense, maybe it ends up being a good thing. But ultimately, though, like you said, right now in the NBA, there's a lot of teams outperforming expectations. Teams are establishing themselves at the top of

their conferences. Milwaukee is 10 and 1. They have the best defense in basketball again. Cleveland 8 and 3, Boston, 8 and 3 still without Robert Williams for Boston. Atlanta's starting to figure some things out. Pure Philly right now, granted it's still early. You're only a couple of games back from these teams in the standings.

You know, the more you slide, the harder it is to climb back up out of the playing into that. guaranteed top six. So, I mean, for them, I think getting it right sooner than later is obviously of the utmost importance because of the nature of the plan. It's just, I just. And that's what I like, though.

I like the fact, like you can still get off to a slow start here and it makes it harder to get that guaranteed playoff slot. Like, you know, I like, this is just another reason why I like the plan. Like, these games matter. more than they did before. And I think with Philly, like I think last night, I think they had more turnovers than assist.

And we talk about these teams, which is what's kind of crazy. I know they got new guys on their team, but when you look over the NBA, you see, you know, and we started with Indiana, San Antonio,

Utah, these guys haven't all played together. This is not like, these aren't rosters with insane continuity. Even though I read this week, continuity is at the highest it has been in the NBA in terms of roster continuity. But I mean, these are in some cases teams that have literally just been thrown together. And yet they've got these systems and these coaches that are getting them to pop the ball around, pass up shots to get better shots on and on. And Philly, you would think especially in the absence of Hardin, that,

that would be the case, that you would become more of a team that's passing the ball around, doing it together. And that hasn't been the case. And I know I was reading Doc Rivers quotes last night after the game. And he was saying, you know, with Maxi, his inclination is to press, to go harder when he's struggling. Because he's such like this ultimate competitor instead of letting the game come to him. And I thought that there's some wisdom in that for sure. And he knows his player.

And Maxi, even listening to his quotes, like he's clearly on Doc side on this and knows that he's really been struggling. And so we're both big Maxi fans. Maxi'll figure it out. But they have not been very good thus far. And the same goes with Miami. I actually watched the end of Miami Charlotte last night. And Charlotte, another one of these teams.

Miami got away with it last night and beat them. But I thought as I'm watching it, and as we're talking about all these games, just like the Dallas, Washington, I think they're all indicative of the big picture thing that we started the pod with, which is the parody. Because you just, you've always been able to just,

if Miami's playing Charlotte, Miami can just dick around with them. And then when it's time to turn it up, turn it up and win the game. And they did. And Jimmy Butler scored eight points in a row, and then the damn game went to overtime, and they were able to get the win.

But same way with Dallas. You go to Washington, you look across, and you're not expecting Kyle Kuzma and Rui Hachamura to turn into Jordan and Pippen like they did. But the point is you're seeing this like regularly where this was always the case, as long as I've been covering the NBA. The good teams played the bad teams, and the good team can just turn it up for 12 minutes and win the game.

And they're regularly getting picked off. And that's why we're seeing some of these teams, which are a disappointment, I guess, would be the – and they'll start taking things more seriously, I think, as the year goes on. But I think there's a learning curve on this where you can't just – there's nobody now that you can just walk into the arena. and play 12 minutes of basketball and win the game. Like, really? Almost, like, who's the worst? Like, I mean, Charlotte's pretty terrible as currently constructed.

Yeah, they're pretty bad right now. And Miami was lucky. I was watching this. Miami got lucky that Dennis Smith, Jr. went out with an injury. Now, think about that. Which says all you need to know. That's all you need to know.

Like, good for, like, you're off the hook now. because DSJ was about to put you away. Jake Ileman at Sir, so he had a good podcast on the Ringer NBA show, The Answer, talking about players adapting, evolving, changing about them to Smith Jr. If he turned out, like, if he had like a career renaissance, that would be, like, unbelievable. It'll be interesting to see how he performs once La Mello Ball is back, because he's going to slide into a bench roll. You know, how does he do then?

Coming off the bench, maybe it helps him. Maybe he's even better in a six-man role. He told his agent to start talking to football teams. Yeah, it's nuts, isn't it? Football team. I mean, he does kind of look like a football player. He'd be a good football player. He's got the body for it.

I bet Dennis Fitzger. Six-two, long arms. I bet he would be awesome at football. Like a cornerback, running back, one of those. Anything. I bet he would be awesome. Safety. I mean, 6-2 is pretty big.

Some corners are like 5-10, 5-11. He's still a freaky athlete. Yeah, he is. He had one on the bench, or I mean on the baseline. Like in the fourth quarter, it was just unbelievable. And you know I love that guy in Charlotte,

the announcer. And he's like, Oh, Dennis Smith Jr. Eric Collins, by the way. Yeah. He's like, Oh, Dennis Mitchell, what a way to tie the game.

You know, it's so good. I love that guy. Love him. And Ubrey and Terry Rozier. And I mean, he just goes crazy over everything. I love it. He's got so much energy. You're a big Eric Collins fan.

Yeah. The biggest Eric Collins fan I know. Well, the team sucks. And I resent it so much that the team's not good because I love watching him. Him and Del Curry. I love it. I love it.

I think that I just like the, It's just different than the other teams. I just like the energy. Portland has a really good broadcast, too. Oh, Collaboro is the best. Yeah, they're like the broadcast itself, and then they have good stats. Yep.

They cut to their stats, you know, on screen. I don't know, it's just a good broadcast. I like it. Very good. Yeah, so one of the things about tonight, two quick things, and people are going to notice this weekend. Did you see all the city jerseys?

Everybody's going to wear them. The reason I'm bringing this up was because at Miami, like they're wearing, they were wearing those. And, I mean, do you ever watch those,

like, old serial killer movies where, like, the guy would, like, put together a letter where he's,

like, cutting letters out of a magazine. That's what that reminds you. Every time I see that. Oh, the Miami Heat one. Yeah. I think of,

like, a serial killer's, like, ransom letter or something like that. Are there too many jerseys? I mean, no. I mean,

do we need all these jerseys? Do we need all these jerseys? Do we need, these city jerseys. Wow. This is like the oldest thing you've ever said. I'm the old guy. Why do we need all these jerseys?

Whatever happened to one jersey? Just Celtic green, the green and the white, classic. No, I'm not saying that. I'm just saying like, you know, it's like you pull up 2K. I'll say this. Some of these teams should not have made city jerseys. The one I'm going to see tonight, Minnesota's, I mean, It's terrible.

It looks like an error screen or some kid just took out a crayon box. Oh, did you see their like... Sucked. Did you see their reasoning for it on Twitter? They were like, oh, it's a piece of our jerseys and it was like the color of like the tongue on the wolf. And it was like, okay, it doesn't make any sense. Grizzlies had an awesome one. Atlanta's is awesome.

Oh, yeah. Memphis one is cool. Yeah, it's cool. It's cool, but it's cool, but it isn't necessary. Totally necessary. Tell me this. How important is it for the casual fan to be able to look at the screen and be able to identify the team in the court by the color of their jerseys? Is that important at all? Does it matter? No.

No? I don't think it really matters. I mean, look. How about once people see the Detroit jersey and they see green and they think the Celtics are playing? Does that matter? I mean, not unless the other team is wearing green. I mean, it's not like they're doing this every night. No, no, it's not every night. It's a one-offs. I like the blue Dallas one. Cleveland, I think, is going to look cool with the white and gold.

The Spurs. Yeah, the Spurs. Yeah, the Aquas. I like the Spurs one, too. That one looks good, too. The aquas. But, I mean, like, there's some really good ones for sure. And I noticed it because I was watching those.

You're going to see everybody wearing them this weekend. And again, it ain't for us, Kevin. This is for selling. You better trust You even trust to believe my son My son already has the bane Like already That's what he wanted

He wanted one of the jerks. So kids like they want these You know Especially if it's like a black jersey A lot of the teams did black jerseys I like the Toronto one It's just simple Yeah

Gold and black. It looks nice Yeah Like they're cool I just think that some did a better job of maybe representing their city or, you know, their heritage than others. Some of them, it was just like they had, it feels like they just had to do it. Like the Minnesota one. They had to make one.

Yeah. And took like two seconds to decide. The Charlotte one too, right? Oh, for goodness sakes. It's a CLT on there. Everybody had the same joke yesterday. Yeah, I found it. How elusive.

Yeah. Why would they do that? did nobody in the meeting speak up? Doesn't make any sense. Guys, come on. Or the better question is, did someone speak up and then get shot down? And then get shot down. No, no, no.

And then get shot down. They're like, oh, nobody's going to think that. You pervert. It's all anybody thought of. I know. But you, I can understand how you, like, if you were in their marketing meeting, you might be kind of scared. to say something about it.

Like, uh, guys, you know. Yeah, I know. Like if you had something that looked like a dick

on your, on your jersey, right? Kind of looks like a dick. They'd be like, what? What's wrong with you? Doesn't look like a dick?

Oh, my bad. We've got a pervert in the room. All right. I don't even want to talk about the Kyrie Irving story, but I got, I got to admit, funny headlines abounded when everybody was racing to report that Adam Silver has come to the determination that Carrie Irving is not anti-Semitic. Like, oh, thanks. That's it to me. He wanted to just go and make sure. He's like, Kyrie, are you anti-Semitic? No, no, Adam, I'm not. All right. I believe you. I looked into his eyes.

And I thought, yes, I know he promoted a... But we got more news. Dangerous documentary. We got more news. On that? Yeah, Joe Sy tweeted, Clara and I met with Kyrie and his family yesterday. We spent quality time to understand each other,

and it's clear to me that Kyrie does not have any beliefs of hate towards Jewish people or any group. Adrian Ward Janowski reported, Suspended Guard, Kari Irving has met with the Brooklyn Nets, NBA, and NBPA on several occasions. in recent days and the Union looks forward very soon to a resolution of all matters satisfactory to all parties.

The MBPA maintains to its membership that Kyrie's rights and the rights of all future players have been protected at every turn. In memo, the MBPA reiterates that two players that Irving and Union unequivocally condemn anti-Semitism and all other forms of hate. Irving was submitted and then, okay. So, but Joe Sy actually tweeted, though. I will say it did play out exactly like. you thought it would.

You said this weeks ago where it's like he wants to be a martyr and the longer it went on, he did. Because players did not come out. As far as I know, no player came out condemning him or saying this is wrong. But then you saw yesterday, Jalen Brown,

you know, bag on Nike, you saw LeBron James going out of his way to tweet about it. And it's like, What were the penalties for Kyrie Irving were what brought guys out of the woodwork to speak on the matter. Not the original problem, as it were, which he brought upon himself for sure. But look, I think that they did, they did him, I think they did turn him into a murder.

you called that and they did. I mean, because they just went so overboard. I think most people were like, oh, come on. Like, I mean, at some point, we've got to allow people to apologize for mistakes. It seems like that's what they're doing here. I mean, yeah, I know, I know. There's nobody, there's nobody that's perfect. No.

There's no perfect person. And people are going to make mistakes. Sometimes they're going to be, and there are always going to be people out there that say, that's an unforgivable mistake. No way. You should not be allowed to do that. You should be canceled forever or whatever the case may be. But when we do have to take people at face value. If they come out and they say, look, I regret what I've done and I'm really sorry for it.

And this is not representative of what I believe. I mean, I don't know what else you can do. And then it felt like when they listed the six things that he was going to, going to have to do, and then they were going to have to review him to decide if he's anti-Semitic. It just felt like, like, oh, come on. Like, what are we doing here? Like, I felt like that that was not about ensuring that Kyrie Irving can be representative of the Brooklyn Nets or the NBA, but rather just give him so much stuff that he just says

to hell with it, and then he quits. And he doesn't, you know, he's. just leaves. And then that problem is gone off your hands. Because no matter what, you're still going to be stressed out every time the guy's in front of a microphone. It's just the way it is. It's always something. It'll be whatever the next thing is. It'll be the next thing. But in this particular instance, you know, it ended up with players defending him, which is wild. I mean, that's how that's how poorly it was all handled. From the very beginning, it was handled terribly.

And they just kept trying to make up for it. They kept trying to make up for it because nobody would say he was wrong. Nobody would say they would just say anti-Semitism is bad. That's what the NBAPA said. That's what the NEPA said. That's what Joe Sey said. That's what Adam Silver said. Gee, thanks, guys.

Anti-Semitism is bad. It's amazing how quick. clearly you can go from saying he's not fit to represent the Brooklyn Nets to Joe Sye the owner tweeting out you know he's not with him it is he's cool you know I mean all he had to do was return one of his text according to Ramona Shelburne yeah I mean Joe Sye also followed up with a tweet saying the Nets and Kyrie together with the NBA and NBPA are working constructively toward a process of forgiveness healing and education so it seems like this could be beating

resolution pretty soon. Maybe he'll be back after those five games. I think that's probably true. Yeah. I think that's probably true. Real quick before we get out of here, new podcast that you started with Jay Kyle Mann, which is going to be about the NBA draft. The Ringers NBA Draft Show.

Go follow it. Subscribe. And is this going to be weekly? Weekly, yes, every Wednesday. All right. So once a week, there's been so much focus on these guys that are not playing collegiate basketball. Victor Wimbayama, Scoot Henderson.

The Thompson twins, who you like. Amen and Azur Thompson. And there are others, you know, that are playing in either OTE or the G League or wherever it may be. But there's always college basketball players that we are going to pay attention to. I have not set down. I know there's the aircraft carrier games that are going to be going on tonight and this weekend. Michigan State and Zagas tonight. And there's other games that are going to be going to be going.

on over the course of the next week that are big. Just give me somebody to keep a lookout for. Maybe somebody that's like not super on the radar right now, but that you think could be one of those risers that by the time we get to, you know, next March, April, we're talking about a guy that, you know, teams are going to be after in the NBA draft. So on Wednesday's show on the first episode, we did five players to watch. So listen to that podcast of those five guys. One guy we didn't talk about was G.G. Jackson. He's a 6-foot-9

forward, South Carolina. He doesn't turn 18 years old until December because he reclassified. He was the top prospect in 2023, reclassified to 2022 to enter this year's draft class due to his birthday. But, I mean, this guy in his debut, you can see like all the good, all that he needs to work. work on. It's kind of like right now, a mid-ish first-round draft pick. Hustle, attitude, enthusiasm, crashing the boards. He's a shop locker. He hustles. He can shoot threes. He can post up. He can shoot up the dribble. He, he's like sets the tone. He loves to rebound, crash the boards, but there's some turnovers, some sloppiness. That's the type of stuff that he's going to have to work through over the course of the season.

But ultimately, though, like, Gigi Jackson is one of my favorite prospects in the draft with all those skills together. And I like the stuff that he needs to work on, I think he can improve on that over the course of time. Will he as a college freshman at 17 years old right now? I mean, we'll see. That's what I'm looking forward to monitoring. But I could easily see him going from a, you know, a guy who wasn't expected to be in

this draft class or somebody who's one of the top prospects. He's at South Carolina? Yeah. Do you know if he's from South Carolina? Is he from there? The reason I ask is, South Carolina is that a run? It's where John Moran's from. That's where Zion Williamson is from.

He is from South Carolina, yeah. Back in the day, that's where Kevin Garnett was from. Like, South Carolina, Germain O'Neill was from South Carolina. There was Chris Middleton, South Carolina kid. With a high school there, it says he grew up in Columbia, South Carolina. For a small state, they have had some super, Star basketball players, right? Superstar.

Maybe he's the next one. Who knows? Who knows? Got a good name. G.G. Jackson. Yeah, you know, I used to love that South Carolina coach that was there for so long. Frank Martin. I loved him.

I love his postgame press conferences. I loved all that stuff. I don't even know who he's gone, right? They got rid of Frank Martin. So I don't even know who's at South Carolina anymore. I just pulled up who's their coach now. Oh, John Morant also. That's what I said.

Marine and Zion. I kind of missed you saying, Morant, yeah, yeah. Yeah, Morant and Zion. They were on the AAU team together. I just looked up Alex English, Raymond Felton, Germain O'Neill. Yeah, man. Chris Middleton. Yeah.

Clifford Ray. Some real ones. Ramone Sessions, Kwame, Brown. Trevor Booker Call me Brown, huh? Torrey Craig, Nick Claxton. Their coach now is Lamont Paris. Cendarius Thornwell.

Loved him. John Butler, NBA rookie. I like John Butler. Florida State. Lamont Paris is the new coach at South Carolina, so he's the one that's got that kid. He was the coach at Chattanooga for the last five years. He was So-Con coach of the year last year.

They had a new coach there. All right, I'm going to keep a lookout for South Carolina. Yeah, Gigi Jackson. Yeah, I like that one. All right. And is that show going to be on what day every week? Wednesdays? Wednesdays, yes.

All right, Wednesdays every week. So make sure you go subscribe to Kevin of Kyle's new podcast. The Ringers NBA Draft Show. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez. As always, Kevin, I will talk to you next week. Looking forward to it.