The Mismatch - Mitchell’s '2K' Motivation, Thompson Twins Thriving, Diverse Offenses, and Wemby Struggles

Episode Date: November 7, 2025

Verno and Jacoby return to discuss the latest injury update on LeBron James before diving right into their loves and loathes from this past week. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch! (00:37) LeBron James injury update (05:44) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 1 loves of the week (22:45) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 1 loathes of the week (32:17) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 2 loves of the week (39:12) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 2 loathes of the week (43:54) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 3 loves of the week (53:56) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 3 loathes of the week (58:02) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 4 loves of the week (01:07:29) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 4 loathes of the week (01:13:00) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 5 loves of the week (01:20:17) Verno's and Jacoby’s no. 5 loathes of the week The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Leave us a message on our Mismatch voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez and Stefan Anderson Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me as he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Berno, we had a ton of games on Wednesday night. Only one game in the association this evening. We will not be giving live updates on the Suns Clippers match. Oh, and I know that our listenership is going to be super disappointed about that. We do have some news to get to.

The first big news is LeBron James. Tell me what I need to know. He's a basketball player. who's now playing basketball apparently and he's going to be re-evalued in one to two weeks from his sciatica thing and they say that he's, you know, looking at doing basketball activities,

which is always something I loved here. I was more specifically. Like what a dribbling? I don't know. And five on five. And he's not going on their road trip with an eye on him returning after that. But you know,

seven and two Lakers are looking pretty good without him. The Lakers have had a great thing going. And so now, you know, inevitably we're going to get the drama, right? if he comes back and Austin Reeves is not what he does. Well, Luke has been amazing. Reeves has been amazing. The team's been popping the ball around.

They got that monster game out of DeAndre 8th earlier this week. Like the vibes with the Lakers have been unbelievable so far this year. Something that I talked about earlier in the week on this very show. And I was like, man, they just got good vibes. They got, you know, when you have these games where a Nick Smith Jr. comes in and is drop of 25. They had six guys, score 25 points within like

a week's time. Crazy stuff. Two games, I want to say. I think the first time that were happening in the league or something. Wild. And so how much can LeBron James help at this point with what's gone on so far? I mean, never a question

that we thought we would be talking about, but it is kind of crazy how good they have played thus far and how many guys. have been playing unbelievable basketball and how good the vibes have been that now you are inserting something that is, he's a ball dominant player, right? And so for sure things will adjust. And where does he slip in in the pecking order of the way things go?

And is that best for the team? Because what they've had going thus far, we will never know how sustainable it is, but him coming back into the fold does add a different wrinkle into whatever they're going to be doing. You're listening to The Mismatch, presented by Fandual. Fandul now displays your bets directly on your phone's lock screen. And with the latest updates, the live events, and player pages, it's never been easier to be part of the game. And Missouri, get excited because Fandle's coming your way, December 1st. Download the Fandualsports app now and play your game. Remember, you must be 21 and over and present in select states or 18 and over and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming.

Gambling problem, call 1,800 gambler or visit RG-Halt.com. Call 888-78-9-77777 or visit ccg.org slash chat in Connecticut. This is coming back to Earth, and, you know, we don't have to spend too much time with the Lakers and LeBron because Lord knows there's plenty of outlets doing that. But what's really done, everyone wants to talk about Austin Reeves and Luca. I'm just really watching their games being like, Marcus Smart is contributing left and right. I mean, almost lost the game for him.

And then we got La Ravia. He's doing stuff. Aidan looks bad. I had very low expectations for Aiden. And I think that he will come back to Earth. But he has proven to be a capable piece in the center form. It's interesting. You want a moment of honesty?

Steve from Chris Verde. Always. I watched him the other night, and I was like, I'd take them back. Marcus and Laramia? Of course. I know.

That was the last year's trade deadline. Of course. Of course you would. Could use them. Of course. I mean, I haven't seen Marcus Smart play like this years. Well,

we certainly didn't hear. Yeah. But they have been fantastic thus far. The Lakers have truly been a very good story. I went to a basketball game last night. I went to the Houston Rockets versus the Memphis Grizzlies. Not a game that I was expecting the home team to win, given that they were, A, reeling,

B, 9.5 point underdogs, and C, playing against the team that they are clearly not nearly as good as. And seeing that Rockets team up close and personal was certainly very revealing. to me to watch them and how they conduct themselves. There's a lot of, you know, we can space out the floor. We can give it to a guy that can win his individual matchup. And if you are, and if he is requiring extra attention, he then could dish off someone else. And this chemistry that Shengoon and Amen Thompson have is just absolutely off the charts. I mean, you see where they get the ball to Shengune.

kind of in that high post operating area. And then next thing you know, Amman Thompson's in the dunker spot and he could just finish anything. That's my first love. We're doing loves and lows today is Shengoon's passing. I think that he always sort of jumped off the page because he would have these highlight passes,

he sort of like behind the back key, how could you see him cutting thing? But without Bamblite, they're using him in that Draymond role, the short roll, right in the middle of the floor, you know, 15 feet from the basket with options all over the place. And whether it's him drawing a second and Thompson being wide open for some weird Aleoup or layup thing or Eason or, you know, they really don't.

And they've got Kevin Durant there who's got his own gravity and like sort of magnetism and attention that he's getting from the defense. And Shengun, he can score on pretty much anybody. He's either going to be better or bigger than anybody you put in front of him. And those highlight passes are fun, but like seven assists, nine, He's averaging over seven assists and a lot of it is just sort of like manipulating

the defense and putting pressure on them to make a decision with him as the sort of hub of the wheel with options left and right. And it is going to be interesting if that stalls out against the best teams in fourth quarters. When we think about them at the highest level, right? The highest level,

right? Will the lack of point guard have a ceiling? Thus far, it has not been so because they have been shooting threes at an unbelievable clip. Going into last night, they were shooting 45% as a team from three. Have you seen Tari Isson? Right. And they also.

And then they also retrieved their misses. And one of the things that I've thought about quite a bit, not only do they have outstanding rebounders and size, and Stephen Adams has been a great rebounder for every team, It is also that idea that we talked about with Kurt Goldsbury saying there are more threes rebounded than twos. At least that was the truth last year for the first time ever in a season. There was more rebounds coming from three-point shots than two-point shots.

Well, imagine if my whole team is six foot nine, right? Those long rebounds when I've got athletes and I've got that size, like a lot of times, like the Stephen Adams stuff, generally those rebounds and the Shengood stuff are going to be around the basket. They rebound at every quarter of the, every quadrant of the court. They're able to get the ball. And so outstanding offensive rebounding. And again, you don't even have to shoot as high a percentage if you get more possessions. And that's been the trick so far.

And that's why they've been the number one offensive rated team in the NBA. And they shoot the second least three point attempts a game. I was pretty shocked by that. When you have an offense with that kind of firepower scoring that many points, and in today's NBA, I think that there was a little bit of an overreaction last year to the quantity of three-point shots that were going up because some of the best teams last year in this year,

the highest scoring teams don't take all that many threes. I think they're taking 30 a game or something. I'll take a look right on. Yeah, they're shooting like 30 a game. Right. Well, and in fact, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and get into, since we're doing loves and lows, I'm going to get into my first love since you did Shengun's passing.

I'm going to do how teams are scoring that so far this season, when you look up and down the list of NBA offensive efficiency so far this year, you are going to find a, you're going to find the rockets, you're going to find the nuggets, you're going to find the Sixers, you're going to find the Nicks, you're going to find the Hornets, the Lakers. there's a bunch of these teams that are up there at the top. And then I went and look. So when you go to like any of the shot quality sites, etc.,

what you are going to find is one of the markers is a rim and three rate. Right. So and this is one of the things we talked about where basketball became lay it up or tray it up. Like this is whatever, everybody was trying to get. to the rim, protect the rim, and everybody was trying to get corner threes and threes, right? And if you would go and you would look at the shot charts that our buddy Kurt Goldsbury would put out, it's like all these dots all the way around the arc, and then a bunch of dots in the paint, and that's what it was, right? And so it was lay it up or tray it up. And so one of the ways

they chronicle this is rim and three rate. What percentage of my shots are at the rim from the three point line if I'm explaining this as easily as it can be, right? Well, go look. Go look at rim and three rate. And what you're going to find is that Houston and Denver and the Lakers, these teams, they're all like 27, 28, 29th. They're all at the bottom of the league. It's crazy. In terms of rim and three rate. So how is that? Right. This was the way your most efficient offense. right? This is the way basketball has been going. But one of the things that Adam Silver has talked about when he has attempted to be patient about it is saying, look, these things cycle through. These things change.

Well, at least through the first 10% of the season, it has proven that these things do change, right? So if everybody is laying it up or trailing it up, then everybody's defense is then going to start being built to guard the basket and the three point line. Now you're going to have to find a new way. So now we're going to have to find a new way that we're going to score. And in fact, also not high on rim and three rate last year was last year's unbelievable NBA champion, the Oklahoma City Thunder. They were like kind of middle in the pack.

Right. And so now this year, though, but you have to be a lot of the NBA champion. But you have like so far, and again, we'll see if this hold. You do have in many cases an inverse, which is the teams with these very low rim and three rates are the ones that are having the best offensive years thus far. And these teams that are able to probe within the three point line, but maybe not get all the way to the rim. and so just keep an eye on it but one of the things that I the reason I say am I'm loving this is because the more teams that play different ways the better

and we had kind of gotten very copycat where everybody was kind of doing the same thing right go get the paint touch kick out rotate shoot a three come down on a fast break shoot at three get a two for one shoot the three like you know what I mean or get all the way to the basket. But the good shots were rim shots and three-pointers. Those are the best shots you can get in basketball.

Then everybody said, we're not going to let you make a bunch of shots at the rim, and we're not going to let you take a bunch of uncontested threes. Therefore, you're going to have to make a way within this other range. And so far, the best teams in the league, that's exactly what they are doing. And I love it. I remember it was Rick Carly.

all said that the post-up was the worst offensive possession in basketball. And I think I've seen more post-ups so far this year that I certainly saw last year. Right. And that's not an accident. And the Bulls are one of the biggest stories of the beginning of the season. You look at their distance of the percentage of their shots that come at the rim, which is basically like zero to three feet. They're 36% of their shots come basically at the rim.

And second on that list is the spurs who are 31. Wow. It's wild. And it's one of those things where it's kind of like, Maybe we're overthinking this. Like if you shoot near the basket, you're more likely to make the basket. Like you are,

you are, but what is, what's been fascinating is that like, they're kind of getting to those mid-range floaters, right? You're seeing a lot of guys to get to the elbow. When you think, when I tell you. You're not getting tons of dunks.

No, no, what is the Shea Gilges Alexander shot? If I said, what is the Gilges Alexander shot? A step back midi. Right. What is the Jalen Brunson shot? What is the, you go on and on and on.

It's a foul shot. Jalen Brunson shot is a foul shot. I mean, you can think about so many of the good players right now. Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant, one of the best scores of all time, if not the best score of all time. It's constantly working in the mid-range. And so I think what's interesting is that these teams that are super offensively potent, That has not necessarily been the, that hasn't been the method in which that has produced

the best offensive NBA teams. And at least thus far this year, when you're looking and you're seeing Denver and Houston and the Lakers, teams that have been obscenely, offensively potent metrically this year, when they're 27, 28, and 29 in rim and three rates, that tells you basketball is being played differently in some quarters. Yes. And there was legit concern last year. And after the South has been the championship and then Missoula was just like,

we're going to fire up threes. There was sort of an idea that that was going to be the next era, we'll call it, the next window of two or three years of offensive basketball. It's already zagged and there's already been a backlash. And whether that's defense is adjusting or not just not having rosters that, like, shoot the lights out. You know what I mean? Like a lot of these teams don't have.

have like a bunch of thumpers from three that provide that kind of spacing. Well, and the other thing is like you said, two years ago, Boston shooting, it would not be rare at all to see them have 50 attempts. And you just told me the best offensive team in the NBA thus far this year is shooting, what, 30? Did you say 30? Something like that. I mean, it's 20 less, bro. Yeah. not like marginally less, way less.

But then they're, but then when, I mean, honestly, 42% of the shots they miss, they get the ball back anyway. So what does it matter? Yeah, good point. Yeah, they shoot 30, exactly 30 on the dot, the rockets. Unbelievable. And they are, but they, the rockets are going to come back to Earth offensively. Like some of the, you know, so. It's unsustainable to shoot 45% is a 10%.

Yeah. Oh, Kogi's true over like 50, 60%. And like Atari Easton. It's just like, these guys are just like, you know, really, really. It felt like Reed Shepherd

was their only sort of like threat from three. Oh, no. They all are. Now everybody is. Yeah. And they look good. Remember you mentioned the vibes

of the Lakers and how they're good and they're happy and it feels like the Memphis vibes are a little down. Just throwing that out there. Oh, my God. It feels like they're a little down.

Feels like a little down. Maybe a little down. down, Verno. Feel down. You should have seen at the beginning of the game, it's like 14 to 5 or whatever it was. They were down 9. I mean, it felt like,

it felt like a funeral. I mean, it's just, it was so bad. It was so bad. Like, it's just, and again, one of the things I always say is, oh, look, there's 73 games left, right? You're always a half or a game away

from being happy again. from things turning around. Like if they beat Dallas tomorrow night, people will be like, oh, okay, everything's going to be okay, right? They got back on track, you know. I'd be more concerned about losing to Dallas. Well, right. Oh, and then that would be a disaster.

Yeah. Well, because that Sunday... This is like the bad vibes championship against... It's a grudge match. It'll be in the octagon. No, I mean, the vibes are terrible. It's been a horrendous week, a horrendous week. And so hopefully the horrendous week is out of the way early in the season.

Do we know anything more? Do we know anything more? I will say Morant was the, I mean, I know, look, the entire NBA echo chamber is about Morant. And like, look, we've been through this 100 million times when you're in Memphis, right? Jod does something goofy. Like, there's even a chart like that goes around amongst Memphis fans. and it's like, John does something minor. Everybody freaks out.

John's going to be traded. Teams going to be relocated. Yep. Back to the beginning. And then there's a two seat. Right. It's just a circle, right? So, I mean, we've been through it many, many times.

It's certainly very equipped to deal with drama in this town. That being said, last night was odd because. they lost the game, the vibes feel terrible, everything feels disjointed, Jaron Jackson Jr. takes one shot in the first half of the game. It's like, what is, what planet is this? And then after the game, every single one of them said the exact most,

like, teamwork, professional, we're going to put our heads down, get to work, get through this. I need to be better. I need to be, this falls on me. It starts with me. Like, this is what Morant was saying last night. Interestingly enough, got absolutely no media attention, right? Like, it's not going to get any media attention when the guy stands up, right?

It's not nearly as fun as they got to get rid of him. He's got to get out of Memphis. The finger pointing. He needs to go to the Miami Heat. They need to relocate the team. Like, that's not as fun. But he did. He stood there with reporters last night and was like, I need to be better.

This starts with me. This falls on me. And I will be. And again, no, it's all, it's all words, right? Actions matter much more than words. But he did, and Jackson and everybody else that talked, said everything right that you would want to hear for a team that's lost four in a row and looks like absolutely. hell. And they're supposed to get Zach Edy back next week. And I think that they kind of know at least a little helps on the way because, you know, they lost four guys going into the season

that they thought were going to be players for them. Ty Jerome, Scottie Pippet Jr., Brandon Clark, and Zach Ead. That's four of the top eight guys that you would be playing. And it's hard to lose four of eight of your top guys. And so at least one of them should theoretically be back in the fold next week. He's like practiced with the team twice. He's gone through walkthroughs. He may very well play for the G League team over the weekend. But, you know, then that's one more guy, at least that goes into the starting lineup that might help things. And so, I mean, they sound like they think they can turn things around. But if you watch them play, it's like, God, this is vibeless and everybody

looks sad and miserable. Yeah. The Rockets did not feel challenged at all. No, they weren't challenged at all. They weren't challenged. And they are fantastic. Yes. So when you get a bad

team who's struggling and the vibes are bad playing against a team like that, it's a bad combo, brother. I love watching the Rockets. I absolutely love it. If you watch like the Bucers something. It's like, you kind of know what's going to happen on every possession. Like, Yonaz's going to put his head down and spray out to a shooter.

You know, but like the Rockets have so many weird toys to play with. If it's such different games, like Sangoon and Durant and Thompson and Easton. It's just like, I love, I love, I love, love the Rockets. All right, what's your first loathe? Oh, I'm going back and forth. I like that. I like that. Yeah, you said you wanted to do it that way. Okay. We usually don't listen to me. So I'm a little taking it back. So I put this on the rundown before our current colleague and my former Grantland

brethren Danny Chow put up a post on the ringer.com about how the last two games in particular defenses have switched up their Wemby coverage. And I think this got a lot of attention last night. You couldn't wait to hate on Wembe. You know. If I could go negative on Wembe, I will. Because Luceman, Y'all. He's had a couple tough points recently. And 414 against the Sons made one jump shot.

He didn't have a bucket until the end of the second quarter. And he had four points in the fourth. All right. I'm going to tell you something. And this relates back to what we were just talking about, right? I make no excuses for anybody. People have to perform. People have to be great, right?

But when I told you that Memphis, most of these people that comment on Memphis have, literally zero percent chance of naming their starting lineup. None. None. None of them. They've never watched the team and then they comment on it, right? When John Morant and Jared Jackson Jr.

have to play against two and three and four defenders because nobody gives a shit about anybody else on the court, it's a very difficult way to operate. And when he's learning that. And nobody cares about Jalen Wells. and nobody cares about Catavia's Caldwell Pope and nobody cares about Joclandell and for good reason because they haven't made you

and this is now what Wembe is going to learn go ahead if we lose to Champany we lose to Champany but this guy's not killing us tonight and that's what it is when you are a star

and you are the guy that gets the attention it makes your life hell, but your teammates have to be awesome. Like they've got to make the defense pay. End of story. And for a long time now, and especially without Harper now, well, I think Harper and Fox, when there's no Harper and there's no Fox there. They're all going to make them do it.

They're just going to sell out on Wemby and say, if we lose to the others, we lose to the others. And, you know, you saw a lot of, it was Royce Young, a lot of that in the Phoenix game who was on. I mean, they put smart on him a little bit. and they had, you know, like, La Ravia kind of bothering it. They could take a little guy and put him out there in the perimeter and then have your big, just be right there to help.

If he catches it with his back to the basket, double. And he still sort of hasn't figured out how to really take advantage of him being doubled. Because with his height and intelligence, I do not. Much like Danny put in his article, I think that this is a blip on the Wemby radar. This is not, this is not like the antidote to the 7 foot 5. freak. You know what I mean? It's a blip on the radar. Absolutely. There's also going to be inevitably

within the next week the team that decides they're not going to double and he's going to be like, okay. And he's going to have like 40 and 20. Yeah, we saw some of those games early in the season. We saw some of those games early in the season. And he's still not taking tons of jump shots or threes like he was last year.

It's just he's just having more trouble getting to his comfortable places and getting easy baskets. You see this every single year in the playoffs, every year. It's part of the maturation of any, where we will say, what's wrong with Anthony Edwards? What's wrong with this guy?

What's wrong with that? And it's like, what's wrong with him is that every time he picks his head up, he sees two defenders. Every time. Yeah. That's what's wrong with them. That's what's wrong with them, right?

And the great ones are the ones that figure out how to make you pay for that. And defenses have a full season of data of what you're trying to do. Right. They know what you want to do. They know where you're comfortable. They know what you're trying to do. And they're not going to allow you.

And I think early in the season, we're starting to see a little bit of that with Wimby. But I think that Fox will help. And I think Harper will help. And I think that just sort of him, him looking at this tape and talking to coaches. And something tells me that Wimby's going to be just fine. Okay. My first loat is Thursday night, the night that we are doing this podcast. And it's not, look, I'm glad that there are so many games that are nationally available now.

I resent that I have to subscribe to literally everything of the world to watch all of them. But I'm thankful for that. I just, this is when I know I'm getting old Jacoby, is I miss over and over again. I find myself missing things the way they used to be. Right. And that would be a bit, forget cable. Forget the cable. Forget the cable.

Yeah, yeah. Right. Forget that because that's an obvious one. I'm talking about, like, Thursday night, that's basketball. That's the NBA on TNT. And that's what's going on. There's going to be a double header and who's playing in that game. And now we got this one game that's going on tonight.

And there's an NFL game going on. And then the same way that, like, because I've been doing things the same way for so many years that I don't like it changing. Like I still I still to this day especially living in the South 230 is the CBS SEC game

and it's not anymore like you turn it on it's freaking like Iowa Northwestern or some horrible Big Ten game and it's like poor Brad Nestler and Gary Daniels and having to call that and it's like no this is supposed to be Bama Georgia

that's what's supposed to be on at 2.30 on CBS on Saturday. And NBA basketball is supposed to be a double header with inside the NBA on Thursday night. And that's like the TNT. That's the team that got center stage on TNT. And then there's going to be a late West Coast game. And so I guess just because when we're going through,

are we going to record on Thursday night or we're going to record on Friday morning? The idea that we would just go, well, There's only one stupid game on Thursday night. And honestly, it's a total throwaway, Sun's Clippers. Like, who cares? A lot of it is the Cup games on Friday because they have the Cup games on Friday now. So next week, there's only three games on Thursday night.

None of them are interesting. And we'll be recording again on Thursday night. But now, and I don't, because all of my things that I've been used to my whole life, they're all gone, right? There's not the 230 CBS SEC game. There's not Thursday night NBA. There's frigging two Monday night football games. There's football every night.

Like, I just, I don't, I don't like it. I don't want to. Don't start with the USC is in the Big Ten or something. Right. Transfer portal. Oh, the worst. Guys are playing in five different college teams and three years. What is happening?

I just want things back the way they were. Like the other night, there was the, who was it? It was Oregon. Then, no, not Oregon. It was Florida. And Arizona. I think, maybe Florida, Arizona, somebody like that. But anyway, I was like,

there was a big college basketball game, right? Florida defending national champions. So I'm like, all right, where's that Florida Arizona game on? You want to take a stab at that one? No. It was on TNT. Oh, that's right.

Jalen was involved, I think. With Brian Anderson, who I love, who's the NBA play-by-play guy. who just called the playoff in baseball. I was like, what? What is going on? What do you mean? It's like, okay.

Well, Thursday is the thing about the T&T presentation was, even if the games were blowouts, even if the games weren't as good or somebody was sitting or whatever, you still had the floor being raised by the studio group. You know what I mean? You're still going to have a good time sitting down on your couch and watching NBA basketball. I'm just used to it.

I'm just used to it. I have trouble because if I want to go from my NBA app to the Peacock app and then to the Gotham Sports app to keep my eye on, you know, five games at a time, it takes so long to close one app and open another app and wait for it to open and click the button four times that it's just, you can't just like zoom between games the way you could with League Pass back in the day when you could just put the guide function on and they were all right next to each other. Also, my shit is like three minutes behind. And I bought the most expensive internet I could possibly find. And I see this shit. I will be on Twitter and know the outcome of things. And I'll be like, that hasn't even happened yet. Like, how are these people seeing this stuff so far before me?

It's also hard with the Fandul app too, because the Fandall app is before. for the games. So sometimes, sometimes if you're clicking between those, you'll be like, wait a second, what happened now? They're only down by three now, and then you watch the game,

like, oh, that's what happened, four point fly. All right. All right, let's go positive. Yeah, loves. The pistons have started well, and Kate is getting all the glory. But for me,

it's a, it's a Jalen Dern story. You know, in their last game, he had 22 and 22. And he just looks, I didn't pick him as a leap guy. You know what I mean? Like I didn't see that coming.

But with him and beefs, too down there, they don't play together that much. But like, they're so strong and so imposing. And what Duren has done is just sort of like built this chemistry with Cade. They spent a lot of time together.

After the game, Cade literally said this. He goes, Jalen Duren is going to be the best big in the league. And I was like, all right, like this is, that's his teammate or whatever. But there's some pretty good bigs in the league, and I don't have to name them for you.

But I just, I love him in Cade, and he had 33 against the Mavs a couple games ago. We all know the Mavs had their problems, but they've got size, right? He had 33 against them. He was 13 for 16 from the floor. He's also very unique.

It's weird. We went through this whole phase where everybody wanted these screen and roll rim runners that can finish around. the rim. But then it was like, now we want a guy that can stretch the floor. Everyone has to shoot. He doesn't shoot grease. Or we want a big ogre that just stands in front of the basket and plays drop coverage. He's a very unique big. It's kind of like a Ben Wallace-y type throwback. You know what I mean? Obviously, he's a much better offensive player than Wallace

and not as good of a defender. But in terms of like just he's not huge. He's not. Like I just saw him in person. What's crazy? He's Cunningham. It's damn near the same size as him. When you see them standing next to each other, you're like, Jesus. Turn's a little bit stronger. No, no, he is, but I'm saying Cunningham is a house now, and he's a legit, like, 6-8. And Duren is much more like 6-8 than he is 6-10.

He doesn't have a ton of touch either. No, no, he's kind of a throwback. Like that rim runner, like he tags. He also can make plays out of that. that short role, right, where he finds the shooter out. So I love him. That's a Memphis guy, too, by the way. Yeah, I know.

He covered him here when he was playing at Memphis. He's young. He's still figuring it out. And I think that, you know, with him and Beefstue and Cade, they've got, they, they, they hold their opponents to the lowest field goal percentage in the league. I wouldn't have guessed that. That was the ripped away season here. Imagine if they would have had Dern and Wiseman. Imagine if that was your front line in college. Jesus.

I know. Those are the COVID year. Yeah, that's a tough one. It's great. I'm loving one of seeing from Jay and Dernard. Oh, he's awesome. And you don't talk about a team with awesome vibes? That team.

Great time. Kay just said he's going to be the best big in the league. Top 20, maybe, but best in the league? All right. Hey, man. They pump each other. up. Well, I think they spent a lot of time together.

They worked out this summer together, and you can really see it. Like, there's a real chemistry between those two. And that team, like you said, it seems like they're having a good time winning basketball games. All right. I'm going to go with my next love. I'm going to do I'll do Will Richard making the most of his

chance. So the other night, and this actually ties into one of your loath, so this will be good, right? Yeah. The other night, there's a Warriors game, and there's no Steph Curry, and there's no Jimmy Butler and there's no Draymond.

They're playing the Kings. There's no sub bonus. Yeah. And this is one of my loads. There's no sub bonus. I think they're missing to Rosen too or Levine. There's no sub bonus. There's no Levine. And so the Kings ended up winning the game 121 to 116. But this is the reason I'm bringing this up

is because every once or a while you have one of these. And though this rookie class has been loaded and has gotten all kinds of accolades, Already when you look up and down like those player lists, whether it is VJ Edgecombe or Ced or Cedric Coward or Cooper Flag or on it on it on it. Oh, yeah. Con Cognipple.

There's something that a rookie did virtually every night so far this year. Will Richard, who was a low second round draft pick. What did we get picked like 42nd or something? 56. And Memphis traded him. For Jemmaid Meshack from Tennessee. who's going to be playing for the Memphis Hustle and like a second round pick and something else. Anyway, this Will Richard kid, you know, you look around and it's like, stay ready so you don't have to get ready, right?

That's what they always say. And it's like, hey kid, you're in the starting lineup. He goes out there. Kerr plays him 34 minutes. The guy gets him 37 and 3. So they lost the game. But you get to start in your first NBA game. and I got it.

It's against the Kings. But can you imagine, like you dream your whole life, right? Like this kid was just playing at Florida last year on that national championship team. And not nearly the highly, most highly regarded of the players, even though he did hit a bunch of threes

in the title game against Houston. But he was a guy that got drafted in the 50s in the NBA draft. And then Steve Kerr, while all these guys are out, says, hey, you're starting tonight. And you go out and drop. You're going to be in Steph's spot.

You drop 30? The first chance you get to start? Shout out to you, Will Richard. I know they lost the game 121 to 116, but I love these kind of stories. A kid that gets drafted in the second round were less than 10 games into the season. The coach says go start. And you go and get 30 points in your first NBA start. 99% of the NBA players that have ever played will never score 30 in a game, ever.

Hmm. I think that's fair to say, sure. Yes. Probably higher than a lower than 99, but yeah, I'm not going to argue. It's close. It's close. Never scored 30. He scored 30 the first time he ever played.

That is awesome. I don't know what it's going to happen with his career. I don't know what's going to happen with him. But, dude, can you imagine? that you got the call to get to go play and you went out and dropped 30 the first time you ever played in the NBA as a starter for a franchise like that. That is awesome, man. Shout out to you, Will Richard. Yeah, shout out to Will Richard.

But that was one of my lows is just that game. I mean, to have. Yeah. Because it did, listen, I don't know. I don't know if they could play or not. But it felt like it was like Draymond's rib. He's got a bruised rib or something. And then it's Jimmy Butler's lower back.

step has a legit illness he's actually missing the cup game tomorrow i think it's against the nuggets so he's actually sick but and then it's a subonis i think had a rib and it's just like literally like the five biggest stars that we're supposed to take the floor none of them were on the floor and then russell westbrook broke a record and said he was the greatest rebounding his rebounding guard of all time i respect giving yourself your own flowers i love it but he said humbly he said he goes humbly i'm the greatest that's the opposite of humble it's like when someone says no disrespect but you're like humbly i am the greatest rebounding it's like it's like when uh when i was a little kid there were people in st louis that were

super bad at ricky henderson right so ricky henderson broke the all-time steals record uh which was held by st louis alleges in Lou Brock and like he holds up the base and he's like Lou Brock was the greatest but I'm the greatest now like screw this guy

you know what I think that's kind of like what Russell Westbrook was doing. Jason Kidd was the greatest but I'm the greatest now humbly humbly well Jason Kidd might have to play for the Mavs soon so maybe I'll get the record back

all right next But next time I'm I load, you're going to love this. Mitchell Robinson free throws. So this actually came back into focus because of Rick Petito. I have no idea how you put this on here. Because I've heard this story. I was looking at it. I was like free throws.

He hasn't even like shot free throws this year. Okay. Because Rick Petito went on morning radio in New York with Boomer and them. Mm-hmm. And he said, you know, I called Tibbs. at some point. And I said, send Mitchell Robinson over here. I could fix him.

And he goes, and then I watched him last night shoot free throws. And I can't fix him. Everybody starts laughing. And I was like, come on, bro. Rick Petito, who's been coaching basketball for like 60 years. So the whole thing was he had once called Tibbs as fix it. But the reason this came into focus is because of this Patino deal. And then now, of course, it becomes a story for his career.

He has shot 52% from the charity stripe. And then everybody did hack a Mitch last year, right? Where the Pistons did it. And he connected on 27% of his free throws when they did it. One game against the Celtics, we hit six for six. Yeah. And even with that, it was 45%. But the reason I put it out here is because Rick Petito going on a radio show saying

not even I could fix him is absolutely hilarious. Also, unbelievable. Like, it's lit, wouldn't you think, sometimes I just don't understand. And maybe I'm, maybe I'm goofy. Wouldn't you think if you're Robinson? like that's the you can do literally everything else you need to do right you're never you see his stat line he played 16 minutes and had nine offensive rebounds think about that it's unbelievable 16 minutes they had nine offensive rebounds i don't understand why you wouldn't just like that's the

only thing you would work on like all summer like you know what i'm just going to become a good free throw shooter he's put the work there's a there's a clip at the beginning of the season i guess last year and it was Mitch Robinson playing like pickup against like you know civilians and I'm telling you you would not know the difference between him and Kevin Durant if you watched him in this pickup game. I'm talking between the legs, jump shots,

it was just wild and I'm like that's Mitch Robinson. It was it was crazy. It was crazy. It's crazy and so yeah, Rick Petino going on radio and then making everybody laugh by saying not even I could fix him. Like it's just unfixable I guess. I don't know. Maybe it is. Maybe it's unfixable.

That's pretty good. We're on Lowe's? No, back to Lovs. Okay, good. Sixers Cavs game, right? Interesting game. Garland came back. Obviously, he's, you know, not himself quite yet,

but I think it's really important for the Cavs who, you know, they're fine. Donovan Mitchell scores 46 points, right? And, like, I think especially this year, like, that's a big number, you know? Like, he had an offensive. output. And after the game, he said he was playing 2K against a child. And the child said he hasn't seen any highlights from Donovan Mitchell in a while and that Donovan Mitchell is washed. And that is what motivated him to go out against the 76ers and score 46 points. I love this. I was shocked. Now, whether he was 1% motivated by that or 99% motivated by that,

I just love the idea that after 46 points, he gets asked a question about his game. And he's like, well, let me tell you about story. playing 2K earlier today. A child disrespected me. So about a year and a half ago, I think about a year and a half ago, I said, you know what? I'm going to get back into this. The college football game came back.

Oh, right. Yeah. To video games. So I got, I got a PS5. I got the college football game and I said, I'm going to do this. I love this. It's come out in the summer.

This is going to be great. So I started doing it. And I started to feel like I was getting pretty good. And then I started playing against. people that I knew, right? And then I had to go and I had to buy the headset. And I was like, all right, I got the headset. And I had been out of this.

I hadn't done it in so long, right? Like any kind of gaming. Bro, when I tell you, I bought that headset. And one of the things, when you go on the college football game, I just talk with any of these, you're online and you can just say, I want to play. And it just matches you up with an opponent. And you're talking to somebody. Yeah, except I would leave my headset,

like on mute, you would not believe the way people talk to you on video. I mean, I, I would leave the thing on and wouldn't even talk. And they don't care. They will still just talk the entire game. They'd be like, yeah, bitch. Like you'll be there's another one. You can't stop nothing. Whatever.

Bro, the worst night, the worst night ever. I'm obviously playing some guy who's in a house of him and a bunch of his buddies. And all of them start in on me. All of them. I am playing with Oklahoma State. And they have a running back name Ollie Gordon, who's now a Miami Dolphin. And he's supposed to be the best running back in the game. And I swear to God, every time I try to run with Ollie Gordon, the guy, like, they tackle me behind the line.

And they all just start chanting. Get Ollie going. Vinnie Verno, get all he go. Because my name on the screen with Vinnie Verno. And they're just berating me. And then you'll play against like a kid. You can hear the high pitch kid voice. Yeah, yeah.

Oh my God, they just curse you out the entire game. So I actually relate to the, I couldn't believe it. I was mortified. I was like, is this what my son does every night? I was like, these kids, they talk crazy. It made me understand internet culture and the way people talk on Instagram and like they really do just talk like this all the time. Part of it is the gaming culture because I mean they just say the most reckless things. Like I'm talking you, my friends and your friends when we were kids, we would beat the shit out of each other if we talked like this to each other.

Because you had to play face to face. right you had to play face to face on a frigging genesis like we're both sitting there playing against each other but on a headset people can just talk any kind of way with absolutely no consequence and then last night obviously there was consequence but imagine you're talking to it's Donovan Mitchell imagine finding out you're playing 2K against Donovan Mitchell

and calling him washed he said I hadn't seen a highlight of you in a minute it's Donovan Mitchell so good It's not Mike Conley Shout out to Shout out to Donovan Mitchell For just playing with Randoz

Seriously Just get a little 2K in Like how do you have time in the day to do that? I mean You know they did that There's that one game that Luke is amazing at Oh You never

A war game or something I'm not a gamer I'm not a game No no no but there's a game that he is amazing at And there's a clip that went around like last year And he's playing it And the guy's like so I can't remember.

Oh, he's like, what's your name? And he's like, Luca. And he's like, wow, where do you live? He's like, Dallas. What are you for a living? He's like, I played for the Mafrix. He's like, really? Yeah.

That's cool. Like, just. He's meeting random people online. All right. My next love, I'm going to go with the Denny Obdia experience. First guy to, hey, that's all you needed to knock off the Oklahoma City. Thunder. Finally, somebody knocked off the Oklahoma City Thunder.

And it was Deni Adda and the Portland Trailblazers. And man, you know what was kind of crazy is when I was looking him up. After that happens, obviously, you go and he was fantastic down the stretch of last season.

Yeah, yeah. He's been good. 24. He's 24 years old. Top 10 pick in a draft. You know what I mean? In the 2000 draft. he's just 24 years old. It feels like he's been around longer.

I don't think he was in the 2000. 2020. I'm sorry. 2020. I did that last shot too. Doesn't it feel like he's been around longer than that? Maybe I'm maybe maybe it's just my perception. Well, in wizard's years, wizard's years are like dog years.

I just looked up and I'm like, damn, man, he's still just 25. I figured Deni Abdiya was like, you know, coming into those prime years. I thought more like the. 27, 28. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Like maybe like 26, right? But no, just 24 years old. And coming into his, and starting this prime, and you're like thinking to yourself,

damn, man, if most guys aren't the best versions of themselves until, you know, 26, 27, 28, 29. Like, so far this year, 24 points a game, 6 and a half rebounds, 4.5 assist. And it's like, we need to. stoppable sometimes. This needs to be monitored. This needs to be monitored, right? Because this is in a cent. And then when you look and you go, damn, man, he's still just 24 years old. He is younger than what I would have thought.

And then as awesome as he is currently to think, well, you're not even close to when you're prime. I mean, your prime is three years away. So what does your prime look like. If this continues, if we're on the trek where you're just going to keep getting better and better, he's somebody that absolutely has to be

monitored as a guy that could really take a big leap. And now we're looking up in a couple of years and it's like, Danny Obdia's like an all star. Like Danny Obie is a big time player. We did this with marketing, right? We did this with marketing. That's the kind of kind of

came to my mind where it's like next thing you're like, Larry Marketer's been discarded by a couple different teams, and now he's all NBA. Like, what the hell happened to here? Denny Obdia, I mean, 24 years old right now, still got a lot of room to grow in a couple of years until he probably hits whatever is the pinnacle, and he has already started off great and is having a fantastic early season. I wish Scoot was there to help him, and I wish Scoot was what he was supposed to be when he was drafted.

There was like a Scoot versus Wemby conversation before that draft. And I wish Shaden Sharp was more than just this potential prospect factor, you know, that I think could make them really interesting. And I also wish that the father of my children, Chauncey Billups, didn't get arrested for a mafia-related gambling. Big comeback for the Blazers and a huge win by being the first team to knock off the thunder this year. They're down big. They're down 20 plus in that game. Yeah, it was Danny Obia brought them back. The Thunder were missing a ton of people.

I think they're on a second of a back-to-back-back, too. No excuses. It wasn't the greatest Thunder performance. No excuses. I think they were missing a lot of people. No excuses. And on the back-to-back. They needed to take a scar.

You're still scarred. The only people that are scarred by the Thunder in the Championship last year are you. Well, and Tyrese Alliburton. I don't know. This is my next love. know if you know this about me. You're starting to talk like a, like you're about to take, like you're about to give people advice like late at night on a slow jam station.

No, no, not at all. I'm about to do the opposite. Talk about something really stupid that makes me happy. Okay. I love water parks. I love water slides. We're on loathe. No, we're not.

You just said you love the, love, love, love, love. And then we go back and forth on love and loat. God damn it. It's so stupid. Go ahead and do water parts and then I'll do it. No, I'm doing loathe. This is just going to be, I'm going to be one sentence on this one. I'm still mad about insights to excellence and I will never get over it.

And now people are starting to come on to my side of this thing. You can't do this every week. I think they plan on putting out more, but they're starting to get embarrassed that they had Michael Jordan for an hour and they talked about it for a year and he doesn't say anything interesting. I hate insights to excellence. All right. You can't do that. All right, then I'll make mine, I'll make mine quick, too. My next load.

And I really shouldn't do this, but I have to. It's Halloween candy. And here's why. Not that I don't, it's not that I loat candy. It's that I loathe the presence of it everywhere for this past week. I'm going to, I'm going to make a confession to you. I have eaten at least six fun-sized snickers. today. Today? Today. That's a lot. After five, you're like, I'm going to go have another one right now.

No, no, no. It was three early. There's a big, look, it's just omnipresent. There is a big, like, pot at my work of Halloween candy. It's just there. And anybody can have it. And every time I walk by it, I grab another snicker bar out of it. And then my kids went. trick-or-treating. And so it's just there. So I used to be one of those guys that like if I wasn't like, I used to have like when I got super health conscious in my 20s, I would have like a big cheat day, right? And I would just gorge on Saturday. That's what I was going to do. And then I would eat good the rest of the time, right? Well, on Sunday, I literally had to pour things either down the drain or throw them in the trash. I can't have it around.

If it's around, I don't have the self-control not to eat it. And what I'm saying is I can't throw away my kids' Halloween candy. And it is hidden, but I know where it's hidden. So I will go and we're going to get done with this podcast. No. Yes, I am going to eat another fun-sized snick. Yes, I go. Yes. And I can't help myself. I can't help myself. If there is, the candy is around, and it's only this time, because we're not, it's not like I'm going to go buy it. I'm not going to go buy it. I don't just have it around all the time. But if there's a gigantic bowl of it, I'm not going to walk past it, and I'm not going to act like I don't know where it is, and I'm going to eat it. And so I just have to pray that this thing gets eaten rather quickly.

or that the snickers and stuff are gone. I really don't, like, I really don't get all the other stuff. Like, I mean, you know, I can look at the Hershey Bar and not. I can't look at it. I can't look at it. You can't just put a fun-sized snickers in front of it. You can't. Really?

No, I'll eat it, dude. I want it. Yeah, I've got more discipline than that. I've got more discipline than that. No, I don't. I don't have the discipline. I don't want it. When my kids were littler, we should just throw all the candy away November 1st.

They'd like the experience of getting the candy, but just like, they were, they were so dumb that they would just forget that it existed the next day. You, I mean, oh, yeah, I know you have discipline. Because I stayed at your house. And you guys have, like, you know, you can just have, like, a bottle of vodka sitting around. It doesn't, like, that's fine. Like, if I want it, I want it. I can have a sip, whatever. No, bro.

Like, I can't just, I can't just have that. If it's there, I'm going to say. She's not even. It's not even I mean, are you kidding me? After I watch it, Grizzly's Rock, it's,

it would be gone. It's gone. Yeah, it's not an issue for me. The, I mentioned I love water parks, all right? Because I do.

Tony Parker put his Texas house up. And I watched a six-minute video of this thing and read two articles about this thing. He's got a private, water park with a 316 gallon water park with speed slides.

I don't even know what those are. Lazy rivers. I love Lazy Rivers. I can spend five hours in the Lazy River. Waterfalls, Grottoes in a diving area. It's got eight pools. He also has... What?

Yeah. Eight. It is just at his house. Eight different pools. And he's got a 6,000 square foot gym with an arcade, a basketball court with a full, like, NBA style locker room. A fruit orchard.

Awesome. An herb garden. And this is the kicker. A private tortoise habitat. He's got a turtle village in his house. He's got eight pools. Do they come with it? Yes.

Do you have to stock it? No, you know, the turtles are coming with it. That's probably part of the negotiation, but the turtles come with it. You also need a turtle guy too because I don't think Tony's taking care of the turtles. So you've got a turtle guy that comes over. I don't even know where you'd find one of those. Every Thursday.

Some weird guy that's fascinating. And he's like, I, he's like, I have a lot of friends that fly over from France. It's a long flight. So I want to make sure they enjoyed their time when they got here. I love it. I don't even know what you would do with a private water park. How much? It's like, it was 20 million and now it's down to like 16 or something.

Morgan. I loved it. Yeah. Tony Park. Wimby needs to get that. He went to Dubai and fell in love of the water park. I was like,

I want one of those at my house. And then hired some like water park designer who designed Six Flagg, Texas and put a water park in his house. Can you imagine the upkeep on that? I just don't have enough friends to make that fun. You know what I mean? I have like three buddies over and we'd be like,

which pool is Gary yet? I don't know. What do you do a lot? a locker room for in a basketball court. Yeah, you would need a lot of friends. A lot of friends. Or charge people to like come use it. What's the point of that?

I mean, that would be a hell of an Airbnb. But what would be just a nice, beautiful, sunny Saturday morning and you're just like drinking a Coors Light and a floaty on a lazy river? Sounds awesome. And then like just walk over to the tortoise area. Check out your tortoise, your favorite tortoises? My tortoise farm.

Yeah. Sounds awesome. So if you've got an extra $20 million lying around. Wow. By Tony Parker's house. Oh, I'm going to go look this up after we get done here. Oh, there's a six-minute video I watched.

So he's moving, huh? I guess he's moving. Yeah, he's part ownership of a basketball team in France. So he spends a lot of time out there. Oh, okay. All right. I guess this is my next love. I'm going to go Thompson Twins.

So the reason I'm bringing them up, Well, odd week. I saw both of them back to back. They both kids. I saw Detroit and then I saw Houston. And longtime listeners of the mismatch will remember that when they were right out of high school and they were going into overtime elite, I got to call that these kids named the Thompson twins were going to be doing a workout down the street from my house. So I went down there and I was like, yeah, I'll watch them. They're with another guy named Tyler Smith, who's also in the NBA.

And anyway, so I go down there to this workout, and I watch it at the end of the workout. Amman Thompson, they're standing under the basket. You'll respect this. They're standing under the basket. And the kid grabs the ball. It's underneath the net. And he picks the ball up. And he jumps up and he puts his elbows at his ears and slams it down, straight off vert.

like I reached down, I grabbed the ball, I jumped up, and I went, oh my God, what is this? This is like something out of a Marvel movie or something, right? Met the kids afterwards, yes, sir, no, sir, yes, sir. I mean, they could not have been more polite. My son had come with me. They were awesome to him asking him about his basketball. I'm asking him about everything. I met the dad, and I came back on here, and I said,

said, look, I don't know what's ever going to become of this. I don't know about overtime elite whatever. I said, these kids are unbelievable kids. And if we're doing like a character draft, like I hope these, and I don't know if they can, I mean, they bricked everything. So they couldn't shoot. But I was like, we're not like talking 1% athletes. We're talking 0.000, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, oh, 1% athletes.

And then now to see it come to fruit. They both get drafted and now like really coming into their own asser with who's getting a bigger opportunity because partly because of the Jayes-N-Li-Bing. He had blood clots last year.

So like he didn't get the same sort of like hype that Armand got. But he is a unbelievable defender as well. Right? They're different. And then I went to a game last night that featured Jared Jackson Jr., who was one vote away

from all NBA, John Moran, who has previously been an all-N-B-A player, Kevin Durand, who's averaged over 25 points a game since he was a fetus, and Alperin Shengoon, who's like as good a big as there's been in the NBA thus far as season, and Thompson was by far the best player on that floor. It was unbelievable. I mean, an absolute offense wrecker on defense and then can do, manner of things offensively to just give you.

You have to keep on paying attention. He drives to the basket. He's a good passer. He, if you give him space and, like, just shoot it, he doesn't use that space then just functions as a runway for him. And he's to the basket in one dribble because he's just a freco. And then when you lose track of him,

he's sneaking behind you in the dunker spot, and he can finish everything from that point, right? So now he turns into freaking Aaron Gordon down when he's doing that stuff because he finished everything. I mean, he is special, man. And people always talk about the offensive rebounding with Adams and Shangoon, but your bigs are occupied with them. And how many times you've seen Allman Thompson come in and get some put back

or some jump up, grab it from someone else, and then second jump and put it in? It's really impressive. And one of my experiences with a Sir Thompson was last year with the Knicks Piston series. And I swear to God, if a Sir Thompson doesn't have a Jalen Brunson voodal, I thought at some point he might just choke Jalen Brunson out in the middle of the court because he would get two quick fouls, sit down for 20 minutes,

and he'd come in the game and Jailin Brunson would just grift another foul on him. And he was just constantly in foul trouble, could not stay on the floor. And I think that was just a function of youth and not understanding sort of, or like what you can and cannot do. But they've got... They love about that. They compete every possession. They compete.

They, you have to, like you notice them. They're doing something. They're in the mix. Some way somehow. They're never just an innocent bystander to what is happening on the court. They are forcing what is happening on the court. That's what I love.

Yes. And how many times do you, see an offensive player and a defensive player have an unspoken agreement that I'm going to stand in the corner and I'm going to stand kind of near you in the corner and neither of us are going to move and we're going to take this possession off.

The Thompson Twins don't do that. Never. They don't do that. They don't do that. They're getting involved. And it's also just like an entertainment factor. The wow factor. It's kind of like Wemby. It's just like you just can't take your eyes off when they're playing in the game. The guy had a

freaking highlight this week for a rebound. It was crazy. Who gets rebounding highlights? It was crazy. Didn't he put it back to? Yes. Off of Miss free throw. I think he got it.

It was a miss free throw. He got one and then threw it to Sengoon and Shangoon threw it back to him for an alley-U. Yes. It's wild. What is happening? He's going at a different speed than the other 19, you know, the other nine guys on the court.

I love him, too. The end to ends. I have to say it though, you got to knock down a jumper. It's just like, it's such a glaring development for them. Like there's nothing else you cannot do, but it can be very difficult to be successful in National Vassal Association if you can't knock down a jumper. It's just hard.

Yep. We unloads. What do we got here? Oh, the Pacers injuries. It's just, I mean, Halliburton is one thing. but like the Nemhard one is the killer there's so many killers they had they were out mccanel cam jones andrew nemhart obi top and tyrese halliburton mrs halliburton jackson johnny burphy your guy ray jay was like a key player for them

and they just waived they signed and waved mac mcclong and now they just signed cody martin they got an exception like it's just like they're just just just wait i thought it was i thought it was Monty Morris. That's right. They signed Cody Martin and Monty Morris. They waved back in McClong and signed Monty Morris. Okay. Yeah, I mean, the crazy thing is, if they had Nemhart and, Nemhart,

Matherin, and Siakum, they'd be okay. Yeah. But it's unsurvivable without those two. They'd be okay. I thought, I had, listen, I didn't think they were going to go run like they went on last year without Halliburton, but I thought there was enough there. If they had

there, yeah. Those three guys, if they had Nemhard, Matherin and Seacom, then the other two could fill in the gaps. But it's just gotten... Put it top in there, too. He does a lot of them. Yeah, you're right. You're right. But this is brutal. Brutal. It's tough, man. It's tough. It's just there's just nothing you can do. There's nothing that Pascal Seaccom can do.

It's nothing that Carlisle can do. It just don't have guys. They just don't have the players. It gets really depressing. And they lost the Nets on the Gotham map. Unforgivable. I've watched less Nets than any other team. in the NBA so far this year. Any other team. Oh, well, that is totally reasonable.

Yeah. As my old buddy Bert Sugar used to say, they could play in my backyard and I wouldn't raise the blocks. And they actually do play in your backyard. And you couldn't care less, right? Well, yeah. You've seen my backyard. It's just a brick wall right there.

So not a great view. My next load. Just, again, we're only 10% into this thing. But the wolves and the clippers defense, yuck. I mean, these are teams that you, if I, you thought like these are teams that have traditionally really hung their hat on the defensive end, right? That you knew that, like, that's, they're going to scratch out wins just because

they've got guys, they got guys on the wings, they got guys that can protect the goal. And you look up, here's the only team. teams that have been worse defensively rating-wise thus far in the NBA season. You ready? Oh, God. The Pelicans, the Pelicans, the Wizards, and the Nets. It's, I mean, and then, so 26. Let me strap late on you here.

26 and 27 are the Clippers and the wolves. So they were third and sixth last year. And if you think about the roster change, oh, sure, you don't have Nikiel Alexander Walker, if you're the Timberwolves. But, like, in theory, the Clippers got better defensively from a pure, like, roster standpoint. Like, Norman Powell wasn't some, like, stopper. Right. And I just can't explain it. I can't.

I looked at the, I looked at their opponents. That doesn't explain it? Vet team not trying at the beginning of the season with the requisite effort that is required. I guess so. Point of attack, point of attack defense, right, is obviously, you know, maybe Hardin will start trying a little bit more on defense, right? And that kind of starts things going. But, and then on the wolves front, I mean, it's like when they run out that front line with Randall and Reed, bro, they gave up 83 the other night in the second half to the Knicks. Well, the Knicks couldn't miss in that game, to be fair.

83, though. The Knicks could not miss. Jacoby, you only, it's only 24 minutes. It's crazy. 83 is obscene. I can't explain it. No, and that's why I'm just saying. I can't explain it.

It's a loathe thus far because it's like those teams were really hang your hat on the defensive end teams last year. And the idea that the Pelicans, Wizards, and Nets are the only teams below those two is crazy. Even one game into the season, it's crazy. much less, you know, nine or ten. Well, you remember the Clippers one game into the season. They lost to the Jazz. Right. And that was an indicator.

Maybe so. The way the Clippers finished the season last year, both the regular season and the playoffs, and the roster adjustments that they made, I had much higher expectations for them than this. And everyone tells me, it's still early. It's still early. It's the greatest coach. And Jeff Van Gundy's the defensive coordinator. It's early.

It's early. You think probably? those guys sites on Tadalu? I hope not. I hope not to. I mean, I don't want to take another guy that's held such high esteem, you know, and ruin his reputation as well. It's a tough one. Where are we, loads?

No, last love. Great. I have no idea what's happening in this podcast. We've got, we've got last love left. Last love. I've had a long relationship. ship with this performer. And I'm so glad that she's back from injury.

It's the return of the Red Panda. And if you're not familiar with the Red Panda, she has just for decades has been a staple of NBA halftime entertainment. She rides a Uticle and she shoots bowls, just like cereal bowls from her foot and they land on her head. And she suffered an injury. And we were all very concerned about the Red Panda. And she is back performing at halftime.

Now, I know you've seen the Red Panda because you know, you're at all the Grizzies games. She's also been Also, she's been through Hell and back. She had the injury and then she also had her unicycle stolen. Yeah. I think the lawyers bought her a new unicycle. I was

with some NBA people, Verno, and they did the unthinkable. They proposed to me that Red Panda has magnets in her bowls. Oh, that's not true. I Googled it. I saw no online anything about magnets in the bowls. No, she wouldn't drop the ones that she does.

Because, I mean, there was a chorus. She doesn't rate 100. She doesn't go 1,000% from the field. Well, there was a chorus of we're getting a little Willie Mays in the playing for the Mets, stumbling in the outfield, you know, for a minute there. But it seems like she's gotten it back. I'm glad she's back. I'm glad she's back.

He's got the. bumping his theme song. She does have a good theme song. It's a good production. And honestly, it's more fun that she sometimes drops the Bulls because you know that it's possible. Yeah, she's just proving she's real. Yeah.

She's a real one. Shout to the Red Panda. Shout out to the Red Panda. My last love is DeAndre Jordan. Look, this is all going wrong for the New Orleans Pelicans. But there was this moment where it's like, this is why you bring in these vets. And I love that there are some OGs.

still around that are getting to have jobs as just being like, I'm teaching young people the way. And the other night, Derek Queen had a big night. And he's sitting there in the locker. Do you see this video? He's struggling with a couple good games now. Yeah. And Derek Queen is undeserving of what is going to be laid upon him,

which is it's not his fault. The Pelicans are stupid, right? But it's always going to be this pick was trawl. Of course. So Derek Queen better, you know what I mean? Of course. God forbid it ends up being, you know, Darren Peterson or Boozer or AJ DeBanstad.

It's like, oh my God, right? But that's not his fault, right? And Derek Queen has strung together some games. And Derek Queen is sitting in the locker room and he's talking about his, you know, 12, 8, and 7, like the good performance that he got to have, you know, in a win that they had no less, I think against Dallas. And DeAndre Jordan says,

No, no, no, stand on that. He walks over and he makes Derek Queen stand up to do it because he's just doing his interview. Yeah, he's just sitting in the locker room doing his interview. And DeAndre Jordan walks over and say, stand on that. You stand up when you do your interviews in the locker room, right? You just had this big performance, whatever. And Derek Queen just stands right up and then starts talking to the microphone. And I was like, you know what, man, all young guys need this.

All of them. They all need these guys. They're going to teach them. They teach them so many things both on and off the court. And if you needed any better example, it was last year when Shea Gildes-Alexander went on an interview. Though he never talks about really anything, talked about how impactful Chris Paul was to his career. And about also about what to do when you're on the road and you've got a family. And what to do about nutrition and what to do about stress.

and what to do about all these things that are learned. And I did love, they don't need a center. It makes it abundantly clear. They brought in D'Andre Jordan, not to be a basketball player, to be a mentor. Because they look and they go, you know what, whatever the future of our franchise is going to be, is going to be in part because we just put a lot of stock in Jeremiah Fears and a lot of stock in Derek queen. And having, and I promise you.

you, you're going to look down the road in five or ten years, and Derek Queen is going to tell you that the most impactful player to his NBA career was DeAndre Jordan. I'll bet you a dime to a donut that that's true. And I love seeing it. And we have

now rid our league of vets. Guys, just you know, guys that's their role is being the veteran, being the OG, showing guys the ropes. I have been respected that You know, when I saw Houston the other night,

Jeff Green's still on their friggin' bench. You know what I mean? Like, these guys have tremendous value, tremendous value. And a lot of it is about off the court, right? Just learning the ropes, learning how to be a professional, learning what to do with your money, learning how to handle Instagram chicks that are DM in you,

learning out of all kinds of things. And sometimes it might be as simple as learning how to deal with the media and a postgame interview. And so I loved this clip and I loved this insight into here's why you bring in a guy like DeAndre Jordan because it will already reap benefits. And Derek Queen will always remember that and you're going to look up one day and Derek Queen is telling another young player how to act. I think that's great. And I think it's very important for young bad teams. You know what I mean?

Like CJ McCollum on the Wizards or something. You know what I mean? Where it's just like because that can get ugly really fast and things can start to fall apart and people stop. caring and it's just kind of like i think that if you have a veteran on a young bad team they can keep it together and and and keep focused on development and what's important because it can you know if you go 22 and 60 like that's a bad eight months you know and like it's a lot of losing i think that you know you heard um cooper talk about this i think was yesterday he was like he's like this is the most I've ever lost in my life.

Ever. And then they went through the stats. We've all seen this video on the internet by now. He was like in high school. He lost four times in college he lost four times. And he's already lost four times here. And it's like you need, you need veteran leadership around to coach you through that.

And I honestly, I can't figure out what's wrong with the Mavericks. For them to be this bad, for them to be this bad. Their offense is abominable. It's really bad. No, it's. like bottom of the league in everything. Everything. It's shocking.

Well, I mean, you don't have creators. Yeah. I mean, you don't have. I mean, the lack of creation is shooting and Anthony Davis, you know. Yeah, he's out. And then you've got an 18 year old kid who's got a lot in his shoulders. Right. All right.

Your last load. This one's simple, man. Eric Spols was house burned down. Yeah, that's, uh, middle of the night. He gets off a plane, his house burned down. And, you know, we've seen all the stuff. That's just like the middle of the night, you know, it's like five in the morning and you're watching your stuff burn down to pieces and you just have to do it all over again. It's just like, man.

A nightmare. A night. We get like forest fires now, but we don't really get a lot of like houses burning down fires. Like you go around New York City, this fire escapes in every window because like people's houses used to burn down all the time. But it doesn't really happen that much anymore. It just sucks. Maybe he's a bad for him. Last one for my loat.

I was like, I'm scrolling through Instagram the other night. And I was like, oh, finally, I get to see a Desmond Payne highlight. And then it's a highlight of him yanking down a congoo and throwing a ball at his head. How many times have you seen it? That would be a thousand. I mean, I just couldn't stop watching it. And he said he's gone, the last three games, nine, five, and nine points.

I mean, it's been a, it's been so bad. It's been so bad. It just has that started off well. And again, it's first 10 games of the season. He is an infinitely better player than he has shown so far. But I have to put it on load when I was like, oh, good. I hope my boy did something good. And then I click on it.

And I'm like, what? He yanked the guy down and threw a ball in his head. Crash out city. This is what I wasn't see. I thought I was going to get a Desmond Bain highlight. The fact that the best Desmond Bayne highlight. The fact that the best Desmond Bain highlight of the years, him throwing a ball in a guy's head is depressing to me. The magic of three and five, everyone's darling pick.

You know, you can look at the Hawks and say, well, they don't have, you know, they don't have Trey Young and still have got some new pieces they're working in. Like the magicer, they're not looking good. No. They're not looking good. It looks rough so far. It looks really rough. And I don't think Paolo's going to be in the MVP conversation. Things continue this way.

but Desmond Bain, that was sort of entrapment. The ball just happened to sort of float right shoulder high for him, and he was angry. It was wild. That was like temporary insanity. I don't know. That was wild. That crash out. The whole clip is, I don't want, I don't want this guy to have an open layup.

Fine. So I'll grab him and pull him down by the arm. Maybe it was a follow through whatever, Flager one. Fine. But then throw the ball at his head. The call was like, what? And then he starts pointing it. And they start pointing at the other guy.

Yes. Like what? Yeah, it was a full on crash out. It didn't really feel motivated by anything. Aside from just like... Frustration. Yeah, building frustration from the team bringing you in to sort of create offensive cohesion and hit threes.

And he has not done that. And the team is not winning games. Rough go so far for sure. It's been a real rough go for Desmond Bay. Yep. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez as always. Jacoby. I'll talk to you next week. Must be 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino.

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