The Mismatch - Porzingis’s Rim Influence, Luka’s Dominance, Emerging Rookies, and New Year’s Resolutions

Episode Date: December 26, 2023

Verno and KOC react to the Christmas Day slate of games, beginning with last night’s monster performance by Luka Doncic as he carried the Mavs to a victory over the Suns (04:27). Are the Suns still viewed as a title contender? The guys move on to the Celtics' decisive win over the Lakers and discuss Kristaps Porzingis’s influence at the rim, as well Derrick White's continuing emergence as a key player (24:25). While looking at the Warriors-Nuggets and 76ers-Heat games, the guys discuss the impact of rookies Brandin Podziemski and Jaime Jaquez Jr. (36:38). Next, can Jalen Brunson be the best player on a championship team (01:01:10)? Also, the guys give out their New Year's resolutions (01:07:32). Got a question for Verno and KOC? Send them an email at [e-mail]! Or you can send the guys a tweet @ChrisVernonShow and @KevinOConnorNBA! The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please check out http://theringer.com/RG to find out more, or listen to the end of the episode for additional details. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien. Merry Christmas. How was your Christmas, Chris? I saw you posted a video, your kids jumping up and down on the couch going crazy, your daughter looked shocked by something, but there was no audio. You had a song. There was no audio. What happened? They have a favorite trip, a favorite vacation that we went on years ago.

And so it was, I sent them on a scavenger hunt around the house where they had to find different notes. And so the video that I posted was them reading aloud the last note saying that they were going to be going back to the vacation that they loved the most. They bring up the vacation all the time. And so it was just in an announcement that we were going to go back on that vacation another time. And so, yeah, no, Christmas is great. My daughter's 10, so she's still, like, super into it. My son is now a little bit harder. He's, you know, for people that have been listening for a long time, he's been listening since they were, what, I guess he was probably five or six years old.

We've been on the air together this long. But, you know, things change rapidly. He's now 13 years old. And so he wants shoes that I could only find on stock X. And he wants, you know, like cool stuff, right? Streetwear and, you know. Like father like son. Yeah, he likes a lot of the, he likes a lot of the same stuff.

So at least I know where to go get the stuff. But yeah, no, all in all, super blessed. And we had a fantastic Christmas. I got to see all of my family. They all came over to the house, and so that was nice. And like I said, Christmas as kids is a blast because I remember it when I was little. And there's a joy that they have about Christmas morning. And there is something so rewarding about being able to put together Christmas for them

and then seeing them so excited that it's in some ways, you know, they always say it's better to give them to receive, but in some ways it is so much better to watch somebody be truly happy. You know what I mean? Like there's no level of happiness that can match that. And they're so excited as soon as they walk in the living room on Christmas morning. And so it was a blessing for sure. I love Christmas.

I do. I always have. And for you as a father, you get to be like, yeah, I nailed it today. You put together a scavenger hunt. Right. Yeah, right. And you see excitement on their faces. That's probably the best feeling right there.

You know, knowing how happy it made your kids. Well, plus it's something, you know, at this age, it's something that, you know, when they're at each other's necks all the time, it's great for them to be on a team together. Happy together. Yes. Yes. So those are the moments I cherish, right? Because we're going to try to do this podcast, but at some point you may hear blood curdling screams.

Because we might be right back to stir crazy. He hit me in the head with the basketball or something. Speaking of hitting people in the heads with basketballs, Luca Donchich last night slapped the Phoenix Suns on the head and dropped 50 and 15 on Christmas Day. This was, the Christmas Day games were good. Certainly a lot of stuff came of them that we will talk about all of it. But regarding this game, we need to highlight that particular performance because that was freakish.

He has 50 and 15 in the game. And I'll get to all the history that was made. But man, oh man, Kevin. We have seen this guy be absolutely great in the past, but he is at absolute peak of powers this season. This is the best we have ever seen him. And it doesn't even matter who's on the court with him. He is that dominant right now that he can elevate any group of four guys you put alongside him.

I saw it earlier this year in Memphis where there was no Kyrie. no Grant Williams, no Josh Green. I don't even think Hardaway played in the game. I mean, I remember coming on the pod the next day and it was like I was watching him play with Slovenia or something. And he does it with Slovenia when we watch him in international basketball and he's doing it with the Mavs this year. And man, oh man, what an unbelievable Christmas performance he put on.

It was just absolutely spectacular in every way. And part of the reason why is with the same. sons the way they defended him they were throwing two at him and somehow he still manages to end up with 50 and 15 with them throwing two at him and pressuring him and trying to get the ball out of his hands he made the right play basically every single time on the floor i think with luca we talked a couple weeks ago about the stat the unassisted at rim percentage how that's a career high for him over 80 percent. The three-pointer, he makes half of them in the Christmas Day game. He's up near 40 percent on the year from three-point range this year. And you said how he's better than ever. The only time that you can argue that he was better was when they made the run to the Western Conference finals in the postseason. But this is without a doubt the best he's ever been during the regular season. And if you're Dallas, you're going to be looking at this situation thinking, okay, he's doing this right now during the season. We know. he tends to trend up come playoff time.

And he's doing this without Kyrie right now. Right. Without Kyrie? His second score on the team, the second creator, if you're Dallas right now, you're going to be looking at the situation feeling like, okay,

we're in this. We got a shot with a guy playing at this level, considering all these circumstances. That was just my main thought watching Luca last night, especially versus Phoenix, where it's the complete and utter opposite. Katie unhappy and Katie, open and looking sad on the floor and

that team looks like they don't have it. Yeah, and we'll get to the sons at a minute. They've got some moves they could make to, you know, the Mabs, right? They're one of those teams. And the sun's dunked. The sun's dumped. Yeah, and we've talked about this in the past. Like, what if you look up and you say like, and I know he's been shooting

threes very well and has been a fit by Luke, but you could look up and you could say, hey, we're willing to get rid of a first round pick and Tim Hardaway and maybe something else. And now we're pulling in a Jeremy Grant or something like this, right, where you get to the trade deadline and you can even augment that team a little bit with expirings and picks to somebody that is in a rebuild. And maybe you can snatch another really good player to go alongside. And then you're talking about having, you know, West Finals title dreams with the guy playing at this rate. Just real quickly on his season. historic night. You know, he hit also beyond the 50 and 15, he hit 10,000 points. And he did it

in the first quarter of that game. He did it in the fewest games of any player since Michael Jordan. Tim McMahon had a bunch of different stats in his column that he wrote about it last night. He finished becoming the fourth player in NBA history with a 50-point game on Christmas Day. The other three, never in a million years would I have gotten this trivia question right. The other three were Wilk Chamberlain, Rick Berry, and Bernard King. Wow. So it's been a while. He has six 50-point performances, which is behind only Michael Jordan and LeBron James for the most by any player before turning 25 years old. He also reached that 10,000 point. Plateau in 358 games matching Bob McAdoo for the seventh fewest games needed to do so.

Now, this stat was outrageous. It's so you think about how amazing Luke has been since the day he's set foot on an NBA court, Andy was young. He did it in 358 games, right? Will Chamberlain needed 236 games to reach 10,000 points. How is that real? 236. He's averaging like 50 at the time.

It's like three seasons. 10,000 points? That's crazy. Come on, man. Anyways, the only guys that have scored 10,000 in fewer contests than Luca, Jordan, Elgin Baylor, Karim Abdul-Jabbar,

Oscar Robertson. and George Gervin. That's crazy. Yeah. That's crazy because all of those, I mean, you're talking about Jordan doing that, what? That's almost, almost 40 years ago now. Did that happen, right? No.

80. Yeah. Right? Yeah. 30, 30 plus. 84? 84? It's almost 2024.

Yeah. Jeez wheeze. I mean, that's just. that's unthinkable, truly, unthinkable. And he did it on a 34-foot three-pointer. Just carved him up. And you know how you were saying they had run a two at him trying to get the ball out of his hands? For anybody that listened to the pod a few weeks ago after I had seen him in person,

there's two things I said. You cannot speed him up. And the second thing is, it matters who the double is. You know, this was the lesson of the Lakers against Halliburton. is because the double becomes two, it was like reddish and Davis. Okay, so you set the eye screen, you've got to have a long defender on him,

and then there has to be another long guy. Otherwise, he's either dribbling past you or he's just throwing it over your head. But you've got to be big and rangy in order to obstruct the pass well. Otherwise, a guy like him, a guy like Yolkich, you guy like Halliburton, they'll just carve that up.

Is that like they never seen double teams? But the trap has to be certain guys. I think the mistake these guys, a lot of teams make is the trap is either a weak trap or it's guys that they can just pass over the top of them. Well, that reminds me of the play that I tweeted out last night. Well, you know, I tweeted about Lucas 50 and 15 game

and I attached a play to it. And it was exactly as you're saying. Luca dribbled to the left elbow with Grayson Allen defending him, and then Devin Booker coming over to double. And Luca being six foot eight, just kind of like he jumps, extends his arms straight up and fires a pass over his head over the entire defense to X him in the corner, who is like a perfect bullseye pass, and Exum hit a three. But to your point, it's Grayson Allen and Devin Booker. Who cares? With the double. And Luca looked completely unfazed, completely unaffected, still made a preface.

and still made a perfect pass. And it was like that, whether he's getting blitzed in the pick and roll, on drives of the rim, it didn't make a difference. He, at no point did it seem like Luca was phased by the defensive intention he was receiving. Yeah, and I think that's what people, you know, that was one of the things when I went to go see him in person that always stands out is for the people that have not, like, seen him up close. He is huge.

He's huge. And, you know, there's a lot of times. where your bigs on the court are 6-8. He's as big as your bigs in many cases. So, yeah, I get it. He's got these guard skills, but you can't mess around with him with guards. He's just going to destroy you, destroy you.

And this speaks to Phoenix's issues, right? Like, they just don't, they don't have answers defensively at all. They're too small. They don't have the perimeter stoppers. They don't even have like the, the rangy wing help defenders inside. They don't have the pieces. They don't have the elite room protection.

And I think that story yesterday, you know, Kevin Rand Wodge saying on ESPN how Durant's unhappy, you know, and now, and then we see him have one of his worst games of the entire season where he seemed completely checked out in the game mentally. it was a weird KD game. Like weren't the, the, you think the vibes was just completely off. Well, and he's sulking.

And the other thing is, you know, Stephen A. Smith just wore them out, called him hot garbage and said that, you know, one of the things he said,

which I do think in the bluster gets lost, is he said, who is the leader here? I mean, you got Kevin Durant average in 30 and you got Devin Booker average in 27,

but, you know, you got to elevate the rest of these guys. And who is the guy that everybody listens to there? And this is, right? This is the role, for better or worse, that Paul filled with the team prior to. And I don't think that anyone has assimilated to, okay, this is my team now. Like, whose team is that? You would think it would be Booker's team.

But once you bring in somebody that's even more accomplished than Devin Booker, which is pretty hard to do, then it, by virtue, the best player, in many cases, needs to be that guy. You know, that guy that everybody's listening to. And instead, that guy right now has kind of got his head down moping, like you were saying. And that's why, I mean, they're 14 and 15, Kev. There are three big three guys have played 24 minutes together this season. 24. That's less, it's a half of basketball. Total. And there's a lot of you should have seen this

coming with Brad Beal. He's not exactly been Mr. Durability, but they're what, three and eight in their last 11? And this is just going the wrong way. It's going the wrong way from Phoenix. Before the season, I would have said there was a zero percent chance of what I'm about to say happening. But what percent chance would you say now it will be that we see Kevin Durant traded ahead of the deadline? No way. So you're still at zero percent.

You wouldn't even move to half a percent? No, one percent. You wouldn't go that far. Unless he did the... That's what I'm saying. Oh, the public I want out of here? Yeah. Nah. Don't you think he cares too much? Not even like a

like a little decimal? Don't you think he cares too much about his public perception? to do that again. Does he? Does he? At all? Does he?

Maybe he is just in, I don't care mode. He left the thunder for the team that had a 3-1 comeback. No, I understand. I mean, like, he chose the nets over the Knicks. I don't know, man. I think he just doesn't care at all. I don't understand. I think you've got to ride this out and hold it.

that Beal gets healthy. That's their, that's their chance. Yeah. But again, like we said, you're going to have less. Fixing this. You're going to have less than 50 games to throw it together, you know. It's another one of these days that we said this was going to be a hell of an experiment. And it's another one of these experiments, right? It's fantasy basketball, 2K, whatever you want to say. You know, new owner, hyped up, throws it together, mortgages the future. Oh, shit. shit, it doesn't work, now what? You know?

Man, we've seen it. I know, I know. There's a playbook for this. We literally just saw it with Katie's last team, the Nets. That's right. They had a good thing going with a bunch of young guys that's gutted completely to make space for Katie and Karee. And then we see that the sons one year removed from the finals, they got a good vibes

team with Bridges and Kim Johnson, young guys alongside the vets and Devin Booker. and all that. And it's gutted completely. For Kevin Durant, for this new owner fantasy basketball team right now. And again, it's kind of the same exact result.

The difference is those Nets teams actually were good. They were on the doorstep of beating the bucks and who knows they could have won the finals. This Sun's team, the West is better now. The league is better now. There's 20 plus good teams at the moment. and they just they just I just don't think

I don't think Bradley Beal's saving any of this Beal will help some of their issues on offense in the half court but he's not fixing them entirely he's just going to help a little bit he's not going to help their defense we also don't even know he's actually going to be able to stay healthy you don't know well and is and and to the whole leadership point

Brad Beal ain't getting in there leading the huddle no no no I don't know man like I think I'm probably out on the as a contender this year. Out. Yeah. Wow.

And that's... The reason I had such great concern about their prospects is that they've got Durant averaging 30 and Booker averaging 27. And Booker's been great. And they're still not good. They need a point guard, though. They need a point card. I heard Bill talking about this weeks ago and he's right.

He's like, again, another one of these, there's 50 years of NBA history, 75 years of NBA history, that teams, the great teams have point guards to settle it down to run the show. And every year we have somebody just say, oh, no, it'll be fine. We'll just let Booker do it. Or oh, it'll be fine. We'll just let McCollum do it. Or oh, it'll be fine. We'll just let so-and-so do it, right?

Like having somebody get everybody into place, run the show, having that position is important. But who? Who? I mean, Bob Depp. With what? Yeah, right. That's the biggest point.

Do you even have enough to go get Tyos Jones from the Wizards? I don't think so. I think you'd get outbid for Tyos Jones pretty easily. Tyos Jones, if available, would be pretty in demand as a expiring point guard only this year left on his contract. Good game manager. He can shoot. He's the type of point guard that I can see a lot of teams going for. Phoenix, I don't think.

think they'd have enough to get Tyos Jones. The ones I'd look out for for Tyos are Miami as a possibility and possibly a homecoming with Minnesota. Yeah, I think Minnesota would make a lot of sense for Tyos Jones. Backup Conley. That would make big time sense. Not only the backup, but then Conley on his last year. Not only do you have your backup for now, you've got your next for the future, right?

as Conley phases out, now you've got Tyos going forward. Later in the show, you're having us do New Year's resolutions. One of my resolutions is for Minnesota, get a backup point card. There you go. This speaks on one of them already. Tyos Jones. I think Tyos Jones would be perfect for Minnesota. Get a backup point card.

He's one of their favorite players ever. He was Mr. Minnesota basketball. He, I mean. It makes way too much sense. I mean. And, and, and, he's. he could be the next starting point guard going forward. He would be absolutely perfect for them.

Truly. I agree. Tyous Jones should be in big demands. So forget it, Phoenix. But no, but you're right. Tyos Jones will be like Tyos Jones going to have a lot of suitors, a lot of suitors. Because he is a fantastic player you could win with. And again, a set the table kind of.

guy. And so I don't know. I don't know how you are able to acquire, but I do think that having somebody and having both of those guys, you know, not again, you're not off the ball, but I'm saying this guy just not having that duty all the time. I think you could even get even better play offensive because they should be better even offensively than they are. They should be offensively devastating and they're not. You know, I get it that their defense isn't going to be that great. And it's going to be hard to have a great defense with their personnel. But their offense should be dynamite, even in the absence of Beal.

You got those two guys, you should be better. Cash in on bawling out this NBA season with Fandall, America's number one sportsbook. Right now, new customers get $150 on bonus bets with any winning $5 money line bet. It's $150 if your team wins. On Tuesday night in the NBA, we have the Nets at the Pistons. The Pistons are getting six and a half points in the game. I'm taking the nets to cover. Pistons will get the all-time losing streak for a single season in the NBA.

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visit fandul.com slash mismatch and turn dimes into dollars this season. Fandul, official sportsbook partner of the NBA. First online, real money wager only, $5 pregame money line wager required. First online real money wager only, $10 first deposit required. Bonus issued as non-drawable bonus bets that expire seven days after a seat. See terms at sportsbook.Fandul.com. Let's get to the other games. Celtics win in L.A. by double digits.

I was there. You were there in crypto. What'd you think? I want to hear your thoughts. You were in the arena. I thought it was the best of the Celtics looks, perhaps all season long. They've had bigger wins, like in terms of margin. But I just thought Boston against a really, really great Lakers defense had so many possessions where the ball just seemed like it constantly was moving.

Players were constantly moving. People talk a lot about how they take a ton of threes, which is true. And sometimes they should make a point to try to get to the rim more. Like in their loss last week against the Warriors, I felt like that. But against the Lakers last night, they just had so many possessions, the ball was getting whipped around the floor. Those are the types of plays where you see chemistry growing, where there's just these quick decisions that are happening, and players intuitively know where the next pass is. And I felt that Boston's half-court offense just looked absolutely sensational, looked completely unstoppable the way they were playing together. And, I mean, besides AD going off for 40, he was spectacular.

for the Lakers. I thought Boston did a really good job overall defensively, too. KP put a lid on the rim against other attackers for the Lakers. He continues to be, to me, their X factor, have said that all year to you. He was absolutely sensational on both ends of the floor. I thought Boston looked like a complete team, especially juxtaposed against the Lakers, a team that is in need of one or two moves. Boston looks like they're a team that doesn't need to make any moves. Okay, so let me speak on the Porzingis part of this. it's not just what he blocks. It is, and you can see it yesterday for anybody watching. I don't care.

To me, them withstanding Anthony Davis's 40 and winning by double digits is more impressive. I don't look at it and go, yeah, but they gave up 40 to Davis. I look at it and go, they gave up 40 to Davis, it's still won by double digits. And on the Porzegas front, it's one of those where, can block everything with his wingspan. He's totally adept to doing that. But it's watching that game and seeing guys stop driving because they look up. He has such a profound effect.

It's not just the lid at the rim. It's the shots that never get taken at the rim because you see these guys look up and they're like, oh, well, the hell with that. because he's just standing there and he's seven foot five and he's got his arms out. Crazy, the impact he has. Boston's best players in the game against the Lakers were Christopps Porzingis and Derek White.

That was, and that's not been the only time this season that you could say Porzingis and White have been their best players. And that's a crazy thing to say about a team that also has Jason Tatum and Jaylon Brown and Drew Holliday. And I think this speaks to the level that Boston's at right now. because Porzingis is better than he has ever been. He's even better than he was last season with The Wizards when I felt like he became an all-star caliber player. Again, he was sensational last year.

Derek White, how has Derek White reached this level right now as a player? It is nutty what he's doing right now. I need Derek White to make the All-Star game, and here's why. Because I need it to stop becoming a thing where now. I hear it literally every other day how underrated Derek White is. And at some point, if everybody's calling your ass underrated, you know, we have a long-running joke on my local show where every time Keenan Allen's name comes up, we say, oh, the underrated Keenan Allen.

Because it was like for 10 years, every time you, every Sunday you'd watch you. Like, you know, it was underrated Keenan All. You know, he doesn't get the talk that the other guys get. It's like, Jesus, man. And it's like Derek White is now becoming the NBA's Keenan Allen. That every time anybody talks about him, they have to talk about how good he is, but people don't know how good he. Like, bro, everybody knows now. Because all anybody talks about is how good Derek White is and about how good Derek White is.

He's, he's Keenan Allen. That's who he is. And he's awesome. It's a pretty good cop. You know, I think the Keenan Allen cop actually makes sense in a lot of ways. because Keenan Allen had the up and down years early in his career with the Chargers. And then, like, midway through his career, he became like a healthy, 1,500-yard guy every single season. Derek White, last season in Boston is the first year of his career.

He becomes a knockdown three-point shooter. Last year, he was at 4.8 attempts at 38%. This year, he's at 42% from three on six and a half attempts per game. I was talking to some people around the Celtics over the weekend. I'm like, what's changed with Derek White? Because with San Antonio, he was always inconsistent as a three-point shooter. He's very streaky, up and down. He didn't take a lot of threes.

He was often reluctant, even at times, until, like, I think the last year of his career when he was at, like, five or six per game. But again, he was streaky. And I didn't get to talk to Derek White about it, but I'd be very curious to hear what he has to say if he hasn't talked about it before. but my impression is that as soon as he got in the door in Boston, they said to him, we need you to become the best knockdown shooter that you can possibly be.

And it became a point of emphasis for him more than it ever was in his entire career in San Antonio. And with him, the fact that he's kind of gotten over that streakiness is what has propelled him to even become a guy that you talk about as he's underrated. Like he's a 40% guy. now. And I think that's because it became

an actual emphasis for him after in San Antonio it was like he's okay being a mid-range guy. Boston's taken the mid-range more out of his game. They want him taking threes. That's always taking. It's one of the main things he's practicing. And I mean, at 29 years old right now,

a little bit of a late bloomer, Keenan Allen- -esque. Yeah, I know. This could sustain, man. He's one of Boston's most important players on both ends. Well, one of the things we talk about every year when it comes around the final. You know, these guys are usually winning, you know, Janus is the exception a year early, but it's like 27, 28, 29. You know, these guys can become what they're going to be.

Yeah. These are, these are, these are, he's prime ages right now, uh, for what is the best of. And, you know, because I think you, you start to, you become an adult, you start to settle down. You don't care about going out of, you're the old guy at the club instead of the fun guy at the club. Yeah, he shaved your head. Because you're bald thing. It's like, all right.

You know, you start to become more of an adult, too, right? And it's like job, job, job, job, family, family, family, job, job, family, family. And that's kind of where he is. And he continues to get better. One side note, I do not watch this show, but I happen to see this clip come across my Instagram reels or something at some point a couple of weeks ago. And I'll give everybody a heads up. So we were goofing about Derek White and the Keenan Allen thing.

You know what else about Keenan Allen? This might have been the most underrated of all times. I saw this clip come across and it was that goofy show, the masked singer. And the guy was singing. And I'm like, oh my God, took the damn thing off. It was Keenan Allen. Really? He's unbelievable.

Underrated. Seriously. Underrated singer. Wait, he can sing. Wow. No, not just sing, Kevin. He was incredible. And I was like, see, stays underrated.

Keenan Allen. Listen to him. You are. You're going to check it out. Everybody can check that out. Keenan Allen, unbelievable singer. Who knew? The other thing in that Lakers game is they get to move Reeves back into the starting five.

Man, what? The Reeves, DeLoe off the bench, doesn't make any sense with that starting five they have. They move Reve. Delo anywhere makes no sense. They got to get rid of his ass. He stinks. I think they are going to trade D though. I'd be surprised if they don't trade him.

I think I move to the bench is one step towards a trade. He doesn't fit. No. But Reeves should be started over either Vanderbilt, Reddish, or Prince, one of the three. He's their third best player. Yeah, make the choice Darwin, Hamid. It truly doesn't make any sense having him come off the vent. The balance does not work in that starting five with those current rotations.

Any concerns for the Lakers? They're around 500 as well, just like the Suns. I mean, I think they need to make a move. There is moves, like, unlike Phoenix, moves that they can make and should make. I mean, of course, there's concern in terms of, like, do they have enough shooting? Can they find the right guy in a trade that is going to put them in the top tier level contender category? Of course, it's concern. The LeBron thinks saying he didn't care about yesterday was super annoying.

As an NBA fan, it's like, bro, it's a premier day. You're playing the best team in the Eastern Conference. of which the Lakers and Celtics have had a 75-year rivalry. Like, come on. I know. I get it. I get it, right? You want to promote how much you love your family.

I love my family too. But like, can we at least not go as far as I, you know, who cares about that game? Like, come on. I know. I'm silly. The one thing I will say about the Lakers, though, is Anthony Davis has been outstanding. Outstanding. Unbelievable.

He's having the most. efficient post-scoring season of his entire career. The more and more that he has these great post-scoring games that makes me think maybe this is actually sustainable and it's actually progress that has happened and not just some early season blip. But AD continues to have these unstoppable games. And if you see LeBron James continue to play at a high level, granted he wasn't that great yesterday. It was one of his worst games at the season. But LeBron's still playing at a high level. Reeves playing really well, 80 playing at an extremely high level. They do have rangy wing defenders. They got to make the right move, though. And I just don't think the

trademarked this year, the people I talked to around the league, who's available? That's the question. Who's selling right now? That's still not clear with what good quality talent is actually going to be available for some of these teams that need to make a move. Well, we overrated their offseason. We overrated it. We did. Yeah, because, you know, Ruiz kind of, you know, he's been solid, but I feel like the, you know, the shine is worn off a little bit. Gabe Vincent's out for two months.

So that's just a disaster of a signing. It is. Even if you were back, it would feel like, oh, where does he fit exactly here? Right. Their draft pick, Hood Schaffino, that was, you know, in hindsight, a mistake. They should not have taken Hood Schapeno over the likes of, like, you know, pods or, you know, Hamé Haquez, guys. that would be playing for them right now and fitting

at a really high level. Reddish is fine and the Christian Wood thing, Jackson Hayes, who cares, the Tarring Prince, fine. I mean, look, Reddish. Reddish is a good defender, but he's a 30% guy from three. He just... I know, they need some shooting, and that's why you're talking about with the Reeves thing, right? Again,

you got two non-shooters in LeBron and AD out there. It's not that hard. Flank it. flank it with some guys that can knock it down. Yeah, I mean, they are 28th in the NBA and three-pointers attempted, and they are 22nd and 3-point percentage. So when you're in the bottom 10 in both, that's not great. No, not great.

Nuggets beat the Warriors, and Steve Kerr is big mad. Steve Kerr went on a passionate rant about how the NBA has gotten rid of defense. You're not allowed to play defense anymore. And, you know, this is, this is obviously in reference a large part to Yokic going to the line 18 times, which is a outrageous number for sure. I just thought odd because Yokic is, because he was talking about, like, you know, these guys can get foul calls for anything and whatever because that's, I just thought a little miscast. There's a lot of guys that you could accuse of playing for fouls. Yokic has never been a guy that people think is playing for fouls, right? We had that whole run of Hardin and Trey Young and so many of the things that guys that were,

it seemed like the goal of the play was to get fouled rather than to make a basket. That's never been the case with Yokic. In fact, I think he's, I think when I looked it up, he was like 16th or something in the NBA and free throws attempted. he's like six a game usually. And so I thought like I get it, you're hot, you're frustrated, but maybe a little miscast on who was used as the example of foul hunting. Because it's not been a thing and I don't think is a thing with Yokic. Do you?

There's a lot of guys. Even Luca you could accuse of. But I mean, he's never been a, I've never felt like Yokic is a flailer or like a guy that is trying. to go to the free throw line a bunch. There are certainly guys that are, and then right now, the only two guys that go to the line in extreme amount of times

are Embed and Janus. And in large part, they go to the line that much because, yeah, they get a lot of calls, but also, you know, and sometimes it's the best defense. Certainly the Janus case is.

You can forget that with Embed because he's a great foul shooter. But in Yonis, I mean, your best chance is fouling him. And I don't feel like with Yokic in yesterday's game, he was exactly hunting. I think he was just massive. And he's driving to the basket against a lot of smaller warriors defenders. And they were overmatched.

It was the same issue that I mentioned to you after opening night of the season. The warriors are too small. And I felt like that was exactly the case against Yokic with all the files that he was drawing. I don't think it was necessarily baiting or flopping or anything like that. So I don't know. It did seem like a strange choice for Kerr to make after last night's game of all the games that he could do that. Well, I mean, look, this is, you're seeing it all. Maybe one day there'll be a good book about it.

But you're seeing it all the frustration and obviously the big one is the Draymond thing. you've seen it with Clay you know over the last year and a half you've seen it with Kerr you've seen it with Draymond you've seen it with a bunch of these guys like there's a frustration that is that boils over

regularly and it takes many forms sometimes it's a press conference sometimes it's uh you know in article sometimes it's on the court whenever it may be uh where you know it's it's coming to terms with the fact that you

you don't beat everybody's ass anymore. They're mediocre. They're mediocre basketball team. That's what they are. And it's hard, I think probably, to be a mediocre basketball team when you've had such dominance for so long.

And so you see this frustration take many different forms. And yesterday, I'm not going to tell you that that was some kind of great officiated game or that he doesn't, or that he couldn't be, that he doesn't have the right to be mad at official. I'm saying some of the calls that were made like the last fall with like a minute, not 30 seconds left or something like that.

Yokic did a dribble handoff and Wiggins kind of hooked them a little bit. Like I don't think you need to build a whistle there. I think the contact is so insignificant. Look, when I speak to casual NBA fans like who are my friends and they asked them, why aren't you watching basketball more? The number one thing they always say because the officiating, the league's too small. favor stars too much. They blow the whistle too much. It's always about officiating.

And it's calls like that last one, which is probably the one that's stuck in Kerr's mind when he was rambling at the podium. And these are the two that I'm going to be, that I'm going to stand up for him. Now, look, let me just say off the bat, I don't like the messenger because Steve Kerr, to me, is not who I want to hear it from on anything.

Now he's bitch Malone. And that is for years and years and years, years, right? He was the overseer of a team that set 55 moving screens a game and Draymond Green was kicking everybody in the dick, so save it. You're not, the moral high ground that he takes in every situation is so annoying to me. The second thing is he used Yokic as his target, which is an unfair target. Now, let me set those aside and say, fair is fair. I hate the way it's officiated too.

And the biggest point he made and the biggest point even the guy that we're about to talk about, next pods made was there's no flow if we're having to go to the free throw line and now they get to set their defense every time. That makes it very, very difficult on us. And there's no flow to the game.

And that's where I have the greatest amount of, in common with those guys. is that when the when the when the when the when the referees destroyed the flow of the game nobody wants to watch that crap it happened in minnesota and philly you know a week ago when mbid got the six fouls on the hundred million dollars worth of centers that minnesota has he got two on gobeer then he got two on towns and he got two on nazaree and it was like okay come on right like and if it's a if it's a free throw fest then we're not getting to watch you know We're not getting to watch these guys go up and down the court. And so you could say legislating out defense, but, you know, the problem is we don't get to watch the best players in the world, be the best players of the world if they're not playing some kind of free flowing basketball. I actually thought it was the best at that in-season tournament. And so I'm hopeful that once we get to the playoffs, they'll just let these guys play.

Let the play basketball. That would be sweet. That'd be really sweet. All right, let's talk about pods. Oh, my God, you're in love. You are in love. Am I in love? Oh, my God, you had him, what, top three in the

frigging draft or something crap on Twitter? So let me detail my tweet. Can I tie this to Hamay Haquez? Why not? Okay, sure. So yesterday I tweeted out about both Pajimski and Hakez, and I asked the question, how high would these guys go in a 20,

23 NBA redrafts. If you're redrafted today, we can't redraft on December 26th. I know. It's too early. But just for the sake of discussion, like this early on would be, you know, a third of the season through, we're midway through.

I love it. How high would these guys go out of redraft? That is the thought on my mind because pods goes 19th. Hawkes goes 18th, right? He goes one pick before, right? You know I love this too, right? So how high do these guys go a third of the season through after they were both non-lottery picks? Because they're, they've both been awesome.

They certainly go higher. There's no way of run. Hock has had 31 points on Christmas Day against the Sixers. I'm sure we'll talk about that in a bit. He's awesome. He's fantastic. And Pods is fantastic in his own way, too. So how high do they go?

Are they both top 10 picks? And a redraft today. I think it's totally feasible, but they could be top 10. Okay. Because, again, I don't know how many stars, game changers,

there are going to be. Those guys, I would be competent in saying, are going to have 10-year NBA careers. Yes. And if you told me, how many times have we done, this is when my whole

that whole concept of, you know, guys that won't fail. And you've heard me say this. We've been on this pod for eight years, a thousand times. It's always. And it's gotten maybe a little better than it used to be years ago. Now they're not going 31st or 35th or 40th in some cases. They're going maybe later, but still not high enough. But guess what pods was?

he was the West Coast Conference player of the year, along with Drew Timmy. Hamayakis, Pac-12 player of the year. And I'm not telling you that all players of the year end up being outstanding basketball players. That's obviously false. What I'm saying is they showed they were awesome within good conferences against good competition last year. Like they did that. And so, yes, there's a more scouting. that has to go into it, you have to have the, you know, there's some guys that just are

going to translate, right? I don't care that Zach Eden's player of the year of college basketball. It's not going to translate to the NBA or, you know, or Luca Garza, right? He deserves a chance in the NBA, for sure. Again, but I'm not. And he might very well get drafted too low. It's possible. I think he could go, I think he could go first round in this year's class.

But I'm just saying it, there's, there's. in many cases we see the pods, the Hamé Haquez, the, you remember people were in on Sasser a little bit earlier

this year from Detroit. You know, Quentin Grimes remember for the Knicks who's playing for them was a player of the year in the AAC

you know Brunson and Hartwer Jalen Pickett our guy that we loved when he was back in the Atlantic, Metro Atlantic, Van Vleet.

And then Herb Jones brought up quickly was SEC player of the year, Bobby Portis. You know, these guys, like, there's a lot of guys who proved they were awesome in college against good competition. And then they come in and they're good. And we go, oh, that guy that just showed us he was awesome for, you know, in college against really good competition and has played a bunch of games is awesome. I didn't realize the pods thing that he went to.

he was actually at Illinois transfer Yeah, then they transferred to Santa Clara Yep He's Wisconsin guy And I went up and looked his history

Because I knew We were going to talk about him How about this one, Kev? Wisconsin Mr. Basketball as a senior Average 35 points, 10 rebounds,

six assists and four steals a game What the hell? This guy is a king of Wisconsin pods 35, 10, and 6. Pretty damn good.

I don't care where you're playing. There's a bucket. Or who you're playing against. Yeah. So it wasn't like just came out of nowhere. And let me just say, you want to find an underrated guy? Maybe that.

Now, obviously the conferences and the PAC 12 is going to be gone. It's all, you know, so you can't, I guess this is insignificant now. But these are the PAC 12 players of the year. How may Hawke is? Ben Matherin, Evan Mowgli, Peyton Pritchard, a guy that now he's got a second good contract in the NBA already, right? Jalen Newell, who will probably find an NBA roster again, but had three good years of Minnesota. DeAndre Aitin, Dylan Brooks, got $90 million.

I was drafted, what, 40-something in the draft, Yacup Portal. again long NBA career and then you get you got some duds in there Joe Young Nick Johnson but then even before that Alan Crabitt California forever ago there's another guy got drafted in the second round and unbelievably made like $100 million

for what reason we'll never know um shouts to Brooklyn but the funny thing is with that Pod's tweet that I sent out like you get a lot of people who think I'm nuts I said I think he goes as high as three as shouldn't go lower than seven I mean he's not going to go third but like seven is I think with pause is completely reasonable so you get a lot of people saying like you're nuts you're overreactioning all that type of stuff but then there's this guy on Twitter he's been all he's on at basketball at B ball strategy he's been part of the APBR metrics forum which he's a which is like this long-running analytics forum about basketball. Like there have been people who worked for NBA teams that started out on this forum and whatnot. And he responded to me.

He's like, I rank pods 11th of my big board. It's absolutely fine to think he would go three to five in a redo. And he'd explain like some of his metrics. He had like Trace Jackson Davis ranked second with his, you know, advanced analytics and all that. Too high and all that. But point being is that. It's funny how Pods was kind of beloved by some of the analytics community, including people that work for NBA front offices. And they felt like 19 was too low for him when the Warriors got him.

And so now him playing at this level, I think they're feeling good about pods performing at the level that he is for the Warriors. So you got at B-ball strategy among money, other people in the analyst community around the basketball world that are like, told you so. Pods looks great. He's going to be the real deal. And this is only the beginning of his long successful career. And so we'll see. I think with Pods, part of it is situation as well. Pods goes to a team in the Warriors with an infrastructure around him of veterans

and a system of movement and motion that fits his style of play. Hakez goes to the heat where he is able to just slide right into a role alongside a ton of veterans, teams that have been to the finals. He can do the Jimmy Butler thing when Butler. out like he did for the heat yesterday. It's just a perfect fit. Part of it is fit. You know what?

You're right. You're dead right about this. And this is what we always talk about. Those guys is it's, which is it? You know, if Hamehakis is on the frigging pistons, are we doing this?

Probably not. If Pods is playing for whoever, name it. Or are we? Or are we? The Trailblaze. Well, no, I think about this all the time, especially with everybody always says it's like, you know, 50-50 with a quarterback or whatever, right? Well, like, is it because Dak Prescott was criminally underrated and everybody missed or did he get to go to an amazing situation or Brock Purdy? Or did he go to an amazing situation?

And if you would have put some of these other guys, you know, in the blessing of going to a good team with good structure. good player development. And it's like maybe, maybe it's not that those guys were wildly overlooked. It's that they wouldn't have become what they became if they would have gone to the rat teams. Maybe they would have. It's true sometimes, but in other cases with Hawkes, or could he be averaging 20 points per game for one of those rat teams and doing it efficiently?

I mean, he could be. I think Hawke is the way is. But who is? Is there anybody on a rat team that's, a rookie that you're again, we're talking about the ones on good teams. I don't think that's a coincidence. I don't think they just

all hit. I'm trying to answer your question. It's Keonté George with Utah. I still like Keonté George, the development that he's shown as a playmaker, the composure that he has running pick and rolls. Like the jazz aren't good and he hasn't even had big scoring games, but I like the way

Keontay George has looked. We've talked all year about Osar Thompson with his defense and his ability to impact the game in different ways with the Pistons. So Bielow Kulubali with the Wizards, another one. Belal, his three-pointer looks for real. He looks like a lockdown perimeter defender individually. Their team just stinks.

So, yes, there are rookies on rat teams that look good. But we would be going nuts if they were on good team. Of course. If B.L. were on the Warriors, we'd be talking about him as, like, third in the rookie of the year race, potentially, because he'd be in a situation that fits all of his strengths where he'd be the guy cutting to the rim off of a Steph Curry handoff and all that type of stuff. We'd be seeing him lock down on the perimeter providing exactly what they need

on that defense. So yeah, like we would be, you know, we'd be doing cartwheels over Kula Bali right now, but it doesn't change the fact that he still looks good for a rat team at the moment. And some of these guys we just haven't seen, like Amman Thompson, we haven't seen. He's been out he's missed games. So, I mean, you've got to give all these guys time. The thing, like, when I've said that about, like, a way too early redraft for these guys, I say, you're giving up on potential. No, it's not about giving up on anybody.

It's not about giving up on Scoot or Ahman or Garris Walker or any of those guys. It's just a, we have a third of the season. We have new intel. These guys would go higher in a redraft for sure. There's no doubt about it that Paws and Hawkes, if you did the draft again tomorrow, they would go higher than 18th and 19th, without a doubt. I would agree with you completely, and I would tell you because if this is what they look like

in their first 25, 30 games, right? This is the floor. This is not the best they're going to be. This should be the worst they're going to be. Yeah, especially like pods. He didn't get those consistent minutes and touches earlier in the season. Like we talked about all year, well, Kerr gave them minutes.

Kerr said he couldn't give him minutes because there would have been a revolt from the veterans. Well, now he has no choice because those veterans are out. And you're seeing Pods Excel. You're seeing Trace Jackson, Trace Jackson Davis, Excel and Spolster on the heat side. Hakez is playing more and more and more, getting more and more touches. And I bet by years end, we're going to see him have some of these 30-point bangers more regularly. I would be willing to say that right now. I think you're going to see these more regularly because he can score in so many,

different ways. He had buckets yesterday against the Sixers where he's attacking in transition. He had buckets where he's cutting to the room in the half court, the spot-ups, the cuts within the flow of the offense, like the post-ups. He can score in every single way. And I think he's gaining supposed trust over the course of this young season where you're going to see him in these versatile positions on offense with more regularality as the year continues. the one challenge for him, though, will be Kiv. The book's going to get out. And he's going to start getting, you know, you're seeing it with Reeves.

Once a book gets out, now all of a sudden, I always talk about it like on the dry erase board in the locker room. Hakez now's got, there's going to be a scouting report on him. And it's going to be how you deal with that. Don't jump for his pump fakes. That's what they're going to say. Don't leave your feet. But he's an afterthought now. And you get to be an afterthought.

And then, you know, as. the season goes long and there becomes a scouting report. I will say, Kev, if we did this pod December 26th last year, you know who we were going crazy about? Matherin. Yeah, I mean, nobody cares about Matherin. Nobody cares.

Yep. Yep. Nobody cares. So time will tell, though. Time will tell. Yeah, for sure. I think with Matherin, it's interesting. I think with Giddy, you could say this too, because I think at one point, Kyle Mann and I did

a redraft of Giddy and I had Giddy like third because he was shooting the heck out of it. He was over 40% from three. And with Matherin, I don't know if we said this, we'd have to listen back, but I think with Matherin and Giddy, some of these guys that had to improve their three-point shots to excel

at the level that they were at that moments of their career, that has slipped for them. And Hacquez, that's going to be the question with him as well, because Hakez was not the quality of three-point shooter that he is right now for the heat. that he wasn't college. That was the big question with him at UCLA. He was in this career,

a 32% guy from three at UCLA. Is this a surge that he's experienced as a three-point shooter for real? The only thing I'd say about Hawkes that's in his favor is that's different than some of those other guys, Gidey and Matherin as some past examples, he's 22. He's older and he has so many different other ways that he can score, other ways that he can generate offense and make a positive of impact where some of those other guys, they need that skill. So with Hawkes, I think that's what he has going for him as a, as an older player entering the NBA. But like, I thought he'd be good.

I didn't, I didn't think he'd be this good this soon. Like, this is crazy what he's able to do right now. Yeah. And obviously, uh, Philly was out without MB and the heat were without Jimmy Butler, uh, for that game. Uh, the Knicks beat the bucks on Christmas day. Wait, wait, one more. thing on that Heat Sixers game. Just one other one other quick thought.

Disaster Maxi game. Yeah, disaster Maxi game. And I thought the heat like the heat brought their playoff defense. Like they, they said they were game planning to take him out. They pressured him. Sometimes they pressured him. Sometimes they just sent the on ball screener, the defender over the top and dropped. They just threw different coverages at Maxi.

And Nick Nurse had a quote after the game where he was talking about, you know, Maxi needs to get adjusted to seeing these. different coverages. And we talked earlier about the need for a point guard. I think Maxie has been very good. I still wonder if the Sixers need another ball handler in that back court, whether it's a pure point or whether it's like just another score. Like we've talked about Zach Levine,

but there's somebody else who can you can distribute touches to on the perimeter. That just was on my mind yesterday watching Sixers Heat with the way they were defending Maxi throwing everything at him. And I know they don't have any bead, but I just wonder if they need one more. one more guy and that can facilitate. Remember a couple years ago. They played the, well,

I guess they've done it twice now, played Atlanta. And I remember, I remember at one point tweeting out, it was like the first four possessions of the game. They gave four different looks to Trey Young. And I remember tweeting out, welcome to hell.

Like, it's just, like they are the one that you don't want to. If you, you've got to have multiple weapons, because they are going to make your life hell for whatever you've got. You know,

And if you've got one, then the one is going to get the focus. If you've got two, then the two are going to get the focus. But they're going to make the others beat you, you know, and they can implement it. And they've got the structure and discipline to execute it. And plus the defenders, you've got to have the defenders to be able to do it as well. Yeah, Nick's Bucks. So the Knicks beat them. And this was after Saturday, the Bucks beat them by double digits.

So this was almost, you know, I love these. Feels kind of like a game two of a series. And so I thought that was promising for a good response by New York. And we need to mention, I mean, this Brunson season is just outlandish, Kevin. I mean, 26, 6 and 4, 48% from the field, and 46% from 3. It's December 26th. and you know he's the guy, and then you look at his, you look at his box scores like every day. And it's just, and his game log is like 38, 36, 16, 29, 22, 50, 23, 21, 23, 24.

I mean, like, he is consistently awesome and shooting just the absolute hell out of the ball this year. He gets to his spots when he wants. to get to his spot. He is something to behold. Dude, special, man. He really is. What did you think about the, the 1A debate

on social media this past week regarding him? That he's a 1A? No, no, he's not a 1A. I mean, I think it all is dependent on who your 2 is, right? I agree.

I think that's the context that matters. It matters who that 2 is, whether Brunson's a 1A or not. Yeah. I think if he's your score first guy, your second guy compliments that player well, which, you know,

Randall's been great. Like you're talking about winning a title? I mean, like, win a title. Yeah, yeah. Okay. As the Becky Hammond comments. If we're being fair,

I can't go back on one of the things we say every year. You got to have one of the best five guys in the league. So is Jaylen Brunson ever going to be plaguing at the level? of one of the best five players at the league, I don't think it's insane to say no to that. On particular nights, I'm saying over the course of, but we know,

like go look at NBA history, you've got one of the top five guys in the league. And he's on the smaller side. And so. And that hurts. But I don't think that's a, there's a lot of guys that are like that. Look,

it's a question with Tatum. It is. And that's why, to your point, who's your second guy, who's your third guy, who's your fourth guy? That's the point. All of that matters a lot in that whole discussion about it. And we also, we might change. We may see a C change in what I was talking about, which is the history tells us you've got to have one of those guys. We might find, as time goes on, that that doesn't hold forever, that you have.

actually can. Yes, you need to have a great, great player, but you could have a collection of that because of the salary cap and because the best players get paid hundreds of billions of dollars, we could see that change, right? To where your two and three guy matter more than who your one is. I'm not saying it's going to be like this forever. I could see, I could foresee a circumstance where it could change like that. But he's an awesome player. I hate when this stuff happens where it's like, hey, like we're celebrating this guy.

This guy's having a crazy-ass season. It's like, yep, but he can't be the best player on a title team. Like most guys can. There's 450 guys. There's like five that can every year, you know? Yeah, I think, I think you hit the nail on the head with your answer, though, because with the Knicks, obviously not having Mitchell Robertson, you know, disappointing, but Hartnstein really good quickly, quickly.

I'm surprised, and I don't understand exactly how he's not playing more than 24 minutes per game. He was awesome again for the Knicks yesterday. I had him as my sixth man of the year last season, and yesterday he had 20 points and 22 minutes on 10 shots. his dynamic scoring ability with the floaters and the threes off a movement, getting to the rim, quickly scores in every way. A part of me would love to see at some point this season. Brunson flanked by quickly 30 plus minutes every single night. I just would love to see that for an extended stretch to see what that dynamic back court

could look like with those guys together because they're both, yeah, they're both smaller, but I don't know, man, like both of those guys can score in every single way and they can both catch fire and quickly, even though he's smaller, is a really good defender. I don't know, man. I just, I can't help but think about that watching their nicks, especially when they're on the winning side where it's like, well, what if they got even more on it quickly than they've asked of him?

Well, and on the other side, you know, I'd imagine they'll probably move Middleton up and put Jay Crowder in there whenever they can get Crowder back from the abdominal thing. It's going to keep them out for a couple months or whatever. But here's what we know. They've got one spot to fill in that starting lineup, and they don't have an answer for it. Because, I mean, you see that yesterday.

Willie Beasley is just out there, just 19 minutes of cardio. It's just a waste of time. They've got to find something to do with that spot. I'm surprised that Griffin moved Beasley back into the starting five, especially after the way Andre Jackson was playing with increased minutes, you know, a week or so ago. He looked great. I know. Like file trouble was an issue for Jackson, but he looked like he looked like a perfect fit.

He looked like he gave what you hope Jay Crowder can give once he's able to return. But to me, like the answer is within. It's, it's your rookie, Andre Jackson. Nobody ever wants to play rookies. All right. That's not got some resolutions. I already gave one of mine with me. All right.

Then I'll just go get a backup point card. I'll piggyback on that one. A few other rookies from the top 10 to merge. I'm going to say it's a, yeah, resolution. Because, I mean, it's just been Chetwemby, Chet Wemby, Chet Wemby, Chet Wemby, and then we're talking about pods and we're talking about Hockes. It's like, bro, like, scoot, the Tonsons. You go down that list of last year's draft, and it's like, okay.

Brandon Miller, he's had a good season, but it's been basically in the darkness. Miller's been really good. Yeah, he has been good. Scoot, the Thompson's, Anthony Black's gotten some run for the Orlando team. Yeah, Kulabale, Jaris Walker, Taylor Hendricks.

Case and Wallace's been good. Case and Wallace, I mean, dude's really freaking good already. But yeah, I guess it may be more importantly, those, the top five, right? Yeah. Because we talk so much Chet Wembe, and it's like,

Miller, Scoot, ah man, awesome. sewer, you know, those guys hopefully, hopefully catch a, like a big breakout in the second half. Now, we're not just talking about, hey, they've, they've kind of become solid. Like somebody, like, give us real promise that they can be special. How about that? Scoot's the big one. You want, like, I want to see Scoot have a 30 point banger.

Yep. The nine assists and just one turnover and efficient. I'm waiting for Scoot to have a night like that. I think it'd be good for him to see it as well. I hope he has one soon. Next resolution. What you got? I want to see Denver find the right mix with their youth.

Because their bench has not been as good as they were last season with Bruce Brown and Jeff Green with the veterans. But I think with the way Christian Brown really panned out for Denver in the second half of last season after the Bones Highland trade and how he excelled in the playoffs. I think that was informative for what the reward could be if you're investing in Julian Strother and you're investing in Peyton Watson, who's not a rookie, but a second year guy. Because Watson, I mean, he's had moments this season where I watched the Nuggets

and I'm like, oh, damn, like this guy could be an all defensive team player at some point in his career. So I hope Malone continues to make the investment in those young. guys because I have belief in their use, particularly with Strother and with Watson coming off their bench. So I think finding the right mix, finding the right combinations, the right lineups, I think it could work out for Denver to set themselves up for a back-to-back run. Well, inappropriate because their bench got destroyed yesterday. And I know Wiggins is coming off of their bench, but I mean, you had Wiggins with 22,

you had Paul with 13, you had Sarge with 14, you had Jackson Davis with eight. like, God bless. Your bench got smoked. Demolished. And what they might need is like a better size. Zeke Najee's the one I'm iffy about off their bench. And I like Najee out of the draft. I just, I don't think he's the right guy for, for their mix necessarily.

My next resolution. So there's a lot of talk about in the coming years, especially after the TV deal, probably going to add in a Vegas team and add in a Seattle team. I think those are probably the two most talked about franchises. And who knows, you never know the way the stuff's going to go with new owners. And over the last couple of years, we've seen some of the older owners phase out and some new owners come in. So the resolution is, whoever, whether it's going to be an expansion franchise that comes out or someone's going to take over. That the new owners learn a lesson, the same lesson that has been taught over and over and over again,

which you and I started the podcast talking about with what's going on, Phoenix. It's like, we've seen this before. Mortgage your future. I got the new shiny thing. I want to win right now. And you mentioned Brooklyn. It happened to Brooklyn twice. It happened with both owner. It happened with Prokeroff and then with Joe Sy. Right. They did it twice. Then you're seeing it in Phoenix now. You saw a bomber, the Clippers, right? Jumped in head first, spend a billion billions. And then, you know, mortgage the future. And we'll see. What takes away to that? We'll see on the Minnesota thing.

We've talked about how they kind of need to win now this year because they ain't got a lot of picks necessarily in the future. And I will say this. The one that is not the easy thing to do, but I'll give the guy credit is the one that seems to have gotten it. And look, I live in a market where an owner came in and gave Chandler Parsons $90 million to try to take them over the top. And, you know, I mean, like, it's, it's the fun thing to do.

You finally got your NBA team and now you're going to go make it happen. And the mistakes get made over and over and over again. The one guy that seems to have gotten it, though, Kev, was that guy in Utah, Ryan Smith, like, he just, he, who, who gets a team and tears it down? You know? That guy was like a real fan. He's like a real NBA fan who, I think, understands the league and understands the league and understands the way things work and put his trust in Danny Aange to try to, you know, go with

the rebuild and whatever. But that's certainly not the fun thing to do, is be a seller once you get a team. But whoever is our next new owner, hopefully they learn the lesson that seemingly has to be learned every couple of years. And it appears we're learning it again in Phoenix. It'd be nice to have McKell Bridges back there, wouldn't it? I sure would. No, no, I'd take see back since, though. Yeah, I know.

All right, next one. My last resolution, you said it, you said the word sell in regards to the jazz. What I'm wondering is, who's going to decide to sell? Will somebody decide to be a seller? Because you have so many teams right now

that are competing for the playoffs. I think if you're the team that Zag, and you decide to sell, you could get more bang for your buck in return, trading in that player for assets for picks and you may ordinarily get, considering the amount of teams that are actually trying to compete right now. So if you're Utah with Laurie Marketing or you're Chicago with DeRosen or you're Atlanta with DeJante Murray or Toronto with Seacem or O.G, whoever it might be,

if you decide to sell and you're willing to take assets slash picks, young players, rather than looking for another player in return, then that especially applies to say Atlanta. They're trying to compete. But if you're willing to take assets, I think the return could be pretty significant for you. So I hope somebody decides to sell in this new year.

Yeah. I was just reading that story about how the ignite season is going like crap. And I like, it's like, uh, man, nobody cares about this draft. There's no savior. There's no savior. You know what I mean? I know, I know. We wanted somebody to like.

Yeah, that was my Christmas wish, right? Become the guy. Yeah. Yeah. Who? There's nobody that's the guy. No. It's a weird year, man.

Yeah. I think it's a good, it's a good depth of draft. Uh, like in the 20s. 30s. I think there's going to be a lot of quality upperclassmen and guys who are going to be role players, but that's not why. Who cares? People care about the draft.

They care about the draft for the players in the top 10. And this year it's a bunch of, I don't know. There will be all stars. There's always all stars. Yeah, just give me a... It's just a matter of who. Give me some Cooper Flagg draft picks. How about that instead? That's what makes like for a draft nerd.

That's what makes this year's draft fun because there's no agreement on anybody. None. None. Zero. So if you get it right this year, that's like a cool, you know, a little thing for a team if they, if they nail it this year with your picks. So for draft nerds, it's kind of fun in that sense.

But it's not fun for like the casual draft person who tunes in in June. And you're like, wait a minute, the number one pick isn't going to be a guaranteed star. No, not this year. All right. Last one for me. You mentioned like Atlanta, Toronto, these are two teams that have been commonplace that have kind of fallen back. We've got a couple, not many. We've got a couple new teams that are involved, especially in the Easter conference.

I want them to stay. So Atlanta, for, I mean, so Orlando, who was one of my semi-bolds at the beginning of the season that they make the playoffs, find some shooting. Like they got to find, go use some assets, find you some guys that can knock down shots. you know, and the second thing, Indiana, find some defense. Because otherwise, we're going to get same-all, same-all. Like, these are two teams that could be in the play, like, could be playoff teams that we can be watching. New blood, right?

We're filtering some out and we're getting some new ones in, but they got to fix, like, those two teams got to fix those two things, right? And especially even come playoff time, but I want to see some new teams in the mix. That's always fun for the new teams that have. been in the mix to be in the mix. Because there's nothing fun about like Toronto and Atlanta, you know, getting back up in there.

Like if these teams are going to be able to hold on to their spots and really be playoff teams not having to play themselves in or anything, I think it was fun with the NCs of tournament to see Indiana there. Like, so if Indiana finds a little defense and Orlando finds a little shooting, then maybe, you know what? Maybe they could use each other.

Don't you just send Buddy healed one. way and, you know, one of these defenders the other way. Somebody that can play some defense the other way from Orlando. Like, they just need somebody to space it out for, you know, Paolo and Franz and the rest. Like, they need somebody that could kick it out to. That Anthony Black, he can't shoot for nothing. And they don't have anybody.

It can really reliably. They just need a shooter. That's it. And it starts to even out. Because, man, their size is just. impossible to go up against. They just need somebody to throw it out to. So those two things.

Orlando, find a shooter, Indiana, find some pulse on defense because I want the new blood in the playoffs this year. I'm with you. I'd love to see those guys make it, and I hope they make some moves. I do. Yeah. All right.

It's been a great year. This is our last part of the year. We'll be back after the turn of the new year, that right after of New Year's. So thanks to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez. I think I speak for Kevin. I say thank you to all of you that have joined us throughout the 2020-3 year.

This was an amazing year for us. Got to do two live shows, one in L.A., one in Memphis. John Moran's back. It is one of the top ten players in the league. And I didn't even wear you out about this. You know, they're playing the Pelicans again tonight. throw on your pelicans hat, Kev. Get your heart, get ready to rip down.

You notice for you, for you, out of respect, I have the Jaron Jackson Jr. above my shoulder. Oh, that's beautiful. Yeah, I don't have a job. I'd put a job, but I don't have a job. So, so, yeah, I got a, I got the Jaron Jackson over one shoulder, Rudy Gobert over the other shoulder.

It's, it's kind of funny with those things. I got those framed at Universal Art Gallery in Venice in L.A. It's like, I guess, this long-running place that's been framing jerseys and photos and all that in L.A. And the last time I went in when I went to go pick up Gobert, they had seen the video that we put up. No way. Someone must have sent it to him. Like, they had seen the Gobert one, the video of us talking about it. So that's just kind of funny.

So the Universal Art Gallery, that a shout out to them. They, I guess now they're familiar with our podcast. They do jerseys for like the Lakers, the L.A. Kings and stuff like that. What do they charge?

I mean, it varies depending on like, what is it cost if I want to get like an NBA jersey frame? I think, I think it's like a 125 minimum with different types of glass, something like that. I'm not sure. But then certain glass,

it's like 200. And then there's like this. That's not bad though. Then they have like, I didn't do these, like museum glass, which like doesn't reflect on all that. Okay. I think that was like pretty pricey.

But, um, yeah, they did a good job there. Pretty cool. Oh, last thing before we get out of here. You know, I know you're anti-drug now. You're not anti, but you don't. Yeah, I still, I still haven't used weeds since August of last year. But the sphere is getting the grateful dead band I saw. Sources say, right?

Bob Weir's band. Yeah, they got fish coming. They got the dead coming. I'm like, oh, Kevin O's fear, we got problems. I'd love to go to one of those fish shows. I'm not a big fish guy, but maybe I could become a fish guy seeing them at the sphere. That's how it happens. On April 18th, because the way their schedule works, they have shows when the playing is happening.

Okay. So I can't go on any of those. But they have one, I think, April 18th, that's the day after the end of the regular season, the day before the plane. People don't know that. People don't know this, but when we were out in Vegas for the in-season tournament, you text me and you were at the sphere again.

Crazy. You had gone, and I had to, like, one of my friends invited me. Is it one of those, like, the first time you go, you're like, oh, my God, this is the most unbelievable thing ever. And then the second time you go, it loses a lot of luster because you've already, you've already seen it.

You've already seen it before. I mean, isn't that true with that? anything like sometimes the second time isn't quite the same as the first time it was opening night it was special nobody had ever seen it ever so i think that part of it but like the second night was still awesome it's still unbelievable the audio the sound there like it's still the best sounding concert i've ever been to um the second time it was still beautiful like i still i still sat there at certain moments of the show knowing what was coming and still feeling like oh my god this is unbelievable So, yeah, I still felt, I still felt that second time going there amazing.

It's just nothing's like the first time. It's not just you because everybody I know that's been says, you've got to go. Yeah, all right, all right. You really do have to go. It's unlike anything, man. It's not just the visuals. It's the audio, too. It's the best sounding concert I've ever been to not even, not even close.

It's like you're listening with like really good speakers in a room. Well, now that Moran's back, I'm booked up through the finals, so I'll try to go after the finals. Yeah, I wonder who they'll have next year, because you mentioned a debting company is reportedly in talks to have a residency there. But there's nothing on the books other than fish with their four shows that they have in April. There's nothing else. So they've got to be announcing a residency soon. I thought the big try was Beyonce, right? They were going to try and pull that off.

Oh, they're trying for Beyonce, too. That would be amazing. You know, who I'm still suspicious of for the Spear is opening night, Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre were there, and Paul McCartney was there. Oh, wow. Could they ever get Sir Paul or Snoop and Dre? Because, like, those are older audiences. They would pay to go see those guys in Vegas, like with you two.

like like or fish with fish a hardcore fan base clearly there's a trend here yeah like biontay you know 20 years and the 20 plus years in the business older fan bases people who can go to Vegas get the ticket and all that there's a trend in the the artist they're targeting so i don't know i just i wonder could they even could they get paul mccartney paul mccartney is the big one i wonder about his tour is done this month his international tour Maybe he do Vegas sometime next year. Yeah, they're saying that debted company is summer. Oh, so they're targeting summer for dead and company.

Maybe they're going after a bunch of people right now. I'm sure they are. Because nothing's set in stone. But Dolan did say in an interview earlier this year, but they have their next two set up. So maybe he was just talking. Oh, I see another rumor here. Is Harry Stiles taking over for you two? in Vegas.

Oh, Harry Stiles too. Oh, that'd be crazy. And he's done residencies like a across the world. I think he had one in London at Wembley. You got to keep up. You got to make a Google alert for the sphere,

Kevin O'Sphere. He did 10 shows at Madison Square Garden. I went to one of those Harry Style shows. Harry Style was great loud. Yeah, I got, yeah, went with some friends in New York last year, I think it was.

Was he awesome? Yeah, he's great. Great energy. I like the album. Yeah, the album's really good. He's become a great artist. Do your kids like Harry Styles too? Not at the age.

I mean, you know, they like the song. Okay. They like the hit. Yeah, but not for an album. No, no. But you like Harry Styles. We like an artist together. Yeah, we do.

I like Harry Styles. Yeah, we like Harry Styles. Nice. Why not? All right. Everybody, thank you for listening to us, supporting us throughout 2023. Hope you have an unbelievable new,

year and we will be back in 2024. Yeah, thank you, everybody. Really appreciate it. This has been a special year. Look forward to 2024. Must be 21 plus in President Select States. Fandul is offering online sports wagering in Kansas under an agreement with Kansas Star Casino LLC. Gambling problem, call 1-800 gambler or visit fandul.com slash RG in Colorado, Iowa,

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