The Mismatch - Recalibrating the Lakers' Chances, Kawhi’s Underwhelming Return, and Inside the Hawks-Trae Drama

Episode Date: December 6, 2022

Verno and KOC discuss Kawhi Leonard’s return in last night’s Clippers win over Hornets (02:28). They debate whether his return was blown a little out of proportion before discussing the impressive Pacers' win over the Warriors. The guys dive right into the drama in Atlanta surrounding the Hawks' franchise player, Trae Young, and head coach Nate McMillan (17:02). After starting the season 2-10, the Lakers have won eight of their past 10 games with Anthony Davis playing out of his mind. The guys debate whether AD can continue to play this way while the team's working LeBron James back into the fold (31:21). With the West wide open, can the Lakers recover from their disastrous start? Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

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

match. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Col, Kevin O'Col, Kevin O'Col, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Brien. How are you doing this morning? I'm good. We've had some interesting things go on over the course of the last few days since we last spoke. Let's start with a couple of things that happened last evening. I was at a game

between the Grizzlies and the Heat, which I'll get to in a little bit, with my thoughts on that. But, you know, as I get done with the game and I come back home and I'm reading through all the headlines and trying to watch stuff back and getting up this morning, doing the same,

I keep seeing these headlines about Kauai Leonard being back. Kauai back, Kaui back. Kaui Leonard hits a big go-ah-head shot, all this stuff. And then I went and looked up the highlights, and I was like, is this where we are? I mean, the first one is like a layup underneath the basket.

The second one is, I mean, it's a nifty step back. The call of it is actually pretty good. The announcer goes, hot damn! I've never heard hot damn before. He qualified over made the shot. He goes, hot damn. The clippers are up. The clippers are up by two or puts them back up in front or whatever like that.

look, I think we're all very hopeful that Kauai Leonard can reclaim his perch as one of the best players in the league. But I got to say, Kev, a little underwhelmed with the Kauai is back and then what I found when I researched said topic. I mean, he looked okay. He probably looks better than he has the whole season throughout the duration of the game. Seven for 15 from the floor, scoring underneath the basket. some athletic layups, had the pump fake, creating space for his jumper, had some cool assists. He looked better.

He doesn't look like the full-on Kauai Leonard, though. I think to your point, Chris, that's where my hesitations are right now with the Clippers, right? Yeah, that's fair. To assume the Clippers can be an NBA finals contender is to assume that Kauai Leonard regains old form. I mean, the last version of him that we saw prior to his recent return, was a guy who was absolutely dominating in the NBA playoffs. Back in 2021 against Utah, he had 31 points and 34 points in his last two games, leading the Clippers to wins over to jazz.

He was absolutely unbelievable. He dominated the Mavs on the road in a huge game six of 45 points. That's the last version of Kauai Linder that we saw before he got hurt. This guy right now, I don't know how much of it is since he working himself back into shape. How much has he lost athletically? Because the burst doesn't seem to be there in the same way creating off the bounce.

We got to see it at some point. He's back. But it was nice to see last night, though. He hit a game winning jumper. It's really awesome. It's an encouraging sign. Last night, it felt like a step forward to me, but he's still not where he needs to be to consider the Clippers real contenders. He'll probably sit

out the next four games. I mean, that's the problem, man. I know. How much actually this is load management versus like an actual real, real, real issue. I don't know. We don't know. I don't know if the Clippers even know. I'm serious. Conversations of people around the league.

I'm not so sure that they even know. Do you think that you just walked in and they're like, hey, do you think you can play tonight? Nah. All right. All right. Moving on. I think Kauai is a mystery to everybody.

I think that's fair. Everybody. There's a reason why there hasn't been anything definitive reportings by like Ashams or the athletic or or whooge or whoever. There's a reason why. Nothing with his has followed your typical reporting of injury. It is typically injury, assessment of injury, rehabilitation plan,

come back. And he has never, from the time he was at San Antonio, he's never had that timeline. he's never followed the same timeline that we expect for every player. It's always been shrouded in mystery and to the point where we don't even really know what the injury is half the time over the course of the last several years. But look, if back meant he was back on the court and he hit a significant shot, then I will give it that. I just got to say, it's a little underwhelmed with the,

Kauai's back because I was expecting, oh, wow. And I was like, oh, he made a layup in a step back jumper. That's cool. I mean, hopefully he is able to get back. I just felt like watching him, but you're talking about being underwhelmed by the moves. Like, it just seemed like a lot of the moves. He did some of the stuff that he always does.

Like he had the play late in the game where he switched against Plumley. He has a pump fake, draws him in the air, creates an open three-point shot opportunity for Morris. It's like he's doing a lot of the stuff that he's done. Just it's happening a bit slower. All I'm saying is, look, let me explain. The first headline I saw was, Kauai Leonard hits huge go-ahead shot or tying, game-tying shot.

Yeah, and then I put it up the highlight. He's hitting the layup. Well, I put up the highlight. He's hitting a lay-up. Like, he's literally standing under the basket and he lays the ball up. My child could make that shot. Well, I mean, yeah. Oh, okay.

Big shot. I mean, that wasn't the game winner, I know. I know the step back. Yeah. Yeah, that's right. Church League. Look, what I wasn't.

It was a nice shot. It was a nice shot. It was a nice shot. Hot damn. Hot damn. The guy said, hot damn. Hot damn.

I was impressed. Big time impressed with the Andrew Nemhardt highlights. Oh, my goodness, dude. Holy moly. Now, we shouted him out. A week ago, he did that game winner against the Lakers off the Halliburton Pass. And we talked about Nemhard, and I pulled up your old draft guide, and we talked about the Brogden Comp.

And this kid last night, while a couple guys are sitting out for the Pacers, is this one-man tsunami against the Golden State Warriors, 31 points on 13 of 21, 5 of 7 from 3, 13 assists, eight rebounds, hits five threes, and shoots over 60% from the field. And I was amazed to find out that a game like that,

over 30 points, over 12 assists, over eight rebounds, while hitting five threes and shooting over 60%. It's only happened one time ever. And it's, LeBron James, his last year with the cabs,

in 2018. that's the only time somebody's done that before. And I know there are, you know. That's true? I didn't see that stat pole on Twitter. That's true. Yes. 31, 13, 8, 5-3s and shoot over 60%.

LeBron James in 2018. Well, obviously, like, we're cherry-picking with stats like that. I know, I know. But it's still, I mean, I know it's like cherry-picking isn't necessarily a bad thing to do to describe how good. great of a game of player has. That's what I think. I think it explains that there is a rarity to that.

And it's not like we're saying Andy shot over 43% from three. Andy had one steal. Like, you know what I mean? Like, these are pretty basic stats, having over 30 points, over 12 assists, over eight rebounds, while shooting a high percentage. And Andrew Demhardt, unbelievable. This guy's making a case for all rookie, which would be spectacular for a second round pick.

And the Pacers look like they've got a real one. The Warriors were effusive in praise after the game, as was their coach, Steve Kerr. Now, we could talk about how disappointing it is to lose to the Pacers without some guys. One more thing to add one quick note with him, the defense too. That's the thing.

like we mentioned last time we talked about him with like some of the switches on LeBron, fronting him, disturbing him on the post and the size advantage LeBron has. Like he did a good job on staff last night too. Like that's the other side of it. Like his defense has been really strong. Just how to throw that quick thought out there.

Well, and I'll tell you this, they're a long way towards, who knows how it's all going to play out for the Pacers as 82 games plays out. I'll tell you this. In between Halliburton, Matherin, and this kid, they got some special stuff.

to build around. You're not that far away if you build out with some other, and they've got assets that you can get tremendous stuff for. You can either decide to stick with the heels and the turners of the world, or you can flip them for guys that are maybe perfectly in line with the timeline of the guys you have, because you've got these guys in their first couple of years in the league that are special talents.

you know, that is, it's a rarity to be able to go and perform like that. When given the opportunity, especially when you're not playing with as good a teammate as you typically do night in, night out, he was given the stage, given the ball, and those are the results, at least for one night. And I do think that it's, you know, part and parcel to other nights that we have seen from him. This was the most spectacular, but this guy was ready to come. in the league, it could tribute immediately. And he was the the latest

casualty of ageism in the NBA draft. I don't know how many times we talk about this. It seems like every year. And there's these guys that are really good that have gotten bypassed for younger guys where the hope or the promise of tomorrow is that they will be better when they turn age 22 or whatever it may be.

But the truth is, this guy was already good at 21, and now at 22, the answer is a lot of those guys that are drafted ahead of him with the promise that they're going to be better are not going to be better even when they're 22. I mean, development is never linear. Right. And that's where you kind of catch yourself sometimes, where you assume a player who's 22 is older and close to. to their peak, which isn't always the case.

I mean, like, you've experienced this in Memphis, with Desmond Bain, who falls to 30. I had him ranked like, I don't know, 19, 20. I forget exactly that year. Top 20, I'm happy with the rank. I should have had him higher. I would have had him higher if he wasn't 22. Right?

So, like, even I was affected by that, even though I loved the player. And I said, oh, yeah, he can get better. You still, like, let the age, the number holds you back, even though it always shouldn't. Like, for some reason, Some players just, not all of them are elite performers at 17 years old where they enter college at a high level and then their top, you know, highly scouted NBA players.

Sometimes a player takes for their game to click or their body to develop physically until they're an upper class student in college. And Ben Hard was, I mean, he's 22 years old, man. It'll be 23, you know, in January. So he's an older player, but that doesn't mean that he can't get much better and become a high level NBA starter. I mean, I don't know. I mean, we'll see. It's just been a handful of spectacular games, but it's been also a lot of good games.

He's been consistently good. How many times over the years that we talked about Rick Carlisle not playing young players? Yep. Like, he trusts. He didn't have a choice. He didn't have a choice. I mean, he does.

Not anymore. And not anymore, no, but but he does. Like, he could play T.J. McConnell all those minutes. right? I mean, McConnell plays, but I'm just saying, like, McConnell, I'm not saying, like, he couldn't play McConnell even more than he already does. It's interesting the way it's playing out because he's not, yeah, but he's not in a win now situation. He's virtually, a lot of, they are winning, though. Virtually every team that Rick Carlisle has coached has been a team that is ready to win right now,

or he's trying to win every game every night. I mean, he's trying to win. Yeah, but I mean, come on, these guys are obviously pretty talented too. For sure. I mean, the fact they win last night, though, without Turner and without Halliburton. It felt like the Warriors were one of the easiest bets of the night to win.

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And it's not as much about that particular game as it is what is surrounding the Hawks since we last spoke, which is this Trey Young story about him and Nate McMillan getting into it and then him not being at the game. And so anyways, they put him out in front of the media yesterday. where he was going to answer questions. And forgive me for not knowing the reporter's name. It's obviously a local reporter in Atlanta. He had a channel 5 on his mic flag. But I don't know if you saw this, Kevin.

I did. Relentless. Relentless. Like, that's the, I love it when. Trade was like shots. Yeah, when a guy like that, you always like it when a guy like that walks in because, let's be fair.

guys that are around the team all of the time in cases like that, in many cases, and I love beat riders. But I mean, you do pussyfoot around the situation in many cases because you're going to be around that guy every single day. It's kind of like how in Toronto, nobody wants to talk about how terrible Fred Van Bleets been.

Right. And so, but this one is like a controversial topic. And this guy from Channel 5 was not going to at Trey Young off the hook. And I was amazed at the insane lack of preparation Trey Young had obviously done

for this moment. Like, this is a billion dollar industry. And I've been around this long enough to know. You have a meeting with your whole PR team and you've got somebody in charge PR and they're instructing you like here's the questions you're going to get here's how we want to deal with this here's what you say when they say this and he obviously had done literally no media training on this at all because he was like basically blaming the it's almost like when draymond

talked about the video getting out like that was the bad part it was the story getting out and so that was, you know, it's very unfortunate that a private conversation is made public like this, but it's private and it's unfortunate that that's made public and it's hard for people to know on the outside the whole situation because this is a private thing that became public. And basically it's not for you to know. And I'm just sitting there. why. I mean, it's wildly uncomfortable for anybody that didn't see it. And at one point, the reporter was like, yeah, but Trey, like, it became public. Like, it is public. And what

is very public is that you weren't there at the game supporting your teammates. Like, we can see the bench and you weren't there on the bench. And he was like, well, I was hurt, you know, and I wasn't playing at the game. And he's like, well, John Collins is in a boot on the bench supporting his teammate. I was like, oh, oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no.

That was Zach Klein, I believe, right, the post of the video. I'm not sure if that was the reporter in the clip. I believe it was. There's channels two. Channel two, Zach Klein. Oh, it was. Okay, I apologize. WSB, Channel 2, Atlanta, ABC TV, Zach.

He should have started the interview by saying, welcome to hell, Trey. I showed up to ask the questions here. He's like, John Collins is in a boot on the bench. What's your problem? He's like, it's private. If you want to talk about this situation anymore, you're going to have to talk to somebody else. It's a private situation, whatever. It's like, oh, God.

Like, they should have, somebody with the hawk should have prepared this guy as to how to deal with this. It was interesting to read the replies on Twitter and the quote tweets. Like you have a lot of people saying like, you know, this reporter, you know, went too far. I would have punched that reporter. Great theater. You also see people saying stuff like, oh, it's great to see like a player actually questioned for, you know, people are paying all this money to go to games. It's just very interesting to see the different types of responses.

to that exchange. Personally, I loved it. I absolutely loved it. Maybe I'm a little biased. We work on the media side, but it was very cool to see like Trey get taken aback by a hard line of questioning about

a pretty, it's a serious story. Like you get in an argument about your coach and you decide not to show up to the game. Yeah. At all, when you're Trey Young, the face of the franchise, I mean, that's a huge story.

Well, in fairness to him, in fairness to him, I felt like the Amick story framed it as Nate McMillan saying, if you're not going to do this and you're not going to do that, don't even show up. And McMillan came out and said that he never said, don't show up. That was the one part of McBillan responded to publicly. Regardless of the fine details. Yeah. Of all the reporting and what Trey wants to keep private, regardless of all of all of that, for them to come out flat the way they did and lose the Oklahoma City at home.

Yep. Kind of an embarrassment after this entire year that they've had with John Collins, constantly in the trade room recycle still. Bogdanovich out back in recently, Young and Murray trying to get to get, you know, get it together. work together. Hunter out. Yeah, exactly. Like this has been...

Hurt or killing it in sack? Yeah. Despite Atlanta being over 500, they don't feel like a team that has any chance of taking a step forward right now without a move. But ultimately, though, I think more than anything else,

Trey Young, I like Trey, they got DeJante Murray hoping that he'd buy in more often, moving off ball, cutting, playing harder on defense. That has not happened. So unless Trey starts doing that at some point, I don't think this team is ever going to be able to reach its ceiling.

Trey is not Steph. Like when I talk about him cutting, moving off ball, coming off screens, but like going back to Oklahoma, we've talked about this before. He's good. He just doesn't do it. Leadership-wise, he ain't stepped is the big thing. Well, that's true, of course.

And Steph's also a great defender. Trey is not. Well, and here's the thing, for people that have been listening to us for a long time, we've been on this podcast for seven years, and I think at least once or twice the season, I end up talking about years ago covering Hubey Brown and him talking about you've got to have your best player on your side. When you are the coach, you have got to have your best player on your side. And you could go through virtually every situation where a coach was gone at the end of a year.

And I can ask you the question, do you think he had his best player on his side? And whether that is, you know, some people thought James Borago did a fine job in Charlotte. But he was gone. He was gone from Charlotte. And some people thought, certainly Kenny Atkinson, they thought he did a good job in Brooklyn. those guys came in he didn't have them same thing just went with steve nash he didn't have the best player on his side and it's like here we are again and this is going to be the last two because clearly mcmillan doesn't is not in lockstep with his best player right and the question is going to be

like okay how do you go forward from here do you just keep trying coaches until you find one that Trey can be in lockstep with, or is this going to be a thing? Or it's going to be very difficult for him to be, you know, on the same page. Because they had a tremendous amount of success together a couple years ago by getting to the Easter conference finals, and it looked like McMillan was very good for Trey and the Hawks at large after they had run off Lloyd Pierce.

And so that's, I think, one of the overwhelming sentiments that I feel about this particular story is here is another case of do you see the alignment between the best players or best player on a team and their head coach? And I think we could say without question that is not true in Atlanta. And it's troubling. One of the interesting things along the lines of what you're saying, Chris, Sam Amick went on real ones with Logan and Rajah on Monday. and he said something about how

if you pulled the players, right, whose side are you on? Trey Young or Nate McMillan? He said that they'd be on McMillan's side, the players. So McMillan might not have the support of Trey Young, but he might have the support of the locker room. And if that's the case, right? You know, what he said was like it's a,

like this is a symptom or a microcosm of some of the bigger issues the Hawks that have right now. Like this might be bigger than, this might be a star player problem, not just a coaching problem where like the, Trey might be losing the locker room. And I wonder how much of that is DeJante Murray coming in and him being this guy who hustles, who grinds on defense, who plays selflessly on offense, whether he's getting heavy touches or not. I wonder how much of that's a factor here with what's going on with.

Trey. Being a great teammate. Yes. Great team. Exactly. Leading by example and with your actions, the choices you make. That's fascinating. That's fascinating. So I wonder, like, could this be a Trey? Is this really a Trey story? I'm not a, is, you know,

McMillan going to be fired midway through? Like, this could actually be, uh, what's going on with Trey? How will he grow from this? And if he doesn't, what do the Hawks do about it? Type of situation. It could be that. Because it's not even your typical, like, star player kev he's the face of that franchise yeah and when your face of the franchise he's having these kind of i'm not showing up to a game because i got into a tiff with the coach it's baby

behavior yeah for sure i mean like like de jante he seems like kind of the more the leader right now yeah i don't know that that that's that's just something on my mind after listening to that podcast and and you know maybe trace right is all a much bigger deal. Like you're making it out to be a bigger deal than it actually is. Maybe that's the case. But we've had a long enough track record of some of this type of stuff that I tend to side.

If I'm picking sides, I think the reporting from Sharania and Amick probably is a lot closer to the truth than what Trey Young is willing to talk about publicly. Let me tell you something, Kev. If it weren't a big deal, it wouldn't elite. Somebody wanted that. Yep. You're right. People wanted people to know that.

Atlanta's leaking like crazy. Yeah. Collins is available. We like Coosma, this Trey Young stuff happening. They want it to leak because it's the same reason I know about like Trey Young, the desire to have them play off ball more often. It's like all this stuff leaks out from somewhere, whether it's directly from Atlanta or whether it's from other sources who inside the league

who hear it from Atlanta. Regardless of where it's from when it hits the report, it hits the reporter, it's all leaking because they want it out there. Well, and here's, hey, you want me to put on some real tin foil? That's why they didn't even prepare him for those questions that he was going to be getting. They want the pressure on him. They want him to learn through this and get better from it because they know if he doesn't get better from it, it's going to fail and it's going to result in them having to make a choice that they don't want to make

because it should be better than it is. Because they either. Between Trey and Murray, it should be better. They either didn't help him public relations-wise or he didn't listen to him when it came to, how can I make this go away, how can I diffuse this? Right? Yeah. Because you come up with a reason as to why you weren't at the game other than it's private

and it's a shame that it became public and basically I can go read the article and find out why you weren't at the game. Like you should, as a face of a franchise, you should, again, even if it's cockamamee me. Just give me, what was the reason? Why were you not there? We all read what the report is, is the reason you weren't there. Well, what do you say?

Why aren't you there on the bed? John Collins is there in a boot. Why aren't you there? If it's not what we think it is, then he just, he was not ready. And then the team came out and, you know, played pretty poorly and took a home loss to Oklahoma City, which is a team that certainly you're expecting to be able to beat at this stage of your development with the Atlanta Hawks. Let me tell you a guy that is in line with this coach, Anthony Davis.

Oh, yeah. My God. They love them. Look, I really liked this hire in L.A. I worried about the situation just for Darvin Ham that, you know, being a first-time coach, taking that over, but I've covered guys from this Popovich-Budenhoser line of guys. And many times over the years we've brought up that that Boodin-Hulzer staff that was in Atlanta has netted some fantastic coaches that have had a lot of success,

whether that was Quinn Snyder, whether that was Kenny Atkinson, that was Taylor Jenkins now in Memphis, and Darwin was the last guy that had not gotten a head job yet, though he had interviewed for many, and he was still with Bud. And Darvin Ham, obviously has, for all the problems with the Lakers early in the season, he's got those guys playing, and he's got his best players playing better than they ever have before. And, you You can easily say like, oh, well, this is just about Anthony Davis and the fact that he's finally healthy. And sure, there's a portion of it where, and he's even said, where he's healthy. But he is being put in positions to succeed on a regular basis.

And beyond that, he is playing with the level of intensity that we just have not seen in a long, long time. there was the one where he missed that first shot against the Wizards this weekend. Oh, then the dunk over both of them. Oh, my God. He's trying to rip the basket off the station. I'm like, who is this guy? Like the damn incredible Hulk. He's swinging on the rim and he's like,

ah! And I'm like, what? My theory is he's a loyal listener of the Bill Simmons podcast, and he heard me and Bill talking a couple weeks ago about how he's not the same. The Lakers should explore trades. and he's like, Bill got me heated. 55 points, 22 of 30 from the field.

He's got 99 in his last two games because he had 44 versus the bucks. And over the last 10 games, the Lakers are 8 and 2, he is 34 points, 15 rebounds, 63% from the field. Like, we got to really recalibrate, Kevin. if this is even a large percentage of what we're going to see out of Anthony Davis, then you've got one of the best players in the league. When you've got one of the best players in the league, you've got a chance to be a contender.

End of story. Well, they've got two of the best players in the league because they all sell the Braun James. Correct. I mean, the way they've kind of pivoted to run more of the show through AD. It's not like they're doing it where he's Like so many of those baskets in that 55 point game Weren't self-created. He wasn't like running pick and roll. It's not like he brought the ball up the court sometimes

But most of the shots he hit or the free throws that he drew Were as a result of the actions of others, cuts to the rim, You know, dump off passes, transition sprints, you know, screen and rolls. Like so much of it was created by others and he was the finisher. And that's what he does. at such an elite level. They're running through him in a sense that they're creating more chances with the intentions of getting him opportunities to finish near the basket.

And it's cool to see them do that because I think we're seeing when you have LeBron James, that's what you can still do in an elite level. When you have Russell Westbrook, he can still pass the ball. He can still create for you. And so I think they're playing to the strengths of their players and obviously to the great strengths of AD as a finish near the basket. And having Schroeder back helps as well. Another guard who could create, he had eight assists in that game, several of them to

AD. So I think they've surrounded AD with all of these creators to give him opportunities to finish. And their offense just seems like it's running so much more smoothly doing that rather than some of the mid-range three-point attempts by LeBron. it feels like it's just working better now. How sustainable is it? Can EAD stay healthy?

Obviously, these are big questions. He's being treated as the best player on the team. Yeah, exactly. They're giving him all those opportunities to score. Look at these field goal attempts, Kev. 27 and 30 in the last two games? Who do you see taking 27 and 30 field goals in games? They're treating them like a basketball god right now, right?

To get that many shots per game, it's nuts and it's deserves. Oh yeah, he makes him. That win they had against the Bucks, I mean, I know we mentioned the 55-point game against Washington, but when he had 44 against the Bucks and played awesome defense the whole game, I mean, I know Bucks score 129,

I don't really care, 80 individually, contain Yonnas on so many occasions, created transition opportunities. He's looking like a DPOI candidate, if the Lakers can get good, as well as, you know, another all NBA season for him. It's just a matter of staying healthy.

That's it. And that's the fear for the Lakers. If they make a bet on LeBron and AD by trading away, whatever it is, whether it's Beverly or none or Russ or all the above, like that's a bet on Anthony Davis staying healthy. That's a big bet to make.

But doesn't it feel like they're nearing the point where you kind of have to make that bet, Chris? Of course. playing at, right? Of course you got to make that bet. I mean, look, this guy is averaging, as I mentioned, over the course of the last 10, 34 and 15, but for the season, he's averaging 29, 13,

almost three assists the game, 59% from the field, 33% from three. Like, he's playing the best basketball of his life. You know, and I think we have, because of all the injuries and everything, we have all sight to, he's not old. Not old. No, he's not even 30 yet.

I know. He's guys in his 20. It feels like he's old because of all the injuries because he's been around for a long time because he only played the one year at Kentucky. But this isn't an old player. You know, he's actually not far off from the same age of many of the great players in the league.

It just doesn't feel that way. He feels older. But he has been unbelievable. I mean, absolutely unbelievable. Bottom line is the way he's performed these last couple of weeks, the Lakers have two top ten guys, right? now. Right?

At this particular moment, I mean, we'll see how sustainable it is, but at this particular moment, the Lakers have two top 10 guys. And it's on that front office, assuming this sustains until its trade season, December 15th at the earliest, more likely middle of January,

early February. If this sustains and the Lakers keep winning games throughout this tough stretch, and they're above 500 and they're in the playing, within striking distance of a top six seed, the West right now there's no like we just saw the Warriors lose to the Pacers

the Suns right now are top of the conference but they're without guys we don't know what the health of Chris Paul is going to be like the West is wide open wide open so the the Lakers right now they're the 13 in the standings in the West but they're only two games back from the six seed

like it's so flat right now they're still in it And based upon recent performance, when you can go to Milwaukee and beat them, what a win, yeah. Then you can beat anybody. Yep. It's as good a win as you can get at Milwaukee. Like, all right, then what's the bar? If you can win that game, it's not like, you know, okay, if we wanted to just say, oh, yeah, they beat the lizards.

Like that Milwaukee thing is one to perk up about. Yeah. It's just like nobody, like in the east, Boston and Milwaukee are separating them. I feel. I don't think that's happened in the West yet. Not at all. And look, one thing I do have to mention of a game, we're not going to get the depth into the game. It's a good

win for the Mabs in what has been a rather frustrating season for the Mabs and their fans. It was a good win against the Sons last night. I had to tell you, this doesn't happen very often where I'm like looking through box scores. And I went and checked three

different box scores that were posted on different sites to make sure that this was right. So about a week ago, we talked about on the mismatch, how I was going to drive down to South Haven, Mississippi, and I was going to see Jaden Hardy. It was leading the G League in points per game, at 29 points per game. He's just killing the G league. And if you go look at the Mavs Phoenix box score last night, it says Jaden Hardin, two minutes

four for five for the field, 10 points. I was like, there's no way. I was like, that can't be right. That's got to be a misprint. There's no way the dude played two minutes and had 10 points. And five shots. And sure enough, every box score I checked, like, that happened. The guy had 10 points in two minutes.

He was on some, you know, Tracy McGrady-ish. I mean, that's a heater now. You can, if you get, that, it reminds me of, you remember how, like, used to always, if you ever did, like, the per minute thing, like the per 48. Oh, yeah, right. And you would go and you would pull up Bobon and it'd be like 46 points and 28 rebounds per 48 minutes or whatever. Like, Bobon, like, if you extrapolated his rebounds and points into per 36es, the

Guys like, damn, Will Chamberlain, and as we know, if he would have played 36, he's obviously, he's a 10, 8 to 12-minute guy. But the Hardy thing, he's got to have the best. We got to go look at this. I wish I would have done this before the show. I got to go look up his. I gotcha. What is his per 36 right now after scoring 10 points in two minutes? Well, including the whole season, it's a little lower because.

Oh, no. He's gotten enough minutes. Per 36, he's at 28 points per game. I mean, he's in the top 10, 12 in the league and scoring. Yeah, if we do just the last two games per 36, last two games per 36, per 36, he's averaging 60 points. So there you go. Jay Nardi, shout out for your 10 points.

two minutes. That's tough to do. That is tough to do. He's a bucket. Yeah. I was like, surely he played 12 minutes and this box score is just screwy. And then I went and checked another site. Then I went and checked another site.

And I was like, no way. And so I was having to check all that stuff last night after I got back because I went to Grizzly's heat and I don't have a ton of thoughts. The grizzly sat everybody and still beat them. Obviously not very impressed. I mean, there you go. I mean, so what does that say about Miami? Oh, I know.

Look, and Tyos Jones had a career high in points, which was a 20. I didn't watch that game last night. It was a Lowry, Hero. Who is Jones scoring, I guess? If I say nobody, does that count? Maybe. I mean, it's Tyos Jones coming off a screen knocking down floaters. It's Tyos Jones knocking down threes and them losing track of him, right?

Like, I mean, Tyas was great last night, but the, I think, this is my opinion from watching them. I think the heat are, they need more size. They're too little. So what does that say about Bam? Bam is, you know. It's all on him. It's literally all on him. So who do you surround him with?

He's not a shooter. Bam, Adam Adabio is not a shooter. So you've got to find like a Chris Stap's Porzingis type who can protect the rim. with size and space the floor. That's hard. Miles Turner. Not easy to find. Yeah.

Perfect. Perfect fit. Is that a guy? Yeah. It'd be a perfect fit. They just need more size. Their other size is terrible. Dwayne Deadman had like 4,000, like two minutes.

It's ridiculous. They don't have anything else. Like, it's really all on BAM. Stephen Adams, was he problematic with his size in the game last night? I mean, just everybody. It's just points in the paint. You know, points in the paint, points in the paint. And the other thing is that they don't,

I think they carry themselves like, and I've seen a lot of these teams over the years, a team that is not all that interested in your night to night, regular season wins and thinks they can turn it up when they have to. They'll play hard and really lock in their biggest games like they did against the Celtics over the weekend. but other than that, you know, you don't know what kind of performance

you're going to get out of them. And it doesn't seem very locked into me. They seem like they just kind of go through the motions and figure, all right, last eight minutes of the game, we'll get stops, knocked down shots, and we'll be able to come away with a win. And then you can catch them, and they're getting caught on regular occasion doing that.

I also think that this is foolhardy, but they're probably a team that thinks, got a lot of playoff experience, we've got Jimmy Buckets, you know, whatever seed we get is fine. Like, we'll play wherever. Do you think there's any chance that their time has passed, though? I know you've been hesitant to go that far. I mean, there's certainly a chance.

But I also think that, I think they're a different team when they lock in. And, I mean, we saw it against Boston over the weekend. They were locked in for that game. They were locked in for that game. And so I do think that they're, I think they can be two different teams. They can be this lame-ass team. Or they can be the team that, you know, is a bitch and has Jimmy Butler. I mean, Jimmy Butler, but Jimmy Butler took like 11 shots last night.

Like, do you think in any big game he's taking 11 shots? Like, never. It's never happening. But I think that that's kind of indicative of that team. They just kind of, you know, they feel like they could turn it on when they have to. It's a fair point. It's a fair point. Like Jimmy Butler in those big games, you know, the game sixes and the game sevens.

he's like he didn't he take 29 30 shots in that road win against Boston that game 6 last year in the East finals I mean like and then in the game 70s took almost 30 shots too yeah I mean yeah it's a totally different game you're right you're 100% right about that Chris totally different game but I so I still don't think

I think your point about the lack of size is a good one though that that that could hurt them in certain playoff rounds and Lowry also was not the same guy right now. No. And they're just, they put a lot on BAM. I think their leading rebounder was hero last night.

I mean, I think that speaks to, you know, and they're playing the team that makes its way in the paint. You know, but the Crisleys, I mean,

there was no John Morant, no Desmond Bain. No, no Sharon Jackson. No, no nobody, no Zier Williams. I mean,

they just, they sat everybody and still beat them. Chris culture. Is there like a new grit and grind slogan? Um, is there anything? Not like that, not like that. Yeah. Not like Big Memphis is what they always.

Okay. Because that's what Jigeld, I guess, last year. Gotta get down to Memphis sometime this year. You have to. You have to. Yeah, in fact, they got a bunch of home games this week. I'll see Oklahoma City tomorrow night. And then I can't remember who I see.

Friday night. But I mean, they've got a, it's a bunch of games in a short amount of time, which is why there were guys that were sitting last night. Oh, Detroit. Detroit is the other team I see. And then I'll get to then the next week, they play like Atlanta and Milwaukee. So I'm going to see a bunch of teams in person over the course of the next like eight days. Last thing before we get out of here, what do you make of this Kyle Kuzma rumor? Kuzma's been great for Washington and it kind of got floated out there by Shams. Way better than Jay Crowder. Well, on one end.

The Hawks and the Suns, you like either of those as options for? You do. I love it. Yeah, I do. I think if your Coosbe, you'd much rather go to the Suns right now. Yeah, no doubt about that, yeah.

Go to Trace Funland in Atlanta. I think I'd rather go to Phoenix. I mean, even, even, with the suspended owner and the chaos that they had to endure over the course of the offseason, it'd still certainly be a much better landing spot. But the fact that that's out there and the fact that the idea that he's going to command a lot of money in the off season, and so they would be making a choice. He's been very, very good for Washington.

I don't know. It'll be very interesting to see what the Wizards do here because they're darn to lose games a lot. Beal's going to be out a little while now. To me, their team stuck in no man's land at the moment, and they should be picking a direction here, and that direction is to be part of the Wembe contenders. That's just me. I don't know if Tommy Shepard and Wizards front office and ownership

are going to need Bradley Beale to demand a trade to make that happen. But that's the no-brainer path to me, is to move towards a rebuild rather than toil in the middle and accomplish nothing. I mean, as simple as that. Like, they get to blow it up. Yeah, it's going to be super interesting to see what happens with the Wizards and Kuzva,

because I think they've been a little better than we thought they were going to be. All right, Kiv, that's going to do it for today's show. Thank you to Jesse Lopez, as always, for producing the show. And Kev, I will talk to you on Friday. Have a good week, everybody.