The Mismatch - Team USA's World Cup Woes, KOC’s Franz Crush, and the NBA's New Rest Rules

Episode Date: September 12, 2023

Verno and KOC recap the FIBA World Cup and discuss what went wrong for Team USA, before showing some love to Dillon Brooks and Team Canada (01:58). After congratulating Germany for beating Serbia to win the World Cup, the guys debate how good Franz Wagner can be (19:15). KOC shares what he saw from the top prospects in Las Vegas after a series of exhibition games between the G League Ignite against the Perth Wildcats (41:59). Also, the guys dive into the new rule regarding resting star players (47:35). 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 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

Football is officially back and we've got you covered right here on the Ringer NFL feet. I'm Shield Capadia and every Tuesday and Friday, Ben Solek and I will be bringing you extra point taken. Nora Prentiotti here to tell you that Stephen Ruiz and I will be coming to you every Monday and Thursday. Our Monday show will recap everything from Sunday's games. Thursday show will encompass any news during the week with an eye towards the next slate of games.

Subscribe to the Ringer NFL show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcast. Be sure to follow the Ringer NFL on Instagram. TikTok and Twitter at Ringer NFL. Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon. And joining me he does every Monday night from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Brien, Kevin O'Clymouth, Kevin O'Clymouth, Kevin O'Candee, Kevin O'Compel. Kevin O'Keele.

Oh, how does it feel that Sharon Jackson Jr. is responsible for the USA not meddling? How dare you? How dare you start off this podcast like that? As far as I know, he didn't play in the Canada game. So you couldn't blame him for the fourth place finish, not even getting bronze, a disgrace. They've already got LeBron James picking up the bat phone to rally the Avengers for the Paris Olympics.

He really can't keep himself out of the spotlight, can't he? It's unbelievable. I mean, as if Stefan Curry all year, long has been saying, yeah, I'm going to play in the 2024 Olympics. But no, it's LeBron. He's the one picking up the phone. All right. So, look, the United States

fell short in their quest to become world champions in the World Cup. So they fell short and in fact, even fell short of meddling. A huge moment for Canada as they were able

to get the bronze medal by beating the United States. And we will get to them here in a moment. But you kind of chronicled this in an article that was put out by the ringer.com. Great, great website. Great website. Four thoughts on Team USA's collapse to the 2023 Feeba World Cup. And you kind of went through one by one. So let's just start with the United States and why we are talking about

a failure of the basketball program in the World Cup for our fine country? I mean, I think there's so many different ways people have been talking about this. Some people are saying it's a failure of AAU to develop hardcore, defensive-oriented players, selfless players. I don't subscribe to that so much, Chris, as much as I just, I look at the roster. being what it was. I mean, like, clearly this wasn't the best that the USA could send. Tom Havistro on his new substack, The Finder called it the USA E team,

not even the B team or the C team or the D team, but the E team, which might be accurate, but I still think the E team on paper is better than any of the other rosters that were out there with the competition this year, with the amount of NBA level talent, which is why in my article in the ringer,

I kind of point to the finger at managing director Grant Hill and head coach Steve Kerr for some of the choices that they made with the roster and some of the choices that they made with the rotation. I have a hard time pointing the finger at the players. You know, I say to you about Jaron Jackson at the top of the pod, like him not rebounding and all that. But Jaron Jackson Jr. never should have been expected to be the five. That's not his role.

And yet the only true center on that team was Walker, And then you got Paulo Bancaro playing the five, oftentimes off the bench. You got Bobby Portis, who is not nearly as good as a bunch of options that they could have targeted for Team USA, whether it was Mitchell Robinson or Jared Allen. There's a long list of guys that you could go after that were better suited for FIFA basketball. And I think that comes down to some Akura's decision with the roster that he was given by Grant Hill and the decisions Grant Hill made with the roster itself, not targeting

some of those guys that like Herb Jones, Jada McDaniels, Tari East and Emmanuel Quickly, Christian Brown, like there's a lot of American players who have that puffness and that versatility on defense and that selflessness that I think could have helped add variety to this roster that ended up having too much overlap with the on-ball scoring. I think there's a couple of things that I've noticed just from,

because I really liked this team, especially at the beginning, and I enjoyed watching them. But as it went on, and the competition got better. They were, it was a great matchup to have Italy. And then their next three games as the competition got greater.

And I think this is a lesson also for Canada, who ended up with the bronze. And yet, if you're going to go player for player, they weren't in the final either, right? The final feature Germany and Serbia. And I think that when I was, watching this, I walked away going, I know there's going to be a lot of people that trash the roster, that trash the strategy, you know, Steve Kerr dedicating to switching everything,

and that these good teams and these teams that had full grown men on them, they just absolutely punished the United States for being a switching team. The Austin Reeves post-ups, especially in multiple games. And they would just like, there were games, like even if you watched that last, game where you would have, say, Schrooter at the top, and you'd have McHall Bridges guarding him. And then they would screen off. And now Jared Jackson Jr. is out there guarding him. And then they would screen off again until they got Austin Reeves and then he put tire marks on him.

And it's like they were just going to decide if you're going to switch everything, we're going to keep switching until we get a matchup. And even McEl Bridges, outstanding defender. But he's not an outstanding defender when he's getting bully balled down by the rim, right? He's a stick figure as compared to some of these guys. These were full-grown-ass men. And I think that's part of it. The other thing, and I know they say the E-team or whatever,

I think the most important part of that is team. That this is a team sport. And I know they're never going to get the three-year dedication from guys and that you're going to take these same group of guys that play together as a team. But the world stage and basketball all over has gotten so much better everywhere. And these teams have gotten so much better as teams. Now, yes, there are their missons of guys too, right? Greece doesn't have Janus. Serbia doesn't have Yokic and Latvia didn't have Porzengis.

And there's other players that are, yeah, yes. But if you were going to line up and you were going to say, all right, who has the two most talented teams? If we accept the NBA is the best league in the world, therefore the players that play in the NBA are the best players in the world as a group. The two teams that had the most NBA players were both teams that are basically thrown together and sent to go win. And so talent doesn't trump. And I don't think that people remember it was no cakewalk the last Olympics. It took everything they had. They were tested over and over again.

And the other thing is like the World Cup, you had in your article that they've won, I think it was what, two of six, With FIBA and then five of six with the Olympics over the same time span. Right, the World Cup. So we care deeply when we lose it, right? All of a sudden it becomes a thing. And we need to change this and we need to think about the strategy. We need to think about the roster or whatever else. I mean, it's just this lesson of if you are going to have a system where you're just trying to throw together a collection of guys and then say,

we're going to go practice, we're going to have a training camp, then we're going to play a couple exhibitions, then you're going to go up to play against these teams that know each other, play against each other, and in many cases, there might be one or two guys that they're putting into their team, right, in the sense of if Porzenga shows up, then he'll go and play for Lapia.

But they're getting him involved in that. Or when Yokic shows up and he plays, or Yonis shows up and he plays. But the rest of that team is that team, and they've been playing together for a long time in many cases and know each other. But the teams that have a lot of talent that are just kind of thrown together, they're the ones that fell short. And these are well-coached teams.

It is a different game than the NBA game for certain. All you have to do is watch it. And I think that if you just throw it together and say, hey, go out there and win, you better have Steph Curry, LeBron, James, and Kevin Durant. Because if you have anything less than that,

like that's where talent could overwhelm. But if you're taking your second and third tier stars, you're not going to be able to overwhelm these teams with talent. Canada couldn't do it and the United States couldn't do it. I still think they should have won.

USA, that is. They are the most talented. Yeah, they still were. I still. I still think they had enough to do it, which is why I focused on what I did with the article. But to your point, Chris, you are right about the chemistry aspect and how some of these teams have spent years playing together and developing that. And that gives you an edge. But some of it also is like it's just straight up. Like Germany wins at all. Franz Wagner, Mo Wagner, Daniel Tice, Dennis Schrooter.

like these are all NBA names as well and they got a lot of good individual performances and collective team performance as well. Serbia, they don't have Yokic and they still go all the way to the final. Brent, they finish with Silver. For the USA, even if they do have LeBron and K.D. and

Steph and Devin Booker and Tatum and Butler and A.D. and BAM next year, yeah, they're the favorite. But if Serbia is adding Yokic and some of these other teams are fully loaded, there's still no guarantee that the USA win because of that chemistry aspect you're talking about where the overwhelming amount of talent may not outweigh the teamwork aspect and the chemistry

aspect that those other countries will have in their favor. And Kev, the other thing is there's a pecking order that comes along with teams that only develops in time. You saw when it came down to it, the United States just devolved into Anthony Edwards, go one-on-one and do whatever. And he made it, you know, he took,

he had the, he had the one where he went to the basket. He had the stepback three. And then he had one of the worst shots you'd ever want to take in what was a super tight game. And then he thought Jaron Jackson was cutting and he just threw the ball out of bounds. And it's like,

the ball's not even the entire, it's like, Halliburton's just standing over there in the corner. It's like, he's not even part of the play. Like, they're not, they don't even use a point guard.

Like Jay La Brunson ain't running it. It looked like you just rolled out the ball and now we're playing hero ball. And maybe one pass if you're lucky. But no, it all broke down. They weren't even having the ball in the point guard's hands. It was, you're going to live and die with Anthony Edwards just being like the Kobe role. And when it mattered most, they didn't play as a team on offense or on defense. And I think that that is, that's where you just don't have reps.

You see this with NBA teams too? You know, it takes a while to figure out, okay, what are we going to down the stretch? Like, you know that is why some of these teams that have been together so long, they know what they're going to in Milwaukee. They know what they're going to in Denver. There's no mystery. We're running that Murray Yokic pick and roll, and we're playing off that, and you can figure it out.

And there's a lot of teams that know exactly what they're going to do. The United States had no idea. When it came time that they needed stops and they needed buckets, it was just one-on-one basketball. And I guess you could just say, well, if it's going to devolve into that, you just need, that player needs to be Steph Curry. Then maybe it'll deliver. But I think it's, I think it's tough.

It's obviously disappointment. It's a disappointment for sure. You mentioned Germany. I said, what, two episodes? Before the actual tournament even started, because this got picked up by some Toronto people that were tweeting me about it. They had extracted that clip where I said,

if you, as I had watched the exhibitions, I said, if you turn on some random game, you would think Dennis Schrooter is one of the best 30 players in the NBA. Like the guy was amazing in this deal. Absolutely amazing. And that German team was very, very good. Super impressive.

The Serbian team, which is the one that knocked off Canada, very impressive themselves. But let's touch on, before we move on, let me touch on Canada real quick, because I do have to mention the Dylan Brooks thing. Dylan Brooks shot 60% from three in the tournament, seven for eight in the final, and then the third place game. As someone who has known Dylan since he came into the league, was rooted for Dylan throughout this entire time.

I wish that Dylan would have showed up against the Warriors when Steve Kerr decided not to guard him. I wish it would have showed up against the Lakers. last year when they decided not to guard him. I don't know where it was, but he has said that he loves the support that he gets from his Canadian brethren. And then after yesterday,

he said that there is a contraption that he is used, which is, basically it measures the arc of your shot. Oh, he did say that, really, interesting. Oh, yeah, because in my article, I mentioned Dylan Brooks, And I was like, it doesn't look like his shooting mechanics have changed, but maybe there's some type of difference.

And he found an arc that he liked. Interesting. So there is something different. I was watching video back and forth of his hands, of his footwork and his gather and everything like that. I didn't, the arc. I should have just watched the press conference. I can't remember the name of the contraption.

But it's basically, like if you have ever been, they have them here. I think they have them out where you live too. There's these chains called shoot 360. It's a great place. Anybody that has it in their market, it's fantastic. But you go into these gyms and they've got the nets that come out all the way around the rim. And when you shoot it, every shot you take is tracked.

And it's telling you, it's almost like on 2K when you try to get green, Noah basketball. Noah basketball, that's the ever bill. that know about, okay, yeah. That's it. And teams all have. Because with Dylan Brooks, it's not like he doesn't have touch. He's an 80% guy from the free throw line in his career. Right. So I think anytime you have a guy who's around 80% from the free throw line, but they struggle from three, it's like, well, what's the disconnect?

Why isn't it working from behind the arc? So maybe with Dylan Brooks, it could be a tiny sample here. And then he goes back to, you know, Earth come regular season with the Rockets. But if he does make improvements, if this is for real that he at least shoots 37, 38% from 3, not even 40 plus percent, but 37, 38%, or even 35, 36, that changes how you perceive Dylan Brooks as a player because he'll be at least good enough that you can't sag off of him and treat him like he can't shoot at all. You can't treat him like Ben Simmons.

You can't treat him like that, like Andre Robertson. and if he's the same good defender that he's been for years now and he's shooting, that changes who you view him as, as a player. And perhaps we got a tweet sent to us the other day. Someone said in their best Bill Simmons voice, are we sure Marcus Smart is an upgrade from Dylan Brooks? Oh, for God's sake.

Look, let me say this. The Fiba 3 is a long two in the NBA. And if there's a shot that Dylan Brooks knows, it's a long two. the other thing I will say is that it would be so funny if Dillon Brooks is better than Marcus Smart

0% chance it would be hilarious if it did happen no it would not be hilarious it would be very funny let me say this he's also had months where he has just absolutely

shot the cover off the wall he is a very streaky guy very streaky even last season. I was looking at his numbers yesterday when I was writing the article. He had like a stretch where he was like six straight weeks where he's like

40% from 30. When it runs hot, it runs hot. Yes. Yep. Which is why it's tiny sample here. Let's see how he sustains it until April. That's right. Gildes-Alexander was fantastic for Canada as well. We talked about how he was great last season. We spent a lot

of time on him last episode. Let's move to Germany because there you are. There you are. Top 20. Top 20. Franz Wagner. Here you are showing up with your Franz Wagner. Oh, Franz Wagner did something good. Okay, now I can go tweet out.

And I can write an article saying, hey, I told him first Vernon that he's going to be top 20 guy. I never said in the article. I never said that you didn't say he wouldn't be, just that I said it to you. And the craziest thing is that while I was effusive in my. praise about Franz Wagner. He is the only player in NBA history that's saying I don't think he's a top

20 or going to be a top 20 NBA player is an insult. There's literally 450 friggin guys in the league. And if you say, I don't know if they'll ever get to the top 20, it's like, what the hell?

All right, look, it's just off the top of my head. I'm not even going to mention, I'm not even going to mention, like, all right, you got all the All-Stars, all the NBA guys, right? Like all the Curries and the Butler's and the Yokic and the Yonis and the all of them, right? I'm just going to take guys that are in their first five years, okay? And you tell me, let's go ahead, foot to the fire. Next five years you want, you want Scotty Barnes or Franz Wagner?

Wagner, okay? You want Evan Mobley or Franz Wagner? Wagner. You want Cade Cunningham or Franz Wagner? I'll take Cade just give him the benefit of the doubt with the injury last year. You want Tyrese Halliburton or Franz Wagner? Halliburton. You want Paulo Bancaro, his teammate, or Franz Wagner?

Franz Wagner. You do not believe that. I do. I do. Because, and here's why, with Bancero. Bencaro is so far behind Wagner on the defensive end and is a shooter. With Wagner, everything we just said in the context of another player with the shooting ability, I have a lot of belief in Wagner's shooting. He's an 85% shooter from the free throw line. He's been a knockdown guy for years now going back to college.

I have a strong level of belief that he's eventually, maybe even this coming season, going to become a knockdown guy from three. Bencaro was one of the league's least efficient shooters from not just three, but from mid-range. It was a rookie shooting the most. I know, I know, I know. But I'm leaning towards Wagner over Van Carrow. Yep. That's ridiculous.

Lamello Ball or Franz Wagner? I'll go with Wagner. Oh, wow. McKell Bridges or Franz Wagner? Bridges. Jalen Green or Franz Wagner? Wagner. Let's go with Wagner.

Javari Smith or Franz Wagner. Wagner. Victor Wimbayama or Franz Wagner? Victor Wemba Jolla. Are you sure? I'm definitely sure about that one. We're trying to get him in the top 20 here. I'm definitely sure about that one.

Okay. Anthony Edwards or Franz Wagner? Edwards. Do it. Now, come on. Edwards. Sissy. Sissy.

I'm giving honest answers. How am I being a sissy? John Moran or Franz Wagner? Do it. I dare you. Do it. One guy's had 50 in a playoff game. Do it.

Jah. Oh, you, Garner. Scoot-Enderson or Franz Wagner? Oh, Wagner. The Thompson twins are Franz Wagner. I'll go with Wagner. Your beloved Brandon Miller. or Franz Wagner?

This is tough with the rookies because, like, we're comparing. Let's go with, let's go with Wagner over any of the rookies besides Wemby. It's going to be consistent there. The only ones you said you would take over Franz Wagner were Cade Cunningham, Tyrese Halliburton,

Mackell Bridges, and Victor Wimbabeyama. Listen, I just think Wagner, he's 6'10. I believe he's going to become a knockdown shoot. Oh, I take that back. You also said Edwards and Morant. Okay.

He's 610. He can pass. I believe he can become a knockdown shooter. He's a solid rebounder. He can be used in different roles on offense. You can use him as a guy who runs pick and roll. You can use him as someone who isos. He can post up.

He can be used as a screener. He can pass out of the short roll. He can finish at the basket. He's versatile defensively. I just listed basically everything for a guy who's 6 foot 10. So I think with Wagner, right now at this point of his career, why I've been so high on him for some time now, he's 22 years old. He just turned 22. I think come four or five years from now in the prime of his career, he's going to be one of the better do-it-all players in the league, a top 20 guy.

And some of those other players you can look at and you can have concerns about Ahman and Osar with the jumper. I don't know what level they're going to be. I just don't. You know, I think with a lot of those guys, there's clear question marks. And maybe it turns out Franz Wagner is more like a jack of all trades, a master of none. But at 21 years old, he's averaging 19 points per game with a magic team that is still on the up and up. I believe Wagner is going to become an all-star caliber player, a multi-time all-star caliber player. And I feel really strongly about it.

There's a lot of players I left out. He probably did. Josh Giddy? I took Giddy ahead of Wagner. in a redraft that Kyle Mann and I did in like January or something like that. I'd take Wagner ahead of Giddy right now. And the reason why, again, is because with Giddy, that was in the middle of him having like this crazy hot streak from three.

Because of his revised mechanics, he slipped towards the end of the season and he didn't shoot the wall well in Feeba either. I'll always be convinced. The Grizzlies is the year that they traded with the Pelicans. The Jonas Valenciennes trade, they traded and gotten that pick. and I'm convinced that that they wanted. There was like buzz out there about Giddy and Wagner. And I think when they made the deal,

they thought one of those two is going to be there. I think you're right. And then Giddy went and then Franz went. And then they took Tiger Williams. And Williams, he's okay. I mean, he's okay. I mean, we don't know.

He was injury plagued all of, last year, showed some flashes as rookie year, but obviously those two are just spectacular players for sure. And that was a big surprise on draft night when Giddy went where he did. You remember there was a lot of buzz about Memphis like in Giddy as well. And maybe that's why they got to 10. I think they thought they were going to get one of those two. Looking back at my mock draft, just out of curiosity, who I had on the morning of the drafts going to Memphis. I had Giddy to Memphis in Newark. 10 in my mom. There was a lot. I mean, there was a lot of buzz

about it. Dude, I had Wagner to the Warriors at 7. Man. Jeez. So, can you imagine if Gold State drafted Wagner? I mean, I obviously, I'm much higher on Wagner than you are, but for who Vaughnard. But, but, but

you just took him over like literally every great player that you've loved over the last five years. But for who, but for who Wagner is, can you imagine if the Warriors took him? Steve Kerr must have just been furious. watching him.

I mean, I'm just more loyal than you. I mean, the way you would ditch Lamello Ball and Palo Bakero. I don't think that's, I don't think that's ditching. Yeah. I like Wagner in the draft. I had him ranked 10th. No.

You're all in. You're all in. I love it. Yeah. I'm a believer in front. And I'm going to say this. I'm going to say this. You really are all in because I just listed off a ton of young guys.

Put your feet to the fire and I said, fine. If you want to tell me he's going to be in the, the top 20 players, then you're going to have to surpass a lot of these guys. And you think he is? You'd think you'd rather have him than Evan Mowbly and Scotty Barnes and Paulo Bancaro. And I think that's nothing. Yeah, I mean, I just, with Mowgli, with Scotty Barnes, you just had a really down

sophomore year. And with Evan Mowbly, I'd love to see him actually do something from the perimeter. That's a score. I'd love to see it. That's for sure. he is going to have to fix that going forward. So, World Cup's over.

Congratulations to Germany. Now, LeBron said he picked up the bat phone and of Curry and Booker and 80 and everybody to go get basketball back. After Evan was like, how about they just,

like, if they care, then play. But I wish, there was some kind of way for the United States to have a team, to get a commitment out of guys that like, hey, we're going to do this and we're going to, like other countries have a team, we're going to have a team as well. Yes, there might be a guy here and there that doesn't play. Like Janus didn't play this time, like Yonkich didn't play this time. But by and large, a lot of the guys that are going to be a part of the team are going to be, play as a team.

then we're going to like build something and get used to playing with each other as a team. That was the Calangelo model. You remember? He wanted them to do the three-year commitment and to be a part of it. And I do think that there's a lot of wisdom in that when you see. I don't think that basketball is now at a stage where you can just throw it together. And I'll be honest, I don't know if they'll win the Olympics, even if they throw it. together all their best. Seriously.

I mean, you got that team adding Yolkich? You got some of these other teams adding their guys. Like Or if Yovic, Yovitch was very impressive. Shot over 40% from three. He had 21 assist to eight turnovers if he's another

year older and gets much better this coming season with the heat or if he gets traded to the Blazers eventually. And then you got Yokic and Yovic and all their other young talent and veteran talent combined. Like, Serbia, Yeah, it could be, like, Yokish could be the spoiler for Team USA. Like, a lot of it's going to have-

Canada's going to add their guys. They'll add, yo, who knows, Wiggins might play, Murray might play. And I think for USA, one of the big things will come down to, does Joelle and B. choose to play for Team USA or Team France? They need it. Because France, France with Wembe and all of their talents as well, they could have a formidable front line that no other team has an answer for.

So what does Embed choose to do? That could end up being a deciding factor here. and who ends up winning gold at the Olympics in Paris. You can tell him. He can play 40 minutes for us. Dude, yeah, he really could. He could. Unless, unless

Kerr views Bamatabio is the best center for that roster. Oh, he'll have Draymond too. And that's, that's what I'm saying. He'll have Draymond and ADM. But like, like if you're Joel Embed, I think your chances of getting heavy minutes

are higher with France. And the Olympics are in Paris. Your chances of getting heavier minutes are higher with France than they are with the U.S. considering the curve factor and the wealth of bigs that they will have anyway. That's fair. All right. Let's get to this trip to Vegas. Speaking of up and coming stars, you went out there.

First, the trip to Vegas, I saw some of your pictures flying down the road in a Tesla, not even touching the steering wheel. I was using a full self-driving for like 85% of the ride. I thought it was sweet. You said it was very, very special trip because you were able to take your mom out there and she had not been to Vegas in many, many years. Yep.

She had been since 1989 as part of her honeymoon with my dad. They at the time determined they wanted to have like a smaller wedding and a longer honeymoon. So they took like a long honeymoon after getting married. Part of their trip they went through Vegas, stayed at Caesar's Palace. So like it was cool for my mom to kind of walk through there and retrace some of her steps

and go to some other places on the drive there. Because originally I was just going to go. Like as a work trip, and it was a work trip. I interviewed four players, four of the potential top 10 picks. So it was work going to games and interviewing players. But having my mom there,

like we, it was a great road. trip. It was awesome driving to Vegas. It was a lot of fun. And it was cool for my mom to see how much Vegas has changed since 1989. None of the big casinos were there then. Seeing the sphere, the new sphere in person. I mean, like that thing is huge. Like you see photos of it and videos of it and it looks big. But then you see it in a person, they have an area on the side of the road that you can pull over to take photos,

which is a good thing, because otherwise, I think there'd be, like, a lot of accidents of people just taking photos without using full self-driving while driving.

It was crazy. I played that. When I was playing that wind golf course, it's in the background of one of the holes. Dude, it's so big, isn't it? Oh, it's so cool.

And, you know, the guy told me one of the caddies there was telling me all kinds of stories about it. And I guess the first big event was going to be you two playing the Octong baby album like front to back or whatever. Has that already happened? Have they already opened the thing?

September 29th. I'm going to one of those shows. I got to go. Are you really? Yeah, I'm not, I'm not like the hugest, you know, YouTube fan. I like you too, but I got to go. Like, I'm too much of, like, it's my nickname you've called me for years. Oh, concert. So I have to stick to it. Have you looked it up? How how much are tickets? It varies, like, every show is different. Some are super expensive. I mean, I think like back section, like in the hundreds. Depending on the time ago, I think it's like 18,000. I wonder what it's like inside.

I haven't looked at the inside thing. 18,600 is the capacity of that venue. Wow. Yeah, it looks unbelievable. You're going to go. Do it. Yeah, I'm going to go. I'm excited.

Yeah, I got to do it. It just feels like I've loved so many concerts. Some of my, some of the concerts I've went to that I've had the best time, I've gone alone when I saw Taylor Swift earlier this year at SoFi. Years ago at Fenway Park, I saw Lady Gaga and Lady Gaga was like the Fenway show was great, but also she played across the street afterwards. Wait, what are you going to go alone? I don't know.

I had nobody that wanted to go see Lady Gaga, nobody that wanted to go see Taylor Swift. I didn't ask anybody if they want to go to you too. So it's like some of my favorite concerts that I've been to have just gone solo. So with you too, I just look forward to going alone and viving out and having a great night. And this cool state of the art concert that has never played a show before. And it's the first time for it. Do you talk to the people next to you? For Lady Gaga, I did.

I got a girl's number at Lady Gaga. I've never panned out into anything. I don't think she really had much interest. And then at Taylor Swift, this is good, actually. I sat, I was in a row full of, I was the only guy in the row. It was all like moms and teeny boffers, right? The entire row, I was the only guy. I was like smack in the middle of the row.

I was the only guy. The person next to me wants to hook me up on a date with her daughter, who wasn't there. And it hasn't happened yet. but maybe it will. So, because she just started talking to me. What is going on? She liked me and she's like, I think you'd get along with my daughter. And it hasn't happened yet.

I mean, I've always called you Kevin O. Concert, but I never knew that you go to these shows by yourself. Sometimes I don't go to many shows by myself, but I think my biggest concert regrets are not going into concerts alone. I didn't see Tame Impala back in like 2011, 2012. I didn't see Frank Ocean. I didn't even see Lady Gaga. I didn't even care about Lady Gaga like back in 0809,

but I could have seen her in a small venue as she was on the up and up. I didn't want to go alone. I've been to shows, I've been to shows, but like by myself, but usually I'll know people there. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Like I'll know that some people I know are going to be there. Man, that's been a long time since I've done that a long time. It's nice, man. You want to hear an amazing story? Please. The last time I can remember doing that, going to a show where I was like, I'm just going to go because my buddy, my buddy was a singer-songwriter out of Memphis. He's fantastic.

The guy named Corey Brannon. It's great. And so Corey was going to be playing at this local place called the Hintel. So I'm like, all right. I saw Corey's in town. He had been touring around the country. I'm like, Corey's in town. I'm going to go over there.

I'll see him show my face. He'll see that I'm there. And I always know people at his shows, so I'll know some people. I looked around there and I talked to some people that I knew here and there. But then this guy came on the stage before him. And he starts playing. And it's just, it's just a kid. And he's got a guitar.

And he sits down. and he starts playing. And Kevin, when I tell you, I was absolutely stopped in my tracks. I was like, what the hell? Who is this? So, long story short, Corey's there. I'm like, Corey, who is this kid? And he's like, I was, he's like, I was touring around.

And he's like, and I met him. I did a show in West Virginia, and I met him. And he was like on the same car, whatever. And he's just kind of getting into it. And I told him there, if I ever have a show where like you could open for me, I was like, I'll split. I'll give you some of the door, whatever. And he's like, so anyways, I called the kid last night.

And he got in his car, threw his guitar in the trunk and drove from West Virginia. This is like a Wednesday night in Memphis. drove there to open for me tonight. And I'm like through the night. And I told, I told, I said, Corey, that kid is unbelievable. The kid's in the back. He's selling his CDs. He's just got like, all he has is like basically like his demo CD.

Okay. And he's like selling them in the back, whatever. So I end up just standing back there talking to him like, hey man, I thought you were great, whatever. I bought a CD. Whatever. Didn't think all that much about it. Listen to the CD, loved it. But that's about it.

Bro, it was Tyler Childers. Really? Yes. Wow. Crazy. That guy is selling out arena. Are you serious? He sells out arenas.

I've never heard of them to be honest. You've got to be kidding me. I haven't. Tyler Childers legitimately sells out arenas now. give him a listen. Oh, enormous. Enormous.

You heard of Zach Bryan, right? Yeah, I know him. He's the chubby guy, right? What? The chubby guy? I don't know.

I think you're thinking of Luke Combs. Yeah, I don't know. I don't know much country. Oh, my God. Ridiculous. No, Zach Ryan's not the guy.

Good grief. Oh. You belong at concerts by yourself. Unbelievable. I'll give these guys a listen. What's wrong with introducing me to new music? Holy mackle. Tyler Childers.

I just Google his name. I'll put him into Spotify after the podcast. I'll give him a listen during some Monday night football tonight. You should do it. All right. By the way, speaking about football, Chris, your Dallas Cowboys, 40-0. You must be a happy boy today.

Come on, bro. Doomsday defense. Stick season. No big whoop. I mean, Daniel Jones almost like, he's never going to want to play football again, is he?

He's never going to want to play football. Guy was running for his life. It's great, beautiful. Season begins. They're up 16-0 before I can take a piss. You know what I want to do? In Vegas, I want to be there for a Sunday at

the, at one of the sports books, because I kind of walk through on Saturday or on college football, it is a great vibe. It looks awesome. Like, people are going nuts over every single play that happens. It's just a great thing. I want, like, so for the, um, let's say the Grizzlies are in the in season tournament and they're going to have a December. Yes. So you will be there. And I think the games are what, Thursday Saturday or? I've only been to Vegas in the summer. I've never been So Thursday, Saturday, I think it's worth staying until Sunday night. 100%. All right, let's get two games.

You did go to Vegas for games. We got off track. Who did you see? Who are these four prospects that I need to know about? So the G League night faced the Perth Wildcats from the NBL, the Australian Basketball League, who we've been familiar with for years. On the Perth side of things is Alex Saar. he's a 6-11 7-foot kind of wing in a big man's body and sara i felt like was the best prospect

there out of anybody that i saw unbelievable defensively he had these two plays that come to mind where he blocked modest bozellas potential top number one pick on the g league side twice in the same possession and then he had a play against ron holland another potential number one pick who's a six-six guard explosive player and he and sarge's stuck by him stride for stride as he brought the ball up the floor and just completely enveloped him and then blocked his shot. Saur was amazing defensively. He was active offensively. His shot looked better than it ever has. And he made smart passes. He finished at the rim. He looked like a complete player. And also, he's French. Another French prospect who could be great on defense.

We'll see how his offense develops. I interviewed him on Saturday morning. We talked for about 30, 35 minutes. I was impressed by him. He's a smart kid. He loves basketball. He's not just tall playing the sport. A lot to like with Sarr and also Friday night, and I'll put this in my article later this week, as I was leaving my dinner that I had on Friday night after the game, I went alone because my plan's kind of, you know, for foiled. So I went to Momo Fuku alone, got a seat at the bar, had a delicious dinner. As I'm walking out, I see an NBA GM and who I'm friendly with. And I say hi to him. Like, were you here both games? What did you think? And this GM says to me, he's like, I think Alex Saar is the number one pick in the draft. Whoa. I noticed Mark Spears had an article

today as well. He was there for both games. And he quoted multiple NBA executives who were there in attendance. And some of them also said they think Saar is number one, which is interesting because Saar outplayed all of the G League guys, most notably Modus Buzellis, who's a 610 kind of playmaking wing type of player, skinny at 6'10, and Ron Hong on 6'4-6 explosive downhill wing. He had a big second game. He was good defensively. His shot looked good in the second game,

but he's been shaky going back to high school. Bozellis, I think Bozellis was used in the incorrect role. I hope that's something that their coach corrects during the season. He needs to be running point, not London Johnson, who's a second-year player with the Ignite. I don't think London Johnson is very good at all. No disrespect. He shouldn't be running point for that team.

It should be modest Buzellis. And also, Etan Almanza, a Spanish center, came off the bench for them. I think he should be starting for that team. I had him fifth on my board entering this week. I'll keep him around that range right now. But Almanza, Buzellis, Holland on the G-League side, were the three main prospects that people need to know right now in the middle of September. And then Alex Saar,

on the Perth side. Those are the night names to know. There will be others that we talk about over the course of the season. But those are the big four to keep in mind right now. Yeah, I was excited. One of the things that I looked at last week,

so the Memphis Hustle, the G-League team that's here, put out their schedule. And last year I was able to go down there and I saw Scoot, right? So Scoot, Scott, Scott, the kid that's going to the Spurs. What's his name? Yeah, you get Citi Sasoco.

Yeah, that you like, yeah, yeah. And then Leonard Miller as well going to the Timberwolves. That's right. They had some players again this year. It's like February, the very beginning of February, the G League Ignite are going to come for two days in a row. So I'm excited.

I'll get to see that is the one great thing about like those guys playing in the G league. It's like, I probably wouldn't get to go to a college game of these guys in person. But if they're on the same team, I can head down to a G league game and get to see them play a game in person. No doubt. And I think because these players, I interviewed the three other G league guys I mentioned all,

Monsa, Holland, and Buzellas as well. All three of them are selfless. Like, they talk about how they want the Ignite to be better than they've ever been before. They want to be a competitive team and actually be like a noteworthy opponent on the schedule. So it's very possible you see an Ignite team that hopefully is competitive and can start putting seats in that crowd because it's empty there, man. Yeah, I know. The crowd was, the crowd is more, granted, it's exhibitions. The crowd is more scouts and media than fans.

For sure. Who's coaching them? Who's coaching that Ignite team? Hart. It's his last name. Oh, Jason Hart? Jason Hart, yes. Yeah, Syracuse, right?

I think he played at Syracuse. He played at Syracuse, yes. And then he was picked by the Bucks, played with the Spurs, Bobcats, Kings, Clippers, Jazz, Nuggets, Timberwolves, Hornets. So he went around in the NBA. Yeah. And he's a couple of them.

I think he's got some corrective to do with the lineups. I think Buzell is, needs to have the ball on his hands more often. I felt like he was invisible in the corner too often. They didn't run a lot of plays for him. I'm not like overreacting to Boozellis's performance this past week because he was good with what he was asked to do. He just wasn't asked to do as much as I think he can.

Gotcha. Hey, at least he was playing, which is also the theme for last year's regular season. when we were talking about guys not playing. And now there is this story that came out today that Adrian Wojianowski put out that there is an NBA plan to further curb the resting of star players, that the NBA is expected to pass a more stringent rules and punishment

to limit the resting of star players for nationally televised and in-season tournament games and instances of multiple all-stars sitting out individual regular season games. You and I bemoaned this all last year. We talked so many times about how we had planned on recording after some big game only to find out that guys weren't playing. It happened so much, Chris, to us.

It was terrible. Multiple times a month. It was terrible. And so here's what I'll say. I think much like the 65 game thing, this is more, what they say a chance to curb things so hopefully it doesn't even get

to punishment stage and I think that once you aren't just allowed to say so it used to be that you would come up with some cockamamie injury as to why a guy wasn't playing you just say sore quad

or whatever it got to the point where they were literally saying out for rest. Yep. They're resting so they're not playing. So number one, you won't see that happen where teams are saying out for rest. They'll just come up with some kind of reason as to why the guy can't play. And so this is going to get, I think it's more about like having them curb this.

rather than trying to actually figure out how to punish teams for doing this. Yeah, 100%. You know, it's kind of like the whole defouling thing where it's like trying to get guys up in the air or like shooting right around a screen or whatever, right? Once they say they're going to do something, then guys just kind of stop doing it. And so I think that's what will probably happen here is their hope that at least it will minimize it a lot. And I also think you're probably having what they're not saying is. There's probably like these real conversations that are happening with Adam, with the Players

Association that are saying, look, you're seeing everything that is happening with our regional sports channels. You are seeing everything that is happening with Sunday ticket and the NFL and with Spectrum and ESPN. And with like, if you were in where I live, if you had direct TV, you don't have channel three, like literally, like what 60 minutes and the NFL and whatever would be on. And if you don't, and if you've got Xfinity, you don't have Fox right now. And so like all of these, you're seeing this is all, it's happening everywhere, all over the country. You've got all these huge fights that are taking place. In the middle of that, they're going, look, we're going to try to get big deals everywhere. We're going to try, we've got to figure out.

what we're going to do for locally, but we're also going to do our local deals and we're going to do our huge national deal. And we've got YouTube and we got Apple, we got Amazon and we've got the cable companies and we got direct TV. We've got an opportunity to really make a lot. But we're going to F it up if our guys aren't playing in the games. Like we're trying to sell this and we're about to have to go to a table with everybody to try to get a new deal. So I think that probably made clear at this point. It's like, hey, this became a real problem last year. This cannot be a problem going forward, especially with national television games, because we are trying to sell this entity. And honestly, nobody wants to buy the 76ers

without Joelle M. B. And without James Harden. And nobody wants to buy the Lakers without LeBron James. And nobody wants to buy, you know, Steph Curry and Clay Thompson not playing for the Warriors because they're playing Orlando tonight and they've got a Tuesday game that they want to be rested up for against Denver, right? So I think that you're just trying to put in, you're trying to put in as many restrictions. There will for sure be some phony injuries that then get listed. And it's going to be fascinating to see how some of these players, like, what do you do with Kawhi Leonard?

I guess he really going to play a bunch of games. I wonder if this also relates to the NBA kind of setting that minimum minutes threshold where it could count as a game towards the 65 games with awards if you play 20 minutes. And I think I know like there are some people who say, well, that's BS. It's not cool. I think it's completely fair. it's a middle ground in terms of managing minutes. If you're like a Hornets fan and you love Kauai Leonard and he comes to town once a year

and you get to see Kauai for 20 or 25 minutes, he plays a little bit in the first half, a little bit in the third or fourth quarter. To me, I think that is a much, much a fairer result for fans where if I put myself in the shoes of a young Celtics fan going to games, I would have been satisfied if I got to see Kobe or Kevin Garnett or Tim Duncan play for 25 minutes when the alternative is they just don't play at all. Yeah, but you think about it. And what's crazy about this one, though, is you think about a lot of the big stars in the league,

like the Currys, like the LeBrons, like the Durants, whatever. They fit. So Woj did mention that there's going to be a lot of different scenarios that they're going to outline pre-approved. For example, the NBA is going to allow pre-approved. designated back-to-back allowances for players that are 35 or older on opening night or have a career workload of 34,000 regular season minutes or a thousand regular season playoff minutes. It doesn't apply to a ton of guys.

Yeah, I mean, probably not. But it applies to guys that are the guys that people would actually want to pay to see. you are right though Chris about how this definitely relates to the RSNs the regional sports networks especially with i mean you do TV for one of them valley sports with who we'll see what's going to happen with that like wasn't there a story recently uh that the NBA could potentially take over for the teams that are with ballet sports like the grizzlies hornets calves among among others and i'm forgetting off the top of my head but When you saw the suns, they just took theirs off completely, and they're producing it and putting it on TV locally. Yeah. And Balmer, Balmer, I believe, he said something along those lines with Clippers a couple of months back as well. It's just everything is changing. I don't know what all of this is going to look like in the years to come. I really don't. I don't know.

Because it's all, you know, it was much more, it was much simpler. and now it's just scattered out everywhere and you're trying to figure out like what I'm paying for when you know, I just went through it with the Sunday ticket thing. Do I get it with the YouTube TV or do I not? Because I don't know what,

you know, is my local sports channel is going to be on there or do I do that through an app? Did you get it with YouTube TV? I got Sunday ticket. Yeah, I did the free trial this past week. I love it. I loved it.

It was fantastic. I love how they gave it. you the multiple options for screen and all that and obviously you get you get an NFL red zone I rode my I rode my peloton for the duration of the the early games

for like three three hours I rode my bike watching NFL red zone it was awesome it's great I think I'm going to do that every single Sunday at this point just burn a ton of calories while watching football because I'm trying to do that four box thing oh no kidding for league

it's a no brainer it's a brainer. For league pass? In the NBA well it's crunch time NBA crunch time last year they did that a handful of times clearly the league is

experimenting with stuff like that because if the NBA were to take over the RSNs at some point all the RSSs that would give them the ability to do that. From what I understand it's incredibly complicated with all the individual RSN contracts

to have an NFL red zone whereas with NFL Red Zone, it's CBS and Fox. Right, right. And every game is on those two stations at 1 p.m. Eastern and 4 p.m. Eastern. Well, the NFL controls everything. Yes. And I think there could be a time where the NBA just controls all of their broadcast.

Which I think the NBA, there definitely is a lot of people within the league office that want that because they want quality control. They want a uniform product across all 30 or potentially soon 32 teams. So we'll see what happens in the years to come. but it definitely seems like it's all going to start with ballet sports. Look, I don't know what kind of penalties are going to incur with these things. I don't know if there's going to be real teeth to this. Let me just say, I am absolutely in favor of anything that would encourage guys to play more often.

I go to 45 games a year. I can't tell you how many times I'm there. And I'm like, I can't believe this guy's not playing tonight. Both home and away. Just home and away. It's like you just never knowing who's playing. It just last regular season was a debacle, and I'm glad it was so bad that it became an agent for change.

I agree. And hopefully, hopefully this helps. But ultimately what it could come down to at some point is the NBA. They're already installing the in-season tournament. They already installed the play in tournament. will the amount of games for the NBA regular season come into greater scrutiny if this doesn't solve the issue. Will they move to 58 games or something along those lines at some point in the near future?

This will solve it. I think this is going to help a lot. They just let it. Look, it's one of those things where you let them get away with it. They're going to do it. If you could just say, hey, we're going to sit this guy tonight and nobody cares, then they'll do it. but if all of a sudden you're thinking twice about it,

and look, it could be hundreds of millions of dollars for some of these players to not play 65. A lot of money, man. I mean, that's when you really know they're going to be playing. It's like, a lot of them do care about the legacy. They do care about being on all NBA teams.

They do care about getting a supermax. Like all these things that, they do care about becoming the MVP of the league. It's those type of, it's money and accolades, accolades from those types of things, but it's also potential money that could come from Amazon or Apple.

We want to pay you billions for this or that to carry all your regular season games or carry all of the in-season tournament, whatever it might be. There's a lot of money on the line from a lot of different angles for the NBA. So they do need to make this product as great as it can be

over the course of the full regular season and not just the playoffs. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, As always, Kevin, it's always a pleasure. I will talk to you next week. Have a good week.