The Mismatch - Ten First Impressions From the Opening Games. Plus, Issues With the NBA 75 List.

Episode Date: October 22, 2021

Verno and KOC first discuss all the issues with the NBA 75 rollout over the past week, including the most glaring omissions and the fact that it ended up actually being the NBA 76 (0:30). Then they give 10 first impressions from the first three days of NBA games this season, starting with Jason Kidd’s poor showing against the Hawks (12:24) and Tyler Herro’s fantastic performance against the Bucks (17:51), and moving on to the Nets’ rotation issues (22:15), Evan Mobley’s great game against the Grizzlies (32:12), Russell Westbrook’s tough season opener with the Lakers (40:22), and more. Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Associate Producer: Sasha Ashall Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey, before we get to today's episode of The Mismatch, I wanted to tell you about one of our best shows on the Ringer podcast network. It's the Ringer Wrestling show. The Ringer Wrestling show is your guide for all things pro wrestling. And this week, they gave their instant reactions to the W.W.E. Crown Jewel. You can find the Ringer wrestling show on Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Mishmatch. I'm Chris Vernon. Join me as he does every Friday from the Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor,

a.K. Kevin O'O. Concer. Kevin O. Cameron. Kevin O. Kavanaugh. Kevin O. Kavanaugh. Kevin O. Bomba Kevah! Burdo! What's up on this beautiful Friday? How you doing, man?

It is a beautiful Friday, and the NBA season has gotten underway. We have gotten to see all the teams play, or at least seeing the highlights of all the teams play, look through all the box scores of all the teams play. You don't watch every game, the entirety of every single game, Chris? How dare you? I did not.

But I will tell you this. Even the commercials? Come on, Chris. It's going to watch everything. I have been called. The king of first impressions. And therefore, this week we are going to give our first impressions of different things that we have seen throughout the course of the NBA. I have been to an NBA game already.

And so I could tell you about that. But before we get into our first impressions of what we've seen, the top 75 of the NBA was announced. I was very disappointed in the rollout of this. All of it stunk. Yeah. I didn't like the 25, 25. Then it turns out actually it's 76 players because there's a tie. It's just, I don't know. I mean, I'll admit, Chris, I didn't care that much about the NBA 50. I don't care that much about the NBA 75. It's interesting. And I think it captures, you know, the first 75 years of history. But ultimately, in five years, like, there's going to be guys who aren't on that list today who belong on it, you know? like Luca could be on that. Yokic could be on that. There's guys in the league right now who just for 25 years

aren't going to be on it just because it's not a cool anniversary. So we're going to wait until 100 for the next group and then the repeat process again. I'd refer to see the list update every single year. Well, and at that point, at that point, people may lose their spots. You know, nobody lost their spot this time. There's some guys that were added. No, I'm talking about the top 50.

So when they did that, when they did the top 50, then the 50 just made it. really they just added 26. Gotta get Dave Bing on there. No. But I will say very surprised. I was surprised Dwight Howard did not make it. Of the current players,

he was one of the guys that I thought for certain would make this list. Because of his run, and he's a very odd player in that I really feel, if Dwight Howard would have had a career-ending injury and retired in 2015, he's on this list. There's no doubt in my mind. He's on the list, right? It's really, like, that's the one player that I think about, like, I think there's

other plays you could argue, T-Mack, you know, Vince Carter, and, you know, there's a bunch of guys. But with Dwight Howard, that's the one where it's like, that's kind of disgraceful that he didn't make it. I mean, there's a five-year run. There's a five-year run where he is first-team all NBA every time. And even if you want to use it as a winning thing, he was the best. best player on a team that went to an NBA finals and beat LeBron. They beat LeBron in the 09

finals. And he did a great Celtics team. Granted, there was some injuries on the Boston side. It's like the Orlando Magic had plenty of playoff success. Dwight Howard was a dominant interior force, one of the best rim protectors we've ever had in the NBA. And he was a dominant force on offense. Like he was kind of, I mean, what those Stanley and Gundy magic did with all the spacing and the shooting that they had around one interior force. It kind of like, you know, predicted a little bit of what teams are doing nowadays, just not to the extreme extent with the amount of three is taken now. Like Dwight was a part of that as the guy who didn't take three is on that team because

he was such so dominant inside. That's the one where I actually am like, come on. That's a bad. He's like, what happened? How does he get left off? I'll tell you how he gets left off. Played in Orlando, played in Houston. so there's not going to be a huge amount of contingent from there

that had the extreme awareness of what he was doing at the time or has maybe even an inflated opinion of his greatness, as is the case with many teams in their own, you know, and media and fans within the own markets, those aren't going to be highly represented. And the people in L.A. don't like him. Yeah. You know what I'm saying?

Like, I mean, where's NBA media? Talking on the coasts, right? in general, a lot of these voters are on the coast. This guy played, you know, there's one stop and it's Orlando. They ain't got a good feeling about him. The coastal elites, Chris, they're not watching teams in Florida, these coastal elites. No, I'm not kidding you. Is there anyone?

It's the other odd thing about his career. No, no, no. The voter pool wasn't all media, though. It was a ton of former players, a ton of former coaches. I understand. I understand. But I will say this. It's a huge pool of people and they all screwed it up.

There are very few players in NBA history that none of the fan bases that they played for give a crap about. And you're saying Orlando's one of them, that people just don't watch. Like Scottie Pippen. No, no, no, no, I'm saying every city he played it. You think Orlando fans care about him? You think Houston fans care about him? You think L.A. fans care about him? Name the team.

Name the team he played for. Do you Philly fans care about him? I mean, there's not one city he's played in that anybody cares. Seriously, he doesn't go back and get an ovation anywhere. He goes back to multiple cities and they booed him no matter where he's played. It's the damnedest thing. Usually somebody loves you. You know what I mean?

So I think that's a part of it too. Definitely. I mean, you think about his first eight years with Orlando ever since then, like since he left Orlando to go to the Lakers. it's sort of been, you know, uninspiring. The last 10 years have been uninspiring for him, which, you know, it's too bad.

If somebody came out to the street and as you said, do you like Dwight Howard? Yeah, I like Dwight Howard. I like Dwight Howard because he is somebody who accepted not being the guy anymore. And he's embraced that role and has made the most of it. And he's trying to, he's impacting winning because he's doing that today.

I respect that. I respect that from Carmelo Anthony. I respected it from Vince Carter towards the tail end of his career. Anytime these fading stars are able to accept a role and to excel in it. Oh, you're talking about right now, do you like it? I'm talking about over the course of his career, would you consider yourself with Dwight Howard fan?

In the, his magic days, yeah. I like watching Dwight over the course of his career. I guess you're just going to be positive about it. Nobody likes Dwight Howard. Magic years? Like you're going to go stage by stage. Magic years, yeah, I like Dwight Howard. L.A. Houston years.

No, I did not like that was Atlanta, Charlotte, you know, the Washington years. I did not like Dwight Howard. I had no respect for Dwight Howard. Ever since he, you know, went back to L.A. and then to Philadelphia,

and out back to L.A. again, I've liked Dwight Howard again. I can both like and dislike a player at different stages of their career. I would say generally he does not have a lot of fans. I would also say that he, I thought J.A. Dundee made a very, very good point. He played on that Houston team.

They were going to be the next big thing with Hardin and he. And he said, I think it's a totally different career for Dwight Howard if Damien Lillard doesn't hit that shot and bounce them and knock them out. Because Dwight was absolutely awesome in that series. Everybody talks about what an unbelievable signing that was. And then him and Hardin, who knows, what the destiny was going to be. But Lillard did hit that shot. And really since, I mean, after that, it's kind of been a nomad career after that. That's what I say, I mean, look, just in terms of accomplishment,

is in terms of a five-year run within the context of NBA history, the guy deserves to be on there. And I hate to hear that a guy that really, really, it's just sticking around. It's almost like, I hate to admit that the truth of the matter is what I said at the beginning. If the guy didn't play another basketball game after 24, 15, he's probably, he's probably on this list. And it said he's not because he has kept out playing and all along the way made no new fans. Yeah.

Crazy. It's unfortunate. At the end of the day, it's just a subjective list by 88 people and that's all it is. Yeah. Dwight Howard is one of the 75 greatest players in NBA history. He is. I agree. He was really.

And that's also subjective. And there were, and there were a couple other ones, right? I mean, I listened to Bill talk about how he had he had Luca Dantzic, he had Nicoliochich on there. And like in 1990s. He's future proofing it. He was future proofing it for the next 25 years, which I align with that. The basis of that was that in 1996, they put Shaq on there, you know? And it was very early into the career.

And so that was understandable. They brought up Alex English. They brought up Dennis Johnson, some other guys. But by and large, I do. think, look, on the whole, you take a step back. This is a very good list that is representative of the best players over the course of the 75 years. I mean, I criticized the Dwight Howard one, say they all got it wrong. They pretty much got it right, like 99%.

I mean, what really was wrong, though, was having 76. That's the wrongest part. Having 76 for the NBA 75. Dispickable. Can't Adam Silver be the tiebreaker vote? or something like that. Well, you know, and I'm one of those guys. Do you have any of those like, like ticks or something?

I don't even know what the word would be. Because when you said that, when you said that really irritates me, you know what actually came to my mind? The reason it irritates me, like if you saw me at like a, like when you're pumping gas or something, right? Yeah. Oh, you like to get it even on like, you know, $24. No, it's a five or a zero.

Oh, okay. But it has to be a five or a zero. So wait a minute. So if you're like 23. 89 and it clicks. Absolutely not. So you're not getting a 25 though. Huh?

You're not getting to 25? I'll go to 90. Okay. And then if I press the, hey, if I press the gun too much and it pops up to 91, we're going to 95. Oh, so the last digit. Okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Okay. So you don't have to get all the way up to 25. Okay. No. It has to be a five or zero at the end. Okay. And so, of course, 76. just it drives me crazy.

It's horrible. It really is bad. It is. Like, why? So bad. So bad. I won't care in a couple days, but right now, why, Adam's so annoying. NBA league office.

Come on. So, so annoying. Don't do this for 100. Imagine that. In 25 years, there's like two ties, the 102 greatest players for the 100th anniversary. And I'm not OCD about anything except those numbers things. and there you have it. Like every time I see the list,

I'm going to get a damn panic attack for the rest of my. I got to get to 80. Get to 80 now. Like, you know what I mean? Like, just add four more guys and get to a clean number. Don't do this 76 crap. They're doing it to drive me crazy. First impressions.

All right, look, I joked last night on Twitter. I said, you know, a couple of my predictions at the beginning of the season where the heat were going to be in the finals and that Jason kid would make the Mavs a lot worse and everything is going famously. And everybody knows that night one matters immensely. So it only matters in the terms of first impressions of what we kind of draw from those, getting to see these teams in competitive basketball games for the first time. So you want to start?

We got five each of our first impressions. Let's do first impressions here. So I'll start off with, what you just, you know, mentioned right there, the Dallas Mavericks. My first impression is Jason Kidd hasn't learned a lick as a head coach. I mean,

like, like you got Doreen and Finney Smith passing on open three pointers to take pull up twos. You got him posting up. You have Chris Staps, Porzingis getting fed on the post, even though he can't post up anybody. And you get, you get KP after the game banking his teammates for feeding him postups after their loss.

He's like, it's great to, you know, be looked at, you know, We're just going to work on not clogging the paint. It's like, yeah, you being on the post instead of 30 feet away from the basket, it's clogging the paint.

Yes, that's a problem. Hey, hey, hey, they got to make changes, dude. Congrats on your postups. You lost by a thousand. Jesus. My goodness, dude. Like, I like for Mavericks fans, I'm not saying, like, launch them trees is the weight of victory here.

But Dorian Finney Smith, they can pull up twos when he has opened three opportunities is not. It is somewhat about your personnel, though, Kev. and you have a this is not a team that's wanting to like be in a rebuild and so you're switching things on a fly and not you're switching a front office who put the roster together and you're switching a coach who your front office put together a roster with I would imagine coach in mind or certainly personnel a player in mind meaning Luca and how you want to surround him. And one of the things you said to me in the preseason was about them driving to the basket so much more. Three pointers were down, whatever. When I flipped on that game last night, I said, I'm sitting there watching the game, and I'm thinking of myself, so who exactly is supposed to be driving the ball to the basket? Which of these guys is big-time driver? Like, all right, let's set Luca aside.

Now, the rest of my personnel, who are the guys that I'm going to count on going to the basket and finishing? They're not athletes. They don't have athletes on that team. Dwight Powell might be like the best athlete, right? It's like Reggie Bullock and the Tim Hardaway, Jr. And you know. Jalen Brunson. Yeah.

I mean, these guys like, again. Brunson's good. But you're talking about a guy that can get down the teeth of the defense, force them to rotate inside, to stop a layup and kick out passes for threes or finish through all that contact. Yeah, yeah. Beats you off the dribble guys. So in other words, you're saying,

the Mavericks need a trade. Like in order for Jason Kidd's system, it's not really about the system. It's about the personnel. Not system. It's personnel. Like, that's what you're saying, right? No, I know, no, it is the coach's job to use the personnel properly. And I'm saying, you ain't got a team full of drivers. Okay. So maybe it's a little of both. It's exactly what I said it was going to be. He stinks. Are we acting like we haven't seen Jason Kidd coach basketball before. The guy left the bucks. They won 65 games with like, damn, they're the same roster. Remember,

remember we had Mir and Fader on the pot earlier this year with their great, great chasing kids stories in our New York Times best selling Janus book? Man, man, man. Some of those anecdotes in there. I don't think Mark Cuban read that book. I don't think he did. I think he should have.

I'm thoughtful. I think he did. All right. My first one. One quick thing. What last thing? KP is the real issue. He's the real issue. That's the real problem. Chris Tavs, Porzingis is not the guy that he was in New York.

He's not the guy he was his first year in Dallas. Injuries have hurt him in his career. And offensively, he thinks of himself as a post guy. Dude, you're a shooter. You're an amazing spot-up shooter from deep. I think to everything you're saying about getting dribble penetration, having another guy who can create,

they got to find a way to flip Porzengis into something. That's my last thought on Dallas. Ben Simmons? Ben Simmons. No. You said flip him. I don't think Daryl more he's going to want poor Zingis. You see, I listened to Mori's entire radio interview in Philadelphia the other day.

And I think he nailed it, man. I think I think Mori is playing his cards perfectly here. In my opinion, like growing up a Patriots fan, it just reminds me of like the stone cold business, you know, decisions that are made here saying like this could go four years thought that it will go four years but I just saying that I thought it was kind of badass I really do I thought it was great so I mean I look forward to seeing how that plays out we don't need to talk about Ben Simmons like we don't need to talk about him

yeah what is more is there to say news came out this morning but there's no nothing to add here's a first impression for you so while I was gloating over some of my predictions and the fact that one game I felt good about them. There was one I felt horrible about, and it is an omission that I'm going to beat myself up for, but I'm correcting it right now at the very beginning of the season. We gave our predictions on Tuesday, and I had one of the most gross oversights of my esteemed journalist career. And that was, my sixth man of the year pick. I spent the offseason saying,

go buy up stock on Tyler Hero. I'm on Hero Island. Come join me. I then said I thought the heat were going to be awesome. And I picked them to make the NBA finals. And then it came to Sixth Man of the Year and I said, Derek Rose. And there I am watching Tyler Hero come off the bench last night.

And I'm like, how did I miss this? It just slipped my mind completely that he was going to be that first guy off the bench for Miami. I had already expressed my belief in him coming into this third season. And so I am officially changing my pick. Because this is not just first impression stuff. It isn't. It isn't. Like I was talking about this way before, but it is, I would like to apologize to everyone,

including Tyler himself and Jack Harlow. Jack Hollow, the Hero family, all his friends. All of them. The girl who crashed her car into the wall, trying to get the autograph or picture of Tyler Hero. To her as well. To her, too. The mother of his child, Instagram star Katia Elise.

I would like for her to forgive me also. Yeah, Tyler Hero. Tyler. The dad. I didn't know that. Yeah. I had no idea. He is.

He's a father. He's going to have like Fred Van Bleet. dead energy this season. You didn't send him a gift, huh? The sleepless nights. Yep. Well, look, Tyler Hero came off the bench scorching like I knew he would. And I was, I was just really beating myself up.

So my first impression was Tyler Hero is going to win six men of the year. Your next one. That's a good one. I like that Hero one. That's good. He was fantastic last night. Let's stay in the Eastern Conference. Don't discount this team as an NBA.

finals threat. Oh, I can't wait. The Atlanta Hawks. The Hawks have the deepest team in the NBA. They have the ability to play any different style that they want to on the court. Trey Young, what we saw in the postseason last year, if he's able to do that, again, this season, carry it over, continue building, continue getting better. Factor in DeAndre Hunter, who people seemed to forget was out for their playoff run last year.

vitally important player. He was fantastic in their opener. This team, they have a great roster as is. And with all their depth, with all their pieces, they're another one of those teams as I've remarked about other teams across the league that if they have a move to make, they're in a position where they can make that move and get even better. So that's why I say with Atlanta, they're great as is and they have the flexibility to get even better. Reddish looked really good. He did. It looks so sharp, man.

He looked really good last night. People loved their rookie in Summer League. He was one that I got, Jalen Johnson. He is one that I got more feedback about maybe than any of the, you know, later in the first round guys. People were really impressed with that kid. And remember, like last night, if we're talking first impression, they didn't even have Gallo playing for him last night. Yeah. Right?

He was out. there's so many guys, dude. Like they're the type of team, like during a another COVID year, you know, the third season in two years essentially for a lot of teams here. Injuries are going to be a factor this season. COVID's going to be a factor this season. Protocols are going to be a factor.

Atlanta's the type of team. If a guy's out for any particular reason, they can withstand it. They can deal with it. All right. My next one is first impressions, okay? The nets are going to have. have some issues with this rotation.

And here's why. Interesting. Here's why. They've got the two amazing players, right? And you're probably going to be able to put whatever around them and win. But just watching it play out the other night, one of the things that stood out is they added all these veteran guys that are most likely, and I know you've got position malleability with everybody now, right?

You don't have to play everybody in a set position. but they're probably best suited to be power forwards, okay? And they can move over to center, whatever. But there's a bunch of these veterans. It's like the 2013 All-Stars. It's Blake Griffin. It's Lamarcus Aldrich. It's Paul Millsap.

Then they got James Johnson, right, who's playing for them. And guess who's buried? The one I like the most, Bruce Brown, who they just gave a contract to. Now I went to go read this, and after the game, Steve Nash, like, we're going to use Bruce a lot. Bruce is going to have a role on this team and yada, yada, yada. We're trying to see what we have. And I don't buy that, right? Like, it's going to sometimes when things like this happens, especially like with Winnow teams,

it is hard to not play those guys. It's easier to not play Bruce Brown. It's hard to not play Blake Griffin or Lamarcus Aldridge. or Paul Millsap or James Johnson for even for that matter, right? Like those are the kind of guys like they're, they're trying to win a title. They're, they're veteran guys.

They're going to be where they're supposed to be. They're going to do what they're supposed to do. And, you know, Brown's more of a live wire. But I think they need that edge. I think they need that kind of guy. And the other thing is this. As you watch them,

they will miss Kyrie in the sense of, shot creation because you got to have one of those two guys on the floor to create anything for anybody. None of those other guys can create a shot. Patty Mills being more of a score than a playmaker. And Cam Thomas is too. Yeah. You know what I'm saying? Like they don't have anybody else that could like get assists. Well like Blake Griffin maybe you run more offense through him, but you're talking about the perimeter or the player that starts on the perimeter that can shoot off the bounce. Like you're not talking about the post. You're not talking about the post. high post creator, elbow creator like Blake Griffin, or even, you know, even Millsap

or Aldridge for that matter. Yeah, they got a lot of guys, they got a lot of guys outside of those two that you throwed a ball to and some of them either can just go get a bucket, but in terms of creating for their teammates, that's the heart. You know what I mean? Like if they don't have those two, one of those two on the floor, rather no. because they don't have somebody else like that. They don't kind of have just like a run the show,

kind of I'll get everybody in a position. I can drive and kick to you. And Lamarcus Aldridge, you can hit your 18 footer. I can drive and I can throw it up, lob it up to you, Blake. I can drive. I can throw it out to Joe Harris and he can knock down a three. Like, that's all Durant and Hardin. Now, in the playoffs, by the time you get there, you know,

these guys are going to be playing 40 minutes a night anyway, and they're going to have shot creation the whole damn time. I'm just saying as the season goes on, you know, I don't like putting all those veteran bigs ahead of Brown. I don't like that. And hopefully Nash will find his way back to Brown. I think they will. I hope so.

I mean, it's hard to bench a veteran, especially an accomplished one. Listen, though, Chris, like when I was at Nets training camp a couple weeks ago in San Diego, one of the quotes that didn't make it into my story was from Sean Marks was basically like our priority is to be ready for the podcast. season and part of that is going to be about maintaining minutes and workload for these guys over the course of the season. So what I would expect, based off my conversation with him and my conversation with Nash, is that you will see like maybe next game, Aldridge is that guy getting the DMP. You might see that rotation where some nights, some guys are playing other

nights there. And that can bring up other complications because then you're maybe you're not a rhythm guys are out of rhythm and all that. But I think for the most part, though, that's, part of their plan is that different guys play because they're so deep because they have so many different options. You will see Bruce Brown play. And in fairness, it could have been very matchup related because you're going up against the bucks. And there's not a great guy for Brown to guard unless you want to throw him on like Middleton. Yeah, you're right. That's part of it. He can't, he can't play. They're too big. They're too big. Yeah. You know, and so you used. And so you used your size against him. I'm just saying when I looked at their roster and I look at how

that kid's playing three minutes. And it's just, it is difficult for a coach. Millseps an accomplished player, Aldridge is an accomplished player, Blake Griffin's an accomplished player. You know, once upon a time, Kenny Ackison was like, you know, being pressured to play DeAndre Jordan for God's sakes over Jared Allen, even though he sucks.

You know, it happens. The young guy gets buried by the older, more accomplished guy, the veteran. And so anyway, I think it's, you know, it's going to take some figuring out for sure because their bigs aren't very good their guards I mean obvious look you got you got the rant and hardened

you're going to be just fine I'm just talking about we think of them as the best of the best and not having Kyrie can show up certainly during the regular season maybe more so than in the postseason yeah I mean it goes without saying Kyrie Irving big time

difference maker no question big time how about that one just going completely silent nothing. Nothing. Do you think he's routinely sending gifts to Ben Simmons? I would be. Nobody's even talking about me.

I mean, isn't it isn't it interesting? Like I had in my story a couple weeks ago, the team didn't seem distracted at all. Like my impression is guys were just like, all right, okay, all right, we're just going to do our thing.

Then you have Mori on, you know, on the radio the other day who's like saying, this isn't a distraction. It's actually a uniting factor for the Sixers. Like it's a uniting factor. I wonder if for Brooklyn maybe it's a similar thing there. Is this a uniting factor for these guys?

Like, you know, we're here with who we have. And we're just going to move on with it and deal with it. Where it's actually not a distraction for either of these teams, even though externally it feels like how could it not be? Because my impression, like I said, when I was in Brooklyn, I don't believe it is a distraction. And with the Sixers, it certainly doesn't seem like it. The way you hear those guys talk, the way they're playing.

they lose a couple more games that'll become a thing. We'll see. It will. It'll become a thing if they lose a couple games. Maybe then Ben Simmons is mentally ready to play

and he comes in. No, no, no, no. I'm talking about the Nets. Brooklyn. Okay, Brooklyn. Okay. They lose a couple more games if it comes a thing.

No, the Simmons thing's not going to, it's not going to matter if they lose. People just blame Ben Simmons. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But the Kaira thing, it'll come up if the Nets struggle at the beginning of the season. If we look up in there, even if they're like five and five,

People be like, hold on now. This team's supposed to win the title and they're not going to win the title because they don't have career. Is it a distraction internally though? Oh, I don't know. I think they know what they, I think they know what the guy is. But to hear Stephen A. Smith say it and I think he is very plugged in there. He said that they are on the low fed up with it. That's, I think that's fair.

Fed up, but also like this is Kyrie. Whatever. Just deal of it. You know, just going to be it's not. distraction as much as like just something you have, you deal with it. What's your next one? Let's go with the Minnesota Timberwolves. They have the pieces, Chris. That's my first impression watching them. I know it was against Houston. Houston's going to be in the toilet. They're going to be in the top of the lottery again with all their young pieces.

Oh, I looked at the schedule for tonight. Are you ready for Houston OKC? Oh, that's going to be fantastic TV. Oh, yeah, fantastic. They are going to set the league back 75 years. Canceling all plans to watch that. But the Timberwolves, they have the pieces, Chris. I mean, it's not just because of Cat. It's not just because of Anthony Edwards. It's because of guys like Jada McDaniels and Josh Akogi. The way those guys play defense, the way they grind, the way they set a tone.

Patrick Beverly didn't play them their opener, but they have so many good defenders individually as man-to-man defenders and within a team concept. Like Jada McDaniels, such a young player. That dude's awesome. He's so awesome on defense. A coge as a guard slash wing defender with his size. Like they have these guys who can put on particular matchups and create issues for the opponent.

And so with Minnesota, this is why I picked them in the play in this year. I think they have the pieces. I really do. Like they're getting closer. They're not a title contender. They might not even be a first round threat. But they have the pieces. And that's at least a step forward for the Timberwolves finally.

They were certainly infinitely more. structured and competitive once they changed coaches last year. Oh, big time. Saunders was in over his head. And they looked, they look like a competent basketball team, the last part of last year. And they certainly have talent. It's just a matter of does it all fit together, right? You can criticize Gerson Rosa's decision making in certain areas of life, but hiring the head coach, he nailed that. My next one, Evan Mowley is as advertised. And this is, you know, in a show of first impressions, I got to see his first NBA game live

because he opened up in Memphis the other night. And Kevin, let me tell you something. I didn't go to Summer League. I've never seen Evan Bobley in person in my life. There are very few players in the entire NBA that you can look at and you say, my God, he's even longer than Jaron Jackson Jr. Jaron Jackson Jr. is now being measured

at like 7-1. Okay, he won't stop growing. All right. Evan Mobley, I think I saw he has a 7-4 wingspan. Yeah, he's long. I think, all right, and almost never. Do you see somebody like Jared Jackson Jr.

going up against somebody that is like longer than him? This guy is a freak of nature. I don't even know how I'm the same species as him. He is so long. and you watch him take two, you know, one dribble, two step drives to the basket from, like, it's like it was little stuff that happened throughout that game where, you know, I totally saw why people became so intensely enamored with him. Almost never has there been somebody as highly rated that played college basketball that I have seen less of. By virtue of him playing in the Pac-12, their season being weird. in the first place and beyond that, you know, games on the Pack 12 network.

Yeah, tough to watch. I don't even have it. And so when you're getting ready for the draft, of course, I'm pulling up Evimovie highlights. And it's one of those things where you can pull up highlight packages of all manner of players and you're just like, holy mackerel. But I haven't seen Eb and Moby play a full basketball game, certainly not against the caliber of talent that he was playing against.

and I left that arena and I was talking to one of my buddies and I said, my God, that was his first game. I don't even know what his final stat line was. 17 points, nine rebounds, six assists, one steel, one block, seven of 13 from the floor, one of two from three. He did it all, everything. And the front line is Jaron Jackson, Jr., who I believe had four or five blocks in the game, and Stephen Adams, who does, you know, I mean, he's there.

He's a formidable guy. Boy, he is something. And my God, the ceiling on that kid. If he puts it all together and he grows into that body, watch the hell out. Like, I don't,

I said to somebody the other day, I said, man, I hope, I'm still alive in 20 years to see a damn eight footer with a 10 foot wingspan. Because like, I don't even know where they grow these people. I mean, he is so big and so long. And yet he goes to the free throw line

and he looks like a damn guard shooting the ball. Or he shoots a three. His pull-up jumpers are so smooth. And I will say the other thing, they're going to trade sexton. Somebody's going to get sexton this year that wants to extend him and wants him. That's what I'm going to guess.

Because their people were trying to pump up Garland even to us. when I was talking to Cleveland people, they were pumping up Garland. It feels like they're in on the Garland, Mobley build around that and that's the direction

they're going to be going, which might very well be the smart thing to do, but it's going to put Sexton in this weird spot with them, and my prediction would be they move him this year. Kobe Altman said earlier this week, we want him around long term.

And Sexton expressed his disappointment not to get an extension done. The guy ever's 25 points a game last year. They didn't extend him, Kevin. He's a good player, man. He's a good player. He's still only 22 years old. Young guy.

That's the natural Cleveland one. It really is. My God, would they love Sexton in Philly? Yeah, Sexton and something else for Ben Simmons. Yes, yes. I mean, that's, to me, that is natural. Ben Simmons wants to be somewhere where there's no pressure. Okay.

Go there. You know what I mean? Does Ben Simmons know what he wants? I mean that sincerely. I mean, I don't mean that in like some joking way. I mean it sincerely. I mean, he had these three Californian teams on his list, L.A., L.A. and Golden State months ago.

And then it's like, no, I go to all 29 teams. Just don't want to be in Philly. Ramona Shelbur is like some great reporting on this. Talked about all his personal life struggles and everything else. But one of the things, one of the things that I found her saying that was most fascinating, was when he sat down with the Philadelphia brass, he said to them, it's he never brought up Doc Rivers comments.

He never brought up Joel M.B.'s comments. He never brought up, like all the things that you would typically think would piss a guy off or the trade stuff, none of that. You know what he brought up? That he feels like, I need a fresh start, that I came to that city and I came to that franchise, and I'm envious of guys around the list. league that can make mistakes that can grow into the player that they're going to become,

you know, and that right off the bat, I felt like I wasn't given the leeway to make mistakes like young players do and grow into, you know, the spotlight was bright, that everything was brutal and it was like, I do think a guy probably got rather overwhelmed and he just came to terms with the fact that I want, I want the fresh start. that I feel like I never got. Now, and that may be bogus, but no,

that aligns with what I reported a couple of weeks ago, that Ben Simmons didn't blame Doc. He didn't blame anybody exactly. He didn't, he wouldn't exactly give a reason during the meeting. Like he wasn't saying much during that meeting months ago, uh, with the Sixers brass.

But like the end, the, the real indication is that he wants his own team, that he wants to be a guy who can be the face of the franchise, have a team built around him. And yeah, also to grow through that and fail through that and get better from it. He wants his own team.

Anyway, Colin Sexton and Philly would be awesome. I mean, I guess Matt. I like Maxie too, though. So either way. All right, what's your next one? Devin Vassell from the San Antonio Spurs is taking a leap. He's taken a leap.

It's happening. Just one game. Just one game, Chris. But, you know, I go back to his second season at Florida State and the improvement he made as a shooter off the dribble. I believe the number off the top of my head was like he went from one made dribble jumper as a freshman in Florida State to 39 as a sophomore. And his second season with the Spurs game one coming off the bench has 19 points.

Like he's not going to shoot 75% from three for the entire year. He's not going to shoot 67% from the floor's entire season. But the improvement off the dribble looked real. He was making, you know, very smooth dribble moves, smooth passes off the bounce. He looked to me like a guy that really was in the gym of this whole past year with San Antonio. And now is in a situation with those veterans out of the way, going to have more minutes, more opportunity to show off what type of progress he made. He's a very good defender as a young player, just 21 years old.

And he's more than just a spot up three point shooter. Devin Fasel with San Antonio Spurs making a leap. And the Spurs, they're a candidate as the next bright future team, Chris. I still haven't decided yet. I haven't decided yet. I'm waiting for when it feels right. It felt right with the suns years ago. I'm waiting for when it feels right.

The Spurs are a candidate to become the bright future spurs. It has a pretty good ring to it. All right. My next one is about Russell Westbrook. Okay. The spotlight. I'm ready for this, Chris. I'm ready for this.

Yes. I'm sitting up in my seat. Russell Westbrook, what's it going to be? Should they have got buddy healed? People have amnesia. about this. It started off in Houston horribly, and he was terrible. Remember?

It started off in Washington. Terrible. And then you may have to wait until January. But, I mean, how many times are we going to go through this? And I'm going to, it's going to happen again. They're going to kill him. The impatience in the spotlight, especially when you're on the Lakers, right? But I'm telling you that go back and look, the second half of the Houston year,

go back and look at the second half of the Washington year. And we would do these podcasts and I would say, look, everybody hates this guy. Stock is at it all the time below. Go get it right now, by now. It's clockwork. But the truth is, it stinks for the first like two months of the year. And then he figures it out, right? He figures it out.

And so there's going to, but this is going to be different because this ain't Houston and this ain't Washington. This is L.A. And I don't know if you're going to get too much to figure it out and be bad, right? He was, though. In those last couple of stops, once we got to the spring, he was like devastating. The numbers went flying up and he found his role on the team and he stopped shooting as many threes. That Houston stretch was arguably the best regular season stretch of his career, you know, arguably. You know, I mean, I know he wanted MVP, but arguably that stretch was one of his best.

Look, he went nuts in the second half of last year when they were trying to make the play in for Washington. Some of those nights were just crazy that he was having. And by the time it was done, Washington fans were like all in on Westbrook, right? And of course, they moved him in the offseason. I'm just saying, I don't think you get that kind of leeway, you know, but I just want to remind everybody as I was watching it the other night and everybody's like, did you see, Rush, Russ suck, Russ, right?

Like, guess what? a little different deal. When you're playing in Houston and you're playing in Washington, every damn game you play isn't analyzed and on national television. This is a different one. He's played in Oklahoma City, Houston, and Washington.

You know what I mean? And you get, you got a little bit of time. It may be three weeks, four you're on national TV again. It's about two days when you're in L.A. And you're playing with LeBron and AD. And so, like, this is not going to be surprising.

It's not. And I can't wait to, hear all the incredible sweeping judgments that take place because they did in both stops. It's just a matter of what's the level of patience going to be. But there's a track record of this. It looks terrible at the beginning. It has the both new stops. It looked rough.

And then it got great. This is smart. This is a smart comment, Chris, because right now this is going to be the conversation all week until he has an amazing game. And, you know, despite all my criticism. of Russ over the years, you know, he's a great player, period. Like, he's a great player. He is one of the, you know, greatest players of all time, right?

He is. And I think with the Lakers here, it deserves time based off history, going into new systems for the first year and then how he's managed to improve within those systems as he becomes adjusted to his teammates. My understanding with Ross is like, one of the reasons why he's not like some unbelievable off ball player is like, it's just. the feel aspect. He's better with design plays more so than like reading and reacting.

And I think apply that to a new system. He doesn't fully understand. He hasn't absorbed the system yet. He hasn't absorbed his teammates' tendencies where they like the ball. They're positioning on the floor when and where they'll be where they're going to be at. So I think with Ross, it's about getting accustomed to the entire system, all of his teammates, absorbing that rather than just like coming in right away and playing in some free-flowing style. It's about getting adjusted. And so over the course of time, you would expect that to happen

when he has like so much talent around him. I think, I think trading for Russell Westbrook was the right thing over Buddy Healed. Because by the way, you could still get Buddy Healed. You could still get Buddy Healed with Tailing Horton Tucker, other salary filler and other assets theoretically. If there's not a better offer out there, you could get somebody who's another shooter for you. But Russell Westbrook should work himself out and be the guy that they need him to be during the regular season. The playoffs are still a question. Yeah, that's right. We'll see. There's still a question, but over the course of the regular season, the Lakers are going to make the playoffs. It's just about how does Westbrook develop within this system and how do they develop with him? That's what

the season is about for the Lakers. And like the first week, first impressions, it shouldn't matter too much, but I'm with you, Chris, that Westbrook should improve and the Lakers will, you know, because of him. All right. Is this your last one? Your last one? My last one. Yeah.

Let's, I was, I was contemplating whether to talk about your Memphis Grizzlies here. But I'm going to kind of package them in with my thought about the Pacers. You know, just watching the Mata Sabonis the other night. Granted, they lost the Hornets.

All of these teams, Charlotte with their third quarter comeback. Indiana, Sabonis, when he was an OKC is a rookie, he stunk. He played scared. And now he's like,

freaking humble. unbelievable, dude. Like, he gets better every single season. They also, they also had him standing in the corner shooting a million threes. Chris Duarte, 27 points in his debut, not just hitting spot up threes, doing stuff off the bounce, attacking the basket. Like, he looked awesome. And I don't know, I was just watching that Pacer's Hornets game the other night. I'm watching your Grizzlies and it's like, damn, dude. Like, there's so many good players, man. There's just so many good players. I know, like we've talked about this before but that's just one of my first impressions of the week watching indiana

charlowe is where that thought came up but i don't know dude like there's just so much good talent in the league to watch like even if you're not a championship contender i'm all about winning championships and doing everything possible to win a championship i think franchises are screwing their fans if they're not doing that but ultimately like even if your team isn't a title contender right now like there's so much good right now there's just so much to feel good about if you're a fan of any team team. No question. My last one. You can feel that with Memphis, dude. Is that where you're going with your last one? No. Okay. Well, plenty of time to talk Grizzlies this year. Everybody knows. Did you hear the MVP chance? I've never heard that in Memphis. I promise you that.

Pretty cool, huh? I have never heard that. Hey, you know what? I take that back. I have heard of there for Kobe when the team stuck. Who won 20 games three years in a row. My first time seeing Kobe play was was the game like a TD Garden, formerly Fleet Center, when Celtics fans supposedly chanted MVP at Kobe. It wasn't really

Celtics fans. You know how Lakers fans travel. They don't travel. They're in every market. They're in every market and they travel. It's like I remember I was sitting behind a row of Lakers fans like this.

And my dad and I had asked them like, do you guys come from California? Do you travel here? And they did. Like there's a whole whole row of people traveled from California. California. Lucky the mascot came over, sprayed them with silly

silly spray. And everybody was paying MVP for Kobe Bryant. And it wasn't the Celtics fans, though. It was those Lakers fans, traveling and living everywhere across the country. No, you know, I am going to, but you know, you said, are you going to say, are you going to say something about Marantin

the Grizzlies? I'm not, but I am going to talk about a subject very close to my heart, Kevin. Okay. Free Marvin Bagley. Oh, my God. I mean, what the hell? How could you be Moharkless? That's what we're doing there?

Look, the Kings have got players now. This is going to be a really, like, why are you messing around with this, right? That's fine. You didn't give the guy a contract extension. You didn't take any of the trades, whatever. That's all fine, right? But to leave the guy completely out of the rotation, eliciting. I've never seen this, a memo sent out by Jeff Schwartz from Excel, who, by the way, let me just...

That was wild. Let me just explain to everybody. Jeff Schwartz, who is the agent for Marvin Bagley, this isn't some schmo that's just like, oh, yeah, that's the guy that's Marvin Bagley's agent. Jeff Schwart has three dozen NBA clients who are under contract. for more than $450 million, making him the most prolific agent in the NBA. What are you doing pissing him off? Like, forget even if you want to say,

the hell with Marvin Bagley, which had never drafted him, whatever else. Right? You obviously have conversations with the agent, right? The agent wants what's best for his client. The team wants what's best for them. I don't understand how not playing the kid at all is best for the team. And when he says they turn down trades at the trade deadline, they turn down trades in the offseason.

And now, after they've had him working with Doug Christie, who they hired, and everybody saying he had the best camp of his entire NBA career, and he's back ready to go, you just abandon him completely and say, he's out of the rotation. he's not part of our future. He's not part of what we're doing going forward. You want to know why, Chris? You get to get stops on defense.

That's why. It's outrageous. Oh, shut up. It's Mo heartless, Kevin. Moearkless can't guard you. Shut up. It's defense. Defense, right?

You're like the biggest Carl Anthony Towns fan in the world. Give me a break. You know, you... Carl Anthony Towns is also one of the most magnificent offensive players in the league. Marvin Bagley, we don't even know what? We don't know what he is. He's okay.

He's all right. We don't know. It's okay, Chris. All of a sudden, you're determining what his story hasn't even started to be written. And it's not like he was anti-productive, like he wasn't productive when he has played. For them to abandon him completely to elicit the most powerful agent. I swear to God, they have every different management team there. And every time, somehow, they're in the news for bad management.

I've never seen anything like it in my life. And it sucks. I'm so sorry for Kings fans because you've got Bagley, who desperately wants out of there, healed who you've, you know, they've screwed that whole thing up with him, where he wanted out last year,

and now he wants to, you know, and then they said they're trading him for Kyle Kuzma and whatever in the off season. So now he has no trust, and he'll eventually have to go somewhere too. But, I mean, you got these,

you got five. and you got Bagley and you got healed and you got Halliburton and you got Davian Mitchell and you got like they got some really fun stuff to build around and it's like how are two of the young players you know that you've had it's not just about like okay we're not the ones that drafted so we don't have stock in these guys in the same way that our predecessors did it's about like actively alienating the players that have been around. You know what I mean? And part of it, I mean, if we learn anything, it's like we always get mad at these players

when they say, I want out of my situation, right? But how often do you see that the team made a situation for guys that made them not want to be a part of what's going on, you know, alienated them completely. And this is now, I had, I remember, I saw them two, two. three years ago when they were all healthy. And I thought, man, if they have fox and they have healed and they have Bagley and you just build around it and you like flank these guys, you could really be something special going forward.

And they have napalmed what looked like a good core. You know, now look, they get a little pass on the Bagley thing because he hasn't been able to be on the court to be part of a core, right? But he is now. And it's like, oh, we didn't draft them, so we don't give a shit. And in the process, have made the most powerful agent in the NBA furious, which you can say he shouldn't have been. But as someone who pays attention to the way teams are managed,

not the guy, not the guy. You're not that guy, pal. Not the guy you want to piss off. You are inevitably going to have to deal with him many times, you know, over the course of the next five to ten years as you're building out. Yeah, that's mine. I'm done. First impressions.

It's going to be me with Killian Hayes in four years probably, right? Oh, boy. Not a great look on opening night, Kevo. That was a tough look for him on opening night. Even Pistons fans are starting to worry a bit. I am too. He's just got to learn how to score. Pretty simple.

You know, I'm like, I'm like, you know, you know, I'm like the guy who keeps dating the girl that's wrong for them. You know, like the same girl, Frank Nilakina. Holy Frank Nilakina. He can defend, he can pass. You know, he does all these things. Good athlete, you know. Insert Killian Hayes for that.

Repeating history here, Chris. Don't tell me that. And then the one, Teo Maladon is the one you never got on. The next French guard, I'm going to not even rank them. Swipe left. Not even going to give it a chance. You're done it. Are you, is that your first impression?

Is that your last first impression? You are done with French guards. No, I'm not. I still believe Killian Hayes can be a productive NBA player. I do. I really do. I genuinely do that. I do.

Hey, just sell it. Just get rid of it. The sock. I don't want to. I think I'd rather go to go to zero and be part of the ship, Chris. I'm not saying he'll be some star.

I never, productive player. I never abandon. When you say productive, I'm kidding. What do you mean? What do you mean about? He can already, he's already a good defender. He's already a good passer.

He just needs to learn how to score. I'm serious. Like, he needs to learn how to score. He's got the moves. It's got the step back. He's got the frame. he's got like the tools. It's just like putting it together.

I don't know how much of it is mental, how much of it is like the ability to read the floor, how much of it is confidence. Like I like I said, I don't know like what it is. He has the tools. I think now again, I have not done like a big in-depth examination of this.

But I would say pretty high on the list of why it looks so different than it did during evaluation is he's not playing against a bunch of French dudes. Thanks, Chris. Sorry. Thanks, Chris. Thank you. Kevin, always one of my favorite times of the week.

Thank you to our executive producer, Sasha Schell, as always. I'm so glad the season's underway. I really am. You too. This is going to be awesome. Hey, are you in L.A.? I am in L.A. Saturday, Sunday.

You can see John Morant. in person. Back to back. You better be there, Kevin O. Morant. I might be. Come on. We'll see. I don't expect to be. But, but you got to get to one of them. I know. You can see Adele too. She was, she's there. Courtside. You can tell her, you love her new single. Her new single is really good. It is. It's really great. Adele don't miss. It's amazing what she can do with just her voice in a piano. Like, there's very few artists that can do so much with so few instruments. She's incredible.

Incredible. Lyrically, it's a great song, too. She's fantastic. Thank you to Sasha. Kevin, I will talk to you next Tuesday. I'm really looking forward to it, Chris. I hope everybody has a great weekend watching NBA basketball.