The Mismatch - The Good and Not So Good About the NBA This Week

Episode Date: November 18, 2022

Verno and KOC discuss the good and bad from the NBA this week, beginning with the amazing run that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is on before discussing the Suns, the Kings' resurgence in Sacramento, and the Knicks, who are starting to look better (02:17). The bad takes a look at two teams who have a single player carrying them: the Warriors with Steph Curry and the Nets with Kevin Durant (38:14). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Producer: Jessie Lopez Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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

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

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

I'm Chris Vernon and joining me see it as every Friday from the ringer.com. It's Kevin O'Connor, A.K. Kevin O'Bomber, Kevin O'Conflict, Kevin O'Connor, Kevin O'Colns, Kevin O'Climber, Kevin O'Clylam. Kevin O'Neill. How's your Friday morning going, my friend? What's up? Everything's great. And I'm excited about tonight because today's episode, we're going to go through the good and the bad of the week.

And the good starts with a guy that I am going to see in person tonight as they play in Memphis, Shea Gildjus Alexander and the Oklahoma City Thunder. Now, this was wildly unexpected to me that this would be a game that I would end up circling because I wanted to see them in person, especially after the Holmgren injury at the very beginning of the year, or rather in the summer, and knowing that he wasn't going to be available, I've seen Giddy before. I've seen Giddy Ben be great before. I've seen Gildes-Alexander many times. But this run that SGA is on is unlike almost anything we've seen from a guy that we consider to be very good, a almost all-star, and this seemingly superstar assent that he has recently

been on. When I was going through all of the teams, you know, I see every team at least once throughout the year. And they would have been very, very low. But they have moved exponentially higher simply on the back of one guy. And I say that because as I mentioned recently, this run that he is on. In the last six games, he has had 42, 6, and 7, 37, 4, and 8 assists, 37, 5 rebounds, 8 assists,

23 rebounds, 4 assists, 39, 4 rebounds, 4 assists, 37, 7 rebounds, 5 assists. All the while, none of those games that I just mentioned are under 50% from the field. And he is now the third leading scorer in the NBA, tied with Joe L.M.B., trailing only Luca Donchich and Stepan Curry.

What is happening here, Kevin? I mean, he's a dominant force driving to the basket, first of all. That's where it all starts for SGA. He logs 24 drives per game, according to Second Spectrum, number one in the NBA. He's been number one in the NBA on drives for a while now. Like that dude's unstoppable.

He can get to his pull-up. He can get to floaters. He can finish with either his left or right-hand with high efficiency. He can draw contact, finish through it. He can, you know, hesitations. He can use hang dribbles. Like, he's got every move in the bag.

And it's so herky-jurkey that it's impossible to stop that dude, right? But also, he's a low volume, but of high-efficiency, the three-point shooter. I had a stat in my article on the ringer earlier this week saying how he takes only 2.9 shots from deep per game. That's less than in beat. That's less than Janus. And he has a chance to just become the sixth player this century at his height or shorter to average over 25 points while averaging under three three-pointers per game. Just DeMar,

Zion, Dwayne, Alan Iverson, Kobe Bryant. Like it's not a lot of guys that height in the modern NBA that just don't shoot threes, right? Like he is such an outlier with how frequently he drives to the rim and how infrequently that he shoots three-pointers. As Michael Pena said earlier on this week on the Bill Simmons podcast, his three-point frequency

rate has declined each year, right? Like he's doing less of it. He's saying he's being more economical on the shots that he's choosing. So I feel like SGA over time. Like he's been good for, you know, ever since he was a rookie, he's been good. He's been good. He's been good since he was playing with Chris Paul, right? But he's, he's

become even more and more efficient every single season. And we're starting to see it all come together now for Oklahoma City. Yeah. And it's interesting because you would think that a guy that you mentioned, the numbers have gone down in terms of frequency of shooting that shot, that the other stuff would be more difficult to pull off. Oh, yeah. Not so much. Everybody's going, you know what I mean? Like, you're just, the book would be just go under the screen. And you want to get him to shoot. That's what, and many coaches will tell these guys, look, if they're just going to constantly go under screens, you've got to be able to hit that shot and make them pay for it. And so he's in this situation where, yeah, as you mentioned, only taking less than three a game and yet still

able to do all of this. And part of it, Chris, shooting over 50% on mid-range pull-ups. Like, he's elite efficiency for mid-range. It's like he can get into that shot. still get a quality look for his team. He's one of those types, a Damar, right? And he's not, what's crazy is, many times when you see these kind of guys, like you're talking about old-timey Westbrook, you're talking about John Wall,

you're even talking about Morant, where it's like, it's this speed, it's this head start that you give them by being far away from them, that they're just, they're forces of nature, and they are so quick that you can't, stay in front of them. And I'm not saying this guy's not quick, but he's not explosive like

those guys. He's not fast twitch. He's more of the lines of these. I remember back in the day when somebody was trying to explain to me how Genoble does it. And you see it now on a even more ridiculous level with Luca and others that sometimes with the European players that it's this unbelievable footwork. It's steps. It's where they're putting their, you know, they can play the angles and they can play the steps

at a way that makes them so difficult to guard. So it's not your typical side-to-side crossover, not like he doesn't have that. But his mode of operation is a little different than some of the other explosive guards that you see. He is just,

And I'm excited to see him. Like I did not, I don't think anybody could have seen this coming where a guy's having 42 and 37 and we're almost, we're not far from a quarter of a way through the season, Kevin. So this is not, this is not feel while this recent run is probably unsustainable, certainly him moving himself into a different, you know, category of player seems very sustainable. How sure are you that it seems unsustainable? The reason why I say that is because it's not like he's significantly more efficient than last season. I mean, last year he still had a good year. He shot 5.3, 3-pointers per game. He's cut that pretty much in half, taking more quality shots, focusing more in mid-range,

driving a bit more, taking three more total shots per game. It's an efficiency bump, but also like a larger volume bump, right? I wonder if it actually could be sustainable right now in the NBA. The reason I would think, and I'm just talking about the recent run. Oh, yeah, with the 40 bomb and the 35. 35 a game. And also averaging 30 points over the course of a season. I mean, it's just...

That's very tough to do. The scoring is crazy right now. and it's not as if when they come into town that I always talk about being on the top of the chalkboard. Like he is the guy for Oklahoma City that's on the top of the chalkboard. But I would tell you, Oklahoma City is and has not been taken nearly as seriously as many of your peers. And that's what I would say is going to be the change as this goes on. Only is he at the very top of the chalkboard, NBA players are aware. You start drawing everybody's best defender.

You know, like he will tonight in a way that would not have happened in the past. They probably would have had John Morant on him. I would bet you anything that Dylan Brooks starts out on him tonight. And it will be Canadian on Canadian. No, but I'm saying that's the best they have to offer. For sure. And that will take place against many others throughout the NBA. Like you're going to see that once you hit that level,

you get a different level of attention paid to you. And I know people are going to say, well, he's always going to this attention to pay. Nobody has given a crap about playing Oklahoma City. I'm sorry. They just haven't because of the losing. Do you think he's the type of guy that can handle that? Like, is he the type of player that can still flourish? like he did versus Boston

when they're sending doubles the extra attention at him he's still out of a spectacular game do you think he's the type that can continue to be better and then maybe it's like oh I'm not able to drive to the basket here but I'll just toggle on my playmaking and get a corner three for Poku

in a loot door and attack on a closeout after I make a swing pass across to court like you think he's that type of guy that can elevate his play even more with that attention yes I do but he's also what does that mean for him is he a top 10 top 15 guy top 10 maybe not. We got to let it play out.

We got to let it play out. And the other thing is you're going to start getting a lot of doubles. You're going to start getting a lot of double teams because they're going to make everybody else beat them, especially on a team that doesn't have a bunch of shooters necessarily on it. You want him swinging at the door. You want him swinging it to giddy. I mean, these are things that these guys really have to add to their games.

And so he is just, he's killing him. absolutely kill the people. I think it's also time to stop even considering O'KC trading them. It's just... Oh, yeah, for sure. It's not going to happen. No.

I mean, like, you could, like, I think Bill and Michael had a good conversation about this theoretical on this week on Bill Simmons podcast. Like, the argument would be, you know, you trade him and you tank even harder for one baniala, but like, I don't think that's a quality path. I think with OKC, you have this guy

who's a potential megastar, and you're betting on Chet Holmgren next year to come back and be an elite room protector, a good three-point shooter or creator. You already have so much talent and so many picks. And by the way, I mean, this team's seven and eight. It doesn't mean they're going to make the play in.

They still might miss the plan and have very good draft lottery odds. It's still possible even with SGA having a ludicrous season. And they've also got that whole war chest of graphics themselves. Exactly. You know what I mean? Where they can pick and choose trades for established players or within the draft, combining three picks to trade up to get one guy.

They still have that ability. I just think SGA is one of the building blocks in the NBA right now, right? Like he needs to prove himself, like we need to see longevity here. But thus far the season, he's entered the, is he better than Trey? Is he on the level of Mitchell? Like, where does he stack up against like the job? Like, Jaws done more. He's reached higher highs.

But just this season, you know, a month in. He's been great. Exactly. SGA's right there. So now it's about sustaining it and continuing to grow and get even better from it. Yeah. And that's the difference, right? Like, where I would have just written in the game off been like, ah, well, now it's like Jha versus SGA.

And it follows a trajectory, too. Like, that's a real, like, that's a real thing that's going to happen tonight. You've seen Jha get better every year? Absolutely. HGA's gotten better every year. These guys are always up, up, up, up, up, up, up, and they're following a realistic trajectory where it's like, okay, this is sustainable for Jha. This is sustainable for Gilgis Alexander, and I'm a big buyer in what both of those guys are doing.

More of the good from the week. So there has been an amazing amount of attention paid to the problems with the Golden State Warriors, that they're oh and aid on the road and the current comments, and we'll get to all of that stuff in a little bit. but I wanted to talk about the good side, which has not been talked about virtually at all, which is the team that knocked them off the other night, despite Steph Curry having 50 points in the game, is a Phoenix Sun's team that is down two starters. You know, Chris Paul has been unavailable.

They lost Cam Johnson for an extended amount of time. the Crowder thing, which we'll get to in a moment, never had a resolution. So not only do they not have Jay Crowder, they don't have whatever they would have attained for Jay Crowder. So that's just a lost roster spot that has taken place. And yet, even despite losing those guys at the time of our recording, when you look at what the Sons have done so far,

they have at this time the third best offense, the third best defense, and the second best point differential through 14 games. How are they doing this? I mean, it's pretty, everybody is going to have guys out. Everybody is going to lose guys for an amount of time. But I thought it was interesting that the other night was all about the Warriors and what's wrong with the Warriors and what the hell. And not much about this Sun's team that scored 130,

had campaign have 29. They started campaign Booker, Bridges, Aiton, and Torrey Craig. Troy Craig had a double double. And you look up and down there bench, Kev? I mean, these are guys that people would not know at all. Damian Lee, who some people might recognize as a bit player from the Warriors teams, Jack Landell, Dwayne Washington Jr., ish, Wainwright, Josh Okie.

I mean, that's the bench. What's going on is shocking to me. Shocking. And while a lot of attention was paid to the Warriors, what do we make of the Sons? They've done a great job filling those gaps you're talking about. I mean, Tori Craig, he's not Jay Crowder, he's not Cam Johnson, he's a solid player. Campaign is definitely not Chris Paul. But he's done a good job as a starter, right?

Let me tell you this, hey, Kev, Chris Paul ain't had 29 and 7 in a game this year. No, Chris, I mean, their heel injury seems concerning, which is why they should be very conservative with bringing him back. Because the fact they're able to keep winning games without him, you know, that's a positive indicator for Phoenix right now. And I think, you know, the names you're hearing that Phoenix is targeting here, they're trying to supplement some creation, like ball handling, right? Like Eric Gordon was talking about this week, if it were Houston, that ended up being involved with Crowder going to the Bucks. You know, some of the guys that Shams had mentioned, you know,

in his report on Friday morning, Barnes, Kuzma, KJ Martin, John Collins. There's a mixture, you know, a lot of forwards there. Kuzma could help with some handling. Barnes can do a little bit with, you know, handoff actions for you and all that. So I think right now what you're seeing, McKell Bridges, slight up,

tick and ball handling, bringing the ball up the floor, more pick and roll. He's done a great job with that against Miami last week. He had a couple great pick and roll possessions, facilitating out of it, scoring, going left to right,

rescreening, pulling up at the elbow, and then campaign. I mean, Cam, cam's doing exactly what he needs to do, filling in for Chris Paul. But it is,

it is interesting to see some of those names for Phoenix right now with the types of players that they're targeting. Because they do need help. I think you do need to fill that crowd or spot, obviously. So it's going to be very interesting to see what they end up getting in return for him or if they give up any additional assets as well to get a player for a higher salary or a player of greater value. What do you like most from some of those names that have been floating out there?

for them. Is there any anybody that you'd be targeting number one on your list? Kuzma's number one for me. I'd want Kuzma if the wizards are willing to I actually think that would help the Wizards too. Do you lose more games as the Wizards? No, no, no. I'm saying it would help them with Crowder. Oh, you want to help if you're the woods. Yeah, yeah. I'm saying in between Porzengis and Beal. Yeah, but I think like Kuzma's been really good in that spot though for them. He's getting buckets. He's doing all the little things. He has lineup versatility. He has.

I think Coos was a way better player than Crowder. In terms of helping you win, night in, night out. Yeah, I mean, I have a higher opinion of Crowder than... And I'm a big Coosba guy, so I mean, like, we're, you know... These are the debates that happen in front offices, right? Like, they're like, I'm a Crowder guy, you know. She's proven himself in the postseason. He's got great leadership and all that.

I think they're both role players. They're both role players. They're both role players. So it's just... Which kind of role player do you like? The thing is, you know, Kuzma. That's what he is. Crowder's not getting you 36 points.

Like who's- I get it? I get it, but there's stars and role players. Also, if one of your best players is Kyle Kuzma, your team's not going to be very good over the course of maybe two games. You know? No, I get it. He'd be a role player there too.

So, I mean, he'd be doing less, right? He's also probably not going to have 36 in a situation on the Phoenix Suns either. I hate to tell you. You know? Well, that's the thing. Play for the wizard. Somebody's got to score. Yeah, but he has the ceiling to do that, though.

Like if it's a night where it's a bad matchup or a rough night for Booker or CP3, Kuzma might be the guy with the advantageous matchup where he can go get you some buckets in the half court, still do his stuff on defense as well. I mean, is he, I would try to find something maybe a little bit different, though, because you got, Cam Johnson's going to be back by playoff time.

So maybe you prefer Eric Gordon then, because Eric Gordon would help supplement some of the ball handling that you lose, you know, or that you might not have of CP3's heels bothersome, right? Mm-hmm. How about what one name that wasn't mentioned, he hasn't played this season, he wasn't in Shams's report, but it's a name that I've heard floated around. Bogdan Bogdanovich with Atlanta. How about him?

Would you like him with Phoenix? Yes. Yes. Big time. Yeah, I'd like the Bogdanovich fit. I love him. Oh, yeah, and they may be, they may be a little more dispenseless. dispensable simply because of the

Murray acquisition, right? Yeah, I think so, for sure. I mean, like, you know, like, Bogdanovich, part of the benefit of him is the fact that he can excel with the ball or without the ball. I'd have to get a lot more than Crowder. If you're Atlanta.

Yeah. Yes. But if you're, but it's similar to what you said, though, earlier. If you're Atlanta, you don't need the handling Bogdanovich provides as much as the defense Crowder can provide. You know? Like, I think it could be, it makes them sense. for both. Plus he's coming back from

a knee issue, right? He hasn't played yet this season. So, who know, he has knee surgery in May. Who knows how healthy he'll actually be? He's supposed to be back soon, though. Yeah. Bogdanovich would be like a high up my list. Plus, this guy's been a clutch-ass shot maker ever since overseas, man.

I want to see Bogdanovich on a team where he's getting those playoff moments. I think he has a real chance to have, I mean, granted, he'd made an East Finals with Atlanta his first year there, but I want to see him in more playoff series as well with a team with finals at aspirations. Whether Atlanta or Phoenix.

I just like that guy a lot. I think he's got some serious talent, which is why I was so disappointing he wasn't able to go to Milwaukee. That's for sure. Well, and Crowder may end up in Milwaukee. That's the word that they are like the favorite, so that maybe there's some kind of combination of guys that's moving around in order to make this Jay Crowder thing.

And honestly, by the time people listen to this, the Crowder thing might have reached a solution, and there might be a deal. Certainly it looks. The reporting has gotten hot and heavy over the course of the past couple of days. And so it seems like something is going to take place rather soon. The NBA season is underway

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In West Virginia, visit 1-800 gambler.net. Something has taken place in Sacramento. The Kings. They scored the most points that they have scored in 29 years. in their game against the Brooklyn Nets the other night. And then they turned around and disposed of the San Antonio Spurs last night. They now have a, you know, now they have a winning record of 8 and 6. We've been a couple goofy calls, robberies maybe that we have mentioned.

So, I mean, this team could easily be right now 10 and 4. You know, if a couple of those maybe go a different way. But as it is, they're 8 and 6, they're steadily improving, getting used to playing together. And I think this is, the big sign is, yes, being able to beat good teams here and there. But step one is establishing that you are better than the other, quote, lottery type teams. And so when they're able to beat Brooklyn, who's really been struggling, when they're able to beat San Antonio, and then before that, before those games, they beat Golden State, they beat the Lakers, and they had a really good home win against Cleveland. You even look at their losses in November, they had a three-point loss on the road at Miami and a three-point loss on the road at Golden. Golden State. So, I mean, you're six points from being undefeated at this point. And we're,

you know, their next game's going to be on Sunday, which is the 20th of the month. So, I mean, we're two-thirds of the way through the month. They have two losses by a combined six points in the month. They are on to something here, Kevin. They're on to something in Sacramento. the beam is getting to be shown into the sky on regular occasion in Northern California. And they're just such a fun team to watch too. Not only are they winning more, but the fast pace they play at running out in transition. And in the half court,

like the way they have players whizzing around, a herder coming off of screens, Sabonis running dribble handoff actions, right, with guys running around him. It's just, It's a fun team to watch, and it's cool to see. I looked up the numbers this morning before recording with the dribble handoffs, because they do a lot of that with Subonis.

I was surprised to see that, so they're running 40 dribble handoffs per game. That's number one in the NBA this season. It's actually the most all-time per game in the tracking era. The frequency they run handoff actions. I was surprised to see that was number one. I knew they did a lot of it, but they are dominating, doing it. They have a lot of shooters around Sabonis of him being an offensive hub. We talked about Herder on Tuesday show, him shooting 50% from three, you know,

dominating the way he is away from Atlanta. And your guy, Aaron Fox, I mean, he's the engine. Him and Sabonis, Fox from the perimeter, Subonis from the elbows and post area. They can create offense from so many different areas at the cord. And I think that variety they have allows them to kind of pick and choose how they're going to do it, depending on the matchup. Yeah, they've got these shooters that around Monk was really big. Oh, he's been...

Monk's been really good, man. Yeah, they've got different guys that can all play a role on this team. Like, they've kind of got their guys that the thing can be based around in Fox and Sabonis. Well, yeah, and he's been hurt.

He just got hurt. Hopefully that's not bad because he was like doubtful. Like, he was going to be playing. And then he was moved up to doubtful after he, like, tried it out at shoot around. And it's a back. So you always...

And any time you see back, you're like, ah, shoot, like hopefully, hopefully he's just fine. And he'll be able to play by this weekend and that it's not that big of a deal and it was just sore, bothering him, whatever. But, yeah, I mean, they added him and he is, he's able to be a contributor. And he's just going to keep getting better and better as he gets used to speed of game and playing with all these guys as the year goes on. But, I mean, they got real players and a real coach. And it's a cool story because what happened in baseball this past year was this outrageous streak of inaptitude was broken by the Seattle Mariners. And they made it to the playoffs. And then the attention went towards Sacramento because they are the team of professional sports with the longest playoff drought.

And so it'd be a hell of a deal if within a year's time we could break the longest drought in baseball and, basketball with these two teams that have done so much losing and yet have really good fan bases. You saw a happy both, you know, you see, it's how happy Seattle was and now you're seeing they're just, they're waiting. They've been waiting for them to be good. And that arena

looks so fun right now. You know, it's like for the first time it forever, they're good. And I think it's, I think they're legitimately. What's crazy is like it still might have to come through the plane. That's how tough the West is. Oh, for sure. Right? I mean, that's how tough the West is right now. There are 10,

11 teams. I mean, if you want to throw the thunder into that, right? I mean, 12. Yeah. We're going to be competing for 10 spots. The Warriors right now are the 12 spot behind the Thunder. There's a 12 right now. Right? I mean, like, it is so competitive

right now. Oh, if you, you're not playing well. And this is one of the things we talked about a few weeks ago. Because the problem is even the sorry teams are the ones that are picking off wins here and there. And that's why I said step one is taking care of business against the teams that you are supposed to be better than. I mean, this is, this was the story of the 2021 Bulls. Remember?

They were never beaten anybody that was good last year. but they're beating everybody that wasn't. And so step one is, okay, we're clearly better than these teams. And that's what somebody like Golden State has not done yet. Because you can, as you mentioned, because of the parody, you can get picked off regularly. You know, if you don't come to play, everybody's got guys now. I just talked to you about how we started the show. I'm going to go see Gildes Alexander.

bro, you dick around, this guy might have 45 on you. You know? They got players. Same with that Pacers team. I mean, there's different teams throughout the league. Idiot is the sixth seed right now. I know, I know, I know. Seven and six.

Halliburn's crushing. Matherin, I mean, we talked about him as a potential rookie of the year before the season. Yep. Not so crazy right now, right? I mean, he's been so good. No, and we're right now talking about, like, in the, league, you have historic scoring going on, you have historic efficiency going on. And I'll tell you, I was talking to, I was talking to my son this morning when I was driving him to school about

Gildes Alexander. And I was showing him this screen cap that I had for today's show of his last six games that I recited at the beginning. And I was like, you know, I would have thought this game is a dud. And I was like, but now I'm like kind of excited to go to it tonight. because this guy is on this crazy-ass run. We talk about it. And I was like, I think he's third in the league in scoring. And so I'm talking to him about it. And I'm going through like the top 10 scores in the NBA.

And I said, in what world would we have imagined that on November 18th, John Morant is averaging 29.3 points per game, and he is ninth in the NBA in scoring. How crazy is that? He's nine in the NBA in scoring. He's barely holding on to a top 10 scorer in the league mark on November 20th. It's outrageous, Kevin. It's made for tons of fun because we're seeing these crazy performances night in, night out. But God bless, imagine 29.3 points per game and your ninth in the NBA in scoring.

How long ago was it Chris where you did the thing on the show about how there were 10 guys averaging over 30 points per game? Was that two weeks ago or one week ago? I don't know. I think so. But now it's still seven. Yeah. It's still seven right now. Lucas, Steph, Embed, SGA, Tadham, Mitchell Durant.

Still seven. I wonder how long that holds where we have five plus averaging over 30. Well, and within the last week, we've had MBE and have 59. Curry at 50, right, the other night against Phoenix. These numbers are just crazy. Oh, and Darius Garland, right? Darius Garland had 50 in a game. he should have sued M.B.

He had it the same night as M.B. And so nobody cared. Everybody was like, oh, wow, 59 points for Joel and Vee. Dairs Garlane scored 50 that night. Nobody cared. Nobody, I don't even know how many, there's probably a lot of people that are hearing it for the first time. Dairs Garlane scored 50 in the game this year.

That was against Minnesota, right? And they lost the game. Yeah, and they lost the game. Yes. They were missing guys that night. One other good, let's mention the Knicks. Because the Knicks looked decidedly mediocre, but they're on this trip. They won at Utah, which is in this day and age a huge win.

Because Utah is like, was right there at the top of the Western Conference standings. People haven't exactly been going in there and winning. They played Denver and they played them without Yolkits. But they got a win at Denver. and now they're going to face a reeling Golden State team. So it's one of these things to at least pay attention to that we could look back and say, hey, the Knicks kind of turned a corner

when they went on that West Coast road trip and they were able to get some wins, feel good about themselves, get used to playing together with Brunson. And so I'm going to be keeping my eye on that one, for sure, the Knicks and Golden State. And they've been better recently. Obviously, Randall was just, he was all NBA, Randall, the other night.

But it's something to keep an eye on, see if they can get back in the mix, because they were just kind of a mad team to start off the season for sure. Yeah, I mean, I saw my concerns. I think Brunson has made a lot of the guys in that team better, especially Randall. But the RJ Barrett stuff, man, like he's career. low efficiency. You know, you pull up a shot chart. It's all bloody red.

It's gross right now. Like, it's, it's been a really rough year for RJ. I'm curious from our Nix fans, listeners, like, tweet us. I have a question, like, I wonder how much this is about him adapting to play more off ball next to Jalen Brunson, or is this just one of those dips in efficiency that we've seen him go through before? Because, like, right now watching, I'm not sure what it is. is it the new system?

Is it just a dip? Is it like unhappiness? You know, after he was nearly traded for Donovan Mitchell. It's just not good. I got a little backlash after night one of the NBA. You said it, night one.

I said, I saw him. I don't think he's in shape. Yeah, you said it night one, Chris. I did not think he was in shape. I said, that looks like a guy that signed for $100 million. Like, you see guys that come back. regularly. There will be the, he changed his diet. He really worked out. He really dedicated himself,

but usually you have to have like a sorry season or something like that take place. But he is, he did not, he didn't look like a guy that had been working all summer to me, to me, you know. That was my opinion after I saw him the first night of the season. And he's a world, world class athletes. And if you typically, if you're going to take that next step, there's so many. And it's,

you know, the book's not written. It's never written on these guys. Of course, he's still 22 years old. Just a kid. Yeah. This starts the bad.

And as I said, it's a million podcasts. I'm sure you can find that are dissecting what the hell is wrong with the Warriors. They're 0 and 8. Steve Kerr commented. about this team said they had... O and eight on the road.

On the road. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm sorry. O and eight on the road. There's no collective grit. We lack collective grit. When you don't have grit, the game is easy for the other team.

We've got to get everybody on board on the same page in terms of worrying about winning. Right now, we're just scattered. There's no execution. There's no commitment to the group. It's a pickup game. It's a pickup game out there. It obviously starts with me.

It's a Drew League game. game. We're playing a Drew League game. It's a combination of joy and competitive desire and unity and purpose. It's lacking right now. And he's talked about building relationships with the players and this is what they need to do. I think there's been a tremendous amount of attention paid to personnel. So that's why I ask you, he's not talking about the personnel. He's talking about the way that team plays the way they're playing. Do you think it is a competitive fire, grit, effort, all of that thing's problem? Or do you think it is actually a personnel problem? And they have players that are simply not playing up to standard.

And in order for them to augment their team, it would mean not a way of plaguing difference, but rather you've got some personnel things that you need to do. What do you think? I mean, it's both. It's both personnel. And by personnel, I know, like, when I tweeted the other day,

get Steph some help. There were a lot of people saying, it's the same roster as last year, besides some role players in the back of the bench. It's not the same roster because Clay Thompson's playing worse than he ever has. Draymond Green has had some great moments defensively, but he's not the elite stopper night in, night out, who's anchoring your defense, which isn't all his fault either,

because the supporting cast, right? Like this defense, there's been so much miscommunication every single night with guys just getting open coming off of simple actions, a lack of communication. The team does not feel connected at all. especially when you integrate bench players from the lineup. So it's a little bit of bolts, right? It's personnel and it's the chemistry,

the personality of the team. Everything Kerr spoke to, I think, is 100% true. You know, the thing I wrote on the ring earlier this week about them is, like, I wonder when it comes to that culture, how much of it is these young players are seeing Clay Thompson get countless chances to work through his mistakes to find his older self, whereas the younger players get like glares from the staff and other veterans anytime they make mistakes because they're not able to grow into who they could become.

Like they're not getting opportunities after mistakes whereas like the veterans sometimes like there's a moment I think in that Sun's game where they had two stops. I think it was the second half, two defensive stops and then Clay took like a really bad three-pointer. and then there was a tech, pretty sure that that was like they were down, you know, five or six that moment and then the lead blew up after that. There's been moments like that over and over the season for the Warriors. And like, this isn't to blame Clay, right, at all.

It's not to blame anyone player. There's a lot of blame to go around. Their young players might just not be good, period, end of story. But there's so much right now for the Warriors. I think you can point to that it all is factoring into their chemistry. chemistry issues that Kerr speaking about. I'm not sure just solving the chemistry happens unless the personnel changes or the personnel gets better, as in Clay returns to the guy we saw last season during the postseason run, unless we see Draymond Green return to that guy, unless we see

Poole further ascend. I don't think it could happen minus also the possibility of just changing the team, trading some of the young guys, bringing in veterans, all the types of names we were talking about Phoenix targeting the Coosmas of the world, the Eric Gordon's of the world, Harrison Barnes, all those types of guys, right? If the Warriors start targeting them, then I think you can see the chemistry train change unless the younger guys or the veterans

get better too, because it's not just the young guys, it's the best, too, that have to improve. Besides Steph, he's unbelievable. I was listening to our buddy, Rob Mahoney from the ringer. He was on Bill Simmons podcast. I almost drove off the road when he said, Clay Thompson has not had a,

game where he has hit half of his shots. He's been terrible. Not one? Yeah. Not one game. Been really bad. You know, he's front-rimmed more shots than anybody in the NBA this season, according to.

Is that true? Wait, they track that? Yeah, they actually track how the ball misses where it hits on the rim. He is front-rimmed more shots than anybody in the NBA this season. This is the greatest. Who tracks this? Second Spectrum does. They track how you miss?

Yeah, how you miss, whether it misses on the inner side of the rim or the outside of the rim. And he's missed more shots in the outside of the rim than anybody. And I think like both the stat, Rob mentioned this stat here. Even Kerr has mentioned how Clay is missing short a lot. He's like, oh, the shots online. He's just going to find his legs. I hope he finds his legs. He's not generating space on his drives to the rim.

He's not even getting to the rim. He's shooting a career low percent of shots at the rim. a career low number of makes at the rim. He's not shooting from three. I know he was good last season to finish. He had huge close-out performances. Clay rightfully has defended himself on social media to the Barclay comments, but it can both be true that you appreciate and respect what he did last season coming back from those horrific injuries,

while also worrying about his current state of play, considering those injuries, in the context of what it means for the Warriors and their pursuit of another championship when Steph is unbelievable. They can't waste this. They can't waste this. So if that means like they get to do some crazy stuff, they got to do some crazy stuff.

You got to, right? But we'll see. Like this is an evaluation time. Over this next month before trade season really picks up when big trades are made, everybody's eligible to be traded. This is the period where you're going to see these young guys get better. Weisman in the G league.

Moody getting more consistent minutes with the rotation. Clay Thompson's still getting chances. Like, these guys got to figure it out over this month or else the front office is going to have to do something drastic because you can't take for granted what Steph is doing right now. He's unbelievable, dude. He's at his absolute peak. And we thought maybe that was like 16 that we were seeing, you know.

And he's just, he's out of his mind, absolutely out of his mind right now. And I think that the stuff, the non-personnel stuff that we talk about being solved, that Kerr spent his time talking about it. He's not talking about we need different players. He's saying that we don't have this collective grit, all that stuff. And I do think that the door was always, and we spoke about this before the crisis, as Steve Kerr called it, which probably people. brushed off but should have been paid attention to a little bit more, which was the

the Draymond Green Jordan Pool and video becoming public, that even before that you were always going to be playing somewhat of a dangerous game when a guy that has meant so much to your franchise and is admittedly the heart and soul of the franchise and what, you what you have accomplished for so long. That has been the role that he has played and a demonstrative leader that anytime you're not going to make him whole and not pay him and you are going to pay other guys, it's always a dangerous game to play, at least for that season, because that's the one guy that you don't want having a level of discontent towards the operation.

So that's aside. You expect everybody to be a professional, and more importantly, you don't expect anyone to ever punch another guy in the face. But when you combine that what was already going to be a thing that was hovering out there, when the other two have been made whole, when you just won another title and he's not getting an extension to retire a warrior or have his name up at the rafters, like he's the one that didn't get taken care of. And then you have this possibly catastrophic event within the team take place. I think it's hard to get all that together, you know? I think it's hard to get all that together. It's tough, man. It's still hovering.

It is. It is. You know? Undeniably. This team doesn't have the same hard and enthusiasm, love that you felt before. And how much of that came from that guy. You expected that when they went into the locker room after a loss, there was one guy that was in the middle of that locker room screaming at everybody.

Yeah, Clay's, you know, holds weight and what he said would matter. And Curry's not that kind of guy, right? You never see Curry, you know, he might show a level of, he might be upset with another player, but he's not that kind of a leader. You knew who the loudmouth was. You knew who the guy was doing the barking was, and you have fractured that dramatically. Can't you imagine that if campaign has 29

and you give up 130 and you've stayed winless on the road against Phoenix and you've wasted a 50-point curry performance, you know who's going in that locker room. You know who's the one that's going to be yelling at everybody. And I don't think you can do that anymore with the same fervor, with the same respect that you once commanded from everyone, right?

And so we thought that it might have a profound effect on the team. I listen to those cur quotes. You talk about what that team lacks? I think an awful lot of that probably omitted from a guy that's been a staple of that franchise for over a decade who has rendered the ability to lead much more difficult. Wouldn't you say? Yeah, I think so. I mean, they have to find themselves.

otherwise, look, I mean, like, I think with Draymond, he's irreplaceable, but you can change who you are if you do need to replace him. Does that make sense? Like, you can never replace Draymond, but you can always become something else. I think that speaks to who Stefan Curry is. So if there comes a point, I think if you're the Warriors, one of the priorities this season needs to be finding a backup plan in case Draymond wants to leave, or if you decide you don't want to have. have Dremont anymore after this year. I think they have to make some trades personally. It was one of my semibos.

Yeah. It was one of my semibole predictions, remember? And that was because I just, I think that everybody just said, oh, athletes get over this kind of stuff or whatever else. Like, think of it like your job. That happened at your job. And that guy's walking in every day. It's just.

for all the exploits of his career, it's what you think about now. It's what you think about now. And every day, when he walks into that locker room, that's what you're going to think about. Every day you're at shoot around, I mean, it's just,

once something like that happens, I think, and the video changed things too. Oh, yeah. If it's not on video, and the whole world hadn't seen it, I actually think it's possible to have overcome it. Because you got everybody reporting in a cockamamie way.

Remember, an aggressive move towards Jordan Poole. Then we saw the video, we were like, oh, my God! Knocked the guy out! It's unheard. They were 18 and 2 last year to start the season, 6 and 9 right now. What do you think there will be after 20, games. They have Knicks on Friday night, like you said, then at Houston, at New Orleans, versus Clippers, versus Utah. That's their next five games to get to 20. How many of those do

you think they win? Maybe two? So you think there'll be 8 and 12 after 20 games of season after starting 18 and 2 last year? I feel it's same as you. Maybe. Maybe they're going to make they're they will make moves that we know this. Come on. They are they'll make moves. They'll make They're spending a bazillion dollars on that team. They're in win now mode. What I'm wondering about, this is the question I asked in my article this week. The last line was to support Steph and the franchise's chase for a fifth championship, the warriors shouldn't worry too much about the future, but they also can't live in the past.

I grew up a Patriots fan. Yep. Very spoiled, winning all the time. But I also, many times over the years, was heartbroken by the decisions, the franchise made to get rid of star players lawyer maloy richard seymour and eventually you get used to it right like okay yeah they got rid of a star player they're gonna have somebody else new right like that's the way my upbringing is a sports fan i say all that to say i wonder if the warriors are going to continue down the spurs path where they're like we're going to keep it together with duncan manu parker no matter what

or if they're going to go the patriots way and say step is our tom brady and everything around him can change because of the level of player that Curry is, that we can still have success and change who we are with totally different personnel, because if the chemistry problems are indeed due to the Draymond thing, that may need to change, if Clay Thompson does not get better, you have him making $40 million this year, $42 million next year, he cannot be part of winning more championships unless he gets better. He might get better. I just want to make that extremely clear. He might get better. We've seen him have bad stretches before throughout his career. This one's just worse

than any of them, and it comes after major injuries. But if he doesn't get better, something needs to change, not just with the young guys being traded for some vets, right, like Miles Turner, or Kuzma, whatever it is, but they also have to at least consider within that front office changing the vets around

stuff too. I just wanted to, is it the Patriots path, the Spurs path they go, and how aggressive would they be willing to be in doing that? Like, to me, that's the philosophical question. that the Warriors are going to have to address this year to find out who they actually are going to be as they continue trying to contend for titles.

So they just won one with those guys. Right. But Clay having massive closeout games, right? Like, we just saw that a couple months ago. And they were not good in the spring. Like, that is easily forgotten. Remember, they were like post-January, they were like, they weren't like they were winning 70% of their games.

They were winning more like 50% of their games. Big dip for them. Then they got to the, the playoffs took care of business and we're able to run through it. And also though, I think that's still a credit to Steph. It's not like we saw a prime dream on or prime clay on a night-to-night basis. Weekens was the second best player over the duration of the playoffs for them. And I think that is really a testament to the greatness of Stephen Curry more than anything

else. It changed the way everybody's going to think about him forever. Oh, for sure. What people said, oh, you know, he had the dominant team, then he had KD. juggernaut, but then he did that. It's like, okay, this is who he is. And now he's doing this, playing at his peak, you know, level

on an individual basis. Dude's nuts, man. Like, they can't squander what he's doing right now. I, like, because of my upbringing and the way I saw my team build, I think if it comes to a point, they have to do whatever it

takes, they got to do whatever it takes. No matter how much it hurts, no matter how much, like, it hurts, you know, moving on from certain guys. If it comes to that, you've got to do it. One team that is not necessarily talking about collective grit or the way they're playing, but rather the personnel, or I don't want to say team, but one player is Kevin Durant. Oh, that's a interview with Chris Haynes and said,

it's Edwin Sumner, Royce O'Neill, me, Joe Harris, Nick Claxton, and I'm paraphrasing, but what the F do you expect? Which is equally the most honest and hilarious quote ever. I know that some have taken issue with throwing your teammates under the bus, but there is nothing funnier than KD saying it's Edwin, Edmund, not Edwin, Edmund, Edmund, not Edwin, Edmund, Reus O'Donb, Joe Harris, and Nick Langston. What do you expect? So good. He got a little, Ben Simmons back from the dead, at least last night. Simmons at his best night of the year.

The expectation is that Kyrie Irving is going to be. making an appearance of the lineup on Sunday. So at least then he could say, it's me, Ben Simmons, Kyrie Irving, Joe Harris, and Nick Claxton. Or maybe he could throw Roy said to you on there. Simmons last night looked like that Ben Simmons,

the net stop there again. He played great defense on Damien Lillard. He was aggressive, you know, made some real, you know, quick, you know, sudden, decisive choices with the ball on his hands. defending the smaller guards, you know, like I said, Dame Simons. Like, he looked like, he looked like the bend they needed for one night. You only put on the tinfoil hat?

Please. That, um, well, I guess, no, it didn't even need a tinfoil hat. They leaked out, hey, this guy might not care about basketball. Yeah. And that's all it took. It's like, wait. They're saying I don't care about basketball. Well, watch this.

and all of a sudden he started playing. Like, he's been lame all year, averaging 6, 6 and 6. And then they leak out this story. The Nets have concerns that this guy doesn't give a crap about basketball. He's like, what? I'll show them.

Actually quite diabolical. That was smart move by them. He said after last night's game, people acted like I had an ankle injury. I had back surgery. Taking me a while to get back. Fair. That's fair. That is fair. That is fair. That is fair. While Ben Simmons has been quite the target for criticism, that is a totally legitimate, fair standpoint. Yeah. A, I had back surgery. I had bag surgery. Give me a break. Fair. Fair. But he had been not good.

the least start out the season. But if he keeps getting better, if he plays like he did last night, and they got Durant and Kyrie, you know, they got a chance of being pretty good. I just hope Ben embraces whatever the

jock-von role is for him. Because I know before the season, they wanted to use him in more pick-and-roll actions with Kyrie Irving, but there was hesitancy in him doing it. Like you watch him set screens, he doesn't roll hard. For whatever reason, afraid to get filed, no technique. whatever it is, I don't know.

But I hope he embraces that because in theory, this is the fit that can optimize him. In theory. Yep. I tell you what, Kip, reading that article

about the KD stuff, and I know that that got all the attention, the hilarious quote about Edwin Sumner and... It's really funny. Yeah, Joe Harrison, DeKlaxen. But,

you know, one of the major things I took away from it, I read that as quite the I don't know what the word to use here is. I read it

and thought, man, these are some not so veiled shots at not Steve Nash personally, but rather the Steve Nash operation as a head coach because he's talking

repeatedly about how, I mean, it feels like a country club atmosphere when you read it. You know, I want harder practices. I want us doing more close-outs. I want to be that guy. I want to. And it does make you think, you know, Nash, great, great player, by all accounts, a great guy. Played for Mike D. Antony, who, by most everyone's account, never gave a crap about defense.

and also Don Nelson, who was not exactly your, he was never being known as the defensive taskmaster. That was never the MO of Don Nelson, who's out smoking amazingly daily at this point. Those are laid back kind of guys, right? And it sounded like, KD, even at this point his career, was like, I wanted to have real practices I wanted to be pushed.

I wanted us practicing defense. And that was my level of discontent. That's not what we did here. And I wanted to be prepared. And in the end, I've covered all manner of players. That's all players care about. They can talk about, like, I'll own their respect guys if they played in the league and whatever.

but I mean, we see guys all throughout the league. Really good, really good coaches, right? You think about some of the good stories this year. Will Hardy. You don't remember Will Hardy's career, J.B. Bickerstaff. You don't remember J.B. Bickerstaff's career. Taylor Jenkins, a guy that I'm around all the time in Memphis. You know, Joe Missoula, who's now, you know, leading the best team in the league in Boston.

Mike Boodenolzoo, who might have the second best team in the league, right? Like, I don't think, and we overstate this, you needed to be a former player type stuff. In the end, players want to know that they're being put in the best positions, that they are prepared to be their best regularly. And I think that even rang true with those Durant quotes. Yeah, he's Steve Nash. But, like, I wanted to be prepared and I wanted to be pushed.

And I wasn't be. And I was like, damn. Jack Vaughn's not a two-time MVP. right right but he might be the better coach for this basketball team we might just listen to Kevin you know that's all he got to do I mean he also has a tremendous beard oh that's gonna be a bonus reminds me up when you see him do you remember when

you remember when like Lovie Smith came back and oh yeah yeah yeah he was like but he was like you hadn't seen him in a couple years and then he showed up on the sideline at Illinois coaching that college football team, and you were like, wait, what? He used to be clean-shaven. Yeah. And the next TV's got this huge white beard.

You're like, that's Lundy Smith. That's crazy. Yeah. It's what it reminds me of a little bit, the Jacques Vaude thing. But we'll see how they go. I mean, they're supposed to get Kyrie back on Sunday. They get good Kyrie. They get good Ben Simmons.

They get good KD. You know, you can find a kind of. fill in the blanks and get you enough. I'm not out on the nets. I'm not out on them. Not yet. Not yet. Not out on them.

Kevin Durant's all, I mean, we talk about stuff. Kevin Durant's playing it at an absurd level too. Oh, he's awesome. Yeah, he's playing at an MVP level himself.

He's keeping this team afloat right now. That's sure. So, seven and nine considering, you know, the lineups that he has already mentioned. It's a testament to him. Boy, he's done.

Or Edmund Sumner. Oh, I know. What did he do? What did he do deserve it? Crazy. Kevin, it is always a pleasure. Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. I'll talk to you next week.

Looking forward to. Have a good weekend, everybody.