The Mismatch - The Sixers New Window, Cedric Coward Experience, And Possible Overreactions

Episode Date: October 28, 2025

Verno and Jacoby are back after the first week of the NBA season. They go through Monday’s slate of games, discussing the Sixers' new window with Tyrese Maxey and V.J. Edgecombe, the abundance of 40- and 50-point games to start the season, Verno’s reaction to watching Cedric Coward, Austin Reaves shining while playing without Luka Doncic, and more. Next, the guys share their possible overreactions from the first week of the season. (0:00) Welcome to The Mismatch!(0:58)The Sixers stay undefeated against the Magic(8:43) Lauri Markkanen drops 51 as the Jazz beat the Suns(10:45) Four Warriors score 20-plus points in the win against the Grizzlies(14:50) The Cedric Coward experience(23:42) Cooper Flagg injured in loss to Thunder(26:52) Austin Reaves shines without Luka Doncic(30:40) Victor Wembanyama continues his dominant play in a win against the Raptors(35:40) Possible overreaction no. 1: The Heat will be good(42:55) Possible overreaction no. 2: The Warriors are the 'Inside the NBA' of the NBA(49:15)) Possible overreaction no. 3: Overconsumed with consuming a scandal(55:10) Possible overreaction no. 4: The Nuggets' best offseason acquisition was Jamal Murray(58:00) Possible overreaction no. 5: Victor Wembanyama is already the most dominant player in the NBA(1:02:40) Possible overreaction no. 6: Jaylen Brown should be punished(1:07:40) Possible overreaction no. 7: Tyrese Maxey is the next superstar(1:09:12) Possible overreaction no. 8: Not worried about the Pacers(0:11:10) Possible overreaction no. 9: This will be the craziest scoring-output season of all time(1:15:25) Possible overreaction no. 10: Seeing Draymond Green struck by lightning will be awesome The Ringer is committed to responsible gaming. Please visit www.rg-help.com to learn more about the resources and helplines available. Leave us a message on our Mismatch voicemail line! [phone] Hosts: Chris Vernon and David JacobyProducers: Jessie Lopez, Stefan Anderson, and Tucker TashjianSocial: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Burno, I had a lot of trouble last night. World Series game goes 18 innings. The Chiefs are on Monday Night Football. There's 11 games in the NBA, all of which are somewhat interesting. I had a lot of trouble navigating my relationship with my remote control and my television. It was very stressful last night. It was very stressful. Well, congratulations to the, the Dodgers. I feel bad for the

Toronto fans that had to stay up until, I guess, three in the morning their time and then turn around and go to work after their team lost. But an epic world series game. We had the Chiefs on Monday night football. That game was going on. And then there were a bunch of NBA games, a big

slate. And there were things that happened in the NBA that we need to get to. The first of which is this Sixers thing has gotten pretty fun in terms of things you might not have expected that are already happening in the NBA season. They draft VJ Edgecombe, and little did we know that at least through the first week of the

season, the must-see back court in the entire NBA was going to be Tyrese Maxie and V.J. Edgecombe, and the Sixers stayed undefeated with their win over the magic. And I read this morning that through three games, it is the highest scoring back court ever. I guess in 55 years. Since they started tracking starters or something. Yeah, yeah. Yeah, right. And so, yeah, they asked in like, it was like 55 years.

And Tyrese maxi was like, that's a long time. That's a long time. And so like all of our analysis across the NBA landscape was how many games are they going to have Embed? How many games are they going to have Paul George? And now we're three games into the season. and it doesn't matter. At least three games, it hasn't mattered because they have now this incredibly dynamic

backcourt that has been a bitch for everybody they played against thus far. If you like take a 100,000 foot view on the 76ers back to like the process days, it's kind of wild. They intentionally lost for so long. They had all these picks like Michael Carter Williams doesn't pan out. You know what I mean? All this goes on. And then they finally have this championship nucleus, what we thought was a championship nucleus.

They had some playoff success and some playoff failures. But they add Paul George last off season and we're like Paul George, Tyrese Maxie and Joel Embed on the same team. That is going to be a formidable team in the Eastern Conference. It's going to be them and the Celtics head to head in the Eastern Conference finals. That's how we felt like a year ago today. And that championship window didn't just close. It closed and the glass shattered and the house fell down.

but quietly there's another championship window just opening up right next to it. And it is the Edgecombe Maxie McCain-Gryme's sort of like youth movement. It's like, yeah, we don't care if Paul George and Joel Embed are going to play here. We have this back court that will be the back court until 2030. And it's time to start thinking about building around that

instead of building around and beat. I spit my drink last night when I was scrolling through social media and I saw on Twitter somebody put up, the Sixers are just a small forward and center away. They are. About like this, to celebrate these to what they're doing now, especially Maxi, like, when I say Orlando Magic, the first word that comes to mind for me is defense. Like that is what they do.

And especially sort of like perimeter defenders, right? It's not like they don't have like these sort of like shot blocking bings around the rim. And Maxi is a perimeter. player who just did whatever he wanted. This one got a little close towards the end. This is the game I had the most of my focus on last night. And Maxi, I think he scored eight straight points down the end of the game.

Like he could just get to wherever he wanted, whatever he wanted. He looked like he wasn't just doing it. He was doing it easily against one of the best perimeter defending teams in the league. Well, and that magic team thus far, and you, you expressed some real, skepticism about the magic. While a lot of people expected them to do great things this year with the Bain acquisition, you express skepticism that, you know, Bain's not going to fix that three-point thing. And they did hold their head on the defensive end last year when they had all of that success.

And at least through the first week of the season, that has simply not been there. And it is interesting because, you know, the roles do change. quite a bit when you make a big acquisition. And they've slid Bain into that starting lineup. And now you have Paolo and you have Franz and you have Wendell Carter. And you don't really have the, I'm the wing defender guy. Right? And most great teams, in fact, when you go back through history,

the majority of great teams have an elite level wing defender. That is a key cog to, and I'm not saying that, and obviously it was Caldwell Pope, I believe it was for them last year, right? And I'm not acting like losing Caldwell Pope, you know, destroyed their defense. I'm saying, but when you lose Caldwell Pope, I saw this happen in Memphis when you lost Dylan Brooks. It's like you have to replace that with something that, you know, is the guy because in a screen and roll league, there's too many switches. And if you're not, if you don't have an outstanding defender on the wing, you are really hurting yourself in terms of against the best perimeter scorers and also them being able to beat you off the dribble and then get their offense in motion.

And so it's been kind of shocking thus far. And we will soon find out if that is a personnel thing and they're going to have to switch things up because otherwise they're not going to have some kind of great defense or if it's just a new team communication lacks at the beginning of the season, and they'll get it figured out and be able to defend. But that was the team that was, you know, the antithesis of most of the way the NBA was working, and you'd look up at the end of the night,

and you'd see all these scores in the hundreds, and then you'd see the magic game, and it was 102 to 94, right? They made everybody uncomfortable, and thus far, they haven't made anybody uncomfortable. No, and I think that Jalen Suggs played in the first game, but I think they really needed him last night. I think that we talk about that sort of like, I don't know if we call him sort of a wing stopper, but he is, he's, he's, uh, point of attack.

He's, he's point of attack and he can cover anybody on under 6-8. You know what I mean? Anybody under 6-8. So they, they miss him a lot. And while I was skeptical about the magic going into the season, I'm not going to sit here after four games and, and do a victory lap because there's a lot of 78 games left to play. But like, you know, they beat the heat to start the series. And they've since lost to the Hawks, the Bulls, and the Sixers. The Bulls haven't lost a game.

The Sixers are hot. The Hawks are very much. Some teams with new pieces just fit seamlessly. The Hawks seem like there's going to be a little bit of a learning curve and sort of a growth spurt, growing pains with them in the first month or two of the season. But I think long term, I think both the Magic and the Hawks will sort of bounce out, be the teams to be expected to be. But it was a game last night.

I think it's just, if you're a Sixers fan, it's kind of like, it mirrors the Mabs in a way where it's like we've made some really bad decisions in our front office, but somehow some way we've made enough good ones on the fringes and a little bit of luck, and we've got our two timelines just perfectly in place. You know, that's what it feels like. At the beginning of the season, there are always the teams that get taken lightly because you figure they're not, they're not trying to play at the level of highest competition.

And we saw this happen last year when teams would play against, the jazz and over and over again they're getting caught. Like the jazz record at the beginning of seasons is not bad. They are competitive and they will catch you. If you don't come to play, they will catch you. And sure enough, another one got caught last night as Lori Mark and drops 51 and the jazz beat the sons in overtime. I mean, I don't want to become desensitized to 50-point games, but,

And we'll get to this a little bit later. The scoring output through the first week of the season is downright historic, what we have seen so far in terms of the number of 40 and 50 point games that have taken place. So we'll get to that here in a little bit. But Markinen, who people have thought might be a trade target because they're- Might be. Well, they're unsure if he fits the timeline of whatever the jazz or. going to be doing. He does not fit the timeline of whatever the jazz is going to be doing.

I understand. But as they say in the wire, the price of the brick goes up. I mean, like, yes, this price is not today's price. Yeah. How many, how many first round picks are we giving up for Lori marketing now? I got 51 last night. Everything's going great for the jazz. It's, it's, they are, they are putting Lori marketing in, um, on that revolving pedestal at

the car dealership. with a big old for sale sign on top of it. And it's going great. And when you talk about the 50 point games, I think it's one thing when Luca does it or Janus does it. When it's Austin Reeves and Lowry Marketing, you're just like, what is going on? You know, like, what is this?

Jacoby, we're less than a week removed from Aaron Gordon's. Like, these should be special. These should be special. It should be the third option. We've had Aaron Gordon, Lori Marketington, and Austin Reeves already dropped 50s. Not, as you were saying, it's not Janus, Wembe, and Yokish. I'm going to drop 50 so far.

It's Austin Reeves, Aaron Gordon, and Lori marketed. That's what's happening. The Aaron Gordon one was insane. 10-3. So I know you were up late watching your Grizzlies. That was. Tough watch. It was a tough watch.

It was a tough watch. Boy, I said this last week when we were doing our season preview, and I was higher on the war. Warriors to do it. I said, I just think they're like the old man wreck team that has been playing together forever. They make all the same cuts. They put pressure on your defense. They might get the big individual performance here and there. If you focus on one guy, the other guy beat you. And I mean, it was surgical what I was watching last night.

Oh, no. Honestly, it was, it was ridiculous. They made the Grizzlies look foolish. And then, and then just took it. And then just took. their heart out of their chest. Like little brodom, little brodom in the third quarter when Dremont hacks Santi Aldama because it's always a European guy and then gets mad that he gets called for a flagrant and dances around the entire court. Like you can't get little brood like that. Somebody's got to do something.

Well, he called everybody soft, including the ref. Right. And then he didn't just like, if you didn't see it, who was shooting the Fritos? was Asante. Al-Dama. And he missed both. No, I know this week I found.

I don't know if he shot the technical free throw or whatever. Yeah. But he misses one. And then Draymond does like the Aaron Glenn dance. Remember that one? Yes. He does that in the, in like the lane in front of the free throw shooter,

which has got to be like a delay of game or something. Oh, no, no, no. It was after the second one. It was after the second. Okay. That was the first one. It was still. A little dance.

It was just so Dremont. For some reason, the Grizzlies bring out the best of Dremont's crazy. I mean, he really do. It's been like this for a long time. And he gets, so, and this is always the thing, right? He snaps sometimes. So what people won't see when they watch, because that clip's going to be going around everywhere,

he was dribbling the ball up at half court and it got poked away. So it was a turnover. He runs back, grabs the back of the jersey frustration, right? He's just mad. He's mad that he turned away. Some people just go black after turnovers. Or like missed layups or something. They just go black and foul.

It's like sometimes you can see it. Someone misses a layup. It's like, oh, you're going to foul on the back court. I can see it in your body language. He just right now. He snapped because he was mad. He turned it over. So he chased Sontiel Dall Damme down and hacked him.

Well, I have a couple of questions for you. Yeah, let me hear. What's up with Jha over six from three? You know, didn't, didn't look great. Eight for 24 from the field. Yeah. I think what's happening thus far is unbelievable on night one. Look, the thing that matters most, he's played every game.

Look, and you can say, hey, that's so big, but like, they played Wednesday night, they played Friday night. They played Saturday night. Okay. So it was three in the first four days. And everyone that follows the team was like, is he going to play both Friday and Saturday? And so when he did and then comes out after, it's like, I want to play all 82.

We were like, okay, all right. So number one, availability is the most important. Number two, with the lineup that Memphis is putting out there right now, I always talk about the whiteboard. It says, Morant, Morant, Morant, Jarant, Sharon Jackson, Jr., nobody else matters, right? And the rest of them have got to be able to make it. You're only going to be able to do it and function

if the other guys are going to be able to make you, pay because in the half court you're going to have three guys looking at Morant every single time like it's the playoffs and try to make his life hell and that's where the coward thing comes into play because you've got to hope sooner than later he is that outlet guy that could be another perimeter guy that people worry about because nobody cares about Jalen Wells and Catavius Caldwell Pope well I'm glad you brought up we haven't talked since the target we haven't talked since the target went off I mean just put this six for six from three we haven't talked the target yet. And I heard you had the target guy on your show yesterday. I did. On our,

on our logo show, we came in. He, um, it was a religious experience on Saturday night watching Cedric Howard. He was nine for three. Oh, I thought you man having the target guy in your show. No, no. Nine for 13, six for six from three, 27 points. And it is a constant reminder. There is nothing more fun than watching a rookie go off because it's just this whole. new experience. Like, I've seen other guys have big games. I've seen even superstars in person have miraculous games. But when you get to watch a rookie and it's all out of nowhere, because did not play Summer League, nothing in the preseason indicated that this was going to happen. Nothing particularly. It also didn't have like a celebrated story and illustrious college career.

He played like three colleges and three years. Right. And he's like back in people. He's hitting baseline fadeaways. He's stepping into threes. And everybody's like, what is this? What is this? He was, and of course, my entire feed was, oh, my God, Target guy. I was right. Oh, my God.

I was right. I mean, it just felt like this is all destiny. I mean, the chances of all of this lining up. And this is what I explained to Target guy yesterday, as we were talking about, his experience watching the game. I'm like, the chances of, it could have been, honestly, I could not have, I don't go to Target all that often. I don't. And, and honestly, the target I was at, I haven't been to since. I probably should. I don't know Target had basketball card sections. I probably should go to that target just in case somebody else can find me another player. But I mean,

That's where you mind your takes. He could have liked Murray Boyles. He could have liked Carter. He could have liked. He could have liked anybody. He could have liked anybody. So the randomness all of me happening to be in Target that day, running into a guy that tells me Cedric Howard is going to be great.

Then Rosa, my producer in Memphis, reading a list of guys, and this is how this all happened, read a list of guys with these measurements with a 72 wing span and their success rate. And when he brings up that name, I said, you're never going to believe this. The guy in Target told me this, right? It's the best player in the draft. And then he's not at the Grizzlies pick. They traded up to draft Cedric Howard.

And so, and then this culmination on Saturday night with his monster breakout game, I was just sitting there going like, how? How is this all happening? Seriously. And God forbid he becomes as amazing as Target Guy said he was going to become because that would change the course of history. See, I feel like Target guy is to Cedric Coward what Kendrick Perkins is to John Moran. They basically discovered them. It's basically like someone watching the game pointed out the strengths of someone playing the game.

And that is how people learned about the person playing this. the game. So I feel like Kendrick Perkins is to jaw what target guy is to the target, Cedric Howard. That's a fair comparison, right? Kendrick Perkins, acting like him talking positively about Jabbaran is the reason that they got on national TV. Yes, yes. The most delusional thing I have ever heard in my life. I love it. He was the number two people. in the draft and the most viral athlete in the world, his rookie year.

His rookie year, he was the most. No, you're taking, you're taking my friend Kendrick Perkins. Oh, my God. You're a friend. Hey, did you want to leave your kids with him if something ever happened to you and your wife? That's Chauncey Billups and I stand by that. I'm not going to play poker with him, but he can take care of my kids in a pinch. Kendra Perkins said that it was his discussions with the brass of ESPN,

the C-suite, the corner suites. That's what, there was his, in those private discussions, is what led to the Grizzlies being featured on national type of course, and John Morant becoming a household name. It was because Kendrick Perkin put in a good word with the C-sweets at Disney. That's exactly what happened. And he's my friend, and I'll stand by that. It's unbelievable.

I can't even believe that. Like, I can't believe it came out of his mouth and he like believes it. Well, I'll say this. This is a good. You really believe that the guy who was the number two pick of the draft, one rookie of the year, outside of one vote almost unanimously. But like viral highlight every week. Every night.

He's in your feed. Like my mother who doesn't even know what NBA stands for is scrolling Instagram. and was like, wow, this John Moran guy can really dunk. But it was just, Kendrick Perkins went and met with ESPN. Hey, you know what? You guys should put John Morant on TV. People don't know about this guy.

Yeah. You know what I mean? Like, he's kind of not in the public eye. But man, if people watched him, they would be into it. Oh, my God. Well, that's what Kennedy Perkinson target guy have in common. I knew that you'd enjoy that. also the reason they're not on TV anymore.

No, of course. But I'll say this. Let me say this, though. This is like a Jacoby philosophy. I've got a lot of these little sayings. Everyone's a hero in their own movie. So Kendrick Perkins really believes that narrative to be the reality. That is his subjective reality.

That is how he sees the world. Now, those of us that try our best and no one can ever achieve it to sort of experience the objective reality that we all share, know that it was Jama. being John Morant is what made John Morant popular. But in his version of the event, it is him being quote unquote early to John Morant and being vocal about John Morant has contributed to John Morant's popularity. That is not the objective truth, but that is how he feels. So in a sense, you can't disagree with him. I'm sorry, yes, you can.

He's absolutely wrong. I mean, look, Target guy gets to stay in the business when it comes to Cedric Coward, because nobody thought. Nobody thought about that in that way. No, no. I hadn't been to Google Cedric Howard after our conversation about Cedric Cajor. The mismatch is brought to you by Fandu. All right, basketball is back.

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All right, Mavs lost of the thunder. Cooper flag got hurt. in this game. I was able to come back into the day. He got kind of hurt. He got hurt like early, early, but they continue to play with. He was one for nine. He was not effective.

He got bench at the end of the game. It's like half hurt, half not your night kid, kind of a thing. We have to worry about this, though. You know what I mean? We got to worry about this because shoulders are always dicey. Let's just hope there's nothing structural with it or any kind of strange with it. Because the last thing on earth we would want is Cooper flags. There'd be an interruption to whatever this rookie sees.

that is going to become. And so that's just something to monitor over the course of the next 24 hours. It's whenever they inevitably put up the news. Let's just hope that it's just he got it banged and it's not a big deal because I saw another team that lost a guy to a shoulder injury a few nights ago and with Andrew Nemhard. And when they were showing Andrew Nemhard, he got knocked out of that Thunder game at their first game of the season.

And they showed him on the bench and he just looked to. responded. I mean, he looked crushed. And it's like, geez, man, I hope he's not bad hurt. And so the same thing goes with Cooper Flag. Let's hope he's not bad hurt. Feels like people are taking a run at the thunder at the beginning of the season, right? This is actually going to be a little more fun because you see there is an elevated thing that has come along with, okay, this is the defending champs coming to town. It has, it is a difference. There's no question. You saw two teams take them down to double overtime at the very beginning of the game and though they were able to run away from the MAVs last night, you see a different

spirit with these teams coming out against the thunder than you did last year. And there, I think it's also worth mention it. They're missing a lot of guys. You know what I'm missing, you know, they're missing a lot of guys. And, but that's what makes title defense is so difficult is everybody, you're getting everyone's best game. And there are certain games on the schedule, the Utah's and the Washington's and the, we all know the games where it's impossible to give it 100%, but if you don't, you're playing with fire. You know, the Clippers learned that in Utah and these things will happen. But I would say to keep it positive, I thought Chet looked really good.

He's been up and down a bit in this early season, the first four games, but I thought he looked really good last night. And I think that especially without Jay Dub, he's going to be very important. And I think the leap that a lot of people predicted and expected from him this year, I think will come to fruition. It is kind of annoying that the best team in the league also has the best depth. It's frustrating. It really is.

The AJ Mitchell thing is just like, what are we doing, dude? He'd be starting on 2019. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Like, what is, like, it's ridiculous. It's, it's, he's like, I'd say last year he was probably like their 10th guy off the bench. You know what I mean? Well, he got it, he got it injured and no one even noticed.

Yeah. It's, I mean, look, they played last year without Chet for 50-something games. And no, it was like, all right. I didn't realize he played so few games last. You played like 32 games last year. Right, because he was available for the playoffs, and that's what mattered to people, right? Yeah, yeah, that's what we remember.

Man, look, later this week on Friday night, there is an Amazon Prime game. Okay. A cup game that I had circle already? Because I'm having to miss Halloween with the kids in Memphis, Lakers versus Grizzlies. and within the last week we found out no Lepron, no Luka,

and an 830 central start. I was like, I guess I'm going to watch the Austin Reeves show. She's going to put up 60. He might. I mean, Austin Reeves again last night. The Lakers lost to the Blazers, but how many points is he going to average

until these guys come back? He's going to have to average a million. It's an interesting thing. If he continues to play as well, he won't because LeBron and Luca will come back and Luca's going to be back quicker. Yep. It's just like, what do you do with him?

Like, is he like a number one option? I don't think so. It's a contract year too. But I know if you're the Lakers, like, it's just, I just, I never assume the Lakers are going to be like, we're going to spend a max contract on Luca and we're going to spend a max contract on Austin Reefs. It just doesn't seem like that's the big two you want to build around.

It seems like they're very redundant. as players. Oh, no. He's well on his way to 30, 40 million a year at this point. And it does not seem like it'll be in the purple and gold, if you ask me. I mean, it's a fortune. If you were going to say, what, what are the problems with the Lakers that need to be fixed moving forward in a Luca base system? It's not, we need another ball handler, driver, offensive initiator, unless he's making $12 million a year and he's like running the second unit, which is ideal for Austin Reeves and the Lakers, but you can't do that for $40 million a year.

It's just a need to big. Look, and who knows how this season goes, but at least through the first week, this is the dream contract season of all contract seasons so far for Austin Reef. Oh, yeah. Well, it doesn't hurt that they literally have no one else that can dribble because Vincent was out, smart was out, LeBron was out, and Luca was out. So outside of Reeves, who's their best ball? handler. I mean, we sure do have a lot of guys out already. Like, I mean,

like, Zion was out last night. Luka was out last night. I'm like, damn, bro. We hadn't even played a week. The Pacers have like seven hurt guys. They signed Mack McClunk yesterday. Memphis got a injury exception already and signed Charles Bassie. And I was like, this is great. We haven't even played a week. And guys are already out. I think there should be rules against having T.J. McConnell and Mac MacLung on the same team, but I haven't written those rules yet. I don't even know how it form it. But did you notice, you know who they waived? Who?

To make room for MacMond. Wiseman. Oh, unbelievable. Like, wow. Imagine. Imagine when he got drafted, you were like, in the next four years, he's going to be on 17 teams, and he's going to get waived for Mac MacKlung. That Achilles thing.

That high school kid that can dunk. that Achilles thing might have really and also a bad break with them losing Halliburton McConnell and Nemhard they got to find somebody they got to find somebody if they're going to be able to hold down the fort

they got to find somebody even if it's MacLong they got to find somebody that can play the position at least until they could get somebody back right because it's going to be a while certainly on McConnell and it's going to be the whole season without Tyrese Halliburton

one other thing that we need to mention that took place last night that is worth mentioning is Wemby and the Spurs. Well, I told you last week when we were doing the show, Jacoby, I'm going to go ahead and get this in and celebrate the raptors while I can. Can you? Well, no, no. I did. Oh, last week.

Yeah, yeah. They got their win. You predicted they were going to be good. They got their win. They handed out the staff. Remember the cobra staff? The cobra staff. The chain.

Covered in dust right now. The cover staff is covered in dust in a closet. What if Abaji gets to keep that staff the whole year because they never won another game. They don't win a game. He's got the staff and RJ Barrett's got the chain. And they're like, what if they're like, what if it had like the opposite reaction where it's like once you gave out those awards to those guys, they're like, well, I don't want to give these up. Oh, I like it. And they don't.

on games. They want to keep the chain in the staff. It's tough. Right. It's tough. I mean, they lost last night to the Spurs. And I think that if you saw like, oh, Wimby 24 points, you might be like, oh, not a huge

game for Wemby. He was seven for eight from the field and 10 for 10 from free throws. And he was just like no one was shooting anywhere near the basket. Like the, the Wemby impact goes so far beyond the counting stats. It's silly. It's silly. He had a 360 layup that was like Moran. I think he had one possession where he blocked like three shots,

then walked up into a three. Yeah, yeah. He's embarrassing. I will say this, though. They got to do something about this. It's not fair. It's not fair. I take issue with the 360 layout,

and I'm going to be like a Negatron party pooper guy here. Uh-oh. I do want to say, if you see with the way that his toys are, toes are pointed when he jumps and the way his toes are pointed, when he lands that is a 180 layup. Just look at his toes many jumps and his toes many lands. You are a hater. I'm not I'm saying. Everyone's calling it a 360 lab.

I'm like, oh, he did a 360 lab. Click on it. No. Okay. Not a 360 layup. All right. I want you to go to like house of highlights or wherever, whoever post. That is a, that is right now. Yeah.

I'll do it right now. That is, that is, you know what? Right now. You remind me of a commenter, right? Where it's like right now. That should be a new bit. Amazing. Amazing.

Amazing. Amazing. Amazing. Way 60 layup. But the first comment is Dave Jacoby go, that's not a 360. It's not. It's like when somebody, right? Oh, some pilots.

All right. I'm on it. It's like the guy that like somebody, this is, this is internet culture now, right? Somebody jumps from the free throw line, jumps over two people, windmills it. and dunks it. And the first comment is, that's a walk. Like, what? You just watched a guy do the most incredible thing I've ever seen in my life.

That's a walk. I'm commenting right now. That's not a 360 layout. I love it. Look at his feet. I love it. I'm commenting right now. Look at his feet.

You're that guy. That is a 180 layup. And then to make it better, I'm just going to write. Watch this. That is a 180 layup. You're that guy. Be better. I'm going to finish with.

Done. That is not a 360 layup. Look at his feet. That is a 180 layup. Be better. The be better, I thought was a nice touch. Okay. Which account did you post that on?

That was the House of Highlights. Just like you said. I followed instruction. Oh, it was House of Highlights. Okay. So if you're listening to this pod, go check the House of Highlights post. See some mean people replying to me. That thing is going to be lit.

There are so many people being like, what an asshole this Jacoby guy is. Like, they're going to feel like what I agree with those people. I don't know. Look at his feet. I just watched the highlight on my phone. His feet are pointed one way when he jumps and then pointed the opposite way when he lands. That's 180 degrees. That's not 360 degrees.

I'm sorry. It's just so debity downer, bro. Like it'd be like it's like when some- John Moran slapsed the Nets game last year, those were 360. Those were 360. It's like somebody walks outside and it is. there's not a cloud in the sky it's 75 it's beautiful

there's a light breeze and you're the guy that goes yeah but there's a bug over there small there's bad for small it's very smoggy today like what air quality is low it might look nice air quality is low like this is incredible yeah

but what about that bug what's wrong with you man sorry for telling the truth all right we're getting into the Beginning of a season is always right for overreaction. So we are going to play overreaction, proper reaction, insanity to start off this season. Do you want to go first or you want me to?

You always go first for now. All right. I want to redo my Miami slander. I deserved this. Yeah, this was karma. They're going to be good. This was karma. You tried to tell me and it was karma because I always say when I go to an arena,

I might go to a game and there's a very good possibility that I'm, I'm going to see something I've never seen before. That was the truth on Saturday night when I saw Cedric Coward, a rookie, go six for six from three and have 27 points. I had never seen anything like that before. But what I did not mention is that the night before, I also went to a basketball game. And in the 25-year history of the Memphis Grizzlies, no one had ever scored 86 points in a half. and that happened in the first half of the Miami Heat Memphis game. And I was like, this is what I get.

No, and there were Heat fans that jumped me. I was like, you know what? I deserve it. I deserve it. I wrote them off. I was like, eh, they're not any good. And like, where are they going from here? Maybe this is the year out of bio gets moved, whatever.

And there I watched them score damn near 100 points and a half. I was like, oh, shoot, I deserved this. That was a tough because I wasn't. watching the game. I was just looking at the NBA app just like, you know, looking at things, monitoring other games. I was like, they have a hundred and what? I was like, I mean, they, they scored 60 in the second half, had 146 points. 80. In Memphis. 86 in the first half. They shot over 70% from three in the first quarter. And I was like, it was kind of like if you ever go to a baseball game and it's like nine to nothing after the first inning, you're like,

all right. Like, you know, the right fielders pitching in the fourth inning. Yeah, we'll lead by the sixth inning,

right? You know what I mean? And trust me, a lot of people left by the sixth inning. That was gruesome. And you know what? Yeah,

they were popping the ball around. Like, they play good basketball. And you know what? Not only were they making shots, they play fast and they go hard. Like, that is the,

that is the mark. Like the whole heat culture thing, you see it up close and personal. And so it was the perfect, storm of the team that was making all of the shots was also the harder playing team that went for every loose ball. And next thing you know, Memphis just got run out. And I was like, you know what? I was just wrong about Miami. I was wrong about it. Well, let's that I'm going that. I'm going to say that is an overreaction. What? I mean, I'm going to say that's an overreaction.

It's, we're four games in. You know, I've, I listen, I, I like the heat, the heat and I did pick them to sort of over perform expectations this year. But we'll see. They beat them. They lost to the magic. The magic's only win, mind you. I got you. Then they went and wax the Grizzlies.

Then the next game, they beat my Knicks. I know. They got the Hornets tonight. Like, they could beat three and one pretty easily. I'm not sure. I'm going to say it's an overreaction.

I'm not sure. This is, I think this might be a flash early in the season and they'll come back to Earth. I just say, I get that moment where I was like, oh, no. they're closer to top six than play in. There's,

you know, there's certain players you fall in love with that you just like more than they actually perform on the court, and you just like root for them because you like them. There's a player in the heat that I absolutely love. I fell in love with them in college. He had a great rookie season. Last year was a bit of a, like a, oh, no,

what happened to him? But he's back this year. No. He's back. No. Jaime Hockes. This guy. Jacoby, this guy has the pain of my existence.

I'm not kidding. Why? Because I love Jaime Hockus. People won't remember this now. It wasn't even the first round of the NCAA tournament. It was the play-end game. Okay? And Michigan State was playing UCLA.

I picked Michigan. Two years ago? Last year, two years ago. I think it's three now. But I picked Michigan State. Was it the Tiger, that Tiger, they had Jaime, like that team? The game went to overtime. And Michigan State blew it.

Not a big deal. It's not like I had some kind of massive rooting interest. It was just one team that I lost off of my bracket, right? It's not like I'm dyed in the wool Michigan State fan. But I was like, that was the luck. That was bull crap. There's no way Michigan State should have lost that game. And now UCLA's in the tournament playing forward in the 64 teams.

and Michigan State is not. I bet against UCLA every game the rest of the... We did the final four that year, right? They went to the title game against Gonzaga. That's right. And it went to overtime. They covered and beat...

I lost so much money because... I'm not... I don't know how many people have guys like this. When I, every time I see him, I'm like, that son of a bitch. Oh, do you know, Johnny Zhu Zhang? Wasn't that Zhu Zhang? That was Jaime Hakez? Or was it Johnny Zuzza?

No, it was. I think it was both of them, dude. It was Jaime Hakez, wasn't it? Didn't they play the same team or did Juzang replace Hockes? Hold on. I think they were on the same team. That team was good. I think Juzang was there.

Okay, they were on the same team. Hockes is the one that, like, I don't know. Yeah, he was on fire. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And they ended up playing in the title game. God. They won in the play in, and I was like, this is bogus. They shouldn't have won.

And then they never lost again. And I was like, this is the worst thing ever. Well, your own gambling losses aside, weren't you excited about Hawkes, is rookie season sort of like flashing? And I thought it would continue last year. You know what I would continue last year. You know who I was?

was impressed with who I because I know Hawkes is good. No, I know Hawkes is good. Terry Rozier. No, we needed him to be on the team so he maybe to play the ball to the other team. Oh, yeah.

I liked him on the pistons last year. I was like, this guy's good. Oh, yeah. He'll knock down a three. He'll knock down a corner three for you. He was getting his chances.

He was getting his chances. I mean, he was getting real minutes, and he was getting, he was putting up real production. And I was like, damn. So you think this is an overreaction? You wouldn't, I'm ready to, I'm ready to concede on the heat. You know what, actually, since it does align with my interests, I'm going to say that that is a proper reaction. Okay. Thank you.

All right. Next one. All right. We've discussed this a little bit. But there is a team that is the inside of the NBA of the NBA of the NBA. Okay. Allow me to explain. You know, you and I both work in sports media for, you know, a quarter century.

And we sort of know how this works, how the sausage is made. And we have the Amazon presentation and the NBC presentations, which are brand new this year. So they've got their graphic packages, their music, their look, their talent, their desk, their studio. They're sort of like relaunching a complete MBA presentation package. And they're all trying to sort of capture the magic that is the inside of the, the NBA. They're trying to engineer these quote unquote viral moments. They're trying to be funny. They're trying to have chemistry. They're trying to, you know, they're sort of like just trying to be, to find the irreverence and authenticity and chemistry that inside the NBA has. But it comes across as

inauthentic and unorganic. And I think over time when they get the reps together and they have the roles flushed out that they will have strong presentations and chemistry as a studio show, but they cannot match the institutional knowledge and established roles that inside the NBA has because of how many years they've been together. And I say that that is, and a team that I was wrong about this year, it's a sort of draft off of your first overreaction, I think that the Golden State Warriors are the inside the NBA of the NBA. Everyone there knows their role.

They've been doing it together for so long. There's no surprises. there's consistency, there's institutional knowledge, there's experience, there's veteran leadership. And like a game like last night, it wasn't Draymond and Steph and Butler carrying the day. It was pods and Moody and in Caminga that were sort of eating up the Grizzlies last night.

And a lot of that, it just feels like they're so stable. They know who they are. They know their roles. they're consistent and I think that to me is analogous to sort of the inside the NBA crew not trying that hard but being the best

because they're so comfortable in their roles to the new sort of studio shows trying to sort of replicate that but looking like tryhards and that is one of the ways that I have sort of come to grips with the fact that I might have shorted the Warriors this year it's the blessing of having vets

and having awesome vets, because the rest of those guys are pieces to the puzzle and you have to fit in. That's it, right? They have Drey Maagreen, they have Jimmy Butler, and they have Steph Curry. The rest of y'all, you are here to augment this thing, right? And there is a way you play, and if you don't play this way, you're not going to get to play. And there's not that many teams that can actually pull that off. You would think that that would be more common than usual. But, you know, coaches have the damnedest time enforcing that because what happens is you are so talented that they have to have you out on the court.

They don't have options to be able to enforce, you know, to be able to enforce things. Right. You can only have, like the consequences to your actions are real at Golden State. Just to ask Jonathan Kaminga, if you're not going to play within this team concept, if you're going to do your own thing, if you're not going to make the right pass, if you're not going to make the right cut, if you're not going to make the right rotation, then you don't get to play. Most teams do not have that luxury because if they sit the guy that is screwing around or misses the defensive rotation or whatever. So if you've got three guys that are always doing the right thing, always doing the right thing, then the other two, they've got to fall in line. And I think that so many other teams, they can't have the consequences.

Because if they sit the guys that are not in functioning how they want them to function, they're not going to be good enough. They're going to lose. This team, they don't like, okay, then we'll play somebody else. If you're not going to do it the way we want to, then we'll play Gary Payton the second. then we'll play Quentin Post, then we'll play whoever. We'll put anybody in. We don't care.

But you're falling in line. And I do think you're right about that, Jacoby, where it's like you've got to fit in with them. How many teams can we say that's true of? Virtually none? You know what I mean? Virtually none. I mean, I'll say like the heat come to mind, the rockets come to mine. Yeah, yeah.

And that's kind of it. Right, yeah. Yeah, right. Because then Cam Whitmore is now. You're blowing up on the sidelines in Washington. You know what I mean? Yeah. I mean, there are teams like if you're playing with Yokeets or Wembe or Luca,

you're going to have to sort of fall in line. But that's not necessarily like a team philosophy or a system the way the Warriors have it. That's more of just like we have a singular force, which is so strong, you're going to kind of have to draft off of that win. It's teams with vet. You're right, because it is teams with vet. because, but they would let Porter Jr. get away with super goofy stuff too. But like if Julian Strother comes down and goes tween, tween step back three,

they are going to pull them out of the game, right? Like you don't get to do that, right? Like, you don't get to do that, right? We saw a lot of Julian Strother last year. I don't know if we're going to see as much of this year as we saw last year. I guess we'll see. Throw that out there. Right.

But I mean, and the longer you're with the team, the more of a rope you get. Right? The more of a green light that you get. But yeah, those warriors guys, they just fall in line. And then it just keeps functioning the exact same way. And if they're not going to function the exact same way, they'll find somebody else that'll make it function the exact same way. My next one. So I'd say you had a proper reaction to that.

We are all too consumed with consuming for a scandal to be a scandal. Nobody has the attention span to care about anything. for more than a day or two. And this has been relevant when it's come to the Clippers, which is so far gone, nobody even thinks about it anymore. And now the Billups Rozier. By the way,

Malik Beasley was second in the NBA in three-point shooting and is not playing on an NBA roster because of this. And what I'm saying is we've got out, we're removed, you know, 48, 72 hours from this. and because we've got like we're constantly consuming it's like bro that like things have a shelf life of now what 12 or 24 hours and then we move on to whatever the next thing is and so a scandal can't even be a scandal anymore it's funny because this gambling thing which we've discussed we don't have to sort of rehash it it was such a national news that it broke out of the sports box yeah like my wife came home and was like, what's up with this NBA gambling thing? Yeah.

You know what I mean? She's like had some sports information to talk to me about. She's like, I was listening to NPR and they talked about some sort of NBA gambling thing. And she loves Daily Mail, which is like a trashy gossip rag from like the UK. Yeah. And she's like,

it was in the daily mail. She's like, because that's like her go-to news source. She's like, it was in the daily mail. Like who is this Chauncey Billups guy? Who's Terry Rozier? And you said,

what's happening? That's the guy that I... That's the guy's going to take care of our children. Yeah, yeah, yes. While you were looking at him to the will. She said, who's Charlie Bill? He'll be gambling our children. See, I'll see your Chloe and I'll raise you, Marco.

Yeah, she said, who is Chonsie Billups? You were like, this is going to be awkward. Yeah, this is going to be. And now I have to tell her. Yeah, yeah. But it's like... I just think our attention span so diminutive that we can't even handle something like this anymore.

We just move on to the next thing. So let me add to that because you are right. So this is a proper reaction, but it's almost like the counter move to that is sort of what Pablo did, where it's like, I'm just going to slow drip this information.

Because once the big headline, once you have Cash Patel up there, sort of making the press conference and the indictments are all out, It all comes at once. It all happens at like the morning at 10 a.m. We consume it all day. And there's sort of like no new information.

Yeah. So I think if there was new information, we would become re-obsessed with it. But like we chew up and spit out information so quickly that unless there's new angles, new headlines, new posts on ESPN.com and wherever you get your news, whether it's daily mail or otherwise, then we don't care. And I think the clippers thing felt bigger because there was. now we found this out. And now Bombers roommate, who's a 1% owner, did this. And I think that that's one of the reasons that that one felt bigger. But I think you are right.

Like, this was the biggest news in the world to the point where people were saying, like, the NBA will no longer to exist or whatever. Right. The integrity of the game has been sacrificed forever. It's like, guys, there's been gambling, gambling controversy in sports since there's been sports. Yes. Like, this isn't new. And another thing that I want to do.

want to say about this. I mean, there's the, there's the, you know, there's eight men out. There's Muhammad Ali standing over a guy from a phantom punches. It's like boxing has been forever. Let's not even talk about like doping and stuff. Like, come on. Like, like, what are we talking about? There's, there's scandal in sports forever. This is nothing new. This is like the Billy Joel song. We didn't start the fires. It's just the latest thing. But I was to say this. I just remember, like, Ben Johnson being on the cover of Sports Illustrated. And that. that all happening when we were little kids was the biggest deal in the world. The idea that Ben Johnson had cheated Carl Lewis.

It was like, and now you, like, now we're adults and it's like, oh, geez, like this, like you just had like this huge scandal. Like nobody even cares 48 hours. No one even cares anymore. It was, it broke off into mainstream news and now nobody cares.

And I just want one quick thought I had since our last pod about this gambling thing. It's like, are we sure we want to get rid of the prop bets on the role players? Because it seems to me, like, those are the ones that get people caught. Hmm. Hmm. And also, like, are we sure this is so bad that people are getting caught because of sort of outlying data coming through to the legalized gambling applications? Because that seems like a surefire way to dissuade people from trying.

trying to do it again. It almost seems like this will be a net positive over time. And it's also this stuff has been going on forever. And now the stuff gets flagged, right? Like, I mean, it used to just be in Vegas where it was. It just happened. The line would move like crazy. And that was all going on underground.

Exactly. I don't think this is as bad as people are making out to be. I sort of think it might be good, to be honest with you. Well, nip it in the bud, do you mean? Yeah, well, it's also just like, look, we, we now have AI spiders crawling through every single bet that's ever been made looking for unnatural occurrences. Yeah. And keep that in mind whenever you put a bed in, especially if you're putting a bed in with inside information. Yep.

Next. All right. We got to pick up the pace as always. I like this one. I'm proud of this one. Proper reaction, overreaction, or complete insanity. You ready? the most impactful acquisition the Nuggets made this off season,

and so far this season is not Cam Johnson, Bruce Brown, or Tim Hardaway. It is Jafal Murray. Jamal Murray, known, known. Like, there's like three things you know about Jamal Murray. He put out a weird sex tape. He's got a lot of body hair. Number two, he was amazing in their championship year. And number three is he always.

starts slow to every season. He's never been in an All-Star. This is like what you say about Jamal Murray, those things. And this season, for whatever reason, health, vibes, off-season, who knows, didn't play for the Canadian team, whatever it was. He's been on a tear, and he's starting this season in a way that we have not seen from him. He takes the fall off. Jafal Murray is here.

And he has, and he is what's going to be the biggest difference. between the Nuggets previous start to seasons and this year's start to seasons. Okay. This is an overreaction. And the reason is Aaron Gordon's averaging like 50 points a game. Shooting 80% from three. So go to hell. Like that's the difference.

They're freaking Dunker Spot Power forward. He's averaging like 50 points a game and you're going to give it to Jamal Murray. Jafal Murray. Jafalmer. DeFalbury. Like, keep in mind, the Dunker Spot guy is averaging 50. He hit 10 threes a few nights ago.

Look at his line last night. He did it again. I didn't see it last night. Oh, last night he had 40-something. No. I'm not kidding. Because they had the, I was like, oh, this is amazing. Timberwolves Nuggets.

I was so excited for Timberwolves Nuggets. I was like, oh, no, Anthony Edwards. Let me, let me, let me, Well, they, it was actually, they were down at halftime, and then they ran out, ran out on them in the second half. It was, uh, last night. Oh, I'm sorry. Murray was the one last night.

He had 40. Yeah. Aaron Gordon. Yeah, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Thank you. Please respect Jafal.

Jafal Murray. You're right. Forgive me. I thought it was Gordon. It was Murray. Oh, okay. She's, yeah, 43. Jafal.

Okay, then I'm going to say proper reaction. It had 23 in the 13. quarter of JD. Okay, good, good, good. I feel like that was a big win for me. Someone write that down. Jesse, write that down. I won an argument against,

I guess Bruno. Next one. The wimby thing is already happening, and he's already the most dominating player in the league. It's, I mean, it's, is there something better than proper reaction?

It's happening right in front of us. It's like climate change. Like, you can deny it. You can sort of like present another side to it, but like it's happening. Whether you recognize it or not, It is happening.

It's what the Wembe thing that has me most excited is not like what this year is going to be like. It's like, what is 2028 going to look like? Like, what is peak Wembe going to look like? Here's the problem. Here's the problem with him. And it's a good problem, but a problem nonetheless for, I mean, for everybody else, not for him. If he never played offense, if he never played offense, if he never played offense, Or like, let's just say he, like, averaged eight points a game or whatever.

He would still be one of the most dominating players in the NBA. Absolutely. Like, it's like you've got frigging Mutumbo or like. Better than Mutumbo. Prime Ben Wallace. I'm trying to think of somebody that was like over and over again defensive player. There are no comp.

There's just no comps for him. I got it. But, I mean, he is the most dominating force on both. Like, Gildes Alexander is not the best defensive player in the league at his position. And Yokic is nowhere close to the best defensive player at his position. The idea that this guy like alters everything you want to do on the defense event. And so I think the only hope for us for anybody that, like, wanted to see anything other than this guy destroying the world, was it's going to take a little bit longer, but like it's happening.

You watch it and you're like, oh my God, this is, this is outrageous. And honestly, I mean, this is the best advertising for time with monks ever. And I know, oh, I like that. You were, you were flippant about it. But I mean, we're going to see half the NBA hanging out with monks next summer. He did some interview where they were like, you know, we, we all read. about your off season. You spent time with the monks. You spent time in Japan.

And you spent time with Kevin Garnett and Lajuan and you went to NASA. And he interrupted. He was like, the NASA thing was just fun. I was just being a tourist. He's like, I was just checking out some spacecraft. He was like, he was like, let's not group the NASA thing in. Like I also had like salmon. But like that wasn't part of my off season. It wasn't part of the whole package.

You went to the New York Times. A lot of time on the NASA visit. I was just like, yeah, dude, I was just like, I was bored with Tuesday afternoon, and I went to NASA. Like, I live very close to it. It's like, okay. But, man, Wimby is like, I, there's just no historical comp for what he's doing on a basketball court. Not like quantitatively, more like qualitatively. Like, do you see the clip of Kevin Durant bumping into his shoulder?

Yes. It's stupid. Kevin Durant lies. He's actually seven feet tall. And he hits his forehead on Wimby's shoulder. And like you talk about this defensive dominance. If he never crossed half court, he'd be one of the most dominant players in the league, right? But you can't count the amount of times that a player in the natural flow of an offense would normally drive to the hole.

But sees if they drive to the hole, Wembe will be the help defender. So they just decide to do something else. There's no stat for that. Here's the thing, Jacoby, and this is what is terrified. He's gotten so much better. That's what's terrifying. Like you watched him last year And now he doesn't take a bunch of threes

Like his average shot thing It was so easy last year to criticize him Because he would go like five for 15 And seven of those would be threes And he's like, well, what are you doing? Like your seven foot a zillion Go to the basket It's almost like he was like, yeah, I'm not going to shoot threes anymore.

And now he just crossover step back three. I mean, it's just I don't even know how to criticize this guy anymore. There's nothing to say. You can't do it. I'm going to find something. It's happening right now already. So I'm going to say that you said it's proper reaction.

That's a win. All right. Here's my next one. Proper, over, or insane reaction. Shailen Brown should be punished for using performance enhancements and subsists. Oh, this is insane. Stop. Come on.

Do you know I knew this was going to happen? Especially after I saw this show. Wait, you can. I can't claim I knew this was going to happen. No, no, no, no, no. When his hairline juice rubbed off on OJ and O.J. No, no, no, no, no, no. You're going to say, I knew this was going to happen.

You show me your prediction. Typical Jacobi form. You jumped the gun before I was able to finish. You said, I knew this is going to happen. You knew his hairline was going to rub off on other people's jersey. Let me finish. Let me finish. I did not know that his hairline was going to rub off.

I knew that there was going to be. be the goofy 2025 think piece about this. And sure enough, I typed in the hairline thing last night. And this was the first article

that popped up, or one of the articles on Google. Mocking Jalen Brown's hairline is more than a joke. It's a reflection of our misplaced priorities. I like this. Why? Oh, I love this. Why the internet's obsession with

Jaylen Brown's hairline misses the bigger picture about empathy, identity, and respect for athletes. Where is that? Where is that? What publication published that? Madi Rochon was the author. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's a whole article. This is good. Oh, yeah. It's just going to make you feel like crap. It's going to make you feel terrible. It's going to make you feel terrible. I love this. This is a great. say. Yeah. Yeah. This is a great side. So you're not allowed to find it. You're not allowed to mock their, uh, mock the airline. Oh, guess who did a post about Jalen Brown's hairline? Who's that?

Daily mail. It's not performance enhancing. It is. Look. No, it's not. No, it's not. No. That's what. No. What? No. Look and feel good play good. No. Sweetness. That's a sweetness. Honestly, to this day, Carlos booze are still like, Carlos Boozer's kid is like... I saw those clips too. I mean, maybe the best basketball player for ever seen in my life, it appears. And so maybe he's the only thing we could do with Wembe

is maybe camera boozer. But anyway, when you think of Carlos Boozer, it's one of the first four things you think of. Oh, yeah. That time... I didn't realize... That time with the hair. I didn't realize how prominent these sort of hairling

dark arts were until I got older. I think that because when you're in your 20s, like no one's really doing this stuff. You get in your 30s and 40s. Like, oh, like, oh, you spray paint your hair line on there? It can't. And my question is this, as an aggressive sweater, I'm the sweatiest man you've ever met.

How is this not just like Giuliani style leaking all over his forehead and into his eyes and stuff? Like, if a girl cries, her mascara runs, like, what, what is he using on his head that he can play a full basketball game and it stays in place. I mean, that is not, it's not a question for me. I don't know. What, you don't think two white guys in their 40s should be hashing this out in a podcast? I doubt it.

You don't think so? I doubt it, but I will, but I will say, I disagree. Look, here's where, forget all of the, forget, forget any kind of hot take about the Beijing. I stand solid in this. You're, whatever you do should not be able to rub off on someone's jersey. That's where I, that's what I say.

And that's just, that's the end of that. Can you read that headline again? I love it. Can you read that again for me? I knew this was happening. That's what I told you. I love it.

See? I love it. Mocking Jalen Brown's hairline is more than just a joke. It's a reflection of our misplaced priorities. Okay. I would like to respond if I may. Is that okay? Shut up, nerd.

It's fucking hilarious. It is just a joke. It's funny. He painted on his hair line and ended up his O.G. And Obie's nipple on his jersey. That's funny. In the middle of an NBA game. If that's it,

but what's to reflect our misguided priorities? What am I supposed to be doing? Like, feeding the underprivilege. You're not a lot of. Paul Brown's airline. You're not allowed to. I'm not going to be curing cancer. I'm laughing at Jamal Brown's painted on the airline.

Jaylon. Jaylon. Jayland, not Jamal. Oh, Jamal Brown. He was in my high school basketball team. Very fast. Couldn't shoot. Could not shoot.

He's like Tarreason, but smaller. Very athletic. Could not shoot. Could not shoot. Now put the ball in the basket. All right. We got to wrap these up. Tyreez Max.

Tyree's Max. He's the next superstar. No chance. That's insane. That's absolutely insane. That's a wild, wild overreaction. No, it's a next. superstar. So he's going to leapfrog

wambi. He's going to leapfrog Anthony Edwards. He's going to leapfrog. Those were expected. He's going to leapfrog. He will not be a superstar. Superstar is a real label. It's a height of heights. It's an upper echelon, tier one. Like, you get your own shoe. You're a guy. Like, Jason Tatum is not a superstar.

He's not a superstar. And he's a champion. Oh? Yeah. You have to be a superstar. Like, my wife has no idea who Tyrese Maxy is. I think that. Hold on. I didn't say now. I said next. And look, can you be the best

player on a title team? Tyrese cannot be the best player in the title team. Okay. And I mean, listen, I will say that. No, no. No, no. Don't back down now. But man, that's a supporting cast. That's going to be an

ensemble cast in which he is barely above the others. This is not Luca Donchich and LeBron James sort of dragging role players along with them through the playoffs. If Tyrese Max is the best player in championship team, that team is stacked with seven great role players. Maybe like, Chaunty Billups. All right.

Go ahead. My kids call him dad. All right, moving on. They literally have not won a game. And they can only field like six players in their next game. They have not one, but I am not worried about the Pacers. Oh, not concerned. Okay, this is, this is a, I'm not going to say it's insane,

but I am going to say it's a possible overreaction. And here's why. I saw them in person. There's two things to worry about. That's the problem. That's the problem. No, I'm saying, Matherin and Seacum. In the absence of, with their injuries, with their injury,

bro, they just had to sign Mackclone, for God's sake. With their injuries, it just feels like, you know, the Buzzard's Luck team. Matherin even got hurt in the game that I went to. And he was cooking in the third quarter. Here's who's out right now. McConnell, Nemhard, Matherin, Obey Topping now. Yeah, it's. And get this, get this.

Do you know who they're playing without? You'll never believe this. Taylon Peter, not available. What do you do? You don't have tail on here. There was a guy. There was a guy that got in the game. whose name was Ray J one word.

Yeah, Furphy is like one of their most known players. No, no, no. R-A-Y-J, like capital J. His name is Ray J. There's no way he got named after the tape, right? How do you spell Brandy's brother name? I think that's the same. It is.

That's how he spells it too, right? No, no, there is a, no, there's a space between, Oh, yeah, Ray Space Jay. Yeah, they killed the space. Yeah, you're right. His name is Ray J. Huh. Yeah.

What an honor. Yeah. So you're worried about the Pacers? I'm not worried about the Pacers. Yeah. What's the next one? Too much. This is going to be the season with the most amount of crazy scoring outputs by individuals

ever. So let me just give it to you before, um, uh, before you decide. Okay. Lori Markaninan had 51. There have already been four 50-point games in the past five days

and 16-40-point games in the past six days. Automatic NBA on Twitter listed them all. Reeves twice, Luca twice, Maxi twice. Shea Gilges, Laurie Marken, Aaron Gordon, Jamal Murray, Steph Curry, Jalen Brown, Anthony Edwards, Cam Thomas, Janice, and Wembe.

So far, last year, there were 139 40-point games. 139. This was like a thousand games played. There's over 1,000 games. It's something like 1100 games,

1,200 games, yeah. The whole season, 139. There have been 12. So far, that is on pace for over 300, 40-point games this season. We have 12, and we're not a week into the season. How are we at 12, 40-point games? And what did I say? We have had 4 50-point games.

Like, he's special. That's a proper reaction. It reminds me of field goals in the NFL where it's just not special to be over 50 anymore. A 50 yard field goal is like, oh my God, this is amazing in 10 years ago. And a 50 point game was like that too. Did you ever see that press conference with a,

what's the guy's name that's the defensive coordinator for Philly? Vic Fangio. He's doing a press conference and he was talking about how everything's changed like in terms of defensive. You're talking about things changing a defensive strategy because of the field goals. And he was like, the guy from Dallas is going to kick a 70-hour. Yeah. Oh, yeah, he is.

And Fangio said the balls are different. So that's what it is. So I was watching a game, right? I was walking down the street watching Red Zone. So I'm watching, walking the Red Zone, right? Because I had like, you know, take a kid somewhere or something. And I just watch Red Zone on my phone if I have to be out and about. And they had a hurricane field goal drill, which is when you've got.

got like 15 seconds left. You don't have any timeouts and you get tackled in bounds. So you have to run out the field goal unit and run off the offensive unit at the same time. And they're all professional. They get paid lots of money. They do this, right? But they had time to, it was a 52 yarder, I want to say. They had time to make the switch to special teams. And the field goal was right down the middle, but short, 52-yarder because they didn't have time to switch the ball. And I started thinking to myself, I'm like, wait a second. The kickers aren't changing. The human body is not changing.

The balls are changing. And we've got special balls for them to kick now. So maybe if we want to make the game a little more exciting. And if you get the ball in the 35 and you only need a field goal, you have to get more than 20 yards. We should have you kick the ball that you throw with. But what do I know? I'm just a basketball guy. Yeah, right.

You need to kick Tom Brady's deflated football. Yeah, do that. you got to kick Tom Brady balls. Have a little more fun. We'll see if you're really good. I think it's a proper reaction. I think it's a proper reaction. I think it's just the way the game is changing.

And, you know, we all remember the season two years ago when they had the All-Star break. They're like, we're not calling fouls anymore. I know, I know. And that feels like we might be headed towards something like that. We really might. All right. Here's my last one. And this is, I'm very excited about the end of, um, October and heading into November.

proper reaction, overreaction or insanity. Watching Draymond Green after being struck by lightning in November is going to be amazing. Struck by lightning. Draymond Green is going to be struck by lightning in November on television. What does that mean? Allow me to explain. Please. because I can't decide what kind of reaction

I think this is until I don't know what you're talking about. As a sports media veteran, I've been very interested in sort of how Amazon and NBC is going to roll out how they present NBA games. And when you have a company of those sizes, what you do when you have audiences of these sizes is you look for synergistic opportunities and cross-promotion of your other properties.

You ever notice when you're watching an NFL game, right around the end of the NFL game, they tell you what's on 60 minutes right after the game. You know, and when you're watching an ABC, NBA finals game. What comes on right after it? Jimmy Kimmel, they run a bunch of promos to keep you around to support their other properties with the sort of popular property. And NBC has done the same with their new NBA presentation. They want you to watch a show called St. Dennis. It's a medical drama taking place in the hospital. It's not the pit. It's a lot more like scrubs than

Gray's Anatomy. It's a comedy. And on this show, the premiere of season two, did you watch season one of St. Dennis? What do you think? Did you know that St. Dennis even existed? No. I thought you were talking about Kauai's uncle. He has St. Dennis for a different reason. He's known certain circles in San Diego is St. Denis. Actually, what we're going to find out is Pablo Torres reporting.

They have given Kauai's uncle a television show to circumvent the cap. And on that television show, he's electrocuted Draymond Green. So here's the story. Here's Draymond Green storyline. They're like St. Dennis is back. Draymond Green is being wheeled into a hospital on a gurney because he just got struck by lightning. No. Yes.

This is a real thing happening on a show that I'm going to watch next week on St. Dennis on NBC. So he's guest starring on the show on the premiere episode of season two and he's the victim of a lightning strike. He's somehow fine and he's in the ER. But that's not the end of it. Okay. One of the nurses goes, quote, when I heard, I heard when, sorry, quote, I heard when the current runs through you, it can be stimulating and looks at his crotch. So now we have electrocuted Draymond Green, the boner in the hospital on NBC in prime time. And I'm going to be watching that so hard.

So hard. Wait, he actually has a boner. I don't think they show the actual thing, but it's a suggestion that the electrical current, yeah, yeah, yeah, there's no tent. No, no, no, there's no tent. There's no, there's no teepee. There's no teepee with the peepee,

but there is definitely a suggestion about the electrical current and stimulation to Dremont's nether regions. And I don't know how this happens. They're like, we need an NBA player so we can promote this during the NBA season, who can act, and they get Dremont Green. And someone sends Draymond Green, script and he's like, I got struck by lightning and I go to the hospital and they're making

jokes about my junk. Sign me up. It's just so weird. Is that true? Do you get like if you get struck by lightning, do you get a boner? I don't know. First of all, I think it's amazing. I'm flattered that you ask me. Like I have some sort of some sort of expertise on being struck by lightning and getting boners. Like this is something I've Googled or researched or have happened to myself before. No, I have no idea. So what was my? I have no idea. Wait. I forgot my. I forgot my original the original statement. It's, it's, it's, uh, it's watching Draymond Green gets struck by lightning is going to be awesome.

Proper reaction overreaction. Oh, that I think it's a proper reaction now. Yeah. I think it's a proper reaction. I actually might go out of my way to watch just at least. I'm going to watch just Dennis the Draymond Green episode. I will watch it and report back on the mismatch. So you think this is, I'm very curious about.

Oh, I will say. Then the promotion worked. I didn't know say Dennis existed before. I know. I didn't know that lightning strikes gave you boners either. I'm learning a lot about science, about myself, about the NBC programming structure. I'm learning a lot watching these NBA games on NBC. A lot.

Thank you to our executive producer, Jesse Lopez, as always. Thanks to Tucker for the video. And we will be back later this week. Must be 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino. 18 and over and present in D.C., Kentucky, or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800 gambler or visit RG-Helf.com. Call 1-88-7-8-8-7-9-77 or visit ccpg.org

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