The Mismatch - What We Love From the First Month of the Season, Jokic’s Nonchalant Performance, Cade’s Superstar Status, and Are the Wolves in Trouble?

Episode Date: November 25, 2025

Verno and Jacoby return as they go over the Monday-night slate of basketball, including the Raptors and Pistons' win streaks, Nikola Jokic’s nonchalant impact in the Nuggets' win over the Grizzlies, the Wolves' collapse against the Heat, and more. They also discuss the viral moment between Klay Thompson and Ja Morant over the weekend. Next, the guys share four things they’ve loved about the first month of the NBA season. (00:00) Welcome to The Mismatch! (00:24) We were right about the Raptors (06:48) The Pistons keep on winning (13 straight wins) (12:50) Rockets cool down the Suns (15:00) Nikola Jokic nets triple-double in win against Grizzlies (21:52) Wolves collapse again, lose to the Kings in OT (29:22) Heat edge out Mavs in Tyler Herro's return (33:54) Klay Thompson and Ja Morant's viral moment over the weekend (41:50) First month love no. 1: New broadcasts (46:33) First month love no. 2: ‘On the Radar’ players (49:51) First month love no. 3: Diverse offenses (56:40) First month love no. 4: Steph, KD, and LeBron still got it 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 Jacoby Producers: Jessie Lopez and Stefan Anderson Social: Keith Fujimoto Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Welcome to the mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon and join me as he does every week from the ringer.com is Dave Jacoby. Jacoby. Ferno. I hate it when you're right, but you might be right about the Raptors. You might be right about the Raptors. Well, we had this clip that was going around earlier the week and I told you that after I watched them and my man Matt Devlin was doing the whole notorious BI 3. I said, look at their schedule. This isn't slowing down any time. soon, right? This is going to be a thing and it is now officially a thing. They have pushed it to now eight games in a row that they have won. In those eight games, they have the third ranked offense behind the Nuggets of the Rockets. They have the third ranked defense behind Oklahoma City and Minnesota. That's teams over the course of their last eight games. So they have played at this

extremely high level. And interestingly enough, they've got all kinds of guys. They've got six guys that are averaging 12 or more points during this eight game win streak. Ingram 22. And the numbers aren't crazy. That's the thing. Like a lot of times there's an imbalance to what is going on. And somebody is going to get player of the week. And this is going to be like the reason that they've been playing so great is because this guy has ascended. Ingram 22, Barnes 18. Barrett 17, Quickly 17, Portal 14, Mamu 12. And then they have like four different guys all averaging six. Grady Dick, Shed, Jacoby Walter, and Murray Boyles.

So, I mean, they got all these guys. They all kind of contribute. And the balance here of what they've been able to pull off is what is so shocking, right? This hasn't been, oh, this guy's just gone nuclear. obviously Ingram went nuclear last night in their win against the cavaliers. But man, oh man, the Raptors are on to something. And they got the chain, they got the vibes, they got Darko on the sideline, you know, gassing them up.

And this has been a fun little run for sure. It's the defense has been so impressive when I watch them because they're, they communicate and they make up for each other. If someone gets, if someone beats their man, they rotate, they switch, they're always on a string. They collectively, like a moving amoeba just cover for each other. If someone closes out, it's an upbaked and someone else replaces. And they just do, they play really, really well-coached communicative defense. And it's been really impressed me.

And it, like, you know, because every once in a while you're going to have Brandon Inger was going to get hot. He's the score. It's what he does. But the defense has been consistent. And it's really driven them to these wins. I'm impressed by their defense. You're listening to The Mismatch, presented by Fandul. Fandul now displays your bets directly on your phone's lock screen.

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And here's the deal. A lot of times when you throw a team together, it's not necessarily, like, their talent level, they've got talent on that team. They've got good players. It doesn't necessarily, it would, you would. wouldn't look at it and go, this is the most ideal fit. You know, there's been a struggle of figuring out how do we get, can we get Apex Barnes and Apex Ingram simultaneously?

And so it's not like the most natural fit in the world. That being said, they all appear to like each other and they all appear to be actual friends. It is? It matters. It matters. When we talked about them early in the year, year we said, and the vibes are good.

You know what I mean? Like you watch their locker room video and you're like, a lot of teams don't look like this. The vibes are good. And now this is kind of all come together for them. I'm watching the Raptors. And I said to myself, who's their rim protector? Like, who's like, who's the rim protector?

I guess. You know what I mean? But like to have a defense that good without like a true shot blocking rim protector or someone that can sort of like make up for your mistakes in the perimeter, I've been really impressed by that. They just do everything by committee. It just seems like, remember the Raptors team from like three or four years ago when everyone was six eight? Yeah, like one through five was all six eight.

They're sort of like that now. Like they're all, they all can switch. They all can can can do everything. They can, they can cover bigs. They can cover perimeter guys. Like the defense has been really impressive. They don't really have a shop locker or rim protector. Yeah.

I mean, well, Portal is a good, he's a good like drop coverage big, right? Yeah, he's the kind of guy. Yeah. Yeah, but well, he is, he's big and. enough to when you look up, you pass it out rather than just go right at him. Like not often are you, like, a guy, he will challenge you and it's enough. It's enough. When you've got a seven footer that just standing in front of the basket, right?

When you strain them out. Now, there's a limit to that. And obviously it usually gets exposed in the playoffs because they'll try to pull you, you know, they'll just play five out against you. But they've actually got the wherewithal to be able to play five out if you want to. They're pretty malleable. And so this has been fun for sure. And yeah, they were the team at the beginning of the year that if you're going to,

somebody's going to be the one that we don't expect. Look, part of it is I like that they at least have like real players. The other part is, I mean, this is, I'm never in a million years would I have seen it coming together like it has early in the season for them. And this has been, they've been a fun watch for sure. They won 12 and 13, and they started 1 in 4. Yeah. It wasn't like, you know, they had the big win on the opening night, but then they lost four in a row.

Well, and the reason we start with them is because it's become just old hat for the Pistons to win every night. Oh, yeah. At this point, at this point, it's kind of like the thunder. The Pistice's win again. I mean, that song has gotten played over and over and over. The Pissons win again. It's 13 straight that the Pistons have won that. It's crazy.

But I think the most remarkable thing is that Jaden Ivey coming back, you know, and obviously he's going to play himself back into, you know, himself, but that's going to be key for them. For them to be winning like this without him, I don't know what we call him. Third best player in the team, third best score on the team. Who cares? We're not the power ranking, but like he's an important piece to what they do

and hopefully he can stay healthy. Well, and I was just talking about the balance of the, the Raptors and the depth in which they have been able to do this, same thing goes. Now, they, Detroit's a little different because they've got a guy that over the course of the last, when I extrapolated the last 13 games and kind of how this has happened, it's been top five offense, top six defense. Cades average, 36 and 10 assists.

By the way, also, and this is something I'm going to get to later in the show, but all while shooting 29% from three over the 13 games. Cade Cunningham has averaged 30, 10, and 6, and shooting 29% from three. God forbid he ever makes a reasonable amount of his threes because it's over. He doesn't get easy threes though. All of his threes are sort of like he doesn't get catch and shoot threes. That's fair. Robinson does.

You know what I mean? So the level of difficulty of his three point attempts are, are higher than most. So there have been guys in and out of the lineup. There have been guys that have gotten their opportunity and then not played as much on other nights. But when you just extrapolate the last 13 games, these wins that the Pistons have had,

Jacoby, I counted nine guys that are averaging double digits. Over those 13 games? Yes. During 23, Tobias 16, Robinson 14, Dennis Jenkins 13, Assur 12, beef stew 11, Ivy 11, Levert 10, and then you got right on the outside looking in green at 8.8. And then you've had Holland and Reed have had some big games within that 13 as well. And they're not even included in this list. I mean, I know that they, you know, some of these guys have played more of the 13 games.

Yeah, like Tobias Harris and I got it. You know, yeah, yeah. But still, like over, when you just look at the 13 games over the course of that, there's not. So what that tells you is when they have been plugged and played, they've performed. If you've got nine guys. I just told him he's 13, 13 points. Love him so much.

Yeah, Dennis Jenkins. They plugged him in. And it's crazy. And even like, again, Ivy's only played two games. And he's average 11. So, I mean, like, he's, that's below what he is going to do. over the course of the rest of the season. But this has been a wave.

And, you know, I think that at the beginning of the year, you were high on the Pistons, not this high. I was just terrified from last year's playoffs. I mean, like that Knicks Pist. People forget just how close that series was and how many games came down to the last possession in that series. And if you look at sort of the makeup of the team, they have a go-to guy.

They have a guy. You know who's going to have the ball in clutch. situations. They have defense on the perimeter and under the basket. They've got rebounding. They've got toughness. And they've got a good coach. Like they've sort of check all the boxes you want to check for a team to go deep in the playoffs. Well, and there was that group at the beginning of the year. There was that group where it was like, take your preference. And people had different opinions. And it was Orlando, Atlanta. Yeah, Hawks. And Toronto, Detroit, Orlando, Detroit, Milwaukee. Right. We all accept and we never saw the raptors coming. We didn't even put the raptors in that group. Let's be

honest about it. We did not. We did not put them in that group. They deserve to be in that group based on what we've seen up to this point. But we did not put them in that group before the season. For sure not. And but those teams, it was really, I felt like it was Orlando, Atlanta and Detroit. Everybody knew, okay, they're going to be good. Obviously, Orlando has made some moves and added Bain to the mix. Atlanta made the moves and added Porzengis and others to the mix. And part of that is not only the availability, but the unbelievable play from the superstar and that's the Cade ascent, right? This is now superstardom.

It's not stardom. It's superstardom that's happened with Cade Cunningham. And there have been some struggles to now, to the point where it's like, oh, things aren't going as good with Orlando as maybe we would have expected. And are they better without Paulo? And we're doing the, are they better without trait? Like, that's the kind of stuff that happens with them. none of those questions are existing with Detroit

because Katie Cunningham not only has been available, he has been as good a guard as there is in the Eastern Conference. I mean, it's like, who would have guessed we'd be on November 25th going, I mean, who you're taking? Cater Maxie is the best guard in the east, right? I mean, that's the question. That is the question. That's the debate right now, Cater Maxie.

I mean, I would take Gieland Brunson, but fair. That's fine. as a Knicks guy. I understand. He's done it. He's done it. He's done it. But the fact that this is a conversation is important. And I think that going into the season, we saw it as Nixon Cavs, huge gap, who's number three, the teams we mentioned, five teams you could put in that three spot.

But now it is very jumbled up and it's not as clear cut as we thought at all. A couple other games that we do need to mention. The Rockets knocked off the Suns. The Suns had been red hot. had been playing great basketball over the course of the last couple of weeks. This was a fun one. This one got a little, you know, when Dylan Brooks is involved. Yeah, when Dylan Brooks is involved, things happen.

You know what I mean? Like, it just sort of like this was a, it was a really chippy game. And someone I want to give a big shout out to is Aaron Holliday. Like, he's, he's just been, you know, one of these role players that they just just steps up. Like, he's hitting shots. What kind of odds do you think you could have gotten? on Aaron Holiday being the leading shot taker in any Rockets game. Oh, I don't know. Plus 1,500.

I mean, who knows? I think more. Yeah, probably. Probably. How? How is he ever going to be the leading shot taker? But there we are. And last night, he takes 17 shots, 8 for 17, 22 points.

Six threes. And they just, I mean, they just shut down the suns. Like the one thing you can't do against the Suns, or I'm sorry, against the Rockets is let the ball get sticky. And they had 11 assists for the entire game against Houston last night. That's ridiculous. That's ridiculous. 11 assists and 21 turnovers. And so it's like the worst of both worlds because you're never winning the rebounding battle.

Right. Like that's so you're losing possessions. against this team. What you can't do then is turn the ball over twice as much as you assist. And so it's kind of a perfect storm for the Suns last night against the Rockets where a lot of stuff went wrong. I think it's worth mentioning because it does feel like it was a month ago, but the Nuggets Rockets game from Friday night absolutely lived up to all the expectations. That was that felt like that was a big game and it was toe to toe and it was two teams that I feel like, okay, maybe the Thunder do have something to worry about.

Those those are a really, really fun watch on Friday night. Yeah. I was at Nuggets Grizzlies last night. And this is one of those. Look, I go to games every year, you know, at least 40 something, every year. And a lot of them just blend together and I won't really remember much. Like, I have a feeling I'm going to remember. what I witnessed last night because I don't think I have ever seen or will ever see

the domination that took place for a guy that made five field goals and took nine shots in the game. Watching Yokic in person and watching everything. Like it goes without saying people talk about this all the time. And I heard Zach Lowe saying that over the break, he was going to be going to go to the Nuggets versus the Raptors. And they said, I got tickets for my wife and my kids. And it's going to be one of those, no phones.

I want you to witness this. You know what I mean? We're going to sit there and we're going to watch this guy perform. And I mean, I feel like I got the absolute full experience because it was one of those nights where it's like, I'm just going to run this pick and roll with Murray and I'm going to make everybody better. And as long as they're making shots, I'm going to keep this. ball moving and you see Peyton Watson, who's another guy that's been given his opportunity,

he had a career high last week. I think he had 27 last night, I think. 29. Okay, so it's like just, hey, be there in the corner. Be there in the corner and we're going to find you. We're going to run this thing at the top that we've been running for the last 10 years. We're going to swing it over to you in the corner. Knock it down, kid, right? Or, I mean, I really like him. I really like Peyton Watson. He is long. as L. Athlete. Oh, my God. And, man, if you can knock down those corner threes, you have a place with that team. And they shot a lot of threes last night. This is not a team that shoots a lot of threes. But they shot a lot of threes last night. And they made a lot of threes last night. I mean,

they shot, you have no chance against them when they shoot 50% from the three point line. And that's what Memphis ran up against. And there were two plays. Obviously, a lot of people that pay attention to online have seen the highlight of the behind the back. pass that Yokic made when, I mean, this is like a nip-tuck game, right? Like, this is close game. And he makes, I mean, the murmur in the crowd, it was so crazy because it's an opposing player making a play. But everyone is like, ooh. Ooh.

That was cool. That was unbelievable. And even worse, was at the end of the third quarter. Memphis is rallying. They're knocking down some shots. Crowds all into it. They cut it to five. And it's like after they've been down,

I think they were down like 17 or something at one point. And so they cut it to five. And then Jaron Jackson Jr. takes a back court foul. Well, first of all, Vince Williams loses a jump ball to Tim Hardaway, senior, which to me, you should have to do one trillion, jumps today after losing a jump ball to Tim Hardaway Senior.

But then Jared Jackson Jr. A senior, a junior fouls, Yokic in the back court. So now they get the ball side out of bounds with one second left. And you could pull it up. I mean, he pulls the most nonchalant three from half court.

And then just non-plus. Like he doesn't even, he acts like nothing happened. He just walks back to the bench totally. not just like everybody in the crowd is like oh like he does things on the basketball course that literally no one else on earth does and because of the way he looks and the way he moves you can't believe it's happening like how is this guy destroying everybody and making the right basketball play every time and making all of his

his teammates better. He's not even shooting the ball. So I told you he made five field goals. One of them was the half court shot. Yeah. I mean, him taking nine shot attempts is really interesting to me because. Crazy.

In previous Yokic seasons, he's had those 50 point games or he'll have some huge like 30, 15 and 15 game or whatever. But now he's just sort of like, like you said, nonchalant casually, you know, just doing what the team needs to get the win

and getting 20, 12, and 10, every game, every single game. And by the way, he had three minutes into the game, him and Zach Edie are tussling, and Edy gets, like, hitting the head and goes out for the rest of the game. Really? Yeah, so I don't know what happened to him. I don't know, but he got hit in the head, and so they said he's out with, like, a head injury.

This is three minutes into the game. So if Yolkits wanted to have 75 points last night, He could have. It's the point that he doesn't, like, I'll do whatever I need. He does what the team needs. Tell me. What the team needs. And how much?

It is such a rarity. I mean, God, just to watch him in part, I walked out of that thing and I was like, that was unbelievable. But it's also, there's no chest pounding. There's no screaming. There's no sort of like emotion. There's no, like, he's not, like, remember Wemby early on the season when he's screaming all over the place and getting all crazy?

You know, everyone's different. authentically themselves. He is just like you said, nonchalant. He'll hit a half court shot and slump his shoulders and sort of like saunter back to the bench and sit down and have a drink of water and be like, what are we doing next? It truly is like, this is my job. Yes. This is my job.

Yes. I'm not particularly passionate about it. No. People say it's like, this is my job. I'm just punched in the clock, getting it done, getting us a win, and then going home to look at horses online. Yeah, I don't. The emotions you feel about.

this. That's the crazy thing, right? You feel much more emotion as a fan or an observer than the guy that is performing. Playing. Yes. Certain players need that. Like the Westbrooks and the Dremons. Yes. They sort of, they need to get themselves going and sort of like scream and yell and get engaged in the game in that way. I'm not saying that one is better than the other, but Yokes does not need that at all, at all. It was awesome to watch. Okay. We need to speak on this because of of our show on Friday. Thursday night, last Thursday night, I witnessed the Sacramento

Kings lose to a reeling at that time, Memphis Grizzlies team. And I came on this pod and I was like, wait, the Grizzlies aren't reeling anymore? I was not. No, they would want two in a row leading into last night. Okay, okay. So they were reeling

leading into that. The Kings had lost seven straight games and it culminated with a game in Memphis where nobody tried. Nobody tried and they lost by 40. And I was like, how, like, there's just no way Doug Christie makes it. Like, it's the worst start for a King's team since 1990. They lost eight straight and lost by 40 to a Memphis team that had lost five straight and has no John Morant, no Jared Jackson, Jr. They're without their guys. It's like, this is crazy. And DeMarterosa took like three shots in the game.

Nobody's in a defensive stance. Nobody's trying. Nothing. And I'm like, how does this guy make it through the weekend? They win at Denver and then last night turned around and beat Minnesota. Yeah. What the hell?

What happened here? What happened? The Timberwolves just absolutely blew that. This was not a King's win. This is the Timberwolves blowing the game. And they're over reliance on Anthony. Because we all have the same. We're all doing the same thing at night.

We're watching League Pass, monitoring the other games. And this one looked like a Timberwolves win. And you're looking at it on your phone. You're like, wait a second. I need to change the channel. Let me, you know, I'm going to complain this for a second. It takes way too long for me to go from one game to another game on the NBA app on my television. So Mr. Silver, please change that.

I'll Venmo you some money for AI to code that. But you get over to that game and it's just, it reminded me a little bit of Brunson last year with the Knicks where it's just like, let's just give our guy the ball and let him cook. And then they just give Anthony Edwards the ball. And everyone stands there. And he just dribbles it around and tries to get a shot. He takes a contestant two and misses and the kings go down and score.

Same thing again. Same thing again. In overtime, same thing again. It's just like you have to do something different. get him off the ball, get some passes in your offense. I like, you know, I told you this last year. I've talked about, I don't like, I just want a table center. I just want to tell you.

They're another team that generally is playing without point guard. They had 21, they had 21 assists to 16 turnovers to your point last night. You know what I mean? The ball doesn't move around like it should. And when it does, unfortunately, many times they turn the ball. all over. And then you had DeRosen, 33, Kegan Murray, 26 and 14, Malik Monk off the bench with 22. And meanwhile, the King's shot, figure this out.

In the year 2025, you do not win a basketball game when you shoot seven for 26 from three. Somehow the Kings did. But, you know, I really appreciated your insight watching the Kings Grizzlies game from last week because no one listened to this podcast, watched that game except for you. And their lack of effort was apparent, as you said. Last night wasn't the case. There's one play in particular,

Malik Monk had this save where he's diving into the, into the stands and saving a key possession. Like, they, something happened. So there's something happened. Yeah, it must have been to come to Jesus, right? Yeah, something happened. It was for some reason, they decided they were going to respond to whatever Doug Christie was saying.

broke down and cried after the grizzly game. Who knows? And they were like, all right, guys. I would have. It was one of the most, honestly, it was one of the most shocking things I have seen in person. I mean, they lost my, they were down at one point, almost 50 points. And they had Levine,

Schroeder, Monk, DeRosen, like they were down to bonus, but that was it. Like, they just were not trying. They weren't trying. And I don't. And then they beat the nuggets. And I know. If you're a losing team,

You're a losing team. You're down double digits late in the fourth quarter. That is when you fold and give up. But they did the opposite last night. Figure that out, right? And so now, yeah, they won at Denver and they won against Minnesota. Minnesota is one to keep an eye on, okay? Because last week, I told you,

I think it was tomorrow the Oklahoma City game. I think it's tomorrow. And I said, if you go look, they have not beaten any. anybody good. Yeah. And that has maintained. Yeah, you didn't say that. That has maintained.

They even lost to the sons when they played them, who have a winning record. They have this weird thing going on. They're 10 and 7 right now. They play the thunder. They played a thunder on ESPN tomorrow in a cup game. So there you go. Before Thanksgiving when all the all the college kids go home and go to the local bar. It's certainly worthy of paying attention to because we're 17 games into the season.

and they've generally beaten everybody that they've played that are bad and they've lost to everybody that is good and then you mix in a couple of these like the weird ones like the Kings thing right? Who is? Yeah. But they don't have,

I'm trying to think of like signature win for the timiddle of this season. Nothing's coming to mind. It's just by virtue of way the schedule goes. So I just want to watch them. I am super looking forward to that Thunder game tomorrow night. Just get a barometer, right?

Because so far, this is a 10 and 17 who's got their bona fides because they've been to two Western Conference finals. But so far this year, they have not shown the ability to beat good teams as currently constructed. Now it's in Oklahoma City, too. So that's going to be a real test. Yeah, they might get boat raced. I mean, they've been boat racing everybody. Do you know at one point, like maybe it was the 13 game thing? Remember when I told you I was extrapolating, like, what's happened over 13 games?

it was like yeah right well so one of the things is obviously before you do players like teams come up and it was like the net rating for the thunder was like 20 it's ridiculous i'm not kidding like when i was trying to look up the pistons i was like let's see what's happened in the league the last 13 games i was like oh my god do you know what they remind me of they remind me of like Floyd mayweather where it's like i'm gonna i'm gonna win and it's gonna be dominant but it's not going to be flat and it's not going to be in question. I'm going to be in control the entire time. They're not like coming back.

Like, remember when the Warriors were on their real run, that like 16, 17 team, they would be down at half that'd come out and like, you know, and then they have these big third quarters. 30 to 12 third quarter. But like the Thunder don't, they don't have to do that. They don't play their starters in the fourth quarter.

The outcome is never in question. And they just methodically win every game like Floyd Mayweather over the course of a 12 round fight. Like it's not going to be a great watch. But it's going to be a win for Mayweather. He's going to be undefeated. And if you want to extrapolate, like they're on pace for what? Like 75 wins or something?

It's ridiculous. It's ridiculous. The heat beat the Mavs. Tyler Hero returned. Hero's back. Well, and I think people have wondered like, hey, how's Tyler Hero going to fit in this offense? Let me tell you something.

Tyler Hero is going to be awesome in this offense. And you know why? Because Jaime Hakez had proven to be awesome in this offense. and I watched this offense last year the whole season, you know, until it got until whatever, until they fired their coach last game. But I mean, this Noah Lerush, a lot of these concepts and without screens

and getting to get your man on an island, like a lot of these things are the same and are very reminiscent of what I watched for a year. And man, if you are a really good individual scorer. This can really help you. And it was totally unsurprising to me that Tyler Hero was plugged into the mix and immediately had 20-something points. And I think he, I mean, 24. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, free flowing, that's the kind of thing you want for a guy like Tyler Hero, especially when he could shoot the cover off the ball. I love Tyler Hero as an

offensive weapon. I thought last year was the far and away sort of like the best year I've ever seen him have. He was he was shooting 47% from the floor last year as the number one option. And it is interesting though, because he is so good when he gets a screen, sort of like John Morant. It's like, are we just not going to use this weapon? Like, I expect them to set some screens for Tyler Hero. Like, why wouldn't you set a BAM screen, a BAM hero screen? Why wouldn't you do that? Like, are you just going to not do that? Are we really not going to do that? I mean, that was the, that was the argument with Morant last year, right? That's what I'm saying. It just seems like, why not set our explosive offensive performer a screen so he can sort of put the defense in a decision-making mode?

I will say the great one of the things, and you're going to have to figure it out defensively, you know, the whole hero Powell at the same time deal. But offensively, I mean, that can be devastating because again, when you play against a lot of these teams, if you got an awesome perimeter guy, now I am going to deploy, let's just say, Ahmed Thompson or McCall Bridges or in it over, whatever, right? I am now, I'm taking my wing. I'm hiding my little guy, whoever I've got playing point guard or one of my guards,

I'm hiding them on the corner three guy. And now I've got my big long wing. Well, if you've got Hero and you've got Powell, only one of them, you know, draws the huge wing to take attention to the way. Right. And so they're going to have to, outscore people, but I'll be damned.

They might be able to. Powell didn't, I don't think he played last night, but he's been playing, he's been playing well. He's been playing well this year. And I think, I think they've got offensive firepower. And they obviously, you know, they're famously are, are, you know, upping the pace and just moving. They're getting, they're getting down, getting the shot up.

Oh, yeah. And it was very shocking. I mean, I got to be honest with you. When I was looking stuff up about this game, um, you know, watched it back. and then saw some of the highlights that have been grabbed of it. And I just wanted to say, I thought,

I was just super disappointed in Clay Thompson yelling at the heat bench. I thought that that's beneath him. And to get a tech, okay, let's talk about it. To get a tech in a big moment in the game and then flip the game really completely. Verno, let's be honest. This is a residual. This is residual.

It's not a residual feelings from Clay and the Grizzlies going out this weekend. That's exactly what this is. Be honest with yourself. I was talking about the heat game. I know you're talking about the heat game. But what you're really talking about is the Grizzlies game. I mean, that seems, that seems crazy for a vet to be screaming at the heat bench and making a gesture and then getting a technical foul in the balance of the game when you're winning and then have the

whole game flip after that, it's just disappointing. I just wanted to say, I just thought it was disappointed. Do what else is disappointing? Is it a player that doesn't play in the game that gets into it with the opposing players? That's also disappointing. Is that not? Let me just speak to

let me speak to what happened because that was obviously super viral over the weekend. That's what you're talking about. You're not upset with Clay in the heat game. You're upset with Clay and the Grizzlies going back and forth. I was just disappointed. Okay. So one of the things is sometimes something happens in the NBA, like what happened over the weekend when the Grizzlies beat the Mavs and then you saw this whole John Morant Clay Thompson thing going

down. Clay Thompson has been barking and yelling at the Grizzlies for 10 years. It's been a decade. Yeah, it's been a decade. He has been rubbing his nuts on Dylan Brooks' hand on Christmas day. He has been calling Jared Jackson Jr. a clown and a bum. He has been yelling at Jabberant during playoff series. And then the whole game

this weekend was barking at Vince Williams and the bench. And he is the worst of all because he's the guy that like, it's like if a guy was like talking you're playing golf against a guy and he was talking crazy to you the whole time.

And then you came from behind and you beat him and he bogeyed the last hold. He goes, but I have eight club championships. Don't talk to me that way. And it's like, what? You've been a dick the whole time. What? And dude, there is a real history. And then to watch then Dallas fans get involved.

Stay out of it. This has nothing to do with you. The Clay Thompson Grizzly's thing goes back so far. and the John Morant, Jaron, Jaron Jackson Jr., Dylan, Brooke, like, all that goes back so far. Look, nobody disrespect. Clay Thompson is a made man.

Clay Thompson has won an awful lie. Clay Thompson also, because John Morant is famous, that's what became famous. That's three nights in a row. The Mavs have had kerfuffles with the other team. And Clay Thompson's been involved in two of them. Clay Thompson is that guy that Barton, at you the whole time and then you can't you can't say anything back because he's got four titles

remember when you flashed the four titles at at devon booker of course of course he is sneaky his reputation is not that of someone who's sort of like edgy and barking and all that stuff like he's known as being like an aloof stony shooter who just like shows up and scores 20 and then goes home and doesn't think twice about it like this is different now This is now aged, angry Uncle Rico. That's what it is. That's why when he, why is he barking at the heat bench? None of them have won four titles.

None of them. How dare they say something to Clay Thompson? They haven't won four titles. How could you talk to this man in that manner? He's sneaky. He's been doing this for years. For years. He's been doing it.

I don't know, no, no. I'm not buying this at all. I'm saying he is the guy that when you bark back at him, if you are not accomplished, that you're not allowed to do that. And then he will talk down to you in the pure Golden State Warriors holier than thou. Like he brought up that, oh, look, Santiago de Al-Dama, ridiculous. You should not trip Cooper flag. What was that? Yeah, that was weird.

It also wasn't that big of a deal. And I have no problem with Clay Thompson sticking up for his teammate. I'm saying so. And I have no problem with Clay Thompson dressing down John Moran in the post game show. No problem. You're allowed to say whatever you want to say. Of course. They didn't even say anything that bad.

It is the reaction to this whole thing. And again, if you want to say John Moran should have basketball highlights. He shouldn't have viral highlights that have nothing to do with basketball. Again, we agree. So again, don't make a mistake on this. I am saying if you watch that game, Clay Thompson, was talking reckless. The whole game does all the time with Memphis.

This is 10 years of it. Again, I'm not saying league-wide. I'm saying this specific instance. Then when the game was on the line and they were down three, took one of the worst shots in basketball history. And then they let him hear about it. And then he got mad. Then he got big mad because he'd been barking at them.

He had his, by the way, season high in that game, 22. but then it's like he's a made man he's accomplished it like you're not allowed to talk trash to somebody who's barking and because they're accomplished that's crazy to me that's crazy to me it's just different when you're five and 14 that's the difference no no no this this happened when they were in the playoffs years ago no i know i know i'm saying right now if you're clay thompson you're no longer on the warriors you're no longer a splash brother you're on a five and 14 team that is in trade rumors. And, you know, there's

4,000 word articles about how the front office is a mess. And the owner doesn't know who to listen to. And it's just, he didn't sign up for this. He signed up to play for Luca and to catch and shoot open threes from great highlight passes that Luca serves him up. And now he's sitting here, you know, having to be relied upon to win games against the Grizzlies. And they're 5 and 14.

That's got to be frustrated. Yeah. It's got to be. And again, this is about Clay and the Grizzles. This isn't about the Mavs. This isn't about the water. This isn't about his accomplishments. This is about Clay and the Grizzlies,

which is happening. It goes back years and years and years. Go look it up. Go look at him rubbing his nuts on Dylan Brooks head. Go look at all his postgame stuff, calling Jaron Jackson Jr. A clown and a bum. Because of a tweet.

He doesn't like the Twislies. He doesn't like the Grizzlies. He doesn't. He never has. I like that. I like animosity. I do too. I like it when players.

don't like other jeans. I like this. Trust me, I can't love it more. I want this. Do you know? It added so much more juice that he took the horrible shot and was mad after the game. It was so much better. It was so much better.

But all of the reaction, then it becomes a viral moment, and they have no context to it. They have no context to what's going on for years and years, right? Like you don't sit there and go, well, when I think of Clay Thompson, I think, think of the greatest human being to ever walk the earth, the shark shooter. I think of a boat. He's got a boat. He's got dogs.

He's like a happy go lucky guy. In Memphis, you think of him celebrating. You think of him pumping his fist and yelling at everybody. You think of him calling Jaron Jackson Jr. A clown and a bum. When you think of Jaron Jackson Jr., do you think of him in some kind of ill repute? Of course not.

Right. No. But again, that's why there's real smoke there. There's real smoke. Good. And I love it. Good. I love it.

But don't start this whole thing by being like, well, Clay Thompson shouldn't have been talking to the heat bench. But you're really upset about Clay Thompson and the Grizzlies. No, I was very disappointed to him last night. I just think that that's beneath a multi-time all-star and four-time champion. I just don't think. Watching him become an angry old man is, it's not. Watching you become an angry old man. It's uncomfortable too.

Just uncomfortable to me. Watching you become an angry old man. But after the old man. No. He can go to hell. Let's get KOC in back in here. All right. We're a month into the season. Let's talk about some of the things that we have loved thus far in the NBA.

All right. So first month of the season, I'm going to, I'll start. We're just going to do a few. Just quick. I'm going to say the new broadcasts. I think as NBA fans, we didn't know what necessarily to expect. I love the NBC broadcast. I love the way it looks.

I love the way it makes things feel bigger. I love the starting lineups. I like the intro video. I like the announcer. The whole thing. I just love it. And we have gone on and on about how good, how fast the Amazon team is.

I love that too with Rooks and with the Dirk and with Dodontas Haslam and that group and Blake Griffin. Well, I was watching that. Candace Parker and Swink Cash on a few nights ago. It seems like whoever they put in there, it works. Okay. Interestingly enough, just by muscle memory, I was flipping through the channels and I flipped on TNT the other night.

I got to be honest with you. I loved the college basketball broadcast. It's like Brian. It's like, and Chris Weber. And it's, well, and Michelle Mashburn. My man, Brian Anderson's on there. Yeah.

Last night, Bruce Pearl and Candice Parker are on there. I'm like, I like, I like this. I got to like TNT still does good doing sports and I kind of like that there's college games on that. But I think we one of the things we wondered was what is this going to be like still getting used to finding the games in different places. They're not obviously all in one spot. But I don't even really think about ESPN NBA broadcast anymore. I feel like I found myself watching so many of these national broadcast on NBC and Amazon that those are the first two that. I think of when I think about the NBA broadcast,

and I think that has been a massive positive. The other thing is, and I know you complained about the NBA app, I did my, my league pass is through Amazon Prime. And. So you don't use the app? Oh, well, I mean, on my TV, the Prime app. Oh, so you get League Pass through Prime. I use the NBA app.

All right. Now again, I'm not going to. it's unbelievable. I can't love it more, Jacoby. It knows that I like, because of the algorithm, it knows that I love it. So, I mean, there's games right on my front page

and it's just the boxes, one after another. All I do is press the back button and I click on the next one. Then it lets me choose which broadcast I want to listen to, which team's broadcast I want to listen to. Oh, I love it.

It is so easy to now. navigate and it has changed everything for me. I used to have it with the guide thing. Like I did it through my like direct TV. I like the guide thing because they were all stacked up next to you tell you you can get there quick because now when you click on a game, it's like, do you want to watch the key highlights or do you want to watch the game? I want to watch the game.

That's why I clicked on the game. Don't make me click again. No, doing it through Amazon Prime has been great. But anyways, I think through the first month of the season, one of the big question marks is what we're going to think about all of these broadcasting these broadcast team. And what are they going to look like? And how are these channels going to be able to do it?

I'll make it better. I'll make it better. A couple things. Number one, I like three letter networks. I'm old. I like NBC. What's the game on? NBC.

Number four on your dial. There you go. I'm old. Spoken like that's what I was growing up. Yeah. When I was growing up. Yeah. Spoken like a true 25 years.

I made a promise that I wasn't going to just shit on ESPN every time it came up. So I'll leave. Countdown alone for now, but the, the, the, what's going to happen is what happens every year is the ABC games start popping up when we get into 2026. And that's when you're going to get inside the NBA back. That's what we'll get inside the NBA back. Oh, no, no, I love it. I love it.

You know what I mean? That's going to be great. Like, like, like they really kind of save the good stuff for post football. In the post football world or even football playoffs world, you get these Saturday night games, the big Saturday night games, the big Sunday night games, the big summer. Sunday afternoon games. That's when you're going to get Shaq, Kenny Charles, and, you know, in the studio, going, hopefully they'll let them go for an hour after the games just like they used to.

So, like, it has been great, the presentations, but the best is yet to come, yet to come. Broadcast stands out to me for the first one, for the first month of the season. Oh, God, I'm just biting my tongue, trying not to say things. I'm just going to move on. Here's what I like about the league so far. I didn't know what to name these guys. I was going to say, like, on the map or on your radar, but there has been players on winning teams that I just barely were part of my,

like, in my brain. But there's, like, A.J. Mitchell, right? And, you know, Coach Dagonal gave him some time in the finals last year. And he was at Summer League this year. Do you remember he's like first summer league game? He had like 20 points in the first half. They're like, just go home, AJ Mitchell. But he has just been just lights out.

He's getting 16 points a game. He's playing 30 minutes for a team that only has one loss. He's great defense, great connecting passes. Like, he is just, again, the Thunder have so many of these guys. But the idea that AJ Mitchell just comes out of nowhere is crazy. We've discussed Dennis Jenkins. I didn't know who Dennis Jenkins was four weeks ago. I did not.

I'm not going to lie into a microphone. I did not know who this man was. I did not watch him at St. John's. But like, he has just come out of nowhere. And we talked about the Raptors. but like Mamu like Mamu was kind of like a like an afterthought Mary's on the Spurs and like I remember

he killed the Knicks one game The box he played for the box Yeah yeah yeah he was just like He was just kind of like a guy But now he's like a real contributor Her team that's 112 or 13 Like they rely on Mamu And Mamu in this like bench mob

Just sort of like ignite the game When they come in at the end of the first quarter And like he's just like coming out of nowhere And finally this is the this is like the perfect Epitome of sort of like these guys that have just sort of like made their mark this season is Vic Creachie if you're not watching the Hawks games this dude this dude before you can Google his name he has eight points like he is just on an absolute heater I did not know Vic Creachie was a year ago I did not

I'm not gonna lie and this guy is on an absolute heater and do you know his nickname I don't heat check oh because he's check I mean Come on. He didn't play that well in his last game, but he's shooting 49% from three on five attempts. Think about that. 50% on five attempts. Jeez.

By the way, on the nickname front, are we doing the Big Easy for Derek Queen? No. He said that. I like the Big Easy. Big Easy? The Big Easy. By the way, you know, Tech Edie the other night,

he was asked which nickname he prefers. he likes the big Zamboni. So they've been calling. They're calling it. We don't need to go big Zamboni. There's no small Zamboni. Zimbone are a standard size. Because he's from Canada.

Because he's from Canada. Well they call Maple Jordan or something. No, no. They used to go big maple. I was watching Grizzlies game. Big maple. That's what it is. No, no, no.

They've changed it now. It's now Big Zamboni because that's what he wants. Big Zamboni. But just celebrate Creechy for a second. Yeah. Because you've been watching Hawks games and you're like, who the fuck is this guy? And I swear to God, before you can Google him, he's got eight points.

Like, he's just been on fire, on fire. Other thing we've loved from the first month of the season, I am going to, is something that I have spoken about a few different times on the show since we started this year is the diversity of play that is taking place within the league. So think about the teams. that are, that we talked about to start off the show, like the hottest teams going in the NBA,

the Pistons, the Raptors. And then you think about these like outstanding offensive teams that we have had so far, one that I saw last night in the Denver Nuggets, Houston Rockets. So you go to the top five offenses in the NBA right now, okay, according to offensive rating. In terms of three point attempts,

the Rockets are 30th. The Nuggets are 23rd. The Knicks are fourth. The Thunder are 12th. The Celtics are third. The Raptors are 27th. The pistons are 28. Okay?

It's wild. I mean, so we have the... I'm listing off the best offensive. These are the offensive efficiency ratings. And I was in an arguing with my friends a year ago about, though they shoot too many threes, it's ruining the NBA. And now the top offenses are like the bottom four in three point attempts. And now even if I go farther down, Raptors 27th, Pistons 28, Spurs 18th, Wolf 16, Magic 25th. Those are the top 10 offenses.

And so you do have a couple in there, like the Knicks and the St. Celtics that shoot a very high volume, but they are the only ones in the top 10 in three-point attempts that are also in the top 10 in offensive efficiency, the Knicks and the Celtics. The rest of these teams and some of these teams that we, you know, the ones that we've talked about the most on the show, rockets, pistons, raptors, Denver, they are all between 23rd and 30th. With the Rockets having the number one offense and the 30th ranked three-point attempts. And the two hottest teams in the NBA, the Pistons and the Raptors being 27th and 28th in terms of three-point attempts. So what this is tough, like everything cycles through.

I mean, this was all we talked about for years. Are they going to have to move the three-point line back? Are they going to have to abolish the corner three? How do we do this? Do we do a four point line? What do we do? You know, everything has become, everybody plays the exact same way.

Lay it up or tray it up. But then what happened. Adam Silver, to his credit, was like, things evolve. Chill out. Let's see. And I mean, now it's gone the complete opposite way where the best offense is shooting the least threes. figure that out.

And it's not, well, a couple things. Number one, LeBron James himself was like, yes, this is a problem. The teams all played the same. And when he said that, I was like, what are you talking about LeBron? You're LeBron James. Like, you should have more perspective than that because that's not what's happening. And I like that you said the diversity of teams because you're talking about sort of like three point attempts, which is really indicative of how different it is sort of from last year that sort of

like Celtics copycat era. But the rebounding of the rockets, the pace of the heat, like there's teams, I don't want to say gimmick, but they just have different philosophies and strategies is the way they approach trying to win an NBA basketball game, which is something that I find so enjoyable night to night watching a league pass. Well, and you watch some of these great teams, right? You watch Houston and you watch Denver, who have been at the very tops of the league offensively. And they are more than happy to play the we run a play, you run a play,

half-court basketball game. And they drop into zone. Yep. As to not have, maybe that's partly for health as well, right? To not have everybody having to close out all the time, right? Like I watched last night, I mean, they just dropped back into this zone. And you've got to figure it out, like for long stretches too. And it's like, all right, like you're seeing things ball. You think things are being, basketball's being played a different way. And when I watched a team last night that scored 125 points that they're not doing

it flying up and down the floor. No. That's not how they're getting their 125. It just stood out to me that like, man, I like this now, right? Used to be,

you get 95 shots in a game and both teams are taking 453s. So over half the shots you watched in the game, seemingly are threes. and that's just not so right now. And also, it happens in the playoffs a lot, but sometimes I get a little bogged down with high pick and roll. High pick and roll. Every possession just feels like we're starting with a high pick and roll.

Every single possession, and it doesn't feel like that now. It's not the same over and over and over again. Also, you remember when I was talking about how the Raptors have had this eight-game win streak and their third-ranked offense over the course of the last eight games? Check this out. last eight games ingram these are three point percentages

ingram 32 barns 25 barrett 29 all wins all wins that more than anything tells you I'm trying who's hitting threes for them

mama quickly Mamu Grady Dick I mean they don't make they don't take and make a lot no they do it a different way

they got an eight game win street and their three leading scorers have none of them have shot over 32% from three in these eight games. So how? I didn't see Ingram being this effective when he was trained. Oh, God, he was amazing. I was not. I mean, we've all seen the potential, you know what I mean?

Because there's a nice where he looks like Kevin Durant. He's like, oh, look it's the tallest guy. No one can contest a shot. He's just easily getting into these 20, 20 foot jumpers and they're going right in. But like he's, he's looked really, really good. Well, really, really good. you can you can thank glorilla yes yes as i often do um this is a this is an easy one for me but like sometimes like you just have to appreciate something in the moment and not take it for granted

and i just want to celebrate step kady and lebron for what they've done now lebron's only played two games like you know because i was there's so much focus on this lebron thing like how's you gonna fit in i was it it's that he's played the jazz twice first of all so it's easy to fit him you're playing the jazz twice but the second game he's just getting so many easy baskets i feel like this is gonna be an easy year for lebron like he's getting transitions cherry picking getting transitions layups he's getting just like open layups he's missed all of his three's getting open threes like i just feel like this this lebron year is just you're going to be, he's going to be in third

gear for most of it and then turn it on for the playoffs. And I've been impressed by those two games and I think that he can fit in on any team just like he said. And Stepp has got 30 points in three straight games. He can fit into any team just like you said. Yeah.

Yeah. There's a graveyard of players that he got traded. That's fine. He can fit into any team that he you know, controls the roster of. That's fits right in. I mean, it's the most ironic thing ever, honestly.

I could fit in anywhere. Tell Jay Crowder. Dwayne Wade. His best friend is, he can't win. I could fit in anywhere. That trade deadline was wild. It was the cabs was like,

five guys got traded. Every trade deadline of his whole career has been wild. You have everybody playing. like crap for like three weeks leading into the trade deadline and then they either like you remember when di angelo russel just went to absolute hell and then the trade deadline passed and he turned awesome that was the funniest year ever it's like oh i finally realized year was the was the was the was the past yeah all right thank you to our executive producer jesse lopez as always and no show later this week everybody enjoy and have a happy thanksgiving must be 21 or always

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