The Ringer NBA Show - Early Signs of Trouble for the Nets and Kyrie Irving? Plus: Five Early Takeaways From the First Week of the Regular Season. | The Mismatch

Episode Date: October 29, 2019

We react to Jackie MacMullan’s story in ESPN about Kyrie Irving’s mood swings and the Nets’ organizational response to it (1:23). Then we share five early takeaways from this NBA season, including what look to be monster seasons for two young guards in Trae Young and Ja Morant (14:30). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the NBA show on the Ringer podcast network is brought to you by State Farm. Just like basketball, the game of life is unpredictable. Talk to a State Farm agent and get a teammate who can help you navigate the unexpected and help you handle whatever life throws your way. Unpredictable NBA outcomes like the Pacers starting off winless. Kauai Leonard becoming an assist guy. Get a teammate who can help you navigate through the unexpected. Talk to a State Farm agent today about combining your home.

and auto insurance. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every Tuesday from the ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Bomber, aka Kevin O'Conflict, Kevin O'Conflict, Kevin. Verdo, what's going on? Usually got a real quick rhythm with the nicknames in the beginning. This time, a little clunky on him. Oh, Clunky.

Kevin O'Clunky. How you doing? The sample size is getting greater for the NBA. We now have a couple of games under the belt of all of these respective teams. But before we get to five different things that each of us have observed in this early season, story came out this morning. Jackie McMullen says sources tell her Brooklyn is already worried about Kyrie Irving's mood swings. unbelievable.

I don't know. Who could have ever guessed this, Kev? Should we read the exact thing that she wrote? Please do. So Jackie McMullen in her article this morning on ESPN wrote, When Irving lapses into these funks, he often shuts down, unwilling to communicate with a coaching staff, front office, and sometimes even his teammates.

Nets team sources say one such episode occurred during Brooklyn Strip and leaving everyone scratching their heads as to what precipitated it. Is this really a surprise, Chris? Is it? This is nothing new. I mean, imagine if there was someone on the podcast for the last month talking about how Kyrie Irving's going to ruin the Nets and how they were the most fun team to watch.

I saw them in person on Sunday, as you know, a thrilling game and overtime game. Oh, that was an awesome, awesome game. Look, that team, as I said, was, laden with good vets and it seemed like they had such amazing team camaraderie, whether Damare Carroll and Ed Davis and Jared Dudley and on down the line, right? A bunch of good vets, a bunch of young players. DeAngelo Russell really came into his own.

Joe Harris had a really good season last year. Karas Levert came back from the injury on and on and on. I'm watching them on Sunday. Theo Pinson is still an all-time bench guy and is up waving a towel and excited about everything. But Theo's kind of not got a bunch of guys alongside him anymore. And here's the thing with Kyrie. We saw what happened with Boston. And I just thought that when your best player and a guy that players on the team are going to look to as an example,

that it is ill-suited. It's best suited for him to be the sidekick like he was with LeBron. Because there is not, when you are not the best guy, it's not like everybody's looking to you all the time for example slash inspiration slash, hey, let's go win this game. And he's a drain, man. He really is. Like you can see it out there.

And let me tell you a quick little story, Kev, about Sunday. I like your story, so I'm a big fan. So the NBA, as you know, when you go to games, now that you have been covering the league for some years, it's like a fraternity of sorts in that you end up seeing all kinds of people you know. There's all kinds of people from out of town, et cetera. And there is an NBA photographer that I have known for a very long time, okay, who was in town for the Grizzlies and the Nets game. And he told me before the game, and I could not believe this.

He said he was out there before the game, like in pregame warmups, shooting, right? Like taking pictures. And Kyrie Irving came up to him and said, do not take any pictures of me in pregame. And he was like, what? And he's like, don't take any pictures of me before the game. And he said, in 20 years, I have never had a player come up to me. ever 20 years. I have never had a player.

He's like, what is up with this dude? I was like, I don't know. I mean, I don't know him. I was like, are you serious? He's like, he came right up to me and said, do not take pictures of me before the game. And so the photographer I know, he goes and he asks around, like to other guys that are there.

And they're like, yeah, he told me that last game. Like, what? I'm about to like search Kyrie Irving on Getty images. It is the craziest thing I've ever. I never heard. Well, you know, fans show up early before games, and they're all snapping with their phones and ever. I mean, it was, it's just bizarre. Weird. Like, it's just, I don't even know how to, I'm relaying that story not to, you know, necessarily indict him fully.

But I must tell you that when a guy tells me in 20 years, I have never had a player come up to me and say, don't take pictures. Like, what the hell are we talking about here? Like, what? Like, he's Sean Penn? Well, this is like, what? This is part of the deal with Kyrie is, you know, it's like Kevin Durrett said in the story. He says, Kyrie is like an artist. You have to leave him alone.

You know what he'll bring to the table every night because he cares so much about the game. And this is part of the deal with Kyrie. You deal with the mood swings. You deal with the weirdness when he tries to like establish his dominance in the relationship over you. this is this is what you deal with because you have a guy who three through three games is averaging over 37 points per game on insane levels of efficiency on a high volume who's passing the ball well rebounding the ball well for brooklyn and helping this team out that without their actual best player it's keeping them in games you know granted they lost that game to memphis they're one and

two right now as of our conversation tuesday morning but kairie's having an unbelievable start to the season on the offensive end, and this is what you deal with. So for Brooklyn, their culture's never going to be the same from what it was the past two seasons. When I wrote a big feature story on them during the 17-18 season, the culture there was great. Like, the team wasn't good at all, but they were competitive at least. The system that Kenny Atkinson was installing with their young route there was really encouraging moving forward, which manifested last season. And the guys that year when I was in Brooklyn, loved Kenny. They loved the front office. They loved what they were building last season from what I understand, talking to sources around the league, talking to people

with the team, talking to players, is they had something special last year in that locker room, just the buy-in and the belief in each other. That changes when you add superstar players, but it changes for the better in the sense that now you're competing for championships, but that locker room's never going to be the same. But that's the trade that you make. You're trading the good culture you had for you hope when Katie comes back an actual chance and not just competing for one championship, but maybe multiple if Katie's back to

be in the same old Katie. So you deal with this. Like you deal with these stories being written and you have to just battle through it. I know it's three games, but like you got this is what you deal with man. You get a battle through it. It's a deal with the devil is what it is. I mean, look well and it's not like

it's out of nowhere. In Cleveland there were the stories in that last finals run. He did not talk to anybody for a month. And then, you know, there were stories last year in Boston about him just shutting down and not talking to anybody. And it's like, okay, the last two teams he's been on, he has shut down to the point where he's not even talking to anybody else on the team. But good grief. And I thought, I thought there would be a honeymoon longer than three games, like even me. I thought it was not going to work out, but three games.

I think for, I think there will be stories like this always with Kyrie. The important thing is that it doesn't become something that's totally destructive. like it became in Boston. But there was a honeymoon in Boston, Kav. Yeah, the first year was a honeymoon, but also we didn't hear anything that year. He still, you know, he still has moments, but it didn't become a point that we were hearing about it.

With this, I mean, Jackie McMullen is one of the absolute best reporters ever in sports. And with her, like, she clearly was pursuing this story, but like, so what's changing in Brooklyn from a team, like I just said, had incredible culture in recent years to now adding a guy that just destroyed a team culturally in Boston and obviously had his issues with Cleveland as well. Like you just said, the story, you know, writes itself and she wonderfully investigated it. And, you know, it's just about moving forward now how often this

happens, how serious it is, and whether it's something that is worth it for them. And I think in the end, it will be once Kevin Durant returns. Well, about that game on Sunday, I have had Boston fans reaching out to me saying, I couldn't love this more. Kyrie Irving gets blocked at the end of the game. That John Moran Block was so freaking awesome. And Jay Crowder hits the game winner. You know what I mean? They have no will feelings towards Jay Crowder.

So, right? Like, it was, it was kind of perfect for a Celtics fan if they were tuned in on Sunday. All right. We now have a growing sample size. Are you enjoying Jay Crowder so far? How's your Jay Crowder experience? It's a roller coaster. Let me tell you something about Crowder.

Crowder is an unbelievable vet to have on a young team because he is not resentful. He does not wish he were somewhere else. He looks at that role and cherishes that role as I'm an open book. I've gone through a lot of things on the business side and the basketball side in my career. and I want to be a leader slash open book for these guys to help them with their careers because they have really great young talent. And he and another guy who I'll give a shout to, Solomon Hill, they're great veteran guys to have around. Sometimes you can have the veteran guys that are the resentful ones, the ones that aren't getting to play, the ones that don't really care and not setting a good example and just kind of playing at the end out the edge. the end of their career, etc.

Any good examples? Oh, well, Sunday is perfect. He had zero, Kevin, in the entire game. He had zero through four quarters. And he had a three in overtime to tie it, and he had the game winner, which is a three. And there is no greater example than the guy that is, it is not his night.

It is not going his way. And yet he defends every single possession. He fights for every single rebound. And he keeps playing hard. all the way to the end. At the very least, you know you left it all out there, right? And that is an unbelievable example to set for young guys. Because when you've got a guy that's a veteran guy that is giving it everything he has and he does not get discouraged when things aren't going his way or the game starts to get away, he just keeps playing hard all the way to the buzzer,

then you get people follow you. And young players follow you. and they feed off of that. And you know what I mean? He's not the, he's not the resentful type. So, I mean, look, he's going to have good games. He's going to have bad games. I meant the resentful types.

Oh, for sure. For sure. I mean, look, years ago, I told you, I thought about this the other night when it was, when it was, uh, who was it? Um, Dremont, right? And he did the whole we eff and suck, blah, blah, blah. And I told you that story from years ago.

One of the first teams I ever covered was Jason Williams never spoke to the media, ever. He would go and hide in the trainer's room until everybody left. And he finally came out, and the media relations girl at the time, Stacy, she says, Jason's going to talk tonight. And he walked out and everybody put their microphones in his face. And he says, we suck. We suck. We're the worst team in the league.

Right it. And then he walked off. And Nick Anderson, Nick Anderson. Nick Anderson, who was on the team, who had been traded with him from Sacramento, starts yelling, I could have told you what you was getting. I told y'all.

You know what I mean? Like, so, look, that's not the great example you wanted for the young guys on that team. The young guys on that team were Pau Gasol and Shane Badiye. Right? And I guess Pau Gassol and Shane Badiere turned out okay.

They turned out just fine. But again, when that's like, when that's who you're like looking to, Yeah. It's not the greatest, right? Anyways, we have five observations each from this early season. I am going to take a guess and I am going to say we will, my prediction on this, we will not overlap at all.

I'm predicting we got an overlap. I just have a fairly. All right. I'm putting the over under at one and a half. I'm taking the under. I'm taking the under. I mean, I'm picking one. I think we'll have one.

All right. Well, maybe if you copy me. All right. Number one. Number one on my list. Alvin Gentry better watch out. Okay. Yep.

Okay. They're 0 and 4. And here's the thing. If things don't go well for your team, GMs and people in charge are now either going to blame the coach or they are going to going to blame the roster. And your boss is never going to blame the roster because that is what he is responsible for. And so when the owner says, why the hell aren't we winning, says, well, the reason we're not winning, these guys, we got a good enough team to win.

We're not winning because of the guy on the sideline. And he already wasn't the choice. He was a holdover. So how many times have we covered this in the past? Whenever you get new management, they will inevitably want their guy. So he's not the choice of the management there. And they're starting off 0 and 4. And, you know, he was very discouraged last night in their postgame press conference.

They sold a boatload of tickets. They are on national TV 30 times. And I'm just saying keep an eye on this. Because typically, if it's the management's choice, then the management will go to bat to the owner and the powers of B and the fans and say, hey, this is my guy and I believe in him and stick with him. I think it's a little unfair to say that it wasn't management's choice though, because David Griffin was hired a general manager and he made the choice to keep Alvin Gentry.

You know what I mean? You know, it's not that it. Well, but Simon Jerry made the choice to keep Dwaynkees too. Sure. You know what I'm saying? For years. Yeah, right. I mean, there's always choice.

choices that you make to decide whether or not you just want to clear house the year before from the previous guy. And Alvincentry has clearly been a head coach in the NBA for many years. But it's not, it was his choice in that he was already there. And I don't know what his contract is. I'm just saying, look, this team is not going to be trying to lose a million games. And to start off 0 and 4 at the beginning of the same. season is not a great look, especially when you have sold a lot of tickets for people to be in

that arena and you have got a lot of national television games. And so I'm just saying, keep an eye on it. They start off one in nine. It's not going to make it. Here's the thing, though. Drew Holliday has played two games, man. I understand. He's their best player.

Zion Williams and has played zero games. Derek Favors has missed one game. I didn't say now. I said if they start off 1 and 9, if they start off 2 and 13. I don't know. I don't think so. I would be surprised if David Griffin were to make a change at head coach that early in the season when Holiday has not played or he'll just be returning at some point soon. And Zion hasn't played.

It seemed very premature for what is, by the way, a very young team. I understood. It's on us, perhaps, for setting expectations too high for a team with five. rookie four or five rookies and a bunch of other young guys in their second and third seasons to actually perform in a high level defensively i mean they're they're getting bucket still offensively right now and what we saw from zionn williamson and in preseason i thought i wrote about this in my season preview a series on the ringer i thought the way gentry was utilizing zion was pretty awesome to watch for us as fans but also he was doing it in creative ways

systematically getting Zion, getting getting him going downhill. It was fun to, it was good to see him utilizing Zion from the perimeter, not as a shooter, but as like a downhill player off handoffs and screens. And it's hard to judge this team until they're actually healthy

when right now they're still potent offensively. Ingram has done really, really well. And with Drew Holiday, he is your, you know, best defensive player. one of the best defensive guards in the league and a very good offensive player too. So I'm not, I'm not ready to jump on the same. I'm just saying keep an eye on it. I'm just saying keep an eye on it.

That's it. You should keep an eye on it, for sure. But I'm not about to overreact too early. I didn't overreact. I said, I know, I know. I mean, look, when the headline today is Gentry raises red flag after Pelicans dropped to O and 4, that's not great. I know.

I mean, that will, lead you to think that something is awry. Even though Brandon Ingram has started off like a house of fire. We do need to mention that. He's been so great. Yep. All right. You're first. Let's go with Trey Young. Trey Young. Everybody's talked about Trey Young so far this season. Rightfully so, averaging 34 points and nine assists.

And his shooting numbers are unsustainable. He's shooting 50% on dribble, jump, or threes, 57% on catch-and-shoot threes. that's not going to sustain, but from what we've seen from Trey, so far this season is simply just a higher level of what we saw last year, which was a guy who is already a pretty spectacular playmaker with the shots that he can create on the floor for his teammates. And so for so long, he's been compared to Stefan Kari, and that's partially because of what he did at Oklahoma as a freshman when he just got off to that just ferocious tear at the start of the season. but for a while now, the best comp for him really is Steve Nash because of his size and combined with playmaking ability. But we have seen so far this year the signs of what people did envision for him in that curry mold. He's never been a great shooter in terms of percentages, but he's always had incredible touch on layups and floaters. He's always been great from the free throw line.

And maybe this is the season, you know, adding some muscle to his frame, getting stronger. maybe he's going to find more consistency from three. And that's going to ultimately determine the heights this Hawks team reaches, not the season, but in the future as well. But for Atlanta now, it's been really, really fun to watch them through three games of Triang, just elevating that entire squad. Yeah, and their only loss being that two-point loss to the Sixers last night, which is a very, very close game.

And also on that particular team, it's worth mentioning nice game for DeAndre Hunter, who looked very comfortable, ends up 14 and 9. He had the best plus minus on the team. I'm aware that single game plus minus is not the end-all be-all. But I do think it speaks to sometimes. What I'm saying is sometimes it lines up, right? And you sense that, hey, they've been playing really well with this guy on the court and this guy's been really good.

And he looked like he belongs, right? It wasn't like, sometimes you can watch a game and you can point out that's the rookie, right? That is not the case with Hunter. And part of that's a veteran guy coming into who's got a lot of games under his belt in college. Big games too coming into the NBA is clearly going to be more equipped and well prepared for the next level. But Trey Young, who last week, it was on my overreactions that he would be an all-star. that is no longer an overreaction. He's going to make the All-Star team this year, Kevin.

He is. Because this is going to be like an every-night thing. Like, he's not going to have the, you know, the stretch where he's just scoring eight and 10 and whatever. I mean, he's going to be their leading shot taker by a wide margin. He took twice as many shots as anybody on the team last night. The scoring numbers will drop. They will drop.

But because it's only going to happen with the shooting numbers he's putting him. He's not going to shoot 52% from three. But I think the assist numbers could stay constant or even go up. It would not surprise me. Observation number two. I'm going to go with my next two teams that if I could redo it with season preview stuff, I would redo it. And I don't feel like it's an overreaction at all.

The first one, I'll do the negative one. Indiana. So they are 0 and 3 and they've got two losses to the Pistons and one to the Cav. you look at and I clearly when they get Oladipo back they're going to be a different team

but when you look at what they have done through the three games so far and I get that it's easy to overreact when a team is playing together for the first time etc etc.

But I think there is a flaw here in that when you look up and down you've got Brogdon Sabonis I'm going down there leading scores through three games Brogdon Sabonis Miles Turner

T.J. Warren, Jeremy Lamb, right? That's five. The next guy, Edmund Sumner. Edmund Sumner. You're not an Edmund Sumner fan? Last year, this team had

Bogdanovich, Thaddeus Young, Corey Joseph, Darren Collison, West Matthews, Tyreek Evans. Every single one of them, with the exception of Joseph, who is still a real professional basketball player, was a double-digit scorer. Bogdanovich, Thaddeus Young, Corey Joseph, Darren Collison, West Matthews, Tyreek Evans.

I underestimated what they lost. I underestimated what they lost last year. And if I could redo this, I think that this team is going to be not nearly as good as what I just penciled them in for. Do you think Indiana's struggles, in addition to Sacramento's early season struggles, who we talked about last Thursday, could that have anything at all? And if so, how much to do with those teams

making the trip to India? That's a tough trip. And then you come back and play professional basketball. We have seen that affect teams in the past, but I think it's more that your six leading scorer

is Edmund Sumner. You really, really love Edmund Summner, don't you? I don't know who the hell that is. He was a two-year point guard two-year point card out of Xavier in the 2017 draft.

He was the 50 second pick. He's had his injury history is one of the reasons why he was, you know, he was a borderline draftable guy. Never mind the fact that he was like a iffy shooter, if he dissiming the mayor. He'll put it this way. Like he's a great athlete

who can create space off the dribble. And listen, I'm not trying to be smirch him too badly, but I will tell you this. When I talk about all the time, how many guys do you have this suck? how many guys do you play that suck. Try a true method.

That team was deep as hell. I just named off what six double digit scorers that were on the team last year that are gone. And it's replaced by, again. Sumner, T.J. McConnell. T.J. Leif getting consistent minutes off the bench. Can we get serious? I mean, can we get serious? Leif McCannel and Sumner sounds like a law firm.

Not an NBA bench. Brogden could be like the leader of that. He's got a good name. Brogden, but he's actually a good player. If you've had an injury, call Leaf Sumner and what is it, Leaf McConnell and Sumner. It's a law firm, not an NBA bench. That out of here.

With Indiana, though, Nogginn's been pretty good. I just wanted to say that. As somebody who This whole summer has been saying This is going to be an underrated loss for the Milwaukee Bucks And an underrated addition for the Indiana Pacers It's only been three games, whatever

But dude's averaging 22 and 11 He's really good It's like his efficiency is taking a dip Because he's taking more shots off the dribble But that guy can play, man And this is why with Indiana I'm with you, Chris, that I underrated the losses too

And I think I also underrated, we don't know when Victor Olivo's coming back. We still don't know. And that's a big factor. And we don't know what he's going to look like when he gets back. But in theory, a Brogden Oledebo back court could be really, really good, man. And then you have turners to bonus. And if those guys can figure out how to play with each other or if Indiana is able to

flip one of them to get maybe a wing or a forward or, you know, a guy that allows you to play with one big on the floor more often, they could still be a good. good team by March and April. And that by being enough for them to sneak into the postseason. And whether they're a team that's good enough at that point, I don't know. But I think they're going to be able to at least stick around in the playoff bubble in the east. And maybe a little people comes back and gives them a boost. Maybe they make a trade.

I think that's why with an Ian, I wouldn't give up on them yet. But I'm with you that I certainly underrated the losses that they had. All right. What's your number two? Let's go with Point Kauai Leonard. Oh, early this season, Kawhi Leonard. Well, let me just say this. I think Kauai, for years now, he's been close to perfect as a player.

He's been an elite defensive player. He turned into an elite offensive scorer. And passing was always considered a weakness. It's not that it was a weakness necessarily. It's just that it wasn't at the same level of his other strengths. I mean, he was breeded in the Spurs, you know, beautiful offense, which demanded its players make decisions in, like 0.5 seconds.

And he did that and he was successful on doing that. And then in Toronto last year, he made strides as a pass or handling the ball as a primary more often. But this year with the spurt, this year with the clippers, sorry Spurs fans, sorry, Shayserrano.

Oh, wow. This year with the clippers, man, he has taken it to a way, way higher level as a a passer, man. Just the things he's doing on the floor, the advanced reads that he's making, manipulating defenders with head movements, manipulating defenders by, you know, changing pace, but not only that, delivering the ball with, from what I can tell, better precision in

velocity from tough angles. There's been a couple of occasions where he's been dribbling towards the basket. And the play that comes to mind that I have in my article going up on Wednesday, is he looks off Dremont Green in a situation where he has two options on the floor. Montres, Harold, for a dunk, or in the corner is Patrick Beverly for three. He looks off Dremont towards the corner for the Beverly three, and then just simply wraps a pass around Harold's defender and gives him an easy dunk. And that's the type of stuff that in the past, Kaua didn't always make that read, or sometimes it looked clunky for him,

but now it's looking very smooth and natural for him. And that's a trait that the best playmakers have. They make the tough stuff look super easy. And right now, passing the ball looks easy for Kauai Leonard, averaging 27 points, 7.5 assists, 6.5 rebounds. You picked him as your MVP before the season, Chris. And through four games, he could be the guy. He is playing the best of his career, again, through three games,

51% from the field, eight assists, high assist percentage. His P.E.R is like almost 34 and his usage is like 39%. It's outrageous. Now that John Hollinger is in media, I'm curious that does Hollinger use PER

still? Well, of course. I'm going to look at it. It's his thing. It's his baby. I know. I'm just curious. You know what I mean? All right. My number three. So I said that Indiana is the team that I would redo if I got the opportunity.

the other team, we and this team has been consistently slept on. The team that was slept on the most, you know, Utah fell into this category where everybody was talking about how that's the team people aren't talking about. But the team people actually weren't talking about is the Nuggets. Oh, yeah. The Nuggets were slept on because what we know, and they're always like, oh, yeah, the Nuggets. and they're good, and then everybody goes on to the next subject. Let me spend a little minute on them.

Number one, you knew they would be able to get off to a fast start because they know who they are. They know exactly how they want to play. They know who to go to down the stretch. And it's in a league that is ever changing, and people are trying to play with new players, and all kinds of guys are wanting to move to new teams and signing elsewhere in free agency.

They are a team that brings their guys back and their units. back. They're not trying to meld in something big either in the starting unit or off the bench. They are who they are. And they were great last season. And they have started off the season three and oh. They know what they want to do. They are going to start this season strong as we know. And they took their lumps as the young team in the playoffs last year. They took their lumps. And that's what growing is. Every team takes their lumps before they, breakthrough and through the history of the NBA. That being said, home court advantage is a big deal

for them, right? So if they can have this great record like they did last year, they've gotten the playoff experience for the first time. Them getting to host big games on their home court is a greater advantage for them than it is for many of their peers. And I, the other thing that I want to mention is, you know, they've had a couple of games that go down to the very end. That game that they played last night went down to the end. Um, the game that they played against the suns over the weekend on Sunday night. I got to see it. Went down to the end. Portland. Portland is close too. Only eight point win. So all three have been. But, but here is and, and, and that is when the continuity is such an incredible advantage. And let me tell you

another thing that's a sneaky little great advantage for them that people may not notice. So, So so many of these games at the end of the game, it's a nip-tuck game or it's a one or two possession game, and it comes down to going to the free throw line and knocking them down. Even in fact, that Brooklyn Grizzlies game that we mentioned earlier, the only reason they were able to hit a game-winning three is because Dinwiddie missed a free throw at the end of the game that would have put them up three. So at that point, Jay Crowder's three only ties the game. But I say that to tell you, this is happening every night where guys get fouled and then they go

to the line and you've got to make free throws to seal the deal. There is nobody to foul on that team. And this is my little sneaky. I'm going to mention this. This is last year's numbers, okay? From the free throw line, Yokic, 82%, Murray, 85%, Harris, 80%, Millsap, who's usually not on the court in Crunchtime, but he's still 73%. Barton, 77%.

Malik Beasley, 85%. And it sounds like a small thing, but it is a huge thing when you get to the end of these games and you've got to knock down free throws. Everybody on their team is an extremely good free throw shooter. And by the way, all six of those guys I just mentioned are averaging double digits and Paul Millsaps averaging 9.3. They almost have seven guys averaging double digits so far this year. And yes, it is a small sample so far, but what they have done so far is not anything that you look at and say, well, that's not sustainable. Like they are who they are. And I do think that they're the team that everybody just, you know, kind of brushes past talking about them and like, yeah, everybody knows they're good. Now let's go to the next team and talk. They're the team that actually got slept on. The jazz were the one that everybody said, you know who everybody's sleeping on.

but the team that actually got slept on is the Nuggets. That's a good take. I like that take. By the way, Michael Porter, Jr. hadn't even played yet. And he's really the swing player on that team. Michael Porter, Jr., I mean, because I think their second unit has had some spacing issues, as good as Jeremy Grant is. There's been situations where teams are just sagging off him. He's a guy who can, his shot three is pretty well in recent years.

But it seems like he's the guy that teams are like, okay, who are daring you to shoot. But ultimately, I think with this team, if Michael Porter Jr. is able to, you know, at some point replace maybe Tori Craig in the rotation, you have another 610 guy who can handle the ball and shoot from the perimeter at a high level. In addition to everything else you have on this roster,

I mean, so far this season, I think Gary Harris has been pretty terrific on the defensive end of the floor. He gave Buddy Healed some trouble in last night's game. Impressive to see him doing that after he had some good possessions against Devin Booker against Phoenix. You have weapons here, but beyond Yokic, who is just obviously just an exquisite passer, a good rebounder and can get buckets for you when he needs to. This team has the ability to play different styles, and they have typical, they have the ingredients that you look for in a championship formula with some top high-level perimeter defenders and, you know, big, versatile defenders.

And then Yokic, who is, you know, unique in this league. And it ties into what we were talking about with the Pacers last year. you know, and all those guys that we mentioned that were like double-digit scores. Because to juxtapose it versus when we were talking about Trey Young, if Trey Young has a two for 15 night and score six points, it's almost impossible for the Hawks to win. Whereas anybody can have that night when you've got a bunch of good players because you've got a ton of guys that can pick you up on any given night.

and there's something to be said about having, you know, they've got an abundance of talent there and a bunch of guys that any given night, if they showed up for 25, any of those guys, Yokic, Murray, Harris, Millsap, Barton Beasley. If any of them, if it scrolled across the bottom line, name it, Will Barton has 25? Like, it doesn't even, you wouldn't be like, wow, you know? Any of them could do that.

And, yeah, that Nuggets team. I'd change my thoughts. And I certainly would talk about them more if I was given the opportunity. But I'm taking the opportunity now. What's your number three? Let's talk about Steve Kerr and the Warriors. Obviously, they got off to a very poor start. One and two on the season so far.

Steve Kerr said something very, very, very interesting before yesterday's game. He was questioned about how they don't run a lot of pick and roll for Stefan Curry. And, you know, in a nutshell, Kerr said he doesn't think it's that simple to just run more on-ball screens. He says it's not like Houston, you know, with James Hardin being, you know, being much bigger than Steph, maybe can handle more of a load, that Houston built their offense to have that type of situation. with shooters on the floor around him or is it's Steph. He's, you know, it's figuring out ways to, to do it with what they have.

And, you know, my thing with Steve Kerr's statement is like, first of all, Houston has some shooters, but they don't have like JJ Rack level guys. They didn't, they don't add these knockdown shooters. They have, you know, PJ Tucker and Eric Gordon guys who are good shooters, solid shooters, but not necessarily true knockdown guys. And with Golden State, okay, so sure, maybe pick and roll isn't the best choice. You're telling me, like, the motion offense with, you know, Glenn Robinson, you know, swinging the ball to Eric Paskell is making defense sweat.

I mean, I mean, I mean, come on, Steve. Like, I really don't understand here. I think he made one point that he didn't make that I agree was that they don't necessarily have, like, the prototypical, you know, rim running. center and, you know, Willie Colley Stein being out right now, and that's very true. But, like, Streamline Green screening for Stefan Curry has been immensely successful with some pretty average shooters on the floor in the past, you know, whether it is Andreogadala, whether it is Sean Livingston, like Clay's not always on the floor when they've had success

with that lineup. And that's what Steve Kerr did yesterday. To his credit in yesterday's game against the Pelicans, they'd started Dreamlong Green at the five. and their offense looked tremendously better, better spacing on the floor, more room for cutting, the passing looked crisper out there,

and they are running slightly more pick and roll this season than they had in the past. The season, 28% of their possessions have been finished with the pick and roll, which is 24th most in the league, according to Synergy Sports.

Last year, it was only 18%, which ranked last. So they are running slightly more pick and roll. Still not enough, in my opinion, But with Kerr, this year, I mean, everybody's talking about like, what does this year mean for Steph's legacy? Nothing, in my opinion. But I think it does mean something for Steve Kerr because for so long, we've seen there's certain coaches, and this is true across sports, who elevate their personnel on the team, regardless of what they're given. So we can joke all we want about how Curry, Dremont, and D'Angelo Russell are surrounded by a bunch of G-League guys.

but it's on the coach to elevate these guys and maximize their potential. So the Warriors want to be the spurs. Is Steve Kerr going to be the coach who really makes this team, you know, these average guys into good players, or is he going to be the guy that this roster is what we look at it as? And he doesn't elevate them. And with him, I think we're seeing some experimentation early. They have just thrown out a bunch of lineups early on.

The most frequent lineup they've played has been for only 15 minutes, Chris. Only 15 minutes has been their most frequent lineup, which is the 50th most frequent lineup in the league, which is last behind a 29 other team. So he's throwing darts out here trying to figure out what works. And I'm going to be curious, does there come a point, you know, in early November, mid-November, where he does figure out what's working for this team,

whether it's more pick and roll, whether it's the right rotations, whether it's the right lineups, and then it starts surprising us. Or is it going to be a continued disappointment? Two things. Draymond was downright dominant last night, and he has the ability to be the best player in a game,

at control a game, which he did last night. The second thing is I was absolutely howling when Charles Barkley was talking about how bad they suck with Clay Thompson on the set. And Clay Thompson's like, Jordan Poole beat me in a shooting conference. contest. Like, come on. Like, come on. Come on. That's one other

thing I just want to touch on. With Golden State, it's going to be interesting to see how their young guys grow over the course of the season, because this is the first time in the long time that they've actually had the ability to play young guys through struggles and see if these guys get better. Because Omari Spilman, Eric Pascal, Jordan Poole, you know, Jacob Evans, Kaibowman, these are talented young players.

I mean, like, when people joke about this, team having a bunch of G-leaguers. I don't think that's necessarily true. In fact, I would say it's false. I think they have good young talent on this team. It's just about how they grow independently and how they grow together alongside

their star players and Steph Curry and Dremont Green and last year's All-Star and DeAngel Russell. This team has talent. And I don't think we should undersell that. We're going to part ways on this. I do not think they do. I don't think they do. Well, yes, they have young talent.

But it's like, I think past about past four guys, I couldn't care less about anybody on the team. I'm not kidding. Yes, they have young talent and young talent doesn't always lead to winning. Historically, it doesn't. I don't think it's talent.

My point. So you don't think that's just what we disagree. Or Spelman or Pool or are ever going to be NBA players. I just, none of them, if you line them up on a wall and say, you could pick somebody off of this team,

I mean, I could go around the league and I would pick a million players before I probably get to the guys you just named. Okay. I mean, we'll see. I mean, they're fine. They're fine. We'll see. But, I mean, are they, like, are they five-year career? Five-year-year guys?

I don't know. Ten? I don't know. Is there any of those guys that you would bank on having a 10-year career? I mean, I'm not, I'm not the biggest Jordan Poole fan personally. Okay. Just a 10-year career. I do like Omaris Spelman and Eric Pascal as young players.

You think they have 10-year careers? I think Pascal has a chance. I like him. But you're not willing to say he's going to have 10-year-year-player player, Villanova. There's like a Von Leigh-Milsap vibes in his game. Vonle. Or Millsap. Mil-Savs is a high-end.

God, if he could be the next Vonley, that would be unbelievable. I mean, you and me love Noah Vonne. Leave me out of this. All right, we've got to take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to give our last two of our observations early in the season. Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Roman. With two-thirds of guys experiencing noticeable hair loss by age 35, most guys assume losing their hair is inevitable as they age. Some don't care, some shave their heads, some embrace hats.

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My number four are, and this actually might would have been a better last week in overreactions, but it is an observation early this year, okay? I'm starting to wonder if the NBA is getting a lot better at the draft. For many years, you know that when it comes to the draft, I would say, look at the top five, look at the top 10. History tells us these guys are going to be bust. Some of them. You just got to pick out who's going to be the bust. You got to figure it out. And nobody ever says it in the, you know, in the current time, in the present. And then we look back and we say, oh, we should have known that that Anthony Bennett wasn't, you know, worthy of the number one pick or whatever it may be.

Right. There's always in the top five, usually, top 10, certainly teams, guys that don't end up even having careers. Sometimes guys don't make it to second contracts. Sometimes guys are on their third team within their first four years. And whether you're talking about the Hizonias of the world or the Thomas Robinson or Wesley Johnsons or I mean, I could go on and on and on. I look at these last two years, Kevin. And you have Luca Dajaj, DeAndre Aiton, Trey Young, Jaron Jackson, Wendell Carter, Marvin Bagley, Mo Bamba, Colin Sexton, Kevin Knox, McKell Bridges. There are none of those 10

that I feel confident right now would say, oh, that guy's going to be a bust. And we've seen him play for a year. This year, Zion, John Morant, R.J. Barrett, DeAndre,

Hunter, Darius Garland, Jared Colver, Kobe White, Jackson Hayes, Rui Hotramura, Cam Reddish. There's not any, I mean, that's 20 guys from the last two drafts. And I think typically with a lot of drafts, you could go back after one year.

You could certainly go back after two years and you could say, damn, if they could do that over. And there will inevitably be teams that wish they could do it over and there will be better players that were drafted later. But in terms of this guy's just not even going to have a career or this guy's just an enormous bust, I'm looking at the top 10 picks of the last two years, and I wouldn't put a lot of money on any of these guys being a bust. So it stands out to me that maybe we are getting a lot better at the draft in the NBA. What do you think? Possible.

I mean, it's interesting. Is it that young players are coming out better, more mature, you know, better trained, or is it that, you know, teams are just getting smarter with how they're rankings and selecting players? I would lean towards more the former that we, we just have a wave of immense talent entering the league. I think right now, basketball is full of talent more than I can ever remember in my lifetime. I mean,

I'm, you're older than me, Chris, you've seen more basketball than I have over the years, as have of, I'm sure some listeners, but I can't remember a time where there's been such deep, a deep pool of talent in terms of reliable role players.

I mean, I remember, like in the 2000s, they seemed like there was always, garbage guys, you know, playing regular minutes off of every bench in the league. And now you look across the league, it's really only the bad teams you can say that about, or the iffy teams. Like you mentioned Edmund Sumner earlier.

I think there's just a lot of depth of talent and the top, the top end talent too. In today's league, with the rules, with the style of play with shooting, we see big men playing on the perimeter like Carl Anthony Towns. We talked about him last Thursday. He's playing like James Harden taking stepback jumpers, isolating from the perimeter, taking the ball up the floor. We have all these young guys like Trey Young and Luca Donchich and Gildjus Alexander and John Morantz, all these young perimeter players who were just shining in today's style of play.

I think it's a lot of factors that go into it. But really, I would just say more than anything else. It's just a wave of talent that has just coming to the league in the last, you know, four or five years. Okay, so I have a working thesis on this, but it is something, maybe this is an homage to the, in some ways, the half-baked ideas with Bill Simmons and Kevin Wilde that they have done. It's not necessarily an idea, but it is something that I've been thinking about. That part of the reason is because, A, we are getting young players on the court earlier, therefore developing them earlier. Beyond that, they are more talented, as you mentioned. the style of play enables them.

You can't just throw a rookie around or put your hands on him and intimidate him, etc. like you used to be able to. But beyond that, it is the positionless basketball and the whole, is he a two, is he a three,

is he a four? That almost, I don't want to say it's totally obsolete because there's still people that talk that way, but it is somewhat obsolete. And teams I covered 15 years ago. Like, let's say, I'll give you a perfect example, Draymond Green, right? So Draymond Green came in for a workout and it was, well, he's too small to be a four,

but he's not really a three, you know, he's not quick enough to be a three. And everybody had to fall into one, two, three, four, five. That's what you were. Otherwise, you were a tweener and a tweener was the worst thing you could be. And now a tweener is the best thing you can be because people look at it positively. What they say is, well, he's too quick for fours and he's too strong for threes. Like we look at that, it's totally flipped, right? Whereas that used to be viewed as a big negative that is now, in many cases, viewed as a positive.

And so what could keep guys from getting on the court was saying they don't really have a position. And now that nobody gives a crap about positions, everybody can get on the court. What do you think? Sure. Like I said, I think it's a lot of factors. And I don't necessarily think teams have gotten better at drafting. I don't have any numbers behind that. Well, I'm doing this. I'm putting this together for the Sloan conference.

This is my Sloan conference paper. You can't just say there's a lot of factors because Darryl is going to give me an F. It is a lot of factors. It's not just one thing. It's like you can look at the 2017 draft and be like, okay, Donovan Mitchell went behind Malik Monk, behind Dennis Smith Jr., behind Frank Milakina behind Markle Fultz who went number one. You can look at a lot of years still recently. I said the last two. I know, but I'm going to three.

No. That's when it doesn't support my argument. That's fair. Let's act like that didn't have it. I said the last two years we've gotten better. Let's talk about a guy from the last two years for my fourth one. Actually, I got two for the last two, but this one, Shea Gildes-Alexander on the Oklahoma City Thunder.

The real observation is that, like, before the season started, people were like, you know, Chris Paul's going to take touches from Shea and going to hurt his development. True. CP3 is taking touches from Shegildas-A-Lex-Legh, but I think overall, from what I've seen in four games plus pre-season, I think CP3 could be good for Shea-Gildas-A-Lexam. it's a bad thing in today's league to have Gildes-Alexander grow in an offense with multiple

ball handlers. And they have their lineup sometimes where it's CP3 and Schroeder and Gildes-Alexander. And he's performed incredibly well, averaging 24 points this season with seven rebounds and three assists. Maybe you would love to see more playmaking chances for him. But I think it's good to see him developing his scoring, whether it's, you know, off the catch. It's, you know, tacking closeouts or whether it is chances in pick and roll where he just shows off just such advanced feel from manipulating defenders by changing pace and you know there's situations man where he like looks like he pauses midair and he waits for a defender to continue moving and then either lays the ball up or then passes the ball to a rolling you know stephen adams and

I love watching that guy play and I think Chris Paul as a a mentor for him in the pick and roll is really, really going to be good for him for as long as they're together. They're different players. Chris Paul is obviously much smaller, but I think stylistically, there's some similarities in how they manipulate defenders. And I would imagine CP3 is going to be a good overall player in film session and in terms of relationship for him.

And then on the court, I think it's a good thing for him to be getting experience on and off the ball. So I'm happy with how he's performed so far And I think it's going to continue to be a good thing There you go I also love How his name wraps completely around his jersey Like almost all the way down to his shorts

It looks unbelievable It's so damn cool man It's like if you're if you're a little kid Like who's a Thunder fan That's probably a jersey you want right A hundred percent You have to get a Gilder's Alexander jersey I love it

I love the way it looks on the bag of the jersey All right my number five is kind of goofy because I was serious in the first four. And that is, and we are not going to overlap because I promise you don't have this. You mentioned Kauai Leonard, and you were giving him his proper as about assist earlier. I am mentioning Kauai Leonard,

the Hollywood star. So he has been relatively obscure, certainly, especially for how good he is, in his time in San Antonio, and then in Toronto. And so now he is in this entertainment mechrist. and that Terminator commercial, there's nothing more likable than being able to be self-deprecating.

And when it ends and his eyes glow up in the Terminator commercial and they play his laugh, I really, like I actually laughed. Interestingly enough, he was more entertaining than Paul George. Paul George is a disaster in that commercial. He was horrific. What is it wrong with him? Like, how many takes did it take to get that? It's such a simple couple lines.

Was that one take? I mean, because that was, that was embarrassing. He was really just praying himself too. It's like, PG, just be you, man. The more Kauai Leonard in commercials, the more Kauai Leonard I get to see of the better. And nothing takes the cake like his quote last night. So Darius Bazely had taken the mic the other night before the game

and did the, hey, hey, hey, right? He had imitated Kauai. and so, of course, somebody went to Kauai and they said, what do you think about, you know, this guy imitating you? And this was his response. People love me, I guess,

and they like the things I say. People love me, I guess, and they like the things that I say. Everything this guy does becomes quotable, whether it's a laugh, whether it's him grabbing, the microphone trying to talk to fans while he's getting booed before the game. I mean, anything.

What is the, what's the, what it do, baby? He's trying to get a trademark for that. You saw that, right? He's instantly quotable. LeBron's probably already got it. It's instantly quotable. So I want more of Kauai Leonard. I want him more in commercials because I find the whole thing just absolutely hysterical.

And the fact that he has the self. self-awareness of how he is. You know, and that's why, you know, with that commercial, it's perfect with the whole Terminator thing. Yet he's able to be self-deprecating with knowing that the hey, hey, hey, and the what-it-do baby and the laugh is funny. The more I get of him, the more I do like him. And so here's hoping that his existence in L.A.

leads to even more of this because I chuckle every time. That would make me happy. I'd love that. All right. What's your fifth? My fifth, so we did have no overlap. You win. Yes.

As usual. My fifth one is, I just wanted to say I have a growing, a continuing growing basketball crush on Bamatabio. It has been a pleasure to watch this guy play defense. In all three games this season, he's been just absolutely terrific. He was pretty good against Jaron Jackson and they're open. had good moments against Janus and game two. They're just an incredible overtime win over Milwaukee. And then on Sunday,

Sunday he gave some trouble to Carl Anthony Towns who was just ripping defenses apart so far this season. With Bam, man, like, this dude can defend. He is such a high intensity defender against larger players who uses his strength to push them off their spots, to bother them and uses his, you know, quick leaping ability to alter,

or block their shots. And not only that, he has the ability to switch onto smaller players and defend them in a high level as well. And, you know, the moment that comes to mind, if you know, if you're picking one moment from Bam so far the season, it was in that overtime win against the bucks, Drogrich misses the free throw that would have, you know, nearly iced the game with 20 seconds left.

And Eric Bledsoe, you know, sprinting up the floor against a pretty open lane, you know, a chance to lay the ball up and Bam just perfectly timed a block from behind, you know, LeBron style pinning the ball against the backboard. Miami got possession and ended up winning the game. It was a game-saving play by Bam with that block. But watching this guy play defense, he's one of the reasons Miami's off to a good start.

And I think for him, he needs more credit league-wide as one of the premier defenders in basketball. How about Kendrick Nunn, too? Oh, my goodness, man. Holy macro. They are so good at developing talent. Seriously. In Miami.

Yeah, too. I mean, you want to talk about teams and know how to draft or fine players. Kendrick Nunn signing him from, you know, played last season

as an undrafted rookie played with the Santa Cruz Warriors all year. The Warriors G. League affiliate. He's been unreal, man. What he's doing, like the shooting numbers

may not be sustainable necessarily, but no doubt this guy is going to continue to be a contributor in the NBA with his microwave scoring ability.

Let me tell the other one on Miami, which is he will be heard from. Have you seen this Chris Silva, the rookie from South Carolina? Oh, my God. He got whipped by towns, but yeah. Yeah, but he was in the opener. I mean, this guy came in the game. It was like shot out of a cannon. He was just playing prison ball.

He's just grabbing every rebound, fouling people staring them down. I mean, I was like, good grief. And I was like, where did this guy play? Of course, I go look it up. I'm like, of course he played for Frank Martin at South Carolina. I mean, this guy, you want to talk about a guy you want in your foxhole. Give me him because he is rough and tumble now. I see that he came in that Minnesota game, 11 minutes, three rebounds, one assist,

two blocks, a steel, three fouls. Like, he's just, there's just something happening around him all the time. Well, I mean, Miami's got a lot of tough guys. I mean, Justice Winslow, who I've long loved as well. I bet Pat Riley loves this guy. This guy could have been on the 90s next for sure. And none too. Nunn's a tough little dude.

Yeah, Winslow, you know, none. They get a lot of good players in this team. Jimmy Butler, who, by the way, who has not played yet. That is going to be the team that you don't want to see in the playoffs. Trust me on that. Because when it gets more physical and they can be more physical, watch out. I picked them as the third best team in the Eastern Conference, and we'll see what happens over the course of the year,

but I'm loving their start. I think you're looking good, especially when we're knocking the Pacers down already as a team that they will certainly be ahead of. Last thing. Are you going to go see the John Morant show in person tonight? I believe so, yes. Oh, I'll be so disappointed.

I mean, I have to wrap up my article for tomorrow, and if that delays me, then no. but it's an NBA TV game. Lakers Grizzlies tonight. I will tell you, it's worth the price of admission. If you get a chance to go, go. Because he is something special. He's been awesome, man.

It's been so fun to watch him. That 30-point game he had. I still can't get over the block against Kyrie. Well, there was a play last night that actually I've been talking about this. You know, when you are the guy that people are going to give space to, and we have so many great players in the league that that's the case. LeBron, Janice, Ben Simmons has figured it out, Westbrook, right? And so it's like, okay, they're backed up off of me.

Now, what am I going to do? Within three games, John Morant figured out, okay, well, I'm going to use this distance as a runway to get a running start against you and you're dead. Like, there was a play from last night. Did you see the Westbrook one? He did this. They gave him like eight feet. Yeah, you're talking about the assist at the end of the game, right? And he chucks it to Tucker in the corner.

Oh, that was an incredible play. But that's what these great guys, there's so many guys that get that space, and that was the thing, I thought it would take longer. Morant figured that out by game three, which is if you're going to back off on me, I am too athletically gifted. You are going to be underneath the basket and I'm going to finish or I'm going to throw it out to somebody. He's got a chance. I mean, he doesn't even know what the hell he's doing yet, and he's special. And by the way, that, that, we didn't mention Westbrook at all during this pod, but I mean, we'll talk about Houston plenty over the course of the season. But that pass that he made at the end of that game, Oklahoma City, you know, down three with a minute left. And Russell Westbrook would, you know, gets the offensive rebound, backs out, you know, dribbles the clock a little bit, then just attacks. And it looked like a situation where how do you make that pass with that velocity hanging midair with such a lot? accuracy.

Oh, incredible. I mean, it clinched the game for Houston. It was such a remarkable play. And Westbrook, Westbrook this season in Houston's system, he's still, you know, not necessarily shooting great from the perimeter. But, like, he's been passing the heck out of that ball and getting to the rim. And, you know, overall has a higher true shooting percentage than he ever has before because of the ability to get to the rim.

It's been so fun. His quotes about having no friends on the court. I was like, oh, you don't say, you know, wow. Everybody thought you were a cheery, likable guy on the court. But I did like to quote, my only friend is Spalding. I like that. That's funny. Yeah.

I like my only friend of Spalding. Kevin, it is always a pleasure. I'll talk to you on Friday. Looking forward to it, Chris. Have a good one, everybody. Thanks to everybody for listening to another episode of The Mismatch. If you dig what you're hearing, go give us a rating and review on iTunes, five stars, five stars. It really helps.

And we will talk to you on Friday.