The Ringer NBA Show - The Nuggets Are Here to Stay | The Mismatch (Ep. 348)

Episode Date: December 4, 2018

The Denver Nuggets have proved themselves to be elite (1:07), the Oklahoma City Thunder’s stellar defense is leading their surge (9:51), the retooled Minnesota Timberwolves start to climb up (22:06), the New Orleans Pelicans’ struggles amplify in a loss to the rolling Los Angeles Clippers (32:50), and the Los Angeles Lakers finally begin to accelerate (44:11). Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Hey guys, the latest edition to the Ringer podcast network is winging it with Vince Carter, Kent, Baysmore, and Annie Finberg of the Atlanta Hawks. Vince and Kent are going off script to offer a behind-the-scenes look at what NBA players think and talk about when their minds aren't on the court, covering everything from sports, news, and pop culture. You can subscribe now on Apple, Spotify, or wherever you get your podcasts. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show The Mismatch. I'm Chris Vernon, and joining me as he does every Tuesday from The Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'clock. Kevin Obama, aka Kevin O. Concert, A.K.A. Kevin O. Conflict, A.K.A. Kevin O. Kavanaugh, A.k.a. Kevin O. Kavanaugh. That gets me going every Tuesday morning. How are you doing, Chris? Everything's good. So we had a big night last night in the NBA. We'll kind of use that to jump off a million topics that we want to try to get to today. First of which is Denver, Toronto, which we were excited about the matchup coming up. Knew this was happening with Toronto with their incredible record. They're 20 and 5, I think, going into 20 and 4, going into last night. And they're hosting Denver, who has been very good so far this season.

The game turned out to be great. Yokic ends up with a triple double. Kauai Leonard ties the game with six seconds left. And then an off-ball foul does the Toronto Raptors in at the very end of the game. Ibaka holding on to Yokic. So they got a free throw, and then they buried two more free throws after a foul. Lowry misses a three at the buzzer. I know you were watching it because I saw you tweet out the Yokic Pass, which was one of the best of the season for sure.

What was your biggest takeaways from Nuggett Raptors? Same as it's been all year, really, for Denver, Chris. This team's a really good team. They have a lot of different options on their team, even with Gary Harris going down nine minutes into his stint. They have a lot of depth on their team. Juan Harner and Gomez, someone last night who has stepped up here in their last season. Paul Millsaps and switching to the headband has been really, really good.

And Nicole Yokic, man, like Jamal Murray said after the game, there's nothing he can't do. But jump, that's it. Yokic does it all. It's Wancho, Hernan Gomez, Kevin. Yeah, sure. I still go by Juan with him. Wancho is better, though.

It's a cool name. I love Wancho. I was watching the Denver broadcast, and when they said, Wancho! I was like, oh, this is so good. Wancho is such a great name. it is a great name and Gary Harris

obviously went out after nine minutes last night and that's one of their big guys Beasley came in and was very good I thought for them yeah Malik Beasley I mean it's so funny watching Denver

they have a lot of guys in their team that I loved in the draft Yokic I liked a lot Hernan Gomez I loved Beasley I loved Jamal Mari one of their other other players

I didn't like that much which is you know interesting but besides that they have a lot of good talent on their team and just so happens to people I like them the draft. It's nice to see Malik Beasley having some solid games for them, as well as Monta

Morris. Last night, he was only 3 of 10, only one assist, but all year long, their bench has been rock solid. The starters have elevated their play. Even talked about this yesterday, Nicola Yokic, despite not shooting the ball well so far the season from 3, still making a significant impact on the offensive of the 4, because his playmaking is truly just outstanding, man. It is special to watch. and the rare bad Lowry game because Lowry would I mean he just couldn't he couldn't hit anything last night he ends up one for seven he ends up one for six from three he ends up with five points it's very uncommon to see Lowry have that kind of game I will tell you I saw Toronto in person last week and I was blown away I thought they were just fantastic and it's one of those games where I happened to see them and they just buried every three that they took and then you get a game like last night, and they can't. I mean, some of it is, a lot of these teams are playing this way, where they might have

anywhere from 30 to 50 three-point attempts in a game. And the nights you catch them and they're burying them, they are totally unstoppable. This was a lot of what we talked about with Houston last year. And he felt that way with Toronto last night. There was a segment of the game where it was just three after three after three, and they couldn't make any of them. So if they make those, they look amazing. And it's not like they're taking bad shots.

They look, though, if they make them, they look amazing. And if they don't, then they look beatable. But even then, I mean, they're 11 for 41. 11 for 41. And they lost by three points. Did you think that was a foul by Ibaka on Yokic? I was watching the Denver broadcast. You're never going to believe this.

They didn't replay it. I was watching the Denver feed on League Pass. And so they just said foul. And I was like, what do you do? They never replayed the foul. Seriously. I was like, I wouldn't replay it either. I just hate when games are decided like that.

I do. You know what I mean? You could say, oh, he held him. He held him. And so if you don't call it, you're letting a foul decide the game. But, I mean, they had let so much stuff go at the end of that game. And Nick Nurse did his damnedest to get kicked out of that game with about five, six minutes left. He was freaking out.

It was one of those hold me back moments at the referee. So he was so pissed off. And then even at the end of the game, they were just letting, they were letting a lot of physical stuff go. Yokic even got popped on one of his little runners. He hit in the lane. It was just, I don't know. I want to see those players decide that game.

And it's six seconds left. And you put them at the line, you give them the free throw. You know now Toronto's got a foul. I mean, that's how they got their last three points. And so I cannot speak to what happened. You know, it happened live. He called the foul, and then they never showed a replay on the Denver broadcast. Did you think it was a foul?

I didn't see it. I would put it like this. Like in the NFL offensive holding, like when the defensive end tries to turn the corner and the offensive lineman keeps his outside hand and the inside of the chest, but gives a little bit of a tug. Sometimes the referee throws the flag. sometimes he doesn't. I would say by NBA standards,

it was a foul because Yokic was trying to turn the corner from a screen being set by Jamal Murray, I believe. And he got held. He did get held. In the NFL, sometimes that doesn't get called. And the NBA, I thought it was enough to be fair to be called. I thought it was the right call. You can't let Yokic get the ball at that point.

So you understand Ebock being aggressive on the play, especially because like you said, Chris, they were allowing a lot of contact. And that's where contextually, it's unfortunate that it was called because they were allowing more contact. And we've seen a little bit more of that across the league, too, with defense being able to play a little bit more.

So that's disappointing. I hate seeing it called as well, but I think it was a call. That was right just within the context of the game. It was disappointing to see. But you can't let Yolk it to get the ball, man. He was outstanding last night, man. So Denver for sure continues to impress. And especially, listen, they're back to,

they started off so well defensively, and then the ranking started to go down. And now they're right back up. Their defense is now, I think, if I'm not mistaken, their defense as of this morning is back in the top five. And this was something that they said was their edict going into the season. We're continually pretty good. We've been right there on the cusp of being a playoff team. But our defensive ranks every year have been terrible.

And their coach, Mike Malone, said, you can't just keep doing the same thing over and over again. Like, this is what's going to happen to us if we're bad defensively. As of this morning, they are actually third in the NBA, which is rather impressive, considering they have been a bottom five defensive team for the last couple of years. Yeah, their defense is absolutely stepped up. That's the reason why they're winning more games, but watching the team, it's still about the offense. I mean, like, did you see that pass? Nicole and Yokic made off the dribble of Jamal Murray with a corner of three last night? Oh, my goodness, man.

Like, I was thinking last night, Chris, what are things? that I enjoy more than watching Nicola Yokic pass the basketball. And the list that I could come up with was something like burritos, chicken parmesan, soft serve ice cream, watching the movie Interstellar late at night, female lead vocalists like LeHavas, my favorite bands, Pink Floyd and Jimmy Hendrix. And the point is this, Chris. This is the point. When I meet someone and I find out they like any of those things, I get excited.

We have something in common, something that's important in me. And if I find out that someone likes Nicole Yokich passing the ball, I get excited. Yokic's playmaking is so fantastic. It is astounding. It's lovely. It is just so aesthetically pleasing and it's so effective. It just drives that Denver Nuggets team. He creates passes that so few players in league history can't.

He is one of the most talented passes ever. And for people who aren't watching the Denver Nuggets, I highly recommend checking them out just because Yokic is so outstanding and so fun to watch. He makes the league better. And he makes me happy. I love watching Yokic pass the ball. Can you please put that as your bio in your Tinder profile?

Got to read download it at first. Interstellar at night. Nicole Yokic passes. What were the other thing? Jimmy Hendrick. Female lead vocalists like LeHavis. You can find a perfect match. Soft serve ice cream, yeah.

We're talking about Denver's defense, but everybody's defense pales in comparison to what Oklahoma City has been doing. Oh, my. Oklahoma City is First in the NBA in defensive efficiency at 98.5, they are two points better, two points better than everybody else in the league, which is a massive margin. Boston is second at 100.9. And they went last night and played against the Detroit Pistons who have been a good early season story and absolutely mutilated them.

and were once again, surprisingly amazing defensively in last night's game. And so now you have this Oklahoma City team who started off a little bit slow, kind of stumbled out of the gate, but they have really honed in. And even despite the loss of Anthony Roberson, which frankly, every time his name comes up in the news, it's bad news, because it's now again being evaluated in six more weeks as he was injured in a workout. But the Roberson loss killed their defense last year.

It went from tops in the league or one of the tops in the league to 108.7 per 100 possessions, which was good for about 18th. So they moved from one of the best to one of the bottom 10 in the league last year without Roberson. It looked like maybe that would be felled them this year, but it has not. And they have honed in and become this amazing defensive team. What do you make of what we've seen from Oklahoma? Oklahoma City. Well, it's like you said, Chris. OKC, number one defense. They're not even close to anybody else. They're outliers this year. Shout out to Malcolm Gladwell, author of Outliers. And I don't think

I'm only saying this because last night's game happened against the Pistons in Detroit. But weren't there some like 04 Pistons vibes watching that Thunder defense just utterly dominate the game, right? I mean, Terrence Ferguson coming back, his effort is contagious, watching him run through screens closing on every jumper. Like, there's a lot of there's just one play. I think early in the third quarter, Andre Drummond got switched on to Jeremy Grant, and Grant is strong enough for Drummond.

He's one of their most versatile offenders, but Ferguson just flew out of nowhere, blocked the shot, and I thought it was one of those plays that symbolized their defense as a whole. They have versatility. They have guys who can defend multiple positions, but they also play with effort,

up and down the roster, whether it's the rookie, Hamadu Diallo, who's out right now, whether it's Russell Westbrook, their star player who is playing with more effort on defense, whether it's Stephen Adams, anchoring the defense.

Paul George, obviously the two-way superstar that he is, this team from top to bottom has plus defenders on it, and everybody is playing with effort. It's been remarkable watching this team on defense. They're going to need to sustain it

because their offense is average or below average so far, but their defense is special. Sam Presti has assembled a loaded, loaded defensive roster. And interestingly enough, one of the players that you didn't mention, I was reading an article yesterday, and I jotted down a couple of notes from it.

It mentioned that Alex Sabrinas, of players that have played 15 minutes a game and have played at least 15 games, his defensive rating. Say what you ever... I hate those stats stink. That's fine. You might say they stink.

They stink. It doesn't matter. It's a team stat. Sorry, I hate those stats. You hate defensive rating? It doesn't mean anything for a player. It doesn't. It's a team stat.

I wrote an article last year. Like, what stats to end? NBA executives think are dumb. And basically, one of the ones is they said they don't like when, you know, put it this way. The example that was given was like a couple of years ago, Kelly Olinick led the NBA in defensive rating. He didn't lead the NBA in defensive rating. The Celtics led the NBA in defensive rating when Kelly Olinick was on the floor.

It's about the context of the way it said. So it's like Oklahoma City may lead the NBA when Alex Sabrinas is on the floor. But is it because of Alex Abrinas or is it because they have Stephen Adnobie? Adam's anchoring the paint, Jeremy Grant, Terrence Ferguson, and Paul George on the wings. But can you use that as an opportunity to say, hey, does this match up? They appear to be a better defensive team when a Breenas is on the court? Yeah, I don't know. You don't think that this can correlate sometimes?

There's going to be times where it's goofy. There's also going to be times where it actually tells you what you want it to tell you, which is, are they a much better defensive team when this particular player is on the floor? And for what reason? And then you can kind of investigate that. rather than just citing it and saying, oh, well, they're being very good. Well, why would they be better with the brain us out on the court? Could be.

I mean, I guess we could just discount the stat completely and just say, oh, it's goofy and, you know, executives don't like it. Mostly because executives are morons, by the way. I hate to tell you that. Just like us, right? Yeah, you know what I mean? Just like us. What do I care what they think? These are the same people that signed, you know, the Allen Crabs of the world for $50 million.

Get out of my face. Phil Jackson gave Joe Keeneoa like $80 million. And he won with Michael Jordan. And I promise you, he didn't look at his defensive rating. He didn't even have an computer. He went and talked to a wolf in Montana. My only hang up is this. It's about the context, right?

Alex Sabrina's doesn't have a 95.8 defensive rating. The Thunder have a 95.8 defensive rating when Alex Sabrina's on the court. It's a subtle difference, but it's an important difference. that they are a better defensive team with him on the court? No, it's not possible. Because he's not as good of a defender as Terrence Ferguson or Jeremy Grant or Paul George. He's just not. You know, what it is is context.

They're facing bench units with starters on the team. So their defense as a whole collectively is better. But Alex Abrinas is not a better individual defender. He's been better this season. The whole team has been. Nerlin's no well as of late. Russell Westbrook has, too. Efforts contagious.

They lead the league in forcing turnovers. They lead the league in scoring points off of those turnovers. This is going into last night's game. So this is before the Detroit game. 17.7 turnovers forced the game. They score the most points off turnovers, 21.4. They are sixth in opponent field goal percentage. They were fourth in opponent three point percentage.

So, I mean, like all these numbers. I mean, across the board, they have just been out of this world. And a lot of that is credit to Alex Abrinas. I'm kidding. Alex Sabrina's who leads the team in defensive rating right behind Raymond Felton and Nerlands Noel and Deontay Burton too yeah he's second in the entire NBA Kevin I just wanted you to know that I know yeah

he's a trophy for that and they absolutely squashed Detroit last night so you got to believe that that Oklahoma City team now that they have found their bearings defense travels man and they will be able to win a good share of games because of that defense. And of course, most nights are going to get really good offense. But I think you're right, listen, when you've got a perimeter defender like George, who's one of the best,

and you've got a backline defender like Stephen Adams, you've got a chance to do something really special. And you mentioned those other guys? Grant's been good for them this year. And I thought, you know... So versatile, man. So versatile. I thought the Patterson thing was a great signing a couple off seasons, and

it just has never taken. He just I mean, he just fell off a cliff post-Toronto. No. He just hasn't worked out. I think Nirlens, Noel earlier in the season, he had some annoying plays when he was coming off the bench, just kind of playing outside of the scheme. But I think he's been better as of late.

Maybe Nirlens, Noel needed time to figure out how to play within their system, or maybe he got yelled at for playing outside of it, and then started to settle down, understanding what he needed to do. But really, I think for this entire team, though, everybody's playing with effort, everybody, even guys that haven't in the past, like Westbrook is playing hard on defense. Schroeder, who the past couple of the seasons in Atlanta,

his defense has fallen off, has been better. Everybody on this team is playing hard. I think it's amazing how a defensive identity can be formed. So like when you mentioned that Abrina stat, Chris, I think the reason why it bothers me when I see that cited sometimes is because defense is not a one-man job. It never is. It's a five-man job.

And that play I mentioned earlier with Ferguson rotating over to help on Grant, it's to be successful on defense, all five guys need to be connected. It is truly a team game on the end of the floor. In offense, sometimes you can have one guy just dribble the ball and get you a buck in one. Defense, you really can't do that. Like a couple of years ago when the Spurs, Kauai Leonard, he had a, that Spurs had a lower defensive rating with Kauai on the

floor than they did with him off. Is that Kauai's fault? No. It's the whole defensive unit as a whole. It's the other guys they have on the team. It's the way it's the situations that they're put in. It's not just the one. player that can make or break defense. It's the entire unit. And this Oklahoma City roster top to bottom is just outstanding on that end of the floor. And it gives them a chance to win a heck of a lot of games this season. I have a little bit harder time accepting that one player can't make a big defensive

difference. But that's because I constantly watch a team with Marcosola and Jared Jackson on it. For sure. And I see what happens when one of them's out. Sure. One guy can make a big difference. Don't get me wrong. But it's still a five-man unit.

You can have the best room protector in basketball, right? But you can have poor perimeter defenders. Right. And it's going to hurt you, right? It's going to put it. Well, he can't, but he can atone for a lot of sins. You can have Kauai Leonard, but without supporting players around him, he can't lock down all five players on that team, right? Sometimes he can.

That's true. But it's like right now with the Philadelphia 76ers, right? I wrote about this yesterday. With Joe Al-Mibed, the way he's playing defense is he's dropping on the pick and roll. all the way down to the paint because he's protecting against layups and then trying to push teams to shoot mid-range jumpers, right?

One of the problems for Philadelphia right now is that when they're facing a point guard that can pull up from the three, they don't have the perimeter defenders aside from Jimmy Butler who can get over those screens that effectively contest those shots. So I think for them,

the problem isn't Joe L&B dropping back on defense. The problem is the fact that JJ Rackett is getting scorched. The problem is that T.J. McConnell is a solid defender but not a great one. The problem is that Landry, Shammat is being targeted constantly. They don't have wing and guard defenders that can maximize Joel

and Bede's effectiveness and thus their formerly elite defense has dropped off a little bit. It's not elite anymore. I think it's ranked 8th or 9th right now. They need more guys on their team to effectively have a defensive unit that's going to be great whether or not Joel and Bid is on the floor or not.

All right, Kevin, we'll get right back to it. First, I want to tell everybody about ZipRecruiter. Hiring can be pretty time-consuming. He posts a job on several online and job boards only to get a ton of wrong resumes. Then you have to sort through all of those resumes just to find a few people with the right skills and experience. Those job sites that overwhelm you with wrong resumes, they're not smart. And that's why you should do the smart thing and go to ziprecruiter.com slash ringer NBA.

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If you love the show, show your support by going to ZipRecruiter.com slash R-I-N-G-E. B-E-R-N-B-A. That's ZipRecruiter.com slash ringer NBA. ZipRecruiter, the smartest way to hire. Well, we're getting to defense once again, Kevin, because while despite this season being all about offense, it has seemed so far in this ridiculous amount of 50-point games and these high scores that have happened, it is these teams that have really buckled down defensively that have been the surprises as of late and have really had good run.

like we were talking about Oklahoma City. Another one is Minnesota and their defensive numbers post-Jimmy Butler have just been out of this world. And it might have been their masterpiece last night when they hold Houston to nine points in the fourth quarter last night. They were down big to Houston. And not only does Minnesota score 38 coming back out from halftime, they are able to hold Houston to nine points in the fourth quarter. And Houston's offense this year has been still top 10. They're eighth in offensive efficiency. Their defense has fallen off a cliff.

They're 24th this year. But listen, you can be 24th in defensive efficiency. That still doesn't necessarily excuse having nine points in the quarter. And I had wondered this past weekend when Minnesota was going to get the opportunity. We're going to kind of see if this was about a light. schedule that they had had when I was watching and reading about all of these recent defensive metrics, which are just out of this world. Was it because they were playing Brooklyn and Chicago and Cleveland and these teams?

Or was it for real? And then they played Boston and they ended up getting beat and they gave up 118 in the game. But then they turn around and they give up 91 in a game to Houston. And like I said, hold them to nine in the fourth quarter. I'm starting to believe with the addition of Covington and Sawritch and these other guys have gotten more locked in that this Minnesota defensive turnaround, maybe it's not as elite as it has been off the small sample size, but it's real. I mean, it's real. That team has gotten much, much better defensively than they were prior to. I think you nailed it.

I do. I think, you know, it might not be that number one ranked defense, right? But it's a lot better. And Robert Covington has changed everything for that team. everybody's defending. I think a lot of it has to do with Covington. The effort he's playing with,

the intelligence he brings to the floor with sharp rotations, energy off the bench, even just clapping his hands, you know, for his teammates, you know, first guy off the bench to high five somebody.

Like, even little things like that all add up. I think Covington's, you know, obviously his performance on the court defensively, he shot the ball extremely well since joining Minnesota. He's changed that team. And everybody,

since that Jimmy Buller, It's similar to like we just talked about O KC with Russell Westbrook trying. They're having guys on their team like Andrew Wiggins playing with effort last night. Derek Rose, who I thought I'm pretty sure we talked about this last year. I thought he forgot how to play basketball.

And he's playing harder on defense last night. He had one of his worst scoring games of the season, 0 for 4, 0.4, 0.0 points. But he still felt like he made a positive overall impact because of his defense and his passing. Their team overall, it's been strong, man. They have a lot of good defensive players on that roster.

Carl Anthony Towns has been better. Taj Gibson Rock Solid, as always. They're not going to be a number one defense. They're on Oklahoma City, but they're pretty good. Well, and to your point about Covington, you know, now having these elite perimeter defenders can make such a massive difference. And, you know, you look at their starting lineup last night. It's Teague, it's Towns, it's Wiggins.

it's Taj. There's only one difference there. Right? There's only one difference there. It's Robert Covington starting at Small Forward instead of Jimmy Butler. That's it. Mm-hmm. Yep.

And that one difference has been pretty significant, hasn't it? Right? It's because, you know, with Covington. I wonder what his defensive rating is. I'm kidding. I had to. I had to. You know what?

I legitimately want to check right now. I'm going to check the on-off court right now since the Butler trade. So this is since November 14th. That was the day of the trade. And by the way, to my point earlier about Toronto missing all of those threes. And when they hit them, they look awesome. When they miss them, they look bad. It happened to Houston too.

Much like I was talking about Toronto being like whatever, 10 or 40 or whatever the hell they were. Last night, the rockets are 11 for 39. When those shots drop, they look great. and when they don't drop, you have what happens last night. For what it's worth, Chris. When Robert Covington is on the floor,

the Timberwolves are allowing 97 points per 100 possessions. That's an elite number. That'd be number one in the league. Yes, it would be number one in the league when Robert Covington is on the floor. And when he's off? 105. And that's sense to trade for what it's worth. So 10 games.

since November 14th. That's incredible. Yeah. Seriously incredible. I mean, I think with Covington, he's one of those guys. I think Ben Falk heard about this on cleaning the glass. He just does all the little things on defense, all the things that don't go noticed. I think you hit it at the beginning.

You raise the collective energy of a team, right? I saw this happen with Tony Allen. You're seeing it now in Boston with Marcus Smart. You know, there's these guys that their impact is so much greater than whatever a box score tells you. because they raise the collective energy of the team. And you look to the, you know, it's the same in any workplace. You look to the right and there's some guy that's busting his ass. You're either going to try to bust your ass too to get on his level and be like him

or you're going to look stupid. Yeah. You know what I mean? Effort is a skill. Yes. It is. And it's so contagious. It just is.

Once one guy is busting his ass and diving on the floor and everything else, sometimes that's all it takes to get the max. him out instead of, you know, listen, and I'm a Butler fan, but it's probably better off that he's not coming to the bench calling him all wussies every time out. Everybody gets motivated differently. And obviously, his motivation didn't work out. And that does need to be mentioned, by the way, they have one without him, and he said they could not. So maybe there's a little revenge here.

Even someone like Fred Van Vleet, right, who in college, at Wichita State, undersized, six-foot-one point guard with short arms. I looked at him entering that draft. I look back at my Scudder report of him, and I'm like, geez, what a dummy I was, ranking him outside the top 60, because the effort that he had is the number one thing.

Fred Van Blyte always wrote effort, high basketball IQ, and he's gotten a little bit better physically, where all the effort that he's always played with, all his years at Wichita State, are manifesting into a positive impact, largely because guess what? He tries every single play. That's a real skill.

One other thing to mention from the Rockets Timberwolves was rough night for Chris Paul. We mentioned the Lowry rough night. In fact, these guys kind of mirrored each other. I was talking about Lowry couldn't buy a bucket. Neither could Paul. He is one of eight from the field. He is one of seven from three.

And obviously these last three games since he missed that Dallas game, he's been pretty rough. I mean, he's one of eight, four of 11 the game before that, five of 13 the game before that. I mean, he hasn't broken, he hasn't shot over 40% since he has come back, even though two of those were wins, the San Antonio win and the Chicago win, and the team looked good.

Last night was a rough one because he ends up also having five turnovers in the game. Yeah, Chris Paul looks like he got old, doesn't he Chris, right? You know, like he's always going to be able to pass. Like, he's going to be able to, he could create shots for me and you on the court. but what he can't do as well right now is generate offense for himself. Like he's 33 years old now and he looks like it. He looks so old. He looks slow.

He can't elevate for his jumpers and layups like he used to. And, you know, his hamstring injuries seem like they're chronic, right? Will they suddenly go away at age 33? I'm doubtful of that. And Paul's getting paid $33 million this year, $38.5 million next year, 41.4 million in 2020. And then the fourth and final year of his contract with a player option that he will absolutely pick up.

It's $44.2 million. And last summer's deal that Daryl made trading Lou Williams, Montrose, Harold, Patrick Beverly, and the first round pick for Chris Paul looked really smart. I think it was. The Rockets were just one game away from the NBA finals, and they would have beaten the Cleveland Cavaliers had they not shot that 0-4-27 streak from three.

But it seems like with Chris Paul's subtle decline, that window might have shot a lot sooner than expected. And that short-term gamble that was worth it is going to bite them long-term because those three guys Williams, Harold, and Beverly, right now for the Los Angeles Clippers are making an incredible difference on that team. It's interesting what you say because Capella has been amazing this year. He's averaged in 18 and 12.

Hardens leading the league in scoring. And so you remember that stat that was commonly thrown around? They were like 40 and 3. 50 and 5 was the number, 50 and 5. 50 and 5. When those three guys were healthy, if I'm not mistaken, they played 10 this year and they've lost five of them. 10 and 5 this year with those three.

10 and 5. Maybe it's fewer games if they didn't finish others, but I think 50 and 5 last year, 10 and 5 this season. That kind of says it all, really. Maybe they'll win the next 40. When you're pointing the finger a little bit at Paul, it stands to reason when I'm telling you, Capella's 18 and 12 with a 25 PER. And like I said, Hardin's leading the league in scoring right now.

So if we're talking about just having those three guys, on the court meant so much towards the success of that team, what's changed, right? Obviously, their supporting cast is not as good as it was last year, the guys around them. But I mean, Hardin's averaging 31 points a game, nine assists, almost six rebounds a game. I mean, he and Capella are doing what they need to do. It's Chris Paul that needs to elevate his play now. And then obviously, additions need to be made. They need to add more wings.

They need to add more defensive players by the end of the trade deadline. in the buy-all market. They have to make some changes. So Houston is obviously not climbing up the standings. They are amongst a bunch of teams that right now, at least through a quarter way through the season, you wonder what their playoff prospects look like. Another one of those is the Pelicans. And they had a home game last night against the Los Angeles Clippers, played them right till the very end of the game, and Lou Williams stuck a dagger in them on a foot on the line three. But it was still enough last night for them. And the Pelicans moved to under 500 on the year. They had started

off. They'd come out the gates really well. And now they're under 500 for the first time in a long time. And the Clippers keep on trucking. What do you think? Clippers tied with the nuggets for the number one seed in the Western Conference, Isaac. How about that? Yeah. Oh, Isaac, you better watch out because we got a showdown tomorrow night in Memphis. I'm looking forward to it, man. Let's go. Me versus Isaac, Keff. Battle the Western

Comets playoff teams. Yeah, battle for the number one seat. Yeah, pretty amazing. The clubbers are, they're not number one seed for real, but they are for real good,

right? Like, we've talked about those before. They have a lot of good players on their roster. Tobias Harris, last night's game, 27 points on 10 of 16 from the floor.

He's a professional score, Chris. Well, He needed to atone for getting his ish blocked by Dennis Smith Jr. when it mattered most. That's what happened. But he was deserving of Western Conference Player of the Month last night, I believe 22 points, nine rebounds, ludicrous scoring efficiency numbers. He's a professional scorer, and so is Danella Gallinari, so is Lou Williams. This Clippers team doesn't have a superstar, but they have a collection of professional

scorers who can get buckets all over the court, and then a bunch of, you know, good surrounding pieces like Patrick Beverly. like rookie Shea Gilles, Alexander, like Avery Bradley, who shot selection is frustrating, but last night he still had 15 points on 7 of 12, and he played good defense down the stretch, at least. They have guys like Ty Wallace who come off the bench who can do nice things. They have Montrez-Harrell, who's, we mentioned energy earlier, Chris. He's one of those energy guys.

He just, anytime he's on the floor, you know you're going to get that from him. And that's important to have on both ends. I think the clippers are going to be absolutely a playoff team. and then they have their secret weapon. Bow ban. Bow ban, Chris. All right. Who ends up having a better record?

The Clippers of the Lakers. The Lakers. Interesting. I'm sticking to my preseason prediction. That's really what it is. I do think that Clippers roster is very good. And here's the thing. Gildesus Alexander is a very good defender.

And when you're able to throw out perimeter defenders like Beverly, Gildes Alexander, and Bradley, like, that's for real. That's as formidable as it gets perimeter defensive-wise. For sure. No doubt about it. Like they have a lot of good versatile defensive players and they have complimentary offensive players

who fit around their two main guys, Gallinari and Harris. They just have a lot of versatility, right? They can play small, they can play big, put Bow ban out there. He's like a secret weapon. They have a bunch of guys who can handle the ball, a bunch of guys who can shoot,

bunch of guys who can switch positions on defense. Isn't that kind of what you want in today's league? And as we've talked about the collection of players where you watch them and almost never do you go, that guy sucks. Yeah. You know what I mean?

Really? None of them. None of them. The market inefficiency, right? Just have a bunch of guys that are pretty good. You mentioned Sandarius Thornel before. Even someone like him, like he doesn't even play now. But even someone like him, it's like he doesn't suck.

No. This has been a very rough patch for the team that they played, which is the New Orleans Pelicans. Oh, boy. I mean, you're talking, they lost at Philly. They lost at the Knicks. They lost at the Wizards. Then they came back home and they lost to Boston. Then they got a one-off win against Wallykins.

Washington, went and lost at Miami. Then a pretty impressive win, I thought, at Charlotte over the weekend. But then they turn around and lose a home game to the Clippers. And the night where Julius Randall has 37 points in the game, they still lose 129 to 126, and now they're going to host Dallas tomorrow night. What do we make of the Pelicans and what's happened to them as of late? Once upon a time, the team started off 4-0 on the year, and then they kind of cooled off and then they put it back up to 10 and 7 after they got that big win over

San Antonio and now since that point they've been two and six in their last eight games. What do you think? It's going to be tough this month. Remainter of this month, they have 13 games. Only two of them are against teams with a net rating below zero. That's Miami and Sacramento. It's going to be really a tough month for them, 12 and 13 right now. And Davis is number one in minutes.

Holidays number three. Last night, Davis, Randall Holiday, they were all spectacular. They scored 92 combined points, but this team just simply doesn't have enough depth. We've just talked about with some of these other teams how much depth they have, how much versatility they have. This Pelicans team doesn't. And I'm honestly going to be surprised if they make the playoffs any higher than the 8 seed. Davis needs to go on a historic run, just like he did last year after the Pughey injury. But that's kind of the problem, right? Anthony Davis shouldn't have to do that just to sneak into the playoffs.

and then get bounced in the first or second round. I think by the end of this month, with this tough schedule, they have some tough back-to-backs, they have a tough road trip against Milwaukee, Los Angeles, Sacramento, and Dallas. Dallas is not going to be easy. And then maybe by the end of the month, Houston fixes themselves.

They have a really hard schedule this month. I just worry about how it's going to look entering 2019, and it just feels like every game New Orleans loses, we're moving closer to the Anthony Davis, the Anthony Davis sweepstakes becoming a big conversation. Oh, boy. Well, here's the other thing I do want to mention. And I said this at the beginning of the year.

I love Drew Holiday. They have no other perimeter guys that I care about. Seriously. Not one. I mean, I'm fine. Listen, Davis is maybe one of the two, three best players in the league, in my opinion. Randall, I loved the signing.

I don't, and obviously he's been very, very good for them. Miritz didn't play in last night's game. But, I mean, listen, Davis, Randall, Mirich, and then Holiday. And then the rest of the roster is just, man. It is the continuation of just this roster building malpractice that has happened around these, you know, extended amount of years having Anthony Davis on your team. Like, how do you not have any, like, how do you just have one guard? it's worth a crap. And Drew Holiday's great,

but there's only one of him. Well, Etouin Moore can hit floaters. Whatever. I mean, I can find Etowal Moore. Etowal Moore's played well this year. But there's a million Etouin Moors. They're just a horror. You can find that guy.

This kind of gets back to what we were talking about before, though, Chris, right? Like, New Orleans has one of the best defensive big men in the league in Anthony Davis and one of the best perimeter guards in Drew Holiday, but those two guys aren't enough to have better than the fifth worst defensive rating in the NBA. Like, you need more than that. Defense is not a one-man or two-man job. It's a five-man job.

And they have two guys that are really, really, really good, and then a bunch of guys who aren't. All right, let's get to some of the other news that has happened since we last spoke. Another coach lost his job. Fred Hoyberg lost his job. Chicago Bulls fired Fred Hoyberg. You know, I said to somebody yesterday when I was talking to them, they were like, God, do you see Fred Hoyberg got fired? What do you think? And I was like, you know, I'll be honest with you. I have no idea Fred Hoyberg is a decent coach or not. I honestly don't know. I know that he never had a roster that I thought should have done way better than what he did. You know, his voice probably got old and, you know, sometimes you need a change and maybe they'll be better than they have been so far. But that guy had to coach a bunch of different rosters over his time.

there and it never felt like there was some kind of real plan as to, okay, we're getting a young coach from college and now here's what we're going to do, right? At the beginning, it was like we want to win. And so we added Rondo and Wade and then abandon that and then started tanking so we could get some, you know, get some good players. Then we made the Jimmy Butler trade and now we're in the middle of a rebuild. But I don't know. Are you firing them for losing? I mean, they say it's lack of energy and whatever. But it's just bizarre. Yeah, it's pretty silly.

The other thing, you know what, the first thing that came to my mind, how much different is the conversation? And I know that there's a lot of people that think, oh, well, Brad Stevens would have made the adjustments that they would have, they still would have won. But they went up in that series that year that they had Rondo and Wade and Butler. And let's just, let's just hypothetical that, you know, after they've got that lead on on Boston, let's say Rondo doesn't get hurt. And that becomes an upset.

It becomes an upset and they end up winning. How much different is everyone's opinion on Hoyberg and on Brad Stevens, for that matter? And maybe the Bulls, like, kind of keep that team together if they went on a little playoff run with that roster. And maybe, I don't know, just so many things would be different, you know? Would have been for the worst to do it, though. Yeah. Right? I mean, keep keeping of core of Rajan Rondo and Dwayne Wade.

That's your back court. That absolutely would have been for the worst, I think. I think Larry, I mean, Jimmy Butler, would he stay next summer? No. I think they might have been in the same situation that Minnesota was this year, right? Instead, they have Lowry Marketing, who is an extremely talented, offensive big man who has gotten better defensively. They have Wendell Carter, who's already a very, very good young player. Zach Levine, not a big fan of him, but no denying that his scoring ability is really, really good. Someone like Bobby Portis getting playing time, they have a lot of good young players. They have a lot of good young play. players on this team, and it's because they went into a rebuild, the front office probably doesn't feel Fred Hoyberg was the right voice for that team. And that's unfortunate because I really do believe Hoyberg can be a solid coach in the right situation. He's a great college coach. Maybe this just wasn't the right situation for him. And he'll probably go back and just be a great college coach, but I don't think it is a demerit to say, oh, do you really want to hire a guy from college?

because there's been a lot of these guys in the past. College guys that have gotten jobs that nobody could have won. What do you expect, Fred O'Eberg, to have a winning record with the crap they threw at him? Yeah, I know. He threw together, like, a veteran team with difficult personalities, and they threw him, like, a team that was tanking, and now they've got a, I mean, their roster shouldn't be winning anything this year. So it's a thankless job that the guy has had.

He's never, I just don't know on Fred Hoyberg. I don't know. I think he's probably a guy that if you gave him, Mike, like a lot of guys, you give him a good roster, he'll probably win games. If you give him a bad roster, he probably won't.

And so he didn't. Mavs and Lakers, two teams that are also surging, outside of the Timberwolves that we already talked about earlier, the surges of the Mavs and the Lakers. What do you think? Lakers are beating up on some bad teams right now, but I do think their surges for real.

Right now they're on pace for 49.9 wins, almost 50. I think this Lakers team is really good. Kuzma's been better on the defensive end as of late. Again, gets back to effort, playing with effort, playing with energy. Lanzel Balb has been really, really good defending on and off the ball. Brennan Engram has been better defensively as well. And then LeBron James really ultimately starts with him.

He's setting a tone. He's doing enough on the defensive end of the floor to set a tone for that team. Tyson Chandler has been a good addition off the bench. Mo Wagner scored 10 points the other night. Shout off to him. The Lakers are good, man. They're going to be really good. You mentioned earlier, who will win more games?

The Lakers are the Lakers of the Clippers? I still say the Lakers because of LeBron James. Why are you on the side of the Clippers there? No, uh-uh. I think it was going to take... Listen, it was going to take time. It was going to take time with the Lakers. It's like we talked about early.

We had to be patient, right? It took time with Wade, LeBron, and Bosch. This team ain't that team. No. You know what I mean? I mean, it's just you got to figure out how to play and how to play with LeBron James. And Luke Walton had to figure it all out and kind of figure out the rotations and how

you guys are going to work together and whatever else. I don't know, I don't know what the record is going to end up being. But, I mean, I think so many of these teams, you're talking, honestly, we could end up at the end of the year with at least 10 teams that are within four games of each other, five games of each other. Seriously. I mean, all the way down.

I mean, who sucks? The only thing that sucks is the sons. Your bright future sons. I mean, seriously, they're the only team in the Western Conference that sucks. Yeah, the only one. Good for them, right? Tank, baby, tank. Tank forever.

Tank forever. Tank forever. They are going to take forever. They're going to have the worst record in the league, so that means they're going to have either the number one pick or at worst than number five pick. That's the range they're going to be selecting. The other team that I mentioned was the Mavs, I watched them play against the Clippers.

over the weekend. That was the game they had without Luca Donchich, where Dennis Smith, Jr. got his tooth-busted, made the huge block on Tobias Harris at the end of the game, and they got another win. Dallas has been on fire. They are 8 and 2 in their last 10 games. They're now above 500.

Their home road split is crazy. They're 9 and 2 at home. They're 2 and 8 on the road. But, I mean, do you think the math? are a team that can, I mean, maybe I think at the beginning of the season, most people didn't think that the Mavs were going to be a competitor for a playoff spot. Are you starting to think that the Mavs could be a competitor for a playoff spot? Maybe the eight seed.

I would lean towards no. I think Carlis so good. He is so good. I just don't know if you can sustain this over the full year. I would lean towards no, Chris. I would. I think you look at the other teams in that mix, Minnesota, New Orleans. Orleans, Houston should get better.

Utah should get better. I mean, look, the difference between the eight seed right now and the 14 is a game and a half, right? Like, Dallas can drop a couple games and just plummet. I don't think Dallas would make the playoffs now. But it wouldn't stun me. All of these teams are a three game losing streak away from looking radically different in the standings.

Yeah, and that's why, like, you know, circling back to New Orleans, that's why the scary schedule this month for them, like, they could plummet. By January, they could be like the 13 seed, right? it would not be stunning if entering the new year, Houston and Utah is on the playoffs. It just wouldn't, even though right now they're 13 and 14 respectively in the Western Conference. Dallas put it this way, though, regardless of the playoffs for Dallas, this team is better than anybody could have expected. That's an obvious statement, but I think looking up and down their roster again, like Luca Donich has been a major difference maker for this team with his playmaking. J.J. Barrier off the bench, guys like Dorian Finney Smith, versatile on defense.

Dwight Powell, Powell, solid off their bench. They have good players on their team. They just lack that superstar right now to enhance those guys. By the way, Harrison Barnes might be overpaid,

but he's still a solid player, man. Oh, for sure. He is. Yes. Harrison Barnes, listen, Harrison Barnes was, he will always be thought of

as the guy that the Cavaliers ran away from and said, shoot it, right? That's like the seminal moment. in his career, unfortunately. But he was a part of a team that won 73 games. Yeah. You know what I mean?

And that's prior to Durant, and Barnes helped them win a lot of games during his time there. He should not be your number one guy. He shouldn't be your go-to guy. But he can absolutely be a winning cog on a team. Hell, he was a cog. He started on the winningest regular season team of all time. And I do think he had something to do.

do with that, probably more than he was given credit for. I mean, it's not easy when you get replaced by Kevin Durant, you know? Yeah, I mean, his current contract right now, 24.1 million this year, then an option for 25.1 next season, overpaid. But that next deal for him at age 28 years old when he gets his next deal could be a good one. I think wherever he plays on that next contract, he'll be an important player again like he was for Golden State.

Well, and there's a very interesting game that is going on tonight as we were recording this on Tuesday. I will absolutely tune in to see the team that's been super hot, which is Dallas as of late, at home, where I said their record's great, hosting a team that's really stumbled recently, which is Portland, who's three and seven in their last 10 games and have lost two in a row. And so we're kind of going to get to see how does Dallas look when they get to host a game against another team that they're going to be competing with for a playoff spot? because Portland, who was just not long ago, that they were right there on top of the standings and have faltered as of late, as I mentioned, three and seven in their last 10.

So you got a team that's gone cold versus a team that's gone super hot and the Mavs catch them at home. Yeah, Portland's been sputtering lately, for sure. I wonder if Luca Doncherts will be back tonight. Do we know that? It was not a big deal that he was sitting out the other night against the Clippers.

Nobody said that this was like an injury that was going to keep him out an extended amount of time. So it was soreness. I certainly believe there's a chance we could see him. Hopefully. Look is another one of those guys, like with Yokers. Just love watching them play. You should check out Jaron Jackson, Jr.

I love watching. He's on that list, too. Jaron Jackson, Jr., man, like, oh, my goodness. This rookie class has been outstanding. Oh, my God. So much better than I thought they were going to be, honestly. Jaron Jackson, like entering the youngest player in his draft class, already a good defensive player aside from Falls,

reliable three-point shooter. That has translated to this. by this funky-looking mechanics. He can attack close-outs. I mean, great personality, too. Well, and you've seen, and hey, listen, you've seen since the uptick in minutes recently, Bagley was putting up like 19 and 11 over the course of the last week. He's been very productive.

You saw Wendell Carter have a breakout monster game over the weekend. I mean, this rookie class has been just awesome so far. Really awesome. League has a lot of, I think right now the league is in a spot where there are just so many good, interesting players to watch. You know, there's probably somebody out there that could do this a deep dive. But I was thinking about this. It would be the last thing we talked about today.

I was thinking about this the other day because I was watching the NFL, the Chargers game, that Sunday night football game, where Derwin James had the pick. And Derwin James is a guy that fell down on NFL mock dress, right? But I thought about this guy, Bradley Chub at Denver and Denzel Ward at Cleveland and Vlatan Vanderasch for Dallas and all these guys. There's been amazing talent. Breaker Mayfield, obviously. And so many have, like, been plug and play immediately really good.

And I just wonder, I mean, there's got to be some kind of better reason than just sitting around me pontificating on it. But it just seems to me that even in the NFL and the NBA, that your draft picks now can be so much more of an impact immediately than it used to be. It used to just feel like maybe a couple of guys would come in and have massive impact, but you're seeing it all across the league in both the NFL and the NBA, where guys are coming from college and immediately awesome. It's the damnedest thing. It used to be like some kind of, you know, I don't know, like development time, right, for these guys. But you've got guys like breaking records that are rookies in both sports.

Got any ideas? I don't know. I don't know either. Somebody write about that. Somebody write about that because maybe it's just my brain thinking that but when I watched the other night when I saw that

pick come from Derwin James I was like damn man this another rookie how are these rookies so freaking good at like both sports now? All I know is with these rookies that are already good it's one of the most rewarding things watching these players is still continuing to get better like against circling back to Nicole Yokic

overseas he was a great passer but a lot of his passes came from the low post and the high post and outlet passes in transition, but he didn't settle for being great. He improved his ball handling. He became a better passer off the dribble with his right or his left hand.

He became a more creative player because his skill enabled him to be more creative because he's always had the passing vision. That's just been so fun to watch. With Yokic, or these other young players that come into the league that are good and they continue to get better. They don't settle for being good.

They want to be great. They want to be something more than that. So someone like Jaron Jackson is going to get better. Luca Dantzich, it's going to get better. Carter is going to have more of those impressive offensive games. These guys are going to continue to get better. And that's really, really fun to watch when you're watching

them when they're just kids, right now. A lot of them are just teenagers. Certainly leagues in a really good place. And here's me hoping that you can find you a woman that appreciates Nicola Yocha just passes as much as you. And all that other crap you mentioned.

All the other crap, yeah. Kevin, it's always a pleasure. I'll catch up with you next week. Have a go on, Chris. Thanks to everybody for listening to another edition of The Mismatch. If you dig with your hand, go give us a rating and review. Five stars, five stars on iTunes. It really helps us out. And we will talk to you next week.