The Ringer NBA Show - The Rockets Don’t Stay Melo | The Mismatch (Ep. 337)

Episode Date: November 13, 2018

The Jimmy Butler trade reshapes both conferences (0:48), the Houston Rockets look to move on from their Carmelo Anthony experiment (10:06), the overachieving Los Angeles Clippers remain impressive (19:16), Caris LeVert’s injury sets back the Brooklyn Nets (26:44), and some teams’ expectations contrast with their performance (34:34). Hosts: Chris Vernon, Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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Message and data rates apply. Welcome to The Ringer MBA 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'Bomber, aka Kevin O'Conflict, aka Kevin O'Carmello. Kevin! I like the Kevin O'Carmello one, Chris. How are you doing this Tuesday morning? Everything's good.

All right, first things first. We have not gotten to speak. In fact, I don't know outside of your tweets that I have seen. seen your opinion on the entire Jimmy Butler saga coming to an end and ending with the trade to the Philadelphia 76ers where Butler moves over. I mean, the major pieces are obviously Jimmy Butler going to the Sixers and Robert Covington and Dario Sarich going to the Minnesota Timberwolves. We have not seen any of those players in their new uniforms yet. But when the trade came across the wire, and I suppose it was an odd timing for sure on a Saturday morning, your

First thought. First thought was necessary risk for the Philadelphia 76ers, right? There's obviously risk with this, with the fit, bring Jimmy Butler into a situation where Ben Simmons needs a ball in his hands and Joel Bede obviously touches them a lot. But for the price, I mean, Dario Sarge, going to get paid in two years. Robert Covington, a good, not great player. Jimmy Butler is a great player, Chris. He's a top 10, top 15 player.

And he's somebody who could elevate and raise their ceiling to the point where, you know what, maybe they do make the finals and maybe they do give health of the Golden State Warriors with this trio if it works. And with that said, they need to add more shooting. And with that said, they still also need to figure out how to best coexist altogether. Because those three guys do have some traits that do clash against each other. If it becomes a one-season rental, would it be deemed a mistake? I don't think so. You don't.

I think it's worth it. I really do. You think it is worth it? Yeah. Do you think that either Covington or Sari, will look back, and obviously Sarich would be the one. Because we know Covington's going to be,

his destiny is to be a very good role player. Do you think Sorich could become a star? I love Dario in the draft. I really, really loved him. I think I had a ranked fifth that season in the 2014 draft, but I don't see him as a star, at least not in that traditional sense because he's not like a high volume score

or anything like that. But I think he can reach that second or third tier level of a star. like maybe like the 35th best player in the NBA. You know what I'm saying? I think there's more to his game. And I'm excited to see that with Minnesota. I really am.

I hope the Minnesota Tim Wolves put the ball on his hands a little bit more and show what he did playing overseas. Because that guy can handle the ball and make plays for others. We see glimpses of his passing ability. But I want to see more of that next to Carl Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins. You know this all got screwy and AJ Ward Janowski did a great job recounting how this was a loss in faith in Tom Tibido and that this is probably the signaling of the beginning of the end for the Tibido Scott Layden era there and that this deal was pretty much done between Glenn Taylor and

Josh Harris. That being said, when we look at the way this all played out and the trade that they eventually got, when we know there was a trade out there that included Josh Richardson as the centerpiece from Miami, we know that the Pelicans wouldn't get off of holiday, as reported, they wanted to do a deal with Mirage. The Wizards wouldn't come off of Brad Beal. The Rockets were rumored to have said, you know, maybe Eric Gordon and Neyne and a couple of first rounders. Originally, there was a four first rounder offer that was thrown out there.

Do you think that the Minnesota Timberwells, when you know the other deals, or at least the centerpieces of some of the other deals, do you think they got good return for Butler? or did they screw this up to where they ended up having to take a worse deal than what they might could have gotten a little while back? Oh, they did screw it up. They got an okay deal.

It's not a bad deal at all. Covington's a good role player and Sarich can be a really good player. It's a solid deal. But yeah, they did screw it up. But which of those, which of those that I just reeled off entices you the most or more than what they actually got? It's the Richardson deal that they missed out on. You know, the one thing executives that I've talked to the past couple days have said they're stunned that they didn't get a first round pick the deal. They think Philadelphia easily would have given it up, especially because a first

round pick was on the table with other deals that were offered. Every other deal that was offered had a first round pick. So in that sense, it's surprising that they didn't push for that more and hold out for longer. Like with New Orleans, from what I heard is, yeah, they did want Drew Holiday, but what they also wanted or what they wanted maybe instead of Holiday was a 2022 unprotected first round pick. They wanted that instead of the 2019 first round pick that was offered. and New Orleans wasn't willing to do that or they weren't able to do that. So they ended up going with the Philadelphia deal.

But really, where they screwed up most Chris, I think, was with that Miami deal. Josh Richardson is a better player than Dario Sarich and Robert Covington, still young, still more room to grow. And the deal that I heard that was offered in September when all that stuff first happened was something along the lines of Richardson

with a first round pick and then salary filler, including Dion Waiters, for Jimmy Butler and Gorgie Jang. So they would have been able to dump salary at that time too. It seems to me that all along Minnesota was declining these really

good offers with the hopes of getting even more than that because on paper you want more for Jamie Butler, of course. But whether it was ownership or front office, there was just not understanding that these offers were going to get worse and they did get significantly worse. All right, so the Miami one is the one and there was that

sense, you know, at least that they were kind of holding out and that Miami's deal would get better. It did not. No, of course not. Right? No. Of course not. Deals almost always get worse over the course of time. When does a star player or any player for that matter want out and deals get better over the course of time? They never do. Yeah.

And it's interesting because now you have this Minnesota season that's going to play out. I mean, you would not project them as a playoff team. Is that fair? I'd say that's fair, yeah. Okay. And the West is so loaded. It's absolutely loaded. And you would look at the Eastern Conference and you would say that Jimmy Butler can easily,

I mean, I think they're, what, second or third best record in the East already, and that's what they haven't had Jimmy Butler on their team yet. Certainly, this is a team that we would expect is going to be in the Eastern Conference Finals or right on the cusp of. They should be. Their second round series, whatever it's going to be. I mean, there's four teams that have kind of distinguished themselves, and that's even if we don't include Indiana, because you're going to have Boston, you're going to have Toronto, you're going to have Philly. And who am I missing? Oh, the Bucks, right? So those four, you would say right now, would be the favorites to be appearing in the Eastern Conference Finals with Indiana as the team that would have a chance to crash it.

I think that's very fair for sure. Okay. Okay. So, I mean, your step away from the Eastern Conference Finals, either way, that second round series, no matter who they draw, is going to be a war. No doubt. And Philadelphia still has work to do to get to that point. They do. I mean, you know, they traded arguably their two best shooters aside from JJ Reddick.

now their depth is depleted. They need to add shooting. I had in my article on Saturday that they still retain interests in Cavs Wing, Kyle Corver. I've since heard that Contavius Caldwell Pope on the Lakers is a guy that they could have eyes for. But even then, you know, Corver is obviously one of the greatest shooters ever.

KCP is an inconsistent shooter. I'm not sure how much he would solve their issues. But the point is, is that they need to find shooting. They got to find shooting to surround Ben Simmons, Jimmy Butler, and Joel Ambine. none of whom are top-knott shooters. Yeah, but if you get two spot-up shooters, actually one, because you know Reddick's going to be out there in crunch time.

You add one more. I mean, you saw what it did to them last year. It's not necessarily the individual talent of those players, but Bellinelli and Iliosovo were huge for them last year. It's like Tyler said in our Take Hunter video series, you got to give the ball a Marco Bellinelli. And now they don't have him anymore. But they do have, you know, like you said,

They have JJ and Landry Shamit is an intriguing young player, but you need somebody more proven. As much as I love Shammit, I'm not sure looking ahead to April May that you're going to be able to rely on him in playoff situations. You need somebody that can at least play better defense. Like, that's where Caldwell Pope is interesting because he can be a good defender

and he can heat up as a shooter. It's just a matter of finding the salary in a match for him. I think maybe Wilson Chandler, maybe you flip him for Contavius Caldwell Pope, upgrade at shooting. But then again, Wilson Chandler, you know, we'll see how he gets back. I'd rather have somebody cheaper.

I mean, listen, you're going to be a good buyout destination now. Right, because a guy's going to look at that team and say, I could win a title with that team. You know what I mean? Like, if I go in there, I'll get to play, I'll be able to stretch the floor and I'm going to get tons of open shots. I mean, they're a great buyout destination. They really are. No doubt, no doubt. And I think that's where Elton Brand said this morning at the press conference that they're in no rush, right?

I mean, I think when December 15th comes and guys like Caldwell Pope and every other free agent that the sign the summer are available, that's when it's time to really start probing for deals. Kevin, who would have ever guessed that the Carmelo Anthony era in Houston would be a disaster? Uh, virtually everybody? Oh, oh. I was just making sure. I was just making sure. By the way, this has been a really tough go for the Kevin O'Connor, no all star. the Michael Beasley, who was it, Michael Carter Williams,

Carmelo Anthony, Dwight Howard, all these guys that were super cheap that are ruining teams. Hey, look, with Carmelo, everybody, including me, acknowledged that this probably wasn't going to work, but it was still worth the risk for the money. It just hasn't worked. And now we're at the place where it didn't work and get rid of them. So, I guess the big question is,

is he going to go ruin the Lakers now? You know, I heard three teams. think could be for Mello. And this could change. We're still, I mean, he's still with Houston. I heard New Orleans,

Portland, and the L.A. Lakers. Those are the three teams I heard. Really? Mm-hmm. Now, think about it. New Orleans was in on Jimmy Butler.

Right? We just talked about how they were negotiating, right? For Jimmy Butler. They're really, they're obviously trying to do what they can to build something around Anthony Davis.

And if it means taking undue risks. Well, the other thing is Davis does, he covers up for a lot of defensive errors. You know what I mean? I don't know, man. Carmelo is such a defensive negative. I mean, in this day and age.

And the big problem is he does have the Alan Iverson thing going, which is you feel like Carmelo Anthony and you see other players, right, standing up for him. I think if you gave Carmelo Anthony Truth serum, you would still get the answer that he believes he's one of the 10 to 15 best players in the NBA. Like, I seriously think he believes that. And thus the issue, there's a lot of guys that have transformed themselves as the years go on that were once really great players that have turned into role players, Jason Kidd and Sean Marion, Antonio McDyce did it, Grant Hill did it.

Vince Carter is still playing. Vince Carter was, you'll, beat Michael Jordan for All-Star voting one year, for God's sakes. You know what I mean? That's how big a star that guy was. And I, I think there is a reluctance to become the willing role player that has befelled him and is going to be very, very difficult for him to be a positive for any franchise he goes to. Yeah, it's tough, right? I mean, Carmelo, even in his prime years, was a negative on defense. I think Stephen Jackson, like a video that went a little viral yesterday, former NBA player, Stephen Jackson, where he said, you know, people, people were being too critical of Carmelo, Anthony. He's talking about how he doesn't play defense. and his point was like, who plays defense in the NBA?

I think the difference between Mello and other players is that other players can play defense. Mello is somebody who just never has in recent years. He just doesn't seem to put in the effort. And even when he does, he's still slow laterally. The ability is just not there for him anymore in his 30s. So he's a zero in defense. Outside of scoring, he brings very little to the table. For sure.

He's not a passer, yeah. He's not a passer and he's not a huge rebounder. Used to be. Used to be. I mean, not as much anymore. Yeah. So, yeah, if he's not scoring, He needs to hit spot-up threes.

That's ultimately the problem. Like with Houston and Oklahoma City, the thought was, okay, put him off ball next to Russell Westbrook last year, this year next to Chris Paul and James Harden, he's going to get open shots for days. On paper, you would think that he would drain a lot of those open threes. They'd be able to attack close-outs and finish at the rim. But he's just not hitting shots. He's shooting 32.8% this season, and he's shooting 35.7% last season.

He's just not shooting the ball well at all for a guy that over his career has had some really great season shooting the three. But, you know, really, maybe he's just not as great of a spot-up shooter as you would have expected him to be, considering over his career so much has been off the dribble. All right, Kevin, we'll get right back to it. But first we want to tell everybody about Stitch Fix. Stitch Fix is an online personal styling service that finds and delivers clothes, shoes, and accessories to fit your body, budget, and lifestyle. I tell you this, I use Stitch Fix, and I have a sweater that I got last year that I still wear all of the time. Also, everything I got in the mail from them, everything I got fit perfectly. I don't know how

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slash NBA. All right, let me play devil's advocate just for a second, okay? Are you going to defend Mello? In a way. Oh! All right. I'm not going to defend him. I'm playing devil's advocate for the sake of the show.

I obviously think that it was a disaster. I said it was a disaster when they signed him. I said that you need role players with stars, and there's a mix of players that you need on teams of which. And I thought that they were great because they were defensively great last year. They were a top six team in the NBA defensively. And they abandoned that and did this whole, like, what are you going to do?

really think you're going to outscore Golden State when it comes playoff time, that ain't happening. And he ain't going to be a part of that. But is it Carmelo Anthony's fault that Chris Paul's shooting 41% from the field, James Hardin's shooting 42% from the field, and Eric Gordon, so far this season, has been 32% from the field and 23% from three. Yes, that's Carmelo Anthony's fault. I'm only kidding.

In fairness, those are three of their best players, and those numbers are, I mean, they're horrible. Exactly. Of course, it's not criminalized his fault. That's where the conversation about the Rockets is kind of disappointing. It's like so much is focused on Mello. It's like here's a guy that's like their fifth or sixth most important player. It's not his fault that the Rockets are struggling. It's everything else that's transpired for their team.

Their offense is just not clicking. They were one of the best offenses ever last season, Chris. one of the best offenses we have ever seen last year. And they're just sputtering now. They're one of the worst offenses in basketball so far this year. Well, their bench stinks, too. Oh, there's no depth. It's green anis, Michael Carter Williams, who you defended.

And by the way, Marquis, Chris is exactly what I told you he is. An absolute nothing. Chris has barely played. For good reason. Why do you gloss over Gary Clark? I love Gary Clark. Oh, me too. What's your favorite song by him?

Stop it already. I like Gary Clark the American Athletic Conference Player of the Year The American Athletic Conference Player of the Year is my favorite Gary Clark Personally mine is when my train pulls in

And I really like his Third Stone from the Sun cover Great stuff I'm always about Jimmy Hendricks covers You like Jimmy Hendricks cover? Either when Jimmy covers a song You know all along the Watchtower One of the greatest covers ever

or when someone covers a Jimmy song. I always like hearing how people interpret his music. Like John Mayer during Bold as Love, great stuff. Have you ever seen Gary Clark Jr. in person? Never. You haven't? I think I might have caught him at a festival one time. I'm sorry, is this on shuffle or is this the ring of NBA show?

What's going on here? This is on shuffle. This is actually on shuffle. We transitioned without you even knowing, Isaac. Listen to Isaac. I swear to God, Kevin. His guy has been so bold since the Clippers got one win last night. The Clippers get one win.

He gets the shout-out from Simmons, and all of a sudden, now Isaac's a different guy. Isaac, that really affected you last night, this big win against the Warriors, huh? This is patently untrue, but yes, I do feel really good right now because the Clippers won. You were there for that, Kevin. Yes, I was. You saw the Clippers big win last night. Now, were you aware of what was going on in the bench when Draymond fumbled it away? He did that in the playoffs, too, by the way, in a big spot.

where Draymond fumbled it away and then they got to the bench and KD yelled at him, give me the damn ball. And then they were, and then peacemaker, Boogie Cousins had to get involved. What a bizarre situation.

Now, I, by the way, I am on KD's side on this. Like, past the ball, bro, seriously. I don't know why you're,

why you're driving down the court like a bad out of hell in traffic. I didn't see that happen live when it happened. Yeah. So I saw like people, you know, in our Slack talking about it. And then I,

I saw. But it was interesting. Katie, like, stormed out of the locker room after the game. Oh, really? Yeah,

yeah, and he just walked down the hallway, like Jackie McMullen tried, you know, grabbing him to speak and, like, sort of in another reporter, and he just, you know, kept going. He said hi to somebody on the way

out the door, but I guess he had no interest in talking after that game. Not happy. Well, and obviously, listen, Dremont's got to give that ball up. Good grief, man.

I mean, it's just, I don't even view it as a big story. It's like, people argue when they play video games, not just sports. I've yelled at my friends, playing Halo 3 that they've yelled at me and we've gotten an argument over it happens

that's what happens when you're competing in a team atmosphere it's really no biggie it's not like it's happened between those two before oh you don't think they should blow up the warriors because that's what I was hoping I hope they should just obviously they got bad chemistry issues and they should just tear the whole thing down

I mean if you want to talk about what they should do like in two years when Draymond's a free agent and that's like a whole different conversation I'm not saying oh boy Oh boy. I'm not saying Oh boy, you're already trying to figure out

how we're going to dismantle this thing. I mean, last night I had a good conversation with someone about like when Draymond becomes a free agent, do you give him the full max? But that's a different conversation for a different day.

Right now, these Golden State Warriors are still in good shape despite losing to the Clippers who are like Clay Thompson said last night, very good but not special, but they are really, really fun to watch. They are really fun to watch.

And they can become special, though. We're seeing, the potential of that with Sheiglis Alexander. Well, they got a bunch of good players, right? They got a bunch of good players. Like, you watch the team and you go, that guy doesn't suck, like almost all this, right? Almost every player in their rotation. Almost everybody's good.

They're just good, right? There's a bunch of good and there's not a lot of great, right? But that's enough. They're tough, too. They play hard. I know. It is so weird because that has been the biggest weenie franchise ever, Isaac, as you know. I mean, just a bunch of front running weaners that I've seen the Grizzlies

mash into the ground for years. And I texted him last night, I said, give me Pat Beverly and Montrez-Harrel. I mean, those are Grizzlies and Clipper clothing. This is just bizarre to watch this. I texted back, you're not wrong, man. They really looked like Grizzlies players playing in Clippers uniforms. Oh, and then what did you tell me that they call themselves now? They call themselves Clamp City now?

Clamp? Clamp City. Yeah, it's like a play on Love City, but the clamping down on defense. Lame. It's not the best nickname, but. Speaking about the guy who kind of defines Clamp City for the Clippers, Patrick Beverly. Don't call them that. No, I'm just saying.

There was a great moment in the locker room last night where Patrick Beverly walked back to his locker and he turns the Shaggildas Alexander. He's like, you see all the media? You see this? First game, there was only seven media members here after the game. He's like, I wish I took a picture. Look at this now. Look at this now. They hop in the bandwagon fast.

Oh. It's true. The locker room was packed, especially compared to the first couple of games for the Clippers. It was packed last night. And maybe that was because Golden State was in town. But it's also possible that more people are paying attention to the Clippers, as they should.

This is a good team, man. It's a really good team. You had said on the group text that it gave you the feeling of an NCAA tournament game because that they are, all right, let's get to that first, which is there was a ton of Warriors fans. And this is true of 95% of the arenas around the country. Anybody that wins at that level and you obviously have kids in jerseys in every city. This happens to games that I go to locally.

You're hearing the roar when something good happens for the Warriors. They have now got fans everywhere because that's what happens when you win and everybody jumps on the bandwagon. You don't see a lot of Monte Ellis jerseys in the crowd, right? It's not like there are a bunch of long time warrior fans in all of these different cities. That being said, you did hear when Clay Thompson hit a three to tie it. I mean, there was an audible roar last night in the crowd. And so it did give you a little bit of a different feeling than a normal home game, right? It felt like a March Madness game.

It really did. It reminded me of going to Sweet 16 Elite 8 games where it's like a 50-50 split with the fans. it felt at times that it was louder for Golden State. But it was pretty close. It was pretty close. I was at the Grizzlies versus the Jazz last night, which sets basketball back roughly 25 to 30 years. I mean, they're two defensive teams.

They've already seen each other three times in the first three weeks of the season. So you knew you were ready for this absolute war, which 20 points in a quarter might be a good quarter. That being said, seeing them up close in person, what really stands out, And I hear people talk about getting to see people in person. In fact, I was recently listening to Bill Simmons podcast,

and he said his son and producer Kyle, I believe it was, went to the Bucks Clippers and just seeing Anta Cumpo in person is just such an experience. I tell you this, there was one that happened to me last night, and obviously I've seen him a couple of times in person. When you see Donovan Mitchell in person, it is striking how small he is. It doesn't strike me on television. And then when you see him out there, and it makes me think a little bit about how so many people missed in the draft, he does not have great size. He is an outstanding player for certain.

But he's little, Kevin. He is. And he's littler than a lot of point guards in the league. And I think that may be one of the reasons that people overlooked him a little bit as a shorter shooting guard. Is that fair? Definitely. I mean, he was viewed as a combo guard, right? I mean, there was that age old, you know, kind of a knock on a guy.

Oh, he's not a true point guard. He's not big enough to be a two guard. When in reality, Mitchell is who is, right? I mean, in today's league, you don't need to fit into either one of those categories. And Mitchell's a better playmaker than he gets credit for. And I think someday if Ricky Rubio is not bare and Mitchell is given the keys to really run point, we're going to see him put up bigger numbers with Mitchell, which is about he still needs to improve a scoring efficiency. Last night, he went three of 14.

his scoring efficiency needs to get better over the course of time. Well, and I saw Joe Ingalls bust his head clean open and then have the bandage wrapped around his head. They were calling him headband Joe last night. And it wasn't a headband. That was frigging gauze wrapped around his head. He's unbelievable. He busted clean open.

Oh, yeah. You know, I ran into him before the game and I will regret this forever. Did you tell him about like our little bit? No. I was going to get him to film a video telling you that he, He did not look like a basketball player. It was a great regret of mine that I didn't do it. When I got the halftime of that game, I walked into the media room.

And immediately when I walked in, people were like, did you see the Keros Lavert thing? Yeah. I was like, what are you talking about? Guy holds up his phone and shows it to me. I'm not kidding. I got sick. I was like, dude, why'd you show me that? Like, I don't want to see that.

I mean, just absolutely devastating. We had talked about Karras a couple of weeks ago, gave him a lot of airtime as one of these really special young players that was starting to come into his own and certainly going to be a real piece for the Brooklyn Nets going forward. The kid lost two seasons in college to injury. And now this last night just looked absolutely horrific. And I don't know. I mean, I was at a game when it happened. And, of course, like news travels, I see. it on my phone and just, I don't know, man. I got sick to my stomach. Yeah. Before the Clippers game,

I was sitting by the court and I just pulled out my phone to see if anything had happened. And I looked in our Slack and saw someone posted about it. Then I immediately went to Twitter, saw the play and saw him getting carded off. And, you know, honestly, man, like, it just angered me, you know, when I first saw the news. Like, none of us are exempt from good or bad things happening to us in life, not me, not you, Chris, not anybody listening to the show. So it's not that it's unfair that it happens. It's just disappoint. pointing that these things can happen, especially with somebody like Lavert, like he showed so much perseverance in college coming back after both of his left foot surgeries that he had during

school. Then the Nets gambled on him because they're a team that had to get out of the bottom in the league. And so they gamble on a guy that's had injury issues, but did Flash star upside. And then he starts to show that, right? He starts to show that. Lavert represented hope for the Brooklyn Nets. He was an example of somebody who battled through his own personal form of adversity that chase his dreams, and then for the Nets, they had no hope before him. And he gave the team and their fans reason to be excited about the future.

And now that script is flipped. And there's a concerning unknown with him just because of one moment where his foot lands the wrong way and his ankle bends. And, you know, that's the reality of the NBA in all sports where injuries happen. It sucks that they do, but it sucks even more that it happened to someone like thevert

and a franchise like the Nets that's just been crawling out at the bottom of the barrel. And last night they slipped. To your point, I mean, that kid was on crutches at the combine his year. He didn't get to finish out his college career like he should have. Because that third left foot surgery definitely set him back for the NBA Combine, like you said. But it did seem like that supposedly solved the issue. And then this really, I don't know if it's a fluke or what.

I don't know what to call it, but just that one moment changes everything for him. I mean, we saw how Gordon Hayward comes back from like a similar. We don't know what the injury is specifically yet. But Gordon Hayward comes back with his foot being bent the wrong way. And he looks like a limp noodle out there on the court. We don't know what he's going to look like when he comes back. What you hope is that he is able to have the recovery of another gruesome injury, which is the Paul George one that happened in Team USA play,

because George was able to come back and be one of the best players in the league. Absolutely. Absolutely. That's what you hope for Lavert. And I will tell you, he had continued to prove you right in your stance of, I would not give him up in a Jimmy Butler deal. even though Jimmy Butler had outlined that Brooklyn was one of the teams that he might want to go to, you're pretty dogmatic in the sense that you were not willing

to give up Lavert in order to attain Jimmy Butler. Oh, Chris, we got good news, man. Oh, yeah? Shom Sharani had just reported that Karis Lavert dislocated his right foot and ankle. And that's it. I've never been more excited to hear that a guy dislocated his foot and ankle.

And we also have... Okay, so Nets put out a press release send from, says Nets team orthopedist Dr. Martin O'Malley. I think that's the same guy who operated on his left foot. There's a quote in here he says, fortunately, test performed this morning revealed there are no fractures and only moderate ligament damage. While the optics of the injury may have appeared to be more severe, surgery will not be

required. Karas Lever will begin a period of rehabilitation with the Nets performance staff, following which he is expected to return to full strength and resume all basketball activities without any limitations this season. That is awesome. This is great. This season. It says this season?

Yeah. We return to full strength and resume all basketball activities without any limitations this season. Oh, that is incredible. That is incredible. That may be the most shocking. Considering, you know,

and they obviously acknowledge us, while the optics were bad, everybody that saw that thought the same thing. And that's why you saw this immense amount of outpouring, especially from his brethren within the league. Dude, the human body is amazing.

I'm just saying, like, how does your foot bend that way. And you only have, quote, moderate ligament damage. How does nothing broken? How is that possible? Nothing broken and no surgery. Holy mackerel. I mean, his foot was bent the wrong way. He's rubber man. Dude, I'm floored. Great, great news for certain. And obviously, you know, we had just talked about, hopefully he comes back like Paul George was able to. This clearly gives us real hope. I mean, when they're talking about him getting on the court this season, that that was not nearly, not even close to as bad as any of us could have expected. What great news. I feel so good right now,

Chris. I feel like I can do anything. It's just great news. It makes my day. You feel like you can do anything? That just makes my day. Oh, okay. Well, then apologize to me about Carmelo. Shout out to Karis Leverd. Get well soon and get back on the court. We're going to take a quick break. When we come back, we will quick. kit a couple other news and notes from around the league. Today's episode of The Mismatch is brought to you by Google Pixel 3. Unleased the most powerful pixel ever on the network chosen by Google, Verizon. Pixel 3 has more than just any camera.

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Sacramento got another win last night, impressive win against the San Antonio Spurs. Oh, yeah. Is Sacramento going to end up where are we going to look up in a couple more weeks and they've taken a ton of losses? Are they for real or is this just early season success? What do you think?

I think it's probably just early season success. But with that said, with that said, they are not going to go to the bottom of the, league, which is where they have been in recent years. This team definitely has a lot of talent on it. And really, the guy leading the way is Dearen Fox. Dearon Fox has been outstanding. He's taking the leap.

He's certainly taken the leap, right? He looks like a radically different player this year than he did before. And I'll tell you this, Collie Stein's having a good year. You get Bogdan Bogdanovich back. Yeah, and obviously Buddy Heels good. Buddy heals, she's a hell out of it, man. That dude can stroke threes from anywhere all over the court. Deeran Fox, though, I mean, he's the guy.

We just talked about hope with Keros Lavert. Fox is the guy that really provides that hope for the Sacramento Kings franchise. You know, when he was drafted, I thought, here's a culture changer that they're drafting, like a high character guy who works hard and who's going to maximize whatever skill he has, right? And we're already seeing that, man. You know, in my article today, I looked at his shooting and his at-room finishing

because, yeah, he's shooting 44% from three that's not sustainable. But everything else about his game has been better, too. his passing is better. He's getting better at absorbing contact. Because his body is stronger, he's even better defensively. He's rebounding well. Everything's better for Deeran Fox.

And I don't know, man. That leap has just been really fun to watch. I think that's sustainable for him, but the shooting percentage will probably fall at some point. That's probably true. And who knows how they will build going forward, but certainly if I'm running that team, I look at it and I say,

if I've got a core of Deeran Fox, Buddy healed as a dead-eye shooter, and Bagley, who I just drafted, who you know I was higher on than maybe you are, but still. Still a good prospects. Yeah, I mean, if you've got those three, I can build around that and build a winner for, you know,

an extended amount of time if I don't screw it up. They've got some nice pieces as to, because obviously Healed opens up the court for both of those guys, and now I fill in the blanks with the rest of that roster. And I think, you know, Sacramento, they have the opportunity now after a lot of down seasons to build something special. out of the pieces that they have.

I agree. And don't underrate Bogdan-Bogdanovich either. Coming off their bench, I view him as just that type of spark plug scorer, right? Somebody who can heat up and drop 30 out of nowhere. There's value in having a guy like that, whether he's on your team or you someday use that player as an asset and a trade. So for Sacramento, they have a number of pieces that they can either use as assets

or keep on their roster for when they ultimately aspire to be a champion. team. That might be in the distant future, but it is in the distant future, but they have pieces. There's reason for optimism in Sacramento for the first time in a long, long time, Chris, a long time. Well, they are taking the leap or they look a lot better than I think it's what a lot of people thought Phoenix was going to do, and Phoenix has been all screwed up, right? I mean, that's two teams that have been in the lottery consistently, and this is a team that's kind of had some guys take the leap and they're able to beat you, you know, on a given night. Just like they got that nice win against the Spurs.

They've got a couple nice wins this year, whereas Phoenix is right back there at the very bottom, your bright future sons. Doesn't change the fact that they still have a bright future with Devin Booker and DeAndre Aiton. I'd rather have Sacramento's. I wouldn't argue with you, no. I wouldn't argue with you. But I would factor in this. You need to look at what's not on the roster right now, too.

Phoenix has their first round pick this season. Sacramento doesn't. Phoenix also has more future picks, so that needs to be factored into the equation as well. And they're in a market that's had historically more free agent meetings than Sacramento has. So I think there's advantages there for them too. Oh, yeah, I do remember when they signed Trevor Reza to $15 million in free agency. That was brilliant.

They got that meeting, though. They didn't get that meeting. They sure did. They got a meeting with Marcus Aldridge. they had a meeting scheduled with Blake Griffin. Had a meeting schedule. We're giving them credit for having, I mean, holy matter. But then we're now to the point of giving them when they had a meeting scheduled?

I mean, for goodness sake. What are we talking about here? I mean, a meeting schedule that he didn't go to. Well, and then the clippers did their whole thing. Like, you're going to be a clipper for life. They had their whole shebang and they're their, they were tired of his jersey. Yeah, they remember the like the music.

The museum they, yeah, exactly, the museum they had for Blake Griffin. Yeah, how could you not say yes to that? I don't know. I'd cancel all my meetings. Yeah. All right, Celtics offense has been strangely bad, right? Like, even if they were going to be trying times and trying to figure it all out for Brad Stevens, it's certainly with the extreme level of talent they have and the extreme level of depth,

It is a little odd that we're now double-digit games into the season, and it looks so disjointed. So what do you think has to happen for them to figure it out? I'm aware that you're not a basketball coach, but you wrote about this recently with Gordon Hayward. Well, I mean, I think we're all sitting back surprised. If there was a coach that was going to be able to figure this out, you'd put your money on Brad Stevens, right? Yeah. And obviously, he is searching right now. I think the one thing to make clear is that this offense ranked 18th last year.

They were the 18th ranked offense. So it's not like they were a great offense last year. They were a slightly below average offense in actuality. So they went from below average to poor. It's not like they went from good to bad. For some reason, there's a perception that their offense was great last year. It wasn't. It was their defense, their top ranked defense that led them to their games.

And right now it's the same story where it's their top ranked defense, number one defense in basketball so far this season. that's putting them, you know, right at 7 and 6, right over 500. But there's a lot of issues on that team. I still think they're taking too many mid-range jumpers. Simple little tweaks, you can help them there. Like I wrote about Tatum today as well in the article where it's like he's been better the last two games, but not stepping in, you know, when you're attacking a closeout for two,

go either go all the way to the basket or take a side dribble for three, little things like that. And I think, you know, integrating Gordon Hayward, it's not a bad thing that Marcus Schott isn't shooting the ball as much. It's not a bad thing that Hayward is playmaking over O'ZIR because Hayward's better at those things. But I think integrating him has knocked some other players off rhythm.

Jaylon Brown has really, really struggled this season, really struggled, shooting only 27.5% from three, not shooting well from anywhere on the floor. I think that is lack of rhythm on the offensive, and they don't seem to trust the offense, it seems. If you're Danny Ainge and you say,

all right, part of this is my job to try to make this mix, may be a little better. And let's say, I don't know if he feels that, but he's obviously a very competitive guy, and he's not going to let anything go on all too long. And he says, hey, I got to shake this up a little bit.

Which player would you be, if you were them, would you be most nervous that you might get moved out of there? If he makes a move and tries to shake things up roster-wise and says, hey, it's one thing, you know, there's only so much you're going to be able to blame on, Brad, so I need to switch this up a little bit, What do you think? I would be nervous if I were any of those players, man.

Like Danny Ains' first big move is Celtics General managers trading Antoine Walker, a fan favorite. That's when you knew that guy wasn't messing around, right? Some of the moves he's made over the years trading Isaiah Thomas, the year after all, everything transpired. The historic game that he had at the time he's battling injury and it's the passing of his sister. Danny Ains is all about business, and he's going to do the move that's right for his team. So if I were any of those players, it's just part of the reality. Well, the reason this matters is because you just saw Philly make the Butler deal. And if you're Danny Ains, you go, man, I don't want to have to play a game seven in Philly.

I don't want to have to play a game seven in Toronto. I don't want to have to play a game seven in Milwaukee. I mean, we had to play them in a game seven last year, but at least we got to do it on our home floor. So that home court advantage, given the competitive nature of the top four seeds and how good they all are, it is going to matter who gets home court advantage. I guarantee you one of those, maybe both of those series, go to seven games. And having that game on your home court could decide whether or not you're an NBA finals team or not. For sure.

And I think for Boston, at this point, we just joked about how like Dean E. He'll trade anybody, right? He traded his own son if he had to even improve the team. Right. But the fact is that I don't think there's any reason of panic. I really don't. I don't see any reason to panic with this team. You know what?

It's like with the Lakers, right? Going into the season, you knew that they were going to have early struggles. You knew that they were going to stink defensively. And for some reason, Maddo Johnson ripped Luke Walton, despite that expectation early on. That meeting happened too early. But with Boston, it's similar in the sense that you knew it's going to take a while for Gordon and Hayward to get integrated into the team. You knew that there would probably be some chemistry issues with getting him back into the rhythm of the team. So in a way, it's not overly surprising.

It's just they've been slightly worse than expected. They've still been generating open shots. I believe I saw a stat tweeted from Tom Westerholm of Mass Live. I think it was him who tweeted out that the Celtics have generated the most open shots of any team in the NBA so far the season. But they rank, I believe, 28th or 29th and effective field goal percentage on those shots. So they just haven't been hitting open jumpers as well. I don't think there's a reason of panic for the Celtics. Their defense is great.

It's going to continue to be great. Their offense should at least get back to an average or above average level and maybe a really, really good level at some point during the year. Well, and it's the growing pains of figuring it out. You're throwing in, right? You're throwing in. They had gotten used to playing the way they were playing down the stretch and then in the playoffs. And now that has been changed where they've inserted two new guys into that starting lineup. And they got to all figure out how to play with each other also.

And I know that Hayward's been, he's been the source of a lot of consternation, right? I hear Bill talking about a lot and like that it's indefensible to have him in at crunch time and whatever else. but these are the growing pains, right? These are the growing pains, right? Your ceiling extends if you get the real Gordon Hayward by the time the games matter most. That's what you're building towards. Yeah, that's what I'm saying.

Right. Yeah, yeah. It's like, you know, I had a article last week discussing like, Fultz, it's worth it to play him because you need him to be at the level. You need Markle Foltz. You need Markle Foltz, right? Boy, did he go viral last night? Oh, boy, he did.

And what do you make of this whole ending the relationship? relationship with Drew Hanlon. I mean, you saw the free throw. The kid obviously is not trusting his shot at all anymore. It wasn't just that free throw, Chris. That one went viral, but, you know, last night at the game during a timeout, I pulled up the video.

I wanted to see Fultz's three free throws that he took. His first one that he took looked like how it usually does. But the one before that one that went viral, he also had a pump fake on that one, too. It was a little bit more subtle. And he pumped it. He made the shot. He made the shot.

the shot. So it was not, he said the ball slipped out of his hands. Can you not feel it? I know. It's a sad situation. And you tried, you tried to defend him on the Yelp last weekend and say it was Embeded. And since then, I know you've seen it. At least three people have tagged us on Instagram with him yelping. He's a Yelper. He's yelper. He's yel. He's audibly yelping half the time when he shoots these shots. It is bizarre. And, and you do have that Drew Handlet thing, which we've got, Listen, this guy was out and talking about him and talking about how much he had grown or whatever. I mean, this is like the worst thing ever. I would never want to say like, hey, this is a guy that I worked with.

I don't know Drew Hanlon from Joe Schmoe. That being said, I thought you were about to say from Joe Ingalls. No, I know when it's out there. I know when it's out there all of the time, he worked with Drew Hanlon. He worked with Drew Hanlon. And Drew Hanlon's quoted all summer about it. And this is the result. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be like, oh, that's it.

Yeah, I'm the guy that worked. I'm the guy that worked with Mark L. Fault. And he's like, frigging free throws. Pretty interesting timing on their report, huh? Good Lord. Right? I don't know what's going on here, right? It's obviously not a mechanical issue.

The mechanics are all screwed up. But the damnedest thing, Kev, and I know we've talked about this a lot, but I mean, we saw him in college. He never looked like that. Never. Never. The guy that got drafted number one, never looked like that at the free throw line or the three point line. Ever. It's just strange. Yeah, so everybody you talk to in the league, it's pretty much the same exact reaction that you and I are having right now where it's like, I've never seen anything like this. This is the most unusual thing that they've seen in their lifetime, really, you know, with a player. It's not like Markell. Markle was never a great shooter in college. He was a good shooter. He might even have just been an average shooter, but he definitely wasn't a bad shooter. He didn't look like Shaq at the free throw line. He didn't look like a non-factor who was scared to shoot the ball. Markle Foltz would pull up from anywhere, dude. That dude was a baller at Washington.

pull-up highlights of him. That guy was unafraid to pull up from anywhere on the court. And at this point, he can't shoot spot-up threes. And his pull-up only works from, like, within 10 feet. It just sucks, man. And I think for Markell, we're in a spot now where it's possible. His shot is never going to get fixed. It's possible, right?

And if you're Markle Fultz, you need to look in the mirror and be like, you know what, time to deal with this and figure it out and make it work another way, right? Because you can look at somebody like Sean Livingston, who, A, got through a devastating injury. he battled through that, but also, like, after that injury, he turned himself into a player who made a positive impact by rebounding at a high level, by passing in a high level, by defending in a high level. And for Markell Fultz, he's somebody with his size, you know, at 6'5-ish, with long arms and strong body. He can still be a good player who makes a winning impact, but he really needs to focus on those areas of the game, rebounding, defense, and continue improving as a playmaker, which is one thing that has been a positive for him. this is going to sound really strange. Do you play golf by any chance? I don't. Okay. I've gotten in the situation where, I mean, many golfers have gone through this where you can hit the ball fine

all the time and then one day you go out there and it's just you're spraying it everywhere. And a lot of times it's because you're standing over the ball and you just can't stop thinking. And I'm prone to this too, right? It's like, where are my hands? Where are my feet? Is weight going to be on my right heel? On my back swing. How high is my back swing? How high is my back swing? All of this kind of stuff. And you're just driving yourself insane. And I saw this guy, Scotty McCarron, he's on the Champions Tour. And I was watching this thing on Golf Channel one night.

And he was talking about the way he does things and about this active part of your brain. And he was saying basically when he walks up to a shot, there's a gallery on the right and a gallery on the left. And there's all this commotion. And your caddy's talking. And then you're just going to go crazy if you're thinking about everything. So he would like walk up to the ball and he would be like, you know, 100, 1,000, 1,0,000, 1,000, 1, 6. and he would just say something like that in his head. And then he would stand over the ball and he would hit it. And it's like his brain would then be thinking about this. And it might be something as simple

as that. And again, I'm no expert, but certainly I will tell you that I went out there and I did it and it changed everything. No lie. It changed everything. And I just saw this guy talking about it on TV because I was the guy that would stand over the ball and I would just drive myself insane thinking about everything I'm about to do wrong or that I need to do right. And I do feel like that's the only explanation on Fultz. And I'm not saying I could cure him, but I'd sure as hell know, Drew Hanlon didn't. And it's a mess now. And the other thing is this, people keep talking about Fultz being a piece in order to, you know, maybe bolster what they've got because they've got a team that could possibly get to the NBA finals with M.B. Simmons and Butler. I don't know

if I'd give anything up for Fultz right now. Seriously. Not anything of real worth? I don't know how to value him. I just don't. I don't know how you value him. A number one pick who just in 2017 was viewed as a guy who could be like a hardened-esque player or a Brandon Roy type of point guard. I don't know how you value that guy when he, the way his game has changed and now he projects more likely as best case scenario, Sean Livingston, right? And like, that's a good player. Like, that's not a bad outcome for him to be a Sean Livingston. You think his best case scenario is now Sean Livingston? Oh my God. I'm saying if the shot never gets better. If the shot never gets better,

I don't know how you value that guy. And you mentioned how Drew Handlin couldn't help him. And I don't know. I'm not sure what can help Markell. I really don't. All I know is if I'm Philadelphia, you need to turn over every stone

and try everything. All right. One thing I do want to mention before we get out of here is the draft. And you recently wrote about Zion Williamson. You're all in on Zion. Woo! Hey, as am I,

he is absolutely phenomenal to watch, right? Great, great player. I want to tell you this. I happened to see, and this was somebody I was unfamiliar with prior to yesterday, and I believe it was House of Highlights that I saw it on, maybe. This Kevin Porter for USC? Oh, I was at that game. Oh, my God.

He really does look like Hardin. Like he said he's like, that's his hero or whatever. Like, that's who he's always looked up to. No, the lefty and he's got the stepback stuff. And he was just bully-balling people around. I don't know, man. Again, I haven't watched a play a full game. I just saw those highlights, but those highlights, I was like, my God, this guy looks awesome.

Yeah, I mean, he's a good player. He's a good prospect. I don't see him as a hardened player, though, to be honest with you. I'm just saying the moves are reminiscent. I mean, I don't know. And the lefty stroke. And the shot kind of looks the same. And I tell you this, the highlights of that friggin' bowl bowl, holy mackerel.

Oh, ball, bowl is fun. Kevin Porter real quick. Like, to me, he may be like a judge. Justice Winslow with a jumper or like worst case scenario, the best case version of James Young, if that makes any sense at all. Oh, God. Does that make any, does that make any sense? No. You just, it's like, it's like what the Celtics drafted James Young to be.

When Bill Simmons pumped his fist when James Young was drafted, that's the version of James Young that I'm talking about. Oh, not the colossal bust? Yeah, not the colossal bust. When I say that, I mean like Kevin Porter just looks big. on the college court, right? James Young looked huge in college, looked huge, and then in the NBA floor, he wasn't quite as big.

Kevin Porter's always going to be wide, always going to be strong. Like, he has a man's body for a teenager, but there's development that needs to happen. His shot needs to get more consistent. He needs to get more consistent, period, because he comes and goes during games. But there's no doubt there's talent, man.

Like, he can hit shots, he can create, he's strong, he's fluid, he can change directions well. There's a ton of talent there. From what I hear, he does work hard. and he's a good kid. So we'll see how he develops. All right.

Kevin O'Connor, can't wait to hear the podcast on Friday. And I will talk to you next week. Thanks, brother. Looking forward to it, Chris. Have a good one. If you dig what you're here,

go give us a rating and review on iTunes, five stars, five stars. And we will talk to you next week.