The Ringer NBA Show - What Are the Chances Zion Williamson Is Actually As Dominant As He’s Looked in the Preseason? | The Mismatch

Episode Date: October 11, 2019

With Daryl Morey’s tweet now almost a week in the rearview, we talk about the NBA preseason games being played in China and assess how this story line might continue to unfold (9:30). Then, we share some more takeaways from preseason thus far, including the Rockets looking like the best team in the NBA and Zion seemingly dominating the NBA like he’s dominated his past competition (21:28). Hosts: Chris Vernon and Kevin O’Connor Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Today's episode of the NBA show on the Ringer Podcast Network is brought to you by State Farm. The moment we've all been waiting for is about to arrive. The official start of the NBA season, this offseason was filled with a lot of big changes and fresh starts. The fresh starts in your life, talk to a State Farm agent. So when it comes to your insurance, you don't have to go at it alone. A lot of fresh starts that we are going to be talking about, these teams that look a lot different, including a second look at Russell Westbrook and James Hardin in the same. back court and I got to see NBA prospect R.J. Hampton play in person. He's got a fresh start

with the team he's playing with in New Zealand. Talk to a State Farm agent today about combining your home and auto insurance and get a teammate who can help you prepare for the big changes in your life, State Farm. Welcome to The Ringer NBA show. I'm Chris Vernon and joining me as he does every Friday from The Ringer.com is Kevin O'Connor, aka Kevin O'Brien, aka Kevin O'Conflict, A.k.a. Kevin O. Camera. Kevin O.C.C. Kevin O'Cliber. Kevin. Furno. It's weird talking to you right now after we just talked Tuesday morning. But it feels good. Also recording in the evening. So we were recording this early Thursday night for the Friday pod because Kevin is going to be heading back to Los Angeles for the beginning of the NBA season.

We have not talked about this all that much on the pod, but you have been in. in Boston for a great deal of the summer, as you have been able to spend time with your father and the Patriots have a big game. So we're recording this before the Patriots game. You and your dad get to watch the game together. I guess first things first, you have been very vocal.

You raised a ton of money with dunked on cancer and have let people know about the situation that you've gone through and your family has gone through with your father. Want to give us an update? Yeah, I mean, he's doing all right. He had a cat scan last month that had mixed results, but, you know, overall, we're happy. My parents just celebrated their 30th anniversary on October 1st of this month.

So that was a date when he was first diagnosed that we sort of had envisioned as like, let's get to that point. And then it's about what's next after that. So, yeah, it's great that we got to celebrate that earlier this month. It was a really great day. and hopefully we get a lot more of those but just continuing to take a day by day. I appreciate you asking Chris and as always everybody always reached out

supporting that positive energy it feels good and I'm I've sending it right back to you everybody. Thank you. Well, and there have been many times I am certainly when I talked to you and you talked about you going back and that you were going to be

watching the game with your dad. You know this cuts me right to the heart because anybody that's followed me over the year. years. My father has had a bunch of different health scares over the years, and I got to go through. I get to watch the games with my dad on Sunday every year or every weekend. And then obviously I had grown up with season tickets to the St. Louis Blues and their run this past year is, you know, one of the great memories of my entire life. And it just so happens. You really got me on this one, Kev, because when you're talking about being with your father and watching the game, anybody that's got to experience that, you know, knows how much that can mean and how you end up holding that forever and what an impact it can have on you as a father now. It all comes full circle for me because not only did I get to experience that in the spring, but I am a Cardinals fan as I grew up in St. Louis. And tomorrow I am going to be headed to St. Louis where I'm taking my son. and so me and my son are going to be going to the National League Championship series

between the Cardinals and the Nationals. So here is hoping that we get some great memory. It will get great memories out of it no matter what. But I hope they win. Yeah, yeah, no doubt. I mean, that photo you posted of you and your dad on Instagram earlier this year after the Blues won the Stanley Cup, that brought a tear to my eye because I know that feeling with watching games, you know, with my dad over the years. And obviously growing up in Massachusetts, we've been very fortunate with all the good luck. The Red Sox, Patriots, Celtics, Bruins have had over the years.

So we've had a lot of great memories. And that's something that I've never taken for granted and never will for the rest of my life. And as you mentioned now, having children of your own, I think this year with me, you know, dealing with, you know, my dad's cancer. I think that's more than anything else really clarified in my eyes, just the power and love of family. and it has made me more than any other time in my life realize how great it would someday be to have a family of my own, to share in that someday be a father to a son or daughter. And whether they like sports or whatever, it doesn't matter. But just to take part in whatever gives them joy, nothing could be more fulfilling than that.

So I look forward to you having that night tomorrow, Chris, watching the Cardinals with your kid. I cannot wait. And I do want to say, before we get started with the show today, because we're going to talk a lot of basketball, I do want to say to everybody out there on behalf of Kevin and myself, and you can speak for yourself, but I was and have been for the last, you know, whatever, 72 hours, just insanely overwhelmed by the amount of people that have been so nice and kind about us expanding to two days a week. It was, I mean, look, we made the announcement on the pod and then we put it up on Twitter. that we were going to be expanding to two days. But the response to that was so incredibly overwhelming. And so a massive thank you and a real level of appreciation that we want to show all of you that listened to this podcast on a regular basis and have for a couple of different years now.

We love doing it. Kevin and I have become very good friends over the course of doing it that we argue about basketball. But to see the response from people that were excited about us expanding, I was overwhelmed by it. and I'm exceptionally grateful, and I know as are you, to all of those people that responded. Yeah, reading that stuff means the world. And, you know, again, like I said earlier, but thank you for sending out that positive energy

into the world at us. It feels good. And, you know, also I think it's worth adding, you know, Bobby Wagner will be producing for us this year. He will. You produced the Corner 3 with us last year. But this year you'll be on the mismatch. Isaac Lee will be doing heat check.

among many, many other projects with the ringer. So we went from Tate Frazier to Isaac Lee, and now Bobby, we're excited to have you. Yeah, I hope we're not going to be labeled as coach killers, you know. Bobby, are we coach killers, are we? I don't know. This is what happened? With players, you know, when guys start getting moved out,

it's like, okay, what's the problem here? Is it the guys? It's up point it's us. I got to be equally as excited as David Blatt was to receive LeBron James, you know? You guys are going to kill me at the end of the season? No, no, no. Hey, let me tell you something. Let me explain to you something.

Tate got a great gig and has moved on. Isaac Lee, he's moved on up from us. So, Bobby, I mean, like, in fairness, everybody that everybody that's been with us ends up doing better things than us. I mean, Tate moved on to hosting his own podcast and then getting a job with like a production company. Tate, Tate was, no, I'm, don't take credit for Tate. Yes. Oh, I take 100% credit for Tate. What are you talking about? He was nothing without me.

Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Well, actually, and Titus. Oh, boy, I can't believe they're both gone, but I can't either. greatly and I stay in touch with both then they're both stay friends for forever for for both of us that's the cool thing about this gig right yeah is making friends that you're going to be connected with for a long long time hopefully for the rest of your life right

and um but it's been great that we started this pod October 4th 2016 Chris was our first show is that true and you know like this is our fourth year now and I listened back to our first show recently and boy we've growing a lot and it's been great to develop this. Is that true? Yeah. Yeah, it's October 4th, 2016. Hard to believe it was that long ago. But, you know,

it's a lot of people say like, oh, I thought Chris and Kevin hate each other. It's like, no, we're friends. We just argue about stuff. That's what friends do. They argue and then they go back to being civil. Hopefully, not all the time in society, but that's what we do. Okay. Well, I did feel

like while there was so much positive reinforcement about us expanding, I did feel there were people mad at us, which we knew we were going to run into to quote the great Mike DeAntoony, it's a no-win situation when he was asked. You know, he said, I'm just a basketball coach, right? And he was asked to speak on everything that has taken place with the NBA in China over the course of the last couple of days.

And I think, you know, just surveying it, you and I knew that when we were going to delve into this topic, that there was, right, that it was, it was, is necessary for us to talk about something big that was going on, but that it is one of those topics with that there are going to be a lot of people with a lot of different opinions, and there's going to be a lot of people that are mad about your opinions, no matter. It is certainly, you know, for many in the NBA, and I think you have seen a no-win proposition in the sense that I know, and even me saying that will elicit somebody saying, It is a win-win situation, right?

Like, there is billions of dollars at stake, and it is a no-lose proposition on Twitter to speak your mind, right, unless you are Darryl Morey. And I was very impressed with the amount of experts on this particular situation and how simple it really is when I looked at my Twitter feed over the last couple of days. That being said, this incredibly complicated situation. in China, it looked as if they were going to, I really thought they were going to cancel those games. And the games didn't get canceled.

It seemed that they were going, you know, when they were taking down banners, they had canceled an NBA CARES event. They had canceled an NBA 2K logo unveiling. They had canceled a fan appreciation event. And it certainly looked as if that those teams might have gone there for no reason at all in the end. and instead those games did go off and you saw the response from the fans in the crowd to LeBron and everybody else with the Nets and the Lakers. And so the games were played in China and this story will continue on for certain. This is not going away.

Well, it's definitely not going away. That's for sure. And that's what Adam Silver himself has referenced. And by the way, just to touch on what you just mentioned earlier, it's true. I mean, I was actually, you know, I actually enjoyed reading the responses, both the people who were in agreement with me or you or you or you or both of us. And I found it, you know, quite educating. I think for me, when this first broke, you know, late Friday, early Saturday, I would say for a long time now, I've wondered when the NBA and something with politics that I'm not. super educated about ever crossed. I always questioned, will I be ready to discuss that? And,

you know, Tuesday morning, I don't know. I mean, I don't know if I am right now. I just think, you know, speaking from the heart, that's what I try to do on Tuesday. And I got messages from people from every side, you know, whether it's someone who is Chinese, whether it is somebody who is in support of the Hong Kong protesters or somebody who is just an American in support or not. I got messages from every side, people agreeing and disagreeing, which really for me just put into perspective how difficult overall the situation is. I think you can look at the Hong Kong protests and say maybe that is not as difficult or as complex as is sometimes perceived to be. But overall, this overarching issue with the NBA in China and the Hong Kong protests, it is complex overall.

And it's something that it's going to be very interesting to see how this development. moving forward, especially after today, Chris, with the games being played, with there being the report from the New York Times that China is having its media backed down and actually talking about it, because I think there could be a bit of a strice and effect happening here, where because of the actual attention on China right now, there is more being discussed of what's happening behind the scenes, whether it is the camps in Xinjiang, whether it is the Hong Kong protests, that it could actually be more of a negative for China to be erring out what's going on with the NBA. So maybe they want to quiet this down now because of the eyes on the stuff

actually happening to people in China right now. Yeah, I was listening to Bill's podcast the other day, and they were talking about LeBron and whether or not LeBron would speak on this. And we spoke on this on Tuesday, but I am, there's a couple of things. Two things that I've thought about quite a bit over the course of the past couple of days are you know there is the massive shoe contract deals that some of the biggest stars

in the league have Clay Thompson and Dwayne Wade both have huge contracts or even players that make trips to China every year like Steph Curry makes multiple trips to China every summer there's a lot of

there's a lot of players that have deep connections to, you know what I mean. And I guess the expectation, you know, I wonder if people feel like the NBA, if the standard should be held to everybody that has the connection, right? That this should be the moment where somebody that has a, you know, a Chinese shoe deal should speak out or somebody that feels this way should speak out. And the other thing is this. I couldn't help but think as so many of these very, very, very. strong opinions were coming into me.

The podcast elicited in some way. What if Daryl never sent out the tweet? What if that tweet didn't happen? What if it didn't exist? And I think that was the point I was attempting to make on Tuesday when I was saying there are some people that it will be the story of the day that now all of the sudden it is an outrage that they you know no greater outrage have they ever felt right but uh you know the the strongness in which you feel about a situation i i just wonder if that tweet never happens

the jump is in china the ESPN's in China uh you know rachel and and the teams are in China and it's a big event and it's a celebration of the NBA and you can say well then that's just because you're not paying attention because all this stuff going on. I know the way this stuff works, right? Daryl's tweet set it off. Set it off. If that tweet doesn't happen, that was what spawned this, what became an international incident with massive financial implications, right? That is undeniable, right? And, you know, shout out to all of you that were thinking about this daily and were. had very strong opinions about this daily and would have caused a furor over the NBA

and their teams being over there in the first place. You know, I, you know, like, it forced us. You know, that tweet forced a lot of people to come to terms with a lot of things that, frankly, a lot of us had not thought about before. That's all I'd say. Yeah, which is, you know, I was reflecting about this. I would say Monday night, especially Tuesday morning.

Because really, like, honestly, I would say the whole weekend for me, when this broke Friday night, I was getting work done in Dallas. I was getting dinner than getting work done. Saturday all day. I'm doing interviews from my Maverick story that's going to be out Monday, then getting work done after that. Then I had, you know, dinner and I, on a whim, kind of went to a concert. And like, that's zero excuses at all for not being plugged into a national issue. But it's the type of thing where it's like, I think for a lot of people, the point is is that it's hard to have a full complete understanding of both issues that are in the United States and issues internationally. It's hard to fully grasp the complexities and the intricacies of any political issue.

Because as people, we have, you know, our own responsibilities for me. It's like, you know, helping take care of my dad, helping my mom take care of him. It's my job, which I, to perform at the level that I hope to, I invest a lot of time in doing that. And then it's like spending free time, like, you know, trying to get dinner with friends and, you know, going to listening to music or going to a show. It's the type of thing where that's true for everybody, where everybody has their own responsibilities, whether they work two jobs to provide for their family or whether they're a student.

It's hard to fully understand these things. And I think on the fly, whether it's you or me, Chris, I can only speak from my myself, but this is something I'm trying to to learn about. I hope that I hope there's at least a segment of our audience that even if they're going to get mad and even if they're going to fire off that angry tweet right now.

We come by this honest. We ain't trying to be it. We ain't trying to BS with anybody. Exactly. I will understand if somebody were to call me an idiot for that. I would totally get it. It's fine. I would. But the point is that I want to learn. These are things that I think you and me, Chris and everybody should

have an awareness of. And that's ultimately ultimately at the start here, that's what Daryl was trying to do here. Right. Well, he was trying to just put it out there that this is something happening in the world, something that we should be focusing on. This is serious stuff going on in China.

And ultimately, I mean, it's a type of thing where you got to, I think it's important to learn about worldwide issues and issues at home. So for me, it was just sort of a reminder that that this is something, despite how much you have to, invest in your own life, whether it's your family, whether it's your work or whatever else,

it is, it is good to not be ignorant to the issues happening around the world. Because you know what, they can't affect you. Well, you always, the more time you have, the more interest you can have in those things. I am with you. And now I had two kids. I'm worried about my kid throwing up. Like that's so high on the list versus, I know, like, I mean, I'm sorry. I'm sorry. And like, which is tough. You know, listen, if people, people want to be, people want to, uh, you know, be upset about the lack of education on all manner of subjects. That's fine. And I don't mind the response is I could do without you telling me to F off or calling me a D head.

I would say, I think for me it's the type of thing where I used to, I used to always try to have an opinion about everything at one point in my life. And I think I learned over time, for me at least, you know, sometimes it's like if I don't know something about a subject, I keep my mouth shut. totally quiet. There's certain nights where I'll be out at a dinner with a couple people and they're talking about something where I have no freaking clue what they're talking about. And I just sit there quietly listening. And I think that's, you know, that quality has served you well because think about how much basketball you have learned from me over the course of the past couple. What an A plus pivot.

Let's get into basketball. That was pro level, Chris. Elite, elite pivot. I'm a professional. Okay, Kyrie Irving played like one and a half minutes and then aggravated a facial fracture. Nobody really came out with some kind of like extent of the injury or timeline. I mean, it was less than two minutes into the game and they have their opener on October 23rd. He had a facial fracture that had happened prior to training camp and then he didn't last two minutes before it got aggravated again by Rondo, no,

less. And the reason, well, the reason that this stands out, Kevin, is because we had this discussion just the other day when I told you what that lineup looked like for the Lakers and you said, nobody be surprised by this. LeBron James is a point card. This was a different lineup that was tried out by Frank Vogel, which was more of the standard lineup, you know, position by position that you would normally see. And it was Rondo Caldwell Pope, LeBron playing his traditional small forward with Anthony Davis and Dwight Howard. Chance that that, you know what I mean? Which of those lineups do you like more?

That first one that we talked about was LeBron and Avery Bradley, and I believe it was Davis and McGee was in the front court, right? And then who was that other, who was the other wing player that he started? It wasn't Caldwell Pope. Who wasn't the other day? Danny Green started that game, I believe. Yeah, Danny Green. Danny Green. That's right.

it was Danny Green. Right. So now we've kind of gotten two different looks at what a Lakers starting lineup could look like. This was certainly the more traditional point guard, shooting guard, small forward, power forward center. And you had that first game where it was LeBron and Bradley as the starting back court in that game. I kind of think that it'll probably end up more like the one they started against Brooklyn than the one they first started. You might end up. falling on the Brooklyn one eventually. But anyway, that's what stood out when I saw that Rondo is the one that hurt Irving. The first thing I thought was, huh, Rondo started, huh? You know, and then, and then obviously Kyrie going out was a big deal because you know that there was an immense amount of people there that loved to get to see Kyrie Irving in person the one time they were going to get a chance to. I mean, to answer your question, well, this is a non-answer. I don't really know. I'm more interested in who's going to be the top players finishing games for the Lakers. I think with their starting lineup, maybe it depends on the opponent, right? I could also see scenarios where you might

want to start Anthony Davis at center and you might have Kyle Kuzma in there who has not played yet. He could be a starter rather than coming off the bench as well. So for the Lakers, I think this is Vogel merely experimenting with different types of lineup combinations more so than who's going to start. So until Kuzma comes back, I'm not sure we can have a great idea of who's going to start. games, nor really who's going to finish them either for that matter. And with Brooklyn, I mean, Kyrie going out and Karis Levert, too, within the first minute, pretty, pretty disappointing for them, traveling all the way to China and losing two of their top, well, their two best players right now with Katie being out for the all or

most of the season, unfortunately, even though it seems like these aren't major. I think we could have certainly had the expectation of what their first three guys, their one, two, and threes would be, which were Kyrie are very. Joe Harris and Keres Lavert. Their front court was Torrine Prince and DeAndre Jordan when it comes to the season, which is obviously not that far away.

Is that the starting front court for Brooklyn? And Tori and Prince actually led the the Nets in scoring today. I would assume DeAndre Jordan will start. I would assume so. I would also assume that Tori and Prince is going to start to. I think Prince, when you're talking about if you're ranking some of the most underrated acquisitions of the offseason,

Tari and Prince has to be one of them. 25 years old. I like him. Can be a versatile defender at 6-8, long, strong body, can get buckets for you, can have high-scoring games. Tori and Prince, to me, when you factor in, the rest of that team, the fact, Kyrie and Laverde are going to be the two primary scores on that team. Prince is going to get some easier opportunities.

Well, and it's kind of wild because, it feels like they replaced Damare Carroll with young Damare Carol. Seriously. You hope. He's always gotten those comps. You hope. You know, he's always gotten the comps have,

has Tardine prints. And especially because he, you know, the hair and then he was drafted by Atlanta and now he's at Brooklyn. I mean, it's crazy the way it's worked out. It was like that he mimicked, you know, Carol in many ways. They are

like players in in many respects. And Carol clearly had worked himself up to a good enough player in Atlanta to get that monster contract once upon a time, you know? So yeah, I could see that happening. I feel bad for Jared Allen. I do. I do.

Because, I mean, he had a dynamite season last year. And I really like him as a player. He's an active, active guy. He's 21, though. He's still going to get minutes. I understand, but I mean, he, I feel like he is a deserving starter. And like, then, you know, they required DeAndre Jordan, for God's sakes, Jared Allen was playing in the damn summer league. I mean, it was ridiculous.

I have no idea why he was playing in the summer league. And then, you know, you look up one year and you're starting at the next year, you're not. To DeAndre Jordan, who, you know, was collecting dust for the Knicks and had gotten moved off of rather, quickly by the Dallas Mavericks, right? I guess we'll see. Other stories that have come out since we have last spoken in the games that we have watched. Houston, while they have been caught up in a great level of controversy, they played

again and they looked great again. So what do we make of now two game sample size of these new look Houston Rockets? I think it's another positive moving forward for them. What's interesting is I don't put a ton in. these single number stats or anything like that. But 538 released their new Raptor rating today, which replaces Carmelo.

Even 538 is saying so long to Carmelo Anthony. So 538 released this new prediction machine for players, for teams as well. And they have the Houston Rockets, interestingly, as the favorite to win the NBA finals. Well, their stats, guys. They're stats guys and Daryl keeps telling everybody they should be up there. You know what I mean?

I guess they got the same stats as Daryl. They changed Carmelo. Damn, man, can this guy catch a break? At least he had a stat named after him. For what it's worth, they have the Houston Rockets is a 26% chance of making the finals. Clippers at 17%,

Warriors at 10%, Nuggets at 6%. Lakers only at 4%. And like, I don't put a lot into these numbers. I just don't. I think it's incredibly hard to predict. a team making the finals at this point,

never mind individual players and how they're going to develop using just data. I think there's so many other factors with how teams can change and everything else. But with that said, Houston does look pretty good. They do look pretty sharp. And I think if you're getting everything

that you want out of the James Hardin, Russell Westbrook dynamics so far, again, it's only preseason here. But against a pretty, still a rock solid Raptors team, I thought Houston looked impressive this morning. I think with James Harden and Russell Westbrook, this is something that over time should continue to improve for them.

Like we talked about either in last week's show or earlier this week, with Russell Westbrook, I am encouraged. As somebody who, you know, if you've listened to the show for a long time, I have been extremely critical of Russell Westbrook. And I've been encouraged with his style of play so far early on, early on in this preseason. And one of the examples I thought came early in the first quarter. when there's a pin down screen on the side of the side of the floor by Clint Capella.

And instead of pulling up from a deep two as Russell Westbrook normally would, he almost seemed like he assured that he stepped into a three-pointer pull-up. And for Russ, shooting off the dribble is something that he's around maybe a 37% pull-up shooter from two-point range and maybe around 30% from three. That three-point shot is a higher points per shot, a result for him. So I think you're going to see a more efficient Russell Westbrook when he shoots the ball off the dribble. If this continues, never mind the fact that from the spacing that Houston creates for him, he should conceivably be getting more at-room opportunities, should be getting more drawn falls as a guy who has been just a ferocious downhill player.

For Russ, we could see one of the most efficient seasons of his career if he continues down this path. But early on, I'm encouraged, Chris. I really am. Game two has me even more encouraged than after game one. Let me say this regarding the numbers that you gave out that you say you do not believe in. I just pulled up what the current odds are, at least in one sports book. And they have the favorite, and this would be $100 wins, right, the amount that I am going to give, right? That's what these numbers represent. So the LA Clippers are plus 300, 120, 300.

The Lakers 350. And part of this is because those teams are going to gather a lot of best. The next favorite is Milwaukee $550. So $100 to win you $5.50. And then the Sixers, $700, and then the Rockets 800. Which of those teams do you think is most underrated out of curiosity? Or who's most overrated, depending how you want to do? I don't think any of those odds are all that great.

I would have to say one of the Eastern conferences. So if you feel strongly about either of those two teams, I would say either the Bucks or the Sixers. I don't think you're going to get value on these Western Conference teams. You're not to win the title. I mean, because look, at the worst, you're going to have one of the two teams represented, if you really believe in one of those Eastern teams, right? At worst, you're going to have one of the two. So I guess the Sixers, I guess.

just because they're the longer number of the Eastern Conference teams. Because, I mean, the next one after that, you got to go a long way to find anybody in the Eastern Conference. I'm trying to scan through here. Yeah, the next would be Brooklyn at plus 1,800. The Celtics plus 2,300. I mean, and you, you know, they've got the goods. If they wanted to make a deal, you could see them moving Jalen Brown. right and saying we're not going to give him you know we're going to let somebody else give him a

max contract you know what's funny speaking about Celtics making a move uh Danny Aange today on Twitter he uh or maybe it was yesterday but Danny Ains this week on Twitter um he tweeted so he has like a little dog uh the dog is called little weasy and he this dog has its own Twitter and this dog responded to a post made by the Washington Wizards because Bradley Beal brought his dog to work. And this dog at Little Weezy Dog tweeted, bear with me here. The dog tweeted,

I want to get traded to the Wizards please at Daniel Aange, Daniel R. Aange. And then Danny Age responds, well, Beal's dog is longer and stronger at Little Weezy Dog, but I'm sticking with you, Weezy for now, crying face emoji. Point being,

is this like a very subtle way of expressing interest in Bradley Beal? Is this true dogs? Is this tampering? Yeah, is this tampering through the use of dogs on Twitter? Wait, who's dog? Wait, wait, wait, it's Danny Aange tweeting with a dog or two dogs tweeting? So there's, so I don't know if Danny Aange's dog, but it's a dog that he's connected to at Little Weezy Dog. He follows on Twitter.

What do you mean he's connected to the dog? I think it's his dog. There's a photo, there's a photo of the dog sleeping on Danny Aange on Twitter. He said on October 7th, it would take a lot to trade at Little Weezy Dog with a photo of the dog sleeping on him. And then on October 9th, the dog, the dog retweets the Wizards. Can we just take a pause real quick? The dog is not fucking retweeting anything. But Danny Age could be controlling the dog's account, it's my point.

Wait. Are you trying to convince me that the dog doesn't control its own account? I'm saying it might not be one of his grandkids or whatever. Regardless, the point is that. No, maybe it's Brian Colangelo's wife. Oh. Point being, boy, I must sound like a total fool right now. But the point is, is that Danny H is talking about Bradley Beale's dog saying he's not going to trade his dog for Beal for Beals.

And it's like, oh, wait a minute here. Huh. Huh. Wait a minute. wait a minute, what's going on here, Danny? Is this galaxy brain tampering right here? This is, no, yeah, this is tampering at 2019. And you could just say, what?

My dog tweeted. Kevin O'Connor believed it. Oh, come on. Why don't you do a big report on his dog tweeting? You kept on saying his dog tweeted. No, well, you get what I'm saying. Actually, you know, now that I mention it, I should pass this along to Roger Sherman from the ring.

because this is right up his alley and he would write an absolutely hilarious posts on this. So perfect. That's actually an idea. I'm going to do that after we get off this podcast. Hey, just letting you know, I got a scoop for you. I got a scoop dog tampering right here.

That is plus 2300, as I said, was the Celtics. So that may be, that's the third highest odds or the third lowest odds of any Eastern Conference team. And so you might have to get some odds. I will tell you that right now they've got Houston regular season wins.

You'd have to lay $140 to win $100, but they're over under that I'm looking at right now is 53.5. So if you are a big believer and if you do believe greatly in those numbers, then, you know, that 538 blog is saying they've got a one and four chance of getting to the NBA finals. I would certainly imagine that that would mean that the expectation is that they would win more than 53 games. That's all I'd say. Sure. Yeah. By the way, I just want to clarify one thing that I mentioned earlier. I mentioned Russell Westbrook's shooting stats pulling up off the dribble.

Just to clarify those actual numbers, Russell Westbrook shoots since the 2013 season, including the playoffs, 29.9% on pull-up threes compared to 39.8% on pull-up 2s. So that's essentially 0.8 points per shot on pull-up 2s compared to 0.9 points per shot on pull-up 3s, which doesn't sound significant, but over 100 and 150 pull-ups, that adds up over time with the amount of shots you're taking. That's all. All right, Kevin, we'll get right back to it. we do want to remind everybody today's ringer MBA show is brought to you by privacy.com. When it's game day, you can't be fumbling around your wallet to pay for a food order

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email. I just got one recently. It said, someone has logged in under your account in, in Honduras or wherever. Was this you? If not, go change your passwords. Like, nobody wants to deal with that. And over the course of the last couple of years, I have been keenly aware of what you put online. And that's why someplace like Privacy.com is great.

You can head to Privacy.com slash NBA to sign up. New customers will automatically get five bucks to spend on their first purchase. Yep, that's free money for any online purchase. For food delivery, ticket purchase, or game day merch. Go to privacy.com slash NBA and sign up now. So it was just a few years ago that I was watching a young, up and coming player on House of Highlights and other different Instagram accounts

and Twitter accounts, etc. And it looked like a guy who was just so much bigger, stronger and faster than everybody he was playing against. He would see Zion Williamson going up against, you know, some five, six white kids. You're like, wait, how are they even in the same league? And how is this guy? So it looked like an NBA player on like a junior high court.

And then, you know, it was like, all right, well, what's it going to look like when he's against college kids? And then we saw him against college kids. And he looked bigger and stronger and faster than everybody immediately. He was jumping from, you know, right outside of the lane and blocking three pointers. and he was doing the fantastic over and over again, and it just looked like there's one guy and there's the other nine guys on the court,

and this guy is just different. And then it was like, all right, yeah, well, that's just college. What's it going to look like in the NBA? And I'll be damned if I didn't flip it on. And guess what, Kevin? He looks bigger, stronger, and faster than everybody there, too. It looks like there should be a freaking different league for this guy.

The thing is, no, you should either be that big or be. able to jump that high and have that level of explosiveness. But he brings both to the table, and it has not mattered what league he is in, whether we have, and we've been seeing him since high school, high school college, or even last night in the NBA, there are the moments where you just say, my God, what a specimen. This guy is. This guy, he just looked bigger, stronger and faster than everybody out on that court last night. He's just a man. And for a long, time there, you know, I mean, good grief. I mean, he hardly missed a shot. I think he, did he end up missing more than one last night by the time it was all said and done? He had

29 in that Bulls game. I think he was 12 of 13 with all the shots being taken at the rim. And with Zion, man, it's the same thing as in college really, where almost everybody's tweeting out the highlights of the big dunks. And of course, that's impressive. It's, of course it's impressive. But with Zion, there's just so much more to his game, man, the fluidity and the footwork, taking some of those dribble handoffs and just slivering his way to the rim with his big ass bulky body and being able to lay the ball up with either hand with touch. It's remarkable to see. There was this one possession he had in the third quarter where the bulls collapsed with four or five guys in the paint. And the way Zion like sort of hops.

step through everybody, corralled his dribble, and then was able to leap past. I think it was Zach Levine and Laurie Markanin and then lay the ball up contested was just extraordinary, man. Not a lot of guys in the league can do that. I'm not sure. You can say Janus can do that. You can say LeBron James could do what he did on that play. But it's a very small list.

Just his ability to use finesse or power to score the ball inside is pretty extraordinary and pretty fun to watch. And what also stood out to me last night was you are inevitably going to get some, there are people in some quarters that when you had the, in college or, you know, in high school was like, yeah, well, look who he's playing against. And in college, in college, it was like, yeah, well, it's different to play it in the NBA. And then last night, it's like, yeah, but that's the preseason. Bro, if you can't see this, I can't help you.

I cannot help you if you don't see it. But if the question was, is he going to be awesome quickly? I don't know what you need to see. The answer is yes. He is going to be awesome immediately. He is just not of this earth. Like what the guy, the size, the speed, the, like you were talking. And that's just like, forget the just pure blunt force.

Guys just bounce off of this guy. and when you are stronger and quicker and can jump higher than your competition, I feel as if he's, you know, this, he's going to have to learn the NBA game, but when he does watch out and, you know, I think there was a question of, hey, that's a lot of times to put a guy on national TV as a rookie. And I get that they've got some other guys. but look, they got on national TV 30 times because of Zion Williamson. I think that they're, they, he is proving at least in the preseason.

He's going to be must see immediately. Like, and it is, all along this way, people have been saying, yeah, well, he's just doing it against so-and-so. He's just doing it against high school or look at those kids in the video or look at the kids in college and wait until he gets to the NBA and, oh, it's just pre-year. season. I don't know what the hell people are going to say when the regular season starts and he's mangling people because he is a phenomenon for real. And just to see it like that already in the preseason, I think is an indication that we could be in for something very, very special, very, very quickly. I mean, his per 30, per 36 numbers, however you want to extrapolate it out are pretty incredible right now. I think per 36, he's averaging 29 points right now. Yeah,

two games, two preseason games, I know. It's going to tail off. But the point is, is that he could end up being one of those rare 20 point per game scorers as a rookie. Well, I'm just saying. Who can also be, who can also pass the ball too. Some of the plays he made off the dribble as a passer making quick reads on the floor were just as impressive as some of his buckets that he scored around the rim in the game against the Bulls.

And that's what's really exciting. And with Gentry having them running up and down the court and so much of the NBA game being played in transition. get out of here. You know? Like, get in front of that frigging freight train. Like, you know how many transition buckets that guy's going to have? I mean, forget what he's clearly been able to do in the half court.

That's what's impressed me. But when that guy gets going downhill, man, I promise you, I'd be running for the eighth row. And I, you know what I mean? I fancy myself willing to take a charge, but that's a business decision. Right now as we're chatting, Rob Gronkowson. is on the Fox pregame show for tonight's Patriots Giants game. And in some way, Zion is sort of football's version of basketball's version of Rob

Grankowski, just the sheer joy in watching him play, him being bigger and stronger and more athletic than everybody else. They can do amazing feats of athletic achievements, but also who does, has skill in their play. I actually think you're on to something. And in this sense, right? So what was so unbelievable about Gronk was he was too fast.

He was too fast for your linebackers, right? He was too fast for your linebackers and too good of a rut runner for your linebackers. And he was just simply too big for your defensive backs. And in the same way, Zion is too quick and elusive for your bigs. And he is way too powerful for your guards. It's just, I mean, I remember years ago. go, Bill Belichick. I used to listen to all of Bill Belichick's Wednesday press conferences, because I think a lot of people criticize him for, you know, sucking with the media,

but I think his wealth of intelligence and perspective really made an imprint on the way I watch sports because I remember him talking about Tony Gonzalez back in like 04, 05. And he talked about Tony Gonzalez's catch radius, how he could catch balls with his long wingspan, down on his toes, high above his head, which made a quarterback's job easier, which Rob Grunkowski also had soft hands, a large wide catch radius. And in the same sense, Zion Williamson has that ability as well where he does have dexterity with both of his hands. And because he is so athletic, he can catch those high passes, corral the ball, and then score,

he can also catch those low passes and still explode despite being in a sometimes an awkward position to lay the ball up or dunk it in. And that's sort of where like with Zion, he is that tight end. it's 6-6 with athleticism where dude he's going to be he's immediately like you said he's going to be a joy to watch but immediately he's also going to make a positive impact for this pelicans team which by the way i don't know if they're going to make the playoffs but we touched them us before but i think they're really going to be in it they're really going to be in it oh they're going to have a chance for sure they got a lot of good players they got a lot of good players

and as we have and like we've talked about their draft already with nekeel alexander walker who they're just going to have to find minutes for he's too good good and Jackson Hayes, who is farther along in his progress. One other thing that I do want to mention before we get out of here on our last podcast, I told you that that evening I was going to travel down to see the Memphis Grizzlies play against R.J. Hampton and the Sky Sports Breakers from New Zealand. And watching R.J. Hampton in person was going to be important to me. Now, I know that the night we are recording this, there's a massive caravan from the

NBA and executives and talent evaluators from every different team that we're going to be heading down to Oklahoma City because it's one of the very few opportunities that they were going to get to see RJ Hampton play in person. And so watching him against the likes of John Morant and Jaron and Jaron Jackson and Brandon Clark and the lot, I tweeted this out, and I hate to have to come to the podcast and say this because I know he is going to be very highly projected in the NBA draft. I left thinking, boy, you're really going to need to see him in January and February. He clearly has the frame.

He can collapse a defense and is good off the dribble and he sees the court well. But you could tell that he's still finding his way within the context of his team. And beyond that, playing against adults, right? there are many times where if he beats, you know, Tyos Jones or whoever it was off the dribble, which obviously he's not playing against somebody like that. But if you watched in high school, he could beat that guy off the dribble and then just go hammer on the guy, right?

Whoever's next. Well, that doesn't happen. You're now looking out and you're trying to kick it to the corner because there's somebody like a Jared Jackson Jr. that's standing there in the NBA. And he will certainly feel his way out playing against a higher level of competition. but this is such a massive leap. You know, you don't have that year where you played against other guys, your peers in college.

He has jumped straight from playing high school basketball and against that level of competition to now I was seeing him against NBA competition. And I think that after, you know, four or five months of playing against adults on a regular basis, he's going to be a radically different guy than what I was able to see in person. So I feel for myself and I think for many that were in attendance that were there to evaluate him that I don't want to say it was a lost cause. But I think the sentiment was virtually unanimous that this is not the great gauge of what R.J. Hampton is and will be. And this is not the best way to project where we should take him in the NBA draft. And it's a shame because it obviously the biggest spotlight was going to be on these games. And we will see how he does against Oklahoma City. But you could tell, I mean, it's a new team and he's playing against a way different level of competition.

But I certainly see he is long and he's tall. He's a big guard and he's good with the ball and he sees the court well. But it's he ain't going to, you know what I mean? He's not going to walk into an NBA gym and dominate right now, right? No. That's not happening. He had that the possession that comes to mind, the way you're describing his game, was a transition opportunity, drove against Kyle Anderson, had a bit of a difficulty getting around. And then Grayson Allen flew out of nowhere and just swatted his shot away.

And that's the type of thing where you're getting used to the length and the athleticism that you're facing at an NBA level or a pro level in general. And that's where you have to make those adjustments in changing your pace in order to get that shot off cleanly. It's totally, you know, you're a great point, Kevin. and it's totally fair. All this you did in high school, it's not going to work. Right? That's what all these guys go through.

You know, the majority, the ways you scored in high school, like, that's not the way you get to score against, you know, NBA level talent. And like, it's going to take, and even against full-grown men. And there's going to be some, you know, adaption he's got to make to his game.

And that's why I say, if he is the prospect that everybody says he is, I would tell you that I think if you see him in January and February, he will look like a radically different player. And that would be a much better gauge of where he should be drafted. Yep. You know, so sorry to report. I don't know where the kids should be drafted right now.

But I will be able to, you know, seek him out and try to find him in January and February and hopefully have a better answer then. And I think that if you see a lot of change in his game, by that time, that that will be the case. Kevin, I want you to enjoy this night with your father before you are going to be headed back to Los Angeles for this upcoming NBA season. I appreciate it, Chris.

Enjoy the game tomorrow. Thank you to all of you for listening. If you dig what you're hearing, go give us a rating and review on iTunes, five stars, five stars. It really helps. Big thanks to Bobby Wagner on the other side of the glass. We will talk to you next Tuesday.