Speaker 1: Well well, well, that's right. It's me saying the well
Speaker 1: well well part. The Celtics, Sixers, Wolves still rolling. I'm
Speaker 1: still excited about the Wolves and the Sixers of that
Speaker 1: all because those are unexpected teams. But today we're gonna
Speaker 1: switch it up a little bit. We're gonna talk about
Speaker 1: something that we're very thankful for, and that's the rookie class.
Speaker 1: I don't know about you guys. When I first checked
Speaker 1: NBA stuff in the morning, the first thing I check
Speaker 1: on is the rookies. It's no longer like my teams.
Speaker 1: I'm checking on my rookies, my rooks. But anyways, we're
Speaker 1: gonna discuss the rookies. We're gonna talk some New York
Speaker 1: Metro hoops and more with True Hoop Podcasts and actor
Speaker 1: Gerard Hector. On today's episode, I'm Jack O'Brien.
Speaker 2: And I'm producing in for Myles, and.
Speaker 1: This is Miles and Jack and sometimes Jabari Got Mad Boosties,
Speaker 1: Davis her Going.
Speaker 3: Be Driving, Spinning, Katie.
Speaker 4: Curry a three pointer bag stuff Curry from Downtel the.
Speaker 2: Gain, be honest, Hi tell do, Let's tell hello, showtime,
Speaker 2: let you go?
Speaker 1: Yes, Well, well, well, welcome, welcome, Jabari welcome back. I
Speaker 1: was sick last week. Miles is out on a couple
Speaker 1: a couple of days vacation today. But thank you Jabari
Speaker 1: as always for being here, and thank you Gerard Hector
Speaker 1: for being on the show.
Speaker 4: Welcome man, Thank you appreciating glad to be here. Who
Speaker 4: said Miles can go on vacation though? Who approved that? PTO?
Speaker 2: Hey look he did. Can't come across my desk, That's
Speaker 2: all I'm saying.
Speaker 1: Yeah, he just you know, he wants to mess with
Speaker 1: your head. He sends a broken zoom link. He wants
Speaker 1: to see that you want to be on the show
Speaker 1: enough to get through his tricks, his mind games. But
Speaker 1: what what is John out to you? What is the
Speaker 1: first thing you guys are checking for when you check
Speaker 1: NBA stuff in the morning. Uh?
Speaker 4: For me, like you like, I like looking at see
Speaker 4: what the rookies have done. And you know, look, while
Speaker 4: we're giving these rookies a lot of love and we should,
Speaker 4: you know, look at the NBA is to young men's league,
Speaker 4: as uh one Kevin Durant recently said. But I do
Speaker 4: like to check it on the old heads and see
Speaker 4: how they're doing. And you know, the old heads still
Speaker 4: hanging on. Lebron's still out here pumping in some good
Speaker 4: some good numbers, KDS deph Curry, you know, the old
Speaker 4: heads still saying not quite yet, youngsters, We're still here.
Speaker 5: You know.
Speaker 2: I'll be honest with you. I'm checking for all of it.
Speaker 5: But because I'm silly and ridiculous, I look at NBA
Speaker 5: Twitter first and see what jokes, you know, folks got off,
Speaker 5: and then uh, I'll see what those were related.
Speaker 3: To after jokes. Yeah, that's good. Check for jokes.
Speaker 1: I like jokes. Jokes are good. Cool. Other thing I'm
Speaker 1: checking those the odds on those in season tournament, on
Speaker 1: the n season tournament. Uh, I don't know. I just
Speaker 1: had this question because I saw a quote from a pacer.
Speaker 1: I forget which pacer was, but they were like, we're
Speaker 1: fully bought in on the end season tournament. Yeah. Haliburton's like,
Speaker 1: we're in. We are motivated by this, And I feel
Speaker 1: like that's something you have to take into account because
Speaker 1: when you look at the odds, it's all just basically
Speaker 1: looks the same as the championship odds, right, Like it's
Speaker 1: the Celtics and the Bucks and the Nuggets and the Lakers,
Speaker 1: and I feel like it's going to be somebody who
Speaker 1: really wants it and might not necessarily be like one
Speaker 1: of those teams that's not necessarily turning it on at
Speaker 1: this point in the season. But I could see a
Speaker 1: team like the Pacers making some noise. What do you
Speaker 1: guys think?
Speaker 5: Yeah, it's like a situation where, you know, yes, of
Speaker 5: course the Pacers are the aspirations are to you know,
Speaker 5: make the postseason. But if you're a team like that
Speaker 5: that there are no certainly no guarantees, you might as
Speaker 5: well take advantage of a potential the first in season,
Speaker 5: you know, championship.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 3: Look, I am a big fan of this tournament.
Speaker 4: Look at true, you guys know, we spend a lot
Speaker 4: of our time criticizing the NBA. You know, we love
Speaker 4: the sport, we want it to be great, so we're
Speaker 4: gonna call attention to things that we don't like and
Speaker 4: that are bad. But when they do something good, I
Speaker 4: have to give them props. And the nd season Tournament
Speaker 4: is a good idea. Now, someone like myself who is
Speaker 4: a European football fan, the season tournament is not anything
Speaker 4: new or weird to me. It's perfectly normal and it
Speaker 4: makes perfect sense. It's not complicated, not difficult to understand.
Speaker 4: I like the fact that for football for me, European football,
Speaker 4: soccer for those of us in the States. I like
Speaker 4: that my team has multiple chances to win trophies every year.
Speaker 4: That is fantastic versus American sports, where's like, you know,
Speaker 4: win a championship, you're a loser.
Speaker 2: Yeah, unfortunately.
Speaker 1: Do you see this in foot the Ball as I
Speaker 1: pronounced it, Like, Well, people who haven't won a title, like,
Speaker 1: for instance, the Lakers being high up there in terms
Speaker 1: of the odds doesn't make a ton of sense to
Speaker 1: me because they are a team that has and maybe
Speaker 1: like this is this doesn't matter because you know, they
Speaker 1: don't pay attention to narratives as much as I do.
Speaker 1: But like they're a team that won a title recently,
Speaker 1: and then we're like, had that title discounted for not
Speaker 1: being like a real title, you know, like whatever Mickey
Speaker 1: Mouse title of it all, the bubble title of it all.
Speaker 1: So like I feel like Lebron's maybe not gonna go
Speaker 1: his hardest for the n Season tournament as opposed to
Speaker 1: somebody like Haliburton. But maybe that doesn't matter because Lebron
Speaker 1: James is good at basketball.
Speaker 4: Here's how it works though, right, and I hear what
Speaker 4: you're saying, and look, you know, the best the gift
Speaker 4: and the curse for Adam Silver would be for the
Speaker 4: Lakers to be in the championship game of the of
Speaker 4: the inaugural n Season tournament, right because you know.
Speaker 3: We're gonna get a bunch of eyeballs.
Speaker 1: So that works.
Speaker 3: So that's good.
Speaker 4: But the curse is, oh if Lebron says something like
Speaker 4: who cares? You know, we're worried about Larry o b
Speaker 4: come June or whatever. However, what I love about you
Speaker 4: is in group plays. You know, Okay, you got to
Speaker 4: win your group whatever. It's single elimination from here on
Speaker 4: out right because of a bad night or Lebron's hurt
Speaker 4: and they're out, well, so what, no, too bad you
Speaker 4: don't win. And the Pacers in particular, because of how
Speaker 4: they play with that up tempo style that's not easy
Speaker 4: to scout for. You catch them on a Tuesday night
Speaker 4: of the of a of a knockout game and you're
Speaker 4: not ready, they'll run you out the gym.
Speaker 3: Oh, well you're out.
Speaker 5: Yeah, And we we kind of alluded to it last
Speaker 5: week at the very least. Yeah, it's it's one of
Speaker 5: those where I really don't see the harm in it.
Speaker 5: You know, you had people that are saying, like, well,
Speaker 5: why you know, and a lot of that is probably
Speaker 5: based in like not fully understanding you know, what it is.
Speaker 5: You know, But we heard the same complaints in the
Speaker 5: same you know, you know, hesitance when they introduced the plan,
Speaker 5: and it has been absolutely fantastic, each of them, Like
Speaker 5: each year that they've had it, it seemed, at least
Speaker 5: on my end, it seems like it's gotten better.
Speaker 2: So for me, you know, we.
Speaker 1: Complain, complaining when the plan rolls around.
Speaker 4: There you go exactly, We as human beings, our our
Speaker 4: natural inclination is to reject the unfamiliar, Right, that's just
Speaker 4: what we do as humans.
Speaker 3: Everyone's got opinions about it.
Speaker 4: Oh, this thing sucks. I'm like, how do you know
Speaker 4: it sucks? It hasn't even happened yet and already it sucks.
Speaker 4: Like right, it's like making a comment about a restaurant
Speaker 4: you've never been to. How would you know if you
Speaker 4: haven't been here, if you've been there and eating the food,
Speaker 4: but you.
Speaker 3: Already got an opinion about it.
Speaker 4: Let it play out, and remember this is year one
Speaker 4: it's gonna look very different as it iterates and they
Speaker 4: tweak and it goes over time.
Speaker 3: So guys, I listen, I love it. I think it's great.
Speaker 3: It's working, and really what.
Speaker 5: It is is we complain, all of us complain about
Speaker 5: November basketball, even December basketball not really meaning a lot
Speaker 5: all of a sudden, with some extra steaks, it does
Speaker 5: mean something.
Speaker 2: So like I'm on the same page.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the single elimination of it all, I think we've
Speaker 1: seen with the play in people can act like they're
Speaker 1: not gonna enjoy it, but the second there's a single
Speaker 1: elimination game with steaks, everybody is pretty That has.
Speaker 4: Been proven over time, single elimination to be the number
Speaker 4: one ratings thing in sports because literally, right, you just.
Speaker 3: Don't know you've a bad getting the best team can
Speaker 3: get knocked out. That's what's so great.
Speaker 1: Yeah, well, I'm expecting to see the Oklahoma City thunder
Speaker 1: Get getting some love in the odds for the n
Speaker 1: season tournament fairly soon, which brings us to rookies. We're
Speaker 1: gonna start with Wemby, but we're gonna get to check
Speaker 1: pretty pretty soon. But by the time this is released,
Speaker 1: most teams will have played around fifteen to sixteen games,
Speaker 1: so almost twenty percent of the regular season and a
Speaker 1: fifth if my math is correct. Yes, that works. And
Speaker 1: so I don't know, we have we have a sample size.
Speaker 1: It's not a big sample size, but we've gotten a
Speaker 1: chance to look at these young fellows and their teams
Speaker 1: and Wemby, I don't know. I think this guy might
Speaker 1: be good at basketball. I think he's got a future
Speaker 1: in the league.
Speaker 4: Yeah, yeah, I'm with you there. I think I think
Speaker 4: Weby's gonna be pretty good. Look, you know, san Antonio
Speaker 4: clearly is not interested in winning games right now, and
Speaker 4: that is a challenge for some one like Wemby who's
Speaker 4: trying to get his feet wet learn the league right,
Speaker 4: because the idea is when this team is ready to
Speaker 4: win right ultimately in a couple of years, who are
Speaker 4: the people that are on the team right now that
Speaker 4: are gonna be with him in those couple of years.
Speaker 4: Maybe Devin Bissel because of the contract he signed. Maybe
Speaker 4: Keldon Johnson. That's about it, right, Like no, and that's
Speaker 4: and those guys are maybe no one's even a guarantee.
Speaker 3: Right.
Speaker 4: We'll see about Jeremy Shohan, We'll see it about everybody
Speaker 4: else who's gonna make it or not. So it's gonna
Speaker 4: be kind of you know, he's got to kind of
Speaker 4: go through that that learning experience. But listen, he's so skilled,
Speaker 4: he's so tall. He does things on a nightly basis
Speaker 4: that you're like, hot, love, did you do that right?
Speaker 4: And it's it's fantastic. I love seeing it. I am
Speaker 4: a basketball hightist. I love all tall, skilled people. I
Speaker 4: would love nothing, but it's a game full of seven
Speaker 4: footers because that's just I love seeing that, So you
Speaker 4: know it works for me.
Speaker 1: Yeah. So he's leading all rookies in scoring eighteen point
Speaker 1: six points per game, second only to US R. Thompson
Speaker 1: in rebounding at nine point one rebounds per game, and
Speaker 1: then leads all rookies and blocks with two point six
Speaker 1: per game, which is a lot of blocks. You know,
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis is up in the threes, which is incredible,
Speaker 1: but his splits aren't great, but you know they're it's
Speaker 1: just been it's been really inconsistent. He's he's taking five
Speaker 1: five point six attempts for three, which seems like maybe
Speaker 1: too many, but his shot looks so good that it
Speaker 1: doesn't it doesn't really bother me when I'm watching the games,
Speaker 1: so to.
Speaker 5: The point that you know, like you were just making
Speaker 5: dry not you not taking anything away from his current teammates.
Speaker 5: I'm always careful when I introduced these topics, But what
Speaker 5: types of players do you think they need to.
Speaker 2: Eventually surround Winby with?
Speaker 5: Like, who's going to get Winby to be, you know,
Speaker 5: as much of Winby as he can be?
Speaker 3: Well, first, a.
Speaker 4: Lead ballhandler, not point I mean, you know, point guard whatever,
Speaker 4: that's really not relevant. A lead ballhandler who can make
Speaker 4: a proper tree pass would be helpful. Right to start,
Speaker 4: mom that is that is a lost art apparently to
Speaker 4: give basketball, which is range.
Speaker 1: I've turned into my middle school basketball coach where suddenly
Speaker 1: all I care about is entry passes. I'm like, what
Speaker 1: got it? Work on your entry passes?
Speaker 4: While you're throwing the ball down by his ankles, I
Speaker 4: don't get it, right, Like, he's seven foot four, put
Speaker 4: it up high where you can get it. You need
Speaker 4: a a center who who can bat, who can bang
Speaker 4: and grab rebounds on the interior.
Speaker 3: He's big, but who can also step out in space. Right,
Speaker 3: So it's that Miles.
Speaker 4: Turner esque type a player right who's got a body
Speaker 4: who can I can grab rebounds on the interior, but
Speaker 4: I can also space out as well to five right,
Speaker 4: because I think ultimately what san Antonio wants to do
Speaker 4: is play five out, So I think that would work
Speaker 4: out well. And then you know what every team needs, right,
Speaker 4: the uber predator apex predator wing wing player.
Speaker 3: Right who can who can score? And like, right, everybody
Speaker 3: needs that.
Speaker 4: But those kinds of players, right, who who again understand
Speaker 4: the concept of how to how to make passes, how
Speaker 4: to use his height as an advantage.
Speaker 1: Yeah, and ASR. Thompson type would be nice, like somebody
Speaker 1: on the wind who's just gobbling.
Speaker 4: The only thing about Ausar that I worry about and
Speaker 4: his brother is I don't know if they can shoot.
Speaker 4: And the thing about shooting is everybody's like, oh, you
Speaker 4: can just learn. I'm like, well, Giannis has been learning
Speaker 4: for years and he still can, right, so you know
Speaker 4: it can they We'll see.
Speaker 2: A little bit more difficult when you're six six as
Speaker 2: opposed to six to eleven.
Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, in my experience, Yeah, Chet has been coming
Speaker 1: on real strong lately. He's putting up seventeen points seven
Speaker 1: and a half for almost eight boards two point one
Speaker 1: blocks on fifty six forty six, ninety splits.
Speaker 4: I mean, put Jet in the Hall of Fame right now,
Speaker 4: right over, wrap it up.
Speaker 1: But I don't know. And so he had his big
Speaker 1: coming out game, like we talked about Wemby's big game
Speaker 1: against the Spurs where or against the Suns where he
Speaker 1: just like wouldn't, wouldn't let his team lose and came
Speaker 1: came through in the clutch. U Chad had that with
Speaker 1: thirty six against Golden State game tying turnaround three, uh,
Speaker 1: kind of falling out of bounds, just incredible like he did.
Speaker 1: He feels like the more they get him involved in
Speaker 1: the offense, the better they get. And okay See is
Speaker 1: ten and four with a six and one road record,
Speaker 1: which is pretty incredible. So I don't know if anybody
Speaker 1: had called this in the offseason and said, okay See
Speaker 1: was actually secretly a contender, that would have been unbelievable.
Speaker 6: Oh wait, I did, that's right, that's me, yeah, right,
Speaker 6: actually on the back, Oh what were the odds?
Speaker 3: What were the would you bet on that?
Speaker 1: I think it was thirty three to one. It wasn't
Speaker 1: long enough, it should have been longer, but it's thirty
Speaker 1: three to one for them to win the title. Yeah,
Speaker 1: to win the title?
Speaker 3: Why not? Yeah, it should have been longer. You're right,
Speaker 3: it should have been longer than thirty three.
Speaker 1: But still, you know, yeah, we were in a casino and.
Speaker 3: Why not.
Speaker 4: Look the big thing with Jet and you know, let's
Speaker 4: first of all, he's phenomenal. Let's two things that he
Speaker 4: has as an advantage. Well, it is his first year playing,
Speaker 4: it is his second year in the league. Right, being
Speaker 4: around the team for an entire year and understanding the
Speaker 4: NBA game is huge. Also, this is something that my
Speaker 4: podcast partner, coach Thorpe has mentioned. He had a meal
Speaker 4: with Mark Degnol had goaes Loccy thunder every single day
Speaker 4: last season, and you know, the average fan pobably hears
Speaker 4: that and they're like cookares whatever.
Speaker 3: I'm like, no, like that stuff matters.
Speaker 4: People like the ninety nine percent of the players in
Speaker 4: the NBA, their success is going to be determined based
Speaker 4: on where they get drafted and what the environment is
Speaker 4: like to incubate them. And as alpha and whatever is
Speaker 4: these guys are, they need what David calls well jelly, right,
Speaker 4: they need someone to be like, no, man, we believe
Speaker 4: in you. Here's what we want you to do. We
Speaker 4: think you can do this, right, and he had a
Speaker 4: ton of that last year. Now, the piece on the court,
Speaker 4: that is why Chet is also a more impactful player
Speaker 4: than Victor if you look at.
Speaker 3: His estimated plus minus.
Speaker 4: I mean, Chet's top ten in the league right now
Speaker 4: in EPM, right, and that helps when you play with
Speaker 4: a top five player in Shake Gilds Alexander and an
Speaker 4: MVP candidate right that and yes, Shake Gilsduxander was NBA
Speaker 4: All NBA First Team last year, which by definition means
Speaker 4: top five and he was top five and MVP voting
Speaker 4: someone who knows how to throw an entry bass someone right, Like,
Speaker 4: there's so many things.
Speaker 3: That Shakee does so well.
Speaker 4: And the rest of that team with Jalen Williams and
Speaker 4: Giddy and lou Shor, right, yeah, they're they're that team
Speaker 4: works well. So he's got better police pieces around him,
Speaker 4: and so it's it's it's much easier than to have impact,
Speaker 4: and Chet's also very good.
Speaker 3: On top of that.
Speaker 2: I feel like everyone is going to say that they're,
Speaker 2: you know, like they're the darlings or the surprise team,
Speaker 2: but I feel like they're actually already there are they there.
Speaker 4: So it's interesting, right, Like I think that can be
Speaker 4: like what Sacramento was last year and what Memphis was
Speaker 4: two years ago in terms of the regular season. When
Speaker 4: it comes to postseason, I mean they have they haven't
Speaker 4: done it yet, right, but that's everybody right, No one's
Speaker 4: done it until they do it, right, That's that's how
Speaker 4: it works. I'm also still not one hundred percent sure
Speaker 4: about the rest of that team. Josh Giddy's great as
Speaker 4: a passer, He's not shooting well right now, and his
Speaker 4: plus minus stats are awful. Right now when he's on
Speaker 4: the floor, they are losing possessions and losing the game.
Speaker 3: That's not good.
Speaker 4: Uh, lou Geort's good, Jill and Williams, who starts, is
Speaker 4: very good. The rest of that team, though, as good
Speaker 4: as Isaiah Joe is shooting threes off the bench.
Speaker 3: Everybody else is a minus player off the bench.
Speaker 4: And so you know that's concerning when you're talking about
Speaker 4: what are they going to do in the postseason?
Speaker 3: But who the hell cares about the postseason?
Speaker 4: Might get get right get there first and be a
Speaker 4: dominant regulations. Win forty five games, right, win fifty games,
Speaker 4: and you're like, oh, this seems fun, right, Let's get
Speaker 4: themselves back to that level.
Speaker 3: When you know, once they lost all.
Speaker 4: Their three superstars they drafted a decade ago, people were like,
Speaker 4: when's it ever gonna happen for them?
Speaker 3: Well, they seem to be coming back around now.
Speaker 1: Yeah, they're good at this draft thing. It turns out.
Speaker 1: Turns out, let's take a quick break and we'll come
Speaker 1: back and talk about the rest of the rookies that
Speaker 1: we're keeping an eye on. We'll be right back, and
Speaker 1: we're back and all right. So these the two we've
Speaker 1: discussed so far, were the two that I was watching
Speaker 1: from the start. They haven't disappointed. In fact, they've exceeded.
Speaker 1: Like I was worried that Wemby they might just like
Speaker 1: be kind of keeping him on ice a little bit
Speaker 1: and like letting him pop in here and there. But
Speaker 1: they're they're letting him play. I feel like they're handling
Speaker 1: it well. His development, he's getting he's getting a lot
Speaker 1: of reps. He looks awesome. The people I wasn't necessarily
Speaker 1: checking for at first and now I'm checking for is
Speaker 1: number one on that list ASR. Thompson with the Pistons,
Speaker 1: UH leading rookies in rebounding at six foot six, but
Speaker 1: does basically everything eleven point six points per game, ten
Speaker 1: rebounds per game, three point four assists, one point seven
Speaker 1: blocks per game, one point two steals per game. To
Speaker 1: be top ten in the league in blocks at six
Speaker 1: foot six is is wild.
Speaker 4: He is a tremendous athlete. He's already a very good
Speaker 4: defender for a rookie. You know, again, this Detroit's got
Speaker 4: someone who again, if he learns to shoot, he becomes
Speaker 4: what I talked about that you know what does Antonio
Speaker 4: need when he becomes that apex predator wing player that
Speaker 4: every that helps you win championships if he can learn
Speaker 4: to do that right, and that's huge.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 1: Also, just he's top five offensive boards in the whole
Speaker 1: in the whole league, which is wild. It also brought
Speaker 1: to my attention that Mitchell Robinson is pulling down six
Speaker 1: point one offense of boards a game.
Speaker 4: He's he's he's a menace. I mean, he is an
Speaker 4: absolute menace. And with Steven Adams out with injury, Mitchell
Speaker 4: Robinson is now the best offensive rebrown in the NBA.
Speaker 4: I mean, he is just an absolute terror on the boards.
Speaker 1: Moses Malone has the record for most offensive rebounds per
Speaker 1: game in a season with seven point two, and Mitchell
Speaker 1: Robinson is six point one right now, Like that's he's
Speaker 1: he's unbelievable on the offensive glass.
Speaker 4: I mean, you guys, remember, I mean you might be
Speaker 4: too young to remember how how Mo used to do
Speaker 4: his thing right.
Speaker 3: The best offense was throw it up on the board.
Speaker 3: I'm gonna go get it, put it back up, and
Speaker 3: we're gonna store.
Speaker 2: Throw it up, grab it, throw it right over.
Speaker 5: All right, I'm gonna I'm gonna go out on this
Speaker 5: limb and say it. I'm the one that's real, that's
Speaker 5: truly an ASAR guy. I'm calling him Mini Matrix right now.
Speaker 2: And I know how crazy that is.
Speaker 5: I recognize it's not fair to a rookie to expect
Speaker 5: that type of career, but that's the thing that when
Speaker 5: I watch him, that's what I look at.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I like it.
Speaker 3: I like it.
Speaker 1: I mean he does seemed to be also moving at
Speaker 1: a different speed than everybody else when he's out there,
Speaker 1: so I could definitely see that, all right. Derek Lively
Speaker 1: for the MAVs is a major contributor right away. I mean,
Speaker 1: he's big, he's tough, any anything jumping out to you
Speaker 1: about him.
Speaker 3: You know what helps playing with Luka Dancic.
Speaker 4: Yeah, you know, it's it's just simular one with rookies, right,
Speaker 4: who do they have on their team that they play with?
Speaker 3: Oh, an all NBA caliber player? Wow, they play out
Speaker 3: a lot.
Speaker 4: But yeah, it helps, like great players make you play better, right,
Speaker 4: That's that's why there's so great.
Speaker 3: But no, he's a great roleman at the RAM.
Speaker 4: And remember in that class, in his high school class,
Speaker 4: I believe he was the best player in that class
Speaker 4: when they were getting ranked in high school. And then
Speaker 4: you know in Duke he really didn't like, you know,
Speaker 4: score the way that people wanted to score. And I
Speaker 4: don't know where that was, like a Duke thing or whatever.
Speaker 4: But you know, this kid's got a lot of talent.
Speaker 4: And you know, if again, if Dallas is the right
Speaker 4: place to incubate him, which I don't know, we'll see
Speaker 4: he could really be something special.
Speaker 1: The college thing is so weird, like because we've talked
Speaker 1: about how like Chet's game looked totally different, Like he
Speaker 1: was obviously a contributor on a very good team in college,
Speaker 1: but his game looked like I had no idea that
Speaker 1: he was capable of any of the things that we're seeing.
Speaker 1: It's just yeah and lively, is it all? It does
Speaker 1: make you wonder, like why anybody would go playing college
Speaker 1: when you know it is such a different sport that
Speaker 1: does such a great job of camouflaging your skills from
Speaker 1: you know, making it hard to see how good you are.
Speaker 5: It is a different sport, especially at schools like Duke
Speaker 5: in Kentucky when they're like stacked beyond belief. You know,
Speaker 5: you know, certain guys are not going to stand out. Yeah,
Speaker 5: even though they've got some serious game.
Speaker 3: Mh.
Speaker 1: Anyone else do you guys want to call out?
Speaker 4: I like Black Coolabali from the Wizards. This guy can
Speaker 4: defend already pretty well. I think he might be able
Speaker 4: to like because of the work ethic and how he
Speaker 4: wants to develop. He's really got a chance, I think,
Speaker 4: to be a very good player in this league. But again, Washington,
Speaker 4: you know, well, you know if.
Speaker 5: He ends up being if he ends up being really good,
Speaker 5: they'll find a way to ship him to the Lakers,
Speaker 5: and you know what, the world would be a better place.
Speaker 3: I say that'll work out with the Lakers.
Speaker 1: Watching other teams is just shot window shopping for Lakers. Fans. Yeah,
Speaker 1: he's he'd be a nice piece. Should grab him, That's
Speaker 1: really what it is. Anyone else to bar you want
Speaker 1: to call out?
Speaker 2: Yeah, you know I've been Jordan Hawkins has been impressive.
Speaker 2: You know, he's had some big scoring nights.
Speaker 5: Uh, you know, it doesn't hurt that he's in a
Speaker 5: good situation there with the Pels. They've you know, they've
Speaker 5: got a ton of talent there, but in the event
Speaker 5: that they run into, you know, hit the injury bug
Speaker 5: or you get hit by the injury bug, you know,
Speaker 5: it's good to see that they've got another guy that
Speaker 5: can fill it up within their system. And you know, honestly,
Speaker 5: we haven't really seen much out of him, but I
Speaker 5: really can't wait to see what Scoop eventually looks like.
Speaker 5: You know, he only yeah, you know, it seemed like
Speaker 5: he was even banged up coming into the year, yet
Speaker 5: that right physically, it would be great to you know,
Speaker 5: I can't wait.
Speaker 2: He's one of the guys that I was looking forward
Speaker 2: to most coming into the year.
Speaker 3: Yeah.
Speaker 4: I also got to shout out Hami Hakis Junior and
Speaker 4: Kiante George, you know, for Miami and Utah respectively. You know,
Speaker 4: they seem like Utah turned the keys over to Kiance
Speaker 4: the last five games. And you know, listen, players need rookies.
Speaker 4: They need playing time. It's like oxygen. Right, yeah, that's
Speaker 4: how they get better. Now coaches are reticent to play
Speaker 4: them because they're gonna make mistakes, but that's how they learn,
Speaker 4: Like right, they have to make mistakes and that's how
Speaker 4: they get better.
Speaker 1: Yeah, all right, Speaking of the injury bug beel out
Speaker 1: at least three more weeks due to continued back issues.
Speaker 1: I don't know. Didn't Phoenix use to have like a
Speaker 1: fabled health team that could like bring anyone back from
Speaker 1: the dead or you know, keep people from falling apart.
Speaker 1: We need they need those guys back.
Speaker 3: And long a long time ago they had that.
Speaker 1: I want to see these three guys play together.
Speaker 4: And now, listen, I can't say it too much, but
Speaker 4: I'll just say this that medical and healthcare training staff
Speaker 4: has a lot to be desired, and I'll leave it
Speaker 4: at that.
Speaker 3: You know, when you when you.
Speaker 4: Say, okay, Bradley's going to be cleared to play. Everything's good,
Speaker 4: and then we're ready to roll, and all of a sudden,
Speaker 4: you put out and you get the press release from
Speaker 4: the pr group when they say we're going to take
Speaker 4: the next three weeks to actually focus on what's wrong
Speaker 4: with Bradley Biale, Like, so what were you doing before then?
Speaker 5: Right?
Speaker 3: What? Like, so you weren't focused on that before? And look,
Speaker 3: I want to be fair to them.
Speaker 4: Backs are tricky and they're very difficult and there's no
Speaker 4: right pun intended. There's no exact science. Right, it's a
Speaker 4: very tricky thing. But you behoove you matt Ishbia. You
Speaker 4: spent however many billion dollars spent by this team and
Speaker 4: you now have in total contracts half a billion dollars
Speaker 4: give or take sunk into Booker, Durant and Beale players
Speaker 4: who have injury histories. I would think you would want
Speaker 4: to make sure that your health, performance and training staff
Speaker 4: are doing everything they can and they are top of
Speaker 4: the line and really like, no, no, no, no, we got
Speaker 4: to measure these guys are good to go, you know,
Speaker 4: and we don't know so far not great, but yeah,
Speaker 4: you know Bill and Durant, sorry, Booker and Durant playing well.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: Latest word, by the way is that you know he
Speaker 5: might be out till Christmas and if that's possible, very yeah.
Speaker 1: Oh my God. I mean, yeah, they're hanging in. They're
Speaker 1: seven and six as of this recording, so hopefully, hopefully
Speaker 1: they can keep treading water. But you know, with some
Speaker 1: of the other teams starting as fast as they are,
Speaker 1: it feels like there's a little bit more pressure than
Speaker 1: maybe people were expecting coming in for for everybody to
Speaker 1: be able to, you know, maintain a pretty decent record,
Speaker 1: so you're within striking distance.
Speaker 4: Because of course, the flip side of that is now
Speaker 4: you put a lot of strain on a thirty five
Speaker 4: year old Kevin Durant who's putting up MVP caliber numbers
Speaker 4: yet again the season, playing double overtime every I'm like
Speaker 4: a little was like watching the game. I'm like, Frank,
Speaker 4: you do realize you've ad in season tournament game on
Speaker 4: Tuesday and a back to back the second game on Wednesday,
Speaker 4: a national TV game against the Golden State Warriors, and
Speaker 4: you know the whole league's policy about participation.
Speaker 3: What are you gonna do.
Speaker 4: You're gonna play him in then season tournament and sit
Speaker 4: him on the taking on the back to back and
Speaker 4: don't ask him because he'll play a thousand minutes a game.
Speaker 3: It'd be good, right, which not a good idea, right,
Speaker 3: you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, I mean there's that stat from the Dunk Central
Speaker 1: NBA Central that was, like Lebron at thirty eight years old,
Speaker 1: twenty six point four points, eight boards, six and a
Speaker 1: half assists, sixty seven percent true shooting, kd thirty one
Speaker 1: point four points, seven rebounds, five and a half assists,
Speaker 1: sixty four percent true shooting, and then Steph you know,
Speaker 1: thirty four rebounds for assists, sixty seven and a half
Speaker 1: true shooting. The fact Lebron's true shooting percentage is the
Speaker 1: thing though, I was like, wow, man.
Speaker 3: He's he's shooting it well to start the season. He
Speaker 3: really is.
Speaker 1: He's thirty eight, and Kadie and Steph for thirty five.
Speaker 1: So I don't know. The post ends with like this
Speaker 1: is still their league, and we got some other candidates,
Speaker 1: but they they're certainly up there.
Speaker 5: He kind of goes towards the point that made earlier
Speaker 5: of like Gill, Yes, the rookies, Yes, the new guys
Speaker 5: are fun to watch, but you know, we're still checking
Speaker 5: for these old hits because they are still.
Speaker 2: Checking the league.
Speaker 1: Yeah, still know what they're doing. So Lebron put up
Speaker 1: thirty seven eight six rebounds three steals in forty minutes
Speaker 1: against Houston, and then Austin Reeves came through with the compliment,
Speaker 1: but he said that he's the best to do it.
Speaker 1: Maybe with the exception of Tom Brady, I would just
Speaker 1: be like, hey, man, as your editor, as you, I
Speaker 1: would just cut that last like maybe with the exception
Speaker 1: out because fir'st all Lebron, I don't know, Lebron doesn't
Speaker 1: want to hear your thoughts on Tom Brady. And also
Speaker 1: tom Brady wasn't having to take a lot of contact
Speaker 1: out there in his old age, like Lebron's having to
Speaker 1: go down the middle, Like you can also.
Speaker 4: Do this with NFL quarterbacks, And I'm sorry, I'm biased,
Speaker 4: but NFL quarterbacks cannot be on top athlete list to me,
Speaker 4: I'm sorry. You play half the game and sit the
Speaker 4: other half like that. Sorry, Like everybody else in these
Speaker 4: on these lists got to play both ways.
Speaker 1: You know, like yeah, sorry, yeah, But anyways, that would
Speaker 1: be my note tossed and maybe just say he's the
Speaker 1: best to ever do it, because it is the greatest
Speaker 1: athletic feat I've ever seen from somebody this age, like
Speaker 1: this much older than anyone I've ever seen perform at
Speaker 1: this level with you know, and like by perform, it's
Speaker 1: not like he's got he's got a cool like trick
Speaker 1: that he figured out to like get the ball out
Speaker 1: quickly and like nobody gets near him. It's he's playing
Speaker 1: at an incredibly high level against the best athletes in
Speaker 1: the world and still doing it like almost as well
Speaker 1: as he's ever done.
Speaker 3: It makes you wonder, huh.
Speaker 1: All right, should we take one more break and we'll
Speaker 1: come back and do the rapid fire round of questioning,
Speaker 1: the fastest segment in all of sports podcasts. We'll be
Speaker 1: right back, and we're back, and it is time for
Speaker 1: the rapid fire round of questioning. This is where we
Speaker 1: take questions, we fire them at you, and you just
Speaker 1: gotta pay. It's just right back, no thought, no thought. No,
Speaker 1: you're not allowed to. And if we try to slow
Speaker 1: it down by asking dumb questions or follow up questions,
Speaker 1: and we will, you have to somehow keep it moving
Speaker 1: even though we will not allow you to do that. Jabbari,
Speaker 1: do you want to kick us off?
Speaker 3: I don't.
Speaker 2: I don't know what you know?
Speaker 1: What?
Speaker 6: No?
Speaker 2: No, no, you go ahead and go first.
Speaker 1: It's you, all right, all right?
Speaker 2: Does a preference.
Speaker 4: Uh, you guys, flip the coin, doesn't matter. Whoever goes goes, right, Brian,
Speaker 4: start the clock.
Speaker 1: Sorry, what is the most underrated NBA city to visit?
Speaker 1: And what's your must have meal in that town?
Speaker 3: Oh? My god? Uh Salt Lake City and.
Speaker 1: Steak frets Okay, steak freas Yeah in salt Lake. Mmm,
Speaker 1: that's their French cuisine. Not not what I would have
Speaker 1: expected from the people of Salt Lake.
Speaker 2: That is definitely the first time we've gotten that answer.
Speaker 2: That's awesome.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I gotta throw it out there.
Speaker 2: What is it about Salt Lake?
Speaker 3: So you know, it's because it's Utah's that That's that's
Speaker 3: the problem. It's Utah. You're like right, like read between
Speaker 3: the lines, people.
Speaker 4: But there are there are fun places to go and
Speaker 4: then if you want to take a little bit of
Speaker 4: a longer trip, go to Park City, which is a
Speaker 4: little bit for them salt Lake.
Speaker 3: You get some awesome, some good stuff there too. Home
Speaker 3: with the Sun Dance Film.
Speaker 1: Festival and Gira. We do need you to keep it
Speaker 1: moving here for you. Yeah, you did fall for it,
Speaker 1: all right.
Speaker 3: You asked me questions. You're like, I gotta I gotta
Speaker 3: tell you all right.
Speaker 2: So let's keep it going.
Speaker 5: Gud who is the most underappreciated of the truly all
Speaker 5: time greats. Give us a guy that deserves to be mentioned,
Speaker 5: but it's often left out of the all time debates,
Speaker 5: if you will, Kevin Durrant, Oh, we're talking top five
Speaker 5: all time.
Speaker 3: I mean you didn't say top five. You just said
Speaker 3: all the time. But now now, oh it's Tim Duncan.
Speaker 2: Okay, I'm okay, it's fair. I'm not even gonna argue.
Speaker 1: Now I've heard of him, so uh but yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess next, you can take two players from all of
Speaker 1: history to create your Matt Boosti's edition NBA Jam Team.
Speaker 1: Which two players you've taken.
Speaker 3: Chris Paul and Chris Paul?
Speaker 5: Wow?
Speaker 1: Oh, Chris All and Kareem I've told Jabbar I.
Speaker 3: Went on to school. I went to school. Move on anyway, next.
Speaker 1: All Chris Paul's game does feel like it would have
Speaker 1: like out there in the seventies, and you'd be like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that makes sense, or in the eighties or in the
Speaker 1: nineties or.
Speaker 4: I mean, I don't know that I want to expect
Speaker 4: all right, you know, the gimmick is old.
Speaker 2: But if you could have any player's skill set for
Speaker 2: a day. Who's in which skill set would it be?
Speaker 3: Oh my god, Kevin Durant shooting?
Speaker 2: Yeah, but this is your body, not a seven foot body.
Speaker 3: Oh well, you didn't say that.
Speaker 2: That's why I said.
Speaker 5: That's why I specified with a skill set and which
Speaker 5: would it be.
Speaker 3: Let's see Chris Paul's decision making.
Speaker 1: All right, there you go, and that would apply to
Speaker 1: the rest of your life too, like buying insurance for instance.
Speaker 1: All right, you can watch a movie with one of
Speaker 1: these players. You gotta pick one and then I'll tell
Speaker 1: you what movie you're watching based on their past tweets.
Speaker 1: You can watch a movie with Reggie Jackson, Jalen Brunson,
Speaker 1: Robert Covington, Danny Green, or Justice Winslow.
Speaker 3: Damn I'm gonna go Jalen Brunson.
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson. You are watching episode three of Star Wars
Speaker 1: based on his tweet, what is the best Star Wars
Speaker 1: movie ever? Any answer that is not Episode three is wrong.
Speaker 1: Anakin is my favorite. Least favorite is Darth Maul, only
Speaker 1: because he shouldn't have died after the first few movie.
Speaker 4: You're showing your age here. The best Star Wars movie
Speaker 4: ever is Empire strikes back.
Speaker 1: I'm not showing my age. Jalen Brunson is showing his age.
Speaker 2: Now only are you watching it? You're watching it with
Speaker 2: a guy that thinks episode three is the best.
Speaker 1: That's right, all right?
Speaker 5: You can go back in time either Prime Magic or
Speaker 5: Prime Kobe to make a run with this year's squad.
Speaker 2: Which one are you choosing to take that ride?
Speaker 3: I'm gonna make you all mad Prime Magic all day,
Speaker 3: every day.
Speaker 1: That's not gonna make I canna make me mad? Good
Speaker 1: over here? Uh? And finally the ultimate question, Jack or
Speaker 1: jabbari O.
Speaker 3: Miles, Wow.
Speaker 1: Did it to us?
Speaker 6: Uh?
Speaker 3: Well, up to work today?
Speaker 2: Who do we have on this?
Speaker 1: You know everyone's just like man. That guy's so cool
Speaker 1: he doesn't even have to show up. Hector, is such
Speaker 1: a pleasure having you on the show.
Speaker 5: Uh?
Speaker 1: Where can people find you? Follow you all that good stuff?
Speaker 3: Yeah?
Speaker 4: People can follow me on that site that used to
Speaker 4: be called Twitter that's now x at J. S.
Speaker 3: Hector. You can find me on Blue Sky if you're
Speaker 3: on there, Uh Hector j R. O D H E
Speaker 3: C T O R. And of course at true hoop
Speaker 3: dot com.
Speaker 1: True Hoop Amazing Jabari Where can people find you well.
Speaker 5: Of course, they can find the show at hashtag man
Speaker 5: Boosey Is. They can find me at Jabori Davis NBA.
Speaker 5: And you can also find Miles the real talent out
Speaker 5: of the two of us, at Miles of Great.
Speaker 2: What about you?
Speaker 1: I'm at Jack Underscore. Obrian shouts out to our listener
Speaker 1: of the week Paul Garaventa, for tagging and pointing out
Speaker 1: a bad business decision first Portland. Uh, check got yoked
Speaker 1: on check.
Speaker 6: Uh.
Speaker 1: You know he's taken some he's taken some business decisions. Uh.
Speaker 1: And it was it was too Mani Kamara, Uh yee.
Speaker 4: If you're gonna if you're getting block shots, you're gonna
Speaker 4: ge dunk done.
Speaker 1: That's right, that's gonna happen. All right, that's gonna do
Speaker 1: it for us this week. Happy Thanksgiving everyone. We are
Speaker 1: back next week with another episode and we'll talk to you
Speaker 1: all then.
Speaker 6: I the Music US Music