Speaker 1: The volume. All right, Well, good sindight here at the
Speaker 1: volume Heavy Tuesday, everybody ophile. You guys are having a
Speaker 1: great week. Just a quick episode for you guys today.
Speaker 1: I had two things that I wanted to hit on.
Speaker 1: The NBA dropped their first little bit of the schedule
Speaker 1: for next season, the national TV games for the first
Speaker 1: four nights as well as the Christmas Day slate. So
Speaker 1: I want to talk a little bit about my thoughts
Speaker 1: on our first taste of what the NBA schedule is
Speaker 1: going to look like next year. And then we haven't
Speaker 1: talked much at WNBA on this show. I try to
Speaker 1: take a break during the summer for the sake of
Speaker 1: many reasons, but I do really enjoy the WNBA. The
Speaker 1: talent level is off the charts, the basketball is excellent.
Speaker 1: And I have some thoughts on Olivia Miles. I want
Speaker 1: to talk about what separates her from some of the
Speaker 1: other guards around the league. So NBA schedule stuff Olivia Miles,
Speaker 1: and then we'll get out of here. You guys are
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Speaker 1: We'll get to them on Fridays throughout the rest of
Speaker 1: the summer. All right, talks and basketball. So the NBA
Speaker 1: schedule released a little bit of an a strange start
Speaker 1: to Opening Night. They're adding a third game, kind of
Speaker 1: like an afternoon game. We're getting Celtics at Piston, so
Speaker 1: we'll get to see the new look Celtics with Paul
Speaker 1: George in at that forge spot, as well as the
Speaker 1: Mitchell Robinson upgrade at the center position. We will also
Speaker 1: get to see Ky Cunningham surrounded by more shooting with
Speaker 1: the arrival of Isaiah Joe and Aaron Wiggins as well.
Speaker 1: We'll see I would assume Jalen Duran will be there
Speaker 1: at that point. Our second game of the night, seventy
Speaker 1: six Ers at Nicks. The debut of Lebron James and
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown. With that new look seventy six Ers team,
Speaker 1: we'll see if Joel Embiid's playing at that point. Obviously
Speaker 1: a lot of time between now and then. He looks
Speaker 1: thin and in good shape and getting some work in
Speaker 1: this summer. It's probably a nice surprise for him that
Speaker 1: he's actually had a healthy summer to actually get some
Speaker 1: work in. So we'll see if they're able to make
Speaker 1: it to Opening night. But if we're lucky and we
Speaker 1: get to see all of them play, it's a very
Speaker 1: interesting showdown because you're talking about a Knicks team that
Speaker 1: is going to be receiving their championship rings, and it's
Speaker 1: kind of like a specifically tough type of first matchup
Speaker 1: for that seventy six Ers team in the sense that
Speaker 1: the Sixers are very much going to be very far
Speaker 1: from a finished product. When we're talking about teams that
Speaker 1: have the most potential to improve from day one of
Speaker 1: the season to the start of the playoffs, the Sixers
Speaker 1: are going to be on that list. Other teams as well, Miami, obviously, Toronto,
Speaker 1: some of these teams that are going to have new players,
Speaker 1: They obviously have a lot of potential to improve between
Speaker 1: the start of the season. Minnesota is another team like that,
Speaker 1: where like I wouldn't necessarily judge them on opening night,
Speaker 1: But at the same time, the Knicks are about, as
Speaker 1: I've said this on the show before, they have the
Speaker 1: highest floor out of any team outside of you know,
Speaker 1: Oklahoma City and in San Antonio, meaning like, we just
Speaker 1: know exactly what they are, we know exactly what they're
Speaker 1: gonna play like. And so that kind of presents an
Speaker 1: interesting challenge for the Sixers because it's gonna be a
Speaker 1: wide range of outcomes for them in that first few
Speaker 1: months of the season. They're gonna have knights where they
Speaker 1: look amazing and nights where they look terrible. And so
Speaker 1: opening night will be an example of you know, just
Speaker 1: that kind of like random nature of a new basketball
Speaker 1: team versus the steady nature of an existing you know,
Speaker 1: team has a lot of continuity. The only other thing
Speaker 1: that I would say there is sometimes teams that have
Speaker 1: won the championship come out with a little less energy
Speaker 1: than they typically do on opening nights. So maybe there'll
Speaker 1: be some opportunity for the Sixers to get a win there,
Speaker 1: and then we're gonna rematch to the Western Conference Finals,
Speaker 1: the Thunder at the Spurs. This is just I mean,
Speaker 1: I saw some you know, people talking about like, oh,
Speaker 1: the Lakers aren't on opening night. First of all, they're
Speaker 1: on Night two, which is still a premier night. And secondly,
Speaker 1: like the Thunder and Spurs, the numbers they put up
Speaker 1: in the Western Conference Finals in terms of TV ratings
Speaker 1: were off the charts, and I personally, as a basketball fan,
Speaker 1: thing that makes a ton of sense as an opening
Speaker 1: night matchup, very very excited to see that one night
Speaker 1: two Timberwolves at Heat. So obviously the debut of LaMelo
Speaker 1: Ball and the new look Minnesota Timberwolves who knows will
Speaker 1: be playing power forward at that point, but the new
Speaker 1: look Timberwolves on the road against the new look Giannas
Speaker 1: and Tenna Koompo Miami Heat. That should be fun and
Speaker 1: very interesting challenge in the sense of Rudy Gober getting
Speaker 1: to camp his ass right under the basket against the
Speaker 1: team that doesn't have the shooting to space him out,
Speaker 1: but obviously the enormous size of that Miami Heat frontline,
Speaker 1: that should be a ton of fun to watch. Second night,
Speaker 1: excuse me, second game Night two Warriors at Lakers. This
Speaker 1: has been a rival real league has been promoting for
Speaker 1: a while. I saw some people talking like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: because the Warriors an't Christmas Day too, They're obviously heavily
Speaker 1: featured on Night two and say people are saying things like, oh,
Speaker 1: the Warriors are terrible. Why are they getting all these
Speaker 1: national TV games? And it's really simple. They have Steph Curry,
Speaker 1: And like, is Steph older? Now? Yes, are the Warriors
Speaker 1: a talented roster? No, but Steph Curry is still one
Speaker 1: of the greatest shows in the sport, and I personally
Speaker 1: want to watch him. I would love to watch him
Speaker 1: on Christmas Day, and I'd love to watch him in
Speaker 1: those a couple opening nights. And I think it makes
Speaker 1: a ton of sense that Lakers team very very excited
Speaker 1: to watch them with Walker Kessler and just to see
Speaker 1: what they look like as a new look team again.
Speaker 1: I have my concerns with them as a postseason team
Speaker 1: because of the lack of starting caliber talent at the
Speaker 1: three and the four, But I think they're gonna be
Speaker 1: an awesome regular season team. I think they're gonna win
Speaker 1: fifty games, and it'll be fun to watch them start
Speaker 1: their season against the Warriors on Night two they've had.
Speaker 1: The Lakers have had issues with the Warriors at times
Speaker 1: in the blender they can put him in, but this
Speaker 1: is a much more athletic Lakers roster with some of
Speaker 1: the guys that they added, and obviously much better defensively
Speaker 1: at the center position. Night three Calves at seventy six
Speaker 1: or the home opener for the new look seventy six Ers.
Speaker 1: That'll be an interesting one two from the standpoint of
Speaker 1: the Cavs ability to layer rim protection, and again, I
Speaker 1: think the Sixers are going to have some issues with spacing,
Speaker 1: especially early in the season as they kind of figure
Speaker 1: out how to play with each other because they have
Speaker 1: so much driving talent not a ton of catch and
Speaker 1: shoot talents. That'll be interesting. Nuggets at Thunder is the
Speaker 1: second game, Night three, the Night four Knicks at Celtics,
Speaker 1: and then Rockets at Spurs. So those are your first
Speaker 1: four nights of national TV games. Christmas Day Spurs at Knicks,
Speaker 1: so we got to rematch the NBA Finals very much
Speaker 1: would like to see what victor women Yama has for
Speaker 1: us on that particular day. Heat at Celtics. Very fun
Speaker 1: matchup between Giannis and Tenna Kompo and the new look
Speaker 1: Heat versus the Celtics, the team that traded or that
Speaker 1: failed to trade for Giannis. That'll be an interesting one.
Speaker 1: Sixers at Lakers. Obviously, Lebron James returning to Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: very fortunate for him that he's traveling on Christmas Day,
Speaker 1: that he at least gets to be home with his family.
Speaker 1: That I expect to be a game. I'm curious to
Speaker 1: see the Lakers reception of Lebron. I think, you know,
Speaker 1: there's been some beef between Lebron fans and Laker fans
Speaker 1: on Twitter in recent days, and all I would say
Speaker 1: about that is, like stands can be a little crazy,
Speaker 1: ignore him. I think for the most part, all well
Speaker 1: meaning fans that are fans of Lebron enjoyed his time
Speaker 1: at the Lakers and there's no hard feelings there, and
Speaker 1: vice versa. Every Lakers fan that I talk to that's
Speaker 1: a well meaning, you know, real basketball fan enjoyed and
Speaker 1: appreciated Lebron's time there. Thunder at timberwolveshere rematch the Western
Speaker 1: Conference Finals in twenty twenty five is our fourth game.
Speaker 1: And then lastly, the Nuggets at the Warriors. Again, Warriors
Speaker 1: getting a Christmas Day game because Steph is just that
Speaker 1: much of a draw, and then obviously we'll get to
Speaker 1: see Nicole Jokic in that game as well. So I
Speaker 1: hate how excited I am for this slate. I feel
Speaker 1: like we just had this crazy playoff run where we
Speaker 1: worked a ton and feel so good to finally be
Speaker 1: taken a little bit of a break and not work
Speaker 1: as much over the summer. But Nan, we just had
Speaker 1: such a fascinating off season and so much intrigue surrounding
Speaker 1: several kind of new look teams and existing teams and
Speaker 1: rematches that I'm excited to see, and I just I
Speaker 1: can't believe it, but I can't wait to watch NBA
Speaker 1: basketball again. We are literally about two months away, a
Speaker 1: two months and ten days or so from being able
Speaker 1: to dive right back into that NBA regular season. All.
Speaker 1: Let's talk about Olivia Miles for a minute. Olivia Miles
Speaker 1: is having a ridiculous rookie campaign. She's shooting forty nine
Speaker 1: percent on catch and shoot threes, thirty seven percent on
Speaker 1: pull up threes. That's nuts. She hits them regardless of
Speaker 1: play type, Like if she's in pick and roll, she's
Speaker 1: shooting forty percent on pull ups. There if she's in ISO,
Speaker 1: she's shooting forty three percent on threes there. If she's
Speaker 1: in spot up situations, she's shooting forty one percent there.
Speaker 1: Just outrageous jump shooting from the three point line. And
Speaker 1: she is already one of the most prolific driving guards
Speaker 1: in the WNBA. Her ability to get all the way
Speaker 1: to the basket. She's shooting fifty nine percent at the rim,
Speaker 1: which is insane for a WNBA guard. She's fourth. This
Speaker 1: is this was crazy when I found this stat. Olivia
Speaker 1: is fourth in the entire WNBA and makes at the rim.
Speaker 1: She's getting to the rim eight times per game. And
Speaker 1: this is where I wanted to dive into like the
Speaker 1: low center of gravity stuff with her, because so I
Speaker 1: think she's better than Caitlyn Clark. And that's not an
Speaker 1: in I'm not trying to, like, you know, make this
Speaker 1: about pitting Olivia versus Caitlin or anything like that. But
Speaker 1: Caitlyn was the guard that came in a couple of
Speaker 1: years ago and was kind of touted as the next
Speaker 1: great guard in the WNBA, and there's been a lot
Speaker 1: of good I'd argue Caitlyn's underrated in large part for
Speaker 1: the same reasons. Why Steph Curry has been underrated over
Speaker 1: his career, and just the fact that she creates a
Speaker 1: ton of advantages that drive team offense. And so even
Speaker 1: though she can be inefficient sometimes even she can be
Speaker 1: turnover prones sometimes even though she can have games where
Speaker 1: she doesn't really score as much, she is an enormous
Speaker 1: positive impact on a team offense that I think can
Speaker 1: make her underrated sometimes. But to me, Olivia Miles represents
Speaker 1: an even better version of what Caitlyn Clark has brought
Speaker 1: to the table. And that's what's really fascinating with her
Speaker 1: in her long term potential. And to me, it comes
Speaker 1: down to her athletic traits, Like she is lowered to
Speaker 1: the ground and stronger. What that means is it makes
Speaker 1: it harder to knock her off of her line. We
Speaker 1: talk about this all the time, the leverage battles that
Speaker 1: occur in basketball games. I'm driving at you, I'm trying
Speaker 1: to turn the corner. We're bumping each other. My right arm,
Speaker 1: my right shoulder is in contact with your right arm
Speaker 1: and your right shoulder, and you're trying to slide. You're
Speaker 1: trying to cut me off. If I can, like, like
Speaker 1: knock you off of that line and turn the corner.
Speaker 1: I'm all the way to the basket. If you can
Speaker 1: hold your leverage, you flatten me out, You make it
Speaker 1: hard for me to turn the corner. Maybe I end
Speaker 1: up having kind of like a banana shaped drive that
Speaker 1: doesn't go anywhere. I have to pass the ball out.
Speaker 1: There's a when you have a lower center of gravity,
Speaker 1: it's harder to win that leverage battle, whereas if you're
Speaker 1: more upright and thinner, it's a lot easier for defenders
Speaker 1: to kind of wrangle you with physicality. And you know,
Speaker 1: I want to call attention to two plays. We had
Speaker 1: a you know, Caitlin Clark had a really rough finish
Speaker 1: to a game. She missed a couple of free throws
Speaker 1: that against the Aces that led to a game time
Speaker 1: shot that sent into overtime. And then they were up
Speaker 1: one with like fifteen seconds left, and she had Aja
Speaker 1: Wilson in a switch and she's isoinger and she can't
Speaker 1: really turn the corner, and she ends up trying to
Speaker 1: bail out, like throw a lob pass into the post
Speaker 1: that gets deflected. She falls on the ground. They run
Speaker 1: out the other way, and the Aces end up winning
Speaker 1: it at the buzzer, and then there was a play
Speaker 1: a very different situation. It's a pick and roll for
Speaker 1: Olivia Miles. The game they were up a out like
Speaker 1: six or seven points, so it wasn't as big of
Speaker 1: a possession, but Olivia Miles comes off the ball screen
Speaker 1: Agia Wilson kind of steps up around the elbow area
Speaker 1: and Olivia just hits her with this nasty kind of
Speaker 1: like it's a move I've seen. I don't even know
Speaker 1: what you would call it, but it's a move I've
Speaker 1: seen a lot of the advanced guards start to use
Speaker 1: as of late, where like when they're coming downhill out
Speaker 1: a player that's kind of on their heels, instead of
Speaker 1: doing like a dramatic crossover, they like kind of throw
Speaker 1: the ball to their other hand as if they're crossing
Speaker 1: over while keeping their body turned towards the direction they
Speaker 1: were originally going, and then as the ball hits that
Speaker 1: right hand, they kind of like just barely fake with
Speaker 1: like an in and out dribble to go that way,
Speaker 1: and then they go right. It's kind of like a
Speaker 1: delayed crossover dribble. It's very very hard to guard, and
Speaker 1: it kind of functions as a hesitation dribble in the
Speaker 1: way that it can kind of like get a defender
Speaker 1: to freeze for a second, and she just comes off
Speaker 1: the ball screen Agia Wilson's on her heels, she does
Speaker 1: that kind of fancy left to right crossover buckles, Asia
Speaker 1: goes right around her, gets a layup, and basically ice
Speaker 1: is the game now. Again, not the same type of possession.
Speaker 1: It's a lot harder to guard a player that's coming
Speaker 1: screaming downhill at you than it is in a straight
Speaker 1: iso where you have opportunity to kind of close the
Speaker 1: gap and disrupt rhythm. Right, So I'm not trying to
Speaker 1: compare those two plays exactly, but I do think both
Speaker 1: plays are representative of those athletic traits. Caitlin can struggle
Speaker 1: to turn the corner and get leverage not just against
Speaker 1: bigs but also against guards. It's not a strength of her.
Speaker 1: She can struggle to get downhill if she doesn't have
Speaker 1: a screen, Whereas one of the things that's made Olivia
Speaker 1: is so good to start her career is she can
Speaker 1: turn the corner. She can beat people off the dribble
Speaker 1: without necessarily needing a screen. Because of her low center
Speaker 1: of gravity, She's a little bit faster, and so she
Speaker 1: wins those leverage battles as she's trying to get downhill.
Speaker 1: And I think that that is what, in combination with
Speaker 1: her shooting ability, has made her so good. She just
Speaker 1: has incredible ball control, like her ability to handle the
Speaker 1: basketball that combined with her downhill athletic traits, she can
Speaker 1: like she has these like it almost looks like she's
Speaker 1: holding a pizza, where like she'll gather the basketball with
Speaker 1: her hand underneath it. It's kind of like a palm, but
Speaker 1: not really. But she has such good control over the
Speaker 1: basketball that she can do these single hand gathers where
Speaker 1: when she's getting downhill she'll kind of turn her hand
Speaker 1: over and extend the ball out, which allows her to
Speaker 1: fend off with her body and protect the basketball by
Speaker 1: extending it out away from her body. And then she
Speaker 1: can get out and extend and finish at the rim.
Speaker 1: And so it just she's deadly on pull up threes.
Speaker 1: She's deadly off of the catch. She has a nasty
Speaker 1: handle and great athletic traits in the ability to turn
Speaker 1: the corner with speed with the fancy gatherers, and finishing
Speaker 1: ability around the basket. Again, like a lot of NBA
Speaker 1: guards struggle to finish around the high fifties when they
Speaker 1: get into the pain, and so I just think she's
Speaker 1: got an incredible set of skills that already are making
Speaker 1: her one of the best players in the WNBA, and
Speaker 1: it's just gonna go up from here. Like she's a
Speaker 1: great passer, She's already seventh in the WNBA and assists
Speaker 1: per game. She's been the best pick and role player
Speaker 1: in the WNBA by a mile this year, one point
Speaker 1: one to two points per possession including passes. According to Synergy.
Speaker 1: That was the best among twenty six players to run
Speaker 1: at least two hundred pick and rolls so far this year,
Speaker 1: big lead over Jackie Young, who's currently in second place.
Speaker 1: She's got a five or six points per one hundred
Speaker 1: posessions behind her. Again, I think she's already quite a
Speaker 1: bit better than Kaitlyn Clark. Not an insult to Kaitlin Clark.
Speaker 1: I just think, you know, if we're gonna say Caitlin's
Speaker 1: the next great guard in the WNBA, we gotta be
Speaker 1: honest about what we're seeing about Olivia. I think she's
Speaker 1: just better, and I think you could make the case
Speaker 1: that Olivia is already the best guard in the entire WNBA,
Speaker 1: and most importantly, and this is the biggest piece of this, Like,
Speaker 1: I just think she's riveting to watch. I actually find
Speaker 1: myself watching a lot of WNBA because I personally love
Speaker 1: basketball and I think they play great basketball, and so
Speaker 1: I just enjoy watching it. And there's a lot of
Speaker 1: new young talent in the league that's injecting a lot
Speaker 1: of energy. Like I've Paige Becker's and her scoring bag
Speaker 1: and just her ability to chain together counters and shoot
Speaker 1: over both. She's like Kobe. She's literally like watching Kobe.
Speaker 1: It's been so much fun to watch her. Obviously, Asia
Speaker 1: Wilson's amazing if he's a collier. It's been good to
Speaker 1: see her get back onto the court and recapture some rhythm.
Speaker 1: The league is stacked of talent. I genuinely enjoy watching it.
Speaker 1: I can't cover it on the show as much as
Speaker 1: I'd like to, simply because of the fact that I
Speaker 1: worked so hard during the w during the NBA season
Speaker 1: that if I turned around and covered it extensively. First
Speaker 1: of all, it'd be hard on my marriage with Like
Speaker 1: I put my wife through a lot in terms of
Speaker 1: how much I work during the NBA season. I don't
Speaker 1: want to do that to her again during the off season,
Speaker 1: so I try to take a break. But I just
Speaker 1: wanted to give some thoughts on Olivia because I've just
Speaker 1: found her to be like insanely talented, but most importantly
Speaker 1: riveting to watch. She moves different than most WNBA plays.
Speaker 1: There's like a flashiness on the screen and just the
Speaker 1: way her body moves, and she's a savage competitor. She
Speaker 1: wants to rip your heart out. She has these moments
Speaker 1: where you could see her success shine through in these
Speaker 1: like passionate yelling, screaming, like I love to see that,
Speaker 1: just that, like that desire to be the best that
Speaker 1: you can see just coming off of her. I just
Speaker 1: look forward to watching her career in the w It's
Speaker 1: it's been a lot of fun watching Olivia this year.