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Speaker 1: in West Virginia. Y Alright, welcome to Hoops Tonight, presented
Speaker 1: by Vanduel here at the volume. Happy Friday, everybody, congrats
Speaker 1: on making it to the weekend. This morning, we're gonna
Speaker 1: be covering the Kyrie Irving suspension, obviously the biggest news
Speaker 1: of last night, and then later tonight we'll have one
Speaker 1: more video coming out that's gonna be breaking down some
Speaker 1: basketball one last time before we get into the weekend. Um,
Speaker 1: here's the deal. I'm not going to discuss any of
Speaker 1: the actual subject matter as it pertains to the Kyrie
Speaker 1: Irving situation. For starters, that's just not what you guys
Speaker 1: come to me for. And secondly, there's just a lot
Speaker 1: of people much smarter than me that can dive into
Speaker 1: those specific topics. Um, you guys come to me for
Speaker 1: the basketball and that's what we're gonna do today. We're
Speaker 1: gonna discuss what this means for Kyrie Irving the basketball player,
Speaker 1: and what it means for the Brooklyn Nets, the NBA
Speaker 1: basketball team. Um. So here's the situation. Kyrie Irving is
Speaker 1: suspended for at least five games for not being clear
Speaker 1: with his apology, and last night he came out with
Speaker 1: a much more clear apology. So he did take one
Speaker 1: step in the right direction. I do think, especially on
Speaker 1: the apology front. Now there's other steps that Brooklyn is
Speaker 1: gonna have him go through, but I do think on
Speaker 1: the apology front as well, that Brooklyn is gonna want
Speaker 1: to see him do another press conference and hold up
Speaker 1: under questioning with the same you know, level of contriteness
Speaker 1: as it pertains to uh, you know, basically what he
Speaker 1: said on Instagram last night. Kyrie is a prideful person
Speaker 1: like so many other successful people are in the world,
Speaker 1: and it's just different when you're typing it. You know,
Speaker 1: probably under advisement from somebody else, as opposed to in
Speaker 1: front of a camera in front of a bunch of
Speaker 1: members of the media. Of the media that kind of
Speaker 1: you know, Kyrie already has a pretty contentious relationship with
Speaker 1: He's gonna need to hold up under some of that
Speaker 1: questioning in order for Brooklyn to trust him again, because
Speaker 1: if you put it back on the team and he's
Speaker 1: doing postgame pressers, there's no doubt that he's gonna face
Speaker 1: random questions from time to time that will try to
Speaker 1: incite that type of behavior, and they need to trust
Speaker 1: Kyrie in those situations. So even though the Instagram apology
Speaker 1: was a step, my guess is they're gonna want a
Speaker 1: verbal version of that in front of a camera. But
Speaker 1: Kyrie has gone for at least five games no matter what.
Speaker 1: And yes, there's a version of this that goes further south,
Speaker 1: like maybe he does that press conference and it goes
Speaker 1: bad again, you know, or he fails to finish the
Speaker 1: steps that Brooklyn wants him to finish. But for the
Speaker 1: sake of predicting, let's just pretend that Kyrie does everything
Speaker 1: Sean Marks and jos I asked of him over the
Speaker 1: course of the next couple of weeks and he returns
Speaker 1: after five games. Well, the upcoming schedule for Brooklyn as
Speaker 1: of right now, they are on the road tonight in
Speaker 1: Washington and the Wizards are favored by three. They will
Speaker 1: probably lose that game. Then they're on the road in Charlotte.
Speaker 1: That's probably their easiest game over this span. But even
Speaker 1: in that game, Charlotte at home probably gonna be a
Speaker 1: one or two point favorite. And you gotta remember Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons is still out as of right now. Seth Curry
Speaker 1: is still out. T J Warren I saw report yesterday.
Speaker 1: He's not imminently returning, you know, anytime soon. So they're
Speaker 1: gonna be at a severe talent disadvantage in every single
Speaker 1: one of these games. And they're on the road for
Speaker 1: four of them, on the road at Washington, on the
Speaker 1: road in Charlotte, on the road in Dallas. That's gonna
Speaker 1: be a loss at home for the Knicks. You know,
Speaker 1: the Knicks, they overhelp and give up three point shots.
Speaker 1: You know, Brooklyn has been having trouble making threes on
Speaker 1: the back end. That's gonna be a problem. And then
Speaker 1: they go on the road to l A to play
Speaker 1: the Clippers, so oh and five is on the table.
Speaker 1: Katie will have to play like an absolute superhero to
Speaker 1: win any of those games. But even if we're nice
Speaker 1: and we give them one win out of that five
Speaker 1: game stretch, they're gonna be bringing Kyrie back sitting at
Speaker 1: three and ten. They would have to go thirty eight
Speaker 1: and thirty one the rest of the way to get
Speaker 1: to five hundred, which would still leave you probably in
Speaker 1: the playing tournament, having to win two games to get
Speaker 1: into the postseason. And even if they happen to win
Speaker 1: those two games, you're gonna be on the road for
Speaker 1: a seven gamer against either Milwaukee or Cleveland, or Boston
Speaker 1: or Toronto, and all four of those teams are gonna
Speaker 1: be major favorites in the series, and you'll be staring
Speaker 1: down the barrel of of potentially another another sweep. So
Speaker 1: it's it looks super bleak right now for Brooklyn. That's
Speaker 1: just reality. Then we look at the Email Judoka situation.
Speaker 1: So it was pretty quickly reported after the Steve Nash
Speaker 1: firing that Email Udoka was the guy. Now, it's worth
Speaker 1: noting that Adrian Zanowski was a little bit more reserved
Speaker 1: and talking about how things were heading in that direction
Speaker 1: and that a deal could happen in the next few days.
Speaker 1: Shan Sharanio was much more aggressive in his report, basically
Speaker 1: said it was a done deal, but several days have
Speaker 1: passed and it's been all quiet ever since. So it
Speaker 1: was kind of the quickness of the original report was
Speaker 1: strange because it led you to believe that the Nets
Speaker 1: were very much invested in trying to salvage this situation. Email.
Speaker 1: Judoka was the obvious salvage this team type of pick.
Speaker 1: The Nets were scoring just fine, they were specifically struggling
Speaker 1: with rebounding and defense, and if you watched on tape,
Speaker 1: did they have the best personnel in the world for
Speaker 1: those situations. No, but they certainly weren't the worst personnel
Speaker 1: for those situations. You did have Ben Simmons for most
Speaker 1: of the season. Kevin Durant is out there on the floor,
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neil, Kyrie Irving is a capable defensive player, and hell,
Speaker 1: he had a half where you grabbed nine defensive rebounds
Speaker 1: once this season. Like the the guys on the floor
Speaker 1: also weren't doing nearly a good enough job. You know, Udoka,
Speaker 1: famous tough guy, can look eye to eye with those
Speaker 1: guys try to get him to play hard. That was
Speaker 1: the obvious pick to try to like salvage this situation,
Speaker 1: obviously not looking at all of his drama and controversy
Speaker 1: surrounding his exit from Boston. But it's been all quiet
Speaker 1: ever since, so it kind of leads you to believe
Speaker 1: that maybe the Nets brass has had some second thoughts
Speaker 1: after their initial quick reaction to the Steve Nash hiring
Speaker 1: and then the Kyrie Irving stuff goes off the rails
Speaker 1: and they blow a game that they had a big
Speaker 1: lead against the Chicago Bulls, and now they're staring down
Speaker 1: potentially a two and eleven start or a three intense start.
Speaker 1: So then you start to ask yourself, is it too
Speaker 1: bleak to risk the massive public backlash of bringing in
Speaker 1: emi Udoka to try to salvage this basketball situation. Would
Speaker 1: you be better off going to someone like Quinn Snyder,
Speaker 1: you know, uh, desirable NBA coach just like emi Udoka is,
Speaker 1: But there's obviously all the baggage that comes with him
Speaker 1: that makes it a lot tougher. But you could get
Speaker 1: someone like Quinn Snyder potentially to sign a long term
Speaker 1: deal to guide you through a rebuild. If you tell
Speaker 1: him that you're blowing the team up been getting all
Speaker 1: of the drama out of the building, would that potentially
Speaker 1: be a better pathway? Right? Because here here's the deal.
Speaker 1: My guess is that Kyrie never plays another game in
Speaker 1: a Brooklyn Nets Jersey. I said that yesterday in my
Speaker 1: instant reaction video that I did. I just if you
Speaker 1: think of it this way, at three and ten, at
Speaker 1: two and eleven, what is the point of bringing those
Speaker 1: guys back and trying to salvage the situation? At what
Speaker 1: point do you consider trying to retrieve as much asset
Speaker 1: return as possible before this goes further and further off
Speaker 1: the rails and everyone's value starts to tank. And it's
Speaker 1: not a great situation. Like I'm not sure what Ben
Speaker 1: Simmons's value is around the league right now, Probably not much.
Speaker 1: That might be a guy that you're better off just
Speaker 1: keeping giving him like six months to get one healthy
Speaker 1: and then letting him kind of work his way back
Speaker 1: onto the court to build some value there. But you know,
Speaker 1: I don't know what you can get for Kyrie anymore
Speaker 1: because most of the teams around the leagu league are
Speaker 1: not gonna want to touch him. Certainly not for assets. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the Lakers used to want to pay two first round
Speaker 1: picks for him, but that's not going to be the
Speaker 1: case anymore. They probably think they can get him in
Speaker 1: a buyout, and that's probably where this is headed. My
Speaker 1: guess is that Kyrie's representation approaches Brooklyn at some point
Speaker 1: in the future and says, we want to buy out,
Speaker 1: and then Brooklyn's brass will say, okay, fine, but you're
Speaker 1: giving us back ten million dollars, you know, or something
Speaker 1: along those lines, and there will be a negotiation. But
Speaker 1: my guess is that they eventually settle on some dollar
Speaker 1: amount that Kyrie concedes back to Brooklyn and gets the
Speaker 1: buy out so that he can go play basketball elsewhere.
Speaker 1: At that point, you know, there's no point in just
Speaker 1: having Kyrie Kevin Durant just run around floundering on this
Speaker 1: terrible basketball team, especially when you can get a bunch
Speaker 1: of asset return for him. So I think that this
Speaker 1: is trending back towards the nets blowing up sooner than later,
Speaker 1: especially if it goes as badly as I expected to
Speaker 1: go over the next five games. So what kind of
Speaker 1: teams would be interested in Kevin Durant I still think
Speaker 1: Boston has the best chance. Um they're struggling a bit
Speaker 1: and crunch time again this year. They've lost their three
Speaker 1: and three in the six games that involved crunch time. Um.
Speaker 1: Kevin Durant is one of the best closers to ever
Speaker 1: play the game of basketball. You could see a team
Speaker 1: like Boston potentially considering making that move. But then again,
Speaker 1: Jalen Brown has been so good this year there's a
Speaker 1: chance that they don't even consider it, which brings us
Speaker 1: back to a couple of specific teams, Phoenix and Toronto,
Speaker 1: two teams Toronto never wanted to include Scottie Barnes, and
Speaker 1: I don't blame them because Scotty Barnes has been off
Speaker 1: to another incredible start this year. He's scoring efficiently and
Speaker 1: he's playmaking out of the post at an extremely high
Speaker 1: level for a young player. UM So Toronto without Scottie Barnes,
Speaker 1: their package was a little bit less desirable, and then
Speaker 1: Phoenix was like considered basically out of the running because
Speaker 1: they didn't have enough. Those are two teams that kind
Speaker 1: of like float back up to the surface here now
Speaker 1: that you can see that um uh that the Nets
Speaker 1: don't quite have as much leverage as they did over
Speaker 1: the summer. Toronto is off to a really good start,
Speaker 1: so you could see them thinking that as an all
Speaker 1: in sort of trade, and MASSI you, Jerry has a history,
Speaker 1: as we've seen with the Kawhi Leonard situation, of being
Speaker 1: interested in making that type of of trade. So I
Speaker 1: think that I think that You'll Phoenix in Toronto would
Speaker 1: be the two teams that I'd keep an eye on.
Speaker 1: But in general, I think leverage has shifted back towards
Speaker 1: the rest of the league in a different way than
Speaker 1: it was this summer when you kind of just believed
Speaker 1: Brooklyn that they would hang on to him for a while.
Speaker 1: But now it's like things have gone so far south
Speaker 1: so quickly in Brooklyn that it's headed in that direction. Um.
Speaker 1: And then on the Kyrie Irving front, you know, I
Speaker 1: said this on the on my Instant Reaction video yesterday,
Speaker 1: but the rest of the league's not going to touch
Speaker 1: him in all likelihood. So you gotta look at teams
Speaker 1: that are desperate, that are one piece away from being
Speaker 1: legitimate contenders, and that specifically need high level guard creation.
Speaker 1: And the two teams that come to mind for me
Speaker 1: there are the Dallas Mavericks and the Lakers. Let's take
Speaker 1: a look at Dallas for a second. So you lose
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson. The specific design of the roster is all
Speaker 1: of these spot up shooters that defend and three dribble creators.
Speaker 1: Last year it was Luca, Spencer, Dinwoodie Jalen Bronson. They
Speaker 1: staggered it out nicely. You started with Luca and Jalen.
Speaker 1: One of them go to the bench, Spencer, Dinwood you
Speaker 1: would come in, then the other would go to the bench,
Speaker 1: and then the other guy would come in, and then
Speaker 1: maybe you close with all three, maybe you close with
Speaker 1: just two. That was the design of the team got
Speaker 1: you to the conference finals and gave you a legitimate
Speaker 1: chance to make it to the finals. Right, you lose
Speaker 1: Jalen Brunson. Now, Luca Doncheuss usage is through the roof
Speaker 1: over and that's concerning in the long run, because you
Speaker 1: know high usage players generally speaking flame out early in
Speaker 1: the playoffs, at least when they get to that absurd
Speaker 1: of a level of usage. And I'm as big a
Speaker 1: Luca fan as you'll find. Kyrie Irving brings you basically
Speaker 1: a better version of Jalen Brunson that can come in
Speaker 1: and if he buys into Jason Kidd's defensive scheme, he's
Speaker 1: capable as a perimeter defender as long as he's not
Speaker 1: going up against bigger, stronger players, and then he'll be
Speaker 1: a perfect fit in that drive in kicks system that
Speaker 1: Dallas has. Slots Spencer didn't what he back to his
Speaker 1: Bentrol that he had last year, and then gives you
Speaker 1: like another really really legitimate playoff scoring option there. Again,
Speaker 1: you're gonna have a long conversation about all of the
Speaker 1: stuff that comes with Kyrie Irving and whether or not
Speaker 1: that's worth it, and there's a good chance that they
Speaker 1: still say no. But that's the type of team that
Speaker 1: I think would consider it. Lakers exact same situation. You
Speaker 1: have the second best defense in the league, and uh
Speaker 1: Anthony Davis in his last two games has played like
Speaker 1: a top ten player. Lebron James has been really bad
Speaker 1: this season by his standards. His effective field goal percentages
Speaker 1: like forty seven point seven percent, which is the lowest
Speaker 1: since he was a rookie UM, but you're expecting him
Speaker 1: to get better. But their specific weakness is offensive skill,
Speaker 1: particularly in the backcourt. Kendrick Nunn has been a disaster.
Speaker 1: Patrick Beverley hasn't been nearly as good offensively as he
Speaker 1: was in Minnesota last year. And then you've got some
Speaker 1: good wings like Lonnie Walker and Troy Brown Jr. Have
Speaker 1: been have been the two home runs signing so far
Speaker 1: from Rob Polinka this past summer. Got to give him
Speaker 1: some credit on that front, even though some of the
Speaker 1: rest of the you know want Sisconno Anderson completely out
Speaker 1: of the rotation. Beverley has been a disaster, Kendrick Nunn
Speaker 1: has been a disaster. There's about a lot of bad there,
Speaker 1: but there's a couple of good pieces there. They just
Speaker 1: knee eat a legitimate scoring guard, specifically one that would
Speaker 1: force guards, defensive guards to chase over the top of screens,
Speaker 1: opening up the pocket pass and Anthony Davis screening actions.
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving fits that bill perfectly. He would turn them
Speaker 1: from one of the worst offenses in the league to
Speaker 1: a mid level or better offense like that, and from
Speaker 1: that guard position, the guys that are playing those minutes,
Speaker 1: I think he'd be enough defensively to kind of keep
Speaker 1: them afloat. So as we look at that situation, the
Speaker 1: Lakers would probably consider it, but it's still possible that
Speaker 1: they look at that situation and say no, So there's
Speaker 1: a chance that we don't see Kyrie Irving play basketball
Speaker 1: at all this season. But those are the two teams
Speaker 1: that I would keep an eye on. And then the
Speaker 1: bottom line after all of this, if Joe Sigh tries
Speaker 1: to salvage this situation, if he brings Kyrie Irving after
Speaker 1: starting three intent or two and eleven, if he hires
Speaker 1: Ema Udoka to try to salvage this, then he deserves
Speaker 1: everything that happens after that because it will continue to
Speaker 1: go south in all likelihood, and and and again, he
Speaker 1: would just deserve that outcome. It kind of reminds me
Speaker 1: of any of you guys. Ever Watch How I Met
Speaker 1: Your Mother? And Ted Moseby has this college girlfriend. Her
Speaker 1: name is Karen, and every time he gets together with her,
Speaker 1: she treats him like crap. And then every time he
Speaker 1: goes back his friends are always like, okay, buddy, like,
Speaker 1: I guess we'll see if it goes differently this time.
Speaker 1: And that's kind of the way I feel about Josiah
Speaker 1: in this situation, Like every single time this is blown
Speaker 1: up in his face, he's gone back to the table
Speaker 1: and tried to make it work again, and if he
Speaker 1: does so again, he deserves what happens next. Today we're
Speaker 1: doing our top five most disappointing teams in the NBA
Speaker 1: through two and a half weeks, kind of like the
Speaker 1: opposite of our power Rankings list that we did yesterday,
Speaker 1: although there is one team that is on both lists
Speaker 1: that you guys will see shortly. You guys know the
Speaker 1: drill before we get started. Subscribe to the Volumes YouTube
Speaker 1: channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter at Underscore Jason lt s, you
Speaker 1: guys don't miss any show announcements as well as that's
Speaker 1: where I put NBA footage since I have limitations on
Speaker 1: my ability to use NBA footage here on YouTube. And then, last,
Speaker 1: but not least, for whatever reason, you guys miss one
Speaker 1: of these shows and you can't get back over to
Speaker 1: YouTube to finish them. You find them wherever you get
Speaker 1: your podcasts under Hoops tonight. And then one last note
Speaker 1: before we get started, I had I had a few
Speaker 1: more complaints this week about how much we talked about
Speaker 1: the Lakers, nets and Warriors. Um. I've covered this a
Speaker 1: couple of times this season, but I just wanted to
Speaker 1: do it one more time and try to help you
Speaker 1: guys kind of sort through the way this content is
Speaker 1: um presented. First of all, the Lakers and the Warriors
Speaker 1: are the two most popular teams in the NBA. They
Speaker 1: have the two most large they have the two largest
Speaker 1: fan bases. We have to talk about them. That's just
Speaker 1: good business this and at the end of the day,
Speaker 1: this is a business. Both of them are struggling to
Speaker 1: start the season. But the Warriors are obviously going to
Speaker 1: figure things out at some point. They're the defending champions
Speaker 1: and their starting lineup is murdering everybody. And then the
Speaker 1: Lakers are the second best defense in the league, and
Speaker 1: just by virtue of that, they're going to be competitive
Speaker 1: throughout the season and they'll probably be relevant if they
Speaker 1: If either of them descend into irrelevance, like out of
Speaker 1: the playoff picture entirely after a good chunk of games,
Speaker 1: then yeah, we're gonna stop talking about them. But they
Speaker 1: are relevant right now and they have huge fan bases.
Speaker 1: We're going to cover them heavily. And then the nets
Speaker 1: because of their drama, I've just persistently been one of
Speaker 1: the top stories in the league on a daily basis.
Speaker 1: That said, my goal has always been to cover the
Speaker 1: entire league, and that's what we do. Those of you
Speaker 1: guys who have been following the show for a while, No,
Speaker 1: I'm doing like six or seven videos a week, Okay,
Speaker 1: So yeah, there's gonna be a lot of Lakers, Warriors
Speaker 1: Nets content in there, But the other half of it
Speaker 1: is covering the rest of the league. And so what
Speaker 1: I've been doing and what I will continue to do
Speaker 1: is at the beginning of these videos, all hell you
Speaker 1: the teams were covering. And if you're if you hate
Speaker 1: the Lakers and you're sick of hearing me talk about them,
Speaker 1: you can always just fast forward until we get to
Speaker 1: the other teams. And it will always be a consistent
Speaker 1: goal of mine throughout this season to continue to touch
Speaker 1: on as many of the teams as possible. Um I
Speaker 1: even want to spend some time, especially here in the
Speaker 1: next couple of weeks, to dive into the bottom of
Speaker 1: the barrel teams and talk about some of the young
Speaker 1: up and coming talent in the NBA. We will always
Speaker 1: get to that stuff. You just obviously there's gonna be
Speaker 1: a lot of Lakers, Warriors and nets surrounding that that's
Speaker 1: just the nature of the business. Um So, top five
Speaker 1: most disappointing teams in the NBA. Now, to be clear,
Speaker 1: this is based on expectations and performance that's under your control.
Speaker 1: There always going to be things that I find um
Speaker 1: you know more more like the players have control over
Speaker 1: versus some things that are beyond your control. For instance,
Speaker 1: the Lakers are not on this list for me. I
Speaker 1: had them thirteenth in my power rankings before the season,
Speaker 1: right and I even only had them that high because
Speaker 1: of the potential of a Russell Westbrook trade and what
Speaker 1: that might bring down the pike. They're opening schedule was
Speaker 1: damn near impossible. They had a really good team every
Speaker 1: single night, and during that stretch because they had not
Speaker 1: made the Rush trade, they had severe limitations and offensive talent.
Speaker 1: I expected them to lose those games. I expected the
Speaker 1: Lakers to get off to a bad start. You guys
Speaker 1: remember me saying that to start the season. I predicted
Speaker 1: they'd be a top five defense. That's gone well so far.
Speaker 1: But they're shooting horrifically bad. But they're competing. At least,
Speaker 1: they're going out there, they're playing as hard as they
Speaker 1: possibly can. They're just losing games because they're not making shots,
Speaker 1: and then in the last couple of games they've made
Speaker 1: more shots. They've won a couple of games. But the
Speaker 1: Lakers are kind of performing to expectations to start the season.
Speaker 1: That's why they're not at this on this list. If
Speaker 1: they do go on a run and win some games,
Speaker 1: it'll be now that their schedule softens up a little bit.
Speaker 1: The teams that I have on this list have no
Speaker 1: business being on this list. All five of these teams
Speaker 1: should be significantly higher in the standings and should be
Speaker 1: playing better basketball than they actually are. Alright, So number
Speaker 1: five the Minnesota Timberwolves. They are four and four to
Speaker 1: start the season, two wins against the Thunder, one against
Speaker 1: the Spurs, and one against the Lakers without a d
Speaker 1: so nothing overly impressive there. They also have two losses
Speaker 1: to the Spurs, a loss to the Suns, which is
Speaker 1: a tough game in Phoenix. You're probably gonna lose that
Speaker 1: game even if you're a good team on most nights,
Speaker 1: and then they lost at home to the Utah Jazz
Speaker 1: in overtime game where they got beat by Lorie Market
Speaker 1: in a game they had no business losing. My biggest
Speaker 1: concern about the Gobert trade coming into the summer. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember, there were two things that I talked about.
Speaker 1: One was their loss of perimeter defense. You know, say
Speaker 1: what you want about Molik Beasley as a shooter. He uh,
Speaker 1: you know, a lot of Timberwolves fans were not exactly
Speaker 1: you know, devastated when he left. But the truth of
Speaker 1: the matter is is towards the end of that season
Speaker 1: and into the postseason, he had become a pretty solid
Speaker 1: perimeter defender. He was competing for them, Patrick Beverley. That
Speaker 1: was his best skill. That was the thing he did
Speaker 1: better than most players in the league. He could defend
Speaker 1: on the perimeter. Jared Vanderbilt, say what you want about
Speaker 1: him on the offensive end of the floor, freak athlete,
Speaker 1: played super hard every single night, a great perimeter defensive player.
Speaker 1: They gave that all away for a defensive anchor. They
Speaker 1: were betting on a player that was going to give
Speaker 1: them an outstanding regular season defense. But I was concerned
Speaker 1: about that lack of perimeter defense because when you get
Speaker 1: into the postseason, teams find a way to scheme around
Speaker 1: Rudy Gobert and get him out to the perimeter, so
Speaker 1: that he can't help around the rim, and then they
Speaker 1: will score or drive and kick and get wide open
Speaker 1: threes because you lack perimeter defense. That's literally what happened
Speaker 1: to the Utah Jazz over the course of the last
Speaker 1: few years. And then in the process, when you bring
Speaker 1: in Rudy Gobert, you fundamentally changed the geometry of your offense.
Speaker 1: Outside of um, outside of Jared Vanderbilt, every single lineup
Speaker 1: that the Timberwolves played had a five out concept because
Speaker 1: Carl Anthony Towns could shoot, Nasa Read could shoot, you know,
Speaker 1: Jada McDaniels could shoot. So essentially outside of the minutes
Speaker 1: when Jared Vanderbilt was out there, they had a real
Speaker 1: five out concept. So everyone's operating around the rim. Anthony
Speaker 1: Edwards is getting downhill, Carl Towns is operating a lot downhill.
Speaker 1: His face up game was really effective in their five outsets.
Speaker 1: By bringing in Go Bear, you're now basically perpetually running
Speaker 1: a four out one in offense, and now it's more
Speaker 1: of like a screen and dive offense, or put Rudy
Speaker 1: Gobert in the dunker spot type of offense. And as
Speaker 1: I've always told you, guys, vertical spacing brings value, but
Speaker 1: not nearly the same type of value as five out spacing.
Speaker 1: The rotations are just so much easier to make in
Speaker 1: those cases. So what I was concerned about is that
Speaker 1: their defense would be a little better but not good
Speaker 1: enough because of their like a perimeter defense, and that
Speaker 1: their offense would take a hit. And that's exactly what
Speaker 1: has happened. The defense is only slightly better than last
Speaker 1: year overall, and you make a go bear trade to
Speaker 1: be a top five defense, and that's not what's happened.
Speaker 1: They've been tent and then they're spacing with Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: has been a problem. I've Anthony Everarde is one of
Speaker 1: my favorite young players in the league. I think I
Speaker 1: ranked him twenty in my player rankings, which is higher
Speaker 1: than most people have him. That's how high I am
Speaker 1: on Anthony Edwards. I view him as a mini Lebron.
Speaker 1: He's an incredible downhill threat. He's very difficult to knock
Speaker 1: off of his line. He's so big and physically imposing
Speaker 1: that in the postseason he can continue to pressure the rim,
Speaker 1: which a lot of guards and wings that get downhill
Speaker 1: in the regular season struggled to do. So. When you
Speaker 1: get to the postseason. He's also flashing high level pull
Speaker 1: up jump shooting over the course of the end of
Speaker 1: last season, right, So there's a lot of potential on
Speaker 1: that front. I'm a huge Aunt fan. But at the
Speaker 1: end of the day, he's at his best when they're
Speaker 1: five out and he has plenty of space to operate.
Speaker 1: And the story of the early season has been how
Speaker 1: bad their offense has been with the starting group. So
Speaker 1: their starting lineup is d Angela Russell, Anthony Edwards, Jada McDaniels,
Speaker 1: Carl Towns, and Rudy Gobert. We've already seen Anthony Everards
Speaker 1: make comments about the starting lineup. We had Carl Towns
Speaker 1: go respond to that by criticizing Ant's diet. There's a
Speaker 1: whole thing going on there where Carl Towns was kind
Speaker 1: of like the darling of the Minnesota fan base, and
Speaker 1: now that's becoming Anthony Edwards, which is changing that entire dynamic.
Speaker 1: You saw a similar thing happened to Ben Simmons and
Speaker 1: Joel and Beat over the years, where Ben Simmons was
Speaker 1: kind of that guy and then it became Joel embiad
Speaker 1: and then like kind of a rift forms between the
Speaker 1: two players. You're seeing a similar thing happened there. And
Speaker 1: then there was that weird moment the other night, I
Speaker 1: think it was after the Sun's game where Anthony Edwards
Speaker 1: is like with Majorite McLoughlin at the at the uh
Speaker 1: press conference table and he's looking at the box score,
Speaker 1: like realizing that the starters are getting are getting rolled
Speaker 1: and it's a real problem. That starting lineup is played
Speaker 1: two d and sixty possessions. They have a ninety nine
Speaker 1: offensive rating and a one oh four defensive rating, so
Speaker 1: the defensive right is good but not outstanding, and their
Speaker 1: offense is atrocious and you can see it on tape.
Speaker 1: The paint is a complete shit show. Historically, when you
Speaker 1: when you see things kind of crowded like that, you
Speaker 1: need half court surgeons to succeed in those environments. And
Speaker 1: what I mean by that half court surgeon is like
Speaker 1: super high level playmaking. So like a Lebron with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: for instance, like it's crowded, there's two bigs, everything is
Speaker 1: packed in the paint, but Lebron is such a gifted
Speaker 1: shot maker and passer that they can still functionally run
Speaker 1: an offense there. Dilo is never going to be that
Speaker 1: guy Anthony Edwards might one day be that guy, but
Speaker 1: he's not that guy yet. Right now. He's more of
Speaker 1: a downhill score mixed with some pull up jump shooting.
Speaker 1: A lot of potential there, but he's not quite that
Speaker 1: guy yet. I watched the Sun's game earlier this week,
Speaker 1: I think he was on Tuesday, and Anthony Edwards had
Speaker 1: a couple of nasty pull up threes to get it down.
Speaker 1: I think it was like five after that um and
Speaker 1: they call it time out. Timberwolves are rolling, but those
Speaker 1: are two difficult oots over the top of a set defense.
Speaker 1: And ever after that time out, the Timberwolves offense the
Speaker 1: rest of the game was hilariously bad. So after that
Speaker 1: we had that These are literally their next eight or
Speaker 1: so possessions, nine or so possessions. Anthony Edwards turns the
Speaker 1: basketball over, then D'Angelo Russell turns the basketball over. Then
Speaker 1: Delo hits a pull up jumper. Then Anthony Edwards turns
Speaker 1: the basketball over. Then Carl Town's turns the basketball over.
Speaker 1: Then Anthony Edwards misses a super long three that had
Speaker 1: almost no chance of going in. Then D'Angelo Russell turns
Speaker 1: the basketball over. Then Torre and Prince bails them out
Speaker 1: with like a ridiculous step back jump shot at the
Speaker 1: end of the shot clock in the right corner. And
Speaker 1: then Carl Anthony Towns gets a guard on a switch
Speaker 1: and opts to take a step back three rather than
Speaker 1: bullying him to the basket, and now you're down fourteen
Speaker 1: with three minutes left in the game is over. They
Speaker 1: just have no idea how to operate with that type
Speaker 1: of spacing because they don't have the offensive personnel to
Speaker 1: pick teams apart in that type of spacing. I preferred
Speaker 1: the old Timberwolves from last year, and I'm really curious
Speaker 1: if you're a Timberwolves fan, please drop that in the comments.
Speaker 1: I want to hear your thoughts about how you feel
Speaker 1: about last year's Timberwolves compared to this year's. Now. I
Speaker 1: know there's a lot of basketball left and they might
Speaker 1: figure it out with this group, but obviously through this
Speaker 1: eight game sample size, I'm just curious to hear your
Speaker 1: guys opinions. Like I said earlier, they basically played five
Speaker 1: out all the time, except for when Jared Vanderbilt was
Speaker 1: out there, and he was so damn athletic and played
Speaker 1: so damn hard that it was worth it um, their
Speaker 1: perimeter defense was much better, Anthony Edwards was downhill all
Speaker 1: the time. And then the big guy that it's hurting
Speaker 1: right now is Carl Town's. Like they're basically turning Carl
Speaker 1: Towns into a wing instead of what he was last
Speaker 1: year and for most of his career, which is like
Speaker 1: this hyper versatile downhill forward that um that kills people
Speaker 1: in face up but also have some uh spacing effects
Speaker 1: with his ability to shoot the three. But he was
Speaker 1: operating around the basket a lot. Last year, Carl Town's
Speaker 1: made four point two shots per game in the restricted area.
Speaker 1: At this year it's at two point one, so half
Speaker 1: that and he's only making six of them. You're basically
Speaker 1: using Carl Towns as a wing on both ends of
Speaker 1: the floor, which is literally the worst way to use him.
Speaker 1: So you brought in Rudy Gobert to kind of redefine
Speaker 1: and re anchor your defense, but in the process you
Speaker 1: took an all star level player and are using him
Speaker 1: in literally the worst possible way, and in a way
Speaker 1: that dramatically diminishes his value. I hated the Gobert deal
Speaker 1: when it went down. I'm not surprised that we're seeing
Speaker 1: disappointing results so far. And again, maybe it all works
Speaker 1: out in the long run, and if it does, I'll
Speaker 1: be the first to admit that I was wrong. But
Speaker 1: right now I'm not optimistic. And again, Wolves fans, I
Speaker 1: want I want to hear your take dropping in the
Speaker 1: comments alright. Number four, the Brooklyn Nets. I'm not going
Speaker 1: to talk long about them, because we've done that a
Speaker 1: ton in recent weeks, and more than they honestly deserve. Um.
Speaker 1: I had them in my list is the if things
Speaker 1: go right contender, and I wasn't the only one. I
Speaker 1: was listening to a Zachlo podcast the other day and
Speaker 1: he said that he called them before the season the
Speaker 1: dunder Mifflin NBA team because they were good on paper
Speaker 1: and you could tell looking at the talent on the roster.
Speaker 1: You're looking at Kevin Durant, who's one of the best
Speaker 1: two way superstars in the league. You have, you know,
Speaker 1: Ben Simmons, who's one of the best defensive players in
Speaker 1: the league. Are allegedly as you know, you bring in
Speaker 1: Royce O'Neil that bolsters your perimeter defense. Nick Claxton is
Speaker 1: a big athlete with long arms that clogs up the lane,
Speaker 1: and can grab contested rebounds. And then Kyrie Irving, for
Speaker 1: all of his flaws when he's locked in, is actually
Speaker 1: an okay perimeter defender and he can grab contested rebounds.
Speaker 1: He grabbed nine defensive rebounds in a single game once,
Speaker 1: or excuse me, in a single half earlier this season once.
Speaker 1: So like they had on paper the potential to be
Speaker 1: a good basketball team, and instead things have gone horribly wrong.
Speaker 1: They're seventeenth in offense, which is nowhere near good enough
Speaker 1: for their talent. They're dead last in defense the net
Speaker 1: ratings on point deferential, they're the third worst team in
Speaker 1: the entire league. And then they're dead last and rebounding.
Speaker 1: So they had plenty of on paper talent to be
Speaker 1: a good basketball team, but instead they completely mailed in
Speaker 1: every single winning basketball trade. And now they're staring down
Speaker 1: the barrel of a two and eleven start if they
Speaker 1: go oh and five during this Kyrie suspension. So horrifically
Speaker 1: disappointing team. Brooklyn nets at number four, number three the
Speaker 1: Philadelphia seventy sixers. I got on a three game winning
Speaker 1: streak and then immediately had an awful game at home
Speaker 1: against Washington on Wednesday, where they didn't defend and got
Speaker 1: killed on the glass again. And really what the Sixers
Speaker 1: are is just a slightly better version of the Nets. Offensively,
Speaker 1: they're great, and Brooklyn was good offensively for the most
Speaker 1: part up until the last couple of games. Um of
Speaker 1: Philly's fourth and offense overall third and half court offense
Speaker 1: according to Cleaning the Last, but their twenty three in defense,
Speaker 1: twenty nine and rebounding. The only team worse is the Nets,
Speaker 1: and they're dead last in transition defense. So similar kind
Speaker 1: of concept. Like, I'm disappointed in this team. I had
Speaker 1: them fifth in my preseason power rankings. I thought they
Speaker 1: were just as talented as the most talented teams in
Speaker 1: the league. The league is wide open. Anybody can win
Speaker 1: this thing, and they came out with no urgency in
Speaker 1: the winning areas of the game. And they're clearly not
Speaker 1: bought into Doc Rivers, which is why I thought, similar
Speaker 1: to the cur things, similar to the Vogel thing, they
Speaker 1: might need to consider just bringing in a new voice
Speaker 1: just to get the guys in the locker room to
Speaker 1: buy into the winning details again. And now they have
Speaker 1: this James Harden injury. He's gonna be out for at
Speaker 1: least a month with the foot ligament issue. And I'm
Speaker 1: bummed out for James Harden because you finally get back
Speaker 1: in shape and you're honestly looking great to start the season.
Speaker 1: Maybe not quite two thousand nineteen James Harden, but a
Speaker 1: lot better than he looked last year. And now you're
Speaker 1: gonna be heard again. And the tough thing with that is,
Speaker 1: you know, this is a guy that historically has struggle
Speaker 1: keeping weight off, and now he can't play basketball for
Speaker 1: a month. So I'm really curious to see how well
Speaker 1: he takes care of his body over this next month.
Speaker 1: And now for the next month, everything is gonna have
Speaker 1: to flow through Joel Embiid, so so much is gonna
Speaker 1: depend on how well he defends, how well he handles
Speaker 1: double teams, because he's gonna get doubled everywhere on the court.
Speaker 1: Like his body language is gonna be a key thing
Speaker 1: to watch, Like when things go poorly, is he gonna
Speaker 1: keep his team galvanized or not, because even without Harden,
Speaker 1: they have enough talent to float around five hundred until
Speaker 1: James Harden gets back, which gives you a fighting chance
Speaker 1: down the stretch of the season. And I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm challenging Joel Embid. I'm really you know, you probably
Speaker 1: fancy yourself the best player in the league. You know, um,
Speaker 1: you put yourself in the same conversations with guys like
Speaker 1: Nicola Yo Kitchen, guys like Janice. This is your chance.
Speaker 1: James Harden's out, He's gonna be back. Your team is
Speaker 1: incredibly talented. The league is wide open. You have to
Speaker 1: keep your team afloat for a month here, and I'm
Speaker 1: really curious to see how he does in that month.
Speaker 1: But they had a complete lack of urgency from the
Speaker 1: jump this season and kind of blew an opportunity to
Speaker 1: come out and just start whooping everybody's ass. And so
Speaker 1: I have them as my third most disappointing team to
Speaker 1: start the season. Number two the l A Clippers, kind
Speaker 1: of similar to Minnesota there four and four, but their
Speaker 1: actual quality of winds is not good. Uh. They beat
Speaker 1: the Lakers, uh, the King's, the Rockets, and the Rockets again.
Speaker 1: They have two losses to the Thunder and then they
Speaker 1: got destroyed by the two good teams they played, the
Speaker 1: Sons and the Pelicans. All of their issues are on
Speaker 1: the offensive end of the floor, kind of similar to
Speaker 1: the Lakers the only teams scoring less points per possession
Speaker 1: in the half court then the Lakers, according to Cleaning
Speaker 1: the Glass, are the Clippers in the rockets. Yes, you
Speaker 1: heard that right. The Clippers are are a worse half
Speaker 1: court offense than the Lakers. And so many people are
Speaker 1: gonna blame the Kauai thing, and the Kauai thing is weird, man,
Speaker 1: Like he's gonna be out for this upcoming road trip again. Um.
Speaker 1: I told you guys. I had a guy who covers
Speaker 1: who's been covering the league for a long time, who
Speaker 1: told me that Kawais knee was degenerative years ago. And
Speaker 1: I was kind of like up in the air about
Speaker 1: it because I'm like, who the hell knows what's going
Speaker 1: on with Kauai. His camp is so air tight you're
Speaker 1: not getting any intel out of anything. So I just
Speaker 1: didn't know what to make of it. But here's the deal, man,
Speaker 1: It's been a year and a half since his a
Speaker 1: c L surgery. It wasn't even a complete a c
Speaker 1: L tear, is a partial a c L tear. The
Speaker 1: dude played basketball for a couple of weeks and now
Speaker 1: he's out again, So like something's going on there. But
Speaker 1: either way regardless, Let's put the quay thing on a
Speaker 1: side for them on the side for a minute. This
Speaker 1: is largely the same assembly of players that destroyed the
Speaker 1: Jazz in the two thousand one playoffs. A good defensive
Speaker 1: team on paper again in the regular season, and then
Speaker 1: they nearly beat the Suns there were two wins away
Speaker 1: from making it to the NBA Finals. Basically, you know,
Speaker 1: Paul George, Reggie Jackson, and a bunch of wings that
Speaker 1: can shoot and defend. It's the same group I put them.
Speaker 1: If you watch on on film, you can tell immediately
Speaker 1: watching the Clippers that they are just hunting pull up
Speaker 1: jump shots off the dribble. It's a lot of ice,
Speaker 1: so a lot of just your turn, my turn, and
Speaker 1: they're getting away from what made them good at the beginning,
Speaker 1: which was this was if you remember when we did
Speaker 1: our season previews, I had the Clippers as the best
Speaker 1: driving kick team and all of basketball. What they do
Speaker 1: is they beat people off the dribble, draw, help, kick, drive, kick, drive,
Speaker 1: wide open three. That's what they do. That's what they
Speaker 1: do best and what the majority of the blame for
Speaker 1: this season, and you could see it on tape. Reggie Jackson,
Speaker 1: Paul George. They're not doing their job of drawing that
Speaker 1: initial help and drawing and starting the driving kick, and
Speaker 1: instead they're hunting, as is a players kind of similar
Speaker 1: to the Tatum Brown thing in the finals, where when
Speaker 1: they're driving and kicking the offenses fluid, but when they're
Speaker 1: driving to ISO things kind of tend to fall apart,
Speaker 1: and you can see it in the metrics. It's actually
Speaker 1: pretty wild. Um only twenty two point three attempts per
Speaker 1: game in the restricted area for the Clippers, which is
Speaker 1: twenty nine in the NBA. They aren't putting any pressure
Speaker 1: on the rim, so as a result, they aren't generating
Speaker 1: any wide open threes. The Clippers are generating eight point
Speaker 1: one wide open threes per game. Remember, wide open is
Speaker 1: defender at least six ft away. They're only generating eight
Speaker 1: point one, which is dead last in the NBA. Instead,
Speaker 1: they're taking twenty five pull up jumpers per game, which
Speaker 1: is top ten in the NBA. Their assists are down
Speaker 1: in one that season I'm referencing, they were thirteen in
Speaker 1: the league, and assists this year there seven. So instead
Speaker 1: of being the driving kick team that generates high quality
Speaker 1: three point shots, that they were high quality three point
Speaker 1: shots and layups at the rim that they were in
Speaker 1: This same group is basically turning into your turn. My
Speaker 1: turn is a team that's not generating high quality shots.
Speaker 1: Their offense is tanking as a result, and as a result,
Speaker 1: they're not achieving at the level you'd expect given the
Speaker 1: softness of their early schedule. You know, any Driving Kicks system,
Speaker 1: as the initial initiator, you have to understand your role
Speaker 1: and it's hard because these got you know, you're primary
Speaker 1: perimeter initiators are usually super skilled. So they're usually guys
Speaker 1: that you know when they're taking step back three is
Speaker 1: they feel good about that shot because they've worked on
Speaker 1: it all summer for the last ten years and they're
Speaker 1: damn good at it. And so for them when they're
Speaker 1: taking those shots, they're like, man, I like the shot.
Speaker 1: I like my chances. This is probably gonna go in.
Speaker 1: If they get a post mismatch against a player on
Speaker 1: the left wing, they're like, I like my chances here.
Speaker 1: This is a good matchup for me. But when you're
Speaker 1: in that perimeter initiator role on a driving Kick team,
Speaker 1: that's not your job. You pull that stuff out of
Speaker 1: the bag in late clock situations or every once in
Speaker 1: a while when you get a fantastic matchup. But when
Speaker 1: you actively hunt those possessions, you're undercutting your own offense.
Speaker 1: The job of that perimeter initiator Paul George bringing the
Speaker 1: ball up the right wing Clippers possession seventeen on the
Speaker 1: shot clock, his job is to beat someone off the
Speaker 1: dribble and kick it. That's it. That's all you need
Speaker 1: to do. Now if it, if it kicks, and then
Speaker 1: that guy drives, and it kicks, and that guy drives
Speaker 1: and there's no advantage, and Paul George has the ball
Speaker 1: with six on the shot clock, then yeah, go to work.
Speaker 1: Hunt your pull up jump shot to salvage the possession.
Speaker 1: But this team is not getting into their driving kicked
Speaker 1: the way they're supposed to, and as a result, their
Speaker 1: offense is suffering. As soon as they do that, as
Speaker 1: soon as they start attacking the rim again, things will
Speaker 1: turn around for them. Things will click immediately for them.
Speaker 1: They are fourth and defense. So like the Lakers, when
Speaker 1: you're that good on defense, all you gotta do is
Speaker 1: get your offense going a little bit and the winds
Speaker 1: will follow. So I still believe in the Clippers in
Speaker 1: the long run, but right now they've kind of lost
Speaker 1: their identity a little bit offensively. Alright. Number one, the
Speaker 1: most disappointing team in the NBA to start the season,
Speaker 1: the team that I had a tenth in my power
Speaker 1: rankings yesterday based on how good their starters have been.
Speaker 1: Obviously paying respect as the defending champions, the Golden State Warriors.
Speaker 1: So they lost again last night in embarrassing fashion to
Speaker 1: the Magic I just caught crunch time of this one,
Speaker 1: but I did see on the box score that the
Speaker 1: bench was a problem again. Um shout out to Jalen Suggs.
Speaker 1: By the way, he was the one who was the
Speaker 1: big made all the big plays at the end of
Speaker 1: this game. I talked a lot about his pull up
Speaker 1: jump shooting in the opening week of the season. If
Speaker 1: you guys remember, well, he's fifty on pull up threes
Speaker 1: to start this season, and he hit two more massive
Speaker 1: pull up threes in crunch time last night, one where
Speaker 1: he kind of came off of a ball screen to
Speaker 1: the left and the Warriors botch to switch and he
Speaker 1: was completely unguarded on the left wing, and then he
Speaker 1: had a disgusting step back like kind of pound through
Speaker 1: the legs step back on the right wing that was
Speaker 1: a deep one is like twenty seven ft two. And
Speaker 1: then he had two huge steals on Steph Curry a
Speaker 1: ball pressure steel at the top of the key and
Speaker 1: then a play where he made a defensive rotation sprinting
Speaker 1: back into the play um to get his steal off
Speaker 1: of his Steph Curry pass. Big time plays from him,
Speaker 1: weird up and down crunch time from Steph Curry. It
Speaker 1: was like gigantic shot, big turnover, gigantic shot, big turn over,
Speaker 1: gigantic show. Like it was just so up and down.
Speaker 1: It was like he wasn't missing anything, but he tossed
Speaker 1: away a couple of possessions at the end of the game,
Speaker 1: being sloppy with the basketball, and it costs him the game.
Speaker 1: And look again, like the bench struggled again. You could
Speaker 1: see it in the box score. And it's still a
Speaker 1: huge problem. But we've talked that to death and I'm
Speaker 1: not going to get into that right now. And quite frankly,
Speaker 1: we can't keep making excuses for the starters. Let's look
Speaker 1: at the reality of this losing streak real quick. So
Speaker 1: every single team that the Warriors lost to in this
Speaker 1: four game losing streak. As a losing record, their combined
Speaker 1: record is eleven and twenty four. Each of the four
Speaker 1: teams the Warriors lost to our bottom ten offenses in
Speaker 1: the league. In this four game stretch, the Warriors are
Speaker 1: allowing a hundred and twenty one points per one hundred
Speaker 1: possessions to these four terrible offenses. If you just took
Speaker 1: every team's last four games, that's dead last. So nobody
Speaker 1: in the league is defending worse than the Warriors over
Speaker 1: this last week, and the starters are blameless. During this
Speaker 1: four game stretch, the Curry, Thompson, Wiggins Green Looney lineup
Speaker 1: has played forty two minutes. They have a one fifteen
Speaker 1: point four offensive rating, which is good, in a one
Speaker 1: eleven point four defensive rating, which is bad. They're only
Speaker 1: plus four net against this type of competition. Your starters,
Speaker 1: who have been destroying everybody, should be destroying these teams,
Speaker 1: especially when you know your bench is struggling and you
Speaker 1: need to buy them more margin for error. Instead, they're
Speaker 1: only slightly positive and they're struggling at the end of games.
Speaker 1: Do the Warriors need to figure their bench out, Yes,
Speaker 1: but the starters are also not nearly playing well enough.
Speaker 1: Here's why I'm disappointed in the Warriors. This is why
Speaker 1: I have him as my most disappointing team. They aren't
Speaker 1: like the other teams on this list. This is not
Speaker 1: the Minnesota Timberwolves who are undergoing a massive identity change
Speaker 1: after a trade. These are not the Brooklyn Nets, who
Speaker 1: even coming into the season, we knew were could be
Speaker 1: a title contender or could completely employ ode, like we
Speaker 1: knew that was a potential outcome. The Sixers same thing, Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: I had some optimism around James Harden in their roster,
Speaker 1: but like, would you be stunned if Joel and beat
Speaker 1: and James Harden came out and didn't play any transition defense,
Speaker 1: or if James already got hurt, or if the team
Speaker 1: didn't want to compete for Doc Rivers. No, you're not
Speaker 1: overly stunned, right, And then the Clippers have had a
Speaker 1: ton of health issues. We knew they'd have a ton
Speaker 1: of health issues, like Kawhi Leonard's injury history is kind
Speaker 1: of speaks for itself. And then none of those teams
Speaker 1: recently won an NBA championship. What did I say about
Speaker 1: the Warriors coming into the season when I picked them
Speaker 1: as my championship favorite. I said they were the best
Speaker 1: combination of talent, coaching, management, experienced continuity. They don't have
Speaker 1: an excuse to be this bad, especially against the type
Speaker 1: of competition that they've played in the last week. So
Speaker 1: they just like guys, the Lakers have a better net
Speaker 1: rating right now than the Golden State Warriors. It's embarrassing
Speaker 1: for them, and I'm sure they're in barrassed. I still
Speaker 1: have them as my championship favorite. I believe they will
Speaker 1: figure this out. If you're a betting man, betting on
Speaker 1: Steph Curry, Clay Thompson and Draymond Green is just a
Speaker 1: smart bet, they'll figure it out. But without a doubt,
Speaker 1: sitting at three and six, with the soft schedule they've played,
Speaker 1: you have to be disappointed in the Warriors, and I
Speaker 1: would hope if you're a Warriors fan that you're disappointed
Speaker 1: as well. Do they need to figure out their bench, Yes,
Speaker 1: but they also should not be going oh in four
Speaker 1: against this type of competition. I don't care if it's
Speaker 1: me out there playing on the bench. It's just it's
Speaker 1: just inexcusable at this point. All right, that is all
Speaker 1: I have for this week. We're taking Saturday and Sunday off,
Speaker 1: we will be back on Monday night. The game plan
Speaker 1: for this week coming week is on Monday night on AMP,
Speaker 1: we're gonna be covering the early slate from Monday. Then
Speaker 1: on Tuesday, Election Day, there's no NBA games, but on
Speaker 1: AMP that evening will be covering the later slate from
Speaker 1: Monday night, and then on Wednesday it's Lakers Clippers, so
Speaker 1: we'll be covering the early slate on AMP and then
Speaker 1: YouTube live at the end of the night after Lakers Clippers,
Speaker 1: and then we'll have two normal film breakdowns on Thursday
Speaker 1: and Friday next week, including our first player rankings of
Speaker 1: the season. As always, I sincerely appreciate your guys support
Speaker 1: and I will see you next week. The volume