Speaker 1: Welcome to the best of the week for What's Right
Speaker 1: with Nick Right the best takes and moments from this
Speaker 1: week on the show. Enjoy Dan Orlovsky. Credit to Dan,
Speaker 1: who again I know a tiny, tiny bit. Everyone who
Speaker 1: does know him speaks about what a great guy he is.
Speaker 1: He is. Some of his opinions have been the subject
Speaker 1: of my scorn over the years, but it's never been
Speaker 1: a personal thing with Dan. I think, I hope I
Speaker 1: would assume he knows that. So he discusses in Credit
Speaker 1: to him for having an opinion people care about. To
Speaker 1: where I'm discussing it here he ranked. I'm gonna read
Speaker 1: his words exactly. I ranked the top ten quarterbacks by
Speaker 1: seven different traits arm strength, ball placement, mechanics, decision making,
Speaker 1: pocket presence, second reaction, second reaction, creativity, pardon me, and ability.
Speaker 1: These lists are based on current performance and expectations for
Speaker 1: the twenty twenty sixth season. It's how I would rank
Speaker 1: the QB group at this exact moment. I only included
Speaker 1: starters and leaned on what I see on tape to
Speaker 1: form the rankings. Okay, great sounds fun. I'm gonna jump
Speaker 1: right to the reason we're discussing this and then we're
Speaker 1: gonna do a bigger picture chat on it. Briefly the
Speaker 1: category decision making with the football, and he then describes
Speaker 1: it as here are the league's top problem solvers. Being
Speaker 1: a good decision maker means making the right choice when
Speaker 1: things are going to plan, but it also means making
Speaker 1: the only choice when things are falling apart. Find the
Speaker 1: correct outlet, but avoid mistakes, turnovers, and negative plays. Okay,
Speaker 1: the number one decision making with the football quarterback in
Speaker 1: the Year of Our Lord twenty twenty six, according to
Speaker 1: Dan Orlovsky, is Josh Allen. And this is where so
Speaker 1: much of my Josh Allen frustration comes from. I think
Speaker 1: he's the same you guys. At this point I'm in reruns.
Speaker 1: I think he's the second best quarterback in the league.
Speaker 1: Of all the quarterbacks in the league who don't have
Speaker 1: a Super Bowl ring, the one that I him, I
Speaker 1: think has the best chance of getting one over the next.
Speaker 1: I don't want to say ever, because the younger guys
Speaker 1: have an edge there, but over the next five years
Speaker 1: is Josh Allen. Josh Allen at his best is the
Speaker 1: only quarterback in the league that if both guys play
Speaker 1: their best can go toe to toe with Patrick, that
Speaker 1: is Josh. I have given him, I think a ton
Speaker 1: of credit for those things. But the frustration that you
Speaker 1: guys hear in my voice when discussing discussing Josh Allen
Speaker 1: so often comes from the way he is covered in
Speaker 1: the media. And I've already had to hear that from Greene.
Speaker 1: No one's ever played the position better. I've had to
Speaker 1: hear from folks for years that he's the best quarterback
Speaker 1: in football. And now what I considered to be one
Speaker 1: of his only weaknesses decision making, not panicking, avoiding awful mistakes,
Speaker 1: one of the only actual verifiable weaknesses the player has.
Speaker 1: I'm Dotie's the best in the league at it, the
Speaker 1: best number one. The last game we saw him play,
Speaker 1: he had one of the worst turnovers in playoff history,
Speaker 1: and it wasn't the pick that lost him the game.
Speaker 1: The the last playoff game he played against the Chiefs
Speaker 1: AFC Championship game two years ago, tried to throw picks
Speaker 1: on the two of the first three passes of the game,
Speaker 1: and the year before that fumble the ball three times.
Speaker 1: Since he's come into the league, no player in the
Speaker 1: league has turned the ball over more and he's number
Speaker 1: one at decision making, like that's it's just crazy, It's
Speaker 1: just and again I think he's such a great player.
Speaker 1: But this is damn near the sports version of gaslighting,
Speaker 1: where we're taking one of the player's only fair weaknesses
Speaker 1: or critiques and saying, not only is it not a weakness,
Speaker 1: he's the best in the world at it. Like I
Speaker 1: don't even think Josh Allen thinks Josh Allen is the
Speaker 1: best decision maker in football. It's just baffling to me.
Speaker 1: And then we can and then we get to the
Speaker 1: the other piece of this Orlovsky list that is a
Speaker 1: little frustrating, which is again, according to this to Orlovsky's rankings,
Speaker 1: there is not a single quarterback trait, not one of
Speaker 1: the seven, not one that Patrick Mahomes is better than
Speaker 1: Josh Allen att not one. Arm strength Mahomes five, Allen one, fine,
Speaker 1: so be it arguable, but fine, ball placement Allen seven,
Speaker 1: Patrick Mahomes on ball placement not top ten in the league. Okay,
Speaker 1: mechanics this one, I actually probably agree with Allen. Number nine,
Speaker 1: Mahomes not ranked in the top ten decision making a
Speaker 1: guy who again I'm not gonna read Mahomes resume decision
Speaker 1: making Allen number one, Patrick number nine, Patrick a worst
Speaker 1: decision maker. They end Burrow and Lamar and Dak and
Speaker 1: Jaden and Drake May and Jordan Love and Matthew Stafford
Speaker 1: and of course Josh Allen. Pocket presence pocket presence Josh
Speaker 1: not ranked. Mahomes not ranked number one pocket presence somehow
Speaker 1: is Drake May, who we just watched get sacked a
Speaker 1: thousand times in the playoffs and they were not all
Speaker 1: snapsacks number one Pocket presence Drake May. Mahomes not ranked.
Speaker 1: Second reactionability Mahomes number three. Oh, finally something he's better
Speaker 1: than Alan that Nope, Allen number one. Rushing ability fine,
Speaker 1: Mahomes number seven, Allen number two. I this is what
Speaker 1: again writes about second reactionability. I'm looking for creativity here
Speaker 1: as well as the ability to throw from weird arm
Speaker 1: angles and platforms. Mahome's not Listen, Mahome's pretty good at
Speaker 1: that creativity and weird arm angles and platforms, but he's
Speaker 1: no Josh Allen. I mean, what are we doing? Like?
Speaker 1: I just I I am verklempt. No, that's the wrong word.
Speaker 1: I think verklempt means hold on. Uh oh no, that's okay.
Speaker 1: He usually is positive, not always with this, and again
Speaker 1: credit to Orlovsky, he got me going. But there's not
Speaker 1: a single thing on the football field. Patrick Malmes is
Speaker 1: better than Josh Allen, and Josh Allen's got the best
Speaker 1: decision making of anyone in the league. Come on, I mean, really,
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Speaker 2: All right.
Speaker 1: The other big news yesterday is Russell Westbrook finally calling
Speaker 1: it finally sounds meaner than I want to to. After
Speaker 1: eighteen years in the league, Russell Westbrook calling it quits,
Speaker 1: and you know he was still to the bitter end.
Speaker 1: If you gave Russ minutes, he was going to give
Speaker 1: you some level of production. Now it wouldn't always be
Speaker 1: efficient production, obviously, but even last year in Sacramento playing
Speaker 1: thirty minutes a game fifteen, six and six basically, And
Speaker 1: there's a lot of ways to discuss Russell Westbrook's career.
Speaker 1: I it's one of the most interesting careers ever, it's
Speaker 1: one of the most unique careers ever. It also is
Speaker 1: a career that I think will be misremembered as far
Speaker 1: as at his peak how good he was. Really. So
Speaker 1: if you take Russ what I consider his peak, which
Speaker 1: is his first full year back after the knee injury,
Speaker 1: through his one year in Houston, that year in Houston,
Speaker 1: he was All NBA and was underrated. In those six seasons,
Speaker 1: his averages were twenty six, nine and ten. He won
Speaker 1: an MVP, had three other top five finishes, and in
Speaker 1: those six seasons was All NBA every season, two time
Speaker 1: first team, two times second team, two time thirteen and
Speaker 1: critically speaking, in those seasons, his team was decidedly better
Speaker 1: with him than without him. And that's the part of
Speaker 1: Russ that I think, because of how the career ended,
Speaker 1: and because some of the analytical numbers are so garish,
Speaker 1: people are going to act as if his style never
Speaker 1: led to any winning And that's a more complicated discussion
Speaker 1: than it actually seems like. But as far as was
Speaker 1: having Russell Westbrook on the court good for your team,
Speaker 1: undeniably yes, throughout the entirety of his prime. Gets a
Speaker 1: little trickier in the playoffs, and we'll get to that.
Speaker 1: But Russ is during his prime in particular, availability, crazy
Speaker 1: high minutes for the era, absolutely endless energy and effort.
Speaker 1: He was an absolute son of a bitch to deal with.
Speaker 1: And while people can parse all in twenty seventeen, MVP
Speaker 1: should have been this guy. He was absolutely a super
Speaker 1: nova that first season in Oklahoma City without Durant. It's
Speaker 1: not only that he averaged a triple double, first guy
Speaker 1: to do it since Oscar Robertson, And it wasn't only
Speaker 1: that he broke Oscar Robertson single season triple double record,
Speaker 1: and by the way, the game in which he broke
Speaker 1: that record, he had a fifty point triple double and
Speaker 1: the buzzer beating three to win the game. It was
Speaker 1: that that Oklahoma City teams entire plan every game was
Speaker 1: Russ create fifty some points of offense for us, and
Speaker 1: he did it. He won the scoring title, scoring thirty
Speaker 1: one and a half a game, second scoring title of
Speaker 1: his career, I believe. And then also was a terror
Speaker 1: on the glass and despite the insane usage rate, didn't
Speaker 1: wear down and followed those seasons up with two years
Speaker 1: in a row where he won the assists title while
Speaker 1: averaging double digit rebounds. And then after that year in Houston,
Speaker 1: once he got to Washington, I think we're post prime.
Speaker 1: But in Houston, you know, it was twenty two, eleven
Speaker 1: and eleven, and on those silly eighty two and zero
Speaker 1: games or whatever, they treat him like a god for
Speaker 1: that one year. One year in Washington. He had a
Speaker 1: great career and he worked his ass off and all
Speaker 1: time great players that I think, you know, not the
Speaker 1: full list, but that I think he undeniably had a
Speaker 1: better career than and was a better player than mellow
Speaker 1: Dominique Dwight A. D. Gary Payton, Steve Nash, Clyde Drexler,
Speaker 1: guys that I think he is right behind as far
Speaker 1: as his full career tricky one. But Kawhi Iverson, Clyde Fraser,
Speaker 1: Jason Kidd, Patrick Ewing, that's the group. I have him
Speaker 1: right behind. He's one of the you know, what's my
Speaker 1: full list of guards better that have had better careers
Speaker 1: than Russ, the full list, Michael Magic, Kobe Steph those
Speaker 1: are obvious ones. I just don't want to leave anybody out. Zeke,
Speaker 1: Chris Paul, Dwayne Wade, Shay West, and Jerry West, Oscar Robertson,
Speaker 1: Stockton Harden. Those are the twelve guys that, to me
Speaker 1: like the only twelve guys that reguards that definitively are
Speaker 1: definitively higher on the pyramid than Russ. I think kids
Speaker 1: ahead of him, you know the I think Iversen's a
Speaker 1: touch ahead of him, And I said, SGA right, SGA
Speaker 1: ahead of him. But so he's, you know, somewhere thirteen fourteen,
Speaker 1: fifteen sixteen, depending on how you want to do it.
Speaker 1: So it's an unbelievable career. It also is, you know,
Speaker 1: young elite or aspiring elite athletes can learn a lot
Speaker 1: from both sides of Russ's career. You can learn what
Speaker 1: endless energy, effort intensity, what that can do for you
Speaker 1: in a positive way. Now, obviously you can't learn his
Speaker 1: absolutely freakish athleticism where there was during his prime he
Speaker 1: was a can sit for a decade, maybe a top
Speaker 1: three just raw athlete in the league. Can't learn that,
Speaker 1: But the other stuff you can learn the flip side.
Speaker 1: And I wanted to do this last, not first, because
Speaker 1: I don't listening. He's one of the fortiest greatest players ever.
Speaker 1: I just said, you know, he's one of the thirteen, fourteen,
Speaker 1: fifteen greatest guards of all time. You don't want to
Speaker 1: spend it and the like, here's what was wrong with
Speaker 1: him on the front end, but it is part of
Speaker 1: his story, is the stubbornness and the hard headedness and
Speaker 1: the refusal to evolve once he no longer was the
Speaker 1: league's best raw athlete, and how that's a big part
Speaker 1: of the reason that in the final decade of his career,
Speaker 1: teams he was on went on one.
Speaker 2: Sorry, one, two, three, four, five.
Speaker 1: Six, two to eight in playoff series from that first
Speaker 1: year without Durant to retirement, and those two playoff series
Speaker 1: wins were one year in Houston by the skin of
Speaker 1: their teeth over the young young OKC team and the Clippers.
Speaker 1: I'm sorry the Nuggets seven game victory over the Clippers
Speaker 1: last Round one. That's it. And where you know, if
Speaker 1: you russ over that last decade of his career in
Speaker 1: the postseason was so wildly inefficient that it really really
Speaker 1: hurt his teams. From the MVP year through the end
Speaker 1: of his career, fifty three playoff games, thirty eight percent
Speaker 1: from the field, thirty percent from three on five threes
Speaker 1: a game, four turnovers a game, not ideal, and it
Speaker 1: is not nothing that for a guy who had that
Speaker 1: much just unbelievable talent, work, ethic, competitive spirit, all of it.
Speaker 1: When it came to overall team winning, underachieved because he
Speaker 1: was a bit of his own worst enemy. That's not
Speaker 1: like an unfair statement, and there's a lesson in that
Speaker 1: as well. But overall, you know, eighteen years in the.
Speaker 2: League one MVP won, there's seven, six, ten, nine time
Speaker 2: All NBA, two time first team, five time second team,
Speaker 2: two time third team, four consecutive Top four, Top five.
Speaker 1: Pardon me, MVP finishes and as an added bonus, one
Speaker 1: of the greatest off the court guys as far as
Speaker 1: how he treated people on teams and the work he
Speaker 1: did in the community, all those things when I treat
Speaker 1: people that worked for teams those things. One of just
Speaker 1: the greatest guys in the league for twenty years and
Speaker 1: a first ballot Hall of Fame career, and anybody that's
Speaker 1: arguing he's not a Hall of Famer is a moron.
Speaker 1: I can't even say they're just trolling. They they just
Speaker 1: don't understand how the Hall of Fame works. And this
Speaker 1: is he is a no doubt walk right in immediate guy. Hey, everybody.
Speaker 1: With Russell Westbrook announcing his retirement after eighteen years this week,
Speaker 1: we decided we wanted to drop back into your guys feeds.
Speaker 1: The piece we did and we were doing the fifty
Speaker 1: greatest Players of the last fifty years. So it's about
Speaker 1: four years ago on the pod. The conceit of the
Speaker 1: piece was basically kareem through that moment in NBA history.
Speaker 1: So like twenty twenty two is twenty three the fifty
Speaker 1: greatest players of you know that the modern era of
Speaker 1: the NBA At that moment, Russell Westbrook came in thirty
Speaker 1: fifth on those rankings. That's honestly right about where he
Speaker 1: would be today. Like the only guys who weren't on
Speaker 1: the list who would have jumped him would have been
Speaker 1: Shay and Joker, and so he'd still be right around there.
Speaker 1: And he hasn't had any massive postseason or regular season
Speaker 1: moments since then. And so this is a look at
Speaker 1: the Russell Westbrook pod from his spot on the fifty
Speaker 1: Greatest Players of the last fifty years, now that he
Speaker 1: has retired, player number thirty five, Number thirty five, Russell Westbrook.
Speaker 1: Russ was maybe the single hardest player to reign of
Speaker 1: this entire enterprise because so Russ's regular season accomplishments are
Speaker 1: up there with the twelve to fifteen greatest players ever.
Speaker 1: Two time first team All NBA, five time second Team
Speaker 1: All NBA, two time third Team All NBA, so he's
Speaker 1: nine time All NBA. He won an MVP three other
Speaker 1: times he came in top five. He has two scoring
Speaker 1: titles and three assists titles. One of the only players
Speaker 1: in league history, Tiny Archibald, Ostar Robertson, Lebron James, and
Speaker 1: Russell Westbrook are the only guys to ever do it once.
Speaker 1: Russ's on it. Two scoring dials, three assist titles average
Speaker 1: a triple averaging a triple level hadn't been done in
Speaker 1: fifty years. Russ did it three straight seasons, then took
Speaker 1: a year off, did it a fourth straight season. He
Speaker 1: is going to be known for the triple doubles, so
Speaker 1: let's dig in there for a moment. He has won
Speaker 1: one hundred and ninety four career regular season triple doubles
Speaker 1: as of this recording. That's not only the most all time.
Speaker 1: Only Lebron, Jason Kidd, Magic, and Oscar Robertson even have
Speaker 1: one hundred career playoff career regular season triple doubles. Russ
Speaker 1: is likely going to finish his career well north of
Speaker 1: two hundred career triple doubles. In the playoffs. He's third
Speaker 1: all time in triple doubles. Okay, so that's the good
Speaker 1: of Russ. We'll get to the bad in a moment.
Speaker 1: But you guys know how much playoff stuff matters for
Speaker 1: me on this. It's unfair and disingenuous to act like
Speaker 1: Russ never had good playoff moments. He did. So let's
Speaker 1: just we're gonna go in chronological order, and we're gonna
Speaker 1: need some time here. In the twenty twelve Finals, the
Speaker 1: only game the thunder one in that series, he was
Speaker 1: twenty seven, eight and eleven as a kid in the finals.
Speaker 1: In that in game four of those finals, which they lost,
Speaker 1: he was the best player on his seam by mark
Speaker 1: with no dispector Duran. He was forty three seven and
Speaker 1: five on twenty of thirty two from the field in
Speaker 1: game four of those finals forty three, seven and five
Speaker 1: to try to stay alive instead of falling down three
Speaker 1: to one, but they end up losing. For that for
Speaker 1: his first finals ever, he's twenty seven his only finals
Speaker 1: twenty seven, six and seven. So we can't act like
Speaker 1: that that didn't happen. Now, let's move on to twenty fourteen.
Speaker 1: Twenty fourteen, he's twenty seven, ten and sixteen on just
Speaker 1: sixteen shots in game seven of the first round against
Speaker 1: Memphis helped them propelled them what would have been a
Speaker 1: disastrous loss for them. In that same year, Western Armorg
Speaker 1: Semis the next round. You guys, remember everyone remembers the
Speaker 1: CP three meltdown game. Say the Clippers have the big lead.
Speaker 1: CP three tries to draw the foul. He doesn't get it,
Speaker 1: but gets forgotten is Russ in that game went to
Speaker 1: totoe with Chris Paul and ate him up. He was
Speaker 1: thirty eight, five and six and got fouled at the
Speaker 1: very end of the game as the Clipper from Melting
Speaker 1: Down hit all three free throws to win the game.
Speaker 1: That very next round Western Arference Finals, the Thunder a
Speaker 1: down two to one to the Spurs. The Spurs were
Speaker 1: going to win the title. Russ was forty five, ten
Speaker 1: and five up to this point. Yes, he was a
Speaker 1: little inefficient, a little careless with the ball, but nobody
Speaker 1: was killing Russ. So that's twenty fourteen. Let's go to
Speaker 1: twenty sixteen. That's the year the seventy three win Warriors
Speaker 1: were down three to one to Russ and Katie's Thunder.
Speaker 1: Let's all about what he did there in Round one
Speaker 1: against Dallas thirty six, twelve and nine to send Dallas home.
Speaker 1: Average for games five and six of the Western Armand
Speaker 1: Semifinals against the Spurs to send them home average thirty two,
Speaker 1: seven and twelve in those two games. So again, it's
Speaker 1: all going good. To go up three to one on
Speaker 1: the Warriors in the Western Armence Finals average twenty seven,
Speaker 1: seven and twelve, including thirty six, eleven and eleven in
Speaker 1: Game four to go up three to one. The problem
Speaker 1: is since then she's gone real sideways since then, since
Speaker 1: the Klay Thompson game, since that moment and then Katie leaves,
Speaker 1: it's been bad, and it's been bad in the playoffs
Speaker 1: for five six years. So Round one versus Houston, the
Speaker 1: first year without Durant, he did have a fifty one
Speaker 1: ten and thirteen, sixty one ten and a fifty one
Speaker 1: tripled in the playoffs average for the series thirty seven
Speaker 1: to twelve and eleven. But despite that, they lost in five.
Speaker 1: Why did they lose him five? Because even though Russ
Speaker 1: was averaging all those points and assists and rebounds, he
Speaker 1: shot thirty nine percent from the field and twenty seven
Speaker 1: percent from three, and he was shooting ten threes a game.
Speaker 1: Then next year in the first round against I think
Speaker 1: it was Utah with Paul George, he had a forty
Speaker 1: five to fifteen and seven to stay alive and a
Speaker 1: forty six ten and five in Game six, And if
Speaker 1: you go back and look at it, that forty six
Speaker 1: ten and five where they lost, he wasn't good. And
Speaker 1: that was with Paul George. And then the next year
Speaker 1: Dames sends him home and then Paul George leaves him,
Speaker 1: so his career averages for the playoffs are twenty five, seven,
Speaker 1: and eight, which are exceptional, and his career playoff percentages
Speaker 1: are forty percent from the field and thirty percent from three,
Speaker 1: which are awful. So what do you do with Russell
Speaker 1: west I still feel like because it's been so bad
Speaker 1: as of late, and this last year with the Lakers,
Speaker 1: with such a disaster, people forget how dominant he was
Speaker 1: at his peak. Flawed but dominant. The MVP's got to matter.
Speaker 1: The triple doubles might have been slightly overrated, but they
Speaker 1: have to matter to a degree. He was the single
Speaker 1: hardest player to rank in this entire enterprise. He's player
Speaker 1: at number thirty five from Russell Westbrook. And now we
Speaker 1: have a surprise questionnaire. No one has told me who
Speaker 1: this is. Let's see what the Russell Westbrook question is.
Speaker 3: Hey, Nick, you nobody else. We're not a akl from
Speaker 3: White Plains. Here Russell Westbrook at thirty five. We love
Speaker 3: the effort, We love mister triple double. But Russ at
Speaker 3: thirty five, Come on, neck, You've got James Worthy, big game,
Speaker 3: James ten spots down the list. At forty five, you
Speaker 3: have George Gervin never been to an NBA final. Ahead
Speaker 3: of Big Game, James, you have Gary Payton, who won
Speaker 3: a NBA title.
Speaker 1: Is a parting. I had a big game, James.
Speaker 4: You have Sidney MOKRII, who I loved one of the
Speaker 4: triple tremarkets all had a big game James, but Russe
Speaker 4: at thirty five. Big Game James at forty five, one
Speaker 4: Finals appearance for Russ. Big Game James three titles, most
Speaker 4: valuable player in one of the great game seven performances
Speaker 4: in the history of the National Basketball Association. His numbers
Speaker 4: in the postseason leaps and bounds the regular season. This
Speaker 4: guy got it done when it was the most important
Speaker 4: time to get it done, while Russ has been a
Speaker 4: shrieking Violet. Moved that camera up a little closer.
Speaker 1: In words that I know only you can understand this
Speaker 1: old man. He ain't lying, all right. That's the greatest
Speaker 1: sports radio caller ever, my friend Alan white Planes. Unfortunately,
Speaker 1: Alan white Planes, instead of really asking me Russell Westbrook question,
Speaker 1: he used his time to really just make the case
Speaker 1: for James Worthy. James Worthy was a hard one to
Speaker 1: rank as well as we talked about it. If you
Speaker 1: want to go back and listen to the episodes. James
Speaker 1: Worthy doesn't have the All NBA and the MVP votes
Speaker 1: and all that stuff because of the team he was on,
Speaker 1: but he was unbelievable in the biggest moments. So I
Speaker 1: do understand the kind of reversal there. So you have
Speaker 1: one guy who has all the regular season stuff, all
Speaker 1: of it, and not a lot of the playoff stuff
Speaker 1: in Russ, and another guy who has all the playoff
Speaker 1: stuff but not a whole lot of the regular season stuff,
Speaker 1: and James So am I overvaluing the regular season? I
Speaker 1: would agree, possibly if a Russ didn't have any substantial
Speaker 1: playoff moments. But I think I laid out that early
Speaker 1: in his career, up until Game five of the twenty
Speaker 1: sixteen playoffs forward game five of the Western Urbans Finals,
Speaker 1: I should say, basically from the moment Katie left to now,
Speaker 1: up until then, he was actually a very valuable playoff performer.
Speaker 1: So I think that. So I think Russe. Let me
Speaker 1: put it like this, Russ's playoff resume, one can make
Speaker 1: a strong case, is heftier than James Worthy's regular season resumes,
Speaker 1: and Russ's regular season resume is eye to eye with
Speaker 1: James Worthy's playoff resume, Russ's regular season resume is that
Speaker 1: of an all time guy. So again, though I said
Speaker 1: at the beginning that Russ was maybe the hardest player
Speaker 1: to rank, I'm comfortable with Russell Westbrook being the thirty
Speaker 1: fifth best player of the last fifty years. All right,
Speaker 1: let's talk NBA Opening Night. Go ahead. So the full.
Speaker 5: NBA schedule releases Thursday, but they've already announced some big days.
Speaker 5: So Opening Day we've got Pistons at Celtics, Sixers at Knicks,
Speaker 5: Thunders at Spurs, and then Christmas Day you've got Spurs
Speaker 5: at Nicks, Heats at Celtics, Sixers at Lakers, Thunders at Timberwolves,
Speaker 5: Nuggets at Warriors. Which these games are you eyeing or
Speaker 5: looking forward to?
Speaker 1: Well, so massive takeaways all over the spot. First of all,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna jump right to you know what, We'll get
Speaker 1: to the snubs later. Let's talk about the positives. Five
Speaker 1: teams got both Marquis Days, Thunderspurs, six Ers, Nicks, Celtics.
Speaker 1: Those are the five teams that are playing Opening Day
Speaker 1: and Christmas. The only I guess somewhat surprised there is
Speaker 1: the Celtics' brand equity, being that strong. I mean again, like,
Speaker 1: I wouldn't think the Celtics would be left out. And
Speaker 1: the Celtics are one of the greatest franchises in the
Speaker 1: history not just of the NBA of sports, and they've
Speaker 1: got a superstar in Jason Tatum, and they're supposed to
Speaker 1: be good, really good. But it surprised me a little
Speaker 1: bit that the Celtics were. Let me put it like this,
Speaker 1: of the five teams that got double dips, the Celtics
Speaker 1: were the most surprising, even if it's not that surprising
Speaker 1: at all, so that you know, that jumped out to me.
Speaker 1: The five other teams that got a single game were
Speaker 1: the Pistons, more on them in a moment, the heat
Speaker 1: more on them as well, then Timberwolves, Nuggets, Warriors. Okay,
Speaker 1: so in no particular order. My immediate first takeaway is
Speaker 1: we have a bunch four years face of the league conversations,
Speaker 1: and then every single year the NBA tells us, yeah,
Speaker 1: it's Bron, Yeah, it's just Bron. In fact, we can't
Speaker 1: even do the schedule until Lebron signs, and then when
Speaker 1: he does sign, we're gonna give his team the premiere
Speaker 1: spot on Christmas Day, the three PM Chris or five pm.
Speaker 1: The third game on Christmas, the Marquee Christmas Day game? Hey,
Speaker 1: are we gonna do rematch of the finals? No, we'll
Speaker 1: put that in the morning, all right? Are we gonna do?
Speaker 1: What are other options here? We're gonna how about how
Speaker 1: about Lebron with you know, with his one game back
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles? How about that's the Marquee game? Okay,
Speaker 1: that's Christmas? All right? What about opening night? Opening night?
Speaker 1: What are we doing? Are we doing the rematch of
Speaker 1: the finals?
Speaker 2: There?
Speaker 1: No, we're not gonna do that there. Okay. Are we
Speaker 1: gonna do Jail and Brown Jason Tatum that you know that? No,
Speaker 1: we'll find another spot for that. How about Lebron against
Speaker 1: the defending champs? How about the defending champs when they
Speaker 1: get to open their drop their banner? Lebron's there? Sound
Speaker 1: good for everyone? Think people will watch, good for ratings,
Speaker 1: good for business. Cool? What are we doing with Wimby?
Speaker 1: We'll put them on after? What about? What about? What
Speaker 1: about on Christmas Day? We'll put them on in the
Speaker 1: morning when be as opening their presence. We gotta make
Speaker 1: like I again, I'm not even saying this is not
Speaker 1: an evaluation of whether or not this is what they
Speaker 1: should do. This is an evaluation of what they will do,
Speaker 1: and what they are telling you is the NBA universe
Speaker 1: still revolves around Lebron James, right or wrong, and they're
Speaker 1: scheduling it accordingly. So that's first takeaway. Second takeaway, Steph
Speaker 1: Curry's star power is real because of the fifteen teams,
Speaker 1: not fifteen ten teams pardon me, that have games Opening
Speaker 1: Day or Christmas. The worst team by a mile is
Speaker 1: Golden State and they're you know, they were never going
Speaker 1: to be left out. Like every other team listed, there
Speaker 1: should be somewhere from really good to excellent. And then
Speaker 1: there's the Warriors in a game that nobody even thinks
Speaker 1: Jimmy Butler will be back for and they are the
Speaker 1: final game on Chris miss Day, so shout out to
Speaker 1: them on that to step on that front. Couple other
Speaker 1: small takeaways surprising to me, demands that we're gonna have
Speaker 1: a Christmas Day and Opening Day, by the way, but
Speaker 1: focus on Christmas. For there's five games with no Durant,
Speaker 1: like I can't the I can't remember the last time
Speaker 1: Durant's team with the Suns. Maybe I don't think so, though,
Speaker 1: because those seems were like and Durant are on a
Speaker 1: good team. The Rockets are Rockets are a good team.
Speaker 1: To have no Durant on Christmas Day is noteworthy to me.
Speaker 1: I'm not I and again, there the only I don't
Speaker 1: know that there were snubs. I'm sure the Calves are
Speaker 1: a little annoyed, and I bet the Rockets are a
Speaker 1: little annoyed. But that's really all that jumps out to me.
Speaker 1: Let me ask you. I am also sur I'm a
Speaker 1: little surprised that the Pistons got invited to the party,
Speaker 1: even though it's the three pm, middle of the day
Speaker 1: opening day game. That and maybe they didn't work. It's
Speaker 1: a little surprising the Pistons are there. I would have
Speaker 1: thought maybe the heat with Giannis would have gotten both,
Speaker 1: you know, Opening Day and Christmas Day. But I guess
Speaker 1: if heat at Celtics's Christmas, you're not gonna have Celtics
Speaker 1: heat opening night. So that's where they mix in the Pistons.
Speaker 1: But it is surprising to me even that the Pistons
Speaker 1: got that slot over Cleveland, or hell over Houston.
Speaker 5: Like that is right to see Detroit and Cleveland.
Speaker 1: No, I the NBA clearly agrees with you, like the
Speaker 1: NBA clearly agrees with you. So here are my other
Speaker 1: you know, uh general takeaways. I do think for opening Night,
Speaker 1: six Ers next thunder Spurs is awesome strategically by the
Speaker 1: league because for most people and by the Vegas odds,
Speaker 1: those are the projected conference finals. So an opportunity for
Speaker 1: the NBA season to start with those four teams basically
Speaker 1: and end with those four teams. I like that. I
Speaker 1: also would be remiss if I didn't recognize who wasn't
Speaker 1: playing on Opening Day that we haven't mentioned, So to
Speaker 1: Mon's go ahead, because you have a fun little fact
Speaker 1: here in stature.
Speaker 5: So the Lakers have played on an opening night every
Speaker 5: year since twenty nineteen. How do you think that they
Speaker 5: missed the cut this year?
Speaker 1: So what happened in twenty nineteen? This kind of goes
Speaker 1: back to my original point. Bron signed there, Bron left,
Speaker 1: and the Lakers all of a sudden like, sorry, guys,
Speaker 1: we don't have a spot for you. Like Lakers at
Speaker 1: Celtics is sitting right there for anybody that wants it
Speaker 1: instead of Pistons at Celtics. And you guys know how
Speaker 1: much I the Oh yeah, Lebron got there in twenty eighteen,
Speaker 1: signed in twenty eighteen. Pardon me, you guys know how
Speaker 1: much I how much I like Luca. But the fact
Speaker 1: that the Lakers have been supplanted in the Western Conference
Speaker 1: by the two small market Juggernauts thunder Spurs, and that
Speaker 1: they just for the first time in eight years or
Speaker 1: seven years, they're not an Opening Night is I guess
Speaker 1: somewhat noteworthy to me. Well, listen, I I think it is.
Speaker 1: I'm really interested in what Luca can do this year.
Speaker 1: I they also, you know, they they looked at the
Speaker 1: team that Luca took to the NBA Finals with Dallas
Speaker 1: a few years ago and said, how can we best
Speaker 1: remake that? And that's what they tried to do. I
Speaker 1: you know, it's been I spent a lot of time
Speaker 1: while you were on paternity to leave talking about how
Speaker 1: I thought the Lakers could have handled the final year
Speaker 1: of Lebron better to where maybe he would have signed
Speaker 1: with them for the minimum rather than signing with the
Speaker 1: Sixers for the minimum. But that that's water under the
Speaker 1: bridge at this point. But the the league is making
Speaker 1: very very clear to you through this schedule, at least
Speaker 1: in my eyes, that they view right now they are
Speaker 1: three biggest attractions as the Sixers, the Spurs, and the Knicks.
Speaker 1: That's the metal stand with also receiving votes being the
Speaker 1: Thunder and the Celtics, and they I'm I'm very I'm
Speaker 1: in i am very interested in how the Thunder, what
Speaker 1: the Thunders coverage is like in national TV games and
Speaker 1: all those things are like this year because they were
Speaker 1: never an overwhelmingly popular team outside of their own fan
Speaker 1: base to begin with. But when it's like, yeah, but
Speaker 1: they're the champs, they're the best. They're the juggernaut that
Speaker 1: you know, gives you a cachet that gets removed a
Speaker 1: bit when you don't win the title again, when you
Speaker 1: don't make the finals again. And now it feels like
Speaker 1: the Spurs having beaten them and being a team on
Speaker 1: the upswing, while the Thunder it feels like lost some
Speaker 1: you know, semi valuable parts and some pieces. Are a
Speaker 1: team that is potentially at least not on the down swing,
Speaker 1: but just a not quite as good as they were
Speaker 1: the last couple of years. So that's interesting. And then
Speaker 1: you know, the teams we haven't really discussed here. I
Speaker 1: mentioned the Heat that I thought maybe they could have
Speaker 1: gotten the double dip opening day on Christmas, aunt LaMelo
Speaker 1: and the Timberwolves. They host the Thunder on Christmas Night
Speaker 1: and then Joker against Steph as the nightcap, with two
Speaker 1: teams that only either one really thinks they have a
Speaker 1: real shot at winning the championship, despite having in Jokers case,
Speaker 1: maybe the best player in the world and in the
Speaker 1: Warriors case with Steph, one of the greatest players ever.
Speaker 1: Before we get to these other questions, did you, Demonde,
Speaker 1: did you have anything that jumped out to you or
Speaker 1: that or you want it about your Celtics or anything
Speaker 1: about the opening few nights? Uh?
Speaker 5: No, I was surprised that they got at it to
Speaker 5: both to both of those days, considering how the last
Speaker 5: couple of years has went. But I am really looking
Speaker 5: forward to seeing how the Timberwolves look this year. I'm
Speaker 5: very high on them.
Speaker 1: Oh but uh but yeah, no, oh oh yeah, because
Speaker 1: you so, I mean that'll be that seeing aunt LaMelo
Speaker 1: is going to be a show, that's for sure. Do
Speaker 1: we not have any details on the first six or
Speaker 1: Celtics games. That's the other thing that to me is interest.
Speaker 2: Yeah.
Speaker 5: The fact that Jalen Brown is going to be able
Speaker 5: to guard Jason Tatum all year over there.
Speaker 1: Yeah, back and forth exactly. And so now listen, they're
Speaker 1: gonna play each other four times, but if they that
Speaker 1: is the other so that you know what, I just
Speaker 1: stumbled upon. My other big takeaway that the league decided,
Speaker 1: instead of having if they wanted to have Bron in
Speaker 1: the sixers as the premiere Christmas game, the third Christmas game,
Speaker 1: the five PM slot, that they didn't make that sixer Celtics,
Speaker 1: that they they they prioritized Lebron's one game back in
Speaker 1: La over what could have been Jalen Brown's first game
Speaker 1: back in Boston. Yeah, you know what I mean, like
Speaker 1: you well, I mean, yeah, I mean, that's definitely true,
Speaker 1: but it is, but it also feels like there's more.
Speaker 1: I don't think I don't think it's fair to call
Speaker 1: it bad blood between the Lakers and Lebron. It might
Speaker 1: not be great blood, but I don't think it's bad
Speaker 1: like it what you know they did.
Speaker 5: You don't think that's pretty either.
Speaker 1: There hasn't been.
Speaker 5: The Jalen Brown situation with the Celtics, what do you mean?
Speaker 5: And Lebron with the Lakers, like just feeling like the
Speaker 5: team has not done well by you. You know, like,
Speaker 5: I feel like they both didn't have like.
Speaker 1: Crazy bet I didn't Jalen Brown feel yeah. I mean yeah,
Speaker 1: I think Jalen Brown feels done dirty and has like
Speaker 1: and there's been little, you know, semi public sniping between
Speaker 1: the sides Lakers and Lebron and Luke and all that
Speaker 1: publicly has all been super positive. You know, thank you
Speaker 1: for a great run. We appreciate it. There he did.
Speaker 1: He didn't get traded away, so you know it just
Speaker 1: even if below the surface there is you know, carping
Speaker 1: about the other side to people, it's not as obvious
Speaker 1: as I think the Celtics Jalen Brown thing. And I'm
Speaker 1: really interested. So that's the game that isn't listed here
Speaker 1: that I am most interested in singing Jalen Brown's first game,
Speaker 1: not against Boston necessarily first game in Boston, Like he
Speaker 1: obviously should get a standing ovation from the crowd. I
Speaker 1: imagine he will, but seeing him and Tatum go head
Speaker 1: to head I think will be you know, really fun
Speaker 1: and really interesting. And so yeah, I think the you know,
Speaker 1: shout out to the NBA. Also the what are the
Speaker 1: other opening week games that we know about? Demonse?
Speaker 5: So we got Lebron versus Cleveland, Denver at OKC, and
Speaker 5: Knicks at Celtics. Do you think that any of those
Speaker 5: should have made Opening Night?
Speaker 1: No? I think these are all exactly you know, we've listen,
Speaker 1: Lebron's been playing against the Calves without being on the
Speaker 1: Calves for almost a decade now, So like we don't
Speaker 1: need that one. Denver at OKC, I mean that was
Speaker 1: I mean that is a good matchup in a good
Speaker 1: series historically, has been a good series potentially, But no,
Speaker 1: so oh you know what the game that So this
Speaker 1: one does jump out to me now that I think
Speaker 1: about it. We have Thunder at Timberwolves and Nuggets at Warriors.
Speaker 1: Nuggets at Timberwolves seems like, you know, the one of
Speaker 1: the prime rivalries right now, and you know they've played
Speaker 1: in the playoffs a bunch of times, so I think
Speaker 1: that one you maybe could have done Thunder against the Warriors,
Speaker 1: but they probably wanted to give the Thunder up that
Speaker 1: more likely to be a good game, and they think
Speaker 1: the Timberwolves will be better than the Warriors. But it
Speaker 1: does feel like Nuggets Timberwolves is the more heated rivalry
Speaker 1: and we're not I don't know when we're getting that
Speaker 1: and oh, one other note, the only team with top
Speaker 1: ten title odds to not be in one of these
Speaker 1: games is the Raptors. Now, I think that's twofold. One
Speaker 1: is I think it is because the way television ratings work,
Speaker 1: anytime you do a Canadian team, it kind of it's
Speaker 1: not great for the rating because you get such a
Speaker 1: boost from the home market, But the home market when
Speaker 1: you do a Canadian team's not measured because it's not
Speaker 1: the US. So I think that's a small piece of it.
Speaker 1: But the other piece of it is whatever's going on
Speaker 1: with Kawhi. I think that if they put the Raptors
Speaker 1: on Opening Night, or if they feature the Raptors in
Speaker 1: any of this, Adam Silver would be accused of either
Speaker 1: putting his finger on the scale or tipping his hand
Speaker 1: like about what penalty is or isn't coming. So I
Speaker 1: think they felt it was easier to just leave the
Speaker 1: Raptors out of it. Plus again, like the Raptors aren't
Speaker 1: great for television ratings purely because they're a Canadian market.