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Speaker 1: pres anybody fand will here at the volume. Happy Sunday, everybody.
Speaker 1: I hope all of you guys are having a great weekend.
Speaker 1: I literally just walked in the door home after a
Speaker 1: weekend in Las Vegas, and what an incredible weekend it was.
Speaker 1: I had never been to NBA Summer League. I had
Speaker 1: always heard great things. I had always wanted to go,
Speaker 1: and the stars aligned for me to get to go
Speaker 1: this year, and I had super high expectations and they
Speaker 1: completely everything, completely lived up to those expectations. It was
Speaker 1: an amazing weekend. I'm super excited to share everything about
Speaker 1: it with you guys. I'm gonna give you guys a
Speaker 1: little bit of my impressions of what the summer League
Speaker 1: experience is like for those of you guys who have
Speaker 1: never been, I want to talk about that whole thing
Speaker 1: two nights ago with Kyrie and Russ and Lebron are
Speaker 1: more specifically Russ and Lebron in the arena sitting on
Speaker 1: opposite sides some of the stuff I heard involving the
Speaker 1: Kyrie Irving trade. I'm gonna give you guys my breakdown
Speaker 1: of the top five players um in the draft that
Speaker 1: I saw there yesterday. I literally sat ten rows up
Speaker 1: and watched game after game. Bear didn't leave my scene
Speaker 1: unless I absolutely had to. To watch Paolo and Chet
Speaker 1: and Jabari and Jade and Ivy and Keegan Murray all
Speaker 1: one after the other up close and personal and learned
Speaker 1: a ton. I'm excited to share my thoughts about that
Speaker 1: with you guys. And then after that, I'm gonna give
Speaker 1: a quick, uh my quick thoughts on Dame and his
Speaker 1: recent press tour trying to proclaim himself as I don't know,
Speaker 1: some sort of morally superior NBA player to his peers
Speaker 1: around the league. And then a little bit about James
Speaker 1: Harden and him potentially taking a discount to stay with
Speaker 1: the Philadelphia seventy sixers. But I want to start with
Speaker 1: the the the overall Summer League experience for just a minute,
Speaker 1: because it really is amazing for those of you guys
Speaker 1: who have never been, and I highly recommend you go
Speaker 1: check it out, even if you can just get out
Speaker 1: there for a day, if you're not into the Vegas thing.
Speaker 1: Like my big takeaways, I probably won't go for his
Speaker 1: long next time, just because Vegas is a lot to
Speaker 1: deal with. But basketball is almost secondary, which is weird.
Speaker 1: Like I my favorite part of the trip was the basketball,
Speaker 1: but that's because I'm a basketball junkie. But like, it's
Speaker 1: weird the event the basketball is almost secondary. Everyone who
Speaker 1: is someone in the NBA in any capacity is there.
Speaker 1: Every member of the media that you can think of
Speaker 1: is making an appearance. Every player around the league of
Speaker 1: significance is making an appearance. And if they aren't, it's
Speaker 1: because of some scheduling conflict, or they're coming later in
Speaker 1: the week, or they're coming next weekend. The the there's
Speaker 1: just a train of of former NBA players, current NBA players,
Speaker 1: young aspiring NBA players and media members. It's just it's
Speaker 1: just an unbelievable, overwhelming experience that is the NBA. And
Speaker 1: then you combine that with Vegas, which is just something else. Like,
Speaker 1: first of all, it's outrageously expensive. I probably spent a
Speaker 1: hundred dollars on water bottles while I was there, just
Speaker 1: trying to stay hydrated in in the Vegas heat and
Speaker 1: just nothing. Nothing. It's kind of a remarkably set up city.
Speaker 1: I've been there several times in my life, obviously, but
Speaker 1: every time I go, I'm always blown away at just
Speaker 1: how wild that experiences in that city. A couple other
Speaker 1: quick takeaways. The basketball is super intense. It's as high
Speaker 1: urgency as you'll find anywhere outside of the NBA playoffs,
Speaker 1: because literally these guys are fighting and scratching and clawing
Speaker 1: for their NBA dreams. The level of defense and physicality. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know, I complained about the refs a lot on
Speaker 1: Twitter for blowing the whistle too much. One thing I'll
Speaker 1: say in their defense is, like these guys who are
Speaker 1: fighting for their NBA careers, they're playing super physical defense
Speaker 1: and it does get difficult to uh to officiate. Um.
Speaker 1: But all in all, it's an amazing way to evaluate talent.
Speaker 1: Like I said earlier, I got to sit up close
Speaker 1: and personal, just one after the other in watch all
Speaker 1: of the top picks in a super intense environment going
Speaker 1: against defenses that are completely locked in in a pressure environment.
Speaker 1: Like you guys, don't think Jabari Smith is feeling pressure,
Speaker 1: you know, being the third overall pick after having some hype,
Speaker 1: is potentially being a number one pick, and his weakness
Speaker 1: is being put on display for the world to see.
Speaker 1: There's a lot of pressure there, and so in a
Speaker 1: lot of ways, it is a great way to learn
Speaker 1: a lot about basketball players, and being in person it's
Speaker 1: always the best way because you can watch their demeanor
Speaker 1: during commercial breaks, while they're in the huddle, the little
Speaker 1: details that the camera doesn't always pick up. I you know,
Speaker 1: as long as I hum have the you know, as
Speaker 1: long as I have the capability, I'll try to make
Speaker 1: it out there each year, at least for a sequence
Speaker 1: like yesterday's games, because it's just a great way to
Speaker 1: learn about those draft picks and get a better impression
Speaker 1: of what they're good at, what they're bad at, what
Speaker 1: their personalities are. Like. Um, we are going to go
Speaker 1: through the top five players in this draftic and I'm
Speaker 1: gonna give you guys all of my thoughts on what
Speaker 1: I saw from them this weekend. Couple of guys that
Speaker 1: really blew me away, people that I'm a little disappointed in.
Speaker 1: We'll get into all of that, but before we get
Speaker 1: into that, I wanted to get into this Russell Lebron
Speaker 1: fiasco because it was kind of crazy because I didn't
Speaker 1: know he's coming. Nobody knows he's coming. It's not like
Speaker 1: he said, uh, you know, announcing these things, but you know,
Speaker 1: you're getting ready for the Lakers game. There's a Warrior's
Speaker 1: game before it, earlier in the night, so the arena
Speaker 1: is packed for the Warriors game. Jonathan Comeda and James
Speaker 1: Wise excuse me, Jonathan Comedica and Moses Moody both played
Speaker 1: in that game. Warriors fans tonight, James Wiseman is allegedly
Speaker 1: going to play. I am going to watch that game
Speaker 1: in its entirety on tape and sift through the plays
Speaker 1: a little by little as best as I can through
Speaker 1: the film, and I'm gonna tomorrow do a video that
Speaker 1: kind of just focuses on the Warriors summer league guys.
Speaker 1: Since they're all NBA guys that are allegedly going to
Speaker 1: be hopefully going to be in their rotation next year.
Speaker 1: I'll go over those guys with uh, with all of you. Then.
Speaker 1: I'm not gonna get into them today though, because I
Speaker 1: do want to get to James Wiseman. But after the
Speaker 1: Warriors game, you know, everyone's kind of, you know, going
Speaker 1: to the bathroom, getting food, getting a beer or whatever
Speaker 1: it is that they're doing and getting ready for the
Speaker 1: Lakers game. And you know, I kind of walked into
Speaker 1: the concourse. I got to see my guy Raj. You
Speaker 1: guys remember Rage from State of the Lakers. Was my
Speaker 1: first time getting to see him in person. I've met
Speaker 1: him right before the Lakers game started. And we walk
Speaker 1: into the arena and there's kind of like this buzz
Speaker 1: and a buzz that wasn't there the rest of the day,
Speaker 1: and everyone's standing in the arena and I'm like, what's
Speaker 1: going on? And everyone's standing with their phones out looking
Speaker 1: down towards one of the baskets, and I looked down
Speaker 1: and there's Lebron James, you know, and like I I've
Speaker 1: been in the arena with Lebron three times in my life. Um,
Speaker 1: you know, once in two thousand and sixteen, the year
Speaker 1: they won the title, and then once the year after that.
Speaker 1: And you know, I I've never seen and I know
Speaker 1: there are other players like this in the league, namely
Speaker 1: Steph or Kevin Durant. Like, I've never seen a person
Speaker 1: that has the fame aura that Lebron James has. And
Speaker 1: every time that I see him in person, that's always
Speaker 1: the biggest thing that stands out to me. There's just
Speaker 1: everybody stops what they're doing and stairs It's it's just
Speaker 1: it's a wild thing. Um. But you know, so Lebron
Speaker 1: is sitting down and then I hear that Russ is there,
Speaker 1: but I can't find him. So I'm like looking around
Speaker 1: all over the place and I'm trying to use Twitter
Speaker 1: to to locate where Russ is. And then I noticed
Speaker 1: he's all the way on the opposite end of the court.
Speaker 1: I was sitting just about like maybe ten rows up
Speaker 1: from where Lebron was on the um, on that side
Speaker 1: of the gym, and I'm like zooming in with my
Speaker 1: cellphone camera trying to get a look, and I see
Speaker 1: him over there sitting by the Lakers bench. I'm like, Okay,
Speaker 1: that's interesting, but you know, you're never you're not gonna
Speaker 1: read too much into it, right, But then everyone starts
Speaker 1: coming by to say hi to Lebron, and it's just
Speaker 1: one after the other, like here comes Rich Paul, Like
Speaker 1: here comes Damon Jones, like here here comes you know,
Speaker 1: Rob Polinka, here comes Darvin Ham, here comes all of
Speaker 1: this line of other m b A players and personnel
Speaker 1: and people that are friends with Lebron, and it's just
Speaker 1: kind of like a train of people coming to say hi.
Speaker 1: Except for us. There's none of that going on with Russ. Nobody,
Speaker 1: you know, No, none of the Lakers personnel that I
Speaker 1: could tell went up to us other than Rob Polinka
Speaker 1: was the one that I saw. And then Russ never
Speaker 1: came up to see Lebron. Now do I think Russe
Speaker 1: and Lebron aren't friends anymore? No, I don't think that's
Speaker 1: the issue here. But the point is it's awkward. It's awkward,
Speaker 1: and you know, everything is, especially with Lebron, who's so calculated.
Speaker 1: You know, there's just kind of a weird vibe going
Speaker 1: on there. But one of the things that I that
Speaker 1: I that I that was so what that I thought
Speaker 1: was so bizarre about that whole situation was Russ. You know,
Speaker 1: it's kind of strange that he subjects himself to this,
Speaker 1: Like you know the rumors and you know what everyone's saying,
Speaker 1: and you know what's about to have been, Like the
Speaker 1: vast majority of people. We're gonna get to this in
Speaker 1: a minute, think that Kyrie Irving is gonna be traded
Speaker 1: for you, and you're sitting by the Lakers bench, you know,
Speaker 1: not going to say hi to Lebron or whatever, which
Speaker 1: that's partially his fault too, right, But then you're also
Speaker 1: getting into the Lakers huddle and you're like coaching up
Speaker 1: Lakers players and like kind of acting like you're a
Speaker 1: part of everything, and and you are. But it's like
Speaker 1: I almost felt bad for him, But at the same time,
Speaker 1: I'm like, but why did you do that to yourself?
Speaker 1: Like he kind of became the butt of the joke
Speaker 1: on Twitter that night, right, Like everyone's just kind of
Speaker 1: talking about Russ being at the game, not being with
Speaker 1: Lebron and hanging out with the Lakers guys. And from
Speaker 1: a certain standpoint, I want to be like, dude, like
Speaker 1: you you don't have to do that to yourself, But like,
Speaker 1: this is the greatest example of why it's so important
Speaker 1: to move on from the Russ experience. Like, yes, Russ
Speaker 1: is toxic and he brings a lot of this on himself,
Speaker 1: but the Laker fan base is also extremely loud, and
Speaker 1: some elements of the Laker fan base can be toxic.
Speaker 1: And I mean, obviously a lot of Lakers media is
Speaker 1: sick and tired of him, including myself. I covered the
Speaker 1: team last year and it was like one of the
Speaker 1: hardest players that I've ever had to cover, and like
Speaker 1: arguably the most offensive basketball player that I've ever watched. Like,
Speaker 1: I just he's offensive to me as a basketball fan,
Speaker 1: as I always tell you guys, And it's just a
Speaker 1: lot for him to be under that all the time.
Speaker 1: And I'm ready for Russ to go somewhere else where
Speaker 1: he can be in a low stakes, low pressure situation
Speaker 1: with a fan base that will love him because they
Speaker 1: don't have the insane title aspirations that Laker fans always do,
Speaker 1: and there he can kind of fall into the background
Speaker 1: a little bit and be Russ because it's like, as
Speaker 1: much as I know he brings this on himself, I
Speaker 1: just it's sad. It's starting to get sad and and
Speaker 1: I'm just ready for this whole fiasco to be over.
Speaker 1: So um, I don't want to jump to any extraordinarily
Speaker 1: extraordinary conclusions, because there was a lot of intel in
Speaker 1: two thousand nineteen in the summer that was pointing to
Speaker 1: Kauai going to the Lakers. It was like everything looked
Speaker 1: like kauaiet the Lakers, and then it just didn't happen.
Speaker 1: And people within the Lakers thought Kauai was going to
Speaker 1: be a Laker and then it just didn't happen. Right,
Speaker 1: But there's a similar feel from the Kyrie stuff that
Speaker 1: everything appears to be kind of pointing that way. From
Speaker 1: what I heard from people who would know, including people
Speaker 1: that are involved with the team, they think he's coming.
Speaker 1: The Miles Turner stuff and Buddy Healds stuff is not
Speaker 1: it's not fake. It's kind of like a backup plan,
Speaker 1: but they think Kyrie's coming, right, So, like everything's kind
Speaker 1: of pointing in that direction. I still believe it's going
Speaker 1: to happen. There was the night the night before Kyrie
Speaker 1: showed up, he was at I believe a w NBA
Speaker 1: event or something like that, and someone yelled at him,
Speaker 1: you know, when are you're gonna be a Laker, and
Speaker 1: he said soon soon or something like that. So Kyrie
Speaker 1: seems to believe it's happening as well. The one thing
Speaker 1: I was hoping would happen that would just just just
Speaker 1: for the sake of the Twitter moment, is it would
Speaker 1: have been cool to see Lebron come into the arena
Speaker 1: last night too and just go sitting next to Kyrie
Speaker 1: just to get everybody, just to whip everybody up into frenzy. Um.
Speaker 1: But I mean, I I it's never over till it's over,
Speaker 1: and especially after what happened with that Kyrie stuff. You
Speaker 1: never know, excuse me, the Kauai stuff, you never know.
Speaker 1: But everything is pointing towards uh, Kyrie being a Laker,
Speaker 1: and from what I understand, people with the Lakers also
Speaker 1: believe that's going to be the case. Um, And there
Speaker 1: was I believe it was Chris Haynes if I remember correctly,
Speaker 1: but someone straight up came out and reported yesterday that
Speaker 1: Lebron is not even going to sign his extension unless
Speaker 1: correct Kyrie's a Laker, So I would I would count
Speaker 1: on that happening in all likelihood. Um, Let's get to
Speaker 1: the basketball though, because you know I had a lot
Speaker 1: of fun. I met a lot of people this weekend.
Speaker 1: I got to meet a couple of people on the
Speaker 1: Lakers coaching staff. I um, you know, I got to
Speaker 1: meet a ton of my friends in the industry. Like
Speaker 1: I said, I got to meet raj Um And that
Speaker 1: was all great and I loved that, and that is
Speaker 1: important and it's a big part of why I went.
Speaker 1: But my favorite moment of the trip was yesterday when
Speaker 1: I got down there early and I showed up, uh
Speaker 1: enough to get a decent seat, ten rose up the
Speaker 1: middle of the court, and I just watched basketball and
Speaker 1: for three games, for six hours, longer than that because
Speaker 1: of the double ot game early on, I just I
Speaker 1: only got up if I absolutely had to. And at
Speaker 1: one point, at like halftime of a game, I got
Speaker 1: up to get some food, just so I wouldn't uh
Speaker 1: die of hunger. But I sat there and I just
Speaker 1: soaked in the basketball. And the first game I got
Speaker 1: to see Keegan Murray versus Palapontaro. Then the second game,
Speaker 1: I got to see Jade and Ivy, and then in
Speaker 1: the third game, I got to see Chad Holmgren versus
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith Jr. And I just keyed in on them
Speaker 1: and tried to learn as much as I can, and
Speaker 1: it was by far. I actually texted my wife in
Speaker 1: that while I was sitting there because I was having
Speaker 1: like a little moment. I'm like, this is cool. The
Speaker 1: summer league stuff is great, all the the the extracurriculars,
Speaker 1: but this is my favorite part. This will always be
Speaker 1: my favorite part. I love the basketball the most and
Speaker 1: it was so cool to get to to just sit
Speaker 1: there and and evaluate basketball players for a couple of hours.
Speaker 1: And in some alternate universe, I would have loved to
Speaker 1: have been a scout just to see what that is
Speaker 1: like to do that for a living. But anyway, so
Speaker 1: let's start with Palo because I want to work through
Speaker 1: the top five and I just want to tell you
Speaker 1: guys my thoughts from what I learned. So I came
Speaker 1: into Summer League already high on Palo. You guys knew that.
Speaker 1: You watched my pre draft special. You guys watched my
Speaker 1: post draft special. I thought he was a clear cut
Speaker 1: number one. I'm even higher on him now than I
Speaker 1: was then. His combination of size, he's so like first
Speaker 1: night on Thursday Night, it was Palo versus Jabari. He
Speaker 1: is so much bigger than Jabari. It's not even funny,
Speaker 1: and an entirely different level of presence in terms of
Speaker 1: his physical presence. His combination of size and body control,
Speaker 1: how nimble he is gives him so much capability to
Speaker 1: get to his spots. We're gonna talk about this with
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith Jr. Here In a minute. But he can't
Speaker 1: dribble the basketball right now. Palo is not much better
Speaker 1: at dribbling the BASKETBA. He's a little bit but not
Speaker 1: much better better. But he has the ability with his
Speaker 1: body to protect the basketball and that kind of allows
Speaker 1: him to, even though he's a somewhat weak ball handler,
Speaker 1: to get to his spots. You guys probably noticed in
Speaker 1: that game yesterday that he missed a lot of fade aways,
Speaker 1: and I understand that, But what I was looking at
Speaker 1: there was how he was able to get to his
Speaker 1: spots and comfortably get a fade away off. In general,
Speaker 1: he didn't shoot well yesterday. His shot has a long
Speaker 1: way to go. The big thing with him for his
Speaker 1: ultimate ceiling will be his ability to shoot the basketball.
Speaker 1: I don't think that's going to be a problem. Though
Speaker 1: his form is more than good enough. I was impressed
Speaker 1: by his ability against great defensive players and um in
Speaker 1: super intense settings. Like I said, it's such a great
Speaker 1: way to evaluate because the players on the floor are
Speaker 1: fighting for their NBA lives and they take if they
Speaker 1: can lock up Paolo, that looks great for them and
Speaker 1: their attempts to get a job in this in this league, right,
Speaker 1: And Paulo was just comfortably getting wherever he needed to
Speaker 1: on the floor, and that was the most impressive part
Speaker 1: of his game. He almost has like a little bit
Speaker 1: of a Lebron Janice type of thing, where like he
Speaker 1: I believe he shot fifteen free throws yesterday twenty overall
Speaker 1: through through the two games that I saw. He once
Speaker 1: he kind of gets buy you off the dribble and
Speaker 1: starts going downhill. He's so damn big that like everybody
Speaker 1: doesn't really have much of a choice but to foul him.
Speaker 1: As long as he's strong with the basketball. They just
Speaker 1: start kind of wrapping him up, and it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're ticky, like if some of them were ticky tack
Speaker 1: But it's like he's getting found as he's rolling downhill
Speaker 1: towards the lane. There were a lot of player where're like, oh,
Speaker 1: they're gonna blow the whistle. Here he's going downhill and
Speaker 1: everybody's grabbing him, and and that that camp again. I
Speaker 1: think I attribute it to the combination of size and
Speaker 1: body control. Like the body controls is crucial for the
Speaker 1: back to the basket stuff. He's so good at getting
Speaker 1: you on his back side, feeling which shoulder you're on,
Speaker 1: and then spinning the other way. Generally speaking, when a
Speaker 1: player puts his back into you and start to back
Speaker 1: you down, you have to push back on him to
Speaker 1: hold your ground. I mean, some people can pull the chair,
Speaker 1: but you have to try to hold your ground. When
Speaker 1: you hold your ground, chances are you're gonna be leaning
Speaker 1: on one of his shoulders and he'll feel where you're
Speaker 1: at and he'll spin off of that shoulder. He's got
Speaker 1: all of the he does kind of like that Lebron
Speaker 1: full court post up thing where he'll be working from
Speaker 1: the top of the key with the dribble. He'll push
Speaker 1: hard to the elbow you'll get you'll cut him off,
Speaker 1: and then he'll spin back to the middle. He got
Speaker 1: bothered a little bit by help there at that spot
Speaker 1: on the floor. He had some turnovers that were sloppy there.
Speaker 1: But that stuff that will come in time as he
Speaker 1: gets better at seeing the floor. Overall, though, I was
Speaker 1: really really impressed by his ability to get two spots
Speaker 1: and to get quality shots, even though he wasn't overly efficient.
Speaker 1: That stuff will come in time. His passing ability was
Speaker 1: the revelation of this tournament. So obviously, when you're a
Speaker 1: taller player, the advantage there is you can see over
Speaker 1: the defense, and his ability to catch the ball at
Speaker 1: the top of the key. Operated out of the top
Speaker 1: of the key almost exclusively, and when he was operating
Speaker 1: at the top of the key, he could see cutters
Speaker 1: and hit them consistently. When he does that spin move
Speaker 1: in the middle of the lane, he carries the ball
Speaker 1: high and he keeps his head up and he'll hit
Speaker 1: guys cutting back door. He makes the extra pass, he
Speaker 1: keeps the ball moving. They were a handful of stretches,
Speaker 1: which is typical when you're in that environment when you're
Speaker 1: playing well, where he got a little shot happy, especially
Speaker 1: with the fade away, but for the most part, he
Speaker 1: kept the ball moving, he kept the offense flowing. He
Speaker 1: consistently made good reads, and if he can pass the
Speaker 1: ball that well, that's where he can potentially be an
Speaker 1: even better player than Carmelo Anthony. Like I explained, Carmelo
Speaker 1: is kind of like the player that he reminds me
Speaker 1: of the most, as the big forward that can score
Speaker 1: from all three levels. Like that's if Paullo can get that,
Speaker 1: if Pallo can get the passing ability, and in his defense,
Speaker 1: which we're gonna talk about in a minute, even if
Speaker 1: he doesn't reach the ultimate offensive ceiling that Carmelo had,
Speaker 1: he can be a better player overall. With his defense.
Speaker 1: He makes plays with his length, which is to be
Speaker 1: expected because he's a little bit big and a little
Speaker 1: bit heavy, doesn't have overlea a feat. He did get
Speaker 1: beat on closeouts a bunch. He does give up dribble
Speaker 1: penetration that's to be expected. But overall, with his overall
Speaker 1: impact as a shot blocker, and there was a play
Speaker 1: in the second half of that game where he was
Speaker 1: on the right block and there was a skip pass
Speaker 1: to the opposite wing and he closed out from underneath
Speaker 1: the basket to block a three pointer. A lot of
Speaker 1: you guys probably remember the play in overtime where uh,
Speaker 1: I can't remember who it was for Sacramento, but someone
Speaker 1: drove to the basket and and had a wide open
Speaker 1: layup and Paulo made an extra effort play from out
Speaker 1: of the play to come over and block the shot
Speaker 1: from behind. He got called for foul, but they reviewed
Speaker 1: it and they overturned it. He made a lot of
Speaker 1: plays defensively just with his length, and that's awesome because
Speaker 1: his instincts will get better, his foot speed will get
Speaker 1: better as he becomes an elite NBA athlete. In terms
Speaker 1: of taking care of his body, he will get better
Speaker 1: at that stuff. So to see him already making plays
Speaker 1: with his length is super impressive. And last but not least,
Speaker 1: his demeanor. And this is the kind of thing you
Speaker 1: only notice when you're there in person. This dude is
Speaker 1: a This dude is a competitor. He's angry when he
Speaker 1: makes mistakes, but he doesn't sulk. He um lifts, lifts
Speaker 1: up his teammates, he makes the right play. He won
Speaker 1: the game making a pass when they went to sudden death,
Speaker 1: by the way, incredible game moment of moment of the
Speaker 1: entire Summer League. Uh there's a there. Uh Um. The
Speaker 1: Magic are up by six with like ten seconds left
Speaker 1: and the Kings go down and make a three forced
Speaker 1: to steal on the inbounds and Keegan Murray actually patiently
Speaker 1: pump fakes and knocks down this three. The arena completely explodes.
Speaker 1: It was awesome. Then they go into overtime. It's this
Speaker 1: epic play where where Palo ends up blocking the dude
Speaker 1: at the end to to save the game, and then
Speaker 1: the half court shot almost goes in, and then it's
Speaker 1: sudden death overtime. But in sudden death overtime, the crowd
Speaker 1: is egging Polo on to take one of his fade
Speaker 1: aways to try to win the game. But he just
Speaker 1: made the right play. He saw Um, his big man
Speaker 1: cutting underneath the basket and hit him. They made the
Speaker 1: lay up and the game was over. My friend Ruth Williams,
Speaker 1: who covers the Houston Rockets, was down in the square
Speaker 1: um and he asked um Um. He asked Palo about
Speaker 1: his fade away and he said it's something that he's
Speaker 1: been working on a lot, but that he doesn't want
Speaker 1: to fall in love with. Just says all the right things.
Speaker 1: Super smart kid is already savvy with the media. I
Speaker 1: thought he was a clear number one, and I thought
Speaker 1: he I thought he had a super super impressive start
Speaker 1: to summer league. Um moving on, to Chet. So Chet
Speaker 1: had twelve blocks through three Summer League games, which is
Speaker 1: the most that you've seen in Summer League in five years.
Speaker 1: His blocks were impressive to me because of his uh,
Speaker 1: the second efforts that he was making in the out
Speaker 1: of area plays. It's not like he's just the low man,
Speaker 1: you know, underneath the basket and guys are driving right
Speaker 1: into him and he's getting a block, or he's guarding
Speaker 1: a player and the players driving into him and he's
Speaker 1: you know, absorbing contact and blocking the shots. In a
Speaker 1: lot of these situations, he's completely out of the play
Speaker 1: either in transition or his two passes away, and he's
Speaker 1: making extra efforts to come over in block shots, which
Speaker 1: is what you have to do to get twelve blocks
Speaker 1: in three Summer of the games. No one's stupid enough
Speaker 1: to just repeatedly drive right at Chet home grin and
Speaker 1: try to take try to take layups. That would be
Speaker 1: a suicide mission. Right. Chet was making these plays out
Speaker 1: of area, which I was super super impressed by. First
Speaker 1: of all, his handle was uh probably better than Paolo
Speaker 1: and uh Jabari. Maybe not quite Paalo, but he's at
Speaker 1: that level. He handles the ball really well in space
Speaker 1: in transition. That was That was the most impressive part
Speaker 1: probably that I saw from Chet was just when he
Speaker 1: gets the rebound and he leads the break. He had
Speaker 1: a couple of really nice dishes in transition, including one
Speaker 1: for a layup at the start of the game, just
Speaker 1: confidently dribbling the ball off the floor with his head
Speaker 1: up keeping keeping himself aware of the options that he
Speaker 1: had around him. He The one thing I did notice though,
Speaker 1: is that when the he handled the ball well in space,
Speaker 1: but when he was pressured he struggled, which is typical
Speaker 1: for tall guys. Think of it like this. A short player,
Speaker 1: the distance that the ball has to travel to get
Speaker 1: to the ground is significantly less. A tall player, the
Speaker 1: ball is is moving a lot more from higher off
Speaker 1: the ground, There's just more room for people to get
Speaker 1: in there. That was where um uh, That was where
Speaker 1: Jabari Smith was most important in the first game on
Speaker 1: Thursday night. He definitely let Palo get way too comfortable
Speaker 1: giving him space. In this game, he was getting up
Speaker 1: into Chet every time he had an opportunity, and he
Speaker 1: actually forced a lot of turnovers taking the ball away
Speaker 1: from him. The best example I could think of to
Speaker 1: kind of explain this concept to you, guys, is like
Speaker 1: what happened with Jalen Brown in the finals. When you're
Speaker 1: dribbling the ball in traffic and people are allowed to
Speaker 1: kind of hit at your arms. It's hard to dribble
Speaker 1: no matter how good you are ball handling, because it's
Speaker 1: not like you like if you if your brain is
Speaker 1: planning for the ball to be in one place and
Speaker 1: some dude hits your arm, you're you're just you're not
Speaker 1: gonna get the basketball. So where Palo has this figured
Speaker 1: out is he turns his back to you and he
Speaker 1: protects the basketball with his body. That's what you have
Speaker 1: to do as a tall guy. So both Jabari Smith
Speaker 1: and Chet will have to learn, especially even as they
Speaker 1: get better as ball handlers, to use their body to
Speaker 1: protect the basketball because they're never gonna be able to
Speaker 1: just mix up in front of people because of how
Speaker 1: tall they are. His defensive presence is real. Like I
Speaker 1: mentioned earlier, there were a handful of plays where guys
Speaker 1: drove right at him, but most people aren't actually challenging
Speaker 1: him if they can't avoid it. His motor is real,
Speaker 1: out of area plays, extra efforts. He is running up
Speaker 1: and down the floor and transition that he doesn't look
Speaker 1: like one of those classic big guys that hates basketball.
Speaker 1: He's a competitor. You can see it in his demeanor.
Speaker 1: He like a similar stuff to Paolo, like angry when
Speaker 1: he makes mistakes, cheers on his teammates, has all of
Speaker 1: that positive, infectious energy. I was definitely a fan. He
Speaker 1: didn't necessarily blow the roof off of that place with
Speaker 1: his skill. Didn't shoot the ball well. A struggled, like
Speaker 1: I said, handling the ball around Jabari, but you can
Speaker 1: see you can see the tools there, especially on the
Speaker 1: defensive end. Um he had this screen and roll with
Speaker 1: Josh Josh Kiddy that was really effective yesterday. Now Josh
Speaker 1: Kiddy ended up looking like the star in this particular
Speaker 1: play and he don't get me wrong, Josh Kiddy was
Speaker 1: the best play are on the floor. But a lot
Speaker 1: of it has to do with the way teams guarded
Speaker 1: the pick and roll. And it was exciting because you're
Speaker 1: gonna see this pick and roll a ton over the
Speaker 1: course of the next few years. Josh Giddy with chat Homegren.
Speaker 1: So usually you'll see you'll see when teams are guarding
Speaker 1: a pick and roll, they're usually prioritize one over the
Speaker 1: other they'll either bracket the ball handler, meaning like the
Speaker 1: big man will come over to the ball handler and
Speaker 1: a drop and the guard will chase over the top
Speaker 1: and they will kind of bracket and try to corral
Speaker 1: the ball handler, or they'll prioritize the role man. The
Speaker 1: guy who's guarding the screener will stay with the rollman
Speaker 1: to take away the role, in which case the guard
Speaker 1: has to do a lot more work to get over
Speaker 1: the screen. Well, because of Chet and his ability to
Speaker 1: basically be, you know, already a great elite vertical spacer
Speaker 1: in the NBA, the screen defenders were prioritizing Chet as
Speaker 1: the role man, and so as a result, Josh Giddy's
Speaker 1: man was getting caught on the screen and Josh Giddy
Speaker 1: kept getting right into the lane and getting fantastic looks
Speaker 1: in the short range to that right at the basket.
Speaker 1: That's gonna be really interesting to see because now a
Speaker 1: lot of this is gonna be on Josh Kiddy. He
Speaker 1: has to stay a scoring threat. I was really impressed
Speaker 1: by Josh Kiddy, but like he's his shooting is not
Speaker 1: there right now. He's got an awful hitch. He doesn't
Speaker 1: dip his legs the way he's supposed to looks very
Speaker 1: rigid while he's shooting, So he's gonna have to work
Speaker 1: some stuff out on that front, because if he can
Speaker 1: get the defense two key in on him as the
Speaker 1: screen and roll guy, that's where Chet will have openings
Speaker 1: as the in pocket passes and in lab passes up
Speaker 1: around the basket. One last note on Josh Giddy. Obviously
Speaker 1: his passing is amazing. You guys all know that the
Speaker 1: specific type of passing that he does that I think
Speaker 1: is super interesting are these baseball skip passes. And I
Speaker 1: think I tweeted about this yesterday, but it's such a
Speaker 1: great way to combat help defense because if you've got
Speaker 1: the ball on the left wing, and you know the
Speaker 1: defender guarding the guy in the week side corner has
Speaker 1: a foot in the paint or a foot by the block.
Speaker 1: You know what makes it hard to do things on
Speaker 1: the strong side of the floor draw I having to
Speaker 1: the basket running screen and roll because that defenders in there.
Speaker 1: But if you throw a skip pass like usually, the
Speaker 1: guy has time to close out because it's such a
Speaker 1: large chunk of the floor that the ball has to cover.
Speaker 1: But Lebron made this famous over the years. But Josh
Speaker 1: Kiddy has this as well. If you can lull the
Speaker 1: defense to sleep by keeping your attention focused on one side,
Speaker 1: but then hurl a quick baseball pass that's on a
Speaker 1: rope that hits the shooter in the pocket, that will
Speaker 1: make Not only will it generate an open look and
Speaker 1: he got three assists early in the game with those
Speaker 1: baseball passes, but it also causes that help defender to
Speaker 1: think twice about coming that far over. And if you're
Speaker 1: always paranoid about a Lebron or a Josh Kiddy making
Speaker 1: that baseball skip pass, it pulls that defender an extra
Speaker 1: step closer to that week side corner, which opens everything
Speaker 1: up for you on the strong side to run your actions. Um,
Speaker 1: but I really impressed by Josh Kiddy. He did. He
Speaker 1: did a great job of like getting into the lane
Speaker 1: and initiating contact and using his size to euro over
Speaker 1: the top to make plays scoring and and dropping off
Speaker 1: to chat. He had one, uh, he had one in
Speaker 1: the first half of that game where he did that
Speaker 1: eurostep and Chet got a dunk on it. But he
Speaker 1: definitely has to work out something with his shooting. And
Speaker 1: it's not just his jump shot, it's also his touch.
Speaker 1: He missed a lot of floaters and hook shots in
Speaker 1: that like five to ten foot range. Guys. That's what
Speaker 1: makes Luca so deadly is when he gets to that
Speaker 1: those spots on the floor as a big point guard,
Speaker 1: he's so good at making those short range shots. Josh
Speaker 1: Kiddy has the potential to do some of that stuff.
Speaker 1: He just needs to work on that touch in that
Speaker 1: spot on the floor. Um uh. With Chet. One last
Speaker 1: note with him. The Kenny Lofton game which was in
Speaker 1: it was I believe it was in Utah. Everybody saw
Speaker 1: that Kenny, you know, chat Holmrea has this incredible first
Speaker 1: game and then Kenny Lofton just bullies him, and everyone
Speaker 1: goes like, Oh, this is what's gonna happen to him
Speaker 1: when he gets into the league. He's just gonna get bullied.
Speaker 1: And I don't worry about that at all. And there's
Speaker 1: a couple of reasons why how many players in the
Speaker 1: league play like Kenny Lofton, Like maybe Julius randall right, maybe,
Speaker 1: And not to say that there are guys that play bullyball,
Speaker 1: but not like that. They don't. And there's tons of
Speaker 1: film from when I was studying Chet of guys attempting
Speaker 1: to bully him and him still blocking them because because
Speaker 1: of his unique you know, combination of physical tools. So
Speaker 1: I wouldn't overreact to the Kenny Lofton thing. Kenny Lofton
Speaker 1: is a very unique player, and he's gonna make that
Speaker 1: Memphis roster. I don't know they'll be in the rotation
Speaker 1: because what I worry about with Kenny Lofton is his
Speaker 1: foot speed and his ability to cover on defense in
Speaker 1: a five out system, just because I don't think he's
Speaker 1: fast enough. But Kenny Lofton is gonna bully people out
Speaker 1: of the post at the NBA level regardless of I mean,
Speaker 1: there's there's only gonna be a handful of guys that
Speaker 1: can actually check him physically, so that I wouldn't overreact
Speaker 1: to that. For for Chet, I Chet is an immediate
Speaker 1: impact player right now in the NBA as a stretch five.
Speaker 1: He has a ridiculously high ceiling of things break right.
Speaker 1: I was impressed with him even though he didn't play
Speaker 1: exceptionally well. Um Jabari Smith Jr. So on offense right now,
Speaker 1: the only thing he can do is rise and fire.
Speaker 1: He's tall, he's long, and he's got a good shot,
Speaker 1: so he can just elevate over the top of most people.
Speaker 1: That's the only way you can get to a shot.
Speaker 1: Right now, though can't dribble at all and doesn't have
Speaker 1: that ability to protect the basketball that I was talking
Speaker 1: about where he turns his back to the defender. Now,
Speaker 1: the rise and fire thing is a good foundation. It's
Speaker 1: a great place to start, especially with how well he
Speaker 1: can shoot the basketball, but it's just a foundation. He
Speaker 1: has so much more that he has to build around that.
Speaker 1: And the problem was is you could tell his inability
Speaker 1: to get to spots so that he could generate easy shots.
Speaker 1: That started to affect his confidence. So then even when
Speaker 1: he was rising and firing, he wasn't hitting. And I
Speaker 1: I can't remember what he finished with yesterday, but I
Speaker 1: think he was. He was like three for sixteen from
Speaker 1: the field at one point, and he was he had
Speaker 1: missed some makeable shots. But that's what happens when you
Speaker 1: don't have a way to generate easy shots on a
Speaker 1: night like that, it starts to get in your head.
Speaker 1: Now you're rising up for those jumpers and you're like,
Speaker 1: it's just not my night, and it becomes even more
Speaker 1: likely that you'll miss, and it just it just starts
Speaker 1: to it's like a compounding effect. So where I'd like
Speaker 1: to see him kind of improved there is to get
Speaker 1: a little bit more of a back to the basket game,
Speaker 1: work on fighting for position closer to the rim and
Speaker 1: get that fade away down over both shoulders so that
Speaker 1: he can get a little closer and start making stuff
Speaker 1: at about ten ft because that's a shot that he'll
Speaker 1: be able to make a much higher percentage. So on
Speaker 1: a night when he's not shooting particularly well, he can
Speaker 1: fight closer to the rim, and that's where when he
Speaker 1: gets his ball handling worked out, it'll be even easier
Speaker 1: for him because that's where he can start to get
Speaker 1: two spots closer with finishing getting to the rim as
Speaker 1: uh you know, and finishing over the top of defenders
Speaker 1: with his length around the rim, or like I was
Speaker 1: talking about earlier turnaround jump shots that are closer to
Speaker 1: the basket. He has to round that stuff out so
Speaker 1: that he doesn't get so down on himself when his
Speaker 1: shot isn't falling. Because he is absolutely a better shooter
Speaker 1: than he showed this weekend. His form is great, he's
Speaker 1: got good arc, everything looks good. Just didn't shoot well
Speaker 1: because he's not confident, because he's got some big holes
Speaker 1: in his game. Um. In the first game, the confidence
Speaker 1: really started to show in his demeanor, and you could
Speaker 1: tell because he wasn't being overly aggressive. At least in
Speaker 1: the second game, you could tell he was carrying himself
Speaker 1: more confidently and that was showing in his shot selection.
Speaker 1: He did not go quietly into the night. He was firing,
Speaker 1: He was emptying the clip and doing everything he could
Speaker 1: to try to get him self going. The defensive stuff
Speaker 1: is real. He was really really bothering Chet by getting
Speaker 1: up into his handle. There were several plays or Chet
Speaker 1: tried to bury him under the basket and he disrupted
Speaker 1: him and forced him to either miss layups or blocked shots,
Speaker 1: which is difficult to do against a player as tall
Speaker 1: as Chet. Everything with the defense is real, which Bari Smith.
Speaker 1: That should get you excited if you're a Rockets fan.
Speaker 1: But he's got a long long way to go. If
Speaker 1: we redrafted, I think I'd take him forth like that.
Speaker 1: That's my big takeaway from the weekend I did. I
Speaker 1: think Ivy is just significantly better than him right now. Um,
Speaker 1: but you know it's not It's not a disaster. It's
Speaker 1: not like he's a bust. He just has a long
Speaker 1: way to go and it's going to be a process.
Speaker 1: But fortunately for Houston, you've got lots of time to
Speaker 1: figure that out. Um, Jada and Ivy. If we did
Speaker 1: a redraft, I'd take him second. I was absolutely blown
Speaker 1: away by him. Now you guys already knew I was
Speaker 1: high on him. I would have taken him forth over
Speaker 1: Keegan Murray. I thought that was a disaster from the Kings,
Speaker 1: but watching it in person, it was even more of
Speaker 1: a disaster. I talked about this a little bit my
Speaker 1: pre draft video. But there's different kinds of athleticism. You know,
Speaker 1: if you watch a Jonathan cominga you think, oh my gosh,
Speaker 1: freak athlete because you just see the dude putting his
Speaker 1: head above the rim and jackhammer smashing everything that he
Speaker 1: gets a chance, right, But that just one type of athleticism.
Speaker 1: There's foot speed coordination. You know Steph Curry for instance,
Speaker 1: with coordination, that's a form of athleticism. Just about everybody
Speaker 1: playing in the Summer League was a better athlete in
Speaker 1: terms of size, strength and speed than staph But that
Speaker 1: hand eye coordination, that that conditioning, those are all parts
Speaker 1: of athleticism. With Ja Nivey, it's starting and stopping, the
Speaker 1: ability to go from full speed to a stop to
Speaker 1: back to full speed, and the ability to change direction
Speaker 1: while going full speed. And this is what reminds me
Speaker 1: so much of Dwyane Wade. We've had a couple of
Speaker 1: players that have been mentioned with Dwyane Wade in the past.
Speaker 1: Everybody mentions Donovan Mitchell. I don't really see that John Morant,
Speaker 1: He's not like Dwyane Wade. But there's a similar impact
Speaker 1: on officiating where people can't keep him in front and
Speaker 1: he's flying into the lane and he gets like knocked
Speaker 1: over and he falls all the time, and you just
Speaker 1: are waiting for the whistle to blow. But neither of
Speaker 1: those players really really fit the actual physical profile and
Speaker 1: feel of a Dwyane Wade. Jade and Ivy is the
Speaker 1: first player I've seen in the last god knows how
Speaker 1: many years that moves the way that Dwyane Wade does.
Speaker 1: He got yesterday. He only played like six minutes before
Speaker 1: he checked out of the game with an ankle sprain,
Speaker 1: which he tweeted out this morning that he thinks is fine,
Speaker 1: but like he was just confidently working up the floor
Speaker 1: and just dusting dudes off the dribble. But then comes
Speaker 1: the next step of the athleticism. Here comes the help.
Speaker 1: While going at full speed, he can just veer off
Speaker 1: to the right to get around people and then veer
Speaker 1: back towards the rin. There was a play that he
Speaker 1: drew a foul on on like the first drive of
Speaker 1: the game. I encourage you guys to go watch the
Speaker 1: film of it because it was ridiculous. First player believe
Speaker 1: it was the first play the game where he got
Speaker 1: to the free throw line, he missed the lay up.
Speaker 1: The entire defense collapsed on him, and he just weaved
Speaker 1: through all of him, all of them, and went up
Speaker 1: and under damn near made an end one lay up
Speaker 1: every trip down on the floor. Nobody had a snowball's
Speaker 1: chance in hell at keeping him in front. It was
Speaker 1: truly remarkable to see He hit a three on the
Speaker 1: left wing as well. He drew a foul on at
Speaker 1: three at the top of the key, was getting to
Speaker 1: the rain, was dropping off passes in transition. Just an
Speaker 1: unbelievably impressive performance from Jade and Ivy. I think I
Speaker 1: think he's going to be so incredibly good almost right
Speaker 1: away especially in NBA spacing. They got him a real
Speaker 1: vertical spacing threat and Jalen dur and that's gonna actually
Speaker 1: help loosen things up around the rim. I was just
Speaker 1: blown away a couple of nitpicky things. His shot is
Speaker 1: still a little too slow and set, you know, ver
Speaker 1: very it's not a hitch, but it's just very slow
Speaker 1: and set. But at the same time, Dwyane Wade's shot
Speaker 1: was slow and set, but because he was so incredibly
Speaker 1: athletic and teams were so paranoid about his slashing ability,
Speaker 1: they played off of him, so it might not end
Speaker 1: up mattering. But that was the one. If I had
Speaker 1: to be really nitpicky, I would go. I would say
Speaker 1: that his shot needs to be a little quicker, a
Speaker 1: little more fluid um. But he was arguably the most impressive,
Speaker 1: most impressive player I saw an actual play overall. I'm
Speaker 1: most impressed with Palo is a player in the sense
Speaker 1: that like he will project to be a better player
Speaker 1: in the long run because of his other physical tools
Speaker 1: with his size, But Jade and Ivy in terms of
Speaker 1: actual on court play, was the best player I saw
Speaker 1: this weekend, and and by a decent margin. It just
Speaker 1: it just looked out of place, like he didn't even
Speaker 1: belong there. Just incredibly impressive. Keegan Murray shot looks good.
Speaker 1: It's a little flat, but it's accurate. Goes in. You'll
Speaker 1: need to add a little bit of arc there. Probably
Speaker 1: another guy kind of like Chet, where he's got a
Speaker 1: smooth handle when he has an advantage. But he really
Speaker 1: struggled with the upticking athleticism. Had a bunch of turnovers yesterday.
Speaker 1: I think he had a half dozen turnovers. But when
Speaker 1: he was like a really operating in space, his fluidity
Speaker 1: is it stands out, and that's to be expected he's
Speaker 1: a little bit older. But when he was actually in isolation,
Speaker 1: meaning when defenders were up in his airspace, he really struggled.
Speaker 1: He got bullied on post ups, which was disappointing because
Speaker 1: when I was scouting him, I really liked his back
Speaker 1: to the basket game. I thought he was uniquely equipped
Speaker 1: with the back to the basket game that you don't
Speaker 1: see often from players at his position. But they're they're
Speaker 1: they're like I saw him posting up and getting pushed
Speaker 1: off of his spots, which was disappointing by smaller players.
Speaker 1: The uptick and athleticism in that setting clearly bothered him
Speaker 1: a little bit, which was, you know, to be expected
Speaker 1: that that's not his strength. His athleticism is not his strength.
Speaker 1: He did make a massive shot to send that game
Speaker 1: to o T, which I thought was the moment of
Speaker 1: the weekend, really really cool moment for him. But like
Speaker 1: I like Kegan Murray, I think he's gonna help the King's.
Speaker 1: I think he's gonna have a productive, long NBA career.
Speaker 1: I could totally see him being like an auto Porter
Speaker 1: junior type of player. But this was a catastrophic mistake
Speaker 1: for the Kings. Jade and Ivy was right there for him.
Speaker 1: I think Jade and Ivy might be the second best
Speaker 1: player in this draft. I thought he was the best
Speaker 1: player this weekend that I saw. He was the guy
Speaker 1: that stood out the most in terms of his incredible ability,
Speaker 1: and he was right there and the Kings did it again.
Speaker 1: The King's willingly passed on the better player for whatever
Speaker 1: the hell reason it was. I have no idea how
Speaker 1: they keep landing on these decisions. But I mean, I
Speaker 1: feel bad for Kings fans because Keegan Murray's gonna be fine,
Speaker 1: but Jade and Ivy is gonna be a star and
Speaker 1: you absolutely could have had that guy. A couple of
Speaker 1: really quick special shoutouts from some other players that I
Speaker 1: saw Aaron Wiggins for the Thunder, the six eight three
Speaker 1: and d wing Um. I don't know how they got
Speaker 1: this guy. He's under contract to for the next three
Speaker 1: seasons on team options and non guaranteed deal, so it's
Speaker 1: basically he's just under team control. And and like I'm
Speaker 1: sitting there thinking, I'm like, the Lakers can't get a
Speaker 1: guy who's over six six that can guard multiple positions
Speaker 1: and shoot the three. And here, okay, see just has
Speaker 1: another one. And Aaron Wiggins. I was really really impressed
Speaker 1: with him. Yesterday, another guy for the Thunder, Jalen Williams,
Speaker 1: had uh ten points by the time that I left
Speaker 1: the game, but loud points, freaky athleticism, had a really
Speaker 1: nice up and under, had a really nice dunk driving baseline,
Speaker 1: and then had a cut out of the week's at
Speaker 1: Corner where he like went up and under and reversed
Speaker 1: it on the other side of the room. I tweeted
Speaker 1: out the video of it. Really really impressive athleticism from him.
Speaker 1: Most of the biggest thing that stood out to him
Speaker 1: is you know stood out to me from about him
Speaker 1: was his ability to cut. Um. Everybody thinks of like
Speaker 1: spotting up as like shooting, but it's not the only
Speaker 1: way to spot up. If you catch your defender in
Speaker 1: help and you cut, and you time it right and
Speaker 1: you have a head of steam, you can elevate over
Speaker 1: everybody because you have the momentum because you're cutting, And
Speaker 1: it's another way to punish people for helping off of
Speaker 1: you in a shooting position. And last, but not least,
Speaker 1: Thai Tai Washington and the Rockets. I was really pressed
Speaker 1: with his ability to get separation again in this setting,
Speaker 1: with how intense everybody was playing, with how physical the
Speaker 1: defense was, It's just not easy to get to your spots.
Speaker 1: And so when you see a player that noticeably is
Speaker 1: getting separation from this level of athleticism, in this level
Speaker 1: of defensive focus, it's it's really really impressive. So I
Speaker 1: was impressed by thy Ti Washington. A couple of quick
Speaker 1: things before we get out of here, Damian Lillard in
Speaker 1: this weird more morality play. So you guys all, you
Speaker 1: guys all saw the quotes, I'm sure, but he basically
Speaker 1: said that, um that he's hoping he can set an
Speaker 1: example to the future generations that you can be loyal
Speaker 1: to your team and play for the name on the
Speaker 1: front of the jersey instead of the name on the back. Now,
Speaker 1: to be clear, I think it's cool that Dame's staying
Speaker 1: in Portland, and I do wish more players would stay.
Speaker 1: I talked about this with Colin after the finals, but
Speaker 1: I think it's a big part of the future health
Speaker 1: of the league. But make no mistake, here's what's actually
Speaker 1: happening here. This is one gigantic attempt to control the narrative,
Speaker 1: and Dame frames leaving as taking the easy way out,
Speaker 1: and in a literal sense, it is because basketball is
Speaker 1: easier when you play with more talent. But it's also
Speaker 1: the easy way out to do what Dame is doing
Speaker 1: in the sense that he's taking all the pressure off
Speaker 1: of himself. If you stay in Portland and everybody in
Speaker 1: the league knows you don't have as much talent as
Speaker 1: the other top teams in the league. If you win,
Speaker 1: you're the hero who brought Portland to title. If you lose,
Speaker 1: it's you were supposed to. And again, I can't speak
Speaker 1: for Dame, but I like to think that I'm pretty
Speaker 1: sure that's a factor here, and that's why I don't
Speaker 1: like the morality play. It's dope that you're staying. I'm
Speaker 1: happy for you, I'm happy for Portland's fans. It's great
Speaker 1: for the league, but it also makes sense for you
Speaker 1: to stay because it relieves pressure. And at the end
Speaker 1: of the day, if you never win a title in Portland,
Speaker 1: no one will judge you because of the fact that
Speaker 1: you never really had that much talent there that and
Speaker 1: I know Dame is aware of that, and that's why
Speaker 1: he's releasing these quotes. He's not releasing these quotes to
Speaker 1: try to set a trend for what future stars will do.
Speaker 1: He's releasing these quotes to protect himself and protect the
Speaker 1: narrative of his time in Portland. And and I just again,
Speaker 1: let's just call it what it is. It's great that
Speaker 1: you're staying, but we know we we know that this
Speaker 1: is a part of that story. And that's why you
Speaker 1: keep pumping these quotes out in the NBA Twitter. And
Speaker 1: the last but not least James harden Um until it's
Speaker 1: still working on a deal, but untel is he's gonna
Speaker 1: take a discount. Hey, man, Like I I have been
Speaker 1: really critical of James Harden that someone who's distracted and
Speaker 1: who doesn't put the team first, if he takes a
Speaker 1: discount to help the Sixers round out this roster and
Speaker 1: put together a contender. Tip of the cap to James
Speaker 1: Harden that that that demonstrate demonstrates a willingness to commit
Speaker 1: and a willingness to try to to to achieve the
Speaker 1: ultimate goal just winning. So so kudos to James Harden.
Speaker 1: They're also there. There was some intel in the tweets.
Speaker 1: I was saying that like the team is essentially pushing
Speaker 1: James Harden to take his conditioning more seriously. We're gonna
Speaker 1: find out if that's the case at the start of
Speaker 1: next season. Um. Alright, that's all I have for today, guys.
Speaker 1: A couple of quick shoutouts. Um Um, it was several
Speaker 1: of you came up and saw me in Vegas and
Speaker 1: and talked about how much you guys enjoyed the show.
Speaker 1: I cannot tell you how much I appreciate that. It
Speaker 1: was great to get to meet some of you guys.
Speaker 1: Special shout out to Nigel who went at one of
Speaker 1: the days I went up to uh you and l
Speaker 1: V to the rec center to play some basketball. Um.
Speaker 1: And guy walks up, really friendly dude, and he goes like, hey, man,
Speaker 1: I was just listening to your show on the way
Speaker 1: to the gym. And that was such a cool moment
Speaker 1: for me because, you know, it was funny. He he
Speaker 1: wasn't on Twitter, It wasn't didn't see us there, just
Speaker 1: happened to find our show on YouTube and and has
Speaker 1: been following. And you know what, him and I guarded
Speaker 1: each other, played a little bit of basketball, which was
Speaker 1: a cool moment, and I it was really great to
Speaker 1: meet you, Nigel. Was really it to meet all of
Speaker 1: you guys that I met there this weekend, And as always,
Speaker 1: I appreciate you guys supporting the show. That it's all
Speaker 1: I have for today. Remember tomorrow I will have something
Speaker 1: focused on the Warriors in Summer League. I will see
Speaker 1: you guys. Then the volume