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Speaker 1: The volume. All right, welcome here tonight. You're at the

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Speaker 1: Vaulume Heavy Monday. Everybody. Hope if you guys had an

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Speaker 1: incredible weekend, we have a jam pack show for you today.

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Speaker 1: We are hitting on eight teams. We're going to lead

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Speaker 1: off with the Houston Rockets. I'm a little bit more

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Speaker 1: bullish on them than most after their zero and two start.

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Speaker 1: I want to talk about their game against Detroit, some

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Speaker 1: of the things we learned, and some of the things

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Speaker 1: that I expect them to be able to improve upon

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Speaker 1: over time. After that, Austin reeves fifty one point near

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Speaker 1: triple double on the road in Sacramento, but comes attached

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Speaker 1: to some bad news as the Lakers find out they're

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Speaker 1: going to be out without Luka Doncicic for this week.

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Speaker 1: I have some opinions there. We're gonna briefly touch on

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Speaker 1: the Milwaukee Bucks and some of their early returns from them.

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Speaker 1: I caught their game against Toronto, the the game where

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Speaker 1: Scottie Barnes tried to show up Yannis, and Yannis very

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Speaker 1: much did not allow that to happen. They ended up

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Speaker 1: dropping a game against Cleveland earlier on Sunday. I caught

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Speaker 1: the crunch time of that game as well, we'll have

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Speaker 1: some brief thoughts on the Bucks. After that, we're going

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Speaker 1: to be covering the top five most impressive teams from

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Speaker 1: Week one of the NBA season, So jam pack show

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Speaker 1: lots of teams to get into. You guys, are the

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Speaker 1: joke before we get started. Subscribed to Hoops and I

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Speaker 1: YouTube channels you don't miss any more of our videos.

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Speaker 1: Follow me on Twitter and underscore JCNLT so you guys

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Speaker 1: don't miss show announcements. Don't forget about our podcast feed

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Speaker 1: wherever you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's also

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Speaker 1: super helpful if you leave a rating in a review

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Speaker 1: on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our social

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Speaker 1: media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make sure

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Speaker 1: you guys follow us there for content throughout the rest

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Speaker 1: of the season, and the last but not least, keep

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Speaker 1: dropping questions in our YouTube comments for our weekly mail

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Speaker 1: bag so we can get to them throughout the rest

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Speaker 1: of the season. All right, let's talk some basketball, starting

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Speaker 1: with the Houston Rockets again off to an one and

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Speaker 1: two start. They followed up their heartbreaking loss to Oklahoma

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Speaker 1: City with an equally frustrating loss to Detroit, but I've

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Speaker 1: remained bullish on them to start the year. The Pistons.

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Speaker 1: First of all, it was interesting and revealing on several levels.

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Speaker 1: But let's credit the Pistons. They're a really good young team.

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Speaker 1: They're particularly good at playing in physicality. Like one of

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Speaker 1: the things that stood out to me in that game

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Speaker 1: was like alput In Shangoon really struggled like it was

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Speaker 1: one of the worst games I've seen him play in

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Speaker 1: a very long time. And part of the reason is

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Speaker 1: he's not bullying that Detroit Pistons front court. He struggled

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Speaker 1: to Jayalen Durr, and he struggled with Isaiah Stewart, he

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Speaker 1: struggled with Paul Reid, he struggled even with Tobias Harris,

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Speaker 1: who was meeting his physicality and attacking when he would

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Speaker 1: expose the basketball. Like those guys just met his force

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Speaker 1: with force, and they disrupted his rhythm and they forced

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Speaker 1: him into a ton of misses right around the rim.

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Speaker 1: That was a huge factor in Houston's offense in this game.

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Speaker 1: And then Kate, to Kid's credit, he was absolutely fantastic

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Speaker 1: in the second half. He had gotten off to a

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Speaker 1: little bit of a rough start this season, but he

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Speaker 1: beat several different Rockets coverages. In the second half of

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Speaker 1: that game, he'd he dropped single coverage down the stretch.

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Speaker 1: The Rockets were consistently blitzing him. It kind of turned

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Speaker 1: into this weird blitz off where the Rockets were blitzing

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Speaker 1: KDE and the Pistons were blitzing KD and shout out

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Speaker 1: to Detroit. They just kind of won that battle and

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Speaker 1: made a few more plays. Cage showed some impressive shot

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Speaker 1: making down the stretch. He has a strength and size

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Speaker 1: advantage over a men Thompson, and I thought he did

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Speaker 1: a really nice job using his body to get free

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Speaker 1: of him. He had a really interesting play late in

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Speaker 1: the game where he calls for a ball screen on

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Speaker 1: the right side and men Thompson is there, and he

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Speaker 1: goes like he's about to use the screen and does

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Speaker 1: a good job showing the body and the ball like

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Speaker 1: he's about to use the screen, gets a men Thompson

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Speaker 1: to take that step into the screen. Then he rejects

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Speaker 1: it and men Thompson, ridiculous athlete, obviously gonna recovers, but

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Speaker 1: Kge just fends him off because now he's got just

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Speaker 1: that tiny bit of a step right and he fends

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Speaker 1: him off and just gets to that little short twelve

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Speaker 1: footer along the lane line on the left side and

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Speaker 1: knocked it down. There's a big time shot against one

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Speaker 1: of the apex perimeter defenders in this league. Shout out

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Speaker 1: to the Detroit Pistons. They're a good team. They've been

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Speaker 1: playing together for a while. The Rockets are working progress

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Speaker 1: and they got beat but there's still a ton of good.

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Speaker 1: As I talked about before the season, Katie is such

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Speaker 1: a gifted scorer coming off of screens that he can

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Speaker 1: command a lot of aggressive coverages for himself. He can

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Speaker 1: command blitzes and at the level coverages and things along

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Speaker 1: those lines, and he did that against Detroit. He had

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Speaker 1: thirty seven points, literally forced Detroit to repeatedly blitz him

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Speaker 1: down the stretch after he hit a pullback three that

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Speaker 1: tied the game in crunch time. And honestly, that was

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Speaker 1: where I thought the absence of Dorian Finney Smith was

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Speaker 1: really felt. The Reed Shepherd thing has been kind of

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Speaker 1: a disaster. We'll dig into that in a little bit.

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Speaker 1: On one level, it's kind of to me just a

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Speaker 1: testament to how good this team can be when they

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Speaker 1: eventually trade for a guard. We'll talk about him in

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Speaker 1: a minute. Then, you know, when you kind of take

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Speaker 1: him out of the equation, it comes down to Tari

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Speaker 1: Easton or Steven Adams that he's looking at for that

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Speaker 1: fifth starter or fifth closer, I should say. And so

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Speaker 1: ima Udoka goes with a Tari Easton down the stretch.

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Speaker 1: And Tari Easton has been a big issue for them

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Speaker 1: offensively with their spacing, and it just was difficult for

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Speaker 1: them to get good shots off of those blitzes down

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Speaker 1: the stretch of the game. And like, all I could

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Speaker 1: think about when I saw that is, first of all,

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Speaker 1: you know, who's gonna really help Dorian Phinney Smith, a

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Speaker 1: guy who like is the perfect connective player on both

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Speaker 1: ends of the floor for them, as a guy that

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Speaker 1: is going to knock down that corner three point shot

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Speaker 1: at a high rate. Who's gonna communicate for them defensively,

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Speaker 1: which I think will be important. Their defense hasn't been

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Speaker 1: as good as it's capable of being. We'll talk more

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Speaker 1: about that in a few minutes. But like that fifth

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Speaker 1: that fifth closer, it's gonna be a Dorian Phinney Smith,

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Speaker 1: or it's gonna be a guard that they trade for

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Speaker 1: at some point down the line. That's gonna be something

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Speaker 1: that is is gonna make it easier for them to

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Speaker 1: make teams pay for blitzing Kevin Durant, Like, this is

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Speaker 1: a thing that because even above and beyond the fifth

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Speaker 1: player in those lineups, they're gonna find ways sequences, quick

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Speaker 1: passing and cutting sequences to get good shots off of

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Speaker 1: those blitzes. This is a problem. That's not even a problem.

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Speaker 1: It's this is an upside that they have not experienced

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Speaker 1: in this iteration of the team. They haven't had a

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Speaker 1: player that is going to consistently draw two defenders thirty

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Speaker 1: feet from the rim. That is a massive boost to

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Speaker 1: your offense once you figure out how to make teams

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Speaker 1: pay for it. I looked at that and I was like,

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Speaker 1: Katie's getting blitzed for torching a team and we're not

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Speaker 1: even two games into the season. Like, this is an upside.

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Speaker 1: They just got to figure it out. By the way,

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Speaker 1: that's starting lineup Amen Thompson, Kevin Durant, Jabari Smith, Al

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Speaker 1: Burn Shangun and Steven Adams is plus eighteen net so

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Speaker 1: far to start the season in forty possessions. According to

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Speaker 1: cleaning the glass. And again, I think they're capable of

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Speaker 1: playing way better defensively than they have to this point.

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Speaker 1: They have frequently put out Burn Shangun in a roaming

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Speaker 1: role off of non shooters, and he's been a bit

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Speaker 1: inattentive in some situations. Against Oklahoma City, he had several

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Speaker 1: situations where he was kind of the the culprit of

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Speaker 1: their poor semi transition defense because it's like he's roaming,

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Speaker 1: he's supposed to be protecting the rim, but he's just

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Speaker 1: a little slow to get back into position because he's relaxing.

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Speaker 1: That happened several times down the stretch against Detroit, and

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Speaker 1: like that's something that I think they'll be able to

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Speaker 1: clean up. I think that's a role where Shanggun's gonna

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Speaker 1: be able to have some success. And like they've strangely

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Speaker 1: been bad on the defensive glass, which doesn't even make

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Speaker 1: sense with how big they are. One of the things

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Speaker 1: I'm seeing on film is they can be a bit

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Speaker 1: slow footed at times, and that can get them a

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Speaker 1: little bit into you know, the blender of just quicker

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Speaker 1: guards going past them for long rebounds off of missus,

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Speaker 1: like long jump shots and things along those lines. So

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Speaker 1: like there's a lot they can clean up. As I mentioned,

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Speaker 1: re Shepherd has not been good. The Rockets are. This

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Speaker 1: is crazy stat They're plus eight net so far through

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Speaker 1: the two games with him off the floor, and minus

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Speaker 1: eighteen net with him on the floor. He doesn't make

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Speaker 1: anything off the dribble, he doesn't make anything at the rim,

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Speaker 1: and he turns the ball over and so to me, honestly,

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Speaker 1: that was just a sign of how much better this

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Speaker 1: team will be when they inevitably make a trade for

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Speaker 1: a veteran guard at some point down the line. This season,

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Speaker 1: it's like such an obvious position of need where they've

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Speaker 1: been getting poor play. But even with everything that happened,

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Speaker 1: even with Reed shepherd struggles, even with Tarry Easton struggles,

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Speaker 1: even with the rebounding struggles, even with Alpa and Shangun

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Speaker 1: having just an absolute nightmare game, even with all of that,

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Speaker 1: even with them being mostly a new team trying to

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Speaker 1: figure out how to play a new style, they got

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Speaker 1: handed to like tough teams to start the season, and

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Speaker 1: they were disclose to winning both games. Javari Smith got

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Speaker 1: a wide open three on the left side down two

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Speaker 1: that would have given Houston the league down the stretch

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Speaker 1: of that game. And then as we know they're you know,

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Speaker 1: they were up six late in regulation against Oklahoma City.

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Speaker 1: They had a couple of mistakes that let Oklahoma City

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Speaker 1: back in the game, and you know, Shae misses a

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Speaker 1: tough contested step back over a men. Thompson, you're two

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Speaker 1: and zero, like so, I all I can think as

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Speaker 1: I've watched them through the first two games is they

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Speaker 1: have a million things that can clean up and be

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Speaker 1: much better. I just think they're gonna be a really

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Speaker 1: good team in the long run. Not too worked up

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Speaker 1: about their her and two start the Los Angeles Lakers

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Speaker 1: huge win last night in Sacramento. Today's show is brought

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Speaker 1: New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee, or Virginia to play. Terms and

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Speaker 1: conditions apply. Concerned about gambling in Florida, call one eight

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Speaker 1: three three play Wise. In Indiana, if you or someone

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Speaker 1: you know has a gambling problem and wants help, call

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Speaker 1: one eight hundred and nine with it gambling problem called

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Speaker 1: one eight hundred Gambler in Arizona, Colorado, Illinois, New Jersey, Ohio, Tennessee,

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Speaker 1: or Virginia. Austin Reeves just casually reminded everyone that he's

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Speaker 1: one of the very best players in the NBA. He

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Speaker 1: was just one assist shy of a fifty one point

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Speaker 1: triple double. Zachraviddo is a really good matchup for Austin

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Speaker 1: because their bigs are incapable of switching. Austin can struggle

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Speaker 1: against really athletic teams that can switch from time to time,

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Speaker 1: but in this particular matchup where he's able to essentially

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Speaker 1: get downhill via ball screens, Austin's very, very good at

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Speaker 1: getting his man caught on the screen by setting him

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Speaker 1: up for the screen. And one of the things that

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Speaker 1: he's best at is he attacks with like a ton

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Speaker 1: of speed coming downhill in ball screens. A lot of

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Speaker 1: players are more methodical. Austin is not methodical. Austin is

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Speaker 1: like attack, attack, attack, and when he gets into the

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Speaker 1: teeth of the defense, he can draw fouls, he can

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Speaker 1: finish at the rim at a high clip, he can

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Speaker 1: stop and pop short of the rim for those little

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Speaker 1: short jump shots, and he's gotten way better over the

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Speaker 1: course of these last few years of his career at

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Speaker 1: making the kickout reads, the skip and the lob and

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Speaker 1: all those sorts of reads that he can get to

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Speaker 1: in those situations. And like, one of the things that

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Speaker 1: I've had my eye on with him is his three

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Speaker 1: point shot. What I thought was really interesting is when

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Speaker 1: Austin leaves the game late fourth quarter or late third quarter,

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Speaker 1: Lakers are up five if I remember correctly, and Austin

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Speaker 1: subs out to start the fourth quarter and the wheels

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Speaker 1: just completely fall off. Predictably, that Laker team, down all

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Speaker 1: three of their top shot creators, is just not super

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Speaker 1: talented on offense. Right, shout out to Marcus Smart. He

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Speaker 1: makes a little jump shot, grifts his way to the

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Speaker 1: Marcus has been a total grift show to start the season,

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Speaker 1: but he's found ways to generate some points. Austin comes

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Speaker 1: back in the game and like, this is the guy

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Speaker 1: who'd been attacking all game, and you could tell his

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Speaker 1: legs were tired, and he went to his pull up

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Speaker 1: three in the fourth quarter and he was able to

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Speaker 1: generate a bunch of points on these shots over the

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Speaker 1: top of the defense from this since when he got tired,

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Speaker 1: and at that point, the Kings had no choice but

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Speaker 1: to blitz him on ball screens, and he hit the

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Speaker 1: short roller every single time without turning the ball over,

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Speaker 1: and the Lakers role players made them pay. We'll talk

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Speaker 1: more about the Lakers role players in a minute. And

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Speaker 1: then late in the game, after the King stopped blitzing,

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Speaker 1: they stopped blitzing because they were getting beat. They went

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Speaker 1: back to chasing over the top. Austin missed a couple

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Speaker 1: of threes, and it kind of felt like when you

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Speaker 1: were watching the game, like he needs to get one

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Speaker 1: last bucket going towards the basket, and he did. He

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Speaker 1: summoned the strength for one last drive and hit like

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Speaker 1: an insane floater with defenders draped all over him, and

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Speaker 1: then he closed the deal to the line, just two turnovers,

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Speaker 1: despite insane usage, in a damn near fifty point triple double.

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Speaker 1: Just a truly remarkable performance from the Lakers' third best player.

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Speaker 1: That's the crazy thing. And so many other Lakers stepped up,

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Speaker 1: like DeAndre Ayton got a lot of shit for what

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Speaker 1: happened on Opening night. I thought he was excellent against Minnesota,

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Speaker 1: and I thought he was excellent against Sacramento at twenty

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Speaker 1: two and fifteen tonight, he got beat to the offensive

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Speaker 1: glass a few times by Sabonis, but other than that,

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Speaker 1: I thought he won his matchup. Like he just badly

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Speaker 1: dominated Demanda Sabonis tonight. His length at the rim was

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Speaker 1: a legit factor all night. He picked up a couple

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Speaker 1: of fouls where he's still just a little slow getting

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Speaker 1: his feet set with his hands up without committing fouls.

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Speaker 1: He'll like bump the dude with his chest and pick

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Speaker 1: up a foul, but like he was getting deflections and

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Speaker 1: causing problems at the rim. I thought he ran the

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Speaker 1: floor and transitioned super well all night, getting up and

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Speaker 1: down and made several plays in that context. And then

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Speaker 1: he consistently torched the Kings on the roll and on

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Speaker 1: the offensive glass, just rolling to the lane and cleaning

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Speaker 1: up misses twenty two and fifteen. And again I thought

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Speaker 1: he was excellent against the Wolves as well, as he

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Speaker 1: set good screens for Luca and ended up finishing a

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Speaker 1: lot of those blitz sequences when Lucas started. It sat

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Speaker 1: very similar sequence in both games. Luca drops forty nine,

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Speaker 1: Austin drops fifty one, Lucas same thing, just torching the

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Speaker 1: traditional coverage all of a sudden. Now you got a

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Speaker 1: blitz and now we're getting dunks and I open threes

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Speaker 1: out of the blitz. Now the blitz doesn't work. We

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Speaker 1: got to go back to playing one on one like

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Speaker 1: Austin and Luca just straight up broke Minnesota and Sacramento's

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Speaker 1: defenses over the last couple of days. Ruey Hachimura last

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Speaker 1: night hit several little iso jumpers in the middle of

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Speaker 1: the floor that felt like in super important shots, obviously

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Speaker 1: down their shot creators. He scored a few times off

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Speaker 1: of the roles when Austin was getting blitzed. Marcus Smart,

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Speaker 1: like I mentioned, manufactured offense and he was scrapping all night.

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Speaker 1: Jared Vanderbilt guarded Zach Levine and just made him work

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Speaker 1: hard for everything and it was his usual wrecking ball self.

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Speaker 1: And shout out to Jake Loreve. I thought he had

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Speaker 1: his first little moment as a Laker. He hit a

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Speaker 1: huge three relocating to the top of the key off

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Speaker 1: of Ruey Hachimura post up, hit an and one layup

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Speaker 1: off of a seal Jared Vanderbilt really nice pass from

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Speaker 1: the top of the key. Jac Larravea set a backscreen,

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Speaker 1: got the defender sealed on his top side, led the

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Speaker 1: kind of created a passing window over the top, and

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Speaker 1: he got an and one on Kean Ellis, and I

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Speaker 1: thought he made several defensive plays as well. It was

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Speaker 1: just a really impressive win for an man Lakers team.

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Speaker 1: I thought they looked terrible in their season opener, and

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Speaker 1: they certainly don't have the best roster in the NBA.

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Speaker 1: I think their roster got a little bit milgned over

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Speaker 1: the last few days, as if they didn't win fifty

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Speaker 1: games last year. And again, I don't think they're a

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Speaker 1: perfect basketball team. There's certainly light on defensive talent. But

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Speaker 1: I mean they hung a one to twenty eight offensive

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Speaker 1: rating in their last two games without any games from

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Speaker 1: Lebron and just two games from Luca. Through their first

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Speaker 1: three games of the season, they have the third best

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Speaker 1: offensive rating in the league. And it still feels like

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Speaker 1: they have so many things that they can figure out.

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Speaker 1: And again, two of the teams they played with great defenses,

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Speaker 1: So like this is going to be a great offense

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Speaker 1: all year and has the potential to be like really

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Speaker 1: really special when Lebron comes back. And again, I know

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Speaker 1: Sacramento is not that impressive of a win, but down

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Speaker 1: Luca and Lebron. I thought it was impressive. And secondly,

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Speaker 1: that Wolves game. I'm not sure how many of you

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Speaker 1: guys caught that Wolves game on Friday night, but like,

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Speaker 1: the Wolves tried to punk them early in that game.

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Speaker 1: They were mauling them on the glass. They were hitting

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Speaker 1: all sorts of shots and was torching them all night

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Speaker 1: and getting to the rim whenever he wanted, and the

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Speaker 1: Lakers just punched back. Luca was transcendently great. They finally

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Speaker 1: got some stops in the second half by like scrapping

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Speaker 1: and supporting their mismatches, like swarming the ball more gang

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Speaker 1: rebounding to keep them off the glass, and they blew

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Speaker 1: out a very good Wolves team. And so, like, you know,

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Speaker 1: as far as it goes, they still have a lot

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Speaker 1: that can get better at. Obviously, the defensive end is

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Speaker 1: still a work in progress. Obviously they need to find

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Speaker 1: a way to incorporate Lebron. These are kind of my

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Speaker 1: last two thoughts. I saw a lot of talk from

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Speaker 1: people after even just the Wolves game that was like, oh,

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00:17:43,160 --> 00:17:47,960
Speaker 1: why does this Laker team need Lebron? Here's a thought.

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Speaker 1: He's a second team All NBA player when he's healthy.

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Speaker 1: He's an excellent defensive rebounder. They've sucked at rebounding. They

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Speaker 1: need help on the glass. Lebron can help with that.

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Speaker 1: Lebron is a mid forties catch and shoot player. That's

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Speaker 1: something they could really use. Lebron last year was literally

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Speaker 1: the best switch defender in the entire NBA. You don't

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Speaker 1: think they could use a guy like that on this team.

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Speaker 1: And there are a lot of lineups, including tonight when

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Speaker 1: Luca was out and Austin was on, it took breaks

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Speaker 1: where they looked like they did need just that little

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Speaker 1: extra bit of offensive pop. Like this is the ideal

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Speaker 1: situation for Lebron. You can literally use him to plug

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Speaker 1: in all of the little holes that they have at

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Speaker 1: various points on the roster. And anything you get from

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Speaker 1: him as a shot creators found money. When you've got

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Speaker 1: two guys that are playing the way Austin and Luca are, Like,

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Speaker 1: I get it that it's not the most like cooperative

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Speaker 1: top three in terms of like all their talent slotting

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00:18:43,480 --> 00:18:48,040
Speaker 1: together absolutely perfectly, But I know that Lebron James would

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Speaker 1: massively help this basketball team. And I've been like legitimately

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Speaker 1: appalled by how many people I've seen say that they'd

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Speaker 1: be better off without him, Like, I'm sorry, if you

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Speaker 1: trade Lebron for a couple of role players, this team

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Speaker 1: be comes worse, they don't become better. I think that

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00:19:02,400 --> 00:19:05,440
Speaker 1: that's asinine. I just couldn't believe. I saw a few

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Speaker 1: people say that over the course of the weekend. And

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Speaker 1: then lastly, I understand that I'm gonna come off like

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00:19:10,040 --> 00:19:12,280
Speaker 1: a little bit of a man screaming on the porch

388
00:19:12,560 --> 00:19:14,320
Speaker 1: or an old man yelling on the porch kind of

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Speaker 1: thing here, but I just don't understand why Luca is

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00:19:19,680 --> 00:19:22,840
Speaker 1: taking a full week off here, and like, maybe there's

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00:19:22,840 --> 00:19:25,639
Speaker 1: more information about the injury than what we have, But

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Speaker 1: what it looked like to me was Luca jammed his

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Speaker 1: finger and got a little banged up in the Wolves game,

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00:19:32,280 --> 00:19:38,199
Speaker 1: but that happened early, and he absolutely fried those dudes

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Speaker 1: the entire game. He made Jaden mcdae like it was

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00:19:42,119 --> 00:19:45,080
Speaker 1: amazing because like a lot of what I anticipated surrounding

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Speaker 1: the Wolves matchup involved things like Jaden can't guard Luca,

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Speaker 1: which was abundantly clear in twenty twenty four, But it

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Speaker 1: turns out Jaden could guard fat Luca and then guess

400
00:19:58,480 --> 00:20:02,080
Speaker 1: what skinny Luca was back in Jayden looked completely helpless,

401
00:20:02,240 --> 00:20:05,760
Speaker 1: like absolutely completely helpless. Is Luca just fried him all

402
00:20:05,800 --> 00:20:08,320
Speaker 1: over the floor. And then secondly, the importance of that

403
00:20:08,359 --> 00:20:11,080
Speaker 1: four out spacing and the role man from the center position,

404
00:20:11,440 --> 00:20:14,840
Speaker 1: which was how Luca beat the Blitzes down the stretch

405
00:20:14,840 --> 00:20:17,119
Speaker 1: when Minnesota went to the Blitzes, which was not an

406
00:20:17,160 --> 00:20:19,919
Speaker 1: option when it was Jackson Hayes. And so like, in

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00:20:19,960 --> 00:20:21,479
Speaker 1: a lot of ways, some of the like kind of

408
00:20:21,920 --> 00:20:26,120
Speaker 1: conceptual things that I felt about Luca versus the Wolves

409
00:20:26,240 --> 00:20:29,720
Speaker 1: in the first round last year were like on display

410
00:20:29,760 --> 00:20:32,120
Speaker 1: in this game in a way that they weren't because

411
00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:34,359
Speaker 1: Luca's a lot thinner now and the Lakers actually can

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00:20:34,359 --> 00:20:36,520
Speaker 1: play a center now. As we know, the Wolves are

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Speaker 1: a huge problem in the postseason in terms of their physicality.

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Speaker 1: I'm not saying that that would flip the dynamic of

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Speaker 1: the series. I'm just saying those are the basketball dynamics

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Speaker 1: that I was thinking about when I was making my

417
00:20:46,000 --> 00:20:49,480
Speaker 1: pick last year. Like, whenever I've seen Skinny Luca go

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00:20:49,520 --> 00:20:52,800
Speaker 1: against Jayden, Jayden looks absolutely helpless, right, but like he

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00:20:52,840 --> 00:20:57,480
Speaker 1: looked great all game. And so what you're telling me

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Speaker 1: is that in a stretch where the Lakers have six

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00:20:59,560 --> 00:21:06,760
Speaker 1: games nine nights, five games this week in a Western conference,

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00:21:06,760 --> 00:21:08,440
Speaker 1: where if you drop a game or two, it could

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00:21:08,480 --> 00:21:11,159
Speaker 1: literally be like detrimental to you in the in the

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00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:14,320
Speaker 1: next phase of your uh of your season, Like you

425
00:21:14,359 --> 00:21:16,919
Speaker 1: could legitimately have to be digging out of the plan

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Speaker 1: when you get to March that you would sit out

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Speaker 1: with a jammed finger and a leg bruise. It just

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Speaker 1: all I could think of was, like, this is a

429
00:21:27,720 --> 00:21:30,520
Speaker 1: guy that I've defended to a great extent over the

430
00:21:30,520 --> 00:21:32,840
Speaker 1: course of the summer. I ranked him second in my

431
00:21:32,880 --> 00:21:36,240
Speaker 1: player rankings, and part of the reason why I'm like

432
00:21:36,760 --> 00:21:40,080
Speaker 1: juxtaposing him with Shae, and I'm juxtaposing him with Yannis,

433
00:21:40,080 --> 00:21:44,399
Speaker 1: and I'm juxtaposing him with Luca, with Nikola jokicch and

434
00:21:44,400 --> 00:21:46,600
Speaker 1: And all I could think is is, like, if he's

435
00:21:46,640 --> 00:21:49,359
Speaker 1: gonna sit out with bumps and bruises and miss like

436
00:21:49,560 --> 00:21:52,600
Speaker 1: chunks of five games with a jam finger and a

437
00:21:52,680 --> 00:21:57,600
Speaker 1: leg bruise, how does that not act as a demerit

438
00:21:57,840 --> 00:22:01,240
Speaker 1: for him? In the conversation with Shay, or in the

439
00:22:01,240 --> 00:22:04,960
Speaker 1: conversation with Giannis, or in the conversation with Nicole Jokich,

440
00:22:05,000 --> 00:22:09,920
Speaker 1: Now I was texting somelkers people, and there's some there's

441
00:22:09,920 --> 00:22:14,800
Speaker 1: some pontification that the Lakers' medical staff is behind this,

442
00:22:15,560 --> 00:22:18,600
Speaker 1: that they're just being overly cautious. But all I could

443
00:22:18,640 --> 00:22:20,440
Speaker 1: think is is, like, why isn't Luca going up to

444
00:22:20,480 --> 00:22:23,560
Speaker 1: these dudes and being like, we can't afford to be

445
00:22:23,680 --> 00:22:28,840
Speaker 1: two and five next week. I need to play. I'm fine, Yeah,

446
00:22:28,880 --> 00:22:31,680
Speaker 1: I'm a little banged up, but let's go get Let's

447
00:22:31,720 --> 00:22:33,440
Speaker 1: go out there and compete and see if we can

448
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:36,600
Speaker 1: beat Portland. Let's see if we can go beat Sacramento. So, like,

449
00:22:37,280 --> 00:22:40,600
Speaker 1: all I'm saying is like I was a little disappointed

450
00:22:40,760 --> 00:22:42,960
Speaker 1: to find out that Luca was gonna sit out for

451
00:22:43,000 --> 00:22:46,040
Speaker 1: a week with a leg bruise and a jam finger.

452
00:22:46,359 --> 00:22:49,000
Speaker 1: It just didn't seem It was kind of like unbecoming

453
00:22:49,520 --> 00:22:52,080
Speaker 1: of a twenty six year old superstar at the peak

454
00:22:52,119 --> 00:22:54,320
Speaker 1: of his powers, that I believe is the second best

455
00:22:54,320 --> 00:22:56,960
Speaker 1: player in the league for a team that frankly desperately

456
00:22:57,000 --> 00:23:01,080
Speaker 1: needs him. Like, nice win against Sacramentos, but it's gonna

457
00:23:01,080 --> 00:23:03,560
Speaker 1: get tough this week. Portland is a pain in the ass.

458
00:23:03,760 --> 00:23:05,840
Speaker 1: Ask anybody who's played them yet this year. They just

459
00:23:05,920 --> 00:23:08,119
Speaker 1: beat that Golden State Warriors team that started two to

460
00:23:08,200 --> 00:23:10,960
Speaker 1: zero on a tail end of a back to back,

461
00:23:11,359 --> 00:23:13,520
Speaker 1: and they are athletic, and they pressure the rim and

462
00:23:13,560 --> 00:23:16,920
Speaker 1: they have rim protection and they like they're pain These

463
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:19,080
Speaker 1: are not gonna be easy games to win, and it

464
00:23:19,240 --> 00:23:24,920
Speaker 1: just it just felt like a overly cautious approach and,

465
00:23:24,960 --> 00:23:27,040
Speaker 1: like I said, unbecoming for a player in that top

466
00:23:27,040 --> 00:23:30,000
Speaker 1: tier superstars. Alright, quick thoughts on the Bucks, and then

467
00:23:30,000 --> 00:23:31,919
Speaker 1: we're gonna get to my five most impressive teams to

468
00:23:31,920 --> 00:23:34,920
Speaker 1: start the season. So I caught their entire game against Toronto,

469
00:23:35,560 --> 00:23:38,320
Speaker 1: and I caught the end of their game against Cleveland,

470
00:23:38,720 --> 00:23:40,879
Speaker 1: and they did drop that game against Cleveland. It was

471
00:23:40,920 --> 00:23:43,640
Speaker 1: a tough game, like they Donovan Mitchell showed some really

472
00:23:43,680 --> 00:23:46,200
Speaker 1: impressive shot making in the middle of their own defense,

473
00:23:46,520 --> 00:23:48,800
Speaker 1: hit a couple of like super tough, like mid range

474
00:23:48,840 --> 00:23:52,239
Speaker 1: jump shots against great contests. And then Lonzo Ball hit

475
00:23:52,240 --> 00:23:53,760
Speaker 1: a big three off the left wing. He had a

476
00:23:53,760 --> 00:23:56,879
Speaker 1: big offensive rebound two down the stretch, and they botched

477
00:23:56,880 --> 00:23:58,960
Speaker 1: a coverage late and they left sam Merril wide open

478
00:23:59,000 --> 00:24:00,560
Speaker 1: and he hit a shot. And it was just like

479
00:24:00,600 --> 00:24:02,960
Speaker 1: kind of one of those things where the Bucks had

480
00:24:02,960 --> 00:24:05,920
Speaker 1: to use a ton of energy to come back from

481
00:24:05,920 --> 00:24:09,080
Speaker 1: a large deficit, and they made some mistakes down the

482
00:24:09,080 --> 00:24:11,520
Speaker 1: stretch in Cleveland ended up getting a win. But generally,

483
00:24:11,560 --> 00:24:13,760
Speaker 1: I've been very impressed by Milwaukee. I thought they looked

484
00:24:13,800 --> 00:24:17,040
Speaker 1: really good, especially in the Toronto game. They beat Washington

485
00:24:17,320 --> 00:24:19,280
Speaker 1: in the first game. Washington obviously one of the bottom

486
00:24:19,280 --> 00:24:21,800
Speaker 1: feeders of the NBA, but they beat Toronto, and like

487
00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:26,960
Speaker 1: Toronto was like a legit physical monster of a team

488
00:24:27,160 --> 00:24:29,360
Speaker 1: that is very good on defense, that has a lot

489
00:24:29,400 --> 00:24:31,480
Speaker 1: of athletes that can pack the paint, that can run

490
00:24:31,520 --> 00:24:33,879
Speaker 1: the floor and transition. They kicked the shit out of

491
00:24:33,920 --> 00:24:36,800
Speaker 1: Atlanta in their first game, if you guys remember, and

492
00:24:36,880 --> 00:24:39,639
Speaker 1: like Scotty Barnes, it was fun to watch. Scotty Barnes

493
00:24:39,760 --> 00:24:43,560
Speaker 1: like had a play where he drove through Jannis's chest

494
00:24:43,600 --> 00:24:46,280
Speaker 1: and like knocked him over and got a layup and

495
00:24:46,320 --> 00:24:48,479
Speaker 1: straight up like got down in his face and like

496
00:24:49,040 --> 00:24:51,080
Speaker 1: tried to show him up for the world to see,

497
00:24:51,359 --> 00:24:53,680
Speaker 1: and Janni's just like played it off and just whooped

498
00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:57,040
Speaker 1: his ass. Jianness was just absolutely phenomenal in that game.

499
00:24:57,040 --> 00:24:59,680
Speaker 1: I think he went for thirty and twenty against Toronto.

500
00:24:59,720 --> 00:25:03,200
Speaker 1: But like the mainly what I noticed from my first

501
00:25:03,320 --> 00:25:07,439
Speaker 1: kind of impressions of Milwaukee is they just make sense

502
00:25:07,640 --> 00:25:13,960
Speaker 1: on both ends. Of the floor. Now, I've talked a

503
00:25:14,000 --> 00:25:19,320
Speaker 1: lot before about how when you're constructing lineups, you're trying

504
00:25:19,359 --> 00:25:22,119
Speaker 1: to check all these responsibilities on the floor, right, Like,

505
00:25:22,400 --> 00:25:24,600
Speaker 1: there's a certain amount on offense, you need a guy

506
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:29,560
Speaker 1: that can create advantages. You need an on ball advantage creator,

507
00:25:29,600 --> 00:25:32,800
Speaker 1: preferably one that can pressure the rim. And then off

508
00:25:32,840 --> 00:25:37,040
Speaker 1: of that, you like to have a screening partner, preferably multiple,

509
00:25:37,359 --> 00:25:40,280
Speaker 1: and then guys who can finish place finish sequences. So

510
00:25:40,359 --> 00:25:43,639
Speaker 1: guys that can knock down shots that are open, guys

511
00:25:43,680 --> 00:25:46,480
Speaker 1: that can drive close outs and make reads, guys that

512
00:25:46,520 --> 00:25:49,720
Speaker 1: can be vertical spacers. And one of the things that

513
00:25:49,720 --> 00:25:52,479
Speaker 1: you kind of see that is a treat when you

514
00:25:52,560 --> 00:25:55,000
Speaker 1: have Yannis. One of the top tier superstars in this

515
00:25:55,080 --> 00:26:00,680
Speaker 1: league is Yannis checks so many boxes both ends of

516
00:26:00,680 --> 00:26:05,119
Speaker 1: the floor. Obviously, he's this devastating on ball weapon, but

517
00:26:05,200 --> 00:26:08,480
Speaker 1: he's obviously he's also a great screener. He's also a

518
00:26:08,520 --> 00:26:11,919
Speaker 1: guy that can finish plays extremely well around the basket,

519
00:26:12,080 --> 00:26:15,280
Speaker 1: who can clean up stuff on the offensive glass, who

520
00:26:15,280 --> 00:26:17,400
Speaker 1: can catch and finish as a cutter. I mean, hell,

521
00:26:17,440 --> 00:26:20,720
Speaker 1: he hit two threes against Toronto, a couple big ones

522
00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:23,240
Speaker 1: above the break, like he can do all these things

523
00:26:23,240 --> 00:26:24,760
Speaker 1: on offense, but then you go to the defensive end

524
00:26:24,760 --> 00:26:26,639
Speaker 1: of the floor and it's the exact same thing, right Like,

525
00:26:26,960 --> 00:26:29,399
Speaker 1: he is like kind of in and of himself a

526
00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:33,520
Speaker 1: great defensive rebounding foundation. He is in and of himself

527
00:26:33,960 --> 00:26:37,040
Speaker 1: a great like rim protection foundation. And then you look

528
00:26:37,080 --> 00:26:38,840
Speaker 1: at the other pieces they have, and they kind of

529
00:26:38,920 --> 00:26:42,800
Speaker 1: layer on each other, right like when you see Miles,

530
00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:47,199
Speaker 1: Turner and Giannis playing together, and it just looks like

531
00:26:47,240 --> 00:26:50,439
Speaker 1: a lot for an offense to deal with. Like one

532
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:52,480
Speaker 1: of the things I noticed, Miles had this play where

533
00:26:52,480 --> 00:26:55,320
Speaker 1: he forced Brandon Ingram into a huge miss in crunch time.

534
00:26:55,440 --> 00:26:58,640
Speaker 1: Brandon turned over his right shoulder and I can't remember

535
00:26:58,680 --> 00:27:01,919
Speaker 1: who he was going against, but it wasn't Miles. Miles

536
00:27:01,960 --> 00:27:05,520
Speaker 1: was in help, and Miles like made an impromptu like

537
00:27:05,840 --> 00:27:09,639
Speaker 1: lunge forward to try to contest Brandon and covered a

538
00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:12,919
Speaker 1: lot of ground and got a great contest. Brandon has

539
00:27:12,960 --> 00:27:16,560
Speaker 1: an awful miss and Miles like recovers back into the

540
00:27:16,640 --> 00:27:19,440
Speaker 1: lane and gets the rebound. And all I could think

541
00:27:19,480 --> 00:27:22,520
Speaker 1: of is like Brook Lopez towards the end, wasn't moving

542
00:27:22,680 --> 00:27:26,800
Speaker 1: like that. He didn't have the he had the verticality element.

543
00:27:27,080 --> 00:27:29,200
Speaker 1: He still was a decent rim protector when you could

544
00:27:29,200 --> 00:27:31,239
Speaker 1: put him by the rim, but he didn't have that

545
00:27:31,359 --> 00:27:35,640
Speaker 1: like forward back, stop start mobility that Miles Turner has now.

546
00:27:35,840 --> 00:27:39,119
Speaker 1: And so like Miles Turner like next to Giannis is

547
00:27:39,160 --> 00:27:43,359
Speaker 1: a really strong defensive foundation. They're tenth in defense to

548
00:27:43,400 --> 00:27:46,679
Speaker 1: start the year, and despite having a bunch of like

549
00:27:46,800 --> 00:27:51,560
Speaker 1: smaller guards on the perimeter, they've been a decent rebounding

550
00:27:51,600 --> 00:27:53,920
Speaker 1: team to start the year. And so again you kind

551
00:27:53,920 --> 00:27:57,000
Speaker 1: of look at it and it's like subbing in Ryan

552
00:27:57,119 --> 00:28:03,360
Speaker 1: Rollins as like this athletic, rim pressuring playmaker that competes

553
00:28:03,480 --> 00:28:06,680
Speaker 1: and does a lot more defensively than Damian Lillard did.

554
00:28:07,160 --> 00:28:09,600
Speaker 1: All of a sudden, like the team kind of makes

555
00:28:09,640 --> 00:28:13,119
Speaker 1: sense in a lot of ways. You've got your legitimate

556
00:28:13,560 --> 00:28:15,800
Speaker 1: pick and roll defender and Miles Turner that can come

557
00:28:15,880 --> 00:28:17,920
Speaker 1: up to the level, but they can also run drop

558
00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,520
Speaker 1: coverage that could do a little bit of switching. Giannis

559
00:28:20,600 --> 00:28:22,919
Speaker 1: is this devastating low man on the back line, and

560
00:28:22,960 --> 00:28:25,119
Speaker 1: that constant give and take with him and Miles, or

561
00:28:25,119 --> 00:28:28,280
Speaker 1: when Miles is up, Jannis is over, when Miles is back,

562
00:28:28,480 --> 00:28:31,320
Speaker 1: Giannis is on the perimeter. They've got this like natural

563
00:28:31,400 --> 00:28:35,000
Speaker 1: kind of lowman, dynamic. AJ Green is like a legitimately

564
00:28:35,040 --> 00:28:39,480
Speaker 1: good defender, and Ryan Rollins is like a good athlete

565
00:28:39,520 --> 00:28:42,480
Speaker 1: that competes defensively, Like Gary Trent is now your weakest

566
00:28:42,480 --> 00:28:45,719
Speaker 1: defender in your starting group as opposed to being the

567
00:28:45,800 --> 00:28:48,720
Speaker 1: second weakest defender off of Damian Lillard. It just kind

568
00:28:48,720 --> 00:28:52,120
Speaker 1: of like has more coherence on the defensive end of

569
00:28:52,160 --> 00:28:53,360
Speaker 1: the floor and then on the offensive end of the

570
00:28:53,360 --> 00:28:56,680
Speaker 1: fourth same sort of thing. They've surrounded Giannis with shooting.

571
00:28:56,920 --> 00:28:58,480
Speaker 1: They've been kind of trying to find this pick and

572
00:28:58,560 --> 00:29:01,960
Speaker 1: roll player that they can fit alongside Giannis, and they've

573
00:29:01,960 --> 00:29:03,960
Speaker 1: tried all these different guys, and Dame in a lot

574
00:29:03,960 --> 00:29:06,120
Speaker 1: of ways wasn't a great fit because he was just

575
00:29:06,280 --> 00:29:10,480
Speaker 1: so one speed and so pull up jump shot oriented

576
00:29:10,480 --> 00:29:12,320
Speaker 1: that he struggled to get the ball to Giannis in

577
00:29:12,320 --> 00:29:15,959
Speaker 1: the pocket right. But like we saw Kevin Porter Junior

578
00:29:16,000 --> 00:29:19,880
Speaker 1: have some success by being more of like a kind

579
00:29:19,880 --> 00:29:22,800
Speaker 1: of slow, methodical pick and roll ball handler with Giannis

580
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:25,360
Speaker 1: last year a little bit, but early in the season, like,

581
00:29:25,520 --> 00:29:28,560
Speaker 1: I've really liked Ryan Rawlins alongside Giannis. I think his

582
00:29:28,640 --> 00:29:31,920
Speaker 1: give and take with him feels really natural. He's aggressive

583
00:29:32,320 --> 00:29:35,480
Speaker 1: without stepping on Giannis's toes. He's been one of their

584
00:29:35,480 --> 00:29:38,160
Speaker 1: best like assist to turnover guys because he just keeps

585
00:29:38,440 --> 00:29:41,160
Speaker 1: getting into the lane and like finishing in traffic but

586
00:29:41,280 --> 00:29:44,000
Speaker 1: making really high level kickout reads like he's starting the

587
00:29:44,080 --> 00:29:47,760
Speaker 1: offense for Milwaukee. Often that if the ball ends up

588
00:29:47,760 --> 00:29:49,760
Speaker 1: in Gary Trent's hands, it feels like it's got a

589
00:29:49,760 --> 00:29:52,160
Speaker 1: good chance to go in. The ball ends up in

590
00:29:52,240 --> 00:29:54,360
Speaker 1: aj Green's hands, it feels like it's got a good

591
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,640
Speaker 1: chance to go in. Miles Turner obviously is spacing five.

592
00:29:58,120 --> 00:30:00,800
Speaker 1: It just makes sense. You've you've got a bunch of

593
00:30:00,800 --> 00:30:03,600
Speaker 1: guys that can screen for Giannis and score out of

594
00:30:03,640 --> 00:30:05,800
Speaker 1: screens for Yannis. You got a bunch of guys that

595
00:30:05,840 --> 00:30:08,120
Speaker 1: can score and spot up. You've got this guard and

596
00:30:08,240 --> 00:30:11,440
Speaker 1: Ryan Rollins that can attack when he's got the basketball. Dude,

597
00:30:11,480 --> 00:30:15,840
Speaker 1: Like even Cole Anthony has brought like this dynamic rim

598
00:30:15,920 --> 00:30:19,920
Speaker 1: pressure kickout element that has been that has been really impressive.

599
00:30:20,600 --> 00:30:24,320
Speaker 1: And Cole had a ridiculous driving layup down the stretch

600
00:30:24,360 --> 00:30:27,760
Speaker 1: against Toronto. Cole was just ridiculous against Toronto. Who's awesome

601
00:30:27,800 --> 00:30:31,560
Speaker 1: in that game. But like they've just done a really

602
00:30:31,680 --> 00:30:36,680
Speaker 1: nice job of finding complimentary discounted talent to surround Yannis with,

603
00:30:36,760 --> 00:30:39,080
Speaker 1: and credit to Doc Rivers. I think he's done a

604
00:30:39,160 --> 00:30:41,360
Speaker 1: really nice job of kind of like finding the right

605
00:30:41,840 --> 00:30:44,560
Speaker 1: way to put the lineups together. And it all just

606
00:30:44,640 --> 00:30:47,080
Speaker 1: makes sense to me. And it's not gonna be perfect,

607
00:30:47,200 --> 00:30:49,200
Speaker 1: and they're gonna lose games. They've dropped a game on

608
00:30:49,280 --> 00:30:52,520
Speaker 1: the road in Cleveland today or yesterday. It's not gonna

609
00:30:52,520 --> 00:30:56,480
Speaker 1: be perfect. But like this, when I envisioned Milwaukee as

610
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:58,480
Speaker 1: my tenth best team in the league, as the team

611
00:30:58,520 --> 00:31:00,800
Speaker 1: that I had that was at the time of the

612
00:31:00,800 --> 00:31:04,160
Speaker 1: third tier, my case was Giannis is one of the

613
00:31:04,240 --> 00:31:06,400
Speaker 1: very best players in the league. You know, he's coming

614
00:31:06,440 --> 00:31:11,120
Speaker 1: out for blood this year. And this team, this team

615
00:31:11,640 --> 00:31:14,120
Speaker 1: is in an Eastern Conference where most of these teams

616
00:31:14,160 --> 00:31:17,000
Speaker 1: are pretty heavily flawed. And I've just been it's only

617
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:19,440
Speaker 1: a snap judgment here from three games, but to me,

618
00:31:19,600 --> 00:31:22,320
Speaker 1: Milwaukee looks like the kind of team that's going to

619
00:31:22,400 --> 00:31:24,920
Speaker 1: OutKick their coverage, so to speak, and play above their

620
00:31:25,800 --> 00:31:29,080
Speaker 1: they're on paper talent, because everybody just slots together really

621
00:31:29,080 --> 00:31:31,280
Speaker 1: well here in the early part of the season. All right,

622
00:31:31,280 --> 00:31:34,280
Speaker 1: before we get out of here today, the five most

623
00:31:34,280 --> 00:31:38,000
Speaker 1: impressive teams from the first week of the NBA season,

624
00:31:38,640 --> 00:31:41,560
Speaker 1: starting with San Antonio Spurs three and oh start wins

625
00:31:41,560 --> 00:31:45,520
Speaker 1: against Brooklyn, New Orleans and Dallas. Dallas was obviously the

626
00:31:45,560 --> 00:31:48,040
Speaker 1: dominant performance we saw on Wednesday night that we covered.

627
00:31:48,040 --> 00:31:52,440
Speaker 1: If you guys remember, we just absolutely humiliated Anthony Davis.

628
00:31:52,760 --> 00:31:54,280
Speaker 1: We talked about that at the night of the game.

629
00:31:54,880 --> 00:31:57,280
Speaker 1: New Orleans is a really impressive come from behind victory.

630
00:31:57,280 --> 00:31:59,280
Speaker 1: They were down eight in the third quarter on the road,

631
00:31:59,320 --> 00:32:02,360
Speaker 1: and Dylan Harbor had like a super nice burst in

632
00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:04,120
Speaker 1: that third quarter to get him back, got to the

633
00:32:04,160 --> 00:32:06,000
Speaker 1: room a few times, ended up hitting a three, got

634
00:32:06,000 --> 00:32:07,280
Speaker 1: them back in the game. They went on to win

635
00:32:07,320 --> 00:32:10,280
Speaker 1: in overtime, and then Brooklyn kind of looked like it

636
00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:13,240
Speaker 1: was going to be a very professional victory for a

637
00:32:13,280 --> 00:32:15,760
Speaker 1: serious team against a bad team. But then Brooklyn punched

638
00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:18,440
Speaker 1: back and they actually took a fourth quarter lead. They

639
00:32:18,480 --> 00:32:21,400
Speaker 1: ended up getting forty from Cam Thomas in that game,

640
00:32:21,960 --> 00:32:25,400
Speaker 1: and I thought the Spurs played some excellent late game offense.

641
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,920
Speaker 1: They were posting up Wemby and drawing double teams and

642
00:32:29,920 --> 00:32:31,880
Speaker 1: getting buckets out of that. There was a really impressive

643
00:32:31,920 --> 00:32:35,200
Speaker 1: sequence where they posted up Wemby on the left block

644
00:32:35,560 --> 00:32:38,160
Speaker 1: and Keldon Johnson like faked like he was going to

645
00:32:38,280 --> 00:32:40,240
Speaker 1: run through to the opposite side and then just quick

646
00:32:40,280 --> 00:32:42,640
Speaker 1: turn and made himself available. Wemby hit him and he

647
00:32:42,720 --> 00:32:44,880
Speaker 1: got right in the lane and finished. They ran a

648
00:32:44,920 --> 00:32:47,120
Speaker 1: bunch of two man game with both Steph Castle and

649
00:32:47,160 --> 00:32:49,240
Speaker 1: Wemby as well as Devin Vessel and Wenby, and those

650
00:32:49,240 --> 00:32:51,840
Speaker 1: guys were getting in the basket, or excuse me, Dylan

651
00:32:51,880 --> 00:32:54,360
Speaker 1: Harper and Wemby, those guys were getting in the basket.

652
00:32:54,560 --> 00:33:00,200
Speaker 1: That like dynamic, big athletic guard like Steph Castle or

653
00:33:00,240 --> 00:33:04,560
Speaker 1: Dylan Harper with Wemby rolling alongside of him, it's causing

654
00:33:04,600 --> 00:33:07,600
Speaker 1: problems for teams. Like they're getting to the basket and

655
00:33:07,640 --> 00:33:09,920
Speaker 1: getting really good looks out of those actions, and like

656
00:33:10,160 --> 00:33:13,400
Speaker 1: it's just unusual to see a young team to run

657
00:33:13,480 --> 00:33:16,200
Speaker 1: really good late game offense, but they just ran really

658
00:33:16,240 --> 00:33:20,400
Speaker 1: good late offense against Brooklyn and got awesome looks. Layups

659
00:33:20,400 --> 00:33:23,920
Speaker 1: for Steph Castle, layups for Dylan Harper, layup for Keldon

660
00:33:24,000 --> 00:33:26,640
Speaker 1: Johnson off of a Wemby post up. Just really nice

661
00:33:26,680 --> 00:33:30,200
Speaker 1: stuff to start the season from a younger group that

662
00:33:30,240 --> 00:33:32,840
Speaker 1: you wouldn't expect to see like that. Wemby in his

663
00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:35,760
Speaker 1: first three games has averaged thirty three points and thirteen

664
00:33:35,840 --> 00:33:40,400
Speaker 1: rebounds with six point seven stocks per game on sixty

665
00:33:40,400 --> 00:33:45,680
Speaker 1: four percent true shooting. Just completely outrageous. He's cut down

666
00:33:45,680 --> 00:33:48,240
Speaker 1: in his three point volume and as a result, he's

667
00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:51,720
Speaker 1: somehow become more efficient, which is very rare because three

668
00:33:51,720 --> 00:33:55,520
Speaker 1: point volume is the way to achieve like large sample

669
00:33:55,560 --> 00:33:58,280
Speaker 1: efficiency for a lot of these players. And it's because

670
00:33:58,320 --> 00:34:01,480
Speaker 1: he's shooting eighty percent at the rim and he's shooting

671
00:34:01,720 --> 00:34:07,200
Speaker 1: sixty percent on short twos inside of seventeen feet. That's

672
00:34:07,240 --> 00:34:10,239
Speaker 1: a big part of that more reliable scoring that we've

673
00:34:10,280 --> 00:34:12,440
Speaker 1: been talking about with him. And then all three of

674
00:34:12,440 --> 00:34:16,120
Speaker 1: the young guards have been fantastic. Harper has shown a

675
00:34:16,160 --> 00:34:19,200
Speaker 1: remarkable ability to get to the rim as a driver, cutter,

676
00:34:19,280 --> 00:34:23,560
Speaker 1: and crasher. Dylan Harper early on has the fourth most

677
00:34:23,600 --> 00:34:25,960
Speaker 1: total made field goals at the rim in the entire league.

678
00:34:25,960 --> 00:34:31,960
Speaker 1: Tied for fourth is fifteen layups. Already, He's just gonna

679
00:34:32,000 --> 00:34:35,839
Speaker 1: be so awesome. He's big, he's athletic, he's physical, he's scrappy.

680
00:34:36,440 --> 00:34:38,120
Speaker 1: I just think he projects to be an awesome two

681
00:34:38,160 --> 00:34:40,800
Speaker 1: way player in the league. Super impressive debut for Dylan Harper.

682
00:34:41,239 --> 00:34:43,839
Speaker 1: Devin Vessel Is shooting the dam seems off the basketball,

683
00:34:44,360 --> 00:34:46,080
Speaker 1: and it's been up and down for Steph Castle. He's

684
00:34:46,080 --> 00:34:48,120
Speaker 1: had some turnover issues and he's still not shooting the

685
00:34:48,120 --> 00:34:51,200
Speaker 1: ball super well from three, but he's been very dynamic

686
00:34:51,239 --> 00:34:53,279
Speaker 1: and he's been a big crunch time option for them.

687
00:34:53,280 --> 00:34:55,800
Speaker 1: He had a big pull up three to force overtime

688
00:34:55,800 --> 00:34:58,320
Speaker 1: against New Orleans and then he had a huge driving

689
00:34:58,400 --> 00:35:01,319
Speaker 1: layup to help close the deal against Brooklyn. Looking at

690
00:35:01,360 --> 00:35:03,160
Speaker 1: their team wide metrics, they have a one to twenty

691
00:35:03,200 --> 00:35:07,680
Speaker 1: offensive rating. That's awesome, one h five defensive rating that's awesome.

692
00:35:07,840 --> 00:35:11,200
Speaker 1: They're grabbing fifty six percent of available rebounds, that's awesome.

693
00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:12,800
Speaker 1: Although they did have a little bit of an issue

694
00:35:12,800 --> 00:35:15,200
Speaker 1: on the defensive glass late in the game against Brooklyn.

695
00:35:15,880 --> 00:35:18,000
Speaker 1: They got lucky that Cam Thomas missed a couple of

696
00:35:18,040 --> 00:35:20,200
Speaker 1: the wide open threes that came off of those sequences.

697
00:35:20,640 --> 00:35:24,840
Speaker 1: Thirty eight points in the paint allowed per game. That's incredible. Really,

698
00:35:24,880 --> 00:35:27,440
Speaker 1: the only thing that I can point to as a

699
00:35:27,480 --> 00:35:30,440
Speaker 1: significant negative here in the early part is they're turning

700
00:35:30,440 --> 00:35:31,920
Speaker 1: the ball over a lot and they're giving up a

701
00:35:31,960 --> 00:35:34,879
Speaker 1: lot of transition points off of those turnovers. But other

702
00:35:34,960 --> 00:35:37,719
Speaker 1: than that, just a super impressive start for the San

703
00:35:37,719 --> 00:35:41,840
Speaker 1: Antonio Spurs. Secondly, the Yoklahoma City Thunder also three and

704
00:35:41,920 --> 00:35:44,320
Speaker 1: zero here in the early going, wins over Houston, Indiana

705
00:35:44,360 --> 00:35:47,560
Speaker 1: and Atlanta super impressive when you consider the injuries. No

706
00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:49,959
Speaker 1: Jalen Williams. That's the second best ball handler and second

707
00:35:50,000 --> 00:35:53,359
Speaker 1: best player overall, especially important for a team that's light

708
00:35:53,400 --> 00:35:57,000
Speaker 1: on ball handling given when they're healthy. SGA's been just

709
00:35:57,480 --> 00:36:00,919
Speaker 1: completely incredible. He's averaging forty points, six rebounds, and five

710
00:36:00,960 --> 00:36:03,239
Speaker 1: assists in the early going. There's been a lot of

711
00:36:03,239 --> 00:36:05,560
Speaker 1: conversation about his sky high free throw attempts. I think

712
00:36:05,560 --> 00:36:07,799
Speaker 1: he had what forty free throws in his first two

713
00:36:07,840 --> 00:36:10,360
Speaker 1: games if I remember correctly, And I actually haven't had

714
00:36:10,400 --> 00:36:12,360
Speaker 1: a problem with it. Like there's been a handful of

715
00:36:12,360 --> 00:36:14,399
Speaker 1: plays in there that were a little grifty, that were

716
00:36:14,400 --> 00:36:17,520
Speaker 1: a little over the top, but like, like for the

717
00:36:17,520 --> 00:36:19,439
Speaker 1: most part, it feels like he's getting to the line

718
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:22,480
Speaker 1: with drives in pump fakes, and again, like I've complained

719
00:36:22,480 --> 00:36:26,440
Speaker 1: about Shay's free throws in the past, mostly juxtaposed with

720
00:36:26,480 --> 00:36:28,120
Speaker 1: the way the team is allowed to defend on the

721
00:36:28,120 --> 00:36:30,040
Speaker 1: other end of the floor, But I've really only had

722
00:36:30,080 --> 00:36:33,920
Speaker 1: one gripe and it's non basketball plays. That's where I

723
00:36:33,920 --> 00:36:36,200
Speaker 1: have an issue, is non basketball plays. You know what

724
00:36:36,280 --> 00:36:39,800
Speaker 1: basketball play? You know what is a basketball play? Driving

725
00:36:39,840 --> 00:36:42,239
Speaker 1: to the basket and getting hacked? You know what is

726
00:36:42,280 --> 00:36:45,080
Speaker 1: a basketball play? Turning like you're gonna shoot and pump

727
00:36:45,080 --> 00:36:47,400
Speaker 1: faking and the guy leaving his feet and then you shooting.

728
00:36:47,440 --> 00:36:50,920
Speaker 1: That's a basketball play. Those are normal basketball moves. And

729
00:36:50,960 --> 00:36:52,879
Speaker 1: again there have been a handful of griffs mixed in there,

730
00:36:52,880 --> 00:36:56,680
Speaker 1: but for the most part, to me, SHA's just ethically

731
00:36:56,880 --> 00:36:59,399
Speaker 1: barbecuing dudes to get to the fout line. I haven't

732
00:36:59,400 --> 00:37:01,879
Speaker 1: had a problem with it. And essentially, as far as

733
00:37:01,880 --> 00:37:04,640
Speaker 1: I'm concerned, the team has desperately needed him to scale

734
00:37:04,719 --> 00:37:07,600
Speaker 1: up his offense because of how limited they've been with

735
00:37:07,640 --> 00:37:11,480
Speaker 1: the injuries, and all he's done is do so average

736
00:37:11,560 --> 00:37:15,000
Speaker 1: forty against very good teams and he's three and zero

737
00:37:15,640 --> 00:37:18,680
Speaker 1: MVP level stuff from Shay Chad had a rough shooting

738
00:37:18,719 --> 00:37:20,680
Speaker 1: night against Indiana, he was missing his three point shot,

739
00:37:20,680 --> 00:37:22,879
Speaker 1: but he had six threes against Atlanta. He's now at

740
00:37:22,920 --> 00:37:26,279
Speaker 1: forty two percent from three on six attempts per game

741
00:37:26,320 --> 00:37:29,239
Speaker 1: through his three games. Lou Dord has been downright destructive

742
00:37:29,239 --> 00:37:31,560
Speaker 1: on defense once again. As a team, they're leading the

743
00:37:31,640 --> 00:37:35,120
Speaker 1: league and points off of turnovers with twenty six per

744
00:37:35,200 --> 00:37:38,400
Speaker 1: game while only allowing sixteen the other way. It's like

745
00:37:38,400 --> 00:37:40,319
Speaker 1: they're starting every game with a ten zero lead just

746
00:37:40,360 --> 00:37:44,120
Speaker 1: in points off turnovers. Mitchell AJ Mitchell and Aaron Wiggins

747
00:37:44,160 --> 00:37:46,439
Speaker 1: have both had big moments on offense to help carry

748
00:37:46,440 --> 00:37:49,800
Speaker 1: the load at various points. They were amazing in Indiana. Really,

749
00:37:49,840 --> 00:37:52,279
Speaker 1: the only statistical gripe I have with them here in

750
00:37:52,320 --> 00:37:54,759
Speaker 1: the early going is their defensive rebounding, but that's been

751
00:37:54,760 --> 00:37:57,200
Speaker 1: an issue forever and they keep winning in spite of it.

752
00:37:57,600 --> 00:37:59,280
Speaker 1: They look poised to make a run at a seventy

753
00:37:59,320 --> 00:38:02,480
Speaker 1: win season. I think it's like a legitimate possibility for them.

754
00:38:03,239 --> 00:38:06,080
Speaker 1: Number three kind of a shaker here. The Philadelphia seventy

755
00:38:06,120 --> 00:38:08,680
Speaker 1: six ers two and zero with a couple wins against

756
00:38:08,760 --> 00:38:12,919
Speaker 1: Charlotte and Boston. Really impressive performances across the board. Obviously VJ.

757
00:38:13,000 --> 00:38:15,000
Speaker 1: Edgecombe has this brilliant Game one, but I thought he

758
00:38:15,080 --> 00:38:18,680
Speaker 1: was pretty good against Charlotte as well, Like he didn't

759
00:38:18,719 --> 00:38:21,640
Speaker 1: quite have the offensive game, but he had this insane

760
00:38:21,719 --> 00:38:24,000
Speaker 1: closeout attack off of the right corner and crunch time

761
00:38:24,040 --> 00:38:27,800
Speaker 1: he rips the closeouts to his right shoulder, he rips

762
00:38:27,880 --> 00:38:30,680
Speaker 1: middle and just elevates in traffic and goes up and

763
00:38:30,760 --> 00:38:33,359
Speaker 1: under and finishes a huge playing crunch time of that game.

764
00:38:33,400 --> 00:38:36,000
Speaker 1: He had four stocks in that game as well. Quintin

765
00:38:36,040 --> 00:38:38,680
Speaker 1: Grimes had twenty four ver Charlotte hit the biggest shout

766
00:38:38,719 --> 00:38:40,920
Speaker 1: of the game, beating Nail Help with the three off

767
00:38:40,960 --> 00:38:43,160
Speaker 1: of the right wing, and then Tyers Max. He's been

768
00:38:43,200 --> 00:38:44,640
Speaker 1: one of the best guards in the league here in

769
00:38:44,680 --> 00:38:46,960
Speaker 1: the early part of the season. He's just shooting the

770
00:38:47,000 --> 00:38:49,360
Speaker 1: shit out of the basketball, getting wherever he wants to

771
00:38:49,400 --> 00:38:52,040
Speaker 1: go with his speed, and I've been really impressed with

772
00:38:52,080 --> 00:38:55,160
Speaker 1: his floor game, just taking easy reads all over the floor,

773
00:38:55,200 --> 00:38:58,080
Speaker 1: Like the kick to Grimes that I'm talking about. Grimes

774
00:38:58,120 --> 00:39:00,200
Speaker 1: is on the right wing, his man is sinking all

775
00:39:00,200 --> 00:39:02,880
Speaker 1: the way down into the lane, and instead of forcing

776
00:39:02,880 --> 00:39:05,360
Speaker 1: it or trying to do too much, Tyres just throws

777
00:39:05,360 --> 00:39:07,440
Speaker 1: a swing pass to Quenton Grinds, and Quentin Grinmes makes

778
00:39:07,480 --> 00:39:10,200
Speaker 1: him pay. And I thought it was really interesting juxtapose

779
00:39:10,239 --> 00:39:12,279
Speaker 1: with the way that game was going, because you know,

780
00:39:12,920 --> 00:39:15,560
Speaker 1: I'm sure a lot of people saw the the debate

781
00:39:15,680 --> 00:39:19,359
Speaker 1: surrounding the late shot that LaMelo ball took ti game,

782
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:21,480
Speaker 1: I can't remember. It was like a minute left and

783
00:39:21,520 --> 00:39:26,480
Speaker 1: he took a just really difficult like step back thirty

784
00:39:26,520 --> 00:39:29,000
Speaker 1: foot or off the left wing. And it always looks

785
00:39:29,000 --> 00:39:31,920
Speaker 1: a little bit more corny with LaMelo because he shoots

786
00:39:31,920 --> 00:39:34,640
Speaker 1: it kind of like off of one foot. And LaMelo is,

787
00:39:34,719 --> 00:39:36,880
Speaker 1: by the way, having a ridiculous start to the season.

788
00:39:36,920 --> 00:39:40,480
Speaker 1: He had like thirty seven, thirteen and thirteen tonight against

789
00:39:40,520 --> 00:39:43,319
Speaker 1: Washington just or last night. It's just a ridiculous game.

790
00:39:43,760 --> 00:39:47,480
Speaker 1: But like that game down the stretch against Philly, all

791
00:39:47,560 --> 00:39:50,279
Speaker 1: of the Charlotte guards were just taking difficult shots. Like

792
00:39:50,320 --> 00:39:52,880
Speaker 1: it wasn't just LaMelo. Lamello missed that step back, but

793
00:39:53,000 --> 00:39:58,319
Speaker 1: like Trey Trey, Trey Man missed like a couple of

794
00:39:58,360 --> 00:40:01,200
Speaker 1: easy or like like kind of like easy reads where

795
00:40:01,200 --> 00:40:02,880
Speaker 1: he just was taking tough shots in the middle of

796
00:40:02,920 --> 00:40:05,960
Speaker 1: the floor. Colin Sexton had an identical play to the

797
00:40:06,000 --> 00:40:09,640
Speaker 1: Quentin Grimes play Kank Nipple's on the right wing. Colin

798
00:40:09,680 --> 00:40:13,040
Speaker 1: Sexton's isoing off of the left wing. Knk Nipple's man

799
00:40:13,080 --> 00:40:15,759
Speaker 1: has dug way down into the lane and help and

800
00:40:15,880 --> 00:40:18,200
Speaker 1: instead of just I think it was Tyrese Maxey and

801
00:40:18,320 --> 00:40:21,440
Speaker 1: instead of throwing the kickout pass to wide open Conka

802
00:40:21,520 --> 00:40:26,000
Speaker 1: Nipple for the three. Colin just jacked up a contested

803
00:40:26,120 --> 00:40:29,399
Speaker 1: twenty footer and missed it. It's the exact same read

804
00:40:29,440 --> 00:40:31,560
Speaker 1: that on the other side of the floor Tyrese had

805
00:40:32,520 --> 00:40:35,360
Speaker 1: and made the read and Quentin Grimes knocked down the

806
00:40:35,360 --> 00:40:38,160
Speaker 1: wide open shot. And so in the early going of

807
00:40:38,200 --> 00:40:40,600
Speaker 1: the season here, Tyrese has taking really good care of

808
00:40:40,600 --> 00:40:44,920
Speaker 1: the basketball. He's racking up assists. It's just really high

809
00:40:45,040 --> 00:40:48,880
Speaker 1: quality floor game from him, coupled with elite shot making

810
00:40:49,080 --> 00:40:51,480
Speaker 1: and his speed just getting him wherever he wants to

811
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:54,200
Speaker 1: get to on the floor. Andre Drummond had an absolutely

812
00:40:54,239 --> 00:40:57,640
Speaker 1: brilliant second half against Charlotte, just completely dominated the glass

813
00:40:57,680 --> 00:41:00,239
Speaker 1: on both ends. Had a huge tip dunk late like

814
00:41:00,280 --> 00:41:03,359
Speaker 1: blew the lid off the arena. Kelly Ubray was great again.

815
00:41:03,400 --> 00:41:05,600
Speaker 1: He did some great work off the bounce. He created

816
00:41:05,640 --> 00:41:08,320
Speaker 1: his own shot for buckets like three times in that game.

817
00:41:08,680 --> 00:41:11,480
Speaker 1: And I know it hasn't looked perfect with Embiid and

818
00:41:11,560 --> 00:41:13,719
Speaker 1: his complete inability to protect the rim is a big

819
00:41:13,760 --> 00:41:15,680
Speaker 1: part of why they can't guard when he's on the floor,

820
00:41:15,680 --> 00:41:18,480
Speaker 1: Like he's just straight up not protecting the rim. But

821
00:41:18,520 --> 00:41:20,239
Speaker 1: it was kind of cool as a fan to see

822
00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:23,000
Speaker 1: him score twenty points in twenty minutes against Charlotte and

823
00:41:23,000 --> 00:41:25,600
Speaker 1: make it look super easy, just with all of the

824
00:41:25,640 --> 00:41:29,040
Speaker 1: same high end shot making that was a staple of

825
00:41:29,080 --> 00:41:31,560
Speaker 1: his when he was at his peak. It's just a

826
00:41:31,600 --> 00:41:35,520
Speaker 1: really fun sixers team that is loaded with dynamic playmakers

827
00:41:35,800 --> 00:41:38,040
Speaker 1: on the perimeter, and I think they have a decent

828
00:41:38,080 --> 00:41:40,680
Speaker 1: shot to compete night to night in the East with

829
00:41:40,719 --> 00:41:43,320
Speaker 1: all those guards. And like that's with them getting nothing

830
00:41:43,320 --> 00:41:45,600
Speaker 1: from Paul George and Joel Embiid. It can only go

831
00:41:45,760 --> 00:41:48,360
Speaker 1: up from there with those two guys. So like again,

832
00:41:48,360 --> 00:41:50,680
Speaker 1: like there's there's a question to be had, Like when

833
00:41:50,680 --> 00:41:54,399
Speaker 1: you've got Jabari Walker, you've got these forwards that are

834
00:41:54,440 --> 00:41:57,600
Speaker 1: like flying around and grabbing rebounds and just doing work

835
00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:00,160
Speaker 1: as hustle guys. Paul George is going to be a

836
00:42:00,239 --> 00:42:04,280
Speaker 1: very different counter to that style. But like, I think

837
00:42:04,640 --> 00:42:06,520
Speaker 1: it can only go up from there, right, Like, if

838
00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:08,600
Speaker 1: you get anything from those guys, it's a bonus at

839
00:42:08,600 --> 00:42:12,640
Speaker 1: this point. Next, Golden State Warriors. They dropped a tough

840
00:42:12,680 --> 00:42:14,920
Speaker 1: game on the road in Portland, and the tail end

841
00:42:14,960 --> 00:42:16,759
Speaker 1: of a back to back steph looked great, but the

842
00:42:16,800 --> 00:42:19,680
Speaker 1: rest of the group looked flat. Portland has had a

843
00:42:19,760 --> 00:42:21,719
Speaker 1: lot of guys that can get to the basket here

844
00:42:21,760 --> 00:42:24,120
Speaker 1: early in the season, and that Golden State defense was

845
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:26,840
Speaker 1: just getting shredded by drives and in transition. Something to

846
00:42:26,920 --> 00:42:28,839
Speaker 1: keep an eye on when the Warriors play some more

847
00:42:28,880 --> 00:42:31,120
Speaker 1: athletic teams down the line. But I'm not going to

848
00:42:31,200 --> 00:42:33,560
Speaker 1: overreact to a tail end of a back to back

849
00:42:33,640 --> 00:42:36,120
Speaker 1: kind of game like that. I that they looked super

850
00:42:36,160 --> 00:42:39,160
Speaker 1: impressive in their wins versus the Lakers and Nuggets. They

851
00:42:39,160 --> 00:42:40,960
Speaker 1: looked way better on both ends of the floor than

852
00:42:41,000 --> 00:42:43,120
Speaker 1: I expected them to. They didn't look slow and old.

853
00:42:43,200 --> 00:42:46,840
Speaker 1: They looked athletic and smart. They didn't look as Steph

854
00:42:46,920 --> 00:42:50,600
Speaker 1: dependent on offense as I expected them to, although they

855
00:42:50,600 --> 00:42:52,799
Speaker 1: were certainly happy to take sixteen straight from him at

856
00:42:52,800 --> 00:42:54,960
Speaker 1: the end of the Denver game. But Jimmy's been able

857
00:42:55,000 --> 00:42:57,840
Speaker 1: to provide scoring. Kamingas looked like a guy that's becoming

858
00:42:57,880 --> 00:43:01,160
Speaker 1: more comfortable in Golden State system. Draymond is also shooting

859
00:43:01,160 --> 00:43:04,320
Speaker 1: the ball extremely well to start the year. The Portland

860
00:43:04,400 --> 00:43:07,360
Speaker 1: game showed some issues that we were aware of before

861
00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:09,319
Speaker 1: the season. If you guys remember we talked about how

862
00:43:09,360 --> 00:43:12,400
Speaker 1: they were a little light on overall talent. They're specially

863
00:43:12,480 --> 00:43:15,000
Speaker 1: light on scoring talent. But I don't know how you

864
00:43:15,040 --> 00:43:17,839
Speaker 1: could possibly be a Warriors fan and not be more

865
00:43:17,920 --> 00:43:20,719
Speaker 1: excited about the team now than you were a month

866
00:43:20,719 --> 00:43:24,440
Speaker 1: ago when Kaminga wasn't signed and they looked like one

867
00:43:24,440 --> 00:43:26,920
Speaker 1: of the teams in that mediocre middle tier of the

868
00:43:27,000 --> 00:43:32,040
Speaker 1: Western Conference playoff put. Lastly, the Miami Heat two and

869
00:43:32,120 --> 00:43:34,120
Speaker 1: one to start the year, they'd be three and zero.

870
00:43:34,239 --> 00:43:37,239
Speaker 1: They didn't blow a late lead against Orlando, And I

871
00:43:37,280 --> 00:43:40,120
Speaker 1: was watching their game against New York today yesterday, I

872
00:43:40,120 --> 00:43:42,879
Speaker 1: should say, and I found them to be really fun

873
00:43:42,920 --> 00:43:46,520
Speaker 1: to watch. Not having Tyler Harrow has caused them to

874
00:43:46,560 --> 00:43:49,040
Speaker 1: not be as predictable with like their two man game

875
00:43:49,040 --> 00:43:50,879
Speaker 1: as they were last year. They're not spamming a lot

876
00:43:50,880 --> 00:43:54,919
Speaker 1: of the same thing. They're just relentlessly attacking. They're playing

877
00:43:54,960 --> 00:43:57,520
Speaker 1: at one of the most hilacious paces in the league.

878
00:43:57,760 --> 00:43:59,600
Speaker 1: All they're doing is every single time they have an

879
00:43:59,600 --> 00:44:01,839
Speaker 1: opportuny or either throwing a kick ahead pass, and they're

880
00:44:01,920 --> 00:44:06,800
Speaker 1: hitting gaps like they bludgeoned New York in the second

881
00:44:06,840 --> 00:44:11,280
Speaker 1: half of this game with just attacks from Jime Hakez

882
00:44:11,280 --> 00:44:14,759
Speaker 1: and Simone Fatechio and Nikola Jovich just like push the

883
00:44:14,800 --> 00:44:17,160
Speaker 1: ball off the floor while the defense is still in

884
00:44:17,200 --> 00:44:20,280
Speaker 1: semi transition and they're not set, just attack the gap

885
00:44:20,600 --> 00:44:23,160
Speaker 1: in play basketball off of it. They're spacing the floor

886
00:44:23,200 --> 00:44:25,600
Speaker 1: well and they're making good reads there. And then when

887
00:44:25,600 --> 00:44:27,880
Speaker 1: things slowed down in that game against New York, like

888
00:44:28,400 --> 00:44:30,719
Speaker 1: shout out to Jim Hawkez. He was cooking them. He

889
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:33,160
Speaker 1: was doing work in the post and doing work and

890
00:44:33,200 --> 00:44:35,520
Speaker 1: pick and roll attacking the basket. Just a really nice

891
00:44:35,560 --> 00:44:38,840
Speaker 1: piece of shot creation in that second half from Jime Hakkez.

892
00:44:39,160 --> 00:44:42,160
Speaker 1: But like they're just pushing the ball with up the

893
00:44:42,160 --> 00:44:45,719
Speaker 1: floor of pace, attacking gaps and playing basketball off of it.

894
00:44:45,920 --> 00:44:50,520
Speaker 1: I found it really fascinating because like we learned last

895
00:44:50,600 --> 00:44:54,200
Speaker 1: year from Indiana with the Pacers, that if you move

896
00:44:54,239 --> 00:44:57,319
Speaker 1: the ball and you play fast, and you make good

897
00:44:57,360 --> 00:44:59,799
Speaker 1: reads and you have guys who can finish plays off

898
00:44:59,840 --> 00:45:02,480
Speaker 1: of those advantages, you're gonna win a lot of games.

899
00:45:02,560 --> 00:45:05,719
Speaker 1: That's in Indiana, tatas play on the margins, live in

900
00:45:05,760 --> 00:45:09,360
Speaker 1: transition when you can't push, push, push, push push, because

901
00:45:09,360 --> 00:45:12,000
Speaker 1: we're gonna be more efficient there. And so like, I'm

902
00:45:12,040 --> 00:45:14,880
Speaker 1: not the least bit surprised that one of the smartest

903
00:45:14,960 --> 00:45:16,640
Speaker 1: organizations in the league and the guy that I think

904
00:45:16,719 --> 00:45:18,760
Speaker 1: is the best coach in the NBA, and Eric Spolstra

905
00:45:19,200 --> 00:45:21,279
Speaker 1: has adopted a lot of that over the course of

906
00:45:21,320 --> 00:45:25,719
Speaker 1: the summer. The Miami Heat are averaging thirty nine transition

907
00:45:25,800 --> 00:45:30,640
Speaker 1: points per game PERCENTERGY so far, the second most in

908
00:45:30,680 --> 00:45:35,359
Speaker 1: the entire NBA behind Portland. Just a crazy stat. They're

909
00:45:35,520 --> 00:45:38,439
Speaker 1: third and net rating to start the year because they're

910
00:45:38,520 --> 00:45:42,719
Speaker 1: third in defense, and they're getting out in transition off

911
00:45:42,719 --> 00:45:46,319
Speaker 1: of those stops, and they're getting enough offense because they're

912
00:45:46,360 --> 00:45:51,000
Speaker 1: getting thirty nine points in transition per game. One other

913
00:45:51,080 --> 00:45:53,440
Speaker 1: stat for them too, they've been the best jump shooting

914
00:45:53,440 --> 00:45:54,840
Speaker 1: team in the league here in the early part of

915
00:45:54,840 --> 00:45:57,120
Speaker 1: the season. They're getting one point one to seven points

916
00:45:57,120 --> 00:46:00,160
Speaker 1: per shot, which is number one in the NBA. The

917
00:46:00,160 --> 00:46:03,239
Speaker 1: first WEEKIE games really really I like, of all the

918
00:46:03,280 --> 00:46:05,600
Speaker 1: teams that I've watched to start this season, the Heat

919
00:46:05,600 --> 00:46:07,960
Speaker 1: have been playing one of the more fun brands of

920
00:46:08,000 --> 00:46:10,640
Speaker 1: basketball that I've seen. I really enjoyed watching them today,

921
00:46:10,800 --> 00:46:12,640
Speaker 1: kind of exposed a New York team that looked really

922
00:46:12,640 --> 00:46:15,040
Speaker 1: sloppy in transition to It's another story for another day.

923
00:46:15,040 --> 00:46:17,600
Speaker 1: We'll talk to some Nix later on this week. All right, guys,

924
00:46:17,640 --> 00:46:19,920
Speaker 1: that's all I have for today. As always, to sincerely

925
00:46:19,920 --> 00:46:22,200
Speaker 1: appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.

926
00:46:22,320 --> 00:46:24,799
Speaker 1: We'll be back tomorrow with more game reaction. I'll see

927
00:46:24,800 --> 00:46:25,319
Speaker 1: you guys then