Speaker 1: The best part of Wake in Bar, Chicken Lukey's on
Speaker 1: your plate, Chicken Nighties.
Speaker 2: Good mornings, were and welcome to the Nodunks podcast on
Speaker 2: the Athletic Network. It's Thursday, December fifth, twenty twenty four.
Speaker 3: I'm J.
Speaker 2: Skeet's here in the Classic Factory with no pumpkin pie
Speaker 2: in sight, and alongside me as always Tesmelis podcast listeners,
Speaker 2: this is for you. Next to him, it's the Bearded One,
Speaker 2: a top shot boy, Trey Kirby. Hey, okay yo, and
Speaker 2: overyonder making the magic happen. Super producer jd. Hello, there
Speaker 2: he is here. We are shout out to everybody joining
Speaker 2: us live on YouTube. Hit the light button and subscribe
Speaker 2: because we got a special guest joining us this morning.
Speaker 2: He's a senior columnist for The Athletic, having worked for
Speaker 2: at least thirty years covering the NBA. He's also the
Speaker 2: co author of the new NBA book, The Basketball one hundred,
Speaker 2: available everywhere. That link is in the show notes. He's
Speaker 2: one of our favorites to always have on the show.
Speaker 2: It's Hall of Famer David Aldridge.
Speaker 4: DA.
Speaker 2: What's up, my guy?
Speaker 1: Gentlemen, what's happening? Good to see you.
Speaker 2: Great to have you on. Really excited to talk a
Speaker 2: little bit about this book. And I guess the first
Speaker 2: question the Basketball one hundred. It is the definitive ranking
Speaker 2: of the one hundred greatest NBA players of all time.
Speaker 2: I want to know, like, what was the idea behind
Speaker 2: this and the process of spinning this into a book.
Speaker 2: Take us through that.
Speaker 5: Well, I'm sure you guys remember back in twenty one,
Speaker 5: the NBA had the seventy fifth anniversary, right, so they
Speaker 5: did their seventy five greatest players. They had everybody come
Speaker 5: to Cleveland for All Star and it was awesome, right,
Speaker 5: So we did the top seventy five in twenty twenty
Speaker 5: one at the Athletic and it was, you know, we
Speaker 5: had a new player every day. So it was two
Speaker 5: and a half months leading up to All Star weekend
Speaker 5: before we're revealed number one. So we did the seventy
Speaker 5: five and then I don't know about like eighteen months ago,
Speaker 5: our book people came to us and they had done
Speaker 5: a Baseball one hundred with Joe pez Nanski that had
Speaker 5: done very well. They were in the process of doing
Speaker 5: a football one hundred book and they asked us if
Speaker 5: we would if we could expand the seventy five into
Speaker 5: one hundred and do a book. And so, you know,
Speaker 5: Rob Peterson was our point person, great editor that we
Speaker 5: work with. John and I kind of shepherded the last
Speaker 5: twenty five. We didn't take anybody out of the original
Speaker 5: seventy five.
Speaker 1: That we had ranked.
Speaker 5: When we did our series, because I just thought it
Speaker 5: would be disrespectful to.
Speaker 1: Have somebody in the seventy five that wasn't in the hundred.
Speaker 5: That didn't make a lot of sense, right, So we
Speaker 5: just had to add twenty five. And so over the
Speaker 5: process of the last eighteen months, you know, we kind
Speaker 5: of decided who the twenty five would be and farmed
Speaker 5: out the extra twenty five stories that had to be written.
Speaker 5: We had to edit the ones that had already been
Speaker 5: written for the seventy five because we had to get
Speaker 5: into book length form. I think I think Rob said,
Speaker 5: it's two hundred thousand words in the books, so yeah,
Speaker 5: there's a lot of words, So it's a big book.
Speaker 5: So that's that was the genesis of it. And we've
Speaker 5: been working on it for the last year year.
Speaker 1: And a half.
Speaker 2: Yeah, you wrote the intro here. You did I believe
Speaker 2: nine player profiles and then you also have this twenty
Speaker 2: four second piece at the end, which is great. Who
Speaker 2: was your favorite player to write about of the nine
Speaker 2: that you ultimately get in this book, I.
Speaker 5: Mean there were the two that jumped to mind were
Speaker 5: Doctor j and Wilt just because you know, you have
Speaker 5: a you you think, you know, you have a feeling
Speaker 5: for who these people are based on watching them over
Speaker 5: the years, and then you dig into a little bit
Speaker 5: and you interview people that knew them and played with
Speaker 5: them and played against them, and you just get a
Speaker 5: whole different view of their greatness, right, And so with
Speaker 5: Julius it was not just you know, we all loved
Speaker 5: his jumping ability and his dunks and all that, but
Speaker 5: he you know, you find out he was a great
Speaker 5: player period, Like he's a career fifty one percent shooter
Speaker 5: from the floor, you know, and was fundamentally sound and
Speaker 5: really played the game at a high intelligent level. And
Speaker 5: then was well, it's just how cartoonish's numbers are, right,
Speaker 5: I mean, they just don't make any sense. You don't
Speaker 5: you look in Basketball Reference, Nobody else in basketball, including
Speaker 5: Jordan Lebrono, nobody has numbers like well, they're just cartoonish,
Speaker 5: Like they.
Speaker 1: Don't even look real. You know, it's just you know,
Speaker 1: fifty and twenty five.
Speaker 5: You ever, it's fifty and twenty five like that, How
Speaker 5: is that possible? So and then you realize that, you know,
Speaker 5: in the context of his inability to beat the Celtics.
Speaker 1: You just look at it a little differently because you
Speaker 1: just see how great he was.
Speaker 5: So those were those were my two favorites out of
Speaker 5: the I mean, I love doing all of them.
Speaker 1: You know.
Speaker 5: I covered Wes Unseld when he was coaching the Bullets
Speaker 5: they were the Bullets then, and Revere Wes as a person.
Speaker 1: So I really enjoyed talking to his son about his.
Speaker 5: Dad, and so that all of them were wonderful to
Speaker 5: do and dig into. You know. I spent an hour
Speaker 5: and a half on the phone with Monogenobli to get
Speaker 5: his stuff to do his piece, and that was that
Speaker 5: was incredible and fun and he was great, and you know,
Speaker 5: so having a chance to talk to play the some
Speaker 5: of the contemporaries, it was great, man. I mean it's just,
Speaker 5: you know, if you love basketball like I do, to
Speaker 5: be able to really dig into it and talk to
Speaker 5: you know, pop and talk to Tony Parker and people,
Speaker 5: it was great.
Speaker 1: It was great.
Speaker 6: I think a book like this can be so valuable
Speaker 6: because of what you're mentioning. DA like Will has kind
Speaker 6: of been reduced in today's basketball fandom to the numbers, right,
Speaker 6: doctor J. We know about the swooping layup and the dunks,
Speaker 6: but there's more to the story, more to the actual.
Speaker 7: Game of it.
Speaker 6: You mentioned adding twenty five new players. Here, is there
Speaker 6: somebody you were surprised that made it into the one hundred,
Speaker 6: or somebody that was like really really tough to leave
Speaker 6: off that you were trying to get in and in
Speaker 6: the last twenty five that were added.
Speaker 5: You know, it's funny, guys, I, John and I and
Speaker 5: Rob we kind of I mean, I wouldn't say we
Speaker 5: picked them, but we were kind of again shepherding the
Speaker 5: process of adding twenty five. And it wasn't as contentious
Speaker 5: I think as you may think, like we had, Like
Speaker 5: John felt very strongly. I don't think this is a secret.
Speaker 5: John felt very strongly that Jimmy Butler should be in.
Speaker 5: And we talked about it for a while. You know,
Speaker 5: we we went over it and when John made his points,
Speaker 5: you know, we we.
Speaker 1: Went okay, yeah, that makes sense. What you're saying makes sense.
Speaker 1: I felt very strongly Dave.
Speaker 5: Bing should be in the hundred, you know, because of
Speaker 5: his if you look at he was second in the
Speaker 5: MVP voting a couple of times. You know, he was
Speaker 5: a terrific guard for the Pistons for a decade, and
Speaker 5: because he didn't win a championship or make a final,
Speaker 5: a lot of people have forgotten about him.
Speaker 1: But you know, when I made my case, they said, yeah,
Speaker 1: that's a good point, you know.
Speaker 5: So it wasn't that bad there, you know, I would say,
Speaker 5: and again, I don't think it's you know, I don't
Speaker 5: think it's a secret. I hope it's not. You know,
Speaker 5: Klay Thompson is not in the hundred. Was he close?
Speaker 1: It was real close, real real close, you know, And
Speaker 1: we talked about it, and we hashed it out and we.
Speaker 5: You know, and what it came down to is somebody's
Speaker 5: got to be one hundred, and somebody is going to
Speaker 5: be one on one. It doesn't mean one on one's
Speaker 5: a bad player. It means we had to pick somebody
Speaker 5: to be a hundred.
Speaker 1: So we did.
Speaker 5: And that's and and so other than that, there were
Speaker 5: a couple other guys, but for the most part. It
Speaker 5: wasn't It wasn't that contentious, like we really came to it.
Speaker 5: I respect John a great deal for what he's done
Speaker 5: in terms of advanced numbers and really thinking about the
Speaker 5: game in a different way. And I think he respects
Speaker 5: me because I'm old and things, and.
Speaker 1: We both respect Robin great deal.
Speaker 5: So you know, we were able to kind of figure
Speaker 5: it out between the three of us.
Speaker 2: So this book does go Magic at number five, Bill
Speaker 2: Russell number four, Kareem at number three, and then Lebron
Speaker 2: at number two, and Michael Jordan at number one. I've
Speaker 2: heard you talking a lot about MJ is your goat, DA,
Speaker 2: but is there a case to be made for Lebron
Speaker 2: or Kareem or somebody else to be the goat? And
Speaker 2: I guess in Lebron's case, does can he still even
Speaker 2: get over the hump? Or is that going to be
Speaker 2: to you MJ's fiver.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 5: No, I've said this many times, guy. I mean, Lebron's
Speaker 5: got a case. It's not like he doesn't have a case.
Speaker 1: He's got a case. Like it's a legit case too.
Speaker 5: I mean, the the all time scoring record aside, which
Speaker 5: is its own thing, right and should and has value.
Speaker 5: But just his look, he was in was it nine
Speaker 5: straight finals? You know, that's that's that's Russell territory, right, Like,
Speaker 5: I mean, that doesn't happen all you know that people
Speaker 5: don't do that, Like the greatest players in the game,
Speaker 5: Hey bird Magic didn't weren't in nine straight finals. Michael
Speaker 5: Jordan went in nine straight finals. So he gets he
Speaker 5: gets props for that, so and and his passing and
Speaker 5: his leadership and all of those things.
Speaker 1: So he's got a case. Kareem's got a case.
Speaker 5: You know, Like I said this many times, Kareem had
Speaker 5: one career three pointer one, So that makes he scored
Speaker 5: thirty eight thousand points off of two's basically, and he
Speaker 5: scored the majority of those thirty eight thousand points off.
Speaker 1: Of one move.
Speaker 5: You know, you have one shot, one thing that he
Speaker 5: did with the basketball to score and everybody knowed who
Speaker 5: was going to do and they couldn't stop it.
Speaker 1: You know, So that he's got a case.
Speaker 5: He's got six MVPs. Nobody else, including Michael Jordan, has
Speaker 5: six m vps and he won five championships.
Speaker 1: He's got a case, right, Bill Russell won eleven. He's
Speaker 1: got a case. Okay, like so so, but you have to.
Speaker 5: Again, you have to pick somebody, and that's that's where
Speaker 5: we approached it, and in the end, I think we
Speaker 5: all kind of agreed again without much rancor, that Michael's
Speaker 5: the best.
Speaker 2: Yeah. I've heard you say before. If Michael Jordan were
Speaker 2: five to six instead of six to six, he'd be
Speaker 2: the greatest serial killer in a Yeah, because he's psychotic.
Speaker 2: And I love that line and it feels like that
Speaker 2: goes with reverence.
Speaker 1: I say that because he was. He's crazy in the
Speaker 1: good way.
Speaker 5: He was so driven to win, and not just to win,
Speaker 5: but to dominate, you know, like he wanted to destroy you.
Speaker 5: And there's Kobe's the only other person that falls in
Speaker 5: that category to me, Like Kobe channeled Michael in a
Speaker 5: lot of ways, and that was the biggest way was
Speaker 5: that Kobe wanted to embarrass you out there, like he
Speaker 5: wanted he didn't. He wanted you to stop competing, you know,
Speaker 5: And Michael was like that. And so I don't think
Speaker 5: Lebron's like that. I don't think Kareem's like that. And
Speaker 5: it doesn't make them not great players. There are great players.
Speaker 5: But what separates Jordan to me from the rest is
Speaker 5: that will. Yeah, you know that that desire to dominate
Speaker 5: and that desire to bury people that you know that
Speaker 5: we're trying to compete and win championships against him, and
Speaker 5: again he beat everybody.
Speaker 1: Guys like he's you know, we beat them all.
Speaker 5: You know, he'd beat Patrick Ewing, he'd beat Caarmelone, he'd
Speaker 5: be John Stockton, he'd be you know, all the great
Speaker 5: players of Charles Barkley, beat him all, all of them.
Speaker 5: You know, he eventually beat Isaiah Thomas, who had beaten him.
Speaker 5: To be fair and honest to Isaiah the first few
Speaker 5: years that they competed. But at the end, Mike, once
Speaker 5: Michael started winning, once they won one, they never were
Speaker 5: beaten by anybody.
Speaker 1: And that's all I can go by.
Speaker 5: DA.
Speaker 6: What do you make of Lebron's slow start to the season.
Speaker 6: It kind of feels like maybe the first time people
Speaker 6: are even considering that Father time might be catching up here.
Speaker 5: I mean I don't think I Yes, of course Father
Speaker 5: times catching up with him, but that's not.
Speaker 1: What I see. I mean, is he slower? Is he
Speaker 1: less efficient?
Speaker 5: Yes, of course he is, but that doesn't mean he
Speaker 5: still not a really effective player. I just don't you know,
Speaker 5: they just don't have enough around him. The three through
Speaker 5: six isn't getting the job done. And AD's not shooting
Speaker 5: the ball well right now, and so when AD's off
Speaker 5: and they're running a lot of stuff through Ad, they struggle,
Speaker 5: you know.
Speaker 1: And so he'll play better, he's a great player, he'll
Speaker 1: play better.
Speaker 5: But when AD's not having a good night and needs
Speaker 5: somebody to pick him up, those guys aren't picking them
Speaker 5: up nearly well enough. And that's you know, that doesn't
Speaker 5: mean they can't. That doesn't mean that Reeves can't, that
Speaker 5: doesn't mean that Dalton Connect can't. But they haven't done
Speaker 5: it enough or consistently enough, and so you know, you know,
Speaker 5: they're in a bad stretch right now. Is it four
Speaker 5: games they lost by twenty five last week last week
Speaker 5: or so? I mean, it's a bad stretch. But you
Speaker 5: guys know this. Every team goes through one of these
Speaker 5: a year where you just something's funky, whether it's lineups
Speaker 5: or somebody's just not carrying their weight or whatever it is.
Speaker 1: Teams go through this.
Speaker 5: I think the Lakers will straighten themselves out, but I
Speaker 5: don't think they're like a championship contender with the team
Speaker 5: that they have just because you know, you know, when
Speaker 5: you get to the playoffs, teams take stuff away and
Speaker 5: they make other people beat them, other than the best players.
Speaker 5: And I need to see those guys play at that
Speaker 5: level where you can say, all right, if they double
Speaker 5: team AD and we kicked the ball week's side, that
Speaker 5: guy's burying it.
Speaker 1: He's going six to eight on threes and we'll go
Speaker 1: win the game. And I haven't seen that yet.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Back to the book here and actually talking about
Speaker 2: current players. Lebron is the only player in the book
Speaker 2: currently playing that's in the top ten obviously number two.
Speaker 2: Is there any of the other current I think eighteen
Speaker 2: players in the book that you think are capable of
Speaker 2: like getting into the top ten all time? So that
Speaker 2: means probably bumping out a Kobe or a Larry Bird
Speaker 2: or something like that. Who has the best chance you
Speaker 2: think of current players?
Speaker 1: Well, look, I think you know Steph's right right right there.
Speaker 1: He's at twelve I think in the book.
Speaker 5: So I mean, you know, if they went on on
Speaker 5: some kind of amazing run and got back to another finals,
Speaker 5: and even if they don't, I mean you can make
Speaker 5: a case for Steph certainly because of his impact on
Speaker 5: the game. He changed basketball at all levels to the
Speaker 5: shooting like the game's different after he played than it
Speaker 5: was before, where the geometry of the floor has changed
Speaker 5: forever because of Steph Curry, because of his ability to
Speaker 5: shoot not just threes, but shoot thirty footers with ease
Speaker 5: and make it impossible for defenses to be able to
Speaker 5: guard in that kind of space. You just can't get
Speaker 5: there where he's at. And now other players have emulated that,
Speaker 5: and now there's a lot of players who can make
Speaker 5: those threes. So you can make a case for him.
Speaker 5: You can make a case for Jokic. I mean, if
Speaker 5: they you know they have it's going to be I
Speaker 5: think hard.
Speaker 1: For them to make a finals again with the current
Speaker 1: team that they have.
Speaker 5: But if they were to add another piece or two
Speaker 5: and get back to that form and he won another
Speaker 5: championship or two, I mean he's he's certainly I think
Speaker 5: the leader right now for MVP, right, and so that's.
Speaker 2: Four if he wins again.
Speaker 5: You know, when you went for MVPs, you got a
Speaker 5: case for top you know, greatest players of all time, right,
Speaker 5: So he's in there. Maybe Luca, you know, Luca could
Speaker 5: certainly make a movement in that direction before it's all
Speaker 5: said and done. But I would I would say, right now,
Speaker 5: those three of the ones that jump to mine.
Speaker 4: You mentioned the eighteen active players that we're talking about here.
Speaker 4: Charles Barkley wrote the forward to this BOK and he
Speaker 4: mentioned himself there are eighteen active players. He goes on
Speaker 4: about his Genobilee Classic Genobilee line. It wouldn't be we
Speaker 4: wouldn't be doing our job as a sports podcast unless
Speaker 4: we made fun of Charles Barkley's. My question is, did
Speaker 4: Charles actually read this book?
Speaker 3: You think?
Speaker 1: Excellent question. I hope they ask him that on inside.
Speaker 5: He did write it though, because you know, I know
Speaker 5: because I asked him to and he was very gracious
Speaker 5: and did it and we were able to get his
Speaker 5: words in it. I hope they you know, I would
Speaker 5: love for them to plug the book on inside.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I mean right.
Speaker 1: But did he read all of it?
Speaker 4: I sincerely doubt head All probably refuses to read the
Speaker 4: Shack chapter.
Speaker 1: He's a skimmer.
Speaker 4: I'm guessing he literally wrote that I didn't read the
Speaker 4: Shack chapter.
Speaker 1: Uh D.
Speaker 2: Before we let you go, I'm curious who the who
Speaker 2: is the most underrated player in history to you and
Speaker 2: whether they're in the book or not.
Speaker 5: Yeah, wow, that's it. I mean, that's a really good
Speaker 5: and tough question. The most underrated player in league history?
Speaker 5: I mean, you know, I think I always say Isiah
Speaker 5: doesn't get his due because he got kind of overshit.
Speaker 1: He was in the era.
Speaker 5: He was a winner in an era of winners and
Speaker 5: kind of ultimate winners, you know, like.
Speaker 1: Bird and Magic.
Speaker 5: They all won more, They won more championships, Michael won
Speaker 5: more champion but Isaiah being a point guard winning two
Speaker 5: championships and being leading the Pistons for you know, twelve
Speaker 5: years of excellence basically is underrated, I think. But you know,
Speaker 5: I also think of it like Brick Barry was a
Speaker 5: great player. Guys, like it was great. He was a
Speaker 5: terrific player for a long time and came up you know.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's it's interesting.
Speaker 5: If he had played in the ABA, he might have
Speaker 5: put up better numbers and maybe be more highly regarded.
Speaker 5: But the fact that he kind of decided not he
Speaker 5: I think he only played one year in.
Speaker 1: The ABA and then went back went to the NBA.
Speaker 1: But he could have put up.
Speaker 5: Monster numbers in the ABA with his ability to score.
Speaker 5: So that's another kind of guy. You know, I did
Speaker 5: the chapter I did the piece of Moses Malone, and
Speaker 5: Moses was, you know, very unsexy. He just went up
Speaker 5: and got rebounds and drew. And people don't think that
Speaker 5: that's exciting. I get it, I get it, I understand.
Speaker 5: But you know, he was really effective at it, won
Speaker 5: three MVPs and was a great, great leader on all
Speaker 5: the teams he was on. So players like that I
Speaker 5: always think are kind of underrated just because they're they're
Speaker 5: not remembered as much.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I would end that with Oscar Robertson,
Speaker 1: you know, like I was.
Speaker 5: I was honored to speak with Oscar on the phone
Speaker 5: for his for a piece I did on him at
Speaker 5: All Star last year because it was in Indianapolis and
Speaker 5: he's from Indianapolis. And you just, again, you talk to
Speaker 5: players who played against them and they just go, you
Speaker 5: guys don't understand how great he was.
Speaker 1: You just don't know.
Speaker 5: And so players like that that are kind of forgotten
Speaker 5: in this era.
Speaker 1: I always like to try to resurrect and kind of
Speaker 1: give them their flowers.
Speaker 2: That's fantastic. Well, this book is awesome. I'm making my
Speaker 2: way through it. I've read all your chapters, DA, but
Speaker 2: I got a lot of guys to go, but really
Speaker 2: highly recommend again for any basketball in your life for
Speaker 2: the holiday season. I would pick this up because, like
Speaker 2: you move quickly. It is a chunky book. There's a
Speaker 2: lot of words, but you know each chapter on each guy.
Speaker 2: It's it's it's digestible. You can make it through it.
Speaker 2: So congrats on the book. DA, really appreciate you jumping
Speaker 2: on with us. And happy holidays, man.
Speaker 1: Thank you.
Speaker 5: Happy holidays to you you guys too, And we want
Speaker 5: you to put the book down like we don't expect anybody.
Speaker 2: To hurt your wrists if you don't put it.
Speaker 1: That's the whole.
Speaker 5: Point is you read a chapter, you put the book down,
Speaker 5: you get a sandwich, you pick up another chapter, you
Speaker 5: put down.
Speaker 1: The folk call that's what it's supposed to do.
Speaker 2: That's awesome, DA, thanks a lot, man. We'll talk to
Speaker 2: you soon.
Speaker 1: Thanks guys.
Speaker 2: All right, David Aldridge the Basketball one hundred DA, John
Speaker 2: Hollinger and a whole bunch of writers at the Athletic
Speaker 2: chipping in and helping that. That's great. All right, let's
Speaker 2: get into some of last night's games. Not the sexiest
Speaker 2: night in the NBA. But task the Hawks, dare I say, Coca,
Speaker 2: they are cooking right now. The Hawks won. They're fifth
Speaker 2: straight stopping the Bucks winning and they won one nineteen
Speaker 2: one oh four. What jumped out to you to Atlanta continuing
Speaker 2: this great run here?
Speaker 4: Well, the Bucks started off well in this game. They
Speaker 4: got up double digits. Rob's gonna call them Robin Lopez.
Speaker 4: I'm thinking of old old basketball players now Brook Lopez
Speaker 4: falling out of bounds, thrown it in. They looked great
Speaker 4: to start, but then the Hawks bench came out of
Speaker 4: there and did an incredible job. And we're working so
Speaker 4: hard around DeAndre Hunter and working hard around Bogdan Bogdanovic
Speaker 4: and working hard around and Neko and Kwangwu who as
Speaker 4: they pushed it to the backboard. On Kongwu just because
Speaker 4: they were out pushing the Bucks was just able to
Speaker 4: catch rebounds and just throw it down. They were just
Speaker 4: out working the Bucks over and over in that first quarter.
Speaker 4: Of the last six minutes, they won by twelve points,
Speaker 4: and it kept going in the second court, and it
Speaker 4: was just a shame to see the Bucks come out
Speaker 4: of the timeout playing zone defense and Gary Trent Junior
Speaker 4: not getting to his quadrant and he just having an
Speaker 4: open three point shot from Zachary resa Che who came
Speaker 4: out of the Stars and joined the bench, and HD
Speaker 4: wide open three. I mean after that bogged down Bogdanovic
Speaker 4: was awesome in that second quarter. You have thirteen points
Speaker 4: in that second quarter alone. The Hawks are deep and
Speaker 4: they're playing deep, and the Bucks just kind of fell off,
Speaker 4: and you could see, like when the starters came back
Speaker 4: for the Hawks, they kept it up. Look, Jalen Johnson
Speaker 4: was getting dunk after dunk after dunk because they were
Speaker 4: just taking it harder to the rim, and the Bucks
Speaker 4: were just a little flat footed because they had one
Speaker 4: seven straight and I think they were just a little
Speaker 4: a little slowut there. So Jalen Johnson was out there
Speaker 4: throwing down dunks. His dad was in the crowd in Milwaukee.
Speaker 4: He jumped up when he saw a dunk, and I
Speaker 4: think his mom was there too, and his mom missed one.
Speaker 4: So you could read Jalen Johnson's dad's lips saying you
Speaker 4: missed that, you missed that. Oh yeah, great, great stuff.
Speaker 4: So that it was very funny. But the fact is
Speaker 4: the Bucks they were just outpaced. You saw you We'll
Speaker 4: go through a lot of these games. A lot of
Speaker 4: the benches made differences last night and this one. That's
Speaker 4: what it was. And you know, I think the Bucks
Speaker 4: just can't win eight games in a row.
Speaker 3: That was part of it. That was part of it.
Speaker 3: They just kind of laid a bit of an egg.
Speaker 2: But the Hawk's here tray of again got the winning
Speaker 2: streak to five. They beat the Calves in back to
Speaker 2: back games, one of those A Cup games, then they
Speaker 2: beat the Hornets on the road, then they took care
Speaker 2: of the Pelicans, and then yeah, to go into Milwaukee,
Speaker 2: who Yeah, maybe they took the foot off their gas
Speaker 2: a little bit, but still a great team the way
Speaker 2: they've been playing and get it done. I think what
Speaker 2: was shocking to me is like the Hawks build a
Speaker 2: twenty point lead and actually sort of maintained it. Like
Speaker 2: we watch a lot of Hawks games, and look every
Speaker 2: NBA game for that matter, a lot of teams build
Speaker 2: leads and then they sort of give it all back.
Speaker 2: The Hawks notoriously have done that over years, but this
Speaker 2: was like pretty impressive. Yeah, Milwaukee made runs, but they
Speaker 2: always had an answer. But let's jump out to you, Atlanta.
Speaker 6: The two things that really stick out to me are
Speaker 6: number one the bench. They've got one of the five
Speaker 6: best benches in the league. I think they're third in
Speaker 6: scoring right now, and it's either Hunter, a Coongo or
Speaker 6: Bogdanovic that do it. Last night it was all three
Speaker 6: of them. Twenty for Hunter, fifteen and five assists for
Speaker 6: Bogie and then double o with thirteen and a couple
Speaker 6: of offensive rebounds definished with six boards as well, And
Speaker 6: Tess is exactly right. They were just running the Bucks
Speaker 6: out of the gym. Bobby Porters was looking slow for Milwaukee.
Speaker 6: That can happen at times, and it was just kind
Speaker 6: of go back to the Bucks of the first couple
Speaker 6: of weeks of the season where they weren't committed to
Speaker 6: transition defense. So I thought that was a big time
Speaker 6: advantage for Atlanta last night. Second thing to me is
Speaker 6: that Trey Young is committed to sharing the ball this year.
Speaker 6: Lowest usage percentage of his career, highest assist percentage of
Speaker 6: his career, highest average assists per game of his career
Speaker 6: twelve and a half assists right now, hasn't been done.
Speaker 6: Haven't had a twelve assist per game season since John
Speaker 6: Stockton in nineteen ninety five.
Speaker 4: Wow.
Speaker 6: Now, look Trey is not scoring the ball all that
Speaker 6: well this season, twenty points per game, shooting thirty percent
Speaker 6: from three, can't really finish inside floaters, not really there
Speaker 6: right now either, But it's working for the Hawks. Him
Speaker 6: actually distributing the ball. He mentioned that he probably would
Speaker 6: lead the league in potential assists as well secondary assists.
Speaker 6: The ball is actually moving with the Hawks, which hasn't
Speaker 6: always been the case during Trey Young's Atlanta tenure. He's
Speaker 6: bought in to what Quinn Snyder's preaching. Yep, the results
Speaker 6: are there right now. They are on a winning streak
Speaker 6: over the course of the season. There's still a bottom
Speaker 6: ten offense. Somehow, they need Trey Young to shoot better
Speaker 6: if they're actually going to do anything when it comes
Speaker 6: to the postseason. But they look good right now. The
Speaker 6: bench is making shots. That's huge, and Trey is doing
Speaker 6: his part getting the ball to a Jalen Johnson, to
Speaker 6: a Zach Reciochet who had a nice game as well.
Speaker 4: Yeah.
Speaker 2: If I had told you, I guess over the past
Speaker 2: what three or four Hawks seasons, and I said, hey,
Speaker 2: look over the last five games, Trey Young, he's only
Speaker 2: scoring seventeen a game. He's shooting thirty eight percent from
Speaker 2: the floor, twenty one percent from three. Yeah, he's got
Speaker 2: a lot of assists, but he's actually got a lot
Speaker 2: of turnovers too. What do you think the Hawk's record
Speaker 2: is over that five deep stretch, Like, there's no way
Speaker 2: you're going five and oho you go. I don't know,
Speaker 2: maybe they eat out a win or two, like maybe
Speaker 2: two and three, one and four probably, But yeah, this
Speaker 2: is the wild part that he's sort of taking a
Speaker 2: step back offensively in terms of scoring, and everybody else
Speaker 2: is eaten and it is working or at least resulting
Speaker 2: in victories. And a big part of that as a
Speaker 2: bench and a little bit of defense. My god, it's
Speaker 2: nice to see.
Speaker 4: Yeah and him just strictly just passing more even if
Speaker 4: they're not a he's taking fear of shots as well.
Speaker 3: To add onto to trace comments about Trey that.
Speaker 2: That comments about Trey.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and he's leading. He's giving it to Jaen Johnson. Obviously.
Speaker 4: Clint Compel has been really good at the center spot.
Speaker 4: I got to eat my words. I thought this was
Speaker 4: going to be easily be the year that they trade
Speaker 4: him and move on to Kongwu, but he has been awesome.
Speaker 4: Dyson Daniels has been stupid good a lot of the
Speaker 4: time out there, obviously defensively and all that and finding
Speaker 4: Resachet over and over. The fact is Quinn Slider's got
Speaker 4: nine deep that he's going. Kobe Buffkin was really good
Speaker 4: off the bench too, helping out. I know, he's only
Speaker 4: one for five, he was a little short on one
Speaker 4: little shot two for I count it's two for five
Speaker 4: because they scored on that basket anyway, shifting to him basically,
Speaker 4: but listen, the fact is he's just getting everybody else
Speaker 4: involved and saying, I don't have to be a superstar.
Speaker 4: He really is trying to get everybody involved in guys resache.
Speaker 4: I know. So it'll fly under the radar how good
Speaker 4: he is. But he's good from quarter to quarter to quarter,
Speaker 4: like he doesn't have to do too much. He's hits
Speaker 4: his threes, had a beautiful dunk scored underneath on a
Speaker 4: pretty shot like. We can go on and on about
Speaker 4: the depth of the Atlanta Hawks, which kind of surprising
Speaker 4: to say that here, you know, six weeks into the season,
Speaker 4: but they are good.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Hawks had a thirty to twelve advantage in fast
Speaker 2: break points. They rebounded the Bucks significantly, as you said,
Speaker 2: huge difference in points in the paint. It was like
Speaker 2: really good stuff from Atlanta. Just don't get too excited.
Speaker 2: We've done this before. We need to pump the brakes,
Speaker 2: is all I'm saying, because you get burned when you
Speaker 2: start getting convinced. Oh yeah, the Hawks are ready to
Speaker 2: roll here. But this is good. This is a good
Speaker 2: stretch here for the guys. Okay, let's talk about the
Speaker 2: Lakers struggling. Obviously addressed a little bit with Da Tyler.
Speaker 2: Hero scored thirty one, caught fire in the third quarter tray,
Speaker 2: and the Heat crushed Lebron and the Lakers one thirty
Speaker 2: four to ninety three. The Miami Heat putting up one
Speaker 2: thirty four. That's how bad the defense is for Lakers.
Speaker 2: But yeah, already want to start with the good of
Speaker 2: the Heat or the bad of the Lakers?
Speaker 6: Ah, great question. This is a big vibes game, like
Speaker 6: the Heat of Ben struggling. Obviously the Lakers struggling as well.
Speaker 6: Both teams needed the win. It really felt like. But
Speaker 6: there's two L's in Los Angeles Lakers. Wait a second,
Speaker 6: there is a lot more ls than two. But they
Speaker 6: got another one last night. I heard on the broadcast,
Speaker 6: Eric Reid goes, this Laker defense needs a reality check.
Speaker 3: Eric Rudi was calling him out.
Speaker 6: He was calling him out, and he was one hundred
Speaker 6: percent right. This was a disgusting effort from your Los
Speaker 6: Angeles Lakers. That's why everybody postgame said, this is embarrassing
Speaker 6: that we're all embarrassed. They gave up twenty four threes
Speaker 6: to the Miami Heat, who can have hot shooting nights
Speaker 6: for sure. Also, twenty four fast break points. How many
Speaker 6: of them were wide open, literally nobody else on the
Speaker 6: other side of the court, with Jimmy Butler taking a
Speaker 6: layup underneath out running everybody on the Lakers fifty two
Speaker 6: points in the paint as well for Miami. There were
Speaker 6: just so many wide open shots. It felt like Anthony
Speaker 6: Davis was shrugging his shoulders or throwing his hands up
Speaker 6: all night long. It looked like the Lakers, I don't know,
Speaker 6: maybe they were trying a new defensive strategy or something.
Speaker 6: JJ mentioned that they hadn't had a lot of practice
Speaker 6: time and that they hadn't implemented the game plan, and
Speaker 6: it looked like they didn't know what they were doing.
Speaker 6: Because if there was two passes on a possession. It
Speaker 6: was a wide open heat shot.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Anthony Davis does have a lot on his shoulders
Speaker 4: on this team, especially with this perimeter that they're playing
Speaker 4: now with dangel O, Russell and Dalton Connect because Austin
Speaker 4: Reeves is out and I know, we know, we don't
Speaker 4: think Austin Reeves is a great defender, but at least
Speaker 4: they know what they're doing out there. And as Anthony
Speaker 4: Davis really has it like five guys coming at him
Speaker 4: over and over and he he's not receiving a lot
Speaker 4: of the criticism. It's all been about Lebron in the
Speaker 4: last couple of games, but Ady is just flat as well.
Speaker 3: Yeah, both times and both.
Speaker 4: These these these games where he's got run out of
Speaker 4: the gym a couple of times. But again, the perimeter
Speaker 4: defense isn't stopping anybody. So there is a lot on
Speaker 4: his shoulders with the lineups that they have out there.
Speaker 4: So JJ Reddick I think has to make it a
Speaker 4: quick decision here to go back to Cam Reddish, I
Speaker 4: think is a good possibility over Adult and Connect. As
Speaker 4: much as they want that offense to work with Connect,
Speaker 4: you really just need every perimeter player out there. Eric
Speaker 4: Reid said, gave Vincent was good. Eric said, gave Vincent
Speaker 4: was Heat culture.
Speaker 3: Yeah, Big Biga had.
Speaker 6: One nice playoff run as a Miami Heat got for
Speaker 6: eleven last night.
Speaker 4: Yeah, I did not play well, but two good possessions
Speaker 4: coming out of his first possession for his first run
Speaker 4: off the bench.
Speaker 3: And Eric just loves him more than I do.
Speaker 4: Oh ga, a couple of good possessions there. Yeah, and
Speaker 4: even the color analysts said, yeah, gay Vincent. I loved
Speaker 4: him when he was here, so did I.
Speaker 3: Then he got hurt. He's trying out there.
Speaker 2: But he That's a trend with a lot of Miami
Speaker 2: Heat players. Yeah, there are awesome of the dogs when
Speaker 2: they're heap players and then they go somewhere else and struggle.
Speaker 3: But he got hurt.
Speaker 2: Anyways, Yeah, following this forty one point drubbing the Lakers,
Speaker 2: I guess key players were taking some ownership. I want
Speaker 2: to read some of the quotes you sort of touched
Speaker 2: on it their TK Reddick said quote, we're all embarrassed.
Speaker 2: It's not a game that I thought we had the
Speaker 2: right fight, the right professionalism. Lebron says, It's not on
Speaker 2: the coaches, it's definitely on us.
Speaker 1: For sure.
Speaker 2: AD said the schemes are on point, but we just
Speaker 2: got to go out and do it and execute them.
Speaker 2: But I just got to step up for the team.
Speaker 2: I mean, that's the trifecta there of postgame quotes. When
Speaker 2: you're really struggling or embarrassed, it's not on the coaches,
Speaker 2: it's on us. I got to play better. Wow, check
Speaker 2: check check. But man, at this point, I think really
Speaker 2: with this team because the defense is so bad, it's
Speaker 2: affecting AD. What I see, having played basketball for a
Speaker 2: long time and watched a bunch of NBA basketball, that's
Speaker 2: a guy, a center that's like, well, if nobody else
Speaker 2: is going to play defense, then I'm not. Yeah, because
Speaker 2: he's frustrated. I brought it up against the Wolves the
Speaker 2: other night when he's like, is anybody gonna help me
Speaker 2: on the glass here? He's like visibly pointing at guys
Speaker 2: and saying, I got two down here.
Speaker 4: Help.
Speaker 2: He's a little frustrated with nobody's ability to stop anyone,
Speaker 2: and he obviously has. He generally can keep a fairly
Speaker 2: all a defense. I mean, he's that good, but even
Speaker 2: he's a little checked out, and then it sort of
Speaker 2: has spilled into his offensive game where you just can't
Speaker 2: shoot right now. But it's bad. And if Adie and
Speaker 2: Lebron don't play like top tier guys, the roster isn't
Speaker 2: good enough. I don't care how many game instance or
Speaker 2: can't redish, it's not they have to be top ten guys,
Speaker 2: which they have been at times. Because the defense is
Speaker 2: bottom of the barrel. They don't stop anybody and there's
Speaker 2: no effort.
Speaker 4: Yeah, they ain't trying. As I mentioned the D'Angel Russell
Speaker 4: the connect and Lebron you could see him as well.
Speaker 4: It was extremely slow. Beside Anthony Davis, no one was
Speaker 4: getting back. You literally just have to watch the game
Speaker 4: from the wide camera angled and just see this Heat
Speaker 4: team was beating them down the court over and over
Speaker 4: and over again. You could easily do a sports science
Speaker 4: of the distance that they beat the Lakers down the
Speaker 4: floor every single time.
Speaker 3: I mean, that's that's what Eric.
Speaker 4: This is the heat. Yeah, yeah, the heat got too
Speaker 4: good flow Bam. Did you know we've we've been talking
Speaker 4: about Bam because he was being guarded by Anthony Davis,
Speaker 4: and Anthony Davis was giving him the room in the
Speaker 4: mid range to do his thing, and Bam started to
Speaker 4: find his flow and then started to dunk balls afterwards
Speaker 4: because he got into a great spirit. And same with
Speaker 4: Tyler Hero. He was awesome in that third quarter because
Speaker 4: he got into a good spirit. But Ad and everybody else,
Speaker 4: is it a bad flow? Like he ad twelve on Monday,
Speaker 4: just twelve points his season low, and then he followed
Speaker 4: by another season low with eight in this game. I mean,
Speaker 4: you look at the numbers last eight games, they're two
Speaker 4: and six. Their average margin of defeat or that span
Speaker 4: is twenty two points. Yeah, four. Their six losses have
Speaker 4: been by twenty plus. I mean, that's just effort.
Speaker 6: So you mentioned yesterday that Nikola jokicch is the guy
Speaker 6: who always has to build the Tetris tower again. Sure,
Speaker 6: Anthony Davis is the guy whose kids knocked over the
Speaker 6: Tetris tower five times in a row.
Speaker 7: He's like, I'm not doing it again.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, you build it. Yes, that's what it feels
Speaker 2: like to me watching. I agree. Now, the Lakers conclude
Speaker 2: this little road trip here in Atlanta on Fridays. They
Speaker 2: are and Reddick has said he plans on meeting with
Speaker 2: the players, including some individually, yes, and the coaching staff
Speaker 2: to try and figure out a way out of this
Speaker 2: slump outside of a trade. I'm not really seeing away
Speaker 2: out of the slump, if I have to be honest,
Speaker 2: just the makeup of the team defensively, the Austin Reeves.
Speaker 2: You're right, he's not great defender, but at least a
Speaker 2: little scrappy and you know what you're gonna get from
Speaker 2: him offensively. So they're missing him. But Jared Vanderbilt's not
Speaker 2: coming back anytime soon. It's like the update's like another
Speaker 2: month or so, Like, yeah, it's you do wonder if
Speaker 2: a trade is coming and what that is. And I
Speaker 2: think I am suddenly seeing the brandon ingram whispers he
Speaker 2: wants to go to a winning situation. Is this a
Speaker 2: winning situation better than the Pelicans?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 2: Yeah, So look, and I don't think he solves your
Speaker 2: defensive issues, but we'll see.
Speaker 6: Here's something i'd be curious about. Preseason, JJ was talking
Speaker 6: about limbo rate. Remember we're not crashing the offensive glass,
Speaker 6: but we're also not getting back.
Speaker 7: On transition defense.
Speaker 6: Yeah, the Lakers are twenty third in offensive rebound right,
Speaker 6: and they're a terrible transition defense team. So I'd be
Speaker 6: curious about that. Limbo Ray, Limbo, where are they in Limbo.
Speaker 4: I don't know.
Speaker 6: We also were talking about if the Heat would have
Speaker 6: an All Star this season, it would be Tyler.
Speaker 7: He's on fire. Yeah, like in the great season.
Speaker 2: He's having like Anthony Edwards like numbers. Yeah right, in
Speaker 2: terms of the shooting the.
Speaker 6: Three twenty four per game, forty six from to forty
Speaker 6: six percent from the field, forty two from three, and
Speaker 6: he's like their go to guy in fourth quarters.
Speaker 2: It feels like, yeah, so good win from the Heat
Speaker 2: there especially. Yeah, that's third quarter hero, catch it fire,
Speaker 2: hit seven straight, didn't he deep? Yeah? But bad, bad
Speaker 2: loss for Lakers. Another team struggling, the Pacers lose again,
Speaker 2: especially on the road where they have a brutal record.
Speaker 2: Cam Johnson, though scored twenty six as the Nets beat.
Speaker 2: The Nets beat the Pacers ninety nine to ninety. They
Speaker 2: ended their little losing streak Brooklyn did. But what's wrong
Speaker 2: with Indiana here? So the Pacers just broken and what's
Speaker 2: going on with them?
Speaker 3: It is unfortunate.
Speaker 4: The prior game, Tyres Salburn calls out his team and
Speaker 4: then the next game they don't out with enough. Now,
Speaker 4: they started okay, but then they got buried by the
Speaker 4: Nets bench. They seriously did. It was a huge difference.
Speaker 4: I think it was got up to twenty one. Now
Speaker 4: the Pacers did fight back, but the Nets, who don't
Speaker 4: have a ton of depth, showed out in this game.
Speaker 4: I think this was Ben Simmons' best game of his season.
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, he was.
Speaker 4: He came back with a recovery block on the perimeter.
Speaker 7: What he got a postgame interview. He made a free
Speaker 7: throw in the fourth quarter.
Speaker 3: He had an alley oope.
Speaker 2: Yeah, he started the run that alley open.
Speaker 3: He was sort of just standing there.
Speaker 4: Yeah, and the Duncans Duncans fot and he said, hey,
Speaker 4: right here, I'm wide open because this Pacers team ain't
Speaker 4: garden to anybody. And then he just threw it down.
Speaker 4: But him and Keon Johnson helping out. I mean, I
Speaker 4: think everybody on this team was really getting after it
Speaker 4: more so than the Pacers, and that was obviously a
Speaker 4: huge problem in this game. And again I bring up
Speaker 4: the tyres Helbert and thinking there wasn't enough effort on
Speaker 4: their side. Period. Yeah. I don't want to just you know,
Speaker 4: scheme over it and say that's what it was, but
Speaker 4: a big part of it was just strictly effort in
Speaker 4: that locker room.
Speaker 2: What do you think here with India?
Speaker 7: Usually it's the defense.
Speaker 6: It's the problem with Indiana, and I actually think it
Speaker 6: was late in this game. It was a tie game,
Speaker 6: eighty to eighty with eight minutes left, the Nets went
Speaker 6: on a ten to zero run and it was three
Speaker 6: layups and four free throws that were fouls that would
Speaker 6: have been layouts had.
Speaker 7: They taken them. It was just easy for the Nets to.
Speaker 6: Grab the ball in the fourth quarter of a tight
Speaker 6: game and run it down the court and get to
Speaker 6: the hoop. Some of that is Indiana's defensive game plan,
Speaker 6: not necessarily the transition stuff, but they want to limit
Speaker 6: three pointers, so they're going to get way out on
Speaker 6: the wings and give up shots inside. But it's not
Speaker 6: working because their offense is completely discombobulated. What kind of
Speaker 6: team are the Pacers offensively? They're not a running team anymore?
Speaker 6: Are they a Siacam half court team? Because we saw
Speaker 6: that with Toronto they weren't a great offense when he
Speaker 6: was the number one guy. It just doesn't seem like
Speaker 6: they know how they're going about scoring this year. And
Speaker 6: this is a team that's not going to play defense,
Speaker 6: so they need to be great offensively and they haven't
Speaker 6: been great offensively.
Speaker 7: It's like they don't know who their number one guy is.
Speaker 2: Yeah, they used to be before the Siakam trade, a
Speaker 2: pretty heavy like pick and pop, pick and roll Haliburton
Speaker 2: Miles Turner team. Then things changed a little bit with Siakam,
Speaker 2: but obviously the pace was still there and they unlocked something.
Speaker 2: But yeah, this year, it's bad, embarrassing first half from Indy.
Speaker 2: They shot thirteen to thirty nine from the field in
Speaker 2: this game, four of eighteen from deep and then they
Speaker 2: also turned the ball over twelve times. But then just
Speaker 2: as bad was when this game was tied. You said it.
Speaker 2: You guys went through it.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: Simmons gets the oop, easy oop with like seven and
Speaker 2: a half to go, and then it was a layup
Speaker 2: line for the nets. Jalen Wilson drove by Halliburton for
Speaker 2: a layup. About a minute later, Wilson blows by Halliburton
Speaker 2: in like sort of semi transition. A minute later, shake Milton,
Speaker 2: nice steel. He finishes the layup on the fast break,
Speaker 2: some good old Mattador defense from Halliburton. So yeah, look,
Speaker 2: and that's not his thing. He's not locked down a Fender.
Speaker 2: But that's what's bad because then it was like offensive rebounds,
Speaker 2: like a tip in from Sharp, then another one that
Speaker 2: Wilson grabbed and scored like then Shrewder blew by. I
Speaker 2: guess it was Mathron. That one at the end the
Speaker 2: sort of ice the game. So after the Ben Simmons dunk,
Speaker 2: it was like, I mean, besides free throws, it was
Speaker 2: like five layups and two tippins or something like that. Brutal, like,
Speaker 2: especially for a team that's like, we need a win,
Speaker 2: we need to stop the bleeding here, and they did it.
Speaker 4: Yeah, for halburn to call them out the previous game
Speaker 4: and to not get into their fast pace selves, which
Speaker 4: is gone this season. That's that's the odd thing that
Speaker 4: they weren't into their their pass mode with what they
Speaker 4: did so well last year was just passed overpass, be
Speaker 4: the number one passing team and they just lost that.
Speaker 4: And that's the weird thing. And yeah, calling out Haliburton
Speaker 4: and not you know, air quotes leading the team like
Speaker 4: he seemingly did last season, it is the right thing
Speaker 4: to do.
Speaker 3: I think that's that's what's hurt them.
Speaker 4: Offensively. They just ain't that same team that runs out
Speaker 4: and tries to kill you with their passing. I mean,
Speaker 4: that's what made them so good, that's what made it
Speaker 4: hard to play them every single night. And then I
Speaker 4: bring up the bench of the Nets bench with Ben
Speaker 4: Simmons shake, Milton was awesome off the bench and Dyron
Speaker 4: sharp like all three of those guys, and along with
Speaker 4: Trendon Wofford, they just kicked the Pacers ass. And then
Speaker 4: usually usually that's the TJ. McConnell led bunch from the
Speaker 4: Pacers that do a good job with that. But they
Speaker 4: got smacked. Everybody got smacked. There's something going on with
Speaker 4: that locker room. You think so, well, right, I mean,
Speaker 4: they're not being lead. I mean I don't think they
Speaker 4: hate each other, but they're not. They're not They're not
Speaker 4: a good ball team, that's for sure.
Speaker 2: The other games last night, we had the Celtics with
Speaker 2: standing a three points spree there to beat the Pistons
Speaker 2: one thirty twenty. The Wolves cruise to the one o
Speaker 2: eight eighty victory over the Clippers. I don't know if
Speaker 2: you guys saw the score early in this game. It
Speaker 2: was quite a deficit early. Then not need to stay
Speaker 2: up for that one. There was no second half comeback,
Speaker 2: and then Wagner and Suggs. Franz Wagner I got to
Speaker 2: point out his brother is on the team, and Suggs
Speaker 2: powered the Magic to the one oh six one oh
Speaker 2: two win over the shorthanded seventy six ers. Uh no Embid,
Speaker 2: no Paul George, no Lowry, no Drummond. I think I've
Speaker 2: named the guys. But any of those three games, TK
Speaker 2: jumped out to you.
Speaker 6: I thought a nice win for the Magic to actually
Speaker 6: hang on a little closer than it probably should be.
Speaker 6: Jalen Brown had a really nice dunk and he's gonna
Speaker 6: be getting fined. I don't think he can do the
Speaker 6: throat sway, Yeah.
Speaker 7: Sure after it.
Speaker 6: That was a ferocious one as well, staring down beef
Speaker 6: stew That.
Speaker 7: Was a great dunk.
Speaker 2: Yeah yeah he I think he even like not apologized.
Speaker 2: He's like, yeah, I'm probably gonna get fine of got
Speaker 2: caught up in the heat of the moment. And I
Speaker 2: think Dwayne Wade once got fined twenty five K for
Speaker 2: doing that. I think when he was on the bulls,
Speaker 2: I want to say, yeah, yeah, I think so he
Speaker 2: probably will get fine for slashing the throat.
Speaker 4: What a change up he went from the monstros dunk
Speaker 4: putting the seatbelt on to cutting the throat. That's h
Speaker 4: It was a weird one. Yeah, that's getting fine. Yeah,
Speaker 4: there's no doubt about that. And that's why that's why
Speaker 4: the referee asked him about the seat belt celebration. What
Speaker 4: are you doing? Should we find you? What is what
Speaker 4: is this? Exactly? Because you can't do certain things and
Speaker 4: I think, yeah, slashing a throat is one of them.
Speaker 2: Do you think he can try and say no, I
Speaker 2: was putting the seatbelt across my neck like extra safety, sir, sure, no, yeah,
Speaker 2: he's probably break yeah exactly. I'm with you about the
Speaker 2: Magic win. I know it's against again the Shorthand Sixers,
Speaker 2: but that that showed me something to make up of
Speaker 2: this Magic team because they are coming off or they
Speaker 2: rebounded from a bad loss the night prior to the
Speaker 2: Knicks there or their last game. I should say, that's
Speaker 2: what good teams do, right, you have a loss, or
Speaker 2: they got embarrassed. I mean, I know they made it
Speaker 2: respectable and did the old point differential to still make
Speaker 2: it to the knockout round, but they came back and
Speaker 2: got this victory and it was tied after three quarters.
Speaker 2: And then they went on a nice little run and
Speaker 2: took care of business. I just I was like, Okay,
Speaker 2: that's that's to me when you're like, oh, you're a
Speaker 2: legit really good team. They've won thirteen of their last fifteen.
Speaker 2: They're third in the East. And Fogner was a monster
Speaker 2: again thirty five points. And Suggs was the one hitting
Speaker 2: three pointers from them last night. They only hit eight
Speaker 2: three pointers as a team. He hit four of them
Speaker 2: and they won this game in twenty twenty four. Sort
Speaker 2: Of tough to do. But a big part of that
Speaker 2: is you know their defense is good enough.
Speaker 4: Yeah, Davis Coldwell Pope makes a big difference on that team.
Speaker 4: He had a steel, got in the passing Lady has
Speaker 4: steel on a fast break for the seventy seconds where
Speaker 4: he just got in there and stole. He had a
Speaker 4: steal when he was helping out as the low man
Speaker 4: doing all those things. That's what a team does if
Speaker 4: you want to show up at big time. The offense
Speaker 4: definitely questionable. How they don't have a lot of guys
Speaker 4: shooting three? Is Anthony Black coming through with the new
Speaker 4: braids and also just slashing to the hoop and then
Speaker 4: when you got Franz Vagner.
Speaker 3: He's a different guy now.
Speaker 4: When he gets a little bit of a runway down
Speaker 4: the lane, he gets pick set for him. He's so
Speaker 4: good at whether or not he's got to put a
Speaker 4: shoulder in somebody. He just looks like a very different player.
Speaker 4: He's so much more confident when he gets the ball
Speaker 4: coming down. He dunked on Gerschean Jebusale, big time dunk.
Speaker 4: So they've they've got everything going on for them. Lots
Speaker 4: of good stuff there on that side.
Speaker 2: Yeah, and TK said, if the Heat do get an
Speaker 2: All Star representative, it'll be Hero and I don't think
Speaker 2: there's any question at this point the other FLOORIDA team,
Speaker 2: it's Franz Wagner as a Dare I say a lock?
Speaker 2: It feels like to be an All Star with the
Speaker 2: numbers he's putting up, especially with Polo.
Speaker 3: Out, Yeah exactly.
Speaker 6: I mean Plo has been out for what fifteen games
Speaker 6: almost at this point, so it's definitely going to be Franz.
Speaker 6: They did the same thing similar last year, right they
Speaker 6: started fourteen and five, they had a nine game winning
Speaker 6: streak at the end of November into December, they got
Speaker 6: one All Star. Probably the case again this year. It
Speaker 6: would be Franz, since he's been the man once Polo
Speaker 6: went down. The interesting thing is going to be seeing
Speaker 6: if they can get efficient play from Palo and from
Speaker 6: Franz when they're both on the court together, because Polo
Speaker 6: soaks up a ton of possessions. Not always the most
Speaker 6: efficient guy, though he has been when he was on
Speaker 6: the court early this season. Fran's the same, great player,
Speaker 6: usually more efficient than Paulo, especially when's shooting the ball
Speaker 6: like he has been this season. When they're actually on
Speaker 6: the court together, both trying to have thirty percent usage rates.
Speaker 6: What happens? Who cares good problem to have? Look at
Speaker 6: the Celtics and they took him forever to figure it out.
Speaker 7: True, they did.
Speaker 2: True, it's a good point.
Speaker 4: Any other Yeah, yeah, One thing that I need to note.
Speaker 4: I can't believe it, but the palming violation is back. Yes,
Speaker 4: they are back. I thought palming was dead because players
Speaker 4: can kind of sort of put their hand underneath the
Speaker 4: ball and then get away with it because it's not
Speaker 4: quite underneath the ball. It's not called until Franz Wagner
Speaker 4: was called two nights in a row. Franz Wagner guilty
Speaker 4: both times and the cherry on top.
Speaker 3: John Moran also called for palming. Maybe NBA Cup.
Speaker 4: Games are called a little bit tighter because the palming
Speaker 4: violation is back.
Speaker 2: I do remember that Ja Moran one the other night. Yeah,
Speaker 2: look they are, they are doing it. They are palming it.
Speaker 2: But watch Trey Young, watch it. Basically, watch any lead
Speaker 2: point guards that has the ball in their hands. A lot,
Speaker 2: there's a lot of like yeah, just like look, yeah, sure, call.
Speaker 6: It shocking when they're actually calling what I remember, like
Speaker 6: when the the NBA basically made Jordan Pool into a
Speaker 6: terrible player.
Speaker 7: They started violations and it was over for him.
Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah, all right, Any other notes on any of
Speaker 2: those games, probably not a lot. With the Wolves Clippers game.
Speaker 4: Hey, Franz Wagner twice violation minnesot timber Wolves twice held
Speaker 4: l A teams to eighty points. Yes, sure, that's not bad.
Speaker 4: That's that's well done for them. They feel like they
Speaker 4: sort of look like the defense from last year Rudy
Speaker 4: Gobert five steals. What Rudy Gobert doing that thing? Like
Speaker 4: he looks like he's back. They look like they're having
Speaker 4: fun a little bit. And they have such a tough
Speaker 4: schedule to close out twenty twenty four, so it ain't
Speaker 4: going to be easy for them. But this is it
Speaker 4: right here, right now. You go to Golden State to
Speaker 4: play two games Lakers, Spurs, Nicks, Warriors, Hawks. That's the
Speaker 4: easiest one. Mavericks, Rockets, Spurs, Thunder Celtics to open. That's tough, dude,
Speaker 4: that is tough.
Speaker 7: It's ridiculous.
Speaker 6: They're playing California teams for like three weeks Spree, Kings, Clippers, Lakers, Clippers, Warriors, Warriors, Lakers.
Speaker 2: Wow. Yeah's at least two colf weeks there for sure.
Speaker 2: And just to give you the numbers from that Celtics game,
Speaker 2: I said three point spree. It really was, so I
Speaker 2: was probably downplaying it. The Pistons went twenty for thirty
Speaker 2: nine from deep. Not bad. That's a damn good percentage
Speaker 2: fifty one percent, and the Celtics are like, ah, well,
Speaker 2: we're going to take more and hit one more than you.
Speaker 2: They went twenty one for fifty three, so not as
Speaker 2: greate as percentage, but got a little bit more up there.
Speaker 2: So that's nearly forty percent. So that's all you saw.
Speaker 2: You saw forty one three pointers. If you went out
Speaker 2: to watch the Pistons Celtics game last night, which we
Speaker 2: saw our guy chieve was that eating a horizontal pizza
Speaker 2: as he called.
Speaker 6: It, Like he emailed it about this horizontal pizza a
Speaker 6: month ago, Like what are you talking about?
Speaker 4: Man?
Speaker 7: Then I saw that horizontal pizza unbelievably lost.
Speaker 1: Yeah.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it was like it went across two people.
Speaker 6: Yeah, absolutely, So from crust the point, Yeah, that's right.
Speaker 7: A lot of pizzas are measured, of.
Speaker 2: Course, a crust the point for sure. Okay, let's get
Speaker 2: to the Pickham for tonight tasks. Just to give everybody
Speaker 2: the standings. I remained perfect. I'm bouncing back from that
Speaker 2: pumpkin pie payoff that I lost November. I'm three and
Speaker 2: Ozero and the rest of you guys are one and two,
Speaker 2: So you guys are tied right now.
Speaker 4: The buck Well. Last night was painful and I just
Speaker 4: want to complain here for a sec because Orlando was
Speaker 4: favored by three and a half in Philadelphia. The game
Speaker 4: was a three point lead for Orlando. Five seconds left,
Speaker 4: Tyrese Maxi goes into the three point line and he
Speaker 4: was fouled by Anthony Black, who was trying to foul
Speaker 4: him because it was determined that in their huddle. Maybe
Speaker 4: we want to send the guy to the line for
Speaker 4: two shots instead of watching for three. But the referees
Speaker 4: didn't call it because it was done very very quickly,
Speaker 4: and Tyers Maxy just chucked it. Yeah, but he was hit. Anyways,
Speaker 4: I did it to myself, and that's what really hurts.
Speaker 4: So you do it to yourself, you do, and that's
Speaker 4: what really hurts.
Speaker 2: Because you said they're up three and then I guess
Speaker 2: they fouled then too. Yeah.
Speaker 4: Yeah, then they went to the free throw and they
Speaker 4: made it five points. But I knew Orlando going into
Speaker 4: Philadelphia three and a half point. I knew Philly didn't
Speaker 4: have Paul George there or unlikely to have Joel Embiid.
Speaker 4: I just thought it was too stupid a line. But
Speaker 4: nobody bets Orlando. I guess this is what's happening.
Speaker 7: Not enough radio head lyrics.
Speaker 4: Yes, I did.
Speaker 7: Unbelievable.
Speaker 3: Uh what a paranoid android. Sometimes I forget who sings it,
Speaker 3: so thanks for reminding me. Anyway.
Speaker 4: Anyway, it was great tonight. Spurs are hosting the Bulls
Speaker 4: and they're two and a half point favorites. We all
Speaker 4: feel comfortable, other than Trey that the Spurs are going
Speaker 4: to do it. And you know, when I see this
Speaker 4: close line, I say, well, Trey is gonna want Well.
Speaker 2: I almost went with TK on this, so I got
Speaker 2: I was torn. This is a yeah, this is.
Speaker 3: A good one, good line.
Speaker 2: Hey, they're good at this. I went back and forth.
Speaker 2: I can see the Bulls, you know, pulling this off.
Speaker 2: But Spurs the scrappy bunch. I don't know.
Speaker 4: So for Esh Skeets or myself to get the W,
Speaker 4: the Spurs have to win by three or more. Well, Trey,
Speaker 4: how are you feeling about your Bulls pick?
Speaker 7: Well, here's the thing.
Speaker 6: This is an interesting spot for the Bulls to be
Speaker 6: in because they would lose their pick to the Spurs
Speaker 6: depending on where it ends in the draft order. So
Speaker 6: it actually behooves the Bulls to lose this game, so.
Speaker 7: They'll probably win.
Speaker 2: Yeah. Wow, I like the thinking. Okay, okay, computer, all right,
Speaker 2: So that's tonight's game. Bowl Spurs Spurs favored by two
Speaker 2: and a half. Big thanks to Hall of Famer David
Speaker 2: Aldridge for jumping on with us morning. I thought that
Speaker 2: was a really fun conversation. Again, I highly encourage you
Speaker 2: to go check out the Basketball one hundred That link
Speaker 2: is in the show notes. It'll take you right to
Speaker 2: I guess the publisher's page. That'll take you to wherever
Speaker 2: you want to buy that thing. So go check that out.
Speaker 2: I'm loving the book so far. If you're a Survivor fan,
Speaker 2: join us over at Nobuffs at one pm Eastern. We're
Speaker 2: talking about Operation Italy. That's right, what an at? What
Speaker 2: an episode? One of the greatest episodes of the New Era.
Speaker 2: People are saying, So we're gonna have a lot of
Speaker 2: fun TKJD, Nora and myself breaking that down again. That's
Speaker 2: around one pm Eastern. That link for No Buffs at
Speaker 2: least YouTube pages also in the show notes. So come,
Speaker 2: hey there, it is good.
Speaker 6: That horizontal pizza. They're barely even squishing together to get close. Yeah,
Speaker 6: that's how big that pizza that is. That's that's crazy.
Speaker 6: You think we're talking eighteen inches across the tip there?
Speaker 3: Yeah, yeah, for and a half.
Speaker 4: Yeah, wow, there's a monster.
Speaker 3: Sous Pizza is a month.
Speaker 2: That's a fascinating thing, like to sell at an arena
Speaker 2: when you think about it, because we were like talking
Speaker 2: about food that's easier to eat in your seat and
Speaker 2: carry and stuff like pizza genuinely pretty easy, but then
Speaker 2: you're making it a little difficult.
Speaker 7: That one, specifically.
Speaker 1: Saying how do you go.
Speaker 2: About eating that?
Speaker 1: Yeah?
Speaker 7: All right, we need another follow up.
Speaker 6: Jeams show us a video of how you eat this pizza?
Speaker 4: He's fulling it in a half right, like a New
Speaker 4: York pizza.
Speaker 2: Maybe rolling up like a yeah all right. Well, we'll
Speaker 2: be back tomorrow to talk about all the games tomorrow. Wow,
Speaker 2: it's a Drop podcast. What am I talking about? Maybe
Speaker 2: Worse of the Week nominees, rapid fire Fun. We'll actually
Speaker 2: do some fun awards on tomorrow's Drop podcast. So join
Speaker 2: us live at ten am Eastern or obviously download and
Speaker 2: listen to the podcast on Apple, Spotify wherever you do. Hey,
Speaker 2: shout up, everybody leaving their Spotify wraps, wraps, roll them up.
Speaker 2: A lot of no dunks, some no buffs. Little is
Speaker 2: this good? I'm seeing JD. The people are listening to
Speaker 2: the podcasts that screen. Doesn't it make it all worthwhile
Speaker 2: when you see those Spotify raps? Oh yes, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 2: good bros, you heard it here first.
Speaker 7: Have a great time. Turn up, Love you guys awesome.
Speaker 4: Thanks for joining us, and remember you will enjoy the
Speaker 4: basketball one hundred.
Speaker 3: I guarantee it.
Speaker 4: As Charles Barkley says in the forward, and as it's
Speaker 4: written here on the back, ron
Speaker 2: Tea Embrace the day people