Hoops Tonight - NBA LIVE REACTION: Steph Curry's Warriors vs. Luka's Lakers + SGA's Thunder vs. Durant's Rockets

Jason reacts live after the opening night of the 2025-26 NBA season and discusses Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Draymond Green, and the Golden State Warriors taking on Luka Doncic, JJ Redick, and the Los Angeles Lakers without LeBron James. He also breaks down Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and the defending champ Oklahoma City Thunder taking on the new-look Houston Rockets with Kevin Durant.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume.

Speaker 2 (00:15):
All right, welcome to hoops tonight. You're at the volume.
Happy Tuesday, everybody. Welcome to a brand new NBA season.
So much has changed. We have Kevin Durant wearing Houston
Rockets Jersey. We have the young up and coming Oklahoma
City Thunder now wearing championship rings. We have Lebron James

(00:36):
not playing on Opening night, not just for the Lakers,
but in general. This is a guy who's been playing
on Opening Night for as long as I can remember.
And I'm recording from Denver in Colorado, as we moved
this summer to get to some scheme. But that's a
story for another day. I'm very, very excited to break
this all down. That Houston Oklahoma City game was incredibly interesting.

(00:57):
And then you know that meme where you have all
the dragon and they're looking all mean and angry, and
then you slide over and there's kind of a goofy,
like cartoonish looking dragon. That was the Los Angeles Lakers tonight,
as we saw three what appeared to be elite basketball
teams in one that stuck out like a sore thumb.
We have so much to get into on all four
of these teams. We're gonna break it all down, and

(01:19):
then at the tail end of the show tonight, we're
gonna be taking some questions from the audience with Jackson,
So drop your questions in the chat. Make sure you're
subscribe to the channel. At the tail end of the show.
Any thoughts that you guys have from tonight's game games,
we can dig in a little bit further. You guys
know the job before we get started. Subscribe to the
Hoops Tonight YouTube channels. You don't miss any more of
our videos. Follow me on Twitter at underscore jconlt so

(01:41):
you guys don't misshow announcements. Don't forget about our podcast
feed where you get your podcast under Hoops Tonight. It's
also super helpful if you leave a rating in a
review on that front. Jackson's doing incredible work on our
social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok. Make
sure you guys follow us there throughout the season for
additional content. In the last, but not least, we're gonna
be doing weekly mail bags, starting with the mail bag
this Friday. If you want to get questions into those

(02:02):
mail bags, dropped him on our full episodes on YouTube
in the comments. Just write mail bag with the coulon.
Write your question. We'll get to them on Fridays throughout
the season. All right, let's talk some basketball. What a
dominant debut from the Golden State Warriors. I thought they
thoroughly outclassed the Lakers in basically every facet of the

(02:23):
game other than the fact that the Lakers have Luka Doncic,
and that Luka Doncic is amazing. We'll get to Luca later.
I rooted for that guy last year and there wasn't
a single moment where he looked like that. And that's
one singular piece of upside that may or may not
amount to something optimistic for the Lakers to take away
fro him tonight. But if you replace him with a

(02:45):
regular star ball handler, like let's say you just had
injured Anthony Davis and that was forty one year old,
forty year old Lebron that was out there, the Warriors
win that game by thirty. The Warriors played the Lakers
in every single facet of the game. I thought their
intensity from the opening tip in terms of their ball

(03:07):
pressure and physicality was better to start the game. I
thought their backside rotations off of their double teams, and
just in general, how scrappy they were in the middle
of the floor, especially underneath the basket, was way better
than what we were seeing from the Lakers on the
other end of the floor. They were forcing turnovers on
deep post catches from Deandrayten, swarming Van do on his drives,

(03:29):
forcing a ton of turnovers, getting out and transition off
of them. I thought, in general, they were as a
team much sharper in transition. I thought they ran the
floor harder off of missus and off of makes, constantly
catching the Lakers jogging, but also on the other end
of the floor getting back and preventing those same opportunities
for the Lakers on the other end of the floor.

(03:50):
I thought they shot the ball better than the Lakers.
I thought they rebounded the ball better than the Lakers.
I know it was just one game, and I know
Lebron didn't play, but I just thought the Warriors looked
like a much better basketball team than the Lakers did. Tonight.
We're going to dig into some of the specifics that
having to do with that matchup as well. I think
that plays a role, but I want to start with
some of the specifics that we saw from Jimmy Butler

(04:11):
and Jonathan Kaminga, because those two guys, in a lot
of ways in a debut demonstrated some of the specific
things that the Warriors need to go their direction in
order for them to compete for a championship this year.
So let's start with this idea of the debate that
we've been having all summer long about what kind of

(04:33):
player the Warriors should be going after to make some
sort of all in trade this year, whether that involves
Kminga or it does it In those conversations we discussed
should it be like an athletic wing who's more of
like kind of what Andrew Wiggins was for the team
in the past, or should they look for a scoring

(04:54):
guard or just in general, a scoring archetype kind of
like what Jordan Poole was for the Warriors when they
won the title. And a huge factor in determining which
direction they should go on that front if they do
look to make a trade this year at some point
is how does Jimmy Butler look as a score Because

(05:15):
there was a lot of basketball after the trade, even
though the Warriors were winning, where Jimmy wasn't necessarily bringing
a bunch of scoring pop. But then last three games
of the season tons of scoring pop. Playing game, tons
of scoring pop. First game against Houston before the tailbone injury,
tons of scoring pop. We had this like five game
sample where were like, oh shit, playoff Jimmy. This is

(05:39):
the guy that is gonna help push this team over
the top end of championship contention, right, But it was
a small sample coming back from the tailbone injury. He
wasn't able to secure a win against Minnesota without Steph,
and so there were some question marks surrounding that. And
I thought that was an electric debut from Jimmy Butler
as just that secondary offense force off of Steph Kirk. Consistently,

(06:04):
he was finding matchups that he liked off of some
of the switching that the Lakers were doing. Really liked
Gabe Vincent, really liked Jake Lareva. If Jake Lavia, you
could tell that Jimmy in particular just had some comfortable
uh just some comfortability isoating Gabe just simply just getting
over his left shoulder for little bank shots and drawing

(06:25):
fouls with quick, aggressive moves. The big thing with Jimmy
is he brings a dynamic to the Warriors that they
haven't had in years past, and that is the ability
to grift your way to the foul line. I've been
talking about this forever. It's a skill. It's something that
it comes with a kind of a polarizing discussion surrounding
the role of free throws, kind of like interfering with

(06:47):
basketball games. But the truth of the matter is these
guys are all over the league. They're skilled at getting
to the foul line. I root for a couple of
them on the Lakers. Austin Reeves and Luka Doncic are
both great at it. You know, Jake Gilges Alexander's great
at it, Jalen Brunson is great at it. And one
of the guys that was great at it is Jimmy Butler.
And you know, there's this idea that free throws are

(07:08):
just like handed down by the NBA as like some
sort of gift to your team. That's not how it works.
The way that it works is you either earn trips
to the foul line and one end of the floor,
and then on the other end of the floor, you
either keep a team off the foul line or you
send them to the foul line. And that's what determines
your free throw disparoity. Nothing else. Basketball games. Basketball in
the way it's being played on both ends of the

(07:29):
floor is what leads to the free throw totals that
you see. And bringing Jimmy Butler in has given the
Warriors a dynamic that they haven't had in the past,
which is the ability to slow the game down by
working his way to the foul line, which comes with
all sorts of additional benefits in addition to just points
a huge part of how you get a thirty ball

(07:50):
out of Jimmy. It also allows you to set your defense.
It allows you to get more game plan notes. In
possession to possession, you have a chance to talk and
to think about how you're gonna guard on the next possession.
They're all of these trickle down benefits. It can disrupt
the rhythm of your opponent. They're not getting up and
down the floor. They're now stopping and going down to

(08:11):
the block to get ready to rebound. Jimmy Butler is
just really good at using pump fakes. We're driving angles. Obviously,
the histrionics around the basket that all the foul drifters
around the league use, and what do you have like
sixteen free throw attempts tonight. That was a huge part
of his ability to manufacture points for the Warriors tonight.

(08:31):
So then we're gonna have our eye on with the
Warriors all season long. Is Jimmy's ability to score the basketball,
and he just did that to a great extent tonight.
Is super optimistic debut for Jimmy on that front. Jonathan
kaminga the biggest debate surrounding the Warrior Warriors over the
last couple of years, and one of the things that

(08:51):
I've talked about is the reason why things haven't panned
out for Jonathan in years past. It comes down to
two things. One, he struggles sometimes and read and react basketball,
which is a pivotal part of playing for the Golden
State Warriors. You have to make quick decisions with the
basketball off of the advantages that Steph Curry creates, right.
And then secondly, he has struggled to consistently knock down,

(09:15):
catch and shoot jump shots. And we saw a little
bit that of that up and down nature in the
first half. He had a couple of shots where you know,
you know, he's taking a jab step three out of
the corner when there's time on the shot clock or
forcing the action inside and getting blocked from behind because
he's not reading the floor. We're a little classic up
and down Jonathan coming a type of game in the
first half. But they come out in the second half

(09:36):
and they start spamming three man action him, Stephan Draymond
off the right side of the floor, and it presents
all these like easy reads for Jonathan, Like, Okay, Steph's
cutting off of this one, I'm gonna just relocate to
the top of the key. Oh bam, the balls in
my hands, I'm wide open, take a catch and shoot three,
knock it down. Okay, this time, I'm slipping out of
the screen as Steph is going up towards the top,

(09:57):
and I'm getting open along the baseline. Boom pass finished
with the right hand at the rim over ruy Hachimura.
The kickout on the left corner off of a actually
was in the right corner with Luca contesting off of
one of those drives from Steph Curry. He was just
playing Warriors basketball. He's gonna have his opportunities to attack

(10:17):
one on one. He had an opportunity in the second
half to go at Luca's chest and he got over
his left shoulder for a little hook shot, especially in
bench groups. He's gonna have opportunities to be more aggressive.
But in order for him to be a functional player
with the starters, especially, but in general, just as a
large role player for the Warriors, he's got to hit
his open catch and shoot threes, and he's got to

(10:39):
make the simple reads. I'm driving to the basket, I
draw eighting or I can't remember if it was haz
Er eighting at that point in time draw that. I
think it was Hayes. Draw him in. Help, there's Al
Horford right there. Drop it off, no need to force it.
Just make the easy read that's right there in front
of you. Right. I thought Kamingo was fantastic in that
second half. Yes, he was getting cooked by Louke, but

(11:00):
I think that was more of a Luca thing. Luca
has done that to the best, Like this version of
Luca has done that to the best defensive players in
the world. I watched him two years ago do it
to Jayden McDaniels in the Conference finals. Is one of
the certainly a better perimeter defender than John and the
Kaminga Right, So like that is what it is all
You can do is be physical and make him work. Luca's,
you know, one of the two or three best players

(11:22):
in the world, right but when it comes to the
job that he has on offense for this group, I
thought he executed it extremely well in that second half,
leading the Warriors to pull away. Buddy healed. One of
the things we're gonna consistently talk about tonight in this
matchup is the difference in the foot speed between the
two teams, and Buddy was getting a lot of opportunities

(11:44):
to attack both, like with someone sprinting at him where
he could show the ball and quick relocate, put the
and get another shot up, or run up the key,
relocating off out of the corner as someone's driving along
the baseline or cutting along the baseline. He was getting
good looks. He had five of them tonight. But he
talked about in media day that he shot the ball
better this summer than he ever has, and he expected

(12:07):
to shoot the ball well. The season comes right out
talking shit to Luca. It's five threes, a bunch of
big ones in the second half that paid off those
classic kind of Golden State sequences, and the Warriors end
up chewing up and spitting out the Lakers tonight. I've
been super fascinated by this concept. Was texting with Jackson
about it during the game. You know, the change from

(12:29):
Luca to Anthony Davis is so bizarre in the dynamic
in this particular matchup between these two teams, and it's
kind of a classic example of how basketball is more
art than science. I don't think anybody would disagree that
Luka Danciic is a better basketball player than Anthony Davis.
He just is. I mean, what did he have like
forty one, thirteen and seven or whatever it is he

(12:51):
had tonight. Like Luca is one of the greatest offensive
players in the game today, he is a better basketball
player Anthony Davis, but he fundamentally changes the athletic profile
of this Lakers roster. One of the things that happened
in the previous years in that stretch there twenty twenty three,
twenty twenty four, twenty twenty five before the Anthony Davis

(13:14):
trade is the Lakers kind of dominated the matchup with
the Warriors. The reason why is they had Anthony Davis
on the back line, roaming off of whoever it was,
Draymond Kevon Looney underneath the basket which gave the Lakers
perimeter players a ton of leeway on the perimeter to overplay,
whether that would be top locking to force guys into backcuts,

(13:37):
or just in general denying off the ball, overplaying pull
up shooters, overplaying Steph himself when he'd be on the
three point line, and Anthony Davis was the type of
rangey player on the back line they could cover tons
of ground and use his length to completely shut off
the rim. And it just consistently ended in mediocre shooters,
guys like Kaminga, guys like Gary Payton, guys like Draymond

(13:59):
Green having to take frees, and it was a matchup
that skewed heavily towards the Lakers. You swap Luca for
Anthony Davis, and all of a sudden, those perimeter players
don't have that same leeway if they get backcut, there's
nobody back there. Ayton all night long was heading the clouds.

(14:20):
So's that had no idea like he was floating around
the perimeter and was out of position to help on
back cuts. Like a dozen times throughout this game, they
do not have anywhere near the back line defense, especially
with Lebron James out of the picture Lebron and Anthony Davis,
the two of them roaming on the back line. Totally
different matchup than DeAndre Ayton and Luka Doncic and Ruey

(14:41):
Hatcha Mura roaming around on that back line. And I
thought it was super interesting because one of the advantages
that the Warriors have had consistently, even in the matchups
where the Lakers had just done some winning, the Warriors
were a faster team. They were faster on the perimeter.
This that concept of perimeter speed is something we talked
a lot about throughout the season last year for the Warriors.
So when they get in their blender and it's ball

(15:03):
and player movement and guys are sprinting off of screens
and doing all the stuff that they do. When there's
not an Anthony Davis to clear up all the mistakes
on the back line, they are just chewing up and
spitting this team out. And by the way, this is
not just an opening night. Take those of you guys
who followed the show last year, you'll remember after that
big showdown, that big game late regular season, the first

(15:26):
one where it was like Luca, Lebron and Austin versus
the healthy Warriors, the Warriors chewed them up and spit
them out in that game too. And if you guys remember,
I came on the show after that game and I
was like, Oh, I don't like this matchup for the Lakers.
The Warriors just look substantially faster than them at every position.

(15:46):
And this is we're talking about a Warriors team that's
got four dudes that are over thirty seven. And it's
part of it is Steph. Part of it is the
fact that Draymond does play very fast for a big
and part of it is this is a Warriors team
that has a depth of role player talent off off
of their stars that all know how to play in
this system. And I was just super fascinated by that tonight.

(16:08):
Is they just chewed up and spit out the Lakers.
And so the Lakers go on to late game run right,
ors have a couple of turnovers, Steph miss is a
tough step back thory over. Gabe Austin gets a couple
of buckets on the other end of the floor. All
of a sudden, I think they cut it to what six, right,
But right after that, the Warriors immediately regained control. Lakers
had a really good defensive possession where they played all
the actions right and ball ended up in Draymond Green's

(16:31):
hands in the right corner. And you know, sometimes in
order to shut down those actions, you got to concede something.
They were conceding that corner three to Draymond, and to
Draymond's credit, he stepped up and he knocked it down.
Lakers go right down. They post up Luka Doncic on
the right I think against I think it was against Buddy,
I can't remember who it was, but he's posting up
on the right side. He draws a double team swing.

(16:53):
Swing ball goes to Gabe in the left corner, and
Steph Curry makes an unbelievable defensive rotation out to the
corner and blocks Gape Vincent on that three. I thought
Steph was great all night defensively, competing in and out
of actions out He had again a couple buckets that
Luca gave him, but that's just Luca being Luca. Steph
obviously is the engine that's running everything they're doing offensively.

(17:16):
Makes a huge defensive play. Then they go down to
the other end and Jimmy ISO's Luka Doncic beats him
off the dribble, gets a little reverse layup, and the
game is over and you can see the formula for
the Warriors, right Like you need Steph to be Steph,
you need Jimmy Butler to provide that legitimate secondary scoring
via shot making, attacking in the post, and getting his

(17:37):
way to the foul line. And then you either need
winning basketball from kaminga like we saw in that second half,
or a player in a trade that does that sort
like that provides that that form of winning impact. From there,
it's the system and the culture. It's the depth of
role player talent you got. You get will Richard coming

(17:58):
in and contributing the way that he did defensively, you
get the Brandon Pajemski just scrappiness all over the floor
and hitting big shots every once in a while. You
get just the debt. This is a team that consistently
every year has like somewhere between a dozen and fourteen
guys that can step in and play. And like, we
haven't even we haven't seen the Anthony Melton. We know

(18:21):
what Moses Movie can do when he's healthy. It's this
Warriors team. You know, I'm not quite as high on
them as some of the projections I've seen like I've
seen win projections as high as fifty seven wins. I
don't think they're gonna get to fifty seven wins, but
it's easy to see how they can get to fifty
two to fifty three wins in the stacked Western Conference
because they have a formula and again the big swings

(18:42):
that we got to keep an eye on, Jimmy secondary scoring,
Jonathan Kaminga playing winning basketball, knocking down open shots, being
able to play that read and react ball, and if
he doesn't do that, what they're able to get into
trade for him from there quickly On the Lakers before
we get move on to the next game, I thought

(19:02):
they stuck out like a sore thumb tonight in tonight's competition.
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(21:09):
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(21:32):
And then you have the thunder who are down their
second best player, shot six for twenty six on unguarded
catching shoo jump shots. We'll talk more about that game
in a minute, but they still win the game on
the strength of an unbelievable second half from Shake gild
As Alexander as an offensive player, a dominant defensive effort, scrapping,
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(21:54):
those turnovers. And then you go to the Warriors. They're
up in the Lakers jersey from the opening tip. They're
flying around in rotation, they're being physical, they're sharp in transition.
Their stars are locked in and competing and they're being physical.
And then you see the Lakers who asigned from Luka Doncic.
I don't think they had a single player who won

(22:16):
his matchup tonight. It just was incredibly disappointing. On the
one hand, I'm not overly surprised those of you guys
who listened to yesterday's show. I talked about how coming
out of camp the Lakers look to me like a
mediocre basketball team. They look like a good offense, not
a great offense. And they look like a bad defense,

(22:38):
not an okay defense. They look like a bad defense
all throughout camp. They first of all, they offer no
defensive pressure at all. There's nobody that they play against
that they make uncomfortable. They're not in your jersey. They're
not applying physicality. They're not bringing any of that intensity

(23:00):
on that end of the floor at all. They're jogging
back in transition and giving up lob dunks because no
one's picking up the rim or no one's stopping the ball.
They're getting back cut all over the floor because guys
aren't paying attention to man and ball. It was so
incredibly sloppy. You see so many things we talked about

(23:21):
swing factors, right, like swing factors like Jimmy Butler scoring
the basketball, or Jonathan Kaminga making quality reads or knocking
down catch and shoot jump shots. We're seeing can deandreton
score on the role while he was catching in traffic
and just getting stripped, Well, can Jared Vanderbilt Bilt Jared
Vanderbilt provides some sort of offensive pop, Well, he still

(23:42):
can't knock down a catch and shoot jump shot. And
in the second half, in particular, was literally just like
driving into the teeth of the defense and turning the
ball over like that. It looked he looked extremely limited.
Marcus Smart, there's like it's kind of funny watching the
antics contest between Marcus Smart and and Raymond Green throughout

(24:03):
the game. But like Marcus can't knock down an open
catch and shoot shot, and he's not doing enough on
the ball defensively to really disrupt high level ball handlers.
That's something I've seen throughout all preseason. There's just it's depressing.

Speaker 1 (24:18):
Man.

Speaker 2 (24:19):
I saw my friend deman Ra and Goula talking about
how Lebron looked disengaged on the sideline. I don't know,
like this has the potential to get ugly here. Now
the schedule gets lighter. They have Minnesota on Friday, but
then after that, you know, the next thirteen games are
pretty light on what we would consider to be top

(24:41):
tier championship contenders. I think Oklahoma City. They play Minnesota again,
and then they have Oklahoma City on the road. But
other than that, they're playing a bunch of middle tier
and bottom tier teams, and so maybe they'll be able
to pull this together and they'll be able to get
some wins, and there's a huge upside, which is Luca.
Like I want to be clear, like that what we
saw from Luca tonight, we never even came remotely close

(25:04):
to seeing that last year, not even not even a
little bit. He never moved like that. He never had
that like consistent downhill pressure. The short range shot making,
that's something I had my eye on in preseason. He
was one for seven on floaters in mid range jump
shots in preseason. He had to hit like eight or
nine of them. Today he was cooking the Warriors from

(25:24):
the short to mid range, throwing the crazy kickouts. Still
has no roleman chemistry with Ayton and the Lobs. He's
got to figure that piece out. It's so much more
natural with him with Jackson Hayes. That's something that him
and eight and are going to have to figure out.
But like Luca was amazing, and that's your big silver
lining that you try to pull away from this is
if you can right the ship with some of these

(25:45):
other guys on the roster, you just you have the
dude that I think is the second best basketball player
in the world on your team. And so there's a
whole lot of upside with Luca and what he brings
to the table. But beyond that, it was just an
idly disappointing debut for the Lakers, above and beyond anything
having to do with individual talent, and there's some talent

(26:06):
limitations here. I don't expect Ruy to be able to
post up Draymond or Jimmy Butler without turning the ball
over or fumbling it away. The Warriors in general are
a swarming team that are going to cost some issues
for some of the lesser offensive players. For the Lakers,
I don't necessarily expect them to be a team that's
going to be dominant defensively, but they just also don't

(26:28):
look sharp. And we talked about this yesterday, But like,
if you're already a step slow athletically, you can't also
be a step slow mentally. You have to be ahead
of things with your reads on defense, you have to
be ahead of things with your execution on defense, because
you're already giving up an inch in the form of

(26:49):
the athleticism advantage that the opponent's going to have most nights.
That definitely not, definitely not an inspiring debut from the Lakers.
But again, Luca looks amazing. I thought Luca was really
good on defense for the most part. He got cooked
by Jimmy on that last possession, but I bet his
rotations were sharp. He had some help side plays at
the rim where he got blocks of deflections are good contests.

(27:12):
He had like a post up stop against al Warford.
He had a really nice iso stop against Steph along
the left wing lad in the game when the Lakers
were going on their run. A lot of really impressive
stuff from Luca, and then just all bad down the list.
From there, Austin has kind of become a player that
can struggle against physical, swarming, athletic defenses. I thought Austin

(27:35):
struggled throughout the night. He just seemed like he was
over penetrating and getting swarmed and not finding easy kickout reads.
His shot making wasn't there the way it usually was.
Shot making wasn't there in preseason either, especially from the
three point line. But like again, once you get off Luca,
a lot of depressing on the Lakers front. Again, we'll
have more thoughts on this as we get I'm gonna
watch both of these games again tomorrow morning, so if

(27:57):
I have any any add additional takeaway from there, I'll
share them in tomorrow night's show. But that's all I
have on the Lakers Warriors from now. Let's move on
to Rockets Thunder. What an incredibly bizarre basketball game. We
had one hundred and twelve misshots, thirty six turnovers, twenty
eight offensive rebounds, a half dozen missed clutch free throws,

(28:18):
including some from both KD and Shay. Shay had several,
but the game ends up coming down to one single
ISO and double overtime. Along the left wing with Shae
on the ball, KD guarding him, and I thought it
was the right move by KD in that spot in
the sense that he was the only guy other than
a Men Thompson who was hurt at that point who
had had some success guarding Shay, so KD guards him

(28:42):
on the inbounds, and I thought Shay made an incredibly
smart play. In general, Shay was fantastic in the second half,
attacking some very complex and very aggressive and mixed up
coverages from Houston, but he made his smartest play of
the game there at the end of double overtime to
win it. So for starting at the beginning of that
possession when Kd's guarding Shaye, he's super aggressive, which was

(29:06):
different than how he had guarded Shaye earlier in the
game on his one on one possessions. Earlier in the game,
he had been giving Shaye space, offering contests with his length,
and he had actually Forcedhae into some missues because he's
got some long ass arms and Kd's hard to shootover.
But on this possession, KD came out pressuring him like

(29:27):
kind of gambling, reaching a little bit out of control.
And so the smart move from Shaye was he didn't
try to shoot. He knew KD was being overly aggressive,
so he threw him a pump fake spun over his
left shoulder and pumped. KD followed that chain of aggression
into an aggressive contest, and so because Shaye pump faked,

(29:49):
all he had to do was just throw up a
shot and he earned his way to the foul line
that won the game. And then, to add insult to injury,
KD filed out on the play, which removed him as
a final possession option. Actually thought Jabari Smith got a
half decent look over the top of Jalen Williams over
there on the left corner, but it was long and
the thunder he got the win Chase solved the problem.

(30:10):
Tonight finished that game with thirty five points, which is
insane considering he had a relatively empty box score a
few minutes into the third quarter and the Rockets threw
one hell of a defensive punch. They had a men
Thompson on him one on one, and again a men
provides like a combination of size and athleticism defensively that
is different than just about anyone else in the league.

(30:31):
Jackson and I were talking about it before the show, like,
I think he might be the fastest like big wing
that I've ever seen, like fastest player that's over sixty
six and that has long arms. In ball screens, they
were blitzing him every single time to get the ball
out of his hands. Then they also mixed in a
ton of zone, especially when Steven Adams was on the floor.

(30:53):
Basically everything was geared towards getting the ball out of
Shay's hands and forcing his teammates to quick process and
kicked the shooters. And another thing to Houston's credit here,
I thought they did a great job rotating and like
making those kickout threes off of the double teams contested
or congested and feeling rushed Ogoma hit He also didn't

(31:15):
shoot well. I want to be clear, there were lots
of great looks that didn't go down. There were six
for twenty six from unguarded threes in this game, especially
if you in the second half from lou Dort, that
were like complete stands, still gotta knock them down types
of shots. But I do want to give Houston credit
here for their defense. I thought they played a great game,
and early on there, about halfway through the game, it

(31:36):
was about as discombobulated as I've ever seen Shay, at
least in a long time. But Shay just slowly but
surely figured it out. Started by hunting every transition opportunity
you could get, so every time that there was a
miss or a turnover and Shae got an opportunity to
attack before Houston had their defense set, he either quickly
hit a gap or he catch a quick like step

(31:58):
up screen and transition and hit that gap before Houston
could really congest things at the rim. And he started
finding those little seams to get all the way to
the rim. And then against the zone, he found several
things that worked. He started just taking ball screens off
the top and riding that into the middle of the floor.
He was able to get some better kickouts from there.
To his credit, he kept trusting his teammates all game

(32:21):
long as they were sending the kitchen sink at him
even though the shots weren't falling. And by the way,
say what you want about the shots not falling. Case On,
Wallace and chet Holmgren each hit massive threes down the
stretcher that case On hit two of them massive threes
down the stretch because Shay kept trusting them even though
the shots had not been following falling. He also started

(32:44):
isoting the top guy. These are some little tricks he
found to stop having to deal with the doubles. Like
Leiden regulation, I'm not calling for a screen. I know
it's a men Thompson, but I want my one on
one And he got to that little step back from
eighteen feet there on the left side that tied the
game and send it to ot against the zone. In
the zone when they'd have an occupied corner, meaning a

(33:07):
shooter in the strong side corner and a shooter on
the opposite wing. If he was dribbling against that top guy,
they weren't doubling. They weren't at first they weren't doubling
off the corner or off of that top. They would
double him if he drove, Like if he beat the middle,
beat the man to the middle and drove, they would
pinch in from the top from the opposite wing. And yeah,

(33:28):
if he drove down the left side, they'd pinch in.
But if he just kind of went one on one
for a pull up jump shot against the top man
in the zone, he was able to go one on one.
And so he kind of just work over to Jabari
Smith's side and push a little bit over to the
sideline so that that other top man wouldn't come over
so far. And then he would just dribble at his

(33:50):
chest and go to that textbook step back or that
little snatchback dribble that he goes to. And he just
kept getting the shots that he could have hit over
the top, and his shot making was unbel The shot
that he hit to send it to ot over a
men Thompson was insane. Great contest from a man hit
a pull up three over a man on the one
on the right wing. The one that actually was the

(34:10):
play where a men Thompson don't I'm hoping it was
just cramps that he was dealing with, hopefully nothing more
serious because he left the game at that point, but
just unbelievable shot making. He somehow managed to find like
a legit scoring rhythm against a defense that was designed
to get the ball out of his hands. I was
incredibly impressed. Eventually Houston started doubling him in the zone.

(34:33):
That was what happened in overtime. They were straight up
doubling him in the zone, and that started creating those
openings for those last two threes that Keseon Wallace and
Cheed Holmgren hit. Credit to those guys. They just kept
shooting and they knocked him down. So like in other words,
Shay was presented with a bizarre, massive lineup that was
guarding him in a variety of really weird and aggressive ways,

(34:56):
and he just kept going at them until he figured
it out. I couldn't be more impressed. It was a
night where a lot went wrong for Oklahoma City. Like
Check gives you a burst of scoring to start the game,
really impressive little burst. He hits like a three on
the wing. It's like a turnaround, tough, little right shoulder
fade over over. Kevin Durant hits a little mid range

(35:19):
jump shot in the middle of the zone. He's just
I think he had like seventeen in his first ship
for fifteen in his first ship. Check came out guns blazing,
but other than that, they didn't get any sort of
consistent shot creation from anybody that wasn't Shay the rest
of the night. J dub is obviously out still dealing
with the wrist injury. They shot six for twenty six

(35:39):
on unguarded catching two jump shots according to Synergy, and
you somehow win because Shay pulls thirty five points literally
out of nowhere against the defense. He had no business
putting that sort of scoring output against Just tip of
the cap to Shaye. Unbelievable preseason and followed it up

(36:00):
with an unbelievable debut. A lot of other good for
Oklahoma City. I thought their defense was super impressive all night.
They were physically outmatched basically at every position because of
that huge Houston lineup, and they just battled. One of
the underrated pieces of this game was like Houston did
a ton of damage on the offensive glass, but then

(36:21):
Oklahoma City ended up controlling the offensive glass late in
the game, got a bunch of extra possessions and extra
points out of that sort of thing they were scrapping.
They forced twenty four turnovers and got twenty six points
off of them. That's classic Oklahoma City basketball right there.
I know Lou Dort had a rough shooting night and
he had a bad foul against Kevin Durant obviously late

(36:41):
in the game, but I thought one of the most
underrated storylines of this game was just Lou Dort denying
Kevin Durant at the basketball. Like KD was sharp with
his attacks when he had the ball, so there's a
reason why he only had twenty three points. Houston couldn't
get the ball to him from the opening tip. Dort
was in his jersey and consistently positioning himself between the

(37:06):
ball like the passer and where KD was and just
making that entry pass super difficult. He even managed to
force a massive turnover late in the game that helped
swing the game. And like again, I always believe these
things are connected. Kevin Durant was zero for four from three,
and I thought a big part of it was the
way that Lou Door just wore down Kd's base with

(37:27):
all that physicality. Big time night from Lou Dort on
the defensive end of the four, Cruso and Cason Wallace
combined for six steals. I even thought Shay was great
defensively in this game. He brought a lot of ball
pressure to start. He ended up with two steals in
two blocks. I just thought he was competing really hard
on that end of the floor, understanding that that's how
they needed to win that game. And like, that's the thing.

(37:48):
This is going to be how Oklahoma City's gonna have
to win as long as Jadub is out. Without j Dub,
they just their light on refined offensive skill. We're gonna
see a ton of doubling and blitzing of Shay. We're
gonna see a ton of zone against them. They're gonna
have to win with defense to transition and with guys

(38:09):
quickly processing with ball and player movement knocking down threes
off of the attention that Shay draws. But tip of
the cap to Okay. See, that was a hell of
a way to start their title defense. Like you get
spoon fed, Like, yeah, here's your rings. And by the way,
here's one of the most talented rosters in the NBA
that's starting four to seven footers basically and They're gonna
beat the shit out of you physically all night. Let's

(38:30):
see you try to start your title defense and they
just battled, and they just got it done. Tip of
the cap to the Thunder. That was a super interesting
debut for the Rockets, though that team is gonna be
a problem again. I know KD wasn't as much of
a factor tonight because of the ball denial from Dort,
but I thought you saw a lot of the upside
right Like KD was nine for twelve on twos. That's

(38:53):
what happened when he was actually able to catch the
ball and attack. He just never misses a mid range
jump shot. When he gets a good look. He can
rest possessions with shot making in late clock situations. There
was a possession late where Dort was detached from him
because KD brought the ball at the floor and Shanggun
actually managed to hit him on a screen, which then
forced Hartenstein to step up easy little pocket pass to

(39:16):
Shangoon get a bucket on the short roll. That's the
kind of thing that when you're not playing Lou Dort
and you're able to run more ball screen action and
actually unlock Shangun as a roller that's going to be
an entirely different dynamic to this Rockets offense that we
didn't get to see too much of tonight. But like
it's a little bit more complicated. Like I did think,

(39:39):
you know, for all to talk about KD not getting
the basketball from the Dort denials, I watched a preseason
game where Houston played New Orleans and in that game
there were some extended stretches where Kad wasn't able to
get the basketball, and a big part of it was
it just wasn't finding its way to him as they
were playing through a men in Shangoon. And so I

(39:59):
think Udoka is going to have to do a little
bit more of an intentional job to make sure that
the ball finds its way to Kevin Durant more often. Again,
Dort is Dort. He's going to present some problems that
I think they can do better getting the ball to KD.
But I thought Shangun and the men Thompson were both
absolutely amazing. Thirty nine, eleven and seven from Shangun consistently
punishing the Okacs Smalls with post ups. He did some

(40:21):
damage to Chet two to one on one, did a
bunch of damage to Caruso. And this is a guy
who like did a ton of damage to Nicole Jokich
in Game seven last year, if you guys remember, but
Shangun was just backing him down and protecting the basketball,
getting to his left shoulder hook following his shot when
he would miss. Passing well. I thought he passed well
out of double teams all night. It was one of
the most efficient forms of offense was just give the

(40:43):
ball to Shangoon until someone sends a double. He showcase
the three point shot he's been working on all summer.
He hit several above the break threes off the wings. Again,
when they're running their two big lineups, that's going to
be super important. When Steven Adams is operating underneath the
basket as an offensive rebounder and cutter, that's going to
force guys like Shangoon and a Men Thompson to knock

(41:05):
down threes. And Shangun was hitting those threes. He's gonna
have to be able to hit those to space the floor.
He just looks poised for an All NBA campaign. He
looked like Houston's best player tonight. Unbelievable season debut for
Albert and Shangun and then a Men Thompson again, like
he was zero for seven from three and that's obviously
going to be the barrier between where he is right

(41:25):
now and where he wants to be as a player
in the future. And it's going to be a spacing
issue for Houston again, like a lot of the damage
that A Men did last year was working along the
baseline with Shang Goon around the elbows, kind of like
a high low kind of like vertical spacing angle. That's
not going to be there with Steven Adams on the floor.
It's going to for There was even a play where
Reed Shepherd kicked the ball out of bounds in the

(41:46):
left corner because Amen Thompson was cutting along the baseline
and the play where there was no space for him
to cut. So that's obviously something he'll have to work on.
Like hitting shots is going to be an imperative for
them this season. But other than that, I was incredibly
impressed by a Man as well, Like he made Sga
work all night. His recovery athleticism is completely insane. He

(42:09):
had a chase down block on Shae on a drive
that was ridiculous. He had this other play where he
stopped Kason Wallace in transition, Kaison's pushing the ball at
the floor and a man's like twenty feet behind him,
and a man like just straight up sprinted and got
back in front of Kaison and forced him to take
a retreat dribble, and I was like, this is ridiculous.
His speed at the wing is unlike anything I've ever seen.

(42:33):
But he also showed some insane upside as a slot
ISO option. The ball screen stuff was mixed, hit some
shots in the middle floor, also had some turnovers, some
bad kickouts. There were some mistakes from men there. That's
to be expected. He's being foisted into a ball handling
role that's kind of above what he's capable of right now,
so it's gonna come with some mistakes. But down the

(42:54):
stretch and regulation, especially with Dort denying KD they just
went to a men Thompson one on one off the
slot against Kason Wallace and he was getting buckets and like,
it kind of reminds me of John Morant in the
sense that he has this supreme first step and handle

(43:14):
to beat the first dude off the dribble, and then
he's kind of immune to spacing on the ball because
he doesn't have to get all the way to the rim.
He can just pop up off the ground around five
feet and he get all these little floaters in short
jump shots there that make him extremely difficult to guard. Again,
like down the stretch of this game, they were playing
through a men in regulation and he was getting buckets. Again,

(43:38):
it's gonna be up and down. There's gonna be mistakes.
He's a young player, but like his upside is preposterous
now again, like it's flawed for Houston in general. Like
I said, they gotta find a way to keep Kevin
Durant involved. That was something that was an issue dating
back to preseason. They have spacing issues like shang gun
shot the ball well, but a men. Thompson and Tari
Easton got a lot of open shots that didn't go in.

(43:59):
I think between the two of them, they were like,
oh for a dozen. We saw the issues in this
particular matchup. I talked before the season about how is
severely concerned about their lack of ball handling, specifically in
this matchup with Oklahoma City, specifically leading to turnovers and
transition problems. They gave up twenty six points on twenty
four turnovers, so there's a lot that they have to
work out, but they also clearly present real problems for

(44:22):
everyone else. They're monstrous on the offensive glass. They have
a ton of length that can cause problems for any offense,
elite on ball defenders to throw out the best players
in the world. They have three real matchup problems on offense,
like Shan Gun's a matchup problem, A Men Thompson in
his ability to just iso dudes in space, that's a problem.

(44:42):
And Kevin Durant is Kevin freaking duran They're gonna find
a way to manufacture points. They just have a ton
of talent. I don't know if they're gonna be able
to win the whole thing, but they just strike me
as one of those teams that is going to present
some real problems for a lot of teams and is
at the very least a upset threat against everyone. All right, Jackson,
let's get into our questions for the night.

Speaker 3 (45:12):
Let's do it.

Speaker 2 (45:13):
What is going on? Uh?

Speaker 1 (45:16):
First one is gonna be what did you think of
the entire NBC broadcast experience today?

Speaker 2 (45:25):
I thought it was awesome. They kind of like kept
it true to the spirit of basketball, like light on
fluff heavy on like the pomp and circumstance of the
actual game, right like we're here, we're gonna show the
national anthem, We're gonna show the player introductions, like we're
getting ready to do opening tip instead of like doing

(45:46):
some sort of quick interview or sideline report or or
like some sort of just random diet tribe from the
from the broadcast crew. We just got to like soak
it all in, right, Like it just got to did
they go radio silence and we just get to listen
to the whole thing. I thought the broadcast crew was great.
I thought the the Michael Jordan halftime thing was just

(46:08):
like kind of funny. You can tell, like I'm not
the first one of this joke, but you could just
tell that they literally like sat down with Michael Jordan
for an hour and they're just gonna cut it up
into little clips throughout the season. So it's super efficient
on that rod, I guess. But like it just felt
like it just felt nostalgic and it felt like NBA
hoops and I just just ten out of ten. No, No,
it's what were your thoughts, Jackson?

Speaker 1 (46:29):
Yeah, I thought the pregame did a really good job
of sort of and a lot of people made this
point online much more celebratory of the game than some
of the other broadcast partners like ESPN and TNT that
had been pointed out, you know previously, and which is
I liked those broadcasts too, to be honest, but like
I thought they was really celebratory tonight. I thought, I
think Maria Taylor is just consistently great pretty much everything

(46:51):
she does. She was awesome tonight. I have thought Tracy
mcgrady's kind of hit her miss sometimes. I thought he
was really good in the pregame. I of Jamal Crawford
on the game. He was great on the game. It
was even though Reggie Miller is kind of a polarizing
guy and I think he's gotten better.

Speaker 3 (47:07):
Than he used to be.

Speaker 1 (47:09):
It did feel I like that he was on this
specifically the first game of the night, because it felt
it was a little bit of familiarity. Everything was new,
Every other part of the broadcast was new, but he
was something that we're used to hearing, and I thought
that was actually valuable.

Speaker 2 (47:25):
That's a great point. Yeah, Like there's something about hearing
Reggie Miller, even if it does come with the occasion,
like there was a stretch where Oklahoma City was doubling
Shanghun post ups and He's like, Shayguon's letting him off
the hook. He needs to put him in the blender.
And I'm like, he's literally getting double team that. He's
making great passes out so he's making the right read
every single time. I don't know what you about to do,
but like, yeah, there's something there. Speaking of nostalgia, there's

(47:47):
something nostalgic about watching a big NBA game and having
Reggie Miller in the background saying Reggie Miller things.

Speaker 3 (47:53):
Absolutely absolutely and it's and it was.

Speaker 1 (47:56):
A really good pairing with Jamal Crawford, who is consistently
just getting smart inside the entire time. It's like a
fun little two players but very different styles contrasts. I
thought that broadcast team specifically was really good. The second
one was, you know, it was okay. I think Grant
Hill is okay, no Eagles sounds exactly like his dad.

Speaker 3 (48:13):
Though it's great.

Speaker 2 (48:14):
He does it's kind of creepy, but he's great at it.
He just he just he understands the assignment absolutely.

Speaker 1 (48:20):
All right, We'll do a couple of rockets questions or
a couple of questions from that game, and a couple
of questions from the league game, and then I got here.
First question is about Reed Shepherd. What did you think
of his performance? And then and do you think he
can be maybe not the whole answer, but at least
part of the answer for the Rockets and their ball
handling situation.

Speaker 2 (48:37):
So I feel like re did some good tonight. I
thought he made some good decisions coming off of action.
There was a certain amount of like with KD being
denied the basketball, they kind of needed someone to confidently
step into some shots. And like, yeah, he didn't shoot
the ball efficiently, but he got to the foul line
a couple of times, and he was he hit that

(48:57):
one little tough kind of jump jumper along the right
base line, like in the second half, like he kind
of manufactured some points. I thought that I was. I
was more impressed with him defensively in preseason than I
was in tonight's game. I thought he looked physically overwhelmed
at the point of attack. A few times he gave
up like five or six pretty bad straight line drives.

(49:17):
You know, I have a hard time with uh with
Reid because I texted Sam Messini the other day because
I was like, hey, man, like I just don't see
it with Reid, Like what's going on? Like I see
a guy that can guard a little bit, who like
competes and flies around in rotation and can make plays.
I see a guy who can shoot, but I don't

(49:38):
see like this dynamic on ball player. And Sam was like,
trust me, he's like he can really shoot, So like,
wait till he figures that out, that'll be fine. And
he can do better defensively than he's shown. And I
trust Sam, like Sam scouted Read to a much greater
extent than I did when he was a younger player.
But I will admit that, like I don't see the

(50:00):
same like crazy upside that a lot of some of
the NBA hipsters talk about with Shepherd. And I just
be like, and I'm not just I like literally, out
there in the entire world, there's a ton of Read
Shepherd buzz. It's like kind of all you can see
is everyone's like reach Epherd, this reach Epherd dad, And
like I, he certainly has potential, but I just I

(50:21):
haven't really seen that bear out at the NBA level yet.
I don't look at him as a solution to their
ball handling problems. But I've been wrong before, so not
gonna brag.

Speaker 1 (50:30):
I thought the ball handling and the defense are pretty underwhelming.
It does seem like he can be a pretty light
seut shooter, and I thought he was good coming off faction.
He was not able to solve the thunderball pressure, I'll
say that. And they're the fastball better team in the league,
so it's not like we should write him off because
of that, but he did not have the chops for
it tonight.

Speaker 2 (50:48):
It's a hell of a first test for Houston's offense
for sure.

Speaker 1 (50:51):
Like it's it's you know, he gets onto like the
worst situation possible, and they always want and they almost want.
Next question, do you feel like okay See's struggling today
a sort of a championship hangover Ring Knight situation or
do you feel like the lack of Jadup.

Speaker 3 (51:05):
Is going to be sort of an issue for them
until he comes back.

Speaker 2 (51:09):
I think that the book is out on how to
guard Oklahoma City in general from the postseason, which is
throw a bunch of zone at them, and like here's
the thing with the zone, like because like there's this
idea that like oh, well, they got great looks, they're
just going to go in. One of the things that
happens with zone is it changes the rhythm of the
game and it just feels like very different basketball than

(51:30):
what you're accustomed to playing. Now, this could go the
other direction. If you zone Oklahoma City too much, these
guys are just gonna get good at it. It's gonna
and then it's gonna become a problem. And for the record,
they had some success against the zone in the postseason
as the as the series went longer. But in general,
I think we're gonna see a lot of double teaming
and blitzing a Shay, a lot of packing the pain

(51:52):
on his drives, a lot of zone, and a lot
of just daring everybody else to beat them while J
Dub's out. And I mean, i'd argue that's how teams
are gonna guard them even when J Dubb is there
right now, like I do think, I thought in the
first half, Houston actually did a really nice job pressuring them,
and most of their looks were pretty rushed and contested.

(52:14):
In the second half, I thought they missed some really
good looks and that's where you can't really fault the process, Like,
it's kind of like those above the break threes off
the wing, and Chatt and case On both missed some
of those too in addition to making them, but like
you kind of have to take them. Like if you're
not taking them, then you're basically asking Shay to just
rescue you with shot making the entire game. That's too
much to ask. At a certain point, the defensive coverage

(52:36):
is designed to concede that shot, and you have to
take it, and you've got the players who can make them,
and to their credit, they hit the ones they needed.

Speaker 1 (52:43):
Late last question on this game. Thought on the missed
timeout call.

Speaker 2 (52:50):
Katie got away with one. I mean it was it was.
It was pretty clear. I mean he I. It was
one of those things where like as a basketball fan,
you have to be happy they didn't call it, because
what a lame ass way to end that game if
they end that with Katie getting a technical for the

(53:10):
time out. So like I wasn't complaining as a fan,
but watching the game, I was like, yeah, Katie, you
got away with one right there.

Speaker 1 (53:17):
And it's and you know, the basketball gods shine down
and gave OKC at one point win.

Speaker 2 (53:21):
Yes, they did. They did on a foul. On there
you go.

Speaker 3 (53:26):
I'm sure exactly exactly.

Speaker 1 (53:29):
I'll take a couple of questions from the late game
early on, and you know, with an opponent like the Lakers,
but do you think this type of Warriors performance can
can carry over against higher quality competition, you know, specifically
with Denver on Thursday.

Speaker 2 (53:44):
So Denver is actually kind of a similar matchup to
the Lakers in the sense that they have a big
that Golden State can attack in space, and they're generally faster.
I think the Warriors are faster than Denver. I texted
you this, and it's like it's not a skepticism necessarily
about the Warriors, it's just like the reality of this,
just this job. Like I personally would like to see

(54:07):
Golden State try to score against a faster defense, just
to kind of get a better evaluation of like Jimmy
and Jonathan kaminga like, guess what what happens when you
play against a faster defense. Those reads get harder, those
reads get more difficult to make, right, and the shots
each get a little bit tougher to make as you're
rushed and you're a little bit out of rhythm. Right, So,

(54:28):
like I do want to see what it looks like
against tougher competition, But like, how could you not be enthused?
I mean, like the Lakers. Yeah, the Lakers are behind schedule,
where no one's debating that, and obviously not having Lebron
as a problem, but there's still some talent on that team.
And like I thought, I thought, like aside, like, do
you agree with me that had Luca not gone nuclear,
they win that game by thirty? Like I thought, they

(54:49):
thoroughly out class the Lakers easily.

Speaker 3 (54:52):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (54:52):
Yeah, Like Luca like straight up turned a double digit
deficit into a tie game before the half with that
crazy haymaker he threw at the end of the second quarter,
And like, I just thought, here's the thing. All you
hope to see from a team on opening night is
for them to come out play well, and they came
out and beat the shit out of the Lakers. So like,
I couldn't see that as anything other than a positive.

(55:13):
But I think Denver will kind of. I think Denver
is a matchup that favors Golden State athletically and isn't
necessarily a true test of their offense. Let's just put
it that way.

Speaker 1 (55:24):
Yeah, And I think you know, I don't expect Jimmy
Butler to have this kind of scoring performance every single night,
but Steth Curry was going to shoot the ball a
lot better, absolutely get a pretty below his standards. He
had the Dagger pretty below his standard shooting performance. So
I think it's all going to kind of normalize, and
I expect them to be pretty pretty darn to good

(55:45):
in the regular season if they can stay healthy, which
is you know, been the big.

Speaker 3 (55:49):
Question that said they are very deep.

Speaker 1 (55:51):
I could not stop talking texting during the game, and
I forgot about Moses Moody.

Speaker 3 (55:54):
Somehow, who is We'll be back imminently.

Speaker 2 (55:57):
It seems like, yeah, they just have They just have.
Every year they just have like thirteen fourteen dudes like
in this Will Will Richards the next guy in this line.
But it's like every year they just they find dudes
who know how to play basketball in their system, and
it's just it is a testament to their culture. And
I've been really fascinated by this with teams like Golden
State and like Indiana and Boston and Oklahoma City. Oklahoma

(56:20):
City's like this too. They keep finding dudes that just
can play. And there a j Mitchell today, like they
just they like these these really smart organizations, they can
find dudes on the margins in a way that other
teams can.

Speaker 1 (56:33):
Yeah, I think this being able to self analyze and
know who you are is just so valuable. These seems
to know exactly who they are what they want to
do on both sides of the ball, and they know
exactly and so it makes a lot easier to find
players who fit in that as opposed to team when
you're kind of just like, who are we, what are
we trying to do?

Speaker 3 (56:47):
Do we know what we want to do? X, Y
and Z.

Speaker 1 (56:51):
Last question for the night. Jonathan Kaminga obviously had a
very good game, at least in the second half. Do
you think he should be an automatic starter going forward
or at least, you know, in the short term, or
do you think it should be a sort.

Speaker 3 (57:02):
Of a matchup to matchup night tonight decision?

Speaker 2 (57:06):
So, actually, I want you before I give my take care,
I want you to give your take on the like
the politically like smart way to go. Yeah, that's how
you made a good point when you were texting me
about it.

Speaker 1 (57:15):
Yeah. Yeah, when they and when the you know, the
report today was that he was going to start My
immediate reaction was that, I think politically for the Warriors
and for Steve Kerr, it's very it's the right move
to start him right away and like for at least
a couple of weeks, because either you know, hopefully it
goes hopefully for that and it goes like it went
tonight and he looks not like a superstar maybe, but

(57:37):
like he can certainly be productive and good in a
lineup with Jimmy, Dre and Stepp, which was sort of
the big question.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
And you're hoping that can continue.

Speaker 1 (57:44):
And if it and so if it does great, you
either you feel like you maybe have something you can
keep him, or his trade value is boosted and you
can go get something more than you've been offered to
this point. And then if it goes poorly, you can say, hey,
we we we held up our end of the bargain.
We started the guy for two weeks. He gave him
twenty games or whatever as a starter.

Speaker 2 (58:02):
What do he want us to do?

Speaker 1 (58:03):
He doesn't look good like And you know, I think
there's two sides of that point. But I think politically
and just from like a game theory perspective, for the Warriors,
it makes sense to give him a decent leash to
start the season, just to sort of because you're clearly
good enough, Like even what even if he had he
had a bad game, they're still gonna win tonight. You're
clearly good enough to like stay afloat even if he's

(58:24):
not awesome. And so I would just keep starting.

Speaker 3 (58:27):
Him at least for them for a couple of weeks.

Speaker 2 (58:29):
I have one hundred percent agree with you. It's like
it's like couples counseling for them in the sense it's
like they're one last hurrah. Like it's like this is
the last thing we're gonna try. Like, here's the deal
Dead series team championship caliber roster. We're putting you in
with the starters. Show us what you got. And I
think I think Steve's gonna give him a little runway

(58:49):
here and like and if he if he continues to
play like he did in the second half tonight, like
it just ends all of the discussions surrounding some of
these other issues, Like they deployed him on the ball tonight,
and he struggled with Luca, but like Lucas Luca and
like and Lucas specifically has some success against upright wings
because he's just so much stronger than them, But like

(59:11):
they focus him in an on ball roll defensively, and
then like he actually does provide some of the firepower
they need, the ability to attack a mismatch here and there,
the ability to knock down a catch and shoot shot,
to fly up the floor, and transition. I thought the
most encouraging part of the second half attack there was
them kind of using him in three man action effectively,

(59:31):
like basically saying like we could we don't need you
to be a satellite guy. We can use you as
part of the weapon with which we unleath unleash the
Steph Curry attack like it just as far as like
going matchup to matchup, I think that's almost the worst
thing you could do, because that could toy with his
rhythm and toy with his confidence a little bit. I
would just ride him out as the starter for a

(59:51):
little while here and just see what he's got. And
like again, like if we're seven eight games into this
and they're you know, five and three or or four
and four, and Jonathan's been more bad than good, like
then then it's like you tried counseling and it didn't work,
and that means it's time to break up. Yeah, Like
it's the last it's the last hurrah. Here, it's the

(01:00:12):
last try. And like Steve Kerr is basically saying, like, dude,
we're putting the ball one hundred percent in your court. Here,
show us what you can do.

Speaker 1 (01:00:19):
Yeah, And I thought he definitely had some moments that
looked like the last couple of seasons, and he definitely
had some moments where I was like, oh, he would
not have done that before. He had multiple attacks where
normally he's once he gets in the paint, that ball's
he's going on. Yeah, and he's he's a good pretty
good finishing.

Speaker 3 (01:00:35):
He's pretty athletic, So like, I get one.

Speaker 1 (01:00:37):
But he had he threw it a fast break valube
to to Jimmy Butler in the first half. In the
second half, he had a downhill drive that the big
I forget which big it was, came over and helped
late and he actually dumped it off to aut for
Ford in a pretty like kind of funky manner. It
was kind of not the easiest dump off past. I
was like, oh wow, that's definitely an attempt at a
poster last season and you're and if you're a Warriors fan,

(01:00:59):
if you were thinking bets negatively like I might have been,
you might have thought Jonathan Coming is trying to get
his this year, He's gonna go for that post. And
I was like, he played pretty soundly within the system
all most of the night.

Speaker 2 (01:01:11):
I thought, yeah, and he overcame some of his mistakes,
like like he did try to like cock back a
tip dunk for no reason and smoking up.

Speaker 3 (01:01:21):
A crystal moment as the Lakers are making a run.

Speaker 2 (01:01:23):
Yeah, yeah, like he had. He had a couple of
those moments, but like he just overcame them, and like
he was, I thought he was instrumental in that early
third quarter run when they put the game away. All right, guys,
it's all we have for Night one. As always, as
sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting the show.
We are gonna be back tomorrow night live on YouTube.

(01:01:44):
I'm gonna rewatch these games tomorrow morning. I'll maybe bring
some thoughts to the game, uh or to the show
tomorrow night. But we got a jam pack slate tomorrow.
I think we're closing with San Antonio versus Dallas. That's
gonna be fun. One Wenby versus a d and that
massive front line in Dallas, So lots of interesting basketball
to get into tomorrow and then we're live again after
Denver Golden State on Thursday night, three straight lives start

(01:02:05):
the season again. As always a sincerely appreciate you guys
for supporting us. We will see you tomorrow night.