NBA LIVE REACTION: Warriors epic W vs. Nuggets, Thunder vs. Pacers + Chauncey Billups gambling story

Jason reacts live after Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, and the Golden State Warriors wrap up their game against Nikola Jokic and the Denver Nuggets. He breaks down that game, the Indiana Pacers’ NBA Finals rematch against the Oklahoma City Thunder, last night's Minnesota Timberwolves’ win over the Portland Trail Blazers behind Anthony Edwards' big game, and finally Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier being arrested by the FBI and the information that was released about NBA gambling and poker games.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:01):
The volume. All right, welcome to him tonight. You're at
the volume heavy Thursday, everybody. Hope all you guys are
having a great end to your week. The NBA season

(00:21):
is off to just a completely ridiculous start, both on
and off the court, as we had a crazy gambling
scandal today that we'll be touching on briefly at the
tail end of the show. But the basketball has been
fantastic and we're covering the two nationally televised games from tonight,
leading off with that epic showdown between the Nuggets and
the Warriors, a ridiculous Steph Curry masterclasses. He scores thirteen

(00:45):
straight points down the stretch in regulation to send it
to ot sixteen straight overall forty two points, six rebounds,
and seven assists. Unbelievable performance from Steph Curry to overcome
just a ridiculous shooting performance from Aaron Gordon as well
as a high powered Denver Nuggets attack. Lots of interesting
stuff to get into in that game. After that, the

(01:06):
Oklahoma City thunder have to play really ugly basketball right
now due to a bunch of injuries, but they continue
to grind out wins with another double overtime win over
a scrappy Indiana Pacers team on the road in Indiana.
Lots of interesting stuff to get into there. As promised,
I wanted to get into one of the other league
pass games from last night's slate, and so we'll be
doing a brief segment on the Minnesota Timberwolves leading off

(01:27):
their season with a win on the road in Portland
against the Trailblazers. And then, as mentioned earlier tail end
of the show, we're going to be briefly touching on
the gambling scandal that ripped through the NBA today as
Chauncey Billups and Terry Rozier were both arrested. And reminder,
we're doing a mail bag tomorrow morning, So if you
want to hit on one of the other games from last
night slate, drop the questions, drop your mailbag questions in

(01:50):
the YouTube comments, and in tomorrow's mail bag, we will
have an opportunity to circle around to the rest of
the league. I've got a bunch of games on my
film schedule for tomorrow morning. I'd love to see how
how in the hell Toronto went in and embarrassed Atlanta.
I want to see how the Clippers ended up getting
embarrassed in Utah. Lots of interesting stuff to get into
and tomorrow's show as well. You guys are the joke
for you. Get started to subscribe to Hoops and I

(02:11):
YouTube channel so you don't miss any more of our videos.
Follow me on Twitter and underscore jcnlts you guys, don't
miss you announcements. Don't forget our podcast feed where you
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if you leave a rating and review on that front.
Jackson's doing great work on our social media feeds on Twitter, Instagram,
Facebook and TikTok. Make sure you guys follow us there.
And then, as we mentioned before, keep dropping your mail
back questions in the YouTube comments and we'll get to

(02:32):
them throughout the remainder of the season.

Speaker 2 (02:33):
All right, let's talk some basketball.

Speaker 1 (02:34):
So one of the things that I've talked about every
single team that we have, especially that's in that second
tier when you're talking about the teams off of that
Oklahoma City Denver tier, and I'd argue that's gotten more complicated.
Houston to me, looks like a team that has a
lot of firepower and at least will be making a
case to be included in that tier. I was texting

(02:55):
with Jackson before the show, like, to me, Golden State
looks closer to that than they do to the tier
of teams beneath them in the first couple of games
that we've watched. But we'll obviously keep an eye on that.
It's only been two games. But one of the things
that I talked about for the second tier of teams
is there are these like swing factors, Right, you need
this to go this way, and you need this to
go that way. And if these things kind of break

(03:16):
your way all of a sudden, you got a dead
serious team on your hands. And two of the big
things that we had our eye on for the Warriors
coming into the season was the ability of Jonathan Kaminga
to play a winning role for this team. And then
we talked about Steph Curry being the guy that's like
twenty eight twenty nine points per game MVP candidate Steph

(03:40):
Curry versus twenty three twenty four points per game. Still
offensive engine, Steph Curry, still a guy that's a highly
underrated offensive player, but that isn't bringing the scoring in
position to the table, right, Like, which version of Steph
we get both throughout the season and when we get
to the postseason is a key swing actor for this team.

(04:01):
Jimmy Butler's ability to score the basketball. That was a
big one we had our eye on. And like once
again tonight in that late first quarter stretch, early second
quarter stretch, Jimmy comes out and just starts manufacturing points
to carry the offense. Lots of things are breaking towards
the things that the Warriors needed in order to accomplish
their goals this year. I want to start with Steph though,

(04:22):
because again, the big, the big thing that is the
defining characteristic of MVP caliber Steph is He's gonna get
guarded as a shooter no matter what. He still has
that reputation, But is he gonna also hit enough shots
to bolster the team's offense through sheer, scoring, volume, and efficiency.
And that was just a like an unbelievable display of

(04:44):
shot making down the stretch that game, like ridiculously difficult
movement threes, running to his left, running through, running to
his right, beating people off the dribble, and finishing in traffic,
working his way to the foul line by getting defenders
out of position. The two shots that he hit to
send it two overtime. We're ridiculously difficult shots. And again,
this is a situation where the defense is extremely keyed

(05:07):
in on him, and in order for him to be
able to knock down shots off the move, there's a
certain amount of strength in his base that he needs.
And that's the kind of thing that you worry about
for an aging guard, right That's the thing that you
worry about as a player gets older is the tougher
shots when you really have to sprint into them, especially

(05:28):
in like physical games. Those shots can be really hard
to stop your body on a dime and get the
lift that you need to unlock his apex talent, which
is his shooting ability. And I just think it's an
awesome indicator for Steph to start this season that he
had this kind of scoring outburst. I was optimistic about it.

(05:51):
We talked about it in our previews. One of the
reasons why I expected Steph to get off to a
great start this year is just I think he's one
of the apex competitive of this generation, and I think
that he senses the opportunity that's in front of him.
Steve Kurr has come out and said it, this is
a roster that he thinks makes sense. Stephen, Draymond, and
Jimmy have all come out and said it. They understand

(06:13):
that they have an opportunity here. And I think when
you get like APEX competitor, and then there's like this
carrot that's hanging on a stick, right, and the carrot
is what drives that APEX competitor forward. And if the
stick is too long and the carrot seems too far
off in the distance, it can be hard to get
that motor running right. But when it's closer, when it's

(06:34):
there and it feels like you can reach out and
grab it, they're going to run like hell to go
get it. And this is an example what we're seeing
from Steph here early, even above and beyond the statistical
reduction and the shots that he's hitting, you could see
it in his body language. There's a level of intensity
and just overall like outward visceral competitiveness that we're seeing
from him because I think he senses an opportunity here.

(06:56):
I think he knows he's got a team that's good
enough to potentially win it, compete for a championship, and
I think he's going to do everything in his power
that is within his control to help the team accomplish that,
whether or.

Speaker 2 (07:10):
Not they're good enough.

Speaker 1 (07:11):
There's a lot of things that are out of his
control there, but you bet your ass Steph Curry, because
he's done it for the entirety of his career, is
gonna maximize what this team can bring to the table.
And just an unbelievable opening salvo from him to start
this season. I thought that the tenor, the tone and
tenor of the game shifted right around the late second quarter.

(07:34):
There was a timeout, some frustration from the Warriors guys,
and you know they're getting their eyes shot out by
Aaron Gordon the rest of that career. The Nuggets are
super high powered offense. We're gonna talk some Nuggets here
in a minute. If you're a Nuggets fan, there's a
lot to be encouraged by by what you saw tonight.
The Warriors are a damn good basketball team and they're
hard to beat in Golden State. There's a lot to

(07:54):
be excited about. It's an eighty two game season. That
was a good team that came in and delivered a
hell of a punch to Golden State, and they were
kind of rattled a little bit in that late second
quarter stretch, from right down the stretch of the second
quarter and flowing through the rest of the game, I
thought there was a massive uptick in the overall defensive
intensity from Golden State. I talk a lot about how

(08:17):
the like to me, leaning on shot variants as an
explainer for whether or not shots go in or they don't.
To me is a loser mentality first of all, just
based purely on the science of it. I think shot
variance is really far down the list of the factors
that actually cause makes and misses. It certainly is a factor,
but I think it's especially in the modern MBA with

(08:38):
the way the game is covered, I think it can
be over indexed, and the way we talk about it,
I think we focus on.

Speaker 2 (08:43):
It too much.

Speaker 1 (08:44):
I'm a big believer that, like you gotta make them miss,
you got to do something that makes them uncomfortable, that
rushes them, that disrupts their rhythm. If there's two ways
to look at what Aaron Gordon did in that first half,
he goes seven for seven from three. It was the
second most threes made without a miss in a half
an NBA history. There's two ways to look at that.
You can go ah shit, Aaron Gordon's making everything. This

(09:07):
is ridiculous. One is he going to miss? That's the
loser way to.

Speaker 2 (09:09):
Look at it.

Speaker 1 (09:10):
The winner way to look at it is like these
are open looks. He had made five in a row,
and Jonathan Kaming is ducking under a screen as Aaron
Gordon rises into his sixth make like, you've got to
accept personal responsibility for the outcome, especially on the things
that you have control of. And right in that stretch
there in the late second quarter, fuel I think it

(09:31):
started with Draymond in his just physicality on Jokicch. He
just started really pressuring the hell out of Yokicch and
kind of beating the hell out of him, and all
over the floor in their ball pressure, they did the
same thing and everybody just got a little less comfortable,
and that kind of trickled into that third quarter where
the Warriors have been an excellent third quarter team to
start the season.

Speaker 2 (09:50):
Not a big shock.

Speaker 1 (09:50):
They're known as the third quarter Warriors for a reason.
That's been a staple of the Steph Curry era. They
come out in that third quarter, they continue that defensive
intensity and physicality, and they work their way all the
way back into the game, and now they're in a
dog fight, and they just kept battling again. Like Aaron
Gordon comes in in that early fourth quarter stretch and

(10:11):
he gets like an an one and hits another three,
and you're like, oh shit, it's you know, one o
eight to one hundred, and all of a sudden, it
looks like Denver's taking control of the game again. And
like Steph Curry gets a steal, leads to a Will
Richard pull up three on the right wing. In transition,
will Richard was fantastic in this game. We'll talk about
him in a minute. They go right back down, they

(10:32):
get another stop, then Steph has a driving layup on
Christian Brown, perfectly defended by Christian Brown, but Steph makes
the layup anyway, just a quick little five zero run
that gets them right back in the game. Little bits
of like battling in physicality down the stretch that led
to misses like Denver, if you're a Denver fan, you're
kicking yourself over three missed layups down the stretch of

(10:52):
the game. There was a Jokis little left shoulder hook
on Al Horford that he missed right at the front
of the rim. There was a little inside right hand
fini from Jamal Murray on the left side of the
rim that he missed, and then obviously the play right
at the end of regulation. But those aren't one hundred
percent shots. They are contested rim finishes, now, are they
higher percentage? Like Jokich is probably going to hit ninety

(11:13):
percent of those little left shoulder hooks that are right
at the front of the rim like he did on Horford.
Jamal Murray's probably going to hit sixty sixty five percent
of that tough inside hand finish the play at the
end of regulation. That's a much tougher one. Draymond I
thought defended it really well. I thought it was a
good no call. But that's a shot Yokich can hit,
you know, fifty five sixty percent of the time, as
we know, that's been a staple in his career. How

(11:34):
do you get them to be the ten percent that
missed the Horford shot, the thirty five percent that missed
the little inside hand layout from Jamal Murray, or the
forty five percent misses of those Jokic little left shoulder
hooks by beating them to the spot, applying the physicality
and making them miss the damn shot. Today's show is

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or Virginia. And I just thought that there was like
a level of that physical intention that Golden State brought
the entirety of the second half and down the stretch

(14:04):
in that second quarter that forced Denver into the cold
stretches offensively that they had, that forced them into the
misses that they had. Again, like take control of what
you can control. Jackson texted me over the course of
the middle of the fourth quarter and he goes like,
I wonder with how big some of these Western Conference
teams are. Obviously Houston massive frontline, right, Oklahoma City can

(14:26):
play chet and Isaiah Hartenstein, they can bring a size
element to the table. Dallas obviously a massive team. With
all these like really big teams in the Western Conference,
Jackson was like, well, what about like a lineup where
you essentially just play steph with all of the big dudes,
like with Jimmy Jonathan kaminga Al Horford and Draymond Green, And.

Speaker 2 (14:48):
I shit you not.

Speaker 1 (14:49):
Right after he texted me that they put him in
the game and they wrote him out the rest of
the night. And you know what's interesting is like, is
that gonna be what they do every single game? No,
it's gonna depend on the match. Like Denver is very
much a bigger and slower team, So I think it's
an appropriate way to match up in that situation. There
will be situations where it makes absolutely no sense at

(15:09):
all to use that lineup. But one of the things
I talk about on the show all the time is like,
winning an NBA championship is not about being the best
offensive raiding team, or the best defensive rating team, or
the best net rating team, or the best clutch team
or whatever it might be. It's literally about are you
capable of beating four completely different types of teams four

(15:30):
times out of seven over the course of two months.
It's a versatility game, and the Warriors have a punch
now that they have never had in my time watching
the team, where they have the ability to size up
while maintaining the spacing and movement that they need to succeed.

(15:51):
They were scoring with that group, al Horford hitting that
corner three out of the right corner when Jokich was
roaming and again like this was an early overtime and
if you have remember right at the start of overtime,
Steph beat Christian Brown off of a little off ball
action to the top of the key, turned over his
right shoulder and hit like a twenty five footer. And
on that play, the Nuggets didn't have anybody showing at

(16:12):
the level. And so one of the things that Jokic
is trying to do there is he's going Christian Brown's
in a lock and trail, and there's an easy opportunity
for guys to get open on slips when people are
showing up at the level. Jokic is like, I got
a roam, I've got to be around trying to troll
around the paint and potentially show at the level on

(16:33):
a screen. If Steph comes off looking to shoot, He's
essentially trying to counter Steph's movement by roaming off of
Al Horford. And then the past when that was Kevon Looney,
that was that was a guy that that you could
roam off of in that situation, and Al Horford burns
him with the right corner. Three Jokics thrown it through

(16:53):
a decent contest at the end, but Horford burns him,
and like the broadcast is calling out that Steve Kurse smiling.

Speaker 2 (17:00):
You know why he's smiling.

Speaker 1 (17:01):
That's a flexibility he hasn't had in years past, the
ability to space the floor while also sizing up. And
I think it just there were a couple other things
defensively in that stretch. They did a really good job
of essentially taking away any of the mismatch opportunities that
Denver could attack. This was something we saw in the
Nuggets game, or excuse me, the Lakers game on Tuesday night,

(17:24):
if you guys remember, but Joe rat by the way,
if you guys follow on Twitter, I highly recommend if
you haven't, he just does like little like video explainers
of some of the actions that Golden State runs just
as a really good job covering the team. But he
put together a little video explainer talking about the hedge
and recover sequences and the scram switching that Golden State

(17:46):
was using to protect Steph from Luca, And it started
with Luca hitting a little right shoulder fade off of
Steph in the middle of the floor, attacking him once
and then they basically were unable to attack that match
up the rest of the way, and then obviously tonight
down the stretch, the game. They had their handful of
plays where they were able to go out Steph throughout
the regulation, but in crunch time they were able to

(18:06):
essentially stash Steph on the back line and scram switch.
Anytime they brought Steph's man up the screen, they just
put someone else. Jonathan Kamena, Jimmy Butler, alhor for Draymond Green.
It was just like the two man game for Murray
and Jokic, with a steady diet of big, athletic, versatile
defenders that they had to take their pick of attacking,

(18:28):
and so it was a lot of like tougher shots
like Jonathan Kaminga. He's been a revelation to start this year,
but he had so many like little defensive plays that
I thought played a big role. He had a play
where he was guarding Aaron Gordon on the left block
and like this is red hot, damn near dropped fifty

(18:48):
Aaron Gordon, and he pressured him and bumped him so
good on the little right shoulder fade that Aaron Gordon
like like hit the corner of the backboard on a
fade away. He I need to see the replay to
see if it was actually a blocker a foul, but
he had a really nice rotation to Yokich in overtime
where he hit him like kind of beat him to
the spot, applied physicality on his base and it looked

(19:10):
like he might have blocked Yokich up top on like
a little hook shot. Jonathan Kamingo was phenomenal defensively down
the stretch of this game, and what it does like
when he's making the right decisions on offense. And again,
like I thought he made all the right reads on offense.
There was a play early in overtime where he kind
of took it upon himself to drive to the rim,
but he had space. I didn't think it was a

(19:31):
bad take, and he just smoked an easy layup and
he smoked a putback. I didn't think that was a
bad play. He made good decisions and made enough plays
on offense to get Steve Kerr to trust him to
stay on the floor, which unlocked this group of four
super versatile dudes that were just all communicating and scramming
each other out of switches and rotating and like, there

(19:52):
were a handful of mistakes, like Draymond Green lost Aaron
Gordon on a little pin screen from Jamal Murray at
the elbow that where Aaron Gordon hit three late in regulation.
There were a handful of mistakes and some tough shot
making from some really good players for Denver, but for
the most part, that unit was able to make Denver
pretty uncomfortable. And so I just think it's a testament

(20:13):
to the versatility that this particular Warriors roster has compared
to previous iterations of the team. Again, a couple other
quick shout outs. Jonathan kmingad like I just I it's
only been two games. Sure, I have one of the
things I talked about in last night's show. If you
guys remember the thing with the Warriors is they've faced

(20:35):
two bigger, slower teams to start the season. I am
really curious to see what they look like offensively against
more of a quicker, more athletic, perimeter based team. So
there's gonna be different matchups that I think will challenge
them in different ways. But the two first tests, you
have a middle tier Western Conference team on the road,
and then you have a team that I consider to

(20:55):
be the championship favorite at this point in Denver, and
you win them both and you show very impressive things
on both ends of the floor in both games, and
in each game, Johnathan Kaminga was able to play a
dead serious winning role. He was unbelievable in the second
half against the Lakers in throughout this game, but especially

(21:18):
in the second half. Defensively, Jonathan Kminga was unbelievable in
this game. And so, like, you know, all to talk
about what the Warriors need, they need a you know,
potentially a wing that can be athletic and make plays
and function in their offense, or they need a scoring
guard or whatever it is. They don't need any of
that shit if this is the Jonathan Kaminga they're gonna get.

(21:38):
And so again, like it's only two games, but I
just think it's a wonderful start for him on that front.
Will Richard, there was a moment there where I thought
he might close the game because of how late he
was playing into the fourth quarter, and the couple of
things that stood out to me. First of all, he's
a big, functional athlete that can do a bunch of
things all over the floor just with his size and
his ability to jump. So like competing for big defensive rebounds,

(22:00):
he's running up and down the floor in transition, but
it's it's the high IQ piece, like he was making
high quality reads in the short role for out of
ball screens where he's catching in the middle and like
looking reading the defender stepping up on him and dropping
it off to the cutter along the baseline. He as
a baseline cutter has a really nice natural feel for

(22:23):
like when to time his cuts along the baseline, and
then he just finds himself open and ends up getting
easy opportunities right under the rim. Again, that transition three
he hit when it was one hundred one o eight
to one hundred, I thought was one of the biggest
shots in the game. Denver was this close to ending
that thing right there, steph force is a turnover. Will
hits that shot, and it kind of changed the tone
and tenor of the game. I just, you know, going

(22:45):
to say, just keeps finding these types of guys, and
Will Richard just looks like the next and a long
line of just like just discount margin basketball players that
somehow step in and play winding basketball in a dead
serious role for the Warriors, which I think, which I
think is just a testament to their organizational excellence from

(23:06):
the top down. And then lastly, before we move on
to Denver. Just if Steph is going to look like that,
we need to recalibrate whether or not the Warriors are
a first or second tier contender, because if Steph is
going to rise the level of his play to that
of the top tier superstars in this league, they just
suddenly present a lot of the similar two way excellent
excellence and versatility that we consider when we talk about

(23:28):
Denver and Oklahoma City. So just really really encouraging too,
and oh start for Golden State Warriors fans certainly have
a lot to be excited about on the Denver front.
You lost the road game against a very good NBA team,
but I generally was very impressed by Denver tonight. The
offense looks utterly ridiculous. The additions of Cam Johnson and

(23:51):
Jonas Valanciunas and Tim Hardaway Junior and Bruce Brown, they
just have so many guys who can make plays within
their offense. And then I would argue that Jokich, Murray
and Gordon as a trio, this is as good as
they've ever looked. This is the best shape that Jamal
Murray's been in at this phase in the season that

(24:12):
I can remember, Like this is the most athletic and
polished Jamal Murray's looked like. In October, Aaron Gordon like
this thing with the shooting. This has been the story
for well over a year now. Every time I see
a player that puts up statistical excellence over some sort
of sample size that is different than what we saw before,
I start to look at process. So, for instance, like

(24:33):
for a ball handler, take it like when I saw
the numbers that Denny Avvia was putting up at the
tail end of the last season. What encouraged me was not
so much that he put up the numbers. It was
the way that he was doing it, the methodical way
that he was able to consistently get into the paint
with slashing drives and using his body to put the
defender in jail and kind of methodically work the middle
of the floor and bait rim protectors into awkward positions

(24:54):
so he can drop off passes or sneak by them
for layups. I'm like, this works. That's not like a oh,
he just put up numbers. Like this works, He's gonna
be a good player for a long time. Similarly, when
I look at jump shooting, I look at four and
like I noticed last year with Aaron Gordon, it was
like super fluid. There's no wasted motion. He had a

(25:15):
really strong base, excellent like a power transfer all the
way up through his shot. Speaking of power transfer, we're
gonna talk about it with Denny Avdia later. Like Danny
missed every single jump shot short off the front of
the rim in large part because he has a little
hitch in the middle of his shot, so he's losing
power on the way up. Aaron Gordon doesn't have that.
It's fluid, it's smooth, it's easy from the bottom all

(25:37):
the way through to the top and then replication right
every release needs to look the same. And like Aaron
Gordon is just a good shooter now. He's just a really,
really good shooter now. And when you can do it
at six foot ten in a lineup where you're already
having to account for other perimeter players, he's gonna get
matchups where he's gonna get open. And it's just his

(25:58):
ability to shoot the basketball combined with We saw a
dominant post player tonight and this is he flashed a
little bit of this in the past. We saw it
obviously in Game one in a big way.

Speaker 2 (26:08):
Of the NBA.

Speaker 1 (26:09):
Finals in twenty twenty three when he was punishing the
Miami heat down there. But he's become like a really
high level, polished post player. He's got tough shot making
ability over both of his shoulders. He can hit left
shoulder fades and right shoulder fades. He can hit hooks.
He's good at getting inside position and bullying his way
for fouls and easy layups right underneath the basket. Eron
Owdn is just an awesome basketball player now. So you

(26:30):
have like the best version of the Big three that
you've ever had, and you've got the like incredible depth
of offensive skill and finishing talent around him. It's it's
just a super exciting time to be a Denver Nuggets fans.
That's a high powered offense right there. Now, there's several
specific things that I want to dive into. First of all,

(26:53):
you're a plus four with yokichaf the floor. That's a
really good sign. I talked about this with adamarz on
I'm I'm doing once a week with Adamara's on the
All NBA podcast filling in for Tim Leglar. He's got
a much busier calendar this year, so he's only going
twice a week with Mara, so I'm stepping in for
him mostly on Fridays. But we went on Monday this
week and one of the things that Adam asked me

(27:17):
was like, do you think that the Nuggets will be
fifteen points better per one hunter possessions with Jokich on
versus off?

Speaker 2 (27:24):
Over? Under?

Speaker 1 (27:25):
And I said under, And it wasn't because I didn't
think the Nuggets would be great with Yokach on the floor.
They were plus eleven and a half last year with
Yokich on the floor, and I told Adam, I expect
that to get up to like thirteen or so, thirteen
maybe fourteen.

Speaker 2 (27:39):
But one of the things that.

Speaker 1 (27:42):
Led me to take the under there is I actually
think that this Nuggets team is going to be slightly
positive this season with Jokich off the floor, which is
a dynamic they haven't had in years past. And I
think a lot of it comes down to the fact
that they have Yonis Valanciunis as a guy that allows
them to have that scheme consistency, that can set better screens,
that can bring of like a physical imposition to that

(28:03):
lineup that they didn't have before, and there's just more talent,
which allows them to stagger more of their higher quality
players into those bench groups. Simple way to put it
is just there's better basketball players on the floor right
now when Yokich is off the floor than there was
last year, and so plus foward. Yokich off the floor
again on the road against a very very good at
Golden State team. Strong indicator on that front. A couple

(28:23):
of notes, though, I did think that they were still
a little to Jamal Murray reliant in those bench groups.
This is not to say that you can't to say
that I'm going overly negative. Of course they were positive
with Yokich off the floor, but it's more just in
terms of sustainability in the long run. I did think
it was a little too much Jamal dribbling still with

(28:44):
that bench troup. I'd like to see a little bit
more ball in player movement and keep keeping people involved,
and specifically because I think they need to find a
way to keep Cam Johnson in a better rhythm.

Speaker 2 (28:52):
Cam miss some good looks today.

Speaker 1 (28:53):
I thought in the early part of the game both
Cam and Tim Hardaway both miss some good looks for
them the shots that I know that they'll make it
a higher clip as the season progresses. But then there
was also a three in overtime that Cam Johnson took
off of the right wing that was open, but he
left it way short, and I think a big part
of why it was way short was he was not
very involved down the stretch of the game. And so
I think that they can make a little bit more

(29:14):
of an effort to invest in rhythm for Cam Johnson
throughout the game, and one of the ways to do
that is in those bench groups given more opportunity to
be aggressive with the basketball. Also, even when Yokich is
on the floor, more action that directly involves Cam Johnson,
just to get him to touch the ball a little
bit more. I think I think that, you know, when
Michael Porter Junior was there, there was a little bit
more of him just being directly involved in the action

(29:37):
rather than just kind of spotting up on the weak
side of the way that Cam Johnson did. But one
of the upsides you saw, though Cam Johnson provided a
really steady defensive presence for them late in the game,
there wasn't like an easy way for them to attack
the way that it used to be when Michael Porter
Junior was out there. So again you lost that game.
If you're a Nuggets fan, you're pointing to those three,
like if Jokic hits that easy little left shoulder hook

(30:00):
over Al Horford. Now, by the way, I think it's
a dangerous game to play that. Steph Curry also smoked
a wide open reverse layup in that stretch. But there
were three pretty high percentage looks one for Murray and
two for Yokis down the stretch that didn't go in.
It's make or miss league. Golden State's awesome. You lost
a game on the road, but generally I left that
game super impressed by both teams, and I think, if

(30:21):
you're a Nuggets fan, a lot of like proof of
concept and some of the stuff that we talked about
this offseason. All right, let's move on to the earlier slate.
Earlier game in the ESPN Slate the goal the Thunder
versus the Indiana Pacers. Another master class from Shake gild

(30:41):
of Alexander again with the loss of Jadub and also
Keason Wallace, who was out in this game. They're just
super light on ball handling and refined offensive skill, and
that just puts a massive burden on Shay to create shots.
And I just thought he did a wonderful job of it.

Speaker 2 (30:56):
Again.

Speaker 1 (30:58):
It started with a similar concept to what we saw
in the NBA Finals, which was Oklahoma City confronting the
ball pressure from Indiana by setting screens out closer to
half court. And if you guys remember in the Finals,
Miles Turner was often just getting toasted when he would
try to come out to the perimeter to catch Shae
coming off of those screens, and then Shae would just

(31:18):
snake the dribble or just drive right around him and
get all the way to the rim. We saw a
lot of that similar dynamic taking place in the early
part of the game tonight. Ball pressure, screens out close
to half court, Shae just getting downhill and just getting
a ton of layups and fouls. And by the way,
Shaye attempted twenty six free throws tonight. He's averaging twenty
foul shot attempts to the first two games.

Speaker 2 (31:41):
It's just ridiculous.

Speaker 1 (31:43):
But after that, the Pacers kind of tweaked it and
stopped pressuring so much. And they also started to see
that little brush screen at near half court coming and
they would scoop like way around it and meet Shae
on the other side, so they were able to kind
of contain some of those semi transition drives. And so
when they did that, he turned into a steady diet
of Shaye ISOs and it was like ISOs off the

(32:04):
right elbow and post ups on the left block a
lot of post ups on the left block in the
second half. And from there they just continued to slowly
but surely manufacture offense like Shay would score one on
one with little short jump shots. He used a bunch
of really sharp pump fakes to draw fouls tonight, like
he sets up his pump fake extremely well to look

(32:26):
like his regular shot attempt and the ones that I
think of are like, he drew one I think it
was on Jarifs Walker. He got one on Jaris Walker,
one on Obi Top and late that kind of matched
this concept that I'm talking about, but off the right elbow.
One of those right elbow ISOs. He went with that
like like textbook little live dribble jab step where he
kind of like leads with his right foot and kind

(32:47):
of jabs with it while he does a quicker little
in and out dribble. He'll take that shot all the time,
and it looks exactly like that, and so it's tantalizing
when you're the defender when he goes like that and
then he goes up into his shot and it looks
exactly the way it looks like when he's actually shooting,
and you want to time it right to get a contest.
But next thing you know, Chay's still on the ground.

(33:08):
Now he's jumping into and draws a foul. Similarly, the
right shoulder fade. He got one of these off of
the left block in overtime, if I remember correctly.

Speaker 2 (33:15):
But he'll bump you with.

Speaker 1 (33:16):
That left shoulder and he'll spin over that right shoulder
and he'll take that shot. And so when he bumps
you with that left shoulder and then spins and then
just shows the ball, it's tantalizing.

Speaker 2 (33:25):
You want to try to time it. You end up jumping.

Speaker 1 (33:27):
Next thing you know, he's jumping into your chest and
he's drawing a foul. It's just like it's a textbook
example of like the fundamentals, Like there's a I think
think back to all the best pump fakes that I've
seen in my time cover in the league, and like,
are being a fan of the league, and like I
remember Chris Bosch. Chris bosh used to get people with
this pump fake all the time. Why because if you
freeze framed it right at the top of the shot,

(33:50):
the pump fake in the shot looked exactly the same,
and so it was just so difficult for players to
figure out what he was doing when he would show
them the ball like that. The other thing I thought
Mark Dagenald did a really nice job of and this
game was setting up the spacing. He always kept aj
Mitchell or Aaron Wiggins one pass away on those ISOs
and post ups, and so the Pacers were mostly sending

(34:12):
their doubles from that direction. And I thought both of
those guys did a really nice job of taking advantage
of the baked in driving lanes that were there by
just ripping off of that close out and getting all
the way into the lane. Aj Mitchell got a bunch
of those, Aaron Wiggins got one of those, and then
also Aaron Wiggins was able to knock down the jump shots,
the open jump shots that were coming off of those

(34:32):
double teams. He hit several down the stretch to ice
the game. What it did is it just put Indiana
in this brutal spot where they either had to let
one of those guys, like with a huge disadvantage, try
to guard Shay, or they had to send the double
team and next thing you know, it's Aj Mitchell ripping
down the lane for a layup or drawing a foul,

(34:54):
or Aaron Wiggins knocking down an open jump shot, And
it just is a testament to the depth of talent
that this Olahoma City team has. Like Aj Mitchell and
Aaron Wiggins went for forty nine points being slotted way
up into tougher on ball rolls because of the injuries,
Like Wiggins hit like a tough like step back three
at the top of the key. Aj Mitchell had a

(35:15):
lot of good on ball reps. He was doing a
really nice job getting to his strong hand, getting all
the way to the rim and drawing fouls and getting
easy layups. Those two guys just did enough to support
Shay and like, Shay's just been absolutely fantastic to start
the year.

Speaker 2 (35:28):
There's no way around it.

Speaker 1 (35:29):
And the crazy thing is I feel like he still
left some meat on the bone in those two games,
Like he missed several easy ones at the end of
regulation tonight, little short jumpers around the left elbow that
he missed that are shots that he normally makes, and
he missed like five clutch free throws in the two games.
Despite all that, he's averaging forty five points in two

(35:50):
wins and his team literally needed every single one of
those points with the injuries that they've had. I just
can't say enough about how good Shae has been to
start the season. And then lou Dort once again. I mean,
I know, he's what is he won for twelve or
something like that to start the season from three. He's
having a rough shooting start, but he's still just such
a wrecking ball on defense. I felt bad for Pascal
Siakam tonight because the Pacers dropped nemhard early in the game.

(36:14):
He gets tangled up with Shay, hurts his shoulder, Nie
Smith ends up going down in the middle of the game,
they're already out Tyre Saliburton and TJ McConnell, so there's
just no ball handling, and so like in overtime, you
were watching Siakam bring the ball up over and over
again against like aggressive lou Dort full court pressure, and
it just looked like a miserable experience. Like even if
Siakam was handling it like he wasn't turned in and over.

(36:36):
He was just kind of spinning over both shoulders and
just kept spinning over both shoulders and he was protecting
the ball. But like Lou, Dort was so far up
underneath him with physicality. You could literally see Siakam getting
like dislodged over and over again just because of how
strong Dort is. And like again, I like Siakam's effort
was admirable, and he had a bunch of shots, and

(36:56):
we'll talk about him more in a minute, but he
also missed several jump shots, and I do think that
the pressure from Dort played a role in wearing him down,
just like it did with KD on Opening night. Only
real negative note I have on the on the OKC front,
disappointing night for Chet on offense. He was zero for
six from three And one of the things that I'm
consistently seeing with Chet is they're situating him on the

(37:18):
opposite wing, and look, there's a lot of value there
if you can do that. Boston did this for years
in the Porzingis Horford era for two years, I should
say I say years. But for those two years they
were positioning Horford and porzingis above the break for a
very specific reason. If you do that, it potentially removes

(37:38):
a rim protector from the paint because the rotation is
different coming off the wing than it is coming out
of the corner right.

Speaker 2 (37:44):
But you have to be able to hit the chot.

Speaker 1 (37:46):
And one of the things that's happening with Chet is
they're situating him there and especially in the two big
looks with Hartenstein right, and when they situate him there,
his man is consistently digging down in nail help right.
So he's sitting right down at the nail, right at
the foul and ready to help on any shade drive
or any other action taking place on the other side
of the court. And the only thing that Chet can

(38:06):
do to loosen that up is to hit that above
the break three. And you know, he's hit a couple
on opening night. He hit a big one in crunch
time on Opening night. But that was part of the
story tonight was he was zero for six from three
and it allowed Indiana to get away with sending aggressive
help to the nail when he was situating himself there.
And so just something to keep an eye on with Chet,

(38:27):
just whether or not he can get to the point
where he can consistently knock that shot down over time.
But again, like, can't complain about two to zero against
two good teams to start your title defense, and the
Thunder just looked like a grown up team led by Shay,
a really transformed looking group playing some excellent basketball right
now on the Pacers front. Honestly, just a super respectable

(38:47):
battle from them from a team that is completely devastated
by injuries. The injuries forced a bunch of their bench
guys to step up into bigger roles, and guys just
made plays like Jaris Walker hit a couple of really
tough mid range jump shots in overtime. Obi top end
was his typical transition self, getting easy ones at the rim.
He also had a deep seal in overtime where he

(39:09):
got a post touch for an easy layup. Ben Sheppard
hit some shots and then like both Siakam and Matherine
were brilliant against Siakam handled ball pressure well and just
kept getting to his spots for those little short mid
range pull up jump shots and he hit I think
three threes in the game as well, hit thirty two
and fifteen. Ben matherin what a night for him thirty
six points and eleven rebounds. We talked about this a

(39:31):
lot with Ben Mathurin in the finals. If you guys remember,
but when you're playing agains Oklahoma City, like having a big,
strong athletes is vital because those are the guys that
can get to their spots against the physicality. And he
was consistently getting downhill and like breaking the point of
attack for Oklahoma City, screaming downhill and drawing a lot

(39:52):
of fouls by just throwing his body into traffic. Oklahoma
City was so out of position, they were hacking him
and he was working his way to the line a ton,
he countered that with a bunch of over the top
jump shots, especially some tough ones off the dribble, and like,
obviously they're going to need him a ton to start
the season with the injuries that they're dealing with. But
he was awesome tonight, and he looked awesome at a

(40:12):
couple of specific stretches against Oklahoma City in the finals.
And I think he's just a useful weapon to have
against those physical, perimeter defense oriented teams. I'm just generally
super impressed by Indiana. I was texting about this with
Jackson during the game, like it wasn't so much the
case after Anis Smith and Mhard went down because they
just had so little ball handling that their movement wasn't

(40:34):
quite as good.

Speaker 2 (40:35):
But I actually think that.

Speaker 1 (40:36):
The Pacers play the best basketball in the NBA. Tim
Legler did an excellent job of breaking down this concept
in the broadcast in the first half. But they just
relentlessly put pressure on your defense by constantly hitting gaps
through ball and player movement, cutting, slashing, transition, kick aheads.
They're constantly hitting gaps, and so it just capitalizes on

(40:58):
every little bit of efficiency that exists in the game.
And you know, because of that, they never get stuck
in the half court. They never get stagnant, Like whoever
has the ball will immediately do one of two things.
They'll throw a swing pass and cut or screen away
like immediately, or they'll drive, even if it's not like
a drive to beat the guy off the dribble, like
they'll just rip through and drive. Why because if you

(41:21):
do that, there's probably gonna be a defender who just
takes an extra step in somewhere on the floor. There's
gonna be some sort of defensive reaction then you pitch
the ball to that guy. Now he has a better
chance because the defenders closing out on him. We've talked
about this concept a lot, but your chances of scoring
dramatically improved the further the defender is away from you.
I know, big shock, right, But you have to create

(41:43):
those advantages by hitting gaps. And when you hit gaps,
the defense reacts. When the defense reacts, you create openings
to throw for a close out. And I thought Richard
Jefferson did a nice shot pointing this out in the
first half as well. The more drives, the more cuts,
the more screens, the more interchanges you have on every possession,

(42:03):
the more opportunities it is for somebody to make a
mistake on defense. And when they make a mistake, that
leaves somebody wide open. That's how they get so many
quality three point shots and attempts at the rim.

Speaker 2 (42:16):
It's why I.

Speaker 1 (42:17):
Believe the Pacers play the best basketball in the NBA,
irrespective of talent. They capitalize on every single process controllable
that is available in the game of basketball. On defense,
they apply ball pressure so they can wear you down
and fatigue you. That also makes opposing ball handlers uncomfortable.
It's like a little margin that they capitalize on. And
then on offense, they push in transition to get every

(42:39):
extra transition possession because transition possessions are worth more than
half court possessions on a point per possession basis. And
then in the half court they move cut screen drive,
move cut screen drive more than any other team in
the NBA, which creates all sorts of easy opportunities for
their players to capitalize on. So, like when I think
of just basketball as an art form in a vacuum,

(43:02):
irrespective of the talent of the players that are playing,
I don't think there's any team playing better basketball than
the Indiana Pacers.

Speaker 2 (43:08):
And so I just want to shout.

Speaker 1 (43:09):
Out Rick Carlisle in the culture that he and Kevin
Pritchard have built there in Indiana over the last few years.
All right, Trail Blazer's Blazers, Trail Blazer Timberwolves, Blazers. Excuse me,
We're going to hit this game, and then we're going
to briefly touch on the gambling scandal.

Speaker 2 (43:25):
Then we'll get out of here.

Speaker 1 (43:25):
Tonight, super close, back and forth game, no team ever
led by more than eight.

Speaker 2 (43:31):
The Blazers controlled most of the game.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
They led from the late first quarter all the way
through to the late fourth quarter, but then the Wolves
came back and stole it late with four big jump shots,
three of which came from Anthony Edwards. He get two
big pull up threes. There's a play where Rudy Gobert
just absolutely wiped out Jimani Kamara on a screen along
the right side, and when it came off that screen,
Donovan Klingen was way back in like a drop coverage,

(43:54):
so he ain't got a really clean look, and then
he hit it. And then he hit one in a
late clock iso against Jeremy Grant where he just kind
of dribbled into his chest with his right shoulder. Jeremy
Grant tried to flop. Jeremy Grant flopped twice and hurt
his team down the stretch. Talk about that in a minute.
But he drives into Jeremy Grant, Jeremy Grant flops, and
Ant hits another pull up three at the top of
the key. The second flop from Jeremy Grant was on

(44:17):
a like one or two possessions prior Julius Randalls posting
him up and he just flops on a little basic bump.
Both of them were just there's no chance he was
getting an offensive foul call. They were just bad flops.
And when he flopped Jaden, mcdaniels's man had to step
over to help on Julius Randall. Julius pitched it back
to Jaden in the left corner. Jaden hits that huge

(44:38):
three out of the left corner, and then Ant ends
up icing the game with a nasty step back, mid
range jump shot along the left side against Tamani Kamara.
Classic example of the concept we talked about when it
comes to late game shot making. It's two point game,
It's gonna be a two possession game, no matter what.
If you get a bucket, you don't necessarily need a three.
You're looking for the highest field goal percentage shot they're

(45:00):
packing the paint. Going for a seventeen eighteen footer is
a substantially higher percentage shot on a single shot pure
field goal percentage basis than a three point shot, even
if the three point shot could see the extra point.
That's why I wanted to see Aunt build that out
in his game. And it just was a really really
nice game from man. He was five for ten from three,
really good balance though he was nine for eighteen from two,

(45:24):
he was five for eight on mid range jump shots.
He had four of them in the second half, including
some really tough ones a little turnaround fade away right
around the foul line he hit like a rescue late
clock step back three on or stepback jump shot in
the left corners on this weird play where I think
Julius Randall lost his shoe and he like took a

(45:44):
nasty step back over Tomani Kamara. Just like tough bits
of shot making that helped manufacture extra points for him.
And again, like that's the thing to keep an eye
on with him, Like he wants to catch up to Shay,
but Shay hits that shot on over fifty percent on volume,
and Aunt did so for one game, so let's see
how well he can sustain it. And like he only
had one assist. But I actually thought he had some

(46:04):
nice playmaking sequences that Minnesota just didn't pay off. Really
nice season debut for a man. He starts the year
off with a forty piece Julius Randall nineteen and six
usual playmaking out of his high post ISOs, including one
of the biggest plays of the game on that little
kickback to Jayden McDaniels. He just provides some like basic
advantage creation for them. Solid game from him. What a

(46:25):
game from Jaden McDaniels, though it looked great in camp,
looked great in the postseason last year. Three for four
from three, continuing that hot shooting stretch again he was
thirty eight percent from three in the playoffs, two for
five in preseason. Now three for four in his first game,
including a clutch one out of the left corner. His
improved offensive polish is a huge influx of talent for

(46:45):
this team. He had a huge defensive play late on
a drive from Denny Avdia where he poked the ball
away from him and got a steal that led to
a fast break going the other way. And then some
really interesting young games from the young guys, from Jalen
Clark and from Terrence Shannon. You have to see the
upsides and the downsides of Jalen Clark, like you got
to see his excellent point of attack defense. He had
a couple of big steals to start the fourth quarter

(47:08):
for a bench group for the Wolves. But you also
saw what a lot of teams are going to do
against him. So the Blazers just for a big stretch
of that game just put Donovan klingon on him and
had Donovan just kind of sit back into the paint,
and Jalen was unable to make him pay by hitting threes,
and so it ended up badly hurting Minnesota spacing. So like,
that's just something to keep an eye on with Jalen Clark.
The NBA starts to figure out your weaknesses pretty quickly.

(47:30):
If they're gonna stash centers on him, he's gonna have
to find a way to make him pay. Otherwise, no
one's gonna care about how good his point of attack
defense is if he's butchering this spacing on the other
end of the floor. Something to keep an eye on.
And then Terrence Shannon had a really nice game. This
was something that started to show in the playoffs a bit.
He ended up getting some shifts there and then I
also noticed this in preseason, but he's very good at

(47:53):
generating dribble penetration and then making quality kickout passes in
the middle of the floor. He had a mass drive
late in the game off of some ball pressure way
out extended close to half court on the left side,
tows his man off the dribble, gets into the lane
and ends up kind of smoking it up and under
right hand layup. But in the process he pressured the
rim so hard that he engaged Donovan Klingen to come

(48:16):
over and try to block his shot, and that just
left this wide open space for Rudy Gobert to come
in and dunk in the miss and he missed it
perfectly right off the backboard, and in came Rudy for
the big time dunk. But like he was slashing into
the paint and generating opportunities over and over again.

Speaker 2 (48:34):
In that game.

Speaker 1 (48:35):
He also hit both of his threes, and I thought
it was interesting because, like Danteti, Vincenzo had a really
rough night, just kept turning the ball over. He just
kind of came out sloppy. But I thought it was
a really interesting sign that Chris Finch trusted him to
close the game, Terrence Shannon to close the game. We've
talked about how the Wolves really need one of those
two guys, Jalen Clark or Terren Shannon to pop this year,
and that was a really nice start for Tarren Shannon.

(48:57):
He just demonstrated that he's at least going to make
an effort to become that guy that can fill the
Nakil Alexander Walker role. It's gonna be very different kind
of player, but as long as he can come in
and play a couple of shifts per game in the postseason,
it should maintain the depth that this Timberwolves team has
been famous for. Lots of stuff to clean up for Minnesota,
too many turnovers, too many fouls, but a legit road

(49:19):
win against a solid team to start the year. On
the Portland front, it was weird. It was kind of
like a disappointing game in a lot of ways, Like
they were in it because Jeremy Grant went for twenty
nine and because Minnesota committed way too many fouls there.
I will credit Portland. They generated a ton of rim pressure.
Theny Avdia in particular was knifing into the teeth of

(49:40):
their defense over and over again.

Speaker 2 (49:41):
They were able to draw a lot of fouls.

Speaker 1 (49:43):
But like, there was a couple of specific things that
sit out to me, Like Shaden he took about a
half dozen shots that I thought were poor shot selection,
and I think if he refines that a little bit,
Like there's a lot of things that I like about
Shaden sharp, but right now he's just a little too
his like shot pass decisions just a little too aggressive,
and I think sometimes he can hurt his own rhythm
with the types of difficult shots that he can take Denny,

(50:07):
and I noticed this in preseason, but it's something that
really stood out in like kind of a significant way
in Game one. But he's missing all of his three
point shots short, like badly short. And this was something
that happened in preseason, but he missed like six or
seven jump shots short off the front of the rim.
And there's so many things I like about Denny's game,
like he's good at setting up his man for screens

(50:29):
and good at using his size and strength to find
leverage angles for him to get dribble penetration. He's methodical,
impatient on his drives. He makes really good reads in
the middle of the floor. He's got short range shot making.
He demonstrated a lot of that last night, like little
push shots and floaters in the lane. But he's got
to counter it by being able to hit these threes.

Speaker 2 (50:46):
And there's just a.

Speaker 1 (50:47):
Little bit of like a hitch in the middle of
his shot, And what ends up happening is like you
lose power again. Like if you have power transfer, good
energy transfer through your shot, and what happens is the
top of the shot is the easiest, breeziest flip of
the wrist ever, right, But if you lose energy somewhere
along the way, whether it be something hitchy in your
back or in your hips or in your elbows, like

(51:10):
when you're in your pocket, when you're bringing the ball up,
you lose that power and all of a sudden a
play it forces a lot more at the top of
the shot, and that's where you end up having short
misses because you're just your release isn't generating enough power,
and so like just something to keep an eye on.
I think that's like the next step for Denny is
just generating a little bit more fluidity in his pull

(51:31):
up jump shooting. I am a big believer in him
as like that kind of classic big scoring playmaking forward.
Though I hated the offensive game from Drew Holliday, I
think I might have hated almost every shot he took.
He had a couple of really bad forces in crunch time.
He took like a transition pull up three when he
was like I think he was one for six from

(51:52):
three at the time when he took the shot, and
he just like stopped and popped in transition in traffic,
and like he almost made it, but like it was
just like a really aggressive and tough shot to take
in that specific spot. He forced a couple shots close
to the rim late in the game as well. I
think that he's overdoing it a little bit on offense.
I'd like to see him tone it back a bit.
Really nice night for Jeremy Grant though again twenty nine

(52:16):
was getting to the basket, was also hitting his catch
and shoot three on the move and off the catch.
Just had a couple of flops late.

Speaker 2 (52:23):
That ended up burning in.

Speaker 1 (52:25):
But as a team, again, like I think they're capable
of playing a lot better and yet they still were
in good position to potentially steal that game from Minnesota.
That was a fun and scrappy Blazers team that we
watched last night. I think their fans are going to
enjoy watching them play this year. Really briefly on this
gambling scandal before we get out of here tonight. So
Terry Rozier and Chouncey Billips are the two big NBA

(52:48):
names implicated, but apparently they were over thirty arrests and
the Italian mob was involved. It's a total shit show
for sure. Right, And here's all I'm going to say.
I see a lot of people who get preachy about
league sports gambling. You're not gonna hear that from me.
To me, sports gambling is like alcohol. Yeah, there are
very dark cases where it can ruin lives, and it

(53:09):
certainly is not a perfect industry, but the vast majority
of people use it responsibly, and I think as an
American freedom, it's kind of cool that we're allowed to
do it.

Speaker 2 (53:19):
And there were.

Speaker 1 (53:19):
Gambling the scandals in professional sports long before it became
legalized as recently as the Tim Donnhy scandal. Right, However,
I do think it's super important when stuff like this
happens that it's taken very seriously and that the people
involved are severely punished.

Speaker 2 (53:38):
It's not just.

Speaker 1 (53:39):
About integrity within gambling. It's about the integrity of these leagues.
It's such a fickle thing when it gets rattled, like
the NBA is still dealing with conspiracy theories that followed
the Tim Donahey story. Still to this day, people think
free throws are like a gift from the league rather
than something that is earned via basketball. And like these

(54:01):
guys are now tied to the Italian Mob. Jauncy Phillips
and Terry Rogier are now directly tied to the Italian Mob.
That's a stigma that really can never be dropped. It
makes it really hard for me to imagine either of
Vergier or Billups ever being associated with the NBA. Again,
I know that sounds severe, but those are the lengths

(54:24):
that the league needs to go to in order to
salvage its integrity when this kind of stuff happens. So
only I made the alcohol comparison earlier, like drink all
you want, but you get caught drinking and driving, the
penalty is very severe. Why that shit can get somebody killed.
It's not a game. As a society, we don't mess
around with that. Last thing I'll say about it is this.

(54:46):
I do think that this is a new kind of industry,
legalized sports betting, and it's something that needs to continue
to be refined. And I tend to agree with Adam
Silver that they need to make some tweaks to the
types of bets that are allowed, Like betting over Underson
role players is ridiculous. There's too much potential for weirdness
there because they don't make as much money as the

(55:07):
stars do, and how common it is for role players
to experience wild fluctuations in minutes and production because of
things that happen night tonight. So like intimation, this is
again I didn't want to go along on this. I
don't really have too much to say, but like, I'm
not clutching my pearls today about the state of legalized
sports gambling, but obviously pending the results of the legal

(55:31):
process and how much evidence they can provide. If these
guys are proven guilty, they need to be severely punished
for the sake of the integrity of the league, because
at the end of the day, the integrity of the
league is all that matters when it comes to the
health of these leagues in the future. So definitely bad
news ripping through the NBA. We don't know everything. Obviously,

(55:53):
the denials came out. I was joking with Jackson earlier,
like part of becoming an adult is realizing that every
public figure just denied.

Speaker 2 (56:00):
I deny, deny, and I deny deny. That's just it's
just what you see.

Speaker 1 (56:03):
It's just it's it's just kind of the way things
work right, and so a lot of stuff still needs
to get sorted out. The Damon Jones thing was really weird.
I saw a bunch of Lebron's detractors. We're having some
fun with it, but I thing is like, there's no
way Lebron's that stupid. Also, if Cash Mattel had anything
on Lebron, you bet you're ass he would have put

(56:23):
it out there because it for obvious reasons we don't
have to get into. So again, like I don't know
too much else to make of it. I'm not the
kind of guy that's gonna get all worked up and
clutch my pearls over it over legalized sports betting. It's
just it's the way it is. It's the way it's
going to be, and we just need to continue to
make the tweaks to get the bad actors out of

(56:44):
it whenever we can, and and kind of refine it right.
All right, guys, it's all we have for tonight. As always,
as sincerely appreciate you guys for supporting us and supporting
the show. That was a hell of a run there
three straight live shows to start the week. We have
our mail bag tomorrow again. Drop your questions in the
YouTube comments of the mailbag. Will be taking the weekend off,
but then we'll be back Monday for our usual routine.

Speaker 2 (57:04):
We'll see you guys then