NBA LIVE REACTION: Wemby & Spurs DOMINATE Flagg & Mavericks + Brunson's Knicks vs. Mitchell's Cavs

Jason gives his live reaction after night two of the NBA season including Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs going up against Cooper Flagg, Anthony Davis, and the Dallas Mavericks. He also breaks down Jalen Brunson, Karl-Anthony Towns, and the New York Knicks in their matchup against Donovan Mitchell, Evan Mobley, and the Cleveland Cavaliers.

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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
heavy Wensday everybody. Hope all of you guys are having
a great weeknight too. Of the NBA regular season, all
sorts of bizarre stuff. The Clippers go on the road
into Utah and to get their butt kicked. The Hawks,
team that everyone's been so high on, gets demolished in
the paint at home by the Toronto Raptors.

Speaker 3 (00:35):
All sorts of weird results all around the league.

Speaker 2 (00:39):
But we're going to be covering the nationally televised games tonight,
focusing in on what I thought was one of the
singular most dominant regular season performances I've ever seen from
Victor web Minyama as he goes for forty to fifteen
on the road in Dallas, utterly embarrassing Anthony Davis on
his home floor. We're gonna be breaking that game down
from the perspective of both teams. And then the early

(01:01):
ESPN game, the New York Knicks, showcasing some new offensive principles,
get a win and gets a short handed Cleveland Cavaliers team.
Those of you guys who want to hear about the
other games, obviously I was unable to focus on so
many games going on at once, But we have a
mail bag coming on Friday, So if you have questions
about any of the other games and tonight's slate, I

(01:23):
plan on getting caught up on them tomorrow morning and
we'll be covering them in the Friday mail bag. I
might hit one or two of them tomorrow night as well,
So we will get to all these teams eventually, but
you guys know the deal, it's very hard to get
to them when they're all playing on this at the
same time. Just focusing on the two nationally televised games tonight,
If you have questions surrounding those two games, drop them
in the chat. Me and Jackson will be going through

(01:45):
some questions at the tail end of the show before
we get out of here tonight. You guys are the
joke before we get started. To subscribe to the Hoops
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On that front, don't forget about our podcast feed where
you get your podcasts under Hoops tonight. Like I said,

(02:08):
don't forget to leave a rating and a review. Jackson's
been doing incredible work on our social media feeds Twitter, Instagram, Facebook,
and TikTok. Make sure you guys follows over there. Last,
but not least, mailbag on Friday, drop your questions and
the YouTube comments again, mail Bag Colon, write your question
in our full episodes on YouTube. We'll get to them
in our mail bags on Fridays throughout the remainder of
the season. All let's talk some basketball. So there are

(02:29):
these moments in NBA history where you can tell that
things have changed and you can feel that all of
a sudden, the landscape of the league is shifted because
of the rise of a transcendently great star that just
does everything differently than the people that came before him.

(02:51):
I think about Lebron back in his third season, pushing
the Detroit Pistons, the seven games heard of to see
a player his age, basically twenty years old, taking a
flawed roster toe to toe with one of the Titans
of the NBA, or in twenty thirteen, Steph Curry and

(03:12):
Madison Square Garden dropping fifty four and you're like, holy shit,
this is different, this is going to change the game.
And tonight felt like one of those moments. It felt
like Victor wembin Yama in addition to obviously making some
leaps in his skill development, which we'll talk about, but
it also seemed like a confidence moment for him. He

(03:35):
seemed to be abundantly aware of the fact that he
wasn't just the best player on the floor, but that
he was far and away better than all of those dudes.
And this was a game that had Anthony Davis in it.
This was a game that had the number one overall
pick and the number two overall pick, and the rookie
of the defending Rookie of the Year on the court,

(03:56):
all sorts of talent, and Victor's looking around like I'm
on a completely different level than these guys. It's one
of the singular and most dominant regular season performances I've
ever seen. Victor walked into Anthony Davis's house and completely
embarrassed him for the world to see. He utterly dominated

(04:19):
him on both ends of the floor. And it wasn't
just like he was doing damage. It reminded me of
like Luca in Game seven versus Phoenix, where he seemed
to want to humiliate him. He seemed to want to
specifically target Anthony Davis and one on ones just to

(04:40):
prove that he couldn't guard it. He mixes him up
one on one in the end of the first half
and shoots that little right shoulder fade over him. Gets
the end one, he's screaming on the ground. He drives
through his chest just to prove that he can score
through him, drops his shoulder, bumps him off, and hits
that little pop shot off the glass then laid in

(05:02):
the game. Just for good measure, he blows by him
in transition and semi transition, just kind of squares him
up on the wing, goes right around him and dunks
on his ass. He didn't just want to win that
game or filled the box score. He wanted to snatch
Anthony Davis's confidence, and that's exactly what he did, and

(05:23):
you could literally feel it. Both Cooper Flag and Anthony Davis,
in particular, they looked shook, like literally shook. Cooper Flag
as a player that has specifically impressed me as a
guy who can make reads at an extremely high level,
and Cooper looked like he had no idea what to
do with Victor at the basket in the third quarter,

(05:45):
turning the ball over forcing it through his chest. At
one point, it looked like he tried to shoot on
Victor at the rim, literally just because he wasn't going
to be able to get a pass out anyway, because
Victor's arms were everywhere.

Speaker 3 (05:58):
On that kickout.

Speaker 2 (06:00):
Anthony Davis like literally physically shrunk away from the game.
He looked like his motors snatched, and again, this is
a guy that can struggle with motor from time to time. Anyway,
We're gonna talk about ad later because I've been kind
of disappointed in him throughout camp as well. But that
was just an unbelievable both mentally, emotionally and physically dominant

(06:25):
game from Victor women Yama. Last season. We talked about
this after the year. If you guys remember, Victor had
taken kind of a perimeter based approach that was very
heavy on high variance long jump shots. We talked about
how he was almost kind of playing the role of
a movement shooter, taking absurd amounts of threes, and he

(06:47):
shot the ball well for long stretches at big games.
But he was also susceptible to going cold, and he
didn't really have anything that he could reliably go to
when things got tough, and so he spent all summer
working on two key traits to address that concern. One
he built up his strength. We talked about this on

(07:09):
the show all the time. Weight room is one of
the most underrated parts of the game of basketball. It's
a contact sport. Everything is physical. You're fighting for position
for a defensive rebound that requires strength. You're fighting for
position for an offensive rebound that requires strength. You're fighting
for post position that requires strength. You're trying to set

(07:30):
a screen that requires strength. You're trying to get open
on the perimeter like a V cut, or just trying
to create a passing angle for someone to throw you
the ball. That requires strength. You're on the drive and
somebody beats you to the spot or meets you with physicality,
or heck, fouls you on one of the dozens of
fouls every single game that goes uncalled. You have to

(07:50):
power through that with strength, and Victor wimen Yama spent
the time this summer building up his strength. Piece of
it is footwork we talked about. This footwork is the
vehicle with which you deploy your strength. It's how you
actually plant your body in the ways you need to

(08:13):
move it to the spots on the floor you're trying
to get to. And he's spent all summer working on
his footwork, specifically step through moves out of counters that
got him going towards the basket rather than going away
from the basket, and he looked completely and utterly unguardable. Tonight,

(08:35):
he's getting to this move where like he'll kind of
pick up his dribble and have his pivot foot set
like he's about to take a right shoulder fade, and
then he'll just step forward with that left foot and
if you bump him, he'll meet that physicality and just
shoot a little tiny bank shot. And if you don't,
he's laying it up off of a step through move

(08:56):
from fifteen to seventeen feet from the basket.

Speaker 3 (09:00):
I don't have the boxcorn in front of me.

Speaker 2 (09:02):
I think he's sixteen for twenty one tonight, sixteen for
twenty one against that Dallas team that's just packing seven
footers in the lane. Because he's built up that strength
in that footwork. Again, this is the same Anthony Davis
that I've been on the record as saying he's put
on too much muscle, and Wemby was bullying him. And

(09:25):
it wasn't just Ad. He was cooking all of the
Dallas centers and forwards. And we haven't even talked about
defense yet, where he's already the best player in the world,
buy a mine. His presence around the basket tonight played
the MAVs into an absolute disaster of a night. Offensively
poor Cooper flag In addition to having to make his

(09:46):
NBA debut at point guard for a team that's incredibly
light unball handling and shooting, he has to do it
with Victor wembin Yama trolling the paint, and it's a
matchup because of Dallas' roster construction that allows Victor to
park his ass right underneath the basket where he can
disrupt everything. Cooper was pretty bad, all sorts of poor

(10:07):
decisions in the middle of the floor. You had a
weird stretch in the third quarter where he settled for
a couple of really bad mid range jump shots off
the bounts early in the clock. Very unlike him. Again,
I think that's a factor. It's a byproduct of the
impact that Victor weimin Yama was having on the game
mentally for Dallas. But I couldn't even be mad at Cooper.

(10:29):
Anthony Davis has been in the league over a decade,
and he looked completely lost. Wemby just broke the MAVs
tonight on both ends of the floor, every bit as
much on defense as he did on offense. Again, even
when guys would get to the basket, like Cooper had
to play in the first half where he just toasted
his man off the dribble. I think it was Carter Bryant,

(10:51):
and just Wemby's there and he's just like, ah shit.

Speaker 3 (10:55):
There's nothing I could do.

Speaker 2 (10:56):
And he's just kind of like looking for a kickout
pass and he's got a backwards to someone who's not
open because there's no way to pass through Wemby to
the open man who's on the other end of the
floor because Wenby's just swallowing everything up there in the middle.
I spoke on Monday about our MVP race and predicted

(11:18):
that Shaye would win because I just think Oklahoma City
is gonna win the most games. I think Shay looks
even better than he did last year, and it just
kind of feels like one of those things where he's
gonna have the best case when the time comes. But
I spoke about how I thought the best long shot
after those top three candidates in Vegas was Victor, and
my thought process is pretty simple. He's able to put

(11:42):
up the numbers in the production and his roster. You know, again,
like we're gonna talk about the young players a minute.
I thought the San Antonio young core was super impressive
tonight actually, but again, what happens a lot with young
talented basketball players is inconsistency.

Speaker 1 (11:58):
Right.

Speaker 2 (11:59):
They struggle to replicate when things go right, and they
struggle to trim the fat when things are going wrong.
And so there's gonna be ups and downs with the
Steph Castle, Devin Vessel. I mean, Keljen Johnson's been around
a little while now, but he can be mistake prone
and have bad nights. So like, it's not gonna all
be pretty all all season long. This is a young
and flawed San Antonio roster, but like he's got substantially

(12:23):
less to work with, Victor does than a Shay Gildess,
Alexander or Nikola Jokic, and if he does what he
did tonight, which is single handedly break a basketball team
on both ends of the floor, and he's able to
drag the Spurs to fifty two, fifty three, fifty four
wins and they're the three seed, that's the MVP. Because

(12:48):
the other teams Houston, Oklahoma City, Denver, they're working with
substantially more talent up and down the roster, and so like.
I talked about Victor as a long shot for MVP.
If what we saw tonight is a sign of things
to come, it might not be that much of a
long shot. I was also super impressed by san Antonio's
young players tonight. Steph Castle obviously coming off a Rookie

(13:11):
of the Year campaign, just a super dynamic athlete. The
job he was doing defensively, forcing turnovers with this pressure
picks D'Angelo Russell at half court goes the other way
for a bucket. I was super impressed all night long
with san Antonio's transition play. They were converting the bad
misses and turnovers from Dallas into quick pushes the other way.

(13:36):
Everyone was running their lanes really well and they were
making quick, smart decisions. Lob dunks layups, corner threes, trailer threes,
good looks every single time down the floor and transition
off with the mix missus and turnovers and Steph Castle
in particular, I thought his passing and transition was amazing.

(13:58):
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He has like really good natural feel for lob timing
connected on a bunch of obs tonight and then his

(16:07):
ability to get into the paint and the key with this,
and he was even showing it in the half court.
He had a good big one light where he drove
by Ryan Nemharden, got a dunk, had a couple of dunks.
He had transition dunk as well. He plays off of
two feet with a really strong and wide base, And
we talked about strength earlier. A lot of times when
you're driving to the basket, it's not you know, cutting

(16:31):
into an open gap and just getting wide open, uncontested layups.
The vast majority of the time, especially against good defenses,
there's gonna be a little bit of a battle physically
somewhere in the drive. The guy's going to even if
you make a good move and you beat him, he's
gonna slide with you, and he's gonna have his chest
on your shoulder and he's gonna be trying to dislodge

(16:53):
you from your drive. We've talked about this concept with
Luka Doncic on defense before, but in general, the idea
of like turning straight line drives into a banana drive. Right,
Like a straight line drive is really difficult to rotate
out of, but a banana drive, you can get some
guys to have that extra second to cover ground and
to get into position to help and to rotate out

(17:14):
to shooters.

Speaker 3 (17:14):
Right, how do you do that?

Speaker 2 (17:15):
When the guy's driving, you're bumping him, you're hitting him
with your chest, you're sliding, you're not fouling, but you're
bringing physicality at the point of attack. Steph Castle will
blow through that contact because he plays wide, he's got
strong shoulders, he plays off of two feet, and then
once he gets into his jump stop around the basket again,

(17:37):
he's bumping you off and he's kind of creating a
little circle of space around him where he can just
elevate up and finish with two hands in traffic. And
he's got great vertical like standing vertical leaping ability that
gives him the ability to just dunk in traffic. I like, again,
the story of the Spurs season. Spurs fans, if you're

(17:57):
wondering what the potential of this team is, it's gonna
come down to these guys and their consistency is. I
think Steph finished with what like twenty two seven and
six or something like that, that's a great stat line.
If he averages something close to like eighteen six and six,
nineteen six and six, that's a positive indicator of the

(18:19):
potential of this group. Devin Vessel didn't shoot the ball
particularly well tonight, but I thought he had some really
nice transition pushes as well. Had a couple of really nice,
like full speed, soft touch finishes off the glass in transition. Again,
he was a big part of that transition attack. But
if Devin Vessel shoots the ball particularly well this year,
Keldon Johnson, he had an awesome run there at the

(18:40):
end of the third quarter when Victor Wiminyama was off
the floor when Dallas was trying to reassert some control,
where he played really well and helped stiff arm Dallas
in that run. Dylan Harper got off to a rough start,
he made plays, especially getting to the rim as a cutter,
and in transition he found ways to get easy baskets
out the rim just by staying perpetual motion off the ball.

(19:03):
One of the things with Dylan too, like he uh,
one of the things I watched with young players. And
by the way, this is why everyone was so high
on Stephan Castle. Maybe the efficiency's not there, Maybe the
ability to actually pay off the sequence by knocking the
shot down isn't there yet and it may take a
couple more years, right, But Dylan can get to his spots.

(19:24):
He felt comfortable getting downhill and even on those like
little mid range pull ups that he missed, it felt
like he had separation, It felt like he had good footwork,
and it felt like he had lyft. So then you know,
it's just polishing up the jumper at the end of
the shot, right, That's how you finish that sequence off.
But the ability to get to his spots is key.
Juxtaposed that with like Reed Shepherd last night. Reed Shepherd

(19:50):
is renowned for a shooting ability as a prospect, but
he seemed like he had a hell of a time
getting to his spots against albeit a very difficult Oklahoma
City perimeter defense core. But I was just impressed in
overall by Dylan athletically tonight. He just looked like he
belonged as a lead guard in the NBA. Just a
remarkably impressive debut for the Spurs, and the story of

(20:11):
their season and where they get is going to come
down to how often Victor can get to that level
and how often these young players off of him can
get to that level. It's going to be a consistency
game again, Like we talked about, young players can struggle
to replicate successes. If they can replicate successes, then all
the Spurs fans that were telling me I was wrong

(20:33):
all summer for having them kind of down closer to
the plan, you guys will be right. But it's going
to start with that consistency. But you can't do much
better than they did tonight. Again, a dead serious Western
Conference opponent went into their house and utterly embarrassed them
on the maps front. We talked a little bit about
some of the issues with Cooper with Anthony Davis. One

(20:54):
of the things that's been really discouraging for me, in
addition to the obvious stuff, like dude, I like you
got traded last year. How are you not coming into
the season with the level of just a level of
conditioning and polish that a player that wants to exact
revenge on the league would typically bring. Instead, it was

(21:15):
reported that he came in bigger than he's ever been,
and it looks like he's struggling to beat people off
the dribble. All of his drives tonight looked just like
they did in preseason, where he just picks a direction
and goes, gets beat to the spot, jumps up, yells,
and falls on the ground while throwing up a floater
that misses, and then the team's running the other way.

(21:36):
In transition, it's been like that for a few years,
in large part because Ada has added weight and lost polish,
And that's where it gets tricky with the stuff about
him wanting to play at the four.

Speaker 3 (21:49):
And by the way, that's.

Speaker 2 (21:50):
Like a prerequisite for this Dallas team as currently constructed,
to get to where they want to go, because their
best players are all loaded up in the front court
and they've got two starting caliber centers. So if you're
gonna find minutes for them, AD's got to play the four.
And if Ad is gonna play the four, he has

(22:12):
to bring a certain level of dribble shooting, pass polish,
and it's been kind of this like.

Speaker 3 (22:20):
It's been.

Speaker 2 (22:20):
There's been a difference between Anthony Davis's vocal politicking for
playing the power forward position and the work he's put
in behind the scenes to polish his game the way
you need to if you're gonna play the four in
the modern NBA. And look, not every team's gonna have Wemby,

(22:44):
but you're gonna see a lot of the same kind
of stuff. A lot of bodies in the paint. Well,
Anthony Davis is clanking mid range jump shots, and Cooper
flag is clanking mid range jump shots, and DeAngelo Russell's
coming off of a ball screen tape in some contested
floater or jump shot in the mid range or trying

(23:04):
to grift his way to the foul line. It's going
to be a lot of that until Anthony Davis actually
brings the requisite amount of polish you need to play
that position. In the modern NBA. It's different now. Even
just in twenty twenty, the league was different, and by
the way, Anthony Davis in that playoff run was one
of the best jump shooters in the league.

Speaker 3 (23:26):
So like, in order for.

Speaker 2 (23:28):
Anthony Davis to accomplish what he wants to accomplish, which
is to show the league that the Lakers made a
mistake trading him for Luka Doncic and to show the
league that he can play the four, he's got to
get in better shape, he's got to become more mobile
on the perimeter, and he's got to be better at
dribble shooting and passing the basketball than he is. I mean,

(23:50):
that was a he got absolutely embarrassed by Victor wimin
Yamaa Knight, and then just in general, the complete and
total lack of ball handling on the right. One of
the things that specifically stood out to me was the
difference between that and what it looked like for Houston
last night. Houston lax ball handling, Houston lax shooting. But

(24:11):
Houston has these three real matchup problems that they present
Alpern Shangoon obviously as this, I mean, he played like
a superstar last night. Let's not gloss over it. He
was scoring in the high thirties, dropping dimes, dominating the glass,
bringing physicality to the position, knocking down wing threes, posting

(24:35):
up Alex Caruso posting up chet Holmgren Shngoon brings an
enormous amount of singular offensive greatness to the table. The
Rockets ran their offense through a man Thompson down the stretch,
and regulation just slot ISOs versus kiss On Wallace. He
brings a lot of individual matchup problems to the table

(24:58):
for their opponents. And then Kevin Durant is Kevin freaking Durant,
and what you're seeing with Dallas is the same lack
of ball handling, the same lack of shooting, except for
their primary offensive players are Cooper Flagg, who I think
is going to be a great NBA player for a
long time, but right now is not a very good score.

(25:19):
He's a Reid maker, He's a guy that greases the
wheels for an offense. And then you've got Anthony Davis,
who's been disappointing for all the reasons we discussed earlier.
And then you fall off a cliff from there to
a very old Klay Thompson that's not really going to
hit shots unless he's open in D'Angelo Russell, who again

(25:40):
is a guy that is a nice pickup for the
discounted role that he's playing, but that's not going to
go toe to toe with the best ball handlers in
the league. And so it just kind of was glaring
to me the difference between Houston's got some roster imbalances,
but they've just got much better top end talent, and
that was the big difference watching them versus watching Dallas.

(26:00):
One game, Victor broke you. Obviously, it's gonna be a
long season. A lot of things can change. I've rooted
for Anthony Davis for a long time. He does eventually
get in shape. Ten to fifteen games on the season,
he'll drop five ten pounds, The jumper will be a
little smoother, the hand will be a little smoother. Competitively,
you gotta think AD's man if Ad doesn't come out

(26:23):
in game two and just annihilate whoever he's playing, like like,
I even want to see the competitiveness. I want to
see the fire. I want to see him fight after
what was an embarrassing night tonight. That's all I got
in that game. Let's me go on to sell the
Cavs Nicks just briefly on this game. The Knicks controlled
this game from the jump, playing new offense. They're playing

(26:47):
essentially just playing with a lot of pace, pushing the
ball in transition, They're having more sequences where Jalen Brunson
is not bringing the ball up the floor, but rather
starting in the corner and coming off of act after
the defense has already shifted. They're using him as a
screen or more essentially just trying to take advantage of
what is a roster strength for the Knicks. And I

(27:08):
think this is an appropriate direction for the Knicks to go.
And this is why you make a coaching change. This
is a system, you know, coming from Sacramento with Mike Brown,
where he was having a lot of three man action,
a lot of like getting the ball side to side
and different ball handlers involved. He's just trying to implement
similar action. And you know, this is a New York
Knicks roster that has a lot of ball handling, right

(27:33):
Like Jalen Brunson can make plays with the basketball, Karl
Anthony Towns can make plays with the basketball. So can
og so can McHale, so can Douce McBride. Tyler Kohlek
came in and played some really nice advantage creation basketball tonight.
You've got ball handling, so you need to use that
Pushing in transition is generally more efficient.

Speaker 1 (27:52):
Right.

Speaker 2 (27:53):
NBA teams are roughly twenty percent more efficient in transition.
So you push in transition, you just get your self
more opportunities to score at a higher clip.

Speaker 3 (28:02):
Right.

Speaker 2 (28:03):
It creates early advantages. The entire purpose of running action
is to get a guy open so that you can
play drive and kick basketball. If you can do that,
if you can accomplish that by pushing the floor pushing
the ball four, then great. But it also saves more
time on the shot clock for multiple attacks. That's where
you take advantage of your aggregate ball handling. The Knicks

(28:25):
had games last year where all four of their Big
four would go for one hundred points. The key is
trying to get that to happen more often, to have
that become more of the norm rather than the exception.
They had five players tonight score at least fifteen points.
There was more rhythm going down the roster. The Knicks

(28:45):
generated thirty five catch and shoot jump shots tonight. They
averaged twenty five point five per game last year in
the regular season. Substantially increased there, albeit in just one
in just one game. But a big part of it
that I liked and this was something I noticed throughout
the game, letting other guys bring the ball to the floor,

(29:06):
not name Jalen Brunson. More action where it's OJ and
Obi bringing the ball to the floor, McHale Bridges bringing
the ball to the floor, Duce McBride bringing the ball
to the floor. By doing that, you help in a
couple of key ways. One, you prevent Jalen Brunson from
wearing down against ball pressure. I saw a similar approach
from the Lakers at times last night, where they would

(29:26):
have him just run up to the corner and have
someone else bring the ball up the floor, rather than
have Luca have to waste a bunch of energy turning
his man, you know, dealing with a defender that turns
him three or four times before he gets.

Speaker 3 (29:37):
Up the floor right.

Speaker 2 (29:39):
The second piece of it is you get more opportunities
to attack out of the corner and off ball action.
This helps in two ways. One, it gets the defense
to shift first, so when the ball handler comes up
the floor, the defense is keyed in on them. You
move the ball side to side and then get your
man attacking. The defense has to shift a shift side
to side that can loosen up a little bit, and

(30:00):
then the second piece of it is one of the
best ways to beat ball pressure is to not have
to dribble when Jalen Brunson can use his hands to
shed the defender with a swim move to then come
off the action and then catch and get right downhill.
By the way, Jalen missed some shots tonight that he
usually makes. He had a little floater coming off of
one of those pin downs off the left side that

(30:22):
he just happened to smoke. He missed some shots tonight
that were really good looks for him coming off of
those actions that will go in over the course of
this season. And by the way, him and Kat both
just looked a tiny bit out of rhythm in preseason
when I was watching him too, And like, this is
to be expected when you change your system, when you
change the style that you play. It's one of those

(30:42):
things that can lead to a little bit of a rhythm,
you know, it can lead to a little bit of
like a period of growing pains, so to speak. So
that goes without saying, but in general, I thought they
just kind of had more verve and more intensity down
the roster, fueled by the fact that everyone is involved.
I also thought they kind of kept some of that

(31:04):
classic Nick's grittiness that they've shown in recent years, especially
in the offensive glass, like they had they had eight
different players secure an offensive rebound tonight. I thought they
came out with impressive energy and just competitiveness in this game.
Kenny Atkinson actually referenced it at halftime to his team,
but he thought the Knicks came out and punched him

(31:25):
in the mouth, and that's exactly what they did. And again,
I still think there's lots of room for improvement there.
There's a lot of looks that got missed. Brunson missed
a bunch, Og missed several easy ones early in the game.
I really liked the job that Tyler Kullak came did
when he came in the game. Him and Duce McBride
did awesome off the bench Deuce just bringing kind of
like aggressive movement shooting, and then Tyler Kullik like, this

(31:49):
is the important piece. When you're trying to play that
advantage basketball where everyone's involved and everyone's driving closeouts and
the ball's moving side to side, it starts with that
initial advance and in order to get that initial advantage,
you need to run an action and out of that
action have a player that can make the read and
the read that Tyler Kolek kept making tonight, and he

(32:11):
made several good ones, like there was a switch where
he was able to feed the ball to Karl Anthony
Towns and Karl Anthony Towns drew a foul. But one
of the reads that he kept making tonight was the
cross court to the opposite wing. A lot of times,
when you come off of an action, the lowman who's
guarding the opposite corner will slide in underneath the basket
right and then as kind of like a preliminary X out,

(32:32):
so to speak, the guy who's guarding the opposite wing
will drop to the corner and then the lowman will
try to rotate back out to the wing. It's like
an X out, but a lot of teams will do
it early and to have that top wing guy drop
to the corner because a lot of times when guys
get downhill, they want to fire it to the corner
and you'll see a lot of turnovers there where like

(32:53):
the low man steps over and the guard fires the
pass to the corner and that guy drops from the
wing and jumps right into the passing and gets an
interception right Tyler was rifling it across his body to
the opposite wing, and he generated a couple of like
butt naked three point shots that didn't go in, And like,
I just think he makes a lot of sense as
a guy that just kind of keeps that engine flowing

(33:15):
when he comes into the game, brings the ball up
the floor, makes a quick decision with the basketball out
of an early read, out of an early action, then
they can just play their driving kick out of that. Overall,
an impressive opening showing. Again, they hit a little bit
of a loll in the third quarter. Part of it
was Donovan Mitchell came out and went on a crazy

(33:35):
scoring run. Donovan Donovan had this weird game where he
came out and was like not looking to be aggressive
at all, and the Calves didn't look like they knew
what to do, and so Evan Mobley just kept jacking
up shots early in the game, took a couple of settled,
like kind of mid arranged Jones shots. We'll talk about
Evan in a minute. But the Calves looked all decombobulated,
discombobulated on offense in the first half. But to start
the second half. Donovan came out and was like, screw

(33:57):
all that, I'm gonna get going as a score, and
he threw a hell of a punch and the Calves
we went on a run and they pushed it close,
but overall they continued to play good basketball throughout the game.
They stiff armed him, kept going on little runs, and
they were able to put this thing away in the
fourth quarter. Good start for the Knicks. On the Calves front,
it is jarring. And this dates back to the playoff series,

(34:20):
and this is a big part of why I wasn't
as down on Cleveland as everyone else was after the
after the disappointing playoff performance. I just think Darius Garland
is incredibly important to this team. We talked a lot
about the idea of advantage creation with Tyler Kolek earlier right,
and just in general from like transition pushes and things

(34:43):
along those lines that start the engine of the Nicks
drive and kick. Well, Darius Garland is the guy who
does that for Cleveland. The problem with Donovan Mitchell and
we discussed this in our player rankings, and it's why
I'm not quite as high on him as some of
the other people are that cover the league. But Donovan
can be a little tunnel vision and he can just

(35:04):
kind of look for his shot. He's not as good
at like using the power of his scoring ability to
take advantage of the defense reacting to him and take
easy kickout reads to start the engine of the offense.
A lot of times he's just hunting really difficult shots,
and he's a very good, difficult shot maker, and when

(35:24):
he's making him, he can be unbelievable. And I'm not
going to sit here and be overly critical, because this
is a guy that continues to average thirty points a
game efficiently in every playoff run. So shout out to
Donovan Mitchell to score. But in order to this Calve's
team that was playing with incredible pace that was generating
a ton of quality three point shots last year. It

(35:45):
was fueled by the job that Darius Garland did knifing
into the teeth of the defense early in possessions with
his speed, not to score the basketball, but to kick
to shooters. And then the Calves were just really good
at playing read and react basketball out of that. And
so that was the first thing that stood out to me,
was just not having Darius out there. The second piece

(36:08):
of it is like when you start to take Darius
out and then you take Max Struce out, they start
to become pretty light on that refined offensive skill, like
they're big. Shot the ball well tonight. Evan Mobley hit
some threes, Larry ns hit some threes. Actually really liked
the Larry and Ants fit just bringing some shooting to
the five spot and just his ability to drive closeouts

(36:29):
and he can also play alongside another one of their
bigs like Larry Nts.

Speaker 3 (36:32):
It looked good tonight. I was happy.

Speaker 2 (36:34):
They got got in trouble with Kenny Atkinson once for
leaking out in transition and giving up an offensive rebound
and got called for time out that Kenny called a
timeout to choose ass But like I thought, Larry Antse
looked good. Evan Mobley shot the ball well. But the
rest of the perimeter corps is a lot of Jalen
Tyson who struggled at times to guard Darius, to guard

(36:56):
Jalen Brunson, and you know obviously doesn't have a ton
of offense like refined offensive skill. Tyree's Proctor like won
the lottery pick. This is a guy that you know
is you know being asked to do a lot for
a player of his pedigree at this point. There's a
lot of Tyree's Proctor tonight, a lot of him, you know,
taking pull up threes against unders and pick and roll

(37:18):
or missing open threes in transition pushes, and like, there's
just a lot of like guys that are being slotted
up into roles that are a bit above their pay
grade in large part because of the injuries to Darius
Garland and Max stru So try not to be overly
critical of Cleveland tonight. I think Darius Garland is their engine.
And if it wasn't, I if them getting their ass

(37:40):
beat by Indiana when he was injured wasn't the indicator
of that. I think tonight was another indicator of that.
Last kind of thought before we get out of here,
before we get to our questions from the audience, Evan Mobley,
a little bit of a helter skelter game from him.
I thought he came out super aggressive, which on the
one hand, is nice, but I thought he settled for
some mid range jumps and like, this is where I'd

(38:02):
love to see him kind of do some of the
stuff that we're seeing from Wemby, where there's a little
bit more of a forward aggression to his high post
attacks and his attacks in the middle of the floor
where he can try to get into the body of
the defender a little bit and take shorter, easier shots
than some of these like drifting, fading jump shots that
he was taking. Another thing too, is like when you're thin,
like Evan Mobley is, you can draw a lot of

(38:24):
fouls that way when you bring that aggression. I mean,
Wenby drew a lot of fouls today just by like
you know, going up aggressively towards like kind of towards
the rim and then falling down when he'd get hit
because he still is thinner than some of these dudes, right, So,
like I want to see a little bit more of
the to the rim aggression just to kind of allow
a little bit more balance. And then what ends up
happening is when you do that, all of a sudden,

(38:46):
when you start to go to those mid rangers, you
get more natural separation because the defense is playing the
drive a little bit more, and now instead of it
being like a heavily contested, you know, nasty fade away,
it's a little bit more of an up and down
rising fire over your right shoulder type of shot that
I think he does have the touch to hit at
a high level and good to see him hit some threes,
made a lot of plays defensively tonight. He competed again.

(39:09):
I just want to see a little bit more downhill
aggression for him on the ball as he continues to develop.
All right, Jackson, let's get to our audience questions.

Speaker 1 (39:25):
Let's do it. Let's do it first one, we can
stick on that game for just a second. What did
you think of a Lonzo ball tonight? Do you feel
like he can be sort of a useful piece for
them if not like a you know, in term starter
when Darius Carland until Darius Carland's.

Speaker 2 (39:38):
Back, So a lot of good and bad, you know.
It's it's so funny because Lonzo kind of reminds me
of just a lesser version of Tyrese Haliburton in the
sense that he has a good length and speed at
the guard position. He's obviously a better defender than Tyrese,
but he plays length. He has length and passing lanes
kind of similar to the way Tyrese does. But the

(39:59):
big thing that similar Tyrese is he just gets rid
of the basketball. It just every single time he touches it,
it's a kick ahead pass as soon as possible. When
he runs action in the half court, he gets rid
of the ball quickly to the advantage. He just kind
of greases the wheels. One of the things I liked
that he did off the ball tonight is like he
kind of perpetually stays in motion and he will provide quick,

(40:21):
little outlet opportunities to offensive players for Cleveland that gets
in that get into a tough spot, Like guy picks
up his dribble, is in a tough spot. Lonzo's not
just standing at the three point line thirty feet away.
He'll flash high post and make his hands available. He
got an offensive rebound that he kicked out for a
three point shot on a play where he just kind
of was lurking along the baseline on a cut.

Speaker 3 (40:43):
Like.

Speaker 2 (40:44):
There's a lot of good that I liked, but obviously
he missed the shots. He had several really clean looks
from three, especially in the first half. One of the
most hilarious, kind of like random heat check moments was
he was like zero for five from three, and then
in the fourth quarter late like when the Cavs were
down ten. I believe he just like came down and

(41:05):
took like an early clock like pull up twenty seven
footer and like nailed it. And then like one possession
later he took like another twenty seven footer and missed it,
and I was like, all right, dude, you're one for seven.

Speaker 3 (41:15):
Looks chill a little bit on the threes. And then
he had a couple of.

Speaker 2 (41:18):
His passes where he kind of just had a little
bit too much dip on his chip and kind of
rifled it way too hard out of bounds. He had
a couple I think he ended up with like four turnovers,
and a few of them were we're just kind of
sloppy cross court passes that he was off target on.
So like I think, I think overall, I really liked
the fit. I think that was probably as bad as
you'll see the Lonzo ball experience if you're a Cavs fan,

(41:40):
like missing the open shots and the turnovers. But what
I did think he provided was just he just provides
that pace for those calves bench units, and I think
that that's gonna allow them to kind of sustain some
of that play when he's on the floor.

Speaker 1 (41:53):
For sure. Obviously, the story of the night was Wemby,
So we got a couple Wemby and Spurgel. They had
questions burst up Wemby, goatwatch where are we at?

Speaker 2 (42:05):
Here's all I'm gonna say, He's sure as hell has
the potential. Yeah, I mean, we're all lying to ourselves
if we don't think he does. I mean, I've been
trying to think, Jackson, how many times have we seen
a superstar not just beat one of the other superstars

(42:25):
in the league or even out play them, but like
completely and utterly dismantle them on national television?

Speaker 3 (42:32):
Like the only Lady crumble.

Speaker 1 (42:33):
Mind is Luca against the Suns in the playoffs, which
is a different thing obviously, but yeah, it's it was
pretty remarkable.

Speaker 2 (42:43):
Yeah, Like he he emotionally dominated that game every bit
as much as he you know, dominated with his play.
I think, like, here's the thing. Health is going to
be a question mark. I still think there's like the Okay,
you were allowed to play one on one quite a
bit tonight against their bigs in space. How is this
going to look against more double teaming? Although I think

(43:06):
I think I think one's a good passer, so I
don't think that's gonna be an issue, and his thing
is like he can just kind of hold the ball
up here. And then the other thing too is like
I want to see you know, one of the challenges
for him in his career is gonna be the Oklahoma
City types and the teams that like are swarming and
really play up underneath him rather than trying to meet

(43:27):
him up top. I mean, if onebe demonstrated one thing tonight,
it's that big dudes cannot guard him.

Speaker 1 (43:32):
I was another question that I posted the chat, and
I'm gonna post to you now. We got a variety
of different answer from the chat. I can give those
after who do you think is the best player in
the NBA to guard Webby or the best type? What's
the best type of player? You don't have a single player.

Speaker 2 (43:46):
Man, That is a really good question. Ironically, I think
I think Aleu dort type would be the direction that
I would go.

Speaker 3 (43:56):
The problem is is like he's actually really fast.

Speaker 2 (44:01):
And nimble, and he's so good with his footwork that
even some of the bigger forwards, like even the PJ.
Washington types, can't really handle him down there where What
we saw with Lou against Kevin Durant is like he
can quite literally get up underneath your base, yeah, and
just make you uncomfortable all game long, and that can

(44:21):
really affect some of your shot making at times, Like
I even thought it affected Katie shot making, especially from
the three point line in that game. So like I think,
I think it would be like a fire hydrant, like
somewhere six four to six', five super, strong super, physical
one of those dudes who fouls you from start of
the game to the end of the, game but somehow
gets away with. It what's your.

Speaker 1 (44:41):
TAKE i think that's a good. Answer that the chat
gave a variety of. Answers there was A yannis you,
know Some yiannis. Talk there was someone Said Jaylen, william
someone Said Timani. KAMARA i think those are ALL i
think it's GONNA i think a mid sized, player it
probably makes the most. SENSE i was a presidency Of
draymond in the.

Speaker 3 (44:57):
CHAT i Think Ramon draymond would be.

Speaker 1 (44:59):
Interesting usually my answer for most. Players, FRANKLY i think
he's a pretty good, answer just because he is not too,
slow but you, know very very strong and has super
long arms as. Well it's a it's a tough. ONE
i was trying to think of like the Lou dort
type makes. SENSE i was, like what About Alix. Caruso i'm,
like is he too small to guard a player Like?

(45:20):
Wemby he Guarded jokis for, stretches you, know but that's
NOT i don't know about a full game Of Alice
caruso On wemby.

Speaker 3 (45:26):
Either it's a tough.

Speaker 1 (45:27):
Question tough.

Speaker 2 (45:28):
Question draymond is interesting, because LIKE i, mean let's just
look at last, night like Every Golden State warrior was
fried chicken except For. Draymond, Yeah draymond was the one
guy that you could. Tell luca was, like, Eh i'm
gonna get rid of the, basketball, like and so would
that be in the, Case LIKE i THINK i Think.
DRAYMOND i actually THINK i Like draymond more Than. Door

(45:49):
AND i THINK i think you got the right answer.
Here someone is Interesting.

Speaker 1 (45:52):
Bam, also which is an interesting. One he's like a
more true big but he's so.

Speaker 2 (45:55):
Versatile, Yeah bam is an interesting, one ALTHOUGH i Think
wemby would probably cook him. TOO i love the point you, made,
LIKE i Think draymond might just be the answer.

Speaker 1 (46:03):
To answer for most and most especially like alien type
because he's kind of a weird defensive alien. Type, yeah all,
right as A mavericks, fan are we cooked Until kyrie comes?
Back and then second part someone else, asked do you
think D lo is like a serviceable starting option until
that and considering you, know the ball the glaring ball handling.

Speaker 2 (46:22):
Issues, Tonight, yeah you. Know D LO i thought was
good in the first. Half he kept getting working his
way to the foul, line which kind of was manufacturing
points for. Them he does a good job of hitting
a d in the, pocket has a little bit of
scoring ability in the middle of the. Floor but THEN
i also thought you saw an example of the downside
of D lo where he kind of cooled off and
he Started he smoked two layups in the late second,

(46:44):
quarter started missing some of those midterrane. SHOTS i don't
dislike D lo as an. OPTION i THINK i think LIKE. MANJ.
Pj washington reminds me Of Jabari, smith where you could tell, me,
oh that's too, big you need to go with more.
Speed but Specifically pj's ability to shoot almost makes him

(47:08):
indispensable in that, lineup AND i thought the broadcast did
a good job calling that out. Tonight, Similarly Jabari smith
like his ability just to knock, down catch and shoot
threes kind of makes him indispensable With houston's best. Lineups so,
like if you're gonna PLAY, pj then it really comes
down To clay or D. Lo and the thing With,
clay he provides the, shooting but they're not good at finding.

(47:31):
HIM i, mean there was a, play did you see
the one in the second half where they got the
offensive rebound AND Pj washington had the ball in the
left wing And Clay thompson was standing like five feet
away from, him wide, open AND pj looked him, off
and Then clay was Just clay showed some bad body
language after. That don't blame him as a wide open.
Shooter but LIKE i, think If clay's not actually gonna
get the ball and provide some real utility as a,

(47:54):
Spacer i'd almost rather go with D lo for just just.

Speaker 3 (48:00):
All handling with that.

Speaker 2 (48:01):
GROUP i think it Slots cooper a little bit easier
as like a secondary ball. Handler part of San antonio's
like second half run was that ugly stretch From cooper
where he made like five bad decisions in a, row
like at the rim and a couple of tough mid
range jump shots as far as whether or not The
MAVs are, cooked here's All i'm gonna.

Speaker 3 (48:19):
Say it's one game victor. Women yama is an.

Speaker 2 (48:24):
Alien he just put forth one of the most dominant
performances that we've ever. SEEN i think that might actually
be one of the worst Games i've ever Seen Anthony davis.

Speaker 3 (48:33):
Play so, like it's.

Speaker 2 (48:35):
Hard to like go with the sweeping, Declarations but the
one thing THAT i will say, IS i do you
agree with me about the juxtaposition with them In houston
and how they just didn't have the top end firepower
that used to.

Speaker 1 (48:46):
Have, yeah it's a completely different thing than what he says.

Speaker 2 (48:49):
Doing, Yeah, so LIKE i just that was The that
was the one TAKEAWAY i had that was, Like, okay
this isn't a game one.

Speaker 3 (48:57):
Takeaway this is like a real big picture.

Speaker 2 (48:59):
Takeaway they they just don't Have they have a bad
combination of lacking offensive firepower but also lacking spacing and
refined offensive skill off the, ball AND i think that
that's kind of a death sentence for.

Speaker 1 (49:11):
Them, YEAH i, MEAN i just think their roster construction
is just right away. Rearing its said you're. Seeing never
mind the lack of guard. Depth if we were talking
about what's their actual best five person. Lineup it's Probably
Anthony davis at the five And Derek lively just not
on the. Floor but you can't really do that right,
Now like what do you how are you going to
do that right? Now you kind of. Can't like their

(49:31):
best lineup when everyone's healthy is probably something Like kyrie Clay,
Flett COOPER pj And Anthony, davis but then you're sitting
you're young center And Daniel gaffer when he gets, Back
like IT'S i just think it doesn't make a lot
of sense right.

Speaker 3 (49:45):
Now.

Speaker 2 (49:46):
Yeah the other thing that was disappointing to me is
LIKE i didn't think they were as good defensively as
they needed to. Be and by the way this stood
out to me in, preseason they're a little, slow they're
not doing as much switching as you would, think they
get compromised at the perimeter pretty, consistently and they get
beat down the floor in. Transition San antonio ran right
around those dudes a bunch of times, tonight and like

(50:09):
one of the downsides to bad, offense when you're light
on handling and refined offensive, skill you're gonna have a
lot of. Turnovers you're gonna have a lot of bad.
Shots you're gonna have a lot of bad missed jump
shots in, particular and those are gonna spark fast breaks
where all of a sudden that lack of foot speed
is going to become a. Problem but, yeah LIKE i,
mean on the one, hand you want to write off
some of this as just A wemby, Masterclass but, yeah

(50:30):
there are definitely some big picture issues With dallas that
kind of leaned With they kind of look more like
The lakers to me as a team that showed some
inherent flaws on opening night for.

Speaker 1 (50:39):
Sure for, sure thank You goldting in the chat for
the super chat about ant dropping forty one in icing the.
Game we will definitely be talking about The Anthony edwards
performance later this week at some, points just not. Tonight
next question got a couple. More do you think The
spurs were sort of looking ahead? Here do you think
The spurs could end up in a similar situation To,
okay see in the twenty tend especially with the CURRENT,

(51:01):
cba where they have three certified guys for the, future
but they end up not being able to sort of
keep all of them.

Speaker 3 (51:06):
In one might have to. Go, yeah you, know.

Speaker 2 (51:11):
So much of the development Of Stefan castle And Devin
visell in this stretch When Deeron fox is out is
going to be interesting because there's also going to be
a version here where like what if they turn around
and flip The Aaron fox for more, picks like just
because all of a sudden they're happy with their guard
core even if they lost, it BECAUSE i think THEY
i think they paid three first rounders For fox IF

(51:33):
i remember, correctly and so even if they got two,
back you start to think of it Like Oklahoma. City
and this is something THAT i think has actually been
really smart about the way That Sam presty has set this.
Up there's been all this talk about, like, oh what
if they just package all these picks for you, Know
Lori mark and in or For Gianni. Santanakumpo but the
truth of the matter is is when all these dudes get,
expensive one of the ways that you can actually find

(51:55):
discounted players in this. LEAGUE a lot of people think vet,
men a lot of people think level. Exception What i've
been intrigued by now is rookie, contracts and specifically the
two teams THAT i think of WHEN i look at
this Are Golden state And Oklahoma, city because what they
do is they keep finding these Will, richards and they

(52:15):
keep finding These Cason, wallace's and they keep finding these
dudes that are like they're going to make less than
ten million a year for four, years and they're highly,
tradable and they they're not going for super. Upside they're
going for dudes that can play in their. System, Now
cason is showing a lot of. Upside, like, dude did

(52:37):
you see his like one foot dunkin transition last? NIGHT
i was, like Good, god that dude's a ridiculous. Athlete
it's like maybe you know there's some upside, anyway but
like that's the WAY i kind of look at. It
with San, Antonio it's LIKE i almost envision it being
you have your core. Three let's say It's Steph, Castle
Like Devin vessel is an interesting player because he's actually

(53:00):
turned into a decent LITTLE iso. Score you can hit
some shots over the, top but he probably feels the
most replaceable to me out of the three. Guards like
What Dylan harper And Steph castle do is like really really,
unique Whereas Devin vessel like as a movement, shooter like
if you got, like let's just put it this. Way
if you put if you got LIKE. Cj McCollum on a,

(53:20):
buyout he's gonna provide like eighty percent of What Devin
vessel can provide as like a movement shooter and is
a guy that can hit shots in, action whereas Like
Steph castle does stuff that not many guys in the
league can. Do And devin and, Uh Dylan harper has
this like weird kind of like PSEUDO sga, upside, Right
so like you target those three they all Sign max's

(53:43):
you gotta let all of the dudes who are making
mid level salaries on your roster go one way or.
Another that just Like Oklahoma city's gonna have to Let
hart And sign, go and they're gonna have to Let cruso,
go and they're probably gonna have to Let dort. Go
and what they're gonna do is they're gonna cycle in
these rookie contracts with this play throw of draft picks
that they have and they have so many of them

(54:03):
that they they have so many of them that they
can admiss on some and it's not a big. Deal
And San antonio still has one heck of a trove
of draft picks, available and if they convert a couple
of these dudes into, picks they get a pick For Devin,
vessel if they get a pick for or two picks
For deer And. Fox at some point they could have
the picks to continue to anchor the roster as the

(54:24):
younger players get more.

Speaker 3 (54:25):
Expensive for.

Speaker 1 (54:26):
Sure last, question BECAUSE i know we were texting a
little bit and you were watching a little bit of
the The Orlando miami. Game did you catch any of
the other games in the early window and do you
have any sort of like quick just off the top
thoughts before we sort of dive.

Speaker 3 (54:38):
Into those a little more later in the.

Speaker 2 (54:40):
Week, Again, yeah we will dive into these later in the,
week BUT i did WHILE i was Watching Knicks, CALVES
i watched most of the first half Of Magic, heat and,
like it's just kind of a frustrating experience because on
the very first possession of the, game they run A
Bain palo pick and roll off the left, side and
they show at the level And baine Hits polo in the.

(55:00):
Pocket polo's barreling downhill on a four on. Three they
tag him on the, roll but they don't tag the
dunker spot With Wendell Carter. Junior paolo throws an easy
lob and Then Wendell Carter junior dunks, it and then
they just go away from. It and, like Poor, jackson
he's doing whatever he's doing this, evening And i'm just
bombarding his follow with clips BECAUSE i was like getting

(55:22):
so frustrated watching that game because it's like literally like
Like jackson can speak to. IT i mean like they're
they literally just stand around and play one on.

Speaker 3 (55:29):
One it's the.

Speaker 2 (55:30):
Craziest it's the craziest fucking. Thing they stand around and
they play one on one and it's like stupid. Too it's,
Like i'm we're Gonna pallo's like going one on one
Against bam and like and like and by the, way
they were hitting, shots LIKE i was, watching they were
hitting shots and scoring the basketball this, way but process verst.
RESULTS i was, like ALL i could think about is,

(55:51):
like especially when you run into tougher competition down the,
line like you need to maximize your. Talent you maximize
your talent by being more deliberate with the way that you.
Attack but you, know it's. FUNNY i ran into a
guy THAT i was talking, to just a fan of
the show THAT i ran into here In denver and
he was talking to me about how he's like not
super high On Palow and what it got me thinking about,

(56:14):
is like we talked so much About Jamal, moseley but
like the player's gotta bear some responsibility for this, Too
AND i do Think palo deserves some blame in the sense,
that like he makes life harder on himself with the
way that he plays sometimes. Too AND i, KNOW i
Know orlando one tonight And i'm Sure i'll go watch the,
game and there's a lot to be impressed. By And
Desmond bane's a great. Fit he's really. Good there's a

(56:36):
lot To they had some transition pushes and showed their
athleticism and a lot of, upside but LIKE i JUST
i just wish they were more deliberate and like intelligent
for lack of a better, word with the way they
attacked on.

Speaker 1 (56:47):
Offense, yeah that totally makes. SENSE i got a little
bit of a or a good chunk Of celtic seventy
six ers and the two biggest takeaways were That Joel
embi looks awful and Vjl oh really looks. Amazing edgecomb
is incredible already he's so good and he is a
super super super, athlete And Joel embiid was basically not out. There.

Speaker 2 (57:09):
Yeah SO i saw THE vj edgecomb like crossover dunk
Against Xavier, tillman AND i was.

Speaker 3 (57:13):
Like Good, god he is.

Speaker 2 (57:15):
Bossed and THEN i did see a brief little highlight
reel Of Joel embiid seemingly unwilling to.

Speaker 3 (57:20):
Jump he.

Speaker 1 (57:22):
Didn't really do anything other than he he made one
mid range. Jumper what he was basically wide. Open he
foul grifted aggressively a couple of times when you, know
shout out to foul, grifting and he kind of just
he just looks heavy and like not, hurt but like formerly.
Hurt you, know it doesn't he's not moving. Well is

(57:42):
basically how about describe.

Speaker 3 (57:43):
It that's.

Speaker 2 (57:44):
Depressing, Yeah i'm excited to dig into. It LIKE i,
saw like we're all high on The, hawks AND i
saw The pelicans went in and just Destroyed. ATLANTA i
think they had eighty something points in the paint. Us,
Allegedly kawhi had one of the worst games of his
career as The clippers went Into.

Speaker 1 (57:57):
UTAH i thought it was a MIN i, KNOW i.

Speaker 3 (58:02):
Looked at the box, score AND i was, like what
the hell?

Speaker 2 (58:04):
Happened like, like these were two teams In atlanta and
The clippers THAT i was super high. On so like
it's a casual reminder of, like, hey let's not all
over react to one. Game like a lot of these
teams are gonna play. Better season openers bring a weird,
intensity especially for the home. Team but, yeah we're Gonna
i'm gonna wake up tomorrow morning and over some, Coffee
i'm gonna watch a bunch of film And i'll have some.

(58:25):
Thoughts i'll probably build at least one or two additional
segments for tomorrow show because we have a light slate.
Tomorrow i'll bring some to that. Game and then, again
just in the comments underneath this, video just whatever games
you want to hear, about just drop your questions And
i'll get to them in the mailbag On friday. Morning All, right,
Guys it's ALL i have for tonight is always a
sincerely appreciate. You appreciate you guys for supporting, us in

(58:47):
supporting the. Show we'll be back tomorrow with another, slate
closing With Golden state Versus denver in the evening. Game
it's gonna be highly entertaining one a debut of the
team THAT i have picked as my championship, favorite so
very interested to see how they. Look And Golden state
looked awesome On, tuesday so that's going to be a
super interesting. Game we'll be breaking it all down here on.
YouTube autter the final. Buzzer i'll see you guys. Ahead