December 8, 2023 • 45 mins
Episode 160: Arky Shea and Joel C. Cordes have been watching Tyrese Haliburton and these Indiana Pacers longer than most. Here's all you've been missing as they burst onto the national stage against a championship-ready LeBron James and his L.A. Lakers. They also discuss the miserable Detroit Pistons, the New York Knicks' star "problem," the staying power of the Minnesota Timberwolves and what the NBA's In-Season Tournament's real value has proven to be.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Welcome into Basketball Mas Association. N'smy boys for the whole podashed. My
name is Archie Shah. I changedit for you, and it would be
too much for you to be toomuch for me. Chelsea cord is on
the other side, sporting the freshlyminted Indiana Pacers thousand points of games scoring
(00:21):
streak that they're going on. Howare you, Jill? Where did you
talk some basketball? I'm ready totalk some basketball, but first I'm just
was that like an Eric Cartman meetswhatever the logo the old minor logo from
the Denver Nuggets would have sounded like, because that's that's where I think that
was going. I think it's moreof the old Denver Nuggets logo, the
little minus. There's no way thatguy didn't sound like that. Let's be
(00:45):
real, don't get too far downin that ditch there, so I guess
think you see some Eric Cartman.There wasn't really expecting that in there.
But anyway, we're ready to talkto some whoopie. Are you ready to
talk some hoopage? We're almost readyto crown a champion. Yeah, an
asterisk sort of champion, a halfchampion. It's to asterik another Championship.
(01:10):
The Lakers might win, all right. Well, before we do this,
we have to name an episode theepisode. This is episode one sixty.
And there's only two players in NBAhistory who have logged one hundred and sixty
career playoff games. One of themis James Harden. We are absolutely not
naming an episode after James Harden rightnow or anytime in the foreseeable future.
(01:30):
That sounds personal. James, youneed to you need to like live up
to some things here first. Butthis next guy more than deserving. He's
a Hall of Famer. He's athirteen time All Star, an eleven time
rebounding Champ, a two time NBAChamp, no asterisks involved. He was
the All Star Game MVP in nineteenfifty nine slash sixty. He was the
(01:53):
Rookie of the Year that year.So think about a Rookie of the Year
and the All Star Game MVP inthe same year. Finals MVP and seventy
one seventy two, seven times scoringChamp, ten time All NBA, four
time MVP, two time All Defense. But there's only one number, and
if I mentioned this number, you'llknow exactly who it is. Oh,
(02:15):
I don't know you're gonna have tohelp me with this one, all right.
The number one hundred. Oh oh, Reggie Miller, I hate you.
Yeah, those are some great accoladesfor will Wold. That is.
Have we not named a new episodeafter Wilt Chamberlain. I don't think we've
done a Wilt Chamberlain episode, Andif we have, it was so long
(02:36):
ago that I'm willing to do thiswithout an asterisk, just to not have
to name it after James Harden.But again, the stats around Wilt are
well known at this point. Butyes, he averaged fifty points a game
in a season, he averaged twentyor more rebounds. What is this?
It's like one, two, three, four, five, eight, ten
eleven times and all. The lowestrebounding season he ever had was eighteen point
(03:01):
four. We got hendred points inthe game, led the league and assists
one year on a dare just becausehe said he was going to like it's
it's just ridiculous. But let mejust champion and that's that's it. I
guess that that that that's all avery quiet career he led in the hoopitch.
(03:23):
Let me I want I want tomove on. I don't want to
harp on this part, because thisis a conversation I think, a bigger
one for a longer time. Ifeel like when we talk about the greatest
player of all time, we don'twant to look before nineteen eighty five for
some reason, Like we like,there's three dudes that will consider and that's
it, and you got to findthe right smart dude. They even want
(03:45):
to throw Kobe into the equation atthat point. So like no one,
no one allows for any basketball tohave played before, you know, the
three point shot was introduced, Likeeveryone just says, eh, you know
whatever, the league is smaller,the overall talent pool is not quite the
same, I understand, But youcan't punish a guy from being the greatest
(04:10):
freak whatever. He could have donesomething else and been the greatest baker,
I don't know, but he decidedto use his heights for good and to
throw balls and peach baskets. Okay, that's what he decided to do.
So anyway, I think that's aconversation, a much bigger one for for
later. For sure. Let's seeif we could do Wilt a little justice
(04:30):
here by talking about one of hisgreat teams that he did not play for
the New Orleans Pelicans, who wereterrible. Okay, so this is the
season tournament. I want to getyour broader thoughts on just a moment,
but just to know, Joel thaton a night when the NBA says for
the second straight or third time thisweek, no other basketball except for this,
(04:53):
Yep, we got ourselves one prettydecent game in one staker. Okay,
the cool thing, I'll get tothe Pelicans just a moment. Did
you see the stat on the MilwaukeeIndiana game? Since you're wearing that shirt.
Oh man, you're all over theplace here. I'm all prepped for
New Orleans in LA and now we'regoing to Milwaukee, an We're gonna get
to New Orleans, LA, Ipromise you there. There's really four teams
(05:14):
to talk about for the most part, and I'll save my thoughts on something
very important about the Knicks in justa moment. But hey, listen,
it's gonna happen that that betting totalwas the highest and thirty years for the
total number of points to be scoredin that game. I think it was
two fifty seven and a half thelast time I saw it could have gone
up or dead. I'm not quitesure, But the time when I was
(05:36):
reading the article, it was twofifty seven and a half. Now they
scored ten points under that, butstill a lot of points that were expected
in the Milwaukee Indiana game. Andnow the Indiana Pacers are one step closer
to being the champions that Reggie Milleralways thought they could be but just couldn't
(05:57):
quite get over the hump. Howabout that? And they're gonna be out
before Christmas. Look, we weand by we I mean me, but
we on this show called out thePacers in preseason. I owned this shirt
prior to this run. I wason this bandwagon. It looked new beforehand.
It looks new, but it's alreadybeen sewed once in the shoulder,
(06:18):
so I got proof that it wasfrom before. But you just get the
Indiana is so much fun. Theyneed to be on national TV more.
I'm glad that not only Tyre's Haliburtoncalled that out. Miles Turner called that
out. Other people around the broadcastlast night called that out. But even
before this game, this was true. It's neat that they've gotten this far
(06:41):
that people are seeing them, becauseyou can call this Tyre's Halliburton's coming out
party. But he's been doing thisnow for a season plus in Indiana where
it just keeps getting better and better, and unless you don't, you don't
see it. Well fantasy wise,I'm gonna buy this week, so it
doesn't really affect me when we orthe other by the way I think it.
Did I just beat you, misterJelsey Corda, No, no,
(07:03):
no, I didn't beat you.We are tied in the division. I
think where right now, as faras far as our records concerned, I
want to say, as far asthe Tyre's Halliburton coming out party, I
think us really cool hip basketball fansknow a lot about Tyre's Halliburton. I
(07:24):
think when you have the sort ofstandalone moment that he was able to have
at the very end of that Bostongame a couple of nights ago, I
think that's when sort of people gotto give him more of its flowers and
more people. There wasn't enough,There wasn't a focus taken away from him.
There was nothing really else happening ona Tuesday night, Literally nothing else
happening on the Tuesday night that whenBoston came back in that game and tied
(07:47):
it up in the last minute anda half or so, and then Tyre's
Halliburton basically says, are bad.You guys were in this game a little
too long. Let's do this fourpoint play. Let's look good. By
the way, I can't breathe,Okay, I'm weezing, I'm taking in
Hailer's Okay, I got this upperrespiratory infection. But you know what,
it's my time. And he doesreally what is something that we I think
(08:09):
you and I think he's very capableof. But to do it against you
know, he didn't do it againstlike the Hawks. He did it against
the team that most people think isgoing to be the pre eminent team coming
out of the East. And todo it on that stage where it was
standalone for him, I think thatwas a breakout moment for him, despite
(08:30):
the fact that we know how goodhe can be, and who knows,
maybe we don't know how good hecan be. Maybe he could still be,
you know, eons and eons beyondwhat we think. But I do
think that that was a nice comingout moment, at least for him coming
into this game against Milwaukee, andand Milwaukee was no slash. Clearly,
both these two teams last night.Wanted to play, wanted to win this
thing, and Giannis was pissed whenthey didn't win, which is great.
(08:52):
You want to see that. Youwant to see your biggest stars taking this
seriously, and like you said,they did and the losers took it series
by being upset as much as yousee sort of going into this a lot
of players being like, I don'treally know what's going on. I'm just
showing up to play, and thisis this is this is my uh,
this is my date. The showup here. I'll be right here.
(09:13):
You just throw it out to me. You did see that there was frustration
there because this was you know,it was money tied, but it's also
a chance for more. Uh.You know. I tend to think that
if you put if you put thisthing in February, uh or any other
time and there's a trophy at theend, I think a certain amount of
(09:35):
pride takes over, a certain amountof competitiveness takes over by the time the
tournament itself begins. Yes, right, maybe. Well the pool play was
interesting because you have like the Celticsplaying the Bulls and having to win by
like twenty five and then keeping gotwho is it that that that they were
hacking down to Jordan, right,they were like hacking him like at the
(09:56):
end of the in the fourth quarterto try to increase that point more to
get to this point like it was. If it was against the balls,
it was probably Drummond, but noAndre Drummond, right, not Andre Drummond.
They were they were hacking him atthe end of that game, just
to try to get to the freethrow line. By the way, I
think he missed all six of hisfree throws when they did that. And
Billy Donovan's ticked off, which heshouldn't be. He's got a terrible team
(10:16):
whatever. Like it's one of thosethings where like that the pool plays a
little murky ish, but by thetime it's like knockout round, it's when
you keep going on, when youkeep making another big check. Then yeah.
Plus also you're playing for your teammateswho not everybody gets to have the
Giannis contract, not everybody has theTires Helliburton contract. There are guys in
there that you know, an extrafifty grand meets something. And I'm also
(10:37):
not so jag you know, yeah, true, and you keep winning as
you go forward. It's not justwin this game. When you're done in
the next round, you get more. I'm not so jaded to think that
people who were making thirty million dollarsa year don't want an extra hundred grand
like people who have had the quotelast night where they said, aren't you
old to be taking that charge fromZion, you know, in a game
(11:00):
like this where it's not a championshipgame, and Lebron said, I'm not
too old to take it for fivehundred thousand dollars. You know, how
many how many millions of millions andmillions of dollars does Lebron have? So
yeah, we we think. Wethink, hey, if I had fifty
million dollars a year for the lastten years, what I But people who
have money, what do they wantmore money? Money? Looks right like
(11:24):
there is no this is enough moneyfor me. So like, I think
that's an interesting point too. Andand I do think the play in tournament
did show a ton of competitiveness forfor for this. And I thought I
didn't know how much we get inthe I thought we would get it in
the knockout round because it's the moneyis definitely on the line. It's harder
to see it when you're playing ina pool. But yeah, I totally
(11:45):
agree with this concept so far.I'd like to clean up some things going
forward, but you know, regardless, I don't want to get too far
onto that before I say that itwas a great win for Indiana last night.
They get to move on, andI don't think everyone had Indiana as
one of their potential finalists going intothis thing. So the NBA gets a
little bit of you know, areally good name on the other and we're
(12:09):
about to talk about and they getanother team that's gonna be super fun to
watch and people will like because it'sa very pleasing level of basketball for me
casual viewers. Yeah, there's somuch to unpack here. I think Indiana
was one of the very first teamswhen pool play was just beginning who took
this seriously from the start. Therewere guys out there who are like,
Eh, I don't know, Idon't know what's going on, like you
(12:31):
said, But Indiana right from thebeginning was like, No, this is
a cool idea. We're all in. This is a good test for us.
We're going to see where we're at. Indiana was a team that really
didn't have an identity last year.I think they had many of the same
personnels this year, but they're figuringout who was going to fit what roles,
and they didn't know what what theywere going to look like every single
night. And credit them, CreditRick Carlisle, credit all the players for
(12:54):
the buy in and for the executionon this to go. Our identity is
to be this blazingly fast team builtaround Tyre's Halliburton. But what I love
about these Pacers, what has beengreat in pool play, what's been great
in single elimination has been it's astar driven system. Yes, like you
need Tyre's Halliburton to make this go, but it's and Miles Turner is a
(13:16):
star in his own right as well, But it also is such a team
centric concept of what they're playing.The ball is moving the same way it
did with the Warriors with Steph curRand Klay Thompson at their height, same
way with the seven second or lesssuns, you know, and some of
these other great teams that have putup a ton of points everybody gets to
eat. I know they're not gooddefensively. They're the number one ranked team
(13:39):
offensively that's been set one hundred times, but just on pack for a minute
that they're averaging one hundred and twentyeight points per game, which is like
the highest and twenty plus years orwhatever, and the closest team behind them
is six points per game less.On that list, the second and third
place are like one hundred and twentytwo or one hundred and twenty. It's
(14:03):
ridiculous. And yes, Indiana isthe second worst team defensively, and you
saw that with Milwaukee where it's like, my goodness, Jiannis just keeps getting
a lot of dunks here. Andit's like, I've watched Indiana a fair
amount of times this season because Ireally like them. They get dunked on
a lot, people walk down MainStreet a lot. But then they're just
gonna go, you know, they'regonna outlet and go and Darry to stop
(14:24):
them on the other end. AndRick Carlile said, we are figuring out
the defense as we go. There'sbeen little flashes. They do have some
good defenders, you know, MilesTurner, great shot blocker, Bruce Brown,
very good defender. Aaron Ne Smithis coming along, Andrew Nemhart coming
along as defenders too. You wantTyre's haliburt and to continue to improve in
that regard, but it's just partof the identity. They're gonna score that
(14:45):
ton of points they can shoot.They're playing with no fear right now,
and I think what's great about thetournament. It still feels a little early
in the year for me, feelslike we should have started it maybe three
weeks four weeks later than they did. But what's great is this is a
measuring stick. It's a growing opportunityfor a team like the Pacers that if
(15:05):
they hold on to the second orthird seed, or even you know,
drop down into the fourth, whichI think is probably realistic where they'll wind
up, they're gonna be one ofthose proverbial teams. It's like, oh,
they just gotten to the playoffs.That's really nice, but you know,
they haven't really been here, andthey've got to cut their teeth and
gain that experience. Well, youknow what, this is some experience.
This can be banked towards later becausethese are playoff level games, and yet
(15:31):
it's a little different. It's nota series where you're able to make adjustments
and really lock in. There's gonnabe big question marks when this team gets
to the postseason about can a highscoring team that's so bad at defense?
Can they win in a playoff serieswhen things slow down? Blah blah blah,
all those old arguments, But youget to answer some of that,
you get to put some of thaton tape, you get to log some
(15:52):
of this where maybe going into yourfirst playoff series in April doesn't feel so
big and intense, imitating to manyof these players having done this, especially
if you go, man, wegot the NBA Cup, Like I know,
it's not the championship where we playedin the NBA Cup championship game.
We got a taste of it,and that I think that's one of the
(16:14):
unsung things about this little mini tournamentis what it can do for some of
these up and coming teams and justlowering that learning curve a bit, whereas
before it's always been a given thatit's like, yeah, you get into
the playoffs that first time, seehow you do. But chances are as
soon as you run into a veteranteam, they're going to show you how
it's done. I think that's aninteresting point to bring up about that that
(16:37):
metal that may be tested here,that may be able to be bankable experience,
and you'd have that experience in season, and you'd have it use it
that season. I think that's whatwe're where. They watching later on the
other end of the bracket finds theLakers beating the Pelicans, just squeaking out
a big one, that one,thirty three to eighty nine. It is
the the third largest loss in NewOrleans Pelicans history. Forty four is not
(17:06):
close. It was a close firstquarter, second quarter of the Lakers sort
of. It was manageable at halftime. It was yes, I think it
was thirteen twelve, thirteen points athalftime, and the third quarter of the
wheels fell off for the Pelicans.Lakers put up forty three points in that
third quarter and they routed the Pelicans. Asn't mentioned about forty four. Lebron
a quiet thirty point effort Anthony datwenty five minutes. Lebron had never done
(17:33):
that before. That was a newstat for him. Thirty points and twenty
five minutes or less. Crazy.Anthony Davis went sixteen and fifteen. Checked
this out. The plus minus forthe starting five for your Los Angeles Lakers.
You ready, Lebron plus thirty six, Anthony Davis plus thirty five.
Can't readish plus thirty one that's gotto be the highest plus minus in Cam
(17:56):
Reddish's career. Like bar None,I don't even have to look it up.
You have to look it up.I know that is Toria Prince plus
twenty three and D'Angelo Russell also plustwenty three. And if you go to
New Orleans starters, it's the mirrorimage of that. Just I'll do Zion
minus thirty three, Ingram minus thirtythree, McCallum minus thirty eight, Valachouni
(18:18):
is minus twenty five, Herb Jonesminus twenty two. Wow, that was
a that was a lot. Zionsaid after the game that he wish he
was gooder. In fact that Ithink it was more of an effort thing
that he brought up. They werequote too late back in that game.
(18:40):
He was too late back specifically inthat game. You want talk about testing
the championship medal. Zion clearly,if he thinks he's the championship type of
atmosphere too late back, probably notwhat I like to hear about myself.
Right and there too, that's againa measuring stick type of thing. New
(19:00):
Orleans walks into a big game andthey learn a lesson here by forty four
points That's different than if you getblown out by forty four points in a
regular season game, because you shakeit off and you go, yeah,
we're onto the next one. Wegot the next night up, and we're
gonna keep building towards that postseason.That is one of the things I like
about this is, Yeah, they'regonna be onto their next regular season game.
(19:21):
It continues. But the coaching staffand the players, those who are
gonna hold themselves mentally accountable, aregonna be able to go back to this
and say, and even as theplayoff run begins down that home stretch where
the games really start to tighten upand matter because you're jockeying for seeding,
or once you get into the playin tournament, which is probably where New
Orleans is going to wind up andit's getting into single elimination, like,
(19:45):
hey, guys, remember that wecannot do that. And now we know
what that feels like, we knowwhat that looks like. It's disappointing for
New Orleans because they've been in theplay in before, they've been in some
playoff series. It hasn't been withZion. So you can give you know,
you can give a little bit ofleeway for that Zion led the entire
game, or led the starters withwhat thirteen points for the Pelicans was what
(20:11):
The leading scorer for the Pelicans wasTrey Murphy with fourteen points. No other
New Orleans starter had double figures.So this is, yes, it's on
Zion. You're one of the leaders. You can't be coming out and going,
oh, I I feel like Iwas too lazy in that game.
That's kind of been a common themewith Zion since he's been in the NBA,
which is you know that I readan article calling this the most impactful
(20:33):
and important game of his career.Do you think that was right of his
career? Obviously? I mean becausehe had a career, sure, I
guess. I mean because it wasthe semi finals. I guess of a
tournament where they could have won amore money in a trophy if they want
one more game after this. Yeah, I don't see a lot of February
(20:56):
gains for him being that impactful,especially since he's been so hurt. That's
that's it. That's why it's impactful, I think is because he's just missed
so much of the rest of it. There would have been other big regular
season games or play in tournament gameswhere he was not present, he wasn't
suited up, so those otherwise shouldhave ranked this way. But I guess
I would agree with that. Butas much as Zion deserves to take some
(21:19):
blame and I agree with his statement, and it is a red flag that
effort continues to come up for thisparticular player, I do want to point
out, like this is a totalone team loss. Everybody, everybody on
that roster didn't do what they weresupposed to. And if Zion isn't bringing
you along energy wise, where isbriandon ingram as a leader? Where is
(21:44):
CJ McCollum. Willie Green obviously didn'tmake the right adjustments at halftime, you
know. Like so there's there's allsorts of blame to go around for a
game like this. If they continueto showcase this type of DNA in bigger
games, I'd be really concerned.But for right now, it's kind of
like, all right, you tooka beating to a Lakers team that their
goal is a championship, they're primedto do it. They have not played
(22:07):
their best throughout the early portion ofthe season because they've been hurt, because
there's a lot of different moving parts, because the Lakers kind of ease into
things. But this, to meshows you just how dangerous the Lakers are
when hey, they're not even atfull strength mentally, physically, whatever,
and they're in the championship of theNBA Cup. Remember, I picked the
Lakers as much as it pains meto win the championship this year, and
(22:30):
this type of moment here is thedifference. You're talking about the tournament,
right, No, but this typeof moment does I think prove my pointer
at least speaks to it like it'sa veteran team with a ton of options
that walks in and is not overwhelmedby the moment. And yeah, that
team has Lebron James on it side. That's great and Anthony Davis and so
(22:51):
forth. But they're built to winbigger things than this. But the fact
they can come in on this justshows you they're ready across the season and
they are the team in the Westto be feared. I think, well,
on that thought, Will Agreen,the coach of the Pelicans, said
well, he basically pointed out thatthe experienced factor in the veterans on the
team made all the difference in theworld in that game, it said basically
(23:14):
that his team was play basically playedtoo, like they were as young as
they are. Yeah, I meanthey are, but at the same time,
like LA's got a lot of veteransup and down the roster, but
they got a lot of young guystoo, like Christian Wood and Cam Reddish,
Austin I mean, I guess AustinReeves has played some meaningful games,
but Reddish and Wood and some ofthose other guys have not played a ton
(23:36):
of meaningful games in their career.CJ. McCollum and Jonas Valanchunas have.
They're not Chop Liver. They're supposedto be some of your veteran leaders.
So I buy that to an extent. But it's not as if New Orleans
has no veterans on the team whohave been there before. It's not as
if Brandon Ingram hasn't gone through someof the play in games, and some
(23:56):
of these other guys. You know, we just saw New Orleans make a
big run two years ago. TreyMurphy was on that team, Herb Jones
was on that team. They werein the mix last year too. So
I buy it, but I don'tbuy it. I think he's got I
think he's got a fair point.Like I could see like if you just
sort of talk a talking handing ofthis, but like he lost by forty
(24:18):
four, Like I get it iflike you know, you lost by six
and you you missed across some moments, like you just didn't know where you
were on the floor, how muchtime went, Like I kind of get
that maybe the moment got to you, but not to this degree, not
not to where you know that thatwas an all systems failure third quarter especially,
it was you don't play a lotworse than that. I mean,
(24:38):
granted we did get to see,you know, granted it's the most standing,
outstanding memory. We don't have tonecessarily talk about what Dallas did the
night before, where you know,where a Luka was talking about how how
how he was basically just whipping everybody'sbutt. On the other end, he's
like, that's why you're complaining,I'm I'm just beating his ass, right,
(25:00):
Well, sorry, that's how theywere. But you know, like
we could sort of mention that wasa tough loss or in a big time
win, but this was obviously themore impactful and so uh, you know,
we don't have a ton of timeleft here on, but I do
want to talk about a couple ofthings here on the podcast before we go
with the NBA outside of the RedSeason Tournament. First of all, I'd
(25:23):
just like to say to wrap upthe season tournament for this podcast, I'm
not mad that the Knicks did makethe championship. The biggest thing I was
worried about is that the Knicks wouldbe the team that stopped the losing streak
of the Pistons the night before.Uh so, I'm good, I'm good
that wasn't the Knicks. By theway, the Pistons have won like four
games since February, Like it's awfulthey're let me refresh there because my computer
(25:49):
can't even keep up with their losingstreak. Well, we lost eighteen in
a row. Uh, yeah,they've lost eighteen in a row. They're
two and nineteen. So remember theystarted the season two and one. Yes,
San Antonio started the season three andtwo, and the Spurs have lost
fifteen in a row. Now,I got a chance to watch the Pistons
(26:11):
against the Lakers last week. Actuallygot a chance to see Lebron. Well,
we're going to see Lebron because youjust don't know how many chances he'll
get. And I'm going with somebuddies of mine who are Lakers fans from
LA originally. But yeah, thePistons somehow despite having a better talent level
than last year because most of theirpeople they're young guys, were healthy,
no cohesiveness. It is a mess. It is as bad as the record
(26:36):
looks. And Amani Williams team,like, you look at that and go,
what is he coaching them to do? But I just think the learning
curve is so high that the guyshave not wrapped their minds around it.
But they're lacking shooters. They've conspicuouslybeen sitting all of their veterans. I
mean, fously, what are youtalking about? Conspicuous? Bogdanovich just play
(27:00):
his first game two nights ago ofthe season. Joe Harris has yet to
play, Monte Morris hasn't played yet. Those are all guys who are adults
in the room who would help thisteam be more competitive, and they've all
been conspicuously sitting. So but it'sbad. It's really ugly in Detroit.
Yeah, and I didn't mean tospend as much time on the pace as
I just thought, Wow, that'sthat's really really bad, really really really
(27:22):
bad. Just glad the Spurs atleast have been losing some close games where
they were in it and you seethat youth come out and they you know,
they piss it away. But Iwant to give you look at us,
thrown out all the dirty words there, the A word out, the
p word outlets do whatever. Wetalked about the Pistons, Oh sorry,
kistened it away. I kid itthat, see what you're sting. I
(27:44):
want to give you a chance tosort of talk about your timber Wolves because
they have not cooled down since wehave last chatted. You know, their
teams have come back to Earth alittle bit like Dallas has come back to
Earth, just just a little bit, just by beating Utah about fifty.
The other night I was with WillBrady called it like, uh oh,
he's gonna throw another cuss word out, but I don't want to know that.
But it was bad. He calledit is bad. It's like the
worst he's ever seen. But thepeople so far i've not come back to
(28:08):
Earth. I am impressed with howthey've looked at the first twenty games.
We're quarterway through the season. Theylook good. Joel Good. Good liked
Good, and they've you know,they missed three games from Anthony Edwards with
the hip injury. They won despitehis absence. They've been missing Jaden McDaniels
for almost three weeks now due toa hip injury as well. He should
(28:30):
be coming back. It's been agreat opportunity for a couple of their young
guys. Nikhil Alexander Walker has beenplaying starters minutes and is finally knocking down
shots, but looking like not thelead defender because that's supposed to be Jaden
McDaniels, but their secondary defender forsure. Anthony Edwards more than fills in
as a lead or a secondary defender, you know, and a lot of
times he's been taking it upon himselfto guard the opposing team's best player in
(28:55):
crunch time. But even a guylike Troy Brown, who I've never been
a huge fan of prior to this, suddenly gets minutes with McDaniels and Edwards
going down and looks like he maybe reliable as a hustle guy and knocking
down some shots of three and Dguy the way he was envisioned when he
was drafted by the Wizards. SoThey're a team built on defense. The
offense can be a lot better.They keep talking about that, that they
(29:18):
feel good about where the defense is, and they see that as a constant
right now per game right in theNBA, that's what That's what's scary is
nobody on that team is satisfied yetwith the way the offense is clicking and
moving. But they're all saying theright things and they're they're trying to hit
that. So they do have anotherlevel yet to reach. I think they
(29:40):
have staying power to be in thetop six. I'm not going to go
out on any limbs. Do youthink that they're only a top sixteen?
I guess number one would be numbersix. But you you'll think, okay,
sorry, I didn't mean to chopdown. He'd be like you,
only you don't believe in your teamthat much. But you think they're coming
back earth a little bit at somepoint, like barely in the in the
Gara. I guess I've just learnedfrom watching the NBA for a long long
(30:03):
time that to race out to agreat start in the first quarter of the
season is helpful. There's no shadeupon it, but to especially for a
team that's not been there in thatposition before as a front runner. To
hang too much on that is reallyreally risky. Talk to me an all
(30:26):
Star break if they're still in firstbut they're eleven and two in the West
like that. They're beating the teamsthat they're going to have to be judged
against the so far early on andthey play up yes, yeah, and
when you watch their games against goodteams or bad. The thing that's really
standing out about this Minnesota team isthe maturity and the execution of understanding the
(30:48):
who, what, when and whereand not just you know, coming out
and hoping to be more talented oryou know, canning a bunch of threes.
They're executing in a lot of differentways. They have shown that they
will fend for forty eight minutes andstill be able to find another level defensively
down the last six minutes of agame. Those are all very promising things.
Rudy Gobert is playing Defensive Player ofthe Year impact right now, like
(31:12):
he is the front runner far andaway, and you could not he wasn't
even close last year. Karl AnthonyTowns has slotted in as the secondary score.
He's playing under control a lot more, both offensively and defensively, playing
with better bass, playing with abetter ability to be able to decelerate on
(31:32):
offense. He still gets picked up, you know, offensive files and charges
here or there, which has beena bugaboo, but they've been really minimized.
They they've been reduced. And AnthonyEdwards is I mean, he is
the real deal. The supporting cast, I think is the real deal.
You're still concerned about who's the thirdscorer on this team. That's something that
the Wolves broadcasters have been bringing upa lot. It's supposed to be Jaden
(31:53):
McDaniels. He's got to get healthyfirst. There's other guys that on any
given night could be the third scorer, but you want to know who that
is by the time you get tothe playoffs. So there's questions left to
be answered. There's some really goodteams in the West. The Lakers,
the Nuggets, especially the thunder aregonna hang around. The Suns I think
(32:14):
will make a run. They're tootalented not to. I mean, heck,
the Clippers may make a run atsome point here. So talk to
me when we get to the AllStar break of Minnesota still sitting in first,
but I do think like they haveshown they are one of the upper
echelon teams this year in the Westand league wide, and that is a
huge step forward from where they've been. Where they wind up in the standings.
(32:37):
There's a lot of season left toplay. All Right, I get
it, you're you're you're you're home, or you're you're you've been hurt before
by this team. I can getthat. But we've all seen teams.
We've all seen teams that race afterthat big start and they're like, Wow,
what is Orlando doing in first place? While they won't be there soon.
Orlando wasn't beating the thunder who bythe way, the three games up
(32:57):
done? Now? Uh, excuseme? Under good this year, the
seventy six Ers, the Knicks,the Pelicans, who were just a game
away for playing for the n seasonchampionship, the Warriors already a couple of
times this year, they've been thePelicans a couple of times, beating the
Celtics, beaten Denver, beat inMiami. They've beaten good teams West and
East. Like that's that's the partthat they gives me hope that they have
(33:21):
more staying power than maybe that you'rebelieving right now is that the Dallas for
example, Remember we were talking aboutDallas a couple of weeks ago, and
they had beat up a bunch oftomato cans to start off the season,
but they were still winning the games. Well, the schedule got a little
bit tougher. They lost a fewmore games to come back to earth more
recently, and I think they're likefour and six in the last ten or
something like that. So they've cooledjust to touch. But they also played
(33:45):
tougher teams. The team that playtougher teams is number one. Well,
they're the team that's winning beat ofthose number one teams right now too.
So like they're doing it against teamsand not broken teams, like this isn't
Denver without Jokich and stuff. They'rethey're winning imported games with teams that are
as fully functional as you can sortof expect in November and December, and
you know, and they're taking careof business against the bad teams. One
(34:07):
of the things about the Wolves overthe last two years is they've gotten up
for the big games. They've beenvery competitive in those big games. But
they lost to Detroit I think twicelast year. You know, for example,
they've lost to a bunch of bottomfeeder teams along the way where they
had no business giving up those games, and they just didn't have the focus.
You are not seeing them do thatthis year. First Horns Jazz their
(34:28):
last three wins. Now they're takingon the Grizzlies tonight. So yeah,
you're right, they're taking care ofeverybody right now, which is again why
I have more faith. I don'tknow how I have more faith in the
Timberwolves than the guy on this podcastwho is a lifelong Timberwolves fan, but
that is where we are in twentytwenty three. We have someone who has
been brutally beaten down since Kevin Gardenhad left, and I completely understand.
(34:54):
I mean, it's the same thingslike tongue in cheek, you tell me
you know on the air, likegoing eighty two and oh and will give
me those texts, But when wereally get down to it in some of
those games are like with the Knicks, it's like, I don't know if
I want to. I don't knowif I can predict more than that yet,
you know, can I can?I ask you, do you have
anything else you want to hit?Four hit before we get out because I
(35:15):
have one last thing I want toask about real quick. Yeah, the
Knicks obviously lost in the in thequarterfinals. The Knock in the game last
week afterwards, I think it wasI think it was Kenny Smith who said
(35:36):
the Knicks, this is why theKnicks will always be in the middle of
the pack, because the Knicks willnever, whenever they get on the floor,
have the best player on the floor. Whenever the Knicks go on the
court, they will always have atbest the number two guy on the floor.
Do you think that is something thatis real with New York and it's
something that can sort of preclude themfrom being or do you think this is
(36:00):
that Kenny Smith just sort of chitchatting away. I think, especially in
the East, when you look atwho they're gonna run into, I would
buy into that. And it's noshade to Julius Randall or Jalen Brunson,
depending on which one you want tonominate as their best player. It's probably
been Brunson so far this year becauserandom should have won an MVP two years
(36:21):
ago, so right, But butis is Jalen Brunson better than Jason Tatum?
No? Is he better than JalenBrown. He's probably around the same
level. I would think. Ishe better than Giannis? No? Is
he better than Is he better thanEmbiid? No? Is he better than
Jimmy Butler. Jimmy, he's inthat magical quality. I think it depends
(36:43):
on when they play, and woulddepend on when they play. And I
mean, here's where it gets tough. Is he better than Tyreus Halliburton.
No, he's not. And andyou know, if they run into Orlando,
is Jalen Brunson better than Paulo Boncaro? At this point, I'd probably
say yeah, Yeah, I wouldsay yeah, but it's not how much
right for how much longer? Sothose are all the teams. And you
(37:06):
know, we didn't even talk aboutCleveland, who I think will put together
a run. They're seven and threein their last ten. They started out
slow with injuries. Is Brunson betterthan Donovan Mitchell? Mitchell's been up and
down. Is he better than DariusGarland? No, he's probably on the
you know what we're talking about now, He's got two of those guys.
But what you're talking about now isyou're putting them at best in the middle
(37:28):
of the pack, like Kenny Smithwas saying, right right, and you
could play that same game out Westtoo. It is a star driven league,
but you look at some of thoseother teams, and I do think
New York's supporting cast if they figureit out. But on paper, New
York supporting cast is better than someof those other top line, star driven
teams, and that's what's going togive them that puncher's chance. But as
(37:50):
Kenny was saying, like in aseven game series, especially you get into
the semifinals, the conference finals,the NBA Finals, at some point,
it's hard to be the team that'sgot the best player on the floor.
So so far, there's only whatI if I'm as a Knicks fan,
there's only two teams I'm afraid ofin the East right now, two teams
that I think it's just they're scaryand and and I don't know how the
Knicks gonna be able to match upChicago and Washington. I hear you,
(38:14):
Yeah, it's the I can't figureout the Wizards. They're just so darn
talented and they're just so clean atthis point. Uh Now, the two
teams that Philadelphia I worry a lotabout, even though hey, I don't
know how the Knicks matchup for sevengames or even five games, uh with
with Philadelphia consistently in Milwaukee. Thoseare the two teams that I really I
(38:37):
think the Knicks. The Knicks canbeat Boston. I think the Knicks can
be Cleveland. I think the Knicks, I mean maybe the third team on
that list will probably be Indiana.Yeah, and I think they could ugly
it up so far that all ofa sudden, the Pacers can't even get
to what they want to do,you know yeah, But I don't know
how consistent, how many games ina series you can do that with you
know so. But but right now, I'm with you. I think maybe
(38:59):
you don't have the number one guyevery single night, but doesn't mean your
number one doesn't play better than theirnumber one both that the supporting cast doesn't
come in and help you. Philadelphia, though, phil Philadelphia scared me.
Philadelphia is a They're a beast readyto sort of explode. And I don't
think they're that worried right now aboutthe regular season. And they're fine with
(39:22):
the fourteen to seven, thirteen andseven thirteen to seven right now, you
know, they're fine. But Idon't think that they're so worried about being
in the top of the East.At this point, I'll say this about
the Knicks. You know they've gotthree clear cut number two stars and that's
what Kenny was getting at the mathchanges. If RJ. Barrett is able
to stay up in that level toalso be a number two star, have
(39:44):
you got three of those guys?You can do something even if you don't
have the best player on the floor. So again, we've been saying this
for a couple of years. Somuch hinges on RJ. Barrett's ascendants,
and we've seen flashes of it.We've seen PROGRESSI and he continues to get
there, But can he stay therefor an entire season and through the playoffs
(40:05):
and be a guy that is reliablenot just a bonus when he scores consistently.
Because I still feel like with Barrett, you go, oh, Brunson
will get his Randall's shot the balllike crap this year. But we know
he's got to progress to the meansat some point. And man, it'll
be great if we can get twentyfive from Barrett's night, that'll be amazing.
We'll win that game. You shouldn'tbe saying that, you should be
(40:28):
saying, we know we'll get twentypoints from Barrett tonight and it's gonna happen,
and we just need to make surethat Josh Hart hit some shots or
Dante di Vincenzo hit some shots.That sort of thing. That's where the
Knicks to me, still feels shakyis the offense can bog down and suddenly
no one can hit shots. Itis so contagious with that team and Brunson
(40:52):
and Randall can you know, invery ugly fashion get some points, but
they have to work so hard onthose nights. Where is RJ. Barrett's
ability to transcend the fact that nobodyelse is knocking down shots. I feel
like he kind of just goes asthey go. Fair enough? All right,
one last quick question. Yeah,Detroit Pistons have lost eighteen in a
(41:13):
rows. We talked about earlier.Twenty six is the record for in a
single season. Do they get that? Here's their upcoming schedule, yep.
At Orlando versus Indiana, versus Philadelphia, at Philadelphia, at Milwaukee, and
then at Atlanta versus Utah and thena pair with Brooklyn before going to Boston.
(41:35):
So they if they go down toMilwaukee, that'll be five more in
a row, So that'll be twentythree in a row for Atlanta Utah maybe
one of those. Do you thinkthey break the twenty sixth streak, which
is for a single season sept bythe not so long ago Detroit. It's
gonna be Philadelphia's seventy six ers.Yeah. No, I don't think they
break it. Bogdanovich is back inthe lineup. It's been really conspicuous that
(41:59):
outside consists and shooting is what's hinderingso much of their their issues right now.
So I do think that's going tochange. If any team is going
to drop it, it's going tobe Atlanta. They're just they're not focused
from one night to the next.You know, Philly, they're going to
play back to back. You gotto imagine that embiat is going to rest
one of those games against a badteam. They're not going to beat them
(42:22):
the second game though, or thefirst game. I don't think so.
But if they rest and beat onthe second game and people are not taking
care of business and all of asudden Detroit gets hot, I think the
Pistons have the ability to win oncein these next six games and twice in
the next ten if I think that'llhappen. If they break the record,
(42:45):
it will be against Toronto on Decemberthirtieth, So we will have a new
record holder if it happens at homein Detroit, at home and the true
that's true. If they they thatwill people. You know what, I
would buy tickets for that. Iwould buy Let's see the record right because
you know, did Brecker might bebroken by San Antonio later. So last
(43:06):
thing for me, and I knowwe've talked way too much about the Pistons,
but I'm going to give some love. It's it's my home state now.
And though I'm not a Pistons fan, I appreciate the history that's here
with Detroit sports. Pistons fans areincredibly loyal. They show up. But
we went to that Lakers game andit was eighty percent full in the building
(43:28):
for a Lakers game. For aLakers game. That's one of the few
games of the other year that yousell out. The Pistons lost by I
mean it was one thirty three toone oh seven when it was all said
and done, but they were downby thirty five for much of that game.
It was so quiet in that buildingas everybody just kind of watches like,
(43:51):
oh yeah, Lebron's good. Youknow, the Lakers would get some
cheers and they do something some oohsand ohs. People are appreciative of Lebron.
They hate the Lakers because it's Detroit, but they appreciate Lebron. But
it's just it was. It wassad, like this should be a better
building than this. I know thesefans, they will get behind a team.
(44:12):
They are loyal. You saw peopleyou know all throughout the arena and
their bad boys gear and stuff likethat. They're hungry for a winner.
Detroit, you gotta start picking upsome games here. Your fans deserve better
than two and nineteen. They justdo. I was one of the guys
that was bullish on them. Ithought they'd have a much better chance too,
and they are much worse. Theyare much worse. And I don't
(44:36):
think it's just a bucked out ofa gingury. Let's keeping them this bad.
I heard an interesting theory from afriend of mine who is a big
Detroit fan, and he said,it is a cosmic law that Detroit has
to have one of the worst teamsin sports at all times. And it's
like the fact that the Lions areplaying so well, now means that the
(44:58):
Pistons had to be the wor likethere was no other way around it.
And He's like, and as soonas the Pistons start playing well, it's
gonna be the Tigers, or it'sgonna be back to the Lions being the
bottom feeders. Poor motor City,Poor motor City. All right, Joel,
let's go do it for us.I think we did. Will Chamberlain
nicely proud on this. We wekept it under one hundred minutes, so
(45:20):
I mean, we'll see if he'ssatisfied with that. Rest listen, if
we want to redo it, epiitide, we got fifty four more minutes to
go. Yeah, yeah, yougot a marathon session, isn't you.
I mean, first of all,and this is as much shade on me
as anybody else. You and Igot to get our schedules in order so
we can just show up next weekand be able to do the next show.
(45:40):
So no, I can't, Ican't do one hundred right, Well,
then we'll do one hundred minute episodenext week. How's that? Okay?
All right? We will will verballycommit to that. Goodbye. See Yeah,
Welcome into Basketball Mas Association. N'smy boys for the whole podashed. My
name is Archie Shah. I changedit for you, and it would be
too much for you to be toomuch for me. Chelsea cord is on
the other side, sporting the freshlyminted Indiana Pacers thousand points of games scoring
(00:21):
streak that they're going on. Howare you, Jill? Where did you
talk some basketball? I'm ready totalk some basketball, but first I'm just
was that like an Eric Cartman meetswhatever the logo the old minor logo from
the Denver Nuggets would have sounded like, because that's that's where I think that
was going. I think it's moreof the old Denver Nuggets logo, the
little minus. There's no way thatguy didn't sound like that. Let's be
(00:45):
real, don't get too far downin that ditch there, so I guess
think you see some Eric Cartman.There wasn't really expecting that in there.
But anyway, we're ready to talkto some whoopie. Are you ready to
talk some hoopage? We're almost readyto crown a champion. Yeah, an
asterisk sort of champion, a halfchampion. It's to asterik another Championship.
(01:10):
The Lakers might win, all right. Well, before we do this,
we have to name an episode theepisode. This is episode one sixty.
And there's only two players in NBAhistory who have logged one hundred and sixty
career playoff games. One of themis James Harden. We are absolutely not
naming an episode after James Harden rightnow or anytime in the foreseeable future.
(01:30):
That sounds personal. James, youneed to you need to like live up
to some things here first. Butthis next guy more than deserving. He's
a Hall of Famer. He's athirteen time All Star, an eleven time
rebounding Champ, a two time NBAChamp, no asterisks involved. He was
the All Star Game MVP in nineteenfifty nine slash sixty. He was the
(01:53):
Rookie of the Year that year.So think about a Rookie of the Year
and the All Star Game MVP inthe same year. Finals MVP and seventy
one seventy two, seven times scoringChamp, ten time All NBA, four
time MVP, two time All Defense. But there's only one number, and
if I mentioned this number, you'llknow exactly who it is. Oh,
(02:15):
I don't know you're gonna have tohelp me with this one, all right.
The number one hundred. Oh oh, Reggie Miller, I hate you.
Yeah, those are some great accoladesfor will Wold. That is.
Have we not named a new episodeafter Wilt Chamberlain. I don't think we've
done a Wilt Chamberlain episode, Andif we have, it was so long
(02:36):
ago that I'm willing to do thiswithout an asterisk, just to not have
to name it after James Harden.But again, the stats around Wilt are
well known at this point. Butyes, he averaged fifty points a game
in a season, he averaged twentyor more rebounds. What is this?
It's like one, two, three, four, five, eight, ten
eleven times and all. The lowestrebounding season he ever had was eighteen point
(03:01):
four. We got hendred points inthe game, led the league and assists
one year on a dare just becausehe said he was going to like it's
it's just ridiculous. But let mejust champion and that's that's it. I
guess that that that that's all avery quiet career he led in the hoopitch.
(03:23):
Let me I want I want tomove on. I don't want to
harp on this part, because thisis a conversation I think, a bigger
one for a longer time. Ifeel like when we talk about the greatest
player of all time, we don'twant to look before nineteen eighty five for
some reason, Like we like,there's three dudes that will consider and that's
it, and you got to findthe right smart dude. They even want
(03:45):
to throw Kobe into the equation atthat point. So like no one,
no one allows for any basketball tohave played before, you know, the
three point shot was introduced, Likeeveryone just says, eh, you know
whatever, the league is smaller,the overall talent pool is not quite the
same, I understand, But youcan't punish a guy from being the greatest
(04:10):
freak whatever. He could have donesomething else and been the greatest baker,
I don't know, but he decidedto use his heights for good and to
throw balls and peach baskets. Okay, that's what he decided to do.
So anyway, I think that's aconversation, a much bigger one for for
later. For sure. Let's seeif we could do Wilt a little justice
(04:30):
here by talking about one of hisgreat teams that he did not play for
the New Orleans Pelicans, who wereterrible. Okay, so this is the
season tournament. I want to getyour broader thoughts on just a moment,
but just to know, Joel thaton a night when the NBA says for
the second straight or third time thisweek, no other basketball except for this,
(04:53):
Yep, we got ourselves one prettydecent game in one staker. Okay,
the cool thing, I'll get tothe Pelicans just a moment. Did
you see the stat on the MilwaukeeIndiana game? Since you're wearing that shirt.
Oh man, you're all over theplace here. I'm all prepped for
New Orleans in LA and now we'regoing to Milwaukee, an We're gonna get
to New Orleans, LA, Ipromise you there. There's really four teams
(05:14):
to talk about for the most part, and I'll save my thoughts on something
very important about the Knicks in justa moment. But hey, listen,
it's gonna happen that that betting totalwas the highest and thirty years for the
total number of points to be scoredin that game. I think it was
two fifty seven and a half thelast time I saw it could have gone
up or dead. I'm not quitesure, But the time when I was
(05:36):
reading the article, it was twofifty seven and a half. Now they
scored ten points under that, butstill a lot of points that were expected
in the Milwaukee Indiana game. Andnow the Indiana Pacers are one step closer
to being the champions that Reggie Milleralways thought they could be but just couldn't
(05:57):
quite get over the hump. Howabout that? And they're gonna be out
before Christmas. Look, we weand by we I mean me, but
we on this show called out thePacers in preseason. I owned this shirt
prior to this run. I wason this bandwagon. It looked new beforehand.
It looks new, but it's alreadybeen sewed once in the shoulder,
(06:18):
so I got proof that it wasfrom before. But you just get the
Indiana is so much fun. Theyneed to be on national TV more.
I'm glad that not only Tyre's Haliburtoncalled that out. Miles Turner called that
out. Other people around the broadcastlast night called that out. But even
before this game, this was true. It's neat that they've gotten this far
(06:41):
that people are seeing them, becauseyou can call this Tyre's Halliburton's coming out
party. But he's been doing thisnow for a season plus in Indiana where
it just keeps getting better and better, and unless you don't, you don't
see it. Well fantasy wise,I'm gonna buy this week, so it
doesn't really affect me when we orthe other by the way I think it.
Did I just beat you, misterJelsey Corda, No, no,
(07:03):
no, I didn't beat you.We are tied in the division. I
think where right now, as faras far as our records concerned, I
want to say, as far asthe Tyre's Halliburton coming out party, I
think us really cool hip basketball fansknow a lot about Tyre's Halliburton. I
(07:24):
think when you have the sort ofstandalone moment that he was able to have
at the very end of that Bostongame a couple of nights ago, I
think that's when sort of people gotto give him more of its flowers and
more people. There wasn't enough,There wasn't a focus taken away from him.
There was nothing really else happening ona Tuesday night, Literally nothing else
happening on the Tuesday night that whenBoston came back in that game and tied
(07:47):
it up in the last minute anda half or so, and then Tyre's
Halliburton basically says, are bad.You guys were in this game a little
too long. Let's do this fourpoint play. Let's look good. By
the way, I can't breathe,Okay, I'm weezing, I'm taking in
Hailer's Okay, I got this upperrespiratory infection. But you know what,
it's my time. And he doesreally what is something that we I think
(08:09):
you and I think he's very capableof. But to do it against you
know, he didn't do it againstlike the Hawks. He did it against
the team that most people think isgoing to be the pre eminent team coming
out of the East. And todo it on that stage where it was
standalone for him, I think thatwas a breakout moment for him, despite
(08:30):
the fact that we know how goodhe can be, and who knows,
maybe we don't know how good hecan be. Maybe he could still be,
you know, eons and eons beyondwhat we think. But I do
think that that was a nice comingout moment, at least for him coming
into this game against Milwaukee, andand Milwaukee was no slash. Clearly,
both these two teams last night.Wanted to play, wanted to win this
thing, and Giannis was pissed whenthey didn't win, which is great.
(08:52):
You want to see that. Youwant to see your biggest stars taking this
seriously, and like you said,they did and the losers took it series
by being upset as much as yousee sort of going into this a lot
of players being like, I don'treally know what's going on. I'm just
showing up to play, and thisis this is this is my uh,
this is my date. The showup here. I'll be right here.
(09:13):
You just throw it out to me. You did see that there was frustration
there because this was you know,it was money tied, but it's also
a chance for more. Uh.You know. I tend to think that
if you put if you put thisthing in February, uh or any other
time and there's a trophy at theend, I think a certain amount of
(09:35):
pride takes over, a certain amountof competitiveness takes over by the time the
tournament itself begins. Yes, right, maybe. Well the pool play was
interesting because you have like the Celticsplaying the Bulls and having to win by
like twenty five and then keeping gotwho is it that that that they were
hacking down to Jordan, right,they were like hacking him like at the
(09:56):
end of the in the fourth quarterto try to increase that point more to
get to this point like it was. If it was against the balls,
it was probably Drummond, but noAndre Drummond, right, not Andre Drummond.
They were they were hacking him atthe end of that game, just
to try to get to the freethrow line. By the way, I
think he missed all six of hisfree throws when they did that. And
Billy Donovan's ticked off, which heshouldn't be. He's got a terrible team
(10:16):
whatever. Like it's one of thosethings where like that the pool plays a
little murky ish, but by thetime it's like knockout round, it's when
you keep going on, when youkeep making another big check. Then yeah.
Plus also you're playing for your teammateswho not everybody gets to have the
Giannis contract, not everybody has theTires Helliburton contract. There are guys in
there that you know, an extrafifty grand meets something. And I'm also
(10:37):
not so jag you know, yeah, true, and you keep winning as
you go forward. It's not justwin this game. When you're done in
the next round, you get more. I'm not so jaded to think that
people who were making thirty million dollarsa year don't want an extra hundred grand
like people who have had the quotelast night where they said, aren't you
old to be taking that charge fromZion, you know, in a game
(11:00):
like this where it's not a championshipgame, and Lebron said, I'm not
too old to take it for fivehundred thousand dollars. You know, how
many how many millions of millions andmillions of dollars does Lebron have? So
yeah, we we think. Wethink, hey, if I had fifty
million dollars a year for the lastten years, what I But people who
have money, what do they wantmore money? Money? Looks right like
(11:24):
there is no this is enough moneyfor me. So like, I think
that's an interesting point too. Andand I do think the play in tournament
did show a ton of competitiveness forfor for this. And I thought I
didn't know how much we get inthe I thought we would get it in
the knockout round because it's the moneyis definitely on the line. It's harder
to see it when you're playing ina pool. But yeah, I totally
(11:45):
agree with this concept so far.I'd like to clean up some things going
forward, but you know, regardless, I don't want to get too far
onto that before I say that itwas a great win for Indiana last night.
They get to move on, andI don't think everyone had Indiana as
one of their potential finalists going intothis thing. So the NBA gets a
little bit of you know, areally good name on the other and we're
(12:09):
about to talk about and they getanother team that's gonna be super fun to
watch and people will like because it'sa very pleasing level of basketball for me
casual viewers. Yeah, there's somuch to unpack here. I think Indiana
was one of the very first teamswhen pool play was just beginning who took
this seriously from the start. Therewere guys out there who are like,
Eh, I don't know, Idon't know what's going on, like you
(12:31):
said, But Indiana right from thebeginning was like, No, this is
a cool idea. We're all in. This is a good test for us.
We're going to see where we're at. Indiana was a team that really
didn't have an identity last year.I think they had many of the same
personnels this year, but they're figuringout who was going to fit what roles,
and they didn't know what what theywere going to look like every single
night. And credit them, CreditRick Carlisle, credit all the players for
(12:54):
the buy in and for the executionon this to go. Our identity is
to be this blazingly fast team builtaround Tyre's Halliburton. But what I love
about these Pacers, what has beengreat in pool play, what's been great
in single elimination has been it's astar driven system. Yes, like you
need Tyre's Halliburton to make this go, but it's and Miles Turner is a
(13:16):
star in his own right as well, But it also is such a team
centric concept of what they're playing.The ball is moving the same way it
did with the Warriors with Steph curRand Klay Thompson at their height, same
way with the seven second or lesssuns, you know, and some of
these other great teams that have putup a ton of points everybody gets to
eat. I know they're not gooddefensively. They're the number one ranked team
(13:39):
offensively that's been set one hundred times, but just on pack for a minute
that they're averaging one hundred and twentyeight points per game, which is like
the highest and twenty plus years orwhatever, and the closest team behind them
is six points per game less.On that list, the second and third
place are like one hundred and twentytwo or one hundred and twenty. It's
(14:03):
ridiculous. And yes, Indiana isthe second worst team defensively, and you
saw that with Milwaukee where it's like, my goodness, Jiannis just keeps getting
a lot of dunks here. Andit's like, I've watched Indiana a fair
amount of times this season because Ireally like them. They get dunked on
a lot, people walk down MainStreet a lot. But then they're just
gonna go, you know, they'regonna outlet and go and Darry to stop
(14:24):
them on the other end. AndRick Carlile said, we are figuring out
the defense as we go. There'sbeen little flashes. They do have some
good defenders, you know, MilesTurner, great shot blocker, Bruce Brown,
very good defender. Aaron Ne Smithis coming along, Andrew Nemhart coming
along as defenders too. You wantTyre's haliburt and to continue to improve in
that regard, but it's just partof the identity. They're gonna score that
(14:45):
ton of points they can shoot.They're playing with no fear right now,
and I think what's great about thetournament. It still feels a little early
in the year for me, feelslike we should have started it maybe three
weeks four weeks later than they did. But what's great is this is a
measuring stick. It's a growing opportunityfor a team like the Pacers that if
(15:05):
they hold on to the second orthird seed, or even you know,
drop down into the fourth, whichI think is probably realistic where they'll wind
up, they're gonna be one ofthose proverbial teams. It's like, oh,
they just gotten to the playoffs.That's really nice, but you know,
they haven't really been here, andthey've got to cut their teeth and
gain that experience. Well, youknow what, this is some experience.
This can be banked towards later becausethese are playoff level games, and yet
(15:31):
it's a little different. It's nota series where you're able to make adjustments
and really lock in. There's gonnabe big question marks when this team gets
to the postseason about can a highscoring team that's so bad at defense?
Can they win in a playoff serieswhen things slow down? Blah blah blah,
all those old arguments, But youget to answer some of that,
you get to put some of thaton tape, you get to log some
(15:52):
of this where maybe going into yourfirst playoff series in April doesn't feel so
big and intense, imitating to manyof these players having done this, especially
if you go, man, wegot the NBA Cup, Like I know,
it's not the championship where we playedin the NBA Cup championship game.
We got a taste of it,and that I think that's one of the
(16:14):
unsung things about this little mini tournamentis what it can do for some of
these up and coming teams and justlowering that learning curve a bit, whereas
before it's always been a given thatit's like, yeah, you get into
the playoffs that first time, seehow you do. But chances are as
soon as you run into a veteranteam, they're going to show you how
it's done. I think that's aninteresting point to bring up about that that
(16:37):
metal that may be tested here,that may be able to be bankable experience,
and you'd have that experience in season, and you'd have it use it
that season. I think that's whatwe're where. They watching later on the
other end of the bracket finds theLakers beating the Pelicans, just squeaking out
a big one, that one,thirty three to eighty nine. It is
the the third largest loss in NewOrleans Pelicans history. Forty four is not
(17:06):
close. It was a close firstquarter, second quarter of the Lakers sort
of. It was manageable at halftime. It was yes, I think it
was thirteen twelve, thirteen points athalftime, and the third quarter of the
wheels fell off for the Pelicans.Lakers put up forty three points in that
third quarter and they routed the Pelicans. Asn't mentioned about forty four. Lebron
a quiet thirty point effort Anthony datwenty five minutes. Lebron had never done
(17:33):
that before. That was a newstat for him. Thirty points and twenty
five minutes or less. Crazy.Anthony Davis went sixteen and fifteen. Checked
this out. The plus minus forthe starting five for your Los Angeles Lakers.
You ready, Lebron plus thirty six, Anthony Davis plus thirty five.
Can't readish plus thirty one that's gotto be the highest plus minus in Cam
(17:56):
Reddish's career. Like bar None,I don't even have to look it up.
You have to look it up.I know that is Toria Prince plus
twenty three and D'Angelo Russell also plustwenty three. And if you go to
New Orleans starters, it's the mirrorimage of that. Just I'll do Zion
minus thirty three, Ingram minus thirtythree, McCallum minus thirty eight, Valachouni
(18:18):
is minus twenty five, Herb Jonesminus twenty two. Wow, that was
a that was a lot. Zionsaid after the game that he wish he
was gooder. In fact that Ithink it was more of an effort thing
that he brought up. They werequote too late back in that game.
(18:40):
He was too late back specifically inthat game. You want talk about testing
the championship medal. Zion clearly,if he thinks he's the championship type of
atmosphere too late back, probably notwhat I like to hear about myself.
Right and there too, that's againa measuring stick type of thing. New
(19:00):
Orleans walks into a big game andthey learn a lesson here by forty four
points That's different than if you getblown out by forty four points in a
regular season game, because you shakeit off and you go, yeah,
we're onto the next one. Wegot the next night up, and we're
gonna keep building towards that postseason.That is one of the things I like
about this is, Yeah, they'regonna be onto their next regular season game.
(19:21):
It continues. But the coaching staffand the players, those who are
gonna hold themselves mentally accountable, aregonna be able to go back to this
and say, and even as theplayoff run begins down that home stretch where
the games really start to tighten upand matter because you're jockeying for seeding,
or once you get into the playin tournament, which is probably where New
Orleans is going to wind up andit's getting into single elimination, like,
(19:45):
hey, guys, remember that wecannot do that. And now we know
what that feels like, we knowwhat that looks like. It's disappointing for
New Orleans because they've been in theplay in before, they've been in some
playoff series. It hasn't been withZion. So you can give you know,
you can give a little bit ofleeway for that Zion led the entire
game, or led the starters withwhat thirteen points for the Pelicans was what
(20:11):
The leading scorer for the Pelicans wasTrey Murphy with fourteen points. No other
New Orleans starter had double figures.So this is, yes, it's on
Zion. You're one of the leaders. You can't be coming out and going,
oh, I I feel like Iwas too lazy in that game.
That's kind of been a common themewith Zion since he's been in the NBA,
which is you know that I readan article calling this the most impactful
(20:33):
and important game of his career.Do you think that was right of his
career? Obviously? I mean becausehe had a career, sure, I
guess. I mean because it wasthe semi finals. I guess of a
tournament where they could have won amore money in a trophy if they want
one more game after this. Yeah, I don't see a lot of February
(20:56):
gains for him being that impactful,especially since he's been so hurt. That's
that's it. That's why it's impactful, I think is because he's just missed
so much of the rest of it. There would have been other big regular
season games or play in tournament gameswhere he was not present, he wasn't
suited up, so those otherwise shouldhave ranked this way. But I guess
I would agree with that. Butas much as Zion deserves to take some
(21:19):
blame and I agree with his statement, and it is a red flag that
effort continues to come up for thisparticular player, I do want to point
out, like this is a totalone team loss. Everybody, everybody on
that roster didn't do what they weresupposed to. And if Zion isn't bringing
you along energy wise, where isbriandon ingram as a leader? Where is
(21:44):
CJ McCollum. Willie Green obviously didn'tmake the right adjustments at halftime, you
know. Like so there's there's allsorts of blame to go around for a
game like this. If they continueto showcase this type of DNA in bigger
games, I'd be really concerned.But for right now, it's kind of
like, all right, you tooka beating to a Lakers team that their
goal is a championship, they're primedto do it. They have not played
(22:07):
their best throughout the early portion ofthe season because they've been hurt, because
there's a lot of different moving parts, because the Lakers kind of ease into
things. But this, to meshows you just how dangerous the Lakers are
when hey, they're not even atfull strength mentally, physically, whatever,
and they're in the championship of theNBA Cup. Remember, I picked the
Lakers as much as it pains meto win the championship this year, and
(22:30):
this type of moment here is thedifference. You're talking about the tournament,
right, No, but this typeof moment does I think prove my pointer
at least speaks to it like it'sa veteran team with a ton of options
that walks in and is not overwhelmedby the moment. And yeah, that
team has Lebron James on it side. That's great and Anthony Davis and so
(22:51):
forth. But they're built to winbigger things than this. But the fact
they can come in on this justshows you they're ready across the season and
they are the team in the Westto be feared. I think, well,
on that thought, Will Agreen,the coach of the Pelicans, said
well, he basically pointed out thatthe experienced factor in the veterans on the
team made all the difference in theworld in that game, it said basically
(23:14):
that his team was play basically playedtoo, like they were as young as
they are. Yeah, I meanthey are, but at the same time,
like LA's got a lot of veteransup and down the roster, but
they got a lot of young guystoo, like Christian Wood and Cam Reddish,
Austin I mean, I guess AustinReeves has played some meaningful games,
but Reddish and Wood and some ofthose other guys have not played a ton
(23:36):
of meaningful games in their career.CJ. McCollum and Jonas Valanchunas have.
They're not Chop Liver. They're supposedto be some of your veteran leaders.
So I buy that to an extent. But it's not as if New Orleans
has no veterans on the team whohave been there before. It's not as
if Brandon Ingram hasn't gone through someof the play in games, and some
(23:56):
of these other guys. You know, we just saw New Orleans make a
big run two years ago. TreyMurphy was on that team, Herb Jones
was on that team. They werein the mix last year too. So
I buy it, but I don'tbuy it. I think he's got I
think he's got a fair point.Like I could see like if you just
sort of talk a talking handing ofthis, but like he lost by forty
(24:18):
four, Like I get it iflike you know, you lost by six
and you you missed across some moments, like you just didn't know where you
were on the floor, how muchtime went, Like I kind of get
that maybe the moment got to you, but not to this degree, not
not to where you know that thatwas an all systems failure third quarter especially,
it was you don't play a lotworse than that. I mean,
(24:38):
granted we did get to see,you know, granted it's the most standing,
outstanding memory. We don't have tonecessarily talk about what Dallas did the
night before, where you know,where a Luka was talking about how how
how he was basically just whipping everybody'sbutt. On the other end, he's
like, that's why you're complaining,I'm I'm just beating his ass, right,
(25:00):
Well, sorry, that's how theywere. But you know, like
we could sort of mention that wasa tough loss or in a big time
win, but this was obviously themore impactful and so uh, you know,
we don't have a ton of timeleft here on, but I do
want to talk about a couple ofthings here on the podcast before we go
with the NBA outside of the RedSeason Tournament. First of all, I'd
(25:23):
just like to say to wrap upthe season tournament for this podcast, I'm
not mad that the Knicks did makethe championship. The biggest thing I was
worried about is that the Knicks wouldbe the team that stopped the losing streak
of the Pistons the night before.Uh so, I'm good, I'm good
that wasn't the Knicks. By theway, the Pistons have won like four
games since February, Like it's awfulthey're let me refresh there because my computer
(25:49):
can't even keep up with their losingstreak. Well, we lost eighteen in
a row. Uh, yeah,they've lost eighteen in a row. They're
two and nineteen. So remember theystarted the season two and one. Yes,
San Antonio started the season three andtwo, and the Spurs have lost
fifteen in a row. Now,I got a chance to watch the Pistons
(26:11):
against the Lakers last week. Actuallygot a chance to see Lebron. Well,
we're going to see Lebron because youjust don't know how many chances he'll
get. And I'm going with somebuddies of mine who are Lakers fans from
LA originally. But yeah, thePistons somehow despite having a better talent level
than last year because most of theirpeople they're young guys, were healthy,
no cohesiveness. It is a mess. It is as bad as the record
(26:36):
looks. And Amani Williams team,like, you look at that and go,
what is he coaching them to do? But I just think the learning
curve is so high that the guyshave not wrapped their minds around it.
But they're lacking shooters. They've conspicuouslybeen sitting all of their veterans. I
mean, fously, what are youtalking about? Conspicuous? Bogdanovich just play
(27:00):
his first game two nights ago ofthe season. Joe Harris has yet to
play, Monte Morris hasn't played yet. Those are all guys who are adults
in the room who would help thisteam be more competitive, and they've all
been conspicuously sitting. So but it'sbad. It's really ugly in Detroit.
Yeah, and I didn't mean tospend as much time on the pace as
I just thought, Wow, that'sthat's really really bad, really really really
(27:22):
bad. Just glad the Spurs atleast have been losing some close games where
they were in it and you seethat youth come out and they you know,
they piss it away. But Iwant to give you look at us,
thrown out all the dirty words there, the A word out, the
p word outlets do whatever. Wetalked about the Pistons, Oh sorry,
kistened it away. I kid itthat, see what you're sting. I
(27:44):
want to give you a chance tosort of talk about your timber Wolves because
they have not cooled down since wehave last chatted. You know, their
teams have come back to Earth alittle bit like Dallas has come back to
Earth, just just a little bit, just by beating Utah about fifty.
The other night I was with WillBrady called it like, uh oh,
he's gonna throw another cuss word out, but I don't want to know that.
But it was bad. He calledit is bad. It's like the
worst he's ever seen. But thepeople so far i've not come back to
(28:08):
Earth. I am impressed with howthey've looked at the first twenty games.
We're quarterway through the season. Theylook good. Joel Good. Good liked
Good, and they've you know,they missed three games from Anthony Edwards with
the hip injury. They won despitehis absence. They've been missing Jaden McDaniels
for almost three weeks now due toa hip injury as well. He should
(28:30):
be coming back. It's been agreat opportunity for a couple of their young
guys. Nikhil Alexander Walker has beenplaying starters minutes and is finally knocking down
shots, but looking like not thelead defender because that's supposed to be Jaden
McDaniels, but their secondary defender forsure. Anthony Edwards more than fills in
as a lead or a secondary defender, you know, and a lot of
times he's been taking it upon himselfto guard the opposing team's best player in
(28:55):
crunch time. But even a guylike Troy Brown, who I've never been
a huge fan of prior to this, suddenly gets minutes with McDaniels and Edwards
going down and looks like he maybe reliable as a hustle guy and knocking
down some shots of three and Dguy the way he was envisioned when he
was drafted by the Wizards. SoThey're a team built on defense. The
offense can be a lot better.They keep talking about that, that they
(29:18):
feel good about where the defense is, and they see that as a constant
right now per game right in theNBA, that's what That's what's scary is
nobody on that team is satisfied yetwith the way the offense is clicking and
moving. But they're all saying theright things and they're they're trying to hit
that. So they do have anotherlevel yet to reach. I think they
(29:40):
have staying power to be in thetop six. I'm not going to go
out on any limbs. Do youthink that they're only a top sixteen?
I guess number one would be numbersix. But you you'll think, okay,
sorry, I didn't mean to chopdown. He'd be like you,
only you don't believe in your teamthat much. But you think they're coming
back earth a little bit at somepoint, like barely in the in the
Gara. I guess I've just learnedfrom watching the NBA for a long long
(30:03):
time that to race out to agreat start in the first quarter of the
season is helpful. There's no shadeupon it, but to especially for a
team that's not been there in thatposition before as a front runner. To
hang too much on that is reallyreally risky. Talk to me an all
(30:26):
Star break if they're still in firstbut they're eleven and two in the West
like that. They're beating the teamsthat they're going to have to be judged
against the so far early on andthey play up yes, yeah, and
when you watch their games against goodteams or bad. The thing that's really
standing out about this Minnesota team isthe maturity and the execution of understanding the
(30:48):
who, what, when and whereand not just you know, coming out
and hoping to be more talented oryou know, canning a bunch of threes.
They're executing in a lot of differentways. They have shown that they
will fend for forty eight minutes andstill be able to find another level defensively
down the last six minutes of agame. Those are all very promising things.
Rudy Gobert is playing Defensive Player ofthe Year impact right now, like
(31:12):
he is the front runner far andaway, and you could not he wasn't
even close last year. Karl AnthonyTowns has slotted in as the secondary score.
He's playing under control a lot more, both offensively and defensively, playing
with better bass, playing with abetter ability to be able to decelerate on
(31:32):
offense. He still gets picked up, you know, offensive files and charges
here or there, which has beena bugaboo, but they've been really minimized.
They they've been reduced. And AnthonyEdwards is I mean, he is
the real deal. The supporting cast, I think is the real deal.
You're still concerned about who's the thirdscorer on this team. That's something that
the Wolves broadcasters have been bringing upa lot. It's supposed to be Jaden
(31:53):
McDaniels. He's got to get healthyfirst. There's other guys that on any
given night could be the third scorer, but you want to know who that
is by the time you get tothe playoffs. So there's questions left to
be answered. There's some really goodteams in the West. The Lakers,
the Nuggets, especially the thunder aregonna hang around. The Suns I think
(32:14):
will make a run. They're tootalented not to. I mean, heck,
the Clippers may make a run atsome point here. So talk to
me when we get to the AllStar break of Minnesota still sitting in first,
but I do think like they haveshown they are one of the upper
echelon teams this year in the Westand league wide, and that is a
huge step forward from where they've been. Where they wind up in the standings.
(32:37):
There's a lot of season left toplay. All Right, I get
it, you're you're you're you're home, or you're you're you've been hurt before
by this team. I can getthat. But we've all seen teams.
We've all seen teams that race afterthat big start and they're like, Wow,
what is Orlando doing in first place? While they won't be there soon.
Orlando wasn't beating the thunder who bythe way, the three games up
(32:57):
done? Now? Uh, excuseme? Under good this year, the
seventy six Ers, the Knicks,the Pelicans, who were just a game
away for playing for the n seasonchampionship, the Warriors already a couple of
times this year, they've been thePelicans a couple of times, beating the
Celtics, beaten Denver, beat inMiami. They've beaten good teams West and
East. Like that's that's the partthat they gives me hope that they have
(33:21):
more staying power than maybe that you'rebelieving right now is that the Dallas for
example, Remember we were talking aboutDallas a couple of weeks ago, and
they had beat up a bunch oftomato cans to start off the season,
but they were still winning the games. Well, the schedule got a little
bit tougher. They lost a fewmore games to come back to earth more
recently, and I think they're likefour and six in the last ten or
something like that. So they've cooledjust to touch. But they also played
(33:45):
tougher teams. The team that playtougher teams is number one. Well,
they're the team that's winning beat ofthose number one teams right now too.
So like they're doing it against teamsand not broken teams, like this isn't
Denver without Jokich and stuff. They'rethey're winning imported games with teams that are
as fully functional as you can sortof expect in November and December, and
you know, and they're taking careof business against the bad teams. One
(34:07):
of the things about the Wolves overthe last two years is they've gotten up
for the big games. They've beenvery competitive in those big games. But
they lost to Detroit I think twicelast year. You know, for example,
they've lost to a bunch of bottomfeeder teams along the way where they
had no business giving up those games, and they just didn't have the focus.
You are not seeing them do thatthis year. First Horns Jazz their
(34:28):
last three wins. Now they're takingon the Grizzlies tonight. So yeah,
you're right, they're taking care ofeverybody right now, which is again why
I have more faith. I don'tknow how I have more faith in the
Timberwolves than the guy on this podcastwho is a lifelong Timberwolves fan, but
that is where we are in twentytwenty three. We have someone who has
been brutally beaten down since Kevin Gardenhad left, and I completely understand.
(34:54):
I mean, it's the same thingslike tongue in cheek, you tell me
you know on the air, likegoing eighty two and oh and will give
me those texts, But when wereally get down to it in some of
those games are like with the Knicks, it's like, I don't know if
I want to. I don't knowif I can predict more than that yet,
you know, can I can?I ask you, do you have
anything else you want to hit?Four hit before we get out because I
(35:15):
have one last thing I want toask about real quick. Yeah, the
Knicks obviously lost in the in thequarterfinals. The Knock in the game last
week afterwards, I think it wasI think it was Kenny Smith who said
(35:36):
the Knicks, this is why theKnicks will always be in the middle of
the pack, because the Knicks willnever, whenever they get on the floor,
have the best player on the floor. Whenever the Knicks go on the
court, they will always have atbest the number two guy on the floor.
Do you think that is something thatis real with New York and it's
something that can sort of preclude themfrom being or do you think this is
(36:00):
that Kenny Smith just sort of chitchatting away. I think, especially in
the East, when you look atwho they're gonna run into, I would
buy into that. And it's noshade to Julius Randall or Jalen Brunson,
depending on which one you want tonominate as their best player. It's probably
been Brunson so far this year becauserandom should have won an MVP two years
(36:21):
ago, so right, But butis is Jalen Brunson better than Jason Tatum?
No? Is he better than JalenBrown. He's probably around the same
level. I would think. Ishe better than Giannis? No? Is
he better than Is he better thanEmbiid? No? Is he better than
Jimmy Butler. Jimmy, he's inthat magical quality. I think it depends
(36:43):
on when they play, and woulddepend on when they play. And I
mean, here's where it gets tough. Is he better than Tyreus Halliburton.
No, he's not. And andyou know, if they run into Orlando,
is Jalen Brunson better than Paulo Boncaro? At this point, I'd probably
say yeah, Yeah, I wouldsay yeah, but it's not how much
right for how much longer? Sothose are all the teams. And you
(37:06):
know, we didn't even talk aboutCleveland, who I think will put together
a run. They're seven and threein their last ten. They started out
slow with injuries. Is Brunson betterthan Donovan Mitchell? Mitchell's been up and
down. Is he better than DariusGarland? No, he's probably on the
you know what we're talking about now, He's got two of those guys.
But what you're talking about now isyou're putting them at best in the middle
(37:28):
of the pack, like Kenny Smithwas saying, right right, and you
could play that same game out Westtoo. It is a star driven league,
but you look at some of thoseother teams, and I do think
New York's supporting cast if they figureit out. But on paper, New
York supporting cast is better than someof those other top line, star driven
teams, and that's what's going togive them that puncher's chance. But as
(37:50):
Kenny was saying, like in aseven game series, especially you get into
the semifinals, the conference finals,the NBA Finals, at some point,
it's hard to be the team that'sgot the best player on the floor.
So so far, there's only whatI if I'm as a Knicks fan,
there's only two teams I'm afraid ofin the East right now, two teams
that I think it's just they're scaryand and and I don't know how the
Knicks gonna be able to match upChicago and Washington. I hear you,
(38:14):
Yeah, it's the I can't figureout the Wizards. They're just so darn
talented and they're just so clean atthis point. Uh Now, the two
teams that Philadelphia I worry a lotabout, even though hey, I don't
know how the Knicks matchup for sevengames or even five games, uh with
with Philadelphia consistently in Milwaukee. Thoseare the two teams that I really I
(38:37):
think the Knicks. The Knicks canbeat Boston. I think the Knicks can
be Cleveland. I think the Knicks, I mean maybe the third team on
that list will probably be Indiana.Yeah, and I think they could ugly
it up so far that all ofa sudden, the Pacers can't even get
to what they want to do,you know yeah, But I don't know
how consistent, how many games ina series you can do that with you
know so. But but right now, I'm with you. I think maybe
(38:59):
you don't have the number one guyevery single night, but doesn't mean your
number one doesn't play better than theirnumber one both that the supporting cast doesn't
come in and help you. Philadelphia, though, phil Philadelphia scared me.
Philadelphia is a They're a beast readyto sort of explode. And I don't
think they're that worried right now aboutthe regular season. And they're fine with
(39:22):
the fourteen to seven, thirteen andseven thirteen to seven right now, you
know, they're fine. But Idon't think that they're so worried about being
in the top of the East.At this point, I'll say this about
the Knicks. You know they've gotthree clear cut number two stars and that's
what Kenny was getting at the mathchanges. If RJ. Barrett is able
to stay up in that level toalso be a number two star, have
(39:44):
you got three of those guys?You can do something even if you don't
have the best player on the floor. So again, we've been saying this
for a couple of years. Somuch hinges on RJ. Barrett's ascendants,
and we've seen flashes of it.We've seen PROGRESSI and he continues to get
there, But can he stay therefor an entire season and through the playoffs
(40:05):
and be a guy that is reliablenot just a bonus when he scores consistently.
Because I still feel like with Barrett, you go, oh, Brunson
will get his Randall's shot the balllike crap this year. But we know
he's got to progress to the meansat some point. And man, it'll
be great if we can get twentyfive from Barrett's night, that'll be amazing.
We'll win that game. You shouldn'tbe saying that, you should be
(40:28):
saying, we know we'll get twentypoints from Barrett tonight and it's gonna happen,
and we just need to make surethat Josh Hart hit some shots or
Dante di Vincenzo hit some shots.That sort of thing. That's where the
Knicks to me, still feels shakyis the offense can bog down and suddenly
no one can hit shots. Itis so contagious with that team and Brunson
(40:52):
and Randall can you know, invery ugly fashion get some points, but
they have to work so hard onthose nights. Where is RJ. Barrett's
ability to transcend the fact that nobodyelse is knocking down shots. I feel
like he kind of just goes asthey go. Fair enough? All right,
one last quick question. Yeah,Detroit Pistons have lost eighteen in a
(41:13):
rows. We talked about earlier.Twenty six is the record for in a
single season. Do they get that? Here's their upcoming schedule, yep.
At Orlando versus Indiana, versus Philadelphia, at Philadelphia, at Milwaukee, and
then at Atlanta versus Utah and thena pair with Brooklyn before going to Boston.
(41:35):
So they if they go down toMilwaukee, that'll be five more in
a row, So that'll be twentythree in a row for Atlanta Utah maybe
one of those. Do you thinkthey break the twenty sixth streak, which
is for a single season sept bythe not so long ago Detroit. It's
gonna be Philadelphia's seventy six ers.Yeah. No, I don't think they
break it. Bogdanovich is back inthe lineup. It's been really conspicuous that
(41:59):
outside consists and shooting is what's hinderingso much of their their issues right now.
So I do think that's going tochange. If any team is going
to drop it, it's going tobe Atlanta. They're just they're not focused
from one night to the next.You know, Philly, they're going to
play back to back. You gotto imagine that embiat is going to rest
one of those games against a badteam. They're not going to beat them
(42:22):
the second game though, or thefirst game. I don't think so.
But if they rest and beat onthe second game and people are not taking
care of business and all of asudden Detroit gets hot, I think the
Pistons have the ability to win oncein these next six games and twice in
the next ten if I think that'llhappen. If they break the record,
(42:45):
it will be against Toronto on Decemberthirtieth, So we will have a new
record holder if it happens at homein Detroit, at home and the true
that's true. If they they thatwill people. You know what, I
would buy tickets for that. Iwould buy Let's see the record right because
you know, did Brecker might bebroken by San Antonio later. So last
(43:06):
thing for me, and I knowwe've talked way too much about the Pistons,
but I'm going to give some love. It's it's my home state now.
And though I'm not a Pistons fan, I appreciate the history that's here
with Detroit sports. Pistons fans areincredibly loyal. They show up. But
we went to that Lakers game andit was eighty percent full in the building
(43:28):
for a Lakers game. For aLakers game. That's one of the few
games of the other year that yousell out. The Pistons lost by I
mean it was one thirty three toone oh seven when it was all said
and done, but they were downby thirty five for much of that game.
It was so quiet in that buildingas everybody just kind of watches like,
(43:51):
oh yeah, Lebron's good. Youknow, the Lakers would get some
cheers and they do something some oohsand ohs. People are appreciative of Lebron.
They hate the Lakers because it's Detroit, but they appreciate Lebron. But
it's just it was. It wassad, like this should be a better
building than this. I know thesefans, they will get behind a team.
(44:12):
They are loyal. You saw peopleyou know all throughout the arena and
their bad boys gear and stuff likethat. They're hungry for a winner.
Detroit, you gotta start picking upsome games here. Your fans deserve better
than two and nineteen. They justdo. I was one of the guys
that was bullish on them. Ithought they'd have a much better chance too,
and they are much worse. Theyare much worse. And I don't
(44:36):
think it's just a bucked out ofa gingury. Let's keeping them this bad.
I heard an interesting theory from afriend of mine who is a big
Detroit fan, and he said,it is a cosmic law that Detroit has
to have one of the worst teamsin sports at all times. And it's
like the fact that the Lions areplaying so well, now means that the
(44:58):
Pistons had to be the wor likethere was no other way around it.
And He's like, and as soonas the Pistons start playing well, it's
gonna be the Tigers, or it'sgonna be back to the Lions being the
bottom feeders. Poor motor City,Poor motor City. All right, Joel,
let's go do it for us.I think we did. Will Chamberlain
nicely proud on this. We wekept it under one hundred minutes, so
(45:20):
I mean, we'll see if he'ssatisfied with that. Rest listen, if
we want to redo it, epiitide, we got fifty four more minutes to
go. Yeah, yeah, yougot a marathon session, isn't you.
I mean, first of all,and this is as much shade on me
as anybody else. You and Igot to get our schedules in order so
we can just show up next weekand be able to do the next show.
(45:40):
So no, I can't, Ican't do one hundred right, Well,
then we'll do one hundred minute episodenext week. How's that? Okay?
All right? We will will verballycommit to that. Goodbye. See Yeah,
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