And now hello welcome to the low post podcast on a Wednesday morning where Nick Friedell and I waited and waited and waited to do this podcast We talked about doing it Monday, and then we saw the net sketchable. They play Monday They play Tuesday a lot could transpire in those 36 hours And what we thought would transpire would be that maybe Kyrie Irving would follow up his press exchange with our Nick Friedell from over the weekend In which Nick asked him pointed questions about Alex Jones and anti-Semitism and Kyrie responded with Something words words came out and he was essentially defensive and got off the podium and that was it and he has not talked after Monday's game He has not talked after Tuesday's game and Sean Marks in addressing the oh whoa firing or mutual parting of ways of Steve Nash Steve Nash the least surprising Parting of ways will say I guess that's the jargon now in recent NBA history said we might not hear from Kyrie Irving for quite a while until We I think he said let him simmer down so Before the season in previewing the Brooklyn Nets I called them the dunder Mifflin Brooklyn Nets because on paper on paper it all looks great One of the 2010 to 12 greatest players of all time One of the greatest ball healers and shooters of all time dream on green 2.0 Let's just ignore that he hasn't played in 16 months on paper lot of shooting Nick Laxon coming on and I said their over under was 49 and a half or 50 and a half a camera And I said look this is if you if you are betting on this team you got serious problems This is a stay away But if you're asking me to choose between it all clicks on one end and complete disaster and everybody runs for the exits on the other I'm betting on disaster every time I did not think disaster of this proportion on court off court firing The whole shebang would arrive eight games into the season the nets are two and six having lost a dispiriting game at home To the Bulls where Kyrie Irving would disengage the entire game and here we are Armageddon is here Armageddon is here Kyrie Irving's not talking to the media fans in the front row are wearing shirts that say fight anti-Semitism because of the movie that Kyrie Irving tweeted Out on his social media platforms, which what's the big deal? He has a huge influence on his community, but he's not he's just a regular guy tweeting stuff out that's already in the public domain Why is anyone asking questions? He's just a guy and Kevin Durant who requested a trade not long ago As the team defiress coach well, that's done and fires GM not long ago Is this sitting here at two and six four years left on his deal just requested a trade Unrequested it and now Armageddon is here because if you think that unrequested was a permanent recommitment to the Brooklyn Nets I Have the proverbial bridge in Brooklyn to sell you at a bargain rate Holy smokes none of this is even funny and yet you don't know what to do except sit here and say How is this how is all it just how Nick Friedau?
Welcome to the low post what a show my man? It truly it is it is the most dysfunctional team in all my years covering the league that I've ever seen they had a team meeting a Players only meeting before Halloween that is incredible incredible so After everything that's happened after all that's occurred in the last few days in between games in a back-to-back To have Steve Nash and the Nets decide this is no more and this is like this is one I truly do believe I truly I truly do believe that it was a mutual party of of ways as they said in that release to have It all go down like this. This will shock some people given my interactions at times with a lot of different people in the organization Besides just kind of read but I have friends in the organization and they were not happy They said I was too negative in our initial podcast from a few weeks ago They said oh it this could work this could all come together it you're being too hard on us too early Just give us a chance well, we're a couple weeks in and it is a complete dumpster fire right now in Brooklyn It's not going great. It's not going great and before we get into how it's not going great.
I do think I Do think we owe it to this front office and this brain trust to rewind a little bit because you know the arm and get in there staring at is Who knows what happens with Kyrie? I mean we can we'll get into it more later, but everybody is watching the next time he talks because when you asked him those questions Correct me if I'm wrong you and I think pretty much no one in the assembled media had yet watched any of this movie That he tweeted out correct right that's right well now many of us have god knows I didn't pay for it I watched some clips that are being distributed around I saw some screenshots I'm not paying for that thing. Well now everyone has and so question number one is gonna be okay Kyrie. Here's what's in it Hitler Some something resembling denial of the Holocaust all sorts of other things about slavery and true Israelites and all of this Do you do you believe this?
And if he does anything short of disavow those things explicitly you and I talked about this offline over the weekend Like I don't know what happens. I don't I think everything every possibility is then on the table I would anticipate that he's he would do the safe and smart thing and say I do disavow this and I'm sorry For posting it if he doesn't if he goes the opposite way and doubles down and triples down I don't know if the league gets involved. They've already released a melee mouth statement I don't know if the union gets involved. They've already released a melee mouth statement I don't know what the next do they've kind of talked around it and said let it simmer down.
That's one two is having to ran is here and When does he just throw the grenade again because this is this does not appear to be going anywhere and and We can talk about why that is later Nick before we rewind like I said was going to do I will say like before the season Before any of this before any of the game started I had a very smart front office person on another team say to me You know what the net should do? Let's pretend there's an alternate reality where Where they just have car blanche to do what they want where they start off well where everything is going well They're six and two and it's smooth or five and three and it's smooth And they don't have to consider what Durant wants and what what Ridge Climb and wants Which by the way they've already gotten a request for what he wanted over the summer and you'll in a list of teams It may have just been one team, but still like an indication of what he would do if it's ever going well They should under the stealth of night trade Durant out of nowhere from a position of strength and get the maximum return and move on from all of this Because the writing is on the wall well now eight games in that's gone like they're dealing if they get to that point ever they're dealing from a position of weakness and and And boy, oh boy, but can we start from the beginning for a second? Let's do it. Let's go through it Sean Marks takes over and little move by little move digs this team out of the deepest and Gravis whole maybe in modern NBA history because of the Celtics night straight from 2013 Trades a veteran for a pick that becomes cares liver Trades a veteran for a pick that becomes Jared Allen Joe Harris scrap he Spencer didn't really scrap he broke Lopez And we'll eat some salary for the Angelo Russell.
We'll eat some more salary for more draft picks move by move by move From nothing from less than nothing. He builds a playoff team So the evidence is there if they have to do it They've already done it if they have to start again and they got picks in a heart and cement straight Which we will talk about later then they sign Irving and Durant They turn that good team in cap room into those two guys the greatest moment since they made the finals as a franchise One of the 12 greatest players ever said I want to come to you The price of that is this other guy's got to come with me and this third guy who's not good anymore But he's gonna demand to be our starting center and we're gonna demand him to be our starting center's gotta come with us Do you have pay him nine or ten million dollars a year? You've got to put him ahead of Jared Allen even though Jared Allen's better and by the way all this is gonna lead to us Firing the coach in not very long great Still still a triumph and still something like as much as you're laughing right now Ten times out of ten if Kevin Durant wants to come to your team even after he's injury you get him on your team every time They still have Laverte Haryst all that depth they trade all of it Alan for James Harden a risk But one that was I think a calculated risk and the evidence suggests Nick that before James Harden's hamstring started acting up down the stretch of the 2021 season and then again in the box series They had the best team in the NBA they had a championship team They had an offense that was beyond unstoppable They had the rest of the league every other team quivering that they had put these three guys together They destroyed the Celtics in the playoffs with such ease that they left Boston looking around and be like oh my god This is our future these guys are future in other words as crazy as it sounds right now It worked and it worked until James Harden's hamstring went bulky And then he looks good enough now that it would still be working except in between a black swan event occurred a pandemic and a vaccination Mandate that because of Kyrie Irving stands on the vaccine destabilized the entire team and here we are so like as much as it looks like a dumpster fire right now and it is There was a moment where step by step by step by step this front office had built The team that it aspired to build at least qualitatively and now it's gone and so what I will ask you to start with is Everyone has sort of done the cliche thing where they traded culture for star talent and the culture has been poisoned since and here we are How how can we articulate how and why that happened in other words? Absent the vaccine mandate are we still here like how can you as someone who follows the steam sort of illustrate this the gradual erosion of Identity and culture.
I don't think we're nearly to the point we've gotten to right now without the vaccination mandate. That is a Huge part of this story, but Zach we talked to people around the league all the time anybody who's covered Kyrie dating back to Cleveland and in Boston They all say the same thing It's only a matter of time before things go bad And so as much as we can point to the vaccination mandate and say ah well nobody knew this was coming and this is totally messed up Everything and and the nets were never the same because Kyrie wasn't out there every single day The other part to this is well you you made your bed with Kyrie Irving and every team would have done it to get Kevin Durant you and I talked about this for a couple years now, but once that happened and And once you did that you have to pay the consequences and the nets have been paying them For a while now and I think that's where it starts But the talk about culture versus super stardom every single team in the NBA would make the move to get Kevin Durant on their team Because as important as culture is in order to win a title you need culture and stars Nobody wins on culture alone and try hard players and players that are really good for a system You have to have two parts and there has to be a little bit of both and the nets were trying to make it work by retrofitting their culture with these stars and it ended up exploding in their face and as much as you want to say look back in hindsight and say Well, we should have seen it coming when any Atkinson was fired and in the very next game They put DeAndre Jordan in the starting lineup over Jared Allen We should have seen it coming and yet and we should see it coming when Kyrie Irving said we don't get a coach Me and Kevin and Joe are running the franchise managing the franchise and I said at the time How about you play for the franchise before before we do that? Despite all that in the 2021 playoffs despite James Harden missing games two three and four of the bucks series after tweaking A Sam string and most of the game one basically all of game one and Kyrie Irving missing games five six and seven after I think Chris Middleton landed on his ankle or somebody landed on his ankle There's still yeah, it was honest. You're right There's still the proverbial Durant toenail from going to the conference finals and who knows how healthy they got after that blah blah blah Against a team that ended up winning the title that year and hard into his credit for someone who is dog here And elsewhere for a bad record in the biggest biggest games.
I think games six of that series I think games six and seven of that series are are maybe In a way the greatest moments of his career because he gutted those games out played 53 minutes in game seven And scored decently on one leg and in game six when Durant hit the bench for the first time after playing all of game five Like the first 16 minutes of game six Stephen Ash was like dude. We just got arrested We got to get something James Harden was like all right time to see what I got time to see what I got left in his leg Ransom pick and rolls got an open three for somebody a dunk for somebody scored a little bit himself I like despite all this injury and stuff there They're still right there and then the vaccination stuff happens and like you said I don't know what you're supposed to do if if Kyrie is the price of KD you just you do it every time every front office Everyone you can say well Sean Mars was a young GM This was his first job and Steve Nash was a young coach This is for every brain trust even actually even there obviously at the time every brain trust does that and I've written it before you've talked about it There go my headphones sure In an ideal world if you give me a choice of every version of these nets I'm choosing Durant comes by himself We then trade a lot of depth for Harden and we have KD and Harden and still a decent amount of depth leftover And we roll with that team that wasn't available to them. So here we are Looking back There are so many different directions that we could go to Zach But I think in the context of what's happening in the last couple days It's also important to remember that in that first year Nash was getting respect from all over the place Yes People were saying Steve Nash's offense is unbelievable Steve Nash has these guys I'm and they know exactly where to be and it's just something that we haven't seen before so the narrative not only around the Organization has completely shifted but the narrative for Steve Nash has been completely altered because now people are saying Steve Nash can't coach Steve Nash can't keep all these egos in check He's not a powerful enough personality that first year that dash came in and this is what nets staffers hold to now Steve Nash was one of the toasts of the week because of the wall the way he had gotten everybody to play and It happens things can change really quickly in pro sports. This is an example of it But there are there are so many different reasons why but in the end What's going to be the mark of this team is that they didn't get it done and this and you have said it And we have discussed that many times this is going to be the biggest what if that we've seen in the NBA in a long long time The hardened Durant Kyrie nets are the greatest hypothetical team in the history of the league and maybe the history of sports And it's not even purely hypothetical because we saw it for games or whatever it was and it was it was that It was that good Hey sports fans the ESPN app has all of ESPN all in one place the ESPN app is your home to thousands of live events ESPN shows and originals across every ESPN network in service and now you can check if you already have ESPN Unlimited is part of your TV package for no additional calls visit activate.espn.com to learn how to access your account or sign up Then start streaming in the ESPN app all the ESPN all in one place sign up or activate now Let's do the Nash thing quickly.
You want to pretend Nash is a great coach. You want to pretend Nash is a horrible coach I don't know I mean what how well am I supposed to know what the circumstances he dealt with over the last three two plus season? We only have two full years of Steve Nash and like a handful of games where everything was already You know I said before the season all that toothpaste is out of the tube the trade demand the discontent the Kyrie opt in all of it You can't put it back in I don't care how hard you try how great you say divides are how good the pizza tasted when you all went out to dinner And put it on Instagram. It doesn't you can't put the toothpaste back and to be just can't these are human beings But in that first year I think he was lauded for some pretty pretty creative and flexible lineup choices He figured out a way to use Bruce Brown as a roller and that offense when the three of them are on the floor It wasn't always just your turn my turn even though it was designed to be your turn my turn against switching defenses into playoffs Oh, you're gonna switch and take away all our pretty stuff We got this guy this guy this guy to go one-on-one good luck They had Kyrie was cutting at the best levels career They would be setting flare screens for Joe Harris and the hard and hair is picking roles the thing like they had figured out Some stuff now after that the personality management stuff came in came into play I think this year with Simmons it didn't appear that they really had a good plan for how to use him and It did devolve into your turn my turn I think a little too much it was a little too hard for them the playoffs last year were disaster So, you know I did their defense even in the 2021 playoffs like they figured out a way to defend at a decent level with Blake Griffin at center And their dropback scheme kind of took the bucks out of their offense for a lot of that series So I think the record on Steve Nash is some good some not so good some chaos like I don't know who does a better job with that team in these Circumstances, but they've clearly moved on What we just reporting that they're close to hiring you may be Doka, which is a whole other I was gonna say bottle of worms I think it's canna worms and bottle is something.
I don't know I don't really know how to put the Nash era to bed and any more than that other than I guess Nick I guess the move here is try to salvage the season right? I mean it's not like they're giving up on the season They're not giving up on the team They still have these three guys that are being paid enormous amounts of money They have Joe Harris hasn't looked like himself yet He doesn't look as fast and is sort of quick on the triggers He is it is and hopefully will be Seth Curry's barely played they clearly got to figure out what to do at center You know because the klaxon Simmons lineups aren't working any lineup with Simmons isn't working so far it's early sharp Side of the rotation for the most part now So they've got some stuff to figure out but I guess if they do hire you maybe Doka's was reporting I did there they have not reached the point of no return with this roster They're gonna try to I depending on what happens with Kyrie and what he says I guess the plan is we still think we have some talent Let's see what we can do but this is the problem They have reached the point in no return because this team was built on when it's idle and they're not gonna do it The nets are kidding themselves kidding themselves if they think that email you don't get comes in if he ends up being the choice He's able to get him to play defense and he's able to get the pieces to work That is not going to happen the coach of this team with this roster is not going to make the difference where you think Oh, okay things are clicking a lot better. This is a title contender again. Never ever going to happen Ben Simmons has not been good at all.
So you're right and never going to happen is a strong word You can only say never once never means never The Simmons thing he's a he's a trip walking triple single now and he's afraid to shoot He doesn't want to get fouled defensively He hasn't been quite the same because he's being asked to play center a lot instead of hounding point cards Which is like ironically he was amazing at that with the Sixers against the nets in the playoffs taking the angel or else Well out of that playoff series And he's never been Despite the endless dream on comparisons the one thing that he can't do like dream on can is be a help defender Rimp protector on the back line of the defense He's never that's never been who he is But are we really ready to just cut bait on that on him specifically after eight games? Well the issue for the nets is It doesn't really matter because of that contract good luck And that's the thing if you wanted to blow it up right now and I alluded to this with Durant This is beyond a position of weakness I mean Simmons is on Simmons is untradable borderline untradable for it other than someone else's unwanted stuff Durant All the offers you poo poo'd in the summer and just a five list Kevin Durant like are the Celtics bowling you over right now? I was already I haven't gotten better. Yeah, they haven't gotten better and then Kyrie look I made a list of Five themes that I thought Ignor Minimize all that other stuff and think about basketball.
Here's where he'd make sense I talked to a lot of people around the league over the weekend and the sense I get is right now He's radioactive like even if you drop the price to nothing The baggage is just too much and you want to talk about what the Lakers are the most desperate team in the league Alright the Lakers also play in a gigantic cosmopolitan city all of the residents are following this story I just don't know what else they're supposed to do except except try to salvage this and you're telling me it's unsoundable It's just it's not gonna happen and I think this ties directly to the Nash part of the conversation to Zach What Steve Nash got so frustrated with as you talked to people Around that team day after day me watching him listening to him day after day Nash wanted to come in and coach basketball he wanted to take Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving and then James Harden and make one of the most beautiful offenses that we've seen in the league and Help bring a title to Brooklyn, but with the nets. It's never really about basketball There's always some drama going on off the floor There's always a distraction to take away from what's going on during games and when that builds up within an organization Day after day week after week. This is the kind of situation that you fall into and this is what any coach Any player who's coming to this team right now is going to deal with but that's why if you're Joe Si and you're Sean Marks and you've watched what's occurred in these first couple weeks and you've seen that Simmons is a shell of himself and you've seen that Once again one more time Kyrie Irving is involved in something that has nothing to do with basketball That has been a huge cloud over the organization and you've seen as great as Kevin still is there are times when you watch him on the floor And you know he's thinking what the hell am I doing here when you have all that? How can you look in the mirror and say hey, you know what?
Let's try to just run this thing back one more time and see what happens You're not being honest with yourself if you're the next and you genuinely believe that you're going to bring a coach in You're going to get healthy and get Simmons and Seth Terry back and Joe Harris looking better And truly believe that this team can make that kind of turnaround back to the top of the league I think I saw I was not at the game last night I think I saw a quote from Durant after the game talking about his turnover He gets six or seven turnovers last night saying I don't do you hear him say this? I mean when you're guarded by all five guys You're gonna turn the ball over was it just what he said that That would set off some alarm bells in my head if I were a member of the Brooklyn Nets brain trust that does not sound like a player who is psyched about his situation How speaking of press exchanges how so so you're back and forth with Kyrie ends Kyrie walks off shouts at you I think make better choices or something like that change your life, bro change your life We all we all we all need to change our lives. I'm doing dry November Nick. I mean day two of dry November We all need to make some changes.
I mean here in there I don't know what you need to work on but I can stop you cheeseburgers at two in the morning So I don't have a gut I mean So what so that happens like what's the next 10 minutes like for you? Is your phone just going bananas did anyone from the Nets come talk to you and be like hey It's all right, bro Though we're like whatever did the assembled media, you know care you out on their shoulders like Rudy I mean what happens and what's the next 24 hours like if you had any interactions with Kyrie or his campsense then not one my phone Sighs like exploded burst into flames because people are texting me they're calling me there. You know are you all right? That that was great.
Thank you for doing that the tech was been really interesting to me is Inside the league just how many people have called or texted and said thanks and That's what I wasn't prepared for in the moment And then what started to happen is the clip got viewed more and more times is that people from all over the place my friends Who could care less about basketball a lot of Jewish people and I've got a lot of Jewish close friends and family They said we appreciate what you did we appreciate the conversation and I was just doing my job I was just asking questions that I felt like needed to be asked You asked to Alex Jones one which I thought was interesting because I had almost amid everything else forgotten about that And I wonder what spurred you to I guess it's obviously it's a dot to connect backwards after this latest movie But what spurred you specifically did that just come into your head in the moment because that was the question that started it And when you asked it, I thought oh I kind of forgot about that Let's see what he says and then he said about the new world order stuff. It's it's all true That part of it that part of it kind of got lost in the shuffle but that was something when When I'm winning in the press conference given what had occurred What you which at least what I started thinking about was that question had never been asked he had never been offered the even the chance to Explain himself and I felt like it If you're doing your job as a journalist you ask a question and you allow the subject to Discuss it however they would like to do so so I felt like we started there and then trying to get into the next question was a Mess for Guy Reed because he clung to the promotion the word promotion and people keep asking me Well, did you think that that kind of stuff would happen? Anybody would watch last season and he and I got into it a Bunch of different times about the vaccination stuff all the time we would go back and forth and back and forth And I think that's the difference to me Zach is that certainly people in the net organization They got used to he and I having these exchanges But in the moment I didn't think that that exchange that we had had was that much different than some of the contentious exchanges That we had had a year ago It was once my phone really started to explode and once people started to say oh my gosh like what is he talking about that I realized that it had taken on a different tenor and I just had this to Kind of in the conversation just about that moment in time People a lot of people on social media. I mean my mentions and Instagram it It's really disgusting the amount of people that have have said and posted the stuff that they've said but people are saying oh you Have an agenda I have an agenda.
I've actually enjoyed the conversations with Guy Reed on a human to human basis I mean everybody made fun of all we're gonna be best friends when we talk about it immediately But I was in Minnesota's act before shoot around a couple weeks ago at a preseason game We had a great time in the conversation about basketball about what it was like for me growing up in Orlando What it was like for him growing up in New Jersey? It was just two people enjoying Getting to know one another so to think that I was coming at Kyrie any differently than I would have any other day is ridiculous I was just doing my job but what I don't think he appreciated in the moment and certainly didn't appreciate in the next couple days because We haven't heard anything from him still is just how many people he pissed off and upset and it was far deeper than Just people in the NBA by posting what he did by promoting what he did He really really upset a vast number of people and then to respond the way in which he did when offered the chance to explain itself Further made it so so much worse Well put I mean there's just not much more to say about about the team other than There two and six Kevin Durant's averaging 33 points a game on 53% shooting 59% from two Kyrie has been sensational until last night He looked like he didn't want to be in the game for some reason even though the nets are protecting him from talking Which I don't know if he wants to talk or not There's nothing to do now But whoever the coaches but go forward and try to salvage the season and as Kevin Pelton wrote yesterday Their defense is probably a little better than then it is appeared because teams are just making everything from three against them But they're not gonna be a good to great defensive team They're gonna be a horrible rebound team That's just baked into how they are they need to be an incredible offensive team to win a lot of games And we knew that going in and to be an incredible offensive team They need Ben Simmons to be 16 8 8 8 all-star attack the rim drive Ben Simmons He hasn't been that guy and without him. They're just they're just sort of treading water. Do you think that guy's ever coming back?
I don't know. I hope so as a human being I would for him to come back I just I don't want to get we all can see the games. We all know how he's playing I don't want to hammer him too hard now like we just let's give him some time But look to your point earlier when you trade the whole thing for harden After signing these two guys you are it's it's finals are bust And it's hard to say championship or bus because you need a little luck You need to stay healthy everybody it's hard to win a title But it's like make a real run at it or bust and right now It's bust and I don't want to have the Durant like legacy conversation Yeah, why did he leave Golden State should he have ever gone to Golden State Did he not realize that Golden State was never gonna be his team was always gonna be Steph's team Is that why he left? Should he have gone to Boston?
She's just a no-go-on to City should he go to DC Can you win as the leader of his own team? That's the one that really seems to be Because we did that over the summer and we talked about you know His next team is gonna be crucial to how we remember him I'm gonna remember him as Kevin freakin Durant no matter what happens from here on out But there are definitely to put up a lightly more questions than answers about the Brooklyn Nets right now And I think we're all glad you're there to chronicle whatever happens next Nick Nick I don't know I don't even know what to tell you except I'm gonna be I don't I think they go on the road now for a bit You'll see me at their next home game I think and got only knows what will be going on then my friend It's it's a situation unlike I've ever experienced as a journalist Every day with this team brings something different Sometimes it's stuff related basketball sometimes it's as zero to do with the game But Zach you and I have covered the league a long time I've never seen a situation with one team so volatile on a daily basis And I can't tell you in the last few days and it was in the wake of the kairi frescon friends exchange But how many people in the league are texting me and they're saying I can't believe how bad it is It's it's constantly working through all kinds of different stuff and this goes back to why I use the word never with this specific team I don't believe when you have all those other distractions Even when you have someone as historically great as kevin Durant is that can't make up for all the other stuff that they are dealing with To try and work through to win basketball games Into your point about the volatility you and I were both at the mavericks game last week Which was a fantastic game a great deal between luka and and Durant slash kairi Um, they almost won that game. We've had a couple other close losses and and at that game The vibe around the team was not like this the vibe around the team then that's six days ago We got on our one I was a week ago was patience calm Steve's not in trouble and and everything you just sort of wonder like what if they had one of those games like we could that still be the vibe But here we are and um You know where we go next is who knows? I mean, but the trade deadline is still you know three months away.
We'll see but nikfred elk keep up the good work Uh, we'll see you across the airwaves. We'll hear you across the airwaves and I will see you in brooklyn I think next week when they get back from the road. I always appreciate you having me buddy and I always look forward to the conversations because it's just it's incredible at the The the craziness that surrounds this group on a daily basis All right, let's transition from all the vial stuff happening in brooklyn and play a game of are we worried yet with the western conference focus Which means we're bringing in from the hoop collective from espn.com from the youtube digital sensation Howdy partners tim mccay and how are you howdy partner? I?
Is great. Hey, it's great to be here. Uh, you know anytime you want to lighten the mood and make it all, you know warm and fuzzy You bring me. Oh wait, we're talking about disappointing team so much for woman fuzzy, but let's get to it I did you saw many times last week.
I did portland last week It's time to dive into the out how are we worried and we're not gonna do Lakers. We're not gonna do clippers We've done plenty of that. We're only gonna do three teams really and these three teams are off to vary I'm interested to talk about them because they are off to very strange and confusing Starts and could be interpreted in lots of different ways and we're not gonna do your dialysis mavericks They've only played six games. We're just you know, we're just still learning about the the mabs Um, we are going to start however with the golden state warriors who lost their third consecutive road game against an eastern conference team last night in miami They are now three and five they have lost four of their last five games with the other laws being a blowout against the sons where kalay Thompson got ejected and indicated that he has won four champions to dev and book her several times the warriors are Yeah, put him up.
Put him up. All four. Oh, that's right. I can do that now four There's one I got one right there tenuous ten holding tenuously onto that The warriors are 20th in offense.
That doesn't seem good 25th in defense That seems really bad 23rd with a minus 4.1 differential per 100 possessions And in a stat that either gives you optimism or pessimism are plus 29 and steff curry's minutes and minus 59 in 114 minutes about a point Every two minutes losing pace with steff curry on the bench They are obviously experimenting with five man bench mobs and James lives men and kumingas in and out of the rotation Um, but three and five is three and five men. Are you concerned or is this all just part of the growth process of figuring out the team? So I think there's certainly legitimate reason for concern Um, but I wouldn't push in panic buttons and here's the thing I think a warrior season ultimately is going to be about how much are they willing to invest in the development of those young guys of Wiseman in particular and at what point or do we get to the point where they kind of pull the plug on that and certainly I think it's it's safe to say that the way things are looking now at least come playoff time steve cur's going to have that decision to make and Look if it is going the way it's going right now Wise when we'll take a seat during the playoffs and watch the watch that's played. Um, but they have to give him He's a number two overall pick that you can't like his talent does pop off the screen Like you watch him play and if you just look at his counting stats, you're like, what do you mean this guy stinks?
Uh, you know, you watch him run the floor. You watch, you know, you watch him finish you watch some of the lobs that he catches So, you know, he'll have a spectacular block shot. I mean, he looks the part but man They just bleed points when he's on the floor. He doesn't know how to play in the end and it's not shocking Like look at all the time.
He's missed he played what like three games in college. Um, but that that's why I don't panic right now Right. I'm not too worried about the words and then the other thing is um, you know, clayton play all summer long You know, that's been well chronicled. He's clearly not himself now Is he ever going to get back to being p clay?
Of course not, you know, not coming off of two major injuries Not you know, well into his 30s, but he's clay Thompson will be better at thanksgiving than he was at how we he'll be better christmas than it was thanksgiving And so that's why I don't worry too much Yeah, clay is 13 points a game 35 shooting 29.5 on threes defensively Okay, like Kyle Lowry is blown by him a couple times in the last two games that they played against each other and Kyle Hour is not blown by a whole lot of people these days and look like we can talk about the kids Right and I agree with you like the young guys are this is all like the warriors when it matters are never going to have Steph clay and dream on the bench at the same time and they have them on the bench at the same time for extended periods of every game this season Um, but so so the young kids will either be in the rotation because they've earned it at the end or they won't be in the rotation Right sooner rather than not maybe not sooner rather than later, but in the end anyway At least when it comes time and you know, it might that time might come sooner than later if they're looking the same dude If we don't turn it on we're looking at a plane type of scenario like at some point It might not just be about okay. Hey, what are we doing for the playoffs might be about? Hey, okay We need to like fight for some seating here. Yeah, at this point It's even early for that me Phoenix is the only team in the west is we're gonna talk about that He's really sort of blowing the doors off people other than Utah and we'll see what happens with Utah going forward Yeah, don't you discount those San Antonio Spurs?
Oh, yeah, the Spurs come on Okay, can I go ahead and just discount the Spurs long term play? I'm gonna go ahead and discount the Spurs I'm waiting for pop to say you know what I was wrong put your money down on his baby. We are right that's right pop pass pop That's a great point pop has to reconsider his his advice from earlier in the season But my what I was gonna say was the young guys everyone wants to focus on the young guys and that's fine like wise man is Unoffense. He's just a pure finisher.
That's all he can do. He can't pass. You can't play make you can't do any of the warriors things And that's fine that they knew that when they draft him. That's what he is defensively He's a little bit lost his height and his shot blocking impacts the game tangibly But teams are shooting 70% at the rim when he's the closest defender That's really bad and like he's when he drops back He's so far back in the paint that you can't give NBA players that amount of runway to the rim or that that that much space to make a Pocket pass.
It's just too much space. But again, that's that's a project. This is about clay And dreemon to me and clay. I think we'll look better as the season goes on Uh, step is step.
It's just insane how good he is wiggins looks just Incredibly comfortable in every facet of the game loony is loony their starters are blowing that their starters are plus 58 in 92 minutes The starters are amazing dreemon looks Like like a bee right now. He doesn't look I don't mean a bee like flying around. I mean like a letter great Not like the bee that's done we go bare before is final game in Utah. Oh boy We'll get to go bare a little bit here.
We will he looks dreemon looks good But not like the all-court wrecking crew he was on defense before he got injured last year Just just good his blocks and steals are a little bit down his rebounding is now and this team does not rebound very well Um and his rebounding personally is that if they're gonna play him at center a lot He needs to rebound a lot and that's what you're talking about when you say like a wise man's out the rotation who goes in Well, it's more dreemon to center actually like the idea of dreemon green and jamaica green the greens playing together at the four in the five They haven't done that much jamaica green is added in the main green. Oh great mascot. Love the main green Jamaica green is added like a nice offensive rebounding dimension to this team Dante dvincenzo who I think is an important part of their team is barely played this season due to injury He needs to get healthy. I'm a believer in moody.
I think moody is a good bet To get into the rotation. I might I might have to take the L on something here, Tim. Uh-oh Middle of last season. I was just head over heels for comminga Because that athletically what he can do is so special and I even said I understand that frond's Wagner would have been a better plug and play fit for the warriors But but I'm not losing any sleepover drafting commingo over frond's Wagner because of the potential Right now.
I'm losing like a lot like I'd be thinking about frond's Wagner Yeah, I mean I head on the pillow. I'm just oh man that dirk shot. Oh close in my eyes that dirk shot He's got the running the running hook. He just always knows where to be.
Oh, he can run picking roll He can catch and shoot. Yeah, I'm picking the L on that one and the Warriors are taking the L on that one Yeah, that's a that's a pretty that's a pretty significant L and look maybe comminga develops He's clearly not ready yet. I think it was dmp cd last night in my auntie's been dmp cd in several recent games Yeah, and so and the other thing about that like we're talking about are you worried for this year That's obviously a long-term developmental worry because here's a thing like if comminga's not a dude Can they afford to part ways with dreemon or is does dreemon have them back over a barrel? Well, you know, let's just let's just uh say that that's something that will be revisited as we go Yeah, the idea maybe this is the last season for the warriors and maybe it's not I think it's gonna depend a lot on how they play both the veterans and the and the young guys But yeah, I mean the Wagner when I'm taking the L on um because you did have to approach those picks At least one of them with a shorter term lens You couldn't go home run prospect on all three because kurri Thompson and green are just not that the age If you're trying to do both win now and later you had to pick one win now guy and they didn't I guess moody would be the closest one But moody's the only one of those three lottery picks that is ready to contribute Consistently right now the other two guys uh wise men there's flashes of brilliance and then overall It's like oh goodness sakes.
That's a problem and then you know the fact comminga's not getting consistent minutes Does y'all you need to know right now? Here are a couple things that are slightly concerning other than The young guys Warriors are sporting their opponents five and a half free throw attempts a game They're failing to crap out of everybody which I think speaks to some of the holes that are being Uh some of the holes that are emerging at the top of the defense and they don't get to the line very much themselves It's hard to win when you're giving away five points again They are 30th last there are 30 teams in the base that's last Thanks for that. That's a lesson In in shots at the basket which doesn't sound like much because you think of them as a long range shooting team They're a jump shooting team One of their secret sauces in their best years was that they actually got to the basket a fair amount at an average or a little bit better than average rate Because of all the space their incredible jump shooting opened up in the middle of the floor for them to be 30th Raises alarm bells to me And i'm especially given how much they try to get out and transition which should finish with some shots at the rim It's something i've got my eye on and The last thing curry pool Thompson so the three guards that they've invested nine gazillion dollars in Minus 22 in 54 minutes They blew the doors off everybody in the regular season last year and as the competition got stiffer and stiffer We saw less of the pool party lineup less of the three guards together So those are some things i've got my eye on that one at the rim That that worries me a little bit and i'm not i can't honestly pinpoint really why that is except maybe clay and dremon Just don't quite have the same amount of juice that they usually i don't know i can't pinpoint it Well and pool has been His numbers overall this season stink now there's been two terrible games including last night in Miami They're really dragging those down his plus minus is absolutely atrocious now How much of that is because he's having to play with these young guys But man if he if if they overpaid significantly for jordan pool that is a massive problem going forward if he's not a 120 plus million dollar player Or whatever the math works at a 300 plus million dollar player when you get that with luxury tax Whoo that's uh that's pretty scary Yeah, i'm looking up looking up his numbers now Um because he has been up and down i don't know i have faith in his sort of creativity in his age and the fact that the cap is going to go up so dramatically That i'm not that worried but yeah 17 a game 44% shooting 32% of threes 58% on tuzia like five assists a game is passing is i think the most underrated part of his game I love him as a passer i'm not so my verdict is to the question are you worried? What is your verdict?
Are you worried? You can say whatever you want you don't have to say yes or no i'm a kind generous host you can hedge uh I'm giving the warriors the benefit of the doubt as a four-time championship franchise that is doing a lot of tinkering and experimenting and trying to develop Um, I still think we're going to look up uh latencies and the warriors will be i don't think they'll be at the top of the west in the standings But i think they're going to be right in the thick of things and they're certainly not going to be somebody that anybody's eager to see Come play off time. No one is eager to see stuff curry just it's just you can hear people shrieking every time he catches the ball Anywhere on the floor and transition the guy is a freaking god Uh, my verdict is i'm only a little bit worried like i'm not that worried I'm worried like like the check engine light is on in my car and like i Just got to you know ignore it for a while and maybe take it in a thousand miles or so i'm not that worried but it is It's not it's not nothing. It's not nothing losing How long is a thousand miles in nine and an NBA season?
I don't know 10 games 8 games 12 games But you know three straight though charlotte detroit Miami like that's that's unusual I don't care who you're playing and in what combinations you're playing them for the warriors That's a little unusual well, let's be honest losing a charlotte is unusual Period although they've had some they've had some flash bulb losses in charlotte over the years because those are the stuff curry homecoming games and everyone Yeah, and stuff to admit that he that he got sucked into a hero ball hometown Moment the end of the game and and he owned that one Are you worried part two the minnesota timberwolves traded everything short of a lake and a target store for rutigobare in the off season four and four Six of those eight games have come against oklahoma city sanand tonya and the Lakers So that's a friendly opening season schedule therefore and for sanitones certainly wasn't friendly to them No, it wasn't friendly to them, but you know twice you're a serious team and like in one of those games I watched the most recent one like half the spurs rotation players weren't even playing they were starting kade baits job They were it was just like who are these guys what's going on there 24th in offense? Right eighth in defense. That's pretty good average in net rating with cat and rutie on the floor They are awful on offense and good on defense, but the good does not outweigh the awful that's in net negative with cat by himself No rutie amazing on offense crap tire fire on defense with rutia no cat amazing on defense crap tire fire on offense exactly what you would expect I watched this team. I don't know.
I've watched probably half their games all the way through I just don't even know I don't know what to make of it It's just it's just a morass of confusion to me and obviously we knew that the cat go bare fit on both ends was going to be Tricky and it was weird last night to watch cat chase and cam johnson around on the perimeter on defense and get lost in all sorts of Screening actions and you look at cats numbers 22 and eight that's pretty just a little low for him Five and a half assists. That's up. He's facilitating more his shots at the rim are way way way down and have been replaced by mid range shots in some threes That's sort of interesting and not surprising given that there's another big person near the rim I knew what we knew was gonna be clunky at first with a high upside I didn't think it would be it's a little clunkier than I thought what has you what you are a go-bear expert You've watched this team closely. What is struck out to you so far?
Yeah, I actually went up to Oklahoma City to see them in one of the games they managed to win Um, and so I'm gonna make some excuses for them to start off. Uh, I don't think you're excused. This is just real life It's not really a real life cat cat you're gonna say cat cat was in the freaking hospital shortly before training camp started Right, so cat miss training camp most of preseason go bare coming off of a you know Eurobasket run where france went all the way to the final so they had to kind of manage him So you're making these massive changes and you don't have time for those guys to work together I don't think a slow start is necessarily surprising But yeah, I am worried because the things that I was worried about specifically the spacing offensively how's this gonna work offensively? Uh, with those two guys together, um We've seen it and then also every time Anthony Edwards opens his mouth.
He's basically kind of Yeah, the side he had another doozy, you know, not too long ago He had actually right for us. I'm okay. See he had the he said something long lines up the smaller line up the better for me And then when I was with him in Oklahoma City some local guys are asking about line up stuff He's just like hey do me a favor. Don't ask me about lineup stuff.
You know, he's walking out with the Uh with their press their PR chief. He says hey, you know, those guys work for us We tell them not to ask me about life. She's like that work for us. So he's got a lot to learn but essentially he's like, that's a real That's a real thing that happened.
Yes, but he's like don't ask me about the lineup stuff because essentially It ain't his job. He don't want to be put in a position where he's not thrilled with the limes up And then last night this is a shocking stat Anthony Edwards has zero dunks this season I couldn't believe that when that made the rounds. Uh, they asked him about that. This is from dane moord Is a great job coming to jimball's uh, aunt says everybody is in the paint I'm only 6 4 6 5.
I can't just jump over everybody man. I ain't as tall as jonice Everybody be asking me to dunk the ball like it's all peaches and cream. I've got a good lane to dump the ball Now There's some truth to that I would also say perhaps all the peaches and cream is part of the problem I mean you heard cat grommet about pop eyes and showed up fat Right now he'll tell you well, you know, he'll tell you well. I was in the weight room and but dude And then they called they did a slick job of calling him out by putting his actual weight On the official roster.
They put 6 4 239 on the roster now You I guess you have to put the official height trust me. You don't have to put the official weight I know that because I covered the maverick's on a regular basis and they still list luka at 230 If luka is 230 he ain't got both feet on the scale. I can promise you that Um, but so that they wanted everybody to know hey aunt showed up way in 239 He showed up looking like a middle linebacker that you got to take off the field on third down. Okay What do you get to change your weight?
Can I do a reek? Can I like if we did that at ESPN and I got back from vacation and we're like, I everyone's gonna weigh in We're gonna put low It's 511 to three quarters. I claim six feet. I'm letting me claim six feet six.
I'm claiming six feet second of all Okay, can we do it again in a month and we can just switch that we can we can update it, please So that's ant's thing is hey, you know back. I'm back down to 230, you know, but but like You know if you ask him he'll tell you I've got to get in tip top shape And so like that's a part of the problem here too. Yes, you don't have as much space editing as you're not You take up too much damn space. You're too big Um and dude it's just it is an immature team It is a team that really needs leadership and I know Rudy I know Rudy wants to be that leader But for whatever reason we saw this in Utah Teammates don't really respond to Rudy as a leader.
Um I know I don't think dangi'll rustle's the right point guard honestly Like if you're gonna have funky spacing issues and stuff you're gonna have to figure out I think you've got to have a real, you know floor general type of point guard I don't think he's that guy 14 points and six times a game on 40 percent shooting 28 from three And I just wrote on my notes next to those numbers. Uh-oh Let me ask you this pure hypothetical Would you go back to the jazz? Well, would you trade and the salaries aren't perfect match? But whatever figure out the the etc Would you?
Dan's a Russell or Mike Conley I got to think about that So here's the reason I think it would make sense for the jazz because it kind of eliminates the the the issue of what do we do about Conley's Money next season 14 meal guarantee. That's if you wave them and it's I forgot to get the exact number But it's somewhere in the 20s if he's on the roster and then for the for the temple walls It gives you a legitimate point guard an adult in the room Which I think is very necessary right now guy who has experience playing with go bear Um, I think it would make the temple wall significantly better great salt and pepper album from the 90s by the way very necessary Um, I don't know if I would do that. I haven't wrapped my mind around that But to your point When they both they and the hawks and other teams had this sort of interesting choice particularly the term was I talked about it over the summer Do we throw our chips in for a big man go bear or a point guard de jon de muri and I was on team de jon de muri from in Asona, I thought that was a great fit. Obviously the jump shooting is a little bit of a question But I've pitched a deal of like the angel of rustle plus two first round picks or some draft compensation for de jon de muri They went the other way and supersized themselves and I think they're gonna win a lot of games I'm not really worried about them yet.
It's been a little clunkier particularly in the half court Then I thought it would be um Anti-awards has him showing that he's made enough of a leap as a pastor But he's young I think that will come in time and they obviously bet on it coming sooner rather than later We'll see um, but that's the way I would have gone and like you look at the numbers They're 23rd in three point attempts as a percentage of shot attempts And you know, that's not how christman schwants to play like they bombed away last year and to your adult in the room point When this team wants to get serious, you know, you know how we'll know they'll rebound the ball like they're 26th in defense of rebounding Everything the guy was leading the league in rebounding They got they grab all the rebounds and we'll we'll be chilling over here They got the human vacuum cleaner to their dead last rebounding team and they're still almost dead last And you look at the all you do is watch them. This is nobody on this team boxes out anybody at all That's cat that's aunt that's everybody except go bare and when you're serious then you'll start doing that All that said I do I think they have enough on the bench, you know, slow mo is missed a couple of games I like the way slow mo and cat fit together. I wouldn't play slow mo and go bare together all that much and they're not Um, you know now's reeds giving him some minutes mclaughlin's fine princess. I think it's good when he plays but it's like he's not minutes for No, they he's got play with cat basically I like cat's not a serious star player like cat is not a winner He's never been a winner like Jimmy butter got one season of cat and you know burned the whole place down I'm sorry.
I cannot believe it. I'm gonna believe it when I see it. He's deep into his career. Now.
We have not seen it He's a losing basketball player. I don't I would I understand why people said look I just called him out for not boxing out I think offensively he's so special that I'm not quite ready to put that label on him But in the playoffs, yeah, except for the lights are bright No, it's true. He hasn't been as special in the play in or the play I mean I said his stats before the season the playoffs that's really 18 and 11 with more assistant or with more turnovers than assistant Like it's not close and a ton of fouls like it. This is the year.
This is it. This is put up a shot up time But that that said am I worried? I'm not worried yet. I still think they're gonna win a lot of regular season games I never really thought that they were gonna be a championship contender like a third They were a solid playoff team and I still think that at four and four but the schedule is gonna get real soon So I'm but I'm going no I'm not that worried because my my expectations for the Warriors were higher And so their weirdness is a little bit more striking to me the wolves being four and four and clunky out of the gates is not that Shoxo going not worried.
What are you going with? I'm pretty concerned and I'm concerned because I know that cat and aunt weren't consulted on the go Bear stuff. They were surprised by it, which is pretty unusual in today's NBA for your franchise cornerstones not to be Uh, you know not to know what's going on with a massive move like that and honestly I'm worried because I don't believe in cat as a winning piece and I'm worried because every time I hear something from Anthony Edwards It's basically him grumbling. I had heard at the time that cat express his willingness to play with the traditional center before they made that trade But maybe maybe the go-bair part of it was so I don't know we'll see um can we move on to team number three?
Absolutely. Are you worried about the Denver Nuggets four and three fourteenth and offense twenty six in defense Minus two point eight points for a hundred possessions. That's 20 second overall with nikoleo Stop me if you've heard this before with nikoleo catch on the floor plus thirty six Plus seven for a hundred possessions with nikoleo catch off the floor minus fifty six and a hundred and six minutes minus Twenty five per 100 possessions the starters are killing it the Bruce Brown plus starters in place of Michael Porter jr Line up, which I love is killing it kcp is killing it yokech is not scoring or shooting threes like we've seen from him in the past That's fine. Who cares?
Jamal Murray rusty rusty rounding back into form Michael Porter jr Hit a lot of threes. That's what they wanted to do. He said a lot of threes still up and down They've had good wins. They've had blowout losses.
They've had bad losses again. I've watched so much I'm like, no, no, what's going on here? They just seem okay to me and they've won four games Are you worried? Well, I'm shocked that it falls off a cliff when they put the under Jordan the game I mean I figure when they sign him 12 seconds in free agency They'd solved all their problems with yokech off the floor.
Can't believe this is uh working out that way I know you as a guy who saw him up close in Brooklyn. You're pretty surprised by that old development um Yeah, you know It's really uh, well we started this podcast with it for now by reminiscing about how Penny Atkinson got fired in part for daring to realize Jared Allen was significantly better than the Andre Jordan and Constructed his rotation as such and the penalty for that was off their head. Tell you what that is a fireball offense I've ever seen one. Um, I'm not worried because You gotta give Jamal Murray some time and you know, I think Jamal Murray how close he can Get back to who he was before the injury that will determine the ceiling for this team the defense that that's interesting because I did feel like Hey, you go get kcp You bring in Bruce Brown.
I thought those are two pieces that fit really well and were pretty significant defensive upgrades You know, you bring my reporter june your back in a rotation. That's not necessarily a defensive upgrade, but again, I just Going into the season. Uh, I felt like patience was going to be a requirement for following the nuggets And so I don't think you can change that approach a couple weeks in the season. Yeah, they're um They're allowing a lot of threes And a decent amount of shots at the rim.
That's not bad combination And they are 27th and field goal percentage at the rim allowed after being last last season So they are not stopping anyone from making baskets at the rim are really getting there interestingly Yokech is contesting the most shots at the rim in the entire league 10.6 a game and opponents have only hit 59 percent of them, which isn't great But it's also not bad. It's like average. Um, so so I don't you know that that's interesting to me I you know the shot selection allowed is worrisome the fact that they've never really figured out. It's never felt like they They were certain about this is how we want to defend with yokech The closest they've gotten is they like him up at the level of the screen instead of dropping back But they know that that has pitfalls too.
Just like it doesn't mean a soda by the way We're seeing this when cat plays center They're they're pretty aggressive almost in the style that they were last season and he has not executed that well at the point of Point of attack if you make a fake before using a pick and roll against cat He's gonna bite on that fake and you're gonna have the other direction wide open Yokech is is okay at that. They have they have much better defenders on the perimeter To get around screens. That was the whole bet with kcp and Bruce brown even jambon maris not bad at it So i'm interested to see how that evolves We didn't talk about the cat rutie thing on defense either like You know against the spurs in one of those games they put rutie on baits d up and put cat on pertil And that's part of the learning process there too is like when does it makes sense to use rutie as kind of a rim protector on stretch For as a put cat back on fives and maybe we can defend a little more conservatively with cat that's interesting But the yokech is thing It would he doesn't need to shoot more threes like he's not shooting any threes. He doesn't want to shoot him But you know, I I'm with you.
I kind of trust in the ecosystem of the steam Yeah, and you knew jambon maris wasn't gonna be right. I will say The porter already missing some games and the worrisome. Yeah, that that that's concerned that is Because and then you know, I guess the flip side of that is hey He's coming off his third back surgery like you knew he wasn't in play to you knew they were gonna have to to manage him So um, but look if the nuggets are going to be a real factor in the western conference then jamaal maris has to be an all-star caliber player and uh, you know, michael porter jr has to at least be One of the best third options in the league Yeah, and the bench look I love the bruce brown fit. I wish his econodgy would play more jeff green is fine jeff green is gonna be what he is Bonne's island.
It is a I said before the season. I feel like everyone's getting a little ahead of their skis with bonne's island Is a six-minute a year favorite and all that he's good, but it's a lot for a second year guy He's averaging 12 a game shooting 26 percent on twos which means he's shooting well from three Um christian brong. I'm never gonna get it right christian brown even though it's spelled brong It's just gonna it's gonna dog me for the rest of my career. I'm sorry christian.
It's been fine Um, I just they need to figure out the bench rotation a little bit which we all knew going in well and the bones thing like he is fun And he's an exciting young player. Um, I think they miss money morris though in terms of being kind of a Calming presence, you know kind of a an organizer a run your team type of guy with bones is a gunner Like you know, he's he's playing point guard with that second unit, but he's not really a point guard I mean, he's a you know, he's a lu Williams type of he's delightful bones is delightful, but yes He is not a stabilizing force of your offense. He is a force of his own kind, but it's not stabilizing He's a destabilizing force in good ways in good way. He'll destabilize the game in good ways And so you know, they've got they've got some things to figure out and and you know, he's got some growth to do I don't know if he's ever going to become more of a point guard than he is now But I think this team needs to whether that's possible or not is a dvd and I also think they're there are smartly Slow-playing yolk at you a little bit like we're not gonna overfeed you in the post We're not gonna ask you to do everything.
We're not gonna play you gazillion minutes because we've seen that movie and it ends With you being tired in the playoffs and I think they're especially coming off your basket, which is interesting I mean, I think I do think that's a factor with the yolkach. I think it's a fact to go bare, you know, it's interesting Lucas 23 and you know with him. It's more like well at least we know he's in game shape when he shows up for camp and said well You know what we've seen the last couple years, but man that the What these guys have to do the schedule that they have to go through with their national teams for your basket is is honestly it's ridiculous it's hard it's hard and You know, I but I think it's smart to just sort of I think it's smart for him to pace himself too I mean, you know, naturally he has embraced being a scorer But he you know naturally just wants to pass all the time which is okay Just find pass all time don't don't brutalize people in the post don't don't bang around all the time I do wonder if they're gonna have to when he sits on the bench If it's gonna have to be like a kitchen sink kind of approach like when it beats it's on the bench and they put all the rest of their Key players in with their backups. I wonder if that's gonna have to be the case, but you know, it's weird I mean you got handed to the sons by the way one team.
We're not we're not talking about We all wrote them off as contenders. I didn't put them in my inner circle of contenders I still am not really convinced that's the wrong decision But the Andre eightens miss time and they just they just keep winning games and they blow the doors off some of these teams lately No, I was convinced that the sign again not that they would melt down But they would take a major step back for a variety of reasons And we'll see you know that we'll see if demons pop back up Come play off time, but it's pretty clear. They're gonna want a lot of games in the regular season and uh, you know, they've I'm sitting there at halftime at their opener the Mavericks are blown them out lubas dominating again I'm like, oh my god. This is a bigger disaster than I thought they've lost one game in overtime at Portland That's it and and they've I believe are leading league in that rating Yeah, and his miss the last couple games chris paul has not been anything like chris paul Maybe at least score as a score but like his you know, the guy's like 15 assists one turn like he had a turnover last night I think last two games is like 27 assists and one turnover and and he does the other post game walkoff interview And all he wants to do is bitch about a call in the turnover.
Well, that's that's chris Um, but but they have needed his scoring in the past and I guess what we're saying is it's a compliment to cam johnson and mckail bridges Both of them particularly bridges have been just sensational on both ends of the floor I'm not talking about jock landale. He's been good. He's been awesome So kudos kudos to the sons without eating without crowder just continuing to win games But yeah, I'm not worried about the nuggets, but it's been a weird start to the season like these three teams We've talked about you watch them a lot and it's like I kind of just it's weird that I feel like I don't have a good feel for them yet So I wanted to do a little temperature take on teams that aren't the Lakers or the clippers in the western conference Uh, mr. McMan, any parting thoughts before you head over to uh Well, can we can we say where you're going?
I'm going to see those those mighty scrappy little Utah jazz man And one of the you know the jazz the spurs I'm seeing one of the juggernauts in the western conference Uh, no, I think I think we've nailed it. I think uh, you know the if i'm a minnesota fan I've got some some more gray hair popping up in the beard Denver wait and see and the warriors give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that uh These young bucks will you're gonna earn their minutes later in the season or they're gonna be uh sitting and watching down this retch Tim McMan your work is fantastic. It's always good to see you Um, you can read them in the spn.com you can listen to them with those two other windbags on the hoop collective and you can Listen to them on howdy partners. Thank you, sir That's the youtube sensation one windbag and one wind horse by the way Ah They don't listen so I can say whatever I want about them, but when they make fun of me I hear it So there's there's something to be said there Alright to make man.
Thank you, sir. Appreciate brother