Chris Herring
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast early on a Tuesday morning on the East Coast where we are officially one week into the 2022-2023 NBA season. And the Lakers, Nets, and Sixers are 2-8 behind.

combined to open the season. Meanwhile, the Jazz are 3-1, the Blazers are 4-0, the Spurs are 3-1. What a really crazy start to the year, but we got to start with Lakers, Nets, Sixers. 2-8.

Three teams under enormous pressure, coaches, trade requests, the whole thing to win now. And although the Sixers got right last night with a win over the tanktastic Indiana Pacers, who are frisky, I'll give it to them. They're frisky. Two and eight is two and eight. And the pressure, everyone knows these teams are under pressure to win. But just like zoom out for a moment. We all we all have heard the Doc Rivers chatter and we'll see what happens there.

LeBron signed an extension. Lakers crowed. Big victory. Security. LeBron signed an extension. LeBron added one year. Let's be real. LeBron added one year to his deal. Next season. That's it. That's all he did. After this season, he becomes trade eligible again. If this season's a wasteland, we'll see what happens. And meanwhile, do New Orleans Pelicans sit in pretty with swap rights on the Lakers pick? Swap rights on the Lakers pick? The New Orleans Pelicans may be in the Victor Webanyama Derby next.

By accident, almost. We all thought when the Lakers traded for Anthony Davis, well, there couldn't possibly be a Brooklyn Nets-style downside to this trade. Anthony Davis is 25 or 26 years old. He'll carry the Lakers through dark times. He'll carry the Lakers through the end of LeBron's prime. They are insured against devastation. Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not. And remember just a few short months ago when people started talking about

Who's the next superstar who might want out of a situation? Who's the next superstar that other teams might sit and try to poach in the next year or two? In April, in May, after the Sixers slunk out of the playoffs against the Miami Heat with their proverbial tail between their legs, people started whispering.

Is it Joel Embiid? Is it maybe Joel? Like, is Joel Embiid looking around like, is this what I'm going to war with now after all the high picks and all the hullabaloo about the process and all the Ben Simmons stuff? Is this what I got? And then they had a great offseason. P.J. Tucker, Daniel House, De'Anthony Melton, Harden took a discount.

golf clap for James Harden, not getting enough credit for taking a discount. I wonder why. Oh, the Sixers are back. Well, boy, oh, boy. It doesn't take long to get from the Sixers are back to LNB's a Sixer for life to, uh-oh, uh-oh. We got to start, though, with the Lakers and to help us sort through all of this. And we're going to get to the Blazers. I know Portland people. I know BlazersEdge.com. I called you blah.

I called the team blah, Joe Cronin and company in the front office. I know Chauncey, my former colleague. I know I called you blah. You're 4-0.

Whipped the Denver Nuggets last night. We're going to get there. Utah, we're going to get there. Chris Herring of SportsIllustrated.com, author of the Playmaker newsletter that comes out every Tuesday. That's today. Author of the New York Times bestseller, Blood in the Garden, the flagrant history of the 1990s New York Knicks. Spike Lee's best friend and I can only imagine up for a starring role in his next movie and he'll probably get nominated for an Oscar. Chris Herring, how are you? Good.

Your introductions get better and better each time. I'm doing pretty well. How are you, Zach? I'm not doing as well as you, my friend. Not hanging out with Spike, not on set for the next joint and all of that. So let's start here. The Lakers are second in defense.

Do you know how hard it is to be second in defense and be 0-3 and have the seventh worst net rating in the entire NBA? Do you know how hard that is, Chris? And, of course, common sense would dictate that they must be terrible on offense. They are dead last in offense, 97 points per 100 possessions. Chris Herring, have you looked at who's 29th in offense, one spot ahead of the Lakers, and what their figure is? I...

I get mixed up between the defense. I know the Pistons were 30th in one of them. I don't know who's right in front of the Lakers. It doesn't matter who it is. It's the Clippers. And the point is, they are six points better per 100 possessions than the Lakers on offense. The Lakers are last on offense by a country mile. Meanwhile, they're inverse in Brooklyn. The Nets...

are last on defense, allowing 125 points per 100 possessions. They're last by three points per 100 possessions. They can't get a rebound or a stop, and they're one and two after Ja Morant and Desmond Bain. I think...

They weren't even playing basketball at some point. They were just playing their own personal game of let's clown this team with no defense. Ha, ha, ha. 76 points. John Morant, I think, had five threes. And oh, my God. Can we just pause for a second, Chris? John Morant, I don't even know. This is going to sound like hyperbole. I don't really think it is. We could be old men in 50 years, 30 years, 40 years, whatever God is willing to give us.

And we could say we never saw a basketball player more exciting than Ja Morant. Is that crazy to say? I mean, this guy is a show every single second he's on the floor, on both ends. Yeah, that lob that he caught yesterday, was it Tyus Jones that threw it to him? And it was one of the worst lobs I've seen. Granted, he threw it from pretty far out. And Ja catches it with his left hand and just...

Just he comes down with stuff and makes plays that I don't think are capable of being made, which that's a high bar to set because Ja makes you think that he can do anything and everything. And so when he's still making plays that even for him just seem kind of beyond the pale, he's fantastic to watch. That game was fantastic to watch. And to your point about the Nets defense in that game, the fact that Ja kind of

Took the first half and then Bain had like, what did he end up with 38 and he had six at half or whatever it was. Yeah, it just kind of feels like a lot of times they're trying to rob Peter to pay Paul defensively the Nets, and they try to kind of plumb one problem and then another one crops up but it's.

It's concerning how bad they are on defense. I don't know if it's more concerning how bad they are on defense than how bad the Lakers are on offense, but they're both pretty bad problems considering who's on these teams. I look forward to January 3rd. The Nets are 21-21, last in defense, on pace to have the worst defensive rebounding rate in the history of basketball ever.

And Steve Nash strides to the podium, bedraggled, sweaty, despondent, knowing Kevin Durant asked for his job in the summer. If he even gets to 21 and 21. By the way, I talked about pressure and trade demands in LeBron's extension. Do we think that everything's cool with the Nets? Like Durant rescinded his trade requests. And he, I remember the headline, he's committed for the long haul. Yo, man.

committed for the long haul after rescinding a trade request yesterday if the nets are 7 and 11 i i can't wait to see what happens i took the under on the nets and i just i said if you're asking me between upside and downside i'm shorting the nets and i haven't seen anything yet to change my mind it's early but i do look forward to 21 and 21 steve nash gets up there you got you know guys

Ben Simmons just has to be more aggressive on offense. You know, the rust is the rust. He's just got to knock off the rust. He's just got to be more aggressive on offense. You know, that's all we'll get there. Game 68. Hey, Ben Simmons just got, you know, got to be a little more aggressive on offense. But let's start with the Lakers. Everyone is clowning that rust shot.

the two for one with the lead when he just dribbled the ball up with 30 seconds left and took a, took a jump shot and missed. And literally almost everyone on the court for the Lakers, his own teammates either shrugged or made some gesture of like what's happening. And Russ was going for the two for one. That's, that's rare when you have the lead. If you're Chris Paul and you're like a 58% shooter on wide open raid Rangers, cool. Defensible. Yeah.

You're not Chris Paul. You might be the worst high-volume jump shooter literally in the history of the NBA, someone whose jump shot is declining by the second. Just bag that one. But if you want to look back at where the Lakers season entered Curb Your Enthusiasm territory, maybe it was actually when they traded for us, but let's just focus on this season. One minute before that shot, Chris, the early favorite for possession of the season. You're grinning. You know the possession I'm going to bring up?

That's not what I was laughing at, but go ahead. Okay, 90 seconds left in the game. The Lakers are up by five. Russ is dribbling the ball, enters the ball to AD at the elbow extended, and just stands there and shrugs. And AD is like, dude, you got to go set a down screen for Lonnie Walker in the corner. Russ shrugs again, jogs into something resembling a down screen for Lonnie Walker. Again, it's crunch time of a game that you need to win. You're 0-2 at home.

Anthony Davis gives the ball to Pat Beverly on the other side of the floor. LeBron James is on the court doing nothing, not touching the ball. Pat Bev takes an ISO three with seven seconds on the shot clock and misses. And you just look like, does anyone know the play? Does anyone have any idea what's going on? This is a disaster so far. And,

The downside, we mentioned the pick with the Pelicans. Look, the hope is they're second in defense. They're competing. When they get out and run, they look pretty good. But I just – this – I was at their Clippers game and from just talking to people around the league and looking at it,

The Russ thing has now just taken on a life of its own. I saw after the game, the recent game, LeBron's like, you guys are trying to set a trap for me. I don't want to talk about Russ, blah, blah, blah. And it's not all on Russ. Everyone has bad on-off numbers. The lineups with LeBron and no Russ have been bad. Like, it's not all on Russ. But it also has now become this mushroom cloud over the team that just seems to be sapping everyone's spirit. And I don't really see a solution other than

I've been saying they should bring him off the bench since the summer, even before that. I'm now wondering if they just need to just not have him around. I don't really know how tenable that is. But what have you seen for a potential turnaround here? I mean, Zach, so you plugged my newsletter, which I appreciate. And the last one, and by the way, and the one that I have going up today, I essentially said I'm not.

after this, I'm not talking about the Lakers anymore in this newsletter until something substantial changes until LeBron forces me to, because he becomes the all-time leading scorer or something. Um, they, I said in the last newsletter, essentially they should have traded him during the off season that I fully, fully, fully understand how reluctant they are and why they're reluctant to want to move these picks because they really don't have much left in the cupboard at all. As far as first round picks are concerned at the same time,

You play in Los Angeles. It's going to be a circus until you resolve this. And what makes me feel bad for Russ when I think about the stuff from last season and I think about the fact that, you know, people say stuff to him from the, you know, from the stands.

Whether people say stuff to his family, whether people tweet his family, whatever it is, that's an uncomfortable spot to be as a player. Nobody fundamentally deserves that. People are frustrated. I think a lot of that frustration should be directed at the Lakers front office for bringing him in in the first place. But as soon as you see it's not working... And the star players. And the star players. You cannot leave that out, considering that, frankly...

I don't know how you can listen to or look at the fact that DeMar DeRozan still talks about how confused he is that he wasn't a Laker and that he thought he was and then all of a sudden he wasn't and Russell Westbrook was. Especially when these guys all kind of interviewed with LeBron, essentially. So you can put two and two together to kind of figure out that there was probably something to that where it wasn't just the front office, it was also the guys on the team, the key guys on the team. But I will say,

At a certain point, like Russ is Russ. We've known that he's capable of kind of having a brain freeze where he takes a really bad shot at a bad moment, an ill-advised shot where even if you're – I'll be honest with you. I've watched him take shots where teams were daring him to shoot in the playoffs where – who was it? Cantor dared him to shoot in the playoffs when Russ was still with OKC. He does that. There are only two kinds of Russell Westbrook shots, high-speed layups –

And jump shots the other team is daring him to take. Those are the only two shots that exist. Right. So, I mean, my thing is that they should have traded him before this season started. And I feel like by having him and dangling him and all these moves and hoping to pick up enough leverage to where a team will just, you know, give you Miles Turner, give you Buddy Heald, whatever else.

sure, you want to save some points on this or on that. You want to salvage a pick here or there. And this was my problem, and this is what I said last week. My problem with the Lakers for the last few years is that they've always kind of waited out a situation, hoping that they wouldn't have to give up quite as much, whether it was for Anthony Davis and missing the playoffs in LeBron's first year.

whether it was trying to alter the team a year after everybody told you you didn't have enough shooting, whether it was this year's team where people still said you didn't have enough shooting. And it just annoys me because LeBron is as old as he is, and Anthony Davis might as well be 37 years old for how fragile he is sometimes. And it's not trying to demean him. It's not trying to be rude. It's just the truth. The team has a window, but as we're talking about, if you're in a conversation to potentially lose LeBron,

that your pick would be in the running for the number one pick.

And you've got the best player potentially of all time on your team and another top 2015 guy. What are we talking about? What are you waiting on? You might not have the cushion to absorb losses like these to make the playoffs. So I don't understand how we even got to the point where we're in the season and Darvin Ham is still talking about whether he's going to bring Russ off the bench. Russ is having to answer questions about whether they want you here. I'm so tired of that.

I'm so tired of it. And by the way, you know, it's over when Kevin O'Connor bless his soul. Kevin O'Connor of the ringer, my friend and colleague for years would write the, well, you know, Russ could be a good cutter and a, and a good on ball screener. Like for like, to the point that I said on this podcast, I'm actually worried about Kevin O'Connor's

mental health because he keeps hoping against hope that today's the day Russ is going to buy in to setting all these ball screens and it will never happen it's never going to happen he doesn't want to do it he doesn't want to shoot corner threes he doesn't want to cut he doesn't want to do these things and that's why he deserves some of the limb too and finally Kevin O'Connor basically was like it's over he wrote the column yesterday um have you ever seen that that scene in AI have you ever watched AI before the Steven Spielberg movie

I have not. It has the Sixth Sense Kid in it, right? Isn't that the one with him? Haley Joel Osment, I think his name is. Yeah, it's him. And there's a scene in particular where he's a robotic child, basically. And he just, well, spoiler alert, he waits basically for his mother to come back for him because they've abandoned him at one point. He waits under the water, under the sea, in this block of ice for 10 million years.

And just waits and waits and waits till his battery essentially runs out. It's like there's aspects of that that feel like this, which is why they should have traded him in the offseason. Don't put him in a position where he's going to have to respond to this much criticism in one of the largest markets in the country. It was pretty abundantly obvious to most of us.

Last year before the season started that it wasn't going to work unless Russ completely shifted who he was as a player Which it's really hard to rewire people like that. It's not and he did it. He did it for one game one game. That's

Third game of the season, and I almost wanted Jonathan Abrams to do like the oral history of the game. Russell Westbrook sent eight ball screens against the Memphis Grizzlies because clearly – Oh, by the way, Frank Vogel was the problem. Frank Vogel was the – We got to get rid of Frank Vogel. Clearly –

You think Frank Vogel, if an idiot like me knows that Russ has to set ball screens, you don't think Frank Vogel and his staff are like, yo, Russ, can you set some ball screens? And he did for one game and then decided, yeah, that's not so fun. But you can't make him do it. You can't make him do it. And if you do make him do it, that you're going to get criticized for being mean and not liking Russell Westbrook. Like, this has been a problem for a while. It's been so clear. And look, again, I get the idea of wanting to save a pick here or there. You were mortgaging way more than...

a pick if you don't make use of the fact that you have LeBron James and Anthony Davis on your roster, period. And that was clear last year. Third stars don't work around two other stars if they can't shoot.

It just doesn't, if you can't attract defensive attention, this is the opposite of attracting defensive attention. It's actually sagging the defensive attention you would want Russ to pull out of the paint into the paint. And that was what we watched happen in that Blazers game where he took that two-for-one shot. So it's been a disaster for a while. It actually reminds me in a roundabout way of the Sixers going all in on Horford.

because A, Horford was the Embiid stopper, and B, and this is more relevant, Horford could solve the Sixers' inability to do anything when Embiid was on the bench,

The best and only reason to even think about acquiring Russ for the Lakers was, well, he can ease the load on LeBron. We can ease LeBron's minutes. He can run the offense while LeBron is on the bench. And the lesson that you learn repeatedly over and over again is you can't invest your resources based on the 12 minutes a game when your best player is on the bench. You just can't. It doesn't work. And the thing that I don't want to hear anymore of, in addition to Russ setting ball screens, is you mentioned Darvin Ham. Darvin Ham was brought to the Lakers, right?

Because he was the guy who would take no shit. He was the guy who wouldn't be afraid of Russ. And you keep hearing Brian Windhorst keep saying this on TV. You can tell Darvin Ham wants to bench him. Brought him off the bench in the last preseason game. The tee lead, he benched him. I love the headlines like, Russell Westbrook benched in fourth quarter of Blazers game. He sat out for like the last 12 seconds of the game. And then the first six minutes. And he took the most harmful shot there was.

And the first few minutes of the fourth quarter, that's not being benched. That's like called coaching the game. And so we keep hearing the tea leaves this just to bench him. That's what if you want to do it, you're the coach of the team. Just bench him. So I'm tired of hearing that. And look, it's just I don't know. So the trade, the trade.

I said over the summer, and I stand by this, the one that would have kept me up at night was the two firsts for Buddy Hield and Miles Turner. Understood. And now...

The whole league has the Lakers over a barrel. You think Indiana's bending now on the two first round picks? No, no. They're like, you need to, if you had a third pick to trade, we would demand that too because you stink and we have you over a barrel. The whole league has them over a barrel. And the other trades, even that trade is as well as healed and Turner would fit there. Turner's already injured.

He's on an expiring contract. Heald's contract cannibalizes your cap space this summer unless you can dump it, and you probably can. Or you stretch it, or you do some magic stuff, magic Laker stuff to make it go away. This team, it becomes an interesting team, like a good team. It's a legit good team with those two guys. Is it good enough? Is it good enough that you trade both those picks? Are you a contender if you make that trade? And all the other trades to me,

Especially now that Bogdanovich is gone to Detroit. Now, maybe you get back into that and you construct some three team trade where you get Bogdanovich here and someone else from the Jazz over here. All the other trades are half measures to me. Like I saw the athletic report yesterday, Josh Richardson from the Spurs.

Like Josh Richardson and Yaka Pirtle, forget it. Like for two first round picks, that's not getting me anywhere. Josh Richardson couldn't even play for the Celtics. And I like Josh Richardson. He's a nice player. Now, then you bring up the possibility and I see this all the time. What about trades where they only send one first round pick out?

Would that be an example of that? Well, that's kind of interesting. And then you bring up people who bring up Charlotte. Like I think Charlotte would definitely have a meeting about doing two first round picks for their stuff. And I think the Lakers would argue, well, Gordon Hayward, that's a pick to get off of that contract. So that's a wash. We'll give you one and take Rozier too.

um is that good enough Terry Rozier and Gordon Hayward who's also always hurt like are any of the to your I agree with you because I sat there and I looked at that Indiana deal Chris and thought boy that's a good trade those players fit really well and yeah 2029 2027 like that hurts unprotected it's dangerous LeBron will be out of the league AD might be out of the league it's dangerous

But man, does it hurt to waste a year of LeBron's... It's not prime. Just waste one of the few remaining years. But you look at the rest of the trades and I'm like, two first round picks for that stuff? I can't do that. And then you get into these negotiations that are probably going to fall apart. Can I say something? It's just, I mean...

We can have and I think at some point because of what you're saying and the fact that they are over a barrel at this point, they have to do something. They're going to trade him at some point. Fundamentally, I can't see how this goes on for the rest of the season. The question we need to be asking, and I think maybe it's kind of inherent in what we're talking about anyway, is like how much better does the team get just not having him there?

Um, immediately better action. And so if that's the case and we can acknowledge that part and, and not, again, not trying to be funny about it, it, it, it's painful to talk about someone that loves basketball. I know Russ loves basketball. It doesn't, it looks joyless for these guys. Uh,

These were guys that wanted Russ there and then are throwing their hands up in the air when he takes an ill-advised shot in a game that's a winnable game, when they've got the lead in a winnable game in the last 30 seconds. So if we really think, and I imagine the Lakers kind of have to feel this way too, if we really think that they get better instantly by not having him there, then...

Then it becomes a question of like, how much better do they get? Can they realistically become a contender by adding pieces that would help their team too? And of course they would get better. It's a question of how much better, but also they're going to just get a boost by not playing him. So it's, I mean, I don't know. It's kind of saying, I don't know how much better they get because they should just get a boost just by not having Russ there. And that's, again, that's, it sounds ridiculous.

Really mean but it also feels like the truth and so I don't know how much better they get but it could be a lot better If guys are actually healthy if the guys they get back in the trade can stay healthy if it's Miles Turner if it's Hayward what-have-you those guys would have real fits with this team and you're not dealing with the the spacing of a shoebox anymore and and that is really a tangible sort of thing for this team and

All of this is wrapped up into the question that you're hearing more frequently with every loss and every Brandon Ingram mid-range jump shot and every Josh Hart defensive rebound. Josh Hart, by the way, has a defensive rebounding rate of a center. He's going coast to coast like a maniac. Ten and a half rebounds a game. Six foot five. I love it. And every time tankathon.com updates with the Pelicans' odds getting better and better.

The question, of course, being was the Anthony Davis trade worth it? And I think the knee-jerk reaction for the naysayers is to say, well, look at the cost now and the bubble championship was fake and all of that. Of course, the Anthony Davis trade was worth it. You won a championship. And of course, it was worth it because the question you're really asking is,

You have to imagine a counter reality where you don't mess up the team that won the championship by making all these bad decisions, including trading for Russell Westbrook. If you just reverse that one decision, we are not here and no one is asking if the Anthony Davis trade is worth it or the people asking it are doing so from a much sort of weaker argumentative position. The other thing I will say, look, the Lakers have done an atrocious job.

In the last two summers, that's the front office and Rob Palenka. That's the star players who are involved in all this. The one thing I will say in defense of all that is everyone's like, well, they need to acquire shooting. How did they not get shooting, shooting, shooting, shooting? You can't find shooting at the minimum. You can't. The shooters who are available at the minimum are.

minutes already because they can't play defense or they're just not that good of a shooter. The way to get shooting on the cheap is to do a Max Drews, Duncan Robinson, Dorian Finney, Smith, uh, uh,

John Conchar, you'd like snag a guy on a two way and he's yours or you trade. He's an appendage in a trade like a Seth Curry or something and he's yours. And then you have bird rights and then you resign them. Like the criticism is not that they couldn't sign those types of shooters in free agency. It's that they never got them to begin with and got them in house where they had them. But anyway, that's enough. Can we just stop talking about the Lakers now?

I would love that. Nothing more. Well, let me add one more thing. Let me add one more thing and then I promise. I was curious because at this point in the season, this team is shooting 21, not even 21.5% from three. They're shooting 21.2% from three, which if the number were double that, it would be more believable. I mean, you have teams that probably are shooting that so far. Yes, you do.

I was curious just how bad that is as far as like historically. It's the worst three-point percentage for any team going back to 1990-91 when Washington was still the Bullets as opposed to the Wizards. I was just curious for the hell of it. Like what's the worst of all time? It's also the Lakers.

You got to go back to a team that Riley took to the finals in 82-83, but this was like two, three years after the three-point line. Is this worst of all time through this point in the season?

Period. Ever. Ever. Period. So you've only got, essentially over the last 30 years, you've only had three teams, two teams, I take that back, that have ever shot worse over the last 20, over the last 30 years. But you have to go back to 1990, 91 to find the last time a team was shooting, shot this bad over the course of a full season. And it's just kind of mind-blowing. Like, we know they don't have that much shooting, but...

And they're even worse on catch and shoots, which just seems so backwards. But I guess LeBron is really the only guy that's making any. So it kind of makes sense. And LeBron is game one is already in full on. I'm shooting from the logo mode. He's taking, I think, nine threes a game. He has the highest three point rate of his career by far. He's just like, I'm shooting. Let's give me a ball. I'm shooting. I don't care anymore.

This episode is brought to you by Experian. Are you paying for subscriptions you don't use but can't find the time or energy to cancel them? Experian could cancel unwanted subscriptions for you, saving you an average of $270 per year and plenty of time. Download the Experian app. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions are eligible. Savings are not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. Let's hop around the league a little bit. And the first place we're going to hop is to Portland because if Portland's good,

And Utah can sustain a little bit. Now I'm skeptical of that. We'll talk about the jazz later. Me too. But if, if just Portland's good, the math on the Lakers gets even worse. The math on the Lakers getting out of the play in or into the play in gets even worse. And Portland is four and Oh, seventh on offense. That's not unexpected. Ninth on defense. That's the number we'll dig into that. I know these guys are, I think leading your newsletter today. Um,

So we'll dig into the defense three of their wins have been very close wins Phoenix Lakers Kings and then they blew out the Nuggets Monday night last night And look Do I believe it? I'm not sure I believe this is a top five team in the West all of a sudden I'm not sure I believe this is a top ten defense in the NBA all of a sudden, but I'll say this. They're not blah They're not blah stylistically. They're a hell of a lot of fun to watch and

And they're not blah qualitatively. I think after four games, it's not too early yet. Now injuries happen and they can derail any season. We know that. But like as currently constituted, we haven't seen Gary Payton the second yet. I think it's clear already. They're better than blah. They're better than the Vegas over under, which was like 39 and a half or 40 and a half, depending on where you look. They look like a legit, pretty good team. Dame is back.

The Simons only lineups are working mostly because opponents are missing every single shot they take. Those lineups are working because of defense, but they're surviving for now.

I love the construction of the team. They bet on youth, athleticism, and speed, and that is showing up. Particularly, I just am a sucker for teams that at two, three, and four, shooting guard through power forward, can just play big, rangy wings, and they've got a whole bundle of those. That's exactly what they are. So tell me, I know they led your newsletter. Tell me in diving into the Blazers' first four games, whether it's the defense we talked about or anything, what stuck out to you?

No, it's actually just that the athleticism just kind of jumps off the screen when you watch him. It's exactly what you said. It's...

You know, the way I looked at all this was just, you know, Portland last year was the year from hell. From when they hired Chauncey and the questions that surrounded that, that they really didn't answer adequately, in my opinion. Whether it was the Neil Olshay stuff and the fact that he was the one that made that decision and then, you know, gets investigated on workplace culture stuff and gets fired over that. Whether it's Dame, you know,

right at the beginning of the season, just not looking himself and then figuring out that he's got an abdominal injury that requires surgery. You know, the painful decision, even though it was one I felt like they needed to make a couple years earlier with CJ and moving him,

And not getting the pick you dreamed of getting because the luck, not luck, the Pelicans turned against you. Right, right. So it's, you know, it was a rough year for people that believed in the Blazers, that loved the Blazers. Nothing about that year was fun. I would say maybe the one upside is that Simons kind of gets to spread his wings a little bit or got to spread his wings a little bit.

So this is probably like an overdue feeling, just a joyous feeling for Blazers fans. But what stands out to me, aside from the fact that guys are kind of firing on all cylinders offensively in some cases, and Jeremy Grant looks like a great fit, just generally speaking, the athleticism, like you said, two, three, and four for this team, Hart running in transition, Grant kind of, you

has really grown as a player, even if it's maybe not efficiency wise, just the idea that he's willing to do a little bit more than he wanted to take that challenge when he went to Detroit.

is someone that fits this team really well, kind of similar to what I was just saying about Simons, where he gets to spread his wings a little bit. That was what Grant did in Detroit. And so now maybe he's even better equipped to play a second, third fiddle to someone like Dame, whether it's Dame or Simons or whoever else. And looking at Justice Winslow out there, who I don't think played last night, but just generally speaking, someone that

you know, I think teams have been reluctant to really believe in that much given his injury history and everything else, but has looked good out there and is a really good fit if he can stay healthy for a team like this. And hell, Shaden Sharp has looked really, really good and really bouncy and like a really good spark. He came out as the first guy off the bench for them yesterday and a huge win over Denver. I

I mean, they look like they could actually be real. This looks sustainable to me if guys can stay healthy. You imagine that certain things will ebb and flow, but they needed to be more athletic in certain spots. I think that was the aim when they had Covington really briefly too, was the same sort of thing. I think he was probably a little bit overrated as a stopper. I think he's

more of a really good help defender and probably way more well equipped for where he is now given what that team has but

Still, they had the idea right, but I think that these are guys that fit better and they've got more of them and they invested more and more guys like that. And so that jumps off the screen to me. And you got Dame back healthy. That alone, and Simon's jump, that alone is enough to make them interesting and intriguing. And I think that we will see and hear more about them as we get into April and May. I don't know how big a force they'll be. By that point, I think health will be a huge determining factor there.

And how well they continue to defend will be a huge factor in whether they're a true contender or not. But damn, are they fun. I've really enjoyed watching them so far. They're a ball to watch. And GP2 fits right into everything we're talking about. Athleticism, speed, and he's not...

quote unquote, tall or big in that two, three, four vein we're talking about. But he's long and he plays really big above his height and he'll fit into that. The Winslow at center lineups have been really good in a very, very small sample size. So, you know, we'll see. We'll see what happens.

And you brought up Covington, and I think if there was another reason I think people were a little pessimistic, including me, about the Blazers is they kind of sold at the lowest possible point on Covington and Norm Powell together, getting back Keon Johnson back.

I think some seconds and Justice Winslow is part of that. And Justice Winslow maybe becomes a bigger part of the team than we thought. And to your point about sustainability, I mean, you look at the numbers and

they're not getting like super lucky in opponent jump shooting and, and where they are getting lucky is mid range jumpers, which they, you know, are not a huge percentage of shots anymore. And they're not super high value shots. They're, they're allowing an average percentage from three, a below average percentage, like defensively at the rim. Um,

There's nothing that stands out to you is like, well, this is this is crazy. Maybe their own three point shooting. They're shooting 41 percent on threes. That will drop a little bit. Come down a little bit. Yeah, they're second in free throw rate. That will drop a little bit. But they're also turning it over a lot, which is uncharacteristic for a Damian Lillard team. Now you look at their defense, Chris, their eighth and defensive rebounding fourth in free throw rate allowed.

Their fundamentals are pretty good. The shots they're allowing, they're not allowing a ton of threes or shots at the rim. There's nothing here that screams luck, luck, luck, unsustainable, unsustainable, unsustainable. And offensively, if you have Damian Lillard, you should be a good offense. I'm just curious about the Dame-Simons-Dame.

defensive minutes if the two small guards thing you know those minutes i think they're let me look at it they're plus seven and 105 minutes so far with a really good offense and a blah defense sorry to use blah again they're gonna come after you i'm interested to see how that holds up but and also like to bring it back to the lakers i guess because we have to you know i think one of the dreams that people concocted for the lakers was well if they just wait this out

You know, the Bulls, maybe they'll crap the bed and DeMar DeRozan will become available. The Wizards, maybe they'll crap the bed and Bradley Beal with his no-trade clause will become available. The Blazers, maybe they'll crap the bed. Damian Lillard will become available. Well, the Blazers are not crapping the bed. They're 4-0. I just think in talking to people around the league over the weekend, the Beal and Lillard contracts specifically are—

are really, really hard to value because they're the first sort of like gargantuan cap spike adjacent mega extensions the league has seen that get to like the 50, $60 million range. And right now there's this temporary sticker shock where,

other deals haven't caught up to them yet. Remember like Mike Conley was the highest paid player in the league for a hot second. Everyone was freaking out, not realizing that this will not be the case in six months. It lasts less than a couple of months. Yeah. That's where Beal and Dame are now, although it'll last longer. Dame will be older at the end of that deal. Beal has been on mediocre teams most of his career. And,

you have some teams who are like well those contracts man I don't know I don't know what to do with them like there's they could be really bad at the end but those players mean more to their own teams than they do to almost anyone else and both of those teams I think would say wait a second

the timberwolves just gave up the whole farm for rudy gobert right like you may be concerned about damian lillard's age in 2027 when he's making 60 million dollars bradley beal's game in 2027 when he's making 60 million dollars you guys are good these guys are really good players right now and you need them lakers or team x when

We're not giving you like, do the Lakers even have enough to get those guys? Like, no, that's the question. No one even asked. Like, I would say probably not. Everyone's like, oh, they become available. Do Lakers have enough with the two first round picks? And that's a divisive question. But that's neither here nor there. The Blazers are are just super fun. And I'm with you on Sharp.

Sharp is now he's going to miss defensive rotations. He's going to watch and lose shooters. But boy, oh boy, can he shoot. And he's an athlete and he's he's he tries hard. Like I'm in. I'm in.

I'm in from that standpoint. I also think if ever there was a team that needed to essentially take a gamble. And by the way, Mike Vukornov from The Athletic wrote a really good piece on Mike Schmitz, who obviously worked at ESPN. One of the nicest people you'll meet. Yeah, he's a hack. He's a hack. Mike was obviously in favor of getting Sharp, but he...

He, I think what's so interesting is that the Blazers were the sort of team, remember like a year ago when people were like, does Dame really want to be in Portland? Like, do they have a team that's really...

really suited to actually build from where they're at. If they're going to tear it all the way down, does Dame want to wait for that? And we're sitting here praising the wing talent that they have, the athleticism that they have. The Blazers were exactly the sort of team that should have taken a chance on Shaden Sharp, really. Someone that has a ton of upside by all accounts, but someone that nobody's really quite sure about because of not having played, whatever else.

I mean, even if he doesn't work out, this was exactly who they should have taken a chance on. Someone with this sort of athleticism, someone with this much explosion, someone with this sort of range. And he's already shown a little bit of it in each of these games. So who knows? You know, the sky might be the limit there. But if he pans out on top of all these other things that look like they might hit for them, it's fantastic. And the one other thing I'll say is we talk so much about fit and

We talk so much about just skill, talent, athleticism. Dame, and I think Steph gets a lot of credit for this, and I think Dame does too often, but just the leadership too. Like I was so blown away by the last play, really the last offensive play that Portland had against Phoenix, where Dame just decides unilaterally just to give the ball up to Anthony Simons, who has a defensive player of the year candidate guarding him.

And Simons puts it in, essentially a hook shot. And Dame, after the game, said, I had talked to him about this. I told him that I trust you.

And at certain times you need to show someone that you trust them as opposed to just saying that I'm not just saying it. The leadership there and also the sort of thing that that can do for a player's confidence, particularly after he kind of got to run the show while you were out, I just think is massive. Again, it's more of an intangible than a tangible sort of thing. But for a team that has guys that are still relatively young at a lot of spots, Simon's particularly,

I'm just really impressed. I'm really curious to see where it goes, where it ends up for this team. Look, I'm a true believer in Damian Lillard as a culture setter and a leader. You don't even have to be around the Blazers that much to register that. I remember I went out there for a week in the year they ended up making the conference finals, which everybody sneezed at that. It's easy to make the conference finals, even if you get some injury breaks or matchup breaks. It's not easy. Yeah.

And that was the year after the Pelicans dismantled them in the first round of the playoffs with Drew Holiday and Anthony Davis. Drew Holiday, yeah. And I went out there specifically to write, how did that not end the Blazers? Why did that not end the Blazers? Because that series was so emphatic and decisive that it just felt like, okay, we've seen enough now. Like this team just isn't good enough, can't get over the hump. And then they essentially bring it back

And what I ended up hearing from everybody there was Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame, Dame, just all the ways he sets the tone for the organization. I'm a true believer. Simons has one of the prettiest floater range games in the entire NBA. How about that quarter he had last night? Oh, look. 22 points.

It's early, but if you're the Lakers and you're like, oh my God, are we eighth, ninth, seventh, tenth, something at best in the league, you're worried because the Blazers have invaded your space. And even if you're in the sort of like Minnesota doesn't look great, Dallas, who knows, Clippers, we're trying to pace ourself for the season and we think we have a safety net. Like the safety net's getting a little more precarious. The play in safety net in the Western Conference is getting a little more precarious because at least one team has said, oh no, we're a little better than you all thought.

Even more of a reason to make a trade if you've got just a hot potato in your lap that is going to only get hotter and you play in the second largest market in America. But either way, we both said we're moving on. Let's please move on.

Came back down to earth last night on the second end of a back-to-back in Houston against the youthful, exuberant, frisky Houston Rockets. They are still 3-1. Their three wins all come against playoff hopefuls at the very worst in New Orleans, Minnesota, and Denver. They are 10th in offense, 14th in defense. And just the thing that sticks out to me against early is, A, they play super hard, super hard.

super hard. Talon Horton Tucker had like Talon Horton Tucker and Eason from the Rockets were having a personal battle at the rim on like seven consecutive possessions last night. They just play really hard. And what, why I was, why me and the league pass algorithm, the league pass rankings algorithm were both skeptical on Utah aside from their embarrassing jerseys was they just looked like what, what, what can happen to a team when it is essentially the product of two trades where

is the players you get back in those trades are not the point of the trades. They are vehicles to get draft picks. And so you end up with like, oh yeah, all these players are kind of good. Like Colin Sexton's good and Lowry Markin. And sadly, I sold my Lowry Markin in stock about a year ago. So I'm not benefiting from the Lowry Markin explosion, unfortunately. There's like, all these guys are good, but then you look like, do they have any...

cohesion together is there any point of them being together they just hear by happenstance in a waiting area until they get traded again and I think what Utah has done is and credit will Hardy for this and credit the players is taken what looked like a disparate mishmash or stuff and thought well how can we use the mishmash to our advantage how can we take advantage of some of these skills in unconventional ways and leverage what we do have here and so you see like

Kelly Olenek inverted pick and rolls. You see defenses switching when Olenek and Markkinen set screens because they are worried about their pick and pop threes. And so how can we exploit that with bully ball post-ups and weird isolations? Jordan Clarkson is passing like we've never seen him pass before. He's embraced kind of a semi point guard role. Mike Conley's got some juice laps and all of a sudden it's like they're kind of making sense out of this. Now, Mr. Herring, what have you seen in...

I think you and I both are probably skeptical that this is sustainable in any real sense, but what have you seen so far? Well, a lot of it is what you said, where it's just, first of all, I think, and I was almost guilty of this when I did kind of over-unders before the season, where I was going to plug in the under for all these teams that just, you know, it's going to be a race to the bottom, or at least the way we think about it for Wim Benyama.

This was a team full of guys, like keep in mind Danny Ainge wanted to continue to trade a lot of the guys. He traded four of the five guys in his starting lineup. He wanted to get rid of Conley, or wanted to find a taker for Conley. Let me not say he wanted to get rid of him. The same I'm sure is true of Clarkson, was true of Clarkson, and couldn't do it. And so you've got maybe more left than what you really wanted to have talent-wise.

And not to mention that you got, I mean, because you were trading good players away, you got good talent back. So you got some guys that I'm sure Timberwolves fans were a bit frustrated at, you know, if not by what they gave up in picks to get Gobert and what they gave up in talent. You gave up three legit roster guys.

and Beverly Vanderbilt and Malik Beasley Vanderbilt has been a complete dog as far as when you talk about you know fighting for rebounds and just kind of every Utah game you watch the broadcasters are still getting used to these new players are just blown away by how hard the guy plays I mean it's just a team that works really hard and so you see it show up all over the statistics their second and offensive rebound rate

They're third in forcing turnovers defensively. They're fifth in assist percentage, which like you said, a big chunk of that is Clarkson, who granted also has the highest turnover rate of his career as he's kind of negotiating a new role. And frankly, probably needs to given that Conley is slowing down. They're seventh in three-pointers made. They're 11th in three-point percentage defensively.

And they've held opponents to a really, really, really low three-point percentage. I would say unsustainably low three-point percentage. That's the one red flag that's like, okay, that'll change. But they're, as you said, giving up the least amount of threes overall in the league.

Right. I think the other red flag for me, which if you look at this roster, you could have seen it coming. Oh, by the way, they also gave up Rudy Gobert, who was great at doing what? Obviously limiting stuff at the rim. They're giving up 62 points per game in the paint, which is the highest in the league by like five points.

So that is something that you actually kind of could see continuing, maybe not at that level, maybe it tapers off a little bit, but it's Kelly Olenek and Markkinen defending the rim. So you're probably not going to be a great team in rim protection. You're going to see the three-point numbers for opponents come up, but it's a team that plays hard. It's a team that as much as we normally think about rebuilding teams as being young, this is not that young a team.

You have a bunch of veterans from Colin Sexton, Rudy Gay. Horton Tucker's not a young guy anymore. Olenek and Markkinen have been in the league long enough now. And you've got Conley and Clarkson. I did find it humorous watching one of their games a couple days ago where, again, as their broadcasters are getting used to the new talent, that they – you know, I think Holly Rowe was like, you know –

you look at it, it's like Colin Sexton's got some qualities that Donovan Mitchell has, and Walker Kessler's got some qualities that, you know, he studied Rudy Gobert in terms of what he does around the rim to try to deter stuff. And it's funny because that's kind of where they're at as far as

They are a young team still-ish as far as experience to some extent, but age-wise, these guys have been around. Walker Kessler hasn't, but these guys have been around. I know they're looking for optimism. I don't expect this team to be a player, but it is really refreshing to see them play hard. It is exciting.

One of those things that really affirms the point that so many people make is that even when organizations decide to bottom out, the players are not deciding to do that. These guys are playing hard. These guys know that other teams are watching. And even if that's not what this is about for them, there's pride involved. You can't tell me that someone like Rudy Gay, after the way that he was kind of pilloried last season for not getting it done,

After trading for him to try to get them over the hump that he's not someone that wants to show pride here That Olenek and all these other guys want to show pride here. They want to win And in quite frankly for a minute, I thought that they actually might run the 4-0 yesterday, too They just didn't have enough to get it done. I think there may be coming off a back-to-back as well. They were

I'm sure Minnesota fans have also noted that Jerry Vanderbilt has two threes in four games, both from the right corner after making three threes his entire career before landing with the Utah Jazz. Guys only develop once they're off your team. That's the way it works.

uh kessler's good walker kessler is a good a good like he's legit and i've heard the same stuff that other people have reported that they they are just super reluctant to move clarkson they're really fond of him um for whatever reason uh so i i think i would peg him as sort of maybe the least likely of all these jazz guys to get traded but it's been a fun story they have real players um we'll see we'll see how long they can keep it up let's shift gears um to the sixers who are one and three

13th in offense, 22nd in defense. Got right last night, as I said, with a win over Indiana that for a second became a little too close for comfort in the fourth quarter. I'll just open the floor to you, either end of the floor.

What have you seen and are you worried or do you feel like, okay, they lost to the Celtics and the Bucks. Then they laid an egg against the Spurs for some reason. I don't know why. But this is still at least the regular season team, the regular season team that we thought they would be. I'm right on the cusp of being worried. I don't know if I'm worried yet. The Spurs loss was not encouraging at all. Their announcers I thought were pretty stunned at that and said as much during the broadcast.

And then pairing that with the fact that they didn't just put the game away yesterday. They got out to an early lead yesterday and the Pacers just couldn't hit the broad side of a barn for the first half. And then the game got close. And that concerns me a little bit just because these are the teams that you're supposed to be, you know, by all accounts, I think most of us looked at, you know,

You know, maybe if you had to pick one team that you thought had the best offseason, particularly without trading for a star, I think most of us probably would have pegged the Sixers as either that team or maybe, you know, they had the second best offseason as far as the role players that they were able to pick up.

They just haven't looked good at all, really. Doc talked about, you know, imploring this team to pick up the pace. They are dead last in pace. Not that I expected them to be, you know, at the top of the league in that. They are dead last in pace. Defensively, they really aren't.

doing much to really influence anything about that. I like that analysis, Chris. Defensively, they really aren't doing much. It's the only way to put it because it's crazy because your hunch when you look at this team and who they have and the fact that they're struggling would be that someone's not getting it done offensively. And granted, Embiid struggled for the first couple games.

I mean, he's been okay. He's been fine. And he's recovering from plantar fasciitis as he's had foot issues over the summer and I think the announcers have been pretty open about playing his way into shape. So has he looked a little lurchy and mopey? He's defending with his arms down on the pick and roll, which is sort of a tell for big men that they're not totally into it. They're not taking away passing lanes. I'm assuming that part of it will correct itself.

- Mm-hmm, so I'm not worried about that. What is a little bit concerning to me is the fact that one, Daniel House has not really shot well at all so far. That's a little bit of a concern. I mean, it's early, so obviously time to turn it around. But some of the bench stuff

Like doc really has not played his backup centers much at all. Um, Trez has looked awful. There's really no way around it. Um, I don't know what anyone was hoping for expecting out of him anyway, but, uh,

I could see this very quickly. If it hasn't already, I'm not completely plugged in to Sixers Twitter. If this has not already become a situation where fans are saying, play Paul Reed over Trez like they did last year with... Let me spoiler alert that one for you, Chris. Sixers Twitter is all about Paul Reed. I know that. Paul Reed yesterday, Paul Reed today, Paul Reed for the future, Paul Reed 2024 presidency.

I mean, so if they weren't clamoring for him before, they are now. I know they were before, but I don't know. Maybe they view Trez as like this year's version of DeAndre Jordan when he was there. I'm not sure, but this is – Trez just has looked brutal. And yesterday might have been his best game, just getting to the line a number of times at the start of the game. But he hasn't played Reid much. He hasn't played Trez all that much. He's barely played Theibel.

shake milton really saw some of his first action yesterday that wasn't coming in a blowout um so it's just kind of curious i know i i guess we all were clamoring about how much depth they had um i was still expecting to see some of these guys a little bit more than we have and i'm wondering also as we talk about the team struggling defensively why wouldn't you play paul reed a little bit more particularly when we're talking about

Why wouldn't you play thigh ball in particular if you're talking about defensive struggles? Offensively they I'm not worried about it They don't turn the ball over much if you look at their ISOs Which obviously James Harden on a team that he's on you're going to have a lot of those They've been they're scoring like a point and a half per ISO or something great Maybe not a point in a half, but it's it's pretty high. They're very efficient and

When they turn it over is really the only time they have problems where they're giving up more than a point and a half on those possessions after a turnover via unpredictable. So I'm not worried, but it just kind of feels like they're missing something. They're second to last in offensive rebounding, which is a little bit concerning. But I'm more kind of confused by some of the choices of guys that aren't in the lineup given what they're struggling with. So I would lay some of that at the feet of Doc right now.

Well, the, the thigh ball stuff doesn't surprise me because they didn't extend him. They saw what happened in the playoffs when no one even pretended to guard him. Sure. And they designed their entire off season around the idea of like, we don't have to play him at these thigh ball. We have all these other wings now that can do at least something on both ends of the floor.

I will say there are two things that worry me big picture. And I still think this is a team that's going to win a lot of regular season games. I picked them to have a better record than Boston in the regular season. Do I trust them as far as I can throw them in the playoffs? No, won't do it until I see it. But in the regular season, they should win a lot of games. And I still think they will. Two things. I don't know that I've seen a team

with alleged championship ambitions come out playing worse transition defense than this team. They are an absolutely abominable transition defense team. They are 30th in a 30-team league in points allowed per possession and transition. That's according to Cleaning the Glass.

And they are so far and away 30th in points allowed per possession after a defensive rebound by the other team that it's embarrassing. Now, some transition defense issues are baked into a structure of two corner shooters, somebody driving to the basket and Joel Embiid down low, right? That's a lot of potential for four guys under the rim when the possession changes. Even so,

The first step back has been horrendous. And this is year 15 of that or whatever for James Harden. People are whining to the refs. People are slow. The communication is a disaster in transition and transition defense is about communication. The transition, the communication in the half court has been a disaster. The Spurs beat them because they're

Over and over again, they would run simple screening actions and the Sixers would be confused about, are we switching? Are we not? Oh, my God. Oh, it's too late. Doug McDermott's open. Oh, shoot. Yaka Pirtle's open. And this is the kind of stuff that you can interpret one of two ways. Oh, we're just going to flip the switch in the playoffs. We're the 2001 Lakers. We're going to be a bad defensive team the regular season and win a council play. Or you just aren't a serious team.

You're just not a serious team. And this team doesn't have the track record of the 2001 Lakers who won the previous year's championship and had a certain proof of concept in the playoffs. This stuff worries me because it's like, are you guys like, do you, do you, is this going to be a serious team or are we just screwing around? Do you care? It's kind of what it feels like. Cause that's the, in my notes, what I, it just feels like the foot is off the pedal at times. Did you, did you get through both things that you wanted to say? Or was that one? No, the second, the second one is,

Offensively, the talent is the talent, right? And so maybe the talent just answers all questions. Right. But you watch this team and it's like they have two different teams. They have the Harden offense and they have the Embiid low post offense. And there's nothing connecting those two systems. And that's fine when Embiid's resting and Harden runs the show or Harden's resting rather and the Maxi Embiid duo runs the show.

When they're both on the floor, it's just – and maybe, again, it doesn't matter because their pick and roll is so lethal together. But it just hasn't – there's just no connective tissue between two very distinct ways of playing. And the two guys that get lost in the shuffle with that are Maxie. And here's a stat for Maxie. You ready for this? Maxie has run 81 pick and rolls this season. He's played 150 minutes. He's run 81 pick and rolls.

51 of those, so 60% of them or whatever, have come in 38 minutes with Harden on the bench.

The remaining 30 have come in the 112 minutes that he has shared the floor with James Harden. He's too much of an afterthought with Harden on the floor. And Tobias Harris, I'm sorry to say it, is a $40 million floor spacer. And he's good at – he's fine at that role. He's done well, yeah. He's a little overstretched on defense. And that's the other thing that's emerged already is like Tobias Harris has to guard Jalen Brown.

Tobias Harris has to guard Buddy Heald because Harden won't do it, can't do it. Maxie won't do it, can't do it. Tucker can only guard one guy. And it's like I could find someone to do these Tobias Harris things for a third of the price, and that would make my roster make a lot of sense. Does the offense stuff worry you, or are you just like they'll just figure it out because the talent is too prodigious? Well, I think some of what I was seeing when I just watched them was exactly what you laid out in the fact that

And Maxie, and I think this speaks to what Doc was saying during the offseason, is that he wants them to get out and run and be able to make use of what Maxie does so well. And the fact that Maxie kind of has a different game and a different rhythm to what he does. So sometimes it does kind of feel like, okay, within the ISO, even if it's efficient, does it sometimes play guys out of a rhythm? Does it sometimes make for a quick hook with certain players? When I think about guys like...

that we were talking about before, like a Thibel or whoever else, or a Daniel House, who you're only gonna get so many opportunities because you've got three guys that all are gonna have relatively high usage. And not only that, but it's gonna come out of pretty static sets where Harden is just getting his own stuff, or it's in a pick and roll where it's kind of him and Embiid. So that part of it worries me a little bit, but a lot of it just goes back to the defense.

And particularly, you pointed out transition, and I was pointing out earlier, they're second to last in offensive rebounding, and they're still bad in transition defense. And it's like, I've actually talked to Doc about rebounding before, offensive rebounding. I did a story on Andre Drummond and kind of the death of the big-time rebounder in the NBA and just how rebounds don't really matter.

matter quite as much statistically, at least the uncontested ones. And Doc was telling me, and went through the whole spiel of like, that's all we talk about is transition defense. We don't have to offensive rebound that much, but we cannot give up transition defense. We can't be lacking there. And so to be bad at both is kind of puzzling. And again, just kind of like, do you give a damn sort of, where does that rate? So if there's anything concerning about to me, I think there's more than enough talent. It's more just like,

How much do you care? And I do think we'll learn that over the course of the season. Yeah, they've been a bad offensive. They've been a bad rebounding team, period, for years now. And that doesn't appear to have waned. The offense doesn't worry me so much because their best three offensive players are just so good that I think they will figure it out. And you can kind of see them trying –

efforting some synergy like like they had a few plays last night where Joel screened for either Harden or Maxie and then flared out behind a flare screen from like PJ Tucker like pick and pop behind a flare screen and then they had a big three from Maxie late where he set a back screen for Embiid in the post hit Embiid's guy hard enough that Maxie's guy had to stay back and help a little bit and Maxie zoomed out for a three and they're like okay give me a little more of that stuff and

But I do think against the very, very best defenses, and that's what the Sixers are trying to beat. It's hard to win when you're super predictable and sluggish, especially if James Harden isn't James Harden anymore. And I know everyone's like, oh my God, he's got his burst back. It's like Houston James Harden. I don't think it is. I don't think his burst is there. I think it's better than last year, but I don't think it's back-back. I think he's actually become...

more bully than blow by guy. His ISOs are just kind of like, I'm going to burrow and burrow and hit you with the shoulder and make a floater over you. And like, even against them, knee part or net part last night with the Pacers, he just kind of like bullied them a little bit. He didn't blow by him. Jalen Smith, you couldn't get by Jalen Smith with one exception where you beat him for a layup. And the, the, the evidence of this is everyone's lauding James Harden's mid range game. Like all of a sudden, James Harden is a mid range game and he does.

21% of his shots have been long twos this year, Chris. That number in the previous five seasons was 4%, 2%, 4%, 3%. So this is a giant new thing for him. And you can read it as, oh, wow, what a great late career resourcefulness. Yeah.

I read it the other way as in 20% of his shots are coming at the rim by far the lowest number of his career. He can't get to the basket as much anymore. I don't think the burst is there. And so that number is something to monitor. And I just do think they're going to need to have a little more connectivity, a little more snap on offense to really get where they want to go. And that's on the players. And it's also on the coaches. And the pressure here is the pressure on everybody is enormous. The pressure on Harden is,

facing more pressure than almost anyone in the league this year when the game starts to really count on Doc Rivers. Bill Simmons has been saying for weeks on his podcast, Doc could be the first coach fired. Certainly people are chattering about that in the league ecosystem, but I don't know how much that chatter is actually reality. And,

this is daryl morey's team this is the this is the rockets reunion tour this is i gave up everything i waited on i waited on my long lost love james harden i waited and waited and got him back this is it like this is the team and they've just got to be better than this and to me offense offense fine we'll see that's that's where i give them time right it takes time to to get that snap start trying in transition defense because what's on the floor right now is embarrassing

Yeah, we'll see. I am curious a little bit because I see what you see as far as I think everybody at the beginning of every new process for Harden thinks that there's a burst. When he first got to Philly, that was also the talk, too, is that he had a couple of really good games and people were like, oh, see, he's trying the effort.

it's still different fundamentally different than what he had in his prime in Houston do you see some benefit at all to the idea of if he maybe it's been too quick and not gradual but do you see any benefit from the idea from a playoff setting of him being more of a guy that relies a little bit more on the mid-range as opposed to having to get to the rim or having to I like that thought because

I think there is something to the all or nothing nature of his game gets harder to execute in the playoffs. So this having this in his bag and usually his mid range game has been just floaters, right? Like floater, floater, floater. This sort of long 16 footer is a new ish thing for him. So I think there, there is something to that. We'll see on the six. I still think they're going to win a lot of games.

Still think the Bucs are winning the East, but that's neither here nor there. And Tatum looks unbelievable. My God. Quick, quick hitters. Are you ready for some very quick hitters? Let's do it. The Knicks are fun. Their bench is just running all over people. The Heat, 28th in offense. Lowry, eh. Bam, eh. Deadman, sinkhole. I'm a little worried. A little worried. The Brooklyn Nets in 68 minutes with Ben Simmons and Kevin Durant on the floor. 68 minutes.

Take a shot on what their plus minus is, Chris. Negative. I'm going to say negative 30. Very good. Minus 42. Damn, I was low. I was too low on the number. Wow. Wow, wow, wow. Yeah, that's a problem. 30th in defense. 30th in defensive rebounding.

Having some bad luck with opponent threes. Opponents are shooting, I think, 40-something percent on threes. Yeah, they're not getting around screens, though, defensively to defend them either. But yeah, I'm with you. And Seth Curry's not going to help in that regard. Right. Claxton's actually played pretty well. The Claxton-Simmons minutes have been a disaster on defense and kind of also bad on offense by the numbers. And just the two non-shooters together, I'm just not sure it's going to work. And...

You know, Simmons, Rust, all that, that's all fair. He hasn't played in a long time. It's not off to a great start in Brooklyn. Can I ask you something? Now I feel like it's my podcast because I'm asking you questions.

Obviously, Simmons does need time to work off Russ. So many of us thought about the offensive side of the ball, and what I'm seeing is the defensive side, he's rusty. I mean, the fact that he's fouled out of two games already, that he hasn't been able to stay on the court for 30 minutes a game. I'm wondering, to some extent, with how bad they are defensively, do you see them as...

maybe being or maybe that they were going to be overly reliant on him defensively and just being a fix for them? Or do you kind of see more to it than that? No, I think they really need him to be a great defensive player because if you're skeptical about can Simmons and Claxton play together, extended, extended fourth quarter minutes against the best teams, obviously they appear to be starting that group. I thought they might go the other way and just start small right from the beginning and start Kyrie, Harris, O'Neal, Durant, Simmons.

which is a lineup I think will be really good. If you're skeptical that offensively those two can really share the floor, then by default you're really relying on Simmons and Durant defensively a lot. And I do agree he's rusty. The first step is a little rusty. I did enjoy when he fouled out of the first game, Kyrie saying fouling out is not an option. We told him fouling out is not an option. I'm like, dude, he played the game. Yeah.

He played in the game, man. Like, do I need to remind you what happened last season? Are you that self-aware? The tone deafness that emanates sometimes from love him or hate him. And if I were a fan, sometimes I would probably just hate him based on how tone deaf he is. But anyway, neither here nor there. Please continue.

It's a long season. I'm interested to see how the Nets evolve. They have a lot to figure out. There's a lot of new pieces. There was a report this week that TJ Warren is getting closer. I think he'll help their team. So I'm not going to worry too much yet, but you did look at this roster and the combination of Simmons and the inexperience at center and wonder to yourself, yeah, look, on paper, the Dunder Mifflin Nets are going to be an incredible offensive team.

What if they're a little less than incredible when Simmons and Claxton or Simmons and Sharp or Simmons and big man X are on the floor together? And what if,

Their small lineups are just completely helpless defense. Like you can switch, you can tell me all these things. If teams like the Pelicans are just going to come in and the Pelicans are an incredible rebounding team, but if teams routinely are just going to play volleyball on the glass against you, it's really hard to win. Like you can't win giving up 20 offensive rebounds in a game. It's really, really hard. You have to be that good offensively on some nights, this team will be that good offensively, but like,

If you had outlined sort of where to worry about Brooklyn, those things have showed up. But it's early. It's early. We can't overreact to anything. It's really early. The Blazers aren't winning the title. We can't overreact to everything. I'm curious to see what happens. I think we always knew Simmons was going to have to be –

Good, probably really good defensively. Again, I think that we assumed that if there was rust that it would probably show more on the offensive side than the defensive side for him. And he's going to have to be a little bit better, a little sharper defensively. I think he'll get there. It'll just take time, but we'll see. They're...

Anything could happen with that team. They're so combustible all the time. And again, it's very early. We're four games in. Nobody should be taking any victory laps yet. Nobody should be taking any panic laps yet if there's such a thing as a panic lap. But in a week, in 10 days, in three weeks, we'll have a lot of information. And

We'll have more information on a lot of teams we didn't talk about much today, like Denver's 2-2. Are you worried about them? Minnesota's 2-2. Are you worried about them? On and on and on. We'll have a lot of information. Phoenix is back in the win column and sort of gutting things out. We'll see. And we will have to invite you back to see on those teams. Chris Herring, just second to none. The Playmaker comes out Tuesdays. The book is, again, fantastic.

Blood in the Garden. I almost forgot the title. Blood in the Garden. And you can read Chris at SI.com. Listen to Chris on SI's NBA podcast, one of the two SI NBA podcasts. And just second to none, man. Thanks for spending some time with us. I so appreciate you, Zach. Thank you for always having me on. I appreciate you.