Richard Jefferson
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And now, The Low Post. Welcome to The Low Post podcast on a Friday morning after yet another Brooklyn Nets loss, dropping the Nets, Sixers, and Lakers to a combined 2-12 to start the 2022-2023 NBA season. And it is just a privilege and a delight to bring in one of the MVPs,

of ESPN's NBA coverage, a man who had the privilege on back-to-back nights, I believe, of calling the Lakers' Nuggets loss or win from Denver's perspective, and the Nets' Mavericks' epic Luka versus Kyrie slash KD slash Ben Simmons airball to lay up loss for the Nets. Richard Jefferson, one of the best. How are you? First of all, I'm outstanding. I am overjoyed. What country are you wearing right now? Is it

Portugal? Wait, what? This is a Portugal Luis Figo soccer jersey from my wife, my then not wife, just girlfriend, trip to Portugal many years ago. Everywhere I go, I like to buy something. And I had heard of Luis Figo and I bought a Luis Figo soccer kit. A kit. I am...

As they call it. Yeah, I look, I took my kids, my wife's from England, as we both love the international women, my wife's from England. And so I took my kids to the very first Arsenal match opening day. They got their first kids. They're locked in. They're locked in. They love it. So that's why I'm starting to understand a little bit more about this. The soccer kids, England, U.S. What happens in your house if we play?

Honestly, the men's national soccer team, they break my heart so much that I slowly have adopted England as like a supportive family member for the English soccer team just so that they could break my heart a little bit more because I've learned enough about English soccer. So, yeah, in my house, it's not really a house divided. Dan, producer Dan is informing me they are in the same group in the World Cup. Oh, I know they do.

They do it for the drama. The World Cup's all about that. But no, no, no. Look, I root for England. You know, the U.S. now women's national team. There's no there's no women's national team. That's that's that's my team. Whoever they are playing, I'm anti them. I don't care. Let me tell you something in my house.

There is no question or debate about who I'm rooting for if Croatia plays anybody in the world, including like my immediate family. If we formed a soccer team, who would I root for? It would have to be the Croatian national team. Okay, so before we start with the three-team competition for early...

Show of the year in the NBA. I want to start positive. I want to put those teams aside for a second. And I asked you, Richard Jefferson, give me one or two feel good stories around the league under the radar. Things that are just making you happy as a basketball fan or a human being. Let's start happy on Friday. It's Friday. It's nice. Halloween's coming up. We're going to have some fun. Start start happy with me.

Okay. So you told me this before. So Zach is a very great, great, very great. He is a great prepper. And so he was like, hey, I want to do some field score. I thought about absolutely nothing. I was like, hmm, what does it feel good? So I would say Utah's early start. I think Utah is really, really...

Because you just don't know when you get a collection of guys together what's going to happen. Now, do I think it's sustainable? Do I think that this is Utah's goal? By no means. But I do love the fact that for whatever reason,

that locker room has decided, guys, we're supposed to be awful. Everyone knows the writing's on the wall that they're going to sell their assets. And if they keep winning, they're probably going to keep selling. They're going to keep selling, as you know. So I think that part to me is it's a random, small thing

sample size of how sports can be special, right? It's like the Utah fans, they were probably, here we go. And then all of a sudden you just get this burst of energy because your team just starts off well, they're playing well, you know, you got a brand new head coach. So to me, I think Utah, even though I don't think that that's the way it's going to keep going for them, I think that's a really cool thing because a collective collection of guys have decided that we're not going to just get our ass whooped every single day and do what the organization wants.

Yeah, I think it's also a testament. I talked about them a little earlier in the week of how smart and adaptable both players and coaches are in the NBA. So like you looked at that team,

And you've seen other teams like this before where they're just the product of two big trades. There was no plan to have all of these players together on a team. There was no thought process behind combining Lowry Markkinen and Kelly Olenek and Jared Vanderbilt. We think those guys all fit together. And all these shooting guards like Colin Sexton and Talon Horton Tucker and Nikhil Alexander Walker and Jordan Clarkson who just want to chuck up shots. There was no thought process to that. But then they come all together. And instead of sort of...

dwelling on their fit issues, the coaches and the players all say, okay, so maybe we're not a traditional fit, but like, what are our skills? What do we do? Well, Lowry marketing, you're a good shooter. Kelly Olenek, you're a good shooter. We're going to use you in a million screening actions and teams are going to have to decide, are we going to switch? Are we going to give you pick and pop threes? If we switch,

Kelly Olenek, Larry Markinan, it's not the most graceful bully ball ISO game, but like do your slow-mo spin moves, weirdo floaters, and maybe teams will send help and somebody will be open. And like all of a sudden it's kind of working. I agree with you. It's fun. Can I give you one? Please. I would love it. On a human level, nobody is watching this. Only the crazy people. Nobody is watching this. On a human level, one of the best early season stories in the NBA.

It's Dennis Smith Jr. in Charlotte. You're right. No one's watching that. No one's watching that. Former number eight or nine pick in the draft. I can't remember.

gets gets traded to the Knicks in the Porzingis deal and is like, oh, this is the big chip in the Porzingis deal and becomes, frankly, like a totally broken NBA player. Zero confidence. Did not want to shoot at all. And you know this. You're seeing it in Brooklyn when you don't want to shoot. It limits every other part of your game because teams stop guarding you. And when teams stop guarding you, there are no passing lanes or no driving lanes. And he just became a broken player. And he talked to the media. I saw this in Stefan Bondi's story.

in the Daily News yesterday when the Charlotte Hornets came to play the Knicks. He was out of the league and he started. I don't know if you saw this. He started and he said, guys, I'm not kidding. I started putting on weight because I wanted to try out for the NFL. I thought my NBA career was over. I didn't want to go play overseas. I told my agent I'm not playing overseas. I think I can make the NFL.

he's playing for the Hornets. He makes the team on, I don't know if he's on a two way or a minimum or whatever. I can't remember. Rozier's heard balls hurt. All of a sudden he's starting and he looks like Dennis Smith, Jr. Again, like, I don't know what happened, but he's got his confidence back. He's popping, like pull up twos off the dribble. No hesitation shooting 50% from three. And I just love stories like this guys who reached the bottom of

rock bottom guys whose confidence is so shot that you can literally see it in how they play. Like they have no confidence left. They have nothing left. They probably don't even want to play. And now he's back. I think that's a cool story. Watch Dennis, give the Hornets a watch. A hundred percent. Dennis Smith. And again, like,

The NBA is littered in these and history forgets them. But like there has been Hall of Famers, like high level all stars that were in this position, like Chauncey Billups. You remember Chauncey Billups where he was bouncing around, didn't really find a fit. All of a sudden he's like in Detroit. He becomes like.

a basketball God, man, you know, he was, Oh, he had Boston and he was in Minnesota. You know, Kyle Lowry, Kyle Lowry was bouncing around, you know, in, in Memphis. They got him out of there. Cause he was like going at Kyle. He was going at Nick, uh,

Mike Conley. He's going at Mike Conley like, I'm going to come after your job. I'm like, well, we're going to get you out of here because we just drafted this kid. Goes to Houston. He's, you know, but then he finds himself in Toronto. And now he's a multi-time all-star, an NBA champion. He's going to have a statue. A statue. It like,

Kyle Lowry, if you remember the first five years of Kyle Lowry's career, and then to say he's going to go on and have a statue in front of Air Canada Center, like...

Sports is so special because a guy like Dennis Smith Jr. who has all the talent, he has all the ability, but you can be in the wrong place. You can be in the wrong fit. You can have some injuries at the wrong time. And then all of a sudden... And he did. I'm glad you said that because he did have major, major injuries that kind of broke his body too. Yeah. And now as an athlete and people don't understand...

the better part of your life from 15 to 22, you're pretty much a physical specimen, right? Like every human being, like your body recovers. And all of a sudden you get to a spot where you're like injured, you're banged up. There's another level guys, like people aren't patting you on the back and telling you you're the greatest anymore. And you go through it's, it's mental as much as it is physical. So to see a player come through that on the other side is just nothing but like

Good for you. But football, that's a different mental mind. No, no, it sounds awful. Can I give you a now? Can I give you a basketball? Not necessarily a feel good story, but like an interesting NBA plot twist that I am just monitoring a good plot twist, not a shit show plot twist. Excuse my language. It's Friday, but I don't care. I don't care anymore. I've already started drinking.

I can't wait. Just something I'm keeping an eye on. The Milwaukee Bucks, who I picked to win the title, don't have Drew Holiday, don't have Pat Connaughton,

They are first in defense right now. That's not that surprising. They have Giannis, who looks like a superhero right now, and they have Brook Lopez, who looks like Brook Lopez again, defensively. But the way they're doing it is interesting. They're a team that in the past has said, we don't really care if you guys chuck a lot of threes. We're going to let guys chuck threes. This year, they are allowing the fifth fewest three-point attempts in defense

In the league as a percentage of shot attempts. I'm just double checking it now. Fifth fewest threes. Okay. So you think they've probably sacrificed something else in their defense to do that, to take away a three point line? Nope. Fifth fewest shots at the rim, which has been their bread and butter.

They are top 10 in opponent free throw rate, so they're not fouling. They're still not fouling. Longtime bud principal. They're second in defensive rebounding. Longtime bud principal. So they're taking all the good stuff from what made their defense great when they won the championship and during most of this run, although they slipped last year. And they've sacrificed none of that. And all of a sudden, again, it's been three games, just three games.

But preseason was the same thing. They're not allowing threes. If they can sort of Voltron this into like a crazy elite defense, that's good at almost everything.

They haven't even, they're missing two of their top six guys. Like that's just, I'm just monitoring it. That's interesting to me. It's interesting to me. Well, it's interesting because for so many years, Bud was known as a coach that didn't make a ton of adjustments. He had a great system, but there is no flawless system. Every system has to be adjustable.

And so, you know, whether it was their offense a few years ago where it was to Giannis heavy and four out and it's like he's not LeBron. You don't want to just put shooters around him and let him go to work like with all due respect to Giannis and his own greatness. Is he there? Is he there now, though, where you maybe could do that more? You can do it more now. And again, that's what they had to go to last year in the postseason with no Chris Middleton. That was kind of like.

And so you saw that he had gotten better because he's a better shooter. Like Braun, as much as LeBron wasn't a great shooter, he still was more of a threat than Giannis was. So that allowed for a little bit. Again, you remember how Braun lost to Miami, how they were like, bro, we're going to just dare you to shoot every single thing. That's what you're going to do. Point being is this.

When you look at what Bud has done, the year they won the championship, they changed some things offensively. They're like, we're not going to really do this. And maybe we won't finish the number one seed like they had the prior two years. But we need to improve on things and we're going to use the season to improve on them. So Chris Middleton became more of a late game ball handler, playmaker. Giannis became more of a roller. And even as a roller, Giannis can still create.

To bring this whole thing full circle, I think that year, in my opinion, was a pivotal year for them. Not only did they win the championship, but it showed that we can use the season to navigate and tweak things. And the reason why that's so important, let's say hypothetically, they were to go back to the finals. If they showed up in the mother finals.

going against, let's say hypothetically, the defending champions. And if you're giving up more threes than everybody else in the league, and you're playing against the Golden State Warriors, you have less than zero. We don't even need to play those games. I don't care if Giannis goes for 60 points every night. If you give the Golden State Warriors...

that amount of threes with the growth of their younger players and Jordan pool is like a, a splash stepbrother, right? Like, like you would be obliterated in my opinion,

And so if you know what your possible opponents could be, you have to at least use the year to do that. And we did that in Cleveland. We would work on stuff anticipating that we were going to play the Golden State Warriors. We would work on stuff against random teams that

For the Warriors. And I know that sounds, that sounds, and it's like, if you spend over a seven month period, if you spend two, three games and say, Hey, we're going to do this against this team because it's similar. We don't really want to show the Warriors this, but we also don't want to start this in the finals when we have zero reps and zero practice at it. And we don't want to show it to the Warriors and use it against them because we don't want them to prep and plan against it. So like to use the season, like,

to work on things against possible future opponents, as long as you're not spending large chunks of it, I think it's great. Small chunks, like, again, we would do that. Like, hey, we're going to practice switching this double screen. I don't even remember who, somebody that had similar shooters to the Warriors. And we were only doing that, maybe it was,

Paul George and like CJ miles in Indiana. I was like, Hey, we're going to do this because I want us to get some reps on this when we go against Steph and clay. So we can communicate our switches. We're going to not switch underneath, but we're going to switch out. So that we would switch out to Tristan, not switch the guards. We would switch the bigs out and then Tristan would switch. So these are little things that we would do to help us over the course of the season. So I love what bud is doing. And it's even more impressive that you see is like, Holy.

We can not just, we can't protect the paint and run people off threes. We can do that. We don't have to settle for one or the other. And that was not always a, cause you remember when we played against Bud,

in Atlanta and we shot so many threes against them. Channing Fry, Kevin Love, like we broke the NBA record. We set the record. Yeah. 25 threes in a game in a playoff. We set the, we set the series record NBA series record for most amount of threes hit. We did it in four games.

So it wasn't like a six game series. No, we broke the NBA record for most threes in a series in four games. We also broke the record. And I don't say that to Brad. I say it's because they didn't make an adjustment. Bud did not make an adjustment. He was like, this is what we're going to do. We're going to do it. And it just epically failed. So to see this is impressive. Well, that in the championship year for the Bucs was also when they got P.J. Tucker and like, all right, so this whole switching thing that has kind of become a popular thing in the league that we've refused to do the entire time, we're going to dip our toes in it.

Oh, it's pretty good. We have a seven foot alien who can be in like nine places at the same time. Maybe by the way, the seven foot alien, three games, Giannis, 13,

36, 13, and 5 on 70% shooting, 68% shooting. I'm just going to round up. He's going to win MVP again, isn't he? He's going to win MVP. Well, we're going to talk about some other candidates, including John Morant and Memphis. But yeah, I mean, he is. And for the season, again, three games in, I just like to look at these numbers because they're funny. With Giannis on the floor, the Bucs are plus 19 per 100 possessions. Plus 19. That's like Globetrotters level MVP.

numbers with Giannis off the floor and only 42 minutes minus 11. So they're just like, and you saw it up close. That's like Jokic numbers. That's like Jokic numbers the last two seasons. You didn't call the Nets-Bucks game, but that was like a very simple game. When Giannis was on the floor and decided I'm going to go to the basket instead of play around shooting these little jump shots that everyone wants me to shoot, the Nets had no chance. And when Giannis was off the floor, the Nets were winning that game. Giannis has been, and in that game, I don't know if you saw that game, but

Once he started going to the basket, Simmons had no shot. He was just going around him. He was drop-stepping on the baseline. His passing's better. He's been scary for a long time, but he looks like a man in full. I got it all now. My jumper, maybe I'll never have have, but I don't really care. I can get where I want to go against anybody now. It's impressive because now we have come so accustomed to –

we've grown so accustomed to that every year Giannis is going to show up with something new he's going to show up smarter he's going to show up stronger he's going to show up more confident he's going to show up with something that is just going to add to his bag and that's what you want from great players you want that from great players because you don't ever want it to be a situation where it's like oh he's figured it out and nothing you know there's nothing else for him to accomplish he just is just going to go play basketball and be great it's like no you're

If you're going to be and Giannis is one of those guys that looks like not only does he want the throne, he knows the responsibility that comes with the throne. And he also knows that when you are that dude, the way people approach you. And there's very few people that can handle that. There's very few humans that could handle that. Right. Like the best athletes in the world, in the entire world, you're going to be number one.

And everyone's going to be looking at you and saying that, like, look, LeBron had it. Kobe had it. MJ held it. There's you know, there's there's only a Tim Duncan, in my opinion. There's only a list of like 15 guys in the 75 years of the NBA.

And Giannis is one of those dudes. And that's, that's impressive. Yeah. Our guy perk keeps, keeps tweeting after every bucks game. Like, I don't care who knows. I told you all Giannis is the best. Like perk. We know, man, no one's distant. No one is being like Giannis is the sixth best player in the NBA perk. Like we got it. He's the best guy. It's, it's like universally acknowledged. You know, whoever gets to the top of the mountain and yells, the loudest is the smartest. That's the way that's perks theory. Yeah.

The only thing I'm interested in, the other Bucs thing, is their offense has not been good. They're 24th in offense. They're not getting to the rim at all. They're all taking jump shots. It's all threes and long twos. They're taking a lot of long twos. And you know what, RJ? I'm writing it all off until Middleton comes back because he's, like you said, their best ball handler. He turns Giannis into a roller, dunker, playmaker. So I'm not worried about that. The defense is interesting.

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Any other feel good stories? I know there was a rookie you wanted to talk about. Oh, yes. My guy been out in Indiana, bear down wildcats, you know, and look, here we go. You know what? Put two and two together.

Is he not? Now, Paolo is playing outstanding, right? Paolo's playing. He's, he's, he's strong. He looks like he's been in the NBA for like 12 years. He looks like, he looks like a physical, like problem, right? Athletic do it all bubble. Now,

When I look at what Ben is doing in Indiana, he's an athletic wing, but he plays with such extreme confidence. And I was talking to him at the draft and I was like, you know, they were asking him questions and I was like, who's the best player? He asked me who's the best player ever out of Arizona. And I was like, oh, I don't know.

I hate to say it, Gilberto's up there, Sean Elliott, you know, we're just talking and he was just like, no, it's me. Right. And he said, he was like, kind of like joking, right? Like, no, it's me. And I was like, okay, bro, like go do it. Like go do it. And this is one of those years where it's like,

He might not win rookie of the year. Cause I think Paolo is like, I think his overall rebounds points assist that that's going to be there. I don't know. I think Ben is going to be an elite score. You might wonder where his percentages are, but I think when you look at him to be an all rookie member, like he's going to put up numbers where like in the last, probably 10 years, maybe 15 years, he could have been rookie of the year two or three times, but maybe not this year. So like, when you look at that type of talent, it's like,

Good for him because he like six, seven wing that can do it all like a DeMar DeRozan is that those guys, the people make it seem like they grow on trees, but they don't grow on trees. There's just a lot of them, in my opinion, because that's kind of like a range that you can find a six, five to six, eight wing that's athletic and can do it all.

But it looks like they found one in Indiana and the numbers, most points ever for like a rookie out of his first like four or five games. Like it was like he's he's starting to do some stuff. And when you get this early confidence, you know, there's going to be a slump because it's 82 games. But when you get that early confident, oh, shoot, he's going to be like, I want to see if I can score 40. I want to see if I can score 50. Hopefully that's his mentality. And he's got Rick Carl out.

Rick Carlisle is not like notoriously great with young players. So the fact that like Rick is giving him that push is, you know, it's impressive to me. Ben Matherin, 21 years.

a game on 45% shooting 39% from three on six attempts a game. And the most exciting part is just the level of force he plays with. He is coming in the paint to hurt you, put the ball into the basket and put you into the stand. Those are my favorite players. Those are my like, Oh,

Some of these teams, the NBA, if you're rebuilding, let's just say rebuilding and soon rebuilding will morph into tanking. And there's a little fine distinction, but they're like, so we'll, we'll, we'll, we'll get there. There should just be like an NBA fun police who after 15 games goes to the Indiana has a meeting with the brain trust and like, look,

buddy healed a nice player we all like buddy healed can we just start mathurin now so mathurin and tyrese halliburton can play like 25 minutes a game together because this is the only reason anyone is tuning into your games it's like just just fun police just fun police that we just want to see these young guys do fun stuff if you're rebuilding just let the young guys do fun stuff he is fun um i'm gonna give you another fun story just to just to let you just to friday it

It's Friday. Just to troll you a little bit. It's 10 a.m. We've been drinking. Let's go. They've played the they've beaten rather the Magic, the Pistons and the Hornets. But are the New York Knicks kind of fun, RJ? I did your much maligned New York Knicks. So they cut there. They're at least fun. They're playing. They're playing fast. Their starters are scoring the ball pretty well after being a tire fire for two straight years. They're kind of fun to watch.

Who did they? They're lost. Their first game was Memphis and they battled with them. Is it Memphis? Yes. Yes. Again, people don't understand. Basketball is complicated, but it's not that hard. It's not that hard. You go and get a guy like Brunson. And while we remember Legler did the thing on NBA Today, he's not he's not a difference maker. Right. Like he's not this guy to get you over the hump and this.

but he is an improvement. He is a piece. And when you have like a collective group and RJ Barrett's gotten, gotten like, you know, smarter basketball IQ. Yes. They're competing at a much higher level. I think getting the ball out of Julius's Randall's hands some, so he's not the ultimate score decision-maker doing everything for their team. That's why Derek Rose was so important to their team because it gave him a second ball handler. It gave him a second decision-maker and,

not just ball hander. And it's like, if, if Julius Randall is over five from three and he's, you know, just having one of those nights, he was always going to be their guy. Then Derek Rose, but now you have Brunson. So I like the Knicks. I like what, what they're doing. I do. I like the fact that they've actually showed a little bit of balls and didn't like give away everything for Donovan Mitchell. All,

Although Donovan Mitchell looks damn good. He looks great. Donovan Mitchell looks like a seamless fit right there in Cleveland. Darius Garland's out and they're like, fine, we got depth. We got this. Take your time, Darius. Like whatever. But I like what they're doing. I like the path that they're on. And I and I say all of this.

I've never disliked the Knicks. I actually respected the Knicks and who they were. That's why we took so much pride and we always played our best games when we were in Jersey, because we recognized who they were and they are the Knicks. And like we're basketball fans as much as we are players. And so when they became a dumpster fire for the next 15 years, it's like with all due respect to those guys, like I'll give you one time before people always, why are you always messing with my Knicks? My rookie year.

We go to the finals. That was the first year post like Patrick Ewing and that whole crew that they didn't make the postseason. Remember, they had like 15 straight years. So they don't make the postseason. And we ball. We have like the best year ever. Lead number one. Go to the finals. Come back the next year. And somebody check this up. Somebody check just so you guys see them in line.

They came out with their slogan, one team, one city, one garden. That was their slogan my second year. And if you're going to tell me that that's not a direct shot at our team, like, yeah, we don't care what you're doing. There's only one team in this town. There's only one New York City. There's only one garden. While all of those things might be true, I'm supposed to sit here and watch you guys put together a campaign to go against us?

You're showing us that you're paying attention to what we're doing. You're showing us. And you guys are literally coming out...

doing that. And we're not supposed to say you to you guys. All right, we'll show you the one garden. Every time we go to that garden, we're going to put on a show. And that's what we did because they like we were we weren't going at the Nick. We weren't trying to say like, oh, no, we just were doing our thing, minding our own business. The next year when they came out with that slogan, I kid you not. I was like, oh, well, it's well, if it's us, then it

You too. And so that's where that whole, in my opinion, that's where it really started. You guys want to come up with a campaign that's like directly at us? One city, one team, one garden? It's like, all right, okay. And so I don't hate the Knicks, but they have thrown some shots at our way and then me or our team and the Nets. And so from that point on, that's what they wanted to make it. So, yeah.

That's what it is now. So I don't like that. I like that. You're still fired up about this 20 years. Like, yeah, I was, I hated sitting next to JJ Redick. I hate Duke. I don't, these things don't die. I lost the Duke of the national championship game. These things don't die. These things stay forever. That's what sports is. And fans will forever hate a player. Like Utah fans will forever hate Michael Jordan and all this. I was like, imagine being by a Russell.

Right. Like imagine being the guy in the game. And that's not to say that we hate each other, but it's like, yeah, these rivalries and they don't die. Remember the first year of Paul George and Kawhi with the Clippers, the Clippers did the same thing with their slogans. It was like streetlights over spotlights, blacktop, blacktop over something. And they made it. They made it. They made it. We're.

Hard hats over highlights. Yeah, they made it. We're the common man's team. These guys are the prima donna glamour team over here. And we're leaning all the way into that. We're coming at them. And then, oh, God, we fell apart in the bubble and we haven't gotten as far as we wanted to go. We broke the conference finals curse. They...

I know this because I've talked to people there about it. They are so chagrined by how they fell flat on their face that season in the bubble that they have kind of like, all right, we got a little big for our britches, so to speak. We're just going to kind of be the Clippers now. We're not going to.

We're not going to go. And then the Lakers win the title that year too. And so we're, we're not, we're not going like those, those things like there's, there are people in there. They seem silly to us, but when they go bust, like the Clippers are chagrined, let's say about that. Well, now the Clippers had a bigger fan base than the nets did back in those days. That's why the nets had to move to Brooklyn. Um,

um, but they had loyal fans, but, but yeah, like we went to the finals the next year and the one year that they made the post-season in my six years there with Jason kid, that Knicks made the post-season one time and they played against us. I know the first round and we sweat them. So people are like, Oh, why don't you like the Knicks? I'm like, I don't dislike the Knicks. I have literally whooped their ass for a full on decade, right? Like

I don't dislike him. I respect him. Oh, so many guys on that team, so much stuff. I respect the Knicks and I respect their fan base. But Knicks fans want to be mad at us, players, teams, media. It's like, bro, I have never drafted a player. I have never done anything that has directly affected your team, right? I just minded my business and they wanted to throw those shots. But I think there was valuable lessons learned. The Knicks did it.

shooting shots at the nets many many years ago the clippers did it shooting shots the clippers i think will make a big chunk move once they go into their own arena once they have their own space once they because then it becomes you know you're walking in and there's in front of staples there's nothing but laker legend statues there's no clipper legend statues there's

Right. You know what I'm saying? It's Chick Hearn. It's Magic Johnson. It's so it's like even walking there, you're just constantly reminded that you're the stepbrother forever. When you have your own building and you can start building that that legacy and that history, I think that's going to be a big jump. They're not going to overtake the Lakers, but it will be a big jump as building their community.

If Elgin Baylor weren't a Laker legend in his own right and one of the great players of all time, frankly underrated as an all-time player, the ultimate Lakers troll move upon the Clippers vacating the Staples Center would be to build the Clippers statue, the first and only Clippers statue, and have it be Elgin Baylor at the lottery on the dais with like a Clippers logo underneath him because he was the ultimate veteran of the lottery. Right.

By the way, the Clippers, let's real quick on the, by the way, I think the Knicks are fun. I was high on the Knicks coming into the season relative to expectations. I do like their team. I took the over on them. Their starters look like they're playing at regular speed and not slow motion, which is a relief. And their bench is still just the most rollicking bench in the Eastern Conference. Rollicking, rollicking all over the place. Clippers, real quickly.

Two and three just lost twice in a row to the Thunder. 29th in offense, last in turnover rate. Weirdly, RJ, not shooting threes. Like this is a team built to shoot threes and their 24th and three point rate. That's not good.

Kawhi has played 42 minutes. Kawhi and PG have played 39 minutes together. Are we to take anything from this? Are you worried about this team that had so much hype and expectations and people like I picked them to make the finals? Should I be worried? Yes. I think you should be worried from a standpoint of like,

And I got a lot of heat for this when I was saying that, like, all finals MVPs are not created equal. Right. Here we go. Here we go. I got a little heat on this. Well, no. And look, I'm not. First of all, Kawhi. I had Kawhi as a rookie. He's a bad, bad man. Right. Hall of Famer at this point in time in his career. But when I say that, I say it's like he what he did in Toronto was impressive.

I don't think they win the championship with Kevin Durant and doesn't tear his Achilles and doesn't tear his ACL. That doesn't change anything. Other teams have had that type of health to help them win championships, right? You know, Golden State wins a championship because Kyrie hurts his knee. Kevin Love tears his shoulder up in the first round. So like this has happened before, but then even going back and saying like his first, his first,

finals MVP where he was that dude defended LeBron outstanding right he did all of that but he was maybe the third best player on that team that year fourth best player he wasn't an all-star you had Tim Duncan you had Manu you had Tony and he was that dude he was ascending he was ascending but it wasn't he wasn't an all-star that year it was he was growing and

And so when I look at, he's been a part of great teams and now this is his, he hasn't played basketball in a, in a full year. Last time he, like last time he was in the post season, we saw a three, one lead blown and say whatever you want about Paul George and pandemic P Kawhi Leonard was on the floor and shot just as poorly. The only reason why Kawhi Leonard didn't get as much heat is because of those prior finals and VPs that we had talked about. They weren't going to talk about his failures, but,

But he played awful, awful in that series against them. So when I look at that, all that to say, when I'm looking at a player that hasn't played in a year, that –

This team, even though they got that monkey off their back a couple of years ago, there's nothing here that says that this team could beat the Warriors. There's nothing here, in my opinion, that says that this team right here is the team that can go to the championship. They've got the components, but we make it seem like, well, Paul George and Kawhi and he's got two finals MVPs and blah, blah. And you're like, when you start to unpack it and undress it, it's a little bit more there to kind of mess with.

It's it's all that's all. I mean, we disagree on Kawhi. I'm not going to relitigate that here. But the Clippers worries are, I think, fair.

And I don't want to dismiss how bad they've looked offensively just because Kawhi and PG have not played that much together. And Kawhi is coming off the bench is like the 10th man and all that. But I just I get this vibe like, are we doing this thing again where we just punt the whole regular season and say, yeah, this guy will sit this game. These two guys will sit that game. These three will sit that game. And then we'll just wake us up in the playoffs and then we'll get to the playoffs.

We get to the playoffs. Oh, well, you know, the Clippers, they didn't they didn't care about the regular season. They didn't have an identity. They didn't have chemistry. Like, are we doing this? Are we living this movie again? It doesn't work. It doesn't. That's what I'm worried about. Are we just going to and look, Zoo looks great. Wall looks great. Norm Powell had his first good game of the season last night in Oklahoma City. So they have they have pieces. But I just I'm getting this vibe like, are we just going to do this again? But you got to slow play it because you can't compare Kawhi.

Kawhi, he's multiple knee surgeries coming off an ACL. I understand Kawhi. I understand even Paul George had, you know, injured a ton, you know, last year. Oh, I get why they're doing it. I just, I just like, it's not like that's the part for me. It doesn't work.

like show me the champions in which that worked. It didn't work like in Cleveland when they were doing it. Miami didn't do that. When we're talking about the LeBron and you talk about the Golden State Warriors, that's not what they do. Milwaukee, that's not what they do. Toronto, they did it a little bit because Kawhi was coming off injury. So you understood it. And so they had that success there, but don't forget Kawhi was a plug and play. They

They had everybody else. They took out DeMar and they added an upgrade with all due respect to DeMar. They added an upgrade in Kawhi. Right. So now like Kawhi is like, hey, we're going to take you in. But that core, these guys, that core in Toronto, the young players had won G League championships. They had been like growing together. Van Vliet, Pascal, all of these guys had been like getting there. And so then when you add Kawhi, take Kawhi out, these guys had a core that could keep pushing while he was out.

There's show me another team that they just bought at the regular season. Whereas like, as long as we get to the fun, it doesn't work. The Lakers try to do it via injuries also with a couple of years prior after they won the championship, when they lost the Phoenix, they were up to one, then, you know, people get hurt, not playing a hundred percent healthy and their seasons. So you should be worried about it, but you understand why they do it. Yeah. They're going to play the long game. I knew that. And, and,

it look, I mean, if Portland is, is good and Dame's going to be out a week or two here, but if they're good, that's just another team in the mix. And your margin of error for avoiding the play in tournament is really, really small in the West. And like, nobody wants to be in the play in tournament. The Clippers were in the play in tournament last year and they lost. Um, so it, but it's a little early for that. I just wish I just, I guess I'm being impatient. I guess I'm being impatient. You picked the warriors to win the title. Uh,

How do you feel about that? Five games in there, three and two. They obliterated Miami last night. It not obliterated. They just beat Miami last night at home. Steph sneaky MVP can't not sneaky, but you talk about Yannis. Is he going to win MVP again? Steph,

Looks incredible. I thought we were going to get a big Steph season after kind of like a slumpy shooting season by his standards last year. 31, six and six, 49%, 46% from threes. They are plus 44 with Steph on the floor and minus 46 in 73 minutes with Steph on the bench. So talk about Jokic like plus minus numbers. He looks incredible.

Devin Schengel's hurt, but he looked every bit the bench piece that they thought they were getting. Jermichael Green has fit like a glove. I said when they got those guys,

that I was preemptively annoyed at how well they were going to fit with the Warriors and how they play. And it's been seamless so far. I like that they have promoted Moses Moody, Moody Moses, Moody Moses into a bigger role over Kamenga because I thought he deserved it. And he's played awesome on both ends of the ball considering his –

He's in his second year. What do you think of Wiseman so far? Wiseman is like still remains like very polarizing among Warriors fans and Warriors Twitter.

Well, the problem with with I understand why they got him. I understand why they got him. They make no mistake, because if you're like if you want to go with what we need versus fit, if they needed fit, they would have gone and got lamello ball. Let's add let's just perimeter the out of this and just destroy it. Right. Let's just do that. And they went and got they went and got the big because if we have a big thing,

Wiseman will never be, in my opinion, he will never be his best version with this current Golden State because the things that he does well, the Golden State Warriors, they need someone that can distribute to all the guards, that's great at dribble handoffs, high basketball IQ. And that doesn't mean he has a low one. It just means he's inexperienced in the game of basketball. He didn't play much.

He didn't play at all in college, didn't play a little bit his first year, then took another year off last season. So like his basketball IQ still has so much space to grow.

So like the Warriors, he's not going to be a dominant guy because the Warriors are never going to be like, hey, tonight he's got it going. Let's be the big fella. That's just not. So he's just got to be, in my opinion, he's got to be a great roller, great decision maker. And even then they got Looney that is that knows what to do. So he's all he's.

battling uphill, paddling upstream, trying to compete against Draymond and Looney for minutes in an offense and in a system that isn't necessarily meant for him. It's meant for the perimeter guys around him. So like, it's just, it's going to be tough. Do I like him? Is he another...

arrow in the quiver of Steve Kerr. Yes. You talked about D Vincenzo and Jameichael Green. Like you got Moses, you got, they have, they have rebuilt their roster to mimic the 2015, 16 Warriors and kudos to them. We talk about poor roster construction. They have the best roster construction in, you know, in the NBA by far, like by far. And it's costing them

So much money. Oh, my gosh. So much money. It's it's it's it's it's astounding how much it's costing them. But that being said, I love their team. They have depth. They can handle as long as it's not Draymond, as long as it's not Clay and as long as it's not Steph, they can handle injuries to anybody. And I don't I just say that like if you can, they can have two guys.

Like that might have to miss some time. Right. They still are the best team. And that to me, you are, you are, you are super high on the warriors. A couple of things. I think Draymond looks awesome. Like considering all the drama, all the contract drama, huh? Focused, focused, focused, and really good. I think Wiggins looks so at ease and confident in that system and is playing so well on both ends of the ball.

I, you know, maybe I'm just, maybe I'm just a cockeyed optimist, but I, I, I choose to see the bright side of Wiseman. Like he, he adds a dimension to,

that they don't have as a roller defensively. Look, is his positioning on the pick and roll going to be off here and there? Sure. Is he going to bite on pump fix? You could hear Steve Kerr last night against Miami. Steve Kerr's teaching on the sideline. You can hear him when he's close to the mics at mid court saying, stay down, James, stay down on pump things. And he bit on one, bam, one and jumped into him on a, on a, on a shot.

Uh, you could hear him saying dive James dive when the, when the heat were kind of coming up to touch on the pick and roll. And James was sitting there screening, like holding his screen. And Steve was like, no, if you dive now, we're going to, we're going to get, you can hear him teaching and, you know, he's going to make those kinds of mistakes.

But when he gets those arms up at the rim and he times his jump right, like he's a force that they don't have. So I'm choosing to be optimistic on him. Like, I think he's been all things considered. OK, he can't pass at all. He can't move. He has like four assists or something. But I think he's been all right. What did you think before we get to this?

Show competition. What did, did you see, did you see that clay responded to a Barclays comment last night? No way. No, I, what was Barclays comment? See, that's the only thing that sucks about when you're doing games with all due respect, when you're doing games, you miss all of the, all of that. You miss the other games. Like I didn't really get to see the Barclays said the other day that clay is not the same player. He was before his injuries that he's get essentially like he's slipping.

A little bit. And, you know, that's worrisome for the Warriors. And Klay responded after their win last night against Miami. And I just watched the video of it. He was legitimately. I love Klay because he's so genuine. He was hurt by the comments and he did not hide that he was hurt. And his general response, he gave an old school. Duh. Several to does like he's like, Charles. Yeah, I tore my ACL and my Achilles.

In consecutive years, like, duh, I'm not the same guy that I was before. He said, I'm working so hard to get back to that place. Can you just give me some time? I played like 50 games in three years. We just won the championship. I feel like I was a big part of that. And I like I don't defensively. You see him get burned easily.

in ways one-on-one that he would not have gotten burned before. Like even Kyle Lowry took him a couple of times last night, but I just trust Clay Thompson. Like he knows how to play. He's got good size to defend point guards. If they ask him to do that, he doesn't have to defend the, the a plus wing guys anymore. Cause Wiggins is there to do it. I just, and his shot is his shot. His off ball movement is his off ball movement. That stuff's not going away. Like I trust Clay, but you should, you should watch the video because he was legitimately hurt by what Charles said.

Emotional is not the right word. I think Clay... Clay is... His smiles and the wins and all the stuff that they do. I think...

That's why I always I try and take it easy on players from that standpoint. And sometimes you say things and like for a guy, Charles, it carries a lot of weight. When Charles speaks, the whole world is basketball communities is waiting. So it's like, you know, that those words are going to get there. And I don't think that Charles just knowing Charles, he's not saying in a negative way. You remember the end of Charles Barkley's career, you know, where he was like banged up, banged up. Could you I'm saying like you or he knows this stuff.

How many teams do you think right now would give Clay a damn near max contract? Not that many. No, but I'm just saying like not many teams, not many teams contract. I said a damn near max. I'm saying like if the max is like 40, how many teams would give him 30 for a two or three year deal? Yeah, there would be a bunch 30, 30 million. What, where the cap is going? Actually, you know, he's,

I haven't thought about that because he's such a clear warrior for life that I've just never thought. I look at that more value, the value on the open market, right? And the open market, right? And, and he knows he's not the same player. He's not going to try and be the same player. Um,

he would, he, I think if anything, we can, we can marvel at two things. One, how special he was in those moments. He was a high level two way player, like top five player. What's poetic about what's poetic. Poetic is maybe not the right word, but to me, it's poetic about what you just said is we saw him at his absolute blazing best when

when he got injured the first time in that game against Toronto in game six, he was like single handedly going to will them to that win. Like threes, twos, fast break, just playing in 36 or something when he got hurt, came out and hit the free throws. Like we, he, if that was the last time we ever see peak, peak, peak, peak, peak clay, he was at the absolute apex of it. Amazing. Like the dude is amazing.

And I watched Mark Jackson challenge him, challenge him. And you know, it's hard to challenge offensive players to be defensive guys. Klay took that on like, okay, ****.

You know, Clay, he's just like, yeah, yeah, okay, fine. I'll defend everybody. Who cares? And he won't say a word. Clay doesn't talk. So Clay just goes out there, plays elite. He's 6'6", 6'7", plays elite defense, doesn't get tired, runs around like a f***ing madman, and knocks down shots from everywhere. Like, f***.

It was so special, especially because he was paired up with his other brother over there, right? Watching those guys. So like, yeah, I could understand why it's hurt, why there's a hurt in it. He's like, yo, like, and this is the other part.

Talking to Steve Kerr, Klay didn't do much in the offseason because he got injured in the offseason last year. He was ramping up to go to – he was ramping up, and they were like, bro, don't do anything. We'll get you going as the season progresses. Like, he was – there was a mental block there. Like, he was afraid, like, the last offseason that I was training and working and trying to get better. Because the idea is like, okay, I'm going to take a month off, and then I'm going to start –

grinding i'm gonna get back to being old clay like i'm gonna get my legs strong i'm gonna get you know i got the endurance that's what i'm gonna do and there was a block there and the warriors are like let's not do that because he was just like so even steve was like we're gonna bring him along slowly started this some of his frustration is that you know he had he took time off

One, to rest because of what he had to put his body through. And then two, because there was a little bit of like when I went crazy hard during the offseason, that's when I got injured last time. And I don't want that experience. Like for a guy that couldn't play basketball in two seasons, I don't want that experience. So for us to judge him right now, the first 50 games of the season, our first like 10, 15 games of the season, that's just...

We know enough to be like, you don't judge a person. And here's why. And then we're not talking about a person. We're talking about specifically Clay. This is why we're not going to judge Clay. I will judge Clay from his performance first of the year to the all-star break, all-star break into the season. Right. And then, then you can judge him, be like, okay, he's ramped up. His minutes are here. He's more practice time because he didn't do much in the off season. And then when you break that down, that sounds abnormal. But when you look at a situation, you understand it.

Yeah, I said all last year I was on record and there was all this clay, not scrutiny, but everyone's looking. How does he look? What is it? Oh, he's like not the same guy defensively. And I said all along from game one until the end, I think given the given the circumstances,

clay looks incredible clay looks ahead of schedule given the injuries he's coming off of i i for him to just kind of step in and be able to score 20 a game and be the same mobile three-point shooting threat maybe he's lost a little bounce maybe he's lost a little speed on defense for him to just step right back in and do that last season was incredible and i couldn't believe that there were anybody there was anybody being like oh i don't know clay is not the same guy but that shows you how much

much better he was than everyone else when he can have an Achilles, he can have a ACL and come back and still score 20 and be a huge part to a championship team. That's how much better he was. That's how good he was when he was going for sixties and 37s in a quarter. Like we gloss over it because Steph and we gloss over some of the stuff because they're like a great team. Clay Clay's from the start of Clay's career to today, right?

Today, how many players have had a stretch like that? Offense, defense, record-breaking championships, all-star games, all-NBA. I bet you there's 20 players in history that have won that amount from this stretch. I'm going to say less because of the four championships. There's probably 15 players in NBA history that can say they scored as many points, they had as many all-star games, they won as many championships, all-NBAs, all of the other stuff.

what, 10, 12 players in NBA history that can say that they've had a career that Clay, and Clay is still going. So he was that dude before. He's not the same player, but he's still a bad man. And we know the importance to having that second brother there when Steph needs to go to work because you can't leave Clay. Clay could be over...

and 12 and you're face guarding him yeah he's a five alarm fire at all times even when he's not your nose to nose with him the whole time even if he's not moving he's just he could be sitting on the bench and you're probably still should be guarding him yeah they look i mean they're only three and two but they look great curry looks great his curry's defense just gets better and better you could his level of communication and and and switches and rotation he's just nailing all that stuff real quick about staff's defense and then where we can go where we want

People make it seem like Steph, yes, you can target Steph, but you are not a part of a top five, number one defense for five or six straight years, right? And not understand what to do, how to do your role at a high level. He's doing his role, communication, all the things that they need him to do, he's doing at an elite level. Because if he was...

You know, there's other high level players that just play zero defense and they're just kind of out there and whatever they would, they would be maybe a top 10 defense. They would be a 15 defense, 12 somewhere. But when Steph is locked in doing all the things that they need him, they have a number one ranked defense. You're not playing 42 minutes a night on like on the court and a part of a top five defense and not doing your part. It is impossible. It is impossible because you're eating up too many minutes.

I think he's looked great this year. Their starters are so dominant that they could almost play blindfolded and outscored some of these teams. And I'll tell you, you face this in the playoffs. I'm watching them against Miami last night. I got to write about this at some point. When it gets to the fourth quarter of some close games, they start running Steph Clay pick and rolls the two of them together. And you would think,

That's such an easy switch because they're probably being guarded by two like-sized guys and you can just switch it. But either because of the way clay mixes up, like, am I going to set the screen? Am I going to just slip out of it and fade? Or because of just the fact that they're the two greatest shooters of all time, teams just cannot guard that play. You can have like,

I almost feel like if you had Paul George and Kawhi Leonard guarding the two guys, they would mess it up. Teams, they get wide open shots out of it every single time. A high level screen and slip. Because you don't know if he's going to hit the body and then you've got to be up. And if he slips, they have those terms, no screen, no scheme. So that means if there's not an actual screen...

Don't do the scheme. If it's like not a screen, don't show if it's not a screen. Don't don't don't switch. So like Clay does is such a good job of screening. You obviously can't go underneath. You can't do anything. And like he slips out so many times and they run it so much. That was our biggest our biggest issue with that play at the top in game five.

Game four, game four of 2016. They closed you out of that game with that play over and over again. It's 3-1. Everyone feels like it's over. And you know why we all felt like it was over on press rows? Because we hadn't seen, because we're locked in on the game, we hadn't seen the Draymond punch yet. So we didn't really know that there was this thing that had happened. But I remember they just, I was right above where they were on offense.

The Warriors were on offense in the fourth quarter and J.R. had no idea how to guard it. And it was over and over again. Well, because that was what, so the two things that, so people know that how we guarded the Warriors, the game one and game two, we tried to switch everything. We couldn't do it.

There was too many. Their ball movement was, is the elite. They blew you out. They blew us out every game. We were trying to switch everything. Cause it was Harris member, Harrison barn. We held Steph and clay down. Cause that was our goal, but they were such a balanced team that everyone else killed us. And Steph and clay played just okay. In those first two games. And they still blew us out. So we switched it from switching everything. And then we were like, Hey,

Stay home. Everyone stay homes. The only thing that we are going to switch is if Steph and Clay come together. We're going to eliminate all the switching because I want to hold people responsible and you got to communicate and like, look, if Steph gets a running start and he's on that baseline and I need to switch out, fine.

You know, you can point and talk in emergency situation. But we decided not to switch everything. The only thing that we were going to switch is if Steph and Clay came together so that those people knew. Because you're sprinting trying to chase Steph. And if Clay goes that way and you're like, oh, ****.

And now you're in, you're dead at that point in time, you're dead. So that play was the one play that we were going to switch. The problem with switching that singular play is back to the statement that I said, no scheme, no screen, no scheme. And so we were like, are we switching? It's like, well, he's not screening. He's slipping out. So then you start to hesitate. And then and then they got you.

Then they got you. And we were up by four, up by six in the second half of that game. And that play. And once they got that little five, six point lead, it's just like it was so hard. So that play was so special. So I'm not surprised that even with our core and our group and the years that we had together, it's it's it's next to impossible to guard because both of those guys can go for 60 and with their eyes closed shooting threes. It's crazy.

Let's get to the main event. If you held on to the pod this long, you're going to be avoided. The early season poop show. Dan has to be about too many swears, so I'll go easy on him this time. The early season poop show of the year in the NBA. Our nominees are 1-4, the Los Angeles Lakers. Fourth in defense. Yeah.

30th in offense. We all know what's going on there. Nominee number two, the Brooklyn Nets, one and four. 17th in offense. Feels like they've been better than that. 30th in defense. 30th in defense. Can they combine their two teams? They'd be pretty good. Yeah, no, we can't have that. And we've seen the Ben Simmons –

the Ben Simmons situation unfolding airball to lay up last night. They're minus talk about that. I'm going to defend Ben Simmons. I'm happy to have you defend him because I am actually as a human being rooting for him to succeed, but they're minus 14 per a hundred possessions with him on the floor. And they ditched last night that they ditched the Simmons Claxton Simmons, sharp pairings of the two non-shooters or minimize them. And our third nominee,

The Philadelphia 76ers also 1-4, so these teams are 2-12 combined. Ninth in offense, 25th in defense. Richard Jefferson, who do you give the Jeffy Award for the early poop show of the year in the NBA? Well, I'm going to say Philly. I'm going to say Philly. And the reason why I'm going to say Philly is this.

James Harden, you know, got in shape in the offseason, you know, Obama to come back locked in. They have a core. They got an MVP. They got all the talent. This was a playoff team. Lakers didn't make the postseason. We knew what their issues were going to be. Their issues have not changed. People make it seem like it's just shooting. Shooting ain't just it. There's an overall energy problem. There's an energy problem with their team.

Then the Brooklyn Nets, again, coming off of what the summer that those guys had the season last year that those guys had coming into the season, especially with the adding Ben Simmons. Like you're like, OK, am I surprised that they're off to a slow start? Not at all. The Philadelphia 76ers, though.

Right. With, you know, the guy that's finished MVP voting last, you know, second place last two years. James Harden refreshed Tyrese Maxey. Everyone is high on this kid. Right. They've got, you know, the tools they've got this day, you know, so for them to be off to a slow start. Now, mind you, the start of the season can be a little bit.

The top teams are always playing the top team to start the season. Cause that's how you build up the excitement for the NBA season is like the, the Brooklyn nets are man's Brooklyn. That's started off against five straight playoff teams, the Lakers. They're there's early season schedules and loaded, right? Like they're probably will be favored once or twice in their whole stretch of the first, like 10 games. Right. And I think the first time they'll be favored is Utah. And if Utah keeps playing like this, they might not be favored in that game. So yeah,

Philly, to me, is the most confusing in what's going on. And trust me, Philly fans are not happy. Their Phillies are in the World Series. Their Eagles are playing well. And they're like, what the hell is going on with the 76ers? And they're just a grumpy group of people. But yeah, yeah, that's... I'm upset at you because...

I thought I was going to be all NBA hipster by picking the Sixers as the no-brainer winners of the pool. Our brains are more alike. That's why I have so much respect for you, Zach. I learned so much from you. And so when we're aligned, it makes me feel good. To me, it's a no-brainer because, look, the Lakers are a circus. The Russ thing is a circus. The whole thing is a circus. I don't want to hear about it anymore. But to your point,

I had them ninth in the West coming into the season. So if they're 11th instead of ninth and their offense is a disaster, it's not like a shocking plot twist that they're now that they're, I didn't like the rush trade from the beginning. The fact I could not have imagined it going even 75% this of this bad. This is a level of bad play.

That I was frankly beyond my imagination But I didn't I wasn't like super high on the Lakers coming into the season So this is surprising in scale Of badness but maybe not Result the Nets

I actually think the Nets are playing decently. They played decently last night. Yeah, they competed against the Bucs. They missed a ton of open jump shots against the Bucs the other night. I thought they could have won that game. They clearly obviously could have. They lost in overtime to Dallas, and Luka went bananas. Like...

You know, do they have the prettiest offensive system? Is it too hard for them sometimes? Yeah, that's all fair. They're basically a brand new team integrating a former All-NBA player who's clearly...

a shell of himself right now. And I know you're about to defend them and that's fine. I, I voted Ben Simmons, all NBA in the bubble season. Like, I think he's a great player. This guy that's playing right now is not that guy. This guy is a different guy. Who's paranoid about getting fouled and has 28 points in five games. And that's just, that's that even the stuff like he's, he looks good in transition, but RJ, I don't know about you, man. I watch him in transition. He's getting off the ball so early that,

And sometimes that's good. Like if you kick it ahead to Kyrie and he has an attack angle, that's fine. Sometimes Ben Simmons has like a football field of open space in front of him. And he still just gives the ball up to someone who doesn't have a great angle. I'm like, dude, just take it and go to the rim. But anyway, they're playing. You're shaking your head. We're going to get there. They're playing all things considered. Joe Harris was out last night. Seth Curry hasn't played TJ Warren, I think is alive somewhere and we'll play at some point.

They are playing okay. They're playing in a way that makes me think I thought they were 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, somewhere in there in the East. I still think they're going to be a winning team and be in there somewhere. The Sixers...

The Sixers talked all summer. Look at our summer. James Harden took a pay cut. We're going to be the best defense in the league. This is the year. I'm a workaholic. I spent the offseason doing this. Tyrese Maxey is going to be the most improved player. He's been unbelievable. They have been so bad defensively in a way that is so embarrassing.

that it makes me question like what is something wrong with their team do they care how can you be this bad in transition defense acting like you don't give a flying if you win or lose the game i know joel is working his way back into shape he'll be fine i trust joel mb that's fine i just of all the three that's the one i look at i'm like

That's it's just shocking. Like there are teams that have played them who people from those teams, front office people or or people involved in those teams have texted me after the game being like, is something is something wrong with them? Like we didn't think it was going to be like this. So they are my winner for early season poop show of the year. Here are their next five, six games.

At Toronto, at Chicago, at Washington, home against Washington, home against the Knicks. Like those are, you know, Washington's three and one there. Okay. Chicago's staying afloat. Toronto's good. Those next four, like I want to see you show up and go three and one in those games. If you're a serious team, those are okay teams. They're not great teams. Go three and one.

Okay, now let's break this down. First game of the year, Boston. You lose to Boston, fine. Totally fine. Next game, they lose by two to Milwaukee. Two points to Milwaukee. Don't hate it. Fine. Again, fine. James Harden has that little floater, doesn't drop. 88-90 grinded out dogfight. Okay. San Antonio, that's a bad one.

That's a bad law. Home opener, 0-2. Come out fired. It's not their home opener. Milwaukee was home opener. Yeah. Come out 0-2. Not a back-to-back. That one hurt. That one's the one that hurts. That's the one that hurts me. Now.

You go versus Indiana. You go versus Indiana. Okay. You do what you're supposed to do. And then you go and play a good Toronto team, a very good Toronto team. And these look, Nick nurse. One thing about his team is there's a level of consistency to their effort and they actually normally have talent. Right. So, so when I look at that, even again, we talked about that core group earlier, like I,

They should, if they were playing well, they would have, I truly think, one more victory. If they were playing great, they would have two more victories. So, like, I don't think that they're that. Now, this is before we get into the numbers. This is before we get into the numbers. This is before we get into the numbers. I don't even care about the numbers. No, but I'm just saying, my thing about James, right? Now that James is back to being James. Yeah.

Right. He's not. No, no, no. But I'm saying, though, like 25 points a game, eight rebounds, nine assists. Those are closer to the numbers. Even his per is higher than Joel Embiid. Right. His per is higher than Joel Joel. Right. And again, I'm not big into these numbers. I'm saying that I think offensively.

The way that he is more becoming back to not just being like a, just a distributor, but like he's, he's, he's putting up shots here. Tyrese Maxey playing well, their defense just, and I'm surprised too, with PJ Tucker, you're, you know, playing 30 minutes a night.

But I don't know. This is a maybe it's not as bad as it seems. They've had a very good schedule and they didn't play great in some of these games. And, you know, and on top of it, like with all due respect, the teams that they were playing are hard playing teams. Boston, they are a hard place.

Milwaukee is one of the hardest playing teams, if not the hardest playing person in the audience. Yeah, they take their cue from their best player. Yeah, that's what I'm saying. So when you look at it, it's like, this ain't a schedule to ease into your season. This is a bunch of... Like even Toronto. Toronto don't play. You think San Antonio with Greg Popovich, you think these guys, even if they're the least talented team in the league, those motherfuckers are going to follow the game plan. Pop ain't just sitting over there smoking cigars. So I just think that...

This is a little too early. I think if we're, I think, yes, this is the surprising show, but of the three teams, they have the potential to clean it up. No, no. Look, we're, we're having fun. We're being facetious. I am well aware that we're five games into the season. I picked the Sixers to go over whatever their over under was. We had a whole segment. Who's going to win more regular season games, Philly or Boston on NBA today. Philly swept the entire panel, including me.

I still think this is a 50-win team despite the fact that they're 1-4. I think they're going to be fine. Their offense is 9th. They're going to be fine. I don't think James is James.

I don't think he has his burst back. I think he's somewhere in between hamstring ailing James and Houston James. There's like a huge gray area between those two poles. And I think he's in between there. My evidence would be RJ 18% of his shots have come at the rim. That's by far a career low peak. James is around 33, 35%. All the other corresponding shots are long twos, which he's never really taken before. I don't think he can get by people the same way anymore, despite the fact that there's all this James's back hype.

But I just, that's an eye test team. That's an eye test team where you've watched them play and you're like, ooh, this just looks gross. Like something gross is going on here. Now they'll get the gross out of their system soon, hopefully, but it's been gross. It's been gross. Yeah, but okay. So, okay. So let's, again, let's look at his regular, like his, his still go percentage is 47% up from 44 for his career.

This year, his three point percentage is 39 percent up from 36 percent for a career free throw percentage, 93 percent up from 86 percent. And even again, his turnovers to a game down from his career around three point seven. So when I when we say James is back.

I say it is this. He's back to being a high-volume, efficient guy, right? When you... Tennis is the game, too. Tennis is the game. Oh, yeah, yeah. That's what I'm saying. It's like all of those numbers are there. When...

When there's a steady decline that most athletes are going to have, even LeBron James, like as much as he's scoring 30, he's not doing it the same way he did it in Miami. He's not doing it the same way he did it in Cleveland. Like you're, he's going to evolve that first burst. I was more about, he wasn't really shooting. He didn't have enough burst to get the separation, not necessarily to get to the rim. Like if his rim numbers are down, you better be shooting a higher percentage from three, which he is. He's shooting 39% from three because you can't get by people. So,

So your evolution of your game has to coincide with the decline of your skill. That's why as players get less athletic, the players that didn't improve their three-point shooting, they fall off. The players that did improve their three-point shooting can transfer to a 3 and D guy. They can do some other things because their game has evolved

as their athleticism is declined. That's why your peak at like peak as a player is like between 27 and 32. Why is that your peak? It's because you still have your high level athleticism, but you've increased your basketball IQ. You you're understanding these things. So even as you start to decline your athleticism, your skills should offset that some right. So

Is he back? He's back to being that dude, but it's not the same way he's been doing it in the past with a hundred free throws and getting to the paint. No, but his step back is there. His jump shot is there. And I'm curious, uh,

If that is, that's not the same James Harden they saw last year. That's not the same. This guy is not the same. So is there an adjustment period? We thought, is James Harden where to come in? If someone told you James Harden is going to average 21 a game, he's going to lead the league in assists, and he's going to shoot an efficient year. You'd be like, oh, the Sixers are going to be great. If someone were to say that he was going to go 25, 9, and 8 and shoot 47% from the field and 40% from three, you'd be like, oh, the Sixers are great.

are going to be the favorite so i just wonder how that intersection of him being a high volume score like guy versus what he was towards the end of the season last year give me the ben simmons uh take okay my ben simmons take is this again very similar to clay the dude took an entire year off and i'm not defending him like you know like he took a year off

Is there some like some like mental blocks there? Yes. Just like if you play golf, there are pros that struggled with their putter or they struggled with their driver, whatever. Everybody's got some some some mental stuff when it comes to sports. He even airballed a layup. And that's what you have mentioned.

And so we heightened these things. Do you know what else he did? He had the game tying steel in the game. Yep. I'm saying, so it's like, even as the media, we're like, Oh, he air ball to lay up. You have any air ball layups I had, you know what I mean? And I know it's probably not that many, honestly. No, because it's, well, yeah, whatever. But my point is this, is that this dude steals the ball from Luca, right? Steals the ball from Luca and then goes down wide lanes, right?

drops the ball off to Kevin Durant. Kevin Durant gets a dunk. Now he's guarding Luka, final play of the game. That's, you know, I said on the air, I'm like, oh, he's going to go to the left wing step. He didn't want that. He didn't want, Luka didn't want that. So Luka, and again, Luka goes to his right, which we know is not what Luka wants to do to go win a game. That's not what he wants to do. Luka will win a game anyways, but if he had a pick, he's going to go left. He's going to do a step back. That is his bread and butter. He forces him to go right.

kicks it out to Bullock. Bullock has to fire up a quick shot. Luka didn't even get a shot up. And I'm not, I just, I'm just saying you, if you close your eyes, if you can't not close your eyes, but if you narrow your vision, you can see some of the things starting to come back that made him elite. You get a game winning steal. You get a game, our game tying steal a game tying assist. And then you go and play elite defense that helps your team get into overtime. You

Does he have a long way to go? Yes, he's got a long way to go. And he battled Luka because Luka took him one-on-one a couple of times. Luka was hunting him in the third quarter of that game, calling for screens to get him switched onto Luka and roasted him a couple times. And Ben kept battling and bounced back and got – that wasn't the only stop and steal he had on the bed. Another one earlier in the game. Yeah, where he was on that right wing, where he was on that right wing. And Luka was kind of mad and trying to draw the foul. It's like he's being too physical with me.

Ben to me. And again, go back and walk like we know Draymond Green right now. Like what they need from him is to be Draymond Green, right? They need to be. No, Draymond Green doesn't look at the rim. Draymond Green doesn't shoot the ball, but he his his passing and the teammates. And this is the problem, though.

The Nets have to do a better job of spacing with them. And it takes time. Like, Ben, if this is how they're going to guard you, this is what we're going to do. All of these things are going to happen in real time. So it's like, hey, Ben, if they're going to sag off you, this is what I want you to do. I want you to back down. And then when you see Kevin Durant, I want you to go. And he's always done it. Jason Kidd, you know, Jason Kidd would be at the rim for a layup and throw it out to people to shoot threes.

Jason Kidd led the league in assists all year. Jason Kidd shot 39% the year he should have won the MVP over Tim Duncan. I say this to say that we've seen guys that are more of a natural passer. Oh, he gets to the rim. Kevin Durant got more open shots last night than he did in the entire Boston series.

In the entire Boston series, like he's going to create open shots. That is what these guys need. He needs him to create open shots. Kevin Durant got zero open shots in that Boston series. If Ben Simmons can create five open looks for KD, for Kyrie, then he's doing their job. We can't be worried about what Ben Simmons, is he going to be Philly? Is he going to shoot threes? Who cares? Can you help this team win? And the answer is yes.

He needs to do more, but those are all fair points. And to your point about it takes time, every game there are five possessions, some of which we highlighted on NBA Today last week in L.A., where you can tell there's – and I don't mean this in a bad way – they're so discombobulated, you can tell they're figuring out

how to use him, where he should be in the half court. And that's on Ben. That's on Steve Nash. I wrote that today. It's on Steve Nash to come up with more understanding kind of of how possessions should flow with him on the floor. And we talked about the lineup tweaks that we've already seen. I thought in Milwaukee, they got good looks when they posted Simmons and had split actions on the perimeter and had him kick out for threes and all that. So it is going to take time. Last question, and then we'll stop. The Lakers are 0-4. It's early.

It doesn't look promising. It looks like this team as a contender is dead in the water, is DOA. Knowing what you know, have you started to think about if this team is just hopeless? Hopeless in a way that like, what does LeBron want to do at the end of his career? He doesn't want to be on a team that's like, our ceiling is 42 wins.

Have you begun at all to think about, and people are asking me about this, like, so what do they do? Like, if this is just what they are, we all know the rush trades. Forget the rush trades. Let's just, like, imagine there's no rush trade that saves this season. Let's just posit that. Maybe there is, but let's just posit that. Let's look ahead to even next season. Are they just biding their cap space to get somebody else? If there is no somebody else,

This is what people around the league are asking me. Will they ever trade Anthony Davis? Like start to have that conversation? Would LeBron ever leave once he's, you know, he only tacked one year onto his deal. Have you started thinking about these things yet? Because I have, my assumption remains LeBron is going to be a Laker player.

If not for his entire, I would bet for his entire career, but obviously Bronny is an angle that needs to be understood, and we don't know where that's going to be. But this is what people are starting to ask me about, and I don't have answers because my brain hasn't gotten there yet. And if LeBron's going to be a Laker, I just have a hard time finding an Anthony Davis trade that's going to make them better players.

immediately because if LeBron's on the team, you're not trading Anthony Davis for like three draft picks and two swaps and all this. Cause he's gonna be like, yo, those like, what, what am I doing here? So I haven't thought about these things yet, but I just know these are questions that are coming to me. What are your thoughts?

You know, I don't know what they do. I don't. Like you said, the buddy healed Miles Turner. That solves a lot of problems, right? Because you actually, you're getting two shooters, not just one. You're getting a big, you're getting a big that can play the five that could push Anthony Davis to the five. So that's another problem that's solved. It's the only true. It's the only one I've, I would lose sleep about if I were the Lakers, but both picks is a lot though, man. It's a lot like we're so we're there so far away. I know. And everybody wants those two picks.

So, you know, the Lakers, you know this. They have to buy their time to see if something else can open up to get them more because they need more than just that. They need more than that because they don't even have great defensive wings. You don't want LeBron James being your primary defender on some of these guys. Even the Brooklyn Nets, they got Royce. They got Ben. Let Kevin Durant and Kyrie just go score. Don't go ask the –

37 year old to also be like a top one, two defender against all of these guys. It just is unrealistic. You know, that's why you bring in PJ Tucker so that Giannis can roam a little bit and whatever the Lakers have no rent and they have no more answers. They like, they, they did make a mistake.

And now to fix said mistake, the best thing that they can do is go. And they were I think they were like potentially good to great like that as a championship team. Twenty twenty one. They made a mistake. And I think the best thing that's on the table is for them to get back to being good. Right. Like every move out there makes them good.

I guess there's something to be said about that because this is miserable, what they're dealing with right now. They might be happy being a good team. You can't just build a championship team. You've traded all your assets. You've traded all your young players. You have no picks.

You can be good. And we know what LeBron James good can get. And I know he's not 34. I know. But with LeBron James, he can get you a shot every time he can get to the bucket. Still, he's still doing a lot of those things. So I just I just don't see it from a standpoint of there's anything, even with LeBron's greatness. My I think with Anthony Davis, that's the part that's very important.

You know, I just... I'm not saying trade Anthony Davis. I'm not saying that. And people that are like, Anthony Davis, his injury history, is he saw... I just...

Even if you were a wing player, as a wing slasher individual, I spent my entire life being a crash test dummy. I would drive in there and try and dunk it and get hit and fall down, tear my wrist up, land on my back. Every day I was sore. If they had to call a timeout every time I hit the ground, Zach, I wouldn't have made it to year five.

You know, and so, you know, I wouldn't have made it. So like, I don't, I think it's, you know, they lack toughness. They lack shooting. And right now I think they all know it. So you're seeing a 70% effort.

It wasn't Frank Vogel. Everyone knows now it wasn't Frank Vogel. I think Darvin Ham doing a solid job. You know, at least he's like, well, we can be defenders. We can get out in transition because that's our only option. And they've leaned into that and they've been good defensively and they've been getting out in transition because that's their only option. But there are teams that like if their only option is X, they still don't want it. So there is no answer for the Lakers. The Lakers are...

what they're going to be. It's going to be this. The only problem is the minute they make the trade, now we have to regurgitate all of this again and see

said aren't like this is gonna be it is there anything gonna be good buddy healed the last three games it's only doing this and you're just like oh geez someone at the nets game last night being facetious because so much has changed between then and now and both in terms of how the pelicans are built and how the lakers are built said you know the the lakers give up brandon ingram josh hart lonzo ball all the picks all the swaps for anthony davis what if they called the pelicans right now and said we'll trade you anthony davis back for ingram straight up

what would the pelicans say and was like pelicans say no no for ingram yes they would you think they were trading room for the ad straight up given the contract situations given he's an expiring after next year let me just given zion's on the team well because you have zion so zion is the best player on that team like zion would be the best player on that team i'll say that i'm not saying zion's better than anthony davis from this like old like skill standpoint i'm saying that like

They would treat Zion as the most important player, right? Like we're going to build around what Zion's doing because he's here on our contract and he's going to be the faith. So even if Anthony Davis were to come back, they're not going to be like, all right, Zion, we're going to, you know.

Zion, go play the five so Anthony Davis can play the four. You know, like that type of stuff. I think they would. I'm not going to disrespect Anthony Davis and Brandon Ingram's a really, really good player to say that, like, if all things being equal, they wouldn't do that.

But I don't think that that would do much for the Lakers. No, that's just again. I know we're just playing and we're just playing. But now let's not disrespect Anthony Davis. Is he a top? He looks great. What? He looks great right now. Early season. But is he a top 15 player?

I'd have to sit here and rank them. I would probably say yes, but without having actually gone through it. I know he was, what did he fall to 20th in our NBA rank or something? If he's going to play like he's playing now, it's their own four. I get it. It's not leading to winning, but I would probably say yes, he's at the back end of that somewhere, but it's close.

That's just tough, man, because he was supposed to be he was supposed to go from a top five pound town to a top five player. He didn't do that. He's like regressed every single year since they've won the championship. And it's not all his fault. Some of his injuries. He was what you are describing is why the thinking was.

We will not be the Paul Pierce, KG, Brooklyn Nets 2.0 where we've traded everything for old guys and we fall off a cliff and we end up giving up Jalen Brown and Jason Tatum essentially because Anthony Davis will see us through the LeBron. He was 26 at the training, 26. Now half the time he looks like he's 32.

Well, now we're ending on a sad note. We started on a happy. We're ending on a sad note. Richard Jefferson, second to none. I will see you in L.A. soon for NBA Today. By the way, you know you're a TikTok star. You're a TikTok star. You know that? We haven't. I was hoping to get through the whole podcast without the words tick and tock coming up. And now they have come up. The king of TikTok.

No, never, never. People's champ. I'm the people's champ. That's what I am. Well, you'll never see me on there, RJ. Thank you, sir. Love you, man.