The Latest on LeBron and the Lakers With Dan Woike. Plus, a Look Around the NBA With Nekias Duncan.

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All right, coming up on a loaded Zach Lowe show today, we got Dan Woikey from the Athletic to talk about LeBron's sciatica and what it means, if anything, for the Lakers in the short term, in the medium term, in the long term.

Can this team do any real damage?

Can they challenge Oklahoma City and Denver?

Is there any roadmap there at all?

And how much does LeBron missing 8, 10, 12, whatever it is games with sciatica?

Sciatica, of all things.

How much does that mess up their season?

Does it mess up their rhythm, their chemistry between Luca and LeBron and Reeves?

Am I worried about that at all?

What about their defense?

What about Dominate?

And we're going to get into all that.

And then Nakaias Duncan from the Dunker Spot podcast at Yahoo with Steve Jones comes on to preview just a bunch of random teams.

Nakaias is the perfect guy to preview a bunch of random teams.

The Pelicans, the Bulls, the Hornets.

Who else?

We get into the Bucs.

Alex Atente Cumpo.

Oh boy.

How many Atintacumpos are there left to sign?

And we get into the, did I say the Bulls?

The Bulls are in there for sure.

There's another team that I'm forgetting.

We're going to get into some random teams and we're going to pick an award.

Six man of the year.

That's a fun one to pick.

That's all coming up after this on the Zach Low Show.

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Welcome to the Zach Lowe Show live from an undisclosed hotel in beautiful Los Angeles, California.

I had a great dinner last night in Little Tokyo.

Dan Woikey, LA veteran.

How are you, sir?

I'm great.

I enjoy that you're wearing a Disney shirt while you're in Southern California.

And they did employ me for

quite a long time.

And you better fucking believe, Dan Woikey, before my time there ran out.

Did I hit Disney World again and take advantage of the company perks?

You're damn right I did, baby.

Did I win the Toy Story ride shooting competition?

There's a Target shooting competition, Toy Story.

Did I talk trash to my daughter and whip her ass in it?

You better fucking believe I did.

I'm ready today, Dan.

Did I take my children to Disneyland before the season and watch YouTube videos on how to score the best in the Buzz Light Your Astro Blasters?

Fuck yeah, I did.

I can't believe you know the name of the ride.

That's amazing.

All right, so Dan, let me tell you what happened on

Friday in my life.

Okay.

Annual fifth grade event.

Fifth grade is the top of the elementary school in Connecticut.

Annual competition, fifth graders versus fifth grade parents capture the flag, a variant of capture the fright that I won't explain.

As you can imagine, my number one goal was, I just, first, I do want to win because the kids were talking a lot of junk.

Second, I don't want me or anybody else to get injured because we're old.

Correct.

And

you're sprinting, you're changing directions.

It's just ripe for an Achilles snap.

And we all talk about like, we're going to go easy.

We're not going to get injured.

We're just going to just, we're going to win, but we're not going to go crazy.

I'm 10 seconds into the whistleblowing and it was my daughter's class versus the class parents 10 seconds in my daughter's chasing me to try to rip my flag off my her her best friend's dad is coming toward me with someone chasing him we're gonna miss each other by 10 feet but suddenly we cut and we cut to each of our respective lefts head on full speed collision I shoulder checked him really hard.

We both go down.

He's flat on his back, wind knocked out of him.

It was such a big hit that the reaction from the fans, the rest of the parents waiting to play their classes, was not laughter.

It was like, oh.

And so this is my transition to the big news of the week was LeBron James has sciatica, apparently, because this is what happens to people in their 40s.

They just get injured and like random stuff happens to them.

So Dan Woikey, first of all, we did win.

Second of all, I'm fine.

I think the other dad is largely.

I was going to say, how's the other guy?

Is he out of the hospital, Zach?

He didn't go to the hospital.

He stayed down a little longer than I did.

Did I think was my first thought?

I need to get up and continue to try to win the game versus I need to help my friend up.

Yeah, it was.

I was in competition mode, but then I paused and I reached my hand out.

He was okay.

And now LeBron has sciatica.

So

he's going to be reevaluated in three to four weeks, I believe, as of last Friday.

Let's just posit four weeks.

That's eight to 10 games.

Maybe it ends up being longer than that.

The Lakers' odds to win the West have not really moved.

They're still plus 950, the third best odds to win the West.

It does threaten his all-NBA streak

because you don't have a lot of margin after that for another injury if that's a side plot that people care about.

I think what people mostly care about is in a conference where you do not have much margin for error, how do the Lakers adjust from this?

Who starts in LeBron's spot?

And is there really any reason to worry here considering this is kind of why you got Luke?

I mean, you got Luka Doncic because he was gifted to you in a gift basket, but this is like one of the reasons you got him is to just be like, all right, Luca ball, it's time to play Luka ball.

The team was really good last year when Doncich and Reeves were on the floor.

LeBron was off the floor.

There's a world where their defense might be maybe a tick better to start the season.

Is there any worry at all about this?

And how are they going to adjust like the rotation?

What does that look like?

Yeah, I mean, I think there's like, I would say, mild concern.

um

i don't think like no one's freaking out right like he hasn't been shut down from basketball activities this isn't like a we're starting from square one um you know i think that the way it's been kind of

you know posited to me behind the scenes zach was that like there was going to be an adjustment this year lebron james has been injured at the end of the last i think three of the last four seasons or two of the last three seasons.

He's 40 going on 41.

So that should be, as I keep saying,

whenever people are like if they're healthy at the end of the year if lebron's not banged up i'm like your expectation should be lebron's going to be banged up so i think there was a shift um in training philosophies this summer in terms of like let how do we how do we try to extend this out as best as possible right and what that probably means is a little bit of a slower ramp up all along right like that that was always going to be a little bit a part of the plan i i don't think you know getting hurt and feeling this this nerve thing you know a month ago and then that keeping you out of live play.

Um,

wait, you mean actually

you mean it's not a fake injury that he's rebelling against the team and pouting?

I don't believe so.

Neither do I.

I don't believe so.

Um, but I think like I think that's not ideal, right?

Like, um, I do think that this was a team that, um, despite like wanting to like take it easy with LeBron and things like that, like they wanted to be on the court together.

I mean, Luca has said this repeatedly that, you know, one of the things he was most excited about

coming into camp, coming into shape, was like to get an on-court time with LeBron James and Austin Reeves and like really try to figure this out in ways where, you know, last year it was kind of thrown together.

Is there some

three basketball genius sort of like melding of the minds where they could figure out a way to maximize each other's skills, even when they're duplicative in some ways?

And I think like that was supposed to happen now.

Does that, does it happening in mid-November

really change the trajectory of the team?

Maybe a little.

I'm just,

I think you hit on that.

The shift to Luka Doncic

happened the second they acquired him.

This, in my mind, like only even cements it a little bit.

It just speeds it up a little bit.

Like there is no like, this is Luka Doncic's team.

They will be as good as he is until LeBron James gets back.

And if Luka's really good,

that is a, he's one of the best floor raisers in the NBA, right?

Like your floor is pretty high if you have Luca Dacha Cheno team.

I would agree with a decent amount of shooting around him.

A big man roller.

What are the early, I was going to say, a big man roller who I have been on record repeatedly as saying, I think the Aiton thing is going to work in Los Angeles.

Now, work, again, I keep saying this, like, it's not going to be Dominate.

It's not going to be like, I'm a max contract guy.

I'm an all-star.

That's who I am.

I think it's just going to be like 16 and 8, solid defense.

How has he looked so far?

What are the early reviews?

I know he says all the right things.

Like, I'm just here to win.

I don't care about my numbers.

I'm glad to be playing on important games again.

No shade at Portland, blah, blah, blah.

But like, he always says the right things publicly.

I don't really care what he says publicly.

What are the reviews internally?

So I think

bad, I don't want to say a bad first week, a little bit of a rocky first week.

He did not play well in their opener.

I think he's settled in a little here.

He played pretty well, relatively speaking, on Sunday against Golden State.

But I think here's the thing, Zach, with where the Lakers are right now, and this is like a frustration I think I have.

It's a frustration that fans have.

It's just the reality situation.

We have not seen this basketball team in any

close version of it.

We have not watched Luca Donchas play in the preseason.

LeBron James is hurt.

We've seen Austin Reeves play with like Marcus Smart has not played yet.

We've seen Austin Reeves play with like the other guys twice.

Right.

And so,

you know, and it's not like we're sitting in there watching scrimmages or any of that stuff.

We don't get to see that stuff.

And so when I talk to people, kind of,

they've had, you know, a hard training camp.

They've run a lot.

Championship shape is a thing you'll hear a lot.

You've heard J.J.

Reddick say it.

He said at the end of last season, it's on the boards inside the building.

They're running.

They had dead legs in the first week.

They had four days off and, you know, played again yesterday.

For some reason, they're playing four games this week

in the preseason, which is its own sort of thing, I guess.

We're going to see this team probably twice.

We'll see Luca and these guys twice.

And we'll get to see the early stages of, you know, where's this pick and roll chemistry with Deander 80?

Because I think that's been part of it.

The things that I've noticed, if I was going to be encouraged,

I think, you know, his shot blocking and his size is a real thing.

He's not always in the right spot, but he's he's really seven feet tall.

He has long arms, big hands, and knocks the ball away a bunch.

I think Jackson Hayes

has been like pretty good in verticality defensively.

So you have like two kind of versions of rim protection in those guys,

which is a step forwards from where they were last season.

I, you know, he's tremendously skilled, DeAndre Ayton.

You know, I don't know like how many possessions are drawn up for him to like hit the short pocket and shoot 16 footers.

He's going to do it.

Oh, yeah.

Oh, yeah.

He's going to do it.

You better believe he's going to do it.

Yeah.

Yeah.

And he's, you know, which I don't, I honestly don't mind.

He's very good.

If you look at his splits, like short, mid, like the range from like 13 to 17 feet.

He's quite a good shooter.

He's like a 50% level shooter.

Anything beyond that, I'm not super interested in.

I'm not interested in that shot specifically being more than a few times a game because he's also a decent passer,

just decent.

He needs to improve as a passer.

he needs to increase the speed in which he makes reads but that's a profitable place for him to get the ball in a four on three situation for the lakers it has to be or else the construction of the team kind of falls apart i think lakers fans are like sort of getting used to his energy right because like you see him in interviews and stuff like that and um like you know he he just like says some wild stuff like it just kind of happens and and like you know like he had said something like last week about like not playing with luca and lebron right and like people freaked out, like, oh my God, he hasn't played with Luca and LeBron.

It's like, no, he's played with Luca.

He just hasn't played with Luca and LeBron.

Like, what he said was accurate.

The way it was kind of aggregated and pulled out wasn't totally accurate.

So there was this notion that this team is crazy far behind that like these guys haven't met each other or anything like that.

And that, and that's not, that's not necessarily the case.

They are behind because they have not had LeBron James on the court.

Um, when you don't have one of your two best players available, um, particularly like the guy that you really want to figure out the ways and marches.

But like, I think

LeBron is going to make it easy on everybody else to play with him

in that way, right?

Like this is, this is one of his superpowers.

Like he knows how to play the game of basketball.

God, I can't believe you made me say the game of basketball.

That's how you know I've been around LeBron a lot.

But I think he'll be fine on that front.

I think to me, like you, you kind of hinted at it early season,

like the big, the big question with this team when you talk to people is like where are they at point of attack defensively right like that's the biggest question and it's would seem to me like if you just slot jared vanderbilt in for 10 to 12 games like he's looked really good athletically um he had his first healthy offseason basically since he's been a laker And I'm not ready to like say like the shot is totally rebuilt.

I won't say it.

It's not.

I think he needs to shoot it confidently and be willing to go 0 for 3.

I like that we just got we just got right inside your mental process.

Like, I'm not ready to say it.

You know what?

I'm not going to say it.

You just, it's your percentage.

Your brain was like, nope, don't talk about the jump shot.

It's not going to happen.

No, no.

I mean, but it's like, but the point is, is like, like, all of this stuff, right?

Like, rebuild it now, whatever.

It's like, you just have to shoot it.

If you're going to shoot it once, you have to shoot it three times.

Him and I have spoken about this.

Like, actually, like, if you're going to play with these guys and you're going to be a credible, semi-credible, like, stand on the outside, catch it and shoot it, like, you got to be willing to shoot it.

And you've given him some coaching.

He, this was his posit to me.

This is what he said to me.

We were talking about sweaters.

We ended up talking about three-pointers.

Zach, this is how the job goes.

And

he was just like, no, like if I'm going to, like, if I'm going to be like, to be a 33% three-point shooter, like I'm not going to go 0 for 1, 0 for one, one for one.

Like, that's not.

I won't be any good.

The rhythm, I'll never get better if I shoot it at that low a volume.

So I need to shoot it if I'm open and I have to keep shooting it.

That's not why he's going to be on the court.

He's going to be on the court because of his energy.

I think he's shown a little more bounce to the basket.

You know, he's had some really good finishes.

He's thrown a couple really good look-ahead passes.

Like there is like, I've always felt like a little untapped passing and how he plays.

It's been untapped, but I've seen him throw passes through the years that are just like,

like real.

Like, oh my gosh, I can't believe like this dude saw that.

He threw one of those passes last night and, you know, get up and down in transition like you know that mitigates that mitigates some of the shooting stuff.

And I and I and I think you know you can play him with Austin Reeves and Luka Dachitch.

You can get out in the run.

So you hit on a couple of things.

Number one, I don't think like Lakers fans should be feeling any angst that this team is so far behind.

This is the expectation of how a preseason goes when your best player is going to turn 41 and your second best player is going to turn 41 and your best player played national team the whole summer.

It's going to be a slow build and Marcus Smart's been mostly injured the the last two years, the whole thing.

As far as you mentioned, three-man actions involving all three of their best perimeter players.

You know, JJ wants to sprinkle that in and make it more of a focal point.

And you saw it last year.

I've talked about it before, where LeBron would enter the ball to Luca at one elbow, and he and Reeves would screen for each other at the other elbow because Reeves was being guarded by the littlest defender on the floor.

And you would put defenses in this hellish position of like, do I switch this little guy onto LeBron?

Is someone going to cut free?

And like, you know, they want to lean into more of those and

develop many more sorts of those kind of counters.

And those guys are such high IQ players.

Like, I don't worry about that happening.

Pace, you mentioned pace.

I think this team should play faster.

I think they should play faster when Luca and LeBron are on the floor and they have so much outlet passing and ball handling.

I think they'll figure that out.

I think that all comes in time.

I don't think this, if it's really just like 10 games.

I don't really think it affects their win-loss record hardly at all.

Like they have Luca, they have Reeves, they will stagger them.

The Reeves solo minutes actually went pretty well last year with Anthony Davis and without post-trade Anthony Davis.

Like Reeves without LeBron and Luca and AD was

and they've gone well, and they've gone well this preseason.

So he's looked really good in those minutes.

Yeah, so I don't really think

it affects them.

I think the main question about this team is Aiton, and I think they'll be a very good offensive team when they're healthy.

Can they get their defense to a level

where they can actually challenge Oklahoma City and Denver?

Because the more I watch those teams play, and look, that's not to dismiss the Clippers, the Warriors, definitely not the Timberwolves.

All the win projection systems, by the way, are crazy high on the Warriors.

I need to kind of recalibrate my Warriors' thoughts.

I just think the West starts and maybe ends with those two teams, and we'll see if anybody can challenge them.

The Lakers' offense is going to be very good.

Can the defense, which was very switchy last year and

very good at contesting three-pointers at some of that was probably luck some wasn't like how how does how does jj sort of remap that this year is the big question to me and i don't think this i don't think this affects that at all so one of my one of my questions for them defensively um you know and i i wrote a story about this last year but you know like they they try to do what you know they call it like banshee culture right like which was like fly around um i mean shorthand it was just play harder than who you're playing right and um

i would say like christmas um to mid-march they played harder than basically anybody um i saw them play uh lebron james um deserves a ton of credit for that like he was all over the place um flying around defensively making calls making switches that's but you know with anthony davis anthony davis hurt anthony davis traded No Luca, like whatever.

It didn't matter.

Like they played their asses off.

The good thing about that is then like you start to tick up like there was a pretty healthy stretch last year zach where they were like a top three defense um you know but they were like it was like to me it was the how they were doing it right and they were doing it by flying around and playing incredibly hard and i do think there is an art

it's not all art some of it is luck i do think there is an art to the scouting report of

closing out hard on the right shooters, closing out soft on the right shooters, and leaving the the right guys open.

I thought the lake, I don't think it's all luck.

I don't buy into the analytics that it's like you, it's just complete random, like make or miss, whatever.

I think there's some things that defenses can do, and I think the Lakers did that correctly for a lot of that stretch.

Yeah, I just wonder, though, like, you know, when you get to the playoffs, right?

Like, if your defensive identity is play hard,

like, then what?

Because like that gap just closes.

You know, like your ability to find energy on, you know, a super cold like Wednesday night in Memphis in, you know, January, it like that just doesn't matter as much in the playoffs.

Like, it's great that that's who you are.

And that, and like, if you're winning 50-50 balls

and like you're like not giving up rebounds because what, you know,

you're flying into bodies and you're boxing out and you're moving around like Zach Lowe to capture the flag game.

Dude, my quads, by the way, my quads,

there's a whole tech thing going on about what body parts hurt from the parents.

My quads are, I was walking down some stairs on Saturday night and I was like, this isn't like, I swim, I do some extra, like I'm not in bad shape.

Like, this is not normal.

What's happening to me?

I was in best shape of my life this summer and played pickup basketball for like the first time in years.

And like the amount of like muscles like that I just haven't been using, like 70% of my body.

Like my I don't even say the word.

I don't say the word quad in a normal human context, except for now i have been saying it like i say it in like oh someone injured their quad in the nba now i'm like my quads man i don't know how are your quads my quads are good it's sad this is all do you do you ever do you ever have the speaking of lebron and sciatica and being old do you ever like suffer from neck injuries just from sleeping that's my favorite part of getting old is like the i slept wrong and now i have a pulled muscle or some sort of injury from sleeping that's how washed i am let me tell you i am

a top one percent sleeper I'm an elite sleeper.

I don't suffer injuries in my sleep.

You're the Dalton Connective shooting of sleeping?

Whoever the LeBron James Effet is, and I think I know who the LeBron James Effet is.

Rex Ryan.

Okay.

All right.

Okay.

Remember the LeBron James Effet that fixed his?

I think I know who that is.

But anyway, I am that of sleep.

I can sleep through anything.

Earthquakes, storms.

Like a bear could be roaring outside our bedroom and I would be asleep.

And I don't injure myself.

I'm an elite.

I don't have a lot of skills in life, Dan.

Sleep is one of them.

All right, let's get back to the back to the Lakers.

Briefly.

I don't like.

So, so you think Vandy starts?

You think that's?

I mean, I think it's either him or La Ravia.

And I think sort of like Laravia's

like, I think Laravia's multi-like dimensional, sort of like, I can make things better in a bunch of different ways, like probably

plays better

off the bench in this setting.

But

it's a real decision.

I think, just like Vanderbilt gives you a little more point of attack.

I still, like, I'm higher on this team than ConsenSys, I think.

I will have a little bit more to say on Bills Over Under podcast tomorrow.

I like their depth.

I think they did a pretty good job filling out their depth.

And that's even if they get nothing from Cleba.

If they get anything from Cleba, that's a bonus from me as a stretch five.

Speaking of quads, speaking of quads.

He's, he's, He's a walking quad injury.

I like this team.

And,

you know, LeBron's the biggest star in the world of sports.

If this team is actually going to make a run at the finals, which I don't think they can do, but if they're actually going to be able to beat these teams above them in the playoffs, it's just going to be because Luca is a monster.

That Luca is.

Yeah, I was going to say, can we chart that out?

We should, like, can we chart out, like, what is, what's their path?

How narrow is it?

I think their path is, I mean,

it's hard to know these things.

Like, it's health.

It's how do the brackets break?

Is there like some miracle where Denver and Oklahoma City have to play each other in the second round?

And they're not the one in two seeds.

Like, somehow they get slotted.

Oklahoma City to me is,

I would be blown away if they're not the number one seed.

Do the brackets break right?

If you've got to beat both of them, I just don't see it.

If you've got to beat one of them and Luca just goes ham and LeBron is healthier than you would expect a 41-year-old to be and they find the right mix offensively with those three guys and maybe they make a trade in the middle of the season.

I think it's pretty, I mean, I say they have the third best odds in the West, but they're really plus 950 and then three teams are plus 1,000.

So they're basically tied with like all the way down to the Clippers, the Clippers, the Warriors, the Rockets, the Rockets, Wolves.

The Wolves.

I just don't, I just think,

I think LeBron's just too old.

like i and that's why to me it just comes down to like it's going to take a monster luca run for them to really do it but those two teams above them are just really really good if they're healthy i think the path if there is one is um

you know you use like this this first like 10 12 games right like sets a tone where luka doncic gets off to a really strong start um where austin reeves like like there was a time last year when i want to say it was right around christmas where like lebron ceded um a lot of offensive possessions um to reeves and reeves usage started to really tick up and lebron started to play more of like a quote-unquote floor game like i was

which is how he should be this is like this is what i was gonna say home run scenario for him with these two guys yeah so you know where i mean i i would call it like olympics lebron like some version of like where you touch the game that way um

but so you if if those two guys can get off to the types of starts i mean austin reeves has been playing like his, I've, his situation, Zach, is to me is like a really, really interesting one.

He's a he's an unrestricted free agent or can be an unrestricted free agent at the end of the season at a time when players that are 27 years old and average 20 points a game don't become unrestricted free agents.

Like this just like there's the situation doesn't occur that often.

And he's the market is going to be really interesting for him if teams think that he can be an engine, um, you know, like full-time in a way.

And if so, um, he's going to have real suitors at a big number.

And I think

if he has a good year, and I think he will have a good year, um, I just think he's a really good player.

Uh, he's a good passer, he averaged six assists a game last year.

I'm looking at, he can shoot, like, he's a very good offensive player, and yeah, he's a defensive

slight liability, but he tries hard and he knows how to play.

If he has a good year,

A, he could be a fringe all-star candidate for sure, And B,

I mean,

the max is not out of the question.

It's not out of the question.

It's not.

I mean, I reported this at the athletic.

Like, I mean, I've spoken to multiple teams who like think that, again, if he has a good year, there will be offers north of $40 million for him.

Like, that's just with the cap, I know, with the cap jumping, like, I think his max number from another team is like 42 is where it starts.

That's there, you know, it's him and Trey Young are the free agents.

And people, this is why, you know, he's been put into all these fake trades.

You know, what the Lakers can trade one future first right now, right?

On draft day, a lot of other stuff opens up.

They can do, they can do three on draft day, one right now.

You know, he's been put into a lot of these fake trades.

And I do think his situation, I've said it before, like, I'm just monitoring it.

Like, I'm monitoring it, like, a guy getting into unrestricted free agency, not really extension eligible in any real way, who is the third option on this team.

And like, you just have the LeBron future clouds everywhere, um, just monitoring it.

But to me, like Reeves plus one Lakers first-round pick, I'm not sure that's getting me what I need to get to get to get over the hump.

And it's not only that, like, he and Luca are total, like, age-appropriate partners going forward.

And I don't want to get older than I already am if I'm the Lakers.

And I mean, the two best Luca teams, right, had

like really, really talented secondary playmakers, Kyrie Irving and Jalen Brunson, right?

And I mean, I'm like, I know that seems like maybe blasphemous to include us reason, but I mean, he's that type of offensive player, right?

Like, he's a very player.

Yeah.

So I think, but I think his situation is interesting.

On the trade front, it's just like, I mean, for all these reasons, like if you're a team that, you know, if you think the Lakers are uneasy, paying them $40 million, like, why give up real assets?

Why not just wait?

And just do that.

You sounded like Mark Cuban on Shark Tank for a second, Darren.

For all these reasons, I'm out.

Yeah, I mean, look, I mean, back to the, let's just close, going back to the LeBron injury.

Like,

whenever LeBron is in the news, it's like an earthquake, and you have to react to it.

And I get that.

Like, this is

either the best or the second best player of all time, potentially in the final year of his career.

I don't know that.

We'll know when we know.

I know that it wasn't the decision part two was not about that.

Shout out to the guy suing for his ticket prices going up.

Yeah, good luck.

Bad choice on that one, buddy.

That's on you.

That's you.

Sue yourself.

Can you sue yourself?

That would be fun to do.

But I just don't like, yeah, it's not great, but

I don't have a hot take on this one.

I think they're going to be fine.

Like, I don't think it's crazy to say that without LeBron James for 12 games, they'll be fine.

I think they'll be fine.

We'll see.

I mean,

it's like the least sexy version of team analysis.

Like, one we haven't seen them play like literally in the preseason i have no idea um and like their best pathway to improvement is internal growth right it's like if it works out um they'll be better in march than they are in november and

that's not that exciting but like that to me is like if it works they will be it's because JJ Redick is a better coach than he was last year.

It's because Austin Reeves is better than he was last year.

It's because they know how to play together better than they did last year.

And

like, even like, if you believe them and listen to them talk about like how uncomfortable they were or how little, like, how not, not prepared, but just sort of like how thrown together it was.

You know, like they felt like pretty good about their chances last year.

I mean, I had a player text me after the game in Dallas last year, after Luca's return in Dallas, I had a player text me that it was like, basically like, I think we can win the championship.

That that was like like a come together moment.

Like they were like really feeling themselves at that moment, right?

Like they thought they had all the tools, all the pieces.

Luca's, you know, and by the way, this version of Luca that they're going to have this year is going to be better.

At least certainly start physically better than the one they had last year, emotionally better than they wanted to have.

I mean, he better be last year.

He better be.

He did all the tours of the fitness magazines, and he looks great.

Yeah, I mean, look, and then they won.

He did a hot ones too, Zach, to balance it all out.

I want to do hot ones.

Can I get on hot ones?

I'm not famous enough, obviously, to get on hot ones i'd like to do it i want to see what it's like

hot ones guy what's his name hot ones guy sean um he's a white sock fan that's why i like him that's great i don't care you're a pets fan that's sort of the same stop that's unnecessary it's unnecessary sort of the same it's unnecessary you're a cubs fan i'm a white sock you're a white socks fan okay uh but you're your second team angst i love i love hot sauce i have like four in rotation at my house at all times i'm really the only one who uses it So just like, let me, come on.

I didn't watch the leave.

You should do like a T-Mo.

You should do like a T-Mu version of it.

No, I mean, you have it.

You work for a company.

You have it.

You have got a great microphone in front of you.

Yeah.

It's kind of beautiful.

You know, like, why not just like, it doesn't have to be on wings.

Why not put hot sauce on something else?

Crackers.

I don't know.

There was a trend like three years ago, the hot chip challenge.

Do you remember that?

I do.

I saw, I will not name this teenager.

It's now a college freshman.

I saw a teenager do the hot chip challenge which i guess was it was like one chip you bought a bag and it was one chip

and

i honestly thought we needed to take him to the emergency room it was one of those it looked like an alien movie where like the guy's fine after he gets bit by the alien and then 30 seconds later he's convulsing on the floor and his skin is changing colors that frightened me and i was like talking a lot of crap about like if you do it i'll do it and then he did it and i was like oh i'm not gonna do that no

um

okay so lakers will be fine I don't know how, but yeah, put me on the hot sauce thing.

How did Luca do?

Did he make it to the end?

Do you have to make it to the end?

He made it to the end.

He is bad with hot, with spicy food.

A couple of,

I don't know if they were either Serbian or Slovenian.

He speaks both languages.

Some good cursing

in the comments, which was good.

There's some great.

I mean, I know the Serbian.

I don't know Slovenian.

I know the Serbian curse words.

Yeah, they are.

Very colorful based on some of the translations I saw, like descriptive,

dating stuff.

And I'm telling you good stuff.

And I've said this before, like American curse words are like former Yugoslavia curse words, curse phrases are.

That's a better way.

It's a phrase.

It's like an idiom.

They're very colorful.

And like, they're so, they're so gross that I don't even want to say them on this podcast where I'm allowed to swear.

So he says one at one point.

And like, Sean Evans, I think is the other guy's name it.

And like Sean is kind of like, and Lucas says like, it means good morning.

Yeah.

Like while he's like choking through.

So you'll hear.

You'll hear Jokovich sometimes during matches blurt them out.

And the umpires don't know what he's saying, but I know what he's saying.

They're very descriptive.

And I'm telling you, like, you, but like, they're not for show.

If you just walk by any coffee shop with a bunch of Yugoslavian people,

you will just hear them from the coffee shop.

All right, Dan Woikey, what else?

You're athletic.

What else we got going on?

Nothing, you know, just here.

Like, I'm in that time of year right now where it's like, you know, I'm packing and unpacking it.

Is there any hope?

Is there any hope for Dalton Connect?

Oh, this is a good question.

I think there's some hope.

So I wrote a piece last week at the Athletic

about Dalton Connect and about his situation.

I think, you know, another blessing in disguise, right?

Like it's really hard to play yourself into value as the 11th guy in a rotation.

And I think he was going to enter this season as the 11th guy in their rotation.

That, assuming like full health, well, they're not full health.

He will get an opportunity to play.

I think there are some real, real concerns.

Like, obviously, the defensive stuff is a problem.

And, like, being in the right position, um, reading the game in the right way,

I, it's only going to get better with reps.

Like, that's the only pathway for him is a lot of time on the court, um, and a lot of mistakes, and a lot of learning.

I don't know how patient they're going to be on that front.

I think there are some like offensive stuff too at play here, Zach.

Like, he, you know, he's been a shooter, like cast sort of as a shooter on this team um I think he's more of a scorer if like I think he's more like needs the ball needs rhythm needs to get shots up needs to get to the free throw line like a three-level type of guy he looked at his best to me last year when he would like come off an Iverson screen or something like that catch the ball on the move and go to the rim he's like pretty explosive going to the rim get to the

that also requires him to remember the play and when he is supposed to come off the screen and where the screen is I just ask because he's kind of he went from darling of the draft, and there was all that fawning media coverage.

It's like, oh, he slipped to the Lakers, the genius of Rob Palinka.

Oh, my God, Dalton Connect.

Brickie of the year.

Yeah, I mean,

I was at a Dick's Sporting Goods early in the season last year, and they were selling four jerseys or five jerseys.

It was Anthony Davis, LeBron James, Bronnie James, Austin Reeves, and Dalton Connect.

The rest of the league really missed the boat, but the Lakers saw it the whole time, blah, blah, to like out of their rotation and like out of the discussion.

When you took, like, Gabe Vincent comes up before Dalton Connect comes up.

I just thought it was interesting.

All right, Dan, Woikey, go do your job.

Thanks for joining me.

And I got to go ice my quads.

I was going to say, stretch it out.

Do some good stretches.

Yeah.

Thanks, bud.

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All right.

Let's talk about some random teams that I have neglected.

I'm sorry to these teams.

You are no longer going to be neglected.

We will talk about you and your mediocre projections.

With Nikaius Duncan from the Dunker Spot Now of Yahoo.com Podcast Network.

Nikaias, how are you, sir?

I am doing well.

Trying to get my body back oriented on the East Coast.

I was out in Phoenix and Vegas for the WNBA Finals.

Excited into the season there, but ready to ramp back up on the NBA side.

A lot of preseason basketball to catch up on over the weekend, but ready to rock with you.

Congrats on the new deal, by the way.

Well deserved.

I hope it's going well so far for you and Steve Jones Jr.

I will say this again.

If you guys are the two of you, if you want to know what happened in the basketball games or what's going on in the basketball games on the court where the basketball is played, you guys are one of the go-to spots.

I'm glad to have you on to talk about some random teams.

One, we're going to start with is not so random, and that's the Milwaukee Bucks.

And I want to talk about them as a team because all the discourse about them has been about Giannis and his searching around, which was legit.

He basically confirmed it at Media Day: I'm locked in for now, six or seven months.

Who knows?

He said the word temptation, all this, and we've done the fake trades, we've done all of that.

Um,

we're starting with the Bucks today because, according to Sean Strania, citing uh Giannis' De Ante Ukumpo Brothers agent, Alex Doratzas, the Bucs are signing Alex Atente Kumpo, a third Atenta Kumpo, to a two-way deal.

If you don't think this is a sign of total desperation on the part of the Bucs, I'm sorry to say you are kidding yourself.

They know this is a big season.

They know that Giannis has a wandering eye.

Giannis has told the world that he has a little bit of a wandering eye.

Obviously, they have now lost in the first round lots of years in a row.

They made a desperate move with Damian Lord and Miles Turner, which I think will work out for them.

But, you know,

they're running out of big bullets to change his team.

I just want to say, Nikaius, I'm not trying to be snarky.

I'm just telling you, like, this is a two-way spot.

I don't think Alex Atuntekumpo is going to play in the NBA, but it's still a two-way spot.

Alex Atuntekumpo has played 65 G League games in his career starting in 2021.

Career average, five points a game on 37% shooting, 25% on three.

He has played internationally for two different teams, one in Spain, one in Greece.

In 15 international games, he has 17 total points.

Like, I'm sorry to say that he is not being signed to a two-way contract because the Bucs believe that maybe he can break through their roster.

He is being signed to appease Giannis.

And so that's where we are.

So

we can leave that be.

That is what it is.

This team is actually quite an interesting team to me as a team on the floor.

I'm excited about the Giannis-Turner combination.

It's interesting to me that they've been bringing Kuzma off the bench or they brought him off the bench in their last postseason game or preseason game and started A.J.

Green and Kevin Porter Jr.

and Gary Trent Jr.

just loading up on shooting around Giannis.

They've done some things to upgrade their bench.

I like Cole Anthony.

I like Ryan Hollins.

I like Jericho Sims.

Their over-under is 42.5.

That is shockingly low to me.

I don't know that they can like really challenge to win the East.

I don't think, I'll be bolder, clearer.

I don't think they can win the East.

I don't think they can really challenge to win the East.

But I do think this is an interesting team built around Giannis playing point Giannis, doing everything, Giannis,

as long as he can give them 65, 70 games.

If it's below that, they're in deep, deep doo-doo.

But I kind of like this roster.

That doesn't, it's a little disappointing that I don't think they're a real contender, given that Giannis is in the square of his prime.

But what do you think of the roster?

Maybe you're more optimistic than I am.

I am intrigued by the roster as well.

Like, I think loading up on shooting around Giannis obviously makes sense.

And Giannis, I guess, can't even say quietly, he has just been like one of the most effective pick and roll ball handlers in the league over the last two or three years with any sort of volume.

And so, if you are going to lean more into like Gary Trent Jr.

can set gold screens for him, him and AJ Green have already developed a really good partnership together.

If you're going to lean more into that piece, in addition to all the work that he already does inside the art with some of the mid-post ISOs and things like that, the passing has continued to grow.

Like you do just kind of have a pathway to a good regular season offense at the very least, particularly when he's on the floor.

And defensively, him plus Miles Turner should be very good.

You don't have like A plus perimeter defenders.

But like among the guard group and among the perimeter players that they're going to be playing, like all of them are like probably plus in the strength department at the very least among their position.

So that does lead you to a level of switchability one through three and one through four if if you're going to include yannis in that and so

you can map out how this team is regular season successful as for like their postseason projection like they're probably tier two at best for me or they're in the if everything breaks right camp i am also coming off of the go to the w route i'm coming off of an aces season where they were under 500 and they just won the championship because they had the best player in the world.

So I can't completely rule out Giannis just saying, I am better than all of you and I have a spread floor.

Deal with me for five to seven games every round.

But yeah, I think it's fair to have them in that second or maybe even third tier if you're higher on some other teams.

But the pathway of Giannis being one of, if not the best player in the league, shooting switchable defense to where you can at least hover around, I don't know, like 12 to 15th in defensive rating.

Top 10 offense, top 15 defense that gets you enough regular season wins to play the what side of the bracket am I on game.

And from there, all bets are off because Giannis is that good.

Yeah, I have them in.

Look, I've been driving the Atlanta hype train.

Couldn't be more excited about the Hawks.

I love the Magic.

I think the Magic are going to be a regular season wins machine this year.

Their floor is just so high because of their defense and their competition level.

And Bain solves a lot of their issues.

I think Milwaukee is in that group.

Vegas doesn't think so.

Vegas has them much lower than that.

I'm putting Milwaukee in that bucket just out of respect to, like, they have the best guy, and it's not close, and he's going to single-handedly make them a decent team.

Now, they shot the hell out of it last year.

They have the number one three-point shooting team in the league on middle volume.

So, if the percentage comes down, just regression to the mean, whatever, but the volume goes up, I think the math still kind of works out in their favor.

They're still a Doc Rivers, Protect the Rim at all costs.

Transition D at all costs kind of team.

I think Miles Turner fits nicely into that as a three-point shooting big.

So, he'll get back on defense early.

Protect the rim.

Portis is still here.

I just think they have, like, I don't think people realize that Ryan Rollins is pretty good.

He's good.

KPJ was pretty good for them.

Trent and Green, I'm a believer in A.J.

Green.

Still not extended.

I think there was some hope that that deal could get done somewhere around the mid-level exception.

We'll see.

I just think they're a good solid team.

And like, there's a world in which they're in the second round of the playoffs and Darius Garland is hurt again.

And it's like 2-2 against the Cavs in the 1-4 series or whatever.

And you're like, you could see Giannis being like, yeah, this team's still pretty damn good.

Now, I don't think they can beat those teams in in a playoff series, but I know Giannis isn't scared of them.

There's also a world where this goes south completely, and the Giannis trade rumors start in December.

Now, I just think an in-season deal is very complicated for a million different reasons, and it's much more likely an off-season thing.

I think he actually referred to that himself when he was like, these are the temptation is something I think about between the end of the season and the beginning of the season.

But, you know, I think this is a good, solid team.

I don't, that's not what John Horse wants to hear.

It's not what the owners want to to hear.

It's not what Bucks fans want to hear because they're accustomed to being an inner circle title contender.

And even in a weakened East, I do not think they are that.

I think that's all fair.

Like, I think if you are Bucks optimist, you obviously lean on the greatness of Giannis first and foremost.

You nail the little things.

And then if anybody in the guard room pops for you, or if any of their younger players pop for you, that's where the ceiling, at the very least, gets higher.

Like you mentioned KPJ in particular.

I want to spend like 20 seconds max on him, but he did shoot the leather off the ball for most of his Buck Stint last year.

Like if that carries over, then that helps their overall profile.

And again, you got Gary Trenton Jr., you have AJ Green.

None of them are quote-unquote names, but all can fill a role to kind of accentuate the overall system on both ends.

So if there's a level of solid, Giannis can take you over the top.

Yeah, do I think they are better than the Knicks or the Cavs?

Or I am also high.

The Southeast Division is going to be fun.

That would be the one broad stroke take I want to get off on this podcast.

But

y'all know you put Giannis in a room with some of these dudes.

It's like he's just better than everyone in the East.

So the Southeast Division, let me just make sure I have the Southeast Division right because we're going to get some Southeast Atlanta, Orlando, Miami, Charlotte, Washington.

We're going to get to Charlotte later.

I did Washington last week.

We're going to talk about it with Bill Moore tomorrow.

I'm excited for the Wizards.

They're going to lose a shit ton of basketball games, and I'm excited for how they're going to do it.

I like that you're just pumping up the Southeast Division.

I like it.

It's a good take.

And we will talk about the Hornets.

All right, I'm done with thoughts on the Bucs.

I'm just going to, we're going to go through some teams.

Okay.

And I'm going to dictate the order.

This is a team that I have not talked about much at all.

And I don't really have a good reason why.

I want to talk about the Pelicans

as a what the hell is this team team.

I think their starting lineup is going to be Jordan Poole, not a point guard,

FYI, Trey Murphy III, Herb Jones, Zion, and Kavan Looney.

I love the Looney signing for them.

I'm actually kind of pleasantly surprised that he's starting over Yves Misi because I just think they need an adult in the room who's going to execute the scheme every single time and do like the little stuff and not care if he scores any points.

And then the bench, I think is kind of interesting.

Like Alvarado is just a plus every time he's on the floor.

Hawkins, is it going to happen?

I'm interested.

Sadiq Bey, people forgot about Sadiq Bey missed the whole year.

I think Sadiq Bey is a really nice, if he's your seventh or eighth guy, I think that's a sign of a good team.

And then you got Misi, Makovich, Queen.

We don't need to talk about the Queen trade.

You know,

what we do need to talk about the queen trade, because to me, the biggest question about the team is what are their incentives?

Are the coaches who are on thin ice and they know, are they going to be told you got to play Jeremiah Fears and you got to play Derry Queen.

You You got to play him a lot of minutes.

We need to prove that these were the right picks in the lottery.

We need to prove the Queen pick in particular because of what we traded to get that pick.

Or are they going to be free to just play whoever they want and Chase wins?

Because most rookies are just not ready to help teams win.

I think Fears is probably more ready than Queen.

But they, like, there's no reason that those guys have to play 20 minutes a game.

They can be normal, like, 10-minute-a-game bench players for a normal team.

So, or are they incentivized?

Is the front office going to say, we need to win as many games as possible to avoid the humiliation of potentially trading like a top three pick in the draft for Derek Queen?

I don't know where that all nets out.

I'm assuming they're just going to try to win for the most part.

This team is kind of a forgotten backwater team

because Zion's always hurt.

He's not hurt right now, but he's always hurt.

They're going to need him to be healthy, not just because he's the best player on the team, but because with McCollum gone, with

DeJounte Murray injured for at least part of the year, if not slow play it, although the rumblings he looks like, everything you're hearing about Tatum and how great and ahead of schedule he looks, you're also hearing about DeJounte Murray if you ask the right questions.

But they're going to need like high levels of point Zion because point Jordan Poole is not a thing I want to lean too far into.

And then you got backup guards after that.

Trey Murphy will take a heavier load.

I don't, I think there's just too much talent if they're healthy for this team to be just discounted as like, oh, they're a bottom three team in the West again.

But obviously, the if they're healthy caveat is a huge one with the best player, but I don't, I don't hate the roster.

I think there's some good stuff here.

What do you, what are you interested in when you, when you, when you're going to watch them?

Uh, it naturally starts with Zion and it starts with the offense in particular, because I do think if you're using Zion, it's funny because we're coming off of the Milwaukee conversation, but if you're using Zion as more of an initiator than as a hub, like Jordan Poole can shoot and can, in general, just float off-ball if you need him to.

Trey Murphy III can also do that.

And then you add in the fact that he has gotten stronger and now people are just bouncing off of him on drives.

I'm just excited to see how much of that carries over into the regular season.

But you have spacing, you have guards that can beat tilted defenses.

You have Kavan Looney who can screen all over the place.

So if you want to get into some of the lower, big, big picking roles, you can, because Zion chews up space as quickly as anyone in the league.

And so, like, you do have,

you, I'm curious to see like how creative they get offensively.

Like some of the early showings in preseason were interesting to me like where they're giving Zion the ball, what the split of on-ball and off-ball usage for him is, how they're using Trey Murphy the third, how they're using Jordan Poole.

If that coalesces, like they should be a pretty good offense with at least, you know, Jordan Poole, Trey Murphy the third, Zion on the floor together.

The defense is where I kind of raise my brow because I don't know.

exactly what their best scheme is.

And that's not what you shouldn't have that answer in preseason.

So I'm not stressing too much.

But

I enjoyed, quietly enjoyed, some of the compete level from Jordan Poole defensively last year.

Still wasn't a great defender.

Trey Mifford III is still growing on that end.

I am excited to see Herb Jones come back.

He is coming back from the shoulder, if I remember.

Total loss season last year for Herb Jones, basically.

And again, like when guys lose a season like that, people kind of forget how good they are.

That dude is a menace on defense who took steps to be a more active participant in offense, like attacking closeouts, running in transition, handling the ball in transition.

like he can be part of a functional fast-moving creative offense yeah the playmaking popped a little bit too so i want to see him get back to full form because when healthy he is one of the best perimeter defenders on the planet with some offensive juice

but

i was joking with this with steve on a recent episode of the pod and i was like okay this pelicans defense uh they went with switching We saw some drop.

We saw some at the level.

We saw some ice.

And in every scheme that they went to, there was an element of, oh, okay, I can see it.

And then immediate breakdowns.

Like, oh, this is how they can get dinged.

How quickly they can settle in on a base defensively, because obviously the best defenses can do a little bit of everything.

But as quickly as they can depend on or find a base that they're comfortable with, I think that's where you get into some of the floor and ceiling talk with them.

Because I agree with you with the talent itself.

One of the things I enjoyed in their preseason, when they did go to their second unit, it's Jose Alvarado and Jeremiah Fears on the floor together, and they're just picking up dudes full court.

And I'm just like, I don't know what this is going to look like on offense, but that's going to be annoying to deal with for X amount of minutes per game.

But I just don't know where they're at defensively.

I just love Alvarado for this team.

And if Fears is struggling, like, I just think the coaching staff should have free reign.

Just be like, you know what?

Alvarado's going to play 25 minutes today and you don't get to play at all.

And I like Fears.

I think Fears is going to be interesting for them.

Defense is the whole thing.

I don't know how they can become an average defense.

Like 20th might be optimistic for me.

They were, they allowed last season the third most shots at the rim and the second most threes.

I mean, that's just a recipe for just like death by opposing efficiency.

And I think you nailed it with the scheme stuff because there's a lot of, and we're the next team we're going to talk about, the Charlotte Hornets, this applies to as well.

When there's a lot of injuries and a lot of turnover, and that's the case for both of these teams, just like installing a basic principle of like, this is what we do.

Here's how you do it is a very difficult thing.

And I actually think it's the lowest hanging fruit in the league to go from bad to competitive: just, you know what?

Forget complexity, forget like opponent-specific game planning, forget all that.

Here's our base defense.

Here are the rules.

Just execute that every single time.

And you get to a floor a little bit faster than you are if you're trying to be sort of tricky and strategic on defense.

I bet that's like what Mike Brown did with the Kings his first year.

There's just like, we're just going to do this one thing.

We're going to do it.

If you don't follow the rules, I'm going to take you out.

And the Pelicans, like, that's a hard thing for a coach to establish.

It's a hard thing for a young coach in Charlotte Charles Lee to establish too, given all the turnover.

And I just look around like, Looney can switch a little bit.

I don't know that I want to lean all the way into that, you know, as like a full-on switch scheme.

And then, you know, Poole can't switch.

He's going to get the shit beat out of him.

I mean, he can if you want.

And then, you know, your your backup centers are going to be, you know, Misi was just below average on defense last year.

I still like him.

He's a rookie.

He's going to be below average.

That's what they are.

I don't know what their defense is.

I mean, I like Herb Jones and Trey Murphy the third.

That's a nice sort of like in the middle of the defense wing combination.

I think Trey can get better on that end.

I just,

if they're 12th in offense and 22nd on defense or 23rd on defense, I'm not sure where that nets out.

And just going forward, like the big picture questions are still as pressing as they ever were

and so like even related to the defense like what's most comfortable for zion because i think for him like he is moving better and you certainly see it on offense he's moving better defensively too

but like what are the second and third efforts going to look like for him and again do you want him switching do you want him more if you want to ramp up your aggression with your bigs do you want zion trying to go back to the duke days of just kind of wrecking stuff at the rim as a weak side guy like that potential is still in there, but you have to see that on a per-possession basis.

Like, I don't, I just don't know what they want to land on, and they need to figure out what they want to do.

And honestly, I don't care which one it is.

If I just have an idea of this is what they're trying to do, it makes it easier for me to analyze how good this could be.

But

that's just kind of where it's at.

Like, it's a lot of skills, a lot of versatility, a lot of different lineup combinations that I like that they can get to.

But it is a lot of moving pieces and a lot of moving parts.

And like, as someone that is, I am a fan of Willie Green overall,

he has a tough job this year.

Like I do not envy him having to try to piece all of this together.

So I do hope there's like a little bit of grace within the first like five to ten games as he tries to figure out everything that's happening with his roster.

Seasons can go sideways real fast, to your point.

And obviously he has new bosses and Joe Dumars and Troy Weaver who were not behind his hiring.

And so that just is what it is.

You do worry, you know,

if there's even more point Zion than we've we've seen in previous seasons, how much does that take out of him?

This guy's been, you know, out half or more of every season, every, but like two.

Um, that's a little worrisome.

But, like, you've seen the glimpses with him.

The second or third effort thing is like, that absolutely nails it because

not in great shape, Zion, or not dialed in, Zion.

He, he makes the, he'll hedge on the first pick and roll, and then getting back to his man is too slow.

He's jogging.

He's coasting.

And then if you make him do anything else on defense, he's not going to do it.

Engage zion can be decent to pretty good on that end i remember vividly of the season when he got hurt in the play-in against the lakers when he was just single-handedly destroying the lakers wrecking him yeah um

that same season they played the clippers like late in the season and they gave him the kawaii assignment they're like you're gonna guard kawaii And he did really, really well.

Like he contested shots.

He got around screens.

And it was clear that he had reached a point where he was both in shape and engaged.

And it was the coaching staff being like, we're not going to switch you onto him.

You're just going to guard Kawhi Leonard this game.

And he was up to it.

And it just stood out to me as like, obviously, you can't bottle that level of defensive intensity and effort every single game over 82 games when you're the number one option on offense, too.

But there's something in there where he can make two, three, four defensive plays in one possession.

And they're just going to have to have that guy.

And that guy for those two months or whatever.

was super duper intriguing, even more so than he was the year he was an all-NBA candidate and all that.

So I hope we get to see it.

But I don't, I mean, I don't,

if I had to sit here and say who's going to make the play-in tournament, I'm not sure I would have the Pelicans in the top 10 in the West, but it's in play, certainly not top six.

But I just hope, I hope we have an interesting year where coaching and front office are aligned to some degree.

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All right, let's talk about Charlotte, your hometown team, your guys.

Total lost year last year with Miller and Lamello missing tons of games.

Mark Williams always misses tons of games.

He's now plays for a different team after they tried to trade him at least two times.

A lot of guys here.

A lot of guys.

The only three starters that I am sure about as we approach the end of the preseason are Lamello, Brandon Miller, who looms to me as one of the most important players in the league, and Miles Bridges.

Don't know who's going to start at center.

I suspect it might be Plumlee, maybe Diabate.

Who knows?

The third perimeter starting spot could go in a million different directions.

Colin Sexton is here.

Tijan Salon is still here.

Looming is like, ooh, did we miss that one?

Do we need another bite at the lottery apple?

Because we kind of blew that one.

And, you know, we got Knipple this year.

We're excited about that.

But do we want

another shot at like a top-top guy?

Brandon Miller was a top-top guy at number two.

You know, like, can Grant Williams play some center?

They just have a lot of, they have a lot of guys.

They like this Kalkbrenner kid.

Josh Green is still here.

I mentioned Sexton.

I don't know who starts in that last perimeter, McNeely as a rookie.

I don't know who starts in that last perimeter spot.

But to me, like, this team last year was 29th on offense and 24th on defense.

If LaMelo can play 65 games and we just keep having these ifs with these guys who are injured all the time, their numbers with Lamello are actually pretty good.

They were plus one last season, plus one single measly point with LaMelo and Brandon Miller on the floor together in only 466 minutes, I think.

They were plus four, plus four with LaMelo, Miller, and Bridges all together.

That doesn't sound like much.

For this team to have just like even scoring margins with those dudes on the floor is interesting to me.

Their offense was

good and decent when LaMelo was on the floor.

Now, we can talk about him and like the decision-making and

the nuances that need to get ironed out in his game.

I've said before, like, are you a carnival or are you a winning basketball player?

Like, which one do you want to be?

I think this is going to be a decent offensive team.

I just don't know what the roadmap is for them to be anything like competent defensively, given their, I mean, like, Miles Bridges at the four and this parade of dudes at the five is not a recipe for like anything but a bottom five defense in the NBA.

What, what do you see there?

The defense, aside from the Lamello health stuff, the defense is the biggest question that I have with Charlotte.

And that's where the big man room is interesting to me and this is something that i think charles lee was talking about uh during the hornets media days like well we have these guys that can all do different things like we could have mason plumley up the touch we got cult runner at the rim musa diabate is athletic he could do a couple different things now are any of them ready to be positive defenders consistently heading into the regular season like i don't know like mason plumley is probably your best bet just because he knows like just situationally where he's supposed to be but even then if you are banking on mason plumley to be

your anchor defensively, like it's not a bet that you feel comfortable with at the very least.

You leave room for him to overperform on that route.

But yeah, like it's, I'm curious about the big room.

I'm curious about the wing room, especially with like Grant Williams still out, Josh Green still out.

And so that just leaves you with, okay, who exactly do you even want defending number ones right now?

And so like, is that the road math to starting Lamello and Carla Sexton together?

Like, I don't really want Kyla Sexton to fit in number ones, but he's always going to be up for the challenge at the very least.

And he has quietly gotten better at screen navigation as his career has gone on.

So like, are you giving him that until Josh Green gets healthy?

When Josh Green and Grant Williams are back, do you become more of a switchable group?

Because they are just kind of, they're quietly kind of large across multiple positions.

Like, is that something that you lean into, you know, to our earlier conversation about just build out a base and we'll go from there?

Is that what the Hornets decide to do?

Like, during preseason play so far, it's felt like a lot of,

just a lot of drop.

We're going to have our bigs back.

Y'all are going to navigate.

We're going to try to stay at home on shooters and we see how we do.

And that has.

I honestly like that.

Like, just keep it simple and try not to be awful.

Like,

I don't, but we'll see.

I'm sorry, continue.

But I like, I mean, like, if that's the, that's the simplest kind of base to install in the NBA is just like, let's do that.

We're not going to be great at it.

We don't have the personnel to be great at it.

But if everyone is in the right place at the right time, we can be steady instead of a sieve of mistakes and leaks.

Yeah.

And so that's where I'm like, I wonder how much like early ball pressure they try to mix in.

They just largely have not done that during the preseason.

Like we talk about teams like Memphis and Portland, Indiana last year.

We're going to pick you up full court.

Charlotte has been the exact opposite of that.

And I think that's smart from Charles Lee.

Like we don't have the personnel, at least while some of our guys are out.

So I do wonder once Green comes back in particular, do they ramp that up to try to bleed some more shot clock from teams and still lean into more of that simplistic base?

Like we'll see what happens on that front.

But yeah, they got to get the defense to the level because the offense I oddly feel good about.

Like you mentioned the numbers already.

Before Lamello went down last year, one of the things that I was super excited about,

he's getting to the rim more.

The foul drawing feels better.

He's working through contact better.

We know what kind of pull-up shooter and playmaker he can be.

If he's getting more comfortable inside the arc, that just opens up everything for everyone else.

And so if that continues and Brandon Miller grows, like they do have an interesting mix of shooters and drivers like you mentioned conk and nip a little bit earlier i would be shocked non-injury division if he's not averaging at least 25 minutes a night because that dude just knows how to play basketball really good shooter really good cutter the offensive rebounding has popped uh during preseason play if you care about that kind of thing he just reads the floor super well he's a basketball player he's a good basketball player he's very good so

They have a lot of guys that can beat tilted defenses.

And if Lamello is going to be better at getting in the teeth of the defense, in addition to just finding passing angles that maybe six other guys in the league can hit, the roadmap to a good offense is there.

I just have lots of questions about the defense.

And that's where, like, I would love to be,

I'll still say, like, watch out for Charlotte in the play-in hunt, but like, I can't get firmly to they're going to be a play-in team this year yet because I just need to see more from the defense.

I would be surprised if, well, I mean, nothing would surprise me in the East.

Like, 10th in the East is, you know, congratulations.

Here's your brown participation ribbon for being in the nba um

i just think the defense is almost drawing dead but you know look i want to talk about lamello

uh there's been a lot of like

should they trade lamello is is he going to be on the trade market

um if they if they

I do think there are parts of the franchise that would like to take another tank year or semi-tank year.

And I think one of the themes of the season is like, you could win 28, 29 games and be the fifth, sixth, worst record in the NBA.

And given how the lottery is unfolded with the new odds, like that could be okay.

You can have your cake and eat it too.

You can like pretty much compete and still be bad enough to have a shot at one of these top three dudes in the draft.

But, you know, Lamello has four more years on his contract through 28, 29, where he makes $46 million.

I don't really see any kind of realistic scenario where he gets traded this year.

I also am like, I feel like maybe you are with me.

We're

two of the last people on, like, De LaMullo might still be really good bandwagon.

I've said this over and over.

6'8,

a proven lock-solid track record as a great three-point shooter.

Now, it doesn't look great by the numbers, but when you consider how many crazy shots he's taking, his pull-up three numbers are really, really good.

His catch and shoot three numbers are elite.

With that kind of passing vision, that's a

unicorn's too strong a word.

You don't find a lot of guys like that.

And I'm not giving up on it until it's like he, it was laughed at last year when he was in the all-star conversation.

I understood why.

I thought last year he veered toward, like, well, what the hell else am I going to do?

Who am I passing to?

I'm just going to take another pull-up three.

I know the coaches are on him about like, okay, that was last year.

This year, can you bag some of the crazier ones to let other people touch the ball?

Brandon's back.

Miles is still here.

Knippo's here.

We got some guys.

Sexton might be on the floor with you some.

And more than that, it's like time and score.

Time and score.

Like, are we ahead in the last two minutes of the game?

Consider that.

Mismatches.

Like, have you produced, can you lean into a two-man game with a little bit more strategic focus that might produce a mismatch that we can then exploit?

If they can just sort of like rope in the wildness of his game on both ends of the floor, because defensively he might be even more wild than he is on offense.

I'm just not out and I'm not going to be out.

I think Lamello is a really good offensive player.

Yeah, like I think that's where for me the interior growth matters so much because I think some of him leaning on those bad habits and I was chuckling watching back the Mavericks game where he just goes catch the ball in the left wings like jab series and just takes all one leg and three with like seven left on the shot clock and just like

brother, you didn't have to do that.

You're good enough to make it, but you didn't have to do that.

But I do think some of those like perimeter leanings is because he was still trying to get more comfortable with the drives and playing through contact and some of the early pickups.

And that leads to some of those odd-footed floaters that he can still make because he has God-tier touch from just about anywhere.

But in terms of am I making a basketball move that actually bends the defense and opens something up, I think some of that is a comfort deal.

And I think as he's gotten more comfortable, the decision-making has to come with it.

But I feel more confident that he's going to be able to make better decisions now.

Like I do feel better about what he does inside the art.

And I think he'll find a better balance between taking those pull-up threes

and getting inside and making things work for others.

And I think having someone like Colin Sexton leaning more on Brandon Miller, he should just have more off-ball opportunities in general.

Even if it's as simple as we're running pistol, hit it ahead to someone else.

They run that.

You get the ball on the second side and then do what you do.

Even that just puts him in a different context for him to bend defenses and ultimately make plays.

And so the talent is clearly there.

I'm with you.

Like, I'm more worried about the defense than the offense with him.

If he buys in, if we see just, you know, we've talked about second and third efforts with Zion.

Like, I want to see more first efforts with Lamello.

But once he's there, like, he's still, he is generally good off the ball when he's locked in.

Like, he's a great rebounder.

Great rebounder.

Great rebounder that juices your transition attack.

But like the games in which throughout his Hornet's career, where you can tell from tip, oh, Lamello actually wants to play defense today, he is just hawking stuff off the ball.

And you can just kind of see, like, I see plays two steps ahead on offense.

I can also see this swing is going to lead to a reversal.

I can jump this and go.

He has that in him.

He just has to bottle that up and lean into it more consistently.

So I hope that

he takes that self-accountability first and foremost.

But beyond that, if Charles D can get to him, any of those assistants.

This is not a team that has a ton of veterans, but like, I don't know, maybe that's a Mason Plumlee conversation at the very least.

Grant would.

We've said the name Mason Plumlee a disturbing number of times for an NBA team in 2025-2026.

The inside-the-arc thing that you're talking about with LaMelo is massive.

I mean, this is now three years ago.

I remember talking with Steve Clifford before the season and with LaMelo before the season about

slowing down a little bit on the pick and roll and taking an extra dribble or two to probe the lane with the defender on your back and see, does the lob open up?

If I make eye contact with my center, does the weak side shooter open up?

Do I get to the line more?

I don't get to the line or the rim enough.

His rim volume was really low.

And they both were focused on it.

They were both determined.

There was a big uptick in that season, maybe two or three seasons ago, and then it's gone back down.

I think that is a big part of him becoming more of a team half-court point guard than he was last year.

I'm also a believer in Brandon Miller.

I think Brandon Miller is going to be really good on both sides of the ball.

I'm just, I'm interested.

I'm interested.

By the way, a team that we're not going to talk about

is the Sacramento Kings.

I do just want to note that Keegan Miller, Keegan Miller, Keegan Murray

suffered a thumb injury.

He's going to be out four to six weeks.

I don't want to spoil tomorrow's over-under fest with Bill.

I was already under on the Kings, despite their win total being 35.5.

I think this has

major disaster season potential in Sacramento this year, and that's all I'm going to say about that.

Speaking of the Sacramento Kings, they got a lot of their players from the Chicago Bulls.

Let's talk about the Chicago Bulls.

What a sad work.

39 wins special last year.

That's pretty good.

39 wins.

Golf clap for that.

They were 29 and 40.

And then they finished the season 10 and 3 with wins against, including wins against Washington, Philadelphia, Charlotte, Toronto, Tankathon, and Sacramento.

Personnel, largely the same.

They drafted Noah Senge.

We'll see if and how much he plays.

Kobe White's missed a lot of the preseason, but I think there's some hope he's going to come back.

He's missed all the preseason, but I think there's hope that he's going to come back fairly soon.

And then they just, you know, their starting five went healthy will be White, Giddy, Boozelis, who I'm super high on, very excited about, and Vuch, who, you know, shot it better last year, but it's just, it's not going great.

And then just pick from this morass of Julian Phillips, Isaac Okoro, Kevin Herder, Dalen Terry, Patrick Williams, of like disappointing/slash never really had high expectations, slash just guys who they're on the floor and they don't like do anything.

They guard okay and they like run up and down the court, but they just like don't do anything with the ball.

Herder will shoot, obviously, and he's he's a relatively new guy for them.

Dasumnu, I really like IO as a backup.

I like their backup guards.

Dasumnu and Trey Jones are good.

I just look at this team.

It's cool.

They have max cap space going forward.

Giddy finished the season super strong.

Great.

I just look at them like, I don't know.

I just don't know.

I don't know.

I don't know how they build a good defense with these guards and Bucevic in the middle.

They play with so little force.

Like they were 29th in free throw rate, 28th in offensive rebounding rate, 29th in forcing turnovers on defense.

They don't foul on defense, which is good, but I'd actually like to see some physicality and violence out of them.

I don't know, man.

It's it's got to be hard to be a Bulls fan.

Like I don't like,

I think their

39 wins would be a lot for this team this year.

Like I'm actually lower on their ability to replicate a sub, like a barely sub 500 season than I was a year ago.

Like I don't, I don't really know.

Other than Boozellus, like I just don't really know how to engage with this team.

I think, actually, I want to pause right there.

Who do you think should be the fifth starter for Chicago?

The fourth or the fifth?

I guess the fifth.

If we're banking in Giddy, White, Boozelis, and Vooch.

Oh, man.

I don't know.

I don't.

Can I just say I don't care?

Like, who do you, you seem like, you seem like you care.

So I want you to nominate who you care about.

Like, I would probably go just because I like the juice that IO brings off the bench.

Like, I would probably go Okoro.

Oh, you want to go Okoro?

Okay.

So I'd probably go Okoro.

Like, if, like, we have, what, a two and a half year sample now that he is just kind of shot fine from three and particularly from the corners.

If you get enough of that, you have the cutting, which Josh Giddy is going to hit you on cuts, if nothing else.

And he is someone that you can at least give the top billing defensive assignments to.

So I think if you go with Kevin Herter, the shooting obviously helps.

The playmaking quietly is very good.

He has put some fun passes on film dating back to the Atlanta days.

Like that juices the offense, but you're still in the same loop of, okay, are we just asking Matas Bozelis to defend number ones?

And I am much more intrigued by Matas as like weak side Roamer.

I will throw your shot into the third row.

I can jumpstart transition opportunities there versus we need you to guard Kawhi tonight.

Like, I don't want that for him.

And so, even within that infrastructure, I would much rather see

let's get a Coro in.

It could be a 22-minute starter, it could be the Keith Bogan's thing.

Uh, if we want to go all the way back, but I would probably want him in the starting line, take on those assignments, hit corner threes, cut, and then get out of the way.

I don't mind that.

I mean, I thought you were gonna, I thought you were gonna nominate um IO, which I would be fine with too.

Yeah, I mean, I don't know what else to say.

I like their guards, particularly if Io and Trey Jones are backup guards.

I think that's like a good floor for reserve units.

Like, you're going to be competent.

Their shot selection is A ⁇ .

You can't argue with how Billy Donovan coaches the team.

They run like all hell.

They were first in pace or second in pace.

They took a ton of threes.

A ton of shots at the rim.

They don't make a ton of shots at the rim.

They were one of the worst finishing teams in the league, but they take them, and they take the fewest mid-range shots in the league.

So, you know, good for them.

I just don't, like, I know Giddy popped, and I like Josh Giddy fine.

I defended the trade and I defended the contract.

I didn't love the trade, but I didn't think it was like this crazy disaster of a trade that people made it out to be.

And I thought the contract is fine.

You know, obviously there are questions of like, he's got to have the ball.

Can you create an offense where he can shift from on-ball to off-ball in a way that's so dynamic that defenses can't just load up when he doesn't doesn't have the ball, can't load it to the paint.

I'm a little skeptical of that, but that's the coaching staff's job and the player's job.

I just like, I don't, I don't see like a,

I think they were 20th in offense last year.

Like, I don't really see a world where they suddenly pop to like 12th in offense.

I just, I just don't see the talent there.

And so I just don't know.

Like, I love Boozellus.

He's got such a nasty streak to his game.

I can't wait to see what he does with more on-ball reps this year.

He's got a nice little floater touch.

He's got a little like hesitation, hit you with the shoulder, get to the rib kind of thing to his game.

I just don't know.

I don't like the roster.

I think they will win fewer than 39 games this year.

That's fair.

Like, I think I agree with you in that Matas Brasilis is the story for this Bulls season, like how much growth he displays on either end of the floor, but offensively in particular.

I was thinking about this earlier as I was gathering notes and stuff.

And I was like,

he reminds me so much of Jalen Johnson with the way that he attacks.

It's one of those, like, the handle is good enough.

It's a low cross.

And then he may not blow by you on the drive, but he is taking you with him on these drives.

And he's able to use those shoulders and create space that way.

And obviously, he'll dunk on your head if he has enough of a runway.

And so leaning into more of that and seeing like what kind of passing growth we see from him, I think is going to be fun.

And I think that's why I applaud Billy Donovan for speeding this team up last year.

Like, I think the Josh Giddy trade obviously accentuated that need, but giving Giddy the reins in that rain in that front helped them.

And I think Mata should be able to thrive within that kind of up-tempo situation.

So I think the pathway to good offense is going to be, as you already mentioned, the shot profile stuff.

It's just going to be a volume deal, I think, more than anything.

Like if Josh Giddy is able to build on the second half of last year where he shot the leather off the ball, like that part matters less to me because I don't know how sustainable that is.

And even if it is, we're still probably a year away before defenses actually change how they want to guard them.

I was going to say, but all the shooting the leather off the ball was wide open off ball threes, which are important shots for him to make because Kobe White's going to have the ball a lot.

Jones, Dasunu, Bozelles, they all need reps on the ball.

And that's going to be the challenge for Josh Giddy.

Is like

he shot very well in catching two threes.

They were massively wide open.

That's the first step.

That's important.

Defenses are not going to care.

And he's not going to take enough of those shots, I think, for it to really matter.

But maybe that changes this year because he is going to have to, like, again, I said this when they signed him to a contract.

There's this very sort of

extreme, polarized idea that like either you have to hand the entire offense to Josh Giddy and like, well, if he's the 16th best number one ball handler in the league, like where is that actually getting you as a team?

Or he's totally useless off the ball.

And there has to be a happy medium where he can alternate between those two roles in a way that is productive for the team.

One way to do that is to play fast.

And so you don't have to get into those kind of positions.

But I do think that's an interesting puzzle.

Like use him as a screener and then he flies out and catches the the ball on the move.

Like they've just got to introduce a little bit more of that because it can't be either total ball dominance or total stationary off-ball,

you know, stagnancy.

Yeah.

Like I think to that end, like they mixed in some screening stuff for him last year.

Like that volume could perk up a little bit more.

Like I think that kind of builds into the overall physicality bump that we saw from him in the second half of last year because it was the shooting, but it was also not quite rim attempts, but I am using my shoulders a little bit more to get a drivel more into the paint.

And he's a a good floater shooter.

He's an efficient floater range shooter.

He's big.

I just would like to see him defend and rebound or defend and with a little more effort.

But

I don't know.

You seem like you have a little more hope for this team than I do.

Like, not really, like, and Steve will tell you, like, I've been very frustrated with just the overall direction of the Chicago Bulls for multiple years on end at this point.

But, like, I can see how they get to average offense.

Like, am I going to, I mean, I don't bet anyway, but am I going to bank on it?

Like, probably not.

Like, I think I am more with you that I don't think this team is going to be very good.

But I do think the pathway is there, especially if you do get continued interior growth from Giddy.

You get more from Matas Buzelis, which

I'm just very excited about Matas Buzelis.

He is good and he is going to be very good and soon.

But I think that's kind of your pathway.

Like, for me with Chicago, it is see what you get from those young guys.

Can we get Vuch to insert team that wants center help in the playoff push?

And let's do it one more time in the lottery if we can.

Like, that's the direction I would take.

One more time.

They barely even

act like they don't even know the lottery exists.

And this is the team that got lucky in the Derrick Rose lottery.

At some point, this is all cute stuff, and I love Boozelis and all that.

At some point,

like Bulls, Bulls fans down here, you just said the word average.

That's all they are.

That's all they've aspired to be.

They have no pathway to be anything but that.

Bulls fans are so tired of that.

They are the most unhappy fan base in the NBA, and I don't even think it's close.

Like, even if this season goes bad in Sacramento, the Beam team was still relatively recent, and they're so used to just gross incompetence that I don't think they're like more dejected than angry.

The Bulls fans hate their team, and I understand why.

And the only way this amounts to anything in the next three to five years is a massive injection of talent, either through free agency or draft lottery luck.

Like, if neither of those two things happens,

they're just there.

I just don't really know where this goes.

They still have Benny the Bulldozer

and a great

starting lineup intro theme.

Okay, one last team.

This is maybe one of the more mysterious teams in the league to me.

The Memphis Grizzlies.

who won

48 games last year and had like the sixth best point differential in the entire NBA, which you wouldn't know considering they could never beat any good teams.

They were like 14 and 25 against winning teams.

They collapsed at the end of the season.

They were so unhappy.

They fired their very good coach, like with four games left or something in the entire season, nine games left, whatever it was.

And now Tuamas Isolo is there.

They had a really weird, like no pick and roll offense, a bunch of cuts.

Noah LaRoche is involved.

Like, okay, we decide we don't like that.

We're going to run something else.

And now they have all these big men that are injured with various timetables.

Jaron Jackson Jr., Brandon Clark, Zach Eady.

Jaron Jackson is the closest one to coming back.

Bane, gone, KCP in, drafted Cedric Coward, signed Ty Jerome.

Got a bunch of deep bench guys who I like.

And they're, you know, like Vince Williams barely played last year.

Gigi Jackson barely played last year.

Conchar barely plays any year and is like decent when he plays.

I don't know how they're going to handle this three centers are all out, and it's just going to be a ton of Landale involved, or Jock Landale involved early in the season.

I just do know that

Jalen Wells is great rookie year.

Scotty Pippen Jr., great backup guard.

A lot of guys.

This team tends to win a lot of regular season games when Ja and Jaron are healthy.

Long term,

they still have leftover picks from the Bain trade, and they have those two foundational guys.

They just need one of those guys.

They need John Morant to be the player.

They hoped John Morant would be, like a second team all-NBA kind of guy, a perennial all-NBA candidate.

And he just hasn't been that guy.

His finishing at the rim.

His free throws all dipped last year.

But this team,

it's just a weird mix of dudes.

And

I don't know how they're going to use this year.

Like, they're one of those, if they get off to a bad start,

does this become a gap year kind of thing for them where a guy's injuries timetables sort of extend indefinitely and they start losing games?

Like, I just don't know what to make of this group.

Yeah, like I think that's where they're in a unique position because I think they could play it that way because as you mentioned, they do just have a bunch of interesting young dudes that they can lean into if they feel like, all right, let's just see what this is.

And just quickly, I know Jaw had the ankle tweak during like a practice or something.

uh unsure if he's going to be ready for the regular season opener like he has downplayed that this is what i'm this is what i'm week to week always makes me nervous is an injury designation

he hit us all with the day tweaking when uh people were anxiously about it so i'm assuming he's going to be ready for the opener, but we'll see.

But I think for me, with this Grizzlies group, obviously they're going to need John Jaron if they want to hit the high end.

But I am kind of intrigued by what this team's going to look like schematically.

Like you mentioned all the changes that they went through last year.

In this year, at least from what you can read from preseason, it's felt like a leaning on off-ball movement.

We don't have our primary creators right now.

So let's make sure we are setting up all the off-ball screens to make sure these guys are catching the ball on the move.

And then from there, like, this is still a very good spacing/slash respace group.

And so they have ways to generate shots.

They do have decent shooters on the roster, which again, for as much as you can take away from preseason, it has been cool to watch Cantavius Caldwell Pope hit shots again, because I don't know what happened in Orlando last year, but it's cool to see the ball go in the basket with the various good looks that he got so far during preseason.

But

like they're doing the kind of process things that I generally enjoy.

Space well, we're going to screen well.

We're going to screen early.

We're going to get the ball up the floor early.

We're going to drive and spray.

And so like

they feel like a team, especially if Job misses like the first week or two of the season or something, that opposing groups are going to come in like, all right, we can beat them.

And then they're going to be down 12 at halftime because the Grizzlies have run all over the place.

And you're like, wait a minute, what's happening right now?

So like, I don't trust their, I don't.

doubt that the effort is going to be there.

Like similar to these other teams we talked about, I want to see what the defense looks like because they are still very much leaning into full court pressure.

Jalen Wells is going to do it.

Scotty Pippen Jr.

is going to do it.

It's more so

what are these bigs behind it going to do?

Like Jock Lando at the levels have been fine during preseason, but I don't know what that's going to look like during the regular season.

Santi Aldama is inexperienced.

He is one of my favorite role players in the league.

Are you ready for center Santi Aldama for the first couple weeks of the season now and then?

On one end of the floor, yes.

Do not want to talk about the other end, but I am excited for

a good passer, good shooter.

Santi's a good player.

He's good, but yeah, the defense is going to scare me a little bit.

So more than anything, how quickly can Jaron get back to help neutralize some of the defense stuff?

But offensively, I think they're just going to generate good shots.

Well, they know who they are.

They run like all hell.

They were first in pace last year, which makes sense with Morant.

Their bench is good.

Like, Scotty Pippen Jr.

and Ty Jerome coming off the bench is like, that's

some real stuff.

They're physical and they get good offense.

They get tons of offensive rebounds.

They're the D team, the floater team of the NBA, they produce the most floaters and they make the most and they're very good at it.

I just worry about the big man.

I just am interested in them going forward and how they use this year to inform them of what their next steps should be.

I mean, they were plus 11 per 100 possessions last year with Ja and Jaron on the floor together.

Like, that's crazy in a year that felt like it was such a disaster that they were so good with their best guys on the floor.

And I had Jaron third team all NBA last year.

I don't think, I think he fell off at the end.

I thought that was unfair.

I thought he had a third team all-NBA season.

I am so glad you said this.

The literal thing I was going to say before we move to a different Grizzlies point or wherever we're going to go with the conversation,

I have never seen someone's...

all-NBA and all-defensive campaign get tanked in like three weeks the way Jaron's got.

And I was just like, we can't be that reactionary.

The end of season will be.

Sure, we can.

It's easy.

Try it sometime.

It's too easy.

I'm just like, we can't ignore all of the good stuff that Jaron did because the last three weeks a month was long.

And it was bad, but to your point, it just felt unfair.

It was a wild thing to witness in real time.

I mean, I don't really have a lot of profound to say about this team.

To me, their ceiling is they're a play-in team.

I don't see them cracking the top six.

It is possible one of those older teams like Clippers, Warriors, Lakers, whoever sort of takes a bunch of injuries and underperforms and the door cracks open.

I don't see that, but there's no shame in that.

It's more what, what, how do they use this year if it goes sideways?

And how do we come out thinking about,

okay, we got off this three big salary model because we didn't think it was working well enough.

Recouped a bunch of picks.

We already used two of them,

partly to get Coward.

How does he look, first of all?

And at the end, what do we think we need to do?

And the options are just like, maybe this just doesn't work at all.

And we completely move in a different direction.

Maybe we need a different kind of third guy.

I don't know, but I'm interested to see.

They're going to play really hard.

They're going to be a pain in the ass.

And I think they're going to be a fun team to watch.

They generally are a fun team to watch.

Yeah.

By the way, Pelicans, one thing we didn't talk about with the Pelicans, I just want to throw this out there.

Why did they go to Australia?

Like, what were they doing?

And I was they played two random preseason games against bad Australian teams.

They were there for like a few days and they came back.

Was it supposed to be like a Dyson Daniels thing?

Whoops.

I heard they were supposed to be there longer originally planned, and then they just cut it short.

Like, of all the things to do to, and when that game, when those games were announced, I was like, oh, I didn't know the NBA added like a preseason thing like they're doing in China and Abu Dhabi.

Oh, no, that's not an NBA thing.

The Pelicans just went on their own to Australia for some reason.

I just don't want to add that level of jet lag.

Nothing against Australia.

I'm dying to visit.

I just don't want to add that level of jet lag to my preseason schedule.

That's all.

Okay, last thing.

I have so far picked the following awards.

Okay.

These are, it's folly.

It's folly to make these picks.

This is just fun.

Coach of the year, Quinn Snyder.

Most improved player, Asar Thompson.

Most valuable player, Nicole Jokic.

I have defensive player, rookie of the year, and six man left to do.

I want to do six man with you today because I know you're diving into like rotations and what bench player might actually be elevated into his starting role for too much of the season to end up being eligible for this award.

That's like maybe DeAndre Hunter, Norman Powell.

We'll see.

And defensive player of of the year and rookie of the year are the most boring to me.

So I made, I have a tentative six-man of the year pick,

but I want you to lead off.

Okay.

So you told me about this, and I was talking about this a little bit before we hopped on.

I was like, I had to like reign myself in because I am very good on let's get this big list.

Let's map out some possibilities.

Let's whittle down this list.

That's how you do it.

That's the best way to do it.

You got to be open to all like who saw Ty Jerome come in last year?

That's true.

That is true.

And so I have limited my list list to, I have five top candidates, and I have like a list of, I have a three-person list for keeping an eye out on.

So after doing a bunch of whittling down, I guess it's it.

Go through the five.

Go through the five.

Okay.

So the top guys, I guess it's just Boston as a concept because I just do not know who is starting between Peyton Pritchard and Anthony Simons.

Josh Hart in New York, because I do believe Mike Brown is just going to lean into double beep to start.

PJ Washington in Dallas, which could open up an entire conversation of what is this Mavs team going to be this year.

Anyeka Kongu from Atlanta, if they are going to go with Chris Stopps and Jalen Johnson as your starting front court.

And Tari Eason in Houston, who has just kind of been a two-way off-the-bench monster when he's been healthy.

Very wild complimentary player, but like very good.

And so those are kind of the, I guess, technically the six names that I'm looking at heading into the year.

So interestingly,

I'm poker facing this completely.

So no DeAndre Hunter because he's starting to open the season with Garland and Struis Struis Hurt.

Norm Powell, same deal.

No, of the incumbent candidates, Nas Reed, not mentioned,

and Ty Jerome, not mentioned.

I think Simons is going to be the one in Boston that will come off the bench, at least to start the year.

And then you have to worry about him.

You know, does he get traded in the middle of the year as a salary dump or something?

And if you go to a bad, you don't win this award on a bad team.

Like everyone would want to talk about like, oh, Cam Whitmore.

So you just, you don't win this award on a bad team.

Yeah.

um,

one of your five guys.

Now, I ultimately made a pick.

I have my nominee that I think I'm gonna pick.

You named him in your five finalists, but I want to hear who you are.

Ultimately, like, you have to make a pick.

This is who you're picking.

Gotcha.

Uh, I'll say, quickly first, like, I just blanked on Nas Reed.

Uh, that was not a, I don't think he's gonna win it, so he probably just goes to this list as well, but he's just been too good for too long.

So, just

it is, it is, he's such a perennial candidate for this that your brain is almost prone to forget him in some ways.

Yeah, so he's very good.

So that was not apologies to Wolves fans early on, but

it kind of feels like a Josh Hart year because this feels like this could be Nick's one seed type beat.

And like I would also be cool with a six-man of the year winner that isn't just top of the league in bench scoring because one of the things that has annoyed me for years is it is just sort by points award on good team versus like defense mattering or literally anything.

Look,

you're preaching to the guy who said it was a crime.

It is.

It was and is a crime against basketball that Andre Iguadala did not win six man of the year when he was with the Warriors.

Eguadala should have one.

I think Joe Ingalls should have the Jordan Clarkson one.

We could have a side conversation about that.

But yeah, I think I leaned Josh Hart for this one.

I like it.

It's a good pick.

We think similarly in terms of I'd like to see a different player type win this award.

I went, I guess I'm just all hawks because I went on Yeka Kongwu.

I like him.

He had a great finish to last year.

He's becoming a versatile enough offensive player that he's going to play the five and the four for them this year.

I think he's going to be like a sixth starter and play tons of minutes and have to do tons of different things on both sides of the ball well for this team to hit their ceiling.

play differently when he was at he's at the five versus when he's at the four

and i think if he hits he's just going to be one of those players that people talk about as like in January, like the real X factor behind the Hogs hot start is this guy.

So I went with him.

I also want to give just, I want to, I'm very, I might be unreasonably excited given how deep and crazy good the team is.

I'm really interested to see what I see from Kaysen Wallace this year.

He's one of like the top, I've got my eye on this guy because I just think there's a lot more hidden in there that just doesn't get to come out on that team.

And depending on how they approach the regular season and their health and his role and his, how he starts the season, if we got to the end of the season, it's like, oh, Kayson Wallace averaged like 14 points a game off the bench for the Thunder and played his usual just annoying as all hell defense and is a candidate for this award, I would not be surprised.

I am glad you said this.

Like I literally in my notes, I have Alice Caruso slash Kayson Wallace slash Isaiah Joe, who is always just a plus minus monster in the Ghost Screens for Shea and all that good stuff.

But I am curious to see how OKC manages the regular season.

They're just going to pump out wins, but like what the actual minute distribution is going to be interesting to me.

Also on the keeping an eye out list,

I will toss this to you as a question.

How do we feel about Keldon Johnson?

He's on my long list, but I just don't.

I think there are too many questions about his fit with the core players on the team for me to put him.

in the inner circle.

He's always sort of hovering around like my 10th, 12th kind of person on this list.

But he is a guy who, A, he could definitely be traded because the Spurs have a salary crunch coming that it feels like one of him and Sohan is going to be a, we can't afford to have you on your next deal or your current deal in Keldon Johnson's case, deal trade coming.

But he's also kind of like, if the Spurs actually outperform expectations, it's part of the reason it's going to be Keldon Johnson finally has the year where he shoots like 38% from three and rounds out his game a little bit.

He's a very important swing player for them.

Yeah.

And last question I'll toss to you from my list because, again, I just blanked on Nas Reed.

But do we think there's going to be any kind of like voting split between Nas Reed and Dante DiVincenzo, assuming that they continue to start Mike Convin?

That's that's the assumption there is interesting

because

I could see a world where that changes and Dante DiVincenzo is a starter for part of the year.

I just think Nas Reed is just He's like the big man version of the guards who win this award all the time.

Like he's just the perfect six-man of the year candidate.

He's really good.

He's a fantastically versatile offensive player.

The other guy I wanted to give a little love to, I don't think he'll score enough to even enter this conversation and maybe even play enough minutes.

It's a big Anthony Black here for the Orlando Magic.

He's also near the top of my keeping an eye on list.

Now we're just naming guys, Nikai.

We're just starting to name guys.

Just starting to name Obi Toppin, TJ McConnell, Karis Levert.

His name's Malik Monk.

Let's name some more guys.

What day does you guys record?

What days do you guys record?

What's your schedule at the Dunker Spot podcast for Yahoo?

Yes, we are finally back to two episodes a week.

So every Tuesday, every Friday is when we're going to be dropping.

Tuesdays and Fridays.

Always listen.

You will learn a lot.

Nikai's Duncan.

Congratulations on our success.

It's well earned.

Enjoy the preseason.

You have this brief respite between the WNBA finals and the NBA season, which starts very soon.

Thank you for giving us a little time today.

Thank you.

Ball doesn't sleep, and neither do I.

All right, that's it for the Zach Lowe show today.

Thank you to Dan Woike of the Athletic for talking all things Lakers.

Thank you to Nikias Duncan of the Dunker Spot, which you should all listen to for talking about a bunch of random teams and some news of the weekend.

And we will see you later this week on the Zach Lowe Show, probably Thursday when I get back from Los Angeles.

Thank you for listening.

Thank you for watching.

Thank you to Jesse, Jonathan, and Mike on production.

We'll see you next time.

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