Break was breaking down all the biggest NBA storylines, So the heat Check. The Heat Check was Trista Craig, the best podcast covering all the drama around the association.
Now we're in for a big treat. We got Kurt Healing on. Kurt is the blogger in chief of Pro Basketball Talk dot com but also NBC Sports dot com and the managing editor in NBC. We had a wide ranging interview. It touched on a lot of inner storylines that come up for the season. So let's get into it. Welcome to the show. My man, Kurt Healing, lead NBA Rider, managing editor NBC Sports dot Com, just one of the I would say, more honest guys in their assessments of
what's happening around the NBA. I've got a ton of questions. There's a lot developing, and we could spend all day, but I figured I would call it down to the teams that I personally am the most interested in based on what we saw opening night, but also some of the sleeper teams too. So I am really intrigued by Phoenix. I think that's a team that could potentially break the mentality of the super team right being dead and Bradley Beal obviously is a guy that they got for absolutely nothing.
They made moves at in the summer with Nurkic, which I think is super interesting, got a lot of depth. They get a bunch of guys from the Blazers, and I think when they went to Chase last night or on Tuesday night, we were wondering how they would look against a team that has largely been a contender anytime Steph is healthy. So the thing that stuck out to
me was Devin Booker. You watch him and it looked like he was the best player on the floor pretty much the entire night thirty two six and eight one steal, and that was with Steph doing you know, Steph things. Do you think Devin Booker is a legit MVP candidate if he plays on a team that Kevin Durant plays on.
I think it'd be hard to be MVP with Kevin Durant sitting there because unless he does like every night, but Durant was cold shooting, and by the way, everybody not named Booker and they came like great put up numbers, but he was like eight of twenty and everybody else was just ice cold. For both teams. I think it solidifies his all NBA spot. Probably. I picked the Suns to go to the finals. I am. I'm like, I am,
I'm big on them. I don't know that they're like, I don't think they're there right now, even though they you know, they got a nice win the other night, and they got some promising signs because you had I got questions about Nurkic and his health and whatever, but he looked pretty good in the opener. I got questions about like Josha Kogie, but he's hitting key corner threes and making plays. So I just think over the course of eighty two and maybe with a move at the deadline,
a smaller move, like a role playery move. The question isn't the top end. The question is like depth defense all that, and I think they'll figure it out. But I still think, look as much as Booker's going to stand out, I think it'd be hard. You're just hard pressed to do that against next to Kevin Durant, who wasn't great in that first game. But you you know, I don't like we all know, like there's a big Kevin Durant stretch coming.
Yeah, I mean, he always produces and that's what we know he's going to be able to do. The Bradley Beal thing is weird. I wondered why how he ends up recovering and rehabbing all offseason and then we don't see him with back spasms, especially with this NBA new rule about load management. Obviously that's not Low's management. Is Bradley Bule's help a concern or a factor for you at all in terms of you thinking that this is a finals team.
I don't really. I think the only way to judge of preseason is to say a team is healthy unless proven. Like do I think Kawhi Leonard is going to play eighty two games?
Probably not right, Like I think we're gonna safely say no, But I kind of presume going into the season that he's healthy for the playoffs or you start playing a really random game, and so.
I'm going to assume that he's healthy. But I think it's with his history and Kevin Durant's history, it is absolutely on one of the things that can derail the Suns. It is it is a legitimate concern that he's not there opening night, But you're right, it's it's not load management.
But also just between you and me, do you know how many guys are gonna have Like we're gonna take our time bringing Dreamond Green back from this ankle thing because we can get him a little rest right now, we could like the guys are gonna go down with these injuries all season long that are just rest nights.
So you think there's gonna be manipulating of that, then yeah.
Yes, the league says they're going to come in. But it's the thing about the NBA, and frankly, you know anybody watching who's an NFL fan. By week what three, any guy in the NFL can take a week off for an injury if they want to, right like they're all they've all got enough bumps and bruises. What the NBA is pretty much that way a month into the season, like everybody's got knee tendonitis or their achilles aches a
little bit, whatever it is. There's all sorts of things that you can come up with to get a guy a night off if they really want to. It's not gonna be hard. And I'm really cute is to see how that shakes out with the new league rule on sixty five games to get your end of you know to be eligible for end of season awards, and like, I think we're gonna see a whole lot of guys play sixty six games.
Yeah, and just because the line is sixty five in order to get all NBA and MVP and all these awards. Eric Gordon was really good in that game. He didn't produce offensively, but he was still like plus whenever he was on the floor. I think he was a huge pickup. Not a lot of people are talking about him. Utah Wattonabe obviously came over just because he wanted to play
with Kevin Durant. I'm curious from your perspective and what you see, who is that number one X factor role player that you think is gonna bring the Suns over the top to get them to the finals and beat a team like Denver.
Eric Gordon's gonna have a big role. I kind of think it's a Kogi just because they're gonna need his defense. They're going to need somebody out. I mean, he's got to be offensively good enough to stay on the floor. But ultimately, I mean, Kevin Durant, it's a pretty good defender when he is geared up for it and wants to be, but he's not going to do it over eighty two. Nurkic is a big body in the middle.
They don't have a lot of great defenders, and it's on a very defensive minded coach and Frank Fogel to find a way to get enough defense out of this team. Playing a lot of drop coverage with the big body of Nurkic, I imagine. But I think a kogie comes clear, and then I think you're right. I think Eric Gordon is the one guy on that bench right now going into the season like, yeah, he's going to be rock solid for eighty two, He's going to be rock solid
for the final sixteen, you know in the playoffs. He's not the guy I'm worried about. They just need, you know, who are the other guys to step up? Really? I mean, they've just got to find at the end of the day, don't you basically got to get to a seven man rotation you trust by April. And my guess is they get there, but we'll see.
Are you sleeping on Denver, Like tell me the truth, because I feel you're kind of doing what everyone is doing right now, which is like, oh, they they lost Jeff Green, They lost Bruce Brown, who will come in and save them off the bench. And last night Opening Night, it really didn't even matter. Reggie Jackson looked like he was that guy. But I mean it was spread all
the way through. Everybody was producing, and they still scored over one hundred and twenty points and it was like not a lot of bench production.
I felt like Game five of the Western Conference Finals from last year, didn't it just like it's like it's just a continuation of what we saw. I thought their bench played okay too. Christian Brown was a Brown. I wouldn't call him Broun because it's Christian Brown. Christian Brown. That's he played really well. I thought that they're bench in general, Reggie Jackson. You can count on Reggie Jackson for some points, a few highlights, on some trash talk.
I think their bench isn't bad. I don't. I just do. I trust it as much as Bruce Brown. I just let's put this away. I think they're very, very good. I think they're the bar for the entire NBA. If your Phoenix or Frankly, if you're Boston or Milwaukee or any other team with championship designs, you gotta be better than Nikolai, Jokis, Jamal Murray and Denver and at the end of the day, maybe nobody is. I just got a feeling somebody's gonna pass them this year, and we'll see.
I think they will miss Bruce Brown in the platfs as much as I like Christian Brown and everybody else. Like Bruce Brown was huge in the postseason, but you can't blame the man for go get the bag. Like you know, they don't got it for you in Denver, you gotta go get it. And by the way, I like the Pacers.
Too, Love the Pacers, love what they're doing. We'll definitely hit on that. I think Nikolak could actually win the MVP again if that's oh that sounds crazy because he he had three assists at halftime something like that, still finished with eleven, and it feels like maybe more aggressive offensively than he's been to start the year. He was just bullying Ad down in the post. It was come and stop me. I'm going into the paint. I'm going to score every time if I want, I'll grab my
own put back and get the points as well. So it feels like maybe there's even another level production wise from a points perspective, then Nikole Jokic was even doing the year before when he won MVP two years ago or the year before that, or even last year when MB won it. What are you seeing or what did you see from him? Did you see what I saw?
Yeah, he's really become good at that at And I think that's interesting because we were talking earlier, like, hey, the Sons go get use of Nurkic in play it out in place of the issues they had with another big body guy in DeAndre eight. But I think if you're looking at the West and you want to get through the West, one of your questions has to be, hey, how do we how do we match up with him? How do we even slow him? And Anthony Davis last year I think was as good or better a defender,
probably the best defender in the playoffs. He was phenomenal, and Jokic just destroyed it and then did it again, and like, you've got to have one of those big bodies. I wonder if again, I think with the Suns, did they get Nurkic thinking back, thinking we've got to have somebody to put a body on him who's somewhat more if he can just stay healthy, his decision making and just iq r off the charts. That's the thing that just hey, all right, I can go through Anthony Davis
and get mine. Oh they've adjusted the defense. I'm going to keep finding guys. I mean, I think the most telling play of the game was late. It's actually I think the play he got the triple double assist on you just set a pick for Jamal Murray. Jamal Murray was hot, so both defenders kind of went to him. He went to the little Draymond Green short roll, got the ball at the free throw line, saw the defense start to rotate, and just whipped it to MPG in
the corner wide open three. It was like, I don't know how you defend the team when they're playing like that and all those guys are cooking.
Yeah, and it makes it feel like the role players don't even matter, right, like you, Yes, starting five can do what they did, and they absolutely gassed Ad. Nicola Jokic turned Ad into an absolute zero in the second half. He's getting crushed on first take, he's getting crushed on
social media. I actually like fine with it. I don't think you can really take anything from AD's lack of production in the second half because he's tasked with guarding a guy who's decided he's going to score thirty, thirteen and eleven or whatever it was, right like, So, do you think that was unfair criticism?
Not as much, just because Anthony David. Look what you saw from Lebron is what you get from Lebron right now, right You're gonna get thirty minutes to night out of him. It would have been thirty if they had garbage time the last minute and a half thirty minutes tonight and he was plus seven. He put up numbers. But the end of the day, if this Laker team is going to go where they want to go, Anthony Davis has to be elite. He has to be on both ends. He has to be this high level All NBA player.
And one of the issues has long been good game, bad game, good half, bad half, which we saw last night. And I don't think it's all on him, because Trista, I hope you are passionate about and believe something in your life. As much as Danseel Russell believes in his shot, he's going to take it regardless. But and I don't think they got Anthony Davis the ball and he had all these ISOs and posts up in the first half, he just literally wasn't getting them. But he's also got
to demand those. He's got to take charge. He's got it. Like you don't see him be like not getting the ball after a while, like get the guy of the ball. He's got to show up every night. It's the only it's the only way they can be where they want to be.
I took him for MVP. He was my pick for MVP as a sleeper at forty to one, and that that just did not just did not line up with what I was expecting. I also thought he could have a legit to chance to if he didn't win MVP, to be one of the defensive Player of the year.
Can yaw.
He is, That's how he is when he's healthy. And it's just a disappointing first game against really a team that you know you have to go against to get through to the finals. I'm curious about a couple of dudes, though. Why sign someone like Christian Wood and Cam Reddish when those guys have clearly, throughout the course of their career been not locker room cancers, but certainly cultural negatives.
Because you have Lebron James. I think it's literally it. It's just that's the Lebron James locker room. That's he's going to set the tone. He's not going to put up with guys who aren't focused. So I think there's a sense of like, you can get away with that when Lebron's on your team in a way with There may be a couple other guys in the league, but there's not many who can set that tone. And the other part, especially in Christiano, well, actually both those cases.
Christian who's better than a minimum contract player. Yeez, whatever I think of him, Like why I might talk myself out of wanting him on my team. He gets buckets. He is better than a minimum contract, and if I can get him for a year at the minimum, then I've got to take that because that's still a really good deal. And another guy that, hey, depending on the situation, you might be able to throw into a trade later as an enticing piece as some other team knows he's more valuable than that too.
Yeah, dude, I was so high on this Lakers team and I don't even like the Lakers as a Portland Shoilboizer fan. I was like, man, this could be a team who is like top three in the West, and if you're not getting production out of your team without Lebron on the floor, this could honestly be a seventh seed.
Again, I think the West is so bunched up that after look, Denver's Denver Phoenix, not just last night. I just Phoenix is gonna win a ton of regular season games because they have Kevin Durant and Devin Booker and Bradley Beal and they're just they're gonna outscore teams. I think they're one to two in whatever order after that. Three through frankly twelve are teams that think they should be in the playoffs and it's not going to be
this huge difference. And that's what's gonna make the West wild. It's like, I don't have Utah in the playoffs, dude, they still got John Collins and and Laurie marking in and like, we're good last year and surprised people the Kings. Everybody's kind of sleeping on the Kings a little bit. I agree, they're gonna score. They're not gonna stop anybody. They're gonna score a ton of points and be tough to be Like, so I think three through out of
the post. You know, missing the play in out West is everything's in play for those teams, and the Lakers can't afford to get caught in the middle of that and try to be breaking out mid season because it's gonna be it's gonna be tough. Minnesota's good, everybody, and even look, I think the bad teams Houston pretty good, pretty good. They've got Fred Benfleet and Dalen Brooks and Jared Jalen Green is gonna be good. And Jabari Junior
looked awesome at Summer League. And the Spurs are gonna suck, except you know, Wemby and Devin Basel are gonna be entertaining and they're gonna win a few games because like there's just not gonna be off nights in the West except maybe against Lasers.
Yeah, I know, it's so bad, We're I don't even really know what that team is doing. I like the Dame Tradel lot. Yeah, but I'm very curious why holding on to Malcolm Brogden and Rob Williams are a thing. The only thing that I can think of is that they they're waiting for a team that needs them at the deadline, and they think that they can extract more value from them in January than they can in September. Is that kind of what you think is happening.
To I might even put Jeremy Grant in that list. Yes, yeah, I think all those guys, look you're rebuilding right now are on Scoot and Anthony Simons, who are, by the way, going to be entertaining, like it's gonna be a good show. But I think everybody not those two guys is available. Maybe I'm curious. I'm really curious to see how DeAndre Ayton fits with them and in a system where he gets some of the freedom and touches he wants. Probably then he he wasn't going to get his option number
four in Phoenix even last year. I mean, it's just better options than him down there. But you know, hey, he'll get he'll get more looks up there. So they're going to be a fun, interesting team and they're not going to be a pushover. There's you know, I don't think they're the worst team in the league. I was gonna say there is the Wizards.
Wizards are gonna be a tough watch too. I love Ty, I love tyas Jones, So I'm I'm very curious how they're gonna be building that roster. Let's talk about this sixer team though, because they are right on the brink, dude, they are on the brink of a full scale roster meltdown. The only player that I think is safe is Tyrese MAXI. I think everyone else could potentially either both on their
own or get kicked out the door. Now, we got James Harden coming back to Philly past opening night and they're like, no, we don't want you traveling with the team. What does that mean? I don't want you traveling with the team. Does that mean that a deal is imminent or does that mean that we don't want you around our players, muddying the water and poisoning the well.
More that more more the distraction, right Like, and just if he's there, then he making things messy and harder, and just being just him on the trip and being on the bench is going to lead to questions, And so I think they think it's just better they go from they play in for people who don't know, they play in Milwaukee opening night, and then uh Toronto two
nights later before going back home. I think that he won't play in either of those games, and that doesn't mean I'll just say I doesn't mean to trade as imminent. The people I've talked to and people out with closer to the Clippers have been like, the offers the offer. Maybe that changes if they get ten games into the season and think, oh crap, like we got to do Maybe then Terrence Man or a second pick or whatever
goes into the deal. But right now they've got The Clippers have a lot more to think about too, just because if you trade for James Harden, who's going to be a free agency kind of got to lock him up, and then you could extend Kawhi Leonard and Paul George a couple of years and hey, do you want more? Do you want three more years of those guys? Is your core?
No?
So yeah, I just don't think they're that eager. It's they're they're walking a weird line because they move into a new building next year, and they're not going to want to move a rebuilding team into a new building. But I don't like the path they're on is not sustainable. So I'm not sure what happens, but they're they're unlikely in the short term to up their offers so the bottom line, it's.
Really fucking them up. They fucked up letting Shae Yogis Alexander go, And I don't think that's got to be the most egregiously bad decision an NBA team, in hindsight. Has made a young player not even close to his peak, who's now legit, he's a first team All NBA guy, and you let him go because Kawhi wanted Paul George.
When they let him go, I'll tell you that people with the Clippers were not happy, but they didn't see this. What they said was, man, she's gonna be an All Star somebody. He's gonna make a few All Star teams. He's gonna be pretty, he's gonna be good. They didn't see Shaye being this good.
You like the secors this year with Nick Nurse, are you buying into his system?
I think they're good. I think with or without Harden, I think they're a good team that finishes. I don't even want to say top three, top five, top six for sure in the East. Like, I think they're a good team. I'm higher on Cleveland than everybody else, but really, if yeah, but if if they finished you know, third, fourth, fifth, something like that. Maybe you know, I think that that's they're good and I don't want to see them in the playoffs if he beat is healthy, like they're going
to be a tough out. I think Tyrene Maxi's going to be fantastic this year. Like that's a good team. It's just the two teams that if the goal is to win a championship. I don't know what you do because I don't even know with hard What do you think Tristan with with Harden, do they compete with Boston and Milwaukee?
I don't think so. I mean unless you're getting what you got from Harden in those good games where he's putting up forty. Yeah, but you have to have that every game. You need that. They had the chance to beat Boston and right, and they probably should have if they wouldn't have collassed. So they're like close ish, But now you got another year of Harden declining and he's not someone that was ever really reliable in the postseason. Joelle Ebie's never been healthy in a postseason in his
entire career. He's always dealing with something strange or a bone fracture, ankle, knee. It's like a mister you know, it's like operation over there, and now you have a new coach. I'm just very suspicious in general about the ability for a team to really compete Milwaukee, included with a brand new head coach. I'm moving forward to teams that you're the most excited about, Teams that did not make the playoffs last year that you think are legit playoff teams this year.
We mentioned one. I'm just really high on the Pacers. I think that the Indiana Pacers are taking a step forward. Part of that is Tyrese Haliburton was already kind of taking that step as one of the best passers and facilitators in the league. They play fast. I thought they underachieved last year, but their offseason edition of Bruce Brown, what they lacked was point of attack, defense and somebody basically who could fill a role like that. They've got
plenty shooting, They've got Buddy Heal. I love Miles Turner, and I may not agree with his self assessment of being a top five center in the league, but he is a very good center. I don't know if they make top six or if they get in through the plan, but I think this is a playoff team. That's going to surprise a lot of people and continue to surprise a lot of people because they're like never on national television. That's probably the team I'm highest on that missed the playoffs last year.
Does that mean then that because I actually love him too, because I think they're very deep. Because you've got Jerris Walker.
Who was who looked great.
He looks great at Summer League, just looked like the best, most dominant man on the floor, can do so many different things. He just had that thing that popped off while popped off the court while you watched him. Yeah, and then you add him to a team with already as Miles Turner, and you add Obi Toppin, and you've got Benntt Mather and taking another step right, and so I'm super excited about them. Is that then meaning that Rick Carlile could maybe win Coach of the Year.
It's funny. I when I was putting up predictions for Coach of the Year and I picked bicker Staff just because I'm again like I'm high on the calves. I thought about it, and I'm like, guys, don't really love Rick Carlisle. Quickly with the media, who votes, so like, even if he does the job and deserves the nomination, deserves the award, Like, how many media members are gonna be like sleep Rick Carlisle give it him that award?
What do you expect from wemby.
MVP thirty eight points?
No?
Does that unreasonable?
I think though he could be an MVP candidate earlier than anyone can even imagine.
I think rookie again, it's the Spurs. They're going to slow play this. They are not gonna They're not gonna make the big mistake. Too many teams make of like, hey, this guy's really good, let's just join in the process. Well no, let's trades forer a bunch of veterans. Let's try to win now. Like the Spurs are not gonna
do that. They're gonna take some lumps. But I still think he's eighteen and eight this year is like not out of the question, with like two one of the borderline, if not all defensive team level play out of the gate.
And that's again with him probably getting some rest nights or nights off because the jump from Europe to college, I don't think people could people can really grasp like playing forty games a night, forty games a season, low forties if you count a deep run in the NCAA tournament eighty two game regulars, he said, like the jump is just ridiculous, and the war a terror is ridiculous. In Europe you play two games a week, Like it's
just the travel. The travel isn't as bad because you're just traveling around France, or in his case, if he's gonna get some nights off. But that said by year three, that would like that's not crazy depending.
On where the team is, he's rookie of the year, do you.
I did a podcast in a couple videos up at NBC with Drew din Sik, who's our betting analyst. Yeah, Andrew, Drew's roy Ward was every other bet in this category is dead money. It's just as much as I could try to make a case for why chet Holmgren might because he's playing more meaningful minutes on a playoff team like we talked about with a thunder and is exactly what they need facing the floor and defense in the paint. Like as good as that is, I still wouldn't bet
on it. Like I still I still just think it's it's Wemby's to lose.
Yeah, I agree, Finally, team that did make the playoffs last year that will not make the playoffs this year.
I was gonna say the Clippers, but Miami's Miami's a possibility, but it would involve Jimmy. Jimmy Butler's too good if he plays, even as I know he likes to say, he has said to you to everyone, playoff Jimmy is not a thing. It's not yet. It is like, he definitely is better in the playoffs. That said, if he feels the pressure like in that, like he can crank it up in the East is in his deep. But if he misses a chunk of games for whatever reason,
I mean, you're there. Didn't it feel like they built their whole offseason around getting They just expected to get Lillard, and when that didn't happen, they expected to get Drew or somebody else, and nobody fills that gap. And you can sort of replace Gabe, and you do get and Max Struce by the way, and who Love Who I
Love in Cleveland is a fit. Those aren't like individually huge losses, but together it's just yeah, I can make I could see them falling, but I don't know if they were on the edge of that last year they were trailing the balls hundering the fourth quarter of the playing game, as if I remember that PROBA a second playing game, so like they came that close last year. So it's possible, But I think the Clippers.
You're right, the Clippers could very easily fall out too.
That's a team where it could look like one of those bad, old silent movie cars where everything just falls apart, Like it could absolutely happen to them. The whole wheels could come off this thing.
All right, before I let you run, give me your finals projection on day one of the NBA season, and your champion.
The Orlando Magic over the Houston No, I really think it's gonna come from one of four teams. So I went with Boston over Phoenix in the finals. I've got Boston as your champions, and I think they're the one team, by the way, if one team is going to click, it's all gonna come together. They're gonna win sixty five games in steamroll of the league. It's them. Like I just I think Boston could be very very good. But
I have Boston beating Phoenix in the finals. If you told me it was either Denver or Milwaukee, or in that mix.
Kurt Elan, thanks so much. It's always a pleasure. We'll have to have you back on more. Lead NBA writer and Managing editor nbcsports dot Com. This man is always giving us some nuggets, some facts. We'll have to have you on BENMGM tonight as well soon.
I look forward to it man.
Thanks brother, Take care. That's all the time for this episode of the Heat Check come back Monday. Check out the feed for past episodes and many episodes that will drop unexpectedly. Do not forget to download, subscribe and tell your friends every single one of them, and follow us on SOCIALI at this Heat checking at Trista Creek on TikTok, Twitter and Instagram. We'll see you next time.