Wellichie, well Achie, Wellichie.
Your Minnesota Temberwolves wrapped up a thirteen and three month of November. Wow, November to truly remember. Meanwhile, Denver is just five and five over their last ten, but they'll be welcoming the return of Jamal Murray soon and we'll get into a ton of stuff around the league, including the state of the Toronto Raptors. Mandem with NBA reporter and podcaster Espandi ar Bearahini on today's episode. I'm Miles Gray and I'm Jack O'Brien and this is Miles and Jack got mad mess.
Sorry at welcome sport reporter of the Objective podcast alongside alongside blauring Gun.
Good to have you man. Good.
I appreciate that you're throwing in the Toronto accent every now and then.
You had to go alongside.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I had to not alongside alongside obviously, but.
Yeah, excited to have you back.
Man.
We have such a fun time, so it's really good to have you back. And yeah, I appreciate you guys have can drill down on some tings as it were. Uh, Jack, you are right.
Yeah, yeah, I'm good.
Okay, I'm like doing the I'm doing the secretly eating a hot dog thing from from I think you should if you should leave.
Are you? Are you ripping your case d into mini bites that you can manage.
Over, like putting them under my tongue like.
For those that don't know, we record many podcasts throughout the day Jack and I Sometimes the meals, the opportunities, the looks for to get a bite in are limited, so Jack had to just smash a case idea We'll.
Smash in front of you guys. Just yeah, we well, you guys, had a conversation. I apologize, I'm badly, I'm fueled. Had an entire case ida in.
Felt like too much.
How are we feeling about the I mean I think I think we can say n season tournament is cute.
Failure bomb city, nobody cares nice trial.
Yeah, the players are laying down on the court in the middle of waight.
Oh no, wait.
What Royal bombs one sock off? They're just sitting on the court. Uh no, this this turned out to be pretty fun.
Yeah, I feel foolish in the beginning to being like I don't get it, Like, what what are the steaks?
Clearly there are the stakes.
Are are the prize for competitors and the out of body performances we've been seeing.
I mean, just watching.
Tyree Halliburton likesent to like another level of existence against the Celtics. I'm like, oh, okay, I see what y'all are doing here. Yeah, yeah, yeah, this is good.
This is good.
Yeah.
I knew Adam was a genius the whole time I was saying that.
I was saying that the fact that it happened against the Celtics has nothing to do us being happy to see him. We're just appreciators of his game and happy to see him rise to a new level.
You know, it's crazy. I saw this tweet by what's his name, Nick Friedell. Right, I'm sure that's going around right now on Twitter, but he was saying, like, oh, the NBA better hope that the Lakers and Knicks win tonight because nobody's gonna watch a Pacers Bucks Final or whatever.
And it's like, I don't know what you're talking about.
I think that's wrong.
Yeah, that's like very incorrect. I bet you the like Halliburton, whatever, last night's game was like, it's gonna come back as one of the most view games in November. Or December by Fall, like very easily just because of how insane that game was. It's not even it's not even a competition, man, It's yeah, like the tournament has done the job that it was supposed to do, which is make the start of the season exciting.
And I'm sure if you like, like a team that just went out recently, you're gonna you'll probably keep watching because part of it's like, man, we could have done.
That was our matchup, you know what I mean.
So I think there is a lot of incentive for everybody to stay tuned in, aside from the fact that the games have been very entertaining.
Yeah, I feel like that's how they like.
I feel like a lot of young people just follow players more than they're like, this is my hometown team. It's the only team that I ever got to see because I would just walk down the street and listen to the arena from the outside on my gas powered bike.
Exactly. Yeah, that's true.
Like I don't think you know, I was saying this earlier, but like Lamellow ball is top ten in Jersey sales in the NBA, and I think there's a lot of Charlotte Hornets fans out there to get top ten Jersey sales. People are fans of Lamellow sat class like John Morant, you know what I mean. I bet Tyre's Halliburton will be like that soon too. I just I feel like it more. It's more of a player's league. It's more loving who the player is, catching highlights whatever online. Then,
like you said, I'm gonna go and watch whatever. Yeah, it just doesn't make sense.
First, I'm gonna go warm my hands around this trash camp fire with my buddies.
Then we're gonna go down to the game and.
Back when scout tickets there's a duop group on every corner right back.
Then sell some papes at the stadium, and then with the winning buy a ticket.
Yeah, yeah, I'm again.
As of this recording, we do not know the fate of the Lakers against the Suns.
Who knows what's happening there, but we don't know. We just don't know.
And that's the beauty of recordings that do not happen in real time. But we do know what happened in the other game Pelicans and Kings. Brandon Ingram also bringing a tear to my eye most just from being like, why what happened?
I love I love ingy come.
He's I mean, he's just coming into his own like I hoped he would, or it appears that way.
But yeah, really really good win over the Kings.
Yeah, no, that was special. I mean I was kind of rooting for the Kings too, just because I thought Sacramento's crowd would be really fun to watch them kind of expod.
Yeah, they kind.
Of feel like the crowd at least feels like Peak Warriors crowd in the sense that they just start to build and build and build and build, and it's crazy to see. But yeah, the Pelicans went in there and took care of business. And Zion didn't even play well, like zon.
I have ten points or something.
Yeah, I didn't even have a good game. And like b I her Trey Murphy, they just came out there and took care of business. It was really fun to see young guys, man, young guys taking over this in season tournament.
Yeah for real, did you see Chuck go after Zion? Though he's like, man, he doesn't he's just everything. There's just all talent with him. Just doesn't even like to run any day. But then I was like, you know, he needs to.
Get in league shape. How do you guys feel about that? You get you agree?
I mean, look, he sure he might not be as in shape as he could be, but there's always gonna be players who play like that. I think it's like it feels like one of those things when you're like a school teacher, like if you.
Just applied yourself, you would go to the night level.
But I look, he's still but I'm not. I'm not applying myself. So here we are.
This is who I am, right right right, But like, yeah, to Jabaris producer Jabari's point, it's like, yeah, Charles Barkley may be the most qualified person to say that as they look back at their career.
So yeah, you.
Know, I think that's why I'm like, for me, I'm like, let Zion he's got some time, like he has time or you know, hopefully like hopefully injuries aside, he can you know, make the decision he wants to as he What he's.
Saying is that I want him to be in whatever shape is going to keep him playing and not have him injured.
Right, And if that's his game, then so be it.
Because like, yeah, yeah, I think I think I think part of his like he's he's kind of come out the gate slow this season. I think part of it is also the Pelicans are running a bit of a different system, Like they're trying to get them all ball moving a little bit more. They're actually putting the ball in his hands to be more of a point guard like point forward type a little bit more too. Yeah, So if they are trying to do that change up the way that they play, plus incorporate a bunch of
these new new guys. They've had injuries. CJ. McCollum had to collapse, lung, They've had to go through a bunch of different things, and I think now we're going to see them get into rhythm like they were. They were what the first or second best team in the West over the last the first two months three months of last season. They can get to that level again, and I'm kind of excited to see if they can reach that and if they can stay healthy.
Yeah, because he's he's a great point forward type. Yeah when he plays that position and is the but everything's going through him, they're really strong on offense.
Yeah.
It was his line in the first playing game reminded me of like a Ben Simmons long like it was like ten seven seven, you know, Like I was like, huh us, But yeah, that makes more sense when you think about it, that he's distributing.
Yeah, they're just they're they're asking him to play a little bit different of a role than he did last season, and maybe that'll help him stay healthy. Honestly, I don't know if that's going to be the case, but to your point, I would rather him longevity versus give me forty games a year or whatever.
Right, Yeah, yeah, exactly, even though he can block some shots that are unlike anything I've seen, or dunk sometimes in a way that's like that doesn't seem physically possible, that seems like special effects or like maybe maybe we don't do that during the regular season and then get to see that during the playoffs.
Right.
But yeah, to the point about that Jabbari's point about Chuck being the one who's kind of qualified to talk about it, it's interesting like that he had that one year where it was like, oh, oh he's in he's in shape, and he was like the MVP of the league. Like okay, yeah, maybe maybe that is maybe that is we're worth listening to.
Yeah, it wasn't chucked like downfall. Pretty part of the downfall too, like once he started to stop be in shape as much like he was, you know, got a little big, big boy flex and then it was just like, all right, there's no way he can be as productive. You know.
Yeah, it's kind of a bit of a slow roll into the station at the end there.
Yeah, exactly.
I don't know, I don't know how else to put it.
Well, I guess also, you know, in other news or not other news, since we have somebody who can actually speak with some level of authority on the state of the Toronto Raptors. The Raptors you know, nine and eleven as of this recording, uh, four to six over the last ten, you know, before Wednesday's game versus the Heat, I know, Siakam is not shooting. Well, how are you like, what's how are you looking at this team?
I know there's also talk what's.
Before that my favorite player from the draft, Grady Dicky. You know, they're not they're not messing with his shot right, like part we were talking about this earlier, like they're like, but he's the best shooter, so why would they attempt to do something like.
It's been like confirmed like fifty times by now. But he they're not. They're not changing his shot at all. Nothing has been adjusted.
It's all said, yeah, he's missing because he sucked, but he's he's like, so the way that they're doing this is on his makes.
Apparently he has a wider base, like he's he's spreading his legs a little bit more on his jump shot. They're saying, hey, on your makes, you have that on your missus. We have noticed on your missus you are a little bit closer. Right, So they're like, hey, just just focus on that when you're taking the jump shot and it'll work better to your vantage. They're not trying to change anything. They're just saying, hey, this is something that we know to go out and do it.
That's why we were dropping into a squat when he shoots his threes.
Now, that's why he's Yeah.
Actually, I had a high school when I when I used to play in high school, there was a guy that would actually like sit into a squad after he would shoot the ball. It was insane.
It worked.
He was actually not.
That bad of a shooter, but that's how he would land after releasing.
Yeah, he would released into are so.
Rather than it was full squad.
It exactly. It was impressive as I don't know I did it. It's like an athletic feet in itself. But no, Grady, Grady is figuring things out. He's he's thrown into the nine to five, so the G League squad now, and he kind of needs to get that run just to one, get his jumper back a little bit like it used to professional hoops, and also just work on his cardio
a little bit. You know, playing in NBA games is a little bit different than playing in you know, college, and I think he needed to get his cardio up to get his legs under him. The way he wants to play, you have to be moving all the time and relocate and get into a spot corner, you know, above the break whatever, and he just was. He was probably a step slow on a lot of that to
start this year. I think that's what they're trying to do with getting him into the nine o five is like, let's just get you playing thirty minutes a game so you can get your cardio up a little bit, and then once you get back to the Raptors squad, then you know, hey, you'll have your legs under.
You right, because, as we all know, without that cardio that nothing will come together.
Cook.
Yeah, you can't even dribble. Yeah.
So there's been a lot of rumors that the Raptors are going to blow it up, you know, Pascal Siakam is going elsewhere. How do you feel about that? Like, are you ready to see a tear down and build back?
Yeah?
I mean, look, just to sort of answer both of your questions at nine to eleven, they sort of are what they are and what I've expected. I thought this team was going to be about a five hundred team to start the year, and if they don't make any changes, I expect them to continue being about a five hundred team thirty eight to forty two wins depending on any
given night and injuries and all that stuff. Ultimately, I think this is what they are just because they have a deeply flawed roster, just tons of duplication, a lot of wings, not enough guards, not enough you know, creation juice, guys who can get downhill, create a shop for themselves, et cetera, et cetera. And you have guys who kind of just do similar things in similar areas of the floor, and when you watch them play it's like they're playing
archaic basketball. Like it's like they're playing basketball from the mid two thousands or like the nineties. It's just a lot of guys converging into one area of the floor. Siakum likes to operate in the middle of the floor. Scottie Barnes, their star, their young star likes to operate in the middle of the floor. Even guys like Yaka Pearl og Anobi. They just they duplicate a lot of the same skill sets and they don't have a lot of variety in their approach. So that's why they struggle
so immensely offensively. And so your question about Siakaman, you know, if they're gonna blow it up and move a different direction, I don't think this team and their ownership necessarily wants to blow it up and rebuild and like be a lottery team forever. I think they would much prefer building through the middle and trying to get to a spot where they're you know, back in contention through that middle spot.
It's a lot harder to do that, obviously, but I think it's more likely that they trade Sam for players that can help them now. Plus you know, a prospect or something other than you know, instead of them going like, hey, we're just going to blow it up for the sake of blowing it up. Let's get picks, let's get like young guys and do this, I think they would rather get guys that could potentially help them.
Now more intentional rebuild, right because like some fans feel like it should have just been like get like, let's just Liquidateakam for.
Some picks or something that we can put around Scotty and things like that. But you, for you, you're like that, I don't know if that's actually the best solution here in the short term.
Well, even if it is a solution, I just don't think the Raptors will take it. Like I think when it comes to ownership, like they're very happy being a team that can consistently be in the playoff hunt. Being consistently in the playing hunt just because money right at gate revenue, and I think given where they're at, like financially, it would make sense for this team to not want a tank because then ticket prices go down and you know,
you don't get that gate playoff revenue either. So for the most part, I just think they're in a position where they don't really have the ability to tank even if they want to. But they are I think, you know, given their recent history of losing free agents. Right, Kyle Lowry, they had a chance to trade him at the deadline, they decided not to. They got assign and trade in the summer, got precious to or whatever. Fred Amvliet, same situation.
They had the opportunity to trade him, they didn't trade him. He walked to the Houston Rockets for absolutely nothing. You've got nothing in return, right, I think now with Siakam, who is a better player than those two guys were, you gotta take advantage of that, and you gotta take advantage of getting something because if you don't, you're you're essentially letting the best player on your team just walk. And Scotty has emerged, like Scotty is becoming a really
really good player. He might end up being an All Star this year. But you can't just let walk for nothing or else you risk yourself, you know, putting yourself in a really really bad position.
Kawhi leave for nothing.
Kawhi left for nothing, to Green left for nothing.
Surge a box too, I could have I could.
Have went down that list.
Yeah, yeah, I like hold on.
I think that list is longer than just said.
It definitely is make you Yeah, who else is in an unrestricted free agency?
Like, so, yeah, Pascal could leave, Pascal could leave. Og Ananobi has a player option, but he's definitely gonna opt out of that just because he can get a bag this summer and he's an unrestricted free agent. But I would actually, I would bet money that they would keep him, like no matter the cost, Like they're just going to resign him. Uh, and even if teams offer him like a bag, they're going to still offer him what like
match whatever bag that is. And then Gary Trent Junior is also a free agent this summer and can walk as well. And I don't know where they are with him and what he like do He's kind of struggled this season, so maybe they take a flyer and say, hey, we'll take you on at a cheaper cost than what would usually happen. But who else?
Do you feel like Scotty is a piece, like the the piece that you want to build around. Is he like second best player on a championship team, and then you just kind of try and put it together around him.
Yeah, it's interesting, man, Scotty has taken a shooting leap this season. He's hitting on thirty nine percent of his threes. He's just for some reason, he's taken a pretty massive stride in the shooting department. Now, to be fair, like we're only twenty games in, right, who knows how to
look eighty two game season. But ultimately just the fact that he can show you stretches like this where he can be like a forty percent shooter on pretty high volume, pretty good sign for him as a player, and that opens up the rest of his game, right, Like he's able to get downhill because he's such a crazy athlete. He's a great passer, has great vision. So I think the offense and like superstar ceiling really depends on the shooting department and how good of a shooter he'll eventually be.
But the rest he is a very very good all star level player, second player on a championship team type of guy. He could potentially be the best on a championship type team, but that requires a leap that like you need to see consistently in the scoring and shooting department that's just not there yet. Like he's still hella young, and like you haven't seen that from him.
Yet, Yeah, I wonder who who does Pascal Siakam?
Like, what team does he make sense on?
Trying man, there's there's so many he can like, I feel like he can play on a lot of different teams. I I was just on a different podcast yesterday and and they were saying.
Well, we were talking about you all would say something like that.
I never heard jealous.
Boots only podcast I've ever heard of, but but they were they were suggesting the Warriors, okay, and I thought the war makes a lot of sense just because of where they're at with their own individual timelines, Like there is this internal pressure for them to try and win around Steph Curry.
They obviously have tons of contracts that could work on the other side to go and get him. Who knows, I don't know. They also have interesting young players that maybe they'd be willing to move off of because they're trying to win now. So people bring up Jonathan Kaminga, people bring up Brandon Pajimski right Like, there's like these kinds of players that maybe the Raptors could be wanting. Right this summer, Pascal was nearly traded to the Atlanta Hawks.
Nearly traded to the Indiana Pacers. Those things didn't happen because probably the Raptors wanted too much for what Pascal was. And you know, we'll see if they revisit that. But those are the types of teams. It's like either a contender that is dealing with their own internal pressures and has to pull a win now move, or a young budding team that is thinking, okay, maybe we're one piece away from being that contender, which is like, hey, we
just saw the Indiana Pacers. You know Trek the Celtics. Maybe they feel now like hey, let's get another guy for Halliburton, and you know they go in that direction, but who knows, there's there's a lot of teams that could use him.
Yeah.
Are you worried about like his shooting slump, like affecting the perception of him right now or do you think it's it'll, he'll, it'll, it'll figure yourself out maybe a little bit.
I think. I mean, when you whenever you shoot nine point six percent on threes of the last ten games is not going to help you a lot. It doesn't help the case. But to be fair, like.
I saw that Temper two that was crazy. Absolutely, that's like was it the.
Worst three point percentage by a player with fifty plus attempts in a fifteen gamespan since at least eighty three, eighty four. That's that's not the kind of history you want to be set in yet.
Absolutely, and look, you don't want to be like you said, you don't want to be in that category. But I feel like he's never really been a shooter, and the Raptors are sort of asking him to be that unfairly this season just because they don't have a lot of shooting right. They've they've put the ball in Scotty's hands more and they're trying to make him operate. But they're all also asking Pascal to be off ball more, and that's just requiring him to shoot the ball more often
from three. He's not that good of a shooter. He had one season where he was a really good shooter, but hasn't really been that since. Uh So, I just think they're putting him in the wrong positions and any team that tries to trade for him, you're not gonna ask him to take a lot of threes. I don't think the Warriors a gonna ask him to take a lot of threes. I think like you have enough of
that with Stephan and all those guys. Right, Ultimately, like, if you're getting a guy like Sam, you're getting him to be this like utility knife on offense who can create for himself a little bit, who's a great cutter, off ball mover, really good defender, has size, like just a very versatile forward that you can throw into any type of situation.
Mm hmm. Sounds nice. Sounds like a nice And I used.
To have a career in marketing, you know, yeah, yeah, so.
Yeah, Hey, I'm looking at these numbers, though I'm not sure it's that this guy's you like, this guy.
Gonna come in.
You're gonna walk away with a nice spascal siakam today.
You're gonna come home.
Your wife's gonna say, Wow, there goes a man who knows how to get a deal.
You wanted to have respect for you again, don't you down right?
This might be your first step boards then all right, should we take a break? Yeah, all right, yeah, yeh might as well. All right, we'll take a break. We'll be right back and we're back.
We're back, and.
All right, let's talk Golden State real quick.
What's going on with these guys? You just talk about these guys now three and seven of the last ten, a whole one game worse than the seventy six ers who are four and sicks over the last time. But next their next five Blazers at Thunder, at Suns at Clippers.
Now, do we think they're just a move away?
Like they had some weak spots and all they really did was get rid of Jordan Poole, Like, is that basically what we're looking at?
They look old, man, is my thing. They kind of look old. And I didn't realize this when I came into the season because I was like, I was kind of high on the Warriors. I'm like, oh, man, Steph Curry, you know, they still got their nucleus. Maybe Jordan Poole a little addition by subtraction Chris Paul will be enough. But I like, you look at their core and they're very old. Chris Paul's obviously like thirty nine years old. Steph Curry is thirty five now, Draymond Green is getting
up there in age. Klay Thompson is I think thirty
two or thirty three. Like they're they are older, and they're relying on these guys to be the same way, and I think I think the NBA offense has sort of caught up to the Warriors in the sense that you see other teams replicating that same style, the Nuggets, the Kings, the even to us lesser that the Hawks and Pacers are really trying to like just we're gonna play a style very similar to the Warriors, the run and gun, shoot a bunch of threes type of offense,
and I think the Warriors have gotten worse and worse at it. That's not to say Steph Curry isn't balling out. Steph Curry is bawling his ass off, but he's cooking. But the rest of the team just isn't good enough to keep up and just isn't talented enough to sustain this level. So yeah, I feel like they are a
piece of way. Like if they were to we were just talking about Sakham, if they were to go and make a splash like that, whatever that trade is, I think they could put themselves back in the conversation and contenders. But for now, I do not see that, Like I really don't.
Think thee Yeah, and just like a lot of the players that we thought were gonna keep this like dynastic franchise going, you're just kind of like, you know, coool, We're like.
They were like first thing like oh, and then you're like and then like Andrew Wiggins, mman, like you know, it's not nothing's quite like breaking through in the way that you need for a team like that to have that balance, rather than being like, I don't know, man, can we put more mileage on these bodies and expect the same output?
Like that's just it's just tough.
In retrospect, it's kind of wild. The season they had where they won it. It's like they were on a regression to like, you know, age the way a team is expected to and then just randomly that season everything comes together and they're playing great, and then it's just like back to back to the same kind of path that they were on before that season. It's really a strange outlier kind of a testament to steph and just what they did that season is pretty wild.
Right, further and further we get away from that championship season, the more it looks like the last dance, Yeah, yeah, that was their last dance, which is just it's crazy given how good Step still is, Like Step is still really good he's having, he's nearly having as good of a season as he did and is I think second
MVP season or maybe the season after that. Like he's his production is incredible, but just in terms of the rest of this team, like you guys said, you're not getting enough from Kuminga, you're not getting enough from Wiggins. Clay feels like and looks like a shell of himself.
So you're just not getting that same production. It's tough, man, It's tough because they have been, you know, for the last ten years, they've been the most successful franchise, like the best, you know, dynastic, like you said, yeah, and it feels like we're seeing the end of that now.
And even the way Clay talks, like in some of his post games, he seems like visibly frustrated, but he's also maybe like when people are bringing up the you know, the possibility that they are mortal human beings and things might be changing a bit, he seems like really defiant about it.
And I get that.
Obviously you're not gonna be out there, He's not going to do Like he's like, what do you want me to say? Yeah, we I'm done. I'm hanging it up. But I'm still you know, there's a check, so I'll come in every day. It's not like that, but there is, like I can tell even for them, there's like this frustration, little bit of like existential awareness around them and being like like what is realistic? And to your point, like, was that was that? Actually it two years ago?
Like was that the one? Yeah? Your morality that's crazy?
Yeah, I do just want to talk about the end season tournament one more time. Just then the clip that I think was Rob Prez shared of like the celebration of of the Pacers bench, and then he shared it with the information that ten players on the books for the Pacers who make less than three million dollars in salary this season three two way contracts, so five hundred thousand per player to the winner of the tournament. Like
is a huge deal like that that? I don't know, man, That like really puts it in perspective and makes it.
Yea, how great the Lakers are? You see what I'm saying. We're still showing up weekend.
Week still showing up. We get this thing. We could get nobody.
No, but yeah, it's kind of like on some Hunger Games kind of thing too.
Yeah, they're hunger.
Yeah, they're out here and yeah it's uh yeah, I'm who is it so the Knicks?
Oh it could be the way, who are the Knicks playing?
Again?
Bucks?
The Bucks?
Right right?
Right?
Yeah?
Yeah, I mean like the Suns.
Yeah, everything is everything has a bit of appeal. I mean, no matter how that Son's game go. I'm I think because it's the first one too, I'm just interested, Like it's just fun to see. And honestly, at the beginning, I was a little annoyed by the courts and like the graphics on the courts, but I like that it does visually anchor that the fact that it gives it a different feel. So then when I see highlights, I'm like, oh, it's it's okay, it's from the insult.
Yeah yeah yeah, So you know, well done, well done.
Well what would you guys change going into next year? Because I feel like I've heard that conversation a lot of like what would a tweak be? What would this adjustment be? Obviously it's been successful, you know, like yeah, even the numbers and like the viewership and all that, they had crazy numbers of success, But like, what would
you change if it's been so successful? Some people have said we should extend the tournament, not have it end in December, have it end in like February, so that it could like lead into all our weekend and then you you have a thing and then it's playoff time. Right. Some people say, obviously take away the courts, Like there's different suggestions, but how would you guys tweak.
It playing with no courts? That feels like that would chaut.
Whoa zero gravity like Rainbow Road in Mario.
Yeah, it feels like I don't know, maybe this is just me as a non footy fan, but like all the like playing in your group and then like having like the point differential matter as much as it did, was not my favorite thing. And it felt like more more single elimination, less of the you know, playing the same team's repeatly, Like if we could figure out a way to do that, I think that would be more fun.
But like maybe a bigger single elimination portion of the tournament and right, uh, you know, like a couple of games to get the seating right, but then the you know, the single elimination is really what I'm here for, so I want more of that if possible.
I would like something like I said, like, my first my perception of it felt like there the stakes weren't there. Clearly they are in the form of like the prize, but I would like to see if there is a way to have it have some bearing on the seat like that it's like you're fighting actually to this could actually affect your ability in the playoffs or something like that, Like it's not just a prize, like there's a there's something that you could kind of hack the matrix through
the tournament just to see how that would go. I'm sure if there was something like that, then maybe they've changed the rules because people be playing differently. But if there was something like, you know, you can in the first round, you can make your opposition bench one player in the first game and you could choose which one.
You know, something something just you know, not too wild. But I don't know if.
There's something to play that we had that one pitch your opponent has to play one quarter in tim tims.
Yeah, I'd like to see that.
I would like just for fun, you know, or even in the tournament, be like, yo, we do this thing, like there's the mystery ball comes down in the third quarter and depending on what it looks like if it might be TIMS for this TIMS for whoever's playing.
The five, you know, a huge advantage for the nixt.
Well yeah, but you have to have more people that are from New York.
They'll playing you know what I mean, you have from these guys from Europe over there, they will hurt themselves.
I won't know what the point differential would be TIMS to non Tims, you know, because like you ever like lift something very heavy and then right afterwards lift something really light and it's like, oh yeah.
Maybe something happens the quarter after the TIMS, like people are just taking off from the like three point line, dunking and stuff.
Like that got the fizzy lift.
Never felt this before exactly, this is the secret time just play half the game in TIMS.
I do feel like we need to shout out Chet who it made the like top five he was fifth and lowest defensive rating for players so far goes Rudy
Kat which I was surprised to see. Mitchell Robinson, Anthony Davis, who's you know, despite what some people like, he gets a lot of a lot of negative attention, people like he's not the it's not that dude, but he's still playing incredibly defensively, and then Chet right right after and yeah, just and then he won Rookie of the Year or Rookie of the Month for October November, and just generally is is looking like a Rookie of the Year front runner at this point, which you know, we were.
Excited about him.
We were very excited about Wemby, and a lot of people were like, talk about Chet every time you were bring up Webby's name, what about chet Man? Yeah, what about bull Bull? Okay, whoa, whoa whoa, We'll get that, We'll get the bull Bull.
Yeah, yeah, he was.
The Western Conference Turkey.
And then I got a shout out my former bruin the real Triple j Hima Hakas Junior on the game.
Also, yeah, doing what I was saying off Mike, I was like, honestly, the heat is like the perfect place for him to go. It really is like just.
With his his his mentality, his work ethic, all that, Like he's he's one of those guys who's like, what's the assignment understood? And here I go, So yeah, I'm also I'm pleased to see that. But yeah, Chet, you know, maybe Jack again, We'll we will keep bringing up the bet that you made when we went to Vegas during Summer League.
Yeah, but you got that ticket burning in your pocket.
Okay, see to win the title, so oh hell.
Yeah, I like, can you can you last cash out? Though? Can you cash out at some point? Can you be like if they make the.
Can I just like a little bit? Yeah?
Yeah, yeah.
It was.
It was after a Chet's first Summer League game, and I was like, maybe.
Yeah, maybe this guy is pretty good.
So I don't know, he's cool, man. I I got the chance to interview him in a couple of his teammates for preseason and kind of do a profile on his defense, and like, even from then, you're like, yeah, this guy he can be a defensive player of the year type.
Yeah.
It was just it was obvious from the onset that he was just going to be so good on the defensive end, even in college. Man, Like, even in college, it was just obvious to see that he had such a profound impact on the defense. Like the rim protection, the shop blocking, this is awareness, his ability to like switch out onto guards. It's it's like, really really good stuff. We talked about Anthony this, which I agree is like
overly hated and you know whatever underappreciated. It's he has a lot of the similar quality to him where it's like he doesn't have a defensive flaw other than you know, right now people are saying gets pushed around a little bit. Sure, yeah, that's something that will eventually, you know, he'll he'll get better at that. But like skill wise, he doesn't really have a defensive flaw, which is crazy to say about.
Yeah, and he's got good defenders around him, Shay is you know, I think seventh on this list of like best defenders. So you know, even if people are hitting him and able to like pound pound him, like move him back, you've got other great defenders diving in. So it's a very tricky team to to play. All right, should we do it?
Should take a.
Break and come back with the fastest segment in podcasting.
Yeah, yeah, I just called my lawyer. I had to make sure I was covered and I am. So let's go, let's go.
We'll be right back, and.
We are back. Mister Barry Haney.
You know, we we love you so much, man, We love you so much, you know, and you're a good guy. Last time you came out, you were you were you were active in this segment. That's why we really respect you, and it's time to turn it up even hotter.
On you were in the hot seat.
This is the fourth quarter rapid fire round question to close out the show. Okay, only heat, only quick responses, no grand standing.
No, you know, extending the question because we've got to keep this thing quick.
Okay, because and I really need to ask you, remind you not to grand stand, because you since you came on this show, man.
I'm a grand stander.
I'm another brand, and I don't really even know what that means. But you've been grand standing, and I need you to stand a little less grand.
Maybe some grand sitting, you know what grand squatting.
You know, it's really really lower yourself, you know, exactly exactly on the release.
Ah, So here we go.
Ready, here we go, Yeah, Jack, Here we go, Yeah yeah, Yes.
Start the clock.
This is fast, man, This is fast. Gonna be fast, man, It's the fastest thing you ever experienced.
Bro.
I'm just trying to warn you. Man, Jack, you want to go first?
Or yeah, I go first?
Go?
Okay, all right, okay, all right, here we go.
Biggest surprise team or players so far, we got many fifteen and four, we got Orlando fourteen six, we got okay, see we get uh Calves just eleven or nine, Golden State nine and eleven.
Which way are you taking it?
I'm gonna say the Orlando Magic.
Yeah. I don't think anybody had that one coming.
Yeah, No, I think it was one of those things to you would see last year, like oh I see so I could see that happening and then they're like, no, no, no, this is this is this is what is happening now.
Baby, very good, they're very good.
Yeah. Okay, all right, are you did you go to Gonzaga or something? You like?
Guys, it is weird. You're you're actually making me realize that right now. Maybe I don't know.
Okay, oh wow, okay, you like Rum has given off Adam Morrison vibes.
Yeah, I was gonna say, yeah, definitely giving big Adam Morrison.
When when Great was missing a bunch of shots, they did call him Adam Morrison. It was really tough.
Man, come on, man, leave him alone.
Look he got that neck. Okay, it's a condition, man, leave him alone. Leave him alone. That turtle Nick didn't do much form. Okay, next up of the rough starts that we've seen this season.
Which teams do you think are most likely to work themselves back into playoff contention? O, Memphis Grizzlies, easy money, give me John Morant coming back right before Christmas.
He's gonna start hooping. Uh, they're gonna look much better. Yes, Grizzlies, you're taking that over the Spurs. You don't think the Spurs Spurs three sixteen, three and sixteen Spurs three sixteen?
Is that a Bible verse.
Crossed myself?
I said it real, don't worry for the league. Loved the world so much that they gave their only Wemby. You know what I mean, to take themselves to the Promised land?
Tas what is the Uh, who's been who's been the best rookies so far? Chet?
One hundred percent?
Chet.
I mean, look, I love I love Wenby. I think he'll be good and maybe he'll be better like end of day career wise, but yeah, it's Chet right now.
Yeah.
Do you think just because of how good the team's been or you just generally he's just a better player at the stage.
I think he's just well, first of all, it's it's actually there was Gilbert Arenas said this exact same thing, but they're just different ages. So where he's at versus where Wenby's at at nineteen versus twenty one year old, chat like, it's a different one conversation to be had. And yeah, Chet is in like the perfect context for him. He was the exact type of big man that the Thunder needed. He got plopped into there. He's having like a fifty forty ninety type season. He's a fishing as hell.
He is right now the best rookie. But I could see Wenby very easily like topping that in the next couple of years. Who knows what Wenby will look like at twenty one compared.
To check, right, Yeah, that's mostly the same.
But yeah, yeah, that's why they're very similar players also, like just in terms of what they can and can't do. But Chat's just in a way better.
But Wemby is reading at a twenty three year old level from what I've heard, because all the comments about Wemby is.
Like, Yo, this dude is reading so many books and it's like not even for the camera, just.
Like never met a French person before.
Yeah, like it's not like the lebron one page thing, you know, he's actually.
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, No, who said that.
No, someone actually said he's like it's not like he's on page like stuck on page one either. They're like like, they're like, he is reading and it's just so fun. Just me the difference in how Americans view reading, yo, Like, why yeah, who's he trying to show off for his book reading? But look it's it's lonely on the road. You got a lot of downtime. Okay, best you've been. You've been doing good so far, but you really should have kept it moving. That's why I have to keep
this thing going. And this is a Toronto Toronto focus question. Okay, all the Raptors, who's been like the most underappreciated, like legend you think of like the all time greats who have played for the Raptors, And who's like a guy who's not getting like his flowers like he should be. Can you just shout him out so people should know still.
And always will be Kyle Lowry just it always is he In my opinion, he's the greatest Raptor ever. You guys probably think Vince Carter, Kawhi Leonard, Yes, but like it's Kyle fred.
Hey.
I feel like, hey, I'm just saying that I got I'm just manifesting.
That's why I say all the time, buddies, So maybe you can get Kyle onto.
But yeah, we just the first thing we asked him is like, hey, do you know Kyle Lowry?
I heard like the actual raptors go.
But it's it's it, yeah, like, without a without a question, he's like one of the most underappreciated raptors still and like he gets a lot of love, but for some reason still has that undappreciated tack to him. So yeah, Fower, all right.
I don't know if you're a fan of the Twitter stylings of one Irvin Magic Johnson, but a sample tweet from the month of November. Wow, my Washington Commanders turned the ball over six times today and gave the Giants twenty four points off turnovers. We lost thirty one nineteen or from a week later, the Dallas Cowboys beat my Commander's forty five to ten. Dallas was a better football
team tonight, playing and simple. I'd love to hear a tweet if you were ghostwriting for Magic okay, and you just want to tweet about a movie, Let's say.
What are you writing any movie.
Okay, all right, Wow, Oppenheimer was such a great film. That guy Killian Murphy really showed off his acting. Chops. I can't believe they dropped.
You know what.
I eat that momb oh.
I didn't want to go there, but that's very Johnson's type.
But he had to do it to him.
Wait what, sir?
He was struggling with that in the field.
S you could take two players from all of history to create your mad Boosti's Edition NBA Jam Team.
Who are the two players you're putting together for that squad?
Give me Magic Johnson? Very easily? Wow, yeah, very easily.
I have been selected on Barrett's Special Edition NBA Jam Squad.
Cannot wait to see who my two on two teammate is.
Uh?
And I need a play finisher. Give me Shack?
Why not?
Give me Shack? Give me Magic and Shack.
Why not?
That'd be fun. Let's do it.
Yeah?
Yeah, I like that s has picked Shack center from the NBA.
Was very big, very big, very strong.
The league didn't see anything like him when he came in. I remember the day.
And finally, you've been on before, so you've told us whether you you prefer Miles or me right, right and furious.
I actually don't remember he picked.
But uh, now we we want to hear you weigh in on the question that's on everyone's mind. Is this man saying bacon or is he saying beer can?
Okay?
You ready, yep, big can, big can?
Okay, I'm from Toronto. Yeah, there there's some patois up there, and I think that that was petoa. Uh yeah, it's bacon very easily.
It's not wow wow correct correct.
Correct, that's correct, wow.
Even though last week Sarah Todd said his beer can also correct.
Yeah, but yeah, back we want big kind Yeah.
There you go and big kind of eggs, you.
Know, yeah, exactly.
Anyway, what.
Wrong?
And thank you for clarifying it. We needed a real Toronto road man to you know. Actually, just clarify that real quick for us. Where do the people find you, follow you, support you? Uh, listen to you here, read all of that good stuff?
Man, Yeah, tat, well they don't. They don't like other podcasts, but you can listen to the Objective Basketball Podcast if you guys want.
Fine, I guess if that's the thing you're doing, like I guess, we'll support that.
Yeah for sure.
Yeah, just bleep it. Follow me on Twitter at just a Sparahini. You can follow all the stuff I do at SDPN Sports. They got a YouTube. They got all that stuff too, so yeah, check me out. Appreciate you guys having me on man. This is always black.
I appreciate pleasure having an honor man.
Well, you can make sure you follow us on Twitter. Follow the hashtag Matt Boosti's b do lo s d i E s for show links, updates, et cetera. If you want to follow me, I am at miles.
Of grade gr a Y.
And I'm at Jack Underscore O'Brien b r I E n h e e n yeah.
Let them know, let them know that is going to do it for us this week.
We did it.
Yeah, we did it.
We did it. We did it.
Uh.
November is over. It's going to be a December to remember. And we hope to see you next week. All right, y'all, Bye bye