Go back on the Drive with ESPN's Dave mcminnimon joining us for today's NBA Daily Assist.
All Right, special thanks to uh to Howard Beck for stopping by. So I just realized something during the break because I always refer to Howard Beck is the hippos NBA media member, the hippos NBA rider, Right? Is there a chance that Dave mcminnimon is the coolest NBA media member?
Howard I think is definitely the hip guy.
He's the hipster.
He's a hipster.
He's the Brooklyn hipster.
Probably weren't a bean, even though it's.
Lattes, macho LTEs. But Dave is like la. He might be the coolest NBA media guy.
He might have taken that mantle. He's the most famous, Oh for sure.
Dave mcminnimon, celebrity reporter on a Friday, Hello, Dave, how are you?
I'm doing well, but I would willingly try to grab for that mantle that you're suggesting. I possibly could fit. But it is kind of like being the all time hole runs leader in the minor leagues. Like I don't know, like being cool amongst NBA beat riders isn't that much of an accomplishment.
Well fair enough, because when I refer to Howard as the hippus NBA beat rider, he pushed back as well, and I reminded him, like I'll remind you, you are up against a bunch of nerds, so it's not like there's a massive mass, but.
You might be.
Here's a question, though, who's the toughest. Like if you all got in a room, who's walking out of that room?
Are you like like a fist fight?
Yeah?
Yeah, Like you all go in a room, who's walking out of the NBA riders?
It's not Windhorse.
Wow, I've never considered this. I'll give respect to one of the ogs, Brad Turner, La Times longtime Clippers and Lakers writer currently covering the Clippers for them. He is a bad man and he has friends who can take care of business. He's ever messed with, so he's not someone I want to cross.
Our guy, Ban McMahon probably can throw some punches. Timmy good time Bond Temps is tall, but he's seems like he does not have to fight.
I'm not have to think about this one. I'm gonna have to think about this one. I like it.
I like it all right, Dave, you are not traveling with the Lakers, so are you with Lebron?
Yeah? I was lucky to find some service down in Cabo to take this call. Oh Lebron, Yeah yeah, Marguerite double please okay, yeah, sorry. So once we're done here, we're going to go back enjoy the sunset and you know, watch the game on satellite feed. But yeah, I mean that's not wor's been on our Friday.
Night gotta love it. What's going on? What's the deal?
You know?
Is it they're not in the Cup and he wants to chill.
I mean the reports are everything from a excused personal absence to a foot issue.
You're the guy for this, what's going on with Lebron?
So it is both of those things. There is a foot issue that started to affect him late in that four game road trip that they had last week, and also he has an excuse absence to get treatment on the foot. But also, you know, this is like a reset and came into the season with the goal of playing in all eighty two games. That went out the
window when he missed the Portland game. And then it was you know, of course, the Lakers competitive group, they would have loved to have the opportunity to make five hundred thousand dollars in one night in Las Vegas and do what they did last year at the NBA Cup.
That did not occur. The NBA provides the teams that don't make it this kind of unique break in the schedule, and Lebron and the decision makers of the organization got together and said, you know, this is a good time for you to do what you gotta do to get right mentally and physically to be able to, you know, push through the next sixty games that are to come.
And so the schedule provides him a chance to get eight days of rest while only missing two games, and so far the Lakers are wanted to know in those two games, and so you know, I think, so long as the next time we see him on the court, which could be as soon as Sunday, he looks better. This was a pretty prudent decision by everyone involved.
Do you feel like people around the league because the Jazz also, of course, are out of the Cup. I know that's shocking the folks that have been watching Jazz basketball, but they they're gonna play to night. But they more or less have been off all week. Does it feel like teams around the league who are not in the you know, the finals coming up in Vegas this this next week, do you think they like this respite early in the season to kind of reset, as you put it.
Oh, yeah, I've talked to several people around the league that said that exactly to me. Now, I mean, it doesn't mean that a team like the Atlanta Hawks, who at the start of the NBA Cup said their team goals as a young group was to get to Vegas, that they're lamenting that they're there right now, or even I think Rivers and in staff would say, man, this Cup finally, these Cup games kind of woke our team up, and now we are in a much better place than
we were at the STARTU Cup competition. I don't think they're going to be regretting it. But the teams that didn't make it, you're not going to hear them complaining about this kind of quirk in the schedule because it's allowed teams to get healthy. It's allowed a team like
the Lakers. You know, they had basically eight road games in a row because they didn't come back to LA but they were for two single games, and so it was eight different cities that they played in consecutively before this little break here, so it allows you know, the NBA doesn't have a bye week, right and the NFL that's such a part of not just the physical chance for teams to rest, but kind of mentally refreshed, get away, a little bit planned something from the court, for your
family of friends, all those types of things. The NBA doesn't have that other than All Star weekend, and so this gives teams a chance to have that a little bit, and I think it's a good thing.
So we've been talking about this all week.
You know, the Jazz played OKC last week, and of course the Jazz are bad at basketball, but every time I hone in on OKC, it feels to me that even though there are a ton of really good teams in the West, we may be dealing with an OKCE Celtics final full health assumed, of course, and obviously that could change. But defensively, Dave I used this analogy with Howard today. It's like a bunch of like football safeties,
they're ballhawks. It's everybody pays attention to the brilliance of SGA and their offensive flow.
With Mark Dagnall.
But defensively they are impossible to break down. So I know the narrative has been the West is deep, and it is. But could we have an elite team out here that maybe people aren't talking about the way that most people talk about the Celtics.
Yeah, I mean I think so. I think, you know, like what at this stage of the year, you're just trying to see who's going to be separating themselves and I think that's it's the category and.
They've been doing it, you know, without full health, and so all that leads me to this. And again we're just not even to Christmas yet, but how many teams do you feel like have legitimately separated themselves in the West where you feel comfortable saying they can actually win the thing?
Well, you know, okay, See it really impressed me when they played in LA a couple of weeks ago. They're really physical. They're defensive numbers. It's no wonder that they rank it's so high, not only in transition defense because they have these young athletes being able to get back,
but in the half court. They're really physical, they're really good at switching, and they have guys you know that they can and play where if a guy gets in out trouble or a guy gets needs to blow and is tired, you got another kind of raving it guy ready to ballhawk for another six minutes stretched before you need another sub. And even though they are young and you know, usually I am of the belief that a team needs to take their lumps before you're going to
say they're really going to get there. They're going to be really tough out And shake goes alexander Is. You know, and this is wild to say because Nikola Jokis's numbers are insane, and and maybe I will be a bit of a victim of voter fatigue here if I continue to have this opinion. But shake goes Asander. I have a hard time seeing someone who means more of their
team right now. And I think he's the MVP of the league because everything that he does is translating to them, you know, winning so many games right now.
So I mean it leads us to team like Memphis Dallas who wanted a year ago Golden State the Clips with Kawhi Denver because they're on court numbers with jokichar insane. I mean, how many teams are you willing to put in that tier that can actually win the West right now.
Yeah, Listen, Dallas just made the finals last year, so I'm not going to discount them, especially Lucas he's so good. Now they've I think they've regressed a bit, losing a guy like Derrek Shones Junior, who was so important to their defense. But they're starting to look a little bit more like the team we saw last spring, the Wolves. I think they're going to regret to call Anthony Towns deal.
I get it. Financially, it was a decision they felt they had to make because they couldn't have all these guys in avoid the second Apron and they couldn't find a trade partner Rudy Gobert. So I get it from the business sense, but I don't think they're going to be as tough of an out Houston. I think again, I put them in the kind of too young category, And you know, I don't know. The Clippers have looked really plucky so far. I was just at their practice
earlier this week. Kawhi Leonard is finally back on the court, participating in group activities for the first time since March. They're not going to rush him back, but he could be back before the new year. And if Kawhi looks like the guy who played sixty eight games last year, it averaged twenty four to seven and seven with high efficiency numbers. I don't discount them. Even though they were kind of written off after they didn't re sign Paul George.
I think they could make some noise at Tyler is as good as a technicians there is in the game. So it's still kind of opened in the West. But okay, see's the team I think that's separated themselves a little bit, especially because there's something like eleven and two of the last thirteen and that's without chet Holmgren. And at some point the answers to big get and check back Tupac.
Question here, it seems like every time I open up some sort of NBA whatever the rumor of with Jimmy, Butler's out and so much so that we have a list of preferred teams. But it's not like Miami is horrible this year. I you know, look, they're not Boston, they're probably not Cleveland, New York. Maybe we throw the magic in narrow though, friends Wagner is out for a minute. But two part question, why would the Heat trade Jimmy, And how do you think this thing plays out?
It's Jimmy's thirty five years old, if I'm not mistaken. He already has fifty two million coming to him next year. He wants an extension in that range. And he's someone that has not been reliable enough in the regular season. Obviously, he's led the team to two finals appearances in an
additional Eastern Conference Finals appearance, so he's done well. He has been you know, he's not a Mount Rushmore member of the Heat organization, but you know he's you know, on their all time roster, whether it's in the first five or off the bench. But this is kind of the Heat way, like, you know, they're not gonna kind
of marry themselves to someone for sentimal sentimental reasons. You know, that's the reason why Dwayne Wade ended up with the Chicago Bulls and didn't come back to the Heat until he was basically part of a deal with with with the Calves. But they had a number they weren't going to give to Dwayne Wade. And certainly that's the same
mentality have with Jimmy Butler. So again, it's more of a business sense type of move, and yeah, I understand it, and quite frankly, they could set themselves up because you know, if you're Miami, you're a perpetual market tracked whomever the guy is, right, so you want to be limber enough
when that guy becomes available. And you know, five six years ago on Draft night, that guy was Jimmy Butler and he's given his best years to the franchise, and now they're going to reset, and I certainly anticipate him to be moved prior to February eighth.
All Right, dave a couple other topics, and we're going to sell you loose. And I acknowledge that this is probably not super comfortable for somebody who works for ESPN and we are your affiliate in this market. But ultimately, and you know, it's a topic that is complex because
I don't think there's one reductive statement to make. But there are data points available that indicate there are a lot of people that have turned NBA basketball off this year for whatever reason, and there are a lot of them that we could get into.
We discussed this last segment with Howard.
We come at it in Salt Lake City through the prism of a piece that was written by Tom Harris. Jone Town did a really good job to indicate that the two markets who suffer most from superstars either not showing up or not playing when they get here, or Salt Lake in Denver. Maybe that's a time zone thing, Maybe it's a I don't want to be cold in
February thing, But that's something we run into here. It's an interesting dichotomy in our market, Dave, because our local TV ratings, like when Mitchell Gobert Quinn Snyder, when that group was really going, our local TV ratings were second only Golden State, but we were down as far as the national stuff goes in the twenties. So a lot of people watch jazz basketball here and not a ton of people watch NBA basketball here.
But you're the guy for this.
Why do you think a lot of people seem to be turning off pro basketball this year according to the numbers.
Yeah, it's unfortunate. I think there's layered reasons here. And some of it, of course, is just the habits of folks and the court cutting, and the idea of the younger generation being so plugged into their phones. Where they are they're still very much consumers of the NBA, but they don't watch a game. They watch the highlights and memes and discussion and tweets and Instagram posts that come out of the game, and that's the way they consider
themselves plugged in as a fan. That's not the worst thing for the NBA, and certainly we should mention that at the same time this is occurring, and of course, obviously you know this, this will be a concern for you know, the company I work for and any television
partner that the NBA has moving forward. But the attendance numbers are still quite good, I think, actually I believe last year they said an all time attendance record for the most amount of people who actually paid for a ticket and set their button a seat to watch a
live game. So it doesn't mean that the popularity of the league is falling off the cliff, but clearly there is a problem with getting people to tune in to games and some of that obviously, the regular seasons is very long at one point and may problem with load management, and so the league addressed that by you know, finding teams if they violate the policy. Then the kind of anecdotal evidence was if you're a general sports fan you don't think the NBA season starts until Christmas Day. That's
you're not paying attention until kind of football's over. So the NBA said, Okay, we're going to create this NBA Cup in season tournament that occurs in the first third of the season prior to Christmas Day as a carrot to get people to watch. You know, at least the
league is recognizing that they got to do something. Last season, the amount of fouls that were called dramatically dipped from the All Star Game forward because the anecdotal evidence the league was finding out was that games in the one fifty range just aren't that appealing to viewers that are accustomed to seeing the competition involve a little bit of defense. And so, you know, I think the leagu's got to keep making attempts to fix this because you are I mean,
obviously you're a basketballuy, I'm a basketball guy. Like, there's an intrinsic appreciation we have for these athletes and what the game is. Uh, there's got to be a way to convey that to the general public, and the lead's going to keep trying. Now, one thing I will say, I'm sure Howard talked about this I'm pretty sure I've read him right about this several times, is that the homogenization of the style of play offensively is certainly hurting
the game. It's because it's already my interest in the game, you know, the the Dell moorification of we're only going to go for layups, dunks, free throws and threes. It's a boring product. And you know, there we need another Phil Jackson and text winner to come through with with a more appealing offense and with a compucact lead, and that so long as that success, teams will try it, and I think more people will be interested.
Octacon UFC Rules Dave Mcmannimon Howard Beck who wins?
I mean, how was this pretty? He's a small guy, he's a little hes a little guy. So I don't know if we wouldn't be got in the same rink.
Okay, fair enough, last thing on Sunday, eighty seven percent of the league is now eligible eligible to be traded. We talked about the Butler thing. Anything else kind of out there permeating that is of interest with players that like the Pelicans have to do something. But what do you think we could see coming up after Sunday when most of the league is eligible to be moved.
Now, yeah, I mean brandon Ingram's in a very similar situation to Jimmy Butler. No one has given has given no indication that they're going to be willing to kind of resign him, and so if he gets moved, then it's kind of like, are you gonna just join into the capsule of like sweepstakes? You know, apparently they already are. I mean, I don't think this was the intention of David Griffin or anyone involved, especially considering the way you know,
Zion played in that plane. That's one of the game against the Lakers last year forty points and you know, New Orleans was one of the tougher teams went healthy last year, but they just haven't been healthy this year. And so if you move Ingram, well then all bets are off with Zion, And then you talk about guys like you know, Herb Jones, who you know, could they could probably get a valuable first round pick for, and then they completely reset what they're doing down there. So
that's a team to keep an eye on. Then there's the buyers. You know, certainly Golden State, considering where they are with Steph Curry's career, Phoenix where they are with Kevin Durant's career. You know, the Lakers. You think Rob Polinka will will feel compelled to make some sort of move you know, they're but all three of those teams are going to be kind of fighting for the same type of pieces out there. So there's going to be movement.
And I anticipate the be movement. I mean, maybe not starting right at the buzzer on Sunday when December fifteenth comes and all these contracts become eligible. But I don't think it's going to be We're going to wait for everything to come in February. There's enough teams out there that are going to feel the impetus to get the ball rolling early, and so you know, buckle up, It's see some movement.
Dave, Thank you, my friend. Appreciate it. On a Friday, have a great weekend.
Okay, yes, sir, thanks Beth.
All right.
The Great Dave mcmanhmhon covers the NBA for ESPN. He's on their daily NBA show. He's also on social media at mc ten is where you find him. Brought to you today by our good friends in Advanced Window Products and Nate Orchard. Jake Weber Best Dudes was out there this week hanging out with them. Number one rated window company in Utah and they're locally owned. Their sales and installation are all in house, which means you avoid that mit Man markup. You actually save a grip of money
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