LaMelo Trade?! | Pistons On FIRE! | LeBron Back | All-Star Game Picture | Game Theory Podcast
Hello and welcome to the Game Theory podcast. I’m your host Sam Vini. Today Bryce Simon joins the show and we are going to break down the Detroit Pistons being on fire. So something Bryce will know very little about, I’m sure. We will talk about the LeBron return last night and where the Lakers sit in the Western Conference. We will talk about the All-Star picture uh in the East and the West and what these teams could look like. uh given that we’re now going to an American versus international uh kind of format. And then finally, we got a fun question from a YouTube user and I kind of wanted to talk about it at the end of the show. But first, let’s hit the music. [Music] They do have a timeout. They try not to use it. Way down. What is this going to be? Are you kidding me? Hello and welcome to the Game Theory podcast. I’m your host Sam. But if you watch the tape, what you will see completely orchestrated this game. [Music] Bryce, what’s going on, buddy? What’s up, Sam? How are you? I don’t know about you, but I’m just enjoying basketball right now. The NBA seems to put out really fun games every night, no matter what. college hoops. We had the Champions Classic which was okay, but then even we come back on Wednesday night and we get the Yukon game and then we get Alabama verse Illinois and it’s just it it’s a blast. Like I I have so much fun watching it on a nightly basis and there’s always an NBA draft prospect to break break down over on the Substack or a hot NBA player that’s on a streak or Derek Queen going for 30 against Jokic and the Nuggets. gets something every single night. It’s amazing. It’s so good. Speaking of the Substack, game theory samv.substack.com. Go hit the subscribe button over there. You will get awesome content. There are two videos up today. We’ve got Andre Stalkovich, which Bryce did. He wanted to talk about him after the Alabama game. He had what, 26th in that game, something like that. Retack the the paint relentlessly. He has been doing that this year, which makes him a very intriguing prospect. Now, I also did a Jaylen Duran breakdown. We’re going to talk about the Pistons at the top. I thought it would be fun to break down Jaylen Dur. Sam, that seemed a that’s a little bit backwards that you did the Jaylen Duran breakdown and I did the 2026 NBA draft. A little bit of a deeper cut prospect. That seems a little backwards for us. It does. But I wanted to talk about Jaylen Duran. And I specifically wanted to do the Atlanta game because Atlanta presents him with certain issues that he has shown in the past within his career. and I wanted to see where the defense is and we’ll talk about Jaylen Duran in a little bit here but you know full 45 50 minutes on Jaylen Duran in the Atlanta game really fun game to break down and he is clearly taking a massive leap which again we will talk about here momentarily game theory samv.substack.com subsack.com. Uh video is also up this week on Debansa against Yukon on somebody else as well. I can’t remember what other video I did earlier this week. Kingston Flemings, who is Kingston Flemings. Really fun. Really fun. Flemings in Houston. Yep. I had the Braden Smith one that went up over the weekend. And of course, um I should give some love to I just lost it again. Connecticut played um gosh, Arizona last night. Arizona like I don’t want like respect to Arizona who won the game on Wednesday night. I said the Yukon game and had lost Arizona um as I was going through that. Obviously they win that game. So really big time programs playing on Wednesday night and really fun games. Yeah, it was awesome. Game theory sv.substack.com. Bryce, uh we’re going to talk about the Pistons. The most important thing that happens today though is that the ashes start. Do you want to know what the ashes are? I don’t know what you’re saying. So the Ashes is when England and Australia play cricket and they play for a trophy that is I I believe that there are like ashes uh in it from what is it? I want to get this like actually dead on right. Uh, it’s an urn that uh holds I can’t remember exactly like what the exact thing is in terms of what the ashes like theoretically represents or whatever, but uh it’s this little tiny urn that is 4 in tall. So when the team wins, they hold up a 4inch tall trophy and it’s amazing. Um, I I truly love every second of it. And these two teams just like are polar opposites and I don’t really think they hate each other necessarily, but there will be like massive massive controversy at some point because somebody will do something against the spirit of cricket and people will melt down. It has like a golf vibe where if you do something that’s like ungentlemanly or unourred, uh, people get very hotty and up in arms. It It’s a beautiful, beautiful rivalry. I I’m just I’m on Wiki right now taking a look. Australia, the current holders of the Ashes um from 2021 because there was a draw in 2023. The Ashes can have a draw. We don’t we don’t even get a winner. Sometimes they play five matches and one of the matches got rained out last time. Yeah. So, it was a little bit disappointing. Uh you know, it’s the idea of the N. Uh the contents of the urn are reputed to be the ashes of a wooden bale uh and were humorously described as the ashes of Australian cricket. Uh it is not clear whether that tiny silver urn is the same as the small terracotta urn uh given to the MCC in 1927. So uh this thing has been going on for years upon years upon years. Uh like Laura and I will go to Adelaide in a month and see the Australian England team teams play. We will be here and watch them in Melbourne. Like we’re excited to see this. Love it. Yeah. Wild, wild stuff. I know. So, shout out to the Ashes. Shout out to cricket. Uh let’s talk about basketball, though. Basketball is a beautiful sport, and nobody right now is playing a more beautiful version of the sport. And the Detroit Pistons, Bryce, you cover the Detroit Pistons full-time on your show. Please explain to me how the Pistons have won 11 straight basketball games. And on the Substack, by the way, you can subscribe to the Motor City Hoop Substack for free where you get game notes after every game. Uh Danis Jenkins is the answer to your question, Sam. We are going to talk about Danis Jenkins over the next 20 minutes because we have been teasing this for 10 plus days. And while I try not no Brian teasing this for six months because we have talked about Dana Jenkins since summer league. No, I know that. I’m just saying that for the last three episodes we found a way or I found a way to at least drop his name into the episode with us actually talking about how good of a basketball player he is. But yes, we have both been mentioning his name for a while after how good he looked. Listen, he came on the scene last year and I was like, who is this guy? Let me dive into it a little bit. It started with this ball screen navigation, which I thought was really impressive. Listen, the truth is he he is truly part of it. But this team just kind of has a flow right now and a vibe and they know who they are. And it really does start on the defensive end. Sam, I was talking the other day to somebody. Who is the negative defender in their rotation right now? Even when they’re hurt, Sam, even when they’re injured and they’ve dealt with injuries through all this, who is the negative defender outside of Duncan Robinson on this roster right now? Yeah, I I don’t know that I’ve got like a truly negative one. I think that there are certain circumstances where Duran is not great. I think if teams have a spacing big man during particularly struggles with kind of gap control and figuring out how to get out to the shooter and playing ball screen coverage and you know he does despite being as athletic as he as he is he does lumber around somewhat and like that will be really probably the only negative thing we say about Jaylen Duran uh throughout the show because he’s been incredible but like really it’s only like circumstantial where Duran is a poor defender now like if another team doesn’t have a spacing big, he’s tremendous. He is a good defender. I would say now if a team doesn’t have a spacing big, uh I I mean like even Tobias Harris is fine, but Tobias is obviously I mean he hasn’t been playing during this major portion of of the stretch. Like Caris has been good defensively. We know what Steu and Aar are. I’ve I’ve made my pitch for Kate Cunningham as a defender when you consider he’s the primary initiator and the engine of the offense. Ron Holland hasn’t been as good as what I would have liked during the stretch and the whole season offensively, but defensively he does things. Listen, Paul Reed, if nothing else, Paul Reed is going to come in and he is going to disrupt the heck out of your offense. This man averages 7.3 stocks per 100 possessions. He’s going to come in and do that. Javvante Green. I mentioned Dannis Jenkins. All of these guys defend and it’s led to through all of the injuries and in and out of the lineup the second best defensive rating in the NBA behind only the historic Oklahoma City Thunder defense. And that’s where it starts, Sam, is they are going to guard you. I think that they’re disrupting teams. They’re forcing more turnovers behind only the Thunder as well. So, they disrupt your offensive flow. you were going to know that you played the Detroit Pistons and then they just found enough offensively and that’s where the Jaylen Dur conversation really starts is yes Kade is Cade but Jaylen Dur averaging almost 21 points per game is the biggest development not only of the season for the Pistons but quite frankly it might be the biggest long-term development in terms of what that means for this roster and roster construction moving forward. So I completely agree with that. I do think it starts with Kade. I think that the Jaylen Duran conversation starts with Cade though particularly and the only reason I say that is because a these guys have been playing together for four years now and it’s very clear from what I understand like they are also very close as well. Like th those two human beings are very close and it’s very clear that they have developed a shorthand in terms of how they understand and operate ball screens together. Right. So, everybody right now, it feels like leaguewide to me, correct me if I’m wrong, like I can’t remember the last time, that a team didn’t put regularly two on the ball or aggressively blitz Kade Cunningham ball screens, right? Like it feels like that’s what everyone is doing right now. Yeah. Does that feel correct to you? Yeah. I mean, if they don’t do it to start a game, then they do it through the middle portion of the game when he gets going or whatever. at some portion of the game, at some point they were going to put two on Cade because to your point, those guys chemistry is so good and Duran is such an elite finisher of lobs, no matter where the pass ends up that they’re going to hurt you. It It’s really easy to put Duncan Robinson on the weak side and run a middle ball screen with Kade Duran and put your tag man in a really tough spot. So, you’re better off doubling him, blitzing him. maybe he’ll make a mistake and then teams have been trying to force Duran to be the creator of offense out of that and I think where you’re going with this is Duran has made them pay whenever they’ve tried to do that this season. It’s exactly right. What I think Jaylen Duran is doing best right now is twofold. So I want to start with the first thing which is getting what I was saying before. He has become incredible at being able to take advantage of those oddman situations because he’s become a lot more comfortable as a ball handler, being able to drive and finish at the rim. His footwork and his gathers are drastically better this year. Like he there were moments last year, like I say this in the video that I did on Substack, right? There are moments last year like Pistons fans are going to be able to pull up a couple of clips where you see Jaylen Duran put the ball on the ground and be able to go to the rim and finish, right? He’s now doing that like four times a game. It feels like it’s a lot more regular. He is much more comfortable with it and he is looking a lot more consistent in how he attacks it. In my opinion, that is a huge huge development to me. the fact that he is just willing to put the ball on the ground and it’s no longer in situations where he is only a short roll weapon doing that where he has an advantage. He is now just taking advantage of guys as like a delay roll or a delay like trailer from time to time where like they will get him the ball and he’s just like, “Oh no, I have a mismatch here. I’m going to drive downhill and I’m going to score at the rim.” He has a lot he’s a lot more comfortable with like I don’t want to call them advanced ball screen moves by NBA standards, but they’re advanced or they’re advanced dribble moves for a guy that is 6’10 to 6′ 11 with a 7 foot five wingspan and is 260 lbs. Like he has the ability now to like dribble inside out dribble, pound dribble, get all the way to the rim and just use his force to be able to beat you to the basket now, right? That’s something that like he just did not do regularly last year is the reality. The other thing that I think he has done and this is the second piece of it. And I don’t mean this as a slight, this is going to sound somewhat negative. I think that in the NBA you have to take advantage of the opportunities that you get. It’s a huge portion of being a great NBA player. when he feels like he is bigger or stronger or more physically capable than the opposing team, he is just going to bury them. Now he feels like if I have ona Kongwoo or Mo Gay on me or if I have Isaiah Jackson on me or if I have like any number of undersized big men across the league that they’ve played in this 11game win streak. He is trying to bury them at the rim now and he is trying to put them through the basket and really enforce his will on the game. And to me, this is a guy that occasionally throughout the course of his career has been a bit more twinkletoesy in his movements. Now, he’s like, I understand how big and how strong and how physical I am. I am going to destroy you going to the rim. I am going to bury you and just absolutely dominate you going to the basket. And to your point, he’s going to be bigger than a lot of matchups. I realize they’ve gone through a stretch here where it has been like he he’s just the bigger, stronger, better player, but I think part of that is because he’s improved and he is just bigger, stronger, more athletic than a lot of dudes he’s going to play against. I am like as somebody that’s super excited about what he’s shown through 13 games. I am interested to see what it looks like against Avita Zubots and you know defenders like that and when they play the Grizzlies with Zack Edy and Jiren Jackson Jr. I I am excited to see what it looks like. But right now I I don’t know that I ever thought Jaylen Duran would have a stretch where he was averaging 20 points a game in the way that he’s doing it. if he was going to, it was going to be all like, okay, everybody has just decided they’re for some reason going to force him to finish these lobs or it’s all off offensive rebounds. He’s doing those things as well. He’s still doing that stuff, but his ability to face up and just attack downhill. He’s flashed this mid-range jumper, which would make it real tough on defenders if he hits that consistently. And I think the biggest development I’ve seen having watched every minute of his NBA career is the nondunk finishing. You know, we we knew he could dunk. We knew he could catch lobs. It’s the stuff where he’s using the backboard. He’s showing touch. Those were things even as early as last se or recently as last season I was having some questions about in terms of what does it look like when he can’t get momentum to the rim and jump higher than you and dunk the basketball. And I feel like he’s come a long way. I don’t know what the numbers say, but I feel like he’s done very well this season in non dunk finishes. You know, whatever you want to say, restricted area, five feet and in whatever the distance is. I I feel like that’s a whole lot better. Yeah. So, last season shot 57.4% uh on layups in half court settings. The year before 56.4%. This season he is at 64.6%. There you go. So, it tracks right now half court layups. So, that’s absolutely true. I think uh the other thing here is just like look, you can look at the numbers and this just bears it out. like even forget the like scouting piece of it for a second. 7.3 free throw attempts per game versus 3.1 throughout the course of his career. Uh he has consistently been a guy who gets to the line like three times a game. He is now getting to the line seven times a game. To my point, he’s just trying to bury guys at the basket and it’s a huge huge differentiating factor for him in my opinion as he goes forward and tries to improve uh his overall standing in the league. We will talk about the all-star picture like throughout the East and Western Conference later. He absolutely figures into the All-Star picture right now in the Eastern Conference. And I will be interested to see where we kind of both fall on whether or not he ends up, you know, currently at least being in the All-Star game uh as of how things stand at this specific juncture. Uh, I do want to like stop on Cade here for a second with the Pistons because I still see the conversations where people like question the efficiency and look like I got even a little bit annoyed by like the Wizards game on some level. I understand it was third game in four nights. I understand that it was uh a situation where they had everybody out. They had, you know, four rotation players down that game, I believe. and he really did have to do everything in that game. So like part of me is like yeah like okay it is what it is. Another part of me is like okay he went 13 for 45 or whatever he did. Also not great. I am kind of at the point with Cade where I think the numbers do end up being deceptive for him because he carries such an immense load for them every single night. he has to do everything for them in terms of creation because like we can talk about Danis Jenkins being the second guard out there, right? Like it’s fine. It it is what it is. Like he sometimes, you know, can handle the ball and be okay. But Kade when he plays and he did just miss, you know, two or three games, was it recently? Yeah, I can’t remember if he missed three. I think it was three. Yeah, they’re 13 and two. So yeah, he missed three. Yeah, like when Kate is out on the court, he is just dominating the ball. And it’s not because it’s the way he plays. It’s because they don’t have any anybody else who can like run a ball screen and create a shot consistently by NBA standards and because he is by far the best guy in the league to have the ball or the best guy on this team to have the ball in his hands for. Now, I’ll be interested to see what happens when Jaden Ivy comes back. Can he take some of that load off of Kade? And maybe we will see an efficiency jump in some respect. But I don’t know, man. Like I I just watch Kate Cunningham and I’m like I just completely get this and I buy it. And you know the efficiency kind of be damned on some level. He is who he is and he is the thing about him is that because he’s so smart and so unselfish in terms of his decision making that I almost think that like the 9.9 assists per game often somehow like underrates his ball movement sometimes too because he just makes the right pass at first and then they’ll get hockey assists and the ball will move and constantly be in motion like I I don’t know like where do you fall on the Cade conversation right now? He’d be like very clearly being an allNBA guy right now. Yeah, I mean he’s the best player unquestionably on the team that is number one in the Eastern Conference right now. And again, I always kind of push a little bit of a defensive narrative, but looking offensively, the the three-point percentage is the issue right now. And it’s a real issue. Like he’s shooting 28%. The three-point shooting has been a question throughout his entire NBA career. He shot 31% as a rookie. Then, you know, he only played 12 games the next year. The next two years, it was right around 36%. Last year in the playoffs, he was at 18%. It was a real thing. Like, you know, Pistons content creators like myself and others were showing the way Jaylen Brunson, they would bring Brunson into the action, he would hard hedge it like I like Steph Curry does. Curry’s always the one because I think people probably recognize that because they didn’t want Brunson to get switched out. And after Brunson leaves, before Bridges or Anobi were able to navigate the screen, there was this split second where Cade had the opportunity for the dribble three and he either wouldn’t take it or he wasn’t making it. Well, right now he’s shooting 28% on almost seven threes per game. Sam, he’s shooting as good from two as what he did last year. He’s 51% from two-pointers right now. He’s shooting the most free throw attempts of his career by over two per game. the assists and the creation for teammates is ridiculous. Like I do think it’s underrated in terms of what he does there. Even here’s the other the turnovers are down, you know, like they’re almost at three and a half right now, which for him is a good spot. He’s just not making threes. So to me, the efficiency, whether you look at effective field goal percentage, true shooting percentage, whatever metric, or just like the raw numbers, to me it all comes down to he’s not making threes right now. And I’ve always said this about Kade, for him to be the ultimate like first team AllNNBA guy, MVP conversation, take this team and really compete deep into the playoffs. I’ve always thought the three-point jumper is what really had to be there because he is really hard to guard all of a sudden if you have to respect the three-point shot that much and he can hit it off the bounce if you don’t. Yeah. No, it’s it’s 100% right. Uh, I love what Kad’s done this year. And then the final guy that maybe not the final guy, but the most important guy that we need to talk about is the rise of Dannis Jenkins, which we’ve like kind of alluded to here at the jump, but I mean, I love him first and foremost. Like, he just does everything right. It feels like to me when he’s out on the court like there is never he’s never overstepping his bounds while also being incredibly threatening as a shooter, as a cutter, as a driver. times. He just takes what the defense gives him. Teams are, you know, still adjusting to his presence out there and he’s skilled enough to take advantage of them leaving him open on some level. Yeah, he gives him a level of ball handling that, you know, like I think some people have gone a little too far with where they think Jenkins can be. I I think if I’m the Pistons, I would love to let him play that second unit kind of point guard role for a month here and see how much of this stuff can stick, but he he doesn’t look like the moment is too big for him, Sam. Like that’s the one thing that it stood out at summer league. He was talking so much trash and it’s like, okay, yeah, it’s summer league. You’re in the back gym at Thomas and Mack and you know all of it. No, he’s doing it in NBA games. He was doing it one game. They’re losing and he’s like, this is just who he is. And to me, it’s not fake. Like, it’s just a true level of confidence that he plays with. He’s been able to knock down shots for them. He’s able to pressure the paint and create for others. It’s just exactly kind of what they need in my opinion in terms of a guy coming off the bench. He doesn’t need to be starting with Cade. I don’t think we need to have that conversation. But you talk about a guy who maybe this team could use. It’s like the Dennis Shruder role, but if you don’t have to trade for that then, and obviously Shruder’s like way more, you know, established of an NBA vet, right? Like, but if he can give you some resemblance of that 10 to 15 minutes a night, you know, maybe more in the regular season and then I don’t know what it looks like in the playoffs just because of his size, but that would be huge for this team. And I think my biggest thing is he just has taken advantage of this opportunity. It started with the three-pointer against the Wizards to send it into overtime and then he has just run with it from there. And he looks completely in control offensively. He’s making shots right now. And then again, he he’s good defensively. Like he guards at the point of attack defensively. There there are real matchups that this team could use him for because they don’t necessarily have anybody else in his kind of archetype that could change chase around a smaller player that way. um other than you know a star Thompson. Yeah. No, I I truly think all of that is correct. I mean, you look at his last uh six game sample here, it’s ridiculous. Uh his last five games, I’m sorry. He’s averaging seven or 20 points, four rebounds, 7.6 assists versus 2.4 turnovers, shooting 50 44 80. Again, to me, it’s just like the decision-m every single time. He knows what to do with the ball and he’s aggressive but he doesn’t overstep, right? Like it is super smart. It’s super solid. It is exactly I think what they wanted from Marcus Sasser. It’s just that Danis is a little bit bigger than Marcus Sasser as well. That also that’s also helpful. Well, and the other thing is I think he does what they need better than what Marcus Sasser does. It’s like I think Marcus Sasser fills a role for teams, but to me Marcus Sasser is like this on ball scorer for himself, not necessarily for others and he doesn’t seem like he’s leaned into this off the ball role. Like they could use that as well, right? Like they Jas Laneir’s got a lot of good looks over the last few games. He just hasn’t been able to knock him down at a high rate. If Sasser was doing that, it would be a little bit different. But if we’re talking about an onball kind of backup point guard, that’s not what Sasser does in my opinion in terms of creating for others, kind of running the show. Dannis Jenkins has come in and done exactly that. And on a team where one of the big questions is what does the ball handling look like when Kate Cunningham isn’t on the floor, having a guy that can do it and you can be confident in provides a ton of value. My final note on the Pistons here is just on Assar Thompson as well. A I mean he is just a holy level defender. Yeah. Like he is fantastic. I I love that dude. I love watching him. Um he is he he is so good on that end. He he like the way that he rotates around and flies around is bonkers to me. He is unbelievable in terms of just scrambling and making plays and also he’s a great on ball defender too. But the other thing that I notice is that because Jaylen Duran has improved his ball skills, the thing you and I talked about all the time was that Assar and Jaylen Duran often felt like they were cutting and rolling into the same areas last year offensively. Detroit has gotten a lot more intentional about their spacing this year to where I don’t see that happen all that often anymore and I think that it’s really really important for their offensive spacing for those and for their future for those two guys to be able to play together and Duran improving his ball skills I feel like was something we never really talked about as a potential solve for this because it just felt like something that was less likely I guess than the other outcomes. but he’s done it and it’s completely changed how they operate their offense in some way and it makes it way easier to have both those guys on the court together and thus to have two of your three best players basically on the court at the same time. It’s it’s funny how much stuff really comes out of a playoff series. We always talk about like getting a playoff series to evaluate and data collection and all of that. And you know people you we probably could have figured this out through the regular season last year, but what my biggest takeaway from that Knicks series was in terms of the Duran Assar stuff when one of them is involved in the action, your spacing is fine. Whenever they ran a K Duran pick and roll ball screen, it was okay because then Assar was he’s so good on the baseline. he could cut and he could offensive rebound and catch lobs, all of that. When they were p trying to bring Jaylen Brunson into the action and Duran and Assar were both off the ball or it was just a straight Kade isolation and they were both off the ball, it was an issue and this is le it’s it’s your point. If Jaylen Duran has the ball, it’s okay that Assar Thompson is spacing quote unquote spacing in the dunker spot because you know who’s not there? Jaylen Duran isn’t in the dunker spot because he has the ball in the middle of the floor. Now, you know, making sure you don’t take it out of Cad’s hands too much and all of that, but it does really help. And if Duran can even hit a mid-range jumper, Sam, even that little bit of spacing is going to help that Matt, you know, that combination because listen, Isaiah Stewart has been incredible defensively. And you know, I I don’t want that to get lost, but a star Thompson is like the upside ceiling defender on this team that has like the, you know, first team alldefense level potential. Um, you know, with all due respect to Stu, probably never going to be eligible it for it at all. But Assar is the one that I think has that high highend ceiling on the defensive end. Yeah. And look, like where I’m at on the Pistons is that I think this team can win the East right now. I think they might have to make one more move at the deadline because like people were talking about like Lowry Markin and can they go get Markin or something? I don’t think it even needs to be that big and I think they can win the East is where I’m at. Like I think if they could go get a like even like Michael Porter Jr. would help them. I had that name thrown to me the other day. Uh it it was interesting. It Here’s the thing. We all roads lead back to the same name. Damn, you got to know what Jaden Ivy is before you make a move. Because if Jaden, here’s the thing. If Jaden Ivy comes back and shoots 40% from three, I think that changes the calculation of who you need to go get. Totally agree. Because we’ve talked about this. Duncan Robinson’s three-point shooting is an underrated vital part of this team offensively because you have no other high volume three-point shooters and he’s a disaster defensively. At the very least, you got to go get a guy that can stay on the floor defensively come playoff time. That’s going to give you floor spacing. So, I think you got to see what Jaden Ivy is and if Duran can continue this and against what level competition he can do it and then that let you know what player you need to go acquire. But I’m with you. I don’t know that it has to be the Lowry Markin. You know, Jiren Jackson Jr. is always a fun name to talk about even, you know, obviously it’s not probably realistic or, you know, Trey Murphy. Um, I don’t know that you got a swing that big. Like Andrew Wiggins was the name I threw out on the episode a couple weeks ago. Like I think Wiggins would really and Wiggins has been great to start the year and like I don’t know if Miami is going to even move him because of how good he’s been to start the year. But his ability to stay on the court defensively, his shooting, his ability to like attack closeouts, he’s a valuable player, right? Like even something like that I think would be really useful for them. Uh, I mean, anybody else I’m trying to think of. I mean, yeah, like PJ Washington was always our ideal fit. It’s just that he can’t be traded in season, so he’s not eligible. Um, but yeah, like look, I I think that they’re in a fascinating position. I think they’re a genuinely really good team, and I have loved watching them play so far this year. Yeah, I mean, like I said, the defense is real. They’re fourth in the NBA and net. I understand people will point to the schedule. I get it. I understand it. It’s fair. I will just also say like they’ve played short-handed a lot of these games and that’s not even talking about Jay Ivy who I think it’s worth mentioning did get assigned to the Motor City Cruise earlier this week, the the Pistons GLeague ability. And I assume we see him I I listen I’m not a reporter guys. I I I don’t know. But I’m assuming once that happens, we’re getting into a progression where we see him, you know, in the next couple weeks or something like that. Tobias Harris got assigned on Thursday as well. So, they are starting to get a little bit healthier where you may be able to see this roster in its full and see what the real potential is. All right, Bryce, before we move on to the Los Angeles Lakers, we got to shout out our friends over at Mizen and Maine. Let’s be honest, most dressed clothes are uncomfortable. They’re high maintenance, and they just don’t feel great to wear. You spend too much time ironing, dry cleaning, and tugging at stiff fabrics. But that’s why I love Mizen and Maine. Mizen in Maine makes classic men’s wear with performance fabrics. So it’s effortless to look sharp and feel great. Misin and Maine actually invented the performance fabric dress shirt over 10 years ago. And since then they’ve perfected it with modern fabrics. Miz and Maine’s shirts and pants look refined yet they’re stretchy, lightweight, wrinkle resistant, and completely machine washable. No ironing or dry cleaning required. Uh, it is timeless style you can invest in once and enjoy for years. That’s why thousands of guys swear by Mizen in Maine when they want to look great without the hassle. Look, I’ve been wearing Mizen in Maine since before they were a sponsor. Uh, it is just such an easy look to throw on when you go out to the golf course. It is a great great product. Right now, Mizen in Maine is offering our listeners 20% off your first purchase at mizen andmain.com. Promo code game20. That’s mizen spelled m i zen and maine m a i n.com promo code game20 for 20% off mizen andmain.com promo code game20. And if you’d rather shop in person, you can find Mizen and Maine stores in select states. Bryce, LeBron James played for the first time this season last night against the Utah Jazz for the Los Angeles Lakers. What was your impression of LeBron James in his opener? Um, it was good. I I think somebody tweeted this out and I wasn’t watching the game live, but whenever I went back to watch it, obviously you got to see him, you know, in his first game. He runs the floor in transition and he gets this pass from Donic. I think it was even after a make. He immediately attacks the defense off the dribble and then kick to Jake Lorravia in the weak side corner for the catch and shoot three-point make. And it was just like this all works. It all fits together. It makes so much sense because we know LeBron can get out and run the floor even at his age. Like there’s still that athleticism to do that. And then even just his gravity. I thought they had some mid post isolations where his gravity was showing up. He was drawing two defenders and generating good looks for his teammate. I think one was a weak side three. One, I think it was actually Laavia again that made a baseline cut, got the catch maybe to the free throw line or something like that. He’s so good catching on the move, like that momentum catch and downhill drive. So, I thought all of the offensive stuff was really good. He had double digit assist in his first game back. I I just the idea of Donic, Reeves, and him all on the floor together. And the way the ball could move, like that’s what I I kind of just had fun watching them play, Sam. It looked like they were having fun playing and the way the ball can move and pop and just the quick decisions that they can make and and even something as simple as this. They ran a Donic middle ball screen. I don’t know if it was Hayes or Aton. And you have Austin Reeves and LeBron James on the weak side, Sam. What is the defense supposed to do with that as long as other than just leave the big man open and hope messes it up or something? But you know what I mean? Like that’s that’s two guys that can knock down a shot on the weak side. That’s two guys that are going to make a great decision on the weak side. So, I I thought it looked good in the first game and I’m excited for this Lakers team. I I thought it they were a lot of fun to watch and again, I feel like they have good vibes in terms of their onc court roster anyway with how they played and the energy they had. I completely agree that I thought the vibes were amazing. This Utah team is like kind of funky to play because they are incredibly dangerous offensively, but like they just don’t really have any recourse for anybody on defense right now. out feels like to me without Walker Kesler like it’s just really hard. They’re a very young team. You watch them defend now. It’s just it’s it’s pretty rough especially in transition a lot of the time. So, I don’t know that I want to take away like major takeaways from anything that I saw. More than anything, I just enjoyed having LeBron back. Yeah, that’s kind of what I found myself taking away. It is cool that this guy is in his 23rd season. He last night, I don’t know if you saw this, like he passed Reggie Miller. I saw it for all time threes made. Yeah. Yeah. And if you would have said when LeBron came into the league that he ends up making more threes than Reggie Miller, you would have been laughed out of the room. And that’s where we’re at now. It It’s just an incredibly cool thing to watch this guy where like he he he is taken more wear and tear on his body than anybody else in league history. He has played 5900 career minutes in the NBA. that is the most all time and that is just in the regular season. He has also played 12 or 59,000 not 100 59,000 career minutes uh in the NBA in the regular season. And then he’s also played an additional 12,000 minutes in the playoffs, which is also an all-time career record for anybody. He has the most points in the playoffs, you know, most two-pointers made, most free throws made, most defensive rebounds, most steals, most turnovers. Like the fact that LeBron is still playing in the way that he is. I I just like can’t it part of my brain struggles with comprehending how cool it is, I guess. But it’s very cool. And like with it being Utah and with it being the 15th game of the year, whatever it was for the Lakers last night, I kind of just found myself thinking this is amazing that this guy is still playing. And I think I wanted to like just focus on that aspect of it more than the what does the future hold piece of it. We’ll talk about that in a second for sure with the Lakers, but it was just awesome to see him back out there. No, it it it truly is. And it’s it’s funny like he’s just he’s almost normalized it to a point where we’re going to get to a lot of players and just expect that they’re going to do the same thing, right? Like what do you mean you’re retiring at 35? LeBron played till he was 41 plus or whatever. You know, it just And that’s what I was talking about. The dude is 41 and I’m talking about how he was pushing pace for this Lakers team and how good he looks catching on the move off the catch and getting downhill and it it’s just it truly should be like I know people do celebrate it. They understand how good he is, but the resume speaks for itself. I just you’re you’re right, Sam. It is. It’s enjoyable to see one of the greatest, if not the greatest, for some people players we’ve ever watched. And in year 41 or age 41, we’re still getting to see him play the game of basketball. And in that game, it still looked like it was a pretty good level of it. I know he only had 11 points, but again, he had 12 assists. The defense is what it is. We’ll see, like you said, we’ll see what it looks like long term, but I find myself excited to see this is Luca Donuch in I don’t want to say best shape of his career. I don’t know, maybe it is, whatever. But like Luca in Luca form, Austin Reeves playing the best basketball of his career under JJ Reic, and we add LeBron James into all of that. I just find myself getting really excited about watching these guys play together with uh you know that head coach and and all in LA. It’s just a lot of fun. I I I think the Jazz are kind of fun to watch too because like Keonte George is just like crazy right now. Lowry’s hooping right now. But I just found myself enjoying watching the Lakers play and I don’t know that that’s always been the case. Whenever I’ve turned on a Lakers game the past few years, I thought it was a lot of fun and LeBron had a lot to do with that. Yeah, I I completely agree and look like where this goes now is anybody’s guess. I mean, DeAndre Aton has been very playable for them so far and has been quite useful. He’s a number of 20 and 10 games for the Lakers. Uh he’s doing a great job of just rolling to the rim right now and finding shots. LeBron’s passing last night, I thought, opened up a lot for them in terms of his ability uh to just make quick decisions. I felt like they played a little bit faster last night. Maybe not in terms of I don’t want to take anything away in terms of like tempo just because it was the Jazz and the Jazz transition defense is kind of messy, but like it felt like even the ball was like whipping around quicker to me. And then you throw in like Jake Loravia who makes quick decisions as well and he’s another guy where the ball just like kind of whips around a lot of the time too. I do think they’re going to be like genuinely very hard to guard is kind of where I’m at. Like say whatever you will about, you know, where they are on defense. Having Luca, LeBron, and Austin Reeves, all of whom are ca are capable of going for 40 on any given night and all of whom can go for 10 assists on any given night. It is just kind of a hard guard at the end of the day. And then you have shooters around them. You do have a defender in Marcus Smart now. Uh, you do have a real like rim runner in Aton potentially. They’re 11 and4 now with LeBron just getting back. I I don’t know. Like I am I am finding myself I’m finding my interest peaked by the Lakers right now. Uh, and I do wonder if we end up seeing them end up quite high in the West. I mean, yeah, shooting 70% from the field right now. And I would venture to guess a large reason why is since the first three years of his career, he’s always been somewhere in the low 30% in terms of field goal attempts from 0 to 3 ft. He’s up at 43%. Which is the best since early in his career, his first few years. The other person I at least want to shout out because I feel like he takes a lot of crap and is always getting traded. And I’m not saying that that’s incorrect, but Ruie is currently shooting 5748. Now, I don’t, you know, there’s other things. I think he is the one guy where the ball can stick at times and all of that, but if if Ruie would just lean into be a play finisher, run in transition, finish at the rim, catch in the corner, knock down catch and shoot threes, and that like he could he could carve out a role for this team as opposed to always ending up in trade scenarios. But I I think he’s at least worth a shout out because honestly he’s the one guy that’s shooting good from three right now. You want to talk about like potentially more upside offensively. Larabia is at 34%. Reeves is at 33. Luca is at 32. Gabe Vincent’s at 31. Only played four games. You know, it’s not, you know, Smart is at 23. I’m not saying all of those guys are going to end up in the high30s or something like that, but they’re not shooting well from three. You know, they’re 23rd in the NBA right now. And so there might be some more upside and maybe adding another, you know, LeBron James passing decision- making, the the ball moving and that energy in the ball, maybe some of those shots start to become just a little bit easier and some more go down. So yeah, I don’t know what it ends up being defensively. I think this is going to be a tough offense to guard night in and night out and into the playoffs. Yeah, I mean the key is like for instance, can you change Austin Reeves’ like shot profile, right? where this season he has taken 58 dribble three-point jumpers and 40 catch and shoot three-point jumpers and on the jumpers off the dribble from three he’s shooting 29% on them. Like that’s always been kind of the sneaky thing with Austin is he is not an amazing pullup three-point shooter but he has always been a monster catch and shoot three-point guy. So if you give him a chance to knock down catch and shoot threes because he’s playing a little bit more off the ball, I would imagine you will see his efficiency spike even further. I really like the way that they staggered like a lot of this game for me is like process, right? So, I love the way that they staggered them. Like they had LeBron be the first starter to come out of the game last night. Then they brought him back with two minutes. They took out Austin Reeves. Then at the end of the first quarter, they took out Luca, brought Austin Reeves back in and played LeBron and Austin Reeves for a minute for a while and like that rotation together, right? And then, you know, right around like the six or five minute mark of the second quarter, they took out LeBron again and, you know, brought in it was Luca and Austin Reeves running the show for a minute, right? Like I liked the way that JJ Ric staggered them and made sure that there were always two of those guys on the court at once. like so that you always had enough creation. But the key to that is making sure that you also have the depth pieces which with Lorravia with Ruie right now with Payton and Hayes seemingly doing enough uh certainly at the center position also with Marcus Smart now who can defend. Gabe Vincent is back. You have Jared Vanderbilt as well. you have bodies that you can throw at problems now, which is something they just didn’t have last year. And that is interesting to me. And can you figure out a way to maybe engineer a trade to go get somebody who’s more of a two-way guy, whereas like Ruie right now to me is like, you know, play finisher, offensive player. Yeah. Marcus is a super high level defender. you want to find a guy who can kind of bring both of those things together right now. In my opinion, we’ll see if they can go find that on the trade market somewhere. I I think that they do probably need it to be a real title contender in a significant way, but if they are able to go get it, I think that they can be a real title contender. So, I I am enthusiastic about the Lakers is where I’m at right now. And it seems like they’re going to be in a position where it makes sense, right? like they’re going to if this continues the way we’ve seen, they’re going to be competing not at the top of the West because the OKC is probably going to run away with that, but you’re going to be able to tell yourself, hey, we we have we you can talk yourself into we have as good a chance as anybody to compete with the Thunder in the West if we go acquire that. I don’t think you can say that right now, but if they continue to play at this level, you’ll have a record and a sample that says it is it is reasonable for us to go make a move and acquire that player and then now we can make a run in the playoffs and see what we do against the Thunder in the conference finals. So, Bryce, we’ve had some breaking news while we’ve been recording over the last like 40 minutes or so. And the news is that LaMelo Ball, according to Kelly Eco and Yahoo Sports, you know, my former colleague over at The Athletic Kelly, LaMelo Ball has grown frustrated with the organization and is open to a trade. League sources tell Yahoo Sports uh on Wednesday night. You know, LaMelo didn’t really play the last five minutes of their game uh against the Pacers. If you watch that one, uh it was interesting at least. Uh he is not shooting super well. Obviously, we loved his effort to start the year this year. We thought that like the defensive effort was a little bit better. We thought that, you know, he was continually doing a little bit more of the or a bit more of the little things, but then obviously he gets hurt again and misses what was it like six games or so. And I don’t know like the these these situations are always hard because you look at LaMelo now and I think that what I am struggling with here is that he has grown frustrated with the organization is open to a trade. If I was the Hornets, I would have grown frustrated with LaMelo having not played enough games uh throughout the course of his career recently. If you look at his last four years, 36 games, 22 games, 47 games last season, and then this season, he has played nine of a potential 15 games. Like, I don’t know, man. Like if I was LaMelo, I would be frustrated that I’m not healthy more than I would be frustrated with the organization in any way, shape, or form. Uh so when you see this report, like I I struggle with this one a little bit to be honest with you. Listen, I we did this when we did the 2020 NBA draft reddraft and I threw out all the names of players that have played more games than LaMelo Ball. I will just throw one at people. Sadique Bay has played more games than LaMelo Ball and he missed an entire season with an ACL injury. That’s right. He’s played more games by 66 and has played 1,500 more minutes even like even if you want to go to the minutes thing. So listen that I think it’s I think sometimes people get mad when you bring up the games played thing with LaMelo and I’m like no it’s it’s it’s fair. Like of all things you bring up, it’s fair. Here here’s my quick take and like as you said like we you sent Andrew a text about getting a LaMelo thing ready and I was like oh shoot what happened. So I’m like scrolling Twitter to try to figure it out. So I’ve had about 10 15 minutes to think about this while we were talking about other stuff. My gut reaction Sam is trade him. I want to see him on another team. That’s where I’m at with the LaMelo Ball experience in the NBA because LaMelo Ball supporters will scream at me that he’s never had a supporting cast. Perfect. Send him somewhere to a team that’s going to have more talent around him theoretically and all of that and let’s find out. So, I’m ready for it. Like, I am ready to see LaMelo Ball somewhere else and let’s see if he can integrate himself into a like and I want him to go to a decent team, Sam. I don’t want him to get traded to like the Wizards or something like that. With all due respect to the Wizards, love what they’re doing right now with their young players. Like, send him somewhere where there’s like a a an infrastructure of some sort there, another star of some kind. And let’s see what it looks like. And I’m not even saying he won’t figure it out. I want to see it with my own eyes because I have a lot of people tell me all the time that they are certain that this guy is an allstar and can help and contribute to winning and all he needs is better talent around him. So, let’s go for it. Let’s see it. And if I’m Charlotte, let’s make the trade and let’s build build around Coniple, hopefully Brandon Miller, and some other young guys moving forward. Yeah. Like, and look, you know, it’s a report, correct? We’ll see if LaMelo comments on it at some point. Um, within the report, Kelly says, “Leak sources say the front office is increasingly hesitant about cementing ball as a long-term foundational piece, has become disillusioned with the 24year-old, and is open to moving him.” So, it feels like there’s traction both ways here, uh, according to Kelly at least. We’ll find out if this ends up, you know, coming to fruition in some way, shape, or form. But yeah, I these are ones where like it’s hard for me because I think people know that like I’ve been fairly skeptical on LaMelo is like your number one guy and is you know Charlotte’s number one guy particularly. I have always respected the talent. It’s just that he doesn’t play. Yeah. And if he’s not gonna play all that much, I don’t know how another team feels particularly confident making a move for him. So like a team that could do this in theory, right, is Milwaukee. Like if you’re Milwaukee, you have an interesting situation. he fits into their idea of trying to surround Giannis with all sorts of space, be able to play uptempo with all their guys. Like, can you imagine LaMelo spraying the ball out to AJ Green and Ryan Rollins, and then you have the defensive infrastructure with Rollins, Giannis, and Miles Turner there. But like, hold up, Sam. If I’m the Hornets, I am not trading LaMelo Ball to Milwaukee and not getting Ryan Rollins back. But why? Why? You’re probably right, but would you rather have Ryan Rollins for this year and next year at $8 million or would you rather have LaMelo for three years $130 million? Well, this gets based on how they played this year. And I guess this gets into the the issue to me and I already see people tweeting about it and we’re going to like what is the value of a guy who’s only played the amount of games we’ve talked about and is on the hook. Like he he has already gotten paid and you know it’s 40 million almost 41 and then 43 and a half and then 46. You’re locked into three years of it. So you better be sure and you better feel comfortable and confident with the injury stuff. Yeah, like bro, is it Brooklyn? Brooklyn just drafted three point guards. It would be wild if they traded for they also play Drake Pal with the ball in his hands all the time. Every time I turn on the Nets, it’s also Drake Pal with the ball in his hands. I’m like, we took five guys who apparently you guys thought was best with their the ball in their hands because that’s what all five guys do. But back to Milwaukee real quick. I didn’t mean to like stop that. Yes, do it. Yeah, that that is exactly what I’m talking about because I would love to see LaMelo in that situation because now there’s no more excuses. Like let’s see, you’re playing with Giannis on Dupo, one of the best players in the NBA. Can you be the second option, whatever, and do the things necessary defensively on the boards, you know, passing, all of that? And maybe he could. You’re right. He has the talent to do it. But yes, give me that. I just as a fan of this game, Sam, I would be fascinated, absolutely fascinated to watch that play out for the rest of this year and into next year and beyond. And here’s the thing, that is a crazy move for Milwaukee because if you get that one wrong, I think we all know what would be coming immediately following it, which would be Giannis asking to leave. Yeah. Like I I think that you can’t get that deal wrong. I think that the price point here is going to be lower than what people expect is kind of the reality. Like I think we’re looking at like what Kyrie got traded for to Dallas. So what’s if I remember correctly? Yeah. I mean you’d have to I mean you’d have to include Koozma to make the money work. Correct. I’m like trying to think of I mean like even a way that that works. I don’t even know if you could make that work financially to be honest with you. It’s 38. Koozma gets you you need 16 more. So, Koozma and Porter probably get you close, right? It probably does at deadline. Yeah. Like they’re obviously like very restricted in what they can do right now. But, you know, Koozma Porter and I mean it might have to be Koozma and Bobby Poris to be honest with you to make the money work at the deadline. It can’t even happen right now. But yeah, I mean it’s hard. I I think that you’re looking at a situation where it’s more what Kyrie got traded for where it’s like Kyrie went to Dallas for Spencer Danwitty, Dorian Finny Smith, a 2029 first round pick and two second round picks. Like I think that that’s closer to the price point than them getting back like three first round picks and an interesting player is what I would say because I think that again it has nothing to do with anything off the court for LaMelo. has nothing to do with anything uh in terms of even his play. Although his play this year, he’s now shooting 3930 87 and getting to the line five times a game. Uh turning it over 3.7 times per game with 9.6 assists, of course, but you know, and he started out shooting a little bit better than this. His last three games since he’s been back uh have not been great in terms of his shooting percentages. But does that mean like he’s playing when he’s not at 100% like health or fitness? You know what I mean? And that’s a whole other thing, right? So I I don’t know, man. The I I think that because of his health issues, it would be very hard for a team to give up a significant significant number of assets for him is what I would say. Yeah, I I think I would agree. I was just looking through the Milwaukee one. Um yeah, spot track is letting me trade picks that I don’t think I don’t know that they are actually allowed to trade. But um that yeah, like that move can’t happen till the deadline because Portoris is or well I shouldn’t say the deadline until December 15th um because a most of their players are locked in until at least then including Portoris but Poris and Coop is enough. Is it something that like Toronto would look at maybe? No, don’t don’t mess with that right now man. And that’s the other real thing watching the NBA. Like if I’m Toronto, I don’t know if I want to mess with what I’ve got going right now. And if I’m Charlotte, like do I want to trade him to the West? Maybe if I could possibly like is it something I was giggling earlier because I was think Who’ you say? Portland. I was giggling earlier because I Memphis kept popping into my head. I just thought that would be funny. Um, I don’t think that this feels like a Memphis. No, it absolutely does not. Like, and obviously there would be a corresponding move that would have happened happen there. It just like how funny would it be if Jaw got traded and then LaMelo was the replacement? Like, could you do something around Jeremy Grant and LaMelo Ball where Portland sends back like a pick and a young player or something? Or may maybe even it’s just like two picks because like they have some maybe they have like non crazy valuable picks or something. Yeah, I don’t know. Uh they at least have the defensive infrastructure. They do. I was going to say he doesn’t fit like what I But now you’re trying to work around him and Shaden. We haven’t even seen Scoot this year. What about Minnesota? I feel like every time a point guard comes up, people want to bring up Minnesota. really hard with the second apron uh to execute something like that. I mean, here here’s the team. I know the team and you know what I’m gonna say. If you bring up the Sacramento Kings, I am watching. Okay. Okay. It’s funnier than that. The Pelicans. Gross. Stop. No. What if they try to do like a win now deal in order to make this pick not be as bad that they’re going to send to Atlanta and it’s something, you know, like I don’t even think it’d be fears to be honest. Like I don’t know if he has that kind of like value, but I mean maybe it would have to be because I don’t think they’re going to move Derek Queen for him, right? Like is it like Dejante’s money and something for LaMelo and like something of value for LaMelo? And again, what I say has nothing to do with LaMelo’s talent. The guy’s an unbelievable player. It really is just the health where I think teams are not going to be wildly interested in this. Yeah. Kind of like Fear so far, man. I I don’t as much as much as we’ve like haven’t loved the process of how all that went down and I’m I’m in the middle of watching the game against the Nuggets from Wednesday night, the 30point performance by Queen. I just I I find myself kind of intrigued by those guys right now. Even if you know, again, if I don’t love the process of some of it, that doesn’t mean those guys can’t end up still being good basketball players. And everybody knows how much we love Herb Jones and Trey Murphy. This is where it’s hard, Sam. And I know it sounds like like you’ve tried to say it multiple times now. We’re not trying to just crap on LaMelo. We know how talent he is. It’s just it’s a little bit like the Zion thing where it’s, you know, even AD’s a different level than these guys in terms of like throughout his career, what he’s proven and even availability. But, you know, like what is the value of a guy you can’t trust to be on the court? You know what I mean? Like it’s it’s so hard and I I don’t know. And then like do you want to mess I think that’s what’s hard right now too is the teams that are good right now. Why are you messing up that chemistry? If I’m the the um the Raptors, why am I messing this up? I’m throwing it in everybody’s face, including myself, who said that this starting five didn’t make sense. And what is this roster construction? And they’re second in the East at time of recording. Why am I messing that chemistry up for really any player right now? Let me play. And I think this becomes way more clear 25 days from now when it’s probably more realistic to actually happen anyway when at least some of the league becomes available to be traded on that December 15th date. Final weirdo stupid trade idea with LaMelo. Is there something around Anthony Davis and LaMelo? So, Dallas was the team I was going to throw at you depending on what they want to do with Kyrie. I I I thought about it. I I didn’t workshop it all the way through, but maybe see see like again like if I’m I think I would just go a different direction if I was Dallas and I was moving Anthony Davis cuz like Anthony Davis will definitely have a trademark it and maybe you could make the case that LaMelo is the most singularly talented player that you could get but with Cooper I think that I would just want a more reliable asset that I know is going to be on the court and help him develop. I again I feel like I’m just cackling, but the the idea of essentially you turn Luca Donuch into LaMelo Ball is just funny to me. Especially with with especially I know he’s not there anymore, but especially the What was the reasoning behind that trade? Defense wins championships and availability and you turn Luca Donuch into LaMelo Ball. I can’t help but find some whatever in that. The the final thing here that I will just bring up is these guys that struggle to stay healthy. It just when you’re building an organizational like structure around them and when you are and they are highly paid so you kind of have to make them something of a centerpiece right because they’re just taking up a significant portion of your salary cap. I think it is very difficult to build a sustainable culture on the court in terms of what you’re trying to do on a night innight basis when you have like a star player coming in and out of the lineup in the way that LaMelo has throughout the course of his career. And again, I I am not speaking to anything off the court. I am not speaking to anything in terms of even his style of play, but I think that it is just very difficult to build a real like chemistry and culture when your highest paid player and the guy that you, you know, presumably are on some level building things around just is not around enough frankly and LaMelo has not been around and that would be really difficult if I was a team that was looking to acquire him. That’s ultimately why I think like Charlotte fans are going to be unfortunately disappointed with the price point and it’s why I wonder if they just decide we’re just going to ride this out a little bit until we see where this goes. Uh if you’re the Charlotte Front Office because I again like I just don’t know if the market is going to be quite as valuable as what people expect. Yeah. No, it’s right. It just it’s such a huge part of the calculation and beyond anything else. I I don’t like I’m not in depth enough with medicals to know what you can look for and and all of that, but you would just have to feel a lot more comfortable about those than what we’ve seen over the last three or four seasons with him. Yeah. No, I think it’s right. Uh okay, so Bryce, let’s talk about where the all-star picture is. As of today, okay, right, as of November 20th when we’re recording this, we’ve not seen the games that have occurred on November 20th. I haven’t even really looked at the schedule to see what games are tonight yet, to be honest. That’s just one of the things I’m going to pop on whenever the games start. And I kind of want to talk through what the Allstar picture looks like and how this happens and everything. So, a you still name 12 players from the east and 12 players from the west is my understanding. That is also your understanding. Correct, Bryce? I think so. Yes. Yes, that is my understanding. You also now have a situation where it is positionless as well. Yes. But from a perspective on how they’re going to play the game, they’re going to do three teams. Each quarter is a roundrobin game. two of the teams American, one of the teams international. Which means that say there are 10 international players that get named 12 in the east 12 in the west and it’s 10 internationals 14 Americans something like that then Adam Silver will add two Americans and not take away any of the international players right so we could end up with a circumstance which more than 24 allstars are named Which for me and you, this is something we’ve been calling for for years because the talent pool is deeper than ever in the NBA. There the game is more heliocentric now than ever. Frankly, there are more players in the NBA now than there ever has been previously. It is much harder now to make the All-Star game than it was in 1975 or 80 when they still had 12man rosters with a diluted talent pool comparatively. It is much more difficult to make the All-Star team now. This is a conversation I know JJ Ratic has had on his show before and I completely agree with him. I love this that we’re in a circumstance where I think that this year we are probably going to end up with more than 24 allstars getting named even before injuries occur. Bryce thoughts? No. Uh, sorry. I thought you were going to keep going. I was organizing my list of names. No, I I agree. Like I’m I’m fine with it. I’m cool with it. There guys are deserving of this. It’s like, you know, like I’m not overly whenever I talk about players, it’s not always like, well, he was this many time all-star or he’s an all-star. You know, when I say all-star, it’s kind of just in a way of, hey, he’s a top 25 to 30 player in the league. Whenever I say he’s playing at an all-star level, you know, Denny Abdia, I have it littered in my notes, playing at an all-star level right now. I don’t even know if that means he is going to be one, but it’s just a reference point for me whenever I talk about all star. So, I don’t get overly, you know, worried or been out of shape about guys that make it or don’t make it. But, sure, like the more guy there’s so much talent in this league, we’ve been talking about it that I’m fine with it. Like, I’m cool with it. I think that this just in general, Sam, I think this structure is going to at least get me to tune in. We’ll see how competitive the players take it. Maybe this world versus the US thing will drive that a little bit, but I’m at least going to tune in early whenever the time comes to see what it looks like. But it does put a little bit of a twist in terms of like you said, not just because of injuries, but if you end up with only seven international players off the first 24, you know, then you got to go get another one or vice versa, whichever way it works out. Yep. So, I just kind of want to lay out where I have the all-star picture right now, right? And tell me if I’m wrong in terms of these names, okay? In the Eastern Conference and just I I just say yes or no whenever I say these names, okay? Giannis, yes. Maxi, uh, yes. Kate Cunningham, yes. Donovan Mitchell, yes. Jaylen Brunson, yes. So, the next three names I have Jaylen Johnson. Okay. Scotty Barnes. Yes. I think Scotty I would say before Jaylen, but sure. Jaylen Brown. Yes. So, that’s eight. And then I have Josh Giddy at nine. I had him. Yeah. Because Yeah. Yes. I mean, the they’re sitting there at 500. He’s averaging a triple double right now basically. like should probably be there. I I I have my list divided by international and American and like when you look in the east in terms of international like he his name definitely pops very quickly. So but but the reason that I’m doing it east versus west is that they do east west first first is my understanding. Yeah. So that’s eight nine. Jaylen Johnson 99. Yep. So, the final five names I have here, Carl Anthony Towns, who has been really good to start the year. It’s just like hit or miss depending on game by-game basis. Bronze Vagner, Bamabio, who would be here if he hadn’t missed a bunch of games kind of, but like I think Bam has been awesome to start the year. It’s just like he’s played half the games so far. Correct. Uh Jaylen Duran, Evan Mobley. Do you have any other names? Nope. That that was all of them. Um the only other one I just to give like the Raptors some love is I did write down Brandon Ingram just because they are second in the East at time of recording and he’s probably been their second best. I don’t know, not probably. He’s been their second best player and right now he’s scoring the ball, you know, 20 points a game and been really good from the mid-range. And so like he was a name I at least put down. But th that was that’s literally my list. I didn’t put Bam on there just because of the games missed. But I agree with what you’ve you’ve said about him. So the the other name here is Pascal Seakum. Seakum is also I didn’t know what to do with him. Sam genuinely awesome this year. It’s just Yeah, Sam. I don’t often feel bad for NBA players. When I watch the Pacers play, I genuinely feel bad for Pascal Seakum. And that’s not me trying to throw shade at the rest of his team. You can just tell the frustration and it just looks so different than what he played on last year. I feel awful for him. But he’s still having a good year. I just didn’t know if you put him in an All-Star game when I think now they’ve won two games. They’re two and 13 after last night. Yeah. Yeah. He he is averaging 257 and five. Yeah. on 4635 uh 70 taking eight free throw attempts per game. Nothing that is wrong with the Pacers has anything to do absolutely not with Pascal Seakam. He has been genuinely really good this year. It’s just that I think he’s going to lose any tiebreaker with any of these other guys because they’ve won two games and they’re two and 13. You know what I mean? Yeah. Um, and then like I think Fron has clearly been Orlando’s best player over Paulo so far this year. He’s averaging more points. He is like I I get it that I think that Paulo is still at the top of scouting reports when teams play Orlando. I I just think Fron has pretty clearly been better uh when I watch them this year in part because Paulo’s shooting has just been not quite as good. Even though we have seen a bit of an uptick there recently as they’ve gone on this run, I think it is very possible that Paulo gets into this conversation as the season goes. And I think I would frankly expect that he ends up uh maybe not even just in this conversation, but probably on the team uh by the end of it, but we’re doing as of right now. And as of right now, I would not have him as an all-star. Yeah, I think I think picking one or the other. I think through this, you know, Fron has played a few more games as well. We know he’s better on the defensive end. I’m always the Paulo is the best player on that team and the star and all of that. I’ve also been a little frustrating with Paulo’s passing early in the year. So, I went with Fron as of November 20th as well with I’m with you. I think when we do this two months from now, I fully expected it to flip back to Paulo or they go on a run and potentially it’s both of them. But right now, I went with Fron as well. So that is five guys for three spots basically in the east. And we’ll talk about that in a second. I want to make a point with this near the end. In the west, same deal. Yes or no. Jokic? Yes. Luca, yes. Shay, the west is really good. Yes. V. Victor, yes. Shangun, yes. KD. Yes. Anthony Edwards. Yeah. Stephen Curry. Absolutely. Devin Booker been incredible. Lowry Markin. Yes. I like look again I understand the point of the Jazz being five and nine right now, but a they’re five and nine. They’re not two and 13. And B, Lowry has been better than Siakum this year even. like he has been a monster this season. He’s awesome. Yeah, I mean he’s he’s been incredible. He’s he’s fifth in the NBA in scoring. One of six guys averaging 30 a game and he’s doing it on real efficiency right now. He’s he’s really really good. Okay, so that is 10 two guys for or uh two spots for this group. Denny Odia. Paul Murray. Austin Reeves. Yep. Chad Holgren. Yep. Aaron Gordon. Okay. James Harden. Yep. Am I missing anybody that you have? I threw out Julius Randall as a name as well. Okay. I’m good with Randall as a name, too. Uh Randall, I think, has been quite good this year. Uh he started a little bit slowly, but has really turned it on. They’re 10 and five now. Um he’s averaging 257 and six. This is a name that 100% needs to be here. Um and that’s on me for not writing him down in my initial batch here. Um so that means we have two two spots for one two three four five six and Aaron Gordon seven. I think we can remove Gordon pretty quickly here because I think Jamal has been better. So two 46 guys. So, what I would implore the coaches to do when they name these name and they do these teams, name the international guys and give yourself the ability to just get more of these guys in. Like in the east, just name Fron like 100. Just put them on immediately and then you get the additional spot. And in the West, make it so that these last two guys are Denny and Jamal, let’s say, like Denny Aia and Jamal Murray, and then you get two extra spots and you can name Austin Reeves and Chad Holmrren or Julius Randall, like whatever you want to do, right? Wait, so if they go over on the International, what do they do, though? Then those guys are just allstars and there’s an 11 person team potentially. Oh, okay. Okay. Okay. And then and then you fill in with the rest. Okay. Got it. Yeah. And then you fill in with the rest. So like here if they do what my immediate reaction would be is you go Fron, Duran, and Cat, let’s say, in the East. And then you go Denny and Jamal as the last two names in the West because you have in Giannis one. Let’s see here. I I need to get all the international guys. Fron 2, Jokic three, Luca four, Sheay five, Lowry 6, Victor 7, Shangun 8, uh Denny 9, Jamal 10, and I believe that I had one more. Giddy 11. Say there’s 11 international names that we’ve brought up. So now you’re going to steal three extra spots for correct probably for but they’re gonna have to come from the east right see that’s my thing like do they have to come from the east or do they have to come from the west even if they do they one spot would have to come from the east because of Americans because of bronze and then two spots would have to come from the west which is more loaded anyway. Yeah. So then you get, you know, for me it’d probably be Reeves and Chat or Reeves and Julius Randall, like whoever you want to put in, right? Yeah. So I would hope that the coaches and the folks doing this defer to the international guys in order to make this a bit more of an inclusive all-star game process at the end of the day. Yeah. No, I love it. Like that’s where that’s what we should be doing here. No, it’s it’s it’s a fun exercise to go through it just to see one to again highlight the talent in the NBA and the type of names you would be leaving out of the All-Star game right now. But yeah, I feel like this format has now allowed people to I don’t want to say manipulate, but manipulate the voting in a way to get more players on even without the in say some of these guys are going to be injured and and all of that anyway, but there’s pro probably also a couple other names that are going to be awesome over the next few months that are going to put themselves into the conversation. And genuinely, I do hope that they go about it this way. Like the All-Star game should have more than 24 names getting named at the end of the day. That is truly how I feel. And I hope that the coaches who probably also want this to be a more inclusive process because like why not go about doing it this way too? I think that would be a really really smart way to look at the All-Star game this year. Um, you know, and look, like we can get a lot of these guys in. We can make this a more fun process for everybody involved if we go about this the right way. Um, and then while we’re doing this, also hopefully people are seeing, you know, kind of where the all-star picture sits right now as of time of recording. And like look, LeBron is probably going to be in here as well. Like, let’s be honest, I would imagine that they will probably try to include LeBron in some way, shape, or form. Um, he’ll probably win fan voting, I would imagine, because it’s LeBron. Um, but like as of right now, like probably shouldn’t be an all-star. So, I hope that that like kind of gives a full picture of what trying to build the All-Star game rosters looks like for people this year. Well, it’s a nice little primer ahead of, you know, I don’t I don’t My guess is maybe next Thursday or next Sunday whenever I would guess we have to do our quarter of the season awards. It was a nice exercise to go through and talk about where people are at right now. And then, you know, because that stuff is coming in terms of all NBA stuff, like any name that wasn’t mentioned there, you know, isn’t obviously, but a lot of the names that were are going to be part of hashing out and trying to decide between on that episode. Yep, that is right. Okay, Bryce, the final thing that we’ve got here. So, we got an awesome question from one of our YouTube subscribers, Dowel Harmon. He asked, “My girlfriend doesn’t really know or care about the NBA, but told me she’d watched three games start to finish with me this year. What players, teams, or matchups would you recommend for trying to get a casual, you know, NBA viewer or somebody who doesn’t really watch or care about basketball to enjoy their time watching basketball? And I thought this was just like an amazing question. I thought this was so cool to try and like figure out who are the people that you would try to introduce a non-NBA fan to to make them become a fan of the NBA. Yeah. I mean, the number one player the the the number one player in team was easy to me. The I shouldn’t say the number one player was Steph Curry. I just I think that was my number one player, too. I think he’s the most relatable because, and this is no shot at anybody else, he doesn’t just physically dominate the court in a way that can be offputting to quote unquote casual fans. I think that the physical dominance and stature of a Giannis, of even Victor, can be off-putting to fans that aren’t, you know, really watching the nuances and the details and all of that. And I just think that Steph Curry and the way he plays is the most likely aesthetically pleasing to any random human on earth. So I would always start with a Steph Curry game. Yeah. And probably the Warriors in general, other than Draymond can also be off-putting to some fans, but I don’t think that that would happen in, you know, the first game. I think that’s probably right. I think Steph is definitely the name here to me though. Like 100%. Like if you get a game where Stephen Curry is just going absolutely nuclear and drills like five threes in a 4minute span, I think that you have a f like a basketball fan for life at that point because there is just nothing more joyous on a basketball court than Steph like drilling threes, dancing around the court and just like having an absolute blast and then just coming down and you know he’s going to fire and it’s just how does he do it there? There’s just nothing cooler to me on a basketball court than staff. So the Warriors are definitely one team. I would say Victor for me is number two. Sure, honestly. I love watching that dude play so much. uh just so so much like he is it he changes basketball so drastically and so in such an interesting way and is just such an interesting character because I think that while yes there are players that like physically dominate the game, he is somebody that does so with skill while also having the physical tools and on top of it like he is an alien in a sea of aliens in the NBA, you know what I mean? Like all of these dudes are incredibly like physically gifted on some level. You have to be to be a professional athlete. You especially have to be to be in the NBA given the height requirement. He’s just a totally different ballgame in so many ways. And seeing him, I think particularly like in the gold medal match this summer against Team USA, like with the way that he played, I thought that was incredibly fun. So, like part of this is why when we talked about Spurs Warriors from last week on the Monday show, like that game is like one of the games I would want to like tell people go watch one of those teams. Like go go watch these two teams play. Like they play a fun brand of basketball, both of them. They’re really exciting. I really enjoy it. So, the game I came up with was actually Warriors Suns. So, can I hash this out for you real fast? This is insane. So, Steph Curry obviously, right? But then on the other side, you have Devin Booker playing at the level he’s playing at right now and he has a aesthetically pleasing way of playing the game of basketball as well. Like I think he has a beautiful jump shot and all of that. All like, didn’t he date one of the Kardashians or something too or like one of those? So, it’s like maybe the girlfriend, wife, or whatever Yeah. would know like who he is just in general. I know that happens with my wife sometimes. And then the other thing is the Suns aren’t so good defensively. They’re not like the Thunder or the Rockets or the Pistons that are going to beat Steph up. So Steph’s going to have room to maneuver around the court and all of that. Neither of these teams is a huge free throw rate team. So you’re not getting that. And yeah, you you might get a Draymond Green Dylan Brooks fight which would be like just you know depending on like my I thought about this with my wife. Would she enjoy that? Now she played college hoops so like maybe this is a little different but it’s like you watch Steph Curry run around and drop 45. You watch Devin Booker who you already have this crossover understanding of the name. Neither team has a parade to the free throw line and you might get a Dylan Brooks Draymond Green fight. I’m like, that’s a perfect game one for his significant other. You’ve honestly kind of sold me. That’s not bad. That’s not bad. Uh the other team I had here is Denver cuz Denver has Yic and I think Yokic’s game is so uh unique in that he does not look like a normal basketball player, frankly. Yeah. but also like just thinks through the game like like when Laura watches games with me and watches Yokic like her jaw drops at times like she’s like oh like I don’t understand how he saw that. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. I don’t understand like how this guy is destroying. I don’t understand how he and like Flora still plays net ball like she plays a game of like with a ball on essentially a basketball court. We’re trying to shoot ball into the rim to score and has to figure out angles and has to figure out how to, you know, get the ball up and down the court. And even she is just like this person is like unbelievable in the way that he thinks through these things. Yeah. I I was going to say Y I’ve taken people to their first NBA games with Jokic in Denver and they came away just like it pretty casual NBA fans and they just come away so impressed with what he can do. I I have a Who are the teams we should tell him to stay away from outside of just the bad teams, right? Yeah. Um, the Pelicans. Uh, no. Like, so like my thing is you and I love the Rockets. I’m not sure if I wanted Randy to start watching games with me, I would say, “Hey babe, let’s sit down and watch the Rockets.” because I don’t know that she would appreciate it as much as we think they’re awesome and do app even OKC because there’s a likelihood they just blow somebody out and Shay goes to the free throw line and they rough it up for the other team and it’s I wouldn’t I don’t ask Randy to watch Pistons games because I don’t know that she would enjoy it the way I do breaking it down. So are there outside of those are there other teams just the way their their kind of style that you would venture from? Yeah, like the bully ball teams are teams where I’m like often not wildly enthused uh to even watch sometimes myself. Like the Rockets, I love watching the Rockets cuz they’re my sweet like baby boys and I love them so much. But like, you know, I’m trying to think of like some of the decent teams that I would say stay away from. Uh like are the Knicks enjoyable? Like cuz I tried to do a I tried to do a Nick matchup because it’s Madison Square Garden, but I’m like is she going to enjoy watching Jaylen Brunson do what Jaylen Brunson does? I don’t know. It’s just a lot of fouling right with the Knicks. And look, like so far they are not taking many free throws per game. Like it’s somewhat like weird honestly with the fact that they have Brunson, but like Brunson and Towns are really the only guys averaging free throws for that team right now. I think you might be able to get away with it with them to be honest, but I’m not totally sure. Honestly, a team that I really think like if you could get Chicago as the Bside Yeah. for a game like if you could do like Chicago and I’ll say this, I kind of wonder if the Lakers are a team that are really fun. Yeah. with all of LeBron, Luca, and Reeves, plus some of the other smart guys they have on the team now, like they actually might be really fun to watch. Plus, you have the idea of like LeBron being out there and what might be his final season. You know, there there’s just a lot of exciting things, but also I am cognizant of the fact that like Luca for some people can be, you know, kind of rough to watch, but I I don’t think he’s been as rough to watch this year to be honest. So, I was Lakers Nuggets was my other actual matchup, like two teams, because you have Joic and Luca and then obviously everything else with LeBron and all of that. I tried to do a Knicks one and just couldn’t quite get there. Did I throw a team at you that I I don’t think it works because they don’t have the star and like the guy that just individually, but Miami plays like a fun style right now offensively in terms of playing, you know, exceptionally fast. They’re not setting a bunch of ball screens and all of that. Like there’s a bunch of movement. It’s But I I couldn’t get there with like there’s not a name on that roster that I’m going to that I feel like that she would be excited about or would latch on to because I I do think part of the NBA if you want to generate a fan is what we said at the start, which is can you find the player for them to latch on to? Whenever I was a kid, I latched on to Allen Iverson and it just it’s what drove my love for the game of basketball. And so I I think it has to be a team where she might latch on to a certain player. And I think we’ve probably brought up some of the names of players that are most aesthetically pleasing. One name we didn’t bring up is Anthony Edwards. Like Anthony Edwards brand of basketball and has a personality to prove, right? Yep. Like I I the Timberwolves were a team I thought of for sure. Yeah, I think that the second matchup I like that is Denver and the Lakers. I think that’s really good. So we’ve got Golden State San Antonio. We’ve got Denver and the Lakers. I mean, are we just going all west here? We’ve got Golden Golden State Phoenix. Phoenix. Denver and Lakers. Denver and the Lakers. So maybe San Antonio, Minnesota or something? I I I tried I tried to do an East matchup, Sam, and that’s why I went to the Knicks and I couldn’t find the matchup to go with it. May maybe San Antonio Chicago. Okay. Cuz Chicago, I think, would be really good as a Bside because they play super uptempo. They’re kind of wild with, you know, some of their decisions, but they also shoot the ball and they’re really, really fun to watch. Like something like that. Yeah. Yeah. Another player that I personally find really enjoyable to watch that’s maybe is I love watching Tyrese Maxi right now, Sam. Like I love watching his I I don’t know that I do too. I don’t know that he carries the same of of the guys we’ve brought up, but he’s so fast. There’s a lot of shooting that goes along with his as well. He’s taken over nine threes a game knocking down shots like he and to be clear like the very obvious team here that like you know the question was this season if Tyres Hallebertton was healthy the Indiana Razers are like a thousand% on this list thing yes because he’s not healthy there’s an issue there. Yeah. If this was 12 months, well, not if this was nine months ago, this would be a they would very much be the answer in terms of what we’re searching for on the Eastern side of things. Yeah. So, I agree with you. Maybe it is the maybe it’s the Sixers. Sixers are pretty fun to watch. The other team I thought about was the Bucks. Like, what if you did a you know, Victor Giannis matchup and the Bucks play like a the Bucks play like a pretty fun style of basketball as well. Like they’re, you know, five out well spaced. You have Giannis like driving downhill all the time. Um, defensively they’re not like amazing, right? Uh, they’re 29th in free throw attempt rate at this point. So maybe this is it. Maybe it’s San Antonio Milwaukee for the Victor Webbyama matchup with Giannis. Yeah, I I just think that I could be off here. Obviously, the Nuggets are a good, you know, some of these teams are good defensively. I think you just have to stay away from the teams that just really like are just so physical and it can turn into a a slog that way. But this was fun. Whenever you text this, you don’t often come to me with, “Hey, a YouTube comment brought up a topic or a question that I really want to talk about.” So, shout out the person that that dropped this one in the YouTube comments because it was a lot of fun. I obviously spent some real time thinking about it. I’ll be honest. Here’s the truth, Sam. I spent more time prepping this answer than I did anything for the Piston segment because I didn’t need to do any work on that. I spent a lot of time trying to hash through this question. Yeah. Um, also, real quick, while we’re here, LaMelo Ball has commented on Kelly’s report in Yahoo. He has simply commented with a clown emoji uh to retweet the uh tweet. So there you go. Awesome. So maybe maybe nothing on LaMelo. Uh maybe he does not get moved and maybe this is just where we’re at with LaMelo. Uh look again like I I think my take on the whole LaMelo thing is that they’re probably like I think they might just be stuck together for a minute as well. Uh even say they’re happy together and that’s the reality. Cool. even even if they’re not like you know they might be stuck together for a minute just because I don’t know if the value is there at the end of the day. So you know maybe this is a situation where we’ve just got to be in a circumstance where we’re just kind of rolling with it and that’s it. Yeah. Yep. Yeah. No, I mean I I don’t think any trade is going to be imminent there with LaMelo. That’s kind of my theory on this. Sure. So, okay. Uh, this is all I’ve got. Uh, Bryce, tell the people where they can find your work. Tell the people what’s going on. Yeah, Motor City Hoops on Twitter, on Blue Sky, Motor City Hoops Substack. If your favorite team plays the Pistons, I’ll have game notes and analysis after that for free over there, the Pistons Pulse podcast, and then of course the Game Theory Substack where Sam’s cranking out all sorts of video breakdowns and I’m contributing whenever I get a chance. Make sure you guys are subscribed to that. And then the Game Theory podcast with Sam Vassini right here. Go to the Substack game Theory samv.substack.com. Game theory samv.substack.com. Uh yeah, go there. Hit the subscribe button. Videos on AJ Debansa, on Kingston Flemings, on Jaylen Duran, on Andre Stakovich, uh on Braden Smith from this weekend from Bryce. Uh we got a lot of stuff up there that you can go watch and break down on tape. It is fun. Uh so go subscribe over there. We will be back later this weekend um on Sunday. Sunday won’t be awards. I know that probably just be takeaways from this weekend and week in basketball. That’s all we’ve got. Until next time, we’ll talk soon.
In this edition of the Game Theory Podcast, Sam Vecenie & Bryce Simon recap the last several days of NBA news, storylines & standout performances.
00:00 – INTRO
06:35 – Detroit Pistons are ON FIRE! (11 Straight Wins)
33:51 – Mizzen & Main!
35:34 – Lebron James returns to Lakers
48:58 – BREAKING NEWS: LaMelo Ball reportedly “open to trade” from Hornets
1:07:09 – NBA Allstar picture (as of today)
1:23:36 – Best NBA games to convince someone to watch the NBA
1:38:45 – OUTRO
Sam Vecenie, a Senior NBA Writer at The Athletic, talks all about basketball. From the NBA, to the NBA Draft, to college hoops and even some high school, Vecenie has you covered in this show.
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35 comments
The LaMelo-Ja trade is coming. Just perpetuating the disasters
It was the urn of a bail burnt to commemorate the death of England Cricket after they lost to Australia
The contrast I'll get between the optimism and excitement this episode displays…and the utter furor Matt George has on Locked on Kings today…will be delicious to put up against each other
im going to sit through bryce's pistons because we make him talk about my rockets every second video
Lamelo complaining about not having the help he deserves while shooting 5/21 from the field with 6 turnovers against an awful Pacers defense, getting benched in the 4th quarter, while Kon Knueppel looks like the perfect complementary playmaker/co-star for him is just the cherry on top of the cake.
yeah the ashes!
Jake Fischer pretty much said this lamelo stuff isnt true. Its other teams trying to get Melo (Iko is a former Rockets beat writer, maybe it's the rockets trying to stir it up)
The kelly iko article wasn't really written like someone who had inside knowledge. Lamelo wasnt benched against pacers, he reached his minutes limit. Lamelos team + hornets collarbating on a medical plan that includes this minutes limit. Charles Lee has mentioned this. If the article had sources from Lamelo they would know he wasn't benched, it was just a minutes limit.
That AD trade is a very interesting idea. Please don't send him to New Orleans. Ultimately, though, I'd love for him to stay on the Hornets, and for him and BM to get healthy. It's an exciting squad.
Lamelo and Ja are the same kind of super talented yet totally immature player.
Thank you Bryce!!!!!!
The extent to which a team or player does/doesn’t have weaknesses is as important as the extent to which their best attributes are more/less impactful than the other team/players’ advantages.
Love that point as to why Detroit is winning. Been saying that abt Boston for YEARS.
Also the reason why I feel players like Jokic n luka are overrated n players like shai n Tatum have been underrated historically
IMO ofc
Pistons on fire sounds like a gang bang video.
Detriot is not the murder capitol of America…contrary to what you see on Fox News.
The 4 inch Crickett Trophy is Yuge.
Stop taking credit from Daniss he ran the offense without Cade 3 games and went undefeated yall and this narrative Cade has to do everything is so stupid
OG is playing at All-star level and deserves to be all star too. Definitely better than Mobley…
Bryce nailed it with cades threes. If he gets that up to 37-38%, changes everything.
Like I said in summer league, I think Jenkins is better than Sasser at basketball.
The only part cade is better than danisd is layup through contact as he is the bigger guy. But jenkins also have the threes. I think he is the better shooter. Cade seem calmer with the ball, but jenkins seems faster with the ball. They are both very good. I just want to see them play with Thunder, then we will see which one has the better defense
1:08:40 how about Keon Ellis? Sacramento clearly has no use for the guy but he's good defender who hits 3s off the catch.
Could we turn Sasser into some kind of draft compensation to give Sacramento a bundle of like some 2nd rounders and salary to go get him?
And then they can use Tobias' contract and some picks (maybe a 1st and some 2nds?) to upgrade his roster spot with some kind of 3 and D?
The defense is clicking, but if they could find a way to add more outside shooting without sacrificing defense, that's the key to making this team a lock to go deep in the playoffs
Good stuff guys. On Cade's efficiency, I have two comments.
First, the one Wizards game is really dragging down his overall numbers. Also, he's always been a slow starter efficiency wise. All of his full seasons his efficiency has jumped up after the first 15 games.
It's sad that the game that you choose is not the All-Star game when you talk about the games to convince anyone to watch the NBA bc the players have made it SO BAD, it would drive someone AWAY from basketball
Segment at the end is awesome
Lebron needs to be traded. Lakers wont have a deep playoff run until they do.
Jenkins is doing much better then okay
Trade melo to Utah for 2 1sts – Walter Clayton jr/filipowski and filler
Love the pod but can’t downplay Daniss Jenkins at all. I’ve been watching him since his first summer league and he’s a psycho💯
Could this be the Honrets putting this out there to see what the trade market is like for Lamelo? I imagine that it's frustrating for them that Lamelo and Brandon Miller have barely played together these last two years.
I need the NBA media to start promoting a Paolo Banchero for Lauri Markenen trade. The Magic would be so much better with Lauri than Paolo and Utah would be getting a younger player with more upside to pair with their recent and upcoming draft picks.
Suns Warriors is exactly how I got my wife interested in basketball 😂😂😂. You gotta tell the story and drama first, basketball is the cherry on top
I like the idea of Lamelo to Atlanta, Trae to Minnesota, idk what Charlotte would want from Minnesota though
The thunder have played a weaker schedule than the pistons, but no one questions them. The reason is because they won last year. However, the pistons have been doing well for over 50 games now. It is just most people are just starting to pay attention now
Mine and my friend’s girlfriends all despise Steph 😂 she’ll watch some games with me but if he ever shimmy’s or chews his mouth guard she leaves the room
I was waiting to see if maybe Bryce would make this point since I haven't really seen anyone deep dive into how the Pistons were continuing the winning streak missing half their team.
IMO the Pistons have been on this winning streak BECAUSE of their preferred style of play. There are things in the NBA that are subject to more variability from game-to-game, like the amount of fouls you draw on the defense or even the percentage made from 3. Both of those things could swing wildly from game-to-game, maybe the refs are letting the defense get away with more physicality 1 game or maybe your shooters are just having an off night and the 3's aren't falling. Those scenarios could ruin teams' for a night like Cleveland, New York or Boston that are so heavily reliant on the variability of making 3's.
The Pistons on the other hand, spam as many HIGH percentage shots as possible, leading the league in attempts at the rim per game. This approach, in contrast to the variability of 3pt reliance, is more of a sure thing night-to-night. The Pistons know they're going to get a shit ton of looks right at the rim, and they know they're going to make them at a high percentage every night. If the Pistons make the few 3's they take each game, it's likely going to be a 10+ point blowout win. If the Pistons don't make those 3's, then they STILL give themselves a chance to win each night because the majority of their offense comes on high percentage looks at the rim.
Why is Sam’s voice so high pitch in the intro 😖😖
Robinson has been better on defense. He’s trying…just an easy target for y’all like Tobias.
If you arent going to include Detroit in the long list of teams that might be enjoyable for a newbie, I wish yall would at least say what about them makes them so unfun for that audience. Not saying you're wrong, I'm just curious. Because I think they're super fun. Are a ton of dunks and Alley-oops only likeable to people familiar with the nuances of NBA?
Shaq feels vindicated right now.
as a NBA girlie who is attracted to men, let me add that showcasing beautiful players is also an appealing way to convert ladies who are attracted to men.
also, the idea that casual or women nba fans wouldn’t like the rockets/pistons banger teams is WILDLY inaccurate, i think. i love basketball but would still call myself a casual (tho obsessed) fan & i love solid defense and tough playing games.