The way the Raptors are playing right now and I know it's early in the season. With the emergence of Scottie Barnes being further along than most expected, what moves do you think they would need to do accelerate their retool to get back into contender status?
- I think the first thing is just trying to figure out what Barnes is, and how he, Siakam, and OG fit together. They started them together against the Nets, and I'm interested to see if that continues and how it goes. Can they continue to develop Barnes and OG into two top scorers, or is another piece required. I definitely think the pieces are there to be a defensive monster, and what they can do on the boards and in transition has been impressive so far. So maybe the offense (offence) doesn't need to be that good for them to get back into the top-4 in the East. But of course to really be in championship contention you need OG to turn into a Kawhi-type player. They also need a talented young playmaking guard in the pipeline. The emergence of Barnes has been a welcome development but also complicates the timeline and overall plan as well.
Do you ever “lurk” here and look into our discussions?
- I'm afraid I don't too often. I figure you'd rather I spend my working hours working on content, although Ben keeps me abreast if there's anything going on that I need to know about. I did check it out with my 14 y/o nephew the other day who hosts a couple of Discord servers and is really active on the platform, and he assured me we're doing well and it's a pretty positive space.
Nate did you do this?
- No, not yet! I'm saving it for a rainy day when we're scraping for content in the dog days this year. (Since the image didn't show up, I have to watch Mason Plumlee postups because I lost a bet to Danny that Smailagic wouldn't be on the GSW roster by the end of their season last year.)
Nate, what Eastern Conference team should the Warriors hope to face when they reach the Finals?
- I realize this is tongue in cheek, but I'm gonna take it anyway. Interestingly, I think they might actually prefer to play (this version of) the Nets rather than the Heat or the Bucks. The Bucks just have a ton of length and athleticism and they usually haven't dealt well with Giannis, while the Heat's switching and overall intensity could cause problems for them as well.
Nate, what Western Conference team should the Bulls hope to face when they reach the Finals?
- Again, realize the tongue in cheek, but I think the Bulls match up pretty well with teams that play a conventional style defensively. Vuc spaces out their center, and the PnR play of LaVine and DeRozan is tough to stop. Also, they'll want to avoid disciplined defensive teams that will force their non-shooters to beat them from the outside. I think Golden State will cause them some problems. LA with a full-strength LeBron and AD is an issue as well, as they don't have good matchups for those guys, particularly AD at C. Phoenix is another team that I think could cause problems for them at both ends with their versatility on the wing and Ayton to finish inside. I think they match up better with, say, Denver. But overall I think Chicago could struggle in the playoffs due to their number of one-way players, but even talking about them as a playoff team is a huge upgrade.
1. I remember you and Danny being low on the Heat's offense before the year started. looking at the roster, I see a ton of playmaking and passing, above-average isolation scoring from Butler, Herro, and Lowry, a nice mix of outside shooters (Robinson, Herro, Lowry, I guess PJ Tucker), drivers, and midrange shooters. am I underrating the problems of having two non-3-point shooters in Bam and Jimmy? why were you guys lower on their offense than they seem to be showing, and what's different than expected?
2. Is Doc Rivers better coaching teams with less talent? thinking of the rookie Shai/Tobias/Gallo clippers, or this year's Sixers, versus last year's Sixers or the lob city teams.
- Dan, great to hear from you. For those who don't know, Dan wrote a nice piece about the pod in Bloomberg a few years ago. I'll have you know my best man quoted amply from that story as he made fun of how nerdy the pod is during his speech. Second question first--yes I think so. For whatever reason his teams have had some pretty big playoff collapses, but even going back that first CoY year in Orlando his groups have done well in the regular season when they've been less talented. On the Heat, I think the biggest difference so far in their offense has been Herro playing better than expected. He fills in a lot of gaps for them with shooting and creation. If that continues it makes them a lot more dangerous. However the one place I'd disagree is that I don't think that Herro, Butler, and Lowry are above average iso scorers when you get into a playoff setting. And I think in the playoffs teams will be ready for more of the ball movement tricks and better at not guarding their non-shooters to gum up the works, similar to how the Warriors' movement game can bog down in the playoffs. The other concern for Miami was depth if, say, Lowry goes down. That hasn't showed up yet, but it certainly could still.
Is the league ready for expansion? The amount of talent in the league right now is incredible. If you combine the fact that players are having longer careers and the continued influx of youth talent. The league will soon have more NBA caliber talent than spaces available. Should the league add teams to help with that, or would you prefer to keep it at 30 teams with most teams being stacked in the next few years?
- I think I'd personally prefer keeping it at 30 teams. Some of that is just that I feel I already don't have the bandwidth to cover all 30 teams the way I want to, so adding more would dilute that even further. But I do think that 15 years without expansion and an ever-increasing talent pool makes expansion more viable. And there are more skilled players that make even worse teams watchable. Now, it's also worth nothing that some of these teams appear more stacked than normal because we haven't gone through the attrition of a season yet and because you've got a couple of teams that have so many young guys on the roster that aren't NBA caliber rotation players that the good players are compressed onto fewer teams.
What 'wing' players around the league do you think are currently being under utilized in their current team situations and could shine if (and realistically could be) moved to another team? Kings fan here hoping they can pick someone up for better roster balance but I also do not believe they'll make a big swing so curious who might be an attainable target with some sort of combination of Hield, Bagley (contract) and other potential draft compensation but I'm also just generally curious what wings could be solid targets for any team in the league from your perspective. Thanks!
- Well putting together Hield and Bagley is $30m in contracts, and if a wing is making $30m his team either doesn't want to part with him or he's wildly overpaid. But on the general question of potentially underutilized wings...that's gonna be tough. Let me see if I can find a few. Usually if a wing can do anything his team gives him all he can handle....A few names as I go thru rosters that they might want to take a flyer on at varying prices: Cam Reddish, Aaron Nesmith/Romeo Langford, Danilo Gallinari, KJ Martin and Danuel House, Oshae Brissett, Josh Hart, Kevin Knox (hey, why not?), Abdel Nader are the names that could maybe be available for a reasonable price.
Who is the least likely player to be traded in the NBA?
- Least likely player to be traded, let's call it over a 3-year horizon.....well nobody has a no-trade clause now I believe except for those with implied no-trades due to Bird rights potentially being lost. I think Steph and LeBron are the two that most come to mind for me. Even KD you could concoct a scenario where there's no Harden and Kyrie there next year and he wants to move on. Luka and Zion could maybe ask out. Ja is one that's extremely unlikely to be traded. Jokic as well, although he's actually due for an extension after this year so theoretically could not take that. Giannis obviously is high on the list as well of guys who won't be traded. Who am I missing here?
- Floater range we take from the NBA shot charts which are accessible right on the main game page on NBA.com. It's shots in the paint but outside of the restricted area.
- So those are actually on NBA.com if you have league pass. And they are available, if you just find the game in the scores on NBA.com and click on watch the option for our feed comes up.
- Well, Karl-Anthony Towns looks really good so far. That's a reason for optimism. Now they just need to see if he can be a little higher than 3rd on the team in shots. Beasley and Russell are going to shoot better than this. Hopefully McDaniels too. And Edwards will hopefully either trim his shot selection or be more efficient as well. But it does seem like everyone got out over their skis a little bit after that Milwaukee win (hey, with Bob Voulgaris anointing them a top-6 seed we can forgive you) and now the resulting slide has been crushing disappointment. I think they'll improve on offense but probably backslide on defense as well going forward. I had them for 35 wins this year and I still think that's about right for the moment. The greater issue will be if Edwards can't find his way to more efficient play by the end of the season. He needs to look like a future superstar by the end of the year for this team to truly have a path forward.
- I'll be honest that I haven't seen that much to put my finger on with the Suns. Ayton has missed a bunch of time though which I think hurts. Their 2nd unit is finding a new way to play defensively with a traditional drop center, or they've had to play Kaminsky which isn't good for the defense. I'm going to continue to think the Suns will be relatively fine, in the 50-win range by the end of the year. I thought their defense was a little over its head last year though. Top-6 might not be realistic for this group this year. There is perhaps a larger question to be asked as far as what constitutes a good defense this year with shooting down and the new interpretations. Maybe a defense that could be 6th last year can't be 6th this year because it's not necessarily a case where an ebbing tide lowers all boats in that regard. I don't have any theories on what type of defenses might be helped or hurt more on a relative basis yet though--these changes are still sorting themselves out quite a bit.
- Honestly I enjoy just about everything. I'd say maybe my least-favorite is doing games in the 1-8 series in the first round which is pretty exhausting and you know the 1 seed is going to win in 4 or 5, but they fucked around and only won by 5 so we need to do the game. Aside from that though, I really do like pretty much everything. The mocks will always be my favorite. I just enjoy recording with those 3 guys so much, I always learn a lot, and I think it's the most unique thing we do.
- Yeah this is always an interesting time for reevaluating rookies. How much do you stick to your priors, especially with someone like Cade who is working his way back in? The main question to me is whether Mobley has shown enough upside quite yet to eclipse Cade at number 1. I think I'd have him ahead of Green, who has had a rough start. Seeing his shooting form in person a couple of days ago was a little worrying. Still think he figures it out though but early numbers are ROUGH. I think I'll go 1. Cade, 2. Mobley, 3. Green, 4. Barnes, 5. Giddey, 6. Kuminga. Sengun and Wagner as the other candidates. Mobley, Giddy, and Barnes would be the big risers so far. Suggs the biggest faller.
- I might see a couple at the G-League Showcase, but I'll likely be waiting until after the season to render any draft prospect opinions like usual. I was actually talking to a talent evaluator who said his team stopped doing any type of ordering on their board until after the seasons were complete so as to avoid the day to day swings in perception, so I'm feeling pretty good about doing it that way. Plus it wouldn't be realistic for me to watch enough of prospects during the season to get great opinions anyway.
- I highly doubt we'll get a chance to call a game at an arena. No reason for them to give us that space from an economic standpoint. Maybe a g-league game at some point would be possible. I've often thought about calling a game courtside, and I honestly think it would probably hurt my call. A lot of that is just because I'm used to just seeing it on screen rather than courtside, but I also just think it's way easier to see what's happening off-ball when you can perceive the whole court at once which is really difficult to do courtside, kinda like how NFL teams always put their coordinators in the pressbox. I think that doing the games remotely from the TV feed, we make fewer mistakes than the regular announcers in terms of identifying players, seeing whether something a 3 or not, etc. Not sure if y'all agree on that though, I may be biased.
- I would caution a little in saying that, say Sengun is a clear positive. He might give the Rockets a boost, but I'm not sure that'd be the case on a good team relative to other good rotation players. Same with Giddey. Murphy hasn't really done enough for me to say that yet about him either. That said, I largely agree on that point that this rookie class has been more helpful than most early on, especially since the high school/one and done era began. I saw there was an interesting discussion on Twitter started by Chad Ford's piece on that which I'd like to read.
- Gonna move into more lightning round as I finish up here.....my best guess on this is that they're missing Niang and how he fit into their bench system as for why that Conley/Gobert group isn't killing yet. As for Whiteside, opponents are shooting 20.8% from 3 when he's on the floor. That's probably your biggest reason there, a big luck component.
- Phew, unofficial. 25%, in terms of PPG in games Fox plays. Possibly higher in terms of just total points due to injury possibilities.
- I'm slightly concerned about the J, but i'm more concerned about his strength and ability to get to the basket and finish at an elite level. That's the biggest thing I want to see first before worrying about the J as much.
- Man, I have no fucking idea. Talking about this with Hollinger tomorrow and need to really sit down and prepare. And I doubt that will help me much. Nobody looks that great other than maybe Miami and GSW. Kyrie is still up in the air. Bucks need to get healthy, Lakers need to get healthy. Nuggets, Clippers and Warriors aren't totally healthy. It's a total crapshoot right now.
- If you knew 100% that Kyrie was back and playing well and all-in, then maybe you think about it. Especially considering the potential for having to pay Harden a 5-year deal at a crazy rate. But Simmons is totally unreliable at this point as well. And you're going for a championship this year. I think you hold onto Harden and hope he figures it out enough to be dominant again.
- They do not.
- Andre talked about this a little, that returning he appreciated so much more all the stuff Steph does. And with Steph out there, Andre doesn't need to just spot up and defend. He can play on-ball and make passes, and also get out on the break or cut to the rim and finish with the space and movement he provides. Bjelica, I think he could have contributed fine they just didn't play him that much.
Udonis Haslem.
Good one! Plus has an implied no-trade.
Nate, can you please define floater range? Where do you guys pull that stat from?
Do you archive your NBACasts and allow members to go back and listen?
It's been an incredibly depressing stretch for us Wolves fans, I struggle to understand how this team is 10th in DRTG and also 3-6. The offense has just been so stagnant in the half-court and I am curious if you have any thoughts on what is so wrong with the offense and if you think there is any low hanging fruit for how they can improve? Is there any reason for optimism for us Wolves fans?
Has there been any defensive scheme changes that stick out to you that would be indicative of early season trends being more than a small sample? For example, Suns are giving up a TON of threes and down to 22nd in EFG per CleaningTheGlass. Is this a mechanism of a new way in which they're defending, or simply bad luck? Any other trends we should be keeping an eye on moving forward?
Nate which segments bring you the most joy to record?? Any in particular you look forward to?? Any that you think "ahh fuck let's get through this.." or are you the Kawhi Leonard of podcasting?? Looking forward to 15 in 60 east!! Lotta spice there. My favourite is the annual over under. Never stop doing that one! Thanks for showing up my guy.
Hey Nate, I might get around to joining twitter spaces and asking both Danny and you, but how would you rank the top 6 rookie picks so far in the draft in terms of both on the court play and your new thoughts on their potential? If you could redo the draft today, regardless of teams picking, who would be your top 5 picks? Thanks!
Will you be watching any G-League Ignite games? Would love your opinion on the team this year as they play more games, specifically Dyson Daniels
U guys called a warriors game ytd. Do you think you guys would have a chance to call the game in the arena at some point? would that be more difficult as there should be more information to digest ?
Is this the most immediately helpful a rookie class has looked since you've been covering the league? I count 6 rookies who've been clear positive rotation players: Cade, Mobley, Barnes, Wagner, Sengun, Duarte, and would argue Giddey, Murphy, and Davion as well.
This may be too specific, but I've been really perplexed by the jazz being insanely good on both ends during Hassan Whiteside's minutes, where he is essentially replacing derrick favors in the rotation. on the other hand, the Gobert/Conley/bench lineups have been quite bad. what do you make of this? Conley and Gobert seem to be putting up great numbers offensively. is it the lack of spacing Paschall provides in Niang's role? is it because of Jordan Clarkson's extremely poor start? or is it just noise?
Unofficial WAFTO: someone other than Fox leads the Kings in scoring this season.
Rockets fan here. I like Jalen Green’s aggressiveness, but I’ve been disappointed in his FG% and 3P%. My question is: is it too early to take a lot away from his poor shooting? Other than his shooting, what should we be looking for from him this year and how should we evaluate his progress?
Lightning round question if you don't mind. Prediction for NBA finals and winner after the beginning portion of this season?
If this has been answered already, apologies. At what point does a James Harden for Ben Simmons trade start to make sense, basketball-wise? Let's assume Simmons wants to get out of Philly badly enough that he'll be vaccinated, that the Nets consider him to be the player he was last regular season, that KD has made it known that he's on board if it makes the Nets better, and that Harden's claim from last year that he'd be willing to go to Philly still applies. My personal thoughts are that if Harden looks like this (a top 20-25 player) at the trade deadline, there starts to be a coherent case.
Salary cap nuance question, do the withheld game checks from Ben Simmons give the sixers luxury tax savings?
As far as I can tell, Bjelica and Iguodala have played excellently in Golden State so far, and have given the Warriors quality rotation minutes, whereas they really struggled to contribute positively in Miami. Provided that the premise of my question isn't inaccurate, why do you think they've been so successful in GSW compared to their performances with the Heat last season? (Some loose conjectures I have: Bjelica being unable to meet the Heat's notoriously rigorous conditioning standards; Iguodala feeling comfortable in Steve Kerr's system and having existing chemistry with Steph and Dray; etc.)