Chris and Paul overreact after the first six days of the NBA regular season and share some thoughts on teams that they’ve watched and teams they need to, beginning with the Detroit Pistons and ending on the San Antonio Spurs, before discussing the recent sports media news.
Chris and Paul continue their contract-extension conversation from last week’s podcast by discussing Michael Kidd-Gilchrist’s new deal with the Charlotte Hornets, and then transition to their potential bottom-five teams in the 2015-16 season. They end by previewing the season finale of the debut season of USA’s Mr. Robot, and briefly talk about Adult Swim’s Rick and Morty and Paul’s foray back into the world of “Serial” with the “Undisclosed” podcast.
The Give and Go is a quick back and forth between Paul Mitchell and Chris St. Jean about a relevant subject in the NBA at that moment.
Chris:
The Kings recently fired Mike Malone amid all kinds of controversy that Adrian Wojnarowski of Yahoo Sports has been all over.
First, Adrian reported the firing, noting Malone was ‘hired before D'Alessandro on June 3, 2013’ and that Malone disagreed with D’Alessandro about playing style and the potential Josh Smith trade. He also linked George Karl and Vinny Del Negro to the opening, essentially declaring interim head coach Ty Corbin a lame duck candidate.
Second, Adrian profiled the Malone-Kings relationship in more depth leading off with a specific disagreement about Royce White. This also had more details about the Josh Smith disagreement and painted Malone as someone with a reputation for being volatile, but ‘had grown in the Kings job, worked to curb those shortcomings and built a strong bond and trust within his locker room.’ It also again linked George Karl to the job and added his motivation for doing so (Karl didn’t squash the rumors).
Lastly, Adrian reported Tuesday, that Chris Mullin (an ‘ownership adviser’ for the Kings) is basically the front runner for the job.
So, Mitchell, what in the world is going on in Sacramento? Was it a mistake to fire Mike Malone or just a mistake that it wasn’t done last off-season? And who should the Kings hire as their next coach? Ty Corbin? George Karl? Chris Mullin? Someone else?
The Give and Go is a quick back and forth between Paul Mitchell and Chris St. Jean about a relevant subject in the NBA at that moment.
Paul: We’ve entered the sixth week of the NBA’s 2014-15 season, and I feel like we can finally start looking at the stats and numbers without the small sample size caveat. Teams that found themselves struggling for the first few weeks of the season have begun to figure some things out (or vice versa), and maybe we’re at a point that we can revisit some of our preseason predictions and re-evaluate. So I’m wondering, which team(s) are you ready to admit that you were wrong about heading into this season, for better or worse?
Chris: That’s actually kind of difficult. As you mentioned, we’re dangerously close to a point where small sample size loses it’s steam. Although, if you look back at last season, teams like Toronto and Brooklyn, and even Indiana and Portland to some degree, showed that a lot can happen between January 1st and the end of April. But things have already started to level off a little bit this season. I picked the Clippers to have the best record in the West for the regular season and after three weeks that looked ridiculous. But today, even though they are 7th in the West after five straight wins, they’re only three wins back of first. If I posed this question to you two weeks ago or even last week, you might have said that you were way off in thinking Denver was a frisky playoff contender, but they’ve won 8 of 10 and are a half game out of the 8 spot.
Charlotte’s too obvious (and I thought they might struggle, though not this much) so I’m actually going to go with Phoenix. Don’t get me wrong, I loved watching the Suns last season, but they got a career year out of Goran Dragic that I didn’t think was possible to replicate even before Isaiah Thomas was brought in. They lost Channing Frye, one of their most reliable big men, and so many of their role players from last year had career seasons (Gerald Green, P.J. Tucker, The Morris Twins). I didn’t expect them to fall apart completely, but I thought they would have a 2013 Minnesota-like, 40-42 season, never really having a chance at the playoffs.
That’s not the case. Phoenix will be in the mix until April and that race for the 8 seed is going to be crazy. OKC will be charging with Durant and Westbrook both playing this week. As I mentioned, Denver could be in the mix if their play continues (especially Ty Lawson), and you have young upstarts in Sacramento and New Orleans that are going to hang around. Phoenix has withstood poor starts by both their star point guards to cling to that 8th seed in an insanely difficult West all amid ‘media reports’ swirling as Isaiah Thomas comes off the bench and wins Phoenix games. Thomas and Green have been dynamic, combining to average 29.9 points per game and an outlandish 47.7 points per 36 minutes. Markieff Morris has been great as a starter, averaging 14.8 points, 6.4 rebounds, and 2.6 assists, and they’ve even gotten some really solid contributions out of second year center Alex Len, adding to their already gluttonous depth at a position of need on the bench unit.
I’ve been impressed with Phoenix’s resolve. At the start of the season, I saw them as a regression candidate, but now I see them as a young team that continues to develop and would love to get some playoff experience much like last season’s Wizards. What were you wrong about?
Paul: Well, you mean besides picking Russell Westbrook to win the MVP award, and leaving Elfrid Payton off of both of my All-Rookie teams? I’ll try to stick to teams, though.
First off, we, and every other NBA writer and prognosticator, will probably be wrong on the Oklahoma City Thunder. Injuries suck. Russell came back last week and Kevin Durant is mere hours away from making his season debut and shredding Tyreke Evans and John SaLOLmons. I have no doubt a healthy Thunder squad will play .600 basketball in the next few months and will present major match-up issues if they finish with a #7 or 8 seed in the Western Conference. So maybe the Thunder won’t be a top-three seed, like most of us assumed in the preseason and before all the injuries hit, but they will be a playoff team, and watching KD and Russ play with a “sense of urgency” to overcompensate for the team’s 4-12 record in their absence should be amazing.
This whole exercise could look foolish if we look back on it in a couple of months, much as it would have last season after burying the Nets, Raptors, and Grizzlies early into the schedule. I liked Denver’s depth enough to think they could finish over .500 and claim the 9th spot in the West, ala “last year's Phoenix Suns”, and even though they’ve battled back to win 8 of their last 10 games, Ty Lawson really needs to play like an All-Star for this team to reach that level.
I’m a bit hesitant to claim the same with the Charlotte Hornets, in case they make a trade or get Michael Kidd-Gilchrist back healthy and go on a run, but 10 games under .500 by December 1st is a tough hole to climb out of, especially for a team that can’t score. Lance Stephenson and Kemba Walker haven’t really gelled yet in the same backcourt, and neither are great catch-and-shoot players who can spot up off of the others’ drives, but head coach Steve Clifford has to get the team back to shutting off the paint and playing top-10 defense. I’m optimistic that Rich Cho can add another shooter throughout the season, whether a minor piece or a starter-type, but if last season's defensive dominance was a fluke then it’ll be a long season in Charlotte.
On the optimistic side of the spectrum, the Sacramento Kings have been everybody’s surprise team after the first couple of weeks, but injuries to DeMarcus “BOOGIE!” Cousins and Rudy Gay have sapped some of the acclaim, as they’ve lost their last three games and 6 of their last 10. They’re about average to slightly-below on both sides of the ball, but leading the league in rebounding percentage and free throw attempts per game. Younger pieces like Darren Collison and Ben McLemore have shown signs of competence, along with steady veteran big men Reggie Evans and Chuck Hayes. Talk about another team that could use a shooter, though…
Finally, I was wrong about the Portland Trail Blazers, but especially their offseason additions. I had Terry Stotts’s squad as my regression candidate in the Western Conference, falling to the 8th seed after finishing 5th last season, due mostly to my high esteem for the rest of the conference and unfavorable opinion of Steve Blake and Chris Kaman to back up at the point guard and center positions, respectively. Instead, Kaman is averaging 11.1 points and 7.2 boards (in just 19.3 minutes) on 50.6% shooting, while Blake is still struggling shooting the ball (4.4 points on 34.8% on 2’s and 31.5% on 3’s) but is averaging 4.5 assists in 22.1 minutes per game. Wes Matthews has been exceptional so far in his contract year (18.8 points with 61.1/40.9/66.7 triple-slash percentages), along with team leaders Damian Lillard and LaMarcus Aldridge. Nic Batum’s injury was mostly offset by bench players like C.J. McCollum, Will “The Thrill” Barton, and even Meyers Leonard stepping up, and the Blazers sit at 13-4 with the 4th-ranked offense and 6th-best defense. The West is so good that the Blazers could still fall to the 8th seed by the end of the season, separated by merely a couple of games in the standings, but the team has improved its defense and depth from last season and look like a top-4 seed in the loaded Western Conference. My bad, Blazers fans.
Chris and Paul wrap up the 2014 FIBA World Cup Tournament before discussing NBA news, including management drama in Atlanta, and contract extensions for the draft class of 2011, and conclude on episode 6 of their "30 Rock" summer/autumn rewatch.
6’3” (6’9.25” wingspan), 227 lbs., 03/06/1994 (20 years old)
I promised myself if I had to write up the Sacramento Kings’s offseason and draft situation I would only mention the Rudy Gay/player option drama once. I’ll try to make it quick.
Every year it seems that today comes longer to hoop heads,
that the wait is unusually more agonizing and the offseason more arduous than
the one preceding it. A quick mathematical investigation on my part has shown
that this NBA summer has been, in fact, as consistently long as in previous
years. If anything, that amazing Spurs/Heat Finals going seven games actually
afforded us a few extra days of sweet, sweet basketball, compared to the five
game LeBron/Durant Showdown of 2012. The offseason has not lacked for
entertainment or drama either, as fans in Houston/Los Angeles and
Brooklyn/Boston would, respectively, probably characterize it. And while some
franchises might enter hibernation earlier this winter, there are glimmers of
hope and change in other corners of the NBA map.
This season is going to be spectacular, by all accounts. As
is true in every other of the NBA’s near-70 year existence, not every team has
a realistic shot at a championship. 2013-14 might even feature a record run of
rebuilding and futility from franchises, even as the first (honest, if not
anonymous) general manager details why this might already be a lost season and it’s not even Halloween yet. But,
for the first time in my 15+ years as an NBA fan, you can make a case that
every one of the 30 organizations at least has a plan in place.
Think about that for a second, and think of how rare that
premise has been in recent seasons. Even Donald Sterling can’t screw his own organization up anymore! We’re going to see plenty of bad teams this year and many blowout losses,
but even the stingiest of rosters is assembled with a clear goal in mind that
makes sense: this upcoming draft is going to be really good and rookie
contracts are better values than free agent contracts.
For the most part we’re not seeing traditionally bad
organizations target mediocrity or drift aimlessly through another NBA season.
With the settled situation in Sacramento, another lottery season might be
realistic, but stability and new ownership has sparked optimism, and a big
trade wouldn’t surprise anyone. Phoenix and Philadelphia might be openly bereft
of talent (and are probably the odds-on favorites to have supplied that
previous passage to Mr. Goodman) but with draft picks and playing time for
young prospects, you can’t say they’re quote-unquote “tanking” (UGH) or being
cheap or disingenuous to their fanbases.
Boston is in the nascent stages of their long-term rebuild,
and a franchise-altering lottery pick in 2014 would be a nice block to build
upon. Charlotte has been bad while trying to be good, and an Al Jefferson
signing, plus Kemba/Gerald/MKG, helps make them watchable while still staying
semi-flexible in their search for a franchise guy. While they’re not the
laughing stock of the league this season after two historically inept
campaigns, they should still be in lottery contention in the #RigginforWiggins
or #TankSafariforJabari efforts. Orlando is firmly in year two of their
post-Dwight existence, with a solid collection of assets and a coach that has
already installed a culture. Utah’s situation is slightly different, in that
they’ve developed their young core alongside positive veterans in Jeff, Milsap
and (gulp) Jamaal Tinsley, and while an overachieve to a playoff spot wouldn’t
be the worst thing in the world, an impact lottery pick (from the wing/guard
spot?) would bolster a more realistic 2015 playoff push.
It’s probably a good thing that the NBA mediocrity, the 7-10
seeds in each conference, are mostly inhabited by younger teams who hope that
an entrance into the playoffs portends bigger things to their futures.
Minnesota, Denver, Portland, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Toronto, Washington and the
Pelicans (!) all feature a young core with legitimate playoff aspirations,
where even a short series pounding against a Miami, Chicago, Indiana, San
Antonio, or Oklahoma City would go well towards seasoning that core or
persuading bitter franchise guys to stick around.
It’s the older teams settling in at that .500 level that are
the most frustrating franchises this season. While Mark Cuban asserts that
three year deals are the new market inefficiency,
it’s still an older team with questionable personnel fits that will struggle to
defend. The Lakers might be better served to sit the season out, settle their
chemistry issues and develop a long-term plan, especially with so many upcoming
marquee free agents with LA ties. Instead they’re pulling a 2012 Cuban and spending
money on one-year deals, hoping that fitting players into a coaching scheme
will get them to the playoffs. But then what?
The legitimate playoff teams stay scheming to claim the
throne. We’ll see if the Atlanta’s and Knicks’s of the league can compete while
transitioning their teams to what could be a different look next season.
Brooklyn and Golden State found that they enjoyed their playoff debuts last
year and made commitments to hopefully surpass their successes of a season ago.
Organizations like the Heat, Spurs, Bulls, Pacers, Grizzlies and Thunder
preferred to rely on internal improvements to augment their rosters. They might
enter the season slept on but are all veteran teams with confidence and an
identity.
The most interesting teams might be the ones on the title
periphery, who were mere bounces or breaks away from taking Miami or San
Antonio’s spots in 2013. An offseason of confidence could do wonders to the
next teams up, who made mostly minor alterations: a beefed up bench or an extra
shooter to space the floor or someone to defend the LeBrons or Tony Parkers
that they will have to vanquish on their journey to NBA immortality.
And the kings stay the kings. Once they sublimated their
egos enough to embrace their revolution on the game, the only thing that can
beat the Heat might truly be free agency. Injuries to Dwyane and Bosh weren’t
enough to knock them off. Boxing matches with the Pacers and Bulls, and burying
their Boston rivals once and for all, couldn’t do it either, it only weakened
them enough to enable their Western foes to get close. But when backed against
the wall, a spot they’ve been in more times than any other recent dynasty since
the Rockets of the mid-90’s,
they’ve regrouped, summoned their resolve and unleashed historical performances on the macro and micro levels (see video below ). As a dynasty, they’ve raised the games of everyone around them, bringing out
the best in their adversaries and creating history, while ushering in perhaps
an evolution to a style of play that for 40 years had been derided as a
gimmick.
Oh yeah, and we’ve seen one of the handful of most talented
athletes ever realize his potential, develop his game and basically mature
while acting as the league’s most popular player and outright villain. We
knocked LeBron James for not being clutch (whatever that means). Then we picked
apart his lack of a post game. Finally we wondered if he could stand up,
mentally, to the rigors of being the target and to dominate every night while
elevating his game in the playoffs. Now we’re honestly just wondering where
he’ll play next and how many potential championships that could swing.
