Opening Night Overreactions, Alarming Trends, Hot Takes, and More!

This episode is brought to you by State Farm. Every football fan is different. Some won't wash their lucky mustard-stained jersey until the season's over. Some insist they can't sit down during third downs. And some pick their favorite team because, I don't know, red looked nice. Just like football fandom, nobody's life is exactly the same. That's why State Farm gets to know you, so you can help personalize coverage for your life and budget. Whether it's game day or just another Tuesday, State Farm has you covered. Like a good neighbor, State Farm is there. This episode is brought to you by Major League Baseball. There is nowhere left to go. Two teams, one championship. Watch the World Series. Yeah, the World Series, presented by Capital One on Fox and Fox One. No time like October. Visit MLB.com slash postseason to learn more. Coming up on the Zach Lowe Show, the NBA is here. Every team except the Cavs and the Nuggets has played so far. I've been mainlining games, going to games, watching as much basketball as I can, taking notes. I'm ready to talk about a lot of teams. We start off, I just go solo real quick about the Knicks, the Sixers, the Thunder, and the Spurs. I was at MSG for ring night. Truly a surreal, crazy scene to see the New York Knicks raise a championship banner, raise the cup banner. Didn't see that one coming. They honored the NBA Cup, which I guess if it's the predecessor to breaking a 53-year drought against the same team that you won the NBA Cup, then you're going to win the NBA Cup. If you end up beating in the finals, hang the damn NBA Cup banner. I love it. So quick takes on those games. Obviously, the Thunder and the Sixers are back in action tonight. And then all the reactions, overreactions, hot takes, freezing takes, predictions gone right, predictions gone wrong, things we feel good about and bad about from the NBA's true opening night. I think it was an 11 or 12 game Wednesday night. I watched as much as I could. Mo Dekeel is here, and he watched as much as he could. We had some blowouts. We had one or two close-ish games. We had Yaxo Landeborg and Luka Dacis jawing at each other. Jalen Johnson and Paolo Becchero jawing at each other. The Wizards won. The Bulls lost by 1,000 points. Tons of stuff going on in the NBA. The new-look Wolves against the new-look Heat. That was one of the games that I watched. Just lots to talk about with Mo Dekeel as the NBA finally, mercifully gets underway. That's all coming up on The Zach Lowe Show. Welcome to The Zach Lowe Show. The NBA is back. We had an opening night on Tuesday night with just three games, all marquee matchups. And then the NBA's true opening night is always the Wednesday night when there's 1,000 games. Mo Dekeel and I are here to overreact, share our hot takes, mourn for his sake the NLS losing Los Angeles Dodgers and all that. But with the Zach Lowe Show, we're going to talk about the NBA. The Sixers back in action tonight against the Cavs and the Thunder against the Nuggets. I just thought I'd get my opening night, my Tuesday night opening night thoughts out of the way real quickly before Mo hops on. I was at Madison Square Garden for Knicks Sixers for ring night. It was a disaster getting into the arena. The media didn't even get in, most of us, until almost 6 o'clock, which is against NBA rules. But, you know, that's what happens sometimes. And it was an absolutely surreal scene to see the New York Knicks after years of heartbreak and pain and humiliation and embarrassment raise a championship banner. They got their rings. Everybody got introduced. Mike Breen did a great job. They played a montage on the Jumbotron. I don't know if this was on TV, of still photos, one after another from the championship run, set to the song, When We Were Kings, which is a Brian McKnight, Diana King song, I think, which is from a documentary that all of you should see if you have not seen it. I believe it won an Oscar. It's called When We Were Kings. It's about Muhammad Ali and George Foreman and the rumble in the jungle and mostly Muhammad Ali. And that song is in the movie. And it's in the movie with a montage of photos of Muhammad Ali that just, it gets a little misty anytime I see it. So that song came on and I was like, all right, this is a moment. Other random ring night observations. I think OGN and OB has become the second most popular player on the Knicks after Brunson. Obviously, that's largely because of the tip, one of the greatest, most iconic plays in NBA history. I also think people just enjoy his quirky deadpan personality. Like, is this a bit? Is it not a bit? He's really won over the fans. He got the second loudest ovation behind Brunson. They love to chant his name in concert with how the PA announcer says it. OGN and OB, the whole crowd says it at once. They were just great. The crowd was on fire. It was Nixon five chants throughout the whole night. Every time they showed, the Ananobi tip in various forms on the Jumbotron, the crowd went crazy. When McHale Bridges got introduced, a fantastic fuck them picks chant broke out from about half the crowd. When Mike Brown got introduced, a lot of the crowd started barking in reference to his charming and bloomer dad adoration of who let the dogs out by the Baja men. I think that was great. And then the Knicks lost the game to the Philadelphia 76ers. The most interesting team, I think, in the entire NBA this year. And the Sixers, flat out outplayed the Knicks. I actually thought the Knicks were kind of lucky to be in that game towards the end. I thought the Sixers generated a lot more open shots, open threes. They were 11 to 40 on threes, I think. And look, everyone needs to chill after opening night. No takes are won. No takes are lost. No bets are won, season-long bets anyway. No predictions are true. No predictions are false. Not even Suns fans pessimism after they shat the bed against Portland last night in their opener. Everyone needs to chill. The Sixers are going to be the ultimate, and it's a long-season team. Like, can they stay healthy? Particularly Joel Embiid, who looked okay in the first game, a little better on defense than I thought, maybe a little worse on offense. Can they remain sort of happy and in balance with their offense? We'll talk about that. Can they survive defensively as an average or above-average team? I think that's the biggest TBD about this new-look, weirdo super team. And it was weird to see LeBron in a Sixers jersey. The whole night was just like, I can't even believe I'm here watching this. Like, how lucky I am to be in the building for this, and also LeBron's on the Sixers. What's going on? But look, I said all along, even though I picked the Sixers to finish seventh in the East, I said they were a legit finals team, probably my second finals or third finals pick between Indiana and behind the Knicks. And I said all along, like, I don't think the one-ball problem is going to be a problem for the Sixers. There's a lot of things that could undo the Sixers. I don't think the, oh my God, there's only one ball. How are all these high-usage guys going to make it work? Whoa to BJ Edgecombe, who's just going to be a fifth option. Like, I just didn't think that was going to be the problem. And everything I saw in the first Sixers game was encouraging in that regard. Number one, Tyrese Maxey is the best player on the team, and everyone seems to know that Tyrese Maxey is the best player on the team, or at least the team played like they're all aware that he's the best player on the team, that he should have the ball the most, and he should take the most shots. Number two, they ran. Like all hell, which everyone on the team but Embiid is really supercharged, designed to do. And that's an easy way to get, like, Jalen Brown some buckets in transition, Edgecombe some buckets in transition. It's also an easy way to get, particularly Jalen Brown, who I think has the greatest risk, clearly, of being the, oh, he's been in the corner for six consecutive possessions, odd man out among the superstar conglomerate. It's an easy way to get him, like, oh, he switched on to a small guy on defense, we got to stop, he ran and sealed his guy, deep under the rim, just get him the ball. He'll draw fouls, he'll get easy buckets that way. Other than that, like, they kind of split up the offense how it should be split up. Like Embiid posted up a few times, not too many times. He had one where he just overpowered Andre Drummond that was like, oh, okay. He trailed for threes, he had pick and pop threes. Like, the only threes he should take are the wide open catch and shoot threes that he has to take, that the defense is giving him to take, and he can make enough of those and distribute from the high post enough to make that role work for him. LeBron just picked his spots. He was the apex predator connector guy. I've compared him to the best possible version of old man Jason Kidd in Dallas, where he's just sort of hanging out on the perimeter, looking at cutters, looking at shooters, throwing the ball over and around the defense, playing point forward without actually having to, like, penetrate into the lane. And then when you need him, the Maxi LeBron two-man game is going to be a staple of the team. He can do the thing where he seals smaller guys under the basket and hunts mismatches, and that's what we're looking for. If he's happy averaging 14, 18, 16 a game, this is going to work. Even if Jalen Brown's in the corner a lot, which he was, he was also in the dunker spot a lot. And guess what? He got some easy buckets that way. He even, at the end of the game, when the Knicks started blitzing Embiid, did the very specific thing that I wondered on this podcast the day before the season started, if he would do it, the intuitive cut where he cuts up from the corner to act as a release valve for, let's say, Maxi is running pick and roll with Embiid. They blitz Maxi. And he needs someone to hit the ball to on the wing. Jalen Brown pops up for that, catches a pass, keeps the offense in motion. I don't remember what happened after that, but that was super encouraging. And Vijay Edgecombe, I just kept saying it, he's going to run into 15 points a game, just run and cut into 15 points a game. And another thing that the Sixers did really well in that first game was they're very aware that the weakest defender on the other team, in this case, Brunson, at least among the perimeter guys, is going to be hiding on Vijay Edgecombe. And they're going to use him as a screener and a cutter all over the floor. there was one play where he went up and set a back screen for LeBron and LeBron cut into the middle of the floor and it left the Knicks with the choice. Like either we switch Brunson onto LeBron, which is a no-go or we kind of hedge and help. And LeBron cuts free into the lane as you're doubling edge comb up top. And then they converge on LeBron. LeBron kicks to Maxie for an open three. Like that's all very smart offense. I thought it was all, all good for the Sixers, even though their offensive output wasn't great. The threes were a big portion of that missing 29 of 40 from three. They moved it. Well, they passed it. Well, everybody had a lot of assists. Like their assists were well-distributed bunch of guys had five, six assists, all good for the Sixers thumbs up again, and B looked pretty mobile defensively. That's going to be the big test for them as the season goes on. And we'll see what happens there. The Knicks not worried about the Knicks. They're fine. Is there going to be a hangover? Maybe probably. Uh, they also have a bunch of games. Coming up against like the bucks and the bulls, the bulls lost by 9,000 points last night in Toronto. And I think the nets, so they should bank some easy wins, even if they do lose against some of the good teams. The one thing is we all knew the Drummond thing was going to be, um, an interesting thing to watch. And in the first half, he looked like a rejuvenated Andre Drummond getting every offensive rebound, finishing around the rim. The fans were chanting Andre Drummond at him, which was like a world record for a backup center, having a chant, uh, aimed at him. And then in the second, half he became Andre Drummond again and airball, the floater couldn't finish anything around the rim. And we all know he's a defensive downgrade for Mitchell Robinson and offensive rebounding downgrade for Mitchell Robinson. Who's the best offensive rebounder in the NBA, either him or Steven Adams. I think the thing that jumped out at me the most was how much less dangerous of a finisher he is on the pick and roll than Mitchell Robinson. One of the best looks the Knicks had all of last year was Brunson on the floor, Robinson on the floor, shooting around them and cat resting on the bench. Like that was their best cat resting alignment. And it was just Brunson Robinson, spam, pick and roll lob dunks, kickouts to shooters because the defense has to converge on Mitchell Robinson. And Andre Drummond is old and doesn't jump as high as Mitchell Robinson and isn't as tall as Mitchell Robinson is just not going to finish those plays with the same frequency and same effectiveness. I thought they missed that, but the Knicks will be fine. Then the other headliner was Thunder Spurs. Uh, I watched that game the following morning. I was like, Oh, I'm going to go to the Knicks. I'm going to go to the because I was at MSG late at night. And, uh, I picked the Thunder to win the title. Um, I'm kind of surprised that the Spurs are starting Dylan Harper and the, and Fox and Castle altogether right off the bat. I just kind of thought, you know, that they would keep Harper in a six man role to, to try and balance everything out. Uh, the three of them were plus 10 in 12 minutes together. So that's a nice data point for the Spurs. I do think it, it felt to me though, like, the Spurs are going to have a little bit more just uncertainty built into their team in terms of who should play and when, particularly when Tobias Harris comes back healthy, because they have a lot of guys on the wing. Champagny started all last year. Vassell is still starting. Tobias Harris is a starting caliber player. Keldon Johnson won six man of the year last year. I is starting those three guys. The right answer probably just to keep Dylan Harper happy, I guess, and keep Fox happy. How much should they actually play together? When should they play together? Should they finish games together is an interesting question. They all looked more or less fine other than Castle getting left wide open and missing tons of threes early in the game. Um, which is going to happen when teams put centers on him now and then he'll have good shooting games, bad shooting games, whatever. Um, they all looked pretty much fine, but the Spurs, you did feel like, huh? Not as much sort of reliable, and shoot quick trigger three-point shooting on the floor what does that look like for victor who of course had the worst offensive game probably of his entire career and some of that was because of chet holmgren and boy was this the thing i was watching and everybody was watching how is chet gonna respond to melting into a puddle against victor women yama in the western conference finals last year the last memories we have of chet are him just not shooting threes at all like left wide open and not shooting them the spurs like not caring who was guarding him like is it deer and fox is them so we don't care and him just like trying to take i think women yama off to dribble on the right baseline falling over and that was the end of chet holmgren well guess what he guarded victor women yama right from the jump and we all harped on it last year why are they not having chet ever guard victor women yama why are they messing around with all these weird matchups when they have the to to almost intentionally avoid having chet holmgren on victor women yama sometimes he was on the wing like j dub sometimes he was on castle whatever can he rove this and that it's like you're not even gonna give him a shot and they sent the message right off the bat we're giving him a shot and he did quite well he also took the ball at women yama early in the game he had a blow by against devon vassell wemby was at the rim and he went up and threw wemby and finished it it was like this is like it wasn't a spectacular game i think he had 14 points it was every everything you wanted to see if you were an oklahoma city fit even played some center which is a look that they avoided almost entirely last year against the spurs like we just can't even afford to play this guy as the only big man on the floor ever if wemby's on the floor and speaking of that holy smokes was the sga i mean there's nothing left to be said about that guy he's a freaking wizard aj mitchell mccain combination i mean mccain by himself making six threes and just a whole different level of pop to this offense but the three of those guards together played i believe 10 minutes together the thunder were only plus six so it's not like crazy but the idea of can we get to that look a little bit more can we get to it with chet at the five here and there at least j dub is healthy he looks pretty good didn't shoot well but he looks pretty good and adai mara looks very much ready to play real minutes and so a plus uh debut for the thunder they are my favorites to win the title not worried about the knicks uh self-expistions i will let bills uh up and down reaction to that game stand as our collective reaction to that game it's a long season and with that let's bring in uh mode to kill to talk about the true opening night of the nba season the zach low show is brought to you by fan duel the nba is back and this is your most rewarding season ever on fan duel how rewarding are we talking more rewarding than it has been for buzzer meter more rewarding than a 29 point comeback maybe even more rewarding than a center knocking down a three i mean come on everybody loves when the big man lets it fly in this nba season that feeling doesn't stop on the court look out for fan duel rewards club exclusive offers surprises and more so every week check the fan duel app to see what's waiting for you make this your most rewarding season ever with fan duel download the app to get started 21 over in select states or 18 and over in dc or wyoming gambling problem call 1-800 gambler call 1-800-GAMBLER 888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in connecticut all right time to talk about the nba's true opening night and all our overreactions from the first two days of the season the great mode to kill is here from los angeles he's a new dad he's a fan of a team that got swept humiliatingly in the national league championship series mo tequila how are you sir i'm doing great i was just curious how'd the met season go it was great mo i had a great time i saw stevie big pockets cohen at the knicks game the other night i resisted my urge to go full uh frank costanza on him and just start yelling about all the mistakes he's made and how jay buehner is a great prospect and all that it was a great season i had a great time um still can't order a carson ben's jersey i want a road gray carson ben's jersey can't order it can't order it on the mets team store can't order it at mlb.com i gotta note that it's unavailable the only way i can get it is to get it on the met team store i got to note that it's unavailable go to city field and have a customized jersey made for me what what am i just i got all the free time anyway okay the nba is here um 11 games i think last night i watched three of them in full and pieces of others i am under underslept overtired and also just hopped up on coffee and nba love uh how are you doing this morning i'm doing great man i'm uh same as you uh underslept a little overtired ton of caffeine over the night um changing diapers and putting uh games on that i missed through the course of the the middle of the night so we're i'm ready to roll i got i got a good good base for today's show okay we're gonna do some some categories i'm gonna give you some nominees and we're just gonna riff uh of our takes from opening week of the nba or really the opening 48 hours of the nba category number one hot take after two days that you actually think is maybe not that hot of a take or not that much of an overreaction are you ready for the nominees yes number one anthony edwards is going to be in the top three in the mvp conversation after absolutely lighting up the new look miami heat in a wolves emphatic blowout walk welcome to miami honest and sense guppo here's the team you have to play with now 131 106 win and mvp conversation number two nikhil alexander walker is a legit all-star and will make his first all-star game this year number three the heater in trouble and this isn't going to work number four the golden state warriors stink after getting blown out by the lakers in la in a game that i actually could stop watching late in the third quarter because it was a 30 something point lead and the final nominee the kings will win fewer than 15 games this season because they're just that bad and they got destroyed by the clippers so hot take overreaction but you secretly think it's not an overreaction nominee number one anthony edwards ascending in the mvp talk number two nikhil alexander walker all-star number three the heat uh-oh number four the warriors really uh-oh and the season's already over number five the kings could be like one of the worst teams we've ever seen well i feel like number four and five are things we kind of knew going into this well the kings i feel like are always in that department and with the warriors i think we expected them not to be good this season like i think we've there's been a i'm i've been very down on them so i'm not shocked by this one um maybe you might want to tell you axel to not talk shit to we're gonna get there he comes up he comes up in another category okay i didn't want to skip ahead for me i'm going with the winner it's anthony edwards that performance he put on in miami was absolutely absurd and then on top of all of that the amount of trash he was talking as he was just and it was everybody everybody in the heat jersey got it he had you know took it to bam he gave it to yannis he gave it to everybody and it was one of those performances where you kind of just sort of sat back and was just like this is amazing like he was on fire for me that's got to be number one one of the things that stood out from that game was i mean obviously he's maybe the best three level score in the entire nba in terms of at least being able to dunk and finish hard at the rim in addition to everything else he does and when he makes threes forget it was you know there was this whole idea of lamello and ant together was about a couple of things number one we're just going to bury teams under threes and that that indeed happened they took a million i don't even remember how many combined threes they took it was a lot again we watched a lot of games last night don't hold me to all the specifics here and number two well you can't do the thing where you just blitz ant and take the ball out of his hands and the whole offense just falls to smithereens and they're like oh my god we're going to take the ball out of his hands and take the ball out of his hands and they're like oh my god we're going to take the ball out of his hands and they're like oh my god we're going to take the ball out of his hands and they're like oh my god we're going to and that was telling to me is like this is the only time we really feel safe doing this because if we do this with lamello and we do it with jada mcdaniels who by the way just continues to look primed for it's harder to make a first time all-star in the west when cooper flag and austin reeves are also potential first-time all-stars both of them were fantastic last night um but boy is he primed for like a 19 point a game borderline fringe all-star conversation kind of season they're just really hard to guard and like the cominga gobert thing it's going to get a little clunky sometimes but when they run hard and they they are both these teams are absolutely flying and when cominga makes enough like enough jumpers and enough sort of just flying into creases plays it it looked it looked pretty good to me yeah no i thought it was you know there there were definitely moments like you talked about being clunky like they had a turnover i think it was on a uh a sideline uh uh inbound where the cominga thought the ball was going to him but it was really to rudy and he he he screwed it up and the he got a bucket out of that in transition off the turnover but there's there was times from comingo where i thought like okay like this is where he can kind of thrive or find his little opportunities and his moments i think the other guys too like jayden mcdaniels won either ant or lamello go to the bench that's like his moment now to be really like all right now i get to be more of a starring role in this position with that with the bench unit when those guys go there because because you're right like that's one teams are going to throw out the double team not just on ant they're going to do it to lamello as well and see what the offense can do and i think from there that's where he's got to step in and continue that leap that we saw last season and i mean i i'm just so excited to watch this team like i've been eager to watch it i was pretty impressed with the defense last you know you know last night i thought lamello was competing more defensively he was he was locking he was locking and trailing chasing clay all over the place like you know he's not a great defender and he's never going to be but all you want is don't space out and fall out of the play don't gamble for steals that you have a two percent chance of getting and just try hard and be physical and he was actually pretty physical by his standards i mean that was i keep saying this that was the hornets concern with him when we get into real games and just watching steph castle and i think they just worried lamello is going to wilt under that and and again it's one game but he was physical getting around screens he had one play where he got stuck on yannis in transition and kind of i mean i don't want to say he stood yannis up but he stood his ground enough to call i think a turnover i think the guys lost the ball out of bounds yeah and i think that's the stuff like you want to see from lamello in in the way of competing defensively so i was really impressed with that and then when you have the defenders that they have on the floor with them most of the time that's all they're going to need from him right like i think that's going to be the key for them with what they're going for but you know the story also is just anthony edwards was just pure pure i'm just going to kill you mode like and and let you hear about it like there's nothing scarier than when guys like him or luca you know go into those modes and like are smiling at you in that way of like a serial killer does and you know i think you're you're looking at it just going to see what you want to see and that's why i think like it's a legitimate part of the conversation that i know is one game but yeah mvp put him in the conversation and break through in the top three i know it's a tough group to crack but if he's going to do that on a regular basis there's no reason he wouldn't a couple other uh minnesota notes um i mentioned cominga and gobert just keep an eye on the the wolves using them and as double screeners and like stagger screening actions that's a way to kind of ease their spacing clunkiness is get them both involved as screeners and rollers and stuff they use jayden mcdaniel as a as a screener on the ball here and there it's a look i'm interested in if he slips to the basket and both coming in gobert on the floor it's going to get a little crowded but he's he he's big enough to make plays in those tight spaces and i just like him stretching his game uh a little bit i found it interesting that bones highland played basically garbage time and he opted to go bigger off the bench with terence shannon jr playing a lot trey lyles playing a real role and then baron jay was it's going to be a roller coaster with johan baron jay bam kind of took it to him for a bit and i think the second quarter when yannis was out and those non-yannis minutes are going to be pretty dicey all year for miami even though they were actually better offensively by the numbers with yannis on the bench last night i don't read anything into that i just thought it was interesting that the wolves opted to play big and i'll tell you mo already for my single most surprising moment of the entire nba season i almost fell out of my chair and it felt like um what i don't was that an espn game whoever was like it was breen it felt like breen almost fell out of his chair god bless him uh hit ahead to lamello ball with 11 seconds left in the first half lamello is open on the left wing the wolves can run out the clock he's pretty open he rises to shoot and his brain actually kicks in and he's like no i should not or finch was yelling at him or something i shouldn't shoot we should hold for the last shot and he pumps and he brings it back down and i was like oh my god just passed up a shot to manage the clock properly what's happening is like his finch or like that that was like five minutes of chris finch's life that did not run off his life clock because that because lamello did not shoot the ball shocking a truly a shocking nba moment i'll tell you right now the video coordinator was in the back ready to put that on the halftime edit of like don't do that and then as soon as he as soon as he kind of pumped faked it instead of shooting it got rid of the clip after that but it was just it was just smart this is the evolution of lamello that we might actually see in this his run here with the the wolves now because look as good as charlotte was last year nobody had them you know being a playoff team and and they were just a playing team and they got knocked out this wolves team we're expecting to be in the top six in the west and then being somewhat of a force in the playoffs so like his the expectations of him of his game his responsibility has to change and he has to have that understanding and that was just a small moment where you can kind of see that that clip now there's going to be times he's taking that shot though zach so be ready for it i mean i i was ready for it i was ready for it to miss and for the heat to run down and get an and one and for chris finch to be like i think i just chris finch to be like i think i just um uh any i mean i'm i'm not reading too much into one game from miami yannis obviously looked incredible uh just scored a million points right out of the gate um bam found his footing a little bit but the non-yannis offense is just going to be like i just don't really know where it's going to be coming from on a night-to-night basis and you know i i'm not i'm not going to go nuts but i didn't love how miami felt last night my biggest concern with miami with their offense last night, you know, besides just the obvious stuff of not scoring. and everything was there wasn't a lot of interaction between Bam and Giannis. A couple of like four or five pick and rolls, a couple of that in transition or drag screens and things like that. But there wasn't a lot of the two of them working off of each other. And I thought that's what I would expect more from their offense, where those two guys play off of each other and then that feeds into everybody else. And they were running stuff, they were running playoff pin downs and things like that and trying to get him looks and so on. But I didn't feel like there was a cohesive plan for the two of them between Giannis and Bam to work off of each other. And I think that's the thing they got to find through the course of the season to get this offense really going. Because that's just the way, those are their two main guys offensively. And you can't have a, okay, Giannis takes control so Bam's going to kind of wither to the side or the other way around. And I think that needs to be something that they're really working on. I thought they'd have something by now going into coming off of a training camp, but I think that's something they have to find during the season. We'll get to the Warriors later. The Kings, I don't have anything to say about this thing. You mentioned the Hornets play in last year and the expectation certainly held by me that they would take a small step back this year, like 35 to 38 wins kind of step back, not a chasm or anything. Should be noted that without Concanipple and Kobe White and Grant Williams, they went on the road and beat the full-strength Brooklyn Nets in the opening game of their season. So that was encouraging. And on the cue, Alexander Walker, like I didn't see much of Atlanta, Orlando. That's on my list of stuff to at least watch a little bit of today in my free time. Atlanta wins on the road in Orlando. Paolo has a good game. Franz has an okay game. The magic bench without Anthony Black is just like a big pile of nothing right now. I honestly think when the cue, Nikita Alexander might just be like almost an all-star level player. Like he was most improved player last year. He might just be like a 21 point a game, 40% on threes with high volume and elite defense for his position. Like this, this might not be like a fun story and like a great under the radar signing. He may just be like a borderline all-star kind of player. Yeah. I don't, I mean, you look at what he did in that game and it felt like also, he hit every big shot when the Hawks needed it against Orlando as it was coming down to the wire. Like, I feel like you're, you're looking at again, carry over of what he did last year and now just even being more comfortable in the system. And this isn't a shot at Trey, but now it not being a Trey young team to start the season. Can't take a shot at a trade today. The wizards are one and oh, baby, they're throwing parades in Washington. They beat the bucks. We're going to get to the bucks in a minute, but they did, they did beat the bucks. Congratulations. Everybody have a parade. But, and, and a couple of wizards fans. I know we're having a parade last night off of that win, but Nikhil getting now the opportunity from the start of the season of just being like, yo, ball's going to be in your hands a lot, make something happen, go to work in that. And I think we're just going to see again, like you sort of talked about McDaniel spreading his wings a little bit. You're going to see even, but like the kills already spread his wings. Now we're about to see that kind of grow even more him, him a sore a bit, and I think that's going to be something we're going to see. And there's no reason for him not to be an all-star. I don't think we included him when we talked first time. He was on my, he was on like my very long list and I didn't even mention him. Honestly, like the Hawks had a very interesting decision to make with their starting five. And I know we all overanalyze who starts games and it's not that big of a deal. You can juggle your rotation, whatever they've decided that Lou Dort, despite being a defensive stopper, whose whole purpose is to guard your number one option is going to come off the bench. And that, they have enough guys who can guard your opposing number one option. And they're prioritizing sort of offensive flow, ball handling depth and all of that in their starting five. I think there was a thought that they could bring CJ McCollum off the bench again. And they decided not to do that when they initially acquired to kill Alexander Walker. It was to be their sixth man. He's just too good for that. Now that can't be the answer. And honestly, like Jalen Johnson's the best player on the team. Nikhil Alexander is closer to being the best player on the team than he is to being, the third best player on the team, I think is how I would put it. He's just really, really good. Huge fan of his game. And I've had something else to say. And now I forgot what it was. That's it. That's all my, I need to watch a little bit of that one. You ready for our next category? Yeah, let's do it. Okay. Most alarming day one performance and or trend. I have a lot of nominees because I'm alarmed about a lot of things. Mo number one, the Phoenix suns being down by three touchdowns before the season, even, even before the season started against Portland and losing by, I don't even know. Let me look at the final score by 41 points on the road. And I believe they were down by 50, something at one point in the game, the war aforementioned warriors getting absolutely rolled hopelessly by the Lakers is nominee. Number two, nominee number three, the Utah jazz getting blown out by Ty Jerome and the Grizzlies on the road and looking, I think a little discombobulated. A little more discombobulated than I would expect. So that's not many. Number three, nominee number four. And I have seven alarming nominees, Mo. So you have a lot of choices. Let's go. Alarming nominee. Number four, NBA referees who just forgot what traveling is and watch LaMelo ball, take nine steps into a three pointer on the right wing. One of like three embarrassing miss traveling calls in the opening night of the season. Alarming nominee. Number four, the Chicago bulls, lost by 43 points in Toronto. And Caleb Wilson was minus 45 for the game. Alarming. Number D not number six, Yaxo Lendeborg admitting that he only watches highlights of NBA games, had never really watched NBA games before and being surprised had how much trash talking and whining to the officials. Luca Donchik does surprised somehow. Didn't know you could be surprised by that. And our last, alarming nominee, the $16 million man, Gary Trent, jr. NP coaches decision in Milwaukee's first game against the Washington wizards. When you're as deep in elite talent as the bucks are, I guess you just can't find minutes for the third highest paid player on your roster. So Mo my seven alarming nominees, and you could pick one or you can go off the board, the sons, the warriors, the jazz, bad refereeing, Yaxo Lendeborg being unaware the bulls and the $16 million man. You are most alarmed by who there are things I want to talk about on the list, but the, we got to just start with the Utah jazz. Okay. I didn't think you were going to start there. I'm excited. I watched that whole game. That, that was alarming to me in the sense of, and I think you talking about it perfectly insert in sort of the discombobulated. I wasn't expecting that from a, will Hardy team. We've been talking all pre-season. Well, Hardy is going to have these guys organized. We're going to see them in their system. Everything's, you know, we're excited to see how it goes. It doesn't necessarily have to have turned out to have been a win, but I wanted to see just more sort of fluidity in their offense. It's sort of like a understanding of all the things we need to do. And there was none of that in the game. And I think that's sort of the thing that's most alarming to me for a team that we're like, Hey, you're going to, you're going to go out. We're expecting you to win this season. And yeah, it's just game one and all that stuff. But this is the overreaction from game one is you can't lose by 20 to the Memphis Grizzlies and tie Jerome drops, you know, 45 on you. It didn't even matter who tied, like he cooked Keontae George, who is a minus defensive player. Who's gotten better, but one-on-one ties too big and strong for him and ties like not that big and strong. They bring Josh Akogi in the game as like the tie Jerome stopper late in the game and tie drums. Like no Josh Akogi, I'm going to cook you too. I'm going to bank in threes. Tiger, but we're going to get to tie Jerome shortly. 45 points on 17 of 25 shooting tied your own. You just like, that's the stuff where I'm like, you can't have that happen. If you're Utah with the expectations that we placed on this team of being a playing tournament team, you know, you can't have that to start out. It's not totally unlike last season when Utah beat the snot out of the Clippers. Right. And we're like, you know, that's actually, I'm glad you mentioned that because that is the forefather of this entire alarming team segment is sometimes you do get a game that is so alarming that it's only one game that you're like, that actually might mean something. And that game last year when the Clippers completely no-showed in Utah, a Utah team that was not trying to win games last year, although they were at least trying a little bit in the first half of the season and they no-showed that game. Like they were like, they weren't even sure that it was a pre-season game or a regular season game. And it, it set the tone for what ended up being a disastrous Clippers season across the board, despite Kawhi coming in to save it and they get back to word 500, et cetera. Like that was a real data point and not just say, don't overreact to one game game. Yeah. So, I mean, this might look silly down the road. If Utah starts running off wins, but this was something where I expected coming off the start of the season. This team, seem to be more tight. understanding of what the system is and how we're going to attack there Peterson just kind of was there you know what like didn't stand out in a way that I felt like you really felt anything and I just think overall I'm just like what are we doing here if like I was hyped for this team and now my my energy level now for them has dropped just by watching this game and just going like that I'm shocked and I'm surprised that you know this is this is what we're getting from a Will Hardy team where last year when they were playing you saw them in a system and it worked and it looked good and I think this is I know a totally different team for him now but I just expected so much more maybe not necessarily even a win but a 20 point loss I'm not can't do that um on the flip side we're going to get to Memphis and Ty Jerome a bit I'm now prepared for anything with Memphis like I had them as a play-in team we were all sort of wildly optimistic about the over on the over podcast. Their first I I'm just going to read you their first seven games Utah at Warriors at Kings at Utah at Portland so some road games home to the Kings home to the Pelicans and then they start to get serious I don't know are they going to be seven and oh and we're going to be talking like the Grizzlies are maybe going to win 45 games this year I'm prepared for absolutely anything with the Grizzlies uh on the jazz less than zero chemistry between Darren Peterson and Keontae George. What surprised me the most I thought this was tailor made for these two guys to play um like neither has to be the number one primary creator all on their own both can shoot threes both can work as screeners in inverted actions for marketing who was bad and jaron jackson jr who fouled out a fitting return to Memphis where he fouled out all the time um and like I thought you know pick and roll on one side kick it to the other guy pick and roll on the other attack and close our like no flow no chemistry. Speaker 3 : I thought the whole point of them was kind of the stagger them in in in they didn't really do that that was uh alarming to me um defensively they're going to be an up and down team at ace Bailey looks really ready to level up on and be like a legit very good defensive player took a couple of head scratching jumpers on offense but I continue to be in on ace Bailey as like a critical part of their rebuild but just like out of sync bad floor balance I don't think they're going to be that good defensively I don't think they're going to be that good defensively I don't think they're going to be that good defensively I don't think they're going to be that good defensively I don't think they're going to be that good defensively I think they're going to be that good defensively got blitzed on fast break points just didn't didn't really look super ready to for the start of the season again only one game they got they got real talent that Nurkic was out um just did not love how that felt yeah just a brutal sort of run with that where all right maybe it's all it's probably too early in the season to have a burn the tape game but if you wanted to like you maybe just burn the tape here if you're your will and just move on to the next game what other of these uh nominees would you like to see in the next game I don't know I don't know I don't know like to to speak about well I want to talk about the travels but I want to talk about it in the sense of we need to just get rid of the gather step I'm out by the way I'm glad you're bringing I'm I'm I'm I can't I'm almost anticipating the NBA official referee twitter tweeting out like a slow motion video like no actually lamello starts his gather step here and monty mccutcheon's narrating and then he takes one and a half steps here and tries to brainwash me into thinking that I didn't just see him take nine steps into a jump shot I'm almost I'm anticipating this referees just be on alert no we just have to get rid of the gather step it's ridiculous at this point you know and I don't even fully remember when it came in because it wasn't around when I was in the league you know my last season was 13 14 but even with the euro step it was still one two you know you got to get a layup or whatnot we got to stop this gather step stuff is getting way too complicated we've seen these step back before we saw it was hard in a few years ago right when he was with the rockets and it was and everybody made a great video of him traveling the world uh with that with that travel that he had it's just the gather step is we it's hard enough defensively that we're just going to give these guys in that offensive players an extra step to attack the defense we already call a ton of fouls we already let them jump into us and then call foul like I'm I am now speaking for the defense just get rid of the gather step altogether it is pick up your dribble one two and that is it we need to just get back to it being simple and it's just hard enough to even explain the gather step to just a casual fan you know it's really frustrating in that sense when I have to explain to my mother-in-law why that's a gather step and not a travel and that's annoying in its own right I want it out completely the game I love it uh your mother-in-law just should follow NBA officials twitter they'll give you six straight minutes on four fours fours full extension firming up and whatever the stupid other fourth f is in terms of what's a push-off and what's not a push-off which nobody really knows unless it's obvious and they're just going to pretend like there's a difference between all of these f's um okay I'm going to give you a choice we're going to talk about the Warriors a little bit later um I don't really have anything to say about the Bulls like I didn't think I thought the Bulls were going to be bad I took the under they're going to be bad and young um Gary Trent Jr. is just kind of funny um the Suns or Yaxo Lendeborg who would you like to talk about now let's go Suns because that's embarrassing to start the season and give up a 20-0 run 21 excuse me oh run they got the extra point in that and you just you can't have that and this is the Suns team that we talked about all last year the culture's changed everything you know Dylan Brooks has changed the culture uh across the board all of that and then you come out in Portland which is a Portland team which is like I'm not really sold on although after this game you probably have to I have to give them a little bit more credit and you just it's not even lay an egg like you just don't even understand where the nest is to lay the egg like you're just so you're it was so confusing and confounding like I just didn't understand that like you start the season and you just started it down 21 to begin with it's embarrassing and like where's the pride where's all the pride and you just don't understand where the nest is to lay the egg all that stuff all this Dylan Brooks filming a cow sheet commercial to to go at LeBron or something you know it's like all these things like that's a thing that happened I believe so unless I got fooled by the internet which is certainly possible um but like just having all these stupid things going on and then you come out and put that on the court like get the fuck out of here um alarming first performance for a team that mortgaged even more of its future for miles bridges and miles bridges was a complete zero on both ends of the floor I red flagged the jail in green why is he just getting gifted this starting spot over Colin Gillespie many many times both of them were bad in the first game and it's not like Mark Williams is Shaq or anything but if Malawatch and Iguodaro is going to be your center combination and they're going to play like that I just don't know how far you're really going to get as a team now I have them as a play-in team I still have them as a play-in team I'm not revising them I'm not revising them I'm not revising them I'm not revising that I just think they're decently talented and tough and they have a legit number one guy in Booker but um I mean Morant and Dame actually looked okay together I'm I'm going to dig into that game a little bit more later but from what I saw they looked all right um and uh go Blazers I guess I guess they did they have a I'm going to watch the Blazers broadcast to see which fan they decided to hire as the play-by-play guy or if they had if it's if it's low-def old-school television like there's not it's not even in high def um on Yaxel I do find it a like I really like him as a player um he's got great feel he's tough he's big he fits the warrior system I just like I would like my rookie to even I would like my rookie to be a little bit less part of the news cycle after we get destroyed on the road on national television on opening night as we are navigating this Chris stops for Zingas thing which is a disaster right um it's like talk your shit to Luca that's fine like I like the spirit he got the assignment he's he's like fairly well built to try to defend Luca um I thought Luca and Reeves Luca looks like he's in great shape again to start the season um he and Reeves do what he and Reeves did uh do do usually um I just like maybe after the game don't quadruple down on everything by saying I was telling you I was telling you I was telling you I was telling him he sucks he can't score on me I had a lot of respect for him but I lost all my respect for him um blah blah blah like that shit's weird just like you know you've played one game in the NBA it was an awful performance and I just would just like just just maybe no comment that went a little bit after the game that's all especially when the guy you you guarded and it wasn't all on him and I thought he did a pretty good job on Luca but had 28 points you know seven seven assists and eight it's it's maybe on that kind of thing you might want to just cool it there a little bit it's sort of like a welcome the league moment that half court shot that Luca hit on him you know in that situation but like I just think you don't need to come in do all this like we're all pretty I haven't heard anybody that's out on Yaxel like everybody's excited for him yeah we're all in don't give us a reason to just be like dude don't be an idiot don't go out here chirping and and and it's fine on the It's the post game. Like when you come out there and go like, I've lost all respect. for Luka for the complaining and the whining and things like that you have Draymond on your team do you know how much he complains to refs like it's not even like are you like this is kind of are you going to come out later and say you've lost respect for Draymond for all his complaining like it's not like just relax dude your first game just chill out a couple other notes I mentioned Jada McDaniels earlier so I forgot to mention uh one year 40 million dollar extension with the Wolves interesting deal he could have gone for two he went for one instead I believe it was just about the most they could offer him 140 off his prior salary um 40 million is a lot of money I'm pretty confident in 29 30 he's going to be worth 20 of the salary cap which is what that is estimated to be totally fine he's an awesome player I do wonder what it signals about Gobert who's extension eligible now and if the Wolves are confident that he will take a fairly significant discount from his current salary for a to lock in a few more years or maybe wondering like is he even going to be on the team in three years or four years um but totally fine and I forgot another alarming nominee um my eighth alarming number knee nominee I I went on espn.com this morning to look at box scores of games I didn't get to see and just sort of see what else was in the news and I saw this headline Clippers open season route without season Clippers open season without owner Steve Ballmer route Kings and the actual the the the actual headline on the page was Clippers dedicate opening win over Kings to ban the Ballmer and I read the quotes from Clippers people and I thought I had two thoughts about a let me check to make sure this isn't the onion that this is a real news story and b is Ballmer dead like did I miss here are the quotes first this is Tyloo first off that win was for Mr. Ballmer just want to say thank you for everything and we're still fighting for him Darius Garland I can't believe these are real quotes he was definitely here in spirit somebody was at his seats and we felt the energy it wasn't his energy but if we felt his energy more Tyloo we keep him in our hearts he provided a great living for everyone in this arena one of the best men that I know provided as in past tense but there's nobody like Mr. Ballmer and we miss him we've got to keep it going for him what's going on here are these these are real quotes it's Darius Garland it's the house he built so we try to protect that as much as we can long time Clipper Darius Garland getting very emotional about this do you think I can't believe it's Darius Garland it's the house he built so we try to protect these are real quotes it's really like he died do you think they took like the game ball they all got in the car and drove to Steve Ballmer's house and they can't he's not allowed to interact with them no that's right they just left it on the porch they just left it on the porch and waved but I think that's kind of it's it's ridiculous Zach that's just ridiculous those quotes are like legitimately I think the most surprising thing that I saw on opening night of the NBA was like what are what are I just don't okay I just need to shout that out I didn't know those I didn't know that happened by the way thank you it's not it's on ESPN it's an associated press story it's not an ESPN story it's byline dissociated press and look I just Steve Ballmer dedicate the whole dedicated to you Steve Ballmer this podcast this I you know what Mo I want to pause I want to dedicate this episode to Steve Ballmer keep fighting to Zach Lowe's show we'll continue in your spirit okay let's take a break I have one more category to go through this episode is brought to you by EA Sports FC 27 welcome to the world's game FC 27 is introducing the grounds where the streets meet the stadium connect with friends go pro and express yourself on or off the pitch play FC 27 with the ultimate edition September 18th learn more at EA.com rated E for everyone includes in-game purchases including random items the grounds is only available on playstation.com and playstation.com and playstation.com and playstation.com playstation 5 xbox series x and s pc and nintendo switch 2 versions somewhere out there is a chevy truck and the person who drives it well that's a chevy person you probably know one your buddy your sister ones who always show up they're the first to rise the last to leave they always have that little extra something and maybe you've got it too chevrolet together let's drive chevy.com slash trucks to explore the lineup shack here what's it like to buy a car from carvana 100 online and get it delivered to your door let me tell you your car is here mr shack thank you mr carvana guy can't wait to take it for a spin only the best for you mr shack hey have you always been so big tall and handsome not always i was 6 10 once seven days to love it or return it mr shack not that i would you never do no i never do so buy your car today on carvana delivery fees may apply see our seven-day return policy at carvana.com all right this nba tip-off recap is brought to you by state farm state farm takes the time to get to know you so they can help personalize coverage for your life and your budget now that's a solid game plan okay next category mo your hot take overreaction that you kind of think a little bit but still think is probably an overreaction are you ready yes number one ty jerome will make the all-star team number two i guess i had the clippers in this category i'll erase them number two uh walker kessler is going to average 20 and 10 and shoot 80 from the field and his shack 2.0 for the lakers number three the rockets are good enough that they should make an all-in trade and actually try to win the championship this year and chase and number four the warriors should have traded stephen curry when they could to just go total rebuild because this is so beyond over that they are just going to end up kind of tanking the season or does mo have his own off the board nominee no i think those are good ones but i think with the curry one i don't want to see him ever leave the warriors i know it's a sad end what we're going to get here remember this is the hot take that you but a little bit of your soul believes that you can't really go for it can't go for i'm with you with the rockets because and i think i'm more than just like i think they should go for it all the like i believe it all the way now like i'm actually this is the weakest one of in terms of like i actually i had the rockets number three with a bullet in the west and had the best quote-unquote puncher's chance they blew out the last time i can read too much into that but please can tarry eason got ejected just people's are fighting a lot more it's great this is this is wild but just the what fred van vliet does coming in like almost just puts everything in the right places now right like and i'm not just talking about him organizing everybody on the floor but he had 11 assists last night katie with 30 jabari smith would think had finished with 30 like i think just sort of having van vliet on the floor an actual point guard makes it easier for ahmed thompson to just go be an athletic wing right now and not have to worry about being a play creator hey shangun you do not have to be the focal point and facilitator of our offense right now because we have fred van vliet you know they buried reed shepherd into the uh in on the bench you know uh smart marcus smart took a bunch of his minutes and things like that but like that's a guy you can use in sort of trying to get that let's kind of consolidate and all in trade and try to find a guy to help us compete against the thunder and i think this is one of those things when you look at the way they it all sort of falls in line i mean i'm i was a little bit lower on them than you in in that sense i didn't have them as three in the west in in in the way you did i kind of had them more in like the five six range so i was actually probably a lot lower by the way they very well could be the lakers one the wolves one the haven't played yet like all those teams are good so but i think like just in watching what fred does how he sort of just changes the whole complexion without having to do much is is has me kind of looking at them a bit differently and saying like all right like the times now because katie ain't getting any younger fred ain't getting any younger you have pieces to the teams will want go make that all in trade if it's available to you now of course the other side of it is the right guy has to be available for them to go do it but i think that's something they need to be on the lookout for yeah i i don't really know who who it is um you know kairi and tyler hero will always be mentioned by teams who need offense but if you're happy with what fred is bringing you at the point um you know the two is an interesting spot for them to perhaps upgrade in and i i don't know who they end up would end up bringing off the bench in that case maybe jabari smith jr comes off the bench if they keep fred and get it too um you know i i think they have all those picks. And, and I think they had visions of like, I don't know if they had visions, but like Devin Booker certainly. a lot of sense for them but now he's under this gigantic contract i don't know that houston would have an appetite for that um norm powell will get mentioned i don't know if he moves the needle enough but they certainly have the assets to do pretty much whatever they want and i'm officially uh monitoring it um i'm also monitoring both sides of the warriors lakers game um the warriors just looked why i mean even as both of us were pessimistic about them that i did not have them in the play and i don't think you did either they just looked like woefully under talented um now pajemski was out uh porzingis is i just think not ever going to play for the warriors again and we'll see what they do with him um draymond can still pass and there was a bit when steph curry was back cutting matisse thibault who that the thibault zaire williams starting combo was a little bit of a plot twist from jj reddick um i i like that i thought that was when i saw that i was like okay i like that they're leaning a little bit more with defense as well and that balancing it out a little bit with some defense on that starting lineup yeah if you have both luca and reeves on the floor maybe you can get away with playing two guys who are pretty non-threatening on offense and including like not just shooting and zary williams is just going to need to step into more of these open threes if he plays but also attacking closeouts they're not really dynamic that way it does make me a little bit worried for the load that luca and reeves are going to have to carry each of them offensively um just they're going to have to create everything all the time which we already knew but um but you know steph was back cutting his way to baskets and draymond was feeding him and it was like all right the warriors have some juice and when they have a spacing five and landenberg's rolling and draymond and steph there's going to be moments where they're like difficult to deal with then it's like man yaxal's a rookie draymond just is not a scoring threat in any way anymore he's but that's been the case for years they didn't even start a traditional center because porzingis is gone bassy was hurt i mean if charles bassy's name is being mentioned on a national television broadcast your center situation is not great um melton's all right like all these guys are are interesting complimentary players on a better team they just look like wildly out talented in a way that's like i keep saying this everyone's obsessed with the idea that they should go get an upgrade go get an upgrade obviously butler is the upgrade he's not there moody's hurt i'm the upgrade to me is like i'm just keeping my draft pick i'm not if if i have a chance at a major pick in the next draft or two i'm i'm going to be pretty careful about expending that for the sake of what exactly i don't know like what what am i upgrading on it not even that like whatever you're getting is it really going to be something that's going to lift you over the top where you're you're now with the big boys in san antonio and okc you know i think that's where i'm kind of like i'm with you and just don't as make a swing wild swing to try to just you know get some help and let's you know be a six seed if we're lucky you know or have to battle our way through the plane just to make the playoffs don't give up assets in that regard this iteration of the team is it's on its way out and i think it's just kind of you have to sort of ride it out with everything that you had and curry had a really impressive first quarter at the 16 points in the first quarter the back cut you were talking about with draymond dropping it it for a moment it looked like oh we're gonna have like a curry nuclear night on opening night and then it kind of fizzled out from there like it's just they're just to me like it's just like when you watch it and even with you know okay they might get jimmy butler back maybe that adds a little more pop to the second unit to what end to you know what extent does it really move anything i i wouldn't say in their defense as much as like you know steve curran did a big q a with logan murdoch on the ringer.com which was great um and he talked about like we've made real offers for some guys and swung and missed maybe there's been a couple of guys we didn't offer as much as we should have on that would have really helped us and i've done that dance a million times um they did get jimmy butler like i think that's when everyone is screaming about how they've done nothing to upgrade around steph they did get jimmy butler and they were 23 and 7 or whatever when they got him they beat the rockets in the first round and they were 23 and 7 and they were out it was a squeaker jimmy got hurt in that series but they beat him then they won game one against minnesota steph got hurt it was over like they're a good team with jimmy butler and steph curry they just like that team is not going to exist for half the season i don't know when jimmy butler is going to come back um but you know it's just they just did not look ready for prime time really last night um what are your thoughts on the lakers walker kessler let me bring up his stats um he had uh kessler 12 of 12 from the floor 26 points only nine rebounds it felt like much more than that um and just looked every bit the center that the lakers thought they were getting again against the team that was a little offensively challenged and size-wise challenged but any any thoughts on him or how the lakers looked in general i love the way the lakers have one they looked like the hustle the sort of like they were into this game locked in in the way of like it was it wasn't just okay luca austin let's go score and run you know it was like you had jake laravia diving for a loose ball and then when he knocks it down you know kessler's the one that drops down to get it you know and and dives on the floor to get like you had guys kind of battling all over the place and competing in a high at a high level where i was really kind of impressed with them they were getting out in the running lanes you know uh the the luca had seven assists i think five of them were to kessler you know four or five of them and there were stuff where it wasn't even just a pick and roll he's just like oh you know he's by the rim i'm just gonna throw it at the rim he'll get it and it's not like he's skied to get he just jumps you know high enough over draymond gets it and puts a bucket in you know you had a whole sort of like just work across from everybody i was impressed across the board with everybody that they had and even just nine rebounds from just 30 minutes you know it wasn't even like it wasn't like a a night where they had to have him kind of be that force on the on the glass and i just felt like overall i looked at it going like this is a team that's coherent cohesive understands what they're going to do how they're going to attack like they actually have a game plan you have to give credit to jj for that we're just sort of coming into it of like this is what it is we've said all offseason this is finally luca donchic's team this is finally his show they built the team in the for luca and it looked exactly like that the way they played the way you know he had that kick ahead to i think it was laravia unbelievable unbelievable catch and finish by laravia and yeah and finish right there but like you know it's they're running they're looking to get stuff they're doing luca's working off ball setting a ball screen and then coming you know coming back to the ball and things like there was movements there was actions it wasn't all just a heliocentric offense there were so many different layers to what they had like i'm i do have time later where i'm going to sit through and just go through their offense the half court offense to see more of their sets but just seeing all that stuff like i was excited for this team i was like they're gonna be good i don't know if that means i don't know what it means for the playoffs but they're gonna be a regular season good team right now uh it turns out they did not miss uh harold did draft night steal dalton connect very much uh in their first game that was a fun week-long news cycle of dalton connect is the steal the draft and the lakers are going to have a lot of good things to look forward to uh i thought they looked as advertised um luca looked in really great shape and the tell for me was he was hunting down guys like gee santos not like big guys kind of bigger wings and just roasting him off the dribble and like whipping passes all over the floor when he's fast enough to actually beat like non-centers off the dribble like roast them off the dribble that's a good sign the two things i worry about are number one the looney spot um i just don't think he's going to be good enough to be their backup five uh someone threw a lob to him it might have been reeves and it did not go well and you cannot throw a lob to him um and they played mamu at the five a little bit and you know i just they need a little bit more dynamism on the wing and like there was there was one play in the third quarter i think when the lakers kind of loaded up on luca at the top of the arc quentin grimes defender quentin grimes was in the game shaded over from the right wing and luca kicked him the ball and he attacked that gap and then he kicked it to someone who did something good it's like they need that like thibault doesn't really do that williams doesn't really do that they need like another guy who can really exploit those kind of gaps and even grimes is not great at it but he's pretty good at it because otherwise i just think it's too much of a burden on reeves and luca to do everything but i really think kessler has a chance i i said like 18 and 10 i mean it wouldn't shock me if he averaged 20 and 10 he's gonna play a ton of minutes and he's gonna just get all you can eat buffets of offensive rebounds and dunks i mean just the the lob opportunities off pick and rolls between luca and austin reeves is gonna be a uh you know enough to get you at least halfway there right and now when we're talking about offensive rebounds and and small little moments like he can cobble up enough together i think he's i think he's a legitimate chance to have that and i think you know again his rebound numbers will climb when they when they're in long you know he's in longer for 30 minutes and things like that and he's going to that. I think defensively he was pretty solid. I think he's going to be a four this is why they went and got him and they overpaid for him there's no question overpaid for him financially draft equity everything that they gave up but that's why they did it was because it's a guy they think fits perfectly and it really looked that way in this game again just one game sample but it looked that way where i'm like that's something that can keep happening honestly if he plays like that i think it's arguable if they overpaid for him financially draft pick wise plus financially i think it's just going to always be a little bit overpaid but that dude earned earned his salary all right that was uh today's nba tip-off recap and it was brought to you by state farm like a good neighbor state farm is there um we could not uh go without talking about ty jerome a little bit more we scored 45 points in an emphatic memphis grizzlies win um i kind of just like blacked out for part of the game and when ty jerome just kept going on scoring um it is it's interesting in a couple of fronts i think the grizzlies are just a solid team um i mean cam boozer was 2 of 15 he didn't play that well but boy just some sexy outlet passes and not even and not even the long ones necessarily it's just out of his hands so fast you barely even registered that cam boozer just got a rebound and kicked it up 15 feet to get it going cedric cowardly had seven points i just felt like he was kind of everywhere in the game in the game zach edie only played 21 minutes but you feel him every second he's on the floor jeremy grant is good coming off the bench he and quinton post like when they play at the four and the five it's like they have a lot of space on the floor did gg jackson played well like they didn't really have anyone play out of their mind well except ty jerome who just had an out-of-body experience and by the way i do think you know it is worth remembering he was a six-man-of-the-year candidate for the calves completely fell apart in the playoffs and i think that's a good thing to think about in the playoffs like all the crazy one-legged flat-footed flailing floaters that he makes what he's on like last night he missed in the playoffs and the cabs decided we're basically choosing sam merrill over him and then they trade darius garland who had a great game for the clippers i just you know i'm not saying those decisions are wrong decisions uh we'll see though because ty jerome's i i guess ty jerome's just awesome and like i'm again i'm prepared for anything with the grizzlies at this point thing about the ty jerome game from last night and i just added it up here on the the shot chart 15 to 16 in the paint oh my god that's big man numbers like 15 and 16 in the paint you know and i think it's like he just got in and it's floaters like you said he's getting in wherever he wants craftiness with with his game and everything that he has that's an amazing number and i just kind of when you look at it you're just like holy shit like this is like this is one of those things he just had one of those nights where every time he got in the lane he basically made it and it was there was nothing the jazz could do to stop it and i think that's one of those things where it's also you you probably left the game as utah going like ty freaking jerome kicked our ass tonight honestly he and he talks a lot of shit when he gets rolling and to the point where i was like it's yeah we reached the point where someone on the jazz should just knock him over like like i know like um i'm a little old school in that way i guess you know what i'm a little old school about by the way mo what's that and i i don't i like a nice bat flip i i like a fun home run trot the cam and arrow home run trot that lasted 40 seconds when he posed on the third baseline and i understand he was looking at a teammate like i'll give you the like when you're running if you're dugouts along first base face them do all your gestures toward them celebrate take your time trotting around i don't care about that even stop before home plate but like that one i'm beating the next guy or i'm beating you the next time you come up like i just i don't need you to be barry sanders just hand the ball off that was a little much i think some of these home run trots are getting ridiculous it's trickling in the little league by god won't anyone children okay i don't mind a bat flip flip the bat as long as you don't flip it at anyone it hurts someone i don't mind that there's a certain like that one was and i don't care who wins the world series but that one was a little like settle down okay are they having the world series i didn't i didn't pay attention yeah the dodgers they do continue the baseball season even after the dodgers are out i don't know why brewers raise i'm excited my daughter is very excited and this is great she she loves it she's just mad that the game started 8 p.m because we make her go to bed at a reasonable hour if now the mets were in the world series all bets are off no bedtime okay a couple other things to be noted i didn't see this game i might watch the second half of it later today but tyrese halliburton is back he was on the pod last week uh pacers won on the road in new orleans without t.j mcconnell and aaron neesmith uh the pelicans uh brought derrick queen off the bench started jeremiah fears and dejonte murray barely played queen and zion together i have absolutely no idea what this team is supposed to be and yet they almost won the game i think that's going to be the story of the pelican season i have no idea what's going on but they're kind of in the game uh and the last thing i don't know if you saw the bulls raptors at all i did not i did see that adam amin and the bulls broadcast had a wonderful tribute to the late great stacy king who was a guest on this podcast uh several times a guy interviewed about the 90s bulls a bunch and just one of the delightful guys to run into on the nba travel beat and just have and just talk ball with uh i loved him as a broadcaster i don't know if you saw this but they adam amin called the game so it's one of those things where like he was such a personality singing in the state farm jingle and all the catchphrases hot sauce there's five kiddies out there all that the posters that he would sign and all that it is it is i thought it was a fitting tribute because he's one of the rare broadcasters that like him not being there you will feel that void the entire season in a way that i think is actually pretty unusual like there's been some changes in play-by-play and this guy retired and that guy retired and like i'll miss them but i'm not going to be thinking during the game like what would this person say i'm going to be thinking that about stacy king and i thought shout out to adam amin shout out to the bulls broadcast i thought it was a great a really nice tribute to a great great broadcaster yeah i mean you feel his presence when i've never had the pleasure of meeting him but you feel his presence on the games when you're listening and those types of announcers and the play-by-play guys can actually kind of like elevate the game you're watching and he was one of those guys that elevated the game that you're watching so it is a big loss you know obviously for the bulls broadcast and everybody there's lots for all of us in in that department mode to keel um i have one more i have one one one small thing okay are you worried at all about the spurs offense well i i mentioned them i had i went solo for a bit before about how i think this i understand why they're starting the three guards i understand why they're starting the three guards i understand why they have to play them more than they did together last year i am i think they're gonna it's gonna introduce a little bit more uncertainty than i like and and the lack of just knockdown shooting around victor was a little bit notable in the first game um i don't know if that's what you're getting at but i mentioned a little bit of that but i'm i'm not i'm worried is too strong okay but uh let me just put slightly concerned or i'm watching or putting a pin on it pin in it i want to see like an actual offensive concepts a little bit more of what they're doing and and i feel like sometimes it's more haphazard and not really organized as well and it's just it's just run the pick and roll with when being one of our three guards which is great but like i want to see them kind of be more deliberate in their actions of what they're doing and how they want to get into things and where are they going to kind of like where's the wemby spot going to be where you know and it could be multiple places because he's so damn good but like i i think they need to start figuring out an offense that works for everybody in the on the team and everybody involved and it centers around wemby and then it probably goes to the guards after that but it needs to be able to feed into everybody else and i think that's just something i had thought about during the playoffs obviously it was their first run wasn't too you know wasn't gonna go nuts about it but then watching it in the first game against okc it kind of just popped back up a little bit and i think that's why i think that's one of the things that popped back up in my head and i just wanted to to check the temperature there well if you're checking the temperature mo i'm checking the temperature too mo tequila we're gonna have the double jibble podcast with jared dubin you're gonna be here uh fairly regularly uh where else can people see you read you watch you this season i will be writing for bleacher report semi-regularly um as much as the baby will let me uh on sundays i will be doing the association on nba tv with zach harper and alexis morgan so you guys can check us out as well and i'll see you well you guys were hanging in the nba store on opening night for a live a live show did you buy anything while you were there i haven't been in the nba store in quite a while i bought uh of course a couple of onesies for the baby he's my wife is my wife's a big laker fan so it was i had to get i had to get him some laker onesies so we're gonna he he's being indoctrinated into uh laker uh laker family um and yeah so we did an x live we're going to be doing those through the course of the season we're going to be doing those through the course of the season we're going to be doing those through the course of the season we're going to be doing those through the course of the season at different events i think uh i don't think it's confirmed yet but i think we're going to have one at uh the Emirates NBA Cup Championship. So we'll be there and we'll be all over the place. And yeah, man, I'm just looking forward to the season. I'm so excited for it. It is nice to talk about basketball again and start answering some of the big questions we've been asking for the past months as we've been leading up to this. Moe DeKeele, thank you for your time. That's it for today's edition of the Zach Lowe Show. We'll be back on Monday. We're going to do a Monday, Thursday cadence this season. Thank you to Moe DeKeele, as always. Thank you to Mike, Billy, and Jonathan on production. Thanks to you all for listening to and or watching the Zach Lowe Show. Enjoy the weekend of games. 21 or over and present in select states for Kansas in affiliation with Kansas Star Casino or 18 and over and present in DC or Wyoming. Gambling problem? Call 1-800-GAMBLER or 1-800-MY-RESET. Call 1-888-789-7777 or visit ccpg.org slash chat in Connecticut or visit mdgamblinghelp.org. And Maryland, hope is here. Visit gamblinghelplinema.org or call 800-327-5050 for 24-7 support in Massachusetts or call 1-877-8-HOPE-NY or text HOPE-NY in New York. For Louisiana, call 1-877-770-7867. Want to be the one who's always in the know about the game, the scores, the plays? Here's a tip. The Apple Sports app. Just pick your favorite teams and get automatic live updates without even knowing their schedules. And when your team scores, it shows up right on your iPhone lock screen, making it easy to check in anytime. So rule the group chat and download Apple Sports for free on the App Store or find it on your new iPhone. Does checking your bank statements feel like digging through a dusty attic full of forgotten subscriptions and old free trials? Experian can help take the pain out of canceling by handling it for you. Think of it as Operation Get Your Sanity Back. Over 200 subscriptions are cancelable. So get started in the Experian app and see how much you could save. Results will vary. Not all subscriptions eligible. Savings not guaranteed. Paid membership with connected payment account required. See Experian.com for details.