The Knicks Are Feeling Their Overbooked Offseason

Let's talk about the 76ers. And I swore, like, I anticipated the 76ers starting off slow. They're 3-1 now. I thought they'd be 1-3. Just because there's a learning curve for a team that is incorporating two new alphas into this group in LeBron James and Jalen Brown. Well, they have not had the slow start I anticipated. They're 3-1 to start the season. They are top five in the NBA defensively. That's good. They're bottom five in the NBA offensively. that's bad but they've been able to win some pretty good games to start the season including uh the opening night win against the knicks um what do you think of the state of the 76ers right now like how pleased should they be with this start and are there any warning signs for you that you've seen early on no i mean i think they should be very happy i like you didn't think that oh man the first two weeks are going to be dreamy if you look at especially with lebron when because he's just such a chemistry changer, right? I mean, he gets dropped in the pot, your entire recipe changes. So if you look at teams LeBron has gone to and gotten started at, it's always been a little uncertain at the beginning and people figuring out their roles. And this has frankly gone better record-wise, numbers-wise than in his last couple stops in terms of a start. That being said, when you say, man, they're bottom on offense, that's because that's what we're seeing, right? They've won the games more than maybe we expected to, but they are still figuring out who goes when, How? How do they work off each other? How do they get to each other? What happens when one guy's out, by the way? What happens when they're all in? That kind of thing. Defensively, I'm not pleasantly surprised, but impressed that it's just, you know, look, these guys know how to play defense. They know how to take their individual matchups. So much of defense, especially in the regular season, you hear me say it all the time, is effort, effort, effort, effort. And all these guys are full stop effort. So I've loved it. Hats off to Nick Nurse, because frankly, this was going to be, he was going to have the hardest job in the first few months of the season of anyone. Hats off to the players who look like they're willing to sacrifice in the right ways. I don't have any red flags. I just think, as you and I have talked about a lot, it's great at the beginning of the season. Everyone wants things to go well. It's great at the end of the season. Assuming health, you go into that playoffs knowing, especially vets, knowing what you're playing for, what you want to do, absolutely willing to sacrifice to get there. it's the middle of the season when it is boring and it is February and you're in a cold city and it is a Tuesday night and the building is half empty those are the real tests for these kinds of super teams to me is can you make all the parts work and everyone's sort of good vibes in the locker room still happen in those more pressure situations that are actually not pressure at all yeah um happy with the way they played gotta be thrilled for Philadelphia to be three and one I think there are those some flashing yellow lights maybe okay this team one is the three-point shooting they're bottom third in the league and three-point makes and that was projected to be an issue for this team coming into the season LeBron basically an inside the three-point line guy now Jalen Brown and inside the three-point line guy now Joel Embiid can't shoot threes but you don't want them shooting threes you want them exploiting mismatches in the post or making mid range jumpers at the high post they're not a great three-point shooting team and will that cost them if they can't get into, like, the middle of the pack, close to the top 10 in three-point percentage. And rebounding. That's a problem for this group. I saw a clip of LeBron James basically saying, he was paraphrasing somebody, saying, just jump up in the air. Torian Prince. Torian Prince. I'm sorry. If you're not going to do the whole thing, I would ask Shelby, our producer, please, at this point in the podcast, run the bite because it is exceptional and hilarious. All right, run the clip right here. We'll run the clip and we'll respond on the back end of it. you said how do they have they have more rebounds you said to get out rebound that i was surprised you did 36 32 how does Yale out rebound Baylor um you go up and grab the ball off the rim when it comes off and then you grab it with two hands and you come down with it and that's considered a rebound so they got more of those than we did the clip did it better justice than my attempt to paraphrase uh the clip but like i look i look at that i look at that as a as a problem though because they lost Ariel Hukporty for the season with that Achilles tear. Adem Bona is okay, but when Embiid's off the floor, they've got real problems when it comes to rebounding the basketball. So if they don't get better contributions from their backup bigs, that's something that could rear its head as problematic, especially as they go up against these big teams that are out there. The Pistons are a big team. The Knicks, we'll get to them, but they've got a great big man. The Celtics have become bigger now that Mitchell Robinson is there. The teams they're trying to go up against and try to beat have some good size there. And if you're counting on Joel Embiid to be healthy, he didn't play in the Pistons game. That was smart. Obviously, you don't want to play him in back-to-backs. But I think that game kind of exploited some of their problems or highlighted, I guess you could say, some of their problems with rebounding. So three-point defense, rebounding, those have been great for the 76ers. But 3-1, it's good. 3-1 to start the season where you want to be. Look, and we've seen LeBron take turns here at defensive center. Doesn't love that. Don't like that. Not great for the wear and tear on the body. So to your point, you know, they got to figure something out there because, you know, as I said, at the beginning of the season, everyone's going to, you know, absolutely I will pitch in. And at the end of the season, absolutely I will pitch in. And we just don't see that as much in the January, February type of months of the season. But I feel like this is a team that wants to watch these guys for the first couple months because none of us know exactly how they're going to meld together. And then before the trade deadline, I can see them adding some pieces around the edges because they are going to go for it full stop. It's not like they're holding their powder for future seasons. And I think that, you know, those kinds of players around the edges are the ones that are a little easier to acquire than wholesale. God, we need another, you know, starter on some of these other teams when they're trying to fix something midseason. I don't know, but like everybody is going to be after the type of guy the 76ers want, right? Not everybody is going to have a winning season in January and not everybody is going to want to spend capital to go for it. The Knicks, I mean, we're going to get to them in a minute, but they need a backup center as well. I wonder, you know, to kind of briefly pivot back to Oklahoma City, would the Thunder make Isaiah Hartenstein available given that Chet Holmgren looks like he's ready to play? Because if Chet Holmgren's ready to play, because the guy's legit. Maybe. If Isaiah Hartenstein is available, don't you think New York's going to pick him up? I think they would try really hard, but I think the Thunder could ask for a King's Ransom for Hartenstein at that point, because I think there'd be a bidding war for a player like that. I think the emergence, and not to go back down the Thunder rabbit hole, but I think the emergence of Holmgren. Holmgren's ready to play. Holmgren's a real guy. Holmgren has looked phenomenal. I totally agree with you. I would say the reason why I'm pausing on Hartenstein is just that they want to win a title now this year too. And when you're counting on the development of a brand new guy, I don't know if ready to make that trade yet, but maybe they are because they'll be able to, you know, you know, Sam Presti, he's, he's an opportunity. He's going to go for it. I agree with you, but I don't think we have to break down like trade market availability in January. Now in October, I would just say that this is a team that if they have the kind of polls we're talking about right now, and they're consistent and consistently become problems. These are around the edges trades that I think are easier to make. Then we are going to see some teams that thought they were contenders on day one and they have holes and they will be trying to trade for. So we'll, we'll just have to see but I don't know maybe I'm more encouraged than you are I thought this would be look pretty like bad across a lot more categories than we have seen and it hasn't and I am impressed with with Nick Nurse's staff for being and the players involved for being able to you know kind of take and give and work together they seem happy which is nice we didn't know if that was going to happen you know you weren't I you were with the Thunder I was with the Knicks and the Sixers on opening night and these guys if you look at them and all the little body language things they seem to like each other and that is right now and we'll see if they like each other still in January February but again even that wasn't a given right not everybody you know Jaylen Brown wasn't traded to a LeBron James team you know when he when he first thought he was going to Philly so it was interesting to see all those guys and how much they seem pleased to be working together at least for now speaking of Jaylen Brown yes got some beef Rachel Jaylen Brown it's not a beef it's some lamb chops did you not listen to him i listen to him oh i always listen to Jaylen Brown i always listen to Jaylen Brown this this flows of course this different background here there was a clip that was out there i think it was on Bleacher Report of the uh uh youtube series Jason Tatum yeah Jason Tatum his own video they clipped it of him saying like he was shocked when they traded Jaylen Brown nobody told him didn't see it coming blah blah blah had to put a towel over his face he was in public yeah Jalen Brown right afterwards um is this after I think they beat the Knicks right in the season opener no no it was the next game it was after the next game after a win it was after a win yes he goes on social media and puts a cap out there basically calling Jason Tatum a liar so of course Tatum gets asked about he has a long answer saying we shouldn't be doing this we had too much success we're not Shaq and Kobe uh Jalen Brown says no beef uh some lamb chops but twice Twice, Rachel, he says, Jason Tatum's got a great PR team. I mean, that was incredible. That wasn't the headline for the aggregator sites. It was sure as heck the headline for me, which, by the way, compliments to Tatum's PR team. But I mean, to me, that was a statement that was not just about this back and forth this week. That was a statement about perhaps their entire time in Boston. And look, you know, I like a little pettiness in the NBA. And I think these guys, I will say both of them have the right attitude that their larger statement and both guys, even though they're giving us the spiciness that we love is we want a championship together. That's always going to mean something. They both talking about big picture. They're not taking personal shots at each other. He's a great basketball player. One says he's wonderful family. The other one says it's not as if when they celebrate the Celtics title and you know that the 10 year anniversary, these guys will like not even be speaking to each other. And we've had some of that kind of stuff in recent Celtics history. But I don't think we're going to have to worry about that. I think it's just spiciness short term over this season or so. And I'm here for it, man. What about you? I'm here for it. I believe that Jalen Brown believes that not that Jason Tatum asked for him to be traded, but that Jason Tatum could have stopped him. That's what I believe. Not reporting that. That's just kind of my read of the tea leaves that's out there. that jason tatum as the face of the franchise if he wanted to stop this deal from going down he could have and he didn't do it and that's why he's saying cap on all that with Tatum but here's my question to you if you're Jalen Brown today when you're making these comments this week would you and you had someone fairy godmother you back a couple months and said all right we're going to give you a chance you can be playing on opening night with the Celtics and Jason Tatum and this team where you can play opening night with the Sixers And by the way, you're not going to believe this three months ago four months ago, Jalen Brown, but LeBron's going to be on that team. And this is what the team's going to look like Which opening night would you want? Kind of think that while Jalen may be frustrated that Jason did or didn't or stopped or didn't stop this or his voice or whatever, I kind of think Jalen might pick the Sixers anyway. What do you think? I don't know. A lot happened I know, but at least he doesn't know long regardless of how much he has to sacrifice now or this team or whatever it is, and there's one ball and all that stuff, you don't have the layers and weight of history. And I kind of feel like with those guys, it's a little bit like we all have had the experience of starting a job pretty young. And then maybe you're there for a while and you really level up in that job in terms of responsibility and maturity and your abilities. But the older people at the place don't quite see you at the level you're currently at because they still see you as that kid who started. I think in Boston there were years of sort of layers of who's better and this is the perspective we're giving and those two guys having to have been compared to each other over and over again that maybe the fresh start and the level at which he was walking into the Sixers without anyone saying oh you're not quite as good as Jason Tatum he's never going to have to hear that again whether it's true or not even true in the first place I bet in his secret of hearts if you asked Jalen Brown months ago which team would you rather be on he may have picked this situation anyway and that does not mean that some you know little raw feelings about how the way things ended in Boston might not still be there or obviously there aren't a few lamb chops but I do think that there is room for him to both feel well that was kind of screwed up how that went down and I wish this guy had been my guy the way he said in public or his PR team said he was my guy but also be like and this is I might be happier now anyway. Maybe, but he's clearly still ticked off that he was traded. Like, there's clearly still some bad feelings there. Yeah. I think, look, the thing about Jalen Brown is that he's not, I mean, he's up for a contract extension, I think, next year. I think he would have been happy to come back to Boston and try to accomplish something team-wise with Tatum. He was looking to go. Yeah. Yeah. But, no, I disagree. I think he would have been happier in Boston to start the season. I think. Right. You think everybody would have been happier at Boston? No, but like Jason, Jalen Brown, the ties he has to that city are very real. Of course. Like off the court stuff. Like he just follows social media. He's doing a lot of stuff in Boston. I think he would have liked to have continued down that path, but it didn't happen. And I'm very much looking forward to that first game in January. I'll say that. And I will say this, for guys like Jalen Brown, you know, we had one in Washington, D.C., John Wall, who are just above and beyond involved in the community and not just community projects, but out there with the people in the community. they don't leave even if they play somewhere else they don't leave John Wall to this day has so many active projects going on in Washington D.C. uh he works with uh Monumental the broadcasting team the same way i do and he when he comes back the reaction and the stuff that he checks in on in the neighborhoods he's in i see Jalen Brown do the exact same thing so the people of Boston he will not abandon you the team of Boston and he feels a little angry about right now apparently always got to bring it back to DC yeah man he's got to find a wizard yeah example for that i love it John Wall's a damn good example thank you don't don't say bad things about John Wall i would i like John Wall yeah um also those every of every player everyone went to college that's a big thing exactly where every NBA player went to college