On the NBA Beat

The creative Matt Hill, Super Hoopers cofounder and cohost, graces us with his presence, as we discuss a wide selection of topics, ranging from his viral animated comedy web series “Spurs Special Forces” to Lonzo Ball, bandwagon fans and so much more. A trio of excerpts can be found below: 6:50-7:06: Matt discusses longtime friend Randall Park [actor-comedian]’s unique contributions to "Spurs Special Forces."  “He’s just an old friend. So I was doing the Spurs [Special Forces video], and I thought it’d be funny to have him even though he knows nothing about basketball. He has no idea who Manu Ginobili is. Basically his impression of Manu Ginobili is almost like half-Scarface. It’s like a high-pitched Scarface. 23:28-24:01: Why is Matt growing really excited about the Lakers once again? It all points back to one particular rookie.  “Right now, I am all in on the Lakers because of Lonzo Ball. I just love everything I’m seeing with him in terms of his personality, his leadership, all the stories you hear about him when he was a kid, him taking teammates under his wing. I love “Ball in the Family,” the Facebook show. I love his raps. I’m uncomfortable with how invested I am in Lonzo Ball. And also watching him in summer league…he’s electrifying. It’s edge of your seat, and those are summer league games.” 29:24-29:42: The topic of "bandwagon" fandom comes up with our guest arguing from a unique perspective. He closes with an example from his family.    “I just spoke highly of my grandpa. My grandpa was like the biggest bandwagon fan out there. When the Clippers were good, I went home, and the guy had Clipper socks on, a Clipper sweater and a Clipper hat on. I was like, ‘What happened, grandpa?’ He’s like, ‘Man, I’m 85, all right? I don’t got too much time left. I’m rooting for the team that’s good.’” ---You can find all of Matt's Youtube videos here. You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on Apple Podcasts. Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod

For this special episode, your hosts will break precedent and not write too much below the audio player. Most importantly, we sincerely appreciate the myriad contributions to our project and made this episode to help spell those out. It’s a long episode, but one which we hope you’ll find well worth your while. Interview Time Stamps: 13:30-23:40: Lang Whitaker 44:24-51:50: Andy Liu 52:40-57:35: Justin Faudree 58:40-1:06:10: Josh Baumgard 1:06:40-1:13:30: Dan Feldman 1:14:35-1:22:10: Nick Denning 1:24:20-1:29:15: Adena Jones (formerly Andrews) 1:30:40-1:41:05: Michael Pina 1:42:20-1:51:20: Chris Axmann A few other notable features: 24:15-27:00: Fun Fact Montage 27:16-44:20: Andy Liu Montage --- You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes. Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod

Oliver Maroney, basketball writer for Dime on Uproxx and host of The Big3 Show, calls in to discuss the Big3 tour just as it concludes its regular season and prepares for Sunday’s semifinal round in Seattle. Maroney gets into the business and marketing side of things, while also, of course, delving into the basketball issues at play. For instance, we’ll find out which team is most likely to challenge the undefeated Trilogy squad and whom he favors to take home the inaugural MVP trophy. Just a one-year novelty experiment? Oliver thinks not. He argues that this league has staying power. Listen to find out why that is. 3:24-3:41: “Obviously there’s nostalgia involved, but I think people are just overlooking the fact that this is a competitive basketball league and not just something where retired players go to play. This is something a little bit more than that. They’ve got camaraderie, all the players enjoy each other, and it’s just very different from your normal NBA atmosphere.” 12:10-13:57: “The players love it because that’s the 1990s way. [In] 1980s, 1990s NBA basketball, hand-checking wasn’t allowed and there was more physical play allowed, and now you get to this day and age where players are paid $200 million-plus over five or six years, and teams want to keep their guys healthy, so the only way to kind of eliminate injuries is by just making it a non-contact sport, which it’s almost essentially become…This league, it’s completely the opposite…They’ve tried to take it back a little bit. They’ve tried to make it more physical, and I think you can tell on the floor. When you’re standing there or at the game, you can tell. It’s just so much more physical. It’s a cross between kind of like a boxing match and an NBA game from the 1990s, just because players are really going at it, they’re yelling at each other, the arguing’s there. The competitive nature of these players is still all intact, and they don’t hold back.” 17:06-18:02: “The team game or the team aspect of this is much more vocal than it is movement-based I think. A lot of this is communication, because these players need to know that if they are going to go 1-on-1, how are they going to set their teammates up for the best offensive possession. You need to set picks at the right moment. It’s very precise. You watch Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, and you see kind of like how he plays the game. It is very precise. He’s watching everybody on the court at one time essentially…I was talking with Marcus Banks about this, who was playing against him this weekend. He just said, ‘That guy has basketball IQ that’s unlike any other.’ And I think you can definitely tell that on the floor and players know that much more when you’re playing 3-on-3 versus 5-on-5 because they’re held accountable defensively and offensively.” 20:30-21:29: “Obviously, some of them, they came off not playing basketball for a season or two, so do they have to get their bodies back to where it was? Sure. But when you look at a guy like Ricky Davis, he’s been working out ever since he got out of the NBA and hasn’t stopped. They still continue to grind. I don’t think people understand [this]: When you’re in the NBA or when you’re in any professional sport for that matter, you love the game, and you have a passion for it more than just about anybody else that you know, and if you don’t do that anymore, it feels weird. Most of these players, they talk about it. Being retired is strange. What do you do with your time? How do you deal with yourself? So they go back to what they know, which is working out, playing basketball. Most of these guys play pick-up basketball. Most guys work out multiple times a day. That is part of their daily routine. The injuries, while they’re there and they’re going to be there no matter what, I don’t think the probability is that much higher that these guys get injured over anyone else.” 27:24-28:07: “Allen Iverson was never expected to play. He actually came in and said he’s gonna be a player-coach. And he came in and played a couple games and was not exactly up to shape…I think the level of play and the competitiveness of the games shocked him to a point where he said, ‘I’m not good enough to play. I’m gonna allow Andre Owens to play, because quite frankly Andre Owens is a much better player at this point in his career.’ So I think he did what was best for his team. Now, was it best for the fans? Probably not, but I think you look at that situation, and you tell yourself, ‘If you want this league to stay competitive and you want this league to not be about celebrities, I think Allen Iverson was smart in the sense that he decided to take a backseat to other players.’” 34:23-34:46: “You look at 3-Headed Monsters, and I think that’s probably the biggest competition for them [Trilogy]. They have Kwame Brown, a big man down low who’s pretty versatile and has done a lot for that team. And then Rashard Lewis can bang in the post at any point, and in this league, you’ve seen him just dominate. He’s probably the frontrunner for MVP right now just because of the way he’s been able to manhandle people down low and still hit the outside shot.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes. Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod

Oliver Maroney, basketball writer for Dime on Uproxx and host of The Big3 Show, calls in to discuss the Big3 tour just as it concludes its regular season and prepares for Sunday’s semifinal round in Seattle. Maroney gets into the business and marketing side of things, while also, of course, delving into the basketball issues at play. For instance, we’ll find out which team is most likely to challenge the undefeated Trilogy squad and whom he favors to take home the inaugural MVP trophy. Just a one-year novelty experiment? Oliver thinks not. He argues that this league has staying power. Listen to find out why that is. 3:24-3:41: “Obviously there’s nostalgia involved, but I think people are just overlooking the fact that this is a competitive basketball league and not just something where retired players go to play. This is something a little bit more than that. They’ve got camaraderie, all the players enjoy each other, and it’s just very different from your normal NBA atmosphere.” 12:10-13:57: “The players love it because that’s the 1990s way. [In] 1980s, 1990s NBA basketball, hand-checking wasn’t allowed and there was more physical play allowed, and now you get to this day and age where players are paid $200 million-plus over five or six years, and teams want to keep their guys healthy, so the only way to kind of eliminate injuries is by just making it a non-contact sport, which it’s almost essentially become…This league, it’s completely the opposite…They’ve tried to take it back a little bit. They’ve tried to make it more physical, and I think you can tell on the floor. When you’re standing there or at the game, you can tell. It’s just so much more physical. It’s a cross between kind of like a boxing match and an NBA game from the 1990s, just because players are really going at it, they’re yelling at each other, the arguing’s there. The competitive nature of these players is still all intact, and they don’t hold back.” 17:06-18:02: “The team game or the team aspect of this is much more vocal than it is movement-based I think. A lot of this is communication, because these players need to know that if they are going to go 1-on-1, how are they going to set their teammates up for the best offensive possession. You need to set picks at the right moment. It’s very precise. You watch Mahmoud Abdul-Rauf, and you see kind of like how he plays the game. It is very precise. He’s watching everybody on the court at one time essentially…I was talking with Marcus Banks about this, who was playing against him this weekend. He just said, ‘That guy has basketball IQ that’s unlike any other.’ And I think you can definitely tell that on the floor and players know that much more when you’re playing 3-on-3 versus 5-on-5 because they’re held accountable defensively and offensively.” 20:30-21:29: “Obviously, some of them, they came off not playing basketball for a season or two, so do they have to get their bodies back to where it was? Sure. But when you look at a guy like Ricky Davis, he’s been working out ever since he got out of the NBA and hasn’t stopped. They still continue to grind. I don’t think people understand [this]: When you’re in the NBA or when you’re in any professional sport for that matter, you love the game, and you have a passion for it more than just about anybody else that you know, and if you don’t do that anymore, it feels weird. Most of these players, they talk about it. Being retired is strange. What do you do with your time? How do you deal with yourself? So they go back to what they know, which is working out, playing basketball. Most of these guys play pick-up basketball. Most guys work out multiple times a day.

Ahead of Friday night’s matchup between the top two teams in the WNBA, the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks, Sue Favor joins the podcast to talk about the league. Sue, a devoted women’s hoops writer at Women’s Hoops World and her “They’re Playing Basketball” blog, handicaps the MVP race, details the Sparks’ winning formula and more broadly discusses the league’s most important storylines, on and off the court. Wonderful WNBA wisdom can be sampled below: Sue argues Candace Parker is not declining. Far from it: 5:22-6:04: “It seems like the minute a player turns 30 everybody’s asking her when she’s gonna retire, whatever. Even Candace, herself, got that question a few weeks ago, and she was saying, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are you asking me this right now?’ She’s still one of the best players in the world. She can take over a game, and she’s actually done that several times in the last month especially. She’s at the top of the league in statistics right now, and I don’t see her slowing down at all really. So I guess that’s why I wouldn’t even say that she’s trying to pass the baton to anybody right now. She and Nneka are friends off the court, and they work really well together on the court. They’re interchangeable. If one of them is having a slightly off game, the other one steps up. They both work together in tandem really well.” Our guest opines on the favorites to take home the championship trophy this season: 10:32-10:44: “I see it as a three-team race right now between the Lynx, the Sparks and the Connecticut Sun, who are absolutely on fire this season and have risen to levels that no one ever anticipated, probably not even the players themselves.” Despite Minnesota’s dominance thus far at 21-3, a key injury to its starting point guard could signal trouble: 12:22-13:08: “Lindsay Whalen is out for an undetermined period of time with that finger breakage. So without her, they’re a completely different team as we saw on Sunday when the Indiana Fever upset them. The Sparks are healthy right now, but that could change in a minute, because the WNBA roster is only 12 players per team, so when you lose one person it has a huge ripple effect…The Sun also have an injury to contend with: starter Jasmine Thomas is out as well. Right now, of the three top teams in the league, the Sparks are definitely the most healthy, so I guess Sparks fans can just pray that they stay healthy, because injuries really play a major part, especially right now when every single game counts like 10 times over.” Sue shares her MVP contender list: 16:28-16:43: “Sylvia Fowles, Tina Charles has been having a really stellar season, Breanna Stewart, with her tying the record with 20-plus-point games. Those three probably I would say are the top three conversation pieces, with Candace Parker kind of sneaking up in there.” The league, according to Sue, is seeing a renaissance in terms of player openness and transparency, and she couldn’t be more pleased:  22:27-22:59: “I’ve definitely been pleasantly surprised this year at the number of…It’s not that closet doors are opening; basically, it seems like the closets are burning down. And it’s just stars. Elena Delle-Donne I believe was the first [star in a while], and then we had Penny Taylor and Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird. Layshia [Clarendon] was last year, but it just seems that people are not afraid to be and show who they are right now, and that’s pretty cool. People shouldn’t have to hide who they are in any kind of way.” Finally, what should the league be doing to further develop and grow its brand? 28:14-31:01: “We’re kind of at a crucial point right now where attendance has fallen a little bit this year after being good last year, and it just seems like the league is flat-lining and pretty much seeing static growth. People want to expand the teams, expand the rosters, but it’s not really possible unless more money’s coming in…The league needs to do a better job of marketing itself, both in the offseason and during the season. They need to better the relationships between the teams and the league and fans…and just generally try to tighten up their business practices a little and just really try to get the word out there, because increased visibility just isn’t happening right now…Maybe one or two WNBA teams will go and cross over and try to get college fans to WNBA games or they’ll go to college games in the offseason and promote the team or do ticket giveaways. There needs to be more of that. The WNBA could do a lot more to extend itself and increase awareness of the league in the offseason, but typically the confetti settles and is swept up from the final championship game, and then, bam, the league disappears until April.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes. Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod

Ahead of Friday night’s matchup between the top two teams in the WNBA, the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks, Sue Favor joins the podcast to talk about the league. Sue, a devoted women’s hoops writer at Women’s Hoops World and her “They’re Playing Basketball” blog, handicaps the MVP race, details the Sparks’ winning formula and more broadly discusses the league’s most important storylines, on and off the court. Wonderful WNBA wisdom can be sampled below: Sue argues Candace Parker is not declining. Far from it: 5:22-6:04: “It seems like the minute a player turns 30 everybody’s asking her when she’s gonna retire, whatever. Even Candace, herself, got that question a few weeks ago, and she was saying, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are you asking me this right now?’ She’s still one of the best players in the world. She can take over a game, and she’s actually done that several times in the last month especially. She’s at the top of the league in statistics right now, and I don’t see her slowing down at all really. So I guess that’s why I wouldn’t even say that she’s trying to pass the baton to anybody right now. She and Nneka are friends off the court, and they work really well together on the court. They’re interchangeable. If one of them is having a slightly off game, the other one steps up. They both work together in tandem really well.” Our guest opines on the favorites to take home the championship trophy this season: 10:32-10:44: “I see it as a three-team race right now between the Lynx, the Sparks and the Connecticut Sun, who are absolutely on fire this season and have risen to levels that no one ever anticipated, probably not even the players themselves.” Despite Minnesota's dominance thus far at 21-3, a key injury to its starting point guard could signal trouble: 12:22-13:08: “Lindsay Whalen is out for an undetermined period of time with that finger breakage. So without her, they’re a completely different team as we saw on Sunday when the Indiana Fever upset them. The Sparks are healthy right now, but that could change in a minute, because the WNBA roster is only 12 players per team, so when you lose one person it has a huge ripple effect…The Sun also have an injury to contend with: starter Jasmine Thomas is out as well. Right now, of the three top teams in the league, the Sparks are definitely the most healthy, so I guess Sparks fans can just pray that they stay healthy, because injuries really play a major part, especially right now when every single game counts like 10 times over.” Sue shares her MVP contender list: 16:28-16:43: “Sylvia Fowles, Tina Charles has been having a really stellar season, Breanna Stewart, with her tying the record with 20-plus-point games. Those three probably I would say are the top three conversation pieces, with Candace Parker kind of sneaking up in there.” The league, according to Sue, is seeing a renaissance in terms of player openness and transparency, and she couldn't be more pleased:  22:27-22:59: “I’ve definitely been pleasantly surprised this year at the number of…It’s not that closet doors are opening; basically, it seems like the closets are burning down. And it’s just stars. Elena Delle-Donne I believe was the first [star in a while], and then we had Penny Taylor and Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird. Layshia [Clarendon] was last year, but it just seems that people are not afraid to be and show who they are right now, and that’s pretty cool. People shouldn’t have to hide who they are in any kind of way.” Finally,

Ahead of Friday night’s matchup between the top two teams in the WNBA, the Minnesota Lynx and Los Angeles Sparks, Sue Favor joins the podcast to talk about the league. Sue, a devoted women’s hoops writer at Women’s Hoops World and her “They’re Playing Basketball” blog, handicaps the MVP race, details the Sparks’ winning formula and more broadly discusses the league’s most important storylines, on and off the court. Wonderful WNBA wisdom can be sampled below: Sue argues Candace Parker is not declining. Far from it: 5:22-6:04: “It seems like the minute a player turns 30 everybody’s asking her when she’s gonna retire, whatever. Even Candace, herself, got that question a few weeks ago, and she was saying, ‘Whoa, whoa, whoa. Why are you asking me this right now?’ She’s still one of the best players in the world. She can take over a game, and she’s actually done that several times in the last month especially. She’s at the top of the league in statistics right now, and I don’t see her slowing down at all really. So I guess that’s why I wouldn’t even say that she’s trying to pass the baton to anybody right now. She and Nneka are friends off the court, and they work really well together on the court. They’re interchangeable. If one of them is having a slightly off game, the other one steps up. They both work together in tandem really well.” Our guest opines on the favorites to take home the championship trophy this season: 10:32-10:44: “I see it as a three-team race right now between the Lynx, the Sparks and the Connecticut Sun, who are absolutely on fire this season and have risen to levels that no one ever anticipated, probably not even the players themselves.” Despite Minnesota’s dominance thus far at 21-3, a key injury to its starting point guard could signal trouble: 12:22-13:08: “Lindsay Whalen is out for an undetermined period of time with that finger breakage. So without her, they’re a completely different team as we saw on Sunday when the Indiana Fever upset them. The Sparks are healthy right now, but that could change in a minute, because the WNBA roster is only 12 players per team, so when you lose one person it has a huge ripple effect…The Sun also have an injury to contend with: starter Jasmine Thomas is out as well. Right now, of the three top teams in the league, the Sparks are definitely the most healthy, so I guess Sparks fans can just pray that they stay healthy, because injuries really play a major part, especially right now when every single game counts like 10 times over.” Sue shares her MVP contender list: 16:28-16:43: “Sylvia Fowles, Tina Charles has been having a really stellar season, Breanna Stewart, with her tying the record with 20-plus-point games. Those three probably I would say are the top three conversation pieces, with Candace Parker kind of sneaking up in there.” The league, according to Sue, is seeing a renaissance in terms of player openness and transparency, and she couldn’t be more pleased:  22:27-22:59: “I’ve definitely been pleasantly surprised this year at the number of…It’s not that closet doors are opening; basically, it seems like the closets are burning down. And it’s just stars. Elena Delle-Donne I believe was the first [star in a while], and then we had Penny Taylor and Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird. Layshia [Clarendon] was last year, but it just seems that people are not afraid to be and show who they are right now, and that’s pretty cool. People shouldn’t have to hide who they are in any kind of way.” Finally, what should the league be doing to further develop and grow its brand? 28:14-31:01: “We’re kind of at a crucial point right now where attendance has fallen a little bit this year after being good last year, and it just seems like the league is flat-lining and pretty much seeing static growth. People want to expand the teams, expand the rosters, but it’s not really possible unless more money’s coming in…The league needs to do a better job of marketing itself, both in the offseason and during the season. They need to better the relationships between the teams and the league and fans…and just generally try to tighten up their business practices a little and just really try to get the word out there, because increased visibility just isn’t happening right now…Maybe one or two WNBA teams will go and cross over and try to get college fans to WNBA games or they’ll go to college games in the offseason and promote the team or do ticket giveaways. There needs to be more of that. The WNBA could do a lot more to extend itself and increase awareness of the league in the offseason, but typically the confetti settles and is swept up from the final championship game, and then, bam, the league disappears until April.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes. Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod

The Minnesota Timberwolves have missed the playoffs in each of the past 13 seasons, while finishing with more losses than wins over the last 12. However, the tide is about to turn, according to our guest, Tim Faklis, who contributes to A Wolf Among Wolves, Wolves Wired and FanSided’s The Step Back. He argues that the team’s active offseason, highlighted by the blockbuster trade with Chicago that landed Jimmy Butler, has placed it firmly in win-now mode. Tim touches upon a wide assortment of topics, including the Timberwolves’ expected improvement and whether or not they should try to trade for the Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving. Let’s see if these excerpts leave you howling at the moon: 3:20-4:02: “He [Butler] is not a dynamite perimeter shooter, but pretty much every other aspect of his game is something that they’ve missed, especially defensively. They were the worst defensive team in the NBA by a lot of measures last year. And Butler brings in that defensive toughness that [coach Tom] Thibodeau’s been looking for since he joined the team really… I think part of Thibodeau’s plan is to have Butler teach the both of them [Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins], especially Wiggins, how to work on that end.” 12:02-12:39: “Jeff Teague has been up and down from season to season in terms of his 3-point shooting. The hope is that he’ll be up in Minnesota with guys like Butler, guys like Wiggins, guys like Towns there to initiate most of the offense and him just to kind of bring the ball up and then play. Defensively, he’s a step down from Rubio. Passing-wise, he’s a good passer, he’s a good point guard; he’s not Ricky Rubio in that sense. But I think he fits in Thibs’ system more in that he has played in a successful system where he isn’t necessarily the guy with the ball in his hands all the time. I think that’s the big key.” 13:57-16:05: “[Wiggins] is a potential All-Star, high-level scoring player, and it’s really hard to trade a guy that young, that good, for a guy with two years left on his deal. That’s the other thing. If you trade Wiggins, he’s [potentially] got six years left with the Wolves, but if you trade him that’s gone… It’s really hard for me to envision that the Wolves, from their perspective, would be able to make that deal. I think there’s too much risk with Wiggins’ potential ascension to make that move with how little Irving is willing reportedly to commit.” 23:10-25:02: “I just did a podcast with a bunch of Wolves writers…and we kind of have them tentatively slated somewhere around fifth or sixth in the West next year. Some people—I think this might be their optimism—have them over the Thunder; I don’t have them over the Thunder. Paul George and Russell Westbrook, I think, fit together better than some people think…It’s almost a tie between Denver and Minnesota for me. I love the Paul Millsap signing for Denver. [Nikola] Jokic and Millsap inside together, I think, would be devastating…Ultimately, just looking up and down the West, I think fifth or sixth seems realistic for the Wolves for next year in the playoffs.” 32:45-34:31: “[Towns] is so good at every aspect of basketball offensively. He can handle the ball. He can pass the ball. He can shoot from deep… But in terms of both post defense and help defense, he just has not figured it out yet. A lot of people compared him early on to Anthony Davis, but I think the one big advantage Davis had was that he was just a defensive master almost immediately when he came into the NBA. Towns has a lot of those same athletic attributes, but mentally, I don’t think he has what Davis has defensively yet. There’s no reason why he can’t get it… That’s got to be the main thing that he’s focused on coming into this season and just going forward. Otherwise, I don’t want to call him a perfect basketball player, because there’s only one LeBron James, but I mean Karl-Anthony Towns is as close as you get to a perfect basketball player that’s also seven-feet tall. He’s an insane specimen.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes. Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod

The Minnesota Timberwolves have missed the playoffs in each of the past 13 seasons, while finishing with more losses than wins over the last 12. However, the tide is about to turn, according to our guest, Tim Faklis, who contributes to A Wolf Among Wolves, Wolves Wired and FanSided’s The Step Back. He argues that the team’s active offseason, highlighted by the blockbuster trade with Chicago that landed Jimmy Butler, has placed it firmly in win-now mode. Tim touches upon a wide assortment of topics, including the Timberwolves’ expected improvement and whether or not they should try to trade for the Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving. Let’s see if these excerpts leave you howling at the moon: 3:20-4:02: “He [Butler] is not a dynamite perimeter shooter, but pretty much every other aspect of his game is something that they’ve missed, especially defensively. They were the worst defensive team in the NBA by a lot of measures last year. And Butler brings in that defensive toughness that [coach Tom] Thibodeau’s been looking for since he joined the team really… I think part of Thibodeau’s plan is to have Butler teach the both of them [Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins], especially Wiggins, how to work on that end.” 12:02-12:39: “Jeff Teague has been up and down from season to season in terms of his 3-point shooting. The hope is that he’ll be up in Minnesota with guys like Butler, guys like Wiggins, guys like Towns there to initiate most of the offense and him just to kind of bring the ball up and then play. Defensively, he’s a step down from Rubio. Passing-wise, he’s a good passer, he’s a good point guard; he’s not Ricky Rubio in that sense. But I think he fits in Thibs’ system more in that he has played in a successful system where he isn’t necessarily the guy with the ball in his hands all the time. I think that’s the big key.” 13:57-16:05: “[Wiggins] is a potential All-Star, high-level scoring player, and it’s really hard to trade a guy that young, that good, for a guy with two years left on his deal. That’s the other thing. If you trade Wiggins, he’s [potentially] got six years left with the Wolves, but if you trade him that’s gone… It’s really hard for me to envision that the Wolves, from their perspective, would be able to make that deal. I think there’s too much risk with Wiggins’ potential ascension to make that move with how little Irving is willing reportedly to commit.” 23:10-25:02: “I just did a podcast with a bunch of Wolves writers…and we kind of have them tentatively slated somewhere around fifth or sixth in the West next year. Some people—I think this might be their optimism—have them over the Thunder; I don’t have them over the Thunder. Paul George and Russell Westbrook, I think, fit together better than some people think…It’s almost a tie between Denver and Minnesota for me. I love the Paul Millsap signing for Denver. [Nikola] Jokic and Millsap inside together, I think, would be devastating…Ultimately, just looking up and down the West, I think fifth or sixth seems realistic for the Wolves for next year in the playoffs.” 32:45-34:31: “[Towns] is so good at every aspect of basketball offensively. He can handle the ball. He can pass the ball. He can shoot from deep… But in terms of both post defense and help defense, he just has not figured it out yet. A lot of people compared him early on to Anthony Davis, but I think the one big advantage Davis had was that he was just a defensive master almost immediately when he came into the NBA.

The Minnesota Timberwolves have missed the playoffs in each of the past 13 seasons, while finishing with more losses than wins over the last 12. However, the tide is about to turn, according to our guest, Tim Faklis, who contributes to A Wolf Among Wolves, Wolves Wired and FanSided’s The Step Back. He argues that the team’s active offseason, highlighted by the blockbuster trade with Chicago that landed Jimmy Butler, has placed it firmly in win-now mode. Tim touches upon a wide assortment of topics, including the Timberwolves’ expected improvement and whether or not they should try to trade for the Cavaliers’ Kyrie Irving. Let’s see if these excerpts leave you howling at the moon: 3:20-4:02: “He [Butler] is not a dynamite perimeter shooter, but pretty much every other aspect of his game is something that they’ve missed, especially defensively. They were the worst defensive team in the NBA by a lot of measures last year. And Butler brings in that defensive toughness that [coach Tom] Thibodeau’s been looking for since he joined the team really… I think part of Thibodeau’s plan is to have Butler teach the both of them [Karl-Anthony Towns and Andrew Wiggins], especially Wiggins, how to work on that end.” 12:02-12:39: “Jeff Teague has been up and down from season to season in terms of his 3-point shooting. The hope is that he’ll be up in Minnesota with guys like Butler, guys like Wiggins, guys like Towns there to initiate most of the offense and him just to kind of bring the ball up and then play. Defensively, he’s a step down from Rubio. Passing-wise, he’s a good passer, he’s a good point guard; he’s not Ricky Rubio in that sense. But I think he fits in Thibs’ system more in that he has played in a successful system where he isn’t necessarily the guy with the ball in his hands all the time. I think that’s the big key.” 13:57-16:05: “[Wiggins] is a potential All-Star, high-level scoring player, and it’s really hard to trade a guy that young, that good, for a guy with two years left on his deal. That’s the other thing. If you trade Wiggins, he’s [potentially] got six years left with the Wolves, but if you trade him that’s gone… It’s really hard for me to envision that the Wolves, from their perspective, would be able to make that deal. I think there’s too much risk with Wiggins’ potential ascension to make that move with how little Irving is willing reportedly to commit.” 23:10-25:02: “I just did a podcast with a bunch of Wolves writers…and we kind of have them tentatively slated somewhere around fifth or sixth in the West next year. Some people—I think this might be their optimism—have them over the Thunder; I don’t have them over the Thunder. Paul George and Russell Westbrook, I think, fit together better than some people think…It’s almost a tie between Denver and Minnesota for me. I love the Paul Millsap signing for Denver. [Nikola] Jokic and Millsap inside together, I think, would be devastating…Ultimately, just looking up and down the West, I think fifth or sixth seems realistic for the Wolves for next year in the playoffs.” 32:45-34:31: “[Towns] is so good at every aspect of basketball offensively. He can handle the ball. He can pass the ball. He can shoot from deep… But in terms of both post defense and help defense, he just has not figured it out yet. A lot of people compared him early on to Anthony Davis, but I think the one big advantage Davis had was that he was just a defensive master almost immediately when he came into the NBA. Towns has a lot of those same athletic attributes, but mentally, I don’t think he has what Davis has defensively yet. There’s no reason why he can’t get it… That’s got to be the main thing that he’s focused on coming into this season and just going forward. Otherwise, I don’t want to call him a perfect basketball player, because there’s only one LeBron James, but I mean Karl-Anthony Towns is as close as you get to a perfect basketball player that’s also seven-feet tall. He’s an insane specimen.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes. Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod

On the NBA Beat Ep. 2.42: Joe Morgan on Pro Scout School and "Belief in the Future" for the Sacramento Kings On the NBA BeatOn the NBA Beat Ep. 2.42: Joe Morgan on Pro Scout School and "Belief in the Future" for the Sacramento KingsOn the NBA Beat iTunes Android RSS TuneIn Stitcher Google Play The NBA world has taken over ...

The NBA world has taken over Las Vegas for the last two weeks, and while the main attraction has obviously been Las Vegas Summer League, where teams test out and try to develop their new talent, with so much of the top brass in one city, there are bound to be auxiliary events as well. One such event is TPG Sport Group's Pro Scout School, which our guest, Joe Morgan, was able to attend this week. He lets us in on everything he learned there, from experts like Fran Franchilla, Bobby Marks, Tony Ronzone, Drew Hanlen and more. Of course, Joe is also the co-host of The Kings Court and covers the Kings for SacKingsNation.com, so we'd be remiss if we didn't also get his views on Sacramento's eventful offseason so far. Scout out these royal excerpts below: 7:15-8:11 Joe speaks on being able to gain an insider’s perspective with front office personnel and other experts: “They talk to you more openly than they would during the season when they’re busy. They give you that insider’s view of ‘Why did this move happen?’ …I could not figure out why Oladipo went to Indiana, and somebody made the point in the class that he’s a Hoosier alumnus. So do you think that helps them sell tickets for the team that was 22nd in attendance last year?… Basketball teams only convene to do two things: win games and make money. As a fan and even on the commentating side of it, generally, you only look at the game-winning side of it, we forget to add in that this is a business.” 11:26-12:20 On how modern teams are able to use both advanced analytics and traditional scouting in conjunction for player evaluation: “In the class, one of my favorite sentences that came out of the whole thing was. ‘Analytics is just evidence-based decision making.’ A guy has to pass the eye-test; you can’t watch a guy and think he’s horrible and then want him on your team. But analytics gives you something that helps you watch for specific patterns… It gives you another way to fine tune what you’re looking for. A lot of these guys, you only get to watch once or twice… so if you have an analytics team give you some notes beforehand, it really helps you out as a scout.” 15:50-16:17 On the particular way scouts watch games for player evaluation: “If a scout goes into a building to watch Bob Smith from wherever, he sits down and only watches him for the entire game. I don’t care if he’s on the bench, I don’t care if he’s warming up, you watch specifically that person. You watch his facial expressions, whether he’s taking instructions from the coach well, whether when he’s sitting on the bench, is he engaged in the game or is he off in his own world. You’re only watching that one person for the entire game.” 29:06-29-28 On the Kings’ decision to sign George Hill in free agency: “What people didn’t seem to get was, you can’t give the keys to a young man like [De’Aaron] Fox right off the bat. You gotta work him in slowly. I think it was a perfect signing, to where [George Hill] can play… but if De’Aaron Fox comes out in the first year and is just amazing, the contract is friendly enough that you can move George Hill. If De’Aaron doesn’t come out as a superstar, well, then you keep [Hill] for those three years and let him develop slowly. It gives them the flexibility to go either way.” 34:41-35:01 Joe has the utmost confidence in Coach Dave Joerger’s ability to lead this team, as long as he sticks around: “Coach Joerger’s amazing. I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in the league right now. I think he’s the absolute perfect guy to bring this roster along.

The NBA world has taken over Las Vegas for the last two weeks, and while the main attraction has obviously been Las Vegas Summer League, where teams test out and try to develop their new talent, with so much of the top brass in one city, there are bound to be auxiliary events as well. One such event is TPG Sport Group’s Pro Scout School, which our guest, Joe Morgan, was able to attend this week. He lets us in on everything he learned there, from experts like Fran Franchilla, Bobby Marks, Tony Ronzone, Drew Hanlen and more. Of course, Joe is also the co-host of The Kings Court and covers the Kings for SacKingsNation.com, so we’d be remiss if we didn’t also get his views on Sacramento’s eventful offseason so far. Scout out these royal excerpts below: 7:15-8:11 Joe speaks on being able to gain an insider’s perspective with front office personnel and other experts: “They talk to you more openly than they would during the season when they’re busy. They give you that insider’s view of ‘Why did this move happen?’ …I could not figure out why Oladipo went to Indiana, and somebody made the point in the class that he’s a Hoosier alumnus. So do you think that helps them sell tickets for the team that was 22nd in attendance last year?… Basketball teams only convene to do two things: win games and make money. As a fan and even on the commentating side of it, generally, you only look at the game-winning side of it, we forget to add in that this is a business.” 11:26-12:20 On how modern teams are able to use both advanced analytics and traditional scouting in conjunction for player evaluation: “In the class, one of my favorite sentences that came out of the whole thing was. ‘Analytics is just evidence-based decision making.’ A guy has to pass the eye-test; you can’t watch a guy and think he’s horrible and then want him on your team. But analytics gives you something that helps you watch for specific patterns… It gives you another way to fine tune what you’re looking for. A lot of these guys, you only get to watch once or twice… so if you have an analytics team give you some notes beforehand, it really helps you out as a scout.” 15:50-16:17 On the particular way scouts watch games for player evaluation: “If a scout goes into a building to watch Bob Smith from wherever, he sits down and only watches him for the entire game. I don’t care if he’s on the bench, I don’t care if he’s warming up, you watch specifically that person. You watch his facial expressions, whether he’s taking instructions from the coach well, whether when he’s sitting on the bench, is he engaged in the game or is he off in his own world. You’re only watching that one person for the entire game.” 29:06-29-28 On the Kings’ decision to sign George Hill in free agency: “What people didn’t seem to get was, you can’t give the keys to a young man like [De’Aaron] Fox right off the bat. You gotta work him in slowly. I think it was a perfect signing, to where [George Hill] can play… but if De’Aaron Fox comes out in the first year and is just amazing, the contract is friendly enough that you can move George Hill. If De’Aaron doesn’t come out as a superstar, well, then you keep [Hill] for those three years and let him develop slowly. It gives them the flexibility to go either way.” 34:41-35:01 Joe has the utmost confidence in Coach Dave Joerger’s ability to lead this team, as long as he sticks around: “Coach Joerger’s amazing. I wouldn’t trade him for anyone else in the league right now. I think he’s the absolute perfect guy to bring this roster along. The key to Coach Joerger though is him staying around. He looks like he’s bought in. Vlade and the front office look like they’ve bought in. It’s a matter of just not switching in the middle of the stream like they have in the past.” 40:13-40:47 On why he’s optimistic about the future for the Kings: “The game after DeMarcus [Cousins] was traded, the Kings were winning by 11 with a minute left. The kids were up by 11 and still diving for the out of bounds with 48 seconds on the clock. That type of effort, it gives the fans hope. Even if they lose, when you see the kids out there trying to work as hard as they can, you know they’re going to be something eventually. That hope is all Sacramento needed. They don’t need wins right away, they just needed something that gave them belief in the future. And it’s here, there’s finally hope that the future can be brighter than the last couple years have been.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod    

On the NBA Beat Ep. 2.41: Jovan Buha: Blake Griffin Will "Surpass Paul as Best & Most Important Clipper Ever” On the NBA BeatOn the NBA Beat Ep. 2.41: Jovan Buha: Blake Griffin Will "Surpass Paul as Best & Most Important Clipper Ever”On the NBA BeatESPN.com’s Jovan Buha joins the podcast to analyze the Los Angeles Clippers’ tumultuous 2017 offseason, highlighted by the departure of Chris Paul and the re-signing of Blake Griffin. Developments from the last couple weeks have raised so many questions. Fortunately, Jovan can reliably provide compelling answers. Enjoy these clips (pun intended; puns are always intended here): 4:14-5:03: “He [Paul] obviously wants to win a championship, wants to make the conference finals, get that monkey off his back, and I think for him, surveying the scene, I think Houston and San Antonio both had more upside. The Clippers, with their cap situation, were most likely going to lose J.J. Redick no matter what and still might end up losing Luc Mbah a Moute, who actually ended up being a bargain signing for them with the bi-annual exception. So I think just looking at it from that perspective, the Clippers were basically going to return the same team as last year minus their two starting wings. And if I’m Chris Paul and we just won 51 games and lost in the first round, that’s not very attractive to me.” 28:57-30:20: “I thought they added depth, they added versatility, they added some youth, and they added assets. At the worst, Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley can both be flipped easily if you want to flip those guys…In the macro sense, the Clippers lost the trade because they lost a top-10 player and they went from a fringe contender to a playoff hopeful.” 34:30-36:08: “I think keeping Blake made sense just because if the Clippers lost Blake and Chris, they were going to go back to irrelevance. They were not set up for a rebuild. This was not a Utah Jazz or Boston Celtics situation where those teams were able to…the Jazz dumped Deron Williams and rebuilt within three years. The Celtics dumped their Big Three and rebuilt within a couple years. The Clippers, if they lost Blake and Chris and then had to trade D.J. [DeAndre Jordan], this was going to be like a four- or five-year process at a minimum. They do not have any young assets, they don’t have a couple of their picks over the next few years…This was going to be an ugly process of just gutting the team, hoping to find some cheap, young talent and really hoping to draft well, which they have not done over the last few years…There’s more things about it than just the on-court product. The Clippers have now sold out – I forgot the exact number – 240-something games. They’ve sold out every game since before Chris even got there – I think since Blake’s rookie season they’ve sold out every home game. They just signed a new TV deal last year, they’re always on national TV, 20-plus times a year. This team has gone from complete irrelevance to being probably a top-10 team in terms of just relevance and being talked about on TV and just sort of a team that’s on everyone’s mind.” 50:13-51:34: “If everything goes right, if Blake and [Danilo] Gallinari can both play 70-plus games, I think this team has the talent and the versatility to be a 5 or 6 seed in the West, but it is a big risk…He [Gallinari] is not elite, but he’s good to very good, and I think it solves what the Clippers have needed from the 3 spot for the last six years. With that said, I think there’s injury concerns, I think there’s defensive concerns – I think Gallinari ideally is used as a stretch-4 and not as much of a 3.” 52:42-53:10: “If you’re going to be playing Pat Beverley and Austin Rivers – if that’s your starting backcourt – neither one of those guys is a great ball handler or playmaker or passer, so having a guy like Gallinari with Blake is really interesting to me because you’re going to be running a lot of your offense through your forwards and not your guards, which is unorthodox for the Clippers and just kind of unorthodox for the league right now – although I guess the team that is kind of most like that is the Warriors.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod    

ESPN.com’s Jovan Buha joins the podcast to analyze the Los Angeles Clippers’ tumultuous 2017 offseason, highlighted by the departure of Chris Paul and the re-signing of Blake Griffin. Developments from the last couple weeks have raised so many questions. Fortunately, Jovan can reliably provide compelling answers. Enjoy these clips (pun intended; puns are always intended here): 4:14-5:03: “He [Paul] obviously wants to win a championship, wants to make the conference finals, get that monkey off his back, and I think for him, surveying the scene, I think Houston and San Antonio both had more upside. The Clippers, with their cap situation, were most likely going to lose J.J. Redick no matter what and still might end up losing Luc Mbah a Moute, who actually ended up being a bargain signing for them with the bi-annual exception. So I think just looking at it from that perspective, the Clippers were basically going to return the same team as last year minus their two starting wings. And if I’m Chris Paul and we just won 51 games and lost in the first round, that’s not very attractive to me.” 28:57-30:20: “I thought they added depth, they added versatility, they added some youth, and they added assets. At the worst, Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley can both be flipped easily if you want to flip those guys…In the macro sense, the Clippers lost the trade because they lost a top-10 player and they went from a fringe contender to a playoff hopeful.” 34:30-36:08: “I think keeping Blake made sense just because if the Clippers lost Blake and Chris, they were going to go back to irrelevance. They were not set up for a rebuild. This was not a Utah Jazz or Boston Celtics situation where those teams were able to…the Jazz dumped Deron Williams and rebuilt within three years. The Celtics dumped their Big Three and rebuilt within a couple years. The Clippers, if they lost Blake and Chris and then had to trade D.J. [DeAndre Jordan], this was going to be like a four- or five-year process at a minimum. They do not have any young assets, they don’t have a couple of their picks over the next few years…This was going to be an ugly process of just gutting the team, hoping to find some cheap, young talent and really hoping to draft well, which they have not done over the last few years…There’s more things about it than just the on-court product. The Clippers have now sold out – I forgot the exact number – 240-something games. They’ve sold out every game since before Chris even got there – I think since Blake’s rookie season they’ve sold out every home game. They just signed a new TV deal last year, they’re always on national TV, 20-plus times a year. This team has gone from complete irrelevance to being probably a top-10 team in terms of just relevance and being talked about on TV and just sort of a team that’s on everyone’s mind.” 50:13-51:34: “If everything goes right, if Blake and [Danilo] Gallinari can both play 70-plus games, I think this team has the talent and the versatility to be a 5 or 6 seed in the West, but it is a big risk…He [Gallinari] is not elite, but he’s good to very good, and I think it solves what the Clippers have needed from the 3 spot for the last six years. With that said, I think there’s injury concerns, I think there’s defensive concerns - I think Gallinari ideally is used as a stretch-4 and not as much of a 3.” 52:42-53:10: “If you’re going to be playing Pat Beverley and Austin Rivers – if that’s your starting backcourt – neither one of those guys is a great ball handler or playmaker or passer, so having a guy like Gallinari with Blake is really interesting to me because you’re going to be running a lot of your offense through your forwards and not your guards,

ESPN.com’s Jovan Buha joins the podcast to analyze the Los Angeles Clippers’ tumultuous 2017 offseason, highlighted by the departure of Chris Paul and the re-signing of Blake Griffin. Developments from the last couple weeks have raised so many questions. Fortunately, Jovan can reliably provide compelling answers. Enjoy these clips (pun intended; puns are always intended here): 4:14-5:03: “He [Paul] obviously wants to win a championship, wants to make the conference finals, get that monkey off his back, and I think for him, surveying the scene, I think Houston and San Antonio both had more upside. The Clippers, with their cap situation, were most likely going to lose J.J. Redick no matter what and still might end up losing Luc Mbah a Moute, who actually ended up being a bargain signing for them with the bi-annual exception. So I think just looking at it from that perspective, the Clippers were basically going to return the same team as last year minus their two starting wings. And if I’m Chris Paul and we just won 51 games and lost in the first round, that’s not very attractive to me.” 28:57-30:20: “I thought they added depth, they added versatility, they added some youth, and they added assets. At the worst, Lou Williams and Patrick Beverley can both be flipped easily if you want to flip those guys…In the macro sense, the Clippers lost the trade because they lost a top-10 player and they went from a fringe contender to a playoff hopeful.” 34:30-36:08: “I think keeping Blake made sense just because if the Clippers lost Blake and Chris, they were going to go back to irrelevance. They were not set up for a rebuild. This was not a Utah Jazz or Boston Celtics situation where those teams were able to…the Jazz dumped Deron Williams and rebuilt within three years. The Celtics dumped their Big Three and rebuilt within a couple years. The Clippers, if they lost Blake and Chris and then had to trade D.J. [DeAndre Jordan], this was going to be like a four- or five-year process at a minimum. They do not have any young assets, they don’t have a couple of their picks over the next few years…This was going to be an ugly process of just gutting the team, hoping to find some cheap, young talent and really hoping to draft well, which they have not done over the last few years…There’s more things about it than just the on-court product. The Clippers have now sold out – I forgot the exact number – 240-something games. They’ve sold out every game since before Chris even got there – I think since Blake’s rookie season they’ve sold out every home game. They just signed a new TV deal last year, they’re always on national TV, 20-plus times a year. This team has gone from complete irrelevance to being probably a top-10 team in terms of just relevance and being talked about on TV and just sort of a team that’s on everyone’s mind.” 50:13-51:34: “If everything goes right, if Blake and [Danilo] Gallinari can both play 70-plus games, I think this team has the talent and the versatility to be a 5 or 6 seed in the West, but it is a big risk…He [Gallinari] is not elite, but he’s good to very good, and I think it solves what the Clippers have needed from the 3 spot for the last six years. With that said, I think there’s injury concerns, I think there’s defensive concerns – I think Gallinari ideally is used as a stretch-4 and not as much of a 3.” 52:42-53:10: “If you’re going to be playing Pat Beverley and Austin Rivers – if that’s your starting backcourt – neither one of those guys is a great ball handler or playmaker or passer, so having a guy like Gallinari with Blake is really interesting to me because you’re going to be running a lot of your offense through your forwards and not your guards, which is unorthodox for the Clippers and just kind of unorthodox for the league right now – although I guess the team that is kind of most like that is the Warriors.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod    

Though the free agency period does not officially begin until July 1, the landscape of the NBA has already been shifted dramatically after the draft, a few franchise-altering trades and a couple executive team shake-ups. To help us sort through all the madness of the last week and predict the remaining changes to come, we’ve brought on Keith Smith, who covers the NBA for Real GM and Fan Rag Sports, and has been presenting detailed analyses of each team’s offseason plans for his show, NBA Front Office. With Keith, we break down the ramifications of the blockbuster trades that sent Chris Paul to Houston and Jimmy Butler to Minnesota, discuss the fallout of the Knicks and the Cavaliers severing ties with executives Phil Jackson and David Griffin respectively and, of course, try to forecast the eventual landing spots for Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Blake Griffin, George Hill, Paul Millsap and all of the other high-profile free agents and likely movers this offseason. 7:03-7:30: “One of the things that’s really funny about the Blake Griffin question is you can see it going one of two ways. You can see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Forget it. We can’t replace CP3. I’m not gonna be able to win here now. I want to move on. I want to get out of here and go somewhere else.’ Or you could see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Finally, it’s my team. I have it to myself. I don’t have to deal with this guy yapping at me all the time, and we didn’t necessarily get along great.’ So that’s where it becomes really tricky.” 20:02-21:10: “It’s popular for people to say, ‘Ah, who cares? LeBron is the GM. He makes all the decisions.’ And it’s simply not true. Now, he probably has more input than any other player in the entire NBA, but it’s more along the lines of David Griffin says, ‘Hey, I can go get Kyle Korver. What do you think?’ And then LeBron’s like, ‘Yeah, go get Kyle Korver.’ David Griffin’s still the one who has to put all those pieces together…Losing David Griffin is a massive loss for the Cavaliers, and losing them when they did just didn’t make sense. And especially the way [Cavaliers owner] Dan Gilbert went about it. He didn’t allow Griffin to interview with Orlando or Milwaukee or Atlanta, who all had interest in having a conversation with him. And then as soon as all those opening were filled, he dismissed him and said, ‘We’re done.’” 24:07-24:39: “I think your next piece that you’re looking at is who else do the Wolves go out and add, because they still are gonna have some cap space, they’re gonna be able to do some things. And if they go out and add another big-time defender – all accounts are that’s where they’re looking to go now; they’ve got the offensive side covered…if they go out and add another big-time defender, that’s gonna be what starts to improve it [the defense] so it’s incremental growth, plus whatever they add this summer.” 32:34-33:05: “Paul George has made it clear that he’s leaving, so once you do that, that limits your [team’s] leverage. But where the Pacers have gained back some leverage is that they now are in a position where multiple teams are interested, so that re-ups their leverage because now instead of just being one team that they’re dealing with, they can ask for a little bit more…They have to trade him. They can’t let him walk away for nothing. So now they can pit the teams that are trying to trade for him against each other.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod    

Though the free agency period does not officially begin until July 1, the landscape of the NBA has already been shifted dramatically after the draft, a few franchise-altering trades and a couple executive team shake-ups. To help us sort through all the madness of the last week and predict the remaining changes to come, we've brought on Keith Smith, who covers the NBA for Real GM and Fan Rag Sports, and has been presenting detailed analyses of each team's offseason plans for his show, NBA Front Office. With Keith, we break down the ramifications of the blockbuster trades that sent Chris Paul to Houston and Jimmy Butler to Minnesota, discuss the fallout of the Knicks and the Cavaliers severing ties with executives Phil Jackson and David Griffin respectively and, of course, try to forecast the eventual landing spots for Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Blake Griffin, George Hill, Paul Millsap and all of the other high-profile free agents and likely movers this offseason. 7:03-7:30: “One of the things that’s really funny about the Blake Griffin question is you can see it going one of two ways. You can see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Forget it. We can’t replace CP3. I’m not gonna be able to win here now. I want to move on. I want to get out of here and go somewhere else.’ Or you could see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Finally, it’s my team. I have it to myself. I don’t have to deal with this guy yapping at me all the time, and we didn’t necessarily get along great.’ So that’s where it becomes really tricky.” 20:02-21:10: “It’s popular for people to say, ‘Ah, who cares? LeBron is the GM. He makes all the decisions.’ And it’s simply not true. Now, he probably has more input than any other player in the entire NBA, but it’s more along the lines of David Griffin says, ‘Hey, I can go get Kyle Korver. What do you think?’ And then LeBron’s like, ‘Yeah, go get Kyle Korver.’ David Griffin’s still the one who has to put all those pieces together…Losing David Griffin is a massive loss for the Cavaliers, and losing them when they did just didn’t make sense. And especially the way [Cavaliers owner] Dan Gilbert went about it. He didn’t allow Griffin to interview with Orlando or Milwaukee or Atlanta, who all had interest in having a conversation with him. And then as soon as all those opening were filled, he dismissed him and said, ‘We’re done.’” 24:07-24:39: “I think your next piece that you’re looking at is who else do the Wolves go out and add, because they still are gonna have some cap space, they’re gonna be able to do some things. And if they go out and add another big-time defender – all accounts are that’s where they’re looking to go now; they’ve got the offensive side covered…if they go out and add another big-time defender, that’s gonna be what starts to improve it [the defense] so it’s incremental growth, plus whatever they add this summer.” 32:34-33:05: “Paul George has made it clear that he’s leaving, so once you do that, that limits your [team’s] leverage. But where the Pacers have gained back some leverage is that they now are in a position where multiple teams are interested, so that re-ups their leverage because now instead of just being one team that they’re dealing with, they can ask for a little bit more…They have to trade him. They can’t let him walk away for nothing. So now they can pit the teams that are trying to trade for him against each other.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on

Though the free agency period does not officially begin until July 1, the landscape of the NBA has already been shifted dramatically after the draft, a few franchise-altering trades and a couple executive team shake-ups. To help us sort through all the madness of the last week and predict the remaining changes to come, we’ve brought on Keith Smith, who covers the NBA for Real GM and Fan Rag Sports, and has been presenting detailed analyses of each team’s offseason plans for his show, NBA Front Office. With Keith, we break down the ramifications of the blockbuster trades that sent Chris Paul to Houston and Jimmy Butler to Minnesota, discuss the fallout of the Knicks and the Cavaliers severing ties with executives Phil Jackson and David Griffin respectively and, of course, try to forecast the eventual landing spots for Paul George, Gordon Hayward, Blake Griffin, George Hill, Paul Millsap and all of the other high-profile free agents and likely movers this offseason. 7:03-7:30: “One of the things that’s really funny about the Blake Griffin question is you can see it going one of two ways. You can see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Forget it. We can’t replace CP3. I’m not gonna be able to win here now. I want to move on. I want to get out of here and go somewhere else.’ Or you could see Blake Griffin saying, ‘Finally, it’s my team. I have it to myself. I don’t have to deal with this guy yapping at me all the time, and we didn’t necessarily get along great.’ So that’s where it becomes really tricky.” 20:02-21:10: “It’s popular for people to say, ‘Ah, who cares? LeBron is the GM. He makes all the decisions.’ And it’s simply not true. Now, he probably has more input than any other player in the entire NBA, but it’s more along the lines of David Griffin says, ‘Hey, I can go get Kyle Korver. What do you think?’ And then LeBron’s like, ‘Yeah, go get Kyle Korver.’ David Griffin’s still the one who has to put all those pieces together…Losing David Griffin is a massive loss for the Cavaliers, and losing them when they did just didn’t make sense. And especially the way [Cavaliers owner] Dan Gilbert went about it. He didn’t allow Griffin to interview with Orlando or Milwaukee or Atlanta, who all had interest in having a conversation with him. And then as soon as all those opening were filled, he dismissed him and said, ‘We’re done.’” 24:07-24:39: “I think your next piece that you’re looking at is who else do the Wolves go out and add, because they still are gonna have some cap space, they’re gonna be able to do some things. And if they go out and add another big-time defender – all accounts are that’s where they’re looking to go now; they’ve got the offensive side covered…if they go out and add another big-time defender, that’s gonna be what starts to improve it [the defense] so it’s incremental growth, plus whatever they add this summer.” 32:34-33:05: “Paul George has made it clear that he’s leaving, so once you do that, that limits your [team’s] leverage. But where the Pacers have gained back some leverage is that they now are in a position where multiple teams are interested, so that re-ups their leverage because now instead of just being one team that they’re dealing with, they can ask for a little bit more…They have to trade him. They can’t let him walk away for nothing. So now they can pit the teams that are trying to trade for him against each other.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod    

On the NBA Beat Ep. 2.39: Ball Could Be Draft's "Best Player or Basically Unplayable"On the NBA Beat Ep. 2.39: Ball Could Be Draft's "Best Player or Basically Unplayable"{{svg_share_icon}} {{svg_share_icon}} {{embed_code}} Copy Embed EmbedWith the draft fast approaching – it’s scheduled for Thursday, June 22, – we’re joined by a pair of men who closely and passionately follow the NBA draft and its potential prospects year-round. Ode to Oden’s Sean Derenthal and Javier Pesquera of What’s on Draft lend their time and expertise to the show, discussing a wide range of issues, including but not limited to Markelle Fultz’s top billing, the Lonzo Ball phenomenon, the strengths and weaknesses of Josh Jackson’s and Dennis Smith Jr.’s games and the nature of this year’s international class. You won’t want to miss this one, especially if, like your hosts, you’ve been fixated on the NBA all season. Sean Derenthal: 9:28-9:43: “Lonzo Ball is super-, super-interesting. If you told me like five years from now that he was the best player out of this draft, I wouldn’t be surprised. If you told me that he was basically unplayable, I also wouldn’t be too surprised honestly.” SD: 16:48-18:16: “The problem with Josh Jackson, while he does bring all of that [defensive versatility], the reason that you wouldn’t take him is, well, one, there’s some off-court issues…Offensively, his shot is the big issue. So in the Finals, I think we saw that one-way players, it’s difficult to play these guys, and that if you are passable in team defense…but you’re good on offense, you can provide some spacing for your stars, well then that guy might be more valuable than a really, really good defender who can’t shoot at all…There’s a good chance that he won’t ever be much better than a slightly below-average starter just because his shot is a huge question…he brings it down really far, he’s got a really wonky kind of hitch in his shot.” SD: 22:07-23:14:  “By realistic expectations, I think this draft is good. It’s definitely above average. It came in, and people were talking about ‘potentially seven All-Stars, blah-blah-blah, one of the best drafts in recent memory,’ all that stuff…It’s not going to be what everybody says that it is, but that’s probably just because we all have overblown expectations anyway.” Javier Pesquera: 31:48-32:06: “We see it as him [Markelle Fultz] being at the same level as Ben Simmons more or less…You can always be a bit let down by a guy, but I think he’s both the guy with the highest floor and the highest ceiling, and that’s normally a good combination, especially when we are talking about a guy that is also that young.” JP: 39:22-39:43: “I would say that Fultz is clearly No. 1 for me, and after that, I probably have Ball and Dennis Smith Jr. in a tier by themselves after Fultz, but then it gets murkier. After those guys, between fourth and 11th or between fourth and 10th most likely, I think those six, seven guys are all more or less in the same level.” JP: 50:32-50:56: “[In terms of International players], I probably will say Frank [Ntilikina], [Anzejs] Pasecniks as a big that can have some ability and maybe you are able to stash a couple years and get him down the road. And other than that, it gets pretty dicey. I’m not really a fan of any of the other guys that are still in this class. The ones I like the most withdrew, so it’s just a bit difficult to find European prospects in this class honestly.” You can subscribe to, rate and review On the NBA Beat on iTunes Music: “Who Likes to Party” by Kevin MacLeod