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Good morning and welcome to the NBA Daily for October 28th, 2024.
Coming up, the Boston Celtics and Oklahoma City Thunder have gotten off to hot starts, we're panicking, and we're ranking how panicked we are, and we're gonna make our weekly picks at the end of the show. Good morning, everybody.
Good morning, S. Good morning, Zena.Good morning to everybody.Hope you guys had a good weekend, except for Freddie Freeman.You ruined my weekend.It was incredibly cool.Those home runs were very cool, but you killed my Yankees this weekend.
Guys, we had our first weekend of the new season, and so much stuff was happening, and I just wanna jump right in, so bear with me, because we gotta fly. I want to ask you guys a few questions.We're going to do a little game of a this or that.
You guys give me your answer.Who had the better start, the better finish, whatever.I'm going to go through a few things on my list.Okay.We want to start with the contenders because like I said, Boston, OKC, they look great to start.
S right now, both teams three and O. Boston with a plus 16 net rating.And if we're looking at the MVP watch, because we know we care about the narratives.Jason Tatum has just gotten off to a crazy start.
He's 33 points a game, six rebounds, six assists shooting almost 50% from three.And he's taken 12 a game.I mean, this is just an incredible turnaround from him, but for okay.See, I mean, number one, three and Oh, plus 18.4 net rating.
So even higher than Boston and Shea goes, Alexander is on MVP watching his own right.29 points a game, eight rebounds, six assists.
And then he also happens to have a guy in Chet Holmgren who to start the season, 12 blocks in his first three games, looks like he might be a defensive player of the year candidate.
So who has gotten off to the best start in your opinion, from the contenders, the teams that we expect to get out of the East and the West?
It's so early and it's hard to make this decision.And by the way, we got to get into how you're a Yankee fan in L.A., but that's another story for another day.It's yeah, whatever.OK, look, my pick is OKC.
And the reason for that is just strength of schedule so far.And again, it's it's not that many games, but. Look, beating Denver is big.That was a really, really impressive win.Like you mentioned, Chet and Shea were really dominant in that.
They've had three different starting lineups and they've thrown out different maturations of what looks and like what they want to try.
Beating Chicago very, very badly in the Josh Giddey reunion game and then cruising to a win in the second half against the Hawks on Sunday.I thought it was all really good.That being said, Boston has had a little bit of an easier schedule, right?
Beating Detroit, beating Washington.They had that home opener, the banner night against the Knicks.I think it's thunder just because of the strength of the schedule and they haven't had Hartenstein yet.So like. There's more to come, you know?
Yeah, I'm with you there.And I mean, look, Boston is blowing teams away and it doesn't even look close and it looks like they're going to run away with the East again.
So we may all be calling them frauds by the time we get to the playoffs anyway, because we're going to say they had too easy of a run.You know, they're looking like they're on another historic pace.
And part of that is that the East is going to be easier than the West. Both of these teams could win 60-plus games very easily.It does seem like that.The depth is just insane.Zena, we had some very nice individual performances on Sunday.
Shea Gildas-Alexander, who we talked about, of course, is going to be in the MVP talk all year long.35 points, 11 rebounds, 9 assists, 3 steals, 3 blocks against my Hawks, who are a lot of fun, by the way.And then Tyrese Maxey.
45 points in 48 minutes during an overtime win over the Pacers to give the Sixers their first win of the season.I mean, Maxie was just, he was nuts today.
I think it has to come down to the statistical breakdown of what both of these players had to do for their teams.Shea Goldis-Alexander, you kind of expect this type of performance out of him.
When you look at the amount of minutes, though, that Tyrese Maxie, on the other hand, has had to put on, literally, Out of all the players in the NBA, Tyrese Maxey has had the most amount of minutes played this year at 127.7.
He's also had the most amount of shots by 16, 86 shots taken so far this year because he has to.He doesn't have Paul George.He doesn't have Joel Embiid.So he's got to carry the team on his back.And for that reason, I'm choosing Tyrese Maxey.
The exertion he's had to put out in order to get the first win without his superstars by his side, I think it's just a little bit more impressive than what Shea Gould, just like Alexander, is supposed to do for OKC.
You know, these games where there's no Embiid, no Paul George, it's nice to kind of get the first one, get that first win, I think, if you're the Sixers, and Maxie especially.He is going to have a target on his back.
Anytime that those guys aren't there, and then when they're there, he's gonna have such an easier job.
If he's going to wind up being all NBA this season, we're gonna come back and point to this game, I think, as the game where he sort of became like a 1A option for them, where it was just like, you know what, I'm all we've got.I have to do this.
I got to play all these minutes.We got to get through it.And I do think this is going to be a very important, important game for his development.Speaking of important fourth quarter, most important quarter, right?
This is why coaches don't let their guys foul out or they foul them out themselves.Well, who had the most impressive fourth quarter takeover over the weekend?S.
We had LeBron James basically throw it back to, I don't know, his first five years in the league.I mean, he looks like he's completely energized.He had a 31-point triple-double on Saturday.
He scored 16 points in five minutes to come back and lead the Lakers to their third win.They're now 3-0.They beat the Sacramento Kings.And then Norm Powell against the Nuggets, somehow they fight off
Nikola Jokic having one of his career nights, 41 points.He had seven threes because Norm Powell had 22 points in the fourth and the Clippers wound up winning also on Sunday against the Warriors.
Clippers now two and one, great surprise early on in the season.But which one of these fourth quarter takeovers more impressive to you?
Man, making me choose between the L.A.teams.This is tough.I think ultimately it has to be LeBron and the Lakers.They've just been so impressive.You mentioned the 3-0 start.
First time since the 2010-2011 season that they've done that, which shout out to J.J.Redick and the coaching staff.They've clearly unlocked some things in Rui Hachimura and Austin Reeves and Anthony Davis, to name a few.
But I mean, the LeBron game, the fourth quarter. was just incredible.And this is just one little footnote in a massive career that has tons of these type of performances.
But when you just you see that at thirty nine years old, you have to you know, you always see the tweets where it's like, don't take LeBron James for granted.
You have to just sit back and enjoy because we're not going to get that many more of these type of performances.I don't know.
You really don't know.We keep saying this.
doing it.I got the, this game got me thinking LeBron is going to turn 40 in December.And I now that's nuts.He's going to score 40 on his 40th birthday or thereabouts, right?Like this is going to happen.
This guy, everything that, that has happened the last few years, him breaking the scoring title, him playing with Bronnie.Like I could make an argument, very manufactured. But his ability to manufacture these things is unparalleled.
And so, yeah, I don't know that we should be taking it for granted.We should just enjoy the ride because it seems like it's never going to end.Coming up after the break, guys, we are going to rank who's panicking and who's not.
Okay, you guys know how this goes.Every podcast, when they start up, they get a package.It comes with a microphone, it's got a camera, it also has a panic meter.And we're now one week into the season, so it feels a little bit early.
We thought we would take a different approach. We want to rank just how panicked some of these panickers are.And I think there's no one in my opinion that should be more panicked than the Denver Nuggets.They're 0-2 right now.
They have the worst offensive rating in the league.And if you had told me coming into this season that scoring was going to be a problem for them, I would have said, oh yeah, that seems about right. I didn't know it was going to be this bad.
They are really struggling to start the year.They look like a bunch of strangers out there in a lot of ways.The Milwaukee Bucks are on our panic rankings.They're one and two.
They dropped a game on Sunday to the Brooklyn Nets that we've all decided we're tanking.Cam Thomas just put on a show and totally ran them off the court.Middleton still out.And guess what? second night of a back-to-back tonight in Boston.
Man, they have got to be worried.Tyrese Halliburton and the Pacers, they're now one and two.They dropped a game to the shorthanded Sixers that they definitely should have won.He's shooting 32% from the field, 21% from three, and even more troubling,
less than four assists a game.Still two and a half turnovers, but less than four assists a game.He was one of 16 from three before the game against Philadelphia.
And one of those threes was a crazy acrobatic double pump buzzer beater to send the game into overtime.So just not shooting the ball well doesn't look great.
I'm sad to report that the Golden State Warriors are appearing on our panic rankings because they lost their first game to the Clippers, but even more damaging, it looks like Steph Curry's gonna miss some time.He was diagnosed with a sprained ankle.
He had to leave the game in the third quarter.Zena, you were there, and I mean, there was a hush over the crowd.We've all seen this too many times, and watching him limp down the tunnel was not great.And then finally, we have to put
the entire statue industrial complex on the panic rankings, because Dwayne Wade's statue looks more like me than Dwayne Wade, and that is not great.So guys, give me your panic rankings, give me some reasoning behind it.
Who's panicking the most, in your opinion, or who should be?
I think I'm gonna start with the warriors.You know, when you think about
Steph Curry being the anchor to their offense, Steve Kerr was asked tonight by the press corps, particularly Mark Spears from Anscape, ESPN, what do you look to, who do you look to for your offense now that Steph Curry, and he said he doesn't know.
This is a man that is playing a 12 man rotation right now.And he doesn't know who he can look to for his offense.I'm panicking if I'm the Warriors, if he has to spend some time off.
All this talk all summer, they were going to go out and get another guy, another guy who could score.But Brandon Podjemski was untouchable.They didn't know what they wanted to do with Kuminga.I think, yeah, beyond time to panic there.
S, what about you?Who's at the top of your panic rankings?
I think it has to be the Nuggets.All the concerns that we thought of in the offseason about what could potentially go wrong have gone wrong in these first two games.Their bench is shooting 22 percent in the first two games of this.
I mean, the Jamal Murray plus bench lineups that have been the common go-to bench lineup was minus 30 in their first two games.Just atrocious basketball.And
It's asking Nikola Jokic to do more than he ever has done, which is crazy because he's the massive MVP player that has, you know, shattered plus minus records all the time.So I just think that's that's number one for me.It's Denver.
But it was it was very close between the Dwayne Wade.Yeah.
I was gonna say, the Statue Industrial Complex also was- Yeah, it was bad.
I will say with the Nuggets, the positive signs for them is that Christian Brown has been pretty good in his role.Totally.The negative is that every single other player that they need coming off the bench has been bad.Michael Porter Jr.
has been awful.And Jamal Murray, I mean, we're now getting into the point where it's time to start worrying about Jamal Murray, in my opinion.Absolutely.So I'm with you there.For me, it's Milwaukee Bucks. Guys, they are now one and two.
This was supposed to be the year that they got it all figured out.Training camp with Doc Rivers, you know, we heard all the excuses last year, and I'm going to say they're excuses.He didn't think that they should have done this.
They shouldn't have hired him and brought him in mid-season, all these things.Well, I actually think that's correct. Their record 31 and 13 under Adrian Griffin.They had a positive net rating point differential.
They are 20 and 25 since Doc Rivers took over with a negative differential.That is black and white.You can see the results right there.And then when I watch these games,
They have not figured out what they're doing defensively to make up for Damian Lillard at the point of attack.And they're getting very little activity from their wings.They just didn't solve any of their problems.
And ultimately, this might not be a Doc problem.This might be a John Horst problem, where you didn't upgrade the roster enough.You've wasted some draft picks here and there.But it's a problem for the Milwaukee Bucks.
I think it's a Milwaukee Bucks problem.And as Giannis let us know right at the start of the season, Nobody's guaranteed to be there next year.And I think most importantly, he met him.Yep.
They look old.They look old.That's the main thing I would say.And, and to your point about the draft picks, like they haven't nailed any of these young guys to come and maybe inject some life into the team.
And so you start to get to the point where it's like, what? else could they do to improve this roster?And that's that's a tricky situation if you just traded for Dame and you traded all those picks and now you're locked into this aging core.
And you mentioned the Middleton part.That's a huge part of this ankles.Tough, tough day for ankles today.
Coming up after the break, we're going to look ahead at the week to come and we're going to make a few picks and see how we do.
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Big week in the NBA.Monday night is insane.There's just too many games on Monday night, but we've got some pretty marquee matchups in my opinion.So we thought it was a good time to introduce our new segment.We're going to make weekly picks.
We're going to pick three games each.This is brought to you by our friends over at BetMGM.We're going to look ahead at the week to come pick a few games and give you guys our insights and just thoughts on the games in general.
So I'm going to go first, guys, since I'm the host and I've got the microphone, my picks this week.I've got the Celtics over the Bucs.It's the second night of a back to back for the Bucs.And as we just talked about, the Bucs have serious problems.
The Celtics look pretty good.I think as long as the Celtics can cannot get bored this season, they're just going to roll through everybody.I've got Mavs over Wolves.I don't trust the Wolves scoring right now.
I think I think they're still trying to figure out how to make this all work and then how to defend when the bench comes in and they don't have Rudy Gobert.So I just trust the Mavs a little bit more right now.
And then on Wednesday and this game is going to be fun.I've got the Cavs over the Lakers.
I just think with the interior defense that you've got there with the twin towers lineup that the Cavaliers can throw out, the Lakers are going to have a tough time getting Anthony Davis going kind of in the places where he likes to touch the ball.
It's going to be a lot to ask for the guards. And I think Cleveland has just done a good enough job of so far this season defending on the wing that they're going to have an easier time with the Lakers.
It will be, in my opinion, the Lakers first test against a high level defense, though.So I'm looking forward to seeing that.S, what about you?Who you got this week?
I'm surprised you didn't say, you know, Bronny James reunion game, maybe potentially an upset there.No, I'm just kidding.But I agree with you on the Cavs front.I think they're going to win on Monday against the Knicks.Similar idea.
Knicks front court is depleted right now with a couple of injuries.I think the Cavs can take advantage with their size.
I've got the Grizzlies over the Bucs on Thursday, which again, to your point about the Bucs, it just feels like they are working through something right now.And the Grizzlies, they're fully healthy.They got Jaron Jackson Jr.back this weekend.
I think they hit a three.
We're all very excited about that.Yes, absolutely.We are.And then the Thunder over the Spurs.I think that's always a great game.That's on Wednesday night.Chet Holmgren versus Wemby.The rivalry continues, if you will.
But the Thunder are the better team right now.And I think that's going to be the case on Wednesday, too.Zena, what about your picks?
Guys, I feel like some of these picks are easy.Celtics over the Bucks, Thunder over the Spurs.Come on, let's spice it up a little bit.All right, I'll start it off.We're just getting our feet wet.I'll start it off, I'll start it off.
Pistons over the Heat.Wow.I think the Pistons are gelling right now.Jaden Ivey, Cade Cunningham finally starting to produce the things that we expect them to.I like it.In the backcourt, I like it.The Miami Heat have not gelled.
They are complete opposite right now.I don't feel as if They've really made a step since last season, step forward in terms of needing Jimmy Butler to step up.I'm picking the Pistons.Suns over Lakers on Monday, redemption game.
You know, they got the loss the other day.I feel like they're going to come out jazzed and ready.Not jazzed, maybe not the right term for that.
They're going to find the excitement to try and get a win over the Lakers, especially having felt as if the last one was kind of ripped away at the last second there.And then Grizzlies over Bucks. And I think it has to do with my man Zach Eady.
I hope that he is able to find another three and spread the floor a little bit.But particularly right now, the Grizzlies are just, they're dogs right now.John Morant is killing.I like their spacing.This is one of the things I had concerns over.
And they look really good in the half court.And the Bucks, look old and you compare them right now to the Grizzlies that are high flying acrobatic all over the place.I think this is going to be a, an ageism kind of matchup.
We're going to regret all of this at some point.And I'll say this, if the Pistons don't win a game this week, we're going to have S on the rankings because he said, this is a plan team.They're going for it this year.
And those are three close losses this week.Three competitive losses.Dave, just put it, we're moving. moving those goalposts every single day. And check out our YouTube channel.
We're actually putting the show on YouTube, so we're checking the comments over there for good stuff.Shoot us an email at NBADaily at TheAthletic.com.Let us know what you think about the show.
And I think we're going to have a mailbag posted over on the website at TheAthletic.com, so keep an eye out for that.For S. Barahenny, for Zina Kada, I'm Dave DuFour, and this has been the NBA Daily.Thanks for waking up with us.
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