22 Burst results for "Chris Herring"
The Crossover NBA Show with Chris Mannix
A highlight from Player Participation Policy & Team's We're Bullish On
"It's the Crossover Sports Illustrated NBA Show. Breaking down the latest news, rumors, and everything in between. Here's your hosts, Chris Mannix, Rohan Nadkadi, and Chris Arrington. This is the Crossover NBA Podcast. I'm Chris Mannix, joined for the first time in what feels like a long time my two colleagues over at Sports Illustrated, Chris Herring and Rohan Nadkadi. Guys, good to be back with you with the, what, three weeks, I guess, before official media days. I saw some postings, Rohan, as you shake your head. I saw some postings about media days being October 2nd. I guess that's the go -to day for most of the NBA teams, but we're inching right up on it. I just can't believe we're here. It feels like the season just ended. I'm excited. I just, I'm not mentally prepared for this. I can sense the excitement in your voice. I can say it's palatable. I can sense that excitement in your voice. All right, so on this episode, guys, I want to talk about, you know, teams that we're bullish on and teams that we might be a little bit bearish on. We're each going to pick a team that we're high on and we'll pick a team that we're low on. Before we get to that, though, we're recording this shortly after Adam Silver's post -board of governors media availability. And this media availability, the biggest storyline to come out of it was the NBA board of governors. They approved a new player participation policy, which is really a continuation in the NBA's war on load management and to a broader extent, their war on tanking. And a couple of the highlights of this new player participation policy, the policy is managed. It's rock teams have to manage their rosters to ensure that no more than one star player is unavailable for the same game. Ensure that star players are available for all national television and NBA in -season tournament games. Another new wrinkle to the NBA calendar and maintain a balance to the number of one game absences for a star player in home and road games. Basically, this combined with the minimum threshold for a number in terms of number of games played for stars to be eligible for postseason awards. This is just another lever Chris Erring that the NBA is pulling to make sure that do whatever they can to make sure that players are as available as often as possible. How do you feel about the player participation policy, which is now permanently part of the NBA rules? Look, I think it goes a little bit further than I would have gone with it, frankly. I mean, I remember when the Spurs were, you know, doing this and sitting entire, you know, half their roster out, but it was the Spurs and there's a part of me that feels like they know what's best for them as far as their rest. Sometimes they have a lot of old players on their team just because of the sorts of guys that, you know, tend to gel with the way Popovic coaches them. If you want to do that and you have the ability to do it and still pace your team the way you want to, so be it. That's the point of the league. I understand that there's a money factor to it and everything else. And I understand the disappointment that fans feel. I've been in that boat where I've gone to games or taken my nephew to a game and somebody sitting out and it is frustrating. And I can only imagine how frustrating it is for people that only get to go to one game every few years or something like that. But it's also kind of the risk you run with a sport that relies on people's health. And so I am interested to see how it's going to work when you have guys that have stuff that they're trying to manage. The Clippers are always an interesting team like that where people have complained about the way they do stuff for years, but they also have a guy that is chronically injured. And so I'm curious to see how it will play and how it will actually look. But there's a part of me that feels like the real fix to this is just either shortening the season or lengthening the season and allowing the 82 games to be played over a longer span of time. I don't really love the idea that you're going to tell teams that they can't sit out, even multiple guys, if they want to or if they frankly feel like they need to, if there's data that's telling them that that is what would serve their team the best.
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"Legitimate. He's a knockdown shooter. He's gotten better on defense as the season has gone. He's going to be a really, really good player. And you haven't even really seen all of it unlocked because he's playing in an offensive so equal opportunity, really. So it was clear a week into the season, and I wrote about him I think in the very first ten things of the year, this dude is a basketball player. He understands, he sees the game well, he feels the game well, he cuts, he rebounds, he makes the right reads on defense. And I just booked it in my brain last week in Brooklyn. He had Seth curry on him on a switch and they gave him the ball and he destroyed Seth curry and I know that, you know, well, of course he's got a big size advantage Seth curry's not a great defender. I'm talking like destroyed him, drove right through him, dunked, and not everybody can do that when they get a seismic mismatch. Like not every rookie can do that when they get a size mismatch. And I think he's gonna and you can even see it when he cuts. If he's cutting against the smaller guy and he catches it, he kind of just finishes over and through that guy. I think he's gonna be really good. He's just a good he's just a good basketball player and sabonis loves him. So bonus absolutely loves him and is pushed him really hard to mix up the way he uses the handoffs to cut back door sometimes and really sort of takes joy in that one of the coaches told me last week. I think it was one of the games against the clippers. All the coaches kind of smiled because Keegan Murray got a defensive rebound and sabonis called for the ball because sabonis sabonis, that's one of his great skills as bringing it up. Right. And Keegan and Murray looked off of him. Dropped the ball up himself and went coast to coast. I think for a basket and the coach was like, oh. Okay. He's growing up. Looked off dolmas and was like, I'll take up myself big fella. Chris herring, what do we got this week here? Newsletter comes out tomorrow, right? What else? What's the newsletter? I think at this point we're mostly cooking up stuff for the playoffs. So like a longer features for that. So I'll probably start making some more trips to lock in some of that. I got some ideas cooking, but nothing nothing massive, just the newsletter, like you said, and I'll probably have one other piece later this week. Well, in the kings, the king's piece you mentioned came out what a couple of weeks ago. Yeah. It might have been last week. I'm getting, it's all running together for me, but it was really recent. It was earlier this month, for sure. The pandemic has definitely destroyed everybody's sense of when things happened and why and how. And I see you in a hotel room, so I know it's probably blending together for you too, brother. You know, it's all good. I like Los Angeles. I love Los Angeles. I've grown as a New Yorker as a proper New Yorker, which I will still claim, even though I'm now a suburban loser. A suburban loser, yeah, no, I'll just leave it at that. I was properly not pro Los Angeles for a long time. Like, oh, it's the other coastal city. It's too glitzy. It's two. People care too much about how they look and their cars and their traffic and blow. By trip number 7 out here, I was like, oh, I get it. It's always warm. Yep. People are whining here that it's been raining lately. I'm like, look, there are a lot of problems and what that portends to the summer and the wildfires and all that. Those are real things, but man, it's nice here all the time. There's tons of smart creative people here. The beach is not far away. You learn how to game. You learn how to game traffic as best you can. I'm a huge, huge fan. I tried to relocate our family to Los Angeles and I was oh boy. I had a lunch with I had a lunch with mirin fader, the great, great feature writer over at the ringer. And we were out in LA one day. And it was like an awakening for me because it was 80 and it was at a time where it was really cold in Chicago. And I was like, it was the first time I really hit me. I did not have a proper appreciation for Miami even because we were there so many summers in a row for those LeBron finals. And it's like, to me, I'm like, oh, what's the difference? 90 here, sure. But it's 90 everywhere in June. You have to go to LA and Miami when it's like January, December. And then you have a full appreciation for it. So I understand. If the heat have a home standard early January, I try to take my family from Toronto where we go for Christmas to Miami for new year's and again, like a proper New Yorker, I assumed all the worst things about Miami before I started spending time there. I am now like a Miami evangelist. Miami is two. Amazing. And there was one year we went from Toronto to Miami, where in the span of that three year and whatever our flight, we gained 100°F. 100. It was like -20 in Toronto and 80 in Miami. And I was like, this is my fiance's favorite place. So if I end up living there in the next food is amazing. Why it happened? Art is amazing. Diversity. You hear different languages, different cuisines, Miami is wildly, not it's not underrated. It's properly rated. There's a reason why everybody loves go to Miami because it turns out it's freaking awesome. Okay, that's the end of our NBA series. Love fest. Chris herring at SI dot com. Read him, listen to him, subscribe to his newsletter.
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"At now? He's not gonna win your work. I know. I know what you want, but I think I looked at him and it was like, I think he had 20, what he had 28 starts out of 59 games. He's played so far. So he's like, right on that line. So he may be off to the rulers, you have to come off the bench more than you start. But the bulls look good things happen when he's on the floor. Then that's been the case for a while. Cole Anthony missed a bunch of games early in the season. Yeah. It has been a key engine since then for the magic. You want to mention some names? Well, I'll yield the floor to you. Any names you want to say? I looked at those last two that you just mentioned between Caruso and Cole. But I figured this always happens whenever we do this, like you always have a few names where I'm like, I didn't seriously look at that one, but I looked. So those were really the last two Caruso. And I realized right away. You still got the name. Oh my God, I'm a nice person. I like to compliment people for their good work. Dante divincenzo. Okay. I can't even read who this is. Oh, you're talking about my handwriting and none of you read your own stuff. Come on, man. It's a very deep cut. And again, he's not going to make the ballot. The thunder are plus 8 per 100 possessions with Isaiah Joe on the floor and minus two with him off the floor and considering that Shea is a low volume three point shooter. Giddy is a shaky three point shooter. Dorts to shake a three point shooter. J dub has been a better three point shooter of late, but doesn't Garner all that much respect. They're just different when he's on the floor. Now he only plays 18 minutes a game. So forget it. But he makes the count though. He's had a very good season. Malik Beasley, love it. Russell Westbrook, not gonna make my ballot, but you know, he embraced the role with the Lakers. Now he's starting with the Clippers hard to know kind of what to make of that candidacy. Jose alvarado and Larry Nance junior, you both fell out of this conversation, but when you were healthy, you were quite good. Kenrich Williams, shout out Kendra Williams, always shout out to Waco wave, hairstyle, kenrich Williams? Zach Collins, quietly has sort of rebuilt his career after I think three seasons basically lost to injury 11 and 6 a game, 52% shooting 39% on threes. The spurs are bad regardless of who's on the floor because they're just bad, so ignore the scoring mark. Just kind of a nice story. The guy rebuilt his career and I wanted to say his name. There are other names I could say, but I'm gonna leave the names there. Fair enough. Did you want to, we talked about this offline? Did you want to talk about rookies that I thought we were going to maybe transition from math at one point to the way we kind of talked about The Rookie of the year ballot? But first team all rookie is going to be, I think banquero, Jalen Williams, Mather and Kessler are going to be all pretty close to unanimous choices, right? And so what do you think for that? You're going to hear some Keegan Murray, Jade and ivy, jabari Smith junior, I just love tar yeast and so much that I'm going to say his name too. I have him on my list too. Anyone else? For right now, any other guys I'm considering for first team probably not. I think Keegan Murray and ivy, I think are kind of the two that I think people are going to probably take a beat on to figure out. And at least with me, I feel like after that, there's a little bit of a drop off, but the second team will be really interesting because I feel like there's like 8 9 guys. Maybe if you think I've spent 5 seconds thinking about second team all rookie yet, you are mistaken. My friend. Okay, well, I had to take some time to figure out who wasn't going to make my first team when we had this conversation. That's true. We just sort of named a few guys that are going to be second team. I think having done no statistical research other than, you know, my day to today life of covering the league. If you're forcing me to choose between Keegan Murray and Jade and ivy for the last first team all rookie spot, I'm gonna just sort of default to the guy who's been on a winning team playing playing in a context in which what he does actually matters like Jada and ivy has freedom to just do and he has I wrote about Jade and ivy in ten things two weeks ago. The Jayden and ivy now compared to the Jayden ivy 20 games in is a completely different player. Much more under control, changing pace, slowing down, shooting better, the crazy turnovers are a little bit down, which is what you want to see. I think in my column, I said, look, we expect everyone to improve from year one to year two. It's not always linear like that. Some guys stagnate, some guys make huge leaps. I think Jade and ivy is a candidate to make a bigger than expected leap from year one to year two bigger than standard for guys, even picked in his range. I'm just kind of gonna default to the guy whose games are important. And I think that's okay. I would not blame you for that. I haven't made up my mind really on that last spot. I mean, Keegan, when I was first of all, really fun guys. They kind of make fun of it. You had that interview with Kevin herder probably a couple months back. And he mentioned, I think that Keegan doesn't, he's like not experimental at all with what he eats at all. And so I had fun when I went down there to speak to him about some of it. I asked him like, what's the most adventurous thing you ate? And he looked over at the PR person and he was like, what was it that you guys made me try? And it was like red snapper. He's like, oh, yeah, like I hated that. So he was really fun to talk to, but even him. I find him fascinating because he is a guy that while he was at Iowa, he did not, there weren't handoffs were not involved in his college offense. And then he goes to play with the kings and it's like, this is the hub of their offense is to use handoffs with sabonis and with herder. It's kind of, I don't know if you would call it the thing that is kind of catapulted them, but if it's not the thing, it's like up there with the other things. Keegan Murray at one point, when I was researching the story that I was writing in mid February, late February, he had the highest effective field goal percentage in the league off guys that were getting, I think, two handoffs a game, higher than Steph. So higher than herder. Like, he's a guy that, to your point, me validating what you're saying as far as like, if he's your guy for the fourth spot, fit spot whatever on that first team, you can not argue with it.
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"To a slow start, then he searched. Just like every other game, something leaves me cold like he still hasn't figured out his fit. He's not impacting the game as much as you would hope. And then every other game it's like this is exactly what they envision. I just don't think I don't think he's there with quickly and broadening. I don't have him there, maybe he could have been just if he stayed healthy. I think the last few games before he was out. We're a little bit rough. And who knows? It could be like I was looking at some of the numbers for these guys in certain situations. He gets very few shots and the closing moments of games where the two stars are on the floor. For obvious reasons because the two stars are on the floor, but it's just, you know, you wonder to some extent if it makes it more difficult for somebody like that to hop in and be a part of that. We watched Lou Williams do it, I guess, but it's maybe it was more natural for him to do it because he was a ball handling guard as opposed to someone that was kind of flying off the wing around a screen or something like that. He looked like the hands down favorite for a while. You know, to a lot of people for a good chunk of the season. But yeah, I just kind of feel like I will say, you know, the clippers who haven't given a flying, you know what about the regular season for four years? Are running out of time to figure out their rotation now that they've added Westbrook and Eric Gordon, who's been sensational for them and plumlee, who's a very good backup center. It is interesting to watch ty lue toggle through the closing lineups and last night, who'd they be last night? Why am I blanking on who they beat last night? Anyway, they beat somebody last night. It was a nice win for the clip of Portland, I think. They closed with Westbrook, Gordon, the two stars, and zubots. So Gordon in place of Marcus Morris, which is a lineup that I know a lot of people had been looking to see if you're going to put Gordon in the closing 5. The assumption in a lot of places has been, well, it will be for Westbrook. And that's been the case in a couple of games too. But a lot of people have been watching Morris has kind of been a little shaky this season, particularly defensively. I wonder if they'll try it in place of Boris and they did last night, how does norm Powell's return presumably impact that? I still like the look of Nick batum with that group. Nick patum belong is on my long list. He just doesn't quite score enough, which sounds rich coming from the guy who me who wanted Andre Iguodala to win this award like a multiple times with the warriors. But I know how it's different. But some of these scores like quickly and broaden are also good defensive players. This is not empty calories, bench scoring by those guys. But just an interesting interesting clippers note as long as we're talking about Powell. You were going to say something about Malik monk, I think. Yeah, just him and portis were really, I had a list of basically four guys and, you know, all of them have missed a little bit of time. I feel like quickly is the only guy that is basically been there every single night monk has been there for the most part too. I think he actually missed one or two of the games that I was at in Sacramento because of an injury, but he's been fantastic. And I think I was a little skeptical. We've looked at the kings for so long now. And with them having a lot of guys that seem to bring firepower on offense and not much defense. I was really skeptical of his fit with this team, but this team has basically turned out to be a team that defends hard in the fourth quarters. They've defend pretty well most fourth quarters. But they've got an offense that is basically like, what are you going to do to stop us? And Malik monk is a massive part of that. You mentioned the interchangeability with him and heard her sometimes. And I feel like watching Malik monk in some of these games, particularly that clippers win, the double overtime game, where with one 76 to one 75, the guy went for 45 points. He is shot it well and closing moments. There are plenty of games where he closes for her when herder doesn't play particularly well. He's a plus 33 in the clutch. She's shot 19 for 35 in the clutch. And, you know, someone that I don't really think of is a table setter. He's had 13 assists in three turnovers and the clutch is well for a team that's won a bunch of close close games. Fox gets so much credit for the clutch production and it's gonna win hands down and that was Jerry West. The Jerry westwards. I'll tell ya. Joel embiid's made a lot of big shots this year. I think Joel embiid's making a late Jerry West award push, but then again, you're gonna get some angry kings fans to respond to that. They're all great. They're trying to cling to everything they vote on that award.
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"For a year or two started, Alfred Payton, they have a, they have a pretty good group of guards now. For some reason, that just didn't mention of Alfred Payton Nick's starting point guard just hit me in the solar plexus in a way I did not. I just didn't expect that to be part of my life today. If it hit you that way, imagine how it hit Nick fans when they're in the midst of a playoff run trying to start the guy and playoff games. So but even with those guys off the floor because I think when you look at the numbers, brogden, when he's out there without Tatum or brown, which, you know, you're going to be out there with that Brown just with the injuries and stuff like that. I think the Celtics have been like a -5 per 100. When quickly has been out there without Randall Brunson or Barrett, who was the guy that gets a lot of shots sometimes. He's been a plus 6 and a half per 100. So he just he feels like more of an engine sometimes. Like you said, brogden, and that was the way people felt when Brockton was dealt there when they made the trade for him is that wow, like that was a hell of a piece to go add to this cog that had just made it to the finals. Quickly is just a guy that you plug them into the starting lineup. He has the game that he had against the Celtics and helps them win it in overtime two overtimes, I think. He's defending his butt off. He's a guy that is just launching from crazy spots on the floor. He's the guy that runs it up in transition. He's a guy that will make defensive plays that kind of can change the game. He's a guy that has added to his game a little bit. He's always had the floater, but he's been more efficient than with it than ever. He's a guy that, you know, every now and then you look up he's hitting relocation threes, which has kind of been more part of his diet this year. He just kind of feels like the guy to be right now. And I will also mention too as you're mentioning the statistical profile for these guys, he's also played way more minutes than just about anybody in this conversation. He's played, I don't know if it's been everything he's played. I think he's missed one game. Yeah, so because of that, he's at 71 games and more than 2000 minutes. And brogden, despite being relatively healthy this year, is at 60 games in 1550 for minutes, and that's kind of where most of these guys in this conversation are is between the 14, 15, 1600 range at most. When I look down at somebody like tyus Jones, for instance, Westbrook, if you want to go that far down, the list has 1800 minutes. So quickly is kind of got a huge advantage here from a minute standpoint because he's played in most of these games. Some of which he's been a star of some of which have gone to overtime, but that strikes me as a factor when you've got a race that I think is this close in this competitive. I think the simplest way to boil down the notion that he feels more essential to what the Knicks are is he closed his gains in Malcolm Brogdon doesn't always close games. Quickly and heart are stealing minutes from Grimes and Barrett every single night. Josh Hart, by the way, the new mayor of New York City is not eligible for 6 men of the year because I know how many games for the blazers. Isn't that crazy that you said that about Derek white and they've got heart and he's been like a 6 man level guy since he's been there, but he was a starter the whole season. Wherever box out Josh Hart is on the scattering report, it needs to be moved up like 9 slides because that dude is trying to get every single offensive rebound. On top of everything else he does, the passing and the coast to coast drives a defense all that. But someone's got boxes ass out or else he's gonna get like ten offensive rebounds in one of these games. So yeah, I think both of these guys would be deserving, here are some other names. Here are some other names. Let's go through some other names. If we think those are the top two. Here are people that I think deserve upper Echelon love. And with more games, I think would be closer. So Bobby portis, I think, was a very popular choice midway through the season. He's average 14 and ten. 26 minutes a game. She's missed 11 games. Shooting well. Now his three is starting to pick back up against shooting almost 60% on twos. Just always seems to get a bucket at the right minute for the bucks. And can flow in and out of every kind of lineup type with Giannis with Lopez with neither of them if necessary is the only big guy on the floor. I feel like he's kind of fallen behind the other two. We should probably talk about what Austin Reeves did last night for the last putting up 35 points and I've said on this podcast the last couple of times we've talked about him. I think in the absence of in various overlapping or non overlapping periods, LeBron Davis and Russell, he has over the last 6 weeks amped it up as a score and sort of shed the, oh my God, I'm playing with these guys deference. I think he needs to keep that mindset when those guys come back because he can he can score well enough off the dribble that he's a threat and if defense is treat them as a threat, it's gonna open up his passing, which is maybe his best skill. He's averaging 12 points, three rebounds three assists on 52% shooting 39% from three. The Lakers are plus two with him on the floor of minus three with him off the floor. I think he's in the conversation for a ballot spot for 6 man of the year, which really, I don't think a lot of people would have predicted that before the season. Oh, of course not. And to your point from last night, look, what did he finish with 30? Would you say 35? Like he had like what 16 trips to the line or something? It was like, these are AD type numbers, just as far as the production getting to the line with LeBron Al with Westbrook no longer on the team is a huge contribution. And I've always thought and kind of wondered for teams like this. Even Minnesota, we talked about that with having towns out for as long as they did now. Now, Anthony Edwards, you need, I feel like most championship teams part of what forges them and really catapults them to that is when they have someone out, someone steps up and becomes way more important than you thought they could be. And they keep those skills kind of hone those skills while someone is out, get used to taking on more responsibility so that they're a better player when those people come back. And I just think that that was potentially huge for them. Last night, but also the way he's been playing in general. Speaking of Minnesota, on my long list, but not my shortlist, just a guy whose name I wanna say, Nas read, only plays 8 only plays 18 minutes a game, just not enough minutes. Malik monk, 14 points, 36% shooting on threes, 23, 24 minutes a game, so his minutes aren't quite the top bench guys are like 28 minutes ish a game. But he's just a guy if you watch the kings, you know when he's on the floor, the other team is like uh oh, this guy's on the floor and he'll have some quiet games, but his loud games are as loud as anybody in the league. The version of their starting 5 when he's in place of herder is really, really good. And essential now that herders dealing with the day to today injury, I think he is in the short short list of this conversation too. So you've now listed the other two guys that I kind of have that conversation. I imagine we'll talk about norm palette at some point. I just think kind of the timing of him being out is going to be. We don't need to talk about him. Nor Powell is averaging 16 a game. Christian Woods averaging 17 a game. Norm Powell is just a better player than Christian wood. Yeah. He has a deeper trust of his coaching staff than Christian wood does. He's shooting 40% on threes. He's a 16 games and counting are now, I think it's up to 17 games and counting. And just, I don't know, man. When you watch the clippers, every other game, you just you just feel like you got off to a slow start, then he searched. Just like every other game, something leaves me cold like he still hasn't figured out his fit. He's not impacting the game as much
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"About 6 man of the year, which was ostensibly the reason why you're on here. I like, I'd love to do this a little awards things. In 6 million years, always interesting because when you go through it, you are reminded that certain candidates that you might like are not eligible because just like injuries thrust them into the starting lineup. So I think several guys are close and are not going to be eligible, Gary Trent junior is not going to be eligible Jordan Poole's not going to be eligible not that he's a good I've been frankly disappointed with his season. His turnovers, man. Three turnovers a game where there are turnovers like when Steve Nash committed a lot of turnovers like I see what you're doing there and there's sort of like, it's baked into this is what makes us go is your risky passing and all of this. Jordan Poole's turnovers are like, were you aiming for the guy in the fourth row? Like, what are you doing, man? Anyway, and I think the poster guy for this is Malcolm Brogdon is going to get a lot of publicity for 6 man of the year. I think he's one of the four or 5 frontrunners for it. I actually think Derek white has been better than he has for the Celtics, but Derek white has started a million games because everyone's injured so he's not eligible even though in the Celtics are at full strength. He and brogden are the best bench back court in the NBA, but I'm not able to vote for him. So anyway, I have a long list and a short list of like 7 guys and then I have after the 7 guys. Guys whose names I just want to say because I think they've had a nice season. Where would you like to start this conversation? Do you have a clear favorite? I'm not sure there's a clear favorite right now, but it looks like it might be starting to coalesce around somebody. I've got like two, three guys that I think are like really, really in it, and even with that, I would say more like two, so do you want to work backwards? No, that's from the guys like the long list, guys? No, let's start with the two. 'cause you've got a narrow to two, which is narrower than I have it. Although if I actually sat down and that's what I did about it, thought about more like if I had to make some tough cuts, who would I cut? I wonder if we're gonna come to the same, I have a hunch who your same two guys is. Can I guess who they are? Sure. Malcolm Brogdon. In a manual quickly. Yes. So I think Nick's fans I want to be clear on this. There are ten games left. This is my initial snapshot. Snapshot, not my deep dive, not my decision, not my ballot, not anything like that. I think a manual quickly might be the favorite now to win this award. He has been that good and statistically, you know, Brogdon is at 15.4 and four, 49% shooting 46% on three. So he's got the shooting advantage. Quickly, is it 14 three and four 45% shooting 36% on three is there about even on twos? The nicks have been way better with quickly on the floor versus off the floor. That's been the case for years. Part of that was their starters were so bad before this season. Brogden, the Celtics have been good either way. Defensively and rebounding quickly is just a menace to society and he just feels to me and this is almost unfair to brogden because it's demitting him for playing on a better team with two superstars or one superstar and one borderline all NBA player at least in jaylen Brown. Quickly just feels more essential to the Knicks identity and feel and style that brogden does in Boston Prague and Felix ingredient you plop in. He plays a little differently than the rest of the south. He's like, go do your thing, get us some buckets. It's great. Quickly feels essential to the fabric of the Knicks in a way that brogden does into the Celtics. I mean, you're not going to get an argument for me here. I mean, if I'm being fully transparent, I probably have quickly ahead here. Which by the way, a month into the season, you would have not have thought we would get here with the way he was shooting. No, not at all. There's that. There's the fact that I picked Brogdon as my preseason 6 man of the year as well, not that I'm also I'm also someone that I'm also someone that I'm pretty sure last year had embiid is my preseason MVP and then voted jokic. So I mean, stuff happens over the course of a season. And I would not shy away from the fact at all that quickly and there have been particular games, one of which was against brogden in the Celtics, where he just feels so integral to what they're doing. And frankly, there's a part of me like brogden is a fine defender. It's not a knock on him, certainly. He'd be better defensively than most of the people that win 6 man are, by the way. He's better guarding up in size than quickly is, but quickly, I think, has been better overall. Yes, and there's a part of me that thinks that likes the idea of quickly getting the award just because I think the defensive stuff has become a huge part of his MO with the Knicks and again, you know, first of all, I think it was Zach kramp who over at the ringer that did a piece. It was about brogden, much, much earlier in the month, and it was basically saying like, Brogdon would not fit the prototype for who wins this award because neither him nor quickly are like, I don't even know if they're top 5 and scoring for bench guys, like math, a rookie has averaging more than both of them. But I mean, quickly averages, I think even a little bit less than brogden does from a scoring perspective. But he's just, I mean, you talked about his numbers advanced stuff. What are the Knicks like 11 points better? Defensively, per 100 possessions with quickly on the court, something ridiculous. And also, like you said, in the past that sometimes been because the Knicks were just so bad, starting wise.
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"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"And even if he's at full throttle, even if Desmond bane continues to play like he was before he got injured and he's been sensational. And Jaron Jackson the last few games without morant is putting up 25 30 a game look sensational. So they'll have their big three. And that's a real big three. I just think if Adams is a shell of himself and Clark is gone, I just don't think they have enough to now the west is so chaotic, because they went around, yeah, could they be in the dogfight for the second round, sure. I think this now becomes a season where they could have made a run to the finals and I think it's now without those two guys that's been totally overshadowed by Moran. I think it's unlikely. Just to say the least. And I'm just, you know, we'll see these other teams every year will change, but every day they'll change our sort of perception of them, but you mentioned, you know, we talk about LeBron as kind of an aside, you know, if he can come back, they're gonna be in the plan. I would be shocked at this point if they're not in the play and they're 35 and 37, they're tied with the Minnesota who's quietly on a three game losing streak and Anthony Edwards got hurt last week. That's not great. I just think the Lakers should be able to hold off Utah, New Orleans. I know that's not a high bar to clear, but I think they should be able to do that. I think they're dangerous with LeBron and in plotting out what would be the most fun first round series. The grizzlies are usually involved because the grizzlies are just, they talk to everybody. Everybody hates them. The Dylan Brooks Klay Thompson feud is like the most fun thing going on in the NBA right now. Godzilla Brooks just stopped doing things, by the way. Did you see that pushing of the cameraman? Like, dude, what are you doing? It's a cameraman. I know. I know. He's not on the other team. Just leave him alone. He's trying to do his job. Why do you have to do like, it's fine to be an irritant to the other team? All this extra stuff is like, we get it, man. This is who you are. You've become casual sports fans know who Dylan Brooks averaging ten points a game is because of all this stuff, just like maybe dial it back 15%. I don't even know what the hell. Oh, the Lakers. Can you imagine based on everything we just talked about? If the Sacramento Kings after 16 years out of the playoffs, somehow draw the Lakers in the first round and it's kings Lakers with all that history and all the California geography and everything, oh my God. Like part of me and I love this part of not being a fan of any team. At least anymore, you know, from basically when I was a kid, maybe a young teenager, you just get to root for what would be the most fun to watch. And without caring about who's going to win or who's going to lose. That would be incredible. I mean, for a few days there, we had the sons and the warriors. And position the place. We would get the thing whereas kings fans figure out where the Lakers are staying and like we would get these things like they're going to call, they're going to set the fire alarm off at three in the morning. They're going to try and tamper with the food. It's like all that stuff would happen again. I wouldn't put anything past these. These kings fans are hilarious also, by the way. I had wanted my story. What I'm always really curious about are the people that just barely miss out on being able to experience this night in night out. So I talked to some season ticket holders. Former season ticket holders and some that are still current season ticket holders. But I wanted to talk to someone and I think I put out a question on Twitter of like, are there any kings fans that follow me that had season tickets last year and in light of breaking the record for the longest playoff drought in history and the Halliburton sabonis trade that people felt a certain way about at the time? Is there anybody that essentially abandoned their season tickets and just let them lapse? And I got someone who did that and he was able to talk his wife into getting them last year after years of trying. It's not an overly wealthy person. He's a baggage handler at the airport there in Sacramento. And now kind of side eyes his wife like Nancy, I told you like we would want to stick with this, but last year when they were terrible and he couldn't make it to all the games because he had the job, he couldn't sell the tickets for anything. So it was just you had to just take a loss on every night because you could not give those tickets away. Now they're great, but I talked to another season to get there. Caesar took it holder. And he was like, Chris, let me just walk you through it. Like I've had these tickets since 2017. It's wonderful now, but in the years where they're terrible, it's like, it's like paying child support for 15 children that just constantly disappoint you. Having seized the tickets. And it was one of the funniest quotes that I forgotten, but again, I'm just really happy that I'm in at the end of that tunnel. You get to see some light. Part of me, I've said this. I really want to be at that first game. That first playoff game just experienced that. I got a chance to cover the Knicks. In 2012, they had been to the playoffs a few years before that with Carmelo NMR and everything, but I really want to be there for that first game because you know it will be electric. If it's the Lakers, it'll be insane. It would just be incredible, the atmosphere there. And watching the betting od be really interesting, quite frankly, too, for a series like that just because I want to say when the Lakers played this song. I bet the Lakers walk in his favorites. I mean, that wasn't that the case essentially a couple of years ago when the suns were the two in the Lakers were the 7. I want to say, obviously, 80 got hurt right at the beginning of that series, but you have to you are contractually obligated to mention that Chris Paul also got hurt or everyone in Phoenix will scream at you on social media. So please. Hey there low post listeners. You. Let's talk about Etsy. If you haven't yet, you'll love shopping on Etsy for
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"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"That's the plan. Anyway, so we got a little clarity on that. The Durant and Andrew Wiggins timetables are a little bit less sort of clear, but let's be optimistic, I guess, if we choose to. Who would you pick right now to win the west? This is a non binary picture. It's a fun pick. Don't worry about it. Who would you pick based on, not if everyone's healthy, not if all these ideal things happened is based on what we know now. You know what I would do, 'cause I thought about this this morning. I think it bodes well for Phoenix that if all these other teams are still trying to figure stuff out that it doesn't put Phoenix anymore behind the 8 ball of getting cohesion with Durant. Also, and I don't really suspect this, but you know, I'm always that person that at the beginning of a season, my first year covering the MBA was 1213, the Knicks. So it was like the last time next fans were having this much fun basically. 54. 54 games. They were a two seed, some people thought that they could realistically get to the Conference Finals and take out Roy. Knicks fans are doing it in their way, dominant. Dominant series by Roy hibbert. It was. But because of that year, I think it's always made me more. That was a year where carmela Anthony ended up playing power forward because of mare stoudemire kind of got hurt or had a messed up knee right before the season. And it kind of forced the Knicks to play around with their lineups a little bit more. So they played lineups at the beginning of the season that they really hadn't rolled out at all. They had like 6 new guys on that team, Jason Kidd was on that team in his last year. And so they were running out with two point guard lineups with kid and Felton. And it made me wonder for a while because the next jumped out to the best start in the league and a lot of it had to do with their spacing and playing mallet before. But it made me wonder like, do teams that haven't had that there's really no film on or very limited film on, is there something that they benefit from out of the gate because essentially it's kind of a crapshoot as to how you're going to defend them and how you're going to play them. So I know that obviously Durant got a couple games in with them. But there's a part of me that wonders you will not have seen some of the counters that they're going to throw out there. Some of the sets that they could potentially implement or other things like that. Kevin Durant, we've talked about how he's kind of the most seamless superstar that you can just plug in to something kind of a plug and play superstar. So I think that all the things that people have wondered about and even some of my colleagues at SI have said like, man, I don't think you can realistically put the suns right there. It's like the favorite with the rant not playing, but we're looking at the Lakers and their situation and maybe them becoming more of a threat if they can make it in and they're healthy and they've got a new rotation of guys. We're talking about the warriors not being able to win on the road and they would need to potentially win four. In a series or not for road games, but they didn't do it for games in a series. And at least one on the road, if they're going to win as a lower seed, the nuggets are doing what they're doing, the grizzlies is you just mentioned. And a lot of people are a lot of people just kind of assume that some of these teams are going to be taking aim at the kings. I don't know if anybody's realistically going to tank their way into a spot to gun for anybody because I think that the standings are just too close, but what being topsy turvy for basically everybody at this point, I do think that that bodes well for a team like Phoenix. So I answered Phoenix and I don't need to repeat it. You just summed it up very well. Kevin pelton said, if it's chaos and you're asking me to make a pick now, I'm just going with the team that has the best record in home court advantage. So he went with Denver. And I spent some time with the kings, the kings were in New York last week. I can tell you this. If teams are aiming for the kings, the kings the kings right now to a man, coach's players, probably the mascot, whoever pushes the beam, Vivek Rana diva, who I was able to say hello to in the corridor, and I wonder if he knows how much fun I've made of him over the years, probably does. They're all all of them. Their reaction is bring it. You wanna bring it. We're number two in the west, we're not scared of anybody. We're healthy, we see all of you wobbling in uncertainty. We have faith in the way we play our defense. It's not great. We think it's probably a little better than the numbers. That's what they'll tell you. Like, because teams have been hot from mid range from three, all season. But yeah, you know, we're not a great defensive team. They're offense. I have a piece coming out on the kings tomorrow. They're offense is a bear. It's just one in the league by a lot. And they love this idea that all things are going to slow down on the playoffs, you know, they won't be able to get out in transition. And they love it. They're like, wait until you see us in a playoffs. We might even play faster. I so I'm right there with you on that from that standpoint just because I spent some time with them last month. And I just had a piece come out on them last week, I think for the magazine. And it's so interesting because, you know, when you report out these longer pieces and I don't know that the average reader knows this, a lot of times it comes together over a week over two weeks. In my case, even though my story is up, I think it's just now coming out in the magazine. But I went to Sacramento. You went to Sacramento. I went there for one of these back to back so you were talking about to try to get multiple players and Mike Brown and Monty mcnair one on one and it's so interesting because now it feels like it was such a long time ago. I talked to them right before the all star break. And talking to Monte mcnair, I ended up deciding really not to play up some of his quotes from the story, but I essentially asked him because I could hear how adamant he was at the time where if you go back and look, the kings had a record that, you know, yes, they would have been favored to make the playoffs at the all star break, but it wasn't like a completely completely completely foregone conclusion that they would. When sabonis broke his thumb, which is sort of the flashbulb moment of their season, they were 17 and 14. Like they were, they were solid, but like you said, a two game losing streak from being tenth. And I was pushing my editors to let me go rest story about the kings in November because I think a lot of us thought this is a really fun, cute story, a team that hasn't won it a while a fan base is electric because of that. But let me go write this story now before it's not necessarily this big fuzzy feel good story anymore when they start losing. And obviously they kept winning, sabonis kept playing, but in talking to Monty mcnair right before the all star break, I asked him a question of I hear so much emphasis on playoffs and I get it because it's been 16 years, but how do you transition from
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"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"Basically when the starters aren't together. And when he's off the floor that they have problems and Mike Brown is kind of cycled through back up big after Becca, they're trying to find something trying to find some formula and there really hasn't been one that's worked for them. So because they're a third place team, I think is a fair question to ask again. I don't know how much anyone expects of them beyond a first round. Beyond making the playoffs still trying to solidify that spot. But, you know, they are a third place team in a competitive west. So it was interesting to not see them make any move there. Yeah, I don't quite trust their depth, even though lyles has been pretty consistent for them. It just feels like if monk does it make shots, I don't know what they're getting off the bench, but they're starting lineup has been great and the virgin of that lineup with the monk in place of herder has also been good. On Cleveland, interestingly, a lot of the guys that you mentioned who were like, maybe this guy can be our three. They're now playing back up four a lot because they've benched Kevin Love, who was their backup for. So Osman and wade are spotting minutes or spotting minutes there. They did pick up Danny Green. You know, TBD is coming off an ACL injury. It's a very nice coming home story. For him, and I think that wraps up my, I did have Russ on the list, I do think one of the more hilarious subplots of the last part of the season is the clippers players going on an all out lobbying game. It's so weird for them to sign Russ. Not understand so weird. Not maybe understanding anything might be sabotaging their own team. And their fans do not think they're front office really wants anything to do with it either. So that's kind of fun. The guy that played in the same arena, by the way, that same city, San Marina and everything and it's like, did you not just see what it just happened with the team that shares your building, but Dylan Brooks was Dylan Brooks was on my list, apologies to the degree. Dylan Brooks was on my list too. Who I forgot to mention in my sort of Western Conference contenders that the sons need to be concerned of thing. Obviously the grizzlies are in over two in the west we all know that Chris is against. We all know I love the grizzlies. All right, Chris Heron, you gotta go. Catch your newsletter every Tuesday. It comes out, sign up for it. You'll be a smarter NBA person. Read all this stuff at Sports Illustrated subscribe to sports literature, because you only get four or 5 articles for free. Then you gotta start paying up for it. Chris herring, your work is second to none. Thank you for your time. I really appreciate that because I was good to be on with you.
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"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"As much as he's so talented on offense, they hadn't figured out they hadn't worked out the kinks even on that end where towns talent should carry the day and a shooting should carry the day. Their offense wasn't very good. Their defense was. And their defense when it's been bad, it's just been when globe is off the floor. Right. And so that's kind of what I'm getting at is offensively, I always had that question with them. Whenever I've seen a team with two bigs that have to be on the floor, how do you use them? There are ways you would use towns if he was out there by himself. There are ways you would use Gobert if he was out there by himself. When you run simple screen and rolls, who's getting that action and where does the other person stand? Are they in the dunker spot? Are they hanging out at the three point line? Do you just have town standing there? Some sequences, despite how impactful a player he is, how great a shooter he is. Is it a waste of someone's possession? And that's without even factoring in Anthony Edwards. Which now becomes a little easier because now you can have him run more screen and rolls because Russell's not there, but before you just had guys that were essentially obsolete for whole possessions, whole sequences, whole quarters. And it just doesn't work. So it may be become simplified now. I think it's actually a great pick for just most intriguing kind of storylines for individual players. For my last one, I don't think it was quite a sexy ass one I've talked about a little bit before. I've been intrigued all year by Cleveland and the fact that not only for a second year in a row at this point in the year, they still have the best net rating in the east. They were like this for much of last year too. So when you were talking about the idea that they will potentially slot ahead certain teams in the east, that has always voted well for them. They've got the best defense in the league. And Isaac okoro, who we'd been wondering, like, who is going to fit that small forward spot that last starting spot after the clear four, the four clear all stars that they had, who's going to slide into that last spot, okoro, who started the year the first chunk of the year shooting like 24 25% from three has been like 40 something in the mid, low 40s for the better part of the last month and a half now, since the new year turn, it seems to answer that question, because he'd been playing better, it shouldn't be a surprise that Cleveland didn't go and make a trade. They also don't have a ton of assets at this point because of everything they gave up in the Mitchell deal. But the question, it's going to be interesting because I think that they've been solid enough they're good enough on defense to where if you want to make an argument that they could make a run come postseason, I think that's fair. It's unusual to see a team just jump into the playoffs for the first time and then win multiple series, though. So what happens with them, the fact that they didn't make a deal, the fact that they've got guys that can play the three, I don't think that they're really the prototype of what we would think about that team needing. And that spot you're going to need guys that can try to make an honest effort to guard Yanis and Tatum and guys like that. I'm wondering how much they decide to fall back on someone like mobley if okoro is it hitting shots if they decide that dean wade is not the guy they want to use there of Keras Laverne is not capable for the job. Who do they use? Again, I wasn't expecting them to make a deal. I think they were one of two teams that did not them in the bulls, but, you know, on some level, maybe it's a vote of confidence. Maybe they knocked around a little bit, but again, they don't have the assets. So I'm very intrigued to see what happens there. I was just as interested to see whether Sacramento would do something at the trade deadline to address the backup big position, we talk about them, you know, the way we were talking about Portland earlier being like basically one of the best offense is one of the very worst defenses. Sacramento has the same problem. Sacramento has been unbelievable offensively. I was out there this past weekend. I'm working on something longer about them and got a chance to sit down with my mcnair and just ask them, you know, it was the day after the deadline. I imagine you guys had to ask around on backup bigs, and he wouldn't quite get in there. But he's like, we're happy with what we have. You know, we want to show confidence in what we have. It's like, okay, they're starting lineup is great. I made that point earlier about Orlando last year, and even with terrible team, the idea that they still had the best starting 5 statistically for a good chunk of the year. Sacramento is basically in that boat. They've kind of taken on that mantle that Phoenix had for a couple of years with the healthiest group in the league. The starting 5 that has played the most minutes in the league. Even sabonis, who I feel like had been criticized very heavily for not being good enough on defense, not being enough of a rim protector. His rim protection numbers this year have been fine. I think he's holding opponents something like 5 percentage points under their averages at the rim. It's been basically when the starters aren't together. And when he's off the floor that they have problems and Mike Brown is kind of cycled through back up big after Becca, they're trying
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"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"With Brunson quickly Grimes over Barrett. And it's crazy. He's averaging 20 a game. It just does not, it is the quietest 20 points in the NBA. You just don't feel like, oh my God, a big score, and I know tons of guys average 20. Now, 20 is still a lot. It just doesn't feel like, oh my God, RJ Barrett's out there and really worried about him. Right. And so it's interesting that you bring him up. I'll use this as an opportunity to get into one of my last guys. I thought about putting bear it out there. The guy that I chose to take it, maybe it was like kind of too much of a cutesy pick was Mitchell Robinson. Just because now the team heart looks like he's gonna be a fit. Even if night tonight he's not getting 27, which he's not going to. He fits that team really well. I thought it was a home run trade for the next, by the way. Mitchell Robinson, they still have not been good defensively without Mitchell Robinson. They're now 13 games in, I think, without having him, there are 7 and 6 in those games, but they're essentially the 5th worst defense in the league. Whereas before he got hurt, they were the 11th best defense in the league. So they're giving up a 120 points per 100 possessions without him. So it gets back to what you were saying earlier about one of the teams you were talking about where it's like, the only teams beneath them essentially with the exception of maybe Utah, our teams that aren't really trying to win. So I just think he's huge here from the standpoint of, this is a team that if heart is the fit that he looks like he is going to be for this team. If he allows you to be able to pull guys from the rotation with recourse that you could actually pull barret that you can pull Grimes that you could pull these different guys that if they're having an off night, heart can soak up their minutes. If hard is having an off night, you can use one of those other guys to replace him and actually be able to do it meaningfully. The team has the makings of a pretty good team. Brunson has been fantastic for them. He's averaging 33 a game or whatever it is since not making the all star team. He was already good before that, by the way. Just to really tough tough year, I think with Halliburton in the year he was having to not make it. And by the way, Hardin didn't make it either. But I mean, between Brunson being a legitimate all star, whether he's on the team or not, Randall playing the way he has. And the fact that you've got good defenders and you've got good role players on this team, that's without a guy that can put you back into the idea of being a top ten defense who is efficient when he actually does get shots. One of the most efficient players in the league, they just become really intriguing to me if they get him back and he's like a top level Mitchell Robinson. I'm very intrigued to see what the Knicks are capable of. I think they can win around. Certainly, if they are curious to see they get matched up against certainly, but it's a team that I would not really want to play even half these guys are playing at their top level. If it's Brunson Randall and Hart. If it's Brunson Randall and Mitchell Robson Brunson, Hart and Robinson, that's a team that has some offense and some defense and it's a team that I would not really look forward to playing. Yeah, the match ups are going to be fascinating in the east. We know who the top four are going to be, Cleveland has very quietly won 7 games in a row. And a lot of the team I've got on my list too, by the way, to talk about it. A lot of the statistical models have them flop flip flopping with Philly into the third seed because of how easy their schedule is now hard Philly schedule is, which obviously changes the complexion of two of the first round series. The Knicks are currently 7th, 32 and 27. The heat are 6th, 32 and 26, so a game ahead of the Nixon in the lost column. The hawks are two games back in 29 and 29 just Hawking around. And then the wild card is Brooklyn. Who's 33 and 24 and has a pretty big cushion to stay in the top 6, has now lost two straight and sort of that one, the first feel good win the Sheen of like all the stars are gone. This is so fun, the nights are fun again, has kind of worn off and like, oh, maybe they're gonna fall out at the top 6, even though they have discussion. That's gonna be a really the same way Utah did, by the way. It's a more defense oriented version of Utah, quite frankly, of what they were to start the season where they had all this offense. They were fun. They were in first place. And it's like, it typically runs out after a while. And I'm curious to see what happens, but I don't expect them to stay there, do you? I'd have to look at their schedule. The cushion they have is meaningful, but it's dwindling already. And they have a lot of rotation questions. And they played 12 guys in the first quarter of the other night. It's hard to do that. Can we go to my last one? Please go ahead. Stop wasting your time. You're not wasting? My last one and honestly, I saved the best for last. I think this is one of the most interesting situations in the NBA. The team is the Minnesota Timberwolves. Okay. And which one did you pick? And the player is Carl Anthony towns. Okay, wow. The wolves are now 30 and 29 after winning last night in Dallas. They are, I believe, a game or two above 500, 31 and 29 excuse me. I think there are two or three games above 500 without towns. They have one of the pluses of their unbelievably wackadoo trade for Gobert is that when towns got hurt,
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"Now I need to know who the other guy with the color is his last name is that's on your list because it's not Bruce Brown Derek white, Jalen Brown, Derek white. Derek Derek. Derek white. So like I said, I've given away too many of these because now we've talked about three of my guys situations, what have you, but I mean another guy that's just been playing lights out in this case, you know, just an expanded role because of the injury to market smart. He's playing the best basketball of his life really on a team that obviously has huge ambitions. He's getting more playmaking opportunities, but he's now developed into such a good shooter recently that I feel like it's opened up even more for him where obviously this is a team that at its peak at when it's whole has multiple guys that can kind of do whatever they want from one plate and the next, whether it's Tatum or brown. When you look at white though, him shooting the ball this well at him being in position that he's in. Now is so often not that like I watched him and he's already on the move before he catches the ball. And so, you know, if you're just kind of dead on your feet or if you're just standing straight up, he zooms past you and then at that point you've got the whole defense and scramble mode and recovery mode and he's throwing a lot. By the way, what you're saying about catching the ball with a running start is not an accident. Number one, he's an incredibly high IQ player. I love Derek white. Everything I just said about Josh green applies doubly for Derek white. Number two, they teach that in San Antonio. Manu ginobili was the king of that being on the move when he catches while it's not an accident it's a little basket and Quinn Snyder brought it to Utah a lot of the Utah guys do it. It's not an accident. It's a skill that you learn. And why they wanted them in Boston, why it's no mistake that email you don't have certainly probably with one of the loudest ones about wanting him in Boston because of a skill set like that. But it's just you have so much more ability to use it a skill like that and really like an IQ like that when you're shooting is top notch and when you're starting to put down your threes and your jumpers because at that point a defender, it's very easy for a defender to be flat footed because he doesn't want for you to get off an open shot. So he has to protect against that, but he also can't, like, doesn't want to see the drive, but that might be the safer thing to let go of, really. So he's just been fantastic lately. Another guy that can play really, really good defense does play really good defense. And a guy that I always like, I don't like guys getting hurt, but the one thing I like when other people get a chance to step up while someone is hurt is the idea that that is improvement and skill and stuff that you can kind of take with you for a big playoff run. Derek, white was obviously really impactful. Last postseason too, but even for him, it looks like he's taking a step forward. The guy's been averaging more than 20 a game. 5 boards, 5 assists over his last 9 games, 50% overall from the field. 47% from three. If you would ask me at any point in the season with Derek white be averaging more than 20 a game for 9, ten games, I probably would have said no, this is a team that has so many guys. But again, when some of them are hurt, who steps up and he's obviously done that in a really big way. You know what else he'll do? You bring some soft ass into the lane and he will S.W.A.T. it back in your face. He is a rim protector as a guard. Here's the other thing. Small guy too. Derek white, Derek white's a very good all around player. The only question is and this is why he's on your list. He's shooting 39% from three. It's a career high. We saw it in the playoffs last year. When they get into the second round of the playoffs, if he misses 5 in a row. What's going to happen to him? Is he going to stop shooting? Is he going to get is he is his confidence going to get shaken? Because you have to keep shooting. And his minutes dwindled when he hit slumps and then when he would start shooting again, I think it was game 6 in Miami almost one Boston that game by himself shooting threes. They just need him to shoot and the question is always going to be just sort of his default mode when he gets into a slump as to become the Josh green. You know, Ben Simmons just get off the ball hand off guy and by the way, Ben Simmons. I've reached the point. We have to talk about it. I just want to say one thing. I just want to say one thing. I've now reached a point where the only thing I feel now is empathy because this is what's happening with Ben Simmons is just sad. He played 13 minutes last night. I think he had two points and they benched him after a couple of turnovers late in the game, which is that seems to happen every game. He's almost Brooklyn's third string center now, behind claxton and daeron sharp sometimes.
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"More probably trying to have a two man game, but just being too close together. And so, but I'm really intrigued by what I've seen the first few games. I don't know how you couldn't be in light of just how dominant they've been offensively. Yeah, more Tim Hardaway junior and more maxi when he comes back will mean less the opens and less Jaden hardy and that's probably good for the maverick solitude and hardy has had his moments. This year. There's been a lot of Jane hardy, but I do enjoy watching him when he's on fire. Yeah, I mean, the west is just loaded, man. I know there are one two. They lost both these games. Offensively, they're just, you're not going to stop them. You're just going to hope they have a bad shooting night and you score like gangbusters on them and they've been a bad defensive team all year after being a good one last year. And like you said, they barely scratched the surface of playing together. They're not really playing together in a cooperative sense, just them being out there together is obviously enormously powerful on its own. I looked it up on second spectrum this morning. They've only won three pick and rolls between them total in two games. Wow. And I think, and one of them, Luca got a switch and barreled over Terrence Davis ferry and one. And I think that play has to become a powerful tool in their toolbox against the best teams who are going to take away lots of the stuff and all those teams will put wing defenders on both of them so you can switch it, but switching is easier said than done on Lucca. He's so powerful. And we've seen things like kairi's into corner a lot when Luca has the ball up top. They ran a couple sets last night where Kyrie will come off a screen like fly up from the corner, catch the ball coming off the screen on the wing, curl into the middle, draw the defense kick to Lucca for a spot up three or a drive. Like we're going to see more of that. And I just think offensively it's going to be and you've seen Kyrie already get them moving, which is what I was most excited about is like, you don't have to walk the ball up the floor every single time in Kyrie. Likes to throw hit ahead passes, likes to get zooming up the floor and just sort of see what happens. See what chaos I can cause. See how many people follow me into the paint and who's opened in my wake? I think offensively there are going to be unstoppable. There are issues are going to be defense. They miss Finney Smith a lot. There's just a lot on Josh green and Reggie Bullock's play right now. In depth and just but those are high class problems and there are other high class problems that the west is awesome. The top of the west is awesome and some teams that really have title ambitions are going to lose in the first round. Yeah, I mean, there's one other team, I think, probably on my list of stuff I want to talk about that, you know, the depth is an issue you obviously, if you've got these sorts of problems that Dallas has at this point, they're privileged sorts of problems that you are banking on the idea that your starters are going to be playing 40 minutes during the playoffs anyway. And again, if we're talking about this sort of efficiency that they've had so far with these two on the court, which it won't always be that, it'll come down. At some point, I think, you know, you would live with those issues and hope that these guys could just play 42 minutes in a plan. I think Kyrie and Luca together, those lineups should score at a rate that would lead to the league among all teams. Like that's how good the should be. It should be, it should be as good as the best offense in the league and maybe better. It's everything else. That will be a question. Okay, yeah, so the gimmick for this podcast was let's pick our 5. I just made it up 5 most interesting players or teams for the last part of the season with sort of an ion, they all got more interesting in the wake of the trade deadline because their teams did X, Y, and Z, so I will see the floor to you, Chris hearing. We already talked about Deandre ayton. So pick somebody else or some other team off your list and let's go. Yeah, okay. Well, why don't we start here since it's kind of, it's analogous. We just mentioned his name in the last segment. Josh green is a guy. And I have one other guy that I think is a lot like Josh greener. Maybe not a lot like him, but has some similarities to it. So I don't know. It's a good teacher. If throwing both of them out would be too much at once because we've already talked about 8 as well. Is he also named Josh? No, but he does have a color to his name, so we could do that. Bruce Brown is a Bruce Brown? No, now I feel like we're okay, we're off to over off the rails. Talk about Josh. We're completely off the rails. What's the name of that Tarantino movie with the mister white mister pink? Oh my God. Come on. Reservoir numbers. Okay. Well, I was thinking about that in light of this because the character that I was going to talk about, the player I was going to talk about has one of those names. But anyway, Josh green is someone that has just been playing lights out lately. He had his first not great game yesterday, actually. But he's just been on a heater basically for a while now. It's someone that, you know, is not going to come in really to the conversation
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"Just between the kind of, if you want to call it a standoff with him in Monty Williams, maybe that's too strong of a word. He just kind of strikes me as a guy that it could come into play, it could matter. Do you get the exact same effort from him defensively if he's not as heavily involved offensively, which would be understandable if he's not given who they're going to have on this team. So he's someone that I could see thriving and just getting better looks because of the inability to really go and help on him in the post, but I also really, really wonder whether what's his level of involvement going to be offensively with this new look offense that they're going to have. I think the 8 and discourse has taken a turn too far toward the what he isn't discussion. What he doesn't do and for sure there has been some well documented frostiness between Deandre 8 and imani Williams and Deandre and another important people within the Phoenix Suns. Like it's not just Monty Williams. When Deandre catches the ball in traffic, spins away from contact and misses a jump hook, you can sometimes see the other players be like, dude again, can you just go up strong and get fouled? Please, you averaged three free throws a game. You're 7 feet tall in your giant. Can you get the line a little more than that? All of that said, I think it's a huge deal that he's still on the team. And obviously you're not going to trade him and bridges and Johnson, so somebody's going to be on the team. This dude is 24 years old. He's averaging 19 and ten. There aren't very many big men. We might be able to count them on one hand. There are many 7 footers who can chase ball handlers at the arc on the pick and roll who are comfortable getting in the stance moving their feet. The puppies like perks says, we would have puppies. And and protect the rim deal with Nikola Jokić in the post well enough that it's not a 5 alarm fire every time he touches the ball. And he proved it, he already did that in the playoffs. And look, I don't know all the details of why there's been tension between 8 and other people within the suns. I would hope that the possibility of winning the whole thing in a deep playoff run just everybody organically starts rowing in the same direction and supporting each other and patting each other on the back. He's 24 the fact that he and Booker are in their mid 20s gives them some protection even if things go right on the back end of those draft picks. And I don't really care what his role he might care what his role is. That's my thing. That's all I'm saying is that he might care. He cares if he cares and it's not him getting as many looks as he'd like. You just wonder how that plays out. I'm just not saying that I think that he's going to is me saying I don't know. I would hope that he doesn't for the sake of like you probably have become the favorite out of the west, which given where they were, that should be all that matters. Look, I would think I would hope. So here's my message to Deandre ayton. These three other dudes, ones at MVP, one of the 12 to 15 greatest players of all time at worst. One is the point God. The other guy was on the MVP ballot last year. We're not throwing the ball to you in the postman. Like it's just not gonna happen. If we do, it's probably because you have a switch and you better fucking punish the switch. I don't wanna see these fadeaway jumpers over guards, like do something productive with the switch. Number two, you're urging 19 a game in the NBA, the National Basketball Association. That's pretty freaking good. You set screens for those three dudes. This is the greatest collection of pick and roll ball handling on one team. I think in the history of the NBA. I think if we went back and looked at every team, we're in the spread pick and roll era now, obviously, I don't think there's ever been this much pick and roll ball handling on any team. You are going to walk in to 18 points a game. You're going to go screen, you're going to move toward the rim. The ball's going to be in your head and be like, oh my God, I can just dunk. You're going to walk into 18, which means on Sunday nights you're going to walk into 25. Just be happy, do your job. You have a max contract end of Deandre in discussion. You were at the first game, Luca and Kyrie played together. They are now zero and two as teammates to high scoring losses, one to the kings and one last night to the Minnesota Timberwolves with Anthony Edwards and Jaden McDaniels like freaking Venus flytraps at the end of the game. Wow. Enveloping Kyrie and Luca as they played hot potato with the ball. That came after Kyrie had an absolutely outrageous fourth quarter scoring explosion of 20 something points. Initial impressions of the partnership. Yeah, man, I mean, even before they partnered up, man, those first quarters with Kyrie without Luca playing were 40 point quarters too. And I saw a couple of those. I mean, I'll put it this way. They can score and I don't know that that was ever going to be a question, but I want to caution people that are looking at what's happening with them and the two start saying, I don't see it's not going to work. They're lineups with those two have been unstoppable, offensively. And have outscored opponents. It's kind of been the bench stuff that has gotten them in trouble, and obviously they're not anywhere near full strength, Hardaway got hurt during the game that I was at in Sacramento the other night. They've got plenty of healing to do. And once they do that, I think it might be a different issue, but they won't shoot this hot forever. You're not going to have 26 point quarters from Kyrie every night. Which by the way, and that franchise's history, I think, Dirk had one quarter that was 29 that maybe he had, and then I think they said that Luca had a 28 point quarter at one point. So Kyrie within his first couple of games is already making close to records for the map. So it's going to be a force to be reckoned with to try to stop them on offense, particularly once they have everybody back in the mix. They've been stuff is what they have to figure out. So I've been really, really impressed. I'm still a little bit concerned about their defense when all is said and done. Aside from even just their bench, I think that teams good offense is good teams are going to be able to take advantage. I think of Luca and Kyrie being out there at the same time. But the flip side of it is just as true. How do you stop two guys like that? The open shots that they're going to get. I think really when we watch that possession last night, as you said, the Timberwolves just shut down. It was one of the most impressive defensive possessions I've seen with just two people in a while. Those two still need to learn how to play off each other. I think they probably will. And that instance, it looked like they were just standing too close to each other. And really kind of doing the Timberwolves as good as that defensive possession was doing them a favor by not spreading the floor a little bit
The Lowe Post
"chris herring" Discussed on The Lowe Post
"The low post. Welcome to the low post podcast on Valentine's Day. My least favorite holiday in the world and you know you have a good wife when she is more aggressively anti Valentine's Day. The news. So I got nothing for nobody on this Valentine's Day. We are 5 days out from one of the wildest trade deadlines in the history of the league and this is one of my favorite times of the year because now it's just basketball. We get to see how all the new puzzle pieces fit together. These first games were in Luca and Kyrie play together. We haven't seen Durant yet, obviously. You get your first impressions of how this all works. Also, the buyout guys are starting to find home, so we have a better sense of that landscape, Justin holiday, Terrence Ross, other Danny Green, and it just feels good to get distance from the wildness. Your brain works better with a little distance from the wildness. And for the first time and way too long to help us understand this new landscape of the NBA from Sports Illustrated, the author of blood in the garden of bestselling book about the 90s Nick's a team I just hated growing up. Chris herring, how are you, sir? I'm really good, Zack, it's really good to be back on with you. Thank you for having me. Is it though? Is it good? Is it that good? It is, man. It is. We connect offline and, you know, it's been, like you said, it's been a minute. I feel like I've been busy in a lot of, first of all, you were going in about Valentine's Day. You've been married long enough to have that stance openly have that stance. I just got engaged. So I don't think that I can have quite as hard line to stance on that one. So I got plenty of flowers. Valentine's gifts because I don't want to, I don't want to lose what I just gained. A month and a half ago, so I'm going to take the opposite side from you. Congratulations. Congratulations. I appreciate that. Enjoy that. Before we start with the sort of biggest, most interesting things to us about the second half is the last third of the season. I haven't talked to you now that the dust is settled and I read your initial reaction to it. What is your take on the Phoenix Suns trading for unprotected first round picks one swap Mikhail bridges and cam Johnson and probably something I'm forgetting and Jay Crowder to the nets for Kevin Durant and TJ Warren from a purely son's perspective. I don't want to talk any more about the nets. Sure. I think my thing, and I've always kind of felt this way. Is I think teams that make deals earlier are smarter. I think the earlier you make moves the earlier you kind of get a chance to settle in. I think deals during the off season deals that happen. Sometimes like a month before the trade deadline, just why wouldn't you want to take advantage of things a little bit sooner? So I think from the sun's perspective, obviously, the ground is shifted underneath them with the ownership situation and everything else. So there's all that. But I say all that to say that getting Kevin Durant is a good thing for where they are team wise. The window probably would be closing a little bit if you kept Chris Paul as your point guard. So I think this is a good move for them. You're not going to argue about the idea of getting Kevin Durant. I love Mikhail bridges more than just about anybody, but I think that from the outside looking in, you are probably always going to have to move him to get someone like Durant unless a team like the nets wanted Deandre ayton and we even saw during the summer that wasn't going to be possible given his contract situation at a certain point. So I think it's a great move for them. I think now we're in a situation where they have to make a run at a title. I'm going to have questions about them. I'm going to have questions about their defense. I'm going to have questions about their health. I don't think that you can help but have that question. But they're going to be able to score. I have other questions that we'll get into as we talk about kind of storylines or things that we're really watching in the last third of the season that I certainly have questions about with them. But does it make them like the clear favorite? I wouldn't say they're clearly the favorite, but I do think that they're right there in that conversation. And after a game 7 shellacking at home last year, after them not quite having enough to finish the finals, the year before that, this is the best you could ask for is to put yourself back firmly in that conversation. You want to have someone like Kevin Durant there to kind of help with some of the things that went wrong last year. So I think it's a great move for them. And I think that you hate losing Mikhail bridges, but you kind of had to do it in my opinion. I don't like losing cam Johnson either. He's good too. I don't think they're absolutely. I don't think they're the clear favorites overall. In fact, I'm not sure that they're even the favorites overall with Boston and Milwaukee just keep steamrolling people right now. I do think 5 days out now having sifted through the rubble, I do think they're probably the slight favorites in the west. I think I would probably take them over Denver in a 7 game series in these other teams with people getting injured, Zions out for longer steps out again if the clippers will see what they get with plumlee and Eric Gordon. I just think with all these teams kind of scuffling around, I think the nuggets are the one team you have to look at first and I think I would pick them over the nuggets. Here's where I come down on it. I think these mortgaging the future trades to this degree are generally riskier and the downside more likely to hit than people think in the exuberance of, oh my God, we got this guy. And the history of these trades is that the downside is more likely to hit than you are to win a championship. And this is a championship or bus trade. You have to win the title when you make a move like this. That doesn't, that said, when you have Chris Paul at 37 years old, and you're not good enough. And I don't think they were good enough.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"chris herring" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"Member of pen fed insured by NCA. What's up up in fort globe? I'm your host, Michael the pod peanut, and I'm joined on the other line by my good friend Sports Illustrated senior writer Chris herring, live from a hotel room in Beacon hill, Boston, Massachusetts, hours before game four of the NBA Finals..
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"chris herring" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"A political.
Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"chris herring" Discussed on Open Floor: SI's NBA Show
"Senior writer, Chris herring. Chris, how are you doing good, sir? I'm Marie. Ready to dig in to some Thanksgiving food. I think a lot of people probably are at this time here. We're recording this on a Wednesday and I believe this will go out on Friday, so as you listen to this loyal listeners, I will be eating leftover Thanksgiving sandwich, probably my third or fourth of the afternoon. What is your favorite side, Chris? I love asking people that question. I was having this conversation yesterday, at least a black America, the black America that eats good. Sides are better than the main dishes. Of course. Turkey is okay, Turkey can be fine. I mean, obviously, if you get someone that can throw down turkeys really good, but I was on this conversation with my sister, macaroni and cheese is the greatest food known to man as far as I'm concerned. Known to black men. I don't want to speak for everybody, but I can speak for all black men that macaroni. Okay. Yeah. I can be monolithic in that sense. Normally, black people are not a monolith. We're relatively monolithic when it comes to that. Macaroni and cheese is really amazing if and when it's done right. And that's pretty far and away my favorite thing and then I think sweet potatoes and kind of candied yams are probably my second. I've never liked sweet potatoes. My grandmother used to get very upset because she would make a lot of them and supposedly they were great. I wouldn't know. I only added one hated it, sorry. That's my relationship with sweet potatoes. Love Mac and cheese. Stuffing is my favorite. By far. Interesting. I got you. It's not a great stuffing year round, frankly. I don't because I'm not a weirdo, but absolutely love stuffing. It's undefeated. In my opinion, if you're not trying to eat, like, when you ask the question of favorite side or favorite part of the meal, if you're not trying to have the side outside of Thanksgiving, then it's not good or it's not prepared correctly. I mean, there's so many options like mashed potatoes, obviously or another option. You mentioned stuffing. There's Mac and cheese. It's hard to go wrong at a certain point with certain things..
The Lowe Post
Houston Rockets reportedly pursuing Harden trade from Philadelphia 76ers centered on Ben Simmons
"I don't know what transpired between the sixers. And the rockets. And i would be suspicious of anybody telling you exactly what was offered when was offered if there was even a firm offer because i have learned mostly through the celtics. Frankly then reconstructing failed. Trade talks is a fool's errand and quite frustrating. But i i will. There were lots of reports that the sixers and the rockets were haggling over. What philadelphia would have to attach to. Ben simmons to get james harden so it was a tireless maxi plus x picks retirees maxi plus one pick was atari maxi plus matisse stibal plus no picks plus two. I don't know. I don't know here's what i know or i'm ninety percent certain that i know ben. Simmons made all nba last year. And he's twenty four years old and if the rockets wanted ben simmons day could have had been simmons. I don't know what was offered again. I don't know if there was ever a firm offer gm's often push back. Oh that was never offered will. Did you talk about he ever. did you offer it. no. I don't know what even like. When does it become an offer. I don't know. I am very confident. If the rockets wanted ben simmons day could have had ben simmons and they chose this package over ben simmons and not to be boring guy. I don't really have a huge problem with that. I wouldn't have had a huge problem with them. Getting ben simmons either. I think ben's really good. I've ordered them all nba. And i email defense last year. He's awesome. There is a chance that all these picks end up in the twenty s. I don't think it's a good chance but there is a chance and yeah. All these picks are awesome. They can get into trade talks now. Never be able to compete with oklahoma city in new orleans if a superstar becomes available but if they think this is more valuable than ben simmons. I don't have used problem with that. Because it is a whole lot of picks it is a whole lot of picks a whole lot of swaps. And it's gonna turn into something and as you said like you can build a really good team around ben simmons. It's just gonna take you time to build it
The Lowe Post
Kawhi Leonard and Paul George recruited to the Clippers
"Why leonard now place for the clippers paul george judge now plays for the clippers de oklahoma city thunder are now drafting on behalf of three different mp franchises essentially the miami heat the los angeles clippers end themselves russell westbrook seems likely to be be the next person on the trade bloc and if and when that ever happens 'em everyone from be a thirty for thirty oklahoma city thunder team the thirty for thirty that must happen now someday will be gone 'em end the lakers didn't get quiet leonard the raptors lost co i leonard
All Things Considered
Possible recounts loom in tight Florida gov, Senate contests as Trump weighs in
"Of the ballots have been counted in her district so far. Meanwhile, California still has five house races undeclared mail ballots have until Friday to arrive and still be counted. But fivethirtyeight selection analysts Nathaniel rakish says Democrats probably have the advantage there. The demographics of person who tend to vote later in the race tend to be more democratic leaning. So think for example, young voters who might be more likely to wait until the last minute to send in their mouth, then next door in Arizona Republicans are suing to stop some of their voter mail from possibly flipping a Senate seat. Just tonight democrat Kirsten cinema took a slim lead over Republican candidate Martin Sally to fill the vacancy left by Jeff flake. So for Republicans anything that preserves the status quo is good. But Chris herring GOP chairman in Maricopa. County Zona said their concern is that ballot signatures couldn't be verified. And if you count he's when you treat a one vendor with one set of rules and other voters with a different set of rules. You are violating the fourteenth amendment. It needs to be uniform Korean tire state of Arizona said voters are protection speaking of Senate seats, two more fights are still sizzling in the south as possibly Florida heads to a recount in the race between incumbent Democrat Bill Nelson. And the state's former governor Republican Rick Scott and in Mississippi Republican, Cindy, Hyde Smith and her democratic challenger Mike Espy both received forty one percent of the vote that one's headed to a runoff. And that's just a sample of the unfinished racists, so far so win might all this dust. Finally settle. Well, Nathaniel wreakage says we are in for a long month. Also, I would say that we won't know the final results for a matter of weeks in all elections. I would say that all votes won't be candidate. Until maybe thanksgiving, however, long it takes we'll be following it right here. On all things considered when President Donald Trump forced out attorney general Jeff Sessions yesterday, he named sessions chief of staff, Matt Whitaker acting attorney general that puts Whittaker in charge of special counsel Robert Muller's Russia investigation. Democrats are already calling for Whitaker to recuse himself. But the former US attorney who has a long history of involvement in Republican politics hasn't given any indication he plans to give an inch NPR's miles parks has this profile. Twenty eight years ago Whittaker starring
SportsCenter AllNight
NBA Board Of Governors to vote on three potential rule changes
"NBA board of governors expected to pass rule changes for. Next season changes include resetting the shot clock after an offensive rebound to fourteen Seconds instead of resetting the shot clock to twenty four seconds ESPN NBA analyst Chris herring and Frank is Sola discuss the changes on the jump with amino acid Chris, I like it personally because I think like like just said. There it speeds up stuff a little bit I honestly. Think one of the most exciting games a lot of times are. The ones where you get a, kick out, three or someone, tips the ball out and it just changes, the momentum of. The game so much anyway I really liked the idea of actually doing that as long as they're not losing if you get, an early shot up in the clock that you're, not losing time from having the clock resets said that instantly two shots giving him. On mine reality heat Tim Thomas against the Lakers and then Robert Yeah come out instantly and there's more big shots hit, on, those scramble plays off, of long threes I like the rule from this standpoint let's say on. Down, by one the other team gets the rebound they offensive rebound with twenty seconds left now automatically So now Free throws and it makes it more. Strategy, fending now, you know you have six seconds if you can get them on. A stop I think it's a smart rule by the league and it moves things along and then eliminates free throws which. Nobody likes Ward will vote on the. Changes at a meeting. In September