Speaker 1: We're back, and Milwaukee continues to dominate. Cleveland is looking potent,
Speaker 1: to say the least. Meanwhile, Dubs are suddenly looking to
Speaker 1: turn things around in the West West, y'all, and we'll
Speaker 1: discuss some of that and plentymore with the Warriors. Writer
Speaker 1: for the San Francisco Chronicle C. J. Holmes on today's episode,
Speaker 1: I'm Miles Gray and I'm Jack O'Brien, and this is
Speaker 1: Miles Beaten. I don't know there was a delay. I
Speaker 1: might have won that one. We'll have to go to
Speaker 1: Jay Brian let us know if it was a photo
Speaker 1: finished anyway. Welcome to the latest edition of Miles and
Speaker 1: jackob boosts Uh. C J. Holmes from the San Francisco Chronicle. Welcome,
Speaker 1: c J. Thank you so much for joining us now, Jack, Miles,
Speaker 1: thanks for having me. Then anytime, anytime? Man, Well, I
Speaker 1: would saying before we start recording, what's old is old?
Speaker 1: Seems to be the theme of this early part of
Speaker 1: the NBA season. I mean, we got we got the Lakers,
Speaker 1: you know, the lebron led Lakers. We got the k
Speaker 1: d lead net, we got the Clippers with Kauai, we
Speaker 1: got Chris Paul, you know the the sons have looked
Speaker 1: pretty decent, but they've been Chris Paul is having a
Speaker 1: rough one and Golden State also a little slow out
Speaker 1: of the gates. Is it age is? It's making me
Speaker 1: feel young. I'm like Paul, it could be is old
Speaker 1: enough to be my father at this at this stage
Speaker 1: making me feel young. But I don't know how you
Speaker 1: feel in CJ. I mean with the Warriors struggles, I
Speaker 1: think right now, eleven games into the season, all signs
Speaker 1: are kind of pointing towards that bench. You know, heading
Speaker 1: into the season, I think fans were expecting the loss
Speaker 1: of a guy like Gary Payton, the second Auto quarter Jr.
Speaker 1: Damien Lee, the man of the elites, A four veteran
Speaker 1: rotational guys that are able to help them win the
Speaker 1: championship last year. And although you know all four of
Speaker 1: those guys left in free agency, the idea was that, oh,
Speaker 1: you know, incomes down, incomes in. Don t DiVincenzo Ja
Speaker 1: Michael Green. You know two vets you can kind of
Speaker 1: just plug and play Roses Mooney, Jonathan Comengga. You know
Speaker 1: they're gonna be you know, a year older and wiser.
Speaker 1: They'll plug right in. And you know the Warriors will
Speaker 1: able to keep up their winning ways. I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: one who thought that myself, but I think it was
Speaker 1: greatly underestimated the time it would take to get these
Speaker 1: guys on the same page in terms of chemistry. And
Speaker 1: you got to take the fact that guys like Moody
Speaker 1: Comengga were basically at the end of the bench last year.
Speaker 1: They didn't play much. They have some a BA experience,
Speaker 1: but they I don't think they had they had enough
Speaker 1: entering this season to you know, assume that they'd be
Speaker 1: amazing rotational players that right off the bat. Another thing
Speaker 1: is you gotta think guys like Danny dven Well, he's
Speaker 1: been hurt for the last like what eight seven eight games,
Speaker 1: um and ja Michael Green. These are guys playing in
Speaker 1: that Warrior system for the first time. And that's you know,
Speaker 1: if you ever played first Steve Kerr, you kind of
Speaker 1: know that that's an assistant that's not necessarily easy to grasp. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I have paid for him. Yeah. It so like all
Speaker 1: those things kind of coupled together. It's it's it's it's
Speaker 1: led to a slow start for that bench unit. And
Speaker 1: if you look at the numbers and the Warriors have
Speaker 1: one of the best started fives in the league, and
Speaker 1: then as soon as those reserves start trickling in, whatever
Speaker 1: lead they built slowly starts to evaporate. And that's kind
Speaker 1: of been the theme through the first eleven games this season.
Speaker 1: And you know, while the bench isn't completely to blame
Speaker 1: in all this, they certainly do have a lot of
Speaker 1: the blame. James Wiseman in particular, has been getting a
Speaker 1: lot of that blame. It's the guy who now finds
Speaker 1: himself on the outside looking in in terms of the rotation.
Speaker 1: So the keys of the Warriors getting back on track
Speaker 1: this season is the figure out this bench rotation. Um
Speaker 1: Steve Kerr experiment minute with more lineups and I could
Speaker 1: even count last night and almost proved costly. Luckily Wardell
Speaker 1: decide to go for four seven. Yeah, that was last
Speaker 1: night's game against that was Golden State versus the Kings.
Speaker 1: That the Warriors were able to pull it off snap
Speaker 1: that streak last moment. Yeah, but you know one thing
Speaker 1: Steve Kris staff for the game is playing like this
Speaker 1: isn't sustainable, expecting Steph to you know, put on throwing
Speaker 1: his superhero cape and drag us the victory that's not
Speaker 1: gonna be sustainable over the course of the season. Eventually,
Speaker 1: those young guys that bench, they're gonna have to figure
Speaker 1: it out. They gonna have to match the have to
Speaker 1: step up, and until they do, gold States when continue
Speaker 1: to struggle. Speaking of young guys figuring it out, I
Speaker 1: do just want to talk about the other side of
Speaker 1: the coin that I opened up talking about with the
Speaker 1: you know, the people that we're We're used to being like, well,
Speaker 1: it's it's Lebron, it's k D. They're gonna cook, They're
Speaker 1: gonna be near the top of the standings. I feel
Speaker 1: like the young guys have come in this season and
Speaker 1: just kicked in the door Janice. I mean, I I
Speaker 1: guess we don't really think of Joannice as a young guy.
Speaker 1: But he's twenty seven, which is while Donovan Mitchell twenty six,
Speaker 1: Tatum twenty four, Luca twenty three, all of them are
Speaker 1: averaging over thirty. Jah three is right at like even
Speaker 1: Shay Giljis who's twenty four, is averaging close to thirty
Speaker 1: where I think he's at thirty right now. So it's
Speaker 1: like all the young guys are just I don't know,
Speaker 1: they're they're playing out of their mind. We we talk
Speaker 1: about a theory on here that like the NBA is
Speaker 1: progressive and it gets better and better every season. The
Speaker 1: players get better and better because they're just like building
Speaker 1: their games on top of the games of the players
Speaker 1: they've seen come before. And it feels like we're seeing
Speaker 1: an especially big like ramp up in like how good
Speaker 1: guys are. I mean, one of the most exciting players
Speaker 1: in the world is still too young to play in
Speaker 1: the NBA this season with one Biyama like it, it
Speaker 1: really feels like there's a balance of power shift that
Speaker 1: this is obviously very early, but we're seeing a balance
Speaker 1: of power shift to the young guys in the league
Speaker 1: in the early running is what I think could be happening.
Speaker 1: I feel like if you were born in the eighties,
Speaker 1: mm hmm. You know, we had our time. I was
Speaker 1: out our late nineties, but yeah, I can imagine that
Speaker 1: this would be hard for you to uh yeah, I
Speaker 1: mean it does feel like that though, like there's a
Speaker 1: a disembarkation point or something. We're seeing the elders be like, Okay,
Speaker 1: we're starting to really show it and at the same time,
Speaker 1: we're really starting to actually begin to see what the
Speaker 1: future of the league, like the future stars really are
Speaker 1: as they cement themselves. Yeah, there's definitely a shifting of
Speaker 1: the guard going on. You know, if you will, you know,
Speaker 1: you still got your old heads out here balling, you know.
Speaker 1: I guess Lebron is decent enough. Still he's not playing well. Uh,
Speaker 1: Staff is still Steph, Katie is still Kadi. But you know,
Speaker 1: like you said, there's such an influx of young, explosive
Speaker 1: scoring talent right now in the league, and uh, they're
Speaker 1: starting to kind of wean out the old guys. Yeah,
Speaker 1: in a couple of years, all the names you mentioned,
Speaker 1: you know, those guys are going to be the face
Speaker 1: of this league, you know, like you know, Lebron, Curry, Katie,
Speaker 1: you know, four to five years from now, it's it's
Speaker 1: it's gonna be, and it's gonna be a new era
Speaker 1: in the NBA, you know, led by a I don't know,
Speaker 1: it's Shade Gill, just Alexander or ryc and Tatum. You know,
Speaker 1: Luca don Che is probably the best of the entire bunch, right,
Speaker 1: I mean, this guy is twenty three years old out
Speaker 1: here putting up numbers hitherto undreamt of a right, So
Speaker 1: definitely would definitely be interesting to follow going forward. He's
Speaker 1: playing Uncle ball in the driveway on the whole league.
Speaker 1: Because how I feel about Luca, like I was talking
Speaker 1: earlier about, there's no like when you play Luca, you're
Speaker 1: playing within the framework of playing him more so than like,
Speaker 1: how can we effect change in his game? I don't
Speaker 1: know if that's if we're quite there, because he looks
Speaker 1: so dominant, so comfortable and how he how he's playing.
Speaker 1: So when I see things like that, I'm like, Wow,
Speaker 1: that's like a whole that's like a whole other edge
Speaker 1: to that. Players are really starting to showcase. He looks comfortable.
Speaker 1: That's a really good way of putting it. He looks
Speaker 1: so comfortable and like he can do whatever he wants
Speaker 1: at any moment when he's out there on offense. And
Speaker 1: it's it's always been that way. I mean, Luca has
Speaker 1: been like that from the moment he stepped into the league.
Speaker 1: And it's crazy because he watched what he did his
Speaker 1: rookie here and it's like, man, it's gonna be scary, Steven.
Speaker 1: This guy is gonna be like and you know, once
Speaker 1: you get some Amba experience on his belt, you know,
Speaker 1: three or four years from now, and all of that
Speaker 1: is starting to come to fruition. Yeah, I mean, do
Speaker 1: you guys think Luca is like the m v P
Speaker 1: front runner right now? Maybe? Honest I think Janice has
Speaker 1: to be, because, like I mean, the we're we're ten
Speaker 1: games in, right, but like that, that's what I was saying, like, yeah,
Speaker 1: Lebron and Katie both look good, but they're looking good
Speaker 1: in a way that is still not translating to wins.
Speaker 1: The Bucks are nine and one and Chris Middleton still
Speaker 1: hasn't played yet, and he's putting up thirty three points,
Speaker 1: twelve boards, five assists, shooting fifty seven percent from the floor,
Speaker 1: and and playing like, you know, defensive Player the Year
Speaker 1: caliber defense. I feel like it's his to lose, and
Speaker 1: it does seem like it's been long enough that people
Speaker 1: are gonna be like, all right, we're not bored of
Speaker 1: this anymore. We'll we'll let him have it. Donovan Mitchell
Speaker 1: also just I think we're looking at people putting up
Speaker 1: real wacky numbers. I mean, last week when we're talking,
Speaker 1: he was just he was like he was only second
Speaker 1: to like Will Chamberlain for like coming to a new
Speaker 1: team and just like having the beverages he was. It
Speaker 1: is a really just such an interesting time because like
Speaker 1: to your point, I would always go to bed being
Speaker 1: like we got Lebron in a D We'll be okay.
Speaker 1: And then the more I look at him like we
Speaker 1: got Lebron in a D times and there's that that
Speaker 1: shift is something that I'm like, wow, that mean, that
Speaker 1: just goes to show you how much better they're like,
Speaker 1: there's so many people performing at a high level now
Speaker 1: that it's just things aren't the same. And like you said,
Speaker 1: jack Old, it's looking like it's old. Don't count us out,
Speaker 1: you know, don't count the geriatric millennials out just yet.
Speaker 1: I mean, Tatum has to be in the conversation, like
Speaker 1: I do. I do think Tatum, Janice and Luca are
Speaker 1: probably and then John are probably like the four people
Speaker 1: who like just being passive and then maybe down event Yeah,
Speaker 1: but it's all, it's all those young guys are are
Speaker 1: the conversation for m v P right now. And I'm
Speaker 1: guessing you guys have Steff out of that conversation right
Speaker 1: now simply because his team is not winning. Yeah, I
Speaker 1: guess that's right. I will I will admit to using
Speaker 1: such brute uh inelegant logic, caveman logic, if you will
Speaker 1: to determine that. But I mean, like to your point earlier.
Speaker 1: I don't know if you said it on Mike yet,
Speaker 1: but it is hard to discount the Warriors, especially off
Speaker 1: of the scene before. But I'm just I'm just to ask, like,
Speaker 1: how do you see Clay fitting into all of that
Speaker 1: right now? You know, because that's another one where I'm
Speaker 1: looking and I'm like, Okay, he's he's going through something,
Speaker 1: something happening. You know. I think we kind of like
Speaker 1: overblow the whole Clay is Struggling narrative kind of look
Speaker 1: at Clay see is in the season. Over the course
Speaker 1: of his career, he's always historically been a guy who
Speaker 1: takes a little while to get going. Um. But the
Speaker 1: one thing that kind of, you know, through me entering
Speaker 1: the season is, you know, Clay finally had a full well,
Speaker 1: I guess as full as it could be, conspering the
Speaker 1: fact that they didn't stop playing basketball until June. But
Speaker 1: Clay had a full off season under his belt, no injuries,
Speaker 1: and the idea is Clay was gonna come in, you know,
Speaker 1: fully rested, healthy and just lighted up from Game one.
Speaker 1: But it was strange this offseason because you know, Clay
Speaker 1: kind of shared with us out in Vegas. You know,
Speaker 1: we're not Vegas, roll in Japan, and you know, we
Speaker 1: see that Clay is a scratch for the first preseason game.
Speaker 1: It's like what's going on, and he shares with us
Speaker 1: that kind of had a mental block from playing pick
Speaker 1: up this summer, you know, because you know that's how
Speaker 1: you hurt his achilles a couple of years ago, and
Speaker 1: that preventim playing a lot of pickup ball this summer.
Speaker 1: So we kind of entered the season not necessarily in
Speaker 1: basketball shape in terms of getting up and down the
Speaker 1: floor and like all the reps that come with that,
Speaker 1: and that kind of just just had me pause because
Speaker 1: just like, you know, this isn't the way you want
Speaker 1: to start the season, you know, me in particular, I
Speaker 1: think Clay had a strong finish to the year last year.
Speaker 1: You know, he wasn't he wasn't overly efficient offensively in
Speaker 1: the finals, but you know he had his moments. He
Speaker 1: has his moments throughout the postseason and say what you
Speaker 1: want to buy his offense against the Celtics in that
Speaker 1: six game series, but he played damn good defense. Um,
Speaker 1: and I thought there would be more carry over into
Speaker 1: this season. And you know, he had that one preseason
Speaker 1: game thing was against like what Denver or something, or
Speaker 1: he split it up. It's like like six or six
Speaker 1: and three, and you just think like Clay would be
Speaker 1: ready to hit the ground running. And then you know,
Speaker 1: the first game the year gets here and now we're
Speaker 1: leving games in and you know he's on pace to
Speaker 1: have no career low efficiency. Is it gonna stay like
Speaker 1: this all season long? You know, for the Warrior's sake,
Speaker 1: I hope not, because Clay being play is obviously very
Speaker 1: key in their championship. As for rations, right, Clay has
Speaker 1: to be Clay. That's kind of the piece that most
Speaker 1: assumed would fall into place this year. But it's it's
Speaker 1: really early. Clay has faith that you know, Rick Celebrini,
Speaker 1: you know, the Warriors had trainer, Um, he has faith
Speaker 1: that you know Ricks, They've they kind of been limiting
Speaker 1: his minutes early. Um, he's not gonna probably not gonna
Speaker 1: play him back to backs for most of the year
Speaker 1: because the goal is to keep Clay fresh and available
Speaker 1: come play all the time. He's gonna be needed the most,
Speaker 1: assuming they make the playoffs, maybe it's gonna happen at
Speaker 1: this point before and seven. But yeah, yeah, Clay has
Speaker 1: to be Clay for this team to be at their best,
Speaker 1: and uh, right now he's not, and his struggles offensively
Speaker 1: in terms of efficiency at times hurts the entire team. Yeah.
Speaker 1: By the way, just like some stray stats on the
Speaker 1: guys we were talking about, Luca is shooting seventy point
Speaker 1: seven percent on drives this season, and that's that's well,
Speaker 1: you know, taking on the third most drives per game,
Speaker 1: also leads the league and assist soft drives per game,
Speaker 1: and I'm pretty sure he still hasn't scored under thirty
Speaker 1: in a game, which really like that, just looking at
Speaker 1: that run of numbers of like just game by game,
Speaker 1: thirty six reminds me of like when I was a
Speaker 1: Jordans fan and I would just like, you know, I
Speaker 1: couldn't catch every one of his games, but I would
Speaker 1: just be like looking at his stats and just being like,
Speaker 1: man on man, this guy. Have you guys heard about
Speaker 1: this Jordan guy? Um, I think the number is supposed
Speaker 1: to be this high normally. And then Jah still shooting
Speaker 1: from three, which is something you know, he was shooting
Speaker 1: like seventy through the first couple of games. But he's
Speaker 1: still still putting up a lot of threes and shooting
Speaker 1: at a pretty good clip. So pretty pretty interesting. So
Speaker 1: should should we hit our underrated performers of the week? Yeah,
Speaker 1: pretty quick. Let's see who are we looking at this
Speaker 1: week's Matt Boost. He is underrated performers of the week.
Speaker 1: Some of the people that may have flown under the
Speaker 1: radar make your fantasy night. Oh yeah. Evan Mobley with
Speaker 1: eleven points, eight rebounds, and eight blocks blocks the pistons.
Speaker 1: I don't know how that didn't How that wasn't anytime
Speaker 1: anyone is getting up into the duck towards double digits
Speaker 1: and blocks or steals, like I don't know, man, that's
Speaker 1: that's wild. That'll make your whole week and like, yeah,
Speaker 1: annual fantasy. That's that's pretty good. Oh yeah, yeah, And
Speaker 1: I remember like that. I think Jabari's shared that like
Speaker 1: stat with us, and I was my eyes were watering
Speaker 1: because I think it was like right before the Lakers
Speaker 1: were about to play the Calves, and I was like,
Speaker 1: you know, I'm gonna look at this kind of stuff
Speaker 1: right now. I gotta say, man, Russ coming off the bench,
Speaker 1: the sixth man of the year. We talked about it
Speaker 1: preseason jokingly, we're calling him six man of the year.
Speaker 1: Through five games, we were like, they gotta try the
Speaker 1: six man thing, Like I really think that makes sense
Speaker 1: as a strategy of like Russ as a off speed
Speaker 1: it coming at the second unit, and it's they've looked
Speaker 1: much better, which isn't saying that much, but they now
Speaker 1: have a couple of wins under their belt. I could
Speaker 1: see them tearing off a little run of games, probably
Speaker 1: leaning more towards Golden State tearing off like ten in
Speaker 1: a row than the Lakers tearing off ten in a row.
Speaker 1: But I'd say that it's still It's definitely made them
Speaker 1: a lot more exciting to watch, and it's made them
Speaker 1: it seems like they've like come together as a unit
Speaker 1: and he's embracing it and as a cool story, yeah,
Speaker 1: I have Look, let's let's let's get some more wins first.
Speaker 1: Before started excealing, I'll say that I'm always like wow,
Speaker 1: I mean I'm even watching games or like the Lakers
Speaker 1: are losing and just because Russ is playing well, like
Speaker 1: suddenly like I'm becoming like yep, here we go, we're
Speaker 1: we're gonna win, but we're not actually ignoring the important part,
Speaker 1: which is a score where we're down fourteen. Uh, and
Speaker 1: then we arellizing to Okay, Well that's that's not how
Speaker 1: that works all the time, but it is hard for sure.
Speaker 1: Dennis Smith Jr. Just one other line from there. This week,
Speaker 1: Smith Jr. Brought fifteen points, eight assists, seven boards, and
Speaker 1: six steals off the bench for a second. Now that
Speaker 1: it was a great story and my man was about
Speaker 1: to go play in the NFL. Yeah, a lot of
Speaker 1: people I feel like weren't talking about him other than
Speaker 1: whatever happened. And he's had some pretty amazing performances. I
Speaker 1: just always felt like he got such a raw deal. Um.
Speaker 1: I was working at the Dallas Burne News Dennis Dennis's
Speaker 1: rookie year when he first got drafted by the Mavericks,
Speaker 1: and I always seem like a good kid, hard worker. Um.
Speaker 1: He's definitely showed a lot of flashes during that rookie year.
Speaker 1: And you know, the Luca came to town and obviously
Speaker 1: they couldn't play together. It's all dominic guards. And he's
Speaker 1: kind of just been bouncing around the league ever since.
Speaker 1: And uh, I'm just glad to see him. You know,
Speaker 1: he he played really well when when we were down
Speaker 1: in Charlotte and the Warriors were down in Charlotte last week,
Speaker 1: got that game winning stop on Steph at the end
Speaker 1: of regulation, send it overtime. So it's just, uh, you know,
Speaker 1: d s J is uh want to feel good stories
Speaker 1: of the year. I'm glad to see him finally find
Speaker 1: a home in Charlotte managing to see, uh, what's gonna
Speaker 1: go on with his next usage and playing time. And
Speaker 1: it's like, yeah, but i mean again, like a ball
Speaker 1: dominant player who's probably not enough two be the like
Speaker 1: marquee player in the starting unit, but if you bring
Speaker 1: him in as like an off speed pitch who's like
Speaker 1: just way more athletic and fast than anyone in your
Speaker 1: second unit, Like that's that's pretty good. Like you, that's
Speaker 1: a good weapon to be bringing off the bench. Yeah, alright,
Speaker 1: let's take a quick break. Huh Yeah, we'll be right back.
Speaker 1: And we're back, and this is the section where we
Speaker 1: kind of look at different plays performances that blew us away.
Speaker 1: I mean, that's kind of just what we do the
Speaker 1: whole trying away by basketball. Yeah, I mean do we
Speaker 1: just start like, like you said, the most exciting player
Speaker 1: in the NBA that's not in the NBA too young,
Speaker 1: too young to be We were talking before, and we're
Speaker 1: trying to figure out you know, at first, a lot
Speaker 1: of the talk was like, can you believe this guy
Speaker 1: is doing all this stuff at seven? Like we've never
Speaker 1: seen a guy this tall do all this stuff, but
Speaker 1: is the conversation would be like, we're not really seeing
Speaker 1: somebody play like this, And then on top of that,
Speaker 1: he's a seven plus footer. Because it's just I'm I'm
Speaker 1: having trouble processing what I'm seeing all the time with him,
Speaker 1: Like again, i feel like I'm watching like my creative
Speaker 1: player go off into catch and like looks like he's
Speaker 1: having fun. Like again, one of my favorite things about
Speaker 1: watching him and watching his highlights is that he looks
Speaker 1: like he just woke up from a body switching comedy
Speaker 1: or something, and it's just like, oh my god, this
Speaker 1: is so fun. Look at this. I'm gonna shoot a
Speaker 1: three off one ft and I have just like perfect touch.
Speaker 1: This like a layup you can play, and his teammates
Speaker 1: seem to be having fun. One of the players that
Speaker 1: got us excited was his teammate just like threw the
Speaker 1: ball in the general direction of the hoop and it
Speaker 1: like went way over and he just like goes up
Speaker 1: and gracefully like grabs it and like puts in a
Speaker 1: it's like an alley you jump shot, but he's like
Speaker 1: falling down and still just makes it look super easy
Speaker 1: with his touch, right, Like it was funny at that
Speaker 1: point he made of like him being on the comedy show.
Speaker 1: It's like he like goes to bed one night, it's like, man,
Speaker 1: if only over, you know, I want to be big, no,
Speaker 1: but like really really big before Yeah, next thing, you know,
Speaker 1: he's like, wait, give me, give that kid the ball
Speaker 1: real quick shooting Victor, it's wetty. It's wetty, coach. What
Speaker 1: happened to me overnight? But yeah, it's it's I can't
Speaker 1: I'm so excited to see him play. But again, I'm
Speaker 1: always gonna just be a little weary because when you
Speaker 1: have people with such unique bodies like him, you never
Speaker 1: quite know. But my goodness, I'm I'm definitely I'm rooting
Speaker 1: for him. But while the pictures are the one of
Speaker 1: the ones of him like standing next to Rudy Gobert,
Speaker 1: that's the ones like yeah, seven one, right, like that
Speaker 1: was the pictures always just blow me away. Yeah, it's insane. Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's like it was like as if Gobert came to
Speaker 1: like Wemby's like basketball camp. Yeah, and he's like at
Speaker 1: the end, I take pictures with all the kids that
Speaker 1: are in the kids and a fan of his. Yeah, hey,
Speaker 1: what's your name, young man, Rudy Gobert. Okay, ready, nice
Speaker 1: to meet you man. Alright, cool. It's so wild, like
Speaker 1: Warriors Twitter as will like after they're a loss down
Speaker 1: in New Orleans, you see you on Twitter. It's like,
Speaker 1: you know, like the scouting, scouting, the graphics like a
Speaker 1: Warrior's logo on over shut him down, blow it up.
Speaker 1: So the shot that was I think got a lot
Speaker 1: of people's attention was he like kind of did a
Speaker 1: testing drive to his left. The guy kind of got
Speaker 1: in front of him. He went behind his legs like
Speaker 1: four times, then made a move to his left and
Speaker 1: just like shot a three, like it was a layup
Speaker 1: off one foot and just wet, just he shot it
Speaker 1: as if it wasn't even in doubt that it was
Speaker 1: going in. I mean, James harden As yet to master
Speaker 1: the running three, like he's like, what seventeen? Yeah, that
Speaker 1: was like that was wild when Dirk was doing that
Speaker 1: from mid range when he would do like the kind
Speaker 1: of one ft just rising up so quickly that you're
Speaker 1: not even able to like think about contesting it, and
Speaker 1: he's releasing it like higher up than you've ever seen
Speaker 1: a shot released. But yeah, Miles dear point like the
Speaker 1: size of his body and like we were watching a
Speaker 1: clip of did you see the clip where Kadi made
Speaker 1: his defender to like just straight up do the split
Speaker 1: was on Gafford? Yeah, oh wait where is it? That
Speaker 1: picture was wild, like like the actual picture from that crossover.
Speaker 1: So my man was all on the ground like rethinking
Speaker 1: was some time. Yeah, he had that face down moment
Speaker 1: where he's like, I've been fully flamed. I don't know
Speaker 1: what to do. The first move he does a single
Speaker 1: stride from the NBA three point line all the way
Speaker 1: inside the like close to the free throw line, and
Speaker 1: it's just such a wild stride. Like that stride is
Speaker 1: one of the wildest things, and it's just we're like, man,
Speaker 1: do you remember when he came into the league and
Speaker 1: everyone was like his body is not going to hold
Speaker 1: up to the rigors of the NBA and it's like,
Speaker 1: actually he had like his body is one of the
Speaker 1: most miraculous, like but you didn't know that coming in,
Speaker 1: And like that's the question around when Via is like
Speaker 1: is he just going to have like the strangest superhuman
Speaker 1: body like like Kevin Durant happened to have, um, that's
Speaker 1: going to be able to like hold up and just
Speaker 1: bend in the wildest directions because like when you just
Speaker 1: like freeze frame on that stride from Kevin Durant's like, wait,
Speaker 1: the human body is not supposed to be able to
Speaker 1: do that. That's that's just special. Well for our measily
Speaker 1: little six foot people legs of course we can't go
Speaker 1: over that kind of ground. But I mean, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: it's a it's so you you don't I don't envy
Speaker 1: him in that situation when Gafford just goes face down,
Speaker 1: there's just like I love when somebody knows they're like okay,
Speaker 1: I got cooked right there, Like there's just no point
Speaker 1: like where he just had to be like, I gotta
Speaker 1: think about my life decisions real quick, because he knew
Speaker 1: Katie was just going to sink that in front of
Speaker 1: him and he did, and you know what, thoughts and prayers,
Speaker 1: obviously thoughts and prayers. I'm just glad Katie knocked it down.
Speaker 1: There's been a lot of like million dollar moves of
Speaker 1: two cent finishes this season. Yeah, I mean, I think
Speaker 1: maybe that's why we're celebrating this one so much like
Speaker 1: he did and he did it, and maybe that's my
Speaker 1: confirmation bias out there being like, come on, geriatric millennials,
Speaker 1: put someone to board. It can't be all Al Horford
Speaker 1: for us. He's also balling like he's still like putting
Speaker 1: up great numbers. I saw somebody like complaining that, well,
Speaker 1: he's got his worst plus minus. I think it's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: his team is bad, like his starting five is still
Speaker 1: figuring things out and isn't playing well. That's can't just
Speaker 1: be like, well, this is Kevin Durant's worst plus minus
Speaker 1: of all time without acknowledging that they are in a
Speaker 1: uniquely like kind of rough situation at the moment. How
Speaker 1: do you guys feel about plus minus? Just like generally,
Speaker 1: like I have a stat I think over long periods
Speaker 1: it can be useful, but it's so misleading, like in
Speaker 1: a game to game situation, it's like you can't really
Speaker 1: say how like if Harden is playing with them bead
Speaker 1: or if they're staggering them, you know, and suddenly hardens
Speaker 1: like fading back to like playing with cork Mas like that.
Speaker 1: That's a big difference, you know. It feels like very
Speaker 1: dependent and there's probably better like statistical regressions they can
Speaker 1: run that do a better job than just the very
Speaker 1: like it feels very blunt instrument right because it's it's
Speaker 1: purely off of just boxed score metrics. Right, there's no yeah,
Speaker 1: I mean I think it is. It is a bit
Speaker 1: limiting for sure. Palo also having one of the better
Speaker 1: kind of runs of a rookie at the beginning of
Speaker 1: their rookie season that we've seen. They're just fun to watch.
Speaker 1: He again, this is why I'm he's another guy who
Speaker 1: is playing I don't want to say disrespectfully, but it's
Speaker 1: like he's not playing like a rookie. It just feels
Speaker 1: like he's sort of like, Okay, thank you, are you
Speaker 1: all ready for me to play now? I thank you?
Speaker 1: Let me. I I'm really enjoying myself out here, and
Speaker 1: I will play with the confidence of one thousand sons. Uh.
Speaker 1: The stars, not the team. I mean consistently watching him play.
Speaker 1: I'm like, this is somebody who's not making it hard
Speaker 1: to debate whether or not he's you know, he earned
Speaker 1: that that top spot, whether or not you can continue on.
Speaker 1: You know, I'm an Auburn guy, and to be honest,
Speaker 1: I was completely salty on draft day and Paula went
Speaker 1: over my guy, Jabari Smith. But I think it's pretty clear,
Speaker 1: Like you said, right, I think I think it's pretty clear. Now.
Speaker 1: The better prospect is it's a it's a it's a marathon, right,
Speaker 1: not a race. They're both pretty young, hopefully they both
Speaker 1: have long career ahead of themselves. But you know, Paula
Speaker 1: was without a doubt, you know, gotten out to an
Speaker 1: early lead, Like yeah, that's ridiculous. Yeah, And at the
Speaker 1: very least, like just from the eye test, you're like, well,
Speaker 1: the Magic have a a talent there, Okay. At the
Speaker 1: if I'm even like, that's the worst thing you could
Speaker 1: say if even wanted to like not give him all
Speaker 1: the praise that you could, which like, I mean, that's
Speaker 1: he's he's looking every day more and more like the
Speaker 1: genuine article for sure. And then also I do I
Speaker 1: do want to talk about Matt Ryan of the Lakers,
Speaker 1: not not of the not. No, how do we now
Speaker 1: have two people in professional sports with a combination of
Speaker 1: the two like most boring guy names, like the two
Speaker 1: most boring boy names, Matt and Ryan. Like when I
Speaker 1: was growing up, everybody I knew was named either Matt
Speaker 1: or Ryan. And they just combined those two and it
Speaker 1: immediately bounces off my brain every time I hear it.
Speaker 1: But yeah, big game winner. This game. This game was
Speaker 1: absolutely wild, to the point that I went to sleep
Speaker 1: being like, man, the Lakers just really can't catch a
Speaker 1: break as they were about to catch an amazing break.
Speaker 1: I mean this that was in an amazing game, tying
Speaker 1: three pointer. I look, I had to watch because I
Speaker 1: was like, come on, can you give me a reason
Speaker 1: to keep going? Please? And they did fantastically. There's this
Speaker 1: breakdown where Ray Allen's watching it, and I just love
Speaker 1: Ray Allen really just giving his analysis as just like
Speaker 1: a sharpshooter on just how wonderful at this moment was
Speaker 1: and just how much like you know, it's clear like
Speaker 1: Matt Ryan, he's he's been practicing that. It's got to
Speaker 1: get it in. It's three point country it's to Ryan.
Speaker 1: But what's fascinating about that is because we all dream
Speaker 1: of hitting the game winner. You do the countdown, and
Speaker 1: what happens is kids don't get to that lift like
Speaker 1: they would get in this situation. And you're always trying
Speaker 1: to get that lift in your training because that's what happens.
Speaker 1: Like you see that he looks comfortable doing it because
Speaker 1: he's been there before. He had to look down to
Speaker 1: see see where he was on the on the line
Speaker 1: on the court. Uh. But that's everything with his shot
Speaker 1: is he was able to get left in your separation.
Speaker 1: He had a slight fade away to it, but he
Speaker 1: still had a great lift on it. You know, every
Speaker 1: time you want the gym, that's how you want to shoot. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it was said, well said to think like previously right,
Speaker 1: he was like he was delivering door Dash. That's why
Speaker 1: I said he delivers man. Oh, they need to they
Speaker 1: need to work that in. He needs to be sponsored
Speaker 1: by door Dash. The NBA needs to be doing a
Speaker 1: partnership with DoorDash. He needs to like they need to
Speaker 1: have courtside seats where you can get your cheese fries
Speaker 1: delivered by Matt Ryan. Like during the game, I would
Speaker 1: let him focus. Could you imagine there's just like, all right, man,
Speaker 1: so you're a delivery driver again. You're like, no, I've
Speaker 1: been working really hard to get in the leak. No, no, man,
Speaker 1: we we love they used to do DoorDash. Now we're
Speaker 1: gonna have you deliver pizzas and all kinds of stuff
Speaker 1: And people might not recognize you from that one clip,
Speaker 1: but we will know and it'll be hilarious. Darren Fox's
Speaker 1: game winner versus Orlando was a lot of fun. Josh
Speaker 1: Hart had a game winner. I don't know, man, this
Speaker 1: this has been a really fun season. Just a lot
Speaker 1: of young people taking things to the next level. Scottie
Speaker 1: Barnes uh looking really good. Um Zion that has been like,
Speaker 1: you know, finding his place in the offense. But he'll
Speaker 1: find it. He'll find it. And then every week I
Speaker 1: feel like Jaw has Like last season, every week there
Speaker 1: was an amazing offensive finish. But now it seems like
Speaker 1: that block the blew armand last year where he just
Speaker 1: like went up and caught it and kept flying up
Speaker 1: towards the rafters, like he he has like incorporated that
Speaker 1: as a part of his game that he's now like
Speaker 1: one of the best shot blockers, just coming from the
Speaker 1: weak side. And and again he's Spider Man. That's like,
Speaker 1: that's what it's like. He's just so agile. He's covering
Speaker 1: the flour war and I love when right when he
Speaker 1: realized he's like, oh wait, I could block this. When
Speaker 1: he steps in the key and he gathers his momentum
Speaker 1: to jump up. As a former high jumper, I was like,
Speaker 1: look at how he's gathering getting really getting your arms
Speaker 1: to drive those arms up. I just want to watch
Speaker 1: that again because here it's it's it's job where they
Speaker 1: have gotten it's a downship. But then, gosh is hard.
Speaker 1: Peter Dark can like Spider like it's a it's a miracle.
Speaker 1: He's always able to land on his feet, you know. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And look, with great power comes great responsibility. So far
Speaker 1: I think he's wielding that correctly. All right, should we
Speaker 1: do one more break? Come back and do the most
Speaker 1: famous segment in podcast basketball podcasting, rapid Fire. Should we
Speaker 1: do that? Yeah? Yeah, yeah, we're ready. All right, let's
Speaker 1: jump out and we're back. Oh showed up right at
Speaker 1: the right time. Well, not to say that we wouldn't
Speaker 1: do this every episode, but thanks for showing up today
Speaker 1: because it's time for the fourth quarter rapid fire round
Speaker 1: of questioning. Now, this is the asked a segment in
Speaker 1: sports podcasting. We're gonna ask you a question and you
Speaker 1: just give us the first answer that comes off the
Speaker 1: top of your mind, reflectively, don't think about it, just answer.
Speaker 1: Keep it short, and if we start talking and meandering,
Speaker 1: it's up to you to stop us. Keep this segment going,
Speaker 1: c J. For the good of the show. Okay, let's
Speaker 1: go start the clock. Don't don't, don't, don't you go first?
Speaker 1: You want? Do you want? I don't know? I mean
Speaker 1: real quick, um, c J. Hi Jack, one of the
Speaker 1: hosts of this show. Quick question for your biggest surprise
Speaker 1: of the early season? Is it the Pelicans? Is it
Speaker 1: the Jazz? Is that the Wolves? Which direction? Which team
Speaker 1: or fourth option? It's you saw Jazz by far. These
Speaker 1: guys are ninety three. It's at the top of the
Speaker 1: Western Conference. Three three. There's something in three three. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they're sitting on the top of the Western Conference standings
Speaker 1: and their best player is LA Marketed. And then if
Speaker 1: that is not surprising as hell, I don't know what
Speaker 1: it is. Yeah, I mean, I like how he's like
Speaker 1: He's like, Oh, that tank talk just motivates us that
Speaker 1: the hell this is the health wimby. Yeah, seriously, we're
Speaker 1: not impressed. Yeah, like we got Lori alright showing what
Speaker 1: you could do with Laurie and he's doing it. Yeah.
Speaker 1: I like I like it because it sets up a
Speaker 1: scenario where Danny Age is the mean owner's wife from
Speaker 1: Major League and they have like a cutout of Danny
Speaker 1: Ainge in the locker room where they're trying to like
Speaker 1: prove I prove that he's a fool, probably you know,
Speaker 1: in a bikini of some sort. I don't know, this
Speaker 1: is just all stuff that I'm they just windmill on
Speaker 1: a cutout of him'll know what, y'all know what's going
Speaker 1: on here, right? Utah clearly made a deal with the
Speaker 1: basketball gods. In order to still be good post Donovan
Speaker 1: Mitchell and Rudy Gobert trade, they had to exchange for
Speaker 1: ugly jerseys. That's right, So in exchange for ugly uniforms,
Speaker 1: they were allowed to stay good posts trading two superstars. Hey,
Speaker 1: I'll take that deal, guy, Or maybe that's part of
Speaker 1: the part of like what the what Danny and just
Speaker 1: trying to do to get them to lose, like the
Speaker 1: way that the Major League owner like took took away
Speaker 1: their playing He's like, I'm gonna make them play in
Speaker 1: the worst looking uniforms in the history of the n
Speaker 1: b A. They very well mind, dude. Yeah, alright, guys,
Speaker 1: let's stay on Okay, okay, all right, thank you, thank you.
Speaker 1: C J. Okay, right right right, that's on me. That's
Speaker 1: on me. Uh, c J. What I was I gonna say,
Speaker 1: I was gonna ask you something good? Um what else? Okay?
Speaker 1: This give us an under the radar storyline that you
Speaker 1: don't think people are paying enough attention to this year,
Speaker 1: you know, I think that's something that's not being talked
Speaker 1: about enough, is the resurgence of the Portland Trailblazers. I
Speaker 1: don't think anyone, you know, Dame's coming back this year healthy.
Speaker 1: But if anyone thought that they beat this, UM not
Speaker 1: sure where fux is that right now, But I believe
Speaker 1: as of a couple of days ago, they had two
Speaker 1: losses this year, and both of those losses came to
Speaker 1: the Portland Trailblazers. And you know, over the years, it's
Speaker 1: been a damon. Isn't having up help construction of that
Speaker 1: team isn't good enough to win at a high level.
Speaker 1: Yet here they are. We're to top of the Western
Speaker 1: Conference standings, thriving, and Anfrey Simons enjoy IMG Academy is
Speaker 1: looking like a future star in the making. So I
Speaker 1: don't know, it's just it's hard to tell. It's kind
Speaker 1: of like the same thing as Utah. Right, is this sustainable?
Speaker 1: I think I would like to believe that with Portland
Speaker 1: showing is a little bit more sustainable than what Utah
Speaker 1: is doing because I believe in Damian Lillard. But it's
Speaker 1: a surprise. Nonetheless, I don't think anyone thought Portland would
Speaker 1: come out the gates um this good. And it's a
Speaker 1: majoring to see if they can keep this thing up
Speaker 1: as the year goes on. They were they were telling
Speaker 1: us Anthony Simons was going to be great for a
Speaker 1: long time, and they just we didn't listen. And now
Speaker 1: look at us, looks on our face, looking around saying, hey,
Speaker 1: what happened? You know, that's all of us. What is
Speaker 1: a new rule C J that you'd like to see
Speaker 1: implemented or altered effective immediately, and it can be as
Speaker 1: wild as you want. It's not a new rule I
Speaker 1: would like to see. I would like to see less
Speaker 1: of an emphasis. Basically, long story short, those three carry
Speaker 1: calls court called against Jordan Pool in Miami was the
Speaker 1: most disgusting thing I've I've ever seen in my life.
Speaker 1: Not one carry, not to this man got called for
Speaker 1: three carries in the same basketball a game. I have
Speaker 1: never seen that before in my life. You have guards
Speaker 1: across this league, Kyrie Irving, James Hardened, John Law, all
Speaker 1: these guys they're carrying on a nightly basis. Yet Jordan
Speaker 1: Pool was singled out for free. I think it hasn't
Speaker 1: been as wild, you know, since then. But if you
Speaker 1: want to crack down on carrying or cracking down on
Speaker 1: entertaining basketball, because every guard in the high level guard
Speaker 1: in the league does it, um so, I would like
Speaker 1: to see referees kind of chill out on that going forward.
Speaker 1: I would say the last time someone was called for
Speaker 1: that many carries in the game was me, right after
Speaker 1: I was watching Allen Iverson for the first time. Uh
Speaker 1: and like junior high the last time that happen, Like, son,
Speaker 1: what are you doing? I'm like, hey, I was doing. Please,
Speaker 1: They're like, you have to learn how to dribble a ball?
Speaker 1: First son, and I was like, he's doing something for me.
Speaker 1: I thought you were gonna say, get them to My
Speaker 1: suggestion would be to cut down on all the celebrating
Speaker 1: on the bench. No wait, they're already doing that. Okay, good,
Speaker 1: because that was that was way too entertaining. Good good.
Speaker 1: That's that rule. Is like you're gonna actually be like, hey,
Speaker 1: stop being so joyous and joyful over there. That's like
Speaker 1: that's like having like you know, having like living in
Speaker 1: a neighborhood. And the h O is like, man, you
Speaker 1: got too many Christmas lights just celebrating like that. It's
Speaker 1: just come on, now, let them celebrate anyway. I'm sorry, CJ.
Speaker 1: You've gotta keep this going, man, rough you're adding our
Speaker 1: own rules and things like that. Um, CJ. Is a
Speaker 1: cal zone a taco? Absolutely not. It's more closely associated
Speaker 1: pizza than taco. Taco is hard show. Cal Zona is baked, breaded,
Speaker 1: and you can have a saft she right there. Taco.
Speaker 1: I mean, I mean, I guess, but like, okay, is
Speaker 1: a cal zone and empanada? I think it's closer to
Speaker 1: the empanada family than is what I was taco. That's
Speaker 1: the right answer. Is it cal zona Danish. It is
Speaker 1: not a Danish. What similar concept is it? Because a
Speaker 1: Danish has like those like air holes on top, and
Speaker 1: a cow zone doesn't have it like it's got to be.
Speaker 1: Is a pistachio, a calza, pistachio, a cal zone where
Speaker 1: we ask the tough questions, you know what I mean?
Speaker 1: And this is the final to question, maybe the toughest
Speaker 1: of all, uh c J, Jack or Miles. You know,
Speaker 1: I've been contemplating this throughout the entire episode, and uh
Speaker 1: it pains me to say this, it really does. But
Speaker 1: you guys are both whack. Oh my god, as long
Speaker 1: as as long as it's not a win for I
Speaker 1: just want to keep mine. I want to keep mine.
Speaker 1: Uh c J came through the goat answer, willing to
Speaker 1: go where no guests has gone before. Of course, if
Speaker 1: you guys are great, man, it's true, and you can't
Speaker 1: you can't say something that's true and then just come
Speaker 1: back and be like I just kidding j K j K.
Speaker 1: This is one of the more entertating pods I've had
Speaker 1: the pleasure to be appreciate. J. I don't know, we
Speaker 1: appreciate that answer. Hey, that is officials. That was the
Speaker 1: best turn on an answer I think we've had in
Speaker 1: the entire selves. We've got to give that up to
Speaker 1: c J. Man. C J. Holmes, thank you so much
Speaker 1: for coming again from Miles and Jack got mad boost
Speaker 1: these really appreciated man. Where can people find you? Follow you,
Speaker 1: listen to you, or read you all that stuff? You
Speaker 1: guys can read me on s F concle dot com
Speaker 1: or if you're in the by area, you know support print,
Speaker 1: you'll pick up a copy of your local paper. Um,
Speaker 1: you can follow me on Twitter and Instagram at c
Speaker 1: J Holmes two. When it comes to Twitter, I need retweets,
Speaker 1: not likes. There you go exactly amplify amplify I mean
Speaker 1: until Elon messes with algorithm again you know what I mean,
Speaker 1: In which case you can follow my account, which will
Speaker 1: be a c J. Holmes impersonator account. Check us out
Speaker 1: at mad boost These b O O S T I
Speaker 1: E s on Twitter. Uh And also this week's listener
Speaker 1: of the week, we said, what's the biggest surprise of
Speaker 1: the early season? And at Tyler McDowell at g I
Speaker 1: nineteen pot says the Sun's in particularly how great Devin
Speaker 1: Booker has looked just looks wise. Yeah, and then at
Speaker 1: tshan Rau tweeted most toly surprising Jazz Blazers, Nets Calves Lakers.
Speaker 1: Yeah and I feel about right. That's cruelty and that'll
Speaker 1: do it for this week's lovely edition of Matt boost
Speaker 1: These thanks against C. J. Holmes for joining us. We
Speaker 1: will see y'all next week with more entertaining coverage of
Speaker 1: the NBA and hopefully maybe my Lakers will turn a corner.
Speaker 1: We shall see. We just don't know, all right, We'll
Speaker 1: talk to you that we don't know.