Luka's Snowtime Lakers COOK GSW, Ant-Man & Lamelo WENT CRAZY vs MIA & AD Goes VINTAGE In D.C.! Part 1

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1:00 get $ 25 in bonus funds when you deposit just $ 10 on Polymarket. Welcome back to Gil's Arena, presented by Polymarket and powered by Playmaker.

1:08 Whoa, whoa! We just added that to the show. That's right. We're always innovating here. I like it. This is Gil's Arena. I'm your host, Josiah Johnson.

1:19 I'm here with NBA legend 2K Unk with badges, Theater King, and the goaded Gilbert Arenas. Sorry we're late, y'all. Gil just got back from the Lakers. Facility one game parade.

1:34 Yeah, baby had to go over there man meet the new people man And I mean, you know get to know their names.

1:39 I got got the stalker Kessler. Yeah, you know had Probably great center of all time. Mm-hmm little snug to huh? Huh? The jersey yeah, it's the snake skin. Okay Yeah, snake.

1:55 Skin We got NBA champion of the world Swaggy Pete Nick Young Back on the couch.

2:05 You feel me?

2:05 I want to give a special shout out because I know we ain't going to talk about it. Give a special shout out to Angel Reese. They balling right now. Shout out Angel Reese. We don't talk women.

2:14 You was right. Yeah, that's what happened. You don't get what they do, you know. Yeah, we wasn't. We had no plans on it. But we love the WNBA here in the arena. I like that. Good shit. You feel me? I had to give him a little, you know. Good job. Good job.

2:27 And we're joined by NBA champion of the world and creator of the Tallest Tails Network on YouTube, Brendan Haywood.

2:33 Back from the arena. Hey, man. What's up, champ? What's up?

2:37 Hey, hey champs always see other champs.

2:40 Who champions in the building ladies and gentlemen? I smelled it from a mile away. Is that winning in there? I still got that championship aura. That is winning.

2:47 Some people ain't never tasted that champagne.

2:51 What? It's a different type of champagne. It ain't the club champagne. That's crazy. It ain't the club champagne. You had a key word in it. It's salt. I see you champ. Yeah, y'all was both on the bench watching that championship. No, no, no. I got some minutes. I got some minutes. I got minutes on the run.

3:08 I got minutes. I was 20 and under. I wasn't over the 20, but I got in.

3:15 So two champions. Yeah, you played. Yeah, I played.

3:18 I played two on the run, too. I was in the game seven.

3:21 I played. I did all that. I played every series. Me, too.

3:24 I played every one. I started some games.

3:28 So two champions and a Gil and a Josiah here in the arena. We got a lot to get into. Here's what's cracking in the arena today. The why Emberwolves spoiled Giannis' heat debut behind a historic night from Ant-Man and also a solid performance from LaMelo. Is Ant-Man a legit MVP candidate and does Minnesota have the best backcourt in the league? Some people don't think so. Be well, we're going to talk about it today. You texted me early before the show. Some things in your mind. Lakers kicked off the Luka era by smacking Steph in the Warriors game. Will snow time make some noise in the West this season? And with A.J. DeBonsa sidelined, A.D. delivered a vintage performance in his Wizards debut. We see him

4:13 right there. Shout out to Trey D. Is Washington ready to go from mildew to barbecue?

4:19 Damn right. Yes, sir. We're wizard friendly on this show.

4:22 This is a pro Wizards show. Mosey fans, back for our super chat. Throw something in the offering plate if you don't mind and drop your questions. We'll pick some at the end of the show to answer. And shout out to all our Twitches out there. Everybody watching the show on Twitch, make sure you subscribe to the AtGillsArena show channel. We appreciate you for all the subs and for all the love. Y'all doing your thing over on Twitch.

4:45 We're going to talk your Lakers momentarily, but we got to talk another game first. Giannis Era officially begun in South Beach Wednesday night as the Greek freak in the heat took on the new look Y-Ember Wolf Squad featuring the dynamic backcourt duo of Anthony Edwards and LaMelo Ball. And opening night, Ant-Man stole the show while playing the role of Spoiler in a matchup featuring two of the NBA's biggest superstars. Edwards delivered an electric performance, staying true to his word that him and his squad were going to be on that bullshit all season long. Let's take a look at what went down, if we can, please.

5:17 So this looked like it was going to be a great game, but then Ant-Man got to cooking. Ant-Man, 45 points and 10 boards. He was 16 for 29 from the field, also hit nine threes in the game. So Ant joins MJ and Wilt as the only players in NBA history with multiple 40-point season openers. So early on, Giannis was ready for his Miami moment, making his highly anticipated Heat debut following the blockbuster trade this offseason. Two-time MVP, scored 21 first-half points, getting MVP chance from Heat fans just 30 seconds into the game. Miami came out looking all right, but Definitely some questions and things we need to address. Gil, you thought the Heat were going to be the number one team in the East, but we

6:00 will see what's going on. So Miami held a slim lead in the second quarter, but the Wolves closed the half on a 20-9 run. Ended up leading by 10 points at the break. See Bam getting his slam on, amongst other things. Ant-Man doing what he's doing. Ant had a lot of smoke for the Heat bench. I think Chad Ochocinco, other people in the crowd at the game.

6:25 LaMelo Ball was also solid in his Wolves debut. LaMelo put up 21.6 assists, had five threes, and a questionable travel that.

6:33 We'll talk about momentarily. That travel was crazy.

6:35 While showing just how dynamic Minnesota's backcourt will be this season and scored 15 of his 45 in the third quarter as the Wolves extended their lead to 17. But he did their best to try to keep things interesting, cutting the deficit to single digits. Minnesota responded by outscoring them 45-23. to put the game completely out of reach.

6:55 Giannis delivered a superstar performance. Giannis had 35 points. He was 13 for 19 from the field. Also had six rebounds with just one assist after drawing the Magic Johnson comp in training camp. I was going to say that. I was going to say that. Giannis' supporting cast struggled to keep pace. Bam Adebayo had 15 points while Klay Thompson scored 10 in his Heat debut with six of those coming in the first quarter. Meanwhile, Jaden McDaniels added 17 points for Minnesota. Rudy Gobert had 15 boards and Ayo DeSumo added 16 off the bench. So Heat were plus 14 in points off turnovers. They were plus 13 in fast break points and plus 16 in points in the paint. But three-point shooting was the difference in this game.

7:35 Wolves hit 21 of their 50 threes, good for 42%. Meanwhile, Heat only shot 24% from distance, making eight threes in the game. Wolves delivered 25-point blowout win on the road. So after the game, Giannis and Ant-Man had this reaction.

7:50 Trust, man.

7:51 We just got to trust what we're doing. Got to trust what we'll be working on. I feel like our offense and our defense, as you said, in the preseason was totally different. I don't know if it's cheaters.

8:04 I don't know what it is.

8:06 The excitement of the first game of the season. But we got to be better. We have to be better. Our offense got to be better. We got to trust one another. Our trust cannot go out the window. When things don't go our way, We got to like dig in and trust one another a little more, which is something that we didn't do tonight.

8:25 Hopefully we can do it next year.

8:26 A player on the bench was talking trash at one of the dead ball situations. And I think it kind of crunked me up because he was talking pretty crazy. And then when I started talking to him, he didn't really have too much more to say. And I don't really like that. Like, if you're going to talk, keep talking.

8:45 Don't get quiet, so. I think that was pretty much the reason why I was super intense tonight.

8:49 That was a player whose first name I didn't remember.

8:52 I don't know his name. Did that usually get you going? Yeah, I love that. I love that aspect of the game.

8:57 Yeah, that fuels me every time.

9:01 That boy glowing.

9:02 Myron Gardner on the heat. Known to run his mouth a little bit too much. Had a situation with Clay. Myron Gardner had a situation with Clay. Did you say he looks like a sculpture?

9:11 A sculpture. Just shining. Just shining. Bronze dinner motherfucker out there. I thought it was Jesus at first. A sculpture. Black Jesus. That's the real black Jesus. So Swaggy, we'll start with you.

9:22 What did Ant-Man and the Y-Ember Wolf show you in their season opening blowout win over Giannis and the Heat?

9:28 MVP season.

9:32 It's going to be a tough time stopping Ant-Man when you got somebody like LaMelo out there. You can't double team him. You're going to have to be left on the island. They are really gelling. They like each other. He called him his best friend. And Melo could do it all, too. He's smarter than what people try to give him credit for because he plays around, he talks trash, he likes to have fun, he streams and stuff. But he made a lot of smart plays out there on the court. Ayo balling off the bench. You got Daniels doing what he does. Yeah, it's going to be a long season.

10:08 You know, I'm telling you.

10:10 When you got that swag and that match with the killer mentality, And you got somebody that's, you know, you could trust and rely on. That gives you another boost of confidence. And, yeah, he's Jesus out there. He looks good.

10:29 Like a handsome, brown, chocolate, moist chestnut. Do you appreciate his game when you're trying to date him? Of course. He's handsome. I would date him. I would love to date him. Swaggy, we are live on the air right now. You're wearing a wire. We're live. He just looks so, like, you can't do no wrong with Ant-Man. There's something you're trying to tell me.

10:49 No, no, I just love Ant-Man. I just love the Timberwolves. Mellow Ball, too.

10:54 All of them.

10:54 When did you become a Timberwolves fan? It's just like seeing your kids out there just balling. You know, like the attitude. They got the swaggy mentality.

11:04 But when did you become a Timberwolves fan? Ant-Man and when he got there.

11:09 Ant-Man been here for a couple years. I've been cheering for him for a couple years. Now we got Melo.

11:14 Okay, okay. No, no, no.

11:16 It ain't when Melo came. I was cheering for him last year. I was cheering for him the year before. And now you a super, super, duper fan. I was saying he was the face of the league.

11:23 A long time ago. Y'all was like... Talk too much trans. The lead don't like that. No, I mean fact. That's a fact, though.

11:31 When did you start gobbling gobbling just because they got ball and you're like, oh, shit, it's about.

11:35 To be on. I get it. I get it. I'm with you. I'm with you. They look fun. I got Luke over there, so I get it. What are you telling me? Hey, you got a little something right here. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Swag. More over here, too.

11:47 Swag, you're getting a lot of AOs in the chat and they're not talking about the sumo.

11:52 Ayo.

11:52 A lot of Ayo's in the chat. Well, let's shift over. They got to learn how to be fans, man. We watching New York Knicks go out there and be, yeah.

11:58 Whooping people's ass. We got to step our shit up. Step your shit up. A thin line between praise and glaze. No, you got it.

12:06 No, no, no, no, no. I will shift over to you, Brendan. Timberwolves came through Miami Heat.

12:13 Only one game. But it looked very, very good. Very impressive in their debut together. No, it looked good, man.

12:19 They looked good as a team. Ant said what he said at the beginning of the year. He said, yo, man, we're going to be on that BS. We're coming to your town. We're going to do what we do, and we ain't scared of none of y'all. And if you look from the jump, he was on that. He was aggressive. LaMelo was aggressive. They play off each other well. They're going to have a claim to being arguably the best backcourt in the league.

12:43 But more importantly, it's the spacing.

12:45 Like, if you watch, LaMelo's problem with Charlotte was he wasn't healthy a lot.

12:49 Mm-hmm.

12:50 He was missing a lot of games up until last season. And last season, ooh, he was shooting the leather off the rock, and he's continued that this year. The spacing that LaMelo's going to give Ant is going to be unfair.

13:02 Mm-hmm.

13:03 Ant already is a one-on-one demon. Now he's going to have ultimate space. You know he got the confidence. And I don't know if y'all were watching like that. He's hitting shots. He ain't just talking to the bench. He's talking to Giannis, too.

13:13 Yeah, Greek Freak. Yeah.

13:16 You must not be from around here. You know, Greek Freak got his dunk, tried to say something right back to him. Ant-Man right back at his neck.

13:22 This dude....

13:24 Is really different because he's not scared. It's different between not scared of nobody. He has a line of disrespect that he is not afraid to cross from anybody. Most guys are like, yo, I ain't scared of you, but he's talking to everybody and anybody. Hey, man. When Mike James went crazy on us in the locker room, what'd he say? I ain't talking to nobody, but I'm talking to everybody. That is what Ant-Man is on. Ant-Man, he's on that BS.

13:51 He's not an angry snitch.

13:52 He's not an angry snitch.

13:56 Mike James is an angry snitch. This is Inside Wizards. The thing I love the most is that he said what he said. He backed it up. He went to Miami.

14:08 Him and Melo probably kicked it the night before, and then they kicked it behind on the court last night.

14:12 Took their work after everything. Took the work. In Miami. Unconfirmed, but realistic and possible. He's going to be in the MVP race. For sure. Like, this could actually be his year.

14:29 When you're talking about somebody who was trying to get over the hump, The only thing that slowed him down was being double teamed and triple teamed and quadruple teamed every time he tried to drive. He might be the only superstar you actually can't double without being penalized. There's no dead weight on the court unless you say Rudy, but he's under the basket. He's going to be under the basket. Yeah, so when you're saying we're going to overload and force you to pass it, you can't do that with them. So he's literally playing one-on-one basketball against everyone.

15:08 There's no one in the NBA or NBA history that will be able to guard him one-on-one without any help.

15:17 And he's going to torch. Right?

15:19 And it's just, just looking at it, it's like, you know, you know, Miami walls everyone up.

15:26 Mm-hmm. They can't. Not tonight. You know LaMelo.

15:32 One thing LaMelo does is he's going to be a hockey assist guy and make it direct. So if he sees someone here and he's, he don't think, he doesn't, he's swinging it.

15:42 Like he's a swing, swing expert. And it's just amazing. Just like, I wanted to see how it looked.

15:49 Now watching it, you're like, ooh, yeah, he, yeah, he's going to, I mean, he's going to average 30s. 30-something easy. I mean, you have a guy out there like LaMelo. You remember LaMelo.

16:05 Has, he has perfected two styles of basketball. Being a playmaker because of his brothers.

16:16 Yeah.

16:16 And being a scorer because of his brothers.

16:19 Yeah. Right?

16:19 Because Zoe was a pass-first guy. So, Melo had to shoot the ball and understand how to shoot it. And then Melo also had to be a.

16:30 Passer, too.

16:32 So, you know, when you're talking about a guy who scored, damn near, what, 90 in high school?

16:37 Pointing at the half-court line.

16:38 I mean, you're not really going to sit here at any point and say, oh, we're going to leave LaMelo and go. You leave Kaminga, he's running to the rim. They're going to be good. And this should be a lesson to a lot of GMs, coaches, and just scouts. When you tag someone and you give them this negative slate and you say, well, I don't know how he's going to get along with this other player. And then you get LaMelo and you bring him with Ant-Man. Now they're best brothers. No one would expect that.

17:19 It's only one ball. Best friends. You don't have to ever worry about them two. Right? You can see it from the beginning.

17:27 They're going to be hanging out, teaching each other how to get to that next level.

17:31 You just touched on something that happens a lot in the league that they don't talk about. They will give a young player a negative tag, and that tag will stay with them for years, and they're acting like these guys coming to the league ain't 18, 19 years old. So, yeah, you might have tagged me I was immature at 18, but now I might be 23, 24 with a family.

17:51 I'm not the same person, but I got the same tag. And so with LaMelo, yes, we understand there was some immaturity. You know, you probably don't want to carpool with him. You don't want him dropping your whip. He was going to swerve in that corner.

18:03 Yeah, he was swerving in that corner. For sure. But as far as.

18:10 Being better in the locker room, as far as growing on the court, the old tag might not apply.

18:17 But more importantly, him and Ant, they vibing. I think.

18:22 If he didn't have that tag, I don't think that Minnesota would have been able to get him because Charlotte would have kept him.

18:28 They put the tag on him.

18:29 They couldn't see past it. And a lot of guys, we've all known guys that get tags. And then you go, I'll give you an example.

18:35 J.R.

18:36 Smith had this tag that he was all these negative things. Man, my one year I played with J.R.

18:42 Smith, he was incredible. Coolest. J.R.

18:45 Smith, the coolest dude ever. Before I met him, the tag, the NBA had put on him, he's this, he's that.

18:52 J.R.

18:53 Smith is incredible as a person, but the tag, and these tags follow these players, and then sometimes you can get a player at a discount, and it looks like that's what happened to Minnesota.

19:04 You know what I said about that? I said, GMs, for the most part, are the dumbest negotiators. If I don't want you, they're going to label you, tear.

19:19 You down, this and this, right? And then push you to the market.

19:25 And then they're going to get mad that they can't get the max money.

19:31 You just told me your Lamborghini got a bad engine, bad tires, bad this, bad that. Why am I paying full price for it? You know what? I want 25%.

19:42 Discount, 50% discount if you want me to take what you don't like anymore off your hands. It's the other way around. We love this guy. He's a great locker room guy.

19:53 He shoots three times a day. We got to keep him out of the gym. I'm going to pull a lemon on you.

20:00 Because of that negative tag, let's look at what happened.

20:04 Nas Reid is a great player. He played well last night. I like that for him. I like Nas Reid in Charlotte.

20:10 But very rarely do you get an all-star for a guy that's really good like Nas Reed.

20:17 You know what I'm saying?

20:17 Like, LaMelo has been an all-star. So very rarely do you get that style player, still young in his 20s, and you be like, oh, I can get him for this price? So Minnesota got that. Once again, our guy, Tim Conley. We've known him since D.C. He's doing a phenomenal job.

20:33 He built up Denver.

20:34 He's now doing a great job building Minnesota. And he now looks like he has the perfect running mate for Ant-Man. LaMelo and Ant-Man are going to be must-see TV. They said it from the jump. And I'm going to throw this one out there. The boys at 520, Jeff Teague and them boys said Portland is a better backcourt than them.

20:54 Do you think Portland's a better backcourt? And do you think that Minnesota got the best backcourt in the league?

21:00 I think they do.

21:01 They said they feel Jaws better than LaMelo, and Dame is still there, so they going with Portland. I'm going with Minnesota because I feel that Ant-Man is that much higher than everybody else.

21:10 Them two going to play against each other. Who? Them two going to play against each other. It's going to be a mass murder. Who you got, though? You the best guard here. I got the one that I don't know how this happened, but they are in the same draft. Was it one and three? Yeah. That's a fucking problem. Yeah.

21:29 I don't know if that's ever actually happened. On the same team?

21:33 Yeah, the one and the third pick in the NBA draft on the same team.

21:38 And both of them haven't hit the prime yet. Both are still trying to figure out how to be stars, how to be basketball players.

21:48 These two are just still in the age of we're having fun. They haven't even tapped into any of their abilities yet. They're just playing the game from how it was taught. When they start dialing that motherfucker in, it's going to be a problem. And we know Tim ain't getting rid of these two.

22:10 Nah. Nah, nah, nah. That's why I like Tim. He'll give away the family. You say you want more. I got you. I got a cousin, I got a brother, I got a... Hey, this backcourt gonna be here for a long time.

22:20 Everybody, hey, Rudy, he might, hey, Kaminga, you know what I'm saying? You know, tell him maybe they back taking food from the family lounge.

22:28 I don't know what's going on out there.

22:29 I can't take food from the family lounge.

22:31 Unconfirmed report. I can't take food from the family lounge. You hear about that in Golden State? No.

22:37 They said his family was taking extra plates from the family lounge. They're going to throw that food away anyway, so really I feel like they were helping out the Warriors.

22:44 You didn't hear about that? When Kaminga got traded from Golden State, they said part of the reason... Oh, yeah, that was crazy.

22:50 They said they were mad because his family was taking out the extra plates.

22:54 They was making up anything. I'm like, come on, man. Once again, that's what we talk about the tag. Like, damn, you're going to tag the man? The family greedy, man. They be stealing the chicken tenders out the family lounge.

23:05 Say whatever you want about Gobert, but Gobert, team high, plus 29 in that game.

23:07 15 rebounds. I mean, when you're talking about the best backcourt in history? In history. Damn. I mean, I'm just trying to figure out. Are they even the best backcourt in the league? Yes. Hold on. What about Shea and J-Dub? I'm asking. Don't look. I'm just asking.

23:24 What about Shea and J-Dub? When we talk about best backcourt, this backcourt already won a championship.

23:30 So we're using the team award to say who's the better.

23:35 No, no, no. Back-to-back MVP, the individual award as well. Shane won that first. Well, I'm just saying, J-Dub has been All-NBA. He was All-NBA that season. He's also been All-Defense. Was that his first year, though? Yeah, he's averaged over 20. He was All-NBA and All-Defense in his championship year. Yeah.

23:51 So I'm just saying, like, I'm... Brother, I'm asking you. Y'all the guards. I'm asking y'all. We got 130, 120. That's the same thing? We got two of them that's a 25 plus and a 25 plus. We both know.

24:11 Both of them is going to hit 50 this year. We know J-Dub ain't hitting 50.

24:14 How do we know that? We know that. You got to have faith. Don't hate on J-Dub. I mean, I'll give them the respect. For sure. Because they are champions.

24:23 But when we're talking about just pure basketball talent.

24:27 Yeah.

24:28 I'm not just talking about, I'm just talking about. J-Dub would be the less talented out of the four.

24:32 You do know J-Dub is average 22 in this league.

24:35 Oh, my God. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. Hit that lamello. Huh? Hit that lamello. Hold on. Hit that lamello. Hold on. We're going to go by J-Dub's accomplishment. No, no. Hit that lamello. He's been third-team All-NBA. Here we go. Here we go.

24:51 Third-team All is an individual accomplishment, Gil.

24:54 Hit that LaMelo, please. Hey, hold on. Let me hear LaMelo's stats. Can I finish my J-Dub stats? You said 22. I like J-Dub.

25:02 All I'm saying is J-Dub's averaged 22. He's won the NBA championship. He's been third-team All-NBA. He's been second-team All-Defense. First team all rookie. And he's a champion. I'm just saying it.

25:16 So you got that. Now you throw that in there with Shea already. It's the combo, brother. It's the combo. It's him plus. So when we rank it, it's going to be Shea one and two. Now let's see who's going to be third. What are you talking about? My internet went out.

25:35 LaMelo's averaged 25 and 7 in the season. I mean, he has, obviously, like you said, potential to be a.

25:40 But once again, LaMelo averaged 25 when it was his team. You got to realize, J-Dub averaged 22 with SGA.

25:47 But as a past first guy.

25:50 Yeah.

25:50 No, no, no. Past first guy? No, LaMelo. Oh, LaMelo. Okay. You know what I mean? So it's like, when you're looking at just the pure talent.

25:57 Listen, and I'm going to say something that y'all probably both not going to like. Because I know, first of all I played with both of you guys and then I've heard you guys talk We're going to have to also talk about the defensive end.

26:07 Of the court. See? See, I knew it. LaMelo plays defense. LaMelo who? Huh? Huh? Huh? Huh? Honda. Anyone talk about no Hondas in here? When you look at the defensive side of the ball, it's not close.

26:19 Wait, when we say best, you know we only think offense.

26:23 The game is played on two sides of the court. Wait, y'all got to stop that shit. When we say who's the best, no one ever says that. You know what we talk about. We talk pure offense. Yeah, we're talking about who is the best.

26:37 Yeah, we talk purely off about playing like one on one.

26:42 So I talk about, you know, so I was thinking about like I was like, are J. Kid and J. Kid and Vince. OK, that's you know, I mean, so there's a couple out there, but these are two young guys. So you got so you've never seen to get put together. So you got Minnesota's backcourt is the best backcourt in the league. Yeah, I do. I go 1.5. I go 1A.

27:04 I go 1B. Even though B is second, I go 1B.

27:07 1B.

27:07 Who's 1A? OKC? I'll give it to OKC. Uh-oh. OK. There we go. I'm with that. How about you, sir? I can give it to OKC. I got OKC number one. OK. I respect. I respect. Hey, listen. Defense wins championships. C-Swaggy, you didn't learn that. I won't buy at the age, too. Huh? See? Man, we ain't. Ant-Man age. Hey, man, this ain't AAU. This ain't 16 and under. You know, we just. No, no, I mean. That's what I'm saying. Yeah, I don't think it's even close. You know what's funny is. Age? You know OKC's backwards not old.

27:32 I'm talking about up into the same age. I was looking at Shay because somebody was like, who's better at the same age, Shay or Luka?

27:42 And I was like, Luka.

27:44 And then I realized how far it was until the last three years. And you're like, Jesus Christ. You're talking about somebody.

27:54 Who jumped up just like To the point where it's like, oh, shh. Double MVP.

28:02 Shea at 25 finished second in MVP voting. Average 30. That was his first All-Star? No, that was his second one. At 24, he averaged 31. It's just like his leap.

28:16 Who you got as the best backcourt? Minnesota? Yeah. He got the middie, three, athletic, drive, handle. I hate y'all non-defensive people.

28:27 He played both ends, though. Ant-Man is a two-way player. That's what y'all say.

28:32 He does play both ends. I would give it to....

28:37 Shea because Shea has a mastery in what he does.

28:43 Yes.

28:45 Ant-Man hasn't hit that level yet.

28:48 He's close.

28:49 But when he gets to it, it's going to be trouble because he has something that Shea doesn't have.

28:54 That athleticism. Athleticism. That athleticism. So he's shooting jumpers and obviously he's a pure jump shooter.

29:02 He can shoot the ball. And then his footwork might be a little bit better.

29:07 Whose? Ant-Man's footwork.

29:11 His movement is a little bit better.

29:15 Did Shay's footwork? He understands human behavior better. So it looks like smooth, but he knows if I go here and shake back, he might move a little bit. I can move in front of it, right? Like he has.

29:30 But don't that go with footwork because he's reading you?

29:32 Like, look how he.

29:34 If you put him in the same drill and there's nobody there and you watch him without playing a game, you'd be like, ooh, hey, man, you're on a different level of how you move. But when that game started, it's like Jokic. You watch Jokic one-on-one, you're like, eh, I don't want him. And then when five-on-five and humans get there, he understands how to manipulate that, and that's where he takes that jump.

30:01 So it's crazy because the knock on Ant-Man coming into the league was he wasn't a good shooter. Obviously, he's worked very hard on that side of the game. Went nine for 17 from three last night. Timberwolves, I don't think 53s a game is sustainable. But getting a lot of open 53s per game is a sustainable situation for Minnesota.

30:17 But they're getting a lot of open shots because of that ball movement.

30:20 Boy, they could have made more. For them it is because, like I said.

30:23 The only person that you're going to leave open is probably Kaminga, and they can sub him out for Ayo at any time. Kaminga went two for four last night. He two for four. You know what I'm saying? They're going to give him that shot. You're going to give it to him? They're going to give it to him because you have to. If you want to pick and roll, bam, and Rudy rolls, and the defense comes over.

30:41 It was a lot of those yesterday. Exactly. Melo had a lot of those. I'm mad at Melo.

30:46 He could have laid them. Here's the thing that we're not talking about. That backcourt looked so cold. All we talked about in the preseason was how, yeah, man, when you go to Miami, they're going to beat you with defense. Man, they cut that defense up. Miami's known for that. They're known for strong defense. It's opening night.

31:07 131 on their head. Opening night, 131. You got Bam and Giannis, two great, and Wiggins. You probably got the best defense. And Klay. And Klay. And, no, no, hell no. Oh, defense. Defense. Defense. One thing we can say about Klay, we've never, during this whole time, questioned his defense. Yeah. Offense, it looked like, you know what I mean, like he's up and down.

31:34 No one said, hey, man, Klay be out there getting cooked now.

31:37 Nobody. So when you're talking about.

31:39 Five players that individually can stop their own man, that might be.

31:45 That's what was so special about last night. Miami's supposed to have one of the premier defensive teams in this league. We understand Eric Spolster's one of the best coaches in this league as far as coaching defense. Minnesota walked in there, hot knife through butter, cut him up.

32:00 Easy work. You know what I'm saying?

32:03 And that might be the best defense that they see as a unit.

32:07 That's the scary part. It's like, yeah, I understand y'all got y'all.

32:10 I think OKC got something for you. Who? OKC. Bullshit. They're going to fuck OKC up. In what? When OKC goes small, when OKC do that small bullshit, and Minnesota has Daniels, As the center at 6'11. Kaminga.

32:26 Like, you just move him out, and you're talking about two guards against them?

32:31 But guess what? OKC no longer has to go small. Yeah. They do small.

32:37 What I'm saying is, even when they're small, like I said, they got Chet. They still got Mara that they just drafted.

32:44 I get that. What's Bigfoot? I heart. I heart.

32:47 So they have three seven-footers that all can really, really play.

32:51 Mm-hmm.

32:52 And then sometimes they'll double up.

32:55 You'll have Hartenstein and Chet. You can go Chet and Mara. They don't have to go small. And Mark Dagnall's a good coach. If he's like, you know what? We went small and Ant and them were running to the rim. He's not afraid to say, you know what, let's see what happens when we go double big and don't guard Kaminga if they still come in there. So those are the little things. OKC is the most complete team in the league by far. By far, they got the offense, they got the defense, they got bigs, they got wings, they got bench depth, and they got a good coach.

33:23 There's not another team in this league that puts it all together like OKC.

33:27 And their handicap is a lineup that always, when teams come back on them, When Indiana did it, when they lost in the playoffs last year, and when they almost did it here, when they go Shea, Caruso, they will.

33:47 Have, what's the little guard? Is it Wiggins? No, McCain. They'll have McCain and the other one. Who, Kaysen? No. Wiggins? No. Kaysen Wallace? Kaysen Wallace, and then they'll go Chet.

33:59 The problem is, The three outside of Shea can't jump for shit.

34:04 They have no vertical. They have nothing. They always get out-rebounded by the other guard that they're guarding.

34:10 So they give up a lot of second-chance points, thinking they're just going to out-speed someone because they're looking about, okay, no one can stop Shea. But on the other end, all the comebacks that happen on you is always because you're too small with non-athletic guards.

34:26 But do you know why they did that?

34:28 Because they didn't have a big that they trusted with the second line-up.

34:32 I don't give a fuck who they do. No, this has been their Achilles heel. Who has been their backup big off the bench that can play?

34:38 I don't know if you caught Maura at Michigan. I had to call a college game.

34:42 Buddy liked that.

34:43 He ain't going to play 30 minutes a game, but that 15 to 20 he's going to give them is going to be impactful.

34:48 They don't have to put Caruso.

34:51 They don't have to do that.

34:54 They do that. It's only been one game, Gil.

34:58 They did it all last year. This is a new Thunder. This is a new Thunder squad, Gil.

35:03 You can't say you're new doing the same old shit. I'm sitting there looking like, hey, they're coming back again like the last time they come back. But they got a 7-3 big man now. Yeah, they got their big shit.

35:15 You know what tells me you are looking to do it?

35:21 By doing it. By actually going out there doing it. You see, Wimby's not there. Hey, Wimby's not there. Let's go fucking double big on him because he has to rest. We can rest one of our bigs. Let's go double big.

35:37 Because they can't afford to put Wimby back in the game right now.

35:40 Double big, let's kill that lineup. Nope, they don't.

35:44 I'm just saying, who's to say that they won't do it? It's been one game. Listen, Mark Dagnall is a very good coach. An incredible coach. I'm not telling you that you're wrong. I'm just saying, judging them by what they did last year might not be the smartest move because they have more pieces this year.

36:02 Also, J-Dub was hurt a lot last year.

36:05 So a lot of those lineups that you were looking at, J-Dub wasn't there.

36:10 See, I got him. You see him stumble?

36:11 Hey, did he stumble?

36:15 Did he stumble? It's still the same thing. You've seen it. I'm watching the game. You're still putting it. When J-Dub was there the first time against Indiana, look at the lineup. They were rolled out of lineup. You're sitting there like, why are you doing this lineup? Because Chet has to leave the paint.

36:31 And when Chet leaves the paint, what is left down there? You're two smallest unathletic guards. So Caruso and Kane will be in the game together. Caruso, Kane, and Wallace will be in the game together. So if you have three of them and you have Shea, I don't give a fuck who the fifth is. It doesn't matter at that point. Like, it's a lineup. Like, you know how they go too... Like, their small ball is probably the smallest because they don't have no athleticism.

37:02 Mm-hmm.

37:05 That's the only thing that scares me with that team is they have not realized that's why they lose leads because they play those three guards with Shea as the fourth guard, and they're just way too small.

37:18 The first thing is this.

37:19 They normally start the game off with Chet and Harkinstein. So they start double big.

37:24 Yes. And they play five minutes. No, they don't. You stop that. They play five minutes. They sub Harkinstein out. So, if check goes out, they can switch it. I'm just saying. So, the rest want to do it. Right now, they have another big man. That's why I said it's a reason they got to him.

37:41 The reason why they were subbing the small guy, they have another big man that they can put in, and we have yet to see how that three-headed trio of those seven-footers gets rotated throughout the course of the season. Here's what happens with championship teams.

37:57 Mm-hmm.

37:58 The regular season is like practice.

37:59 In front of 20,000. Yeah, for sure. They're just working on little... We're going to see if this works. You are right. They do go small sometimes. They do.

38:06 But they're a championship team. They're going to say, okay, we're going to see if this lineup works.

38:10 They do.

38:10 And then as the season goes along, they're going to be like, the double big, they're going to run the... Yeah, that lineup is a plus 45 or it's a negative, whatever. And then they're going to say, so we're going to scrap that or we're going to use it more as we go towards getting ready for the playoffs. So you're right.

38:25 They need to go big as much as possible. But now they have the day. Listen, they got a little bit more money in your pocket. It's kind of like what you you what you were spending when you was in Golden State wasn't what you.

38:36 Were spending in D.C. Had a little bit more money in your pocket, didn't you?

38:39 Hey, that Golden State check when you were spending you, you were shopping at Nordstrom Rack, not Nordstrom.

38:46 But when you got to D.C., you got the full check. When you got a little bit more money in your pocket, you could do a little bit more.

38:53 At Norsham Rack, a fine store to shop at.

38:56 Hey, Norsham Rack got some good stuff. They got good drawers and socks and shit. Hey, listen. Brother, I don't want to know where you buy your drawers at. I know one thing. Hey, listen. We all know where you put the wood at. Nah, man. I don't want to know where you buy your drawers. The wood. Hey, Gil, is that where Juan bought them drawers for you at?

39:12 Norsham Rack? Yeah, Norsham Rack. Norsham Rack? He bought drawers for me at Norsham Rack. Somebody bought drawers for you? Yeah. A man? Yeah. No way. A man. He was teaching me the ways, man. Another man would teach you the ways. I came in, I was privileged. I wore boxers my whole life. I never had draws. Boxers. You didn't know that Juan Dix used to buy you a draw?

39:30 I had boxers, so while we playing, while I'm playing, my piece used to come out, and I used to do this a lot, and my dad, ever since high school, was like, you can't do that.

39:41 And then, you know. Nick, he knew his size and everything. No, he looked at me and said. He eyed you? Nick, what does GTD stand for? It's a draw. It's a draw.

39:54 Let's get back to the Timberwolves real quick, specifically Amman. Gil, you alluded to this a little earlier in the segment, but Amman dealt with runner's knee last season, missed out on making an All-NBA team by not hitting that 65-game minimum. Only one game, but the way he's been talking, he appears to be on a mission this season. So what are your expectations for Airman this season? You think legit MVP conversation? Is he the best American basketball player in the league right now?

40:16 He took one. Best American. American easily. Yeah. American? Who we got? We got Jason Tatum. No, he's not. And man above Jason Tatum. No disrespect to him. We got Steph. We got Tyrese Maxson. We got Galen Brunson. No, I'm just, you know, we just spitballing. We just spitballing. We got Brunson. Brunson might have to be in. I don't know. I don't know.

40:42 We're just going to keep spitballing here.

40:44 You're going to disrespect Big Body Brunson like that?

40:47 No, I'm not going to disrespect Big Body Brunson. The finals MVP can't be in the convo? Yes, we said Brunson. Brunson's right there. But where? So I'm just saying just spitballing. But ain't that a part of it? This year he's going to. Say that again, sir. What did you just say? I say, don't they consider Canadian a part of us?

41:10 It's North America, Swaggy, but just regular America, United States of America. Okay, listen. Can we be honest?

41:16 Can we come up with our own little thing? They're just right there. You know how we put our hat on?

41:23 That's Canadian. We do this.

41:25 We're America. We just do this right there. They're not that far. Different culture, ways, and customs.

41:31 As long as they're in the NBA, they're not that far.

41:34 You of all people should know.

41:36 Hey, listen, you saying it's not that far, but remember when we used to try to go to Canada and they used to detain you?

41:42 Detain me like a mother, my boy. I was getting detained early.

41:45 But you got Cade, Jalen Brunson, you got a lot of names. He had that gun show. Cade, Brunson, Tater. Technically. Shea is American. He is. His game was developed in the United States.

41:56 If your game has been here and you've been training here since you was little.

42:01 What are you talking about? He plays for the Canadian Olympic. But high school in the States. High school training.

42:08 Didn't he start out high school in Canada?

42:12 He needed to upgrade his game. He needed to upgrade his game.

42:14 So he basically spit. I don't know where he was raised in Canada.

42:18 Am I correct? And then he came, like, his last year to go to high school here. Shout out Vaughn Alexander. No, no, that's not how it happened. Same thing with M.E., man. He Canadian. He was over there, man, no shoes on, man, jumping out of bounds, trying to figure out what's going on. Came over here, MVP. A lot of men got to have no shoes. That's like Hawaii.

42:37 Who was giving him shoes, right? You know, who was giving him shoes back then? He came to America to play better competition in high school. He was tired of cooking everybody in Canada. Obviously, he went to Kentucky. But shout out Vaughn Alexander.

42:47 All right, so who y'all got as the best American player then? Ant-Man or Cade? It's between Ant-Man, Cade Cunningham, and Brunson. We still got the Cade out there. That's so different. I know. Kyrie's max, he can't get a look. Nah. Nah, not over them three. Okay, we'll see. Remember y'all said that. I forgot what I'm talking about. I'm going Ant. But like that's what I said, because they're all so different, it's.

43:13 Like I'll go Ant, Cade, Brunson. Fourth quarter, Brunson. Yeah, if I'm just talking about.

43:24 Ant, Cade. If I'm talking about... But last year, it's like... If I'm just talking about straight game... I'm talking about, yeah. And where I think it's... Where I think... I like to.

43:33 I like to skate to where I think the puck's going to be, not where it is. So coming into this season, a lot of people might say, oh, well, Cade or Brunson, I think at the end of the year, based on what I see and the trajectory that Ant-Man has been on, Ant-Man is going to be, by far, the best American player that we had by the end.

43:50 Of the year. He's the most gifted by sure. You know what's so funny? Will he be the best player in the league? You know why he gets the short this year? Because you can't preload on him. You can't load him. You can't sit here and sit someone here and sit someone there and you're forcing him to shoot jump shots all day.

44:08 Right?

44:09 And then you pretend that you're stopping him. When it's a team, you're using the whole team to stop them because y'all don't want to, you know, you don't got the shooters that they needed.

44:18 Let's just walk through the difference. Let's walk through the difference this year. Yeah, let's walk through the difference this year for Minnesota. Here's the biggest difference. When Ant-Man goes to ISO, in previous years, you had Julius Randall and you had Rudy Gobert. Those guys used to clog the paint.

44:33 Kind of the same way when it was me and Kwame in there, you'd be dribbling looking for some space.

44:38 They wasn't guarding us. It was Clinton in there, right?

44:41 But the minute Antoine Jameson came in, Yep. Now you like, ooh, you getting down the lane doing all your... Because it's more space. I'm under the basket, Twan at the top of the key.

44:52 It works differently.

44:53 You look at this team, now that you got Jaden at the four, now you got Jaden spacing the court, you got Rudy underneath the basket... that load-up ain't going to hit the same because Kaminga can hit shots, but more importantly, he don't have to be out there. We can sub him out and put in another shooter, and either when Kaminga's hitting shots or when they sub in that shooter, that's when Minnesota gets scary because that backcourt can't be guarded one-on-one.

45:19 You're a better passer than you give yourself credit for it, too. He used to pass when he wanted to. I was about to say, he threw me a couple lives.

45:25 You remember that game in Toronto where he said he wasn't going to shoot, and then he came out there and he dimed everybody up and he won, but then he just said, I don't want to play like that, and he didn't.

45:32 Do it no more. Yeah. I don't want to make y'all niggas mad. I worked too hard on my jump shot. Now, you weren't on the team then. You wasn't on the team. I just remember playing. He threw me a couple of lines. Yeah, man.

45:44 Somebody pissed him off in Toronto. Somebody pissed him off before the game. Said he couldn't pass. And he came out there and didn't shoot on purpose. And he thought we were going to lose. But we won.

45:53 Oh, we won because I took the last seven points. Yeah, but that's what, yeah. But you were dominant. I got all up here.

46:01 Did you ever have, not that this, but did you have any, like, a lot of threat on your team?

46:06 Who was your lot of threat? Besides, like, the... I didn't do great catching lines. Yeah. He didn't have one.

46:11 It would have been Charlie Hayes, but he cracked his knee.

46:16 Now, you had JaVale a little bit, too, but he didn't play as much. Yeah, he didn't play as much. No, but you were hurt then, too. Yeah, I was hurt then. Like, when the YNs really came, Booker, JaVale, right? It's like, oh, man.

46:31 All right, well, let's shift over to the Heat side of things. Gil, you had the Heat. is your pick for the number one team.

46:37 Can we get that? Let's talk to Giannis. Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. Can we get that sound effect?

46:45 When the Bulls beat Utah Jazz or anybody in a regular season and whoop their ass, they're trash to that team. Don't mean they're trash to every team. Let's just get that out there.

46:58 Let's talk about it. Giannis did his part. Looked like the former two-time MVP of all. Supporting cast looked a little shaky in game one. Heat shot a nasty 24% from three and only hit eight of their 33 attempts. Also gave up 131 points. This was supposed to be an elite defense. That was supposed to be their calling card.

47:16 But what's the Heat's biggest issue right now, and how can they address it and fix it as quickly as possible?

47:21 To be honest, when it comes to shooters missing right now, that could be just out of training camp, right? As training camp is preseason, you still haven't found your shooter legs yet.

47:36 Right.

47:38 As a as a collective, you might not be doing enough to to get that rhythm back. And that happened, especially in our era, a lot because we focus so much on defense during training. I guarantee you majority of their time when they got together for preseason and training camp was on the defensive end. So you didn't really take many shots. You're just sitting there focused on defense.

48:02 So individually, you have to go out there and make sure you're getting your shots up.

48:06 So I'm not.

48:07 Going to really put too much on these guys missing shots that they make. These are not bad shooters learning how to shoot. These are seasoned year after year guys who can actually hit that shot.

48:22 Now, defense-wise... I would say I would be concerned.

48:31 But again, the credit that we just gave Minnesota, what you can't do now against Ant-Man and this Timberwolves lineup.

48:48 Your team defense is irrelevant. You don't have no team.

48:52 Your team defense where you want to load up, box everybody in, that shit goes out of the window.

48:58 You about to get ISO'd. So that means Davion, you got LaMelo. Good luck. Klay? Klay, who you got? Right? You're not the young Klay anymore.

49:12 So you guys have one-on-one individual defense and that's going to be a problem against them.

49:18 And my be a problem against Philly too.

49:22 When you got four guys that can actually do their own thing and you're trying to load up on it.

49:29 I think the problem for me is Giannis looked incredible. Giannis looked like Giannis. But all offseason, I kept saying, hey, man, who the next playmaker?

49:38 Like, you know what I'm saying?

49:40 Like, when we talk about Minnesota, we're like, yeah, man, you know, Ant-Man's crazy, but, man, LaMelo crazy with the.

49:45 Rock, too.

49:46 Like, their best two, like, playmakers are four fives. Like, it's like, okay, Giannis and Bam. How many teams have we seen win a championship where their best two playmakers.

49:59 Are the four or five?

50:02 Maybe we're talking about like Tim Duncan and like David Robinson or somebody like in today's NBA?

50:12 Bro, you need at least one guard that can bookie. That's what I said.

50:15 In today's NBA, ain't nobody telling you you got to have Ant-Man, but you need one guard that's like where Giannis can be like, yeah, you take it for a quarter. My man's like, yeah, I got you. Don't worry about that. I'm going to make sure everybody... And Davion Mitchell had a solid game. He had 11 assists, but he's not that guy that can go get it.

50:33 They're missing that go-get-it guard.

50:38 And.

50:39 I, one, it's like I said, first game of the season, I expect Miami to be really good. I expect them to have better offensive nights and better defensive nights. But long term, what I'm looking at for the Heat all year long is, are they developing or have they gone and found that guy at the guard position that they can go get buckets from or when Giannis goes to sit down, this guy can make it easy for the second unit, something. When Giannis sit down, your best playmaker can't be Bam Adebayo.

51:08 That's crazy. In today's NBA, your best two playmakers are your four-five? Man, that's this day, man. That was real cool in 95. It was cool. It was cool in 98. I don't know if that's going to hit the same way in 2026.

51:22 Well, I think that's Pat Roddy fault, man. He got this on-the-prize bad bitch mentality. You know, he try to turn liquor stores into superstar players.

51:31 Like, But it worked out. Yeah, it worked out.

51:35 But you can't bring a star like Giannis in and think you're about to turn no disrespect to Mitchell into... He's not about to disrespect you.

51:44 No, no.

51:45 He's like a good backup guard, like Wiggins or Watson. He's like one of them. I don't think he's a starter point guard for Miami Heat. You got Clay trying to turn him into Duncan Robertson when, you know, no disrespect to him, but You.

52:02 Need that guard.

52:03 You need somebody that's going to, because Giannis got the ball in his hand all day just trying to create, create.

52:10 He did that in Milwaukee.

52:11 You didn't bring this guy to do the same thing from Milwaukee into Miami. You need to give him some help. You need to do something. Make a trade and stop trying to turn these G leagues into starters. I mean, to all-stars, you know. It happened before.

52:28 It's worked out a lot. If, if, If Mitchell is getting 11 assists, you really have a problem. Yep.

52:41 Because that means he has the ball too much and your star players don't. I remember doing a study of the team that won the championship, the starting point guard, what did they average that season? So up until, shit, 2015, Even now, even now, it was almost like at a 4.2.

53:07 4.2 assists? Assists a game. Because you got to think about all the Bulls, right?

53:13 Ron Harper.

53:14 No, you got to think all the Bulls team. Like I said, that's the hard part. All the Lakers team. Matter of fact, let's speak highly of Ron Harper. Ron, I'm looking for you. Yeah, he's looking for you. I don't know what you're looking for. You need to look for the nigga that was with you. All the... You got Heat. You got the Heat guards. Charmers. Right? You got...

53:33 The San Antonios and all that. So when you... No, it was... Oh, it was the Chambers. I know, but with the D-Way team, who was the point guard? Mario Chalmers. Mario Chalmers. I'm talking about when he first won with Shaq. It was J. Will. J. Will. The white chocolate? It was the older, though. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

53:49 So I just looked at Brunson's to see what he... He will be with 6.8. He will be on the top five of PGs.

54:01 Average. Kyle Lowry's number one. Kyle Lowry's number one.

54:08 And it's just like, if your point really has the ball, why isn't the superstar with the ball?

54:18 You know what I mean? And it's weird because it's like, if he does have the ball and he's creating shots for everybody else, that means the ball is not in BAMs. or Giannis' hands.

54:30 And another thing, do Bam have like a superstar mentality, you think? I think he got like a role player mindset out there.

54:36 And this is the problem.

54:37 You know, can we watch this video and can you, and this will be the problem and I think Bam needs to sit down with himself and really, really convince himself on what he really is.

54:52 Man. Show me the video. That move was crazy, bro. This is not a regular basketball player who's just... Watch when he's on offense. Because it kind of shook me. Like, wait, hold on. This isn't 13 Bam? Yeah. We're looking at a lot of highlights. You'll see.

55:17 It's when Miami has the ball.

55:19 Going this way.

55:20 And you'll have a few plays of bam, and you're just going to be like, wait a minute.

55:25 Why don't you just do this? For sure. Especially at that position, nobody could go. Yeah. An extensive highlight. Oh, is that a travel? That's a crazy travel. Nah, it is. But no. Yeah, later on in the highlight. Yeah, it's coming. Am I just playing right here? Nah. I like it. No, no, no. Go back. Yeah, yeah, yeah. They're on offense. But no, no.

55:56 It's at the very end. It's fine. When he hit the three, he didn't step back to the three. Just play. Just play, please. Yeah. But while we're chatting, whoop. Where are you getting at with this whole Bam situation? You'll see. Gilberto. You'll see. The mad scientist.

56:14 There's no one really in his position that can actually stop him. When he's actually aggressive, I don't know who has really dialed him down so much where he's shot.

56:31 Look, this is Bam, right?

56:33 This is.

56:35 Play it. Play it. This is Bam. Now watch this. Watch this. That's tough right there. That's what I'm saying. He dials himself down. It's like, yo, can you.

56:52 Please try to average 30?

56:55 If I'm coaching him, I have to, hey, Bam. Shoot the ball. I don't want to have to stay on you.

57:03 Hey, hey, score. Score. Hey, score.

57:05 I don't want to have to do that. You should already know these. They can't stop you.

57:10 You know what I mean? It's like he plays good basketball. Sometimes good basketball means dominate.

57:23 Do what you do.

57:24 I don't need you passing to a lesser version of you.

57:29 You know what I mean?

57:30 It's like sometimes coaches have this idea of, hey, you know, play the right way. Now, if you have Michael Jordan on your team and you draft him in 84, 85, 86, and you say play the right way, what would that mean?

57:50 Score. Him average 37 or him trying to average 20, 30, 25 and try to get whoever fuck was on that team the ball. 35. Play to your best ability. Right? And when you spot talent that matches you, do you. Right?

58:08 And we've seen he did that later on when he started winning. And that's what I look at Bam like, man, you're so gifted.

58:16 83. Like, you did score 83. I was a score. God damn it. I know what it physically takes to be in that type of shape, to be on the run, and to understand that.

58:29 You're holding back way too much. It's like, you know, I'm going to get 20 and I'm good.

58:35 Well, you know what? Because both of y'all guys can score. I never can score.

58:39 So I'm going to ask this question to y'all because I don't have the answers. There's two guys I know that can score the rock. Can you develop that mentality that y'all guys had to score? And we're talking about that.

58:51 It's year 10. No, you can't. The first time you got to the Wizards, I was like, hey, man, this kid can score. He don't like to pass much. You know what I'm saying?

59:01 The first time I saw you, I'm like, man, this kid can get to it. Yo, we're going to be pretty good, man. He better than what I thought. I wouldn't stand up late watching the Golden State games.

59:12 He better good. You know what I'm saying?

59:13 But it's the scorer's mentality. You had it from day one. You had it from day one. We're in year 10.

59:21 That's two scorers.

59:24 If you don't got it by year 10, can you develop that?

59:26 Let me know. He has a... It's year 10. That's correct. No, what I'm saying is he has a full decade in the league.

59:33 There's a difference between having a scorer's mind and having a selfish mind.

59:38 Right? Explain that. We're selfish. Very. Right? Especially you. No, him. Jordan. I'm not a selfish him. Jordan. It's selfish. Right? We train so much to perfect our skill. It's a selfish thought process.

59:57 The only time we're in team is when we feel that everyone on the team is ready and we're in that mode. Then you take off some of this stuff and you let everybody be. He has been in a unselfish mind. How he thinks is how LeBron is right now.

1:00:19 Yeah.

1:00:20 When you look around and he's been the best player on the team the whole time.

1:00:25 Man.

1:00:26 And it's like, what are you what are you saving yourself for?

1:00:30 So when Jimmy Butler is like, hey, Jimmy, hey, bro. Hey, hold on. The guy right there can average 30.

1:00:38 There's nobody in his position that is literally stopping him one on one.

1:00:43 He is cruising. He is.

1:00:45 And I guarantee you, Pat Riley told this man, you remind me of Chris Bosh when Chris Bosh got here. When Chris Bosh got there, Chris Bosh was a 20-point scorer.

1:01:00 What Chris Bosh did once he got there is very different. But the Chris Bosh that was in Toronto, we couldn't do nothing with that man. He got there and he looked and said, okay, all right, we got LeBron James, we got E.W. I'll dial it down. There was no reason that Bam should have dialed down his game during that time.

1:01:25 And right now, for this team to take it to that next level, Bam has to bam up. Just like that mind where he was like, I'm scoring 80 today.

1:01:36 I'm doing it. That's what I'm going to go for.

1:01:38 But that's when you know he had 83. Then the next game, he had, what, 20? It's like, oh, yeah, I did it already.

1:01:45 No, that's, you know.

1:01:47 But guys like that, guys like that, I'm not even going to lie, you have to stay on them. Like him, you know, Ben Simmons, when Ben Simmons was young. You have to stay on those guys.

1:02:00 Hey, hey, hey. It's like goal setting. Hey, I need you to average seven points a quarter.

1:02:09 So they're always mentally into the game. They're not just floating around for six, seven minutes.

1:02:19 Can I ask another question? Are they trying to make Mitchell like Rondo with Boston?

1:02:24 Boston can't make somebody somebody.

1:02:26 That's the biggest... You just said it right there. You can't make somebody somebody.

1:02:35 If he's been used to playing.

1:02:38 From a mental standpoint a certain way for 10 years, what I was really trying to get you to say is whether you could flip the.

1:02:46 Switch or not. And what I'm hearing is, nah. No, no, no.

1:02:51 You can't make Mitchell Rondo. Rondo's mind, vision, his vision is his. This is not history.

1:03:01 I'm just saying, can a guy that has naturally played the right way... History says no.

1:03:06 Can turn it out and just be like, yeah, I'm about to be selfish?

1:03:09 And then, more importantly, can we.

1:03:11 Have a 4-5 combo be the best two playmakers on a team?

1:03:15 Like, if you really look at Miami... They are the best two playmakers. No, no, no. I know.

1:03:20 I'm just saying, if we look at Miami, with Bam and Giannis being the best two players on the team, do we think that that format in 2026 is going to win a championship?

1:03:28 No, I need a score. I need a scoring guard. There we go. And that's why I said if he has 11 assists, that's not what I need. I don't need you going out there trying to make plays for nobody. I got two guys that they're very skilled at this highest level. Either you're going to fucking just be a pure shooter. You're going to be Mario Charmers. You play D.

1:03:46 You hit shots. I don't need you to sit there and start crap trying to craft it out. Derek Fisher, get your ass in the corner. Brian Shaw, get your ass in the corner. Right. Either you're going to play like Tony Parker. Right.

1:04:01 Or you're just going to be a three-and-D guy.

1:04:04 I don't need you to be a point guard. You should be averaging three to five.

1:04:07 And that's what I've been saying all preseason. I'm worried about this Miami team from a backcourt standpoint. Frontcourt, I love Wiggs.

1:04:15 I love Bam. I love Giannis.

1:04:17 Where's the guard that's going to create? That guard is non-existent. And that is why they're going to be a very good regular season team. This one game is not indicative of who they're going to be. But when the smoke clears and we're looking at them versus Detroit, them versus Philly, them versus the Knicks, I think those teams are going to be better than them.

1:04:36 Well, we will see how the heat fair for the rest of the season, but let's take a look at a moment that had the internet buzzing. involving lamella ball. I know we all seen this play. I want to get your reactions to it. Hey, man, come on.

1:04:47 Refs got to do better than this. Come on, man. That's not a travel. Let's take a look. Nick, come on, man. Just a couple steps. What? Nick, that's not a travel. Y'all just tipped the ball. Look at this. His hand out of the ball. One, two, three, four.

1:05:03 Five.

1:05:04 Nah, that's not.

1:05:06 Hey, man, he took more steps than Drew Hill and they was five steps from eternity.

1:05:10 We went five steps. The last two was the one of the... You.

1:05:16 Know what's crazy in that song? Drew Hill only gave us three steps. They never gave us the other two steps. I think LaMelo gave us the extra two steps because he gave us five steps.

1:05:26 So for what it's worth, LaMelo's big bro Lonzo saw the play and tweeted this response. He said, travel Laughing my ass off, off, off, off, off, off, off.

1:05:35 Several O's on there. Come on, man.

1:05:36 But here was LaMelo's response on SportsCenter about the play.

1:05:40 And please tell me you know you walked on that play. Like, you had, like, three gathers going to your right. You made the shot. Ah, that's funny. You know what's crazy? Yeah.

1:05:47 My mans was just talking about it, and I cussed his ass out on the bench because I said, if you watch, I let the ball guide.

1:05:53 Yeah.

1:05:53 So if I'm letting the ball guide it and it ain't touching me, you can take as much steps as you want. Mello. It's not traveling. Lonzo. Your brother.

1:06:00 That right there is the last step.

1:06:02 Because he could have dribbled before that. Because he could have tossed back over. See, I got to give him a call right now because with the family, he know what he's supposed to do. Even if I'm wrong, I'm right. That's how it go. I got to teach that boy. Even if I'm wrong, I'm right. You know what's so funny?

1:06:20 And this is why.

1:06:24 The NBA can't keep bending the rules for defensive players.

1:06:29 Defensive players? Here's why. An offensive player will read the rule book and dissect it for everything it says. We don't start the step count.

1:06:45 Until you have control of the ball. Now, what does that mean? It means when they feel you have control. So like he said, if I'm going and even though the ball, if the ball is sitting here rising, they're waiting till it actually stops and I have control. So these steps don't mean anything. Then I sit here and do that. So these guys sit in the summer and practice these moves all day long. So that's where when you're watching, it says, after you gather, you have two steps.

1:07:22 Okay? After I pick up the ball. So, hey, if I bounce it at the same time, boom, is that a step? Nope.

1:07:29 Oh, that's where the zero step comes from. If I bounce it at the same time, now I got one, two steps. When you're looking at it, it looks like three.

1:07:39 So when these guys are doing these moves, all the ref is looking at is like, all right, does he have control of the ball or is it still floating? So you're saying that's not a trouble? No, not if you... Because you could tip the ball all over. Nick, that was a trouble. You ain't got control of the ball.

1:07:55 You're going to have to slow it down and then I can... The ball is floating in his hand. Like this... Not yet.

1:08:04 Keep going to the replay.

1:08:06 On the replay. And I can tell you. Right there. When he did this, that's when the one-two came. No, no, no. Seriously. Wait, hold on. Let's look at it. I'm going to tell you when he got control. Here we go. One. No. It's circling. You see the ball. He didn't put the ball like that. See, he doesn't really have it. All right, one. See, he doesn't have it. Now here we go. Right here.

1:08:32 You see it's not in his hand. Ready? Oh, he's smart. That's it. Come on, man. No, no, no. No. Negative stuff. Go back. I'm going to show you something. And this is because they don't really call travel like that. It's in his hand. No, look at that. Right here. You see how he doesn't actually have the ball? Yeah. Now play. Watch.

1:08:57 There's going to come a space where the ball is actually not in his hand. because he's allowed to do this right here.

1:09:03 Look how the ball is spinning. Because of that, he lets his hand off right here. He doesn't have the ball anymore. So... Now! Man, he looks like he's trying to do the Tamiya. It's all ball water.

1:09:18 He's looking like he's trying to do the Tamiya can't get enough pond dance.

1:09:21 You know what I'm saying? Come on, man.

1:09:23 Let's do this. Because they don't call this a trap. They don't call this a carry no more. What they're doing is when they're bouncing it and they're letting it rise, it's like a little pump in the air like that and they're taking their hand off and then once it lands back in their hand, then they go.

1:09:42 It's... Hey, man, I hate y'all. Yeah. You letting it flow? You letting it flow. You don't remember when Westbrook was like, boom! And everybody's like, hey, you love yourself? Man! I got the ball, yeah. Melo used to do that.

1:09:54 Yeah, it's rules. They're just reading the rules. They're just reading the rules, and they're just creating shit. I don't give away with a lot of shit, too, though.

1:10:04 When did all this stuff happen, though? And if you can't catch it in real time, and you call it. So let's say James Harden, I asked the ref.

1:10:11 James Harden said, They said his step back, that double step back, they said it was a 67-33%.

1:10:17 A what? Legal and travel.

1:10:23 So they said because it's this big of a gap, you let it play out, and if you can catch it in real time, you'll call it.

1:10:32 Other than that, not well. Don't guess. Some think travel. Some don't think travel. I'm just saying it's very close.

1:10:39 And all the rep is just looking at the ball.

1:10:42 Man, Giannis did this to the game. Tipped it to himself and did the Euro after. That's control. Missed on both sides. All right. Well, it's time. I know.

1:10:53 Time to try and finesse some bread on Polymarket. This is Put That On Something. We're going to give you a trade on the Polymarket app. You got to pick a side and put that on something. Andy Edwards coming off a monster season opener, which he set a Wolves franchise record with 40. Five points in an opener. And currently tied with Ty Jerome for the highest average in the league right now.

1:11:11 I say Jerome in the house. Better watch your mouth.

1:11:15 Both averaging 45 points per game to start this season. And 29 points per game last season was third behind Luka and SGA. Let's take it to the couch. Will Anthony Edwards lead the league in scoring this season? This is the list right now.

1:11:34 Austin Reeves up there.

1:11:36 Austin Reeves to lead the league in scoring? That can't be the list. That can't be the list.

1:11:41 The current favorite right now at 96%. Luka Doncic also at 96%. But he's not there.

1:11:47 Two, okay, two American whites and two American blacks. That's what I'm talking about.

1:11:51 Yeah. Yeah. I'm going to go with that. Basically, he can't win. Okay, so with that list, I'm going to say with that list. We only taking people off that list? No, so just ask me, will Ant lead the league in scoring? Oh, it's going. I'm saying no. You're saying you still have Slovenia and Jesus? Yeah. Okay. Average of 45 points per game right now, Gil. I'm going, I'm going, yeah. I get it. Swaggy. I'm going, yes. Staying loyal to the soil. No, it's how you start off, too, my bad. You go ahead.

1:12:22 Go ahead.

1:12:23 That's just how you start off. You have another big game like that. 45 to start. A good start. Leading the league in scoring right now. Tied for the lead league with The Grizzlies tied Jerome. Also had a 45 piece in the Grizzlies. I'm still going to roll with SGA.

1:12:37 Okay.

1:12:37 You're saying SGA. You're saying Luka. Swaggy, you are staying loyal to the Timberwolves soil. Luka led it last year, right? Luka was the scoring champ.

1:12:45 Yeah. I was going to say. Paul LeBron James was on the court, right? Yeah. Someone said that.

1:12:51 Put that on something presented by Polymarket.

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