Andrew Schlecht (3:27)

Yeah, this was an exclamation point for the Thunder to start the season. And honestly, Shea was Really good tonight. 28 points, seven boards, eight assists. He was slithery. He was just dissecting everything. But the thing that stuck out was the improvement of Chad Holmgren. Chet was going to the hoop. He scored 25 points. He had 14 rebounds. I thought his rebounding looked much improved from last season. And then his ability to pass the ball. He had five assists, he had four blocks. He had like big emphatic moments. He was doing the little things. I mean, this is the jump that we kind of expected for the number two overall pick and Chet Holmgren in what should be year three. But this is really year two for Chet.

Zena Kada (4:09)

With how deep the Thunder are, you just kind of get rid of all concerns rolling through the season, being able to have the bodies to get to a playoff like run. But are you at all concerned with the amount of shots being distributed amongst particularly the starting 5? 24 shots for Shay, 18 for Holmgren, 16 for J Dub. Like is there enough shots to go around?

Andrew Schlecht (4:35)

So this, that's an interesting question because the Thunder are actually designed in this way and that they have these, their big three. The guys that you mentioned and then everyone else is really a supporting piece. Like that's how this, this team was designed. They are like two way players like Lou Dort, Isaiah Joe, Alex Caruso, Aaron Wiggins, Case and Wallace. I mean the list goes on and on of these two way players that are there to accentuate these, the big three for the Thunder and to make them better. And that's, that's the way this team is supposed to operate. And so I think that even though they're, I mean they're missing the rest of their bigs, basically like Hardenstein didn't play. Jay Will is out. Kendrick Williams, who played small ball center for them all out said no problem. I mean they Played a little bit of Usman Jang and you know, they played a lot of like a lot of guards tonight.

Dave Defour (5:29)

Yeah, I mean, Wiggins was great off the bench. He actually got seven of nine. But I want to go back to Chet because I think this is actually hugely important for this season. The Oklahoma City Thunder is everyone's pet pick right now to come out of the west, and they're stacked. And we were thinking they're stacked because they had Hartenstein. All we've been talking about is they got Hartenstein. Now they have somebody that can bang with Jokic. Oh, man, you're going to still have Chad out there. They've got the twin towers. What we didn't take into account was something we saw tonight. And Andrew, I want your opinion on this because Chad, I mean, look, we're going to talk about the jumper as the season goes on. I don't think he's forgotten how to shoot a three ball, but the thing that he definitely knows how to do now is put it on the deck. And a couple of times, like he just blew past Jokic. Jokic has to guard Chet. That's the thing people aren't thinking about.

Andrew Schlecht (6:22)

Yeah, I mean, that. That is the challenge for other bigs and opposing bigs. And what. What's interesting Thunder team versus last year is that a lot of times people thought that the. The way that teams cross match was for Josh Giddy, and some of it was for Josh Giddy when they would put bigs on Josh. But a lot of times it was because they didn't know how to match up with Chad. And now that there's nowhere to hide, guys, it presents an interesting problem that we saw on night one for the Nuggets in particular. And we're going to see this throughout the league whenever the slender team plays because we won't see him with Hartenstein for a while. And so how teams handle this whenever there really isn't a good place to hide anybody. And also with the improved handle of Chet Holmgren, that it's a dangerous weapon. Now, it's something that he couldn't do a whole lot last year, but you can tell that he was in the lab all summer and really improved his handle.

Zena Kada (7:18)

I'm just so curious if this game is an indictment on the Nuggets, because if you're looking at the west, you're thinking these are the top two teams. One is going to unseat the other or unseat the Mavs right from last year. And now you're looking at Jamal Murray, who Had a non existent game tonight. You're looking at Jokic, I believe there was a stat. This is the 10th time since Jokic has joined the team, the first since 2021 that they've scored under 87 points it at home. Like what does this say about the Nuggets and their future in the very tough West?

Dave Defour (7:53)

I mean, I think they got some problems, you know. Look, my biggest takeaway from this game, I think OKC showed us a lot of stuff that we already knew and it solidified it. And then we saw like a couple of new things like Chad, you know, taking him off the dribble. Shea shooting all these off the dribble threes, which are going to be massive, especially with the new officiating stuff because he's going to have to get that three point volume up. But my, my major takeaway is that the Denver Nuggets, Andrew, man, they're in trouble. They've got what, four guys that you can trust. And it depends on how Murray's feeling that night and whether MPJ is deciding to show up at both ends. I mean, that's a problem for a team that has some championship expectations.

Andrew Schlecht (8:34)

Yeah, I, I don't know where they go. I don't know how they solve this because you, you look at the starting lineup, I think the starters are going to be fine. They didn't play great tonight, but I think they're going to be fine. I love Christian Brown's aggressiveness. I think Jamal Murray will be better than this. I think MPJ and Aaron Gordon know who they are and Jokic is Jokic. But then you look at the bench and it's who can you count on? It was a lot of Russell Westbrook tonight and I would not be surprised if Russ is gone by Christmas.

Dave Defour (9:05)

I, yeah, I was going to say the same thing. He's minus 24 in 21 minutes. I mean, it's just. It was a disaster.

Andrew Schlecht (9:14)

Yeah. On both ends. And it's loud and that's, and that's the way that Russ has always been. Like Russ is loud in good and bad ways. But tonight it was a lot of, of, of bad loudness coming from Russell Westbrook.

Dave Defour (9:27)

Yeah, it's not Xena. When, when you were watching this, we were talking a little bit about Christian Brown. You know, in our pre production they only looked competent with that starting lineup. And Christian Brown, it never looked good with any of the other combinations.

Zena Kada (9:45)

I'm not gonna lie to you. I was holding my breath a little bit on Christian Brown because I knew he needed to be the person that replaced kcp. So I'm looking for threes. I'm looking for kickouts. Being in the corner, being set and ready to shoot. But you're right, he was running the floor. He was the one that made them look balanced. He's the one that made them look competent on the offensive end. And it shows you just how much of a presence he was on the bench last year. Like he was their go to guy coming off the bench to be able to give some spur of energy on defense and offense. And now it, it really does seem like he's within the starting five. He's making them look solid and there's nothing else to go to. My hope, Julian Strother. Get in the gym, put some threes up, become a solid presence behind the arc. Because they need another boost.

Dave Defour (10:37)

Andrew on the way out. The Thunder. Best team in the west.

Andrew Schlecht (10:42)

It's only been one night, Dave.

Dave Defour (10:44)

Okay, look, he's too, too humble. Too humble.

Andrew Schlecht (10:47)

But I mean, I mean you're qualifying it.

Zena Kada (10:51)

I can't believe that.

Dave Defour (10:53)

Andrew. Schlect. Catch him tomorrow. Right here. Saturday Slam and jam. First one on the NBA daily feed. Thank you Andrew for stopping by. Xena and I will be back after the break to hit all the other games from Thursday night. I know it's only their second game, but I'm not gonna lie. I had the Minnesota Timberwolves just written in ink for a panic meter segment on this show. And they somehow pulled out a win against the Sacramento Kings. Anthony Edwards hit the game winning free throws with 2.4 seconds left to give him the victory. I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not really impressed with the Timberwolves. I, I, I understand it's a work in progress. Julius Randle happened to hit some shots tonight. That's the only difference between this game and their game against the Lakers. He happened to hit a lot of shots in this game. Julius Randle had 33 points, was five of six and three. But he did more of the things in that we expected them to ask him to do. He hit some release valve threes. He actually just took them when they were available to him. It was an improvement, I would say.

Zena Kada (12:13)

Dave, how dare you. How dare you say happened to have. He absolutely purposefully went after those shots. He finally played who he is. Not the role he thinks the Timberwolves need him to be. No, the Randall they needed him to be tonight. He was assertive, he was dominant and he was ding ding, ding confident. And that's what you did. Not see the other night. The other night he was deferring, he was overpassing, he was over dribbling. He was over considerate. Over considerate of his teammates. And tonight it was like, let me focus on what I'm capable of doing. He got to the rim. He was able to shoot five of six from three. I mean, he was surreal tonight. And he was the reason that Minnesota was in this game. Now, the person that kept them all the way throughout, Anthony Edwards, another person who played with confidence, played much more free, much more loose, less desperation. Ball more. I got this ball. You saw his defense influencing his offense. I like this Minnesota Timberwolves team. I think there are still kinks to be worked out, especially when you consider the most productive lineup. Tonight only played four minutes, and that was with Julius Randle off the court. That was with Nas Reed, Anthony Edwards, Dante DiVincenzo, Alexander Walker and Rudy Gobert. They're going to have to figure out, does Julius Randle come off the bench, add another spurt in the second unit. Do they play off of each other? In terms of Edwards and Randall, we don't know. But you are not going to disrespect Randall after that performance.

Dave Defour (13:50)

I'll tell you right now, I think Nas Reed is starting by Christmas. And they have got to find a way to get some defense. That bench unit with Randall and Nas Reed. Cause it's a layup line right now for the Kings. Look, we thought close games, the Kings were going to own those because they have Dear and Fox and Demarta Rosen. Those two were two of 11 in the fourth quarter. So, you know, early season, I'm not going to make any sort of sweeping judgments. But it didn't work out in the one, you know, their first close game. That was a little bit of a surprise to me, Zena. I mean, they went possessions where they didn't touch the ball.

Zena Kada (14:25)

It was very uncharacteristic. I mean, you think clutch player of the year, you think DeRozan, you think Fox and you think Steph Curry, like that is. Those three are the kind of the Mount Rushmore of clutch player of the year. All I know is I've seen the tapes. I'm sure you've seen the tapes. Mike Brown.

Andrew Schlecht (14:44)

Oh.

Zena Kada (14:45)

Oh. I do not want to be the Kings in practice tomorrow.

Dave Defour (14:49)

Yeah, it's not going to be a lot of fun. I hope he rode his motor. He's riding his motorcycle to practice, so he's in a good mood. We got to move to the Dallas Mavericks and the Spurs Victor Wimanyama versus Luka Doncic. Look, this went about the way you would expect. The spurs are not a good basketball team. The Mavericks were just in the finals and maybe got better. I want to start with the play of the game, probably the play of the season so far. Luka Doncic is dribbling in transition and he's got Victor Women Yama on his shoulder and Chris Paul behind him just trying to swat the ball away. He drives through the lane down underneath the basket. And I don't even know how he sees his teammate in the corner. He flips a crazy, just no look over the shoulder pass that somehow goes through Victor Women Yama's arms directly to, to the three point shooter who of course, because basketball matters and basketball spirit matters. Nails the shot. Here's the call on that, which in the moment I just, I. I lost my mind. The rebound leading the break. Paul nipping at his heels outside. What a pass.

Andrew Schlecht (15:58)

Washington.

Dave Defour (15:59)

Oh, that was beautiful.

Zena Kada (16:03)

There's two things to this play. Number one, the magic of Luka, his vision, his court vision is unmatched. Number two, the magic of chemistry. This team has been playing together for a very long time and the Dallas Mavericks are so disciplined with their spacing. Luka knew someone would be running that lane. He knew that they would be in position to hit a three. And that is just comes from being a team that has been together for a while. P.J. washington knows to run that lane. It was beautiful. It was magic. Shout out to PJ Washington because we wouldn't be talking about that pass as much if he hadn't hit the three.

Dave Defour (16:35)

And I'll tell you right now, even though it was PJ Washington, I forgot it was PJ Washington because I was so focused on the pass. Another guy made his debut with the Mavericks, Klay Thompson. He looked great. And I, you know, I spent the whole summer talking about how, you know, Klay Thompson doesn't play defense. So of course, three steals in this game. He had two steals before he even hit his first three pointers. I mean, he just came out. He was more active than I expected. Physically looked pretty good. Xena, you know, you, you've watched him close up for years. What do you think about Clay's performance?

Zena Kada (17:05)

I thought every single person that thought that he has disintegrated into some sort of washed up old guy that can only shoot threes and has to spot up in a corner. I'm so happy. He was, he proved them all wrong. He was active, he was eager, he was bought in, he was cutting into the paint even when he had nothing to do with the action. I mean, this is almost a re regenerated Clay Thompson. I don't know what kind of, you know, stem cell thing he might have done in the off season, but he looked great and it was fun to watch him have fun. He didn't even know that he hit the record of most threes by Mavericks in. In, you know, a franchise record. He was excited when Ali laforce let him know that and it brought a smile to my face because he needed that and so I'm happy he got it.

Dave Defour (17:47)

I don't know if Klay Thompson knows where Costa Rica is on the map, so I'm not sure about the stem cells. And I'll, I'll say this, you know, it's opening week and maybe even game one, because I got five text messages tonight telling me that Jordan Pool might be back. Five threes in the first quarter for Jordan Pool. After the break, we're going to talk about our best and worst first impressions from the opening games. Okay, so we have one game in the books for every team. We've seen a lot of people in their new places, although we know injuries have kept a lot of guys from showing up. Xena, what is your best or worst? I'll let you pick whether you want to start on a positive foot or whether you want to end on a positive. You know, I don't know how you feel this morning.

Zena Kada (18:49)

I'm always going to try and stay positive, so I'm going to start with my worst first impression, but only because I know they'll get better. Because we've seen this before and that's Jonathan Kaminga coming out of the Warriors. Of course, extension did not get signed. The rookie extension didn't get signed. He's going to play with the focus of getting some money this season and it was not the way that you want to show up. Absolutely. Just again, non existent for the Bummed me out. He looked like he didn't know where to be on the floor. He didn't know his assignments, which is the complete opposite of what we saw during the preseason. So that is why I feel good.

Andrew Schlecht (19:27)

He's.

Zena Kada (19:28)

I'm going to reserve my judgment, but it was a bad first impression.

Dave Defour (19:32)

How did you feel? Do you feel like part of this might have been starting next to Wiggins? Did it just throw him off, you know?

Zena Kada (19:38)

No, no, no, no. We already proved that. Him against Wiggins or him as longside Wiggins can work, especially with Draymond Green in the middle I'm not concerned about that. I think it was just an off night. Jonathan Kaminga has shown that he can be strength streaky. This is the year where he's supposed to make that leap and close the gaps between that streakiness and be able to be consistent. So I'm just going to say that that was one bad game, and I'm going to hold and reserve judgment.

Dave Defour (20:04)

Given that they've got 12 guys, how many bad games would it take? Now, I'm not saying that, you know, they're going to bench him, but for me, I'll. I'll follow your lead. I'll say my worst. It's got to be the Denver Nuggets bench. I mean, this is just for a team that has championship hopes. This is not going to get it done. I don't see a path to them being able to improve. You know, I'm really confused by the Russell Westbrook signing. I was confused by the Russell Westbrook courting in the first place. And I even said, well, if Jokic wants this, clearly I'm wrong, because that guy is the best in the world. He's one of the smartest players in the league. I must be wrong. But I don't. I don't think I'm wrong on this one. Zena, like, how come they couldn't sign Markel faults? He's still sitting out there.

Zena Kada (20:51)

I mean, I'm not stole on the Markel fault. I think Jokic probably wanted somebody to push the ball in transition a little bit. He wanted something. He wanted someone active. And what you really have heard from Jokic is he wants people to run through walls. He wants people who want to run through walls, and Russell Westbrook definitely personifies that. However, when you have somebody that can run through walls, you get some damage at the same time.

Dave Defour (21:12)

So that's where you got brain damage. That's what we're trying to avoid here, Zena. Okay, so what was your best impression from Game one?

Zena Kada (21:20)

This was hard. This was hard. There's quite a few players that really impressed me, but I gotta say, AD Anthony Davis showed up in the way that we've known him to be. If you remember Kentucky, Anthony Davis active on both ends of the ball, being able to do a lot. And in the evolution he had at New Orleans, you're finally seeing that again. And you're seeing that in such a different way within the JJ Redick scheme. We talked about this in our last show. Him showing up in different spots on the floor, him being involved in every single play from an offensive perspective and him clearly being bought in. I just loved how much he put himself on the line the other night and we'll see if this can continue. But great first impression. He showed up to the door. I'm happy to go on a date.

Dave Defour (22:06)

You know, I was going to do Klay Thompson here, but since we talked about him before, I'll just, you know, use a podcast or trick and talk about somebody else. I think we got to say Jason Tatum.

Zena Kada (22:15)

Yeah.

Dave Defour (22:15)

This is MVP sort of season that he's setting himself up for. The playmaking is there. The rebounding is there tonight or last night. The scoring's been there, the three point shooting is there, the defense is there. And. And it feels like the Celtics might do this thing back to back. Like they just look so good. So I think the narrative will be there for him as well. As we as we leave. Got a question for you, Zena. The Washington Wizards starting lineup tonight, they had an average age of 22.72 years. Now, I did the math on this. 22.72 years ago was February 5th, 2002.

Zena Kada (22:58)

Okay.

Dave Defour (22:59)

Where were you?

Zena Kada (23:02)

Elementary school. I don't even know.

Dave Defour (23:04)

Okay.

Unknown (23:04)

All right.

Dave Defour (23:05)

Yeah, I was middle school. I was at the Richmond Athletic Club working as a personal trainer. Yeah. Riding a bicycle around in the winter for sure.

Zena Kada (23:13)

Okay.

Dave Defour (23:14)

Yeah, that made me feel pretty old today and Zena just made me feel worse.

Zena Kada (23:19)

Thank you, Zena.

Dave Defour (23:21)

Thank you guys for listening. That's going to do it for today's show, folks. Don't forget, shoot us those emails at NBA daily@the athletic.com. keep them coming in. I'm reading every single one of them. Don't forget to subscribe to the Bounce. My guy, Zach Harper keeps it locked down every single morning over there. Again, rate and review this podcast wherever you listen to. Pods, man. It's been a nice week. Catch you guys next Monday with Xena and S. Again. Don't forget Saturday Slammin Jam coming up tomorrow. Thank you guys for waking up with us. This has been the NBA Daily.

Dave Defour (24:17)

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